Keal yanked back on the spear, trying to get the tip of the long weapon in position to stab Taksidian. But the man’s other hand seized it, keeping it extended past his body.
As furiously fast as their movements had been, they stopped just as quickly. The men stood locked in place like statues. Their faces were so close, Keal could smell Taksidian’s foul breath. He felt the continued upward pressure of Taksidian’s arm, but his own arm was strong and firm.
Taksidian stared unblinking into Keal’s eyes. He said, “Nice.”
Keal strained with effort. He said, “Where . . . are . . . the . . . boys?”
Taksidian simply grinned, making Keal’s hatred glow red-hot inside his chest.
They stood in the center of the room, the closed portal door on one side, the hallway door on the other. Keal believed they could be frozen in that position forever. It made him think of the two Zax, those Dr. Seuss characters who refused to move to let each other pass while a city rose up around them.
Quick as a blink, Keal shot his knee out. Taksidian moved his leg and blocked it.
“Now what?” Taksidian said.
Keal tried twisting Taksidian’s arm to aim the dagger away from him. Taksidian resisted, held firm.
The guy’s stronger than he looks, Keal thought. And he looks strong.
Taksidian threw his head forward, targeting Keal’s face. Most combatants tried to counter the move by stiffening their necks and bracing themselves for the impact. That simply gave the attacker something solid to hit. The right response was what Keal did now. He leaned away and let his head fall back. Taksidian’s forehead tapped Keal’s chin. It helped that Keal had expected it.
“You’re good,” Taksidian said.
“You’re bad,” Keal said. “Guess that’s why we’re here.”
The intensity of Taksidian’s eyes showed that he was calcu-lating, calculating . . . figuring out a move that would surprise and end Keal.
The portal door burst open, and water sprayed in.
In the half second that Keal flinched and looked, Taksidian released the spear and punched him. Keal flew back, but refused to release Taksidian’s knife hand. Taksidian elbowed Keal’s nose, and that was it: Keal sailed against the wall and dropped to the floor.
Through a haze of pain and watery eyes, Keal watched Taksidian swing his dagger back, preparing to dart in for the kill.
But David propelled out of the portal, smacking into Taksidian. Water exploded from the collision like fire. The dagger flew out of Taksidian’s hand and clattered to the floor beside Keal.
David landed on his feet and staggered back, shock making his eyes big and unhinging his jaw.
Taksidian spun, saw David, and registered just as much shock. He raised his foot and kicked David in the chest, send-ing him back into the portal. The door slammed shut.
CHAPTER
seventeen
FRIDAY, 1:31 P.M.
Shoved backwards, David went through the shimmering portal, turning Taksidian’s image into a wavering, blurry fig-ure. David spun around, and he was in the cave. It was gone in a blink, flooded by water crashing in from all sides. He rammed into something both hard and soft, felt arms and legs tangling around him. Xander’s face flashed by, and together they broke the surface of the river. Shot out of the portal like pieces of rotten food from a mouth, they flew, arms and legs pinwheeling, back toward the path. They slammed into Phemus, and all three of them hit the ground.
Phemus grunted and waved his hands around, trying to grab them, as if swatting at flies. David kicked him in the head, rolled away, and stood. Xander pushed himself out of the way of Phemus’s flailing arms, scooting backward along the path.
“Xander!” David said.
His brother saw the fighting men moving in on him, a crowd of people right behind. One of the bare-chested brawlers swung a fist at him. He ducked and spun away.
“Follow me!” David yelled and leaped over the boulders into the river.
••••••••••
David spilled out of the portal on a wave of water. He som-ersaulted and coasted into the hallway door. Keal was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, staring at him. Blood fanned out from his nostrils, coating his lips and chin.
“Are you all ri—“ David started.
Xander flew in horizontally, arms stretched out over his head, like the Man of Steel coming for a visit. He appeared to stall in midflight and belly flopped to the floor. He moaned and rolled over, holding his stomach. His eyes snapped opened. “He’s coming!” he said. He rose and leaped to the portal door. He swung it around, but just before it closed, water sprayed in and something crashed into the other side. The door jarred open a foot, knocking Xander off his feet. Lying on the floor, he pushed his hands against the door. “Help me!”
Keal bolted up, rammed his shoulder against the door, and leaned into it.
David jumped up and bent over his brother to help them push. His sneakers slipped on the wet floor, and he had to continually shuffle his feet to get any kind of traction.
“Aaahhh!” Xander screamed.
David realized he had planted a foot on his brother’s shoulder. He slipped it off and said, “Is it Phemus?”
“Who else?” Xander said, as the brute’s fat arm slipped through the opening. It punched at David, who dodged it. “Push!” Xander yelled.
But Phemus was strong and the floor was slippery and the boys were tired. The door inched open. Keal backed away, and the door opened farther.
“Keal!” David said.
Keal returned and held a dagger over Phemus’s wildly mov-ing arm. He waved the dagger, trying to get a shot.
“Do it!” David said.
Keal jabbed, pinning Phemus’s hand to the door. A howl came through the opening. The muscles in the big man’s arm tightened and bulged. His fingers flexed.
“It’s stuck,” Keal said. He tugged on the blade, wiggled it, and yanked it out.
The arm slipped away, and the door slammed shut.
CHAPTER
eighteen
FRIDAY, 1:45 P.M.
David leaned his shoulder into the door, giving his throb-bing arm a break. All of them pushed against it, panting. As David’s breath slowed, his nerves settled. He said, “Think he can come through? Will the door open for him?”
Xander moved away from the door and plopped down on the bench. “I don’t know how he could,” he said. “It’s closed now. We’re home. The portal we used in Atlantis should be gone. He only got as far as he did because he followed us through.”
“Like we did with him,” David said. His shoulders slumped. His whole body slumped. He stumbled to the bench and collapsed on it, resting his head on his brother’s thigh.
“What happened back there?” Xander said. “You almost killed me. Twice: when you crashed into me and when we crashed into Phemus. Why’d you come back through the portal?”
“Taks—“ David raised his head. “What happen to Taksidian?”
“You did,” Keal said. “When you ran into him, he lost his dagger, and it gave me time to raise the spear. So he ran.” Keal groaned, pressed his back against the portal door, and slid down to sit on the floor. He added: “Like the coward he is.”
“What do you mean?” Xander said. “Taksidian was here? In the antechamber?”
“He kicked me back into the portal,” David said, rubbing his chest. He moaned and moved his hand to his broken arm. He squeezed it, sending a shock wave into his shoulder. “It hurts,” he said. “I mean, it’s been hurting all along, but we were too busy staying alive to think much about it.”
Keal said, “I’ll take a look. I think we all need some pain-killers and bandages.”
“Some?” David said. “This town doesn’t have enough.” He moaned and leaned his head back to the wall. “I wish Dad was here.”
Keal looked at his watch. “He and Toria won’t be back till about seven, later if they stop by the hotel to see your nana on their way home
.”
“Can we call them?” David said. After everything they’d gone through, hearing Dad’s voice would be like a glass of ice water to a man in a desert.
“They don’t have a phone,” Keal reminded him. “And they don’t know the numbers of the new mobile phones I picked up.”
They had discovered that Taksidian had bugged their phones, so Dad had gotten rid of them. David didn’t like being so cut off from the rest of his family. It felt too permanent, and losing Mom was bad enough.
Xander pointed at Keal, then touched his lip. “Did Taksidian do that?”
Keal wiped his face and looked at the blood. “And this . . . “ He leaned sideways and lifted his shirt. Beneath a smear of blood were four small crescent-shaped cuts.
“Ow,” David said.
“With his nails,” Keal said, dropping his shirt. “Other side, too.”
A wind blew in under the door. Keal scooted away. It swirled about the room, over the boys and Keal, looking for particles that didn’t belong in the present time. The water on the floor beaded up and rolled under the door. The air filled with mist as it pulled the water from David and Xander’s hair, skin, and clothes. It made David feel clean, and he was happy to be dry. He ran his fingers through his hair, amazed that the wind could be so thorough.
He said, “I always like—“ He flew off the bench and smashed into the door. His arm cracked down on the floor, and he screamed. His back was pressed to the crack under the door. His skin tightened, and he could almost hear his ribs creaking under the pressure. Time was trying to pull him under the door!
“David!” Xander said, grabbing his legs. Keal got hold of his arms.
“What’s going on?” David said, his voice squeaky with panic.
“Your shirt!” Xander said. “You brought it back. Take it off.”
David’s hands slapped at his body, but he couldn’t find the belt. “I . . . I can’t!”
Keal flashed the dagger past him, and David felt the pres-sure against his ribs ease. Xander ripped at the material. He forced David to bend his arm and pushed one side of the shirt over it.
David rolled away, and the tunic zipped out from under him. It wadded up in the crack, compressed, and disappeared.
He threw his good arm over his eyes. “Oh, man,” he said. “When am I going to learn?”
The wind returned, but it wasn’t the same. This one was misty and fragrant.
David sat up, pushed away from the door, and grabbed Xander’s arm. “What does it want now?” he yelled. “I don’t have anything else!”
The mist filled the room, swirling like a dust devil.
The mist stung David’s eyes, and he squeezed them closed. It smelled clean and fresh, like soap, but it was strong and filled his nostrils and lungs. He coughed, trying to hack it out.
With a gasp, the wind vanished under the door.
David opened his eyes, wiped goop from his lids, and blinked. His eyes felt like molten balls of fire. Keal and Xander rubbed at theirs, frowning, blinking. They gazed around the room. Everything glistened—the floor, the walls, their clothes and skin.
Keal wiped his forearm and rubbed his thumb and finger-tips together. “What the—?”
David saw something on the floor that must have come in with the mist. It was flat and green. Then he recognized the fragrance and laughed. “Shampoo.”
CHAPTER
nineteen
FRIDAY, 1:52 P. M.
“Well,” Xander said, “I guess it works in both directions.” He lifted his T-shirt over his face and rubbed. “Time wants everything back where it belongs, even here.”
“Except Mom,” David said. He lowered his head. After everything they’d been through, he didn’t feel any closer to getting her back.
“Maybe,” Keal said, “it’s working to get her back. People are different. When the pull tried to take your nana, the door opened. That means it knows the difference between living people and . . . “ He wiped his forehead. “And shampoo.”
“So?” David said.
“So, maybe it has to bring her back a certain way. You know, like through certain portals or combination of portals. But if she moves too far away from the right ones, it takes lon-ger. Look at Nana and Jesse. They both got far enough away from the house that the pull couldn’t get them, even though they were both in other times so long that history thinks they belong back there.”
David shook his head. “It took thirty years for Nana to make it back.”
“With your help,” Keal reminded him. He waited until David looked at him, then said, “So that’s what you do for your mom too. Help her find her way home.”
“We’re trying.”
“Keep trying. It seems like an impossible—”
“Shhh! Shhh!” Xander said. He was scowling at the hall-way door.
David’s stomach tightened. He strained his ears, but heard nothing.
“What did you hear, Xander?” Keal asked.
“I just thought . . . “ Xander whispered. “I said Phemus can’t come through this door because we had the item that brought us here.” He looked worriedly from Keal to David. “But he has a direct portal to the house. He could come through a different portal!”
“Into another antechamber?” David said, scrambling to his feet. He stared at the hall door, expecting it to burst open. “Would he do that?”
“He came after us, didn’t he?” Xander used the bench to hoist himself up. “We’re supposed to be chained up on a ship going to war. I’m sure he’s not happy that we aren’t.”
“So, did you hear something or not?” David’s pounding heart didn’t want to know, it needed to know.
“I thought . . . “ Xander shook his head. “I don’t know. A creak, maybe.”
David thought of Phemus trudging back up the hill to Taksidian’s Atlantian house, where the portal was. He said, “Could he have gotten to the portal so fast?”
“If he hurried,” Xander said. “Just barely.”
Keal stood. He slipped Taksidian’s dagger beneath his belt at the small of his back and said, “Let’s get downstairs.”
Xander leaned his ear to the door. He turned the handle and cracked it open and peered through.
David grabbed a handful of Xander’s shirt—the brave part of his brain thinking he’d yank him back if Phemus leaped up; the little boy part simply wanting contact, as though Xander were the “blankie” David used to sleep with.
Xander pulled the door wider and poked his head out to look in both directions.
“Xan—“ David said.
Xander stepped through, pulling David with him.
Keal put a reassuring hand on David’s back. They walked in a line toward the landing, where a staircase led down to the second floor. David pictured their escape route: at the bottom of the stairs were two walls, one meant to be strong and secure enough to keep trespassers from other worlds from coming into the main part of their house; the other, six feet from the first, was designed to look like the other walls in the house, to keep the third floor secret.
Trouble was, Phemus had knocked down the walls. Keal had rebuilt them, but had not yet installed the doors.
Past the two walls, on the left, was their Mission Control Center—MCC—where they had planned to record their trips to other times and try to figure out what the house was all about. Nothing in there that would help them now.
A short hallway led to a right-hand corner into the second floor’s main hall. From there, they could take the grand stair-case to the foyer and the front door.
No problem.
Then a problem did occur to him. “What if Phemus already came through? What if he’s waiting for us downstairs?”
“Shhh,” Keal said, patting him.
Will this never end? David thought. The danger. The fear. The feeling in his gut as tight as a clutched fist. He wanted to feel normal again. He wanted Mom back . . . their life back.
Bam!
Their heads swung toward the sound
behind them.
“That was a portal door,” Xander said.
A door opened. Light poured out of an antechamber, fill-ing the far end of the hallway.
“Go!” Keal said. But they continued to watch as Phemus stepped through and turned his face toward them.
Keal shoved David at the same time that Xander took off, yanking him forward. He stumbled, almost fell, found his feet, and ran. He followed Xander around the corner to the stairs.
Behind him Keal was saying, “Go, go, go, go, go . . . “ It sounded more like a chugging train engine than a command no one needed.
CHAPTER
twenty
FRIDAY, 1:56 P.M.
David, Xander, and Keal pounded down the stairs and through the doorless openings in the two walls, Phemus somewhere behind them.
David and Xander were almost to the corner that would take them to the second floor’s main hall when David real-ized Keal wasn’t behind him. He braked, yanking Xander to a stop as well.
Keal was back at the second wall, struggling to get a big rectangle of wall—the one that acted as a secret door—into place over the opening.
“Keal!” Xander said. “There’s no time.”
“Hand me a two-by-four, those nails, and a hammer!” Keal yelled.
“Keal!” Xander repeated.
David ran to a stack of long wooden studs. He handed one to Keal, who crossed it over the door and the wall on either side.
David could hear Phemus coming down the stairs.
“Nails, nails!” Keal said.
Xander grabbed a handful and a hammer. He pounded one into the end of the stud. He put in another one, and ran around to Keal’s other side.
“This is stupid,” Xander said, as he pounded in another nail.
“David,” Keal said. “Get another stud ready!”
David started to turn, and the door exploded out. Xander flew back and tumbled along the floor.
David yelled, stumbled back, and tripped over the stack of studs. Sitting on the floor, his legs hitched up over the wood, he saw Keal on the floor, flat on his back. The door lay over him. Only his chest, head, and arms protruded out from it.