Josh and the Magic Vial (36 page)

“Ah! There you are!” Quiggle bobbed. “So good to see you again.”

Aside from a faint tingling — a sort of electric charge dissipating from her body — Millie felt no lingering effects from being in the vortex.

“We have to find the portal,” Josh said. “There's not much time.”

“It should be right there,” Millie said, pointing at the sheer, granite face.

“Call Endorathlil you two,” Josh ordered. “Not out loud, but in your thoughts.”

“Huh?” Ian said.

“Imagine yourself talking to her. You're in her apartment, lying on the floor, exactly as you were when you left. Imagine that, then talk to her.”

They closed their eyes. Millie tried to do as Josh had instructed, but after a moment, her eyes blinked open. “What about you, Josh?” she wanted to know.

“Me?”

“Aren't you coming?”

“Millie,” he begged. “There isn't time to explain. You and Ian have to get back to Outworld. This is our only chance, and if we blow it, you'll be stuck here forever and so will I.”

“But I don't want to go unless you're coming.”

“Me either,” Ian agreed.

“You can't help me here,” Josh cried. “You have done what you were meant to do in Syde, you've roused me from Vortigen's spell. Now you must help me from the other side. It's our only hope. Inspector Puddifant and Endorathlil will know what to do.”

“How can we help from up there, when you're down here?” Millie insisted.

“Jeez!” Josh exploded. “You are the most stubborn, obstinate, prickly . . . ”

“May I suggest, Your Irate Highness, that you explain the situation to Miss Epp so we can get on with this,” Quiggle advised.

Josh sighed, calming himself. “I need your voices calling me back to Outworld, Millie. You, Ian, Endorathlil, and my parents too if you can persuade them — the more people who call out to me, the better my chances of finding my way home. But I can't leave by this portal.”

“Why not?”

“It's not the way I came in,” he said. “It doesn't lead back to the hospital, which is where I am in Outworld. It leads to where you are.”

“You're lying,” she wanted to say, but Millie stifled the thought because she wasn't sure he
was
lying. Instead she gave him a fierce, angry look. “I'll never forgive myself if you don't come back Josh,” she hugged him.

Ian hugged Josh too, then took Millie's hand. “Come on,” he said.

Again they imagined themselves back in Endorathlil's apartment. For a while nothing happened. But after a long time, Millie heard a faint call, coming to them from the direction of the portal. It was a tendril of sound, less than a whisper, but unmistakable.

“Can you hear it, Ian?” she said.

“Yes.”

“Listen hard, you two,” Josh coached. “Follow the call.”

“At the count of three, you will awaken,” Endorathlil was saying. “You will be back in my flat, back in Vancouver, out of Syde.”

“Josh!” Millie cried. “I don't want to leave like this!”

“You have to, Millie!” he urged. “We need you in Outworld.”

Millie let go, then. She willed herself to let go, relaxing all her muscles.

“One,” Endorathlil counted.

Millie felt dizzy, the gravity of Outworld conflicting with the pull of Syde.

“Be careful, Josh,” she cried. “Come home.”

“I will,” he promised.

“Two.”

She opened her eyes for one last look at Syde, and her friends Josh and Quiggle. They were a mirage already, fading from consciousness. Millie didn't want to see them disappear that way, so she shut her eyes again.

“Come home,” she called back to Josh again.

“I need you to call to me from Outworld — even if it seems like I'm sleeping and can't hear,” he shouted.

“Three.”

Suddenly the whirling sensation stopped, and Millie felt the world around her change. She opened her eyes and stared up at the cracked ceiling of Endorathlil's suite. The witch's concerned face loomed over her.

“Thank goodness your back!” Endorathlil greeted her. “I thought for a while I'd lost you.”

She didn't say so, but a part of Millie fervently wished she had been lost in Syde. She felt like a coward returning to Outworld without her friend. Then another face loomed over Endorathlil's shoulder. “Inspector!” she cried, glad to see him.

“Welcome home, Millie, Ian,” he greeted them warmly. “You deserve a hero's welcome for what you have done. Alas, there is no time, for much remains to do if we are going to save our friend Josh — and we will save him.”

65

“T
hat was a job well done,” Quiggle was saying. “Now, I suppose we should be getting back to your rooms, Sire, before Lord Vortigen misses us. I'm ready to be projected as soon as you are, despite the unpleasantness of the process.” He stood in the middle of the road like a man expecting to be run over at any moment.

“I'm not going back, Quigs,” Josh said.

Quiggle opened his eyes and raised his brows, surprised by the news, and by the determined tone in which it was delivered. “Not going back, sir? But we have to go back! Your only chance of escape is to continue in the role of heir until your friends call you back to Outworld. If Vortigen discovers you are missing and that you have aided Ian and Millie in their escape, he will make sure you never leave.”

“He is bound to know I helped Ian and Millie,” Josh said. “Remember, I sent his captain on a wild goose chase? That will be reported.”

“Ah yes,” Quiggle agreed. “But he will forgive that lapse, I am certain — the bonds of friendship, the impetuosity of youth and all that. He will be angry, Sire, but not irrevocably turned against you. There still may be a chance.”

“I'm not going too Outworld until I've finished my business here,” Josh said firmly.

“Finished your business!” Quiggle cried. “But My Puzzling Prince, surely your only business here is getting out and back to the world where you belong. What other business could there be for you in Syde?”

“It's not that simple, Quigs. I need to make contact with the leaders of the rebellion.”

“The rebellion? You, the heir to the throne, make contact with the rabble who would throw down Vortigen's empire. If I may be so bold, Sire, I would heartily recommend against such an insane course. The rebels would greet you with open arms, I'm sure, and a prisoner's chains. They would see you as a hostage My Lightheaded Liege. They would use you to extract whatever concessions they could from Vortigen then hand you over to face his wrath. Do not think of it, sir.”

“I'm aware of the risks,” Josh replied calmly.

“Then why must you take them?”

“Endorathlil saw in me what I never imagined in myself, Quigs,” Josh explained. “And Vortigen, and Puddifant, and all the citizens of Syde. Everyone has recognized in me a special destiny and I cannot avoid that. It has been thrust upon me and I have come to accept it and the responsibilities that come with it.”

“True,” Quiggle said doubtfully. “But I don't yet understand what you are saying.”

“Was it my special destiny to come here, do nothing, and then flee back to Outworld? Could that be the reason I was chosen to come to this place?” Josh burned with indignation at the thought, and he realized how fierce he must look by the way Quiggle cringed. “I'm sorry for speaking so bluntly, Quigs, but I have just discovered my purpose here, and it inflames me.”

“Well, I hope not to get too badly singed, Your Blazing Majesty. But I still have to ask what you mean by this purpose of yours. Are you saying you intend to sit on the double throne with Vortigen?”

Josh laughed. “No, my friend. That will never happen.”

“What are you saying, then?”

“I am going to join the rebellion, of course. My purpose is to release the souls Vortigen and his allies have entrapped.”

For once Quiggle was speechless. He stared at Josh, his eyes starting out of his head.

“I'm not expecting you to come, Quiggle,” Josh assured him. “I will project you back to the Emerald Palace . . . ”

“Now you're forgetting something, Sire,” Quiggle reprimanded.

“What?”

“I was by your side when you talked to the captain. I do not look forward to Vortigen's summons once he hears of that. I'm afraid he will finally be provoked to send me to Desolation Isle, despite my invaluable service to him.”

“Oh, yeah,” Josh blushed. “I forgot.”

“That's quite all right, sir. It's only me, Quiggle. I make a point of not being noticed.”

Josh blushed even more.

“So for better or worse, I suppose we must find the rebels together, eh!”

“Sorry,” Josh said. “But I guess you're right.”

“And what of your parents, Ian, Millie and all the others in Outworld who will mourn your death there? Have you thought this through, my young friend?”

Josh sighed. It felt to him as though all the air he had ever breathed was escaping from him and that his life was spent. “It's a terrible risk, Quiggle, I know. There's a very good chance I will cause immense suffering in Outworld without doing any good here at all. But every nerve and fiber ofmy being says this is my destiny, and that I will regret it all my life if I do not act upon it now — this instant.”

“Well then,” Quiggle said thoughtfully, “I suppose it's time I revealed something of my destiny, miniscule as my purpose may seem from the exalted heights trod by royalty.”

Now it was Josh's turn to look puzzled.

“I do have some interesting connections, Sire.”

“What are you saying? Speak plainly,” Josh demanded.

“I know how to make contact with the rebel leaders,” Quiggle said.

“Are you telling me you belong to the rebellion, Quiggle?” Josh couldn't believe it.

“I have used my diplomatic skills to establish links with the rebels,” the valet said modestly. “Vortigen would no doubt consider me a traitor if he knew, but I am not a rebel Sire. I like to think of myself as an intermediary. A peacemaker in waiting, if you will. Charlie Underwood puts up with me because he thinks he might be able to use me for his own ends at some point in the future. It's a tenuous position, to be sure, but necessary I think.”

“Yet again you surprise me, Quiggle!” Josh cried.

“We all have our little secrets,” Quiggle smirked, obviously pleased with Josh's attention.

66

T
raitor's Grove was hidden in the very heart of the Gallian Forest, and only those trusted by the Rebellion were given directions to the place. Quiggle was counted among the Rebellion's friends, and had been shown the way by Charlie Underwood himself.

Josh Dempster was another matter entirely.

“You should not have brought him here,” Charlie grumbled, glancing at the boy.

“I tell you he can be trusted.”

“Look at the way he's dressed!” Charlie hissed, jerking his head toward Josh.

“Don't judge him by his clothes, Charles. They only serve as a reminder that he
could
be in the Emerald Palace right now, at Vortigen's side. Instead he chose to save his friends and join the rebellion. How many others have risked so much for the honour of being called a traitor!”

“How do I know it's not a trick?”

“Talk to him.”

“And even if I do come to trust him, how am I going to explain this peacock to my comrades?”

“Let him address the assembly. At least grant that opportunity.”

Charlie ran his fingers through his hair, giving Quiggle a resentful look. “You have overstepped the bounds of my trust, friend,” he said. “If I wasn't absolutely certain of your good will, I would have ended this interview before it began.” Then he turned to Josh. “Why should I trust you, boy?” he demanded, summoning Josh to join them.

“Whether you trust me or not, I am going to fight Vortigen, sir; and whether you like me or not, I am your ally.”

“Oh-ho!” Charlie cried. “I don't know if I can trust you, but I do like a lad with pluck.”

“May I ask you something?”

“I thought I was supposed to be asking the questions, but when royalty makes a request, I suppose even rebels should be prepared to grant it. Ask away.”

“You were a child when you died, as were most of the spirits in Syde.”

“True.”

“Then why am I the only boy in Vortigen's realm? I've seen men, and women, and goblins, but not a single child — other than my friends Millie and Ian. Do spirits continue to grow after they are separated from their bodies?”

“You are an inquisitive sort,” the rebel said. “Yes, we grow, but not the same way you in Outworld do. Spirits in Syde take on the form that matches their personality. They are transformed by their own ideas. So if I think myself a handsome, dashing rebel, why, so I am!”

“Not to mention a shameless braggart,” Quiggle teased, drawing a mischievous grin from Charlie.

“If I think myself a brave and loyal soldier, I end up in Vortigen's Royal Guard,” Charlie continued. “If I entertain lowly, cruel thoughts, I might eventually become a goblin, the kind that precedes Lord Vortigen on his visits to Outworld.”

“So if I appear as Prince Josh in all his finery . . . ”

“Then my fellows will believe that your outward appearance is an accurate expression of who you are — much more so than would be the case in Outworld. You have hit the nail on the head.”

“How do these transformations come about?”

“I don't know exactly,” Charlie answered, scratching his head. “It is the effect of this place on us, but don't ask me how it operates.”

“If I appeared differently, then, it might help your comrades accept me?”

“It might,” Charlie agreed.