“Don’t give me that look,” Brune snapped. “I was running for my life. It’s not like I sent it an engraved invitation.”
Farouk’s eyes glazed over with boredom. “Yes, yes, we’ve already been over your monumantic messbacle. Disfortunately, that does not undo the fact that you unleashed a host of monsters, while also failing to termiclude the scavenger.”
“Host of monsters?” Fate asked. “There’s more out there besides that thing and the scavenger?”
“Oh yes.” Farouk’s furry chest heaved like he was tired. “There’s a pack of Fomorians slithering and sliding about down there.”
“I’ve never heard of those before.”
“Fomorians are an ancient race that have eludevaded historical accounts with any real exacturacy, because of the chaos and confuddlement they cause anyone who crosses their path. It will be tricksome dealing with them.”
Fate groaned. “This just gets better and better. Anything else I should know about?”
Farouk grew quiet as he studied each face staring back at him. His slanted gaze slid to Brune. “I’ve been running diagnostifications–both surface and subsurface. The readings are registering a disturbtion we’ve never seen before. Gears are slowing and some have even begun to turn in the opposite direction.”
Brune shifted her feet and looked the other way. “It must be the scavenger. God only knows what it’s eaten into by now. Have you been tracking it?”
Farouk seemed insulted by her question by the way his ears stood straight and the whiskers of his snout twitched. “Of course. The scavenger is in Quadrant 56 as we speak. So far it’s been staying on the surface, though it did destructalize a moving belt, which is attached to several gateways. Seven to be exact. Each one has remained open. Maintenance bots have already repaired the belt, but as you know, they are ill equipped for knowing the perplexacies of closing and restructifying the gateways. Nothing has come through them so far, but it’s only a matter of time before some sort of nastilence makes its way out.”
“Doesn’t sound like anything too unmanageable. I assume you already have a supply of materials needed for welding the gateways shut.” Brune strapped on a belt of glass bullets filled with glowing red liquid.
“Of course, but you miscomprestand.” Farouk’s tone grew impatient. “This is not the disturbtion of greatest concern. I’ve been getting readings from the core.”
Brune stopped shoving her supply of radioactive-looking bullets into the chamber of a long rifle wrapped in copper tubing and stared at him in disbelief. “What? That’s impossible. We never get readings from the core. Isn’t it supposed to be made of solid crystal or something like that?”
“We’ve never known for certain what the core is composulated of. Or what’s inside…until now.”
Fate waited for Farouk to continue, tensing with each second he remained quiet. Something in his tone set her nerves on edge.
Brune cocked the rifle. “Well, are you going to tell me or wait ‘til I die of old age again?”
Farouk leveled his slanted gaze on Brune. “The readings are picking up signs of movement inside the core, and of an organtic nature.”
“You mean signs of life?”
“Yes,” Farouk said in a hushed tone. “Something else is down there.”
12
Dragon Eye Me
“WHOA, THAT WUSH SHOME uber shuspenseful dialogue jusht now.” Lincoln stepped out from behind the table with a swagger. “Who’sh writing the shcript on thish? Cuz I gotta shay, bravo.”
“Dude, stay woke. This is all for real.” Mason pointed at Farouk. “Including that talking Franken hamster.”
Steve came out from behind the other end of the table. “Yeah, so stop strutting around like you’re all that. We all know you lost it and screamed like a little girl.” He looked at Gerdie. “Even the little girl in the room didn’t scream as high as you did.”
Lincoln pushed him. “You throwin’ shade on me? I wushn’t down there on the floor by myshelf.”
“Oh shut up!” Darcy fumed. “I’m with Linc. We can’t go swallowing this hook, line and sinker. None of this is scientifically possible. Putting aside what we’ve seen, do you actually believe we’re not on Earth anymore and that we’ve been thrown across the universe?”
Steve and Mason were silent a moment. Then Mason laughed. “She’s right. That’s ridiculous. Cancel what I said.”
Steve nodded and shook his head. “Ditto.”
“Idiots,” Brune muttered. She strapped some kind of jet pack with dragonfly shaped wings on her back, slung her rifle over her shoulder and walked over to Fate. “I’m going out there to weld the broken gateways shut. I estimate it’ll take me anywhere between four to ten hours, barring any serious interruptions. If you don’t have every single one of these stowaways whipped into shape by the time I get back, I’ll personally feed each one of them to the Chimera.”
Fate scowled at Brune, but kept her lips pressed tight. She wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of arguing. “Aye, aye Captain.”
Brune chuckled silently and slammed her fist on the button above the breaching door’s control panel. As the hatch spiraled open, she turned to the others. “Did you hear that? You either soldier up and start falling in line, or you’re all breakfast, lunch and dinner for whatever comes a-knockin’.” Sneering at their confused expressions, she jumped, freefalling out of sight before she rose into view, the wings of her jetpack an invisible blur as she turned and flew into the heart of the Keep.
Mason covered his mouth and pointed at Brune. “Did you see that?”
Lincoln was right next to him, his head bouncing up and down. “Oh yeah, where can I get me one of thoshe?”
Mason let out a low whistle with a dreamy look on his face.
Darcy pulled Mason away from the hatch. “Forget it. You’d kill yourself on that thing.”
Eustace stepped in next to Fate. “Well, Brune’s a real breath of fresh air.”
“More like a bag of hot air.” Gerdie crossed her arms as she watched Brune become a tiny speck against the massive surface of the Keep.
Fate walked over the table and leaned against it. “She’s got a point though. These guys don’t stand a chance if I don’t figure out some way to prepare them for–”
“For what? Fighting mythical beasts?” Eustace frowned with disapproval. “I hardly think these kids could fight cranky kittens, let alone what we just witnessed outside these walls.” He shook his head as he perused the clueless group: Lincoln bouncing in place and punching the air, Steve sneaking around the bookshelves, Mason holding his cell phone high over his head to get a signal, while Darcy nagged at him to be a man and demand their release. It was obvious they still hadn’t accepted the truth of their situation. “I say we send them all home. Brune’s not here to stop us anymore.”
“But I am.” Farouk raised his cage to its full height and charged it over to the portal. “They cannot be allowed to leave. They will broadcast the positionality of the portal, and once they do, the whole world will come rushing in.”
Fate could hardly argue. The footage Mason had just recorded would be all over the internet within seconds of his return. “If they have to stay, then you better have some suggestions for turning them into at least bicycle police, if not soldiers. I certainly know Brune’s crazy enough to make good on her promise.”
“You’ve got that right,” Gerdie agreed.
Farouk lowered his cage to eye level with Fate. “I may be able to offer a fixlution that can instasuddenly turn anyone into a master warrior. But I must warn you, anyone who is weak-willed may suffer side-effectuals.”
“What is this…‘fixlution’?” Fate rolled her eyes at the ridiculous word.
Farouk leaned close, his small hands rubbing together as his devil-pointed ears leveled out, giving him a sly expression she didn’t like. “I’ve been tinkering with an ancient form of martial alchemistry over the past thousand years. All that’s been missing are my test subjects,
but now it appears I finally have some.”
“They’re human beings, not lab rats.” Eustace’s normally calm voice cracked with anger.
Farouk’s ears popped back up, his eyes wide as he nodded. “Of course they are, and I respect that.”
Jessie raised her hand. “I’ll go first. I’ve always wanted to be a ninja.”
Fate lowered her friend’s hand. “Uh-uh, no way. We’ll try it on Darcy first. She’s been getting on my nerves all night.”
Eustace admonished her with a frown.
“Just kidding. Mostly.”
“I assure you, the procedure is perfectlessly safe. In theory.” Farouk muttered the last part.
“Test it on me first,” Fate offered. She missed her super powers and desperately wanted to replace them with something that would give her more confidence. “If all goes well, we’ll ask the others if they want to be ninjaed. I don’t care what Brune says, we’re not enlisting the draft here.”
“No, Fate, I will not stand by and watch you risk your life,” Eustace argued. “I’ll be the first test subject.”
Fear drilled through Fate. He didn’t know it, but he was her Achilles heel. If anything happened to him, she wouldn’t be able hold it together anymore. “Dad, you can’t. Somebody’s got to make sure this caged rat doesn’t pull anything funny.”
Farouk’s snout wrinkled at the insult.
“Besides, I’m the Keep Guardian. It’s my duty to take the lead on this.”
Farouk shook his head. “That may be so, but experitesting on you is too riskylous. The Keep needs its guardian. That’s why test subjects have been in short supply around here.”
“Well, that leaves me.” Jessie smiled wide.
Eustace frowned. “I can’t let you.
“Dad’s right, Jess,” Fate jumped in. “It’s way too risky.”
Jessie’s smile vanished. “Why? Because you think I’m weak willed and won’t make it? Well, it’s not up to you. This is my decision.”
Gerdie tugged on Fate’s arm. “You should really let her make up her own mind. Nobody likes to be treated like a helpless little girl. I should know.”
“No, I can’t. I just can’t.” Fate turned to Farouk in a panic. “Give us another option.”
“There is none. If you want to arm these lambs, follow me.” Farouk turned his cage and steered it across the sanctuary toward a set of five large metal doors lining the far wall of the domed room. Each door was engraved with symbols that made Fate think of alien alphabets from movies. Farouk stuck an odd looking key into the hole in the center panel of a door marked with a series of squiggles, lines and circles.
Eustace, Gerdie and Jessie followed him inside, and just as Fate brought up the rear, Darcy called out to her. ‘Hey, where’re you guys going?”
“Just getting the five-minute tour,” Fate called back. “Carry on with whatever you were doing over there. We’ll be back in a sec.”
Darcy grabbed Mason’s hand and dragged him along behind her as she marched over to Fate. “Oh no you don’t. You’re not leaving us here to wait around with nothing to do.”
Fate wondered if that glower Darcy was so fond of wearing was normal for her. “Fine, just–” she stopped as Lincoln and Steve crowded in as well.
Darcy set her fists on her hips. “Just what?”
“Never mind.” Fate huffed and turned to follow Farouk down a long hall before entering through another door. When they crossed the threshold, everyone gathered around her, all staring in awe at the massive warehouse-sized room flanked on each side with tall iron columns the size of buildings. A complicated looking engine with lots of gears and moving parts hummed at the end of the mile long chamber. Artificial sunlight poured in through a series of opaque windows, each stretching vertically between the columns, making the place look like an industrial-style cathedral.
Set within the very center was a recessed arena as big as an Olympic pool. The bottom of the round courtyard was inlaid with geometric-shaped tiles in the form of a huge starburst. Farouk walked his cage down the smooth ramp leading into the arena. Fate and the others followed. When they reached the bottom, Fate noticed the walls were a good twelve feet high, much taller looking than when she’d viewed it from the top.
“Whoa,” Steve said as he removed his sunglasses to peer at the vast ceiling. “I’m beginning to think we might not be in the bookstore again. Or even on Earth.”
Fate squinted at him. “You think?”
“Does it matter? This place is off the hook.” Mason high-fived Lincoln.
“All of you stop it. We’re on Earth,” Darcy insisted. “Don’t you get it? This is some sort of underground base hidden under the bookstore.” She narrowed her charcoal rimmed eyes at Fate. “Tell them the truth.”
Fate seethed with frustration. “I’ve been telling you the truth! Get it through your thick heads already. We’re not underneath the bookstore and we’re not on Earth. We’re floating in the middle of outer space, for crying out loud.”
All of a sudden, the gravity of her words hit home and she felt sick to her stomach. She had no idea where they were in relation to Earth. The air caught in her lungs and the gnawing ache in her chest went from dull to painfully sharp. It was bad enough that Finn was caught in another dimension, but now they might be millions of light years away from each other. What had she gotten herself into?
She looked at everyone, seeing that her words had taken effect. Fear had wiped the grins off their faces.
Guilt set in. Had she been too harsh? She needed to remember how hard it had been to accept the impossible. She couldn’t count the number of times Finn had talked her down off the ledge when she’d been in total denial of their grim reality after they’d arrived in the Book of Fables.
“This really is real?” Steve said, his already pale face growing chalky with fear. “What’s happening here? Where the hell are we? I want to go home.”
Suddenly, they were all talking at once in a panic, bombarding Fate with demands and questions she couldn’t answer.
Eustace stepped forward with a stern expression. “Calm down, everyone.”
The others fell quiet and turned to him, happy to have the only seasoned adult in the room take charge and help them make sense out of their insane situation.
Eustace continued, “Obviously, we’re being faced with circumstances that have only been the stuff of fiction up until this moment.”
Lincoln bobbed his head. “You got that right.”
“And isn’t that why you’re all here?” Eustace asked. “You’re seekers of adventure. You’re open to the impossible. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t be here dressed as the fantastical characters you admire.”
Relief set in as Fate watched her father do what he did best–keep her world safe, calm and manageable. The others no doubt sensed his grounded nature, because they were nodding, hanging on his every word.
“If you didn’t have the same courage and strengths those characters embody, you wouldn’t have been drawn to them.” Eustace paused as he gauged their reaction. “You each need to trust that you’re stronger than you think and that you have what it takes to face what’s ahead.”
“I don’t know man,” Lincoln interrupted. “I’m sho shketched right now, I’m ready to drop mud.”
Eustace grimaced at the description, but quickly restored his composure. “That’s alright. Having courage doesn’t mean you’re fearless, it means you’re brave about facing what scares you.”
Lincoln looked at Mason. “Man’sh got a point.”
Eustace smiled. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, being prepared is the best way to face your fears. So who here wants to learn martial arts? Matrix-style.”
Lincoln’s and Mason’s hands shot up in an instant. Steve and Darcy kept their hands down.
“Good.” Eustace ignored Fate’s look of alarm. “I’ll leave it to the Franken hamster here to take over.”
Farouk stomped one leg of his cage. “The name is Farou
k. Anyone who addresses me otherelse will suffer severible consequences.” His tone was low but his voice blared. He’d turned the volume up on the device he spoke through and it further tortured everyone’s ears by echoing throughout the massive chamber in waves.
Fate sidled up next to Eustace as Farouk ordered his two test subjects to line up in front of him. “I don’t know about this. Something tells me this could backfire horribly.”
Eustace pushed his glasses to the top of his nose. “People need to feel they have a choice, Doodles. Besides, if we keep them powerless and unable to help themselves your job as guardian will be that much harder.”
“Well, you’re right about that. Just not for Jessie. We need to protect her from herself.” Fate turned to look at her friend who was sulking and watching Farouk.
He was marching his cage back and forth in front of Lincoln and Mason like a drill sergeant. He finally stopped and pressed a few buttons on the small control panel set between the gears he used to steer his cage. One of the geometric stone tiles slotted loose from the floor and rose, becoming a short pillar the size of a public mailbox. A thick slab slid out of the top half. Embedded within its surface were a dozen round slots holding mechanical devices.
Farouk retrieved one of the gadgets and held it high. “This is a Dragon Eye tempora.”
“Shounds like one of the daily shpecials from Poo-Ping Palashe,” Lincoln said, causing Mason to burst out laughing.
Farouk ignored them. “Wearing it will imbue you with absoplete knowledge of dragon style Kung Fu.”
“Oh, little dude, that’s the bomb.” Mason high-fived Lincoln yet again. “Lay it on us.”
In their excitement, they both headed toward the pillar.
“Get back in line.” Farouk’s voice amplified to such a pitch, they clapped their hands over their ears. “These are not cupcakes I’m handing out. You must first comprestand what the effectuals will be. Your chi will be elevated to super human magniportions. Physical skill, strength and speed will be doublefied. Mental alertness and reflexes will be highly acute. If the chi is raised to ideal levels, any latent supernatural abilities you have will surfmerge.”
Fate's Keep (Fate's Journey Book 2) Page 9
