I was stunned. I’d never had a teacher talk to me like this. Mr. Narwani sounded like a real person. I mean, I know he’s a person and everything, but I guess I never really thought about him as being anything other than a teacher.
“I have to teach you American history this year, Mr. Panagopoulos, but I want to teach you to enjoy learning history. I’ll make you an offer. I will give you a passing grade in my class if you pass all the rest of your tests and present a research paper on any aspect of history you find interesting. I’ll even help you with the research to teach you how to do it.”
My heart leaped. This was exactly the opening I needed.
I immediately asked, “Can I do it on legends and magic?”
“I said history, not fantasy, Mr. Panagopoulos,” Mr. Narwani groaned.
“I know, but you also said that history is all about connections. People have believed in legends and magic all over the world, and a lot of the stories are similar. What if my project was on how their beliefs in magic, magical numbers, or similar quests are connected instead of about magic itself?” I asked. This sounded good to me, but I knew it was a long shot.
Mr. Narwani pulled into his driveway and turned off his car, but he didn’t immediately get out.
“All right, Mr. Panagopoulos, prepare a proposal on that topic and I will decide, based upon its merits. Include your premise and an initial set of supporting data. But I warn you that I expect a real research project, not a bunch of Wikipedia references to the number thirteen! And, let me be perfectly clear; this has to be about interconnecting actual beliefs and not about magic or numerology.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had found a way to get Mr. Narwani to learn about historical trends in magic, which meant that Mr. Urtish would be able to use that information back on Mearth! Of course, I had just signed up for a lot more work here on Earth, but I knew I could get the guys to help out. I couldn’t wait for our sleepover tonight!
Math and Science Club was already underway, but they took a break when I arrived. I apologized for being late, but Malik told me not to worry. Mrs. Datta had been trying to explain how not all infinities were the same size and how to compare them to see which was larger. He said his brain hurt and he needed a rest.
Ethan asked how the history test went, and everybody cheered when I told them I had passed. I was feeling great for the first time in two days. They cheered again when I told them Mom said they could come over for a Wizard Spelz all-nighter. Everybody was in, and I knew their parents would agree since we did this almost every Saturday night at someone’s house, but then Malik did the unimaginable. He turned to Shontelle and said, “Hey, do you want to join us?”
She shrieked, “Heck yes,” and raced to phone her mother.
I couldn’t believe it. I desperately needed to tell my friends about Mearth, but we obviously couldn’t talk about that with her in the room.
“How could you invite her?” I complained to Malik.
“Hey, dude, she’s an awesome player,” said Malik. “What’s your problem?”
“You know that you are allowed to play with girls as well as boys, young man,” laughed Mrs. Datta, who had overheard our conversation.
“Oh, he’s not afraid of playing with them. He’s afraid of losing to one!” laughed Ethan.
“No guys, that’s not it. Oh, never mind. Fine. Let her come. It’ll be nice to have some real competition for a change,” I muttered. This just meant I’d have to wait a few more hours. After all, her mother would never let her sleep over at the house of some boy she’d never met.
Shontelle said she could come over for the game and asked for my mom’s phone number. Ethan yelled it out before I could even say anything and Mrs. Datta said it was time to get back to math.
I understood what Malik meant about his brain hurting by the end of Math and Science Club. My brain hurt too. I knew that infinity is something more than you can count. I even got the story about the Hottentots, who could only count to three, comparing numbers too large for them to count. But Mrs. Datta lost me when she started applying the concept of comparing different types of numbers too large for me to count. I mean, the idea sort of made sense, but I admit that she lost me.
“That was so cool how she proved that the infinite number of geometrical points on a line is greater than the infinite number of all integer and fractional numbers,” squealed Shontelle.
“You understood that?” I asked in amazement.
“Sure, but I would never have come upon it on my own. Mrs. Datta only talked about the first three infinities. I bet there are more. I mean, what if you factor in higher-level dimensions? It makes me realize how little I know. I mean, I never even considered doing something like this,” said Shontelle with a huge grin.
“Yeah, well then again, you’re only eleven. Give it time,” I grumbled. Everyone always says how smart I am, but I never realized what it was like to talk to a genius.
I introduced her to my mom, and my heart sank to my stomach. Somehow Mom had convinced Shontelle’s mom to let her stay until morning. Shontelle climbed into our car, and the two of them happily chatted on the ride home. I just sat there and sulked. I couldn’t believe I’d have to wait to talk about Mearth until Shontelle left in the morning. What if I fell asleep and had the dream again tonight? I was going to have to stay awake and somehow talk to the guys after Shontelle fell asleep.
We got down to playing the game, and it was fun, but not as fun as usual. Shontelle is a great player, and she loves to role-play the battles like us, but pretending to blast enemies in my basement seems lame compared to doing it for real. Still, we were having fun raiding villages and playing around until it was time for our evening quest. The group wanted an assault on the Mountain King tonight. The goal was to dethrone him and become the rulers of Tarrith-nor. Completing this quest would be epic. We would not only have wealth and land; we’d control his armies. This would shift all our future quests from minor raids to significant conquests.
I wasn’t sure we were ready for this, but I was overruled. The guys thought that we had a good chance with Shontelle joining our fellowship. I accepted the gang’s decision, but it felt like they didn’t really listen to me. Then I was overruled again while we were planning our assault. I wanted to go around the mountain to the south, through the Valley of the Trolls but Malik thought we should follow the northern route.
He pointed out that we had never been able to defeat a troll. I said that we could do it now that we had Shontelle. She said that she agreed with Malik because she had never beaten a troll either. I said that we’d have a better chance of winning one impossible, but predictable, battle than surviving the dozen or more unanticipated fights we’d encounter on the long, northern route. Tyler said it was worth taking a long way around and that he was ready to play the entire weekend. Ethan laughed and called me a wimp with no stamina. That’s when I said, “fine,” and stomped upstairs to get something to eat.
I wasn’t hungry, and Mom had just left to pick up the pizza, but I had to get out of that room. The guys were probably right that going north would be our best bet, but Tyler was also correct. That plan was going to involve an entire weekend, and I couldn’t stay awake that long. This was not the weekend for an extended quest. I had to get them to understand that. Darn it, why did Shontelle have to pick this weekend to join us.
The basement exploded just as I slammed my palm on the counter. OK, it didn’t really explode, but it sure sounded like it did. There was a house-shaking crash, followed by the sound of things breaking and a lot of screaming and yelling. I raced down the stairs and saw Shontelle crouched in the corner screaming while Malik and Ethan struggled to keep Tyler from attacking her. Our gaming table was on its side, and the game pieces were scattered across the room.
Tyler was yelling, “She’s an agent! She’s an agent! She’s going to kill my mom!”
I jumped between Shontelle and the guys and yelled, “Tyler, stop it! Get a grip, dude! What’re you talking ab
out?”
He screamed, “She’s an agent of Mearth, and she’s here to kill my mom! Don’t let her go! Please, Mark, don’t let her go.”
Tyler then went limp and began to sob. He would’ve slumped to the floor if the guys weren’t holding him.
I turned to Shontelle, who was gasping for breath and said, “Come on, Shontelle, let’s get you upstairs. I don’t know what happened, but my mom will be home soon, and she’ll take you home.”
Shontelle wouldn’t move, though. It was like she was frozen, staring at Tyler like he was a crazy man. I turned back to my friends and saw that both Malik and Ethan looked scared too. Malik asked Ethan to take Tyler upstairs, which was an excellent idea. Shontelle wasn’t going to move until Tyler was gone.
Ethan led Tyler up the stairs, and I could hear him sobbing, “Don’t let her leave. You gotta save my mom,” as he left.
I turned to Malik and asked, “What the heck happened? Why did Tyler go berserk?”
Malik leaned close and whispered, “Everything was cool until you left. Well, you had been a bit of a bossy jerk all afternoon, and we were talking about that.”
“And?”
“And everyone agreed. Ethan pointed out that it wasn’t just tonight. He thought that you had been acting more and more like you thought you were better than us for the last few weeks. Well, if not better, at least that you seemed to think you were our leader.”
I said, “Malik, I am not bossy, and we’re just a bunch of friends. We don’t have a leader.”
“I know,” he said, “but you have been acting like that lately.”
“So, what! Even if I have, and I haven’t, why would that make Tyler freak out?” I asked in exasperation.
“Well, it wasn’t that, really. It’s what she said,” whispered Malik, with a nod toward Shontelle.
“Dammit, Malik. Spit it out. What the heck happened?” I hissed. He was really starting to get on my nerves.
It was clear that Malik didn’t want to tell me something, which was strange. One of the things I really like about Malik is that he is always honest and direct. My friend never hesitates to say what’s on his mind. At least he never did until now.
Malik gulped and said in the faintest of whispers, “She said that her friend Stavius had been doing the same thing lately.”
I felt dizzy. I mean, I really felt shaky enough to need to sit down before I fell.
Malik stared at me for a minute not knowing what to say. Then he said he was going upstairs to check on Tyler and left Shontelle and me sitting in the basement.
Shontelle had stopped crying but was still sniffling with that gasping type of breathing you do after you’ve been crying too hard. Her face was covered in tears and snot, so I got up and gave her a box of tissues.
I said, “I’m sorry about Tyler. He’s actually a nice guy, but you scared him.”
“I scared him?” she said. “He attacked me for absolutely no reason. We were just hanging out laughing, and he jumped over the table and tried to strangle me. I want to go home now.”
Her fear was turning into anger, which was probably a good thing, but Tyler and the rest of us were going to be in significant trouble. There was no excuse for what he had done, and I had no idea of what would happen when we were forced to explain it.
“You’re right. What Tyler did to you was unforgivable, but he was just trying to protect his mother. She’s working on some secret research, and he’s afraid of secret agents poking around and finding out about it,” I said. It was mostly true.
“And he thinks an eleven-year-old girl is some secret agent of,” she began. Her eyes popped wide open before she could complete her sentence. Instead, she exclaimed, “Oh my god, he said Mearth!”
We sat staring at each other in frozen silence for a while. Eventually, Shontelle grabbed another tissue to wipe her nose, and I asked, “How do you know Stavius?”
“No, you tell me how you know about Mearth,” she demanded.
I would typically have argued that she should go first, but she had just been attacked by one of my best friends, so I said, “Well, I have these dreams where I’m on Mearth, and I’m really there. You see, I’m Stavius’ visitor.”
“That’s impossible,” she said. “Janus is the only person who is supposed to be able to remember Mearth. Besides, Jarius is Stavius’ visitor. Stavius’ name is a combination of Jarius with his Mearth host, Staven.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I really am Stavius, and I do remember my visits to Mearth. Staven and I made up the name Stavius by combining his name with my formal first name, Marius. Besides, Jarius is the Earth visitor for Janus. But how do you know all this?”
“So, you are Stavius?” she tentatively asked.
“Yes,” I said, “but I’m not telling you anything else until you tell me who you are.” I was starting to get angry and worried that Shontelle really was an agent of Mearth fishing around for information.
“Well, you’re wrong about Jarius,” she answered. “I’m Janus. His name and mine are so similar that we just decided to use his instead of making up a new one.”
I said, “Sorry, but Shontelle is nothing like Janus,” but she was already pulling out her Walnut Hills student ID card.
I gasped when I took it and read the name: Janet Shontelle Jackson and croaked out, “I don’t understand.”
She said, “My dad was a huge Janet Jackson fan and Mom agreed to let him give me Janet as my middle name, but he filled out the paperwork while she was sleeping and here I am. I’ve always used Shontelle to avoid all the jokes.”
Before I could tell her that I completely understood not liking your name I heard Mom pull into the garage. I raced upstairs and yelled, “Guys, get your butts down here and help me clean up the mess before my mom comes in. Shontelle isn’t an enemy. She’s Janus!”
We spent the next several hours talking about Mearth. Shontelle and I brought them up to speed about Equous and our journey to Clothton and Septumcolis. I didn’t think that Ethan would ever let us get past talking about our conversation with Saiph. And then, Shontelle told us how Janus had spent the day creating replicas of the Spear of Mars. Tomorrow he was going to hand the shrunken versions out to the kids who hung out near Admian castle. The kids were supposed to play outside the palace until their spears expanded to full size, which would be the signal for them to race off in every direction waving their spears and shouting “Glory to Mars!” The deal was that they would get to keep the full-size spears as gifts if they could run all the way down to the fairgrounds without being caught. This was Janus’ distraction to give him enough time to escape with the real spear.
Next, I told everybody about how I spent my day with Betel/Juice and was stuck sleeping in the cotton field until the bridge opened in the morning. Once again, Ethan didn’t want to stop asking about the dragon, but Shontelle and I had to make some plans. We agreed on a place and time to meet on Mearth, and I was feeling better than I had in days. In fact, I was feeling better than I had since this whole thing began. I had somebody to talk with who has been to Mearth!
Shontelle and Tyler made up after we explained about how his mom had been asking about the kids who had died and the ones in a coma. I recognized the fear on her face when she learned about the other hero visitors. The expression of panic on her face looked just like I felt when I found out. This really was more than just a dream or a fun adventure. People had gone into comas or died. That could happen to us.
We never did get back to our game, but we had a sleepover anyway. Well, most of us stayed over. Malik decided to go home. Malik was usually the guy in charge, but tonight he was uncharacteristically quiet. I asked him what was wrong as I walked him out, but all he said was, “It’s real, Mark. I mean, everything you’ve told us is really true.”
“Well, yeah,” I answered. “Did you think I was lying?”
“No,” he answered. “Well, I thought it was all pretending at first, but the coincidences became a little spooky later. S
till, while I didn’t think you were lying, I did think there was some other explanation. Now, I hear Shontelle telling the exact same story, and I just don’t know.”
I said, “Well, I’m glad you believe me now. Thanks for helping me out even though you weren’t completely convinced. It means a lot to me. I don’t know how Shontelle has managed to deal with all this without a group of friends like you.”
Malik just stared through me and mumbled, “Yeah, man. I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
He shuffled over to his Dad’s car and got in before I could ask him what he meant. I hadn’t considered how tough this is on my friends, and I am worried about him, but I have other things on my mind. Tomorrow Shontelle and I are going to recreate the dragon’s eye view Saiph had shown to us and map Septumcolis to Cincinnati.
Chapter 22
Luna Fest
SEPTEMBER 22, MEARTH
Janus awoke with a start. It took him a moment to remember where he was. Shontelle wasn’t lying in her bed in Cincinnati or on the couch in Mark’s living room, where she had crashed last night. Janus was lying on the floor in Staven’s parents’ shed, and something was poking him in the back.
He panicked when he saw light shining through the door and raced to open it to try to gauge the time. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the long shadows indicating that the sun had just risen. Mark and Shontelle had agreed to have Stavius and Janus meet at the south side of Mill Town an hour after the bridge opened.
Janus closed the door and began packing his pack. He had just enough time to clean up, pack, double-check his souvenir spears, find a quick breakfast, and walk to the meeting place. He had just put the spears in a sack when there was a loud knock on the door.
Janus’ hand was on the doorknob when he remembered that he was supposed to be a girl. He quickly illuded himself into Stavius’ girlfriend and greeted his visitor.
Stavius Page 25
