An instant later, the silence disintegrates, and I hear another trickle of dust spatter down on the nearest sleep shell. Linus loosens his arms enough that I remember to breathe. With my next gulp of air, my vision returns with startling clarity. We’re surrounded by sleep shells and rising purple fog. The oculus above is still a dark circle, but the fish has retreated.
I can’t believe we’re standing here, wasting precious time. Whistler could return any second. What if the whole place collapses or explodes?
“Come on!” I say. “We need to get out of here!”
I point toward the twelve o’clock arch, grip Linus’s hand, and lurch into a run. He’s right with me, awkward but mobile again. We reach the arch, hurry along the tunnel to the steps, and start up. At the top, I dart around the dome to where my sister’s stone waits in the nook of the next staircase, and I grab it as we pass. I lead Linus up the spiral stairs, too, scrambling in the dimness. At the top, I shove aside the curtain in the janitor’s closet with a plastic rattling. We hurry through the cafeteria, into the green room, and up the next set of stairs.
When we reach the VIP portal hallway, I have to pause to catch my breath. The air is dry and dusty, but we’re almost out.
“Are you all right?” I ask Linus.
“Keep going.”
In a few more headlong steps, I reach the outer door and pull it open onto the Main Drag. Cool night air surrounds me, brushing along my warm cheeks, and I catch a whiff of smoke. Moonlight shines on the cobblestones, and I have never been so happy to be alive.
29
LOST AND FOUND
“WE MADE IT. We’re out!” I say. It’s almost more than I can believe. The world we left below felt impossibly dark and intricate, a haunting, murky mess of nightmares. I have to touch my hand to the doorjamb to feel its solidity against my shaky fingers. I turn back to Linus. “We did it.”
“Are you really all right?” he asks. Gently, he touches the medical line that’s still attached behind my ear. “Did Berg mine you again?”
I make sure the line is still tucked into my shirt. “I don’t really know. Arself brought me out of it. She saved us. We can talk about it later. Now we have to get to my parents.”
“You said Berg was dead? What about the doctors?”
“I left them back in the operating room,” I say. “They were all unconscious from a narcotic that was pouring out of some busted hoses. Listen, we have to go. Ian’s still out there somewhere.”
Linus turns toward the keep. “Where’s Burnham?”
“I don’t know,” I say.
I pull out my phone and try Burnham. While it rings, I search both ways along the Main Drag, which is as dark and deserted as before. A twitch of movement catches my attention, but it’s just a tumbleweed that’s lodged lightly against an old bench. Burnham’s number switches over to voicemail.
“He’s not answering,” I say.
“He’s probably waiting at the gift shop in the Backwoods Forest,” Linus says. “Where are your parents?”
“They’re in the Lost and Found, over near the main entrance. They’re in bad shape.”
A rumble under my feet sets me off balance, and I instinctively grab for Linus. He’s unsteady, too. Something rattles in the shop next door.
“Is that an earthquake?” I ask, alarmed.
“I don’t know,” he says.
The vibrations taper off. I loosen my grip on him, but I’m no more certain of what’s happening.
“Come on,” he says. “We’ll get your parents and get out of here.”
We run east along the Main Drag, and this time, I’m in too much of a hurry to make any effort to hide from the streetlights or cameras. Another rumble comes from behind me, louder this time, and then, with a loud crack, a section of the cobblestoned street collapses to our left, creating a sinkhole as big as a swimming pool. Linus yells a warning. We veer right, and I instinctively duck under the awning of an old shop, pulling Linus with me. Orange light reflects off the buildings around us, and I turn back toward the damage.
Dust is rising from the jagged hole in the street, and a fire is burning in a trash can on the other side. When I try to see how deep the sinkhole is, it shimmers oddly, and I get a faint glimpse of the street again from before it collapsed. It almost seems like the hole is merely a dark projection cast over the cobblestones, but I’d have to go nearer to be sure.
At the end of the street, in the background, the Keep of Ages is weirdly lit with purple light, and gray clouds are lifting out of the moat. The smell of smoke stings my nose. The dragon on the roof has grown to twice its previous size, and its eyes are a wicked, flaming red.
Linus is ready to run again, but I hold his arm.
“Do you see the hole? Is it a special effect?” I ask him.
He cranes for a second look. “It looks real enough to me.”
“How about the dragon?” I ask.
“Where?”
I point. The dragon is slowly turning its head from side to side, as if it’s looking for a meal.
“No way,” Linus says. “That cannot be real.”
But he sounds unconvinced.
That’s exactly how I feel. The dragon is glorious and horrifying, and though I know, logically, it has to be the product of special effects, it makes me question the reality of everything I’m seeing.
A seam of flame runs horizontally along the top of one of the keep’s windows and then breaks vertically upward. More flames push through the stones near the base of the keep, and the smoke grows thicker and blacker. Popping noises explode in sequence, like giant fireworks, and the keep trembles visibly. Then the south tower topples over in slow motion. It tumbles into the smoke with a deafening crash, and at the same moment, the dragon spreads its wings. It shoots a blast of fire out of its jaws and rises heavily into the sky. It hovers over the keep. Another roaring rumble shakes the ground.
“Burnham had better not be in there!” Linus says.
“You’re sure the fire’s not special effects, too?” I ask, clinging to my last stupid shred of hope.
He looks at me like I’ve lost my senses. “Can’t you smell that?” He pulls his phone out. “I’m calling Burnham again. You try Lavinia. See if she knows anything.”
But at that moment, the dragon shrieks. It has straightened higher, and its head is now aimed in our direction. Its livid, hateful eyes pierce right to where we’re hiding, and with swooping, enormous wings, it launches from its perch and glides swiftly above the Main Drag, diving lower, coming directly at us.
I don’t care what it’s made of. I’m not waiting to find out.
“Run!” I yell.
An explosion of flame ignites the awning above us just as Linus and I sprint for the street, and a whoosh passes overhead. I glance back at the crackling flames, and sparks reflect in the glass of a window as they shoot upward. Linus pulls me onward. The dragon circles higher again, out of sight above the rooftops of the shops.
“Now where?” Linus asks at the corner.
I turn right, past the security office, running toward the Lost and Found with Linus right behind me. From above, I can hear the savage pulse of the dragon’s wings. I know it’s coming, and when I next glance up, it soars into view, closer than before, diving at us.