Fablehaven: The Complete Series (83 page)

“Why did you betray us?” Kendra accused.

“One day those I serve will rule all,” Vanessa said. “I do no more harm than I must. At present, our needs align. We must defeat the guardian to escape this place, and neither of us will succeed alone.”

“And once we have the artifact?” Warren asked.

“We’ll be fortunate to be alive and to have reached the next crossroads,” Vanessa said. “I can give you no further assurances.”

“Defeating this guardian will be no small task,” Warren admitted. “What do you say, Kendra?”

Two sets of eyes were on Kendra. “I don’t trust her.”

“A little late for that,” Vanessa said.

“You were supposed to be my teacher and my friend,” Kendra said. “I really liked you.”

Vanessa grinned. “Of course you liked me. In the spirit of teaching, here’s a final piece of instruction. I used the same approach when we met as Errol did. I rescued you from a supposed threat in order to build trust. Of course, I helped set up the threat. I visited your town the night before the kobold showed up at your school and bit your homeroom teacher while she slept. Later, the kobold put a tack on her chair to put her to sleep, then I took over and gave you quite a scare.”

“That was you?” Kendra said.

“We had to make sure you had ample reason to accept Errol’s help. And then, once you realized Errol was a threat, I came to your rescue.”

“What happened to Case?” Kendra asked.

“The kobold? He’s off on some new mission, I presume. His purpose was merely to alarm you.”

“Is Mrs. Price all right?”

“She’ll be fine, I’m sure,” Vanessa said. “We meant her no harm. She was a means to an end.”

“I’m not sure I get the moral of this lesson,” Warren said. “Don’t trust people who help you?”

“More like, be careful who you trust,” Vanessa said. “And don’t cross the Society. We’re always a step ahead.”

“So we shouldn’t team up,” Kendra said.

“You have no other choice,” Vanessa laughed darkly. “Neither do I. None of us can flee. If we fight each other, none of us will leave here alive. You can’t afford to pass up my help defeating the guardian. Nor can I afford to pass up yours. And, albino or not, Warren is looking paler by the minute.”

Kendra looked down at the panther. She glanced at Warren. “What do you think?”

He sighed. “Honestly, we’d better work with her to kill the cat. Even with a combined effort, it will be a challenge.”

“Okay,” Kendra said.

“Anything good in the pouch?” Vanessa asked.

“Probably, but we don’t know one potion from another,” Kendra said.

“I’m not sure I could be much help discerning potions,” Vanessa said. She looked at Warren. “Your shirt is soaked.”

The shirt bound to his abdomen was indeed drenched in blood. His naked chest was bathed in sweat. “I’m all right. Better than Christopher.”

“I’m quite good with a sword,” Vanessa said.

“I can hold my own,” Warren replied.

“Fair enough, finders keepers,” she said. “Patience is our best weapon. If we do this right, we can dispatch it without ever touching the ground.”

“You be our eyes, Kendra,” Warren said, lowering himself. Vanessa sank toward the floor as well. Kendra hovered, watching the baleful panther prowl below, gazing up at the flying people.

Vanessa and Warren floated apart from one another, dipping low enough to bait and tease the panther, rising out of reach when it leaped up at them. Vanessa finally got into a good position and hurled the spear into the panther’s ribs. As the panther moved around, the spear eventually dislodged. Warren lured the panther away, and Vanessa retrieved the weapon.

They continued baiting the panther until Vanessa harpooned it again. Soon the animal collapsed, and Warren finished it with the sword. “Sharp blade,” Vanessa remarked. “It cuts deep.”

Weapons ready, they hovered above the floor, watching as the panther emerged from its own corpse, now the size of a tiger. Before long the glossy black coat had been punctured multiple times with the spear, and the great beast finally succumbed.

“You’re not doing much with that sword,” Vanessa commented.

“I’ll use it when the time comes,” Warren said.

“Here comes the seventh life,” Vanessa said.

This time, with a mighty roar that echoed through the tall room, the panther was reincarnated standing as tall as a horse, with dagger claws and saber-toothed fangs. Four writhing serpents, black with red markings, grew out of its powerful shoulders.

“Now, that’s a cat,” Warren said.

Warren and Vanessa started baiting the huge panther, but it did not come at them. Instead, it crouched near the center of the room, keeping the pedestal between itself and Vanessa. They ventured lower and lower trying to tempt the panther to break cover.

Finally, with terrifying suddenness, the panther dashed at Warren and vaulted alarmingly high. Warren fell upwards at full speed, but not before a lashing serpent struck him on the calf. Vanessa was not in an ideal position, but used the opportunity to let the spear fly. It pierced the panther just above a rear leg. Bawling, the panther sprang at her as well, again achieving a phenomenal height, just missing her.

“I got nipped on the calf,” Warren said.

“One of the snakes?” Vanessa asked.

“Yeah.” Warren rolled up his pant leg to look at the bite marks.

Below them, the panther crouched near the pedestal, the spear still in its leg. Using small bursts of gravity and kicking her legs, Vanessa made her way awkwardly over to Warren, moving vaguely like a jellyfish.

“You’d better lend me the sword,” Vanessa said. “It will not be a gentle venom.”

“One of these potions counteracts poison,” Kendra said.

“And probably five of them
are
poison,” Vanessa replied. “Time is essential, Warren. I’ll need you with me as we face the final forms.”

Warren gave her the sword. Vanessa dropped tantalizingly close to the ground, lower than Warren had been when the giant panther reached him. The ferocious feline charged and pounced. Instead of soaring up to escape, as the panther anticipated, Vanessa dropped, and with a sweep of the sword opened a tremendous wound across the great cat’s underbelly.

Vanessa hit the ground hard and instantly took flight, but there was no need—the panther was lying on its side, serpents thrashing, body twitching. Warren dropped to the ground and retrieved the spear, then rejoined Vanessa in the air.

“We’ve got another one coming,” Vanessa announced as the body began to fold in upon itself. “How are you holding up?” she asked Warren.

“So far so good,” he said, but he looked exhausted.

Twin roars resounded through the towering room. The panther, much larger now than any horse, had sprouted a second head. The doubly fierce creature had no snakes or other oddities. It paced beneath them with feral intensity.

“You want to bait or throw?” Vanessa asked.

“I’d better bait,” he said, giving her the spear and taking the sword.

Warren went lower, but not much lower. The panther was no longer cowering behind the pedestal; it paced in the open, as if daring them to come closer. Warren still looked to be well out of reach when the panther sprang and from gaping mouths expelled a spray of black sludge. The two-headed panther had not come up directly below Warren, and so the spray came at him diagonally, spattering his chest and legs.

Instantly Warren was screaming. Tendrils of smoke steamed up from where the volatile substance clung to him. He dropped the sword and brushed frantically at the searing sludge. Thrashing and groaning, Warren rose ever higher until he reached the spikes in the roof and used them to make his way to the catwalk, where he collapsed.

Vanessa and Kendra followed Warren and knelt on the catwalk beside him. His body was charred wherever the sludge had splattered. “Acid, or something,” he muttered feverishly, eyes wild.

Vanessa cut open his pant leg. The flesh around the snakebite was swollen and discolored.

“We can’t get him out of here?” Kendra asked Vanessa.

“The tower will not let us leave without the artifact,” Vanessa said. “A safeguard to protect its secrets.”

“Can any traps be worse than that thing?” Kendra asked.

“Yes,” Vanessa said. “The traps that prevent a premature exit will be rigged to cause certain death. The guardian can be defeated; the traps probably cannot. Hand over the potion pouch. Warren is dying. Blind luck is better than none.” Vanessa began considering various bottles, uncapping a few to sniff them. Below, the panther heads roared.

“No potions,” Warren gasped. “Give me the spear.”

Vanessa gave him a sidelong glance. “You’re in no condition—”

“The spear,” he said, sitting up.

“This might buy you time,” Vanessa said, holding up a bottle. “I think I recognize the potion. It has a distinctive odor. It will transform your body to a gaseous state. During that time, poison will not spread, acid will not burn, and blood will not flow.”

Vanessa held it out to him.

Lips twisting into a grimace, Warren shook his head.

Vanessa held out the spear.

Snatching it, Warren rolled off the edge of the catwalk. He was controlling his fall with the rod, but descending rapidly. Warren yelled—a primal, barbaric challenge. The two-headed panther snarled up at him. Warren cried out again, directly above the feline monstrosity. The monster reared up to meet him, jaws agape.

Holding the spear poised, Warren let himself fall at full speed the final thirty feet, and so it was with tremendous force that he plunged the spear between the two necks an instant before striking the unyielding floor. With more than half the length of the spear buried in its body, the mighty beast took a few drunken steps, wobbled, leaned, and slumped to the floor.

Kendra grabbed the bottle from Vanessa and dove off the catwalk. She kept full gravity, and an incredible rush of wind washed over her as she plummeted downward. She whipped the rod around, and her fall began to slow, and then she brought the rod level, coming to a perfect stop beside Warren.

Warren was a wreck, facedown, unconscious, breathing shallowly. Heaving with both hands, Kendra rolled him over, wincing as something inside of him crunched. His mouth was open. Tilting his head up, she tried to ignore the snapping sound his neck made, and dumped the potion into his mouth. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and much of the fluid leaked out the sides of his mouth.

Once again, the body of the monster was bulging and undulating, as if it were about to erupt. Vanessa was yanking on the spear, tugging it out a little at a time, leaning into it with everything she had.

“Get clear, Kendra,” Vanessa called. “This is not over.”

When Kendra looked back at Warren, he was wispy and translucent. She tried to touch him, and her hand passed through him like he was mist, dissipating him slightly. Kendra raced across the floor and grabbed the sword. Behind her, Vanessa finally jerked the spear free.

As Vanessa launched into the air, Kendra watched the ninth version of the guardian emerge. Long wings unfurled. Twelve serpents sprouted from various spots along its back. Three heavy tails swayed. And three heads bellowed together, a deafening sound even from where Kendra stood behind the beast. The great wings beat down and the beast took flight, pursuing Vanessa.

Kendra gaped in petrified awe. From wingtip to wingtip, the monstrosity stretched across half the cavernous room. It rose swiftly.

Running out of room to ascend, Vanessa started falling instead of rising, hurling the spear as she neared her pursuer. The weapon merely grazed the monster and tumbled toward the floor. All three heads snapped at Vanessa, and all missed. She rebounded off its well-muscled body, snakes striking eagerly, and tumbled toward the ground. Vanessa managed to slow her descent at the last moment, but she still landed heavily only a moment after the spear struck the floor.

Like Errol before her, she lost her grip of the rod, and it floated away toward the ceiling. Quivering, snake-bitten, dragging a broken leg, she crawled for the spear. Above, the three-headed fiend descended, roaring exultantly. Beyond the monster, Kendra saw a pair of figures falling toward her.

Propping herself up with the spear, Vanessa stood and faced the three-headed monster cat as it landed before her. The cat watched her from well out of reach. Kendra recognized Tanu and Coulter descending swiftly, both albino, and she waved her arms at them.

Even as scalding sludge fountained from three mouths, dousing Vanessa in blistering agony, Tanu alighted beside Kendra, snatched his potion pouch, and upended a bottle into his mouth. He accepted the sword from Kendra. As Vanessa screamed, Tanu expanded, clothes splitting as he doubled in height, a huge man becoming a giant, the sword looking like a knife in his enormous hand.