Fablehaven: The Complete Series (157 page)

He turned, staring at the empty corner. Was the window open? Had the curtain blown sideways? Everyone else was in the other room.

Staring hard, he abruptly caught another flicker, a hand flashing briefly into view along with part of a leg. The body parts appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. Seth cried out and stumbled away from the corner.

Warren raced into the room. He stopped short, looking around. “Was that a drill?”

Seth narrowed his eyes, staring hard. “I think there’s something in the corner.”

“That corner?” Warren asked.

A full body pulsed temporarily into view—a tall, thin goblin with a knobby head, a shriveled nose, and jutting tusks. His skin was all shiny pinks and oranges, like burn scars. “See!” Seth yelled, jumping back again.

“I didn’t see anything,” Warren said, producing a pair of knives, one longer than the other.

Tanu stood in the doorway, a blowgun in his hand. “I don’t see anything either.”

“Either there is a goblin standing in that corner, or I’m going nuts,” Seth insisted, voice quavering. The goblin was not currently visible.

Holding both knives ready, Warren advanced toward the corner. The goblin flashed back into view, irregular nostrils flaring, glaring at Seth. “I see him again,” Seth announced, pointing.

Warren hurled the smaller knife at the corner. Twisting, the goblin sprang sideways, barely dodging the blade. The knife lodged in the wall. Wrenching the knife free, the goblin charged Warren.

“The knife vanished!” Warren said.

“Here he comes!” Seth warned. The goblin no longer pulsed in and out of view. Seth saw the creature clearly.

Tanu came up beside Seth. “Where is he?”

Warren backed away, blindly swinging his long knife. The goblin avoided the desperate swipes and slashed Warren across the chest. Warren lunged forward, but the goblin sidestepped the knife thrust and used Warren’s momentum to hurl him to the floor.

“There,” Seth said, pointing.

Tanu exhaled powerfully.

The goblin paused, staring at the small feathered dart protruding from his wrist. He staggered, swayed, steadied himself, then toppled to the floor, landing hard.

“Is that Vanessa’s blowgun?” Seth asked.

“Yeah,” Tanu said. “I sweetened the sleep potion on the darts to a nearly lethal dosage.”

Seth gestured at the fallen goblin. “Can you see him now?”

“Nope.”

Warren staggered to his feet, probing the bloody stripe across his chest.

“Deep?” Tanu asked.

“I have leather armor under my shirt,” Warren said. “The freak still gave me a good scratch. I keep my knives sharp.” Warren crouched, recovering his throwing knife from where it had fallen.

Vicious snarling erupted out in the hallway. Tanu tossed Seth a potion. He pulled out two more potions and stepped into the adjoining room. “Go gaseous!” he instructed Grandma and Kendra.

Seth had used the gaseous potion over the summer. It would transform him into a vaporous version of himself. As a gas, nothing that he knew of would be able to harm him, but he would also lose the ability to assist Warren and Tanu.

Instead of drinking the potion, he knelt beside the goblin. What was making it invisible to the others? Seth guessed it had to be some sort of magical item, like Coulter’s glove. The goblin wore simple clothes: a black silk shirt, loose black shorts, and sandals. Tucked in his belt were a pair of long, sharp knitting needles and a strangle cord. A conspicuous silver bracelet adorned one sinewy forearm.

Seth tore the bracelet free and put it on. The goblin remained visible, as did his own body. In the past, when Seth had worn Coulter’s magic glove and held still, his body had become transparent, even to himself. But since his eyes somehow saw through the goblin’s trick, he had no way to gauge whether he had cloaked himself from view or merely stolen a gaudy piece of jewelry.

Warren and Tanu had charged into the hallway, and Seth heard more snarling. He raced out of the room and gawked at the scene down the hall where Tanu and Warren were confronting a gray wolf nearly the size of a horse. The overgrown canine already had three feathered darts visible in its fur, along with Warren’s throwing knife. The ferocious wolf snapped repeatedly at Warren, who was barely holding the animal at bay by gradually retreating and slashing its muzzle with his long knife. Tanu fired another dart from the blowgun, then dropped the weapon to scrabble through his potion bag.

Grandma emerged from her room, crossbow in one hand, the potion Tanu had given her in the other. Seth grinned. Apparently he wasn’t the only person unwilling to go gaseous and miss the action. Grandma stared right through Seth at the combat with the wolf, then raised her weapon, taking careful aim. Seth lurched aside. Behind Grandma, the window at the end of the hall exploded in a shower of jagged shards as a muscular, winged creature crashed through it.

Grandma whirled as the horned gargoyle, body scratched and bleeding, scrambled to its feet and raced down the hall, trident in hand, wings folded. She held the crossbow level and let a quarrel fly. When the projectile disappeared into the creature’s head, the gargoyle lurched backward and collapsed to the floor as if he had bashed his face against an invisible beam.

Seth turned around to see the wolf backing away from Warren, legs wobbly, muzzle torn and wet. Tanu held a potion near his lips. Warren brandished the long knife. The wolf’s legs buckled and it slumped heavily to the floor, a motionless heap of fur and blood.

The bracelet on Seth’s arm felt steadily warmer. He removed it just as it was becoming unbearable to touch. Tossing the bracelet aside, he saw it disappear in a flash before hitting the floor.

“Seth?” Grandma exclaimed. “Where did you come from?”

“The goblin had some kind of invisibility bracelet. It got hot and disintegrated.”

“It may have run out of energy,” Grandma said. “Or it may have been protected by a self-destruct spell in case it was stolen.”

Warren and Tanu conferred briefly. Warren trotted down the hall toward the lobby, while Tanu came toward Grandma and Seth. “Thanks for dropping the gargoyle, Ruth,” Tanu said. “It must have tracked us from the air when we left Fablehaven. We aren’t safe here. We should collect our things. Warren is going to make sure the coast is clear.”

A wispy, ethereal version of Kendra drifted out of her room. She gazed at the fallen gargoyle and wolf.

“Don’t worry, Kendra,” Seth said, swiping a hand through her insubstantial body. “I’ll grab your suitcase.”

Chapter 11

Gate-Crasher

Kendra awoke tucked between crisp sheets. She had a kink in her neck from sleeping on too many pillows. With the shades drawn, the hotel room was mostly dark, but she could hear the shower running. She sat up to check the clock. The display read 8:23 a.m.

Stretching, she groaned. They had driven for more than an hour the previous night before choosing a new hotel. Tanu and Warren had dragged the bulky wolf and gargoyle outside and left them in the garbage bin.

The wiry goblin was currently bound and gagged in the other room with Seth and Warren. Tanu had left them with extra sleeping potion to administer to the grotesque prisoner. Their rooms did not adjoin this time, although they shared the same hallway.

Kendra heard the shower stop running. She fought free from her tight sheets and slid out of bed.

“Awake?” Grandma inquired from the neighboring bed.

“Yeah. You too?”

“I’ve been up for some time, resting in the dark. Something about hotel rooms has always made me lazy.”

Kendra pulled the shades open, flooding the room with cloud-dimmed light. “Any word from Grandpa?”

“He phoned earlier. The raid on the Sphinx failed. The house was vacant except for a series of traps and a few old men.”

“They found Haden?”

“Yes,” Grandma said. “Don’t fret about your friends. The Knights have a substantial fund set aside for victims of circumstances like these.”

“So the Sphinx and Torina and all of them got away?”

“Vanished without a trace.”

“Did they take the stingbulb?” Kendra wondered.

“No phony Kendras were found, so probably.”

“How was Midwinter Eve?”

“According to your grandfather, boisterous but safe. Considering what happened, we may have been wiser to sit tight at Fablehaven and endure the commotion. Of course, most decisions are simpler in hindsight.”

Tanu came out from the bathroom in a T-shirt and shorts, his hair damp. “We lived to see a new day,” he said with a broad smile.

“Good work,” Grandma said. “Stan thinks we may as well head home.”

“Warren and I monitored the hotel and the surrounding grounds all night,” Tanu said. “Everything stayed quiet. Seth’s ability to see the goblin assassin really foiled their plot. The wolf and the gargoyle were only there as backup.”

“You think we’re under the radar?” Grandma asked.

“Looks like the Society has lost track of us. Still, we’ll all be safer back inside the walls of Fablehaven.”

Grandma got out of bed. “What about the goblin?”

“We loaded him into the back of the SUV, trussed up and heavily drugged. We’ll press him for information once he’s secure in the dungeon.”

“Let’s start collecting our things.”

Kendra went to the bathroom and washed up. By the time she was ready, the bags were packed and waiting. She strolled with Seth to the elevator, rolling her suitcase behind her. Seth looked pensive.

She leaned into him, bumping his shoulder with hers. “So now you’re seeing invisible assassins?”

“I’m relieved it was actually there. I was starting to wonder if maybe I was the only one hearing zombie voices because I was crazy.”

“I wouldn’t write off the crazy theory without further investigation.”

“At least I wasn’t kidnapped by a duplicate of myself.”

“It does sound a little schizoid.” They reached the elevator. Kendra pressed the down arrow button.

“Why do you get to push the button?” Seth complained.

“What are you, like three years old?”

“I’m the official button pusher. I like when they light up.”

“You’re a goofball.”

The elevator doors opened. The car was empty. Warren hustled to catch up.

“Is it really empty?’ Kendra asked, moving from side to side to examine the vacant space from various angles.

“Very funny,” Seth replied. “I think so.”

Warren joined them in the elevator. Seth pushed the L button. Then he pushed 5, 4, 3, and 2. “Race you down,” he said, dashing out of the elevator before the doors closed, leaving his suitcase behind.

“I think he’s going to beat us,” Warren said, leaning against the wall.

“If he doesn’t get kidnapped on his way down the stairs.”