Always October (31 page)

I felt sick. Had Toozle been working for the Unravelers all along? It didn't seem possible. But what other explanation was there?

“Come on,” I said. “We've got to get help!”

With Luna running ahead of us, we dashed along the hall and down the stairs, back to the library.

It was empty.

“My grandfather's probably working on that portal,” said Jake. “But
where
?”

We ran to the entryway. It was the first time I realized how big this place really was. Or was it actually bigger now? Did the building shift and change around you, the way a building can in a nightmare? Halls extended in several directions. None had any marking to indicate what they led to.

“Maybe we should split up,” said Jake uneasily. “We can cover more territory that way.”

“You don't watch enough horror movies,” said Luna. “When people split up, they die. We should stick together. If we all go down the same corridor, we can check rooms twice as fast.”

“All right, that's the plan,” I said. “Let's go!”

The first corridor, which had at least a dozen rooms opening off it, ended at a huge dining room. It yielded nothing.

The second corridor, just as long, led to a sculpture gallery filled with the most terrifying statues I had ever seen.

What it did not contain, anywhere, was another living being.

The third corridor took us to a vast kitchen where rows of bloodstained knives hung from racks above the counters. Huge pots, each big enough to cook a person, simmered on the stove. But the room itself was deserted. At least, we thought it was. Then Luna hissed, “Hold still! Listen!”

After a moment I heard it too … a muffled sobbing. But where was it coming from? We began a frantic search that ended when Jake yanked open a cupboard door and found Toozle huddled inside, weeping. Jake reached in and hauled the little monster out.

“Where's the baby?” he demanded, shaking him. “What have you done with LD?”

“Nothing!” wailed Toozle. “Didn't do nothing!”

“Then why did you leave the room? Why are you hiding here?
What's going on, Toozle?
”

“Bad!” wailed Toozle. “Everything is bad, bad, bad!”

Jacob glanced around frantically. “Don't blabber,” he said fiercely. “Talk!” Lifting the little creature off the floor, he started toward the stove. “I want answers, Toozle, and I want them now!”

I stared in amazement. I had never seen Jake like this.

Toozle squirmed in his grip. “Wasn't me, wasn't me!” he cried. “It was other half. Found and lost, found and lost!”

He began to sob again.

I had feared Jacob was planning to drop Toozle into one of the simmering pots, but suddenly something went soft in his face. Still gripping the little monster tight, he lowered him to the floor, then knelt in front of him. “What do you mean, ‘found and lost'?”

“Other half is here!” sobbed Toozle. “Both parts here, but parts not together!”

I knelt beside Jake. Patting Toozle's back, I said softly, “Tell us about it.”

He gulped for breath, then said, “When we were in hall upstairs, Toozle was behind you, looking at picture. Got grabbed! Got pulled into dark place! Saw other half.
Saw other half!
Then other half got pushed out. Monsters who grabbed me carried me down, down, down deep. Told me other half would pretend to be me and try to steal baby. Other half didn't want to, but monsters told him if he did, they would let us be together again. So he did! He did! But bad monsters lied! Didn't let us be together. Toozle squirmed and squirmed and got away, but didn't know where to go, what to do. Came here to cry and think.”

“Where they are now?” I asked. “Can you take us there?”

Wide-eyed, Toozle nodded.

“Then do it,” snarled Jacob. “Take us to the baby. NOW!”

“Wait, Jake,” I said.

“What for?”

Without saying anything, I went to the racks on the wall. I pulled down a large knife and handed it to him. Then I selected one for myself. I hesitated, then found a slightly smaller one. Jacob started to say something, but when I handed the blade to Toozle, he bit back his words.

Toozle didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes let me know what the gesture of trust meant to him.

“All right,” said Jake grimly. “Let's go.”

Toozle led us to the back of the kitchen, where a door opened onto a dark stairway.

“Luna?” whispered Jacob.

The cat sighed but began to purr. Soon she was glowing very softly, just enough for us to see a few steps ahead.

We started down. And continued down.

And down … and down … and down.

“How far is it?” I whispered after several minutes.

“Deep into world,” replied Toozle softly.

The air grew cool and moist. Water trickled down the walls, making the steps slick. Scuttling sounds from ahead indicated small creatures fleeing at our approach.

Just when I thought the trip would never end, we reached a flat stretch of stone that led to a blank wall. I feared we had hit a dead end … that Toozle had tricked us. Then I realized there was a gap at the bottom of the wall, low but wide, definitely big enough to crawl through.

“There,” whispered Toozle, pointing to the gap. “Through there. Toozle will go with you.”

I dropped to my hands and knees, realized I wouldn't fit that way, and so dropped to my belly.

Jake did the same.

“Put out light, kitty,” whispered Toozle.

Luna grew dim; then the light was gone completely. Blackness, deep and total, surrounded us.

“Let's go,” whispered Toozle.

We crawled forward, moving under that massive shelf of rock.

The hard floor was cold beneath my hands. My mind insisted on wondering how many thousands of tons of stone were above me. Then, because I still wasn't completely sure we could trust Toozle, it switched to wondering if monsters were waiting to haul us out once we had reached the far side. Then an even more frightening thought: What if there was no far side? What if Toozle had betrayed us again, and this passage simply came to a dead end where we would be trapped forever? Or, even worse, simply went on and on, deeper and deeper into the world, until we fell over an edge, into some yawning abyss?

I could feel panic rising in me. We had to turn around and go back.

“Jake,” I whispered urgently.

“Shhhhh!” hushed Toozle. “Almost there.”

Was he telling the truth or just trying to convince me to keep going?

Then I saw a faint flicker of light. At least there was
something
up ahead of us.

The stone beneath which we were crawling grew lower, so we had to squeeze down against the floor to continue forward.

“Close now,” whispered Toozle.

He spoke the truth. A moment later we reached the end of the passage.

Gazing out, I saw an enormous cavern, lit by flickering torches that burned in many colors. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like giant icicles of stone. Stalagmites rose fierce and jagged from the floor, a kind of cold stone forest. To our left shimmered a lake, its still, black surface beautiful, but also terrifying if you thought of what might be lurking beneath it.

In the center of all this was a large clear area.

About a dozen monsters clustered in that central area. Some I recognized from the attack in the Council Chamber. The largest of them was Mazrak.

He was holding Little Dumpling aloft and laughing.

I wanted to race out and snatch the baby back from him but knew that would be stupid. A single blow from any one of those monsters and I would be flattened, knocked out, useless.

I could see two other things.

One filled me with joy.

The other filled me with a dread unlike anything I had ever known.

L
ily is right about hope and dread.

The source of hope was simple: our friends were there! Standing to the left of the central area, between Mazrak's mob and the lake, were Mrs. McSweeney, Gnarly, Teelamun, and Keegel Farzym.

The reason this offered only a
glimmer
of hope was also simple: they were standing because all four had been tightly bound to stalagmites.

The sight that inspired dread was a fantastic device straight out of a mad scientist's laboratory. It was, without a doubt, the Silver Slicer. The right side of it was a wall covered with dials and enormous, red-handled switches. Mounted on top of this wall were three pairs of metal bars, each pair forming a very narrow V. Electricity crackled between the arms, like miniature bolts of lightning going sideways. Each “bolt” raced up the V, then disappeared at the top while two or three others followed right behind. The metallic smell of ozone filled the air.

On the left, looking more magical than scientific, were bubbling vats filled with colored liquids that popped and hissed. Clouds of steam hovered above them, each cloud the same color as the liquid it rose from.

In the center of the device were five things that made me shudder. Though I could not guess exactly how they were going to be used, it was clear what they were intended to accomplish.

The first of these items was a tapestry about eight feet high and twelve feet wide. Even from where we were, we could tell that the image on the left of the tapestry—dark and filled with ancient trees beneath a huge silver moon—depicted Always October. The right side showed sunlight streaming over a city street, clearly an image drawn from Humana. Separating them was a blurry area, only a few inches wide—the place where Humana and Always October overlapped. The tapestry was held tight in an enormous wooden frame that had one odd feature: the center of the top crossbar had a narrow opening.

Suspended directly above that blurry area, attached to the bottom of a long pendulum, was a curved silver blade about four feet long. It glistened in the arcing light.

This was the second shuddersome thing.

The third was a pair of metallic pincers with very fine points. One was stationed at the tapestry's top right side, the other at its upper left.

Fourth was an enormous and complicated clock that loomed behind the device.

Fifth, and most puzzling, was a transparent sphere, ten feet high, made of something so clear that only by the reflections on its surface could you tell it was there at all.

In front of the device stood Mazrak, with Little Dumpling clutched securely in his massive orange arms. The baby was whimpering. The sound twisted at my heart.

Lily gripped my arm. “Now what?”

Gesturing to where our friends were held captive, I murmured, “If we can slip over there without being seen, maybe we can cut them loose.”

Lily gave me a silent thumbs-up. Toozle nodded, as did Luna.

Clutching our knives, we scuttled from beneath the barrier. It was a relief to get to our feet again, and the cavern was so large that it was easy to hide deep in the shadows. Our attempt to move without being detected was further aided when Mazrak drew all eyes to him by bellowing, “Fellow Octobrians, hear now what I wish to tell you!”

He paused while his words echoed around the cavern walls. When all was silent, my half-uncle began again. He spoke more quietly now, without anger, but his voice throbbed with an excitement that was somehow more terrifying than his rage. Raising Little Dumpling above his head, he cried, “We are gathered on this most magical and powerful of nights in pursuit of a dream … a dream of independence, of freedom from Humana, a dream that Always October will become its own place, its own world, pure and unfettered, no longer relying on human fear for its existence. Just as the child must separate from the parent to become its own true self, Always October must separate from Humana in order to achieve its full glory!”

The other monsters erupted in a deafening cheer. Their shouts made it even easier for us to move, since there was no danger of being heard above their clamor.