Danger in the Jungle Temple Read online

  The only thing I could think of was to go upstairs, to the third floor of the temple. We hadn’t been there before and didn’t know what to expect. Would there be more armored skeletons? Would there be a way out?

  Would Dad and Alex be there?

  “Upstairs!” I called to the others. “It’s our only chance!”

  Behind us, a skeleton let out a roar that seemed to shake the whole temple. And then Destiny screamed.

  I froze in my spot and whirled around. In our hurry, we weren’t checking for traps, and her foot had landed on a trapdoor in the floor. That block had opened up and she’d fallen halfway through. Her chest and upper shoulders were still out, and she was trying frantically to pull herself back up. But the flat, mossy blocks around her were too slick for her to get a good grip.

  “Destiny!” I cried, turning back.

  A skeleton reared over Destiny, only to have a sword smashed into its face as Yancy came running to the rescue. Maison joined him in battle, and together they kept the skeletons from reaching Destiny.

  “Hurry, Destiny!” Yancy said. “We can’t hold them off much longer!”

  They were barely keeping them back at all. I realized the best thing would be to pull Destiny to safety and then run again. I lunged down to the floor next to the trapdoor.

  “Destiny, take my hand!” I said, reaching out.

  She put one hand out, but then a skeleton shot an arrow past Yancy and Destiny. I had to yank my own hand back as I dove out of the way. Destiny was already balancing with only one hand, and the arrow startled her so much she lost her grip. She let out another scream as she slipped farther into the hole.

  “No!” I ducked forward, dodging another arrow. “Destiny!”

  Her fingers were curled around the edge of the hole, but the rest of her was hanging down into the darkness. I had to drop the torch to the ground so I could grab her hands and look down at her. Even in the dark hollow of the hole, I could see how white her face had gone in her terror.

  “Stevie, help me!” she begged.

  “I am! I am!” I said. But the skeletons with bows and arrows had seen that I was in a weak spot and decided to make me target practice. Arrows were flying all around me. One even zigged right past my shoulder, ripping a hole in my turquoise shirt.

  “Destiny, pull yourself up!” I said, struggling to keep my grip on her. I couldn’t hold her weight and dodge arrows at the same time!

  “I’m trying!” she said desperately. Her feet were hitting against the rock wall of the tunnel, but she couldn’t get a foothold.

  “Oh no!” I cried, throwing myself to the side before an arrow could hit me. The arrow landed exactly where I’d been, quivering as it embedded itself into the floor.

  That split second move to save myself was enough to ruin it all for Destiny. I’d needed to let go of her to move, and without my hands, she lost her grip.

  With a scream, she plummeted into the darkness, the floor closing up behind her.

  CHAPTER 14

  DESTINY, NOOO!” I EXCLAIMED, HITTING THE floor with my hands, trying to get the trapdoor to open back up. It wouldn’t budge!

  “What happened?” Yancy said, turning around, his eyes wild with fear. The scream and the cries must have given him a pretty good idea.

  “She fell through!” I said, panicking.

  “Then we’re going with her,” Yancy said, throwing himself on the trapdoor. At least if we were still with Destiny, we could make sure she was okay and we’d all find a way out together. But the trapdoor wouldn’t open for Yancy, either.

  Maison couldn’t keep the skeletons away on her own, and I saw they were overpowering her. If we didn’t do something, the skeletons would snatch all three of us!

  “Keep running!” I said, even though it hurt to say that. I seized the torch from where it was lying on the floor. I told myself I wasn’t leaving Destiny behind. I was just keeping us safe so we could come back for her. “We need to go upstairs!”

  Yancy started to argue, but Maison didn’t.

  “How could you let her fall!” Yancy was shouting at me. I’d never seen him so upset. I knew he and Destiny were close because they were cousins, but Yancy looked ready to fall apart because of this. I realized, for the first time, just how much they meant to each other.

  “I didn’t mean to!” I said.

  “Stop it, Yancy!” Maison defended. “We already have to rescue Alex and Steve! We’ll rescue Destiny too!”

  But Yancy still looked like he’d fight me if we didn’t already have other problems. “I trusted you, Stevie!” he snarled.

  I was already feeling terrible—I didn’t need Yancy rubbing it in. I snapped back, “What about you, Yancy? You’re the one going on about coconuts and bringing a noisy bird along and talking about the temple being haunted. How have you been helpful?”

  “You think skeletons that can’t be defeated aren’t haunted?” Yancy shot back.

  I knew it was just our emotions running high because we were so stressed, so I bit back a nasty response to Yancy. An arrow whizzed past my ear, reminding me there were more important things to pay attention to right now.

  Besides, we were coming up to the sets of stairs again. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the torch by the front door had moved again. Was that the skeletons’ doing? Maison, Yancy, and I ran upstairs, the skeletons hissing at our heels, arrows flying. Someone kicked a trip wire and arrows soared straight toward our faces, making us all duck. I spilled backward down the stairs, almost losing hold of my sword and torch.

  Something grabbed my leg.

  I looked back wildly. The skeleton with Dad’s sword had seized my ankle in its bony hand. The hand felt cold as ice while it gripped me. Then the skeleton began to raise Dad’s sword.

  There was no escape now.

  CHAPTER 15

  I TRIED TO ANGLE MYSELF TO STRIKE BACK, BUT there wasn’t time. Yancy jumped in the way, hitting the skeleton with his sword, forcing it back. The skeleton lost its balance and fell backward, knocking into the other skeletons behind it. Unsteady on the old mossy steps, the skeletons tumbled to the bottom of the stairs.

  I tried to give Yancy a grateful look, but he was too busy grabbing my hand and hoisting me to my feet. He didn’t even look in my eyes, as if he was embarrassed for getting so mad at me earlier.

  I pushed myself up onto my feet with Yancy’s help and took a quick look behind me. The skeletons had been startled, but definitely not stopped. They were already rising back up on their feet, shaking themselves off, and getting ready to come after us again. I could have sworn the one with Dad’s sword was glaring at me, as if vowing revenge.

  Maison, Yancy, and I scrambled to the top of the stairs and looked around us. Like on the floor below, we saw a dark hallway sprawling in both directions. I didn’t see any rooms, and if there were any trapdoors, it wasn’t obvious. I ran to the closest window and looked down. Could we jump to safety?

  The ground below looked so far down it made me dizzy. That wasn’t even the worst part of it. Even if we slowly climbed our way down the temple, it wouldn’t be any sort of a real escape, because the jungle out there was now swarming with Endermen. They had the whole temple surrounded.

  “There’s no way out,” I said.

  Maison began pounding her fists against the walls. “Open up!” she said. “There has to be a hidden door here somewhere!”

  She was probably right, but who had time to find any hidden doors? And even if we found one, where would it lead us? To more skeletons? To the dungeon? To an army of Endermen?

  What would Dad do? I thought frantically. What would Alex do?

  Then, What would Steve Alexander do?

  I had no idea. There was only what Stevie, Maison, and Yancy would do, and we were running out of options. Fast.

  Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. The light of my torch was shining on a block in the wall that looked different from all the other walls here. What was it?

  I lai
d my hand against it. More claw marks. Claw marks raked several times over, as if trying to erase something. But there was more! Underneath all the claw marks I could make out the letters S and A. The fancy symbol of Steve Alexander.

  A clue! I began whacking my sword against the wall and floor in that area, seeing if anything would open up. Maison and Yancy saw what I was doing and rushed to join me.

  “Come on, come on! We could use a hidden door any time now,” Yancy said. He dared a glance over his shoulder at the same time I did. The skeletons were reaching the top of the stairway now. The torchlight made their empty eye sockets look as if they were filled with red flame. And they looked angrier than ever.

  I pounded harder on the wall, begging for something to give through. Clues weren’t any good if we couldn’t figure out what they meant!

  For a split second I thought I saw some other writing underneath the claw marks, after the S A symbol. It looked like . . . like the letter J. And maybe a . . . no, I couldn’t tell what the letter was after that, but I could tell it used to say more than just J there.

  Steve Alexander and J, again! Why didn’t any of the legends or Steve Alexander’s book mention a J, or a J name?

  The skeletons came charging toward us, forcing us to move away from the mysterious marks. I turned and slashed out at the mobs, trying to keep them at bay. I saw a blade rushing at me the same time a slew of arrows flew in my direction. I leapt to the side, falling into the hole of an open window. My hands were holding the torch and my sword, and I couldn’t hold both and grab onto the ledge! I was going to tumble out!

  While I barely managed to hang on, my eyes fell to the drop below. We were above the treetops here, and a rush of dizziness flooded my head. The Endermen were still unaware of me, but if I fell, I’d land right in the middle of their crowd, right in their clutches.

  I had to drop my sword or my torch. Which one? Without my sword, I wouldn’t have a weapon. Without my torch, we wouldn’t have any real light!

  “I got you, Stevie!” It was Maison’s voice, and she grabbed me around the middle and started pulling me back into the temple. My head swung over open air, and then I felt myself being pulled back into the dank, dark building. Back to danger and safety.

  As soon as Maison had gotten me back on my feet, she cried out. An arrow had slashed past her, going straight through her hair and ripping out a few black strands. Maison fell to a crouch. She wasn’t really hurt, but that must have scared her, especially with the arrow coming so close to her head.

  I turned to Yancy. But it was already too late.

  CHAPTER 16

  WHILE MAISON HAD BEEN TRYING TO RESCUE me, Yancy had been left all alone to fight off the approaching skeletons. He hadn’t been able to do it. But instead of taking him out, the skeletons had surrounded him so that there was no escape. Then four of the skeletons grabbed his arms, forcing them down to his side. Another skeleton ripped the sword out of Yancy’s hand.

  Yancy was trying to fight as hard as he could, swinging his body back and forth so they’d let him go. It didn’t make any difference. More skeletons came out of the woodwork and grabbed him. They were like spiders covering him with web, holding him tighter and tighter until he couldn’t move. Until he couldn’t breathe.

  “Yancy!” I said, running toward him. Yancy was lurching backward like a frightened horse, and the skeletons still held him in place. The only skeleton who wasn’t touching him was the one with Dad’s diamond sword. That skeleton strode proudly forward, silently gloating. It held Dad’s sword straight out toward Yancy, as though daring him to try anything.

  Yancy stopped struggling and his eyes widened when he saw the sword. He licked his lips nervously and said, “Hey, guys, come on. We don’t want your jungle temple. Just give us back the others, let us take the crystal shard, and we’ll leave you alone forever. I promise.”

  I guess he was hoping that, if these skeletons were haunted, they might also have the ability to understand us. But whether the skeletons understood him or not, their expressions didn’t change. The skeleton with Dad’s sword let out a commanding roar, and the others began dragging Yancy down the long hallway.

  “Stop it!” I cried as I reached the skeleton with Dad’s sword and struck it over the head with my blade. In response, the skeleton turned and gave me such sharp wallop with its sword that it sent me flying across the room. I landed hard against the wall, choking and coughing. The skeleton with Dad’s sword gestured for another skeleton to go after me and it obeyed, slowly stalking my way.

  It was all up to Maison to save Yancy now. She went charging in too, running past the skeleton I’d gone after and heading straight for the horde that had Yancy.

  “Let him go!” she shouted, slashing at them. A few skeletons took their hands off of Yancy to fight back, but it wasn’t enough. Instead, those two skeletons grabbed Maison, too, and tried to take her sword.

  No! I couldn’t let that happen! I was back on my feet and charging toward them, slashing with my sword. I hit the skeleton coming at me, pushing it to the side. One of the skeletons picked up Maison as if she weighed nothing and threw her out the window.

  Suddenly, it was like time slowed down. Maison grabbed onto the window with her fingers, struggling to hold on, clawing her way back up, scrambling for hold with her feet. I had a flashback to Destiny’s fall. Not again!

  I ran to the window and grabbed Maison’s hands, even though it meant putting down my sword and torch for a moment. I had to use both hands this time. I had to get her back up!

  Something icy cold grabbed me around the waist. A skeleton! Another was running to grab my torch and sword. In the background, the other skeletons were dragging Yancy farther away.

  “Let go!” I cried, as though there was any hope that the skeleton would listen. It was trying to drag me away, to take me wherever it was taking Yancy! It was trying to let Maison fall below, to the Endermen who would take her as their own prisoner!

  But then my eyes caught on something. There was a little ledge underneath Maison, where she could land without falling all the way down to the ground where the Endermen were.

  “Maison!” I said. “I have to let you drop!”

  “No, Stevie, don’t!” she called back.

  “There’s a ledge below you!” I said. “Land there and I’ll be right back!”

  I let her hands slip from mine. Maison’s eyes were full of fear, but also determination. She curled herself up into a ball and fell down onto the ledge, landing there safely.

  I turned my back to the window, striking at the skeletons that were trying to take my sword and torch. As soon as they backed up slightly, I grabbed my weapon and light.

  I needed to get to Yancy. But there was no way I could take out so many skeletons on my own!

  Down the hall, I saw the skeleton with Dad’s sword touch its bony hand against the wall. Immediately a door opened, showing only darkness beyond. The skeleton walked through, and the skeletons holding Yancy began to follow.

  “No!” Yancy was shouting, fighting harder, realizing he was really on his own now. “Stop, stop, pleeeease!”

  It was no use. The skeletons forced him through that hidden door, into the darkness, and followed behind him so he couldn’t get out. I caught one last glimpse of their weapons, shining in the torchlight. And then the door shut, cutting off Yancy’s screams for help.

  CHAPTER 17

  THE REMAINING SKELETONS HAD ME TRAPPED AT the window. I couldn’t go forward with them pressed against me like that, and they were trying to grab me and take my weapon.

  You’re all alone now, Stevie, the Ender Dragon said. Give in to me.

  “Stevie!” I heard Maison shouting from below. “Stevie, what’s going on?”

  No! I thought. I’m not alone! I still have Maison.

  An Earth girl can’t save you!

  Then you don’t know Maison, I thought. And you don’t know me.

  And I threw myself out the window.

  The wind
was whipping up all around me, the ground a long way below. I tried to shut my mind off from the Ender Dragon. Maison and I had been friends long before Destiny and Yancy came into the picture. Before I really got to know and befriend my cousin Alex. Maison and I had stopped a mob attack at her school on our own. We’d stopped cyberbullies from plunging the Overworld into eternal darkness. As long as I had Maison, I was not alone!

  I landed on the ledge next to Maison. The crash was startling but not painful.

  “Stevie!” Maison knelt beside me. “Are you all right?”

  I didn’t answer right away, because I didn’t know. This was a gamble. I looked up at the windowsill and saw two skeletons peering down at us. Were they going to jump out the window and follow us?

  No. After looking at us a few seconds, the skeleton faces moved away from the window.

  “I was right,” I sighed, feeling a moment of relief. “They only want to protect the temple. As long as we’re not in it, they’ll leave us alone.”

  “Where’s Yancy?” Maison asked.

  That took away any relief I was feeling. I shut my eyes and could still hear Yancy’s screams in my head. First I’d let them take Dad, Alex, Destiny, and now Yancy.

  “They dragged him through a hidden door in the wall,” I said, horrified even as I was saying it.

  Maison clapped her hands over her mouth, alarmed. “No!”

  “We have to get back inside there somehow,” I said. “We have to rescue them.”

  I saw from Maison’s face that she was trying to figure out what to do. “We’ve been to all the main rooms,” she said. “So they have to be in a hidden room somewhere.”

  “Who knows how many hidden rooms there are, though?” I said. This was a much harder crystal-shard mission than the ones before. “And how do we find the triggers to open the doors?”

  “We could wait until daylight,” Maison said. “Then the skeletons should be gone.”

  I wasn’t so sure. It was a really dank, dark place in that temple, so it might be dark enough for them to still be around during the day. Then I looked down at the Endermen. Even if the skeletons would be gone, the Endermen could stick around in light. We couldn’t let them find the crystal shard before us!