Sir Alistair was standing at the edge of the chamber, looking out at the fading darkness. He had grown faint of spirit as the night wore on, shuffling around the chamber more and more slowly.
“Do you think it will be that soon?” I asked.
“I’m certain of it.”
He hobbled to a table and checked something that looked like an extra-large compass. Then he touched a weather dial of sorts and scanned some torn charts and maps. “We best keep at our preparations. Sleep will have to wait.”
I was exhausted from all our preparations and the long previous day, but I’d known this sort of need for stamina before. My body had gotten used to what I sometimes needed to put it through, as if it had a storehouse of several extra days and I could call on them when I really needed to. The only problem was that sleep would have to come eventually, and when it did, it would be long and deep.
“Help me pack these things away, Alexa,” Sir Alistair continued. “You’re going to need them.”
Sir Alistair and I went slowly back and forth between his tables full of gadgets and the giant box under Stargazer. He explained each item to me as we went—some of which defied my understanding—and I nodded continuously, trying to take it all in. There were journals full of drawings, which I aimed to explore when I had more time. And there were delicate tools, slide rules and an abacus, yellowed paper in bundles, a wooden box filled with magnifying glasses, inkwells, old pens, droppers, and tweezers.
“We’ve packed up all the food and containers of saltwater and drinking water,” Yipes came alongside to report, something he’d been doing every now and then for several hours.
“What about your hand—how’s it doing?” I asked. “Will you be able to assume all your duties once we get Stargazer airborne again?”
“Good as new!” Yipes answered, holding his injured hand so that we could see it. “Matilda wrapped it up nicely.”
“How’s she doing? Is she … herself?”
“She’s still feeling the sting of guilt, but she’s doing better. She’s also worried about Ranger. This is the longest he’s ever been apart from her.”
I hadn’t ever had a pet of my own, unless I could count Murphy. Murphy was a wild squirrel looking for adventure, but it was hard to think of him as a pet.
“We’ll get her back home come morning,” said Sir Alistair. “For now, we need to finish things up and prepare to take off. This might not go as you expect.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Trust me. Nothing like this ever goes exactly as planned.”
Sir Alistair was right. I’d been in many scuffles over the past two years, and they always ended up surprising me in the end. I wondered how my journey from the Five Stone Pillars would turn out differently than I’d expected. It was best to be alert and prepared for anything.
“Load the last of the things,” Sir Alistair instructed, “including the animals. I’m going to let the fish go.”
“How are you going to do that?” asked Yipes.
Sir Alistair looked at Yipes inquisitively, as if he’d asked a dull question.
“Pull the plugs, of course.”
“Can I help?” I asked, enthusiastic about the idea of releasing a hammerhead shark, a giant squid, and a lot of other creatures of the sea back to their home.
Yipes went one direction to look for Grump and the cats, and to get an update from Marco on the blankets and pillows he was gathering. One thing about a wooden box—it’s hard. The blankets and pillows would help the children sleep and keep them warm if we happened to start off on a long expedition.
When we arrived at the tanks, I asked Sir Alistair how he’d gotten the fish inside in the first place.
“They’re easy to catch when they’re little,” he replied. “So these have all grown up in captivity. I hope they’ll do all right in the depths of the Lonely Sea.”
With that, he released a lever at the side of the first of six tanks. There was a sound of popping and gurgling as the water swooshed through a large hole in the bottom and all the fish disappeared into the floor. The weird brilliance of Sir Alistair Wakefield never ceased to amaze me.
“But where did they go?” I asked.
“Down through the middle of the pillar some distance, then zing! into the open air and down into the water.”
“Sounds fun,” I said with some sarcasm. I didn’t imagine it would feel very good to flip and flop through the air only to smack into the ocean below. All the tanks were emptied without difficulty, except for an octopus that wouldn’t let go of the side. It held on with all eight arms while its head dangled into the hole and water shot past. It wasn’t until a giant tuna came barreling through that the suction cups finally succumbed and the octopus disappeared for good.
“Only one thing left to do,” said Sir Alistair.
“What’s that?” I asked. It appeared that we’d packed all the important things we needed and the sun was about to come up.
“A few personal items I need to gather from my room.”
I realized I hadn’t seen Sir Alistair’s room. I didn’t even know he had one. I got the feeling he wanted a few minutes alone, so I let him go alone toward the models of the Wakefield House and the Five Stone Pillars. To my bewilderment, he stooped down low at the door to the Wakefield House and disappeared inside.
“What a strange man,” I said aloud. “All this space and he chooses the cramped quarters of the Wakefield House to make his home.”
With Sir Alistair occupied and all of our preparations complete, I looked skyward at the model of the Five Stone Pillars. The towering fifth pillar stood high above the rest. In fact, it was so high the top ended in darkness, somewhere near the ceiling of the chamber.
“I wonder …”
There were catwalks all through the open space. Some cut across the middle and others ran around the edges. Looking up into the dim torches that lit the walls, I saw that one of the bridges led high on the ledge to a perch that would look right down on the top of the model of the fifth pillar. With the little time I had left, I decided I would climb up there and see what I could see.
I made the first few switchbacks up the side of the wall without carrying a torch, but when it became darker the higher I went, I took one of the torches from its holder against the stone wall before going on.
“It’s colder up here,” I said to myself. “And a little wet.”
The walls of the chamber began to curve in ever so slightly. They were moist and chilly as I touched them to keep my balance. I came to a point where I could look down on all but the fifth pillar. It was magnificent even in the faint torchlight. They were quite detailed, showing the first with fields of grain and orchards, the lake at the center of the second pillar with trees and houses scattered all around. The third pillar had vines running all through its concave surface, just like the real skimming pillar, and the fourth was round and green on top. Sir Alistair could really make a model.
I also saw all that was below me from my high perch. The vast presence of Stargazer stood unmoving and solid as it waited to escape into the open. The Wakefield House model, the empty tanks, Yipes walking with Grump across the floor of the chamber. And something else, something not so good.
“Uh-oh,” I said out loud. The light was beginning to dance on the distant water. Dawn was coming fast.
I looked up—only a little way to go. There was no sound from below of Abaddon making his final assault, so I quickly made my way to the very top and leaned out over the rail.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. There was only one thing on the top of the model, hidden behind the walls that rose up around the edges. It was a tree, twisted down at its center to look like—could it be?—a question mark.
“Maybe there are some things even Sir Alistair doesn’t know.”
I turned to start down the long catwalk just in time to hear Abaddon smashing into the pillar below. This time the fourth pillar shook harder and longer than I’d felt it
shake before. The ceiling rained with dirt and tiny pebbles, and I watched in horror as the bridge I walked on began to wobble back and forth.
“Yipes!” I hollered, dropping the torch over the edge and holding on to the trembling rail.
“What’s she doing up there?” I heard Marco say from below.
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” cried Yipes. The two of them were swiftly racing toward me as I descended one step at a time.
I thought I’d gotten rid of you!
It was the voice of Abaddon, violent with renewed rage. The sound of the pillar being destroyed below grew louder and the inside of the chamber rumbled loudly.
“Get Stargazer airborne!” I cried. “We’ve got to get it out of here before the whole chamber comes crashing down!”
“We’re not leaving without you,” yelled Matilda. Then, looking around, she added, “Where’s Sir Alistair?”
“In the Wakefield House,” I shouted. But I was determined to get them moving as I advanced into a run on the catwalk. “I’m going to make it—I’ll get Sir Alistair. You three gather the cats and Grump and get Stargazer flying! That’s an order!”
I’d never spoken with such authority before, and the three of them seemed to understand that the captain meant business. They scurried back toward Stargazerand began to let the anchor lines go. Yipes ran right behind Grump and squeezed him through the sliding door of the box.
As I neared the bottom, the rumbling grew more intense and I heard a sound from above. The top of the Wakefield House was crumbling loose. I knew from the story Roland had told me that if the model was anything like the real thing, the Wakefield House was about to tumble over into a thousand pieces.
“Sir Alistair! Get out!” I cried, reaching the bottom and going to the door. I took a deep breath, then darted through. I found him sitting at a little table with a lamp, reading a book.
“Get up, Sir Alistair! We have to go!”
I grabbed him by the arm and he glanced up at me with those ancient eyes of his
“I’ll only slow you down,” said Sir Alistair. “I think the moment of my passing has finally come.”
The light from the lamp danced in his eyes as he closed the book.
“Take this with you,” he said. “All the secrets of my long life are hidden inside.”
“I’d rather take you,” I said. With a strength I didn’t know I had, I lifted him by the shoulder against his will and dragged him toward the door. He let the book slip from his fingers and reached back for it, but I didn’t care about the book. The Wakefield House was coming down.
“Leave it behind!” I said, hauling Sir Alistair out into the open of the chamber. My crew had done well. They had Stargazer out in the open, held only by the one long rope wound into the pulley.
All at once, the sun was on the water and dawn had come. The chamber quaked and rocked wildly back and forth as the Wakefield House tumbled to the ground. Catwalks and rope bridges tangled and snapped in the air, wrapping their long arms around the falling structure until the twisted wreckage hit the floor and everything shattered into pieces.
Sir Alistair cried out and stumbled to the ground. I could no longer hold him up.
“My back,” he whispered through clenched teeth. “I’ve been struck.”
A flying boulder, a piece of wood—I didn’t know what had hit him or how hard, but I wasn’t going to let him die alone in the crumbling chamber.
“Get up!” I screamed, putting my shoulder under his arm and hauling him up under the one remaining rope. “You can do this if you try.”
Matilda flung her slider into the air before I could cry out for help. It skidded and landed at my feet. I gave Sir Alistair the slider and put one of the knots in each of his crooked old hands.
“Hold on tight and don’t let go for anything,” I commanded.
Sir Alistair winced in pain but held firm.
“Yipes!” I cried, facing Stargazer where she waited out in the open air. “Throw me a vine!”
Yipes did as I instructed and I tied the vine around Sir Alistair’s waist. All the while, the ceiling of the chamber continued to crumble, sheets of rock falling from the sky, knocking down pillars and tables and tanks. The sound was deafening.
“PULL!” I screamed. “Pull as fast as you can!”
Marco left his post at the controls and heaved with Yipes.
“Sir Alistair, hold on. Don’t let go!” I instructed again.
The pressure on his back as the rope began to drag him out over the edge into the open air seemed to take his breath away, but he held on as Marco and Yipes towed him up and into the box.
“We’ve got him! We’ve got him!” cried Matilda.
“Throw back the slider!” I yelled. Matilda hurled the slider across the open space between us and it skidded across the chamber floor a few feet off. Hanging bridges were tumbling in snarled heaps to the floor of the chamber as I crawled toward the knotted piece of rope that was my only means of escape. I couldn’t hear anything but the sound of devastation, until through the violence that surrounded me there came a voice of fire and might.
You think your friends are freed, but they will perish the same as you.
“You can’t control Matilda any longer. I would have expected you to know that in all your vast knowledge.”
Sometimes you just know something is happening without hearing it or seeing it, and I absolutely knew that Abaddon was trying to bring Matilda under his control in the devastation that surrounded me. He was telling her to throw Yipes overboard or cut the ropes to the balloon with a hidden knife, anything that would prevent our escape. I had a moment of halfhearted contentment because I knew she wouldn’t hear him now or ever again. Abaddon’s voice was left to me alone.
My moment of bliss was to be brief indeed, for the moment Abaddon knew he’d been dealt an unexpected blow, he flew into an even greater frenzy. I knew it would be his final assault. He wouldn’t stop until the work of bringing the fourth pillar crashing into the Lonely Sea was completed.
The rim of the opening to the outside began to shake and crumble and I scurried farther back from the edge. A colossal stone broke free and fell from the ceiling and I watched it as if in slow motion. In its path was the rope that held Stargazer, and when it hit, the box holding my friends pitched severely into the air. Yipes nearly flew free from the rope he held and Matilda slammed hard into the side of the box. When the rope snapped in two, Stargazer’s box careened out of control. My flying ship was free to go without me. Bobbing back and forth, the box began to rise as giant stones rained down.
I see that you are trapped. I’m only disappointed you won’t be here to see what plans I have for this place!
I watched as Marco dove headfirst over the back side of Stargazer. In his arms, he held a long, thin vine and he free-fell for thirty feet or more. When the vine caught his weight, it stretched thinner still, and he snapped hard and fast toward the opening of the chamber. It would be close—so close that I would have to leave the chamber to meet him.
I stood and ran. I didn’t try to dodge the falling sky around me. I just ran as fast as my legs would carry me and I called on Elyon to make my path straight and true. When I reached the very end of the chamber, I jumped into the air with all the strength I had left. Marco was there, holding out one hand, and I slammed into him. There was no hesitation in his aim to save me, and I found his strong arm holding me firmly as we drifted back under Stargazer.
I looked at him then as I hadn’t looked at him before, with something from deeper inside.
“Thank you.” It was all I could think to say as we stared at each other. It felt like the whole world had fallen away. There was only us two and nothing else.
“You’re really going to owe me after this one,” he said, flashing his dry smile as Yipes and Matilda hauled up the rope. Stargazer was rising fast, as if she’d finally been given the freedom to ride the sky.
“How’s she doing?” I asked Marco, gazing up toward t
he balloon. “That was quite a hit she took.”
“You and this contraption were made for each other—both tough as stone … but, I don’t know, gentle at the same time.”
“Are you being … what is it … nice to me?” I asked.
Marco didn’t answer, and as we rose higher into the air, we both fell quiet, realizing that the world of the Five Stone Pillars was about to be changed forever.
CHAPTER 22
THE FIFTH PILLAR
Abaddon continued his assault on the fourth pillar. I was safely at the helm of Stargazer and Marco was seated at the pedals, guiding us away from the destruction. Yipes stood on the rim of the box, holding tight to a rope and watching with great interest as the fourth pillar continued to wobble and shake. Matilda trimmed the heated air from the tube at my request, and then we all waited for what would happen next.
“This will be interesting,” said Sir Alistair, sitting wearily on one of the long benches in the box. “I don’t think it will come to pass as you believe.”
“What do you mean?” asked Yipes. “What’s going to happen?”
We all speculated and argued back and forth about what was to come next, but Sir Alistair would only repeat one thing over and over again: “Take us higher. Higher still.”
And so we did. Matilda opened up the tube and we rose higher on the heated air between the fourth and the fifth pillar.
“It’s going to fall,” said Yipes, pointing down to the fourth pillar. “It’s really wobbling now.”
“Look there,” said Matilda. There was something unexpected in her voice—a new kind of surprise. She had moved to the other side of the box and was staring at the fifth pillar. We had come all the way up, even with the walls that towered around the top. I was reminded again of Bridewell and how my adventures had begun when I’d overcome walls of stone and ventured outside. But things were different now. I didn’t want to know what was outside these walls. I wanted to know what was inside. I had come full circle in a sense, and there was something true and perfect as we rose above the walls of the fifth pillar and saw what lay hidden.
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