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!"
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