“What do we do?” Birdie yelped.
Albert turned to look at his friends. “We fight through it,” he said. “And we find Professor Bigglesby and Lucinda and stop them once and for all.”
“We’ll help you!” Leroy shouted.
Hoyt nodded and dodged a fireball from a King Firefly.
Albert whirled around. Where was Farnsworth? Was he safe?
He heard a familiar howl, then an angry bark, and turned to see Farnsworth on the top of the last remaining bridge. He was guarding a dark-haired boy from an angry Jackalope attack.
“Petra!” Albert shouted to his teammates. “Come on! We have to help him!”
“I’ll catch up to you guys!” Hoyt shouted. “I’ve got to go help Slink and Mo!”
It was a mad dash to get to Petra. Farnsworth’s eyes kept flashing as if they’d just been plugged into a light socket. He was blinding the Jackalope to keep Petra safe.
“Over here!” Petra shouted. He had a big fat book in his hands and was brandishing it like a blade, swinging it back and forth to try to keep the Jackalope back. But it tumbled from his hands as the beast’s antlers knocked it away. “HURRY!”
Just then, someone burst through one of the tunnels, shouting at the top of his little lungs.
It was Professor Bigglesby! And he was holding a shield twice the size of himself.
“Not my intern!” Bigglesby shouted. He leaped, doing a flip in midair, and landed in front of Petra.
He slammed the shield against the Jackalope, sending the giant beast tumbling over the bridge and into the water below.
“If he’s here, fighting,” Birdie said, “then . . .”
“I knew he was faking his injury!” Leroy shouted. “He’s the traitor!”
“I’m going to pummel him!” Birdie growled as a Hexabon swooped in and stole Leroy’s glasses right off his face. The two of them ran after it, shouting.
“Guys! Wait!” Albert yelped.
At the sound of Albert’s voice, Professor Bigglesby whirled around. His eyes locked on Albert. He started marching toward him and Albert took a step back.
Then two steps, and three, his heart threatening to burst in his chest.
This was it. This was the moment he would face the traitor. He turned to look for Birdie and Leroy, but they were lost in the fight.
“Please,” Albert said, hands out. “Don’t do this.”
“Albert.” Professor Bigglesby was stumbling toward him. “I have to tell . . .”
A giant tentacle reached out of the waters, wrapping itself around Professor Bigglesby. The dwarf’s eyes widened, and then he was lifted into the air.
“The Hendeca,” Albert heard himself say. It was the great beast from the waters inside Calderon Peak. Shock coursed through his veins.
Like a giant thrashing snake, the Hendeca lifted Professor Bigglesby higher and higher. The old dwarf was shouting, his little voice like a cat’s screech, but suddenly he brandished a short black dagger. Albert recognized it as the one he’d used in Calderon to paralyze the Hissengores.
“We can’t help him!” Petra said as he reached Albert’s side.
“FIND . . . HIM!” Bigglesby was shouting. “FIND . . . TOO . . . LATE!”
He was looking at Albert as the Hendeca thrashed him around high above their heads.
“Albert, we have to go!” Petra said. “We have to go right now!”
Albert wouldn’t budge, because something in him was shouting that he’d had it all wrong. If Bigglesby was the traitor, he wouldn’t be here right now, fighting against the chaos he’d caused. Would he?
He watched as the dwarf shouted one final word before the Hendeca pulled him under into the waters. The name rang out, clear and true.
Festus.
CHAPTER 27
The Battle
They were in the tunnel, running toward the Library.
“Petra! Stop!” Albert shouted, but his friend wouldn’t release his grip on Albert’s arm. Had he always been this strong?
“There’s no time,” Petra said.
With each step, they were getting farther and farther away from the Main Chamber. Albert had to turn back. He had to help his friends protect the Core. He’d lost Birdie and Leroy, and without him, would they be safe? What about Trey, and Tussy? And Hoyt and Slink and Mo?
“We have to go back,” Albert said. “What’s gotten into you?”
Finally, Petra stopped and whirled around. “I figured it out, Albert. I know everything, and there’s no time!”
“Know what?” Albert asked as he ripped his arm away from Petra’s iron grasp.
“The traitor,” Petra said, gasping for breath. “I know who it is.”
Albert’s eyes widened, and his chest throbbed. “Who is it? Is it Lucinda?”
“Not here,” Petra whispered.
Why was everyone saying that this term? Albert looked back over his shoulder. He could still hear the shouts. Was Professor Bigglesby okay? Did his dad make it out to the surface before it was too late? Had the chaos spread all the way up there?
“Tell me who it is, now,” Albert commanded, whirling around to look at his friend. “Please, Petra.”
“It will take five minutes,” Petra said. “You have to see it to believe it, Albert. Right now, this is your duty. If you want to save the Core, you have to come with me.”
Albert’s friends were back there.
But ahead, with Petra . . . it was the answer he’d been waiting for.
“Show me,” Albert said, nodding. Please, be safe out there, he thought in a silent message to his friends.
He let Petra lead him along.
It was horribly quiet inside the Tower. The door swung open with an awful sound, creaking like the dead branches of the Troll Tree waving in the wind.
“I wasn’t thinking straight yesterday, but Lucinda kept showing me books, promising she’d help me find it,” Petra said as he shut the door behind them and locked it. “This has the oldest documents in the Core. This has all the answers.”
This was the very room where Albert and Petra had once come together for detention, the very room where they discovered what the Master Tile was, and what it did.
Really, this was where everything began.
Bookshelves lined the walls, and there was an old, comfortable hammock swinging in the corner. Half of Albert begged him to run back to the Main Chamber to rejoin the fight, but the other half desperately wanted to fall into that hammock. Now that he was away from the chaos, the exhaustion had set in.
“Over here,” Petra said. “They’ve had me covering some shifts since the disappearances, so I came up here after the Library to help clean. I was dusting this shelf when I discovered this.”
Petra shuffled over to the farthest bookshelf in the room. It was full of old leather-bound books and smelled of rich mahogany.
He lifted a hand and tapped a dark-red book. Low-Carb Eating—Fuel for the High-Energy Balance Keeper.
“It looks like a book nobody would want to read,” Albert said.
Petra nodded. “Exactly. But check this out.”
He pulled the book off the shelf and Albert realized it wasn’t a book at all. The pages were cut out, like one of those awesome book safes for people to hide things in.
And behind it was an old copper lever.
Albert’s eyes almost popped out of his head.
“Go ahead,” Petra said. “Try it.”
Albert pulled the lever. There was a click and a hiss, and a section of the bookshelf swung backward like a door.
“Whoa,” Albert said. This was super-spy stuff.
“Whoa is right,” Petra said. “Who knew this was here all this time, huh?” He reached past Albert, into the open doorway, and flicked a switch on the wall.
A single light bulb flickered on, dangling from a cord in the center of the hidden room. The space was no larger than Albert’s bedroom back at his mom’s apartment in New York. There were a few bookshelves along the walls
and an old oak table in the very center.
An ancient scroll was sprawled out across the top. Old candles, burned to nubs, sat around the scroll, guarding it like little army men.
Petra stepped inside, and Albert followed.
“Look at this,” Petra said. He gently unfurled the curls at the edge of the scroll. It spilled out, like a long tongue stretching to the old stone floor. When the cloud of dust cleared, Albert’s eyes widened.
It was a replica of the Core Family Document in the Library.
But this one looked much older. Its edges were tattered and the rest of it was worn through with holes in some places.
“Why are there two of these?” Albert asked.
Petra ran his fingertip along the document, searching down the long list of names. “I wondered the same thing. But I studied this for a while before the big explosion happened, and I think this one might be the original.”
“Which means the one in the Library is a replica?”
“Exactly,” Petra said. “Look.”
He pointed to the bottom of the document, to the F section.
The Flynn family line was there, just like in the Library.
There were Flynns from the past on there, ones Albert had never heard of. There was Philo Flynn, Tegen Flynn, and “Big” Nell Flynn. Albert saw Pap, his dad, and his very own name.
But that wasn’t all.
There was another name on there. Albert’s dad was right below Pap, but there was a second name beside Bob Flynn, directly to the left.
“Your dad has a sibling,” Petra said, and pointed at the extra name. It looked as if someone had tried to scratch the name out. Beside it, written in red ink, was the word BANISHED. Albert looked more closely at the scratched-out name. He could see the F for Flynn, but there was a second F too, just visible beneath the scratch lines, about one inch before his last name.
And suddenly everything made horrible, terrible sense.
Albert’s dad had a brother, which meant Albert had a secret uncle, someone he’d never met, and never even heard of. And not just a secret uncle, but an uncle who had been banished from the Core.
He looked at the scratched-out spot, and his mind whispered traitor.
“Festus Flynn,” he said. “Festus Flynn is my uncle.”
For a second, the room felt like it was spinning, and Albert had to grip the table to stand up straight.
“But I can’t have an uncle,” Albert said. “I mean, my dad doesn’t have a brother. He’s never, in my entire life, talked about a brother!”
“I don’t think the document is lying,” Petra said. Then he looked Albert right in the eye and said, “What kind of person is so bad, every trace of them is completely wiped from the Core?”
And so bad he’s been hidden from me my entire life? Albert added to himself.
Albert ran his thumb across the name. Impossible. But there it was, written in nonerasable ink, still visible even beneath the scratch marks.
“He’s the traitor,” Albert said. “It has to be him. This whole time, I thought it was Professor Bigglesby or Lucinda, but Bigglesby kept bringing up this name, and everyone kept shutting it down.”
Petra sat down on a little stool beside the table. “But if he was banished, how would he have found his way back to the Core? The Memory Wipers are supposed to protect that from happening by stealing all memories of the Core from people who leave.”
“But even if it was possible, and Festus did make it back somehow . . . who is he?” Albert stared at the old document, begging his mind to come up with some sort of memory, anything that would tell him who Festus was.
“I know this is the answer, Albert,” Petra said, but then he shook his head. “I’ve been in the Core my entire life, and I’ve never known anyone by that name. We don’t have time to sit here and research. We don’t have time to figure out his past, or where he might be. . . .”
“What if he’s been here this entire time, using a different name?” Albert asked. But then he thought better of it. If Festus was here, nobody would have allowed it. Judging by how freaked out Professor Bigglesby was by the very mention of his name . . . “Who is he?” Albert asked.
“I can help you with that,” a voice said.
There was a creak and a hiss, and suddenly a dark shadow loomed in the doorway to the secret room.
Albert whirled around and froze.
Lucinda stood in the entryway, staring down at them.
CHAPTER 28
Festus Flynn
Had Albert been wrong?
Was Festus not a brother, but a sister? Was it Lucinda?
“Please,” Albert said, backing up until he knocked into the table. “If it’s you . . .”
Lucinda took another step forward, closer to the light. And at the sight of her, Albert knew she was the traitor.
The strange woman was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks.
And she was looking at Albert as if she was experiencing the sort of pain that broke a person from the inside out.
Kimber slithered down her neck, over her shoulders, and onto her arm.
“What’s going on?” Petra’s voice was just a squeak.
He shuffled away as Lucinda came closer. She practically collapsed onto the stool where Petra had just been sitting and let the tears fall faster.
“The truth,” she said through sobs. “It’s time you know the truth.”
Albert and Petra just stood there staring in disbelief.
“He was just a boy when we met,” Lucinda said, sniffing back her tears. “I remember the day the Flynn twins came into the Core. I was working beside my mother at her shop, the very same place where I first met you, Albert.” She looked up, and Kimber hissed. “You look so much like they did at that time. So much like Festus. But it was always his eyes that drew me to him. So strange, and so beautiful.”
Albert didn’t have the strength to argue with the craziness of her story. His dad didn’t just have a brother . . . he had a twin.
He swallowed, hard, and listened as Lucinda went on.
“We were in classes together, and we sat at lunch together, but he never paid much notice to me. Bobby was always the kind one, Festus the one to get into trouble. But everyone loved him. He was whip smart, and funny.” She smiled. “So, so funny. Everyone wanted to be his friend.” Her eyes took on the glaze of a person lost in her memories. “There was lots of talk when Festus plucked a Master Tile from the Waterfall of Fate. You wouldn’t believe it, the whispers. He and your dad were on a unit together, with one other boy. The dream team, really. Excellent speed in the Pit, with how fast they overcame the obstacles. I was there watching every Competition, just like you, Petra.”
She looked up and smiled at Petra, but he just stared back with his mouth hanging open.
Lucinda went on. “Everything was fine until Festus started pulling ahead, learning how much his Tile could really do. He . . . he started doing things nobody should have done. Their teammate, Curt, was nearly killed during Competition, and it was Festus’s fault. He had used a symbol from the Book of Bad Tiles.” Lucinda shivered. “And he didn’t care. He apologized, but I remember the look in his eyes when they hauled Curt away. Festus didn’t care.”
She reached up to pet Kimber, and a fresh round of tears began to fall. Albert leaned on the table. This was so much to process at once.
“Things got bad when Festus entered a Realm of his own accord. Without anyone else. Your dad, Albert, tried to stop him, but Festus went in anyway. He caused so much destruction. The Imbalance nearly shook this earth off its axis and created a tsunami so large that over two hundred thousand people lost their lives.”
Albert was only a boy then, but he remembered doing a project in World History about the tsunami in Haiti. He’d studied the horrific news stories; thousands of families had lost loved ones to the disaster. Homes were destroyed, and lives forever changed.
His uncle had caused that? Albert felt sick.
“Professor Bigg
lesby’s mother was . . .” Lucinda sniffed, and a huge sob came after it. “Professor Bigglesby’s mother went in after him, she was a Professor at the time, and she caught him, and she got his Tile, but after, she was never the same. Whatever she saw in that Realm, it changed her.”
She kept crying, unable to finish her story. But Albert wanted her to push on, because the tears weren’t right. They didn’t seem like sad tears for the loss of a friend or from remembering something tragic. They seemed like guilty tears, like how his little half sister cried after she was caught stealing candy from the pantry before bed.
“And then what?” Albert asked. “What else happened?”
Lucinda looked up, her eyes wide and full of fear.
“There was a trial, in the Pit. Festus was stripped of his Tile for what he did, banished forever from the Core. But your dad believed there was still good in his brother’s heart. He believed that anyone could still come back from the darkness, and so he offered up an alternate punishment for Festus.”
Kimber’s hiss was the only sound in the room, and that strange, methodical rhythm of his forked tongue flicking in and out of his mouth.
“Festus was given a choice. Leave the Core and never come back, or remain as a servant to it for the rest of his existence. He chose the latter,” Lucinda said. “He chose to remain here, protecting the very place he worked so hard to destroy.”
“So he’s here?” Petra asked. “I mean, he’s been here the whole time?”
Lucinda nodded, but wouldn’t speak.
“Who is he?” Albert asked. “Where is he?”
Kimber slithered away from Lucinda. This time, she didn’t try to hold on to him as he reached the ground and disappeared into the stacks.
“The Path Hider,” she whispered. “He’s . . . the Path Hider.”
The room suddenly felt impossibly small. Albert’s hands went to the Master Tile around his neck, and in his mind, he saw two eyes.
One, a crystal blue as bright as a summer sky.
The other, dark and dangerous.
There was a voice in Albert’s head. That strange, shaky Pegasus voice, from the winged horse Albert had tried to ride that first day. Its eyes, it had said. Its eyes were so horrible.