Vester and Mrs. Russet reached out, but both were too far from Billy to catch him. He was vaguely aware that Tempus, who stood behind Vester, clapped his hands together, and Billy landed on a soft pillow of air.
He felt paralyzed, unable to do more than simply stare up at the ceiling of the hall of the Fire Lords. Mrs. Russet was looking down at him in the next moment, and an instant after that her face was joined by the concerned visages of Vester and Tempus.
“What is it?” asked Vester.
“The DeathBlade,” said Mrs. Russet. Billy felt her lift up his t-shirt, exposing his chest.
Vester went pale, and Tempus whispered something that may have been “Grampa’s dancing Gummi Bears,” though Billy could not be sure about that.
“What… what’sh goin’ on?” Billy mumbled, and was dismayed to hear his voice sound slurred and unsteady.
“Fulgora,” said Mrs. Russet. Billy heard footsteps, and then saw the beautiful Red Lady’s face in his field of vision. Her outline was blurry, though, and Billy could tell that whatever was happening was definitely in the Not Good category of his life.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Fulgora.
“I need you to perform a Spark,” said Mrs. Russet.
Fulgora looked confused. Troubled. “But, he’s not dead,” she said. “And this isn’t a Gleaning.”
Billy knew what a Gleaning was, and it wasn’t something he was likely to forget. A Gleaning was where someone who was suspected of being a Power was purposefully killed and then brought back to life again in order to see if he or she “Glimmered” – one of the signs of a burgeoning Power. Billy had himself been Gleaned, and had been killed in the process before being miraculously revived.
“I know he’s not dead,” snapped Mrs. Russet.
“A Spark will kill him,” said Fulgora.
“Do it!” shouted Mrs. Russet. And it was a sign of how close the two women had become during the Battle for Powers Island that Fulgora didn’t so much as yell back, though Billy suspected that anyone else who raised their voice to the Red Princess would have quickly found themselves on their way to a fiery demise. No, Fulgora just moved her hands to Billy’s chest.
She pulled them back almost immediately, surprise on her face. “He’s cold,” she said.
“And he’ll get colder, unless you Spark him now!” shouted Mrs. Russet.
Fulgora put her hands back on Billy’s chest. His vision darkened, a black circle ringing the edges of his sight and rapidly closing until he could see only a vague pinprick of light at the center of a field of featureless shadow.
He heard Fulgora speak a word, and his body arched. His back muscles clenched so hard that he thought he would bend in half. He felt pain unlike any that he had ever before experienced. It took him completely, capturing all his senses within its angry grasp. He felt, heard, tasted, smelled, and saw agony. He tried to scream, but even his tongue was under the sway of the pain, and the relief of being able to vocalize his misery was denied him.
“Again,” he heard Mrs. Russet say. And again he heard Fulgora speak, again felt a surge of pain thrum through his body.
The darkness that had taken over his vision brightened slightly, and he saw something he could not at first describe, even to himself. It was a spectral outline, a shadowy figure that seemed to be hovering somewhere that was at once close by and just out of reach.
The figure turned toward him, and even when he saw it, Billy could not believe what he was seeing. It was himself. A thin, washed out version of himself that stared at him with pity, with grief.
The ghost-Billy’s mouth moved, but Billy could hear no words. The ghost-Billy turned away, and Billy somehow knew that he could not let his other-self leave.
He reached for the apparition. His arms felt like they were chained to the earth’s core, too heavy to lift. But Billy had to try, had to keep trying though he knew it was impossible.
The other-Billy took a step away, and the agony that Billy had been feeling until now redoubled. It took away not just his breath, but his very will to continue breathing. The fire of his existence was losing force, becoming a flickering candle, then a solitary ember as the ghost-Billy moved farther from him.
Billy felt himself fading. He felt his chest, where the DeathBlade had pierced him, becoming a black hole that would swallow him in its shadowy depths.
Let go, he thought. Just give up.
It was an appealing idea. So much trouble, so much work. All he had to do to stop it from happening was just give up. Just give in.
Billy felt himself relax. It felt good. More than good, it felt great. It felt wonderful, perfect, peaceful.
And wrong.
Billy twitched within himself. Wrong? What was wrong about this? It was peace. It was an end to pain. It was blessed oblivion.
It is not your Message that any may rest. It is not your Quest to find peace. Your life is not yours. It is mine.
Billy knew the words were not his. He didn’t know exactly where they were coming from, but he had felt something like them before. He had been about to die, alone on an alien landscape. But rescue had come, in the form of an animal that even most Powers thought was just a fairy tale: a flying unicorn, with wings like those of a great eagle, and a golden horn, and a tail like three platinum whips. When he had been rescued by the miraculous creature, he had felt this strange kind of communion with the thoughts of another. He had felt peace. Not the peace that would come from knowing that his work and suffering were at an end, but the greater peace that came from knowing that, come what may, he was walking the course that he must walk. The course that was good. The course that was right.
With the words, new strength flooded into Billy. It was the kind of strength that could only be felt when all strength had fled. The kind of will that could only be found when will had been broken. The kind of power only available in its fullest to the utterly powerless.
It was hope.
But not mere hope, no. This was Hope. Not just a feeling, but a kind of power incarnate. Not an Element of Power, but one of the very building blocks that made the universe possible.
Hope.
It filled Billy, it brightened the shadows that had taken his vision from him.
His other-self turned to face him again, and once more Billy tried to reach himself. He still felt the insurmountable weight pinning his arms down, but somehow found the strength to move them. He reached out, stretching his arms as far as they would go.
The pain in his chest flared, and again that black hole at his center threatened to overwhelm and engulf him, as though it was aware that Billy was on the verge of escaping its powerful pull. Billy once again felt himself wilt, and knew that this time, he would not have the strength to continue.
Help me, he pleaded, though he could not make his tongue speak the words. They remained thoughts alone. He hoped it would be enough. Help me to beat this. Whoever you are, whoever sent the Unicorn, whoever gave me the Message. Help me to live. To Seek. To fulfill my purpose.
No sooner did Billy think the words than the darkness which held him, and to which he had been about to surrender himself, suddenly dispersed.
He reached out, and this time the weight was gone from his arms. He touched his other-self. Pulled it close. Embraced it, and felt that ghost-Billy merge with him in a bright flash of light that came from everywhere and nowhere at all.
He opened his eyes, and saw Mrs. Russet, still looking at him. “Again!” she shouted to Fulgora, and he saw the Red Lady tense to deliver the Spark spell once more.
“No,” he whispered. The sound was faint, but it was enough to stop Fulgora in mid-motion.
“Billy?” she said, and he could see disbelief on her face.
He looked around, and saw Vester and Tempus sharing the same looks. Along with an undercurrent of something else. It took Billy a moment to realize what it was, and when he did, it made no sense.
They were afraid. Of him. But why would two of his best friends be afraid of him?
“What happened?” Billy mumbled, trying to make sense of the strange visions and sensations he had just experienced. It wasn’t really a question to anyone else, more rhetorical, but Mrs. Russet answered it.
“When we Glean someone, we always have a Red Power there to Spark the heart into beating again. I knew that the DeathBlade was taking you, so I thought that a Spark might alleviate its effects, at least for a while.” She smiled. “It seems I was right.”
“No, you weren’t,” Billy said, almost without thinking.
“What?” Mrs. Russet looked more than a little surprised at his response. Billy couldn’t blame her. Both as the Brown Councilor and as the World’s Toughest Teacher, she was surely unaccustomed to having people contradict her.
But she was wrong. Billy knew it. It hadn’t been the Spark that kept him alive. “Something else happened,” he said.
“I told you,” said Tempus.
“Quiet, you old windbag,” snapped Mrs. Russet. Then, to Billy, she said, “What do you think happened, then?”
“I don’t know,” said Billy. “Something, someone else was there. Was here. Helping me, somehow.”
“That would explain why he came back after so long,” said Vester, sharing a glance with Fulgora.
Billy frowned. “What do you mean, after so long?”
Vester shook his head and shrugged his broad shoulders. “The Spark isn’t a resurrection device. It’s more like a jump-start to a dead car battery. Just gets something that already works up and running again. But it only works in the instant after death.”
“How long was I dead?” Billy said.
“Don’t know for sure,” said Vester. “I’d guess at least an hour. Maybe two.”
Billy looked around. Fulgora, Tempus, Vester, and Mrs. Russet were standing next to him. But the other princes and princesses were absent.
“Solus?” he said.
“Gone,” replied Fulgora. “In a cell nearby.”
“A cell?” said Billy. “What exactly happened when I went to visit Serba?”
“You were in Serbia?” said Tempus with surprise. “My, that’s dangerous!”
Billy considered commenting on the irony of Tempus calling the country of Serbia “dangerous” while they were standing in the middle of a city made of molten lava and volcanic glass, but decided against it. It was all-too easy to accompany the Gray Power on his conversational side-trips, but doing so generally left Billy more confused than when he started.
Focus, he thought.
Out loud, he said, “Not Serbia. I said Serba. The dragon.”
A gasp went up from the group. “You saw a dragon? A real dragon?” said Vester.
“Yeah.”
Expressions on his friends’ faces ranged from confusion to awe. Billy knew that dragons were a big deal – Fulgora had turned into one for a short time during a battle to maintain her spot as Red Councilor – but no one had really explained that much about them to Billy, though he knew that legends among the Powers spoke of them being Powers themselves that had sought to cheat death by becoming one with eternal Elements.
The idea of finding out more about the creatures, though, was pushed to the back of his mind by another thought.
“Didn’t you know that’s what was going to happen when I got the key from Solus?” he asked Fulgora.
Fulgora shook her head. “I don’t even know what key you’re talking about,” she answered.
“The key,” said Billy. “The key in the bottle.”
“None of us saw that happen,” said Fulgora. “Solus has been the Keeper of the Secret of the Flame for as long as I can remember, but even I don’t know exactly what that means.”
“Then why did we come here in the first place?” asked Billy.
“My husband suggested that we attempt to discover the Secret of the Flame,” answered Mrs. Russet. “There were hints that it was linked in some way to the weapons we seek, but we didn’t know for sure how.” She glanced at the weapon that Billy still held tightly in his hand. “Apparently the hints were correct.”
“But you didn’t know about this?” Billy asked Fulgora again, gesturing to the blade.
She shook her head. “No one knew what the Keeper of the Secret of the Flame was even protecting. There has been a Keeper as long as the Underworld of Flame has existed, but the reasons for the office have been lost to the mists of time.”
“So he was keeping a secret that no one knew?” said Billy. Fulgora nodded. “Why didn’t anyone just try to get the key out of the bottle and use it before?” he asked.
“Again, I’m not sure what you mean about a key,” said Fulgora. “Whenever someone has sought the Secret of the Flame from the Keeper, what happens next has always been shrouded by a curtain of fire that none can pierce. And when it is over, the Keeper has no memory of what happened.”
“Why not ask the people who were looking for the Secret?”
Vester’s gaze dropped, as though he had discovered something incredibly fascinating about the tops of his shoes. Fulgora, as usual, did not look away. Nor did she mince words. “They died,” she answered.
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
Billy took a deep breath. Once more he had weathered certain death, and had come out of it miraculously whole. He thought for a moment. If there had been a Keeper of the Secret of the Flame ever since this fiery haven had existed, then that meant the Dagger of Flame had been waiting that long for someone to find it. And that only he, Billy – the Seeker of Powers – would be permitted to use the key to access Serba’s lair.
Another thought struck him. He turned to Mrs. Russet. “Didn’t you have any idea that Serba would have the dagger?” he asked. “I mean, it would have been a lot easier to just Transport there like we did the last time, rather than go through this whole thing with the Keeper and all that.”
Mrs. Russet tilted her head and gave Billy a look that he couldn’t place. He stared at her for a long moment, wondering what the strange expression was. Then he realized that he did, in fact, know what the expression was. It was just one that was so alien to what he thought Mrs. Russet’s face was capable of that his mind rejected it as being impossible.
It was confusion. Mrs. Russet was confused. Billy had thought that was about as likely as encountering a Nobel prize winner who was fuzzy on what the sum of two and two might be.
“What do you mean, ‘the last time’?” said Mrs. Russet.
“The last time,” Billy repeated. “When you and I tried to get to Powers Island for my Gleaning, and instead we ended up in Serba’s lair.”
Mrs. Russet laughed, and even Tempus and Vester tittered nervously. “Mr. Jones,” said Mrs. Russet, “to my knowledge, no one has ever visited a dragon. No one that I know of has ever even seen one, other than the time that Fulgora momentarily transformed into one during the Council Challenge.”
Billy couldn’t help but frown at this. Mrs. Russet wasn’t lying, he knew. She didn’t lie, any more than she went dancing around naked in the halls of PHHS while singing rock and roll songs. The very idea of either happening was so absurd that it was almost impossible to even think about.
But here she was, denying that their visit had occurred. She had been there. She had even talked about it again some time later.
“So you don’t know who Serba is?” said Billy slowly.
Mrs. Russet shook her head. “Any of you heard of a Serba?” she asked, looking around at Fulgora, Tempus, and Vester. The three of them shook their heads in unison.
“I did hear about a Serbo,” said Tempus. “It’s a big lollipop made of frozen slug guts that some of the Death Powers like to eat. I’ve never tried one myself, mind you, but in some part of the world people think they’re to die for. Literally, I suppose, since the slugs the Serbo is made of are ten feet long and have the ability to paralyze you by passing
gas. Still,” he added hurriedly when Mrs. Russet fixed one of her patented Looks of Death on him, “that’s not the same as a Serba.”
Mrs. Russet looked back at Billy, and pursed her lips. “So you say I spoke of this dragon, this Serba, to you before?” she said.
Billy nodded. “You didn’t just talk to me about it, you actually took me to him. You saved me from him.” Billy thought a moment, then added, “You seemed like you knew each other.”
Mrs. Russet frowned. “Curious,” she said, but that was all.
Billy looked at the knife in his hands. “It’s made of fire ruby,” he mumbled. He looked at Mrs. Russet, a thought springing suddenly into his mind. “Do you remember when Blue rescued you all from Dark Isle?”
Mrs. Russet smiled. “I rather think that it was you who rescued us, Billy,” she said, “and not the mermaid. But yes, I remember the incident.”
“And when Blue asked the Darksiders where they wanted to go, Mrs. Black said they wanted to go to someplace.” His forehead crinkled as he tried to remember what the place had been called. “Something about the air.”
“The City of the Sky,” supplied Mrs. Russet.
“What is that place?”
It was Tempus who answered. “It is the path to the future,” he answered, his voice unusually serious. Billy knew that his seemingly scatter-brained friend could actually be very focused at times, though he hadn’t quite figured out what it was that triggered that kind of thing.
“What do you mean?” asked Billy.
“It’s a legend among my people,” said Tempus. “Among the Grays. Tales tell of a place in the clouds. A place where the future meets the present, where Air is supreme.”
“Why would Eva Black want to go there?”
“Because,” said Mrs. Russet, “part of the fable of the City of the Sky is that there is legendary weapon there….” Her voice drifted off, then she looked at Billy with surprise. “One of the White King’s weapons.” Billy nodded. “But, how did you surmise that?”
Billy looked again at the Dagger of Flame. “The dagger comes from Flame. And the sword – Excalibur – where did it come from?”
“The Diamond Dais,” said Mrs. Russet.
Billy: Seeker of Powers (The Billy Saga) Page 7
