Mobius was about to pick it up until the girl yelled, “LOOK AT THIS,” and she turned her face to reveal the ugly scar. “This is your doing.”
Distracted from the scarf, Mobius peered at the girl’s face. “That rather ugly wound on your face seems a bit red as if it happened recently. Perhaps you were at the Wind’dancer clan when we set fire to it?”
“Yes, I was,” she replied softly and without emotion.
“So sorry,” he quipped insincerely. “However, you should be pleased that where you are going – or should I say when you are going (and he laughed at his sick little joke) – there will be no young men to gaze upon that once pretty face.”
“You, sir, are a pig.” That was one earth insult that she quite liked.
“Since I have no idea what a pig is, your insult – I presume it was an insult – falls on deaf ears. Now, down the steps and be quick about it.”
She turned away from Mobius and began to descend. Another earth saying crept into her mind – he who laughs last, laughs best – and she smiled.
*****
Times Square
They opened the door, which was well oiled and moved easily. And there in the center of the room was . . .
“Well, I’m no expert, but I’d say that was the Forever Glass,” said Sassi.
“I’m pretty sure you’re right. Should we go in?”
“NO. Don’t forget there’s time traps . . . whatever they might be. Let’s just get the tuning fork out so we’re ready. Maybe we can break it from here.”
“I don’t think so,” said the Wind’dancer.
“Why?”
“That would be too easy. Egg told me that nothing is ever easy when you’re a Hameggattic Sister.”
“Unfortunately, dear Egg speaks from experience. Anyway, where’s the tuning fork?”
“Backpack. I’ll get it.” She fished around and pulled out the implement. “Here it is.” The thing was only about eight inches long and two inches wide.
Sassi scrunched her face. “Seems kind of puny. That’s a mighty big hour glass.”
“Do you have a better idea?’
“Not a one.”
*****
Chamber of Now
“I can’t find anything,” complained a frustrated Spirit.
The other girl wasn’t listening. She was staring intently at the X on the door.
“What are you looking at?”
Sylvia was Feminion for a reason – she was smart. “I’m not sure. This X isn’t painted on . . . it’s actually one piece of wood crossed over the other one.”
“And?”
“And if I was to squeeze them together at the bottom, they would line up.”
“Ah, like the number one.”
“Should I try?”
“You should.”
And she did. The piece on the bottom moved left, the one on top moved right and bippity, boppity, boo . . . they lined up to form the number one. And the door hissed opened.
“You are very impressive.”
“Shucks, it ain’t nothing.”
They both peered into the dark, lightless room and . . . couldn’t see a thing. “Egg,” whispered Sylvia. “Egg it’s me.”
Nothing.
“Let me try,” said the Thought Weaver. “Egg, it is I – Spirit. I am with Sylvia.”
They tried again and again and then, duh, a minute later the lights came on. There in the middle of a web of purple strands was Flying Girl. Apparently, she had been napping. When the lights came on, she awoke.
“EGG,” yelled Syl.
The other girl looked up and smiled. “Hey Syl. Hey Spirit.”
“What are you doing?”
“I fell asleep. Sorry.”
“Would you get out of there? We have a bad guy to trap – remember.”
“Of course I remember. Well, maybe I did forget. Anyway, here I come.” And with no trouble at all, she went airborne and flew over to the door. “Hello, again.”
“You seem to be in particularly good humor,” teased Spirit.
“She gets that way after she naps. It’s really irritating,” complained her best friend. “It takes me twenty minutes minimum to get rid of my grumpy.”
“What’s going on?”
“Long story. The short version is that we came to rescue you so you can trap Mobius without trapping yourself. Sassi and Bree went to Times Square . . .” Sylvia glared at her friend when she laughed. “Stop it. Anyway, they went to destroy the Forever Glass whenever you or Meggy tell them to. Megg’s with Old Reven . . . “.
“Who?”
“Not important. She’s a friend. The two of them went to cause a distraction so the rest of us can do what we need to do.”
“And Mobius?”
“He’s probably here but we haven’t seen him yet.”
“What about the others?”
“Another long story. Bottom line they went to help K’ssss. There was an explosion and the serpents may have been injured.”
“Oh no.”
“We can’t worry about that now. Come on, we need to get to the basement and the Hall of Twists and Turns.”
“The what?”
“It’s where we trap the big ugly. Let’s hurry.”
And they did.
*****
Hall of Twists and Turns
“Okay, this is the control panel . . .,” said gray-haired Reven when they reached the far end of the Hall of Twists and Turns. It felt like they had walked a mile as the path meandered left, right, then left, then looping back, then right. Well, you get the picture . . . the hall was appropriately named.
Mobius stopped to admire the electro-mechanical beauty. Since he held the Princess by the arm above the elbow, she had no choice but to stop also.
“Very impressive. How does it work?”
Reven glided over to the panel then in a blur of motion pressed buttons, pulled levers, turned dials and twisted knobs. She was so fast that the human eye could not keep up. “There, like that,” she said. Unbeknownst to Mobius, she had set it for forty-seven years, eight months, six days, three hours and twenty-seven minutes in the past.
“You foolish woman, that was too quick. Do it again but slower.”
*****
“Sassi”.
“Egg?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Are you guys in position?”
“We’re standing at the entrance to the room and can see the Glass. Since there are time traps, we didn’t want to enter until you gave us the go ahead.”
“Good thinking. It’ll be a few more minutes. Stay tuned.”
“Tuned to what?”
“Rats. Just be ready.”
She turned to her two companions and asked, “Where’re we headed?”
“To the basement” said Syl.
“Grab my hand” and she offered one to each girl. “Let’s go,” and she flew down the three floors to the Great Hall. “Okay, now which way?”
“We don’t know,” answered Spirit. “And we can’t call Megg.”
“Stay here. I’m going to fly around the room and see what I can see,” and she did. If you didn’t know, Flying Girl can move around the air really, really quickly. She was back in less than a minute holding Megg’s scarf. “Let’s go. Meggy dropped this for us.”
They ran to the alcove, opened the door and took the steps two at a time. “It’ll be quicker if I fly so grab my hands again.” They did and she zipped through the hall doing her best not to smash into anything. With all the twists and turns, it wasn’t easy.
They landed when they heard Mobius say “You foolish woman . . . “. They tip toed around the last bend in the hall and there was Reven, Megg and Mobius. The trio was so engrossed in their own conversation that they hadn’t heard the others approach.
“Yoo-hoo,” called Egg sweetly.
At the sound of that hated voice, Mobius whirled around . . . shock turning to glee. “Oh, my dearest, dearest Egg. How very good to see you again after all this time. I
f memory serves, you seem a bit older.”
“Hey, Mo. You seem even uglier than I remember.”
While they continued this mutually insulting exchange, Spirit’s eyes began to glow red. A minute later, they returned to their normal black. As she became aware of her surroundings again, she heard the last part of what Mobius was saying.
“. . . those awful songs.”
“Yeah, that was mean. But you’ve got to admit you deserved it.”
Megg wasn’t sure if she should be amazed, shocked or impressed with her sister. Standing there in front of the very large, very evil Mobius, Egg looked tiny — probably half his size. She showed no sign of anything but confidence. Truly amazing.
“Egg”. It was Spirit.
“Mind if I have a word with my new sister?” she asked Mobius.
Noticing the Thought Weaver for the first time, his eyes grew a little larger. “Feel free to chat. I believe we have all the time in the world.”
“Thanks,” and she, Spirit and Sylvia backed off a few steps.
“You must remind him of . . .,” and she gave Egg her instructions. Hopefully, it would be enough to keep the girl from being trapped in time.
“Really?” she said when Spirit had finished.
“It will be your best chance.”
“Okay. Thanks. Um . . . Syl, if it doesn’t work out, you have to tell Grammy. And then she has to tell my parents.”
“Don’t talk like that.”
“We knew it was a possibility.”
“Eloise Grace Graystone, you are Flying Girl, the leader of the Hameggattic Sisterhood and my best friend. Don’t you dare get trapped or I’ll never speak to you again.” Her eyes were beginning to tear.
“That’s probably true. Okeydokey then.” She squeezed her friends hand, turned and faced Mobius and the gray haired Time Construct. “Reven, my name is Egg. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“How sweet. Thank you.”
“Where is the time thingy that this control thingy controls”? Yikes. That wasn’t Egg’s best-worded question.
Reven turned to Megg and asked, “What’d she say?”
“This is the control panel for the Time Twister, is it not?”
“Yup.”
“Where is the Twister itself located?”
“Oh, is that what she meant?” Reven turned back to the control panel and pressed a button and four girls and a big ugly guy all jumped in surprise. A tunnel of alternating colored rings that seemed to go on forever popped into existence.
Egg moved over to the opening and peered in. “That’s pretty cool.”
“It’s the same temperature as here,” answered Reven. Egg just rolled her eyes.
“So to travel back in time, one need only to walk into that funnel,” asked a very curious Mobius.
“That’s about it.”
He turned his gaze to Egg. “Please step in.”
“Ah, that’s sweet. But I don’t think so.”
“Then we shall make your friend here go first,” and bending Megg’s arm he forced her over to where Egg was standing.
“Let her go.”
“Will you take her place?”
“I would do anything for her . . . for any of my sisters.”
“Fool,” he barked but released the Princess who quickly moved next to Spirit and Sylvia.
“Reven,” asked Egg “how far into this thing do I have to walk?”
“About a hundred paces.”
Mobius put his hand on Egg’s back. “Have a safe journey,” he said sarcastically.
“Uh, before I go, can I ask you something?”
Feeling that he had already won this battle, Mobius chose to be gracious. “Certainly. But, do be brief.”
“Who is Roc’san?”
“WHAT?” he bellowed.
“Who is Roc’san?” she repeated.
“How could you know her name?”
“Did she love you?”
“STOP.”
“You loved her, didn’t you?”
“ENOUGH.” Mobius had become completely unnerved.
“She was a princess and you were just a nobody . . . that’s why she couldn’t love you, isn’t it?”
“Tell me how you know this.”
“Then she met Seer’ino who was a prince and she fell in love with him.”
Mobius had gone quiet and deathly still. His eyes were wide and unblinking. He was obviously lost in some hidden memory that he had buried away long ago. An old anger was beginning to boil up and he was about to lose control. He took deep breaths, but it wasn’t enough to regain his composure.
It was her cue. Egg bounded into the air and headed straight into the Time Twister . . . pulling Mobius along by the scruff of his neck. He was so shaken by the re-emergence of the memory of his lost love, he hardly put up a struggle.
A hundred paces into the mechanism, Egg let go. She flew back to the opening as fast as she could . . .
As she cleared the mouth of the Twister, Megg ran to the control panel and tried to push the giant red button. “I cannot do it,” she cried.
“Here, let me,” and Old Reven did.
A moment later, the Time Twister winked out of existence. And just like that, the archenemy of Queen Rose’Alynnia and of Aerianna was gone . . . trapped in his own past.
The sisters felt no joy in what they had just accomplished . . . only a great sense of relief that one source of evil had finally been removed from their lives.
“We did it,” cried Sylvia. “I can’t believe we did it.”
“Hey, I think you just insulted me,” teased her friend as they hugged. Egg then hugged Spirit and Meggy. “You guys were great. You, too, Reven. Thanks.”
The old Time Construct smiled and nodded.
“I also wish to add my thanks. Without your help we could not have succeeded,” said the Princess.
“Felt good to be useful again. I should be thanking you.”
“We have one more thing we must do,” Megg reminded the others. “Reven now would be a good time to take your leave.”
“All set,” and she pulled out an odd-looking device.
“Is that the Time Tripper?”
“You bet. Well, I guess this is goodbye.”
“Before you go, I wish to say something. It is the nature of all things to grow old. I know that it is my fate to lose my youth and my beauty such as it is. I do not look forward to that fate . . . but I do look forward to my future. For the rest of the universe, such an end comes upon us slowly . . . day by day, month by month, year by year. We do not have your powers to travel back and forth through time in an instant. Our journey is in one direction . . . and the pace of that journey is both heartbreakingly fast and excruciatingly slow.”
“Noble words from one who is nobly born. But not everyone has your ability to accept such an ignoble end.”
“I only ask that you try.”
“I will think on it,” and she touched the weird device and disappeared.
“And now the Forever Glass,” Megg said to Egg.
The girl nodded. “Sassi, this is Egg. Time to break the glass”.
“Okay. We’re on it.”
*****
They stepped into Time’s Square and for once Egg was wrong . . . well, mostly wrong. The two girls set off a Time Trap . . . this one made them jump a few seconds into the future then a few seconds into the past. It was an endless loop meaning they were destined to go back and forth in time . . . well, forever. After the first few loops, both girls were getting dizzy. By the fifth and sixth loops, it was getting dangerous. On the tenth loop, they both blacked out . . . and the tuning fork that the Wind’dancer was holding fell to the floor.
It struck with enough force to set it vibrating . . . faster and faster. When the sound hit the Forever Glass, it too began vibrating.
A minute later, there was the unmistakable noise of cracking glass. It soon became the sound of glass breaking . . .
With a loud explosion, the glass
shattered and the sands of time drained out.
…and time stopped flowing through the castle.
…and all the Revens ceased to exist.
*****
“Sassi, Bree . . . nice job.”
“Egg, what happened?” came the reply. She had just regained consciousness, but was still dizzy.
“What do you mean what happened? You did it. You destroyed the Forever Glass.”
“Oh. Oh that. Yeah we did.” Sassi turned to Bree and gave her a conspiratorial wink.
“Come on, we’ll meet in that big room.”
“We’re on our way.”
BreeZee offered Sassi her hand so they could sail down from the tall tower. “Do you have any idea what really happened?” she asked her new friend.
“Not a clue . . . but that’s our little secret”.
*****
“So Spirit, what would have happen to me if you weren’t here?”
“Egg, there was a very great chance that you would have sacrificed yourself to save the Princess. By distracting Mobius with the story of his lost love, it gave you the opportunity to take him off guard.”
Megg’s eyes grew wide and she became very solemn. “Words are inadequate, but thank you sister.”
“Hey, don’t thank me, I didn’t do it.”
“Your first instinct was to insure my well-being. I cannot say what I admire more about you, Eloise (that got everyone’s attention. Megg had never used her real name) . . . your selflessness when it comes to protecting your sisters, your bravery in the face of evil such as Mobius or your resourcefulness in finding a way to assure victory. You are only twelve years old. What great achievements you will accomplish in your life is . . . “
Egg cut her off. “Meggy, you got to stop with the compliments. I don’t do anything out the ordinary. I just do what needs to be done. Most times I get lucky.” The girl was really uncomfortable when others talked about how great she was. She was Egg and that was all. End of story.
Box Set #2: Zynn-Zaz'Zia: [The 4 book 2nd Adventure of Egg and the Hameggattic Sisterhood] Page 37
