by Garth Nix
“Not long now,” crowed Aleksandr, walking along the spiral, patting Wardens on their shoulders and bolstering the connections between them. He didn’t notice Grandma X and Jaide. Perhaps they were invisible to his eyes, Jaide thought. Or perhaps he only had eyes for the Project. “Ten seconds!”
Grandma X hurried her along the spiral to where Hector stood, chest heaving and long hair stuck in damp ribbons to his forehead. Jaide had never seen him looking like this, even after The Evil had first attacked them, almost a year ago. He was on the verge of collapse.
++Hector,++ she said.
His eyes flickered open.
“Mother,” he breathed. “Is Jack …?”
++We need a small amount of time,++ she told him. ++I will create the opportunity, if you can give me just a few seconds.++
He nodded wearily, and let himself fall.
Strange surges rippled through the tent. Aleksandr’s triumphant mood turned to alarm.
The chain was broken.
Grandma X tugged Jaide away. They moved through space once more, jumping to the lighthouse, then to the cactus garden, then to Mermaid Point. There they found Rennie, braced against the full fury of the storm. She was staring out to sea, not minding the icy rain, her teeth exposed in something that might have been a grin.
“I must ask for one last favor of you,” Grandma X told her, shouting over the howling wind. “The road home is closed. Jack needs a way through. Can you help us?”
“You are asking me to deliberately break the wards. I, the Living Ward of Portland.”
“Yes, just for a moment.”
“Has such a thing been done before?”
“Never, as far as is known.”
Rennie looked down at her feet, then up at the roiling sky.
“It is truly a night for miracles,” she said. “Miracles, or terrible mistakes.”
“Only time will reveal which is which.”
Rennie bared her teeth again, only this time it was definitely a grimace, and gazed once more out to sea.
“It is done.”
Jaide felt a fluttering in her chest, and suddenly they were back in the blue room. It was weird to be out of the elements and back in her body, especially as it was freshly dried and in fresh clothes after the soaking she had just received. Grandma X was dry, too. Jaide had never wondered what happened to Wardens’ spectral bodies in bad weather. Now she knew.
The fluttering continued. It had nothing to do with the return to her body. She had felt this twice before, when something had happened to the wards of Portland. They were faltering.
Grandma X’s fingers didn’t release her. The moonstone flashed once again, and the lodestone fragment flared. This time the cross-continuum conduit constructor began to bend space as it was supposed to. The floor, walls, and ceiling bulged out around it, while the corners of the room drew closer, creating a warped sphere. Everything in the blue room flattened and smeared into two-dimensional wallpaper. The only solid things left were Jaide and her grandmother, and the conduit constructor itself, now a spinning, golden circle.
“Seek him,” said Grandma X over a rising sound of rushing wind. “We must find him, and quickly!”
But Jaide didn’t need to. Even as the Bridge opened, Jack’s voice came clearly to her, out of the vortex.
++Jaide, can you hear me? We need your help. It’s an emergency!++
“Don’t reply,” said Grandma X sharply. “We don’t want to lead The Evil to us.”
“But he’s in trouble!”
“And getting ourselves killed won’t help him.” Grandma X indicated the vortex unfolding right in front of them. “Go through and explain in person. Just don’t let go of my hand, whatever you do.”
Jaide didn’t see how that was possible. Wouldn’t she be stretched between two worlds like spaghetti until she snapped?
“Trust me,” said Grandma X, nudging her toward the vortex. “And don’t let go!”
Jaide remained uncertain, but she knew better than to doubt her grandmother. It didn’t matter what people called her: the Warden of Portland, the Warden of Last Resort, the crazy old witch who lived on Watchward Lane. Grandma X was her father’s mother, and in a little less than a year, Jaide had learned to love her. If anyone could bring her back from the Evil Dimension, it would be Grandma X.
They would do it together.
Jaide took one step and leaped into the vortex. She spun and tumbled, and the blue room vanished behind her, but she could still feel Grandma X’s fingers tightly gripping her. Her arm trailed behind her as though tied by rope. Was there a hint of a ghostly hand in hers, glowing faintly silver?
She didn’t have time to worry about that. The vortex was wild and fast, and she shrieked as she fell. It was like the most terrifying carnival ride she had ever been on, only much worse because there were no safety bars and she didn’t know how long it would last.
++Jaide, answer me! We really need you!++
She closed her eyes and concentrated on Jack’s voice. If she ever needed to be there for her brother, it was right now.
* * *
Jack stood with Kyle and Tara on the deck of Omega and watched helplessly as the Evil dragon flapped mightily toward their tunnel. The circle of visible sky was shrinking rapidly. Soon it would all be teeth and ripping claws. That those teeth and claws were made from dead bone and Evil bugs didn’t make any of them feel better. The end result would be the same.
++Jaide, if you can hear me, do something now!++
He felt as though his words were falling into a bottomless pit from which nothing seemed to emerge, not even echoes. What if Earth was already blocked by Project Thunderclap? He hadn’t seen any lightning. Maybe he had missed it, from inside the tunnel.
“It was a valiant try,” said Lottie. “Come here, children. We’ll wait together.”
They gathered around her sled and Lottie held out her hands. Tara took one and Kyle took the other. Cornelia nestled in Lottie’s neck, cooing softly. Jack stood opposite his great-aunt, between the best friends he had made in Portland. He tried not to notice the light getting dimmer or to think about what that meant. He ignored the sound of the Evil bugs and their many wings. He concentrated instead on the faded floral pattern on Lottie’s smock. It reminded him of one of Mr. Carver’s ties. If only they’d met.
If only lots of things. He didn’t want to think of those things because it would only make him angry. Tara was crying and Kyle’s face was blank with shock. It wasn’t fair that they hadn’t made it home.
The light went out. He could still see, thanks to his first Gift, but he was weak to the point of exhaustion, and it wasn’t a blessing. He could hear the swarm filling the tunnel. There was absolutely nowhere left to hide, and no hope of shadow-walking anyone to safety.
The terrible influence of The Evil began to creep over him, like a slow tide consuming a beach.
++Jaide!++ he shouted. ++This is absolutely your last chance! Don’t let The Evil be right and me be the one who falls!++
“No need to shout,” said a voice from behind them. “I’m not letting The Evil do anything to you.”
Jack spun around. Jaide was standing on the deck right behind him. She looked as though she’d been through a clothes dryer and there was something silver glowing in her right hand, but it was definitely her. He had never been so glad to see his sister before. He broke free of Tara and Kyle and hugged her before he could think twice about it. Two hugs in one week — a new record.
“Why is it so dark in here?” she said, hugging him back and then letting him go. “Wow, Tara, what happened to your eyes? No, wait, tell me later. Let’s get us all home, first.”
Jack agreed. Evil bugs were already buzzing around them. The dragon’s roar was deafening as it crashed into the side of the mountain.
++Two troubletwisters!++ crowed The Evil. ++You are welcome, most welcome!++
Jaide ignored the eerie voice in her head.
++Grandma, can you hear me? I’ve foun
d them.++
++I hear you,++ came the instant reply. ++Hold tight. I’ll bring you all back now.++
Jack felt the vortex take hold of him, and suddenly they were moving, spinning, and tumbling their way back to Earth. Cornelia took off with a piercing, triumphant cry and flapped around them, bright feathers flashing.
“Are we really going home?” asked Kyle.
“Looks like it,” said Tara, flicking an Evil bug out of his hair. “The ship, too. Is that going to work?”
Jack looked down at his feet, which were still planted on Omega’s wooden deck.
“Uh, Jaide?”
“What?” She was staring at a very old woman in an ancient hippieish dress who seemed to be sleeping through the whole thing. That couldn’t be Lottie, could it? She looked like Grandma X’s grandma.
“Where’s the other end of this thing, exactly?” Jack asked her. “How much space is there?”
“It’s in the blue room…. Oh, that’s not going to work. We’ll blow the house up!”
“We have to change course,” said Kyle.
“I don’t know if Grandma can do that….”
“Jack can.” Kyle handed him the umbrella he had used to deflect the vortex on the way out. “Here.”
“Perfect!” Jack unfurled it, while Jaide watched in puzzlement.
Once the open umbrella was magically locked in the vortex and Jack started pulling on it, she understood. Standing on the bow of the ship, peering through the vortex at the glimpses of Portland ahead — it was like staring the wrong way through a telescope, a telescope that someone was swinging wildly about — she called out directions.
“Left … more left — no, that’s the Rock!” It was hard to see what was going on. There was so much cloud and rain, and so little light. “To the right! To the right!”
++What’s happening, Jaide?++ The voice of her grandmother faded in and out. The ghostly hand flickered and disappeared. ++… losing you …++
++Don’t worry, Grandma,++ Jaide called. ++We’re almost home!++
She hoped that was true. The vortex made everything difficult. Glimpses of Portland came and went, growing larger by the second. There was the tent, glowing yellow now with the heat of the lodestone. There was the lighthouse. There was the iron bridge.
“Down a bit — no, the other way! Down, not up!”
She was aiming for the swamp. That was the softest place she could think of within the wards.
Jack wrestled with the umbrella. Tara and Kyle added their strength and weight. Maybe it was the ship that was making everything more difficult than it had been going the other way. It kept pulling him off course, almost as though it had a mind of its own.
The open end of the vortex rushed by around them. For a terrifying moment they were in free fall, dropping with their stomachs in their mouths. Jaide smelled rain and electricity and salty sea air. Jack gasped at the shock of icy rain striking his skin and the return of his proper weight. With a descending whistle, they dropped out of the bottom of a cloud rippling with sheet lightning, and splashed down hard in the churning water of Portland harbor.
Omega took water over the gunwales and rocked wildly from side to side. But she stayed upright and at least for the time being stayed afloat, though there were ominous gurgling noises belowdeck. Lottie woke with a gasp.
“Cold! And wet!” she cried. “I forgot what that feels like. How wonderful!”
“This is my sister,” said Jack, pulling Jaide closer. “She rescued us.”
The old woman on the sled smiled and reached for her. “You’re a brave girl. Thank you, troubletwisters, from the bottom of my heart. I had almost stopped dreaming that I’d come home, but here I am, at last, where I belong.”
Jaide didn’t know what to say. She had done what she had to do, that was all — and she realized now that it was exactly what Grandma X would have done for her sister a long time ago, had she only known Lottie was alive.
Lottie was staring at Portland with shining eyes. She might have been crying, but it was impossible to tell through the rain.
“It’s changed,” she said. “The old swimming pool is gone. Is that a marina? Looks like they’ve extended the hospital, making it uglier than ever. And what on earth has happened to Mermaid Point?”
++Jaide? Can you hear me?++
Guiltily, Jaide remembered that she hadn’t let Grandma X know that they had arrived.
++We’re here,++ she teeped back. ++It worked! We landed in the harbor. I have Jack and Kyle and Tara and Cornelia … and Lottie, too, Grandma. Jack found her. Isn’t that wonderful?++
++It is wonderful, dear, but I need you to come home as quickly as possible.++
++Sure, once we work out how to steer this boat.++
++ Use your Gift, Jaide, and do it now.++
She sounded impatient, but Jaide couldn’t imagine why.
++Okay. But aren’t you happy? We have your sister.++
++I’ll deal with Charlotte later,++ said Grandma X. ++The Bridge is still open. Look up.++
Jaide did so. At first it was hard to make out what she was seeing. A dark cloud was spreading across the sky, eclipsing the sheet lightning and soaking up the rain. Only when it unfurled its wings did she recognize its shape.
The dragon had followed them to Portland.
Jack heard Jaide’s gasp and felt the Omega shift underneath him. A powerful wind had sprung up out of nowhere, pushing the ship sideways to the shore, the tattered, useless sails streaming overhead.
“What is it?” he asked her.
“That thing up there … it came with us!”
Only then did he hear the familiar sound of thousands of Evil bugs roaring in one voice. He groaned, too exhausted to call on his Gifts for help. He could do nothing but watch as Jaide tried her best to outrun The Evil.
At first that looked impossible. The Evil dragon’s giant wings were fully outstretched. All it had to do was swoop down on them and they would be finished.
But something was wrong. The dragon’s body was slumping and crumbling down the middle. Its wings flapped once but didn’t come back up again. The dragonish shape was losing definition around the edges. A rain of bugs began to fall into the sea, wings whirring in desperation.
Jack grinned. Of course! The gravity of Earth was slightly higher than the place the bugs had come from. Here they couldn’t fly. They could only fall. And being desert creatures, maybe, just maybe, they would all drown.
A small tsunami spread out from the swarm’s point of impact, making the boat tip forward and then back again. Jaide brought them around the breakwater and headed them sideways toward the marina, the sea breaking over the starboard side. It wasn’t going to be elegant, but it would do the job, if she was quick. The Omega was heavy and sluggish, clearly taking water. Although she doubted The Evil would let them live long enough to drown, Jaide was reluctant to put that to the test.
The Omega shouldered several fishing boats out of the way, but was caught in a wild current driven by the thrashing dragon. The ship groaned and began to spin about to head in almost the opposite direction.
“No, no!” said Jaide. “Wrong way!”
The ship was now heading for the sand flats, where they’d get bogged for sure. If that happened they’d have to swim to the shore, and Jaide didn’t think frail, ancient-looking Lottie would survive that experience.
“Hold on,” she warned the others. She would have to let her Gift really go for it. That made her nervous after everything Alfred the Examiner had told her, not to mention the many times things had gone wrong when she had lost control. But she had no choice. She would trust her Gift this time. If it behaved, well and good.
If not … she would deal with that afterward.
“All I want to do is get there,” she said, pointing to where a dredge bobbed and swayed, tied to its own private dock. “I don’t care how you do it. Have fun, if you like. Just don’t kill anyone, please, and if you can avoid damaging too much property, that would be g
reat.”
The wind responded, spinning up around her in giddy triumph. She could feel its energy, its freedom, its almost gleeful desire to cause trouble. But it didn’t make any moves to pick up the ship and smash it against the rocks, as she feared it might. Instead, it swept away from the ship and began sucking at the ocean.
“What are you doing?” Jaide said, trying not to sound too frustrated. “Making a whirlpool doesn’t help us.”
But then she felt the tug of the current pulling the ship in a wide arc around the eye of the waterspout, angling in to the shore.
She grinned with excitement. So this was how you did it, she thought. You gave your Gifts enough freedom to do something they enjoyed, but you traded it off against something you needed in turn. She could tell her Gift was having fun: Great gouts of water were shooting in all directions, playing havoc with the clouds. The spout itself was doing something that looked like a belly dance. It didn’t care about The Evil or Project Thunderclap. It just wanted to play.
Jaide gave it the thumbs-up as the Omega smashed alongside the dredge’s pier — and stayed there.
“Thank you!”
The whirlwind gave one last jig, sucked up an unmoored boat, and spat it to the other side of the harbor, then evaporated.
“Nicely done,” said Lottie from her sled as Kyle and Jack lifted her toward the side of the boat. “How advanced are you through your training?”
“I’ve passed the Third Examination,” she said proudly.
“What?” said Jack. “You did it without me?”
“I didn’t have any choice. Grandma wouldn’t listen.”
Headlights swept across them, which surprised all of them because the town looked deserted. Jack recognized the longhorn bumper bar and sheer size of Zebediah, Rodeo Dave’s car. The tootling of its musical horn greeted them.
