The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (35 page)

“Wow!” Isaac exclaimed.  “The book even said that, didn’t
it?  It said the Magi spread the sphere to the four corners of the earth.  I
just thought that was a metaphor!”

Elijah thought back to what he read.  It seemed to add up. 
But Elijah was careful not to get too excited.  He thought it was also possible
that they were they just so desperate to find answers that they made this up. 
The theory made sense, but it felt incomplete.

“So, which four corners are we going to?” Paul asked.  “Because
the last I checked, the earth isn’t a giant square.”

“That’s what we’re going to look for when we get back to
Savenridge,” Becca said.  “We actually have a starting point.  The first cube
was already found somewhere.  If we have one place already, we should be able
to mathematically find the others based on using the geography of what we already
know.  Only, Elijah doesn’t remember where it was found.”

“Mongolia,” Isaac stated.  Everyone turned and looked at
him.  Paul looked completely shocked.  “What?  It said so in the book.  One
family found the first cube in Mongolia.”  He frowned.  “Why are you all
staring at me?  I have a good memory.”

“Okay then,” Elijah said.  He turned to Becca.  “I told you
it started with an M.”

“So we have our first reference point in Mongolia, I guess,”
Becca said.  “Now all we have to do is find the absolute geographical location
using an atlas, and we can plot out the other points where the other cubes
might be.”

“We’re getting Olivia,” Elijah reminded everyone.  “This was
just to get more information, if you remember, and we got it.”

“I know,” Becca said.  “But if we can pinpoint exact
locations, we can find Olivia more easily.  That is, if she knew where exactly
to look too.”

Elijah looked at the setting sun.  “I don’t know about you
guys, but I’d like to just leave now.  We’re all packed up and we can take the
northern route with our extra time.  Go around the pass.”

“I’m for that!” Isaac exclaimed.

The others agreed.  They set off for Savenridge taking the
northern route, stopping only to drink and grab a quick bite to eat. 
Thankfully, the snow began to melt, making travel quicker until they set up
camp late that first night.  Elijah had trouble falling asleep, unlike the rest
of his friends who snored loudly under the warmth of their gear and extra
blankets they brought with them.  He stared deeply into the flickering flames,
concentrating on each fickle movement.  There wasn’t a breath of wind, but the
flames still danced around, almost as if they were desperately searching for
something.  Elijah was also searching for something.  Answers.  He thought
about Master Roddick.  He wanted to give Roddick the benefit of the doubt,
knowing he was sent on a quest, but what would make him treat Elijah so
poorly?  It hurt knowing that Roddick was alive, and yet, Elijah felt as though
he wasn’t.  Roddick was not the same.

Elijah almost jumped when Hannah sat beside him, joining his
gaze into the fire.

“Are you okay?” Hannah asked.

“Yes,” Elijah lied.  He knew Hannah could read him better
than that, so he came clean.  “Actually, I’m just confused.  When I saw Master
Roddick at the academy, he acted like he didn’t even know me.  Like he hated me
or something.”

“That doesn’t sound like him,” Hannah said.

“I know,” Elijah replied.  “And this isn’t the first time
he’s acted like this.  Earlier, I was sent to go get the cube from my uncle’s,
right before training started, and he kind of ignored me then, too.  I feel
like I did something to make him upset.”

“Maybe he’s just under a lot of pressure,” Hannah suggested.

Elijah dismissed that idea immediately.  Pressure or no
pressure, he could always find enough energy to keep from making it seem as
though he hated the people he loved.  Suddenly, he remembered his own
outburst.  He looked at Hannah and felt ashamed.  Hadn’t he just done that to
her?  The pressure of keeping the sphere a secret had caused him to yell at her
for no real reason.  Elijah wondered if she thought he hated her during that
time, which was the furthest thing from the truth.  He fiddled mindlessly with
a wet rock between him and Hannah.

“I know I said this already, but I’m really very sorry for
everything,” Elijah said.  “I wanted to apologize so many times, but by the
time I had the chance, I thought it was too late.”

Hannah tried to make a comforting smile, but it only looked
strained.  “It’s never too late,” she said.  “I’m glad you decided that too.”

Elijah felt good enough to stop thinking about Master
Roddick for the time being.  “Come on,” he said.  “Let’s go to sleep.  We’ve
got a long hike tomorrow.”

Elijah and his friends finally arrived just outside the
Savenridge perimeter two and a half days later.  They were tired and grumpy and
kept a considerable distance from each other since they had been wearing the
same pair of clothes the entire return trip and began to notice each other’s
stench.  Isaac even tried to rub snow on his clothes to hide the smell, but
that only made it worse.

They stayed away from the city as long as they could since
they knew soldiers watched the perimeter.  They traveled around the gates to
the western side where Mr. Button’s secret passage let out.  Paul was the first
to spot the opening.  He found the number 3 on the outside and then called the
others.  They walked down the long passage and descended the steps and quietly
opened the back of Mr. Button’s tall statue.  Mr. Button was inside his office
working on paperwork when the six of them appeared inside his quarters.  He
didn’t even look up.

“I still have no idea what you guys are doing.”  He crinkled
his nose and finally looked up at them.  “Now go shower before you make the
entire barracks smell like…
that
!”

Elijah left first, feeling very self-conscious.  The others
followed.  They instinctively split up and kept their heads down.  Luckily,
they arrived in the middle of the night and no one was up except for the
soldiers on night patrol, who looked less than pleased with the stinky aroma.

Elijah laid awake in bed that night even though he was
exhausted.  He remembered how hopeless it seemed to find all of the cubes when
Olivia first told him about it.  If his theory was correct, however, it might
actually be possible to find the cubes.  Then suddenly, he felt an overwhelming
sense of gratitude for his parents’ help.  They were the ones who really
figured it out. 
They
were the ones who gave their lives for this
quest.  He just followed their trail.  A trail they left him.  He missed them
then as he thought more about their sacrifice.  He forced himself to stay awake
to think about them.  To remember them again, as much as he could.  He thought
about his mom’s laugh.  He thought about memories of his dad telling bedtime
stories.  He thought about Kyria.  He wondered if they could see him now,
wherever they were.  He hoped so.  He hoped they would be proud.  Somewhere,
somehow, he hoped they could read his thoughts because he wanted to tell them
right then that he loved and missed them.

Chapter
17:

THE INFERNO

A loud knock on the door woke Elijah up.

“Elijah Hawk!” said a loud voice.

Elijah staggered to the door, feeling like someone had
stitched his eyes shut.  Once he tried several times to open his eyes, he could
only successfully open his right eye.  The other refused to be woken up so
early.

When Elijah opened the door, a tall boy with curly red hair
and glasses stood in front of him.  It was one of the Novice Hall monitors. 
Elijah had previously felt like this boy was friendly enough, but all Elijah
wanted to do at the moment was punch him in the nose so he could crawl back
under his covers.

Elijah squinted at the boy.

“You have a request from a girl to meet her at the library,”
the red-haired boy said.

Elijah’s left eye popped open.  The blood in his body
circulated much quicker.  Maybe Hannah wanted to talk with him.

“Is that all?” Elijah asked in a hoarse voice even he didn’t
recognize.

“That’s all that I know,” the boy said.  “I’m just relaying
a message.  For all I care, you can go back to bed.”

Elijah threw on a shirt and flew down the Novice Hall into
the Preliminary Hall and down the stairs into the arena, then into the
library.  As he raced along, he noticed it was still dark outside.  He couldn’t
have been asleep for more than a few hours!  Why would Hannah want to talk with
him so early?  Surely she would be just as exhausted as him.

The minute he arrived at the library, he almost turned
around and went back to bed.  It was Becca who had requested Elijah, not
Hannah.  Elijah stretched toward the sky on his tip toes and yawned loudly.

“What is it?” he asked in an annoyed voice.

“I think I’ve found something interesting,” Becca said.  She
sat behind a large table by the light of three candles with half a dozen books
opened and scattered around her like a nest.  At the very edge of the table was
a tower of books.  Elijah couldn’t tell if they were books she had read through
already or ones she planned on reading.  He hoped it was the former.

“Have you been to sleep yet?” Elijah asked through his
second yawn.

“Stop that,” she ordered.  “And no.  I couldn’t sleep.  I
just kept thinking about everything and I think I found something.  Look here.”

Becca grabbed one of the books already opened and pointed to
one of the pages.  It was an atlas.  Elijah rubbed his eyes and shook his head
to wake himself up.  It didn’t work.

“I got to thinking about what you said about the Magi
placing the cubes at the four corners of the world.  So I looked it up.  You
said the first cube was uncovered in Mongolia, right?”

“I think so,” Elijah said, again through a yawn.

“Look,” Becca said.  She pointed to the atlas at Mongolia. 
“Look at the reference points.  If we break up the world into four literal
quadrants, or four corners, there should be a cube in each of these quadrants. 
And you already have the starting point.  Mongolia.  The reference points are
105° East and 45° North, roughly.  If you were to draw a straight line through
to the exact opposite side of the world, you would end up here.  Somewhere off
the coast of Chile.”

“What are those coordinates?” Elijah asked, slowly beginning
to feel more awake.

“That would be 75° West and 45° South,” Becca answered.

Elijah shook his head.  “Why wouldn’t it be 105° West?”

“Because,” Becca answered, “that wouldn’t take you to the
exact opposite part of the world.”

When Elijah still looked confused, Becca led him across the
library to one of the many large globes scattered around.

“Look.  We have a starting place, right?” Becca started. 
“If you start in one place, there’s only one other mathematical possibility for
the other side.  Pretend like I just gave you a large thin stick and asked you
to pierce the globe here in this precise spot with it, but it had to go through
the exact center of the globe.  In this case, we have Mongolia as our starting
point.  Then look.”  She held her finger on Mongolia and turned the globe
around to point to her place off the coast of Chile.  “This is the only other
possibility.”

They returned to the books on the table.

“So you’re saying that you think another cube is off the
coast of Chile?” Elijah asked.

“Yes,” she said.  “But I think I’ve found more.  Better than
that, I think I may have figured out exactly where they are hidden.”

“How?” Elijah asked.

“Let me get there.  First, let me show you where the other
two are hidden.  This one was trickier.  If we were talking about finding the
cross section on a two-dimensional object, that would be one thing, but a
sphere isn’t two-dimensional.  So the possibilities of finding a cross section
are nearly infinite.”

“Huh?” said Elijah.

“Never mind,” Becca said shaking her head.  “I ended up just
using the area you said Olivia was traveling to.  “Sierras de Cazorla, right?”

“Right,” Elijah said, not following at all.

“Well, since Olivia found that location, I just plotted out
the exact opposite spot, and I came here.”  She pointed to the atlas in the
book just off the coast of New Zealand.  “Whakatane is a city northeast of New
Zealand.  It would be exactly opposite of the Sierras de Cazorla.  Assuming
Olivia is correct, and of course our theory is correct, the other cube should
be there.”

Elijah stood up to pace and get a little more clarity.  “So you’re
saying you think the other three cubes are in Spain, New Zealand and…what was
the other one?”

“Chile,” Becca answered.  “Not to mention Mongolia.”

“But we found that one,” Elijah said.

“Yes,” Becca replied, “but it’s still important, especially
when I show you this.”  The next book Becca pulled out was called
A Magi
History of Ancient Cities and Tribes
.  She thumbed through a few pages of
maps and eventually pointed to what appeared to be Mongolia.  “Look.”

Elijah looked at the map.  It looked to be mostly empty,
missing the plethora of city labels Elijah was used to seeing on maps.  There
was one city, however, located in the northwestern part of Mongolia called Sinteri.

“What’s Sinteri?” Elijah asked.

“Used to be a Magi city,” Becca explained.  “It’s now
ruins.”

Becca flipped the pages and turned to a map of New Zealand. 
She pointed at the north eastern side, the same place she pointed to earlier when
showing Elijah where she thought the cube was located.

“Starling,” Elijah stated when he read the map.

“Yes,” said Becca.  “Starling also used to be a Magi city. 
It’s now ruins.”

Elijah looked at Becca.  She seemed to be trying to get him
to understand something, but whether it was the early morning or because he was
a complete idiot, he wasn’t getting her message.  She flipped again.