“What’s wrong?” Ali asked.
Cindy held up her palm and felt the air between them. “It feels like a force field. You didn’t notice it?”
“No,” Ali said.
“We can’t reach the Yanti. Only you can,” Karl said. “Pick it up and bring it here, I’d like to see it.”
“Yeah. Is it pretty?” Cindy asked.
Ali glanced at the Yanti. The medallion was lighter than most gold, and shiny, as if it lay glistening in warm sunlight and not beneath the cold rays of the moon.
“Well?” Karl said.
“Well what?” Ali asked.
“Are you going to show it to us?” he asked.
Ali had trouble taking her eyes off it. “Sure. But I think I’ll leave it where it is for the moment,” she said.
“Why?” Cindy asked.
“Yeah,” Karl said. “Aren’t you supposed to get it out of here before the Yanti opens an interdimensional gate and all the elementals pour through into this world?”
“You have a point,” Ali said, thinking.
“Why won’t you let us see it?” Karl asked again.
She turned away from them, giving her full attention to the Yanti.
“There’s time. Be patient,” she said.
Ali heard a movement at her back, a stifled cry, a click of metal. Then she heard a voice she knew well, one she had heard plenty of in the last two days. But it was a voice that had aged and grown bitter in the space of seconds. He still sounded like the young man they had known all their lives, and at the same time he sounded like the wicked creature that had dwelled inside him since the day he had been born.
“I’m afraid there isn’t time, Geea,” Karl said. “Pick up the Yanti and bring it here.”
Ali turned and found Karl gripping Cindy with one hand, and in his other hand he held a gun, and it was pointed at her head. He smiled as she turned, his face filled with satisfaction. He tapped the side of Cindy’s head with the tip of the barrel.
“The Yanti, please,” he said. “Bring it here.”
Cindy struggled in his arms. “Karl! What are you doing? Let me go! What are you doing with my dad’s gun?”
“Don’t fight him,” Ali said. “Just relax, there’s nothing to fear.”
Angry and confused, Cindy stopped struggling and went still in Karl’s arms. It must have been obvious to her that he was stronger than any thirteen-year-old boy had a right to be. Fear darkened Cindy’s face, even in the light of the bright moon. She seemed to sense that there was more going on than met the eye.
“Can you help me?” she asked Ali. There was a note of pleading in her voice.
Ali nodded. “I will, I promise.”
Karl grinned. “You can help her by handing over the Yanti. It is all I want. Then I’ll let you girls go.” He added, “Otherwise, I’ll put a bullet in her brain.”
Ali ignored the threat and nodded to the line in the sand at their feet. “Lord Vak must have set up this barrier. That’s why you couldn’t reach the Yanti before. But when I started talking about it, you saw a way to get to it.”
Karl spoke in a slick voice. “What better way to get to the Yanti than through the great Geea? It was yours before it belonged to him. I knew it would welcome you back, and that no magic of Lord Vak’s could keep it from you.”
“How long have you known who I am?” she asked.
“You would do better to ask how long I’ve known who I am?” He paused. “Don’t you remember me?”
Ali stared. The face was different, of course, and the voice only approximated his old voice. Still, the truth of his secret identity came back like a cold slap.
“You are Drugle,” she said. “One of my advisors. You were on my court, in the elemental kingdom, and you argued with me to join with the rest of the elementals and attack humanity.”
“I was your chief advisor, Geea. For a long time I gave you excellent advice. But then I came to see you were too weak to be a powerful leader.”
“You mean I was too nice,” Ali said.
“Whatever. You were no one to follow. As time passed, I realized I had to take my own counsel, seek out my own allies. This war must go on, Geea. Even though I take the Yanti now I am not going to stop Lord Vak and Lord Balar from bringing through their armies. This war is necessary to clear the way for my friends and me.”
Ali heard Radrine in Karl’s words.
“. . . . But in the end we want the dwarves and elves to be destroyed, as we want humanity wiped out. Did you not know? The whole world can glow with radioactive dust and we will be happy. Because it is then we will move fully into the third dimension, and take over, and make all who have survived our slaves.”
“You work with Radrine,” she whispered.
“True.”
“You work for the Shaktra.”
Karl was momentarily surprised at her knowledge of the name, but then nodded. “Your memory is coming back, Geea. A shame it returns too late.” He pressed the gun into Cindy’s ear. “The Yanti, hurry, I grow impatient.”
“Ali!” Cindy cried. “I don’t understand! What are you guys talking about?”
“Shh. It will be all right,” Ali said, once again ignoring his threat. She wanted to learn as much as she could while she had the chance.
Ali took a step toward them, a step away from the Yanti. Above, a halo appeared around the moon, which was strange because the sky was clear and dry. As she studied it, a second one appeared, huge ghostly circles that magnified the light of the moon. The top of the mound was now almost as bright as it would have been on a cloudy day. She had no idea what the halos meant. Karl noticed them as well, but perhaps he understood them better.
“We’re running out of time,” he warned, pushing the gun harder into Cindy’s head.
“Why are you doing this?” Cindy cried.
“Shut up and stay still!” he snapped.
“Our Karl is not who he appears to be,” Ali said. “And you’re wrong, Drugle, I don’t need memory of times before this birth to know you’re rotten. I only have to think back over the last few days. From the beginning, you were such a smooth talker. I should have seen it back then. You supported me when I talked about taking this adventure—without asking any questions—when even my best friends doubted me.”
Karl continued to gloat. “I played you, it’s true.”
“You played us all. There were signs all along. The cabdriver called you by your first name when we got out of the cab. The way he said it, it was like he knew you, better than he knew us. That was because you had already been up the mountain with him that morning. You never went to Tracer, did you? You already had all our camping gear at home. Instead, you drove up the mountain early, with a can of gasoline, and lit the tree on fire. That’s the real reason you were late joining us. Admit it.”
“You saw all the signs, Geea. But you understand them too late.”
A third and fourth halo appeared in the sky, each one bigger than the previous, making a gigantic bull’s-eye out of the moon. She wondered if the rings were only visible from the mountaintop, or if they could be seen all over the country.
“Even when the dark fairies attacked, and you got burned,” she said. “It looked serious but it wasn’t as bad as it should have been considering where you’d been hit. If Cindy or Steve had been blasted in the stomach, it would have killed them. It was all a setup. You let the dark fairies hit you to draw suspicion away from yourself.”
He was pleased at her insight. “You’re right.”
“Tell me, did you go talk to the dark fairies while we were asleep?”
“Sure. That’s why I wanted to stand guard.”
“Why did you tell them to attack?”
Karl shrugged. “I was getting tired of the big group. Figured it might simplify things to kill a few of the others before we got up here.”
“The dark fairies never really tried to kill me that night?” she asked.
“No. I needed you, remember, for now.??
?
“But you were the one who hit Steve on the head and then threw me in the river. I could have died then. Why did you do that if you needed me so badly?”
“You have to understand that you hadn’t talked to the tree yet. You knew nothing about the Yanti. I didn’t think you ever would. I didn’t think there was a one in a million chance I could get you up here to help me. But I could see you were going to be trouble.” He shrugged and added, “It seemed a good idea at the time to kill you.”
“It was no big deal to you?” she asked.
He laughed. “I wouldn’t say that. Killing the queen of the fairies is no small deal.”
“Yeah, you knew who I was. You went way out of your way to keep Ali Warner from taking a hard look at Karl Tanner.” She snorted in disgust. “Everything you’ve said in the last three days has been a lie!”
He continued to smile. “It worked, didn’t it?”
Ali came closer, near to the line in the sand that separated them. “Did it? You got mad in the cave when I seemed to be going the wrong way. It was because you knew the way that led to the ridge. You had been up here before, probably many times over the last year, trying to get to the Yanti. You probably visited your old pal along the way—Radrine.”
Karl snickered. “You don’t have to tell me what I did. I remember.”
“You don’t remember everything. Not the first time we all hiked through the cave together. The time I took you guys the wrong way. It’s true, Drugle, I took the whole gang through the red door, the one that leads straight to Radrine’s hive.”
Karl lost his grin. “Huh?”
“I think you’re losing it, Ali,” Cindy said, worried.
Two more halos appeared, huge sweeping circles, that stretched almost to the horizon. There was room for one more, maybe. Ali took another step forward. She put her foot on the line on the ground.
“It happened in a time out of time,” Ali explained. “It was during that time that I passed the last of my tests. But along the way I ran into a little problem, we all did. We had to cross a deep gorge on a thin rope. Dwarves were chasing us and there was a panic. But everyone kept their cool, except you. You pushed Cindy out of the way to get to safety. Then you kicked her in the head. Really, you didn’t care what you did as long as you saved your own skin. That surprised me then, but later, after being in Radrine’s hive, it made perfect sense. My mother used to say that you never know a person until there is a crisis. Then you can see them for exactly who they are.” Ali paused. “Down there, in that dark cave, I saw my old friend Drugle, the coward.”
Karl was bitter. “What are you talking about? None of these things happened. You’re just trying to pretend like you knew more than you did when you knew nothing. You were fooled in this world—the same way I fooled you in the other world.” He lifted the hammer on the revolver and yanked Cindy’s head back. “Give me the Yanti or I kill her. Now!”
A seventh halo appeared, so large it touched the horizon. Slowly, the lot of them began to turn, joining into a vast spiral with the moon at its center, and they began to take on color, with red at the edge. . . .
Ali smiled. “Poor frightened Drugle. Here you are a high fairy on the queen’s council with all types of magical powers at your command and you bring a gun to this place. Fool! You are like one of those stupid kids who gets all worked up over nothing and grabs a gun and takes it to school. You are pathetic, really, I am disappointed in you. With your devious mind, I’d have thought you would have at least come up with a clever plan.”
“Ali,” Cindy gasped, her head held in a tight grip. “I don’t think you want to make him angry right now.”
Karl gloated. “If I’m such a fool then why are you standing there helpless while I am about to claim my prize?”
“Good question.” Ali paused. “Shoot.”
Karl blinked. “What?”
“Shoot her, I don’t care.”
“Huh?” Karl said.
“You can’t shoot me,” Ali said. “I’m on the other side of Lord Vak’s invisible barrier. But you obviously want to shoot someone. So shoot Cindy.”
“I am seriously not getting this joke,” Cindy said.
Karl frowned. “You bluff. I know you. You would rather risk an entire world than give up on a friend.”
“Okay, I’m bluffing. Shoot her.”
“Enough! No more games! Give me the Yanti!”
“No,” Ali said.
Karl shook Cindy hard. “I’ll kill her, I swear!”
Ali mocked him. “You swear? Long ago you swore an oath of loyalty to me—your queen—but still you betrayed me. What good are the vows of Drugle the coward? Drugle the fool? Tell me, I want to know.”
Karl was beside himself with anger. “I will kill her just to spite you!”
Ali spoke in a serious voice. “You underestimate me. I was not too late when it came to remembering what I needed to know. I knew everything when we came out of the cave, when I asked for your pack. True, it was clever of you to hide the revolver in that compartment at the base of the pack. I found it just the same, though, and took the bullets out of the gun.” She paused. “Do you want to check?”
Karl froze, for a moment, then peered down the side of the gun at the sixbullet chamber. The empty chamber. Seeing his enormous mistake, he threw the gun aside and went to choke Cindy, possibly break her neck. Ali knew he had the strength to do it. Yet she had anticipated his move.
She was queen of the fairies, she had powers he could not even imagine. Leaping through the air, she pushed Cindy aside and grabbed Karl by the throat. She moved so fast neither of them were able to follow her. When she had him, however, trembling in her arms, she forced him to stare at her.
“I want to ask you a question,” she said in a cold voice. “You want to answer it honestly. The night my mother died, the car was hit with red laser beams. Obviously the dark fairies attacked with their fire stones. I was carried to safety, away from the fire, before they could finish off the car. But before that, I saw a figure standing beside the car, a person who looked a lot like you.” She paused. “Was it you?”
He shook his head anxiously. “No, Geea! I swear it!”
She heard the lie. “Wrong answer,” she said.
Ignoring Cindy, ignoring even the cosmic spiral in the sky that had begun to pick up speed and color, Ali dragged Karl past Lord Vak’s invisible barrier to the hole below the Yanti.
Yet the sight of the Yanti made her pause in wonder.
The medallion was no longer gold; it was moving with the same spiral that filled the sky: the outer edge glowing red, the second layer streaked with orange, then yellow, green, blue, violet, and finally white at the center, where the diamond was. The seven circles of light possessed all the colors of the spectrum. But the white light was the brightest; it quickly became blinding, as straight overhead the moon burst forth with a hundred times its normal light. Clearly, what was happening in the sky was happening to the Yanti, only she did not know which was causing which.
The top of the mountain was soaked in color. Shifting rainbows played over the snowy peak like buckets of watercolors dumped from the sky. A strong breeze rose around the mound; it too moved in a spiral, taking the shape of a tornado. Ali’s hair lifted into the air; the strands sparkled in the colored beams. For a moment her anger faltered. So much was happening at once, and it was all extraordinary.
Then she thought of another night, one year ago, and her anger returned with a vengeance. Crouching beneath the Yanti, she held Karl’s head above the hole that led to the center of the mound. She was not sure how far the fall to the bottom was, but figured it would be enough to kill him.
“You were there!” she said, as the wind howled in their ears. “You brought the dark fairies there!”
“No!” he cried.
“You killed my mother!”
“I didn’t! Please!”
She shoved half his body over the edge. “I’m going to kill you!”
 
; His face was a mask of terror. “No! I didn’t kill her!”
She pushed him further. “Liar!”
“No, Geea! Your mother’s not dead!”
Truth. She heard truth, finally. She pulled him back from the edge.
“What are you saying?” she demanded. “No lies.”
He breathed heavily, the colors of the Yanti and the sky running over his twisted face like frightful emotions. “I got her out of the car. I took her away.”
“But the burnt body? We buried her ashes.”
“No. It was another body. The dark fairies brought it, I don’t know from where.”
More truth, she could hear it in his voice. Yet she could not accept what he said, could not let herself hope. The pain went too deep. Even so, she released him, let him stand away from the hole. The invisible barrier that guarded the Yanti no longer seemed to bind him. She supposed it had been enough that she had brought him across the barrier.
Across the top of the mound, the wind continued to spiral upward as the light poured down. Cindy stood thirty feet off to her right, and she seemed to be worried that Ali was listening to Karl.
“He’s just telling you what you want to hear!” Cindy called.
“You know I’m telling the truth,” Karl told her.
Ali considered. “Where is she?”
Karl shook his head. “Give me the Yanti and I’ll give you her.”
She snorted. “Don’t give her to me and you’ll die.”
He was scared but he was still devious. “No. You won’t kill me. I’m the only one who knows where she is. Even Radrine doesn’t know. If you kill me there will be no one to rescue her.”
“Rescue her from what?”
“From hunger. From thirst. I have been gone long enough as it is. She must be pretty hungry by now.” He paused. “Do you still want to kill me?”
“He’s lying!” Cindy shouted.
“Shh!” Ali snapped. The trouble was he was telling the truth. She had to move carefully. “How is she?”