“We will be OK without the axe.”
They dusted off the Elevator and heaved themselves up into the pine needles of the Sentinel, the tallest tree around. As Sam lowered the Elevator back into position among the orange needles of the forest floor, Daniel and Shy discussed their situation in whispers.
“So, when do we launch the rescue?” Daniel began.
Shy loved the fact that regardless of how scared he had just been, or how dangerous the rescue would be, Daniel was ready to push on.
“I suppose soon.”
“What are we going to do about the girls? They are going to be soooo mad. They are going to demand that they come with.”
Again, Daniel was trying not to smile thinking about how angry they would be.
Shy caught himself smiling also.
Sam finished hiding the Elevator, and they set off for the Hive.
***
The girls were indeed angry. The next morning at breakfast, they had stopped Shy and Daniel outside of the Lodge. Portia didn’t even make eye contact with Shy, which made him surprisingly sad. He didn’t realize how much he had looked forward to seeing her.
The boys tried the honest approach. They told the girls about Shy’s observations of Morrie and Clancy, and about how they had wanted to avoid Morrie. Shy realized at this point that no amount of explaining was going to make it better. Claire said they would tell Tad, Meg, Clancy, and everyone what was going on if they were not included in the rescue.
To the girl’s surprise, Shy and Daniel simply agreed. When they demanded again to get the recipe for sight, again the boys agreed. Claire narrowed her eyes, but there was nothing more they could say. Daniel asked them to meet that night to make their final plans for the rescue, and then the boys backed into the Lodge…
***
Shy did not leave the Lodge immediately after breakfast. He nonchalantly brought his plate up to the front, and moved towards Clancy’s office, which was next to the kitchen area. He looked around and saw that no one was watching. The few campers that were left in the Lodge, were simply dumping their plates and heading off to their activities for the day. Shy peeked into her office and looked around. He saw what he was looking for almost immediately. Her calendar! He quickly approached and studied the symbols on the calendar. They would tell him when the next full moon was.
After a quick study, Shy determined that they had just passed a full moon. The next, it seemed, would be during the last days of camp, when they were competing in the camp games.
Whump! The door slammed and Shy jumped.
He turned, and there was Morrie! He had shut the door and was blocking Shy’s way out of the office.
“Snooping in the Camp Director’s office, hmmm?”
Shy felt his face redden.
“I was just looking at the calendar.”
“This is serious.” He took a step forward ominously.
Shy backed up as far as he could, but Morrie just moved forward more. Soon he was immediately in front of Shy. His breath smelled really bad. Shy turned his head in disgust!
“You should be punished for this transgression. Maybe you should have to stay here in the Lodge, where I can keep an eye on you?”
At this Shy turned back to him, and looked right into those deeply evil eyes. For a split second a thought fluttered in his head, a recognition of those eyes, but then it was gone.
“I… I just wanted to look at the calendar…” was all Shy could stutter out.
He was leaning back over a side table, with Morrie leaning into him, when the door opened!
“Shy! Shy!” His friends burst in, led by Henry and Sawyer.
Sawyer pushed past Morrie to put his arm around Shy and hustled him out.
“You gotta see this…” Sawyer was practically yelling in his excitement. The group ran out of the office with Shy in tow, as quickly as they had entered.
Shy glanced back as they were leaving, and saw Morrie studying the calendar.
They got outside and Shy said, “What’s going on? What do I need to see?”
“Ahhhh… nothing. We missed you after breakfast, so we went looking. You just never know what kind of trouble you are getting in.” Sawyer said with a smile and pounded Shy on the back.
“We saw that creepy professor had you cornered, so we had to do something…” Henry added.
“Thanks.”
“C’mon,” Sawyer propelled Shy uphill, “I need to practice my trout tickling, which means you need to practice your wolf howling.
Shy thought that was a very good idea.
***
That night they met the girls at the bottom of the Glamour enshrouded spiral staircase, the Unicorn Horn. The girls were evidently still harboring some ill will towards the boys. They stalked up from the path that led to Lac Igam, where the Lake cabins were, and stopped in front of Daniel and Shy with their hands on their hips.
The two boys had discussed the best way to deal with the girls’ anger. They seemed to really want a showdown, a big blow-up fight. Daniel suggested that they simply avoid it. So, when the girls walked up, Daniel had been pitching a pinecone to Shy. Shy had flailed wildly at it with his arm extended. They both laughed, and paid very little attention to the girls in general. Shy picked up the pinecone and tossed it back to a broadly smiling Daniel. The other boys were lounging on boulders or sitting on the pine needles, watching the mock baseball game.
Daniel went into his wind-up for another pitch, and as he released, Claire stepped between the boys and snatched the pinecone from midair.
“We want some of your potion… like you promised. NOW!” She demanded.
Daniel glanced at Shy, and Shy could tell the boy was smiling inside because this was going exactly as he had planned. Daniel turned to Ralph, and gave him a head nod in the directions of the girls.
The small boy with glasses had climbed up onto the low branch of one of the surrounding pines. He clambered down from his perch and approached the girls. He had the potion pouch in his hands, and stopped in front of Claire.
This was the part of the plan that didn’t come natural. Daniel had coached Ralph to be commanding. Take charge and stay in charge.
“Close your eyes.” Ralph’s tone allowed no argument from the taller girl. Although she raised her eyebrows, she did as he said.
Ralph opened the small jar and then reached up and put a thin swipe of the sticky potion across her eyelids. Then he moved onto Portia, who was now watching Claire as she opened her eyes.
Ralph tried his commanding tone a second time, but Portia ignored him. She continued to watch Claire. Shorter, brown haired Arya had also moved up. She was followed by Kennedi.
Ralph tried again, but it was useless. He had lost control. The girls all began to pelt Claire with questions, and Ralph backed off. Daniel was shaking his head, but Sawyer and Finn were chuckling. As Shy looked around he felt something; it was like he was being watched. He wondered where Eddie was.
Just then Claire let out a small shriek! Shy instantly looked in the direction she was staring, thinking that a troll, goblin, or worse yet, a Red, was sneaking up on their gathering. As he swept his vision right and left, there was nothing in sight. He looked back to Claire, who now had her hand over her mouth. Shy realized at that point that she must have seen past the Glamour induced image of the giant tree and seen the spiral staircase. He smiled… just wait until she sees some of the creatures, he thought.
Claire was being bombarded with questions from the girls, and Finn and Sawyer were outright laughing at the spectacle. Daniel was even smirking.
Claire was doing her best to answer the onslaught of questions. Shy could tell that Portia was frustrated. She finally glanced over at Shy and met his eyes. He nodded towards Ralph ever so slightly. She took the hint and walked over to him and closed her eyes.
Ralph repeated his earlier process and Portia quickly opened her eyes and looked around. It took a few seconds, Shy knew, for someone to feel the Glamour with their vision and then find the way to push through it to reveal the truth.
He continued to watch her closely as Ralph now moved on to the other girls and regained control. Portia pursed her rosebud lips and let out a low whistle. She has seen the stairs. Shy was fascinated by watching her. It wasn’t just him, he was sure, she was radiant. He felt like he could just watch her all day.
She turned suddenly and saw him looking at her, and he reddened. She smiled and walked over. The smile felt like he was lifted up off the ground. She put her arm around him, and her skin felt cool and smooth where it contacted his.
“Why didn’t you guys wait for us? Really?” She asked.
“It was… we were… Morrie.” He jumbled out. “We didn’t lie to you…. I saw that Morrie wasn’t at the beach, and we were worried he would find us and stop us.”
“But why?” She prodded. “Why would he stop you?”
“I’m not sure.” Shy admitted. “Don’t you notice anything weird about him? He is always on my case. I have had several times now where he has stopped me and either threatened me or been very unfriendly. He makes Clancy act strange too. It was almost like he had her in a trance at times… I know it sounds crazy, but there is something bad in his eyes… I can see it.”
She squeezed him and said, “OK, I believe you. I will try to pay attention to him from now on.”
Shy looked around. He had quite a crew to rely on now for this rescue. Just maybe it would work. Maybe they could get in and back and save Gust. Then he would work on calling the Lesidhe. It will work, he kept telling himself. As if in response, Portia squeezed against him.
***
They had agreed to set out on the rescue attempt in three days. During that time, the boys would gather the supplies that Shy had been saving. Shy was to get the axe from Eddie the night of their departure. They had decided to leave at night because there was less chance of Tad or Meg realizing they were gone and sounding the alarm before they even made it past the waterfall. Shy felt that was really important because he didn’t want Morrie to find out. Plus, when Shy had gone through the previous year it had been daylight on the other side. They were hoping that would be the case again.
The girls were tasked with getting some food supplies. They hoped that wouldn’t be needed, but one never knew, and it was good to have snacks to bribe the fairy creatures with… just in case.
Shy’s feelings had been buoyed by the return of Portia’s affections and attentions. However, as the three days passed he became increasingly anxious. It was obvious that Tom T was avoiding him. He tried to seek out the nisse to ask for more information. The creature had said that Gust was held in the tangled, spooky forest, but Shy would have liked to know how far in, what dangers the forest held, and what creatures he might run into besides the fire horses he saw the previous summer. Perhaps the creature was too busy defending them from the sporadic unseelie attacks that Shy knew must be taking place. Shy had seen Tom T rushing off several times, and he was looking increasingly worn, thin, and battered.
So, Shy was nervous. He mentioned it to Daniel the day before they were to set out. The tall, confident boy tried to infuse some of his brash confidence into Shy, and Shy played along. Deep down inside, however, he felt a dark dread creeping in.
***
Eddie had made himself sparse. The potion had opened him to a whole new world. He believed now. It wasn’t just seeing the nisse, and hearing its warning. He had seen the sylphon. Wondrously fair and unimaginably beautiful, the slight pixies ignored him when he had stopped and stared after riding the zip line. He had seen hidden doorways and other secret places.
Since coming to accept the magic of the place he was in, he had watched the others. He wanted to be with them now. He wanted to share in the excitement, the magic. He just didn’t know how. So he watched… they would have said spied.
He realized quickly something was up. Watching Shy was the key. He realized that Daniel was the defacto leader of the group, Henry was the talker, Sawyer the prankster, and Sam was the beef. The others were followers… except Shy. Shy was the unassuming one who everything centered around. They all seemed very protective of him, yet the fair-haired boy was, himself, very modest… he acted unimportant. He was also the friendliest of the tight knit group. Eddie felt bad now that he had rebuffed Shy’s advances of friendship.
He noted how Shy and Daniel hadn’t returned to the Fourth of July skits on the beach. So, he began to spy on the group in earnest. He even watched their friends from the Lake cabins. He had seen the small boy, Ralph, take out his little pouch and swipe the potion on the girls’ eyes. For the remainder of the day he had watched… the girls would randomly point at something and exclaim out loud. He knew they didn’t know he was watching, so he knew they weren’t just acting. They were able to see things now too.
So, the Glamour protected hiding spots he had found would no longer work. From that point on, he hadn’t been able to overhear much because he could never get close enough to their gatherings without risking discovery.
Nonetheless, he knew something was happening. They were all meeting regularly, and not with the counselors. He saw them gathering things. Adventure kind of things. Rope, flashlights, food supplies. He saw them all when he climbed up into their hidden storage area.
Eddie felt torn. He really wanted to be part of this adventure they were obviously planning. He wanted to make friends. Somewhere, deep inside, he felt the pull from Morrie. The need to tell the professor what the boys were up to. From even deeper inside, he felt an opposing force. That one told him to fight the urge. Fight the urge to rat out Shy and his group. Recently, he had done so. After breakfast the previous day, the devious professor with the long grey pony-tail and wire rimmed glasses had pulled him aside again. It was the first time Eddie had spoken with Moriarty since using the potion.
Something had been different. As he looked into the eyes of the only one who had been nice to him, he saw something different. Something he had not seen before. The eyes looked really old and, well, Eddie thought he saw something bad in them… something evil. Something in those eyes made him keep quiet about the potion and about the groups’ activities. When he told Morrie that he had no info, he saw a slight tightening of those eyes. He had made some quick excuse and ran. He ran all the way back to the Forest cabins. Fear had now blossomed and he worried about all the things he had already told Morrie….
***
The boys shuffled nervously in the dark. The moon was waxing and shone faintly on them as they fidgeted near the Sentinel. They were waiting for Shy. Sam stood with his eyebrows furrowed. Daniel kept watch on the path that he expected Shy to come down.
But Shy didn’t come.
Henry was trying hard not to break the silence, and Sawyer and Finn tossed a pine cone back and forth.
The girls arrived. Led by Claire, Portia, Kennedi, Arya, and even Penelope quietly found a place to stand. They seemed to understand that everyone was waiting.
Still, Shy didn’t arrive.
It got to the point that Daniel said, “Where IS he?”
The only answer was worried looks all around.
“I guess I had better go look for the kid,” Daniel said and started up the path he had been staring down.
Suddenly they heard whistling coming from the other direction. Daniel stopped. They all tensed and began to move toward the safety of the large pines.
“Hey where are you guys?” Shy’s voice echoed through the clearing.
“Where were YOU?” Daniel came storming back towards Shy.
Shy had been growing quite a bit for the last year or so. Daniel was not as imposing as he would have been a year or so ago. Although not quite eye to eye, it was now very close. That kind of surprised Shy.
“Well?” Daniel asked again.
Shy smiled, slapped Daniel on the shoulder and said, “I couldn’t get the axe. It was really weird. After we pretended to go to bed, I waited. Eddie never showed. I was worried I would run into him on the way out, but I knew it was getting late, so I finally decided I needed to chance it. I went to grab his axe, and it was gone! I looked everywhere. So, he is out somewhere, after bedtime, with his axe!”
Daniel was thinking. “Yeah, that’s kinda scary. What could he be doing?”
The others looked around into the darkness, testing their senses, trying to determine if a spy was lurking.
Daniel saw their reactions and said, “Yeah, he could be spying on us again. Seems to be what he does.”
Shy didn’t respond because he just wasn’t sure. “I got the box though!”
He tapped his back pocket where he had slid the smooth book shaped box. In the darkness, the portion of the box that protruded from his pants glowed faintly. Then, he remembered the rest of his news.
“So, after giving up on the axe, I knew I was really late, so I rushed and cut across by the Hive. I slowed down just in time. I almost ran into Tad and Meg. Did you know she was here?” He asked the Lake cabin girls.
They all shook their heads.
Shy’s smile broadened.
“Well, the two of them were sitting side by side, legs hanging over the edge of a platform. They were making out. I saw tongue and everything!”
Henry whistled, and Sawyer whispered, “Way to go Tad!” to Finn. Arya and Portia simultaneously said, “Awwwww…”
Shy’s smile was even bigger as he continued, “I was almost right behind them and had to backtrack a bit and take a different path. They didn’t even hear me… I think they were too… um… engaged in what they were doing.”
It was a good thing it was dark because as he finished the story he looked over to Portia and she was staring at him. He could see her face shining radiantly in the faint moonlight, and he felt the red blossom on his face. He couldn’t meet that glance for long, and quickly turned back to Daniel.
“Do we have everything else besides the axe?”
“Yep, we are ready to move out,” Daniel said as he raised the loaded squirt gun, “we will be OK without the axe.”