Grip of the Shadow Plague

Seth followed Dale down to the main level, reaching the entry hall just as Grandma came through the front door with her arm around Kendra. Warren and Grandpa entered carrying luggage and closed the door.

Seth crossed to Kendra and reluctantly accepted her hug. Stepping back, he scowled at his sister. "If you guys fought another three-headed flying panther, you're going to have to buy me antidepressants."

"Nope," Kendra said. "Just a dragon."

"A dragon!" Seth gasped enviously. "I missed out on a dragon fight?"

"Not a fight," Warren clarified. "We had to sneak past it."

"Where'd you guys go that you had to sneak past dragons?" Seth moaned, afraid of the answer, but unable to resist asking.

"Another secret preserve," Kendra said vaguely, glancing at Grandma.

"You can tell him," Grandma said. "We're all going to have to share information tonight. Much has happened here, and I'm sure you have stories to tell. We need to piece it all together in order to move forward."

"We were at a preserve called Lost Mesa in Arizona," Kendra said. "We went after another artifact. I got to help feed zombies."

Seth paled. "You fed zombies," he whispered in awe. He hit the side of his leg with his fist. "Why do you torture me like this! You probably didn't even like it!"

"I didn't," Kendra admitted.

Seth covered his eyes with his hands. "It's like the awesomest stuff happens to you just because you're too girly to enjoy it!"

"You did converse with an ancient and powerful demon," Grandpa reminded him.

"I know, which was so cool, but she won't even care," Seth complained. "She'll just be glad it wasn't her. The only thing that would make her jealous would be if I led a parade riding a unicorn while ballerinas sang love songs."

"Don't try to pin your secret dreams on me," Kendra said with a smirk.

Seth felt his cheeks grow a little warm. "Don't try to pretend you'd rather see a dragon than a unicorn."

"Maybe you're right," she admitted. "Especially if the unicorn wouldn't try to hypnotize and eat me. But the dragon was pretty amazing. She shone all coppery."

"She?" Seth said. "It was a girl dragon? Well, that makes me feel a little better."

"I know the hour is late," Grandpa interrupted, "but I don't feel we can wait until tomorrow to exchange information and begin devising a plan. Shall we adjourn to the living room?"

Leaving the luggage in the hall, Grandpa, Grandma, Kendra, Seth, Warren, and Dale found seats in the living room. To the astonishment of everyone except Kendra,

Warren shared the information that the artifact at Lost Mesa had been taken to Fablehaven by Patton Burgess, along with the details about Javier stealing the decoy artifact. Grandpa related to Warren and Kendra how Coulter and Tanu had become shadows along with all the specifics of what Seth had learned from Graulas.

"I can't believe that old demon let the two of you go," Warren said. "You really think you can trust him?"

"I'm sure we can't trust him," Grandpa said. "But after some thought and research, I now believe he may have been telling the truth-perhaps out of boredom, or as part of a convoluted Society scheme, or even to exact some kind of personal revenge against a rival."

"Maybe he really was impressed by my heroics," Seth added, mildly offended.

"I suspect he was, or he would not have taken notice of you in the first place. Yet I'm skeptical that admiration alone prompted him to volunteer such crucial information."

"I'm skeptical whether he was telling the truth at all," Grandma said. "Graulas is a conniver. We have no way to corroborate any of the assertions he presented about Kurisock."

"At the same time, nothing we have found disproves anything he told Seth," Grandpa rebutted. "A demon like Graulas does not invite humans into his lair and allow them to leave alive. He has been inactive for centuries, and hibernating for decades. Something must have genuinely sparked his interest and roused him from his stupor."

"The plague itself may have penetrated his hibernation," Grandma said. "His sole motive may be to participate in the destruction of this preserve. Have we read the same journals? Graulas has never hidden his disdain for Fablehaven. He views this preserve as his disgraceful tomb."

"I can't make complete sense of his actions either, but there are many plausible aspects of his explanation," Grandpa maintained. "It harmonizes with what Vanessa told us about the Sphinx. It agrees with the fact that we never found the corrupt nail Seth extracted from the revenant. It names a viable source of the plague. This afternoon, Hugo and I investigated the pond where Lena now dwells, and the magic guarding that sanctuary is indeed holding off the darkness. As Graulas claimed, many of the remaining creatures of light have gathered there."

"You don't think desperation might be tainting your opinion?" Grandma asked.

"Of course it is! In order to grasp at straws, we need straws! This is our first reasonable lead since Vanessa suggested that the prisoner of the Quiet Box might be involved. It gives us a place to focus, and it has a ring of credibility to it."

"You spoke with Vanessa?" Kendra asked.

"Twice," Seth said smugly, enjoying Kendra's glare.

"What did she say?" Kendra inquired.

Grandma explained how Vanessa had implicated the prisoner as a probable source of the plague, offered her assistance in finding a cure, and hinted that she knew of other spies among the Knights of the Dawn.

"I thought she might have useful information," Kendra said. "What's the next step to follow up on Kurisock?" Warren asked.

"That is the question," Grandpa said. "If the demon can bind himself to other creatures, in effect producing a new being, we suddenly have to reconsider every entity on the preserve as a possible source of the plague. Who can say what relationship might have spawned this evil?"

Seth had something to contribute, but wanted to phrase it carefully. "When I was playing up in the attic earlier, I knocked over a journal, and it fell open to a page about Kurisock." Everyone was watching him. He swallowed and continued. "Patton thought that Kurisock was involved in destroying his uncle."

"One of Patton's great secrets," Grandma murmured. "He never fully explained how his uncle met his demise, but it was evidently connected with the fall of the old mansion, and the reason none are to trespass there. Could Kurisock have somehow reached beyond the boundaries of his realm?"

Grandpa shook his head. "He could not have personally left his domain. Like Graulas, he is bound to the parcel of land he governs, even on festival days. But he certainly could have orchestrated the mayhem from afar."

"My question is whether we abandon Fablehaven for the present," Grandma said. "This plague has enveloped so much in such a short time."

"I was ready to leave if we found no new leads," Grandpa said. "But two new reasons to stay have arisen. We have a possible source of the plague to investigate, and we have reason to suspect a second artifact may be hidden on the property."

Grandma sighed. "There is nothing in the journals or histories-"

Grandpa held up a finger. "Patton would never have passed on such sensitive information, at least not openly."

"But he passed it on at the scene of the crime?" Grandma asked dubiously.

"In a runic language that neither Warren, Dougan, nor Gavin even recognized," Grandpa reminded her. "Some obscure fairy tongue that only Kendra could decipher. Ruth, if an artifact might be here, I must remain until we either recover it or disprove its presence."

"Should we at least send the kids away?" Grandma asked.

"There remains great danger for the children beyond the walls of Fablehaven," Grandpa said. "We may reach a point when they must flee the preserve, when all of you must, but for now, as long as the kids stay in the house, I think they're safer here."

"Except for me," Seth corrected. "I can't stay indoors. Graulas said I need to figure out how to stop Kurisock."

Grandpa reddened. "Which is precisely why you shouldn't be involved. Graulas was likely luring you into peril. If the nail opened your eyes to certain dark elements, who knows how else it might be able to influence you. More than any of us, you must not take any chances."

Warren chuckled. "Then we better lock him in the Quiet Box." Seth grinned.

"So help me, Seth, for your own good, if you don't behave with maturity through this crisis, I'll take Warren up on that," Grandma vowed.

"What about our parents?" Kendra asked. "Have you heard more from them?"

"I told them we would send you home on Thursday," Grandpa said.

"Thursday!" Kendra exclaimed.

"Today is Friday," Seth said. "We're going home in less than a week?"

"Today is early Saturday morning, technically," Dale pointed out. "Midnight has passed us by."

"It was the only way to stall them," Grandpa said. "Your school starts the week after next. We'll figure out something between now and then."

Seth tapped his temple thoughtfully. "If it means getting out of school, maybe we should lock Mom and Dad in the dungeon."

"We'll do what we must," Grandpa sighed, not seeming to take the comment quite as jokingly as Seth had intended.

Chapter Fifteen

Brownie Sunday

Kendra sat before a plate of hot apple pancakes dusted with powdered sugar, already satisfied after her third swallow. Smiling at Grandma, she cut away another bite with the side of her fork and swirled it in syrup. Grandma beamed at her. Saturday morning pancakes were a Sorenson tradition, and apple pancakes were Kendra's favorite.

Kendra's meager appetite had nothing to do with the food. She was still trying to shake off the dream from the previous night.

Kendra had been back at the carnival, the same one from the limo dream, the same one where she had wandered lost as a child, except this time she was riding the Ferris wheel, rising high until the festive lights twinkled far below and the calliope music became faint, then plunging back into the smells and sights and sounds of the lively fairground. She was alone on her bench, but other friends and family were also riding the attraction. In alternating positions above and below her sat her parents, Seth, Grandpa, Grandma, Lena, Coulter, Tanu, Vanessa, Warren, Dale, Neil, Tammy, Javier, Mara, Hal, and Rosa.

As the ride went on, the speed of the Ferris wheel increased alarmingly, until Kendra was rocking precariously with wind washing over her as she repeatedly fell forward, fell backward, rose backward, and rose forward, the machine's gears squealing, riders screaming. The enormous wheel had shuddered and tilted, no longer rotating vertically. With the sound of shattering wood and groaning metal, individual seats began breaking free and plummeting to the fairground below.

Kendra had not been able to make out which of her friends and family were falling. She tried to force herself to wake up, but it was hard to cling to the slippery notion that the frightening scene was imaginary. As she ascended toward the apex of her rotation, the wheel canted even more, threatening to collapse completely at any moment. She noticed Seth beneath her, clinging to a pole, legs swinging. And then the wheel tipped over sideways, and she fell away from her seat, tumbling through the darkness with her loved ones, the colorful carnival lights growing brighter as she neared the ground. She had awakened an instant before impact.

Kendra didn't need a professional analysis to arrive at an interpretation. The tragic escapade on Painted Mesa had left her traumatized, and then to come home and learn how the plague had spread, infecting not just the creatures of Fablehaven but Coulter and Tanu as well, she felt like danger was encroaching from all sides. Bad people were after her. Too many people who were supposed to be good couldn't be trusted. It wasn't safe to go home to her parents. It wasn't safe to hide at Fablehaven. She and everyone she loved was in peril.

"Don't eat more than you want," Grandma said. Kendra realized she had been toying with her pancakes, procrastinating the next bite.

"I'm kind of tense," Kendra confessed, eating another forkful, hoping her face looked pleasant as she chewed.

"I'll have hers," Seth offered, having almost finished his stack.

"When your growth spurt ends, you're going to get fat as a blimp," Kendra predicted.

"When my growth spurt ends, I won't eat as much," he said, wolfing down the last of his pancakes. "Besides, I'm not watching my figure for Gavin."

"It isn't like that," Kendra protested, trying not to blush.

"He battled his way past the cheetah lady and tamed the dragon to save you," Seth accused. "Plus he's sixteen, so he has his driver's license."

"I'm never telling you anything ever again."

"You won't have to-you'll have Gavin."

"Don't pester your sister," Grandma chided. "She's had a hard week." "I bet I could tame dragons," Seth said. "Have I mentioned that I'm immune to fear?"

"About a hundred times," Kendra muttered, sliding her plate over to him. "You know, I was wondering, Seth, it seems like a big coincidence that one of those journals fell open to a page about Kurisock. In fact, I'm having a hard time picturing a game that makes books fall open in the first place. How does that happen? If I didn't know how useless reading was, I might suspect you were studying those journals on purpose." ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">