“You passed out when you couldn’t spell ‘labyrinth,’” Nadia said. “I didn’t think it was that hard.”
“It’s not,” Rich countered. “L-a-b-y-r-i-n-t-h’. I just started getting dizzy, and I …” He paused to consider how crazy the truth would make him sound. “I blacked out. I feel better now.”
“Shall we have another go at it?” asked the moderator.
“No, Nadia won fair and square,” Rich said. “She obviously has more talent.”
Nadia had opened her mouth to protest whatever Rich was going to say, but his comment seemed to knock her off balance.
“Thanks. Good match.” She blushed, making the freckles on her face blend in with the rest of her skin. She then melted backwards into the crowd, keeping her head low.
Another person fought through the group to take her place next to Rich, and all at once, he became lightheaded again, but for different reasons than before.
Mallory took his hand. “Are you all right? That was scary. It’s like you just checked out for a minute.” She squeezed his hand gently, and Rich’s whole body tingled with delight.
“Thanks for your note. It smelled good.” It was all Rich could manage to say.
“Rich, I’m sorry…” she began.
Rich held up a hand. “No, don’t worry about it. I understand. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”
The light returned to Mallory’s eyes, with a grin to match. “We should get together again—this weekend,” she suggested. “But maybe inside this time.”
Something in Rich’s stomach squirmed. The weekend was coming up, and with it, the deadline he had for defeating his nemesis. He couldn’t tell her that, though. He could hear himself now. “Oh, I can’t. I’ve got to complete a quest or die this weekend. How about next weekend, if I’m still around?”
Rich dipped his head. “This weekend might be bad. What about early next week?”
Her face fell, as if he’d just told her that her birthday had been cancelled. “You mean, you don’t want to? I’d understand, though I really wanted to make it up to you after last time.”
Rich felt as if he was being -pulled in opposite directions. He gave in to hers. “No, let’s do it. Can I call you?”
“Yeah, that would work.”
“What’s your number?”
Rich punched in her number into his smartphone, and smirked despite his anxiety. “How about lunch or something? My treat.”
The grin returned to Mallory’s face. “That would be great. I’d say let’s do it tonight, but I’ve got a lot of …”
Suddenly, the ground shifted violently beneath them, and most of the crowd joined Rich as he fell back to the floor. Flags fell from the walls, and people scrambled for cover as the earth continued to shake. Mallory screamed, and Rich shoved her behind a padded seat.
The shaking continued for a solid minute before settling down. Rich propped himself up on a chair. “What was that?”
“An earthquake,” Mallory said. “I didn’t think we were anywhere near a fault line or anything.”
“Not even close,” Rich agreed. “What’s going on?”
Aaron rushed over to Rich, his face grave. “That was no ordinary earthquake.”
Mallory’s face twisted in a wry smile. “What do you mean? Like, we were under attack by aliens? Or a mad scientist or something?”
Aaron looked as if she had just talked to him in Swahili, and Rich took a second to visualize a mad scientist with an earthquake machine.
“No, nothing like that. At least, I think not,” Aaron said with a hint of annoyance. “Come on, Rich—we should get outside. It will be safer in case there is another one.”
Rich looked longingly at Mallory. She nodded. “Good idea. I think we’re supposed to assemble with our classes for next period. Go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
Mallory reached over, gently squeezed Rich’s hand, and turned to go. They stood and followed her through the halls, keeping a little ways back so they could speak privately. They leaned up against a bank of lockers and spoke in quiet voices. “What do you mean, it wasn’t a normal earthquake? Something to do with Palad and Nemes?”
“That is exactly what I mean. Things must be getting worse. Perhaps we are running out of time.”
“Out of time until what?”
“Until one or the other actually…wins, which is probably the wrong word. If that happens, chances are, no one will actually walk away a winner. The person who wins will tip the balance for light or darkness, and the whole world will fall into chaos. The only way to safety is to get the two to resolve things peacefully. It isn’t likely to happen, though, so they keep on fighting.”
“What can we do about it?” Rich asked. “I can’t imagine there’s much.”
“You can complete your quest.”
Rich threw his hands up in frustration. “Finish my quest, finish my quest! That’s all I ever hear! First, finish your quest and then you can do this, do that, conquer the world…blah, blah, blah! Is there anything I can do before I finish my quest?”
Aaron flinched back as if Rich had slapped him. “If you knew what I know, Rich, you would not talk like that.”
This only threw more kindling on the fire. “Of course I don’t know what you know, Aaron. I just know that something really strange is going on today! I keep seeing things, like scenes about my father. Of him lost in the maze, and of him eating dinner with another family, like it was his own. Explain that to me with all your extra wisdom!”
Aaron looked as though someone had just told him that his face was purple. “Visions of your father? Is that what happened when you fainted?”
Rich ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, right before the earthquake. I knew he was my father, but he was with a different family with all these kids, like he didn’t even remember Mom and me. But how could that be? Do you think he lost his memory or something?”
Aaron narrowed his eyes, leaning away from the wall. “No, that does not make sense. The hard thing, though, is that we do not know where these visions are coming from. Maybe your mother can send them, or your father, or—”
“Even if they could, why would they do this?” Rich asked. “How is this helping me?” He shook head defiantly. “I’m going after him—now. If these visions are true, something is seriously wrong with him. It can’t wait any longer.”
“But your quest—”
“I’ll finish the quest while I’m looking for my father!” Rich roared, flinging up his hands. “Why can’t I do that?”
Aaron drew up his small height as much as he could. “Because going after your father is the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish! Wisdom, remember? Wisdom!”
Rich didn’t budge. “I’m going. Follow me if you want, but I’m leaving now.” He turned and dashed off down the hall without looking back.
Chapter 3: Unearthed Secrets
Rich ran without knowing exactly where he was going. He needed to put some distance between him and the school. His thoughts alternated between flashes of his father and Mallory’s concerned face. For a moment, he considered calling her, meeting her somewhere, trying to explain something, anything about what he was going through. However, he didn’t think he could explain, and she would probably run just as fast in the opposite direction.
He found himself making his way toward his special spot on the river. He reached it and found that the stones had shifted, leaving a large gap in the middle where there had once been solid rock. He slowed and approached it cautiously. A strange smell filled the air, something rotten and metallic, and Rich pulled his shirt up over his nose and mouth.
A faint glow rose from the crack, and Rich
slowed to a stop several feet from it. He glanced around and saw no one in any direction. Cautiously, he took one step and then another toward the crack. The smell grew stronger, and his eyes watered. He’d never complain about taking out the trash again.
When he was only a few feet away, a new sound joined all the other strange sensations. It was low, and rumbled like the grating of metal against stone.
Rich swallowed hard, stuck out his chin, and took the last few steps. He peered over the edge and couldn’t make anything out. Both the sound and the smell grew stronger.
He stooped down, picked up a small stone, and dropped it into the fissure. It landed almost immediately with a dull thud. Rich took a hesitant step backwards. The hole looked like a bottomless pit.
The aftershock of the earthquake hit without warning, and Rich had no time to cry out before he tumbled into the darkness. Just like the stone, Rich didn’t fall far. He landed hard on his back, which sent pain throughout his body. Rocks and dirt continued to fall around and on him, and he knew he had to get up. He rose painfully to a sitting position and glanced back up through the hole.
He knew he had to do something, but now the question was whether he should go forward or backward. Backward out of the hole and toward the school would be the much safer choice, and probably the one Aaron would recommend. However, something made him want to go forward down the dark path, telling him it was no accident that he had stumbled into this place. It had something to do with his father, and he couldn’t let the opportunity pass him by. He smiled as he thought of proving himself to Aaron and his grandmother. The looks on their faces would be priceless.
Trying to drown out his doubts, he crawled forward on his hands and knees into the darkness. The path led downward on a gentle slope, and Rich added a collection of bruises to his hands on the rough ground. The faint glow he had seen from the edge of the crack grew brighter, and his eyes adjusted to the darkness, so he gained confidence and moved more and more quickly down the slope toward the glow.
The slope evened out, and the ceiling was now high enough that he could stand and walk easily. He found himself thinking how weird this whole place looked. It wasn’t exactly a paved highway, but it did seem that he was following a path of some sort. His imagination caught hold, and all at once he pictured himself as a smuggler, spiriting away contraband under the city through secret tunnels.
He glanced to the side and did a double take. On the wall next to him, the stones were arranged in such a way that the space between them looked like two large hands. Rich shook his head and continued. Either it was a strange coincidence, or his eyes were playing tricks on him.
He followed the growing light, sound, and scent until he nearly stepped from the path off a cliff. He caught himself a moment too late, falling again onto his back, adding to the pain from the previous injury. His vision spun, and the ceiling seemed to be dropping in on him. He cried out in the darkness. The sound echoed eerily off the walls, but no one was around to care. He suddenly felt the weight of his own loneliness, and thought about turning back.
“No,” he said aloud, “I can do this. I’ve already proved that I have courage. I just need to use it.”
If his father were up ahead, it would be worth any risk. But then again, he had no guarantee of that, and if the vision he’d seen was right, his father was doing just fine without him. Was it possible? Had he really forgotten all about them? How would he have had enough time to raise such a large second family?
Rich shook his head violently as if trying to rattle the thoughts out of his head. There had to be an explanation. He wouldn’t let himself believe the strange visions were true until he could confirm them in person. His nemesis had attacked him in all sorts of strange ways. Was it possible this was just another kind of attack?
Rich crept closer to the edge and peered down. There at the bottom lay the source of the light and sound, still too far away to make out. He stared at it for a long minute and realized that it was moving, very slowly. As he looked over the side, he saw that the path changed at this point and had become a series of switchbacks that would take him rapidly down toward the strange object far below.
He rose and took a second to dust himself off. Then he continued down the winding road, sure he was on to something exciting. He moved with one purpose, not pausing to catch his breath or to give much thought to anything but putting one foot in front of the other. The temperature rose gradually, and he found himself sweating, though he barely paid any attention to that.
All at once, the object came into focus, and Rich paused to stare at the shape that hovered in the air. It was a building, or at least how Picasso might have painted a building. It was a huge, misshapen mass of interlocking cubes and rectangles, their surfaces filled with doors, windows, panels, and grates. Some of the doors appeared modern, with brass handles and knockers, while others might have fit right in at a castle or ancient temple. The entire structure glowed with faint light as it progressed through the air on its unseen path.
Rich grew more confident, increasing his pace to reach the strange building as soon as possible. As he approached, he saw that the surface also swam with strange patterns that resembled the keys he had seen on his mother’s letter. It was then that he knew for certain. This had to be the Corridor of Keys, and his father was inside.
He had gotten used to the awful smell that had bothered him at first, but now the heat was starting to affect him. He removed his shirt and tied it around his waist, glad there was no one around to laugh at his arms that had never bench-pressed anything in his life.
The Corridor moved so slowly that it was not a problem to keep up with its progress, and soon, Rich found himself directly under the huge building. It followed a natural canyon in the floor and hovered a good twenty feet in the air, with no indication about how he was supposed to enter. He walked along at a brisk pace and studied the underside, desperate for some clue as to how to get in.
Suddenly, the Corridor came to a portion of the cave where it was too wide to fit through. It lodged itself in the cavern walls with an awful sound, and the edges of the Corridor tore loose huge chunks of rock and debris. The entire cavern shook, and the shockwaves reverberated in every direction.
“The earthquake,” Rich realized. “It’s causing the earthquakes!”
Frantically, he brought up his arms and called upon his shield to protect him. Energy flashed in front of him, deflecting most of the falling rocks as they threatened to crush him. However, the shield weakened quickly and let many of the smaller rocks pass through, bruising him. Rich looked in all directions, desperate to find cover.
He bolted for a side tunnel to escape the rain of rocks, but a boulder the size of a minivan loomed directly above him. In a panic, he leaped out of the way and stumbled and slid to the edge of a steep precipice. He reached out and grasped the side of the ledge, and succeeded in hanging on with a few fingers on each hand. He tried to pull himself up, but the dirt crumbled under his hands and weakened his grip with every second.
He cried out, but the sound was lost in the crash of the falling rocks. He tried harder to hoist himself up, but his it didn’t work. Then, just as his grip failed completely, a hand shot down out of the darkness and grasped him firmly around the wrist. He glanced up at his rescuer, and for an instant, he thought he recognized the face. The feeling quickly passed, replaced by pure relief at being saved.
“Hello, Heinrich,” said a low voice. “I think it’s time you and I had a talk. Can’t do that if you’re buried under a pile of rubble. So nice of you to take the bait.”
The stranger jerked Rich’s arm upwards, bringing him out of danger and onto solid ground. Behind them, the Corridor had passed the narrow place in the passage, and the earth stopped shaking.
Rich glanced up at the strange
r, and suddenly, he almost wished he had plummeted to his doom instead. The stranger was tall and cloaked in flowing blue-and-black robes, with a vest of chain mail, and a shroud covering his face. He carried a long, menacing blade, which seemed to draw light to it just so it could snuff it out. Though Rich was sure he’d never seen the person before, there was no mistaking the dark feeling the stranger gave off—the same one he had felt on the night he fell into the river.
His nemesis.
Chapter 4: An Offer from the Enemy
“Why on earth did you just rescue me? I thought you wanted me dead.”
His nemesis shifted from side to side and let out something that might have passed as a chuckle. “In combat, Heinrich. Not by something as stupid as falling off a cliff. That would hardly be a fitting end, and I hate to say it, but I’d be the laughingstock of the family.”
The stranger drew back the hood of his cloak to reveal a smooth, haughty face that looked almost too perfect to be real. “But remember, Heinrich, my boy . . . Richie . . . we are really all part of the same family. It’s too bad this conflict has continued so long. It’s just a question of values. Your kind think that sacrifice and wisdom are best, and we simply prefer ambition and cunning. Can you really blame us for that?”
Rich forced himself to meet his nemesis’s gaze. He was determined not to reveal the fear that gripped him tighter and tighter, wringing him out like a sponge.
“Are you saying we should forget all this and be friends? Great. Fine by me. I leave you alone, and you leave me alone. I’d like to go back to the time when the worst thing I had to worry during the day was gym class.”
His nemesis shook his head, as if talking to an irrational child. “It’s not that easy, Rich. You’ve seen what’s at stake here. We can’t back down from our responsibilities to the family, but …”
He paused and took a step toward Rich. “There’s nothing to say that this conflict can’t be resolved through adoption.”
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