CHAPTER 32
Hiding Out
When the light subsided, the Warriors found themselves at the edge of the bleak forest, near the bottom of the Mountain of Rhema. The mountain was covered in ice, with a dark cloud rimming the summit, obscuring the view of the fortress itself. Skypods hovered all around the mountain. The sky was stormy, and icy snow fell, clinging to their cheeks. The wind howled forlornly through the barren trees.
“What are we supposed to do?” asked Evan.
Xavier glanced at his breastplate. There was no light telling him which way to go.
“Wait,” he said.
“We should attack!” yelled someone from the ranks of Warriors around them. More voices joined the chorus. “Attack! Attack!”
“No!” Xavier shouted back. He raised his staff and set it on the ground before him. “Don’t attack!”
“But Ruwach said . . .” someone replied.
“Not yet,” Xavier countered. He wasn’t going to rush into anything without knowing what they were about to face. He glanced at Finn. “You’re a football player, right?”
“Yeah,” said Finn.
“Throw a snowball.”
Finn looked at him, his eyes narrowing. “What for?”
“Can you throw a snowball all the way to the base of the mountain?”
Finn looked out, gauging the distance. “I think so.”
“Do it.”
Finn bent down, scooped up some snow, and formed it into a ball. Then he aimed, took a breath, and threw the snowball as hard as he could. The snowball sailed toward the mountain and landed directly on top of one of the snow drifts.
It was as if Finn had thrown a bomb. The mound of snow exploded into life, revealing what lay underneath. An Askalon. Its awakening triggered a chain reaction; soon all the snow mounds encircling the mountain were shaken apart, uncovering more Askalons that roared and sputtered, belching out streams of ice as they thundered toward the Prince Warriors.
“Take cover!” someone shouted. The Warriors broke ranks and began to run back to the forest to escape the charging Askalons. Ice-snakes burst from the giant machines, coiling around their legs. Ice-webs snatched Warriors in mid-stride.
“Stay still!” Brianna said, turning to her friends. “Don’t move!”
“What?” said Evan. “Haven’t you seen what those things can do?”
“Yeah, I know. But I know what I’m talking about! Stand still!”
Everyone looked at Xavier. A flash of uncertainty crossed his face, but then he nodded. “Do what she says,” he said.
The seven Warriors stood perfectly still as the Askalons bore down on them.
“Finn,” Brianna said. “Throw another snowball. Now.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
Finn quickly formed and threw another snowball off to one side. The Askalon immediately swerved to follow the movement, rolling right past them and continuing into the woods, spurting out ice-snakes and ice-webs. Several Warriors had already been caught, the rest scrambling to find hiding places.
“It didn’t see us,” said Ivy, her voice full of wonder. She turned to Brianna. “How did you know?”
“I ran into one of those the last time I was here.”
“You were here? Alone?”
“I wasn’t exactly alone. I was with Mary Stanton.”
All the Warriors’ mouths gaped open at the same time.
“Yeah. Long story. One of those things saw us and came straight at us, but we hid behind a snow bank.” She paused. “I saw Thayne. He got out of the Askalon and started looking for us. He was like ten feet tall and covered in spiky armor.”
“He didn’t find you?” Manuel said.
“Nope. Maybe we just blended in with the snow bank. And then the Askalon drove past us, but I don’t think it can see behind, because it didn’t stop.”
“So the Askalons can only see movement?” Manuel asked.
“Exactly,” said Brianna.
“But we can’t stay here forever,” said Finn. “What are we going to do now?”
Xavier scanned the area. “There,” he said, pointing to a hollow in the snow at the base of the mountain where the Askalons had been hiding. “We can hide in there while the Askalons are patrolling the woods. Quick!”
He picked up his staff and began to run toward the base of the mountain. He dove through the opening and scrambled in as far as he could to make room for the others. It was very cramped once they all got in, under the cover of an overhanging ice shelf. They could still hear the icy belches of the Askalons roving back and forth, plowing through the woods, searching for more Warriors to trap.
“Did you know they were hiding in the snow?” Ivy asked Xavier.
“No. But there was something suspicious about those big snow drifts.” Xavier shrugged, a little embarrassed. “It seemed like something Thayne would do—try to trick us. Just like his boss, Ponéros.”
“What if the Askalons come back here?” Evan whispered.
“I think they will stay out there and patrol, to keep the Warriors in hiding so we can’t attack,” Xavier answered.
“So we’re stuck here,” said Ivy.
“Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place,” muttered Manuel.
“I sure wish Ruwach had given us one of those chariot things,” said Evan. “Would have come in handy.”
“We have everything we need,” said Levi. Then he added, almost to himself: “The way up is down.”
“What?” said Xavier.
“Oh, nothing. Just something someone told me once.”
“Who?”
“He . . . didn’t have a name.”
Xavier sighed. “The way up is down,” he repeated, hoping it was a clue.
“We’re definitely down,” said Evan.
“No place to go but up,” said Finn with a grin.
“We need a plan,” said Brianna.
“Right,” said Xavier. “What have we got? Our forces are cut off and scattered. The Askalons are patrolling all around the mountain and through the forest, which will make it harder for us to communicate with the others. If we try to organize an assault up the mountain, the Bone Breakers will see us coming, and they’ll start hitting us with those catapults.”
“What catapults?” asked Finn.
Xavier turned to Levi. “Tell them what you saw with that glass thing.”
“What glass thing?” said Evan.
“It’s called a Glimmer Glass,” said Levi. He took the Glass out of his pocket to show them. “It helps me see things.”
“Things? And people too?”
“Yeah, maybe. I saw inside the fortress. I saw the Lava Forgers coming out of a giant lava pit. And I saw them on the ramparts, building catapults. So they can fling balls of lava at us.”
“Fireballs,” said Ivy with a sigh. “Just like the Olethron.”
“Right. The whole fortress is surrounded by a lava moat. So even if we got to the crater, we’d have to figure out a way to cross the moat and get past the Forgers. They can turn a person to ash and bones with one touch.” Levi shivered at the memory.
“Wait a minute. . . . The Forgers are made of lava?” said Manuel.
“Yes,” Levi said. “Their outer shells are hard like rock. But I could see the molten lava running through them like . . . blood.”
“Lava Forgers,” said Manuel. He scratched his chin. “That could be an advantage for us.”
“How’s that?” asked Xavier.
“Yeah, turning a person to ash seems like a pretty big advantage,” said Evan with a snort.
“Lava cools the farther it gets from the source,” said Manuel. “And with all this snow, it would cool even faster. Perhaps that will make the Forgers slower, or at least less hot, when they come down the mountain.”
“What if they don’t come down the mountain?” asked Ivy. “What if they just stay up there and shoot fireballs down on us?”
“Ponéros only has the mountain right now,” said Xavier. “If he wants to take over all of Ahoratos, he needs to move out of the fortress. He needs to attack us. He wants us to go up there. But what if we didn’t? What if we stayed here and forced him to send his army down?”
“How do we do that?” asked Brianna.
“We could . . . destroy the fortress,” said Xavier. Everyone looked at him.
“Okaaay,” said Evan. “So . . . let’s destroy an indestructible fortress. And then maybe we can take a quick trip to the moon.”
“What does the fortress look like?” asked Manuel, ignoring Evan.
“It’s shaped like a pyramid,” said Levi. “No windows, only one door, and a hole in the very top. I saw smoke coming out.”
“What is it made of?”
“Stone, I think. A really smooth, shiny black stone.”
“Obsidian!” said Manuel excitedly, pointing one finger in the air. “It’s actually a glass that forms when lava cools very quickly. It’s very hard and sharp but also very brittle.”
“So what does that mean?” asked Brianna.
“We might be able to create some sort of explosion that would collapse the fortress,” Manuel said. “That might compel Thayne to attack, to send his army down the mountain.”
“Yeah! Let’s blow it up!” said Evan.
“We don’t have any dynamite or anything,” said Ivy.
“Yes, but . . . didn’t you say the pool you found under the mountain had a funny smell?” Manuel asked.
“Rotten eggs,” said Finn.
“Right. That smell indicates the presence of sulfur. Sulfur is highly explosive. Water by itself could create an eruption, because the lava would cause the water to rapidly boil and expand. But that explosion might not be enough. With the sulfur added, however, that might just do it.”
“How much of that water would we need?” Finn asked.
“Well, it depends on the concentration, I suppose,” said Manuel. “But in general I would say as much as you can carry.”
“So you’re saying we’d have to go back to that pool, get some stinky water, find something to carry it in, never mind the leviathans that will attack us, and somehow get past the Askalons and the Bone Breakers and get up to the top of the mountain and pour it in the moat,” said Ivy, all in one breath. “Seriously?”
“Piece of cake,” said Evan with a smirk.
“I’ll do it,” said Levi. “I mean, I’ll take it up the mountain. I know the way. Xavier and I went there before.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Xavier.
“No, Xavier, you need to stay here,” Levi said. “Once that explosion happens, you’ll need to lead the rest of the Warriors in the attack.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Brianna, looking at Levi. He seemed about to refuse, but then he nodded.
“Okay,” he said.
“How are Levi and Brianna gonna get out of there in time?” Evan asked. “Won’t they get blown up too?”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Manuel, his brow furrowing.
“Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Ivy said. “We don’t even have the water yet.”
“Okay, so Phase One, Ivy and Finn will go and get the water,” Xavier said.
“What’s Phase Two?” asked Evan.
“We’ll work on that while they carry out Phase One.”