The Pillars of Ponderay (6 page)

There was nothing Albert could do.

He fell, fast, toward the bottom of the Pit. When he hit the floor it sucked him under like a soft blanket, then shot him back up in the air.

Iron Grip!
Albert thought, focusing on the dumbbell symbol again, and as he soared past a pillar, he reached out and grabbed hold.

“Hey!”

Albert looked down to see Birdie a few feet below him on the same pillar, clinging to its side like a spider.

“The handholds disappear, be careful!” Albert said.

Birdie nodded, a fat bruise on her forehead. “I learned that the hard way! Keep going, I'll move to another pillar!”

Someone screamed, and Albert saw Leroy and Hoyt fall off opposite pillars across the Pit.

“Move, Albert!” Birdie cried from below him. It spurred him back into action.

A few times, Albert's hand or footholds disappeared,
and he nearly fell off again. But with some major Tile concentration, and a determination burning like fire in the pit of his stomach, he climbed until he was perched just below the top.

A little bit more!
Albert stretched, picturing his little half siblings reaching as hard as they could for the countertop where his mom hid the candy jar. Finally, Albert's hand closed over something smooth and hard, about the size of a salad plate. The Tile!

“
Albert Flynn is the first to collect a Tile!
”
he heard Tussy say into her MegaHorn. Overhead, the crowd cheered, and Farnsworth howled. “One point for Hydra! They're in the lead!”

“Yay, Albert!” Leroy screamed from across the Pit. “You . . . did . . . it!”

From up this high, Albert watched as Hoyt summited a pillar across from him.

“One point for team Argon!” Tussy yelled, and Albert frowned. Hoyt had grabbed a Tile and was waving it in the air for the screaming crowd.

Uh-oh
, Albert thought.
Time to step up my game.

Hoyt dropped down to the floor, then raced to another pillar and started the climb. It was almost like instinct, what Albert did next. Tussy hadn't said you had to climb
all
the pillars. You just had to collect the Tiles on top of them. Albert was already high in the air. He tried to hoist himself up higher and get his whole body on
top of the pillar. That way, he could simply stand and leap from one to the other. But Albert soon realized he wasn't strong enough. His muscles were screaming with exhaustion.

I need to use the Strength symbol
, Albert thought, and he focused with all his might on an image of what looked like a mountain, tall and strong.

Albert felt his arms and legs start to tingle as the Master Tile worked its magic. He put all his effort into hoisting himself up, and sure enough, it worked. Albert was crouched on top of his pillar like a mountain lion on a boulder.

“Two points for Hydra!” Tussy screamed, and Albert saw Birdie with a Tile clutched in her hands.

“Yes! Nice job!” Albert screamed.

“Another point for Argon!” Tussy yelled, as Mo grabbed a Tile off the farthest pillar, then leaped down to the floor.

Albert stood up on top of his pillar. Even though there was no wind in the Pit, he thought he could feel his pillar swaying. A little to the left, a little to the right.

That was when it started to move.

And it wasn't just his pillar. It was
all
of them. They were spinning in a wide circle around the Pit.

They weren't moving fast, but the spinning disoriented Albert, nearly causing him to topple overboard.

It's just like being on a merry-go-round, Albert. No big deal.

But just as Albert got his balance, the pillar began to move faster.

Okay, like being on a slightly demented merry-go-round.

As they rotated faster, the force picked up and threatened to knock Albert to the Pit floor—along with the Tiles.

“The Ten Pillars have minds of their own!” Tussy said into the MegaHorn. “When the Realm of Ponderay is balanced, the Pillars stand strong and steady in the middle of the Silver Sea. But the Imbalance seems to have caused the Pillars in the Realm to begin rotating like this. Better think fast, and grab more Tiles, before the spinning knocks them off!”

Almost as if in response to Tussy's words, the pillars sped up even more. Now they were moving at a speed Albert was definitely not comfortable with—there was no way his mom would have let him ride a merry-go-round at this speed. Albert's mind buzzed, and his body felt wobbly and wrong. He just
knew
he was going to fall.

“Abandon ship!” Leroy screamed from somewhere below.

Albert didn't want to give up. He stooped to his knees and clutched the edges of his pillar as it zoomed around. He could see the next pillar in the circle just a few feet away and the Tile on top. If he could just jump far enough . . .

“Another two Tiles for Argon!” Tussy yelled into the
MegaHorn, and it was enough to distract Albert from picturing the symbol he needed to make the leap. He saw Slink and Mo both waving Tiles in the air, smiles on their faces.

“No!” Albert stood and tried to leap, but the momentum from the spinning pillar threw off his jump. He knew he wouldn't land on the next pillar, but he wouldn't go down that easy. As he began falling toward the Pit floor, Albert stretched with all he had left in him. His hand scraped the top of the next pillar, and his fingers closed over a Tile. He clutched it to his chest as he continued falling to the floor.

“Hydra barely snatches a Tile!” Tussy cheered. “Four total points!”

Seconds later, Hoyt grabbed a final Tile. “That makes six for Argon!” Tussy shouted, just as Albert landed hard on the Pit floor, his legs crumpling beneath him. Ten Tiles were claimed, four for Hydra, and six for Argon.

The pillars slowed to a stop, signaling that the competition was over. Argon had actually won.

“We were so close, bro,” Leroy said, helping Albert up. Birdie stumbled over. Her ponytail looked like a giant cat had just used it as a toy. Across the Pit, team Argon was celebrating.

Tussy barked out a command. “What are you doing, teams? I didn't tell you to stop competing!”

Albert's jaw dropped. He wanted to say something,
but Hoyt was quicker to react.

“But all the Tiles are gone! We won!”

Tussy laughed, but it sounded more like a dog's deep bark. “Not so. You need to learn the meaning of exhaustion, Balance Keepers. I've given you one minute to take a break, while the Pit resets itself. When it's ready, you'll begin again. You'll go until I tell you to stop.”

The pillars stood at the ready, and somehow they looked even bigger to Albert.

Tussy took a deep breath, and blew her whistle. As the Balance Keepers began again, Albert thought he saw her smile.

The competition went more slowly this time. Exhaustion began to settle in.

After another hour had passed, everyone was injured in some way. Leroy had lost a shoe and stubbed several toes. Birdie's nose was bleeding, and Albert had a big gash on his shoulder.

Still, they put everything they had into it.

It was Birdie who grabbed the ninth Tile, and Hoyt who grabbed the tenth.

Finally, Tussy blew her whistle.

The pillars sank to the bottom of the Pit and Albert's knees went out from under him. Everyone was lying, all broken and bent, on the trampoline floor.

Hoyt hardly had the energy to celebrate when Tussy
announced that Argon had won the second round 6–4, too.

Albert put his head in his hands, and Leroy muttered something about needing a strawberry milk shake.

“I can't believe it,” Albert whispered, still gasping for a good breath.

Last term, they'd won so many competitions in the Pit that Hydra became a First Unit. They were pros now, a part of the big leagues in the Core. They'd saved the world.

But today was different.

Today Hydra lost.

A
lbert felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he and his friends left the Pit.

“I can't believe that just happened,” Birdie said.

She clenched her jaw so tightly that Albert was afraid her hair was going to rip out. “They beat us. They actually
won
!”

“We're just a little rusty is all,” Albert offered. But he felt downright defeated. “Hoyt's a Pure, remember? He's probably been sneaking into the Pit like we used to do, training up for this while we've all been on the surface. And it's not really fair. If we would've known Tussy was going to make us work so hard . . .”

“We can't use that as an excuse,” Birdie countered.

“You're right,” Albert said. “I guess we just have to
suck it up, guys. We lost, fair and square.”

“It's never fair when you're up against Hoyt,” Leroy added. He was wringing his hat in his hands. “But what if we've just lost our mojo?”

“You can't just
lose
mojo,” Birdie said. “Especially because it's not a real thing.”

“Oh, it's real,” Leroy argued.

Albert laughed. “We're a team, guys. We were named the First Unit for Calderon only a few months ago. We're just getting back in the swing of things.”

Farnsworth yipped in agreement. His flashlight eyes turned a cool ocean blue.

“See? Farnsworth agrees.” Albert said.

The dog howled, and Albert, Leroy, and Birdie were in high spirits again, having decided that tomorrow things would be different. Tomorrow, they'd do everything they could to show Argon what Hydra was really made of. They rode the orange platform up and out of the Pit, then left the room and walked the jagged path back to the old wooden doorway.

Outside, Petra stood waiting for them, his back up against the cool stone walls of the tunnel.

“I'm sorry, guys,” he said, shaking his head. “Hoyt's such a jerk. He already shouted Argon's victory to the whole Main Chamber the second he got out here. But no worries, right?”

Albert sighed. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Aw, come on, you guys are Balance Keepers. You
can't get upset about one loss! And besides”—Petra bobbed up and down on his toes, reminding Albert of one of his half siblings when they begged for a cookie late at night—“I have a surprise for you.”

“Unless it involves food, I'm going to Cedarfell and crashing,” Leroy groaned.

Birdie elbowed him in the stomach, and they started to argue.

Albert shook his head. “At least some things never change. Lead the way, Petra. Farnsworth and I want to see what your surprise is. And I'm sure those guys will too, just as soon as they're done arguing like little kids.”

Petra smiled wider than ever, then turned on his heel and walked briskly down the hall. While Birdie and Leroy talked about whether or not the blue flames were made of a natural or man-made substance, Petra filled Albert in on the latest Core gossip. Albert thought if Petra ever wanted to leave the Core, he would make an awesome reporter on the surface. Maybe even a detective.

He led them back into the Main Chamber, past a group of girls who giggled as they put pink bows all over Professor Asante's sleeping Guardian cat. Albert hoped the thing didn't wake up anytime soon, or those girls might be lunch. Or maybe just an appetizer.

Right as they were about to head into one of the tunnels, something caught Albert's eye. A large copper countdown clock had been hung on the wall beside the
door to Ponderay. A big, glowing
7
sat on its face.

“I have a feeling that's, like, totally going to stress me out,” Birdie hissed as she stared up at the clock.

Albert knew she was probably right.

“Come on, let's go!” Petra squeaked excitedly. He took a sharp left into a tunnel that Albert had yet to explore. It was lit by the same blue flames, but there were other doors here, locked doors, which Albert was just itching to get behind.

“What's in there?” Albert asked, pointing to a black door with an old, rusted handle.

“No one knows.” Petra shrugged.

Albert's eyes widened, and again, he was filled with that same sense of adventure that struck him on his very first day in the Core. He loved this place, no matter the trouble, no matter the danger.

At the end of the tunnel, Petra stopped before a locked door. He turned to his three friends and gave them a sly grin. “What lies behind
this
door is only for us.”

Farnsworth's eyes flashed a darker shade of blue.

“And Farnsworth,” Petra corrected himself. Farnsworth's tail thumped on the dusty stone floor. “Here we go.”

Petra pulled out an old rusty key from beneath his shirt, turned it in the lock, and swung the door open.

Albert peered inside, past Petra's shoulder.

It was not at all what he'd expected.

“This . . . is . . . ahhhhmazing!” Birdie shouted, holding her hands up in the air. “It couldn't be more beautiful, Petra!”

She walked over and then climbed up on a Guildacker-shaped float, the kind that Albert watched every year in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

This float was twice the size of Jadar and it took up most of the room. It looked so real that Albert was tempted to reach out to touch its chest and feel for a heartbeat.

“It's taken me months,” Petra said. “And you guys get to help me finish it! I mean, there's no way I could do this all by myself.”

“But you have!” Albert gasped. “You made this?”

“You have some serious skill, bro,” Leroy said as he stared at the float.

It looked like some sort of famous sculpture artist had done it, not tiny little Petra. Albert didn't know the guy had it in him to be so creative.

The base of the float was made up of glittering gold coins—old ones that, apparently, Lucinda had given to Petra to use, as long as he promised to return them (with interest). The Guildacker's wings were covered in some sort of sparkling purple webbing. Albert reached up to touch it, but Leroy stopped him.

“That's that crazy moss stuff that made my fingers go all balloony on me last term.”

“Oh, yikes.” Albert pulled his hand away just in time.

“I had to wear special gloves for that part,” Petra said. He stepped up beside Albert in the shadows cast by the Guildacker float's widespread wings.

“This is really awesome, Petra. But what's it for?” Albert asked.

Petra bobbed on his toes. “The Float Parade, of course!”

Albert just stared.

“Oh, riiiight,” Petra squeaked. “You don't know about the parade. Technically, it's usually just for Pures, since we're the only ones here during the holidays.”

Birdie hopped down from the Guildacker's back, careful not to mess it up with her boots. “I've never heard of it.”

Even Leroy shook his head. “I'm coming up empty, dudes.”

“It's only the biggest Pure event of the year,” Petra explained, eyes as wide as the coins on the float. “First there's the Float Parade. Then there's a dance and a dinner, and whoever's float gets the most votes wins. It's a
huge
Core tradition for the Pures. And since you guys are here for the emergency session, the Professors have decided that everyone gets to join!”

“I can't wait!” Birdie giggled and clapped. “And you're so going to win the float competition. It looks just like Jadar!”

“I was hoping you'd say that,” Petra's cheeks grew red
as cherries. “And I might have also been hoping that you three would, um, ride on the float. Please say yes! It'll be just like last year, when you guys saved Calderon! The entire Core will go nuts when they see it!”

Albert didn't really like being in the spotlight. He was good at saving the world from behind the scenes, then slipping quietly away with his best friends and dog.

But Petra looked so excited, and Albert couldn't even imagine how much time his friend had put into building this thing. It was cooler the longer he looked at it, with tons of detail. Even the Guildacker's claws looked razor-sharp, made of copper pipes that Petra had somehow chiseled into outspread talons.

“I'm game if you guys are,” Albert said.

“It would be an honor, bro,” Leroy said, patting Petra on the back.

“I'll do it on one condition,” Birdie piped up. Her arms were crossed, and Albert knew she wouldn't back down. “I'll ride the Guildacker, even go to the dance . . .
if
I don't have to wear a dress.”

All three of the boys laughed. Petra was at such a loss for words that Albert knew instantly he'd made the right choice.

The four of them piled their hands on top of one another's. Farnsworth laid a paw on top of the pile.

“Deal,” Albert said. “We're definitely going to win.”