Balance Keepers #1: The Fires of Calderon

  He waved good-bye with his long, bony hand and turned away as they entered the shadows. As soon as Albert, Birdie, and Leroy crossed into the tunnel, there was a whooshing sound, like wind. Flames atop copper torches flickered to life on either side of the tunnel walls. The fire was as blue and bright as the sky had been in Herman that morning, while Albert was hopping across town.

  “You guys,” Birdie said. “I think there’s something wrong with these flames.”

  Birdie reached closer and closer to one of the flames, then flicked it with a finger. Then she put her whole hand into the dancing light.

  “The fire’s cold,” she said.

  Albert held his hand out to test the blue flames as he walked by. They were cold, like he’d just dunked his hand into one of the streams outside of Herman. “That’s awesome!”

  The sound of Farnsworth barking up ahead echoed off the stone walls.

  “I guess we should keep going,” Leroy said. He produced a yo-yo from his pocket and spun it nervously in his palm. “Let’s see where the tunnel leads.”

  They walked at a downward sloping angle for a long time, going deeper under the earth with each step. Water dripped from the rock walls, and overhead, the pipes and wires were still crisscrossing the ceiling.

  Finally, Farnsworth came into view up ahead, his blue eyes lighting the curved walls with an eerie glow. The tunnel had opened up into a small cavern. Just above Farnsworth was a metal bar, thick as Albert’s thigh, and hanging from the bar was a large metal gondola with open windows. It reminded Albert of a car he’d once seen on a Ferris wheel.

  At the sight of the trio, Farnsworth growled playfully and hopped into the gondola. It swung and creaked on its track, dangling back and forth like a pendant on a chain. On closer viewing, the box-shaped contraption was rusted and ancient.

  “A gondola that’s about a million years old,” Birdie said, walking up beside Albert.

  “No way am I getting on that thing,” Leroy mused.

  “Yeah, I dunno, guys,” Albert said.

  He didn’t want to admit it, but this time, he thought Farnsworth might have inhaled a little too much pipe steam. Birdie was right. The gondola did look like it might crumble under their weight. He thought about what the Path Hider had said, and Albert’s stomach fluttered at the thought of a ride that would require them to hold on tight.

  “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m tired of standing around,” Birdie piped up. She strode forward and hopped right into the gondola beside Farnsworth without a hint of fear on her face. The gondola groaned and swayed back and forth, but it held strong. “You guys coming?”

  Okay, Albert thought. Birdie is either totally fearless or completely insane.

  Albert settled on the former and took his place on the metal bench beside her. Farnsworth hopped onto Albert’s lap and wagged his little tail. The dog looked back and forth from Albert to Birdie, light from his eyes bathing them both in a deep blue.

  “Leroy?” Albert leaned outside the box. Leroy was standing there, arms crossed, staring at the two of them like they’d just taken a large dose of crazy pills.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he said, staring at his toes. He took another long look at the rusted old track the gondola hung from. And then, like Albert and Birdie and Farnsworth before him, Leroy stepped inside.

  Leroy hardly had time to put his yo-yo in his pocket and settle down on his seat before Farnsworth barked three times fast. There was a sound of a lever being thrown somewhere far behind them. The gondola began to move. It was slow at first, creaking along the prehistoric track overhead.

  “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Albert said, holding on to the rail until his knuckles turned white as snow.

  The gondola rolled along the rails, picking up speed, and soon it was plummeting into the darkness. Albert held Farnsworth close as wind whipped through his hair. Both Birdie and Leroy screamed at the top of their lungs.

  Albert couldn’t see anything but flashes of blue light from Farnsworth’s eyes. The gondola took violent turns left and right, shooting down steep declines and swinging from side to side. Albert’s stomach threatened to sprout wings and fly right out of his mouth. He clutched Farnsworth so hard he was afraid the dog might explode.

  A second later, the gondola suddenly shot upward through a stone cavern, completing a double loop that left everyone gasping for breath. Then, after a final, gut-wrenching turn, the gondola settled down, slowing to a more leisurely pace as it glided farther under the surface of the earth.

  Farnsworth stared in Birdie’s direction, bathing her in beams of light. Her ponytail was puffed up like a mass of cotton candy, but she was beaming.

  Albert smiled back. “If I’d have known it was going to be like that, I never would have gotten in this thing, but that was actually kind of incredible!”

  For the first time, all three of them were laughing. As they caught their breath, they entered a wide space dotted with hundreds of bright blue flames, and gazed up into a stalactite-filled ceiling far overhead.

  “Stone fingers!” Leroy yelled, pointing at the long stalactites. “I’ve seen them in books.”

  Chunks of glittering diamonds sparkled everywhere, embedded in the walls, and when Albert got brave enough to poke his head out the window and look down, he was pretty sure the darkness went on forever.

  “It’s amazing!” Birdie yelled, but just as she said those words, something swooped through the gondola—in one window and out another—right in front of her face. She let out a little shout.

  “Whoa. Did you guys see that?” Albert asked, spinning in his seat to see where the creature had gone.

  “Did something just fly through this gondola?” Leroy asked as the blood drained out of his face. He sank down lower into his seat.

  Without warning, the cave filled with black-winged creatures pouring out of holes in the walls. Some were the size of Albert’s fist, some almost as big as his head.

  “Bats!” Albert screeched.

  He’d seen bats before on television and online, but he’d never been in the same space with even one, let alone thousands of them. As the bats flew around in the open air, dipping and diving, Albert’s heart hammered in his chest. He felt something land on his shoulder, but didn’t have the courage to turn his head and see what it was.

  “Uh, Albert?” Leroy said. “Something furry just landed on you.”

  It was like Leroy’s saying it made it real. Albert jumped up and started flailing around. “Get it off!” he yelled.

  Leroy assumed a karate pose for a kung-fu kick while Birdie tried to get a closer look.

  Albert calmed down a bit knowing these new friends had his back. Just bats, Albert. Just bats. It’s not like Dracula’s coming to eat you . . . hopefully.

  “Can you hear them?” Birdie asked.

  Albert took another deep breath and listened. The bats were singing. It wasn’t a language Albert knew, but it was almost like the bats had human voices, high-pitched and strange.

  Farnsworth barked and the singing bat on Albert’s shoulder finally flew away, out into the swarm that grew thicker as they went.

  Leroy sat back down and turned the brim on his red baseball cap forward again. “I was about to put a move on that thing, big-time.”

  “Sure you were.” Birdie giggled, and Leroy’s face went red as a cherry.

  The bats followed the gondola through the cave, singing their strange song and flapping their furry wings. Albert felt like he was in a trance, unable to move or blink. After a while, Farnsworth’s head drooped on Albert’s lap and the lights in the dog’s eyes went out. They traveled down the track and through the swarm for a time, adrift in a sea of blue flames.

  The bats didn’t follow when the gondola unexpectedly sped up, and as Farnsworth raised his head and his lights went back on, all three kids felt as though they’d awoken from a dream.

  “Never trust a swarm of singing bats. Especially furry ones,” Leroy said. “Wha
t just happened?”

  They rounded a corner into colorful light that made Albert shrink back and shield his eyes.

  “Documents, please, ladies and gentlemen,” a woman’s voice said.

  Albert blinked his eyes a few times, letting the lights settle in. The gondola had stopped at some sort of suspended platform. On it sat an uneven metal booth that looked like it could only be held aloft by magic. The sides were made of thin sheets of copper, buckling at random places, and the countertop looked like it was made from the hood of an old car. Behind the platform there were barrels stuck to the walls, as if they were simply floating, full to the brim with lumpy things Albert couldn’t quite make out.

  A short, stocky woman stood behind the counter. Albert was shocked to see a black snake slithering around her shoulders and neck.

  “Documents, please,” the woman said again, more impatiently this time. Albert and Birdie stared back at her, unblinking. Leroy dug in his pocket and held out a yo-yo.

  “Oh, for Calderon’s sake,” the woman said. Her snake hissed in a most unfriendly way. “I’d know a fresh set of Keepers anywhere. It’s the moon eyes, like you’ve seen a ghost!”

  “We didn’t see any ghosts,” Birdie piped up from her seat. “But we did see some crazy bats that sang to us back there.”

  The woman smiled and sat heavily on a metal stool that groaned, as if it was about to crumble beneath her weight.

  “Memory Wipers. If you ever leave the Core for good, and probably you will,” she said, “the song they sing will make you forget everything you saw and all you did here.”

  Leroy exhaled and leaned forward, elbows onto his knobby knees.

  “I’d like to forget that entire ride. Maybe we’ve been here before, but we just can’t remember it.”

  The snake woman let out a bark of a laugh. “You clue in fast, for a newbie.” She pulled out three rugged backpacks and set them on the counter of the booth.

  “One for each of you and you’re on your way.”

  Leroy reached past Albert and grabbed the bags, one at a time, and handed them out.

  “What’s this stuff for?” Birdie asked as she started to open the top of her pack.

  “And what are you?” Albert asked. “Some kind of witch or something?”

  “I’m Lucinda,” the woman said, cackling. “You might say I’m in the supply-and-demand business. Didn’t that Path Hider tell you anything?”

  The snake hissed in response as Lucinda pointed her ring-covered hand at the bags on their laps. “Clothes, boots, essentials, a trinket or two. Everything you’ll need.”

  Albert untied the leather lace that held the pack closed. Inside, there were a pair of boots, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a few pairs of socks. Underwear. Deeper inside the bag he found something more interesting: an egg-shaped compass that wobbled when Albert held it out on his palm.

  “That’s a lifesaver the first few days inside the Core,” Lucinda explained. “In time you’ll find your way around the place, but everyone knows the Core’s got a tricky mind of its own. It likes to get the newcomers lost. Just say where you want to go, and the Core Compass will show you the way.”

  Birdie was digging in her bag. She pulled out a silk sack filled with strange metal orbs that fit in the middle of her palm. She held one of them out.

  “Ah, yes,” Lucinda said. “One of my specialties. Break one of those over someone’s head and you’ll get a surprise.”

  Birdie didn’t wait for additional explanation. She smashed one on top of Leroy’s head like an egg. There was a crack, then a flash of fire, and in an instant, a tiny white bird appeared. Farnsworth wagged his tail at the bird, as if he wanted to play. The little bird chirped, ruffled its feathers, and flew into Birdie’s lap.

  “It’s a Floppywhippet,” Lucinda said as she smiled. “It will produce bubble-gum eggs for the next few minutes. Then it will fly away and never be seen again.”

  Birdie looked a little unsure, but she smiled and stroked the bird’s tiny head anyway. It laid a tiny orange egg in her hand and chirped happily, rolling the egg forward with its beak.

  “It wants you to eat it,” Leroy said.

  Albert thought birds were cool enough, but this was getting a little dicey. Then again, the egg did look like candy.

  “I’ll give you five bucks if you eat one,” Albert said to Birdie.

  “I’ll do it,” Leroy said. “I’m starving.” He popped an egg into his mouth and began chewing. “It’s good! Like sherbet!” The bird cooed and preened.

  During the next two minutes the Floppywhippet laid six more eggs in various colors and flavors, and Leroy found a small metal sculpture of a cat in his pack that Lucinda said would give him incredible balance when he rubbed its head.

  “But it only works once,” she warned. “So use it when you really need it.”

  The Floppywhippet fluttered away into the darkness.

  “I’m gonna miss that little guy,” Leroy said as he popped the last gum ball in his mouth. (It was bright yellow and lemon flavored.) “Where are we going?”

  “Questions, questions,” Lucinda said. She reached over and gave Farnsworth a small blue bone, which he started to gnaw on.

  “Helps his eyes glow brighter,” Lucinda said. “Now off you go!”

  Then Lucinda knocked three times on the side of the gondola, and whispered some strange words that Albert couldn’t quite hear or understand. Albert felt the gondola shiver beneath his feet and start to move again.

  “Good-bye!” Birdie shouted behind her.

  They picked up speed. Soon they passed over a glittering green river, and shortly after, went through a waterfall that soaked the top of the gondola. After they took one last heart-pounding drop down into darkness, their ride came to an end.

  Albert turned to look out the window just as the gondola came to a stop across from another floating orange platform. What is it with these things? Two rusted metal doors stood behind the platform, embedded in the cave walls.

  “Whoa,” Leroy said. “Check it out.”

  Farnsworth was so excited he wriggled out of Albert’s grasp and hopped out of the gondola, onto the orange platform. He turned and barked at them as if to say, What are you waiting for?

  “I guess this is our stop,” Albert said, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. He was about to climb out of the gondola when it started to move again, heading slowly back in the direction from which it came.

  “Better move quick!” Leroy said. “I have a feeling the Path Hider would just send us back here again. And I don’t think I can handle that ride twice in one day.”

  All three jumped the narrow expanse that separated the gondola from the platform, and watched as the rickety contraption turned the corner and disappeared.

  “Now what?” Birdie asked.

  Albert shrugged.

  Farnsworth ran to the doors and starting scratching, his bark echoing through the cavern.

  The doors started to quake. They opened forward slowly, groaning as if they hadn’t moved in years. They stopped halfway open. A shadow emerged, indiscernible at first. Albert took a half step back. This could be a warlock, or a giant, or the witch he’d been wondering about all day.

  But when the shadow stepped out into the light of Farnsworth’s eyes, Albert felt himself relax.

  The figure that came out was one of the most normal-looking people Albert had seen all day.

  Unless you counted the miniature blue dragon perched on his shoulder.

  CHAPTER 6

  The Core

  The young man standing before them was tall and lean, with dark brown hair that flipped out just past his ears.

  “I’ve been waiting for you three all day,” the young man said with a British accent. “I thought you’d fallen off the trolley.”

  Leroy glanced at Albert with a worried look on his face. “Apparently people sometimes fall out of the trolley.”

  “Must have been our lucky day,” Albert said.

  ?
??I’m thinking we should talk about this later,” Birdie said, elbowing Albert in the ribs.

  The young man smiled and went on.

  “I’m Trey. And you three must be Albert, Leroy, and Birdie.”

  Trey bowed low to the ground, the little blue dragon on his shoulder somehow managing to hang on.

  The dragon was just like Albert had always imagined a dragon would be—with scales and claws and wings—only it was the size of a parrot. The tiny beast turned toward Trey, opened its mouth, and sent a blue flame into the side of Trey’s head.

  “Cold, just like the flames you’ve seen so far,” Trey said.

  “I used to want a pony or a unicorn,” Birdie said. “Now I just want one of those.”

  “Alfin usually stays in Cedarfell with some of the other creatures,” Trey said, sensing their curiosity about the dragon. “But I thought you’d like to see her. And she does enjoy getting out once in a great while.”

  Leroy took a step closer to Albert. “Can we trust this guy?” he whispered into Albert’s ear.

  They looked down from Trey to Farnsworth, who was sitting at Trey’s feet, wagging his little tail. Farnsworth hadn’t done them any harm so far. In fact, he’d led Albert to the coolest place he’d ever been in his entire life. The dog had a taste for adventure, as far as Albert was concerned.

  “Farnsworth seems to like him,” Albert answered, with a shrug.

  Alfin suddenly took flight and disappeared through the half-open door, from which a warm glow was spilling. Trey looked down at the three of them (except for Leroy, who nearly matched his height).

  “What you’re about to see is Balance Keeper business. It stays here.”

  “What’s a Balance Keeper?” Birdie asked.

  Trey had a mischievous look in his eye as he answered.

  “You’re a Balance Keeper. So are Albert and Leroy. You just don’t know it yet.”

  Albert was more confused than he had been in the Path Hider’s tree. What the heck was a Balance Keeper? And how did Trey know their names?

  “What if we want to leave?” Leroy asked, swallowing the lump in his throat. “What then?”