Clash of the Worlds

by Chris Columbus

The ship slowly rose and emerged from the water inside a large, dry cave with bright orange-and-green stalactites and stalagmites scattered throughout it like colorful sets of teeth. Ahead of them, sitting on a small boulder with a flat surface was the source of light that had led them there. And instantly Cordelia knew it was the Worldkeeper they’d come there to find.

  “That’s it . . . ,” Cordelia said quietly. “That’s what we came here for!”

  “It’s so beautiful,” Adie said.

  It was small and round, but glowed blue so brightly that it was hard to look directly at it. The blue almost looked radioactive.

  Anapos opened the door of the ship, and a clear walkway extended across the gap over the water to the shore of the dry cave.

  Cordelia quickly walked across the clear bridge to the other side. The inside of the cave was cold; she could see her own breath. But she didn’t seem to be suffering any effects of the pressure or their depth within the earth’s core. Then she remembered that she wasn’t really on earth anymore. At least, not her own real version of it. The geology of the book world didn’t need to make sense; the entire place was nothing but a construct of fiction, after all.

  The three of them walked slowly toward the Worldkeeper. It glowed brilliantly, but seemed to have dimmed slightly, as if it were aware of their presence and did not want to blind them with its intense light.

  Up close, it simply looked like a medallion, a glowing blue Olympic medal with no ribbon or markings. Except that there was a loop of incandescent fog that remained hovering in a ring above the talisman like a ribbon.

  “What now?” Cordelia asked.

  She wasn’t expecting an answer, but Adie had taken out the papers Brendan had given her and was reading the description of the Worldkeeper for clues.

  “I think we can just take it,” Adie said.

  “No way, it never works like that,” Cordelia said. “Remember Harry Potter?”

  “Harry who?” Adie asked.

  Cordelia had completely forgotten that her two new friends existed in a world without the Harry Potter series.

  “Harry Potter is this boy wizard in books that exist in my world. Anyway, in one of the stories, he had to watch his mentor, Professor Dumbledore, drink some horrible soul-sucking water to get the Horcrux from a cave. And then, in Indiana Jones—”

  “Indiana who?” Adie asked again, looking increasingly confused.

  “He’s—oh, forget it,” Cordelia said. “The point is, these kinds of things are never easy. I mean, there’s always some price to pay, some deadly trap—”

  “Uh, Cordelia?” Anapos said. “I hate to interrupt, but, look . . .”

  Cordelia stopped ranting and looked down at Adie, who was already holding the glowing blue talisman. She looked fine, her skin wasn’t melting off her bones, and there were no deadly spirits rising from the water to devour them. Nothing.

  “Here,” she said.

  Cordelia grabbed the talisman. It felt cold in her hand, like metal. And powerful, yet its presence made her feel completely calm.

  That was it? Seriously? Cordelia grinned at their good luck.

  “Well, that was easy,” she said. “Here, you’d better take it, though.”

  She handed it back. Adie stuffed the glowing blue talisman and its fog ribbon into the front pocket of her yellow dress.

  “Don’t celebrate just yet,” Anapos said dryly. “We still have to somehow get past the Iku-Turso. It’s guarding the cave’s only exit.”

  A few minutes later, the three of them sat inside the submarine at the cave’s entrance and peered out into the dark depths of the abyss. There was no sign of the Iku-Turso. But Cordelia wasn’t buying it. There was no way they’d get that lucky twice. She knew it was out there lurking. Just waiting for them.

  “Maybe the Iku-Turso lost interest in us,” Adie suggested hopefully. “Maybe he’s off looking for something else to eat.”

  “Wishful thinking,” Anapos said. “But we may as well go for it now, either way.”

  She slowly eased the vessel out of the cave.

  Almost as soon as they emerged, the Iku-Turso came out of nowhere. Just as they were inching outside the cave, the creature’s terrible jaws opened and before they knew it, they were swallowed whole by the sea monster.

  They somehow managed to avoid getting crushed by any of the monster’s teeth, but found themselves deep inside its gullet. The headlights of the submarine shone onto the remains of the huge underwater crocodile slowly dissolving in pools of white stomach bile. The same stomach bile that was already starting to work away on their vessel.

  “Can we get out?” Cordelia asked in a panic. “This ship must have weapons!”

  Anapos shook her head.

  “Unfortunately, our ships are not equipped for battles or destruction,” she said. “There’s no way we’re getting out of here alive.”

  For someone who was announcing their impending deaths, Anapos sounded oddly calm. But before Cordelia could ask Anapos about her apparent lack of panic, something inside the pocket of Adie’s dress diverted her attention.

  “Adie, look at your dress!” Cordelia shouted.

  Adie looked down and saw a circle of glowing blue light on her midsection where the talisman rested inside the pocket. The glowing intensified, and then rays of pure blue light fired out in all directions.

  They seemed to pass right through the living occupants of the vessel without causing any harm. But the light cut right through the Iku-Turso’s flesh like blazing-hot knives.

  The Iku-Turso was sliced apart from the inside out. Adie, Anapos, and Cordelia could only sit there and watch as large, fleshy chunks of the beast floated all around them. After several moments, the talisman stopped glowing.

  Sharks and sea creatures of all kinds swarmed in and started eating the chunks of the evil beast that had terrorized them for generations. They completely ignored the submarine as it slowly drifted away from the feeding frenzy.

  “That was really disgusting!” Adie said. “But also pretty amazing.”

  “We have another problem,” Anapos said, bringing the celebration to a quick close yet again. “A pretty major one.”

  “What now?” Cordelia asked.

  “That creature’s stomach juices must be really corrosive,” Anapos said. “I think they ruptured the power cell. We’re losing fuel quickly. There won’t be enough to get out of the abyss.”

  “What do you mean, losing fuel?” Cordelia nearly shouted, not understanding how a machine so high-tech could suffer from such a pedestrian problem. “This thing runs on fuel?”

  “What did you think?” Anapos snapped back. “That it was powered by beautiful thoughts and magic potions?”

  “Well . . . yeah . . . something like that!” Cordelia said weakly.

  Anapos threw up her hands in frustration. It was an oddly human gesture.

  “What are we going to do?” Adie asked.

  “There is one thing we could try,” Anapos said. “It’s likely to get us killed even sooner, but there’s also a small chance that it could save us.”

  “Let’s hear it,” Cordelia said.

  “There was an old legend the elders would tell us children at bedtime,” Anapos said. “That the Eternal Abyss never ends.”

  “What do you mean ‘never ends’?” Cordelia asked. “I just assumed its name was figurative.”

  “It doesn’t have a bottom,” Anapos explained. “Instead, it passes right through the earth to the other side of the great ocean.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Cordelia said. “The center of the earth is made up of mantle rock and molten lava at the core—it’s not even possible.”

  “I didn’t say I believed it!” Anapos said defensively. “It’s a legend! The sort of story our parents told us for entertainment. Don’t you have fake, entertaining stories that you tell each other for enjoyment?”

  “The news?” Cordelia said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Never mind,” C
ordelia said, disappointed that Brendan wasn’t there to see her cracking a joke in such dire circumstances. “Of course we have fictional stories. But that’s all they are. Stories. They aren’t real.”

  “Look, I don’t know anything about what’s inside the earth,” Adie said. “But before today, I didn’t think basically any of the stuff I’ve seen in the past twenty-four hours was possible. So if there’s even a chance it could work, I say we try.”

  “That’s the spirit, Adie,” Anapos said. “Besides, going for it is definitely better than floating around here in the darkness waiting to slowly starve to death. Cordelia?”

  Cordelia shrugged, not having any better ideas.

  “Let’s do it,” she said with a sigh.

  Anapos nodded, pointed the ship straight down into the abyss, and pushed the throttle all the way forward. As they plunged deeper and deeper into the dark ocean, Cordelia was becoming increasingly convinced they’d all just made the worst mistake of their short lives. The abyss seemed to stretch on forever, with no light or end in sight.

  “Power is almost gone,” Anapos said somberly after several minutes.

  “At least we tried,” Adie said softly.

  Cordelia admired the girl’s high spirits and positive attitude even in the face of death. And was perhaps a little jealous. She certainly wished she could be so calm knowing they were driving a submarine down into the ocean to die cold and alone.

  Then the ship began to shudder.

  “What’s that?” Cordelia asked.

  “I don’t know,” Anapos said. “We’re accelerating but I’m not sure how, since we’re officially out of fuel.”

  Suddenly the walls of the abyss were gone, and they were back out in the open ocean. The vessel rocketed toward the surface faster than it could have gone on its own with full power. A trip that should have taken hours or maybe even days took mere minutes, and before long they all saw the glow of the sun above them.

  “It worked!” Cordelia yelled. “It’s impossible, but it worked.”

  “Apparently you don’t know what the word impossible means,” Adie said with a grin as the ship broke the surface of the sea and they were met by a clear, bright blue sky.

  The ship bobbed up and down in calm waters. They saw a shoreline marked by a small city just several hundred yards away. Dozens of ships were either docked or coming and going from the harbor.

  A massive pirate ship pushed past their small, clear submarine. Several drunken pirates were hanging over the side. They saw the three girls in the strange, transparent boat and rubbed at their eyes before taking more pulls from their bottles of freshly pillaged rhum agricole.

  “Is we that drunk or am I seeing dis right?” one of the pirates asked his shipmate as they slowly drifted past.

  “You see it too?” his companion said. “Arrgh! This stuff is as potent as me old granddad’s homemade bathtub rum!”

  Then Cordelia recognized one of the pirates standing on the bridge. It was Gilliam, the bald pirate with the dolphin tattoo on his face from their first adventure in the book world. He looked down at them, and they locked eyes. He smiled when he recognized her, a gold tooth gleamed in the sun.

  “I like your new tattoo, Gilliam!” Cordelia shouted.

  “I thought I recognized yez, little girl!” he shouted back down. “Yez really like it? It’s a ferocious, man-eating tiger!”

  Cordelia didn’t want to inform him that the new tattoo where the dolphin on his face used to be was in fact no tiger. Rather, it was a fluffy and adorable orange kitten playing with a ball of yarn. She merely smiled again and nodded.

  “It’s really scary and cool!” she shouted.

  “Arrrrr!” he cried out toward the sky. “Do yez need a tow into town?”

  Cordelia looked at the port town nearby. That’s when she realized it was Tinz. They were actually there! They had made it. She nodded at Gilliam.

  “That’d be lovely!”

  He disappeared off the deck for a few moments and then returned with a huge rope in his hands. He grinned at her and tossed one end overboard toward their submarine. Cordelia never would have guessed in a billion years that her search for the Worldkeeper would end with a pirate with a cute kitty-cat tattoo on his face towing them into Tinz.

  For Brendan and Gilbert, the trip from Wazner’s Revenge to the small port town of Tinz within the book Savage Warriors passed by surprisingly quickly—in just under an hour. Of course, it helped that they had made the trip inside Gilbert’s ridiculously speedy spaceship.

  Tinz was just how Brendan remembered it. A relatively small town bustling with activity. The narrow streets were lined with specialty shops and numerous taverns overflowing with pirates, merchants, and sailors. Brendan and Gilbert walked through the streets toward the open-air market at the center of town, filled with tents and tables loaded with wares, food, and various goods from distant lands.

  That was where they’d decided to meet up. Of course, he had no idea how long he and Gilbert would have to wait for everyone else to arrive. Maybe they were already there? Or maybe—his throat seized at the thought—they would never show up at all. He had to face the possibility that they hadn’t succeeded and that he might be stuck there alone forever.

  Gilbert walked next to him, wearing a cloak with a hood pulled down over his face. His arms were also hidden inside the amply flowing robes he’d telepathically created for himself (the same way he’d built the boat for Cordelia and Adie).

  To the townsfolk, they simply looked like two children walking the streets. Of course, their strange attire did garner them a few odd stares, but they didn’t stand out nearly as much as they would have had Gilbert openly walked around all fully exposed.

  “You think they’ll be here soon?” Brendan asked as they stood in the center of the busy flea market.

  Brendan had to admit that somewhere along the way, the arrogant little alien began growing on him. Plus, he was also starting to enjoy the distraction of Gilbert’s soliloquies.

  “Yes, we shall locate your siblings quite momentarily,” Gilbert said.

  “Yeah, how momentarily?” Brendan asked with a smirk.

  “Right now,” Gilbert said.

  “Is that so?” Brendan asked. “How do you know that, professor?”

  “Because they are standing right over there,” Gilbert said, a long, gray finger emerged from one of his loose sleeves. “Also, you should know I presently do not hold the title of professor, nor am I an instructor at any institution of higher education.”

  Brendan whirled around. Sure enough, standing at the edge of the market were Cordelia, Adie, and a tall girl with dark hair and shimmering blue-tinted skin. They looked around, trying to find a familiar face. His face.

  “Deal!” Brendan shouted, a ridiculously huge grin on his face.

  Cordelia’s eyes found his, and they ran toward each other across the market. It was like a scene from a movie, where the music plays and then the slow motion starts. Except those scenes in movies usually ended with a huge hug and tears of joy. In the marketplace in Tinz, however, when Brendan and Cordelia reached each other they both stopped and smiled while their arms shifted awkwardly, unsure of whether or not to go in for an uncomfortable sibling embrace.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” Cordelia said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Brendan said. “I mean, glad you’re okay. Well, I’m glad I’m okay too, but I think you’re getting the point. . . .”

  Cordelia nodded and then laughed. There was more urgent business at hand.

  “Did you get the Worldkeeper?” Cordelia asked.

  Brendan nodded. “You?”

  Cordelia nodded at Adie.

  The girl pulled the talisman from her dress pocket an inch or two so Brendan could see it. His eyes widened at its glowing blue appearance. Then he smiled as Adie stuffed it back into her pocket.

  “And Nell?” Brendan asked.

  Cordelia’s face drained of all color.

  “You haven’t see
n her?” she asked.

  “Maybe she’s just running a little behind?” Brendan suggested.

  Cordelia shook her head and looked down. It was possible, of course, but something told her that wasn’t the case. For starters, Eleanor had already been where she needed to be when they had split up. Plus, of the three locations, Planet 5X was supposedly the closest to Tinz. It shouldn’t have taken that long for Eleanor to get there.

  Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  Cordelia knew it; she could feel it in her bones like the body aches that usually came with having the flu.

  “I can embark toward her location in my ship to investigate,” Gilbert suggested.

  Cordelia nodded gratefully. Before anyone else could say more, however, a voice called out across the marketplace.

  “Brendan, is that you?” a female voice cried out in surprise. “Brendan Walker!”

  “You can’t even get a girl to talk to you in school,” Cordelia said, her eyes wide with surprise. “But you’ve got a girlfriend in Tinz?”

  He shrugged, looking as baffled as she felt.

  The whole group whirled around and spotted a young girl with short brown hair and sparkling purple eyes running toward them. She waved, looking relieved to see them. Almost as if she’d been expecting to run into them.

  “Celene?” Brendan said.

  Cordelia recognized her almost as soon as the name left Brendan’s mouth. Of course! It was the girl from Savage Warriors who had stormed Queen Daphne’s castle and helped save all of their lives the first time they’d been trapped inside the book world. It was the girl that Brendan had obviously had a crush on since the moment he first read about her in that book.

  “I’m so glad you’re here!” Celene said, looking more distracted than happy, not even bothering with the usual pleasantries. “You need to come with me; it’s about your little sister, Eleanor. And it’s urgent!”

  “You know where Eleanor is?” Cordelia nearly shouted as they followed Celene’s hurried footsteps through the streets of Tinz. “Tell us!”

  “There’s no time to explain,” Celene shouted back over her shoulder. “It’s better that you hear it from the Aged One.”