Sally chose that moment to faint. As she fell, Peppers shot out from the cats around Miss Edna and put herself directly under Sally’s head as she hit the floor. Miss Edna nodded to Peppers, and the cat lay still, providing a pillow for Sally as she fluttered her eyes and started to wake up.
“Jack, she’s fine,” Miss Edna said. “Go get the little duffle bag out of my room that I packed. You’ll find two more empty ones with it. Put my duffle in the living room; bring me one of the empty ones so I can pack food, then stuff as much of your clothing in another one as you can. I fear Sally will have to make do with your clothes for the time being.”
“Where are we going, Miss Edna?” Jack said.
“We not going anywhere yet,” Miss Edna replied. “We are preparing for contingencies.”
“What’s a contingency?”
“It’s a plan you put in place in case something goes wrong.”
“Is the shotgun a contingency?” Jack asked.
“It’s a 10-gauge Mossberg with a gas autoloader and a pistol grip, loaded with an extended magazine of rather special rounds that I put together myself. Now, the duffle bags, Jack.”
With that, Miss Edna turned to help Sally to her feet, and Jack ran to get the duffle bags. After dropping her duffle bag in the living room, he ran to the kitchen with an empty duffle and found Miss Edna quickly sorting through the food while Sally sat at the kitchen table watching her with eyes wide open. Jack handed off the duffle and ran to his room. He stuffed handfuls of clothes and a few other items into the last duffle bag. On an instinct, he jammed his baseball bat into it, the handle sticking out once he’d zipped it up. After a last look around his room, Jack carried the duffle bag out to the living room.
Sally was on the couch watching Miss Edna, who was sitting on the floor surrounded by cats. It looked like she was whispering to them, and after a moment she sat up and clapped once. Immediately all eight cats ran to the kitchen and out the cat door in the bottom of the back door. Jack decided either he was going crazy, or Miss Edna was something more than an imposing older woman who had a knack for healing people at the county hospital.
“Now, children,” Miss Edna said as she rose to her feet, “I need to explain a few things to you.” She strode to the coffee table and took the staff and shotgun, then turned to face them on the couch. “You’ve figured out that not all is well, yes? Here’s what I know.”
Her voice trailed off as she cocked her head to the side, as though listening. She gasped, turned to the front door, and swung the shotgun up to her shoulder with one hand. With the other hand she held the staff crosswise across her body and rested the shotgun on it. The moment stretched, and Jack grabbed his duffle bag on the floor and yanked the baseball bat out of it.
“Jack,” Sally whispered, “what are you doing?”
“Miss Edna thinks she needs a shotgun. Baseball bat’s the best I can do.”
“But—”
Sally was cut off when the front door exploded inward and spun across the living room toward Miss Edna, who thrust out her staff and yelled something unintelligible. The door rebounded off the air in front of the staff and ricocheted up and over her, smashing into the wall to the right of the kitchen doorway. There was a pause, a tremendous roar, and one of the ape-wolves charged into the room. It stood, beating its chest and howling at the entryway.
The creature stood as tall as the doorway on bear-like paws. Its body was covered in matted dark brown fur, and its head looked like a cross between a wolf and a crocodile. It was a nightmare, and it looked straight at Jack as it howled.
Miss Edna’s shotgun roared to life with sound and fire and the beast was thrown violently back out of the house with a gaping, bloody hole in its chest. Jack had once seen a classmate fire a 12-gauge shotgun and get knocked flat on his back. Miss Edna rocked back on her heels, but stood strong and fired two more rounds through the door in quick succession, stepping from side to side to change her firing angle.
Jack felt a terror that made his knees jelly and his bladder weak. He glanced at Sally. She was curled up on the couch with her eyes closed and her hands over her ears. He had to do something. To help Miss Edna. The thought drove the fear back enough for him to move. Jack stood and tried to leap across the coffee table to stand by her, but his legs buckled as he jumped. His shins hit the table and he tumbled to the floor just behind her, facing back toward the kitchen. Three of the beasts were creeping toward him, the back door standing open.
“Miss Edna!” Jack yelled, “The kitchen!”
The shotgun roared again as he spoke, burying his words. Jack stood up on wobbly legs, his shins screaming in pain. Cats suddenly flooded through the back door, making horrible, screechy cat noises, and Miss Edna’s staff swept Jack to the side as she rotated around and fired once, twice, three times. She completed the turn and faced the front door once more. Jack had the good sense to stay down and keep below the staff the second time, and moved off to the side to keep an eye on both doors. The cats swarmed around Miss Edna and stayed in constant motion, swirling around her feet.
The man in the blood-red robes stepped imperiously through the door, a staff held in both hands across his body at an angle. He had an ageless, cruel face. Without hesitation, Miss Edna fired the shotgun, and a huge spark of energy exploded directly in front of him, but he was untouched. Jack was stunned. The man stepped forward another pace, and the other man from the hill ducked in through the doorway, a short, curved sword in each hand.
Miss Edna tossed the shotgun to the side and grasped her staff in a similar manner to the robed man. Jack hadn’t thought things could get worse after the ape-wolves, but he didn’t like seeing the shotgun judged inadequate.
“Miss Edna,” Jack said in a low voice, “what do we do?”
“Miss Edna?” the robed man said. He stared intently at her, and then rocked back in surprise. “Edalwin? At the end of my search for the boy, I find you as well?”
“You found me, Drakin,” Miss Edna said. “And I suppose it’s no surprise to learn you’re behind what was done to the boy.”
Chapter 3
KANSAS?
JACK’S MIND REELED. Edalwin? And what was that about something being done to a boy? Were they talking about him?
“Jack, Sally, get behind me,” Miss Edna said. Sally scooted from the couch and grabbed Jack’s arm as he met her behind Miss Edna. He shook his arm free so he could keep a good grip on the baseball bat.
“Edalwin,” Drakin said, “You foolish girl. You were my greatest disciple, and you would wear a cross now?”
“Indeed,” Miss Edna said, “and there’s been much forgiveness needed for what I did under your tutelage. Now, be gone!”
“I think not,” Drakin said. “Ah, I should have realized someone of power has been hiding the boy. I’ll take him now.”
Fiery pain blossomed in Jack’s leg. He screamed and collapsed to the floor. Twisting around on the floor, he saw a large, cat-like creature made of smoke as much as flesh biting his calf. Jack slammed the baseball bat down on the back of the creature, tearing it from his leg and sending more fire through his body. A moment later Miss Edna’s cats swarmed the creature, and it disappeared in a scratching, biting whirlwind.
“I think you’re a fool, Drakin,” Miss Edna said, thrusting her staff toward the mass of cats. “You seek the boy, but let your Seeker poison him?”
Drakin shrugged. “Admittedly, that wasn’t my intention. But let’s stop bickering so I can take the boy and get him fixed up before he dies.”
“By my life, I will end you if the boy dies. No more demands. You are not on your world, Drakin, and you are in my home!”
Miss Edna spoke another word, this time powerfully and loudly, and slammed the end of her staff onto the floor. The house itself seemed to come alive and attack the men. The floor bucked and dropped, the walls flexed in to strike them, and the ceiling appeared to collapse for a moment before rebounding and returning to normal.
It was ove
r in seconds. The cats returned to Miss Edna, leaving the steaming body of the dead creature, which dissipated and disappeared. Looking across the floor through a veil of pain, Jack saw the armed man with Drakin lying on the floor bleeding from the head. Drakin snarled some words that Jack could not quite understand, and retreated through the door.
“We’re not finished,” Drakin yelled from outside. “The boy is mine! You just don’t realize it yet. I need you to save him for me, girl, so get to work. I’ll return for him.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure you will,” Miss Edna said quietly, almost to herself.
Jack tried to get up, but his head spun wildly and he crashed into Sally, knocking them both to the floor. Miss Edna turned, her mouth pulled in a grim line, and knelt beside him. She hissed a word and the cats all streamed out the front door.
“Lay on your stomach, Jack,” Miss Edna said. “Let me look at the wound. Sally, grab my duffle bag and find the purple knapsack within it. Stop staring at the carcasses, Sally.”
Jack obeyed, or at least he tried to, but he had trouble figuring out which way was down and where his stomach was. He started talking to Edalwin, or Miss Edna, but his mouth was full of cotton and he couldn’t get the words out.
“Miss Edna, please,” Sally said. Her voice sounded to Jack like she was underwater. “What is going on? I don’t understand. Is that man gone?”
“The knapsack, Sally! Seconds matter,” Miss Edna said.
Or was it Edalwin speaking? Jack couldn’t tell. The whole world was going up in fiery pain, and his head felt ready to explode. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Miss Edna sucking on the wound in his calf and then spitting to the side.
“Here it is,” Sally said.
There was a pause, and then something was shoved in his mouth between his teeth.
“Bite the leather, Jack. Bite it hard. The ointment I’m about to apply will have a strong reaction to the poisons in your wound. Be brave, boy.”
Jack responded instinctively to the command in Miss Edna’s voice and bit hard. The pain was still severe, but Jack was starting to think he could cope. Then the ointment touched the wound, and his body exploded with pain. Jack flopped convulsively for a few seconds, and slipped into merciful unconsciousness.
Jack cracked open his eyes. He was sprawled across the rear seat of Miss Edna’s Camry. His lower leg was bundled up with bandages, and it felt like flames still raged within. Bright morning light filled the car, which didn’t help his pounding head. Miss Edna and Sally were sitting up front, though from what Jack could see of Sally, she was slumped over asleep. Cats were everywhere.
“Miss Edna?” Jack said.
“Jack, chew on these,” Miss Edna said. Her arm reached behind the driver’s seat holding two dark green leaves. Jack took them and fumbled them into his mouth. His hands didn’t quite feel under his control. The leaves were bitter, but his head started feeling better within seconds.
“Miss Edna?” Jack said again.
“Yes, dear?”
“Should I call you Edalwin?”
“Well, Jack,” Edalwin said, “you might as well call me Edalwin, though that’s a name that will cause problems for us where we are going. But, so be it. I’ve hidden for too long.”
“Where are we driving, uh, Edalwin?”
“Salina, Kansas.”
“You’ve been hiding from Kansas?” Jack asked.
“No, dear,” Edalwin said. “We’re driving to Kansas to use a Lodestone closer to our destination, the Fortress of Arameth. It’s near Salina.”
“There’s a fortress in Salina, Kansas?”
“No, the Lodestone is near Salina,” Edalwin said. “Now go to sleep, Jack. You need sleep.”
Jack continued chewing the leaves. He was sure he had more questions for Edalwin, but they kept slipping away. His leg gradually stopped burning, and his head felt like it might float away.
“Jack, wake up,” Sally said, shaking him.
Jack squinted in the bright light and took stock of himself. His injured leg felt like a giant, flaming watermelon, and he was soaked in a feverish sweat. The sun had a hot, middle-of-the-afternoon quality to it. The driver’s seat was empty and the cats were gone. Sally was leaning back toward him in the passenger seat.
“Jack, Miss Edna says we’ve got to get you to this other place,” Sally said, “and I don’t think she means anywhere here, if you know what I mean, or you could die. That thing that bit you was called a Seeker, and she says they have a poison that we can’t heal on this world. She said it just like that, Jack, ON THIS WORLD! So that means she’s taking us to a different world, I guess. Is that possible, Jack? I mean, I’ve read about lots of other worlds, but they aren’t real, but then I’ve never heard of a giant cat that turns to smoke, or giant crocodile-wolf-ape creatures, or seen a house attack someone. Jack, I think it’s magic! She says she’ll have more power to heal you on the OTHER WORLD, that this world is made for technology, and her power doesn’t work well other than in, oh, something about objects holding power, like her staff, but the other world, there she’ll have her full powers. Can you believe this Jack? Her FULL POWERS! Is it true? I’m scared.”
Jack groaned.
“Oh, there’s something about people not being happy with her on the other world, though it sounded like whatever happened was a long time ago. I asked why I was going with you, and she said Drakin had possibly marked me, and I wouldn’t be safe. That’s pretty freaky, isn’t it? I guess he’s marked you too, though. He seemed evil. Like, evil without, you know, normal ways to hide it where you are nice to people even though you don’t like them. Okay, she’s coming back to the car. She had to use the restroom.”
Jack’s eyes refused to stay open. He heard a door open, the car rocked slightly, and the door closed solidly. The engine gently tugged to life, the car started moving, and Jack slipped back to sleep.
Jack lay on his back staring up at a darkening sky. He sat up to get a look around, but his head fought back and he only managed to get up on one elbow. Sally was sitting a few feet away staring at Miss Edna, who was on the other side of Jack, sitting cross-legged and facing him, surrounded by cats. They seemed to be on a small hill in the middle of endless fields of harvest-ready winter wheat, burning golden in the failing light. The Camry was nowhere in sight, nor anything else. He lay back down and tried to figure out what he was feeling.
“Miss Edna, or, uh, Edalwin,” Jack said.
“Yes, dear?” she answered.
“I can feel this hill pulling me like the hill at Hillacre, only I can tell them apart. I can feel them both. Right now. At the same time. Is that because of the medicine?”
“No, it isn’t,” Edalwin said. “In just a moment, we’re going to do something you may find surprising, but what happens isn’t the medicine, either.”
The sun tipped over the horizon, and the hill, the wheat, and the open sky were gone, replaced by a forest canopy and looming shadows. Jack was too wrung out to be surprised.
“Edalwin,” Jack said, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“Very clever, Jack,” Edalwin said. “Now sleep. You too, Sally.” Her voice carried a power altogether different than Jack had ever heard, and sleep came at her command.
Chapter 4
WIZARDS
JACK WOKE TO a sandpaper tongue on his face. He pushed Peppers away and sat up, surprised to discover he felt well. His leg was no longer bandaged, and a large pink scar was all that remained of the Seeker wound. Looking around, he saw he was on a small hill surrounded by a tall forest. Huge, blocky white stones stood in a circle all round, guarding the crown of the hill. It reminded him of pictures he’d seen of Stonehenge. Then choppy memories washed over him, of monsters, a car ride, Kansas, wheat fields, and a low hill. Was he really in another world?
Sally stepped between two of the mammoth stones and waved.
“Hey, Jack,” Sally said. “Great to see you up. You’re looking good, given, you know, you were about
to die last night.”
“So you’re okay with all of this?” Jack said, struggling to his feet and waving his arms around at the forest, hill, and stones. His leg was sore but useable. Jack looked closely, and noticed her eyes looked puffy and red.
“Oh, no,” Sally said, “but thinking about it doesn’t help. Don’t ask what it means, or why, or how. Don’t try to figure anything out.”
“Uh, okay,” Jack said, “but—“
“And,” Sally said, cutting over Jack’s words, “don’t think about my parents freaking out at home because they think I’m dead or kidnapped, or about some lunatic with crocodile-wolf men hunting us. Just act like it is real and normal, ’cause it is.” She banged on the stone slab jutting twelve feet into the air beside her. “See? Real. If you want to go freshen up and get a drink”—she jerked a thumb back over her shoulder—“there’s a stream just back that way.”
“Where’s Edalwin?” Jack asked.
“I’m right here,” Edalwin said, stepping up behind Sally. She was still wearing the green robes and silver cross, and carried the dark staff. It looked more normal in the forest. Back in Hillacre it had seemed more like a Halloween costume. Edalwin put an arm around Sally and gave her a hug. She stepped toward Jack, and he was startled to see how bloodshot her eyes were, how exhausted she looked. She put her hand on his forehead for a moment, and took a look at the healed wound.
The Lodestone Page 2
