Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2)

by Patrick Carman

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  He came to the end of the table farthest from the entry and there he opened a wooden panel. Inside was a row of spears of a kind no one had seen before. The ends were capped with a hard, clear substance, and removing one with a pop, Vincent revealed a sharp, metal tip that ran six or seven inches down in a jagged line.

  "Take the cover off only when I tell you to. These are dangerous weapons I hope you won't need."

  He put the cap back over the end of the spear and handed it to Dr. Kincaid, who seemed perfectly happy to let Vincent take control of the situation.

  "Each of you put your pack on and keep hold of these," he said, handing out the spears one by one. "What you carry on your back is all we have left of what Dr. Harding created. These notes and tools may well provide us with the clues we need to survive not only for a day but for a lifetime on Atherton. Care for them well."

  Everyone did as they were told, though they all held their spears awkwardly.

  "We're about to go someplace that will surprise most of you," said Vincent. "There are dangers in this place of a kind you've never seen. Follow close behind me, and use the spears as walking sticks to help you along."

  He looked at each person slowly and steadily. Then he took a crossbow from where the spears had been stored, and he loaded it with an arrow from a container of a dozen arrows flung over his back. The loaded crossbow was a contraption Sir William,

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  Samuel, and Isabel had never seen before. Isabel felt inside her front pocket--three black figs and her sling--and she wondered if she would need them wherever they were going.

  "Won't we need water and food?" asked Sir William.

  Vincent turned to the group one last time before leaving. "There's plenty of water where we're going," he said. "Food will have to wait. Just stay close and walk in a line as best you can."

  As they approached the far end of the laboratory, Samuel looked back at the columns of books that he wished he could have a chance to read. He couldn't stand the idea that they might be lost forever. He and Isabel were positioned in the line behind Dr. Kincaid and in front of Sir William, who took up the rear.

  Vincent knelt down and peered beneath the last of the stone tables, and then he crawled underneath.

  "Where do you think we're going?" asked Isabel, whispering to Samuel as she watched Vincent disappear into the darkness beneath the stone table.

  "I wish I knew," said Samuel, crouching down as his turn came.

  "Stay close to me, will you?" asked Isabel, following behind.

  "I promise I will," said Samuel. "And I'm sorry for bringing you down here, Isabel."

  She was about to tell him it was all right, that she felt afraid but safe within the group, when she came to a hole under the table and watched Samuel disappear into it. Cold air drifted lazily out of the hole, air that smelled like mud. She breathed

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  in deep and stepped inside, touching the cool walls to guide her way.

  As the pathway led downward and turned sharply to the left and to the right, the faint light from the laboratory quickly disappeared and was replaced by a new supply of light from somewhere around an unknown number of curves on the path. The group of five twisted and turned as the light increased before them. Looking back, Sir William saw only black, and he realized then that they would never go back.

  "This place is changed," said Dr. Kincaid as they all stepped together into a wide, dimly lit cavern. Long shafts of stone shot down from a high rock ceiling and the stone walls dripped with water. Small pools lay here and there along the cavern, and crags of rock jutted out from the ground in every direction.

  "I hope our way is not blocked," Dr. Kincaid continued.

  "It well could be," said Vincent. "We should hurry before Atherton moves again."

  Sir William came up alongside the two men and left Samuel and Isabel to marvel at the strange underground world they'd come into. Samuel poked his spear at the rocks and found them to be as hard as any others he'd encountered, though they were of a red and orange color he hadn't seen before.

  "What is this place?" asked Sir William.

  Vincent and Dr. Kincaid exchanged a knowing glance, and the two realized they'd need to tell.

  "Make it quick," said Vincent. "I'm going ahead to choose a safe passage."

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  Vincent moved off and Dr. Kincaid stood before Sir William, Samuel, and Isabel.

  "It used to be different," said Dr. Kincaid. "It used to be wider and there was better light, fewer stones strewn about."

  He glanced at the walls of the cavern, trying to get his bearings. "Before, when the Highlands were up there"--he pointed toward the rock ceiling --"our way was very different. We could travel beneath the Flatlands and up through the inside of Tabletop, and then up through the inside of the Highlands. But the Highlands are below Tabletop now, so this cavern is new to me. It's not the same as it once was."

  "So you've been to the laboratory before?" asked Samuel.

  "Oh, yes, many times. I've even been to the Highlands, just not since the lock on the door was altered. The laboratory was ours, Dr. Harding's and mine, not his alone."

  "This cavern leads home!" cried Isabel, realizing freedom might be possible after all. "It leads all the way to the Flatlands where we can find everyone!"

  "If we're very lucky, yes," said Dr. Kincaid. "But our way is uncertain until we find the opening."

  "The opening?" said Samuel.

  "If we can make it to the inside, we can make it home."

  "What do you mean, the inside?" asked Isabel.

  "The laboratory, believe it or not, is located beneath Tabletop, so we're already free of the Highlands. It's disorienting, I realize, but the old passageways are changed or vanished. New ways are before us, but they still lead inside."

  Isabel still didn't understand what he meant by inside, but

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  her mind was turning over the idea that she was beneath her home, maybe beneath the grove itself. She looked up half expecting to see the roots of the trees shooting down from the ceiling.

  "My mind can't process where we are or how we got here," said Sir William. "This shifting world makes no sense."

  Dr. Kincaid didn't know what he should say, because there was a part of him that felt just as Sir William did.

  "Sometimes," he began, having struck on a way of explaining, "over the years as Dr. Harding and I worked beside each other, he would show me a page filled with calculations and drawings and he would say to me, Don't you see? This is how we get from here to there, but it was like a language I couldn't understand. His ways went beyond me, until I could no longer see where he was going. Atherton is like that. Our way is like that."

  "That's not very helpful," said Sir William, smiling as he liked to do to brighten the spirits of those around him. Dr. Kincaid laughed and his mood improved. He was about to go on when Vincent came back into view through the shadows and light of the cavern.

  "We should go," he said. "From what I can tell our way will be harder than before. It's flat, so we won't have to climb down as we used to, but much has caved in. I just hope there's still a way inside."

  "How far?" said Sir William. He was aware that Samuel and Isabel hadn't slept for a long time. Vincent glanced at them, then back at Sir William.

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  "If our way isn't blocked, only an hour. We must get inside as fast as we can, then we can rest."

  "What is this 'inside' you keep speaking of?" asked Sir William. "We don't understand."

  "Please, just come along," said Vincent. "It will be easier to show you than to tell you."

  Sir William knelt down in front of Samuel and Isabel, worried for them. "Can you do this?" he asked.

  Isabel did not like being treated as a child. It was true she was afraid and unsure, but she didn't want anyone else to know. She scowled in Sir William's general direction, then marched right past him toward Vincent without a word.

  "You foun
d a tough one there," said Sir William, looking at the frail boy before him. Samuel had never been one to have a lot of energy, and his father remembered him as a reader, not an adventurer.

  "If she can do it, so can I," said Samuel, and he, too, strode past his father in the direction Isabel had gone. In truth he was feeling tired and chilled, but he couldn't bear the idea of disappointing his father. If Isabel could be so brave and determined, so could he.

  The group moved as one snaking line through the cavern, and a snake it truly was, for where a clear path had once been there was now something more treacherous. Many of the long stones that had hung down from the ceiling had broken off like great teeth, shattering on the ground and leaving a path filled with boulders. And while it seemed that Atherton was not moving, the sound of crashing and splintering rock echoed

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  everywhere through the cavern. The light remained elusive, a light that was at once everywhere and nowhere at all. It was a light of yellow and orange caught in black shadows, full of mystery and depth.

  After a trek that lasted more than an hour but less than two, Vincent came to a place where he held back his hand as if to tell everyone to stop and be still. Before them lay a pile of stones that blocked their way. Through the stones shone shards of light from a source that seemed brighter than what they'd encountered before.

  "We have come to the place where Tabletop and the Flat-lands meet," said Vincent, pointing to the pile of rocks pierced through with beams of light. "The inside is there."

  It was a treacherous climb up the side of the pile of rubble that lay in front of them, and Vincent insisted on taking the old man up to the top first, where an opening remained. As he started back down to help Sir William, Samuel, and Isabel, there came a sound of cracking from high over their heads.

  "Run!" screamed Vincent from his perch. A long stone shaped like a spear had broken free above the group of three and it was falling through the air. Sir William dropped his weapon and grabbed both children around the waist, then dove toward Vincent. When the narrow stone hit the cavern floor it burst into pieces, chunks sparking loose in every direction.

  Vincent scrambled down the rock face and found that the three were bruised and scraped but otherwise unharmed.

  "Let's get these two out of here," said Sir William, hauling Samuel and Isabel to their feet. They dusted themselves off and

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  examined scraped elbows and knees, then the group of four began the climb to the top of the mountain of stones. Up they went, using their spears to balance and pulling one another up by the hand over the larger rocks. When they came to the very top Vincent went into the light and beckoned the rest to come inside.

  When Isabel, Samuel, and Sir William were safely through to the other side, they climbed down the rubble without speaking, for they were overcome with surprise.

  The five of them were inside Atherton, and a breathtaking new world lay hauntingly before them.

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  *** CHAPTER 22 INSIDE ATHERTON

  "We must rest awhile," declared Vincent. "And this is a very good place to do it."

  They had moved away from the pile of rocks and stood at the outer edge of a large alcove that looked out over the inside of Atherton. There was a large pool to one side, fed by a trickling but steady flow of water, and the alcove danced with liquid shadows shot through with the color of flames. Everyone removed their packs and stood together staring into the open expanse.

  "Where does the light come from?" asked Isabel. She was mesmerized by beams of light radiating brilliantly from behind what could only be described as a range of mountains. It was as if they'd come inside on the peak of one of those mountains and found themselves looking down on formations of sharp

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  spires rising up from a valley floor cast in the deep colors of night. The space seemed to go on forever, with cracks of dazzling light from the ground shining into the air.

  "The light comes from outside," said Dr. Kincaid. He had looked forward to this moment as they'd made their way through the cavern. "The bottom of Atherton is shaped like half a circle. It's huge and heavy, and the very middle is filled with water and something heavier, something I don't claim to understand. But around the wide edge, where the Flatlands are above us, it's an open world, the world you see before you now."

  "But how does the light get inside?" asked Samuel.

  "The bottom of Atherton is not made entirely of stone. It's made also from something clear, or almost clear, something that light can penetrate."

  Dr. Kincaid smiled and breathed deep the cool, wet air as if he had come to a place he remembered but had missed.

  There came an unnerving sound inside Atherton that startled Dr. Kincaid out of his happy moment. Vincent whipped his crossbow into position quick as lightning, pointing the sharp arrow toward the sky.

  "What was that?" asked Isabel. It had sounded like a scream, but an inhuman one. Through a beam of light far below, the shadowy figure of a flying beast moved across the cliffs. Isabel, Samuel, and Sir William had no memory of any such creature, a flying creature, and they were equal parts afraid and fascinated.

  "Do you remember when Dr. Harding, or I should say Lord Phineus, called this place Pandemonium?" asked Vincent. The group nodded but didn't take their eyes off the moving shadow

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  below. "He called it that for a reason, for it is here that he put some of the creatures he made that had no place on Atherton."

  "Why did he put them here?" asked Samuel, feeling increasingly uneasy about this place despite its wild beauty.

  "Because they were too dangerous to put anywhere else, and he couldn't bring himself to get rid of them."

  "Now, Vincent," Dr. Kincaid broke in, "not everything inside Atherton is dangerous. And besides, everything that resides here is needed to make Atherton work. The Inferno, for one. Without it Atherton couldn't exist at all."

  "The Inferno isn't what worries me right now," said Vincent. "It's the Nubian I'm concerned with."

  "Dr. Harding sure did make a lot of things that do more harm than good," said Isabel, thinking of the Cleaners and the Crat and the Nubian, which she assumed was the thing flying around far below.

  Dr. Kincaid didn't say anything. There was a part of him that agreed with the girl's assessment, though he had an unwavering love for everything Dr. Harding had created. He couldn't help himself. Creation was a glorious thing, to his mind, whether the creations were successful or not.

  "We must get a few hours' rest," said Vincent. "The Nubian won't come this high up, and we're clear of the Highlands and Tabletop. Let's all get some water and lie down."

  They moved back into the alcove, quenching their thirst and gathering in a tight group to keep warm. Very soon everyone but Dr. Kincaid and Vincent were asleep. They moved off, out of the alcove, and spoke in whispers.

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  "Do you think we can get them all through?" asked Vincent. "I don't know. It's not an easy way."

  "Let's allow them to rest for at least a few hours. They're going to need their energy."

  "What about you?" asked Dr. Kincaid. "You need rest as well."

  Vincent gazed over the inside of Atherton, shot through with rays of yellow light, and heard the distant screeching of the Nubian.

  "You go on, lie down," said Vincent, concern rising in his voice. "I'll sleep after I get everyone out of here."

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  ***

  CHAPTER 23 NIGHT IN THE GROVE

  There was a time when darkness in the grove had brought a feeling of calm stillness, when the work of the day was complete and tired but talkative people sat around the soft glow of evening fires. This was a feeling that still lingered unnaturally, even though everyone knew it was untrue. What had been tranquil about the grove was in the past. The true emotion, the deeper one as night came on, was fear.

  "How is it you stay so still at times like this?" asked Horace. He had come to rely on Wallace's serene nature amid t
he calamity that surrounded them both. The two had been walking slowly and carefully through the largest of the third-year trees, searching for something they weren't sure they wanted to find. But now they had stopped and sat down to rest, talking quietly.

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  They carried no torch or light of any kind, but the grey hue of early night on Atherton softly covered the grove.

  "There are two paths to peace," said Wallace. He had a stick in his hand and began carving lines into the dirt. "At least there are two that I'm aware of. One is to study the ideas and the ways of peace, to discuss them endlessly, to observe them and dissect them. The other is quite different."

  The way Wallace had described the path sounded to Horace very much like the way any sane person would go about it. It seemed rather obvious that the study of a subject would naturally lead to understanding. That was certainly the way everyone approached things in the Highlands, where books were plentiful and study was common.

  "The other path--the path I have taken--has nothing to do with any of that."

  "You make no sense," said Horace. He was aware that he'd spoken a little louder than he wanted, and looking around he lowered his voice to a whisper. "You can't just become something without learning what it is you're trying to become."

  "Can't you?" asked Wallace. There was an exasperating silence about him as he waited patiently for Horace's answer.

  After a long pause, Horace said, "I'm unable to see the other path."

  "That's because you're not on it."

  "Are you trying to confuse me?"

  Wallace lifted the stick from the dirt and, without cleaning the end off, began scratching his head with it.

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