CHAPTER NINETEEN

MOUNT ONYX

“THAT’S SPLENDID, JACK!” Bhegad said, looking at my analysis of the poem. We had managed to find him walking across the lawn toward the Comestibule for a late breakfast. Even in the morning, the low clouds seemed to trap the heat. “Very impressive. Thanks for this tip. I will have Torquin mobilize a search team at once. Come. Let’s discuss today’s training agenda over some of your biscuits, shall we?”

Training agenda? With my luck, they’d be testing my skills on cleaning the Karai sewer system today. I was hoping Bhegad would have had a different reaction. “I was thinking we would go up there,” I said.

Bhegad looked alarmed. “You want to go on a hike in the jungle on a hot day like this? To find a rock?”

“Actually, some speed swimming in the pool with the Karai trainers would be great,” Marco said.

I kicked him. “We’re the ones who figured out the puzzle, Professor Bhegad,” I said. “Isn’t it our right to be the ones to find the other half?”

“Exactly my thinking,” Aly said.

“It is kind of high up there…” Cass said dubiously.

Professor Bhegad turned and looked toward the distant black giant. “Mount Onyx looks formidable, but it’s actually not terribly difficult if you use the paths our trackers have marked. Torquin, of course, knows those paths well.”

“The other half of the rock may provide some clue to the big secret we’re looking for!” I said. “Isn’t that why we’re here?”

Without breaking stride, Bhegad whipped out a walkie-talkie. “Hello, Torquin. Changing today’s schedule. You are to take the children to the top of Mount Onyx…Oh, dear, it was your day off? Well, we’ll make it up later…Really? Well, you know what I say to that response. See you at breakfast!”

“What did he say?” I asked as he hung up.

“Over his dead body.” Bhegad mopped his brow with a handkerchief. “I can see this will be an illuminating experience.”

My hiking shoes alone felt like they weighed forty pounds. My feet hurt from pounding into the hard-packed soil. My shoulders ached from my backpack, which was loaded with extra water, a change of clothing, spare ropes, some trail gorp, a flashlight, bug spray, and sunblock.

And we hadn’t even reached the mountain.

The clouds hung over us like a dirty ceiling. The air was stagnant, hot, and sticky. Torquin was leading us through the jungle on a winding path, his bare feet tromping the flora flat. He had a machete, which he swung lazily from side to side.

Marco was directly ahead of me. He had a machete, too, but he preferred to keep it tucked into his belt. Instead he was listening to music through earbuds and whistling tunelessly. His backpack was the size of a small hut. It clanked and banged with each step. “What’s in there?” I called out.

Marco pulled out an earbud and glanced over his shoulder. “Rocks. Stones. Free weights. I figured I’d get some conditioning out of this.”

I knew I shouldn’t have asked.

“I’m starting to have blisters already,” said Aly, who was walking behind me with Cass.

“I love blisters,” Marco said. “They’re fun to pop.”

“That image just ruined my frisky mood,” Cass said.

That was the first thing Cass had said since we’d started out. “How are you holding up?” I asked.

“Fine, as long as I don’t think of heights.” He gazed upward at the black column that seemed to rise out of the mountaintop and disappear into the clouds. “That thing at the top is like Jack in the Beanstalk’s beanstalk. L-like it kept growing for a thousand years and then petrified.”

“AIIEEE!” Torquin shouted. “Look! Poison snake!”

He jumped out of the pathway. Something blue and shiny was slithering through the grass toward us.

I leaped away and crashed into a tree, thudding to the ground. Cass, screaming, fell into a bramble bush. Marco and Aly collided while ducking away and fell together in a heap.

The snake continued past, hissing ominously, and then stopped.

From our left came the wheezing sound of Torquin’s laughter. “Need new batteries,” he said.

I picked myself up and walked closer to the reptile. It was made of metal and segmented. And completely out of juice. “It’s a toy,” I said.

“What?” Marco shot back.

“Marco’s backpack nearly crushed me!” Aly said.

“I want to go back,” Cass said.

Torquin was sitting on the ground, holding his stomach and vibrating with laughter.

I stepped into the pathway and accidentally on purpose crushed Torquin’s toy.

“Robert was old friend,” Torquin grumbled, as we began our ascent up the side of the mountain.

“Robert?” Marco asked.

“Snake,” Torquin growled.

“Your toy snake’s name was Robert?” Aly said.

“What do you expect from a guy named Torquin?” Cass reminded her.

“You will pay,” Torquin said.

“Sorry,” I lied. “I didn’t see it.” I felt a little guilty. But not much. The climb was too serious for dumb practical jokes.

After about an hour of dirt, the path became rocky. We scrambled over boulders, swatting away flies. Torquin soon pulled way ahead of us, but nobody minded. With a wad of gum, Marco had stuck a sheet of paper on Torquin’s backpack that said BITE ME. The flies couldn’t read it, but it made us smile.

“El Torko! You’re too fast for us humans!” Marco shouted.

“Watch me! Learn!” Torquin called over his shoulder.

As Torquin picked up speed, Marco stopped. He held us back and shushed us silently, waiting until Torquin grunted out of sight

With a sly grin, Marco turned to Cass. “You know this path well?”

Cass nodded. “We’re at an elevation of two thousand thirty-nine feet already. The path rises here and continues to circle around, until we actually circumnavigate the circumference three times before our final—”

“Tell me this, Jonny MapQuest,” Marco interrupted. “Is there a shortcut to the top—like right up those rocks?”

Cass’s eyes traveled upward, toward the nearly vertical black cliff. His face took on a tinge of green and he quickly looked away. “Yes, of course, but if we follow this path we go around to the other side of the cliff. It’s a gentler climb.”

“Gentler and longer,” Marco said.

“Right,” Cass said.

“Which is where Chief TurboFeet is headed,” Marco said.

“Torquin? Yeah, probably,” Cass replied.

“So let’s take the shortcut,” Marco said. “We’ll get to the top before that fat frog. He’ll come huffing and puffing, like he’s some kind of superhero for beating us kids. Imagine his face when he sees us, la-di-da, checking our watches.”

I laughed. “It would serve him right.”

“I’m not sure,” Aly said.

“You guys are crazy,” Cass said, peering up the sharp incline.

Torquin’s voice came thundering from the top of a rock scramble. “Babies need nap? Cass want Mommy, Daddy?”

With a snort of a laugh, he turned and continued hiking.

“I loathe him,” Aly said.

Cass’s face was turning a deep red. His eyes were glowing with anger. “The path is actually a few yards behind us. We make a left and climb straight upward to the base of the black rock.”

“Bingo,” Marco said. “You lead.”

We followed Cass back down the path and found an opening—a trailhead to a very steep climb. Marco went first, shinnying up vines and over huge boulders. He pulled a rope from his pack and dropped it down to help the rest of us. We continued like this, going on our own until it became too hard, and then relying on Marco to help us over the tough parts.

We were making quick progress. After about a half hour, we climbed onto a wide rock ledge and rested. “This is it,” Marco said. “The base of the cliff. Great job, guys.”

Cass, Aly, and I flopped down onto our backs, breathing hard. From this perch I could look out over the island and see the Karai Institute compound. The athletic building shone like a brick of ice, steel gray in the cloudy sunlight, and the people crisscrossing the lawn looked like orderly insects. A puff of smoke went up from a chimney behind the kitchen.

Above us the black cliff rose nearly straight up to the very top of Mount Onyx. It was about the height of a twenty-story building. “Man, we’re close,” I said. “If we were Spider-Man—bam—we’d be at the top in seconds.”

Cass gulped. His face had lost color and I could tell he was forcing himself not to look down. “From here,” he said, gesturing to a section farther along, where a pathway led away from the cliff, “we take that path, which leads us off this ledge and around the mountain again, where we connect with the main trail—”

But Marco was already unloading a pile of ropes, clips, picks, and shoes from his pack. “What the heck is that stuff?” Aly asked.

“Harnesses…camming devices…anchors…” Marco said.

“I thought you said you had rocks and bricks in there,” Cass said.

“I lied,” Marco said with a shrug. “Hey, I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here.”

“I’m not going up that!” I said. “It’s nearly vertical.”

“I agree,” Aly said, turning away. “This isn’t The Eiger Sanction. Fail, Marco. Epic fail.”

Cass was shaking. “Aly and J-J-Jack and I—we’ll stay behind as lookouts! At least I will!”

“This kind of climbing doesn’t work if one person chickens out,” Marco said. “It’s totally safe, and this equipment is state-of-the-art, right from the KI gym.” A smile crept across his face. “So strap on those harnesses and shoes. Even you, brother Cass. ’Cause if you don’t, I’m carrying you. And that will be no picnic for either of us.”