Secrets in the Dark (21 page)

I shrugged. “Ronny didn’t
know. They’re in a language she called Standard Runic, but she said
they aren’t in the right order. They don’t spell
anything.”

“
Let me see,” Olivia said,
and gazed down at the map.

“
Like a code!” Brady’s
voice cracked with excitement. “Can I have my own copy? I’ll try to
decode it before we come back next time.”

Doug narrowed his eyes
skeptically, but said, “Keep mine.”

“
Thanks. I always thought
it would be cool to have a treasure map. I just wish there were
markings to show where Ray and the other are, like the Marauder’s
Map. Then we could always tell where they are in here.”

Olivia made a choking sound
and bent over, resting her hands on her knees, shaking her
head.

“
Are you sick?” I asked,
alarmed.

“
No,” she gasped. “I’m
fine. I guess I…stopped believing. In wishes.” At my blank look,
she straightened up and said, “Brady, its obvious things get
totally strange in here.” She scowled when we only acted confused.
“Ronny told us about triggering existing spells, remember? Well,
Brady just did.”

Olivia rolled her eyes, and
then stabbed at the map with her finger. There, four small red dots
were moving down the road close to the elaborately drawn
tree.

I grinned. “We can see the
Rejects now. That’s so cool!”

Faith said hopefully,
“Maybe it’ll work at home, too.”

“
Doesn’t look like it,”
Olivia said, nodding at the map as one after another the red dots
touched the tree then disappeared. “Our genius only wished we could
tell where they are in here.”

An embarrassed flush
stained Brady’s face a deep red.

Unexpectedly, Faith spoke
up for him. “I don’t think it would work outside Chimera anyway.
Santa Ramona doesn’t show on that map.”

“
Faith’s right,” Doug
said, frowning at Olivia. She sighed, crossing her arms over her
chest, and turned away.

“
Well, that’s that,” I
said, kicking angrily at the dirt road with the toe of my shoe.
“It’s getting too late now. We’ll never make it to the cave and
back now. At least next time we can use Brady’s map to keep away
from the Rejects. No matter what else happens, next time we’ve got
to get to the cave and find Ghalynn!”

As we made our way back to
the tree, Olivia stopped sulking long enough to ask, “So did we
learn anything?”

Faith grinned. “Bats won’t
get stuck in my hair.”

“
Hah! I learned I can make
things happen by wishing.” Brady looked down at the map and shook
his head. “Wishing! It’s scientifically impossible. It’s just…it’s
inconceivable.”

In a terrible imitation of
Inigo Montoya, Olivia quoted, “You keep using that word. I do not
think it means what you think it means.” Olivia shouldn’t
sing
or
do
impressions! Dropping the accent, she said smugly, “It can’t be
impossible if it happened.”

I grinned at him and
ignored Olivia. “You keep forgetting. This place runs on magic, not
science.”

“
Wishing,” Brady muttered.
Then he continued, “It’s kinda disturbing, you know? We need to be
very specific when we wish for something in here.”

I was tempted to say I
wished we were already back at the tree, but Brady might not find
that very funny. The walk back seemed longer than usual, maybe
because I was so disappointed we hadn’t made it to the
cave.

I might have wished it
anyway, but I was
afraid it could go
really wrong.



As I’d promised, we took
Brady to Chris and Ronny’s after school on Monday. When I
introduced him, Ronny stared at him intently for a moment, then
nodded and asked him to enter. Brady’s eyes were wide with
amazement as he stared around at the pictures and decorations, or
maybe it was amusement. Brady had made it clear he didn’t believe
in all this magic stuff.

Ronny sat forward and asked
if we had anything to share about our last trip to
Chimera.

After filling her in on
what happened, she sat back with a sigh and her eyes looked miles
away. “There is still no sign of anyone there,” she said sadly,
speaking to herself.

Brady cleared his throat.
“It might help if I knew more about that place.”

Her eyes snapped into
focus. “Perhaps it will help if I give you our history. This is our
story as my mother told it to me when I was young.” She settled
back and closed her eyes. Her voice changed, becoming deeper and
slower.

“On the day of Chimera’s
creation, we gathered together by the hundreds. I know not what the
humans would have done if they had come upon us; all of mankind’s
dreams and nightmares gathered together in one place. But we had
chosen our location well, far from human villages, rarely visited
by men.

Beings of magick who agreed to
leave the human world stood in a far-flung circle. The land was
flat, as it was important there be no hills to disrupt our
spell.

Reaching out together, our
magick flowed across the ground, pooling in the center. Then we
pulled with every bit of power we possessed, the effort so great
some perished.

Several of our number, much
stronger in magick than others, exerted greater force. They reached
deeper, pulling greater portions of the land.

We tore it from the human
world, placing it in the opening we had created, suspended between
normal space and time. The jagged roots of that ground, where
magick had pulled in unequal measure, forced parts of our new land
up. This is how our hills and mountains were formed, where none
previously existed.

Thus, from that piece of
earth, was our world created.”

Ronny opened her eyes,
which looked slightly damp. “I grew up hearing that story from my
mother.”

Brady pushed his glasses
up, but not before I saw the intense curiosity in his eyes. “Why
didn’t they just create the land when they created that
opening?”

Ronny’s face went blank and
she blinked. “But we cannot create something that did not already
exist. It’s the first rule of magick.”

“
Then how did you create a
place?” Brady asked, running his hands through his hair. He really
shouldn’t do that. It stood out in strange spikes all over his
head. Like he’d stuck his finger in an electric outlet.

“
Creating a pocket out of
time and space is empty. You are not creating anything.”

“
Cool story,” Faith said
quickly. “Better than the stories my mom used to tell, like Hansel
and Gretel.”

Ronny made a disgusted
sound in the back of her throat, rather like a cartoon cat trying
to cough up a hairball. “Hansel and Gretel is one more story
designed to make children fear witches. Like Little Red Riding Hood
was designed to make them fear werewolves!”

Doug interrupted, “I
thought it was a wolf.”

“
What wolf could talk and
put on clothes? It was meant to be a werewolf. My Aunt thought it
was really amusing, but I never did.” Ronny took a moment to
unclench her fingers before she said, “I am sorry. I know I sound
angry and I do not mean to. It is just, those stories are about
beings I care for.”

“
You know werewolves?”
Faith sounded breathless.

Olivia and I looked at each
other and rolled our eyes. We must have looked like we were trying
out for a synchronized eye rolling contest.

“
What’s the matter?” Doug
asked, sitting on the edge of his seat.

Olivia raised one eyebrow
and shook her head. “She used the ‘W’ word! We’re in for it
now.”

Faith didn’t even bother
looking at us. “Very funny!” Keeping her eyes on Ronny, she leaned
forward, a dreamy look stealing over her face. “My favorite stories
are about witches and vampires and werewolves.”

Ronny smiled at Faith and
chuckled. “I know all three.”

“
So what kind of creatures
do you know?” Doug asked, leaning forward on the edge of the couch.
He needed to be careful. If he sat any further forward, he’d end up
on the floor.

She ticked each name on
her fingers, like she was
reading off a
list. “Elves, fairies, goblins, trolls, ogres, dwarves, brownies,
unicorns, gryphons, dragons as you know, merpeople, dryads and
centaurs. Also elementals – salamanders, sylphs, undines and
gnomes.”

She wiggled her fingers
like all those names hadn’t added up correctly. Her next words
confirmed it. “I have forgotten some.” She sighed and said, “I
guess it is good they cannot hear me.”

There was a moment of
intense silence. I wondered if any of the others had felt their
heart pound at the thought of all those creatures running around
Chimera. I cleared my throat and asked tentatively,
“
All
of those are
real?”

“
Oh yes. Some are friendly
but others are dangerous, even to those who can wield magick. Some
are quite intelligent. Others, well, they are not. For instance, a
unicorn is no smarter than your regular horse, though its innocent
nature blazes from its horn like the sun.

She smiled as
Faith laughed delightedly. “Not all creatures are
so pleasant. For instance, trolls and ogres have no intelligence,
but have deadly instincts. Sadly, the dragons used to be an
intelligent race, but there has been too much in-breeding. Over the
years, they have begun to die out, and not many remain. Most of
those are quite dim-witted.”

At Faith’s small squeak of
dismay, Ronny said, “That is not a bad thing. They no longer do so
much looting as before, or destroy our homes with their fire when
they are angry.”

Doug frowned in
disappointment, and then his face cleared. “Can you ride on
dragons?”

“
Ride on dragons?” Ronny’s
delighted laughter pealed out. When she saw Doug’s embarrassed
face, she fought for control. “Ride on dragons.” One last giggle
burst out, then she said, “Absolutely not! Why would you think of
such a thing?”

“
I saw it in a movie. It
looked excellent!”

Ronny laughed again,
quietly. “Your movies can be very entertaining. No, a dragon would
not fly while you were on its back. It would reach back, pluck you
off, and eat you.”

“
Ugh!” Doug’s mouth
twisted in disgust, and he collapsed back against the
couch.

Like he actually thought
he’d get to ride a dragon?

“
Sounds like a lot of
things like to eat you,” Faith muttered. Fortunately, Ronny did not
hear her. She turned to Ronny and spoke up, “I’ve read about
elementals. They represent earth, air, water and fire,
right?”

“
Yes! Most people do not
know. Gnomes are linked with earth. Salamanders with fire. Sylphs
with air. Undines with water. No one knows the intelligence of
elementals. They are very much different from other magickal
creatures.”

Freaky!

Faith sighed and looked
dreamy. “I really love stories about magic.”

“
I am sorry, but few
stories about magick in your world are correct. Some parts are not
completely wrong, so it is possible the stories started out true.
But the Mundane change stories each time they repeat them. Over
hundreds of years, the stories change too much. You win some, you
lose the rest.”

Faith looked puzzled until
Olivia muttered, “You win some, you lose some.”

I managed to stifle a
giggle at the look of indignation on Ronny’s face when she said,
“You even call them Fairy Tails. Fairies do not have
tails.”

Now there was no holding
back the giggles. Olivia and Faith’s joined mine as they burst
free. I just shook my head helplessly at Ronny’s questioning
glance. It took some effort, but I managed to say, “Someday I hope
you can tell us the parts that are right.”

Chapter 25

Sanctuary?

I did a happy dance as
school let out for summer. Avoiding the Rejects for the next three
months should be a piece of cake. Okay, so maybe not a
whole
piece of cake.
Maybe more like a mini-cupcake. But definitely easier!

I was only disappointed
about one thing. Somehow our school had found the money to have a
summer session, but Faith wouldn’t be there with Olivia and me.
Instead, she’d be at soccer camp, and would have tournaments most
Sundays. So Saturday would still be the only day we could enter
Chimera each month.

The week before Chimera
would open, we were on Main Street when we saw Andrew a block away.
We avoided him by ducking into the library. I laughed exultantly
and told Olivia and Faith, “We’re getting good at this!”

“
It’s just luck.” Faith
stared down at her hands, her shoulders hunched. Her voice dropped,
“Luck can run ou—”

“
Girls! You’re supposed to
be quiet in the library.” The voice was soft but very firm. I
sighed and shuffled my feet as a wave of heat flooded my face. It
was
the pits trying to hide in the library
when your mom’s the librarian.