“He hardly used it,” Janelle said, backing Joey up. She counted off the moments Joey was forced to use the wand, putting up a finger for each: “He used it once to take us here and once to bring you guys here.… He was going to use it one other time, but I stopped him, and he used it right before we left to get us out of trouble. However, that was an extreme situation, so I can’t fault him for it.”
“I can.” Leanora folded her arms and lectured Joey with her eyes. “That’s four times you used the wand now?”
“Three times,” Joey corrected her. “Don’t look at me like that. We had the dangerous job, remember?”
“What happened?” Shazad asked. “Are you guys all right?”
“We’re fine,” Joey said. “But I didn’t have a choice. Really. Everything I brought in there… all that stuff your mom gave me so I wouldn’t need to use the wand? Gone. It fell off a bridge into some kind of void. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Joey held out his arms. Except for the wand, his hands were empty.
Shazad and Leanora went quiet. That got to them.
“Your backpack’s gone?” Shazad asked with a pained expression on his face. “You lost everything?”
“I did manage to hang on to this.” Joey lifted the firestone pendant, holding it by the string around his neck. Leanora closed her eyes for a second, relieved that the firestone had not also been lost.
Joey felt terrible. He didn’t have the heart to tell Shazad that he never even got to use the magical objects in the bag. The priceless collection of items on loan from Shazad’s family were not only gone, but they had gone to waste. Joey kicked himself for not using the wand to get across the bridge. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have lost everything else. With the bag gone, he would be forced to rely on the wand more, not less. On top of that, he was dreading Shazad’s reaction to the news.
“I don’t know what to say,” Joey told his friend. “I’m so sorry.”
Shazad took a deep breath and let it out. Joey could tell that his friend was trying to remain calm. “It’s done. Forget the backpack. I’d rather lose that than lose a friend.”
A wave of relief crashed over Joey. He was grateful to Shazad for understanding and genuinely touched by his concern. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise. I’ll tell your parents what happened. I’ll take full responsibility.”
“They are going to be… quite upset,” Shazad said, dreading his parents’ reaction. “No!” he added quickly, shaking his head. “I’m not going to worry about that now. You made it out of there safely. That’s what matters. I’m just glad you’re both okay.”
“Thanks, Shazad,” Janelle said. “I’m glad we’re okay too. All of us. The good news is, Joey didn’t lose everything.” She held up the shiny black bag. It jumped around in her hands. Something inside it clearly wanted out.
“A Bag of Holding?” Hypnova observed, suddenly very curious. “What have you got in there?”
Joey grinned. “It’s a surprise.”
Hypnova didn’t return the smile. “I don’t like surprises, Joey. I like figuring things out. I like knowing things. For example, I know where they were tonight,” Hypnova said, indicating Shazad and Leanora. “The dark magic markers vanished from the map shortly before you arrived. I assumed you were all going after them together, but clearly that’s not what happened. If they were fighting their way across fire and ice without you, what were you two doing? What was ‘the dangerous job’?”
Joey felt that swell of pride again, pleased to discover that some things were beyond even a Secreteer’s knowledge. That boded well for the future. “Janelle and I broke into the Invisible Hand’s headquarters.”
“What?” Hypnova was taken aback. “Why would you go there?”
“We had to pick someone up.”
Janelle turned the bag over and dumped it out. Hypnova actually gasped as a grown man fell out of it. He was way too big to fit inside the bag, but that wasn’t what shocked her. The bigger surprise had to do with who the man was. He hit the deck of the ship face-first and looked up with murder in his eyes.
“You remember Ledger DeMayne.”
5 The Man Who Stole the World
Shazad and Leanora were ready with a rope the second DeMayne came out of the bag. Working together, they wound it around his body, tying his arms to his sides and binding his legs at the knees. Naturally, it was no normal rope they used to restrain him. It wasn’t Redondo’s old length of Gordian rope, either, which looked impossible to escape but could be easily shrugged off by those who knew how to do it. Instead, they used a shining golden string that reminded Joey of Wonder Woman’s lasso. It was called Gleipnir, and it was another treasure borrowed from the Hassan family vault. Gleipnir was an ancient relic of Norse mythology that had once held the great wolf Fenris—or so the story went. The line glowed brightly in the fog, it was stronger than any chain, and it was as thin as a silk ribbon. According to Norse legend, it was constructed from a list of impossible ingredients, including, among other things, the sound of a cat’s footsteps and the breath of a fish.
DeMayne was momentarily disoriented after being held captive in the bag, which allowed Shazad and Leanora to get the drop on him. Hypnova was speechless, watching with her mouth open as they moved quickly to secure him. By the time they were done, DeMayne was bound from head to toe, and Joey felt much more comfortable knowing DeMayne couldn’t possibly get free.
“What’s going on?” DeMayne slurred as Shazad and Leanora eased him into a sitting position with his back up against the ship’s railing. “Get this off me!” he demanded. The group stood over him, looking down as he struggled in vain to free himself. “I’m warning you, release me now or I won’t be responsible for what happens next. I swear, I’ll kill every last one of—”
DeMayne paused as he seemed to notice for the first time the ambient light on his restraints. He stopped struggling.
“Is this Gleipnir?” he asked.
“You know your relics,” Shazad said. “Good. That should save us some time. If you recognize that rope, then you understand the situation you’re in. You can’t break free, so don’t bother trying.”
DeMayne ignored Shazad and strained against the glowing rope once more for good measure. It was no use. “I understand the situation,” he growled. “Do you?” His eyes shot up with renewed vigor, studying his captors. “If you did, you wouldn’t let me see your faces. You’d run. You’d throw yourselves off this ship to escape the punishment you’ve got coming to you after this… I don’t even know what to call it. I want to say ‘outrage,’ but it doesn’t seem like a strong enough word.” The longer DeMayne went on talking, the more the edge went out of his voice, but Joey knew he was raging beneath the surface. DeMayne was a proud man. Being trapped like this had to be killing him. “I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” DeMayne checked his temper and put on a fake smile. “I’m going to be magnanimous. I’m going to give you a chance to reconsider what is clearly the worst decision anyone’s ever made. This is a onetime offer. Whoever you are, whatever it is you’re after… leave it alone. Walk away. Let me go and it’s possible I could be persuaded to forget what happened here tonight. However, that’s if—and only if—you release me and beg my forgiveness now. Right now. This second. After that, I make no promises, except to say that you have no idea who you’re dealing with, and you don’t want to find out.”
“Actually, we know you better than you think,” Joey said. “You may not know who we are, but we know you. That was a pretty good monologue though. Was that your bad-guy intimidation speech? You have that all rehearsed and ready to go?”
DeMayne clenched his jaw. “You really shouldn’t taunt me.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Joey told him.
“Chances with your life?” DeMayne snorted. “Such bravado, all of a sudden. You didn’t have much to say back in my office with Ivory and Clear.”
“We’re not in your office anymore, are we? As for your generous onetime offer, we’ll pass. Y
ou’re going to forget about this whether you want to or not.”
Joey could sense DeMayne’s frustration as he tried to figure out where he knew him from. It was clear he still had no memory of Joey or anyone else on deck. “I want answers and I want them now,” he said, still trying again to take control of the situation. “Why did you bring me here? How did you bring me here? What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Hypnova said.
“This is your absolute last chance to untie this rope, or I’m going to—”
“Oh, be quiet.”
Hypnova twirled a finger at DeMayne. His head went back as if he’d been hit in the forehead with a tennis ball, and he coughed out a plume of purple smoke. When he finished hacking it up, he had a vacant look about him as if his brain had been emptied completely. “It seems I don’t know you as well as I thought I did,” Hypnova said to Joey. “Why is he here?”
“What did you do to him?” Janelle asked. She waved a hand in front of DeMayne’s face and got no response. His eyes were open, but it seemed as if he couldn’t see a thing.
“He’s in a trance of sorts, unable to retain memories from moment to moment,” Hypnova said. “He’ll stay this way until I release him, which I will do,” she promised. “I wouldn’t leave even this awful man in such a state, but first I want to know what you’re doing with him.”
“We’re getting to that,” Joey said.
“Get there quickly, please. I spent the last year keeping the Invisible Hand away from you. Day after day, I covered up your tracks as you sought out how to destroy the dark magic markers. All of this, while on the run from the Secreteers for telling you the truth about the secret history of the world. I’ve been sleeping with one eye open. If not for the Caliburn Shield, I would never sleep at all. Now I see I put my life on the line to keep you hidden from Ledger DeMayne and his thugs only to have you seek him out. Why?”
“He’s got a secret,” Joey said. “A big one. Something even you might not know.”
“About what?”
“The Imagine Nation.”
“Something I don’t know?” Hypnova was skeptical. “I don’t understand. If the dark magic markers have been eliminated, magic is free to come back to the world. Why do we need him?”
“So magic can stay,” Joey told her. “We’re not done yet. People still have to believe.”
“We have to make them believe,” Shazad added. “That’s where he comes in.”
All eyes turned to DeMayne, who was still in a daze, oblivious to the conversation going on around him.
“Bring him around so we can talk.” Joey said. “Don’t you want to find out what he knows?”
Hypnova raised a finger toward DeMayne, ready to snap him out of his trance. Her curiosity was clearly piqued, but still she hesitated. “Are you sure about this? You want to put yourself back in his crosshairs?”
“You can always wipe his memory again after we’re done,” Janelle said. “Right?”
Hypnova nodded but still looked concerned. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she murmured. She snapped her fingers, and DeMayne’s consciousness returned. Joey watched his eyes clear as he shifted in his bonds. “Still here,” he said flatly, as if he’d just remembered his predicament. “I’m going to kill you for this. All of you. I’m going to kill you twice.”
“Nice to know we made an impression,” Joey said.
“Who are you?” DeMayne asked. “How do you know me?”
“We’re the people you’ve been looking for all year. The ones who found Camelot?” Joey gave a little wave. “That’s us. The Order of the Majestic.”
DeMayne laughed derisively. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re just children.”
“Sure we are,” Joey said. “You got captured by a bunch of random children. Not sure how that makes you feel better, but what do I know?” DeMayne looked down. Joey knew he had struck a nerve. “How do you think we got you in that bag? I used this.”
Joey held up the wand so DeMayne could see it.
DeMayne leaned forward, blinking in disbelief. “The wand,” he whispered. “You are the Majestic.”
“Told ya,” Joey said. “But we’re not the Order of the Majestic you’re used to dealing with. We do things a little different.”
“Obviously.” DeMayne eyed Hypnova, who stood out as the only other adult. “I take it you’re their leader? You let these children throw their lives away like this?”
“At the moment, I’m following their lead,” Hypnova said. “Think of me as more of a trusted compatriot. We’ve met before, by the way. Not that you would remember.”
“This is Hypnova,” Joey said. “She used to be a Secreteer.”
“A what?” DeMayne coughed, producing more purple smoke. A fine mist hovered around his nose. It almost made him sneeze, but the sensation went away, irritating him further. “What magic did you use on me? How did you do that?”
“It’s not magic,” Hypnova told him. “That power comes from me. Memories are mine to control. All Secreteers have that ability. As for who the Secreteers are? Well, they’re not that different from you and your lot, unfortunately. Secreteers work to keep magic hidden away, protecting fantastic and unbelievable wonders from a world that once tried to destroy them. The Invisible Hand keeps magic under wraps simply to restrict supply and consolidate power. Over time I came to understand it’s a distinction without a difference. Regardless of intention, the result is the same. Both parties deprive the world of something it desperately needs. A vital resource.” Hypnova pointed to Joey and the others. “They take a different view. That’s why I’m helping them change the world.”
“We’ve already changed it,” Shazad said. “The dark markers that hold magic back are gone.”
“Your days of manipulating the world and keeping magic to yourself are over,” Leanora added.
DeMayne said nothing, but Joey could see concern behind his eyes, wondering how he and his friends knew so much. “Dark markers? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you sure about that?” Leanora asked. “We just got back from the coldest place on earth and a tropical island that doesn’t exist. That’s not ringing any bells?”
DeMayne’s face fell as the realization sank in that Leanora and Shazad weren’t bluffing. “The frozen heart of the frost giant?” he asked.
“Melted,” Shazad said proudly.
“The root of the molten mountain?”
“Also known as the root of all evil?” Leanora asked. “I threw it into a volcano.”
“Lord of the Rings style,” Joey said, bumping fists with Leanora.
DeMayne was staggered. There was no getting around the fact that the world had been irrevocably changed, and at this point, there was nothing he could do about it. Joey could tell DeMayne had never imagined this day would come. “This can’t be,” he said in a bewildered voice. “It’s not possible.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” Joey said. “You of all people should know that.”
DeMayne’s expression turned to rage. “You’re mad,” he spat. “Do you have any concept of the power you’ve just unleashed? Not all magic is good magic. With those markers gone, there’s going to be doors opening all over the world. Ancient doors to places with dangerous people… dangerous things. The world isn’t ready!”
“We’re ready,” Shazad said. “Where do you think our families are right now? They’re all over the world, in places where magic is strong, guarding lost doors and waiting on old roads, making sure nothing bad comes in.”
“They’re also making sure you and your friends can’t take control of anything good that happens to appear,” Leanora said. “We’re not going to let you sweep it all under the carpet or carve it up for yourselves. What we’re doing is for everybody.”
“Your families…,” DeMayne repeated, looking back and forth between Shazad and Leanora. “I remember now,” he said, slowly putting together who they were. “The Hassans and the Nomadi
ks. I don’t recall your families ever being this bold before.”
“I thought he wasn’t supposed to recall anything,” Janelle said.
“This conversation is triggering his memories,” Hypnova explained.
“He definitely looks triggered,” Janelle agreed as DeMayne made yet another attempt to break free of Gleipnir, really giving it everything he had. He had to know it was pointless, but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
“Let me go!” he shouted, breathing heavily, full of fury. “What do you think is going to happen here? Are you going to keep me tied up forever? Is that your plan? You think my people are just going to sit on their hands while you turn magic loose on an unsuspecting world?”
“The world isn’t going to be unsuspecting much longer.” Joey pointed out into the murky fog that surrounded the ship. “Somewhere out there is a place—a secret place where impossible and unbelievable things are daily realities. A lost island that roams all around the world. It’s the last remnant of an ancient magical land. People call it the Imagine Nation. Hypnova showed us a glimpse of it. We’re going to show everyone. That’s what’s going to end the Invisible Hand’s stranglehold on magic once and for all. The return of the Imagine Nation and everything in it… That’s something you can’t cover up or put a spin on to make people doubt and disbelieve. That’s the plan.”
DeMayne looked like he had just bit into a rotten apple. “If that’s your plan, why tell me? You brought me here so you can gloat?”
“No,” Joey said. “So you can help.”
DeMayne scoffed. “You expect me to help you? You are mad.”
“There’s a method to the madness. See, if I want to bring the Imagine Nation back, all I have to do is wave this wand and say something clever. That’s what this wand does. It makes my imagination real. Problem is, if I use the wand to do something too big, it’ll kill me, just like it killed Merlin. I don’t just want to change the world. I want to live in it too.”
“I see,” DeMayne said, the trace of a smile forming on his lips. “You’re afraid. Why don’t you give that wand to someone who can handle its power?”
The New World Page 6
