Chapter Twelve
Clutching the crossbow, Grandpa rose from his bed and hopped toward the desk. Careful, Kendra, she's a narcoblix, he warned.
Moving swiftly, Tanu pulled out the dart lodged in his potion pouch and pounced at Grandpa, tackling him and wrenching the crossbow from his grasp. Get away, Kendra!
Grandpa cried as Tanu pricked him with the dart. Vanessa remained trancelike on the floor.
Tanu had left the potion pouch behind when he attacked Grandpa. Kendra grabbed the pouch and dashed out the door. She hadn't digested all the details, but it was clear that Vanessa was controlling Tanu. Run, Grandpa panted groggily.
Kendra raced to the back door and out to the porch. She jumped the railing to the grass below. The yard was dark.
Most of the lights in the house were off. Kendra ran away from the porch through the garden. Glancing back, she saw
Tanu burst out of the doorway and vault the railing.
Kendra, don't be rash, come back! he called.
Kendra offered no reply and ran even faster. She could hear Tanu gaining behind her. Don't make me hurt you!
he shouted. Your grandparents are fine; I just put them to sleep. Come back, we'll talk. His voice sounded strained.
Kendra sprinted toward the woods, taking the most direct route she could, tromping through flowerbeds and knifing between blossoming shrubs. The thorns of a rosebush raked her arm. Playing soccer during the previous school254 year had led to a habit of jogging. She appreciated her addedspeed and stamina as she reached the woods well ahead of the hulking Samoan and still going strong.
The woods are deadly at night! Tanu hollered. I don't want any harm to come to you! It's pitch black, you're going to have an accident. Come back. His phrasing was labored as he tried to run and yell at the same time.
The woods were dim, but Kendra could see well enough.
She jumped a fallen limb and dodged around some thorny briars. There was no way she was going back. Vanessa had staged a coup. Kendra knew that if she could get away, maybe she could return later with a plan.
Kendra no longer heard Tanu pursuing her. Chest heaving, she paused and looked back. Tanu stood at the edge of the woods, hands on his hips in a feminine stance. He looked hesitant to enter. I really am your friend, Kendra. I'll see that no harm comes to you!
Kendra had her doubts. She stayed low and tried to pick her way more quietly, worried that if she gave away her exact location Tanu might be encouraged and give chase. He held his hands up to his eyes, as if he was having trouble seeing. It was apparently more shadowy where she was walking than where he stood. He did not come after her, and Kendra worked her way deeper into the woods.
She was not on a path. But this was roughly the route she and Seth had taken when they first came upon the naiad pond. If she kept going straight, she would reach the hedge surrounding the pond, and from there she knew how to find255 a path. Not that she had any idea where she should go fromthere.
Walking briskly, swerving through the bracken, Kendra tried to piece together what had happened. Grandpa had called Vanessa a narcoblix. She remembered that Errol had told her and Seth about blixes before Seth snuck into the mortuary. There was a type of blix that drained away your youth, and another that could animate the dead.
Narcoblixes were the kind that could control people in their sleep.
Which meant that Grandpa was right-Coulter was innocent. He had been under Vanessa's influence. Vanessa didn't care if Seth got eaten or if Coulter was turned into a mindless albino. She was just doing reconnaissance on the grove so she could figure out how to get to the artifact. She may have even wanted for Seth to be eaten in order to get
Olloch out of the way.
Kendra was seething. Vanessa had killed her brother.
Vanessa! She never would have guessed it. Vanessa had saved them from Errol and acted so kindly. And now she had backstabbed them and taken over the house.
What could Kendra do? She considered going back to the Fairy Queen, but something deep inside warned against that course of action. It was hard to explain-it simply felt wrong. She had a quiet certainty that if she returned, she really would end up turning into dandelion fluff, like the ill-fated man who had ventured to the island in the middle of the pond in the story Grandpa had told her last summer.
Were Grandma and Grandpa really all right? Was256 Vanessa going to hurt them? Kendra wanted to believe thatVanessa meant it when she said she meant them no harm.
There was reason to hope she was sincere. Taking a life on
Fablehaven soil would strip Vanessa of the protections afforded by the treaty. She couldn't have that happen if she planned to go after the artifact, right? The need to respect the treaty should protect her grandparents if nothing else.
Then again, Vanessa had already indirectly killed Seth by leading him out of the yard. Maybe that didn't count, since
Olloch had actually done the killing.
To make matters worse, somewhere Vanessa had an accomplice-the unseen intruder, Christopher Vogel. How long before he found out she had usurped the house and joined her there? Or was he off working some other aspect of a plan more complex than Kendra could guess at?
Kendra had to do something. Where was Hugo? Would he help her if she could find him? He didn't have to take orders from her, but his free will was blossoming, so maybe she could persuade him to lend a hand. On second thought,
Vanessa had been authorized to issue commands to Hugo, so chances were the treacherous narcoblix could instantly turn the golem into an enemy if Kendra brought him near.
There was nobody else. Grandpa, Grandma, Dale, and
Tanu were captured. Coulter was an albino just like Warren.
Seth was dead. She tried not to let the thought derail her.
What were her assets? She had grabbed the potion pouch, although she wasn't very confident which potion was which. She wished she had paid closer attention when Tanu257 was showing Seth. At least the potions couldn't be usedagainst her.
What about Lena? The thought sent a thrill of hope through her. Kendra was headed toward the pond. She hadn't seen her former friend yet during this return visit to
Fablehaven. The last time Kendra had seen her, Lena was a full-fledged naiad again and had tried to drown her. After the full-sized fairies saved Fablehaven from Bahumat, while undoing much of the harm the demon had caused, they restored Lena to her state as a naiad. Decades ago she had voluntarily left the water and married Patton Burgess. The decision had made her mortal, although she had aged more slowly than he. After he passed away, she toured the world, eventually returning to Fablehaven with plans to end her days at the preserve. Lena had resisted the fairies when they hauled her off to the pond. But once she was back in the water, she had appeared content.