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Broad trees stretched toward the cloudless sky, their branches drooping with the weight of spiderwebs that were choking the life from them. It was a strange world—dull, like all the color had been drained from it. The trees, the sky, the earth were all different shades of gray. Other than the dried leaves rustling in the slow breeze, the place was as silent as an old graveyard.
“It’s… it’s eerie,” I said, not sure what I was expecting.
“The Old World,” Jazz whispered, all awestruck, as if it needed to be named. Yeah, emphasis on old. As in one foot in the grave.
Hondo grimaced. “Place looks dead.”
“Not dead,” Jazz said. “Asleep. It has been eternal night here ever since the gods abandoned it.”
Two small moons inched across the sky in perfect synchronicity.
“Hang on!” I said. “Ah-Puch gave me until the third moon, but the moons here are always present!”
“Maybe he meant in our time zone,” Hondo said.
Brooks blew a stray curl from her face. “Puke doesn’t care about time zones. All he cares about is winning. Good point, Zane. If the moons here never disappear, he could essentially show up any second.”
How could she be so calm about this?
Pukeface had told me he needed time to take care of a few things. I hoped that meant things in our world.
“How do we know what time it is here?” I asked Jazz so I could figure out the time back home.
Jazz smacked his forehead and rolled his eye. “Time? Here? Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn. Time isn’t marked in the Old World.” He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Lucky for you, my watch keeps Real World Time—even when I’m here. It’s still morning in Cali.”
So I had almost a whole day left. Hopefully. I started breathing again.
Hondo craned his neck to see Jazz’s massive silver watch with a dozen dials and buttons. “I know a few things about marketing,” he said to the giant. “Maybe we could become partners. Then again, I guess your watch probably wouldn’t be that popular, considering no one comes here,” he added with a shrug. “But the other stuff, like that scooter? Totally awesome.”
“Super Turbo Jazz!” Jazz grunted. “I have lots of inventions. Some didn’t turn out too well, like the dog collar that was supposed to make dogs fly. Ended up burning off their fur instead. I got sued over that one. Lost half my life savings.”
“Guys!” Brooks interrupted. “Focus?”
The boat bumped up against an embankment of crumbled stone, where the river ended.
“Time to disembark,” Jazz said cheerfully.
But there was nothing cheerful about this sleeping gray place. Only a feeling of dread. And the first thought that crept into my head? I don’t want to die here.
Jazz shouldered a huge pack and stepped off the boat. We all followed. Adjusting his eye patch, he turned to Brooks. “Is now a good time, Little Hawk?”
He was asking for her permission to interrogate me, so I cut him off at the pass. “Yes, I’m a godborn,” I said. There was no point trying to hide it now. It was like a boat with a leak in the bottom—pretty soon it would fill with water and sink.
“You can’t tell anyone, Jazz,” Brooks said, hoisting her bag over her shoulder.
Jazz looked offended. “You know giants are the best secret-keepers—next to seers, that is.” Then he narrowed his eye and inched closer to me. “Wait a second….If you’re part god…”
Uh-oh. He’d figured it out and looked like he was going to blow. Whatever was sleeping here was about to wake up. He clenched his boulder-size fists. “You’re the one who set that masochistic, bloodthirsty monster free!”
Hondo stepped between me and the giant, craning his neck to look up at Jazz. “Hang on,” he argued. “He didn’t have a choice. I mean, he did, but not really. Give the kid a break.”
Jazz began to shake. A fat green vein throbbed in his neck. Brooks rushed over with a chocolate drink from her pack, which he guzzled, leaving dribbles down his chin.
“He did it to save me,” Brooks said pleadingly. “I would’ve died if Zane hadn’t let him out.”
Jazz’s gray eye roved between me and Brooks like he was trying to connect more dots. How long would it take for the gods to do the same?
“The gods will kill you when they find out,” he said finally. “No way will they let another godborn live.” Then he let out a loud burp that reeked of onion and dust.
