Vanessa nodded. "I'm not surprised they tried to use psychics to test the Oculus. Let me guess. They also tried to read your mind."
"Yes."
"And they failed?"
"They seemed really puzzled."
"I bit you, Kendra, but I could never take control of you. Your mind is shielded. None of those enemies are of serious interest except for the Sphinx and Mr. Lich. Despite her delusions, Torina is really just a minor player. I'm curious about the person in the mask. Could it have been the prisoner from the Quiet Box?"
"It could have been anyone," Grandma said.
"I have a warning for both of you," Vanessa said. "The Sphinx is a supremely patient man. He would not have dropped all pretenses like this unless he saw a clear path to his destination. Count on the fact that he has a plan to secure all of the artifacts. Beware. He is very good at anticipating contingencies. As you move to stop him, you may find yourselves playing into his hands."
"We're aware of the dangers," Grandma assured her.
"Let me fill you in on some history. For centuries, the leader of the Society of the Evening Star has been a brilliant mastermind named Rhodes. Over the years, rumors abounded as to his actual identity. A cunning blix lord. A wizard. A demon. At times, the Society thought he had died or lost interest, but he always resurfaced. He was patient. And immensely secretive. None of us ever stood in his presence.
"Over the past decade, Rhodes became more active than ever. As did our great archenemy, the Sphinx. With my talent, I am always uncovering information. Not long before I was assigned to recover the artifact from Fablehaven, bits and pieces began to add up, and I found myself among a small group of Society members who suspected that the Sphinx and Rhodes might be the same person.
"Having now confirmed that the Sphinx and Rhodes are indeed one and the same, and that he was working for the benefit of the Society, the members of the Society will be enthused as never before. Many members have grown dormant over the years, but this news will swell the ranks of the active. Clearly, after centuries of waiting, the end is near."
"I've never heard of Rhodes," Grandma said.
"Like I said, he was very secretive," Vanessa replied. "Much more so than even the Sphinx. We could only utter his name under certain conditions."
"Torina called him the Sphinx," Kendra mentioned.
"I'm not surprised," Vanessa said. "We used to call Rhodes the Lodestar. But he will now be using his surprise identity as the Sphinx to build morale. Ruth, Kendra, he has spent centuries researching how the artifacts work so that when he found them he would be ready. Count on the fact that he will move swiftly to recover the other artifacts, and shortly thereafter he will unlock the demon prison."
"Thank you for the warning," Grandma said. "Is that all?"
"I just want to make sure you understand that I intend to use my abilities to spy on the Society," Vanessa said. "I'll share information as I learn it. I won't take control of any of you while you sleep. If I do, you would be welcome to kill me."
"What if you share secrets with our enemies while you're off inhabiting sleepers?" Grandma challenged.
"First, don't give me secrets to share. Second, you desperately need information--the threat posed by the Sphinx is both real and immediate. Third, to a minor extent, yes, you need to trust me a little. I won't disappoint you."
"You've already sold Stan," Grandma sighed. "You know my suspicions about your pretenses at reform. I would love to be proven wrong." Grandma opened the cell door.
"Wait," Kendra said. "Do you know who placed the knapsack in my room?"
Vanessa regarded her thoughtfully. "I have some suspicions. But they are part of the secret I must keep. Take heart knowing that we have secret allies."
"Come on, Kendra," Grandma huffed. "We'll find few answers here. Don't waste your breath with more questions."
"Good-bye for now," Vanessa said. "See you," Kendra replied.
* * *
Snow no longer descended from the murky sky, and snowplows had mostly cleared the roads, but Grandma pulled into the parking lot of the Courtesy Inn cautiously. Even at moderate speeds, the SUV had slid several times on the icy streets.
The Courtesy Inn was a large wooden lodge with a mostly vacant, halfway cleared parking lot. Grandma piloted the SUV into a stall. Tanu went inside to check in and scope out the place while the others waited in the car. Seth wished Grandma would turn down the heater, but the vents kept gushing warm air.
"I'm going to die of heatstroke in the snow," he mumbled. It was his third complaint about the temperature. Grandma ignored him. He briefly considered taking off his shirt in protest.
"It is a little warm," Warren remarked.
"This vehicle is not a democracy," Grandma replied.
A few minutes later, Tanu returned with two keycards. They collected their bags and entered the inn. Flames danced in the lobby fireplace, and the air carried the odor of lemon-scented cleansers. They rode up an elevator to the second floor and marched down a carpeted hall to a pair of neighboring doors.
Warren entered first, checking the room thoroughly while the others lingered in the hallway. After what seemed like a long wait, Warren exited and unlocked the second room. Grandma, Tanu, Kendra, and Seth went into the first room.
"I'll take the rollaway," Tanu offered.
"I'm smaller," Kendra said.
"I'm security," Tanu countered. "Don't argue."
The plan was for Grandma, Kendra, and Tanu to sleep in here while Seth and Warren took the adjoining room. Seth unwrapped the tiny bar of soap beside the sink. There came a brisk knock on the door that internally connected the two rooms.
Seth hustled over. "What's the password?"
"Passwords are for sissies," Warren's muffled voice responded.
"Works for me," Seth said, unlocking the door and opening it.
"The rooms look clean," Warren pronounced. "Hopefully we'll have a long, dull night."
Seth grabbed his suitcase and took it into his room. It was a mirror image of the first room, minus the rollaway. As he heaved his suitcase onto the bed, he caught a flicker of motion in the far corner by the window.
He turned, staring at the empty corner. Was the window open? Had the curtain blown sideways? Everyone else was in the other room.
Staring hard, he abruptly caught another flicker, a hand flashing briefly into view along with part of a leg. The body parts appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly. Seth cried out and stumbled away from the corner.
Warren raced into the room. He stopped short, looking around. "Was that a drill?"
Seth narrowed his eyes, staring hard. "I think there's something in the corner."
"That corner?" Warren asked.
A full body pulsed temporarily into view--a tall, thin goblin with a knobby head, a shriveled nose, and jutting tusks. His skin was all shiny pinks and oranges, like burn scars. "See!" Seth yelled, jumping back again.
"I didn't see anything," Warren said, producing a pair of knives, one longer than the other.
Tanu stood in the doorway, a blowgun in his hand. "I don't see anything either."
"Either there is a goblin standing in that corner, or I'm going nuts," Seth insisted, voice quavering. The goblin was not currently visible.
Holding both knives ready, Warren advanced toward the corner. The goblin flashed back into view, irregular nostrils flaring, glaring at Seth. "I see him again," Seth announced, pointing.
Warren hurled the smaller knife at the corner. Twisting, the goblin sprang sideways, barely dodging the blade. The knife lodged in the wall. Wrenching the knife free, the goblin charged Warren.
"The knife vanished!" Warren said.
"Here he comes!" Seth warned. The goblin no longer pulsed in and out of view. Seth saw the creature clearly.
Tanu came up beside Seth. "Where is he?"
Warren backed away, blindly swinging his long knife.
The goblin avoided the desperate swipes and slashed Warren across the chest. Warren lunged forward, but the goblin sidestepped the knife thrust and used Warren's momentum to hurl him to the floor.
"There," Seth said, pointing.
Tanu exhaled powerfully.
The goblin paused, staring at the small feathered dart protruding from his wrist. He staggered, swayed, steadied himself, then toppled to the floor, landing hard.
"Is that Vanessa's blowgun?" Seth asked.
"Yeah," Tanu said. "1 sweetened the sleep potion on the darts to a nearly lethal dosage."
Seth gestured at the fallen goblin. "Can you see him now?"
"Nope."
Warren staggered to his feet, probing the bloody stripe across his chest.
"Deep?" Tanu asked.
"I have leather armor under my shirt," Warren said. "The freak still gave me a good scratch. I keep my knives sharp." Warren crouched, recovering his throwing knife from where it had fallen.
Vicious snarling erupted out in the hallway. Tanu tossed Seth a potion. He pulled out two more potions and stepped into the adjoining room. "Go gaseous!" he instructed Grandma and Kendra.
Seth had used the gaseous potion over the summer. It would transform him into a vaporous version of himself. As a gas, nothing that he knew of would be able to harm him, but he would also lose the ability to assist Warren and Tanu.
Instead of drinking the potion, he knelt beside the goblin. What was making it invisible to the others? Seth guessed it had to be some sort of magical item, like Coulter's glove. The goblin wore simple clothes: a black silk shirt, loose black shorts, and sandals. Tucked in his belt were a pair of long, sharp knitting needles and a strangle cord. A conspicuous silver bracelet adorned one sinewy forearm.
Seth tore the bracelet free and put it on. The goblin remained visible, as did his own body. In the past, when Seth had worn Coulter's magic glove and held still, his body had become transparent, even to himself. But since his eyes somehow saw through the goblin's trick, he had no way to gauge whether he had cloaked himself from view or merely stolen a gaudy piece of jewelry.
Warren and Tanu had charged into the hallway, and Seth heard more snarling, fie raced out of the room and gawked at the scene down the hall where Tanu and Warren were confronting a gray wolf nearly the size of a horse. The overgrown canine already had three feathered darts visible in its fur, along with Warren's throwing knife. The ferocious wolf snapped repeatedly at Warren, who was barely holding the animal at bay by gradually retreating and slashing its muzzle with his long knife. Tanu fired another dart from the blowgun, then dropped the weapon to scrabble through his potion bag.
Grandma emerged from her room, crossbow in one hand, the potion Tanu had given her in the other.
[drawing: Grandma is pointing a crossbow at a large, winged creature at the end of a long hall.]
Seth grinned. Apparently he wasn't the only person unwilling to go gaseous and miss the action. Grandma stared right through Seth at the combat with the wolf, then raised her weapon, taking careful aim. Seth lurched aside. Behind Grandma, the window at the end of the hall exploded in a shower of jagged shards as a muscular, winged creature crashed through it.
Grandma whirled as the horned gargoyle, body scratched and bleeding, scrambled to its feet and raced down the hall, trident in hand, wings folded. She held the crossbow level and let a quarrel fly. When the projectile disappeared into the creature's head, the gargoyle lurched backward and collapsed to the floor as if he had bashed his face against an invisible beam.
Seth turned around to see the wolf backing away from Warren, legs wobbly, muzzle torn and wet. Tanu held a potion near his lips. Warren brandished the long knife. The wolf's legs buckled and it slumped heavily to the floor, a motionless heap of fur and blood.
The bracelet on Seth's arm felt steadily warmer. He removed it just as it was becoming unbearable to touch. Tossing the bracelet aside, he saw it disappear in a flash before hitting the floor.
"Seth?" Grandma exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"
"The goblin had some kind of invisibility bracelet. It got hot and disintegrated."
"It may have run out of energy," Grandma said. "Or it may have been protected by a self-destruct spell in case it was stolen."
Warren and Tanu conferred briefly. Warren trotted down the hall toward the lobby, while Tanu came toward Grandma and Seth. "Thanks for dropping the gargoyle, Ruth," Tanu said. "It must have tracked us from the air when we left Fablehaven. We aren't safe here. We should collect our things. Warren is going to make sure the coast is clear."
A wispy, ethereal version of Kendra drifted out of her room. She gazed at the fallen gargoyle and wolf.
"Don't worry, Kendra," Seth said, swiping a hand through her insubstantial body. "I'll grab your suitcase."
Chapter 11 Gate-Crasher
Kendra awoke tucked between crisp sheets. She had a kink in her neck from sleeping on too many pillows. With the shades drawn, the hotel room was mostly dark, but she could hear the shower running. She sat up to check the clock. The display read 8:23 A.M.
Stretching, she groaned. They had driven for more than an hour the previous night before choosing a new hotel. Tanu and Warren had dragged the bulky wolf and gargoyle outside and left them in the garbage bin.
The wiry goblin was currently bound and gagged in the other room with Seth and Warren. Tanu had left them with extra sleeping potion to administer to the grotesque prisoner. Their rooms did not adjoin this time, although they shared the same hallway.
Kendra heard the shower stop running. She fought free from her tight sheets and slid out of bed.