by KD Blakely
“I saw it in a movie. It looked excellent!”
Ronny laughed again, quietly. “Your movies can be very entertaining. No, a dragon would not fly while you were on its back. It would reach back, pluck you off, and eat you.”
“Ugh!” Doug’s mouth twisted in disgust, and he collapsed back against the couch.
Like he actually thought he’d get to ride a dragon?
“Sounds like a lot of things like to eat you,” Faith muttered. Fortunately, Ronny did not hear her. She turned to Ronny and spoke up, “I’ve read about elementals. They represent earth, air, water and fire, right?”
“Yes! Most people do not know. Gnomes are linked with earth. Salamanders with fire. Sylphs with air. Undines with water. No one knows the intelligence of elementals. They are very much different from other magickal creatures.”
Freaky!
Faith sighed and looked dreamy. “I really love stories about magic.”
“I am sorry, but few stories about magick in your world are correct. Some parts are not completely wrong, so it is possible the stories started out true. But the Mundane change stories each time they repeat them. Over hundreds of years, the stories change too much. You win some, you lose the rest.”
Faith looked puzzled until Olivia muttered, “You win some, you lose some.”
I managed to stifle a giggle at the look of indignation on Ronny’s face when she said, “You even call them Fairy Tails. Fairies do not have tails.”
Now there was no holding back the giggles. Olivia and Faith’s joined mine as they burst free. I just shook my head helplessly at Ronny’s questioning glance. It took some effort, but I managed to say, “Someday I hope you can tell us the parts that are right.”
Chapter 25
Sanctuary?
I did a happy dance as school let out for summer. Avoiding the Rejects for the next three months should be a piece of cake. Okay, so maybe not a whole piece of cake. Maybe more like a mini-cupcake. But definitely easier!
I was only disappointed about one thing. Somehow our school had found the money to have a summer session, but Faith wouldn’t be there with Olivia and me. Instead, she’d be at soccer camp, and would have tournaments most Sundays. So Saturday would still be the only day we could enter Chimera each month.
The week before Chimera would open, we were on Main Street when we saw Andrew a block away. We avoided him by ducking into the library. I laughed exultantly and told Olivia and Faith, “We’re getting good at this!”
“It’s just luck.” Faith stared down at her hands, her shoulders hunched. Her voice dropped, “Luck can run ou—”
“Girls! You’re supposed to be quiet in the library.” The voice was soft but very firm. I sighed and shuffled my feet as a wave of heat flooded my face. It was the pits trying to hide in the library when your mom’s the librarian.
“Yes, Mrs. Taylor,” Faith and Olivia chorused in a loud whisper.
“This is the fourth time you’ve come in here this month. You stand around the windows, talking, disturbing the other patrons. The next time you girls come in here, I expect you to spend at least ten minutes looking at books.”
She must have seen the mutinous expression on my face because she added sternly, “I mean it.”
“Yes, Mrs. Taylor,” Faith and Olivia chorused again. Years of practice had made them really good at it.
“Um, we’ll go now, Mom,” I said, tugging on Olivia’s arm. We escaped back onto the street. I laughed out loud and felt a giddy sense of relief. We’d had a double escape — we were safely out of the library and there was no sign of Andrew.
I really hoped Faith was wrong — that our luck wouldn’t run out any time soon. We only had one week until we could go back to Chimera
The cold, dark space inside the tree seemed even worse than usual. I knew I was in Chimera when I tumbled onto the ground. As I got to my feet and dusted off, I noticed Brady was wearing the self-winding watch again.
I pointed at his wrist. “So, does that keep Chimera time or time at home?”
“When we got back last time, my watch was four hours earlier than the time at home. I intend to track the variation and extrapolate the time differential between Santa Ramona and Chimera.”
At my blank look, he sighed. “I should be able to tell what time it is at home by how long we’ve spent in Chimera.”
“Oh. Cool!”
He couldn’t just say that the first time?
Olivia was the last one through the tree. She’d been grouchy and tired all morning, but as soon as she stumbled out of the tree, she caught her balance and stretched. As I watched, a pleased smile broke over her face. “Wow, I feel terrific.”
The rest of us ignored her — we were really tired of all the grumbling we’d heard that morning. Brady pulled the map out of his pocket, and spoke in a clear voice. “I wish I could see where the others are.” We all held our breath, then sighed when nothing showed up.
“It could mean they’re not here yet,” I said.
Olivia lifted her eyebrow. “Yeah, Brady. I hope your magic map isn’t broken.”
I couldn’t be sure if Brady noticed the sarcasm in Olivia’s voice. He didn’t act like it. “I’ve been working on deciphering the information on this map. It contains multiple substitution codes, so it’s extremely difficult. See the top of the map, these three words?”
I craned my neck to look. Where he pointed, I could see a number of strange symbols scribbled on the map.
Brady continued, “They say ‘Cave of Prophecy’. I can’t wait to find out what a Cave of Prophecy is.”
“What about the rest of it?” I asked.
“I haven’t gotten there yet,” Brady admitted. “The substitution codes change in each section of the map. I don’t understand how they could do all this without computers. It’s just not credible.”
“Computers are great, but they carried slide-ruler thingies with them to the moon, right?” This time the sarcasm in Olivia’s voice was obvious. I saw the tips of Brady’s ears turn red as he ducked his head, staring intently at the map.
I said quickly, “They wouldn’t need computers if they used magic.” As my gaze moved to Doug, I saw he had a funny look on his face. “What are you thinking?”
“Brady understands their language. It could help. I think we should have him read the signs in here.”
“So, what, we’re going to spend our time looking for signs so Brady can try—,” I stomped on Olivia’s foot, making her stutter, “uh, so Brady can read all of them? Seriously?”
Doug frowned at her and sounded like he was looking for an argument. “Yeah, that’s right.”
“I haven’t been paying attention,” Faith said apologetically. “Have there been signs in here?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t seen many, but I’ll start looking.”
Our familiars moved out ahead as we started walking. We hadn’t gone far when Brady stopped, pointing to the left side of the road. I’d been looking for a large wooden sign, but he was pointing to a small carving in the low rock wall.
He knelt down and traced the symbols cut into the stone with his finger. We all gathered around to watch. He rubbed the back of his neck and said, “This doesn’t appear to be a coded message. I think it says ‘Mile One’. That could be how far we are from the tree. I’ll keep checking to see if I can confirm that hypothesis.”
Behind his back, Olivia rolled her eyes. When I frowned, she shrugged and turned away, an unrepentant grin on her face.
Brady found two more markers before we got to the cabin. At the third one, he sighed. “There’s nothing here but mile markers.” His shoulders drooped, disappointment all over his face.
None of us saw anything different until we were past the cabin. This time, Faith pointed at a tree with a number of words burned into its trunk.
As we waited excitedly, discussing what the sign might say, Olivia grew impatient. “Hurry up, Brady. You’re taking all day!”
It
took him a few more minutes to work it out. Our familiars sat down at the side of the road, watching him intently. I thought Olivia would explode before he exclaimed, “I got it! The Mountain Road goes straight ahead. The road to the left is the Beach Road.”
“Are you kidding me? That’s it?” Olivia snorted and shook her head. “We stood here for ten minutes to find out the side road leads to a beach?”
“More like five minutes,” I muttered. Olivia could be the queen of exaggeration when she didn’t like something.
Brady looked like a puppy who’d been scolded for proudly killing an old slipper. Everything about him seemed to flatten and shrink. Even his hair seemed to go flat. If I’d been closer, I’d’ve poked Olivia.
Doug rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, his whole body stiff with impatience. “Let’s move.”
The next two gave more directions. And now it wasn’t only Olivia who was tired of waiting around. Faith was obviously impatient at the thought of waiting for Brady to decipher another sign. “Maybe we should just keep going,” she suggested. “None of these are any help. They’re like road signs at home, and we already know what road to take.”
“Let him do the next one,” Doug said. I quickly supported that, and even though she had a sour look on her face, Faith reluctantly agreed. Olivia’s breath huffed out so loud, she might as well have shouted.
We’d just passed the sign for ‘Mile Four’ when we came to a fork in the road that didn’t show on the map.
Chapter 26
Rock and Roll…
“Which way do we go now?” I asked.
Considering we were in a magic land, it wouldn’t surprise me if a scarecrow suddenly told me people liked to go both ways. Instead, Doug pointed to the side of the road.
“There’s a sign there. Maybe it tells which way to go. You’re up, Brady!”
Olivia threw herself down in the middle of the road. “Well, this will take awhile. Might as well be comfortable.”
Doug pretended Olivia hadn’t spoken, and told Brady, “This one looks pretty long. Can you do it?”
Brady took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He walked up to the sign, careful to keep his feet on the road. The animals followed and sat watching him. He leaned forward, teetering for a moment before he caught his balance and traced several symbols with his fingers. Then he paced back and forth at the edge of the road. Now the familiars were lying down, watching through half shut eyes. I thought they looked like they were falling asleep. At one point, he smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand.
Note to self — Hitting yourself in the head is totally stupid.
“Oh come on, Brady,” Olivia complained as Faith dropped down next to her.
“Look, it’s not easy, figuring this out. The symbols on each sign are slightly different.”
“Maybe we should just pick one direction and go with it,” Olivia said impatiently, her face scrunched into a scowl. She scooped a handful of dirt off the road and let it trickle through her fingers.
I could tell Brady was supposed to think she was so bored even watching dirt fall was better than watching him figure out the sign. I knew Faith got it, but wasn’t so sure Doug and Brady did. I also knew it meant Olivia was only moments away from doing something more obvious to show she was tired of waiting.
“Eeny, meeny, miney, moe,” Faith said, pointing first right then left as she spoke.
Brady glared at both of them. “This is important! It says something about a warning and the road to the left going somewhere perilous.”
I noticed our familiars looking from one fork to the other, appearing uncertain.
Why doesn’t this show on the map? Which way—
A shockingly loud, drawn-out howl sounded to our left. I really didn’t want to see what could make a noise like that.
“I changed my mind. Let’s go right,” Faith said, her eyes widening. She climbed quickly to her feet.
“Going left is dangerous and something’s howling that way? I’m totally going to the right.” Olivia stood up, dusted her hands on her jeans and started walking without waiting to see what the rest of us did.
We all began to follow her. Brady came last, still protesting. “Wait. There’s more. It could be important…” He trailed off as he realized no one was going to stop.
A muscle jumped in his cheek and a wave of misery darkened his eyes. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s just like home,” he said bitterly. “No one listens to me there, either.” There was a short pause as I tried to think of something to say, then Brady’s gaze focused past me. He was glaring at Olivia. “But somebody’s going to listen here!”
He quickly passed the others, intent on Olivia. With surprise, I saw him grab her arm and turn her toward him. I hadn’t expected that from him. Doug yes, not Brady. Olivia shoved at his hand, yelling, “Let go of me.”
As she pushed him away, his watch came loose and he barely caught it before it hit the road. “You could have broken it,” he yelled back. “How would I explain that to Dad?”
“Then don’t grab me!” She was still shouting, hands on her hips, her eyes scrunched tight in anger. “And you said your dad didn’t like it, anyway.”
Brady took a step closer to her. “Just because he doesn’t wear it doesn’t mean he wants it broken!”
Olivia stepped toward him. “What’s so important about a big old watch he never wears?”
Brady took another step. They were now so close, their noses were practically touching. And they were both still yelling, right into each other’s face. “He bought it in honor of his grandfather. He disappeared a long time ago, and no one knows what happened to him. Is that good enough for you?”
“Fine. I’ll be careful with your stupid watch. Just don’t grab me!”
Without another word, Olivia whirled around and continued down the road. Brady hesitated only a moment before running after her.
A short way ahead, a large rockslide covered the road. It was only a couple feet high, which shouldn’t be hard to cross, but it was at least ten feet wide. I hoped I could climb across it as good as the others. A curse of being short was having short legs. I’d really hate it if I had to ask Doug for help!
Olivia had nearly reached the rockslide when Brady caught up to her. She’d lifted her foot to start climbing onto the rocks when Brady shouted, “Wait! I figured it out. Olivia, STOP!”
He raced the last feet between them and grabbed Olivia’s arm, pulling her around to face him again. At the same time, our animals started making loud sounds of distress.
“What’s the matter with you? Stop it!” She smacked his arm with her fist. It looked like she hit him pretty hard, but Brady didn’t even flinch. Olivia was shaking her arm back and forth, trying to get away. “You’re upsetting our animals, and you’re totally getting on my last nerve!”
Olivia sounded just like her mom when she said that. Normally it would have made me laugh, but I could tell Brady was scaring her. I didn’t understand why he was holding onto her like that.
For a moment, he didn’t answer, still out of breath from sprinting after her. Then he managed to pant out, “The sign was a warning...left path leads to perilous forest. Right path…this path…leads to certain death. That rockslide…I think it’s dangerous.”
A look of surprise crossed Olivia’s face and she jerked back. I saw the heel of her shoe brush against a rock. As if that was a trigger, dozens of boulders hurtled down the mountain, landing with a thunderous crash on the rocks already covering the road. Brady yanked Olivia out of the way just as one of the largest rocks landed right where she’d been standing.
For a few moments it was hard to see — a thick cloud of dust rolled off the hillside, billowing over the roadway. Small bits of rock and dirt pelted my face and shoulders. I wrapped my arms protectively around my head, coughing and choking. I couldn’t stand being unable to watch, and carefully moved my hand away from my face.
I peered aro
und in disbelief, aware of my heart pounding frantically in my chest.
I could barely make out Olivia and Brady through the haze, and the rock fall had disappeared completely from sight. Somehow, not being able to see the stones that continued to bounce and crash down the mountain made it more terrifying.
Staring at Olivia, who was standing there as if frozen, a single thought kept repeating over and over in my head…What if Brady hadn’t been here?
What if he hadn’t been here!
Olivia turned and stared at him for a long moment. Then she suddenly threw her arms around him. “I could have died. Those rocks would have killed me! You totally saved my life!”
As I looked on in amazement, Olivia and Brady blushed bright red, then jumped apart, avoiding each other’s eyes.
Brady cleared his throat, his freckles invisible for once against the deep flush staining his face. He said, “Death was a possibility, but serious injury was probable.”
I felt my heart begin to settle back to a normal rhythm. Not sure what the others would think about my idea, I said, “Um…Brady’d better check all the signs, no matter how long it takes.” Doug and Faith nodded in agreement. “So Brady, the road to the left leads to a perilous forest? What about the cave?”
No one mentioned how much the map shook in his hands as Brady checked it. “There’s a forest near the cave, but we’re still a pretty long way away.”
I felt discouraged. Everything was taking too much time. “I guess we’d better go back where the road split and go the other way.”
That’s when it became apparent we weren’t going to make it to the cave. Not this time. Olivia had twisted her ankle when Brady pulled her away from the rocks. “I’m sorry!” She gasped, looking apologetic. “We have to go home.”
She was limping badly, obviously in pain. She was moving so slow I was worried we wouldn't even make it home today. We hadn’t gotten far when she burst out, “I wish cell phones worked in here. Or anything remotely civilized. I don’t want to walk all the way back to the tree.”
