The Secret of Ashona (55 page)

At the bottom of the page were a number of provisions, including:

If you are not adept at snapping your fingers, think twice before using this spell. Time may be stuck permanently if you cannot adequately snap to end it.

Erec snapped his fingers a few times for practice, and had no problem at all. The spell was very different sounding from the other one he used. It almost sounded like a strange version of a nursery rhyme. “I guess I’ll try it out now and make sure I can do it.”

“I keep scissors with me in case I need to stop time.” Rosco handed them to Erec. “They’re pretty sharp, so you won’t have any problems.”

Erec held one of Tarvos’s horns in his left hand and the scissors in his right. He read the spell out of the book—the last line was a little hard to pronounce, but he thought he had it right. Then he put the scissors and horn down.

“I’m all loaded up and ready to go. I’d better see if this works.” Erec snapped his fingers.

Everything froze. The look on Rosco’s face was comical, as if he was about to say something, or blow a kiss. Even Spartacus was paralyzed, floating in the air.

What should he do? It seemed a shame to stop time and not change anything at all. He strolled around a bit, looking in drawers, but then he felt nosy. So instead he went in the kitchen, took sliced turkey out of the refrigerator, and made three sandwiches. He brought them back into the living room, sat down, and took a few bites before snapping his fingers.

Rosco said, “I guess you should try here, but be careful.”

“I already did it.” Erec grinned.

Rosco looked at the sandwich in front of him in amazement. “You did, didn’t you? That was quick—I mean, how much time did you spend? You had to make the sandwiches. . . .”

“Not too long. It was amazing, though—it worked perfectly.”

“Thanks for the food,” Spartacus said, laughing. “I’m not sure just what I’m supposed to do with it.”

“Oops, sorry. I forgot about the ghost thing. I’ll eat it for you.” Erec gulped down the extra sandwich, and copied the words of the time-stopping spell onto a scrap of paper. “I think it’s time for me and Spartacus to go see the Furies.”

Saying the words made his stomach tighten. What would happen if he never came back? Everything was ready, but he was still afraid. Instead of thinking about what could go wrong, he tried to look ahead to being home with his family again.

Rosco finally seemed to understand that he could not go to Alsatia with Erec and Spartacus, unless he wanted to die on Mercy’s Spike. As soon as Erec said he was ready, Spartacus put the scissors and horn into Erec’s pockets and zoomed them straight to Pinefort Jungle.

Erec stood on the ledge and looked down at the giant spike. The sharp rock needle pointed up at him ominously, and it terrified him. As a spirit it had been interesting impaling himself and waiting to see what would happen. There had been nothing to lose—nothing that could hurt him. But now that he was alive, it was another story.

His plan seemed solid, but there was some risk. He was going to morph into a soul so he would be safe. But once he body-planted himself on the deathly rock below him, if he somehow morphed back along the way, he’d be a goner. He would have to be really careful to stay a soul, and not say or think
Nee-way
. How long would he be able to remain in the form of a soul?

But it was a risk he would have to take. Spartacus had given his own soul up for him, and hadn’t complained about it once. All of those other spirits and souls were suffering too, and Erec had promised that he would put an end to it.

“I guess I should say the time-stopping spell now,” Erec said. “Then I’ll just have to snap my fingers to start and stop it when we’re there.”

Erec took the scissors out of his pocket and held one of Tarvos’s horns in his other hand. He fished out the spell and read it out loud.
“Tiggledy Piggledy Higgledy Poe, I tookund de talisman offend a Foe, Miranda, miractra, minstansilo blast, Eustanchia miranchia time ballido cast.”
He put the scissors and the horn away. “Hope that worked.”

“We’ll see.” Spartacus looked down at the spike, knowing that Erec was afraid of it. “You go first,” he said gently. “That way I’ll be here to help you.”

Erec nodded. “What about this thing?” He held up the Calamitizer weapon that he had carried since he was in the Hinternom, training for Baskania’s army. “Do you think it will come with me? You never know if we might use it. But we’ll definitely need that.” He pointed to the Rapid Transitator—Spartacus’s weapon that he kept slung over his shoulder. “You were able to bring that with you before.”

Spartacus nodded. “Everything I had came right with me. I’ll take your Calamitizer, just in case.”

Erec handed it to Spartacus, then looked down at the looming spike of rock. It was time to try morphing into a soul. He closed his eyes and ran the word through his mind.
Nee-way.

Everything around him shot high into the air, growing a mile a minute. He was tiny again, and he lost sight of the spike. There were his massive armored legs again, all around him. . . .

He was a spider again? This was not a time for mistakes. He had to get this right, and hope that there were no problems, because then it would be over for him forever. . . .

Think about becoming a soul.
Nee-way.

Erec grew again, but with a funny feeling, like something huge was missing from him. He was wobbly and floating, as if he were
perched on a tiny branch that could break any minute and send him plummeting. He was vulnerable, unprotected.

“Let me help you.” Spartacus guided him down to the spike and pushed him all the way down to the middle. Soon he followed after Erec.

Everything began to spin. The last time he had experienced this, as a spirit, it had not bothered him at all. But as a soul it was making him sick. He was dizzy and confused, and it seemed like it never was going to stop. Soon he could feel himself fly off of the spike and into the air, floating fast, and very far away. . . .

Alsatia looked completely different to Erec as a soul. Before it had seemed beautiful, like a vision from the deepest recesses of his imagination. Now, all around was nothing but barren rock. Deep crevices wound through it like cracks on the top of a tray of brownies. Maybe those were the spaces between the treetops that he had stepped over when he saw this place as the roof of a rainforest.

Erec could sense immediately that there were no other lone souls here. This was a place for spirits whose souls were contained safely within them. Spartacus probably felt at odds here too, as a soulless spirit.

Well, hopefully that would not last for long. There were three thousand suffering captives here, and by the end of the day they should all be free. That was, unless Erec and Spartacus failed.

They had thought it through so well, though, and even practiced. The souls—poor things—were already bound together in a Substance Web from their last visit here. They would simply go into the storage facility, which they had already been given permission to enter by the Furies, and then Erec would stop time with his spell. Spartacus would use his Rapid Transitator to take the clump of souls and transport them within a fraction of a second as far away as he
could. Then they would flee before starting time again, before the storage facility door was aware to even alert the Furies.

Hopefully, the three Furies would get sucked straight to Tartarus as soon as the souls were free. They wouldn’t be able to chase Erec and the freed souls. But instead of being imprisoned, they would see that their jail had been busted open. They would be free, and then they would have no reason to be angry.

Erec had thought about going straight to the Furies and asking them to release the souls themselves. But they would likely say no. Even if Tartarus could no longer contain them, they might feel that they owned the souls and want to keep them to be safe. If they knew Erec wanted to rescue the souls, he would be denied access and it would never work.

But Erec could not go straight to the storage facility without the Furies knowing that he was there. So he had come up with a reason for their visit.

“This way,” Spartacus said. “The Furies are past the rabbit burrow, in that huge hillside over there. This way—let’s go around the fox dens and those hedgehogs playing over there.”

Erec decided not to tell Spartacus what the place they were in really looked like.
Let him have his illusions.
It must have been nicer than what Erec was seeing. They went over two hills of dark rock and entered a split crevice in the side of a stone cliff.

Spartacus jumped over boulders and stepped around gaping cracks with ease, commenting now and then about the snake nests and frolicking bunnies. Erec wondered if Spartacus actually believed that snakes and baby bunnies were living together in peace.

The three Furies were living in a cave that looked exactly like the one they had been locked into in Tartarus . . . except here the roof had been blown wide open. Erec remembered from before that they kept flying in and out of the place, and now he understood why.
He figured it must feel great to have their freedom now. He supposed all of those eons locked away there made them want a place just like it . . . except wide open.

This time, the Furies looked exactly how Erec remembered them from the first time they met. Even though they were not gorgeous princesses, or immense birds, they were even more impressive in their true forms. They were huge, mostly due to their gigantic faces. Batlike wings flapped behind them, extending from the backs of their heads. Under the wings were small feather-covered, human-shaped bodies that seemed too tiny to support their heads. Long, radiant curls swirled in the air behind them, flowing from their heads, limbs, backs, and wings. It was as if the hair had a life of its own—Alecto’s red, Tisiphone’s black, and Megaera’s white.

But most impressive was their eyes, which pierced through Erec like knives. The energy that radiated from the superhuman creatures was breathtaking. It was as if they were far too immense to fit into their own bodies and were about to burst into supernovas right in front of him. When Erec had first met them, they were putting out so much anger that their feelings alone had almost flattened him. But now a calmness spread through the room. Was that from his influence, or was it Alsatia itself that was making them feel so much better?

Erec reached instinctively for his Amulet of Virtues and the Twrch Trwyth that hung from chains around his neck. He was glad that even as a soul they had accompanied him here. He had to remember to keep his mind clear. Luckily, Alsatia made it harder for the Furies to read his mind, but they might if he raised their suspicions in any way.

It all seemed good, but if Erec had known what would happen next, he might have turned right around and gone back home again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
A Hard Choice

C
LEAR YOUR MIND. CLEAR YOUR MIND.
Erec wanted to do all that he could to make sure that the Furies did not read his thoughts.

“Erec Rex and Spartacus Kilroy. Well, what a nice surprise. The only human we will waste our time with. And his friend.” Alecto seemed far calmer than Erec remembered her.

“Look at that,” Megaera said with a laugh. “First he comes here as a spirit without a soul. After we send him back to life, he now returns as a soul without a spirit.”

“What brings you two here?” Tisiphone asked.

Erec was ready with his answer. “I’m really sorry to bother you, but I have a favor to ask. You three have been wonderful to me. You gave me my life back, and I am so thankful for that. But there is one more thing I would really love. Baskania made me sign a contract that would let him take my dragon eyes away from me whenever he wants them. Could you make that contract not work anymore?”

He waited expectantly. It had seemed to Spartacus and him that this was the perfect excuse for their visit. Plus, Erec would be glad to keep his dragon eyes.

“There is a problem with that, you know,” Tisiphone said. Her voice echoed through the cave. “You signed a blood oath. We can break it, of course, but it is the same issue as the pills that you asked us to remove from you before—the ones that let Baskania control you. He will be aware the moment those bonds are broken. It may be a problem, or it may not. But he will know that you have severed those connections with him.”