Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (66 page)

If the green door led to embarra
ssment
,
and the blue door led to her fears surrounding Queen’s Mesa,
what
sort of hell waited b
ehind the black door
?
T
ired, but unable to fall asleep
,
she
star
ed
at the dark patch of sky above
wondering what to do
.

Glory
fel
l
into a fitful sleep
. When she woke
,
her lips were glued together with icky white stuff. Clash wa
s talk
ing in his sleep. She took a sip from Matthew’s water bottle, staring in the black door’s general direction.
Was it
means of
escape or
her
worst fear
come to life
?
Her fingers went to the bird whistle.
Whether the
Wybbil
s carried h
er
out of the Bamboozle, or
s
he walked out on h
er
own,
s
he’d be brought back to face Lady
Gost
.

“
M
y scheme is doomed for failure,
”
she decided
.
“Clash
is
right.
I should give back the stone and go home
.
I’m a loser
Alley
, just like Mandy said
.
Nothing ever goes my way.
”

“
But
I can’t let Mandy be right
.
”
Her fists clenched thinking about Mandy’s smug looks and cruel comments.
“Being poor doesn’t make
me a
loser
.
Now
I
absolutely HAVE
to
go through
that confounded black door
.
Just a
s soon as I’m ready.”

Picking up the
blue
Sliver, she
resumed
her
game of JunkYard Derby
.

“Only
722
points for the new record
.
Matthew, eat my dust.”

She
ha
d been playing
a while
,
putting off the inevitable,
when the
sound of clearing throats caused her to jump
.
The
star riders
stood around her. So absorbed in
t
he
game
, she hadn’t noticed them come in
.

“Time to go through the black
door or negotiate,” Bone said. His eyes looked bloodshot. The l
ines on his face seemed somehow sinister
.
“What shall it be,
Rock Collector
?”

“Gimme a second,” she said, eyes back on the Sliver screen as she madly punched buttons
.
“Only
six hundred
points
until I beat his high score.”

Needle swiped the Sliver out of her hand
.

“Hey!”

The three Wybbils studied it a minute, turning it around
to get a better look
.

“
What’s this
? A game!”
White Feather thundered
, throwing the Sliver at her head
. “While
the fate of Wybb
hangs in
the
balance
,
ye entertain yourself with
trivial pursuits
?
”

“Outrageous
!
”
a
greed Bone.

“But she did return through the second door on her own accord,” Needle pointed out
.
“There must be good
in
her somewhere.”

“A fluke,” Bone said.

“
We cannot force her to end the testing
,” Needle said. “
Nor can we force her to continue.”

“Nor can we afford to be patient,
”
said Bone.

“Give us
the
Elboni
,
”
White Feather demanded.

“No.”

“Then finish
the
test.”

“I’m not going through that black door,”
Glory
said, shaking her head
, fumbling to return the Sliver to her pocket
.
“
Nuh
-
uh
, no way, no how.”

“Ye can’t stay in here forever.”

“I can try.”

“Get up,”
Bone
ordered.
He
took a threatening step forward, his brow
full of
furious lines.
“Where be
the
Elboni?”

Expecting a punch, s
he
held her forearms up to shield her face.

“Quit doing that
,
” Bone
complained
. “I’m not going to hit ye.”

“
Rock Collector
,” Needle reasoned
.
“If ye haven’t figured it out yet, the doors
be
a dupe
.
They don’t lead outward, but inward.”

“Huh?”

“
Inside the Bamboozle ye find the monsters of your own making, so ye
can never defeat it
.
T
he
only way out
be
through us.”

“Huh?
”

“The only way out be through us.”

“But you said the test would end if I returned through all three doors on my own
.
”

“Aye,
the rules say it
be
possibl
e
,
but
to this
date n
obody has
ever escape
d
the Bamboozle
on
his
own.”

“Not even once?”

“Not even once.”

“Then what’s the point?”

“To force you to return
the
Elboni
, of course,
”
Needle replied
.
“Even
the
hardest of criminals spill their worst secrets to get out of this place
.
Delaying the decision to go through
the
door won’t help ye avoid anything because ye can
never
escape
your own self
.
”

“
This is b
ogus
!
You scammers
!
You liars!
”

“We never lied
.
The test will end, but not in
the
way ye be hoping.
”

Fuming,
Glory
folded her arms across her chest
.
“
All this for nothing
.
”

“So
,
Rock Collector
, ready to return
the
Elboni
?” White Feather asked.

“No
,
”
she said defiantly.

The
star riders
took in sharp breaths and shook their heads.

“If ye don’t,” Bone said between clenched teeth, “we’ll open the black door and throw ye in ourselves.”

“You wouldn’t,”
Glory
tested, knowing full well they would.

Clash
stirred
with a yawn
, rubbing h
is
uncomprehending eyes
.

The
star riders
closed in around
Glory
. She
rushed toward the
open red
door, but Bone tackled h
er
to the ground
.
He took hold of
her ankles
while
White Feather grabbed both wrists
.
They carried
Glory
toward the black door and
Needle
turned the handle.