The Inventor's Son

Chapter 18: In Which Our Hero's Weakness is Exposed

ETHAN AND BETH had just opened the stairwell doors to rejoin the others when they heard terrible screams. Above the chaotic din around them, they could distinctly hear, "Where is the boy?"

"Oh, no! It's that terrible man from the train!" Beth cried. "How can he have survived being thrown off the train?"

Kearney looked right into Ethan's eyes from across the second floor, and cleared away anyone in his path as he stomped toward him. Ethan gripped Beth's hand and started edging through the crowd of people trying desperately to get into the stairwell.

How did the monster find him?

Ethan saw that souvenir stand they had passed before. The vendor had hidden behind his counter, and Ethan took Beth to duck under the front of the counter. Then, Ethan breathed, "Hide us from our enemies." The spell turned him and Beth invisible. There they hid shivering in silence, her head pressed into his chest.

Kearney bounded toward the east side of the second floor, and an unfortunate gentleman happened to get in his way. Ethan had to muffle Beth by the mouth to remind her not to make a sound, in spite of the fact that Kearney knocked the unlucky fellow off over the promenade, into the air, and down to his death.

"Kearney! Stay sharp. Remember, Stanwood's brat is a witch! As if our job wasn't hard enough!" Ethan heard Pollman call across the deserted eastern promenade.

Ethan felt Beth's tears fall on his hand, though he could not see even himself. Kearney peered down, as though he were thinking he might have heard something. Ethan's heart pounded as Kearney got close enough to possibly smell him.

And then, a savior came. Little Sam zipped between Ethan and Kearney. In his frustration, Kearney made the decision to chase the android rather than try and detect Ethan any further. Bravely, Sam diverted Kearney away, and Pollman chased them. Ethan slipped with Beth into the next stairwell down to the ground floor.

Beth was pale and silent. Ethan had to get her to safety and could waste not even a second. But he wanted to beg her forgiveness for ever bringing danger to her. He never had thought that his dreams of having her in his life forever could evaporate so quickly, and his heart broke a little more with every step he took. As soon as they reached the ground floor, Ethan and Beth saw all the girls of her class along with one of the chaperons from Beth's school and Sophia. The adults wore stony looks, and the girls of Beth's class watched Ethan with interest.

Beth screamed "It's not his fault!"

"Young lady! Your father will hear of this!" the woman warned Beth. Several of the girls began to whisper.

"And you, young man! How could you be so foolish as to wander off like that?" Sophia raged.

"Grandmother, we have to divert Kearney away from here, before he kills even more people!" Ethan told her.

"Don't be ridiculous! The police can deal with those villains!" Sophia argued with Ethan.

Liam caught up to him and called out, "Lad! Your Sam thing, where did he go?"

"He saved us from him upstairs! He's bound to be headed down here soon," Ethan told him.

"How did you manage to evade that fiend?" Liam demanded.

"I turned us invisible. That was the only way we could have gotten away," Ethan confessed quietly.

"Invisible?" Sophia asked far louder than Ethan would have liked. "Ethan, I forbid you to play around like that again! Turning yourself invisible is the first step down a path decent witches do not tread!"

"Please, Mrs. Ballard, don't be angry. He only did that because he had to!" Beth argued. Meanwhile, Sam reappeared, scurrying to Ethan's side.

"My dear girl, you must go back with your class at once!" Sophia ordered Beth.

"You must hurry, before those villains get down here! Ethan, let's go!" Liam barked at them both.

"No! Ethan!" Beth cried.

"Beth, they're right! You have to go where it's safe! Kearney's not after you. He's after me!" Ethan confessed painfully. Tears streamed down his face.

"No! Ethan! What's going to happen to you?" Beth cried anew.

He swallowed down a dry lump in his throat. "I will do my best to survive, Beth. Now, go, please go! I cannot bear the thought of you getting harmed on account of my troubles!" Beth was pulled away from Ethan, and their hands had to release.

Pollman arrived first. "Well, well, there's the brat! Decided to stop running, did you? Kearney, here he is! Let's get him on the next train back to London!"

Policemen invaded the entire ground level of the Eiffel Tower. Kearney watched these police with his mismatched eyes and then charged forward. Liam crouched down when the ray guns started firing.

"Ethan, come here!" Sophia ordered him. "I can put a shield around us!" Ethan froze. He could hear Beth scream, but at least she and her class were beyond the point where they would be in danger.

At that moment, Ethan's entire world became a narrow tunnel. Beth's face was at the end of it, but she drew further and further away. Ethan reached toward her once more, and she was no longer visible, he closed his eyes. If he died that moment, it would not matter at all. All this fuss, all this fighting, was for nothing. He, Ethan Stanwood, was powerless and any effort to save him was a useless and futile exercise.

Kearney advanced. Liam drew out that retractable weapon he'd had before and with a flick of his wrist, it shot out to roughly the length of a sword. Ethan wished he wouldn't bother.

"Remember what he said, Kearney! Kill the others, take the boy alive!" Pollman yelled. Ethan thought with misery that Mr. Pollman had it wrong. He was the one who should die, so that everyone else could live...

"The boy!" Kearney raged. "The boy in the train!"

"You miserable wretch! When will we see the last of you?" Liam bellowed and swung his weapon at the fiend. Smoke emitted from anywhere the weapon's fuse made contact on Kearney's body. And since Kearney was bare chested, Liam had his pick of target areas.

After a few of these strikes, Kearney grew annoyed and roared. He made a dive for Liam. Ethan knew Liam was in danger because of him. Ethan was not going to let Liam die because of him!

He knelt down and raised his hands before him. "Guard my friend!" he cried. He sent a spell of deflection toward Liam, hoping to enclose him in guarding power. But, to Ethan's horror, Kearney was able to burst straight through the spell, and Liam took a glancing blow to the left arm.

Pollman raised a pistol with a swirling blue core and aimed at Liam. Thought did not even enter Ethan's mind. He made a spectacular dive and knocked Pollman down to the concrete. However, Pollman seemed to manage to get off one shot. Ethan did not take the time to figure out where the shot had gone, and crawled away before Pollman could recover from his fall.

A shocking whack to the left side of his head knocked Ethan down. "Kearney, no! What are you doing? Kill the policeman, not the boy!" he could hear. Ethan's head hit the concrete on the right.

The pain was overwhelming. All Ethan could do was wait for his death to come. Kearney roared and drove that lethal, shiny fist down...and it met with a powerful magic shield. Sparks flew from each impact as Kearney attempted to break through the barrier just like he had done previously to the one Ethan tried to put around Liam.

But this shield held. This one was strong enough to withstand both of Kearney's fists pounding down. Ethan had one thought—this shield was beyond anything he or his grandmother could produce.

Ethan merely lie there on the concrete, under this invisible, impenetrable dome, watching Kearney get angrier and more violent by the second. This was the final scene Ethan witnessed. The damage to his head had thwarted any possible chance of remaining conscious. Ethan knew at that moment that he was going to die. And it did not matter to him. No one else would die because of him now... Almost peacefully, Ethan slipped under the canopy of blank night.