“Hey, not so close, okay?” Theo was saying to the Shades as they pressed in around him. “I’m getting claustrophobic here.”
When Theo spotted Herman dangling from his web, the boy’s bluster instantly vanished. Despite what Eric had said about Theo, the young Plunkett was not dumb. He was as clever as they came, and he understood the new situation immediately. He saw what the Shades had done to his relative and he realized the danger that put him in as well. Daniel saw that the trick was to keep him from panicking.
“It’s okay, Theo,” Daniel said. “Just stay calm.”
But Theo wasn’t listening. He was already trying to back out of the cave, only to find the way blocked by Shades. He shouted at them to move, to clear a path, but they weren’t obeying, and his voice had lost the deep bass of command that he’d been using. A sharp edge of fear crept in as he began insulting them. He shouted obscenities as they closed in, cutting off his escape.
“It’s the powers,” said Herman. “Powers make them angry, and having you all here, together, in their home, it’s only a matter of time.… But Daniel can stop them now! He can save you all by giving me my ring!”
Herman Plunkett was right—the Shades were getting agitated. The dark corners of the cave were alive with roiling shapes, and Daniel could spot the faces now as the Shades revealed themselves to them: a chubby boy with braces; a little girl with her hair done up in ringlets and bows, her expression a snarl of rage. The Shades pulled back their shadowy disguises to expose the faces of children twisted with hate.
“They’re just kids!” said Louisa. “How can they be kids?”
“Let’s back up,” said Daniel. “Slowly.”
Daniel and the others began moving backward toward the tunnel entrance, careful not to make any sudden movements. But Herman saw their retreat and began squirming, pulling against his bonds and trying to wiggle his way to freedom.
“No!” he cried. “You can’t leave me here with them!”
One of the Shades—the one with the chubby boy’s face—pounced on him. The boy used a long black claw to rake Herman across the face. Although the attack drew no blood, the old man shrieked in pain and was left whimpering, the last of his energy expended.
“The ring, Daniel,” moaned Herman. “Give me the ring.…”
The cave exploded into chaos. Theo was already making his dash for the tunnel leading out when the Shades attacked. Like a swarm of rats, they closed in on the Supers.
The battle would have been over then if it hadn’t been for Eric and Mollie. As soon as the Shade children began to surge forward, the very instant they started to peel off the walls, the two fliers went into action. Eric shouted something at Mollie that sounded like “Spin and sweep!” In the close-quartered cave they couldn’t really get airborne, but Mollie had just enough room to twirl, which at super-speed turned her into a girl-sized twister. The force of her minicyclone blew the Shades into the rock walls or bounced them off each other. Those that weren’t stunned by Mollie’s sudden attack looked up to find they were being punched in the head. Eric’s brawn and Mollie’s speed. For the moment, at least, the Supers had the advantage.
But it couldn’t last. They were far too outnumbered. They had a few seconds at most before the Shades could regroup and overwhelm them. Rohan was already leading Louisa and Rose out through the tunnel, following Theo. If they moved quickly, they had a chance of making it out before the Shades counterattacked. They had a chance, which was why Daniel was so surprised to find himself running away from safety. In the opposite direction, toward the Shades. Toward Herman Plunkett.
But this time he wasn’t listening to the Shroud’s voice. He was in control.
The Shroud stuff was not sticky, like he’d expected, but it was thick, and Herman was wound up tight in a web of it. Herman watched as Daniel pulled at the black strands, his face ghastly in the green ghost light of his cracked pendant. Daniel shoved the backpack with the ring in it over his shoulder, careful to keep it out of the old man’s reach.
“Always the hero,” said Herman.
“Shut up,” replied Daniel as he yanked at the webbing. It was coming loose, but slowly.
“What are you doing?” shouted Eric, appearing at his side. He kicked at a Shade with the face of a red-haired boy with glasses.
“I need Herman!” said Daniel. “I need answers!”
Eric didn’t argue. There wasn’t time. He grabbed the web with both hands and yanked. The cave split with the sound of tearing, and that was followed by a loud, wailing moan issuing from the mouth of every Shade at once. It was the first time Daniel had heard their voices clearly, and the sound of it made him want to curl up in a ball and hide. He wanted to cover his ears or pull out his hair. A hundred fingernails on a chalkboard.
But Eric had succeeded in freeing Herman, throwing him over his shoulder as easily as he would a sack of potatoes—and about as gently.
“Now can we go?” asked Eric as he eyed the Shades closing in.
Daniel didn’t even have time to nod, because the next thing he knew, he was being dragged/pulled out of the cave by Mollie Lee.
“You can’t even run away when you’re supposed to,” she was saying as she yanked him backward, his butt skidding along the rocky floor. “We are leaving!” she shouted as the two of them came flying out of the hole and into the cool night air. It felt good against his face for about two seconds before he was deposited, rather roughly, onto the leaf-strewn forest floor. The smell of fresh pine air was quickly buried beneath a noseful of dirt.
But he was free of the cave, and for the moment, at least, he was safe.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Night Terrors
The first thing Daniel did was to get a head count of his friends. Mollie, Rohan, Louisa, Theo …
“Rose?” he asked.
“Here!” said the empty air.
“Where’s Eric?”
In answer came the sound of rocks breaking in the distance. A lot of rocks. Then Eric appeared above the trees with Herman in his arms.
“I closed the tunnel behind us,” he said. “Though I doubt that’ll hold them for long.”
Eric tossed Herman onto the ground, then wiped his hands on his pants. He looked like he’d just finished handling a snake.
Herman lay in the dirt, gasping for breath and watching them all. The green light bleeding off his broken pendant had dimmed to a weak glow, little brighter than a firefly. But it was enough to catch Plunkett’s glassy eyes. They shone like narrow mirrors in the dark. He was worse than a snake, Daniel thought. So much worse.
Theo broke the silence.
“So, you’re not dead?” he said, arching his eyebrows at his granduncle.
“No,” answered Herman.
“And those creatures back there … those Shade thingies, they’re because of you?”
“Your side of the family always had a knack for stating the obvious,” said Herman, his mouth turned up in a sneer.
Theo nodded and thought for a minute. “You know what?”
“What?”
“You’re a real jackass.”
Herman Plunkett snarled at the comment but barely glanced in his grandnephew’s direction.
Daniel stood, brushing himself off. He held the backpack with the ring far out of Plunkett’s reach.
“All right, I need answers,” Daniel said. “You used something on me, some kind of mind control.”
“Some days you wouldn’t let me in,” said Herman. “You fought me, but in your dreams you were most vulnerable. Even from my prison, I could reach into your dreams. I have a lot of experience with those.” Herman smiled. “And your dreams haunt you, don’t they? Your subconscious is at war with itself because you won’t accept what you are!”
“Was it the ring?” asked Daniel. “I slept just a few feet from that ring for all those months—maybe that allowed you access to my dreams. Allowed you to get into my head!”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” said Herman.
“Hold on, hold on,” said Eric, stepping between the two of them. “So when you took our powers, Daniel, it was the ring all the time?”
Daniel nodded. “I don’t have any powers. I’m not a Super. Never was.”
“And never will be!” said Herman Plunkett. “Accept it! But you can still be special. You’ve had only a taste of that ring’s power! I spent a lifetime’s fortune scraping together enough meteorite to forge it, but it’s still just a fragment, an imperfect piece of the whole. Unlike my pendant, its power-stealing effect is only temporary, but with time and the proper training, we might be able to—”
“Can I just punch him now?” asked Mollie.
“No,” said Daniel. “Don’t bother. He’s desperate. His own meteor stone is broken, useless. If he had any power left, he’d have freed himself from those Shades. I think he used up the last of it messing with my head.”
Herman glowered at them even as he seemed to curl in closer to himself. Herman was free, thought Daniel, but he still wasn’t in control. This had to be an intolerable situation for the almighty Shroud.
“Now what?” asked Louisa. “Do we just wait here or—”
Louisa’s words were drowned out by a new sound, the rumble of shifting earth and stone. The resulting explosion was far away, much farther away than Daniel had expected, which meant that Mollie and Eric had gotten them all well clear of the quarry. But it was close enough for Daniel to still feel it in his teeth, and his ears rang with the sound. He started to say something, to suggest that they run or hide, when Rohan motioned for him to be quiet. He was pointing up at the sky.
Even against the night sky they were visible—a swirling flock of Shades twisting and turning like a funnel reaching to heaven, blocking out the stars. As the Supers watched, they spread out overhead, flying back and forth, high above the treetops.
“The Shades!” said Louisa.
“Oh, yes,” said Plunkett. “When my pendant was damaged, they began to escape. One by one, they drifted free. Shadows given substance by the power of the Witch Fire meteorite.”
“But what are they?” asked Louisa. “They’re more than just shadows. In the cave they showed us their faces. Children’s faces!”
“Every child he’s stolen from,” said Daniel. “That’s what they are. You’ve stolen the memories and powers of how many kids over the years, Herman? Hundreds? You took their powers, but what happened to all those memories?”
Herman Plunkett looked again at Daniel, and for a moment there was nothing but cold, calculating clarity in those reptilian eyes.
“Why, the memories lived on in the pendant, of course,” he said. “Kept safe for years and years inside my beautiful meteor stone. Echoes. Just Shades of who they once were, but each one as black and hard as the stone itself. As black as my broken pendant.”
“Somehow the meteor stored all those memories, and they became like ghosts or something,” said Daniel. “They were trapped for all those years, but after the pendant cracked … they got loose.”
“He’s right,” said Mollie. “I saw Michael in the cave. He was one of them.”
“Michael?” asked Eric.
“But it’s not him,” said Daniel. “Not really. Michael is alive and well. Mollie saw a part of who Michael used to be, maybe. She saw Michael’s shadow.”
“Corrupted by the power of the Shroud,” said Rohan.
“Well, they can’t find us,” Eric said, pointing to the twirling mass of shadows disappearing into the distance. “We must’ve been hidden by the trees.”
“They weren’t looking for you anymore,” said Herman.
“Well then, what are they doing?” asked Eric. “They’re your little monsters, so where are they going?”
But Daniel knew the answer before Herman even spoke. They were headed south, to the other side of the mountain. Toward civilization.
“They’re going to Noble’s Green, aren’t they?” asked Daniel.
Herman nodded slowly. “Your visit was a reminder of the lives they once lived. And to a Shade a memory—any memory—is painful. Your powers just made the memory worse. Up to now only a few have been bold enough, angry enough, to haunt the town. But tonight you shook the hornet’s nest. They’re coming home, and they are angry.”
“They’re going to attack Noble’s Green?” asked Louisa.
“Undoubtedly,” answered Herman. “I’d hoped to prevent all this.” He turned his eyes on Daniel. “I knew Daniel wasn’t up to the task by himself. So I urged him to bring me the ring. It can stop them. Trap them again. That’s why I visited his dreams. I needed his help whether he wanted to give it to me or not.”
“You controlled me!” shouted Daniel. His anger welled up in him so quickly that he couldn’t contain it. He didn’t want to. “You manipulated my memories! You made me use that thing like a puppet! I didn’t know what I was doing!”
“You didn’t know? Or you didn’t want to know?” Herman sat upright now and had regained a bit of his old menace. The look he shot at Daniel was pure contempt.
“It was an easy thing,” Herman said. “Little Maggie Johns was a twelve-year-old girl with the power to enter dreams. Not a terribly threatening power at first glance, until you realize that dreams are the keys to the subconscious. Control dreams and you can control a person’s mind. Plant suggestions, influence decisions. In her hands it was a dangerous thing. But I took her power, and it has served me well over these many years.
“We have a bond, Daniel, whether you want to admit it or not. I found that I could connect with you, reach out to you from my prison, to your sleeping self. Then it was an easy thing to plant suggestions, to set up mental blocks in your mind to make you forget what you were doing. Just carrying the ring in your pocket was enough to let you access its power, and I knew you’d bring it to me eventually. Your own pathetically guilty heart kept you from seeing it. You lied to yourself, Daniel. You hid from your true potential just like you always do.”
“You tried to make me into a monster,” said Daniel. “Just like you always do.”
Herman sighed and closed his eyes. “And that brings us to the here and now. We’ve both played our parts, hero. I’ve revealed my grand plans, my diabolical schemes, like a good little super-villain should.…” His eyes popped back open and he glared at Daniel. “Now, what are you going to do about it? Do you have the will to do what it takes to save your friends? To save Noble’s Green?”
“All right,” said Eric. “We don’t have time for this. Herman’s bad, Daniel’s good, and I think we can all agree on that. Daniel, is this old guy still in your head?”
“No. At least I don’t think so,” said Daniel. The Shroud’s whispers were silent. The itch in the back of his brain was gone, for now. He held up the backpack. “Now that I’m on the lookout for it, I think as long as the ring’s in here and I don’t go to sleep, I’m okay.”
“Good,” said Eric. Then he turned to Herman. “And you said this ring could stop the Shades?”
“Yes,” answered Herman. “I believe so. My pendant is too damaged to be of much use, but the ring is an unbroken fragment of the meteor stone. It’s not nearly as powerful as mine was, but it should be able to trap them again.”
“Guys, it’s starting,” said Rohan, listening. “The Shades have reached the town.”
No sooner had Rohan spoken than they all heard the distant sound of an explosion. Something bad was happening.
Eric nodded. “Time to go. I can carry Daniel and Rohan, but that’s it.”
“I can take Rose,” said Mollie.
“What about Louisa?” asked Rose.
“I can take her,” said Theo. “Louisa and my dear old uncle.”
“You?” said Louisa. “How?”
Theo smiled at her as he held up a ring of shiny car keys. “What? You didn’t think I walked here, did you?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Ambush
It was obvious something was wrong as soon as they clear
ed the trees. Mount Noble had always been a bit fearful, a craggy spike in the middle of the gentle Pennsylvania hills. But for Daniel the mountain was always tempered by the pleasant sight of the town nestled beneath its shadow. In the evenings, the lights of Noble’s Green shone like a warm patch of stars against the black forest.
But not tonight. Except for the glow of some traffic along the main roads, the town was completely dark. It was hard to tell where the forest ended and the lightless houses began.
Worryingly, they did spy a number of glowing fires. On the outskirts of town they flickered orange and yellow, and a parade of red flashing fire trucks was speeding toward them.
“Electrical transformers,” Rohan shouted against the wind. “The Shades must’ve blown them up to knock out the town’s power.”
As Eric flew them into town, Daniel hugged his backpack to his chest, mindful of the terrible weapon inside. He still couldn’t believe that he’d been using the ring all this time, his subconscious under the influence of the Shroud himself. The thought of the old monster creeping around inside his head made Daniel physically ill. He’d manipulated Daniel into bringing the ring right to him, hoping it would give him the power to escape the Shades. But he hadn’t counted on Daniel’s showing up with all the Supers in tow. Once again he’d tried to drive a wedge between Daniel and his friends, and this time he’d nearly succeeded. Divide and conquer was the Herman Plunkett way.
Daniel cringed to remember the night he’d visited the quarry alone. It had been dumb luck that he’d found Clay and Bud there. If they hadn’t been in the way, if he’d gone on to explore the quarry alone and actually found Herman … Perhaps the Shades would have gotten him. Perhaps Herman would’ve. He wasn’t sure which would’ve been worse.
Eric set the two of them down just outside Daniel’s neighborhood. Now that they were closer, they saw tiny lights flickering in otherwise dark windows. People were lighting candles and going about their business in the same way they would normally do in the event of a blackout. Daniel thought about his own family and the times they’d waited for the power to come back on by sitting around telling ghost stories by flashlight. How many families were going through the same routines right now, oblivious to the very real ghosts that were coming for them?