Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (23 page)

“That’s strange. An hour ago there was no key in the ignition, and now it’s there. Right there where it always is.”

“Is this smart?” asked Gracie. “None of us has a license. What if we get caught?”

“We won’t,” snapped Orie. “We’ll take the back roads. Officer Corey is our only cop, and he’s asleep. Besides, even if he did catch us, I’d tell him it was an emergency. He’s my dad’s friend. Hurry up. Close the door.”

The truck roared to life. Ten minutes later they had retrieved the transporter device from Mark’s room. On the way back out the door, Orie whispered, “Hey Mark, don’t you have a watermelon in the fridge?”

“Yes we do,” Mark whispered back.

“Get it.”

“What for?” asked Mark.

“Just get it!” Orie whispered. Even whispering, you could hear the fury in his voice. “And bring a knife too. A big one.”

Mark passed the watermelon and the knife to Orie, who was waiting in the truck. As they were pulling away, a light came on in the kitchen.

“Go man. Go,” whispered Mark.

Orie nailed it, and in no time they were on the back roads, heading back towards his house.

“Now what do we do?” asked Gracie.

“You go home,” said Orie. “Mark and Ryan can decide what they want to do, but you’re going home.”

Gracie folded her arms and pouted her lips.

“But what are
we
going to do?” asked Mark.

“First off, we’re going to hide this transporter thing,” said Orie.

“Is that what that is?” asked Ryan. “You mean that’s the thing that you use to beam to this other planet?”

“Ravenwild,” said Orie.

“Oh yeah,” said Ryan.

Orie pulled the truck over to the side of the road and told Mark to pass him the watermelon and the knife. “Look around and find me some sort of plastic bag to put this in so it won’t get wet.”

Mark found one under the seat and handed it to Orie, who had already cut a conical hole in the end of the watermelon. He slid the device inside the plastic bag, folded it multiple times, and put this in turn into the watermelon, carefully replacing the rind of the watermelon back into the hole.

“Why did you do that, Orie?” asked Ryan.

“A theory I have,” he said. “Look, when we get to the barn I’m going to jump out and hide this under my dad’s workbench.”

Ten minutes later they were all in the living room, having dropped Gracie off at her mother’s house. Seconds after that they were all asleep. Each was surprised when they awoke around noon and their strange visitor had not reappeared.

Over cereal and toast Orie announced his plan.

“We have to go to Boston,” he said.

“To Boston?” they both exclaimed. “Why to Boston?”

“We have to get that thing analyzed. My dad worked with this guy for a summer at M.I.T.. He is a physics professor... some math genius. I figure this thing has to be a computer so, like on our computer, you can look at the memory to see which commands were the last ones entered, it must be the same with this one. All we have to know is: What was the last command entered, and it will show it was for three people, Dad, Mom and Hemlock. So we enter the same command and the three of us can beam there. Or, we can look at the command before that, and we will see that it was for two people, and two of us can go.”

They all jumped when Minos Arterios stepped out of the laundry room. “Very well thought out, Orie,” he said, “And you know, you are absolutely correct. But tell me something, how did you plan on getting back home?”

Orie didn’t answer. He was too busy kicking himself for having shot off his mouth before they had checked the house to make sure they were alone.

Mark and Ryan exchanged a quick glance.

There was a brief silence.

Orie spoke next. In a way, he was gambling everything on his theory. Also, he had decided to trust this man, wizard, whatever. Hemlock had never seemed like a “stand-up guy” as his dad liked to say. There was always something about him that led you away from trust. And sometimes you have to choose whom you trust. “Okay,” said Orie. “We have a thing, it looks kind of like a TV remote, but I’m betting it’s a computer of some sort; one that is capable of altering the mathematics of our existence, and therefore shift our physical locations, using some type of mathematical mirror, to put us in another parallel dimension. I’m also betting you have no idea where it is.”

His stomach roiled. They had left the watermelon right in the truck in plain sight. He guessed Minos Arterios already knew this, but maybe not. They had completely forgotten to stop at the barn and hide it. He began to sweat a little. His only bargaining chip was that device, and if Minos Arterios, who clearly wanted it for some reason, had it, he was conceivably out of options for going after his sister. “Crap,” he thought. “That was
so
stupid.”

Minos Arterios stared at Orie. His look was one of genuine admiration, respect even, although his face was always a difficult read, and mostly covered in shadow from the hood of his robe, which he never took down. “Well played, lad,” he said. “Well played. And correct to a fault. So where does that leave us?”

Mark and Ryan also stared at Orie with mouths open. Now they knew why he was in Advanced Science.

“What are you offering as a solution to fetching my sister, and Mom and Dad, from this Ravenwild place?”

“You will go there now. I will provide you with detailed real-time maps of all the countries in computer format that you will download onto your laptop, and change-shift with, to Ravenwild. When you get there these files will have been transmuted into regular parchment maps. They will occupy a knapsack’s worth of things you will have to carry along with you, but do not lose them. They will be the whole key to always knowing where you and the others are.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” interrupted Orie. “You said, ‘you’. You’re not going?”

“That is correct,” said Minos Arterios. “For reasons I have neither the time nor the liberty of going into, I cannot venture to Inam'Ra at this time. I am, unfortunately, involved in other matters of a more pressing nature to which I must attend.

“Now, listen. Most beings refer to the planet of ‘Inam'Ra’ as ‘Ravenwild’, because it is the name of the country where the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves live. But the name of the world, Inam'Ra, appears on some of the maps, and I don’t want any confusion. You will bring weapons. I have obtained them for you. They are outside. You will arm yourselves, pack up the survival supplies that are with them, travel there, and rescue your sister. After that you will find your mother and father.

“And remember this, the positions of all of them as of when you transport will be clearly marked on the map as dots. Know that
the positions of the dots will change as their actual positions change.

“Now, about rescuing Stephanie: As I have said, her position will be indicated on the maps. It will be up to you how you go about it.

“There is one other thing.

“You will most likely have to kill to rescue her, to even survive yourselves. Can you do this?”

Orie thought for a second. “I can,” he said.

“Can they?”

Mark looked at Ryan. They both nodded, “Yes.”

“In that case, the only question that remains is, are these lads accompanying you on this perilous mission?”

Orie looked at Mark and Ryan.

“I’m in,” said Mark without hesitation.

“Me too,” said Ryan.

“I’m going too,” announced Gracie, walking in the back door. Nobody moved, too caught up in the intensity of the moment.

“That will not be possible,” said Minos Arterios. “The technology we have at our disposal will permit a maximum of three to be change-shifted. The sum of the combined reflections of as many as three is pushing it, but these lads are small. It shouldn’t be a problem.

“Go then,” he said. “Our window to do the change-shift is closing. Get your weapons on.”

The boys stood. Out the backdoor they went and down to the truck.

When they returned, strapped to the back of each was a broadsword. They also sported a bow, a quiver of arrows, and several long-knives tucked here and there. They had found three ancient-looking, stitched rucksacks made of some sort of animal skin with leather straps hanging off the sides. Inside each of these 'survival backpacks' they discovered food in tins and a rudimentary medical supply kit which held the most basic toiletries, medications, and wound-management supplies. There was quite a bit of rummaging about as the boys searched for outfits and such that fit. To Gracie’s surprise, when they were done and Orie had checked everybody off, there was a lot left over.

Orie looked at Grace, “Well, I guess this is it. Goodbye.” They hugged. Gracie had tears in her eyes as she hugged the other two. Then she turned and walked off up the driveway.

“Let’s get it done,” said Orie.

Neither of the other two said a word. They climbed back up the stairs and went straight to the living room, but were surprised that Minos Arterios was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he?” asked Ryan. Mark began to speak, almost to himself. “This is all pretty freaky. How
do
we know we can trust this guy? Are we sure we want to do this? Wizards? Transporter things to beam us to another planet? I don’t know, man, but I’m not sure we can trust this guy … ”

Orie was not paying attention to Mark’s mutterings. He was busy trying to figure something out. He would bet money that Minos Arterios needed the transporter device to transport himself to where he wanted to go. That had to be it. Why else would he hang around with a bunch of kids when he had ‘more important matters’ he needed to get to?

“Wait here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

He went down the back stairs and retrieved the watermelon. As he had guessed, it was right where they had left it. He was going back up to the house when, suddenly, out of the shadows, Gracie appeared, moving towards him silent as a wraith. To his greater surprise, she was dressed in battle garb, complete with medieval weaponry.

“I’m going,” she said. Her tone said that she was not going to take no for an answer.

“You can’t go,” said Orie. “You heard Minos, only three of us can go. The transporter won’t support any more.”

“I’m going,” she said, even more forcefully this time. “Stephanie is
my
best friend. You might need me. I can ride. I’m going, and that’s final.”

They talked for a few more minutes, and Orie went back up and rejoined Mark and Ryan. He went straight to the refrigerator and put the watermelon in. Minos was still a no-show, so the boys went over all of their weapons and survival gear.

“Hey, look at this,” said Ryan, discovering a pouch in his pack, “I have an extra bowstring.”

Minos suddenly appeared again out of nowhere. Mark and Ryan noticeably started. This time, however, Orie was unflappable. He felt like he did when he was on the sidelines and the kickoff receiving team was doing its thing. Then, he would don his helmet, get final instructions from the coach, and go out to do battle as the quarterback. Since he was a little boy, his ability to maintain his presence in difficult circumstances had always served him well. He had always been captain-cool when everybody else was too emotional.

“What do you want from us?” Orie asked.

“I will need you to change-shift me, and then you will change-shift yourselves to Inam'Ra. I will go over how to repeat the process to return when you have rescued Stephanie and your parents. Remember the limitations of the device. No more than two adults and one child at a time. That will mean three separate change-shifts and, unfortunately, there are only certain times when a shift is possible. This means that there will be a wait of up to weeks, maybe months, between. You will need to make yourselves safe while you wait. The device will illuminate green when a shift is possible.”

Orie went to the refrigerator and removed the watermelon. From it, he extracted the device. Minos reached for it, and Orie withdrew it out of his reach.

“Explain to me how it works,” he said.

For the next half hour, Minos explained how to operate this otherworld device. Orie never once let go of it. When he was satisfied that he understood how to operate it, he turned to Mark and Ryan.

“Gracie,” he called out.

Gracie entered through the back door.

“I’ve made a decision,” he said. “Ryan, you and I and Gracie will be going. Mark, you will be staying. Your mission will be to protect Jacqueline. You need to go get her as soon as possible and take her to my Grandmother’s house. Do you remember how to get there?”

“Yeah,” said Mark. He looked none too pleased that he had been bumped, but Stephanie and Gracie
were
best friends, and he had to respect Orie’s decision.

“What do I tell Eddie and Kendra?” he asked.

“Don’t tell them anything,” said Orie. “If they don’t know where she is, they can’t tell anybody who might want to know. All that matters is that you guys are safe. Don’t say anything to anybody.”

Minos Arterios waited patiently until Orie had finished giving his final instructions, at which point he asked, “Are we ready?”