CHAPTER 63

WE TOOK OFF AGAIN, running around the path that encircled the bottom of the mountain, only in the opposite direction than before, in part because we were closer to Greenland from where we’d exited and in other part because I didn’t feel like dealing with the Blue Waterway right now.

Greenland’s wrong tang hit my nostrils the moment we stepped past the extremely precise Bronze Land border. Only now I could connect the smell to something specific—the wrongness smelled like decay looked. Not musty or dusty or old, but more like sadness for what once was.

“Has it always smelled like this here?” I asked Fancy quietly as we got onto the Green Grass Spiral Road and started off toward the castle in the near distance.

“No, as James said earlier, this area has changed since the king declared.”

“The land isn’t happy.”

Reader shot me a sharp look. “You trying to say that the land can think?”

“This world is created, James. For all we know, the entire continent is actually a computer or a robot of some kind. And we know that there are robots and androids and such out there that can definitely think.” The weather was too bizarre to be natural, after all—something had to be creating snow and water, fresh water, in a place where rain and snow didn’t fall.

“Then why isn’t the land helping us?” he asked.

“A good question. Maybe it is.” But before we could continue this Fancy tugged at my hand.

“We’re here.”

“Here” wasn’t a castle, however. It was a tree. A very large, very green tree.

“Um, seriously? Is this like the katyhoppers, where there’s a whole city behind this tree that we can’t see?”

“Ah, no, Shealla. This is a hidden entrance to tunnels that go under the castle.”

“Well alrighty then.”

“How many people know about this?” Reader asked.

“Just mine.”

“Did your people build it?” he asked.

“No, the tunnels have been here as long as Haven.”

“Then it’s not just your people who know about it. Meaning that we could be ambushed the moment we enter.”

“We raid via this path regularly, James,” Fancy said. “And we have not ever faced any enemies on this path. Traps, yes. Enemies, no.”

Reader didn’t look convinced. “James, we can go in via Fancy’s preferred path, or we can try a frontal assault on that heavy, ponderous, and most importantly not green castle sitting off in yonder distance. With, as you’ve pointed out, not a lot in the way of troops here and ready.”

“Fine,” he muttered. “I just hope I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’ in the next few minutes.”

“Not as much as the rest of us.” Looked up at the sky. It was definitely falling. “We need to get to cover before the spaceship’s debris hits.” Really hoped it wasn’t going to hit the continent, and especially not the top of the All Seeing Mountain.

Fancy pushed at several spots on the tree that looked random but clearly weren’t, and part of the tree’s trunk slid inward to reveal a stairway going down.

I’d just done something like this in Bizarro World, and it had led to The Mastermind’s Lair. Started to share Reader’s apprehension. However, it was go down or risk getting hit with falling spaceship, and that was far too reminiscent of Operation Destruction for me. I’d take my chances with the Evil Overlord.

It was too narrow for us to safely use hyperspeed, so Fancy went first, with me following, then Wilbur, and Reader brought up the rear, gun out and ready. I dug my Glock out, too, but I also carried Ginger again, just in case we needed to launch her at someone or something.

Just as within Haven, it wasn’t dark inside. There was a green glow all along the walls, floor, and ceiling. Not blinding, thankfully, but bright enough to be able to see clearly. “Green Glow Beetles?” I asked Fancy softly.

She nodded. “They are our friends.”

“Let’s hope,” Reader muttered from behind me.

We trotted down the stairs at a good clip, reached the bottom, and trotted along a narrow corridor for a good few minutes. As Fancy had said, we ran into no one. Which was good because while it might be possible to pass someone going the other way, it would be tight at best.

There were places along the corridor that we had to avoid, and it was fairly easy to do so, even for Wilbur. The traps were ancient and pretty easy to spot. Most of them just required you to jump over, hug the wall, or duck down. These weren’t Raiders of the Lost Ark traps—these were traps a little kid would think were hard and clever. Maybe.

Finally came to a door at the end of the corridor. Fancy listened at it for a few long seconds, then she nodded and shoved the door open just a crack, very carefully and very slowly.

She waited again a little longer this time, then pushed the door open a bit more. One more long listen, then she opened it wide enough for all of us to slip through. Once through, she let the door close as quietly as she’d opened it.

We were in a new corridor. This one was no wider than the one we’d just left, but it wasn’t as well lit. The area around the door wasn’t lit at all. In fact, when I looked back at the door I could only see it because I knew where it was. The Glow Beetles were definitely on Team Fancy.

This corridor was perpendicular to the one we’d just left, so we could go right or left. Either way, the path was intermittently lit, but it was darker toward the left. Unsurprisingly, that was the way Fancy went.

Another long corridor, another door, another corridor that was perpendicular to the corridor we’d just left, over and over again. If Chuckie had been with us, I wouldn’t have worried, because I knew he’d have memorized every step we’d taken. Maybe Reader was doing that, but I wasn’t the greatest at mazes, and I was completely lost by the fifth door.

“No traps here?” I asked her softly.

“Some of the doors do not lead to rooms or other hallways.”

“What do they lead to?”

“Dead ends, flying spears, falling acid, a long drop with spikes at the bottom, that sort of thing.”

So this section had been created by someone far nastier than whoever had set up the Secret Entrance. Interesting.

“The game gets harder the closer you get to the Boss,” Reader said quietly to me. “Someone’s having fun. Sick fun, but fun.”

“You think we’re being watched?” My team and I had been watched when we were in Bizarro World, after all.

He looked around. “Maybe.”

Three more doors later we exited into a room. It wasn’t lit by the Green Glow Beetles but by a few weak, flickering globules of light. Based on the barrels and such, it was a large, rectangular storeroom. Based on the dust, it wasn’t used that often. Based on the crates in front of us, the door we’d just come through couldn’t easily be seen.

Of course, there was dust on the floor, too, and that meant footsteps could be seen. Though the dust on the floor was piled up more against barrels and the walls and such.

Which was explained by Fancy picking up a broom and quickly sweeping the floor.

“Nice of you to perform maid services,” Reader whispered, “but do we really have time for this?”

“She’s hiding our tracks, so yes, we do have the time.”

“If things go right, we won’t need to have our tracks hidden.”

This was a good point, however, Fancy was done. She put the broom back and we headed off again.

“Is this where you take stores from?” I asked her as we walked quickly down the path she’d cleaned toward a door at the opposite end of the long room.

“No, there is nothing we need in this room. We raid closer to the king.”

Interesting again. Why have a storage room with things in it no one wanted or needed? Reader’s video game comparison seemed a bit more apt.

“What are those things giving us light?” I nodded toward one of the glowing globules.

“Naturally forming fungi. They’re edible, at least some variations, and they only grow underground.”

“Meet Beta Eight’s mushrooms,” Reader said.

We reached the far door and Fancy once again did her listen and open the door slowly thing. We exited onto another corridor, but this time there were many more doors. It reminded me of Guantanamo, when I’d been working with Gladys Gower during Operation Infiltration. Right before she died.

Got Reader’s bad feeling going in my own gut now. But nothing happened.

We got to the end of this corridor and went up a long, curving staircase that clearly didn’t see a lot of action. “I have to point out that this is an extremely empty castle,” I said as we continued up the stairway, meeting absolutely no one and nothing. If this was a video game, it was set on the easy level. Or else it was lulling us into a false sense of security.

“It’s a trap,” Reader said. “Trust me, right now, we’re walking into a trap.”