“Hang on!” Caitlin cried as they were lifted into the turbulent condensation.
Caitlin’s hair frizzed as humid air currents whirled about, and her damp clothes clung to her body like Saran Wrap. Natalie’s mound of curls puffed up like foam. A furious tempest suddenly whipped up, stretching their lips back and causing their cheeks to flap like leaves on a tree.
It would almost be funny—if this weren’t a life-or-death situation.
Another vein of lightning hissed through coils of cloud, sizzling just past the girls in a blinding flash of heat. A few inches closer and they would’ve been charred to a crisp. The sun-hot lightning bolt evaporated the moisture from Caitlin’s clothes instantly, leaving her desert dry.
Freaky!
Another thunderclap almost burst her eardrums.
And then, rather suddenly, the chaos of the cumulonimbus clouds gave way to calm air. A clear and cool, star-jeweled sky emerged as the girls were elevated above the violence of the storm.
The hushed, summer-scented summit of Mount Velarium came into view.
“I can hear it!” Caitlin cried with hopeful excitement. “Flowing water. The wellsprings of Velarium! Oh my God, they’re real! And the aroma! It’s insane.”
The retracting rope slowed to a stop. The rising air currents died down.
The girls had come to rest at the summit.
And just as Caitlin had hoped, a perspiring, long-haired, beautiful ghoul was standing there waiting for them.
“That was one heavy payload,” Rapunzel quipped as she gathered up her braided locks.
CHAPTER Forty-Seven
“I’ve been hiding out on this malignant mountain for months waiting for you,” Rapunzel said as she wrapped her arms warmly around Caitlin and Natalie. After they exchanged hugs, Rapunzel smiled delightedly. She took a good, long,
loving look at Caitlin. She tilted her head when she saw the eye patch.
“What happened to your eye?”
“Lost it. Bitten by a crow.”
“My goodness.”
“I’m okay. How did you know we would be coming?”
“Glinda, bless her soul. She read it in the Great Book of Records a few months back. Thankfully, I got up this mountain before the rebellion broke out.”
“But it hadn’t happened yet. So how could she have known?”
Rapunzel pressed a finger to her mouth. “Shhhh. We can’t talk here. All I can say is everyone is where they’re supposed to be. Especially you. Peter Pan is cruising the skies as a lookout and waiting for you. After you dip in the wellsprings and
regain your full humanity, he will show you where the shut-off valve is.”
“Is everything all right?” Caitlin asked.
“Of course,” Rapunzel assured her. Her aura was redder than a pomegranate.
“You don’t truly believe that,” Caitlin said.
“It’s what I truly hope,” Rapunzel confessed. “Just stay close to Natalie. Don’t leave her alone. And get out of this place as fast as you can after you’re done.”
Before Caitlin could say another word, Rapunzel kissed her and Natalie on the forehead. She whispered something in Natalie’s ear.
Rapunzel then cast her braided cable of hair off the summit’s edge, snagging it on a lower ridge. She swung off the mountain peak and vanished into the darkness below.
The brevity and blur of the encounter with her dear friend left Caitlin breathless and melancholy. There was so much for them to talk about. But she had to push the sadness away. She had to keep moving.
“What did Rapunzel whisper to you?”
Natalie shrugged. “She told me to remain strong and steadfast in the mind.”
“Let’s find those wellsprings,” Caitlin said. She began to gallop across the summit in the direction of the flowing waters and lovely smells. The air was fresh and crisp.
The neighboring volcano was rumbling and spewing fire.
“I can’t hear the songbirds anymore,” Caitlin said.
She accelerated her pace, and Natalie sprinted full tilt to keep up with her. The wound on her head must have reopened, because blood began to soak through the bandana.
Ungodly urges began bubbling up inside Caitlin. She was eyeing her kid sister as she ran, contemplating doing terrible things to her. She tried shaking off the cravings.
The girls rounded a large boulder the size of a house.
Caitlin’s heart began to pound as her predatory instincts intensified. “Just one small bite,” she shouted. “I won’t hurt you. But I need a bite. I’ll stop at one bite.”
Natalie shot angry eyes at her. “Get a hold of yourself, sister. I already have the Enchanter to contend with.”
Caitlin was trying, desperately trying.
Thank goodness twinkling, violet sparks are shimmering in the air just up ahead.
An unearthly, heavenly aroma began to fill Caitlin’s lungs, perfuming her very essence. They had arrived at the enchanted springs. All words suddenly left her, robbed by the beauty of the wellsprings.
Scarecrow had been right. The waters were a dazzling violet color. And the aroma of the airborne mist was a heady blend of lilac blossoms and sweet, blooming hyacinth bulbs—the fragrance was almost as alluring as the succulent scent of blood. Caitlin sucked in the perfumed
air. Her breathing deepened, and her heart rate began to
slow.
The edge of a waterfall glinted silvery purple where its waters poured into the brilliant pools.
“I’m jumping in,” Caitlin said. “You should too. It’ll heal your head wound.”
“No way I’m going bare naked in that water! There are boys at the bottom of this mountain, and Peter Pan is somewhere up there—probably spying on you.”
There was no time to ponder such thoughts. Caitlin quickly undressed, sliding out of her jeans and panties, yanking off her top, and removing her bra. Then she removed her eye patch.
Natalie shook her head in disbelief. “You got guts, big sister.”
“Stay put,” Caitlin said, “till I come out.” Caitlin waded into the indigo springs. The water was as warm as toast yet soulfully refreshing, and lacquer clear like she imagined the waters of Eden must have been.
She dipped beneath the sparkling surface.
A shimmering, violet-blue aura surrounded her body. As she dipped each of the seven prescribed times, twinkling orbs of light circled about her. Strings of royal-purple light orbited the full length of her body in figure-eight patterns as she closed her eyelids and tilted her head toward the starry sky visible above the Velarium summit.
She raised her arms and opened her eye. The ghastly cracks on her forearms began to fizzle in a ticklish way as they regenerated while she watched. Her stomach wound buzzed pleasantly as the pain vanished. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the blood in her veins had turned violet as well.
She splashed more water on her face, inhaling the lilac-hyacinth fragrance. It made her soul swell with grace, humility, and fortitude.
The notions of eating flesh and blood began to seem revolting again as she steadily recovered her human traits.
She had become so enthralled by her surroundings, so caught up in this womb of seventh heaven, it took her a moment too long to realize that a horrific development was unfolding on the banks of the pool.
Natalie was engaged in conversation with a dark-hooded creature who was robed in serrated layers of blasphemous-looking, red-edged, black curtains.
And that’s when Caitlin swallowed her heart.
Because the unthinkable had just happened.
Natalie was face-to-face with the Lord of the Curtain.
CHAPTER Forty-Eight
Caitlin swam furiously toward the shallows. Her frantic shriek rang out across the summit. “Natalie, get away!”
The Enchanter was whisperi
ng in Natalie’s ear.
Caitlin leaped out of the pool and put her clothes back on as fast as humanly possible.
Just as she was about to dash to Natalie, the Lord of the Curtain raised a shrouded arm.
Woooooooooomph!
A curtain as black as the Devil’s eyes sprang open around the pair, encircling Natalie and the Enchanter in a barricade of unspeakable darkness. Caitlin tasted supreme evil.
She whipped her head this way and that, searching frantically for a glimpse of her sister.
“Caitlin!”
A voice called to her from the sky.
She looked to the stars.
Peter Pan was rocketing across the twinkling sky above the summit.
He dropped from the firmament in a reverse two-and-a-half-turn somersault with a twist, landing as gracefully as a cat next to Caitlin.
“Follow me!”
He took her by the hand and sprinted around the dipping pools. “Where were you when I was in the water?” she asked.
Peter Pan didn’t answer, but she swore she detected a slight smirk.
That rascal!
They rounded a large boulder and Peter slammed on the brakes. The stop was so sudden, Caitlin plowed into him.
He pulled out his dagger. He slid the tip of his blade into the thin crack of a just-distinguishable, rectangular frame etched into the boulder. With his blade and the fingers of his other hand, he lifted up what looked to be a trap door. Underneath . . . the shut-off valve!
The cast-iron spigot looked like the steering wheel you’d find on a bus, only thicker.
Peter Pan quickly stepped back. “I can’t touch it.”
“Why not?”
“It’ll burn me like lava. Only a human hand can turn it.”
“Check me,” she said as she raised her eyelid.
Peter leaned in close and inspected her eyeball. “Blood-free—bright and beautiful as a summer’s sky.”
Then he stole a kiss from her lips.
“Peter Pan!”
Caitlin warily placed her hands upon the handwheel.
Please work!
The cast iron was cold. When it registered an authentic human touch, it began to glimmer like moonglow.
Thank you!
Her gaze turned to steel as she eyed Peter. “He’s got Natalie—over there, behind the black curtain.”
Pan winked and sailed back into the sky. He circled in a holding pattern above the summit, waiting for Caitlin to open the valve. Golden moonlight shimmered on his form like melted butter. His blond locks waved in the wind as if lit by the glow from the lunar orb.
Caitlin tightened her grip like a vise over the handwheel’s spokes. She mustered all the strength in her shoulders, arms . . . and then she began to turn it counterclockwise, bit by bit.
A muffled sound of flowing water began to hum in the starry night, drop by drop. The Dipping Pools of Velarium were opening little by little. . . .
Caitlin could hear the rush of unleashed waters cascading down the inner caverns of the mountain. The network of channels designed to unite the male waters from the sky with the female waters welled beneath the ground in massive pools were ready to receive the torrent. At least, that’s what Bobby Gramps, Gruncle Derek, Peter Pan, and Scarecrow were all counting on.
But what if those channels are blocked somewhere along the line?
Red-band thoughts!
Resist!
Caitlin shoved the negative thoughts aside.
The next few moments moved as slow as traffic congestion as she continued cranking the valve counterclockwise.
She cranked that handwheel until her palms blistered.
Her finger bones began cramping, her joints swelling . . . and finally, the handwheel could turn no more.
She looked at the wellsprings.
The water levels seemed to be dropping.
Please, please!
She looked over at the neighboring peak. The volcano’s flames were sputtering out.
But what if—
She glanced up at Peter Pan and gave him the thumbs-up.
He jetted toward the barricading black curtain.
He plunged his dagger into the blackened fabric and then flew around the entire cloak, slicing it open end to end. He snatched it up like a thief in the night. He quickly sliced it up into scraps and flung the rubbish into a shredded heap.
Caitlin’s eye lit up like a bright star of hope.
The Enchanter was weakening.
He was down on one buckled knee, but still clinging to Natalie.
Caitlin raced toward her sister.
The Enchanter’s countenance was obscured by the dense shadow of his cowl and robe. The dark garments were like a sucking black hole, swallowing Caitlin’s courage and hijacking her will as she approached. Nonetheless, she closed in fast . . .
Caitlin yanked Natalie’s arm, releasing her from the clutches of the Enchanter.
“You won’t win this!” Caitlin screamed.
The Enchanter paid her no attention. A nondescript voice seemed to radiate out of him, and it was clearly directed at Natalie. But there was no mouth to see, no facial features
to discern; the words somehow materialized inside Caitlin’s mind.
“Eos will be yours, Natalie. It will operate by your chosen laws of nature. Your universe to delight in for eternity. Eos will embody only the violet band of the spectrum—if you join me. The Red Spectrum will be banished. The end of
fear. We can create a new realm radiating only a beautiful violet-blue.”
Caitlin lost her breath. Not because of what she had just heard. But rather because of what she was seeing . . .
The Enchanter’s aura had turned as white as new-fallen snowflakes.
Huh?
Which meant the words he had just uttered were truthful. Genuine. Sincere.
How’s that possible?
Natalie squeezed Caitlin. “Get him out of my head!”
“Don’t worry,” Caitlin replied as she pulled Natalie along and they began to run away from the Enchanter. “The waters are emptying. He’s growing more desperate.”
Caitlin glanced back. The Lord of the Curtain was weakening further, down on both knees.
Caitlin glanced at the heavens. Peter Pan still hovered in the vaulted sky. He pointed toward the second star on the right, glinting in the eastern sky just above the summit.
“Run toward the second star!” he shouted. “You need to get Natalie out of here—now!”
The girls sprinted in the direction he indicated. They ended up at the eastern edge of the summit. Caitlin peered over the edge.
Some fifty feet below lay the portrait mountain’s twin.
The volcano!
Specifically, the mouth of the volcano.
“Don’t worry,” Peter Pan shouted down from the sky. “It’s like riding the world’s largest waterslide.”
And then he landed on the summit, right next to
Caitlin.
“Lock your eye dead center on the volcano’s mouth,” he instructed. “Then just jump.”
Caitlin did a double take. “Are you insane?”
“The volcano won’t erupt, because the wellsprings are dry. Hopefully they will remain dry for a few more minutes.”
Yeah—hopefully.
He took hold of Caitlin’s and Natalie’s hands. “Just remember, ladies—at each intersection in the tunnels, keep veering right to make it back to Guildford.”
Guildford? Not Glendale?
“I hope the ride is kinda fun,” Natalie said.
The resounding boom in Caitlin’s head was like an atomic migraine explosion. It knocked her off her feet.
“NAATAALLIEEEEE!”
The booming, baleful voice of the Enchanter!
&
nbsp; Incredibly, Natalie didn’t seem to hear a thing. She was standing by the edge of the summit and preparing to leap off. But then she looked up, as if something had caught the attention of her mind’s eye.
“Jump to it,” Pan said to Caitlin. “The Enchanter’s inside her.”
Storm clouds gathered from out of nowhere above the Dipping Pools.
How powerful is this monster?
Violet rain began to fall.
The wellsprings were being fed again. Which meant that the volcano could become active any second.
“Please get me out of here!” Natalie cried out, frightened by what she was seeing in her mind.
Despite her pounding head, Caitlin stumbled back up to her feet. The summit spun and her head throbbed like a gong rung by a mallet.
She managed to turn around; her eye found the Lord of the Curtain. He was back on his feet, arms raised toward the sky. He continued to project his voice inside her head.
“Imagine a world where only violet shines. The calm, contentment, control . . .”
The Enchanter’s radiance continued shining a blinding white.
How could this be true?
“I’m not consummate evil. I’m not the monster they portray.”
His aura shimmered as white as a snowcapped mountain peak.
Caitlin turned away. She cautiously peered over the summit to locate her target again. The volcano’s mouth was moving in jagged patterns as a result of her dizzy spell. She wobbled. She stepped back from the edge to avoid tumbling off.
Peter grabbed her hands. “Get a grip, lass. Breathe slowly.”
He massaged her temples. The dizziness began to lift.
“Snap to it!” he shouted.
“But how can all his words be true?” Caitlin cried.
“The Enchanter is cunning.”
She shook her head. “But truth is truth!”
“And I speak it, too, my lovely. Now shove off, and get out of here before it’s too late.”
Just as Caitlin was regaining her balance, a foul breath of wind whipped across the summit. She wobbled again.
She stiffened her legs and stretched out her arms to steady herself.
“Okay . . . I think I’m ready.”
The Lord of the Curtain Page 29
