Ambush

  I stopped my descent to pull out my second flashlight from my pocket. I flipped it on and marveled at the ivy cocoon I was in. I could have let go of the sides completely and not fallen more than a few inches due to all the growth. I suddenly wished I lived on the Isle of Man in the middle of the Irish Sea like my ancestors had. I wished I could farm and grow things that didn’t ultimately destroy towns and families.

  I kept going down.

  It was warm now; the ivy and depth made the chute feel humid. I could see only a pinpoint of light above where the opening was. The thought of having to climb up was a little daunting, but I put it out of my mind and continued to descend.

  “This is crazy,” I said as I climbed down. “I’m going to end up in China.”

  I could no longer see any light above, and my mind was beginning to play tricks on me. For a moment I couldn’t tell if I was going up or down. The ivy shivered, and I thought it was going to wither and die and leave me down here to do the same.

  I was just about to give up and begin climbing back out when my right foot hit the bottom. I stretched down and felt around with my left foot. The bottom wasn’t even, and when I shined my light at it, I could see that the ivy growing out of the dirt was surrounded by shattered pieces of the clay pot.

  The chute actually curved a bit and headed sideways in a different direction. I couldn’t see the stone or any of the other things I had thrown down.

  It was too small of a space to kneel down, so I scooted my legs into where the chute was running sideways. I then sat on the pile of dirt and pot and reached into the curve of the shaft to see if I could feel anything. My hand touched something plastic and I pulled out the flashlight I had thrown down earlier. The front of it was shattered, and the case was cracked. I set it down and felt farther into the chute.

  I could feel the stone.

  The moment I touched it, a small charge of electricity shot through my arms and made my entire body shiver. I reached farther and wrapped my fingers around it. I pulled it out of the chute and into my lap.

  My brain and heart began to send pulses of excitement and exhilaration to each other. I suddenly couldn’t remember why I had ever tossed this down here. This stone belonged to me. It would be a perversion of thought to not plant it and let it bring forth what it needed to. What kind of farmer doesn’t plant all his seeds?

  I heard a strange, almost maniacal laughing and realized it was me.

  “Whoa,” I whispered. “I might need help.”

  I pulled myself up and back onto my feet. I shoved the stone into the right front pocket of my jeans. It was too large to fit all the way in, but it was in enough to allow me to make the trip back up the shaft. I turned off my flashlight and put it in my other pocket. I then began to climb.

  I don’t know if it was the joy of having the stone back, or the odd excitement of the moment, but something made the climb up faster than the one down. The ivy was so easy to hold onto, and in no time at all I could see the pinhole of light up ahead. I pushed myself, climbing as fast as I could. Soon the light was brighter, and I began to reach as high as I could for every hold, pulling myself up at a terrific clip.

  When I reached the opening, I allowed myself to laugh again. This time, however, it was a little less maniacal. I crawled out of the chute and fell onto the floor. I grabbed the stone out of my pocket and looked at it in awe.

  “Why did I ever let you go?” I questioned.

  Of course if Kate were here, I would have had someone reminding me exactly why. But Kate wasn’t here, and the stone and I were reunited. Now I simply needed the right place to plant it. I wasn’t worried. It seemed as if the whole of nature was out to help me, and, to be quite honest, I was too hopped up on stone magic to recognize that just maybe it was helping me to my demise.

  Naomi recognized the changes and dark moods of Bruno. It was her suggestion and push that caused him to finally plant the stone. As his aunt, she had always spoken her mind.

  Chapter 15

  Slow Down

  So, I spent the rest of the afternoon in my room staring at the rock and trying to figure out what to do next. I now needed a place to plant the stone. I considered the conservatory in the back gardens, but Scott was a problem, and even though people didn’t come around anymore to snoop and check things out, there was still the possibility of strangers finding it. I could have taken the stone back up to the cave, but there was no food there to feed the dragon, and it was such a journey to get there each time. I wanted to find a place with fewer stairs to climb.

  There was a knock at my door. I took the stone and pushed it under my bed.

  “Come in.”

  Kate entered.

  I had lost track of the time, so seeing her was a surprise. It was much later in the afternoon than I had realized.

  Kate gave me a pile of homework that my teachers had put together for me to work on while in exile. She then filled me in on the day at Callowbrow. According to her, most of the students had been forced to help with the cleanup of the rogue corn. She also warned me about how everyone thought the mess was my fault and how they all now wanted to personally show me how ungrateful they were.

  “I didn’t do it,” I reassured her. “You told everyone that, right?”

  Kate just stared at me.

  “So you didn’t defend my honor?” I asked halfway joking.

  “I might have,” Kate said. “But I wasn’t completely sure you didn’t do it.”

  “You think I snuck down there last night and broke into my own locker?”

  “You do forget your combination a lot.”

  She was right about that.

  “If it wasn’t you, then who?” Kate asked.

  “You saw all the corn,” I reminded her. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I bet they were looking for the stone. The plants are restless. They want me to plant that stone.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t decide to hide it in your locker,” Kate said. “The last thing we need is the danger that stone would bring if you planted it.”

  “Right,” I laughed nervously. “I mean that would be terrible—or would it?” I asked casually, trying to test the water and see if there was any part of her that wanted me to plant it.

  Kate stared at me again. “It would be terrible. Do you remember how close we came to dying last time?”

  “Vaguely,” I joked.

  “You’ve ended it,” Kate reminded me. “You put to rest what your entire family never had the courage to do. That’s impressive.”

  I was beginning to feel a little guilty, knowing the stone I had so valiantly gotten rid of was currently under my bed.

  “Let’s not talk about that,” Kate said cheering up. “I can’t stay long, but I want to see the elevator.”

  I sat there silently on my bed in thought. I wanted desperately to tell Kate about the stone. I wanted her to know what my father had said and for her to understand how important it was for me to have retrieved it. I needed her to help me figure out where to grow it and then help me raise the beast that came out. I wanted all that desperately, but I was too scared to say anything. I knew Kate had the power to talk me out of things, but I also knew that this was something that had to happen.

  “Are you all right?” Kate asked me.

  “Fine,” I said, shaking my reflective mood off. “Let’s go see the elevator.”

  There was a hidden staircase behind a false wall down the hall from my room. Kate and I had found it a few months ago. It was really thin and only went as high as the fifth floor, where it came out in a storage room. It was terribly narrow and dark, so we hadn’t spent a lot of time using it. But since the elevator was on the fifth floor, it was perfect. We slid the false wall back, climbed the stairs, and came out three doors down from the bathroom where the elevator closet was.

  “Wyatt wanted to ride the bus and come see you today,” Kate said as we walked into the bathroom. “I told him you couldn’t have visitors. I want to investigate thi
s without him.”

  “So you lied to be alone with me?” I asked happily.

  “Something like that,” Kate replied.

  We opened the closet door and took out the shelves. We stood in the closet and pressed the button once again. The metal gate dropped down. I pushed the button again, but nothing happened. We scoured every inch and part of the closet again, hoping that there was some clue to making this thing work.

  “Maybe we should tear open the wall below this floor to see if we can find something that might help us figure this out?” I suggested.

  “Yeah,” Kate said. “Thomas and Wane will never discover that.”

  “I’m just saying,” I said. “It’s an elevator. There has to be some way to get it to run.”

  “Wait,” Kate said, as if she had just thought of something. “Wouldn’t an elevator need some sort of electricity to work?”

  I looked at her and smiled. “Could it be that easy?”

  “Maybe,” Kate said, smiling back.

  “The power for this floor is probably shut off,” I told her. “But I know where the fuse box is.”

  “Nice,” Kate said happily. “Lead the way.”

  My heart began to race. I felt like I did when I was playing a video game and I had just figured out a clue that had stumped me forever. The moment before I actually tried out my theory was always the best, because in that moment there was the possibility that I would soon be opening new doors and levels. Now we had a solid idea that just might bring the elevator to life. If it worked, it would take us to levels in the manor we might not have seen before.

  My heart raced even faster.

  I led Kate to the first floor and past the main kitchen. I could hear Millie stirring something. We moved slowly and carefully so as not to make our presence known. I lifted my finger to my lips and waved with my other hand, instructing Kate to follow.

  Past the kitchen there was a large wooden door with a gold handle and chipped door frame. I turned the knob and pushed the door open. I could hear the faint sound of a clock ticking, and a fly was banging up against a far window, trying repeatedly to get out.

  We closed the door behind us.

  “The laundry room?” Kate asked quietly.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “Right over there.”

  On the wall near the window was a large flat metal box. I pulled the front of the metal box open. Before us were most of the switches and breakers that controlled the electricity in the manor.

  “Do you know anything about electricity?” Kate asked.

  “Not really,” I admitted, looking closely at all the switches. “I know that one Ben guy invented it.”

  “You mean discovered,” Kate said.

  “Right, that’s what I said.”

  We both silently began to study the large selection of switches and breakers. There was a number near most of the switches. On the back side of the metal door was a list to what the number corresponded with. I thought that would help us figure it out, but the penmanship was so fancy and the words were so covered in grime that I couldn’t read most of them.

  “Does that say bathroom?” Kate asked, pointing at a dirt-covered word.

  “I think that says, ‘Beaker’s room.’”

  “Who’s Beaker?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe it does say bathroom. What’s that word?”

  “Mush?” Kate guessed.

  “Really?” I said, laughing.

  Kate stretched out the sleeve on her shirt and took hold of it with her fingers. She rubbed the list on the back side of the metal door, attempting to clean it up a bit. While she did that, I used my fingers to brush off and clean some of the dirt-covered numbers next to the switches.

  “This is ridiculous,” I complained. “Some of this dirt is probably hundreds of years old. I say we just flip all the switches on.”

  “You don’t think Millie will notice that?” Kate asked. “Suddenly the manor is bright with light?”

  “She’s kinda old,” I reasoned. “Maybe she’ll just think she’s having a stroke, or seeing a vision.”

  “It’s a bad idea, Beck,” Kate said, reminding me yet again of her power to point out things I should and shouldn’t do. “If that elevator works, I want a ride, and I’m not blowing our chances by alerting Millie and Thomas.”

  We spent a few more minutes cleaning the list and investigating the switches. Some of the words were a little easier to read, and we could see that the switches were broken up into sections. The first floor had the most switches, and then there was a grouping for each of the other floors. We deciphered what cluster of switches belonged to the fifth floor, but there was no clear indication of which one worked what.

  “None of the fifth-floor switches are even on,” Kate said needlessly.

  “So we’ll throw all those,” I said. “Nobody will notice, there’s no one on the fifth floor, remember?”

  “Wait,” Kate said breathlessly as she was cleaning. “Look at this word.”

  The word Kate was pointing to corresponded with a number on one of the fifth-floor switches. It was dirty, faded, and fancy, but I could make it out.

  “E-closet,” I read slowly. I stood back and thought for a second. “Like e-mail?”

  “Seriously, if anyone needs to be at school learning and not home suspended, it’s you,” Kate said, slightly disgusted. “It has nothing to do with e-mail. It might mean east closet, but there are a lot of closets in the east wing of the fifth floor. I doubt they’d all have their own switch. It must mean elevator.”

  “That’s too obvious,” I argued. “So Thomas knows that there’s an e-closet upstairs?”

  “This thing is so covered in dirt, who could know anything?” Kate said, not caring about that. “And it might not even be that anyway.”

  “Let’s flip it and find out.”

  “Okay,” Kate agreed. “But we should wait until Millie’s using the blender or something loud so that I can signal you to . . .”

  I wasn’t as patient as Kate. I reached out and flipped the switch. It made a solid snapping sound, but that was it.

  “Sometimes it’s better not to think so much,” I told Kate.

  “You should know,” she replied.

  We both stared at the flipped switch.

  “Let’s go see if it worked,” I whispered.

  I closed the metal box, and we left the room. We slipped past the kitchen and climbed our way back to the fifth floor. When we got to the bathroom, Kate reached in and flipped the switch. The bathroom still didn’t light up.

  “The switch didn’t say e-bathroom,” I pointed out. “It said e-closet.”

  We got back into the elevator and turned so that we were looking out into the dim bathroom.

  We gasped in harmony.

  It wasn’t bright, but there was a faint glow coming from the button. Every hair on my body stood up and did the wave.

  “That was it,” Kate whispered almost reverently.

  “You wanna push it?” I asked.

  “More than anything,” she replied.

  Kate stuck out the pointer finger on her right hand and firmly pushed the button. The metal gate dropped down as the sound of something wheezing to life could be heard above the ceiling of the closet. Kate held onto me as I held onto her. There was the sound of clicking and then a small rocking motion.

  “Do you . . .”

  I didn’t have time to finish my thought. It felt like the world had dropped out from under us. The elevator dropped about five inches and then caught itself. The whole thing groaned and continued to move slowly downward. We watched the bathroom floor rise, and in no time it was dark inside the elevator with the only light coming from the dim, glowing button. We could hear the cables and gears clicking and grinding as we descended. Other than that, the air seemed deathly still.

  “This might be a bad idea,” Kate said, the gravity of what we were actually doing sinking in. “What if it doesn’t go back up?”

  “A
t least we’re together,” I said, trying to keep things light.

  “That’s sort of comforting,” Kate admitted.

  The elevator was dropping slowly. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small flashlight I had brought. I clicked it on and was surprised to see how happy Kate looked. We were blindly traveling into the bowels of the earth, and she was still smiling.