“Could you enchant the water?”
“I don’t think so. I’d either need to see or touch it and I can’t do either here. If I have no connection to what I’m putting my magic into, I don’t know how to enchant it.”
I studied what I could make out of the column bridge in the glow of my shield. It was narrow and made of stone, but didn’t look very sturdy. Certain sections had disintegrated and it seemed risky to charge ahead with such limited light.
“I think I have an idea for how to light our way,” SJ said, sliding Excalibur back into its sheath. “And I have something for you to enchant.”
SJ opened her potions sack, then closed her eyes and concentrated as she placed her hand inside.
“What are you picturing?” Blue asked.
“The beach by the pier where we came out of the wormhole,” SJ responded softly, as if in a trance. “After we ran out of the tide, we raced up a pretty steep embankment before we reached the main boardwalk. I am trying to focus on a specific spot of sand by a clump of seaweed that I nearly tripped on.”
“Why?” Blue asked.
SJ removed a handful of sand from inside her potions sack. “This is why.” She turned to me and I don’t think I’d ever seen her look so brilliant and devious. I mirrored her grin. Amazing!
I put my hand over hers—touching the sand—and concentrated. It lit up with golden energy and I willed the grains to swarm around the room like a collection of tiny bees.
“Can you get some more?” I asked.
SJ withdrew several more handfuls of sand and we repeated the process until we had a huge swarm of golden, glowing sand. With a wave of my hand, I commanded the sand to stick to the narrow stone column that lay ahead. In the blink of an eye, our path was clear. We had created a glistening bridge in the darkness.
I changed my shield back into a wandpin and clipped it to my bra strap. One by one, we leapt onto the column—careful not to touch any more of the floor bricks—and crossed the expanse with care. The path was never more than a foot and a half wide and followed a steep, downward angle.
When we arrived at the rectangular door, I reached for where I’d assumed a handle would be; only now we noticed the door didn’t have one.
Hm. This had to be an exit; it had hinges and we could see light around the edges. Maybe we had to push it open?
I gave the door a shove, but the moment I touched it the whole thing ignited bright white and the sound we’d been hearing rang through the room. This wasn’t simply a door; it was one massive brick in disguise. While other bricks with symbols on them glowed consistently, this brick’s markings hadn’t lit up until I touched it.
Crud.
“Uh, guys.” SJ and I turned to see Blue pointing down. Now we could see the churning water below. It was glowing a radiant purple and it was rising.
I reached for a stone hinge on the door, hoping to use my magic on it, but the second I touched it I received a very familiar unpleasant swell of dizziness followed by a shock of pain. There were only two things that prevented the use of magic—Jacobee stone and anything coated in Stiltdegarth blood.
I staggered back. “It’s probably Jacobee stone,” I said. “My magic is not going to work.”
“How about your potions, SJ?” Blue asked, glancing at the rising purple swell.
“Not an option,” she responded. “Slime and ice will not help. An explosion could bury us. And if a lightning potion ricocheted off the water, we would be doomed.”
The level of the water lapped at our feet. At the rate it was rising, if we didn’t find a way out soon we would drown here.
“Can you slice through the hinges of the door?” Blue suggested. “Crisa, your wand is magic and can hack through nearly anything. Transform it into a sword.”
“It won’t work,” I replied. “Jacobee stone repels anything magical; I’ve tested my wand on it before.”
“Wait! What about Excalibur?” SJ exclaimed. “It is the most powerful blade in existence. It can cut through anything—even things that are resistant to magic. That is why it will work on Glinda’s memory stone, which means—”
“Maybe it can work on Jacobee stone!” I cried.
SJ handed Excalibur to me. My friends took a few steps back, giving me room. I clutched the hilt with both hands, aimed the sword at the uppermost hinge on the right, then slashed through it as if it were butter.
I repeated the process with the other hinges. Then I returned Excalibur to SJ and gave the door a forceful shove. The stone door reacted with another white flash and a high-pitched sound, but it plowed inward and collapsed on the ground of the room beyond. I fell on top of it.
The new room was like a big corridor, which was well-lit thanks to being covered with glowing bricks from ground to ceiling. But that caused me a great problem. When I toppled in I had instinctively braced myself against the floor. My hand touched the ground and I instantly activated another trap. A high note sounded and a cannon popped out of the ceiling down the hall to my left—spitting out a swirling fireball. SJ leapt onto the door behind me and rapidly sent a silver portable potion to meet it. The potion exploded and created a giant fragment of ice that shielded me from the fire. The fireball melted on impact, producing a big burst of water that soaked us all.
As our SRBs dried us off, we all stood on the fallen door to keep from activating any more bricks. The cannon that had fired waited for us to make our next move. Looking into the room we had come from, I saw the water was now descending. We were safe from that at least.
Our new corridor had a high roof and descended at an angle to my right. Twenty feet down was an intersection connecting to three large arched doorways. To my left was just an empty hall.
Blue studied the vicinity, frowning. “Okay, let’s think this through. This corridor doesn’t look big enough for those snakes to get though, so we only need to watch out for the brick traps. They must be activated by pressure and the lack of true darkness that Joe mentioned. Missing that is definitely what has been causing the temple to turn on us.”
“How does thinking that through help, Blue?” SJ said. “We do not possess true darkness so we cannot get past the traps.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer to understand why this place keeps trying to kill us?”
“I would simply prefer not to get killed.”
“Guys,” I said, holding up my hands. “I have a plan. If we don’t touch the bricks, we don’t activate the traps. So we’re not going to touch the bricks.” I pointed up.
About eight feet overhead, iron bars stretched across the width of the corridor. Several feet above them, nestled on the ceiling itself, more cannons waited to pop out.
“They’re like monkey bars,” I said. “We can swing to the exit.”
SJ narrowed an eyebrow. “And what about those of us who do not spend our free periods at school working out and who have regular human levels of upper body strength?”
I considered. “Easy. Give us your slingshot. When Blue and I get to the other side, you make a run for it and we’ll cover you with the silver potions.”
SJ pouted but acquiesced. “Fine. But hurry.”
“Give us a boost first.”
She sighed and released a silver potion beside us, which exploded into a mini iceberg, its edges clinging to the wall and floor. SJ handed Blue her slingshot and fished out a handful of silver portable potions from her sack. Blue put them in her pocket then staggered, barely catching her balance before tumbling off the door.
“You okay?” I asked, steadying her.
Blue sniffled and shook her head. “Um, yeah. Fine.”
She sounded congested, but before I could ask about it, she took a steadying breath, braced herself, then leapt off the door onto the jagged formation of ice. Quick as a jungle cat, she bounded off the iceberg’s various outcroppings until she was high enough to jump and grab the nearest iron bar. She began to swing. The space between the bars was about a foot, so it was doable but dangerous work that required
keeping up momentum.
“She makes it look so easy,” SJ commented as Blue swung from one bar to the next. “Can you do that?”
“Let’s hope so,” I said.
I followed Blue’s lead, launching myself off the iceberg. Thankfully, I could “do that.” I grasped the first iron bar and began to swing across the corridor.
The downward slant of the passage helped, but soon enough my shoulders and hands were aching. If we ever made it to the end of this quest, I’d definitely need a good massage at our school spa or an appointment with a chiropractor.
Ahead of me, Blue swung off the last bar and straight past the threshold of the center archway. She landed within the connecting room, avoiding touching any glowing bricks.
“The floor in this room is marble,” she called back to us. “We’re safe in here.”
When I reached the end of the bars, I followed her example—propelling myself forward with my legs and letting go with my hands when my body was angled toward the archway. I sailed forward, but instead of landing on my toes, I hit heels first and started tipping backward.
Eep!
Blue grabbed my hand and yanked me forward. Then she positioned herself with the slingshot and prepared to cover SJ.
“Okay! Go!” Blue shouted.
SJ sprinted toward us. As expected, every brick she stepped on lit up and created a high-pitched sound. The cannons began to lower and shoot. Blue impeded the fireballs with silver potions until SJ rushed through the arched entrance beside us. A large rush of water splashed us from the cumulative ice that had stopped all the temple’s attempts to roast our friend.
I let out a sigh of relief. Another set of traps avoided.
The space we’d landed in was small and empty. A dozen feet away, a door led to another room. We trod there carefully. I did not trust any surroundings in this temple.
The next room was way grander. The floor was amber again. Meanwhile the rounded walls were composed entirely of glowing bricks. At spots along the otherwise smooth walls, sections of the treacherous brick jutted out, creating steps. As my eyes traced the steps higher, I discovered three things. First, the steps led to several doorways embedded in the upper parts of the wall. Second, this room was at least sixty feet high. And third, a dozen stone cages were built into the ceiling . . . and there were people inside them.
I couldn’t make out the faces, but I recognized the voices that shouted down a moment later.
“Crisa!” Ormé called. She peered through the bars of her cage. I squinted. The faraway figures became eight girls, which were our Gwenivere Brigade members, and in two other cages Arthur and Peter Pan.
“It’s a trap!” Ormé shouted.
As she spoke, silhouettes appeared in one of the high-up doorways opposite us. Three men emerged and began descending the brick steps, which glowed red and made a deep, low-pitched noise that vibrated in my skull. Much to my displeasure, stairs continued to extend from the wall to aid their descent.
I had no doubt these were Arian’s men. As we’d theorized, the temple was embracing their darkness and therefore aided them forward whereas it kept trying to kill us.
SJ, Blue, and I stood close together. Blue gripped a throwing knife. SJ had one hand on her slingshot and the other in her potions sack. I defensively whipped out my wand. Our enemies, however, did not remove the weapons from their sheaths.
“Whoa, there,” the tallest of them said. He had dark black hair like Arian, but his skin was way tanner. He approached slowly, holding up his hands as if he meant us no harm.
“Don’t take another step,” Blue barked.
The soldier stopped and shrugged. “As you wish. Though it is really you that should be watching your step. I’m actually surprised you made it this far through the temple. But then, Arian said you would.”
The other two antagonists—a ginger-haired boy and a relatively handsome, muscular fellow with a crew cut—stayed a step behind the lead soldier.
“I’m Victor,” the lead soldier said. “And this is Max and Jae.” He gestured to the ginger and crew cut respectively.
“Yeah, we’re not gonna remember that,” Blue said. “I’m going to remember you as the guy I knifed in the sternum.” She pointed to Max. “You as the guy I punched in the face.” She pointed to Jae. “And you . . .” She crooked her chin toward Victor. “Well, I don’t want to spoil it.”
“Blue.”
King Arthur’s voice held such depth and authority he didn’t need to shout to get our attention. One word spoken with intention was enough.
We glanced up at our friend and ally.
“They forced Ormé to take your call and tell you we were here,” the king said. “Arian informed them the minute you fled Avalon with the sword. He knew you would not resist taking a detour if it involved coming to our aid. And in this temple, the three of you—like the rest of us—are at a disadvantage.”
I looked at Victor and his men. “You’re all Shadow Guardians, aren’t you?”
“Precisely,” Victor replied. “Not only does the Temple of Malbona aid my kind, its monsters respond to our will. If you’ll allow for a demonstration . . .”
Max touched the wall. The brick shone red and sounded off deeply as he closed his eyes. The entire room vibrated. A moment later the bricks on the wall behind Max tore apart to form a giant new passage. Hissing poured out of it. Then an enormous blue snake appeared, slithering toward our group until a good portion of it had entered the huge, rounded room. The creature arched its neck above us, glowering down at my friends and me with its bright yellow eyes. Magic flared up around my hand like a reflex.
Victor smiled condescendingly. “Don’t bother. Your friends are imprisoned in Jacobee stone cages. And even if they weren’t, they have no way of getting down. If they so much as touch one of the brick stairs the traps will be set off. I can’t recall if this is the acid rain room or the magma burst room. Either way, you’ll all die before you get out.”
I flicked my eyes to Peter’s cage.
Victor followed my gaze. “The kid can’t fly,” Victor said, reading my thoughts. “We put Stiltdegarth blood cuffs on Pan the moment he was captured.”
“Not a fan of these, by the way!” Peter called. His wrists were cuffed over the long sleeves of his shirt. “And since when do cuffs come in child-sizes?”
Victor ignored him and narrowed his eyes at SJ. He’d spotted the sheath on her back. “Give us Excalibur and we’ll walk you out of here,” he said. “The temple only needs to detect one person in each party with true darkness inside them. We can counteract your light with our darkness and lead you to the surface. You’ll live to fight another day. Or we can collect the sword from your dead bodies after the temple is done with you.”
So only one of us needs to radiate darkness to get us all out of here . . .
I eyeballed the path to our friends’ cages. The wall steps the antagonists had used didn’t go all the way to the top of the room. In order to reach our friends, more bricks would need to be summoned in the way Victor and company had called these with their darkness.
I inhaled deeply. I could still sense the magic energy wave that hit before we entered the temple. Its residue remained in the air, rippling through the realm. While the temple itself put us at a disadvantage, that energy was my advantage. I could still harness it if I concentrated.
I locked eyes with Victor. What I was about to do was probably ill-advised. And it was scary. But the greater good mattered more than my own morality here. I would face the consequences later.
Blue sniffled behind me. I looked at her, then at SJ. “Don’t judge me for what I’m about to do.” I stuffed my wand into my boot and raised my hands, as if in surrender.
Here we go.
“Deciding to give up?” Victor asked cockily.
“Not quite.” I focused on the power I felt brewing inside me then released.
The first time I’d fully unleashed this form of magic had been by accident. I’d acted on se
lf-defensive autopilot while my Magic Instinct (a protective reflex where magic took control in times of mortal danger) drained the life of a giant.
Unsure how to generate the action I was after now without utilizing the strength of Magic Instinct, I concentrated on the types of emotions I’d felt right before killing the giant—fear, anger, and desperation. I was surprised how quickly my body responded.
A bolt of golden energy dispensed out of my hands and enveloped the snake. The glow was powerful. As it encased the snake’s head, the creature began to thrash about and hiss loudly. I held steady and did not let it go, focusing all my energy on sucking the life from its body.
For a moment both my friends and enemies were frozen in shock. Then Victor, Max, and Jae rushed us. Blue hurled a knife at Victor’s calf and ran to intercept him. She swooped beneath the sword he’d drawn and punched Jae in the face. Then she spun around and stabbed Max in the sternum with her hunting knife.
“Blue, dive!” SJ ordered.
Blue ducked, tucked, and rolled. The second she was clear, SJ shot a silver potion and encased our enemies in ice. Only the left side of Victor’s body still waggled around, trying to get free. I continued to concentrate on draining the life energy from the snake. Based on the way the creature flailed around, the pain must’ve been excruciating. My golden aura started to fluctuate with waves of gray.
“What are you doing?” SJ shouted, running up to me.
“Giving the temple what it wants,” I said, backing up toward the wall while retaining my hold on the snake.
The biggest no-no for holders of Pure Magic was crossing the Malice Line, which meant using your powers to inflict mortal harm. Since my ability was life (and I could take it in the same way I could give it), crossing the Malice Line was much worse for me. Every time I used my powers to take life, my magic got a bit more powerful and a bit harder to control. I’d been committed to avoiding harnessing my powers in this way for that exact reason. Unfortunately, in this case, it was what the doctor ordered.
When I reached the wall, I leapt onto the first set of brick stairs. For a split second I worried that my plan would fall through, but when I landed, the bricks turned red as planned. Whew. A deep sound resonated through the room and more stairs extended from the wall—guiding me where I needed to go.
Crisanta Knight: The Lost King Page 5