"You found another one!" Kendra cried.
"When we first spoke, I discussed the topic of patience. I have exercised great patience for many centuries--learning, preparing, infiltrating. But patience proves futile without the will to take decisive action when the opportune moment arrives. My long-awaited window of opportunity has come at last. I will possess all of the artifacts sooner than you can guess."
"I won't charge it for you."
The Sphinx laughed softly. "The Oculus does not require energy from you. The artifact is functional. We want to see whether you can survive using it."
Kendra looked around the room at the many faces regarding her. "What do you mean?"
"This is the artifact of sight, Kendra. With it, you can see anywhere, everything."
"So why don't you use it to find the remaining artifacts yourself?"
"Most minds cannot handle the vast sensory input available through the Oculus. It has already put four of our best people into catatonic stupors. Given how your status as fairykind shields your mind from certain magic, we want to see if you fare any better than our colleagues."
"I refuse," Kendra said.
"If we force your hand onto the sphere, Kendra, it will surely overpower your mind. But if you participate voluntarily, and I guide you, there is a chance you will survive."
"If you fry my brain, you'll never learn what I know about the artifacts."
"We already know so much," the Sphinx said. "We received an extensive e-mail from the stingbulb facsimile we created of you. She felt suspicious she had been followed on her way back from the mailbox, so she risked electronic surveillance and sent the e-mail as a backup. She explained that your grandfather has the Chronometer at Fablehaven and that Patton Burgess left clues regarding some of the remaining artifacts. We know those clues wait in a hidden room beyond the Hall of Dread in the Fablehaven dungeon. We already have a plan in motion to recover the information. Our facsimile could not recall exactly how to access the room. They never remember everything. I'd love that information, if you have it--the password or trigger--but we'll get into the room with or without you. I'd love your help translating the journal, but we'll find someone who reads the required tongue with or without you. What I really want is to see if you can survive the Oculus. It is arguably the most powerful of the five artifacts. Mastering it is my highest priority. I am optimistic that you can survive."
Kendra had no idea what to say.
"Consider this, Kendra," the Sphinx continued. "If you succeed in mastering the Oculus, you can look anywhere, discern anything, and we will be none the wiser. You might find knowledge that will help you escape us, or beat us to the next artifact. There are plenty of self-interested reasons for you to look. The possibilities are endless."
"Then why give me a chance?" Kendra asked. "So you can torture the information out of me later?"
"Right now, a man in this town is at the local post office watching box 101 in hopes of intercepting a murderer. This man is here on behalf of your grandparents, hoping to catch the people who killed their granddaughter. I know what the man looks like. I want you to use the Oculus to describe him to me in detail. That is the first test. Will you try voluntarily?"
"You wish," Kendra spat.
The Sphinx glanced at Mr. Lich. The tall henchman grabbed Kendra's arm just below the elbow, dragged her out of her chair, and lowered her unwilling hand toward the Oculus.
"Wait," Kendra yelled. "I'll do it! Don't force me! I'll do it."
"Now?" the Sphinx asked. "Now."
The Sphinx nodded and Mr. Lich released her. Kendra knelt beside the table, considering the intricate facets of the crystal globe. "You will want to close your eyes," the Sphinx instructed. "The Oculus will become your organ of sight. Many visions will compete for your attention. Your task will be to ignore the massive interference and focus your gaze on the post office. Find the man. It will be visually disorienting. If you lose control, you have permission to remove your hand from the crystal. Describe what you see, and I will help talk you through it."
"And if it blows my mind and I go insane?" Kendra asked.
"Another casualty of our conflict. I wish you well. Relax and focus."
Kendra took a deep breath. Unable to dream up another option, she extended a trembling hand toward the crystal. Tiny rainbows winked inside the glimmering sphere. When her fingers were almost there, she closed her eyes.
The instant her fingers came into contact with the cool surface, it looked like her eyes had opened, even though she could clearly feel that they were still closed. She stared at the Sphinx. Then she realized that she could also see Mr. Lich standing behind her, as if she had a second pair of eyes in the back of her head. No, more than that. She could see forward and backward, up and down, left and right, all at the same time. There were no blind spots.
"I can see in all directions," Kendra said.
"Good," the Sphinx encouraged. "Keep looking and your vision will broaden."
He was right! Now not only could she see in all directions, she could also see herself, as if she had eyes outside of her body. She could see the Sphinx from the front, back, top, and sides. She could see the room from hundreds of different angles, not fragmented or compartmentalized, but part of a single seamless mind-warping image. Trying to ponder the perspective made her feel dizzy.
"Now I can see the room from every direction," Kendra said.
"You can also see beyond the room," the Sphinx said.
Kendra tried to move her vision out into the hallway, and the view expanded suddenly, hitting her with a sensation like vertigo. She could now see every room in the house from multiple vantages. It was like her mind was hooked up to thousands of security cameras, but instead of looking from one screen to the next, she was seeing through all of the cameras simultaneously. There was the leopard shark prowling the library. There was Torina fussing over an elaborate lunch in the kitchen. There was Cody playing chess with Haden. There were imps scurrying through the walls of the house like rats. It was hard to focus on anything specific, because she perceived too much. "I see Torina in the kitchen. I see the whole house."
"Move your vision outside. Examine the town. Find the post office. Find the man."
As her vision expanded beyond the walls of the house, the feeling inside Kendra was similar to taking the first drop on a roller coaster, except she was falling in all directions at once. Her viewpoint extended so that she was looking at the town from high above, peering down on tiny rooftops, while also staring up into the cloudy sky. And gazing down busy streets. And inside houses and shops. She saw into dank sewers, dusty attics, dim garages, and cluttered closets. All at once, she observed every person in town from every angle.
Every room in every building. The exterior and interior of every car. And the brain-tingling vision kept stretching outward, unstoppable now. She looked down on land masses and cloud formations from space. She saw sprawling cities and everyone in them. She observed every cubicle in every skyscraper. She penetrated caves and forests and oceans. She saw cows, deer, birds, snakes, insects. Gophers burrowed in the ground. Dragons perched on lofty crags. She saw inside hospitals and circus tents and prisons. She saw the barren surface of the moon.
Kendra was no longer aware of her body, the crystal, or the Sphinx. She had been rendered powerless by the flood of sensory input, everything viewed at once, all of it in motion. There was too much--it was impossible to even begin to try to process this staggering view of everything. In this moment she was witnessing so much more than she had experienced over the entire course of her life. She couldn't bring anything into focus. She couldn't even think clearly enough to try. Conscious thought had ended, drowned by incomprehensible overstimulation.
Then she noticed something so new and brilliant that it distracted her from everything else. A beautiful face suffused with light. A physical embodiment of purity. The face gazed at Kendra. Not merely in her direction--Kendra somehow knew that, unlike anyone else within her endless view, the radiant woman could see her.
Release the crystal.
The thought came to her mind in a familiar way. Not with words for her ears. It was communication through thought and feeling, mind to mind. Kendra realized that she was seeing the Fairy Queen.
Release the crystal.
What crystal? Then Kendra remembered that she had a body. She was in a room with the Sphinx conducting an experiment. She still saw everything from every angle, but the vision became distant. She concentrated on the brilliant, beautiful face. Faintly, using forgotten senses, she could hear a voice calling her name, and she could feel her fingers touching something.
Release the crystal.
Kendra pulled her hand away from the cool, glassy surface. The vision ended as though somebody had pulled a plug. Kendra fell back on her elbows, blinking, astonished by how limited her sight seemed. She actually had to turn her head to take in the surprised faces around her.
The Sphinx crouched over her, grinning, his teeth white. "Welcome back, Kendra," he said. "You know me, correct?"
"Never again," Kendra gasped.
Everyone in the room murmured. They sounded amazed.
"I thought that perhaps you would see nothing. That your nature as fairykind would totally shield your mind from the vision. But you saw everything and made it out."
"Barely," Kendra said. "I lost all sense of where I was, who I was. There was too much."
"You seemed to slip away once you looked beyond the house," the Sphinx coaxed.
"It was like trying to drink from a tsunami," Kendra said. "How long was I gone?"
"Ten minutes," the Sphinx said. "You were convulsing gently, like the others. We had lost hope that you would return on your own. What brought you back? Once the seizures struck, I expected you to end your days in a vegetative state."
Kendra did not want to tell him about the Fairy Queen. Her realm had to stay hidden. "My Grandma saw me. Grandma Sorenson. She saw me seeing her and told me to release the crystal."
The Sphinx studied Kendra. "I had no idea Ruth was clairvoyant."
Kendra shrugged. "Bottom line? You want me to touch that thing again, you will have to force my hand onto it, and please don't pretend you're doing anything besides erasing my mind. There was no way I could control what I saw. No way to focus. I was nothing."
"You did well, Kendra," the Sphinx said. "If not an outright success, the experiment was instructive. I am convinced the Oculus is beyond your capacity to wield. Having witnessed the others who have tried, I feel there was no way you could have imitated their state of agitation so precisely. We could all tell when the Oculus overpowered you. It was earlier than with any of the others."
Kendra shifted her gaze to the Oculus, glittering innocently on the pillow, like nothing more than a sparkly bauble from a museum collection. Yet never again would she see it as a glimmering work of craftsmanship. The Oculus was a gateway to insanity.
The Sphinx locked eyes with the others in the room one by one. "We are essentially done here. Tomorrow we will move out. Kendra, you may return to your room. Thank you for your cooperation. Get some rest. Plan on departing with us at daybreak."
Chapter 7 Sabotage
As the hammock swayed back and forth, Seth stared up at the naked branches overhead, stark against the hard blue sky. A satyr reclined on a similar hammock to his right, softly playing a flute fashioned from reeds, shirtless despite the cold. A second satyr with redder fur and longer horns lay on a third hammock to the other side, a long striped scarf dangling from his neck to the ground.
"You're right," Seth admitted. "This is the most comfortable bed in the universe."
"Did you doubt us?" Newel blurted, adjusting his woolen scarf. "And we're in view of the yard, so Stan won't be able to come down on you."
"You've fed me and made me really comfortable," Seth said. "I'm guessing you want to ask me something."
"Ulterior motives?" Newel gasped. "I'm shocked and appalled! Can you only conceive of us helping a longtime friend relax if we were buttering him up for a proposition?"
Doren stopped piping. "We're out of batteries again."
"Thought so," Seth said. "Haven't you guys heard of conservation? I gave you a mountain of batteries last time."
Newel folded his arms across his hairy chest. "Have you ever used batteries to power a television? Even a small one? They don't last."
"Plus we watch it nonstop until we run out," Doren added, earning a glare from his comrade.
"This could be another golden opportunity for you," Newel enticed.
"I had to bring back the gold I earned last time," Seth said. "They won't let me keep it. And they're right. It isn't yours to give me. We're stealing from the preserve."
"Stealing?" Newel sputtered. "Seth, hunting for treasure is not stealing. You think trolls like Nero got their hoards through legitimate channels? You think wealth does any good piled in crypts or caves? If currency isn't exchanged, the economy stagnates. We're heroes, Seth. We're keeping the gold in circulation for the benefit of the global marketplace."
"And so we can watch more TV," Doren clarified.
"I really don't feel good about taking any more gold," Seth said. "Removing treasure from Fablehaven is like robbing a museum."
"What about something other than gold?" Newel suggested. "We have loads of wine. We make it ourselves.
Top-notch stuff, worth a hefty sum. If you sold it, you'd make money, and you wouldn't be stealing."