Al looked at the quest paper with approval. “Not bad, kid. Sounds like fun, even. Good luck with dat thing.”
“Do you know anything about the mythic horse of the elements?”
“Nah. Never heard of it.”
Erec pocketed the quest and thanked him. He dove back into the water, the Instagills in his wrists opening so that he had no problem breathing. He wondered if Ashona was opened up again, because what he really wanted to do now was to talk to Bethany about this new quest. Maybe she could help him figure out who the mythic horse of the elements was. He wondered again why Baskania had sealed Ashona off . . . and then he had an idea. Once he had been able to go in and out of Ashona through the very waterways he was swimming in now. If only he could figure out a way to get back there again . . .
“What you need is someone with a spirit’s sense of direction.”
Erec’s head swiveled toward the sound. Spartacus floated next to him with ease.
“You didn’t think you could lose me that easily, did you? I was waiting up there with Al for a while, until I realized you weren’t about to come out. So, you want to go to Ashona through the waterways? Follow me.”
Instead of merely swimming in front of Erec, Spartacus grabbed hold of his hand and yanked him forward until they were traveling at rocket speed. They passed up turns and tunnels so quickly it was hard to see what they were going by.
In a moment, they stopped before an immense round opening. It was about twenty-five feet across, and at the top a sign glittered,
ASHONA
.
“You found it!” Erec was surprised, given how fast they had gone.
Spartacus pursed his lips with a trace of humor. “You doubted me?” He sighed with frustration. “Come on, then.” He swam through the opening into a huge tunnel.
A smile lit on Erec’s face. He had found another way to get back to Bethany and his family! He dove forward, but in a moment his head hit something that felt like glass. “What’s this?” He ran his hand over it. It was hard to see underwater, but after looking a while he could detect a faint ripple where the barrier was. He swam in all directions, trying to go around it, but the entrance to Ashona was completely blocked.
“What are you doing?” Spartacus asked, but then he answered his own question by reading Erec’s mind. “Not again. So it’s closed this way too?”
Erec was disappointed. “I just want to talk to Bethany and my family. I’m tired of doing everything alone.”
“Alone?” Spartacus huffed. “What am I? Meatloaf?”
“I’m sorry.” Erec tried to refocus. “Do you have any idea what the mythical horse of the elements is?”
“No. If I did I would have told you already. But I can help you try to figure it out.”
“I guess we can go back to Rosco’s apartment.” There was no way that he would spend time at his father’s house in Alypium now. Baskania would no doubt have people looking for him there.
Spartacus nodded. In moments, Erec was speeding through the tunnels again, then flew out into the warm air of Alypium. Soaking wet, he soon was freezing as he sailed through the air with Spartacus into Rosco’s place.
There, Trevor was watching television and taking Rosco’s house apart. Piles of food were scattered around the house. But Rosco was nowhere in sight.
“Hmm.” Spartacus glanced around. “I’ll see what he’s up to. Be right back.”
“Hey, Trevor.” Erec helped himself to an open bag of potato chips. “How’s it going?”
“Great! I’m learning all about these things.” He held up a handful of silverware. “I figured out what these are for.” He demonstrated how to use a knife like a seesaw on top of another knife. Then he laid a fork over top and pushed down on the knife, catapulting the fork off of the table. “Isn’t this a great thing to have around? Another thing that it does is this. . . .” He scooped up a bunch of spoons and let them fall to the ground. “What you do is guess how they’re going to fall. They make shapes on the floor. If you do it enough, you can start to know what will happen the next time.”
Erec laughed. But before he could respond, Spartacus sprang through the wall. “We have to get out, fast.” He grabbed Erec and Trevor, and jumped with them out the open window.
Trevor’s eyes were wide but unquestioning as he flew through the sky with the ghost. It seemed that wiping out everything he knew made him less prone to surprise.
“What’s going on?” Erec asked. “Is Rosco okay?”
Spartacus nodded. “He’s fine. But Baskania is on the warpath in
Otherness now, and in a complete rage about you. He’s sending people to search through Rosco’s things in case Rosco was hiding something—like you. Baskania doesn’t know what to make of things. You were so convincing when you were there, but now his scepter is gone, as well as your eyes—and Trevor, who is still alive, despite what you said about killing him. So Baskania doesn’t believe you anymore, of course.” They flew for a while, then Spartacus asked, “Where should we go?”
Erec had no idea. Who else might be able to help him figure out what to do? He thought about his old friend, Jack Hare . . . but he lived in Aorth.
“That’s not a problem.” Spartacus winked. “I’ll even get you there with a Port-O-Door, so you don’t have to go through miles of dirt and rock.”
“Gee, thanks.” In a moment, Spartacus pulled Erec and Trevor into the Port-O-Door in King Piter’s house, shutting the door behind them. He pushed a few buttons on the map, bringing Americorth North up before them. His fingers moved so quickly on the map, Erec could not follow them. Then the door opened into the searing heat of Aorth.
Erec began to protest—they had no air-conditioned UnderWear to keep them cool. But his words were lost in the searing heat. Spartacus didn’t notice at first, then he frowned and flew faster. But the wind in that blistering temperature did not cool Erec down. It was like being blasted with oven air.
Spartacus dropped them in front of a doorway, then flew straight through the door. One moment later, he opened it from the inside. Dizzy, Erec and Trevor fell into the blast of air-conditioning without even considering how it was rude to enter without knocking. Spartacus slammed the door shut, and Erec and Trevor collapsed on the carpeting.
“Erec? Is that you?” There were footsteps and voices.
Erec cracked his eyes open, too parched to speak. His old friend, Jack, looked down, confused. “Hey, Erec! Trevor! What’s going on? Why aren’t you wearing UnderWear? Are you two crazy?” He waited a moment, but since Erec was still speechless, he said, “That’s cool you came to visit. I’ve been thinking about you—was just going to write you a letter. Sorry I’m not that good at writing. But I hope you were having a good summer break.”
Erec nodded. “Um . . . yeah.” His voice croaked. “Do you have some water?”
“Yeah—sorry!” Jack rushed away and back with tall glasses of ice water for Erec and Trevor. His parents and sister said hello and brought out chocolate chip cookies.
Finally Erec was able to retell to Jack’s family everything that had happened. After he finished, they sat in stunned silence. Then Jack’s father roared, “I knew it! I knew the Stain triplets weren’t meant to be kings. The craziness Damon’s caused here in Aorth is unbearable. We have to bow any time we see someone in the government. And we’re whipped like slaves in the street if one of them wants us to do something. It’s insane. We’re planning to move to Upper Earth just to get away from this mess—if we can get our papers.” He rubbed his forehead. “Now you’re saying that Baskania is going to mow through Upper Earth and Otherness?” He stared up at the ceiling. “I hope that horse thing can help fix all of this. I just wish that there was something I could do.”
Erec had an idea. “Do you have e-mail or the MagicNet here?”
“Sure—we have both.” Jack’s mother looked pale. “Do you need to use them?”
“Can I use your e-mail to talk to my family?”
“Of course.” She led Erec down the hall, and everyone followed.
Erec had never used e-mail here himself. “How do I get my family in Ashona on the screen?”
A skinny, dark-toned arm reached around his and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. “Maybe you could get your family on the screen in Ashona. Or the screen on your family in Ashona. Or Ashona on your family on a screen.”
Erec spun around to see the Hermit giggling. He wore a massive plastic flower on the top of his head like a hat—the pink petals drooping down over his face and head, and the long stem sticking straight up from the top. Other than that, there was very little covering him, except for a hot pink bathing suit. Regardless of how he looked, Erec was thrilled to see him.
“Hermit! I need to talk to my father, and Bethany. Hey—do you know where I could find the mythic horse of the elements?”
“If it’s mythic, then how do you know it exists?”
The Hermit posed the question so simply that for a moment Erec worried that there was no such horse. But then he realized that the Fates would not have sent him out to do the impossible. “It has to exist. What is it, though?”
“The question of the century.” The Hermit faked a serious pose, stroking his chin. Then he threw his arms out and laughed. “Oh, well. Guess that’s for you to find out, and then for you to find out.”
Typical Hermit answer,
Erec thought. It made no sense at all. But at least he had connected their screen to a young woman with short red hair in the Castle Ashona. “Can I help you?” She looked brightly from Erec to the Hermit.
“I need to talk to my father. King Piter. Can you put him on?”
“So you’re . . . Erec Rex?” She peered into the screen. “Okay. Hold a moment.”
The screen went blank for a few minutes, and then the king’s face flashed in front of him.
“Erec! Are you okay?” Piter clasped a hand over his chest. “Bethany told us what you were doing. I was so worried.”
“I’m fine. And the Furies are fine now. How is everything there?”
The king’s brow wrinkled with worry. “Not good, I’m afraid. Someone sealed off Ashona, and I think I know who it is. Baskania is the only person evil and powerful enough to do this. He must have found out how he can control Posey’s scepter from far away. That is the only thing we can think of—she still can’t use it at all. This is going to be a problem if we can’t figure out a way to stop it.
“The Secret of Ashona might keep us safe, if Posey can figure out a way to communicate with it. She used to talk to it with her scepter. Swimming down to it in person is too dangerous. The Secret will devour anyone who approaches it, except its ruler. That used to be Queen Posey, while her scepter was working for her. But that’s probably not the case anymore. So, we’re in a fix here. We’re trying to keep it quiet so there isn’t mass panic.
“Nothing can go in or out at all. We’re going to run out of supplies soon. We can’t even fish for food from the ocean. And our oxygen supply . . . well, it’s not going to last forever. I can feel the air getting thinner. We’re okay for now—don’t worry. Posey and I are thinking of ways out of this.”
Erec could not believe his ears. His family was trapped undersea with their food and oxygen running out? “I’m sure Baskania put that seal around Ashona with the fake scepter that I gave him. I had no idea it would cause this much of a problem. I’m so sorry. I’ll try to help figure out a way out of this.” It occurred to him that this must be what the Fates were talking about when they said there was a worse problem than Otherness and Upper Earth being attacked.
The king was quiet for a moment. “Don’t come here. There is absolutely nothing that you can do. Posey is the only one who has a chance to fix this, I’m afraid.” He sighed. “Even if you were king and used your scepter, it wouldn’t work. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine, Dad. But there might be something I could do. I drew
my next quest. The Fates told me it would fix everything. Even the ‘worse problem’—which has to be Ashona sealing up.” He held back from going into detail about the battle Baskania was planning. If his father knew that Erec was going to fight against Baskania’s military, he might blow a fuse. “I need to find the mythical horse of the elements. Do you have any idea what that is?”
The king frowned in thought. “I’m not sure. Mythical horse of the elements? The only horse I can think of is not really a myth—it’s very real. But you couldn’t ride it, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“It’s called the Dragon Horse of Fire. She’s a beautiful dragon horse mare in Diomedes’s stable. The mare used to be quite a legend. People called her mythical, I remember that. She’s the only horse I’ve heard of that comes close to what you’re looking for.”
“Great! The Dragon Horse of Fire. I guess fire could be called an element—that has to be right! Where is Diomedes’s stable?”
“Forget it, Erec. You can’t ride her.”
“What are you talking about? I have to.”
“No.” The king shook his head. “You wouldn’t survive the ride. And don’t get any ideas—the mare wouldn’t even let you try. She’ll only take on riders that are evil.”
“Evil? I’ll pretend I’m evil—I did that with Baskania. Or I’ll think bad thoughts before I ride her.”
“That won’t work. She’s smarter than that. You’d have to do something evil. And recently, too. That is the only way. But don’t even think about it. She’s unrideable.”
“I don’t understand. Why is she like that?”
“They say she was once a regular dragon horse. You’ve seen them—they’re brilliant and beautiful. But her evil master kept giving her more and more powers, making her do terrible things to people. Eventually, the horse killed him and became her own master.
By then, she felt more powerful than any human. She would ride for nobody. She was her own horse.
“She kept on collecting human powers, and the more she could do, the smarter she got. She became a mind reader, among other things. But in order to stay free and keep people at bay, she enchanted herself. If anyone rides her, their life and magical ability get sucked straight into hers. Nobody could survive the trip.
“At least, to the mare’s credit, she won’t ride just anyone to death. She only lets evil people try, I guess it’s her way of doing a favor to the world.”
Erec was stunned. He got off of the computer, asking the king to let Bethany know what was going on. “What am I going to do?” he asked the Hermit.