The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (38 page)

The white sails were dropped and as soon as the rope was
released, two men dressed in white stood underneath the sails, raised their
hands, and flung them forward toward the sails.  Immediately, the boat lunged
forward and shot out into the ocean, faster than Elijah had ever traveled
before.  He had to hold on to the side to keep from being hurled overboard. 
The water directly in front of the boat was as smooth as glass.  There was a
man dressed in blue standing at the very front who waved his hands every so
often when the water began to get the least bit choppy, and it would suddenly
turn the water as still as a pond, making the boat go even faster.  The sails
looked as though they were going to rip off the masts, but they held.  It
wasn’t long before Elijah needed to go inside to keep from being sick.

The first two days, everyone slept almost the entire day. 
Isaac woke up for every meal, but he returned to his bunk immediately after to
continue snoozing.

By the third and fourth day, Elijah and his friends began to
get quite irritable with each other, living in such tight quarters.  Elijah thought
it was a good thing it was only a four-day journey.  He couldn’t imagine having
to live in these conditions for much longer.

As soon as
The Inferno
approached land, Demitri
called Elijah and his friends to his cabin to talk.

“Now we ain’t got no ports ‘round Almeria, so yer gonna be
let off at a common port.”

“Thank you,” said Paul, still acting as the elder.  He
seemed to be relishing his new role.

The Inferno
soon slowed significantly, and the men
dressed in white and blue disappeared completely.  The boat began to sail normally.

All six of Elijah’s friends leaned over the bow and watched
as they pulled into the port.  They passed a large, white rocky mountain
formation towering above the local town, which reminded them that they were
very far from anything they knew.  Elijah’s heart thumped rapidly as he watched
the local common people gaze at the impressive galleon cruising into the
harbor.  In just moments, they would be let out into a completely new country
with no guide and no one to help them get to where they were going.  Elijah
thought of his friends who had never even experienced commoner practices.  He
wondered if they were as terrified as he was.

Demitri and his crew quickly tied the ship to the dock and
said goodbye.  And as
The Inferno
sailed away, Elijah and his friends
stood on the dock, staring at the city in front of them, each carrying a pack
full of their things, wondering what they had just gotten themselves into.

Chapter
18:

PAUL’S TRANSFORMING EXPERIENCE

“What do we do now?” Paul asked.  He stood on the dock with
his mouth slightly agape as he watched large crowds of people walk by, some
staring a little longer than normal at their funny clothes.

Elijah knew this was his time.  His mission.  His responsibility.

“We need to find a bus,” he said.

“A what?” Isaac asked.

“A bus.  It’s kind of like a large car.”

“A large what?”

Elijah chuckled, realizing that most of his friends had
probably never seen an automobile in their life, being born and raised in
Savenridge.   “Never mind,” he said.  “Just follow me.” 

Elijah led his friends down the dock and stopped when they
came to the closest street.  He knew they needed to get to a major street to
find a bus station.  He just hoped they could ride it all the way to the
Sierras de Cazorla.

Suddenly, he realized a problem.  They had no Spanish
currency.  He doubted the bus driver would accept gold coins with strange
writing on them.

“We need to see if we can take the bus all the way to
Cazorla, but I just realized we have no money,” Elijah said.  “I suppose we can
try to hitchhike, but with all six of us, that may be difficult.”

“What about a train?” Hannah asked.  Elijah was surprised
Hannah knew what a train was, but then he remembered her saying something about
traveling to Europe with her family.  He wondered if all of his friends were
familiar with more than he gave them credit for.  That is, until Isaac stepped
off the curb completely oblivious to his surroundings and into the oncoming
traffic.  If it wasn’t for Paul’s quick reflexes, Isaac would have been crushed
by a large, white van.

“What the heck was that?!?” Isaac asked hyperventilating,
his eyes popping out of his sockets.  “Some kind of dragon?!?”

“That, my friend, would be the car you asked about earlier,”
Becca said.  “You almost got to meet one face to…er…windshield.”

Isaac turned a ghostly white and had to sit down on the curb
with his head between his legs.  In the meantime, Elijah returned to Hannah’s
earlier inquiry.

“A train would be great.  Except it’s probably more
expensive than a bus.  Or hitchhiking.  Plus, I don’t even know if there are
any train stations around here.”

“Sure there is,” Hannah said.  “Just follow the blue signs
that have a picture of a train on them.”  She pointed to a sign down the street
with a picture of a train and an arrow pointing northwest.

“I guess that works,” Elijah chuckled.  “But we still have
no money.”

“Leave that to me,” Hannah said.  “Give me one hour.”

She pranced off toward the station and crossed the street. 
Apparently, she knew more about the common people here than Elijah did.

Paul was also looking rather green.  He stared suspiciously
at the cars whizzing by.  He wasn’t a complete wreck like Isaac, but he did
look apprehensive.

“Okay guys,” Elijah said, turning around.  “We’re gonna go
to a train station. Hannah’s looking for—” He stopped mid-sentence as soon as
he saw Becca and Adam standing over Isaac, who was lying flat on the ground.

“He passed out,” Becca said.  Adam was fanning Isaac’s face.

“Maybe we should just leave him,” Paul said sarcastically. 
Becca stood up to give Paul her best glare.  “It was a joke!  Sort of.”

When Isaac finally came to, Elijah and Paul helped him to
his feet and stood under each arm to help him walk to the train station.  They
walked six and a half blocks before they came to a large white building with
shiny windows.  Each time a car would pass by, Isaac would dig his nails into Paul
and Elijah’s shoulders.  Paul would wince in pain every time Isaac dug into his
skin, but he refrained from commenting because he himself was quite taken with
the busy world around him.  Becca also seemed to be a bit skittish.  Elijah
remembered her talking about studying the common world in Malpetra, so he took
it for granted that she was comfortable.  While she didn’t have the same
panicked look as Isaac or the look of awe like Paul, she seemed perplexed
glancing around at everything, like she was recollecting her notes during a
test.

Once they entered the station and Isaac was able to sit
down, his color returned.  Elijah kept him seated inside thinking that if a car
caused him to pass out, a high speed train was sure to put him into a coma.

It only took Hannah thirty-six minutes to return.  She came
skipping toward them with a handful of cards, looking like she was having the
time of her life.

“I think we’re set to go,” she said.  “I actually got nine,
in case one didn’t work.”

“What are they?” Paul asked.

“Railway passes,” she said.  “Common people buy these for a
week or so at a time to travel around.  It’s like a week-long ticket.”

“How did you get them?” Elijah asked, perplexed.

“I asked,” she explained.  “I just told people we were
traveling and needed to get back home and wondered if I could use their card.”

“And they just gave it to you?” Paul asked skeptically.

“Yup.  These are probably used up most of the way, which is
why I got extras.  It takes a while, but if you ask the right way, common
people are generous!  My family did this when we traveled.  It’s kind of an
adventure.”  Her green eyes sparkled.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Elijah said.  “Let’s go!”

“Where are we going?” Isaac asked fearfully.  His pale color
was returning.

“The rest of us are going to find Olivia,” Paul said.  “You
can stay here if you want.”

Isaac looked like he wanted to cry.

“We’re going on a train,” Elijah said, trying to encourage
Isaac.  “Just keep close to me.  You’ll be fine.”

During the ride, Isaac gripped the seat in front of him so
hard his knuckles turned white.  Every time the train slowed down to stop, he
let go and grabbed both sides of his seat for balance like he had just been
startled awake.  It was quite amusing to everyone but Isaac, who was so scared
he didn’t notice his friends and even some of the common people snickering at
him.

Elijah also noticed a few stares coming their way from the
common people.  It must have looked amusing to see six teenagers dressed in
their brown training gear and boots and their overcloaks dangling around their
chest.  Perhaps they thought he and his friends were part of some performance,
and they were traveling in uniform to get to the stage.

Sierras de Cazorla was a Spanish national park just outside
of a town called Pozo Alcón.  Elijah and his friends had to take a connecter
train and then a bus ride to get to Pozo Alcón. It was fortunate Hannah had
gotten extra cards because both Paul and Becca’s cards ran out of money—Paul’s
during the changing of trains and Becca’s when they boarded the bus.

The bus ride took three hours to get to Pozo Alcón.  The
minute they stepped off the bus, they felt an immediate change in temperature. 
Even in December, the Spanish coast kept a mild temperature where only a coat
was necessary.  Here in the town, just outside of the sierras where the
elevation was much higher, the temperature was quite cold.  It reminded Elijah
more of the Savenridge weather.  The ground looked as though it had snowed
heavily a few days ago and was just now starting to clear up, leaving only
patches of it near the roads.

“Let’s find a place to collect ourselves,” Elijah said to
the others.  He wanted to get away from the common people before they began
talking about a plan to find Olivia.  Maybe it was the colder temperature or
the lack of crowds hustling and bustling around, but he felt much more comfortable
and alone here than back at the port.

They walked through the center of Pozo Alcón, which reminded
Elijah of the Savenridge marketplace with shops and a few stores open for
business.  It didn’t have the same feel of Christmas like it did in Savenridge,
and there were far fewer people on the streets, but there was a basic
similarity.  There was an obvious gateway feel to the Spanish town as Elijah
looked up into the mountains from the city center.  The town seemed to be just
a layover before entering the mountains that towered above.  Elijah wondered if
he could talk his friends into traveling into the sierras before nightfall.

Elijah didn’t know what he was looking for, but he wanted privacy. 
He found a spot just outside the town at the foot of the mountain range where a
small waterfall, about only five or six feet high, came down off a stream from
the closest mountain and funneled off into the distance a few miles away from
the town.  No one was around, and there were a few rocks and dead logs lying
around where they could sit and rest.  It was a perfect place to plan.  Elijah
unloaded by a rock and the others followed his lead.

“Okay, now what?” Paul asked before Elijah could say anything.

“Well, I think first things first,” Elijah answered.  “We
need to fill up on food and water.  Then we need to decide if we’re going to go
into the mountains now or wait until morning.”

“Why wait?” Paul blurted.  “It’s not like it’s going to get
any easier or warmer tomorrow.  Plus, there’s bound to be more food inside
there than right here.”  He dug his crossbow out of the pack.  “I’ll do
whatever.  Just let me go catch us some food right now.  You all decide what
we’re gonna do and let me know when I get back.”

“Don’t you have an opinion about how to search for Olivia?”
Elijah asked.

“Let the barbarian catch his food, Elijah,” Becca said. 
“It’s been a whole four months since he’s killed something.”

“Yes ma’am,” Paul said, saluting Becca.  Then he ran off
into the mountains and took Isaac with him.

Elijah shook his head.  It was probably easier making
decisions with Becca, Hannah, and Adam anyway.

“So how do we get to Orphea?” Elijah asked.  “That’s the
first place I would look for Olivia.”

Becca dug into her pack and opened up the map.  As she did
this, Hannah and Adam filled the canteens from the small falls behind them.

“I’m not sure exactly,” said Becca, “but I think this is
where we are, and here’s where it says Orphea is.”  Becca pointed to where she
thought they were and it looked as though Orphea was about six miles to the
northeast, right by a lake.  “If we get a head start now and find a good spot
to build camp, we could be there by noon tomorrow.  If we’re lucky.”  She
looked toward the mountains.  “And if our lovely huntsman can get us some
food.”

Elijah chuckled.  “I’m more worried about finding Olivia.  Do
you think she’s here?  I mean, it’s been months, right?  Could she still be
here?”

“I sure hope so,” Becca answered.  “Otherwise we might be
stuck.”

Elijah sighed.  He had come so far without really thinking
about the possibility of him failing his mission.  What would happen if they
never found Olivia?  What would happen if they never found any of the cubes? 
It was a very real possibility.  The cubes had been hidden for almost a
thousand years and nobody had found them.  How could
he
expect to find
them so easily?

Elijah, Becca, Hannah, and Adam waited for two hours until
Paul and Isaac returned with two animal carcasses, a rabbit and a red
squirrel.  Paul had used some of the blood from the carcasses to paint his
face, most likely to irritate Becca, which worked.