Seven Wonders Book 2: Lost in Babylon (22 page)

“Put it back!” I screamed.

“What?” echoed Cass's voice from deep inside the room.

“Put it back!
We are the ones causing this!” I yelled.

A whip of blackness shot across the sky like lightning, punching a hole in the side of the Hanging Gardens. Dust exploded outward and land in a loud shower of rock.

“I'm convinced!” Cass called from inside.

I could see him materializing now. Walking the jerky path back to us. Outside the door, he looked upward. “I put it back.”

Cass, Aly, Marco and I sat watching, as the blackness receded slowly. The sky rumbled, once, twice, and then fell silent.

I exhaled hard. “Come on, guys, we're going.”

“Wait!” Marco said, shaking his head. “Just who elected you captain, Brother Jack?”

“The Loculus is Babylon's energy source, Marco,” I said. “It's what keeps the area here safe, cut off from our world in this weird time frame.”

“That's nice,” Marco said. “That's very
Twilight Zone
. But we can't go back to the KI without it—you know that!”

I met his glance levelly. “We can't destroy an entire civilization. They need this Loculus, Marco. It's the reason they're here. Their center. The thing that's keeping Sippar at bay.”

“How do you know the earthquakes weren't a coincidence?” Marco said. “Taking the other Loculus didn't destroy Greece. That one had the power of flight, this one the power of invisibility. That's it. End of story.”

“Invisibility might be a necessary part of the time-rift mechanism, Marco,” Cass said. “It may be the ingredient that allows Babylon to actually exist in the same place as our world.”

“And if you're wrong?” Marco shot back.

“Do we take the risk to find out?” I said. “Are you willing to be responsible for killing Daria?”

Marco shifted weight from foot to foot. He glanced back toward the chamber.

“Marco,” I said, “we need to talk to Professor Bhegad. If anyone can figure this out, he can. That's why the KI was set up, for problems like this. We can always come back and do this smarter.”

Now I could hear a loud clank from the inner-garden gate. Voices.

“The guards are here,” Aly said. “I guess Nabu-na'id forced them to go and face the monsters.”

“The question is, do those monsters include us?” I asked.

Marco's eyes darted toward the guards' voices. “Come on,” he said gruffly, heading for the garden wall. “I'll help you guys over.”

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T
HE MOON WAS
giving way to the rising sun. As we rushed away, my sandals seemed to get stuck on everything—roots, vines, rocks, salamanders. We were taking a wide berth around farmland. Huts were still shuttered from last night, and we were nearing the copse of woods close to the river, where we'd first come in. My face still hurt, and my feet were battered and bruised.

We'd managed to hide out in the shadows of the garden, while the newly emboldened guards rushed through the inner wall. In the predawn darkness we'd slipped away unseen, but we knew our hours of undetected freedom were numbered.

I wondered about Daria. Had anything happened to her during the earthquake? Where exactly had the fire been? For a moment I thought about turning back. About staying here instead of returning.

And die here at age fourteen? Stop. Forget that now
.

Marco was at the river edge. He was looking back toward the city. I had a hard time reading his face. “Let's do this before I change my mind.”

“Marco, wait,” I said. “What about the first Loculus? You said you buried it here. At least we can bring that one back. One for two isn't bad.”

“Yeah, good thinking,” Marco said. “I'll get it. It's right nearby. You guys go ahead before they hunt us down.”

“We'll wait,” Aly said.

“The guards will be here in a minute!” Marco snapped. “Go! All of you. Now! I can do this in two seconds.”

Uncertainly, she and Cass clasped hands and prepared to jump.

I turned to Marco. “Are you all right?”

Marco took a deep breath. “Adjusting. I hate to lose.”

“Don't think of it as losing,” I said. “We'll be back.”

Marco smiled. “Glass half full, right, Brother Jack?”

“Right,” I replied.

I heard two splashes in the river. Cass and Aly and were on their way. I glanced back toward Babylon and saw four figures running through the entrance gate, clutching spears.

“I see them,” Marco said. “They won't touch me. Go ahead.”

Somehow, I knew he'd be all right. “See you on the other side,” I said, turning toward the Euphrates.

* * *

I gasped for breath, breaking through the surface of the river. I felt a pull from above. Over my head, a nylon fishing line waved in the breeze. The hook was attached to my shirt.

I blinked the water out of my eyes. The sun beat overhead, the river was calm. On the shore, a blond woman stood with a fishing rod, looking mortified. A small crowd had gathered around her. “I am so, so sorry!” she cried out.

I looked around for our foursome, Bhegad, Torquin, Fiddle, Nirvana. I didn't see them among the throng of people pouring out of tents down the shore. They were all wearing the familiar white polo shirts with KI symbols. Some of their faces were vaguely familiar from the Comestibule.

I swam for the shore. Aly kept pace beside me. Marco was with us too, just as promised. I smiled with relief, watching him grab onto Cass's tunic and swimming him toward the shore.

But my strokes felt labored, as if I weighed three hundred pounds. I let my legs drop downward. Luckily we'd reached the shallows and I could stand.

I staggered, as if my knees had been replaced with wet clay. I struggled to stay upright, shaking water from my eyes. Cass and Marco were on their feet too. Cass looked pale. He was handing Leonard to Marco. “Brother Cass,” Marco said. “Are you okay?”

“Marco . . .” I called out, my voice parched. “Where's the Loculus?”

Marco shook his head disgustedly. “They came after me before I could dig. Guards. I had to book.”

I turned. People were slogging through the water toward us. Fritz, the German mechanic with a KI snake tattoo on his face. Brutus, the baker, whose muffins I had botched in the kitchen. Alana, one of Marco's martial arts instructors.

I wanted them to go away. I felt numb. All my aches—tongue, arm, head—throbbed like crazy. My legs felt Gumby-like, and I had to blink to keep my balance.

I felt the shore spinning. The smiles of the Karai people became a collage of floating, chattering teeth. I heard Marco say something, but when I turned he wasn't there. I looked down. Aly had dropped to her knees. Cass fell back into the water, his arms flailing. I could see people rushing over. They had tubes and needles and boxes. They seemed to be floating in midair. Blending into one another and separating.

“Treat . . .” I said, but my jaw was stuck, my tongue thick. “. . . ment.”

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M
Y BROTHER
.

My Dream begins where it last ended, in a chamber under the broken ground. Where the water has given me life from death. Where I float on air made of song. Where I face the empty Heptakiklos and the boy who stole the Loculi
.

The boy who looks like me. Who is my brother
.

He looks up. He is not surprised to see me
.

My eyes are locked on what is behind him. The patch of scorched earth that was once the lifeblood of our land—seven empty bowls carved from the rock, arranged in a circle. A sword in the midst of it all. It sickens me to the core
.

I begin to yell. I cannot control myself. He must return what he has taken. He has caused the Dark Times. His recklessness is destroying our world. I see beside him an enormous leather pouch. It has been made from the stomach of a giant horomophorus, a creature that can look over the tops of trees. Even through its thick lining, the seven spheres are visible. Glowing. They contain immense energy
.

He smiles. We are brothers, he says. We must understand one another. We can work together
.

As he speaks, the dreamscape shifts in the way that dreams do, and I become him. I am now the boy who was my thieving brother. But “thieving” is the wrong word. It is the word of the fallen boy, the one who I am no longer. I know this now: What I'm doing is not theft but salvation
.

I look at the agitated, bruised, soil-smeared face that is no longer mine. I look for a sign that he may understand. But whether he does or not no longer matters, because there is no more time
.

I take the satchel and I run
.

Behind me, my brother leaps toward the Heptakiklos. He grabs the sword in its center and pulls
.

It slides out with a loud
shiiiiink.
The jolt of light is blinding
.

The earth shakes violently. I fall, and so does he. As he turns to me, his eyes are panicked
.

What has he done?

What have
we
done?

He rises to his feet and rushes toward me
.

I open the satchel. I reach inside, searching for a sphere of nothing. A space that pushes aside the other six spheres. I see it. I touch it
.

I run, as he howls in confusion and anger
.

He no longer sees me
.

And I know I will never see him again
.

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“A
H
, L
AZARUS RISES
.”

“His name not Lazarus. Is Jack.”

Voices. I knew them.

“I am referring, dear Torquin, to the Biblical story of Lazarus, who rose from the dead.”

“Jack not dead, Professor.”

“No, and Jack's name is not actually Lazarus.
It is an expression!
”

The room was bright. Too bright. I cracked my eyes open as best I could. The lingering images of my dream floated away.

I focused on a Karai Institute flag hanging in the tent:

Both Professor Bhegad and Torquin were sitting on folding chairs. Torquin was whittling a block of wood into something shapeless.

I smiled. I never thought I'd be so happy to see old Red Beard. “Wow,” I said. “You're okay. We thought we lost you in the river.”