"Hold them!" Mr. Zetes shouted, and began beating Sasha and Parte King with his cane. "Hold them all!
Hold them all!"
Kaitlyn heard the savage swishing sound of the cane, and the dull thud of the blows. She saw Gabriel's face tighten, saw it go grim with purpose. The shard quivered, moved an inch toward the crystal.
"Gabriel," Mr. Zetes said. "Think of all your ambitions. You wanted to go to the top. Have everything good. Money, power, position-all the things in life you deserve."
Gabriel was panting, sweat trickling down his temples.
"Recognition of your superiority-you'll never have any of it without me," Mr. Z went on frantically. "What about all that, Gabriel? Everything you always
wanted?" Gabriel lifted his head just enough to look Mr. Z in the eye. "The hell with it." Then he gritted his teeth and the shard moved again.
Mr. Zetes lost control.
He began to scream, shrill and piercing, and to beat Sasha again. "Stop him! Stop him! Stop him!"
Sasha's voice rose, too, for the first time since Kaitlyn had seen him. "Muh-muh! Muhhhh! Muhhhh!
Mooooootheeerrrr!"
Kaitlyn screamed herself then. She was crying wildly, fighting the air.
Then suddenly the drag disappeared. The air was air again. Everything that happened next happened in an instant, so that Kaitlyn's mind took it in like a still photograph, receiving the impressions before she could really process them.
She was moving freely. Sasha had turned to look at Mr. Zetes. She could see Sasha's face, not white anymore, but red with the fury of a squalling infant. And then Mr. Zetes was flying toward the crystal, flying, as if a giant hand had thrown him. He smashed into it, into its heavy solidity and sword-sharp outcrops at the same instant that Gabriel thrust the shard forward like a rapier.
It all happened at once. Although Kaitlyn's body was free there was no time to do anything, only time for one thought, sent out to her mind-mates as she saw the shard stab toward the crystal. With Gabriel still holding it-Protect Gabriel! Put your thoughts-around him-
The words weren't very clear, but her intent was. She felt everyone in the web, Rob, Lewis, and Anna, joining with her to help shield Gabriel's mind from the destruction.
Mr. Z's high, keening wail came at the same instant, just as the shard made contact with one translucent facet of the crystal.
And then-
There were all sorts of sounds woven together in the great crashing that came next. There was the sound of an axe crashing through glass, and the sound of a sonic boom that rattled the windows. There was the rushing sound of a freight train passing by very close. There was a metallic sound like all the pots and pans in a kitchen falling to a tile floor at once. There was the rumble of thunder and the cracking of ice on a lake. There was a high, thin sound like the screaming of gulls-or maybe that was Mr. Zetes.
And through all the other sounds, underneath them, Kaitlyn thought she could hear music-the kind of music you think you hear when water is crashing through copper pipes.
There was light, too. The kind of light you expect to see just before a mushroom-shaped cloud. Kaitlyn's eyes squeezed shut automatically, and her hand flew up to protect her face, but she saw it through her eyelids.
Colors that her pastels and ink bottles had never prepared her for. Aureolin yellow with a brightness off the scales. Dragon's blood crimson spreading into tongues of lava pink fire. Ultraviolet silvery blue.
They burst like fireworks, sweeping to the edges of her vision, overlapping each other, bright explosion after bright explosion.
And then they stopped. Kaitlyn saw rainbow afterimages, beautiful fiery lattices printed on her eyelids.
Very cautiously she opened her eyes, lifting her hand away from her face.
A cobalt green stain still colored her vision, but she could see again. The great milky crystal was dust on the ground, glassy dust in the shape of a giant stone plant, or a Christmas tree ornament. The largest bits left were pebble size.
Mr. Zetes, who had been touching the crystal at the moment it shattered, was gone. Just gone. Nothing left but the gold-topped cane that had fallen from his hand.
Sasha and Parte King were lying still. Their faces were frozen into a look of empty astonishment-not peaceful, but not anguished, either. In her heart, Kaitlyn was sorry she'd called them the human pupae.
They had been human beings.
Everyone else was standing pretty much where they had been before the crash. They were all lifting their heads or lowering their hands, staring.
"It's over," Lewis whispered finally. "We did it. It's over."
Kaitlyn was beginning to realize the same thing. Bri and Renny were gazing around them like sleepwalkers who'd just woken up. Free of the influence of the crystal at last, Kait thought. She looked at Gabriel. He was looking at his hand which had held the shard. The palm was pink, as if he'd been lightly burned.
"Did the shard go, too?" Kaitlyn asked.
He turned his gray eyes on her, as if startled to hear a voice. Then he looked back at his hand again.
"Yes," he said, blinking. "When the crystal did. It felt-I can't explain it. It was like lightning in my hand. I felt the power go through it. And the power- it felt like Timon. Like Timon and Mereniang and LeShan-all of them. It was as if they were in there, rushing out." He looked up again, almost furtively. "I guess that sounds crazy."
"No, it doesn't," Rob said, his voice strong. "It sounds right. I believe you."
Gabriel looked at him, just a look. But after that he held his head up, and the startled, furtive expression was gone.
Kaitlyn felt something like carbonated water begin to bubble in her veins. "We did it," she said. She looked at each of her mind-mates, and at Lydia, and suddenly she needed to shout. "You guys, we did it!" "I said that already," Lewis said with force. And then it was like a roller coaster gathering speed.
Everybody seemed to feel the need to say it, and then to yell it, and then to yell louder to be heard over the other yells. People began to tell one another and then to hug one another or pound one another on the back to drive the point home. Kaitlyn found herself shaking Lydia and kissing Gabriel. Rob, somehow unchained, was wringing Anna's long braids.
Bri and Renny were part of the celebration, punching each other and whooping with gathering intensity.
Joyce was crying, clutching with one hand at Kaitlyn's back and whispering something Kait couldn't hear.
Lydia was a full member of the winning team, being socked in the arm over and over by Lewis.
But three people weren't. Tamsin knelt by the two dead boys on the floor. Her tilted eyes were wet as she gently closed their eyelids.
And Frost and Jackal Mac were stiff as statues, watching the wild release of energy around them with frightened, hostile eyes. Kaitlyn saw them and raised her arms to Frost.
"Come on," she said. "Don't worry; be happy. Let's all try to deal with each other, okay?"
It wasn't the warmest invitation, maybe, but Kaitlyn thought that under the circumstances it was pretty generous. But Frost's pale blue eyes flashed. Jackal Mac's face turned ugly.
They looked at each other, then with one accord they rushed for the door. Kaitlyn was too surprised to try to stop them, and
by the time she recovered, she wasn't sure she wanted to. The yelling and cheering had died out, and she looked at Rob, who had taken half a step toward the door.
"I think we should just let them go," she said.
He glanced back, then nodded slowly. Gabriel and Lewis settled back reluctantly. Kaitlyn could hear running footsteps up above, then the bang of a door.
Then, silence. In the stillness, Joyce's whispering could be heard.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for everything."
Kaitlyn turned.
Joyce's aquamarine eyes were red-rimmed. Her face was shiny with tears and perspiration, her normally sleek blond hair ruffled like a baby chick's. Her pink sweat clothes looked damp and bedraggled.
She also looked like a sleepwalker who has just woken up.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "The things I've done. The terrible things. I... I..."
Kaitlyn looked at her helplessly. Then she said, "Tamsin!"
The head with the clustered yellow curls lifted. Tamsin saw Joyce and got up. She looked into Joyce's face, then she took Joyce by the elbow and led her toward the open door.
"The firestones can cast a powerful spell," Kait heard her saying softly. "Their influence can be very strong-and recovery can take a long time. . . ."
Kaitlyn was satisfied. Although Tamsin looked younger than Joyce, there was a sort of ageless wisdom and understanding about her. Joyce was listening as they disappeared.
Kait turned back to find her mind-mates grinning at her.
Good job, Lewis said, and Anna said, I hope she's
okay.
Bri and Renny were smiling, too. The atmosphere of wild jubilation had quieted, but a kind of dizzy glow remained.
"Let's go upstairs," Rob said, taking Kaitlyn's hand.
"Yes, I'd better change." Kaitlyn glanced down at the bathing suit and grinned wryly. "And I'm sure there are things to take care of-God, the police, I guess. We're going to have to explain all this somehow."
"I wanna get out of here before that," Bri said.
Kaitlyn looked behind her, held out her free hand to Gabriel. "Come on, you . . . hero. I want to tell you what I think of you."