“Whatever. Does it matter now?”
Nicole opened her mouth, about to say that yes, it did, when she realized he was right. She sighed, forcing herself to calm down. “No, it doesn’t.”
“What now?”
“Well, obviously my ancestors are teaming up with yours and making life hard for us.”
“Stupid family.”
Nicole chuckled. “Seriously. I wonder how he found out about Christopher Price.”
Jacob raised his hand. “I know how. Christopher Price was a famous inventor.”
“No, he wasn’t.”
“Okay, not like Thomas Edison or someone like that, but apparently, all sorts of his inventions were circling around back while he was alive. A few of them even survived.”
Nicole stepped over a tree trunk that had fallen across the cobblestone road. “That’s crazy. How did Keitus find out about him?”
“Probably word of mouth. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but our world is practically the only one with lots of advanced technology. I mean, even Renforth can be bribed with it because his world doesn’t have any.”
Nicole paused, turning to Jacob. “Are you serious? Renforth can be bribed?” Why hadn’t anyone told her this before?
Jacob nodded.
“And Makalo magic makes it so something can function without electricity, right?”
“Well, not really—they still use electricity.”
“But the thing doesn’t need to be plugged in to work.”
“It depends. Usually, they store a lot of power into something, then plug into that. Where are you going with this?”
Nicole couldn’t help the huge smile that crossed her face. “Austin found a really cool charm back in the castle at Edana while I was stuck with the natives. It reanimates corpses and forces the body to tell the spirit’s most important secret.”
Jacob’s eyes brightened. “And you want to reanimate Keitus’s body?”
“Yes.”
“Please take me with you!”
Nicole chuckled. “That’s not up to me—it’s up to Renforth.” She started walking quickly, wanting to get back to the castle as soon as possible. “It’s got to work,” she said. “I can bribe him. I’ve got all the money anyone could ever want, and I never spend it. I haven’t really had anything to spend it on.”
“Except for our missions and your project a year ago to save the world, right?”
Nicole nodded. Had it really been a year since she’d fought Rebecca and the Great Ones? She couldn’t believe that. She shook herself, forcing her mind to get back to the present. “I have to fight Lasia tomorrow or the day after—it needs to happen soon. But before I face her, we’re going to reanimate Keitus’s corpse. And I’m going to buy every single item of technology I can get my hands on to convince Renforth to grant us entrance without going through his stupid links.”
“Good idea.” Jacob’s face was flushed—he was pretty excited about the idea.
The two of them jogged the rest of the way to the door. Jacob created a link and took them to the castle, where they quickly explained their idea to Jacob’s parents.
Dmitri and Arien were in favor of it. Jacob took Nicole home while he went to Azuriah’s fortress to tell the Shiengol so they could get in contact with Renforth.
The minute Nicole stepped through the link to her own world, she pulled out her phone. Setting it on the counter, she conference-called Lizzie, Coolidge, and Austin and told them what she and Jacob had learned about the glowing core and funnel, Captain Christopher Price, and their current goal to collect technology.
“This is going to be fun,” Lizzie said. “Where do we want to go shopping first?”
“Costco,” Austin said at the same time Professor Coolidge said, “The Amazon warehouse.”
“We can hit both places,” Nicole said. “And Walmart and Best Buy—everywhere that sells anything electronic.”
Realizing they’d have a lot of gadgets on their hands if Renforth didn’t go for it, Nicole rented a huge moving truck which they parked in the various lots. Then they took turns going into stores and buying things—not enough to catch attention, as they didn’t have time to deal with weirded-out store managers. Austin magically sealed the moving truck to keep people from trying to steal things. A few times, they were able to find a shopping strip that had multiple stores in it and they all shopped at the same time, rotating through the stores.
Nicole picked up remote control trucks, cars, and airplanes. An employee helped her snag a 70-inch TV, and she also purchased a Blu-Ray player, multiple movies, a telephone, camera, several cell phones—basically everything she could find. When the person checking her out raised an eyebrow, Nicole laughed. “Early Christmas shopping,” she said.
The lady in line behind her chuckled. “Wish I was on your list,” she said.
Nicole felt bad for the lie before realizing these people would forgive her if they ever found out why she was doing it.
Soon, the moving van was completely stuffed full of electronics.
“Does he like cars?” Nicole asked Jacob. “’Cause I’m not above buying him some muscle.”
Jacob shrugged. “I don’t know. I’d have to ask Azuriah.”
Speaking of the Shiengol . . . “Has he contacted you yet?”
Jacob hadn’t heard anything, so he opened a link to Azuriah’s fortress. They all piled into the library where the Shiengol was pacing.
He turned when they came in. “Renforth said no . . . until he Time-Saw you on your shopping spree. And now he’s incredibly open to the idea—I’ve never seen him so giddy.”
Nicole breathed a sigh of relief. “If we’d known this was all it would take, we would have done it last time.”
“And it wouldn’t have worked,” Azuriah snapped. “He’s in the right mood this time to be spoiled. Last time, it probably would have annoyed him.” He sighed. “How do you propose we get the items to him?”
Jacob raised a hand. “I’ve been thinking about that. I suggest we drive to his planet.”
“Drive?” Azuriah asked, his eyebrow up.
Jacob nodded, smiling. “We need to find a warehouse or something with a huge door. I’ll create a link with it, and we’ll drive through.”
Azuriah decided that would work, and Jacob opened a link to the moving van. He glanced back at the others. “Any of you know where the right kind of warehouse is?”
“Pike’s Market should have big doors,” Lizzie said.
Coolidge shook his head. “Too busy—we need somewhere quiet. People there aren’t likely to be okay with a huge moving van disappearing through their doors.”
“Good point,” Lizzie said.
They ended up driving up and down the streets of Seattle, looking for somewhere that wouldn’t catch attention. It took almost an hour, but they finally found the perfect place—an empty warehouse in an industrial neighborhood that didn’t have a lot of foot traffic around it.
Once they’d lined the van up with the big doors, the guys got out, and Jacob created a link to the other world while Austin and Coolidge heaved the door open. Nicole pulled the van through. Lizzie, sitting in the seat next to her, squealed when the busy streets of Seattle disappeared and the pristine whiteness of Renforth’s throne room appeared.
Austin and Coolidge walked through the link as Nicole and Lizzie got out of the van. Jacob keyed to Taga Village to get Akeno.
Renforth stood from his throne and approached the moving van excitedly. “Did you bring a Makalo?” he asked. “None of the stuff is worth anything without power.”
“I’m here,” Akeno called from the door. He and Jacob closed the huge doors, then turned to help unload the van.
Renforth watched excitedly, greed in his eyes, as Nicole, Lizzie, Coolidge, and Austin presented him with the things they’d bought. He responded with all the eagerness of a little child on Christmas morning. If Nicole didn’t dislike him so much, she would have actually enjoyed the interaction. He was so
completely different this time from the last. It annoyed her. Shiengols were so temperamental.
Akeno charged the appropriate items, then gave a warning. “Some of them will need recharging. Depending on how often you use them, that could be after an hour of use or a year.” He motioned for Renforth to follow him, then pointed to a hole he’d made in Renforth’s wall. “I’ve gathered years’ worth of electricity and fed it here. If you take the power cord and put it in that hole, you’ll be able to give your toys the energy they need to function, even the ones that don’t have batteries.”
Renforth didn’t seem to mind the “toy” jab. He grabbed the nearest thing—an alarm clock—and shoved the cord into the wall. He squealed with delight when the clock’s digital numbers started flashing.
Renforth turned. “All right, you may go.”
“Go?” Nicole asked. “To the corpse? Don’t you want to be there when we reanimate it?”
“No, I mean for you to go home. I want to use all my presents before allowing you access to Keitus.”
Nicole shook her head. “No way. We’re not leaving until we see Keitus’s corpse reanimated.” She rushed onward, realizing she was opening them up to all sorts of trouble. “And that’s going to happen right now or Akeno will take all of that electricity away. And if he won’t, I will.”
She stared at Renforth until he glared back and gave a very stiff “fine” as a response, then led the way between the pillars to the wall where he’d staked Keitus’s corpse.
Everyone turned to Austin and Nicole, and Nicole motioned at Austin to go ahead. “You’re the one who has the charm practically memorized,” she said.
The blood drained from Austin’s face, but when he spoke, his voice didn’t show his discomfort at the attention he was receiving. “I’ll need your phone.”
Nicole opened up the photo app before handing the device over.
Austin stared at the image, then looked at Keitus’s corpse. “So, I should be able to repeat these words, then blow on his mouth. And apparently, a spirit somewhere will enter his body with my breath and will know what his biggest secret is.”
Coolidge frowned. “Does it say where the spirit will come from?”
Austin shook his head. “No.”
“What about possible problems with allowing the spirit to inhabit this body?” Coolidge asked.
Austin glanced up at Coolidge. “There aren’t any warnings whatsoever.”
Coolidge rubbed the back of his neck. “I wish I’d known that before we all came here.”
Renforth scowled at that, but didn’t say anything, and Coolidge growled, now rubbing his face. “Let’s just go ahead with it.”
Austin nodded, turning back to the corpse. “Corpus, körper, sóma.” He half smiled at Nicole. “Not very imaginative, but hey, if it works, it works.”
He took a breath and stepped closer to the corpse, blowing on its mouth.
Nothing happened.
Austin scratched his head. “So . . . that didn’t work.”
Coolidge took Nicole’s phone from him and flicked through the pictures. “That’s because you didn’t do it right,” he said.
Austin flushed. He didn’t say anything, though, and Nicole got the feeling he’d sensed that himself.
“This illustration shows that you actually have to make contact with the body when you blow.” Coolidge pointed at the phone. “Think of it as CPR.”
Nicole winced, and Lizzie said, “Ew!” Austin looked pretty grossed out, but still, he didn’t hesitate. He repeated the words again, took another breath, then quickly pressed his lips against the gaping mouth and blew. He stepped back, grimacing, and wiped off his lips.
A slight breeze ruffled Nicole’s hair. Everyone seemed to notice it at the same time. The breeze grew in strength until strong gusts of wind pushed her and the others toward the dead body.
The wind got louder and louder as the rotten, holey lungs—visible through the ribcage—started expanding.
And then the body suddenly became aware. It straightened, not seeming to notice it had been tacked to a wall. Nicole was immediately reminded of how Imhotep had looked in The Mummy before fully regenerating. Keitus’s skin was rotted and pitted, his jaw hanging loosely, his head roving as he tried to see with eyes that had long ago fallen back into his head.
“Who wakes me?” The voice was grating, strong, and didn’t sound a thing like Keitus.
“That is none of your business,” Austin said, stepping forward.
Nicole cringed. Should he insult Keitus already? She hoped Austin wasn’t too close to the body, but maybe it wouldn’t be able to break its binds.
The corpse growled, fingers reaching toward Austin, trying to free themselves of the heavy pins holding the arms in place.
Austin glanced at Nicole’s phone, which he’d taken back from Coolidge. “Tell us your secrets, Dead One.”
The body froze, jaw gaping, arms tight against their binds. It screeched, looking like it was trying to swallow its tongue, but the magic of the charm forced it to speak.
“She will give me all she has, and in turn, I shall destroy her.”
The wind immediately started up again, but in reverse. With a long sigh, the corpse gradually emptied of air. Nicole’s hair ruffled again, then Keitus’s body hung much like it had before.
“She who?” Lizzie asked.
“My guess is Helen,” Coolidge said.
“He’s going to destroy her?” Lizzie asked. “That’s not really a bad thing, you know. For us and her. Heavens knows she could use some of that eternal rest stuff.”
Coolidge looked disappointed. “It’s still not particularly useful information.”
Austin turned to his professor. “I disagree. It gives us ammo. We can try to convince her not to let him have access to her body.”
Lizzie snorted. “Good luck with that. If she’s already agreed, I doubt she’ll change her mind. She’s pretty driven by her obsessions.”
Nicole nodded. “And Keitus probably chose her because of those obsessions. He’d be an idiot not to use them to get her to agree to the body swap.”
“I realize this,” Austin said. “But we still need to try.”
“I agree,” Azuriah said. “And we have our own ways of convincing.”
“I’ll accompany you on this quest,” Renforth said. “Two Shiengols are better than one.”
Everyone stared at him, completely surprised, including Azuriah.
Renforth scowled. “Stop acting shocked or I’ll throw you in my prison.”
Coolidge glanced at Nicole. “We’ll approach Helen once you’ve faced Lasia. Much as I’d like to delay that event for you, it will take us time to find Helen’s spirit and body. If we can’t convince her to avoid Keitus, perhaps we can hide her body from him.”
Nicole nodded. “That’s something we probably should have done a long time ago.”
“We didn’t realize how close Keitus was to achieving his goal,” Jacob said.
Nicole knew he was right. That didn’t make her feel any better about the situation, though.
She and Lizzie hopped into the cab of the moving van while the others followed Jacob through the link. Nicole pulled the van around and followed too.
Jacob was able to key the others to their homes, but Nicole had to return the moving van.
She gripped the steering wheel, feeling it become slimy as her sweat production increased. She couldn’t believe the time had come to face the Fire Pulser. She still had no idea how she was going to do it, apart from Sanso’s tip about the pressure point on Lasia’s wrists. And that depended on Nicole living long enough to get that close.
“So, guess what?” Lizzie asked as Nicole turned onto the streets of Seattle.
Nicole did her best to switch her thoughts to her friend. “What?”
“I’ve finally picked a major. I’m applying for acceptance next week.”
Nicole grinned at Lizzie. “Really? That’s awesome! What is it?”
Lizzie rubbed her nose, almost shyly. “Not what you’re going to think it’ll be.”
“I’m expecting biology or something else related to the medical field.”
“I know. It’s not.” She turned to face Nicole. “It’s a geology degree—one that is specialized to our university and focuses on Fire Aretes.” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to be a Fire Impeder.”
Nicole felt her mouth pop open. “Are you serious? Oh, wow. That’ll be a lot of work for you, considering it’s opposite from your natural sub-ability.”
Lizzie rushed to continue. “I know, and I’m ready for it. We were talking in Fire 302 a month ago about all the things Fire Impeders do, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.” She began talking with her hands, her face animated. “And you know how almost all Aretes branch into other powers? Like, it’s their goal? Well, instead of learning other powers, I’m going to really focus in on my own natural ability. And there are tons of jobs available for Fire Impeders, especially since it’s so specialized.”
“I love how excited you are about this. But what happened to nursing?”
Lizzie shrugged. “I love nursing—the idea. But when I started studying all the weird things nurses have to do before getting their licenses, I sort of lost interest.”
Nicole chuckled, then sighed, adjusting her grip on the wheel as her thoughts returned to the Fire Pulser.
“What’s up?” Lizzie asked.
Nicole shrugged. “I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over.”
Lizzie gave her a sympathetic look. “Me too.” She bounced in her seat. “How about we invite Austin and Gabriel over and have a little mini party tonight?”
“Gabriel?” It took Nicole a moment to remember who Lizzie was talking about. She sent her best friend a little smile. “Last I heard, he was only a hot guy in math.”
“He’s still a hot guy in math,” Lizzie said. “Only now, he’s a hot guy in math who has my number and hasn’t stopped texting the past few days.”
“And you’re okay with making the first move?” Nicole asked.
Enshroud, Mosaic Chronicles Book Eight Page 13