***
A bird of prey screeched
and latched onto the cleric’s face moments before Dr. Stine jumped
into the pit and fell to his death. The cleric dropped the knife
and screamed while the bird’s talons dug into his eyes. The owl’s
beak pecked the cleric’s forehead while its talons dug deeper into
his eyes, rendering him blind. Blood gushed from the wounds and
flowed across the cleric’s face. Dr. Stine stepped away from the
ledge, wiggled his wrists within the ropes, and smiled when they
loosened. Moments later, he slid his hands free from his bonds,
strolled toward one of the tents, and found his scepter. He glanced
over his shoulder and watched Stanley hover in the air while the
cleric fell into the quarry.
“
That was a close call,
Stanley. Thanks for saving my life!”
The owl blinked his eyes.
He hooted and flapped his wings. Behind the bird, more cult members
screamed “The comet is here!” and “I’ll be with Ramses soon!” as
they jumped off the edge of the cliff and plunged into the
snake-infested quarry.
“
Show me how to get to the
pyramid, Stanley! I’ll follow you!” Dr. Stine said. He walked
toward a black stallion, swung his legs over the animal’s back, and
settled into a saddle. Then he rubbed his feet into the horse’s
ribcage and the animal galloped across the desert to the west. Dr.
Stine steered the animal by pulling on the reins. Moments later,
the silhouette of the pyramid materialized from the sandstorm. In
the distance, Dr. Stine spied the stucco structures of the
abandoned colony.
Stanley guided Dr. Stine
and the stallion toward the north side of the pyramid. Dr. Stine
shook his head and wondered why the owl decided to lead him away
from the passage they’d used earlier. When Stanley landed on the
dead branches of a brittle tree, Dr. Stine dismounted from the
stallion and listened to the persistent
beep, beep, beep
of
Razor’s sensors. When he found the dog standing next to the top
step of a stone staircase, he patted Razor on his tiny head and
grinned.
“
Angelique is down there?
You found another way to get to her?” Dr. Stine asked.
Razor jumped up and down.
He barked three times. Then he licked Dr. Stine’s left
hand.
Razor trotted at Dr.
Stine’s heels and Stanley hovered in the air while Dr. Stine
descended the spiral staircase. Huge tarantulas scurried across the
stone walls and colorful hieroglyphs. Dr. Stine thrust his scepter
into the gloom when they plunged into shadows and darkness. When
they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Dr. Stine noticed the
flickering flames of torches’ light in a large chamber. He paused
when he heard voices talking in the room.
“
What’re you doing? Please
stop! Don’t do this!” Angelique begged.
“
Don’t worry, Kristina. The
mummification process isn’t
too
painful!” Sirlonah
said.
Dr. Stine, Razor, and
Stanley descended the remaining steps and entered the room. Dr.
Stine gasped when he noticed that Angelique was restrained to a
rock slab by four ropes. He yelled “Get away from her!” when he
realized that a priest had shoved a metal hook into Angelique’s
left nostril. The priest glanced over his shoulder, removed the
hook, and stared at a trickle of blood as it oozed from Angelique’s
nose and snaked across her pale face. Sirlonah and the other priest
walked toward the slab and blocked Dr. Stine’s view. Razor snarled
and Stanley screeched while Dr. Stine stood his ground.
“
Prepare to die! You never
should’ve come here!” Sirlonah said.
Dr. Stine aimed his scepter
at one of the priests. He chanted a spell as the words of a
forgotten language rose from his larynx. The priest tried to
scream, but all he could manage to vocalize was a low croak when he
transformed into a green frog.
“
You’re such a novice mage!
Surely you can conjure something more…sophisticated than that!”
Sirlonah chided. She lifted her hands into the air. Electricity
throbbed from her fingertips as she tried to cast her own
spell.
Dr. Stine aimed his scepter
at Sirlonah. A spiral of white light emerged from the weapon and
zapped Sirlonah’s face. She reached up to her mouth with her left
hand and moaned. She panicked when she realized that her tongue was
gone. The other priest tried to flee, but Dr. Stine aimed his
scepter at him and transformed him into a frog.
Dr. Stine removed the rope
restraints from Angelique’s hands and feet. He guided her toward
the staircase, where Razor and Stanley were waiting. As they
climbed the stairs, they listened to Sirlonah try to utter threats,
but her missing tongue caused her speech to be slurred or mute. Dr.
Stine laughed when he heard the frogs croak at each
other.
Angelique picked up Razor
and kissed him on the forehead. Dr. Stine climbed into the black
stallion’s saddle and helped Angelique mount the steed. Stanley
hovered in the air above them while Razor cuddled against
Angelique’s mechanical heart.
“
Our next stop is a
forgotten cathedral in the nearby highlands. It won’t take us long
to get there,” Dr. Stine said. He yelled at the horse and it
galloped faster. And while she admired the desert landscape,
Angelique questioned her own identity.
An hour later, the black
stallion carried Dr. Stine and Angelique across a small knoll near
a grassy plain. In the distance, they admired the green, rolling
hills and dogwood trees of The Blanton Highlands. Tulips,
daffodils, and roses grew in wild tangles on both sides of a dusty,
unpaved road as Dr. Stine held the horse’s reins. The stallion
galloped across a covered, wooden bridge, which spanned the width
of a clear, flowing stream. Angelique and Dr. Stine listened to the
horse’s hooves plod across the bridge’s oak planks while they
lowered their heads to dodge spider webs and low-hanging support
beams.
Rays of sunlight caused Dr.
Stine and Angelique to shield their eyes with their hands when the
stallion emerged from the covered bridge. Dr. Stine noticed an
abandoned farm house on the left side of the dirt road. He pulled
the horse’s reins and yelled “Whoa!” as he guided the stallion
toward a cobblestone sidewalk, which connected the dirt road to the
house’s front porch. The stallion stopped galloping and grazed on
the tall grass in the front yard. Dr. Stine and Angelique
dismounted. Angelique placed Razor gently on the grass and let the
dog run and play. Dr. Stine strolled toward the one-story, brick
house, cupped his hands around his face to block sunlight, and
stared into the front window.
“
Do you think anyone lives
here?” Angelique asked. She found a pine cone and threw it across
the yard. She watched Razor leap and catch it in midair.
“
No. There’s mold growing
on the furniture and moths have eaten the curtains,” he
said.
Dr. Stine followed the
cobblestone sidewalk to the screened door of the front porch. He
pulled the door inward and stepped onto a rectangular, concrete
slab. When he pushed a yellow button near the door, which his
parents had told him was called a
doorbell
back in The Old
Times, he didn’t hear the loud chime he’d expected. He noticed a
rolled-up piece of yellow paper, which someone had shoved through
the door handle. Dr. Stine seized the paper, unrolled it, and read
the notice out loud so Angelique could hear it:
This Is A Notice From The
Health Department of Blanton:
All Citizens Are Urged to
Stay Away from Wild Animals.
An Outbreak of the Plague
Has Spread to Neighboring Towns.
Initial Reports State that
Rodents Are Spreading the Disease.
Report to Your Primary
Care Physician Immediately if Symptoms Arise.
“
Do you think the people
who lived here got infected and died?” Angelique asked. She glanced
at the ground and searched for rats and mice.
“
It’s possible. I’m not too
concerned about the plague at the moment. Right now, I want to find
out how much juice this has,” he said. He took the battery pack out
of his pocket and lifted it into the air.
“
Razor can initiate a scan,
right? Can he pinpoint how long the battery pack will
last?”
“
Yes, if he’ll stop chasing
butterflies long enough to analyze the data,” Dr. Stine
said.
Razor barked, rolled in a
pile of white blossoms, and jumped to his feet. He trotted under a
dogwood tree and joined Dr. Stine on the porch. Dr. Stine depressed
a small lever between Razor’s shoulders, which caused a pair of
metal hooks to rise from the dog’s matted fur. Dr. Stine placed the
battery pack between the hooks. He connected the positive and
negative ends. Once he inserted the battery pack and double-checked
the connections, he said: “Begin testing, Razor!”
Sparks flew from the metal
hooks while Razor’s eyes rolled into the back of their sockets. He
grunted as electricity flowed through his body from head to tail.
The tiny hairs on his back stood on end. When the test concluded,
Razor’s mouth dropped open and his pink tongue dangled from between
his white, perfect teeth. A masculine, computerized voice spoke in
a clear, monotone voice: “The estimated life of the battery pack is
10 hours, 37 minutes, and 45 seconds.” The metal hooks slid back
into Razor’s back. Then the dog focused his eyes and exhaled a
shrill bark before he started chasing butterflies again. Dr. Stine
exhaled a sigh of disgust. Angelique stared at the ground and
frowned.
“
I can’t believe it! Ten
hours isn’t much time!” she said. She paced back and
forth.
“
Well, it could’ve been
worse. When your current battery pack is about to expire, I’ll
switch them out. Just let me know when you reach the one-hour
mark,” Dr. Stine said.
“
Okay. But please don’t
lose it. I have a feeling I’ll need those ten hours. We should’ve
arrived at Mount Zahn a long time ago,” she said.
“
I’ll protect it with my
life,” he said. He placed it in the deep, left pocket of his robe.
He wished they’d been able to save time and avoid the obstacles in
the forest and desert.
Stanley flapped his wings,
descended from the limb of an elm tree, and hovered in the air. He
blinked his wide, yellow eyes while his white feathers molted and
drifted to the ground. Dr. Stine extended his left arm and allowed
the owl to perch on his shoulder.
Angelique smiled at
Stanley. Then she said: “I should send a message to Zachary. He’s
probably wondering why I haven’t responded to his note.”
“
I’m sure you can find a
pen and paper inside. I want to search the house anyway. I’ll come
with you,” Dr. Stine said.
Angelique joined Dr. Stine
and Razor on the front porch. She reached for the knob of the front
door, twisted it, and pushed the door inward. Rusted hinges
screamed as they stepped onto moss-covered, beige tiles in the
foyer. Thick moss and intertwined vines covered the cream-colored
walls of the short corridor. Angelique glanced into a room to their
left and realized it was a den. On the other side of the room, next
to a dormant fireplace, was a large, mahogany desk. Cobwebs and
dust covered a flat-screen monitor, a Dell keyboard, and a printer.
Angelique strolled across the warped, water-damaged, hardwood floor
and approached the desk. She plucked a piece of yellow paper from
the printer’s tray and a blue pen from a green, plastic
cup.
“
I’ll check the other rooms
and give you some privacy,” Dr. Stine said.
She listened to Dr. Stine
and Razor stroll into a room on the other side of the foyer. She
sat down on a swivel chair and stared at the blank sheet of paper.
A tear slipped from the corner of her left eye and slid across her
cheek. Then she started writing:
To Zachary, My
Love:
I received your message a
long time ago, but I’ve been unable to respond due to circumstances
beyond my control. Xavier’s lover, Lysette, kidnapped Razor and hid
him from me in The Catacombs of the Dead. Dr. Stine and two knights
accompanied me into the catacombs and we rescued him. But then we
discovered that Razor’s abduction was merely a distraction to keep
us busy while Xavier stole a cache of battery packs from Dr.
Stine’s office! And to make matters worse, Xavier’s Eye-Bots
invaded Thyme!
Dr. Stine, Razor, Stanley,
and I have embarked on a journey to rescue you from Xavier and
recover the battery packs. Dr. Stine’s hovercraft was destroyed
after something caused the motors to blow up. Our progress has been
slowed by obstacles in The Enchanted Forest of Sorrow and The
Calypso Desert, but now we have a swift, black stallion, which will
help us make up lost time. Something strange happened to me in the
desert, but don’t be alarmed…I am safe and sound! You don’t believe
in reincarnation, do you? After my close call in the ancient tomb,
I’m convinced that I might’ve lived during another time as a woman
named Kristina. It frightens me to consider such a
thing!
Please take care of
yourself! I hope this letter reaches you and all is well. I wish I
could be with you during your trial. Tell your lawyer that he’ll be
amply rewarded if he can somehow save you from the guillotine! And
yes, my love, I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life
with you when we’re reunited. Stay safe and please send a response
with Stanley! I love you, my darling.