“What the ziffer is going on,” I asked Leif as soon as the bubble landed. The short ride over, I had enfolded myself in Zeid’s arms which I thought was a place I wanted to stay. But the chaos below and the bubble landing had interrupted that.

  Zeid laughed, “Well, I think they are happy.”

  “Happy? Why?” I asked and then realized that the people in the Castle didn’t know about the frozen people caught within the black web. “Did something happen with the thought-worms?”

  “Yep!” Pita said, coming up and shaking all our hands as if we had done something. “Come see,” he said, stepping on one of the circles outlined in blue that had appeared in the yard. We dropped down into the transportation room filled with people. I recognized some of them from the village of Dalry. They were taking turns being transported up into the Castle. No wonder people were happy.

  “You got the worms out! How?”

  Instead of answering, Pita led us back to their lab where Teddy was standing looking as pleased as I had ever seen him.

  “Turtle Toes,” he yelled coming over to hug me. Who could stay unhappy after being called Turtle Toes by a giant Whistle Pig? Not me. For a moment I forgot everything and let myself feel the joy that was vibrating throughout the tunnels.

  “Once we figured it out, it was easy. Although there were a few moments that we thought it didn’t work and that we were killing them because at first everyone had what looked like a seizure. But then the worms fell out of their ears. We were afraid that the thought-worms had permanently damaged their brains, but Leif did something, and everyone stood up and was fine. Weak, but fine.”

  When I turned to Leif to ask him what he did, he shook his head, and I understood that he wasn’t going to tell us yet what he had done. We had a bigger problem to solve right now. The worms were out of the infected, but Abbadon was controlling the village of Kinver, and I suspected, Eiddwen too which is why we hadn’t heard from Aki and Suzanne. The thought-worms were still out there, and people were frozen in time and space. We could celebrate this victory later.

  Leif thanked Pita and Teddy and directed the four of us back up to the surface and into a quiet room where Earl, Ariel, and Sarah were waiting. I told them the story of what I had seen and what Liza had tried to say to me.

  “Portal? What did she mean by that?” Zeid asked.

  “That is what we are going to find out,” Leif answered.

  I hoped that Abbadon felt the rumble of our determination. I prayed that it scared the ziffer out of him. I wanted him to be terrified. I was tired of being terrified of him. We would figure it out, and then I was going after him, even if I had to go after him on my own.

  There have been times when I haven’t wanted everyone in my head, but this was not one of them. In unison, they had all answered, “You won’t be on your own.”

  Yes, we were coming after him. But first, we had a few towns to unfreeze, and a million worms to destroy.

  Fifty-Three

  Leif had asked us all to meet him in the planning room after we got cleaned up. The three of us definitely did not smell good. That worm smell was all over us. I took the fact that Zeid hugged me anyway to mean either he had lost his ability to smell things, or maybe he really loved me.

  “Of course, I do, Kara,” Zeid said stopping in the middle of a hallway. He had stayed by my side since I had stepped into the bubble.

  “Have you ever doubted it?”

  It was time to tell him the truth. “I can’t remember how we came to be a couple, Zeid. Did we choose each other or did someone choose for us?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes. It does to me,” I answered.

  “Would it mean that I loved you less if someone chose for us, Kara? What if they knew who we were to each other—who we always were to each other—and made sure that we found each other? Made sure that we didn’t make a mistake and forget our destinies together?”

  I had to think about that. Did it matter? Then I realized I had missed the essential parts of what Zeid had said.

  “We have a destiny together?” Slapping my forehead, I added, “I’m incredibly dense aren’t I? It’s what we have been doing since I came through the portal, isn’t it?”

  Zeid lowered his forehead to mine and whispered, “And Kara, destiny or not, chosen for us, or by us, you must feel that I have always loved you.

  “And you can’t keep it a secret anymore can you, because I heard you tell me that you love me. Isn’t it time you just accepted it?”

  I lifted my face to his, and we were seconds away from our first kiss, or at least the first one I remembered, when the Priscillas came flying down the hall. True to form they didn’t stop but landed on both our heads. Pris pulled my hair, and Cil pulled Zeid’s.

  “Not now, people,” Pris said. “Stuff to do. Move it.”

  Zeid and I gave each other one last look and then let ourselves be pulled away into the direction of our rooms. But this time I took with me the certain knowledge that Zeid and I were meant to be together and there was no more room for wondering about it.

  Because Pris was right, we had too much to do to spend time mooning around at each other. There would be plenty of time for that later after we completed our mission.

  Pris continued to push me down the hall towards my room. I wasn’t surprised when she came into my room with me, too. I knew Pris planned to keep my mind off the fact that Beru wasn’t there with me.

  Pris didn’t look, or even often act, as if she cared about anyone’s feelings. But like Ruta, Pris was intensely aware of everything that was going on, including all our emotions. To do that, I knew that she had a deep well of love and compassion inside of her. She just showed it differently.

  Less than an hour later we were all in the planning room, the three of us smelling much better. Leif was at the head of the table, with his staff resting once more in the corner of the room. I knew that he could summon it by thinking about it, that he had powers most of us didn’t know about, but sitting there he gave none of that away.

  It was Professor Link who asked the first question. It was to me. I was expecting it. He held up the button that I had pressed on to Zeid and said, “I gave this to you to use, not to stick on someone else.”

  I started to respond, but he held up his hand, “However, in this case, this was probably the wisest choice. You knew that Zeid could tell us what was going on and if necessary transport back there to help. So it was a wise tactical choice. But next time, you push it to get yourself home. Am I clear about that?”

  I nodded and took the button and returned it to the spot where I had ripped it off. I hoped never to use it again. And even though I agreed, I wasn’t so sure I wouldn’t do the same thing again.

  When I saw Link’s eyes darken and squint at me, I knew he knew what I was thinking. But he moved on. As Pris said, we had quite a few things to address and fighting with me about what I would do was wasting time. Besides, I had questions.

  “How did Abbadon stop us from using our magical powers? He must have done the same thing to the others before he trapped them.”

  I didn’t want to mention that I was worried that he had used the thought-worms on them first. On the other hand, now that they knew how to get the worms out of people’s heads, perhaps it wouldn’t be fatal for them.

  “Well, first he stopped us being able to communicate, so perhaps we should start there. How did he do it?” Link asked.

  Pita looked at Teddy who waved his hand at him to continue. “It’s probably the same thing. It’s actually what we were going to use to jam the signals of the thought-worms.”

  “A disrupter like the ones you made for us?” I asked, probably a little too loudly. Okay, it was loud. I yelled it, and I kept on yelling. “How did that happen? Is there a spy like you thought before? How could he possibly be making the same thing? And then, zut it, he used it first!”

  I stamped my foot, under the table. I didn’t know what else to do with the anger that surged inside of me.

  Everyone waited for me to calm down, then Pita added, “It won’t happen again. We’ve developed a system that can’t be hacked or disabled.”

  “How do you know it hasn’t been stolen again? Have you caught the traitor?”

  Leif stepped in, “Could we answer those questions for you later, Kara? Right now we need to rescue our people. All I can promise you is that all of you will have your powers and Link will be able to communicate with all of you without any disruption.”

  The fact that I didn’t know how that was going to work bothered me, but I knew it was my need to control everything that made me upset. It was stupid. The people around the table were far more skilled than me. I needed to learn how to be quiet and do what I was told.

  When I heard Zeid laughing beside me, I wanted to pinch his leg the way Beru pinched mine, but he was too quick for me. He grabbed my hand and held it while we listened to the rest of how we were going to rescue the villagers and our people.

  Didn’t sound too hard. Kidding. It scared the pants off of me.

  Fifty-Four

  Before the meeting broke up, we all thanked Earl and Ariel for the wall of water they had dumped on us. Earl explained that as soon as Zeid returned and they learned what was happening, they didn’t waste any time. They knew that water was a disruption that Abbadon couldn’t counter. Abbadon doesn’t have nature on his side.

  The rain stopped the worm’s sensors from finding us. As we had seen when the dragons pulled us away, the thought-worms became disoriented, and the worm trees toppled over.

  “What happened after that? What happened to the worms?”

  “The Priscillas’ friends happened to the worms,” Earl responded, laughing his big booming laugh.

  “What friends? What did they do to the worms?”

  “They ate them,” La said, almost tripping over her feet as she spun around in delight.

  “What could possibly eat them?” I asked, thinking of the rubbery surface and the computer parts inside.

  “Goats!” La yelled. “Goats! They said they could and they would. And they did. It was awesome.”

  “Yup!” Cil added. “We have goat teams all over Zerenity looking for those ugly buggers. By the time they’re done, there won’t be any thought-worms left anywhere. Of course, we can’t leave them unsupervised otherwise they would eat other stuff that perhaps the villagers would prefer them not to eat, like gardens.”

  “And furniture and clothes,” La added still laughing.

  I stared at the three of them, and couldn’t believe they had come up with such a simple solution. “But are you going to tell me that you move the goats to different places using Sound Bubbles?”

  “Oh that would be silly, wouldn’t it?” La said. “All those little goat feet flying over Zerenity.”

  “Well then, how are you getting them there?” I asked, almost pouting because I thought they were teasing me and this was no time to be teasing.

  Teddy held up his hand. I stared at him like he was crazy. “What are you holding your hand up for, Teddy?”

  “I have the answer!”

  “Zounds, is everyone wacko today? How? Just tell me!”

  “Goat tunnels. Well, not tunnels so much as something that moves a subway in the Earth Realm.”

  “You are moving goats through subways underground? Goat trains?”

  “Oh, that’s a good one. Yes. Goat trains. Moves them fast, keeps them contained.”

  I put my forehead down on the table. This was too much. Goat trains. But then I started thinking about what that would look like—goats popping up and down in the countryside like whack-a-moles—and I started laughing too. Soon we were all laughing so hard the cups of water and coffee on the table almost fell off from the vibrations.

  A few minutes later, after wiping the tears off my face, I said, “Oh, I needed that!”

  Leif nodded. “We all needed that. Laughter and joy is another weapon we have that Abbadon does not.”

  We were still smiling as we left the planning room heading to where we needed to go. We were mentally adjusting to our next mission. We all had a different one, but each task would be working in harmony with the whole.

  Niko, Zeid, and I were to free the villagers frozen in time and space.

  Others were handling the mental virus called Deadsweep. There was a whole Kingdom to clean, but we knew how to do it now.

  Reports of violence taking place in villages all over Zerenity had come in, but teams of Whistle Pigs, Ginete, and the goats were going to every one of them.

  The Ginete and Whistle Pigs were using the same techniques that we had used at the schoolhouse. They brought with them the drones to test people, and technology that would disrupt the signals from Abbadon to the thought-worms and the sensors within them. The hardest part was stunning the infected without hurting them.

  Since I couldn’t go with them, Pita was using a version of the sound signals that the Shrieks had used against us. Abbadon had provided us with that idea, and we were using it. It was a terrible weapon, but we weren’t using it that way. It was safer than gas and, using the correct decimals no one would suffer any damaging effects from it.

  Once the team contained each village, Leif and Sarah would transport there and reverse any mental damage that the worms may have caused to the people. They were using the same idea on them that we were going to use to rescue the frozen villages.

  On the individuals, there was always the chance that what they were doing would send them into insanity. Lock them into a place from which we could never rescue them. That’s why Leif and Sarah were doing it. They wanted to take full responsibility. In case something went wrong, it would be only their fault.

  But Kinver was ours to rescue. However, before we did, we had to find the one person who could help us. The person who understood portals better than anyone else. Who had traveled back and forth between the Earth and Erda dimensions for years. Who had lived in both places without disrupting the time continuum in either one. We had to find Suzanne. That was the first step. We were going to Eiddwen.

  As we headed to where the Sound Bubble was waiting for us, I asked the question everyone was thinking, “What if that village is frozen too?”

  “It could be worse,” Niko said. “They could all be dead.”

  No one said anything. Niko was right. They could be. I thought I had prepared for anything: tree worms, destroyed villages, or frozen villagers. But the one thing I hadn’t thought of was what we found.

  It was worse than I could have imagined.

  Fifty-Five

  We smelled it before we saw it. Not the smell of worms. That would have been much better. The air was rancid, dense, and filled with ash and the smell of fire.

  Afraid that it would alert the wrong people to our arrival, we had decided not to take the Sound Bubble. Instead, Zeid transported us back to the forest outside of Eiddwen. I couldn’t believe that only a week had passed since the day I decided to leave Eiddwen and walk back to the Castle.

  It had only been a week since I had seen the silver trail and followed it out of the village where I found Cahir waiting at the edge of the forest.

  He was waiting for us now. Even if I hadn’t smelled the smoke, I would have known something was terribly wrong. As calm as Cahir usually was, this time, he wasn’t. He was pacing back and forth and growled when he saw us arrive out of nowhere.

  Did he think that what happened was our fault? Because of how many days it had taken for us to get here?

  “Stay here,” Niko said to all of us.

  No one obeyed. Ruta, Zeid, Cahir, and I walked behind Niko until we stopped on the hill that looked down onto the village below. The last time we had looked at this view together, Aki and Beru were with us. We had marveled at the crystal blue sky and thought how lucky we were to be together on such a beautiful day.

  Now we had no idea what had happened to Aki, or if we could save Beru. And instead of a beautiful village, there was nothing. Just a black, burned out wasteland.

  I fell to my knees and screamed. I screamed so loud I was sure the hawks circling in the sky overhead heard me. I screamed as I started running, calling out for my father, Berta, Suzanne, and Aki.

  Niko and Zeid tried to grab me and stop me, but I ran the way that Beru had taught me. I breathed in the power of the earth; I reached out to the trees and let their energy flow to me. I ran faster than the wind. Even Cahir couldn’t stop me.

  I ran until I reached the village and then the reality of what had happened stopped me. There was nothing left. Blackened beams jutted up into the sky. Large pieces of burnt wood littered the street. There was nothing. All the people I had met who had been so kind to me, were gone.

  Was I responsible for this? Was it because this was our hometown? Did Abbadon hate us that much? I knew who had burned the village. I didn’t know how, but I knew that Abbadon was responsible. He was responsible for taking away my family’s home town, for the homes and lives of all the people who lived here.

  I screamed and screamed until there was nothing left inside of me. Niko, Zeid, Ruta, and Cahir stood beside me, tears running down their faces. It was okay. I had screamed for them too.

  When there was nothing left, I turned away, ready to leave, when Niko grabbed my arm.

  “Do you give up this easily? Are you still just that little girl who returned from Earth? Have you not learned anything at all?”

  I pulled my arm away and yelled, “How dare you! They are all gone. My father is dead. Abbadon won here. Don’t you get it? We lost. And now without Suzanne, we have lost Kinver too. What good did your training do here? None!”