by Brandon Mull
at full speed, but not before a lashing serpent struck him on
the calf. Vanessa was not in an ideal position, but used the
opportunity to let the spear fly. It pierced the panther just
above a rear leg. Bawling, the panther sprang at her as well,
again achieving a phenomenal height, just missing her.
I got nipped on the calf, Warren said.
One of the snakes? Vanessa asked.
Yeah. Warren rolled up his pant leg to look at the bite
marks.
Below them, the panther crouched near the pedestal,
the spear still in its leg. Using small bursts of gravity and
kicking her legs, Vanessa made her way awkwardly over to
Warren, moving vaguely like a jellyfish.
You'd better lend me the sword, Vanessa said. It will
not be a gentle venom.
One of these potions counteracts poison, Kendra said.
And probably five of them are poison, Vanessa replied.
Time is essential, Warren. I'll need you with me as we face
the final forms.
Warren gave her the sword. Vanessa dropped tantalizingly
close to the ground, lower than Warren had been when
the giant panther reached him. The ferocious feline charged
and pounced. Instead of soaring up to escape, as the panther
anticipated, Vanessa dropped, and with a sweep of the sword
opened a tremendous wound across the great cat's
underbelly.
Vanessa hit the ground hard and instantly took flight,
but there was no need-the panther was lying on its side,
serpents thrashing, body twitching. Warren dropped to the
ground and retrieved the spear, then rejoined Vanessa in the
air.
We've got another one coming, Vanessa announced as
the body began to fold in upon itself. How are you holding
up? she asked Warren.
So far so good, he said, but he looked exhausted.
Twin roars resounded through the towering room. The
panther, much larger now than any horse, had sprouted a
second head. The doubly fierce creature had no snakes or
other oddities. It paced beneath them with feral intensity.
You want to bait or throw? Vanessa asked.
I'd better bait, he said, giving her the spear and taking
the sword.
Warren went lower, but not much lower. The panther
was no longer cowering behind the pedestal; it paced in the
open, as if daring them to come closer. Warren still looked
to be well out of reach when the panther sprang and from
gaping mouths expelled a spray of black sludge. The two-headed
panther had not come up directly below Warren,
and so the spray came at him diagonally, spattering his chest
and legs.
Instantly Warren was screaming. Tendrils of smoke
steamed up from where the volatile substance clung to him.
He dropped the sword and brushed frantically at the searing
sludge. Thrashing and groaning, Warren rose ever higher
until he reached the spikes in the roof and used them to
make his way to the catwalk, where he collapsed.
Vanessa and Kendra followed Warren and knelt on the
catwalk beside him. His body was charred wherever the
sludge had splattered. Acid, or something, he muttered
feverishly, eyes wild.
Vanessa cut open his pant leg. The flesh around the
snakebite was swollen and discolored.
We can't get him out of here? Kendra asked Vanessa.
The tower will not let us leave without the artifact,
Vanessa said. A safeguard to protect its secrets.
Can any traps be worse than that thing? Kendra asked.
Yes, Vanessa said. The traps that prevent a premature
exit will be rigged to cause certain death. The guardian can
be defeated; the traps probably cannot. Hand over the
potion pouch. Warren is dying. Blind luck is better than
none. Vanessa began considering various bottles, uncapping
a few to sniff them. Below, the panther heads roared.
No potions, Warren gasped. Give me the spear.
Vanessa gave him a sidelong glance. You're in no condition-
The spear, he said, sitting up.
This might buy you time, Vanessa said, holding up a
bottle. I think I recognize the potion. It has a distinctive
odor. It will transform your body to a gaseous state. During
that time, poison will not spread, acid will not burn, and
blood will not flow.
Vanessa held it out to him.
Lips twisting into a grimace, Warren shook his head.
Vanessa held out the spear.
Snatching it, Warren rolled off the edge of the catwalk.
He was controlling his fall with the rod, but descending
rapidly. Warren yelled ---- a primal, barbaric challenge. The
two-headed panther snarled up at him. Warren cried out
again, directly above the feline monstrosity. The monster
reared up to meet him, jaws agape.
Holding the spear poised, Warren let himself fall at full
speed the final thirty feet, and so it was with tremendous
force that he plunged the spear between the two necks an
instant before striking the unyielding floor. With more than
half the length of the spear buried in its body, the mighty
beast took a few drunken steps, wobbled, leaned, and
slumped to the floor.
Kendra grabbed the bottle from Vanessa and dove off
the catwalk. She kept full gravity, and an incredible rush of
wind washed over her as she plummeted downward. She
whipped the rod around, and her fall began to slow, and
then she brought the rod level, coming to a perfect stop
beside Warren.
Warren was a wreck, facedown, unconscious, breathing
shallowly. Heaving with both hands, Kendra rolled him
over, wincing as something inside of him crunched. His
mouth was open. Tilting his head up, she tried to ignore the
snapping sound his neck made, and dumped the potion into
his mouth. His Adam's apple bobbed, and much of the fluid
leaked out the sides of his mouth.
Once again, the body of the monster was bulging and
undulating, as if it were about to erupt. Vanessa was yanking
on the spear, tugging it out a little at a time, leaning into it
with everything she had.
Get clear, Kendra, Vanessa called. This is not over.
When Kendra looked back at Warren, he was wispy and
translucent. She tried to touch him, and her hand passed
through him like he was mist, dissipating him slightly.
Kendra raced across the floor and grabbed the sword. Behind
her, Vanessa finally jerked the spear free.
As Vanessa launched into the air, Kendra watched the
ninth version of the guardian emerge. Long wings unfurled.
Twelve serpents sprouted from various spots along its back.
Three heavy tails swayed. And three heads bellowed
together, a deafening sound even from where Kendra stood
behind the beast. The great wings beat down and the beast
took flight, pursuing Vanessa.
Kendra gaped in petrified awe. From wingtip to wingtip,
the monstrosity stretched across half the cavernous room. It
rose swiftly.
Running out of room to ascend, Vanessa started falling
/>
instead of rising, hurling the spear as she neared her pursuer.
The weapon merely grazed the monster and tumbled toward
the floor. All three heads snapped at Vanessa, and all missed.
She rebounded off its well-muscled body, snakes striking
eagerly, and tumbled toward the ground. Vanessa managed
to slow her descent at the last moment, but she still landed
heavily only a moment after the spear struck the floor.
Like Errol before her, she lost her grip of the rod, and it
floated away toward the ceiling. Quivering, snake-bitten,
dragging a broken leg, she crawled for the spear. Above, the
three-headed fiend descended, roaring exultantly. Beyond
the monster, Kendra saw a pair of figures falling toward her.
Propping herself up with the spear, Vanessa stood and
faced the three-headed monster cat as it landed before her.
The cat watched her from well out of reach. Kendra recognized
Tanu and Coulter descending swiftly, both albino, and
she waved her arms at them.
Even as scalding sludge fountained from three mouths,
dousing Vanessa in blistering agony, Tanu alighted beside
Kendra, snatched his potion pouch, and upended a bottle
into his mouth. He accepted the sword from Kendra. As
Vanessa screamed, Tanu expanded, clothes splitting as he
doubled in height, a huge man becoming a giant, the sword
looking like a knife in his enormous hand.
Too late the three-headed monster turned, as Tanu
raged, stabbing and slashing, hacking off wings and serpents
even as he was clawed and bitten. Tanu's heavy arm pistoned
mercilessly until the monster crumpled, and Tanu collapsed
atop the beast, bleeding from bitter wounds.
Kendra watched in horror as the carcass of the monster
began to boil. Tanu scooted away from it. But this time,
instead of folding in upon itself, the corpse melted away and
simmered into nothingness, as if it had never been.
Coulter and Kendra ran to Tanu, who lay on his side.
The white Samoan pointed at the space the monster had
occupied. There sat a bright, copper teapot worked into the
shape of a cat, with the tail forming the spout. Coulter
retrieved it. Doesn't look like much, he said.
I may need to touch it, Kendra said, taking the pot
from him. Light at first, the pot started getting heavier. The
exterior of the pot did not change, but Kendra recognized
the difference. It's filling up.
Pour it, Tanu gasped.
Tanu had three deep, ragged gouges across his beefy forearm.
Kendra poured golden dust from the teapot onto the
wounds. Much of the dust seemed to dissolve on contact.
The gouges vanished, leaving no scar. An enormous chunk
of flesh was missing from Tanu's shoulder, but when Kendra
filled the gaping wound with dust from the teapot, it closed
and the skin above it looked like new.
As Kendra shook the feline teapot over Tanu, his white
flesh returned to a healthy brown, and all his wounds closed
and vanished. Tanu shook his head, powdery dust rising from
his hair.
Kendra hurried over to Vanessa, who lay moaning, withered,
unrecognizable, incapable of movement or speech. I
should heal her, Kendra said.
I would love to say no, Tanu said. But it is the right
thing to do.
Technically we're not on the preserve, Coulter
reminded them. What happens in here, stays in here.
Don't let her near any weapons, Kendra warned them.
Coulter kicked the spear away as Kendra coated Vanessa
with the dust from the teapot. The healing dust renewed
itself and continued to flow until Kendra stopped pouring,
leaving Vanessa perfectly whole and unscarred. She sat up,
staring at the teapot in wonder. Nothing could have cured
those burns, she said in amazement. I was blind and nearly
deaf.
This is over, Tanu told Vanessa. There are others
stronger than us waiting just outside the entrance.
Vanessa said nothing more.
Coulter remained near her, sword in hand. I suppose it
goes without saying, if you slip into a trance, you'll never
come out of it.
Kendra went over to Errol and dumped dust on him.
Nothing changed. He was dead.
We may be able to save Warren, Kendra said.
I noticed he was gaseous, Tanu said, having tied his
torn clothes together into a loincloth. Which means he is
alive. The potion would not have worked if he were dead.
He must be nearly gone, or he would be able to move around
freely in his gaseous state. Instead he lies in a daze.
Considering the power of the dust in that artifact, I'm sure
we will be able to restore him. Dale will thank you forever.
Vanessa said she found you in the woods and put you to
sleep, Kendra said.
Then she was lying, Tanu said.
Bluffing, Vanessa rephrased.
When I came to myself, I returned to the house, Tanu
continued. I approached cautiously, and must have arrived
not long after Vanessa departed to come here. I picked the
locks to the dungeon. It is much easier to sneak into that
prison than to sneak out. Your grandparents are fine. They
retrieved the register, and we found friends waiting outside
the gates of Fablehaven.
Not long after that, Tanu returned to his regular size and
adjusted his clothes. They stood next to the ghostly, smoky
form of Warren until the gas coalesced and he became solid
once more. As soon as he became tangible, Kendra covered
him with dust from the teapot, mending broken bones and
poisoned tissue and burns and ruptured organs. He sat up,
blinking, unbelieving. When he removed the blood-soaked
shirt from his abdomen, he found no mark beneath it.
Warren was no longer albino. He had dark hair and intense
hazel eyes.
Kendra also dusted Coulter, curing his albinism.
We should hurry, Tanu said. Dale will be needing
some healing himself. The hobgoblin left him lame.
They bound Vanessa's hands with the same rope that
had bandaged Warren, and levitated up to the catwalk, Tanu
holding Vanessa. They replaced their rods in the alcove. No
monkeys stirred as they crossed the mosaic, though they still
had to tread carefully on the stairs. They found Dale in the
sandy room, where only the blue woman, the half-spider,
and the dwarf remained on the walls.
Dale shouted in ecstasy upon seeing his brother revived
and well, and they embraced for a long while before Kendra
could get near enough to heal his legs. Once his legs were
well, Dale stared at the teapot in wonder, wiping away tears
of joy, and proclaimed that now he had officially seen
everything.
One final surprise awaited Kendra. When at length they
reached the uppermost chamber in the tower and climbed
the knotted rope to reach the stone platform in the formerly
cursed grove, she found the Sphinx and Mr. Lich waiting to
welcome them.
The Quiet Box
T
ell me about the cat again, Seth said, sitting on the
bed with his legs crossed, trying to juggle three blocks.
Again? Kendra said, looking up from her book.
I can't believe I missed the coolest thing anyone has
ever seen, Seth complained, losing control of the blocks
after two tosses. A giant, flying, snake-covered, three-headed,
acid-breathing panther. If you didn't have witnesses,
I'd be sure you made it up just to torture me.
Being there wasn't much fun, Kendra said. I was
pretty sure we were all going to die.
And it hosed down Vanessa with a massive acid blast,
he continued enthusiastically. Was she screaming?
She couldn't scream, Kendra said. She was just sort of
moaning. She looked like she'd been dipped in lava.
All that to guard the lamest thing ever: a shabby old
teapot.
A teapot that cured all your zombie wounds, Kendra
said.
I know, it's useful, but it looks like a bad decision from a
really pathetic garage sale. You just like it because your fairy
voodoo made it work. He started trying to juggle again and
immediately lost the rhythm, one of the blocks falling to the
floor.
Grandpa opened the door to the attic bedroom. The
Sphinx says he's ready, if you still want to join us, he
reported.
Kendra smiled. It was nice seeing Grandpa walking
around again like his old self. To her, healing Grandpa
Sorenson had seemed like the most miraculous consequence
of retrieving the artifact. The other injuries were so recent
that they had somehow not sunk in as being real. It had
been as if the teapot were washing away the memory of a bad
dream. But Grandpa had been in a wheelchair ever since she
had arrived at Fablehaven this year, so watching him cut the
cast off and walk around was particularly impressive.
Heck, yeah, Seth said, bouncing off the bed. I've
missed too much! I'm not missing this.
Kendra got up as well, although her feelings were more
conflicted than Seth's. Rather than wanting to witness
Vanessa's final sentence as a novelty, or perhaps to gloat, she
hoped to reach some sense of closure for the betrayal
Vanessa had enacted.
It had been the Sphinx who had recommended the
Quiet Box. The previous day, after Vanessa had been incarcerated
in the dungeon, they had all sat around filling in the
blanks for each other. Grandma and Grandpa knew almost
none of the story. Seth held them enthralled with how he
