by L. EE
“Interesting. So every king is related,” Andy confirmed.
Fronia nodded.
“These are all your grandparents!” Alden exclaimed. “How cool is that?”
A smile spread across Andy’s face.
“There were a bunch more names, but I can only remember the last couple.” Andy wrote two more lines in the dusty tabletop.
“Hercalon IV and his wife Acelin. Hercalon V and his wife Emmalee,” Fronia wrote.
“I knew the King’s wife’s name was Emmalee because he told me. I didn’t know how it was spelled though. My mom’s name is Emily, only spelled differently. She spells it E-M-I-L-Y.”
Alden’s stomach rumbled and Andy took the hint. “Let’s eat,” he suggested.
They put their backpacks on the floor and removed the bubbleweed pods, which had successfully kept the contents dry. They pulled out some of the food Salina had packed and enjoyed a picnic of dried butterfly fish, leftover crab, and googee. Several minutes later, Andy stood and looked back over the characters he’d written while Alden finished eating.
Hercalon V and Emmalee. Wonder what ever happened to her. His mind wandered, thinking about what she must have been like.
Alden finished eating and cleaned up, stirring more dust. A sneeze brought Andy back to the present and he said, “We could spend years here, but we’ve got to get that stone back before something worse happens to my grandfather and Mermin.”
Turning to Aldred, who had been quietly standing near the door and listening the entire time, Andy asked, “Is there a way to see outside the library? To get a bird’s-eye view of Sometimes Island?”
“Yes, of course. Follow me.”
The boys thanked Fronia and followed Aldred back into the dark corridor. Heading upwards when they reached the stairs, they continued past the eighth floor and all the way to the top where the narrow slits of daylight they had noticed in the foyer lit the domed ceiling. Judging by the brightness and angle of the sun’s rays, late afternoon had arrived. A catwalk of sorts ran around the dome’s perimeter.
Andy holstered Methuselah as Aldred commented, “You can see the entire island from here.”
“Wait a minute, if we can see the island from here, how can the library remain hidden?”
“It is my understanding that the builders took great care to camouflage these windows from prying eyes. Never having been outside, I can’t say for sure.”
The boys circled the catwalk. Their guide was right. They could see all the terrain from up here—lush jungle, the Sea of Mystery, every clearing. As everything sloped down and away from their lookout post, the library must be the highest spot on the island. Apparently this entire structure had been secretly, laboriously carved out of the bedrock that jutted from the sea. Andy could see pockets of bubbles periodically rising from the water around the island’s perimeter. These must be the same naturally occurring vents that warmed them and provided air at Glaucin’s house last night.
“Andy!”
Andy walked around the catwalk and looked to where Alden pointed.
“A vulture-man just landed over there, in that clearing!”
No sooner had Alden spoken than Andy spotted several more vulture-men gliding on the wind currents below, disappearing into the same clearing.
“Abaddon!”
Alden nodded.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Serpent
The boys were waiting on the landing when Glaucin and his patrol arrived the next morning. The mermen exclaimed when they saw the dismembered spider and watched its companion still going around in circles on its stomach with its three remaining legs. Glaucin and Patri invited Andy and Alden to hop on once again.
“Learn much?” Glaucin inquired.
Andy looked at Alden and smiled. “More than you know.”
Andy briefed the mermen on Abaddon’s whereabouts and mentioned the bellicose he had seen after burying Spark.
“I believe I know just the place to drop you.”
As soon as the boys donned fresh bubbleweed pods, the group dove.
A short time later the mermen were swimming up a channel beneath overgrown jungle foliage. Reaching the end, Glaucin whispered, “This is the end of the line, guys. You’ll need to go on foot from here. This channel should get you to within several thousand yards of where you saw Abaddon yesterday. We’ll be waiting here should you need us. Good luck.”
“Thanks for all your help, everyone,” Andy said in a low voice before climbing to shore.
Alden nodded, echoing the sentiment.
“Well, here goes,” Andy whispered to Alden. For my grandfather, Mermin, and Spark, he pledged to himself. “Remember, we need to get the stone and some venom.”
Alden nodded, determination etched across his face.
With the foliage so dense, they were forced to crawl. Black stone peeked periodically through a blanket of decaying plant matter. After several minutes they arrived at a clearing. Andy motioned Alden to stop, and both boys stood still, listening. An orchestra of croaking frogs and chirping birds set the mood as the foliage swayed around them. Andy looked up through the jungle canopy and saw the outline of a vulture-man against the blue sky. It examined the landscape below with its sharp eyesight, presumably hunting for breakfast or a mid-morning snack.
“Don’t. Move,” Andy mouthed to Alden. He knew that, even at this distance, the creature would spot them if they shifted positions and probably attack with its buddies. After several tense minutes, it finally moved on and they relaxed a little.
“Which way?” Alden whispered.
Remembering the time last year when they had been lost in the Forest of Giants, Andy pulled Methuselah out of its pouch and held the hilt between his two hands as the blade extended.
“Show us the way to Abaddon,” he commanded.
Almost immediately the blade leaned left and forward. The boys followed. They walked slowly, hoping to remain unnoticed. After picking their way through more dense undergrowth, Andy looked up again and saw another vulture-man hovering overhead. Methuselah vibrated. This creature caught Andy’s eye and sounded a raspy, drawn-out hiss, alerting the other vulture-men to their presence.
Before they had time to react, vulture-men were bombing through the canopy, talons bared, shrieking at their prey. The first two reached the boys, sank sharp claws into their shoulder muscles, and whisked them into the air. The rest of the creatures formed an escort around them.
Andy and Alden screamed in pain.
Andy tried to slash at the enemy carrying him, but with his arms impaled by the biting grip, he couldn’t reach it. They flew over the territory they had seen from their lookout yesterday, and Andy knew they were just about to Abaddon’s clearing when he saw blackened jungle below them.
Still five or six feet from the ground, the vulture-men dropped the boys, clearly hoping to injure them as they landed. Because of their training with the knights, however, they knew to roll and came to a standing stop beside each other. Their shoulders burned and blood trickled from each puncture the talons had made.
But the boys had no time to dwell on their injuries. The moment they righted themselves, the reconnaissance party and the other vulture-men in the clearing viciously attacked. A cacophony of raspy hisses thundered across the island. Andy slashed with Methuselah while Alden drew his sword and fought back several of the brutes. Andy took out three creatures with one slash to the right and two more with the return stroke. He wheeled around and conked another brute with the sword’s pommel before its sharp beak could chomp Alden’s head. Alden slashed, bobbed, and wove, subduing five more vulture-men. Andy ducked as sharp talons nearly raked his face, then slashed at the next lunging beast, which fell to the ground, dead. As more and more vulture-men joined the attack, motion around Andy slowed. He slashed left, he slashed right, killing or maiming each attacker in his path. When nearly every beast had been subdued, time resumed its normal pace for Andy as he and Alden finished off the last six enemies.
“Where’s Abaddon?” Alden whispered, catching his breath.
Senses on high alert, they circled around, looking, listening. Through the dense foliage, Alden spotted something large and blue moving toward them.
“Andy! Over there!” Alden motioned.
Swords out front, they assumed the ready position and waited.
“He’s slower than I expected,” Alden said quietly.
“Don’t let that fool you. I’m sure he can move a lot faster if he wants to. He’s baiting us.”
By the time the monstrous snake broke into the clearing, the boys’ breathing had returned to normal—or at least as normal as it can be when anticipating an encounter with a huge venomous snake. As the enormous body emerged from the foliage, the boys saw the stone dangling from a chain around its neck. Its pyramid shape looked to be encased in a protective covering, for it was no longer clear as Andy remembered it. Instead, it exuded a translucent yellow cast.
“Good, very good,” came a cackling voice from behind them.
Alden snuck a peek and saw the white figure of the girl he’d seen in the portrait at the library. “It’s Imogenia,” he whispered.
Andy nodded. “I figured. Don’t worry about her, she can’t hurt us,” he whispered back.
“You have met your match with King Abaddon, Andrew Ferrin Smithson,” she crowed.
“Sssilence!” Abaddon hissed. “Ssso, the boy is here. I’ve given you…what you wished. Now, you will…change the ssstone’s loyalties.” As the boys had speculated when they overheard the conversation between Abaddon and Razen at the house, the snake’s darting tongue kept interrupting its speech.
“Kill the boy first, then I will reveal its secrets to you.”
“If you refuse…to sssay…I will ssspare…the boy for now.”
“Let me remind you that the boy is collecting ingredients to break the curse. If he succeeds, your advantage over Oomaldee will end. You will not rule the world.” As she said it, her pitch grew higher with desperation.
“I have time. If what you sssay…is true…my advantage…will not vanish…immediately.”
“You don’t know when the final ingredient will be collected.”
“I will know…when the curse…is broken…for the fog…will be gone.”
“And it will be too late!” she fumed.
“Enough! Ssstop your…arguing…and tell me…how to get…the ssstone to…bond with me.”
As the argument continued between these two, Andy studied the serpent, looking for vulnerabilities. He noticed a red scar on one side that contrasted with the rest of its skin. Is that the scar from where I stabbed him with Methuselah?
Without warning, the bellicose raced from the thick undergrowth surrounding the clearing and bounded over the corpses toward Andy. Andy sidestepped just in time, and the creature flew past. It turned and leaped back at him. Alden attempted to swipe the beast, but it once again held out its hand, creating an energy shield and blocking Alden’s approach.
Imogenia cheered the creature. “I will be done with him!”
Abaddon hissed, “Ssstop!”
The bellicose ignored his command, intent on executing its mission.
The serpent slithered across the clearing and over the slain vulture-men, attempting to intervene. Alden saw his opportunity. He lunged at Abaddon, hitting him in the side of the face with his blade. Unfortunately, the serpent’s scales were thicker than Alden anticipated and his sword glanced off, but not before severing the chain from which the stone hung. It fell unceremoniously to the ground. Abaddon turned and caught Alden’s arm with a venomous fang.
Alden screamed and fell to the ground, the venom burning as it began to course through his veins.
Andy didn’t see what happened since he was distracted by the bellicose, but he heard Alden’s guttural cry.
Abaddon launched himself between Andy and the bellicose. “Ssstop!” the serpent repeated.
With a clear shot at the snake’s eye, Andy slashed, sending Methuselah’s blade through the sensitive organ like butter. Andy jumped out of the way as the serpent began writhing in pain. It tossed its monstrous head from side to side, hurling the bellicose several yards. The panther-like beast landed with a thud against a black boulder, sat up, and shook its head. As it attempted to stand, it lost its bearings and crumpled to the ground in an unmoving heap.
Abaddon suddenly transformed into a therewolf, clawing at his wounded eye with enormous paws.
Andy rushed to Alden who lay dazed on the ground, his arm swollen to twice its normal size. He spotted the stone on the ground and grabbed the chain as he threw Alden over his shoulder, scraping his own wounds in the process. Andy nearly cried out in pain, but resisted. Abaddon unknowingly lurched toward him, transforming into a thunderbird. The shape shifter inflicted more damage to himself as he clawed at his injured eye with extended talons.
I’ve got to get help quick! He can’t die! Not like Spark! Out of the corner of his eye, Andy watched the bellicose stand unsteadily, holding its head in its hands.
“No!” Imogenia screamed.
Andy saw his opening. He readjusted Alden’s weight and walked as quickly as he could across the clearing, plunging headlong into the forest. I’ve got to get back to Glaucin! Surely he can help.
Andy glanced back one last time and saw Abaddon transform into the seven-headed, fire-breathing dragon most familiar to him. No sooner had the dragon appeared than it vanished.
Andy hurried through the thick jungle, refusing to allow trees and underbrush to block his way. Step after step he powered through low-hanging vines that grabbed at him and sheared off branches that dared impede his progress.
Please tell me I’m going in the right direction, he pleaded to no one in particular after walking for quite some time. He stopped briefly and rejoiced that no one followed, then set Alden down gently against a tree. Dropping Methuselah and the necklace, he removed his backpack and ripped off the bubbleweed pod. Rummaging inside, he found the two vials. He grabbed the one filled with pink liquid, opened Alden’s mouth, and dribbled some onto his tongue.
“Alden, you need to swallow this. It will help.”
Alden had not spoken or made any other sound since being bitten. He would soon be unconscious. He did not swallow.
“Come on, Alden! You’ve got to swallow!”
Nothing.
Trying desperately to make him cooperate, Andy shook Alden until he finally stirred.
“Swallow! Come on!”
He swallowed and Andy dribbled more of the pink liquid on his tongue. With more forceful coaxing, Alden at last finished the whole vial. Andy threw the empty container in his pack along with the necklace, then holstered Methuselah. He shouldered the pack and picked up Alden, then headed in the direction he thought they had come earlier. After many steps, he looked up through the canopy and saw the outline of something flying in his direction. Please don’t be more vulture-men, please don’t be more vulture-men. He hastened his steps, hoping to avoid an ambush.
At the next clearing, he looked up. Two figures were approaching. With the sun behind them, he couldn’t see any details. They didn’t look like vulture-men, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He moved as quickly as he could to the next clearing and looked again. As he did, he locked eyes with Hannah riding her lime green pegasus! Next to them flew Optimistic!
CHAPTER TWENTY
Rescue
“Hannah! Over here!”
Hannah and her pegasus landed in the clearing. Andy ran over and hugged her without thinking. “I’m so glad to see you! Alden’s hurt!” he blurted.
Hannah stepped back, blushing, and only then did Andy realize what he had done.
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized, turning red. “How—?”
“Let’s talk about that later,” Hannah urged. “We don�
��t have much time. We were attacked by vulture-men most of the way. I barely gave them the slip. Come on!”
As she said it, Andy noticed her ripped blouse as well as scratches on her face, down her arms, and across her neck. Andy approached Optimistic and bowed, waiting for permission to mount, which she gave without hesitation. For as soon as the pegasus saw the unconscious Alden, she started prancing and bobbing her head in understanding that he needed help. Just before Andy pushed Alden onto Optimistic’s back, he noticed several deep gashes across the seat of the saddle, probably from sharp talons. This isn’t going to be easy, he thought.
Andy drew Alden’s sword from its sheath, walked over to Hannah who had remounted her pegasus, and handed it to her.
“This might help.”
Hannah nodded. “Thanks.”
With Alden in front, Andy mounted behind him and pulled out Methuselah. Hannah’s eyes grew large as she saw the blade extend.
“They tried to grab me and pull me off. Don’t let them get hold of you,” Hannah instructed.
“I don’t plan to.”
“I’ll lead with Veracious.”
Andy had never ridden a pegasus before, only Daisy the juvenile dragon when they rescued her a year ago. Taking flight on a pegasus produced much the same sensation—terror—but he tried to focus on the mission at hand. He put his arm around Alden’s waist and held the pommel to steady himself and keep Alden on board. Hannah flew toward the back side of Sometimes Island, trying to remain unnoticed as long as possible. They flew over Glaucin and his patrol, waiting near the channel where they had dropped them off earlier. Andy waved as they passed over, and he could hear Glaucin yelling his well wishes.