Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (76 page)

A wallop of thunder made h
er
jump.

“As
the
magic fades,
the
storms grow more violent,” said Bone
.
“If
the
Elboni
’s
not returned to the Queen’s Mesa,
the
inter-dimensional
ity it shares with
North Star Cathedral
will be severed. O
ur world will stop turning, and everyone will die.”

“If you don’t grant me my wish, my family will be destroyed, and my father will die.”

“What
’s
a handful of
Tullah
ns worth compared to millions of
Wybbil
s?” Bone asked.

“Why does it have to be either Wybb or my family?
”
Glory
asked
.
“If you’d agree to give me
a
wish, we could save both.”

“Quit saying that word,” Bone reminded.

“What did I say?
”
This time,
Glory
hadn’t realized
s
he even said it.

“I give up,” said Bone
.

“Tell me,”
Glory
said
.
“What I saw in the Bamboozle—was it real?”

“As real as fear itself,” Bone said.

“Don’t give me this vague crap!”
Glory yelled in frustration
.
“
My family i
s in serious trouble
, but nobody cares!
”

Needle said
.
“
I
t’s out of our hands
.
Only someone
with pure intentions,
in the good graces of the
Elboni
,
can get what
she
ask
s
for
.
And there’s even more to it than that.
”

“How do you know I’m not in the good graces of the
Elboni
if you don’t even try to give me a wish?”

“
Not only are ye a
Tullah
n, a liar
,
and a
Stone Napper—ye be a destroyer of worlds as well
.
Need I say more?
”

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be that way
.
It’s just
...
”
m
emories of George reaching for her, crying her name, filtered through her mind in slow motion
.
If she didn’t save her family, little George might be lost forever
.

“
I don’t
want
Wybb to suffer. It
’s just that I don’t know what
else
to do.”

“Return the
Elboni
,” Needle said.

“I’ll lose my family.”

“
We’ll lose our world.”

“My family
is
my world.”

“
It be pointless to reason with this one,” Bone said.

“Aye,
”
White Feather said with contempt and threw a
n extra
napkin at h
er
. “Now wipe your filthy chin. Lady
Gost
is waiting.
”

They entered the cathedral
with the same bowing walls and the long arched windows
.
Huge waves rolled over the
Sea of Serenity
.
L
ightning flashed inside
of
dark clouds
.
Th
e
golden pedestal
reserved for the sacred
Elboni
remained empty.

L
ady
Gost
stood with the Book of Law
s
held against her chest. A
circle of
guards
faced outward around her.

“Come,” Lady
Gost
beckoned
.

The guards opened
,
allowing t
he
star riders
to
approach with
Glory
between them
.
The
emissaries
bowed
low
, while
Glory
only bowed her eyes, stealing a glance or two at the tiny woman in the white gown who
looked at
Glory
with
dis
pleasure
brimming in her dark eyes
.

“Foolish
Rock Collector
,” she said
. “In
passing the Bamboozle
’s test
, y
ou
have failed to give us what
is
ours, and failed to keep what
is
yours
.
By law, the life that
once
belonged to y
ou
now belongs to me
.
But y
ou are
so very young
;
I’m in a
quandary about what to do
.”

Glory
’s
heart pounded
.
There was a wisdom about
Lady
Gost
that made h
er
want to do whatever she asked
.
Remembering what happened
behind the last door of the Bamboozle
, however, gave her pause to consider
.
I
f
that
was what
waited at home, s
he’d rather not come home at all.

“How did y
ou escape
the
Bamboozle?
”
Lady
Gost
asked.

“On the whifferdil
,
”
she
blurted out.

Lady
Gost
turned to the emissaries, raising a
n incredulous
eyebrow.

“
The Rock Collector be
lying,” the three
Wybbil
s said
.
“We didn’t help h
er
out,
nor did the pilot,
we swear it.”

“I flew it myself,”
Glory
said
proud
ly. “Flying it
was easy, but landing
was a real crock.”

White Feather gasped
.

Lady
Gost
tossed her head back, shielding her eyes in the crook of her arm as if
Glory
’s
words were stinging bees
.

“Liar!” cried Bone.

Needle shook his head, looking disappointed.

“Impossible.
”
Lady
Gost
’s eyes narrowed into slits
.
“
A
Tullah
n, by
her
very nature,
resides
outside
such
graces of the
Elboni
.
So, o
ne more time I ask y
e
, where
is
the
stone?
”

Glory
looked down at h
er
blurry
reflection in the shiny f
loor
, mumbling,
“I’m not gonna tell you.
”

L
ady
Gost
raised the book high over her head
.
“Great
Elboni
, what shall I do?
”
Lightning streaked from cloud to cloud
.
Thunder rolled
, shaking the cathedral
.

The Guardian of Sacred Things
titled
her head
back with a jerk
.
Her
eyes glowed with white light
.
Lips
mov
ed
as if in prayer
.
The
g
low faded and
she
spoke again.