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  Aamir murmured in agreement. “You can’t get rid of us now. Our choice was made before we even stepped through the portal from Kingstone.”

  “We’re not leaving your side,” added Ellabell, grasping his hand.

  Their confidence reassured him, and yet he wished he didn’t have to drag them all through the dangers that lay ahead; there had already been so much peril, and he hated that he was adding to it. However, he knew his friends well enough by now to know that there was no way of changing their stubborn minds.

  “Then, I guess we’re all going through,” he said, turning to Hadrian for further instruction.

  Hadrian bowed his head. “Very well, though I would not w-wish it upon any of you. It is never p-pleasant to see such fine young people heading into unknown dangers.”

  “I’m glad you think I’m young!” Lintz chuckled, lightening the somber mood.

  Hadrian grinned. “There’s still life in the old dog yet, am I right?”

  “You bet! I’m as lively as a spring chick,” said Lintz, punching the air with unexpected enthusiasm.

  “In that case, I would ask that each of you s-step up to the disc you see before you, place your palm flat against it, and feed a small amount of your respective energies into the golden plate,” Hadrian instructed. “Once the last person has stepped up, you must wait for the d-disc to flash a bright orange. Only then will the door open.”

  “Why is that?” Alex asked.

  “It reads your abilities, to get a b-better sense of the tasks it needs to set.” Hadrian gave a reluctant shrug. “You may find that certain aspects of your magical powers become limited within some of the tests, forcing you to rely on other means. You will understand once you are inside, but I can say no more on the s-subject… Please forgive me,” he added, sighing heavily. “I dearly wish you did not have to d-do this.”

  Alex met the man’s gaze. “We need that book, Hadrian. There is no other option.”

  “I see I cannot change your m-minds,” said Hadrian sadly, once again scratching at his chin. “Then I suppose there is nothing more to say—step up and see what the v-vault has in store for you.”

  They did as instructed. Alex went first, placing his palm flat against the cold metal plate, before feeding strands of silver and black into the disc. It shone dimly for a second, then faded to its original sheen. Ellabell went second, followed by Aamir, and then Lintz.

  Stepping back, they watched with nervous anticipation, waiting for the disc to flash orange, as Hadrian had promised it would. A few minutes passed, and still the disc hadn’t flashed.

  Are we unworthy? Alex wondered.

  As if answering his thought, the golden disc lit up bright orange, and a loud creak split the silence of the subterranean vault. With a rush of fusty air, the heavy vault door opened. Alex stepped through first, feeling the creep of a cold breeze on his face, as he steeled himself against the unknown. The others followed, and he glanced back, seeing the concerned expressions that rested upon their brows. Nobody knew what lay ahead for them, and that knowledge was petrifying. There were real dangers in this vault—Hadrian had said so himself.

  Alex just prayed they weren’t walking straight into the jaws of death.

  Chapter 7

  The vault door closed behind them with a heavy slam that felt bone-chillingly final. Alex tried hard not to shudder, knowing they couldn’t turn back. It was onward or nothing, from here on.

  As the entrance thudded shut, Alex expected it to take the light with it, leaving the group in a dimly lit room. However, the room seemed to be illuminated by a huge yellow crystal that hung from the center of the cavernous ceiling. With its light casting a hazy glow upon everything below, he could get a good idea of the volume and shape of the place. They appeared to be in an enormous room, not dissimilar to the one Caius had shown Alex, where the ominous pit lay—in fact, it was very much like that cavern, though Alex couldn’t sense the swell and roar of anything sinister flowing beneath the ground. The only thing missing was the pit itself, but Alex could sense something strange in the echoes their footsteps were making on the rock beneath their feet. There were echoes that shouldn’t be there. He moved forward tentatively, feeling his way with the toe of his shoe, not knowing how sure his footing was. Although he could see solid ground ahead of him, he knew he couldn’t trust anything in this place, least of all his own eyes.

  He paused, trying to peer into the middle of the room in case he could make out the glimmer of a barrier, or something peculiar that might give them more information. Aamir walked slowly past him. Suddenly, he realized why the echoes were so strange, and reached out desperately for the older boy’s arm, yanking him backward, just in time to stop him from going over the edge of a vast ravine that gaped open before them. It was covered in an illusion, made to look like solid ground, much like the glamors Esmerelda had taught them so long ago that would make an object or an image appear to be something it wasn’t.

  “Watch out, there’s a pit ahead of us!” Alex called back to the others, his hand still firmly gripping Aamir’s arm. He had found his pit after all, and he speculated that the tests were somehow playing on his fears.

  “I didn’t even see it!” Aamir shuddered. “You saved me.”

  “I barely saw it myself—we’re going to have to be really careful where we walk in this place,” Alex replied, pushing down a surge of fear. They were less than five minutes into the tasks, and already they had almost lost someone.

  Aamir nodded. “We must keep our eyes peeled.”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure we can even trust them,” said Alex, trying to slow his racing heartbeat.

  With that in mind, Alex and the others began to creep along the lip of the pit. It was easy to see where the rock ended and the illusion began, once they knew it was there, but trying to make out anything they could use to cross it was proving tricky. It was impossible to see the other side, or even to see how far the illusion stretched, and yet Alex knew there had to be a way to get over.

  Ellabell stood at the edge, beginning to forge the threads of her golden magic beneath her hands. As she did so, the glittering ribbons crackled, before sputtering out completely. She tried again, only to get the same results.

  “My magic isn’t working,” she said, a puzzled look on her face.

  Aamir nodded. “Hadrian said it would take some of our power from us,” he reminded them. He too attempted a spell, resulting in the same failed crackle. “Does yours work?” he asked, looking to Alex.

  Curious, Alex began to feed the black and silver fronds of his anti-magic between his fingers, only to watch them wither and die with the same pathetic crackle. It seemed they would not be able to use their supernatural talents to find a way out.

  We’re at task number one, and already we’re failing, he thought glumly, not wanting to voice his feelings in case it lowered morale.

  “Mine isn’t working either,” Alex said, as Lintz’s voice echoed across the cavern.

  “Eureka! I found something!” the professor cried with delight.

  Alex and the others hurried over to where he was crouched, almost in the center of the ravine’s ridge, his arm reaching down for something below the hazy surface of the illusion. As Alex’s eyes adjusted to the shift in what was real and what was not, he could see a metal bar running across the jagged stone, pressed deep into the rock in a perfectly straight line, gleaming beneath Lintz’s hand. It was wide, several feet across, and looked distinctly promising, though how they were supposed to get it to do something useful was another matter entirely.

  “What is it?” Alex asked, bending for a closer look.

  Lintz furrowed his brow in contemplation. “I believe it’s some form of clockwork, or there is some sort of clockwork involved, at the very least. You know I love my mechanisms!” he said brightly, running his skilled fingers across the various pieces that made up the strange construction.

  “Can you get it to work?” Ellabell asked.

  “There i
s a release mechanism here, sticking out of the rock face next to this bar, but there appear to be some pieces missing. If we can find those pieces, it should make whatever is being held back—a bridge, perhaps—shoot out over to the other side of the pit,” Lintz explained, showing them a circular clockwork arm with a handle that evidently had to be turned once all the pieces were in place. “The only problem is, where might these pieces be?”

  “It’s impossible to know how far down this pit goes, or if there even is a way down,” muttered Alex, sticking his head below the surface of the illusion to see the gaping void of the pit below. Although it was lit with the same glowing light as above, it eventually gave way to a darkness that prevented him from seeing the bottom. “Besides, it’s too steep down there—how are we going to find anything?”

  “Wait, there’s something written here,” Aamir said, leaning precariously over the edge.

  Alex stepped beside him. “What does it say?”

  “‘Courage.’”

  “What does that even mean?” Alex asked, realizing how much the vagueness of these words was going to annoy him, if it was going to be a recurring theme throughout the tasks.

  “I imagine it means we have to have courage,” Ellabell replied, half teasing.

  Lintz shook his head. “No, no, it is the first virtue of the great philosopher Orpheus—courage.”

  The knowledge of its origin didn’t make the task any easier as the group set about trying to find some sort of clue as to where the missing pieces might be hiding. All there seemed to be was cold, damp rock and a sheer drop into unknown depths, hidden by the illusion of solid ground.

  “There’s something over here,” Ellabell shouted, her voice reverberating around the cavernous room.

  Alex wandered over to where she was sitting, her legs dangling over the edge. Lintz and Aamir followed, gathering around Ellabell to see what she had found.

  “I think there’s a handhold down here, and I’m pretty sure there are more, disappearing down into the cavern,” she said eagerly, showing the deep groove she had discovered in the sheer rock face. “I think it might be possible to climb down. I’m going to go—I’ll see what’s down there.” She chewed her lip nervously, but there was a determination on her face that concerned Alex. The prospect of seeing her clamber down the side of a pit, into the unknown, wasn’t exactly a comforting one, given that they didn’t know what might be at the bottom. Descending into unfathomable depths wasn’t exactly his favorite thing either, but that didn’t mean he was about to let her go in his place.

  “No, I’ll go,” said Alex firmly, resting his hand on Ellabell’s arm.

  She turned, flashing him a look of annoyance. “It’s fine. I’m good at climbing,” she insisted. “I’ll go. I’ve been rock-climbing all my life.”

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll go. Besides, it might be dark down there, and we don’t know what could be lurking. I’ll do it,” Alex replied. The only things he’d ever climbed were the beams of the railway bridge at home, and a motorized climbing wall at a friend’s birthday party when he was eleven. Still, he was happy to do it, if it meant Ellabell didn’t have to.

  “Alex, I’ve got this, honestly,” Ellabell said sternly. “I’m not trying to be a hero—I’m being pragmatic. I can climb. I’m the best equipped for this.”

  “Let me,” Alex implored, still unable to bear the idea of her disappearing down into the ravine, in case she never came out again.

  Ellabell let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine, but if you get stuck or you slip, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  She got up, brushing off her legs in a gesture of irritation, and Alex sat down in the spot where she had been sitting. Taking a deep breath, he shuffled toward the ravine edge, before turning around and dropping his legs down, feeling around with his toes for the deep grooves he knew were there. His heart was thundering in his chest, knowing he could slip at any moment, but his grip remained steady, and the grooves seemed strong enough to hold him as he began the slow descent into the void below.

  Gathering confidence, he climbed quickly downward, using the handholds. The light prevailed, guiding his way. However, as he got farther down, he discovered the years of grime and neglect had made the walls slippery, the rock covered in slick moisture and damp patches of slimy moss.

  “Whoa!” he yelped, losing his grip with one hand as his body lurched backward. The other hand held fast, to his relief.

  He took a moment, allowing his heart rate to slow, before continuing the descent into the abyss, the light fading with every step he took downward. It wasn’t the last time he would slip, and his voice rang out in surprise with each misplaced hand and foot. The slimy rocks were perilous, and it was all Alex could do not to think of himself being squashed flat after falling from such a height.

  “How are you doing?” Ellabell shouted.

  “I’m fine!” he lied, not wishing to alarm anyone, and definitely not wishing to prove her right. The lower he got, the slimier the walls became.

  Suddenly, the handholds stopped, and so did the light, but he still hadn’t reached the bottom—well, as far as he could see, he hadn’t. The undetermined depth of the pit still yawning below him sent a tremor of fear through his body.

  I’m going to have to jump, Alex realized, as the meaning of the word written on the golden bar began to make horrifying sense. He was going to have to make a leap of courage, and jump from the side of the rock into whatever lay underneath.

  Here goes nothing, he thought, trying to steady his nerves as he prepared to push off. It wasn’t easy, forcing himself to make the jump, and yet he knew it was the only option he had. Praying he wasn’t about to end up as human mulch, he took a deep breath and sprang backwards, away from the safety of the handholds.

  Anticipating a long fall into the darkness, he was surprised when the ground met him relatively quickly, after a split second in fact. Landing awkwardly, his knees buckling with the unexpectedly instant impact, he realized he was at the bottom, and no worse for it. No broken bones, no human pulp, nothing.

  Looking around at where he stood, he found that he could make out some shapes by the light of tiny, luminescent lichens that were growing all along the basin. Where he had landed, the lichens branched out beneath his feet, glowing brighter each time he pressed his foot into the ground, sending shockwaves of light across the basin floor. They pulsed with a dim blue light, which cast an eerie shadow on everything it touched, but Alex was glad of at least something to see by.

  In the center of the cavern floor was the distinct cuboid shape of a box, too deliberately placed to be anything else, though there were some disturbing white shapes scattered around it that he didn’t wish to know the origins of. They looked alarmingly like bones, left to rot and decay. Picking his way around the piles of nasty detritus, Alex made his way toward the box.

  Suddenly, a figure rose up from the glow of a nearby lichen, its body transparent, its ghostly skin a thin, gauzy gray. Alex’s heart sank. His mother stood before him, her eyes black and unseeing, her phantom arms trailing out toward him. There was an expression of such sadness on her face that Alex could hardly breathe. It hurt to look at her.

  “Don’t open the box, my darling boy,” she whispered, her voice a ghostly echo.

  “Mom?” Alex gasped, holding his chest.

  “Don’t open the box, my darling boy,” she repeated, raising her arms to him once more.

  “Mom, is that really you?” he asked, his voice choked with emotion. Did you die? Did you die while I wasn’t there to help you? Tears sprang to his eyes, and he reached out for her, but his hand passed through her body, the image flickering for a moment. She was just an illusion, like the ground that covered the pit.

  “Don’t open the box, my darling boy,” the mirage wailed, the image wavering out of focus again.

  “You aren’t my mother,” said Alex quietly. “And I will open this box.”

  With a piercing scream, the phantom rushed through Alex and
disappeared into the wall of the cavern.

  Shaking off the tears, trying not to let it cloud his mind, he stepped toward the box. There was no lock, only a lid, which Alex lifted easily to reveal the contents within. Inside, several pieces of golden clockwork gleamed, though they were half covered by tangled masses of damp black moss. Thrilled by the sight, Alex picked up the gears and bolts, careful not to miss any, before putting them into his pockets for safe-keeping. They clinked against the mouse he always kept about his person as something of a lucky charm, and the beetle beacon he’d more recently added to his clockwork collection. He hoped he had all that he needed to complete task one.

  After taking a second look in the box, just to be sure, Alex ran back toward the spot on the wall where the handholds were, and saw that there was a stone plinth just beneath them to assist in the ascent back up the rock face. He jumped up onto it, and reached for the lowest groove, hauling himself up with as much strength as he could muster.

  Once he was comfortable with his handholds and footholds, he began to climb back up to the top of the ravine, making good time, as the lip soon appeared ahead of him. The faces of his friends peered down, and the sight made him smile, helping him forget the miserable scene replaying in his mind. In his heart, he knew she was still alive—if she had passed on, something deep inside him would know about it, he was sure. Grasping for the edge, he let Ellabell and Aamir drag him back onto solid ground, where he lay for a moment, catching his breath.

  “Did you find anything?” Aamir asked.

  “I got these,” Alex said, retrieving the clockwork pieces from his pocket.

  “You found them?” Lintz cried, holding out his hand for the missing parts.

  “They were in a box at the bottom of the pit,” replied Alex, saying nothing of the ghost.

  “Excellent!” Lintz scurried off toward the golden bar, the pieces clutched in his plump fingers.

  Once Alex’s breathing had returned to normal, he got up and followed the others to where Lintz was beavering away, making quick work of the clockwork puzzle. With a deft efficiency that still surprised Alex, the professor fitted the cogs and parts into place on the clockwork arm that stuck out of the rock face. With the last piece tucked into place, Lintz turned the small handle that protruded from it. A whirring sound emanated from the clockwork, gathering speed, until finally, with a loud scrape of metal on metal, a golden bridge shot out across the crevasse, slamming hard into the adjoining slot on the other side.