by Suzanne Weyn
"That's great!" said Sheila, sincerely enthused. "You're a genius, Dr. Reit."
The scientist smiled modestly. "It was simply a matter of fine-tuning something I'd already developed. I haven't even tested it yet. It simply works in theory. Your unplanned trip through the transporter forced me to test that invention out before it was quite ready."
Sheila grew silent. Once again she was thinking about Morning Star. "I'll test the Tracker for you," she said.
Dr. Reit clasped his hands behind his back and paced the floor. "No, no. That would be much too dangerous. You're home safe and sound now. Let's leave well enough alone."
"But, Dr. Reit, I want to go back. I need to," Sheila begged. "I've been having this dream that my unicorn, Morning Star, is in some kind of trouble. Maybe the others are in danger, too."
"All the more reason to stay right here," he cautioned.
"They're my friends. I've got to go if they need me."
Dr. Reit studied Sheila's face. "You're a brave and loyal girl. I've always admired that in you." For a moment Sheila was sure he was going to weaken, but then he shook his head. "No, there's absolutely no guarantee that you'd even wind up in the same place. You could land on another planet for all I know."
"Have you moved the dials since I returned?"
''No-”
"Then I'd probably land right in the main square of Campora, in the same spot that we left,'' Sheila argued. ''I'll just go through, have a quick visit, and beep you with this thing when I want to come back."
Dr. Reit pressed his lips together thoughtfully. "No, I'm afraid I must be firm on this. It's just too risky."
"You're sure?"
"Quite sure."
"Don't you ever think about them, Dr. Reit?" Sheila asked sadly
"I do, indeed, often."
"I may never see them again."
“That is possible," Dr. Reit said, "but let's not think negatively. If I get this thing perfected, perhaps we can talk then. But right now I'm about ready for supper. And from the way Einstein is circling around my feet, I'd say he is, too. Care to join us?''
No, thanks. I'd better get home."
Dr. Reit put his lanky arm around Sheila's shoulder and walked her to the back door. "You've had a most extraordinary experience, Sheila. It's going to take you a little while to readjust to our world. Give yourself some time."
"I'll try," Sheila said with a faint smile. "It was good seeing you again, anyway.”
Dr. Reit gathered Einstein up in the crook of his right arm and waved as Sheila shut the screen door behind her. "The pleasure was mine. Come visit me often," he said.
Sheila trudged down Mockingbird Hill and stopped at the corner. The second the light turned green, a car honked at the one in front of it. Its driver was probably impatient to get home after a long day at work. "Hold your horses!'' the man in the first car screamed out his window.
Hold your horses. It made Sheila think of Morning Star but lately everything did.
Sheila got home and found the house empty. There was a note from her mother on the refrigerator door: Gone to the mall. Dad bowling. Frozen dinners are in the freezer. See you around 8. Love, Mom."
Sheila took a dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots from the freezer, ripped open the box, and popped the tray into the microwave oven.
She poured herself a cola, and when the microwave beeped to tell her the dinner was done, she took her meal to the coffee table in the den and used the remote control to turn on the TV. News, News. A game show. News. More news. She snapped the set off.
Sheila ate her TV dinner, hardly tasting it, then checked the digital readout on the VCR for the time. It was 6:40.
The next thing Sheila did, she did without thinking. It was as if her body were on automatic pilot. Somewhere inside she knew that if she thought too hard, she would change her mind. Her common sense would stop her. And she didn't want to be stopped. Another side of Sheila, a more powerful, intuitive side, was guiding her movements.
Sheila picked up the lavender backpack, which she had tossed in the front hall, and carried it upstairs to her bedroom. She unzipped it, dumped the contents onto her bed, and started to repack it.
She had left her old pack with Dian, one of Illyria's warriors. What would she take along this time? Her first journey through time and space had been a matter of chance, but now she was going to plan ahead.
Sheila put in some clean underwear, two T-shirts, and a sweatshirt. The jeans she was wearing were all she would need for pants. "I'm not leaving without my toothbrush this time," she said out loud and ducked into the bathroom to get it and a tube of toothpaste. She grabbed a box of Band-Aids and a roll of antacid tablets from the medicine cabinet, remembering how her stomach had felt after a dinner of roasted bats.
Returning to her bedroom, Sheila took her new tape recorder with the headphones from her dresser. What tapes should she bring? Definitely Springsteen, and U-. Illyria would like the new Whitney Houston tape, since she'd liked the old one. Sheila grabbed a handful of other cassettes, including some blanks, and threw them into the pack. Then she dug down deep into her top drawer, where she kept odds and ends, and pulled out an unopened card of batteries. These went into the pack as well.
Sheila glanced around her room. What else? Her Polaroid camera sat on the bookshelf. The unicorn warriors could have a lot of fun with that. She reached back into her top drawer for two extra rolls of film and tossed them on the bed. At the bottom of the drawer she found a clear red plastic water pistol. She and Cookie had been fooling around with them last summer at camp. Her friends might find the pistol entertaining.
Her backpack was almost full, but not quite. Sheila looked at the books on her shelf. Illyria would be fascinated by the paperback atlas. And then there was a book of photos, The Twentieth Century in Pictures. That would help her explain many seemingly strange things to her friends. She stuffed the books into her backpack along with a half-empty notebook and a pen.
Sheila headed downstairs to the kitchen for a trash bag to carry additional items. She unrolled a large black plastic bag and grabbed a bunch of carrots from the refrigerator. The unicorns would like those.
Fishing through her mother's catch-all drawer, she found a pack of sparklers from last July. They would be fun. Next to them was a yellow plastic lighter. That would last longer than matches. Sheila also found a portable first-aid kit—perfect for Pelu, the warrior woman known as the healer.
Sheila then decided it would be nice to bring small gifts for everyone. She searched the house looking for suitable presents—things that no one in her house paid attention to, but that would delight her faraway friends.
It was 7:30 by the time Sheila was finished. She tossed the bag and her pack into the front hall. Now she just had to write a note so her parents wouldn't worry.
Sheila did some quick calculations. The last time she had been gone for months, and it had seemed like hours at home. So, suppose she stayed for a week this time. It would seem like . ... what? About fifteen minutes here.' She might be back before her parents even came home. Better to play it safe, though.
"Dear Mom and Dad," she wrote. "I went to the movies with Cookie. Be home by 9. Love, Sheila." Nine was her schoolday curfew. They wouldn’t be upset by that.
Sheila dragged her stuff out onto the front steps. The bags were heavy, but she managed to get herself balanced. In a short while she was walking back up Mockingbird Hill.
Sheila stopped outside Dr. Reit's house. Only the front rooms were lit. She walked quietly around to the back of the house and slipped through the screen door. Carefully she pushed in the back door, knowing that absent-minded Dr. Reit rarely remembered to lock it.
She stood in the dark lab. It was lit only by the faint purplish glow emitted by the Molecular Acceleration Transport Device over in the corner. Once Sheila's eyes adjusted, she saw the Tracker sitting on the table exactly where Dr. Reit had left it that afternoon.
Sheila set
her bag and pack down in front of the trans-porter window. She found a long yellow legal-sized pad and pen on the table near the Tracker. "Dear Dr. Reit," she wrote. "Please don't be too angry with me. I just had to go back and make sure everything's okay. I can't get over this feeling that Morning Star needs me. She's my unicorn and no one else can help her the way I can. I've taken the Tracker and I'll let you know when I need to come back. Thanks, and, as I said, please don't be mad."
Sheila signed the note, then propped the pad up so Dr. Reit would be sure to see it. Then she thought of something else- What if she wanted to come back before Dr. Reit even knew she was gone? That could be a problem. But no, she remembered Dr. Reit telling her that whenever the Molecular Transport Device was activated, it made lights flicker all through the house. Dr. Reit would surely see the lights going, and he would rush to his laboratory to find out what was happening. Then he would see her note.
Picking up the Tracker, Sheila walked over to the transporter window. And suddenly, for the first time since she had decided to leave, she felt frightened. What if something went wrong? What if she just kept spinning through time and space and never landed anywhere? Maybe she would wind up in some unknown, even stranger place.
Her hands trembled as she looked down at the Tracker. She had to have faith in Dr. Reit and his inventions. With the Tracker, he would be able to bring her back, no matter what. . . . She hoped.
Holding the Tracker in one hand, Sheila used her free hand to pull the lever of the transporter. The window screen began pulsing with a throbbing violet light that gradually be-came an even deeper shade of purple. Dr. Reit had once told her it was best to wait until the screen was a solid, steady purple before going through.
Sheila heard a low hum and knew that the lights in the house had started to flicker. She had to make it through the window before Dr. Reit came to investigate.
Already she could hear his footsteps hurrying down the hall. Was the screen dark enough? It would have to do. She threw her bag and her pack through the window. They disappeared instantly.
The footsteps were getting very close. It was now or never. Sheila took a deep breath and prepared to jump. At that moment the door flew open and Dr. Reit appeared. Sheila took one look at his horrified face, bathed in the glow of purple light, and leapt quickly into the screen. She heard him cry out, "Sheila! Don't!" and then she was tumbling, spinning head over heels into a bottomless gray void.
3
Return to Campora
"Ouch!" Sheila landed hard on the stone-lined street of Campora's main square, just a few feet away from her trash bag and backpack. She sat up and smiled, rubbing her skinned elbow. She had done it. She had come through the transporter in one piece!
There was no doubt about it—she was definitely in Campora. But even in the dark of night, Sheila could tell that the city was not exactly as she remembered it.
The grand homes with their columns and balconies had been replaced by simpler white stone buildings. Their windows glowed with soft, welcoming lights. The podiums on which lawbreakers had been publicly punished were gone, replaced by small running fountains. The platform from which the Emperor Dynasian spoke to his oppressed people had been removed and the ground under it planted with flowers. It seemed to Sheila that the stones of the street beneath her were the only relic of the old Campora.
For a moment Sheila was puzzled by the change. But then she remembered that during the great battle to free Campora from Dynasian and his vicious wizard, Mardock, torches had been knocked over and an uncontrollable fire had raged. It had still been burning when Sheila left. The fire must have destroyed the entire square, and maybe a great deal of the city.
Rising to her feet, Sheila picked up her bag and threw the backpack over her shoulder. She liked this Campora better than the old one. It was a brighter, friendlier-looking place by far. And she knew the reason why.
Illyria and Laric governed here now. Sheila recalled the handsome face of Prince Laric, lllyria's love. Now that the spell which Mardock had cast over Laric and his men was broken—a spell that had changed them into giant golden eagles—Sheila was sure she would find the two lovers together. The palace seemed the most likely place to seek them.
She headed to her left, down one of the narrow winding streets that fed into the square. But Sheila soon discovered that her memory of Campora wasn't as accurate as she had thought. After almost twenty minutes spent wandering along the curving, dimly lit streets, Sheila realized she had somehow gotten turned around and was almost back to where she started from. Her bags were beginning to feel heavier with each step she took. "Think, Sheila," she coached herself. "You're not concentrating.''
She sat down on a stone step in front of a silversmith's shop, which was dark and locked up for the night. Suddenly she heard the sound of a woman laughing. The warm lilt of her voice was wonderfully familiar to Sheila.
In the next second Sheila saw the woman round the dark corner and start walking toward her. She was accompanied by another, smaller, woman. Sheila jumped up, hoping she was right. "Kara? Lianne?" she called to the two figures who were still cloaked in shadow.
The larger woman stiffened, her shoulders squared, and her head cocked alertly to one side. "Who calls us? Show yourself!" she commanded.
Now Sheila was sure. She stepped out into the ray of light thrown from the window above. "It's me, Sheila."
Kara and the smaller woman, her sister, Lianne, ran toward Sheila. "By earth and sky, it is!'' Kara shouted, grabbing hold of Sheila's two arms. ''I took you to be some sort of night spirit, roaming around by yourself at this hour."
Kara hugged Sheila warmly. "Come, come home with Lianne and me and tell us of your adventures since last we saw you.”
"You look very well indeed," said Lianne, slipping her arm through Sheila's.
"So do you," Sheila replied. "Both of you," she added, turning to look at Kara, still tall and strong-looking, her dark brown hair pulled back into a bun.
Sheila was happy to discover that she still had the ability to understand their language. The magic Gem of Speaking had imparted that power to her when she first arrived in the land of the unicorns, and apparently her time away had not diminished it.
The two sisters stopped after a short while and turned into an open courtyard full of narrow homes attached to one an other. Kara pushed open the door of one and guided Sheila inside.
Only a single lantern burned in the dark room, but Lianne quickly used its flame to light several more. Kara made a small fire in the stone hearth, and the room was soon awash in gentle golden light.
It was a simple but attractive room. Large red cushions on two platforms made appealing beds not far from the fireplace, and a smooth wooden table dominated the area on the other side. There was an earthen bowl of low bristly purple flowers in the center of the table. Sheila knew that was surely gentle Lianne's touch.
As she set her bags down in a corner, it occurred to Sheila that she had never seen either woman in such a comfortable setting before—she had only known them dressed in scraps and armor, riding their unicorns or sitting around a campfire. But that wasn't the only difference Sheila noticed. Though Kara's delicate face still wore the same serious expression, there was a new gentleness in her eyes, and her face looked slightly fuller. A glance at her arms told Sheila they were still the well-muscled limbs of a champion archer, but there was something more relaxed in her posture. She had turned in her rough tunic and now wore a simple belted blue dress of soft material that fell just below her calves.
Sheila had always known Lianne was pretty, but now with her light brown hair curling gently around her shoulders and wearing a simple white gown, clasped at either shoulder with two pins, she was absolutely beautiful. Both sisters had lost the alert, road-worn look that life as a warrior seemed to bring.
"Has everyone settled here in Campora?" Sheila asked.
"Unlikely as it may seem, it has become home base,” Kara said with a laugh as she hung
a kettle of water over the fire. "But Lianne and I are the only ones who've chosen to hang up our shields. The others still ride with Illyria and tend to the unicorns. Things have been rather quiet, though, even for them."
Lianne sat at the table, chopping a potatolike root. "I'm going to be married next month," she said happily, "to Ansom, one of Laric's men."
"Not handsome Ansom!" Sheila teased. "The one you said was in love with his own good looks?"
Lianne blushed. "I was wrong about him. He's not conceited in the least. And he is handsome, isn't he?"
"That's for sure," Sheila replied. She was happy for Lianne, who had never really been cut out for the warrior life. "Do you still see the others?" Sheila asked, settling down on a cushion by the fire.
"I see most of them every day up at the palace," Kara answered. "In fact, we just came from there. I teach archery to the new soldiers and to Laric's men." Kara got up and took a basketful of the root from Lianne, then tossed the pieces into the boiling water. "I only joined Illyria to find Lianne after she was kidnapped by Dynasian. Now that I've found her, my job is done. I'm ready for an easier life."
"How about you, Sheila? What have you been doing, and what brings you back to us?" Lianne asked, now chopping an orangy-brown vegetable.
Sheila told them all about her dream and her fears for Morning Star. Kara drummed her fingertips on the stone floor where she was seated. "That worries me," she said. "Illyria and the others left two weeks ago. They should have returned by now.
"Where did they go?" Sheila asked.
"They were going to return the unicorns Dynasian had captured to the mountains. The city is no place for such wild creatures." Kara rose and began to pace. "They were simply going to guide them to a mountain pasture and make sure they found good grazing."
"Now that Dynasian and Mardock are gone, they're safe, though. Aren't they?" Sheila asked.
