I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. These were ghosts, as in spirits, as in the undead. Eli was right; ghosts existed! He had a crooked grin on his face, but his whole body shook from the effort of holding the ghosts in place. Frankie sloshed through the mud to be by his side as he leaned on the staff.
“Let go of us, little mutant boy,” General Dekala demanded, sounding ticked off.
“Hey, who are you calling mutant?” Eli shot back.
“What are you?” General Dekala asked, and the other ghosts whispered among themselves.
“A human?” Eli rolled his eyes. “Well, actually a godling.”
“A godling, here?” Dekala scoffed. “Things have changed since my day if a godling can walk free in the Dark. What has happened? Don’t tell me that the veil has finally fallen. That would be a shame.”
I couldn’t believe that this darkbringer general was against the veil failing, too. I had to remind myself that not everyone in the Dark agreed with what the Lord of Shadows was doing. They didn’t want a war with the human world either. “It hasn’t failed yet, but it will if we don’t stop the Lord of Shadows.”
“We need your help getting into the Crystal Palace,” Eli blurted out, straight to the point.
“We should eat them,” someone hollered from the crowd of ghosts.
“You don’t want to eat me,” Eli retorted. “I taste as bad as this bog smells.”
Several of the ghosts gagged.
Zeran looked at General Dekala with wide eyes. “You challenged the Lord of Shadows for control of the Dark.”
“And I got my whole squadron killed for my efforts,” the general growled. “The Lord of Shadows tied our spirits to this bog for all eternity as punishment. Now we spend our days waiting for visitors so we can add their souls to our collective misery.”
“That’s horrible,” Frankie said, giving him a stern look. “Both being trapped here and trapping others.”
General Dekala shrugged. “Everyone knows the bog’s haunted, so we haven’t had a visitor in fifty years. It was boring around here until you came.”
“You fought the Lord of Shadows when no one else would,” Zeran exclaimed. “You’re a legend.”
Was it just me, or was Zeran a little starstruck?
“Seems to me that you’re standing against him now.” General Dekala yawned. “Good luck.”
“But we need your help,” Eli insisted. “It’s fate that I found you . . . You were meant to help us.”
“Meant to help the likes of you?” Dekala crossed his arms. “I may not agree with the Lord of Shadows, but I’m no friend to godlings, either.”
Even if General Dekala and his ghost army offered to help, I didn’t know if we could trust them, but Frankie was right. Three hundred against four were horrible odds.
“The Lord of Shadows is preparing for war with the other celestials again,” Zeran said, his eyes desperate. “When he’s done, there’ll be nothing left of our people or the Dark.”
Dekala ignored Zeran, and Eli waved his arm dismissively. “Let him and his squadron spend another hundred years in this stinky bog.”
Eli and Frankie started to slosh through the mud again while the ghosts stood still, locked in place by his magic. I followed, and Zeran reluctantly fell into step with me.
“To think I was going to free them from their eternal prison,” Eli grumbled under his breath.
“Wait!” General Dekala shouted. “Do you have the strength to free us, godling?”
I held back a smile. My friend had dropped the one thing the ghosts couldn’t resist.
“Oh, now you want to talk, huh?” Eli said, still walking. “Naw, we’re done with you.”
“We can help you get into the Crystal Palace,” Dekala offered.
Eli stopped in his tracks, his back to the general. “We’re listening.”
“I’m no traitor,” Dekala spat out, “but we’ll help you get into the palace, and then you’ll be on your own after that. I’ll do it to protect my people from war, nothing more.”
Eli stroked his chin. “My friends and I will confer.”
Frankie, Eli, and I moved in for the huddle, but Zeran looked at us, unsure. I waved him over, and he joined us with our arms dragged over each other’s shoulders. “What do you think?” Frankie asked. “We do need help.”
“General Dekala was the one who started the Resistance,” Zeran explained. “If he says he’ll help us, we can trust him.”
“They already tried to kill us once,” I reminded them. “Like, only five minutes ago.”
“I’m not holding them anymore, and they haven’t attacked again.” Eli rubbed his forehead. “This isn’t going to make sense, but I believe him. I have this weird connection to the ghosts. It’s hard to explain.”
“I don’t know if we have much choice, Maya,” Frankie said, and all three of them—she, Eli, and Zeran—looked to me for a decision.
I sucked in a deep breath. As much as I wanted to say no, this was the distraction we needed to get into the palace. I bit my lip and gave my answer. “Okay.”
Once we’d settled it, Eli turned to the ghosts. “We will accept your offer. I’ll free you from this bog in exchange for you helping us break into the Crystal Palace.”
Dekala nodded, and the squadron broke into chatter. They really wanted out of this bog—not that I blamed them for that. “Call for us when you’re ready.”
Dekala and the other ghosts faded bit by bit until they disappeared. Eli looked to me, Frankie, then Zeran and grinned. “I got myself a real ghost army.” He did a little dance that involved waving his elbows around like chicken wings.
“And I have an idea to get rid of Nulan,” I said. “I’ll tell you on the way.”
Three hours later, we hid in the forest outside of the gate that surrounded the Crystal Palace. It was almost nightfall, and a blanket of shadows shrouded most of it from view. Five towers of varying heights stretched into the sky. Glass shaped like fish scales covered their bases, while the tops were sharp needle points. To my horror, giant green serpents slithered up the length of the towers. I swallowed hard, hoping we didn’t have to go anywhere near those creatures to retrieve my father’s soul. The palace itself was sprawling with black stone walls almost completely masked in the fog. The ground was immaculate, with a garden bursting with pristine flower beds. Writhing moss wrapped around the tree branches, and vines snaked between the bars of the ten-foot wrought-iron gate.
Eli lay on his belly in the bushes to my left. “Are those giant snakes?”
To my right, Frankie straightened her glasses. “They are definitely giant snakes.”
As we waited for our plan to unfold, we gnawed on berries that Zeran had found after we left the bog. I was too nervous to eat, but we needed to keep up our energy. Zeran squatted nearby and never took his eyes off the palace. He watched the junior recruits run drills behind the gate. He kept searching face after face, looking for his brother.
“Do you see him?” I asked.
Zeran’s shoulders slumped. “Not yet, but he has to be in there. I know it.”
“You’ll find him,” I said, hoping that his little brother was okay. “Remember: distract and divide.”
“Give me a few minutes.” Zeran climbed to his feet. “That’s all I’ll need.” He disappeared into the trees.
Eli squeezed my staff as he entered ghost mode. “Here we go.”
Zeran emerged from another part of the forest. I cringed as he called out to the palace. “Hey, is there anyone home?” he said in my voice. “I’m here to get my father’s soul back.”
I blinked several times. It was weird seeing Zeran pretending to be me. He had locs that swept just past his shoulders, the staff, and even my limited-edition Oya backpack. Did I really sound that whiny? I was going to have to work on that.
When Zeran got closer to the gate, a light shimmered around the whole palace. The air teemed with magic, and I wondered if that was the ward that had stopped me from opening a gateway here.
Here was the plan. If the Lord of Shadows wanted me, then we would make him work for it. Right on cue, soldiers in black uniforms and patrol officers in gray swarmed the grounds. The junior recruits moved so that they were behind the senior soldiers. Dozens more flew up to the ledges around the five crystal towers to take point.
“Bet you can’t catch me,” Zeran yelled as the backpack melted away and he sprouted purple wings instead. Nice touch, I thought, not that I was paying attention. He shot into the sky—a blur of brown and purple.
Nulan appeared from out of nowhere. She pushed through the crowd and swung open the gate. “Leave the godling to me!” Her iridescent wings fluttered against her back, and she launched into the sky after him. I swallowed hard. He had to make sure she didn’t catch him for this to work.
“Now!” Eli shouted, squeezing my staff.
Dekala and his ghosts rose from the ground—hundreds of them, gray and in tattered clothes. Some had a missing eye or limb, or blood dripping between their teeth. They moaned and wailed. The soldiers and patrol officers looked terrified at the sight of the ghosts. Had I not known the plan, I’d have been scared too. When Dekala glanced over his shoulder at Eli, I worried that the ghosts would turn on us, but they kept their word.
The ghosts rushed the wrought-iron gate and swarmed the palace grounds. The soldiers and patrol officers fought back, but the ghosts quickly overtook them. Frankie, Eli, and I ducked inside the gate. We moved around the edges of the grounds to stay away from the fighting. I concentrated hard, but I couldn’t feel the ward that had blocked me from opening a gateway outside of the palace. So it was true. The ward only stopped someone from entering the palace grounds using magic. It didn’t work once we were already inside.
“No turning back,” I said as the first sparks appeared in the air in front of me. Now it was time to open a gateway that would get us closer to my father’s soul.
“Ready,” said Eli.
Frankie’s hands crackled with energy. “Flying giant snakes at twelve o’clock!”
I did a double-take. The green serpents that had been peacefully slithering up the towers soared through the sky, headed straight for us. It was definitely time to go.
My knees were shaking as the three of us entered the gateway side by side. It was pitch-black, and the spinning god symbols on the walkway pulsed with a weak light. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. This didn’t feel right. We landed in a gloomy, half-lit corridor swathed in hissing shadows. We could still hear the battle raging outside, but we already had our hands full here.
In a matter of moments, soldiers filed into the hallway on either side of us. I groaned under my breath. Of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. It never was. Frankie raised her hands, preparing to blast them. But before she could let off a shot, some of the ghosts melted through the walls. They split into two halves to block the soldiers. Dekala appeared, picking his teeth with a straw.
Eli cocked his head to the side. “I thought you said you wouldn’t help us once we got inside the palace.”
“I changed my mind,” Dekala growled as he dodged a soldier, then tossed another one through a window.
The ghosts battled the soldiers as darkness fell over the corridor. The temperature dropped, and I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering. Purple and black ribbons crawled up the walls and ceiling. They filled every crack and crevice, hissing and snapping at everyone in their path. These weren’t the shadows that had possessed Sue at the Field Museum, or the shadows that attacked us in the forest. These shadows belonged to the man from my nightmares. I braced myself, my staff ready.
“Welcome, daughter of Elegguá,” the Lord of Shadows said in his menacing voice. It came from all around us, like a weight bearing down on our shoulders. Some of the darkbringers cringed at their master’s approach. I stumbled back, knowing one thing for sure. I couldn’t let him catch me. “You are the key to my freedom.”
No way, I thought, as I opened another gateway. We ran again and again, in and out of endless rooms, searching for my father’s soul. I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like, but I had to believe that I would recognize it.
Everything and everyone was a dizzying blur as I opened gateway after gateway. My legs gave out more than once, and Frankie and Eli helped me across the bridges of spinning god symbols. We’d only be in a room for mere minutes before soldiers or patrol officers rushed in to attack.
I almost dropped to my knees when we landed in a shadowed chamber with a glass coffin in the middle. Above it hung a glass orb suspended in the air by magic. Inside the orb was light threaded through with sparks of silver. It was Papa’s soul. I could feel its warmth and familiarity, his laugh, and his stories all wrapped up inside it. I pushed back tears. We weren’t done yet.
“Now,” I said, and Eli tossed the staff to Frankie. She created a force field around the whole room to keep out the darkbringers. The symbols rearranged themselves on the staff, growing brighter. Thousands of them flew from the staff to reinforce Frankie’s barrier.
I ran to the coffin, intending to use it to climb up to the orb, but I stumbled when I saw what was inside the glass. It was a sleeping girl who looked a lot like me.