Fablehaven: The Complete Series (205 page)

Kendra resisted a smile. Her friends seemed to have the situation under control. It looked like they were battling giant metal puppets.

Tanu had stopped in the middle of the room, kneeling. He pulled what looked like a large silken sheet from his pack, then swallowed the contents of a bottle. Yanking off his shoes, he began to expand, promptly shredding whatever clothing he failed to remove. The Samoan swelled to more than twice his former height, his meaty body growing broader and thicker to remain proportional. He tied the sheet around his waist. With the transformation complete, he stood head and shoulders above the lion and bulls.

Apparently sensing the threat, the bull not ridden by Mara charged Tanu. The other bull streaked toward Trask, while the lion pounced at Berrigan. Tanu stood his ground like a matador, danced aside to avoid the horns, then lunged at the side of the bull, lowering his shoulder. The impact overturned the mechanical bull, and the iron body squealed as it slid across the stone floor.

From astride the other bull, Mara called for the key, and Trask tossed it up as he leapt out of the way. When Mara leaned out precariously to catch the imperfect toss, the iron egg grazed her fingertips before falling to the floor with a resounding clack.

As Berrigan tried to flee, the bronze lion swiped him with a paw, sending him sprawling across the floor with parallel gashes in his back. Tanu rushed over to help, and the lion turned to confront the new threat.

Suddenly, beside Kendra, Seth stumbled abruptly forward. He turned to face her, his expression shocked. It took her a moment to notice the arrowhead protruding from his chest.

Elise and Kendra whirled to see Torina at the far end of the hall behind them, setting another arrow to her bowstring. Zombies staggered into view around her. One of the leading zombies was clearly recognizable as Laura, her hair disheveled, her outfit tattered and bloodied. Another was Camira.

Torina looked giddily triumphant. Back at the house, she had been too far away for Kendra to view her clearly. The lectoblix appeared even younger than when Kendra had last spoken with her, and more athletic as well, like a woman who obviously knew her way around a gym. Her sporty outfit accentuated her fit physique. She grinned as she pulled the arrow back.

Before Kendra could react, the arrow struck the center of her belly, jostling her backward as it rebounded off the adamant mail beneath her shirt. Seth had given her that armor. It was rightfully his. Had he been wearing it, he would not have an arrow through his rib cage. Light blue eyes holding Kendra’s gaze, Torina gave a disappointed pout.

After fumbling momentarily with her crossbow, Elise launched a quarrel at Torina. The lectoblix ducked behind the jumbled mass of emerging zombies, and the quarrel lodged in the hip of a rotting, balding man.

“We’ve got company!” Elise called, seizing Seth’s shoulder and rushing him around the side of the entryway, out of sight from the passageway. Staying low, Kendra followed them out of the entryway into the huge chamber.

On the other side of the room, Tanu had wrestled the lion onto its back. Mara had dropped from the bull and recovered the iron egg. Trask faced the entryway, huge crossbow held ready, a pair of long quarrels waiting to take flight. The bull Tanu had toppled lay motionless on its side, but the other was coming back around to attack Mara again. Berrigan rose unsteadily to his feet.

“The keyhole is under his chin,” Tanu boomed.

Wincing, Seth plopped down on the floor. The feathered shaft of the arrow protruded from his back, the cruel arrowhead from his front. He scrabbled in his emergency kit, withdrew a flask, then handed the satchel to Kendra. “Keep it safe,” he rasped.

“You’ll be all right,” Kendra assured him hysterically. Everything was happening too fast!

Seth unscrewed the lid of the flask. “She got me,” he wheezed. “I’m a shish kebab.”

“You can’t go gaseous,” Kendra insisted. “You might not be able to teleport with us!”

“Better than bleeding to death or getting zombified.” He fingered the arrowhead. “I’m useless like this.” He coughed wetly into his fist, then chugged the contents of the flask. His body and clothes became hazy as Seth transformed into a ghostly, vaporous version of himself. The arrow in his chest became gaseous as well.

Elise grabbed Kendra, hustling her farther from the entrance. Kendra allowed herself to be led. The spectral form of her injured brother followed at a much slower pace.

Up ahead, grimacing fiercely, sweat glistening on his brow, Tanu held the squirming bronze lion in a wrestling hold as Mara drew near. The iron bull was rapidly closing in on them, but Mara reached the lion first, climbing hurriedly. She hastily stabbed the key into a socket and twisted. Both of the bulls and the lion fell apart in clangorous heaps of metal scraps. The parts from the moving bull tumbled and slid across the glossy floor, colliding with the wreckage of the lion.

As zombies shambled into the room, Trask fired a quarrel from his huge crossbow, then set the weapon down, drawing a sword. Tanu and Berrigan flung aside metallic plates and ornaments, searching frantically. Blood oozed from ragged stripes and ugly punctures on Tanu’s arms and shoulders. Elise raced toward the demolished lion with Kendra.

A melodically chanting voice caused Kendra to glance over her shoulder. The zombies had parted to let a glaring man with golden skin stride into the room. The slender stranger wore a cape and a turban. Beads, bones, and bits of twine decorated his braided beard. He held up one hand clenched in a fist. With every step, he left behind a flaming footprint burning blue and green. His chant rose to a shout as he pointed across the room at Tanu. In a flash, the giant Samoan shrank back to his normal size.

“I have it!” Mara cried, holding up a platinum cylinder. “It was inside the key.”

“Use it!” Trask barked.

Tanu, Mara, and Berrigan all took hold of the Translocator. Nothing happened.

Not far from where Trask stood with his sword, Kendra and Elise ran side by side, still about forty yards from the fragmented lion. Tanu took a step away from Mara and Berrigan and flung the Translocator like a desperate quarterback. The cylinder flew in a high arc toward Elise and Kendra, turning end over end. Elise stopped rushing forward, took several steps to one side, and made a diving catch.

Trask lifted his crossbow, aimed, and let loose another quarrel. The wizard waved a hand, and the quarrel turned into a harmless stream of twinkling dust. Behind the wizard, the Gray Assassin stalked confidently into the room, swords unsheathed. Trask ran toward Kendra and Elise.

Elise handed Kendra the cylinder. Symbols embossed the silvery casing. Tiny white gems sparkled. Kendra felt the Translocator hum to life when the device came into contact with her fingers. Noting its three segmented sections, she could see where she would twist it, but she hesitated, waiting for Trask to reach them.

Back by the entrance to the chamber, the wizard was chanting again. He opened a small, samite sack, and thick-linked chains slithered out rapidly, clinking against the polished floor. The chains were much too long to have fit in the small sack without the aid of magic. Torina emerged from the entryway, bow held ready, along with a fierce creature that looked halfway between a wolf and a bear. Zombies continued to stagger forward.

Trask grabbed the middle section of the Translocator. Kendra held the left, Elise the right. They twisted the device as Torina let loose an arrow.

Kendra experienced a brief sensation like she was folding into herself, as if she were collapsing down to a single point somewhere in her midsection, and then the odd sensation passed, and she was standing in a tidy apartment. Daylight streamed through the windows. Out on the street, somebody honked a car’s horn.

“Where are we?” Elise asked.

“My apartment in Manhattan,” Trask said, tossing his crossbow onto a nearby couch. “First place that came to mind. Let go of the device. I have to go after the others.”

Kendra and Elise released the device. Trask twisted it and vanished. For a moment, Elise and Kendra stood together in silence. The refrigerator hummed as the compressor kicked on.

“He’ll be back, right?” Kendra asked.

“He’ll be back.”

“Is there a chance he’ll get Seth?”

Elise stared with wordless sympathy. “He’ll try,” she finally said.

Elise started to pace. Kendra folded her arms. The apartment was stylish, with leather sofas, a sleek flat-screen television, a glass coffee table, black-and-white photographs framed on the walls, and designer lamps. Kendra disliked the suspense of waiting. “When do you—”

Trask reappeared suddenly, along with Tanu. Chains cocooned the Samoan from his ankles to the bottom of his chest. An arrow jutted from Trask’s shoulder.

“Can’t go back,” Trask panted. “Can’t lose the artifact.”

“What about the others?” Elise asked.

“Mara and Berrigan are wrapped in chains,” Tanu said. “The wizard cast a spell and sucked Seth into a bottle.”

Kendra whimpered involuntarily, her hands going to her mouth. “What will happen to him?”

“Inside the bottle, he won’t be able to revert to his normal state,” Tanu explained. “He’ll be preserved as a gas until released, theoretically for years. He’s been imprisoned.”

“It could be worse,” Trask said gently. “The wizard could have scattered and destroyed him. At least this means they want him alive.”

“And as a gas, his wound won’t get any worse,” Tanu added.

Kendra nodded, trying to act brave as tears leaked down her cheeks. It felt like her heart was being squeezed. First her parents, now Seth! What else would the Sphinx take from her? Rage flared up, helping her resist the grief. She ground her teeth.

“Couldn’t I pop in, grab Mara, and pop out?” Elise asked.

Trask shook his head. “I barely made it back. They’re ready now. They’ll get you. We have to choose a better time.”

Elise turned and hugged Kendra. “Seth will be all right. We have a powerful new weapon in our war against the Society. We’ll use the Translocator to get your brother back, and your parents.”

Kendra wasn’t sure how much she believed the words, but they were nice to hear. “Warren,” Kendra said softly. “We should get Warren.”

“Shouldn’t we return to Fablehaven first?” Tanu said.

“No, in case he’s starving,” Kendra protested, wiping tears from her cheeks. “We’ve left him there long enough. It should be safe. He’s in a room cut off from the rest of the world. I’m not sure what could be less risky. I should teleport to him right now.”

“I’ll go with you,” Elise said.

“I can start treating my scratches and Trask’s shoulder,” Tanu said, unwinding the chains from his abdomen.

Trask gave a nod. “Go bring him back.”

“I just picture the room?” Kendra asked.

“I just pictured my apartment,” Trask replied, handing her the Translocator.

Elise held the left side of the Translocator. Trying to calm her fatigued mind from the shock of losing Mara, Berrigan, and her brother, Kendra envisioned the storage room, picturing the heaps of junk, the slate floor, the adobe walls. She twisted the center of the device, felt the swooning, folding sensation, and then she and Elise were standing in the very room she had visualized.

An electric lantern illuminated the scene. A small troll with an oversized head, greenish skin, and a wide, lipless mouth whirled to face Kendra and Elise, sniffing suspiciously. Near the troll sat a man in grimy clothes, his face obscured by a beard and long hair.

“How you get here?” Bubda asked, his posture becoming less aggressive.

Kendra held up the Translocator. “A magical transporter.”

Warren rose to his feet warily. “Who are you?” he asked, unsmiling.

“You know who I am,” Kendra said.

Warren narrowed his eyes, one hand straying to the knife in his belt. “Forgive me if I don’t run over and hug you. What kind of game is this?”

Kendra realized that the last time Warren had seen her, Navarog had taken her prisoner before sealing the room by destroying the knapsack. For all he knew, she and Elise might be stingbulbs. To him, their sudden arrival seemed too good to be true.

“It’s really us, Warren,” Elise said. “You won’t need that knife. We’re not holding weapons.”

Warren smiled sadly. “I’d love to believe you. How’d you escape the dragon, Kendra?”

“Raxtus ate him,” Kendra said.

“The little guy who tried to heal me?” Warren exclaimed incredulously. “Word of advice: If you’re going to lie, make it somewhat believable.”

“We were trapped in that narrow cave,” Kendra explained. “Raxtus could fit inside as a dragon, but Gavin couldn’t change to his true form.”

The corners of Warren’s mouth twitched. “I’d love to believe it. How about a quick test? The Society might be able to mimic your form, but not your abilities.” He leaned forward and grabbed the electric lantern. “Nobody move. I’m going to shut this off.” He clicked a switch, and the light went out.