Chapter 16
WE FLEE THE ROOM, AND I HAVE THE URGE TO sprint to wherever
Ella’s leading me. She glides swiftly and soundlessly
across the cold floor. The corridor is dark; and while I see
everything clearly, every so often Ella flicks on the flashlight
to orient herself, then quickly turns it off.
When we reach the nave I think she’s going to head
towards the north tower, but she doesn’t, and instead
guides me up the center aisle. We skitter past the rows of
pews. At the nave’s front, stained glass saints line the
curved wall and the moonlight behind them brings a
celestial radiance that gives each a more biblical
appearance than they’ve ever had before. Water drips in a
constant patter somewhere.
Ella cuts a right turn at the front pew and sweeps towards
one of the many open recesses that run the length of both
walls. I follow. The air is cooler here than in the nave, and a
tall statue of the Virgin Mary looms over us with arms lifted
from her sides. Ella goes around her, and when she
reaches the back left corner, she turns to me.
“I’ll have to bring it down to you,” she says, putting the
flashlight in her mouth. She takes hold of the stone pillar
and scoots up it like a squirrel clawing up a tree. All I can
do is watch in amazement, so impressed by her mobility.
When she’s almost at the ceiling, she pauses and then
swings around the column, disappearing into a tight little
nook that’s almost invisible from where I stand.
I never noticed the nook before. Lord knows how Ella did.
I crane my head to listen, hearing the rough friction of her
shoes scrape along the rock, which means there’s just
enough room for her to crawl. Some kind of tunnel. I can’t
help but smile. I knew the Chest was here, somewhere, but I
would have never found it in a million years if it weren’t for
Ella. I laugh at the thought of Adelina scaling the same
column with the Chest so many years ago. Ella has
stopped; I hear nothing. Twenty seconds pass.
“Ella,” I whisper. She sticks her head out and looks down.
“Should I come up?”
She shakes her head. “It’s stuck, but I almost have it. I’ll
bring it down to you in a minute,” she whispers back, and
then yanks her head back in and disappears. I can’t take
the suspense of not knowing what’s going on up there. I
look at the base of the column and take hold of it; and just
before I’m about to try climbing it, I hear a noise behind me
that sounds like somebody kicking a pew. I spin around.
The Virgin Mary blocks my view. I walk around her and scan
the nave, but I don’t see anything.
“I got it!” I hear Ella exclaim.
I rush back around the statue and look up, waiting for her
to appear. I can hear her grunt and struggle to drag the
Chest to the nook’s opening, and I have no idea if it’s
because the Chest is heavy or because the tunnel is so
narrow. Little by little the dragging continues. I feel nothing
short of ecstasy at finally having the Chest in my
possession, and I don’t even consider the problem of
getting it open. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Just
as Ella is almost to the opening, I hear something else
behind me.
“What are you doing up?”
I whip around. Divided equally on each side of the Virgin
Mary, Gabby and Delfina stand under the statue’s left arm
while La Gorda and a wiry Bonita, the champion of the
dock game that almost got me killed at the lake, position
themselves beneath the right arm.
I glance over my shoulder and see two small eyes
peering down at us from the nook’s opening.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I wanted to see what the little tattletale was up to, that’s
all. You know, it’s funny because I saw you sneak out of the
room and I thought that I would get up and finally see what it
was you’re always looking at on the computer, but you
weren’t there.” Gabby paints a sarcastic, confused look on
her face. “You were in here, which is really weird.”
“Really weird. It’s really weird,” La Gorda says. To my
relief, I don’t hear Ella dragging the Chest anymore.
“Why do you even care?” I say. “Seriously. All I ever do is
keep to myself and keep my mouth shut.”
“I care a lot about you, Marina,” Gabby says, stepping
forward. She flips her long dark hair. “In fact, I care so much
that I worry about you hanging out with that loser drunk,
Hector, all the time. Do you get drunk with him?” She
pauses. “Do you drink from his bottle?”
I don’t know if it was because she called Hector a loser,
or because she thought our friendship was anything more
than just that, or because she is snooping on what I’m doing
at the computer, but it just happens. I close my eyes and
reach out with my mind, grabbing all four of them at once.
La Gorda screams, while the other three whimper in shock.
I pick them up off the ground—their bare feet kicking at the
air, their shoulders smashed against each other’s—and
thrust them all across the smooth floor until they bounce off
the steps leading to the raised dais at the back of the nave.
La Gorda slaps the floor with her open palms and gets to
her feet like an angry bull ready to charge the conquistador.
I run to her instead, making up the ground in a matter of
seconds. La Gorda swings a wild punch and I duck, only to
spring up and jam my right fist into her chin. She falls
backwards with a gasp, and her head thuds against the
floor. She’s out cold.
Bonita jumps on my back and pulls at my hair. Someone
punches me in the left cheek, and the other kicks me in the
shin. Bonita slides down my back and hugs my upper arms
so I can’t move. Delfina swings and I duck. The punch
glances off Bonita’s mouth and she loosens her grip
enough for me to twist away. I grab Bonita’s right arm in my
hands and I drive her towards Gabby.
“You’re dead, Marina! You are so dead!” Bonita shrieks,
and I pull her sideways and knee her in the gut, knocking
the wind out of her. I shove her to the ground next to La
Gorda.
Delfina’s confidence is broken. She looks for the door.
“You ready to leave me alone?” I ask her.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m going to get you tomorrow,” she
says. “Right when you’re not looking.”
“You’re going to wish you didn’t say that.” I fake right and
lunge left, tackling her around the waist. Gabby tries to grab
my hair but I whip Delfina around to block her. Then I pivot
on my heels and release Delfina down the middle aisle of
the nave. Her back hits the first step at the altar, and her
groan echoes off the vaulted ceiling.
Gabby circles me. “I’m telling Sister Dora. You’re going
to be in so much trouble.” I turn my body to keep my eyes
on her. She stops right next to the column. I can tell she’s
about to charge and I’m ready for it.
Suddenly I see a flash of white above Gabby’s head. It
takes me a second to recognize that it’s Ella, and she’s
jumped from the nook all the way down onto Gabby’s
shoulders. Gabby flails around until she can get her hands
on Ella; and when she does, she tosses her onto the floor
with a horrible cracking sound.
“No!” I yell, and then I punch Gabby in the sternum as
hard as I can. Her feet leave the ground and she hits the
wall, knocking dust from the stone wall’s mortar.
Ella’s on her back, wailing, writhing in pain, but I notice
she keeps her right leg completely still. I kneel beside her
and pull up the bottom of her nightgown to see a sharp
white bone sticking out of her skin just below the knee. I
don’t know what to do. I put my hand on her shoulders to try
to console her, but she’s in so much pain, she doesn’t feel
it.
“I’m right here, Ella,” I say. “I’m here right beside you, and
everything is going to be okay.”
Her eyes open and she gives me a pleading look. It’s
then that I see the damage done to her right hand. Her tiny
fist is mangled, crooked; blood seeps out between her
index and middle fingers. Her talent.
“Oh my God, Ella. I’m sorry,” I cry. “I’m so, so sorry.”
She just cries. I feel myself begin to sweat. Never in my
life have I felt so useless.
“Try not to move,” I say, knowing it’s a futile plea. The
nearest hospital is a half-hour drive. She’ll pass out from
the pain by then.
She starts to rock in a rhythm from side to side. I hover
my shaking hands over the shard of bone sticking out of her
leg, not knowing if I should apply pressure or try to push it
back under the skin. I decide on applying pressure, and the
second my fingers touch her skin, Ella stutters with a sharp
intake of breath. An icy tingle inches up my spine, a feeling
much like the times I’ve brought life back to the flower in the
computer room, and the feeling spreads throughout the rest
of me. Is it possible that my ability to heal plants applies to
people as well? Ella stops crying and starts breathing
rapidly, her tiny chest rising and falling, rising and falling. I
can feel the iciness concentrate in my palms and circulate
outward from my fingertips. “I think, I think I can fix you.”
Her chest continues to rise and fall at an abnormal
speed, but her face takes on a look of peacefulness, of
detachment. I’m afraid to, but I place my hands over the
piece of bone that sticks out from her leg. I feel its pebbly,
broken end; and soon it begins to retreat back under the
skin. The puncture wound turns from red and white back to
the color of her skin; and I can see the jagged contours of
her broken bone move and shift within her leg, setting itself
back in place. I’m amazed at what I’ve just done. This could
be my most important Legacy yet.
“Keep still,” I say. “One more thing.”
I close my eyes and wrap my hands around her thin right
wrist. The iciness flows again through my fingertips. I open
my eyes to watch her palm rise and her fingers spread
away from each other. The cut between her index and
middle fingers closes, and I see two broken knuckles
straighten and mend. Ella clenches her hand and relaxes it.
I’ve done what Lorien has intended me to do, and that’s
to undo damage that’s been inflicted on those who don’t
deserve it.
Ella turns her head to the right to look at my hands
wrapped around her wrist. “You’re fine,” I say. “You’re better
than fine.” She raises her head off the ground and props
herself up onto her elbows. I pull her into my arms.
“We’re a team,” I whisper into her ear. “We take care of
each other. Thanks for trying to help.”
She nods her head. I squeeze her and then pull away. I
look around at the girls, all of them unconscious but
breathing. Sticking out of the opening of the nave, I see the
edge of the Chest.
“I’m so proud of you for finding the Chest. You have no
idea,” I say. “Let’s get it tomorrow morning after we’ve had
some rest.”
“Are you sure?” Ella asks. “I can climb back up and get
it.”
“No, no. You go wash up in the bathroom, and I’ll be right
there.”
When she’s finally out of my sight, I raise my eyes to the
Chest. Concentrating, I float it silently down to my feet. Now
I just need to get Adelina to open it with me.
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