The Isle of the Lost

  And the more numbers he recited, the easier it was to put one foot in front of the other.

  Which is exactly what he did.

  Carlos stepped up on to the first stone paver that led to the sloping bridge. Just as he did, the stone gargoyles began to flap their wings in front of them.

  “Whoa!” Jay said.

  “No,” Evie said. “Just, no.”

  “How is this possible?” asked Jay. “There’s no magic on the island.”

  “The hole in the dome,” said Carlos. “It must have sparked the castle to life or something, like a chemical reaction.” It made sense—not only had Diablo been unfrozen, but the whole fortress as well.

  Carlos moved his way up the next step, and then the next, until he was standing level with the main ramp of the bridge itself. Mal and Evie and Jay now followed behind him.

  The creatures growled as they came to life around them, the bridge rumbling beneath their feet. The gryphons’ horrible eyes glowed green, illuminating the fog around them, until they were practically shining a spotlight on the four intruders. The gargoyles uncurled their hunched backs, now almost doubling themselves in height.

  Evie was right, Carlos thought. They were really ugly things, with snaggly teeth and forked tongues. He couldn’t look away from the hideous faces hovering over him. “This must be residue, left over from the magical years,” he said. “Whatever did this was probably part of the same power that sparked Diablo to life.”

  “The same power?” Mal looked spellbound. “You mean, my mother’s?”

  “Or the same electromagnetic wave.” Carlos thought about his last Weird Science class. “I’m not sure how to tell the difference anymore.”

  Jay swallowed as a gargoyle leaned down, looking as if it could spring at Carlos at any moment. “Right now, I’m pretty sure the difference doesn’t matter.”

  “Who goes there?” boomed the gargoyle to the right of Carlos.

  “You cannot pass,” said the one on his left.

  “Yeah? Says who?” Carlos took a step back, as did the rest of the group following behind him. They looked at each other nervously, unsure of what to do next. They hadn’t known about the gargoyles, hadn’t expected a fight. This was going to be more difficult than they expected, maybe even impossible.

  But it didn’t matter. Even Carlos knew there was no turning back now.

  “You ugly things need to move!” said Mal, shouting from behind him. She glared at the gryphons. “Or I’m going to make you!”

  The gargoyles growled and grimaced, flapping their stone wings as a threat.

  “Any ideas?” Carlos looked over his shoulder nervously. “We don’t have weapons or magic. What would we fight with? Besides, how do we fight something made of stone?”

  “There has to be a way,” Mal said. “We have to pass!” she shouted again. “Let us through!”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure that’s working.” Evie sighed.

  The gargoyles glared at the children with glowing eyes, their fangs bared, their stony wings beating the wind. “You cannot pass,” they said again in unison—and just as the creatures spoke, the thick gray clouds surrounding the long stone ramp dissipated, revealing a gap in the bridge, a forty-foot gulf with nothing below but air.

  The bridge was broken, virtually impassable.

  “Great,” Jay said. “So it’s over. Fine. Whatever. Can we go now?”

  The others just stared.

  Carlos had to admit Jay was probably right.

  There was no apparent way to reach the castle. They had come all this way only to fail. Even if they could pass the gargoyles, there was no way to cross the bridge since there was no bridge. It was hopeless. Their journey was ended before it had truly begun.

  Carlos stepped back and noticed something carved in the stones at the foot of the bridge. He sat down to read it.

  “What is it?” Mal asked, kneeling next to him.

  He brushed away the dirt and moss to reveal a sentence carved in the stones: Ye who trespass the bridge must earn the right of way.

  “Great. So what are those, like, directions?” Mal looked at the others. “What does that mean? How do we earn the right of way?”

  Evie shook her head as she glanced back up at the gargoyles and the broken bridge. “I don’t know, Mal. We don’t seem to have earned anything.”

  “And technically, we are trespassers,” Jay said.

  Evie frowned. “I think we should go. Maybe the bridge was destroyed—maybe it’s been like this for years. Maybe no one gets in and out now.”

  “No. Those words have to mean something. But is it a riddle, or a warning?” Mal asked. She looked at the gap in the bridge and pushed her way past the others, toward the edge. She was determined to figure it out.

  “What are you doing?” Carlos yelled. “Mal, wait! You’re not thinking straight.”

  But she couldn’t wait, and she didn’t stop.

  He took a step back, Jay and Evie flanking him. “Go after her,” Carlos said. “Pull her from the break in the stone before she falls. This is crazy.”

  Jay nodded and followed her.

  “It’s so sad,” Evie said. “To have come this far.”

  “I know. But half a bridge might as well be no bridge at all,” Carlos muttered. He put down his machine and turned it off so that he wouldn’t have to listen to its beeping. The noise of the sensor—more proof of how close they’d come to finding the source of the power—only made things that much worse.

  The moment Carlos killed the machine, the light in the gargoyles’ eyes faded. The eerie green glow receded back into their black stone sockets.

  “Wait—did you just—”

  Carlos looked incredulous. “Turn off the monsters? I think so.” He called out to Mal, who was now standing with Jay, just a few feet from the break in the stone ramp. “They’re like big doorbells, Mal. When we try to cross, they turn on. When we go to leave, they turn off.”

  “So they’re another defense mechanism?” Evie looked unconvinced.

  “Maybe.” Carlos studied the bridge. “Anything’s possible. At least, that’s what I’m starting to think.”

  Mal came running back. “So maybe it’s just a test. Look,” she said, approaching the gargoyles, their eyes once more glowing. “Ask me your questions!” she called up to the guardians of the bridge. “Let us earn the right of way.”

  But the gargoyles didn’t answer her.

  “Maybe you’re not turning it on right,” Evie said.

  “Maybe this is just a waste of time.” Jay sighed.

  “No, it’s not,” Mal said, giving them a beseeching look. “This is my mother’s castle. We’ve found it, and there has to be a way in. Look at the inscription on the stone—it has to be some kind of test.”

  Jay spoke up. “Carlos said they’re like a doorbell. But what if they’re not? What if they’re like the alarm system in a house? All we would have to know to disable them is the code.” He shrugged. “I mean, that’s what I would do, if I was trying to break in.”

  Of any of us, he would know, Carlos thought.

  “So what’s the code?” Mal turned back to the gargoyles, her eyes blazing. “Tell me, you idiots!”

  She drew herself up to her full height and spoke in a voice that Carlos knew well. It was how Cruella spoke to him, and how Maleficent spoke to her minions from the balcony. He was impressed. He’d never seen Mal so like her mother as now.

  Mal did not ask the gargoyles, she commanded them.

  “This is my mother’s castle, and you are her servants. You will do as I bid. ASK YOUR RIDDLE AND LET US PASS!” she ordered, looking as if she were home—truly home—for the first time.

  Because, as they could all now see, she was.

  A moment went by.

  The mists swirled, in the background, ravens cawed, and green light pulsed in the distant windows of the castle.

  “Carlosssssssss,” hissed the gargoyles, in disturbingly creepy unison. “Approaaaach ussssssss.
”

  Hearing his name, Carlos took a step forward with an awestruck look on his face. “Why me?”

  “Maybe because you touched the step first? So the alarm is set on Carlos mode?” Jay scratched his head. “Better you than me, man.”

  “Time for the pass code.” Mal nodded. “You got this, Carlos.”

  Then the gargoyles began to hiss again. “Carlosssssss. First quesssssstion…”

  Carlos took a breath. It was just like school, he thought. He liked school. He liked answering questions that had answers, right? So wasn’t this just another question? That needed just another answer?

  “Ink spot in the snow

  Or red, rough, and soft

  Black and wet, warm and fast

  Loved and lost—What am I?”

  No sooner had the gargoyles stopped speaking than rumbling began beneath their feet. “Carlos!” Evie cried, stumbling as she tried to stand in place.

  “What?” Carlos ran his hand through his hair anxiously. His mind was reeling.

  Ink is black. Snow is white. What’s red and rough? A steak? Who loves a steak? We haven’t had those in a while, anyway. And what does any of this have to do with me?

  “Answer the question!” Mal said. The light was once more fading from the gargoyles’ eyes.

  “It’s—” said Carlos, stalling. He was stuck.

  Black. White. Spots. Red. Loved. Lost.

  “The puppies. My mother’s puppies, the Dalmatians. All one hundred and one of them. All loved and all lost, by her.” He looked up at the stone faces. “Though I think the love part is debatable.”

  Silence.

  “Do I need to say the names? Because I swear I can tell them to you, every last one of them.” He took a breath. “Pongo. Perdita. Patch. Lucky. Roly Poly. Freckles. Pepper…” When he had finished speaking, the mist once more congealed around the bridge. Carlos let out a sigh.

  It hadn’t worked.

  “Wait!” Mal said, pointing to the spot where the mists had congealed. “It’s doing something.” The gray mist parted, revealing a new section of the bridge, a piece that had not existed a moment ago.

  The gargoyles cleared a path, and the four of them ran out onto it, hurrying to the newly formed edge, waiting for the next question.

  “NEXT RIDDLE!” Mal demanded, just as a ferocious wind blew at them. Carlos was beginning to get the feeling the bridge had more than a few ways of getting rid of unwanted visitors. He swallowed.

  They needed to hurry.

  Or rather, he did.

  “Carlossssssss. Next quessssssstion.”

  He nodded.

  “Like a rose in a blizzard

  It blooms like a cut

  A red smear

  Her kiss is death,”

  the gargoyles hissed in their eerie unison, turning to face them, claws raised. Their muscles flexed and their tails whipped, their forked tongues raking their fangs. It looked as if they might pounce at any moment.

  Once again, the bridge began to shift beneath their feet.

  “‘Her kiss is death,’” echoed Carlos. “It has to be about my mother. Is that the answer? Cruella De Vil?”

  The bridge began to shake even harder.

  Wrong answer.

  “But it is about your mother!” said Evie, suddenly. “A rose in a blizzard, it blooms like a cut…her kiss…it’s about what color lipstick she wears! Cruella’s signature red!”

  Carlos was dumbfounded. “It is?”

  “A red smear—see? It means it’s something she puts on. Oh, I know what it is!” Evie said. “The answer is Cherries in the Snow! That has to be it; it’s been everywhere this season. I mean—judging from what’s been thrown away on the Dumpster barges.”

  Mal rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you know that.”

  The wind whipped up again, and the four of them locked hands, holding on to one another for support. They pressed their shoulders together, bracing themselves against the gale.

  Evie cursed. “It’s not Cherries in the Snow? I could swear that was it. Red with a pinkish undertone. No, wait—wait—it didn’t have a pink undertone, it was darker. Redder. A ‘true red’—what did the magazines call it? Frost and Flame? No—Fire and Ice! That’s it! Cruella’s pout is made of Fire and Ice!”

  The gargoyles paused, their eyes glowing. They stood in place as the mist once more congealed around the bridge, then thinned to reveal another new section.

  Carlos relaxed. Jay whooped—and even Mal clapped Evie on the back as they advanced across the bridge.

  One more answered question, and the way would be clear.

  “Ask your last riddle!” Mal charged them.

  The gargoyles looked crafty.

  “Carlosssssss. Last quesssssstion.”

  He nodded.

  Mal looked at him encouragingly.

  Here it goes, one last time.

  “Dark is her heart

  Black like the sky above

  Tell us, young travelers—

  What is her one true love?”

  The creatures hissed in unison, and as soon as they finished speaking, they walked toward the four, teeth shining, claws raised, wings flapping. The gargoyles would tear them to shreds if Carlos answered incorrectly—the four of them saw that now.

  Carlos had to get it right, not just to cross the bridge but to keep them all alive. “‘Dark is her heart’—they must mean Maleficent, right?” He turned to Mal. “But it could mean any of our mothers.”

  “My mother has no true love. My mother loves nothing and nobody! Not even me!” said Mal, with a slight pang that Carlos knew all too well.

  “Don’t look at me. I don’t even have a mother,” Jay said.

  “Beauty!” Evie called out. “That’s mine. I know…it’s a little cliché.”

  But the gargoyles were not interested in anything anyone had to say. Coming closer, parting the mists, their tails swishing: “WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE?” they demanded, looking from Evie to Carlos to Mal to Jay.

  “My father?” Mal ventured.

  Carlos shook his head. If Maleficent was anything like Cruella, she hated Mal’s father with a vengeance. Cruella had forbidden any questions about his own, no matter how curious Carlos was, how much he wanted to know. As far as Cruella was concerned, Carlos was hers alone. Maleficent had to be the same.

  The gargoyles were nearly upon them. They were taller than Carlos had realized, maybe eight or nine feet. They were enormous, and their weight made the bridge groan beneath their every step.

  Carlos didn’t think even the periodic tables could help him now.

  “WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE?” the gargoyles asked again, extending their massive wings. When they flapped, the mists swirled about them.

  “The Dragon’s Eye?” Mal guessed. “That’s all my mom cares about.”

  “Being the Fairest One of All!” Evie shouted. “Her, or me. In that order!”

  Jay just shrugged. “I can’t help. I’m pretty sure the answer isn’t Jafar, Prince of Pajamas.”

  At first it looked as if the gargoyles were shaking their heads, but Carlos realized it was because the bridge was rumbling so much. Everything was quaking, and the gargoyles were nearly upon them. His teeth began to clatter. Evie lost her balance and slipped, almost falling over the side, but Carlos caught her in time. Jay held on to a crumbling post and held out his hand so that Carlos could hold on to him, forming a link to Evie.

  “Hurry! Somebody’d better come up with something,” Jay grunted. “I can’t hold on much longer.”

  Evie screamed as she dangled off the bridge, Carlos clinging to one of her blue gloves, which she was slipping out of, one finger at a time.

  “THINK, MAL! What does Maleficent love?” Carlos yelled. “She has to love SOMETHING!”

  “WHAT IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE? ANSWER THE RIDDLE OR FALL INTO DARKNESS,” the gargoyles intoned.

  “Diablo?” Mal screamed. “Is it Diablo?”

  In answer, the bridge buckled unde
r her feet, and Mal slid down, only by luck managing to hold on to Jay, who was anchoring everyone. The entire castle was shaking. Stones flew down from its ramparts, and the towers threatened to crumble on top of them.

  The bridge began to sway dangerously.

  “Wait!” screamed Jay. “You guys! They’re not talking about Maleficent! They’re still talking about Cruella! Quick—Carlos—what is her one true love?”

  Carlos couldn’t think. He was too scared. He couldn’t even put a sentence together. And he was even more frightened by what the answer would be.

  Maybe that was why he hadn’t guessed right, this time.

  I can’t bear to say it out loud.

  Jay’s voice echoed. “CARLOS! WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER’S ONE TRUE LOVE?”

  He had to say it.

  He’d almost always known.

  Sometimes, like this afternoon, he would think she meant him, but he really knew better.

  Because she never meant him.

  Not once. Not ever.

  Carlos opened his eyes. He had to say it, and he had to say it now.

  “HER FURS! FUR IS HER ONE TRUE LOVE!” he yelled. She said it all the time. She had said it that afternoon in front of everyone.

  “All my mother cares about is her stupid fur coat closet and everything in it. But you guys already know that.”

  It was the truth, and like any truth, it was powerful.

  In the blink of an eye, the four of them were standing on the other side of the gargoyle bridge, and everything was set to rights once more. There was no more swaying or rumbling, no one was falling over the side, and the gargoyles had all turned back to stone.

  Although Carlos would swear that one of the stone gargoyles had winked at him.

  They were safe, for now.

  “Nice work,” said Mal, breathing heavily. “Okay, now—where to?”

  Carlos shakily looked at the beeping box in his hands. “This way.”

  The Forbidden Fortress lived up to its name. Once the four adventurers had found their way in through its massive oaken doors, it was almost impossible to tell the darkness of the shadow world outside the castle from the shadow world within. Either way, it was intimidatingly dark, and the farther Jay and Carlos and Evie and Mal crept inside, the more their nervous whispers echoed through the ghostly, abandoned chambers.