Rise of the Evening Star

by Brandon Mull

Page 34

  Coulter had used, but it still made a difference.

  Standing alone in the dark, shining his dim flashlight at the ominous trees and their convoluted shadows, was not good for morale. Seth remembered Kendra's certainty that he would fail, and, alone under the stars, he suddenly felt she might be right.

  Seth took a calming breath. This was what he wanted.

  This was why he had run away from Kendra. Sure, he was a little nervous now, but a good dose of courage would remedy the situation. And when the chilling fear of the revenant began to take hold, he would give himself another boost. He had to do this, just as Kendra had to go after the Sphinx.

  Both propositions were risky, but both were necessary.

  Setting down the tall key, Seth unstopped the bottle and tipped it into his mouth. Even with the little bottle upended, the potion dripped out in a weak trickle. He shook the fluid into his mouth until he had emptied roughly a quarter of the contents.

  The liquid burned. Once, in a Mexican restaurant, Seth had downed some hot sauce straight from the bottle on a dare from Kendra. It was brutal. He had to stuff his mouth357 with chips and guzzle water to stem the burning. This wasworse-less taste, more stinging.

  Seth coughed and swiped at his lips, eyes watering. His tongue felt like he had licked an iron, and his throat felt like a pincushion bristling with scalding needles. Tears leaked profusely down his cheeks. There was nothing to mute the burning, no water, no food. He had to wait it out.

  As the painful sensation subsided, a warmth began to spread through his chest. He smirked at the dark trees. They seemed less intimidating. Had he actually been scared? Why, because it was dark? He had a flashlight. He knew exactly what was in there-a skinny ruin of a man so frail that he could flatten him with a sneeze. A creature so used to victims folding out of fear that it had probably lost all ability to contend with a real opponent.

  Seth glanced at the long key. Between the flashlight and the potion and the pliers, his hands were full. The pliers went into a pocket, and he managed to hold the flashlight and the potion in the same hand, while grasping the key in the other. He marched across the space separating him from the grove, and soon found himself amid the trees. He was trying not to smile, but the grin would not go away. How had he been worried? How had he let Kendra's misgivings make him doubt for even a second? This would be absolute simplicity.

  Pausing, he set down his things and began throwing punches to warm himself up. Wow, he hadn't realized how fast his right had gotten! His left was pretty good too. He was a machine! Maybe he would give the creature a free358 swing or two, just for fun. Toy with the freak before he putit out of its misery. Show the pathetic monstrosity exactly what happened to anything that traded blows with Seth

  Sorenson.

  He retrieved his items and continued deeper into the grove. The air became steadily cooler. Seth shone his flashlight beam around, not wanting to give the revenant a chance to sneak up on him. Last time Seth had been helplessly frozen. This time he would dictate exactly how the encounter would go.

  Seth began to notice an unusual numbness in his toes.

  It reminded him of the time he'd gone skiing in ski boots that were too small. He paused, stomping his feet, trying to restore sensation, but instead the numbness spread up his ankles. He started shivering. How had it gotten cold so quickly?

  A flicker of motion caught his eye. Pivoting, Seth shone his flashlight at the approaching revenant. The creature was still a good distance away, barely visible through the trees.

  The numbness had spread above his knees, and his fingers began to stiffen and feel rubbery. The deadening of his nerves sparked a trace of panic. Was he just going to go rigid without experiencing the same fear as before? Brave or not, if he became paralyzed, he would be in trouble. His vision blurred a little. His teeth chattered. He dropped the tall key.

  Seth raised the bottle to his lips. Deciding he should consume all he could while still able, he downed all the remaining potion before tossing the bottle aside. The fluid did not feel as hot as before. Watching the sluggish advance359 of the revenant, Seth enjoyed the warmth that blossomed athis center and flowed outward, driving away the numbness.

  Pulling the pliers from his back pocket, he grinned.

  No use waiting for the painfully slow zombie to reach him. Seth jogged toward the creature, the beam of his flashlight bobbing. As he got closer, the emaciated figure came into plain view, wearing the same filthy, tattered clothes.

  The yellow cast to the skin and weeping lesions made the wretch disgusting, but not scary. Sure, the thing was taller than him, but not by much, and it moved like it was on the verge of collapse.

  Seth focused on the wooden nail protruding from the side of the revenant's neck. Pulling it out would almost be too easy. Seth wondered if he should do some karate moves to give the revenant a preview of things to come. He had never taken any lessons, but he had seen enough movies to have the general idea.

  He stopped jogging about ten paces from the sickly zombie and performed a few fancy punches and a couple of kicks.

  The revenant kept slowly approaching, mouth twisted in an awful rictus, making no acknowledgment of the martial arts display. Seth flexed both arms, showing the revenant two good reasons to surrender.

  The revenant raised an arm and pointed a bony finger at

  Seth. The shocking cold hit him as completely as if he had fallen into an icy lake. He gasped weakly and his muscles tightened. At his core there remained a warm, confident center, but it was being rapidly eroded. Irrational, gibbering361 terror was assailing him at the fringes of his focus, trying tosmother his self-assurance.

  Part of him wanted to collapse and quail. Seth gritted his teeth. Potion or no potion, magical fear or no magical fear, he wasn't going to succumb, not this time. He willed himself to take a step toward the revenant. His leg refused to function at first. He was numb to the hip, and it felt like heavy weights were holding his foot down. Leaning forward and grunting, he managed a single ponderous step. Then another.

  The revenant was still pointing at him, and still coming toward him. Seth knew he could just wait for the revenant to reach him, but something told him it was important to keep moving. He took another step.

  The revenant was now within reach. The vaguely malevolent eyes held no personality. A putrid stench polluted the air. The arm of the revenant remained outstretched, and the pointing finger was nearly touching him.

  Seth's confidence dwindled. He knew his body was about to shut down. He eyed the black, ragged fingernail drawing closer to his chest. The warm feeling had shrunk to a fading spark. Horrors began to fill his mind. Gripping the pliers tightly, Seth lifted his arm and, with a choppy motion, brought the pliers down on the bony finger. The revenant displayed no reaction to the blow, but the arm lowered a bit, and the finger had obviously been dislocated.

  Teeth clenched, Seth fought against what felt like tremendous gravity to take a step to the side. Mustering all his strength, he kicked the revenant in the back of the knee. 362 The knee buckled and the revenant fell. Seth stumbledforward and knelt on its chest, feeling prominent ribs against his shins.

  The revenant glared up at him. Seth could not move.

  His arms trembled. The final spark of confidence was dying.

  Seth could feel the deluge of irrational fear waiting to overwhelm him. In a moment it would. The revenant reached up, both hands moving slowly but purposefully toward Seth's neck.

  Seth thought about all the people depending on him.

  Coulter had sacrificed himself for him. Kendra was alone in the cottage. His grandparents and Dale were trapped in a dungeon. He could do this. Courage was his thing. It didn't have to be fast. He just had to get there.

  Seth focused on the nail and began moving the pliers toward it. He could not move quickly. It was as if the air had become a gel. If he tried to go fast, his progress halted.
/>
  Pushing slowly and steadily, the hand with the pliers gradually advanced.

  The hands of the revenant reached his throat. Fingers so cold they burned pressed into his flesh. The rest of his body was numb.

  Seth didn't care. The pliers kept moving. Strong, merciless fingers squeezed his neck tighter. Seth gripped the wooden nail with the pliers. He tried to yank it out, but it would not budge.

  Seth felt like he was drowning. The spark of confidence was gone, but grim determination remained. The only sensation was the searing pain in his neck. Ever so slowly, his arm363 feeling distant, hardly connected, Seth began withdrawingthe nail, watching it slide out centimeter by centimeter. The nail was longer than he expected-it kept coming and corning, bloodlessly emerging from the hole it had long inhabited.

  His hand slowed. It felt like the air was congealing from a gel to a solid. The strangling grip of the revenant prevented him from breathing. Sweat beaded on his brow.

  With dreamlike slowness, the last of the long wooden nail emerged from the neck. He saw a tiny space between the tip of the nail and the empty hole. For an instant, Seth thought he noticed something flicker across the revenant's face, relief in the eyes, the hideous smile becoming slightly more sincere.

  And then the air was no longer solid, and he was falling, and everything went dark. 364The Inverted Tower

  Wearing a blanket like a shawl, Kendra straddled a thick limb in a tree with a good view of the cottage.

  The night was just cool enough to make her glad for the blanket, which was currently invisible along with the rest of her. Before climbing to her current perch she had crisscrossed the area touching the boles of several other trees, in case an imp tried to track her scent.

  Although she felt exhausted, her precarious position helped motivate her to keep alert. If she nodded off, she would fall about ten feet and receive a very rude awakening from the uncaring ground. She had spent the majority of her time astride the limb either furious at Seth or fretting about him. It was not fair that he had abandoned her and left her vulnerable, nor that he had taken action without consulting365 her. But she also realized that he was trying to do what hethought was right, and that he would probably pay a heavy price for his misguided bravery, which gave her a reason to rein in her unkind thoughts.

  Tense and anxious, Kendra strained her eyes and ears for any sign of an enemy approaching, or of Mendigo returning.

  She was unsure how she would proceed once Mendigo reappeared.

  Even though it was too late to save Seth from his fate, a big part of her wanted to go after him rather than flee

  Fablehaven. At the same time, she knew that if she could find the Sphinx, it might be her best chance to rescue her grandparents and maybe even discover a way to restore Seth,

  Tanu, Coulter, and Warren from their albino states.

  Waiting impatiently on the limb, Kendra was stunned to see Warren climb out onto the observation platform atop the cottage. She watched him in astounded silence as he stretched and rubbed his arms. The night was too dim for her to observe details, but he appeared to be moving about like a normal person.

  Warren! she hissed.

  He jumped and turned toward her. Who's there? he asked.

  She was so surprised to hear him speak that it momentarily prevented her from answering. You can talk! Oh my gosh! What happened?

  Of course I can talk. I'm sorry-who are you?

  I'm Kendra. She couldn't believe it. He seemed perfectly fine.

  I'm going to need a little more to go on. He squinted366 in her direction. The night probably looked darker to himthan it did to her, and of course she was invisible.

  I'm Kendra Sorenson. Stan and Ruth are my grandparents.

  If you say so. What compelled you to hide in a tree in the middle of the night? Can you tell me how I got here?

  Meet me at the back door, Kendra said. I'll be there in a second. Warren had somehow been cured! She was no longer alone! She slid off the limb and climbed down from the tree. Taking off the glove, she walked out from among the trees and through the garden to the back door, where

  Warren met her.

  Standing in the doorway, he studied her. He looked even more handsome now that he had possession of himself. His striking eyes were a silvery hazel. Had they been that color before? It's you, he said in curious wonder. I remember you.

  From when you were mute? she asked.

  Was I mute? That's a first. Come inside.

  Kendra entered. You were a mute albino for a few years.

  Years? he exclaimed. What year is it?

  She told him and he looked flummoxed. They walked to the table in the main room.

  He ran a white hand through his thick hair, then stared at his palm. I thought I was looking sort of bleached, he said, flexing his fingers. The last thing I remember was something coming toward me in the grove. It could have been yesterday. I was overcome by a panic like I had never367 known, and my mind withdrew to a dark place. I felt nothingthere, hemmed in by pure terror, disconnected from my senses, retaining a groggy semblance of self-awareness. Near the end I saw you, wreathed in light. But it felt like hours lapsing, not days, certainly not years.

  You've been catatonic, Kendra said. There is a revenant in the grove, and everybody who goes there ends up like you did.

  I haven't wasted away too terribly, he said, patting himself. I feel a tad slimmer, but not withered like I should be after years in a coma.

  You could move around, but always in a daze, Kendra explained. Your brother Dale made sure you got exercise.

  He took good care of you.

  Is he here?

  He's locked in the dungeon with my grandparents,

  Kendra said. The entire preserve is in danger. Members of the Society of the Evening Star have taken over the house.

  One of them is a narcoblix, so I've been awake for a couple of days straight. They are trying to get the artifact.

  He raised his eyebrows. You're saying there isn't going to be a Welcome-Back-from-Your-Coma Party?

  Kendra smiled. Until we rescue the others, I'm all you get.

  Sooner or later, I want cake and ice cream. You mentioned the artifact. Do they know where it is?