Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2) (18 page)

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Edgar wanted something,
anything
he could hold on to that would make him feel like a normal boy.

"Have I ever been to the Dark Planet? Did I live there once?"

He had been so sure when he'd dangled his feet over the edge of Atherton and looked down at the world beneath him that it had once been his home. He'd wanted to go there.

"You were the firstborn of Atherton," Dr. Harding almost sang the words as he recalled the idea of Edgar coming to life in the laboratory beneath Mead's Hollow. "There's no darkness in you, no mark of the Dark Planet, and that makes you very special. I made Atherton for
you,
Edgar, before you were created and then after. Atherton was always for you. And so you and Atherton are mysteriously linked. I'm not entirely sure the two of you can survive without each other."

Edgar was too confused and tired to say anything in response.

"We have a little time," continued Dr. Harding, trying to make amends. "The next really big change won't start until after light tomorrow. You could get some rest." Edgar listened as Dr. Harding's voice became mystical, as if he'd passed into a room in his mind that he'd waited a very long time to open, and peeking inside had found the dawn of time hiding there. "The first day of creation has passed. The Highlands are safe until the second day comes."

There was a quiet knock at the door, and Dr. Harding lunged across the floor for the knife.

"It's food," said Edgar, touching Dr. Harding gently on the arm. "You don't need to worry."

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Edgar went to the door and opened it, took the stale loaves of bread that were offered, and asked Tyler to come back in the morning. At first Tyler was unsure, but then he saw Lord Phineus on the floor glaring at him and he nodded, running off down the stairs.

The two sat together against the ivy-covered wall, the boy and his maker, and they ate dinner. Dr. Harding told Edgar about himself and his life, the things he could remember. It was hard to keep his broken mind focused and at intervals he trailed off into things Edgar didn't understand, but it was very much like the kind of conversation a boy and a father ought to have: a little laughing, some whispering of secret things, a hug. To sit with Dr. Harding in the quiet of the House of Power and not to feel afraid or alone, if only for a moment, was a great relief to Edgar.

"I understand you can climb out of here," Dr. Harding remarked at one point when Edgar leaned over into Dr. Harding's arms, so very tired. "That will be easier when there's some light and after you've had some sleep."

It was then that Dr. Harding told Edgar about how Atherton would continue to change and how to defeat the Cleaners, but the boy was quickly drifting off, and the words were heard as a dream that may or may not be remembered come morning.

Dr. Harding stayed awake long after Edgar was sound asleep, watching the boy and smiling at the wonder of what he'd made.

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*** CHAPTER 21 THE CAVERN

It was Vincent who was clearly in charge from the very moment Dr. Harding closed the yellow door and locked everyone below Mead's Hollow.

"We have to go quickly," he began. "If what Dr. Harding said was true, there's not much time for us to take what we can and be gone."

Dr. Kincaid nodded, though he was still in something of a daze. Dr. Harding was gone, never to return, and he couldn't be sure if anything the man had said was true. Dr. Harding had gone mad not once but twice, first after losing Edgar and becoming Lord Phineus, and then after being bitten by the Crat. Dr. Kincaid felt a terrible sorrow at the loss of such a great mind. Lost in these thoughts, he began to walk down the orange corridor in silence and Isabel fell in step beside him.

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A "Will he find Edgar?" she asked.

Dr. Kincaid didn't know very much about children, but he was aware that sometimes they looked to adults for a glimmer of hope that would sustain them.

"Dr. Harding is the smartest man alive," said Dr. Kincaid. "Rest assured, Sir Emerik hasn't a chance."

"If only he can get out of Mead's Hollow, he'll be able to climb to the top. He could tell my parents that I'm all right."

She was worried for Edgar, but in the past few hours she'd become even more concerned about her own family. She wanted desperately for them to know she was okay, and that got her thinking about whether she actually
was
okay.

"Dr. Kincaid," she said as they rounded the corner into the laboratory, "how are we going to get out of here?"

He glanced at her and patted her gently on the back.

"Wait and see," he said, with the maddening air of secrecy she had come to expect.

When she entered the laboratory, Vincent was busy gathering things into a bag with straps that enabled him to carry it on his back. Pointing to a pile of such bags, he ordered everyone to pick one up and follow him. The bags were open at the top, but there were strings to tie them shut, and each person took one, following in a line behind Vincent. Most of what he placed in the bags were things Isabel and Samuel didn't recognize, and they were left to imagine that he wanted to preserve relics from the laboratory that might be useful later: tools, drawings, artifacts, models.

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He came to the end of the table farthest from the entry and there he opened a wooden panel. Inside was a row of spears of a kind no one had seen before. The ends were capped with a hard, clear substance, and removing one with a
pop,
Vincent revealed a sharp, metal tip that ran six or seven inches down in a jagged line.

"Take the cover off only when I tell you to. These are dangerous weapons I hope you won't need."

He put the cap back over the end of the spear and handed it to Dr. Kincaid, who seemed perfectly happy to let Vincent take control of the situation.

"Each of you put your pack on and keep hold of these," he said, handing out the spears one by one. "What you carry on your back is all we have left of what Dr. Harding created. These notes and tools may well provide us with the clues we need to survive not only for a day but for a lifetime on Atherton. Care for them well."

Everyone did as they were told, though they all held their spears awkwardly.

"We're about to go someplace that will surprise most of you," said Vincent. "There are dangers in this place of a kind you've never seen. Follow close behind me, and use the spears as walking sticks to help you along."

He looked at each person slowly and steadily. Then he took a crossbow from where the spears had been stored, and he loaded it with an arrow from a container of a dozen arrows flung over his back. The loaded crossbow was a contraption Sir William,

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Samuel, and Isabel had never seen before. Isabel felt inside her front pocket--three black figs and her sling--and she wondered if she would need them wherever they were going.

"Won't we need water and food?" asked Sir William.

Vincent turned to the group one last time before leaving. "There's plenty of water where we're going," he said. "Food will have to wait. Just stay close and walk in a line as best you can."

As they approached the far end of the laboratory, Samuel looked back at the columns of books that he wished he could have a chance to read. He couldn't stand the idea that they might be lost forever. He and Isabel were positioned in the line behind Dr. Kincaid and in front of Sir William, who took up the rear.

Vincent knelt down and peered beneath the last of the stone tables, and then he crawled underneath.

"Where do you think we're going?" asked Isabel, whispering to Samuel as she watched Vincent disappear into the darkness beneath the stone table.

"I wish I knew," said Samuel, crouching down as his turn came.

"Stay close to me, will you?" asked Isabel, following behind.

"I promise I will," said Samuel. "And I'm sorry for bringing you down here, Isabel."

She was about to tell him it was all right, that she felt afraid but safe within the group, when she came to a hole under the table and watched Samuel disappear into it. Cold air drifted lazily out of the hole, air that smelled like mud. She breathed

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in deep and stepped inside, touching the cool walls to guide her way.

As the pathway led downward and turned sharply to the left and to the right, the faint light from the laboratory quickly disappeared and was replaced by a new supply of light from somewhere around an unknown number of curves on the path. The group of five twisted and turned as the light increased before them. Looking back, Sir William saw only black, and he realized then that they would never go back.

"This place is changed," said Dr. Kincaid as they all stepped together into a wide, dimly lit cavern. Long shafts of stone shot down from a high rock ceiling and the stone walls dripped with water. Small pools lay here and there along the cavern, and crags of rock jutted out from the ground in every direction.

"I hope our way is not blocked," Dr. Kincaid continued.

"It well could be," said Vincent. "We should hurry before Atherton moves again."

Sir William came up alongside the two men and left Samuel and Isabel to marvel at the strange underground world they'd come into. Samuel poked his spear at the rocks and found them to be as hard as any others he'd encountered, though they were of a red and orange color he hadn't seen before.

"What is this place?" asked Sir William.

Vincent and Dr. Kincaid exchanged a knowing glance, and the two realized they'd need to tell.

"Make it quick," said Vincent. "I'm going ahead to choose a safe passage."

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Vincent moved off and Dr. Kincaid stood before Sir William, Samuel, and Isabel.

"It used to be different," said Dr. Kincaid. "It used to be wider and there was better light, fewer stones strewn about."

He glanced at the walls of the cavern, trying to get his bearings. "Before, when the Highlands were up there"--he pointed toward the rock ceiling --"our way was very different. We could travel beneath the Flatlands and up through the inside of Tabletop, and then up through the inside of the Highlands. But the Highlands are below Tabletop now, so this cavern is new to me. It's not the same as it once was."

"So you've been to the laboratory before?" asked Samuel.

"Oh, yes, many times. I've even been to the Highlands, just not since the lock on the door was altered. The laboratory was
ours,
Dr. Harding's and mine, not his alone."

"This cavern leads home!" cried Isabel, realizing freedom might be possible after all. "It leads all the way to the Flatlands where we can find everyone!"

"If we're very lucky, yes," said Dr. Kincaid. "But our way is uncertain until we find the opening."

"The opening?" said Samuel.

"If we can make it to the inside, we can make it home."

"What do you mean, the
inside?"
asked Isabel.

"The laboratory, believe it or not, is located beneath Tabletop, so we're already free of the Highlands. It's disorienting, I realize, but the old passageways are changed or vanished. New ways are before us, but they still lead inside."

Isabel still didn't understand what he meant by inside, but

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her mind was turning over the idea that she was beneath her home, maybe beneath the grove itself. She looked up half expecting to see the roots of the trees shooting down from the ceiling.

"My mind can't process where we are or how we got here," said Sir William. "This shifting world makes no sense."

Dr. Kincaid didn't know what he should say, because there was a part of him that felt just as Sir William did.

"Sometimes," he began, having struck on a way of explaining, "over the years as Dr. Harding and I worked beside each other, he would show me a page filled with calculations and drawings and he would say to me,
Don't you see? This is how we get from here to there,
but it was like a language I couldn't understand. His ways went beyond me, until I could no longer see where he was going. Atherton is like that. Our
way
is like that."

"That's not very helpful," said Sir William, smiling as he liked to do to brighten the spirits of those around him. Dr. Kincaid laughed and his mood improved. He was about to go on when Vincent came back into view through the shadows and light of the cavern.

"We should go," he said. "From what I can tell our way will be harder than before. It's flat, so we won't have to climb down as we used to, but much has caved in. I just hope there's still a way inside."

"How far?" said Sir William. He was aware that Samuel and Isabel hadn't slept for a long time. Vincent glanced at them, then back at Sir William.

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"If our way isn't blocked, only an hour. We must get inside as fast as we can, then we can rest."

"What is this 'inside' you keep speaking of?" asked Sir William. "We don't understand."

"Please, just come along," said Vincent. "It will be easier to show you than to tell you."

Sir William knelt down in front of Samuel and Isabel, worried for them. "Can you do this?" he asked.

Isabel did not like being treated as a child. It was true she was afraid and unsure, but she didn't want anyone else to know. She scowled in Sir William's general direction, then marched right past him toward Vincent without a word.

"You found a tough one there," said Sir William, looking at the frail boy before him. Samuel had never been one to have a lot of energy, and his father remembered him as a reader, not an adventurer.

"If she can do it, so can I," said Samuel, and he, too, strode past his father in the direction Isabel had gone. In truth he was feeling tired and chilled, but he couldn't bear the idea of disappointing his father. If Isabel could be so brave and determined, so could he.

The group moved as one snaking line through the cavern, and a snake it truly was, for where a clear path had once been there was now something more treacherous. Many of the long stones that had hung down from the ceiling had broken off like great teeth, shattering on the ground and leaving a path filled with boulders. And while it seemed that Atherton was not moving, the sound of crashing and splintering rock echoed