Devin dragged her away, his spiteful voice ripping its coarse static into her mind. “Time for you to join the monkeys and the fools, little angel.” He stopped at the edge of the chasm, dangling her body over its narrow opening. “You were a fierce enemy. It’s a shame you were on the wrong side.”
Bonnie froze, not wanting to slip from his grasp. She peered below, and the swirling ghosts came together, like crocodiles swarming to meet a fallen victim. “Billy will come,” she cried. “He’ll take care of you.”
“Oh, I know he’ll come. And he’ll be duped as easily as you were. You’ve given me a nice collection of sounds to work with.” His raspy voice mutated into Bonnie’s recent, excited call. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!”
The words were hers! The tone was hers! What would Billy do? This would all be new to him. Would he be fooled? She shook away her fears, and with all her might, she shouted, “You won’t get away with it!”
“Oh, yes. Yes, I will. I’ve been getting away with it for over a thousand years. And I still have more dragon-kind to kill.”
Bonnie tried to sing. “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover—”
“Too late, Witch!” Devin released Bonnie, and she plummeted through the blackness of the gem’s dungeon. She tried to grab with her hands of light, but nothing held; the walls were pure, crystalline glass, and something from beneath pulled with relentless force. She plunged farther and farther into the pit as the slayer’s scornful laughter faded into a rush of dark wind.
Walter nudged the door open a crack and peeked out into the huge room. Near the center he saw Dr. Conner pounding on a panel of some kind. He ducked back inside the tunnel. “Prof! It’s the lab, all right. And Dr. Conner’s in there. He’s mad as a hornet.”
The professor turned to Karen. “The sword, please.”
Karen opened the box, and the professor grasped the hilt. Instantly the sword changed from a lifeless gray blade into a blazing white saber. He took one crutch and pressed it under his armpit before turning back to Walter. “The time has come. Wisdom and caution must unite with action and speed. Let’s go!”
Billy searched through the vast darkness. It was like floating in a windowless closet without a speck of light in the universe except his own, and even that bounced off the blanket of blackness without making a dent. A wind blew through his body, dark streams crisscrossing his shining form.
At last he spotted another light. Bonnie?
“Careful, Billy.”
What? The warning voice seemed to come from inside his mind. Who said that?
“It’s Ashley. We’re connected, so I can talk to you. And I can hear some of your thoughts. Guard them well.”
Hear my thoughts? How does that work?
“I don’t know. It’s sort of a mind meld, I guess. Don’t worry; I haven’t heard much, so I guess I can only hear your louder thoughts. Let’s get going. I can’t see what you see, but I’m going to stretch out as far as I can so you can go find out who that is.”
You may not have to. It’s coming this way.
The light closed in rapidly, the shapeless mass forming into a young female body. The face, though nondistinct, radiated, and Billy heard an excited voice coming from its direction. “C’mon! Let’s get out of here!”
It was Bonnie! The light stretched out an appendage, and Billy reached toward it, his glowing red ring floating in the black surroundings. The approaching light drew closer and closer, filled with energy and flashing white . . . but no circle of red.
No ring!
A hard yank jerked Billy backwards. “I heard that Billy! I know Bonnie’s ring went in there with her.”
He flew away from the imposter, and its bright light flashed crimson, crisscrossed with pulsating yellow stripes.
Billy yelled to Ashley, his thoughts now loud streams of static words. “I know it’s Devin, but I have to go back.”
“No! You can’t possibly fight him. He knows the ways of the candlestone better than you do. He’s been in there for weeks!”
“I’m not looking for a fight,” Billy said as he pulled against Ashley’s pressure. “I’m looking for Bonnie! But if I have to fight him, I will . . . face-to-face.”
Bonnie shivered, her glowing skin flickering in what felt like a chilling breeze. She had crashed to the floor of the cavern, her flashing body flattened against the crystalline surface. I guess it doesn’t hurt to splat against anything in this place. She pushed herself off the floor. One good piece of news—the circling phantoms were nowhere in sight. Somehow the swirling forces had tossed her body to one side, though she couldn’t tell how far.
It wasn’t so dark here. The river of light flowed through this area, gushing toward the candlestone’s exit point, and it lent a shimmering glow to the chasm’s lower chamber.
Another light approached, its gentle radiance strengthening as it drew closer. A second light appeared, then a third! Within seconds six flashing phantoms, a group of men with hardened faces and bright, flowing hair, surrounded her. They pressed around her and stared, almost as if they were sniffing, like a pack of dogs trying to detect who or what she was.
“It is not Devin,” one of them said.
“Another ape?” a second one asked.
“Probably. It has arms and legs. Its features are not yet distinct.”
A third voice joined in. “Well, I didn’t expect that he’d just slip and fall down here.”
“Perhaps not. If he ever does, it will be his last mistake.”
The lights began drifting away, apparently no longer concerned about Bonnie’s arrival.
“Wait!” she called. “I’m not an ape. I’m human. My name is Bonnie Silver.”
One of the lights turned back. “Have you a tale?” it asked.
“No. I don’t have a tail. I’m human.”
The light rejoined the others, and the group dispersed, floating away like clouds in the wind. They sang a moaning dirge, much like the one she had heard when she first peered down into the crack from up above.
Bonnie felt the constant pull that carried them away, a strange air current that tried to draw everything toward the exiting river. The phantoms floated in the current, resisting at the last moment before it would have plunged them into the river, and they curved back to where they started, only to begin another circuit.
Bonnie moved as far away from the river as she could, inching along the glass floor, pushing against the current. She found a pocket of angled planes carved into a lower part of the chasm’s cliff. It was a cave of sorts, a narrow opening, depressed into the wall and lower than the surrounding floor, a good place to hide in case other ghosts came sniffing by.
Burying herself in the cleft, Bonnie peered out at the slow waltz of swirling specters. She imagined men and apes, rats and rabbits, all meshed in a dizzying eternal torture. Would she be the next victim of the candlestone’s version of hell, joining the everlasting lament in this turmoil of dark despair?
She tried to shake away the sorrow, the agony of hopelessness. She remembered a similar cycle of misery, being passed from foster home to foster home, unwanted, unloved, still aching over her mother’s recent death. And now—
A sob rose in her throat, her light dimming and wasting away in a shudder of weakening flickers. She cried out in her mind, her sorrows pouring forth as her world turned darker and darker.
Where are you, Mama?
Anguish lashed at her, the threat of being locked in a forsaken tomb for an eternity. What could she do but cry? Although no liquid tears fell, Bonnie wept, and the cleansing flow of emotions helped her form a prayer in her mind—a prayer for her mother, for herself, and especially for Billy.
After a few minutes, a gentle breath, a glimmer of passing light, brightened her own. It carried a sense of hope, a tiny spark, yet as real as a candle in a dark room. Somehow Billy would make his way to her side . . . but how could he possibly find her in this hidden dungeon?
The professor limped into the lab, on
e hand gripping a crutch and the other carrying the glowing Excalibur. Walter and Karen crept close behind.
Dr. Conner sat with his head in his hand, studying the control panel, barely moving a muscle.
The professor whispered to Karen. “Does anyone else live here?”
“Uh-huh. Ashley’s grandfather and a boy named Derrick.”
“Can you take Walter to them?”
She glanced across to the other side of the lab. “Yeah. The boys’ dorm door is open, and— Wow! The Omega door, too!”
Walter shielded his eyes from the laboratory lights. “Where’s the Omega door?”
The professor put a shushing finger to his lips. He handed his crutch to Walter, balancing his weight on his good foot. “Set this down. Go with Karen and close the door behind you. Find them and make sure they’re safe. Lead them back, but don’t come in unless I call.”
“Gotcha, Prof.”
“And go quickly. Don’t worry about Dr. Conner seeing you. I’ll handle him.”
Walter and Karen dashed across the chamber, their shoes clattering on the stone. Dr. Conner jerked his head up and yelled. “Karen! What are you doing? Come back here!” In a flash of motion, he turned two dials on the panel and sprang from his chair.
The professor tightened his grip on the sword. “Halt!”
The doctor spun around. Terror filled his eyes. The professor held Excalibur up in both hands. The glowing blade shot a brilliant beam upward, ripping a hole in the ceiling, and the laser stream pierced the darkness above.
Walter and Karen disappeared into the hallway, and the door slammed with a loud clap. The professor eyed Dr. Conner and allowed the sword’s beam to diminish, though its fiery glow continued to drape the blade like a shining scabbard. “Dr. Conner,” the professor began, his tone crisp and matter-of-fact, “would you be so kind as to tell me the whereabouts of Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver?”
Dr. Conner stepped back against the control panel. A shroud of fear clouded his eyes and lined his smudged face. He pointed at the candlestone. “They’re . . . they’re in there.” Wringing his hands, he continued. “Bonnie went . . . went into the candlestone, and, and she got trapped. Ashley and Billy went in, too, to . . . to try to get her out, I’m sure. I think they’re all in there now. I . . . I tried to reverse it, but it’s on automatic. Ashley changed the override password, so I can’t bring them back.” He swallowed hard and his voice strengthened. “We have to get them out, and fast!”
The professor lowered his sword. “Is there immediate danger?”
“Yes. I came in through the back tunnel. A major support wall caved in, so this mountain’s entire structure has been compromised. Another tremor could bring this whole place down on top of us.”
“What would happen if we were to simply remove the stone and leave?”
“We can’t. Ashley’s anchoring. She’s halfway in and halfway out. If we moved the stone, we’d tear her body in two. And our equipment is the only way in the world to restore them. I could never rebuild it without Ashley.”
Dr. Conner’s eyes suddenly widened. The ceiling panels rattled, and the lights flickered wildly. The floor of the cave began vibrating, the intensity building. Dr. Conner leaped toward the candlestone’s pedestal, shouting, “I have to hold the stone in place!”
Limping painfully toward the center of the chamber, the professor called through a growing din, “Walter! Karen! Come out!”
They scrambled out of the hallway, Karen pulling Derrick by the hand and Walter propelling Ashley’s grandfather in a wheelchair. The floor bucked and swayed, and they careened back and forth like sailors on the deck of a wind-tossed ship.
Pellets of sand sprinkled the floor, bouncing across the tile. Taps from above signaled pebbles dancing on the tops of the ceiling panels. The professor waved them forward. “You must evacuate immediately.”
Walter hunched over to shield Ashley’s grandfather. “You gotta be kidding me! I can’t get this wheelchair up the stairs!”
A rush of rocks and sand ripped through a ceiling tile, burying a chair near a control panel. Dr. Conner squatted next to the central pedestal, holding the candlestone in place.
“The Omega entrance,” Dr. Conner shouted. He nodded toward the door. “I cleared a path through the rubble. Try that.”
“But what about the monster?” Karen shouted.
“There’s no monster! Just go!”
Karen tugged on Walter’s coat sleeve. “I know the way!” She and Derrick seesawed their way over the teetering ground toward the Omega door.
The professor pointed toward the exit. “Walter! Go! Now!”
“But what about you?”
“Go!”
Ashley’s pull on Billy’s arm lessened. As he floated back toward the slayer, he shouted his thoughts. “What have you done with Bonnie?”
“So,” Devin said, his scratchy voice buzzing like a dentist’s drill, “you’ve learned how to speak in here. Not bad.”
Devin sprang toward Billy, but Billy backed away just in time to avoid his touch. The slayer laughed. “A little quicker now, I see. Well, you’re obviously not much smarter than when you lost your battle with me on the mountain. All it took was a lock of hair to bring you stumbling up the slopes like an idiot to rescue your stupid girlfriend. What a surprise! She wasn’t there! And now here you are again, swaggering in to fight me on my home turf. Didn’t your old man teach you any better? Oh, yes. I forgot. He’s a dragon, a stupid beast, just like all the others I’ve conquered over the years.”
Billy listened to Devin’s sarcastic tirade, ignoring a dozen clever retorts that clamored in his head. When the slayer paused, Billy said, “So is your sharp tongue your only sword now?”
Devin’s light burst into radiant crimson. “You fool! You have no idea what I’ve learned in this cursed stone!” A sphere of energy grew in the center of Devin’s body like a swarming nest of supercharged fireflies. He raised the sphere like a weapon, a cannonball of electrostatic fury. “I could have scattered you into a million lost electrons, mongrel. You’re defenseless, without a weapon or even a song.”
“A song?”
“Never mind.” Devin’s color slowly faded to white. “If you want to survive, you’d better cooperate with me. I’ll bet they didn’t tell you what happens to males when they’re restored, did they?”
“I heard, and I don’t care.” Billy’s own light changed to off-white. He couldn’t let the slayer prod him into a fit of anger . . . not now. He composed himself and continued, calmness oozing from his voice. “Just tell me where Bonnie is.”
“You’d better deal with me, kid. I’ll tell you where she is, and I’ll tell you how to save your brain if you’ll let me attach and ride out of here with you.”
“Is she alive?”
“She’s alive.”
Billy tried to sort out what to do, but his brain felt frazzled. There’re too many options! And the system could go into reverse at any minute! There’s no time!
Ashley’s voice popped into his head. “You’re right, Billy. My guess is about seventy seconds to reversal.”
Did you hear all of the conversation, Ashley? What should I do?
“I didn’t hear much. You don’t have time to explain what’s going on. You’re on your own, and you have to act fast.”
Devin’s glow flashed, a rippling mass of humanoid light set against pure blackness. His blurry facial features gave no hint of an expression, nothing to help Billy decide how to deal with this liar. But the surrounding emptiness reminded Billy of his father’s story. Shouldn’t there be others trapped in the candlestone, Devin’s fellow conspirators? If so, where were they? If they were partners in crime, why wasn’t Devin with them now? Hmmm. There’s more going on here than meets the eye.
“Okay,” Billy finally said. “Show me where Bonnie is first. If I see you’re telling the truth, you can go with me.”
Devin drifted away, a finger of light gesturing as his glow delved into the d
arkness. “Follow me.”
Give me some slack, Ashley. I have to go somewhere. Billy felt Ashley’s release of tension, and he followed Devin’s energy trail until he stopped. Billy drew closer but kept a safe distance. Okay, Ashley. Be ready to yank me away if I call.
“Just say the word.”
“Do you see this little fault?” Devin said, his glowing finger pointing toward the floor.
“A fault? You mean, like a crack inside the stone?”
“Yes.” He pushed his arm through, and it disappeared below the surface of the floor. “It leads to the candlestone’s exit. Bonnie went down there to try to get out.”
Ashley, did you catch that?
“All I heard was you saying something about a crack in the stone. I’ve mapped this entire matrix, and there is a crack leading from the inner core down into the exit channel. Doc told me that Devin said he couldn’t use it to escape. But he might have been lying. We don’t have much time, Billy. Less than forty seconds! Hurry!”
Got it. Billy addressed Devin again. “Why should I believe you?”
“You have no choice. I can’t get out that way; only females can. There’s a basic difference in how genders transluminate. Pull me out, and not only will I save your worthless brain, I’ll tell you how to get her out through the exit channel. You made the deal, Bannister. I showed you where she is, now it’s your turn.”
Billy crept toward the fault. Their two masses of light stood at the edge of the narrow chasm, peering into the darkness. Down below, Billy saw the exiting river of light and radiant phantoms circling in a tight coil. “What are those?”
“Other souls like us who would like to get out. Bonnie is one of them, I’m sure.”
Ashley’s voice interrupted. “Billy! It has to be down to fifteen seconds by now! Are you ready?”
Billy kept his thoughts focused on Devin. “They look like sharks in a feeding tank, like they’re angry or something.”
“Perhaps they are. Some have been here for a very long time.”
Aha! His cronies! My hunch was right! “Really? Longer than you?”