Just then, a hand gripped my shoulder.
Chapter 4
I turned, wrestling my shoulder from the person's grip. Behind us stood a young woman. She had caramel colored hair, warm cocoa eyes, and curvy figure. Her body shimmered like a holograph, but she was definitely real. With her were two kids, a boy and a girl, obviously the ones from cabins six and seven. The girl had dull pumpkin orange hair, frizzy and uneven. One might call it red, but it was completely different from my fiery auburn curls. Her eyes were a milky, diluted blue, like a cow's, unlike like Stephanie's intelligent icy-blue ones. She was slightly chubby, and her general effect was sludgy.
The boy had noble features, though not handsome. His hair was a curly brown, and he had a doe's eyes, bright and ready to learn. His general appearance was quiet, though.
I was so stunned, my voice didn't work. The others seemed to have similar problems. Stephanie found her voice first.
"Who are you?" she asked. The woman smiled pleasantly, reminding me a little of Alexa's smile.
"I'm Amaryllis," she said. Her voice was soothing, and it washed over me, making me relax.
"I know you're worried," said Amaryllis. " And you're probably afraid, too. But now I'm here. I'll help you."
I was comforted. My worries were over. Now Amaryllis had us. We would be safe.
"Come to my house," Amaryllis invited. "We can talk there, and I will explain how you got here."
I immediately started walking toward Amaryllis. I looked back, and saw Kae, Eli, and Holly walking toward Amaryllis, too. Only Stephanie hung back, her suspicious face void of the rest of our glazed eyes and blank faces. Seeing Stephanie made me focus.
"Wait," I hissed, putting a hand out to stop Holly. She blinked, and her eyes lost their glazed look. I put out an arm to stop the boys, watching as they lost their senseless look. Amaryllis looked back evidently confused as to why we weren't following her.
"Is anything wrong?" she asked. This time I could see it. The perfect amount of concern in her voice, the confusion to show she didn't understand what we were doing, all added to the honeyed tones of her voice.
"We need to discuss, Amaryllis," said Holly, her voice even. "To decide whether we're going with you."
Amaryllis was evidently surprised, but she agreed to it as once. The five of us huddled.
"Shouldn't we get those two in?" asked Kae.
"Keep your voice down," whispered Holly. "And no. We don't know them, and I can't trust them." Holly looked around.
"I trust all of you," she said. "And we need to trust each other. This is obviously not Earth, and we need to work together to survive."
I nodded, and was surprised to see Kae, Eli, and Stephanie nodding too. Especially Stephanie.
"Just to be clear," said Stephanie, "I'm only trusting you three because you're my best chance of survival." She pointed at Eli, Holly, and I.
Stephanie's icy blue eyes had hardened, and they were almost a stormy gray.
"That's enough of that," said Kae, giving Stephanie a look. "Let's discuss what we actually wanted to discuss. Are we going with Amaryllis or not?"
"I don't trust her," said Stephanie.
"Big surprise," muttered Eli, earning himself a look from Stephanie.
"I don't either," said Holly. "But I don't think she'll go back on her word. She's the type who gets us to trust her, and carefully words her promises to that there's a loophole. I think her plan won't work if we stay wary of her."
"I agree," broke in Eli. " And she did promise to tell us how we got here. It looks like a pretty good deal to me. We just have to be very aware of her, and not trust her in the least."
"Sounds good to me," said Kae, and I nodded. Stephanie grumbled a little, but in the end she agreed it was the best plan.
"Well, then, let's go tell her," said Kae, getting up.
"Have you decided, then?" asked Amaryllis brightly.
Kae nodded.
"We're coming with you, Amaryllis."
"Excellent. Now follow me."
At these words, she turned and walked off.
I looked at the two kids who stood around awkwardly as Amaryllis walked off.
I whispered to Holly," We should at least take them with us. They're probably just like us."
Holly nodded, so I walked over to the girl. She had auburn hair like me, but instead of being a flaming, bright, color like hers, the girl's was a dull pumpkin orange.
"What's your name?" I asked the girl, trying to imitate the kind voice Holly had used with Eli. It must have worked, because the girl answered," Mallory" in a quavery voice.
"How did you get here?" I asked.
"I- I was at the library," stuttered Mallory. "Reading a new horror-romance novel. Just then, a library worker came by. His name was Mark, and he had never particularly liked me. He always ignored me when I asked him for help. He came over, though, and told me to go to sleep. I was confused for a moment, and then my eyelids slid shut. It felt like I was being forced to go to sleep." Mallory looked at me, as if she was surprised I was still listening.
"Did you see a light before your eyes closed?" I asked, trying to focus on our conversation while still keeping an eye on Amaryllis.
Mallory frowned, and her expression became guarded.
"How did you know that?" she asked, an edge of suspicion in her voice.
I quickly related all our different yet similar stories to Mallory.
"Oh," she said. "In that case, yes, I did see a light. It was yellow."
"Just like I thought," I nodded. "Just wondering, though, Mallory, is Mark the name of an author?"
"Uh-huh," said Mallory. "Mark Twain. Why do you ask?"
I told her about my theory.
"That's interesting," speculated Mallory. "Another thing to ask Amaryllis about."
But before I could answer, Amaryllis stopped.
"We're here!" she sang out, leading us into a cottage.
Part Two: The Quest
Chapter 5
The cottage was the most breathtaking place imaginable. Flowers clambered over the creamy white walls, and birds sang from the windowsills of the house. It had baby blue clapboard shutters, with ivy vines hanging from the gates. Golden poppies dotted the fresh green grass.
Mallory watched all this with a look of wonder. She had a dreamy expression as she followed Amaryllis blindly through the garden. I grabbed Mallory's shoulder and stopped her. Mallory turned around, a bewildered expression on her face.
"Wha-" she said, but I interrupted her.
"We cannot trust Amaryllis," I said. I hurriedly explained to her what was wrong. Nodding, Mallory continued through the garden, followed by me. Amaryllis stopped at a beautiful white gazebo. Twisting white pillars held up a charming red-brick roof. Inside were golden straw chairs with plush white pillows. Amaryllis gestured at us to take a seat, and then did so herself. I took a seat between Holly and Mallory. Looking at the rest, she saw that Kae, Eli, and Stephanie were sitting together, while the boy that had come with Mallory sat on a chair away from the rest of us.
"His name is Phillip," whispered Holly to me. "I heard him say so to Kae when he asked him his name. After that, he acted like Kae didn't exist."
I nodded and looked at Phillip. He was slightly stocky, but not fat. His features were haughty, yet they had nothing regally discriminative about them. His hair was a curly brown, and his strange hazel eyes were stone cold.
"Well," said Amaryllis, interrupting my thoughts. "Shall we begin?"
Everybody immediately snapped to attention.
Stephanie, of course, had to go first.
"How did we get here? What is this place? What's that light we saw before we fell asleep? Why are the people who told us to go to sleep named after authors?" she demanded. Amaryllis sighed.
"All very reasonable questions. All right, I'll tell you, but you have to promise not to interrupt."
The kids nodded, and Amaryllis continued.
"Long ago, about a thousand years ago, humans had invented technology. It was 2002 and a spider queen had risen from the depths of darkness. Her home was the Land of Au, a land full of mystic and terrible beasts. She ruled there, but she was not satisfied. She wanted more, a bigger planet teeming with life she could control and destroy. She wanted Earth. She had spent millennia gathering her brethren, the race of spider-human mutants called Spinners. She had a mad desire to control, to have the power of Earth. She continued growing stronger as the year went by. She, however, still needed a date to rise. She called on her lieutenant to find the date where she would be strongest. The date was 3002, a thousand an one years from that day. The queen decided to hibernate for the time remaining so she could rise at utmost strength. She forced her lieutenant to hibernate with her." Amaryllis's voice turned bitter. "She forced her strength upon her. The lieutenant was powerless."
I wondered if Amaryllis had known the lieutenant, she was so bitter about the pain inflicted on her.
"Anyway, a very smart scientist named Kira found out about this about six years before the queen was scheduled to rise. She chose seven people to be on her team. Kira loved books. She found it amusing that all the people she chose were authors. Joanne, Charlotte, Charles, Lewis, Mark, and Jane."
I figured that Jane was Phillip's person.
"The seven people were supposed to find a charge. You are the seven charges. Five years before the queen was supposed to rise, the seven members used a sleep-ray that Kira had invented to put you to sleep. The ray would transport you to a lab once you fell asleep. The light you saw was from the sleep ray. Of course we couldn't let you fight a powerful magical being with just your ordinary selves. We genetically empowered you to fight Arachne, the spider queen. You have special powers to fight her now. You are now five years in the future from the day you fell asleep, in the land of Au, land of magical beasts. You have been kept alive by sleeping, like Arachne did. Now, Arachne is due to rise in a month, and it is up to you to stop her."
We had obediently kept quiet during Amaryllis's speech, but now we peppered her with questions.
"What are these special powers?" asked Holly.
"What is your part in this fight?" asked Kae.
"Who are you, anyway?" asked an irate Stephanie.
"Why are we the ones that were chosen?" asked Eli.
"How will we wield these powers?" questioned Mallory.
"What's the name of Arachne's lieutenant?" I wondered. Phillip was the only one who stayed silent.
"All right, all right, children," said Amaryllis. "I will answer your queries. First, I do not know your powers. As you quest toward Arachne's castle, the dangerous challenges on the way will help you discover them. I am an immortal being, a spirit. I was chosen to help you on your quest. As for the matter of you being chosen, it was entirely a matter of chance. Your wielding of your powers depends on your element of power and your control of your power."
Mallory was still confused, I could see, but evidently decided to leave it at that.
"Well, if that's all, we should really decide the leader of this quest-"
"Wait," I interrupted. "That isn't all. You haven't answered my question."
Amaryllis paused.
"Riiiight," she said. "And what was your question?"
"What is the name of Arachne's lieutenant?"
Amaryllis studied me for a moment.
"You know, you really seem like a leader. You probably should-"
"Amaryllis," I said more forcefully. "You haven't answered my question."
"Oh, I don't really know."
Right.
"You don't know," I said.
"Nope," answered Amaryllis with a fresh smile. "Now, we should really get on with other matters..."
Amaryllis was lying. I was sure of that. But she sensed that now wasn't the time. I turned her attention back to Amaryllis.
"-need a leader," Amaryllis was saying. "You can vote on it."
I expected all heads to turn to Holly. After all, she was beautiful, confident, persuasive, and a good problem-solver. Therefore I was very surprised when the heads turned to me.
"Me?" I asked in surprise. "What did I do?"
"Well, you were in the first cabin, and you were also the first one out." said Holly. "That should count for something."
"And you figured out that the seven members were named after authors," said Kae, smiling at her. I discovered that Kae had a very nice smile. Irrelevant, of course.
"But that wasn't important," I protested, though I really felt like cheering.
"Doesn't matter," said Stephanie. "You still found something the rest of us overlooked. That's important."
"Plus, you have an aura," said Mallory, and then blushed. I suspected that Mallory was not used to voicing her opinion and having someone listen to it.
I realized the others were nodding.
"What kind of aura?" I asked. Surprisingly, it was Phillip who spoke.
"You project a kind of self-assurance," he said. "It gets people to kind of listen to you."
I stared at him. That one sentence was probably the most he'd said to her.
"Yeah," said Kae, flashing her another smile. "We believe in you." My brain got muddled as he continued to point out her good points, sugarcoating them for all his worth.
"Okay, enough!" said Amaryllis, stepping in and flashing us a bright smile. "You obviously want her to be the leader. But does she want to be the leader?" They looked at me.
Did I? I still felt slightly disoriented, but as I looked around, I realized these people were my friends. Or would become my friends. At any rate, I trusted them, and I felt like she owed something to them simply because they trusted her back.
"Yes," she said with perfect conviction. "I do."
Something flashed in Amaryllis's eye that I couldn't quite make out. Guilt? Anger? Distrust? I'd decide later. I had something to do.
"And as my first act of being a leader," I announced. "I will give you a choice of whether you want to go on this quest!"
The reaction was stunned.
"Wha- What do you mean?" asked Holly.
"We shouldn't be forced into this," I explained. "Just because we were chosen doesn't mean we have to go. I believe we make our own paths, so we don't have to follow Kira the scientist, or Amaryllis, or anyone else. We can follow them, but we'd still be making our own path be we'd be choosing to follow them, not being forced into it."
There was a silence after this. Then Amaryllis jumped in.
"I am going to add something in. Even though Arachne hasn't risen yet, the Earth is still disturbed by the rising of such a evil creature. The results are that the planet has transformed into a temporary version of the true Land of Au and that the population of Earth are being held in captivity to ensure their safety."
"Who's doing this?" cried Holly.
"You'd be surprised what Mother Earth does to protect it's planet," answered Amaryllis. "Anyway, defeating Arachne would bring back the population and return Earth to normal. If you don't try, though, you'll be stuck living here for a month, and then when Arachne rises, be incinerated."
"That clinches it," I announced. "I'm going, no matter how hard it is. I can't leave my mom alone. She did it to me, and no one should have to experience that."
My voice had a hard edge to it. I was surprised when she saw the others agreeing with her.
"Yeah," said Stephanie. "I agree. I'm coming with you, Evanna." The others nodded.
"Well, if that's decided," I said. "What's next?"
"What is left, but to leave?" answered Amaryllis with a slight smile.
Chapter 6
I stood on the porch of Amaryllis's cottage and looked out into the blustery wind. We had been offered hospitality, which after a quick discussion, was accepted. We had been standing on edge the whole night, taking turns sleeping, but the night passed without event. Now after a hearty breakfast of what Amaryllis called boar ginger, we were refreshed.
"What did the boar ginger taste like?" asked Kae, coming up next to her. Kae was a vegetarian, and had refused to eat the boar ginger.
"Like magic," I said wistfully, remembering the taste of the delicious breakfast. "It began with a taste like ginger ale, and then morphed into sweet and soft strawberry cream. At the end, though, it fizzed and fizzed till it fizzled out. It was like eating soda, well, if soda was food, except there wasn't any. It tasted like wishes." I wondered what Kae was going to say next. When he did speak it surprised me.
"Like a story," said Kae.
"What?" I asked.
"You know, like the beginning of a story entices you, lures you in, and is sparkly sweet like ginger ale. Then it sweetens and becomes strawberry cream, cozying the reader up and snuggling them into the story. And the end is a trace of wishes with a sparkle to polish it off. It leaves you wanting more." Kae lapsed into silence after that. I realized that boar ginger was exactly like a story. Kae was right.
"At what part do you think our story is?" asked I. Kae didn't answer. After awhile he said, "You don't think Amaryllis could be working some magic on us by making us boar ginger, do you? Like forcing us to do what she wants?"
"Maybe," I said. "But whatever it is, it hasn't come into effect yet." I smiled. "And we've got you to protect us if we become mindless Amaryllis-slaves."
Kae smiled too. Holly came outside just then, with Eli trailing behind in the doorway. Kae nodded to me, and then left.
"Hey, I just wanted to ask, do you want to walk together when we leave?" asked Holly.
"Sure," I said, feeling warm inside. I barely knew these kids, and they already accepted me. I wondered what her life would've been like if the kids at Trinity Di's had been like Holly, or Kae, or Mallory, or Eli, or even Stephanie. Probably better.
"Oh, and I was wondering, is Amaryllis coming with us?" asked Holly.
"I don't know. Maybe you guys should ask." I said. Holly nodded and went back inside, with Eli tagging along. Just then Stephanie came out.
"Hey," she said, giving me a (hopefully) friendly smile as she sat down next to her.
"Hey," I answered. "Are the others ready yet?"
"Mallory is ready, she's just getting her things together, and I honestly have no idea about Phillip," Stephanie reported. "Where's Holly and Eli?"
"He went to go ask Amaryllis if she's coming with us," I explained.