by Ed Masessa
“Thank you,” Brianna said.
Henry knew she was relieved that it wouldn’t be Coralis. He smiled at her relief, then saw something move out of the corner of his eye. A long, waist-high cabinet topped with a glass hutch was filled with tall glass jars, each containing specimens of exotic arthropods. He approached the table, drawn by the rippling of a giant centipede’s legs. The top of its jar was secured with a tight lid. He cautiously lifted it for a closer look. He gasped as the insect twisted around and stared at him.
Brianna had snuck up behind him. “Don’t let it get you!”
“Gaa!” Completely startled, Henry bobbled the jar in his hands and watched helplessly as it dropped and shattered on the floor.
The centipede literally hit the ground running … right toward Luis, who screamed and performed a meter-high vertical leap onto a table. Molly whipped her wand and froze the centipede in its tracks, just as she had done to Bryndis. “You need to be more careful,” she scolded. “Now let’s get this cleaned up and … ”
All eyes turned toward Luis. The color had drained from his face and he panted rapidly through his open mouth. Molly saw that he was about to hyperventilate. “Gretchen, talk to him, quickly!”
Gretchen gave him reassurance that everything was okay. But even with her very persuasive use of Voice, it took several minutes to calm him down.
“Are you all right?” Molly asked tenderly.
Luis nodded. “Yes … I mean, no.” He looked into the faces of the concerned apprentices. “I have a story, too.” He smiled tersely at Katelyn.
Luis sat heavily, pressing the heels of his palms to his forehead as if trying to suppress a headache. “It was shortly after the falcon delivered the wand. The jungle has thick vines that wind their way through the trees—monkey ladder vines. Fun to climb. I was practicing a new technique, trying to copy something I had seen a howler monkey do, when one of those ran over my hand and startled me.” He pointed to the centipede.
“Yikes!” said Henry.
“It’s a giant Amazon centipede. Like everything else where I live, they are much bigger than you’d think. That one isn’t an adult. They grow up to thirty centimeters long and bite with a painful venom. They eat mice, and frogs, and lizards.” He closed his eyes.
“I was at least seven meters off the ground and nearly lost my grip. Had I fallen, I would have been badly hurt—or dead. I don’t know what possessed me. In a flash of anger, I whipped out the wand and struck the centipede in the head.” He lowered his voice to a fear-filled whisper. “Something happened to it. It lifted its body into the air with only its hind pair of legs anchoring it to the vine and faced me head-on.” He pointed at the immobile insect. “Those legs near its head are shaped like claws. It began to rub them together. Slowly at first, then faster. They began to make a sound like a cricket does when it rubs its wings together. Except that it got so loud that it hurt my ears and soon took on the tone of an animal being eaten alive—or like an infant wailing in intense pain. An unbearable screeching sound.”
He stopped as his hands began to quiver. He sat on them quickly and squeezed his eyes shut again as if he were trying to block the image. “Suddenly, it stopped. A stillness came over the jungle and I knew something bad was about to happen. Then it lunged at me, and this time I did fall, banging against branches on the way down. They slowed my fall enough that I was not seriously hurt—not yet.”
He looked at Katelyn, pain and fear etched on his face. “I understand how you felt. I heard them before I saw them. Like armored soldiers marching into battle. I don’t know where they all came from—didn’t think there were that many in all of the Amazon. Thousands upon thousands of giant centipedes. They looked like a column of army ants. I was nearly paralyzed with fear but somehow managed to run. I thought I heard them screaming, but realized it was me. When I finally stopped to catch my breath, the jungle had gone silent. They had disappeared.”
Gretchen handed him a glass of water. The room was as quiet as the jungle must have been. “That’s when it got bad. They hadn’t disappeared after all. They simply took to the trees. I wasn’t aware of where they had gone until the bats began to fall—by the hundreds. Each in the deadly grasp of a centipede. They are relentless killers that feed until their victims are sucked dry. The bats continued to fall until the ground was a carpet of squirming death. And still more fell—each one attacked in their daytime sleep, never to wake up again.”
He addressed Serena. “You’ve seen bats in the desert. You know what they eat.”
She nodded. “Insects.”
“Yes. In the jungle it’s mostly mosquitoes. They will eat almost their body weight every night.”
“That’s a lot of mosquitoes,” said Henry.
“Millions.” Luis scowled at him. “Millions of bloodthirsty bugs that fell upon my village that night like sharks in a feeding frenzy. It was as if they knew we had lost the protection of the bats. I will never forget the screams of every man, woman, and child that night.” His voice was firm, yet a tear rolled down his cheek.
“They attacked us all night long. When the sun finally came up, they were gone. And the crying replaced the screams.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Serena reached for his hand but he jerked it away.
“Yes, it was! And they all knew it was, because I was the only one without a single bite mark. Nature got its revenge on me and made sure everyone knew it was my fault. Three children had to be rushed to a hospital that night! And it was—my—fault!”
“That’s enough,” Molly said softly.
“No.” The tears came freely but his voice refused to falter. “It will never be enough. They took me from the village and banished me here—not to be some apprentice. But because I was dangerous and they were afraid of me.”
“There was nothing you could have done.” Molly rested a hand on his shoulder. “Nature is as strange as it is unpredictable. Just as you think you’ve figured something out, chaos will erupt and prove you wrong. But even chaos has a way of providing us with opportunities. If that hadn’t happened, you might not be here with us. And we need you.”
Luis scoffed. “Don’t lie to me to make me feel better.”
“No lies,” Molly said. “What you did required incredible power. Power you didn’t know you had. It was an accident, and you cannot dwell on it. As of this moment, you will all receive the training you need to become masters of your craft. Together we will become an invincible team united against a common enemy. Coralis will not let you fail.”
Luis’s face was shrouded in doubt, but he finally nodded and stood. “Okay. But one of these days I want to hear the details of the hedgehog story.” He glanced at Brianna with a hint of a grin.
Molly smiled. “Good. Gretchen will assist in your training, Brianna. The rest of you are mine until Coralis returns. So I suggest we get started. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!” She rubbed her hands together like a mad scientist as the apprentices rolled their eyes.
“This is exhausting,” Luis complained. “Tell me again why mixing this herb with this liquid will save the world.”
Serena and Katelyn groaned. In the nine days since Molly had begun teaching, Luis proved to be a fast learner—and a constant whiner.
Despite the complaints, Henry found it hard to believe how much Luis had learned in such a short time. He and Serena should have had a significant advantage over the rest of the group, having spent over a year at the castle. But there was a distinct difference between Coralis’s passive tutorial methods and Molly’s aggressive ones. Coralis had given them plenty of material to read along with weekly hands-on instruction in the laboratory. But much of the time he was absent, leaving them on their own to learn through discovery.
In contrast, Molly was like a drill sergeant. The first day, she taught them how to store information in their heads the way Coralis had taught Henry on the train. Her drills were so tight and thorough that by the end of the day they were compartmentalizing lessons in geology and physi
cs.
At first, Henry was invigorated, eager to absorb every bit of knowledge, and excited that he was the best of the group. By the end of day two, he was as exhausted as the rest of them. By day three, Bryndis had surpassed him in some areas and Katelyn in others. By day four, he felt like he was treading water while the rest of them swam laps around him.
Brianna showed up on day five looking every bit as tired as he felt. But she had learned her lessons well. Something about her had changed. She exuded confidence. Grasping Henry’s upper arm, she sent a thought: “Can you feel it?”
A surge of power coursed through him, giving him a momentary feeling of invincibility. “Awesome!”
She turned her attention to Luis next, but for him she used a different approach. Gretchen had taught her that an Enabler could affect someone mentally as well as physically.
Luis was undoubtedly talented and intelligent, but his attention span was short and he was easily distracted. He constantly questioned the value of facts he was forced to memorize. At one point, Molly asked him flat out if he had a problem with authority figures.
“No,” he answered humbly. “But I’ve always had a problem learning something if I didn’t understand why I had to learn it. I like solving math problems. There are rules to follow and reasons for every rule. But the rest doesn’t make sense.”
Brianna grasped what needed to be done and set to work on him. She answered all of his questions with questions and prodded him with key words that stimulated his thoughts. Before long, he had stopped challenging Molly’s instructions and begun offering explanations that helped them all comprehend better. His question about the importance of mixing herbs and liquids stemmed more from exhaustion than anything else, and in his own way, he spoke for the group. Even Bryndis, Katelyn, and Serena had gone from fanatical attention to slumping in their chairs and occasionally doodling.
Molly had just finished a lesson on the laws of thermodynamics when Henry asked, “When is Coralis coming back?”
Molly’s eyes narrowed to mere slits.
“Sorry, I mean … ” Henry hesitated. “It’s just that Coralis has been gone for a while, and I was wondering if you might know if he’s coming back soon.”
Molly smiled. “As a matter of fact … ” She motioned for them to follow her. As they filed out of Ole Worm’s room, Luis almost stepped in Bryndis’s path, then took a quick step back to allow her to go first. She twitched her hands in his direction, making him flinch, and then casually ignored him. But a half minute later she was giggling with Katelyn and Serena at his expense.
“Very funny,” he grumbled.
They continued through the maze of corridors and out the front door of the castle to walk along the exterior perimeter of the compound in single file like ducklings following their mother. On their third lap, Molly suddenly stopped and addressed the wall. “Any time now!”
Henry was the first to snicker, realizing the castle was toying with her. Brianna joined in until Molly couldn’t help but crack a smile. The others looked at them as if they were crazy.
Molly stepped away from the wall and yelled, “Coralis!”
“Confound it, woman!” Coralis’s head popped through a hole in the wall that had not been there a second ago—right next to Bryndis, who shrieked. “Stop your tomfoolery and get in here. We have work to do.”
His head disappeared with a POP and a narrow doorway appeared. One by one, they entered, appearing apprehensive about what was in store for them. But Henry had seen the humorous twinkle in Coralis’s eyes.
“Where are we?” Luis asked, his gaze darting nervously as the doorway sealed silently behind them.
Henry was about to reply with a snarky comment. But after a quick look around, he saw why Luis was puzzled. They were in a courtyard, but it wasn’t the courtyard they knew. This one was smaller—much smaller, and Gretchen’s familiar garden was missing.
Another secret of Castle Coralis stood revealed.
The ground of this hidden rectangular courtyard was firmly packed red earth. The walls were lined with a mineral Henry had not seen before, teal and shimmering in the sunlight.
“What I am about to show you has only been seen by Wand Masters.”
Henry examined the enclosure as Coralis spoke, eventually settling his eyes on the old man. Henry could sense he was tired, and it was more than simply a lack of sleep.
“This entryway is lined with alternating layers of quartz and extremely rare luminescent labradorite. Can any of you tell me why?” He stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The silence grew long, and it became clear that he would not proceed without an answer.
Henry thought back to all the hours he had spent studying his book about minerals and their properties. Suddenly he recalled something, but it was from a different book. It was from one of the secret books he had found in his attic and painstakingly translated with ulexite last year. “Atlantis,” he mumbled, deep in thought.
“What was that, Henry?” Coralis prodded.
“It’s the same combination that keeps Atlantis hidden.” He closed his eyes, picturing the page in the book. “It repels negative energy while sealing in positive energy.”
“First Merlin, now Atlantis?” Bryndis sounded doubtful. “What next … the Loch Ness monster?”
Coralis’s eyes burned like hot coals in her direction. “Sorry.” She stepped back and bumped up against the wall, withering before his gaze.
Katelyn inched closer to her and whispered, “Even I know Nessie isn’t real.”
“Do not dismiss that which you cannot see as something that does not exist,” he admonished, squinting in Katelyn’s direction. “Though in this case you are correct. There is no Nessie.” He shrugged with a brief grin and continued. “These minerals keep this castle protected from the prying eyes of the outside world. It will never show up on satellite imagery as more than an empty field. And only Wand Masters know how to use an Argus Wand properly to locate it.”
“What about the villagers who brought us here?” Luis asked.
“Descendants of the Hutsuls who built this place. They have pledged undying loyalty and are trusted beyond a doubt.” Coralis waved a wand at one of the shorter walls. The teal mineral dissipated into a mist, revealing a door that was both ancient and intimidating. Weathered planks ran vertically and were fastened with horizontal straps of riveted metal. Iron hinges in the shape of lion claws held the door in place, and along its left side hung five padlocks, evenly spaced from top to bottom. Each padlock displayed an identical geometric pattern.
To Henry, it looked like the door to a medieval torture chamber.
Coralis approached the door and casually flipped over a palm-sized rock with the toe of his boot. Beneath the rock, among the various scurrying insects, lay a small stone the size of a dime. Plain and unremarkable on one side, he turned it over to reveal an intricate geometric pattern—a pattern that matched the design upon the locks.
Coralis studied the group’s reaction out of the corner of his eye as he grabbed the center padlock and inserted the stone into a perfectly sized indentation in its back. Immediately, light raced throughout the pattern on the lock, illuminating sections of the design in a dazzling display. Coralis then tapped his wand against each lock in sequence. With a loud snap, the center lock popped open, followed in quick succession by the other four.
They jumped, as he knew they would. Henry caught the cagey grin on the old man’s face. He’d once overheard Coralis tell Gretchen that the surprises he could spring on the unsuspecting were among the few true joys of his life.
The Wand Master chuckled to himself as he removed each lock from the lion-clawed hinges.
“Are you sure about this?” Molly asked softly.
“No,” Coralis replied. “But we have no choice.”
The room was black as pitch. Molly was the first to step through the doorway and was immediately swallowed by the darkness. The rest of the group followed tentatively, not knowing what to expect.
Coralis was last and closed the door behind him, plunging them into an abyss totally devoid of light. A set of interior locks snapped briskly into place. Ten seconds went by. Then twenty.
Luis was the first to break the silence. “Um … ”
“Quiet!” Coralis barked. “I need to test something.” A full minute later, he grunted with satisfaction. “It would appear, Henry, that all residual traces of exposure to the bad moonbeams have left you.”
“What does that mean?” Katelyn asked from a dark space to Coralis’s left.
“It means Henry used to glow in the dark,” Brianna said lightly.
“Man,” Luis said. “When you have accidents, they are whoppers!”
Serena giggled.
“Henry, would you do us the honor of providing some sunshine?” Coralis asked.
Henry was steaming over how easily Luis could make Serena laugh; he nearly missed the request. “But I … ,” he began to object.
“Sunshine, Henry,” Coralis prodded.
Henry nodded, forgetting no one could see, and took out his wand. The first time he’d attempted this, he’d nearly blinded Coralis and caused an accident. But he had practiced since then. He envisioned the sun just peeking over the edge of the horizon, slowly rising in the morning sky. His wand began to glow like a low-wattage bulb.
“Brighter,” Coralis encouraged.
Henry urged his wand until it was so bright the entire chamber was lit. They had entered an enormous circular room with a domed ceiling that stretched far beyond what should have been the height of the castle.
“That ceiling has to be over twenty meters away!” Luis gasped.
“From the outside, you would not think a room of this magnitude could exist. And yet, here it is. The right combination of natural elements can accomplish many things,” Coralis explained. “This entire vault is constructed of rare elements that account for its exterior invisibility.” The room was impressive by anyone’s standards. There was awe even in Coralis’s voice, and Henry noticed the Wand Master glance sideways at the group to see how far their jaws had dropped.