The Secret of Ashona (24 page)

Erec knocked on the round door. There was a rumbling sound, and then the door lifted into the air, hovering next to them. Inside, the storage facility was deep and dark.

“Let’s do this.” There was no need to worry about ladders or how far down the floor was. In fact, as foreboding as the place looked, Erec was overjoyed to go inside. His soul was in there! He might become whole again. It was impossible to wait a second longer or think of anything else. Erec pushed against the air and propelled himself into the darkness of the storage facility.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Spartacus’s Gift

I
NSIDE WAS BLACKNESS
. Soft slimy things surrounded him, touching him and fixing themselves onto him. They were souls, Erec knew, and each of them was looking for a home. In a sense it was a disgusting feeling, but to Erec who had been pining for his soul more and more, it felt wonderful. Each one wanted to be his, and they all seemed like they might be good substitutes.
Why not have many souls?
he wondered.
Give all of these poor guys a place to live.

Even though Erec was in heaven, floating through a sea of
exactly what he had been missing, there was still something wrong. He had all that he wanted and more . . . but at the same time what he really craved was his
own
soul. It seemed selfish, to want something so perfect when there were so many others here needing a place to go. But he knew that his was in here somewhere. Would he be able to find it? Would he even recognize it after all this time?

Sticky, gelatinous beings glommed onto him left and right, and he pulled them off in search of the one that was his. He felt like the luckiest person on the planet—like someone that would be given everything he wanted for the rest of his life, and still decided to be picky, turning down the best of everything and getting even better.

Which reminded him—hadn’t the Furies promised him that if he came back to claim his own soul, they would not only return him to life, but also give him everything he ever wanted? This was all too good to be true. The best gift in the world!

And then it happened. It found him. Erec knew it immediately, and his soul knew him as well. It just took a moment, and the thing slipped inside of him like it had never left.

The feeling was amazing. He was whole again! There were no cravings—there was no more loss. He was united completely, and soon he would have his body back as well. There would never be another day where he would not appreciate this gift that he had been given.

But then it hit him—Spartacus had given that gift up, for him. Spartacus should have been whole and well right now. It was not his fault that he had been killed by Baskania. And now he had given up his soul as well. Soon, on top of it, he would be sacrificing his spirit, too. There would be nothing left of him. Erec felt horrible thinking about it. Although he understood that it made sense, and that Spartacus could not have it any other way—he would not go on as a slave to Baskania—it was still hard to take.

Even though Erec had his own soul back again, other souls kept latching on to him, hoping to be saved. Erec felt terrible for them.
If only there was something that he could do for them. It seemed wrong to leave them here, prisoners to the Furies. . . .

He began to make his way toward the door, wondering if Spartacus had parted with his soul yet. The door would not let them out until that happened. But Spartacus was waiting at the entry, a sad look on his face. Erec knew that the deed had been done.

Erec put a hand on his back. “Thank you so much. Are you feeling okay?”

“Not as bad as I thought. I mean, I can tell that it’s missing. It wasn’t easy to let go of, I’ll tell you that. Knowing that it would be sitting in here, missing me. The other ones are desperate by now—the whole thing is upsetting.”

“I know. It doesn’t seem right, just leaving them all here.” He pulled off a few more of the sticky creatures and another bunch clung on to him. Now that he felt so good, inside and out, it seemed even worse that all of these souls would be caged up here for an eternity. It was as if he had taken a part in their pain. He was fine now—how was he supposed to just go on and live a happy life knowing what suffering was going on here? Never in the past had Erec just walked away from others that were in need. So how could he start now?

“Ready to go, then?” Spartacus looked sick. “I’d just as soon get this over with. Maybe I’ll just come right out and ask the Furies for the favor of destroying my spirit. Or you could ask them for me. It sounds like they want to help you. Would you do that for me?”

“No! I mean . . . yes, of course. But wait, let’s just think about this for a minute. . . .”

“There’s nothing to think about. That’s the next part of the plan, and the whole reason that I am doing this. I don’t want to go on as a Spirit Warrior for Baskania. I want out.”

“I know. I understand . . . but I have an idea. At least, I want to have an idea. We can’t just leave these souls in here to rot, can we? Isn’t there a way that we can sneak them out somehow?”

Spartacus perked up. “I hadn’t really thought about that. I mean, the Furies are so powerful, how would we ever get anything past them?”

“Maybe we couldn’t. But shouldn’t we at least try?”

“What if they’re reading our thoughts right now? That would be the end of you. All this for nothing.”

“That’s one thing on our side here in Alsatia. This place is like a shield. It blocks others from reading your mind. I mean, they still could do it if they tried. They showed me that. But they generally don’t bother. The Furies are used to everyone’s thoughts being laid out for them. They don’t care enough about humans to really probe unless they have a reason.”

“I hope you’re right. But how could we even try to get souls out of here? This storage facility room is alive, and knows the numbers inside of it. We’d have to trick it as well.”

“I know. I wonder how smart the room is, though. I mean, maybe there is a way to put in something that the room thinks is a soul, and then take one out.”

“Good luck with that. We’d have to figure out a way to break into this thing too.”

“I don’t know,” Erec said, “We’ve been given passes into this place. The room knows that we’re allowed in and out.”

“Can you imagine rounding all of these guys up, though? They’re all over the place, swarming around. It would take forever to fish around in here and make sure there were none left. Plus, they’re greasy and sticky—it would be a mess.”

Erec thought a moment. There had to be a way to get them all out quickly. If only he could catch them in something . . .

“I’ve got it! At least, I think this might work. Stay here, far away from me, and hold on to this as tight as you can.” Erec tapped the wall. Spartacus pushed his fingers through the metal-like substance and gripped it hard.

Erec floated into the middle of the room, pulling souls off of himself left and right. But the moment that he took one off another glommed right onto him. He had to make them all stay away if this was to work. . . .

“Stop it!” Erec jerked a few souls away from him and put his hand out. He hoped that they understood him. “Stay away from me. I’m trying to help you, but you have to give me room.”

Most of the souls moved back, but a few more could not help themselves and rushed up to grab him.

“All of you! I mean it.” He plucked them off and kicked in the air toward another that approached. “Stay away! I’m trying to help you. Give me space!”

A few souls approached, trembling, but then backed off again. Erec finally had room to work. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The Substance. He could feel it in here just like he had in the Hinternom. With every ounce of his being, he grabbed every strand of it that he could hold, with every cell of his body.
Got it
. Now it was time to spin.

The whirling that Erec had done on his way into Alsatia, and the spinning that he had done when he was possessed as a specter, was nothing compared to what he did now. He twirled so fast, gripping the Substance so hard, that he felt shock ripples wave around him. Then he slowed and stopped, hoping that the disturbance was not enough to attract the attention of the Furies.

It worked. The souls in the room were all bunched together now, tight, in a Substance Web. He floated around the edges of the room, checking to see if any wayward souls were loose, but there were none. He had done it!

The souls whimpered and moaned. “I’m sorry, little guys. I did this to try and help you escape. Can you wait awhile like this, do you think?”

There was no answer, and he was not sure how much they
understood. But at least they would be easier to rescue—that is if Erec could figure out a way to get them out of this room.

Spartacus’s hands were still dug into the wall, but his body seemed to stretch impossibly across the room with his legs and feet tangled in Erec’s Substance Web. “Um, can you help me, here?”

“Oops! Sorry! Let me fix that.”

Erec remembered how he had been taught by General Guff to cut the Substance Web. He made a cutting motion with his fingers, concentrating on the magic that was inside of him and sending it into his hand. Then he thought about the Substance that he had just tangled so completely.
Focus on it. Talk to it.

Substance, I need your help. I’m trying to rescue these souls, but my friend Spartacus got stuck in your web. Would you open for me and let him go?

He made a cutting motion with his fingers, and could actually feel some of the knots in the Substance melting away when he sliced. In a minute, Spartacus was free. He snapped back into his normal shape.

“Thanks.” He looked down at himself. “I didn’t know I could stretch like that. But I didn’t let go.” He laughed. “That’s pretty impressive. Now they’re all stuck in a bunch. Perfect!”

“If only there was a way to get them out of here.”

“But there is.” Kilroy had a gleam in his eye. “Thanks to you, now that these things are all in a bunch.” He patted the weapon that was hanging around his neck—the Rapid Transitator.

Erec’s jaw dropped. “You mean . . . do you think that would work?”

Kilroy shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

“Wait—let’s think this through. Your Rapid Transitator can move things from any one spot to another, as long as they’re both in sight, right?”

“Yeah. So once the storage facility door is open I can use it and—boom! That bunch of souls will be out of here.”

“Perfect. But there’s a huge problem. The Furies are here in the nest. I mean the palace . . . or wherever we are.”

“The library.”

“Okay, whatever. But this storage facility is going to alert them right away. All of the souls are going to be bound up together inside of here. You can’t send them anywhere that you can’t see. So it would be easy for the Furies to put them back in again, and destroy the two of us. We have to figure out a way to trick the room, so the Furies don’t know what’s happening until it’s too late.”

Spartacus nodded. “That makes sense. But how do we do that?”

“I have no idea.” Erec thought about what to do. If he only had his dragon eyes again he could consult the Fates at the Oracle. . . . But he was going to have his dragon eyes back again, as soon as the Furies put him back in his body.

Erec thought about that a moment, confused. The Furies had said that they would restore him as he was. Did that mean that they would give him back the eyes that Baskania had stolen? There was nothing he could do but ask them. It seemed like it would be a small task for the Furies to do that.

“I don’t think there is anything that we can do right now,” Erec said. “We need to be careful and plan this right—we’re only going to get one shot.”

“Is there someone that could help us? Maybe Aoquesth?”

“That’s not a bad idea. I want to ask the Fates what to do, but I need my body back first. We’ll have to come back here when it’s time.”

“There’s only one problem.” Spartacus frowned. “If you come back to Alsatia, you won’t survive Mercy’s Spike again. I’m going to have to do it on my own.”