The Curse of the King (17 page)

Underneath I wrote out the letters:

“What the heck?” I quickly typed the word into the search engine. The first hit made me gasp:

I clicked on it and looked at the page:

Finally I clicked on the translation button and read what it meant:

I leaped up from my seat, pumping my fist in the air.
“Woo-hoo! I got it! Brother Dimitrios, I know you must be watching this! The answer is Xylokrikos!”

Dimitrios's face appeared on the tablet screen. I jumped. I didn't realize he was controlling the screen like that. “Ah, bravo, Jack,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said quickly. “So you'll let them alone, right? Cass and Aly—they're going to be okay?”

“For now,” Dimitrios said. “Your friends will indeed be pleased that you passed part one. Let's tell them.”

The image dissolved. Now I was looking into Cass and Aly's room.

It was empty.

“Well, will you look at that . . . tsk-tsk-tsk,” came Dimitrios's voice.

“Where did they go?” I demanded.
“If you hurt them
. . .
”

“They are fine. I am a man of my word,” Dimitrios said. “Ten minutes ago they received a handwritten message from a fellow named Fiddle.”

I froze up but said nothing.

“It seems this musically named fellow directed them toward somewhere on the island,” Dimitrios continued.

The screen's image dissolved to reveal a patch of jungle. “You have hidden cameras?”

“All throughout the island, of course,” Dimitrios said.

In the midst of the patch was a dull glow. As the camera zoomed in, the glow became a hatch, half-hidden by vines. On it was a carved L.

“Don't get too excited,” Dimitrios said. “If they reach this hatch, there is a . . . surprise waiting for them.”

“What
kind
of surprise?” I demanded.

“You will be given sufficient information to figure that out.”

“Just tell me if they're in danger!” I said.

“I would recommend that you make haste, Jack,” Dimitrios replied.

The image vanished. In place of Brother Dimitrios's face was a map of the island, marked like a radar screen. I could see two blue dots moving from one of the compound buildings into the jungle, toward a big
X
.

Farther south in the compound was a third blue dot. As I walked the tablet to the door, the dot jiggled slightly.

It was me.

“You will be allowed one lifeline,” Brother Dimitrios's voice said. “And that will be me. You may ask one question after you begin.”

“What am I supposed to do?” I shouted into the tablet.
“And that doesn't count as my lifeline question!”

Dimitrios's answer was one word:

“Hurry.”

“U
CCCHH.”
I
STOOPED
down and plucked the tablet out of the jungle grass.

I was running too fast, being too hasty. The jungle humidity drenched me. My hands were slippery. I needed the tablet to check my bearings, my blue dots, but I kept dropping it.

Where were they?

There.

Their two dots were looping around from the north. They'd had a big head start, and they were way closer to the hatch than I was. My dot was at the extreme western part of the screen. I'd never catch up to them. I'd have to go straight to the hatch.

Clutching tight to the tablet, I ran. I lifted my feet as high as they could go. Overhead, birds and monkeys screeched as if they were watching a soccer match. As I got closer I shouted,
“Aly! Cass!”

My answer was a chorus of hoots, caws, and shrieks. My friends were never going to hear me.

My blue dot moved toward the goal faster than Aly's and Cass's did from the north. When I was on top of the big
X
, I stopped.

I looked around for a hatch, but all I saw was the same old jungle mess. I leaned over, clearing away brush with my arms. A snake hissed, slithering away. A huge lizard eyed me from beneath a nearby bush.

“Where is it?”
I cried out in frustration.

EEEEEE!
came the shriek of a monkey. Torquin had understood those cries. He'd made friends with some of these creatures. What were they telling me?

My eyes were watery and stinging. I didn't know if it was sweat or tears. I caught sight of the corner of a high tree stump and leaned on it, rubbing away the moisture with my free hand.

EEEE-EEE-EEEEEE!

EEEEEEE!

I had to jump back. Monkeys were dropping out of the trees like parachute jumpers. They landed just beyond the stump in two lines.

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you guys want?”

EEEE-EEE-EEEEEE!
One of the chimps pointed to the stump, slapping his head.

“It's a stump! What's wrong with . . . ?”
The research
. I realized Brother Dimitrios had given me a big fat clue. “Okay . . . the xylokrikos . . . is that what you're warning me about? This thing is really a monster?”

I stared at the remnant of the old tree. Was this where Brother Dimitrios was leading us all—some kind of portal, where the monster would morph out of the wood to attack us?

I backed away. But then, out of nowhere, a rock went flying past my ear. The monkeys were trying to get my attention. They were divided down the middle into two groups, each screaming and gesturing toward the other.

“What?” I said. “Come on. This is a magical island. Be magical.
Talk to me!
”

They were pointing to something between them. I stepped closer until I could see a silvery filament like a taut spiderweb, a line so thin that it was barely a shimmer. It emerged from the jungle behind them and seemed to be connected somewhere near me, like some weird zip line for insects. Squinting against the sunlight that flashed through the trees, I followed the line to its source.

It ended at the stump.

From their reactions, I thought the monkeys were going
to have a heart attack. At the place where the filament attached to the trunk's bark was a set of metal electrodes.

An electric fence
. That's what it had to be. Back when we were first on the island, Aly had discovered a network of these, placed by the KI around the campus.

How extensive was this fence? How far away were Cass and Aly? I checked my tablet, lining up my location with theirs.

I was at the bottom right of the
X
. Aly and Cass were coming closer to the top left. They would be crossing the
X
soon. But the monkeys were all here, all warning
me
.

“Lifeline!” I screamed into the tablet. “What is this—this
wire
, Dimitrios? Where does it go, and what does it do?”

Dimitrios's face did not appear. Instead, I saw footage of Aly and Cass tromping through the woods. This was his answer: a video feed from some hidden security camera in a tree. They were headed for a broken-down cottage in the distance. Around the cottage was a perfectly round wooden fence.

You will be given sufficient information to figure that out.

That's what Dimitrios had promised me. But this information was wack. How was any of this meaningful? Screaming monkeys, electric filaments, hatches that didn't exist, tree-stump monsters . . .

The xylokrikos.

From
xylos
(“wood”) and
krikos
(“ring”) . . .

No. It wasn't about the stump monster. Not really. It was about its name—wood plus ring. A ring of wood!

The fence.

That was what the poem's code meant.

“It's not about a monster, is it, Dimitrios?”
I shouted. “The puzzle—xylokrikos was the answer. But it's about that wooden fence. The wire is attached—and if they cross it they'll be electrocuted!
How do I turn it off? Lifeline! Lifeline! How do I turn it off!
”

A soft chuckle arose from my tablet. “I said one question, and you just asked three. Well, I have a heart and I shall address the last one. The only way to de-electrify that filament is to break the circuit. It is constructed of carbene, an extremely thin, extremely strong material developed by our scientists. So you will not be able to break it with, say, a stick. I suppose the only way to disable it would be contact with a grounded water-containing carbon unit that will conduct the electricity.”