Authors: S. G. Rogers
Secrets of Yden (5 page)
Dip Into Trouble
Jon left his everlasting orb burning in the cavern, in case they wanted to return, and led Max through a passageway marked by a narrow stream of water. As they moved farther away from the light source in the main chamber, Jon fashioned a baseball-sized everlasting orb and brought it along to illuminate the path. "There's a sharp drop up ahead, and I don't want to locate the bottom the hard way," he explained.
At the end of the pathway, he increased the size of the orb and sent it aloft, revealing an underground pool surrounded by rock formations. Under the light, the water shone like liquid glass and the speckled luminescent coating on the cavern walls resembled a starlit night.
"Cool, huh?" Jon said.
"Sweet! How'd you find this place?" Max asked, dumbfounded.
"When Dorsit and I came diamond-hunting to raise money for his recruitment quest, I did some exploring. I found the Portal Key here at the bottom of the pool. Come on."
The two wizards climbed down, moving gingerly between craggy rocks. At the edge of the pool, Jon eased the bulging knapsack from his shoulder and lowered it to the ground.
"Help me heat this water. It'll be faster with both of us." Jon pointed the palm of his clan ring hand at the pool.
"Why?"
"I feel like going for a swim, don't you?"
Max's teeth gleamed. "I thought you'd never ask."
When the water felt exactly right, Jon wasted no time. He stripped off his clothes and dove in. As he came up for air, his delighted shout echoed throughout the cave. The water's unusual buoyancy felt wonderful, and the water was so clear he could almost sense it purifying his soul. Max didn't need much convincing. Before long, his clothes were in a pile and he was in the pool as well.
"Nothing better than your own private swimming hole," Jon said, treading water.
"We must be living right," Max replied.
They paddled around happily for several minutes, splashing water at each other and generally behaving like children. Suddenly two familiar voices echoed off the cavern walls, startling Jon so thoroughly he nearly drowned.
"This
is what you call treasure hunting?" Brett asked.
"I believe it's called swimming," Kira said.
"How'd you find us?" Jon asked, after he'd drained the water from his nose.
"I know how to do a tracking spell, remember?" Kira said.
"And it wasn't difficult to guess where you'd gone," Brett added.
Max and Jon clung to the edge of the pool, unable to get out of the water while Brett and Kira stood there.
"How about both of you leave so we can get our clothes?" Max asked.
Brett and Kira giggled and turned their backs. Jon and Max emerged from the pool and stood behind a couple of tall rock formations to dress. Jon shivered as the cooler air of the cavern met his moist skin.
"It's a lot warmer in the pool," he muttered to Max.
"Dude, you really need to toughen up," Max replied.
After they were decent, the boys joined Brett and Kira.
"So why'd you follow us?" Jon asked.
"To be honest, I actually wanted to see if Lialia was here," Brett said. "She'd been staying with me and we were getting to know one another. But then we had an argument and she insisted on returning to Yden."
"What happened?" Jon asked. "You catch her borrowing your makeup or something?"
Brett's cheeks flushed pink. "Actually, yes. It's not easy having a grandmother who looks so young, you know. I'm not used to sharing, and I might have overreacted. I feel kind of bad about it now."
Suddenly Lialia materialized, perched on top of a nearby rocky shelf. She was wearing a miniskirt, boots, and a blouse. The nymph wore the outfit well, although her curves on top strained the buttons on the blouse.
"If that's an apology, I accept," Lialia said with a little sniff and a toss of her luxurious blond mane.
"How long have you been here?" Jon demanded.
Lialia smirked. "Long enough to inform you this is not your own private swimming hole."
"Why didn't you speak up?" Max frowned. "We thought we were alone."
"That wouldn't have been much fun." Lialia gave Max and Jon flirtatious glances.
Kira's eyes narrowed. "I suppose it depends on whether your definition of fun includes ogling people."
Lialia ignored her. "Besides, I thought at first you might be
them
."
"Them?" Brett echoed. "Who are you talking about?"
"The three young wizards who were here before with Guinn," Lialia replied. "The big one with the funny accent and his two unattractive friends."
"Sounds like Bailey, Owen, and Kurt," Jon said.
"I met them at the Fox Clan stronghold!" Brett exclaimed. "They're really mean and not too bright."
"Well they've been banished from Yden for a while," Jon said. "I wonder why they'd return to Efysian's cavern?"
"To steal the pretty stones, of course," Lialia replied. "No one ever comes just to see me."
"I expect they'd like to loot this place of every last gemstone they could carry," Jon said.
"I managed to stop them." Lialia giggled. "I made them see big spiders and they ran away. It was great fun."
"Maybe the Executive Council could arrest them now for violating the terms of their banishment?" Kira suggested.
"If the Executive Council gets involved, they'll find out about this place, and I'm not sure I trust the majority of the Council to do the right thing," Jon said. "The gemstones aren't worth as much on Yden as they are on Earth, but they're still worth a lot. I wouldn't put it past the Council to loot the place themselves."
"Your observation may be cynical, but I agree with you," Kira said.
"Lialia, can you put up a spell to seal them out?" Jon asked.
"Impossible," she replied. "Guinn blew a big hole through my front door, and the breach is too large for me to seal with magic."
"Maybe we can help," Jon said. He hoisted the knapsack onto his shoulder, causing the stones inside to shift audibly.
Lialia gave the knapsack a cool stare. "Apparently Bailey, Owen, and Kurt are not the only ones who wish to take all the gemstones they can carry."
"You don't understand," Jon replied, stung. "These aren't for me. Some of Quixoran's apprentices can use pocket money from time to time."
"Why⦠that's very thoughtful of you," Kira said. "I'm impressed."
"I'm impressed, too," Max said. "I'll be able to ask a certain girl out now." He slid a look to Brett, who blushed.
Jon felt like doing a back flip at Kira's approval, but it wouldn't have been dignified.
****
The four young wizards and the nymph examined the huge, gaping hole Guinn had created when he'd blasted his way through Lialia's last sealing spell.
"We could levitate a bunch of rocks into the space," Max suggested.
"But wizards with any kind of training could just levitate them away, couldn't they?" Brett asked.
"That's true," Kira said. "We need something more solid."
"I wonder if a repair spell would work," Jon mused.
"You know a spell to repair things?" Max asked.
"Er⦠yeah. Quixoran taught it to me when I had to fix some torn artwork."
"You don't have to tiptoe around it, Jon. It's okay," Brett said. "My dad transported into Jon's house this past summer when he was looking for the Portal Key. He ruined Jon's entire portfolio out of spite."
"It was a useful spell, as I recall," Kira said. "You should attempt it."
"Let's levitate these boulders into the opening and I'll give it a shot," Jon said.
"Sorry, I still can't levitate much of anything yet," Brett admitted. "But I'll be thinking uplifting thoughts."
Lialia adjusted her blouse. "I do that all the time."
Kira, Jon, and Max levitated rocks and boulders into the breach, like an avalanche in reverse.
As they tried to hold the wall in place, Brett giggled. "The rocks look like they're boiling."
Jon pointed his clan ring toward the wall.
"Resa Crovenious."
The spell did its work, but after the stones knit together, there were still many gaps where someone thin could crawl through. "I wonder if we could melt the rock into lava to seal up some of those holes?" Max suggested.
"That's crazy," Brett said. "No one can melt rock⦠can they?"
"A wizard can transform sand into glass," Kira said. "Would the transformation of rock be so different?"
Jon and Max exchanged a look and a shrug.
"Let's find out," Jon said.
Kira, Max, and Jon focused their transformational energy on the uppermost section of wall, and before too long the rock began to glow. When it became red, liquid rock blobbed down like chunks of burning marshmallow. Lialia had been trying without much success to direct the efforts, but the reflected heat drove her farther into the cavern to avoid perspiring.
"We've done all we can do," Max said finally.
They stood back to survey their handiwork.
"Pretty good, I think," Kira said.
"It'll hold for a while, but without Lialia's sealing spell, it's only temporary," Jon said.
"How do you figure?" Brett asked.
"If the word's out that there's a fortune in here, how long do you think it'll take for some motivated wizard to break in?" Jon asked.
"Bailey and his buddies can always use a good old-fashioned stick of Earth dynamite," Max said.
"I hadn't thought of that," Brett replied. "I wouldn't put it past them to try."
"I can't stop every sort of attack, but with this wall in place, and as long as I'm here, no wizard can transport in or out without my permission," Lialia said.
"Speaking of permission, we should probably return to Dragon Isle," Kira said.
"Undetected," Max added.
Jon consulted his watch. "Holy smokes, it's nearly three o'clock, Earth-time. That means it's nearly dawn on Dragon Isle."
"And Master Quixoran rises early," Brett said.
Jon grimaced. "We'll be lucky to get to our bungalows with our skin intact."
****
The four wizards didn't even make it to their bungalows because Quixoran was waiting for them when they transported onto the beach. Max, Kira, and Brett froze in horror. The hair on the back of Jon's neck stood up the way it always did when his grandfather was angry.
A resigned sigh escaped his lips. "Good morning, Grandfather." Under the circumstances, the greeting sounded stupid, but what else could he say?
We're busted. It's not my first time to that particular rodeo; I'll have to take my lumps.
"You four will meet me in the tree house after breakfast to answer for your unauthorized excursion." Quixoran's tone was clipped.
Four mumbled responses of "Yes, sir" followed.
Leaden silence accompanied the apprentices as they walked through the garden toward the tree house. When the group reached the camp, Kira and Brett veered toward their bungalow and Max and Jon went to theirs without exchanging a word.
Jon fell into his hammock to catch a couple hours of sleep before it was time to get up.
"Sorry I got you into trouble," he whispered to Max.
"Honestly? It was kind of worth it."
In the darkness, Jon grinned. He felt the same way, but he was glad Max had said it first.
****
Quixoran gave Jon credit for taking responsibility for the overnight escapade, and he appreciated the thought behind the gemstones. He admitted it hadn't occurred to him the apprentices needed spending money, but he was still angry.
"However good your intentions might have been, to leave this island late at night and without permission was foolish. After everything that happened this summer, Jon, I had hoped you'd overcome your reckless streak."
For punishment, he was assigned to clean a large quantity of fish for dinner, as well as scrub the bathroom in his bungalow. Kira and Brett got off easy, in his opinion, by gathering herbs for Cressidia. Max was sentenced to pick fruit and perform some gardening. So instead of hanging around the fire pit that night, Jon swabbed toilets. As he was working, Ian and Finn appeared.
"Hey, Jon, we've got a proposition for ye," Ian said.
"We'll scrub a toilet or two if you take us to the underground swimming hole some time," Finn said.
"That's a tempting offer. I tell you what; if Quixoran gives you his permission, it's a deal," Jon said.
A miffed expression appeared on Ian's face. "Asking for permission takes the fun out o' it, laddie."
****
His extra chores put Jon behind with his studies, so he decided to transport home before dinner the next evening to get his homework done. Although he usually hated to cut his time on Dragon Isle short, Cressidia was making fish stew Sunday night. Since fish stew was definitely not one of Jon's favorites, he skipped it in favor of his mother's spaghetti.
As Jon sat at his desk in his bedroom, however, he couldn't concentrate.
At this rate, it'll take me forever to finish my assignments.
Short on sleep, he rubbed his eyes and yawned. He found himself doodling a sketch of Kira, which reminded him he hadn't asked her to the homecoming dance yet.
"Next Saturday at the latest," he said, as if saying the words out loud would make it happen.
With that happy thought, he focused his attention on AP math.