There was a bright beam of light that blinded her then. “Ow!” she said, holding her hand up to shield her eyes.
“Sorry, Evie!” said the Kid. “Didn’t realize you were right there.”
“It’s okay.”
“Let’s climb down and get this healing water as quickly as we can,” said Catherine, also turning on a flashlight. A third beam joined the first two as Benedict silently turned his on.
The cavern they were in was so huge that their lights really didn’t illuminate much. Even the headlights from the submarine only lit a path into the water ahead and then fell into darkness.
“We’ll walk along the top of the submarine and then swim for shore,” said Catherine. “Here’s hoping there still is a shore after all these years,” she added.
Another hope. Another plan based on crossing one’s fingers.
Here’s hoping.
They did as Catherine instructed. It wasn’t easy once they left the flat top near the hatch and arrived on the wet curved surface of the front of the submarine. It was slippery and her feet were unstable beneath her, but she took it one step at a time until she almost tripped and fell. She looked down as Catherine shone the flashlight at her feet. A long deep indentation ran along this part of the top of the ship.
“The beast,” said Evie.
“The creature, yes,” replied Catherine.
They didn’t really have time to stop and marvel. They had to keep going, and by carefully watching where they placed each step, they eventually made their way to the front of the ship.
“Ready to take a dip?” asked the Kid. She couldn’t see his face too well, but the way he asked it made it sound like he was grinning.
“Not really,” she replied, but she sat down, following his lead. She watched in Benedict’s beam of light as the Kid slid down the glass wall of windows at the front of the ship and splashed into the water. He popped back up again. This time she could see he was smiling.
“Just like last time,” he said, before turning and swimming out toward the darkness, lighting his way by holding his waterproof flashlight in one hand.
“Last time?” asked Evie.
“The water is quite mild. You’d expect it to be too cold, but it’s not. Not even too hot, considering that things heat up the closer you get to the center of the earth. I guess we’re not that deep, though,” said Catherine.
“No,” replied Benedict, sitting and then sliding almost immediately after.
Another splash.
“You go next. I’ll light your way,” said Catherine.
Evie turned to her. “Uh, Catherine?”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry I voted wrong,” she said. It was so hard to say out loud that her stomach twisted at the thought.
“Oh, Evie,” said Catherine, the beam of her flashlight falling low, highlighting Evie’s shoes. “Don’t feel bad. You didn’t do anything wrong. You wanted to impress your grandfather, and you trusted him. We all trusted him. You have to understand, he’s not evil. He, well…”
“He wants to do what he wants to do and not worry about anyone else. Like me,” she said. She gulped a bit when she finished.
“No, not like you.”
“What’s the difference between us? I put Sebastian in danger by making him help me in the first place. I put him in danger again because I wanted to go on this exploration. I did all those things.” She had. She’d done them. She was a bad person.
“You also told your grandfather to stop when he grabbed the steering control from the Kid. Maybe you go far, maybe you push. Who am I to judge? I push too. I made you come into the water with a shark, remember? And I certainly went too far the last time, trying to save a beast that was trying to kill us. We all make mistakes. But when we realize we made them, we don’t do them again. You would never willingly put us at risk. Alistair did. Does.”
Evie had never heard such passion in the animal expert’s voice before. Such emotion. She wanted to believe that Catherine was right.
“Come on. Let’s join them. We have to hurry,” said Catherine.
Of course. Of course they did. This was not the time to talk about these things. Another mistake, Evie. Another one.
She sat on the cold metal and peered at the light below her. She could see the ripples in the water and also a glow coming from behind the windows of the bridge inside. No time. Hurry up. Stop looking. She let go, slid down the glass, and splashed into the water.
It was warm and almost comforting. She popped back up and turned to stare at the submarine in front of her. It looked huge from this angle, like a giant whale. She could see a lot of detail inside, including Doris, who waved at her. Then Evie turned and saw light not too far off. Benedict and the Kid. They were waiting for her at the shore.
She began to swim. It was tough in her regular clothes, and they weighed her down. But the lights got bigger and brighter, and she kept moving forward until she could feel earth beneath her feet and she was able to walk the rest of the way. Catherine had caught up, and together they joined the Kid and Benedict.
They didn’t say anything, just turned and started walking into the darkness. Evie trusted they knew the way, but something felt a little off. She didn’t want to say it, though. She didn’t want them to doubt that she was on their side now. That she was loyal to them. Now.
But, still, there was something that was making her feel not right. She couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Why is it so quiet?” asked Benedict.
And that was it. That was the thing. Weren’t waterfalls supposed to be noisy? Even little ones made a trickle sound. Even a faucet could be heard from a different room.
“I don’t like this,” said the Kid.
They kept going, but the dread was now fully overtaking Evie’s body. She didn’t want to feel that horrible numbness again, but, boy, she sure didn’t like how this felt either.
They eventually came to a rock face.
And stopped.
It was just a wall. No water falling, not even a trickle. Evie reached out to touch it. It wasn’t even damp.
The Kid swore.
This surprised Evie. She’d never heard any of the explorers swear before. It made her uncomfortable. And also really worried.
“Well,” said Benedict. “Now what?”
“Now what, what?” asked Evie. But she understood. She just didn’t want to understand.
“This is where the waterfall was,” said Catherine.
“Are you sure?” asked Evie.
“Yes.” She said it so definitively. Like she was slamming a book shut.
No, no, this wasn’t the end of the story. No. “Like, maybe this isn’t the right cavern. I mean, I get this might be where the waterfall is in the right cavern, but this is the wrong one. We have to go back down and find the right one.” It sounded absurd as she said it. Then again this whole thing was absurd—the magic waterfall, the breathing so far underground, this whole adventure from the very start.
“No, Evie.”
She hated it when Catherine said her name. It was always so final. No more words to be said. That was all. “Evie” somehow meant “It’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Evie said.
“It is, Evie.”
Evie.
It is.
There was chaos. A lot of chaos. Sebastian couldn’t see most of it from where he was lying, but he could definitely hear it. They weren’t even pretending to hide things from him anymore. Which he really didn’t mind. He liked knowing, even if knowing was bad.
“I’ll get us out of here,” the Kid was saying. “The sooner we leave, the sooner we get to shore.”
“No!” said Evie. “We need to keep searching for the waterfall. It can’t have dried up.”
“Why not?” ask
ed Benedict. “That happens sometimes. And it’s been twenty years since we’ve been here.”
“Because…because we need it! Because we can’t have come all this way for nothing.” She sounded so sad, so desperate. Sebastian hated that he was part of the reason. He wanted to reach out to her, tell her it would be okay. Tell her that he was grateful for all of it, even the bad parts, even when he’d wanted to go home. That it all really had been worth it.
He couldn’t say any of that, though. He just had to lie there. Feeling stupid.
“Evie,” said Catherine, “we have to go. You know it’s best for both of them. Doris will do whatever she can in the meantime, won’t you?”
There was a silence.
Then Catherine said, “Good. Okay, let’s get into positions.”
Evidently Doris had nodded, Sebastian supposed. Well, that was good to know.
There was the sound of shuffling, and then Evie came into his line of sight. She kneeled next to him with a glass of water. “Hey, have a bit of this,” she said.
Sebastian took a small sip, but it hurt to swallow. He smiled, though, pretending it didn’t.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said. He wanted her to stop apologizing already. He got it, he really did. He forgave her. But he also had never blamed her in the first place. After everything she’d been through, finding Alistair had been her only goal. Of course she was going to be influenced by him. Alistair was pretty charming, Sebastian had to admit that to himself. When Alistair wasn’t being scary, of course.
“Evie.”
Sebastian barely heard it, but Evie did. She turned and looked.
“It’s Alistair,” she said, turning back to explain to Sebastian.
There was the sound of movement in the background. “No, Alistair, don’t try to get up,” Sebastian could hear Doris say.
“I need to say something.” That one was louder and easier to hear. Alistair started coughing, and then stopped.
“Okay, we’re ready to go,” said the Kid.
“No!” coughed out Alistair. “No.”
“Alistair, it’s over. It’s done. We have to leave,” said Catherine. “Everyone, take your positions.”
Evie stood.
“No!” shouted Alistair again.
“We’re getting you both to safety. Don’t worry,” said Doris.
“Listen to me!” He shouted it at them and started to cough hard again. It sounded so painful that Sebastian genuinely felt for the man. Evie got up and ran over to him with the glass of water, and Sebastian raised his head so he could watch. He didn’t care how much it hurt. Evie helped her grandfather sit up and sip from the glass of water before he fell back onto the floor, his breathing strained. He raised his hand and motioned for her to come close. She leaned in. He whispered something into her ear.
Her eyes widened.
“What did he say?” asked the Kid.
Evie looked stunned, her face drained of all its color. Sebastian had never seen her that way before.
“He said ‘vials.’ ”
* * *
—
“Of course!” said Doris. She reached around her neck instantly and pulled from beneath her shirt a capsule on a chain. As she did, the others did too, and all Evie could do was stare. Waterfall water!
“Does Alistair have his?” asked the Kid quickly.
Carefully Evie leaned over her grandfather. His breath was so shallow that it scared her. But before she could check, his hand came up to his throat and Alistair grabbed at a string. Evie helped him pull the vial out from beneath his vest and lift it over his head.
“Come,” said Doris. She was standing by the console. “Evie, dump out the water from that glass.”
Evie did as she was told and took the empty glass over to Doris. Each explorer carefully opened their vial and poured into the glass the liquid they had saved from their first adventure at the waterfall. There wasn’t much. It only filled the glass a quarter full, but it was something. More than they’d had before.
“Guess I’m going to start being called ‘the Adult,’ ” said the Kid with a laugh as he looked at the glass.
“What?” asked Evie.
“I always figured that wearing the vial around my neck all the time was what helped slow the aging process. Never knew for sure. Not until I saw these two again,” he said, nodding toward Benedict and Catherine.
Evie thought about it, how none of them had ever looked quite old enough. It made sense. Well, not really, but sort of.
“Come on,” said Doris, making her way to Sebastian. She kneeled down next to him, and Evie was instantly on the other side. No one fought her for that position. She wouldn’t have let anyone else win it anyway.
Doris, very carefully and with an incredibly steady hand, reached for the wood piercing Sebastian. “This is going to hurt,” she warned him.
He made a face that Evie was pretty sure no one else could read but her. A face that essentially said, “No kidding.” She gave him a little smile and held his hand. He squeezed it hard.
Doris removed the wood so quickly that Evie was surprised it had happened at all. Just as quickly Doris reached her hand out, and Benedict placed the glass in it. She carefully tipped the water over the wound. A few drops fell. The group all watched.
The small section that she’d dripped the water onto cleared almost instantly. As if Doris had dropped water on a muddy porch and the mud had rinsed away. Evie looked at Doris and grinned. But Doris wasn’t grinning back.
“What’s wrong?” Evie asked.
“Alistair,” replied Sebastian, wincing as he said it.
She looked at him, confused. Then up at Doris.
“He’s right,” said Doris. “We don’t have enough, not nearly enough to help them both.”
“I never thought you did.”
Everyone turned to see her grandfather beside them on his knees. How on earth he’d managed to drag himself over to them, Evie had no idea, but there he was. He was shaking, and she knew he’d collapse soon. She wasn’t the only one who realized it. The Kid instantly moved to help her grandfather lie down on the floor next to them.
“I’m a fool. An old fool,” he said as he reclined. “He is young, and clever.” He reached out his hand, and Evie took it. No, this wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I really am.”
“Please” was all Evie could say to him.
He let go of her hand and looked up at the others, taking them each in one by one. “Take care of each other. Don’t lose each other again just because of me. And please, take care of Evie.”
Catherine nodded. “Of course. That was never a question. We’re her family.”
Family. Evie gulped hard. The tears were in her eyes.
Alistair nodded. He looked one last time at his granddaughter and gave her hand a squeeze. He smiled. “My Evie.”
He closed his eyes.
“No!” cried Evie. She flung herself on top of him and held him tight. She had only just found him. Yes, he wasn’t what she’d thought he would be—in fact, he was pretty terrible a lot of the time. But now, finally, when he’d lived up to all her expectations and hopes of him…now…
“Evie,” said Catherine, placing a hand on Evie’s shoulder.
The tears were streaming down her face and onto his tweed vest.
“Evie, he’s gone.”
“He can’t be,” she said into his chest.
“Sebastian still needs you, Evie. He needs your support,” she heard Benedict say.
Slowly Evie pulled herself off her grandfather. She stared at his face, so calm, at peace. For the first time he seemed truly satisfied, as if this had all gone according to his plan. Somehow.
She wiped away tears but couldn’t s
top them from flowing. She turned back to Sebastian and watched as Doris carefully continued to pour the water over his wound. She watched the wound heal itself as if by magic, watched as Sebastian’s breathing got more regular, as color entered his cheeks. Her own body felt filled with life as well, still heavy with grief but with a lightness too now.
“How are you feeling?” asked Doris.
Sebastian was silent for a moment. Evie held her breath. Then, finally: “That’s a very complicated question.”
She couldn’t help herself. She was always one to indulge her feelings, but the overwhelming sensation of joy at hearing him speak made her throw herself at him and give him a huge hug.
“Evie!” said Doris. “Stop it! Just because the outside is better doesn’t mean the inside is entirely well yet.”
Evie let him go, but it was so hard, so very hard.
“It’s good to have you back, man,” said the Kid with a grin.
“It is,” said Catherine.
“Yes,” said Benedict. “However, even though it seems very wrong to rush right at this moment, we do need to get out of here and back up to the surface as quickly as we can.”
“Right away?” asked Evie.
“No, he’s right,” said Sebastian, propping himself up on his elbows. “That’s the most logical course of action.”
Logical, yes, but difficult to do after everything that had just happened.
The other explorers seemed to agree with Benedict and Sebastian, though, and with a bit of effort everyone was back at their stations. Evie stayed put. She didn’t actually have a station, after all.
She turned to Sebastian, who was examining his torso closely, in awe. He looked up at her. She smiled. He smiled.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
The Quest for the Kid Page 28
