THE TEMPLE

Finding the stream wasn’t difficult. The forest had come to life thanks to luminescent mushrooms that were stuck to virtually every rock and tree. They cast the dense landscape in a strange yet beautiful glow. Firefly Pixies added their glimmer to the mix as they danced through the forest to the musical sounds of night creatures.

“I’ve never seen anything this beautiful,” Natalia said after one of the pixies blew her a kiss.

Being the jealous sort, as most faeries were, Honeysuckle rolled her eyes. She despised others of her kind, particularly if they were beautiful, so when one of the Firefly Pixies flew too close, she leaped from Brooke’s shoulder to chase it away.

“What do you think, Sumner?” Xander asked as the Relic Hunters stood beneath the canopy of trees.

Max looked around the clearing. Yi was glowing like an ember as he stood next to Ernie. Raven had the hood of her jacket pulled tightly over her head, and the Toad brothers kept looking over their shoulders and into the shadows of the forest whenever they heard a noise.

“I think we should send Ernie ahead to scout things out,” Max finally said. “According to the map, we should be close, but we don’t know if anyone is waiting for us.”

Ernie raised his eyebrows, surprised that Max would pick him for the task.

“Like Von Strife?” Denton asked. “Is that why you’re sending Tweeny? Because he’s going to lead us to another trap?”

“What did you say?” Harley moved toward Denton with clenched fists.

Max stepped between them. “Let it go. Both of you.”

“Are you up for it, Agent Thunderbolt?” Xander said, ignoring Denton’s protest.

“I guess,” Ernie said, shrugging. He looked over at Denton, who was seething.

“Of course he is,” Natalia said. She winked at Ernie, who offered a half smile in return.

Without another word, Ernie raced away. Vegetation swayed as he shot through the forest. He leaped over gnarled tree roots and skirted around oversized toadstools. Agent Thunderbolt was moving so fast that the night creatures had no idea he had come and gone.

“What took you so long?” Harley asked when Ernie returned less than a minute later. Though he had spanned more than a half mile in less time than it took some people to tie their shoes, he wasn’t sweating or breathing abnormally.

“I found the temple,” Ernie said to Xander as light from the iridescent mushrooms reflected in his brass goggles. “It’s not very far.”

“What about Von Strife?” Xander asked.

Ernie lowered his eyes. “I didn’t see anyone,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

“Clocks?”

“Nothing.”

“Why do I feel like we’re walking into a trap?” Xander asked, biting his lower lip.

“See? I’m not the only one,” Denton said.

“I don’t like it either, but Ernie doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Max said, his voice terse. “Something isn’t right, but I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

“Here’s the thing,” Xander said. “If this mission is so important, why is it our field test? I mean, don’t you think they should have sent a THOR unit or something?”

“That’s what I would have done,” Max said. “But Strange doesn’t think like most people do. He must have a reason for sending us instead. Let’s just hope he’s right.”

Xander sighed before turning to the rest of the group. “This is it,” he said. “I need Denton at the rear. Agent Thunderbolt, you take the lead. Raven and Yi will go in the middle. You guys can see farther than the rest of us. Everybody else, fall in line and keep your eyes open. We could be walking into a trap.”

Ernie led the Relic Hunters—including the other changelings, despite their reluctance to follow him—to a clearing that was dominated by a massive stone structure covered in vines. A waterfall roared in the distance, blanketing the landscape in a thick mist that made it difficult to see.

“It looks just like it did in the SIM Chamber,” Todd said.

“That’s the point,” Raven said. “Let’s get this over with so we can go home.”

“Hold on,” Xander said, grabbing her arm as she started for the path that led to the temple. “Has anyone seen Professor Strange?”

“He said he’d be watching us,” Todd said. “Maybe he’s using hidden cameras or something.”

“He’s here; we just can’t see him,” Max said.

“I hope you’re right,” Xander said before turning to Catalina. “You’re up first.”

Catalina nodded, but her Bounder imp shook as he hid behind her. He scampered up her legs and clung to her like a frightened child.

“It’s okay, Scuttlebutt,” Catalina whispered in his ear. “You’re going to do great.”

Scuttlebutt’s bottom lip quivered. He looked like he was about to cry, but Catalina patted his back before starting through the undergrowth toward the temple. The others followed in single file, watching the shadows for any sign of trouble.

The only way to open the door to the temple was from the inside, which meant that Catalina’s Bounder had to dig his way in. She placed him next to the wall and knelt down to stroke his cheek. “Are you ready?”

The imp shook his head.

“Sure you are,” Catalina said. “We’ve done this dozens of times in the SIM Chamber. All you need to do is make a tunnel so you can reach the lever on the wall inside. We’ll be back together before you know it.”

The Digger imp sighed before wiping a glob of snot from his nose. Then he turned around and went to work. With long fingers, the imp tore into the soft earth. Dirt sprayed into the air, and before long Scuttlebutt had dug a hole deep enough and wide enough that he was already beneath the temple.

“Has anybody seen any Vampire Pixies?” Ross asked.

“Not yet,” Todd said. He was wearing a string of garlic around his neck as he carried a wooden stake in one hand and a hammer in the other. Ross had an identical set.

The group heard what sounded like two boulders scraping together before the doorway into the temple slid open. When the dust settled, Scuttlebutt was standing there weeping.

“You did it,” Catalina said.

As she smothered the imp with kisses, Natalia adjusted the arms on her Phantasmoscope to check the faerie spectrum for any magical traps or trip wires.

“I don’t see anything,” Natalia said from the doorway.

Harley slipped his backpack off his shoulders to unzip the front pouch. He pulled out an iron sphere that was the size of a grapefruit and hit a button, and a stem popped out. After Harley wound it up, the gears started to crank, and the sphere came to life. It lifted into the air with at least a dozen beams of blue light shooting into the darkness. He followed that up with five more spheres, and soon the drones were scanning the interior of the temple, looking for traps.

“I made a few adjustments last night,” he said as he watched his machines. “The sensors should pick up any loose stones or unusual cracks in the walls.”

The drones lit the interior of the temple in a ghostly blue. The only other light was coming from a skylight, which cast a single ray of moonlight over a pedestal.

Thanks to the faerie blood that coursed through him, Ernie didn’t need very much light in order to see.

He took a careful step through the doorway, half expecting the door to crash down on his head. It didn’t. Once inside, Ernie got down on his hands and knees to wipe the sand away from the floor.

“It’s just like the SIM Chamber,” he said once he saw the first stone. Then he looked up into the recesses of the ceiling, wondering if there were any Vampire Pixies waiting for them in the shadows.