Probably, but we don't know one potion from another,

Kendra said.

I'm not sure I could be much help discerning potions,

Vanessa said. She looked at Warren. Your shirt is soaked.

The shirt bound to his abdomen was indeed drenched in blood. His naked chest was bathed in sweat. I'm all right.

Better than Christopher.

I'm quite good with a sword, Vanessa said.

I can hold my own, Warren replied.

Fair enough, finders keepers, she said. Patience is our best weapon. If we do this right, we can dispatch it without ever touching the ground.

You be our eyes, Kendra, Warren said, lowering himself.

Vanessa sank toward the floor as well. Kendra hovered, watching the baleful panther prowl below, gazing up at the flying people.

Vanessa and Warren floated apart from one another, dipping low enough to bait and tease the panther, rising out of reach when it leaped up at them. Vanessa finally got into a good position and hurled the spear into the panther's ribs.

As the panther moved around, the spear eventually dislodged.

Warren lured the panther away, and Vanessa retrieved the weapon.

They continued baiting the panther until Vanessa harpooned it again. Soon the animal collapsed, and Warren finished it with the sword. Sharp blade, Vanessa remarked.

It cuts deep.410 Weapons ready, they hovered above the floor, watchingas the panther emerged from its own corpse, now the size of a tiger. Before long the glossy black coat had been punctured multiple times with the spear, and the great beast finally succumbed.

You're not doing much with that sword, Vanessa commented.

I'll use it when the time comes, Warren said.

Here comes the seventh life, Vanessa said.

This time, with a mighty roar that echoed through the tall room, the panther was reincarnated standing as tall as a horse, with dagger claws and saber-toothed fangs. Four writhing serpents, black with red markings, grew out of its powerful shoulders.

Now, that's a cat, Warren said.

Warren and Vanessa started baiting the huge panther, but it did not come at them. Instead, it crouched near the center of the room, keeping the pedestal between itself and

Vanessa. They ventured lower and lower trying to tempt the panther to break cover.

Finally, with terrifying suddenness, the panther dashed at Warren and vaulted alarmingly high. Warren fell upwards at full speed, but not before a lashing serpent struck him on the calf. Vanessa was not in an ideal position, but used the opportunity to let the spear fly. It pierced the panther just above a rear leg. Bawling, the panther sprang at her as well, again achieving a phenomenal height, just missing her.

I got nipped on the calf, Warren said.

One of the snakes? Vanessa asked.411 Yeah. Warren rolled up his pant leg to look at the bitemarks.

Below them, the panther crouched near the pedestal, the spear still in its leg. Using small bursts of gravity and kicking her legs, Vanessa made her way awkwardly over to

Warren, moving vaguely like a jellyfish.

You'd better lend me the sword, Vanessa said. It will not be a gentle venom.

One of these potions counteracts poison, Kendra said.

And probably five of them are poison, Vanessa replied.

Time is essential, Warren. I'll need you with me as we face the final forms.

Warren gave her the sword. Vanessa dropped tantalizingly close to the ground, lower than Warren had been when the giant panther reached him. The ferocious feline charged and pounced. Instead of soaring up to escape, as the panther anticipated, Vanessa dropped, and with a sweep of the sword opened a tremendous wound across the great cat's underbelly.

Vanessa hit the ground hard and instantly took flight, but there was no need-the panther was lying on its side, serpents thrashing, body twitching. Warren dropped to the ground and retrieved the spear, then rejoined Vanessa in the air.

We've got another one coming, Vanessa announced as the body began to fold in upon itself. How are you holding up? she asked Warren.

So far so good, he said, but he looked exhausted.

Twin roars resounded through the towering room. The412 panther, much larger now than any horse, had sprouted asecond head. The doubly fierce creature had no snakes or other oddities. It paced beneath them with feral intensity.

You want to bait or throw? Vanessa asked.

I'd better bait, he said, giving her the spear and taking the sword.

Warren went lower, but not much lower. The panther was no longer cowering behind the pedestal; it paced in the open, as if daring them to come closer. Warren still looked to be well out of reach when the panther sprang and from gaping mouths expelled a spray of black sludge. The two-headed panther had not come up directly below Warren, and so the spray came at him diagonally, spattering his chest and legs.

Instantly Warren was screaming. Tendrils of smoke steamed up from where the volatile substance clung to him.

He dropped the sword and brushed frantically at the searing sludge. Thrashing and groaning, Warren rose ever higher until he reached the spikes in the roof and used them to make his way to the catwalk, where he collapsed.

Vanessa and Kendra followed Warren and knelt on the catwalk beside him. His body was charred wherever the sludge had splattered. Acid, or something, he muttered feverishly, eyes wild.

Vanessa cut open his pant leg. The flesh around the snakebite was swollen and discolored.

We can't get him out of here? Kendra asked Vanessa.

The tower will not let us leave without the artifact,

Vanessa said. A safeguard to protect its secrets.413 Can any traps be worse than that thing? Kendra asked.Yes, Vanessa said. The traps that prevent a premature exit will be rigged to cause certain death. The guardian can be defeated; the traps probably cannot. Hand over the potion pouch. Warren is dying. Blind luck is better than none. Vanessa began considering various bottles, uncapping a few to sniff them. Below, the panther heads roared.

No potions, Warren gasped. Give me the spear.

Vanessa gave him a sidelong glance. You're in no condition-

The spear, he said, sitting up.

This might buy you time, Vanessa said, holding up a bottle. I think I recognize the potion. It has a distinctive odor. It will transform your body to a gaseous state. During that time, poison will not spread, acid will not burn, and blood will not flow.

Vanessa held it out to him.

Lips twisting into a grimace, Warren shook his head.

Vanessa held out the spear.

Snatching it, Warren rolled off the edge of the catwalk.

He was controlling his fall with the rod, but descending rapidly. Warren yelled ---- a primal, barbaric challenge. The two-headed panther snarled up at him. Warren cried out again, directly above the feline monstrosity. The monster reared up to meet him, jaws agape.

Holding the spear poised, Warren let himself fall at full speed the final thirty feet, and so it was with tremendous force that he plunged the spear between the two necks an instant before striking the unyielding floor. With more than414 half the length of the spear buried in its body, the mightybeast took a few drunken steps, wobbled, leaned, and slumped to the floor.

Kendra grabbed the bottle from Vanessa and dove off the catwalk. She kept full gravity, and an incredible rush of wind washed over her as she plummeted downward. She whipped the rod around, and her fall began to slow, and then she brought the rod level, coming to a perfect stop beside Warren.

Warren was a wreck, facedown, unconscious, breathing shallowly. Heaving with both hands, Kendra rolled him over, wincing as something inside of him crunched. His mouth was open. Tilting his head up, she tried to ignore the snapping sound his neck made, and dumped the potion into his mouth. His Adam's apple bobbed, and much of the fluid leaked out the sides of his mouth.

Once again, the body of the monster was bulging and undulating, as if it were about to erupt. Vanessa was yanking on the spear, tugging it out a little at a time, leaning into it with everything she had.

Chapter Nineteen

Get clear, Kendra, Vanessa called. This is not over.

When Kendra looked back at Warren, he was wispy and translucent. She tried to touch him, and her hand passed through him like he was mist, dissipating him slightly.

Kendra raced across the floor and grabbed the sword. Behind her, Vanessa finally jerked the spear free.

As Vanessa launched into the air, Kendra watched the ninth version of the guardian emerge. Long wings unfurled.

Twelve serpents sprouted from various spots along its back.415 Three heavy tails swayed. And three heads bellowedtogether, a deafening sound even from where Kendra stood behind the beast. The great wings beat down and the beast took flight, pursuing Vanessa.

Kendra gaped in petrified awe. From wingtip to wingtip, the monstrosity stretched across half the cavernous room. It rose swiftly.

Running out of room to ascend, Vanessa started falling instead of rising, hurling the spear as she neared her pursuer.

The weapon merely grazed the monster and tumbled toward the floor. All three heads snapped at Vanessa, and all missed.

She rebounded off its well-muscled body, snakes striking eagerly, and tumbled toward the ground. Vanessa managed to slow her descent at the last moment, but she still landed heavily only a moment after the spear struck the floor.

Like Errol before her, she lost her grip of the rod, and it floated away toward the ceiling. Quivering, snake-bitten, dragging a broken leg, she crawled for the spear. Above, the three-headed fiend descended, roaring exultantly. Beyond the monster, Kendra saw a pair of figures falling toward her.

Propping herself up with the spear, Vanessa stood and faced the three-headed monster cat as it landed before her.

The cat watched her from well out of reach. Kendra recognized

Tanu and Coulter descending swiftly, both albino, and she waved her arms at them.

Even as scalding sludge fountained from three mouths, dousing Vanessa in blistering agony, Tanu alighted beside

Kendra, snatched his potion pouch, and upended a bottle into his mouth. He accepted the sword from Kendra. As416 Vanessa screamed, Tanu expanded, clothes splitting as hedoubled in height, a huge man becoming a giant, the sword looking like a knife in his enormous hand.

Too late the three-headed monster turned, as Tanu raged, stabbing and slashing, hacking off wings and serpents even as he was clawed and bitten. Tanu's heavy arm pistoned mercilessly until the monster crumpled, and Tanu collapsed atop the beast, bleeding from bitter wounds.

Kendra watched in horror as the carcass of the monster began to boil. Tanu scooted away from it. But this time, instead of folding in upon itself, the corpse melted away and simmered into nothingness, as if it had never been.

Coulter and Kendra ran to Tanu, who lay on his side.

The white Samoan pointed at the space the monster had occupied. There sat a bright, copper teapot worked into the shape of a cat, with the tail forming the spout. Coulter retrieved it. Doesn't look like much, he said.

I may need to touch it, Kendra said, taking the pot from him. Light at first, the pot started getting heavier. The exterior of the pot did not change, but Kendra recognized the difference. It's filling up.

Pour it, Tanu gasped.

Tanu had three deep, ragged gouges across his beefy forearm.

Kendra poured golden dust from the teapot onto the wounds. Much of the dust seemed to dissolve on contact.

The gouges vanished, leaving no scar. An enormous chunk of flesh was missing from Tanu's shoulder, but when Kendra filled the gaping wound with dust from the teapot, it closed and the skin above it looked like new.417 As Kendra shook the feline teapot over Tanu, his whiteflesh returned to a healthy brown, and all his wounds closed and vanished. Tanu shook his head, powdery dust rising from his hair.

Kendra hurried over to Vanessa, who lay moaning, withered, unrecognizable, incapable of movement or speech. I

should heal her, Kendra said.

I would love to say no, Tanu said. But it is the right thing to do.

Technically we're not on the preserve, Coulter reminded them. What happens in here, stays in here.

Don't let her near any weapons, Kendra warned them.

Coulter kicked the spear away as Kendra coated Vanessa with the dust from the teapot. The healing dust renewed itself and continued to flow until Kendra stopped pouring, leaving Vanessa perfectly whole and unscarred. She sat up, staring at the teapot in wonder. Nothing could have cured those burns, she said in amazement. I was blind and nearly deaf.

This is over, Tanu told Vanessa. There are others stronger than us waiting just outside the entrance.

Vanessa said nothing more.

Coulter remained near her, sword in hand. I suppose it goes without saying, if you slip into a trance, you'll never come out of it.

Kendra went over to Errol and dumped dust on him.

Nothing changed. He was dead.

We may be able to save Warren, Kendra said.

I noticed he was gaseous, Tanu said, having tied his418 torn clothes together into a loincloth. Which means he isalive. The potion would not have worked if he were dead.

He must be nearly gone, or he would be able to move around freely in his gaseous state. Instead he lies in a daze.

Considering the power of the dust in that artifact, I'm sure we will be able to restore him. Dale will thank you forever.

Vanessa said she found you in the woods and put you to sleep, Kendra said.

Then she was lying, Tanu said.

Bluffing, Vanessa rephrased.

When I came to myself, I returned to the house, Tanu continued. I approached cautiously, and must have arrived not long after Vanessa departed to come here. I picked the locks to the dungeon. It is much easier to sneak into that prison than to sneak out. Your grandparents are fine. They retrieved the register, and we found friends waiting outside the gates of Fablehaven.

Not long after that, Tanu returned to his regular size and adjusted his clothes. They stood next to the ghostly, smoky form of Warren until the gas coalesced and he became solid once more. As soon as he became tangible, Kendra covered him with dust from the teapot, mending broken bones and poisoned tissue and burns and ruptured organs. He sat up, blinking, unbelieving. When he removed the blood-soaked shirt from his abdomen, he found no mark beneath it.