Un2talented (Book 3 of the Un2 Series)

“What have you done?” Shorty yelped. “You and that short fuse of yours! It’s like senior prom all over again!”

“He belittled me!” Lanky snipped.

“He pointed out a shortcoming. And one that you know is true!”

“It still stings,” Lanky moped.

A series of high-pitched beeps sounded from the end of Lenny’s arm that dangled over the edge of the lectern. Shorty raised the limp appendage and glanced at the chirping wristwatch.

“It’s time! Do something!”

Lanky yanked Lenny from the podium and shook him vigorously. Lenny did a great impersonation of a rag doll but did not wake. He tossed him aside like a loathsome toddler discarding an unwanted present.

“Do you remember what we need to do?” Lanky grabbed Shorty by the front of his shirt practically pulling him off his feet.

Shorty slapped Lanky across his face. “Get a grip on your shit, man!”

Shorty broke loose and rushed to the open book.

“He needed to read this part here.”

Shorty pointed to a passage flagged by a bright green post-it note.

He quickly scanned the paragraph.

“Ugh! It’s in Latin or somethin’! I can’t read Latin!”

“I can,” Cadence interjected.

Dorian grabbed her arm and pulled her close. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to get us out of here in one piece,” Cadence whispered.

She jumped up and pushed her way to the podium. Shorty pointed to the incantation.

“I will help only if you let them go,” she stated as she pointed to her friends.

“Sure. Anything. Just fix this!” Shorty pleaded.

Cadence skimmed over the section.

“Well, that’s Latin, alright. I think I get the gist of what it is saying.”

“You have to read it aloud and stuff has to be done while you read it,” Shorty added.

“It says something about placing an offering on the plate. Do you know what that means?”

Shorty pulled a small drawstring bag from his pocket. He dumped its contents, an ancient Greek obol, a fifteenth-century Spanish real, and a newly minted quarter, into his hand.

“This one is for the ferryman,” he said pointing to the obol, “and these two represent the points in time we want to connect.” He drew a line with his fingers between the other coins.

“Hand them to me.” Cadence took the book in one hand and extended the other.

She positioned herself in front of the gazebo and tossed the coins onto the plate that was suspended above the center well. She took a deep breath and read the incantation.

“Flumina­ quinque convergent ut unum,

Creare ostium ad tenebras’ filius,

Dux nobis per mundum infra,

Ad longinqua litora pridem!”

The water in the well began to churn. At first, the movement was a wavy side-to-side motion, but it slowly transitioned into a swirl. The group gathered near Cadence and stared into the spinning water. Its velocity increased rapidly causing the water to rise at its edge and spill beyond the stony edges of the well. The center of the whirlpool dropped violently swallowing the air and pulling dust from the cavern’s walls and floor into the lightless void.

“What did you say?” Dorian gulped.

“The incantation spoke of the combining of the five rivers and beckoning the son of darkness to act as a guide across time,” Cadence replied.

“But we didn’t combine . . .”

Dorian’s statement was cut short by a deafening roar as the whirlpool twisted upward toward the bottom of the plate containing the offerings. The watery column recoiled into the well, pulling the plate with it. The leather thongs tightened as the plate dropped, flipping the gimbals, tipping the five ewers, and pouring their contents into the troughs in front of them.

The elements once contained by Pandora’s pyxis spilled toward the waters twisting wildly within the well. These foul rivers of hate, pain, evil, forgetfulness, and woe writhed their way into the gazebo and fused with the spiraling liquid column at its center. The waterspout withdrew into the well, pulling the plate and its contents with it. All was suddenly still and quiet.

“. . . anything . . . well . . . never mind,” Dorian finished his moot commentary. “So, what happens now?”

Cadence scanned the text in front of her. “It says we wait for the ferryman.”

“How long? When I call for a ride the app tells me when my ride will show up and what he will be driving,” Dorian joked.

“Death will be arriving in approximately five minutes, driving a blue Prius!” Gary added. “Hello, sir, I’m your Uber from Hell.”

Gary mimicked opening a car door and ushering in a passenger.

“Really, you two. Now is not the time to be joking around!” Cadence reprimanded.

A moan came from the man slumped over the lectern. He struggled to stand and peered over his cock-eyed glasses at the group in front of the gazebo.

“What happened? Did you call him?” Lenny groaned.

“I read the incantation,” Cadence turned and went to Lenny.

“The ewers emptied?”

“Yes.”

“And the offering?”

“I tossed it onto the plate as the book said.”

Lenny’s face dropped.

“What’s wrong?” Cadence asked, somewhat panicked by Lenny’s pallor.

“You made the offering?” Lenny confirmed.

Cadence nodded.

“Uh-oh.”

Dorian leaped beside Cadence, “What ‘uh-oh’? I don’t like your ’uh-oh!”

Lenny pointed at Leslie. “He was to be the one to make the offering.”

“I kind of wondered what was going on with this outfit!” Leslie realized.

“But there is more,” Lenny continued. “He who makes the offering is also part of the offering.”

’I think it’s my turn to hit you!” Leslie fumed.

Lenny cringed, prepared to deflect any incoming fists, and quickly stammered through crossed arms, “I never intended to allow the ritual to be completed! I was going to sabotage the ritual!”

Lanky inserted himself between Leslie and Lenny, grabbing the smaller of the two by the shoulders and practically lifting him from the ground. He pulled him close. Their noses nearly touched.

“You planned on screwing up so DeLeon wouldn’t be able to make it back?”

“The ritual touches things that should remain untouched. Nothing good can come of it.”

“Thank goodness!” Lanky pulled him into a hug. “I never wanted to be a part of bringing that A-hole back here!”

He set Lenny back down and brushed his shirt. He focused his gaze on the ground. “Sorry about smacking you earlier. I have this thing where I’m either at one or ten. There’s no in-between. I’m working on it.”

“You’re forgiven.” Lenny patted Lanky on the shoulder. “But my intended sabotage was thwarted by your outburst. Please, hand me the book,” he beckoned to Cadence.

Lenny rifled through the pages that surrounded the passage on the ritual.

“I don’t see a kill switch on this. We’ll have to deal with whatever happens…”

A low rumble vibrated within the cavern floor.

“… apparently, sooner than later.”