Venom and Song

by Wayne Thomas Batson

  “Take a chance, I guess,” said Tommy. “There’s no way to be sure.”

  “Yes!” exclaimed Jimmy.

  “Yes?” Tommy turned in the direction of his voice.

  “Yes!” Jimmy said again.

  “He can’t say more than yes and no, remember?” said Kiri Lee.

  Tommy thought quickly. “‘Yes,’ there is a way to be sure?”

  “Yes!”

  “How?”

  “He can only answer yes-or-no questions,” Kiri Lee restated. “Jimmy, can you tell if Johnny is about to light the candle that Kat can read? One that she might instruct Johnny to light in the future because it’s red?”

  “Yes,” but his response was not as confident as before.

  “Well, let’s give it a shot,” tried Kat, reaching for the first candle. “Johnny, light this one.”

  “All right,” he said, stepping forward and grabbing it.

  Jimmy didn’t make a noise.

  No one moved.

  “Jimmy? Is it working?” Tommy asked.

  “No,” replied Jimmy. This whole yes-and-no thing was harder than he thought.

  “Why not?” Kiri Lee inquired openly.

  “You’re frustrated,” said Autumn. “Right?”

  “Yes!”

  “Wait a sec,” Tommy thought for a moment. “Johnny, did you actually try to light the candle?”

  “Well, no, not really.”

  “So there is no future for Jimmy to see,” surmised Tommy.

  “YES!” hooted Jimmy, excited that someone else put it together.

  “Jimmy”—Tommy grabbed him by the wrist—“put your hand on Johnny’s arm here. If he starts to light the wrong one, yank his arm away. Johnny, small flames, dude. Okay?”

  “Got it,” said Johnny.

  “Here we go,” said Kat. She lifted the candle as before.

  Johnny took a deep breath. The thought of missing out on Mumthers’s cooking for an entire week did not sit well with him. Not at all. “Here goes.” But no sooner did he lift his finger to light the candle than Jimmy yanked his arm aside, the small flame snuffed out from the sudden breeze.

  “No,” Jimmy spoke.

  Everyone let out a deep sigh. It seemed to be working.

  “Next one,” said Kat. Johnny took it from her and did the same thing. Again Jimmy yanked his arm away suddenly, the flame just barely avoiding the wick.

  “That was close,” said Tommy.

  “Too close,” amended Johnny.

  “Okay, Johnny. Third one.” Kat offered the candle. She could feel his fingers shaking slightly.

  “You can do this,” said Jett. “Stay focused, guys.”

  Johnny took a deep breath and produced a small flame from his fingertip. At first he thought Jimmy had spaced out, forgetting to yank his arm away, until he realized the candle he was holding had a red smear across the wax.

  “You did it!” Kat exclaimed. She clapped her hands a few times and then said, “Here, let me read the candle. Must be instructions.”

  But no sooner did she take the candle than Tommy interrupted her. “Guys . . . would you look at that!”

  Kat raised the single candle and the Seven of them stared out into the lair. . . .

  14

  Leaps and Bounds

  “I HOPE you’re not going to let all this sand run through the glass simply while gawking,” came Grimwarden’s voice, echoing through the lair. Yet still the Seven teens stood, amazed at what they saw. All but the stone landing they stood on had been submerged by water, the entire room flooded. Their lone candle cast only a little light, but it was enough to see that they stood on the only dry patch for quite some distance . . . and all the hanging apparatuses that normally clung to the ceiling and walls had been removed, leaving only a barren lake in front of them.

  “And now that you can see,” said Grimwarden again, “there’s one more rule. No one gets wet.”

  “Grrreat. So now what?” asked Johnny, letting out a deep sigh.

  “We’ll figure it out,” replied Autumn. “Don’t worry.”

  “There goes my dinner.”

  “I’d say you have about seven minutes,” came Grimwarden’s voice again.

  “Everyone, search for clues!” Tommy said, now looking every which direction. “There’s got to be something.”

  “Hey, look over there,” said Kiri Lee. She pointed to the edge of the landing in front of them. She asked for the candle and then knelt down. “There’s a small patch of red paint.”

  “Hey, you’re right!” said Tommy. “Good eyes! Kat, you wanna read this?”

  “Mind-reader, coming through,” she replied, pushing herself deliberately between Kiri Lee and Tommy. Sure enough, a small red patch of paint clung to the edge of the stone as it dropped down into the water. She placed her finger on it and closed her eyes. After a moment, all Kat could say was, “Huh.”

  “Huh? What is it, Kat?” asked Tommy.

  “I think it’s a riddle.”

  “A riddle?”

  “Yeah. Hanging bows fly like doves, when sent by flaming strands above.”

  “Huh is right,” added Jett. “Any takers?”

  “There’s something above us,” Autumn surmised. “Hanging. From the ceiling, I think.”

  “Totally. A bow for me?” suspected Tommy. A few of the others nodded.

  “But I can’t see a thing. Not with this candle,” said Kiri Lee.

  “Then Johnny will need to light it up,” suggested Kat.

  Tommy shook his head. “But only what you tell him, remember?”

  “But how am I supposed to see what is up there?”

  Tommy looked to Jimmy. “Try again?”

  “Sure.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Johnny, do your thing.”

  “You got it. But . . . uh . . . where?”

  “Pick a spot, I dunno. Just remember, you really have to shoot fire.”

  “Right.” Johnny took a deep breath and raised his arms.

  “Wait!” Kat interjected. “Just not a lot. If there really is a bow hanging up there, we don’t want to burn it up, too.”

  Johnny stared at her. “You do realize you’re asking me to shoot fire up into the air blindly, don’t you?”

  “I’m just saying, don’t do like a big whoooosh!—just like a little swish.”

  Jett laughed. “I do believe that’s the first time I’ve heard a girl use two sound effects in one sentence.”

  “And I believe you’re letting Mumthers’s next meal slip away,” said Grimwarden.

  “Okay, Johnny, like she said,” instructed Tommy. “Just a little shot.”

  Johnny raised his hands and felt the familiar surge of power rise within him. He aimed toward the ceiling when suddenly Jimmy knocked his arms down. But it was too late. Fortunately the stream of fire shot out a little ways into the watery floor, erupting in a thick blast of steam.

  “That was close,” said Johnny.

  “Too close,” added Kat.

  “Did anybody see anything?”

  “Yeah, Tommy,” said Autumn. “I think right over there.” She pointed to a spot overhead about ten or fifteen feet away from the platform. “Like something dangling from the ceiling by a rope.”

  “A bow?” asked Tommy.

  “Could be. Hard to tell.”

  “Johnny, aim where she pointed.”

  “Roger,” he said, extending his arms once again.

  “But wait a sec,” Autumn stopped him. “If he burns through the rope, and that bow drops—”

  “Splash!” said Kat.

  “That’s three sound effects,” said Jett. She winked at him.

  “Kiri Lee! Of course!” exclaimed Tommy. He turned to her. “Run over the water?”

  “All right, Johnny.” Tommy put his hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Just enough to burn through the ropes. And aim high. Kiri Lee will do the rest.” He looked to Jimmy. “Stop him if it’s the wrong target.” Jimmy nodded.

  “Time’s wasting,” Gri
mwarden hollered.

  Johnny took a deep breath and looked up, aiming into the darkness. “Here goes nothing.”

  The blast of fire came uninterrupted this time; either Jimmy had zoned out, or Johnny had hit his mark. The Seven tracked the fireball as it lofted through the darkness and lit up the rest of the room. Suddenly the orange glow connected with something just below the stone dome above. A flare of white light. And then the steady glow of flames on a hemp rope.

  “Nailed it!” shouted Jett, pumping his fist.

  “Good job, dude!” said Tommy. “Check it out!” There, suspended over the water in the approximate location Autumn had indicated, swung a longbow, suspended by a burning cord, and bound to it, a quiver of arrows.

  “There’s more stuff over there!” Autumn pointed out into the room, the rope’s fire-light illuminating even more of the lair’s submerged obstacle course.

  “Not now, Autumn!” Johnny shouted her down. “That bow is about to fall!”

  “Kiri Lee!” yelled Tommy.

  “I’m on it!” She stood on the edge of the platform, shaking her hands as if she were warming up for a music lesson.

  “It’s going to fall in the water!” Kat yelled.

  “Her timing will have to be perfect,” said Autumn.

  “I’m on it!”

  Tommy piped up. “Use Jimmy!”

  “Yeah, Jimmy!” said Jett. “Tell her when to go!”

  “This is so cool,” Tommy replied.

  No sooner did they look to her than Jimmy yelled, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  “Yes, like as in now, yes?” Jett asked.

  “YES!”

  All at once Kiri Lee took flight, one foot higher than the other, walking out into midair. The other teens counted her steps for her. One . . . two . . . three . . .

  She extended her hand just as the rope snapped and the bow descended from its holding. As it fell, the orange embers marked its flight. The lords gasped. It would be too far away, and Kiri Lee could not risk another step farther out or risk not being able to come back within the allotted five steps Grimwarden had mandated. She stretched out her hand, then closed her fist.

  Her hand grabbed the trailing length of burning rope as the bow plummeted beneath her. Without even thinking, she yanked up, and then threw the weapon behind her, turning in the air and using her last two steps to leap back toward the platform. She sailed through the air, but she was short.

  “Gotcha!” Jett exclaimed as he caught her just two feet from the ledge, feet dangling over the water.

  She smiled and looked up at him, a bit nervous. “No sweat.”

  “No sweat,” he grinned back.

  While the fireball had illuminated the hall for a few moments, the darkness crept back in once more, saved only by the flickering candle that Kat held.

  “I can smell Mumthers’s dinner cooking,” Grimwarden said lazily. “Wonder if you’ll have the chance to savor any of it?”

  “Quick! What’s next?” Jimmy hollered. “Come on!”

  “Easy, Turbo,” Johnny held up a hand. “We’ll get there.”

  “Kat,” said Tommy, holding up the bow. “Look here.” A red smear crossed the leather-wrapped handle of the bow. “Read it.”

  Kat took the bow lightly with two hands and closed her eyes. “Targets. Two of them.”

  “And just three arrows,” Tommy held the quiver up.

  “Not much room for error,” Autumn replied.

  “And I can hardly see.” Tommy looked to Kat. “Sure there’s not anything about letting Johnny light something up?”

  Kat closed her eyes once more. “Nope.”

  Tommy sighed. “Great.”

  “Wait!” Kat grabbed the quiver, nearly knocking Tommy into the water. “The arrows!”

  “What about them?”

  “Hold on.” Kat clenched her hand around the shafts.

  “But, Kat—” Kiri Lee made to warn her, but Tommy waved her off.

  “Look,” he pointed. Sure enough, the feathers on the ends were dyed red. Everyone watched.

  “Come on, Tommy! That’s your cue!” said a few of the teens, eager to be done with this challenge.

  “Guys, chill,” said Tommy. “I’m not shooting anything until I’m sure what I’m aiming for.”

  “Johnny, light the arrows.” All looked back to Kat.

  “You sure, Kat?” Tommy took one arrow from the quiver.

  “I’m sure. Johnny, light it up.”

  “Will do!”

  Tommy nocked the arrow and held up the tip to Johnny. Using just his fingertip, Johnny set the shaft ablaze. As Tommy drew the arrow back, he hesitated. “But I still don’t know how this helps—”

  “Of course!” Kat exclaimed. “There aren’t three arrows because you might miss one. Tommy, think of it. You’re the best! Grimwarden knows you won’t miss. The third one is to light the room. Sink it into the stone above and you’ll have a few moments of light to see by.”

  Tommy looked at her wide-eyed, saying, “You are brilliant,” to which Kat blushed. But no one else could see it in the candlelight. Tommy aimed for a spot in the darkness and let the arrow fly. An orange flame streaked through the lair like a shooting star in a midnight sky.

  Crack-thunk!

  The missile found its mark, sinking deep into the rock ceiling above, bits of stone flittering into the water far below. And at once the shaft burned all the brighter, giving off a sizeable blast of light.

  “Whoa! Check it out!” said Autumn.

  “I see it! I see it! Kat, another arrow!” She passed him the second shaft, and in two heartbeats, the arrow was sent flying through the room. The sound of smashing metal blistered through the air, sparks flying; the third and final arrow caused the same result, two shackles now blown apart, loose chains falling from the ceiling. But no splash. The Seven listened as a strange grating noise began, and with it came a return to black as the arrow in the ceiling was extinguished. The grating sound increased, metal sliding over metal.

  “Something’s coming,” Jimmy said. “And fast.”

  Kat held up the candle.

  The scrape of metal was getting closer. Picking up speed!

  Jimmy screamed, “Look out!”

  All at once a heavy metal gangplank plowed into the stone ledge, sending chunks of rock splashing into the water. The Seven jumped back with a start, the candle blowing out.

  “Quick!”

  “Relight it!”

  “Over here, Johnny!”

  “Kat! Where are you?”

  “Here, take my hand.”

  “Oh, gotcha!” Johnny took the candle and in a moment it was alive again. He raised it, and there in front of them was a long walkway stretching far over the water and angling up.

  “Autumn, to the top,” Tommy pointed. “See what’s there.”

  Autumn was gone in a second, racing up the bridge. Then, “Owww!”

  “What is it?” the others blurted out.

  But in keeping to Grimwarden’s command, she was back in another second, standing beside Jett. Autumn rubbed her forehead. “A stone wall is what it is! Bashed my head right against it!”

  “Are you certain?” said Tommy.

  “Take the light up, and I’ll prove it to you.”

  The Seven clambered onto the metal scaffolding with Johnny leading the way with the candle. Their footsteps echoed off the water below. With no handrails, one wrong step meant a trip into the drink, and no dinner. As they neared Autumn, still rubbing her head—a trickle of blood running into her eyebrow—they noticed that it was not a wall at all.

  “It’s a boulder,” Tommy said, amazed. “On top of a tower from the training course.”

  Autumn stepped forward and looked at it in the light. “A boulder? But what’s a—?”

  “I’ll move it,” Jett said, stepping forward. “But not before I heal that,” he pointed to Autumn’s forehead.

  “No, really, it’s just—” But before she could finish her sentence, Jett placed hi
s hand over the wound on her head, held it there for not more than three seconds, and then withdrew it—a smudge of fresh blood on his palm. On Autumn’s forehead, the cut had vanished.

  “I still don’t get how he does that,” Kiri Lee said. “So cool.”

  “Jett, the boulder?”

  “I’m on it, Jimmy,” Jett said, annoyed. He walked up to the boulder and pressed both hands firmly against the enormous rock. Then, bracing himself on the tower platform, he pushed.

  At first, nothing seemed to happen. More than one of the others wondered if maybe Jett’s powers had diminished in some way . . . maybe from healing Autumn. But those thoughts were short-lived as the rock began to roll forward, and a beat later, plummeted off the tower. A giant splash erupted from far below as water shot upward. The Seven clambered onto the platform so as not to get sprayed, remembering Grimwarden’s firm warning. A moment later, all was still, save for the flickering candle and waves lapping gently against the sides of the lair far below.

  “I would say you have about three minutes left,” came Grimwarden’s voice. “Maybe a little more. Almost here?”

  “Three minutes?” Jimmy threw his hands up. “I canna’ believe this!”

  “Hey, look at that!” Kiri Lee pointed to a post protruding vertically from the far right side of the platform. Attached to the top was a rope descending out and away from them, and on it was a pulley with a handle set horizontally.

  “It’s a trolley!” Johnny yelled.

  “A what?” asked Jimmy.

  “A trolley. We built them all the time in our backwoods. Grab the handle and off you go. Just like on our way here to Whitehall in the forest.”

  “So that’s how we get down,” surmised Kat.

  “Problem,” Tommy interjected. “There’s only one trolley. Once someone uses it to get down there, how do we get it back up here?”

  “Aw, mannn! He’s right,” said Jett.

  “It looks way too far for me to air walk,” said Kiri Lee.

  “Johnny, shine the candle over here,” said Autumn. “I think I see something.” The two neared the opposite corner of the platform. Coiled in a neat pile was a thick rope.

  “We’ll tie one end of this rope onto it,” Autumn held it up. “Then pull back the pulley each time.”