The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (46 page)

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Jack's jaw dropped open. "You can get us out of here? Oh,
man
. That's great."

Melody started jumping up and down.

"This might not work, guys. Once my mom was a prisoner in King Pluto's dungeon. Nitrowisherine was only
part
of what it took to blast her out."

Jam thought about that. "Well, dungeons are usually higher security than prison cells. The really bad prisoners get moved to the dungeons."

"Cross your fingers. We'll see soon enough." They all crowded into the corner of the cell, arms covering their faces. Erec held the vial of dragon blood to his chest. "I'll throw it at the far wall, but the whole room will shake. And
be careful
not to accidentally wish for something before I do, even in your head. I'll wish out loud. That should help."

They steadied themselves as Erec counted. "One . . . two . . . three!" He hurled the glass jar into the wall across from them. It shattered and then--

Ka-
boom!
The walls and floor shook, knocking them over in a heap. Concrete benches dropped from the walls, breaking into pieces. Cracks ran through the stone around them as the room continued to shudder.

"I wish we were all with Bethany in the lab tower!"

The world grew quiet and still. The room around them instantly expanded--but that wasn't right. They were in another room altogether. It was huge, with a high, domed ceiling and dust motes floating in the air. Tables nearby were piled with papers and odd equipment. Erec peered through the dim lighting. She had to be here somewhere. . . .

Bethany, chained to her desk, seemed so small and weak she almost faded into the background. Big red eyes stared back at him in disbelief. She was as pale as the piles of papers stacked on her desk.

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Even the math books here were giving her no comfort.

He imagined what they must look like, six people appearing at once in a tangled heap on the floor, getting up and dusting themselves off. Erec's hood was half up, Griffin's was off, but he wasn't somebody Bethany would recognize. She probably thought she was imagining this whole thing.

Erec pulled his hood off and walked up to Bethany. She gazed up at him, arms chained tight at her sides to the chair. The metal cones dug into her scalp--Baskania probably used them to pull her memories out. She looked so pathetic. Hot tears ran down his cheeks as he smoothed her hair back.

"Here." He untwisted the vial of dragon blood and held it out. "You better drink this right away. I don't know when people will be coming."

Then he realized that her hands were chained down. "Oh, sorry. Let me do it for you."

Her voice sounded worn-down. "I'll try. I haven't eaten in a while."

Erec held the vial to her lips, sure that the idea of drinking purple dragon blood was disgusting. But she dutifully swallowed. He raised it higher until the last drops were gone.

"We did it, Bethany! That dragon blood broke the Draw Baskania put on you. Now we're free to go--once I can get you out of here. Look--Kyron's here! Can you believe it? He's got a silver sword. Maybe it can cut through these chains."

An odd transformation was happening to Bethany as he spoke. At first he was worried that the dragon blood was making her sick. She turned a purplish color, then a ruddy red. But after that she looked better than he had ever seen her. Her skin glowed, and her eyes sparkled. A huge smile spread over her face.

"You're
here
!" she cried. "That stuff was great. I mean, it didn't taste

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great. Kind of like spicy metal. But I've never felt this good--this strong! It's like I could break these chains myself." She tugged on one side and then the other, and the steel links on both sides snapped like breadsticks. When she jumped up, the metal cones in her head popped out, bouncing onto the floor. Her skin healed immediately where they had been. "It feels so
good
to
move
! I'm surprised I'm not sore and stiff from being tied there for so long, but I guess the dragon blood helps that, too."

Erec remembered one time that he had tasted dragon blood. After his first quest he had been badly injured. Patchouli had given him just one drop of her blood to heal him, and he felt stronger than a steam engine, all his pain gone. He couldn't imagine what Bethany must feel like, having drunk a whole vial of that blood. Maybe it was like how he felt when he turned part-dragon.

Bethany squealed and raced to Erec, throwing her arms around him and burying her face in his shoulder. "You did it. You're here, and you saved me. I can't believe it!"

"
Don't
believe it." A dark voice rang out. Baskania stepped out of the shadows with a flourish of his black cape. "As far as I can see, nobody has been saved or gone anywhere at all. In fact, it seems to be just the opposite. I return, expecting to extract the final memories from my captive. But look! To my great surprise, I have several gifts waiting for me. First, someone has finally located your earliest memories, Bethany. The ones that were removed from you after your parents were killed." He shoved a frightened boy in front of him. "This boy here apparently was given your oldest memories at an early age when he was adopted. And second, Erec Rex has delivered himself straight to me. What a treat! This could not be better." He cackled with glee.

Baskania had a third eye in the middle of his forehead today, and it was glancing around the room. This was not as many as he usually had adorning his face--and he wore an eye patch over the hole that

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still waited for Erec's dragon eye. His silver-gray hair led to a sharp widow's peak and his thin lips curled into a sneer. "Oh, I see you've vacated your seat for the moment, Bethany. Well, that's good timing, isn't it?" He pushed the boy behind the desk where Bethany had been held. "Come on, Ajax. Fasten the projectors on to him."

Ajax Hunter appeared from behind Baskania, metal cones in his hand. The boy squirmed and protested as Ajax pushed them into his scalp, but with a wave of Ajax's finger the boy froze.

Baskania smiled. "Always nice to have an audience for exciting events. I suppose I will enjoy Bethany seeing her early past, remembering what her parents were like before I ordered them to be killed. So sentimental." He yawned. "And after we've all enjoyed the nice movie, and the suspense of whether or not I have at last learned how to do the Final Magic, then I'll get rid of all of you. Erec, I'm delighted to have two dragon eyes now, to accompany my new, great powers."

Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen where the boy's memory replacement--Bethany's earliest memories--were projected. But they did not start with Bethany as a baby. She looked about three years old, tugging on her mother's skirt. "I'm tired," she complained. "Pick me up. I've walked three hundred and forty-two steps by myself." She put her arms in the air and jumped. "Up-ee! Up! Up!"

"Now, Bethany." Her mother, Ruth, sighed. "You know it's too hard for me to hold you now. It won't be much longer, maybe a few weeks, okay? Why don't you sit down and think about how many seconds there are in two weeks, okay?"

She bent and patted Bethany on the head. But something about Ruth's shape caught everybody's eye.

When she stood, her condition was obvious.

Bethany's mother was pregnant.

Baskania swung around to Bethany. "Is this true? Do you have

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a younger sibling?"

She shrugged, frightened. "I . . . I don't remember. I didn't know I had any siblings before. That memory was all taken from me."

Baskania growled. "Forward this a few weeks."

Ajax flicked his head at the projector, and the movie spun ahead in time. Bethany was on a couch holding a tiny, bald baby in her arms, kissing its forehead. Her older brother, Pi, raced by. "Don't drop him! Cuz he won't bounce, he'll just hit, right there, on the floor, and slide three point seven eight inches, and then he'll get hurt and cry, and you will be in trouble!"

Bethany watched her young self in the movie, eyes wide and glistening. "I have a baby brother," she whispered.

"He's not a baby anymore." Erec said. "We'll find him."

"No." Baskania's voice was controlled, furious. "
I'll
find him. You have a younger sibling. Do you know what this means? I've wasted all of my time with you. The prophecy wasn't about you. You weren't the youngest child of the greatest seer of the first king of Alypium. I need your little brother." He raised his fist. "You'll all pay for this! There's no need to keep any of you alive one second longer." Baskania pointed a finger at Bethany and a black mist shot out toward her.

Erec stepped in to shield her, and the mist was sucked straight into his Amulet of Virtues.

"I'd forgotten about that thing," Baskania said, sneering. "That will make my job a little trickier. But you're my captives now. I have all the time in the world to destroy you."

"We are not your captives." Erec took a step closer to him. "We're leaving, right now. You can't stop us."

Baskania pointed at Erec again and again, sending daggers, ropes, and lightning bolts at him, but all of them were sucked right into his amulet.

"You see?" Erec raised his hands. "You can't hurt me now."

Baskania's face was dark with anger. "So foolish. So very, very

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foolish. You'll find out before long just what I can do to you. But, in the meantime, I'd like you to try to find Bethany, to rescue her at all." With a flourish, the air in the room rippled. Bethany stepped apart into two identical Bethanys, who stepped apart to make four, then eight, and on and on until the room was full of identical girls.

Cackling, Baskania pointed at one Bethany after the next, sending black puffs of air that knocked them to the ground. "Isn't this fun? It's like a game. Will I kill the real Bethany before you can find her? Too bad there's no way for you to tell the difference!"

Shocked, Erec looked around wildly. What could he do? In a half-formed thought he grabbed the Doubler charm that Wandabelle had given him. Its power was unpredictable, but maybe he could use it to make even more Bethanys. That would protect the one real one until he could find her.

He waved the shiny charm in the air, hoping that it picked up the spell that had multiplied Bethany, and not the little deathly blasts Baskania was making.
Please
, he begged. It was a much larger spell, and it had made that gigantic ripple through the room.

A blast of wind raced through the room, and a ripple of lightning zipped through the air, straight at Erec. Baskania watched, confused, as the light entered Erec's pendant, and two identical bolts shot out into the air. They spun a moment as if deciding where to go. Then one turned back and hit Erec, and another headed straight for Baskania.

Erec had a strange feeling, like something was coming alive inside him. He wanted to pull away from it, and when he did, another version of himself stepped out and stood at his side, staring at him in awe. Then both of them felt it again, and soon there were four Erecs, then eight. The room was getting mobbed with Erecs, Bethanys . . . and Baskanias! The Doubler charm had hit him with the spell too, and the room filled in chaos with imitation people.

Soon the feeling ended, but the room was packed with individuals

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who looked just like him, Baskania, and Bethany. All of the Baskanias glared around the room, pointing at people, but Erec noticed that no smoke was coming from their fingers. They must have been doing the same thing that the original Baskania was, but without his powers.

Good. So they were just crowding the room, getting in the way. He called for Bethany, but after he did, all of the other Erecs started calling for her too. Not in a chorus, and not even in the exact same way. But they were all looking around, searching, just as Erec was.

The Bethanys were answering "Yes?" all over the room. It would be impossible to find Bethany in this mess and get her out of here.

Jack, Jam, and Griffin were stunned. Erec could not even see Melody or Kyron in the crowd. He had to figure out a way to determine which of these Bethanys was real. The other ones probably didn't have her math powers. He asked a Bethany by his side, "What's two thousand divided by two?"

She shrugged and went back to calling out for Erec, not even caring that she had just spoken to him. So, the imitations really only cared about imitating the originals, then. They had no agenda of their own.

Baskanias stalked through the crowds glowering and pointing at Erecs and Bethanys. But Erec noticed something strange. One of the figures walking by had Erec's head on Baskania's body. How did that happen?

Then he saw the cause. A Bethany and Baskania imitation crashed into each other by accident and combined on the spot into an odd-looking creature that looked like Bethany's legs and arms coming from Baskania's body and head. The clothing was strange in configuration, too, with his cloak tucked into her jeans. The resulting figure took turns acting like Bethany and Baskania as if that was totally normal.

He scanned the crowd for a Bethany that was doing things before the others, but it was too hard to tell which was leading. If only he