Lily Wong Ch. 42

Chapter 42

Separated

"Blast it all!" roared Bluestone. In a fit of rage, he smacked his fist against the wall. But all that gained him was torn skin and a stinging pain.

Alejandro, the rest of the library helpers and Tanja hung back in silence. No one was sure what to say. 

Quickly remembering he was not alone, Bluestone took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, straightened up and fixed his necktie before turning to face the students.

"Ahem! Right then . . . Now, I'm sure you are all reluctant to listen to me. I did betray your trust, after all. But I promise, if you follow me, I will get you all out of here."

There was silence, and then -

"You had my face literally ripped off!" said Melody. "I don't even want to hear your voice anymore."

Bluestone winced. "I deserve that."

"With all due respect, Director," said Alejandro, "even knowing why you did all that evil stuff, it's still hard for me to believe in you now. But . . ."

He glanced back at the others. They all nodded back.

" . . . you know this place best, which makes you our best bet of making out of here alive."

Grateful, Bluestone said, "Thank you."

Then the parrot, Warren Bluestone, cut in and said, "Still, how are we going to find our way out? That blasted dragon mixed up the whole layout of the underground lair. It's completely unrecognizable now."

Bluestone rubbed his beard thoughtfully and then knelt down, placing his hand flat on the floor. He closed his eyes to concentrate. A few seconds later, he straightened back up and sighed.

"No good," he said. "Thanks to Lin cutting my connection to the building, I can't sense anything anymore."

"Can't you just use that fortune telling you're so proud of?" asked the parrot. "It's your specialty, isn't it?"

Bluestone shrugged. "I guess it's worth a try. Lucky I have my Magic Eight Ball with me."

As he reached into his pocket for the toy, the library helpers exchanged looks.

"Seriously?" went Hassan. "You're using a Magic Eight Ball for fortune telling?"

"I'd use tarot cards, but those are hard to figure out. Now let's see what this says." Bluestone kept his eye on the plastic black billiard ball as he spoke. After giving it a good shake, he turned the ball to see what showed up on its window. "To your right, you will find a wild card who leads the way. The key to victory is unity."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked George.

"I guess maybe we'll find some help if we go that way," Melody said, pointing down the hall.

"But who? Do you know, Director?"

Bluestone answered, "I have an inkling." He put the toy away. "Come on. Let's go."

He started walking, but just a few steps later - 

BOOM!

A section of the wall burst and through the hole walked a man.

"Mr. Lin!" Everyone cried out in joy.

"Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes!" said Tanja. "But I thought you'd be stuck keeping all those creepy skeletons busy."

Mr. Lin took a look around. "Sorry, but that's not me. That's the original. I'm copy number nine."

"Hold up!" Hassan cut in. "Copy number nine? You made more of yourself?"

Mr. Lin, the ninth clone, nodded. "Original me and Copy Number Two multiplied a bunch for an all-out war with Fafnir. That rotten piece of cotton candy's been throwing pretty much everything at us. Sorry, but not sorry for smashing all your stuff, Bluestone."

But Bluestone was not bothered and said, "Don't be. I was going to get rid of it all, anyway. But how goes the evacuation? Can you see or hear what's going on with the clone sent up to the surface?"

"Sure," said Mr. Lin. "We're all just one mind sharing lots of different bodies, so all of us knows what each and every clone's doing."

"Wow, that must feel weird," said Tanja.

"Oh, really weird," said Mr. Lin. "That's why I don't like multiplying myself, except in an emergency like now. Anyway, the evacuation's no good. Copy Number Three never made it out. He's still trying though. But enough about that. Where's Lily?"

"Fafnir got us separated," said Alejandro. 

"I was afraid you'd say that," Mr. Lin grumbled. He fell quiet for a bit. "Okay, here's the plan. While the other mes keep Fafnir distracted, I'll take you all back up to the surface and take over Copy Number Three's job to warn everyone else go get out of the school. In the meantime, some of my copies will make more copies to look for Lily and the others."

"Just how many of you are running around the place?" asked Warren.

"Seventeen. No, wait. Twenty-three now."

"I was being rhetorical."

"I've no idea what that means," said Mr. Lin.

"Of course you don't."

"Anyway, that's enough time being wasted." Clumps of rock flew up and clung to Mr. Lin, piling up together to make his Stone Man armor. "The chaos the other mes are causing should keep Fafnir off our backs and make it easier to get to the surface, but likely not for long."

And then he jumped up, crashing through the ceiling. With a flap of Warren's wing, a stone staircase grew out of the floor. One by one, everyone climbed up to the next floor.

**********

Meanwhile, pacing back and forth with her hands clutching the sides of her head, Viv muttered, "What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?"

"Calm down, Viv," Oliver said, trying to sooth the young girl. But his effort only made Viv snap.

"Don't tell me to calm down!" she angrily yelled. "Lily and Safira just fell down a hole to who-knows-where! There's no telling what could happen to them!"

"I'm sure they're fine. They've got the magic bracelet to keep them safe." Again, Oliver tried to calm his friend down, but it was no good.

"That magic bracelet's no help here! She was no match against the Schemer with it! And that same Schemer couldn't do a thing about that cloud-dragon-thing!"

"She's right, Oliver," said Eddie. "We need to find them and fast!"

"I know that," said Oliver. "But panicking's not going to help."

"Then what do you propose we do, huh?" Viv snapped.

"Well, for starters," Oliver answered, "we should check out those boom noises down that way."

He pointed down the hall to sounds of destruction echoing off the walls, followed by what sounded like a man going, "Bawk! Bawk-bawk-bawk-bawk! Bawk-kaw!"

"Something tells me, we'll find someone who'll be of huge help."

**********

Down and down, and down Lily and Safira fell. Everything around them was all pitch-black except for the blue glow from Lily's bracelet. Lily couldn't even see the bottom. But she knew that it would only be a matter of time.

So before the bottom came in sight, she called out to the bracelet, "Flying broom! Quick!"

Light flashed from the jewels of the bracelet and a broomstick popped out and fell alongside the girls. Lily reached out and grabbed the broom, pulling it close to herself in a hug and jerked to a stop mid-air. Safira, however, continued to fall.

Lily tipped the broom downward and zipped down, propelled faster by a sonic boom from the broom's brush end. She snatched hold of Safira's hand with her own right hand and pulled the broom up with her left hand, stopping them all from falling further.

Safira glanced down to the seemingly bottomless abyss and nervously swallowed. "Thanks."

"No problem," Lily answered back.

With the magic broomstick, the girls slowly and safely drifted down to the bottom until their feet touched solid ground. 

Safira looked around and wondered, "Where are we?"

"Not sure," Lily said, taking a look around herself. Everything was still dark around her. "Don't think it matters though. Not with that rotten piece of cotton candy rearranging the whole building whenever he wants."

"I've been meaning to ask, but what's cotton candy?"

Lily opened her mouth to speak, and then paused. "Never mind. I'll tell you later."

Safira gave her a funny look and then shrugged before kneeling down to sit on the floor. With a sigh, she said, "Well, one bit of good tiding is that I don't feel that dragon's eyes on us so we can probably rest for a bit. He must be distracted by something."

"That . . . doesn't sound good to me," said Lily. "It just means that he's busy messing with the others."

Safira's face fell and she cast her eyes down with a soft, "Oh."

Lily regretted her big mouth and quickly tried to reverse Safira's crestfallen mood. "I-I'm sure the others are okay. My Uncle Viceroy's really good at distracting people. He's probably doing all sorts of shenanigans that got Fafnir's full attention."

"But wouldn't that mean your uncle's the one in danger?"

"Well . . ." Lily hesitated. Honestly, she'd rather not think about it, but Safira was right. Fafnir was just a cloud of smoke, but he had control of an entire magic building and all its deadly traps. Even Uncle Viceroy can't get out of all that unscathed, can he?

Safira stood back up. "I was wrong. Now's not the time to be resting. I must hurry and stop the dragon right this instant before he can hurt Father, Brother and the others."

"Whoa! Hold your horses!" Lily put her hand on Safira's shoulder to stop her from running off. "Just how do you plan to stop Fafnir? You heard what he said earlier, right? That trick you used on him last time's not going to work again."

"Well, I have to try!" Safira shouted. "We cannot let that monster run free, especially now that he's got the power of the Bluestone family under his control. There's no telling how many people he'll hurt with it!"

"I know that!" Lily snapped back. "But there's no way I'm letting you freeze yourself in a jewel again. Not after all the trouble I went through to get you out of one."

"Do you have any better idea, then?"

"Well . . . " Lily faltered again.

How are we going to defeat Fafnir? She wondered. It was hard to imagine anything hurting a cloud of smoke of all things. Trapping him somewhere he couldn't do any harm would be more realistic. Maybe the bracelet could help with that?

And then a lightbulb flashed over her head.

"Wait, that's it!"

"What's it?" Safira asked, startled and confused by Lily's sudden outburst.

With a grin, Lily replied, "I got an idea. We got a dragon spirit to beat! Show us the way, bracelet!"

At her command, light shined from the bracelet. It trailed down her left and she took off running after it.

"Wait!" Safira cried, rushing to catch up. "What's this idea you got?"

Over her shoulder, Lily replied, "I'll tell you on the way!"

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