The Forbidden Lock

by Liesl Shurtliff

  Matt grinned. Just that small interaction gave him a fresh wave of affection for his brother and sister. He wanted to hug them to the floor all over again. But he resisted. Corey, Ruby, Jia, and Mr. Nobel all looked at him expectantly. Marta, too, had settled herself on the bed with the rabbit, like she was ready for story time.

  Matt told everyone what had happened. It wasn’t quick, but no one interrupted or complained. Even Corey listened quietly as Matt described how their dad and Corey and Ruby had disappeared during the time rift in New York, and how their mom reverted back to her younger self with no memories of her husband or children. Jia helped fill in parts of the story too. Corey and Ruby were both shocked to learn that she was really the daughter of an emperor. Jia told most of what had happened to them in China, including what they had learned there about the forbidden lock, the Summer Triangle, and how the emperor believed that Matt, Corey, and Ruby were supposed to fix it somehow.

  Matt told them how Gaga, Haha, and Uncle Chuck had mysteriously disappeared in China, and then how Albert had stolen the compass and he and Belamie had abandoned them. This resulted in an outburst of rather crude insults from Corey until he saw the look on Alfred Nobel’s face, and he cowered a bit.

  He told them about Yinreng’s threats, how Matt had figured out how to disassemble himself, and how he had rescued the younger Jia, placing her with Captain Vincent in order to save her life and also help them.

  “Wait,” Corey said. “So you can do the disappearing trick?”

  “Is that why you’re sort of blurry?” Ruby said.

  “Prove it!” Corey said. “Do it right now!”

  Matt was so exhausted, he didn’t think he had the strength to fully disassemble and pull himself back together, but he held up his hand and made it disappear.

  Corey laughed like a little kid seeing a magic trick. “Whaaaat! You’re like a comic superhero!” Then his face suddenly fell. He knit his brow and frowned at Matt. “Or villain. Still not sure.”

  “He’s not a villain, Corey,” Ruby said. “He’s our brother, and he saved us from nonexistence, remember?”

  “Maybe,” Corey said. “But remember how he’s also Marius Quine, possibly related to Captain Vincent Quine? And from all we’ve seen they seem to be on the same side. And he still hasn’t told us how he rescued us. Maybe it was a fluke and he’s just playing it off like he saved us. Mom and Dad still aren’t here, you know, and Gaga and Haha and Uncle Chuck. Where are they now?”

  Everyone looked back to Matt. “I think Mom is with Vincent right now,” he said. “She doesn’t understand what’s going on. She doesn’t remember us or Dad. And Dad’s still hanging in some kind of limbo. I think I can bring him back, but he might not remember us either. As for Gaga and Haha and Uncle Chuck, I’m not entirely sure. I saw them disappearing, but it wasn’t the same as when you two disappeared. It seemed different for some reason. More like . . . how I disassemble myself.” He was trying to think why that might be . . .

  “How did you bring us back?” Ruby asked.

  “Yes, I would like to know this,” Mr. Nobel said. “What happened to the dynamite? Did you see why it worked differently?”

  “I did,” Matt said. “I put myself inside the dynamite.”

  “You what?” Jia screeched.

  “What do you mean you put yourself inside the dynamite?” Ruby asked.

  “Yeah,” Corey said, “not sure how that fits.”

  Matt explained as best he could what he had done and what had happened. How he’d put himself in the dynamite, and then when Captain Vincent blew up the tapestries, his own cells attached to them.

  “I could feel you two the strongest,” Matt said, “I think because I had those pieces of your time tapestry. It was like you clung to me, and I couldn’t let go. There’s still more. Other people, I mean, but I didn’t have enough energy to gather them too. That’s why I’m fuzzy, I think. Part of me is still with them, or still inside the dynamite.” Even as he said these words, he could feel that small portion of him far away, like his very being was split between realms.

  “Wow,” Ruby said.

  “Yeah,” Corey said. “Wow.”

  Jia seemed to be lost for words. He could tell she was battling between being impressed with him for what he’d done, but also upset with him for leaving without telling her.

  “Incredible,” Mr. Nobel said. “And Marta, she helped?”

  They all turned to Marta. Both she and the rabbit were now asleep on the bed.

  “I couldn’t have done it without her,” Matt said. “Somehow she knew exactly what to do, how to weave the time tapestries back together so Corey and Ruby could come back.”

  “I always thought she was maybe a ghost,” Corey said.

  Matt nodded. “Maybe she sort of is. Not a ghost, exactly, but not really part of this world.”

  Nobel frowned at his sleeping niece. “I’m afraid she won’t be in this world much longer,” he said, his voice a bit raspy.

  “What do you mean?” Jia asked.

  Nobel didn’t seem to be able to speak.

  “She was born to Emil after he was brought back to life by Captain Vincent,” Matt said gently. “If he hadn’t done that, she never would have been born, and if we are somehow able to fix the lock . . . I don’t know what that will mean for Marta.”

  Jia’s eyes widened as she understood what he meant. She shook her head, eyes gleaming.

  Mr. Nobel went to the sleeping Marta and gently picked her up in his arms, the rabbit too. He carried her out of the room, leaving Matt, Ruby, Corey, and Jia in tired silence.

  “We can’t just let her . . . die, can we?” Ruby said in a small voice.

  “It’s not exactly death, is it?” Corey said. “I mean, technically she wasn’t even supposed to be born.”

  “Is anyone technically supposed to be born?” Jia said. “Does Marta have less right to live just because she was born in a different reality than ours?”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Corey said, “I just . . . sheesh, this is complicated. It’s like math. I hate math.”

  Yes, it was complicated, but Jia was right. Marta had just as much right to live as any of them, and yet Matt didn’t know how to solve for that. It was just one more riddle to add to the steadily growing pile.

  “I think she maybe has a role to play in fixing the lock,” Matt said. “All her weaving and knot tying, the way she helped bring you two back, I think she’ll be able to help us fix the rest, somehow.”

  “How are we supposed to fix the forbidden lock, anyway?” Ruby asked. “We don’t even know where it is or what it looks like, do we?”

  “We don’t know much,” Matt agreed. “But I think it’s very likely that it’s in Colombia, or that the place has something to do with it, anyway.”

  “Why Colombia?” Corey said.

  “Obviously because that’s where Matt was born, duh,” Ruby said.

  “And it would make sense that his birth would have something to do with the forbidden lock,” Jia said. “Everything seems to be connected to Matt. Your family, time travel, the compass, all that has happened, begins and ends with Matt’s birth.”

  “Not my birth,” Matt said. “My adoption.”

  “What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

  “In our reality Mom and Dad were the ones to adopt me, but that could change, theoretically, couldn’t it? With the Aeternum, Captain Vincent could make it so he’s the one to adopt me, make me his child instead. And then I really will become Marius Quine and you two won’t exist at all.”

  Corey let out a long sigh. “To think this world could exist without me. It would just be so dark and . . . boring.”

  “This isn’t a joke, Corey,” Ruby said.

  “I’m not joking! I’m, like, essential to the earth’s well-being.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes.

  “You’re essential to me,” Matt said. “You both are. I don’t want to be Marius Quine. I don’t want you two to go away. I
don’t want any other family. I want our family. I want Mom and Dad and Gaga and Haha and Uncle Chuck.”

  “Maybe you don’t have a choice,” Corey said. “Maybe it’s not up to you. Our fates are out of our hands.”

  Matt felt an ache begin in his chest. The thought of being torn from his family, of truly not knowing or remembering them . . . it really would be a world of darkness.

  “What if it is your choice?” Jia said.

  “What do you mean?” Matt asked.

  Jia had a pensive look on her face. “I’m not sure. I’m just thinking about the things my father said about you three being the key to repairing the forbidden lock. What if it’s up to you three what happens? Maybe it’s simpler than you think.”

  Corey snorted. “None of this is simple.”

  “The problems are not simple, but that doesn’t mean the solutions can’t be. Think of it in terms of mechanics. This door, for example.” Jia stood and went to the bedroom door. She swung it open and closed and open again. “Look. A large, heavy slab of wood. If it were just that it would be very difficult to open it, but it’s the small hinges that make it work so easily. Small mechanisms can have huge effects. Matt, you of all people should know this.”

  He did. So many things that seemed big and overwhelming originated from the smallest thing. Even his ability to atomically disassemble himself came from such a small space in his brain. You just had to know where it was and how to activate it, make it light up.

  “Maybe you need to think of yourselves as the hinges in all the larger stuff that’s happening,” Jia said. “Don’t overthink it.”

  Easier said than done, Matt thought. He could barely think at all right now. Blowing himself up and bringing Corey and Ruby back into existence was just a tad tiring. Corey and Ruby looked exhausted as well. But Matt didn’t think there was any way they could sleep now. He feared that if he closed his eyes he would wake and Corey and Ruby would be gone again, and he’d forget them completely. And their parents . . . his dad was still hovering in a state of nonexistence, and their mom was in the clutches of Captain Vincent, totally unaware of what he’d done to her and her family. And there was Gaga and Haha and Uncle Chuck. And beyond that, beyond his own family, there were all the time rifts throughout the world, the destruction of cities and entire civilizations, families separated, and people displaced in space and time. Matt knew the fate of the world was at stake, and if they didn’t fix the lock soon, get those pillars of the universe back into place, everything would fall apart. There was not time to rest. They had to push on.

  “So what now?” Ruby asked. “Do we go to Colombia, try to head off Captain Vincent?”

  “Soon,” Matt said. “First we need to gather our troops.”

  He didn’t think he’d be able to get his parents back quite yet, but there was still Gaga and Haha and Uncle Chuck. Matt had a feeling he knew where they had gone and how to get them back.

  Nobel helped them prepare to leave, gathering whatever food he could for their journey. In less than an hour, they were all outside, ready for departure. Or nearly. Corey and Ruby were standing on the edge of the yard, noting the odd mixture of buildings and vehicles in what was supposed to be nineteenth-century Stockholm. It was nearly dawn now. There was a purplish glow on the horizon. It looked to Matt as though more buildings had disappeared in the night, and others had appeared.

  Jia and Marta were crouched in the garden, feeding handfuls of clover to the rabbit. Matt stood in silence with Nobel, watching the two girls who had become something like sisters. He was trying to work up the courage to ask Mr. Nobel for something he was certain he would not want to give.

  “Do you know what you will do once you reach Colombia?” Nobel asked Matt.

  Matt shook his head. “Not really. Search for the forbidden lock. And myself, I guess.”

  Nobel gave a wry smile. “Ah, the eternal quest. I’ve been searching for myself my entire life, and yet the more I search, the more lost I become.”

  Matt nodded in agreement. “It’s like a riddle, isn’t it? I feel like a riddle that I don’t know how to solve.”

  Nobel seemed startled by this for some reason. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Marta dashed right past them, chasing after the rabbit.

  Matt took a breath. “Mr. Nobel, I need to ask you for something.”

  “You need my niece to go with you,” Nobel said, still watching Marta wistfully.

  Now it was Matt who was startled. “How did you know?”

  “Marta told me she would be going with you,” Nobel said, “and I have never been able to stop her from doing her own will. She seems to know she has a mission to perform.”

  “You could come with us, too,” Matt said. “So you can stay with her . . . as long as possible.”

  “No,” Nobel said resolutely. “I’ve always known Marta would walk paths I could not follow. This is her fate. And I must live with my own as the merchant of death.” He spoke these words with a bitter sadness that made Matt feel very sorry for him.

  “I’m probably not supposed to tell you a whole lot about your future,” Matt said, “and who knows if your life will even fully turn out the way I’ve read about it in the history books, but for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re the merchant of death. You’re a great scientist, and there are still great things you can do. Things that will help people and the world. Even after you’re gone, you can leave a great legacy that people will celebrate for centuries.”

  Nobel brightened just a little at these words, or at least some of the bitterness seemed to soften. “Thank you. I will think on that.”

  “Hey,” Corey called from across the yard. “Are we leaving or what? I think I just saw an entire house disappear. We might want to get on that whole saving-the-world mission sooner or later. Sooner’s probably better.”

  “Coming,” Matt said.

  “I have something to show you before you go,” Nobel said. He went inside his house and returned in less than a minute carrying a small leather notebook. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for.

  “I started writing this ages ago,” Nobel said, “when I still had dreams of being a poet like Lord Byron. I never finished it. I’d almost forgotten about it, but something you just said sparked my memory. I wrote it in English. I wasn’t sure why at the time. That’s just how the words came to me. Well, you read it.” He shoved the notebook at Matt.

  Matt took it, not quite understanding, until he saw the title of the poem written at the top of the page in a sprawling cursive.

  A Riddle

  You say I am a riddle—it may be

  For all of us are riddles unexplained.

  Begun in pain, in deeper torture ended,

  This breathing clay what business has it here?

  Some petty wants to chain us to the Earth,

  Some lofty thoughts to lift us to the spheres,

  And cheat us with that semblance of a soul

  To dream of Immortality, till Time

  O’er empty visions draw the closing veil,

  And a new life begins . . .

  “This poem seemed to flow through me,” Nobel said, “almost as if it was coming from another sphere, another time. And maybe it did. Maybe we were always meant to meet and solve the unsolvable riddles, both within ourselves and the world.”

  A riddle . . . the closing veil . . . a new life. Matt didn’t understand everything in the poem, but it sparked something in him. It rang true. He remembered how Quine had told him that, above all, poetry must speak truth.

  “Thank you for showing this to me.” Matt handed the notebook back to Nobel.

  “Safe travels, Mateo.” They shook hands.

  Alfred Nobel went to Marta. She had caught the rabbit and now held it captive in her lap. Nobel knelt down in the grass and spoke softly to his niece in Swedish. Marta handed her uncle the white rabbit like a parting gift, then hugged him tightly around the neck.

  Matt, C
orey, Ruby, Jia, and Marta all gathered together.

  “Ready?” Matt said.

  “Let’s do this,” Corey said. Ruby and Jia both nodded, while Marta simply looked expectantly up at Matt.

  “Everybody hold on to me.”

  They all crowded in and grasped Matt’s hands and arms and shoulders, intertwining themselves. He started to dissolve himself, then slowly moved that same energy through everyone else. It was a chain reaction, a domino effect. Once he had the process started, he could keep it moving to anyone physically connected to him.

  “Whoa,” Corey said. “This feels super weird.”

  Ruby squirmed a little. “It tickles! I feel like I’m turning to sand!”

  “It’s okay,” Matt said. “Just hold on. I won’t let go.”

  Matt dissolved himself and everyone with him.

  Alfred Nobel stood in his yard for a long time, gently stroking the rabbit while staring at the place where his niece had disappeared. Finally, he released the rabbit in the yard and went inside.

  29

  Gathering the Troops

  It wasn’t easy, carrying four extra people in a disassembled state. It was like swimming with heavy clothes on plus a backpack full of books. But Matt knew things were only going to get heavier. His load was only going to increase. So he held tight and pushed on.

  He traveled to China on the day that he had first arrived in the Forbidden City. He found Blossom sitting in the moat around the walls of the city. Matt pulled himself together, releasing the others as he did. Corey, Ruby, Jia, and Marta all took shape as they spilled from Matt’s grasp, like water taking the shape of its container.

  “Whoa,” Corey said as soon as he was fully formed. “That was so weird.”

  Ruby shook her hands and stomped her feet. “Gah! I feel like my whole body is asleep!”

  Jia stretched her fingers and shook her head. Only Marta seemed unfazed by the journey.

  “I’m going to go get Gaga, Haha, and Uncle Chuck,” Matt said. “You three wait here.”

  “Shouldn’t we come with you?” Jia asked.

  “No. It will be easier if I’m by myself. I promise it will be fine. I’ll be back in no time at all.”