Balance Keepers #1: The Fires of Calderon (6 page)

A
s far as Albert was concerned, Bob Flynn had always been an average, vanilla-variety dad. Bob spent eight hours a day delivering mail. On weekends he read books and fought a losing battle with Pap for the best recliner in the house. Did it get more average than that?

Bob Flynn could
not
be spending his days in the Core, miles under the surface of the earth, in a place that shouldn’t even exist.

Yet here he was, standing behind a desk, staring at Albert with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Dad?” Albert asked for the second time, because even though his dad was standing right in front of him, Albert just couldn’t believe it was true.

“I knew you’d make it,” Professor Flynn said, looking right at Albert.

They were nearly identical versions of each other—Professor Flynn the larger, Albert the smaller—down to the three large freckles on each of their noses.

“Mr. Jones, Miss Howell,” Albert’s dad said, clearly pleased to see them, too. He waved them all over to his desk, where three chairs sat open and waiting. “Have a seat. I’m sure you’re all exhausted. Getting down here the first time is quite an experience, but you’ll get used to it.”

For a moment, Albert wondered if all of this was a strange vision from eating that bite of stale fruitcake back at the Herman Post Office, but he took his place in the middle chair, Leroy and Birdie on either side of him. Trey stepped into the office, too.

“I delivered the letter,” Albert said, once they were all settled.

Farnsworth barked and looked up at Albert as if he was owed something.

“Farnsworth helped,” Albert added. “And by the way, did you know this dog has flashlight eyes?”

His dad’s laughter echoed off the stone walls. The sound only drove it home further that there was a
lot
about his dad Albert didn’t know.

“I had no doubt you’d deliver that letter to the Path Hider,” Albert’s dad said. “And yes, I know about Farnsworth. He’s a Canis Luminatis. A rare breed.”

He glanced up at Trey, who was dutifully standing beside the desk. Alfin had returned to his shoulder.

“There are those who didn’t think you’d get the job done,” Albert’s dad continued. “But I knew you would. You’re a Flynn. You were made for this.”

Trey’s face reddened with embarrassment, as if
he
had been one of the naysayers.

“You
all
did well by arriving at the Path Hider’s tree,” Professor Flynn said, glancing at each one of them in turn. “The Path Hider’s location is the only way into the Core—it’s the train station, if you will. You came from different places, some farther than others, but once you reached the Path Hider, you were at the outer gate of the Core. From there, it’s twelve miles down and a mile to the east. Very few people know about this place, and the ones who do keep it a secret. You should already feel proud to be here.”

Albert
did
feel proud, but he was still having trouble believing the man in the green jacket was his dad. All this time, he’d thought his dad was
Bob Flynn, Postman.
And now he was
Bob Flynn
. . . Well, Albert didn’t know what his dad was.

Albert’s face must have given away his thoughts, because his dad piped up.

“Yes, Albert. It’s been hard to keep it a secret all these years.” He smiled at the three of them. “But it was necessary. A Balance Keeper should never discover the Core until it is his or her time.”

“We keep hearing about Balance Keepers. But what
is
a Balance Keeper?” Leroy asked, leaning forward and placing his pointy elbows on Professor Flynn’s desk. “And is
my
dad here?”

“Yeah, what about
my
parents?” Birdie chimed in.

Professor Flynn raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad you asked. Leroy, it was your father who was a Balance Keeper, long ago. He and I were in the same unit. He chose to go back home after many noble years of service here.”

Leroy leaned in even farther. “So he knows I’m here?”

“Oh yes,” Professor Flynn answered. “If you ever reach the status of professor—and that’s a very, very big
if
—then you never forget, even if you leave and don’t come back. A Core professor never loses the memory of his or her experience here. Not so with everyone else. The Memory Wipers take care of that. Your father, Leroy, was a professor, but he won’t be joining you.”

Then he turned to Birdie. “Miss Howell, your grandmother was the Balance Keeper in your family. Your grandmother was quite a woman—very brave and strong willed—though she had a quick punch when her temper flared up.”

“I hardly knew her.” Birdie nodded. “But my mom always said I was a lot like her. Won’t my mom be looking for me?”

“Your mother, as well, had the Balance Keeper gene, but she chose to stay on the surface and live a normal life, as some do,” Professor Flynn answered. “She knows exactly where you are.”

“I guess that’s why she was the one who suggested I go into the woods and find some big, ugly tree,” Birdie said, running her hands through her ponytail.

Professor Flynn nodded and shifted in his chair. As he did so, Albert caught a glimpse of a white Tile on a black, corded necklace hanging around his neck, like those he’d seen people wearing in the Main Chamber. But his dad cleared his throat and shifted again, and the Tile disappeared under his green coat.

“In the Core,” Professor Flynn began, “you three will become a team. You will function as a training unit and learn all the skills you need. This training will take time and perseverance. You must commit yourselves entirely to the task.”

“To
what
task?” Albert asked. “You do realize how confusing this all is, don’t you?”

Professor Flynn nodded knowingly. “We find that it’s best not to say too much at the outset. Trust me, it would only confuse you more. You’ll learn best by doing, not by listening. You were all chosen for very important, secret work. And it won’t be long before you understand the Core the way all the other units do.”

Professor Flynn paused and looked at the three gawking faces before him, and then he continued on.

“That said, here are the basics: you will be trained in the fine art of entering hidden underground Realms and fixing problems—here we call them Imbalances—in order to keep the people on the surface of the planet safe. It’s dangerous work, but if you take your training seriously, you’ll be fine. Maybe even champions.”

“What kind of Imbalances?” Leroy asked. “Like, the way a scale doesn’t balance if you put more weight on one side than the other?” He was chewing on his thumbnail, unable to look away from Professor Flynn.

Albert’s dad smiled like he’d just overheard a secret. “In a way, yes. We clean up problems that plague the ecosystems in the Realms. The Core,
here
, leads us to these Realms. The Core is the gateway.”

“Those three doors in the Main Chamber,” Birdie said. She raised an eyebrow at Professor Flynn. “Are those the gateways to the Realms you’re talking about?”

“Smart girl,” Professor Flynn said. Birdie smiled smugly.

Suddenly, Professor Flynn waved over Trey, who had been standing in the shadows in silence, and whispered something into his ear. Albert very much wanted to know every word that passed between them. Here was his dad, a leader in some secret society, and Albert had never known. And here was this guy he didn’t even know, in on his dad’s secrets. Who was Trey anyway? A Balance Keeper, too? What about all those people in the Main Chamber? He’d seen hundreds of them, all ages, when they first entered the Core. Surely not
all
those people, especially the old dude with the floor-length beard, could restore Balance in the Realms. Albert spoke up the second Trey returned to the shadows.

“So, is everyone in here one of these . . .
Balance Keeper
people?”

“We all work as one family, to keep it all running,” Albert’s dad said. “There are cooks, creature caretakers, Core mechanics, professors, launderers, medical teams, and communication teams to monitor the world above.”

“But Balance Keepers are, like, the totally elite, right?” Birdie asked, her blue eyes wide.

Albert’s dad nodded. “Balance Keepers are the entire reason for the Core. You give us all a reason to keep it running, and keep it safe.” He stopped for a moment, looking all three of them over. Albert sat as still as stone.

“Without the Balance Keepers to ensure the Realms stay Balanced,” his dad said, his eyes landing on Albert, “the entire world could come to a dire end.”

His words sparked a thought in Albert’s mind. Just this morning he’d heard something on the radio about a plume of ash heading toward New York City.

“The ash clouds back home,” Albert said. “This place has something to do with that, doesn’t it?”

Professor Flynn nodded his head. “It’s why we brought you here, at this moment in time. It seems one of our Realms may be heading toward Imbalance.”

Albert thought of his family back in the city. He thought of the ash covering the streets, piling up so high it covered all the cabs.

“Is New York going to be destroyed?”

Professor Flynn smiled comfortingly, which both surprised Albert and settled his stomach all at once.

“No. That’s why we have Balance Keepers, like you. That’s why we train, for when things like this happen.”

“So this Realm . . . the Imbalanced one . . . is right under New York?” Birdie asked, crossing her arms.

“The Realms shift places. They could be in any place under the earth at any time. However, when a Realm becomes Imbalanced, it freezes in place. Right now, the Calderon Realm is stopped under New York, yes, and it will stay there, wreaking havoc on the city, until Balance is restored. And of course,” Professor Flynn added, shrugging his broad shoulders, “if it isn’t solved, the problem will simply continue to grow, expanding from New York to nearby places, and so on.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Leroy whined. Albert gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.

Professor Flynn turned back to the group. “You were each born with the blood of a Balance Keeper. You have the power to go into these hidden Realms, but this power must be unlocked. That will take time and practice.

“You three will live inside the Core and train for every situation that could come up in the three Realms. Once you’ve trained in all three, you’ll have the chance to become First Unit Balance Keepers, officially in charge of keeping a specific Realm in Balance. But first things first—this term you’ll just train for Calderon, which just happens to be the Realm I oversee.” Professor Flynn winked at Albert.

“Trey is my Apprentice; he will do everything he can to help you along.”

“Wait a sec,” Leroy said. “Back up. We’re supposed to stay here? Like, overnight?”

“How long?” Birdie asked, right after.

“You mean . . . no more boring dinners alone with Pap?” Albert asked, desperate for his dad to say
yes.

Professor Flynn nodded.

“You will remain here for the duration of the summer. You will live in the Core—you’ll eat, sleep, and train. The Core will be your home. That is, if you choose to stay. A Balance Keeper must make the choice on his or her own.”

Birdie grinned. She looked back toward the waterfall, then directly at Professor Flynn. “I
love
it.”

“If we stay, what happens next?” Leroy asked. He still looked a little unsure.

Albert looked at his dad, too. He was just as curious as Leroy was.

“Every Balance Keeper is given a Tile,” Professor Flynn said. He pulled out the Tile Albert had caught a glimpse of so they could really see it. The black symbol on the Tile was a strange cone-like shape, almost like a megaphone. And although Albert had no idea what its significance was, there was something about the Tile that carried the ancient weight of importance.

All three of them leaned in to get a better look.

“A Tile will give you skills and powers you cannot possess in the world above. How does that sound?”

“Like . . . I could get real-life ninja powers?” Leroy asked excitedly. “Because I’m telling you, I’m destined to be a ninja.”

“I want to punch a hole through a wall!” Birdie clapped her hands together.

“Wait a second, Dad.
You
have a
power
?” Albert asked, desperate to know what secret thing his dad could do. What if he was like a superhero? “What is it?”

Professor Flynn smiled sheepishly. “I can speak the language of the Core creatures.”

“That is
ah
-mazing.” Birdie clapped her hands again.

I never took Dad for an animal guy, but that’s pretty sweet.

“I’m in.” Albert nodded. “
So
in.”

Leroy turned to Birdie and they nodded at each other.

“So am I,” they said together.

Albert looked at both Leroy and Birdie and saw how excited they were. This wasn’t just about him. This was about all
three
of them, together.

For once in his life, Albert was going to have real
friends
. The three of them were going to be a team. His dad was going to spend time with him, and teach him how to do amazing things.

And that, above everything else, made Albert happier than spending an entire summer in Herman, Wyoming.

P
rofessor Flynn took them swiftly back in the direction from which they’d come, until they arrived at the waterfall.

“Let the other professors know we’re proceeding as planned,” Professor Flynn said to Trey in a hushed tone. “And prepare the rooms. We should be ready within the hour.”

Trey turned to Albert and his friends and nodded with a look of encouragement, then disappeared into the shadows with Alfin riding along on his shoulder.

To the left of the waterfall, sitting against a flat, gray wall, there was a circle of darker stone that rose up like a pedestal. The top was a couple of feet across.

“This is the Libryam,” Professor Flynn said, looking at Albert. “Go ahead, step up on the platform. I want to show you something.”

Albert hesitated. What if the platform suddenly rose into the air and banged his head into the ceiling? There had been so many surprises throughout the long day, he didn’t know what to think.

“Nothing is going to happen, trust me,” Professor Flynn said.

So Albert stepped on the stone surface of the platform. He felt it move ever so slightly.

“Plenty of time remaining, of course,” Professor Flynn said. “The Libryam measures how long you can stay in the Core before you must leave. The longer you stay, the closer to the bottom the platform will sink. It’s like a scale, only this scale tells us how many days you have left.”

“And how many is that for Albert?” Birdie asked.

“Same as for you and Leroy. You all arrived today. You have approximately seventy-four days left.”

“Seventy-four days? That’s it?” Albert wanted more. He’d only been here a few hours, and already he never wanted to leave this place. Back home was
school.
And studying really wasn’t Albert’s thing—it was boring and he’d always been just mediocre at it. Back home, too, he didn’t have any friends. He’d already had more fun with Birdie and Leroy in a few hours than he had all year in New York.

“What happens if we stay too long?” Leroy asked. His eyes widened. “Do we disintegrate?”

Professor Flynn laughed. “After a certain point you can never go back to the surface. Stay in the Core too long, and you’re here forever. Trey is like that; he chose to stay. Some do; some don’t. Some are born here. They can never leave. But if you leave at least once every seventy-five days, you can keep going back and forth. Stay away too long and the Memory Wipers’ lasting effects will make you forget you ever came here—unless you’re a professor, like me.”

“And my dad,” Leroy said proudly.

“And your dad, yes. Professors don’t forget. Not ever. Understand?”

They all nodded as Professor Flynn turned to the waterfall.

“Your Tile will come from the Waterfall of Fate,” Professor Flynn explained, pointing into the churning water before them. “Your power in the Core is destined; it has been chosen. You need only discover what it is.”

They quickly determined that Birdie was the oldest—by a total of three months and seven days—and she was elected to go first. Leroy came in a close second, and Albert, to his dismay, was the youngest by six months.

“You’re all eleven,” Albert’s dad said. “The perfect age to become Balance Keepers.”

“Why’s that?” Birdie asked.

Professor Flynn smiled. “Because at this age, you’re always ready for adventure.”

Albert smiled. He thought about how he’d simply run into the woods following a random blue-eyed dog earlier in the day. “Totally.”

“All right,” Professor Flynn said, waving the three over with his hands. His green jacket sparkled, picking up the light from the waterfall behind his shoulder. “This is simple, really. Birdie, go ahead and get into the water.”

“You got it!” Birdie said. She rubbed her hands together and nodded, then smiled. She kicked off her shoes and stepped forward. The water was shallow, little waves of it lapping at her toes as she waded in.

“It’s warm,” Birdie called over her shoulder. She waded farther in, until she stood in the water up to her waist.

“Now what?” Birdie called out. She looked like she couldn’t wait to dive all the way in.

“Swim to the bottom, beneath the waterfall. It’s not as deep as it looks,” Professor Flynn yelled back. “You’ll see a lot of Tiles down there, but don’t just grab the first one you find. It should feel as if the Tile is choosing you, not the other way around.”

Birdie took a good look at the length of the waterfall and the way it crashed into the pool.

“Here goes nothing.”

She dove in and disappeared beneath the waters.

On the surface, Albert watched, waiting for Birdie to come up. At first, he wasn’t concerned. She was wearing a swim-team shirt, right? But then a full minute passed.

“She’s been down there a long time,” Albert said to his dad. He kicked off his shoes. Leroy followed suit, both of them ready to dive in and save their new friend, but Professor Flynn held out a hand to stop them.

“Patience,” he said. His face was as smooth as stone. “All part of the process.”

“Dad, she could drown!” Albert felt like time was frozen. But his dad simply shook his head, and pointed at the pool beneath the waterfall.

“Look.”

Finally, there was a splash, and Birdie’s head surfaced. There was a huge smile on her face.

“You have no idea how amazing that was!” she screamed as she swam back to the shore. “I felt like I didn’t even need to breathe under there! I could have stayed underwater there forever!”

Birdie walked out of the waterfall pool and held her Tile out to Professor Flynn.

The Tile was white with a black symbol on it, just like all the others Albert had seen, only this one had the shape of a water droplet.

“What’s it mean?” Birdie asked. Her clothing and hair dripped into a wide puddle around her feet.

“A water symbol,” Professor Flynn said, tilting the Tile every which way. He smiled, and patted Birdie on the back. “I started to wonder, when you didn’t come up for air. You’ve been given the ability to stay underwater for a long time, Birdie. Or rather,
not
breathe when you’re submerged. And you’ll have special skills underwater, too, though I can’t say for sure what they will be. How did it feel?”

“It felt like I was a mermaid,” Birdie said, awestruck. “Like, I could totally beat a dolphin in an underwater race!”

“Fascinating,” Professor Flynn replied. He seemed to be logging the information for future reference.

“It’s probably the best Tile there is, if you ask me,” Birdie said, wringing out her ponytail.

“But you don’t even
know
what the other Tiles are,” Leroy mentioned.

Albert wondered if Birdie might sprout fins and jump back in the water, never to be seen or heard from again.

“That is pretty sweet, though, I guess.” Leroy nudged Birdie, then handed his glasses and baseball cap to Albert. He didn’t look scared, for once. “All right. My turn. Let’s do this! Megapowers, here I come!”

Albert watched as his new buddy walked in and disappeared beneath the surface of the water. Leroy didn’t take nearly as much time as Birdie had.

In just twenty-seven seconds, he surfaced, a white Tile held in his hands.

“Definitely not mermaid powers!” Leroy said, gasping for air as he got out of the water and held his Tile out to Professor Flynn. “Please tell me I just acquired mad ninja skills!”

“Ah,” Professor Flynn said, when he inspected the symbol. Leroy’s had the shape of a thin tree with three twisting, curling branches. “This is a Synapse Tile.”

“Come again?” Leroy said as all the excitement drained out of his face.

“Very rare and powerful. It gives you a photographic memory and increased reasoning skills, among other mental abilities, Mr. Jones. A Tile I’ve seen before, but not often. Congratulations.”

Leroy’s shoulders sank. “You gotta be kidding me right now.”

He took his place next to Birdie, looking very much like he’d like to go back into the water for another try.

It was Albert’s turn next. He felt as nervous as a dog about to take a visit to the vet. He didn’t want to get some stupid, useless power, like speed walking or eating really fast. Albert wanted to fly like Superman or shoot fire from his fingertips like the character Fuego in his favorite video game.

“Go on,” his dad said, placing his hand on Albert’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

Albert handed Leroy’s stuff back and stepped forward into the water.

“I just swim under and scoop one up?” he asked.

“Let it choose
you
,” Albert’s dad called back over the roar of the waterfall.

Albert was a good swimmer. He loved it almost as much as he loved exploring the woods outside of Herman, so when he took a deep breath and sank beneath the surface, it was as natural as riding a bike. He could feel the pounding of the waterfall over his body, and some strange sensation that he was getting lighter, like he’d felt when he’d found the Troll Tree.

Albert stretched his arms out, then his fingers, reaching for a Tile on the bottom of the pool. At first he felt only smooth stone, no Tiles. He swam left and right, feeling for a Tile. There had to be hundreds under here, right? But nothing came up. He surfaced, took a gulp of air, and went back under.

Finally, as he began to feel like he would never find a Tile, Albert’s fingers closed over something warm and solid. There was a shock that ran through his body, making him feel hot and cold all at once.

Albert readied himself for the power. Maybe he’d fly right out of the lake! But as soon as the sensation had come, it fizzled away.

He surfaced, gasping for air, and held his Tile up.

Albert made his way over to the edge of the water. He was about to hand his Tile over to his dad when he realized something. His Tile wasn’t like the others. Instead of pure white, with a black symbol, it was exactly the opposite: a shiny black Tile with a white symbol on one side. The symbol was a perfect circle. In the middle of the circle was a horizontal line, with a triangle hanging off each end.

“Um . . . Is it supposed to be this color?” Albert asked. He held it up, waiting for his dad to tell him that he’d gotten some incredible power. Mind reading. Mind
control.
Flying. All three!

Professor Flynn stared at Albert with an emotionless expression. He strode forward slowly, and plucked the Tile from Albert’s outstretched palm.

“What’s it mean?” Albert asked. “It’s something cool, right? I can feel it!”

“Why is his Tile different?” Leroy asked, furrowing his brow. “I saw at least seven hundred thirty-six Tiles at the bottom of the pool. None of them were black.”

“I guess your photographic memory has kicked in,” Birdie said to Leroy. Then she leaned forward, trying to get a good look at Albert’s Tile. “It looks like a scale, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t . . .” Professor Flynn flipped the Tile round and round. His face was blank. Empty. “I’ve never seen the black Tile before, but I have heard legend of its existence.”

“
The
black Tile?” Albert asked. “You mean there’s only one?”

Professor Flynn paced back and forth, chewing on his bottom lip.

“I’m sorry, Albert. I don’t know what powers it brings with it. You’ll have to discover that for yourself. You’re a Balance Keeper now. You’ll unlock its mysteries; I have no doubt.”

But Albert saw a shadow cast over his dad’s face, as if he worried about the black Tile and what it might foreshadow.

Trey arrived from wherever he’d gone. He looked inquisitively at the black Tile like the rest of them. He seemed not to know what to make of it, so he turned to Professor Flynn.

“The accommodations are ready for them now.”

Professor Flynn stared out at the waterfall, a crease lining his forehead. He kept turning the Tile round and round in his hand, lost in thought.

“Sir?” Trey said. “I said their quarters are ready. Sir?”

Professor Flynn’s face cleared, his eyes lighting back up. He handed the Tile back to Albert.

Albert felt like he’d gone trick-or-treating on Halloween and gotten an apple instead of a fistful of candy. It was downright disappointing. His shoulders sank. “So I got . . . nothing?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Leroy said, nudging Albert. “Someone’s gonna know what your Tile means. You’ll see.”

“Yeah, you’ll probably be, like, the coolest Balance Keeper ever, Albert,” Birdie chimed in. “I mean, besides me, of course.”

Albert wasn’t so sure, but he nodded anyway.

“Use these to hold your Tiles,” Trey said, handing them each a strong black cord. “And keep your Tile always around your neck; never take it off. Your Tile provides special abilities for you and you alone, but you must keep it with you to feel its power helping you in the Core. Do you understand?”

Everyone nodded, and Albert, Birdie, and Leroy busied themselves stringing the cords through the holes in their Tiles.

“They are part of you now,” Professor Flynn said as they worked. “And no one can ever use their power but you.”

Albert was aware of his dad watching closely as he placed the Tile around his neck. He knew what his dad was wondering, because Albert was wondering it, too.

What could it mean?