The Future King

by James Riley

  “He doesn’t know what’s coming below,” Ellora told her. “And he can’t read my mind, not while I have Dr. Oppenheimer’s amulet on. So I’d guess he’s going to let us get closer to the book, then just take it.”

  They all looked at each other nervously. “Rachel,” Fort said quietly. “Do you think you can take him?”

  “Not even if I was at full strength,” she said. “Maybe Jia and I together might have a chance, but not as tired as I am now.”

  “You’ve got me, as well,” Ellora said. “He doesn’t know Time magic yet and hasn’t had to face one of us. You’ve all seen what we can do.”

  Right! Fort had almost forgotten how powerful Ellora and Simon had been, back in the Deployment Room. Suddenly he didn’t feel quite so doomed. “Okay, so we get to the book as fast as we can, with you and Jia ready to stop Damian if he catches up,” Fort said to Ellora. “Rachel, can you get us down to the tomb?”

  “I was serious when I said you could get a shovel and help!” she shouted, but moved back to digging. “At least Damian’s going to be tired too from making his own tunnel.”

  As she said this, the rumbling above them increased, and they began to hear sounds accompanying it. It almost sounded like … claws scraping against stone.

  “I don’t think he’s using magic,” Fort said, cringing in fear. “We have to go faster.”

  Jia moved to use her Healing magic on Rachel again, while Ellora gave Fort an anxious look. That didn’t bode well, since he was sort of counting on her Time magic to make the difference … not to mention that she could see if they made it or not.

  “Do we get to the book first?” he whispered to her, hoping the others wouldn’t hear over the sounds of the digging.

  “I don’t know,” Ellora said, looking away. “You saw it yourself—the books make it hard to get a clear vision.”

  He turned her to face him. “But you do know something, don’t you. What aren’t you saying?”

  She looked at him, her eyes filled with worry. “He’s going to catch us at the tomb. And from what I can see, we’re not going to stand a chance against him.”

  Fort’s eyes widened; then he stumbled forward as the back of the tunnel reached him, pushing him along. “You’re saying we lose ?” he said as quietly as he could.

  “No, I’m saying he’s going to defeat us easily,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t still get the book. I can see a portal of some kind, all green and glowy. Maybe you teleport him away?”

  “If I did, he’d come right back,” Fort said as the sounds of the clawing grew louder. “He’s got a lot more Summoning spells than I do.”

  “Then we might be in trouble,” Ellora said, swallowing hard.

  “Ellora, we better be going in the right direction,” Rachel said from the front of their tunnel, sounding exhausted. “I’m going to be really annoyed if we missed our turn somewhere along here.”

  Jia continuously sent Healing magic into her, but it seemed to have less effect the more she did it, and Fort started to worry that Rachel might just collapse completely. As soon as she did, they’d have to face Damian here in the tunnel, with one less magic user to stop him.

  Even worse, from the sound of it, Damian’s digging was a lot faster than Rachel’s, as the scratching above them got louder and louder the farther they went. Also, Rachel’s digging seemed to be slowing, as even Jia began to tire from the healing.

  But they couldn’t just run, not now! If Fort teleported them away to escape Damian, they’d be leaving the book of Spirit magic to the dragon, and there’d be no stopping the world war to come. And Fort couldn’t let that happen, especially if it was his fault to begin with, bringing his father back to earth with the discovery of the millennia in his head.

  But what he could do was send his friends out of harm’s way if it got too bad. Damian wouldn’t follow them; he just wanted the book, no matter how angry he was. So if it came down to it, Fort would teleport Jia, Rachel, and Ellora to safety and just find some way to get to the book before Damian.

  If that was even possible.

  Another few minutes passed before Rachel seemed to shudder, then fell onto the floor, struggling to breathe. Fort quickly joined Jia next to her, using his Heal Minor Wounds spell on Rachel just in case it helped. “I’m feeling like … ,” Rachel said, taking in deep breaths, “whoever built this tomb … went too far down!”

  “You can’t sense anything below us?” Fort asked, glancing above them anxiously.

  “I can’t sense … anything right now,” she said. “We could be … on top of it … and I wouldn’t know.”

  She just seemed so done, like she’d used every bit of energy left in her. But without her to dig, there was no way Fort could get the book away from Damian. And that meant he’d have to do something he knew he’d regret.

  “You know, I didn’t honestly think Damian was a better magician than you,” Fort said quietly. “But I guess there’s no denying it now.”

  She looked up at him in surprise, then narrowed her eyes. “That’s low, Fitzgerald.”

  “Oh, is it time for excuses?” Fort asked, trying to hide how nervous he was, though more from Damian’s arrival or poking the bear that was Rachel, he wasn’t exactly sure. “When he gets here, I’ll just tell him this doesn’t count ’cause you felt all sleepies, okay?”

  “Whoa,” Jia said as she and Ellora stepped away from Rachel. “You’re playing with fire, Fort.”

  But Fort stayed put, matching Rachel’s stare. “I’m not afraid of you,” he told her, completely lying. “Damian, sure. He terrifies me. But that’s because he probably doesn’t need a nap before doing his job, you know?”

  Her jaw tightened so hard he thought she might break it, even as the digging above grew so loud it could have been just yards away. “I know what you’re doing, New Kid,” she whispered, low and dangerous. “And you’re so lucky it worked.”

  And with that, she screamed loudly, then reached down and ripped a deep hole in the dirt beneath them.

  Unfortunately, there was nothing on the other side of that hole, and they all immediately tumbled into darkness.

  - TWENTY-FIVE -

  BEFORE THEY COULD FALL TOO far, Fort felt the air around him turn solid as Rachel used it to slow them, then float them down into the darkness until they actually touched ground again. It was impossible to see anything as the firm air that carried them dissipated, since Jia’s blue glow had gone out when the fall had surprised her, but Fort could feel something smooth and flat beneath his feet, like carved stone.

  And that meant they’d found something made by humans. Or at least by magic.

  Rachel ignited a tiny fireball on her palm, which helpfully illuminated the area around them, but also showed just how tired she was. Even if his goading had worked, seeing the exhaustion in her face made Fort feel even guiltier about pushing her so hard.

  But he’d find a way to make it up to her later. For now, they needed to figure out where they were before Damian found them. Rachel’s light revealed they were standing in a small hallway that ran in two directions, both of which were too dark to see very far.

  “You can’t take much more of this,” Jia whispered to Rachel as she sent more Healing magic into the other girl.

  “I can sleep later,” Rachel said, then groaned quietly as she closed off the hole above them.

  “Look at this stonework,” Ellora said, running a hand over the wall. “It’s centuries older than Stonehenge, even. I can feel its age.”

  “It’s a lot easier … to build with magic,” Rachel said, then seemed to stumble for a moment, only for Jia to quickly catch her, putting her shoulder under Rachel’s arm to support her. “Easier doesn’t mean … easy, though.”

  For the first time, Fort realized he wasn’t hearing Damian’s digging above. When had it stopped? Had Damian heard them fall? Probably. Those dragon ears were pretty big. That meant he might be waiting to see what happened to them, in case it was a
trap.

  Or it could be that he was gearing up for one last, big dig, straight for them.

  “We can’t stay here,” Fort said. “Damian wasn’t that far behind us.”

  “Right,” Jia said. “So which way do we go?”

  She had a point. Fort couldn’t see anything down either side of the hallway, and they didn’t have time to try the wrong one, not with Damian just above them.

  And then the sounds of digging returned, and dust began to fall from the ceiling.

  “Ellora, can you check ahead in time to see what we find down each hall?” Fort asked, his heart beating faster with every scraping sound above.

  Ellora’s eyes went dark again, but she frowned. “There’s definitely something blocking me. It’s worse than the books, actually. This isn’t even a fog, so much as just … nothing. I can’t see what happens to us in either hallway.”

  Fort banged his hand against the stone wall in frustration. They had gotten so close, if the hallway was any indication. Why couldn’t its builders have left up a sign or something? THIS WAY TO THE BURIEL CHAMBER the very least.

  And then it hit him. A burial chamber. Maybe they could use that?

  “Jia,” Fort said. “We’re looking for a tomb, which means there are probably dead bodies in it, right?”

  “That’s usually what the word ‘tomb’ means,” Rachel said, but she didn’t even seem to enjoy her mocking, as tired as she was.

  Fort ignored her, concentrating on Jia. “Is there any way to use your magic and try to, I don’t know, animate the bodies? Have the skeletons knock on their caskets or something? If we can hear them, that would tell us which direction to go!”

  Ellora gasped, while Rachel looked disgusted. “Wow, have some respect for the dead, New Kid!”

  “I respect them, but I’d rather not join them,” Fort said, pointing at the ceiling.

  “Ignore them, Fort,” Jia said, looking at him thoughtfully. “They haven’t dealt with bones like we have in class, so they aren’t as used to dead bodies. It might actually work. Let me see what I can find.” She closed her eyes and sent blue light flooding down both corridors.

  They all went silent as the light disappeared into the darkness, trying to listen over the sound of the digging above, which was getting louder and closer with every second. For too long, there was nothing, and Fort began to worry that even if Jia found a skeleton, they wouldn’t be able to hear it, not over Damian’s arrival. But then he caught just the faintest noise off to their right: a very soft scraping of stone on stone.

  “That way!” he shouted. “Run!”

  Now reenergized by Jia’s Healing magic, Rachel immediately pushed past him, leading the way with her light, the others right behind her. Fortunately, the stone was smooth enough that they didn’t have to worry about tripping in what little light the flame gave off, so they could move quickly.

  That was good, because from how loud Damian’s digging was, they didn’t have much time left.

  The scraping of stones grew louder as they ran, until finally they reached an ornate archway that filled the hallway, covered in decorative words in a language Fort didn’t recognize. Beyond the archway, the hall opened up into an enormous room filled with row upon row of stone tombs, each one covered in the same strange writing.

  The scraping noise itself was coming from one of the tombs nearest the archway and grew louder as they entered. Horribly, the lid started to push up and off its stone coffin, skeletal fingers reaching from the darkness within, but before it emerged, Jia canceled her spell, and the lid crashed back down on the tomb.

  They all breathed a sigh of relief at that—until they heard the ceiling crumble deep in the hallway behind them. A loud, angry roar echoed down the stone walls.

  “I’M COMING FOR YOU, HUMANS!”

  “Wow, he’s really just impressed with his own dragon-ness, isn’t he,” Rachel said as she pulled the stone archway down, blocking the entrance. Even that much magic made her sway again, but Jia was there with more Healing magic.

  “There,” Ellora whispered, pointing to the far end of the room, where a raised stone tomb shone in the glow of Rachel’s flame. “That looks like the tomb of a king.”

  Running ahead of the others, Fort saw that she was right: This stone coffin had even more intricate carvings than the rest, including a crown, shield, and sword sculpted into the lid, with the words HIC IACET SEPULTUS INCLITUS REX ARTURIUS IN INSULA AVALONIA carved into a stone cross at the bottom.

  “What does it say?” Fort asked as Ellora reached the tomb. “I don’t know what language that is.”

  “It’s Latin,” Ellora said, running her hand over the writing on the cross. “It says, ‘Here lies the famous King Arthur on the island of Avalon.”

  Fort straightened up in shock. Avalon? That was where the queen was from that the old man in Cyrus’s cottage had told him about. With everything else going on with his father and Damian, he’d almost forgotten about the man’s warnings!

  “Island of Avalon?” Rachel asked, coming up slowly behind them with Jia’s help. “Is this an island? Did I miss something?”

  “Glastonbury Tor was surrounded by marshland in the past, so it looked like an island,” Ellora told her.

  “Or the tomb is trapped, and we’re going to unleash an ocean when we open it that floods the entire country,” Rachel said, then shrugged. “Eh, I guess we’ll learn to swim.” With that, she turned her magic on the stone lid and started to lift it off.

  “Careful,” Jia said, supporting her with Healing magic.

  “Worry about … any ghosts that … might be in here,” Rachel said to her as she floated the coffin lid up and off, laying it gently on the floor.

  But as soon as it landed, Rachel’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell backward into Jia’s arms, her fireball flaming out.

  “Ray!” Jia shouted, the room now lit only by Jia’s Healing magic, which seemed to be having even less effect than before. That probably said more about how badly Rachel’s Elemental magic had wiped her out than the power of Jia’s spells.

  “Forget all of this,” Rachel said drowsily. “I don’t even care if it’s really King Arthur anymore. Just let me sleep.”

  “I’ve got her. You find the book,” Jia told Fort. He nodded, took a deep breath, then cast his own Heal Minor Wounds spell to see by as he leaned over the tomb to look inside.

  He had no idea what to expect, honestly. A fully armored body holding Excalibur? A perfectly preserved King Arthur ready to wake up?

  Instead, all he found was a skeleton lying peacefully, its arms crossed over its chest.

  And that was it.

  “It’s not here!” Fort said, searching the rest of the coffin frantically. But even in the dim light of his spell, he could tell it was empty but for the skeleton.

  “King Arthur’s missing?” Rachel asked in a daze.

  “No, the book of Spirit magic!” he said. “It’s not in the tomb. Nothing is except the skeleton!”

  This couldn’t be happening! Not only was Damian just behind them, but they needed to keep the book of Spirit magic away from him, or the world would go to war, and it’d be all Fort’s fault. There was no way Damian wouldn’t find it on his own if they couldn’t, so they had to figure out where it could be. Had Ellora been wrong about King Arthur having it to begin with?

  Suddenly Fort was ready for Damian to arrive, just so he had something to take out his frustration on.

  Jia gently laid Rachel down on the ground, then moved to join Fort at the tomb. She leaned in and frowned. “Wait, that’s odd. You see it too, Fort?”

  “The skeleton?” he said, staring at the collapsed archway nervously. It’d been too long since they’d heard the ceiling fall in, and Damian had to be getting close. “Ellora, are you sure you saw the book come in here?”

  “They buried him with it, and his sword,” she said, looking nervous now. “I saw it, I swear!”

  Behind him, he heard Jia grunt, and he t
urned to find her leaning so far into the tomb that for a moment he thought she was going to climb in.

  “There’s something off about this skeleton,” Jia’s voice came echoing out of the stone. “It’s not King Arthur, that’s for sure. I don’t even think it’s human.”

  Uh, what now? “Not human? What do you mean?” he shouted. The skeleton didn’t look anything like the dwarf or elfin bones they’d seen on display at the Oppenheimer School, in size if nothing else. And not that his light had been great, but from what Fort had seen, the body looked like a normal, human adult.

  Something hit the stones in the collapsed archway hard enough to shake the entire room, and red light began to glow in from the cracks.

  “We don’t have time for a bones lesson here, Gee!” Rachel said, shakily pushing herself up and off the floor. “Tell me you’ve got something we can use!”

  Jia pulled herself back out, looking excited in spite of the imminent dragon. “I think this skeleton’s been changed somehow, with magic. It looks human on the surface, but everything beneath that is wrong. Let me see if I can change it back to what it’s supposed to be. That might tell us more.”

  The room rumbled again, and the red light grew stronger as Damian dug his way through. “Do it—he’s almost here!” Fort shouted.

  But Jia had already started. As her magic filled the skeleton, it glowed bright blue, then began to shrink slightly, the individual bones getting smaller, more delicate. Finally, her magic faded, leaving behind a skeleton that now did actually resemble one of the elf skeletons they’d seen in the display room, only shorter, almost more Fort’s size than an adult.

  “What is—” Fort started to say, but was silenced by the room shaking so hard that the tomb itself began to move.

  Except this time, it wasn’t Damian’s doing. Instead, the tomb slid to one side, revealing a tiny stone staircase directly beneath where it’d stood.

  But before they could react, Rachel’s collapsed barrier exploded in, showering them with rocks. Fort shouted in surprise and tried to duck, but Rachel was quicker, deflecting the biggest stones with her magic to protect them, while tiring herself out even more.