Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror (28 page)

“I suggest we find the entrance to this dungeon with an increase of speed,” said Pearl.

“Right,” said Mortia.

“It's a trap,” said Falcon. “Here. You take these keys, start trying to open the door. I shouldn't have made you all come with me.”

Max looked confused. “What are you talking about?” he said, nervously jingling the keys on the ring.

“This is something
I
have to do,” said Falcon. “I shouldn't have wrapped you up with it.”

“Shut up,” said Max.

“Yeah,” said Mortia. “Shut up.”

“If you continue to talk the stupid, I shall be forced to sting you just on principle,” said Pearl. “Let us find the dungeon we seek, without delay!”

They walked around the room, looking for doors or secret panels, but nothing revealed itself. Max examined a small, framed photograph on the mantel.

Mortia seemed a little irritated. “Who was it that said the entrance to the dungeon was in here?”

“Sparkbolt,” said Falcon. “He told us when we sailed past him on the River of Crud.”

Mortia blinked. “Timothy Sparkbolt?” she said. “We're here because of information you got from Timothy
Sparkbolt
?”

“Dude,” said Max, standing by the fireplace. “It's you, Falcon.”

“What's me?”

“This photo,” said Max. “It's you.”

Pearl and Mortia moved toward the fireplace to examine the picture. It was a photo of Falcon, taken back when he was in Cold River Elementary.

Falcon felt the cold sensation in his blue eye again. “What's my photograph doing here,” he asked, “in the office of the headmaster?”

“Aw,” said Max. “Look at you! You're so little!”

Max picked up the photo in its frame, but as he did, something completely unexpected happened. The photo triggered some sort of mechanical device that rotated the fireplace and the semicircular hearthstone on the floor. There was a grinding, swiveling noise, and a moment later Pearl and Max and Mortia had disappeared behind the wall. Another fireplace and mantel and section of wall swung into place behind them. There was a
click
,
like the closing of a lock.

Falcon was just about to cry out for his friends when he heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall. The steps drew closer and closer to the headmaster's office. Then, as Falcon watched, the door's locks began to turn. Then the door flew open with a loud
bang.

For a moment no one was there. Then a shadow fell upon the floor as the creature drew closer. He stood for a moment, framed in the doorway, the tall wraithlike man with the giant black wings outstretched above him. A stopwatch hanging around the man's neck ticked loudly. He stared at Falcon for a long time without speaking, as if lost in thought; then an odd smile flickered across his lips.

He walked toward Falcon, paralyzing him with his gaze as he approached, then extending his suction-cup hand and placing it on the side of the boy's face.

“Hello, son,” said the Crow.

A
s the fireplace spun around, Mortia, Max, and Pearl found themselves rotated from the bright world of the headmaster's office into a circular stone chamber lit only by slits cut into the walls. They appeared to be at the base of some sort of tower, with a circular iron staircase before them leading down into the earth. “Falcon!” shouted Mortia, hoping that he could hear them through the stone wall. “Are you there?”

But even as she said this, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching, and then the door to the headmaster's office opening. A man's voice said something, and then they heard the sound of Falcon screaming. Then there was silence.

“Dude,” said Max.

“We must find a way to aid our friend,” said Pearl. “Surely there is a device on this side of the wall that will spin us around once more!”

But they found nothing; the trip wire attached to Falcon's photograph did not cause the fireplace wall to
swivel again, and there appeared to be no other latches in sight.

“Falcon?” said Mortia. “Are you there?”

There was no sound.

“Somebody came and got him,” said Max.

“This whole thing was a trap!” said Mortia.

“Oh, man,” said Max. “We're toast!”

“I agree that this adventure is doomed,” said Pearl. “That all our hopes are now dashed! And so! Since we must resign ourselves to catastrophe, let us at least do some good for those still imprisoned in the chamber below us, before what shall surely be our own painful and most unpleasant demise!”

“‘Demise'?” said Max. “What do you mean, ‘demise'?”

“What she means,” said Mortia, “is we can at least take a few of them with us on our way down. Mrs. Redflint! Mr. Hake!”

“Their cries of dismay shall be our consolation!” shouted Pearl.

“Wait,” said Max. “When you say ‘demise,' you mean, like, what exactly?”

“That,” said Pearl, “is what the dungeon below shall make clear!”

“Yeah, okay, fine,” said Max. “You first.”

“I
intended
to go first!” said Pearl.

“Okay,” said Max. “Nobody's stopping you.”

“I shall descend these circular stairs and learn of our fate!”

“All right already,
descend
.”

“I
shall
descend.”

“Guys,” said Mortia, “let's just do this. Anyway, there's no place else to go. We can't go back, and there's no way up.” She looked overhead at the conical interior of the tall, thin spire. “So it's down, or nowhere.”

“Then down we shall go!” said Pearl, and buzzed into the darkness below.

Max paused for a moment, looking into the dark after her.

“What?” said Mortia.

“I was just thinking…,” said Max. “We're probably going to get, like—fried, or slapped into chains, or turned back into music, or eaten by Mr. Hake, or something, down there, right?”

Mortia nodded.

“Okay. And we're doing this again—why?”

“Because we're trying to help other people,” said Mortia.

“But how are we going to help them, if we get—”

From downstairs came the sound of Pearl shouting.

“That's Pearl!” said Max. Then he plunged down the stairs, Mortia right behind him. “Hang on! I'm coming!”

When they reached the bottom of the circular stairs,
they found that Pearl was not in distress but had come up short before a large iron door that was, indeed, locked shut. This one did not swing forward, however, and it took Max several moments of trial and error with Quimby's keys before he found the one that fit.

“Okay,” he said. “Everybody ready?”

“I have always been ready!” said Pearl.

“What have we got to lose?” said Mortia.

Max looked at her. “Seriously?” he said. “You want a list of all the stuff we have to lose?”

Pearl buzzed around him impatiently. “She does not wish a list!” she said.

“Let's go,” said Mortia.

“All right,” said Max, and he swung open the heavy door.

Before them was an enormous stone chamber with torches on the wall. On the floor their former classmates were gathered, looking rather the worse for wear: Destynee and Sparkbolt, Weems and Turpin and Owen Kearney, the Irish abominable. Elaine Screamish, the banshee, sat on the floor next to Augusten Krumpet. Three zombies sat in the center of the room together, playing Uno. Ankh-hoptet leaned against a wall next to Bonesy the skeleton.

“I know you,” said Destynee. “You're—somebody!”

Destynee's face still had a soft bruise on one side.

“Are you okay, dude?” said Max.

“I like cheese,” she said slowly.

“She's not quite herself,” said Weems. “Since the sucking of her brain!”

“Weemso,” said Max. “How are you?”

“Imprisoned,” he said. Then he cast a glance at Destynee. “Weems has been trying to help. Weems always tries to help!” He held up his paddleball, but the ball was gone now. The elastic string trailed toward the floor. “How did she sail?” he asked. “The
Destynee II
, I mean—did she serve you well?”

“It was an awesome ship, Weemso,” said Max. “It brought us out through that tunnel, sailed us out across the Sea of Dragons. Megan Crofton filled the sails.”

“I am sorry I could not sail with you on
Destynee II.
But I have been doing what I can—to attend to
Destynee I
.”

“I'm sorry,” said Destynee, looking at Weems. “Have we met? My name's Kennedy!” She smiled. “I like cheese!”

“I can't believe they got you,” said Bonesy. “Now you're down here with us—
nobodies
.”

“We have not been
gotten
!” shouted Pearl. “We—Señor Max the Sasquatch, Mortia the zombie, and I,
la Chupakabra
!—have come to rescue you, to release you from this prison! Together we shall rise and take
revenge upon those who would bind our brethren—and sisthren!—in chains!”

The prisoners looked at her as if she had spoken only gibberish.

“She's lost her mind,” said Lincoln Pugh. He was sitting by one of the windows with the iron bars that overlooked the River of Crud. “We've all lost our minds!”

“What do you mean, release?” asked Weems.

“Dude,” said Max. “She means we're breaking out!”

“Falcon Quinn,” said Sparkbolt. “Where Falcon Quinn friend?”

Pearl and Max and Mortia cast their eyes downward. “Falcon got caught. The Crow got him.”

“What is the plan?” asked Augusten. “Whatever it is, we're with you!”

“Let us go and avenge our friend Falcon,” said Pearl. “Together we shall stop the evil of this Academy. We shall embrace our destiny, rather than run from it!”

“You're insane,” said Lincoln Pugh. “I'm staying here. This is where it's safe.”

“Not to agree with Lincoln,” said Bonesy, “but he's right. We can't fight them. We're nobodies.”

“I am not nobody, Miss Bag of Bones!” shouted Pearl. “I am—
¡la Chupakabra
, the famous goatsucker of Peru!”

“I shall join this fight,” said Ankh-hoptet.

“Sparkbolt FIGHT!” said Sparkbolt. “SPARKBOLT ANGRY!”

“We're with you,” said the zombies.

“I'll freeze them where they stand,” said Owen Kearney.

“I'll wail until their eardrums shatter,” said Elaine Screamish.

“I'll sprinkle their dreams with fairy dust,” said Augusten Krumpet.

“Go on!” shouted Lincoln Pugh. “You won't get far. You think you're fighting the teachers, but you're wrong. You're only fighting yourselves. Maybe you think you're monsters, but you're wrong. The only monsters are the monsters in your brain. And until you all accept that—like I have—you'll always be prisoners of your own sickness.”

Augusten Krumpet walked over to Lincoln Pugh and sprinkled some fairy dust in his eyes.

“Ack!” shouted Lincoln Pugh. “Ackk—” His eyes grew large, and then there was a flash of light, knocking Lincoln Pugh out cold. Everyone watched this, impressed.

“Rrrrrr!” said Sparkbolt. “FAIRY DUST GOOD!”

Augusten Krumpet smiled happily.

“I don't suppose you have any food on you,” said Bonesy. “I'm so unbelievably hungry.”

“What are they feeding you, anyway?” said Mortia. “You all look terrible.”

“The moth man comes with these buckets of macaroni and cheese twice a day,” said Ankh-hoptet.

“The moth man,” said Max. “He's the acting headmaster. But what about that Crow? Does he come down here?”

“No one sees the Crow,” said Bonesy. “He stays up in his tower.”

“He came down only to prevent your escape,” said Weems. “He erased the mind of the beloved.”

“I like waffles,” said Destynee.

“But he failed to prevent our escape!” said Pearl. “Just as he shall fail again if he tries to do battle with us! Let us engage him then! Let us meet our doom!”

“Doom,” said Weems happily. “Doom!”

They all shouted it—Ankh-hoptet and the zombie girls, Destynee and Sparkbolt and Elaine Screamish. They raised their fists in the air. “Doom! Doom! Doom!”

“Bring the torches,” said Mortia, pointing to the wall. “Bring anything we can use as weapons.”

“Fire bad,” Sparkbolt pointed out.

“Exactly,” said Weems.

“What about him?” said Owen Kearney, pointing to the unconscious Lincoln Pugh. “Shall we leave him to the fate he's chosen, then?”

“Augusten?” said Max. “How long's the werebear out for?”

“Hard to say,” said Augusten. “I put a spell on him. He'll stay asleep until he realizes what he is.”

“You mean, until he realizes he's a werebear?”

“No,” said Augusten. “Until he realizes how
annoying
he is.”

“I'll carry him,” said Max. “No reason he should have to stay down here forever, just because he thinks he's crazy.”

“Señor Max,” said Pearl. “You are going to need your arms free for the battle that is coming!”

“Aw, he weighs nothing,” said Max, wrapping Lincoln up in a blanket and slinging him over his shoulder. “I can always drop him if there's trouble.”

“Let us go, then,” said Pearl. “The battle for our liberation has begun.”

Max turned to his classmates and roared. He threw back his head. “Everybody!” he shouted. “MONSTER UP!”

They thundered through the open door of the dungeon: Destynee, Sparkbolt, Weems, Turpin, Ankh-hoptet, Elaine Screamish, Augusten Krumpet, Owen Kearney, Bonesy, Pearl, Mortia and the three zombie girls: Crumble, Molda, and Putrude. Last of all was Max, carrying Lincoln Pugh, wrapped in a blanket. Their feet clattered on the iron steps as they ascended. They reached the top and crowded into
the small antechamber with the fireplace on one wall.

“I remember this place,” said Ankh-hoptet. “I was carried here entwined in the cursed cords of that dark and spindly mantis!”

“Reverend Thorax,” said Crumble with a shudder.

“Okay,” said Owen Kearney, looking impatiently at Pearl and Max and Mortia. “Go on with it, then. Will you not open this secret door and let us through?”

Mortia pulled on the photo of Falcon, but nothing happened. “It's not the photo, I guess,” she said. “We tried this before. There must be some other trip wire.”

They searched the mantelpiece and the fireplace for some sort of secret lever but found nothing.

“We're
traaaapped
,” wailed Elaine Screamish.

“Here we go,” said Putrude the zombie, “right on schedule.”

“Screamy,” said Augusten. “Can you hold off on the banshee? Otherwise, I'll have to sprinkle ya. With the dust?”

“Guys,” said Max. “We just have to work together here. Everybody look at the wall. There's gotta be a keyhole, or a trip wire, or something.”

“How'd you get
in
here, anyway,” said Molda, “if there's no key?”

“We pulled on that photo of Falcon,” said Mortia. “It made the wall spin around.”

“And whatever is a photograph of Falcon Quinn doin' on the mantel of the hidjus Crow?” said Owen Kearney. “Tell me that, then!”

“We do not have all the answers that you seek!” shouted Pearl. “We have only the keys, and our courage! It is with these alone we have come this far! And now you shall aid us in the search for our escape!”

“We're doomed,” said Elaine Screamish. “Doooommed!” She sat down on the floor and began to weep.

“Does anybody see anything that looks like it moves?” said Max. “Check everything!”

Ankh-hoptet was in the fireplace, pulling on the andirons and the ash trap. “There is nothing here but the memories of fire and shadow,” she said.

Pearl buzzed high over their heads, circling the small circular chamber in hopes that the additional altitude might enable her to find the hidden mechanism.

“Ohh, we're doooomed,” wailed Elaine. Her tears were gathering in a large puddle on the floor now.

“My name's Kennedy,” said Destynee. “I like cheeeee—”

“Destynee,” said Weems, concerned. “What is it? What's wrong?”

But Destynee could not answer. The moment she stepped into the pool of tears that had fallen from the
banshee's eyes, she began to dissolve. In just a few seconds she had been reduced to a pool of slime upon the floor.

“You!” said Weems.

“What?” said Screamy. “Whaaaat?”

“TEARS,” said Sparkbolt. “TEARS MELT SLUG. MELT SLUG BAD! BAD!”

“You fool!” cried Weems. “You have dissolved
the beloved
!”

“Oh no,” said Screamy. “I am so sorry!”