Crystal Keepers

THANKS
FOR DOWNLOADING THIS EBOOK!

We have SO many more books for kids in the in-beTWEEN age that we'd love to share with you! Sign up for our
IN THE MIDDLE books
newsletter and you'll receive news about other great books, exclusive excerpts, games, author interviews, and more!

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com/middle

F
OR
L
IESA, MY GUIDING STAR

C
HAPTER

1

BUTLER

T
he sky was getting bright, but the sun had yet to rise as Cole carried his saddle pad to his horse. He tossed it over Ranger's back, but the quilted pad fell through the horse to the ground.

Cole whirled. “Dalton?”

His friend stood a short distance away, arms folded, leaning against a tree trunk. “Not bad?”

Cole picked up the saddle pad and shook off the dirt. “Really good, actually.” He swiped a hand through the horse, feeling only a vague, cobwebby sensation. “That looks perfect.”

“I moved Ranger last night after you conked out,” Dalton confessed. The illusionary horse disappeared.

“Couldn't sleep again?” Cole asked.

“I tried,” Dalton said. “I couldn't shut down my brain. It took some time.”

“Dalton!” another voice called. Taller than Cole and Dalton by a few inches, though not much older, Jace stormed over to them, his deeply tanned face flushed. “Where's my saddle?”

Dalton cracked a smile. “Isn't it over there?” he asked, pointing.

Cole followed his finger to where Jace's saddle leaned against a mossy log.

“Ha-ha,” Jace said. “I already tried to grab it.”

The saddle vanished.

“That's two really good seemings at once,” Cole said. “How long did you maintain them?”

“Since right before you two got up,” Dalton said. “Fifteen minutes or something.”

Jace huffed. “Good for you. Maybe you and Skye can set up your own dazzle show. Now where's my saddle?”

Dalton looked around innocently, then craned his head back. Cole tracked his gaze up into a tree where a saddle straddled a high branch, and a laugh spurted out before he could hold it back.

“That better not be real,” Jace threatened. “I'll drop it on your head.”

The saddle disappeared.

“Three seemings at the same time?” Cole asked.

“It's over by that stump,” Dalton said, nodding toward the one he meant.

As Cole watched, the scarred old stump melted away to reveal Jace's saddle. “Four,” Cole said. “And they all looked great.”

Dalton shrugged.

“Nice waste of time, Dalton,” Jace complained. “We're on the run.”

“You'd do the same thing if you could work seemings,” Cole said.

“I'd make you two walk off a cliff,” Jace said.

“You'd kill us?” Dalton exclaimed.

“Into a lake,” Jace said. “I'd get two of the highest screams ever.”

“We'd cannonball in and make two of the biggest splashes ever,” Cole said. “Then we'd come for you.”

“I'd be pretty scared,” Jace said with a snort. “You guys better hurry up and get ready. We're moving out.”

Cole turned to reach for his saddle, but Dalton restrained him. “Wait for it.”

Jace hoisted his saddle pad and saddle together, marched over to his horse, and flung them onto its back. The saddle fell through the illusion to the dirt. Jace turned and glared.

“Pick up the pace!” Dalton called. “The horses are this way. We're heading out!”

Dalton grabbed Cole's saddle pad and Cole claimed his saddle. They walked together toward where Dalton had moved the horses. Cole glanced at his friend. They had come to the Outskirts together from Mesa, Arizona. When they arrived, they knew nothing about this world. They'd never heard of shaping or the High King or even knew that a place like the Outskirts was possible. A slave trader had kidnapped dozens of kids visiting a neighborhood haunted house on Halloween and brought them to a bizarre new world. Shortly after their arrival they were marked as slaves and scattered across the five kingdoms. They started out alone—strangers in a strange land.

But they were gradually figuring things out. Cole had managed to find his best friend, and Dalton had some crazy strong abilities.

“That was amazing,” Cole said. “But why go after Jace so hard? He's a hothead. You're going to get punched in the face if you don't watch out.”

“He hid my saddle yesterday,” Dalton replied. “If he wants to make jokes, he has to take them too.”

“I didn't hide your saddle,” Cole said.

“I didn't want to make him the only target,” Dalton said. “I know you can take a joke.”

“Right. Because we're friends and we get each other. Jace could be a different story. I'm not sure you want to tangle with him.”

“Whatever,” Dalton said. “We can't let him think he's Mr. Big Shot. So if Jace teases—we tease him back.”

“I get standing up to him,” Cole said. “But is it smart to prank him?”

“What's the worst he could do?” Dalton asked. “I mean really. Retaliate somehow? If he does, I'll get him again. It'll save us trouble down the road.”

“What about when we leave Elloweer?” Cole said. “You won't be able to make illusions in Zeropolis.”

Dalton sighed regretfully. “That'll stink. But all the more reason to get him while I can. If he respects me, he'll back off.”

“Or he'll tease you harder until you cave,” Cole said.

Dalton shrugged. “I won't give up.”

“It's risky,” Cole said.

“It's more risky to let him bug me whenever he wants,” Dalton replied. “Wait and see.”

They reached Cole's horse.

“You first,” Cole said.

Dalton laid the saddle pad across the animal's back. “This one's real.”

Cole swung the saddle onto the pad. “You better mount up too.”

“If Jace is my biggest problem before we leave Elloweer, I'll be grateful,” Dalton said, walking away.

Cole gave a nod. “I can agree with that one.”

Shortly after sunrise the Red Road came into view, interrupting the wilderness like a wound. Bordered by maroon curbs, the avenue of seamless red pavement began abruptly and extended to the edge of sight, the only evidence of inhabitants in the otherwise untamed landscape. Cole, Dalton, Mira, Jace, Skye, and Joe had avoided serious trouble since parting from Honor and the former Rogue Knight on their way to Zeropolis. Cole hoped that drawing near to Trillian wouldn't end their peaceful streak.

He looked to Skye, who considered the road warily. He understood her hesitation. The Lost Palace, longtime prison of Trillian the torivor, awaited at the end. As the new Grand Shaper of Elloweer, Skye was about to ask Trillian to become her teacher.

Cole did not envy her. One of the most feared and dangerous beings in the Outskirts, Trillian had been caught off guard by a team of mighty shapers and locked away long ago. Had they failed to imprison him, the torivor probably would have brought the entire Outskirts under his control.

Only a few weeks had passed since Cole first visited the
Lost Palace and witnessed Trillian's enormous power firsthand. Inside his prison, the torivor could rearrange reality almost without limits. Not only had Trillian invaded his mind, but Cole had risked his life and freedom to rescue Mira's sister Honor from captivity.

As a rule, the people of Elloweer stayed far from Trillian's domain. Nobody wanted to risk crossing the torivor or the members of his Red Guard, which was exactly why Joe had suggested their little group of fugitives should accompany Skye to the Lost Palace on their way to Zeropolis. Since Skye had official business with Trillian, Joe had been willing to gamble that the nearness of the torivor posed a lesser threat than traveling through more populated regions.

Cole's eyes strayed to Mira, astride her dappled mare. There was no question that her father, the High Shaper, desperately wanted her back. After stealing the shaping powers of his five daughters, Stafford Pemberton had faked their deaths and tried to hold them prisoner. With help from their mother, the daughters had escaped and survived in exile, never aging after their powers were taken.

Not only Mira had regained her power—her sister Honor had as well. The High Shaper had first sent legionnaires to apprehend Mira, and then sent his secret police, the Enforcers. He now had to be more frantic than ever to find her. Since defeating Morgassa, Cole hadn't seen any agents of the High King, which suggested that the strategy of heading toward the Lost Palace was working.

“Do we ride on the road?” Skye asked, having stopped
only a few paces from where the red pavement started.

“We don't really need to hide that we're coming,” Mira reasoned. “Hopefully Trillian will be satisfied to learn he'll have a new Grand Shaper to train.”

“I don't know,” Cole said. “Trillian was pretty interested in you and Honor. He can sense people on his road. Is it smart to let him know you're near?”

“Good point,” Jace said, sitting tall on his horse, his face serious. “Last time, Trillian let you go because he wanted us to stop Morgassa. He might try to retake you and keep you this time.”

“He'll have more Morgassas to fight if we don't stop my father and his shapecrafters,” Mira said. “Trillian can read our thoughts. He'll know how important it is we find Constance and my other sisters.”

“Will that matter as much to him?” Dalton asked. “Morgassa was a direct threat. He thought she might be able to take him out. Will he care about problems in other kingdoms?”

“I can tell you one thing,” Skye said. “I won't work with Trillian if he tries to hold you.”

“He might not care,” Cole said. “He can probably find ways to train you whether or not you're willing, Skye. I've met him. The guy can get inside your mind and take over your dreams. Inside his prison, he can do pretty much whatever he wants. He might be more than happy to capture us no matter how we feel about it.”

“We can't afford to make ourselves easy targets,” Joe said, the only other adult in the group besides Skye. “Taking
the road might be a little smoother, but Cole's right—we don't need to let Trillian know we're around sooner than necessary.”

“We traveled beside the road last time,” Mira said. “It wasn't too bad.”

The conversation ended there. Joe and Skye started to parallel the road, and the others followed.

Dalton brought his horse alongside Cole. “Seems like we were just here.”

“It really does.”

“Minimus was with us last time,” Dalton said. “I wish we had a knight or something.”

“I'm glad he's with Twitch,” Cole said. “The bully who took over Twitch's village won't know what hit him. But if we're wishing, I'd want Twitch here too. He's saved my life more times than anyone.”

Dalton nodded. “If trouble comes, Skye and I can hide us with seemings.”

“Hiding is probably our best bet for now,” Cole said.

“At least until you find your power again.”

Cole forced a smile, but he didn't love the reminder. Not long ago Cole discovered he had the ability to energize magical items from Sambria so they could work in Elloweer. But right before Morgassa died, she had sunk her fingernails into his sides and somehow used shapecraft to separate him from his power. Just after he had learned to recognize and access the ability, it had vanished.