“No, don’t go upstairs,” Cadence said. “It’s clearly a trap. Go get the truck!”
As Carlisle headed for the hallway again, the sound of police sirens and the voices of officers rang out from behind the front door, and he nearly tripped backpedaling into the kitchen. More screaming arose as the music upstairs suddenly doubled in volume. Carlisle rushed over to the window above the sink and tried to pry it open.
“Now!” Gordy shouted, charging not down the stairs but through the front door at full speed.
Adilene fumbled with the keystone for a second before pressing her thumb on the correct spot, just where Gordy had shown her, and the blue light flashed on.
Cadence appeared by the stove, eyes wide and alarmed, as two vials of potion hurled into the room. She barely had time to speak as a Torpor Tonic struck her on the shoulder, rendering her unconscious.
Max’s bottle sailed high over Carlisle’s head, splattering the wall with a greenish liquid. The old man dropped to the floor as the potion dripped down on him, but not enough for the Vintreet Trap to be fully effective. The vines flopped about uselessly, missing their target.
“Keep the light on her!” Gordy shouted. He dove into his satchel, trying desperately to find another weapon. But Carlisle nimbly scrambled to his feet and was on Gordy before he could pull out a bottle. The man wrenched the bag free from Gordy’s fingers and tossed it aside. The two struggled on the floor for a moment, but Carlisle was just too tall and wiry, and he had surprising strength.
“Eat it, Max!” Gordy demanded. “Just do it!”
Max looked hesitantly at the Gravity Gouda in his hand, then bit off a corner and chewed. “Yuck!” he gagged. “Oh, whoa. Do you guys feel that?”
“Grab him, Maxwell!” Adilene demanded.
And Max did.
Leaning down, Max wrapped his arms around Carlisle and the two of them fell over sideways. Carlisle tried to break free from Max’s grip, but he couldn’t. It was as though he were fighting a pointless battle against a marble statue.
Max laughed boisterously as Carlisle writhed about in his arms. “One, two, three, pin! One, two, three, pin!” he cheered. “Easiest wrestling match I’ve ever won.”
Gordy got to his feet, pulled a spray bottle out of his satchel, and spritzed Carlisle in the face. The old man instantly fell limp. Gordy returned to the hallway and picked up what looked like a strawberry jam jar from the floor. As he screwed back on the lid to his Cacophonous Compound, the sounds of sirens and officers out on the lawn snuffed out, as did the rowdy music and Gordy and Max’s earsplitting singing coming from upstairs. The house fell completely silent.
“We did it!” Adilene said as her invisibility potion wore off and she could see the outline of her arms and legs again.
“Yes, we did,” Gordy said.
“Uh, when will this wear off?” Max asked, lying motionless on the floor.
“Could be a while, Max,” Gordy answered. “You didn’t have to eat that much.”
After helping cut Gordy’s mom and aunt free from their cocoons, the five of them tied the intruders to kitchen chairs with thick ropes. Eventually, a fully visible Cadence and a reawakened Carlisle found themselves bound and immobile. Cadence’s usually pleasant expression had turned to pure hatred.
“How could you steal from me?” Cadence spat, glaring at Adilene, who stood back from the group, near the hallway. Cadence looked as though she might suddenly shoot lasers from her eyes. “After all I’ve done for you, this is how you treat me?”
“I didn’t steal from you.” Adilene looked away, folding her arms.
“Yeah, you’re the one who dropped the keystone,” Gordy said. “When you were snooping around B.R.E.W.”
Cadence sneered at Gordy. “I see that you sent her in to do your dirty work.” She nodded at Adilene. “You put her life at risk while you hid and waited for the right moment to strike. Some friend!”
“That was my idea,” Adilene said.
“Putting my gift to good use then? Well done, Adilene. How quickly you turn on—”
“Enough,” Gordy’s mom interrupted. “Let the adults ask the questions, okay?” She looked at Gordy, Max, and Adilene. The three of them nodded. “We need some answers.”
“You shall get none from me and certainly less from him.” Cadence’s eyes shifted to Carlisle, and she started laughing. The old man didn’t struggle. He sat with his head bowed, eyes shifting to each of the others in the room.
“Then it’s off to prison for you,” Priss said. “I’m sure we can stick you in some juvenile correctional facility. Maybe there’s a Forbidden Zone for kids somewhere.”
“Sounds wonderful.” Cadence grinned at Priss. “I propose you take me there right away.”
“That won’t do any good,” Gordy said. “Wards and banishments don’t work the same way on her. She’ll just stay there for a few moments and then walk right out, and no one will stop her.”
“That’s a problem,” Gordy’s mom grumbled. “And if she can disappear whenever she wants, regular prisons aren’t going to work either.”
“Those ropes seem to be doing the trick,” Max suggested. “Maybe we could just keep them tied up forever.”
“We can’t do that.” Adilene stepped forward into the kitchen. “That wouldn’t be right.”
Gordy’s mom sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Listen, kid, I don’t know how you got mixed up with this, but believe me, it’s not going to end well for the Scourges. In case you didn’t hear, their attack on B.R.E.W. failed. If you cooperate with us, maybe we can cut a deal and your parents won’t have to be banished for their involvement.”
“Parents?” Cadence’s forehead crinkled. “Oh, there’s so little of what you understand.”
“Well, help us understand!” Priss demanded.
A knock sounded at the front door, and everyone jumped.
“Easy, easy.” Gordy’s mom held out her hands to calm the group. “Bolter? Is that you?” she called out.
“In the flesh,” Bolter replied.
Priss opened the door, and she and Bolter entered the kitchen. His boots clopped noisily on the hardwood floor as he stepped over the shattered plates and silverware. “This is an all-too familiar scene,” he said, referring to the last time Gordy’s house had been ransacked by enemies.
“Where’s Zelda?” Gordy asked.
“She was right behind me,” Bolter said.
“Coming!” Zelda’s chirpy voice sounded in the hallway. “I stopped to search that old pickup truck outside, per Priss’s request.” She entered the room, toting a small handbag containing a thin vial of inky blue substance. “Does this belong to anyone here?”
Cadence stiffened, struggling against her bindings. “Be careful with that!”
Aunt Priss smiled. “Ah, I see we’ve hit a pressure point.”
Gordy’s mom took the vial from Zelda and dug out the wax with her index finger. She held the opened container over the sink, threatening to pour out what little potion remained. It couldn’t have been more than four or five drops.
“Stop!” Cadence shouted. “You’ll spill it!”
“What is this?” Gordy’s mom asked. “Who are you?”
“That’s mine, and I’m Cadence!” The girl craned her neck trying to see over the lip of the sink.
“Not good enough.” Gordy’s mom poured a drop out of the bottle. The liquid splattered, and Cadence screamed.
“Okay, okay!” She fought against her bindings again, but not only had the knots been tied especially tight, but Priss had also treated the rope with a special tonic. “It’s called Silt. It’s from my island.”
“What are you doing with it here?” Gordy asked.
“I’m recruiting,” Cadence answered.
“Scourges?” Priss asked.
“Sure, if that’s what you want to
call them. Scourges. Potion Masters. Anyone willing to help me return to my home.”
Gordy was struggling to figure out Cadence. She talked differently from other kids their age, and she acted too brave and too resistant to her captors, who were adults, for crying out loud! His mom was an Elixirist who had taken down her share of nasty Scourges over the years, and yet Cadence addressed her as though she were a low-life criminal.
Carlisle simply sat wearing a passive expression of indifference, as though he had no desire to fight anymore. He just stared straight ahead, eyes crinkling with exhaustion.
Gordy’s mom shook the vial of Silt at Cadence. “And in exchange, you helped Mezzarix Rook sneak into B.R.E.W. with this?”
Cadence fidgeted nervously against her ropes. “Careful!” she hissed. “But yes. Those were the terms of our agreement.”
“Why go to him?” Priss asked. “How did you even find him? He was in Greenland, living out his days of banishment.”
“I found someone who could track him. Because as you can see, I’m running low on my supply.”
Gordy’s mom glanced at Bolter and Zelda uncertainly. “You needed Mezzarix to Replicate your Silt?”
“He is the best, or so I’ve been told,” Cadence said.
“And then what?” Bolter asked. “You Replicate this peculiar substance of yours, outfit an army of Scourges to claim the Vessel, and then . . . what? I’m sorry, I’m confused by your motives.”
“Then I go home with them,” Cadence said. “Then they help me take back my island, and I resume my place as leader of my people.”
This girl had turned out to be so much more than some annoying friend of Adilene’s. Now she had people she wanted to lead?
“If you need to go home, why not go to someone at B.R.E.W.?” Bolter suggested. “They could have helped you.”
“Oh, really?” Cadence raised an eyebrow. “Because B.R.E.W. enjoys helping people? I think not.”
“It’s not just that, is it?” Gordy’s mom asked. “You’re not wanted on your island anymore. Your people made you leave, and you want to go back against their wishes.”
Cadence curled her lip, impressed. “Very good, Wanda. Would B.R.E.W. support a rebellion? I don’t think so. From what I’ve heard, they would seize my supply of Silt and keep it for themselves. They’d lock me away and forget about me.”
Priss sighed. “You don’t think Mezzarix would do the same?”
“He wouldn’t dare. He knows how powerful I am and what I could do to his life. I promised him wealth beyond measure. I’m willing to extend the offer to you, if you’re interested. I can reward you with a king’s ransom.”
“My dad doesn’t care about wealth. Neither do we,” Gordy’s mom said.
“Yes, what is it with your family? Spent too much time on the wrong side of the tracks? Determined to weasel your way through life driving that pathetic Subaru all the livelong day?”
“I saw that old truck of yours,” Max said, snickering. “How much of the king’s ransom did that set you back?”
“It’s a front, you insolent little brat!” Cadence sneered at Max, and Gordy noticed that somehow her voice changed. Her words took on a different accent, and her voice sounded deeper now. Older.
“Who are you really?” Gordy asked.
“I told you, boy, I’m Cadence.” She grinned. Her eyes grew darker, and her cheekbones became more sunken and pronounced in her face. “But my associates call me Ms. Bimini.”
“Ms. Bimini?” Adilene stepped up next to Gordy and stared at Cadence in shock. “And is Carlisle really your uncle’s name?”
“Why, yes, dear Adilene, it is.” She puckered her lips as creases began to weave their way through her skin, transforming her young girl’s face into a wrinkled mess. Her neck bowed, her hands and wrists twisting and curling as her knuckles and bones pressed against almost transparent skin.
“But he’s not really my uncle,” the elderly woman replied. The young Cadence was gone. “He’s my son.”
Never in Gordy’s thirteen years of existence had he seen anything as bizarre as what he had witnessed with Cadence and Carlisle. Sitting on the porch next to Max and Adilene, Gordy thought he might throw up. The image of Cadence’s transformation from girl to ancient woman was too much to take in. But Max was handling it the worst.
“And to think I had a crush on that old hag!” Max grimaced, leaning against the outside wall of the house. “We almost kissed!”
“No, you didn’t,” Adilene said. “Stop making it worse than it already is!”
“Did you have any idea who she was when you guys were hanging out?” Gordy asked Adilene.
She shook her head and shivered.
The door opened, and Gordy’s mom, Bolter, and Zelda joined the three of them on the porch. Aunt Priss remained inside the house to keep a watchful eye over their two prisoners.
“Pretty surreal, eh?” Bolter asked Gordy.
Gordy nodded. “Have you seen anything like that before?”
“Oh, of course. There are Disfarcar Gels that can disguise just about anyone for a decent amount of time,” he answered.
“Yeah.” Gordy remembered having brewed a similar potion with his mom the previous year, the effects of which generally lasted about twelve hours. “But Cadence is not an Elixirist, is she?”
“No, she’s not,” his mom replied.
“Then how did she make a Disfarcar Gel?”
“We don’t think that’s what this is.” Gordy’s mom stepped off the porch and onto the front lawn. “It may have a connection to her Silt, but it would seem that Ms. Bimini can alter her appearance as easily as she can vanish.”
“Wow!” Max chimed in. “Maybe you all should replicate this Silt. We could make a fortune.”
Bolter chuckled. “Something tells me that Priss might be doing business with Max in the Swigs one day.”
Max gave Bolter the thumbs-up. “You better believe it!”
“So, now what?” Gordy asked. Now that Cadence and Carlisle were out of the way, what was their next course of action?
“We have to hunt down Mezzarix,” Gordy’s mom said. “But it might be almost impossible.”
“Maybe not.” Zelda glanced down at the tiny digital screen on her phone. “It would appear that I’m still patched into B.R.E.W.’s mainframe and receiving their bulletins.”
“I should still be receiving bulletins too, then.” Bolter peered over Zelda’s shoulder, a look of concern crossing his features.
Zelda giggled. “How would you receive them? On that ridiculous brick phone of yours?”
“It has a messaging feature!” Bolter exclaimed.
“What’s going on?” Gordy’s mom demanded.
“Madame Brexil has issued a statement about the recent attack at headquarters.” Zelda cleared her throat and read the message.
“‘My fellow constituents. I am pleased to announce that the recent skirmish on the grounds of B.R.E.W. Headquarters has finally been contained. We have taken every measure to extinguish any evidence of this attack from the media and have used approved Memory Erasing Elixirs on the public in the general area to keep our existence from their knowledge.
“‘Furthermore, we have captured the notorious Mezzarix Rook. Rest assured, my friends, the mystery behind Mr. Rook’s escape from his Forbidden Zone shall be thoroughly investigated, and he shall be punished to the full extent of B.R.E.W.’s law.
“‘Cheers,’ etc.”
Bolter’s nose twitched as though he had suddenly sprouted whiskers.
Gordy looked at his mom, who was shaking her head in disbelief. It didn’t seem possible. From what he had learned about his grandfather over the past few months, Mezzarix had always been too elusive to be captured. That is, until his own daughters had betrayed him. But now he had escaped the Forbidden Zone and gained access to
a powerful vanishing potion. Hearing the Chamber President’s statement was, in a way, anticlimactic.
“What if he was too sick to fight back?” Gordy asked. “What if the effects of the Clasping Cannikin are finally wearing off?” He remembered his grandfather’s sickly appearance back at headquarters. Gordy’s mom looked down at him, and he knew she was fearing the same possibility.
“Madame Brexil probably intends to ExSponge him,” Zelda said. “ExSpongement while being so far removed from his Forbidden Zone?” She clicked her tongue. “That would certainly be the end of Mezzarix Rook.”
“We have to help him.” Gordy leaped up from the porch.
“You mean help the dude who was trying to destroy B.R.E.W.?” Max asked.
“Just help him . . . not die,” Gordy reasoned. “We give him what he needs to feel better, and then we send him back to Greenland.”
“But to do that, you would have to talk with Sasha’s mom,” Adilene said. “And she wants to arrest you.”
“And she won’t be at B.R.E.W. Headquarters,” Gordy’s mom added. “She’ll be with the Vessel, but we don’t have any idea where that is.”
“It’ll have to be somewhere highly guarded,” Zelda said. “With more protective wards than you can count.”
Max started chuckling. He had slouched down on the porch, his hands folded across his stomach.
“What are you laughing about?” Adilene asked.
“I was just thinking about when Sasha’s wards sent me fishing,” Max said. “That was awesome. I wish I could remember how it felt.”
Gordy’s eyes widened. “Mom, Sasha told me that the wards protecting her house were even stronger than the ones protecting B.R.E.W.” At the time, Gordy had thought Sasha was trying to show off, but now he wasn’t so sure. “And Max did end up in the middle of Swinton Lake when he tried to sneak into Sasha’s party uninvited.”
The Transparency Tonic Page 23
