Zeid had gestured behind us to the group that was walking far enough behind us to keep out of trouble. It was evident that they had dropped back to keep me from turning and talking to them.

  “Cowards!” I yelled back at them. The Priscillas each gave me an obscene hand gesture which was spoiled by them laughing so hard they almost fell out of the air. “Now where did they learn that?” I asked Zeid

  “Is that one of your questions?”

  “Okay, it is.”

  “Can’t answer. I have no idea. You will have to ask the Priscillas.”

  By then I was getting the idea of where this was going to go, but it was still worth a try. Before I began, Zeid held up his hand. “One more thing. I will not answer any questions about us. Those memories will have to come back to you on your own.”

  “Fair enough,” I said. Zeid was right. I was planning to ask him those questions first. I sorted through my questions in my head and decided to ask whatever was up next instead of trying to pick which one was the most important.

  “Okay. Why don’t you use that projection thing you guys can do more often?”

  “I am not as good at it as you might think. For me, it takes up quite a bit of energy, which unless it is necessary I prefer to save for other things. However, if it is needed, I will do it. Other people find it as easy as walking. I prefer walking. I like to feel the movement.”

  Zeid finished and looked at me expectantly.

  “Okay, here’s another. Remember after one of the battles with the Shrieks, I was told that Ruta traveled by tree? No one ever told me what that meant.”

  Zeid turned around and looked back at Ruta who gave me a look which I guess Zeid knew to be a yes because he answered me. “Ruta is related to trees.”

  That didn’t surprise me. Ruta always reminded me of a block of wood with elf-like qualities. But that raised even more questions. I left those questions alone and asked again, “But how does he travel by tree?

  “He steps into the tree and goes with the flow. The flow could go up, or across the forest tree to tree, or down into the roots.”

  “What? How can he do that? Does he melt into the tree?“

  “Kind of like that. But I don’t know more about how. And if you are going to ask how Ruta became a healer, or anything about his past, or family, that is for him to answer.”

  “Okay. Here’s a simple one. When I first came to the Castle, Earl and Suzanne were talking about the metal toadstools not being on the grid. What grid?”

  “You’re right, that’s an easy one. They were talking about the communication systems that we use. The metal toadstools, as you call them, can’t tap into those systems. That’s because we worry that Abbadon might make use of them. As you know, he seems to have a way with machines.”

  I nodded—that made sense. “Now I have one I can’t work out at all. I was gone only two years from Erda, but I remembered two lifetimes (although short ones) in the Earth dimension. How do people travel through the portals when they would keep ending up going backward or forwards?

  “For example, if I ever got to revisit my Earth home, everyone would be much, much, older. I don’t get it. When Suzanne or Leif visited, it was the same time in both places when they returned.”

  While I was talking, I could feel Zeid tensing up. When I was done asking the question, he turned to Niko who was now right behind us and said, “Not one I can answer. This question is all yours.”

  Niko smiled and came up beside us and said. “It’s tricky. The portal adjusts the time.”

  “Every portal adjusts the time?” I asked.

  “As far as we know,” Niko answered. “And yes, if the timing didn’t work that would be a bit of a mess, wouldn’t it?”

  For the rest of the walk we were all silent. Niko hadn’t really answered my question. And something about portals and time was nagging at me, but I didn’t have the question yet, let alone the answer.

  Actually, that was the problem with everything going on with Deadsweep. We didn’t know the question yet. Maybe we should start there.

  Thirty-Three

  On the surface, everything at the Castle looked pretty much the same as it did before we left. Before we discovered the horrible things going on in Dalry.

  The Castle is so big nothing changed when all the Castle staff and their families were brought inside. Once everyone was in, the doors were shut until further notice. That was one reason we arrived through the underground tunnels. The outside doors were bolted.

  Until we popped up in the Atrium, I didn’t even know there was an entrance to the tunnels in the Castle. It was probably one of the many secrets hidden within those Castle walls.

  I didn’t know who arranged it so that we popped up inside the Atrium, but I sent them a blast of gratitude. I suspected it was Teddy’s doing.

  Being in the atrium was almost as delightful as being outside. The sides of the atrium were four stories high and was filled with trees and flowers. The atrium was so beautiful I laughed out loud with happiness. Although the glass ceiling was closed, the sun was streaming in and felt warm and soft on my face.

  I remembered the first time I saw the atrium’s garden. It had reminded me of Sarah’s garden in the Earth Realm. It still did, and I wondered if perhaps Sarah had a hand in its creation.

  It was lunchtime by the time we arrived. The table was loaded with food. The metal toadstools stood by as always to bring us more if we wanted it. Although everything looked the same, the atmosphere in the Castle had changed. I knew everyone felt it. But we all ignored it as we sat around the table laughing and enjoying each other.

  We were buying time, just as the walk to the Castle had bought us time. Every one of us needed time to think about what Pita and Teddy had told us and what it meant.

  Plus we needed to rest. Based on what we had heard, we were going to have some traveling to do. But first we needed a plan, and that’s what we didn’t have.

  After lunch, everyone went their separate ways. We were to meet in a few hours in Professor Link’s classroom. It was the same room where he had tried to teach me magic. I guess he showed me something because I did have some magic skills now. At least I had more magic skills than I had a few months ago.

  But I knew what Link would say. He would say that I didn’t get them—I remembered them. He would add that the need to remember was true for everyone. You didn’t get your skills. You had them. And then sometimes forgot them, or ignored them, or put them down as not useful or not spectacular enough.

  Link told me that the labeling of skills, making one more important than another, is dangerous. Well, Link says it’s idiotic, which kind of sounds like labeling to me, but I know what he means.

  This is the man who can step into a fire and then pull flames out and use it to light the herbs in a ceremonial bowl. When I once talked to the Professor about the time I saw him do that and remarked how awesome it was, he made a face like something was stinky and slapped that idea down immediately.

  “What about the person who cooks your meals, Kara Beth? Or plants the flowers you love and helps them thrive? Or built the houses we stay in? Or the stone smith, the storyteller, or the person who takes care of the sick?

  “These skills may not be flashy, but we need them. Wishing you could step into a fire without being burned is wishing for an illusion. It means nothing. Wish to be of service. Know that what is needed at the moment is something you can provide. Perhaps it is a flame, but just as important it might be a bowl of food or a song.”

  I had stayed in the garden while I waited for the meeting thinking about that, and that’s where Professor Link found me.

  “So you are thinking about the conversation about magic and skills?” he asked.

  “I am. I’m also thinking about what Suzanne said as we were preparing our plan to stop the Shrieks and Shatterskin. She reminded us that it is the community that will defeat Abbadon. Not just one person. She was right. When we stopped the Shrieks and Shatterskin, it was all of us doing what we do best, but not by ourselves.

  “I am beginning to see how it is impossible to do anything on our own. Everything, literally everything, is connected. How can Abbadon not see that?”

  Link squinted at me. I used to be afraid of that squint. Maybe I still was, but now I knew that sometimes the squint was a good thing. “Kara, I think he does know that everything is connected, but doesn’t like it. It’s part of his driving force to rip that connection apart.

  “The fact that the infection he is sending across the planet does rip friends and families apart is delightful to him. He can get us to attack each other, while he sits back in his version of a Castle and gloats. I think he is trying to prove to himself that connection is what is evil and not him.”

  There wasn’t anything I could say to that. It was inconceivable to me that someone could believe such a thing, and then make it his life’s mission to destroy connection and then all life forms. It would leave him on a dead planet. What good would that do? Abbadon uses his victims as sources of power. Once he depletes them, they die. Sooner or later there would be no one left. Had he not thought this through? He would die too without life around him.

  “Perhaps he thinks he can reinvent life,” Link said.

  I looked at Link in bewilderment. But there was nothing to say. What if he could? Was it possible?

  Link and I sat in the garden together watching the butterflies and bees move from flower to flower. They were a beautiful symbol of our interconnection and need for each other. If Abbadon thought he could reproduce that, he was delusional. But then we all knew that he was. The question was, how do you stop a crazy person?

  Link answered my unspoken question. “In Abbadon’s case by stopping his latest monster, Deadsweep. Then we will go after him.”

  I nodded at Link and then lay back onto the mossy ground, felt the breath of the earth moving through me, and fell asleep.

  When I woke, Link was gone, and I was refreshed and ready. I knew there was a solution, and I knew we would find it. We had to. There was no room for failure.

  Thirty-Four

  The Priscillas were waiting for me in my room when I stopped in to splash water on my face in preparation for the meeting. I hadn’t seen them all day. Usually, they were hanging in my pocket or riding in Cahir’s fur. Come to think of it; I had no idea where Cahir was either. Or Beru. I had been so caught up in the Deadsweep problem I hadn’t realized they were missing.

  What was wrong with me? How could I not have noticed that my friends were not around me as they usually were? It was a rift in my thinking. Maybe that was how the infection began. It made you forget your friends?

  The idea that perhaps I was already infected with Abbadon’s Deadsweep made me feel like throwing up. I tried to sit down on the bed and missed, ending up on the floor. In the middle of being upset about Deadsweep, instead of doing something useful, I was as clumsy as ever.

  Maybe someday I wouldn’t be as awkward. Maybe. On the other hand, perhaps I would be known as the Clumsy Princess. The one who no longer lived because she died in the Deadsweep epidemic.

  Usually, my clumsiness would cause the Priscillas to break out into their tinkling bell laughter. This time they barely smiled.

  “Ziffer. I am infected, aren’t I? That’s why I haven’t seen you, and you look so miserable. Did the Whistle Pigs prepare another jail room? You better put me in jail, right now, before it gets worse.”

  “Oh for Pete’s sake, Kara, snap out of it,” Pris said. “You’re not infected with anything other than human idiocy. Some days you display worse stupidity than others. Perhaps you’ll grow out of it. But right now you are acting ridiculous. Everything is not all about you.”

  “Oh. An idiot. No big deal,” I said as I picked myself up and sat on the bed. I did notice that Pris didn’t pull my hair to emphasize her point. That too was unusual.

  “What’s going on? Why are the three of you so glum? Your wings aren’t even sparkling.”

  I gathered the three of them and put them in my lap where they sat looking like Tinkerbell when no one believed in her. I didn’t think that clapping my hands together was going to help them.

  “What can I do?”

  They just sat there shaking their heads, wings drooping. Pris was even missing a bow from her pigtails.

  “Okay, you don’t have to talk, but you are coming with me to the meeting.”

  Tucking the three of them in the crook of my arm, I stooped to pick up the tiny bow I had spotted on the floor. I put that in my pocket. I knew Pris would perk up soon. The three of them were some of the happiest beings I had ever met. They were courageous and loyal. Whatever was bothering them would not keep them down, and Pris would want to be looking perfect when we headed off to stop the Deadsweep.

  *******

  The atmosphere in Link’s classroom was almost as downbeat as the Priscillas mood. Almost. Because standing at the front of the room was Pita looking as upbeat as he had ever looked.

  That’s not to say that knowing how a Ginete is feeling is an easy tell. But his eyes were a bright gold, and he winked at me when I came in the room, causing me to stumble over a chair.

  Had Pita ever winked at me? Do Ginete wink? Did I imagine it? I straightened up and headed to my seat amidst titters of laughter over my stumble. Didn’t I say I would be known as the Clumsy Princess?

  In the middle of the stumble, I looked at Pita’s face again. Yep. He winked at me. I wasn’t sure if anyone else had noticed. However, the laughter at my expense did seem to have lightened up the mood a bit.

  If that is what it took to brighten people’s days, I could stumble around all the time. I could include it as one of my magical skills.

  I sat in the empty chair beside Beru. She reached over and slid her hand across the top of mine, and we wiggled our fingers at each other, reminding me once again how much she meant to me. If I had a sister, I would have wanted her to be just like Beru.

  Beru leaned over, and whispered, “Me, too.”

  “Well, then,” I whispered back, “Love you, sis.”

  We laughed together, and although a few faces turned to look at us, they weren’t angry at our laughing. They were curious about what could be joyful in the middle of this crisis, and they wanted in on it. Beru and I wiggled our fingers at everyone, and a few smiles broke out.

  Zeid slid into the seat beside me and whispered, “That’s my girl. Sparking joy. I’ll take that in a Clumsy Princess any day.”

  The face I turned towards him must have been beaming because a bolt of happiness had shot up inside of me so hard that I almost levitated out of my chair. I was Zeid’s girl. Sure I had been told that I was. But this time I felt it. He chose me.

  Pita cleared his throat to get our attention. He was standing on a platform so that we could all see him.

  “I know some of you are wondering why I am here since I had stayed behind to get some answers. I know you are hoping that I have some.”

  “Do you?” John asked. “I know we are ready for some. So if you do, could you get on with it? All I can think about is what you told us last time. It’s not an infection in the same way that a virus is an infection. That was good news. But what you told us was even scarier. So are you planning to scare us again and have no answers?”

  Although John’s way of speaking was often harsh, he brought up things people were thinking, so a wave of agreement went around the room. It didn’t faze Pita at all. Instead, he waited until it passed and then Pita said, “We have more answers. And we have some ideas on how to stop it. How does that sound to you?”

  He glanced over at me, and I winked at him. Now I understood the message.

  Thirty-Five

  Pita had hope. That’s what I knew Pita was telling me. And he wanted me to support his message.

  Once he had everyone’s attention, Pita began his story. The Ginete and the Whistle Pigs had an idea they thought would work. First Pita went over what they had discovered the day before while Zeid and I had been in the village talking to the dead man’s family.

  Using the suits, breathers, and goggles as protection, they had taken samples from all three men. None of them showed a viral infection, which led them back to what in the Earth dimension might have been called a mental illness.

  What made this different is that they knew that this mental illness was something that Abbadon had caused. It had turned three loving and happy men into what we had seen. They became killers, almost overnight.

  But how did they become infected? The answer was so creepy that all of us had nightmares since Pita had shown us. They had discovered the culprit by accident.

  The body of the dead man had been left in the sub-zero room to preserve it until they knew more. The morning Zeid and I were in the village, Pita had just happened to glance in the window to the room, and saw something crawl out of the dead man’s ear.

  It was lucky timing, because if Pita hadn’t seen it crawl out it might have disappeared forever. Pita captured it and then he and Teddy studied it. They concluded that the little worm had been living in the man’s brain and had probably done all that damage.

  Just hearing Pita talk about it again made my skin crawl. Pita had brought along the worm inside of a bottle. It was about an inch long and looked like an ordinary earthworm. Except on closer inspection, the skin was rubber, and there was a tiny red spot on the top of his head.