The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (4 page)

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The man in the barrel nodded. "Tha's right, kid. You best listen to Dumpling here, if you knows what's best for ya."

Dumpling? Mrs. Smith's name was Dumpling? Well, it did seem to fit. "You guys," Erec said, smiling like their best brother, "this will just take one minute. Please, come into Mom's room. We need to take some things with us before we go."

Danny and Sammy didn't answer, but just stood there as if they were unsure what to do. Nell and Trevor, however, jumped toward him, wanting to get away from the visitors. He helped Nell down the hall into his mother's room, and Trevor followed. The Substance Channel had stopped spinning. Now it hung still, suspended in the air. A green light pulsed from it. Nell and Trevor looked into the blackness inside, eyes wide.

But he had to get Danny and Sammy. Erec could hear them explaining to Dumpling Smith that they couldn't leave without Erec, Trevor, and Nell. She was arguing with them. So Dumpling only wanted the twins? Erec panicked. He had to get them away from her. Trevor helped steady Nell in front of the Substance Channel, and Erec sped back into the room, just as Mrs. Dumpling Smith was trying to drag the twins out the door.

This time they were struggling, trying to make her understand. Sammy pulled back against the door frame. "We can't leave our brothers and sister here. We have to protect them, too!"

"There is no time for them," Mrs. Smith said. "We must get you to safety quickly."

The huge woman and her two friends could easily overpower Erec. He glanced at the coat rack for help, giving it a shrug. "C'mon, guys. Please. You left all your important stuff in Mom's room. You can come right back, okay?"

"All right." Danny yanked his arm out of Mrs. Smith's grip. "We'll be right back."

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Mrs. Smith looked suspicious as she watched the twins walk away. "What is that Sorry up to? We better check." She got up to follow them and nodded to her friends to come along. Her girth filled the hallway in front of the tall man, and the man in the barrel closed in behind him, leaving little room for his wide strides.

"Hurry up, guys!" Erec tore ahead to his mother's room, and Danny and Sammy followed him. He was amazed at how fast Mrs. Smith was. She would never let them climb into the Substance Channel.

Dumpling Smith was closing in on them. But right when it seemed hopeless, the coat rack threw itself down across the entrance to the hallway, right in front of the shorter man's feet. The third man had too much momentum to stop himself, and he tripped over the coat rack and started rolling in his barrel down the hall. A bowling ball in motion, he knocked the tall man over like a pin, sending both of them flying into Mrs. Smith's back end.

Shaped a bit like a ball herself, Mrs. Smith tumbled forward. The two men spilled over her, rolling and tangling more until they resembled a pile of spaghetti and meatballs.

Erec lifted Nell up to the Substance Channel. "Climb in and I'll give you your walker. Here." He grabbed Trevor. "Hold Trev's hand. We should all hold hands in there so we don't get separated."

Erec helped them both in quickly. Sammy took Trevor's hand and climbed in after, pulling Danny in after her. Erec grabbed Danny's hand and Nell's walker and dove into the ring after them.

An unseen force seemed to pull him through the hoop. He looked back and saw Mrs. Smith and her strange friends flopping over one another, trying to stand up. Then he sank into the blackness around him.

Danny's hand and the walker were the only things he was sure were there. It felt like he was floating in space.

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He heard Nell's voice. "Erec? Where are you?"

"I got him," Danny said. "What is this thing? Don't you think we should have just listened to Mrs. Smith?"

"I don't like this place," Trevor said.

"Listen, guys, I've been here before," Erec replied calmly. "I'm taking us somewhere safe. Just let your minds go blank and hold on tight."

Erec shut his eyes and concentrated on the home of his father, King Piter. It was hard not to think about Bethany, but he closed her out of his mind. If he did concentrate on her, even by accident, the Substance Channel would take him to her and, at the same time, right to Baskania.

King Piter's home. His castle no longer existed. It had been destroyed. But his father's home would be safe. They could stay there until he figured out what to do next. Maybe his mother could even come stay with them.

Take me to my father's home.

If only he knew what he would find waiting there.

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CHAPTER THREE King Piter in Chains

HE SUBSTANCE CHANNEL worked. In moments, Erec and his siblings were whizzing through space. Erec could feel a tunnel forming around him, opening and shutting as he went through almost as if he was being swallowed. The warm material around them was the Substance itself: the network of magic that filled the world. Without it, life could not exist. But in our everyday world of Upper
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Earth it had thinned so much that magic was no longer possible.

He was having trouble holding onto Nell's walker, which kept wanting to yank out of his grip, and keeping Danny's hand in his. Then, with a sharp jerk to his left, Erec was spit out through the ring of light. His siblings toppled onto the floor after him. The ring glimmered a moment in the air and then disappeared.

Erec sat up and gasped. A shocked face stared straight back at him. After a moment he came to his senses and recognized that it was his old friend and butler, Jam Crinklecut. Gray-green eyes twinkling, Jam sported his usual black butler suit with tails, gray vest, and white gloves.

"Young sir? I was . . . not expecting you." He looked around. "Danny and Sammy, I presume? And Trevor and Nell? I remember you from my wonderful visit at your home. What a pleasure. Welcome, sirs. Modoms." He bowed low.

"Jam!" Erec sprang to his feet and threw an arm around the butler.

At first Jam looked surprised, but he quickly smiled. "And how is young sir doing?"

That question brought everything home for Erec. He had not had time to process what had happened to his best friend, and now he found himself choking on his words as he tried to speak them. "Is . . . Bethany . . ."

"Bethany?" Jam smiled. "She must be in her suites. Shall I ring her?"

A ray of hope lit within him, but he was afraid to believe it. Had his vision been wrong? Maybe nothing had happened yet . . . and he still had time to stop her.

But the phone rang and rang in Bethany's suites. Jam frowned. "I don't know where else she could be. I thought she had been working on her book. That's mostly what she's been doing since she's been stuck inside here."

Erec's stomach turned over, and his last hopes blew out in a

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long sigh. It was no use. He knew exactly what had happened to her. How could he tell Jam? And worse, her brother Pi?

Even the air felt thick and heavy. It seemed to drip sadness. Then he remembered that there was another reason it was hard to breathe here. Each time he returned to the Kingdom of the Keepers after being away awhile, he would notice this feeling. The Substance here was thicker, and it gave off a depressing aura that he grew used to after a day or two.

Trying to ignore it, Erec glanced out the window, as if Bethany might be outside walking with her pink kitten, Cutie Pie. Of course she wasn't there. What if he never saw her again? Why hadn't he just come back a month earlier when she wanted him to?

Something caught his eye on the grass. It looked like a growing drop of blood. In a moment it started wiggling, and Erec recognized it as a snail. Bethany was writing! He ran outside and grabbed it off the ground.

But the snail letter was from a friend of Erec's, Oscar. At first, his heart sank--but he had been worried about Oscar for a while now. What had happened to him was awful. Oscar's old tutor, Rosco, had somehow learned how to read his mind. That might not have been so bad--except that Rosco was one of Baskania's favorite assistants. So everything that Oscar knew was reported straight to their worst enemy. If Oscar saw Erec somewhere, Baskania would know where Erec was and try to capture him.

Dear Erec,

I've decided that things have to change for me, so I want to let you know what's been going on. It feels like I've been alone forever now. I thought that if I just hid and

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spied on people I would learn how to get back at Rosco, and maybe also find a new magic tutor. But it was so hard being away from everyone that I care about, with no friends. That was driving me crazy.

Well, I just can't do it anymore. I mean, I still am trying to stay hidden. I don't want to run into you by accident--we both know how horrible it would be if Baskania found you. But a new idea finally hit me, and I have some big plans. Revenge. After everything that Rosco has put me through, it's all I can think about. So don't even think about trying to talk me out of it. If somebody was reading your mind and telling everything you thought to your worst enemy, and if that somebody had killed your father, you would feel the same way. This is all I've been thinking about for months.

I spent time in Aorth tracking down where Rosco lives and spying on his house. He was never there. The guy travels all the time. So I snuck into his house and used his Port-O-Door once to see where he just went, and it was the Green House in Alypium. I need to go there, spend time there, and really see what's going on.

You should know that I'll be in Alypium. I'll make sure to wear sunglasses and a big floppy hat to stop me from looking around at things. Also I've gotten really good at watching my feet when I walk, so hopefully I won't see you. Hopefully with the hat and dark glasses Rosco and Baskania won't recognize me, either.

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I'll stay in touch to let you know everything I see when I spy on them. It's the least I can do for you. One thing I've found out is that Balor, Damon, and Dollick Stain had crowns made for themselves, along with thrones. They have days set aside for people to come meet them and take their pictures with the three kings-to-be. It's enough to make you throw up.

I hope you're okay. Don't feel like you have to write back. If you do, remember not to tell me anything important. I'm sure Rosco would appear and grab the snail letter right after I read it again.

Your friend forever,

Oscar

So the Stain triplets were posing as the next rulers of the three Kingdoms of the Keepers? Erec cringed. Balor, Damon, and Dollick Stain, kids his age, had been cloned from Baskania himself. They were doing everything they could to really become the next three kings, but if they did they would rule with greed, malice, and violence. On top of that, they would hand over their royal scepters to Baskania. According to King Piter that would cause mass destruction.

If only Bethany were here, she could reason with Oscar, get him to move on and forget about revenge on Rosco. She was good at that kind of thing. Oscar had nobody to hang out with now and nothing else to think about except for what Rosco had done to him.

Erec found some paper and wrote back to him.

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Dear Oscar
,

Bethany has been captured, and I don't even know if she's alive. I don't care if Rosco sees this letter and tells Baskania--he's the one who took her, so it's no news to him. I'm worried sick. If you're . . . around anyone who might know, tell me if you overhear where they are keeping her, or anything at all that could help.

It sounds like Baskania is trying to make everyone excited about Balor, Damon, and Dollick becoming kings. How could people fall for that? Can't they see that the Stain triplets are rotten to the core? It's such a joke. If they really became the three new rulers of Alypium, Ashona, and Aorth, they would hand their scepters to Baskania, and he would go mad with power and destroy the world. Try to tell people that, though, and they think you're crazy.

I'm glad you're okay. I really miss hanging out with you and Jack. I haven't seen him in a while. You should forget about revenge, though. It's only going to make things worse for you, I think.

Your friend always
,

Erec

Erec put the letter into the snail's shell, then looked out the window. Rosco would take the letter from Oscar and trace it minutes

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after he got it. Unless he wanted Baskania paying him a visit, Erec thought he had better send it from somewhere else.

Cutie Pie, Bethany's fluffy pink kitten, pounced onto the window sill and looked at him suspiciously.

"Have you seen Bethany, Cutie Pie? Do you know where she went?"

The cat put a paw on the window and looked outside.

"She was captured by Baskania, kitty. We have to save her." Erec felt dumb talking to a cat, but Cutie Pie was pretty smart. Maybe she would help in some way.

Cutie Pie stared at Erec for a second and then darted through the open window. In a moment she was tearing toward Alypium. For a moment, Erec considered following her. But chasing a cat didn't seem promising, so he wished her luck instead.

Erec found the Port-O-Door in his father's house and randomly picked a city called Clalm, the first place he saw on the map of Otherness. He tossed the snail that held his letter to Oscar onto the red soil of Clalm and watched it disappear into the earth.

What would he do about Bethany? He could not face the reality that he was probably too late. Was he just going to sit here and accept that she was captured and dead? No. He had to do something. . . .

Maybe his father would know what to do. He found Jam and asked, "Is my dad here?" It still sounded strange referring to King Piter as his father. That truth had been hidden from him since he was too young to remember.

Jam cleared his throat and whispered, "It's best you go alone, sir. He has been having a bit of a tough time. I'll make some snacks for your brothers and sisters."

The king sat on his throne in a smaller version of Castle Alypium's throne room. A few tapestries hung on the walls, and ornate leaded windows made the room sparkle. The throne itself was