Chapter 10
The Secret Workshop
Slowly, while packed tightly together, the gang made their way down the torch-lit hall. The tunnel wasn't very long. Even at their slow pace, it took no more than half a minute before they emerged into a brightly lit chamber that took their breath away.
Lily softly went, "Whoa!" Her mouth hung open in awe.
Almost all the walls, floor and furniture looked like they were made of gold under the glow of the glittery chandeliers hanging high up from the ceiling. Six polished wood tables paired with benches took over the space in the middle in three-by-two rows and columns in front of a big, fresh chalkboard.
"Look!" cried Alejandro, pointing to one side of the chamber where two shelves covered the walls all the way up the ceiling. Flying between those shelves like crisscrossing pigeons were -
"Books! Lots and lots of books! Just like the one that ripped off Hassan and Melody's faces!"
"Speaking of which, do you see it anywhere?" asked Lily. "Because I don't."
She carefully looked up at the flock of flying books, absentmindedly walking into the chamber.
"Hey, careful, Lily!" Oliver called out. "There could be - !"
HONK! HONK! HONK!
Oliver's warning came too late, and as soon as Lily stepped past a gold line drawn around the chamber, an alarm blared.
"Alert!" cried an old man's voice. "Alert! Intruders in the workshop! I repeat! Intruders in the workshop! Activate defenses!"
That can't be good, thought Lily.
"Lily!" Oliver shouted. "Get back here! Hurry!"
Lily turned to flee, but found her way blocked by a swarm of books that swooped down in front of her. She had no choice but to dive deeper into the chamber and duck beneath a table as the books flew at her. The books just narrowly brushed over her head and went up to the ceiling before looping back down.
"Eek!" Lily saw the books coming straight back at her and raised her arms over her face in fright. Light flashed from her bracelet and wrapped around the young girl like a glowing blue bubble.
The bubble kept out the vicious books as they snapped at her like rabid dogs. Lily curled up and cowered at one side of the bubble, wishing she could look away from the frightening sight. Sadly, there was nowhere she could turn to because the books attacked from everywhere around her.
She whimpered.
And then over the crinkling and flapping of paper, Lily heard a voice cut in. A familiar, distorted and echoing chorus of voices speaking as one.
"Quite a pathetic showing, don't you think, Lady Sapphire?"
Lily peeked over her arms. Through a gap between a cluster of animated books, she could see a blue parrot perched on the bench watching with drooping, almost apathetic eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Lily asked.
"Oh, not much, really," the parrot replied. "Just watching fools be fools as they fall into a trap."
"A trap?" Lily raised her eyebrows. "This was all a trap!?"
"Of course," said the parrot. "You are as weak as a bug. But however weak bugs are, they are still annoying, especially when they get in the way of my master trying to have fun."
A memory of Eddie being despondent when he lost his wallet case and Melody crying over her missing face flashed, and Lily felt anger flare from her gut. "Fun? You think this is all fun? Do you have any idea how much you hurt Melody or Eddie?"
Unfazed, the parrot prattled on. "Of course," it said. "The misfortune of others is always fun to watch. Even now, my master and I are having fun watching your friends suffer from the mistake you made just waltzing inside this chamber without a care in the world."
"The others?" Lily's face fell. "Oh no! Oliver, Eddie! Viv! Guys! Answer me!"
She didn't get an answer. Instead, what she got was this:
"Eek!"
"Get away! Get away!"
"We gotta get out of here!"
"We can't! We can't get out!"
"The exit! Where's the exit!"
"It's gone! Closed off!"
"Where'd this wall come from?"
Lily tried to see what was going on, but there was little she could past the swarm of books crowded around her bubble. She could barely make out a couple of human shapes flailing about as books circled around them like flies around garbage.
Over the screams, Lily heard the parrot comment, "Wow, I take it back. This is no fun to watch after all. In fact, this might even make me sick to my stomach."
Lily felt her own twist into a knot.
This is all my fault, she thought. Because I was careless, the others are . . .
Frustrated, she cried out, "Gah! What is happening out there?"
"Curious?" asked the parrot. "I suppose I can put a pause on this trap and show you. See for yourself what you have done to your friends."
He let out a squawk and the books all scattered up, clearing the way for Lily to see what had become of the others. She spotted them huddled together by the archway. A few feet in, there was a brick wall covering the way to the hall they had taken earlier.
"Guys!" she cried out.
As Lily stood back up, the bubble around her popped and she was free to run to her friends' side. But when some of them looked up and she saw their faces, Lily stopped and gasped in horror with her hands cupped over her mouth. Where she would normally see eyes, noses, and mouths, there was nothing but smooth skin. Everyone in the gang was like that, apart from Lily who had been protected by a magic bubble.
"Oh no!" she moaned. "I am so sorry, you guys. Because of me -!"
"Never mind that!" Viv snapped. "Apologies can wait. Isn't there something else you should be doing right now?"
Lily wiped tears away with her sleeve and then gave a resolute nod.
"You're right," she said, turning to throw a fierce glare at the parrot. "This isn't over yet. Before I start feeling sorry for the mistakes I made, I need to put a stop to this mess and get back everyone's faces!"
"Well, you sure change your mood fast," quipped the parrot. "You've got a lot of spirit, I'll give you that. But spirit will not help you here. There is only one way you can get out of this trap and get back everyone's faces, and that is to become the master of this chamber."
"The master of this chamber?"
The parrot nodded. "That's right," it said. "It was this chamber's magical defenses that robbed your friends of their faces. Punishment for their intrusion and touching things they were not supposed to. Only the chamber's magic will undo the damage it has done. And it will only do that if its master tells it to."
"And how do I do that? Become this place's master?" Lily asked.
"Find the chamber's core, push out the current master's magic power and replace it with your own," said the parrot. "But that's not going to be easy when you don't even know where the core is or what it even looks like. And you still have to deal with those attack books. Also, even if you do find the core, get past the books and reach it, you still have to push out the Schemer's magic power. There's no way you can do that with your measly power."
"Yeah?" said Lily. "Well, we won't know unless I try. I'll show you just how much power I really have!"
The parrot spread its wings and took off, flying high to the ceiling above even the swarm of vicious, airborne books.
"Brave words from a bug!" it said while hovering by a chandelier. "Very well! Show me what you can do!"
Oh, I'll show you what I can do, alright, thought Lily. What I can do with a magic bracelet that is!
"Books of the workshop!" the parrot roared. "By the power vested in me by our common master, I command you to defend your home!"
"Bracelet, protect!" The words barely made it out of Lily's lips when another bubble of light appeared around her. It appeared just in time as a swarm of flying books came swooping at her. The bubble held firm and the books harmlessly bounced off its glowing surface. Like this, Lily was untouchable.
But that won't last long, she thought. The drowsiness and vertigo she felt getting more intense by the second told her she had better find that core thing or whatever fast.
"If you can multitask," she said to the bracelet, "it'd be great if you could find that core thing for me."
The bracelet answered with a beam of light that shined from one of its jewels to the left side of the chamber. Lily could see past the books snapping at her protective bubble, and saw the light hit a big, blue crystal ball taking up most of a table top's space at the far end of the chamber. The ball shined in kind and even created a curtain of light around it like a winter sky's aurora.
That ball must be the core, she thought. Easy-peasy. I'll have no trouble getting to that as long as the bubble holds up.
The parrot watched from the side. Its eyes narrowed as if it could read Lily's mind.
And then the books all flew away. Lily was surprised and wondered if they maybe gave up.
She would soon find out that was sadly not it.
The books all gathered at one side of the room, all sticking together. They became a single statue that looked kind of like a cactus to Lily. Except this cactus can move. And it swung a punch at Lily so fast, she didn't have time to blink.
Lily shrieked.
The bubble absorbed the attack, but both it and Lily were sent flying back and crashed against the wall.
"Lily!" the others screamed.
But Lily raised her hand and called back, "I'm okay!"
Even though she crashed hard enough to leave a huge crack on the wall, she was mostly unscathed thanks to the bubble of light protecting her, although a bit dizzy.
Suddenly, Oliver screamed, "Lily, move!"
Lily looked up and saw a huge square flying towards her. With a shriek, she threw herself sideways and flattened herself against the floor as the cactus-shaped book statue punched the wall. She craned her neck to look behind her and quickly scrambled backward when she saw the statue coming with its arms raised up. The arms went swinging down and landed on the floor with a loud thud just an inch away from Lily's feet.
The parrot watched from the safety of an empty space in a bookshelf.
"My, my!" it said loudly. "You know you're going to lose if you don't fight back, right? Or is this all you can do with your power? Just shy away inside some bubble or hop around like a meek bunny rabbit?"
Lily glared at the parrot and thought to herself, I so hate that bird!
But as much as she hated it, she had to admit the bird was right. There was no way she was reaching that crystal ball as long as that statue of books was around to get in her way.
Still, how could she get rid of it? Even if the bracelet allowed it, Lily doubted she had enough magic juice left to blow that thing up. And she still needed to save as much as she could for the chamber's core. If only there was a way to make it go away, or at least make it stop moving for a little bit.
Lily jumped aside as a pile of books came crashing down. She jumped away again when, again, the pile of books tried to smash her like a bug.
She frantically looked around and muttered to herself, "Come on, Lily, think! There must be something here you can use. Wait! There! That's it!"
Behind the cactus-shaped, book pile statue, Lily spotted a huge, blue tapestry banner hung on the wall.
After jumping away from another attack, Lily held her hand high over her head and shouted, "Bracelet! That banner thing! Tie the book thing up!"
Understanding what its master wanted, the bracelet's stones shined and threw a beam of light at the banner. The banner was ripped off the hooks and coiled around the statue, pinning its arms to its sides.
Just like Lily hoped, the banner stopped the statue from moving, giving her the chance she needed to run to the crystal ball as fast as her legs could carry her. She ran so hard, she couldn't stop until she crashed into the table. Her belly ached from hitting the table, but she ignored the pain and slapped her hand hard down on top the crystal.
And then she shouted at the bracelet, "POUR IN EVERYTHING WE GOT!"
Blue light shined from the bracelet, spread onto the crystal ball and bathed the whole room. This was probably the brightest the bracelet had ever shined before.
"Huh?" Lily cried out in surprise. "My hand's being pushed away?"
She thought it was just her imagination, but soon realized there really was something pushing back and forcing her hand off the crystal ball.
"Careful you don't let go," the parrot teased. "You'll have to start all over again if your hand slips off."
Lily grit her teeth and held back a curse word as she pressed her hand back down on the crystal ball as hard as she could, as if to smoosh it flat like a pancake. But then she tore her eyes away when she heard what sounded like lots of heavy somethings hitting the floor and saw the statue break apart. The books fell out of the banner wrapping, bounced off the floor and flew into the air, clustering back together like a swarm of bees.
"Oh, come on!" moaned Lily. "I have to deal with these guys again?"
"You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you?" said the parrot. "Too bad, child. But it looks like we win. Better luck next time. Now, my books. Attack!"
It was too late for Lily to do anything. She could not get away in time. And even if she did get away, doing so meant letting go of the crystal ball before she could get control of it. So either way, it was game over.
The books fast approached, aiming to take Lily's face. She didn't even have time to blink. And then -
"HIYAH!"
Someone jumped in front of Lily and swung a chair at the books, swatting several aside.
Astonished and wide-eyed, Lily cried out, "Oliver?"
Oliver half-turned his faceless face and looked back, flashing Lily a thumbs up.
"Don't worry, Lily," he said. "We got your back. So you just focus on what you have to do to get back our faces!"
Scattered battle cries made Lily look around to see her friends and the library helpers all dive into the swarm of books. Erin and Alejandro both had shields they ripped off the walls and used to swat away Lily's attacks. Eddie and George danced around while holding a square, blue pillow in each of their hands. As for Viv, she appeared by Lily's side, swinging around an old, yellow-stained globe that mapped out Planet Earth to strike down whatever books managed to slip past the others.
"Quit spacing out, Lily!" Viv snapped at her roommate. "We can't hold them off for long, so hurry up and finish what you have to do!"
It was just what Lily needed to wake from her stupor. She returned her attention to the crystal ball and fought against whatever invisible thing was trying to push her away.
"Come on," she muttered. "Come on!"
The light from the crystal ball grew brighter and brighter, until it was the only thing that Lily could see. And then . . .
"Magic power registered," an old man's voice announced from the ceiling. "Congratulations. What are your orders, my new master?"
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