Secrets of Yden (25 page)

Finders, Keepers

After Jon spent the day training, he transported home to escort Sela and her friend Lola around the neighborhood for their annual Halloween shakedown. Lola had dressed in a geisha girl costume with her long brown hair twisted up into a bun. A traditional Japanese Kanzashi hairpin with hanging fabric wisteria completed her outfit. Jon's mother had sewn a fantastic Bo Peep outfit for Sela with white ruffled pantaloons, a blue-and-white overdress, and a bodice laced up by white satin ribbons. The hooked staff Jon had made was almost five feet tall and had a pretty blue bow tied on it. Although Sela made Jon carry it most of the night, it came in handy when he had to herd the girls across the street.

Since it was Sunday, they made an early night of it. At home, Jon dumped Sela's bag on the kitchen table to inspect the haul. The pile was so enormous his sister let him pick out a few of his favorite candy bars. He pointed to several dollar bills sticking out from the small mountain.

"Man, you got lucky this year," he said, impressed. "Maybe people gave you something extra for the fancy costume?"

"Nah, it was my sweet personality." Sela scooped up a little orange plastic egg full of moldable glow-in-the-dark putty and tossed it to him. "Catch. I already have some."

"Thanks. Candy
and
toys. Best Halloween ever."

As his sister poured powdered sour candy down her throat, Jon left the kitchen and headed upstairs to crack open his history book. While he read about the Boer Wars, he absentmindedly played with the putty. After it warmed up, it conformed to the contours of his hand, feeling much like the stone he'd taken from Moala's storeroom. A sudden flash of inspiration caused him to pull the black stone out of his pocket and push the flattened side into the putty. When he peeled it off, the putty showed the contours of the engraving perfectly well — backward. He scrambled to the mirror on his closet door and held the putty up in order to read the message. As he deciphered the runes, he realized they represented a spell of undoing. The implications hit him like a sucker punch. With his heart hammering in his ears, he read and reread the spell about twenty times to make sure he understood.

"This changes everything," he whispered.

His fundamental belief about magic on Yden had just been set on its ear. Before he'd mounted a rescue of his father from Efysian over a year ago, Quixoran had said, "The black spell holding Greggoran will end only when Efysian dies or chooses to lift it." As a result, Jon had always thought no wizard could
undo
the magic of another, at least not the most dark or powerful spells.

If I'd had this spell of undoing when I was fighting Efysian, I could have undone the binding spell holding Dad.
It occurred to him he could also have undone Guinn's deathgrip and punishment spells, assuming he could have formed the words while in excruciating pain. Could he use the spell now to undo the time anomaly? Had he finally found the so-called silver bullet capable of slaying the beast?

He wanted to show Quixoran his discovery right away, but a glance at the clock confirmed it was too late to transport to Dragon Isle. The next anomaly window opened on Tuesday, so he'd have the chance to try out the spell of undoing soon enough. He knew he shouldn't count on the spell having any effect, but he couldn't stanch the wellspring of hope and excitement running through his veins.

If I can undo the anomaly, I can resume my not-so-normal life. I won't have to go through the portal and have my magic and memories stripped. My apprenticeship with Quixoran will continue, and I'll go to college. This December, I'll stand up with Charles as his best man and eat wedding cake. I'll save Earth.

But no pressure or anything.

****

At school the next day, Casey, Fred, and Jon took their lunch trays to the patio to eat. Brett and Kira must have known something was up because they joined them moments later. Kira's cute braids were a pleasant reminder of her Pocahontas costume, but Jon tried not to stare. Instead, he passed around the black stone and told his friends what was on it.

"I'm going to try the spell during the next anomaly," Jon said. "Maybe it will undo the time freeze."

"Interesting," Casey said.

"We won't have to live the rest of our lives as fossils and you say it's just
interesting
?" Fred exclaimed.

"Hold up, I don't know for sure the spell will work," Jon said.

"Nevertheless, it
is
interesting," Kira said as she examined the stone. "I can't believe a spell this powerful could remain hidden for so long."

"The runes weren't written down on a piece of parchment like every other spell we've seen," Casey said. "Someone took the trouble to preserve the spell by etching it into this stone, but in so doing insured it would remain hidden."

"I bet whoever it was didn't
want
the spell to be found," Brett said.

"Or maybe they didn't want it to be lost. Not forever, anyway," Jon said.

"It's kinda a 'Get Outta Jail Free' card," Fred said. "You know, like when Quixoran turned me to stone, Jon-Boy coulda unfroze me."

"If it's for real, an undoing spell could level the playing field among wizards," Jon said. "I'll let Quixoran figure out what to do with it."

"Where did you find it?" Kira asked.

Jon's eyes shifted to his pepperoni pizza. "Oh, uh, I returned to Moala's house looking for magical artifacts to help with the anomaly."

His reply was a half-truth, of course, since he didn't want to tell his friends about discovering the final bit of prophecy any more than he'd wanted to tell Quixoran.
I intend to prove the thing wrong first.

"What else did you find?" Brett asked.

"All sorts of stuff," he fudged. "But I really didn't know what anything was, so I left it alone. Quixoran is going to go with me to check it out."

Kira looked at Jon askance, but he pretended not to notice. Besides which, his lunch was getting cold.

****

In the middle of the night, Jon wakened with the feeling something was horribly wrong. He peered around his darkened room, but didn't see or hear anything odd. Nevertheless, his tense muscles would not relax, no matter how much he tossed or turned, and he felt fully awake. His digital alarm clock seemed to be stuck on three o'clock. When he checked his wristwatch, Jon suddenly realized the clock wasn't stuck — it was frozen in time.

I've slept through several hours of an anomaly and nearly lost my chance to test the spell!
Springing out of bed in a panic, Jon glanced around for an object on which to test the undoing spell. His fingers closed around the plastic putty egg sitting on his desk and he tossed it into the air.

As soon as the egg left his fingertips, it hung there frozen in time. Jon drew in a deep breath and said the spell of undoing… but the egg didn't budge. The undoing spell seemed to have no effect on the portal's magic.

Crud. Crud. Crud.
Maybe I'm not trying hard enough.

He pointed his palm toward the egg and repeated the spell with emphasis — or maybe more like desperation — but the egg remained suspended. With a feeling of foreboding, Jon immediately dressed, donned his transporter cuff, and transported to Dragon Isle to find Quixoran.

****

As soon as he materialized on the beach, Jon knew his troubles had only begun. With two suns, Yden's days were a lot longer than on Earth. He'd expected to see both suns fully up in the sky, but instead his surroundings were dark and deadly quiet, with not even the sound of the surf. A ripple of fear traveled down Jon's spine as he fashioned a huge everlasting orb and sent it overhead. To his horror, the ocean waves had stopped as they'd crested to a peak, like a nightmarish black-and-white meringue.

Yden is frozen in time, too.

Jon muttered some not-so-nice words and transported directly into the tree house to wake his grandfather. He fashioned a small everlasting orb to relieve the pitch black, and made his way behind the corner screen where Quixoran slept. The Dragon Clan wizard was draped on a hammock with one of his long, hairy legs dangling off to one side. As soon as Jon touched him, he unfroze and began to turn over.

"Wake up, Grandfather… we're in an anomaly and it's going to last awhile."

Bleary eyed, Quixoran peered at him. "Jon? What's wrong?"

"Time has stopped. The anomaly is affecting both Earth and Yden."

"What?"

The Dragon Clan wizard flinched and immediately lurched out of his hammock. To Jon's chagrin, Quixoran wore a long nightshirt and an old pair of socks. Furthermore, as much as he loved his grandfather, hanging on to his elbow wasn't as much fun as holding January's hand had been.

"I'm sorry, but the only way to keep you in real time is for me to maintain contact," Jon explained.

"Let's remedy the problem." Quixoran reached for a decorative gourd on his nightstand, transformed it into the Portal Key copy, and hung its chain around his neck.
Clever camouflage.
When Jon let go of his elbow, he was relieved to discover Quixoran remained in real time.

"I thought you'd destroyed the copy," Jon said, surprised.

"No, I merely transformed it, waiting to see how the portal would resolve itself first. It's a good thing I delayed."

"I tried using the spell of undoing when I was on Earth, but it had no effect."

"You did
what
? I've never heard of such a spell."

Jon pulled the stone out of his pocket. "I picked this up at Moala's. I didn't know what it was until I found a way to read the runes."

Quixoran squinted at the stone. "How
did
you manage to do that?"

"Like this."

His grandfather had been sculpting a bust of Cressidia on his workbench nearby. Jon scooped up an unused lump of clay and pressed the stone into it. When he pulled the stone away, the backward runes became visible in the clay.

"If you hold it up to a mirror, you can read the spell."

"How clever of you," Quixoran said, impressed.

Without warning, the Dragon Clan wizard shot a binding spell at Jon. White strands wrapped themselves around his arms, holding them to his side.

"Show me the spell."

Jon had only to think the words and the strands evaporated.

"Fascinating," Quixoran said.

He took the stone from Jon to have a closer look. "This must be extremely old. After I put on some pants, you can show me where you found it."

****

Jon transported Quixoran directly inside Moala's house, and then led him down into the storeroom. The two wizards wandered up and down the aisles, examining various objects, all most likely stolen. Several pretty scarves made of a funky, weird material attracted Jon's notice.

"Can I take a couple of these scarves for Sela and Mom?" he asked.

"Do you intend to disclose they were woven from the hair of a particularly large mountain spider?"

"Um, not so much." Shuddering, Jon put the scarves back where he'd found them. As he did, he spied a fancy magical goblet sitting on a shelf, upside down. When he turned it right side up, the goblet automatically filled itself with an icy-cold, amber liquid.

"Grandfather, what's this?"

Quixoran sniffed the liquid, and a broad grin creased his face. He drained the cup and immediately turned it upside down. "You've found the original Goblet of Ubbliton! As long as the cup and the one holding it are both upright, the cup refills itself with the ale by which all others are judged. This is a rare prize indeed."

"I'll take your word for it. Do we have any way of knowing where any of these things belong?"

"If there is a family crest or clan designation, it's clear. Otherwise, who can say? Show me where you found the stone."

Jon handed Quixoran the dusty box in which the stone had been nestled. Although the older wizard examined the box inside and out, he could discover no unusual markings. "There's a phrase on Yrth, I believe, that applies here. What is it? Finders, sweepers or something similar?"

Jon laughed. "Finders, keepers. Losers, weepers."

"The very one I was thinking of. The spell is yours." Quixoran returned the stone to him. "If I were you, I would guard it closely."

Jon's brows rose. "How can a spell belong to me unless I invented it?"

"Well, since I've had the good fortune to read it, I hope you don't mind if I borrow it in a pinch." Quixoran rubbed his eyes. "I've had enough dust to last me awhile."

"Let's go."

"Not so hasty. I'd like to see where you found the Owl Clan artifacts."

Oops.

Jon led his grandfather to where the horned owl sat. Although Jon deliberately stood right in front of it, the older Dragon Clan wizard focused on the sculpture as if it were a homing beacon.

"Excuse me, Jon, but isn't the owl you sought at your feet?"

"Oh. You're right."

Quixoran gently nudged him aside and reached toward the bird.

"Be careful!" Jon exclaimed. "The other owl almost bit Finn."

"But it did not react the same way to you?"

"No. I think it responds to the energy from the Portal Key." Jon swallowed hard. "I-I opened the owl when I was here before, but the compartment was empty."
Is my nose growing longer from all my lies?

"Will you show me?"

Jon's heart sank. The owl had already given up the piece of parchment it had been guarding, but what if it decided to yap? Quixoran was waiting, however, so he had no choice but to touch the owl with his fingertips. The bird blinked and swiveled its obsidian eyes first at Jon, then Quixoran.

"Back for more, Champ?" the owl said. "Got gramps, too. Whoo."

"Gramps Two who?" Quixoran echoed, puzzled.

Jon broke off contact with the owl, partly to keep it silent and partly because he didn't want to start the whole "who" thing again. "The owl is really annoying, as you can tell, so I left it here."

"If you don't mind, let's bring it back to Dragon Isle. I'm sure Finn would like to have the two parts of Amanzo's sculpture reunited."

While Quixoran retrieved the Goblet of Ubbliton, Jon grabbed the owl.

"Ready to go?" he called over his shoulder.

"Who, me?" the owl replied.

"No, not
you
," Jon said.

"Then who-whoo?"

Jon sighed and shook his head. As he and his grandfather transported to Dragon Isle, he could've sworn the owl snickered.