Free The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore Page B

‘Good eye, Marina.’ Crayton looks at it too, and smiles.
    We fall back into our normal positions, with Six and a reluctant Commander Sharma up front and me taking up the rear. The path ascends slightly, turning rocky. Then, to everyone’s surprise, a steady stream of water begins to flow from ahead of us, down the trail. The rocks under our feet soon become tiny islands. I jump from one rock to another, but in a few minutes the rocks are submerged. All of a sudden, we’re walking through a river.
    Ella is the first one to speak. ‘Maybe the glasses were wrong? Maybe this path wasn’t the right one after all.’
    ‘No. This is correct,’ the commander says, bending down to drag the tips of his fingers along the surface of the water. ‘This is a sign I’ve seen before.’ We have no idea what this cryptic comment means but we’ve gone this far, so we might as well keep going.
    The river current becomes faster and it’s harder to move against it. We trudge higher up the path until the water is to Ella’s waist and I’m having trouble keeping my balance. But just as quickly as it began, the water slows and the land levels out and opens into a large pool of water. A jagged wall of stone stands high behind the pool, and four separate waterfalls descend from its top, crashing into the water.
    ‘What’s that?’ Ella points.
    In the middle of the giant pool, a white boulder juts out of the surface. A gleaming blue statue of a crowned man with four arms rests atop the boulder.
    ‘The Almighty Lord Vishnu,’ Commander Sharma whispers.
    ‘Wait. That’s supposed to be Eight? A statue?’ Six says, turning to Crayton.
    ‘What’s he holding?’ Ella asks. I follow her gaze and see that there’s an object in each of his four hands: a pink flower, a white shell, a gold wand, and on the tip of one of his index fingers, a small blue disc that looks like a CD.
    The commander wades further into the pool. He’s smiling and his hands are shaking. He turns to us. ‘Vishnu is the Supreme God. In his left hands, he holds a conch shell to show he has the power to create and maintain the universe, and under that is a mace to signify his power to destroy materialistic and demoniac tendencies. In his right hands are the chakra, to show he has a purified spiritual mind, below that there is the beautiful lotus flower.’
    ‘Which shows divine perfection and purity,’ Crayton adds.
    ‘Among other things, yes! That is right, Mr. Crayton. Very good.’
    I stare at the statue, at its serene blue face and gold crown and the objects in its hands, and I feel myself forgetting about everything else. About the battle at the base of the mountain and the carnage back in Spain. About Adelina and John Smith and Héctor. I forget about my Chest and Lorien and the fact that I’m standing in cold water. The energy flowing through me is magnificent. And judging by the peaceful looks on the faces of the others, the energy is contagious. I find myself closing my eyes and feeling blessed to be here.
    ‘Hey! He’s gone!’ Ella yells. My eyes snap open to see her whipping off the dark glasses. ‘Vishnu’s gone!’
    She’s right – the white boulder in the middle of the lake is empty. I look at Six and Crayton and see they’re on high alert, ready for danger. I glance around us. What is this, a trap?
    ‘He will now test you,’ Commander Sharma says, interrupting my thoughts. He’s the only one among us who doesn’t look shocked by Vishnu’s disappearance. ‘That is why I have brought you here.’
    We all see it at the same time. Something is blocking the sun on top of the jagged wall above the pool, and a long, oddly shaped shadow is cast along the water. A figure walks slowly along the ridge until it stands directly above the farthest of the four waterfalls on the left.
    ‘Commander?’ I ask. ‘Who is that ?’
    ‘ That is your first test,’ the commander says, stepping onto the grassy shore around the lake. We all follow,