The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (36 page)

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Erec pulled the cord and shut the shades. He didn't want to see more. He already knew.

If he did not go along, and trade his life for Bethany's, nobody else would return alive.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Windows to the Soul

OUNG SIR. Is something wrong?"

Leave it to Jam to be the most perceptive . . . at least without Bethany there. She could read Erec like a book.

"No. I mean, I'm just worried. But I looked into the future with my dragon eyes. We all will get out safely except Wolfboy. Spartacus, could he possibly stay here with you until we get back? I think he'd really love it here."

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"Of course!" Spartacus clapped and called Wolfboy over. "This guy will fit right in, won't you? And I know what you like to eat, don't I?"

Wolfboy jumped all over the friendly man, so much that he didn't notice when Jam took the dog food out of his backpack.

Erec was embarrassed that he was asking so much from Spartacus. "Can I give you some money to feed him while we're gone?"

Spartacus crossed his arms. "No way. He's my dog until you're back. I'll take care of him. No problem."

"Thank you." Erec bit his lip. "And if anything . . . were to happen to me, could he stay on here with you?"

"Of course! But you said you saw in the future that you'd all get back here okay." He raised an eyebrow.

"I did! But . . . just in case, I mean."

Jam looked sideways at Erec, but he didn't say anything. Luckily, nobody else seemed to notice Erec's black mood. So he forced a smile and said, "Let's go, guys! On to Jakarta. Hope Baskania's place isn't too hard to find!"

Spartacus Kilroy led the group through his house, patting Lalalalal on its head. "Remember, don't speak unless you're spoken to." He held a hand out, inviting them into his Port-O-Door. "I was pretty lucky to get this door--they're really expensive. But I guess that's one good thing about being an ex-AdviSeer. I still have a few connections. I don't know much about Upper Earth, but I've heard of Jakarta. It's supposed to be beautiful. A bustling city, and lots to do there."

Melody sighed. "Too bad we're not going for sightseeing."

Griffin pulled one of his sabers out and waved it in the air. The mynaraptor on his shoulder edged away from the blade flying by. "Speak for yerself, ye wench. I'm going to see the best sights of all. Me enemies' heads rolling at me feets."

"Watch out!" Melody lowered her eyebrows at Griffin. "You

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nearly beheaded
me
. And don't call me wench, okay?"

Humbled, Griffin bowed. "Yes, ma'am. Mighty sorry, I am. I won't be nearly beheading you anymore, or any of you others. Pardon my witless--"

"That's enough!" Melody said, to shut him up. "Can we just find Jakarta and go?"

Jam scanned the map of Upper Earth in the Port-O-Door and tapped Indonesia, in Southeast Asia, about halfway between India and Australia. When the map of Indonesia popped up, Jack pointed at Jakarta on the northwest coast of Java, one of the country's many islands. Erec was glad that Jack and Jam were focused enough to find the cities. He was too nervous to concentrate at all.

This would have to change. He would need to focus if he was going to succeed. It was time to forget what his dragon eyes had shown him and move on. Who knew? Maybe they had been wrong.

Everyone eagerly scanned the map of Jakarta.

"Do we know where Baskania's fortress is?" Kyron asked.

Erec tried to remember what his father had told him. "I think you have to go through an eye care shop to get into the secret passage. . . ."

Everyone turned to stare at Erec.

Melody raised her eyebrows. "So, we're supposed to just walk the streets of this huge city and look for eye care shops? How many do you think there are in Jakarta? Are we supposed to just ask in each one, 'Hey, is this the passageway into the Shadow Prince's top secret fortress?' I'm sure we'll be guided right there."

Griffin sighed and filed a fingernail on his saber.

"That is one way you could get there," a voice rang from behind them.

The Hermit stood with an arm around Kilroy, as if he had been there all along. Kilroy turned to him in shock.

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"But I would not recommend it. Asking around would be a oneway ticket into the worst part of Baskania's lair. I suppose your best shot is just to ask someone here who knows where it is." He paused dramatically. "Where would that person be? I don't know. Silly, silly me. None of you have been there. Who should we try?" He scanned the ceiling, then down along the floor as if a person who knew the answer might pop up at any minute.

"Do
you
know where it is?" Erec had a feeling that he did.

"Me? Little old me?" The Hermit giggled. "Let me ask. 'Hermit? Do you know where Baskania's hidden fortress is in Jakarta?' 'Why, yes! I do, Hermit!' 'Oh, really! That is wonderful. It's so good to have a wise, practical man like yourself among us, no?' 'Oh, you are too, too kind, Hermit. Truly a gentleman, you are.' 'No, it is
you
who are too kind. And smart, as well.' 'Why, thank you. Thank you for your sharp perception and unfailing wit.'" He wagged his eyebrows at the incredulous crowd gaping at him. "You all need to lighten up! Think of all the fun in store for you. What is challenge without appreciation? What is risk without daring? It's like eating meatloaf without chocolate sauce on top!"

Griffin responded with a loud "Yeah!" but the rest of the group was unmoved.

"All right, all right. You want answers, so answers I'll give. Look in south Jakarta on the map. You'll see an area called Kemang. Nice spot. Ritzy enough for the Prince of the Shadows. You may enjoy it so much there you won't want to come back." He giggled. "Okay, you've zoomed the map in to Kemang. Now find Jalan Kemang Raya. Jalan means street. You see it? Look where it crosses Jalan Bangka. Lots of nice stores and cafés there. Pretty art galleries. Near there, on Jalan Bangka, is a little store called Windows to the Soul--One Stop Eye Care Shop."

The name gave Erec a chill. Baskania was running an eye care

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shop in a nice section of Jakarta? How many people were going in to buy glasses and coming out with a glass eye?

"Ugh," Melody said, thinking the same thing.

"Oh, my." Jam worried his thumbs together nervously. "It doesn't sound like a safe place to shop."

The Hermit nodded. "Good thing you won't be buying. But be careful. You'll find an Identdetector around the front door. The clerk is supposed to check how important the store visitors are. Baskania would only want to take eyes from his most famous, wealthy, and powerful customers."

"An Identdetector?" Jack's eyes were wide. "That will show our true identity--and true appearance if we changed our looks. They'll know exactly who we are the minute we walk in. How will we sneak through into the fortress?"

The Hermit clicked his tongue. "That is a problem, isn't it? I do hope you work something out. It would be a shame for you to get caught and thrown in a prison cell before you even find the glasses."

"What glasses?" Kyron asked, confused. "It's an eye shop. Won't there be a lot of glasses there?"

"That's the point, isn't it?" The Hermit nodded at him as if Kyron had discovered something. "Many, many glasses. That makes it easy to hide the special pair, the ones that will let you find the secret door hidden in the shop."

"Hold on." Erec put his hands up. "One of the pairs of glasses will let us find the secret door? That sounds easy enough. If all of us try on glasses at the same time we can look through all of the ones in the store. One of us will find that pair and see the door soon enough, right?"

"Wrong." The Hermit beamed at Erec as if he had heartily agreed.

"Wrong? Why?"

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"Ahh, do you think that Baskania would let people find his secret door so easily? That door is by invitation only." He wagged a finger at them. "You may only try on eyeglass frames one at a time. They are all behind the counter. The magic in the glasses that lets you see the door jumps from one pair to another. If you ask to see the frames that hold the power in them, it will move into another pair. Three times. So you have to pick the right four pairs of glasses in a row to get in. The clerk won't let you fish around--customers may try only four pairs on in this boutique. Of course, Baskania's special guests are told before they come which four pairs of glasses to ask for. The pattern changes every day. Not even the clerk knows which they are. Or where the door is--that changes too."

Griffin gnashed his teeth. "What if I just slash the place to smithereens? That invisible door will turn up soon enough then."

The Hermit crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "What will turn up then will be your head on a platter at Baskania's table. You would never find the door, but they would surely find you that way."

Melody grimaced at the thought. "But the clerk would have to know which pair the right glasses were, at least after someone else used them to find the passageway."

"No, no, no. Silly Melody Avery. Silly, silly girl. Silly head, full of fluff and music. After the right glasses are on, a customer can walk into the passage. But once the door shuts, the magic moves into a different pair of glasses, somewhere else, hidden again. So if the clerk doesn't follow you into the passageway, he won't be able to find it later."

"What if the clerk looks at the Identdetector after we go and sees that Erec Rex went through?" Kyron said.

The Hermit shrugged. "Maybe he will think you were asked to come. Bothering Baskania is not a mission he will do lightly, if he likes staying alive. But there are laws about reporting Erec Rex, too.

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I suppose he would have to do that. It will be a hard choice for him--afraid to bother Baskania and afraid to not report Erec Rex."

Great, Erec thought. He'd be walking from a frying pan into an inferno--if he was lucky enough to figure out how to do it. "This seems impossible. I'm sure the store has tons of glasses. How am I supposed to ask for the right four pairs in a row? Baskania knew what he was doing--it's foolproof."

"Foolproof, yes," the Hermit agreed. "So do not attempt to go if you are a fool." One of his eyebrows shot high up on his bald head. "But, the real question is, is it dragon-proof?"

"Dragons!" Jack exclaimed. "We need to bring a dragon with us, right?"

Erec shook his head. Dragons were not allowed in Upper Earth. But that didn't bother him. He knew exactly what the Hermit was saying.

Jam set the Port-O-Door to wait for their return and wrote down Spartacus's code. It was hard finding a spot to put the door in the busy city. When they had zoomed the map in to Jalan Kemang Raya and Jalan Bangka, they discovered restaurants, nightclubs, art shops, and a few hotels, but everything was in clear view of people walking by. They finally agreed to put the Port-O-Door into the side of a luxury high-rise apartment condo farther down Jalan Kemang Raya, hoping it would look like a locked side entrance.

The time in Jakarta was only a few hours later than Alypium, so it was just after lunchtime, and the city was bustling. People walked into shops, and street vendors hawked their wares. The smell of their food carts was delicious. Erec, Jack, and Griffin eyed the bowls of meatball soup that one of the vendors was dishing up, and Melody was drawn to a dish called gado gado, which looked like peanut sauce on a salad with potatoes, eggs, and onions. Jam

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motioned them away, warning them about catching germs from street food.

"I know!" Melody spun around to face Erec. "Get your Serving Tray out. We'll stand around and block it so nobody sees, and you can ask it to give us the same things we see here, without the risk."

Erec produced lunches for everyone from the tray. Griffin approached eight different vendors to learn the names of what they sold, and he proceeded to put away more food than Erec had ever seen anyone eat, feeding some of it to Lalalalal, who liked most of the same things that Griffin did.

After they all agreed Indonesian food was delicious, they bubbled with excitement about their journey, but Erec's heart sunk. His only real hope was to keep his Serving Tray in whatever dungeon he ended up in. But what were the odds of that? Chances were he wouldn't end up in a dungeon at all after he was captured, like he saw in his vision. He'd be long gone. No, he should give the tray to someone else so it wouldn't go to waste.

Erec held out the Serving Tray. "Here, Jam. Why don't you hang onto this? I'm tired of carrying it. Okay?"

Jam put it into his own backpack, but eyed Erec suspiciously. "Young sir, are you sure you're feeling all right?"

Erec nodded. He tried to concentrate on the sights and sounds of Jakarta to distract himself from his awful fate. People stared at them as they walked by. Erec supposed three adults--dressed like a butler, a pirate with a bizarre duck on his shoulder, and a leather-clad wilderness hunter--might attract attention anywhere.

"This place is great." Melody looked around admiringly.

Griffin sighed and rubbed his stomach. "Aye, me lady. 'Tis a fine sight for sore eyes used to the Nightmare Realm."