“Sasha Brexil,” Zelda announced, her voice increasing with determination. “By the power granted me through the Vessel, I hereby declare you—”
Gordy thrust his hand through the loop of his bracelet, the one remaining vial of Ghost Glass nocked in the chamber, and not taking any time to aim, fired from his hip like a gunfighter. The bulb smashed beneath his thumb, and he closed his eyes, afraid to watch as the potion shot out from his bracelet like lightning.
Sasha screamed once, then fell silent.
Gordy peeled one eye open and gasped. Both Sasha and Zelda had disappeared. Running to the spot where they had been only moments before, Gordy began frantically searching for Sasha. He gaped at the empty bracelet, trying to recall what had been loaded in the chamber. He thought it had been either a Torpor Tonic or another Vintreet Trap, but neither of those potions made someone vanish. Then Gordy heard muffled cries coming from the woods a short distance away.
Sasha’s arms and legs protruded from the trunk of a large tree. She squirmed desperately, pawing at the bark over where her mouth would be. Racing over, Gordy started breaking off pieces of wood, which crumbled away under his touch. And then Sasha was spitting out wood pulp, coughing and retching and . . . laughing.
“What was that?” she asked between wheezy gasps.
“My mom’s Sumi Sauce.” Gordy had followed the recipe from her manual one evening back at Tobias’s. This was the first time he had ever seen it in action, and it did not disappoint.
“That was the weirdest feeling,” Sasha said. “I couldn’t catch my breath at all.”
Gordy pulled away more chunks of the tree. “I didn’t have time to pick a better potion.”
Finally stepping out of the hole, Sasha brushed splinters out of her hair. “Don’t apologize. That was perfect!”
“And you’re okay? You’re not ExSponged?” Gordy asked warily.
“I’m fine, thanks to you,” she said. “Now, where’s that traitor?”
They found Zelda three trees over, struggling to free herself from a knotted tangle of branches, but she was too embedded in the trunk to move. Unlike Sasha, Zelda’s face had been left unconvered. However, every other part of her was trapped in the wood. At the base of the tree, resting upon an exposed root, was Zelda’s Decocting Wand.
Gordy leveled his gaze on Zelda, his anger boiling under his skin. This woman deserved whatever was coming to her. She was an evil Elixirist now. A Scourge who had been less than a second away from ExSponging Sasha.
“Now, Gordy, I understand you’re upset.” Zelda swallowed. “You have a right to be, but hear me out first.”
Before Gordy could reply, Sasha spritzed Zelda in the face with a spray bottle. The woman’s lips sealed together, and no matter how hard she tried, nothing but garbled moans escaped her throat.
Gordy picked up the Decocting Wand. “Do you think it works the same when I use it?” he asked, studying the etchings. “That I just have to say the words and I could ExSponge her like she was about to do to you?” So simple and yet so permanent. What if Zelda had been mere heartbeats away from ExSponging Tobias? Or Aunt Priss? Or even Gordy’s own mother?
“Might as well test it out,” Sasha said. “What did she say again? Oh yes, ‘By the power granted me through the Vessel, I hereby declare you’—I’m assuming it’s ‘ExSponged.’” Her eyes twinkled. “And then it’s done.”
Zelda’s cheeks puffed out in desperation, but with no way to escape her lips, the air whistled out through her nostrils.
“Think of it as an act of mercy,” Sasha urged. “After what she did to all those bugs.” She hissed with agitation. “We’ll never be able to gather enough wardbreakers in time!”
But Gordy no longer felt the desire to pass judgment upon Zelda. He didn’t want to see someone else ExSponged and certainly not by his own hand. Instead, Gordy opened his satchel and gently placed Zelda’s weapon inside, next to his own Decocting Wand.
Sasha scoffed. “I’ll do it if you’re too scared. Why should she be allowed to brew when my mom can’t?”
“She shouldn’t be allowed to,” Gordy agreed. “But B.R.E.W. should make that decision.”
“There is no B.R.E.W.,” Sasha snapped. “They’re all gone.”
“For now, but hopefully once we stop my grandfather, they can be restored.”
Sasha hesitated, then nodded at Zelda. “We can’t just leave her here. Someone will eventually show up and pull her out of the tree.”
“I know,” Gordy said. “We’re going to have to take her with us.”
“As a hostage? How do you suggest we do that?”
“Do you still have your Spinnerak Net and Heliudrops?” Gordy asked.
Sasha scrunched her nose in confusion. “Yeah. Why?”
Glancing at Estelle still lightly puttering on the side of the road, Gordy shrugged innocently. “I think I may have an idea.”
Adilene felt sick knowing Gordy and Sasha were headed into danger and there was nothing she could do to help. Just like Iris, she and Max would only be in the way. But unlike the Chamber member, Adilene couldn’t brew a potion, no matter how hard she tried.
Max had fallen asleep on the couch, covered in a pile of blankets, the corners of his mouth stained brown from all the chocolate he had eaten out of Jessica’s pillowcase. Lying at the edge of the couch was Iris’s satchel, a few corked bottles poking out of the unzipped pocket.
“Here you go, dear,” Iris announced from the kitchen. “Dinner’s ready.” She had heated up macaroni and cheese over a pot of ogon oil and sat at the table, blowing across a spoon. “Has a bit of a gamey flavor. I hope you don’t mind.”
Adilene joined her and eyed her noodles with little interest. A chartreuse-colored orb Mrs. Glass had called a Jarqil Candle rested at the center of the table. The orange cheese in her bowl clumped together in unappealing glops, and Adilene’s hunger vanished, her thoughts too preoccupied with worry.
“What if they get caught?” Adilene asked.
“Don’t think that,” Iris said. “Optimism is a much stronger attitude.”
Adilene’s head bobbled. “I wish I could have gone with them.”
“And leave me behind, all by my lonesome? What would happen if I was discovered and no one was here to protect me?”
“We would’ve left Max,” Adilene reasoned.
As if in response, Max mumbled in his sleep and kicked off one of his blankets.
Iris held a finger to her lips. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.
Adilene jutted her chin forward. “What am I listening for?”
“I called it a ghost, but it’s a probably a snake or a rodent. A big one at that. When you least expect it, a floorboard will creak. Typically, when the conversation settles a bit.” Iris took a bite and grimaced, swallowing with some effort. “I know your heart was set on accompanying your friends, but how could you have helped them? If I’m not mistaken, you can’t brew, and you certainly ask a lot of questions, which could be a distraction.”
Adilene looked away, her cheeks reddening with embarrasment.
“Don’t look so sad.” Iris touched Adilene’s elbow. “With my injury, I’m no different than you are. We’re in the same boat, you and me. That’s not so bad, now, is it?”
The same boat? That meant that on her best day, Adilene was no better than an injured Elixirist. Whether she was trying to be insulting or not, Iris was coming across as flat-out rude.
“I can help,” Adilene muttered. “I was at B.R.E.W. when it was attacked.”
“Yes, I know,” Iris admitted. “You were captured by Scourges, were you not?”
Adilene bit down on her lip. “I also helped him catch Ms. Bimini!”
Iris waved her spoon like a baton. “You did—after you were snookered into believing she was a thirteen-year-old girl named Cadence and then led her stra
ight to the Stitser’s lab. You practically gift-wrapped Gordy’s deepest secrets and gave them to her on a silver platter.”
It took all Adilene’s strength not to slam her hands down on the table. No matter how angry Iris made her, Adilene couldn’t deny the truth in her words. Maybe she was more trouble than she was worth. Maybe if Adilene hadn’t been around, none of these problems would have happened to Gordy.
“We just need to play to our strengths,” Iris said. “That’s all I’m saying. People like you just need to not get in the way. That’s the best you can hope for and the best help you can provide.” Iris pushed away her bowl of ogon-oil-infused mac and cheese. “Why did you become friends with Gordy?”
“What?” Adilene asked.
“Did you get paired up on a school project? Sit next to each other in a classroom?”
“Gordy used to live across the street from me,” Adilene said.
Iris’s eyes twinkled with understanding. “That makes sense.”
“Why does that make sense?” Adilene rested her elbows on the table and leaned toward Iris. She wasn’t sure where the woman was headed with this conversation, but felt certain she wouldn’t end up liking it.
“Most Drams befriend other Drams when they’re younger. Their parents see to it they have appropriate companions to play with. Makes it easier to practice potion making. At least, that’s how a normal Elixirist family functions.”
Adilene pursed her lips, squeezing her fingers into fists. “I guess the Stitsers aren’t normal Elixirists, then.”
“Oh, I know.” Iris sighed. “Believe me, my dear, I know.”
A large black beetle with two sets of translucent wings suddenly dropped from the ceiling into Iris’s bowl. Orange cheese spilled onto the table, and both Iris and Adilene moved back in surprise, out of the way of the splattering liquid.
Iris looked up at the ceiling. Adilene followed her gaze, but nothing else scuttled out.
The bug made a clicking sound, wings beating wildly, then it fell silent.
Adilene peered over the lip of the bowl. The insect lay on its back, floating in the sauce, tiny antennae twitching.
It was dead.
But something was off about the creature. Emerald-green liquid seeped from the bug’s shell, mixing with the macaroni.
Adilene’s eyes widened. “That’s a potion!”
“What do you mean?” Iris climbed awkwardly to her feet, grappling for the crutch, as the distant scurrying of insects sounded from upstairs. Another beetle flew drunkenly into the room, only to drop dead on the floor with a splat.
Iris pointed toward the living room. “Fetch me my satchel!”
There was a clop of heels on the tile, and someone cleared a throat.
“I knew I saw you,” Esmeralda Faustus exclaimed, stepping into the kitchen and wielding a Decocting Wand as though it were a battle-ax. “I heard that machine leaving the Pinkermans’ yard the other night and saw that clever trap you sprung on Steffan. It wasn’t difficult picking up your trail and following you here.”
Esmeralda’s hair had grown long and discolored. Her sunburned skin was peeling, the corners of her mouth pinched and cracked, but she looked as confident and determined as when she had sat across from Gordy in the Vessel room almost a year ago, on the verge of ending B.R.E.W. with the Eternity Elixir.
Iris wobbled, her eyes flickering between Esmeralda and Adilene. “Mrs. Faustus, you have broken so many laws already. Don’t make another mistake. The punishment would be—”
“Punishment?” Esmeralda laughed. “I’ve already been Banished and ExSponged. My life taken from me. My parents taken from me. What could B.R.E.W. possibly do to me now?”
Adilene tried to challenge Esmeralda as she strode into the room, but the woman simply cast her aside with a harsh shove.
“When I finish with you, there will be no more B.R.E.W., and I will be rewarded. My powers restored. My family released from their Forbidden Zones.”
“Max!” Adilene shouted. “Wake up!”
A bottle containing white liquid shot through the air, shattering against an empty chair in the kitchen. The metal legs buckled as though made of rubber. Max had launched the potion from a seated position on the couch.
“Careful, Maxwell,” Esmerald warned. “If you strike me with Jackjoint Juice, I will squash you like a beetle.”
Adilene heard Max struggling and saw Yeltzin diving over the couch, grappling for the satchel. The burley Russian was too large for Max to fight, and within seconds, Yeltzin had Max in a headlock.
“Now, where was I?” Esmeralda continued. “Oh, yes. Iris Glass, by the power granted me by the Vessel, I hereby proclaim you ExSponged.” Esmeralda swung the Decocting Wand toward Iris in a wide arc.
The older woman, hobbled by her injured leg, could do nothing to stop it.
The weapon whooshed through the air, and Adilene stepped in front of it, the end of the wand slamming against her shoulder. She felt a wave of heat coursing through her chest and heard screams—one from Iris, and one that felt like it had bubbled up from her own lungs—as she collapsed back into the fallen Chamber member.
Adilene felt her heart beating in her throat and Iris sobbing beneath her as they fell to the floor together. And then, through her blurry vision, she saw someone else charging into the room. Assuming the wards had been broken and the rest of the Scourges had arrived to finish them off, Adilene cried out in horror.
Then, to Adilene’s surprise, the mystery figure took flight, vaulted the kitchen table, and plowed into Esmeralda Faustus like a torpedo.
A few miles away, Wanda ascended a rusted wrought-iron ladder and scrambled out of the hole. Pulse quickening at the sight of more than two dozen figures encircling her, Wanda reached for a weapon, but a hand closed around her wrist.
“It’s all right,” Priss whispered, helping her sister to her feet. “They’re mannequins.” She pointed to one of the rigid figures nearby.
Most of the dummies stood with their plastic hands upon their thighs, while a few knelt or waved. Others were contorted into bizarre positions, and many had additional limbs or heads sprouting from their lifeless bodies. Wanda shivered at the display.
They had traveled for several hours underground, weaving their way through damp corridors. Electric lamps had been rigged every twenty feet along the tunnel walls, interconnected by wires, casting flickering light overhead. However, once they arrived at the area controlled by Mezzarix’s massive potion, the lights ceased to work. Fortunately, the concoction had only disrupted the electricity; the Distractor wards had no impact on Wanda and the others, and their journey beneath the ground was uneventful.
“There may be people outside,” Priss instructed, her voice low. “We have to be careful.”
Yosuke had warned that the entryway into the Swigs might be guarded. Most of the Scourges released by Mezzarix had been Banished years before the entrance had been relocated in the city, but there could be a few still aware of its existence. That was why Paulina and her Stained Squad, along with several of Yosuke’s followers, had headed toward a secondary entrance into the Swigs.
“What is this place?” Wanda asked.
“This is Spider’s home.” Yosuke’s head poked up from the hole as though disembodied.
“Spider—from the school bus?” Wanda asked.
“The very one.” Yosuke pressed his palms against the floor and hoisted his body the rest of the way up the ladder. “And he wanted me to instruct you not to touch any of his belongings. They are precious to him, and he will know if something has been tampered with.”
Several of Yosuke’s followers clambered out next, and Tobias brought up the rear, wriggling through the opening and immediately recoiling at the sight of the misshapen mannequins.
“What sort of twisted department store is this?” Tobias barked. Priss flashed him a war
ning glare, and he softened his tone. “Remind me never to talk crossly with Spider again. He’s one crooked cookie!”
“Now, now, no need to judge,” Yosuke said. “Spider assured me this room is used for training. The mannequins are his targets.”
“And the ones with the extra heads?” The creases in Tobias’s forehead deepened.
Yosuke hesitated. “Best not to dwell on it, but if you happen to see a small creature walking around on two legs,” he said. “That is simply Nipsy strolling about.”
Wanda remembered hearing Spider mention his pet to Gordy. She scanned the floor, hoping she wouldn’t spot the humanoid cat.
“Where exactly are we in relation to B.R.E.W. headquarters?” Wanda asked.
Yosuke squinted in the darkness. “It’s within two miles of our location.”
Wanda faced the direction Yosuke was pointing and gasped. “Spider has a house within two miles of B.R.E.W.?”
“Yes, and you have a house within six,” Yosuke said, smiling. “As far as I know, Spider is not a wanted criminal. You, on the other hand . . .”
“But this home has an opening into the Swigs?” Wanda was dumbfounded. How could she have not known about its existence?
“Try to keep some perspective, Wanda,” Priss said. “Now’s not the time for bickering.”
“Indeed,” Yosuke agreed, holding a finger to his lips. “Now is the time for stealth.”
Wanda held her tongue as they moved out of Spider’s training room and into a hallway reeking of kitty litter. As they entered the living room, lights flashed from outside, and shadows danced beyond the glass of an exterior window. Carefully peeking behind the curtain, Wanda’s eyes narrowed. Jarqil Candles adhered to lampposts illuminated a procession of people ambling through the street. She saw mostly strangers, but there were a few familiar faces amid the crowd, Elixirists from B.R.E.W. falling in line with the others.
“It would appear they have all been Blotched,” Yosuke whispered, joining her at the window, “and are being transported to some central location.”
The Seeking Serum Page 18
