by Liz Marsham
“All right, then,” Arkayna said. “Malvaron, you stay here with Doug and search the Codex. We’ll go talk to this ‘fifth Mysticon.’” She stood up and motioned to Zarya and Piper. “Girls? It’s magic hour!”
*
A little while later, all four of the Mysticons were suited up and flying back and forth over Magi Mall on their griffins, and things were feeling decidedly unmagical.
“Hello?” Em called, over and over again. “Hello, are you there?” But no one answered.
“What, did she get shy or something?” Zarya asked impatiently. “Where is this girl?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Em.
Forming her hands into a cone around her mouth, Piper hooted at the sky. “Hellooooooooo! Old cursed Mysticon-girl-spirit-thingy! Where aaaaaaare yooooooou?”
Em looked pained. “Piper, don’t be rude!”
Piper dropped her hands. “Sorry. But what am I supposed to call her?”
“Call her … oh my goblin. I forgot to ask her name! Oh, I’m so embarrassed. No wonder she’s not answering!”
Arkayna scanned the sky, looking for anything out of the ordinary. “Em, I’m sure she doesn’t think you’re rude.”
“I dunno,” muttered Em. “She was a little touchy.” She raised her voice. “I’m super-sorry we didn’t introduce ourselves properly, but we’re all here to meet you now!… Hello?”
Nothing.
“She’s gone for now, at least,” Arkayna decided. “Let’s head back and see what the Codex has to say.”
*
Back at the Stronghold, while Choko dozed in the pile of Gnomez 2 Men toys, the four Mysticons crowded around the Codex, reading the spell that Malvaron and Doug had found.
“This looks pretty straightforward, at least,” said Arkayna. “Just a simple portal spell with a few extra flourishes thrown in to get us to the right dimension.”
“And it says right here,” Em said, pointing excitedly to the page, “that the Chillwaste is an icy prison that can be found only using this spell. See? She knew what she was talking about, which means she was real, which means I didn’t imagine it!”
“Who said you imagined it?” asked Zarya, raising her eyebrows.
“Uh … no one,” said Em, blushing. “But I’m very, very relieved anyway. Whoo! Let’s go!”
“Just a minute,” Arkayna said, holding up a hand. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would a Mysticon be imprisoned using a spell in the Codex, which is a book only Mysticons have access to?”
“Well, she did say it was a curse,” Em replied thoughtfully. “So maybe there was trickery involved. I bet the curse turned the original Mysticons’ magic back on them!”
“Ooooh, that’s so sneaky!” said Piper. “I can’t wait to find out who cursed her so we can get ’em! Quick, let’s get her out so we can ask her!”
“The person who cursed her is probably long gone by now, Piper,” Malvaron pointed out. “This would have happened centuries ago.”
Zarya leaned forward, eyes widening in excitement. “If it even was a person. It could have been an immortal monster. Or an undead skeleton, like Dreadbane! Or—”
“Oooooooh!” squealed Piper. “I gotta know!”
“Slow down, girls,” said Arkayna. “I’m looking at the spell right here, and it doesn’t say anything about a curse or a memory wipe. It’s just a portal, that’s all.”
Malvaron nodded. “And we still haven’t decided—”
“Arkayna,” Zarya cut in. “This girl is a Mysticon, and she needs our help. Are we really gonna leave her to fade away to nothing in a place called ‘the Chillwaste’?”
“And you said the book wasn’t telling you anything, right?” Piper asked. “So the only way to know is to go ask her. Riiiight?”
“She did say there were a bunch of locks,” said Em. “So there’ll be time to talk about all kinds of things while we’re trying to free her. And, hey, if we get there and don’t like what we see, we just jump back here, right?”
Arkayna looked at Malvaron.
Malvaron smiled. “I gotta say, they’re making some good points. And I am curious.”
Arkayna sighed. “All right.”
“Yesssss,” said Em.
“Awesome,” said Zarya, nodding.
Piper cartwheeled across the floor. “Woo-hooooooo! Let’s do it!”
Arkayna picked up the Codex and walked to a clear patch of floor. With her staff, she drew the first glyph of the portal spell. The glyph hung in the air, glowing green, as Arkayna began to recite, “Attend to my summons, attend to—”
“STOP!” shouted Em.
Arkayna jumped and whirled around, causing the glyph to spark and then fade. “What? Why?”
“Yeah, Em,” said Zarya, “you looked like you were all ready to go. Did you remember something else that you just have to take to an icy prison dimension?”
“Not something. Someone.” Em turned to Doug. The cyclops was watching quietly from one side of the room, sipping on his tea. “You have to come with us,” Em told him.
The crash of the teacup hitting the floor was almost drowned out by Malvaron, Arkayna, Piper, and Zarya exclaiming in unison, “What?”
4
In Which Eyes, Minds, and a Portal Are Opened, in That Order
“… And you told us all about Mare-Con, just like a scout, which is just what the fifth Mysticon would do! See? It all fits!” Em finished her case for the parallels between Doug and the spirit’s description of the fifth Mysticon.
Doug stood slack-jawed. For a moment, the only sound was Choko lapping up the spreading puddle of tea at the cyclops’s feet.
Em walked over to him. “Doug, you have to be there when we free the fifth Mysticon’s spirit. The magic will be able to call someone new, to choose a new Mysticon, and I think it’ll choose you!”
Doug shook his head. “Em, that’s so nice of you. I don’t even know what to say. But I don’t feel like a Mysticon. At all.”
Em chuckled. “You think I did? Hex no!” She turned to Arkayna. “Did you feel like you could be a Mysticon before the Dragon Disk called you?”
“Not at all,” Arkayna admitted. “All I wanted was to be more normal.”
“What about you, Zarya?” asked Em.
“I mean”—Zarya smirked—“I knew I was awesome. But I didn’t know I was this awesome.”
“Piper?”
Piper burst out laughing wildly.
“I’ll take that as a no.” Em turned back to Doug. “See?”
Doug looked around at them, eye wide. “Well, if you really think I should come…”
Arkayna opened her mouth to speak, but Em cut her off with an emphatic: “We do!”
“Oh man, oh man.” Doug glanced down at himself. “I guess I better go pack! Don’t worry. I’ll be quick!” He ran off to his room.
As soon as he was out of earshot, the other Mysticons and Malvaron all turned to Em.
“Why would you—?” started Arkayna.
“Are you sure—?” asked Malvaron.
“This is weird…” muttered Zarya.
“This is great!” hooted Piper.
“Listen,” hissed Em, silencing them with a gesture. “Who, besides us, knows more about what it takes to actually be a Mysticon than Doug? Who always has our backs? Doug. Who’s always helping us train? Doug. Who is just as dedicated as we are? Doug! Right?”
The other four nodded, none more enthusiastically than Piper.
“So if someone else is going to join the team,” Em said, “who else would you want it to be? Who else could it be?”
“Huh,” said Zarya. “I didn’t think about it like that.”
“Me neither,” chirped Piper. “This is even greater than I thought!”
“All right,” Arkayna said reluctantly. “I mean, it sounds like the Chillwaste is just ice and puzzles. Doug will be fine.” She turned to Malvaron. “Right? He’ll be fine?”
Malvaron thought for a moment, then said, “I actuall
y have something to help with that. Be right back!” He jogged out of the room just as Doug staggered in with a huge pack on his back.
“I didn’t know what I’d need,” Doug said, “so I brought a little of everything.”
Piper walked a slow circle around him, nodding. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. That looks like everything, all right.” Then she held up the Glimmer Gust doll. “Room for this?”
“Sure.” Eager to please, Doug took the doll, wrapped it carefully in a bit of cloth, and tucked it away in a side pouch. Choko climbed up Doug’s leg and onto the pack, tugging straps, checking buckles, and poking at bulges. When he was fully satisfied, he hopped onto Doug’s head. Leaning down into the cyclops’s eyeline, he gave Doug a supportive chirp and a thumbs-up.
Malvaron came hustling back to the group, a pile of leather and glass in his hands making an odd tinkling noise. “This is a special project I’ve been working on for myself,” he told Doug, “but I think you should have it.” He unfolded the bundle into a long belt with several dangling loops. Each loop held a potion bottle securely in place. “Take off your pack for a minute.”
With a grunt, Doug unshouldered his pack and dropped it to the floor, then dipped his head toward the ground so Choko could hop off. Malvaron reached up and placed the belt over Doug’s neck and around one of his arms, so the colorful row of potions hung within easy reach across his body.
“All right, you’ve got everything you might need here,” Malvaron said, rubbing his hands together as he admired his handiwork. He reached out and tapped a few of the potions in turn. “Here’s Titan Strength; it’ll make you even more of a beast than you are now. Here’s True Aim, in case you have to hit someone at a distance. Here’s—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Doug protested, holding out his hands. “Who am I going to be hitting?”
“You never know,” said Malvaron with a shrug. He tapped at his phone a few times, and Doug’s phone beeped in response. “Anyway, I just glyphed you the whole list. Everything is color-coded; it should be easy. Just remember the number one rule of potions.…” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows expectantly at Doug. “Come on, say it with me, man!”
Doug obediently chimed in as he and Malvaron chorused, “Don’t mix anything. Ever.”
“You’re gonna do great,” Malvaron said proudly. “Fist bump for luck!”
Doug grinned as he bumped fists with Malvaron. Em, looking on, beamed with joy.
“Are we ready?” asked Arkayna.
“Ready!” Em said.
“Sure,” said Zarya.
“I repeat: Let’s do it!” Piper said, turning another cartwheel.
The four girls and Malvaron turned to look at Doug. After a moment, Choko elbowed Doug in the ankle and cleared his throat conspicuously.
“Oh! Yeah! I’m ready!” Doug stammered, hefting his pack onto his back again.
“All right, here we go,” Arkayna said as she began drawing glyphs in the air. One by one, the glyphs glowed green and shifted through the air until they formed a large oval. While she drew, Arkayna chanted,
“Attend to my summons, attend to my knocks,
Unlock the door that will lead to more locks,
Take us to faraway ice with all haste,
Open the way and reveal: the Chillwaste!”
On the last word, the glyphs flared from green to white, and the center of the oval turned an opaque, sparkling gray and began to swirl. Em felt tendrils of cold air touch her forehead, her hands, her neck. She shivered.
Arkayna turned to look over her shoulder, her hair lifting in the breeze from the portal. “This is it! On three?”
Together the four girls and Doug chanted, “One … two … THREE!”
They jumped in and were swallowed by the swirling magic.
5
In Which the Team Goes Down and the Stakes Go Up
“So this is the Chillwaste,” Doug said, looking around. “It sure is, uh…”
“Boring,” Piper finished with an exaggerated sigh. With the swirling portal at their backs, the five of them stared across an endless plane of white. The unbroken sheet of ice ran all the way to the horizon, glowing with a soft light from within. Above them, the night sky was a deep, unbroken black.
“I was gonna say ‘sleek,’” Doug said.
“The elf is correct,” came a wavering voice, seemingly from right next to the Mysticons. They all jumped and shouted in surprise.
“Could you just … not … do that?” Em panted, taking deep breaths to regain her calm. “But, wait. You all heard that, right?”
The others nodded. Em looked to Doug. “Even you?” Doug nodded again, eye wide. Em felt unexpected relief rush through her. “Oh, thank the stars,” she breathed. It wasn’t that she had doubted, she told herself, but it was lonely when you were the only one who had heard a spooky voice. Much better to have friends who were right there with you. Another thought struck, and she craned her neck to study the black sky. “Hey, speaking of stars! Uh, fifth Mysticon? Didn’t you say you were trapped in the stars? Are we in the right place?”
“Indeed you are, Knight, as otherwise your large friend would not be able to hear me.” The voice seemed to drift to a new position behind them, on the far side of the portal. “You have not seen all there is to see.”
Em followed the voice, balancing carefully on the slippery ice as she made her way around the shimmering oval. “Oh, this is Doug! He’s the one I was telling you about. He—oh.” She pulled up short as she saw the view that the portal had been blocking. Almost at her feet, the ice cracked, revealing dark brown, nearly black rock beneath. The crack widened as it got farther from her, forming a deep, jagged chasm, lit by veins of shining ice running through the dark, rocky walls. In the patch of sky directly above the chasm, a group of stars glowed brightly.
“Above is my prison,” whispered the voice, “and below are the locks. Please, Mysticons … and Doug. Make haste. Descend and begin!”
“Hi, wait…,” stammered Arkayna, tottering over to join Em and trying desperately not to fall. “Before we do anything, we have so many questions for you. Like, why—aaaaaAAAAAAH!” Her feet went out from under her, and she landed hard on her backside. “Ow.”
“All will be revealed, Dragon Mage,” replied the voice. “There is no time now. I feel myself growing weak.”
“But can’t you at least tell us—”
“Sooooo weeeeak.” The voice grew fainter, and fainter still. “Make haaaaaste.”
“Hello?” Arkayna asked. “Are you still there?” With Em’s help, and using her staff to steady her, Arkayna carefully got to her feet. They listened, but there was no response. “Oh, bugbears. That was—”
“Convenient,” said Zarya. She and Doug shuffled gingerly around the portal to join them. “Guess she didn’t want to talk.”
“But she told us where the puzzles are, right?” Piper asked as she glided around the portal, nimbly sliding her feet across the ice and pushing herself forward. Turning gracefully, she pointed her feet wide and drifted in a lazy circle around her friends. “Let’s go find the puzzles!”
Em raised her eyebrows and smiled. “Piper, you’re really good at that.”
“What, this?” Piper looked down at her feet skimming across the ice. “I just picked it up somewhere, I guess. Wanna learn? After puzzles?”
Em chuckled. “Sure. After puzzles.”
“Deal!” Piper grinned.
The five of them traveled to where the crack in the ice began. Here, the ground was dark stone. Arkayna breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped onto it. Em caught her eye, and they shared a quick smile. With Arkayna in the lead, the five of them descended into the narrow ravine created by the crack. The path dropped steeply, and soon the rock-and-ice walls towered above them. The slice of sky they could see grew thinner and thinner, until it almost touched the small patch of stars on either side.
Then, abruptly, the walls opened out to either side of them. They found themselves in a canyon in the s
hape of a huge triangle. They had emerged from the middle of one side, and opposite them the canyon’s walls came together to form a point. Gigantic, triangular, horizontally striped pillars rose out of the ground, randomly spread across the space. Sections of the pillars were made of brown rock, other stripes were glowing white ice, and others were …
“Is that gold?” asked Doug.
“Looks like it,” Em replied.
Zarya laughed. “What kind of chasm has … bling?”
“This has to be the first puzzle,” Arkayna said. She moved to the nearest pillar, making a gesture with her staff so that the green orb at its top glowed brightly. She held the light toward the striped column and inspected its surface. The ice making up the bottom stripe reached to just above her head and seemed featureless. Above the ice, on the second stripe, the dark rock looked similarly blank. “Everyone look around. Maybe there’s writing on one of these, or some other kind of marking. And be careful; we don’t know what’s safe to touch.”
Doug obediently stuffed his hands in his pockets. “No touching. Gotcha. I’ll look over he—”
“Ooh, the ice is cold!” yelped Piper, her hands flat against the white bottom section of another pillar. “I wonder if the gold is warm!” She ran off to a third pillar where the bottom stripe shone a buttery yellow.
“Piper,” called Em, “that seems like maybe not a great idea?”
But it was too late. “This game is gonna be fab-tacular, I can tell!” Piper shouted. She skidded to a halt and held her hands out to the gold.
As soon as Piper’s gloves made contact, the gold sections on all the monoliths lit up. A low, grating sound echoed through the cavern as the columns ground into movement. The sound resolved into a resonant hum as the columns began to rotate in place.
Piper clapped delightedly. “I did it!” Then she tipped her head to the side and pondered the spinning pillars. “What’d I do?”
A deeper boom came from one side of the triangular chasm, and all five of them spun to face it. As they watched, the wall on that side of the valley moved! It pivoted from the closed point opposite the entrance and, with a loud scraping noise, moved a few feet toward them before grinding to a halt. Now the area they stood in was a slightly asymmetrical smaller triangle.
