“Wait!” Mom called out. Xavier stopped at the bottom step, groaning inwardly. “While you’re here, would you do me a favor and run down to the basement and grab a few jars of tomatoes? I’m going to make some sauce for dinner.”
“Um . . . can I do it later? I mean, I’m kind of in a hurry. . . .”
“No, Xavier. I need it now. It will only take a minute!”
“But Mom . . .”
“Do as your mother says.”
Startled, Xavier whirled around to see his father sitting in his favorite chair in the living room, his laptop perched on his outstretched legs like it usually was whenever he was working from home. Xavier hadn’t even noticed him sitting there when he hurried past earlier. He automatically straightened up at the sight of his father. It was something of a natural reflex.
“Your mother should never have to ask you the same question twice, son.”
“Yes, sir,” Xavier responded respectfully. He raced down the hall to the basement door and flew down the stairs; it wasn’t until he got there that he realized he had no idea where his mom kept the jars of tomatoes. Great, he muttered to himself. While the other kids are having adventures in Ahoratos, I’ll be hunting for tomato jars.
He pulled the cord of the single bulb light overhead and started making his way into the dark, unfinished basement. His dad had plans to fix it up as a game room for Xavier and his brother “someday,” but he’d been so busy with work since they’d moved in that the project seemed to have been forgotten.
The basement gave Xavier the creeps. It was more like a cellar, with dank concrete walls that smelled funny. It reminded him an awful lot of the prison under the Fortress of Chaós.
He rummaged through a bank of cabinets that held old games, camping gear, Christmas decorations, and some stuff for making candles, from back when his mom had been interested in candle making. No tomatoes. He passed by a stack of boxes; one of them was labeled “Xavier’s first year,” full of mementos like his first tooth and a lock of hair from his first haircut. Gross. He had no idea why his mom saved that stuff.
Finally, he came upon a shelf that had rows of odd-colored vegetables marinating in jars—like a mad scientist’s lair, he thought to himself, laughing a little. He looked for the red ones—but there were quite a few different kinds. He wasn’t sure which were tomatoes and which were something else—like peppers.
He picked one of the jars off the shelves and examined it. He saw tiny seeds, which could be tomato seeds. It reminded him of the seed in his pocket. He glanced down to make sure it was still there and gasped. His whole pocket was glowing, like it was on fire. He felt his heart race—was the seed going to burn right through his pocket? He reached in tentatively and pulled out the seed. It was warm, but not too hot, and glowing very brightly, bathing all the jars on the shelves in an eerie red light. Xavier blinked several times, wondering if he was imagining all of this.
Before he could even think about what to do with the glowing seed, one of the jars fell off the shelf and crashed onto the concrete floor at his feet. Xavier jumped back, startled. Had he done that? Now there was a big mess of shattered glass and tomato goop on the floor. He’d have to get something to clean it up. But before he could move, he heard a soft rumble and the gentle clanging of glass jars. He looked to see that the shelf itself was shaking. He reached out to steady it. But the shaking just got worse.
Was it an earthquake? He pushed the seed back in his pocket so he could use both hands to steady the shelves. A jar fell; Xavier caught it and tried to put it back, but soon another jar fell, slipping through his fingers. It hit the floor, splattering glass shards and icky vegetables all over him.
“Mom!” he called out. He needed to warn her about the earthquake. As more jars lost their balance, he abandoned the shelf and turned to head for the stairs. The light went out. He wondered if the lightbulb had been shaken out of its socket. He was in complete darkness.
The rumbling continued. Xavier took out his phone and turned on the flashlight icon so he could see what was going on. The shelves were still quaking, making more jars splatter on the concrete floor. But nothing else was moving. The rest of the basement was quiet. This wasn’t an earthquake at all.
“What’s going on?” he said aloud. None of this made any sense.
He reached out to grab one of the quivering shelves to make it stop, but his hand went right through it—as if the shelf were no longer there. A hole had appeared in the middle of the shelf, swallowing up the jars as it expanded. The hole, Xavier realized, went right through the thick concrete wall, so that the light from his phone shone into empty darkness beyond. A dim pinprick of red light appeared in the middle of the darkness, capturing his attention. It grew steadily larger, like the headlight of an oncoming train.
After a moment he could make out what it was.
The Crest.
The Crest of Ahoratos, glowing bright red, growing larger and more distinct against the curtain of black.
“Hurry, Prince Xavier,” said a voice. Xavier knew instantly whose voice that was.
Still holding the seed, he jumped through the hole in the wall, running as fast as he could toward the light.
* * *
“Xavier?” Xavier’s dad came down the basement steps and looked around. He was sure he’d heard glass breaking. Everything was quiet and intact. He walked over to the shelf of canned vegetables.
No Xavier.
One jar lay broken on the floor, its contents spilled out over the concrete. Xavier’s dad frowned, puzzled. He bent down to pick up the glass pieces and noticed a footprint carved into the spilled tomato juice—a footprint with the grid pattern of a sneaker. And it was facing the shelf—as if Xavier had walked right into the shelf that lined the wall.
Xavier’s dad stared at that footprint a long time. He wondered. Could it be?
As he picked up more shards of glass, the spilled juice on the floor began to move, as if an invisible finger was running through it. Xavier’s dad held his breath as the drawing finally took shape, forming itself into the unmistakable Crest he’d known from long ago.
Xavier’s dad knew then where his son had gone. He smiled to himself, cleaned up the mess, and picked out two more jars of tomatoes to take upstairs. He’d have to tell his wife that the boys might be late for dinner.
Chapter 13
Ahoratos Again
Xavier?” said Brianna. “How’d you get here?”
Xavier spun around to find Brianna looking at him with a bewildered expression, as if he’d just dropped out of the sky. Maybe he had, he wasn’t quite sure. Evan and Levi were staring at him too, although Manuel was too busy trying to keep his homemade shield from falling over.
Xavier remembered running into the shining Crest and feeling for a moment as though his own body had evaporated, melted away by the radiant red glow of it. “I was in the basement, getting tomatoes and . . . Oh, nevermind, I’m here now.”
He was standing on the top of a tall hill overlooking what seemed to be the entire kingdom of Ahoratos. The bright sun shone from the golden sky above, bathing the scene in an ethereal radiance. He’d almost forgotten how beautiful Ahoratos could be when he wasn’t dodging Ents or going over waterfalls.
“Tomatoes?” said Levi, raising an eyebrow.
Xavier waved his hand, brushing off Levi’s teasing.
“Stellar,” said Brianna. “We were afraid you’d get stuck back there or something.”
“I see you got the shield to come through with you,” Xavier said, turning to Manuel.
“Yes, as I suspected. I just had to be holding it,” Manuel said proudly.
“Did you get your seed?” Brianna asked Xavier.
Xavier felt in his pocket. “Yeah, it’s here. What about yours?”
“Got mine,” said Brianna, pulling the box from her hoodie pocket and opening the lid. Like X
avier’s, her seed was glowing faintly.
“Me too,” said Levi, opening his hand to show them his seed.
“Where are we, anyway?” said Xavier. He turned in a circle to get the full view and caught sight of a tall mountain, the peak hidden in the clouds. Gazing at it, Xavier felt a surge of excitement run through his body. The mountain seemed to hold some sort of promise or challenge, beckoning to him.
“I don’t remember seeing that mountain before,” he said.
Levi looked to where Xavier pointed. “Me neither. Maybe it’s new.”
“A new mountain? Mountains are supposed to be old.”
“Well, here in Ahoratos, you never know what’s gonna pop up.”
“There’s Skot’os,” said Brianna. They all fell silent, gazing at the far horizon, where the twisted metal spires of the Fortress of Chaós loomed up through a low-lying fog. Above the fortress loomed a giant skypod, bigger than all the rest of them put together. It was shaped like a flattened teardrop with a dark, lumpy underbelly.
“That skypod looks bigger than it did before,” Xavier said. “Doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, creepy,” said Levi. “Shouldn’t we find the Water and—”
“There it is!” said Brianna, pointing to the river below them that meandered between the lower hills. “I can see the Crest!”
The Crest hovered on the surface of the ambling river, shivering slightly.
“Well, that was easy,” said Evan.
“Yeah, too easy, don’t you think?” said Xavier, concern in his voice.
Evan puffed out his chest a bit. “Nah. We’re just getting good at this stuff now, see? That Ponéros dude isn’t going to mess with us anymore.”
“Yeah, right,” said Xavier, wincing at Evan’s bravado.
“We should get down there,” said Manuel. “I can’t wait to show Ruwach my shield. . . .”
Suddenly Manuel’s shield shuddered, nearly knocking him off his feet. The other kids jumped away in alarm.
“What was—?” Before Manuel could finish his sentence, he saw what had happened—they all did. Something was sticking out of his beautiful shield—the green metal shaft of an enormous arrow.
“Is that what I think it is?” said Evan nervously.
The kids glanced around, only to see another arrow descending out of the sky, headed right for them. They froze in horror.
“Attack!” Manuel shouted, cowering behind the shield. “We’re being attacked!”
The second arrow, which was more like an Olympic javelin than a regular arrow, slammed into the ground near Evan’s foot. Evan cried out and jumped behind the shield with Manuel. Soon the other three kids were cramming themselves behind the shield as more arrows fell all around them, coming so fast that the air seemed to sing with them. Another arrow thumped into the shield, the point piercing all the way through, just inches from Brianna’s face. All the kids gasped in fright.
“Who’s shooting at us?” Brianna cried, trying to steal a peek around the edge of the shield to get a look. “I can’t see anyone shooting! Just arrows all over the place.”
“Probably Ponéros, the ‘dude’ who doesn’t want to mess with us,” said Levi sarcastically, glancing at Evan.
“All the way from the Fortress?” said Evan, his voice choked with disbelief. “It’s like a gajillion miles away.”
“He must have long-range arrows,” said Manuel. “Ballistic arrows.”
“We need to get to the Water,” Xavier said urgently. Another arrow slammed into the shield, making his ears ring. “Any ideas?”
“We could use the shield as a sled and slide down the hill really fast,” Evan offered.
“That’s a dumb idea,” said Levi.
“It’s not dumb,” said Xavier. “But it won’t be fast enough. Plus, we’d be too exposed.”
“We could wait until they run out of arrows,” said Levi.
“That’ll take forever,” cried Evan. “They’ve probably got like a gajillion. . . .”
“That’s not a real number,” said Brianna. Another arrow hit the shield, making them all wince. “We need to do something now!”
“Wait! I have an idea,” said Manuel, calculating his next move. He was looking up at the sun, which was shining brightly overhead. “Everyone grab an edge of the shield.” The others weren’t sure what he was up to, but Manuel was already in motion.
“What are we doing?” Brianna yelled.
“I saw a movie once where an army used sunlight reflected off their shields to blind the enemy—”
“Was it a true story?” said Brianna, as they strained to hoist the shield into position above their heads.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Levi. “We’re doomed if we stay here any longer.”
Manuel nodded, pushing up his glasses. “Okay, so everyone grab an edge of the shield—we need to lean it back so it can catch the light—”
The kids worked together, pushing one side and pulling the other while Manuel kept peeking out, dodging arrows to see if the shield was positioned correctly. Finally, it tipped just right so that the entire shield seemed to be lit on fire with the reflection of the sun, almost as if it had become the sun itself.
“There!” Manuel shouted. “Hold it right there!” The kids held as still as possible. After a moment they could hear the barrage of arrows begin to lessen.
“I think the attack is slowing down,” said Manuel.
“Then let’s move!” said Levi.
“Right. We’ve got to do this fast, before they can take aim again. Ready?” Xavier looked at each of the others to make sure they understood. They each nodded. “Okay. On your mark. Get set—” He paused, listening. There was no sound of launching arrows now. “GO!”
The five kids picked up the shield and, still holding it aloft, made a run down the slope toward the Water. Soon arrows began to fly again, but not as accurately as before.
“Jump!” Xavier shouted as soon as they made it to the bank, which was so thick with mud that their feet sank. Brianna, Levi, and Evan quickly let go of the shield to slosh through the muck, throwing themselves into the Water as arrows fell all around them. Xavier noticed that the arrows didn’t sink into the Water but bounced off as if they’d hit a solid wall.
“Come on!” Xavier shouted to Manuel. “We need to get in the Water—”
“But my shield!” Manuel cried, clinging to his shield even as he struggled to get his feet out of the mud. If Xavier let go, the shield would probably fall on top of Manuel and trap him.
“Okay,” Xavier said. “I’ll help you. But you need to move. Pull!”
Together they heaved the heavy shield through the thick muck, straining with all their might. Once Xavier was close enough to the Water’s edge he shouted, “Jump! Now!” The two boys jumped, pulling the shield down over their heads; it disappeared below the surface of the Water just as the deadly point of a huge green arrow slammed into it.
Chapter 14
In the Cave
That was close,” said Evan.
The kids were safely in the Cave, wearing their warrior clothes and armor. Around them, Sparks flitted merrily.
“A little too close,” said Levi.
“Good thing we had this shield,” said Manuel proudly. “It probably saved us.”
“I have a feeling that your shield is what helped the enemy find us in the first place,” said Xavier. “You could see that thing for miles.”
“You’re just jealous because you didn’t think of it,” said Manuel.
“Oh brother.” Brianna rolled her eyes.
“So you believe your shield will withstand any attack of the enemy here in Ahoratos?”
The kids whirled around to see Ruwach appearing from one of the tunnels. His voice was rather subdued. His long arms were tucked into his sleeves, so he looked smaller than usual
. He approached the shield, examining it, his hood tilted slightly in curiosity.
“Well, sure,” Manuel said a little more meekly. “I mean, it may look a little rough right now”—it had several large arrows still sticking out of it—“but it held up pretty well. This is only a prototype, of course. The next one will be even better. Titanium, maybe.”
“Indeed,” Ruwach said. “But the enemy you face has a knack for—changing tactics. And weapons. Are you sure you are ready for that?”
“Well, we’ll be more ready with this shield than we will be with those seeds,” Evan retorted. Xavier winced at his superior tone.
“I assume then that you did not bring your seed with you,” Ruwach said.
“Uh . . . no,” Evan said uncomfortably. “Figured I wouldn’t need it.”
“Is that why you threw it in the water of the pond instead of bringing it to the Water here in Ahoratos?”
Evan’s mouth open and closed, shocked that Ru already knew what he had done.
“You said that thing was dangerous! It was making me nervous. I mean, I didn’t want to get attacked more because I had a stupid seed in my dresser drawer.”
“I have mine, see?” Brianna said proudly, showing Ruwach her lavishly decorated box. “Doesn’t it look pretty?”
“Have you used it yet?” Ruwach responded.
“Used it?” Brianna wrinkled her nose. “How am I supposed to use it?”
“Ah, that is the point,” said Ruwach. “If you had followed my instructions, you would know by now.”
“We did follow the instructions,” said Xavier. “We kept the seeds safe. Well, most of us anyway. See?”
Xavier opened his hand, showing Ruwach his seed. Levi did the same.
“Keeping it is not enough,” Ruwach said. “The seed must be protected and used. As you will soon see, the enemy is on the move.”
Ruwach moved to the center of the room—to the kids it seemed as though he hadn’t moved at all, just disappeared from one place and reappeared in another. This was something they hadn’t seen him do before. He raised his hand, and as the sleeve of his robe fell away, they saw the brightness of his palm as it glowed pure white. And then a beam of light shot out of it straight into the air, as it had once before.
The Prince Warriors and the Unseen Invasion Page 8