“Likewise,” said Mrs. Russet. “Though I do wish the circumstances of our visit had been different.”
“As do I,” said Fulgora. “You are the first outsiders to visit the land of the Fire Lords in many years. Would that it could have been for a happier reason.” With that, Fulgora turned to Billy. She hugged him, as well, and this time it was Billy’s turn to blush. “Billy,” said Fulgora, her rose-red lips curving into a bright smile. “So good to see you.”
“Uhhh…,” Billy managed. He had resigned himself to the fact that he would never grow into a suave, debonair type. But why did he have to turn into a stammering freak whenever a pretty girl looked at him?
“Well said,” whispered Tempus, a twinkle in the old man’s eye. Billy glared at the man, who sniggered behind his thick beard.
“Enough of that,” said Mrs. Russet. “We didn’t come all this way for you to goad people, Tempus.”
Tempus nodded, clearly cowed, though Billy still thought he saw a smile in the Gray Power’s eyes.
“Where are we?” Billy said. “And where are my parents?” He looked around, but it was more for show than anything. He had not felt his parents come with him on his journey into Flame as he had felt the presence of Vester, Tempus, and Mrs. Russet. Sure enough, the stone-still statue figures of his parents were nowhere to be seen.
“They are safe,” said Mrs. Russet. “Well hidden, and safe. And as to where we are….”
“You are in my land,” said Fulgora. “The land of the Fire Lords, the Underworld of Flame.”
Tempus muttered something under his breath that Billy suspected was probably uncomplimentary – the Gray Power could be crabby when not in open air – but Billy ignored him. “What are we doing here?” he said.
“We’ll explain as we walk,” said Mrs. Russet.
“In such a hurry?” said Fulgora, arching a thin eyebrow.
“Things are far worse than we thought,” said Mrs. Russet.
Fulgora nodded, instantly going into what Billy thought of as her Dangerous Warrior mode. “Come with me,” she said, and began guiding them through the glowing, crystalline city. Under normal circumstances, Billy suspected that he would have gotten whiplash looking at the spectacle of the Underworld of Flame, but for now he was concentrating on Fulgora and Mrs. Russet.
“What has happened?” asked Fulgora.
“The Darksiders came to Billy’s school,” said Mrs. Russet. “They attacked us.”
“Were you injured?”
“I wasn’t,” answered Mrs. Russet. “But Billy was stabbed. By a DeathBlade.”
The normally imperturbable Fulgora faltered in her stride for just a moment before resuming her walk through the city. “How is he still alive?” she asked.
“It seems that our young friend has once again shown himself to be the holder of considerable protections,” was all Mrs. Russet would say. “But he is still infected, and I suspect he has only limited time to free himself from the spell of the DeathBlade.”
“All the more reason to do what we came to do,” said Fulgora.
“Which is what?” Billy blurted.
Mrs. Russet looked at him as though trying to decide what to say. “Do you notice anyone missing from our little group?” she finally said.
Billy looked around. Vester was there. Tempus. Mrs. Russet. Fulgora. Of all his closest friends in the world of the Powers, only one was missing. “Ivy,” he said. Ivy was a Green Power, a woman who bent the Element of Life itself. Like most of her kind, she was nurturing and loving, and had been like a big sister to Billy. “Where is she?”
Again, Mrs. Russet looked as though she were trying to decide on the proper words to say. Fulgora, however, seemed to suffer from no such difficulty. “She is dying,” said the Red Princess.
Billy stopped in his tracks. “What?” he demanded. He looked around. None of his friends could even meet his gaze, and Tempus looked like he was about to start crying.
“It’s not just her, either,” said Mrs. Russet, pulling Billy along as they resumed walking. “It’s all the Greens.”
“Dying?” Billy’s mouth suddenly felt as dry as if he had eaten a handful of sand. “How can they be dying? Greens are Life.”
“And yet they die like everything else,” said Fulgora. “All Life ends in Death, just as all Death gives way inevitably to Life. It’s one of the great circles of truth.” She looked at Billy, and he could almost see fire dancing in the princess’s gaze. “Ivy, her father, and every other Green Power we are aware of, has fallen terribly ill. They are… wilting, for lack of a better word.”
Billy gulped as a sudden thought struck him. “Then Blythe….” He couldn’t finish the thought.
Mrs. Russet shrugged. “We don’t know. She’s the only Green that we’re aware of who is also a Darksider. We think that the Greens are under some kind of attack by the Darksiders, so it could be that Blythe is not dying as all the other Greens are. But we don’t know for sure. That’s part of why I wanted to know if you had seen her today.”
Billy felt sick inside. He didn’t know if it was the thought of Blythe dying that made him feel so bad, or the idea that perhaps she wasn’t dying, because as an evil Darksider she wasn’t under attack. Either way, he didn’t like what was happening.
“Well, then, what are we doing here?” he demanded. “Shouldn’t we be out figuring out some way to help Ivy and the other Greens?”
“We are doing precisely that,” said Mrs. Russet. She looked at Billy. “Do you remember the verses? About you?”
Billy nodded. The words had been seared into his mind from the first time he heard them, spoken aloud by Mrs. Russet’s husband:
Through fires of fate and storms that save
Through winter’s gate and water’s grave
Shall come the One, once lost, now found
Seen by the Son whose love abounds.
A sword, a spear, and armor strong
A shield to wear, and dagger long
To fell the Dark and bring the Light
To call the spark that ends the night.
And through it all, one twist of fate:
A child whose call will seem too late.
But though the Dark seems once to win
The child will spark the light again.
“My husband and I have been doing some research,” continued Mrs. Russet. “In fact, that’s why Terry isn’t with us now: he’s still reading through the Book of the Earth for any clues that will help us on our quest. At any rate, the prophecy mentions five items that will help in the fight against the Dark.”
“A sword, a spear, and armor strong. A shield to wear, and dagger long,” recited Billy.
“Precisely,” said Mrs. Russet with an approving look. Billy felt himself glow as bright as the nearby buildings with pride. He loved getting an answer right with Mrs. Russet; felt like it somehow made him into a better, more valuable, person. “Those five items, I have discovered, are necessary items in the final battle.”
“What battle?” asked Billy. “Didn’t we already have the final battle? The Battle for Powers Island?”
“Far from it,” said Mrs. Russet with a shake of her head. She ducked as one of the buildings nearby seemed to glow extra bright, and shot out what looked like a miniature solar flare that just missed taking off the head of Billy’s history teacher. Mrs. Russet barely even seemed to register that it had happened, though, simply continuing deeper into the city. “The final battle has not happened yet. And we want to avoid it. Because it heralds the end of the world.”
Billy had to resist a bit of a shudder. Not just at the idea of the world ending. He also knew that some of the prophecies that Mrs. Russet had shared with him dealt with his own role as the Messenger of the White King. He was prophesied to prepare the world for the return of the White King. He also remembered that Mrs. Russet had once said she believed Billy to be, not just the Messenger, but the person who would come to destroy the world of the Powers, and maybe everything else in
existence.
Billy didn’t like the idea of being the destroyer of anything, let alone of a whole world. So he hoped that Mrs. Russet had a plan to avoid that eventuality.
“What are we going to do?” he squeaked.
“We’re going to look for the shield, the dagger, the spear, and the armor foretold by the prophecy.”
“But,” Billy stammered, “if those are going to bring about the final battle, shouldn’t we be trying to avoid them?”
“Normally, I would agree with you, Mr. Jones,” said Mrs. Russet. “But the Dawnwalkers have recently discovered that the Darksiders are also interested in these objects. We think that’s why they showed up at your school.”
“Because the weapons and the armor are at my school?” said Billy in surprise.
“No, don’t be daft,” said Mrs. Russet. “It’s because they seem to think that you have the ability to find and wield the weapons, and to wear the armor. And they are worried that if you get them, then you will be able to destroy them.”
Billy’s mind was whirling. “But you said that the spear, and shield, and sword –”
“Excalibur,” interjected Mrs. Russet, “which you found for us already.”
“Before giving it back to the mermaid,” said Vester with a wry face. Billy grimaced. He knew Vester hadn’t approved of Billy giving the sword – a tremendously powerful weapon – away while the Darksiders still were a force to be reckoned with. But Billy had promised to do so, and he knew he could not have broken that promise and still been able to look himself in the eye.
“Vester, not now,” said Mrs. Russet, and the Fire Power fell silent, just reaching out to hold Fulgora’s arm with his one good hand.
Mrs. Russet turned back to Billy. “I’ll admit, the prophecies are confusing. Some seem to imply that the weapons and armor are what will destroy the world. Others seem to say that only by having them can the end of the world be avoided.” She shrugged. “I haven’t managed to figure it out myself. But we do know that the Darksiders think you can get to them. So they’re out to kill you, to stop it from happening.”
“Kill me?” Billy almost said. Having the Darksiders want him dead was far from a new thing, but he still hated hearing it in such stark terms.
Apparently Tempus understood Billy’s expression and the unspoken words behind it. “Kill you,” said Tempus. “Make you dead. Croaked. Help you put a downpayment on buying the farm. Assist you in kicking the bucket. Murderize you.”
“Tempus!” snapped Mrs. Russet. The Gray Power quieted down again, for which Billy was grateful. He didn’t know if he could take Tempus rambling on about his demise.
“It won’t come to that,” said Fulgora stridently.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because we’re going to find the weapons and armor first,” said the princess.
“How?” Billy demanded. “Does anyone even know where they are?”
“Not precisely,” said Mrs. Russet.
“Does anyone even know where they are generally?” asked Billy.
“Well, I certainly don’t,” said Mrs. Russet with a sigh.
“Then how are we supposed to find them at all?” said Billy. If Mrs. Russet didn’t know where something was, that meant it was going to be very difficult – if not impossible – for a normal person like him to ever have a chance of finding it.
“We’re here,” said Fulgora suddenly. Billy looked at her, and realized she was standing beside one of the fiery buildings that they had been walking past all this time.
“Where’s here?” said Billy.
Fulgora didn’t answer. She just put out a hand and touched the wall of the building. Though he knew better, Billy still half-expected Fulgora to puff into ash when she touched the wall. But she didn’t. Instead, the wall seemed to split open like a curtain. Billy wondered if the buildings all around them had any real substance to them, or if they just had the appearance of existence, like any other fire.
Fulgora walked through the gap in the wall, drawing Vester with her.
“Out of the frying pan and into the entire building made of fire,” muttered Tempus, but he followed them into the building as well.
Mrs. Russet took Billy’s hand in hers. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“For what’s about to happen,” she answered.
“What’s going to happen?” Billy started to ask. But before he was halfway through the sentence, Mrs. Russet pulled him through the wall.
CHAPTER THE FOURTH
In Which Billy Looks Back and is given a Choice…
“Well?” said Blythe Forrest.
Billy blinked and looked around.
“What?” he stammered. He was in school. The good ol’ halls of Preston Hills High. He’d been this way a hundred times. More. So why did everything suddenly seem so strange? So out of place?
“I shouldn’t be here,” he mumbled.
Blythe’s face curled into an expression of concern. “You okay?” she asked. “Did your Salisbury steak disagree with you?”
Billy felt like his head was full of a mixture of cotton and peanut butter. He couldn’t concentrate, and everything seemed… off somehow.
He looked over Blythe’s shoulder, and spotted something ambling toward them. It was human in size and shape, but with strangely gray skin that looked as though parts of it were sloughing off. Like a snake that was shedding. Huge eyes, reminiscent of a fly’s, sat atop the thing’s head. Billy felt his insides curl up into a tight ball.
“Zombie!” he shouted.
Blythe looked behind her, then returned her gaze to Billy. “What are you talking about?” she said.
Billy pointed at the thing that was shuffling quickly in their direction. Blythe looked again, but just shook her head. “I don’t see anything,” she said.
Billy looked at the zombie once more. He had to get himself and Blythe out of here. Zombies were the servants of the Darksiders, and could render a person helpless with the touch of a single finger.
There are no more zombies. You destroyed them with the sword.
Billy shook his head. Where had that thought come from?
He looked back at Blythe.
Only it wasn’t Blythe. Why had he been thinking of Blythe? She wasn’t there at all, was she? No, it was his dad standing in front of him.
“You’ve got to pay attention,” said Mr. Jones.
“Yes, sir,” said Billy dutifully. He watched as his father bent back down under the sink in their bathroom.
“Hand me that crescent wrench, would you?” said Mr. Jones.
Billy looked around. His father was counting on him to help fix the faucet so it didn’t leak all over the place and ruin even more of the cruddy rug on their apartment floor. So where was the crescent wrench?
“Here you go,” said Billy, his hand darting down and picking up what he hoped was the right tool. He wasn’t mechanically minded at all, and he knew it embarrassed his father to no end. In fact Billy knew that nearly everything about him embarrassed his dad.
And sure enough, Billy had grabbed the wrong thing. Again. Mr. Jones’ lip curled in disgust. “The crescent wrench,” he repeated, “not the frog.”
Mr. Jones handed Billy something soft and green. Billy looked at it. “Buster bumpkin bunny burps,” he whispered, though he wasn’t sure why.
The thing in his hand – a large green frog with a half-eaten bug in its mouth – yawned widely. Its tongue snaked out of its mouth and licked its wet eyeball. Then the thing looked directly at Billy. It opened its mouth even wider. “One minute of recording time left,” it said.
“Methuselah!” shouted Mrs. Russet.
Billy looked at his teacher. She was standing in her classroom, holding her hand out expectantly. “Well?” said Mrs. Russet. “Are you going to give the frog back?”
Billy looked at the frog. “Don’t ask me,” said the frog. “I’m just the key to winter.”
Billy felt his face scrunch up in
confusion. What was happening?
“Billy,” said Mrs. Russet. “I’m waiting.”
Billy looked at her. Mrs. Russet was holding out her hand.
“This is wrong,” Billy said to himself.
“Wrong?” said a new voice. Billy looked around, and saw something that made his skin feel like it was trying to migrate to someone else’s body. It was Wolfen. The one-time leader of the Darksiders. The man who had waged war against the Dawnwalkers. The man whose supporters claimed to be the White King reborn. “We’re not wrong, Billy,” said the man. “We’re misunderstood. You’ve believed the lies of the Dawnwalkers, that’s all.”
“Yes, my darling,” said Mrs. Black, appearing at Wolfen’s side. And if Billy’s skin had felt like it was trying to escape his body before, it now felt like it was trying to curl in on itself while simultaneously being covered by angry ants. Mrs. Black, the real power behind the Darksiders’ resurgence, the mother of Cameron Black, and his most fearsome enemy.
As soon as he thought of Cameron, the bigger boy appeared. He smiled at Billy, his eyes looking glazed and glassy. “The clowns,” whispered the boy, his voice strangely high-pitched. “Don’t let the clowns get me.”
Billy backed away from the trio of Darksiders.
“This doesn’t make sense,” he said, his hands going up in front of him as though to ward off an attack.
“Doesn’t it?” purred Mrs. Black. “I think we both know that isn’t true.”
“Indeed,” agreed Wolfen. “It all makes sense.”
Cameron nodded. “Clowns!” he shrieked with a giggle.
Billy closed his eyes. He knew it was ridiculous, but in that instant he felt like a child covering its eyes to keep from being seen by a parent. “If I can’t see you, then you can’t see me either” was apparently his new motto.
Billy kept his eyes jammed shut for a long moment, during which he heard nothing. Not a sound, not so much as a whisper. He cracked an eye open. And screamed.
Or at least, he tried to. He felt his mouth open, but no sound came out. No sound at all. Not a whisper to break the complete silence that surrounded him like some kind of featureless cell.
Billy: Seeker of Powers (The Billy Saga) Page 4
