A Giant Problem Read online

  Nick and Laurie scrambled out of the backseat. They used the key card to open the side door of the hotel and ran up the stairs. Listening against the wall, Nick could hear his father shouting into the phone.

  “Just tell me where you are! Is your brother with you? Laurie? You know that I almost reported my car as stolen? Do you know that?”

  Nick slid the card into the lock and pushed open the door. He didn’t want to take a chance on the door closing, so he just held it open and pointed to the boat. Laurie ran across the room and picked it up.

  As they headed back down the hall, Nick heard his dad yell, “If you don’t tell me where you are right now, I am going to call the police!”

  Then the elevator chimed, they jumped in it, and the hallway and their parents were gone.

  It took Jules about an hour to duct tape a portable stereo to the top of the car and rig it so it could play the microcassette. It involved some cutting of wires and electrical tape that he bought from an all-night gas station convenience store, plus the standard cassette adapter from Laurie’s bag. And if Jules sometimes looked off into the distance and needed to be shoved by Cindy to get back to the task, well, Nick hoped that was only because Jules was tired.

  The elevator chimed.

  “Okay,” Cindy said finally, coming over to where Laurie and Nick were taking turns throwing cheese-covered popcorn to Sandspur every time he marked down a new giant on a big glossy map.

  “We have a route,” Nick said. “Most of the places aren’t even that far. It’s maybe a thirty-mile radius.”

  “Jack said the highest concentration of giants was in this area.” Laurie threw another piece of popcorn in the hobgoblin’s direction, and he scuttled for it, trailing the twine she’d bought to releash him.

  “If we start now, we should get back here just after the tide starts going out. The sun will just be coming up.”

  “At least no one’s on the roads this late.”

  Jules started up the car and they got in. Cindy drank a large cup of coffee like it was water. “Is this the dumbest thing we’ve ever done?” she asked him.

  “This is totally the dumbest thing we’ve ever done,” said Jules.

  “Just checking,” she said, and turned on the stereo.

  Nick and Laurie climbed in the back.

  “It is totally ridiculous that this could save Florida,” Jules told him, “but good job thinking it up.”

  Nick grinned. “Just drive like you’re playing a video game.”

  Jules smiled back at him and tousled his hair. “Maybe you should be the one driving, then.”

  It was strange, how happy Nick felt. He was still scared, but he was excited, too.

  For almost an hour they followed the route on the map and nothing happened. They just drove through the darkness with the eerie sound of mermaid song drifting behind them.

  “Did he just give you those coordinates to get food?” Jules asked.

  “No!” said the hobgoblin. “I am good and honest! And hungry!”

  Then they heard a heavy thudding sound as three giants leaped onto the road. Nick screamed so loudly that his throat hurt. Jules lost control of the car, swerving onto the side of the road, and then grabbed the wheel, jerking it hard. They passed the giant on the left so closely that Nick could have leaned out the window and brushed one massive, wrinkled, craggy leg. He turned to look behind them. The giants chased them, running like rolling boulders.

  “Drive!” screamed Laurie.

  “Stick to the route!” yelled Nick. “It’s working!”

  They drove faster, taking the turns outlined on the map, giants following them in a growing horde. Sometimes Nick saw them shove one another as more and more burst from the woods and came pushing from the ground and cracking through the asphalt. More than ten, then more than twenty, then more than Jack’s anticipated thirty.

  A crowd of giants roaring toward them.

  “We’re almost there,” Cindy said. “I can see the water.”

  The car pulled onto the bridge right after the exit to the estuary beach, and Nick looked out at the glittering lights along the shore. The thudding of his heart and the footsteps of the giants seemed to be beating together, thundering faster and faster as the car accelerated …

  … and then stopped short, Jules slamming his hands against the wheel. He screamed with frustration.

  “Jules!” Nick leaned forward. “What are you doing?”

  Up ahead of them, a horn started blaring and the sides of the bridge began to rise. The barrier bars were already down and a sailboat with two tall masts glided toward the opening in the bridge.

  “I couldn’t make it across in time,” Jules said. He sounded numb.

  “No, no, no, no,” Cindy said, looking back. There were no other cars. At least they could be glad about that.

  Nick grabbed hold of his little Viking ship with the microcassette recorder taped to it, opened the door of the car, and climbed out into the street. He could hear the giants pounding toward him, like rocks crashing down a hill, but he couldn’t think about that.

  “Nick!” Laurie yelled, and he remembered his dad yelling for him when he was walking through the debris. He couldn’t think about that, either.

  He jumped up on the hood of the car and pulled out the tiny tape from the stereo, knocking off the adapter. Everything went quiet for a moment except for the thudding of massive feet and the slap of the waves. Shoving the tape into the boat, he hit the play button.

  The mermaids sang again, grainy now, and softer, but at the highest volume the recorder could supply. It didn’t seem like it could possibly be enough.

  A giant reached for Nick. He dodged and nearly tripped. Earth dusted the ground, and the smell of roots and minerals overwhelmed everything else.

  Nick sprinted toward the side of the bridge and raced up it along the bike path as the incline got steeper, the bridge rising farther and farther up. He came up short at the railings. The boat slid in his sweaty hands as he flipped the switch that turned on the motor and the engine whirred to life.

  Please, he thought as he leaned as far as he could over the side. Please. Please let this work. Please don’t let us die.

  He turned the boat in what he hoped was the right position and dropped it over the side of the bridge. It streaked down, the song falling and then disappearing as the boat went under the waves.

  The giants roared behind him. Cracks spiderwebbed out from where the giants stepped, and overhead a stay snapped. Nick wasn’t sure how much longer the bridge could hold their weight.

  Pleas e let this work.

  He closed his eyes.

  Then Nick heard the song again, rising up. The water seemed to amplify the noise; it was strong, beautiful, loud. He looked down and saw the little Viking ship bobbing its way out to the sea. Its prow was pointed at the horizon, and the boat moved steadily along toward it.

  The giants roared with anguish. One shredded the stays to throw itself off the side of the bridge. Others charged toward the ravine and hurled themselves into the ocean.

  Nick slumped down as the bridge began to close and noticed for the first time that Cindy and Jules and Laurie were already out of the car. Jules had a tire iron in one hand and his key ring in the other.

  “We’re okay,” Nick said. “Everything’s okay now. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  Jules rested his hand against Nick’s shoulder, and Laurie reached out to pull Nick up.

  As the sun rose, bathing the water in gold, they watched the heads of the giants sink lower and lower and finally disappear into the horizon.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Chapter Nine

  IN WHICH the World Turns Upside Down Again

  Nick, Laurie, Cindy, and Jules ate pancakes drenched in syrup and drank as many cups of orange juice as they could hold. Every bite bought them another moment before they got in the worst trouble of their lives.

  Finally, yawning, they dropped Cindy off at her hous
e and headed to the hotel.

  Jules cut the engine halfway down the block and steered the car into a parking space with the momentum. Everything was still and wet with dew when they got out.

  Sitting on the steps were Jared, Simon, and Mallory.

  “What are you doing here?” Nick whispered, looking up at the windows of the building.

  Mallory stood up. She looked older than he had expected, and her hair had been cut into a short bob, but she still looked like the drawings of her. “You must be Nick. We found out something about the giants.”

  “What?” asked Laurie.

  “One of the pages I took with me,” Jared said. “It helped explain some other papers we’d seen before but didn’t understand. It looks like the reason the giants wake up is to kill something else. Something worse.”

  Nick looked over at Laurie. She hugged Sandspur to her chest. Even Jules, who had no idea who these kids were, said nothing.

  Nick had thought he’d saved the world, but instead he’d doomed it.

  About TONY DiTERLIZZI …

  Tony DiTerlizzi is the author and illustrator of Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure, as well as the Zena Sutherland Award– winning Ted. In 2003, his brilliantly cinematic version of Mary Howitt’s classic poem “The Spider and the Fly” received stellar reviews, earned Tony his second Zena Sutherland Award, and was honored as a Caldecott Honor Book. His most recent picture book is G Is for One Gzonk!, and his most recent novel is Kenny & the Dragon, his first chapter book. Tony’s art has also graced the work of such well-known fantasy names as J. R. R. Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Peter S. Beagle, and Jane Yolen as well as Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering. He, his wife, and his daughter reside in Amherst, Massachusetts. Visit Tony at www.diterlizzi.com.

  and HOLLY BLACK

  Holly Black’s first novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was published in the fall of 2002. It was a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and made YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten booklist for 2003. A companion novel, Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie, won the Andre Norton Award for young adult fiction from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Her most recent solo venture is a New York Times bestselling companion to Tithe and Valiant entitled Ironside: A Modern Faery’s Tale. She has also contributed to anthologies by Terri Windling, Ellen Datlow, and Tamora Pierce. Holly also lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. She lives with her husband, Theo, and a remarkable menagerie. Visit Holly at www.blackholly.com.

  BOOKS BY

  THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

  BOOK 1: The Field Guide

  BOOK 2: The Seeing Stone

  BOOK 3: Lucinda’s Secret

  BOOK 4: The Ironweed Tree

  BOOK 5: The Wrath of Mulgarath

  THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

  Notebook for Fantastical Observations

  Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You

  THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

  Care and Feeding of Sprites

  THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

  Deluxe Collector’s Trunk

  The Chronicles of Spiderwick: A Grand Tour of the Enchanted World, Navigated by Thimbletack

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Tony and Holly would like to thank

  Kevin, our faithful, fantastical guide for this grand adventure, Linda, for mapping out Mangrove Hollow (and the spaghetti!), Cassie, Cecil, Kelly, and Steve, for their smarts, Barry, for all his help, Ellen, Julie, and all the folks at Gotham,

  Will, for keeping Tony on track,

  Theo, for all the patience and encouragement, Angela (and Sophia)—more Spiderwick!

  More endless nights of discussion!

  At least it was on a beautiful, sunny Florida beach …

  and all the wonderfully talented folks at S&S for

  all of their support in bringing the next chapter

  in the Spiderwick tale to life.

  The text type for this book is set in Cochin.

  The display types are set in Nevins Hand and Rackham.

  The illustrations are rendered in pen and ink.

  Managing editor: Dorothy Gribbin

  Art director: Lizzy Bromley

  Production manager: Chava Wolin