Fenzy (8 page)
Rolling, rolling, he thought of the happy families he’d seen on the other side. But they were on that side and he was on this side.
Of course
he was running—rolling—for his life while they picnicked.
Of course
screams of hate filled his ears while music filled theirs.
He hit the path, skidded, flipped, and landed on the boulders. He blinked at the water five feet below him. His reflection blinked back, a boy with wild hair and wilder eyes. Xander slammed into a boulder beside him, cracking his head hard.
“Oooh,” Xander said, slapping his hand on the back of his skull.
David scrambled up. Phemus was halfway down, the mob closing the gap behind him. David gave Xander a hand up and looked both directions along the path. Going left would take them back to the village and the square. The other way was unknown; the path continued along the river and disappeared around a bend, where dense woods sprang up. “Which way?” he said.
Xander pulled the metallic stone from his pocket and held it up. It seemed to hop out of his hand. It struck the ground, bounced and spun like a top, and rolled away along the path toward the wood.
Xander pointed at it. “Run!”
David took off. Even at full speed, he was falling farther and farther behind the stone. It rolled, popped up, came down, continued rolling, faster than before.
Like the square, the path was just plain
gross
. At first, David tried to dodge around the dead fish, animal bones, and chicken heads. But as the stone picked up speed, he stomped over all of it.
The stone popped up, and in midair it jerked to the left. It bounced off a boulder and vanished over the edge. It plunked into the water, spreading ripples like rings of heated air from an atomic bomb.
David slid to a stop. “Xander!” he yelled, watching the rip-ples fade. He spun as his brother caught up to him. Phemus and at least twenty Atlantians had reached the path and were booking toward them.
Xander stared at the spot where the stone had disappeared.
“It’s gone,” David said. “It just popped up and fell into the river.”
“No,” Xander said. “It didn’t
fall
. It was
pulled
.”
The surface still rippled, but not from the stone. It was a portal.
“Go,” Xander said.
David didn’t have to be told twice. He jumped and watched the portal grow large between his kicking feet. He plunged into the water. It was cold, knocking the air out of him. And salty, stinging his eyes. His stomach lurched and his head spun. He closed his eyes and waited for it to be over.
F
RIDAY
, 1:27
P. M
.
Taksidian moved quickly, stepping toward Keal as soon as the spear was away from his chest. The man snapped the dagger up, but Keal knew better. It was an old hand-to-hand combat trick: pretend to do the expected, and most people expected that knife-wielding attackers would thrust downward. But war-riors knew the most lethal and effective knife attacks came from below, underhanded. He reached down and caught Taksidian’s arm as it swooped down and up toward the bottom of his rib cage.
Keal yanked back on the spear, trying to get the tip of the long weapon in position to stab Taksidian. But the man’s other hand seized it, keeping it extended past his body.
As furiously fast as their movements had been, they stopped just as quickly. The men stood locked in place like statues. Their faces were so close, Keal could smell Taksidian’s foul breath. He felt the continued upward pressure of Taksidian’s arm, but his own arm was strong and firm.
Taksidian stared unblinking into Keal’s eyes. He said, “Nice.”
Keal strained with effort. He said, “Where . . . are . . . the . . . boys?”
Taksidian simply grinned, making Keal’s hatred glow red-hot inside his chest.
They stood in the center of the room, the closed portal door on one side, the hallway door on the other. Keal believed they could be frozen in that position forever. It made him think of the two Zax, those Dr. Seuss characters who refused to move to let each other pass while a city rose up around them.
Quick as a blink, Keal shot his knee out. Taksidian moved his leg and blocked it.
“Now what?” Taksidian said.
Keal tried twisting Taksidian’s arm to aim the dagger away from him. Taksidian resisted, held firm.
The guy’s stronger than he looks
, Keal thought.
And he looks strong
.
Taksidian threw his head forward, targeting Keal’s face. Most combatants tried to counter the move by stiffening their necks and bracing themselves for the impact. That simply gave the attacker something solid to hit. The right response was what Keal did now. He leaned away and let his head fall back. Taksidian’s forehead tapped Keal’s chin. It helped that Keal had expected it.
“You’re good,” Taksidian said.
“You’re bad,” Keal said. “Guess that’s why we’re here.”
The intensity of Taksidian’s eyes showed that he was calcu-lating, calculating . . . figuring out a move that would surprise and
end
Keal.
The portal door burst open, and water sprayed in.
In the half second that Keal flinched and looked, Taksidian released the spear and punched him. Keal flew back, but refused to release Taksidian’s knife hand. Taksidian elbowed Keal’s nose, and that was it: Keal sailed against the wall and dropped to the floor.
Through a haze of pain and watery eyes, Keal watched Taksidian swing his dagger back, preparing to dart in for the kill.
But David propelled out of the portal, smacking into Taksidian. Water exploded from the collision like fire. The dagger flew out of Taksidian’s hand and clattered to the floor beside Keal.
David landed on his feet and staggered back, shock making his eyes big and unhinging his jaw.
Taksidian spun, saw David, and registered just as much shock. He raised his foot and kicked David in the chest, send-ing him back into the portal. The door slammed shut.
F
RIDAY
, 1:31
P.M
.
Shoved backwards, David went through the shimmering portal, turning Taksidian’s image into a wavering, blurry fig-ure. David spun around, and he was in the cave. It was gone in a blink, flooded by water crashing in from all sides. He rammed into something both hard and soft, felt arms and legs tangling around him. Xander’s face flashed by, and together they broke the surface of the river. Shot out of the portal like pieces of rotten food from a mouth, they flew, arms and legs pinwheeling, back toward the path. They slammed into Phemus, and all three of them hit the ground.
Phemus grunted and waved his hands around, trying to grab them, as if swatting at flies. David kicked him in the head, rolled away, and stood. Xander pushed himself out of the way of Phemus’s flailing arms, scooting backward along the path.
“Xander!” David said.
His brother saw the fighting men moving in on him, a crowd of people right behind. One of the bare-chested brawlers swung a fist at him. He ducked and spun away.
“Follow me!” David yelled and leaped over the boulders into the river.
••••••••••
David spilled out of the portal on a wave of water. He som-ersaulted and coasted into the hallway door. Keal was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, staring at him. Blood fanned out from his nostrils, coating his lips and chin.
“Are you all ri—“ David started.
Xander flew in horizontally, arms stretched out over his head, like the Man of Steel coming for a visit. He appeared to stall in midflight and belly flopped to the floor. He moaned and rolled over, holding his stomach. His eyes snapped opened. “He’s coming!” he said. He rose and leaped to the portal door. He swung it around, but just before it closed, water sprayed in and something crashed into the other side. The door jarred open a foot, knocking Xander off his feet. Lying on the floor, he pushed his hands against the door. “Help me!”
Keal bolted up, rammed his shoulder against the door, and leaned into it.
David jumped up and bent over his brother to help them push. His sneakers slipped on the wet floor, and he had to continually shuffle his feet to get any kind of traction.
“Aaahhh!” Xander screamed.
David realized he had planted a foot on his brother’s shoulder. He slipped it off and said, “Is it Phemus?”
“Who else?” Xander said, as the brute’s fat arm slipped through the opening. It punched at David, who dodged it. “Push!” Xander yelled.
But Phemus was strong and the floor was slippery and the boys were tired. The door inched open. Keal backed away, and the door opened farther.
“Keal!” David said.
Keal returned and held a dagger over Phemus’s wildly mov-ing arm. He waved the dagger, trying to get a shot.
“Do it!” David said.
Keal jabbed, pinning Phemus’s hand to the door. A howl came through the opening. The muscles in the big man’s arm tightened and bulged. His fingers flexed.
“It’s stuck,” Keal said. He tugged on the blade, wiggled it, and yanked it out.
The arm slipped away, and the door slammed shut.
F
RIDAY
, 1:45
P.M
.
David leaned his shoulder into the door, giving his throb-bing arm a break. All of them pushed against it, panting. As David’s breath slowed, his nerves settled. He said, “Think he can come through? Will the door open for him?”
Xander moved away from the door and plopped down on the bench. “I don’t know how he could,” he said. “It’s closed now. We’re home. The portal we used in Atlantis should be gone. He only got as far as he did because he followed us through.”
“Like we did with him,” David said. His shoulders slumped. His whole body slumped. He stumbled to the bench and collapsed on it, resting his head on his brother’s thigh.
“What happened back there?” Xander said. “You almost killed me. Twice: when
you
crashed into me and when
we
crashed into Phemus. Why’d you come back through the portal?”
“Taks—“ David raised his head. “What happen to Taksidian?”
“
You
did,” Keal said. “When you ran into him, he lost his dagger, and it gave me time to raise the spear. So he ran.” Keal groaned, pressed his back against the portal door, and slid down to sit on the floor. He added: “Like the coward he is.”
“What do you mean?” Xander said. “Taksidian was here? In the antechamber?”
“He
kicked
me back into the portal,” David said, rubbing his chest. He moaned and moved his hand to his broken arm. He squeezed it, sending a shock wave into his shoulder. “It
hurts
,” he said. “I mean, it’s been hurting all along, but we were too busy staying alive to think much about it.”
Keal said, “I’ll take a look. I think we all need some pain-killers and bandages.”
“Some?” David said. “This
town
doesn’t have enough.” He moaned and leaned his head back to the wall. “I wish Dad was here.”
Keal looked at his watch. “He and Toria won’t be back till about seven, later if they stop by the hotel to see your nana on their way home.”
“Can we call them?” David said. After everything they’d gone through, hearing Dad’s voice would be like a glass of ice water to a man in a desert.
“They don’t have a phone,” Keal reminded him. “And they don’t know the numbers of the new mobile phones I picked up.”
They had discovered that Taksidian had bugged their phones, so Dad had gotten rid of them. David didn’t like being so cut off from the rest of his family. It felt too permanent, and losing Mom was bad enough.
Xander pointed at Keal, then touched his lip. “Did Taksidian do that?”
Keal wiped his face and looked at the blood. “And this . . . “ He leaned sideways and lifted his shirt. Beneath a smear of blood were four small crescent-shaped cuts.
“Ow,” David said.
“With his
nails
,” Keal said, dropping his shirt. “Other side, too.”
A wind blew in under the door. Keal scooted away. It swirled about the room, over the boys and Keal, looking for particles that didn’t belong in the present time. The water on the floor beaded up and rolled under the door. The air filled with mist as it pulled the water from David and Xander’s hair, skin, and clothes. It made David feel clean, and he was happy to be dry. He ran his fingers through his hair, amazed that the wind could be so thorough.
He said, “I always like—“ He flew off the bench and smashed into the door. His arm cracked down on the floor, and he screamed. His back was pressed to the crack under the door. His skin tightened, and he could almost hear his ribs creaking under the pressure. Time was trying to pull him under the door!
“David!” Xander said, grabbing his legs. Keal got hold of his arms.
“What’s going on?” David said, his voice squeaky with panic.
“Your shirt!” Xander said. “You brought it back. Take it off.”