by E. G. Foley
“Hold on,” Maddox interrupted. “Maybe we can use him.”
“What?” Jake said.
“That Nuckalavee beast Nixie described—brute strength. Well? We could use some brute strength on our side, too.” Maddox glanced at Archie, lowering his voice. “You think your gizmo can keep him under control?”
Archie shrugged. “It’s worked twice now like a charm. Still, he’s rude, violent, and nasty.”
“He just wants to be included,” Isabelle said. “Don’t you understand? This is what I was trying to tell you before, brother. The poor brute’s lonely. That’s why he’s so obnoxious. He doesn’t have a single friend his own age here.”
“There’s a shocker,” Archie drawled. “Maybe if he wasn’t always trying to rip people’s arms off.”
“He could have ripped your arms off, literally, if he had wanted to. He’s not that bad. He just acts up to get attention.”
“You’re daft, Isabelle,” Jake said.
“Can’t we at least give him a chance? Like Maddox said, maybe Ogden could be useful.”
“No way!” Dani protested. “He tried to kill Archie and Jake! If Maddox and Derek Stone hadn’t come along, who knows what would’ve happened?”
“Let me try,” Isabelle replied. She went to the edge of the rock-pile. “Ogden?” she called down.
“Urrrrgh.”
“Listen to me. My name is Miss Bradford. I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer it honestly. Do you want to be part of our group?”
“Blech,” Jake muttered.
“No!” Og thundered.
Isabelle propped her hands on her waist. “Ogden, I’m an empath,” she said sternly. “I know when somebody’s lying. Do you? Now, tell the truth this time. Is that what all this is about?”
By the lantern light, Jake could just make out the sight of Ogden lowering his head. “Yes, ma’am,” he finally admitted. “But I know you don’t want the likes of me around! You think I’m a monster.”
“You’re not a monster. Well, you don’t have to be one. You can choose to be nice. Then we could all get along. But if you want to be our friend, there have to be a few rules.”
“What rules?” he rumbled in a sullen tone.
“Friends don’t attack one other. That’s the first rule.”
“Or bite other people,” Archie pointed out.
“And certainly not eat them,” Jake added after remembering Dr. Plantagenet saying that pureblooded rock trolls tended toward cannibalism now and then. He’d had enough of that today on Caliban’s island, thank you very much.
“If you can agree to be nice and do as we say, you can come back up and join our quest,” Isabelle declared.
“I can?” Ogden ventured.
“Yes. We’d be very pleased to have you. Wouldn’t we, everyone?”
Their mumbles were less than enthusiastic.
“We’re smaller than you, so you have to be gentle around us and not step on anyone. Can you do that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ogden answered, surprising them all with his docile tone.
But Isabelle has that effect on loads of people, Jake thought.
“Good. Then you may come up now.”
Dani shook her head. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll be all right,” Isabelle assured them.
But as Og started climbing up the rock-pile to join their company, Jake leaned toward Archie. “Make sure you keep that gadget charged up, coz.”
“Better believe it,” Archie said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
And So It Begins
Divide and conquer…
From the Gryphon’s aerie, they split up to see to their separate tasks in preparation for their coming clash with the Bugganes.
Nixie couldn’t believe that all these near-strangers wanted to help her. For the first time in ages, she had hope. She had friends. She was terrified of how they might be punished for it, but she decided to let them try, considering they wouldn’t be dissuaded, anyway.
Archie even went so far as to procure a wand for her to use. She didn’t dare go back to her room to retrieve her spare, so he borrowed one (without permission) from his mother.
“Don’t worry, she won’t even miss it,” he assured her upon returning from the Bradford family suite. “Both my parents are at the ball tonight. They don’t really use magic much, but Mother always packs a wand on their journeys, just in case.”
When he handed it to her, Nixie clutched it to her chest with more gratitude than she could express. She did a few quick spells to try out the borrowed wand and get used to it, making a nearby flower sprout twice as tall and open. Then she doused the lantern and relit the flame a few times with a flick of her wrist, and concluded her trials with the old illusionist’s classic of making a rabbit magically appear.
For some reason, Dani O’Dell winced at that and looked away with an expression of dread. Nixie didn’t ask why. As the rabbit bounded off into the woods, she let out a sigh of relief, finally feeling whole again, and used the wand to fix her sprained ankle.
Then Archie took her to one of the wizard-scientist’s basement-level laboratories beneath Merlin Hall. He had been given permission to use the lab any time he liked. It had everything they’d need: cabinets full of magical ingredients and chemical compounds, as well as burners and beakers, microscopes, and centrifuges arrayed on a couple of long worktables.
Best of all, it had no windows or mirrors for Jenny Greenteeth to come through. Nixie felt relatively safe.
With no time to lose, they both got busy in their respective fields of expertise, working in companionable silence. To Nixie’s amusement, the protective young scientist made her wear thick, oversized work gloves and safety goggles in the lab. She supposed he had a point, since she was mixing up a potion of the most poisonous ingredients she could find to throw on Jenny Greenteeth.
Malwort assisted her, running back and forth along the shelves to fetch the jars and vials she asked for.
Nearby, Archie assembled everything he’d need to build his contraption for catching the Boneless.
As it turned out, the wand for Nixie wasn’t the only thing he had “borrowed” from his mother’s belongings. He had also taken her rabbit-fur muff. If Nixie found this odd, the two additional pieces of equipment that he requested from the gnomes were even stranger: a mesh dog kennel and a gardener’s four-wheeled handcart.
The rest of the stuff he needed he found right there in the lab: four large Leyden jars, a roll of tin leaf, a lot of copper wire and sharp clippers to cut it with, and a large ball of solid amber with a hole drilled through the middle.
“What’s that for?” Nixie knew that amber had many magical uses and was especially revered for its healing properties, but she was surprised when Archie revealed it had scientific applications, too.
“Haven’t you ever heard of amber being called ‘the electric fossil’?”
She laughed. “No.”
“Well, it has electric properties. Even the ancient Greeks knew about that! That’s why they originally named it ‘elektron,’ after the sun. They fancied it was made out of sunlight—oh, never mind, you’ll see.”
Nixie smiled. He really was a strange boy, but then again, she had no use for normal.
Once he had all his necessities collected, the young Dr. Bradford rolled up his sleeves, loosened his bowtie, and got to work.
First, he propped a stool under the handcart to hold it up while he pried off a back wheel. Then he threaded the amber ball onto the rear axle, murmuring to himself in satisfaction when it fit just right. He pulled the rabbit-fur muff up over the amber ball and heaved the cartwheel back on, tightening it securely with a wrench from his tool-bag.
Dusting off his hands, Archie turned his attention next to the dog kennel. He unrolled the tin leaf, slicing off as much as he needed with a blade. He proceeded to hammer the shiny silver foil along the edges of the kennel, creating a device h
e called a Faraday cage.
When the cage was lined with the metallic foil, he affixed the dog kennel to the flat bed of the cart, with the kennel door facing the ceiling. He tied a long rope to the door’s edge so he could yank it shut from a safe distance.
Cheerfully whistling fragments of a tune, he took out the four Leyden jars. These he likewise secured to the bed of the cart, two on either side of the kennel.
Lastly, he wired the whole mysterious contraption together, running strands of copper wire from the rabbit fur to the Faraday cage, attaching them to it in several different places. He ran an additional wire to each Leyden jar and, finally, from the Leyden jars to the Faraday cage. When he had twisted the last wire into a knot to hold it in place, he let out a whew and turned to Nixie with a smile. “Voila! The Boneless Catcher.”
By this point, even Malwort looked confused.
Nixie lifted up her safety goggles and bluntly said: “Explain.”
“You know how the Boneless can float through walls?”
She snorted. “Nobody knows that better than I do.”
“Well, it’s not going to be able to get through these walls.” He tapped the dog kennel. “I’ve turned this metal kennel into an electrified cage. If it stays inside, it’ll be fine, but if it tries to slip out, it’s going to get a small but painful electric shock.”
He now had her full attention. “Go on.”
Archie pointed to the amber ball. “What I’ve built here is a very simple, ancient generator based on technology going all the way back to the Greeks, as I said. We’ll roll this handcart to wherever we decide to set up an ambush for the Boneless. But along the way, you see, while the cart is in motion, the axle rotates the amber ball, which rubs against the rabbit fur, generating static electricity.”
“Ohhhhh…”
“The rabbit fur also serves as a collection material, storing up the energy created. Then these wires carry the stored charge up from the rabbit fur to the Faraday cage—and to the Leyden jars, which are basically just big batteries, for a little extra oomph. So, basically, I’ve put a charge on the Faraday cage to make sure the creature stays inside.”
Nixie shook her head in amazement.
“Of course, the charge on the Leyden jars will run out eventually, but by then, the Boneless will have received a few shocks and hopefully will have learned that touching the cage walls equals pain. So, if it’s got any basic intelligence at all, he won’t keep trying that. Negative reinforcement, we call it. Just like I’m doing with Og”
“You really are a genius.”
Archie looked abashed at her praise. “I still have to test it, of course, to make sure everything is wired up properly, but it should work. The design is solid. Child’s play, really.”
She looked at him in surprise at this last remark, marveling to think that one of the foremost inventors of the day—quite the darling of the Royal Society—should have built this contraption for her sake. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” she blurted out, staring at him.
Archie’s eyes widened behind his spectacles. “Oh!” He turned beet-red and looked away. “Well, er, um, you’re welcome. We just need to tell everybody not to touch the cage. W-whoever does will end up getting the shock intended for the…the Boneless.”
“So, how do you propose to get him in there in the first place?”
“So glad you asked!” Looking a bit relieved at the change of subject, he marched over to the other worktable, where his second project was underway.
He had a mortar and pestle out, along with a small scale and a variety of powdered substances in jars.
Nixie read the label of the largest jar aloud. “Sea salt?”
“I’m putting together a desiccant to force the Boneless to change form from a vapor to a solid.” He shrugged. “Same general concept as throwing salt on garden slugs. Of course, unlike them, I don’t intend to kill it. Just dry it out long enough to let it turn nice and crispy. As soon as it has some tangible substance and isn’t, well, a cloud, then I’ll wrestle the little bugger into the cage if I have to. Or maybe Jake could help with his telekinesis on that, come to think of it…”
“Where is your cousin, anyway?”
“Oh, he went to borrow a piece of veterinary equipment from the Green Man who runs the zoo, Dr. Plantagenet. It’s a large medicinal sprayer that I saw the doctor carrying when they went off through the Grid with the Texan. It’ll be perfect for dispersing a cloud of my desiccant powder all over the Boneless. Jake said he’d get it for me.”
“I see, and considering we’re talking about an ex-thief…”
Archie laughed. “I don’t intend to ask how he means to acquire it.”
Nixie smiled but hoped Jake didn’t get in trouble for her sake. Then again, trouble did seem to be a normal part of that boy’s life.
“So, ah…” Archie gave her a hesitant glance. “How’d you fare all day with my cousin in the paintings? He can be, shall we say…brash, at times. Cocky.”
“You can say that again. But he was fine. Of course…” Nixie cast him a mischievous sideways look. “He did try to kiss me.”
Archie nearly dropped the whole jar of salt. “What?”
Nixie started laughing. “It wasn’t really his fault. There was this Cupid in the Boucher who attacked us. Jake got hit in the leg with a golden arrow…”
She told Archie the whole story, and it was the first time she had ever seen the amiable young gent scowl.
“I can’t believe he did that! So—what did you do in response?”
“What do you mean?”
Glowering, Archie lowered his voice to a scandalized whisper: “Did you kiss him back?”
“Ew, of course not,” Nixie said. “I punched him.”
Relief spread across Archie’s freckled face, and his smile returned, albeit wryly. “Atta girl. Well, then.”
A devious gleam sprang into Archie’s sparkly dark eyes. She could fairly see the wheels in his genius mind turning. Feeling she had said quite enough, Nixie went back to her potion while Archie busied himself making the desiccant, weighing, measuring, mixing, and pounding everything from gypsum to activated charcoal into an ever finer dust, all meant to dry the Boneless out.
“Say, Malwort,” he spoke up a few minutes later, when the arachno-sapiens returned with the vial of blowfish poison Nixie had asked for from an upper shelf.
The spider set it down gingerly before her, and she patted him on his fuzzy, spotted head with a doting smile.
“Malwort?” Archie repeated.
“What?” The spider tore himself away from Nixie and gave him a wary sort of spider-frown.
“Would you mind getting me the calcium sulfate?” Archie asked.
“Cal-cee whuz?” He had clearly been enjoying the game of fetching ingredients for the witch, but he didn’t look too keen to do the same for Archie.
“A white powder. Up there.”
Nixie gave the little fellow an encouraging nod toward the shelves. Seeing this would please her, Malwort scampered off.
“It’s amazing he can read,” she remarked, watching the spider leaping nimbly from shelf to shelf until he found the jar Archie had asked for.
Archie nodded. “I wonder if Uncle Waldrick taught him how.”
“You should ask him.”
“He’s in prison.”
“I meant ask the spider,” Nixie answered with a grin.
“Oh.” Archie chuckled ruefully. “Have to say, I’m a bit surprised Malwort isn’t scared of you. He’s deathly afraid of brooms, and after all, you are a witch.”
Malwort, who was just returning with the calcium sulfate, nearly dropped the jar and froze in the middle of the worktable. “Broom? Eek! Where?”
“Oh, it’s all right, Malwort!” Nixie soothed him. “Don’t worry, I only use my broom for flying.”
“You like flying?” Archie nearly shouted, turning to her in sudden amazement.
“Love it,” Nixie said. “Why?”<
br />
“Because I invented a flying machine! Flying is like—my favorite thing in the whole world! I mean, we should go out flying together sometime! Unless—er, unless you’d rather not.”
“No, it sounds fun,” Nixie said, blushing.
Suddenly, they both become extremely embarrassed and hurried back to work.
“Ahem. So how’s the potion coming along?” Archie asked a few minutes later.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Nixie brushed her floppy black bangs out of her eyes with a weary sigh. “To be honest with you, I don’t know what else to try.” She shook her head. “I’ve already used the most extreme magic I can think of on Jenny Greenteeth, but nothing’s worked. Why should this time be any different? Hemlock, wolfsbane, belladonna… I mean, what else can I add?”
“How about hydrochloric acid? Pretty nasty stuff.”
She shrugged. “I suppose it can’t hurt.”
“Oh, yes, it can. Spilled a drop on my hand once. Here, I’ll get it for you. Spider: stay. It’s too dangerous for you.” Archie started moving toward the shelves, then turned around, his brow furrowed. “Actually… Hmm.” He stared into space for a moment, off in genius-land.
“Hullo?” Nixie prompted in amusement when his voice trailed off.
He blinked back to awareness. “You say this hag apparition started out as a nursery bogey, and it was centuries of children believing in her that made her come to life.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, then…wouldn’t it be logical that disbelieving in her somehow might make her disappear?”
Nixie gave him a skeptical frown. “How do you disbelieve in something that’s throwing you across the room?”
“Not really sure…” He shook his head, pondering again, then he shrugged. “Magic’s not my forte, so take it with a grain of salt. But to me, it just stands to reason that if belief is what originally brought Jenny Greenteeth into existence, then maybe disbelief is the key to, well, unmaking her. Perhaps fear is the very thing that gives her strength.”
Nixie stared at him for a long moment, then looked at her ingredients again and echoed his “hmm.”
