Venom and Song (43 page)

Johnny felt another shiver beneath his feet. “Guys?” And that's when everyone heard Jimmy yell, “
RUN!
”

The collapse begun, the bridge began to disintegrate right out from underneath them, one stone at a time.

“Run! Run! Run!” Jimmy echoed.

The girls screamed as they strode forward, legs pumping, arms flailing. Kiri Lee took to the air to give the others room—and she was too scared to bind her fate to a bridge that she trusted not nearly as much as open air, even air over an abyss. The bridge bucked, loosing itself of stone like an avalanche. Foundations cracked underfoot, shards of stone shooting out in all directions.

The lords tried desperately to keep their feet underneath them, managing by some miracle to keep from falling off. But even so, would there be any bridge connected to the far side in the next few breaths?

Tommy leaped the final three steps, colliding with Jimmy and knocking him over. Kat was a second behind, and Kiri Lee touched down after her. The four turned around to see Autumn, Johnny, and Jett leaping over gaps that appeared in front of them.

“Come on!” they yelled. “Run!”

Autumn kicked it into high gear, pulling Johnny, who pulled Jett. Autumn fell down the slope of the bridge, and Johnny tumbled after, screaming for Jett. Their hands had separated, and Jett had fallen to a knee behind them.

“No!” Jimmy cried out.

What was left of the bridge beneath Jett gave way, and he fell.

“NO!” Tommy yelled.

“Gotcha!” Kiri Lee cried out, and then she groaned, jarred by Jett's momentum. She stood on an invisible island of air and had both hands wrapped around Jett's wrist. “You are heavy,” she said, grinning.

“It's all muscle, baby,” he said back.

But Kiri Lee didn't laugh. “We're sinking!”

“C'mon, Kiri Lee, climb!” yelled Tommy.

“I know!” Kiri Lee shouted, now pulling up on Jett and back–pedaling, churning her legs in reverse as if on some aerobic bicycle. “Hold on!”

“I am!”

Kiri Lee worked her legs as hard as she could, ascending ever so slowly and watching the last chunks of the bridge fall away below them. The five other teens watched in stunned amazement as Kiri Lee defied gravity not only herself, but hauling Jett with her, both of them hanging over a bottomless pit.

“Hey!” Jett called, working his legs. “I feel something . . . under my feet! Feels like wet sand . . . like I can almost climb it!”

“Kiri Lee's gift,” Tommy muttered. “It's maturing.” Tommy snapped from his thoughts. “Give him more of your power, Kiri Lee!”

“I'm trying,” she cried back. “But I'm not sure how!”

Tommy spun on his heels. “Autumn, zip around here, find a rope, a branch—”

“Where?”

“I don't know, just look!”

Autumn flashed away, grabbing Jimmy's torch right out of his hand. Tommy and the others urged Kiri Lee and Jett on.

For a moment they were climbing, still about twelve feet from the landing, but getting closer. “Come on!” the lords yelled.

But Jett's pedaling with his feet put an awful strain on Kiri Lee. “Ah! You're slipping!” she cried. “Stop moving your legs!”

“But I almost had it,” Jett yelled. “I think if I keep trying—”

“If you keep trying, I'll drop you,” she said. “The sweat . . . your arm is slipping through my hands.”

The moment Jett stopped struggling, the pair began to sink more rapidly. “Ah! This isn't good!” yelled Jett.

Autumn suddenly appeared. “I can't find anything!” And then she saw Kiri Lee straining to hold Jett, but the two of them falling in slow motion. “Oh no!”

“Tommy, hold me arm!” yelled Jimmy. He stepped to the edge of the crevasse and held out his arm for Tommy. Tommy did just that, and using his weight as a counterbalance, he let Jimmy lean out.

“Uhnnn!” Jimmy grunted. “Ah, they're just too far . . . out 'a me reach!”

“There's gotta be something around here!” Johnny growled, the flames flaring in his hands. In his rush to find some object or piece of debris to help his friends reach out to Kiri Lee, Johnny caught the toe of his boot on a jag of rock and tripped. He fell hard, but there was a sudden burst of light, and Johnny never hit the ground.

Flames bursting from his palms kept the young lord seven inches from the floor. Johnny surprised himself by bringing forth more fire, using the powerful streams to push himself to his feet.

“No!” Kiri Lee shrieked. “I—I can't!”

Johnny turned and took in a nightmarish scene. Tommy and Jimmy were still trying to stretch out, but even with Kat helping anchor them it was no use. Kiri Lee looked exhausted, desperate, terrified. Jett dangled beneath her, helpless. He was staring at Johnny and muttering something, maybe a prayer.

That was when Kiri Lee let go.

She hadn't meant to, but finally her strength gave out. “NOO!” she cried, flailing at the air, but Jett was gone.

Johnny, rather than panicking, felt an odd prickle on the bottoms of his feet. It matched the tickling of an idea in the back of his mind. He looked over at Tommy, but caught Jimmy's eye instead.

“Do it,” said Jimmy.

That was all Johnny needed. In a blur of motion that would have made Autumn proud, Johnny raced forward and dove over the edge.

Everything had happened so fast. In a matter of seconds two of their number were gone. So utterly spent was Kiri Lee that she fell out of the air into Tommy's arms and lost consciousness. Jimmy stood at the edge of the chasm and looked down.

“Why did he do it?” whispered Autumn. “Why?”

“Wait,” said Jimmy. “Yur brother—Johnny—knows what he's doing.”

A flash! Followed a second later by a tremendous
boom!

“What . . . ?” Kiri Lee awoke with a start just as a brilliant flare of pure white light exploded from the abyss.

The four teens joined Jimmy near the ledge and looked. Trembling upward at a slow, lumbering pace came Johnny with enormous furrows of white-hot fire rocketing from his hands and feet. And clinging to Johnny like an enormous backpack was Jett. He grinned up at his friends and yelled, “This guy has rocket feet!”

The pair gained speed until finally Johnny cut his afterburners, and the two sailed in a gentle arc through the air and landed on the stone.

The two were surrounded by exuberant cheers and smothered in hugs. And for once in his life, Johnny felt like a
somebody
.

Like a hero.

28
Keeper of the Cistern

JUST AS the echoes of the Seven's celebration faded, the flaming stalactites burnt out leaving them in darkness once more.

“Got any flame left?” asked Tommy, hearing
tip-taps
of tiny creatures scurrying once more.

“On it.” A
whoosh
accompanied a dazzling light.

Tommy looked back at the chasm and the remnants of the bridge. “Looks like we've burned our bridge,” he said. “I guess Johnny could fly us over one at a time. Mannn, that is the coolest thing ever.”

Jimmy stepped into a brightened patch in front of the others. He stuttered a bit as he spoke, “I just . . . just wanted t' say I'm sorry. I should 'a been more careful, like yu said.”

“Mannn, don't sweat it,” said Jett, grabbing Jimmy's shoulder.

Kat was still a bit angry, but if Jett could forgive him, well . . . she thought she should, too. “Ah, Jimmy,” she said, “you couldn't have known.”

“But I should 'a known, shouldn't I?” Jimmy asked.

“Maybe you learned a hard lesson,” said Tommy. “For all of us. This place is no joke. We've not even entered the fortress and almost got a couple of us killed. We ALL need to be more careful . . . and we need to work together. To remember our gifts.” Nods all around. “Now, Johnny, kindle our torch. It's time to enter Burcherond.”

The team entered a low-arched corridor that appeared to lead into the heart of the fortress. No windows or doors, no fixtures or carpeting. Just a long hallway. Soon the light from Johnny's hands fell on something none of them were expecting.

“A dead end,” said Jimmy.

Jett scratched his head. “I don't get it.”

“Neither do I,” Tommy said. The Seven stood in a circular room with not even the faintest hint of a handle or hinge or crack. “Maybe we missed something back at the entrance.”

As Johnny held the lit torch, the others searched the perimeter of the room by feeling the wall with their hands, finding nothing unusual until Kat whispered, “Guys, look at this!” She probed a dime-shaped dimple with her index finger and the back of the hole pressed inward. “Whoa!” Then a
click
from somewhere inside the wall, followed by grinding.

“A secret passage!” Johnny exclaimed, standing in the middle of the room. But as he looked around, nothing appeared. No door. No hatch. And still the grinding continued.

“I don't have a good feeling about this,” said Autumn, spinning around slowly.

“Oh no!” said Jimmy, lunging for the opening to the room.

Thud!

Jimmy hadn't been fast enough. A solid rock wall slammed shut, closing off the corridor to the outside and sealing the Seven in the circular room.

“Oh great!” Jimmy complained.
Why did I not see that one coming?
Jimmy wondered to himself.
The bridge fallin', too. Doesn't seem like me gifts are growin' like they should. Somethin's wrong
. But Jimmy had no more time to worry about his gifts.

Bits of dust and stone dribbled down on the Seven as the ceiling began to give way, descending ever so slowly from its lofty place.

“It's a trap!” screamed Autumn, watching the rock inch its way toward her.

“Don't panic!” Tommy tried to calm them. “We'll figure a way out!”

The ceiling dropped lower, now just above their heads.

“My gift is no good here!” yelled Kiri Lee.

“Do something!” Autumn pulled on Johnny's arm. “
Johnny!
”

“I can't!” he hollered back, trying not to burn her with the flames in his hands.

“But I can,” said Jett. The other six turned to watch as Jett planted his feet and placed his palms against the ceiling, now at shoulder height. Jett closed his eyes, and every vein in his neck began to bulge. He groaned, the ceiling slowing only slightly.

“Everybody else, on your backs,” commanded Tommy. “Use your legs to press the stone up!”

“Ahgk, that's a little better,” groaned Jett.

“It's not working!” Kat yelled. “Try harder!”

Jett clenched his teeth. “
I—am!
” Jett opened his eyes. They were giving it everything they had, and still the ceiling pressed down. They would die if he didn't stop this thing. Crushed to death.
Had they really come all this way to die here? Now? So close?

It was then that Jett realized he truly held the futures of his friends in his hands. He thought of the Elves in Nightwish. He even thought of his parents back on Earth. And it was then something else came to mind. Jett closed his eyes and saw an image of his mother kneeling beside her bed as she did every night. Praying.
What a pointless ritual
, he had once thought. But ever since Grimwarden had begun to train them in the way of Vexbane, talking to Ellos, talking to God, didn't seem so strange. And right now it seemed like the only option. “
God
,” he grunted, “
if you're . . . there—I need—you
.” It was all he could do to keep the ceiling from folding him into the floor. “
Need . . . strength
.”

Jett felt a strange sensation course through his spine right then . . . like someone had plugged him into a wall socket. The burn in his muscles drained away, replaced with a flourishing reservoir of power—utter, raw power. A memory flickered back at that moment . . . of carrying half the Clifton Tigers football team across the goal line. That seemed so long ago, and now, Jett knew, he was much, much stronger.

“For Ellos!” he yelled, expending his might.

“You're doing it,” the others started to whisper. Then louder, “Jett, you're doing it!”

Jett bared his teeth, yelling back in defiance. The ceiling, for the first time, had stopped. Sweat poured down his temples, his arms and legs trembling. He got off one knee and drove his right foot into the ground. Then pressed up. With the sound of gears being torqued in a direction they were never meant to go, the ceiling started upward. Farther above them, the Seven could hear the sounds of rope snapping, bars bending. Metal objects clanked together and dropped out of place. A strained, grinding sound shook the entire room, and soon Jett was on both feet and roaring like a giant as the ceiling ascended higher and higher.

Just when the ceiling was about out of reach, Jett snapped his body tight like a pillar of stone and thrust the ceiling upward so hard that it smashed into the framework above; but more, it went
through
it. Debris fell down all around the Seven as they covered their heads. Johnny's flames went out, and all went dark. Parts of the mechanism above littered the floor, and a few of the Seven coughed as dust filled the space. Then all was quiet.