"How could that cute little deer keep the manticore away?" Erec asked.

"Just watch," Kyron said. "It still tries to attack us at least once every night. Sounds like it's riled up enough now that this will be it. Did it see you?"

Erec nodded, peeking out the window. The manticore was pawing the ground and hunching its back. It bared its teeth at Erec, scratching long claws in the air toward him. Then it reared up and charged.

There was no way Kyron's thin bedroom window could keep the manticore out. As it sprang toward him, Erec cowered and ducked back. But right as the creature was in midair, claws forward and jaws wide, it seemed to hit something. Its paws twisted over each other and its legs shot up, almost like it was caught in an invisible net.

The bee-hind casually strolled toward the beast. Erec thought the manticore would gobble it up, but instead it pulled away from the little hind as if deathly afraid. Then, while the manticore was still tangled in the air, a mass of bees swarmed from the cloud around the deer and attacked it, stinging with abandon. The creature howled a few more trumpet notes until it finally slid to the ground and slunk away.

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"So that happens every night?" Erec asked, astonished.

Kyron nodded, falling back to sleep. But it took Erec a while to calm down after what he'd seen. There was no way he was going to take their bee-hind away from them.

The next morning Erec and Bethany sat overlooking the rice terraces. Watching the beautiful many-armed people working there was mesmerizing.

"I hope they don't mind us staring," Bethany said. "I wouldn't want to find out the hard way."

"I think it's okay. We're pretty far away from them."

"Are you thinking what I am about the bee-hind?" Bethany asked.

"Probably," Erec said. "That taking it away from Artie would be a crime?"

Bethany leaned back on her hands. "Yeah, that too. But I was also thinking about the missing bees. You know, like King Piter was talking about. Do you think the bee-hind might have something to do with that?"

The idea hit Erec like a spear. He felt his heart sinking, because he had the terrible feeling that she was right.

Erec walked by the bee-hind's stall a few times. The little deer gazed up at him with big black eyes through the crowd of bees swarming around it.

He thought he had made the decision to let Artie keep the hind, but if this was really the reason that the Substance was messed up all over the world, then he had to do something. But how could he do that to Artie?

Maybe if he just made a small attempt, then he could walk away and say that he tried. It was his quest, anyway. So he opened the stall 171.

door. As he suspected, the hind had no interest in going anywhere. When he started to reach in, it almost bit him before he yanked his hand away. And then he felt guilty for even trying to set it free, knowing what it meant to Artie and Kyron.

But what if it meant more to the rest of the world? The realization was settling upon him that it just might. The bees of the world were disappearing. What if the captive bee-hind was causing the problem?

He tried to think about something else. Maybe he should use his dragon eyes to see into the future. At least he might figure out how to keep the Castle Alypium from exploding.

He sat on a patch of soft grass under a teak tree and relaxed. Soon he was entering the small room in his mind, shrouded in darkness. Then the smaller room within, and finally the smallest room, deep inside. There was the box, and the shaded windows.

Erec ran his hand over the warm box. If only he could figure out its secrets. He steadied himself, then opened the shades and looked out into his future.

Fear coursed through him again, along with the overwhelming surges of power he had felt before. Screams of panic filled the air. Loud cracks echoed from chunks of building splitting apart. People were running in every direction. Erec turned his eyes all around, trying to catch a clue he might have missed, but nothing stood out. Frustrated, he decided to get closer to the windows. Maybe he could see more that way.

But when he took a step forward, the scene from the windows changed. It moved forward as well. This was something new. Erec realized that if he stepped to the right or left, the image he saw shifted to the right or left as well. Soon Erec was walking all around the small room, turning his eyes left and right. He found he could walk clear around the exploding castle.

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The noise was nearly deafening. Shattered window glass and crystal from chandeliers sprayed through the air. Plush furniture fragments jutted from under piles of stone. He strode farther, noticing that the dark room he walked in changed shape so that he didn't run into a wall. Around a corner he saw the six huge stone statues of monsters standing in front of the castle. He had never paid much attention to them before, but now he noticed that one of them was a Cyclops. Cracks raced through the stone statues like hot rod spider webs, making the stone unstable. The statues began to move as if they had come to life, but they were falling apart.

Then Erec heard a familiar voice. He turned to see Balor Stain, holding a bronze whistle on a chain around his neck. Balor's eyes were wild with glee. "Check it out," he said, smirking.

Behind him stood Damon Stain, goofy gray stocking cap covering his bone head, and white, fleecy Dollick Stain. Seeing the three poorly made clones of Baskania made Erec shudder. So they were the ones behind this? Of course. Their gleeful expressions gave him no doubt. But why was Balor holding that whistle? Had he used it somehow to help him destroy the castle?

Balor liked to blow things up. He had nearly killed Bethany and a few other kids when he exploded the Under Mine during King Pluto's contest last summer. And he had a reason for wanting to blow up the castle, too. He hated King Piter, and he wanted to clear the way for him and his brothers to be kings.

Erec seethed with anger. He had to stop Balor. Who knew how many people would be hurt or killed otherwise? If only he had a way to see further back with his dragon eyes. If he could follow Balor back in time, before the castle exploded, he could figure out how to stop him.

When Erec opened his eyes to the bright daylight, he was exhausted. Bethany was doing math calculations nearby for relaxation, and he 173.

was too tired to even call out to her. But while he rested, an idea perched in his mind, lightly at first, then soon digging its claws in. He knew a way he could find out more about the bee-hind.

He dragged himself up and walked back to the stables. The bee-hind looked up at him innocently. Even though the bees were not bothering Erec, their loud buzzing and swarming made him antsy.

Erec wanted to view the bee-hind through his dragon eyes. Maybe that would give him a clue, especially since the hind might be connected to a problem with the Substance. He knew two ways to bring his dragon eyes out, but going into the dark room in his mind would only show him the future. So he used the other method, the same way he made them come out for the dragon call.

Erec focused on the love inside of him. His love for the world, his friends, his family, Aoquesth, and even himself. As he closed his eyes and concentrated, his eyes turned around in his head. He had gotten much better at controlling them.

But something was wrong. He could not see anything at all through his dragon eyes. Everything was white. As he stared harder, he saw it was a kind of lumpy white, with shaded bits here and there. But the hind and the barn were nowhere in sight. Erec could not even see himself.

He relaxed, and when his regular eyes came back out, everything looked normal again. But it didn't make sense. What was wrong with him? Had his dragon eyes lost their vision?

Bethany was lying on her stomach under a tree munching a peach, still doing math problems. She looked perfectly content. Erec plopped down by her side. "I can't see with my dragon eyes anymore." He told her what had happened.

"Why don't you try it again, out here?" she suggested.

That seemed like a good idea. Erec concentrated again and felt his eyes moving in his head. When he opened them this time, the air 174.

was full of huge chunks of white. He could see only bits of Bethany, bits of the sky and the trees around him. When he turned away from the house and the barn, he could see more.

He realized he was looking at the Substance. There was more of it than he had ever seen, jutting in huge columns and trunks like a giant maze in the air. He turned back toward the barn, and everything around it was white.

Erec broke his focus and let his eyes drift back to normal. "Bethany," he said. "This isn't good. That bee-hind is messing with the Substance like crazy. A ton of it is collecting around the hind. I think the reason I couldn't see in there is because the barn is totally stuffed with it."

He thought the problem through more. "I'll bet that's what the bee-hind uses to trap the manticore. He must be catching it in a net of Substance." He could also see why his quest was to free that thing. "Maybe this is the reason the bees are vanishing, and why bees are attracted to the hind. Maybe this is why Upper Earth is going to lose its Substance and die."

Bethany's eyes widened. "Do you think this is the whole problem with the Substance that King Piter has been trying to solve? Why the Substance is upset, why we all feel the sadness when we first go into the Kingdoms of the Keepers? It's all getting messed up by the bee-hind being here?"

Erec bit his lip. The idea was too immense to think about.

Erec and Bethany were tasting as many pie slices as they could dream up from the Serving Tray while they watched the many-armed people in the rice paddies. From their movements, it looked like farming was an art form for them, more than work.

"I don't think I can do it," Erec said, falling onto his back on the grass. "I can't do this to Artie and Kyron."

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"I know," Bethany said softly, looking down at him. "I don't think you have much choice, though. What will happen to Upper Earth if that bee-hind stays chained up here?"

"It's not exactly chained up," he said. "It got out really easily last night when the manticore came by the house." Erec felt his stomach churn when he thought of the rows of teeth that creature had. "The bee-hind is already free to go. That's the thing. It wants to stay here. I don't know how I could make it leave, anyway."

"Maybe if you found out what Artie did to catch it?"

Erec closed his eyes. "Maybe. But I don't want to know. Even if I found out, I couldn't do it. I can't let Artie and Kyron get eaten by that manticore. Or have to stay up, running and fighting it, every night of their life." He sighed. "I bet old Artie couldn't even fight it off anymore, after that spell Baskania knocked him out with. The bee-hind is the only thing that can help them." He squinted at her. "You didn't see that manticore."

Bethany plopped on her back next to him. "I know. It's just...there is the rest of the whole world to think of too, you know."

Erec knew, but he did not want to think about it.

That night, Kyron returned with a wild boar slung over his shoulder. They ate from the Serving Tray, which let Kyron save the boar for trade when he went across the boundary into the Upper Earth city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. While Artie was cleaning up, Erec and Bethany sat with Kyron in front of the fire.

"How old were you when you moved here?" Bethany asked.

"I was nine." Kyron stared into the dancing flames.

Erec felt awful thinking of Kyron as a little boy, spending every night fighting off a terrible monster. Now Erec was supposed to make that happen again, for the rest of Kyron's life? He wanted to ask about Kyron's mother, but he had a bad feeling she might have 176.

been lost to the manticore, and he couldn't take finding that out.

So he tried to change the subject. "I hear you hunt dragons. Why do you do that? They're such beautiful creatures."

Kyron shrugged. "Everything's beautiful. They come in at a great price."

Erec didn't understand. "But they're smart, too. You shouldn't kill them--"

Bethany shot Erec a look and steered the subject right back again. "So how did your dad figure out that the bee-hind could help him?" she asked.

"He was really smart," Kyron said. "He knew a lot about animals."

Artie had walked into the room and was bouncing on his toes with a grin. "Yup, I knew lots and lots."

"All right, Dad." Kyron grinned. "You're still not so bad."

"And lots," Artie added, pointing.

"What did he do to make the bee-hind his friend?" Bethany asked Kyron.

Don't tell us, Erec thought. I don't want to know.

Kyron shrugged. "I don't remember. Complicated stuff, I think."

Artie bounced on his toes with pride. "I remember," he said. "It was easy. I was just the only one who could figures it out. I was so smarts. I had to tell it what the things were that I felt bad about. Like what I did to Balthazar Ugry." Tears filled his eyes thinking about it. "And what happened to the queen and her three babies because of what I did." He sniffed and wiped his cheeks. "So when you tell my bee-hind what youse feel bad about, it becomes your friend and will do what you want."

Kyron put his face into his hands. "Oh, Dad! You're not supposed to tell anybody about that." He got up and put his arm around his father to cheer him up. Then he looked at Erec. "Please don't repeat 177.

to anyone what you heard. If this gets out and someone takes that hind from us, we're dead."

Erec's face dropped. Now he had to make an impossible decision. "Kyron, is there anything that can kill the manticore?"

"Nothing," Kyron said.

"Not even a dragon?" A ray of hope lit in Erec. He could become a dragon, at least partly.

"Not even close. The manticore is a magical beast. It eats dragons all the time. Believe me, we've checked every option. My dad would have found something to kill it, if it was possible."

A magical beast?

A crazy idea popped into Erec's head. It wasn't perfect, he knew, but there was one thing he just might try.

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Virtue of Caring.TEARS DRIPPED DOWN Bethany's cheeks when they walked to the stable the next morning. "We can't do this to them. You heard Kyron last night. It's just wrong. I don't care what happens to the rest of the world."

Erec's eyes met hers. "But you do, Bethany. Think of all the Upper Earth kids out there who won't survive unless we fix the Substance. And all the animals."

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"So, what do we do then? Free the bee-hind and just take off? Leave poor Artie and Kyron to their fate, and try not to think what we've done to them every day for the rest of our lives?"

"No," Erec said firmly. "You go ahead with the Hermit. I'm going to stay. I think I might be able to fix things for them."

Bethany grabbed his shoulders. "No way, Erec. You're not dying because of this. You're just doing what you have to here because of your quest. Don't do something stupid because you feel guilty."

He tried to ignore what she said. "I have to try something."

"What? You heard Kyron. Manticores eat dragons. And you're not even a full-fledged dragon. You'd never stand a chance."

Erec did not want to tell her his plan. He was afraid she would point out how crazy it was, and he didn't want to lose his nerve. So instead he approached the bee-hind's stall. It gazed up at him with its huge brown eyes. "Hind, I want to tell you some things I feel terrible about. First, I made a friend, Tina, feel really bad because I told her she looked ugly. I was holding the truth scroll, which made me tell the truth about what I thought. But I shouldn't have been thinking like that anyway. It was wrong, and it hurt her.

"And also, I've been too interested in making people like me. For a moment, before I decided to fight for the Hydras and Valkyries in Lerna, I considered going over to Baskania's side because I wanted the people of Alypium to think I was a hero." He filled with shame when he saw Bethany looking at him. But his confession was too important to stop. Painful or not, this was his quest.

"And I'm about to do something really terrible because I think I have to. I'm about to risk the lives of two wonderful people who have been helping me. If it goes wrong, which it probably will, then I'll never forgive myself."

The hind was staring at him now. Erec opened its stall, and it 180.

walked over to him, rubbing its head against Erec's hand. The bees swarmed around both of them now, but they did not harm Erec.

Erec crouched down before he lost his nerve. "Bee-hind, I want you to go free. You're collecting a lot of the Substance around you. I want you to go wild again and spread the Substance around like it's supposed to be. Make it so all the honeybees come back and can live in Upper Earth again."