by Carrie Jones
The man shook his head. “I’m terrified. Come with me? Please …”
“But …” Jamie noticed Annie and Doctor Ned retreating up the stairs, and he really didn’t want to leave Annie’s side. He needed to talk to Annie about what Farkey had said. Someone with the spicy smell had been there when Miss Cornelia was kidnapped. And that same someone was in the room right this very moment. But who?
Jamie was torn between his two friends. But Mr. Nate’s already gaunt face seemed to have skinnied itself down to the size of a pencil. He had done so much for Jamie. He had looked out for Jamie before Aurora, and if it weren’t for Mr. Nate, he probably would have been troll food already. There was really no decision to be made.
“Okay, Mr. Nate,” Jamie said with completely fake bravado. “Let’s go face the Council.”
As Jamie and Mr. Nate entered the Town Council Chamber in Aurora’s Town Hall, the atmosphere became balmy. The swirling ceiling fans seemed to pump out tropical, humid air. Some snakes slithered along the radiators, basking in it. Some fairies were defogging the windows with their breath and tiny glittery rags, getting glitter everywhere, which caused the vampires in attendance to sneeze from the dust. Parkas, winter hats, sweaters, and mittens were cast aside, resting next to their owners or in jumbles on the floor. Dozens and dozens of scarab beetles scaled one of the walls, turning it into a black, glistening, moving plane.
“Well, that’s strange,” Mr. Nate said, voice shaking. “Never seen that before.”
They were the last to arrive. Several town residents sat below the stage, perched or lounging on the long, heavy wooden benches. The Town Council had already taken its seats. The Council was the political body that made decisions for Aurora. Board members included representatives from all the major creature species. There was a fae (Arrius Herman), a magical human (Miss Cornelia), a giant (the Mayor), a hag (Walburga Wakanda), a shape shifter (Leodora Leksi), and a dwarf (Nicodemus Metal Smith), as well as a non-blood-sucking vampire (Aelfric Darling).
Next to Arrius Herman, the fae, Miss Cornelia’s seat was vacant.
“Come on up, Mr. Nate!” the mayor bellowed. He had positioned himself at the head of the long wooden table.
Mr. Nate hesitated.
“It’s okay,” Jamie whispered.
“What if—?” Mr. Nate’s voice broke off.
Jamie cocked his head to the side. “What if what?”
“What if I make the wrong decision?” Mr. Nate finished. He was wringing his hands together, twisting them one way and then the other.
“You won’t. No decision is wrong if it comes from a place of good, right?” Jamie helped Mr. Nate shrug off his coat. “Go on. You can do it.”
With a quick nod, Mr. Nate climbed up the three side stairs to the stage and landed between Arrius Herman and Walburga Wakanda, the hag. A long yellow snake bared its fangs at him but didn’t strike.
Jamie didn’t think Mr. Nate even noticed. Jamie settled himself on a bench next to Miss Helena, who smelled comfortingly of sugar and vanilla. She handed him an éclair.
“Thank you,” he murmured.
She petted his knee. “Anytime, sweetie.”
A dwarf in front of them snorted and whispered in a super loud way to his companion, “I wouldn’t be feeding him. He’ll be troll soon enough.”
Helena kicked the dwarf in the center of his back, sending him landing on his rump. He roared, turning around. “Why—why you—”
She pointed a spatula at him as he sputtered at her. “I would not say anything against our young hero, if I were you. Not if you ever want any of my chewy cinnamon bialys again.”
Up on the stage, the mayor called the meeting to order, which caused Leodora Leksi to tap her well-manicured nails on the table and mutter, “Finally.”
“We are here today under dire circumstances, to determine the fate of our town and its Stopper, Miss Cornelia, who has been abducted and somehow taken to the Badlands.”
“How was she even abducted? I thought the town was protected again since the gnome has been returned?” demanded Nicodemus Metal Smith.
“Something or some things must have snuck in undetected during the time the gnome was gone,” drawled Aelfric Darling, who looked not too happy to be there. He pulled off his cloak, exposing vampire-pale limbs. “It is dreadfully warm in here. Can someone fix that?”
“I am afraid not. We aren’t relying on magic for heat but an actual furnace, and nobody knows how to use a thermostat. No worries. Take off another layer.” The mayor’s large hand waved the worry away, dismissing it. He began pontificating again, explaining that they needed to decide on a course of action, finishing with, “The Raiff suggests a trade: young Annie, our untested and untrained Time Stopper, for the more experienced benefactress of the town, Miss Cornelia.”
“Well, it’s not hard to see where his loyalties lie,” Helena murmured, pulling a red velvet cupcake out of her large zebra-print purse.
“But …” Jamie jumped to his feet. He didn’t even know where to begin.
“Do you have something to say to the Council, young man?” the mayor asked.
“Y-y-y-es,” Jamie stuttered. “Two things came to Aurora. There was the crow, which Annie defeated, and there was also a dark horse. We saw it, and it felt like evil. It’s still out there, somewhere. So you see, we can’t give up Annie. We just can’t.”
Jamie sat down again and cleared his throat.
“I agree with the mayor,” said Aelfric, adjusting his shirt so it hung perfectly from his shoulders. “There is no way young Annie can protect this town. With Miss Cornelia, we have thrived since the Purge and—”
“You would send a young girl to the Badlands? In trade with a demon?” Leodora interrupted. Her golden mane of hair seemed to thicken with her anger. “How could you?”
“It is our only option,” Aelfric countered. “And she is untrained. Her power is untested.”
“She saved us just last night!” Leodora stood up, hair rippling around her face. “Who are we to determine the fate of another being? To force this poor, defenseless girl into the lair of the Raiff?”
The mayor appealed for calm.
“Yes, she did save us,” Mr. Metal Smith added, “with the help of a dwarf. Let’s not forget the dwarfs!”
The Council erupted into a quarrel between Leodora and everyone else. Only Mr. Nate and the hag, Walburga Wakanda, remained quiet. Finally the mayor asked, “What say you, Walburga?”
The chamber went silent.
“Well, one of my kind has foreseen that the girl will fall with evil. Perhaps this is what she meant. The prophecy.”
“No!” yelled Jamie, jumping out of his seat again. “No! You can’t just trade her. How do you know the Raiff will even keep his promise? He could just hold on to both of them. And hags are only right seventy-six point five percent of the time. Everybody knows that.”
The mayor hemmed and hawed as if he was pondering it. “There is no other way, but yes, we have no assurance of the Raiff’s promise.”
“But you’re still going to do it?” Jamie asked, stunned.
“Young man, you are not a representative of this Council and you are speaking out of turn.” The mayor gestured to those at the table. “Only the Council is allowed to speak, to determine the outcome of our town, our Stoppers’ fate, our—”
“It’s like Ms. Leodora said. Shouldn’t Annie be allowed to determine her own fate?” Jamie interrupted. “You have no right to just send her there to die or be tortured. Haven’t you even thought about why the Raiff would rather have some untested Stopper instead of Miss Cornelia? There has to be a—”
“Remove the young … man—or is it soon-to-be-troll?—from our meeting, please.” The mayor snapped his finger and a giant named Red Nose and another, furry man grabbed Jamie by the arms, hauling him out of the building. They hadn’t even let him put his coat back on as they dumped him in the snow.
Helena bustled out after him, helping him get his winter things
back on.
“Don’t you worry, now,” she said. “Mr. Nate will vote with Ms. Leksi. Don’t you worry.” She yanked his hat down over his ears. “But maybe you best go find Annie and tell her to hide.” She looked anxiously over her shoulder back toward the erupting yells inside the Town Hall. “You know … just in case … That sweet little girl wouldn’t last a day in the Badlands …”
Someone in the hall yelled, “Over my dead body!”
Helena gave Jamie’s nose a tweak and turned him toward the road. “Yep. Why don’t you tell her to go hide? Maybe you should hide with her. Yes, I think that is a very wise idea. Hide, young James. Hide!”
Luckily for Annie, Bloom had followed her to her room where she was supposed to be resting. Annie did not want to stay in bed. Annie did not want to have any “nice tea” later. She wanted to go to the Badlands and trade herself for Miss Cornelia somehow.
But then she thought about the Badlands …
And how the actual name of the place had the word “bad” in it. Although she supposed Badlands was better than EVILlands or TORTURE-YOU-FOREVERlands.
But then she thought about how Miss Cornelia was there … Miss Cornelia of the swirling skirts and kind eyes … Miss Cornelia of the I will give you a home, Annie … Miss Cornelia of the You belong here with me, Annie … Miss Cornelia whose hugs seemed magic because they were so full of love.
“Bloom, why does the Raiff need a Stopper at all?” Annie asked and offered him some of the tea that was on the side table.
“Only a Stopper can open portals and travel back and forth. Once humans or creatures go through a portal, it’s a one-way kind of thing. There is no coming back.” He paused.
“Unless you’re a Stopper. Or with a Stopper.”
“Right. Or with a dragon, you can open it up and anyone can come through, but it stays open. You can’t close it again, I don’t think. Both can bring people and creatures back with them. That’s probably what the Raiff wants. He needs a Stopper to open the Badlands portal and bring him back to Aurora.”
“So if he already has Miss Cornelia, why does he need me? Can’t she just open it?”
“Maybe she won’t.”
“And if she refuses?”
“He will torture her. Like he would torture you.” Bloom took the tea and sipped it. “I think she would die before she would do it, Annie.”
Annie gritted her teeth. It didn’t make sense. She didn’t even know how to open a portal. And sure, she wasn’t as strong as Miss Cornelia obviously was, but how was the Raiff so sure that he could torture her into doing what he wanted?
“There’s got to be another way,” she insisted.
“I don’t know of one.” Bloom flopped on the floor, flat, arms spread wide.
Annie sighed. “And what about dragons?”
“They’re all gone, Annie. There are no more dragons. Humans hunted them into extinction centuries ago,” Bloom said, still on the floor.
Annie let out a big sigh. She remembered reading about that now. “Books. Maybe our answers are in a book!”
Bloom closed his eyes. “Books don’t know everything, Annie.”
“Magical books do,” she insisted. She wondered who wrote magical books.
“And magical writers,” Bloom said, as if it was the most sensible thing in the world. “Elves used to write them, but we’re all gone now, like the dragons. Stoppers did, too. An occasional brounie. They write cookbooks mostly, but …”
“So the magic gets into books because the writers have magic in them?” Annie asked, getting out of bed and perusing the books in the room.
“No. Yes …” The boy sat up. “If you think about it, all books are magic and so are writers because they make you believe in stories, see images, and all that. Right?”
“Right,” Annie said, but she wasn’t fully listening. She was sure there had to be a book here that could help them, and if not here, then maybe in the library. But none of the titles seemed to be related to what she needed. The Goofy Girls’ Guide to Gastronomical Prophecy. 1,000 Ways for Even Nitwits to Reverse a Hex. The Magical Unicorns of Moravia.
“Books!” she announced, clapping her hands for attention. “If any of you have anything to do with going through portals to the Badlands or about dragons, could you please make yourself known?”
She waited a moment.
She waited another moment.
“Please?”
A book toppled onto the floor. She snatched it up as Tala sniffed it cautiously, and she read the spine. “A Guide to Dragons.”
The prickle of worry that had built up in her chest was getting larger and larger by the second. She had thought that the books would help … For a second, she had thought that dragons might be the answer. She thought Miss Cornelia had given them a clue.
Annie pivoted around, excited. “Someone must know where the portal is. We just have to find it, go to the Badlands, rescue Miss Cornelia, and then all of us together will conquer the Raiff. After that, Miss Cornelia and I can make a portal big enough to get us all back.”
Bloom’s mouth dropped open.
“What?” Annie asked.
“You’ve seen the residents of this town, right?” he scoffed. “They are hardly an army, especially without the elves.”
“They are brilliant and magical and awesome,” Annie countered.
“They are also not-so-brilliant and semi-magical and annoying.” Bloom shook his head. “You do remember the hags, right? And the dwarfs? Have you ever seen a fairy try to fight a troll?”
“If there was a fight, they’d pull together. They would have to. Isn’t that what happened during the Purge?” Annie insisted, bringing up the biggest battle in Aurora’s history.
“Annie,” Bloom whispered. “We lost in the Purge. We almost lost everyone. We lost all the elves except me. If it wasn’t for Miss Cornelia finding the strength to banish the Raiff, we would have—”
Annie wasn’t listening. She caught sight of another book wobbling on the edge of a shelf. She grabbed it. “What’s this? Portals to Other Worlds? Bloom!”
He hustled over. His expression changed from worry to wonderment. “Oh, this is fantastic!”
Annie flipped through the book and found the index. Aurora was in there. She turned to page 98 and began to read.
“What?” Bloom asked anxiously. “Did you find something?”
“There’s a portal,” Annie said, eyes wide. “There’s a portal right here in the barrens.”
The book said that there were fewer portals in the world than there had been. It said that regular people, the non-magical kind of people, break the portals when they cut down trees and mine in the mountains that hold them. Some creatures don’t need portals to leap from land to land. They just leap. But they can’t take others. According to the book, that’s why there are so many reports of aliens and demon dogs and giant bats. Those are the leapers, but they can’t bring companions with them. Only themselves. Stoppers are different. When they open a portal for real, instead of its being like a one-way door or even a door with locks, anything can go through.
Annie shrugged on some boots that she didn’t even remember taking off and snatched the ghosts’ bell off the top of her nightstand. Then she pulled open the nightstand’s drawer. A shiny, sharp knife with intricate etchings rolled to the front. Miss Cornelia had said it was called a phurba and would keep her safe.
She tucked the phurba into the waistband of her jeans and grabbed Bloom’s hand. “Come on! We’ve got to go!”
The duo ran down the stairs, and Annie pulled open the front door—only to see Jamie standing on Aquarius House’s doorstep. And there was an angry mob of townspeople not far behind him.
5
Monsters
Jamie’s head spun. He had tried to warn Annie, like Helena had suggested. But he wasn’t fast enough. Only moments after he left, the Town Council had made its decision: to find Annie and take her through the portal to the Badlands. To the Raiff.
&nbs
p; “Get her! Get the boy, too!” someone roared.
Cheers of agreement sent shivers into Jamie’s heart.
“Annie Nobody!” the mayor yelled in his normal jolly tone, as if he were just stopping by Aquarius House for a social call. “Just the Stopper we were looking for. It is your duty to trade places with Miss Cornelia. If Miss Cornelia bends …”
“Even she cannot withstand the Raiff long,” came an answer.
Was that Canin? Jamie gulped. He had sort of imagined that Miss Cornelia could withstand anything. She seemed like a little tree, solid. Then Jamie remembered the night he witnessed his grandmother turn troll, battering down the beautiful trees as she and her troll posse barreled into the forest by their house. Those trees seemed unbreakable, too.
“I am not in favor of this plan, Mayor. I am horrified that you think it is okay. Cornelia would—” Canin argued surprisingly passionately for someone who hadn’t given Annie, Jamie, Eva, or even Bloom much mind.
“Cornelia is not here, Canin!” The mayor’s voice dropped down low, but it became so much more threatening.
“I’m well aware of that,” Canin ruffed back, obviously unfazed by the mayor’s tone.
“The plan is for Annie to open the portal and exchange places with Miss Cornelia. It’s the only way. We can’t go to the Badlands, because we can’t come back. The only ones who can cross both ways are the merpeople.”
“The merpeople!” Canin explained. “How does nobody know this?”
Jamie and Bloom gazed back at Farkey who was floating in the fountain. Farkey gave a slight nod.
“There are certain things that only the Council knows. The Council thought it wiser—” the mayor began.
“The Council is full of—” Canin roared.
“CANIN! Language and tone. I am the mayor. Respect.”
“Yes, you keep reminding me. And I show respect when respect is due.” Canin stepped closer to the mayor. “If what you say is true, then why can’t the merpeople go in and bring Miss Cornelia back on their own, without Annie?”
At that, Farkey dived headfirst and stayed underwater.
