Sonora and the Scroll of Alexandria (Book #2)

by T. S. Hall

  “After meeting up with what was left of the royal guard, they infiltrated the underground passages of Titanis in order to free some of the families and soldiers who had been imprisoned during the coup. As we have been told by those who were there, my sons got most of the prisoners out before they were overrun. They were trying to reach one last prisoner, but it was too late.” She looked over at Katie and Dax, taking in a weighted breath.

  “My mom,” Katie said, feeling the weight of that night.

  Mrs. Ferris tilted her head and pressed her lips together. Her warm eyes gave away the truth, and the nod of her head confirmed it.

  “I’m so sorry,” Katie said as her eyes filled with tears.

  “Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for, darling. Everyone lost someone during those times. We all knew the risks. If my boys had the choice, they would have given their lives again and again. And your mother….” Mrs. Ferris paused, contemplating her next comment. “Well, she was the strongest woman I knew. She wouldn’t want you to sour her death with pity, deary.”

  Mrs. Ferris took one last look at the portrait and then went down the hallway. There was no door at the end of the hall, which looked strange. Mrs. Ferris placed her palm on the wall, focused her hadrons, and turned her hand clockwise and counterclockwise as if she were entering a safe combination. The wall became liquid, and they all went through to an elevator. After descending about fifty feet, the metal doors opened into a large laboratory filled with beakers, measuring equipment, cauldrons, pots, potions, containers of multicolored liquids, glass contraptions, and the odd assortment of plants against the walls. The shelves were lined with containers of contents that didn’t exist on Earth.

  At the back of the room were four small cauldrons surrounded by varying sizes of glass containers. Allora picked up a container that read “Puffer Fish Stomach.” The contents of the other containers were Pine Tree Sap, Baking Soda, Gremlin Sweat, and Dragon’s Butter.

  Mrs. Ferris took up position on the other side of the counter with her own setup. Dax got distracted by what looked like a human skull with scales.

  “I wouldn’t touch that,” Mrs. Ferris said.

  Dax had already stuck his finger in the skull’s mouth, which bit down immediately. They all laughed as Dax screamed and jumped around the room, trying to pry the object from his finger. After a few seconds of entertainment, the skull unhinged its jaw and flew across the room.

  “You really should listen to me,” Mrs. Ferris said, grinning emphatically. She picked up the skull and placed it back on the shelf. “It’s a skull snare. Tanus gave that to me for my birthday.” She went back over to the counter and picked up the Puffer Fish Stomach container. “All right, let’s get to it. We are going to make another type of glue. It’s called balloon glue. It can be used as a defensive or offensive weapon when in battle. When sparked by hadrons, it will expand when it hits something. When thrown at an enemy, it will expand and debilitate the opponent by surrounding it with the glue.”

  “How do you get out of it?” Tanner asked.

  “The balloon will eventually get smaller, but if you want it to reduce its size immediately, the individual who sparked the glue must do it again.” Mrs. Ferris put on gloves, instructing the others to do the same. Then she unscrewed her container and poured its contents into the cauldron. “So the puffer fish stomach has been sitting in a highly potent acid for the past few weeks. It will smell a little gross.”

  Allora opened the container. The explosion of rancid odor burst into her nostrils. The mixture of rotten eggs and vinegar was nauseating. She coughed and cringed as she poured it out.

  “Make sure to rub a little oil onto your spoon. Then scoop out all of the sap, and try to get most of it into the cauldron.” It took quite a while, but they finally got through that step. “Now stir the gremlin sweat, and don’t stop stirring.” This step took even longer. “The gremlin sweat will slowly break down the sap, along with the remaining acid, and will eventually mix with the puffer fish stomach.”

  After a few more minutes, the substance in the cauldron turned into a thick, light-brown liquid. Mrs. Ferris poured the dragon’s butter into a plastic burlap sack that she pulled from inside a drawer below the counter. Everyone followed her lead, making sure that the dragon’s butter had thoroughly coated the inside of the sack. The substance was greenish yellow with a metallic sheen. It smelled of salt and petunias, with a hint of charcoal. Allora had never smelled anything like it.

  “What is dragon’s butter?” Tanner asked.

  “It is the substance that coats the inner lining of a dragon’s organs. It allows them to absorb hadrons and expel fire. It is an amazing thing. Some say that it is what gave Sonorans the ability to focus. Unfortunately, most of the large breeds of dragons are extinct. This stuff is factory developed from the smaller, pet-sized dragons. They’re only about five feet long and can’t breathe fire too well.”

  “I want a pet dragon,” Dax said enthusiastically.

  Once everyone was done coating his or her sack, they all watched as Mrs. Ferris unscrewed the baking soda and placed her sack next to the cauldron.

  “This is the tricky part.” She took a deep breath and picked up the baking soda while keeping one hand on the burlap sack. “There is a tie on the top of the sack that you will need to fasten tightly onto the rim of the cauldron. Once you pour in the baking soda, all hell will break loose.” She took a couple more deep breaths and then poured in the baking soda. Her hands worked quickly, grabbing the top of the sack and pulling it over the cauldron just as the contents almost spilled over. The cauldron shook as she fastened the tie onto the rim. The burlap sack blew up four feet high, like a hot-air balloon. Mrs. Ferris was pushed backward and slammed into the other counter. Luckily, she had fastened the sack tightly, and it remained inflated. Mrs. Ferris let out her breath. With wide eyes, they all took a collective step backward from the counter.

  “Dax, you’re up first,” Mrs. Ferris said.

  “Seriously?” Dax reluctantly stepped forward and mimicked Mrs. Ferris’s instructions. He held up the baking soda for a few minutes, like a skydiver debating whether to step out of the plane for the first time. Finally he dropped in the powder, pulled the sack over the cauldron, and fastened the tie. He had his head too far over the cauldron, and the inflation of the stretchable burlap sack blew up in his face, knocking him back and onto the floor. The tie held, and the sack remained inflated. He shook his head, blinking several times as if he had just taken a hit in a soccer game. Tanner chuckled over him. “Yeah, go ahead and laugh. You’re next.”

  “Please. This is easy.” Tanner poured in the baking soda and pulled over the sack, but his hands were still sticky from the oil, and the pull tie slipped out of his fingers. He tried to grab the tie again, but it was too late. The cauldron exploded, with a greenish-brown goo covering Tanner, while the others ran away, snatching their cauldrons before the substance engulfed them. The goo kept growing as if a dam had been broken. The entire back of the laboratory was filling with the strange substance. There was no escaping it. Mrs. Ferris pulled a beaker from one of the shelves in the back. Allora was caught in the sticky substance and slipped, falling into the goo as it kept expanding into corners and over counters. Glass was shattering, and shelves were breaking. Mrs. Ferris threw the beaker into the air.

  “Duck!” she said, shooting a hadron burst into the beaker and shattering the glass. The liquid inside exploded out like a spider’s web, covering the back of the room. Allora wiped the goo from her pants, and Dax helped Tanner to his feet.

  “Easy, huh?” he said with a big smile. The room smelled of sweet nectar, like they had run through a field of flowers.

  “I always forget to get the lilac nectar out before I do this,” Mrs. Ferris said.

  Allora and Katie performed the procedure perfectly, while Tanner was tasked with cleanup. After about twenty minutes, the balloons slowly bent one way and lowered onto the counter. Mrs. Ferris instructed the four to take
off the burlap sacks and pour the contents onto the counters that Tanner had just thoroughly scrubbed. The glue fell out of the sacks like dough and settled into a blue-tinted pancake shape with a gold glow. Mrs. Ferris placed a honey-filled bowl in the middle of the counter.

  “What you’ll need to do is take a small ball of the glue in one hand and a good amount of honey in the other,” she said, demonstrating the instructions. “Focus a small amount of hadrons in your honey-covered hand, and then place the glue in your palm, like this.” Her hand glowed orange, and then she closed it. Orange light seeped through the cracks and then dissipated. She opened her hand. The ball of glue had absorbed all of the honey and solidified. They all followed, making about thirty small balls of balloon glue each.

  “I think that we should give a few of these to our clumsy friend over there,” Allora said with a smirk, motioning to Tanner, who was mopping up the last of the goo.

  Without warning, a ball of goo smashed into the side of Allora’s face. Her mouth opened and her eyes went wide as Tanner laughed wildly. Allora ran over and began tossing what was left of the goo at him as he ran around the lab desks. Dax and Katie joined in, prompting Mrs. Ferris to yell at her mischievous students. They were having too much fun to stop. After they were thoroughly covered in goo, they were instructed to clean everything up, which took them another two hours. All smiles, they left the Ferris cabin with pockets filled with the strange balloon glue.

  When Allora got home, she heard distant muffled voices coming from her mother’s room. Slowly she tiptoed into the hallway that connected to the living room. She moved along the wall to see a lit image of Captain Theus speaking with her mother.

  “We caught the elf trying to bypass our exterior shield generator security protocols,” Captain Theus said. He had bags under his eyes and drooping eyelids. “That’s the second individual that we’ve caught trying to infiltrate our security system. I’ve spoken with Bartimus. He has completely overhauled certain key security algorithms.”

  “I spoke with General Andar,” Milly responded. “Salazar has been making some serious moves. I think that it’s time we start thinking about making a few of our own.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  “I think it’s time,” Milly said after a long pause, as if the weight of her decision had been heavy. “After graduation, we will tell them the truth. We will tell both worlds the truth.”

  Captain Theus nodded and signed off, leaving Milly to slump onto the bed.

  Twenty

  MAYDAY

  Tanner tiptoed through the woods with bent knees, pressing the balls of his feet down slowly, followed by his heels. He wore green military fatigues, black boots, gloves, and a black bandana. His face was also painted black and green. He stalked through the forest like a hunter, with his weapon tucked into his pants pocket. Dax followed closely behind him, sliding quietly behind a tree. Up ahead the faint orange glow of light peeked through the trees. A couple of high-pitched voices carried through the woods.

  It was almost two o’clock in the morning, and there was no moon in the sky, allowing them to stay hidden in the dark forest. Tanner motioned with his finger, instructing his troops to move. Dax took a few on the right flank, crawling through the bushes as quietly as possible. Katie moved up on the left, taking Brandon, Marcus, and few others with her. Allora ducked down and scurried forward, pressing her back tightly against the tree next to Tanner. She was dressed in tight black pants, a black tank top, and knee-high boots. She had black face paint, and her hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail.

  She took a deep breath. Then she glanced at Tanner and smiled.

  “I thought you wouldn’t be interested in this,” Tanner asked.

  “It’s tradition,” she replied.

  “You’ve got that right,” Dax said, lifting up a carton of eggs he had tucked under his arm. “I’ve been waiting four years for this.”

  Tanner pulled his carton out of his backpack, opened it, and pulled out a fresh white egg.

  “Let’s do this,” he said, lifting his right hand toward Dax and then his left toward Katie.

  They both gave the ready sign. Tanner and Allora led the charge, starting slow and then speeding through the woods like wolves on the attack. The orange light ahead grew larger, and the woods opened up into a field. On the other side was a driveway and a large white house. The driveway in front of the house was filled with about seventy kids working unsuspectingly on their float, which would be featured in the graduation week May Day Parade. Everyone was close behind or attacking from different sides, quickly moving through the forest out into the open field.

  Battle cries rang out through the night as white ovals of ammunition streaked through the air toward their targets. Allora, Tanner, Katie, Dax, Brandon, Marcus, and fifty other seniors kept up the onslaught until their cartons were empty. Nothing was spared. Everything was covered in egg yolk, the float was destroyed, and the freshmen were picking eggshells out of their hair. Upon hearing the screams, the parents inside the house came out yelling. Just as quickly as they had arrived, the seniors disappeared into the woods, running toward the forest road where they had parked. They laughed as they got into their cars and drove out onto the main road.

  The rendezvous point was back at Brandon’s house, where the rest of the seniors were busy building their own float. The class that built the best float, as judged by the faculty, would win the May Day Cup, which was a large trophy that sat in the front window case of the school. Every year the seniors would somehow sabotage the freshmen’s float, and every year the seniors would win the May Day Cup. As they drove up, it seemed that this year would be no different. Upon a large trailer sat a very detailed papier-mâché sailing vessel with a lifelike man standing on the bow and pointing forward. His face hadn’t yet been completed, but the rest of his attire was leather and cotton. It was a realistic depiction of one of the pioneers who had settled in Sandy in the eighteenth century and who was the mascot of Sandy High School.

  After getting out of the car, Allora went to the sink inside the garage and cleaned the egg yolk off her hands. Then she went to help with some of the other decorations on the sides of the trailer, while the boys reenacted the assault on the freshmen.

  From the garage, Tanya emerged, covered in paint, glitter, and paper. The spritely soccer captain stomped across the driveway, followed by a few other seniors, who looked tired.

  “Where have all of you been?” she said, placing her hands on her hips and cocking them to the side.

  “We were welcoming the freshmen to the May Day ceremonies,” Tanner said.

  “Yeah, with an egg to the face,” Dax added. “I mean, did you see that little dude get hit straight in the forehead?”

  “I’m pretty sure that the same thing happened to you freshman year,” Tanner said.

  “That’s right, and you cried like a baby,” Brandon added, laughing hysterically.

  Dax pushed Brandon. “I had eggshell in my eye!”

  “I don’t care if you guys were saving babies from a burning building!” Tanya said. She stood up taller, with her chest puffed out, pointing aggressively with her finger. “You were supposed to be here helping with the float. I am not losing May Day to those stupid juniors.” Tanya got really close to Dax, Tanner, and Brandon. “And if we do, I’m going to come and find each and every one of you and make your lives a living hell.”

  Allora and Katie looked at each other with amusement.

  “Remind you of anyone?” Katie said.

  “Jenny would definitely be proud,” Allora replied, smiling at the uncanny resemblance to her previous nemesis. “I wonder how she’s doing after we erased her memory.”

  “She’s in college. No curfew, lots of boys, and tons of people to boss around. I’m sure she’ll be just fine.”

  Allora and Katie went to the garage, grabbed a bucket of paint, and helped to decorate the boards on the side of the trailer. After an hour, the float was really coming together. Ta
nya continued to bark orders at everyone. She seemed to relish the responsibility of bossing people around. Allora got busy applying a base coat of paint on the sideboard of the float, while Brandon was putting the facial features on the pioneer up top. Katie left to get another bucket as Marcus walked up.

  “Hey,” he said, kneeling down next to Allora. She ignored him and continued painting. “Need some help?”

  “Not from you,” she replied, giving him a fake smile.

  “You can be pretty cute when you’re mad,” Marcus said with a grin.

  The comment took Allora aback. She couldn’t help but blush. Marcus was attractive. He had broad shoulders, well-defined muscles, and high cheekbones. His smile was captivating as well.

  “Why do I feel like you have another agenda here?”

  “Me? Nah, I’m just really attracted to you,” he said, taking a strand of her hair between his fingers.

  She swiped his hand away, her eyebrows furrowed, and leaned in.

  “Who are you really?” Allora asked unapologetically. She watched his eyes dart as if he were trying to think frantically.

  “Marcus,” he answered.

  On the other side of the float, another argument was taking place. Brandon had lost one of the pioneer’s eyeballs, and Tanya was giving him an earful.

  “How could you lose it?”

  “I had it in my pocket when we went to egg the freshmen,” he said while Tanya jumped up onto the float. “It must have fallen out. I’m sorry.”

  Tanya examined the papier-mâché man that they had spent the entire day working on. Brandon had placed the one eyeball in the center of the pioneer’s forehead.

  “Great. Now it looks like a cyclops!” Tanya said.

  Allora suddenly dropped to a knee as she fought against the memory flash. Uncle Ben’s emotions were strong. He was excited about something. The memory transported her to a large metallic room, with large stone pillars on the sides. In front of her was a large mahogany desk that was five feet tall and eight feet wide. It was monstrous, and she could barely see the man behind the desk sitting in an oversized chair. He spun around to face her. The man was gigantic, with one large round eye staring down at her.