Lily Wong Ch. 17

Chapter 17

The Sapphire Princess

Through the deep blue, but transparent surface of the giant slab of sapphire, Lily could see the shape of a young girl around her age, trapped inside. Her eyes were closed, as if asleep. This should be the first time she's ever seen this girl, but for some reason, Lily thought that there was something oddly familiar about her.

"Found something interesting in that gemstone?"

Suddenly, a voice cut in and startled Lily. She jumped back and looked up to see the blue parrot perched right on top of the stone staring down at her. The others came running to her side from behind.

Eddie glared and spat out disdainfully, "This bird again?"

"What are you doing here?" Lily cried out.

"That should be my line," said the parrot. "How did you find this place?"

Lily blinked. "Huh? Wait, you didn't expect us to be here?"

"I asked first," the parrot fired back.

What was going on? Lily wondered. She was certain that this was another trap concocted by the Schemer when the parrot suddenly showed up. But going by the parrot's reactions, that didn't seem to be the case.

Eddie pushed his way forward and said, "We found this place with a map left behind by Mary Ann Duskbell."

The parrot raised an eyebrow. "Mary Ann Duskbell? Of the Sapphire Society?"

"So you DO know my mom!" Eddie cried out. "I knew it!"

"Mom?" The parrot's eyes lit up in blatant astonishment. "You're Mary Ann Duskbell's son?"

"That's right," said Eddie. "And this is my sister, Viv. But that's not important right now. Several years ago, she upped and vanished. What did you do to her? Where is she now?"

The parrot tilted its head sideways, as if unsure what to think. But then, it sighed and replied, "Boy, I had nothing to do with Mary Ann's disappearance. Neither did the Schemer."

"Don't lie!" shouted Eddie. "You guys and the Sapphire Society are enemies, aren't you? There's no way you guys had nothing to do with her disappearance!"

"It is the truth," the parrot snapped back. "But I see. Now I understand how you found this place. I always suspected the Sapphire Society knew about this chamber. And it appears they left behind clues for others to find it."

"What is this chamber?" Lily asked. "Who is that girl inside that huge sapphire?"

"This child is the Sapphire Princess," said the parrot. "And this chamber is her prison."

"Her prison? You're keeping her here against her will? Why?" asked Lily.

"Isn't it obvious?" said the parrot. "Because we want to, of course."

"Because you want to?" Lily could feel blood rushing to her head. "That's it?"

"Well, what did you expect from an evil wizard who has fun tormenting innocent children?" asked the parrot. It bent down to look at the trapped girl and added, "Look at her sleep away. I wonder what she could be dreaming of. Could it be of her mother, lost at childbirth? Or could it be her friends who have long since faded away with the passage of time? That would be quite sad, wouldn't it?"

As the parrot prattled on, the blood that rushed to Lily's head began to boil over with anger. How could this thing not feel anything but joy while it made a mockery of that poor girl's misfortune?

And still, it continued to mock.

"Oh, I know. Maybe her last words before she got trapped inside this block of jewel stone will give us a hint."

The parrot pecked it's beak twice on the stone.

Before anyone could ask what it did that for, a voice suddenly spoke up. It came from the stone and sounded like it belonged to a young girl. 

Meekly, the voice whimpered, "Daddy . . ."

Hearing it was like a punch to the gut for Lily. And it was clear to her who the voice belonged to: none other than the Sapphire Princess.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" asked the parrot. It did little to hide how much fun it was having, listening to the girl's crying. "She's a daddy's girl. It brings tears to my eyes. Especially when I know she will never see her father again."

It finished with a wicked cackle.

Finally, Lily reached her tipping point. Unable to tolerate the parrot's mocking attitude to the poor trapped damsel, she barked at the bird menace, "You shut up! Let her go, you mangy rat with wings."

The parrot turned its beak up and sniffed. "No," it replied bluntly. "You are not the boss of me, and you can't make me."

"Fine!" snapped Lily. "I'll do it myself!"

"True, as the chosen one of the Sapphire Bracelet, you're probably the only one im the whole wide universe with a chance to break the Sapphire Princess out of her prison," said the parrot. "But there's no way you can actually pull it off right now. You have far too little magic power."

"Well, we won't know if I don't try, right?"

With that said, Lily marched over and put her hands on the giant piece of sapphire.

"Give it everything you got, bracelet!" she ordered. "Help me save this girl!"

"Eek!" 

"Whoa!"

"Squawk!" 

Light shined from the bracelet's jewels, brighter than they ever had before. The giant gemstone's own glow intensified to match, becoming so bright that it made the others cry out and turn away. Even the parrot had to lift its left wing and cover its eyes.

And then -

"Lily! Lily! Wake up, please! Lily!"

Lily flickered open and she found herself lying on the floor. She glanced up to see Viv and Eddie out of the corner of her eye looking very distraught. That distraught turned into relief when Lily gingerly sat up.

"What happened?" Lily asked the twins. "Did we win?"

The twins gave each other looks that gave Lily a sinking feeling that she was not going to like the answer.

"See for yourself," said an all too familiar and hateful voice behind her. 

Lily turned around and to her utter dismay, saw the Sapphire Princess still trapped and sleeping in a chunk of sapphire that was back to its usual, dimmer glow. And perched on top of the sapphire was the parrot.

"So this is what the famous Lady Sapphire can do right now?" it said. "How disappointing. Truly."

Lily glared at the bird. It was clear to her what must have happened: while trying to break the Sapphire Princess free with the power of the bracelet, she ran out of magic power and fainted. In other words, she lost.

"No, not yet!" Stubbornly, she shook her head and spoke in defiance. "Not yet. I'm still not done."

She tried to get back up on her feet. But the moment she stood up, the world suddenly spun around her and she collapsed back down.

"Yes, you are," said the parrot. "I know thanks to that bracelet you can recover your magic power faster than most humans, but even you can't go on without a full night's rest after all that magic you poured into the gemstone. Face it: you've failed."

Lily bit down on her lip as frustration mounted from her stomach.

And then thunder clapped over everyone's heads. All eyes looked up to see dark, bluish clouds swirling out of the ceiling. The clouds spiraled into the shape of a butterfly cocoon that then burst with another clap of thunder and a flash of lightning to reveal a robed person with their face covered by impenetrable darkness beneath their hood.

"Who. Is. That?" Eddie wondered aloud.

"Well, well, well. This is a surprise," said the parrot. "Rejoice, Lady Sapphire and company. Lord Schemer has decided to grace us all with his presence."

"Lord Schemer?" With wide eyes, Lily looked at the robed person, still unable to see his face no matter how hard she stared. She could only figure out he was a man from the title of "Lord" that the parrot added to his name. "So that's the Schemer?"

"THAT'S who we've been up against?" Viv cried out.

The flap of the Schemer's hood turned from right to left as he took a look around before stopping his gaze on Lily.

"So what brings you here, Lord Schemer?" asked the parrot.

 The Schemer turned to face the parrot and said in a deep, distorted voice as if using a voice changer like you'd hear on TV, "I sensed that the defenses surrounding the Sapphire Princess' prison had been breached and came to investigate. But it seems I was concerned over nothing." He turned his gaze once more to Lily. "For a lot of things."

Lily shivered. Although she couldn't see his face, she could feel his eyes boring into her soul.

"So you are the one chosen by the Sapphire Bracelet," he said. "The one who calls herself Lady Sapphire."

"For the record, I do not call myself that," Lily cut in.

"I praise you for coming this far," said the Schemer. "Not many people can thwart me and my pranks." 

Pranks? Did he just call all that trouble he caused, pranks? Lily became furious as she remembered the distraught the Schemer's "pranks" caused to Eddie and Melody, and perhaps many other people. And, of course, the Sapphire Princess.

Ignorant of Lily's anger, or likely ignoring it on purpose, the Schemer spoke on. "But it is clear that you are no threat to me. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is amusing to watch you struggle to oppose me."

"Oh yeah?" went Lily. "Why don't you come down here right now and see if I'm really a threat or not?"

The Schemer, however, shook his head.

"Another time, perhaps," he said. "For now, I must be going."

He snapped his fingers and blue smoke suddenly billowed out from beneath the sapphire stone with the Sapphire Princess in it and spun fast around and around them all like a tornado.

"Wait!" Lily cried out over the howling wind. "You're leaving? Just like that?"

"Indeed," said the Schemer. "Now that I've seen for myself what you can do, I see no reason to stick around."

"We're not done yet!" Lily shouted. "The Sapphire Princess! At least let the Sapphire Princess go!"

The Schemer refused. "No. If you wish to save the Sapphire Princess, come find me again when you are more worthy of my attention. Don't worry. As long as you continue to oppose me, we will meet again."

And then he was gone, along with the parrot, the huge sapphire stone, and the Sapphire Princess. 

Lily sat on the ground and stared ahead at the empty space they left behind, unable to believe what just happened. She had lost. There was someone who needed help right in front of her, and she couldn't save her.

For a while, no one said a thing. And then Viv broke silence and asked, "Lily? You okay?"

"Yeah," Lily replied softly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Truth be told, she was frustrated. But now was not the time to get down in the dumps. Like the Schemer himself said, they'll meet again. With that, there'll be another chance for her to rescue the Sapphire Princess again. And next time for sure, she won't lose.

Eddie swore.

"I can't believe it," he said. "I missed my chance to ask the Schemer about Mom."

"Don't beat yourself up over it, Bro," said Viv. "I doubt the Schemer would tell us anything anyway. For now, let's just get out of here."

"Yeah, good idea," said Eddie. "By the way. How do we do that?"

"Oh, that's right," said Lily. Finding the exit was the reason why they went to all that trouble to get here. But looking around what should be the final chamber of the dungeon, Lily couldn't find anything that looked like a way out. It didn't look like the Schemer and the parrot use any secret passageway. They just simply disappeared in a tornado of blue gas. "Good question. How DO we get out of here?"

No sooner did the question leave Lily's lips, light flashed from her bracelet and stretched out to the middle of the chamber. Familiar markings of light spread out into a circle under the gang. And then - 

WOOSH!

In the blink of an eye, Lily and the twins found themselves back outside by the gym. The world around them was turned yellow by the light of the setting sun. A glance at her watch told Lily that it was already 4:30 in the afternoon.

"Oh, geez!" she said. "Look how late it is!"

"Wow," Viv said when Lily showed her the time. "That's a whole half day skipped! I hope none of the teachers get mad at us."

"Uh . . . Sorry, Sis," said Eddie. "But I'm afraid they probably are. Well, one of them at least."

Lily and Viv turned to see what Eddie was looking at and spotted Uncle Viceroy marching towards them. And boy did he look mad.

Lily had only ever seen her uncle be goofy with a habit for random weirdness like a character in a kid's sitcom. But soon she would learn the history teacher had the rage and fury of a tiger mom.

**********

Meanwhile, back at a certain dimly lit office at the heart of Bluestone Academy as the sun sank beneath the horizon, two occupants had a chat. They were a man with white hair and beard, and a big, blue-feathered parrot.

"Just as I thought, it was too soon for the girl to find the Sapphire Princess," said the parrot. "And what was that earlier?"

"What was what earlier?" asked the white-haired man. He sat reclined in his chair.

"Don't play dumb," said the parrot. "I thought the plan was to wait a little while longer before the Schemer showed himself."

"I felt like the situation called for the Schemer to make an appearance, and so I did," said the white-haired man.

The parrot, however, sighed and shook its head. "You're getting too impatient. I understand that you're excited the end goal is finally in sight. But it is exactly because of that, we need to really bide our time."

"But you have to admit that things are moving faster than we expected."

"And that's what worries me," said the parrot. "There is such a thing as moving too fast. Plenty of things can go wrong when that happens."

"Oh, I'm not worried," said the white-haired man as he got up and strolled to a table at the side of the room that had a crystal ball sitting on it. "That's what our dear friend is for."

He gazed into the crystal ball through which he could see a certain history teacher admonishing a trio of students for their truancy.

"If there's anyone we can count on to sort out whatever problems crop up to hinder our plans, it's Viceroy Kevin Lin."

<== Chapter 16

Lily Wong Ch. 16

Chapter 16

Traps and Puzzles

Not long after the valves opened up, the pit completely filled up with red sludge with a white hot glow in the mix. But it didn't stop there. The lava overflowed out of the pit and seeped onto the platform that Lily and the others stood on, slowly rolling towards them. And along with the lava came a wave of heat that instantly got the trio sweating rivers. It was stifling and stung their cheeks, but that was the least of their worries.

Color drained from their faces.

Eyes glued to the lava, Eddie asked, "Does that look like I think it looks like?"  

"Back! Everyone get back!" screamed Lily. 

She pushed the twins ahead and then scrambled as far away from the spreading lava as they could. The lava picked up speed and was right behind Lily in the blink of an eye. The lava just barely touched the heel of her right shoe where it burst into flames. Lily saw the flames out of the corner of her eye, shrieked a string of bad words that good children her age should never say and ran faster, quickly joining the twins at the wall where she kicked off the burning shoe and watched it melt into the incoming lava puddle.

They went as far as to press their backs against the walls while standing on their tippy-toes. But with no way out, it was just a matter of time before the lava caught up to them.

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" screamed Eddie.

"Quick! Lily!" cried Viv. "Get out the magic carpet! Hurry!"

Lily spun and went, "Huh? Oh, right! One magic carpet, coming right up!"

Light flashed from her bracelet and a large blue carpet popped out from one of the jewels. Once Lily was sure everyone had climbed on, she barked at the rug to start flying.

As they headed up to the ceiling, Lily spotted an opening, sort of like a square chute that appeared to slant upward into the wall.

There! She thought. That must be the way out!

She commanded the carpet to fly up to the opening while she and the twins ducked down low to avoid hitting their heads against stone. The lava followed the gang up the chute, getting menacingly closer by the second. 

Lily glanced back, saw the lava catching up and urged the carpet go to faster. While she focused on piloting the carpet, Viv and Eddie also glanced back and noticed something else about the lava behind them: some teeny-tiny drops of the glowing hot stuff splashed onto the back end of the carpet. And like Lily's shoe before, where the specks of lava touched burst into flames. 

"Fire!" screamed Eddie. "Fire!"

"What?" Lily shrieked.

She turned to look back, but Viv yelled, "Eyes on the road!"

Lily snapped her eyes back in front just in time to see they were swerving close to the ceiling. She got the carpet to go a lower altitude and narrowly avoided scraping her head.

Viv and Eddie kicked their feet at the flames to stamp them out. That and the wind just barely kept the fire at bay before the flying carpet finally reached the exit and emerged into the next chamber. A splash of hot magma followed them before being cut off from the rest by the opening ceiling shut.

Halfway across the room, the magic carpet broke apart into dozens of light particles and disappeared. With no flying carpet under them, Lily and the twins dropped down and hit the ground, painfully.

"Ow!"

They all rolled across the cold, hard floor a couple of feet before stopping. Lily stopped, laid on her back and stared up to see stalactites hanging from the ceiling. She wondered if this place was actually part of some underground cave or if those wicked spikes were put there on purpose. But that wasn't important right now.

"You guys okay?" she asked the others.

The twins groaned back, "Yeah."

They picked themselves up with a groan and then went over to help Lily back up on her feet. A brief look around revealed that there was absolutely nothing in this chamber except for another doorway at the end. Nevertheless, Lily, Viv and Eddie moved with caution, taking their time to inch towards the exit step by step. 

It was a good thing they did. Because after covering one-third of the way, when Lily gently put her foot down, the floor cracked with a loud snap.

"Back!" she screamed. "Back, back, back!"

She turned to run away, but then Eddie shouted, "No! Wait! Stop! Look! The other side's the same!"

It was not just in front of them. Cracks spread behind them and the floor completely fell apart, with the pieces plummeting into the dark pit below. Only a few differently shaped platforms remained, including the one that Lily and the twins stood on.

For a while, nobody moved. Nobody dared to even breathe, fearful that the platform they stood would join the rest of the floor at the bottom of the endless dark below. It wasn't until she was starting to feel lightheaded that Lily took a deep breath and then gave the pit a quick look.

"Looks like we're flying again," she said.

But when she asked the bracelet to produce another magic carpet, a note popped out of one of the jewels instead and read: "Warning: anti-flight magic detected."

After reading the slip of paper out loud, Lily groaned, "Great! We can't fly! Now how are we supposed to get out of here?"

The trio looked around at the other platforms while huddled close together in the middle of their own, not too keen about accidentally plunging to the abyss below. Some platforms were long rectangles. Others were basic squares. There were a few that looked like machine gear pieces. And lastly, there were a couple shaped like the plus sign of a math problem. Between each platform were gaps that were far too big to jump over.

Eddie rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then spoke up.

"Say," he said. "Don't those pieces of the floor look kind of like part of a puzzle you'd see in a video game?"

Viv and Lily took a look at the remaining floor pieces again.

"You know what?" Viv said. "Yeah, you're right. Hey, Lily, try use the bracelet to make one of them move."

"Already on it."

Lily pointed at the closes platform, a rectangle one, and gave her bracelet the order. A ray of light shined from the bracelet and wrapped itself around the rectangle. Slowly, the platform turned ninety degrees, stopping right in front of Lily and the gang, giving them more space to walk.

It really is like a video game puzzle, Lily thought. 

Following advice from the twins, Lily moved platform after platform, sometimes redoing an area, until they all connected to form one crooked bridge to the doorway at the end. 

Solving the puzzle was simple enough, but actually moving the pieces of the puzzle took a lot out of Lily. But that was no surprise when you think about how much magic she must be using to make those big, heavy blocks of stones move. Not only that, she had to feed magic power into a crystal ball again to get the doorway open. The whole thing left her feeling utterly drained and after opening the doorway, she dropped on all fours. However, she was back up and running again after lying down for a few minutes.

From then on, it was just one trap room after another. In the next chamber, arrows flew out of the walls. The chamber after that had plants that spontaneously grew out of the ground and ensnare anything within reach. There was a hallway with purple lightning dancing all around it. And following that was a pitfall.

Thanks to the power of Lily's bracelet, the gang was able to make it through all of those traps mostly unscathed. If they didn't have that bracelet, Lily and the gang probably would have been trapped in that maze forever, or worse. 

When the arrows came flying at them, Lily conjured a bunch of round shields that clustered together around her and the twins like a turtle's shell that blocked all the pointy things. At the chamber with the shrubs and tress that wanted to hug the gang to death, the bracelet spat fire out of its jewels and burned them all away. In the hallway full of lightning, Lily held the bracelet over her head and used it to absorb all the electricity in the air and redirect it away.

The pitfall, however, was unavoidable.

Lily, Viv and Eddie were just strolling down a hallway when the floor collapsed beneath their feet and they went plunging down to another room, screaming their heads off. But before they crashed into the ground, light flashed from the bracelet and a huge bed mattress appeared under them to cushion their landing.

After rolling onto her back to stare at the hole they had fallen through, Lily said, "That . . . was horrible."

And it wasn't just traps the gang had to go through. Like at the chamber where the floor collapsed and left behind pieces to move and make a bridge, there were puzzles that they needed to solve in order to move on. 

The room they fell in had the exit sealed shut by a multi-layered, dial puzzle, where each layer had to be spun until a complete picture was made. It was impossible to move the layers of the circle puzzle by hand (Eddie tried and failed miserably), so Lily used the bracelet to turn each dial until it formed the picture of a parrot. Once the picture was complete, the doorway slid down, opening the way to the next room. 

The way out of that room was high up the ceiling. To reach the exit, Lily had to assemble a bunch of huge stone blocks just left lying around the room together to make a staircase. It took a while to get it just right.

"Phew!" After climbing up the stairs into the next room, Lily dropped down and sat cross-legged on the floor, wiping sweat off her brow. "Someone please tell me we're close to the finish line already. I don't think I can take any more of all these traps and puzzles."

"Well, I think you're in luck, Lucy," said Viv. She nodded to the pair of doors at the end of the room. They were big, blue and together, had a picture of the school symbol drawn in glittery gold. "If that doesn't scream last room, I don't know what does."

"But will that last room lead to an exit?" asked Eddie.

"Only one way to find out," said Lily. "It's not like we have another choice."

Her eyes fell on a row of crystal balls on stands shaped like dragon claws just like the one at the very first room. At this point, it was obvious to Lily that she was seeing another puzzle. One she correctly guessed required her to feed magic to the crystal balls in the correct order. Get the wrong order, and she'll have to do it all over again.

This trial wasn't as deadly or dangerous as all the other ones, but it was probably by far, the most draining and frustrating. Lily lost count the number of re-dos she had to do, or the number of breaks she had to take in between because she ran out of steam. Eddie and Viv tried to help by keeping track of the different combos that Lily made.

Finally, after an eternity of Guess-and-Check, Lily got the right combo and the doors parted open, swinging into a round chamber lit blue by the glow of a giant gemstone placed smack dab in the middle. 

Viv let out a low whistle while Eddie went, "Whoa."

Even from outside, the stone was impressive and mesmerizing. Lily and the gang couldn't help but admire it as they slowly walked into the room.

Eddie wondered, "Is that whole thing sapphire?"

"If it is," said Lily, "it's the biggest sapphire stone I've ever seen. Maybe the biggest in the whole wide world."

The stone was at least ten feet tall and six feet wide. It appeared planted into the floor and contained something inside. Lily's mind was boggled, thinking about how much money it must be worth.

She walked closer to get a better look at the stone, but stopped and gasped when she realized what the stone had inside was -

"A girl!" she cried out. "There's a girl inside the stone!"

<== Chapter 15                                                                            Chapter 17 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 15

Chapter 15

The Maze

Eddie sat curled up against the wall at a dark corner of a narrow tunnel with his face buried into his knees.

After his tiff with his sister, he had stormed out of the dining hall and went straight to X by the gym. No surprise, he found Mr. Lin loitering there like a dutiful guard hound. Eddie was prepared to wait all night if he had to for a chance to investigate the spot that the history teacher stood on. But luckily for him, he didn't have to.

Almost as soon as Eddie arrived, Mr. Lin got a phone call. Eddie couldn't hear what was being said, but it looked like the caller was summoning Mr. Lin for a meeting. 

"I'll be right there," he promised to the caller. After hanging up the phone, he put it back in his pocket and walked away.

Eddie couldn't believe his luck as he watched Mr. Lin disappear into the darkness of night. When he was sure that the teacher would not come back, he stepped out from behind the corner and walked right into the spotlight shining from the wall-mounted lamp. No sooner that he did, a magic circle appeared and he found himself in that hallway of dark, rough stone, illuminated by flames dancing in bowls attached to the walls.

"Yes!" he cheered softly. After a victorious fist pump, he started exploring in the hopes of finding more clues about his missing mother. But the only thing he found at the end of the hallway was a blue crystal ball that looked exactly like the one he had seen at the Sapphire Society's workshop. It was held in what looked like lizard claws stretching out from the floor. There was nothing else.

Eddie gave the crystal ball a poke or two, but was met with disappointment when nothing happened.

"It must only work with Lily's bracelet," he guessed.

Realizing that he was wasting his time, he turned to leave, only to find out, to his utter horror, that the way he came was another dead end. There was no magic circle to zap him back outside or a doorway out of the hall. It was just one narrow, rectangle room reminiscent of a giant coffin. In other words, he was trapped with no other choice but to wait for someone to come rescue him.

When he heard someone call out to him, after many long hours, he slowly lifted his head and then sprang to his feet when he saw two familiar girls running towards him.

"Lily! Viv!" he cried out. "You came to rescue me!"

"No duh, you idiot!" Viv snapped. "Do you have any idea how worried you made us?" 

With a sheepish smile, Eddie said, "Sorry! Sorry!"

But that only made Viv scowl and doubt he meant it.

"Anyway," Lily cut in, "now that we got Eddie, let's bounce. If we leave now, we might make it before class ends and make up some excuse why we're late, like missing the bell because we were so engrossed in a really, really interesting book."

Disappointed, Eddie said, "Aw, but you guys just got here! Now that you're here, don't you think now's a good chance to check the place out like we always planned?"

Viv glowered at her brother. "You do realize we're risking our butts getting expelled for you, right? Do you really feel sorry about that?"

"I do! I do!" Eddie said quickly. "I'm really, really sorry about that!"

Viv still gave him a doubtful look, but then turned away and told Lily, "Come on. Let's get out of here already."

But when they got back the the starting point, nothing happened. When Lily stretched her hand out and commanded the bracelet to send everyone home, there was a flash of light and a piece of paper appeared with words written in big, bold capital letters that read: "IMPOSSIBLE".

"What do you mean, impossible?" Lily cried out in dismay.

The bracelet responded by conjuring another piece of paper that said, "Impossible, an adjective: something that cannot happen, be done, or exist."

"That is NOT what I meant!" Lily snapped.

"Well, CONGRATULATIONS, Eddie!" Viv said, her tone spilling with sarcasm. "Guess you got what you wanted, after all."

Eddie said nothing, having no way to argue back.

To make up for getting the girls in this mess, he led them back down to the wall they found him while explaining what he found there. The girls were so focused on Eddie earlier that they didn't see the crystal ball sitting at the corner until he pointed it out to them.

It really was exactly like the one they found at the Sapphire Society's workshop, Lily thought while staring at it. But the lizard claw was new. It looked like it was made out of blue metal.

"If this thing's anything like the crystal ball at the workshop," Lily muttered, "then . . ."

She placed her hand on the crystal ball. At first, it felt cold to the touch. But when she gave her bracelet the command to inject magic energy into it, the crystal ball became very warm as it gave off a bright glow.

The whole room rumbled. Lily could feel the floor shake beneath her feet as a section of the wall sank down to expose another hallway past it.

"It's working, Lily!" Eddie cried out excitedly. "It's working! Keep it up!"

Free of vicious, flying book monsters, Lily had an easier time feeding magic to the crystal ball than last time. But it was still pretty draining and she was left feeling dizzy when the doorway completely opened. 

"You okay?" Viv asked, concerned after seeing her friend falter.

"Yeah," Lily replied back. She shook herself awake and straightened up. "I'm good. Let's get going."

She led the way down the next hall which stretched down into a three-way fork. 

"I was afraid of this," Lily muttered quietly to herself. She had a sinking suspicion for a while that she and the gang may have entered a maze. Maze-like dungeons were a staple of fantasy adventures. Even Lily, who didn't play a lot of video games, knew that.

After staring at the three paths for what seemed like forever, Eddie broke silence and asked, "So, uh, which way do we go?"

"I'm thinking," snapped Lily.

She looked long and hard, but as far as she could see, except for which way they led, all three pathways looked the same. Same rough stone walls, same dark floor, lit by the same fire-bearing bowls. Not even the layer of dust on the floor could be used as a hint.

"Maybe the bracelet can help?" Viv suggested. "Why don't you ask it to show us the way?"

"That's a good idea," said Lily. "But show the way where?"

At that moment, even though she didn't ask for anything yet, the bracelet's jewels shined a ray of blue light down the left hallway.

Lily, Viv and Eddie stared at the bracelet and then looked down the left which looked like it stretched all the way into infinite.

"I guess there," said Viv.

Just to be clear, Lily wasn't thinking of anything in particular when her bracelet started glowing, so she had no idea where the light was actually leading to. She hoped it led to the exit, but something told Lily that getting out of this place was not going to be easy.

Boy did she wish she was wrong.

The path they took eventually led to another fork with two path choices. Lily and the gang went right, following the light shining from the blue bracelet.

After a few more twists and turns, Lily and the gang found a doorway which led to a wide, but empty, chamber. A couple of feet ahead of the doorway, the floor sank down several feet.

"Doesn't that look like an empty swimming pool to anyone?" asked Eddie.

"It does, actually," said Lily as she took a peek down over the edge. Because there weren't any lights in the chamber, she could only see black darkness below making it look as if there was no bottom. A chill ran down her spine just looking at it. If this really was a swimming pool, it was a pretty deep one. 

"Doesn't look like there's anyway around it," said Viv. "How're we - ?"

BANG!

Something loud crashed down behind the gang, startling them out of their skins. When Lily turned around, she saw that the doorway was gone. It had closed up. 

Before Lily and the Waller twins had time to even worry about being trapped, a new noise made them take their attention away from the door and back to the huge gap that reminded them of a swimming pool. It was a collection of loud sloshing noises, that instantly made Lily picture a waterfall.

But instead of water, what flowed out of the large valves lined up at the sides was glowing, hot magma.

"I take it back," said Eddie. "This isn't a swimming pool. It's a lava pit!"

<== Chapter 14                                                                      Chapter 16 ==>

Lily Wong Ch. 14

Chapter 14

Skipping Class

It was an early and bright morning with the sun shining brilliantly into the classroom through the window panes. So much so that Lily felt that the ceiling lights were a waste of electricity as she looked around.

"Say, where's Eddie?" she asked.

She had searched the whole classroom but didn't find him anywhere.

Viv shrugged and said, "Maybe he's running late?"

"But isn't that his roommate over at the back corner?" Lily asked.

Viv craned her neck and spotted a round-faced, curly blond-haired boy sitting all in his lonesome at the elevated back of the room. It was Eddie's roommate, Sam. They locked eyes for a brief moment and then Sam turned away and looked down at his book.

Lily remarked, "He's not looking very chipper this morning."

"He must still drowsy," said Viv. "Probably didn't get enough sleep last night because of video games or something."

If Viv was right, Sam wasn't the only one extremely drowsy this morning. Ten minutes after the bell rang, the door swung open and in trudged Uncle Viceroy, hunchbacked. His eyes were bleary, squinty, and had dark bags under them. On normal days, he'd be singing greetings to his students while dancing to his table like a character from a Disney movie. Either that or come in playing a random instrument like the trombone. But instead, he just walked straight over to the closest student and handed him the stack of papers he had brought tucked underneath his armpit.

"Take one and pass it down," he mumbled to the boy.

It looked like he hadn't even shaved today.

After letting out a big yawn, he told all the students, "As soon as you get one, start reading. It's today's announcements."

As the paper stack went from one person to the next, slowly shrinking, Uncle Viceroy walked over to his own table, dragging his feet. He dropped down on his chair which made a loud squeak from the sudden strain of his weight, and then put a blindfold over his eyes. He hung his head back and immediately started snoring. Loudly.

Everyone all looked at him and then down at the paper in their hands. A short second later, chatter erupted and the students all started doing their own thing, whipping out their smartphones to text or play games, talking with their friends about the TV shows they watched last night, drawing artwork in their notebooks, and desperately trying to catch up on overdue homework. A few honor students followed Uncle Viceroy's instructions and read through the announcement on the paper handouts.

Lily, however, was still worried about Eddie's absence and debated whether or not to go speak to Sam. But before she could make a final decision, Sam stood up and reluctantly walked down to the teacher's table. In his hands was a paper handout which he placed at the edge of the history teacher's desk. Lily watched and felt an itch in her nose.

Sam moved as quietly as he could. But when he turned away, Lily unleashed a loud sneeze that echoed off the walls. Everyone heard her, including Uncle Viceroy who awoke with a snort.

Lily sank down sheepishly, feeling embarrassed. As her Uncle Viceroy reached up to pull off his blindfold, everyone else scrambled to hide their phones and game consoles, and tried to look like they were doing school stuff before it was too late. Sam, however, could not get back up to his seat in time and froze when he heard the history teacher call out to him.

"Samuel Tanner? What is this?"

Slowly, Sam turned around and meekly replied, "It's a handout, sir. An extra one."

Uncle Viceroy gave the boy a look through the lifted side of his blindfold, and said, "There's an extra one? I made enough for exactly everyone. Who's absent?"

He stood up, tossed aside the blindfold and looked around.

"Where's Edward Waller?"

No one said anything. But all eyes turned to Eddie's roommate, poor Sam who fidgeted under everyone's gazes. Lily felt empathy for Sam, knowing how he probably felt.

Uncle Viceroy gave the class a final glance and then called on Sam to speak privately in his office. They were inside for just about a minute before Sam came out and called out to Viv.

"Teach wants to talk to you," Sam said before returning to his seat.

Viv exchanged looks with Lily and then quickly went over to the room next to the chalkboard. 

When Viv returned a couple of seconds later, Lily asked, "What was that all about?"

Viv answered back with a question of her own. "Before I answer," she said, "how good do you think that Mr. Lin's at catching lies?"

"Enough to make me think he's psychic," replied Lily. "Why?"

And then the bell rang.

Viv threw Sam a look as he stood up and grabbed his bag, and then said, "I'll explain later."

During breaktime, the girls spotted Sam walking down the hallway and quickly called out to him.

"Hey, Sam!" Viv cried out.

Hearing Viv's voice, Sam turned around. But once he spotted the girls coming towards him, he abruptly turned and ran.

Lily was baffled. 

Viv, however, grumbled,  "Not surprised," and then took off running after the boy.

"Just what in the world is going on?" After mumbling that, Lily joined the chase.

A teacher saw them running past him as he walked out of a classroom and shouted, "Hey! No running in the halls!"

The students largely ignored him and disappeared at a corner. Lily and Viv followed Sam out of the building. He cut across the road and went around to the back of the next building into a narrow alley. But he soon realized he made a mistake when up ahead, he spotted a plastered wall.

Sam turned to run the other way, but Viv appeared, blocking his way.

Just as he was about to try and run past her, Viv snapped, "Don't even think about it."

When Lily showed up, that was when Sam knew that he could not escape.

Breathlessly, Lily asked, "Will someone . . . please tell me . . . why my sides hurt  . . . when it's not . . . even P.E. yet?"

"This guy told Mr. Lin that Eddie was out sick with a cold," Viv explained. "But when Mr. Lin asked if I knew about that, it was clear that the teach thought that Sam was lying. Mr. Lin would have no reason to double check with me otherwise. And that means there's another reason Eddie's a no-show. So out with it. What's my brother up to?"

"I don't know!" cried Sam. "I really don't! I haven't seen him since yesterday!"

Viv raised an eyebrow. "Haven't seen him since yesterday? You mean he never came back to the dorms? He was out all night past curfew?"

Sam responded with a frantic nod.

"Sam, if you didn't know anything, why did you run away from us?" asked Lily.

"I panicked, okay?" cried Sam. "When you two suddenly rushed at me, I freaked out."

"We did not rush at you," Viv argued in dismay. "All I did was call out to you."

"Viv, not now," Lily shushed at her roommate. "So Sam, when was the last time you actually saw Eddie? What was he like? Did he say anything?"

Sam thought for a bit and then replied, "I think it was around dinner time. I was grabbing a drink from the vending machine by the exit when I saw him running out. He looked a bit heated, but he didn't say anything."

"Do you know where he was headed?" asked Lily.

Sam shook his head and said, "Not exactly. But wherever it was, it looked like it was on the way to the gym."

Lily and Viv exchanged looks.

"Thanks, Sam," Lily said. "That's all we needed to know."

She and Viv walked away, leaving behind a bemused Sam.

"So, what do you think?" Lily asked as they briskly walked down the road. "Do you think Eddie went to X?"

"Oh, I KNOW he went to X," said Viv, "just like I know something definitely happened to him there."

Over their heads, bells rang signaling the end of break time.

When the shrill chorus ended, Viv declared, "I'm going to go check out X. You should head to next class, Lily."

"What? And leave you to deal with whatever got Eddie by yourself?" Lily put her hands to her hips and pouted in dismay. "No way. Besides, you said so yourself that me and the bracelet are the only ones that can get into X."

"Well, I thought so," said Viv. "But it looks like I was wrong since Eddie's missing."

"Look, Viv," Lily said, grabbing her roommate by her shoulders. "Let's be real here. Unless you spontaneously get magic powers, you're not going to be much help to anyone there, least of all Eddie. Let me help you."

Viv shrugged free of Lily's grip, frowned and said, "First of all, I do have magic powers. Second of all, I'm not waiting until Five in the afternoon. I don't care if that message was telling the truth and it's the best time to check out X. I need to go now. And that means skipping the rest of classes today. Are you sure you want to do that? We could get in trouble."

"Then we'll get in trouble together," said Lily.

Seeing Lily was not going to budge, Viv sighed.

"Fine," she said. "Then let's go."

The girls decided not to wait for Oliver. There was just no time to wait for him. But they did send him a text with a quick summary about what happened and what they were going to do before heading to the gym, careful not to draw attention to themselves. Once they arrived at the bread loaf-shaped building, they hid behind a wall to wait until the coast was clear.

Despite what she said to Viv, Lily's heart beat faster than a drummer beat his drums on Chinese New Years. Feeling restless, her eyes darted around, while she thought to herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this. I really can't believe I'm doing this!"

In some ways, skipping school in the middle of the day may be the craziest thing she's ever done. It was definitely a more rattling experience than all the other stuff she's done so far. If Lily had to say why, it'd be because there was a greater sense of danger than all the other times.

Soon the sounds of schoolkids headed to class died down and all was quiet except for the rustling of leaves against a gentle breeze. Lily dared to peek out but found not a soul outside. She and Viv were completely alone.

They seized the chance to go around to the other side of the building where X was marked on Mary Ann Duskbell's map. As they crept alongside the wall, Lily could hear the pitter-patter and squeaks of lots of shoes against the floor as kids inside the gym did their jogging rounds.

After reaching X, Lily looked around to make sure the coast was clear before pulling back her sleeve to expose the blue bracelet. Even under the building's shade, the bracelet's jewels brightly glittered and shined. A ray of light from the bracelet's top jewel hit the ground in front of Lily and a circle appeared with a familiar set of intricate patterns and artwork.

The light from the circle rapidly grew brighter and brighter. And then, when the light disappeared, Lily and Viv found themselves in a completely different place. Instead of outside by the gym building, they found themselves inside a narrow tunnel, surrounded by dark, rough stone blocks at all sides. Bright, orange flames danced in stone bowls sunk into the walls of the tunnel, serving as lamps to light the girls' way.

While looking around Viv wondered aloud, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," said Lily, "but it feels like we're underground. Hm? Is that . . . ?"

She peered ahead at the end of the hall which was out of the fiery lamps' reach. Despite being shrouded in darkness, Lily could make out a shape curled up against the wall.

Her eyes lit up and she cried out, "Viv, look! It's Eddie! We've found him!"

<== Chapter 13                                                                   Chapter 15 ==>