by Lisa McMann
It did. Lani turned it hard and held it for a second or two, like her father had told her, waiting for it to sound like a real running vehicle. The engine roared, then screeched angrily. Lani let go of the key, and the engine quieted and stayed chugging. She’d done it!
She breathed heavily and looked around for the gearshift. Once she found it, she ducked her stinging head to look at the pedals on the floor. “The pedal on the right makes you go,” she remembered her father saying. She found the gear stick next to her and gently pushed it, testing its resistance. It didn’t budge. Cringing, knowing Gondoleery could shoot a fireball at her again anytime, she gripped the stick and shoved it, hoping to land it in the right place. When it moved into gear, she pushed her foot on the pedal on the right. The engine revved a little. She pushed the pedal harder, and they started moving.
Sweat poured off Lani’s head now. She gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles were white, and pressed harder on the pedal. The vehicle picked up speed down the driveway. She tested the steering wheel, finding that slight movements of it didn’t really do anything. Peering ahead in the weak morning light, she aimed for the portcullis.
Behind the palace, Alex watched, barely able to breathe. When the vehicle began to move, Alex left the frozen drivers and the guard where they were, scrambled back down the hill to Charlie, picked him up and carried him like a baby, and began running from rock to rock around the curve of the island. He had to get past the portcullis and cross the road to Haluki’s house as quickly as possible, and hopefully catch a glimpse of Lani driving slowly, steadily, and successfully toward the desolate area. He moved as quickly as he could while carrying Charlie. The weight of the stone gargoyle was going to slow him down—he knew that much already. But Charlie wasn’t a fast enough runner to keep up, so there was no other way.
The vehicle was rapidly picking up speed as Lani drove down the hill. With the palace gate in sight, she sat up higher in the seat and leaned forward over the steering wheel. Why wasn’t the gate opening?
The vehicle’s velocity continued to increase. Lani’s father had said the Quillitary vehicles moved painfully slowly, but that didn’t seem to be the case today. If somebody didn’t open up the gate soon . . . Lani pulled her foot completely off the gas pedal and wildly began to feel around for the other pedal, which was the brake. She got her shoe stuck between the two pedals for a moment, still unused to her large Sully feet. She panicked and looked down, trying to free it. Giving it a hard yank, she pulled it loose and looked up at the road. The gate loomed in front of her, still closed.
Suddenly two guards jumped up from their sleeping positions on the ground and scrambled to open the gate, but it was too late. They could only leap out of the way as the jalopy crashed into the iron structure, sending rusty metal pieces flying through the air.
Lani gasped, knowing the high priest could kill her at any moment. But she also knew that Gondoleery probably wouldn’t do that as long she was driving the vehicle, because then they’d crash. Banking on that tiny bit of comfort, Lani forced herself to breathe and kept going.
“Well!” exclaimed Gondoleery as the gates clattered to the sides of the road behind them. “That was unusual.”
Lani cringed, waiting for punishment, but she was also intent on keeping the vehicle on the road, which was much harder to do than she had expected. It kept trying to turn to one side, so Lani was constantly tugging the steering wheel toward the other, causing them to bounce and sway.
“You know, driver, I always hated that gate,” Gondoleery added dryly.
“Yes, your greatness,” mumbled Lani. Her foot finally landed solidly on the brake pedal, but every time she pushed on it, they lunged forward uncomfortably, so after a while she just rode down the hill trying not to swerve too wildly.
“I say, driver,” Gondoleery said, rising up and leaning forward. “Is something wrong with this vehicle?”
“Oh, most likely, I’m sure,” Lani replied. “Dozens of things.” She began improvising the way Mr. Appleblossom had taught them in theater class. “The treads are broken,” she said, “the joist is, ah, completely melted through, the grids are nowhere to be found, and . . . we’re out of chicken grease.” She caught Gondoleery’s frown in her rearview mirror.
“I thought Aaron came up with a new substance to replace the chicken grease,” Gondoleery said suspiciously.
“Right,” Lani said quickly. “This vehicle hasn’t gotten any yet, though.”
“It’s going awfully fast for a vehicle that is out of oil,” Gondoleery muttered. She flounced back in her seat.
As they reached the bottom of the hill and the road flattened out, the jalopy began to slow down. Lani, who’d barely gotten used to handling the steering wheel alone, without using her feet on the pedals at the same time, now began to panic. Worried that Gondoleery might attack her if she stopped, she pressed down hard on the gas pedal. The vehicle lurched forward, the tires spinning and spraying loose gravel behind them. Lani and Gondoleery were flung back in their seats, and the car began swerving and sliding.
“Sorry!” Lani exclaimed in a voice too high pitched to be Sully’s. Stay in character! she commanded herself. You are Sully! She lifted her foot off the pedal and gripped the wheel, trying to straighten the vehicle’s path. This was so much more difficult than she had anticipated. And if she lost her concentration as Sully, she’d also lose her disguise, which would foil everything. She had to stay calm—had to!—and get this trip under control.
Once the ride smoothed out, Lani began to breathe normally, and she reinforced her role as Sully. By the time she had her wits about her again, Lani remembered that she was supposed to be going somewhat slowly to give Alex time to get to the meeting spot. But this vehicle wasn’t moving anywhere nearly as slowly as her father had said it would—they were speeding along. She wondered if Aaron’s new oil was responsible. They certainly hadn’t factored that in.
Meanwhile, as Alex raced around the curve of the island on his way to Haluki’s house, Charlie on his hip, he heard the shouts of the gate guards and the subsequent crash, and he saw one part of the portcullis come flying down the hill toward him. But he also heard the vehicle chugging away, so he didn’t stop to investigate what had happened. Instead he continued along the shore until the line of rooftops that covered the governors’ houses came into view, then dashed up the hill to the main road.
When he saw that the road was clear and the dust was rising toward Artimé, he knew Lani was well on her way. He shifted Charlie to his other hip and dashed across the road to Haluki’s house. “What’s happening with Matilda?” he asked the gargoyle as he jiggled the door handle.
Charlie signed something, but Alex was so busy trying to get into the house that he didn’t catch anything the gargoyle was saying—not that he understood much sign language, anyway. And there was no time to try to decipher it now. Lani must have been going a lot faster than Alex anticipated to have been raising dust that far down the road, and he was starting to worry that he wasn’t going to make it to the desolate area in time.
Once inside Haluki’s house, Alex ran straight to the office. Holding Charlie to his chest, he entered the tube in the closet and slammed his hand down on the button. Instantly he was transported to the mansion. Wasting no time, Alex sprinted out of the kitchenette, past his office and private quarters, past the Museum of Large and the two mysterious doors, and out onto the balcony. He raced down the stairs, crying, “Open the door, Sim!”
Simber obliged. “Need help?” he growled.
“No thanks!” Alex yelled, running through the open door. “She’d know something was up if she caught sight of you.”
Simber shook his head, eyes worried, but Alex was long gone and didn’t see it.
Once outside Artimé, Alex turned a sharp left on the road that led to the palace. It wasn’t far to the desolate area.
From under Alex’s arm, Charlie frantically began signing.
“She’s almost there?” Ale
x guessed. He pushed his body even harder, his lungs and thighs burning, and his arms aching from carrying the heavy statue.
Charlie nodded.
“Buckets of crud,” Alex muttered. “She’s driving way too fast!” Still running, he adjusted Charlie and reached into the pocket where he kept the special dangerous component. He pinched it between his fingers and carefully extracted it.
In the distance Alex could see Sky, Carina, and Samheed standing by the road facing away from him, watching a dust cloud that rose up, growing steadily closer. They appeared ready to fake an emergency and flag the vehicle down. Thankfully, without any help from Alex, they’d seen the dust and figured out Lani was coming. Alex felt a moment of relief. But soon the outline of a vehicle pushed out in front of the dust and an occasional glint of the morning sun bounced off the rusting chrome.
Charlie signed frantically with his two-thumbed hand in front of Alex’s face, but Alex only picked up on a few words like “fast” and “soon.” “Got it,” he panted, even though he hadn’t. He hoped Gondoleery wouldn’t look past Lani’s head to see him running toward the vehicle, but it couldn’t be helped. He had to get there!
The young mage pressed on as the vehicle grew alarmingly closer, but he was having trouble getting enough breath to propel him any faster, and his body threatened to collapse. He pushed himself to his limit, but it wasn’t enough. The vehicle’s arrival was imminent.
With Alex too far away to do anything, Samheed, Carina, and Sky jumped out into the road. The vehicle swerved and slowed. Alex stumbled, overcorrected, slipped on loose gravel, and fell to the road. Charlie jumped from his arms just in time as the spell component flew from Alex’s grasp. The gargoyle reached out and nimbly caught the component between two thumbs as Alex skidded to a stop on the ground behind him.
Stunned and in pain, Alex lay still for a second, then came to his senses and scrambled to his feet, his breath too ragged to even allow him to say thanks to Charlie. He took the component, staggered forward, and left Charlie behind.
“Hide,” Alex warned Charlie in a ragged voice. It was all he could manage.
Charlie hopped to the side of the road and lay down in the ditch, then crawled up to the edge of it to watch.
Alex focused on the scene before him and picked up his speed once more. The vehicle had stopped. The driver’s window was down. Sky, Carina, and Samheed were gesturing and playing their parts perfectly. As Samheed took the lead role in acting out their predicament, Sky glanced over her shoulder anxiously, and saw Alex. Immediately she turned back toward the car and shifted her position to block Gondoleery from being able to see him approach.
Come on, Stowe! Alex urged himself. He was nearly within range now. With Sky blocking his view, he didn’t see Gondoleery open her door. He barely saw Lani leap out of the car. He could tell that something was happening, but he couldn’t hear what anybody was saying.
Yet everything became instantly clear when Carina flew backward, a dagger of ice sticking through her shoulder. Samheed, blasted off his feet in a fiery burst, landed on the ground with flames taking hold of his clothing.
Alex’s heart stopped. He saw Lani desperately searching Sully’s pockets, but he realized at the same time she did that in this disguise, and in character, her component vest wasn’t accessible. And Sky had little magical ability, if any. Instinctively, Sky moved back and put her hands in the air.
Alex had no trouble seeing Gondoleery now. The high priest raised her hand and pointed toward Sky.
Alex had no time to think. He slowed, raised his spell component with an aching arm, focused on Gondoleery, and let it fly, yelling at the top of his lungs, “Pulverize!”
At the shout, Gondoleery turned. She saw Alex and leaped toward Sky, trying to dodge whatever it was he’d cast. Sky grabbed the old woman by the face and pulled her to the ground, then tried to fight off the high priest’s kicks and punches.
Lani’s disguise began to melt, and all too slowly she began changing once more into the Lani everybody knew. She floundered inside the suit with her mishmash of Sully/Lani body parts, trying frantically to get the clothes off so she could help. Carina, still skewered, dove at Samheed, knocking him to the ground, and rolled him over, desperate to put out the flames.
Alex’s clear component sailed slowly through the air, trying to reach its intended target. But Alex had been too far away and his body too spent to give it the proper launch. With Gondoleery rolling on the ground with Sky, the tiny component hit the side of the vehicle and bounced to the ground.
Then, with an excruciating cracking sound, the entire jalopy imploded, shattering into a billion tiny pieces. Alex watched in horror.
Lani dove for cover, still tangled in the suit. Gondoleery paused in her fight with Sky to see what the noise was, and Sky clocked her with all her might, three fast blows right in the face, knocking the old woman unconscious. And Charlie, behind Alex, came running soundlessly, except for his little footsteps, toward the huge pile of dust that had once been the vehicle. His arms were flailing, and his mouth was open in a silent scream.
Disastrous Consequences
Alex gaped at the giant pile of dust that had once been a vehicle, and then he looked at his injured friends and began running once more, this time somehow finding new energy from his tremendous fear. He had to stop this! He couldn’t lose another friend! He ripped through his pockets, desperate for heart attack spells, knowing full well he wouldn’t find any because he refused to carry them. He’d vowed never to use them again after Mr. Today’s death. And it had made sense for him then. But Gondoleery was a different matter, and it dawned on him that she was not just the most powerful ruler Quill had ever seen—she was more powerful than Alex and all his friends combined. And because she seemed to have no moral sense at all, she was a hundred times more dangerous than he’d ever imagined.
“Are you okay, Sky?” Alex shouted as he neared.
Sky lay on her back, chest heaving from the fight with Gondoleery, and then attempted to shove the limp woman off her. She stuck a hand in the air, indicating she was all right.
“What the heck just happened?” Samheed muttered, on his back at the side of the road. He stared glassy-eyed at the sky, and then at Carina, who was struggling to get off of him. She winced and fell, holding her ice-pierced arm close to her body.
As Alex reached them, fearing the worst, Samheed struggled to his feet, his clothing still smoldering. He beat what was left of his shirt with his fists, tamping out the last burning orange shreds. Not far away, Lani finally got the enormous suit off and ran to help Sky untangle herself from the unconscious high priest.
Carina rose to her feet. She grimaced, gripped the end of the ice blade, and yanked it out of her shoulder. She let out a ragged cry, nearly sinking to her knees from the pain, but then rallied. When she caught her breath, she held the ice out to Alex. “Break the clean part off,” she said weakly. “Give it to Sam for his burns.”
Alex nodded and cracked the ice over his knee. He tossed the bloody end to the ground and handed the other half to Samheed.
“The ice . . . will help the burns on your skin,” Carina told Samheed.
Samheed held the ice, staring at it.
Alex sprang to help. “Put it against your chest,” he said. “Like this.”
“He’s dazed,” Carina said. “You all right, Sam?” she asked him.
Samheed shook his head a little as if just waking up. “Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Good.” With Alex helping Samheed, Carina turned to her wound, then gripped her shoulder tightly to try to stop the blood that flowed from it.
With Alex’s help, Samheed gently pressed the ice to his chest, moving it over the burned skin and wincing as it went. “That was horrible,” he said. He pulled the ice away. “It’s cold.”
“Yeah,” said Alex, peering at Samheed’s burns. He took the ice and continued to do what Carina had instructed.
“We need to kill her,” Samheed mumbled. He reached
into the pockets of his Necessary disguise and pulled out melted and charred spell components, examining them and then dropping them to the ground. They were all ruined.
Sky and Lani limped over. “The high priest is out cold.”
“Good work,” Alex said.
“Are you going to finish her off, Al?” asked Samheed, who was beginning to sound more like his old self.
Alex looked over at Gondoleery. Her body was twisted, and a bruise had begun to swell around the old woman’s eye. He frowned. “I don’t have anything else lethal.”
“What, you only made one component that did that?” Samheed asked, pointing to the giant pile of dust that Charlie was desperately digging through. Sky was the first to notice the gargoyle, and she watched him, puzzled.
“Yes,” replied Alex. “And that evidence is precisely the reason why. We don’t need spells like that in circulation.”
“Maybe Carina has some good components—” Samheed began.
Sky interrupted. “What is Charlie doing over there?”
Alex and Lani looked over, and then they both gasped. “Oh no!” cried Alex. He dashed toward Charlie.
“It’s Matilda,” Lani said. “She was hidden in the trunk!” She followed Alex to Charlie’s side.
Sky went to help too. “Do you think Matilda is pulverized because she was inside the vehicle?”
“I don’t know,” Alex said grimly. “She was the only one touching it when it happened.” His chest tightened, and a grim realization came over him. Not just Matilda’s life had been in danger when he cast that spell. He could have hit Lani, or Sky, or . . . The thought sickened him. “What was I thinking, making that thing?” he muttered, digging through the pile of remains. “What a stupid move. Please . . . she has to be okay.”
Samheed, who was still reeling a bit and had stayed back, now turned to Carina. “How is your shoulder? Wait—Carina?” She stood slightly bent, her eyes glazed, her face expressionless. “Carina? Are you okay?”