by T. S. Hall
Bell finished the page she was reading, then glanced over and read the first line of the riddle before Allora noticed. “‘A water-bound mass of wizard’s past’? What’s that?” Bell said.
“It’s nothing. Just some stupid riddle I can’t figure out.”
“Well the ‘water-bound mass’ is probably an island.”
“Duh. I already figured that part out, kiddo.”
“Just trying to help.”
“I’m sorry, Bell. It’s just that I have been looking at this thing for days, and the riddle just doesn’t make sense. It’s really frustrating me,” Allora admitted, putting her hands over her face, and rubbing her bloodshot eyes.
“Don’t you remember a place called Wizard’s Island in the middle of Crater Lake? When we went there a couple years ago, I read the entire visitor’s guide.” With that, Bell got up and left the living room.
Allora pulled her hands slowly down her face, and a bug-eyed expression began to form. “No way. It can’t possibly be that easy,” she said softly, slowly realizing that her little sister might have found the location of The Eye of the Titans without even thinking about it.
Bell walked back into the living room with a glass of milk in hand, and her big sister jumped up from the couch and grabbed her in a bear hug that caused her to spill milk all over both of them. “Hey!” Bell exclaimed. “What’s the big idea?”
“Don’t cry over spilt milk!” Allora said with a grin, then ran to her room, still covered in the white stuff but not even caring. She closed the door, grabbed the telephone, and dialed Katie’s number. When she only got voicemail after a number of rings, she hung up and dialed again, and she kept right on dialing, with milk dripping from her hair, until Katie finally picked up.
“Okay, this better be important!” Katie yelled on the other end.
“Whoa! What’s with the hostility? It’s just me,” Allora said.
“Sorry. I’m in the middle of painting my nails, and it’s kinda hard to hold the phone while the paint’s drying.”
“Well, gee, Your Highness, I’m sorry to interrupt your all-important manicure, but I have some news.”
“Go on.”
“I found it!” Allora paused for dramatic effect, more excited than she’d ever been in her life.
“Shut up!” Katie said. “No way! Where?”
“I don’t really wanna say over the phone,” Allora answered. Paranoia had set in, mostly from reading too many spy novels.
“Dax will get in touch with Tanner, and we’ll all meet you at your house tonight,” Katie said, blowing on her nails between words.
“Sounds like a plan,” Allora said, then hung up the phone and headed to her room to do a little research.
Luckily for Allora, Milly had gathered quite a collection of information on Crater Lake, and what she couldn’t find there, she was able to locate on the Internet. When she Googled it, she quickly discovered an article that shocked her, a report on Sasquatch sightings reported decades earlier. “Sas was there,” she said to herself while she sat at the computer. “It’s gotta be the place.”
Allora stopped reading the article when she heard Katie talking to her mother in the living room. She grabbed the others, led them to her bedroom, and closed the door. Once they were all safe inside, she projected a purple spark, struck a round, clear ball, and glue exploded onto the walls.
“I can’t wait till I can do that,” Katie admitted.
Allora smiled and rummaged in her pocket till she found the piece of paper with the riddle scribbled on it. She passed it around to her three friends, who were sitting side by side on the bed.
“Is this the complete riddle?” Tanner asked.
“Yes, and I believe I know what it’s referring to,” Allora said with a smirk. She pulled out the book she’d been reading earlier and opened it to a panoramic picture of the beautiful Crater Lake. “There,” Allora said, pointing her finger in the middle of the picture.
“What is it?” Katie asked.
“It’s a ‘water-bound mass’ known as Wizard’s Island. That rock formation over there is called The Phantom Ship,” she explained, flipping the page and pointing to the picture of rocks jutting upward out of the water. “I think it has a lot to do with ‘where phantoms raise their Earthly mast,’” she said, reciting the next line of the riddle.
The other three glanced back and forth between the pictures and the words, then looked at each other in awe.
“You found it, Allora!” Katie exclaimed, and they both screamed and hugged each other.
“I had a little accidental help,” Allora confessed. “Bell reminded me of this place.”
“I can’t believe we’ve been so close to it all along,” Dax said. “How come no one found it before if it’s that obvious?”
“I’m not sure, but I found an article online that talked about Sas sightings near the lake many years ago. Maybe they looked there before and couldn’t find the entrance. All I know is that we have to go down there.”
“You know your mom will never sign the permission slip for that little field trip,” Katie said.
“Exactly. That’s why she mustn’t know where we’re going.”
“Why don’t we tell them we’re going to Sas’ for training?” Tanner suggested.
“Not sure that she’s going to buy it, but why not give it a shot.”
“Good,” Tanner said. “Then that will be our alibi.”
“We also need supplies, like flashlights, camping equipment, food, water, weapons, and so on,” Dax said.
“Right, but we need to be discreet. We shouldn’t stock up on food and water till the day we leave, or else someone might get suspicious of what we’re up to. I’m sure we can find camping equipment without having to buy a lot of it,” Tanner said.
“I’ve got tons of flashlights,” Katie said, prompting questioning looks from her friends. “What? So I’m a little afraid of the dark. Don’t judge me. We all know there are some serious boogeymen out there, right?”
Allora chuckled. “We already have weapons too, but there’s one small issue.”
“What’s that?” Tanner asked.
“We need the actual parchment from Mr. Swan’s room.”
“Why? It will be impossible to get it. Mr. Swan guards that thing like it’s his baby,” Katie said, “and we have no way of accessing his safe.”
“I asked my Aunt Lizi about the wall trick, and she told me it can only be accessed with a specific hadron signature. That means only Mr. Swan can open it,” Tanner explained.
“I know. I asked my mom the same thing, but we need the parchment because it has important information on the back. I saw the numbers when I originally got the parchment from Sas. I’m assuming there are more on the other pieces, a combination of sorts,” Allora said.
“Then how are we supposed to get it?” Dax asked.
“I’ve already figured that out. We just need to make a duplicate, then ask Mr. Swan to let us see the parchment. While Katie distracts him, I’ll make the switch. He’ll put the decoy back in the safe, and we’ll have the original,” Allora said.
“And exactly how do I distract him?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know. Get creative. Flash him if you have to,” Allora said.
“What!? Ew, Allora. He’s like… forty. Gross,” Katie said.
“Well, it would do the trick,” Tanner said shyly.
While they all had a good laugh at Katie’s expense, she just crossed her arms in protest and stuck out her bottom lip as if she was pouting.
Allora hurriedly went back to the subject at hand. “Spring break is in a couple weeks. That will be a perfect time to go down there.”
“When should we tell our parents?” Tanner asked.
“We should probably wait till a day before so they don’t have time to check with Sas.”
“Good idea, Dax. I’ll drive,” Tanner said.
“Okay. It’s settled then. We’ll create the duplicate this week, make the swit
ch next week, pack up the car, tell our parents, and head out the next morning,” Allora said.
“Sounds like a good plan, but I’m not flashing anyone,” Katie said.
They all laughed again, then hurried out of Allora’s room to get a snack before they left.
* * *
The next day, Katie and Allora went to the craft store on Main Street to find some parchment paper that would look authentic. It didn’t take them long to find it in the scrapbooking supplies.
“I know this cool technique where we can stain the paper with tea to make it look even more worn and ancient,” Katie said, and Allora agreed that it was worth a try.
Once they had the paper looking rather genuine, they spent days trying to copy the inscription, and they had to do so by memory. Whenever they got stuck, Allora asked Mr. Swan if she could see the parchment again. She worried that he might be getting suspicious that they were up to something, but he seemed proud that she was so interested in it.
Meanwhile, the guys worked on accumulating a large stockpile of camping supplies, which they stored in the back of Tanner’s car.
“Okay, do we all know our roles?” Allora asked everyone while they were standing outside the school.
“Yes!” they all said at once.
They walked into the school together. It was lunchtime, the perfect time to pay Mr. Swan a visit, but just as they were rounding the corner, Allora bumped into someone.
“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Kim said.
“Excuse me,” Allora said in a sassy tone.
Kim glared back at her, then turned her attention to Tanner. She pushed Allora out of the way to get to him and purred, “Hey, Tanner,” seductively touching his broad chest. “When are you gonna ask me out on a date?” She fluttered her eyelids in a flirtatious manner.
All Tanner could muster was, “Um… uh…”
Dax smacked him on his back.
“How about after spring break?” Tanner said.
Kim lightly dragged her hand along his body as she moved past him, then looked back over her shoulder and said, “I can’t wait.” Then she turned and walked out the front door, swaying her hips back and forth in a wide berth, causing both boys to stare hungrily at her until she was out of sight.
“Dude, that girl is so hot!” Dax said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. “You are so lucky!”
Allora walked up and smacked Tanner on the back. “Hey! Can you two focus please? We’ve got a job to do,” she snapped.
Allora opened the door to find Mr. Swan working on paperwork at his desk. “Hi, Mr. Swan,” she greeted as they all walked into the room and shut the door.
“Hey, guys and gals,” he said, sounding slightly surprised as he looked up from the papers he was grading. He put his red pen down on the desk. “What’s going on?”
“I wanted to show these three the new part of the parchment,” Allora said. “They haven’t seen it yet.”
Mr. Swan got up from his desk. “Of course! I haven’t gotten very far with it. I’ve researched several places, but nothing really pops out as an exact location,” he said, walking to the back of the room and sparking the wall to retrieve the parchment.
The object melted its way out and flew into Mr. Swan’s outstretched hand, and he brought it over and placed it on the desk in front of the boys.
Katie moved toward the desk where the boys were and shoved her brother to the side so she could get a better view. When Dax accidentally-on-purpose pushed her over the desk behind them, Katie went flying, and she began an Oscar-worthy performance when she crashed on the floor. “Dax!” she screamed, then began to cry, rubbing her rump.
Mr. Swan ran over and knelt down to see if she was all right, and as he did, Dax moved his body to block Mr. Swan’s view of the parchment. That gave Allora the perfect opportunity to pull out the fake and swap it with the real one. Once the quick exchange was made, she moved back a step and eyeballed Katie to let her know the diversion had worked.
Katie stopped crying suddenly, got up from the ground, and shoved Dax just to sell it to her audience.
“Thanks, Mr. Swan,” Tanner said. “This is really cool.” He then handed the rolled-up fake to Mr. Swan, who immediately rushed over to put it back inside the wall.
“Anytime. If you think of anything that might help us find The Eye, please let me know.”
After they all thanked Mr. Swan again, they hurried out of the building with the genuine parchment snugly tucked away in Allora’s sleeve. “We did it!” she said, spinning around to hug Katie. “You really sold that fall. I had no idea you’re such a good actress.”
“Whip out the red carpet, Hollywood, ‘cause here I come,” Katie said.
Dax rolled his eyes. “Personally, I thought it was a little over dramatic,” he said.
“Yeah? Well, you didn’t have to push me so hard. I’m gonna have a bruise on my butt because of you,” Katie said, pushing her brother with one hand.
“I had to make it look real,” Dax replied, pushing his sister back. “Besides, if your butt wasn’t so big, maybe it wouldn’t have gotten in the way.”
“Hey!”
“C’mon, you guys. Check it out,” Allora said, unfolding the parchment and turning it over. “Look at these shapes.” She pointed to small black smudges with distinctive abstract lines. “What do you think it means?”
“No idea, but we shouldn’t look at it here,” Tanner said, taking the parchment and rolling it back up. “We don’t want anyone else knowing we have this. Mr. Swan isn’t the only one we have to worry about, remember?” As he walked to the car and placed the parchment in the back with the rest of the supplies, he filled them in on the rest of the plan. “We leave tomorrow morning. Make sure to tell the adults about Sas’ overnighter as soon as you get home. We’ll meet up at Allora’s house like we always do, but I’ll park my car up the street so we can get to it from the woods without anyone seeing us. We’ll stop off at the grocery store, and then we’ll hit the road. Sound good?”
They all nodded in agreement.
“Crater Lake, here we come!” Allora said.
Nineteen
ROAD
Allora slid out of bed before the alarm rang, then marched to the shower with a strange, determined energy for so early in the morning. As she readied herself for the road trip, she felt a sense of frightened anticipation, something like waiting in line for a rollercoaster, only far more intense.
Milly walked into the kitchen to see her daughter wide awake, eating breakfast, and was quite shocked. “Dressed already? At this hour of the morning? Who are you, and what have you done with my daughter?”
Allora tilted her head and lifted her eyebrows. “Huh? I’ve gotten up this early by myself before,” she said defensively.
Milly walked over to the coffee grinder to begin her usual morning routine of caffeinating herself. “Not since Christmas morning when you were five, you haven’t,” she said, placing the cap on the grinder and starting the machine.
Allora ignored her mother and went back to eating her cereal.
The others arrived right at seven o’clock.
Milly, of course, put them through her regular interrogation to make sure they were actually going where they said they were going. “Sas is expecting all of you, correct?” she asked, then sipped her coffee and looked over the rim of the cup at them.
“Yes, Mother,” Allora replied.
“And you all are staying in the cave all night right?” Milly asked.
“Yes, Mother,” Allora said. She gave Milly a reassuring smile and a hug and grabbed her bag. “Stop worrying so much. We’ll be fine.”
“It’s my job to worry,” Milly said, walking the kids to the back door. “Make sure you don’t divert from the path. It’s the only safe way through the woods,” Milly yelled as they all moved through the field and into the forest.
“We know, Mom!” Allora yelled back.
They walked a few hundred feet up the path before Tanner turned
right. They all were silent as they hiked through the trees. Tanner knew the way to the road because he’d done some preliminary hikes through the forest to memorize the route.
After weaving through the thick forest, they found Tanner’s car about a half-mile down an old, abandoned dirt road that had once been used by lumberjacks. The warm sun shone upon them, and excitement spread quickly among the group. Even with the task ahead, they were all smiles as Tanner drove the car onto the highway and headed southwest. When they arrived at the grocery store, they exited the car carefully, scanning the parking lot for any familiar folks; they all knew that if they were spotted, their clandestine trip would be compromised.
“Who’s got the shopping list?” Tanner asked, looking at his friends expectantly.
“I made it last night,” Allora said. “We need to get food, water, batteries for the flashlights, bug spray, and anything else we can think of.”
Dax handed Allora a pen.
“What’s this for?”
“Add beef jerky to the list please,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “Can’t camp without it.”
Allora rolled her eyes and ripped the list in two so shopping would go faster. Once they were done buying their supplies, including plenty of beef jerky to keep Dax quiet, they packed up the car and hit the road. Tanner took Mt. Hood Highway until he got to Boring, Oregon. Then, he turned onto Highway 211, which took him to the onramp to I-205. Twenty minutes later, they were on I-5, heading south.
“Are we there yet?” Dax whined after a while.
“What’s the matter?” Katie asked, mockingly. “Do you gotta go potty or something?”
“Calm down, kids. Looks like we’ve gotta go about four hours south to Roseburg, then east on North Umpqua Highway,” Allora said, sitting in front with the map. “A couple hours later, we’ll be there.”
For the most part, in spite of Dax’s complaining and he and Katie bickering in the back seat like third graders on family vacation, the car ride down was jovial. They talked about everything, from the teachers they didn’t like to their favorite celebrities. They played games and gossiped about their classmates.
