Faylinn nodded. “I can imagine.” Seeing the somber look on his face, she buzzed comfortingly by his shoulder. “Remember, when in doubt, think of happy thoughts and you’ll find your way.”
He smiled at the tiny fairy. The happiest thought he could think of was Mal and her friends returning safe from the Isle of the Lost. He hoped it would come true.
“Ugh, the leather is going to shrink,” said Mal, wringing her jacket and trying to dry her hair. She had already vomited up a gallon of water, and was still shaking from the near drowning, not to mention the near-crocodile-dinner experience. But Mal being Mal, of course she didn’t want to show how shaken she was, so she focused on mourning her ruined jacket instead. “What a bunch of dock rats we are,” she said with a laugh. Carlos was similarly soaked to the bone, and Evie was shoeless, her jacket torn. Her bird’s-nest hair could rival any of Cruella’s fright wigs.
“Speak for yourselves,” said Jay, who was dry and without a scratch.
“Don’t worry about the jacket, I can make you another one,” said Evie, running a brush through her hair and trying to make herself look presentable.
“I shouldn’t have run off like that,” said Mal. “I’m sorry. I thought Maddy was my friend.”
Evie patted Mal on the shoulder; her hand made a wet, squelching sound and she withdrew it in alarm. “Oh, uh, it’s okay, we all make mistakes.”
“I didn’t think she would betray me like that,” said Mal. “I really thought she was part of the Anti-Heroes club.”
Carlos was sitting on the ground. He’d removed his shoes and socks in an effort to dry them. He pulled seaweed from his hair. “What do you think Maddy meant when she said, ‘All of Auradon will burn, just like Camelot’?”
Evie shrugged. “Isn’t that what villains do? Threaten?”
“It sounded a little more specific than that, don’t you think?” said Carlos. “How did she know about the fires in Camelot, then?”
“Hang on, she said something about Camelot?” asked Mal.
“Yeah, and didn’t you say that’s where that purple dragon is?” said Carlos.
Mal nodded. “Yeah.”
“Maybe Ben put it on the news,” said Evie.
“Maybe,” said Mal. She shook out her jacket. “Listen, I need to tell you guys something, but we should get cleaned up first, I can’t think with all this wet stuff on me.” She shook her hair and droplets rained all around. “The Junk Shop isn’t far from here, so Jay and Carlos can get cleaned up over there. Evie and I will go back to the Bargain Castle across the street. Meet us there after you get changed.”
The four of them walked back into town, Mal squelching with every footstep, Evie walking in stockings, Carlos simply barefoot and holding his wet sneakers, and Jay practically skipping. The boys crossed over to Pity Lane and headed for Jafar’s while Mal unlocked the door to the Bargain Castle.
Mal turned to Evie with a wan smile. “By the way, thanks for coming after me.”
“You’re welcome. It’s what friends do,” said Evie.
Mal nodded. “Then thanks for being my friend. My real friend.”
Later, when the boys arrived, Carlos was dressed in a purple-and-yellow sweater and shorts that were too big for him. Evie was wearing one of Mal’s old T-shirts, holey jeans, and a pair of Mal’s old boots. The four friends sprawled on the carpet and chairs in Mal’s room. Carlos was even able to get a fire going in the fireplace. They hadn’t slept all night and it was already close to sunrise.
“Mal, what did you want to tell us earlier?” said Carlos, poking the fire with a stick. He placed his sneakers by the grate, hoping they would dry soon.
“The crocs in the bay,” said Mal. “Aren’t they usually by Hook’s Inlet? Why were they all around Doom Cove all of a sudden?”
“Change of scenery?” snorted Jay.
“No, it was like they were guarding something. Something important,” she said, warming her hands by the fire. “I think I know what it is.”
“The entrance to the Catacombs,” said Carlos promptly.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Mal asked, looking a bit miffed that a little bit of her thunder had been stolen.
“Lucky guess,” said Carlos with a smile. “Seriously, what else could it be?”
“Anyway, when I was underwater, I thought I saw a cave down there. The crocodiles were swimming out of it. It looked like it was their nest.”
“Hmm,” said Jay. “If the crocodiles were coming out, there must be another entrance from the topside. Crocodiles prefer to make their homes on land, not underwater. Also, if Jafar, Evil Queen, and Cruella did go down there, I doubt they swam. For one, none of them can.”
“Perfect,” said Carlos. “Because I sure wasn’t looking forward to getting wet again. My sneakers just dried.”
“We should tell the Anti-Heroes group so they can help us find it,” said Evie. “Yen Sid told everyone to be back at the basement by sunrise, so we’ll go and tell them then.”
“Good idea,” said Jay.
“It’s funny,” said Mal. “If we’re right about this, and that crocodile cave down there is the entrance to the Catacombs, Maddy thought she was getting rid of me, but instead she did us a favor.”
“She helped us instead of harming us,” said Carlos, putting his dry socks back on.
“It’s like Fairy Godmother always says,” said Evie, hugging a purple pillow to her chest.
“Don’t let the stepsisters get you down?” said Mal.
“Goodness works in mysterious ways. Even in the deepest dark, you’ll find a light to shine your way through.”
“All this has
happened before,
and it will all
happen again.”
—Peter Pan
The anti-heroes were a hardworking bunch, and by noon had combed the entire beachhead, but hadn’t been able to find anything. Mal was nearly ready to give up on the search for the tunnel’s entrance. After all, she had basically been drowning when she saw the underwater entrance—maybe she’d hallucinated it.
But then, at the very edge of Doom Cove, in a rocky outcropping by the water’s edge, Carlos, along with Big Murph, had found a small hole in the ground, about the size of a rabbit burrow.
“That can’t be it. How would we fit in there?” Evie asked doubtfully. “And if it’s not big enough for us, it’s definitely not big enough for a crocodile.”
“We dig?” said Jay, who began to shovel away dirt with his hands. “This is the only thing we’ve seen in hours. We’ve got to try it.” Carlos knelt down to help, and together they were able to make the hole big enough to squeeze through.
Mal knew they didn’t need to worry about more crocodiles bothering them now—earlier, she’d sent Hadie to throw a bucket of rotten meat in the water on the other side of the island to draw them away. But as she looked down at the small, dark tunnel ahead, Mal wondered if they had just traded one problem for another. Still, Jay was right. They had to give it a shot.
“Thanks, you guys,” Mal called to the assembled team. “I think we’ve found the entrance. We’re going in!”
The sweaty group of anti-heroes cheered.
“Ladies first?” said Jay.
Mal nodded and crawled through the hole. She heard Evie struggling behind, and then the boys. After a few feet, the tunnel widened and they were able to walk upright.
“This better be it,” Mal said. “I really don’t want to be wandering around down here for no reason.”
But as they continued down the tunnel, Mal realized she actually felt perfectly at home. The cave was dark and wet and filled with furry things that skittered at the edge of her vision. Why do caves get such a bad rap anyway? What’s wrong with a few spiderwebs? she wondered just as she stepped into a giant floor-to-ceiling cobweb. She struggled to push through, only to get more caught up in its lacy white stickiness.
“Don’t spiders have anything else to do?” she asked aloud.
Carlos shook h
is head and helped pull the cobwebs away. They continued on, but stopped again when Evie shrieked at a tiny rodent that had made the mistake of crawling halfway up her pant leg.
“Just tell it to get out of the way,” Mal suggested. “Didn’t Evil Queen ever teach you how to deal with mice?”
“No, Mom only cared about whether I knew how to line my eyelids properly,” said Evie, catching her breath as the small creature scampered off into the crevices.
“Oh, I forgot, I brought something from the Junk Shop,” said Jay as he removed a flashlight from his pocket and jiggled the batteries until they came to life. The sudden flood of light illuminated the cavern’s interior—a collection of giant cool-looking spiderwebs, slimy wet puddles, and an unexpected item—a gold poison-heart bracelet glittering on the ground.
Evie picked it up. “It’s my mom’s!” she said excitedly. “They must have been down here! We’re going the right way!”
Walking farther on, they discovered other clues. A long cigarette holder that could only be Cruella’s, and a few coins that could only have fallen from Jafar’s pouch. They kept going, energized by their discoveries, until the flashlight showed a succession of large animal footprints.
“These tracks look too big for crocodiles, right?” Jay asked, inspecting them. “Plus, I think these are paw prints.”
“Way too big,” agreed Mal.
“Great,” said Carlos. “Huge scary monster ahead.”
They went deeper into the cave, moving forward cautiously.
Then, from somewhere in the darkness, a faint sound drifted through the cave, almost like the snuffling of an animal of some kind.
“Stop it, Jay!” said Mal, whirling to face him just as he was about to make that snuffling noise again.
“Couldn’t resist,” said Jay.
He offered Carlos a high five, but Carlos just shook his head. “Not cool, man. Not cool. We need to find the Poisoned Lake,” he said, studying one of the maps from Yen Sid. As far as he could tell, the body of water that surrounded the Toxic Tree with the Fruit of Venom should be the first of the underground lands they would pass. “I wonder how the tree can grow. I mean with all this darkness, how can anything live down here?”
“Maybe it feeds on poison from the lake,” said Evie.
“For that matter, how can there be a lake underneath the ocean?”
“We’re underneath the ocean floor, obviously. Plus, everything is made by magic down here,” Mal said. “Don’t you remember?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Carlos as he stared at the tree. “All the books said that the magic creates the ideal location for each talisman. Okay, let’s go this way.”
They followed the path as it led them farther down into the earth, so steep at times that they were almost sliding. The tunnel narrowed and then widened again. Some passages were flooded, and they had to roll up their pants to cross. Eventually, the cavern grew so enormous that they could no longer see the top of the cave. They kept walking until the path split in two directions.
Just then, they heard that strange snuffling sound again. Carlos looked petrified, but Mal slapped a hand on Jay’s mouth in annoyance. “Stop!”
“Okay, okay, it’s hard to resist. It’s boring down here,” Jay said, his voice muffled behind her hand.
“Where to?” Mal asked Carlos.
Carlos looked down at the map. “It doesn’t say.” He studied the two tunnels in front of them. One of the paths was covered with the same large tracks they’d noticed earlier, but the other was clear. “I don’t know.”
“Hmm,” said Mal. “The lake is poisonous, right? Whatever lives down here would know that, so instead of following its tracks, maybe we should choose the opposite direction. We need to find the one place the big guy doesn’t go.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Carlos, who wasn’t looking forward to meeting a large animal—or whatever it was—underground.
They set off down the undisturbed path. After walking a few feet, the flashlight went out, but Jay knocked it against the stone and it flickered back to life. The cave was smaller here, just big enough for them to pass through.
“I think we’re close to water now,” said Mal. “The air is damp.”
“And that smell,” said Evie. “Talk about toxic!” Carlos was already pinching his nose and Mal and Evie did the same. Jay pulled off his beanie and held it over his face. They kept moving, until they heard the sound of water as it washed against sand. It had to be the Poisoned Lake.
They broke into a run, Jay shining the light and pointing it at the end of the cavern.
A large, deep purple lake bubbled with toxic gas. In the middle of the water was a small rocky island where one lone apple tree stood, its fruit ripe and red and luscious. The four of them stared at it, not quite believing what they were looking at. It was impossible to think that anything grew underground, and that, after all that walking, they had actually found one of the most dangerous objects in the world.
“Okay, let’s figure out how to get me over there,” said Evie, rolling up her sleeves. The fruit was her mother’s talisman.
“We need to find a way to make a raft,” said Carlos. “Maybe with some of the branches we saw back there, and anything else we can find.”
They walked back into the dark tunnel, searching for anything they could use to build a boat, when a strange sound echoed all around, distant but growing louder by the second.
Snuffle, grunt.
Mal ignored Jay. She hated it when he goofed off like that.
Grunt, snuffle.
Much louder now.
Snuffle, grunt.
The snuffling and grunting noise was so loud it was hard to concentrate. Mal had had enough. “JAY! I SAID STOP DOING THAT!”
“Yeah, man,” said Carlos as he rolled the map back up and shoved it in his pocket. “Lay off on the sound effects.”
“Seriously,” said Evie, with a toss of her hair. “You’re getting on my nerves.”
As they turned around to confront their friend, they realized he wasn’t standing behind them anymore. His flashlight was on the floor. “Jay?” Mal called uncertainly.
Jay appeared from the darkness, carrying a bunch of dead branches in his arms. “What?” he asked as the sound grew louder and louder. “I left the light here for you guys.”
“Jay’s not making that sound!” Evie screamed. “RUN!”
Carlos grabbed the flashlight, and they sprinted back toward the lake. But something was blocking the passage. Something large and hairy with huge fanged teeth.
Snuffle, grunt.
Grunt, snuffle.
The four of them ran from the creature and hid, huddling together in a nearby recess, trying not to make any noise as whatever that thing was that was snuffling and grunting moved away. It sounded awful, like some kind of hideous monster. Evie shivered, hoping it would move away without discovering them. She knew she was first up against her talisman, and wanted to get it over with as soon as she could.
“What is it?” Carlos whispered, shaking.
Mal stuck her head out of the hollow to see if she could see it. “It’s big and…pink. Like a huge cat, or a tiger, I can’t tell.”
“A huge pink tiger, great; we’re scared we’re going to get eaten by a creature that looks like a puff of cotton candy,” said Jay.
The snuffling and grunting sound faded.
Evie exhaled. “Okay, let’s figure out a way to get across the lake.”
Carlos and Jay tried to tie the branches together to make some kind of raft, but it was clear that wasn’t going to work as they didn’t have anything they could use for twine. Jay kicked at the sad pile of branches dejectedly.
“Let’s see how far it is, maybe there’s some other way,” said Evie.
They entered the larger cavern, which was as big as a professional tourney stadium. Stalactites arched on the ceiling above them, like stars in a black sky. They stared once more at the toxic tree that stood in the middle of a tiny
island surrounded by water.
“An island within the island and under water too. Yen Sid is right, the magic down here is wild,” said Jay.
Evie stood at the edge of the water, and a smooth rock just large and flat enough to step on appeared. She looked at her friends, who shrugged. She held her breath and jumped on it. Another rock appeared in front of her.
Stepping-stones.
Evie looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Come on, it’s like it knows I’m here.”
The talismans desire to be found, Yen Sid had told them.
Evie led the way, and the rest followed, careful to make sure they didn’t fall into the poisoned water.
“Almost there,” said Evie as they stepped closer to the tiny islet holding a single toxic tree. From afar, the tree’s knotted bark resembled a pattern of scowling faces.
“Creepy,” said Carlos.
“I know,” said Mal. “We get to hang out in the coolest places.”
“Make sure your feet don’t touch the water,” warned Evie, who knew a lot about poison, at least when it came to apples. She knew what they looked like, how they smelled, which ones would put you to sleep, and which ones would kill you on the spot. “We’d melt like sugar cubes in a hot cup of tea if you tried to swim in here.”
“Nice image,” said Jay. “I don’t think we’d be as tasty, though.”
“We’re here!” cried Evie, stepping ashore. She turned around and helped the rest of them onto the island.
“Great, start picking apples!” said Mal.
“Why is it called the Dark Forest,” said Jay, looking at the map that Carlos was holding open, “when it only holds one tree?”
“Well, it is dark,” said Mal. “There’s that.” The only light came from Jay’s flashlight.
“Yen Sid said the maps weren’t completely accurate. They were just guesses,” Carlos reminded them. From afar, the tree looked small, but up close, it was taller than a building, its trunk as large as a house. It almost took up the entire island.
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