C’mon, Bonnie! Hang in there!
Bonnie’s light suddenly vanished.
What? Did she disperse? Was she sucked back into the candlestone?
Billy’s legs dwindled into two spindly sparks, more like trembling, electric toothpicks than legs. He closed his eyes and balled his hands into flashing fists. I gotta have faith!
“Sir William,” Newman said. “Will you go next?”
Billy shook his head slowly. He could barely think. Bonnie’s last seconds haunted him, her radiant smile, her trusting eyes. Was she okay? He let out a sigh. “No, the rest of the knights should go next, but can you stay long enough to help me collect the animals and toss them into the river?”
“Certainly. The poor beasts cannot find their own way out. To leave them to their own devices would not be chivalrous. I know the places they usually congregate, so it won’t take long to find them. We will all stay to help.”
Newman lifted a small glowing animal at his feet. “This dog should go first. He refuses to leave my side, and I keep tripping on him.”
Billy laughed. “Sir Newman, how can you trip over a body of light?” He took the dog from the knight and set him down. “Let’s throw in the animals you’ve trapped, then we’ll use the dog to hunt for the others together, okay?”
“My pleasure, William.” Newman shouted into the cavern. “Men! Get ready for some chimp tossing!”
Walter waited at the recovery dome, his hand poised over the platform button. Another body congealed under the glass. Its shape wasn’t as distinct as Barlow’s, but it was obviously human, with glittering arms and legs and strands of luminescence flowing from its head.
“Starting restoration,” Ashley called. “Get ready!”
The light solidified into a feminine shape, the strands falling on her shoulders as blondish brown tresses. A mass on her back morphed into folded wings, and within seconds, Bonnie’s body materialized, her white robe shining bright. She blinked her eyes and took in a long, deep breath.
Ashley’s voice boomed across the lab. “Walter! Now!”
Walter slapped the switch and jumped to his feet, bouncing on his toes while waiting for the glass to rise. “You can lower your sword, Sir Barlow. It’s a friend.” The knight relaxed his arm, resting Excalibur at his side.
Bonnie glanced around with glazed eyes, her arms and legs motionless. Walter leaped onto the platform and took her hand, gently guiding her to floor level.
“Walter?” she said dreamily. She clutched his forearm as her legs wobbled on the stone surface. “What are you doing here?”
“Walter!” Ashley called from the control panel. “She’s disoriented. Her light waves were frazzled when she came out. We almost lost her.”
Still holding her hand, Walter tapped the switch with the toe of his shoe, sending the glass shield down again. “We’re all here,” he explained. “I mean, the professor and me and Billy’s mom.” He pointed toward the glass cylinders. “The professor’s the one who pulled you into that dome.”
Bonnie glanced over her shoulder at the restoration process. When she did, she spied her uncovered wings and gasped.
Walter’s gaze followed hers. With a wave of his hand, he said, “Don’t worry. I’ve known about your wings for a long time.”
“You’ve known?” Bonnie’s wings trembled. “But how?”
Ashley interrupted. “We’ll have time for explanations later. Right now Walter has a job to do.”
“Is that Ashley?”
“Right here, Bonnie!” Ashley called, waving. “It’s good to see you again! Sorry I can’t come over there; I’m sort of busy.”
“Ahem,” Sir Barlow said, kneeling. “Fair maiden, forgive me. I did not realize you were an angel. It is you who should bear the great sword.” He extended Excalibur, hilt first.
Bonnie reached for the sword and grasped its ornate handle with both hands. Its glow brightened to a fiery white blaze.
Barlow gasped and fell backward, sliding away on his elbows. “By all that is holy!”
“Oh, get up!” Walter said, laughing and reaching his hand to help the frightened knight. “Bonnie’s not an angel! She’s a dragon!”
“A dragon?” Barlow repeated as Walter hoisted him to his feet.
Ashley’s voice boomed again out of the darkness. “Explain it later, Walter! Another one’s coming!”
As a new mass of light filtered into the dome, Walter jumped to his post. Barlow whispered to Bonnie. “Whatever you are, lass, be ready to strike. It may be one of the scoundrels.”
Bonnie leaned over to offer him the hilt. “I’d feel better if you were the one holding it.”
Barlow wrapped his fingers around the grip and bowed his head. “If you so command, my lady. It will be my honor to bear it.”
Walter dropped to his knees near the cylinder switch. “Whatever just came out of the stone is taking shape!”
The light in the dome coalesced into a short, stooped form.
“An ape!” Barlow cried.
Ashley squinted at the hairy face. “That’s Betsy! She was one of our first chimps to go in.” Betsy pressed her nose and lips against the glass. “She’s ready, Walter. Get her out of there.”
Walter hit the button, and Betsy scrambled down on all fours.
Ashley clapped her hands. “C’mere, Betsy!” The chimp dashed across the floor and jumped into her mistress’s arms, and Ashley let out a sigh. “If they send out all the animals, we’re in for a long night.”
Billy wrestled a young chimp off his back and released him into the river. “You think that’s the last one, Sir Newman?”
“By my count Master William, yes.”
“Then let’s start sending your men. Who do you think should go first?”
Newman looked his fellow knights over, each one now standing at attention. “Since our leader is already out there, he can assemble the men when they arrive. I volunteer to go last. The next to go should be—”
Ploof!
Billy jerked his head around. “What was that?” The remnants of an electric splash rose from the river, leaving an effervescent fizz. Two seconds later, another splash plumed in a surge of spritzing static, then another.
“The conspirators!” Newman shouted.
“Get your men in there now!” Billy yelled. “We can’t have them outnumbering our people out in the lab!”
Newman waved his glowing arms toward the river. “Edward! Fly to the exit! Fiske! You follow him! Standish! Woodrow! Go! Now!”
The four phantoms dashed into the current, allowing it to hurtle their bodies into the river. Their splashes combined with those of the remaining conspirators as they all flushed through the candlestone’s wash.
Newman faced Billy and bowed. “You next, lad.”
“No,” Billy replied, shaking his head. “You go. I . . . I have something to do.”
Newman straightened and folded his hands behind his back. “I am at your service, William. With that fiend lurking in the shadows, I stand as your ready guard.”
“Thank you Newman, but they need you out there.” He gripped Newman’s shoulder. “Trust me. This is something I have to do alone.”
Newman bowed. “William, you are a brave knight indeed. I will look forward to seeing you on the other side.”
Without another word, Newman stepped toward the river, his body elongating as the current pulled him into its flow. His noble smile stretched with his thinning face, and he vanished into a vapor of streaming light.
Now alone in the chasm, Billy scanned the upper rim. Where is he? He fooled me last time, so I guess my danger sensing doesn’t work in here. He turned to continue his search. I guess I—
“Going somewhere, mongrel?” A flashing storm of light blocked his path. An electric hand throttled his neck, jolting him like a thousand stinging wasps. “This party is just getting started.”
Get Bobo away from that machine!” Ashley yelled. “If she turns it on, this show’s over for good!”
&
nbsp; “I’m trying to catch the rabbit!” Walter called back. “It’s chewing the cables!”
Ashley groaned. “The chimp first, then the rabbit!”
Bonnie flew across the lab, swooping low and snatching Bobo into her arms. She carried the chimp through the air toward the girls’ dorm. With a sweep of her arm, she slid Bobo inside and closed the door.
“Bonnie!” Ashley shouted. “Get Betsy, too! She’s trying to fiddle with the lights. We need them to stay dim.” She slapped the imp’s hairy hand away from the dial.
Airborne again, Bonnie zipped to the control panel and grabbed Betsy, holding the struggling ape away from the controls.
Ashley let out a loud relieved sigh, but immediately tensed. “Oh no! There’re four, no, five in the diver’s dome! There’s no way the professor can grab them all before the candlestone reabsorbs them!”
Ashley’s brow bent toward her nose. “The candlestone’s not affecting them at all! Could it be because their light isn’t agitated anymore?” She began shouting again. “Now there are six! Seven! What are we going to do? The receptors will never last!”
“Bonnie!” Walter yelled. “I’ve got the rabbit, but now one of the chimps is trying to mess with the shield’s switch!”
“I’m on my way!” Bonnie took Ashley’s hand and softly patted her knuckles. “If anyone can figure out what to do, you can!”
“But how? There’re eight! No, nine!”
Bonnie zoomed toward the recovery dome with Betsy in one arm and scooped Walter’s miscreant chimp into her other. As she flew by, she saw Sir Barlow wrestling for the sword with a larger chimp while an overzealous Scottish terrier nipped at his stockings. She sighed. “Those two will just have to wait.”
Waves of pain shot through Billy’s body, rippling through his energy field like lightning bolts. The stinging current drove into his brain, like hot needles zapping him over and over again. The slayer’s grip tightened around Billy’s throat until he felt woozy, every light dimming and spinning. The slayer lifted him until his feet floated above the chasm floor.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with, Dragon Boy,” the slayer growled. “I am the Minister of The New Table. I am Arthur’s Bane. I am the Wandering Spirit who cannot die.”
Billy could barely think. The slayer’s words were surreal, a wave of strange ideas. The New Table? Arthur’s bane? What’s he talking about?
Devin’s arm drew back. He threw a raging punch at Billy’s face, like a blacksmith’s mighty hammer crushing molten steel. Billy flew against one of the chasm’s walls, splattering his body against the crystal and creating a splash of sizzling electrons.
The slayer stalked toward him again, his arms reaching forward as if he were a demonic mantis. His evil voice sounded like an echo from the pit of hell. “It’s time to end this for good, you whelp of a jackal!”
A blinding flash of light surged through the gap between the demon and his prey. In a split second the light gathered into the tall stately form of a man, robed, with flowing silver hair. His arms spread wide, and light beams shot out from his hands to form a glowing shield, an oblong bubble that enveloped Billy and his defender.
The slayer burst into enraged flames, and his fiery red finger shook with dripping sparks. “Begone, you old sorcerer. Your black magic won’t keep me from slaying this foul son of the devil!”
Billy’s ghostly friend replied in a soft but firm tone. “It is not young William who springs from Satan’s loins, Devin. It is the liar who finds his home in the devil’s house of worship. Darkness breeds there, and you are its offspring, the minister of the darkest of lies.”
“Oh, so eloquent!” Devin sneered. “Is that what you’ve been doing for a thousand years, making up oral gems like that one? It makes me feel better knowing that you were in here conjuring up your trite little sayings while I was taking care of your dragon friends. Would you like an accounting of how many now remain in your draconic collection?”
The defender’s voice remained calm. “I am aware of your deeds, but the prophecy is still intact.”
“And so is mine,” Devin replied, flame still rippling across his fierce body. “Is your little lamb aware of the prophecies about me? I’ll bet you haven’t told him, have you?”
“No. It is not necessary to drink poison in order to understand its harm. He has seen enough of evil to know its character. A stinking pool need not be waded to learn that it is foul.”
“Well, perhaps the mongrel would like to know more about my power in his world. Has he ever asked why I was able to become a school principal, how I could manipulate the Castlewood police, how I was able to stow away in his father’s guarded airplane? Have you told him the truth about me?”
Billy pulled himself up to his knees. Devin’s questions were his questions—ones he had asked himself a hundred times.
“He will learn the truth,” the defender replied. “But it will not come through your twisted words. I will not allow it.” The silver-haired man lifted Billy to his feet, keeping a flashing hand on his back.
Billy stared into the face of the radiant defender. “Professor?” he whispered. “How did you get in here?”
“It is time for you to go, brave lad.”
“But it’s not over. I have to face Devin.”
“Not here and not now. You have to face him, but you have not yet taken hold of your greatest weapons.”
The defender lifted Billy into the air and threw him into the dark currents. Billy sailed toward the stream of light, pulled through the swirling blackness without the strength to fight it. A flash surrounded him as he plunged into the electrostatic river. Millions of tiny sparks pecked away at his body, and the pulsing lights dimmed to black.
“Edward!” Sir Barlow cried as the glass rose. “You made it!”
The knight, dressed only in loose-fitting silk breeches and shirt, stepped down to the floor. “Yes,” he replied breathlessly, “but our enemies may soon follow. I am the first, it seems, but the others are floating back in that glass case. I cannot tell who will be taken next.”
Bonnie peered into the diver’s dome. “What about Billy? Is he floating in there?”
Edward bowed. “The lad is still in the stone, as far as I know. He is a valiant one, to be sure. My guess is that he wanted to oversee everyone’s escape.”
Ashley called from the control panel. “The receptors are dying! If the professor brings anyone else over, I won’t be able to restore them! I might have to—”
A shout filled the lab. “She’s gone!”
Ashley spun her head toward the sound. “Who’s gone?”
Dr. Conner appeared in the dim light, leading Derrick and pushing Ashley’s grandfather in his wheelchair.
“Daddy!” Ashley cried, rushing toward them. Her grandfather’s head lolled to one side, and he shivered violently, his eyes tightly shut and his hands clenched into fists. Bonnie followed close behind Ashley and took Derrick’s hand from Doc.
Dirty tears streamed down Dr. Conner’s earth-caked cheeks, and he put a trembling hand on Ashley’s shoulder. “Karen’s gone!”
CHAPTER 21
COLLAPSE
Ashley enfolded her grandfather’s stiff, wrinkled hands and held them against her cheeks. “He’s freezing!” She searched all around his wheelchair. “Where’s his blanket?”
“It was gone when I got there!” Dr. Conner pointed toward the Omega door. “There’s deep snow where the cave comes out into the valley, but I couldn’t see any human tracks, just depressions and scratches in the snow. I saw blood next to the boulder that must have hit Karen, but there wasn’t any trail.” He dropped his medical bag and raised his hands. “It’s like she just vanished into thin air. And the cave collapsed behind me on my way back in. There’s no escaping that way now.”
Ashley stroked Derrick’s forearm. “Derrick. Did you hear anything? Can you even guess what happened?”
Derrick, his ebony skin streaked with tear tracks through gray dust, spoke s
lowly. “I heard weird noises, like wind . . . wind whipping a blanket on a clothes line.” He wiped his face with his sleeve. “And there was a smell, a smell like plowed soil, and I felt a warm breeze for just a second or two.”
Bonnie took Derrick in her arms and held his quivering face against her shoulder. Ashley grabbed the coat the professor had shed and laid it over her grandfather’s shaking body, tucking it around his sides. “I . . . I can’t do much more for Daddy now, Doc. And I can’t go looking for Karen.” She waved her arm toward the diver’s dome. “There are a bunch of people floating over there, and the professor left one in the restoration dome. I can’t restore any of them until I get more photoreceptors. If we don’t hurry, the people will disperse and die.”
“But where can we get receptors?” Dr. Conner asked. He fumbled through his pocket and drew out his ring of keys. “You know our source is gone.”
Bonnie extended her arms, exposing their scarred undersides. “Don’t I have photoreceptors? Can’t we use mine?”
“Yes, Bonnie,” Ashley replied, “you have them, but after getting transluminated and restored, your receptors could be weak or useless. Instead of letting the machine restore you, the receptors tried to do the work and drained themselves. And, besides, since you’ll have a low receptor density right now, it would take a lot of blood. We need you to stay strong to help search for Karen from the air.”
Walter stepped in close to the wheelchair. “Search, smearch! If Bonnie’s got photo-whatitz, then let’s try to use them. Weak ones are better than none at all. Billy and Prof are going to die if we don’t! And we’ll find Karen one way or another.”
Dr. Conner popped open his medical bag and produced a syringe. “I promised myself I’d never draw another drop of Bonnie’s blood, but I don’t think we have any choice.”
Ashley let out a deep sigh, rolled up a sleeve on her robe, and extended her arm toward Doc. “Take them from me.”