Billy had very little time to enjoy this strange reprieve, though, because his air finally ran out. He inhaled, but no air came into his lungs. His suddenly stricken body tried to cough, but no air came into it. The dark void of space had no oxygen to provide, and whatever air Billy had been given as part of his test was now gone.
Darkness started swirling in at the edges of Billy’s vision, and then he saw something, a bright light in the middle of the tunnel around the edges of his sight. At first he thought it was just another star, hanging between the three huge moons above him. But no, it couldn’t be a star, because it was moving. Faster and faster it came, growing larger in Billy’s sight.
The noise, that strange noise that he had been hearing, now grew louder as well. And as it did, Billy was amazed to see the colored sand below him starting to move as though in eddies of air. But that couldn’t be, could it?
But it was! Billy suddenly felt a cool blast of rich, wonderful air hit him in the face. He inhaled deeply, the air as wonderful to him as the hot chocolate had been in the anteroom on Powers Island. He felt his muscles rejuvenate as oxygen flooded his air-starved lungs.
With the air, he felt something else that he had not felt since coming to this strange place of his testing: he felt sound. It seemed strange, to think that sound could actually be felt, but it was true. As the air came from who-knew-where, it brought with it the sounds that had been absent from this meteor in space, and the sound it brought was as tangible as concrete to Billy. He could hear his own breathing, he could hear the sift of sand below his feet, he could hear the scraping of rocky joints as the scorpion swayed nearby, still dancing to the silent music that held it captive.
And through all this, the star that sped towards them grew. It grew and grew, and began to take shape. Billy blinked. He would have rubbed his eyes had his arms not been clasped so tightly around the rock monster’s stony leg. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
A new sound greeted him. It came from the star that wasn’t a star. It came from the thing that Billy couldn’t believe he was seeing.
The sound was a neigh. A great, loud whinnying that Billy imagined might be what the horses of medieval times might have sounded like as they carried their knights to battle.
The sound came from the shape in the sky above them. From the star that was not a star. It was a horse. But what a horse! It was the purest white, from the tip of its hard-breathing nose, to the ends of its hooves, which appeared to be made of white marble. A golden horn emerged from the horse’s forehead, a sharp-tipped swirl of bright color that seemed almost out of place on the snowy beast. Two enormous feathered wings emerged from its body, flapping in huge, powerful arcs. And instead of a horse’s tail, the incredible animal had a trio of platinum-colored flails that were both beautiful and terrible to look upon. Billy knew somehow that the tails could flay the skin from off an enemy, and sincerely hoped the Unicorn—no ordinary horse, he could see that now—would view him as a friend.
As it flew, the Unicorn’s legs galloped through the nothing of space, and with each downward movement, sparks flew from the marble hooves, making it look as though the animal ran on a path of fire. Billy could actually feel the heat of it from his tenuous perch. He could also feel the source of the air that had saved his life: with each downbeat of its wings, the Unicorn gathered wind and threw it downward, flooding the area with air of its own making.
The scorpion monster suddenly stopped its dance. It looked at Billy maliciously for a moment, then turned its head to look upon the Unicorn that was flying towards it. The scorpion made a noise other than the grumble of rock on rock for the first time: it screamed. The sound was like an avalanche or an earthquake, a clear warning cry that Billy understood instinctively: Stay away, the scorpion was saying. This place is mine. This boy is mine.
The Unicorn reared its feet in midair and answered with a battle cry of its own. And again, Billy felt like he could understand what the Unicorn was saying. The feeling was deeper than it was with the scorpion’s challenge. It was deeper, and more powerful, as the Unicorn seemed to say, This place is not yours. This boy is not yours. Nothing is yours, for all of Creation is mine.
The scorpion screamed again, a shout of anger and frustration. Without looking at Billy, it pounded its rocky leg into the wall of the valley, a tremendous strike that shook Billy’s skeleton and made his teeth rattle in his head. Billy’s grip loosened and he fell to the soft sand below, the wind knocked out of him by the impact. He heard the thumping of ten legs scuttling into position over him, and saw that the scorpion was above him now, its four hindmost legs backed up onto the cliff walls, its front two legs reared up in challenge before it. It was protecting its prey, and would not allow any other beast to challenge it in this, the monster’s own domain.
The Unicorn, now only feet from the scorpion, screamed its battle cry once more and attacked. It sped toward the scorpion, its horn lowered, a frightful golden spear. The scorpion riposted, its two hooked front legs swinging through the air in front of it, trying to knock the Unicorn to the ground.
The Unicorn wheeled in midair, its legs pushing it out of range of the strikes at the last second. It gave two great beats with its wings, and suddenly Billy felt himself in the middle of a great wind. The sudden rush of air threw him back to the edge of the valley, pinning him to the high cliff wall. It was so strong a blast that even the scorpion was pushed back for a moment. Then the monster pushed forward and lunged again at the Unicorn.
The Unicorn dodged once more, and as it did, it clapped its fiery hooves against one of the scorpion’s forelegs. The scorpion shrieked as the leg glowed bright red, then began to actually melt, long gobbets of molten rock flowing down and splattering to the ground below, only feet away from where Billy stood. The lava-like rock splashed against the colored sand, instantly fusing what it touched into colored glass, creating a stained-glass floor of beauty in the midst of the battle.
The scorpion screamed again, and Billy thought that this time the sound carried a new feeling: fear. What are you? the monster seemed to be saying.
And the Unicorn’s reply, which Billy seemed to hear in his heart, was, To you, I am Death.
The scorpion attacked again, swinging its barbed tail at the flying stallion in desperation. The Unicorn dropped its head and met the tail with its golden horn, and the tail exploded in a beautiful nova of color that drifted down. Billy saw that the colors floating down all around him were in fact budding flowers of every kind: roses, petunias, lilies, ever kind of flower that Billy had ever heard of, and more that he could not identify.
The scorpion was now cowering, trying to press itself into the wall of the valley, like a cockroach trying to find a crack to escape into when the lights come on. But it was no use, there was no escape from the onrushing Unicorn. The great steed continued to blast the rocky monster with bursts of cyclonic wind, and heat blazed from its marbled feet. The scorpion chattered, a whining keen that spoke only of fear.
The Unicorn tossed its white-maned head contemptuously, then wheeled in the air for one last, deadly attack. It dove at the scorpion, which tried one last time to knock the horse from the air with its maliciously curved legs.
The Unicorn wheeled, easily avoiding the scorpion’s strike, and then turned at the last second. The Unicorn’s three tails of platinum whipped about and struck the scorpion across the back. The scorpion shrieked in pain, then reared up on its hind legs, arcing its rocky back in agony.
The monster froze, solid as it had been when Mrs. Russet’s power held it in stasis. Then it began to rumble, the sound beginning deep within the monster’s body and rolling outward in long waves. Fissures appeared in the frozen monster’s body, and then with a sharp cracking sound, pieces of the rock beast’s body began to separate and fall away.
Billy covered his head and ran out from beneath the scorpion, two-ton boulders crashing into the colored sand all around him. He wheeled to one side, narrowly avoiding being crushed by a fal
ling piece of the scorpion’s once terrifying jaws. Billy’s legs pumped desperately, terror giving him new strength, and he threw himself out of harm’s way only an instant before the entire body of the scorpion exploded in a shower of rock and dirt.
Billy lay for a long moment, face down in the sand. He was amazed to still be alive, and he resolved right that instant not to be afraid of asking Blythe to walk to class with him ever again. Life was just too short.
Then he gasped as a pair of crackling marble hooves thudded into the sand only inches from his face. Billy looked up. The Unicorn stood before him, huge and kingly. It pawed its front hoof impatiently.
Get on, it seemed to say. I haven’t got all day to kill monsters and wait for you to climb up.
“But, you’re too tall,” Billy began.
The Unicorn knelt down, dropping one wing to the ground, creating a ramp of sorts. Billy climbed up the wing, then awkwardly sat astride the huge animal.
The Unicorn shook itself, and Billy had to grab its mane to keep from falling. The hair was thick and strong, yet at the same time felt as soft as velvet. Billy wanted to bury his face in the Unicorn’s mane, but knew somehow that the great animal would not permit that. Permitting such an action would not be dignified, and this horse was dignity personified.
The Unicorn reared back, screaming a triumphant cry at the remains of the rock monster that had been created by Mrs. Russet and then dispatched with so little effort by the Unicorn’s powerful attacks. Then the white animal hunkered down, and with a tremendous bursting of its powerful muscles, it launched itself high into the space above the barren rock where Billy had been supposed to have his test.
I passed the test, he thought suddenly. I survived.
The Unicorn looked back at him, as if to say, You know that’s not true…, the test was not passed, you were simply saved.
And Billy did indeed know that was true, though he couldn’t say exactly where his certainty came from.
Then those thoughts were left behind as the Unicorn beat its wondrous wings and the meteor was left far behind them in the blink of an eye.
Where are we going? Billy wondered.
The Unicorn looked back at him, and again Billy seemed to feel the words the Unicorn would have said: You’ll see, Billy. You’ll see.
CHAPTER THE TENTH
In Which Billy is taken to a place he Knows Well, and a Challenge is Issued…
The universe sped past Billy and the Unicorn, faster and faster, until the stars fused together and became one continuous streak of light. Billy thought he glanced planets here and there, and streaking comets. Novas exploding in bright soundless light, and the pure darkness of black holes.
Then the beautiful lights slowed. Billy saw Saturn pass by, its rings almost as beautiful as those of the great moon that had overshadowed the valley of his test. He saw the giant ball of gas that was Jupiter, and the relatively small red planet he guessed must be Mars.
Then, a familiar green and brown and blue orb came into view. Earth. Home. The Unicorn upon which Billy sat galloped (or was it flew?) toward the planet, and Billy’s hair whipped around his head in a halo of curls in the impossible wind that accompanied the Unicorn’s flight.
They entered the earth’s atmosphere, dropping like liquid flame through the outer reaches and then into the highest clouds that hung miles above the earth’s surface.
Still farther they fell, and Billy couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer exhilaration of the feeling. He was flying! The downbeats of the Unicorn’s wings sounded like claps of thunder, the flaming hooves crackled like electricity, and Billy was riding the storm.
The Unicorn flew above the waves of the sea, so low that its wingtips touched the still waters, leaving perfect dimples in the surface of the water that collapsed and disappeared an instant after they passed. Billy could see his reflection in the sea, a phantom version of him that lived below the waves, and disappeared as soon as Billy rose up high.
Then he saw, far ahead, a familiar cloud cover. A looming pillar that extended high up until it could no longer be seen. Powers Island.
Billy thought at first the Unicorn would take him there, but it veered to the side at the last second. It took him higher again, into the clouds. Billy blinked moisture off his face, not able to see anything. Then he suddenly could see again, and glimpsed another island. But where Powers Island was beautiful, enjoying the presence of all seasons at once, and gifted with all manner of flora and fauna, this island was dark and forbidding, made of craggy cliffs and iron-colored beaches. Icy waves pounded at the cliffs that ringed the island. The waves were cold-looking and terrible, dark surf pounding against the treacherous rocks that encircled the island. And when Billy squinted, he thought he could see hundreds of black shapes swimming just below the surface of the jagged ocean.
Sharks, he realized. The place is surrounded by sharks. Then he thought, It’s Dark Isle. This has to be Dark Isle, the place Wolfen made during the War of the Powers.
He knew it had to be true. What other place could look so terrible and forbidding?
Then a lash of rain whipped across Billy’s face. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Dark Isle was gone, lost in the mists that surrounded him and the Unicorn.
The Unicorn continued to flap its wings, and flew them over earth and sea, over mountain and valley. At last, it landed in a place that Billy would never have guessed it would leave him.
It dropped him on the roof of his school. Billy sat atop the Unicorn, unsure.
This can’t be all, he thought. I mean, take me through the universe, show me Dark Isle, and then…take me to school?
But the Unicorn shook its body, its skin rippling as though it was trying to get rid of an annoying fly. Billy didn’t move. The Unicorn shuddered again, dislodging Billy from his perch. Billy fell to the side, rolling down the Unicorn’s outstretched wing, and then falling to the rooftop.
Without another sound, without another look, the Unicorn shot into the air. It pounded its wings only a handful of times before it was too high to see.
Billy looked around him. After all that he had seen, the return to school was almost too unsettling to be believed. He wondered how he was supposed to get down from the roof. A moment later, he saw that there was an access door nearby. He figured it would have to be locked, but when he tugged at it, the door opened and he lowered himself onto the ladder below. He climbed down, and found himself in the janitor’s closet, the same one that Mrs. Russet had taken him through to get to Powers Island. The door was locked, but it was designed to keep students out, not to keep them in, so Billy was able to unlock it from the inside and step out into the hall.
He looked at his birthday watch. Once again, only a few minutes had passed. Which meant that he was late for his after-lunch class.
He ran to his locker, managing to avoid the hall monitors who prowled the school, waiting with itchy fingers to give detention to students found in the halls without a pass. He grabbed his bag and hurried to his math class.
The door was open, which was lucky for him. Mr. Angle’s back was turned, and Billy was able to slink in and take his seat without the teacher noticing. Mr. Angle turned around and checked his seating chart to make sure no one was absent, then began droning about rhombuses.
Billy sneaked a glance behind him. Cameron Black was, strangely, nowhere to be seen.
But Blythe was staring at him. Billy smiled and waved half-heartedly. She smiled back, and Billy’s hopes soared. He had been so worried that she would be angry with him for abandoning her the way he had.
She wrote something on her notepad, then crumpled it up and threw it at Billy. To his pleasant surprise, he managed to catch it this time—no embarrassing misses in front of Blythe.
He uncrumpled the paper, and this time he also managed to turn immediately to the correct side, disregarding the math notes on the other side of the page. This time, however, he wished he hadn’t been able to find what she wrote.
“You’r
e a jerk,” the paper said.
Billy’s shoulders slumped. He looked back at Blythe, but the beautiful girl was now studiously avoiding his gaze, focusing so intently on Mr. Angle that you would think she was actually interested in what he was saying. This, Billy knew, was a total impossibility: no one could actually be interested in what Mr. Angle was saying. Which meant Blythe hated him.
His shoulders slumped even further. He had blown it. Forget almost being killed by a space scorpion. He had failed the test that really mattered.
A moment later, Mrs. Russet appeared at the door to Mr. Angle’s class. She looked around, spotting Billy in an instant.
“May I help you, Mrs. Russet?” asked Mr. Angle tremulously. Apparently he was as scared of her as were her students. He hitched at his tiny pants nervously, and one of his suspenders popped off unnoticed.
“I would like to speak to Mr. Jones if I may,” she answered.
“Well, yes, of course,” Mr. Angle managed, even though she had already turned away and begun walking down the hall.
Billy snatched up his books. He threw one more glance at Blythe and was disheartened that even the novelty of his getting plucked out of class didn’t get her to look at him. He hurried out of the class and into the hall.
Mrs. Russet was walking hurriedly in front of him, her old legs moving with the energy of a twenty-year-old marathoner. Billy struggled to keep up, barely managing to keep her in sight before she turned the corner and entered her classroom. The history room was empty.
She wheeled on him the second he entered. “Close the door,” she snapped. Billy jumped at the sharpness in her voice. “Please,” she added, as though aware of the terrifying effect she could have on people. “This is my free period, so we shouldn’t be interrupted.”
Billy closed the door, and when he turned back around he thought for sure that Mrs. Russet was going to want to know what had happened during his test. But she didn’t. Her face was ashen, and the words that came had nothing to do with Billy’s test. “What have you seen in the halls today?”
Billy: Messenger of Powers Page 16