JIA QUICKLY RESTORED HER LIGHT, and as the blue glow returned, Fort and the others—including Rachel—all turned to look at Ellora.
“Weapons?” he asked. “What are you talking about? What kind of weapons could you find in the past?”
“Before the Dark Ages,” Ellora said, “Britain was a crossroads of great magic. I mean, that’s what all the stories said, but I’ve seen it; it’s all true. Not just humans, either. Lots of those pointy-ear people—what do you call them?”
“Elves?” Rachel shouted, momentarily alive with excitement before her exhaustion hit her again.
“Right, them,” Ellora said. “They made the weapons everyone wanted, I guess. But the stuff I saw, it was so powerful. Maybe stronger than what we have today, even nuclear bombs.”
Fort’s eyes widened. Magical weapons made by elves that were more powerful than a nuclear missile? And the British government had the Time students out looking for these? That was all pretty terrifying … or the plot of a fantasy novel. Maybe Rachel would write about it someday.
“But you were looking in the past,” Jia said as Rachel restarted her digging. “How did that help the government in the present?”
“Mostly I was supposed to see what was real and what was just a story,” Ellora said, shaking her head. “But if something was real, I’d try to track it to its last known spot, and they’d go looking for it in the present in that same place.” She nodded at the tor beyond their tunnel. “That’s why they were going to excavate here next. Fortunately, Sierra brought us back before they could get started, or who knows what they’d have found if they started digging.”
The ground around them shook harder this time, sending bits of dirt and stone tumbling down around them. Rachel stopped digging to stare at the ceiling with the rest of them. “I think maybe the government’s here,” she said, sounding like she could use a long nap.
Except it wasn’t the government. From the looks on their faces, Fort figured they all knew exactly who it was.
“If someone is up there following us, is this tunnel going to hold?” Fort asked, his heart beginning to beat faster.
“The tunnel’s secure, Mr. Engineer,” Rachel said, turning back to her digging. “But if it’s him, then a bunch of dirt isn’t going to slow him down much.”
Fort started to respond but instead shouted in pain, along with Jia and Rachel, as yellow light flooded over his head, and he heard a voice inside his mind.
I FOUND YOU, YOU LIARS! Damian shouted in their heads. YOU THINK YOU CAN TRICK ME LIKE THAT? I’M RIGHT BEHIND YOU, AND IF YOU DON’T TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT WHERE THE BOOK IS BY THE TIME I CATCH UP, I’LL JUST HAVE TO FORCE IT OUT OF YOU!
“Are you okay?” Ellora shouted, reaching out to Fort, but he couldn’t answer, he was in too much pain. It felt like the Old One, Ketas, in his mind again, and that was one thing Fort would have given everything to never feel again.
But just as he was about to collapse from the pain, the voice went silent and left, leaving so quickly that Fort almost collapsed anyway, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “I think it’s him, yup,” he said, wincing as he rubbed his temples.
“I don’t understand,” Jia said, looking just as much in pain as Fort felt. “Why didn’t he just take over our minds?”
“Um, what?” Rachel said, leaning heavily against the wall as she took in deep breaths. “Am I missing something? You wanted him to control us?”
“Not at all, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t,” Jia said. “He’s got the power.”
“He doesn’t know what’s coming below,” Ellora told her. “And he can’t read my mind, not while I have Dr. Oppenheimer’s amulet on. So I’d guess he’s going to let us get closer to the book, then just take it.”
They all looked at each other nervously. “Rachel,” Fort said quietly. “Do you think you can take him?”
“Not even if I was at full strength,” she said. “Maybe Jia and I together might have a chance, but not as tired as I am now.”
“You’ve got me, as well,” Ellora said. “He doesn’t know Time magic yet and hasn’t had to face one of us. You’ve all seen what we can do.”
Right! Fort had almost forgotten how powerful Ellora and Simon had been, back in the Deployment Room. Suddenly he didn’t feel quite so doomed. “Okay, so we get to the book as fast as we can, with you and Jia ready to stop Damian if he catches up,” Fort said to Ellora. “Rachel, can you get us down to the tomb?”
“I was serious when I said you could get a shovel and help!” she shouted, but moved back to digging. “At least Damian’s going to be tired too from making his own tunnel.”
As she said this, the rumbling above them increased, and they began to hear sounds accompanying it. It almost sounded like … claws scraping against stone.
“I don’t think he’s using magic,” Fort said, cringing in fear. “We have to go faster.”
Jia moved to use her Healing magic on Rachel again, while Ellora gave Fort an anxious look. That didn’t bode well, since he was sort of counting on her Time magic to make the difference … not to mention that she could see if they made it or not.
“Do we get to the book first?” he whispered to her, hoping the others wouldn’t hear over the sounds of the digging.
“I don’t know,” Ellora said, looking away. “You saw it yourself—the books make it hard to get a clear vision.”
He turned her to face him. “But you do know something, don’t you. What aren’t you saying?”
She looked at him, her eyes filled with worry. “He’s going to catch us at the tomb. And from what I can see, we’re not going to stand a chance against him.”
Fort’s eyes widened; then he stumbled forward as the back of the tunnel reached him, pushing him along. “You’re saying we lose ?” he said as quietly as he could.
“No, I’m saying he’s going to defeat us easily,” she whispered. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t still get the book. I can see a portal of some kind, all green and glowy. Maybe you teleport him away?”
“If I did, he’d come right back,” Fort said as the sounds of the clawing grew louder. “He’s got a lot more Summoning spells than I do.”
“Then we might be in trouble,” Ellora said, swallowing hard.
“Ellora, we better be going in the right direction,” Rachel said from the front of their tunnel, sounding exhausted. “I’m going to be really annoyed if we missed our turn somewhere along here.”
Jia continuously sent Healing magic into her, but it seemed to have less effect the more she did it, and Fort started to worry that Rachel might just collapse completely. As soon as she did, they’d have to face Damian here in the tunnel, with one less magic user to stop him.
Even worse, from the sound of it, Damian’s digging was a lot faster than Rachel’s, as the scratching above them got louder and louder the farther they went. Also, Rachel’s digging seemed to be slowing, as even Jia began to tire from the healing.
But they couldn’t just run, not now! If Fort teleported them away to escape Damian, they’d be leaving the book of Spirit magic to the dragon, and there’d be no stopping the world war to come. And Fort couldn’t let that happen, especially if it was his fault to begin with, bringing his father back to earth with the discovery of the millennia in his head.
But what he could do was send his friends out of harm’s way if it got too bad. Damian wouldn’t follow them; he just wanted the book, no matter how angry he was. So if it came down to it, Fort would teleport Jia, Rachel, and Ellora to safety and just find some way to get to the book before Damian.
If that was even possible.
Another few minutes passed before Rachel seemed to shudder, then fell onto the floor, struggling to breathe. Fort quickly joined Jia next to her, using his Heal Minor Wounds spell on Rachel just in case it helped. “I’m feeling like … ,” Rachel said, taking in deep breaths, “whoever built this tomb … went too far down!”
“You can’t sense anything below us?” Fort asked, glancing above them anxiously.
“I can’t sense … anything right now,” she said. “We could be … on top of it … and I wouldn’t know.”
She just seemed so done, like she’d used every bit of energy left in her. But without her to dig, there was no way Fort could get the book away from Damian. And that meant he’d have to do something he knew he’d regret.
“You know, I didn’t honestly think Damian was a better magician than you,” Fort said quietly. “But I guess there’s no denying it now.”
She looked up at him in surprise, then narrowed her eyes. “That’s low, Fitzgerald.”
“Oh, is it time for excuses?” Fort asked, trying to hide how nervous he was, though more from Damian’s arrival or poking the bear that was Rachel, he wasn’t exactly sure. “When he gets here, I’ll just tell him this doesn’t count ’cause you felt all sleepies, okay?”
“Whoa,” Jia said as she and Ellora stepped away from Rachel. “You’re playing with fire, Fort.”
But Fort stayed put, matching Rachel’s stare. “I’m not afraid of you,” he told her, completely lying. “Damian, sure. He terrifies me. But that’s because he probably doesn’t need a nap before doing his job, you know?”
Her jaw tightened so hard he thought she might break it, even as the digging above grew so loud it could have been just yards away. “I know what you’re doing, New Kid,” she whispered, low and dangerous. “And you’re so lucky it worked.”
And with that, she screamed loudly, then reached down and ripped a deep hole in the dirt beneath them.
Unfortunately, there was nothing on the other side of that hole, and they all immediately tumbled into darkness.