The Homeward Bounders (28 page)

I only wished it was settled. “I'll visit you too, Helen,” I said. “I promise.”

That made her furious. “Then I shan't ask you!”

I told you Adam was quick at understanding things. He said, “You're going to go on being a Homeward Bounder. Why? I've only been one for a fortnight, and I hated every minute.”

“Ah, but I've got the habit,” I said. I didn't really want to explain how it was.

“Nonsense,” said Vanessa. “There's something more to it.
Why
, Jamie?”

And they all kept at me, until I said, “It's a matter of this Real Place, you see.
They
got it and got to be able to play
Their
games by anchoring it down, sort of, first with him over there, then with Homeward Bounders. As long as we all believed there was a Real Place called Home, and as long as he knew he was going to get free in the end,
They
had this Place. And all the worlds were not so real. But now that's all gone, and he's free and the worlds can be real again, we need an anchor for that too. If we don't have one,
They
can have a Real Place again. And I'm the anchor.”

Helen turned straight round and stormed off to where he was standing high among a crowd of people waiting to be sent Home. I could see her haranguing him fiercely. No kneeling this time. A lot of yelling instead. I saw him ask the people to wait a moment. Then he came over to us with Helen.

“You're right about the anchor,” he said to me, “but it doesn't have to be you.”

“Who's better than me?” I said. “I'm still young. I may be a hundred and twelve years old, but I've got hundreds more ahead of me. And you said yourself that no worlds are real to me. You were right there. I think it has to be me. Don't you?”

“I'm afraid I do,” he said. I thought Helen was going to bite him.

“Rather you than me, Jamie!” Adam said.

That was about it, really. They got used to the idea, and then we hung about talking. Joris gave me his clock-thing so that I could find the Bounds. That would have been difficult without
Them
making moves any longer. I was grateful for that.

When the Place had got quite a bit smaller and all the others had gone, he came over and said they ought to be going Home too. I went over to the sender with them to say good-bye. That got a bit difficult. And then it got worse, because when Adam was all set to go, Vanessa said, with a beaming smile, “I'm not coming. I'm going with Konstam.”

“Yes, you go alone, Adam,” Konstam said, ever so happy.

“Oh no!” I said. They turned and glared at me. Who was I to forbid the banns? “No you don't!” I said. “You go Home first, Vanessa. You go with her, Konstam, and ask her hand in marriage, or whatever people do these days. But you're to tell her parents. They'll understand. I talked to them a while ago and I know how they're feeling.” And, when Konstam stared at me with his head up, full of the pride of the Khans, I said, “Look, whippersnapper, I'm four times your age, and I know what's best. So.”

That made Konstam laugh. “Very well,” he said. “Joris, do you mind going on your own for now? Tell Elsa Khan I shall be bringing Vanessa as soon as I can. And tell her we can get to work and exterminate all the demons now, because
They
won't be stopping us.”

So all three of them went, and then Joris. When it was Helen's turn to go, I suddenly found an elephant's trunk wrapped round my neck again. “Now, now! You don't drag me off again so easy,” I said.

“Not if you promise to visit me
soon
,” Helen said.

“Very soon. Next after the Khans,” I said.

“Why them first?” she snapped.

“Because the chief of
Them
came from that world,” I said. “I don't want
Them
roosting there.”

“All right,” she said, and unwrapped the trunk and went.

That left only him and me. We wandered about the silent shrinking Place for a while, he telling me all the things I wanted to know. And he made me promise to visit him again soon too. Oh, I have friends to drop in on, all right.

Then he left. I think he hated it in
Their
Place, even if he didn't hate
Them
. It was good of him to stay so long. And that left only me, talking into this jabbering machine. It's beginning to jabber a bit slowly now. I have to stop and wait for the hopping bit to catch up with what I'm saying all the time. The machines here are all running down as the reality goes, just as he told me they would. But the Place hasn't got much smaller now for some time. That means I have to be going too.

You see how it works, do you? As long as I don't stay anywhere long, as long as I keep moving and don't think of anywhere as Home, I shall act as an anchor to keep all the worlds real. And that will keep
Them
out. Funny kind of anchor that has to keep moving. It's going to go on for such years too. I shall grow old in the end, but it's going to take a long, long time. The more I move, the longer it'll take. So I shall have to move because of that too. I'm going to keep
Them
out as long as I can.

The bit that I'm going to hate is the first part, when I go and see Helen. Every time I go, she's going to be older than me. There's going to be a time when I shall still be about thirteen, and she'll be an old, old woman. I shall hate that. Still, I promised. And at least I shan't be in any danger of thinking of Helen's world as Home. Nobody could, except Helen.

If you like, you can all think of it as my gift to you. I never had much else to give. You can get on and play your own lives as you like, while I just keep moving. This story of it all can be another gift. I've made an arrangement with Adam. When I've finished, which is almost now, I'm going to put the bundle of papers in the garden of the Old Fort, before I move on. Adam's going to get them and take them to his father. And if you read it and don't believe it's real, so much the better. It will make another safeguard against
Them
.

But you wouldn't believe how lonely you get.

DIANA WYNNE JONES
wrote more than forty award-winning books of fantasy for young readers. For her body of work, she was awarded the British Fantasy Society's Karl Edward Wagner Award for having made a significant impact on fantasy and the World Fantasy Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
www.dianawynnejones.com.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors and artists.

Archer's Goon

Aunt Maria

Believing Is Seeing: Seven Stories

Castle in the Air

Dark Lord of Derkholm

Dogsbody

Eight Days of Luke

Fire and Hemlock

Hexwood

Hidden Turnings: A Collection of Stories Through Time and Space

Howl's Moving Castle

The Ogre Downstairs

Power of Three

Stopping for a Spell

A Tale of Time City

The Time of the Ghost

Warlock at the Wheel and Other Stories

Year of the Griffin

Yes, Dear

THE WORLDS OF CHRESTOMANCI

Book 1: Charmed Life

Book 2: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Book 3: The Magicians of Caprona

Book 4: Witch Week

Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1 (Contains books 1 and 2)

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 2 (Contains books 3 and 4)

THE DALEMARK QUARTET

Book 1: Cart and Cwidder

Book 2: Drowned Ammet

Book 3: The Spellcoats

Book 4: The Crown of Dalemark

Cover art © 2012 by Paul O. Zelinsky

Cover design by Sylvie Le Floc'h

THE HOMEWARD BOUNDERS

Copyright © 1981 by Diana Wynne Jones

First published in 1981 in Great Britain by Macmillan Children's Books.

First published in 1981 in the United States by Greenwillow Books.

Reissued in 2002 in the United States by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

The right of Diana Wynne Jones to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Jones, Diana Wynne.

The Homeward Bounders.

Summary: Once he becomes a pawn in a game played by a powerful group he calls Them, 12-year-old Jamie is repeatedly catapulted through space and time.

[1. Space and time—Fiction] I. Title. PZ7.J684Ho [Fic] 81-1905

ISBN 0-688-00678-7 AACR2

EPub Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN 9780062200808

New Greenwillow Edition, 2002: ISBN 0-06-029886-3

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume I and Volume II

The Chrestomanci oversees the magic in all the worlds. Omnibus editions of the first four novels featuring Diana Wynne Jones's most beloved characters. Contains
Charmed Life, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Witch Week,
and
The Magicians of Caprona
.

Conrad's Fate

With the help of Christopher Chant, can Conrad figure out who is pulling the possibilities and putting his world at risk … and also stay ahead of his dark fate? A Chrestomanci Book.

The Dalemark Quartet, Volume 1 and Volume 2

Omnibus editions of all four books in the thrilling fantasy epic, The Dalemark Quartet:
Cart and Cwidder, Drowned Ammet, The Spellcoats,
and
The Crown of Dalemark
.

Dark Lord of Derkholm

When Derk is chosen to play Dark Lord, he is forced by the sinister Mr. Chesney to turn his country estate into a castle lit by baleful fires, manifest himself as a nine-foot-tall shadow, and lead his minions in a battle against the forces of good.

Year of the Griffin

At Wizard's University, Wizard Derk's griffin daughter Elda and her fellow first-year students encounter tyrannical tutors, boring lectures, and truly terrible refectory food.

Dogsbody

Sirius, immortal Lord of the Dog Star, is outraged when he is falsely accused of murder and banished to Earth. There he must live—and die—in the body of a dog unless he can retrieve a mysterious celestial weapon and thereby clear his name.

Fire and Hemlock

Polly tries to reconcile her two sets of memories and discover the truth behind her friendship with musician Tom Lynn in time to save him.