Behind the Bookcase Read online

  When they reached the ridge and looked down into the crater, Sarah saw why B.B. had been crying. The blemmye camp was a wreck, riddled with small fires still burning, flickering blue in the dark, sending up smoke the color of the sky.

  “So?” B.B. said. “You’ve seen it for yourself. Now what?”

  Sarah had hoped to come up with some ideas on their way to the camp, but she hadn’t. Faced with the destruction below her, she felt even less able to think of anything except to wish that she could have done something to prevent it.

  She heaved a sigh and was about to tell B.B. she had no idea what to do when a thin voice floated to them across the distance. “Help,” it said.

  “Did you hear that?” Sarah said.

  B.B. and Billy both nodded.

  “Please,” the voice cried out again. “Help me.”

  A new sense of purpose flooded Sarah and she started down the side of the crater as fast as she could.

  “Wait, Sarah,” B.B. called after her. “What if it’s a trap?”

  Too late to think about that now, Sarah decided. She was already in the open. If guards from the Black Iron Prison had remained behind in the hopes of still catching her, they were about to succeed.

  Sarah stopped at the edge of the camp and looked around. “Where are you?” she called out.

  “Over here,” the voice said, and Sarah saw something new in movement that she had taken for shadows in the blue firelight. She rushed forward and saw a blemmye, his legs trapped under a collapsed rock wall. He was a strange creature, all right, with his head below his shoulders, in his chest, just as Balthazat had told her.

  She knelt beside him and tried to lift the wall but couldn’t. “I’m not strong enough by myself,” she told the blemmye, then got to her feet. She was about to call out for Billy and B.B., but they were already there. “Maybe if my friends help me and we all work together,” she said. B.B. and Billy nodded and the three of them each grabbed part of the wall and lifted. Sarah could hardly believe it when the rock slab moved enough for the blemmye to pull himself out. Once he was clear, they dropped the wall and it thumped to the ground.

  “Thank you,” the blemmye said. “My name is Anonimo. You are Sarah. You have come here to ask our help in fighting Balthazat.”

  Sarah frowned. “That’s right. How did you know that?”

  “We blemmyes can read minds,” Anonimo said. He laughed, then winced in pain. “You know that we tried to defeat Balthazat before and failed. He cannot be defeated unless …” Anonimo tried to sit up but couldn’t. So Sarah knelt quickly to help him.

  “Unless what?” she said.

  “Unless you have the Undoer.”

  “The Undoer? What’s that?”

  “Only those who have seen it know. They say it has the power to undo what has been done. We don’t even know if it’s real. Maybe it’s not. Legend says that Balthazat came into power because he took it from Tantalus.”

  “Who?”

  “He was the King of Scotopia before Balthazat,” Anonimo said, coughing thickly. “Leedo was the king before Tantalus, and so on, each one of them taking the throne only after they got the Undoer. It’s what we blemmyes hoped to do the first time around. I was to be made king.”

  “Do you know where we can find the Undoer?”

  “No. If I had it, I would never let anyone know where it was. To risk its discovery would mean to risk being dethroned.”

  “How big is it?”

  Anonimo shrugged. “Some say it’s bigger than the sentinels. Some say it’s small enough to hold in your hand.”

  Sarah stood up. She looked at Billy and B.B. “It’s our only hope. We have to find the Undoer.”

  “But Sarah,” B.B. said, “didn’t you hear him? We don’t even know what it looks like. We’ll never be able to find it.”

  “Not without help.”

  “Who can help us?”

  “Jeb. He’s lived as Balthazat’s servant for two years.”

  Anonimo’s eyes brightened. “And he is now a friend of yours.”

  Sarah nodded.

  Anonimo’s eyes dimmed. “But he is in the Black Iron Prison,” he said, obviously still reading Sarah’s mind. “Then it is hopeless. No one escapes from the Black Iron Prison.”

  “I did.”

  Anonimo stared at her. “I see you climbing through the smoke vent from the Blue Suite.”

  Sarah nodded. “I’ll think about the rest of it later. Right now the most important thing to do is to get back there and see if Jeb can tell me where to find the Undoer.” Sarah looked at Billy, then at Anonimo. “But we can’t all go. B.B. can’t carry more than one of us and Anonimo is in no condition to travel. Not yet. Can you take care of my brother while we go find the Undoer?”

  Billy pointed at himself and then at Anonimo.

  Sarah laughed. “You’ll take care of him?” she asked.

  Billy nodded and everyone laughed.

  “Good enough for me,” Sarah said. “Come on, B.B. Let’s fly.”

  B.B. stepped into the open and stretched his wings. Sarah climbed onto his back, and a moment later, they lifted into the dark and smoky sky. As they rose higher and higher, Sarah glanced back at the small flickering blue fires. They looked like stars at the bottom of the ocean.

  “Which way?” B.B. called.

  Sarah pointed in the direction that the cyclops had headed, and B.B. picked up speed.

  They soon spotted the flat, bright Moonlit Sea, and against it, the shadow of the Black Iron Prison. Far to the left, Sarah saw the line of marching one-eyed creatures, their torches like a broken sapphire necklace against the shadow-stained green sand. She was glad to see they hadn’t made it all the way back yet. She asked B.B. to fly faster.

  They soon swooped low over the roof of the Black Iron Prison, and Sarah pointed at the smoke vent she had used for her escape. B.B. pulled his wings back and they landed right next to it.

  Sarah got down from B.B.’s back and peered onto the platform below. It was empty. Then she remembered that Edgar had said they would send everybody to search for her. She didn’t think he really meant everyone, but she looked into the distance anyway and quickly counted the torches. She stopped at thirty. Maybe they really had sent everyone and the Black Iron Prison was empty except for the prisoners.

  “Change of plans,” Sarah said. “Get us down to that door.”

  B.B. nodded and Sarah held on as he flapped up, then swooped down, landing on the cold, flat iron platform. She jumped off B.B. and went to the door. It was open. “Hurry,” she said. “Follow me.”

  Sarah knew she shouldn’t be afraid. Still, just being back inside the Black Iron Prison was enough to make her shudder. At first, she couldn’t remember how to get to the Blue Suite, but then she remembered that around every corner, the one-eyed guards had gone down the stairs. Sarah tried to move more quickly, but B.B. was having a hard time on the narrow stairs.

  “Go back outside and wait,” she said. “If the guards reach the prison walls and I’m not back, scream.”

  B.B. nodded and turned around. Sarah hurried onward, deeper into the gloom.

  When at last she reached the door to the Blue Suite, she pounded on it. “Jeb? Edgar? Are you still in there?”

  “Sarah?” Jeb called to her through the door. “Is that really you?”

  “Of course it’s me.”

  “What’s going on? Have you brought the blemmyes?”

  “No. Just me. No time for anything but to get you two out of here.”

  “I’m alone.”

  “What about Edgar?”

  “They took him somewhere else,” Jeb said. “I don’t know where.”

  Sarah backed away from the door. She took the key down from its hook on the wall and opened the door to the Blue Suite.

  Jeb came out smiling as much as he could with only half a face. “I can’t believe you really made it,” he said. Then he looked at her and asked, “Where’s my face?”

  Sarah looked at
the floor. “Slight complication,” she said.

  “Oh, no,” Jeb whispered. “I trusted you.”

  “I know you did. But it wasn’t my fault. There was an accident.”

  Jeb hung his head and turned away slowly. “Do you have any idea where it is?”

  “I don’t think it matters,” Sarah said.

  “Of course it matters!” Jeb said. His face was suddenly as angry as it had been in the moment before he had spit in the guard’s face.

  “Not if we have the Undoer.”

  “The what?”

  “The Undoer. I don’t know what it looks like. It could be big or it could be small.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jeb asked.

  “It’s what makes Balthazat king. It’s part of what gives him his power. It can undo anything that he has done.”

  Jeb lifted his head slowly, the anger draining away. “Really?”

  Sarah nodded. “Did you ever see Balthazat with it?”

  Jeb shrugged. “What does it look like?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Jeb thought for a minute. “Well, one time, I came into the main room when I hadn’t been called. I saw Balthazat playing with something that looked like a pen made of glass. At first he seemed very upset that I had seen him with it. Then he said he could make it as if I had never seen it, if he wanted to. He waved the glass pen around for a minute. But nothing happened. Then he laughed and told me to get out. Do you think that could be what you’re talking about?”

  Sarah nodded. “Do you know where he keeps it?”

  “Yes. A few months later, I was looking for a way to open the box with my face in it. I found the glass pen. I thought he had lost it, but then I realized he had hidden it there.”

  “In the cabin?”

  Jeb nodded.

  “Then we have to hurry. Come on.”

  “What about Edgar?”

  “We’ll have to come back for him. The guards are almost here.”

  Sarah ran back upstairs and Jeb followed.

  When they got back to the platform, B.B. was gone.

  “Oh, no,” Sarah gasped. “Where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “B.B.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “A friend. I met him after I left here.” Sarah tilted her head back, searching the sky above.

  “Why are you looking up there?”

  “Because B.B. can fly.”

  “What?”

  “He’s a bat. A giant bat. Sort of. The part that isn’t a bat is a boy.”

  “You’re not making much sense.”

  “It will in a minute,” Sarah said, and ran toward the wall. She found a ladder and climbed to the outer ledge of the building. When she looked down, she saw guards clustered at the base of the Black Iron Prison. B.B. was circling them, swooping down, picking up rocks and dropping them. He was doing it, Sarah now realized, to keep the guards from getting back inside. But she didn’t need him to do that anymore.

  “B.B.,” she shouted.

  He pulled out of a dive-bomb maneuver and flapped up to land near them. The guards, sensing their opportunity, swarmed through the gate, into the prison.

  “This way,” Sarah shouted, and ran to the wall overlooking the Moonlit Sea.

  Jeb looked over the edge and down. “What now?”

  “Jump,” Sarah said.

  “Are you crazy?” Jeb asked.

  “It’s how I got away before. And if I can do it, you can.”

  Jeb looked over the edge again and shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  Sarah laughed.

  “What are you laughing at?” Jeb asked.

  “It’s just that when I was up here before, I wished you were with me so that we could jump together. Now you’re chickening out.”

  “I’m not chicken,” Jeb said.

  “Then let’s go,” Sarah said, grabbing Jeb’s hand and pulling as hard as she could. He screamed as they sailed through the air and splashed into the Moonlit Sea. Sarah paddled to the surface, blowing the moonlight from her mouth.

  She looked around for Jeb. When she didn’t see him pop up anywhere, she grew frantic.

  B.B. swooped down behind her and skimmed across the surface of the sea. “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know,” Sarah said. “I’ve got to go down and look for him!”

  “We don’t have much time,” B.B. said. “As soon as the guards realize where you went, they’ll come back down.”

  Sarah nodded and turned over, diving down through the moonlight, scooping through it, searching for Jeb. Then she saw a black shape floating ahead and she paddled faster. By the time she reached him, her lungs were about to burst. She grabbed Jeb’s leg and pulled him toward the surface. But he was too heavy. She couldn’t make it. She had to get back to the surface, even if it meant going alone.

  Just then, a shadow dove in front of her. B.B. grabbed Jeb and swam back toward the top. Sarah paddled as hard as she could and broke through the surface just as B.B. and Jeb did.

  She sucked in deep breaths of air as B.B. flew in a circle over her, still holding Jeb. Then she saw the guards on the ledge, looking down and pointing. Sarah knew it wouldn’t take them long to reorganize and make their way down. “Take Jeb to shore,” she shouted to B.B. “Then come back and get me.”

  Without answering her, B.B. flew off fast as Sarah paddled toward the beach.

  She looked over her shoulder and saw the guards leaving the ledge. She was thankful that none of them had enough courage to jump in after her.

  Before she even reached the beach, the first guards came through the door at the base of the Black Iron Prison and ran across the sand. B.B. came just in time, swooping down to pluck her from the sea like a bird of prey with a fish. She caught her breath as they darted into the dark sky, the moonlight streaming from her body, the guards’ shouts of anger growing fainter.

  B.B. set Sarah down next to Jeb, who was still unconscious. “Jeb,” she said as she rolled him over and started shaking him. “Wake up, Jeb. Wake up.” He coughed and moonlight came out of his mouth. A wave of worry swept over her. She hoped he hadn’t swallowed any. When he finally blinked and sat up, Sarah heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Sarah?” Jeb asked weakly. “Are we dead?”

  Sarah laughed, shaking her head. Without thinking, she reached out and pulled Jeb to her, hugging him tightly. But her happiness didn’t last long.

  “Look!” B.B. shouted, and Sarah turned around. The guards had shifted course and were now coming straight toward them. They weren’t very far away, either. Sarah got to her feet and pulled Jeb up.

  “B.B., take Jeb, fly ahead and put him down, then come back for me. We’ll have to do it a couple of times to get ahead of the guards, but it’s the only way.”

  “It’s not the only way,” B.B. said. “Grab on to my feet.”

  “We tried that before. You can’t do it.”

  “We have to try again.”

  Sarah looked over her shoulder. The guards were much closer than she had realized. They were bearing down fast, so close that she could see their eyes gleaming in the light of their cold-fire torches.

  “Now!” B.B. shouted, and took off into the sky. Sarah and Jeb each reached up and grabbed a foot as B.B. zoomed overhead, jerking them into the sky just in time. The guards were so close Sarah felt their hands on her legs and feet, trying to grab hold. She screamed, pulling her feet up as B.B. flapped his wings harder still and they rose into the sky a bit higher. Just when she thought they were actually going to get away, they suddenly veered to the left. Sarah was certain they would crash back to the ground. But B.B. kept flapping, and in a few more moments, they were high enough for him to glide.

  Sarah heaved another sigh of relief.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,” B.B. said, and Sarah looked over her shoulder at the ground below. Their distance from the guards was increasing fast, but the guards weren’t giving up—they were still c
oming after them.

  “Just a little bit longer,” Sarah said.

  B.B. kept flying until the torches were like pinpoints behind them. He started to descend, and as they neared the ground, Sarah and Jeb both let go. B.B. landed hard and immediately collapsed to the ground and rolled over, breathing heavily.

  Sarah got up and ran to him. Jeb followed her slowly. “You did it, B.B. You did it!”

  B.B. smiled between deep breaths. He tried to answer with words but couldn’t. So he nodded instead.

  Sarah pulled out the map Edgar had given her and unfolded it. As she had hoped, it showed that the edge of the Forest of Shadows was just ahead. She didn’t know exactly how far it was, but at least she could tell they were headed in the right direction.

  “We’ve got to keep moving. We’ll be safe once we get to the Forest of Shadows. I’m sure of it.”

  “And what about the sentinels?” Jeb asked.

  “If Balthazat has already found another way through from Penumbra, then I’m sure he doesn’t care much about us. As far as he’s concerned, he already got what he wanted. He doesn’t think we can stop him.”

  “He may be right.”

  “No,” Sarah said. “I won’t let him get away with it.” She went to B.B. and helped him up. “B.B.,” she said, “you need to fly ahead of us. Make sure we keep going in the right direction. See how close we are. Keep looking for sentinels or anything else that might get in our way.”

  “Wait,” Jeb said. “I’m pretty sure Balthazat’s cabin is far from the Black Iron Prison. It could take us hours to walk all the way back. By then it really could be too late. Why don’t I just tell you where the—what did you call it?”

  “The Undoer?”

  “Right—the Undoer. Why don’t I just tell you where it is and B.B. can fly you to the cabin instead?”

  Sarah shook her head. “You’re the one who’s seen it. B.B. should take you to get it.”

  “But what about you?”

  “I’ll keep going this way,” Sarah said. “As soon as you find the Undoer, you bring it back to me.”

  “And what then?” Jeb asked. “We don’t even know how to use it.”

  “That doesn’t matter right now. As long as we have it, at least we can be sure that Balthazat won’t be able to use it.” Then Sarah smiled as something else occurred to her. “Maybe we can even use it to force Balthazat to do what we want.”