Part 21 (1/2)

”No!” Caleb yelled, and leapt in front of Abbey. The javelin struck him in the center of the chest with a sick thud, and Dr. Ford and Mark vanished with a pop. Caleb's body fell backward into hers, knocking them both back onto the dock, just as Jake reached out and seized one of her flailing hands. She struggled under Caleb's ma.s.s, and just managed to slip her hand into Caleb's as the whoosh of the docks overtook her. She heard Caleb shout to Simon, ”If I don't come back, get home and get Mother! Abbey will be with the life-giver!”

They emerged on the causeway. The other white-clad people waited silently, huddled in a group like a flock of sheep in the night. Gasps rippled through them when they saw Caleb. A circle of red the size of an orange had appeared on his white-cloaked chest. The javelin must have fallen away during transport. He staggered slightly as he stepped off the docks.

”I'm fine. I'm fine,” he called. ”It's just a scratch and a bruise. Alasdair!” he called out to the gray-bearded man. ”Take everyone to the camping spot on the Plateau that we discussed last night. Set up camp. I'll rejoin you before morning.”

The gray-bearded man nodded and started to shepherd the group down the causeway. They went obediently, although with a few concerned glances in Caleb's direction.

Caleb looked at his people and then back at Abbey, s.h.i.+vering in the moonlight. ”I don't know how badly Mark was. .h.i.t. If he dies, or leaves the area of the stones, we may not have much time before the energy is gone,” said Caleb. ”I have to go back and make sure Simon's okay. Rowan could have more men in the woods.” He nodded to Jake. ”We need to take Abbey to her own future-she can find her way home from there. She'll be safest there. Then you need to go back to the forest and get Mantis home if you want payment.”

Abbey felt close to tears. ”Wait, no. Why can't I go with you?”

”Because you need to get home alive.”

”What about Simon? He's hurt.” Abbey practically shouted at Caleb.

”Jake and I will get Simon home. It shouldn't be hard, as long as Rowan has no more men. The stones always want you to get home. They're like gravity-you need the energy if you want to pull away from home, but they'll always draw you back. It's possible that Simon's already home-if he was able to walk, and was smart enough to leave Mantis behind.”

”What if there are more men there? You'll be killed. Simon will be killed.”

”That's why I need to go right now.” The circle of red on Caleb's chest was now the size of a cantaloupe, and he had his hand pressed against it tightly. Beads of sweat had appeared on his forehead. ”You need to stay alive. It's important. I've rethought it since we met a few nights ago. I was wrong. We do need to try to change the future. This thing that happened... It's bad. We have to try and stop it-and if anyone can, it's you, Ab. Find the thing you've lost, by the stones. We have to go.” She wanted to protest, to scream that he needed medical attention, but Caleb reached out and grasped Jake's hand, and Jake took her hand.

And she was in the Madrona atrium, her hand still clenched in Jake's.

Caleb wasn't with them.

”Where's Caleb?” she demanded.

”I let go of his hand,” Jake said. ”I left him there.”

”What?” Abbey clawed at the front of Jake's s.h.i.+rt.

”He needs medical attention, and I need him alive in that future to complete his end of the bargain, or this will all have been for nothing. Besides, if I brought him with me, I'd have to cycle through Nowhere twice more instead of just once-and honestly, I'm not sure I'd make it.” He gripped her shoulder. ”Don't worry, I'll take your brother and Mantis home. I have to go.”

The warm waves of air pulsed through the membrane and Jake's body practically vibrated with nerves.

”I'm going with you.”

”No. It's easier on my own. The magic only works if the person is holding my hand. It took the people in that green mist place a while to figure it out because I was going through alone-but then they saw me and Caleb last time. I can keep my hands balled up in my pockets and just jump in the air to reactivate the docks if n.o.body is with me. Maybe I'll make it. Besides, someone has to tell my parents something if I don't come home.”

”What if Rowan has more men?”

Jake grimaced, and a muscle in his cheek pulsed. He had incredibly long lashes, Abbey noticed. ”Then I'm probably dead. I'll see you around, maybe.”

”I'm coming with you!” She grasped for his hand, but Jake sidestepped her, pulled his hands away, and stepped on the dock.

And then he was gone.

And Abbey was alone.

She swore, more loudly this time, using a curse word that her mother would definitely disapprove of. Both of her brothers were hurt, perhaps badly, and she didn't know which one to go to first, or how. Her mother was probably half-mad with worry. Abbey had to find the stones that had taken them home before, the ones by the office where her favorite periodic table had hung. She ran to the door that led into the lab building and yanked on the large silver handle. The door didn't budge. It was locked. She ran around the atrium looking for another door, but there was none. The air was humid and warmer than the night she'd left behind, and a slight breeze brushed her hair. A canvas of stars hung in the air above her. The atrium was open to the outer bubble like a courtyard. Of course the doors into Livingstone Labs were locked at night. She banged her fist against the gla.s.s wall. Maybe she could break it. Large decorative rocks surrounded the Madrona. She s.n.a.t.c.hed one up and hurled it at the gla.s.s. The rock ricocheted off like she'd thrown it at a steel door. She cursed again and inspected the gla.s.s more closely. There, embedded in the gla.s.s, was the plant cell pattern used in the bubble membrane.

She hated that membrane, she decided. She'd never invent it, if it was her that had invented it. She would not become a scientist. She would become a bus driver, or a nurse, or a veterinarian.

The lower branches of the Madrona tree shaded her from the moonlight. The moon was full here too, and Abbey could see Aquila, the Eagle, s.h.i.+ning in the sky above her, just as it had been above the beaver pond. Could the beaver pond and the Madrona be in same place? Could all four sets of docks be in the same place? Abbey looked beyond the stars at the backdrop of the universe, at the whole host of dark matter that was there, but not there, comprising over eighty percent of the known universe...its missing ma.s.s.

Abbey turned her attention back to the ground and noted that the plants around her were the Fairy Elephant's Feet she'd seen on the Internet, their flowers an explosion of pink against the little upturned feet. The upper roots of the tree were exposed and bifurcated several times before sinking into the Fairy Elephant's Feet. Living stones. ”Look for the thing you've lost, near the living stones,” Caleb had said. She fell to her knees and ran her hands over the plants as she'd wanted to that day when she saw them at school. They weren't smooth, as she expected, but rough, with little b.u.mps like sandpaper. Without thinking, she extended her hand up along the smooth root of the Madrona. Her hand dipped into a small hollow, and touched the cool smoothness of plastic. Her heart skipped. She knew that object. She'd touched it a million times. She reached into the hollow under the root and withdrew her iPhone.

Her iPhone. The thing she'd lost. In the desert. How had it gotten here? How had Caleb known? She leaned against the trunk of the tree. She was alone and her brothers were hurt and in different futures, potentially parallel universes, and it seemed as if they were destined to live separate lives in different futures. How could that happen? ”If anyone can stop it, it's you, Ab,” Caleb had said.

Abbey was too tired to process anything more. She didn't want to have to stop anything. She just wanted to be home with her family. She wanted everything to be okay.

The tree seemed to emit a powerful calming effect. Madrona. Mother. Abbey decided to just rest her eyes for a moment.

She must have fallen asleep, for she awoke to the feeling of a tongue on her face, a very wet stinky tongue and a big brown face. Farley.

”Abbey!” said her mother simply, before s.n.a.t.c.hing Abbey up and hugging her.

Chapter 15.

The Long Way Around

In some ways, Nowhere differed little from somewhere for Mark. The world seemed to go on around him and he was, as always, only a limited partic.i.p.ant. The biggest difference was that Nowhere didn't look as if it would be at all interesting to map (no contours or geographic features of any sort).

The witches in Nowhere had worked themselves into a frenzy over Jake. Mark hadn't been in Nowhere when Jake started appearing, of course. He'd been in the forest. But then he threw the javelins and killed people, and now Mark sat on a rock in Nowhere near the docks while the witches debated strategy over what to do the next time Jake appeared. Seizing Jake and carrying him away from the docks was, at this point, the leading option being put forth by two largish hairy male witches with tattoos that frightened Mark. They were kind of like a h.e.l.ls-Angels-meets-witch combo that just didn't seem right. Apparently-or so a younger female witch had explained, seeming to think Mark could offer advice -the witches had tried just touching Jake the last two times he'd pa.s.sed through, thinking they would be transported out of Nowhere, but it hadn't worked. Then the last time Jake came through they'd noticed he was holding Caleb's hand. The must-be-holding-hands theory was now the leading hypothesis on how the portal worked. Whatever the witches ended up deciding, Mark wouldn't want to be Jake when he reappeared on the docks.

Mark hadn't been very surprised when he transferred from the forest to Nowhere. He hadn't intended to create a paradox, of course, but as soon as Dr. Ford said the word, Mark realized what he'd done and where he was going. Dr. Ford jumping on him, grabbing his hand and coming along for the ride had been unexpected, but it had all made sense now that he'd been able to reflect on the future he'd seen. It was Dr. Ford that had made Mark hurl the stick at Abbey. The stick that must have hit Abbey and killed her. He'd failed to change his future, had killed Abbey, and now he was going to live in Nowhere. But Dr. Ford didn't seem too concerned about that. Nor did he seem concerned that he'd left his dog behind in the forest. As soon as they'd arrived, Dr. Ford had started hugging a blond woman and crying. The blond woman cried too, and after a bit-after Dr. Ford had let her go-Mark realized she was that Sandy woman they'd met a few days ago. Sandy had some vaguely familiar mannerisms and features that gave him an uneasy twinge around his heart, but he decided it must be the resemblance between Sandy and Dr. Ford that was causing it. After the two of them had wept and hugged for several minutes, Dr. Ford started leading the discussion with the h.e.l.ls Angels witches on how to trap Jake and facilitate their return to the real world.

Mark just wanted to go home to Ocean and go to bed. His shoe was soaked in blood and his foot throbbed. He was very definitely going to faint soon...and he'd killed Abbey.

The capture of Jake actually went quite smoothly. The hairy tattooed witches simply stood on either side of the dock and lifted Jake into the air when he came through for the sixth and final time. Jake was carried, kicking and yelling, to another rock (while there were no geographical features, there seemed to be a lot of large boulders in Nowhere) and plunked down. A group of witches, that included the h.e.l.ls Angels witches as well as Dr. Ford and some others, explained to Jake that he'd be transporting them back to the present. Jake nodded and agreed, not that he had a lot of choice with over twenty witches breathing down his neck.

The discussion with regard to how the transport was going to proceed and who was going to go first (which apparently was a point of significant contention, as there was lots of yelling about trust) was disrupted by the appearance of Abbey's mother and Farley on the docks. Mrs. Beckham stepped off the docks and, cool as a cuc.u.mber, indicated that she'd come to collect Jake and see him safely home. This caused another frenzy. Farley seemed displeased and began to bark.

Then the blond woman stepped out of the group, and she and Mrs. Beckham stared at each other, frozen-like, for a few seconds. Then they hugged. But Mark noticed they both held their bodies very rigid. Dr. Ford marched up to them and stood all puffy with his hands on his hips.

”So, you're a camel too, Marian? I should think someone like yourself would've jumped at the opportunity to help the witches trapped in Nowhere.”

Mrs. Beckham's voice was icy. ”I've only just found out this week, Paul. And I haven't used the stones in years, so I apologize that I didn't immediately see the connection.” She turned and addressed the larger crowd. ”I take it you're all in the middle of a force-Jake-to-transport-you-home discussion. I'll save you the trouble. I'll take you all back. I'm sure Jake's parents are frantic about him, as most parents would be if their child had simply vanished and had apparently been used in the selfish plans of others.” She made her eyes all squinty at Dr. Ford. ”Let's get a move on. I'm not sure where you're all planning on staying, but Sylvain's very large house looks like it's going to be empty. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. If some of you want to give some thought to whether you want to leave or not, I'll come back in a few days for you.”

In the end, n.o.body needed to give it some thought. One of the hairy tattooeds organized the order of the transport. Mark got to be in the first group, with Mrs. Beckham, since, as Mrs. Beckham pointed out, he was injured (n.o.body else had seemed to care much about that). Then Jake would follow with the second group. Mark balked a little at holding hands with Dr. Ford, but Mrs. Beckham told him it was required-and so he soon found himself back home again in the woods above his house.

Abbey felt better after her second cup of tea. Caleb fluttered about her in paroxysms of despair that he'd missed the adventure due to his ill-timed trip to the police station. He was further enraged that he was barred from the room as first Simon-who had apparently emerged from the stones, bleeding, with Sanome, only to find his parents engaged in a heated discussion next to the stones regarding where to look next-and then Abbey had relayed to their parents what had happened. Her mother had seemed to know all about the stones and listened with growing fury as Abbey outlined the roles of Mantis, Mrs. Forrester, and Dr. Ford in the day's events. When Abbey indicated that Dr. Ford had told them he was the Guardian, one of Marian Beckham's eyes had started to twitch and splotches of red had appeared on her cheeks.