“No, no, of course not,” the queen said. “I’m just so confused . . . I feel like I have a fog in my brain.” She rubbed at her head again.
“Of course, you’re confused. Think of all you’ve been through. Listen, Bonbon, there are forces at work, evil people who are trying to break us apart. We must fight it! We must fight to stay together! Do you agree?”
The Hudson woman nodded. “How do we fight it?”
“We must go and get our son. To complete all our happiness, to lock our eternal destiny in place, we must claim him before someone else does.”
“Where will we find him?”
“In Colombia. In Ciudad Perdida. Our son told me himself that we had to go and find him there. If we didn’t, then all would be lost. Now come back to the party. Your subjects are waiting for their queen.”
They began walking together back to the ballroom, but Santiago hissed at the king so he held back.
“What is it, Santiago?” the king said impatiently.
Bad plan. No Mateo.
“For the last time, Santiago, Mateo—Marius Quine—is on our side!”
Bad plan, Santiago repeated. Mateo evil.
“This is the only way. Making him our son is the only way to complete my eternal destiny! Without him everything falls apart!”
Mateo bad. Hudson woman bad. Discard.
He shouldn’t have said that. Santiago wasn’t sure if it was referring to her as “Hudson woman” or the fact that he called her bad, but it triggered something in the king. He lunged at Santiago and snatched him up by the tail. He wriggled and screeched.
Down! Santiago down! Mean king!
“Yes, perhaps I am a mean king.” The king pressed a finger to Santiago’s stomach, and then he pulled that shimmering cloth from inside of him. Santiago was instantly paralyzed.
“I’m sorry it has to come to this,” said the king. “You’ve been a faithful companion, but I won’t have a rat getting in the way of my eternal happiness, so I’m afraid it’s time for you go.”
He pulled out one of those burning sticks. Santiago felt himself unraveling. His senses began to fade, and his lovely sentient thoughts. And his hunger, that bottomless pit, miraculously closed itself up. What a relief! All of him seemed to be unraveling into sweet oblivion. The only thing that remained was his hatred. He clung to it with every fiber of his being. Whatever fibers remained. He hated that Hudson. He hated Brocco and Wiley and the evil swans. He hated the whole world and everyone and everything in it.
But mostly he hated King Vincent.
31
The Final Glitch
June 1, 2006
Ciudad Perdida, Colombia
Matt landed Blossom on a grassy terrace surrounded by lush green mountains and jungle. As he pulled himself back together, Blossom appeared in her bus form. She revved her engine and honked her horn, announcing their arrival. Everyone pulled back together.
“Oof,” Ruby said as she slammed into a seat.
“So weird,” Corey said, shivering a little as his body re-formed.
Everyone shook their limbs and checked to make sure they were all there. Matt looked around, counting the passengers—Corey, Ruby, Jia, Gaga, Haha, Uncle Chuck . . .
“Where’s Marta?” Jia said, looking around the bus.
Matt checked the back, but she wasn’t there. He knew she’d been with them through their travels. He’d felt her, and he’d felt someone else too. Another time tapestry, or maybe two even, that had been blown up by the dynamite at some point. Matt thought he’d pulled them through, but now he wondered if maybe they’d gotten lost somewhere along the journey. Had he dropped them? Were they lost in that web of time and space?
Something fell from the roof of Blossom and hit the ground. They heard an oof and a loud groan.
“What was that?” Gaga asked.
Corey pressed his face against the window. “Uh . . . it looked like a person just fell off the car.”
And then a small pair of pale legs dangled over the windshield.
“What the beetle juice?” Uncle Chuck said.
“Marta!” Jia cried. “How did she get up there?”
Marta hopped down from Blossom and ran around the car. They could just see her little towhead bobbing up and down along the windows. She stopped on the side of the car where the other person had fallen.
Haha opened the door. There was Marta, standing before a man who was just pulling himself up off the ground, brushing himself off.
Ruby gasped. “It’s Dad,” she said.
“Sort of,” Corey said.
Matt breathed a sigh of relief. It was their dad, though he was younger by a good twenty years, just like their mom. That must have been when Captain Vincent blew up his time tapestry.
“Marta, what is that you have?”
Marta had her hands full of iridescent threads. “Råtta,” she said.
“Time tapestry threads,” Matt said. “She must have pulled someone else through with her.” She was still weaving it together, her hands methodically tying the knots in the fabric.
“Who is it?” Ruby asked.
“I have no idea.” Matt could not remember anyone else the captain might have erased, but whoever they were, they were angry. Matt could actually feel the rage buzzing around his cells that were still attached to the threads.
“Where am I?” Mr. Hudson said. “How did I get here?” He looked at his surroundings, then looked at all the people crowded in the orange bus. He squinted, then his eyes lit up with recognition and surprise.
“Mom? Is that you? And Chuck?”
Matt realized he wouldn’t know Chuck as being his brother right now. Chuck seemed to realize this, too, so he just waved and said, “Hey, Matty.”
But then Mr. Hudson looked at Haha, and here he had the biggest surprise of all. “Dad?”
Haha smiled. “Hey, son.”
“How did you . . . where did you . . . ? I . . . I don’t understand. What just happened? What’s going on? I was just in New York. I was looking for someone, and then this crazy guy attacked me. It was like he was ripping out my throat or something.” He rubbed at his neck, and then another realization seemed to don on him. “Am I dead? Is this the afterlife or something?”
“You’re not dead, sweetie,” Gaga said gently. “But things are a little mixed up right now. It’s hard to explain.”
Mr. Hudson nodded. “I think I did something foolish. I think I got mixed up in something I wasn’t supposed to, and I messed things up.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault,” Haha said.
“The maniac who attacked you has hurt all of us,” Uncle Chuck said.
“But we’re going to make it right,” Ruby said. “That’s why we’re here now.”
Mr. Hudson looked at Ruby when she spoke, and then he glanced at Corey, then Matt, then back at Corey, who strongly resembled his father. Matt could almost see the wheels turning in his brain. Clearly, he saw something familiar about the children before him, even if he did not fully understand their connection. He turned around, surveying the view before them. “Where are we?”
“The Lost City of Colombia,” Matt said.
“It’s beautiful,” Gaga said.
The ancient ruin was a series of green grassy terraces, layered one on top of the other and held up on the sides by rough stone walls. They were standing on the highest terrace on one end overlooking the rest, with lush green mountains and jungle in the backdrop, all blanketed by a thick mist.
Matt had done some research on Ciudad Perdida, after his mom had told him he’d been found very near here. The Lost City of Colombia had once been a thriving civilization that existed more than a thousand years ago, even older than Machu Picchu. The people had been called the Tairona, and they’d lived peacefully until Spanish conquistadors invaded, spreading disease and killing off most of the population. Survivors abandoned the city. What was left had been overgrown by the jungle and hidden until explorers discovered it in the 1970s. Matt knew he had
been found near the Lost City by some tourists around this time, but he had no other idea where or when he’d come from, or why he’d been abandoned in the jungle. Now, standing here, he had this feeling of connection, to another time and life. To a people long gone. Just a gentle echo in his heart.
“It’s so still,” Jia said.
It was, Matt realized, and quiet too. The trees did not move. He neither saw nor heard any signs of animal life. There were no calls of birds, no rustling of shrubs or vines. He couldn’t even smell the earth. It was as if the place itself had been paused in time.
“Hey, look at this,” Ruby said. She had climbed down to the next terrace. She was standing by a flat-faced boulder propped up against one of the walls. It was about as tall as Matt and had a series of lines carved into it, with larger dots chiseled in at several intersections.
“Is this, like, an ancient game of connect the dots?” Corey said.
“Almost,” Jia said. “It’s a star chart.”
She was right. Matt traced his fingers over the lines, the patterns. Toward the center he found three dots connected by equilateral lines. The Summer Triangle. An image suddenly flashed through his mind, unbidden—a man and woman, dressed in rough woven cloth, standing on the highest terrace of this city at night. The man was observing the stars through some kind of ancient astronomy instrument. The woman was carving lines into a huge boulder, likely the very boulder he was touching.
“Matt,” Jia asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m okay.”
He dropped his hand from the star chart, feeling a curious energy running through him. It was like he was remembering things of which he had no previous knowledge. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he did. The ancient Tairona had been astronomers. They must have noted the fading of the Summer Triangle as well, and, just like Emperor Kangxi, knew something terrible was going to happen, something that could destroy their entire civilization and the world. He could almost feel their fears inside himself, like they were channeling it down their timelines to him.
“So . . . what now?” Corey said. “Aren’t we supposed to find baby Matt?”
“Doesn’t look like a place to find a baby, does it?” Ruby said.
It did not. The place was empty, still and silent. Were they supposed to search for him in the jungle? What if he wasn’t here yet? Or what if Captain Vincent had already taken him? No, he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t be standing here if he had. He wouldn’t think of himself as Mateo Hudson, but Marius Quine.
A deep rumbling sounded in the distance. Matt felt a slight vibration in his feet.
“What’s that?” Ruby said, looking around.
“Feels like a mild earthquake,” Mr. Hudson said.
The vibrations grew stronger. Matt started to teeter. Jia grabbed on to him as she lost her balance and nearly fell.
“Or more like a big earthquake,” Uncle Chuck said as he struggled to stay upright. Gaga and Haha held on to each other.
And then the earth cracked open, splitting down the center of the city. A large pole shot out of the ground, spraying dirt and rock in all directions, and then another and another. White sails unfurled on three masts. The very top of the tallest mast bore a black flag with a white compass and red V at the center.
“What in the world . . . ?” Mr. Hudson said.
It was the Vermillion. The whole ship rose out of the ground, sailing on waves of dirt, and settled on the opposite high terrace of the city. It looked like a beached whale.
“You don’t see that every day, do you?” Mr. Hudson said.
“Some people do,” Corey said.
A rope was thrown over the side of the ship, and one by one, the crew came down. Brocco first, then Wiley, Albert, and Captain Vincent. Last to come was Belamie Bonnaire. She was dressed in a loose white blouse, black leather pants and boots, her sword at her waist. Her long dark hair was tied back from her face. She looked fierce, ready for battle. The crew of time pirates jumped down from the terraces and walked toward the group of time castaways. As they did, dark clouds gathered above and the sky let out a low rumble.
Corey and Ruby came to either side of Matt. Ruby drew her sword. “What are we supposed to do?” she asked, her voice a bit panicked.
“I . . . I don’t know,” Matt said. He wasn’t ready for this. He thought they’d have more time. Time to find the forbidden lock, to figure out how to fix it. “Just . . . stick together.”
“Seriously?” Corey said. “That’s all you got right now? Stick together?”
It was. He racked his brain, trying to think of any possibilities, any escape, but every path was a dead end. They couldn’t run or hide anymore. They had to face Vincent and all Matt could think was to hold on to his family, to Corey and Ruby.
“It might be enough,” Jia said. “Remember, small hinges.”
“We’re all with you,” Haha said. They pressed closer together.
Captain Vincent, Belamie, and the crew stopped about ten feet from them. Matt glanced at the compass hanging around Belamie’s neck. She’d chosen it over him. She’d chosen Vincent. The memory of it sliced through him like a blade.
Matt flinched as fat raindrops splashed on his face. He looked up. The sky, which had been clear and bright just moments before, was now dark and foreboding. Matt knew they must be causing a glitch with all these out-of-sync meetings.
Captain Vincent glanced briefly over their group. He stopped at Mr. Hudson. His eyes flashed, and his jaw pulsed. He reached for his sword, but then Belamie spoke.
“You,” she said, looking at Matthew Hudson with a puzzled expression. “I’ve seen you before.”
Matthew ran a hand through his windblown hair. “Yeah. I was . . . sort of looking for you, but things got a little crazy.” His eyes flickered toward Captain Vincent.
“This is the one I was telling you about, Bonbon,” Vincent said. “He’s the one who’s trying to tear us apart, take away everything we’ve worked for.”
“No, I didn’t . . . ,” Mr. Hudson started.
Belamie glanced at the others, then did a small double take when she saw Ruby, who looked like a miniature version of herself, especially with her sword in hand.
“Are you . . . ?” she started, and then trailed off.
Ruby nodded and smiled. “I’m your future daughter.”
“But I’m your future favorite child,” Corey said, “just FYI.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “He’s the worst, but you do love him.”
Belamie’s mouth twitched with a smile.
Belamie looked at Matt, and her cheeks colored as though she was embarrassed or ashamed or maybe both. She reached for her compass and her gaze drew inward for a moment. She muttered some words under her breath. It was very soft. Matt had to strain to hear, but he recognized it immediately. She was singing the lullaby.
When you feel lost and all alone
Look to the sky and you’ll find home
She looked back at Matt, then again at Matthew Hudson, and it was like the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
Matthew Hudson’s mouth tugged into a half smile.
Belamie Bonnaire’s eyes brightened.
Captain Vincent bared his teeth. “I suppose I’ll have to fix things the old-fashioned way after all.” He drew a dagger from his waist and threw it. The blade soared through the air straight toward Matthew Hudson’s heart.
“No!” Belamie cried, lunging toward him, but someone else jumped in front of Matthew at the last second.
Gaga screamed. “Henry!”
Haha fell to the ground, clutching at his side. Gaga whimpered as she knelt down next to him. Matt couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. Blood soaked Haha’s shirt surrounding the hilt of the blade between his ribs. He’d thrown himself in front of his son. He’d taken the dagger for him.
The sky rumbled. Lightning crackled across the sky in the distance. The rain fell more steadily now.
&nbs
p; “Vincent,” Belamie said, staring in horror at the bloody scene before her, “what have you done?”
“What had to be done,” Captain Vincent said coldly. “This is what I was trying to tell you before, Bonbon. All these people are trying to tear us apart. I’m only protecting you.”
Belamie stepped away, shaking her head. “You aren’t protecting me. You’re protecting you. I did leave you, didn’t I? And you couldn’t handle that. You could never handle anyone leaving you behind. You could never come in second. So you got the Aeternum and you . . . you changed everything.”
“Bonbon—”
“Stop calling me that,” she snapped. “I’ve always hated that name.”
Captain Vincent set his jaw. His eyes darkened. “You mustn’t believe their lies, Belamie. Don’t let them win.”
“You’re the liar!” Corey shouted.
Belamie shook her head. “No, Vince. This isn’t right. I’m done. I don’t want this.” She turned away from Vincent, toward Matthew Hudson and her future children.
Vincent’s face twisted into a venomous rage. He drew his sword.
“Mom, watch out!” Corey shouted.
In a flash, Belamie drew her sword and whipped around, slashing Vincent across his neck. The skin parted, exposing flesh and bone, but no blood appeared, and then the skin knit itself back together and smoothed over. Not even a mark remained. Belamie backed away, staring in horror at Vincent’s throat.
Captain Vincent grinned. “Don’t you wish you’d found the Aeternum first, Bonbon? If you hadn’t left for that imbecile, you might have.” He whisked away as though on a wind and then suddenly he was right in front of Belamie, less than a foot apart. He leaned in, as though he was going to kiss her, and then he grabbed Belamie by the neck. He wrenched out her time tapestry with such violence, her entire body arched back. She dropped her sword and froze.
“No!” Mr. Hudson shouted. He ran toward Captain Vincent. Brocco cocked his guns and aimed. At the same time Ruby lifted her sword and slashed down on Brocco’s hand, slicing through his fingers. The guns fired but missed their target.
Brocco dropped his guns and hopped around, pressing his hand into his jacket. “Oh! My beautiful fingers!”
The Forbidden Lock Page 30
