The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (3 page)

Erec
,

Sorry. I must be worrying you. I know I'm being an idiot. I just have to let you know I decided to go to the Green House, where President Inkle lives. I don't know why, but I'm sure Baskania is there, and he is waiting for me.

I wanted to let you know where I was in case anything happened.

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If it does, I am forever sorry.

Your best friend
,

Bethany

Erec ran back inside, torn between fear and anger. How could she do this? She knew better. It was like walking into sure death. How could he stop her?

Then, all of a sudden, he stumbled across the floor. The room was spinning. He grabbed onto a wall to steady himself.

A scene flashed through his mind like a short movie:

B
ethany wandered in through the front doors of the
G
reen
H
ouse, a blank look on her face.
F
ive paces into the building a tall man grabbed her by the arm and pulled her forward.
S
he did not resist.

T
hanatos
B
askania stood at the other end of the room, laughing.
T
all and imposing in his flowing black pin-striped cloak, he smirked at
B
ethany.
T
hree eyes glared from his forehead and one from each cheek. "
L
et her go,
M
auvis.
S
he'll come to me on her own--won't you, my dear?
I
see you are right on time."

M
auvis let go, and
B
ethany continued straight toward
B
askania, looking confused.

B
askania pointed at her slowly, eyes narrowing.
A
puff of smoke shot from his finger, and ...

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The vision faded.

Erec looked down at his hands, where dragon scales had appeared. They were now fading away. It had happened to him again. He had just had another cloudy thought.

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CHAPTER TWO The Dumpling Invasion

VER SINCE HE could remember, strange commands, which Erec called cloudy thoughts, would come over him in times of crisis. They forced him to do what they said. Even if he tried to resist, he could not. Everybody from the Kingdoms of the Keepers had some type of unusual gift, and this was his.

After the eyes of Aoquesth the dragon had been attached to the back of his own, Erec's cloudy thoughts had changed. They

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became more intense. He would get visions first, before the commands. They were like movies showing him what would happen next if he did not change things. This was because the dragon eyes could show him the future.

What also happened now when he got cloudy thoughts was even stranger. His whole body changed. Scales appeared on his skin, and he turned green. He had even breathed fire before and sprouted wings and flown into the sky. It was weird, and a little scary, like he was actually turning into a dragon. He hoped it would not keep getting worse.

But never, ever, had he experienced anything like the vision he had just seen. His chest tightened as he thought about it until it was hard to breathe. Bethany had been captured by Baskania! Before this time, his cloudy thoughts had always told him how to stop the bad things he saw from happening. But this time the vision ended abruptly. The image of Bethany had flashed into his head and then it was gone like a puff of smoke. There were no commands. How was he supposed to fix things?

Danny, Sammy, Trevor, and Nell were staring at him.

Danny was the first to come out of his shock. "Dude, that was really freaky. You know that?"

Erec nodded, unable to talk. All he could think of was Bethany. He slumped down against the wall and sat on the floor, then dropped his head into his hands.

"Are you okay?" Sammy sat next to him and put her arm around him.

Nell came closer with her walker and leaned over it toward him. "Did changing like that scare you?"

"No." Erec's voice sounded squeaky. "It's Bethany. She . . ." He had to bite on his tongue to keep from losing it, but it didn't work for long. Hot tears overflowed his lids and spilled down his cheeks. He couldn't say it. Bethany was in terrible danger. Or maybe even dead.

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Now everyone looked more worried. "What happened?" Sammy said. "Did you get a vision of Bethany? What did your cloudy thought tell you to do?"

Erec sniffed and wiped his face with his sleeve. "There is nothing I can do. It's too late." He put his head into his arm so that nobody could see him crying. How could he have let this happen? She was his best friend. He was such an idiot. He hadn't even answered her letters. Why was he so completely stupid?

He could tell from the short vision he had that Baskania must have bewitched her to come to him. If he had just gone back earlier, like Bethany had wanted him to, he could have stopped this from happening somehow.

But he had been too worried about his idiotic feelings to be there protecting her.

Something crashed through the window and hit him on the head. It was gloppy and sticky, sliding down his check like a slug. He peeled it off and wiped his face on his sleeve. The thing in his hand looked and smelled like a big, oily dumpling. It had another note tied on to it.

Danny unwrapped the note and showed it to Sammy. "Look, it's the same symbol language. This one is saying that our old babysitter will meet us and help us hide. We just have to go outside and she'll take care of us."

"Old babysitter? I wonder who that could be. But thank goodness someone is helping," Sammy said. "Let's go find her."

Erec's mind was spinning, but he could still process what Sammy just said. "Are you crazy? Has everyone gone completely nuts? First Bethany is walking into mortal danger on purpose, and now you!" He immediately felt bad that he had blamed Bethany for going to Baskania. She had obviously been put under a spell. But what was Sammy's excuse? "Don't you realize these people are trying to tempt us to go outside? They are probably the ones after us to begin with.

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Which old babysitter is it, anyway? If it was someone trustworthy, they would come knock like a normal person."

Sammy looked at the paper, frowning. "It's really strange, though. I can tell by this writing that this person
is
trustworthy. Don't you think so, Danny? I think that it's our old sitter, Mrs. Smith. Even though she was a bit odd, she must be trying to help us."

Danny nodded. "I know. It's weird to me, too. I remember her as being awful. But there's something about these symbols. It seems like I can read more into them than just what they say. This person is telling us the truth."

Erec almost screamed. "Has it ever occurred to you this is just a trap? A spell put on those notes to make you think that way? I can't even read them. Maybe they're just bewitching the two of you." He grabbed the note from Sammy's hand and handed it to Nell. "Do you understand this?"

Nell shook her head and giggled nervously. "Uh, it just looks like a bunch of scribbles written in . . . is this written in blood?"

"No," Danny rolled his eyes. "It's in strawberry rhubarb pie. Can't you tell?"

"Um . . . no." Nell handed the paper back to Erec with an eyebrow raised.

Erec held the paper before Trevor. "What about you? Any luck with this?"

Trevor studied it a minute. It looked like he was making calculations in his head. In fact, it seemed sure that he would soon come up with an interpretation, but then he shook his head. "It's a language. See the patterns? But I don't know what it says."

"Okay, guys," Erec said, "let's call the police. It's too dangerous to go outside. Someone is waiting for us out there."

"Erec," Sammy explained patiently. "Of course someone is waiting. It's our old babysitter Mrs. Smith out there. Don't you remember

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her? She was a little weird, but not a maniac or anything. She just wants to help us."

Erec remembered Mrs. Smith very well. The only time he had seen her before was the morning after his mother had been kidnapped by Baskania's servants. She was probably one of them.

He felt dazed. Part of him wanted to run as fast as he could to Alypium and try to find Bethany, but it had to be too late. He had to keep everyone safe here. Danny and Sammy were affected by those notes somehow. It was up to Erec to make sure they didn't do anything crazy. If he could only ignore his heart tearing to pieces over Bethany . . .

"Look." He got up and started to pace near the door. "Let's just think things over logically. Okay? We can't leave this place with crazy people outside that are throwing rocks through our windows. Mrs. Smith is the least trustworthy person I can think of. Okay?"

Danny and Sammy looked at one another, exasperated. "It's not safe in here," Sammy said. "Those letters were clear. We have help out there. We need to go now." She linked her arm around Trevor's and tried to wave Nell toward the door. Trevor and Nell didn't look excited about leaving.

Erec blocked the doorway. "Nobody is going anywhere." Reasoning with them wasn't going to work. He would have to use force. But Danny might overpower him.

Everyone stood still, watching one another. Tension surged through the room. Nell slowly walked next to Erec, swinging her walker around to face the room. She might not have been strong, but it felt good to have something big and metal blocking the door.

Loud knocks pounded on the door at his back. The vibrations hammered through his spine. A familiar voice, like a rake scraping through gravel, called out, "Open up, Sorry. Danny and Sammy, are you okay in there?"

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Erec remembered that Mrs. Smith had thought his name was Sorry. It was obviously her.

Sammy shouted, "We're fine. We'll come out in a second," and hurried to the door.

Nell held up her walker, and Trevor stood at her side. The door started to shake behind them. Danny was trying to reach for the doorknob.

Erec shoved Trevor in front of the doorknob instead. "Hold on to it for dear life, Trev. I'll be right back."

Erec ran into his mother's room and madly fished through her drawers. He found what he was looking for under a blanket. It looked like a small silver ring, but it was the Substance Channel, an item his mother had bought from that magical store called Vulcan. It could transport people anywhere. All they had to do was concentrate on where they wanted to go.

He took the Substance Channel out of its box and rubbed it in his hands like he had seen his mother do. Soon it glowed with a greenish light. More rattling and shouts came from the front door. He had to hurry.

How had his mother made this ring big enough to climb through? She had pulled it somehow. Erec latched his fingers around the ring and tugged--it grew wide. The metal was soft and sparkly now, and stretched easily in his hands. It opened into a huge hoop. Sparks of electricity shot from it, jolting him so that he had to pull his hands away. Still, it hung in the air on its own.

The commotion in the living room was growing louder. Stomping and urgent shouts carried down the hall. Mrs. Smith sounded like she was coming inside.

Erec took a breath. The Substance Channel started to spin so fast that the air whirling around it blew his hair back. He had to get everyone in here fast before it was too late.

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He ran into the living room but stopped short. Mrs. Smith's round frame filled the entryway. A sickly white powder made her look ghostly, and her generous cheeks were decorated with sharp circles of bright red makeup. Black hair was slicked tightly down each side of her face, meeting under her fourth chin and giving her face the shape of a wobbly heart. Thick layers of toothpaste-blue eye shadow encased her narrow eyes. She was eating a handful of what looked like the same greasy dumplings that had been thrown through their window.

After polishing off the last dumpling, she wiped her slick hands on her bright yellow overcoat, stepped forward, and grabbed Sammy's and Danny's wrists in her thick paws. Erec was amazed to see that neither of them struggled. Trevor, however, began to kick at one of her staunch legs. Mrs. Smith did not seem to notice.

Also in the room were two other very unusual-looking people. A skinny man who looked about seven feet tall was juggling some small balls--at least they looked small compared to his hands. Half of his shocking red hair was slicked down onto his head with thick grease. The other half had escaped its oiled jail, standing a foot above his head and sprouting wild curls in all directions.

The other man was short and normal-looking--except for the tall top hat on his head and the huge wooden barrel that he wore, hanging with thick straps over his shoulders so only his head, arms, and feet were poking out.

Erec had to get his siblings away from them. He hooked Nell's arm over his shoulder and grabbed her waist, picking up her and her walker. "C'mon, Trevor. And Danny? Sammy? Could you come here a minute?"

"Not now, Erec." Danny sounded annoyed. "It's dangerous here. Okay?"

"That's right, Sorry," Mrs. Smith snapped. "It's time you got the message, and scrambled like an egg."