“This was the biggest wing of the zoo,” Dennis said quietly. “It’s slightly amazing.”
“Slightly,” said Antigone. “I’d say.”
The white astronaut was waiting for them. He glanced back at Leon and up at the birds.
“Cheese, Leon!” it yelled. “Go get your cheese!”
Instantly, the turtle tore its head free and began scraping its way quickly back in the other direction, its tail slithering and its huge spiny back bobbing as it went.
The white shape put club fists on wide hips. “Now maybe you’ll tell me how you got in here. Not that it matters. The O of B will have your bags packed in the morning for this. Some of the Keepers don’t even want me in here.”
“What are you?” Antigone asked.
The white thing reached up and twisted its head counterclockwise until it popped off.
On top of the enormous white body was the small, red, sweating face of a twelve-year-old boy, wet hair glued to his forehead. “I’m James Axelrotter, zookeeper. You can call me Jax. Who are you?”
“Jax!” Cyrus said. “We needed to find you. We have to get some animal tutoring or something.”
The boy scrunched his face. “I don’t tutor. And if I did, why would I start with trespassers and rulebreakers?” He glanced up at the birds in profile against the skylights, and then back over his shoulder.
“We can talk about that later,” said Antigone. “We need to get out of this place and find Greeves. Right away.”
Jax nodded and pointed them toward a distant door at the end of the room. “That is the closest exit. Stay with me.” He began waddling, and Cyrus followed him, examining the boy’s white suit.
“What are you wearing?”
“An artificial exoskeleton,” Jax said, scanning the room while he walked. “Made from more than half a million interwoven and rubberized Golden Orb-weaver webs — among other things. It’s the only way I can survive very long in here. This place was the Crypto wing — unusual, bizarre, especially deadly, and supranatural creatures. Construction began after the Civil War. Axelrotters have always overseen it. Leon was one of the first to be housed here.”
“But they lost control of the animals,” Dennis said. “That’s why it’s closed.”
Jax tried to glare at him over his enormous white shoulder. “They did not lose control of the animals. Twenty-four years ago, a Keeper named Edwin Laughlin — Phoenix to everyone now — was inspired by Leon and altered these animals. My grandfather and a number of his staff were killed as a result.”
“I don’t understand,” Cyrus said. “Inspired by Leon? You mean he made the animals big?”
Jax again glanced up, and then turned a full circle as he moved, eyes all over the room. “No. He did not. Though it can have that effect eventually. At first, he modified the personalities — animalities, I guess — of particular animals. Then he exchanged consciousnesses — animal to animal. He ended by modifying and blending animals physically. That is when he was caught. But not before his final phase was executed on more than a few of them — the Leon phase.”
Jax looked up and around. “Stay close. I want you alive when I turn you in to Mr. Greeves.”
“Terrific,” said Antigone. “Right. That’s what we want, too.”
Cyrus looked over his shoulder. Dennis was huddling quite close to him. “What’s the Leon phase?”
“Leon is named after Ponce de León.” Jax glanced back. “Spanish explorer. Found the Fountain of Youth in Florida. But it wasn’t much of a fountain. It was a murky swamp pool deep in the Everglades. They were even swampier then. Leon is how he knew he had found it.”
“Are we joking right now?” Cyrus asked.
Jax shook his head while he walked. “That was five hundred years ago, and Leon was already huge and ancient, snacking on gators. Leon is what happens when an alligator snapping turtle lives in the Swamp of Youth for a few centuries. He’ll still be alive after our grandchildren are dead. Ponce told the Order about the huge turtle, and they put Leon on the Sage lists and sent Journeymen out to check on him every so often. Then when the swamps were drained off for farming and the fountain was lost, Leon went on the move. He started eating horses on some ranch. That’s when the O of B collected him.”
“I would never believe any of that,” Antigone said. “But I’ve already seen the turtle. So the Leon phase of the experiments …”
Jax sighed. “Transmortality. Nearly immortal animals.”
“Nearly immortal?” Cyrus asked.
“Not one has died yet,” said Jax. “But it’s only been two decades. The Sages in the Orbis put all the transmortaled creatures in here, and then they sealed it up. I come in, do my best to clean, and feed them and try to keep everything from going too wild. Not much else I can do.”
Something slapped onto the floor behind them.
Cyrus spun around, and Antigone grabbed his arm. Dennis squeaked. Jax swore.
The birds were descending. But they weren’t birds.
A fat-bodied red snake slithered toward them, rearing to strike. When it reared, it spread two wings, glistening with white feathers.
Another snake hit the floor. And another.
Jax shoved Cyrus toward the end of the room. “Get to the door! Run! And keep your eyes up!”
Raising his helmet, Jax twisted it back into place. “Now!” he yelled. “Go!” And he lumbered toward the snakes.
Cyrus, Antigone, and Dennis ran.
White wings churned the air above them.
nineteen. BRENDAN
A RED CURLING tail brushed through Cyrus’s hair, and the viper dropped to the floor six feet in front of him. Others were dropping farther ahead, closer to the door.
Behind him, Antigone screamed.
Cyrus spun around, nearly colliding with Dennis. The porter veered off, but he didn’t stop sprinting.
While Cyrus watched, his sister grabbed a snake by the tail and plucked it out of the air. Swinging it hard, she knocked two others to the ground behind her, hurling her serpent club away as she did.
“Duck!” she yelled at Cyrus.
Turning, Cyrus ducked as another diving viper grazed his ear. He dodged around two on the ground.
“Tigs!” he yelled, slowing.
“Go! I’m right behind you!”
Cyrus’s bare heels stopped touching the cold marble floor as his strides lengthened. Ahead of him, a viper coiled and reared to strike, wings spread.
Cyrus didn’t turn and he didn’t slow down. He vaulted, launching into the air and spreading his legs as the snake struck.
His shins folded back the white wings. A fang caught in the thigh of his pants, whipping the snake around and spinning it across the dusty floor as he landed.
“Tigs?” he yelled again.
Dennis had reached the door. He was pulling it open. Cyrus was almost there.
“Tigs!” Cyrus broke down his sprint and turned around.
A big, four-legged shape slid out from the shadow of the mezzanine, rumbling a growl like distant drums. Cyrus froze. It was a bear, long-legged, short-faced, and with a body the size of a bull. It was black, but its belly was tiger-striped with white. White rings circled its eyes, and white fangs dangled beneath its heavy upper lip.
Bounding forward, it rose onto its hind legs, towering twice Cyrus’s height, swatting at the vipers. The snakes climbed, circling out of the bear’s reach.