The Search for Truth Read Free Page A

going to kill you yet. We’ll have the surgeon takeyour eyes out first, correctly, and then I will have the pleasure.”
    Baskania closed his eyes in thought, then a glowing silver man appeared at his side wearing a silver laboratory jacket. A stethoscope hung from his neck. It was hard to see him in detail. When Erec looked straight at him, he became blurry. An intense radiance glimmered around him.
    Erec recognized him as a silver ghost, like the first bus driver that had taken him to Alypium. So this would be who would cut his eyes out right before he died , he thought.
    He tried to remember anything he could about silver ghosts. They were vain, didn’t like people, and would do almost anything for payment. But there was one other thing Erec remembered about silver ghosts that flooded him with hope.
    They could not touch him.
    Â 
    June had told him that he was charmed, and he knew from experience that ghosts could not hurt him. But that didn’t stop his heart from racing when Baskania zapped him and the ghost into a room with a dentist’s chair. Erec shuddered thinking about what might happen next. If the ghost took a swing at him, he would probably be safe. But if the ghost touched him with something else, like a surgical tool, would he still be protected?
    The ghost slid around the room gathering small drills and saws, and filled a jar with a clear liquid. Suddenly, Erec found himself floating through the air toward the dentist chair, which rose up and lay flat. Thick chains pinned his body to the chair.
    Erec jerked back and forth to break free. He had to get out of here. He looked around the room. There was one door and one window. He could see a treetop through the window, so they were probably up high.
    â€œWhere are we?” he asked the ghost.
    â€œIn one of the surgical suites in the Green House.” The silver ghost sounded bored. “Won’t be here for more than a few minutes, though. Of course, you won’t actually see where you are going after that, so it won’t matter, will it?”
    Erec’s heart pounded, thumping in his chest. Was this really happening? His eyes were going to be taken out and handed to Baskania? He struggled against his chains, but they were too tight.
    The ghost picked up a sharp silver instrument and long, skinny scissors, then sat near Erec’s face. He sighed, seemingly annoyed to be wasting his time, and jabbed the knife at Erec’s right eye.
    Erec squeezed his eyes shut. His body clenched in anticipation of the pain. He was afraid to open his eyes in case the ghost was waiting for him to do so. But finally he peeked, out of curiosity.
    The silver surgeon was frowning in frustration. He kept poking again and again with the knife, the scissors, and the other tools around him. He could not get any of them within inches of Erec’s face. They stopped in midair, as if they were hitting a force field.
    Erec just about melted with relief. Not that he was even close to being safe. But at least he had a few more moments to figure out what to do.
    But what could he do, chained flat on a dentist’s chair, with Thanatos Baskania down below?
    The ghost sneered. “You’re making this difficult, aren’t you? Well, no worries. We’ll figure out a way to take those eyes out. I’m not going to tell the Shadow Prince he can’t have what he wants.” He disappeared out the door into a hallway.
    The oppressive air of Alypium was suffocating him. Why hadn’t he remembered to take a bottle of Upper Earth air with him for little breaths, until he got used to it? The Substance, the network that carried all the magic of the world, had been messed up somehow in the Kingdoms of the Keepers. It made the air feel thick and nasty,tinged with sadness. He couldn’t wait until he grew accustomed to it so it wouldn’t bother him anymore.
    If he lived long enough for that to happen.
    Erec felt sick. Everything he had done