by Jake Halpern
They spent an anxious half-hour clearing off debris from their gliders and then set off again down the Jasber fault. As they flew along, hour after hour, Alfonso kept peering ahead for an end to the fault. According to a pictograph traced on the inside of Hill's glider, they would reach the end of the Jasber fault after twenty-four hours of flying.
Alfonso strained his eyes, and at last he saw something, although it wasn't what he expected. In the distance, perhaps half a mile away, he saw a glider station that was swarming with perhaps as many as fifty zwodszay. The zwodszay all appeared to be clamoring around a large rectangular rock that jutted out into the fault just above the station.
Alfonso wondered what these zwodszay were after. A few seconds later, he had his answer. The zwodszay were getting ready to eat. Their meal, perched at the top of the oddly shaped rock, was an old man whom Alfonso recognized immediately: Josephus.
Hill's glider, which was about a hundred feet ahead of them, dove for the spot where Josephus was perched. The zwodszay looked up, saw the incoming glider, and quickly sprang into action. They had no intention of forfeiting their meal. Within seconds, the zwodszay began snatching up loose rocks and hurling them at Hill's glider. Almost all of these rocks fell short. Hill expertly steered his glider just over Josephus's head. Meanwhile, Resuza leaned over the side of the glider, extended her arms, and reached down toward Josephus's outstretched hands. At the last moment, however, Josephus panicked and withdrew his hands. The glider whizzed past and Josephus remained on his perch.
"Blasted fool!" cursed Hill. "What'd he do that for?"
Hill navigated his plane back around in order to do a second fly-by. This time, both Bilblox and Resuza reached over the side of the glider to grab hold of Josephus. Success! They clasped his hands and yanked him off the ground. The plane began to climb upward.
"Where's Colonel Treeknot?" yelled Resuza. "And Kiril?"
"My d-darling, darling niece—" cried Josephus with a sob. His body went limp and he lost his grip on the glider. In order to keep him from falling, both Bilblox and Resuza had to lean farther out of the plane. At that instant, the glider hit an air pocket and dropped. Resuza thrust out her hands to reach for support, but found only air. She screamed and tumbled out of the glider, crashing down some fifteen feet onto the runway of the glider station below.
Two zwodszay who were standing near where Resuza had fallen moved toward her quickly. Hill spun around in his seat, whipped out his Colt .45, and fired off several shots. The two zwodszay dropped dead.
"I'm out of bullets!" Hill said.
Alfonso, who was circling far above, watched in horror as all of this transpired. Immediately, he directed his glider down, diving toward the spot where Resuza was stranded.
"Misty, Clink!" Alfonso yelled. "You're going to have to pull Resuza up and into the glider."
The glider shot toward the runway below. Alfonso set his sights on Resuza. She had gotten to her feet—apparently she wasn't injured too badly—and she was now limping down the runway toward the precipice at its end. A mob of zwodszay was closing in on her.
"Nice and easy," whispered Alfonso through gritted teeth. He felt himself becoming drowsy, his body's usual response to extreme danger. This helped. His hands were steady, steadier than they had been all day. The glider swooped down over the heads of the zwodszay and continued on toward Resuza. Misty began to climb out onto the wing of the plane, but Clink interceded, and pointed at himself, indicating that he would do this. "You're too old to be hanging out of gliders, old girl," said Clink. "Let me do it, I'm very agile."
Misty nodded.
"We're too high!" shouted Clink. "Bring her down a bit and I'll grab her."
The glider dropped down, almost landing on the runway. Resuza ducked. Clink extended a lone, sinewy arm and grabbed her wrist. The glider continued straight ahead, causing Clink to fall backwards against the wing. Somehow, he managed to keep hold of Resuza and, in so doing, yanked her up onto the glider.
This sudden shift in weight caused the glider to lurch to one side, but Alfonso gripped the controls with white knuckles and managed to level the glider. He glanced backwards one last time and saw the zwodszay tearing into one another in frustration. There was no sign of Kiril or Colonel Treeknot.
"Egads, that was a close one," whispered Misty.
CHAPTER 38
THE FIERY DEPTHS
THE BRIEF ENCOUNTER with the zwodszay rattled everyone and, for a while, no one in either glider spoke. Alfonso simply focused on maintaining a three-hundred-yard distance between his glider and Hill's. They continued down the fault for another hour or so until Hill's aircraft began to wobble in a strange manner. Alfonso could see Hill yanking furiously at the controls.
Seconds later, Alfonso's glider became just as difficult to handle.
"What now?" yelled Misty.
"I don't know!" replied Alfonso. "I think we're losing speed."
"The wind has vanished!" shouted Clink.
He was correct. The wind current, which had pushed them along at an even, steady tempo since the Jasber Gate, had suddenly disappeared. The noses of both gliders dipped down and they began to drop toward the thin layer of clouds below.
Hill yelled something and seconds later a parachute came flying out from the tail of his glider. Alfonso quickly followed suit. He yanked a small lever in his cockpit and a parachute deployed from the rear of his glider. This slowed the velocity of their descent, but they kept sinking. They descended closer to the cloud layer and then entered it. Everything turned white, but they soon left the clouds and saw far below them a vast, bubbling river of lava. The walls of the fault were sheer, with no ledges, and there was no safe landing place anywhere. Resuza shuddered at the awful sight. If their descent continued, they would soon fall into the burning stew below.
"It's all over," intoned Clink. He shook his head. "All hope is lost. Even a Great Sleeper cannot make the wind blow."
"D'ya always have t'be so blubberin' negative?" Misty snarled. "It t'aint over yet."
"You old fool of a miner," whimpered Clink. "Don't you get it? Must I explain everything to you? This is Kiril's doing. He must have closed the air vents at the far end of the fault. That's why the wind has died. Kiril has done us in. After all this, he's outsmarted us yet again."
"Ya always got all the answers, dontcha?" replied Misty bitterly. "Well if you was so bloody smart, how come ya ain't figured a way to avoid this? Sometimes, I can't believe we're related."
The two gliders sank deeper and deeper into the abyss of the fault. Several minutes passed in silence. Alfonso looked hopefully at Hill's glider, but he could see by the slouching of his uncle's shoulders that he was out of ideas. The air grew steadily warmer until it became obviously uncomfortable. They started to sweat and their faces took on a reddish glow. It grew so bright that it began to hurt their eyes.
"If you gents don't mind, I'll be taking my coat off," said Resuza. As always, she was keeping her cool, even in the direst of situations. "It's a bit warm for my liking."
"You might as well keep it on," muttered Clink morosely. "We'll all soon be ashes anyway."
Alfonso glanced down. It now appeared as if they were only a mile or so from the lava, which glowed and crackled as terribly as the surface of the sun. It was a swirl of red and orange, laced through with large, slow-moving black ribbons. The heat was so intense that Alfonso's eyesight faltered and he began to see little specks bloom and flicker across his field of vision. He closed his eyes, but the specks became worse. He considered going into hypnogogia, but why? There was nothing he could do. He crouched lower in his glider seat. Every pore on his body pumped out sweat in a vain attempt to cool him down.
Suddenly, Alfonso heard a loud howling. It came from Hill's glider, which was nearby. It was Kõrgu. The wolf was howling so loudly that those in Alfonso's glider could hear her as easily as if she were right next to them. Poor wolf, thought Alfonso. She's probably burning up under that heavy coat of fur.
> "Well hold yer pickaxes, lads!" gasped Misty. "Take a gander down below because that surely is the wildest thing I've ever seen in all my days."
Alfonso, Resuza, Clink, and Misty all peered tentatively over the side of their glider and took in an astonishing sight. What they had initially thought were black ribbons of ash and charred matter were actually hundreds of giant birds coasting lazily above the lava. Only they weren't birds, they were magmons. They were going in both directions, like vehicles floating above a glowing highway of lava.
"Makes sense," said Misty. "Them magmons prolly love the heat, bein' that they're reptiles 'n' cold-blooded. They love goin' to the lava to warm their freezin' organs."
"Where'd you read that?" asked Clink skeptically.
"I can't read, you fool," hissed Misty. "It's jus' common sense."
"Have a look at Hill," said Resuza. "Looks like he's got a plan in mind."
They all glanced down. Hill was leaning out of his glider with a long piece of rope in hand. One end of the rope was lashed to the glider, while the other end formed the lasso loop.
"He's not really going to..." began Alfonso.
"Yes, he is!" yelled Resuza. "And we better get ready to do the same."
Hill began to twirl the lasso over his head. Alfonso could hear the rope cutting through the air, but the sound was soon drowned out by the massive flapping sound coming from the wings of countless magmons. The magmons seemed totally unconcerned with the gliders. Seconds later, Hill's glider descended directly into a swarm of the flying behemoths. Hill twirled his lasso a final time and then released it. The loop of rope flew through the air and fell squarely on the head of a nearby magmon. It was a perfect throw. Unfortunately, the reptile wiggled its head in such a way that the loop slipped off. The loop fell and then, quite by chance, hit another Magmon and caught the giant reptile by its left leg. Hill yanked the rope and the loop cinched tight around the ankle, just above its massive claw. The reptile let out an unconcerned harrumph, turned its head to look at the strange thing attached to its leg, and then continued moving steadily onward.
Hill's glider was immediately drawn into motion in the right direction, toward Jasber. The magmon was so strong and powerful that the glider appeared to have no effect on its flying.
Meanwhile, back on Alfonso's glider, Resuza had crawled onto the wing with a lasso in hand. She too was trying to lasso one of the massive flying beasts. She tossed the rope several times and missed on each occasion. Magmons were all around them and they seemed as unconcerned with this glider as they had with Hill's. Then suddenly Alfonso and the others realized that they were no longer falling toward the lava. Improbable as it seemed, the glider was skimming along rapidly toward Jasber, as if the wind had suddenly reappeared only a mile above the raging fire.
"Wh-Wh-Wh..." It was all a weakened Alfonso could manage to say. Resuza was slightly more aware of her surroundings. She looked around and realized that the glider was lying on what appeared to be a large smoldering sheet of leather. Apparently, one of the many incredible properties of the wood from the glider was its resistance to heat. To the left and right the smoldering leather undulated in a steady rhythm. And about a hundred feet in front, a rectangular head bent backwards upon itself to look at what had just landed on its back.
"W-We're on the back of a magmon," whispered Resuza. "Look around. They're enormous, bigger than elephants."
Clink and Alfonso stared at the reptile's wings, which had a blackened, charred look to them, as if they had been singed by fire. The eyes in the massive creature's head glowed a sickly yellow.
"Do you think we can step off the glider and examine the creature?" Clink asked. "The scribes of Somnos would pay dearly for a firsthand account of a magmon's skin. Either that or I could sell my story to the newspapers."
Without waiting for an answer, Clink stepped out of the glider and onto the creature's broad back. Looking quite pleased with himself, Clink took a few exploratory steps around.
"CLINK!" shouted Misty. "You're livin' proof that book sense and common sense ain't the same thing. Get back on this 'ere glider!"
"Why?" he yelled back. "I'm just as safe as you are." It was at that moment that he noticed what everyone else had already seen: his leather moccasins were burning up from their exposure to the magmon's skin. Clink let out a shriek and ran back to the safety of the glider.
***
An hour or so later, the two magmons carrying the gliders began to fly up toward the cloud layer and away from the blisteringly hot area above the lava field. This was a great relief to everyone. They had been worrying about how much longer they'd be able to tolerate the heat. In comparison, the air above the clouds felt downright wintry, and they all began to shiver. The walls on both sides of the fault narrowed considerably. Soon a floor of rock appeared directly below, and their view of the lava disappeared. The magmons flew only feet above the ground while about a mile ahead loomed a solid wall of rock.
It was the end of the fault.
Hill detached his glider by cutting the rope of his lasso. He guided his aircraft to the rocky floor. In one seamless motion, the reptile carrying Alfonso's glider shrugged its back. The glider gently flew off and wafted down to the rocky ground with barely any impact. It was mysterious behavior, as if the reptile knew exactly where and how to release the glider. Alfonso wondered if the Jasberians had trained them to do just this long ago. Little else would explain the magmons' ease around the gliders, and their knowledge of where to discharge them. Released from their charge, the mysterious reptiles continued upward until they disappeared into the darkness.
The two gliders had arrived at a final landing station, which consisted of a long runway and a dozen or so old, dilapidated stone buildings. A third glider sat on the runway—evidence that Kiril may have already arrived. Everyone happily jumped onto the solid, rocky ground. Bilblox carried Josephus, who looked terribly pale.
"How is he?" Alfonso asked.
"Not good," replied Hill. "He's been drifting in and out of consciousness the whole time. Why don't you put him down, Bilblox."
Bilblox laid Josephus on the ground.
"Did he say anything about Kiril or Colonel Treeknot?" Resuza asked.
"It's hard to figure out what he's saying," Hill replied. "He keeps muttering something about Jasber, but mainly he's incoherent."
"My friends," said Clink with a sigh. "Of course I share your heartfelt concern for the old historian, esteemed scholar that he is, but in the name of self-preservation, might I ask how exactly we plan to get out of here?"
"Apparently, this is where the Jasber fault ends," said Hill. "I believe this place is called the Terminus. The Grand Vizier told me about a connecting tunnel that led from the Terminus directly to Jasber, but she suspected that the Jasberians may have destroyed it."
"That must be it over there," said Resuza, as she pointed toward the remains of the mouth of a tunnel, which was blocked by tons of rubble.
"It'd take six teams-a miners to move them rocks," declared Misty.
"There must be a way out of here," said Clink. There was more than a hint of desperation in his voice. "After all, we don't see Kiril lurking around and it looks like his glider is here."
"I suspect that Kiril, being a Jasberian, knew how to get out of here," said Hill. He paused and frowned. "Apparently he also knew how to close the air vent that cut off our jet stream." Hill gestured upward. They all looked up and saw two massive vents, one on top of the other, both of which resembled the vents they had seen at the Hub. The lower vent was closed—covered with a series of horizontal copper flaps. Much higher up, they saw the second vent. This one was open.
"Come on," said Hill. "Let's look around and see if we can find a way out of here."
They fanned out to look for any sign of recent activity in the Terminus. It was Resuza who saw something first. Just below the lower vent, the rock wall was scarred, as if someone had chiseled away at it with a pickax. The ground here was littered with pebb
les and broken tiles. Resuza bent down and began sifting through these pieces.
"What is it?" Alfonso called.
"There was something on this wall," she said. "Maybe a mosaic or a painting? These pebbles on the ground are colored and shiny. Whoever destroyed it did a thorough job. And the damage looks pretty recent."
Alfonso helped Resuza look through the debris. After several minutes of searching the ground, they collected a number of painted pebbles. They were mostly different shades of blue, although there were scattered greens and reds. Hill and Clink joined them in the search, and it was Hill who found something of greater interest.
Buried underneath a layer of dust and dirt, Hill found a small metal plaque. It was dark and streaked with ribbons of green, oxidized metal. He rubbed a finger over the surface and found the faint traces of Dormian hieroglyphs. After he cleaned the plaque thoroughly, the following markings stood out:
"A New Sailing Route to Jasber," Hill translated. He whistled in amazement. "The map was probably new a thousand years ago."
Clink sighed. "That map would've been useful," he said. "So of course Kiril destroys it, just in case we'd have any chance of getting out of here and following him. What a very clever fellow that Kiril is. A truly worthy adversary! First chap that I have encountered in a very long time with the acumen and mental gifts to rival my own."
"The two of you oughta go into business together," quipped Misty. "It'd be less than thirty seconds before one of ya double-crossed the other."
Everyone laughed, including Clink. Alfonso realized that this was the first time in days that he had smiled. It felt good.
Resuza looked up at the closed vent. "I wonder if it's a coincidence that the map was just underneath this vent." Without uttering another word, she free-climbed up the twenty feet of stone wall to the vent and pulled at the nearest copper flap. It was about two feet wide and it moved quite easily, though the on-rushing air kept pressing it back into place. Resuza shimmied herself into the vent through the open flap.