The Search for Truth (9 page)

Bethany nodded. “You looked so freaky before.” When Erec's face fell, she added, “I mean, not really that bad. I'm just not used to seeing you turn into a dragon.”

“Where do you think we are?” he asked. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and there was no shelter in sight. At least it was still warm. “I wish I knew what to do. Anything. Just a direction to go.” As he thought about it, doubts began to swarm into his mind.

“You know,” he said, “I really don't know anything at all, do I? I don't know where I am. I don't know
who
I am. I'm supposed to be the next king, according to the scepters and that Lia Fail stone.
But I don't know why. I found out my birth mother is alive. But I have no clue who she is and why she left me. I found out my father is still alive. I don't even know where to look for him or why
he
left. Aoquesth said he was a great guy—little good that does me.

“And then I find out that awful memory of my father, that recurring dream, wasn't really my dad. Thanks a lot, Memory Mogul, for implanting that one in me. My luck, to get stuck with someone else's rotten memory of their dad. But is that all? No way. Because now I hear that there are two other kids around somewhere—I'm guessing they are kids—who are supposed to be the other two rulers of the Kingdoms of the Keepers along with me. And to make it worse, not only do I have no clue who they are, but King Piter does, and he won't tell me.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “Well, I guess I should be glad they're around somewhere, so at least there is a chance that all three of us will be crowned, and Balor and his brothers won't get the thrones.” He shook his head. “Like that will ever happen.”

Bethany nodded. “Doesn't sound too likely. One of them is missing, and the other can't help and has to be protected? I wonder what King Piter meant about that.”

Hearing King Piter's name made Erec scowl. “Face it,” he said. “I have no clue about my father, my mother, or myself. I don't know where I am or what I'm doing.” He looked into Bethany's eyes. “Maybe I should just go home.”

“Only one problem,” Bethany said. “Upper Earth is dying. The bees are disappearing, and the Substance is draining away. If we don't do something about it, there will be no ‘home' soon.”

Screeches resounded above them. A band of white monkeys with black ears and hands and scrunched black faces swung from the branches. One of them dropped Erec's Magiclight, which hit the ground with a thud in front of him. “What?” He picked it up. “How did they get this?” He turned it on to make sure it still worked, then
put it away. But he saw that his backpack was unzipped. His bag of money was gone. Luckily the silver tray was still there.

He looked up at the branches. “Give me back my money!” he yelled up at them.

They just screeched back. It sounded like they were laughing.

“Too bad I can't turn into a dragon now,” he said, shaking a fist at them.

Some of the monkeys shook their fists back at him. They swung around making that annoying laughing sound.

“Give it back, you dumb armpit-scratchers! Go pick bugs out of each other's noses and eat them!” he shouted. Bethany was starting to giggle.

One of the monkeys had opened the bag, and now they were passing coins to each other. They were amazingly good at not dropping any.

“Give those to me!” Erec shouted. One of the monkeys picked up a shiny gold ring coin and tossed it, hitting Erec on the head. “Ow!”

Erec tried to throw sticks at them, but none of them hit.

“Cut it out, Erec. They're cute.”

“Real cute.” Erec picked up the ring coin and put it in his pocket. “Little thieves.” He threw a bigger stick and it hit a monkey in the arm. The monkey didn't look bothered by it.

“Erec!” Bethany looked mad. “Would you stop it? You could have hurt him.”

“They stole all our money!” Erec kicked the dirt. What was wrong with her? “Why are you siding with the monkeys?”

She snapped back, “Because they're cute. Why do you have to be so selfish?”

It didn't seem to Erec that trying to get his money back from monkeys that had no use for it was selfish. But he felt guilty anyway.
And that just made him more upset. It didn't help that it was getting dark and he had no clue where they could sleep.

“Fine,” he said. “Let's keep going. I give up.” He walked in the direction they had been going, which was away from the lake. As far as he knew this path might take them into a thousand-mile forest. They might never get out.

Bethany waited a moment before following, then crunched after him, arms crossed. When Erec glanced back at her she called out, “We have food. We don't need money out here anyway.”

After a few more minutes, Erec heard a loud clatter, which grew into a low roar, quickly coming closer. A wide, dusty truck with an open top rumbled into view. They ran toward it, waving their hands. A sign of civilization!

The truck skidded to a stop, and a dark-skinned man with straight black hair jumped through the door. He was about Erec's size and wore loose black pants and a white shirt embroidered with black swirls. The man ran at them, shouting something Erec could not understand, a rifle in his hands.

Bethany screamed as they turned and ran. The man chased them, yelling and pointing wildly, but it sounded like gibberish. He seemed furious.

Erec panicked. Now a man with a gun? Where were his cloudy thoughts? What would he do? The man raged, tearing after them.

Bethany tripped on a tree root. She flew a few feet in the air and landed on her stomach.

As much as Erec had been annoyed with her a second ago, he was now filled with fear. Standing in front of her, he turned to face the man. Maybe she could crawl away while he fought off this stranger. Erec grabbed a stick from the forest floor—the only thing he could find to defend himself.

But the man stopped when he got close to them. He continued
screaming and pointing back to his truck. Finally, with a strong accent he yelled, “Are you crazy? You understand English? What's wrong with you? You're not allowed to be out here. It's veddy, veddy dangerous.”

Erec answered, “Who are you?”

“Look at you,” the man said. “You're from England, no? Can't understand Marathi or Hindi? What are you doing out here? You want to get yourselves killed?” Erec could not place his accent.

Erec and Bethany stared at his rifle, afraid to answer. Finally the man looked at his own gun. “What, this? Don't worry about this. It's a tranquilizer gun, for the animals.” He eyed the two kids more intently. “How did you get out here? You're not supposed to be here. Don't you know how dangerous this is?” Even though he had a strong accent, Erec could understand him perfectly.

Erec dropped the stick, exhausted and relieved. “We're lost. Can you help us?”

“I'll say you're lost.” The man shook his head. “You're lucky I found you. I'm a guide here. I'm Rajiv. Just finished my last safari tour today.” He gestured toward his truck with his gun. “Now get in the truck. What would you two do if I didn't find you here? Huh?”

They followed him to his truck and climbed in. Erec appreciated its comfort as he sank into the seat cushions.

“You were attacked.” Rajiv pointed at Erec's torn clothing as it flapped around in the wind blowing through the open truck. Red scratches striped his chest. He nodded yes, not sure how else to explain.

They bounced over rocks and splashed through a stream, following a bumpy path through the jungle. Finally, they stopped at a group of buildings in a clearing.

“Where are we?” Erec asked.

“You don't know?” Rajiv stopped in front of a white house. “This is Tadoba National Park.”

“And where is that?” asked Bethany.

“Near Chandrapur,” the guide said. “You know that.”

“We don't know,” Erec said. “Where is Chandrapur?

“East Maharashtra. You have to know that.” He sounded annoyed.

“No, we don't know.” Bethany persisted. “What country is this? Just tell us, please.”

“India, of course.” He threw up his hands. “Stop trying to distract me, you kids. I know what you're doing. You're going to have to tell me where you're from, no playing games. I'll figure out what to do with you tomorrow. I suppose you need a place to sleep?”

 

The house was one swash of bright color against another. Vivid fabrics hung from the ceilings and draped the lights, casting the rooms in glows of red and orange. A fire crackled in the front room fireplace, and soft couches cluttered the floor, woven with patterns of beautiful green, gold, and yellow silks. The wonderful smell of home cooking filled the air. Erec took a deep whiff. Indian food.

Two young kids were playing a game in front of the fire. Erec and Bethany watched them, unsure what to do.

“Welcome to our home,” Rajiv said. “It will soon be a guest house for visitors to Tadoba Park. We stay in the basement, make the meals.”

“It's lovely.” Bethany looked around.

A woman rushed at Erec. She was wrapped in a colorful silk sari, the purple-and-red pattern melting into greens at the bottom. Her long black hair was pulled into a bun. “Oh, no.” She was shaking her head with disapproval. “No, no, no.”

Erec was about to excuse himself and leave the house, thinking
that she must not like the looks of him. He could certainly understand why. But then the woman grabbed his wrist and yanked him into a bathroom. Bethany followed to watch. The woman unscrewed a bottle and doused a cotton ball with its contents. She dabbed it over the scrapes on Erec's chest.

“Ow.” He winced. “That hurts.”

“It will feel better soon.” She tsked, shaking her head. “You'll need new clothing. I think you'll fit into Rajiv's. What attacked you?”

“A crocodile.” Erec actually thought the scratches on his chest were probably from his own claws, but how could he explain that? The woman drew her breath in horror. She blotted Erec's chest again without thinking. Somehow, knowing a crocodile had attacked him made him need extra attention.

“And a tiger,” Bethany added. She tilted her chin up with a hint of a smile.

Warmth filled Erec. He realized that she was proud that he was able to fend off the dangerous animals.

The woman looked confused. “And a tiger?” she repeated. Erec could tell she was deciding whether to believe them. He hoped Bethany didn't blurt out that he had breathed fire and scared it away.

“Well, the tiger didn't really attack us,” he said. “It just came close.”

The woman put her hand over her heart. “I don't even want to think about you kids out there in the preserve alone. Let me get you clothes and some food. Then we'll find your parents. I'm Sunita, by the way.”

Sunita rushed off and brought back clothing for Erec. He changed into a white, long-sleeved collarless shirt, with embroidered stitching decorating the top. It hung below his knees. The white cotton pants were oddly shaped too, and seemed wide
enough on top for three men to fit into, but they narrowed to fit his lower legs better. He pulled a drawstring at the top, gathering all the extra fabric into a big bunch. At least it was hidden under the long top. It felt like he was wearing pajamas, which actually was what Sunita said the pants were called, even though they were not meant for sleeping in.

Bethany laughed when she saw him and he felt his face get hot. “Hey, you look pretty good in that thing,” she said.

Hearing that made him feel much better, even though he guessed she was just trying to cheer him up. They sat with the kids in front of the fire. “My name's Shreena,” the little girl said. She pointed at Erec's amulet. “I like your necklace. This is my brother Sunil. What are your names?” Erec noticed Sunil wore a smaller version of his outfit. Shreena's shirt was shorter and pink.

“I'm Bethany, and this is Erec.” Bethany smiled at the kids. “What are you playing?”

“Poker.” Shreena batted big eyes at them. “Want to join?”

“Maybe later,” Sunita said, appearing with large silver plates loaded with steaming rice and different foods. It smelled delicious. “Let them eat first.”

Bethany looked at her plate in wonder. “What is all this? It smells so good.” She tasted a little steamed pancake.

“That's patodi,” Sunita said. “And those are varhadi prawns. And rice. The crunchy bread is dhapoda, it's like papad. And the soft bread is chapati. That's a potato, cauliflower, and tomato bhaji.” She looked excited at their interest. “Let me know if you like. I'll be cooking for English-speaking visitors soon. We haven't met any tourists yet.”

Bethany tasted the prawns and her eyebrows shot up. “These are amazing! I've never had anything like this before. And both breads are so good.”

“Use the bread to scoop the food,” Sunita instructed.

In between bites, Bethany said, “I've never had Indian food before.”

“You haven't?” Erec asked. “Why? Did you think you wouldn't like it?” Then he felt bad for asking. Most of Bethany's life had been spent with Earl Evirly, who had been posing as her uncle. He never gave her anything. There was no way he would have taken her to a restaurant.

“Oh, this is nice!” A familiar woman's voice filled the room. Erec glanced around but did not see anybody.

“Erec, I'm over here, on the chair.” His eyes darted to the chair under the window. “No,” the voice said, “on this side of the room, by the fireplace.”

He jerked to see, almost spilling the food on his plate. Who knew him here? But nobody was there.

A laugh rang in the air. “It's me, Mom. You forget me already?”

Erec smiled with recognition. Of course. He had forgotten about his mother's Seeing Eyeglasses. “No, I didn't forget you.”

“Looks like you're doing okay. How's the quest going?”