by L. J. Smith
Kait looked at Timon. "Don't you think change is sometimes good?"
Timon came out of his reverie, looking startled. But no one answered her.
Kaitlyn's bedroom was very plain, with a bed built into the wall, a chair, and a washbasin under a mirror.
It was the first time she'd slept alone—without the others—in a week. She didn't like it, but she was so tired she fell asleep quickly anyway.
Alone in the tool shed, Gabriel was awake.
So Mereniang had "looked into their hearts," had she? He smiled wryly. What the Fellowship didn't seem to realize was that hearts could change. He had changed since he'd come here.
It was a change that had started last night. Last night on the wharf when he'd discovered his feelings for Kaitlyn—and Kaitlyn had made her choice.
It wasn't her fault. Strangely enough, it wasn't Kessler's, either. They belonged together, both honest, both good.
But that didn't mean Gabriel had to stick around and watch it.
And now, tonight, his last hope had disappeared. The people of the crystal couldn't free him. They didn't even want to. And he'd seen the disgust and condemnation in their eyes.
Live here? In their outbuildings? Face that condemnation every day? And watch Kessler and Kait romancing each other?
Gabriel's lips drew back from his teeth in a fierce smile. He didn't think so.
I should be grateful to the Fellowship, he thought.
They've shown me what I really am, simply in contrast to what they are. Back in the old days I'd have joined the Dark Lodge and hunted these gutless wimps out of existence.
It was a fairly simple equation. He didn't belong with the good guys, the white hats. Therefore, he must belong with the other side.
Not a new revelation, but a rediscovery. Kait had almost made him forget what he really was. She'd almost convinced him that he could live on the light side, that he wasn't a killer by nature. Well, tomorrow she'd see how wrong she'd been.
Gabriel stepped back a little to look at the body on the toolshed floor.
The man's name had been Theo. The Fellowship had sent him to spend the night out here—whether as companion or guard Gabriel didn't know. Now he was in a coma. Not quite dead, but getting there.
Gabriel had mind-linked with him to take knowledge from his brain. Including the knowledge of a secret trail through the otherwise impassable forest.
The extra energy had been nice, too.
Now the only thing Gabriel was waiting for was Lydia. He'd whispered a few words to her in the rose garden, asking her to come tonight and meet him. He was fairly certain she'd show up.
And then Gabriel would ask her if she really wanted to spend the next seventy years with a commune of doddering old hippies. Or if life might not be better back in sunny California, where Gabriel had the feeling that Mr. Zetes was setting up a little Dark Lodge of his own.
Lydia was weak. He thought he could persuade her.
And if he couldn't—well, she could join Theo on the floor. Lewis would be unhappy, but what did Lewis matter?
For just an instant an image flashed through his mind of what would happen if he could persuade her.
What would happen here, to the Fellowship, once he gave Mr. Zetes the information needed to home in on the white house. It wouldn't be a pretty picture. And Kait would be in the middle of it…
Gabriel shook the thought off and bared his teeth again.
He had to at least have the courage of his convictions. If he was going to be evil, he'd be evil, all the way. From now on there were no half measures.
And besides, Kessler would be here. He'd just have to take care of Kaitlyn himself.
A footstep sounded outside the shed. Gabriel turned to meet Lydia, smiling.
Someone was shouting.
Kaitlyn could hear it even in her sleep, as she slowly drifted toward consciousness. By the time she was fully awake, it was more than one person, and the web was singing with alarm.
She ran out, pulling on her clothes. Broadcasting What's happening? to anyone that could hear.
I don't know, Rob sent back. Everyone's upset. Something's happened…
People were running in the hallways of the white house. Kaitlyn spotted Tamsin and swooped on her.
"What's going on?"
"Your friends," Tamsin said. She had olive-dark eyes, contrasting strangely with her golden hair. "The boy outside and the small girl…"
"Gabriel and Lydia? What?"
"They're gone," Mereniang said, appearing from a recessed room. "And the man we had guarding Gabriel is nearly dead."
Kaitlyn's heart plummeted. Endlessly, it seemed. She couldn't move or breathe.
It couldn't be true. It couldn't. Gabriel wouldn't have done a thing like that…
But then she remembered how he'd looked last night. His gray eyes so opaque, his walls so high. As if he'd lost all hope.
And she certainly couldn't sense him anywhere in the web. She could feel only Rob and Lewis and Anna, who were coming to join her now in the hallway.
Rob put an arm around her to support her. Kaitlyn needed it; she thought her knees might give out.
Lewis was looking wretched and unbelieving. "Lydia went, too?" he asked pathetically. Mereniang just nodded.
"But they can't have gone far," Kait whispered, finding her voice. "They can't get through the forest."
"The guard knew a path. Gabriel entered his mind. He knows what the guard knew." Mereniang spoke with very little emotion.
"It must have been Lydia," Rob exploded. "Gabriel wouldn't have done it on his own. Lydia must have talked him into it, somehow." Kaitlyn could feel his pain and Lewis's fighting each other, building exponentially, magnifying her own distress.
Mereniang shook her head once, decisively. "If anything, it was the other way around. I realized last night that Gabriel was dangerous; that was why I sent Theo to watch him. But I underestimated how dangerous he was."
Kaitlyn felt a wave of sickness. "I still can't believe it. It couldn't have been his fault—"
"And I still don't think it was Lydia's fault," Lewis began.
"It doesn't matter whose fault it is," Mereniang said sharply, interrupting both of them. "And there's no time to argue. We have to prepare for an attack."
Lewis looked confused and horrified. "You're going to attack—?"
"No! We're going to be attacked. As soon as those two communicate with your Mr. Zetes. They must have run away to join him."
This time the wave of sickness almost drowned Kaitlyn. She heard Anna whisper, "Oh, no…"
And she tried to convince herself that Gabriel wouldn't tell Mr. Zetes, that he'd just run away. But the violent beating of her own heart contradicted her.
"Mereniang! We need you in the garden!" The voice came from a doorway.
Mereniang turned. "I'm coming!" She looked back at Kaitlyn's group. "Stay inside. The worst of it will be out there." And then she was running.
Kaitlyn held on to Rob, her only anchor in a spinning world. Do you think he'll do it?
Rob's arms tightened around her. I don't know.
Rob, is it our fault?
The hardest question, the one she knew would haunt her dreams if she lived through today. She could feel Lewis's hurt despair. Before Rob could answer, the attack began.
A cold wind blew down the corridor. Not just cold air, a gale. It whipped Kaitlyn's hair against her cheeks and tore loose strands from Anna's braid. It cut through their clothing like a newly sharpened knife.
And with it came a rattling. The wooden bench against the wall began to tremble, at first with a fine vibration, then more and more violently. Kaitlyn could hear the banging of doors swinging on their hinges, and the crash of things falling off shelves and walls.
It was so sudden that for a moment all she could do was stand and cling to Rob. Her temperature seemed to have dropped by degrees. A violent shivering racked her body.
"Stay together," Rob shouted, reaching out for
Anna and Lewis. They grabbed hold, all four of them clutching each other. It was like trying to stand in a blizzard.
There was a wild ringing in Kaitlyn's ears—like the sound she'd heard once in the van. The sound of a crystal glass being stroked, only this went on and on, and it was pitched at a frequency that hurt. That pierced like needles, making it almost impossible to think.
And the smell. The odor of rotting flesh, of raw sewage. The wind forced it into her nostrils.
"What are they trying to do? Stink us all out?" Lewis shouted.
"Meren said it would be worse outside!" Anna shouted back. It was no good using telepathy, the entire web was vibrating with that piercing note.
"And they said she was needed in the garden!" Rob shouted. "The garden—where the crystal is. Come on!"
"Come on where?" Lewis yelled.
"To the rose garden! Maybe we can do something to help!"
They stumbled and staggered getting out of the house. Outside, the wind was worse, and the sky was black with clouds. It didn't seem to be morning at all, but an eerie and unnatural twilight.
"Come on!" Rob kept shouting, and somehow they made it to the garden.
The smell was coming from here, and so was the ringing sound. The roses were tattered, their petals torn off by the wind. A few petals still whirled in the air.
"Oh, God—the crystal!" Anna shouted.
Most of the Fellowship seemed to be gathered around it, and many of them, including Timon and Mereniang, had their hands on it. The crystal itself was pulsating wildly, but not with the gentle milky light Kait had seen before. Every color of the rainbow seemed to be fighting and flashing in its depths. It was dazzling, almost impossible to look at.
But that wasn't what Anna had meant. It was something much worse. Superimposed on the rose garden crystal was another, a phantom crystal without any color. A monstrosity with growths sprouting from every facet.
The crystal from Mr. Z's basement, Kait thought dazedly. Or, rather, its astral image. And around that corrupted crystal were the astral images of the attackers, visible like ghosts among the bodies of the Fellowship.
The gray people, the ones she'd seen in the van. She just hadn't seen the crystal then. They were leaning around it, touching it with their hands and foreheads. Using its power—
—to do what? Kaitlyn thought suddenly. "What are they trying to do?" she shouted to Rob.
"They're trying to destroy our crystal," one of the Fellowship answered. A sturdy woman who was in the outer circle around the fountain. "They've set up a vibration to shatter it. They won't be able to do it, though, not while all our power is protecting it."
"Can we help?" Rob yelled.
The woman just shook her head, looking back at the crystal. But Rob and Kaitlyn both moved past her, struck by a common impulse to get as close as possible to what was happening. They squeezed through the crowd and ended up behind Timon and Mereniang.
Timon's frail body was shaking so hard that Kaitlyn felt a stab of fear. She was shaking herself—not with cold, now, but with the vibrations of the crystal. The ground, the fountain, everything was trembling, as if resonating to a single, terrible note.
"So much—evil. So much—"
It was a gasp, and Kaitlyn could barely hear it. But she saw Timon's lips moving and she caught the words. His lined face was white, his eyes wide and clouded.
"I didn't know," he gasped. "I didn't realize—and to do such things to children…"
Kaitlyn didn't understand. She looked at Mereniang and saw that the dark woman's face was also twisted with horror. Those blue eyes narrowed and streamed with tears.
Then Kait looked at the gray people.
They were more defined than she'd ever seen them before. It was almost as if they were actually materializing here, as if they might appear physically at any moment. She could see their bodies, their hands—and their faces.
One of them was familiar. Kaitlyn had seen that face before—or at least a picture of it. On a folder labeled SABRINA JESSICA GALLO.
But Mr. Zetes had told her they'd all gone insane. Every one of his first students, everyone in the pilot study.
Maybe he didn't mind them being insane. Maybe it was easier to control them that way…
Kaitlyn could feel tears on her own cheeks. Timon was right. Mr. Zetes was absolutely evil.
And he seemed to be winning. The crystal in the fountain was vibrating ever more frenetically. The kaleidoscope of colors disappearing into the misty gray of the other crystal. She could actually see the corrupted crystal more clearly now.
"Timon, let go!" Mereniang was calling. "You're too old for this! The crystal should be sustaining you, not the other way around."
But Timon didn't seem to hear her. "So evil," he said again and again. "I didn't realize how evil…"
"Rob, we've got to do something!" Kaitlyn shouted.
But it was Timon who answered, in a telepathic voice that cut through the ringing in the web. A voice so strong that Kaitlyn whirled to stare at him.
Yes! We must do something. We must let go of the crystal!
Mereniang was staring, too, her eyes and mouth open. "Timon, if we release it—"
Do it! the telepathic voice roared back. Everyone, do it now!
And with that, Timon stepped away, taking his hands off the crystal.
Kaitlyn's head was spinning. She watched as the other members of the Fellowship looked at each other wildly, in obvious distress. Then, suddenly, she saw another figure step back.
It was LeShan, his lynx eyes flashing, holding his empty hands in the air.
Another one of the Fellowship stepped away, and another. Finally only Mereniang was holding on.
Let go! Timon shouted.
The crystal was trembling visibly. The piercing note rang higher and higher in Kaitlyn's ears.
"Let go," Timon whispered, as if his strength had suddenly given out. "Someone—make her… She'll be destroyed…"
Rob surged forward. He grabbed Mereniang around the waist and pulled. Her palms came away from the crystal, and they both fell to the ground.
The terrible ringing became a terrible crashing. The sound of a million goblets falling to the floor. A sound that deafened Kaitlyn, echoing in every nerve.
The great crystal was shattering.
It was almost like an explosion, although the only thing flying outward was light. A burst of radiance that left Kaitlyn blind as well as deaf. Imprinted on her eyelids she had a picture of thousands of shards hanging in air.
She fell to her knees, arms wrapped around her head protectively.
When she opened her eyes, the world had changed. The wind was gone. So was the smell.
So were the crystals—both of them. The gray crystal had simply vanished, along with the gray people.
The other one, the last perfect crystal in the world, was lying in splinters in the water of the fountain.
Dizzy and unbelieving, Kaitlyn looked around.
Timon was lying on the grass, one hand curled on his chest. His eyes were shut, his face waxen.
Rob was picking himself up from under Mereniang, who was crying.
"Why?" the dark woman demanded. It was what Kait wanted to know herself. "Why, why?"
Timon's eyelids fluttered.
"Take a shard and give it to the children," he whispered.
CHAPTER 16
Mereniang looked both bewildered and horrified. She didn't move. But LeShan took two quick steps and thrust a hand into the fountain.
"Here," he said, holding out one of the shards toward Rob.
Rob didn't glance up. He was kneeling by Timon, one hand on the old man's upper chest.
"Hang on," he said. Then he glanced up at Mereniang. "He's so weak! It's as if his life-force has disappeared…"
"The crystal was sustaining him," Mereniang said. Her blue eyes, though still fixed on Timon, were dull.
She had withdrawn into herself, arms wrapped around her body. "When it shattered, his l
ife ended."
"He's not dead yet!" Rob said fiercely. He shut his eyes, placing his free hand on Timon's forehead.
Kaitlyn could sense the healing energy flowing from him.
"No," Timon whispered. "It's no use, and I need you to listen to me."
"Don't talk," Rob ordered, but Kait went to kneel by the old man. She needed to understand what was happening.
"Why did you do it?" she asked.
Timon's eyes opened. There was a strange serenity in their depths. He even managed something like a smile.
"You were right," he said faintly. "Change is good—or at least necessary. Take the shard."
LeShan was still holding out the crystal. Kaitlyn looked from him to Timon. Then she reached out her hand.
The shard was almost as thick as her wrist and a foot long. It was cold and heavy and the facets were very sharp. One sliced into her thumb when she tested the edge.
"Take it back with you, and do what needs to be done," Timon whispered. His voice was almost inaudible now. Rob was sweating, his hands trembling, but Timon seemed to be fading away.
"Some things are so evil they must be fought…"
A shiver went through Timon's frame, and a strange sound came from his lungs. Death rattle, Kaitlyn thought, too numb to move. It was almost like hearing a soul leave a body.
Timon's eyes were wide, staring at the sky. But now they were unseeing.
Kaitlyn's throat felt tight and swollen. Her eyes filled, tears spilling over. All around her the members of the Fellowship were milling about, like a flock of birds thrown into confusion. They didn't seem to know what to do now that Timon was dead and the crystal shattered.
And Rob's chest was heaving. His hair was dark with sweat, his eyes dark with grief. A healer who had lost the battle.
Kaitlyn scooted over to him, glad to have some problem she could understand. She put her arms around him. She felt a ripple in the newly free web and saw Lewis and Anna come to kneel beside her.
They put their arms around both Kait and Rob. All of them holding on as they had in the blizzard.
Clinging to one another because they were all they had.
"All right, you lot!" LeShan was shouting. "Timon's gone, but we're still alive. We're going to have to think for ourselves. And we don't have time to stand around!"