by Morgan Rice
“What are we going to do?” Esther cried desperately.
Oliver spoke hurriedly. “We need to use our powers to slow them down. To block them.”
He ducked around the corner, standing face on to his pursuers. They were on the other side of the street, no more than the distance of several buses from where he stood.
Swallowing his fear, Oliver focused his mind on the reality he wanted to create, and pushed the image out with his powers.
The ground began to shake. It looked like an earthquake. The rogues tumbled to their knees, unable to fight against the power of the shaking earth. Then a large crack raced across the sidewalk.
Oliver gritted his teeth, feeling the exertion from using his powers in every fiber of his body.
Then, in a sudden motion, the ground splintered. A huge roadblock rose through the crack, blocking the road entirely.
Oliver felt a surge of relief. But it lasted only a nanosecond. Because all at once, the roadblock exploded, spraying powdered concrete hundreds of feet into the air.
As debris rained down, the rogue seers appeared from the dust cloud. They were all back on their feet and advancing again.
“Esther!” Oliver cried. His block had been destroyed by the rogues. But he had no strength left in him now to make another.
Esther ran from the cover of the alleyway into the street.
She took just a second to survey the scene before doing the same, using her own powers to conjure another roadblock.
But this time, the rogues were prepared. They swarmed over it, like ants over an ant hill.
“It’s no use,” Oliver cried. “They’re too powerful. Too fast. Finding the portal is our only hope.”
They looked at Ralph. He seemed half dead, his back resting against the wall, sweat glistening on his skin.
But with immense bravery, Ralph clenched his teeth. “This way,” he said with determination.
He pushed off the wall and began to stagger along the alley. Esther and Oliver followed him.
As they wove through the back streets, Oliver kept glancing over his shoulder at the rogues. It was like a game of cat and mouse. One moment they’d be there, the next gone, like they were taking sick pleasure in keeping Oliver guessing.
Every time they appeared, Oliver would push out with his powers, forcing tree branches to fall and collapse onto them, whipping up flurries of leaves to batter them. But his powers grew weaker the more he used them. He could see the delight on the rogues’ faces as each of his attacks failed to even slow them.
They kept running. Running in spite of their fatigue from overusing their powers. Running in spite of the terror that consumed them. Running for what felt like forever.
Then, all at once, they were back at the river.
“It’s here!” Ralph cried.
Oliver looked around frantically. “Where?”
To his shock and dismay, Ralph was pointing into the water. “There.”
Oliver ran to the side of the bridge and squinted into the dark waters. To his surprise, he saw a rusty-looking trap door several feet beneath the surface. The sight of it was far from reassuring. It looked more like the entrance to a sewer than a mystical portal. It was rusty, old, and covered in algae.
They all looked at each other.
“We can’t jump in there,” Esther stammered with fear.
“We have to,” Oliver told her. “This is our only hope!”
“But it looks unstable,” she contested. “If the portal doesn’t work, we’ll be dead for sure.”
“If we stay here, we’re dead anyway,” Ralph replied.
“On three,” Oliver said.
Just then, the rogues appeared at the end of the bridge, their blue eyes flashing in the darkness. There was no time. Not even for a countdown.
“THREE!” Oliver yelled.
They all jumped.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Malcolm Malice felt a twinge of nerves as he took a seat at the large round table in Mistress Obsidian’s office. The head mistress had not yet arrived. A group of older students sat around the same table and they watched Malcolm quietly. He found it somewhat intimidating that he was the youngest one here. They were all in the years above him, all exceptionally talented seers in their own rights. He tried not to let his nerves surface and instead tipped up his chin, reminding himself just how proud he was to have been invited.
Just then, the door opened and in waltzed Mistress Obsidian. Her long flowing black dress swirled around her as she sank into the throne-like seat at the head of the table. There was a triumphant smile on her face. She leaned forward and looked intently at each face of the group of students she’d asked to gather there.
When her eyes met Malcolm’s, he felt a spark deep inside of him, like Mistress Obsidian was sending a bolt of lightning directly into his chest.
She leaned back and drummed her black painted fingernails against the armrests of her throne.
“I have some wonderful news.” She paused for effect. “The Orb of Kandra has been seized.”
Malcolm felt a surge of excitement. The Orb of Kandra powered Amethyst’s stupid school. Without it, they’d be in big trouble. It might even collapse. He felt a smile of glee spread across his lips.
Mistress Obsidian continued. “We have it locked away and will soon begin the process of moving it throughout different periods of time to keep it hidden.”
One of the students raised her hand. “Excuse me, Mistress, but why not just destroy the Orb?”
The headmistress shook her head, looking a little irritated at the interruption. “It is too dangerous to destroy. Instead, we must hide it and buy some time. After twenty-four hours the Amethyst School for Seers will be so weakened it will collapse of its own accord. So we must keep the Orb out of their hands until that time can happen. That’s where you all come in.”
Malcolm sat up taller. He felt very important.
“I’ll be sending you out in teams,” the headmistress continued. “All with the aim of confusing Professor Amethyst and stopping him from finding the Orb and returning it to its plinth in the sixth dimension. We must cause many distractions and diversions so he has no idea where in space-time we are hiding the orb. And of course we can wreak a bit of havoc as we go.”
The kids began to smile, delighted at the thought. Mistress Obsidian’s expression matched their glee. Then she directed their attention to a chalkboard where she’d written lists of their names in her scratchy handwriting.
“I’ve split you into teams. Teams A through E are to carry decoy orbs. Their role is to distract Professor Amethyst. To force him to send out his own separate teams on a wild goose chase.”
Malcolm scanned the list. His name was not on lists A through E. His was on his own list with a much smaller group. He wondered what his mission would be.
Mistress Obsidian continued. “The final group is to go on a very important mission. Something a little special. A little extra.” She looked at Malcolm squarely. “We have something up our sleeve that Amethyst will never see coming. Malcolm Malice, I’m entrusting you to lead this important part of the mission.”
Every pair of eyes around the table latched onto Malcolm with envy. He felt a swell of pride in his chest. Of course he was the chosen one. He was the best student after all. He had the most unique power blend too. All his hard work was about to pay off. None of the bullying mattered now.
“Of course, Mistress,” he said. “I’d be honored. What is it you want me to do?”
The headmistress clapped her hands and the two security guards standing beside her office door opened it. In came several students carrying a large glass bowl. They rested it on the table in front of Mistress Obsidian and then retreated the way they’d come.
Malcolm frowned. Inside the bowl was a strange glowing liquid.
Mistress Obsidian leaned forward, her face lit by the glow coming from the bowl. All the students around the table leaned in closer too.
As Malcolm inched
toward the bowl, Mistress Obsidian waved her hand over the glittering liquid inside. An image began to form within it.
Everyone gasped.
Malcolm leaned forward to get a better look. Inside the liquid, a face emerged. It was a boy. Rather strange looking, with dark hair and pale blue eyes set into a round, chubby face.
Malcolm scoffed with contempt. “It’s just an ordinary boy.”
Mistress Obsidian shook her head. “A human boy, yes. But far from ordinary.” A grin began to spread across her lips. “This is our secret weapon.”
Malcolm was puzzled. What use did they have for an ordinary mortal boy without powers? What made him a weapon?
Mistress Obsidian continued speaking. “We must kidnap this boy and convert him to our side. That’s where you come in, Malcolm.”
“Yes, Mistress?”
“You need to find him and lure him back to school. He’s the only person who can help us in this mission. Stealing the Orb of Kandra is just the first step to destroying those measly pipsqueaks forever. There is more to do. With this boy on our side, the Obsidian school will win.”
Mistress Obsidian sat back and drummed her nails across the table top and smiled. “He has a familial link to a young seer I’d very much like to see destroyed. One who is destined to be the most important seer in the universe. One Professor Amethyst tracked down before I could get my hands on him.” She beat her fist onto the table in sudden anger. Then the fury passed. “So we will make do with second best. Because of the link between them, once we kidnap…” She coughed, “…I mean lure this boy and convert him to our side, we will be able to use him to destroy the other.”
“But who is he?” Malcolm asked.
Mistress Obsidian smiled slyly at the chubby boy’s face in her glass vision bowl.
“His name is Christopher. Using him, we will be able to kill his brother. One of Amethyst’s seers. A boy named Oliver Blue.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Oliver screamed as he tumbled through the portal. He couldn’t see Esther or Ralph anywhere, but then again the purple vortex they were shooting through was juddering unstably, making it hard to see much of anything. Oliver wondered whether jumping through had been a good idea after all. It felt like the portal may collapse any second. But then again, they hadn’t had much of a choice.
As he catapulted through the vortex, his hair flying messily around him, he caught sight of something very peculiar. Floating ahead of him appeared to be two sets of eyes. And then faces became clearer behind them. It was his parents! Appearing to him in a vision!
Oliver realized then he must have slipped into the subconscious part of his mind, the imaginary place he escaped to in time of stress.
The man and woman smiled. Oliver remembered what Professor Nightingale had told him about them.
“Are you dead?” he asked the woman.
She shook her head.
“But you are my mother? Maggie Oliver?”
She smiled kindly and nodded. Oliver looked at the man.
“And you’re my father? Teddy Blue?”
The man nodded too.
Oliver wanted to ask them a million questions but he knew he would soon be spit out of the time portal. His parents did not seem able to speak to him in this vision either. They were both mute.
He fired another question at them, desperate to glean as much information as he could before they were cruelly snatched away from him again. “You studied at Harvard? Under Professor Nightingale?”
His parents exchanged a pleased expression as though impressed with Oliver’s detective work. They nodded eagerly.
“I was coming to find you,” Oliver told them. “But then… then I was diverted by a mission.”
He felt ashamed that he’d abandoned them. Wherever his parents were in the universe, they only ever appeared to him in his visions, in these odd moments between reality. Could they be trapped somewhere? In need of rescue?
He saw the corners of his mother’s mouth turn downward. But his father was shaking his head, as if to communicate to Oliver that it was all right.
Oliver saw the man’s lips move. He squinted to work out what he was saying.
“We can wait…”
Suddenly, Oliver was spit out the other end of the time portal. Pain lanced through his legs as he landed awkwardly. He let out a groan.
He pulled himself into a seated position. His head pounded from having been propelled through the portal and from seeing his parents. But they were now gone, leaving a lonely ache in his chest.
Where am I? Oliver thought.
He definitely wasn’t in Boston anymore. He looked around to see he was lying in a field of dewy grass. The air was misty. Everything was very, very quiet. There was no background hum of traffic. The air was clean and crisp. Oliver got the distinct impression he’d traveled rather farther back in time than his last journey. Something in the air felt very ancient.
He glanced behind at the portal. It was several feet above the ground and had dumped them onto the hard mud. The rusted thing looked even more decrepit on this end than it had in the Charles River. And as he looked at it, it began to crumble. It fell to the earth in a fine powder. It was destroyed. There was no way back.
Panic raced through him. He appeared to be alone. What if Esther and Ralph had not made it through the portal before it fell apart?
He glanced around the misty field, searching for clues, for someone, anything, that might help him.
“Esther?” he called. “Ralph? Where are you?”
Just then, Oliver heard a low moan. He searched through the mist and his eyes fell to a crumbled form lying just a few meters away.
With all his strength, Oliver dragged himself to his knees. The pain in his legs increased immediately, like bolts of electricity racing through them. He patted them, trying to feel if anything was broken. They felt normal. He must just be bruised. It was a miracle, really, that he’d survived such a plunge.
The figure moaned again.
Oliver shuffled toward the figure. As he drew closer, he saw it was Esther who was lying in a heap on the grass. She was very still.
He reached her and turned her toward him. There was mud streaked across her pretty face. He shook her shoulders.
“Esther? Esther, wake up!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Esther groaned again. Oliver felt relieved that she was alive, at the least. But she was unconscious.
He cradled her in his arms, rocking her gently to try to bring her back to consciousness.
Suddenly, he saw movement nearby.
Please don’t let it be a rogue. Don’t let them have followed us through!
But as the figure drew closer, Oliver saw with relief that it was Ralph dragging himself over to them. He winced with every movement.
“The portal,” Ralph stammered when he reached Oliver. “It must have dropped us.”
Oliver nodded. “Yes. And then it fell apart behind us. There’s no way back. Are you okay?”
Ralph sat there, panting. “I think so. All in one piece, somehow. I think I’m suffering more from having traveled twice through time than falling ten feet through the air. Is Esther okay?”
“I think the fall knocked her out,” Oliver replied. He looked about him at the thick mist and the fields dotted with cows. “Is this where we’re supposed to be, Ralph? In a field? In the middle of nowhere?”
Ralph pulled a worried expression. “I don’t know. We’ll need to look for clues.”
Just then, Esther’s eyes fluttered open.
“Owwww…” she murmured.
Relief overcame Oliver. He breathed out the tension he’d been holding and pulled his face into a smile for her benefit. “Welcome back.”
Esther stirred from his arms and pulled herself up into a sitting position. A hand flew to her head. “What happened?”
“We took a bit of a tumble,” Oliver explained.
Esther grimaced. Then she looked around at the misty, dew-covered fiel
d. “So where are we?”
Ralph shrugged. “We’ll have to find someone to ask,” he said. “But if we’re in the wrong place, there’s no way back. The portal fell apart behind us.”
Esther looked troubled by the revelation. “Let’s not think about that yet. Let’s just focus on one thing at a time. We need to find this mysterious I.N.”
Slowly, they heaved themselves to their feet, each of them wincing from the pain.
Just then, something bright orange caught Oliver’s attention. It was a small animal racing across the field.
“A red squirrel?” he said aloud. “They’re native to England.”
Ralph’s eyebrows rose. “Do you think the portal took us to England?”
“Maybe…” Oliver replied. “Keep your eyes peeled for more clues.”
They began to trek through the muddy fields. Oliver’s legs felt very sore and he couldn’t help but limp. Esther wrapped her arm around his waist for support. She was warm, which helped banish the chill in the air.
“It feels like winter,” he said.
“If we are in England, it could be any season,” Esther commented. “Isn’t it supposed to rain every day there?”
“Good point,” Ralph replied.
As they walked, Oliver began to feel anxious about their current predicament. They were fatigued, sick from time travel, injured from the fall, and they had no idea where in space or time the portal had taken them to, nor who they were looking for! Things really couldn’t be much worse.
Suddenly, Oliver saw something in the distance and his heart leapt with hope.
“There!” he said, pointing ahead. “Is that a house?”
Through the mist he could just make out a crude shack in the distance. A plume of smoke rose from its chimney.
Esther squinted. “Yes, I think you’re right.”
They hurried onward.
As they drew closer, the small building came into sharper focus. Now they could see that it was not just one cottage, but several, like a village. The roads between them were little more than dirt paths. The roofs of the buildings were made of thatch. Oliver could tell from the architecture that they’d traveled far back in time, to a period where houses were still built from stone and wood.
