“How can you be sure?” Kyja asked.
Marcus ran his fingers through his hair with a self-conscious smile. “I like maps. I used to study them whenever I got a chance, imagining where I would go one day when I was on my own. It seemed crazy at the time—a kid like me ever going anywhere. But now look at us.” He waved his hands in the air.
“What I was thinking, though,” he continued, “was what if the reason we came back farther north on Earth is because we traveled north on Farworld? What if our movements there somehow carried over to here?”
Before Kyja could answer, the semi began to slow down with a gravelly, rumbling sound. Kyja lifted her head above the hay bales.
“Oh,” she said, her mouth hanging open.
Marcus climbed up beside her, and the two of them looked out on a bustling city.
Marcus pointed to a big green sign. “Salt Lake City. That’s in Utah,” he said as the semi pulled off the road and parked beside a line of equally-imposing machines.
“Where you headed?” a man from one of the other semis called as the driver got out.
“Wendover,” the driver called back, pulling his cap down tight on his head.
Marcus pointed at a building with a giant sign that read Burger Barn. “That’s a restaurant,” he whispered to Kyja. “Help me get down from here, and we can get some food and something to drink while the driver’s taking care of his truck. I feel like I’ve been run over by a train, but I might be even hungrier than I am sore.”
Kyja followed him, but even though she was hungry, it wasn’t food she was thinking about. An idea had suddenly occurred to her—if she was from this world, then her parents lived here too.
Chapter 40
Fries and a Shake
Come on,” Marcus said, reaching up and pulling toward the double-glass doors of the Burger Barn. “I think Master Therapass was right—about only half of my body getting food. I feel like I could eat a whole cow.”
Kyja hesitated for a moment, goggling at all the unfamiliar sights and sounds. She’d never seen this many buildings in one place, some of stone and others of glass—buildings with brick walls and buildings with hundreds of shiny windows. Several of them were even taller than the tower in Terra ne Staric. And the lines of machines that filled the street fascinated her. The large ones Marcus called trucks and the smaller ones he called cars, roared past with clouds of stinky, black smoke and loud honks that reminded her of a flock of angry geese.
Even on parade day when a new High Lord was chosen, Terra ne Staric never saw this much commotion. It made her feel both excited and frightened at the same time. She couldn’t imagine living in a place like this, and she wondered if the Dark Circle had spies here, too. But she couldn’t help thinking that one of the people in the big buildings or walking along the street might know who her parents were. One of them could even be her mother or father, buying clothes in a shop or driving a car.
Riph Raph cowered in her cloak pocket, peeking out for only seconds at a time.
As she watched the people come and go, a red-faced man leaned out of his car and shouted, “Get out of the way,” to a man crossing the street. The man in the street shook his fist, and the first man made a loud honk with his car.
“Why are they so angry?” she asked Marcus. She couldn’t imagine ever being angry if she had a machine of her own.
“Probably late for work,” Marcus said, tugging at her.
He pulled open one of the glass doors, and a fascinating combination of smells came drifting out. Kyja’s stomach growled, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything in over a day. Turning her back on the rumble of the cars and trucks, she followed Marcus through the doors.
Inside, the food shop was nothing like she’d expected. Back home, the inns and taverns which served food were filled with happy people, laughing and singing at big, wooden tables, while servers carried platters of food and drink from steaming kitchens.
Here, people waited in long lines, looking at pictures of food on the wall. When they reached the front of the line, they called out numbers, handed over money, and took away their food on trays or in sacks. And while the smells were intriguing, she couldn’t see a single pot or pan in the kitchen. Where were the wood-burning ovens? Where were the spits of meat turning slowly around and around? And what were all the beeps and buzzes? She couldn’t imagine Bella ever cooking in a kitchen like this.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked as they took their place in line. Several of the people waiting in front of them gave Marcus and Kyja unusual looks before turning quickly away. Kyja didn’t know if it was because of their clothes or because of Marcus. But he didn’t seem to notice—or care about their stares.
“Why is everyone in such a hurry?” Kyja asked.
“It’s called fast food. You know, for when you want to eat on the run. Or in my case, on the crawl.”
“Eat on the run?” She’d never heard such an idea before. Why would people want to eat on the run? Then again, she’d never been in a city bigger than Terra ne Staric. Maybe that’s just how things were done.
“This must be the biggest city on Ert,” she said, watching a pair of little boys take toys out of their bags.
“This?” Marcus asked with a laugh. “Hardly. There are hundreds of cities bigger than this.”
Hundreds? Hundreds of cities bigger than this? The idea boggled her mind. As they waited their turn to get food, she imagined what it would be like to live in such a fast-moving city where people drove machines everywhere they went, shouted at each other, and ate food on the run. It didn’t sound very appealing. And how would she ever be able to find her parents among so many people?
Soon they reached the front of the line, where a man in a blue cap smiled at Kyja and asked, “What can I get’cha?”
Kyja looked from the man up to the pictures of food and back in a panic. None of the foods looked familiar.
Fortunately Marcus spoke up. “We’ll have bacon cheeseburgers with large fries, and the biggest orange sodas you’ve got.”
The man in the blue hat leaned over the counter and looked down at Marcus. “Sorry about that, buddy,” he said. “I didn’t see you down there. Can I get you anything else?”
Marcus began to shake his head, before changing his mind. “And two chocolate milkshakes.”
“Okay. I’ve got two number fours with orange sodas and two chocolate shakes. That’ll be nine dollars and twenty-seven cents.”
Marcus reached into his leather bag to get his money, but as he pulled out a pair of crumpled bills, his eyes went wide, and his breath caught.
“What’s wrong?” Kyja asked.
“Later,” Marcus said with a quick shake of his head.
Once they were seated at a table—which was neither wood nor glass, but felt like a strange combination of both—Marcus reached into the bag and pulled out one of the red stones.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked holding it out to her.
Kyja shook her head. When Master Therapass had given the stones to Marcus back on Farworld, they had been shiny but unremarkable flat rocks. Now the stone glittered under the morning sun that shined through the window with a spectral radiance.
“Neither do I,” Marcus said. “But I think it might be a ruby. And the green ones look like emeralds. If they are, this bag is worth money.”
“How much money?” Kyja asked, fingering the red gem.
“A lot.” Marcus put the red stone back into the bag with a quick look around. “I think we’d better keep this out of sight.”
“Here,” he said, handing her a cup. “I’m so thirsty I feel like I could drink from a fire hose.”
Kyja had never heard of a fire hose, but she was thirsty. She lifted the cup to her mouth, but the top was covered with some kind of clear lid.
“You have to use a straw,” Marcus said. He pulled the paper off a small tube and slid it through the top of her cup.
As Kyja watched doubtfully, Marcus lifted his own cup an
d placed the straw in his mouth. When he sucked on the straw, orange liquid flowed up. “Try it,” he said with a grin.
Kyja placed the straw into her mouth. Pursing her lips, she gave a hesitant suck. Instantly, a fruity-flavored, ice-cold liquid gushed over her tongue. Tiny bubbles filled her mouth and nose with a strange burning sensation, and she coughed the drink back out, spraying it across the table.
Marcus roared with laughter. At the next table, a large woman with curly, bright-red hair was talking animatedly into a tiny silver box. The woman put her hand over the silver thing by her ear and glared at Marcus and Kyja. A messy-faced child sitting across from the woman smeared a container of red sauce on the table and copied his mother’s glare.
“What was that?” Kyja asked, touching her tongue with the tip of her finger.
“It’s a soda,” Marcus said, still laughing. “The bubbles are called carbonation. Try it again, more slowly.”
Kyja took another small sip. This time she kept the drink in her mouth. It was wonderful—cold and sweet. And the bubbles were actually kind of fun once you got used to them. She gulped it down greedily.
Marcus handed Kyja a package wrapped in waxy paper. She sniffed it experimentally before opening the package. It looked like some kind of meat and sauce on bread.
“It’s called a cheeseburger,” Marcus said, talking around a mouthful of food.
Kyja lifted the cheeseburger and tried a bite. It was a little greasy, and the sauce was too sweet. But not bad. Next she took one of the hot, golden, stick-shaped things which Marcus called fries. She popped one into her mouth and moaned with pleasure. “These are delicious!” she said, taking several more. They were hot and salty—crunchy on the outside and soft and yummy on the inside.
Attracted by the smell of the food, Riph Raph climbed cautiously out of Kyja’s cloak and onto the table. Kyja broke off a piece of meat from her burger and held it out to Riph Raph. The chameleon darted out his pink tongue and zapped the meat from Kyja’s fingers.
“Almost as good as spider,” Riph Raph said, chewing the meat.
“Look, Mommy. A lisser!” The boy at the next table leaned over the back of his seat and pointed a greasy finger at Riph Raph.
“Have some fries,” his mother said, still talking into the silver package. The little boy shoved a handful of fries into his mouth—smearing red across his face—and continued to watch Riph Raph.
“When you were talking back in the truck,” Kyja said, giving Riph Raph another piece of burger. “Were you saying the desert we landed in on Ert is the same distance from your school that we traveled back home?”
Marcus nodded. “It may not be an exact match, but it seems about right.”
Kyja thought through his logic. She hadn’t given it much consideration before. But it made a strange kind of sense.
“It sounds crazy to me,” Riph Raph said.
“Mommy,” the boy at the next table shouted, “the lisser talk.”
“Hush, Timmykins,” the woman said, pressing a couple of brown lumps into his chubby hand. “Mommy’s on the phone. Eat your nuggets.”
“You want to hear something really crazy?” Marcus asked Kyja, holding out a fry like a pointer. “North of Cove Valley is a forest called Flagstaff, with lots of tall pine trees. There’s a summer camp there where I used to go with some other boys in one of my old schools. I’m not sure, but I think it was a hundred miles or so from Cove Valley. I bet that’s about the same distance we traveled in Farworld to get to the Westland Woods. As far as I remember, there’s not a big river in Flagstaff, but there is a river to the north of it called the Colorado River. And northwest of Flagstaff is the desert where we landed.”
He ran his fingers through his reddish-brown hair. “Does any of that sound familiar?”
It took Kyja a moment to understand what he was saying. “You think the forest in Flag-whatever is the same as the Westland Woods?”
“Yes and no. I mean, I don’t think we’d find talking trees if we went to Flagstaff. And unless I missed something, we didn’t cross the Grand Canyon on Farworld. So everything isn’t exactly the same. But what if some things are the same? What if certain spots here match certain spots there?”
Kyja finished the last of her fries as she thought over Marcus’s words.
“Are you going to eat that?” he asked, pointing to the rest of her burger. When she shook her head, he wolfed it down in two big bites.
“Try your milkshake,” he said.
Copying what she’d seen Marcus do earlier, Kyja peeled the paper from her straw and pushed it into the cup. Prepared for more of the same bubbly liquid, she sipped cautiously. But what filled her mouth this time was so incredible, so absolutely wonderful, it took her breath away.
“Do you like it?” Marcus asked, watching her closely.
“It’s delicious!” she said, only taking her lips off the straw long enough to speak before going back to drinking. When she finished the entire milkshake, she leaned back in her seat and sighed.
“So what do you think?” Marcus asked.
“If there are any more surprises like this on Ert, I might never go back.”
“No, I mean about my idea.”
“Oh, right.” Kyja twirled her empty milkshake cup between her fingers. “Master Therapass talked about different worlds. Maybe he sent you here because there is a kind of link between our two worlds.”
“A link.” Marcus’s eyes glowed as he crumpled his empty wrapper. “Sure, that makes sense. Master Therapass wouldn’t just send me to any old world. He’d want me to be somewhere close by. Maybe not close in distance. But close in another way.”
As Kyja and Marcus talked, the little boy at the next table had been moving closer and closer. Without any warning, he reached out with a fat, greasy hand and tried to grab Riph Raph around the neck. Riph Raph jumped back with a hiss, then darted forward and snatched away the boy’s last nugget. The food disappeared down the chameleon’s throat in a single gulp.
“Mommy!” the boy howled. “The lisser eat my nugget.”
For the first time during her entire meal, the red-haired woman seemed to actually hear what her child was saying. Snapping the silver package closed, she scooped her son up into her arms and gave Marcus and Kyja a look that could melt ice cubes.
“Come on,” Kyja said, quickly shoving Riph Raph back into her cloak pocket. “I think it’s time to leave.”
Chapter 41
Wheeling and Dealing
I guess we’d better get back,” Kyja said, sadly watching the cars that raced past. She’d never be able to find her parents in a world this big. She didn’t know their names. She didn’t even know her real name.
As she began walking toward the line of semis, Marcus tugged on the hem of her robe.
“Wait up,” he said.
Kyja looked down at him with a curious glance.
“Master Therapass said Water Keep was east of the mountains, right?”
“Right.” Kyja looked at the line of semis, wondering how long their’s would wait before leaving.
“Well, Master Therapass said he was going north—around the mountains. What if we went over the mountains and met him on the other side?”
Kyja stared. “We can’t. It’s far too dangerous.”
“Too dangerous on your world,” Marcus said with the same mischievous look he’d gotten right before he jumped out of the tree in the Westland Woods. “But not in this world. If we go over the mountains here, then jump back to Farworld, we can save at least a week of travel. I’m sure Master Therapass travels faster on his own. He’ll probably be waiting for us by the time we reach the city.”
Kyja considered the idea. “Are you sure it’s safe?” she asked.
“Of course,” Marcus said, bouncing with excitement. “There’s a highway that goes clear across. We can be over the mountains by this time tomorrow.”
“Is our machine going that way?” Kyja asked, still feeling a little uncomfortable about the who
le idea.
“No. But this time of year it’s too cold to cross the mountains in the back of a truck anyway. I’ve got a better idea. We can take a bus.”
“What’s a bus?” Kyja asked.
“It’s kind of like a car, only bigger. You can buy tickets to almost anywhere.”
“I thought we were almost out of money.”
“We are, but I’ve got an idea.” Marcus waved to one of the drivers walking to his semi. “Excuse me, sir, but do you know where the closest bus station is?”
“’Bout three or four miles that way,” the driver said, pointing past the restaurant. “Corner of Eighth West and Third South.”
The man tilted his cap back, revealing a sunburned face and brown teeth. “Gonna catch a hound to Vegas to marry your sweetheart?”
Marcus and Kyja looked at each other and blushed.
“Can you make it that far?” Kyja asked, avoiding Marcus’s eyes as the truck driver walked away with a chuckle. Marcus had crawled a long way in the desert, but the ground there had been softer, and the gloves Master Therapass had given him were already looking worn.
“Probably not,” Marcus sighed, rubbing his leg.
Kyja glanced around the parking lot and saw something silver lying on its side by the wall of a building. It had wheels like the thing Marcus called a wheelchair, only smaller. “How about this one?” Kyja asked, walking toward it.
Marcus looked where she was pointing and instantly shook his head. “No. No way. I won’t ride in that.”
“Why not?” Kyja picked it up and tried it out. One of the wheels was a little shaky, but it worked fine. “Look,” she said, “It’s even got a seat.”
Marcus folded his good arm across his chest and scowled. “I will not ride in a grocery cart.”
* * *
Half a block from the bus station, Marcus noticed a small building with an assortment of items displayed behind a dusty glass window—a laptop computer, a pair of used saxophones, a circular saw with a rusty blade, and an assortment of rings and necklaces laid out on a black velvet mat. “Over there,” he said.
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