I
T WAS HARDER THAN EVER
for Erec to relax as he stood in line with Spartacus. He was so close now. If only he could get out of here safely!
General Guff stood at the front of the group, and handed out red sashes and pills to each Spirit Warrior, one at a time. Erec was able to keep his Calamitizer in a pocket—Spartacus’s Rapid Transitator was slung around his shoulder.
“Next!” It was Erec’s turn. He smiled bravely at General Guff, hoping that no surges of anger would come out and ruin anything before he left.
“My star pupil.” The general smiled. “It’s my pleasure to give this to you.” He draped a red sash around Erec’s arm and neck. “This will keep you safe when you go through the tunnel. And here is your pill, to make sure that you stay obedient.”
Erec nodded and took the small black pill from the general.
Here goes nothing!
He opened his mouth wide and reached far enough back to feel metal around his fingers. With a small clink, the pill dropped into the pipe and shot straight out of his back into Erec’s tucked-in shirt.
He had done it! Erec turned and winked at Spartacus with a grin. Spartacus lit up with a smile right back at him. They were about to be free!
Moments later, they were in the next line ready to leave the Hinternom. Everything was perfect. The Spirit Warrior in front of Erec shouldered her rifle and approached the tunnel. A guard said something to her, and then she jumped into the opening. In a moment, she was swallowed up and shot through to freedom.
Erec’s turn. A large, hairy spirit guard nodded to him. “You got your sash. Check. Your name?”
“Rick Ross.”
“Check. And open your mouth.”
Erec was not sure if he should make a dash for the tunnel, but he decided not to make anyone suspicious. He opened his mouth, ready to run . . .
The guard laughed. “Looks like the pill didn’t take. No problem. It happens sometimes. Here—”
Before Erec knew what was happening, the guard shoved another black pill through Erec’s skin in his neck. “That’ll work for ya. Now yer off!” The guard shoved him into the tunnel before he could turn around and warn Spartacus.
It was the guard’s shove, not gravity, that sent Erec plummeting
through the dark tunnel back to Earth. He was released about fifty feet in the air, and continued shooting toward the ground until he hit, painlessly. He lay there a moment, eyes closed. It didn’t matter where he was now. After that pill he would be a prisoner of Baskania’s forever.
Spartacus dropped from the sky and landed on top of Erec . . . actually taking up the same space that Erec was in. It was an awkward feeling, so both of them moved out of the other’s way. The other spirits that had landed had already vanished, happy to be free.
“Did you get away without a pill?” Erec asked.
Spartacus shook his head, in shock. “I’m sorry. My plan was a flop. Now we’re both doomed.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” They slid away together aimlessly, taking in their new reality. “I wonder how we’ll get called to his service.”
“Who knows.”
It wasn’t long before both of them began to feel their own callings as well. “This stinks.” Erec looked around as if an extra soul would appear to him out of the blue. “How am I going to get my soul back before I turn into a specter? I don’t even know where to start.”
“I’m just as clueless. All I want is to go where I’m supposed to be now—wherever that is. But that pill is holding me here. I can feel it.”
“What would we do if we were alive?” Erec wondered. “I don’t have my dragon eyes anymore. That would be the best thing right now. I’d see what the future holds, and then try different ways to change it until I found out what worked.”
What else might help?
“I know! We can go talk to the three Fates. . . .” But that wouldn’t work either. The only way that he had been able to talk to them was by using his dragon eyes first. They would only come out for people who could read the future.
Spartacus laughed. “Sounds like those eyes really did you
well—when you had them. Too bad you can’t get some more of those things.”
“Yeah. I don’t think there are a lot of dragons ready to hand over their own eyes. Aoquesth was special. . . .” Erec wished that he could see him again. It made him think . . . where was Aoquesth now? Probably in some special place that dragons go when they die. If only he could see him again. Was there a way, maybe, now that Erec was dead as well?
The only way that Erec knew how to contact dragons was with a dragon call—and that also involved using his dragon eyes. He couldn’t do anything now. “I just wish I could talk to him. Do you know of any way?”
Spartacus shook his head. “The same way you called dragons when you were alive?”
“I can’t now.” For having so much ghostly power and a master weapon in his pocket, Erec felt completely powerless.
“Just try. It can’t hurt.” Spartacus shrugged.
“I don’t even know how to try.” He sighed. “Stop looking at me like that. All right—I’ll wing it. But don’t hold your breath.” Erec sat on the grass and looked up at the sky. There were no dragon eyes to bring out, so he just stared with his own. . . . “Oh, wait a minute.” He slapped his forehead. “I don’t even have any eyes in my sockets anymore. This will never work.”
“You can still see, can’t you?” Spartacus asked gently.
“I guess. Not that that matters.” Erec gazed upward and thought about Aoquesth.
Aoquesth . . . can you hear me calling you? It’s your old friend, Erec Rex. I need your help, badly. I’m not alive anymore either. Can you come here and see me? Aoquesth? Please . . . ?
Erec fell back into the grass. “That was hopeless.” He laughed. “But as long as you’re happy now that’s good.”
“You’ll feel better, knowing that you tried.”
“Sure. Whatever you say.” Erec thought about going home to talk to his family before continuing his search—they must be worried sick by now. He also wanted to see what had happened now that Baskania had all that power . . . and how much time had passed. . . .
A dark speck grew in the sky, widening like a black hole whizzing toward them from space. It came at them so fast it was breathtaking. And it wasn’t until it was close that Erec could make out features. . . .
Dragon features. It was Aoquesth.
Erec could not believe it. He recognized the dragon immediately, with his dark reddish-purple scales and sharp black spines down his back and tail. If possible, Aoquesth was more beautiful now than he had been alive. He arched his back and reared his head up into the sky, stretching his wings to what seemed like an impossible thirty-foot span. Then he gazed at Erec.
A connection sizzled between them, even stronger than in life. Both looked into the spaces where the other’s eyes had been, the eyes they had once shared. Aoquesth had given Erec so much of himself. And Erec realized that Aoquesth had never really left him. Erec had been carrying a part of him around—even a part that wasn’t recently stolen by Baskania.
“I’m so sorry. . . .” Erec felt horrible losing both of Aoquesth’s eyes—it was such an important gift. He must have let Aoquesth down.
“Erec.” The dragon shook his head. “There is nothing you could have done. I’m just glad that you are okay. I’ve been thinking about you, you know.”
Erec laughed bitterly. “I’m not actually okay. I died, and I’m just a ghost now. It’s all really awful, and it’s mostly my own fault.”
“I already know that you are a spirit, Erec. That is not what I meant about being okay. You’re still you, and that’s what is important.”
He tossed his head into the air. “Believe me, there is a lot more to ‘life’ after life itself is over. It has been wonderful being reunited with my dear Nylyra again.”
That only made Erec feel worse. “I’m still not okay, though. The Furies have my soul, and I’m going to turn into a specter before long. I can already tell that it’s starting to happen.”
Aoquesth sighed, but Erec noticed steam did not come out of his nose like it had when he was alive. “I know this too, Erec. I know a little more than you might, as a human spirit, you know. Even without my eyes.”
Erec felt another stab of guilt. Then he could not resist anymore, and threw both arms around the dragon’s neck. Apart from the fact that neither was breathing, it felt the same as when the two had been alive. Aoquesth wrapped his neck around Erec’s back in a kind of a hug. They stayed like that for a long while. Erec wished that he could bury himself somewhere where nobody would ever find him again . . . where all of his problems would disappear. He was locked into a future of torture and there was nothing he could do about it. He was so glad that he had called Aoquesth, just so he could see him again. But how would the dragon spirit possibly be able to help him now?
Aoquesth pulled back and looked at him. “I’m glad that you called me too. And maybe I can help. I really don’t know yet. Neither of us is able to look into the future anymore, of course.”
Of course. Because of Erec’s bad decisions, they had both lost the eyes that let them do that. “Do you really think you might be able to help me?” Erec tentatively began to cling on to that idea. The longer he went without his soul, the more uncomfortable he felt. It was starting to eat away at him, almost like a pain inside. He wanted it back so much, to feel whole again. And if anyone in the world could help him, Aoquesth seemed the most likely. “What should I do?”
The dragon sighed again, deeply. “I wish I knew, Erec. But my
dragon sense tells me that you need to follow the path to which the Fates have you assigned. It might seem that you have failed. And maybe you have. Maybe you deviated far enough away from what they wanted that there is no going back again. But you never know. This may all be a part of their master plan.”
That made Erec think. Had he followed the advice of the Fates? Oddly, as much as he faulted himself for everything that had happened, it seemed that he really did do what he was told. Instead of listening to his mother and Bethany, he did what his seventh quest instructed him to do—sacrifice his life for the five people who would have died in Argos with the Diamond Minds. Dying wasn’t the wrong choice, then. His sixth quest had led the Furies to take his soul away. So the Fates had put him in this position too—a spirit without a soul. So, he was supposed to be like this?
He thought further, remembering what else had led him here. After he died he had to visit the Furies to get the Master Shem to free Trevor, which he did. He also had to try to get his soul back. It was the only thing that was keeping him going as a ghost. And how did he decide what to do? The best adviser he could think of was Homer, the golden ghost in the catacombs under King Piter’s house. Homer had told him to look in “other regions” and “places beyond,” where his worst enemy kept spirits. Where else could that have been other than the Hinternom?
Erec had thought that he had completely messed up by walking in to talk to Baskania. And maybe he had. He had figured that he would have to try to break through the Hinternom from the outside and free the captive spirits there, and one of them might give Erec his soul. But maybe that wasn’t the way it was supposed to have worked at all. Maybe he was supposed to have done exactly this.
But this didn’t seem right either, because things were hopeless now. He must have messed up somewhere along the way. . . .
“I don’t know either, Erec,” Aoquesth said. “I wish that I did. I am able to travel most places, even into Alsatia, but I cannot enter the cave of the Furies. They would demolish me just as they would anyone else—except for you. But I am here for you, any time that you need me. You know how to call me now, as a spirit. But if you ever do regain your human form I will give you another way to reach me.”
Aoquesth broke the tip of a small spine off of his tail. Holding it in his claws, he pushed it through Erec’s chest, straight into his heart. “That will stay inside of you forever, whether you are living or not. And even if you are alive again someday, all you will ever have to do to call me now is to say my name.”
“Thank you, Aoquesth.” It felt so good to know that his old friend was back, in any form.
“There is one thing I would be able to do for you, if you should need it in the future.”
Erec immediately knew what Aoquesth was going to say, and as much as he was glad to hear it, it gave him the chills. He needed to hear it said, though. “What is that?”
“If things don’t work out, Erec, if you realize that you are going to become a specter forever and have no way out, you can call me. I can end things for you, if you need me to. I know how to obliterate you.”
That is exactly what Erec thought he would say. It sounded awful, but at the same time made him feel relieved. “Thanks, Aoquesth. That’s really good to know.”
The dragon nodded. “It was nice to see you. I think you should continue on your mission. It will lead you somewhere where you may find there are few choices.” He looked at Spartacus. “I can see that both of you are going to have a hand in what will happen. And I think you should both be proud of yourselves.”
Proud? Erec wished that he felt that way. “It’s hard to be proud when I’ve destroyed the world by giving everything to Baskania.”
“But have you? Everything? You haven’t given him yourself. Think about what you have done, though. Five people are alive right now because of you. You were selfless, Erec.”
Erec smiled. Aoquesth was actually giving him a reason to feel better and stop beating himself up. The dragon’s comments about the Fates sending him on this path also helped. “Thanks, Aoquesth. You’ve helped me already. I hope I see you again soon.”
“I’m sure you will.” The dragon stretched his wings and leaned back. “Good-bye, Erec.” He pushed off lightly and soared into the air, disappearing into a cloud.
One thing that Erec was thankful for was that being a ghost kept him from crying—because he was sure he would have tears streaming down his face by now. He smiled at Spartacus. “You met Aoquesth before, didn’t you?”
Spartacus laughed. “Just for a second. That dragon threw a blade at me, and it pinned my old blue cape to the wall of his cave. I kinda ran out of there. Never saw this side of him, though. What a great creature.”