by Tony Ortiz
“What do you mean he’s okay?” I yelled. “Look at him!”
“He said he was okay,” continued Katie, unfazed by my shouting. “He ran into a web that drains your vitality. He’ll recover in a minute.”
I wasn’t really listening to her, and didn’t really care what she had to say. The sadness in Jacoby’s eyes told me he wasn’t okay.
“Jacoby?” I murmured. “We’re going to get you out. Where’s Dorian?”
“We don’t know,” said Cosqué.
“I wasn’t talking to you!” I said coldly. “You left us!”
“I didn’t. I watched my family being slaughtered. I didn’t leave anyone.”
“Jesse, we don’t know where Dorian is,” said Katie. “We couldn’t find him. We think he might be where the attack is happening.”
“We’ve got to find him,” I said. “We have to get out of here.”
“He blocked off every entrance,” stated Cosqué. “There is no way out.”
I turned down to Jacoby. His eyes were wider. “Jacoby, what do we do?”
Cosqué put Jacoby’s arm over his shoulder and helped him up. “He wants us to find a secure location,” informed Cosqué.
“We have to stick together,” I said.
“Yes.”
I checked Katie’s watch.
11:37 PM
“Dorian?” whispered Meesi far behind us. “Where are you? We are… I don’t know where we are.”
I hurried back to her. “You can talk to him?”
“Please, Dorian,” she went on. “We have to get out of here.”
Everyone turned around. Meesi lifted her head and gave us a distressed look. “I can’t reach him.”
“We’ve tried,” said Cosqué, turning Jacoby around to look at him. He was looking worse. Something was very wrong. His glassy eyes drifted to the back of his head as everything around us went black. . . .
CHAPTER TWENTY
The HIDDEN FOREST
I felt alive. I wasn’t sore or tired, actually feeling refreshed, as if I had just woken up from a long nap. The air was moist and clean. I was in the middle of a giant forest. I had made it out of the mountain.
Hundreds and hundreds of mythical tree trunks fortressed the vast land. The treetops were like clouds of green, shielding the ground from a smoldering sun. Drips of warm water from the highest branches splashed into the streams that weaved between the trees like the grooves and creases on my palm.
On the bank of the nearest stream, a small doe was nibbling on a piece of bark. Peace was all-encompassing. Birds twittered and chirped musically while a snake slithered down the vines hanging off of a small tree. Perhaps this was a dream–
I felt something nipping at my foot and flinched. As I looked down, expecting to see my feet, I saw two paws. . . .
I tried to speak but a growl came out instead. The doe retreated a little.
It can’t be. I brought my hand up to my eyes and discovered a thick furry paw with a callused sole. It wasn’t just a paw. It was my paw.
The doe stared at me with her soulful black eyes. I growled, and the doe pranced backwards, frightened.
I thought really hard, trying to fathom this situation. What was a tiger? Was I stupid now that I was one? One plus one is . . . What was the answer? Five? What was five anyway? I seemed to recall it was a letter. Well, at least I remembered that much.
I’m stupid! I cried dumbly.
I yelled in frustration, and again only a deep roar came out, which made me remember everything about today. I was just with Katie, Jacoby, Meesi, and Cosqué inside the mountain. No, I wasn’t dreaming, which probably meant I was either dead or – what’s worse – reincarnated.
I . . . can’t . . . be . . . I thought, which required a lot of effort. . . . a tiger. I don’t want to be dead.
Katie’s voice rang in my head. “Jesse!”
Katie, where are you? I thought. I can’t see you.
“Jesse, right in front of you.”
I looked at the doe. Katie? I thought painfully.
“You’re a tiger,” I heard her say, but her lips didn’t move. “Where are we?”
I don’t know, I thought to her.
“Jesse, follow me, I found something.”
Katie sprang off into the darker part of the forest, skipping gracefully through a shallow stream. I could immediately tell that I could easily run faster than her. My paws and legs felt strong, like I could kill someone with one swipe. I almost smiled, but then ran into an invisible wall. I shook my head, not carrying what it was, and continued after her. I hoped she was taking me to get some food because I was getting really hungry.
Her long elegant neck snapped to the side, and her eyes bulged. Katie darted off to the side and took cover behind a tree.
“Jesse!” her voice sounded. “What you doing?”
What was she talking about? I went around the tree and didn’t find her. I ran everywhere: searching under logs, behind trees, inside a mess of roots. I even plunged my head into the stream. Exhausted, I stopped to gnaw on a piece of mossy wood. If I didn’t eat something soon, I was going to die.
But where did Katie go? And why did she just leave me here when she wanted to show me something?
“Jesse, up here?” echoed her voice.
Katie was high up in a tree, standing atop a thick branch, wobbling and straining to maintain her balance. I placed my claws on the tree and started to climb.
“No!” her voice painfully reverberated inside my eardrum.
But I thought you wanted to show me–
“You just stay there.”
Why was Katie so scared? Her slim legs jittered.
You’re going to fall. Come down.
“No, I don’t want to.”
She nudged a chunk of wood off the branch and it hit me right in the head, which didn’t faze me at all. I roared loudly.
“Jesse! Look at it!”
I looked at the wood.
JaCk
I was sure that name meant something.
“Jack transformed us,” I heard her say.
I finally recalled the name. No, that’s not possible. Is it?
“He’s a prankster, Jesse. Maybe Jacoby’s here, too.”
Jacoby? Who’s that?
“Jesse, you’re stupid. Jacoby’s our friend.”
Oh. Are you going to come down? I carried on. Why are you staying up there?
“I told you, I don’t wanna come down.”
I couldn’t believe she was acting like this. If she fell and injured herself, I wasn’t going to give her any sympathy.
“Where you going?”
To go look for some food. I’ll be back. If you decide to come down, wait for me, okay?
I couldn’t believe how fast I could run. Not like the welgos, but a lot faster than I could ever run before. I wasn’t so sure anymore that I wanted to turn back into a human, even if I could. I roared, unable to contain my excitement, but then came to a sliding halt as I realized exactly what I was thinking. I didn’t want to be a tiger forever. I wanted to be with Oz and Katie and everyone else. I wanted to be human.
Katie? I called, turning around, forgetting she was still in the tree. Just then, an arrow whistled through the air and sank into my side.
Light-brown eyes peered at me through the bushes on the other side of the stream. I couldn’t believe someone had just shot me. The eyes withdrew, and a very tan man with a painted face jumped out from behind the bushes. The native was wearing only a loincloth, a brown bandana, and a necklace of beads. He kept his bow and arrow pointed directly at me as he approached. I was feeling sick, and my vision was beginning to blur. I vaguely saw Katie standing in the stream. The man sauntered over to her, and she sadly stepped back.
“Jack’s trying to have us kill each other,” she cried to him. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not a native here. Jesse, I’ll get help.”
The Indian stumbled back, having understood everything she had said.
<
br /> Hurry!
As I strained my blurry vision, a rock wall came into view. I squinted at it, but it turned out to be a mossy burrow. I noticed that my left eye and my right eye were now seeing different things: one could see rocks, falling debris, and the human Katie while the other registered only the forest and everything else in it. I closed one eye and saw an yslas.
Katie, something strange is happening.
I dropped my head, resting it against the wet soil. Katie brought her head down to mine so I could see her.
The Indian is Cosqué.
Katie turned to the Indian. “Cosqué, it’s me, Katie.”
Katie, I thought, now finally understanding. We’re still there. We’re still in the mountain.
Everything shifted, melted and morphed. We were once again inside the tunnel. The refreshing tropical breeze was replaced by dank musty odor and the harmonious sounds of the forest were drowned out by rumbling and explosions.
I was my normal human self again. I looked down and saw no arrow pierced in me. Katie and Cosqué were also back to their regular selves.
“Where are Jacoby and Meesi?” I asked promptly.
“I don’t know,” said Katie.
Cosqué recovered as quickly as we did and led us to a warm chamber that had a ceiling covered with hundreds of brown bats. “He’s playing tricks on us,” he said. “He’ll soon–” He saw Meesi kneeling over Jacoby. “Is he doing better?”
“I think so,” said Meesi.
Jacoby did in fact look better. His eyes were fully open and he looked calm and alert. Cosqué helped him up.
“I was the squirrel,” Jacoby told Katie and me. “Meesi was just about to finish me off.”
Meesi frowned.
“That’s okay, Meesi, you didn’t know–”
A giant rolling jolt shook the room. All of us remained quiet as the tremor passed by. Jacoby stepped away from Cosqué and slowly shuffled to the other end of the room. A sickening noise was coming from that direction. It was the sound of the tortics dropping through a hole in the ceiling. They looked horrible. The first one I saw had blood coursing down its entire body. Another limped badly on a disfigured leg. Lorseria had a gash in his arm, and his whole left side was charred. He viciously trampled a fallen tortic who had lost both of his eyes and snarled something in German at him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
JACK O’LANTERN
With a single wave of Lorseria’s hand, Jacoby was shackled to the ground. The room lit up in blazing colors, as if dozens of fireworks went off at once. This was Cosqué’s doing. The tortics easily sidestepped the sparkling jets and sent his own spell speeding back at him. Lorseria stepped through Cosqué’s force field and thrust his claws into Cosqué’s stomach, instantly sending him tumbling to the ground.
“Almost,” Lorseria informed us, watching us instead of Cosqué, whose body was rapidly decaying. A few seconds later there was nothing left but some bones and ashes. “Drop them in the hole and curse the entrance. Meesi comes with us.”
“Lorseria, there’s no way out,” explained Jacoby.
“There is–” He coughed. “Meesi, get up.”
Meesi got up despondently, and Katie and I were pulled through Cosque’s scattered bones, which made me queasy.
“Don’t take me to him,” cried Meesi, pulled along by Lorseria. “Please. I’ll do anything. Jacoby, I don’t want to be taken to him.”
“Lorseria, we have to all stay together,” reasoned Jacoby.
Lorseria gave one disgruntled grunt, and Meesi followed.
“I checked,” Jacoby carried on. His shackles unlocked from the ground. “We can’t escape the walls of the mountain. He’s not letting–”
“You forgot,” Lorseria interrupted, “we have more magic than you. You don’t exceed us, Jacoby.”
“But Jack does.”
Lorseria thought hard about that, jerking Meesi towards him. “That’s why we’ll come again.”
“Let Meesi go,” I said. “You can’t take her.”
“Dorian?” muttered Meesi to herself. “I’m here in–”
Lorseria kicked Meesi, and she yelped.
“We could all help each other to survive,” continued Jacoby.
“Help each other?” sneered Lorseria. “Really? Is that true, Jacoby? Dorian and your tiny friends want us banished.”
“Dorian doesn’t want–”
“Dorian thinks,” he exploded, spinning around viciously, “we are responsible for Kala and Dili!”
“You are!” Katie snapped.
“I will see your corpses tomorrow.” Lorseria stomped away, yanking and dragging Meesi along as she kicked and squirmed in his grip.
“He’s taking me away–” began Meesi, trying communicate with Dorian.
“Stop!” snapped Lorseria in a dark tone.
Meesi stood still, staring listlessly up at Lorseria.
“You utter another word and–”
“DORIAN!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, so loud her call carried down the tunnels and passages, reaching the most remote chambers.
Lorseria spat out something in German to his fellow tortics then turned to Meesi. “You idiot menala. Jack will be here–”
All the tortics sniffed the air as the walls shook and falling debris were sucked out of the tunnels. The bats tore off the ceiling and flapped their wings chaotically with panicked squeaks; many of them sucked out with the debris.
“He’s coming,” said the tallest tortic. “He killed all the yslas.”
“If he wants us killed, he’ll do it,” prompted Jacoby. “He’s playing with us. Why must you refuse to see this? Lorseria, please, listen. Do what you want after, but not now.”
Lorseria bent down and coughed sourly.
“Lorseria, you’re ill. How are you going to fight? We won’t see you again. He’s going to kill us.”
Meesi wriggled out of the tortic’s grip and rushed over to Jacoby. Lorseria hurried over to Jacoby. I saw his claws lengthening, just as they had when he killed Cosqué.
“Don’t!” I bellowed.
Katie chucked a large rock at Lorseria, but it had no effect. She charged him, and was flung into the wall. But it was fear, not triumph, that washed over Lorseria’s face. His large ears rotated towards the exit.
“Don’t hurt Jacoby–”Meesi stopped short, life coming back to her drooping shape. She had made contact. “Where?” she panted in her lap. “I’m at . . . in the–”
Lorseria whirled around and magically slid Meesi across the floor and into his claws. “Where is he?” he grumbled, lifting her by the throat. “Where’s Dorian?”
Meesi shook her head. A drastic temperature drop got everyone’s attention. A shadowy figure had psyclined into the corner of the room. It was Dorian. I was the first one to spot him.
“DORI–” A tortic’s bony knuckle propelled me into the wall before I could finish. I doubled over and threw up as my crushed collarbone knocked all the air out of me.
Dorian turned his head around just as the tortics realized he was there. It was too late for Lorseria, who had already met his cursed gaze. A dim flash of light went off between them, and Lorseria’s black eyes lightened until they were a translucent white. The other four tortics disappeared.
Dorian caught me as I fell and carefully set me down. He passed his hand over me, instantly healing my shoulder, so I could breathe again as if nothing had ever happened. I rotated it and felt it in wonder: it was as good as new. Dorian freed Jacoby while Lorseria was levitated over to him and dropped on the floor.
“You . . . killed Dili and Kala?” asked Dorian strenuously.
Lorseria was magically forced to his knees and replied in a monotone voice. “No.”
“You did kill them,” retorted Dorian, rather hoarse, looking like he had been through hell. His clothes were ripped and blotched with blood. Long cuts stretched across his hands and hairy forearms.
“You did!” he spat, snatching Lorseria’s face. “Why are
you here?”
“To use Meesi to lure Jack to Germany.”
Dorian released his hold. “Was Jack at the festival?”
“Yes.”
“Did he kill Kala?”
“Yes.” Lorseria coughed.
“Did he kill Dili?”
A black tear trickled down Dorian’s orange face. Lorseria was involuntarily yanked to his feet. He blinked in anguish, trying to cut Dorian’s curse, but, unable to fight it, relapsed into his hypnotic state.
“Yes,” replied Lorseria.
“Did Jack summon the Bellnicsi?”
“No.”
I sniffed the musty air; something had caught my attention; a tiny hint of an unpleasant rotting smell had crept into the chamber. Jacoby crinkled his nose, and with him Katie and Meesi.
“Dorian!” called Jacoby.
Dorian seemed oblivious to the offensive odor. “Who summoned it?” he went on.
“We don’t know. We didn’t cross paths with it.”
Lorseria turned his protracted claws toward his own chest.
“Who summoned the Bellnicsi?” Dorian repeated angrily.
“We don’t know. The samhain fled before we arrived.”
Jacoby signaled for Katie, Meesi and me to come over and consulted Katie’s watch. We all looked with him.
11:49 PM
“Dorian, you can’t kill him,” said Jacoby, grabbing Dorian. “He didn’t do anything.”
Lorseria twitched as a coughing paroxysm shook him head to toe. Blood seeped out of his eyes, and he flopped onto his back. His face contorted and his nose crinkled terribly. The distinctive rotten smell was becoming unbearable.
“Why d-did you kill them?” Dorian stammered.
“Jack did,” rasped Lorseria.
Jacoby stepped in front of Dorian. “You’re killing him! Stop this! Jack is the one who killed them.”
“Why?” said Dorian, sidestepping Jacoby, and tipped his body horizontally into the air so he was hovering over Lorseria.
“He . . .” Lorseria explained painfully, “found out that one of you can–”
The room shook with a sudden jerk, and large pieces of rock tumbled from the ceiling. I latched onto a giant boulder. A lone bat fell and splattered on a rock. The rest hung tight, flapping their wings wildly.