Keys to the Demon Prison (Fablehaven #5)(49)

"Do you know her?"


Bracken looked inexplicably uncomfortable. "All unicorns know the Fairy Queen." After a brief pause, he smiled and clapped Seth on the arm. "Come with me, I want to show you something. I figured you could use some cheering up after your interlude with the Sphinx."


Seth followed Bracken out into the passage. They travelled the opposite direction from when they had visited Maddox. Bracken guided Seth through a secret door, up a crude stairway, through a crawl space, out a hidden hatchway, and down a cramped hall. Near the end of the hallway Bracken stopped.


"I'm about to show you my favorite place."


"Okay," Seth said, suitably curious.


"I mean my favorite place in the dungeon."


"I get it."


Bracken simultaneously pressed and turned two stones, and a section of the wall swiveled open, turning on a central pivot. As Bracken led the way through the entrance, he extinguished his stone and felt along the wall. He flipped a switch and overhead lights turned on, along with a few lamps and a pair of ceiling fans.


"No way," Seth breathed. Five pinball machines lined one wall. Three dartboards hung on another. A pool table helped fill the middle of the room, balls racked and ready. Nearby stood a ping-pong table and a Foosball table. On one side of the room, three leather couches huddled around a flat-screen television. A large weight machine dominated the far corner of the room, flanked by a treadmill and a rack of free weights. A huge jukebox stood to one side of the secret entrance.


Seth wandered over to the Foosball table. Indians versus cowboys.


"Recognize it?" Bracken asked.


"Why?"


"Because you went straight to it, and it just barely showed up."


Seth nodded. "I think I played Foosball against the Sphinx on this table when I first met him. Or one just like it. Kendra did too."


"This room is our best evidence that the Sphinx knows we sneak around down here," Bracken said. "In fact, with what you mentioned about the Foosball table, we can consider it a certainty. He uses this room to incentivize good behavior. If we act up, things disappear. Sometimes the room is left empty. As we behave, items show up. It has never been openly acknowledged that this place exists. Welcome to the dungeon rec center."


"Does the TV work?"


"Everything works. The TV gets lots of channels."


"How did he get electricity down here?"


"Wires?"


"Right." Seth walked over to a pinball machine. He tapped the flipper buttons.


"The yellow button starts the game," Bracken advised. "Who has the high score?"


"Me. On all of them."


Seth turned to face Bracken. "I'm going to take you down."


"I'd like to see that," Bracken chuckled. "I have pretty good reflexes, and I've been playing them for almost forty years."


Seth frowned. "I bet you're pretty good at pool."


"I've had a little practice."


Seth shrugged. "I can live with getting schooled. It would sure beat sitting on my cot listening to the water drip."


"Agreed."


Seth ran a hand along the pool table. "If we start a riot, all of this will go away."


Bracken crossed to a rack on the wall and selected a cue. "This room will be empty for years. And they'll do their best to seal up as many passageways as they can find."


Seth selected a cue for himself. "Do we have a chance of succeeding?"


Bracken chalked the tip of his stick. "Not much. But I'm not willing to let the world end without a fight so I can keep playing ping-pong."


"Then we should probably enjoy this room while we have it."


Bracken twirled the cue stick expertly. "My sentiments exactly." He crouched over the table and sent the cue ball rocketing into the others.


Chapter 11 Vanessa's Secret


Kendra swam in a shallow, syrupy lake. The viscous liquid made it a challenge for her to keep her head up, but she didn't want to touch the bottom, either, populated as it was with slimy, squirmy creatures that might bite or sting. The brownish scum on the surface pulled and wrinkled as she carved a slow path through it, arms and legs churning awkwardly. She could not see the shore. Her only landmarks were dead limbs protruding from the mire.


Grandma jostled her shoulder, and Kendra jerked awake, relieved to be free of the uncomfortable dream, but somewhat confused because she saw no evidence of daybreak. A glance at the clock on the nightstand confirmed that it was 3:22 A.M.


"What's going on?" Kendra asked, fear dispelling her drowsiness.


"No great emergency," Grandma soothed. "We're about to learn Vanessa's secret."


Kendra bolted upright. "What is it?"


"Visitors," Grandma said. "Stan, Tanu, and Warren are meeting them at the gate."


"It could be a trick," Kendra warned. What if they admitted a pair of dragons in human form? Or that wizard Mirav?