Thanks for the lovely reviews. You all are too kind.
For anybody who read the ninth chapter when it was first published, heads up, I made a few changes.
In case anybody is curious, the chapter title is Latin.
Disclaimer: Brandon Mull owns Fablehaven. The end.
Seth Sorenson was going to die from exhaustion. Seriously. Any minute now, he would just sit down and die.
They had been trudging through the jungle for over twenty-four hours straight. No sign of Kendra. Bracken said he hadn't been able to connect with her again. He tried, but something was blocking his way. Some kind of ginormous magical barrier. Bracken was extremely grumpy because of this. They all were.
Bracken and Vanessa weren't speaking to each other either, adding to everybody's distemper.
"Guys," Seth ran the back of his hand over his feverishly sweaty forehead, "I think it's time for a break."
Nobody said anything, but they all stopped short. Looking around, Warren nodded. "For a little while."
Bracken looked like he was going to protest but he didn't. Instead he went over to a large tree trunk, sat down, and closed his eyes.
Seth didn't take another step. He plopped down on the mossy earth beneath his feet.
"I'm going to find food," Vanessa announced. She trotted off of their path into the dense underbrush.
Warren set about collecting sticks, apparently to start a fire. Seth sighed inwardly. The food that could be gathered would make them all sick, so Vanessa would have to kill something for them to eat. That meant fire. In the sweltering midday heat, Seth loathed the idea of kindling a fire.
Seth heard a rustle in the bushes. He craned his neck over to where Vanessa had disappeared. All of a sudden, Vanessa bolted into view. A vicious looking, harpy-esk eagle followed directly after her, screeching angrily. The violent bird circled her, trying to attack her face. Vanessa dodged here and there, and then, with superhuman precision, grabbed the birds neck. A sickening crack was heard.
Seth's mouth hung open. He looked at Warren who was watching his wife very closely.
"Just imagine what she'll do to you if you ever cheat on her," Seth grinned, hoping to ease the tension.
"Poor bird," Warren observed solemnly. "You were trying to steal her babies and so she defended her family. She died valiantly."
Vanessa looked exasperatedly at him. "Shall I go and bury her then? Would you like to make a funeral pyre for her? I don't suppose you have any bagpipes with you?" She snapped.
Warren shook his head, but Seth noticed him biting back a smile. "A funeral pyre will have to suffice."
Vanessa saw he was teasing her. She rolled her eyes but she grinned.
"We'll sacrifice her to the gods – Hungerus, Foody, and Getinmybelly," Seth said, with as straight a face as he could manage.
The trio burst into laughter. It felt good to be absurd, to laugh a little. Cleansing almost.
Seth looked at Bracken. He was unmoved from earlier, his eyes still closed.
Vanessa and Warren went to work – Vanessa plucking and cleaning the bird, Warren starting the fire. Seth dragged himself nearer to Bracken.
"Hey, can I look at that map again?"
Bracken, wordlessly and without cracking an eye, procured a leathery folded piece of paper. He held it out. Seth took it.
"Thanks."
Seth opened the map. So far they had scoured the southern end of the jungle, and pieces of the west end. They'd fought off a jaguar, haplessly ran into several dark clouds of mosquitoes (and then ran like bats of out hell), but there was no sign of any unusual activity. There were beings of non-normal proportions out there – there had to be some kind of something in the abundance of the untamable region - but they'd yet to encounter anything.
Originally the plan had been to search every inch of the jungle until they discovered the lair of this sinister leader, using Bracken as a heat-seeking-magic-detector. The plan now was basically the same, except there was a new top priority – watch for any sign of Kendra Sorenson.
Once again, his family was endangered, and Seth couldn't help but feel that it was mostly his fault. Why had he ever listened to that worthless old lady anyway? 'Cause he wanted to have been the one to provide the information to save the day. That's why. His burning need to prove himself kept getting him into trouble.
Deep down he understood that his sister's kidnapping was not his fault, and he had been cleverly manipulated. But deep down didn't matter. Superficial panic had set in.
"Bracken!"
Bracken lackadaisically opened his eyes to slits.
Seth pointed to the map. "Where do you think we should look next?"
Bracken shook his head. I don't know. His lips didn't seem to be moving. Seth realized he was communicating telepathically.
Seth projected his thoughts.
I'm sorry I screwed this up okay? But you're kind of being a jerkoff. I know you care about my sister, so help me find her!
I'm doing all I can Seth. I've gone well past what I considered my physical limits. If only Kendra would send me another vision!
Bracken had closed his eyes again, but there were creases on both sides of his temples.
I know. We're all tired. But we can't stop looking! We need to be clever. Where on this map could she be? Just look and see if you get any ideas. Seth could hear the ring of pleading in his mind. His pleas were pathetic, his insistence childish, but he didn't care one bit. Looking at Warren, Vanessa, and Bracken's heavy expressions, they'd appeared to already have given up hope. Well not him. Seth Sorenson was not going to give up on his sister.
Bracken opened his eyes. Sitting up, he leaned over and gently took the map from Seth.
"There are two places I think she might be being held. Two places that are obvious. Seth, listen to me." Bracken commanded the reluctant gaze of the boy. "I know you blame yourself for leading us to Venezuela. But do you honestly think that your grandfather went solely on your word?"
"What are you saying?" Seth crinkled his forehead.
"I'm saying that there are two notorious places here in Venezuela, in this very jungle. Neither are well known. They are the true reason we believed you when you said the Society might be here."
"So you lied to me?"
"We kept information from you, as you did from us. Though I can't see the point in keeping you out of the know any longer, considering what dire straits we are in. Anyhow, you've already admitted to your deception."
"Right," Seth mumbled, his cheeks reddening slightly. He cleared his throat. "So we were never really scouring the jungle?"
"No, we are truly trying to search every inch of this place. For several reasons. First off, we needed to know more about the surrounding area, in case we needed to call for back up. Second, even if one – possibly both – of these places are housing our enemies, the entrance could be disguised further away from it. Lastly, most importantly," Bracken lowered his voice absently, eyes darting from Seth to the map, "thing are hardly ever what they seem."
"Are Warren and Vanessa in the loop about this?" Seth was beyond embarrassed on being left out.
"Yes. Please understand Seth, this was entirely your grandfather's idea. The rest of us were hesitant to go along with his plan, but he was quite keen on teaching you a lesson. He loves you very much – he only wants you to become the man he knows you have the potential to be. 'Not a seasoned adventurer, but a good, honest person.' Those were his words."
The speech did little to mend Seth's broken pride. In fact, he felt worse. He was such a failure.
"So what are these two super-evil places called?" His voice cracked a little when he spoke. This just kept getting better and better.
"One is the Sand Dunes of Beelzebub – once the home to a score of demons."
Seth craned his neck back to see Warren and Vanessa standing behind him. It was Warren who had spoken.
"That's here," Bracken pointed to a cluster of crudely drawn hills on the map. "to the northwestern edge of the jungle."
"Why would the Society be there?"
"There is a fell air about the place," Bracken answered. "The land is inhospitable. No living creatures have taken up residence there in centuries."
"The perfect place for the Society to hide. They would be in plain sight, where nobody would think to look for them," Warren clarified.
"More than likely the location where they're holding Kendra," Bracken sighed.
Seth eyed the map. "What about the other place?"
"I don't think any of the members of the Society have that much of death wish," Bracken snorted.
"Do not forget the legend. Nor what evil that dark abode has birthed," Vanessa warned.
Seth didn't like her tone of voice. "What are you talking about?"
"There is a legend," she said, "that before Celebrant, there was another king of the dragons. That much we can almost be sure is true. But the speculation lies in what happened to this king. Some say Celebrant killed him battle. Others say he was as old as the beginning of time, and died a long ago from age. Others still, think that Patton Burgess destroyed the monster in the wild, but the horror of the encounter was so overwhelming that Patton never spoke of it again."
"The most far-fetched by far," Bracken interjected.
Warren nodded. Vanessa continued.
"The eldest allies of the Knights claim that there is a prison, no longer used by them, that once housed all of the draconic race's most insidious foes."
"If that's true," Vanessa chimed in, "then nobody in the Knights would have released such dangerous dragons. We would assume that this prison still houses those criminals."
"Unless the Society has released them…" Warren started.
Vanessa turned on him in vexation. "I think we would know…"
Bracken 'ahemed' and she quit talking. Warren continued. "Legend has it that the first dragon king was first inmate of this prison, placed there by Sairon Mirima, a wizard who has passed into legend himself."
"I knew Sairon Mirima," Bracken said, surprising Warren. "He surely was legendary, but he was real. The power the exuded from him was unlike any I've ever seen since, except in my mother and father. Yet he was amazingly humble – wise, unobtrusive. Granted he was a little eccentric…" Bracken smiled at a fond memory. The smile faded. "He did so many favors for mankind, though few even know of his past existence. His death was mysterious and tragic. Navarog," Seth froze, "was said to have been responsible for his death."
Seth swallowed hard. "Why did Navarog kill him?"
Bracken shook his head. "The Sphinx is the one who captured him," He pointed to a sketch of a waterfall, "supposedly here at these falls. The Sphinx was reputable even then, and many had plenty of reasons to hate the honorary demon prince, so no one questioned him when he announced Navarog's guilt. This is how Navarog ended up in the Quiet Box."
"If they both weren't dead I'd kill them myself." Warren shook his fists at the heavens. Vanessa took his raised fist in her hand. She unfurled his fingers, and quietly held his hand.
"Be grateful that they're gone," Bracken said.
"So," Seth rubbed his temples, his brain rigorously working to puzzle out this information, "what does Navarog and the falls have to do with the dragon prison?"
"We think that the dragon prison is behind the falls."
There it was. "Okay, but Navarog is as dead as my love life. Why would the Society hang out in a prison?"
"Again, it's incredulous enough that we could expect the Society to be there," Vanessa said.
"It's too risky. The Society wouldn't know what powers they were contending with. I'm sure it's been on their agenda to release the 'wrongfully imprisoned' dragons for some time, but I don't think they would set up camp in such an unstable environment," Bracken argued.
Warren nodded his head in agreement, then added, "If the prison even exists."
"Oh I'm fairly certain it's there," Bracken pinched the bridge of his nose. "My mother has mentioned such a place before. It's always been kept a bigger secret than five preserves. If the Society released these prisoners the effect on the world could rival that if they released the demons in the Zzzyx."
"Which is why we should try looking for Kendra there first." Vanessa's tone had the quality of rhetoric. "Take it from a former Society member. I've never heard of this prison until now, but completely fits their m-o."
"The environment would be too unpredictable." Seth noticed that even though they were arguing, they still held firm grips on the other's hand.
Seth considered the two places on the map. The Dunes were to the northwest of their current position. The Falls were to the northeast. It was going to have to be one or the other.
What was his opinion? Neither sounded appealing to him. There were no facts to go off of – merely speculation. It looked like a go with your gut kind of situation. His gut told him one thing, but his head told him another. His head begged him to listen to reason. He could almost hear Kendra scolding him, telling him that he'd been going with his gut lately, and look where it had landed him?
Seth looked at his companions. "I think I'm with Bracken and Warren on this one Vanessa."
The three some studied his alteration in composure. "We should head straight through the jungle as far as we can, and then veer left to the Dunes. If Kendra is being held at the falls, perhaps we'll find some indication of dragons nearby. If not, we head for the Dunes."
Vanessa bit her lip. She turned her face from them.
"De pilo pendet," she whispered.
Bracken echoed her in a hollow voice, "It hangs by a hair."