with rows of dead plants and trees.
She rolled down the long rows as she listened to the awful
sound of beasts fighting in the distance. Being outside was
terrifying, all the more so because she hadn't been outside in so
long. She arrived at the roof's edge and couldn't see over the
ledge. It was too high from where she sat, and she cursed her
chair, hitting the wheels and the handles over and over with her
clenched fists. Then she rolled away, toward the distant side of
the roof, just to be sure the vessel wasn't hidden somewhere
else.
Could she have seen over the rail, Commander Judix would
have caught site of Edgar and his friends emerging from the
yards and standing in front of the Raven. If anything, the millionspiked object seemed even more frightening than when Edgar
had left it in the forsaken wood. There was no person or beast
he could imagine getting within ten feet of its pulsating, needlesharp tips. And yet Edgar knew he must find a way to open the
door, get everyone inside, and set the powder block onto the
black table.
"Don't go anywhere near it," whispered Aggie through her
mask, which she had put back on. She'd never seen anything
quite so threatening.
"It's okay," said Edgar. "I think the Raven is like Gossamer. It's
on our side."
"How do you know that?" It was Teagan in doubt this time.
"What if it starts firing arrows at you?"
Edgar had to admit he'd be cut right through if even one of the
long black spikes fired in his direction. He wouldn't stand a
chance. They heard a crashing sound from the yards and
realized something very big and dangerous was practically on
top of them.
"It's a Spiker!" Vasher struggled to hold the powder block as his
face twitched nervously.
"Open!" Edgar yelled at the Raven, but it just sat there, the long
spikes pulsing horrifically. He turned back to his friends with
searching eyes. The masks were beginning to fail and
everyone was starting to cough. Soon they'd be forced back
inside or risk serious harm. The thought of Aggie and the others
becoming any sicker bothered Edgar tremendously.
"Edgar," said Landon. "What?"
"The door," Landon continued as he pointed past Edgar. "It's
opening."
Edgar spun around and couldn't believe his eyes. "This is going
to work! We're getting out of here," he cried, grinning ear to ear.
But things weren't exactly as he'd hoped when the door slid all
the way open.
"What the devil!" said Red Eye.
"You got me in a lot of trouble!" said Socket. Then, thinking a
tiny bit more, he added: "How did you get all the way out here?"
Socket and Red Eye both wore their usual thick goggles, and
both had their benders out, swishing them from side to side in
the pale light. Every single member of the green team felt a
crushing sense of defeat. They had almost made it, only to find
their tormentors standing in the very place they wanted to be.
"You don't know how to operate it," said Edgar. He wasn't about
to give up that easily.
"Shut your mouth!" said Socket. "You're in enough trouble as it
is."
Red Eye rolled his eyes at his brother. They were so far beyond
ever being able to go back to the Silo and life the way it had
been. He was only interested in one thing: getting to Atherton.
"You know how to run it?" asked Red Eye, who had been
utterly confounded by the inner workings of the Raven and its
vast black, blank surfaces. It had moved of its own will to arrive
near the yards.
"I know exactly how to operate that thing," said Edgar. "And
what's more, I know how to take it to Atherton."
"Atherton?" said Socket. "You're kidding?"
Edgar shook his head. "If you don't know what you're doing
you'll never make it. It's complicated."
Red Eye weighed his options before answering with a growl.
"You can come, but the rest stay."
"No!" yelled Landon. He couldn't imagine being left behind on
the Dark Planet.
Socket moved forward and swung his bender with a swish!
swish!
"Shut up! You're staying here and that's the last of it."
Above the Raven, Commander Judix had heard the voices
growing in volume and had made her way back to the rail. She
grabbed it and hauled herself out of her chair.
And there it was. Outlined in the murky light of afternoon sat the
jet-black vessel that had come to take her away. She was,
unfortunately, incapable of climbing down to the ground to
reach it.
Commander Judix watched in disbelief as Red Eye and Socket
stood in front of a group of children from the Silo. When she saw
Edgar, even through the haze, she knew it was him. Her anger
flared and she screamed.
"Red Eye!"
Red Eye, Socket, and all the children looked up and couldn't
believe their eyes.
"Commander?" said Red Eye. "Is that you?"
"Of course it's me! Get up here and carry me down!"
Socket wanted nothing at all to do with Commander Judix. He
retreated into the Raven and stood in the shadows as his
brother approached the Commander.
"You don't really think I'm taking you with me?" said Red Eye.
He had longed for a moment like this. Never in his wildest
dreams did he think it would come true, and with such
perfection! He was leaving the wretched Dark Planet for a
waiting paradise and she--this monster of a woman who had
treated him like dirt for far too long--she was trapped on the roof
of Station Seven.
"You will come here this instant," said Commander Judix in her
most authoritative tone. But for once the voice failed her. Not
only did Red Eye refuse to bring her to the Raven, he laughed
at her. He snorted and wheezed until the dirty air burned so
badly in his lungs he had to stop.
And that was when he heard it, the presence of a Spiker. It was
closer than anyone had thought, and just then, its enormous
clawed foot came down next to the Raven. The Raven wasted
no time in response. A series of at least thirty black spikes shot
out at lightning speed and sliced right through the Spiker,
piercing through the other side of its leg. The monster shrieked
and hobbled a few paces off to lick its wounds.
In all the commotion Edgar waved his friends through the door
and into the Raven. Vasher clutched the powder block close to
his chest.
Socket stood in the corner, shivering with fright and staring at
the black ceiling, which had begun to glow. Two cave eels
stared him down as if they might jump out from behind the glass
and chomp off his head with their sharp teeth at any second.
"Don't move," said Edgar, tricking Socket into believing he
might actually be in danger. "If you do, they'll tear your limbs
off."
Red Eye came briskly into the Raven and Edgar kept the ruse
going.
"He better stay still, and so should you," said Edgar, acting as if
the slightest movement might trigger an unexpected attack. "We
all need to be slow and careful now. You won't like what
happens if they get angry."
Red Eye's breathing slowed and he stayed very still.
"You better not be trying to trick me."
From outside they heard Commander Judix screaming for them
to come get her. Edgar felt a pang of guilt at leaving her behind,
but if she returned to Station Seven, there was yet a chance she
could be saved.
Edgar slowly placed the disk on the black table in the middle of
the Raven, and the door began to shut.
"At least we won't have to listen to her howling any longer," said
Red Eye.
Aggie thought this was one of the meanest things she'd ever
heard anyone say. With a Spiker so close by, she could
imagine the poor woman's panic. She had known the feeling of
being left behind to fend for herself on her long walk through the
wood on her way to the Silo. She wouldn't wish it on anyone, no
matter how cruel they'd been.
The table burst to life and Edgar saw the images of everything
he'd seen before.
"When I do this, you're probably going to see a lot more
creatures than you see right now," said Edgar. "After everyone
is settled in I'll start things moving. You're going to feel as if the
chair you're sitting in is trying to pull your pants off."
"What?" said Red Eye.
"Shhhhh!" whispered Edgar. "They hate loud noises."
As if to prove his point an eel emerged behind the glass near
Red Eye's head and stared down at him. Edgar turned and
winked again at the green team and they took some
reassurance that every thing would be fine. "Slowly now," said
Edgar. Red Eye was wary of moving while the cave eel
watched him, but he gathered his courage and slid down into
one of the chairs.
"Nice to see you brought something for me to eat," said Red
Eye, seeing the powder block sitting on Vasher's lap. Vasher's
twitching had calmed and he actually glared at Red Eye. There
was no way he was giving up this treasure so it could be eaten
for lunch.
"I'm not moving," whined Socket from where he'd slumped
down on the floor. A glowing cave eel was trained on Socket's
head from behind the black glass.
"I don't recommend that," said Edgar. "The Raven gets moving
pretty fast. It will be nothing like what you experienced getting
from the forsaken wood to here."
But Socket wouldn't move.
Edgar shrugged his shoulders, actually feeling a little bit guilty
at what was about to happen.
"Stay in your seats," he said, placing his hand over the twirling
snowflake. He thought twice about it and looked at Vasher.
"Why don't you set that down on the table here? You're not
going to want to carry it all the way to Atherton."
"Yeah," said Red Eye, leaning forward menacingly. "Set it
down so we can al have some."
Vasher held his arms out and gently set the heavy powder
block on the table. The moment he did all the firebugs
dispersed at once. They formed a column below the surface of
the table and the powder block began to melt away, like it was
sitting on a bed of acid. It hissed and smoked while the firebugs
grew brighter and brighter until everyone but Edgar had to look
away. He alone saw as they changed from blue to a brilliant
shade of red.
"You can look now," said Edgar, and everyone turned back to
the table. All the images were back in place as before, but now
every thing was a soft glowing shade of red. And there was one
new item that hadn't been there before. It was the only thing
Edgar had ever seen made of white firebugs: a shimmering
snowflake pulsing from the bottom of the image of Atherton.
Edgar tapped it, and the inside of the Raven came to life.
Eels swam every where and firebugs multiplied until it looked
like a star-filled night all around them. The two eels that had
watched Socket darted off with the rest, gobbling up red
firebugs by the hundreds as the Raven began to move. Edgar
felt the seat hug him close, pulling him down and holding him
steady. Everyone gasped at the feeling except Socket, who
wasn't seated in a chair and seemed not to understand what
was about to happen.
The Raven shot into the air, spinning as it gained speed on its
way to break out of the Dark Planet's at mo sphere. Socket
tumbled end over end and found himself pinned to the glass.
His goggles flew off and smashed into one of the chairs. He
was a man in a tumbler, spinning circles at the back end of the
vessel while everyone watched from the safety of their seats.
"I tried to warn him," said Edgar.
Red Eye scowled deeply at Edgar. He couldn't wait until his
seat let him go so he could beat the boy senseless. The last
thing he'd done was to slowly put his bender away, so at least
his favorite weapon hadn't been lost. "When we get to Atherton,
you better run," said Red Eye. "All of you better run!"
"I don't think it will be us doing the running," said Landon. "Just
you wait until you meet Gossamer. He doesn't like adults,
especially mean ones like you."
"I never met anyone as dumb as you, Lanny," said Red Eye.
"Let me spell it out for you. There's no such thing as dragons.
Got it?"
Landon didn't say anything else. In fact, everyone seemed
perfectly happy to stay quiet as the Raven started its journey
across the sky. Even Socket had settled into a comfortable spot,
curled up like a baby at the bottom of the ship.
Commander Judix slumped down in her chair and watched the
Raven leave the Dark Planet. It was, in her view, the final insult.
She had long been a cold and calculating person, and yet she
had never given in to the darkness entirely. She would
remember her mother's touch or the voice of a lost friend, and
the tiniest bit of hope would return. But in that moment of
watching the Raven fly away, the Dark Planet had finally won.
She felt nothing. When the Spiker leaned down and caught
sight of her, she was unmoved at its arrival. There would be
pain, but at least she would feel something in the end.
She felt the Spiker's huge nose sniffing at her hair, and then, to
her great surprise, she began to cry.
CHAPTER 27THE CHILL OF
WINTER
"Wake up," said Samuel. "Isabel, wake up!"
He prodded her shoulder and felt Gossamer's warm breath on
his neck. The black dragon had awoken first, nudging Samuel
where he lay curled up next to Isabel, nestled safely in one of
Gossamer's warm wings.
For two days they'd been stranded with the great dragon, the
sound of falling crystals a constant reminder of how completely
trapped they were. They feared being stuck inside Atherton until
they starved to death, and tried without much success not to
dwell on how worried their parents must be. One thing was for
sure: If they ever did make it out alive, they were in big trouble.
r /> "He wants us to move," Samuel said as Isabel rubbed her eyes
and woke up.
"Do you hear that?" asked Samuel. Isabel was slower to wake
than Samuel was and she wasn't sure what he was talking
about. "It's quiet. "
Isabel and Samuel carefully crept down the wing and stepped
aside. They heard the faraway sound of two or three crystals
falling from the ceiling.
"He's stopped trying to keep us here," said Samuel. "Maybe
he's thinking about taking us back the way we came. We might
actually get out of here alive!"
When they were clear of Gossamer's spiked head and neck he
stood and lumbered heavily away from them. The space they
were in was vast and brightly lit. On one end was the wide
opening to the outside of Atherton, on the other was the vast
wall of pulsing white light. Samuel and Isabel had watched it for
hours and wondered what its purpose could be. The more they
looked the more they were sure that Cleaners were swimming
behind the white wall in the deepest part of the waters of
Atherton. It was a thick, foggy sort of glass that hid them in
shadow, a glass that was covered with billions of sharp spires.
"What's he looking at?" asked Samuel. Gossamer wasn't one to
leave their side, but something had caught his attention at the
opening.
"What is it, Gossamer? Do you hear something?" asked Isabel.
Everything had turned unnervingly silent, and Samuel was left
with the distinct feeling he and Isabel should hide. "I have a
feeling something's about to happen," he said.
"Maybe we should step back a little," said Isabel, fear rising in
her voice. They looked in every direction. There was the
towering wall of icy glass crystals, the small passageway to the
side where they'd come in, and the vast opening to the outside.
They had stayed well away from the opening for all of the two
days they'd been there, because they knew the closer they got
the harder gravity would try to pull them out into open air.
Samuel and Isabel were both shuffling back slowly when
Gossamer roared into the open space outside. It was hard to
imagine anyone on the surface of Atherton not hearing the
crushing volume of the black dragon's voice.
"Why's he screaming so loud?" yelled Samuel, but Isabel
couldn't hear him.
Gossamer flapped his leathery wings and dove for the opening.
"Where's he going?" yelled Isabel. She had been afraid before,
but now she was terrified. "Don't leave! Please, Gossamer.