Then he realized. Before, there had been bushes and plants. The land had been primarily rocky, but there had been plenty of flora to cover vast patches of the cliffs. Now, however, only bare stone could be seen. White and shining, as though no plant life had ever existed upon it.
“What happened to the plants?” he asked.
“That’s what we need to find out,” said Vester. “The others left me here to wait for you.” Vester’s lip curled a bit when he said that. It took Billy a moment to figure out why his friend looked upset. At first he thought it must be whatever was going on with the plants. Then he realized: Vester had been left behind. Mrs. Russet, Terry, even the sometimes (literally) flighty Tempus had gone off to deal with things. And who had they left behind to do nothing but wait? Vester.
Vester forced a smile then, as though he had followed Billy’s thoughts with his own. He shrugged. “We should get back to the others.”
Billy nodded. He wanted to make Vester feel better, but knew that anything he could say would probably just bring the man’s embarrassment at being given what amounted to a baby-sitting job even more to the forefront of his mind.
“Where are we going?” he said as Vester pulled out his always-present lighter.
“Home,” said the fireman simply. He reached out to Billy’s hand, and the two of them stretched/grew/disappeared as they were taken by Flame. They Crested together through the world’s inner fires, through the underground oven that kept everyone warm.
At first, Billy thought they must be returning to the Underworld of Flame, but within moments he knew they were not. They were going to Powers Island.
Sure enough, a second later he was standing in a place he knew well. They appeared out of a gas lamp that was lit at the base of a structure larger than any other on earth: the tower at the center of Powers Island.
But though he had been to this place many times, had in fact fought battles to the death here, had defended his life and the life of his friends during the Battle for Powers Island, still it was suddenly an alien place. And it was easy to see why.
The tower was impossibly tall. It stretched up into a dark cloudbank that hung many thousands of feet over the center of Powers Island, disappearing into the angry thunderheads that spat lightning and thunder at odd intervals. Billy had stood atop the tower, and knew that looking down at clouds was one of the strangest experiences of his life. The edifice was not only taller than any other place on earth, it stood taller than physics or gravity should have allowed. The thing that held it up was the embrace of the huge vines and branches that wrapped tightly around it, providing a living skeleton that would never let the tower topple: the branches of the Earthtree, one of the centers of the Lifeessence that the Earth Powers shaped and channeled.
But now the Earthtree was in a sad state. It was wilted and withered, its normally bright green now a blighted brown. Large black patches marred its surface, as though the vast tree was being eaten from within by some maleficent disease. The tree was even listing to one side, causing the entirety of the tower to cant like the Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.
“Come on,” said Vester, pulling Billy’s arm and simultaneously yanking his gaze away from the dying plant.
“Where we going?” asked Billy.
“The others are inside,” answered his friend, walking him toward a large door at the base of the tower.
Billy didn’t know how much he liked the idea of going inside a tower that looked like it was about to keel over at any moment. But he didn’t seem to have much choice in the matter.
Vester dragged him over to the door, and pressed his hand against it. “Vester, Dawnwalker,” he said. Billy looked askance at his friend. “Ever since the spells that protect Powers Island started to break down, after the Darksiders’ last attack on the island,” explained Vester, “we’ve had to institute new security procedures. No one is allowed into the tower unless they’ve been pre-approved by Lumilla, Fulgora, Veric, or Dismus.”
Billy recognized the names as the remaining members of the Council that governed the world of the Powers. The other two Powers, Eva Black and Nehara the Blue, were leaders of the Darksiders, and so had severed their ties to the Council as they sought complete dominion over the entire human race.
The door that Vester was touching glowed red, then green, and then dimmed to a gray which deepened in turn to a brown color before opening in front of Vester. Vester took Billy through the door, and Billy once again found himself inside the tower.
This time, however, was different. Gone were the Counters and the Accounting Room, the place where Powers had come to be labeled as Darksiders or Dawnwalkers before proceeding to the rest of the island. The machines (or whatever they were – Billy never had quite understood) had been replaced by several large and extremely tough-looking Powers who glared at Vester as he entered. Guards.
Vester nodded at the people as he passed, seeming not to mind their angry countenances, and led Billy to a bank of elevators that Billy knew well. The elevators were as amazing as the rest of this place, able to take their riders to any room in the tower.
“Whaddya want?” blared an angry voice as one of the elevators opened. Billy grimaced. The elevators talked. And though he had made friends with most of them during his time on Powers Island, there were still some that had bad attitudes and seemed determined not to enjoy their jobs.
This particular elevator had a nasty accent that Billy couldn’t quite place, though he suspected it came from some less-than-pleasant neighborhood somewhere.
“Hospital floor,” answered Vester, stepping into the elevator with Billy.
“Yeah, yeah,” grumbled the elevator as the doors closed. “Take me here, take me there. That’s all you guys care about. It’s never ‘How ya doin?’ or ‘What’s new witchoo?’”
“What’s new with –” began Billy.
“It don’t mean nothin’ if you gotta be reminded,” snarled the elevator. “You gotta be spontaneous about it. You gotta mean it, kid. You gotta –”
The elevator’s voice cut off suddenly. Billy was grateful for this. Though he supposed that the elevators probably did deserve more thanks than they regularly got, he also didn’t want to have an argument with the only thing that stood between him and plummeting thousands of feet to his death.
“Holy smokes,” said the elevator. “Is that what I think it is?”
Billy looked around, but the elevator had no eyes that he was aware of, so he couldn’t really tell what it was talking about. He looked askance at Vester, but his friend was leaning against the side of the elevator with his eyes closed, as though he was either thinking or counting to ten in his mind before losing his temper.
“Uh…,” said Billy with his trademark wit.
“It is,” said the elevator. “It is. Where’d you get it?”
“Uh…,” Billy said again. It was his fallback conversational trick. It had served him well this far during his time in this strange world, and he saw no reason to change tactics now.
“The shield, kid,” said the elevator. “The shield.” There was a pause, and then: “And is that the sword, and the dagger? The ones from the prophecies?”
“Uh,” said Billy again, before adding an extremely witty, “yeah.”
“Good ups-and-downs,” sighed the elevator. “It’s happening.”
“What is?”
“I mean, I thought it might be when the Greens started wilting, and when the Battle for Powers Island happened, but… golly!”
“What are you talking about?” asked Vester quietly, his eyes opening suddenly.
The hairs stood up on the back of Billy’s neck, as though he was about to witness something amazing. What did the elevators know about the prophecies?
“What am I talkin’ about?” said the elevator incredulously. “What am I talkin’ about? Geez, you don’t know. It’s the time of the return.”
“Oh,” said Vester with a sigh. “The return of the White King.”
�
�Well, duh,” said the elevator. “But not just that.”
“What else?”
“The return of the other,” said the elevator. “The return of the second one.”
“Second one what?” demanded Vester. “And how do you know about this?”
“Second king,” said the elevator. “And how do you think I know about it? I was here when the island was made, ya know. I know stuff. Lotsa stuff.”
Vester looked like he wanted to ask more, but the elevator suddenly halted, and the doors opened.
“Out,” said the elevator.
“But what about the other king?” said Vester. “What do you know about the prophecies that we don’t?”
“That’s a very long list,” said the elevator. “And I don’t got time to tell it all to ya. Someone else is pushin’ my buttons, if you know what I mean.”
Vester didn’t move. “We need to know more,” he demanded.
Billy felt something bump his bottom, and realized suddenly that the back wall of the elevator had somehow moved forward. It was actually pushing him out.
“You need to get outta me,” said the elevator. “But I will say this: the beginning is the end, and the end is just the beginning.”
And then the wall completely pushed both Billy and Vester out. The doors slid shut, and the elevator was gone.
“What was that all about?” said Billy. “I didn’t know there was another king. What other king?”
“I don’t know, either,” said Vester. “I’ve never heard of that.”
Billy wanted to ask more, but before he could he realized where he was standing, and all but lost his voice.
It looked like a hospital tent in a war zone, only it was far bigger than any kind of hospital Billy had ever seen or heard of. He guessed there must have been upward of ten thousand beds in the room, stretching out in endless rows in every direction. And every bed held a sick person. It didn’t take a genius to realize that these must be the Greens. Many of them were covered in flora of one kind or another, though Billy also noticed that most of the greenery covering the sick Powers was wilted, gray, and in some cases even black and brittle looking.
He glanced up, and saw the sun, though he had thought they were still in the tower. Then the sky seemed to flicker, as though it were a video screen that had momentarily lost power.
“We’re trying to boost their sunlight,” said Vester, answering Billy’s unasked question. He looked around as someone moaned loudly nearby, and he seemed to wilt a bit himself. “It doesn’t seem to be helping, though.”
He led Billy through the rows of beds, passing between endless numbers of Green Powers. Finally, Billy saw a group of people that he recognized in the distance: Mrs. Russet, Terry, and Tempus. They were standing near a pair of beds that held two people Billy knew, though he almost didn’t recognize them. Billy felt his face grow pale as he realized who they were.
“Is that…?” he whispered.
Vester nodded. “Afraid so.”
Though all the people that Billy had passed by looked horrible, the two people he now gazed upon were far, far worse. Ivy was laying in a bed that was covered in leaves that were rotting all around her. The beautiful dress she usually wore – one that was made of flowers and blooming vines – was not only wilted, but literally falling apart, the stems and vines looking slimy as though they had been left under a rock for a week or two. Even Ivy’s skin looked terrible, cracked and gray as a stump in an irradiated field.
Far more dreadful was Ivy’s father, Veric the Green. He was the Green Councilor, a man Billy had come to think of as the epitome of lively energy, an ageless man who seemed like he was as wise as the oldest tree, yet as young at heart as a flower that bloomed for only a single, bright day. All that energy and life were gone from him now, leaving only a husk in their place. His skin was raw and red, as though someone had taken a cheese grater to him. His hair was hanging from his scalp in chunks, with bare skin showing through in many areas. His eyes were wide open, but they didn’t seem to be actually looking at anything; only staring sightlessly at the “sky” above him through thick white cataracts.
Billy gasped, just a small sound, but it seemed to echo in the vast despair that hung in the room. Terry, Mrs. Russet, and Tempus all looked over at him.
“Billy!” said Mrs. Russet. She almost leaped toward him, Tempus right behind her. “So glad that you’re all right. We were so –” She cut off suddenly. “Is that…?” she said, gesturing at the shield Billy wore.
Billy nodded. “I got Excalibur back. Blue had it, and she gave me the Shield of the Sea, too.” He didn’t feel like explaining exactly how she had “given” them to him, though. Not in this place that felt like a vast tomb, or a mass grave of some kind.
“Good job, my boy,” said Tempus loudly, and reached out to pump Billy’s hand quickly up and down.
“Well, uh, thanks,” he finally managed to say. Billy felt his face redden. He often felt like he was just an outsider in this strange world, so it was nice to feel as though he had contributed something. But he also felt like hiding his face behind the shield, more than a little embarrassed at the effusiveness of the Wind Power’s appreciation.
Mrs. Russet stepped forward, a proud look on her face and clearly intending to add to Billy’s embarrassment. But before she could say anything, her husband interjected, “No time to pat ourselves on the backs.” He pointed at Ivy’s and Veric’s beds. “We’re still missing the spear and the armor.”
Billy nodded. Then said, “Anyone actually know what happens when we do get all of them?”
“No,” said Mrs. Russet. “In fact, that’s what we were actually doing here.” She glanced at Veric. “We were hoping that we could talk to Veric about that very subject, to see if he knew anything. But we found him even worse than he was when we left him.”
Vester moved quietly as a cat to Ivy’s side. He carefully took one of her hands. “We’re losing them,” he whispered.
“It would seem so,” said Mrs. Russet.
“Why is this happening?” asked Billy. “Why would the Darksiders want to kill the Greens?”
“Aside from the tactical advantage they get by wiping out a large percentage of Dawnwalkers?” said Mrs. Russet. Billy nodded. “We don’t know. We suspect there is more to it, but we don’t know what. And we can’t ask the one person likely to know, either,” she added, gazing pointedly at Veric.
“It’s not just the Greens, either,” added Tempus. When Billy looked at him, he continued, “Plants all over the world are dying.”
“The two are connected, obviously,” said Mrs. Russet. “But we don’t know how, exactly.” She sighed in frustration. “Just one more mystery for which we have no answer.”
Billy thought for a moment. What was it about the Greens that would make them a target for the Darksiders’ attack? What did the Darksiders gain if the Greens were gone?
He didn’t know. And neither, it appeared, did anyone else.
The group stayed there in silence for a long while. Waiting. As though by their attention they might somehow encourage Veric or Ivy or any of the other thousands of Greens to open their eyes, to speak.
But it didn’t happen. Something else did. There was a sound nearby. It was Veric. At first Billy thought that perhaps the Green Councilor was somehow waking up. But then he realized that the man’s eyes had changed. They were still sightless as before, but where they had been perfect orbs of white, now they were dark. Black, in fact. As though his pupils had grown and overtaken the entirety of the eye.
At the same moment, Billy felt something sear through his chest. His wound. It bit at him, like an angry dog, worrying its prey. Billy gasped.
“What is it?” said Vester.
Billy couldn’t answer. The pain was too great. His knees started to wobble, and Vester reached out a hand to steady him. Billy tried to lift his shirt, but even that small movement was too much for him.
Vester must have understood what Billy was trying to do,
because he let go of Billy long enough to tug at the hem of his shirt, lifting it.
“Good gracious!” said Tempus.
Billy looked down. And saw that much of his skin had turned black. It looked like a banana peel that someone had left out in the sun for too long. He touched it with a shaking hand, and was surprised when the skin didn’t just flake off under his fingers. It felt normal, though he knew it wasn’t. The DeathBlade’s effect was continuing to grow, continuing to kill him from the inside out.
He knew that he didn’t have much time. He had to find a way to cure himself, or all that would be left of Billy Jones would be a hollowed-out husk of blackened skin.
Then something else happened. As though his pain had signaled the advent of Death – and perhaps, knowing its source, it had – there was a noise. A gasp, and a retching sound. Billy was having trouble focusing his eyes, but saw Tempus and Mrs. Russet hurry over to one of the beds.
Veric’s bed.
The Green Councilor’s back arched, as though he had been struck by lightning, and the Green Power let loose a groan that was half pain, half a cry for something – mercy, perhaps.
Billy tried to move towards his friend, but his feet weren’t listening to him. It was all he could do to remain standing.
“Do something,” said Tempus, and in his words Billy heard despair and defeat.
“I… I can’t,” said Mrs. Russet, wringing her hands together. “Terry?” she said.
Terry took two quick steps to the side of Veric’s bed, and put out his hand. He touched the twitching man’s brow, then shook his head, clearly confused and frightened by what was going on.
The pain in Billy’s chest seemed to double. Then triple.
A voice cried out. Not anyone Billy was expecting to hear. It was Ivy. “Father!” she screamed in a voice that rang through the room, a perfect bell-tone of agony and fear.
Billy screamed, too, as he felt the wound at his center start to open. He felt like he was falling into himself, tumbling into a singularity, a dark point that would pull everything he was into its center, then disappear into eternity.
Billy: Seeker of Powers (The Billy Saga) Page 13