AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Jaide, shouldn’t you be in bed by now?”
“She should indeed,” said Grandma X, folding her hands in front of her. “But great minds think alike, I’m afraid. Seeing she’s come this far, we might as well include her — provided she does what she’s told from now on.”
Jaide beamed. It seemed she wasn’t going to get in trouble, after all. In fact, she was going to find out how Grandma X and her father planned to rescue Jack, Tara, and Kyle.
“What about you?” Hector asked Stefano. “Are you volunteering as well?”
“Yes, sir,” he said. “Because I want to, not just because it’s partly my fault. Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“That remains to be seen.”
Hector came to join them at the table, and another adult stepped into view from behind him. It was Rennie. Of course she was part of the plan, Jaide thought. She and Hector had actually been arguing with Aleksandr as a distraction, for Grandma X, not for Jaide.
“Was the mission a success?” Rennie asked.
Grandma X nodded, removing Professor Olafsson from his pouch. He blinked and flexed his plaster features, taking in the new environment.
“Thank you, madam and milady, for retrieving me from that gaggle of ignoramuses,” he said. “Not one of them has the slightest speck of curiosity. All they dream of is victory and power. That Aleksandr fellow is a right buffoon.”
“He is not without his admirable qualities,” said Grandma X. “But we have had our moments, yes.”
“Tell us about Aleksandr’s plan, Professor,” said Hector. “Project Thunderclap: Will it work?”
“I don’t see why not, if they follow my blueprint to the letter.” The professor’s gaze swiveled to take in everyone sitting around the table. “With enough lightning wielders to create a sufficiently energetic megastorm, the cracks between our world and that of The Evil can be erased forever.”
“How do you erase a crack?” asked Jaide.
“Take a piece of cheese,” said the professor. “Break it in two. Now place the pieces in an oven so they sit next to each other. Close the door. What will happen?”
“The cheese will melt back together,” said Stefano.
“Exactly. And so it will be here, when Project Thunderclap is enacted, only with the megastorm instead of the heat of an oven, and dimensions instead of cheese.”
“Does anyone else feel like a toasted sandwich?” said Ari.
Kleo’s whiskers twitched, but no one else reacted. Jaide was thinking about the word megastorm, and how that sounded so much more serious than Project Thunderclap.
“How are we going to stop it?” she asked.
“Stop it?” His eyebrows bolted up the domed forehead so far they looked in danger of falling off the death mask’s edge. “Why would you want to do that?”
“We brought you here, professor, because we have some loved ones caught on the other side,” said Hector.
“Then you will need to act quickly. Once the cracks are erased, there will be no way to return here from the realm of The Evil — or to go there to rescue them. The way will be completely sealed. They will be trapped forever.”
“We suspected as much.” Hector looked grim. “Is there any way to rescue them before the megastorm is unleashed?”
“Only one,” said the professor. “To do it you’ll need a cross-continuum conduit constructor that is turned to the realm of The Evil.”
“As a matter of fact, we have just that.” Grandma X explained what had been unearthed in the house next door. “We know it works. I have tested it on several occasions, and each time a small amount of The Evil leaked through.”
This was news to Jaide, although she supposed she should have guessed. All those small attacks by The Evil had been focused on the house and its surroundings, which made sense if Grandma X was opening the way rather than Aleksandr’s Thunderclappers.
“And this is the problem,” Rennie was saying. “The Evil always notices when a breach is opened between here and its home. It wants the breach to be open so it can come through without running into me and the other wards. It will always be waiting for anyone coming through from our side.”
“This was Lottie’s downfall, I fear,” said Grandma X. “She stole the Bifrost Bridge from the Hawks when they wouldn’t let her use it in the hope of making peace. She opened the way, and The Evil was ready for her.”
“Jack made it,” said Jaide. “Stefano and I heard him calling us, so we know he survived.”
“But he didn’t tell us what he did to get past The Evil,” Stefano added glumly. “And he’s been quiet ever since.”
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” said Grandma X. “Why was the breach sucking instead of blowing, this time? Is there any way we can control where the breach opens on the other side? Could we somehow disguise the opening so The Evil can’t see it? To answer these questions, we need a more complete understanding of the principles involved. Professor, will you help us?”
The death mask’s expression was solemn.
“These are difficult questions,” he said, “and time is short.”
“We know,” said Hector. “Will you help us try?”
“Of course,” the professor said, “as long as you are aware that the odds are against us.”
“We’re Wardens,” said Grandma X, folding her hands on the table in front of her. “They always are.”
I still can’t see anything,” said Kyle. “Are you sure Cornelia’s taking us the right way?”
Kyle had the sharpest eyesight of the three of them. If he said he couldn’t see anything then Jack was happy to assume he wouldn’t see anything, either. Tara, however, squinted so hard at the horizon it was amazing she could see anything at all.
“All right, hang on,” said Jack. “I’ll check.”
Setting down his bone-scimitar, he lay out flat on the sand, tilted his head to the side, and closed his eyes. He was reminded of trackers in some of his father’s old westerns. They claimed to be able to tell all sorts of things just by listening to the earth. Jack wasn’t listening, and he couldn’t make out any details like numbers of people or anything like that, but he could sense the life in Lottie’s oasis, and he could tell in which direction it lay.
There was no mistake. Cornelia was leading them the right way.
So why couldn’t they see anything ahead of them but dead, white desert?
Jack clambered to his feet, brushed the sand out of his ear, and told Tara and Kyle what he thought.
“So we press on,” said Tara, although the way she leaned on her sword suggested her enthusiasm was forced. They were all tired, hungry, and thirsty. It felt as though they had been in the realm of The Evil a lot longer than one day. Not once had all the suns set. Twice more had ice storms swept over them, bringing welcome rain, but never lasting long. The weather always returned to its default state of hot, dry, and boring.
“We press on,” Kyle agreed. “But if you and Cornelia are wrong, Jack, I’m going to eat both of you.”
“Cornelia would be a bit stringy, I reckon.”
“You’ve never been so hungry you didn’t care what you ate?”
Jack thought of his mother’s cooking and rubbed his own growling belly. “Sometimes.”
They hadn’t gone ten feet before Tara said, “Shhh!” and stopped with her left hand held up in the unmistakable halt sign.
Kyle and Jack fell in behind her.
“What is it?” asked Jack.
“Shhh, I said.”
He held his breath and looked all around them, but could see nothing but white sand rolling in waves to a featureless horizon, punctuated by the occasional weird-looking skeleton.
Tara’s hand came down.
“I thought I heard something,” she said through painfully cracked lips. “Something other than you two big mouths.”
“Like what, exactly?” asked Kyle.
“I don’t know. Bugs, maybe.”
“You’re going mad with
hunger, just like I am. Let’s keep going. We’re not actually going anywhere, but that’s better than standing around here waiting for something to find us.”
“Look at Cornelia,” Jack said, pointing upward.
The blue speck was circling over a patch of desert not far from them.
“Is she trying to tell us something?” asked Kyle.
“Maybe she can see something we can’t,” said Tara.
Jack agreed. “Is she telling us where to go or warning us away?”
