“Mom, it’s okay. I’m okay,” Carrie said after her mother had a minute to collect herself.
“Okay? It’s not okay! Those little monsters held me prisoner! And you too! I’m just so glad to finally have you back.”
“Mom, they’re not monsters, they’re good people. And they weren’t holding me prisoner.”
Mrs. Minch looked at her daughter doubtfully.
“Honest, Mom! It was my choice to come out here. Marco came along, too. He didn’t have to.” Carrie flashed Marco a shy smile.
Carrie continued in a lower voice, but Brandon could still make out her words. “Mom, the guy you’re with is a bad person. He’s a liar and he’s only using you to get what he wants.”
“That’s not true! He’s the only reason you’re here with me. No one else would help me.”
Carrie shook her head. “No, Mom. All you had to do was come here. None of this,” she said, indicating the army in front them, “was necessary.”
Mrs. Minch stood staring at her daughter, then shook her head. “Brainwashed … they’ve brainwashed you!”
Carrie groaned in frustration. “No, Mom, they haven’t brainwashed me. You’re the one that’s got it all mixed up. This Mogritas guy has been lying to you.” She paused and said, “Just like Dad.”
Mrs. Minch shook with rage and shouted, “Don’t compare him with your father! Mogritas is the only man who’s ever shown me any kindness! Your father was a lying dirt bag who walked out on the both of us!”
Carrie dropped her head. “I know, Mom. But Mogritas is the same, he’s just wrapped in a prettier package.”
Brandon felt embarrassed to be eavesdropping on such a personal conversation, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Carrie was right. He had trusted Mogritas, but what if he hadn’t been telling the whole truth?
Mrs. Minch was sobbing again. “Carrie, how can you say that? You don’t even know him.”
Mogritas chose this moment to step forward. Brandon didn’t know if he’d been listening. Maybe he wanted to console Mrs. Minch, or perhaps he just wanted to find out what was going on.
“Kathy, are you all right?” Mogritas said and gently placed an arm on her shoulder.
“No,” Mrs. Minch cried. “Carrie’s been saying awful things about you, and I don’t know who to believe.”
Mogritas looked surprised. “What has she been saying?”
Mrs. Minch looked up at him. “She says you’ve been lying to me all along. She was never held prisoner here and you’ve just been using me. Is it true?”
“Of course not.” He turned to Carrie then. “I care quite deeply for your mother. She is a remarkable woman.”
Carrie looked at him. “Okay. Prove it. I’m here and I’ll come with you. So turn this army around and march back to your castle.”
Mrs. Minch looked to Mogritas for a response.
It was the first time Brandon had ever seen him look unsure of himself.
“I can’t,” Mogritas said at last. “I still have some business with Ba’ize.”
A tear ran down Mrs. Minch’s cheek. “What business?”
Mogritas pursed his lips, then said, “I am the rightful ruler of Seren’naie. Ba’ize has brought the city to ruin, I am only trying to set things right.”
“More lies,” Carrie said.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Carrie’s mother was distraught, like someone whose world was crumbling around her.
Mogritas watched her sniffling in front of him. Her greenish skin was blotched with pink and red from her tears and distress, and her ears drooped in despair. Brandon saw Mogritas’s eyes harden as he came to a decision.
“Because I chose not to,” he said coldly. Then he turned back to the camp and shouted, “Launch!”
“No!” Carrie screamed.
A groaning of wood and stone sounded from behind Brandon and then a whoosh as the arm of the catapult swept forward, flinging two of the barrels of waste toward the city.
“Reload!” Mogritas shouted.
A crew went to work resetting the arm.
“What are you doing?” Mrs. Minch screamed. “You said it was only to be used as a threat!”
He turned to her sharply. “I’m taking back what is mine! Now go! Go and enjoy your family reunion which I have so thoughtfully provided for you!” He pointed back to the camp. Around him, Brandon saw the army preparing to march.
Anger flared in Mrs. Minch’s eyes. “Never again,” she said quietly, but full of venom. “I swore to myself, I’d never let a man hurt me again!”
The first two barrels impacted, one on the southern guard tower and the other in front of the bridge, in the middle of the guard force. Both broke open explosively, spraying their contents several yards in every direction. Brandon heard screams of pain and fear and saw two noxious clouds forming where the contaminated liquid had landed.
In front of him, Brandon saw the earth reach up and encase the feet and legs of Mogritas. He twisted around and glared at Mrs. Minch.
“That was a mistake!” Mogritas said and shifted form, breaking his bonds and absorbing much of the dirt and stone into himself as he increased greatly in size. Brandon watched as a fierce, rust-colored dragon took shape in front of him.
Marco grabbed Carrie and dragged her out of danger.
Mogritas roared and faced Mrs. Minch. Sections of earth continued to rise up and grab at Mogritas and Brandon felt gusts of air buffeting him.
“Launch!” Mogritas shouted a second time.
The catapult groaned and swung once more, sending the last two barrels at their target.
Mogritas broke free from the earth again and swiped at Mrs. Minch with a foreleg.
She screamed, “Tear him apart!” as Mogritas’s talons ripped through her midsection and sent her flying through the air. Mrs. Minch landed heavily and didn’t move.
“No!” Carrie cried, running to her mother’s side.
“Form up and finish off those that haven’t died from the poisons! March!” The army hurried to obey, giving Mogritas a wide berth.
Brandon had been too shocked to move.
The second set of barrels hit their mark and blew apart, splashing their deadly contents through the ranks of the defending force and into the city entrance. More cries erupted from the helpless guards and citizenry.
46
Jenni heard screams. I’m too late!
Flying in from the north, she saw the tall towers in the hub of Seren’naie had been destroyed. Even the Seat of Governance was no more than a pile of rubble. She pushed herself for more speed.
She flew over the city, noting the damage in the back of her mind, and feared for her friends.
Jenni raced to the east and the source of the horrified sounds. She spotted Ba’ize in his gray robes on one of the guard towers.
Then she saw two cylindrical black shapes sailing through the air.
The barrels hit and burst open, spilling their contents. More screams split the air.
Jenni watched poisonous clouds form where the waste spilled.
“Lori!” she shouted at the air, “see if you can contain those clouds!” Please hear me.
“She’s on it,” Mrs. Osorio said in Jenni’s ear.
Jenni dove and landed with a rush of air from her wings on the tower roof. Two guards drew their weapons to defend Ba’ize. Several others were writhing in pain on the stone. Fingers of deadly mist formed from splashed areas.
“Jenni!” Ba’ize said in surprise and waved off the guards. His robe was smoking in several places.
The stench of the noxious gas reached Jenni’s nose and she smelled the danger of it. She also realized it seemed familiar somehow.
She knew what she needed to do.
“Here,” she said, handing Mrs. Osorio to him, “she can explain — I’ve got to hurry!”
Jenni concentrated and felt it. The toxic waste and contaminants were all of Earth. She could bring them into herself — manipulate them!
She
started with the tower. She closed her eyes and worked by feel alone. Screams changed to gasps as she pulled the poisonous material out of the air, from the stone, even from the bodies of those around her.
She leapt off the tower and dove to the decimated city guards below.
It was a war. The toxins resisted change. Jenni had to fight to reform them into harmless material. The more she absorbed, the harder it was to keep control.
She landed in the middle of the guards and drew in the deadly waste. She felt herself changing, growing, but couldn’t spare concentration to direct her shape.
More and more she pulled in. All of this was their fault! She couldn’t bear to have anyone else suffer for her mistakes, or those of her friends and classmates.
She let guilt and anger feed her — let them give her strength.
Jenni’s body burned. The waste seared through her. She worked, molecule by molecule, to reshape the deadly substances. She felt the last of it draw into her and she opened her eyes in shock and agony.
She had taken the form of a green dragon again, and she glowed in the sunlight with the fury and rage that battled inside her.
She shouted, “Move away! In case I can’t hold it!”
Jenni shut her eyes again and fought with the most dangerous compounds known to man. She used all of her fear, her sorrow, her will, to combat the wrong that had been thrust on these innocent people.
Spent, she collapsed into darkness.
47
Brandon saw a shape drop down from the guard tower shortly after the second set of barrels hit.
Then the earth erupted around Mogritas once more and he shouted in surprise.
Blazes burst forth from several cook fires around the camp, leaping to Mogritas and charring his scaled flesh.
Mrs. Minch still lay where she’d landed, Carrie and Marco, bent over her.
Mogritas tried to fend off the new attacks. “The spirits have gone mad! Brandon, help me!”
Their eyes met, and Brandon realized he’d been played for a sucker all along. Mogritas didn’t care for anyone but himself.
He watched Mogritas’s eyes flare in anger when Brandon held his ground.
His former mentor roared at him, “There’s so much I could have taught you! So much we could have learned together!”
“It’s not worth the price,” Brandon said, looking at the limp form of Mrs. Minch.
Mogritas roared a final time and broke free of the earth and fire that sought to hold him. He exploded into the air and fled northeast, in the direction of his fortress.
The spirits, evidently angered at the escape of their prize, turned their sights on Mogritas’s army. Brandon heard shouts and screams as the soldiers were suddenly attacked by the very ground they walked on and the air they breathed.
Brandon’s attention was drawn back to the city entrance. There he saw a green dragon in the midst of the fallen defenders. It wasn’t as big as he was, but it glowed like it contained a million fireflies. The beauty of it took his breath away.
It also looked in tremendous pain.
A roar issued from the green dragon. He watched, mesmerized, as its form melted and shrank into a pile of gray sand.
He then looked back to Carrie and Marco. Carrie was holding her mother’s head in her lap and crying. Marco sat with her doing his best to console her.
Suddenly angry at himself for his continued inaction, he turned to see what he could do to help the elemental spirits disperse the remnants of Mogritas’s army. Then he saw some familiar figures at his feet.
“Brandon,” Mike said, “can you help us?” Scott, Will, and Kim stood near him and they looked with fright at the army under attack.
Brandon sighed. “Yeah, stay close, they’ve left me alone so far.”
“Thanks,” Scott said. “I thought this soldiering stuff would be fun … but it didn’t turn out at all like I thought.”
No, Brandon thought, it certainly hadn’t.
48
Jenni opened her eyes to warm sunshine.
She was lying on a gently sloping hillside in lush grass. Up at the top of the hill was a lone tree. A figure sat underneath with a picnic spread out in front of them.
Jenni shaded her eyes and saw the figure was an older woman. She beckoned for Jenni to join her.
Jenni stood up, trying to remember what she’d been doing before, and walked up the hill.
As she got closer, she recognized the woman.
“Grammy?” Jenni asked and sank down tiredly in the grass next to the picnic blanket.
Jenni’s grandmother chuckled. “It’s all right, my dear. Have something to eat.”
Jenni plucked a grape from a bunch set in a bowl and popped it in her mouth. As she chewed, her memory came flooding back — her friends in trouble, and her desperate attempt to save them.
She swallowed and looked back at her grandmother, who had died three years before after a fight with cancer. “Am I dead?”
Grammy smiled at her and shook her head. “No. You are in a place … in between … shall we say. I brought you here so we could chat for a bit.”
Jenni frowned. “But, what happened? Is everyone okay?”
“Everything passes as it must.”
“That’s not an answer,” Jenni said, growing more confused.
“Yes, it is.” Grammy countered. “Just not the one you want to hear.”
Grammy picked up an empty plate from the picnic basket next to her. She held up an index finger and placed the plate on the tip, balancing it there.
“How are you —”
“Hush now. Think of the plate as the world we live in. On one side,” she pointed at the edge of the plate nearest her, “we have good, and, on the opposite, evil.”
Jenni’s brow crinkled. “Okay,”
“But,” Grammy continued, “not only do we have good and evil, we also have things we can call law on this side,” she said, pointing to the right side of the plate, “and chaos opposite that. Four forces that act on the world.”
Jenni looked up from the plate and saw, not her Grammy’s face, but Ms. Pap’s. Jenni jumped in surprise and nearly knocked the plate from Ms. Pap’s hand.
Ms. Pap smiled at her. “Settle down and focus Jenni, we don’t have much time. Now, what happens if we put a grape in the center of the plate?” Ms. Pap reached down, took a grape from the bowl, and placed it directly in the middle.
“It stays in balance,” Jenni said.
“Exactly. But what happens if one of those four forces get a hold of the grape?” Ms. Pap rolled the grape with a finger, diagonally toward one edge. It began to tip.
“The plate, er … the world becomes unbalanced.” Jenni said.
“Yes. So, what can we do to correct it?”
“Move the grape back?” Jenni asked.
Ms. Pap nodded. “Yes, but we could also place another grape in the opposite area.” She reached for a second grape and positioned it to balance the first.
“Jenni, you and your friends were grapes, placed here to help achieve balance in the world.”
Jenni nodded, understanding dawning.
“I admit, I was desperate,” Ms. Pap said. “But try to imagine balancing a plate with not two, but thousands, even millions of grapes. It’s not as easy as it looks!” She laughed and winked at Jenni.
“So you’re the one who brought us from Earth?”
Jenni’s mother nodded. Jenni blinked, but didn’t jump at the change — she was getting used to this strange place.
“The world was tipping dangerously far in the direction of law. It needed some chaos — a measure of disorder, to help bring back the balance.”
“But, so many people were hurt, even killed,” Jenni said.
“Everything passes as it must,” she said again. “But, you are right: life is precious. That’s part of the reason why I’m giving yours back to you.”
Jenni was puzzled again. “Giving mine back?”
“What you did was incredibly bra
ve and selfless, Jenni. It was also reckless. Taking that much of those substances into your body should have killed you, in spite of your abilities. I stepped in to prevent that, but I cannot do so again.”
“Why?” Jenni asked, now frightened.
“To take direct action like that again, would upset the balance too much to mend. It would destroy the very thing I’m trying to protect.”
Jenni shuddered at the power and responsibility of what she’d been shown.
“I’m afraid our time is up. Please take care of yourself, Jenni. I’m not ready to lose you yet.” Her mother smiled. “Now, close your eyes and your mouth.”
“Why?”
“Don’t argue with your mother,” she said, chuckling. “Just do it.”
Jenni sighed and complied.
“Good. Now push up with your arms…”
Jenni pushed and felt a weight of dirt or sand give way in front of her. She pushed again and felt fresh air and sun caress her skin.
“She’s here! She’s alive!”
Jenni opened her eyes to Sara’s smiling, copper-skinned face. Jenni then spit out a mouthful of sand and coughed.
“Well, thanks a lot, Kershaw!” Sara laughed. “Some greeting!”
Someone draped a cloak around her and helped pull her from the pile of strange gray sand she was lying in. Jenni realized she was stark naked under the cloak and quickly created some clothing. She blushed brightly and smiled at Sara as she saw Ba’ize, Captain Herina, and several other city guards nearby.
“A girl’s gotta make an entrance,” Jenni said tiredly, and they laughed.
49
Jenni did little but sleep for the next few days.
Ba’ize sat with her much of the time, talking to her and relating what had happened after she’d left to find Mr. Kain. In turn, she told him her story of the rescue and their trip back to Earth.
Captain Herina had sent the guard’s rocs to retrieve Mr. Kain, Crank, and the others, and they’d arrived safe and sound three days later.
Ba’ize also told her that, with the help of Mrs. Osorio, they were holding negotiations with the elemental spirits. Ba’ize had hopes they would be able to rebuild the city with their help — freely given this time, rather than as slaves.
Lastly, Ba’ize related the sad news that Mrs. Minch had been killed by Mogritas, but she had set the spirits against him, forcing him to flee, before she died. Marco and his mother were helping Carrie in her time of grief.