“I don’t mind. I just want to keep my dragon eyes safe.” Erec had another idea. “And since you’re doing that, maybe you could remove that pill from both of us too. Baskania will know already something is up.” He tried to keep his mind blank beyond this thought. If this made enough sense, the Furies would probably not bother reading in further.
“If that’s what you want.” Alecto smiled. It was amazing, Erec thought, seeing her happy in this form. The Furies really had changed. “It is done.”
“Done?” Erec looked down at himself. Was it possible, so quickly?
“Very possible,” Tisiphone said. “The contract with Baskania is no longer valid. And the pills are now gone forever.”
Erec gulped. She had read his mind so easily. But they were only his surface thoughts. He had to keep the deeper ones hidden. . . .
Megaera laughed. “Baskania knows already that something is up. But it’s funny—he’s all excited. Seems like he thinks that you are here to get your scepter from us and give it to him?”
They all started laughing.
“Like you would do that,” Alecto said. “You’re not crazy.”
“Baskania thinks you are his protégé,” Tisiphone said. “He knows that we have helped you get out of your deal with him. But instead of being angry, he is thinking you are smart and crafty like he is. That man really likes you, Erec.”
Erec tried to keep his mind a blank, but it was hard. What a crazy situation this was! His worst enemy was considering him a best friend, or a son. And Erec was the crafty one. . . .
“You are the crafty one,” Tisiphone laughed.
They were reading his mind so easily now. He had to keep it clear. But it was hard to make conversation with an empty head. “You are reading Baskania’s mind from here?” It wasn’t what he would have chosen to say—to call attention to their mind-reading abilities when he was trying to hide something—but he was not letting himself think freely.
“Of course,” Megaera said. “Anytime we think of someone, we know what is going on in their head. Unless they are here in Alsatia. Then their thoughts are hidden, unless we make an effort.”
Erec suddenly worried that the Furies might have thought of
him
before he was here, but he pushed that thought out of his head as well. It seemed best to change the subject before they demonstrated their mind-reading skills on him or Spartacus. “Thank you so much for letting me keep my eyes . . . and giving Spartacus and me our freedom! I’m glad you seem to be happy here. Do you think you’re going to stay in Alsatia, then?”
“We’ve just been speaking about that,” Alecto said. “When we first arrived, right after you freed us with your own personal sacrifice,
we still had some anger and jealousy. But the peace you showed us with your Awen of Harmony let us get past all of that. We realized the only way to have the kind of life we want is to forgive, and to think about the future instead of the past.
“We came to Alsatia to have privacy from our sisters, the Fates. They were aware of that—it was no secret. We needed time to clear our heads and decide what to do. This is also thanks to you. We would not have even given ourselves this gift of time had it not been for your influence. It has been difficult, though, to decide how to handle our long imprisonment from the Fates. It is a hard thing to forgive.”
“But we have a goal now, you know?” Megaera chirped. “To feel good again, like you showed us with your Awen charm.”
Erec was amazed that, as a single human being, he could have had influence over these great creatures. And he also felt like a heel doing something they would not like behind their backs. But at least it would not end up hurting them in the long run.
“There is one other thing,” Erec threw in. “When we are here, is it okay for us to visit the souls again in your storage facility? Spartacus is missing his.” This was where keeping a blank mind was the most important—Erec hoped Spartacus was able to do it as well.
Tisiphone frowned. “Seeing your soul will just make things harder, Spartacus, when you leave again.”
“I don’t think so.” Spartacus shook his head with a smile. “I’m happy to just visit it for a little while. I really want to see it, you know.”
Tisiphone would have none of it. “No. That is not a good reason to be with your soul again. It would not end well for you.”
She sounded final. This was not what they had expected, and unfortunately they had not thought of a back-up plan. Erec had to get back into that storage facility again. . . . “I thought that Spartacus
could have his soul back again for a while. I’m going to make a trade with him, and I’ll stay in there until he’s had some time with his own soul again.”
Spartacus turned to him sharply, surprised. This was not part of the plan.
“That is very kind of you,” Alecto said. “But you are a giving person.” She smiled. “I will allow you to both do this one time only. It is not good to become dependent on having your soul back. But for Erec—go ahead, spend as much time as you like. And whenever your friend Spartacus wants to come back for you, we will welcome him.”
They thanked the Furies and went down what had previously looked like stairs—and now looked to Erec like a jagged slope in the cave rock—to the storage facility. Spartacus remembered the way, even though this place now looked like a forest glen to him. Soon they were at the bottom in a craterlike cavern. A round trapdoor sat in the center, sparkling and glittery. This was the only thing that looked the same as it had before—and it was completely out of place in the stone. Erec knocked, and the door swung open.
First Spartacus, then Erec descended into the darkness of the storage facility. The door swung shut behind them, leaving them in complete blackness. The souls inside were still bound together in a tight Substance Web. Most of them were crying, scared. It had been bad enough being locked up here, away from their spirits. But now they were held tight, with no space to move. Erec could see how badly frightened they were.
Never was he more glad that he had come back to free them. These beings did not deserve an eternity of suffering. As a fellow soul, he felt for them even more than before.
And they looked different to him too. Last time they were like sticky, goopy globs that fastened themselves onto him, like leeches. But now they glowed in all the colors of the rainbow, astoundingly
beautiful. He wondered if he looked that way to them.
“Are you ready?” Spartacus winked. One of his hands was on the door, ready to knock.
“No!” Erec rushed to his side. “Wait a minute. There is something we need to talk about. You were going to go to the Furies or Aoquesth after this, so they would destroy you. So you wouldn’t be in service to Baskania forever. But now the pill is gone—”
Spartacus nodded. “I know. Thanks, Erec. You saved me from that. Now if I get my soul back, I’m free. I hope it’s easy to find after we release them, but I’ll keep looking.”
“What are you going to do then?”
Spartacus smiled. “I guess what I was meant to do from the beginning. Go wherever I’m supposed to go. Spirit and soul together.”
Erec felt a huge weight lift. Spartacus would be saved. “Thanks for everything. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”
“My pleasure, kid. I’d give you a hug, it’s just that . . . you know.”
Erec laughed. As Spartacus was a spirit without a soul, and Erec was a soul without a spirit, a hug wouldn’t be the best idea. “I’m going to miss you, Spartacus.”
“Miss you too, kid.” He ruffled Erec’s hair—or the gummy part of the top of his head where hair once had been.
“All right. Let’s do this.”
Spartacus knocked on the door and waited for it to swing open.
Erec looked at his fingers, and wondered for the first time if they would even snap, now that he was a bodiless soul. There was only one way to find out. He grabbed Spartacus by the wrist so that he would not be affected if time stopped. Then Erec pressed his thumb and middle finger together and snapped. . . .
The squirming, crying souls froze. The room was silent.
Moving fast, Spartacus pointed his Rapid Transitator to the mass of souls and pulled the trigger. He then aimed outside of the
door and shot again, aiming at the far wall and concentrating. Then he pulled the trigger again. In a flash, all of the souls disappeared from the dark room. The door of the storage facility did not slam shut or react at all, so time must have stopped for it as well. When Erec turned to look, the souls were in the cave now, outside of the storage facility, still motionless. It had worked! Erec could not believe it.
Spartacus took off his jacket, and underneath were rows of rocket-propelled grenades strapped to each arm. A grin lit up his face as he spread them like wings. “Stand back, kid. Here goes nothing.” In a moment, streams of grenades flew through the air and blew chunks out of the side of the cave. “Woo-hoo!” He grinned, bounding forward to the gap. He took aim once more at the group of souls and then fired, shooting another time far away through the hole in the cavern.
The souls were gone. Spartacus bolted through the cracks in the cave after them. The Substance Web still bound them together, but Spartacus could release them by cutting the web with a silver knife. That way they wouldn’t drift too far apart before Spartacus found his own soul.
Loud, agonized howls filled the cave. It was happening. Erec snapped his fingers to restart time. It obviously had not paused for the Furies, whose wails were shaking the cavern. Rocks broke from the walls and cracked on the floor around him.
He had to get out, fast. Erec sped toward the hole that Spartacus blasted through the wall, sharp rock scraping against his fingertips. He was almost there . . . so close . . .
But it was taking too long. Something was sucking him in the wrong direction. He flew backward up the cut slope of the cave and straight to the large open rocky platform where the three Furies stood.
Cracks shot up the stone columns and through the remaining
walls. Boulders tumbled to the ground, barely missing Erec as they rolled by, crashing into hundreds of pieces.
One moment later, the bundle of terrified, writhing souls was before them as well.
Erec closed his eyes in disgrace. He had made a complete mess of things, and had solved nothing at all.
At least Tartarus was busted open.
The Furies screeched in despair, their voices ear-shattering. Alecto’s long red hair stood behind her like flames. Erec took one glance at her face and had to look away. The anger seething from her was too much to take.
She screamed, shrilly, in the voice from when they first met. “You deceived us! We trusted you, a mere stupid human, because you showed us something good. I didn’t even bother reading your mind when you came here. But you tricked us. You stole our souls and condemned us to a life of torture!”
“Wait!” Erec pleaded. “You have the souls back . . . and I fixed Tartarus so you can get out any time you want. . . .”
A powerful wind blew through the cave, sweeping Erec off of his feet. The Furies’ hair stood straight on end, pulled by the wind, and rocks flew up into the air currents. Someone grabbed Erec around the middle—was it Tisiphone? Her hand had grown, and the Furies were huge now compared to before.
All three Furies were yanked into the air, Erec in Tisiphone’s grasp. They tumbled and sailed into a bright light . . . and then darkness.
The squeezing fingers released Erec, and he tumbled onto the hard stone floor of another cave. This one looked familiar. . . .
It was Tartarus. The first place that he had ever seen the Furies. The place where he had given his life for them. And here it was.
Intact.
Not even a tiny hole had broken through the prison here. There
was not one pebble on the ground. All of the might that Spartacus mustered, all of it magnified by thousands, had not made even a single crack in Tartarus.
The Furies gazed around them in despair, howling with rage and sadness. The souls struggled against their web, confused and miserable.
And Erec had done all of this. He had taken these immensely powerful, supernatural creatures from their home, where they were learning to get along with the world, and put them into a place of eternal misery and captivity. Even the souls were no better off. . . .
“You are right,” Megaera snarled. “This
is
all your fault.”
On top of it, as they were no longer in Alsatia. The Furies would read his every thought with no effort. There was nothing he could do now. He sank to the floor in shock.
But one thing did not make sense. If all of the souls were here, why were they still captives in Tartarus, then?
“Because,” Tisiphone snarled. “They’re
not
all here. Your friend, Spartacus,” she spit the name out, “managed to get his own soul out, as well as one other, before we took this group back. If it didn’t happen so fast, I would have figured it out and caught them, too.”
Spartacus got his soul back? That was one thing for Erec to feel great about. He deserved it.
But if he only hadn’t, then the Furies would still be free. And Erec would still be free. And the Furies would not hate humanity again and want to kill everyone. And the world would not be in danger when Baskania decided to release the Furies in trade for them serving him. It would take only a few more souls and the Furies would be out again.
What would they do to Erec, in the meantime? Wipe him off the face of the planet? No . . . he was a soul now. They would use him with the other souls for their escape from this place. Maybe if Baskania gave them an extra they would destroy him. If not, he could look forward
to an eternity as a hostage in a dark room, missing the rest of himself.
“You are correct, Erec,” Alecto said. “You have made a lot of big mistakes.”
Erec was surprised that her voice sounded calm. He looked up at the Furies in wonder.
They were no longer screaming. In fact, they almost looked peaceful. Their bodies were smaller, their bat-wings calmly flicking behind them.
This was as much of a shock as the fact that Tartarus was still in one piece.
Alecto spoke. “People aren’t perfect. Even we are not perfect, so how could we expect it from you? The only thing I want from you is goodness, and that you still have. You have caused us problems, Erec. Bigger problems than you know. I, for one, will not accept any favors from Baskania. He would demand we promise him something in return, and we do not go back on promises. So, even though we are only one soul short of escape, we are likely going to remain here for eternity, unless a stray soul happens to wander by.”