
Johnny Bey and the Mizzenglass World

by Lesley Krueger

Copyright 2014 Lesley Krueger

Mizzenglass

The Fossil Quest

Johnny Bey wasn't allowed to go to the quarry, but he needed to get a fossil. He planned his trip for one of the last days of school before summer holidays, when people had already started leaving on vacation. His teachers would think he was with his family. His family would think he was at school. It wasn't like Johnny to mislead people: he was the responsible brother. But he needed to get the fossil, and he didn't want to worry his parents any more than they worried already.

On Monday of the last week of school, it rained like a tap turned on. On Tuesday the tap was still dripping. On Wednesday, Johnny finally woke up to see a blade of sunlight cutting through his curtains, and opened them on a brilliant day. He packed his tools in his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder as he headed downstairs.

Johnny knew his parents would be out of the house already. Since his older brother, Brendan, had gone missing three years before—at least, since they'd stopped searching for him—his father had started going to work earlier and coming home later. He agreed with Johnny that Brendan might still turn up, but said they should try not to think about it.

His mother didn't believe Brendan was ever coming home. Looking through the window, Johnny saw her kneeling by a flowerbed. She liked to weed her garden before going to work, and her head was always bent. Johnny felt sorry for her, if you could feel sorry for your mother. He wished she would listen to Grandpa and Johnny, who knew that Brendan would come home eventually. He was just off somewhere being Brendan.

Marika was making sandwiches at the kitchen counter when Johnny walked in. She was fourteen and a half, eighteen months older than Johnny and eighteen months younger than Brendan, although she looked like neither of them, being short. The Beys were famous for the fact that no one in their family looked alike. It seemed to be genetic.

"There's tons of fruit in the fridge," Marika said, cutting the sandwiches in half. "You want to make sure everyone gets some."

"Good morning," Johnny said, taking a piece of buttered bread.

Marika pushed back her braids with her wrist. "Sorry," she said. "It's the track meet today, and I'm a little wired."

As she cut more bread, their little brother Mikey came in and stole a sandwich for breakfast. Nobody minded Mikey, or even noticed him much. He was nine years old, and took a huge bite, looking over the sandwich with brown button eyes that their mother said were more like Brendan's than not.

Sometimes Johnny got angry at the way his older brother had become the centre of the family without even bothering to be there. Marika was athletic and everybody liked Mikey and Johnny was the quick one, even though he was slow at making new friends. He'd been pretty much on his own since his best friend Matt had moved away. Other kids avoided him, as if losing a brother was catching. Either that or they believed it was his fault, that Brendan went missing because Johnny had done something wrong.

Johnny didn't understand the way other kids decided they weren't going to hang out with someone. He didn't understand his parents. You'd think two sons and a daughter would be enough for them, but it wasn't, and sometimes he almost asked them why.

Usually, though, Johnny just missed his brother and tried to behave like Marika. She kept quiet and got on with it, which in this case meant making more sandwiches.

"Shot-put's one thing. Javelin's another," she said, cutting the bread. "There's more competition for javelin."

"You're going to ace it. Don't worry," Johnny told her, rummaging in the fridge.

"Probably," Marika said, sounding as if she didn't believe it.

Johnny wiped down grapes and apples and put them in three lunch boxes. Boxes were more environmental than lunch bags, even though the bully boys sometimes grabbed his box in the lunch room.

"Look, it's Johnny Bey! Saving the world from bags."

Johnny tried to tell himself that bullies didn't matter when you took the long view. Multi-millions of years ago, their suburb had been covered by a tropical sea. He read about it whenever he could escape the lunch room or playground and go to the library. There weren't any people back then, much less bullies. Before the ancient sea dried up, the old limestone quarry where Johnny was headed had been a coral reef. It was covered with creatures that ended up turning into fossils. Sea sponges. Sea lilies. There weren't any fish then, but nautiloids swam past. They had octopus arms to push themselves forward and carried long cone-shaped shells in front of them like caves.

There was a nautiloid fossil hidden in the quarry, and that was the one Johnny planned to get. It wasn't just any old nautiloid, either.

"He said it was the biggest one you've ever seen."

Marika had told Johnny the story last winter, how Brendan had stumbled across the nautiloid one day and gone back to chisel it out of the quarry. Johnny already knew what was supposed to have happened next. Their mother said Brendan had climbed too high up the quarry. She claimed he'd slipped and fallen into the deep pool at the bottom of the cliff, which led to an underground river. They had to stop fooling themselves. Brendan had drowned in the pool and been carried away who-knows-where by the underground river. Brendan was dead.

Johnny didn't believe her. His brother couldn't care less about fossils. He'd probably just seen the nautiloid one day and mentioned it to Marika, then taken a hike wherever he'd gone. Still, Johnny needed to get that fossil, and he grabbed three or four sandwiches in case it took a while.

Grandpa spoke from the doorway. "Planning on being hungry today, are you?" he asked. Grandpa had moved in temporarily three years ago, but every case of temporary in their family was starting to look permanent.

"Morning, Grandpa," Johnny said, avoiding his eyes. Johnny had his Grandpa's eyes and knew they didn't miss much.

"Well, just be sure to get back before your parents get home," Grandpa said. When Johnny gave him a quick glance, he saw that Grandpa wasn't fooled for a minute, but trusted Johnny to behave.

"Then I'd better get going," Johnny said, slinging on his backpack and heading outside.
The Old Quarry

When Johnny hit the sidewalk, the suburb was still waking up. The newspaper man was driving down the street, lobbing papers at peoples' front doors. Across the street, the Mr. Chimminy Fix-it truck was pulling into the Morra's driveway again. Jogging past, Johnny thought it was time Binkie Morra got over hiding things up the chimney. By this time, even her parents knew where to find them.

The Cragge's new red door flew open. Mrs. Cragge waved her arms at the newspaper man.

"We just painted..." she yelled, before the newspaper took her out.

The other kids hadn't started coming out yet. At the corner, Johnny checked quickly to make sure Grandpa wasn't watching and deeked away from school, sneaking down the next block behind shrubberies and trees. At the end of the block was a stand of woods. He tiptoed past the last house, then raced up the bank and jumped a shallow ditch some little kids had dug. Younger brothers and sisters built all sorts of camps in the woods. He and Matt used to do it, piling up sticks to make tepees. The tepees always fell down and they always tried to build them again, until one day they got disgusted and stopped.

Now Johnny jazzed past a heap of rocks and someone's red plastic shovel. Before long, the forest snapped closed behind him, and Johnny finally felt safe.

The old path to the quarry was overgrown, but Johnny kept pushing aside branches until he found it. Once upon a time, the path used to be a dirt road. Now he had to wade through ferns up to his waist underneath an overhanging archway of trees. Their leaves rubbed together and whispered: Don't. Don't. Don't.

Johnny had first read about nautiloids through their volunteer, Ms. Terpsichord, who displayed prehistoric books on a special shelf in the library. Books about pre-history, she corrected in his head. Old Terpsy was always telling stories about the past. Multi-millions of years ago, he could almost hear her say. Now he was going there, in a manner of speaking, and soon saw a limestone cliff up ahead.

The old quarry.

The sun was getting hot by the time Johnny reached the chain link fence surrounding the quarry. The DANGER signs had been newly painted, but Johnny ignored them, grabbing the links and starting to climb. Once he got to the top, he teetered for a minute, then turned and started climbing down into the quarry, ripping his shirt on a broken link. He let go and jumped the last few feet, landing hard on the chalky floor. His chest burned from the scrape of metal, but Johnny knew he could take it.

"Going to have to, aren't you?"

Brendan was up ahead, looking proud of himself. Also transparent. Johnny seemed to have developed a see-through brother. Was he a ghost? The hair on Johnny's arms prickled with the knowledge of magic and wonder, and his heart wrenched with fear. He told himself there wasn't any reason to be afraid. It was only Brendan. Yet bigger forces were clearly at work, and they might be big enough to let him rescue his brother. More than anything else in the world, Johnny needed to get Brendan home.

He decided to act casual. "You're back, are you?" he asked. "Took your time."

Aside from being a ghost, Brendan still looked like the pictures they'd taken at his thirteenth birthday party not long before he disappeared. Skinny beanpole, button eyes, hair all tangled up in curls. Johnny was sturdier and his hair was darker and calmer, and his eyes stood out by being blue-green, so they looked like two pools of interested water. Usually he was so curious about snakes and worms and spiders that he couldn't resist taking a look, even when other kids said Ew. This time, he was scared enough to hang back.

"You must be almost thirteen now, too," Brendan said, hanging back as well.

"You've been counting?" Johnny asked, and started walking towards him carefully, like walking a diving board, or the plank.

"It's above the pool," Brendan said, when they stood face to face. "The fossil. I was planning to get it for you. I mean back then. You like fossils."

Johnny felt as if Brendan had punched him in the stomach. He hadn't asked his brother to get him the stupid fossil.

"It's not my fault you're missing."

"I'm not missing anymore, am I?" Brendan asked.

Johnny wasn't sure how to answer. Everything was strange, including the fact he looked the same age as his older brother. Johnny guessed he should feel nothing but glad to see Brendan after all this time, even in his ghostly form. But that wasn't it, not exactly. He had to get Brendan home, but he also teetered on the edge of running away.

"Come on," Brendan urged. "Let's go get it."

Johnny still felt someone watching him, those bigger forces. He knew he had to be brave in front of them if he wanted to earn his brother back.

"Oh, all right," he said crossly, as if he was doing Brendan a favour.

It was probably best to get on with things, the way Marika did. Johnny could figure out his feelings later, once he got Brendan home. 
The Long Road Up

The old quarry floor was strewn with boulders left in piles, and overgrown with weeds. Everything smelled dusty. As Johnny followed his brother, he thought that only the pool looked black and clean. Brendan was heading in that direction, although he kept stopping and to check out the butterflies and a grumping old toad along the way.

Johnny felt like a glass version of himself, very small and breakable in the presence of magic. Yet his curiosity was at work, and he was also distracted by the fossils he saw on every side. Johnny knelt to take a closer look at a shell fossil as Brendan walked over to the bottomless pool. When he got up to follow, Brendan stepped onto the surface of the water and began to walk across it.

"You would have saved everybody a lot of trouble if you'd done that the first time," Johnny said. "Instead of falling into some brain-dead underground river."

"You're pretty mad at me, aren't you?"

"We better get you home," Johnny said. "Mom and Dad might be worried?"

"Okay," Brendan replied.

Johnny was shocked. "Can you do that?"

"You've got to help," Brendan said.

Johnny would have done anything in the world to get his brother home. It really was his fault. His tenth birthday was a week after Brendan had tried to get the fossil. Yet he decided to keep acting cool. "Okay," he answered, and shrugged.

"Better get the nautiloid first," Brendan said.

"Maybe we should just leave."

"Come on," Brendan said, waiting as Johnny walked around the pool. "Is everybody okay? Mom? And Dad?"

The back wall of the quarry was crisscrossed with paths. Johnny filled Brendan in on family news as they headed up, starting to get used to things and deciding not to mention how worried everyone was. Brendan would find that out as soon as he got home and saw Grandpa's face. At first they took the widest path, which was really an old road. But the road got narrower the higher they climbed, and soon it petered into a trail. The ground turned stony underfoot, and by the time Johnny had finished the family news, loose gravel was making his shoes want to fly out from under him.

"Careful," Brendan said.

"I'm the careful one," Johnny replied.

They climbed until Johnny was hot and sweaty. The path was getting so narrow that you could hardly call it a path. More like a ledge? He had to walk like an Egyptian pyramid person, putting one foot directly in front of the other. You needed handholds in the cliff to keep yourself safe.

"Not scared, are you?" Brendan asked.

That was easy for him to say. He was floating above the path.

"Where have you been, anyway?" Johnny asked. "For three years."

"I can take you there," Brendan said. "If you want."

Now that was scary. But when he opened his mouth to say so, Johnny breathed in dust. It got in his chest, making him cough. His eyes started to water and he had to grab tight to the rocks. He wasn't scared—he wasn't—but his knees were shaking so hard, his shoes started to slip. He was going to fall!

"You're not going to fall," Brendan said. "Give me your hand."

But Johnny's hands were glued to the rocks. He held on tight until he was through coughing, then took a deep breath. As he did, he saw Brendan hovering upside down, looking into his face. When Brendan saw Johnny was better, he drifted up the cliff to stand on the ledge above.

"Almost there," he said.

"Almost where?" Johnny asked. "Magic land?"

"The fossil?"

Johnny spat out a wad of dust. Then he started climbing again, hanging onto the tree roots to pull himself up. He figured he was past the worst. Pretty soon he could get the fossil and take Brendan home. He wondered if he had to get the fossil to take Brendan home. Maybe it was the key that would turn Brendan back to normal. This might be a test set by whoever was watching.

If it was a test, Johnny was going to ace it, and fix everything in his family that had got broken. He gritted his teeth and climbed the hanging tree roots as if they were ropes in gym. This hand, that hand, knee over knee. The old tree creaked, but he climbed until he could lever himself over and sit on the final ledge.

By now they were very high up. But heights by themselves didn't bother Johnny. He took off his backpack and set it beside him.

"Cool, huh?" Brendan asked.

The nautiloid fossil gleamed out of the limestone, as shiny as the inside of shells. It was beautiful: a tapering fossil as long as his sneaker, and divided into chambers like toenails. Johnny wet his lips, seeing how hard it would be to get out.

"Tell me about it," Brendan said.

The fossil was embedded in some rock that stood out from the limestone cliff. Running his fingers around the rock, Johnny found the back of it was almost chipped free. If Brendan had chiseled the rock this deeply, he'd probably climbed up three or four times. He must have been trying hard to get it.

"Happy birthday," Brendan said.

"It's rude to read peoples' minds," Johnny said. "They must have a rule about it, wherever you've been."

Brendan spoke inside Johnny's head. We're not there yet, he said.

"That's even ruder," Johnny told him, taking out a chisel and getting to work.

Johnny had to hit the chisel with a hammer, using just the right amount of force. He needed to concentrate, which was probably just as well. It was better not to think about the bottomless pool below, but to just keep hitting the rock. Fix it. Fix it. Fix it, each hit said.

Brendan sat cross-legged beside him. "This is boring."

Johnny was too busy to pay attention, chiseling and rapping. Finally, with one quick RAP on the chisel, the rock dropped free. Johnny turned it over and found the nautiloid intact. He'd never felt happier in his life, a shivery feeling like flowers bursting out of his skin.

"Did I pass the test?" he asked Brendan.

"What test?"

"To get you home."

Brendan started laughing. He laughed so hard, he was nearly killing himself. At least, if he wasn't dead already.

"You think it's so easy?"

"If it was so easy to get the stupid fossil, why didn't you do it?" Johnny asked. He stuffed the nautiloid into his backpack, feeling furious with Brendan. Slinging the backpack over his shoulder, he reached for the tree root, started back down—and slipped.

Johnny was falling in the pool. He was flying, tumbling, diving through the air, terrified as the water rushed up to meet him. He was ready to hit and closed his eyes ...

...when Brendan took his hand, sweeping him in a big circle and flying him back up the cliff. That's what it felt like, anyhow. Johnny closed his eyes even more tightly as they flew, wishing that he'd never come here. But when he opened his eyes, Johnny found that he was back standing beside Brendan on the ledge.

He took in a deep, shaky breath. "Thanks."

"To get me home, you've got to come to my camp," Brendan said.

Johnny was too dizzy and frightened to know what to say.

"You've got to," Brendan insisted, opening a door in the rock that hadn't been there before. Johnny couldn't see inside, but the look on Brendan's face said he was telling the truth, and Johnny couldn't help being curious. There hadn't exactly been any magic in his life before, although he'd wanted some pretty badly over the past three years.

"All right," he said. "Let's go."

As he walked toward the door, Johnny realized that his backpack wasn't on his back, but was sitting beside the door. When he reached to grab it, Johnny was astonished to see his hand swipe through the straps, looking as transparent as Brendan's. His mind exploded in terror. Maybe he'd really fallen in the pool. Maybe he'd been killed, just like Brendan. Maybe he was a ghost now, too.

"Leave the backpack," Brendan said, as if Johnny had any choice.

Taking a deep breath, Johnny nodded, reminding himself that he was going to fix things. He followed Brendan into the rock and the door closed behind them.
The Cave Way In

It was dark behind the rock door and Johnny wasn't sure he liked it. They seemed to be in a big murky cave. When he looked around, he saw a tunnel leading out the back of the cave and into starless darkness.

Stalactites grew down from the ceiling and stalagmites up from the floor. Johnny touched a stalagmite, finding it smooth as the fur of a cat.

"You live in a cave?" he asked.

"I live in a camp on the other side of the tunnel," Brendan said.

Just then, a stalactite fell like a spear in front of the door.

"Better go," Brendan said.

CRACK! This time, a fat gray rock fell beside the stalactite. Looking up, Johnny saw that all the rocks were starting to loosen from the ceiling. Each one seemed to work itself free, then fell with a rumble and a whoosh. It landed on top of the earlier ones, so the rocks piled higher and higher. Finally Johnny realized what they were doing.

"They're blocking the door!" he yelled.

"Then we'd better get going," Brendan said, and ran toward the back of the cave.

With a last look over his shoulder, Johnny turned and ran after Brendan, barely making it into the tunnel before the cave roof roared and tumbled down. Dust shot into the tunnel, and Johnny raced to get away from it, afraid of coughing. The dust glimmered like little bits of neon light, so the tunnel was dark without being dark and Johnny could see the rock walls as he ran past. They looked built, the rocks put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Soon he realized they were loosening too.

A pop. A crack. The walls of the tunnel started to fall in behind them. The tunnel was collapsing, pushing them forward—and cutting off any chance of escape! Johnny raced ahead of the rocks. He didn't see how they'd ever get home after Brendan's camp.

You can never go back the way you came, his brother said, and raced ahead.

Running, turning corners, running again, Johnny lost track of time and direction. They went downhill for a while, with rocks falling onto the tunnel floor behind them and rolling forward toward their feet. Then they started uphill and the tunnel smelled dry and old. Johnny had a sense that things were flitting around them, not good things but magic, shadowy ones that were laughing to themselves. So there was black magic here, too.

"Where are we?" he asked Brendan.

"We're getting there," Brendan replied.

It was true the air was getting sweeter. The crash and thud of collapsing stones sounded further back. They seemed to have got ahead of the danger, and even though Johnny wasn't out of breath, he was glad to quit running and look around.

The tunnel was cleaner and darker here, but Johnny could still see quite well. Either his eyes had adjusted or light was somehow trapped in the walls. As he walked on, their road grew both wider and higher, like a main street running between tall apartment blocks. Johnny thought it was a beautiful place, like something in a dream. When it straightened out and widened some more, the shadows fell away and they entered another cave. This time, the stalactites and stalagmites glowed like stars.

Then he saw it. Ahead of them was a big rock archway with an ancient-looking door beneath it.

Johnny couldn't have felt more relieved. So there was a way out of here, after all.

"You think?" Brendan answered, reading Johnny's mind. He walked over to the door, and when he put out his hand, a golden doorknob appeared.

"Is your camp through there?" Johnny asked.

Brendan bowed with a flourish and opened the door. Rays of sunlight fell into the cave. The sun seemed to call Johnny forward, yet as he walked through the door, it was bright enough to blind him to the outside world. Behind him, he heard Brendan walk outside and the loud CLICK of a lock.

When Johnny looked over his shoulder, Brendan gave him a thumbs-up.

Johnny did a double-take. He and Brendan weren't see-through anymore. And the door was gone.

They stood on a ledge near the middle of a mountain that fell a long way down to a tropical sea. The sea looked like an endless swimming pool, turquoise and calm. Far off in the distance, a white beach curved in front of a meadow that turned into green hills at the horizon. Brendan's world was as beautiful as the best of Johnny's dreams.

"My camp's over there," his brother said, pointing to the far white beach.

Johnny peered at it unhappily. There were no boats on the turquoise sea, and he had no idea how to get there.

"By swimming," Brendan said, and dove off the high rock ledge, leaving Johnny alone.
The Accordion Sea

Checking behind him one final time, Johnny saw that the door to the cave still wasn't there, and no boats had appeared on the water. His only choice was to dive in, even though he was pretty sure he'd never make it to Brendan's camp. He lingered a moment longer, then decided that he'd had enough of being on his own. Gathering his courage, Johnny ran toward the edge, raised his arms—and dove.

Johnny dove a very long way down before entering water as warm as air. Afterward, he just kept diving, going so deep that after a very long while, his hands bumped the white sand floor of the sea. For a long moment, Johnny marveled at the sand rising like sparkles around him. Then he realized he was going to run out of air, and pushed himself off the sandy floor, kicking as hard as he could toward the surface.

He wasn't going to make it. The light was too far away. Johnny started to panic.

You'll be okay, Brendan said in his head. Just relax and swim.

Relax? When I'm going to drown?

No you're not, Brendan said, swimming up beside him. And it was strange, but Johnny realized that his brother was right. He didn't have to breathe. Either that, or he was breathing differently, maybe through the bubbles of air on his arms.

What's going on here? Johnny asked in his head. WHERE ARE WE?

You don't need to shout, Brendan said. Just think clearly.

Johnny realized that he couldn't always hear what was going on in Brendan's head, even though Brendan seemed to read his thoughts perfectly well.

You'll learn how to do it, Brendan said. Come on. We've got to get to my camp.

It was all so strange that Johnny couldn't move, and kept floating in place. But since he wasn't going to drown, he thought he might as well keep going the way Brendan said. He kicked and followed his brother toward a coral reef in the distance, which was coloured pink and white. As they got closer, he saw fish swimming everywhere and...

They weren't fish.

Two creatures swam towards them, looking like nothing Johnny had ever seen. They had long rubbery bodies like eels, two big feelers growing out of their heads and no eyes. They swam, waving their feelers in front, by flapping wings of skin at their sides.

Multi-millions of years ago: Johnny could almost hear Ms. Terpsichord's voice.

Is she still there? Brendan asked. Old Terpsy?

Now Johnny knew what these eel creatures were. They had lived half a billion years ago. Their fossil name was Amwiskia, and they twined their tentacles together to form an arch. Brendan swam under it and Johnny tried to follow. But he was so excited that he kicked one creature as he swam by, and the other slapped him with its tail.

Serves you right, Brendan said, but Johnny was surprised to find it didn't hurt. A completely magic world. He was filled with wonder, swimming over to the reef so he could get a look at the traffic jam of creatures below. There were orange shrimp-like things, and pink ones waving golden tentacles like cheerleaders. On the sea floor, a whole squad silver beetle-like creatures raced along like taxis. Johnny recognized all of them, at least from books. They'd lived after what scientists called the Cambrian explosion, the first animals on the planet.

Or something like them. The fossils of most Cambrian creatures were tiny, no bigger than your thumb, while many of the creatures were huge. Brendan pulled a worm-like creature off a sea sponge and started playing it like an accordion. Music filled Johnny's head and he started turning somersaults, laughing inside as he tumbled, pumped to be magic, happier than he'd felt in ages, rolling and twisting and turning his way through the perfect turquoise sea.

Johnny didn't get tired of the reef. Yet before too long, he felt he'd taken in as much as he could. His mind felt full, as if he'd eaten too much candy.

Then we'd better get going, Brendan said, and started swimming forward.

Johnny swam after him, expecting a long journey. But it didn't take any time at all before the water got shallow. Brendan showed Johnny how to walk on the sand with his head not far beneath the surface. As they walked—just the way you'd walk along a sidewalk—their heads came out of the water, then their bodies, their legs, finally their feet. Then they walked onto the white sand beach, breathing air just as easily as water.

Johnny looked down the long curved beach. "Where are we?" he asked.

"Mizzenglass," Brendan said.

"What's that?"  
"Here." Brendan shrugged, as if everything was normal.

"Then we'd better go to your camp," Johnny said.
The Mizzenglass World

The grass started right at the edge of the beach, with only a brief line where the white sand and green meadow blended together. It was fleecy as sheep's wool, and when Johnny felt it between his toes, he looked down to see that his feet were bare. Both he and Brendan were wearing shorts and tee-shirts, even though he'd worn jeans and a shirt at the quarry. Not to mention shoes.

Yet it wasn't a problem. Mizzenglass was perfectly warm, whatever else it was. When Brendan led Johnny into a creek, even the water was exactly the right temperature, and the pebbles felt smooth underfoot as they walked upstream.

Johnny stooped to pick up a pebble: an agate, layered with colours. He was about to toss it back when the colours began to move, breaking into pieces as if they were inside a kaleidoscope. It was hypnotizing, watching the blues break into triangles, and yellows come in like stars, and black zigzagging between them... until suddenly they came together and he saw his mother's face staring out at him.

Johnny dropped the pebble in shock.

"Yeah, those can be weird," Brendan said. "Some kids get addicted to them, and sit there staring at pictures of their families. But what happens if one day Mom doesn't show up? You can't help wondering what's happened to her at home."

"But if she died, wouldn't she come here, too?"

When Brendan didn't answer, Johnny thought about that for a while, then heard something his brother had said.

"Kids do," he said. "So only kids can come here?"

"Give you a tour," Brendan replied, turning inland and jogging toward the low grassy hills. Johnny had to run to catch up.

"But shouldn't we go to your camp?" he asked. "So we can get home?"

"No worries," Brendan said. "You can stay a few days, anyhow. Mizzen days. Time works differently here."

Brendan picked up the pace and Johnny had to jog after him, used to following his lead. Before Brendan had gone missing, Johnny had thought he was the world's best older brother. If he was playing with something and you wanted it, Brendan would just hand it over. He protected Johnny from bullies with a casual swagger, always laughing and joking, coming up with ideas, never keeping still. Sometimes his ideas weren't so good, like shoe-lacing the gym teacher. The principal had called about that one. Their parents sometimes shot worried glances at Brendan, particularly when his report cards came home saying easily distracted. Johnny even heard them talking about whether he needed medication.

There were a few kids at school on pills, but Johnny thought his parents were missing a big part of his brother: that he didn't always pay attention because he didn't really care about a lot of things. Brendan was just too cool.

Johnny cared more about some things than others—his family, science, fossils—but he usually tried to do a decent job at whatever people asked him. The bullies called him a suck, especially after Brendan disappeared, but Johnny kept working hard out of pride and maybe, lately, a hopeless wish to make his parents feel better. He didn't think that made him a suck. He sometimes thought it made him older than other people his age, although sometimes he felt small and lost and young.

Watching Brendan jog ahead, Johnny tried to remember what his brother truly cared about. He wasn't a jock or all that interested in any particular subject at school, and even though he could beat almost anyone at videogames, Brendan never got addicted the way some people did. He was smart and curious, and always willing to give something a try, but once he figured it out, he would usually lose interest and toss it aside. He tossed broken things aside, never interested in fixing them the way Johnny liked doing. In fact, it was hard to think of anything that truly interested his brother.

From the looks of it, this included going home.

"Come on," Johnny said. "Let's go to your camp. We need to get out of here."

"You never let go, do you?" Brendan asked. But he turned obligingly uphill.

Johnny wasn't sure how long they ran over the hills. At first, they were grassy and deserted. Then they ran into a ravine, and Johnny was surprised to see other kids playing on a tree something like a mechanical jungle gym, its branches bent like elbows that kept bending in different directions.

Brendan waved at the kids and kept jogging past. Johnny waved more hesitantly, but they only looked at him for a moment and went back to playing. Some were young, but none were much older than his age—his and Brendan's—and they all wore different-coloured shorts and tee-shirts. The grass was so even that Johnny expected to see sheep cropping it at any moment, or a fleet of self-propelled lawnmowers.

Then they rounded a corner in the ravine, and a field opened up where kids were playing soccer. A red-headed girl took the ball with one knee and kicked a nice fat goal.

"Claire, Claire!" the other kids called. The girl started a victory lap, stopping short when she spotted Johnny.

"Is that another Bey?" she asked.

Before anyone could answer, a wooly mammoth came lumbering over the hill. A wooly mammoth? Johnny couldn't believe his eyes. It was a huge old beast, looking like an elephant except for the long silky hair on its back that flowed almost to the ground.

Johnny grabbed Brendan's arm. "Where are we?" he asked. "What's going on here?!"

"I said we're in Mizzenglass," Brendan said. "Which makes us Mizzens."

"And that's really a mammoth?"

"You'd better get used to them," Brendan said. "They're in season."

Below him, the kids left their soccer game and ran toward the mammoth, red-headed Claire in the lead. The mammoth's coat folded into steps and the kids climbed onto his back. Once they were safely on top, the coat folded into saddles.

"It's a Bey, all right," Claire said, and the mammoth lumbered away.

Mizzenglass, Johnny thought. As he and Brendan kept walking, he defined it as a place where Cambrian creatures lived in the sea and woolly mammoths roamed the land.

"Not just mammoths," Brendan said. "Look."

Johnny turned to see a huge sabre-tooth cat scratching her back against a tree. He froze, too scared to move. The cat was far bigger than a lion, with foot-long sabres in her mouth and giant claws on her feet.

"What exactly is going on here?" Johnny whispered.

"It's fossil season," Brendan said. "We get all sorts of seasons here. This season, all the animals are extinct. I mean, they used to be. Then they'll move out, and maybe we'll get creatures in from fairy tales."

He stared straight at the sabre-tooth. The big cat yawned and came over.

"This is Effie," Brendan said. "Want a ride to my camp?"

To his amazement, Johnny found himself riding a sabre-tooth cat through hills full of giant Ice Age mammals. Before long, they passed an armadillo the size of a car. It crouched on the ground, the plates on its back moving with pictures that told stories to kids lying around it on the grass.

"He's better than TV," Brendan said. "You get more channels."

"You've been gone for a while," Johnny said. "We've got satellite now."

"But I bet you don't have that," Brendan said. Up ahead was a pair of twins maybe eight years old paddling through the air in a green Zodiac. Not a Zodiac. It was a boat made out of a huge water lily pad that carried them three feet above the ground.

Johnny had to admit that Brendan had him there. He shivered happily with the strangeness of magic come to life. Then they rounded another hill and Johnny shivered even more happily. Right in the middle of a bright blue lake was a dinosaur standing up to its flanks in water. A living, breathing dinosaur? Johnny recognized a brachiosaurus, one of the greatest beasts that ever lived—and saw kids using him as a water slide.

"His name's Bob," Brendan said, as kids slid down the dino's back. "And that's Joe and Rosa." Brendan pointed to a boy and girl waiting on Bob's shoulders. "They're my best friends."

"Do they want to go home, too?" Johnny asked.

"They might," Brendan said. "It's pretty complicated."

Johnny could see that. Mizzenglass went far beyond anything he could ever have imagined. A flying water lily? A dino slide?

As they rode around the lake, they even met adults, humans, people—but not like any people Johnny had ever seen. They were much more hairy, and dressed in bright, intricate clothes that looked both familiar and unfamiliar, as if they came from a country you'd never heard of that was right next door. One of them, a woman with a headful of brown braids, smiled over at Johnny. Her face was different than any he was used to, with deep-set golden eyes.

"Neanderthals," Johnny whispered.

"Don't be rude," Brendan whispered back. "People have names."

"So what do they call themselves?" Johnny whispered.

"Her name's Insa, and she's a Herder. Herders take care of the creatures, herding them in and out of season. And they help protect us, too."

"Protect you?" Johnny asked. "From what?"

That's when Johnny first saw it. Not that he was sure what he saw, or if he saw anything. It wasn't really a presence. It was more like a hole in the world. A black hole? Whatever it was, the tall absence slid across the landscape like a giant slug, leaving a trail of blackened, withered grass in its wake. The air around it seemed to go smudged around it, like a dirty window that the sun couldn't shine through.

"The Shadow," Brendan hissed.

"Shouldn't we get out of here?" Johnny hissed back.

"He can't get us here. The Sentinel has him under control."

Brendan pointed behind the Shadow. Johnny saw that once it had passed, the grass started to pick itself up and go back to being green.

"What's the Sentinel?" Johnny asked. "Is he here?"

"She," Brendan said. "This is her realm, and she keeps us safe."

Johnny tried to take this in.

"The problem is," Brendan said, "if you want to go home, you've got to play the Game. And to play the Game, you've got to go through the Gates, which means you leave her realm.

"And," Brendan said, even more softly, "you play against the Shadow."

"WHAT!" Johnny yelled, making the Shadow stop in his slimy tracks.

"Ssshhh," Brendan hissed. "I thought you'd maybe figured out that it was hard to leave. Why do you think I didn't come home before?"

Johnny's heart shriveled. Worse. In that moment, he felt the Shadow look at him with fiery red eyes. It was as if Johnny was touched by sickness. Rotten breath. Bad air.

Something seemed to push it back, springtime and sweetness, and Johnny felt saved. The Shadow started moving again, sliming its way over the hill and out of sight.

"It's okay now," Brendan said. "He's gone. We can play."

Johnny took his brother's arm. "Come on," he said. "We can sneak out while he's not looking."

"You can't leave here without playing the Game," Brendan answered. "And you have to play against the Shadow. Those are the rules."

Johnny couldn't believe his brother hadn't told him that straight off. A Game? What kind?

Complicated. Johnny felt his brother put the words in his mind. Hard. Scary.

"Besides," Brendan said, "you can't play alone. You need a Company. But we can talk about that in the morning."

"We've got to get home," Johnny said. "They'll get worried if I'm not back for dinner, and they're already worried enough."

"I told you time works differently here. We can play."

Johnny was struck by a terrible thought. "Do you even want to go home?" he asked. "Why did you bring me here? Just so I could play with you?"

"I didn't bring you here," Brendan pointed out. "You came."

That was true. But Johnny could see that getting Brendan out of here was going to prove every bit as complicated as the rules of any Game.

"Wanna go play baseball?" Brendan asked.

"Sure," Johnny said, deciding to handle his brother carefully. "We can talk tomorrow."

And so they played away the day, riding the sabre tooth, climbing the jungle gym trees and watching a story on armadillo TV. But the whole time, Johnny kept thinking, Home, home, home.
How to Play the Game

Johnny woke on grass that was as soft as a mattress, his head on a pillow shaped like a rock that had been a rock yesterday. Above him was a deep blue tent that grew brighter by the minute.

Johnny remembered how the sun had set last night. He hadn't felt tired but he'd been ready to sleep. Brendan had got him to lie down with his head on the rock. The rock had softened and the sky came down, turning into cloth that draped itself around them. It made itself into a deep blue tent that twinkled with stars as Johnny fell asleep.

Now, at sunrise, the tent grew scarlet and rosy. Johnny had always woken up early, but Brendan only stirred when the tent turned blue as the morning sky. As Brendan opened his eyes, the tent seemed to pull upwards and dissolve into the air, so they were lying on the grass with nothing but a warm morning around them.

Brendan lived in a hollow near the top of a hill. Other kids slept in other hollows around them. This was Brendan's camp: rolling hilltops filled with kids. Mizzens, Brendan said. Missing kids, Johnny figured. People who'd disappeared without anyone in the real world knowing what had become of them. Johnny watched his neighbours wake up as, one after another, their tents rejoined the sky.

"Did you have any good dreams?" Brendan asked.

"Can't remember," Johnny said. He couldn't remember eating yesterday, either.

"You can eat if you want to," Brendan said. "Fruit shows up on the trees if you reach for it, but most of us don't bother. You aren't hungry, are you?"

Johnny realized he wasn't.

"So let's play," Brendan said, getting up.

"The Game?" Johnny asked.

"I said you need more people. A Company of Seven."

"So how do you make a Company of Seven?"

"You ask five more people?"

Johnny had forgotten how annoying his brother could be. "How am I supposed to know this stuff if you don't tell me?"

Brendan mumbled an apology in his head and sat back down.

"It's like this," he said. "The Game is supposed to have three levels. You need to win one level before you're allowed to play the next. And you play against the Shadow, right? So you need a Company of Seven to work together and beat him in all three levels. If you win all three, you can go home. That's what they say, anyhow."

"You mean you've never tried to play?"

"Look!" Brendan cried excitedly, pointing down the hill. In the distance, a herd of big animals raced onto the beach. You could barely make them out at first, but as they got closer, Johnny' eyes grew wide to see a herd of big bright dinosaurs running on their hind legs, their small forelegs held out in front of them. They were every colour, and as shiny as metallic paper winkling in the sun.

"Raptors!" Johnny cried.

When he turned, all he saw was his brother's back as Brendan ran off to play.

Item Number One: Find Brendan.

Item Number Two: Get a Company together and play the Game.

Johnny walked downhill, thinking about how to do this. He was good at videogames, just like Brendan, and he figured that if they had to play inside a Game, they could ace it.

At least, they could if Brendan didn't get distracted. He didn't seem to have grown up at all in here, and now that they were the same age, Johnny could see how his brother's attention span might be a real problem.

Not that Johnny could blame Brendan. It was hard to stay focused here, with saber-toothed cats behaving like taxis, kids riding raptors and a giant sloth walking so sloooowly across the grass, she might as well not have been moving at all.

"You're Johnny Bey," a voice said.

Johnny turned to see Brendan's friend Joe ride up on a mammoth. As the mammoth came to a stop, Joe stood up, ready to jump off.

"It's a pretty long way down," Johnny told him nervously.

Joe smiled and jumped. When he landed, the grass wowed down like a trampoline and threw him back up. To Johnny's amazement, Joe bounced again, not as high this time, and a third time even lower, until he was safe on the ground.

"You don't need to worry about Mizzens," Joe said kindly. "Even though you seem to be a bit of a worrier. I guess that's what happens when someone's brother goes missing. Mizzen, missing you're right. Welcome to the land of missing."

Joe was a brown guy who sounded older than he looked, which was the same age as nearly everyone else in this place. He had a wide, friendly smile, but the steadiness of his eyes above the smile made him seem more grown-up inside. An old soul, Johnny's mother would have said. Johnny wondered if they could talk, maybe about where Brendan had got to, maybe about forming a Company, maybe about it being so hard to fix things.

"We can talk about whatever you want," Joe said.

"Not without me!"

A girl's voice caroled down from above. Johnny looked up to see a dark-haired girl flying a gleaming bronze pteranodon. Leaning over its neck, she held on tightly and swooped in a semi-circle, coming in for a landing. When she jumped off, bouncing on the trampoline grass—once, twice, three times—Johnny recognized his brother's other friend, Rosa.

She walked over and stood beside Joe, hugging herself with crossed arms.

So you think you can play the Game? Rosa asked. She was blushing, as if she'd had to nerve herself up to speak, even in his head.

Johnny thought about trampolines and sabre-tooths and flying. About how much better Joe and Rosa understood this place than he did.

"Maybe if you help," he said.
Gathering a Company

Joe led Johnny and Rosa under a tree so they could talk. Joe didn't seem fazed by the subject of the Game, but Rosa remained nervous. She was a skinny-bones with frizzy hair and freckles that looked like stuck-on confetti. You'd think someone who looked so spiky would speak a lot and say it fast, but Rosa was as shy as an egg.

We should probably stop this Company business right here, she told Joe, thinking so clearly that Johnny could hear everything she said.

He is a Bey, Joe replied. And he reminds me of, you know.

He's completely new, Rosa objected.

But newbies are usually the best bet to win.

Newbies can sometimes bull their way through, Rosa agreed. They don't know enough to be scared. But still....

Johnny couldn't figure out why Rosa was so upset. Joe seemed to be open to joining his Company, but she was entirely against it.

"Why do people keep talking about me being a Bey?" he asked. "Is it important?"

Joe looked surprised. "You heard us thinking?"

He's really good, he told Rosa. A fast learner. Picking it up so quickly.

Thoughts as fast and buzzy as mosquitoes flew between them, and Johnny couldn't catch a word. He thought they were being rude.

"I guess we are," Joe said. "I'm sorry. But it's really hard to play the Game. Rosa's right: You should learn more about Mizzenglass before you play."

"I always thought you learned best by doing," Johnny said, as they got up to leave. "That's what my Grandpa says, anyhow."

Joe seemed struck by this and stopped. "That's true."

Rosa kept moving. It's not your fault, she said, but you aren't ready yet.

"You're right, I haven't been here long," Johnny said. "But Brendan has, and our folks are worried sick. And look: it's my fault he's here."

Rosa stumbled a little but kept walking, shaking her head as she disappeared into a small stand of trees. Johnny turned back to Joe, who looked thoughtful.

"Can you at least think about it?" Johnny asked.

Joe shook his head. "I don't need to," he answered. "I'll go."

Johnny's heart took a leap.

"If you can persuade Rosa to go, too."

Johnny's heart clenched smaller again. "How do I do that?"

"If you can figure that out," Joe said, "you've probably got what it takes to win."

After Joe left, Johnny wandered the hills, wondering where Brendan was and puzzling over Rosa's reaction. Other kids seemed to shy away from him too, which he was used to at home, but which didn't make a lot of sense in a magical place like this. It was as if they didn't want to even talk about his Company. One look at the Shadow had been enough to tell Johnny that the Game would be scary. But if it was the only way to get home, what choice did they have? He couldn't help thinking there must be something else the matter, probably with him. People seemed to avoid him wherever he went.

Johnny was still trying to puzzle it out when a red-headed girl strode up. It was the soccer player from the day before. He remembered the other kids calling her Claire.

"So you're Johnny Bey," she said. "I hear you're forming a Company."

Now they were close, Johnny saw that Claire was a jock, taller and stronger and a bit older than he was. Jocks usually thought they were great, and in Johnny's experience, they were usually right. At least, they were great at the things they wanted to be great at, and didn't care about anything else.

So what do I care about? Claire asked, her eyebrows raised. She was right. Johnny had no idea, and sent her an apology in his head.

Claire shrugged it off. "What makes you think you can lead a Company?" she asked. The way she towered over him left Johnny feeling intimidated.

"I'm a fast learner?" he asked. "At least, Joe thinks I am."

To his surprise, Claire looked interested. "You need learners in a Company. And you're new here, which is another huge advantage." For the first time, someone seemed to be considering joining his Company. Then Claire frowned. "But your annoying brother is probably coming along too, right?"

Johnny figured he was allowed to say anything he wanted about Brendan. But no one else could. "He's my brother," he said. "And he's been here too long."

Claire's entire body turned quiet.

"Me too," she said.

Johnny waited for her to stop being upset, but it didn't happen.

"So you'll join my Company?" he asked.

Just then, the little twins ran over—the ones who'd been riding the magic Zodiac.

"We're here to join your Company!" the girl called.

"She's Alexa," the boy said, "And I'm Alex. Not the other way around!"

They're too young, Claire said.

Alexa made a rude noise in everybody's heads. The twins looked alike, boy and girl versions of skinny arms and snub noses and big brown eyes. But Alexa was a bubbly type who couldn't stand still, jiggling her arms and hopping from one foot to the other. Alex looked sturdy and quiet. Dependable, you'd say. At least for eight years old.

They'll lose the Game, Claire said. And bring down the Company.

"You're too little," Johnny began. Claire's agreement made his mind feel warm. "You're too little to be away from home for too long. You'd better come with us."

"All right!" Alexa cried.

Count me out, Claire said angrily. She shook her head and started walking away.

"Joe's coming," Johnny called after her. Claire stopped without turning around. "I mean, if I can persuade Rosa to come, too."

Claire turned slowly, and he could hear her thoughts. The two of them would balance the twins.

Johnny turned back to look at Alex and Alexa, and found they'd already run off to play. They were even more unreliable than Brendan, which wasn't surprising at their age. Johnny wondered if Claire was right, and looked over to find that she was still thinking.

"If Joe and Rosa go, I'll go, too," she said finally.

"Thanks," Johnny said.

"If they go," she repeated, and the way her blue eyes squinted made it a challenge. 
Salomon Steps In

Johnny sat by the stream, the agate in his hand showing him a picture of his father. The way people shied away from joining his Company made him feel more and more worried about the Game. Made him scared, even though in the pebble, his father looked out at him bravely, the way he'd started looking after Brendan disappeared.

As he stared at the picture, a Neanderthal man sat down beside him. Johnny meant a Herder; he had to learn how to put things here. The Herder was a strong-looking person who gathered the thick braids of hair on his head under a brightly-coloured woven cap. The hair on his arms was braided too, each braid tied with a golden bead or bell that matched his golden eyes.

"I'm Salomon," he said. When he moved, the bells made a faint musical jingling like wind chimes.

Johnny put the pebble back and reached over to shake hands. "Johnny Bey," he said. "I guess you know that. Everyone here seems to."

"Hi, Johnny," Salomon said. "Welcome to Mizzenglass."

"You're my Herder?"

Salomon's golden eyes shone brighter. It was as if he'd made a mountain smile. "I hear you want to form a Company," the Herder said.

"Why do people have such a hard time making up their minds?" Johnny asked. "Don't they want to go home?"

"Well," Salomon said. "Doesn't this look like a pretty good place to live?"

"Don't they have brothers and sisters back home?" Johnny countered. "Or friends? Not to mention their parents. Looking at my Dad's picture makes me want to go back. Though I guess Brendan said some people are scared to play."

"You can make friends pretty quickly here," Salomon said.

"Maybe other people can," he said. "I haven't had a real friend since Matt moved away. People kind of keep away from me. They do it here, too."

"You're right about the reason," Salomon said. "At least partly. They don't like you putting the Game in front of them." Once again, Johnny's mind echoed with hard words: complicated, difficult, frightening.

Johnny had a sudden thought. "What happens if you lose? Are you killed?"

Salomon smiled and shook his head, making the bells jingle and chime. "If you fall out of the Game, you fall back into the Sentinel's realm."

"You just come back here if you lose?"

Salomon nodded.

"They let you play all day like before?"

Salomon nodded.

"And you can try playing the Game again if you want?"

Salomon nodded a third time.

"That's it?"

"No," Salomon said. "But if you knew everything all at once, you might not want to play." He looked at Johnny for a while. "I can tell you more if you want."

"Maybe you should tell me why it's so important that I'm a Bey."

Salomon stood up. "Do you want to go for a walk?" he asked.

It sounded like a suggestion but didn't feel like one. Johnny got up and walked beside Salomon, noticing how the flowers turned to face the Herder as he passed.

"A very long time ago," Salomon said, "a boy named Bey played the Game. He beat the Shadow very badly. It's a famous story and a lot of people know it. You seem quite a bit like the earlier Bey."

"So we had an ancestor here?"

Salomon smiled. "That might be another reason people leave you alone. You're not just different. You're special."

"I don't feel special," Johnny said. "In fact, I feel kind of lost. And not just here, either."

Salomon only looked at him. Looked into him, Johnny would have said. "I can see that," Salomon answered. "But maybe that's what it feels like to be special, before you understand why."

Johnny didn't think that could be right. "Brendan is just as much a Bey as I am," he objected. "And he always has friends."

"Brendan is Brendan," Salomon said. "Which is just as well. You'll need his particular talents to have a chance of winning the Game."

"No one answers questions here," Johnny said, feeling a little exasperated.

"There he is," Salomon replied.

Johnny turned to see Brendan galloping a red and purple dinosaur across the meadow, one of the raptors from the beach that morning. Laughing, he raced toward Johnny, the raptor drumming the ground so loudly that Salomon's braids jingled.

NOW! Brendan called—and suddenly a flying dino swooped down. Standing up on the raptor's back, his brother leapt onto the flyer and flew away, whooping happily.

"I guess that's one of Brendan's particular talents," Johnny said.

"Whatever creatures are in season in the Sentinel's realm show up in the Game," Salomon said. "Brendan's good at calling them, and Claire's a brave rider."

"Thanks," Johnny said. "Those are the first useful things I've heard."

"You can never tell what's going to prove useful," Salomon said, squeezing Johnny's shoulder before turning.

Johnny watched the Herder walk away—then jumped up, remembering.

"Wait! Salomon! How do I persuade Rosa to join my Company?"

Johnny caught up with Salomon at the top of a hill, where they sat down on the faultless grass. Below them, some of the Mizzens played baseball and hockey and cricket. Others were running a dinosaur race, Brendan in the lead.

"Both Joe and Claire will join the Company if Rosa does," Johnny said, although he had an idea Salomon already knew. "Why Rosa and not someone else?"

"She's their friend," Salomon said, "and it's important that everyone gets along in the Game. On top of which, Rosa is the best sky rider here."

Salomon looked up, and Johnny followed his eyes. In the blue sky, far above, a half dozen kids rode flying dinosaurs, all as bright as parrots. He could barely make out Rosa astride a bronze pteranodon.

"You might want to learn to fly yourself," Salomon said. "Maybe Rosa would teach you."

Johnny leaned back on the grass, watching Rosa fly in swoops and spirals.

"She's really good," he said, and Salomon nodded.

"And maybe if I asked her to teach me," Johnny went on slowly, "she'd get to know me properly. Then maybe she'd play the Game." He turned to Salomon. "Is that what you're saying?"

Salomon only smiled.

"You're really sneaky. You know that?" Johnny asked.

Salomon boomed out a laugh that was like a river splashing. But he didn't deny it.

"If I can persuade Rosa," Johnny said, "I'll have a Company. Me and Brendan, Joe, the twins, Claire and Rosa. We'll be able to play the Game, and I can get Brendan home before they even notice I'm missing."

"You're moving pretty quickly," Salomon agreed. "But Joe's right. That's probably good."

"On top of which," Johnny said happily, "I get to fly."
Flying Lessons

What made Johnny think it would be easy? When he first tried to use his thoughts to call her, Rosa ignored him. Only when he yelled hard enough to almost split his head did Rosa swoop down towards him. Yet she still looked wary when she jumped onto the hilltop, doing a trampoline bounce and leaving Johnny tongue-tied.

"Don't suppose you could teach me how to fly?" he asked finally.

There's no way I'm joining your Company, she said. Don't try to get round me.

"Whatever," Johnny answered, clearing his throat. "Whatever you want. But that's one more reason I need to learn. So I can fly without you."

"If that's all," Rosa said, finally speaking out loud. "Sure. I teach people how to fly all the time."

Salomon's smile made the lawn rustle, and Rosa smiled back. Even up here, the grass was as smooth as a golf course. But when Salomon nodded, plants began pushing up all over the turf, their leaves quickly unfolding, flower stalks uncurling and bursting out with buds, the buds blooming so fast that Johnny was soon standing in a meadow of papery orange and pink and red flowers. Icelandic poppies. His mother's favourite.

Johnny got a flash of memory: his mother in her garden. The garden had got so much bigger after Brendan went missing, she could sit inside a whole lawn of poppies.

Catching his thoughts, Rosa turned as red as the flowers. Johnny picked up her memory of mountains covered in wild poppies, a leg of black pants walking beside her and a big hand holding hers. Papa, she thought.

The wind made a rushing sound. Looking up, Johnny saw a blue dino fly into view high above. As he watched in astonishment, the dino began circling down as if it were pouring through a funnel, spiraling down until it got close enough that Johnny could see it was a feathered flyer with two pairs of wings.

"Meet Faron," Salomon said, as the dino came in for a landing. Now that he was close, Johnny saw that Faron was as big as a car, and that his back wings were really legs attached to his body by leathery flaps. The great beast cocked his head at Johnny, looking at him first with one eye, then the other. He didn't seem very talkative, even mentally.

"Thanks, Salomon," Johnny said.

When Salomon nodded, two poppies bent down, and Rosa put a foot in each. The flower stems sprang up and tossed her onto pteranodon. Looking down, Johnny found another pair of flowers bowing at his feet. As soon as he stepped in, they shot him upwards as if he'd jumped on a springboard, so he landed amid the peacock-blue feathers on Faron's back.

The moment Johnny was settled, longer feathers clicked over his legs like a series of seatbelts, holding him firmly in place. Rosa took off ahead of him, and Johnny was left trying to communicate with the huge beast.

Follow...See ya, Salomon...Faron, maybe you should do what Rosa...

Johnny's thoughts were such an excited mess, he didn't think the dino would be able to understand him. But as Faron flapped calmly after Rosa, Johnny realized that he didn't have to concentrate his thoughts the way he did when he spoke to people in their heads. He only need to know what he wanted and the dinosaur picked it up.

Johnny also needed to keep his balance, rolling up and down with each powerful flap of Faron's wings as if he were riding a boat over the waves. When they reached altitude, the great best glided more smoothly, riding warm air currents, angling this way and that in search of an new updraft, and going so fast the wind sang in Johnny's ears.

"Maybe you really are a learner," Rosa said, flying up beside him. "I usually have to spell things out. But you seem to pick it up on your own."

Then Rosa banked her dino, and flew even higher into the perfect sky.

Faron angled up behind Rosa, the meadow dropping away beneath them. Reaching brighter air, the great dino began to flap slow figure eights. Now Johnny could see that Mizzenglass was huge. The hills where they'd been camping rolled into a great snow-capped mountain range. There were mountains on three sides, their icy peaks cutting into the horizon. On the fourth side, the meadow led down to the sea—a sea that from this height didn't seem to have any end, even though Johnny had come into Mizzenglass at its far edge.

"You're right about people getting distracted," Rosa said, sounding freer up in the air. "Sometimes, when I'm supposed to do something, I end up looking at the snow on the mountains. Then I fly there. It's one of the things I miss most about home. Winter."

"You've flown that far?"

"And further."

Johnny looked out at the endless view. "I can't get distracted," he said. "Not when I've got to get Brendan home, and he gets distracted enough for both of us. See, I need to fix things."

Rosa was very quiet, even in her head.

"I don't want to bug you," Johnny went on. "But it's not just Brendan. Claire looks like she needs to go home, too. And the twins are so little, they need their Mom and Dad. But everyone hangs back, and I don't really understand why."

Instead of speaking, Rosa raised her hands to her eyes, making circles of her fingers so they looked like binoculars. Copying her, Johnny found his hands became binoculars as the circles in his fingers filled with magnifying air. Suddenly he could see past the snow-covered peaks to the valleys beyond, and a new part of Mizzenglass. On the other side of the mountains were more green hills and more kids playing. Some rode mammoths, others raced proto-horses, and a big group surfed at their own beach, where perfect waves rolled in one after the other after the other.

All those people, Johnny thought. When Mizzenglass should have been empty, as everyone played the Game to get home.

"Salomon told me the game was hard," Johnny said. "You're telling me it's so hard, almost no one ever tries it."

Rosa nodded. Yet there seemed to be another reason why people didn't want to play. That she didn't want to play. Johnny sensed a slippery fish of thought in her mind, a secret Rosa didn't want to share.

Then he got it: Brendan had been gone three years.

"Is it three already?" Rosa asked, sounding upset.

"What about when he gets back?" Johnny asked. "Is he still the age he is here?"

"When I lived in the Real World," Rosa said, "I don't remember anyone being anything other than the age you'd expect, even after they'd been missing. I think you'd hear about it if they were."

Johnny thought about that for a minute. "How long have you been here, Rosa?"

"I don't know," she replied, sounding even more upset. "I've lost track. You kind of do. Longer than Brendan and Claire, but not as long as Joe."

Johnny wondered how old that would make Rosa when she got home. Eighteen? Twenty? It would be awfully hard to be that much older all at once. He looked out at the crowded meadows from here to the farthest horizon.

"Can't you tell from looking at your family in the pebbles?" he asked.

Rosa turned harsh. "My parents never showed up. And my grandparents, and my uncles and aunts. My older sisters did for a while, then there was only one of them. That's when I stopped looking."

Johnny had trouble grasping this. "You mean they all died? All of them?"

"Ever heard of war?" Rosa asked, sounding even harsher. Johnny got a sense of the bottomless nature of her sorrow.

I'm so sorry. I can see why you don't want to go back, he said. "Except..."

"There's no except."

"Your sister?"

Rosa paused. "I hope she lived. I hope she's happy. I like to think she is."

"Don't you want to know for sure?"

"And if she's not? If I leave here and find nobody out there waiting? I'd be this broken little person hiding in a corner."

Johnny had no answer.

"You wanted to know why people don't play the Game," Rosa said. "That's why I don't, anyhow."

Johnny looked away from Rosa to think things through.

"Even if people weren't in a war," he said, "maybe they don't get home until a few years later, and maybe their parents are dead. But if you stay here, and stop looking in the pebbles, you can keep on thinking your family is fine, your sister is fine. Is that what you meant?"

It'll do for now, Rosa replied, and turned her pteranodon back toward camp, springing like an arrow into the air. 
The Mountain Height Snowball Fight

Johnny was left flying in circles as Faron flapped around the mountaintops. Not that he paid much attention to Faron, too busy thinking about what Rosa had said. He couldn't imagine what it would be like for Brendan to come home three years older, especially since he didn't seem to have grown up here at all. It would be far worse for Rosa, even if things turned out for the best, and she was only eighteen and managed to find her sister.

Johnny felt small, dizzy and lost. Faron was flying over jagged white peaks that hadn't been there a few minutes before. Johnny had no idea where they came from—or how he had ended up flying a dinosaur, for that matter. Only yesterday, he'd been packing lunches for school.

It's too much at once! Johnny yelled inside.

And suddenly he was falling, spinning like a snowflake, arms and legs spread wide until he cartwheeled onto snow that felt so soft and light, it might as well have been feathers. Johnny had a brief sense that it felt the way snow ought to feel. Then he kept cartwheeling down into the snow until there was white all around him, so much white that the colours started to separate out into rainbows, and he felt as if he was falling through the rings of Saturn with no idea how he was ever going to stop.

Get a grip! he told himself. Using one of Grandpa's phrases made Johnny feel stronger. Gathering his courage, he angled his feet out like brakes, skidding to a stop as each foot landed on top of a rainbow. After a moment's awe, he pushed off, swimming up through the multi-coloured snow as if it were water. As, in a way, it was.

When he finally reached the air, Johnny was able to climb to his feet, the snow having turned as solid as snow usually was. He realized he wasn't cold, even though his clothes sparkled with snowflakes. Looking around, he saw that he'd fallen onto a steep, snowy peak with sharp drop-offs on every side.

"I can get home," he said out loud, to brave himself. "I've almost got a Company. As soon as I get back, I'll ask Rosa..."

A snowball slapped the back of his head.

"You're not convincing me!" Rosa cried.

"Hey!" Johnny yelled, turning in time to get the next snowball right in the face.

When he wiped off the snow, Johnny saw that Rosa was wired up tight. She looked at once sadder and happier than he'd ever seen anyone be. Faron and her mount hovered behind her, watching as she blew out clouds of white breath.

"Don't you love winter?!" she cried, bending to pack another snowball.

Johnny let her hit him, but that only made Rosa glitter more brightly.

"Fight back!" she called. Johnny ducked her next snowball and bent to make one of his own. As he threw it at Rosa, right on the mark, everything else dropped away, and they were two kids having a snowball fight at the top of the craggy mountain, shouting and laughing, launching one snowball after another, ducking and weaving and throwing.

"You're coming with us!" Johnny cried. "To see your sister! She's waiting!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Suddenly, a great white whirlwind lifted off the mountain. Startled, Johnny looked up to see a silver flyer circling down, whipping snow into a funnel. With a zoom, the flyer leveled out, then wowed back like a boomerang to burst the funnel apart, snow blown to the winds. When the flyer swept past, Johnny saw a rider on board.

Brendan.

"Found ya," his brother called, tumbling onto the mountaintop, head over heels. "Playing games," he said, picking himself up. "Instead of forming a Company."

"I'm trying to," Johnny said.

"No, you're not!" Rosa yelled, scoring a direct hit on Brendan.

Johnny swiveled and got her back. "Rosa's coming with us!" he cried.

"I said I won't!"

"Back to the Real World," Johnny said, throwing again. "Back to winter!"

"This is winter!"

"Not it's not," Brendan yelled, launching a snowball. "Nothing's real here!"

"Does this feel real?" Rosa called, hitting Brendan with a smack.

"Not real!" Brendan taunted, and started throwing one snowball after another. Bending, throwing, bending again. Soon Brendan was wired up tight as Rosa, his arms moving like a windmill.

"Not real," Brendan yelled, each time he threw. "Not real. Not real. Not real."

Johnny slowed down, upset to see his brother throw wildly off target. Brendan was either laughing or crying, Johnny couldn't tell, and he felt mean for bringing up the Game. Finally his brother stumbled as he bent down for more snow, trying and failing to pack another snowball together until he clumsily fell to his knees.

"Not real," Brendan sobbed. He gave Johnny an agonized look. "Mom and Dad look older in the pebbles. Is that my fault?"

Johnny went over and put a hand on his brother's bent head. Rosa hugged herself tightly and turned away.

"Come with us, Rosa," Johnny said. "Please. You can help me get him home. I need to get there myself before my parents find I'm missing. And the twins need to go, and Claire. They probably still have families. And you can always come and live with ours."

After a long pause, Rosa turned back and met Johnny's eye, giving him a frightened look.

She nodded.

Johnny drew in a relieved breath. "Thank you," he said.

"I'm not going home," she said. "I'll start the Game, and I'll help you as much as I can. But I'll drop out before it's over and go back to the Sentinel's realm. Other people need to get home. But I don't."

"I'm sorry," Johnny said again, then had a thought. "Can you make up your mind inside the Game? Whether you're going to finish?"

Reluctantly, Rosa nodded. Brendan looked up, as if hearing them for the first time, a question on his tear-streaked face.

"We've got a Company," Johnny said, and felt such a sudden glow inside that he expected the mountain's worth of snow to melt.

They were going home! 
The Sentinel's Gifts

The next morning, Johnny led his Company of Seven up a footpath Joe showed him beside a quick-running creek. Both Joe and Rosa looked serious. In Johnny's head were a pair of questions that he didn't want to ask.

Had they played the Game before? And lost?

Johnny walked forward quietly. Brendan hopped and danced around him, annoying Claire by flicking creek water at her. The two of them didn't seem to like each other very much, which could end up being a problem. The twins skittered along behind them, holding hands and singing merrily as they followed the stream uphill.

"Hey, hey, The Game's today,  
And we're going to play it.  
Along the path and up the hill,  
We'll pass the Gate and win until  
We're Home again—say it!"

It was a joyous song, yet Johnny couldn't help noticing a girl sitting beside the stream, staring into a pebble. She was so sad that her tee-shirt had gone grey, and Johnny could almost sense the blank emptiness of the pebble in her palm. Brendan seemed to sense it too, and looked upset.

"Spin, spin, we are the twins,  
And we're going to..."

"Can it," Brendan cut in rudely.

"Listen at him, starting out nasty," Claire said.

Brendan glared at Claire, who glared back, leaving Johnny wondering what to do.

"'Twin' really does rhyme with 'win,'" Alex said earnestly, making Brendan backtrack.

"Yeah, okay, snicker," he said.

Joe was watching, and Johnny got a fleeting sense of his private thought: They're really young. But Joe shook himself, as if trying to shake off his doubts, and smiled.

Johnny continued to lead the way, walking among soft and frothy ferns that looked as new as spring. The creek rushed downhill to his left, bumbling and tumbling over rocks. It foamed a perfect white, like the freshest of laundry.

They were heading steeply uphill now, beneath tall trees, the path opening up the ferns like an animal track. The stream twisted and turned beside them, singing with the twins. "Home, home," they burbled, and it burbled along beside them, getting narrower the higher they climbed. Finally they rounded a huge mossy tree and reached the spring that fed the stream. It gushed out of the hillside into an overflowing rock basin, where the water seemed tinted the same greenish-blue colour as his eyes.

"You've come here very quickly, Johnny Bey," said a musical voice.

Johnny looked up to see a tall and beautiful queen standing on a knoll above them. The Sentinel, holding a staff in her hand. She walked down toward them wearing rainbows in her long silver hair and a blue robe that shimmered like oceans. When she got close, Johnny saw that her eyes were changeable too, moving from brown to green to blue while she gazed at him as if she was everybody in the world all at once.

"I need to get my brother home," Johnny said. "And our friends. And I guess me, too. I hope that's all right."

The Sentinel only smiled, and turned to the other members of the Company, greeting them one by one inside their heads. Brendan. Claire. Rosa. Joe. Alex-and-Alexa.

"You're making a long journey," she said.

"Might you have any advice?" Joe asked politely.

"Tricks?" Brendan cracked.

The Sentinel laughed like wind chimes. "You already know you're going to play three different levels of the Game," she said. "Keep in mind, Brendan Bey, that a Door marks the end of each level."

"So we're looking for a Door," Brendan said.

"Not just a Door," The Sentinel replied. "You'll find a different Riddle written above each one. I advise you to pay close attention while you play. If you do, you'll learn the answer to the Riddle. Speak it loudly and the Door will open. Then you can enter the level above."

"Does the third Door lead home?" Johnny asked.

The Sentinel nodded. "Although I hope you'll stop to bid me goodbye."

"Maybe all of us won't be going," Rosa said, making the Sentinel look at her for a long time. Look into her, the way Salomon had looked into Johnny.

Finally, the Sentinel said, "I will give each of you a gift."

As she held out her hands, a thin silver chain appeared between them, looking as if it was woven from her gleaming hair. Hanging from the chain was a round crystal token. The Sentinel put the chain around Brendan's neck, saying, "Each of these tokens has its own special power."

"What's mine?" Brendan asked, touching the token.

"You'll have to learn that while playing," she said, taking another token from the air and putting it around Joe's neck. "But all the tokens have one thing in common—a second strength. As well as its own particular power, each has the ability to call help out of Mizzenglass."

Putting a chain around Claire's neck, she said, "You may call out any thing or creature with any of the magic you've seen here—but you can only do it once."

After slipping the tokens over Alex and Alexa's necks, the Sentinel paused. "My little ones—call for help most carefully. Once you've called a creature out of my realm, your token dies. It loses all the power it's been given."

Raising her hands again, she accepted another token and spoke emphatically as she put it around Rosa's neck. "It loses all its power."

Rosa nodded, and the Sentinel gave her another long look.

She finally came to Johnny. After reaching for his token, she hesitated before putting it on. "As leader of the Company, you will carry strong magic."

"Hey!" Brendan objected. "I should be the leader. I'm his older brother, and..."

The Sentinel raised a hand to stop him. Johnny caught echoes of a rebuke in his brother's mind, and that thought again about Johnny being special. Brendan went sulky, his lower lip pouting. Then he got distracted by the way his token glimmered, turning it over and over in his hand. After watching him a moment, the Sentinel shook her head sadly and put the chain around Johnny's neck.

"With leadership comes great responsibility," she said.

That was a word Johnny could accept. "I feel responsible for what happened," he replied, as much to his brother as to the Sentinel. "I guess I want to fix it up by getting Brendan home."

The Sentinel looked deeply into Johnny and nodded.

"NOW," she said, in bottomless tones. At the sound of her cry, water leapt out of the basin with a roar.

As the Company stood amazed, the water twisted and poured and formed a crystal Gate in the air. It glinted like quartz, like glaciers and turquoise, ever-moving, fresh as rain and deep as every ocean. Slowly the Gate swung open. Light streamed out of it, and the twins shrank back.

"It's all right," Joe said gruffly, pushing Alex and Alexa through the Gate from behind. "I'll help you guys. I'm going to have to."

Joe followed the twins through the Gate, and Rosa came next. Claire went after Rosa, squaring her shoulders.

"I'm cool," Brendan said, and strode after Claire.

Following his brother to the threshold, Johnny couldn't help glancing back. He saw the Sentinel standing by the stream, looking into its light-filled depths. He couldn't begin to read the expression on her face.

Turning, Johnny walked through the Gate and into overwhelming light.
Level One

Welcome to the Water World

As the light faded, Johnny heard the click of a door closing, and the Gate disappeared. In its place was a stretch of open sand. Feeling a slap of water, he jumped, and looked down to see clean waves rolling ashore on his bare toes. The rest of the Company stood nearby, looking around just as curiously.

They were on a beach. An empty beach: there weren't even any trees. Johnny saw none of the palms or sea grapes you'd expect in the tropics, even though the air felt tropical here, as warm as a resort.

There wasn't any resort, either. No matter where he looked, all Johnny could see were blue waves and a white sand beach curving off in both directions. A desert island, he thought. He didn't hear any birds, or see any crabs scuttling along the wet sand. It was dead quiet, its only sound the splash-plish-splash of the waves hitting shore, with no clue to what they were supposed to do.

"Great, a water world," Claire said. She sat down cross-legged on the sand and buried her fists in her cheeks. "I suppose the Door's underwater and we've got to swim."

Johnny was surprised to find Claire worried by a physical challenge.

We've all got our weak spots, she said.

"And you're telling yours to the Shadow?" Brendan asked.

"Say his name, why don't you," Claire said crossly. "And get his attention."

A chilly shadow passed over the beach. Johnny shivered and looked up, but was just some clouds, calm as sheep, and he told himself not to give in to imaginary fears.

Johnny did a double take and looked back up. There weren't any clouds in the Sentinel's realm—or any shadows. He'd never noticed that until now. Glancing down, he saw his own shadow, and shadows stretching out from the feet of every member of his Company. None of them seemed to know what to do.

"Well, I guess we'd better find out where we are," he said, starting to understand what it meant to be leader. "If we walk to the top of the hill, we might be able to see."

Inland, the sand rippled uphill in dunes. When they reached the top of the nearest hill, Johnny's heart sank. The back of the island just sloped down to another white sand beach and more empty sea. Shading his eyes against the glare, he saw hundreds of other islands dotting the water, all of them as barren as this one. And that was it.

Maybe something will happen, Rosa said quietly.

Again Johnny wondered whether Rosa had played the Game before, although he didn't want to ask in front of the others.

"Maybe we should figure out what our tokens do," he said. "They might give us a clue."

"I don't think we want to use our tokens unless we really have to," Rosa said, sending a wordless warning to Johnny about their power.

"Mine's a microscope," Joe said unexpectedly. He was squatting on the dune, looking through his token. "Every grain of sand looks like a rock."

Everybody quickly pulled out their tokens and hunkered down to squint at the ground. No one else saw anything, but Johnny got an idea.

"Is the other side a telescope?" he asked Joe.

Flipping the token, Joe lifted the crystal to his eye.

"You got that right," he said, and scanned the horizon on every side. Soon he pointed excitedly.

"There!" he cried. "A cliff! Right at the edge of the ocean. And—yes! There's a Door at the top!"

"I can't see anything," Brendan said, looking through his token.

"Joe can!" Alexa said excitedly. She grabbed Alex by the hand and started running down the hill. "It's that way! Let's go!"

"No! We need a plan!" Johnny cried. But nobody listened. They all ran downhill and jumped into the water, leaving Johnny to run after them, still trying to come up with a better plan, and not having a single idea in the world.

Together they swam toward the edge of the ocean, back in the Cambrian world, or something like it. The water was as shallow and clear as it was in the Sentinel's realm when Johnny first swam in. Gold sunlight beamed down to the sandy ocean floor even once they'd reached deep water, and there was a pink and white reef in the distance.

Yet Johnny quickly realized that the sea creatures were different. A new school of shellfish patrolled the ocean floor like a fleet of armoured purple cabs, their top blades glinting in the sun. Johnny had seen a picture of them in one of his books: Wiwaxia, they were called. Different shrimp-like guys swam by curling into a ball and pushing out straight, curling and pushing, making good time.

Too bad Claire couldn't do the same thing. Johnny saw she'd been right to worry. Claire thumped around like the newbie kid in swimming class. He wondered why such a jock hadn't got someone to teach her back in the Sentinel's realm. Her arms might as well have been jackhammers trying to dig a hole in the water, raising a cloud of bubbles like a traveling curtain. Brendan giggled in his head until Joe lifted a hand in warning, and swam over to Claire.

Just kick your feet like you were wearing flippers, Joe said, and hold your arms against your sides to make like a torpedo.

If I do, I'll stop moving. I'll get lost. You'll leave me all alone, she said, yelling in their heads as if she was scared to death.

You'll be okay, Joe said soothingly.

You guys have better feet, she added.

Feet? Brendan snorted.

Feet, Claire said, like a warning, and thrashed forward inside her curtain of bubbles.

At least the Shadow hasn't seen us yet, Alexa said.

YOU THINK? came a screech in their heads, and the ocean shivered.
Attack of the Five Eyes

Johnny looked around the ocean nervously, wondering where the Shadow lay hidden. They had reached the reef, which was pocked with dark caves. There was also a school of busy black bottom feeders that Johnny hadn't seen when he and Brendan first swam in, although he'd come across something like them in a library book.

Lace crabs, they were called. The book said they were the vacuum cleaners of the ocean floor, sucking up garbage. Watching them motor along like shiny little sports cars, Johnny felt uneasy in a way he couldn't put his finger on, and wished he could ask Terpsy a question or two.

You know Terpsy? Joe asked, astounded.

Old Terpsy? Johnny answered. She's a volunteer at our school. Why?

Johnny felt Joe's mind look into his. Somehow Joe flicked loose a memory of old Terpsy behind the library counter, her white hair pulled back in a messy bun, her sharp blue eyes matching the blue ring on her finger, her sweater always missing a button while she looked over the glasses on the end of her nose.

Did you go to Johnny's school? Alexa asked.

Not if he went to the same school as Brendan, Joe said. He seemed to turn off Johnny's memory the way he'd flicked it on. Besides, the Terpsy I knew was young.

So it might have been her granddaughter, Claire said.

I think they look alike, Joe agreed. But this one's so old, I can't tell.

Joe was lost in thought for another few seconds. Then he turned back to Claire. Our opponent is around here somewhere, he warned. Stay on course. And kick.

In which direction? Claire asked.

Claire was right: they'd drifted off course. Looking around, Johnny saw they were much further down the reef than he'd intended. Or further up it? Johnny couldn't tell, and Joe gave off a feeling of confusion that Johnny had never felt from him before. It struck him as a little dangerous, with their opponent lurking.

Sorry, Joe said. I guess I should use my telescope.

Before he could, a dark creature slithered out of a cave in the reef, an eel almost as long as a person. It was a steely-grey colour, and swam by rippling the deep red fins that ran the length of his body, feeling its way forward with a long toothed nozzle that waved this way and that, even though its face was covered in five round red eyes.

Look at that, Johnny said, awestruck.

A moment later, a proto-octopus swam over the reef, pushing forward with billowing blue tentacles, each one longer than Johnny.

And that! he cried.

Two astonishing creatures. Johnny felt lucky to see them. Except—faster than he could ever have imagined, the Five Eyes sprang toward the octopus, its nozzle groping. The octopus raced off, its tentacles pumping and pushing. But the Five Eyes was faster, a knife in the water. The octopus dodged it and doubled back, a flurry of blue, but Johnny only had time to say, We've got to help, before the Five Eyes grabbed the octopus in its nozzle, threw it into a gaping mouth, and swallowed it whole.

Let's get out of here, Johnny cried. As the Five Eyes rotated its nozzle in triumph, they raced away as fast as they could, Claire churning water like a paddle wheeler, Joe wanting to help her but herding the twins instead. Johnny led the way over the reef, and was relieved to see safety up ahead.

There! he said, pointing. An island. Swim!

Chancing a look behind him, Johnny saw the Five Eyes looming over the reef, its neon fins rippling on both sides. It paused for a moment, as if surveying its domain. Then all five eyes swiveled toward Claire, who was thrashing inside her flurry of bubbles.

It sees me! she cried in terror.

Keep going! Johnny told the others.

Dropping back, he grabbed Claire's hand and pulled her forward, feeling grateful for his lessons at the local pool. But the Five Eyes was gaining, its toothed nozzle snapping hard. Claire panicked, dropping Johnny's hand.

It nipped my foot! she cried. I hate this! I hate water!

Grab onto me with both hands! he called. Let me do the swimming!

I don't know if I can, Claire said shakily. Yet she managed to grab Johnny around the waist, and he put on a burst of speed. The Company was just ahead, reaching the island and clambering ashore. He and Claire weren't far away. Yet when Johnny glanced behind him, he saw Five Eyes so close it seemed monstrous.

Claire jerked. It tickles! she cried. It's nipping my foot and it tickles! She began laughing inside, twitching and chortling—and losing her grip on Johnny.

It's not much further, he said. Hold on!

It just tickles so much, she laughed, letting go with one hand.

You can do it! Johnny said, his toes striking the ocean floor as the water grew shallow. Hang on! We're almost there!

I hate being tickled, Claire laughed, letting go with her other hand. I hate it and I can't help it and I just...

Drifting now, Claire was sucked back towards deep water on the outflowing tide. Five Eyes snapped at her with eager teeth, its nozzle searching, its mouth gaping.

Johnny remembered the shrimp back at the reef, curling and pushing his way forward. He tucked himself down against the sand, gathering his strength. With a spring, Johnny propelled himself backward, flying through the water...

...and hitting the rubbery Five Eyes so hard it whizzed backwards like a pinball.

You got him! Clare cried.

Let's get out of here, Johnny yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling her along in a cloud of bubbles. The soon reached the shallows and burst forward on a wave, surfing ashore head first.

Joe rushed into the waves, grabbing Johnny by one arm and Claire by the other. "You all right?" he asked, pulling them onto the empty beach.

"Made it," Johnny said, shaking the water out of his hair and leaping up.

Claire stayed kneeling for a moment longer.

"That was harsh," she said. "And we've got to do it again tomorrow."
The Dancing Sands

The members of the Company sat in a line on the second desert island thinking about their escape. There wasn't much else to do. No Jungle Jim trees to play on and no creatures to entertain them. Brendan seemed especially bored, although Claire was the one who grumbled the most, at least in her head. Johnny could feel how much she longed to ride a raptor or play a game of soccer, although he had an idea her complaints were a way of covering up how scared she was of the water world.

As she got up to pace, Johnny wondered if Claire had come into Mizzenglass because she'd drowned. It was pretty obvious that she'd never learned to swim in the Real World, so it seemed possible. On the other hand, Brendan had disappeared after falling in the pool at the quarry, and swimming didn't seem to bother him. For that matter, Johnny might have drowned there, too—although it was true that picturing the underground river made him shiver away from the bright waves lapping onshore.

It's okay, he told Claire. We'll be at the Door pretty soon.

"We didn't plan this very well," she said. "We should have brought some tools."

"I didn't know we could do that," Alexa said.

"We didn't exactly ask the Sentinel, did we?" Claire said, still pacing. "Maybe we should drop back into her realm and get better prepared."

"Isn't it a little early to give up?" Johnny asked.

"Is it?" answered Claire. "The creatures are evil here. That was awful."

"I don't think they're evil," Johnny said. "I think they're just hungry."

Johnny pictured the lace crabs scuttling over the sand like vacuum cleaners. That had bothered him at first, and now he knew why: they were bottom feeders searching for food. Creatures needed to eat here when they didn't in Mizzenglass.

"Maybe that guy worked for the Shadow," Johnny said. "Or maybe he was just hungry."

"This is a stupid level," Claire said, plumping down beside him. "Hunger is stupid. Okay, so we don't give up. But I say we use somebody's token and get out of here as fast as we can. Call up a pterodactyl and fly to the End Door."

"We can't move too quickly," Johnny reminded her. "The Sentinel told us we had to find the answer to the Riddle inside each level. I don't think we've been here long enough to know any answers."

"I'm not going to last another day in the water," Claire said, meeting his eyes.

Ha ha, Brendan thought, none too quietly. Claire swiveled, looking ready to fight.

"All right, you guys," Johnny said, and shot a warning glance at his brother.

Brendan just shrugged. "So Claire drops out. What's the downside? She can form another Company and bring more people out."

"It's better to finish what you start," Joe said quietly.

Johnny couldn't help frowning. Joe always told the truth. But this time, he didn't seem to be telling the whole truth, and Johnny wanted to know why. If Joe and Rosa had played the Game before, why didn't they say so, and tell everybody what they'd learned?

"I'm tired," Rosa said. "Not because it's getting late. It's the kind of tired you get after you play hard—or swim hard, I guess. Not a lot tired. Just a bit. But I can't remember the last time I felt even the tiniest bit tired. It's kind of nice."

Johnny looked from Rosa to Joe. They seemed to be playing tag team, trying to change the subject, as if the truth about the Game was far too scary for the Company to learn all at once.

Johnny began to see that fixing things was going to be even harder than it looked.

Sunset came without Rosa or Joe opening up. Walking along the water's edge, Johnny wished he had prepared better, asking Salomon more questions. Yet he also saw that if he'd stayed longer, he would have had more trouble playing the Game. The rest of the Company was increasingly bored by the desert island, so used to being entertained they had trouble entertaining themselves. A reluctant Joe played tag with the twins, while Brendan and Claire couldn't stop squabbling and Rosa just stared at the horizon.

Johnny brooded out at the ocean, knowing that squabbling wouldn't help. Then he did a double take. A school of Five Eyes was waiting just offshore, their eyes glinting red in the setting sun. They were waiting for the Company, ready to hunt them down when they started swimming in the morning, picking them off one by one.

Johnny had no idea how were they ever going to make it off the island, much less beat the Game and get home. He felt even more worried as a breeze shivered his arms. Rain clouds were rolling in, scarlet in the sunset. Whenever something dangerous happened, there seemed to be a glint of red, the colour of the Shadow's eyes. Maybe the Five Eyes really were his creatures. And what did that say about the gathering storm?

Suddenly, he heard a whoop. Johnny clenched his fists in fear and raced up the beach, terrified the others had been attacked.

It was just Brendan, pointing at a crackle of lightning overhead, and whooping again when the skies opened in a downpour.

"Rain!" he cried. "I haven't felt rain since I've been here! And I love it!"

As Brendan turned in happy circles, Johnny remembered how he would never wear a jacket at home. The others marveled at the downpour, but Johnny was afraid this was an evil rain. They had no shelter from it.

"Loosen up," Brendan called.

"It's just, the Shadow might have sent this," Johnny said.

"Does it burn?" Brendan asked, dancing toward him. "Does it melt, does it sting? Maybe it's just rain and the creatures really are just hungry."

Maybe he was right. One of the reasons the Game was so hard was that you didn't know all the rules. It was the same way when you were little, how you never understood the way you were supposed to behave until you got into trouble. Johnny remembered the time his brother Mikey had swiped the car keys off the kitchen table, and he'd thought Mikey was just going to play make-believe until the car started up outside. His parents were out the door faster than Johnny had ever seen, his father coming back inside holding Mikey by one arm and yelling. But how was a six-year-old supposed to know that six-year-olds couldn't drive?

"Come on," Brendan said. "You're always so serious. Dance!"

As the rain pelted down, Brendan grabbed Johnny's arm and started dancing him around the beach. Johnny began to relax, thinking that maybe his brother was right. It was probably just raining, and without any adults to kill the fun, they might as well enjoy it. Up ahead, the twins were jigging to the beat of thunder, while Joe stepped out in a smart boogie. Claire and Rosa linked arms, bopping, twisting, twirling, whirling their way up the beach. Johnny fell in line behind them, dancing up the bone-white sand.

Drenched, warm, feeling the sand between his toes, Johnny relaxed into happiness, finally making friends. They circled the tiny island, leaving their mingled footprints behind—skipping without getting tired, dripping without feeling chilled—and Johnny wouldn't have been anywhere else for all that was bright and shiny in the world.

Except... As they played, Johnny began to realize the tide was beating in higher than the high tide line. They were dancing in spirals around the island, not circles, and heading inland without noticing that the waves were slapping further and further onshore.

Falling out of the dance, Johnny took a look at what the storm had been up to while his mind had been elsewhere. Evening had fallen almost into night. The sky was murky, with clouds covering the moon and stars. Cracks of lightning were all that lit the island and ocean, and they just showed quantities of water: sheets of rain and wild, foamy waves that kept getting higher and wilder.

Waves smacked Johnny's feet on what had been dry land a second before. They slapped against his ankles, then his calves. As the water surged higher, Johnny had to wade back to the beach. A crack of lightning showed the Company still dancing, drifting inland, clapping hands as Brendan jazzed to the front of the conga line.

"Hey!" Johnny called. "Guys! Head for the centre of the island!"

They couldn't hear him above the wind. Waves spanked his feet again, forcing Johnny even further from the crumbling beach. He decided to take a shortcut and jogged inland, reaching a wet hollow where his feet made sucking sounds as he ran. The sand was so wet he started sinking. With each step, his feet went in deeper, until he was up to his calves in sand, then his knees.

Quicksand! Johnny stopped running, trying to remember how you got free. Then something started sucking him down, pulling him even deeper, up to his thighs. Fighting for balance, Johnny lurched, and his token fell in front of his eyes. To his amazement, it let him see through the watery sand. Johnny had an X-ray token!

It showed great danger. Giant tube worms lurked at the bottom of the quicksand, their long bodies stretching toward him, their beaks open hungrily. Johnny was sinking down to their colony. And they were tinted red!

"Help!" Johnny cried. "Help! It's the Shadow!"

No one answered. His Company was clapping to the boom beat of thunder, and dancing away down the beach.

Help! Johnny cried. If they couldn't hear his voice, they might catch his thoughts. HELP! he shouted, sinking up to his hips in the sucking sand. A crack of lightning showed Rosa slowing as if she'd heard something. She stepped away from the circle, looking around.

IT'S ME!!! I NEED HELP!!! Johnny yelled. The quicksand reached his waist, and his token showed worm beaks gaping not far below him. A huge split of lightning cracked, and for a mili-second, it lit the island as white as an office. Johnny met Rosa's eyes, and as the light faded, he sensed her calling the others. Johnny glimpsed figures running towards him, and heard voices call his name.

"Here!" he cried, up to his chest in sand.

Johnny could feel the sharp teeth of the worms graze his feet as the Company reached the edge of the hollow.

"Make a chain," he cried. "Claire—you're strongest. You're at the back. Everybody else lie down in a line and hold onto each other's legs. Then Claire pulls!"

Lightning crackled. Johnny saw his brother lie down across the sucking sands, his arms held out, his face only a few feet away.

"Grab my hands!" Brendan yelled—just as worm beak closed on Johnny's foot. Throwing himself forward, Johnny grabbed Brendan's hands, hanging on tight.

"PULL!" Brendan yelled.

Johnny felt his arms yanked taut as Claire tried to haul the human chain backward. The worm hung on tight, trying to suck him down.

"PULL!" Brendan yelled. This time, Johnny's foot jerked out of the worm's grasping beak, and he rose a few inches through the quicksand. The worms grabbed for him frantically, their blind heads butting the soles of his feet.

"PULL," Brendan called, and Johnny rose up further. "PULL."

Johnny rose higher and higher, free to his chest, then his thighs, then his feet. The Company pulled one last time. Johnny felt a POP, and his feet sucked free. He was lying on top of the quicksand, face to face with Brendan, as the others pulled them across the sand and onto firmer ground. Finally Johnny could scramble to his feet.

"Thanks," he told his brother. "Now RUN!"

Johnny raced up the rain-soaked dune, leading the way to the centre of the island. The Company ran behind him, Joe tugging the twins to help them go faster, Claire guarding the rear. Yet the faster they ran, the faster the island fell away behind them. The Shadow seemed to be maddened by Johnny's escape. Rain gnashed down as thick as a waterfall and waves seethed higher than hills, eating up the beach, washing away the slopes of the island so it crumbled into the sea.

Thunder exploded like dynamite and the wind rose to a yowl. Lightning flared almost constantly: White. White. White. Each time it crackled, Johnny saw the island getting smaller and the Five Eyes swimming closer, gnashing their wicked teeth.

"Get to the top! The water might not reach us!" Johnny cried, pulling Rosa uphill. Once they reached the peak of the dune, Johnny saw he was wrong. The island would soon crumble away and they'd be thrown into the ocean. Without enough light to see, the Company would never be able to fight off the Five Eyes.

"What do we do?!" Claire cried, as waves snatched at her feet.

Alexa held up her token. "I need you!" she cried.

With a flash brighter than lightning, a lily pad raft from the Sentinel's realm dropped down from the sky, racing across the waves and landing right at their feet.

"Get in!" Alexa called. They all scrambled into the raft, finding paddles ready.

"Row hard!" Johnny called, as the edges of the raft curled up around them. "When the island goes under, there's going to be a whirlpool!"

"That way!" Joe called, using his token to point out the Door.

Everyone grabbed their paddles, rowing frantically and fast. They sped away from the island, pulling together. When the last wet ridge of sand washed into the ocean, they were far enough away from the gurgling undertow to pull hard—two, three, four, ROW—and escape.

"We're going to be all right!" Johnny called above the wind's wild howl.

"She used up her token!" Claire called back. "We didn't even learn its power!"

"She had no choice," Joe cried. "Good job, Alexa!"

"You mean it's okay we're here?" Alex asked him anxiously, and Johnny was surprised to realize that the twins had noticed Joe's doubts.

"It's more than okay," Joe assured him. "Alexa kept us safe."

A sharp wave hit the raft, a punch from the Shadow's invisible fist. But that seemed to be his final effort, as if their opponent had run out of power. The seas calmed. The rain stopped. Empty clouds limped away like wet dogs. Before too long, the stars emerged, and the moon rose in the east.

"Yeah, we'll be all right," Brendan said.

"Tonight, anyhow," Claire replied.

"Gloomy guts," Brendan said. "That was actually kind of fun." When Claire made a rude noise, Brendan insisted, "They call it a Game, okay?"

They called it a Game, and Johnny figured his Company had won this round. But as they rode the settling ocean, he got a dark sense of the Shadow nearby, thinking.
Somewhere Else

The next morning, the Company woke to a perfect summer day. It was sunny and breezy and warm, and for the first time, the whole Company could see the cliffs on the horizon that held the Door. As they stretched and yawned in the magic raft, a breeze riffled the ocean and lifted the hairs on their arms. The raft rocked on gentle waves, and the air was so easy to breathe, it felt like the first day of school vacation with a never-ending summer ahead.

"I don't trust it," Claire said, looking over the edge of the raft. "The Shadow's up to something."

"I'm not so sure," said Rosa.

Rosa and Claire seemed to have become closer friends since they'd danced together in the rain. Johnny had noticed them talking last night, and Claire listening to Rosa more seriously than before.

"He's pulled a lot of tricks lately," Rosa said. "He might need a few days rest so he can recharge his power."

"We could take a break if there was anything to do here," Brendan said, leaning against the side of the raft. "You know what I'd like?" he asked, sitting up. "Breakfast."

"You're not hungry, are you?" Johnny asked.

"I'd like to be hungry," Brendan said. "I'd like to inhale a pile of blueberry pancakes."

"Tortillas," Alexa said. "The ones your grandmother makes."

"Soft-boiled eggs you gathered that morning," Rosa said.

"With maple syrup," Brendan added.

"Leftovers," said Alex, to groans.

"He's allowed to like leftovers," Alexa said.

"Yogurt," said Claire. "Yogurt and raspberries. The world would be better without hunger. But not without food."

As they talked dreamily, Johnny noticed that they'd floated back from the cliffs on the horizon. They weren't going to just drift toward the Door. They needed to paddle. He also noticed that Joe was quiet. Joe seemed to have gone somewhere in his mind, staring into the distance.

"Are you all right?" Johnny asked.

"I'm fading," said Joe, lifting his hand. With a shock, Johnny realized you could see through the ends of Joe's fingers.

"Oh no!" Claire cried.

"What do you mean?" Alexa asked.

"You'll be all right," Joe said, taking her hand. Johnny realized that he and the twins were the only ones who didn't know what Joe was talking about. Claire looked serious, and Brendan was almost angry. Rosa looked inside herself as deeply as Joe.

"But what do you mean?!" Alexa insisted.

Joe looked sad. "There comes a time in Mizzenglass when you finish being a child," he said. "You don't stay here forever. You have to leave. And I've been here such a long time, I don't feel like a kid anymore."

"Don't say that!" Alexa cried.

"I can't figure out how long I've been here," Joe went on. "But Terpsy came into Mizzenglass after me, and you said she's old now."

"Terpsy was a Mizzen?" Johnny was astonished, and Joe looked at him steadily. Johnny thought for a long minute. "Then she must have played the Game to get out."

"Yes, she made it through the Game," Joe said. "And I didn't. But I'm leaving now."

"For where? For the Real World?" Alexa asked.

Joe shook his head.

"Back to the Sentinel's realm?" she asked more anxiously.

Again Joe shook his head.

"Then where?"

"He's dying," Brendan said harshly. "He would have been old at home, and now he's dying the way people do here, by fading out."

"Don't!" Rosa cried. "We don't talk about things like that!"

Johnny felt as if Brendan had punched him. He felt hurt for Joe and horrified at his brother for being so harsh. He also knew in his heart that Brendan was right, and didn't know what to do.

Johnny had never known anyone his age to die. He couldn't remember feeling so confused and unhappy since his brother first went missing. Even worse, when Joe glanced over at him, he saw confusion in Joe's eyes too.

"You'll be okay, Joe," said Alexa. "Maybe you'll go back to the Sentinel. Just in another part of her realm."

Joe pulled himself upright and shook his head.

"I believe I'm going somewhere else," he said. "And if Terpsy is old...well, I believe my parents will have gone there before me, and most of my brothers and friends."

Brendan continued to look angry. At home, their family was divided on where people went after death. When their grandmother died, two years before Brendan went missing, their Grandpa had said what Joe did, that he believed she'd gone somewhere else, to an afterlife.

Grandpa went to church most weeks, and so did their father. Their mother never would. After she'd done her gardening in the morning, she went to her job at the law courts where she heard terrible things in murder trials. Their mother believed that people were fires. Some people were fires that warmed you, she said, and that's what she wanted them to be. Other people were infernos that consumed themselves and everyone else around them. But one day, every fire burned out, leaving nothing but ashes behind them.

Of course, their mother also believed that Brendan was dead and gone, when Johnny was sitting beside him in a Zodiac. Maybe she was right and they were dead, or maybe they were living in a magical space between life and death. But Johnny hoped his mother was wrong about the gone-to-ashes part. He hoped his Company would make it home, and that Joe would meet his family somewhere else.

"Don't worry," Joe said, giving Alexa a brave hug. "I'm looking forward to seeing my folks."

The little twin started to sob.

"You'll get to see yours when you win the Game," he added.

Alex cuddled in against him, quiet tears on his face. Joe ended up with a twin hugged under each arm, rocking them gently. Johnny bit his lip as he looked over the ocean, unable to help a selfish thought. No one knew more than Joe did, and Johnny wasn't sure they could make it through the Game without him.

You'll do great, Joe said. You're a deep guy, and people are starting to see that. Before Johnny could thank him, Joe added aloud, "But we've drifted away from the End Door, so we'd better get paddling. I'm the only one who knows where it is, so we have to get there before I fade."

"I can't do it!" Alexa cried.

"Well, I can," said Claire, taking an oar almost savagely. "I don't like missing people," she said, starting to row. "But I don't like people at home missing me, either."

"I'll try to hang on till we get to the Door," Joe said. "But it's a good idea to row."

All that morning, they rowed toward the cliff, pulling their way quickly forward on the calm, flat sea. At first, Brendan chanted, "Pull, pull, pull." They got into rhythm like a sculling team, even though the raft looked more like a leaf-green Zodiac.

When the twins finally dried their tears and picked up their oars, the power of everyone pulling together sped them over the water. The cliffs soon grew bigger on the horizon. Nobody could see the End Door yet, aside from Joe. But as they rowed and rowed and rowed, Johnny began to think they might reach it before sunset.

Rowing wasn't hard, but it was boring. Pulling and pulling with nothing to look at but islands and water made Johnny feel as if he had too much homework sucking on his time. He glanced at Brendan, worried that his jumpy, angry brother couldn't stand the repetition. Brendan had quickly lost interest in chanting "pull." He rowed more and more out of rhythm, hitting his oar against Johnny's, then Joe's, before finally chucking it into the centre of the raft. He lay down, hands behind his head, pretending to snore.

"Come on, Brendan," Johnny said. "Let's get going."

Brendan only snored louder.

"Idiot," Claire muttered.

Brendan snored even louder.

"Hey guy," Joe said. "Maybe you better wake up. I need you to row for me."

Joe held up his hands, and Johnny felt a shivery sort of shock to watch them completely fade out. Afterwards, Joe still had hands, but they were transparent, like Johnny's hands had been back at the quarry after his fall, when he hadn't been able to pick up his backpack. Now it was pretty obvious that Joe couldn't hold his oar.

"Okay?" he insisted. Brendan stared at Joe's hands even more angrily.

"Oh, all right," he said. Brendan grabbed his oar and started rowing fast, splashing everyone and muttering, "Pullpullpullpull" as he paddled like crazy.

Johnny opened his mouth to tell his brother to grow up. Then he saw tears in Brendan's eyes, and realized how worried he was about Joe.

"Brendan's right," Johnny said. "We should probably get moving."

Row, row, row some more, row as hard as they could. Morning turned to noon, and the cliffs still wavered far in the distance. They weren't close enough for Johnny—especially when Alexa fumbled her oar, dropping it in her lap.

"Sorry," she said. "I think I need a break. I'm getting really hot."

"It's okay," Johnny said. "The sun's overhead, that's all."

"I'm hot, too," Rosa said. "And really tired. In fact, sleepy," she said, and yawned. "Sleepy in the middle of the day. I can't remember the last time that happened."

Rosa yawned again. "You know something else? The sun's getting bigger. Look!"

Everyone stopped rowing and looked up. Rosa was right. The sun was throbbing, huge, burning—and flaring red as sunset!

"The Shadow!" Johnny said.

Alexa yawned loudly, and Johnny started getting worried. "Who else is tired?"

Brendan reluctantly put up his hand. "But I can still paddle," he said. "For Joe."

"We all better paddle," Johnny answered. "Anyone who can. The Shadow must be trying to put us to sleep."

"Don't worry," Alex said, adding shyly, "I seem to do everything slowly, even fall asleep. You guys can take naps and I'll watch out."

"No offense, but one guard isn't good enough," Claire said. "You know why?"

Claire pointed over the side of the raft. Johnny looked down to see a Five Eyes circling beneath them in the shallow sea, its nozzles clenching and unclenching like hands waiting to grab. There was a sudden splash behind his back, and Johnny whipped around to see ripples in the water as if a fish had jumped.

But there weren't any fish yet, were there? Just the school of Five Eyes waiting to nozzle them out of the raft. They'd gulp the Company down the moment they fell asleep.

"Let's pull," Johnny said, dipping his paddle in the water. "Pull! Pull! PULL!

They rowed steadily for another long hour. Johnny kept his eye on the cliffs, watching them grow taller and closer. Yet he was beginning to feel the effects of the glowing red sun himself. His arms were feeling heavy and his legs turned sleepy, and soon the heat sank into his bones.

Johnny liked the feeling. It was such a lazy heat, he might as well have been on holiday, lying on the grass looking up at the sky without a thing in the world to do. He yawned hugely, thinking maybe Alex was right. So what if someone took a nap, as long as other people stayed awake?

If they did. Johnny shook himself and looked around the raft. Alexa and Rosa were both drooping, unable to hold their oars. Brendan sweated as he tried to paddle, looking jerky, as if he had to keep waking himself up. Johnny didn't think he'd last much longer. Claire and Alex kept their rhythm rowing. Steady little Alex! Yet Claire was getting flushed from working too hard. She needed more help than she was getting.

"You'd better try to keep awake," Joe agreed. Johnny nodded as he looked over. He saw that Joe's arms had faded to his elbows.

"Do you feel okay?" Johnny asked. "Nothing hurts?"

"I'm hanging in," Joe said. "But you still can't see the Door, right?"

Johnny rubbed his eyes, trying hard. But Joe was right. He couldn't see it. The cliffs seemed closer, but also vaguer, lost in a shimmer of heat. He couldn't make out crags, rocks, Door—anything but a menacing summer smog.

"I can see it," Joe told him, smiling. "Maybe because I'm a little hazy myself. But I'm fading fast. You've got to row harder, okay? Get me there before I fade right out."

Johnny nodded, and got back to paddling, helping out Claire and Alex. Pull, he told himself. Pull......pull......

...........pull?

Johnny fumbled with his oar and dropped it. The sun was so hot, his head felt thick, and he couldn't help feeling that a nap wouldn't hurt anyone. Claire and Alex were still rowing, weren't they? He couldn't quite see, but he thought they'd be able to keep ahead of the Five Eyes. They would get Joe to the Door. For once—maybe for the first time since coming to Mizzenglass—Johnny let himself relax.

As he did, a man's beautiful voice sang out on the wind.

Sleep, Sleepy, rest your head  
On sunbeams warm as pillows  
The air's as soft as baby's hair  
And eyelids droop like willows

"Johnny?" Joe said. "Johnny? Wake up! Sit up!"

But all Johnny wanted in the world was to curl up and dream.

Sleep, Sleepy, feel no dread  
Rest on ocean billows  
Yawn, sigh, close your eyes  
All will soon be well  
Oh! Summer's fair, everywhere  
Sway on wave and breeze  
Fall and rise toward tender skies  
Letting go is easy

"Alexa!" Alex cried in the distance. "Come on! You can't go to sleep! Wake up!"

Seraphim, dream your dreams  
No more hurt and sorrow  
Follow me into the sea  
Today is all we want and need  
We never reach tomorrow

"No!" Alex cried. "HELP!"

With a sudden clap, the world shook, half waking Johnny. As he opened his eyes, he saw Alex holding up his token. A huge figure blocked the sun: Bob the brachiosaurus, who gave water slides in the Sentinel's realm. Someone to help them—and another token gone.

Take the rope, Alex told Bob, and threw it toward his huge mouth. You've got to pull us to the cliff. And fast!
The Way to the Door

Bob's arrival from the Sentinel's realm seemed to knock some power off the Shadow. Or maybe it was the cool wind Bob raised in pulling their raft across the shallow sea, or just the fact he was so huge (and Johnny was convinced he was even huger now) that he blocked the worst of the red sun's rays.

Whatever it was, members of the Company began to shake themselves awake—all except Alexa, who still half dozed against the side of the raft, curled up like a comma. Johnny wondered if Alexa had lost some of the Sentinel's protection when she used up her token, even though Alex seemed the same as ever. He rode on top of Bob's big, stove-sized head as they sped toward the cliffs. Johnny also worried that they were moving through the level too quickly to learn the answer to the Riddle.

They had no choice. Joe was fading fast, and only he could see the Door.

The smoggy haze now covered the cliffs. Luckily, it didn't seem to bother Joe. Johnny wondered if Joe was fading beyond any power in Mizzenglass, including the Shadow's. But Joe didn't want to talk about it, saying he needed to concentrate on seeing the Door so he could call up directions to Alex and Bob.

More to the left, he said. Now to the right.

"You still feeling okay?" Johnny couldn't help asking.

Joe smiled. "You sound like my older brother, keeping an eye on me."

Then he turned more serious. Promise to take care of the twins. I was too hasty about them. They're not too little to play the Game. But they're going to need help.

You sound like their older brother, Johnny said.

They need to get home, Joe said. And see—you're right. If you use up your token, you get a little more vulnerable. Alexa used hers up fast, so it's going to be extra hard for her to make it through the other two levels. And you're not even through this one.

I don't know how we're going to make it through the Game without you, Johnny said again. But it was worse than that, wasn't it? I'm not sure I can lead the Company without you.

The best I can do is try to hang on till the Door, Joe said. But take care of the twins for me, okay?

By now, they were so close to the cliffs they'd started sailing through smog. It smelled like rust and sulphur and acid, like a dirty garage or a wrecking yard—the first bad thing Johnny had smelled since coming into Mizzenglass.

He caught Joe thinking, The Shadow broke wind, which was true. It was also the way Johnny's Grandpa put it. Johnny got the eerie sense that Joe really was old. The way he winked, the words he used, even his excellent posture said he came from years gone by. Somehow this made it easier to think about letting go of him. But not by much. Back home, he would find it awful to let go of Grandpa.

The smell got worse as Bob pulled them into shallow water, very close to the cliffs. Finally Brendan stood up in the raft, holding his nose.

"It stinks, all right," he said. "But at least it's waking me up. Hear that, Shadow?!" he called. "Your stink is waking us up, so maybe you want to stop it!"

"Why do you always have to bait him?" Claire asked angrily. "That's just dumb."

"And you're so perfect," Brendan said. "You're so perfect you hurt my stomach. So perfect I'm going to throw up..."

"Throw up what?" Johnny heard himself asking. "When was the last time you had anything to eat?"

"You're perfect, too," Brendan said. "Mr. Perfect Leader. Serious. Responsible Special."

Well, you're the opposite, Rosa said. Claire's right. You're a real pain.

"I want to go home," Alexa whimpered on the floor of the raft. She twitched a little, as if she was having a bad dream.

"Stop it, short stuff," Brendan said. "You've got to get a grip."

Johnny leapt up. "Don't talk to her like that! She can't help it!"

Brendan took a step toward him, ready to fight. "Who's the older brother here? I should be the leader."

"You guys, you guys," Joe said, drifting between them on transparent legs. "You think this smog might be doing more than hiding the Door?"

Shaking himself, Johnny realized Joe was right.

"Sorry," Brendan said, although he still sounded grouchy. "Are you sorry?" he asked Claire.

"Yeah, sure," she said. "And if you believe that..."

"Claire!" Johnny said. He still felt mournful. "Think about poor Joe."

Alexa whimpered faintly.

"None of that, either," Joe said. "You can't let him get to you. We're almost there."

Just as well, Johnny thought, hunkering down in the raft. He kept his head low and bit back both sadness and anger—treacherous feelings that were far harder to fight than any Five Eyes. Brendan slumped beside him, grumbling, while Claire stood mumbling at the front of the raft like an angry figurehead. Meanwhile, Rosa paced, hugging herself and sighing as if all was lost. Johnny was afraid she might be right.

"We're here!" Alex cried suddenly. When Johnny looked up, he saw Bob's great neck disappear into the smog like a skyscraper shrouded by clouds. He couldn't see Alex either, but from his happy tone of voice, Johnny figured he was riding above the baleful stink—meaning they'd soon be past it, too.

"Just head for that ledge!" Joe called up, then turned. "Everyone ready to go up?"

Bob made his back into a stairway. Rosa headed up first, still hugging herself and disappearing as she climbed onto the dino's staired neck. Joe went up after her—not that he was climbing. He was so close to transparent now, his feet barely touched Bob's back. Claire and Brendan both tried to go next, jostling the raft as they headed for Bob's tail.

"Let me!"

"No, let me!"

Brendan took a deep breath. "Okay. You go," he said, stepping back.

"Sorry," Claire said. "You go."

"Guys?" Johnny said. Finally Brendan bowed like a maitre d' and Claire walked up Bob's back. Brendan followed. Johnny was left in the raft with sleepy Alexa. She struggled to her feet, ready to take her turn. But Johnny saw she'd fall off Bob if she tried to climb on her own, and the Five Eyes were still circling the raft.

"I'm going to carry you," he said. "Come on. Piggy back."

Alexa got onto his back and leaned her head against his neck, where he felt her warm breath. Johnny was surprised how heavy Alexa felt as he started the long climb. Bob's stairs were slippery too, greasy from the fog. He had to concentrate on keeping his balance, putting one foot in front of the other, step by step by step.

Alexa was getting heavier, and falling asleep again. Suddenly, with a little groan, she shifted her weight, trying to get comfortable—and making Johnny lose his balance on the greasy step. He slipped, tottering, falling to his knees. It seemed to happen in slow motion. Putting out a hand, he grabbed Bob...

...and managed to stay on board.

Johnny glanced down at the Five Eyes circling below. You're not getting me, he said, pausing to get a better grip on the sleepy twin.

Johnny stood up again. One step. Next step. When he reached Bob's shoulders, the smog seemed even thicker and the steps up the dinosaur's neck looked even more slippery. He felt scared and sorry for himself. Why did he get saddled with Alexa?

Stop it! Johnny told himself. One foot, next foot. He could do it. Bob's neck was getting narrower. He must be nearing the dino's head.

It was true the smog was finally getting thinner up here. He was rising above the pollution. With a surge of relief, Johnny realized he was almost safe when he saw Bob's big head bowed down in front of him, making a final step onto the ledge. He thanked Bob, and saw the rest of the Company waiting. They were at the Door at last, and safe.

Then Johnny remembered the Riddle.
The End Door

Handing Alexa to Brendan, Johnny was glad to be free of her sleepy weight. Alex came back from thanking Bob, who nodded peaceably. But the twin still looked worried.

"Joe's still the only one who can see the Door," he said.

Looking around, Johnny saw blank cliffs in every direction. He turned to Joe. "Where is it?" he asked.

Joe raised his hand slowly to point. "There."

Johnny still couldn't see anything but craggy rock and dust. "Where?" he asked.

Again Joe lifted his hand, this time with greater effort. "There," he said.

Johnny shook his head. Still nothing.

As Joe lifted his hand slightly higher, a sunbeam passed through him like a ray of light entering water. The light doubled and tripled and splintered and flashed, blinding them with an electric whiteness. When it cleared, a pale Door gleamed in the cliff. It was like crystal, like warm ice, with a Riddle running over it like a stream.

I flow   
Around and through  
Always warm and ever true  
I heal and mold  
I bind and hold  
The oldest old and newest new

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Claire asked. "I mean, in a world like this. The answer is..." Claire stood up straight and called, "Water!"

Nothing happened.

"I don't think water's 'true,'" Johnny said. "I mean, it's real. But not 'true.'"

"Water's actually kind of sneaky," Brendan agreed. "It can change into steam and snow and ice."

They stared at the Door, thinking.

"Syrup?" Alex asked hopefully. "It's thicker than water."

"Or maybe glue?" Alexa tried. "Except we didn't see any glue here. It's supposed to be something we saw."

"Brendan talked about maple syrup," Alex said.

His twin shook her head. "I remember now. It's supposed to be something we learned." She glanced at Claire. "Swimming?"

"I wish," Claire said, biting her lip.

Looking from Alex to Alexa, Joe smiled. He was almost gone, nearly faded, looking like the faintest tint of himself. He repeated the Riddle in a whispery voice.

I flow   
Around and through  
Always warm and ever true  
I heal and mold  
I bind and hold  
The oldest old and newest new

Looking from Joe to the twins and back again, Johnny knew the answer.

"Love," he said.

Gracefully, the Door swung open, inviting them through. As it did, The Shadow shrieked with fury. He sounded like the wind rattling stones, like waves breaking. Boulders started falling from the cliff above.

"We've got to get out of here!" Claire cried.

Ducking and weaving, Claire and Rosa ran through the hail of rocks, Brendan on their heels.

"Come on!" Johnny cried, grabbing the twins' hands.

"No!" Alex cried, jerking away. "I'm not leaving without Joe!"

"He's got to come!" Alexa cried, trying to turn back.

As the boulders rained down, Johnny managed to grab the twins more firmly. "He wants you to go home. Now hurry, before the Shadow blocks the Door."

Running as fast as he could, Johnny piloted the twins between the rocks and pushed them through the Door. When they were safe, he turned back, seeing Joe smile one last time and raise his hand in farewell, already on his way to wherever he was going.

"I'll miss you!" Johnny called, as Joe faded like the last light of evening.

The cliff roared anger, roared vengeance. Johnny leapt through the Door, feeling a brief shock somewhere inside, as if he was being cleansed by an icy waterfall. Then the ice warmed, and Johnny looked out on a land where all was green and peaceful.
The Rest in Between

"We're back in the Sentinel's realm," Alexa said in wonder.

Johnny saw she was right. They stood in a pretty little ravine with a stream cut right into the thick green grass. Water burbled over smooth gray stones. Trees grew everywhere, some of them flowering white and purple.

The trees, the hills, the fact they'd lost their shadows again—everything said they'd returned. Johnny had an idea their camp lay just beyond a hill in the distance.

"You can go back if you want," the Sentinel said.

Turning, Johnny saw the Sentinel watching him with sea-green eyes, her brilliant staff in her hand. Was she taller than before and more regal? It was true her robe was a deeper blue and the rainbows in her hair shone as brightly as a peacock's feathers. Johnny wondered if his Company's win against the Shadow had increased her power. Her bright green eyes sparkled at his thought, but she didn't answer the question he hadn't quite asked. Instead, she seemed to be waiting to hear their plans.

Alexa said pitifully, "Joe faded."

Johnny expected the Sentinel to make it better. Instead, he felt only the calmness of water in her gaze. "Yes, he did," she agreed.

"Where did he go?" Johnny asked impulsively. "If anyone knows, it's you."

"Perhaps you'll have some idea before you're done," she said, with a coolness that made Johnny feel embarrassed for having asked. Or perhaps you'll learn to live without an answer.

"But poor Joe," Alexa said, making the Sentinel smile more kindly.

"You couldn't have prevented his loss," she said, and looked around the circle. "You've done very well, children. A Company doesn't often make it through the first level with six players."

Her praise made Johnny feel better, although he couldn't help admitting, "We used up two of our tokens. And we've still got two levels to go."

"There's no shame in coming back to camp," the Sentinel said. "Stay or go onwards. It's your choice."

Johnny could see how much the twins wanted to stay. They'd learned how hard the Game was, and could see it would probably get harder. If they gave up now, they could run over the hills, back to camp, play a little soccer and more of everything else. Johnny had to admit he felt tempted, too. He'd never had a chance to ride dinosaurs like Brendan, or try even a fraction of the magic in Mizzenglass. And it was still too early for someone at home to realize he was missing. At least, he hoped it was.

Johnny gave himself a shake. He had to get home. He had to bring Brendan home, so nothing would be his fault any more.

"I think it might be a good idea to go on to the next level right away," he said, looking over at his brother. "You in?"

"I guess," Brendan said, not sounding sure.

"Go on without Joe?" Alex asked, and Alexa's eyes filled with tears.

Johnny knelt in front of them. "Wherever Joe has gone," he said, "he isn't coming back. Don't you think Joe would want you to continue?"

Wide-eyed, Alexa nodded, brushing away her tears. "He said that."

"We're ready," Alex added bravely.

You can see they're not ready at all, Rosa told Johnny. "I think we all need a rest," she added. "Look at how badly we're sunburned."

Surprised, Johnny looked down at his arms and saw an angry red burn. They all looked as if the Shadow had touched them—a scratchy thought.

"I took a pretty good hit under my token," Claire said, showing a red circle on her chest. "Rosa's right. We should rest until we get better."

"We'll just end up staying," Brendan warned.

Johnny wondered if Brendan meant himself. He looked around his Company, not sure what to do.

"Sorry," he told the Sentinel. "I guess no one said it would be easy."

"Of course it's best to consult your friends," she replied. The Sentinel seemed to feel sorry for him, and part of a rainbow floated out of her hair, turning into deep blue butterflies. They landed on Johnny's arm, where they fanned away a piece of sunburn as he thought things through.

"We should probably stay overnight to rest up," he said finally, and felt the Company's relief in his head.

"Just overnight," he warned, before turning back to the Sentinel. "If we can."

"One night," she agreed, and her rainbows dissolved into a flurry of butterflies. One flew to Alexa and hovered in front of her face. When she put out a finger to stroke it, the butterfly tilted away like a kite. Alexa broke into smiles and chased it. As the butterfly swept past a flowering tree, all the flowers flew off to join in the fun.

"I'll be back in the morning," the Sentinel said. "Play now, and sleep well."

As she walked away, Johnny met her eye through the whirling colour. You're asking the right questions, Johnny Bey, she said. Keep doing that.

The children played away the afternoon. Butterflies changed into flowers and flowers back to butterflies. Some of them grew into kites, others lengthened into ribbon that Rosa braided into Claire's red hair.

Wandering around the ravine, Johnny noticed pebbles glinting in the stream. After hesitating a moment, he pulled one out, and watched the bright kaleidoscope turn into a hologram of his sister's face. Marika look tense, and as Johnny stared, he realized how much sorrow she was hiding beneath her practicality, and how much lay under his.

"That's a hard thought after a victory," Salomon said, as he walked around a tree.

Johnny couldn't help perking up. "I wondered if you'd be here."

The Herder took his pebble and tossed it back in the stream, the bells in his hair jingling like the happiest of music. Johnny thought they looked brighter than usual and his eyes more golden, in the same way the Sentinel had seemed taller than before.

"If that's true, what does it tell you?" Salomon asked.

"That winning the Game helps more than just ourselves?"

"And?"

"It feels good to help other people."

Salomon paused for a heartbeat, as if that wasn't exactly what he meant. Slowly he got an amused look on his face, as if he was sucking on a secret.

"Then I guess I'm going to feel pretty good, too," he said, pulling a small silver pouch out of his pocket and handing it to Johnny.

"Thanks," Johnny said, feeling a little puzzled.

The pouch was about the size of his hand. It looked like it was made of chain mail, yet felt as light as dandelion seeds. Salomon leaned close, his golden eyes dancing.

"Why don't you put some pebbles in it?" he asked. "They're strong magic, and you might need some extra help in the next two levels."

"Okay," Johnny said, a little dubiously. He wasn't sure he wanted to get distracted by holograms of his family during the Game. The pouch didn't look big enough to hold many, either. But after he put in a couple, the pouch still looked empty. Peeping inside, Johnny saw both pebbles nestled there, although he'd never have known without looking.

"So the pouch is magic, too," Johnny said.

Salomon's eyes grew wide. "Is it?" he asked.

Grinning, Johnny fed in more pebbles, stuffing the pouch with every stone he could find—and there still wasn't the faintest sign of a bulge.

"Think that's enough?" Johnny asked, turning back to Salomon.

The Herder was gone. Johnny stared at the empty patch of grass where Salomon had been standing. What had that been about? Salomon had been acting almost...well, naughty. It had been a little embarrassing, actually.

Then Johnny heard what Salomon had said about needing extra help, and he shivered.

That evening, the butterflies made a tent for the Company to sleep in. They swarmed together at sunset, their wings making a flying cloth that rippled on the evening breeze. It shimmered with all the colours that weren't in the rainbow, gold and black and silver and copper and ivory. Then the rainbow merged in, and they watched violet meet red and lime-green.

The Company gathered beneath it, marveling at the play of colours. As soon as they lay down, and the fabric settled over them. Stones rose slowly under their heads and turned into pillows, and the butterfly tent billowed in and out, fanning their sunburns. The Company slept.

When Johnny woke up the next morning, he saw that everybody's sunburns were gone. As the others stirred and stretched—Brendan last—the tent broke into butterflies and fluttered away.

"Everybody good to go?" he asked.

When they agreed, the Sentinel appeared. It was strange how she wasn't there, and then she was. This time she stood under a tree, her skin as brown as the bark and her dress a thousand shades of green.

"I hope you slept well," she said, smiling around the Company. When her eye caught the pouch hanging from Johnny's belt, she looked surprised. The Sentinel—surprised? No wonder Salomon had looked naughty.

"Even the burn is pretty much gone from my chest," Claire said.

The Sentinel turned to Claire and nodded, as if she'd never noticed the pouch. "Are you ready, then?" she asked.

"Probably not, but we think we are," Brendan cracked.

The Sentinel smiled and turned to the stream. As she did, the gray stones leapt up out of the water, growing and spinning and knocking against each other so their smooth surfaces turned jagged. Tumbling up into the air, they piled themselves into a tall archway, their sides fitting together as snugly as the walls of a castle.

Soon the oak tree behind them grew restless, too. Its trunk widened and broadened as if arms were stretching out inside it. The wood creaked and groaned, then flattened out nicely. By the time the stones had cemented themselves into an archway, the tree had become a rough wood Gate inside it. The hinges were made of old-fashioned iron and a great golden knob waited for them to open it.

Johnny reached for the knob. As he did, the Gate swung slowly open.

Inside was fire! They needed to jump over a low, burning fire to enter the second level, disappearing into a gray cloud of smoke.

"I don't like that," Alexa said. "I want Joe to take me."

"Just hopscotch over it," Brendan said. "Come on. Follow me!"

Brendan leapt through the door. Alex squared his shoulders and ran after him. Alexa's eyes widened to see her twin jump the flames, and she quickly followed. Claire and Rosa sailed in next, leaving Johnny alone in the Sentinel's realm.

Johnny nodded at the Sentinel's tall majesty, then jogged toward the flames and jumped.

"Salomon! This will cause..."

Johnny heard the start of the Sentinel's sentence before he landed, but not the end of it, and not Salomon's answer.
Level Two

Mister Kitchen Says Hello

Johnny landed on spongy ground, which was as green as the ground in the Sentinel's realm, but without any trampoline bounce. When the magic smoke cleared, he found himself standing on top of a hill, the Company spaced around him.

At first, the rolling country below them looked like the Sentinel's realm as well, green hills leading to more green hills with mountains in the distance. But when Johnny looked closer, he saw that the trees in the hollows of the hills were ancient species, mostly giant tree ferns, pines and sequoias from the remote past. At the bottom of the hill on which they stood, he could see a shallow marsh—where something was moving.

Johnny was awed to see a herd of dinosaurs browsing through the swamp. Real dinosaurs, dirty and snorting, in a world where the air was hot and humid and smelled like rotten vegetables. He thought they were tank dinosaurs, and picked out maybe a dozen heavily-armored beasts wading through the swamp, trailing long tails like clubs with rocks at the end. Johnny had seen drawings of a species called Ankylosaurus that looked like these, although the drawings had been prettied-up and clean. Now that he thought of it, so did the Sentinel's realm.

This whole level looked far more solid—everything cast shadows—and Johnny felt pumped to find himself among real, living dinosaurs. At the same time, he had a pretty good idea it would prove far more dangerous here than in the water world. This looked like the Cretaceous period, when everything he'd read in Terpsy's library told him that dinosaurs had been fierce.

"Not much water, though," Claire said happily. "We're past all that."

"You've still got a bit of red on your chest," Rosa said. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

"I feel great. We can ace this level," Claire said. "I love riding dinos."

Claire was interrupted by a bellow from one of the tank dinosaurs. It sounded like a warning, and was followed by shrill and frightened cries. The dinos splashed onto the far bank of the swamp and circled together, head to tail, spikes out, clubs raised. Johnny saw they were protecting a pair of young dinosaurs at the centre of their circle.

He soon saw why. A raptor stood above them on a hill, not one of the shiny raptors from the Sentinel's realm, but a scarred brown beast with a crooked tail. It rubbed its clawed hands together before throwing back its head in a roar. The tank dinosaurs pawed the ground and roared back at the raptor, raising their clubbed tails. They sounded pretty tough, and the raptor seemed to think so, too. After a hostile pause, it turned and ran swiftly down the back of his hill, heading away from the Company.

"There. They protected their babies," Alexa said happily. "It's okay now."

"No, it's not," Alex said. "How are we going to find the End Door without Joe?"

"It's over there," Johnny said, pointing to the range of mountains in the distance. A giant archway was cut into the top of the highest mountain—an extinct volcano that rose in a perfect cone. The arch was built out of rock, and beneath it Johnny could just make out a wooden Door like the Gate they'd jumped through to enter this level.

He felt relieved. The Door was a long way off, past a whole landscape of green hills and swampy plains. It would take a few days to get there, and there had to be legions of deadly creatures the Shadow could use against them. But they'd be able to see the Door from every hill, and even in the forest—Johnny saw lots of forest—they should be able to spot the volcanic cone, keeping on track. It was the highest thing in sight.

Other volcanoes stood on either side. The one right next to it was almost as high, but its cone was bent and steam wisped out the sides.

"That's a pretty nasty-looking volcano," Claire said.

An earthquake rumbled beneath their feet. Suddenly, the second volcano erupted, sending a plume of churning smoke high into the air. A fountain of blazing red sparks shot after it. As the sparks fell back to earth, they sizzled and sparkled like fireworks.

"Guess he didn't like being called 'nasty,'" Brendan said.

Johnny turned back to the Company. "We should stay together," he said. "Do what the dinos did, protecting ourselves. We've got a long way to go."

Johnny led the way downhill, heading into a stand of tree ferns. The first few ferns stood wide apart. But soon they grew more thickly, and the Company was walking through a green fern forest on the way down to a swamp.

The soil underfoot was springy and brown, and smelled like the peat moss Johnny's mother put on the lawn. They quickly found what looked like an animal track leading in the right direction. Soon the track was squeezed on every side by tightly-packed fern trees. Cycads, Johnny thought happily. Birds chirped, but the forest as so thick he couldn't see them. Alexa didn't like the gloom; Johnny saw her reach for Alex's hand. But it didn't take the Company long to trot downhill, where they followed the path as it swerved around the edges of the first swamp, then started uphill again.

At least, Johnny wouldn't have said it took long. Yet by the time they were halfway down the second hill, the sun said it was late afternoon. The forest had changed, too, with pines and giant sequoias scattered among the tree ferns. Up ahead, a little proto- mammal popped its snout out of a burrow in the ground, taking a good look at them with round black eyes. When they reached a clearing, a lemon-coloured frog plopped into a pond at the centre. Johnny loved it here, despite the speeded-up time.

"But you mustn't let down your guard. Oh dear, no. You really mustn't."

Johnny jumped as a little dinosaur bustled out of the tree ferns, talking merrily. He walked quickly on two strong longs, and was about the size of a real-world adult. His dolphin's beak smiled merrily.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the little dino said. "They call me Mister Kitchen. I'm always cooking up trouble, I'm afraid."

Alex and Alexa giggled, and Mister Kitchen smiled even more broadly. His dolphin beak apart, the little dino looked a bit like a rooster—if you could imagine a purple rooster with long feathered arms and a fleshy kangaroo tail. His black eyes were big and curious, and looked out from wrinkles of orange skin. Johnny was supposed to be a dinosaur expert, but he didn't recognize the species.

"Species? Oh, heavens. It's only me. It's only me," Mister Kitchen said. "Isn't it Brendan?" he asked. "And Claire, and oh-my-goodness Rosa. And Alex and Alexa!"

He sounded friendly, but Johnny wondered what the little dino wanted.

"I'm here to help, Johnny Bey," Mister Kitchen said. "If it's all right with you."
Which Side Are You On?

As they stood in the clearing, Johnny looked Mister Kitchen over, trying to decide whether to trust him. Just because the little dino seemed friendly didn't mean that he was.

"Trust me?" Mister Kitchen asked, perfectly unoffended. "Naturally you wonder. Of course you do. But I really want to help, you see."

Suddenly, the little dino darted forward and swiped a claw along Johnny's pocket. "Your pouch will help, too," he said.

"What pouch?" Brendan asked.

Guardedly, deciding he didn't quite trust Mister Kitchen, Johnny drew the silver pouch out of his pocket. He showed it quickly to the Company before shoving it back in. "Salomon gave it to me," he said.

Mister Kitchen turned serious. "Oh, dear, if it's a gift from Salomon, then it's very strong magic indeed."

"How do you know Salomon?" Johnny asked.

"Who doesn't know Salomon?" Mister Kitchen said, turning in a circle. "Who doesn't? Anybody doesn't?"

"We all do," Alex said stoutly.

"As do I, from days gone by. That rhymes!" Mister Kitchen said, doing a delighted little chicken dance, and making Alexa giggle. Afterwards, sensing Johnny's mood, he put on a serious face, wrinkling his comb thoughtfully and nodding his head from side to side like a philosopher. "I'm from the Sentinel's realm, you see. Originally I am. And when I lived there, I knew Salomon very well."

"But how did you get here?" Claire cut in. "I didn't think Mizzenglass creatures could play the Game."

"Let's get walking, why don't we?" Mister Kitchen said, nodding at Johnny. "Push forward. Ever forward. As we go, I'll tell you a few things. Will that be all right?"

"You're funny," Alexa said, running a finger along Mr. Kitchen's feathers. Suddenly, a burst of purple confetti flew out of his feathers, covering the twins and making them squeal with delight. The little dino led them in a dance, throwing confetti around the clearing as they capered through it. Brendan and Rosa looked amused, but Claire held back, and Johnny felt even more suspicious. He thought of something his mother sometimes said. Mister Kitchen was trying too hard. You had to wonder why.

"We should get going," Johnny said, starting to walk around the little pool. He made sure to lead the way, and from the corner of his eye, watched the purple confetti turn to smoke and drift away.

"I won't cause any trouble, you know," Mister Kitchen said, falling into step beside him. "I do promise. I came into this level to help, and that's what I still do."

"You're saying that someone called you into the Game with their token."

"Something like that," Mister Kitchen replied. "It was a bit different, but that's the idea."

"What's the idea?" Alex asked.

"Well," said Mister Kitchen, turning to Alex, "if you're called into the Game, and the child who calls you wins, then you drop back into the Sentinel's realm.

"But if the child doesn't win, you stay in the Game. At least until he plays again and gets you out."

Alex let out a cry. "You mean Bob will be stuck in the Game unless I win?"

"Well, it's no bother, you know," Mister Kitchen said, putting his clawed hand on Alex's shoulder. "Bob will be very happy in the water world until you get home."

"Then I'm going to get home," Alex said, sounding fierce. "For Joe and for Bob."

"Good old Joe. Best old Joe," Mister Kitchen said. "He faded, didn't he? I could feel it even here." The little dinosaur wiped away a tear caught in the orange skin around his eyes. Alexa took one of his clawed fingers in her hand, looking up at him.

"It's all right, Mister Kitchen," she said. "He's gone somewhere else."

"Well, of course he has," he said, shaking himself. "No need to worry, is there?"

"But what about..." Johnny began, and paused.

Mister Kitchen shot him a surprisingly grown-up glance from his deep black eyes. For once he stayed quiet and waited.

"We didn't meet any other of the Sentinel's creatures in the first level," Johnny said. "Some of the creatures worked for the Shadow, you could tell that. But what about the other creatures? Do they just live in the Game?"

"You want to know how it works, don't you, Learner?" Mister Kitchen asked. "Well, you're right. Most of the creatures live out their lives in the Game. But some of the creatures here belong to the Shadow, and you must be careful. No letting down your guard. Oh no, no, no."

Mister Kitchen stopped walking again, so the Company did, too. They'd reached another clearing in the trees, and Johnny thought they ought to keep going. The sun was getting very low. But Mister Kitchen leaned forward, moving his head from side to side.

"You must be especially careful, Johnny Bey," he said. "The magic of your pouch is so strong the Shadow creatures will be drawn to it. I could sense it from ages away."

Stretching his beak into a goofy grin, Mister Kitchen asked, "Can I touch your pouch? Just for a second. Just so I can tell you what it might do."

Johnny had a sense he couldn't explain of danger drawing near. He took a second look at Mister Kitchen. Maybe the little dinosaur was just very, very good at pretending to be friendly. He might really be the Shadow's spy. If Johnny showed him the pouch, he could grab it and run away.

In that case, Johnny decided, letting the strange little dinosaur touch the pouch would be a test. Slowly and suspiciously, he pulled it out of his pocket. At first, Johnny held the pouch closed in his fist, then gradually opened his palm. The dino reached out one long claw to stroke it delicately.

"Yes," he said longingly. "A special pouch for a special person."

Then he threw back his head and cried, "Hide it! Hide!"

As a silver-grey dinosaur raced out of the trees, its fierce beak snapping.
Claire's Burning Question

The Company scattered as the beast leapt into the clearing, silvery feathers bristling on its shoulders and back. It wasn't much taller than they were, and its long neck and small beaked head made it look something like a hungry ostrich. But it had a long, switching tail and stood on thick back legs, and its webbed, muscular arms gave Johnny the shivers. Stopping near a tree fern, it clenched and unclenched its big clawed hands as if it couldn't decide who to eat first. Johnny thought the dino was an Avimimus, a bird-mimic, and that its black eyes looked wickedly clever.

Mister Kitchen pulled the twins behind a sequoia, bundling them to his chest. Johnny still wasn't sure whether to trust the little dino, but with the Mimic between them, he could only run behind a thorn bush. Across the clearing, Brendan and Claire climbed a pine tree, with Rosa scrambling up behind them.

The Mimic turned in a circle, letting out a strange, deep turkey gobble as it made sure it knew where they all were. Then it tensed, looking surprised. Swiveling, it stared in Johnny's direction, head angling down toward his pocket, where the pouch lay hidden.

As it did, its black eyes grew huge and glowed redder than fire. The Mimic was a Shadow creature—and had chosen its first victim! It stalked toward Johnny, beak open. Moving quickly, Johnny broke a branch off the thorn bush and held it out like a sword.

"Hey!" Brendan called. "Try us up here! He's a little on the scrawny side."

"Sit down!" Claire ordered.

"Scared?" Brendan asked.

"Armed," Claire said.

She stood up on the branch, one hand bracing herself against the tree trunk, the other holding out her token. The Mimic ignored her, stalking towards Johnny, gobbling quietly, a gloating smile on its beak. Johnny jabbed his branch toward the creature, trying to fend it off.

As he did, Claire thrust her token into a ray of sunlight. A laser beam shot through it—burning the Mimic's feathered tail!

Gobbling, the Mimic swiveled toward Claire. Shooting Johnny an evil warning glance—Don't move!—it stalked to Claire's tree.

The Mimic didn't pause when it got there, hooking one powerful hand around the lowest branch and starting to climb.

Claire froze, staring down at the Mimic's sharp beak, and shivering at the weird gobble.

"Aim for the eyes!" Johnny called.

"The eyes," Claire murmured. The Mimic climbed higher, red eyes burning up at her, beak gleaming. Claire reached her token out slowly, as if half hypnotized.

"Now!" Johnny called.

Coming to herself, Claire aimed her token for a beam of sunlight—and hit the Mimic right between the eyes. It had time to let out a scream. Then the Mimic vaporized, its feathered hide falling to the ground like a snake's shed skin.

After Claire jumped down, the Company stood together in the clearing. Johnny still felt nervous about the close call, but Mister Kitchen pranced around cheerfully.

"Well, that was very well aimed," he said. "A good job figuring out what your token did, too. Well done, Claire!"

"It's not like it was hard to figure it out," she said. "If the token burned my chest, it had to focus sunlight, right?"

Johnny realized that Claire always turned gawky when people praised her. This time, it was even worse. In her mind, Claire was crying.

Well okay, she said harshly. So the Sentinel gave me a weapon for my token. How would you feel? I mean, what does that say about me?

Claire walked away from the Company, then stalked back. "I'm not a violent person," she said. "I hate violence. I've never hurt anyone in my life."

"Sure," Johnny agreed, surprised to find her so upset.

"So look at how your token works," Claire answered. "You think hard about things, so you get X-ray powers. Joe looked at the long term, so he got a telescope. And I end up with a weapon? Why did I get that? "

"Well, your tongue's sharper than a laser, isn't it?" Brendan asked.

Claire turned pale with hurt. "It is not," she cried.

Brendan looked ashamed of himself. "Well, it'll help you make fire," he said gruffly. "And that will help."

Claire shook her head and walked away, sitting down on a fallen log. Rosa went to sit beside her, and Claire put her head on her friend's shoulder. Johnny wasn't sure what to do, but figured Claire and Rosa probably needed some time by themselves.

"Come look at this," he told the others, kneeling by the dino hide. The twins and Brendan crowded round, and as Johnny experimentally touched the hide, the feathers vaporized. Underneath, silvery scales made it look almost pure. Johnny was surprised. He couldn't see any sign of the Shadow's redness anywhere.

"Well, you defeated him, didn't you?" Mister Kitchen asked. "I mean, Claire did. She defeated the Shadowy part of the creature. Good for Claire!" he called loudly.

"So what happens to the good part of him?" Johnny asked. "Or is he just an animal? When he's dead, he's dead."

"Is that what happens to animals?" Mister Kitchen asked, adding in a silent, perfectly adult voice, You're asking big questions these days, aren't you, Johnny Bey?

Surprised, Johnny turned to Mister Kitchen. But the little dino was back to being goofy as he picked up the hide. "Wherever he's gone, he left you a present."

"A present?" Alexa asked.

Mister Kitchen swung the hide on one claw. "A tent," he said. "He lent you a tent! Oh dear, that's a terrible rhyme. But you better put it up now. It's going to get dark soon. Give it a shake. Go on!"

Alexa shrank back. "Not here. There might be another one of those."

"Oh dear, no," Mister Kitchen said. "This territory belonged to the silver boy. The others won't come here. You'll be safe."

Johnny couldn't help nodding. That much sounded right.

"Claire?" he called. "It's your tent. Do you want to handle it?"

"It's yours," Claire said. "You were the one who told me to aim for the eyes."

Nodding again, Johnny took the hide from Mister Kitchen and SNAPPED it the way his parents snapped clean sheets. It billowed out into the clearing, growing into a huge white glimmering square. Twirling in circles, the skin grew bigger and whiter, finally pulling itself up in a tall line the way a magician pulled a scarf out of his hat. Afterwards, it drifted down into the clearing, where it settled into the shape of a tent.

A king would have been happy to camp in that tent. There were all sorts of flaps and scallops for decoration. A white flag flew from the peak of the roof, and the four corners rose in smaller peaks holding smaller flags. Even Claire got up off her log to have a look inside. There was more than enough room for everyone, including Mister Kitchen.

"Oh, don't worry about me," the dino said, leading the way back out. "I'll curl up outside. I'm very fond of fresh night air."

"Wouldn't you like a fire?" Alexa asked. "Maybe Claire could make you one."

"I'm onto it," Brendan said, coming into the clearing with an armload of dry branches. He looked at Claire as if he was apologizing, and laid the wood.

"You could light it when you're ready," he said.

Claire nodded curtly. She wasn't going to forgive Brendan that easily. Walking briskly toward them, she held out her token and caught the last beam of light from the setting sun. There was a zap like a laser and a whoosh as the wood caught fire. Soon a crackling glow brightened the glade.

"It's a pretty useful token," Claire said, hunkering down beside it. "I just hope I don't have to use it that often. I'm not violent, okay? I'm just not."

Night fell, and stars skittered out overhead. The Company gathered around the fire listening to the night birds call. Johnny didn't recognize anything like whippoorwills or owls. These cries were hoarser. Ha-ha-ha-ha and ske-ooo-ah, ske-ooo-ah. Johnny was spellbound, but Alexa didn't like it, and Alex kept glancing at her unhappily.

"I wish we had some marshmallows," Alex said.

"Oh dear," Mister Kitchen replied. "I'm not sure marshmallows have been invented yet. In fact, I'm pretty certain they haven't. But if you promise not to tell..."

The dinosaur reached into some hanging skin at his side and started pulling out fluffy white marshmallows as if they'd been in his pocket. He threw them into the air and juggled them comically, adding one marshmallow after another to his wheel of white. Soon he was juggling so fast his arms were a purple blur, and the clearing was filled with little white cubes spinning like a Ferris wheel.

Then Mister Kitchen's tail slipped. He lost his balance, and the juggling marshmallows flew every which way.

STOP! he ordered. The marshmallows froze in the air, hovering above the ground like huge white fireflies.

"Well, you'd better get them before they fall down and get dirty," the dinosaur said. "Can't eat things off the ground. I'm sorry, but you can't."

Then Mister Kitchen's tail gave way and he fell over backwards. The Company laughed, all except Johnny. He could see that Mister Kitchen meant to help, but he wasn't sure they should rely on such an eccentric creature, especially since he sensed something hidden underneath. Still, he joined the others in plucking marshmallows from the air, stuffing his pockets full. Johnny saw there was even a stack of perfectly-sharpened roasting sticks waiting by the campfire, including one for Mister Kitchen.

"A weakness. A weakness, I fear," the little dino said, as he picked himself up. Mister Kitchen squatted with them by the fire, and as the stars revolved overhead, he proved persnickety about toasting his marshmallows the exact right shade of golden brown. In fact, if they didn't get that way on their own, Johnny noticed that he made magical adjustments when he thought no one was looking.

You don't miss much, do you Johnny Bey? the little dino asked.

Johnny was about to ask some questions of his own when Mister Kitchen's marshmallows caught on fire. Leaping to his feet with a cry, he danced around the clearing, shaking his stick until the fire went out.

"They're burned," he said mournfully, staring down at the marshmallows, his rooster crest drooping.

The strange thing was, he truly seemed to care.
The March of the Ants

When Johnny woke up the next morning, he wondered what to do with their tent. It didn't fly off into the sky like the ones in the Sentinel's realm. In fact, he got the idea the tent wanted him to pack it up, although he didn't know where to start.

Walking outside, Johnny looked around for Mister Kitchen. To his surprise, he saw the little dino and Rosa talking privately under a sequoia. Mister Kitchen looked more grown up, the way he sounded when talking in Johnny's head. Spotting Johnny, Rosa looked guilty. As if trying to cover things up, the little dino bustled over.

"The tent. The tent," he said. "No worries. What folds back naturally?"

"The flap?" asked Brendan, coming outside.

Guy's a genius, Claire muttered, putting out the fire.

Ignoring them, Johnny took hold of the flap. It had locked itself like a door at night and fallen open in the morning. Now, when he folded it back, the magic tent leapt high in the air. It twisted and turned, flipping into smaller and smaller squares. Once it had folded down to the size of a wallet, it hovered by Johnny, wanting something else.

His pouch rustled in his pocket. As soon as Johnny pulled it out, the pouch untied itself and the tent scooted inside.

"Easy peasy squeezy," Mister Kitchen said comfortably.

Johnny wondered what he and Rosa had been talking about, but decided this wasn't the right time to ask. "I guess we should head out," he said.

The clearing where they'd camped was at the bottom of a valley. The Door volcano loomed over them, immensely high and very far away. Johnny picked an animal trail heading in the right direction. The Company followed him in single file as the trail zigzagged through a stand of tree ferns before heading uphill again.

Johnny didn't think it took them long to reach the top of the hill, but the sun said it was noon by the time they got there. Feeling puzzled, he walked over to a cliff to have a look around. The hill was craggier than the one they'd started from. It was also higher, and Johnny could pick out a clear route to the Door. At first, the hills were rolling and the forests tall and green. But gradually the land ahead grew barren. The soil turned rocky; the trees were short and starved. Below the Door, the land was volcanic, with steam seeping out of the crumbly black soil.

"Anybody need to rest before we go on?" he asked.

"Already?" Brendan replied.

"It feels like we haven't walked that long," Johnny said. "But the sun says it's almost noon. Time seems to be speeded up here."

"Or does time just fly when you're having fun?!" Mister Kitchen cried.

The others groaned happily, but Johnny was feeling a little worried as he led the Company downhill, entering a forest of giant trees. The huge pines and sequoias stood wide apart, with the grass was cropped short between them. They looked so ancient, everyone turned solemn. The Door and sky were hidden by the treetops, and Johnny had to use his X-ray token to keep them on track. The air smelled like bark, and invisible birds called out songs like horns and rattles. Before long, they reached a splashing creek and followed it down to a small green lake.

At one side of the lake stood an outcrop of rocks. Scrambling on top, Johnny managed to see the sky again without using his token. Strangely, the sun above him said it was still going on noon. Now time seemed to have slowed down, and he wondered what the Shadow was up to.

Suddenly, a wind blew in the distance. Listening harder, Johnny wasn't sure it was wind. Maybe a machine? It was a chopping, gnashing sound, and it worried him even more.

"No worries," Mister Kitchen said. "It's just an anthill out for a stroll. They don't mean you any harm. They just eat bushes and leaves."

"And grass?" Johnny asked, looking at the cropped lawn between the redwoods.

"In a pinch," Mister Kitchen said. "With a pinch of salt. Oh, that's another bad joke! Just awful!"

Alex looked delighted. He and Alexa had spent the morning hanging close to Mister Kitchen, laughing at his silly jokes and eating spare marshmallows he pulled from the flap in his hide, which were still mysteriously hot.

Now the noise grew louder, and something flowed over the hill, low to the ground. Johnny realized it was a wide black column of ants heading toward the lake, sweeping around trees as they advanced like asphalt unrolling across the landscape.

"Help!" Alexa screamed, clutching Mister Kitchen.

"Oh dear, no," the dinosaur said. "Not at all. You mustn't worry about insects."

"They bite!" Alexa shrieked.

"She's always been scared of insects," Alex said, taking her hand.

As the column of ants unreeled quickly toward them, Johnny was glad he wasn't a blade of grass. Their pinchers click-click-cut down everything, circling a redwood before heading for the rocks where the Company stood.

"Shouldn't we move?" Johnny asked.

"Oh no, no. They really don't hurt," Mister Kitchen said. "In fact, it feels like a nice, light massage when they walk across your feet."

"WALK ACROSS YOUR FEET!" Alexa shrieked.

"Hmmm," Mister Kitchen said. Johnny could sense a click of thoughts as the dinosaur talked to the ants. Or tried to. Mister Kitchen looked surprised when they didn't answer. "My goodness. I'm not quite sure why this is happening," he said. "There's a first time for everything. But..."

Suddenly the ants stopped, and the entire column flared red. Shadow creatures!

"Dive in the lake!" Johnny yelled. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Oh no!" Claire cried. "Not SWIMMING!"

She didn't have any choice. The fire ants surged toward them, pinchers clicking gleefully. The Company jumped in the lake. When they surfaced, Johnny saw that everyone's token floated to the surface and glowed faintly, like a marker. Mister Kitchen was left alone onshore, hopping crazily from one foot to the other.

"Can't you swim, Mister Kitchen?" Alex called anxiously, treading water.

"Oh dear, no," the little dino replied. "I'm going to get a massage, I'm afraid. And more than just my feet!"

Just then, the ants flowed up to Mister Kitchen and covered him like a blanket.

"They're going to eat him alive!" Alexa screamed.

No they're not, Mister Kitchen said. Not dinosaur hide. My goodness, no. Give them indigestion, wouldn't it? Although... it does... hurt-tickle! Ouchie! Ouchie!

Spellbound, they watched Mister Kitchen dance under the hot coating of ants, flinging them off like red confetti. Then Johnny remembered their peril, and realized the ants had reached the water's edge.

"Head for the middle of the lake!" he cried. "I don't think ants can swim!"

He was right. When the Company surfaced in the middle of the lake, they saw the ants circling the edge. It was an eerie sight. The lake was cradled in a tall cathedral forest, sober as a church. But all around the lake, a line of fire ants glowed like neon.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Brendan asked.

"The Shadow can't keep them here forever," Rosa said. "He'd use up his power."

"So we just wait?" Claire yelled. She was trying to dog paddle, but she splashed everyone, barely staying afloat.

"Sorry," Johnny called. "Looks like it."

That's when Johnny saw him again. At least, he saw the deep black hole where the Shadow should have been. He was as nasty and moldy as a deep, damp cave. A cave with two red eyes glaring out of it.

Their opponent lurked behind a redwood, watching everything they did, probably searching out their weak points. He paid so much attention to the twins that Johnny swam in front of them, trying to block them from view. It didn't do any good. Their opponent looked through him. Johnny felt as if he was being stabbed with icy scissors, and wondered how long he could stand the Shadow's attention. Fumbling in his pouch, he managed to pull out a pebble, hoping to distract him with magic from the Sentinel's Realm.

As Johnny held it up, the pebble flared with pure light, balls and stripes of it that danced around the lake like slow lightning. A shriek from the Shadow and his nastiness was gone. Johnny blew out a relieved breath, grateful for Salomon's gift.

Then Alexa yelled, "Look!"

The fire ants were surging inland, leaving only a thin line of soldiers guarding the lake. The Shadow must have given them instructions before he disappeared. They broke into columns, each heading for a giant sequoia. When they reached their sequoias, the columns circled the trunks. They looked as if they were taking measurements.

But that's not what they were doing, was it? The columns of ants circled faster, making a high buzzing sound as they sped around the trunks. Faster and faster they circled. Louder and louder they buzzed. Soon the ants looked like red hot blurs whizzing around the giant trunks, eating into the sequoias like chainsaws.

"They're cutting them down!" Alex cried.

Johnny saw their opponent's plan. The Shadow was going to send the sequoias crashing down on the lake, battering the Company out of the Game.

"We've got to get out of here!" he said.

"How?" Claire asked, splashing even harder.

"We need flyers!" Brendan said. "Maybe I can call some. Like in the Sentinel's realm?"

Closing his eyes, Brendan focused his thoughts as hard as he could and murmured out a plea, his token glowing brighter as if echoing his energy. By now the valley was as loud as a construction site. Ants buzzed like chainsaws and the sequoias groaned. Claire splashed wildly. Underneath, they could hear Mister Kitchen ouching noisily.

Then Johnny heard another sound, a leathery flapping in the distance. He let out a shout of joy. A flock of pteranodons swooped into the valley, their skin wings beating like flags cracking in the wind.

"You did it!" Alexa called.

And here's what else you ask them, Johnny told Brendan, thinking out a plan.

Brendan gritted his teeth to concentrate even harder, sending a message to the pteranodons. Bobbing their heads in agreement, the big flyers circled the lake, spiraling down until they gathered around the Company. They hovered in the air like giant hummingbirds, their backs to the Company, their beaks toward the ants.

When Brendan murmured again, the pteranodons started beating their wings even harder, flapping them into a blur. As they did, the wind they raised pushed the lake water into big, splashy white-capped waves. Soon the first line of waves crashed ashore, sending front line of fire ants fleeing inland. The waves thundered after them, slapping over the ants and extinguishing them with a hissssss.

Beating their wings as fast as they could, the pteranodons raised higher and higher waves—waves splashing deeper inland—waves that flowed back toward the lake only to meet more waves coming out. They frothed together into a roar of air and water, swirling into even higher waves that splashed toward the forest.

"Woh!" yelled Claire, as the lake rushed out from under her. A pteranodon grabbed her with one foot. Johnny felt another grab him. Soon the flying dinos caught everyone, holding them tight as their wings beat harder and the lake emptied out.

Giant waves crashed far inland, reaching for the sequoias. The fire ants broke ranks in confusion, trying to run away. The waves moved faster. A froth of rushing green water smacked into the ants—even the ones coating Mister Kitchen. It raised a barbecue sizzle—a cloud of steam—and with a fizzzzzzz, it put them all out.

Afterwards, the pteranodons flew the Company back to the rocks where Mister Kitchen waited, then flapped majestically away. The valley looked drenched, as if there'd been a hurricane. Johnny saw no sign of the fire ants.

No sign, that is, except for the bites swelling Mister Kitchen. He looked like a balloon of himself, blow up to double size and glistening, almost ready to burst.

"A balloon? Am I?!" he asked, sounding alarmed. Mister Kitchen's hand flew to his skin pocket, and he pulled out a huge pin. Without pausing for breath, he poked the pin into his hide. With a huge WHOOSH! all the air rushed out of him, leaving a collapsed Mister Kitchen floating to the ground like a popped balloon. Then—with another POP—he burst back to normal size, grinning broadly at the twins.

"That's better, isn't it?" he asked.

If he was trying to make them laugh, Mister Kitchen failed. The twins were still frightened, and Johnny still felt angry he'd told them the marching ants were ordinary, putting them off their guard.

I try very hard, Mister Kitchen said. To Johnny's surprise, the dinosaur sounded sorry for himself. People talked about sad clowns, and Johnny wondered if that's who Mister Kitchen was. Thinking things through, he figured they could probably trust the little dino, but not count on him.

Yes, you're always thinking, aren't you, Johnny Bey? Mister Kitchen's deep black eyes bored into Johnny. Ouchie.

"Does it still hurt?" Alexa asked, taking one of his claws.

Mister Kitchen gave himself a shake. "No worries," he said. "Here I am and they're all gone. All's right in the world, oh yes."

He leaned down to speak in a loud whisper, as if telling Alexa a secret. "Especially now that Brendan's figured out what his token does."

"I have?" Brendan asked.

Johnny remembered the way the token had glowed as Brendan called the pteranodons. It must be able to summon creatures from a distance.

"I guess it does," Brendan said, his eyes glittering. He raised the token to his lips, murmuring a command. Suddenly, the golden frog they'd seen earlier hopped onto the rocks and plumped down into the lake.

"Best token so far," Brendan said, forgiving Mister Kitchen, at least for now.

Johnny decided to call a rest after all the excitement, especially since the sun still said it was noon. The others happily lounged on the rocks, replaying their victory. Yet Johnny couldn't help worrying about Shadow. When he'd seen him back in the Sentinel's realm, their opponent was just a blurry piece of emptiness with glaring eyes. This time, his outline had seemed sharper. The Shadow was coming into focus, and Johnny wasn't sure he liked it.

But there wasn't much he could do about it, either. Lying on his back, Johnny shook off bad thoughts and enjoyed their victory. Another victory, and it was his idea. Johnny pictured riding a surfboard on the crest of the highest green wave, surfing right up to the sequoias and sizzling the fire ants out personally. Afterwards (in very private, guarded thoughts) he saw the Company cheering and calling him a hero, the way his parents would when he brought Brendan home. You really are special, Johnny, they would say. You fixed everything.

It felt just as good to beat back evil a second time in his head. Maybe even better.

"You really are a hero, Johnny," Brendan said, in a high, girly, mocking voice. Johnny blushed to realize he hadn't been keeping his thoughts so private, after all. They'd all heard him, and he wanted to die of embarrassment. Crinkle into a little dandelion head and blow away.

"You're so special," Brendan went on, driving it home. He sounded as spiteful as the bully boys at school did when they echoed the teachers. Everybody be nice to Johnny, they smirked. He's lost something.

"But what about normal ants?" Rosa asked Mister Kitchen, covering up for him. "The grass is mowed all over the forest. Do the normal ants around here do that?"

"Oh dear, no." Mister Kitchen said.

Suddenly a trumpet blew, or a cow horn. The musical bellow was met by a higher note blown somewhere nearby, distracting everyone, especially Brendan.

"No," Mister Kitchen repeated. "They do."
A Little Duck Music

Alexa clutched Mister Kitchen as the cow horn blew again. "No way!" she said. "I don't want any more adventures right now!"

"No worries, no worries," the dinosaur said. "They're not insects. And this time"—he glanced at Johnny—"I can abso-ma-lutely guarantee they'll be friends."

Johnny was grateful for the distraction, but he still sat up cautiously as he listened to the growing lilt of music. It came from a nearby clearing, and sounded like a band tuning up. Piccolos, tubas, trumpets: high and low notes mixed together, squawking and puffing and twiddling. Finally, the tuning died down and there was a moment's quiet. It sounded as if a conductor had stepped onto the podium. Then, on a downbeat, the musicians began to play like a big brass band.

Heavy footsteps marched out of the clearing, feet beating like drums as they tramped downhill. They trilled and tooted, twiddled and hummed. Johnny's suspicions dropped away, along with his embarrassment. He'd never heard such a happy song.

"You're sure they're not insects?" Alexa asked nervously.

Mister Kitchen didn't have time to answer. A band of duckbilled dinosaurs marched into sight, snorting music through the crests on top of their heads. They walked on two legs, many as tall as houses, all of them different shades of green, with patterns and without. Lime green. Emerald green. Camouflage green. Johnny knew from his reading that they were harmless, as Mister Kitchen said. They were herbivores. Grass eaters. Gathering in a circle around the Company, each one played a different-shaped crest. As he listened, Johnny understood that Mister Kitchen was conducting the duckbill's song inside his mind, raising and lowering his thoughts like a baton.

"They're not from the Sentinel's realm, are they?" Brendan asked. "You just magicked them up and trained them, like in a circus."

"Just and trained," Mister Kitchen said. "Oh dear. Are you sure you want to insult them? Especially when they're playing you a song of greeting."

With a flourish, two duckbills clapped their crests together like cymbals, ending the song with a crash. The Company clapped heartily, and the dinosaurs took a bow. Afterwards, many of them got down on four legs like bears when they finished walking.

As they did, Brendan stepped forward, looking pumped. Johnny couldn't help overhearing his brother's thoughts. Brendan wanting to show off by conducting another duckbill song. Yet when he cleared his throat inside, the duckbills ignored Brendan. They weren't being rude. They just didn't seem to hear him properly.

Maybe if you used your token, Johnny said.

If Mister Kitchen doesn't need one, I don't either, Brendan replied.

"Weeelllll," Mister Kitchen said. "The levels of the Game do get harder, you know. But we could work together to improve your communication skills, if you want."

I don't need help, Brendan said, throwing loud thoughts at the duckbills. One of the babies let out a peep like a piccolo, but that looked accidental—a burp—and his mother nuzzled him quiet. The rest of the dinosaurs ignored Brendan. He looked puzzled and started sulking, especially when the biggest, oldest-looking duckbill tootled out a message and he couldn't understand a word.

"Oh dear, this is very awkward," Mister Kitchen said. "Me being the somewhat unwanted interpreter. But they're making you an offer, you see."

"An offer?" Johnny said, signaling his brother to keep quiet.

"They've cropped out this patch of forest, and now they're moving on," Mister Kitchen explained. "They say they'll give you a ride to the mountains. We'll get there much more quickly this way."

"Why don't you tell them yes, Brendan?" Claire asked innocently.

"You just want to show off your stupid quote, riding skills," Brendan answered.

"You guys," Johnny said. "Let's just do it, okay? Unless you've got any other options."

Grumbling, Brendan accepted in his head.

"Except," Alexa said. The little twin looked serious, and Johnny realized she was still shaken by the ants. "Can I ride you, Mister Kitchen?" she asked taking his hand. "There's no trampoline grass. And it's a long fall down from the duckbills' necks."

"Well, of course you can," Mister Kitchen said. "I am a dinosaur. Just made for people rides."

"You're a raptor," Brendan said. "I've seen your picture in Johnny's books."

Johnny realized that Brendan was right. Mister Kitchen was a Chirostenotes, a cousin of the fierce velociraptor they'd seen when they first arrived. Johnny wondered if this was why he'd been having so much trouble trusting him.

"Mister Kitchen wouldn't hurt a fly," Rosa said. "Can't you tell?"

It was so rare for Rosa to step in that Brendan went quiet, and Johnny started chewing on what she'd said. He realized the duckbills were watching them curiously.

"Can you thank the duckbills, Mister Kitchen?" he asked. "And say we'd be glad to hitch a ride?"

"By all means," Mister Kitchen replied, giving Johnny a cautious smile. The little dino whipped out a thought and five duckbills knelt, ready for riders.

They didn't offer to take us, Brendan muttered. He asked them.

Look, Johnny began, having had about enough for one day.

"Time to move out. Let's move out," Mister Kitchen said. And to let the brother stuff slide, he told Johnny, in his grown-up voice. If you start fighting among yourselves, the Shadow's already half won.

When they were all on board, the duckbills stood up grandly and set off for the volcanoes, Mister Kitchen leading the way through the green and ancient land.
The Combo Kings

For the next two days, the Company rode the duckbills up and down the hills. They slogged through marshes and wove between redwoods, avoiding predators and stamping out a march. At sunset, Claire lit a campfire. After a round of singing, the children bunked down in the magic tent while the duckbills slept outside.

Imagine riding a dinosaur through the Cretaceous era. Johnny couldn't believe his luck. They passed brachiosaurs as big as cathedrals. Birds flapped past, some with teeth glinting in their beaks. Snakes slithered along the top of the water, hissing like bad-tempered leashes, some of them trailing useless little legs.

Yet as the third day sped by without any peril, Johnny began to wonder where the Shadow was. He grew afraid their opponent was building up his magic so powerfully they'd never survive the next attack.

On top of this, Brendan was becoming a pain. He wanted to communicate with the duckbills but kept failing. He tried joking with them, whispering, complaining and finally even pleading, but they didn't understand a word. Once again, Mister Kitchen offered him communication lessons, but Brendan turned him down. He was supposed to be three years older than Johnny, but he was acting younger. Johnny didn't really think he was so great himself, but his brother struck him as immature. By the time the fourth day rolled around, Brendan had turned into a walking, talking cloud of gloom.

Around noon, the duckbills asked to stop. They were getting close to the End Door, and the landscape was getting bleaker. All morning, they'd been tromping up and down a series of craggy foothills where vegetation was thin. When the dinos knelt, the Company jumped off onto rocky ground. But there was a good carpet of grass around the rocks, and Johnny didn't need Mister Kitchen to tell him that the duckbills wanted lunch.

"I'd kind of like something, too," Alex said.

"Yeah," Claire said, stretching. "Did you see those fruit trees back uphill? They looked like pears or avocadoes. I've started remembering what it feels like to be hungry."

"I can go pick some," Rosa offered. "It's not far."

"I'll come with you," Johnny said. "We should probably travel in pairs."

"A very good idea," Mister Kitchen said. "Go in pairs to pick some pears."

Brendan let out a raspberry, but Johnny ignored him. He led the way towards the trees, happy to snatch a few minutes alone with Rosa. Johnny had tried to speak to her a couple of times over the past few days, finding time to thank her for stepping in after the ants, but never managing to learn what she and Mister Kitchen had been talking about back at the sequoia. He suspected they'd met before, and she might have more of an idea who the little creature really was. But Rosa didn't seem ready to talk about Mister Kitchen, and she'd been sticking so close to Claire that he could seldom get her alone.

"Yes, I've met Mister Kitchen before," Rosa said now, picking some of the pear-shaped fruit. "I'll tell you why later, if you need to know."

"Why don't I need to know now?" Johnny asked, putting the fruit into his pouch. "It's okay. I've been practicing guarding my private thoughts."

"I told him I'm not helping all that much," Rosa said, as if he hadn't spoken. "It helps that I'm friends with Claire. Brendan would really get to her otherwise, the way he's getting to you. But we can't talk about that," she added, "since no one else can criticize Brendan. That's your job."

Johnny realized that Rosa saw through him so clearly, she might really be twenty back in the Real World. He also noticed for the first time that her eyelashes were pretty, and realized how much he liked her. Rosa was so calm and smart and hurting so badly that Johnny felt confused. He always had a hard enough time liking a girl his own age, feeling stupid, not knowing what to say. But in the Real World, Rosa was a lot older, and probably thought he was the definition of lame.

Rosa blushed, and Johnny blushed even deeper to realize he hadn't been guarding his thoughts again. For a moment, neither could go on.

"I also told Mister Kitchen I'm getting worried," Rosa said finally. "I've been trying to remember how long I've been in Mizzenglass, and I can't. I think Joe got here a long time before me, but maybe not. I'm afraid I might fade, too. And I'm not like him. I don't think you go somewhere else afterwards. I think the magic ends here."

"My Mom thinks like that," Johnny said. "I don't know how she stands it."

"I'm not sure I could, in the Real World. I'd find it hard, thinking everything just ended. You can get distracted from that when you're with the Sentinel." Rosa thought for a while. "That's another reason I want to go back. Enjoy things while I can."

"Please don't leave us," Johnny blurted.

Rosa didn't seem to hear him, absorbed in picking fruit. "I don't feel really grown-up yet, like Joe underneath," she said. "But part of me wants to be. And the thing is, I don't like games much any more."

"You don't like the Game?" Johnny was surprised to realize that he loved it, even the bad parts. He loved the challenge of leading the Company. He even loved having a clever opponent to outsmart. Johnny liked it so much, he sometimes forgot that he was playing to get Brendan home, although he usually pulled himself back on course quickly enough.

"I hate..." Rosa began, then stopped abruptly.

The hill was shaking.

Shake. It wasn't an earthquake. Shake. Shake. Johnny knew it was footsteps, but he still felt shocked when three huge rock-grey dinosaurs lumbered over the hill, each as big as a house. Johnny couldn't take his eyes off the creatures' bulk, their teeth—and their glaring red eyes. He didn't recognize the species. Then, with a shiver of horror, Johnny realized why. The Shadow had combined the deadliest Cretaceous predators into three enormous killing machines.

Each Combo had the leathery bulk of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, with its huge head and teeth as sharp as broken knives. But these beasts also had razor-like tusks on their snouts, and spikes as wicked as bayonets bursting from their backs. Even worse: instead of a T. Rex's tiny useless forelegs, these creatures had long, strong, muscular arms that ended in deadly claws. The Shadow must have seen how much the Mimic's arms had scared Johnny. Their opponent was a learner, too.

Let's get out of here, Johnny whispered.

I can't move, Rosa said. I'm too scared.

The biggest Combo leaned forward, sniffing the air. Johnny could feel his pouch cower away from the great beast. But the Combo's eyes burned like sensors, and soon they burned into his pocket. The beast stood back up and grinned meanly. Throwing back his warty head, he let out an earth-shattering roar.

Johnny and Rosa took off, running downhill as fast as they could. When they reached the Company, Alexa was already on Mister Kitchen's back, while the others were mounted on their duckbills. Two other beasts knelt for them, and after Johnny and Rosa scrambled on board, the frightened herd took off, racing further downhill with speedy little Mister Kitchen scampering alongside.

This was what the Shadow had been saving up for. The three great beasts crashed downhill after them. Yet as he glanced back fearfully, Johnny realized that the Combos were top-heavy. Those huge heads. Those roaring jaws, those tusks, those arms. The Shadow hadn't built them for running downhill, and Johnny got a relieved idea that his Company might be able to defeat them. Evil was made up of so many bad parts, they ended up fighting with each other. He had to make them defeat themselves.

Johnny wished he could talk with the duckbills, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Galloping hard, they rushed toward the swamp at the bottom of the hill. They had moved rapidly through swamps before, going down on fours to spread their weight across the muck. The moment the Combos crashed into the marsh, their big back legs would sink into the ooze. They'd have to slow down even more, maybe enough for the Company to get away.

"I can smell those things!" Alexa cried, holding on tight to Mister Kitchen's neck.

"Hear that?" Brendan called back to the Combos. "She says your breath stinks!"

The lead beast was gaining on them, saliva dripping from his huge red tongue. He looked as if he could almost taste them, his volcano eyes glaring hungrily. He put on a burst of speed, snapping and snarling at Mister Kitchen, arms reaching, his tusk slashing the air.

"He's going to get me!" Alexa howled.

"Somebody distract them!" Claire cried.

Johnny pulled out a magic pebble and whipped it back at the Combos, hoping a flash would throw them off. The pebble exploded into daggers of light, their keen edges slicing toward the beasts like boomerangs, slashing their hide so deeply that green blood flowed. The Company cheered, and the clumsy Combos tumbled to a halt as Claire turned her duckbill around. Holding out her token, she threw a laser beam at the first of the bellowing creatures—missing it, but setting a fire at its feet.

The Combo roared and dodged the fire, still off-balance.

"Aim higher!" Brendan called. "He can't move quickly!"

"I KNOW!" Claire yelled, angling her token.

A direct hit. The Combo vaporized. But the others regrouped, letting out frenzied roars as they rushed on. There was only one more stand of high trees to pass before the swamp, and Johnny threw more pebbles to delay the beasts, light flashing, flashing, flashing as he dug his feet into his duckbill's hide, hoping they could make it.

Suddenly, it hit him. Despite their clumsiness, the Combos were chasing them toward the trees, almost herding the duckbills. Johnny raised his X-ray token and saw why. A fourth Combo lurked behind a giant sequoia. They were planning an ambush.

"Turn!" Johnny yelled to Mister Kitchen. "There's another one hiding!"

"Oh dear. Oh dear," Mister Kitchen cried. Johnny could almost hear his message to the duckbills. The entire herd trumpeted wildly, sounding like a piano crashing downstairs. Pawing the air, they turned and galloped inland. The Combos bellowed with rage and swerved to follow. The one from the sequoia joined them, running hard.

"Tell the duckbills to run a zigzag!" Johnny yelled to Mister Kitchen. "They can't maneuver as well as we can."

This time, he could hear Mister Kitchen's thoughts. The duckbills dodged into a stand of redwoods, leading a race between the trees and pulling ahead of the lumbering Combos. Facing backwards as she rode, Claire used her token to set fires in their path, while Johnny threw more brilliant pebble boomerangs. Explosions blasted through the forest while the Combos roared and reared, their bayonet backs cutting down branches so the wounded trees rained wood.

"You're getting them even more angry!" Brendan called.

"We're keeping them back!" Claire snapped. She caught a sunbeam through the trees and vaporized the second Combo.

"Woo hoo!" Alex called, standing up on his duckbill's back.

Bad move. They were heading straight for a tree branch.

"NO!" Alexa screamed, as her twin hit the branch, flying high into the air.

"I'm here!" Mister Kitchen cried. Swooping underneath, he caught Alex in his long purple arms and hugged him tightly to his chest.

"Can you keep up?" Johnny yelled. Now the little dino had Alexa on his back and Alex in his arms.

"Oh dear. I have to, don't I?" Mister Kitchen cried, running as fast as he could.

But Alexa was having a hard time hanging on, and Rosa looked grim as a Combo reached a slashing claw for her duckbill's tail. They could have defeated one clumsy predator, even two. But four? Johnny threw out another pebble, but the Combos had brains in those huge heads, and they were learning to dodge them.

"NOW!" Brendan cried suddenly.

Johnny swiveled in time to see his brother lower his token from his lips.

"Brendan! What are you doing!" Claire cried.

Suddenly, the ground shook even harder than before. Was it really an earthquake this time? There was a huge crash as trees fell. Then another...another...until...

The biggest dinosaur Johnny could ever have imagined crashed out of the swamp. It was a gigantic, four-legged splotched green beast, as long as a shopping mall and as high as a skyscraper—and it looked seriously annoyed at being summoned.

Reaching dry ground, the giant dino pushed sequoias aside as if they were weeds. It stalked toward the Company, letting out a bone-crushing, earsplitting, hair-curling roar.

"I called up a Seismosaurus!" Brendan yelled proudly.

"Why?" Claire called out in despair. "We were beating the predators! And now he'll come after us, too."

Yet the Seismosaurus paid no attention to the Company. Instead, it thundered straight for the Combos. They stopped in their tracks, looking confused. When it reached the one in front, the huge beast lifted a front foot big as a cement truck, ready to crush it. Waking from its shock, the Combo dodged the enormous foot. It raced back between the seismosaur's legs, taking a bite at its thigh along the way.

The Seismosaurus roared. Trees shook. The swamp wavered, waves crashing to shore. Johnny saw that the Combo had hardly scratched it, but the seismosaur was even more annoyed. As the Combo ran behind it, the Seismosaurus raised its tail—and WHAP!—sent it flying high in the air to land with a splash in the swamp.

The Combo vaporized as it hit the water, and Johnny led the Company in a cheer. The Seismosaurus roared in answer. Then it swiveled its huge neck and grabbed the other predator in its jaws.

It could have crushed the Combo with one clean bite. Instead, the Seismosaurus held its prey in its jaws as gently as a cat holds a mouse. It whipped back its huge neck, paused for just a second to shake it, then hurled the beast into the swamp. With a crash and a zap, the final Combo vaporized.

"Well, thank you. Thank you," Mister Kitchen called, capering toward the Seismosaurus like a grateful flea.

The great beast ignored him. Instead, it drew in a huge bored breath and YAWNED.

Johnny had time to grab tight to his duckbill's neck before the smelly blast of swamp breath hit. His legs flew straight out, but he managed to hold on to the neck. Beside him, Brendan, Claire and Rosa held on just as tightly and were blow just as straight. But down at ground level, Mister Kitchen and the twins went somersaulting across the clearing, finally landing with a powerful splat in a huge mud puddle.

"Well, that was rather rude, if I do say so myself," said Mister Kitchen, floundering around in the sticky muck. "Rude, rude, rude!"

For a second time, the Seismosaurus ignored him. Instead, it turned and thundered up the hill, letting off earthquakes with every step until it finally crashed out of sight.
The Singing Stream

Proud of his victory, Brendan was first in line to haul Mister Kitchen and the twins out of the mud. The dinosaur's tail made a strong sucking sound as it pulled free, whipping around and splattering Johnny.

"Thanks a lot," Johnny said, spitting out mud.

"No problem," Brendan replied.

Actually, Johnny did have a problem. This level was obviously meant to be the Cretaceous era, yet the Seismosaurus was a Jurassic beast. Scientists said it had lived millions of years earlier than the raptors and ankylosaurs and duckbills they had met. Either the scientists had made a mistake or there was something seriously weird going on with Brendan's token.

You really don't miss anything, do you? Mister Kitchen said, as he stood dripping mud. Other people had trouble talking to one person at a time inside their heads, but the little dino did it all the time. Johnny had been thinking about the fact he could also do magic, even if he only used it to roast marshmallows, when they could have used some help with the Shadow, especially with these latest beasts.

Who are you, really? Johnny asked.

The twins are the weakest link in your Company, Mister Kitchen replied. If they get too frightened, you'll fail. Maybe I'm putting on what you call my act for them.

I don't think that answers my question.

And you might want to let Brendan find out about his token himself, Mister Kitchen said, before calling, "Look what the twins have found! Look at them!"

Distracted, Johnny turned and saw the twins splashing in a clear little creek. Brendan and Rosa ran in to join them, while Claire sat on the bank, dandling her feet. Taking off running, Mister Kitchen did a belly flop into the water. Watching him sputter to the surface, Johnny realized he wouldn't get anything else out of the little dino, at least not now. He jumped into the stream beside Rosa, pulling out his pouch and handing out the fruit they'd picked earlier. Johnny was surprised to feel almost hungry, and relaxed as he ate a couple of pieces of almost-avocado. Behind them, the duckbills wallowed ecstatically in the marsh.

"I still can't seem to reach them," Brendan said, then turned a friendlier face to Mister Kitchen. "Maybe you should give me some communication lessons, after all."

"You sound like you're doing him a favour," Claire said.

"Well, well, Claire," Mister Kitchen said nervously. "One thing I'd say is that—oh dear, I'm not a very good teacher. But its always best to try to speak other people's language, isn't it? The duckbills, for instance."

"I can't hoot," Brendan said.

"Well, yes. But you can sing," Mister Kitchen said. "And you might want to be the one to mention—it's just a suggestion—that it's getting late, and soon it will be time to push on. Politely, of course."

Brendan frowned, his brown eyes turning shaded. He had a secret: Brendan couldn't carry a tune. He sounded like a DJ scratching a ticklish record. But after all the build-up, he was going to have to try it, wasn't he?

Time to GO, he screeched in his head, making Claire giggle. It didn't work, either. The duckbills paid no attention, and kept wallowing happily in the swamp.

"Yes, well. Yes, well," Mister Kitchen said. "A song, you know. A song." Suddenly, their heads were flooded with Mister Kitchen's bouncy voice.

Hum, hawm, the road is long  
The sun is setting soon  
Treen, troon, we'll see the moon  
And diddily daddily   
Piddily paddily  
Its time to splash out a song

"Surely you can do better than that," the dino said, his comb blushing purple.

Blushing just as hard, Brendan got out of the creek and scuffed away from the Company, heading toward the swamp. Johnny heard him clear his throat in his head. Almost in a whisper, as if he didn't want anyone to hear, Brendan started singing.

If you don't mind, it's time  
That we got back on the road  
I know I sound   
Like I mess around  
But all I want in the world   
Is to go home

The Company stared at their feet in the water. Johnny felt a burst of love for his brother, just as Claire's thoughts slipped through his mind like fish.

She liked Brendan. Could that be right?

He didn't have time to think about it. The duckbills splashed out of the swamp and knelt for their riders. The Company shook themselves dry and climbed aboard. After that, Mister Kitchen picked up Alexa, and they were off up the hill.

It turned out to be their last duckbill ride. Just before sunset, the dinos stopped in a forest glade. This was the final valley of forest before the land rose onto the barren slopes of the volcano. It was gentle there, an oasis that twittered with bird cries. Better enjoy it while it lasts, Johnny thought, looking up the slope of the twin volcanoes: the evil twisted peak that erupted when they'd first arrived and the perfect cone that held the Door. He wasn't looking forward to the morning, when the Company would have to make it up the volcanic slope and find the answer to the Riddle.

It was a Company with divisions. There were problems between him and Brendan, even though Johnny realized it was more his problem than Brendan's. Claire and his brother were openly fighting, maybe because she liked him, while Johnny and Rosa were shy of each other because he certainly liked her. And Mister Kitchen? Johnny was grateful that he was taking care of the twins, but he still wasn't sure what to make of the little creature, and couldn't predict what he'd get up to next.

After Johnny shook out the tent, Mister Kitchen told them that the duckbills would stop to feed here, then head back to safer ground. Everyone let out a sigh of disappointment, but Johnny figured the Company shouldn't complain, not after the duckbills had carried them all this way. Claire agreed silently, and began to sing.

No worries, no stress  
All you duckbills need a rest  
Eat your fill  
We'll climb the hill  
Goodbye and thank you  
All the best

B minus, Brendan told her.  
Oh shut up, Claire said.
Mount Wildfire

Next morning, the duckbills had already wandered out of sight by the time the Company got up. Outside their tent was a surprise: pairs of sneakers in everybody's sizes. Johnny figured they were a present from the Sentinel. So far they'd gone barefoot, but that was getting hard. At the top of a hill yesterday, Johnny had stepped on a sharp stone, and it had almost hurt. That was something else he'd been thinking about lately. He'd been getting almost hurt and nearly hungry for the past couple of days.

As he put on his shoes, Johnny felt sweaty, too. The weather reminded him of Indian summer, when it was still hot and humid, but the heat felt like only a slick on the air. Feeble, he thought. Decayed. Everything was starting to feel that way. Even the bird calls sounded muffled, and once they left their camp, the path was pitted with potholes.

Stunted trees, he saw. Crabbed bushes. And something else: Time was back to playing tricks. The days had been short when they'd first got to this level. Now the morning stretched on forever. Johnny figured that the Shadow had been grabbing time at the start, saving it up so he could stretch out his attacks when they got close to the Door, making his magic last. Their opponent felt very strong now, despite spending so much power on the Combo attack. Earthquakes started rumbling through, shimmering the ground like a subway train. One was even powerful enough to knock Johnny off his feet.

Claire pulled him up. "Look at your knees," she said. Both were scratched.

Finally there were no more trees, and they reached the edge of a foul-smelling stream. On the other side, the land was black and rocky. Steam puffed out of vents in the hillside, and only the smallest plants could grow. Turning to face the others, Johnny had to work at sounding cheerful.

"Everybody ready?" he asked.

"No," Alexa said. "Not without Joe."

"It's the only way home," Alex reminded her.

Alexa gave herself a shake. "I almost forgot," she said, and leapt across the stream. The rest of the Company followed, Mister Kitchen bringing up the rear. On the other side, Johnny quickly spotted a track cut into the barren side of the volcano. The ground was mostly cinders that felt like gritty sand. You stepped up and your foot slid back nearly as far. As they trudged toward the Door, Johnny felt thirsty. Not almost—truly thirsty. The sun pulsed above them, growing bigger and hotter, taking up more of the bleached-out sky. Then the light started to fade.

"What's happening?" Alexa asked nervously.

Glancing up, Johnny saw the sun heading into eclipse.

"Cool," Brendan said.

"Don't look," Johnny told him.

"So its hurts your eyes at home," Brendan replied. "Nothing hurts here."

"Johnny's knees are still bleeding a little," Rosa said. "I think maybe the Sentinel's protection is wearing off. I'd be careful."

"You've got to keep your eyes on the trail, anyway," Johnny said.

Mister Special, Brendan replied. I liked you better at home when you weren't so bossy. But he kept his eyes down as they plodded along, and the light turned the weird brownish red of dried-up blood.

"I'm trying hard," Alexa said. "But it's scary."

Above them, the moon slid across the face of the sun like a coin. Soon, only the fiery red corona was left shining. The world went silent. No more sounds of dinosaurs roaring in the distance, no gust of wind, no insects clicking by.

Then—ROAR!!

The shorter, misshapen volcano erupted so powerfully that it blasted off its top. Everyone fell to the ground as the earth shook brutally. The slope beneath their feet shimmered and buckled. They slid downhill on the cinders—nothing to hold onto!—and came to a stop against a black outcrop of rocks.

"Oh no!" Alexa cried, pointing.

A plume of black smoke shot out the broken top of the volcano. It blotted out the last of the sun, and the world gloomed even darker. The gritty plume gushed high into the air like a fountain, a geyser, then started pouring down like rain.

Magic ash. As it reached the top of the blown volcano, it spun around the crater like a whirlpool. The ground stopped shaking as the ash swirled faster and faster. The Company got to their feet, ready to run—just as the ash veered towards them.

Insects. The ash had turned into a cloud of buzzing, biting insects. Alexa screamed as the red-eyed insects flew around and between them like sprayed sand. They surrounded the Company in the half-dark, getting in their eyes and hair. It was bad enough already with the eclipse and the eruption. Now this.

"NO!" Alexa cried, trying to bat the gnats away. "I HATE INSECTS!"

I know, the Shadow screeched. They're just for you!

Johnny was shocked to hear his voice. The Shadow felt terribly strong.

"Hold on!" he told Alexa. "They're not really hurting us. They're just scary."

"They hurt me!" Alexa cried.

"We've got to get her out of here!" Rosa called. "Get her to the Door!"

"Come up, my dear," Mister Kitchen said, gathering Alexa into his arms. As he did, Johnny held up his X-ray token. He could just pick out the path ahead.

"Hold onto me! Make a chain!" he yelled.

"I can't!" Alexa screamed, thrashing in Mister Kitchen's arms. "I hate this!"

Johnny knew they needed a plan. The insects weren't really biting, but something about them hurt his arms, and Alexa couldn't stop thrashing. He wished with all his heart they were back in the happy green forest below. Or up at the Door.

Can't you do some magic? he asked Mister Kitchen. Get us there more quickly?

Against the rules, Mister Kitchen said. More rules they didn't understand. Johnny thought it wasn't fair. The Game wasn't fair!

Then he got an idea.

Brendan! he called, putting a plan in his brother's head. Through the ash, he saw Brendan nod and hold his token to his mouth.

A loud beating filled the air. The insects buzzed in confusion, knocking against each other in cricks and cracks. Raising his token, Johnny smiled to see hundreds of birds fly out of the forest below them. Thousands of birds. Birds of every colour and kind. Tiny birds like sparrows. Great toothed bird-like dinos. Yellow ones and green ones, feathered ones and enormous leathery bat-like creatures the size of gliders.

The Company stood rapt on the black volcanic slope as the birds arced through the air like a rainbow. The insects gathered themselves together in a dense, buzzing cloud, as if hoping to protect themselves that way. But the birds just flew into the cloud, their wings beating it apart. The insects fled wisps and vapors, spiraling every which way, trying to escape. In a glory of wings, the birds got busy chasing them, hunting their lunch through the air.

See? Rosa told Alexa. It's all right. We can make pretty things happen.

I can, Brendan said smugly.

Claire ignored him, spellbound by the birds. They swooped and soared, riding air currents over the mountains, dancers dressed in feathers for an airy ballet.

I've never even imagined anything so beautiful, she said.

Just then, a big bright parrot-like bird the exact colour of Claire's hair landed on her shoulder. Claire gaped at the bird eye to eye—as it began feeding her insects.

"She thinks you're her baby!" Alex crowed, and doubled over laughing.

Bug-eyed, cheeks bulging, Claire tried to hold the insects politely in her mouth until the mother bird flew off, then spat them into her palm. Johnny walked over to see a dozen mosquitoes buzzing feebly above Claire's hand. Now that they'd been eaten—twice—their eyes were watery pink, not red. She tossed them onto the ground, where the little proto-sparrows ate them eagerly.

Finally, the last insect had been eaten. The birds flocked back into the air, circling above the Company like a whirlwind of multi-coloured paper. The birds cawed and chirped in a well-fed chorus, then flapped back down to the sequoias, settling in for a well-earned nap.
The Twins

"Made it," Claire said, savoring another victory.

"What you mean is 'thanks,'" Brendan said.

Shaking his head, Johnny looked around the hillside. The light was still a scabby red from the stalled eclipse, but it was bright enough for him to see they'd lost ground. Before the attack, they'd been halfway up the mountain. Now they had slipped so far downhill, they were almost back at the foul little stream. The Shadow would have plenty of time to attack again before they reached the Door.

Johnny didn't like to think how. Maybe their opponent was going to keep niggling at their weak spots like a bully. He remembered one bully in elementary school who kept stealing his favorite baseball cap. Every morning on the way to school, the bully grabbed the cap off his head and pegged it into the bushes. Every morning, as Johnny got ready for school, he kept putting the stupid cap on his head. He'd been so scared, he hadn't been thinking properly. If the Shadow kept scaring the Company, they wouldn't be able to think of an answer to the Riddle, either. There wasn't much point reaching the End Door if they couldn't get through it.

Another earthquake rumbled underfoot, making Alexa trip and fall.

"JEEZ!" she yelled, starting to get angry. "Can't you stop it! Stupid Shadow! We're not hurting you! We just want to go home!"

Alex took his twin's hand, pulling her up. "Don't worry," he said. "He has to get his strength back now."

Suddenly, a geyser of red-hot steam shot out of the ground nearby, hissing at the twins. Alexa stomped her foot furiously.

"Run again! You want us to stupid run again!" she said. "Well, you can take your stupid 'run again' and..."

A geyser shot up on her other side, spewing filthy steam.

"Guess he's got his strength back," Claire said, adding nervously, "Why does he always have to use water?"

A third geyser shot up even closer, boiling water spewing in an arc above them. The Shadow was trying to scald them back into the Sentinel's realm!

"RUN!" Johnny cried. He led the way, dodging between fountains of hissing steam spurting up on every side. With the Company close behind them, he ran a zigzag route up the cinder slope, ducking and dodging among the venting columns of water, Claire muttering behind him. Pulling out his token, Johnny saw that a maze of cracks ran underneath the cindery soil like veins. Geysers could erupt anywhere. Any time.

Suddenly, one erupted right in front of Mister Kitchen. The little dino leapt back, dancing down the cinder slope. "Oh dear. Oh dear," he cried. "His aim's getting better!"

"That's not fair!" Alexa wailed. "You could have got hurt!"

A vent shot up beside the twin. Rosa barely managed to yank Alexa aside.

"STOP IT!" Alexa shrieked, terrified and furious all at once. She stamped her foot, her voice going high as scratched glass. "I SAID STOP IT!"

We've got to get her out of here, Rosa told Johnny. She's going to lose it.

Johnny shot a thought at Brendan. Call back the biggest birds, he said. We've got to fly up to the Door!

Brendan held up his token. "Come back!" he yelled.

The Company waited, holding their breath as steam vented here, vented there. It vented so close to Claire's arm that her hair was singed, and Johnny felt her shrink inside, trying not to cry. Finally, a lone pterodactyl dipped and swerved among the geysers.

Brendan swore in his head. I was afraid of that! I can't call up power all the time, just like the Shadow!

The pterodactyl landed on the ground. He was big, but not big enough to carry Alexa, much less everyone else.

"No!" she wailed. "I hate this! I want to go back to the Sentinel!"

"Oh dear," Mister Kitchen said. "A plan would be helpful."

"Why can't you help?" Johnny asked. "What rules? Why can't you even tell us what they are?"

As they stared at each other, Rosa held up her token, crying, "Grow!"

The pterodaactyl exploded to giant size, airplane size. Johnny's mouth dropped open. When did Rosa learn about her token?

"Everybody get up!" Rosa called. "Get on his back! Hurry!"

"But when...?" Johnny began.

Not now, Rosa said, giving Alexa a boost.

"It's too high!" Alexa cried. "Why didn't you call a lily pad boat?"

"It's all right," Mister Kitchen soothed, lifting Alex up beside her. "The feathers will hang onto you. You'll be fine! Especially if you close your eyes."

Mister Kitchen lifted Rosa up next, seating her right at the big dino's neck. Behind him, Claire boosted Brendan on board, then leapt up himself. Johnny was next.

"Can you get up on your own?" Johnny asked Mister Kitchen.

"You're almost there," Mister Kitchen said. "I've done my part. Fly up!"

Mister Kitchen gave the dino an expert slap, like a jockey telling a horse to gallop. The pterodactyl took off in a flap of its giant wings, pulling hard into the air.

"We're not leaving Mister Kitchen!" Alexa shrieked. "First Joe, and now him?!"

With a pang, Johnny looked down to see the little dinosaur growing smaller and smaller beneath them. Mister Kitchen waved hard.

It's up to you now! he called in their heads. You can do it! I know you can! Don't forget your friend! He tried!

Then something mysterious happened. In the moment before they flew too high to see, Mister Kitchen stopped being a dinosaur and took the strong, broad form of a Herder.

Steam vented with a fierce hiss as the giant flyer rose, heading for the End Door. Johnny decided to think about Mister Kitchen later. He couldn't get distracted now, needing to hold on tight to the giant pterodactyl as it angled and swooped between the geysers, riding updrafts of heated steam.

You're right, Rosa told Johnny. The Shadow's geysers are helping us reach the Door. We're going faster than otherwise. Evil working against itself, like you said.

The steam stopped as if a switch had been turned off. The Shadow had been eavesdropping, and Johnny reminded himself to guard his thoughts.

"Nyah, nyah," Alex taunted. "Gonna beat ya."

I wouldn't do that, Johnny said.

He's probably running out of power, Alex answered. He has to, sometime.

Not yet. An eruption of red-hot lava shot into the air beneath them. The pterodactyl banked sharply, dodging the molten rock.

"Woh!" Alex cried, losing hold of the dino's leathery skin.

"No!" Alexa screamed.

"I've got him!" Brendan said, grabbing Alex by the tee-shirt. He pulled the twin back onto the pterodactyl as it banked again and swooped back up toward the Door.

"Why do we have to fly so high?" Alexa cried. "I hate being this far up!"

"We're almost there!" Claire said. "Hang on! You can do it!"

"No, I can't!" Alexa cried.

"Try to read the Riddle," Johnny told her. He could make out letters carved into the huge wooden door, but couldn't read the words. "Anybody?"

A spout of lava rose between them and the Door, blocking the Riddle. The lava spewed high into the air, a thick rush of molten rock, hissing and steaming. Soon it began to fall back down, and as the lava fell in front of the Door, it stopped. Particles of molten rock hung suspended in the air like stopped bullets. They quivered meanly.

"No!" Alexa pleaded. "You're supposed to run out of power. Leave us alone!"

Suddenly, the drops burst apart, spattering into tiny red-hot cinders. Each was a buzzing wasp—and all were heading toward them!

I can't take it any more, Alexa said. I'm not ready.

Before anyone could stop her, Alexa stood up on the pterodactyl.

And jumped.

"Catch me, Sentinel!" Alexa cried. They heard Alexa laugh as she fell. Johnny watched the twin somersault through the smoky air, her face alight with happiness. There was a flash, and she was gone.

"Me too," Alex said, standing up to jump.

"Don't!" Brendan said, grabbing the twin.

"But Lex and me can make another Company!" Alex said, struggling to get loose. "And get Mister Kitchen out of the Game! And Bob!"

The wasps buzzed closer. Rosa veered the pterodactyl so the wind from its powerful wings pushed them aside.

"You've got to stay," she said. "At least until the next level. The Shadow will get stronger if he gets you both!"

Johnny remembered how powerful the Sentinel had looked after the Company won the first round. He hated to think of the Shadow's red eyes glowing that brightly.

"Lexa!" Alex called in a heartbroken voice. "Please!"

"Let him go," Johnny told Brendan. "They're twins."

"But the Game will get harder!" Rosa cried.

"Then the Game will get harder," Johnny said.

Brendan met his eyes. He nodded, and let Alex go. The twin dove towards the volcano, slapping his hand at the wasps to shoo them away. It was his parting gift.

Then Alex was gone, too.

"This is bad," Claire said, as they held on tight. "Maybe we should all go back."

"We can't," Johnny said. "Think how strong the Shadow would get."

"He's right," Rosa said tersely. She banked the pterodactyl one more time. Now the Riddle was right in front of them. Johnny read it:

I burn   
That which meets me  
That which greets me  
That which builds me  
All are true.  
You must care  
You must share  
Or I burn you

Rosa ordered the pterodactyl to land on the ledge below the Door. The Company clambered down, letting the dino flap gratefully away. When it was high in the air, its wings gave a powerful CRACK! The dino snapped back to life size and wheeled toward the sea, spinning, sweeping, skimming into the clouds, where it finally disappeared.

The children were left alone to work out the Riddle.

"Fire," Claire said. "It's got to be fire." Hands on her hips, she called, "Fire!"

The Door didn't open.

"Mister Kitchen said to sing the answer," Brendan said. "Remember? 'Open the Door with a tune.'" In his awful voice, Brendan began to sing. "Fire. Fire. FIRE. FIRE."

The Door still didn't open. Slapping away the first of the insects, Claire sounded waspish herself. "You call that a tune?" she asked. "My cat howls better."

Brendan jumped as a wasp stung him. "They bite almost as hard as you do."

"Shut up," Claire said.

"You guys," Rosa said, trying to hide from the wasps under a shelf of rock. "If it isn't fire, then what is it? Smoke? Steam? We've got to concentrate!"

"How can I concentrate with her around?" Brendan asked.

Johnny looked from his brother to Claire, and into his heart.

"Hate," he said sadly. The Door creaked loudly but didn't open.

"Sing it!" Rosa urged.

Another secret: Johnny couldn't sing, either. Marika was the only musical Bey. But as the wasps stung his arms red, Johnny made up a chant.

Hate is a closed Door  
That doesn't want to open  
But if we care  
We'll get to where  
Kinder words are spoken

"Please?" Johnny asked.

The End Door creaked again...and slowly swung open.

"Run!" Johnny called.

The Company piled through the Door just ahead of the wasps—and found peace.
Questions and Answers

It was a clear blue evening when they arrived back in the Sentinel's realm. A few wasps buzzed through the Door with them, but quickly changed into fireflies. They turned happy somersaults, lighting the air like sparklers.

This time they'd landed in a valley. A glacial river ran through it, its water the colour of Johnny's eyes. Craggy mountains rose all around them, the snow on their peaks turning pink in the sunset. Johnny felt so relieved to be back he sagged like old clothes.

Welcome, children, came the Sentinel's voice. Johnny looked around, but didn't see her.

How are the twins? he asked.

They're well, the Sentinel said. Eyes getting heavy now, ready to sleep.

Thank you for taking care of them, Rosa said. We couldn't.

A nearby oak shook its branches of burnished green leaves, as if the Sentinel was shaking her head. You mustn't be too hard on yourselves, she said. The twins are where they should be, at least for now. Rest, and I'll come to see you in the morning.

With that, Johnny felt the Sentinel withdraw. The evening became still, and calm replaced tiredness in his bones. They were barefoot again, and back in their shorts and tee-shirts. Brendan threw himself down on his stomach by the river, paddling a hand in its cool warmth. Johnny sensed how happy his brother was to be back, and how safe Rosa felt. Only Claire was still tense, her arms tightly crossed.

"We shouldn't have taken the twins," she said. "I'm really glad they're okay, but we're down to four people in the Company. And the next level is going to be hard."

"They tried out the Game," Brendan said. "They'll know what to do next time. They can rescue Bob and Mister Kitchen."

"They'll probably be too scared to try again," Claire said.

Gloomy guts, Brendan muttered.

Know-it-all, Claire replied.

"The next level is going to be even harder if you guys keep this up," Johnny said. "Can't you agree to respect each other? Or at least be polite?"

After a long moment of silence, Brendan hiked himself up on his elbows. To Johnny's surprise, got up and walked over to Claire. "Shake?" he asked.

Claire looked at Brendan suspiciously, but she held out her hand. The moment Brendan took it, she snatched it back. "Bren..." she began angrily, then controlled herself, and opened her palm to reveal a pebble.

"I called up your Mom's picture," Brendan said. "She's fine."

You can do that? Claire asked, tears forming as she looked down at her pebble.

Told you I'm a communicator, he said. Brendan grabbed a firefly and tossed it in his mouth, blowing out his cheeks into two balloons. They glowed pink from the firefly hovering inside. Then he spat it out, and the firefly tumbled into the darkening light, spelling out a message: RESPECT.

"Okay," Brendan agreed. "We'll try it."

That cost you, didn't it? Johnny couldn't help thinking. During the three years Brendan had been missing, he'd built up a mental picture of the perfect older brother. They all had. Loads-of-fun Brendan, sense-of-humour Brendan, Brendan the cool, shoe-lacing rebel. Lately, Johnny was remembering the truth about his brother. Immature didn't begin to cover it.

"You better try some respect, too," Brendan said, holding out a hand for Johnny to slap. Embarrassed, Johnny reached to give him five.

Brendan pulled his hand back, yelling, "Woo!"

Before Johnny could get annoyed, a grin lit Brendan's face, as brilliant as the month of June. Johnny had forgotten about that, too. And suddenly the two brothers were laughing, wrestling, rolling on the trampoline grass, and Johnny felt all the worry of the Game dissolve into just being brothers, being friends, being free.

More fireflies came out as darkness fell. They landed all over, so the grove of oaks turned white with their sparkling lights. It was very beautiful, and Johnny wanted to enjoy it. But he had a chore, and in the bright darkness, he went looking for Rosa.

He found her sitting against the trunk of a tree, contemplating the lights.

"I really need to know, Rosa," Johnny said, sitting down beside her. "You played the Game before, didn't you? That's how you knew what your token did, and where you met Mister Kitchen."

"I've played before," Rosa agreed. "I wanted to go home and find my sister."

"So who's Mister Kitchen?" he asked. "Really?"

"You know that," Rosa said. "He let you see him. He was a Herder before being called into the Game. He was young, a lot younger than Salomon, and I think he's getting lonely in there, and going a little strange."

"Then we have to get him out," Johnny said. "Convince the kid who brought him in to go back and get him out. Can we get a message to the twins?"

"That wouldn't do any good," Rosa said, and closed off her mind as if she'd said too much. Johnny was left with the idea that they had to win to save Mister Kitchen, which made winning even more important. It also meant her experience could help.

"So your token stays the same from Game to Game?" he asked.

"Mine has," Rosa told him, looking relieved at the change of topic. "I don't think they all do. Joe's changed a little. It wasn't a telescope last time, just a magnifying glass."

"And the Shadow's power grows when he beats people, like he beat the twins."

Rosa hesitated. Inside her head, Johnny heard her wonder what good it did to keep repeating things. I already told you that, she said, and you let Alex go back anyway.

"I'm sorry," Johnny said.

Rosa shrugged. "You were right. If you believe you're doing the right thing, I think it helps you win. I think being confident helps."

Rosa looked down at the grass, which the darkness had turned a deep emerald. "That's maybe why I lost," she said. "You shouldn't listen to me. You keep thinking I know things, but I'm not that great. I didn't exactly help my family, did I? What makes you think I even deserve to win?"

"Helping your family? In a war? When you were just a kid?"

Johnny fizzled out. He did that too, accusing himself of doing a bad job of things he was probably too young to do properly, like consoling his parents, or fixing the whole mess in their family by bringing Brendan home. He didn't know how to make Rosa feel better either, and brooded against the tree.

"The Shadow's probably been studying the rest of us the way he studied the twins," he said. "He's a learner, and he's looking for weak spots."

"I think so, too," Rosa said, and shot him a grown-up glance. "So I guess you'd better figure out what yours are."

"I've always had trouble making friends," Johnny confessed. Yet as he spoke, he realized that had stopped being true. He'd made friends with his Company, and wondered what other weaknesses he had. Rosa was waiting for a longer answer, but Johnny had no idea what he was like anymore. They said he was special, but he still didn't feel like it. It was true he was a learner, but that wasn't a weakness, was it?

Johnny could only shake his head his head, and slide down further along the smooth bark of the tree.

The next morning, Johnny woke up early and slipped outside, hoping to find Salomon and get some advice. But he couldn't find the Herder, and was left standing alone by the river. Johnny must have looked glum. A cloud of blossoms blew off a cherry tree and tickled him like feathers.

As he laughed and slapped them away, Johnny had to admit how much he loved the Sentinel's realm. It was all so much easier and more friendly than the Game, and he hadn't had time to try half the things you could do here. A quarter. One hundredth.

Do you want to stay? came the Sentinel's voice, gentle as water. Turning, Johnny saw her floating down the river, riding a stately white boat shaped like a swan. Brendan, Claire and Rosa ran up at the sound of her voice. This time, the Sentinel was dressed in a long white dress made of feathers and pearls. She seemed smaller than before, and her staff was shorter, and her hair white-blond. When she reached the Company, Johnny saw that that her eyes were just as pale, like the sky next to the sun. The Sentinel stepped out of the boat, which changed into a real swan and flapped its wings mightily.

"Well?" she asked.

Johnny looked around at his Company. They all looked back at silently, waiting for his answer. Johnny thought of the peace and magic here, and the fact he'd started making friends. He couldn't help wanting to stay. Yet he was suddenly overwhelmed by a picture of his mother kneeling in her flower garden, poppies nodding around her. Johnny owed her his impossible brother, and had to bring him home.

"We got through two levels," he told the Sentinel. "We can handle one more." Johnny looked at Brendan. "Right?"

His brother didn't answer. He seemed to be looking into himself, hugging his thoughts so tightly that Johnny couldn't read them.

Finally Brendan cleared his throat.

"I was thinking last night," he said. "The Real World is even harder than the Game. Maybe we should just go back to the Sentinel's realm and have some fun."

"He's right," Claire said. "The Real World can be too real sometimes."

Brendan and Claire nodded at each other more than politely. Turning to Rosa, Johnny saw that she wanted to stay on the sidelines. She would play through the Game as far as she could, the way she'd promised. But Johnny could sense how relieved she would feel if he ended it right now, and she could fly a pteranodon back to camp. If his Company felt like this, they wouldn't play hard enough to win. Johnny despaired of making it home, and for a moment, he thought they might as well quit right now.

Yet he still had a few questions, and refused to give up before getting some answers. Johnny felt too shy to ask the Sentinel, and turned to Rosa instead.

"If none of us wins the Game, the Shadow gets really strong, right?"

Rosa's answer was clear from the way she ducked her head.

"So if we don't go on," Johnny said, "the next Company will have a harder time winning, right from the first level. It will be harder for the twins to get home, won't it?"

Rosa looked up and nodded.

Brendan pursed his lips thoughtfully. "So maybe we should go back to camp and train really hard. All of us train and try it again, including the twins."

When Claire nodded in agreement, Johnny felt even more like quitting. But he had one more question, the worst one. Working up his nerve, he turned to the Sentinel.

"If the Shadow beats us all, does he gain power over the camp?" he asked. "Over you? Do things change here?"

The Sentinel looked back calmly, without changing her expression. "You could either come and see, or think it through yourself," she said. "It has to be your decision."

Johnny looked down unhappily, wishing for a real answer.

"He gains a lot of power," Rosa said unexpectedly. "There aren't as many games to play. The trampoline grass doesn't bounce as high. It's not nearly as much fun."

"No way!" Brendan cried.

"That's just wrong," Claire said. "It's wrong to put so much pressure on us. I wouldn't have played if I'd known that."

"There's also Mister Kitchen," Rosa said. "The only way to get him out of the Game is to convince the person who took him there to go back in. And he's out in the Real World."

Johnny was surprised, while Brendan looked astonished. Claire started muttering to herself, making a racket both out loud and inside their heads.

Then Johnny's attention was caught by the way the Sentinel was looking at Rosa. So you do want to win, he heard her say. Johnny had an idea he wasn't supposed to have heard that, but Rosa answered openly.

"I want them to win," she replied. "It's good for three people to win. He loses a lot of power."

"If you want the truth," the Sentinel said, "it's better if all four of you win."

Rosa drooped like a little wet bird. And afterwards? she asked the Sentinel.

"We'll go home," Claire said, as if she'd just woken up to home again.

Johnny knew that Rosa meant more than that, about being old and alone in the Real World. But she shot him a quick thought to shut him up, and they waited for the Sentinel.

She didn't answer. The Sentinel wasn't going to promise anything. She was just going to hand them an enormous, slippery challenge.

"I like challenges," Brendan said, picking up part of Johnny's thought. He was starting to look full of energy again. "I like lots of pressure and huge stakes."

"You don't think I do?" Claire shot back. Then she remembered, and said more politely, "I mean, I do, too. We can do this. We kind of have to, right?"

They're actually pretty much alike, Johnny thought, feeling surprised. When Claire and Brendan looked embarrassed, Johnny realized he'd let his thoughts slip again. But he could also tell they both wanted to go on now. And Rosa?

Rosa nodded at him quietly. You're right. I said I would.

Johnny took a deep breath and turned to the Sentinel.

"I think we're ready now," he said.

As the Sentinel looked at Johnny, her eyes turned the same blue-green colour as his, which was as eerie as anything he'd ever seen. It was like glimpsing yourself in a window or mirror when you least expected to. But Johnny held the Sentinel's eye and squared his shoulders, and the Company squared theirs around him.

Nodding gravely, the Sentinel turned and gestured to the swan. The great bird flapped its wings. It rose into the air and grew, stretching up and out at the edge of the river. As they watched, the swan dissolved itself into a sparkling white Gate, as bright as diamonds and as deep as ice. The Gate captured pieces of the sky as it formed, and touches of the grass, so when it finally faced them massively, the Gate was tinged a glacial blue.

I know where we're going, Johnny thought. Turning to Rosa, he said, "You're going to like this level."

Rosa didn't have time to answer as the Gate opened and a cloud billowed out, surrounding Company. As the world turned white, Johnny didn't even have time to say goodbye to the Sentinel. The cloud came, it took him, and he was through.
Level Three

The Time of Ice and Snow

Johnny felt snowflakes hit his lips, and looked around to find himself in a winter valley. He was dressed for it. All the Company wore parkas and snow pants and mitts and thick fleece-lined leather boots, tucked up tight against the chill.

To his amazement, the wind was cold. Not almost cold or tinged with cold, but cold. Rosa looked ecstatic, her cheeks already red. Taking off her mitts, she knelt and started making a snowball. They could tell from her excited thoughts that she was planning to build a snowman. Perfect packing snow, she said.

"I'll do the head!" Brendan called, throwing off his clumsy mitts.

"And I'll do the middle!" Claire cried, following suit.

Joining in, Johnny helped Rosa roll the biggest ball for the base of the snowman. When the big snowballs were ready, they stacked them into a three-part man, giving him pebble eyes and twigs for his crooked nose and smile.

"In the Sentinel's realm, he'd be able to talk," Rosa said.

"And my fingers wouldn't be freezing," Claire added. Johnny had thrown off his mitts too, and realized that his hands were so cold he felt pinpricks behind his fingernails. Forgetting about the snowman, the Company searched for their mitts. When Johnny found his, he pulled them on as fast as his frozen fingers allowed. If the cold hurt here, he told himself, they were going to have to be careful.

"I'm hungry, too," Brendan said. "You got any fruit left?"

Nodding, Johnny pulled out his pouch and gave everyone a piece. "Rosa picked a lot," he said. "We should be all right. Anyone see the Door, by the way?"

They turned in circles, but couldn't find any sign of it. Mountains surrounded them on every side, their peaks shrouded in low white clouds, their flanks black with trees. Johnny recognized the nearest trees from home. They were mainly spruce, cedar and pine—dark evergreens emerging from knee-high snow.

"Maybe there isn't any Door," Brendan said, picking up Johnny's thoughts. "Maybe we're back in the Real World, and we just have to head south to get home."

"I'm not sure elephants live this far north in the Real World," Claire said.

"Elephants?" Rosa laughed—just as a trumpet sounded behind them. Startled, Johnny turned to see a great beast lowering her trunk. Her family swayed at the edge of the clearing, three big females and a baby. Except they weren't elephants. They were wooly mammoths, their fur not as silky as the beast they'd met in the Sentinel's realm, but hanging down in dirty, gnarled, brownish-grey clumps.

"I knew it! We're in the Ice Age!" Johnny said.

"Maybe they could give us a lift uphill," Brendan said, "so we could see the Door." He walked towards the mammoths, concentrating hard so they could talk. As he got close, the elders swayed their trunks angrily, trumpeting and pushing their baby behind them. Johnny didn't like the nasty points of their tusks.

"Careful," he called.

Too late. The biggest mammoth dashed forward, running straight into his brother and trampling over him. Brendan was left lying on the snow as the mammoth stood above him, trumpeting scornfully before turning and leading her family away.

As soon as they could, Johnny and the girls ran over. Brendan wasn't moving!

Yes, he was. Slowly, Brendan lifted himself onto his knees and shook his head.

"You all right?" Johnny asked.

Brendan kept shaking his head. "Winded," he said.

"Jeez," Claire said, looking at his face. "You're all bruised."

"I'm okay," Brendan said, standing up slowly. "Considering. I guess I would have been killed at home."

The others went very quiet at the idea, and Johnny didn't like the way things looked. This level was almost real. They could get hungry, cold and bruised, and they didn't know where the Door was. The Shadow didn't need to use his powers against them. They were already halfway beaten.

Johnny gave himself a shake. He couldn't think like that. One more level and he'd fix things for everyone, getting them home.

"We need a plan," he said. "Starting with how to find the door."

"Maybe I can help."

The man's voice startled them, and they spun around.

Salomon stepped out, dressed in furs.
Salomon and the Star

Johnny couldn't have felt more relieved. Salomon's golden eyes glowed out of a fur-lined hood, and his winter clothes were heavily beaded. He carried a pack, and looked as if he'd always lived here. Slinging down the pack, Salomon took Brendan's head between his broad hands and looked him over. The bruises were already disappearing.

"You need to learn to play it safe here," he said, patting Brendan's cheek.

"Me?" Brendan said. "Play it safe?"

As Salomon raised his eyebrow, Claire asked, "How did you find us? Was it Johnny's pouch?"

"You've made some discoveries," Salomon said, smiling at her.

"We can get hungry, too," Claire said. "And we can't see the Door."

"It lies to the north," Salomon said. "We'll be tracking the North Star."

"We?" Johnny asked. When Salomon nodded, he felt deeply relieved.

"I'll teach you the skies tonight," he said. "If we keep hiking north, we'll reach a lake that never freezes. The Door is in the mountain on the other side of the lake."

"Couldn't the Sentinel put one of the Doors on the ground for a change?" Brendan asked. "Or maybe in a shopping mall?"

Salomon smiled. "I might be called away," he said, "so you'll have to remember your directions."

"You just got here!" Johnny blurted. He paused, realizing that he didn't sound much like a leader. "But you might be called away," he said casually.

"I might," Salomon agreed. "It's a long trek to the Door, and it won't be easy. You know your opponent will be strong. And none of the animals here like people."

"I was wondering if people live in this world," Johnny said. "And they're hunters."

"You might meet some of them," Salomon replied. "But now we need to get going. We should cover some ground before it gets dark."

With Salomon in the lead, they walked off into the Ice Age landscape, heading toward a mountain pass they could just make out at the top of the valley. The Herder chose a direct route toward it, so they crossed and re-crossed a frozen river that wound around the valley floor like a lazy snake.

One thing surprised Johnny. There wasn't much snow. Usually Salomon led them along animal paths, where the snow had been packed down hard. But when they left the paths, the snow was seldom more than knee high, and the ground was often bare. Johnny wondered if there wasn't much rain in the summer, either—whatever kind of summer they had here. This seemed to be a dry, hard, rocky place, not like home at all.

Around noon, they saw another family of mammoths in the distance. Johnny knew from Terpsy's library that they might meet cave bears standing nine feet tall, and wooly rhinos and musk oxen, all of them far more dangerous than a band of traveling children with only Salomon and their tokens to protect them.

"This is fun," Rosa said, as they headed uphill toward the mountain pass. "Look at that glacier! It's so beautiful and clean."

"Empty," Claire said briefly. "I'm not sure what you're supposed to like here."

"The view?" Rosa asked, turning around as they reached the base of the glacier. The sun broke through, and they watched beams of sunlight run along the valley below them, lighting bands of trees and glaciers so they shone like steel and cream. A herd of caribou ran over the plain, their antlers proud.

"Plus there's no sign of you-know-who," Brendan said.

"Actually..." Rosa said. She nodded at a rabbit grooming its whiskers. As if it heard her—or Someone did—the rabbit looked up. Its eyes grew huge and red, burning like lava, before it snarled and bounded away.

"Are those things spying on us?" Brendan asked.

"We might camp here," the Herder replied mildly. "It's going to get dark soon."

"But the Shadow's watching us, right?" Claire insisted.

"I think you know the answer to many of your questions," Salomon said. "But it's good to hear voices in the emptiness, I think."

It's nice to hear answers sometimes, too, Brendan muttered, and Claire quietly agreed. Johnny was embarrassed at their rudeness, but felt Salomon's hand in his mind, stopping him from speaking.

"I'm going to go fish for some dinner," the Herder said. "I won't be long."

"You don't think Johnny's got enough fruit?" Claire asked. "Which is another question I know the answer to. So you want me to get a fire ready?"

But Salomon was already gone.

After Johnny put up the tent, he left the Company searching for firewood. Walking back down the mountain, he found Salomon crouched on the frozen river. The Herder had cut through a foot of ice, and had already caught two fat trout that lay in a hollow of snow. He was pulling up another when Johnny walked up.

"I think I should apologize," he told the Herder. "I'm pretty sure you had to come into the Game after giving me the pouch."

Salomon shot Johnny a quick glance as he hiked his pack onto his shoulder.

"I didn't ask the question since I knew the answer," Johnny went on. "I figure that if someone in the Sentinel's realm gives magic to a member of the Company, they have to drop into the Game. I figure that's how Mister Kitchen got here, too. He didn't exactly specify how he got called in."

"Don't worry. I'm happy to be here," Salomon said.

"But Rosa said something about Mister Kitchen being trapped here, even though the guy he helped had won the Game, and got out into the Real World."

"How is Kahchen?" Salomon asked. Johnny was surprised to hear the Herder's real name. But he refused to be shuffled off and waited stubbornly. Salomon sighed.

"The child Kahchen helped used his token to call another creature out of the Sentinel's realm. The child won and left. The other creature went back to the Sentinel, but only one can go back, and Kahchen couldn't. And he can't, I'm afraid, unless some very special things happen."

So Mister Kitchen—Kahchen—really was trapped. And Salomon would be trapped if Johnny called another creature, too.

"Don't worry," he said. "I won't call out anybody else."

You'll do whatever you need to do to win.

Salomon's words rang in Johnny's mind like the clang of a deep bell.

"Just to underline my point," he added mildly.

"The thing about Kahchen," Johnny began. He stopped, unable to go on, and felt Salomon pull the words out of his mind. Sad clown. Eccentric. You can trust him but you can't count on him.

This time, Salomon's sigh was as huge as the sky.

"I've been thinking," Johnny said, "about Kahchen and Joe. How Joe faded, and how Kahchen is the reverse. Kahchen is trapped, and maybe he's been trapped in the Game too long. Maybe that's why he's getting a little..."

Johnny paused, not wanting to say it.

"Go on," Salomon said.

"I've been wondering whether the point of fading—or dying—is that it's not good to stay anywhere for too long. If you do, you can feel trapped in the Game, or in the Sentinel's realm, or if you're old and sick, maybe even in the Real World. It could be happy, that you end up going somewhere else. I mean, at the end of a long life. Even if my mother's right, and Rosa's right, and 'somewhere else' is nowhere at all."

You've been thinking hard, Salomon said.

"When I was a little kid, and first realized that people die, that one day I'm going to die, I was really scared," Johnny said. "Thinking about all this," he added, and paused, "I still am."

"I hope you don't think I have any answers," Salomon said, picking up the fish. "But it's something people need to start thinking about at your age, so they can decide how they're going to live their lives. Maybe that's the most important thing.

"Come on," he added. "Let's get dinner."
The Light Storm

After they'd eaten, Salomon left camp to scout ahead, and the Company bedded down in their tent, with Johnny deciding to forget his worries for now. The tent had set itself up at the edge of the glacier, where it looked like an iceberg on a snowy sea. Johnny thought it would be cold inside, but it was as warm as a summer evening. The walls glowed with a silvery light, and the snow under the floor felt as soft as a mattress.

"I'm going to sleep really well tonight," Brendan said. Taking off his winter clothes, he found striped long johns underneath.

"It feels safe in here," Rosa said, pulling off her boots. Johnny watched her wiggle her toes. He found himself watching her a lot lately, she looked so happy. Johnny thought the Game was good for Rosa, and hoped she thought the same about him.

After the Company was all in their long johns, the silver light faded and they drifted off to sleep. All except Johnny, who lay wide awake and thinking. Salomon had pointed out the North Star over dinner, just off the handle of the Little Dipper. But Johnny wasn't sure he could find it on his own, and decided to take another look.

After getting dressed, he slipped quietly outside, expecting to see stars and the deep black sky. Instead, he found the Northern Lights—a great cloth of illumination rippling over the sky, waves of green and white and red that folded back on themselves like satin. It couldn't have been more beautiful. Watching the show, Johnny drifted onto the edge of the glacier, where a tongue of ice flowed down to the snowy ground. Black humps of boulders bulged out of the glacier, and he leaned against the nearest one, listening to the lights buzz and crackle.

Suddenly, a whip of light snapped toward the earth like lightning. Johnny had never seen that happen before. It was like a shooting star that carried its trail down with it. Soon another bolt whipped down, cracking the earth.

A red bolt. The Shadow!

Johnny ran for the tent as fast as he could. Another light whipped out of the sky, slapping the ice in his path.

"What's going on?" Brendan called, sticking his head out the tent flap.

"Guess!" Johnny yelled. Another bolt exploded just above his head.

Brendan leapt out of the tent in his long johns, racing to grab Johnny. A shaft of light whacked the ground in front of him, shattering the ice. Brendan reeled as if he'd got an electric shock, and Claire ran out to yank him back into the tent.

"We've got to fight from here," she yelled to Johnny. "We're protected inside. Can you get back?"

Johnny braced himself to run for it. But before he could push off, the Shadow rained bolts down between him and the tent. Shock waves forced him to stagger back toward the glacier, and he had to take shelter behind a boulder as Claire pulled out her token. Using the tent's silvery light, she focused a beam on a snapping red whip.

An explosion! Johnny whooped to see the whip splintered into embers. Another.

"I'll get the pebbles!" he yelled, just as a whip cracked his boulder, splitting it in half. Slivers of rock flew into the air. Johnny crouched and ran, throwing himself into an ice cave at the edge of the glacier. When he looked out, he saw Claire shatter another bolt of red lightning. Throwing out a pebble, he caught another in one of the shining, slicing boomerangs, the light splintering apart. Behind Claire, he saw Brendan lift his token.

Come! Brendan called.

Claire broke a sheet of whipping light just as a bird's hoarse cry sounded above. Looking up, Johnny saw a gigantic eagle soaring between whips of northern lights, banking and veering like a skater twirling on three-dimensional ice.

"I called up the King of the Eagles!" Brendan cried.

Johnny heard the rhythmic flap of wings above the zapping, zipping lights. The eagle descended, his talons reaching to seize Johnny from the ice cave.

Just as the talons brushed Johnny's shoulders, a huge red whip cracked toward the eagle, forcing him to bank aside. He flapped his wings so hard, the air pushed Johnny back into the shallow cave. The bird swooped down the mountain and banked up again, high into the sky. A bolt hit just behind him, singeing his feathers. The evil lights laughed like plastic cracking, throwing up fireworks in celebration.

Taking advantage of the lull, Johnny threw out an exploding pebble, then ran out of his cave and crouched behind a rocky outcrop. The bird was coming in again, and Johnny got ready to jump for its talons, bending his knees—just as two shafts of light hit the eagle head on.

The giant bird vaporized, exploded into a eagle-shaped cloud that stretched its wings across the night. Johnny watched in wonder as the cloud bird flapped once, twice, three times, then soared off into the Milky Way.

"Watch out!" Claire yelled.

A whip smacked the rocks beside Johnny, lighting them up like meteors. He tried to run away, but found himself yanked back. The boulder had turned into a magnet and was trying to grab his pouch from his hand Gathering all his strength, Johnny broke free of the magnet and ran toward the tent...

...just as a lightning bolt struck the ground in front of him. Another hit behind him. Another hit the right side, then the left. The Shadow was mocking him. He threw bolts into the ground on every side of Johnny like the bars of a neon prison. The lights pulled harder at Johnny's pouch. He had to throw all his strength into holding onto it.

Suddenly, a bolt exploded just above Johnny's head. He felt an electric charge run down his arm. His hand leapt off the pouch—and the fruit and pebbles tumbled out of it, crackling and burning like firecrackers as they hit the ground. Johnny was able to snatch the pouch, but everything in it was gone.

"We've got to do something!" Claire cried.

As the bolts zinged closer, Johnny threw out a desperate thought. Catching it, Rosa nodded. She held up her token and whispered, "Grow!"

The ice crystals at Johnny's feet exploded in a flash of white. They multiplied, growing wide and thick and tall, tumbling all over themselves to build an igloo around Johnny. By the time the next bolt hit, he was standing inside an ice house as thick and clear as diamonds—and every bit as strong. The bolt snapped off his igloo and bounced away. Another bounced off. Another and another. Bolts of every colour zapped out of the sky, but none could break the igloo. Johnny had guessed right. The Shadow's evil power couldn't touch a shelter made from the Sentinel's magic.

The Shadow screeched in anger, brassy static scratching the night.

"He's going to figure out something!" Brendan called. "You need to get back to the tent!"

"No!" Johnny told him. "I can wait it out. He'll run out of power."

He hunkered down as the Shadow threw bolt after bolt at the igloo, so the night was lit like Roman candles. Cold ones. Mean ones. This was what evil looked like, Johnny figured. The lights turned jagged as rusty knives, powering down hard as they tried to beat a hole in Johnny's safety.

"We've got to do something!" Brendan insisted, raising his token. "That's my brother out there."

Suddenly, Salomon ran out of the darkness, uncoiling the whip tied to his pack. Snapping it into the air, Salomon caught a finger of light and tore it from the sky. It fell to the earth, where it sputtered back to darkness.

The Company cheered. Snapping his whip a second time, Salomon tore down a whole sheet of pulsing light, ripping it from the sky and heaving it onto the glacier, where broke into a million pieces. Darting out of his igloo, Johnny scooped up some of the embers and threw them into his pouch.

As he did, Salomon snapped his whip a final time, and wrenched the last of the Northern Lights from the sky. There was a scream like overheated machinery, like gears grinding and metal tearing itself to shreds. Afterwards came quiet and a sense of peace.

Inside the tent, Johnny got undressed again while Salomon took off his outer clothes. Underneath, the Herder wore the woven garments they'd grown used to in the Sentinel's realm. The hair on his arms and feet was still braided with bells that tinkled faintly as he moved, making a sound like a breeze touching leaves. Yet something in his golden eyes had changed. Johnny thought they seemed deeper. All of Salomon did. It was as if before, back in the Sentinel's realm, he'd been too smooth and shiny, a colour picture of himself. Now he looked tied to the earth, rougher and more real.

"Thanks," Johnny told the Herder. "We might not have gotten out of that."

"You did get out of it," Salomon said, putting a friendly arm around Johnny. "You held him off. I just ended it sooner. Good job, all of you. Good job, Rosa."

"Yeah, thanks," Johnny told Rosa, hearing his voice sound creaky. Johnny cleared his throat. "By the way. My weakness? One of them is curiosity, I guess. I mean, if it's a weakness. But it killed the cat?"

Johnny heard himself going on too long, and Rosa looked away as she nodded, then both of them blushed. For an instant, Johnny thought he heard Brendan start to say something rude in his head. Then Salomon clapped the words away.

Johnny was so grateful that he briefly leaned against the Herder. The braided hair on Salomon's arm felt soft, and the muscles were strong behind it. Johnny felt as protected as anyone could be, even after Salomon got up to set his pack by the door.

"Bedtime," he said, and the lights dimmed obediently. In the darkness, Johnny saw the Herder lie down with his head on his pack, blocking the door. The night felt perfect. Just one slight problem.

Salomon snored.
The Pride of Horses

The next morning, the Company ate a stewed hare that Salomon had trapped for breakfast. Stew for breakfast? Johnny overheard Brendan grumbling, but the fruit was gone. Life was going to be harder here, Johnny could see. Even the tent wouldn't pack itself up. He had to get help from the others to fold it.

"The fabric feels nice and smooth," Rosa said. "It warms up my hands."

Your hands, maybe. Brendan grumbled. He didn't bother guarding his thoughts, especially once Salomon left to scout ahead. More hiking. No fruit. You get tired...

"Come on," Claire told him. "There has to be something good about it."

Turning to Johnny, Brendan asked, "I don't supposed there are horses in the Ice Age."

"Sure," Johnny said. "But I don't know how far north they lived. I mean, live."

Brendan dropped his corner of the tent and walked away, puckering up his lips in his expression of deep thought before turning his back.

"Brendan, what are you doing?" Claire asked.

Suddenly, there was a clatter of hooves in the distance. Looking down into the valley, Johnny saw horses racing toward them. They were big muscular horses all the colours of honey: golden and buckwheat and clover. Five of them thundered up to the Company, then circled around them and snorted, breathing out clouds of sweet hay breath. They were saddled in leather, ready to ride.

"It's not going to make us too popular if you've called some horses away from their owners," Johnny said, putting the tent in his pouch.

The biggest horse whinnied as if in answer, a golden Palomino with a big scar across his shoulder. He looked stronger and older than the others, with white hairs on his muzzle. Brendan held up his token to try to communicate, but he couldn't get through.

"He says his name is Old Shoulders and they own themselves," Salomon said, coming around a boulder. "But they're happy to give us a ride."

Old Shoulders nuzzled Salomon, choosing him as his rider. Other horses approached the members of the Company, including a russet-coloured stallion who picked Claire. Of course he did. They were both red-heads.

"Good idea, Brendan," Salomon said. "Our friends will get us to the Door much more quickly."

Throwing Johnny a look, Brendan jumped up on his mare. When the others were in the saddle, Old Shoulders led them onto the glacier. Another long day's journey began.

Their route that morning lay over the ice-covered pass, where the horses' hooves clacked on the glacier. Salomon called this pass the watershed. The frozen river they'd crossed yesterday flowed south. But on the other side, they'd meet a new river that flowed north. It would eventually reach the lake that never froze, with the Door behind it.

The wind was bitter as they rode across the glacier, and everyone disappeared into their hooded parkas. Old Shoulders led them in single file between crevasses, where the ice opened into blue canyons. Johnny looked down into one toothed crevasse, and looked up again quickly. Halfway across, the Herder led them onto an ice bridge that looked as it had been engineered over a chasm. As he rode across it, Johnny seemed to see it all from a distance: the arching bridge with a line of honey-coloured horses filing across.

Soon afterwards, they started downhill again, following a track leading off the glacier into a ravine where two rounded mountains met. Salomon said the northward river began in the ravine. Johnny couldn't see it under all the ice and snow, but he could sense something moving nearby. The cold seemed to sharpen his instincts like icicles.

As they rode on, Johnny understood that he didn't just sense water. Something else was flowing alongside them. He could almost hear a buzz of danger, and wondered if the Shadow had sent more spies. Johnny kept his eyes sharp as the horses picked a path down the slope beside a waterfall, where water broke through with a frigid roar.

Finally he saw it: a streak of dirty white between the trees. They were clattering down into a valley, where dark spruce huddled together like friends. The long pale streak moved silently past them, then slipped into the forest and disappeared.

Johnny was wondering whether to mention it when a herd of huge elk broke cover just ahead of them, their antlers dusty with snow.

"Dinner!" Brendan said. "Let's go hunting."

"Sir River will give us some fish for dinner," Salomon said. "You're not here for very long. We shouldn't take more than we need."

"But I want to learn to hunt," Brendan said. "You told us you might go away."

"I can burn a fishing hole in the ice," Claire said. "We're not going to starve."

Brendan grumbled more quietly, and Johnny turned to Salomon, trying to focus his thoughts on one person the way Kahchen did.

That cave lion looks like it's starving, he said. The white one that's stalking us.

Salomon gave Johnny a keen glance. There are too many of us to attack when we're together, he said.

Can we get badly injured here? Johnny asked. Each level is harsher than the last one. I know we can't die, since I guess we already have. But I don't want to get mauled by a lion.

Now she's seen the elk, I'm pretty sure she'll find other prey, Salomon replied.

That wasn't exactly reassuring, but Johnny decided to take what he could get. As they rode on, he kept glimpsing the white blur flitting from tree to tree, and slipped out his token for a closer look. Her eyes weren't red. She wasn't a Shadow creature. But she was hunting the Company, skulking and waiting for her chance. Johnny remembered hearing once that if an animal ate human beings, she got a taste for them. For us, Johnny thought, shivering.

"You can't be cold," said Rosa, riding alongside. "We're all bundled up."

Johnny tried to bury all thought of the lion. "You're really having a great time, aren't you?" he asked.

"I missed winter," Rosa said. "I haven't helped much, but I'm the one who likes it best—at this level, anyhow. Joe would have liked it, too. He liked things being clean and bright. He was a tidy person."

Johnny felt happy they were talking, and was about to remind her about her victory with the igloo. Then Salomon stopped and called Johnny to his side. Riding forward, Johnny was surprised to catch an unguarded thought in Salomon's mind.

People, he thought warily.
Kerid's Clan

"People?" Johnny asked. "Is that good or bad?"

"Yes," Salomon answered. He dropped back and pulled his hood over his face, telling Johnny to lead the Company forward.

Puzzled, Johnny pulled out his token. Up ahead and to their right, he could see people lying on a low outcrop of rock, hiding behind a stand of trees. Some had bows and arrows, some carried spears. Johnny spotted children huddling behind them. He led the Company forward, keeping away from the outcrop. As they drew level, a man walked out of the trees, dressed in furs. He held up both hands to show he didn't carry a weapon.

"You're a small party to wander alone." He craned his neck at the horses. "And you use animals!"

Johnny held up his hands peacefully as he rode closer. "We're happy to talk with you," he said. "But only if your people put away their weapons."

Without turning, the man gestured behind him. Slowly, a few men walked out of the forest and piled their spears by the trees.

"All of them," Johnny said.

After thinking for a moment, the man turned and called to his people. They filtered slowly out of the trees, dressed in furs and trousers and woven blankets. The men with weapons dropped them in the pile. Some stayed close to guard it. Still holding up his hands, Johnny rode closer. On his horse, he was face to face with the tall leader standing on the outcrop.

The man was human, and the fringed animal cloak draped over his shoulders said he was important. He wore a bright turquoise stone on a strip of leather around his neck, and had a short beard and long dark hair. His eyes were blue—he was no friend of the Shadow—although when Johnny tried to exchange thoughts with him, he failed. Johnny didn't think the man was being unfriendly. He just couldn't talk that way, the way some people couldn't talk at all, and Johnny was forced to talk out loud.

"I'm happy to meet you," he said.

"Are you little people or children?" the man asked.

"I'm Johnny Bey." Johnny held out his hand, but the man didn't seem to know how to shake it.

Hoof beats clattered behind him. Brendan rode up, all grins. He took Johnny's hand and shook it in an exaggerated way to show the man what you did. "I'm his brother, Brendan," he said. "His older brother. Even though he likes to forget that."

The man shook Brendan's hand, then Johnny's, looking both amused and at sea. "I'm Kerid," he said, and pointed at a woman standing at the far edge of the outcrop, her hand on a boy's shoulder. "And that's my older sister and her son, my nephew."

Kerid's sister tried to draw her son closer. The boy broke away and went to stand alone at the edge of the outcrop, where he could get a clear view of the Company.

"What takes you north at this time of year?" Kerid asked.

"We're going home," Johnny replied. Kerid's people murmured as if they didn't like Johnny's answer. "What about you?" he asked.

"The hunting grounds to the south have grown so crowded," Kerid began, then stopped, looking into the distance. "We didn't think there were people further north. We'd hoped to find new hunting grounds. But you say it's your home."

We can't change pre-history, Claire said. If that's what this is. She rode forward with her hands raised peacefully. "There's no problem," she told Kerid. "We don't hunt."

His people murmured again, even more astonished.

"What do you eat?" a woman called.

Suddenly a white streak of muscle leapt out of the trees and grabbed Kerid's nephew by the arm. The cave lion! Kerid's nephew yelled in shock. His mother screamed, and fighters ran for their weapons. The lion tossed her huge head, shaking the child like a toy. The Company couldn't die in here, but he could.

"I've got her!" Claire cried. Raising her token, she shot a bolt of light at the lion. A direct hit. The lion dropped the boy and roared, her coat smoking at the shoulder. She was injured, and stalked in hurt circles. Kerid's clan shouted in confusion. The lion roared furiously—then turned back to the boy.

The eyes, Claire told herself. She aimed a second beam at the lion's head. Another hit! A streak of red ran across her huge skull. Claire had taken off an ear. Shaking her head in terror, the lion roared a final time and bounded off into the forest.

A still second passed. Kerid's clan were in shock. They stared at the Company, and parents drew their children closer.

Coming to herself, the boy's mother cried out shrilly and ran back to her son. "His arm!" she called urgently.

With a rattle of hoofs, Salomon rode forward. He dropped his hood so the clan could see him. "I can help the child," he called.

"It can speak!" a woman called.

It?

To Johnny's surprise, a fighter shot a warning arrow over Salomon's head. Two others followed, their arrows humming over the snow like sawflies.

"Halt!" Kerid cried. Reluctantly, the fighters lowered their bows.

"Thank you," Salomon said. "The wound needs treatment."

"We know," Kerid answered, holding Salomon's eyes.

"Who are these travelers?" a man called. "Magicians!"

"They're children, and they're going home, and I'm helping them," Salomon said. "I can help the boy, too."

After another long pause, Kerid nodded in agreement, and Salomon got down from his horse. As he did, a girl darted forward and threw a rock at him.

Let's go, Johnny told the Company, jumping off his horse.

You don't think we'll make it worse? Claire asked.

They don't trust us, Johnny said. Let's trust them.

He walked up to Kerid, feeling very young as he looked up at the tall man, whose cheek was thickly scarred. Kerid looked down, his expression grave. Johnny gave him a nod, then followed Salomon over to the injured child, his Company coming after him.

Kerid's sister had already taken off her son's parka. He lay in her lap, a brown-eyed boy of about six years old with a badly slashed and bleeding arm. He was pale and shaking, although he didn't make a sound. Johnny felt sick to see him. It was one thing to kill off Shadow opponents by vaporizing them. It was something else entirely to see a little boy suffering. Johnny felt the horror of real pain and death and war. Rosa! he thought. It was a relief when Salomon unwrapped some cloth from around a clamshell.

"It would help if someone got water," Salomon said.

"We don't need your help," the boy's mother told him harshly.

"Sister," Kerid warned, coming over. The woman lowered her head unhappily.

Soon a girl knelt down and held out a gourd filled with water. She was quiet as the boy, her brown eyes just as wide with shock and wonder. Salomon bathed the deep gashes on the boy's arm, then put on some ointment from his shell. The wound stopped bleeding at the touch of Salomon's hands.

"He's lucky it wasn't broken," Salomon said. "The wound will heal quickly now, with this medicine."

"Poison," the boy's mother muttered.

"I'm going to bind it," Salomon went on, "but every day you should..."

"Wait," Rosa said.

There's no need, Salomon began.

But Rosa was already murmuring to her token. Grow together, she said.

As the clan watched in astonishment, the gashes on the boy's arm closed and healed. Afterward, you couldn't tell that anything had ever happened. The boy looked both astounded and shy, blushing at all the attention Then he gathered his courage.

"I'm Artan," he told Rosa.

"Don't give them your name," his mother cried, pulling his face to her shoulder. "They're magicians!"

"Magicians!" the clan echoed, voices clashing together. "Wizards. Grab them! Kill them!"

The people started moving in on the Company. Johnny felt trapped, and saw a man raise his spear.

"Halt!" Kerid cried again. He seemed taller as he faced his terrified people. "They saved the boy. They didn't have to. They behaved like friends."

"To trick us!" his sister cried, standing just as tall, Artan still held in her arms.

Gathering his courage, Johnny stepped between them. "No," he said. "You called us when we were riding by. We answered. We're just trying to get home. But when Artan got injured, we had to help. That's who were are, and who Salomon is."

"And that's who we should be," Kerid said, staring down his sister. Artan kicked free, forcing her to let him stand on his own. Around them, the clan stepped back, glancing at each other. The angry man lowered his spear.

"We'll be going now," Salomon said.

"Peace be with you," Kerid replied. "I can't imagine you'll need our help. But if you do, I hope we can provide it."

Nodding his thanks, Salomon led the children back to their horses. Artan went to stand by Kerid at the edge of the outcrop. Both raised their arms in farewell as the Company rode away.

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Johnny spent the ride trying to forget about the way Artan's injured arm had looked, and thinking over what he'd read about the Ice Age. Old Terpsy had books in the library saying that Neanderthals had lived in Europe when it was all ice. Fossils showed they had bigger brains than modern people and were shorter and wider, the way Salomon was. Archeologists hadn't found many of their tools, but the ones they'd found were simple.

Modern people like Kerid's clan had walked out of the south, out of Africa. Neanderthals had disappeared after the moderns reached Europe. Scientists had found some DNA evidence that a few Neanderthals and moderns had lived together and had children, but in the end they seemed to have fought, and the Neanderthals had lost.

Watching Salomon ride Old Shoulders, Johnny thought he maybe wanted to be an archeologist when he grew up. That meant he wanted to grow up, didn't it? Which meant leaving Mizzenglass. Watching his brother fool around—spurring his horse, then pulling back the reins to make the dapple dance—Johnny wondered whether Brendan would ever get over being a kid, and what that said about his chances of making it through the Game.
Eloya dú Moronoway

That evening, as Salomon went off fishing, the Company set up camp in a bitter, skittering wind. At least, they tried to. The tent wasn't cooperating the way it used to. Instead of flying out of Johnny's pouch, it just lolled onto the ground like a sick dog's tongue. Johnny had to unfold piece by piece, and as the wind gusted, loose fabric wrapped itself around him like seaweed.

"Need some help?" Rosa asked, not nearly as shy as she used to be.

"Thanks," Johnny said, giving her an admiring smile. Each member of the Company took a corner of the tent. On a count of three, they pulled hard on the corners to snap it square. As they did, the tent woke up. Flying out of their hands, it puffed into shape and settled back on the ground, its white flag crackling in the breeze.

"It's gotten smaller," Rosa said, standing back for a look.

"The magic's draining out of things," Brendan said.

"The horses are magic," Johnny pointed out. "They don't eat. And what about their saddles? Kerid's people didn't make them. They didn't even know you could ride."

"You don't figure they're from the Sentinel's realm?" Claire asked nervously. "He didn't use up his token?"

"Of course not," Brendan said. "I called specifically for some magic horses. And look." He lifted his token and mumbled, so a small white owl flew out of the woods.

"Who, who, who?" it hooted.

"Me, me, me," Brendan said, doing a little dance. "I'm pretty cool."

Claire was so relieved she broke out laughing. She and Brendan chased the owl through the clearing, who-who-whooing as they ran. Johnny wasn't sure he liked them ganging up on him, but he was glad they were finally getting along. They kept chasing as the owl dipped and banked around the trees—and settled onto Salomon's shoulder.

The Herder was returning with two fish in his hand. Small ones, Johnny saw, his stomach rumbling. The wide-eyed owl blinked down at the fish, but with a gentle shrug of his shoulder, Salomon sent it to sleep.

As he did, a small woman slipped out between the trees, her golden eyes picking up the light of Claire's fire. She was a Neanderthal woman, a Herder dressed in woven furs, her hair braided with stones and seashells.

"This is a friend of mine," Salomon, as the woman came to stand beside him. "You can call her Eloya."

Eloya smiled and bowed, and the Company bowed back. In a sling across her chest, she carried a newborn baby. Rosa was the first to walk over, smiling and touching the baby's hair.

"Eloya stayed behind to have her baby while her people moved on," Salomon said. "Now she has to catch up so her baby can be named. I'll take her in the morning."

Johnny had to fight down worry at the idea of Salomon leaving. He felt the others fretting too, and Eloya must have picked that up. With an apologetic bow, she turned to leave. Salomon touched her arm to stop her.

"I won't be gone for long," he said. "Old Shoulders will keep you on course."

Brendan was still grumbling inside, but Rosa stepped in.

"Such a beautiful baby," she told Eloya. "Boy or girl?"

She's the last of us there'll ever be, Eloya said, her voice like sad music in their heads. She was telepathic! When Kerid's people weren't. Johnny looked into Eloya's golden eyes. They felt as rich as temples, and Johnny found himself drawn inside.

Suddenly, he was flying. The mountains below him were so sharp and clear they looked like polished horns, and the sky glowed like wet pebbles, and the sea tossed green waves onto an icy shore, and the ice shone from within. Johnny saw the world through golden eyes—until Eloya closed her mind, and he fell to earth, shut out.

Johnny shook his head to clear it. Looking around, he saw that he'd lost track of time. Salomon was already lifting two cooked fish off the fire and laying them on a warm slab of rock. The Company sat waiting to eat. Eloya looked different as she stood behind Salomon, somehow taller. She gave Johnny a smile.

The world must like being seen that way, he said.

Before Eloya could answer, Brendan's grumbling filled their heads. Not enough for everyone...need to hunt...

Looking exasperated, Rosa held her token to her mouth. Grow! she commanded.

The fish on the stone blasted as big as two great salmon. Brendan's eyes bulged. Now there was more than enough for everyone.

Eloya laughed, a sound like water chattering down a brook. She reached into her pack and threw some ginger-coloured berries onto the fish. They doubled and tripled, foaming over the fish to make a sauce that smelled as sweet as spring.

Her gold eyes glittering now, Eloya reached into her pack for mussel shells to use as spoons, giving one to each member of the Company. Salomon never ate, but this time he snuck a finger into the berries and licked it, looking naughty. Afterwards, he sang a song in a language Johnny didn't know, although he found he understood it.

Manohím moronoway   
Ansha'allway sunhím  
Korohím udonalay  
Kumway dú watuním  
Mallah dú himraïe  
Mallálah dú washtúna

Salomon was singing about a time long ago—moronoway—when all the people of the known world had golden eyes. There was magic and surprise, and every day the sun would rise on rivers that would harmonize with waking dreams and children's cries until the sky would blossom.

It was a long song and they ate their dinner quietly as they listened, until finally they were full of food and music, and Salomon fell silent.

"Maybe Eloya would like to sing?" Rosa asked.

Salomon shook his head. "Her words are too powerful for you to hear."

Words can be as powerful as hunger, Rosa said, half to herself, and Eloya gave her a long, deep look that Johnny suspected took her flying.

Brendan was the last one to finish eating, making such a mess that he had to scrub his face afterwards with snow. "That was great," he said. "How come you didn't make the food grow before? I could have used more stew yesterday."

Rosa didn't seem to hear him until Johnny cleared his throat. "Oh," she said, looking distracted. "Because I didn't want to use up my token."

"Use it up?" Claire said. "You didn't call out any help."

Rosa looked as if she wanted to take back what she'd said, but the rest of them stared until she went on. "You didn't notice how your token gets weaker every time you use it?" she asked. "Like when Brendan called up the eagle. It couldn't get past the Northern Lights to save Johnny."

Claire thought for a minute. "And I only hurt the cave lion. I didn't vaporize it," she agreed. "I didn't see that one coming."

"I said that," Brendan put in. "I said I thought my token had to save up power like the Shadow. And the horses," he added. "I wanted to be able to control them, but they control themselves. And they only talk to Salomon."

They all looked at Salomon. The owl's eyes were open now, and he joined the Herder in looking back. Salomon only smiled.

"Time for bed," he told them, dousing the fire with handfuls of snow. The owl blinked his eyes, then hopped down to take a leftover piece of fish before it flew away.

The next morning, Salomon saddled up Johnny's horse, leaving him with Old Shoulders. He and Eloya paused for a minute before heading off on the buckwheat's back. Eloya's baby hadn't made a sound all night, but looked out at the Company with bright golden eyes.

"Remember—straight north," Salomon said. "I'll find you at sunset."

He shook the reins, and the horse broke into a trot. Eloya looked back, nodding at each of member of the Company in farewell.

Isn't it time you found out what your token really does? she asked Brendan.

Then she and Salomon rode out of sight.
Flight of the Storm Horses

After Salomon left, the Company rode north, trotting through the valley with mountains glooming on both sides. As they rode, Brendan fretted about what Eloya had said. "What did she mean, what my token really does?" he asked.

"I wouldn't try testing it," Claire said. "If that's another way to use it up."

Brendan turned to Rosa. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"I wasn't sure you'd believe it without seeing it," she said. "What do I know?"

She knew a lot, and Johnny really liked that about her. He liked Rosa more and more, and was trying to get up the nerve to tell her so when Claire pointed.

"Look!"

Black clouds boiled over the glacier at the head of the valley. They looked like smoke rushing from a house fire, tumbling all over each other in their hurry to escape.

"The Shadow isn't going to waste any time with Salomon gone," Brendan said.

"You sure that isn't just bad weather?" Claire asked.

The horses whinnied as the clouds blew closer, stopping and stamping their feet. Old Shoulders let out an impatient snort, trying to keep them together. But the horses' eyes rolled with terror as the clouds boiled across the sky, blotting out the sun.

"Really bad weather?" Claire asked.

Suddenly, a herd of winged horses broke out of the clouds, black storm horses made of smoke that rushed from the sky like runaway trains, their red eyes glaring.

"Watch out!" Johnny yelled.

A storm horse reared in front of Rosa, its black wings beating the air as it kicked her mount. Its legs went through them, but Rosa's horse was so terrified he reared up and threw her. Rosa landed hard, crying out in pain, although she managed to roll to safety.

Another storm horse swooped down on Brendan, whose skittish mount screamed. Old Shoulders ran beside him, trying to calm him down, but the dapple threw Brendan just as quickly. He landed on sharp some river rocks. His thick snow clothes protected him, but he seemed dazed.

Johnny raced over, leaping off Old Shoulders and grabbing his brother, pulling him behind the snow drift with Rosa. The storm horses shrieked above, their cries as sharp as knives. Brendan and Rosa's frenzied stallions galloped away south. Claire was the only rider left on her mount, and she was in trouble. The storm horses turned on her, trying to spook her russet stallion. They beat their wings and raised a wind that blew the stallion's mane in his eyes, blinding him and making him kick in panic.

Claire wouldn't let go. They can't touch us. They can only scare us, she tried to tell her horse. Hold steady!

Old Shoulders whinnied beside them, trying just as hard to calm Claire's mount. Johnny shivered. The storm horses beat their wings harder, blowing the wind colder. It blew into a snowstorm, and the snow turned to ice pellets and the pellets hardened the ash that made up the storm horses. They turned from black to white as the pellets froze them into moving sculptures. They looked terribly powerful now.

"You're not getting me!" Claire yelled.

A storm horse dove straight at her. Claire held up her token, searching for a beam of light to melt her attacker. Before she could find one, the storm horse grabbed her token in its icy teeth. With a jerk of its head, it yanked the token off Claire's neck. Trailing the chain from its muzzle, the storm horse flew over the forest.

"No!" Claire cried, urging her horse to chase it. As they neared the forest, the storm horse kicked its icy back legs at Claire. Rearing up majestically, Old Shoulders took a savage bite a the storm horse's flank, tearing out ash and ice. The storm horse screamed in anger, flinging Claire's token into the forest and swiveling to attack. Old Shoulders held his ground, but Claire's terrified stallion screamed and bucked. Other storm horses flew in to join the first, beating their wings and whipping the forest into a frenzy. Tree branches lashed, splintering and flying at Claire and Old Shoulders.

"Duck!" Johnny cried.

Claire somersaulted off her horse into a drift of snow. Her stallion swiveled and ran south, leaving Old Shoulders fighting the magic horses alone.

Johnny broke cover to dash to Claire's side. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"They got my token!" she cried.

"It's okay. We can look for it," Brendan said, running over. "They're leaving."

Looking up, Johnny saw he was right. The winged horses galloped away across the sky, snow whirling after them. They boiled back to the glacier, turning into a distant white storm as the sky shaded back to blue. Soon, the winter sun shone down on the Company. The only sign of a storm was the litter of fallen branches in the forest.

When Old Shoulders trotted off south, they somehow knew he was rounding up his herd and that they shouldn't be scared. Yet they were, and to shake off their uneasiness, the Company searched the forest for Claire's token, pushing aside splintered branches and digging in the snow. No one had seen where the storm horse had dropped it.

"We're not going to find it," Claire said finally, sitting back on her heels. "It could be anywhere."

"And it looks like this isn't finished," Rosa said, nodding towards the storm clouds still hovering on the horizon.

Below them, they could see Old Shoulders trotting back with his chastened herd, the horses ducking their heads in horsey shame. When they arrived, Johnny gave Old Shoulders a pat, which he deigned to accept.

"We should probably get going," Johnny told his Company. "Try to get as far north as we can before the next attack."

The others slung onto their embarrassed horses, feeling discouraged themselves. The Shadow had beat them for the first time, and Johnny figured that probably built up his power. Fumbling with Old Shoulders' stirrup, Johnny found it hard to get a leg up. The Palomino suddenly seemed too tall for him, a better horse for Salomon. He felt lost in this Ice Age world, with snow and glaciers and rocky mountains stretching around them on every side, and danger closing in. If you looked down from a cloud, the Company would be nothing more than tiny black dots on a rippling cloth of cold. Somehow in the Sentinel's realm, he'd felt bigger, and he'd liked that.

Johnny gave himself a shake. If they got too discouraged, the Shadow would have beaten them twice with one attack. He slung into Old Shoulders' saddle, and tried to sound cheerful as he turned to Claire.

"Salomon will probably find your token on the way back," he said.

"I'm not so sure," Claire said, hiking onto her stallion. "You'd think I could pick up on my own token, but I can't feel where it is. The Shadow must be hiding it."

"Maybe you're too far away to feel it," Johnny said. "We aren't sure where he dropped it. We might even find it further north."

"If wishes were horses," Claire said briefly.

"They kind of are, here," Brendan said.

Old Shoulders led the Company north at a trot. The scenery wasn't anything to look at, just snow and trees. Johnny couldn't keep his eyes off the clouds above the glacier, anyhow. They weren't clouds, exactly. More like pollution, a white murk that sucked all the light out of the sun.

What was the Shadow up to? Johnny began to sense a plan. He didn't know why; maybe it was the clearness of the air. He seemed to feel the Shadow more powerfully here. Or maybe he could just sense the Shadow's growing power. The pollution over the glacier was growing thicker, fogging up the land and whiting out the sky. The Shadow was behind that, brewing up a second attack. Soon you couldn't tell where the glacier ended and the pollution began.

"He's really strong," Johnny warned the Company. "Get ready."

Lightning crackled inside the whiteout. The wind blowing down from the glacier smelled like an electrical fire. Thunder rumbled, and there was a sudden smash like a dam breaking—and the glacier started flowing down the mountain.

"Can you believe it?" Brendan asked.

The Company was hypnotized. The glacier flowed like a river of ice. It slipped slowly off the mountain peak, gaining momentum as it flowed downhill. By the time it reached the river valley, nothing could stand up to its huge power. It uprooted trees as if they were sticks.

"We've got to get out of here," Claire said, her stallion dancing under her.

"Ride straight east, up the mountain," Johnny said. "Gravity might keep it from pushing uphill." He pulled on the reins, but Old Shoulders ignored him and turned his horses to the south, leading them off at a gallop.

"No!" Johnny cried, pulling back on the reins. The horse didn't pay any attention. It ran south with the others, as fast a bullet. Yet when Johnny looked behind him, he saw the glacier moving even faster, pushed by the great weight of ice behind it. It was close enough now that he could hear the trees crashing down ahead of it. Boulders exploded from the ground with strange wooden POPS.

Johnny felt the crackle of static in his head. I'll get you now, Johnny Bey!

No you won't! Johnny cried, shaking off the pain of the Shadow's voice. But the glacier kept gaining on them, pushing snow and trees and rocks before it. Old Shoulders swerved and led his herd to the middle of the river, where they could escape the tumbling debris. The glacier flowed cleaner here, a lip of ice that pushed its way forward like a frozen tidal wave. Johnny wished for Claire's token so they could melt it back.

That's when he saw what the Shadow was up to. Their opponent had sent the storm horses to grab Claire's token. Afterwards, he could send the glacier to crush the Company without any danger she'd melt it. Glancing back, Johnny saw the glacier gaining speed, moving so fast they'd never be able to outrun it.

Johnny knew he had to communicate with Old Shoulders. Concentrating harder than he thought he could, he struggled to put a thought in the stallion's head.

Turn.

It worked. Neighing loudly, Old Shoulders swept around in a turn, the other horses close behind him. They faced the ice, ready to leap on top so they weren't crushed.

"Chaaaaaarge!" Brendan cried.

The horses galloped toward the glacier, heading for the low tongue of ice at its leading edge. It was only a few feet high. If they could get on top of it, they'd be able to race over the top of the glacier to safety. Old Shoulders led his herd in a great leap—and they landed in a slurry of snow and water and ice! The great weight of the glacier had broken the ice sheet covering the river. That wasn't ice at its leading edge. It was water.

The horses floundered in the freezing slush, neighing in terror as they tried to retreat. But a great cold wind blew down from the mountain, freezing the slush—and freezing the horses' legs in place.

The Company didn't have time to move. The water surged higher, lapping around the horses, slapping around the Company. As the ice wind gusted, the water froze as hard as diamonds around them.

They were trapped.
The Shadow Times Three

Everybody okay? Johnny asked.

At least we don't have to breathe, Claire answered. Even the horses.

We've got to eat, Brendan said. If we starve to death, we'll fall out of the Game.

Suddenly, another blast of static filled Johnny's head. Let's see you get out of this one, the Shadow snickered.

It looked pretty bad, Johnny had to admit. They couldn't even move enough to reach their tokens. On the other hand, he didn't feel the cold or any pain; they must still be partly under the Sentinel's protection. That was enough to give him a sliver of hope. On top of which, the ice was clear enough that Johnny could see through it.

The glacier had stopped moving as soon as it caught them. They were trapped at the leading edge, and looked out at the frozen river and forest. The pollution had already cleared, leaving the sky a pale winter blue and the valley a mess. Uprooted trees and boulders lay tumbled ahead of the glacier like seaweed torn up by a storm.

At least we've got time to plan, Claire said.

I wish I could have helped more, Rosa told her. But you know what? I got to be cold. I got to see winter again. It's worked out okay, at least for me. It's not as if I want to go back to the Real World. Or as if I even deserve it.

Come on, Claire said. You can't really mean that.

Johnny thinks I'd be eighteen back home. But I think I'd be really old. Terpsy...

You knew Terpsy, too? Brendan asked.

I got to Mizzenglass before she did, Rosa said.

Johnny felt his heart explode. He liked Rosa so much—and she was that old? His sister always said, "Girls mature so much faster than boys," as if it was a law of nature, like gravity. He hated to think she was right, but it was true that in the Real World, girls always said, "You're so obvious, Johnny Bey." They seemed to understand him far better than he understood them. Or at least, they claimed to. But the difference between him and Rosa was ridiculous, and Johnny didn't know how to handle it.

I tried to get out when I was new here, Rosa said. Once I went with Joe. There were lots of Companies back then. Tons of people could leave, so they tried.

Johnny felt even more messed up. You mean not everybody can leave?

You don't want to go there, Claire said.

Johnny remembered something Rosa had told him when she gave him his flying lesson back in the Sentinel's realm. He'd assumed that after a while, people didn't want to play the Game because they'd be too old when they got home, and they might have lost people in their families. That'll do for now, Rosa had replied.

Am I the only one who doesn't get it? Johnny asked. Because I don't get just about anything right now.

The other three didn't answer, but under the circumstances, Johnny figured he could wait.

Finally Rosa gave in.

Some of us come here by accident, some of us came in wars, and sometimes bad people bring us, she said. If they don't find us after we go missing in the Real World, then we can play the Game and try to go home. If people find us, we can stay in the Sentinel's realm until we fade, but we can never play the Game.

She meant you could play the Game if your body wasn't found. It was true they'd never found any sign of Brendan's body at the quarry.

So Rosa came in during a war, he said, turning to Claire. How about you? It probably had something to do with water, right?

We don't talk about that, Claire answered harshly. We're supposed to be talking about how to get out of here. I don't see how any of this helps.

Not a lot of people turn up after they've gone missing, Johnny said. This whole Game is stupidly hard.

And life isn't? Rosa asked, sounding every bit as old as she claimed. There were a lot of reasons why I stopped trying to go home. Okay, so I wouldn't have to live without my family. That's the main thing. But who wants to grow up if you don't have to? Getting hurt, being scared and hungry, death being able to take you before your time. In a small corner of her mind, Rosa added, The boy and girl thing. No thanks.

Suddenly it hit Johnny: What happened if they found his body in the quarry before he won the Game?

If they do, you'll fade back into the Sentinel's realm and live out your time there, Rosa said. I've heard about it happening.

Then we've got to get out of here right away! Johnny cried.

But he couldn't move so much as a finger, no matter how hard he tried.

Johnny wasn't sure how much time had passed before he saw someone walking out of the forest. Weak with relief, he thought Salomon had come to rescue them. Instead, he saw Kerid stride toward the glacier, his people filtering out of the woods behind him.

Kerid's people couldn't have looked more shocked, walking slowly around uprooted trees and huge upturned plates of river ice. No one seemed to see the Company, including Kerid. Johnny guessed it must be the Sentinel's magic that let the Company see out so clearly when the others couldn't see in. He couldn't draw their attention either, no matter how hard he tried to concentrate his thoughts. Johnny felt a moment's fear. What if he couldn't reach Kerid's people before they moved on? From what he could hear, most of them wanted to.

"...turn around right now..."

"...bad idea to head north..."

Most people quickly headed back into the forest, spooked by the glacier. Soon, only one boy wandered anywhere near them, singing to himself as he touched the pieces of river ice. Johnny concentrated all of his attention on the boy, trying to make him notice them. When talking didn't work, he whistled, hooted, crowed—did everything he could to make an impression.

The boy didn't seem to hear anything, although he rambled closer, reaching the edge of the ice. Looking around quickly, he licked the glacier to see how it tasted. He was almost in front of the Company, but didn't show any sign of seeing them. Then Johnny recognized the boy. It was Artan, Kerid's nephew.

ARTAN! he yelled. The boy frowned, shaking his head as if he'd got water in his ears.

Understanding what he was doing, Brendan joined in. ARTAN! they howled.

The boy stepped forward and stared at the ice. Had he seen them? Johnny's chest squeezed tight with fear. What if the Shadow was hiding them?

One, two, three...everybody, Johnny said.

ARTAN!

The boy walked up to their prison, staring in. Finally, he seemed to see them.

Fire. Whoosh. Matches! Okay—rubbing two sticks together. Bonfire! Crazy old Brendan tried to fill the boy's mind with a picture of fire. The idea grew so hot, Johnny could almost feel it.

Artan must have, too. He put his hand to his chest and drew out a chain.

My token! Claire cried. He found it!

The Company watched tensely as Artan tried to use Claire's token to capture the sun. He must have glimpsed the way she'd fought the cave lion. He angled it every which way, but couldn't make it work.

"What have you got there?" a man asked.

Kerid walked up behind Artan, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"See?" Artan said, pointing to the Company.

Kerid stepped forward, but he didn't seem to see anything at first. Then he did.

"Make fire!" he yelled to his people.

"What is it?" came the voice of his sister.

"Put your necklace away," Kerid whispered to Artan.

As he did, his mother walked up and stared into the ice.

"It's the children," Kerid said. "Frozen inside."

"I knew this was the work of the magicians," Kerid's sister said. "They were trying to block our road north. Well, their magic turned back on them, didn't it?"

"We don't know what happened," Kerid said. "They helped us before."

Kerid's sister stared, trying to see more clearly through the ice. "They can't do anything now," she said. "Forget about them. We've got to decide what to do."

"Everyone deserves a decent burial," Kerid replied.

Burial?! Claire said.

One step at a time, Johnny replied, back to feeling in charge, at least of himself.

Kerid's people laid a large fire close to the glacier. The ice had carried so many dried branches ahead of it, they had plenty of fuel. When Kerid gave directions, members of his clan came over to the glacier, holding out the burning branches. Johnny could feel Old Shoulders strain under his saddle, his muscles tensing.

Hold on, Johnny tried to tell him. It won't be long.

The leading edge of ice wasn't thick, and Kerid's people melted it quickly. As the fire burned closer, the horses all strained against their prison. They were almost moving now, trying to shatter the last thin barrier of ice.

Hold on tight, Johnny said. When the horses break out, they're bolting.

Suddenly, Old Shoulders heaved hard enough against the ice to tear a hole at its weakest point. Kerid's people shouted in astonishment as the Palomino broke out, leaping over the fire, strong and alive. That seemed to shatter the Shadow's magic. The ice fell away from the Company like flakes of dry water, leaving them standing in open air on the backs of their horses, who pranced in victory.

Johnny felt a moment's sweet freedom as Old Shoulders trotted away from the glacier. It was a clean feeling, like ice at its purest and snow when it drifted off trees, the flakes sparkling down through sunlight. Yet he was allowed only a moment of joy before the Shadow's fury invaded his mind, a clacking like insects gnashing their legs.

You think it's over, Johnny Bey? he asked. Well, it's NOT!

A roar sounded from the glacier behind them. Johnny swiveled to see the cave lion. She was still missing an ear, and her coat was slashed with scars from Claire's attack. But magic had happened. She was as big as a dinosaur now, and her eyes glowed red. The Shadow had claimed her.

"Get back!" Johnny cried. He didn't need to: Kerid's people raced away. Brendan and Rosa rode after them, while Old Shoulders carried Johnny toward the trees, where Kerid's fighters raised their bows, preparing to fight the lion.

Only Claire hung back. "Bring me my token!" she cried, trying to keep her stallion near the glacier's edge. "Listen to me! I can..."

The cave lion roared, and Claire's horse shrieked in terror. Rearing up on its hind legs, the stallion threw her and fled. Claire struggled to her knees in front of the cave lion. The evil creature towered over her, mouth half open and dripping red saliva. Kerid's clan launched a volley of arrows, but they bounced off the lion like rain.

The beast crouched slowly, purring, ready to leap on Claire.

"No!" Rosa cried, distracting the lion by whipping her horse forward. Rosa dropped to the ground by the glacier and grabbed a burning branch from the fire. Her horse shrieked and ran away, leaving Rosa at Claire's side.

"GROW!" she yelled.

Rosa shot up, far taller than the lion, as tall as any giant. Kerid's people shrieked in astonishment as Rosa held a burning tree in one hand, ready to attack. The lion roared out a challenge, but Rosa held the tree in front of her, forcing the lion to retreat. Leaping onto the glacier, she herded the beast uphill, away from Claire and Kerid's people.

"This is evil magic," Kerid's sister whispered.

"Not her," Johnny said. "Not us."

Rosa swiped her burning tree through the air, making the cave lion growl in fear.

I can do this, she told the Company. I couldn't help my family, but I can help you.

The lion seemed hypnotized by the fire, backing away, tail switching, red eyes glaring. It leapt onto a boulder caught in the ice, a chunk of granite free of snow, looking as small as a bobcat beside the giant Rosa. But the lion was still armed with teeth and claws and powerful back legs that made her whole huge body a weapon.

"Fire—grow!" Rosa commanded.

The tree exploded into brighter flames, making the lion roar in fear. Rosa strode forward as the lion crouched down on the boulder, red eyes locked on the blazing fire.

The thunder of hooves made Johnny turn. Salomon galloped out of the south, riding the buckwheat horse, with Eloya riding behind him.

"A female this time, too," one of Kerid's people muttered, turning to see Eloya.

"Magicians and sorcerers," a man answered. "And giants!"

Turning back, Johnny saw Rosa walk so slowly toward the boulder, she didn't seem to be moving. Her blazing fire burned steadily out front. The lion growled, gathering her back legs just as slowly into a crouch.

The lion leapt, taking a swipe at Rosa—and missing. Losing her balance, the lion tumbled onto the ice. Rosa lunged, singeing the great beast's belly. The lion roared, getting to her feet and trying to retreat, her claws scrabbling for safe footing on the glacier. Rosa strode forward, jumping over a crevasse. Holding the fiery branch like a sword, she darted forward and set the lion's coat on fire.

Roaring, the lion threw herself onto the glacier, trying to put out the fire. She rolled around the ice, bellowing in fury. The magic flames wouldn't die, and the lion bounded to her feet in panic. Nothing helped. She burned like battle, red sparks flashing off her as if she was being cleansed. In a final explosion of light, the lion disappeared.

"I helped!" Rosa cried in a huge voice. She threw the burning tree back up the glacier, then strode toward the Company, taking giant steps. The Company cheered. Rosa raised her hands and danced a jig—just as a crevasse opened in front of her.

"Watch out!" Claire yelled.

Rosa stared slipping on the ice, unable to get her footing, sliding toward the edge of the crevasse. Red light glared out of it.

"Fall backwards!" Salomon called.

Rosa threw herself back, falling onto the ice, legs dangling into the crevasse. With a shriek like winches, the crevasse widened, ready to receive her—and Rosa slowly slipped in.

"NO!" Johnny cried.

"Yes!" Rosa answered, her voice a happy echo. "I don't have to go home!"

The crevasse closed. The valley was silent. And Rosa was gone.
The Last Push North

The three remaining members of the Company sat at the mouth of a limestone cave. Salomon had lit a campfire when the sun went down, although he and Eloya sat back from it, leaving the light and heat to the Company. Kerid's people were holding a council far back in the cave, their talk lit by torches. Kerid said the cave marked the northernmost point any of his people had ever reached. A sanctuary, he told them.

Yet Johnny couldn't shake off his sadness and confusion. If he got home, he'd never see Rosa again. If he didn't, if he lost and fell back into the Sentinel's realm, he didn't know what he'd say to her. Rosa was sweet as the sunrise. Johnny wanted to fix things for her, to protect her. She was also smart and didn't need protection. Smart? She was wise.

You don't have to figure out girls quite yet, Salomon said.

"Say hello to her for me when you get back," Johnny answered, blushing.

"So you still think I will?" Salomon asked, sounding more curious than anything.

Suddenly, Johnny remembered that Eloya and her baby weren't supposed to have come back with Salomon. He turned to meet her golden eyes.

"We kept you from finding your friends, didn't we?" he asked. "You knew we were having problems and came to help us. I'm sorry."

You're doing well, Eloya replied. But we'll stay with you. Your opponent is getting stronger, and we'd like to defeat him, too.

Before he could ask why, Eloya nodded at a corner of the cave, where Artan crouched behind a stalactite. The boy ducked his head when she pointed him out. Yet he soon snuck out of his hiding place to reach Claire and hold out her token.

"Thank you," Claire said, slipping the chain over her head, ready to talk.

"Come here!" Artan's mother called loudly. The council was over. Artan's mother held a torch as she led people out of the back of the cavern.

"You're welcome," the boy whispered to Claire, skittering away to his mother's side. She pulled Artan close, and gave him a nasty pinch on the arm.

"I wish we could all be as trusting at the child," Kerid said. He walked out from behind his sister, touching Artan's shoulder gently. Johnny liked Kerid, although he wished he wouldn't just walk past Salomon and Eloya when he came to speak to the Company. It reminded Johnny of his aunt, his mother's sister. She disliked the fact that Johnny's mother had married into the Beys, with their famous genetic mixture—tall, short, fair, brown and in between—always wanting to talk about what they "were."

"Have you made up your minds what to do?" he asked Kerid.

"My people are divided, but we've reached a compromise," the tall man replied, sitting down beside him. "My sister will stay here to lead our clan. If you agree, I'd like to come north with you to scout out new hunting grounds."

"Pick out any hunting ground you want," Brendan said. "We live behind a Door in the mountain, and we're the only ones who can go there."

Johnny motioned Brendan to be quiet. "It would be great to have you along," he said. "But you saw what happened. It might get dangerous."

"You're fighting a war with other magicians," Kerid said. "We can see that."

"Just one," Brendan cut in again. "But if you want to come, that's great."

"I don't know if my bow can work against him, but I'm prepared to use it," Kerid said, and stood up. He looked pretty tough with his scarred cheek, and very tall. Once again, Johnny felt young beside him.

It was a good feeling. Unlike Rosa, he wanted to go home. He wanted to grow up, although he was beginning to understand how hard it would be. You had to face facts, and face down the worst parts of yourself so you didn't become as pinching and suspicious as Kerid's sister, or Johnny's aunt. There was a way in which he didn't like to think about Brendan grown up, at least if he didn't get a better hand on himself. He still doubted that Brendan had the self-control to make it through the Game. It seemed increasingly likely that he'd drop back to the Sentinel's realm, and maybe that was fine.

Fine for Brendan, but not for their family. Johnny looked at Salomon, wanting to ask if anything was simple. But he already knew the answer to that one, too.

The next morning, Eloya gave them a handful of dried berries for breakfast. She wouldn't use any magic in the cave, but maybe she did in their stomachs. The berries filled them up, and they pulled on their boots happily. The Company had been careful not to take off their outside clothes at night. The sight of their striped long johns might have been too much for Kerid's sister. But their socks were plain, and they'd been able to take off their boots and wiggle their toes by the fire.

"It's gone!" a fighter yelled, running into the cave. "The glacier has gone!" Piling out of the cave, the Company saw that overnight, the glacier had rolled back to the mountains, stripping the valley clean of ice and snow. The river was open, although the water was like slush, already freezing again along shore. Johnny thought the boulders looked lonely, left scattered on their own throughout the valley.

"You'll have a good day's fishing," Salomon told Kerid's sister. "And as much firewood as you're likely to need for a while."

She ignored him, but Artan nodded.

"I like fishing," he said, and Salomon smiled.

Beside, him, Brendan whistled for the horses. Soon Old Shoulders thundered uphill, leading six saddled horses. Six? Johnny thought, counting again as they raced up to the cave. There was a new horse, a little pony as black as the night. Brendan was so proud of himself, he doubled over giggling.

I decided to call up a pony for Eloya, he said.

Suddenly, Brendan seemed to get something. Is that what my token really does? he asked Eloya. Does it give me what I really want?

Eloya smiled at him without answering, and stroked her little black pony.

Maybe it's really tied to your imagination, Johnny said slowly. You called up a Seismosaurus, and they're not from the Cretaceous era. But you'd seen it in my book, so you imagined it into existence. Like magic horses, and the King of the Eagles.

What a cool token, Brendan said. I can use my imagination, when you can only see the facts.

Johnny felt the sting of that. Was it another of his faults? A lack of imagination?

He shook off the thought, understanding that he shouldn't be too hard on himself, not right now. Just remember what Rosa told us, okay? About not using your token too much.

Nag, nag, nag, Brendan said. I could fly us right to the End Door in a helicopter.

Where we might not know the answer to the Riddle, Johnny pointed out.

"What do I do?" Kerid asked, walking around his horse, Rosa's old horse.

Claire helped him climb into the saddle, and promised him riding lessons along the way. Soon they were all packed and ready to go. Kerid's people stood in a semi-circle to watch.

"Thanks for everything," Johnny called. A few of the people nodded. More wouldn't look back. No one had a smile for Salomon and Eloya except Artan, who grinned at them shyly. It was a start, Johnny thought, shaking his reins to get underway.

The days passed quickly as they headed north. The Company trotted easily through the stripped valley, then skirted the glacier at its head, inching their way through a deep ravine where two gruff mountains met. On their second day, they followed the ravine into a broad plain half filled by a frozen lake. Wind bayed down the mountains like wolves, and the herd of musk ox they saw was just passing through.

No home for his people, Kerid decided. They left the plain gratefully on the third day, following a waterfall that dropped out of the lake onto lower ground, where the river had cut itself a winding valley.

Late each afternoon, Salomon and Kerid fished and hunted while the Company set up camp. Johnny could see it was hard for Kerid to be with people who were different from him, especially Salomon and Eloya. His own people had such a set feeling against theirs that it cost Kerid to even be polite at first. He seemed to expect them to be stupid, and looked offended when they weren't.

Yet as the days passed, Kerid learned to respect Salomon's fishing skills. It helped that Salomon could talk to him, even if Eloya couldn't. Kerid also liked picking up Eloya's baby in the evening. Claire wondered in their heads if Kerid missed Artan, although he didn't talk about his nephew. He didn't talk much at all. Johnny began to understand that accepting new things was hard for adults. He didn't know why, and didn't want to be like that himself when he grew up. Presuming he did.

Eloya tried to help the atmosphere by brewing up magic when Kerid wasn't around, making treats like gingerberry sauce when he couldn't see her. Magic bothered Kerid. He didn't like the tent—how it came out of such a small pouch and blew itself upright. But he made himself sleep inside, and finally asked some questions.

"So you live behind a Door in the mountain," Kerid said one night.

"We're dwarves," Brendan answered mischievously. "Little people. Salomon and Eloya are trolls. They're much sturdier. You should remember those words."

"But you're children," Kerid said. "I can see that Salomon was right about that."

Brendan looked put out. "We're not that young," he said.

Wearing his striped long johns didn't help his case, Johnny thought. "Don't listen to my brother," he told Kerid. "He's just being silly."

"I don't know that word," Kerid said. Johnny was surprised. Then he realized that in Kerid's hard world, people couldn't risk being silly. With the Company getting close to the Door, Johnny hoped Brendan wouldn't risk being silly, either. For the moment, the Shadow seemed to be holding off his attacks to build up his power. But as Brendan kept spinning stories, Johnny felt their opponent watching them, and spent the night fighting sharp red dreams.
The Lake That Never Froze

Next afternoon, the Company clattered down beside a waterfall into a mystical-looking valley. Tall knobs of hoodoo hills stood all over it like frozen giants. Trees grew around them and hot springs spilled out of their bases, steaming like pots of water. You could even see green around the springs, where plants grew in clouds of warmth.

Their water heated the river, too. As the Company rode on, they reached a point where the river ran clear of ice. Salomon said he lake they were heading for was fed by another hot spring. Kerid jumped off his mare, turning in circles to look around.

"This will be our new home," he said, stooping to smell a hot spring bubbling out of a limestone hill. "Medicine water," he said. "Game will come here to eat."

Claire jumped off her horse behind Kerid, holding a bow Salomon had made her. Seeing a rabbit, she grabbed an arrow from her quiver and shot. Claire didn't hit it, but Kerid's arrow flew right after hers. The rabbit exploded in a cloud of red steam.

"Magic animals!" Kerid said, sounding disappointed. "We can't live here."

"They're only here to spy on us," Claire said. She pointed to another rabbit hopping through the scrub. "See their eyes?"

Claire loaded another arrow. This time she hit the rabbit, and the red steam hissed at her harshly. "They'll leave when we go home," she told Kerid.

Johnny jumped down to join them, wondering why the Shadow bothered with spies anymore. For the past few days, he'd felt their opponent nearby, watching him personally. It was as if his token had become two-way. He could use it to X-ray obstacles, and the Shadow used it to X-ray him.

Now, in this strange valley, Johnny kept thinking he could see something out of the corner of his eye. A familiar cloud. The black hole. But it wasn't something not there any more. It was here all right, and rubbed against his cheek like salt.

"We're going to have to cross the river," Salomon said. "After this hill, it dips south. If we keep heading north, we should try to reach the lake before sunset."

"We're that close?" Johnny asked. He felt a sudden flash in his mind like a headache, and saw a picture of the Shadow grinding knives. Behind the sparks, he smiled at Johnny with raptor teeth. The strange vision hurt Johnny's head, and both Salomon and Eloya looked worried. "We should get going," he said, trying to remain calm.

"I'm sorry, but does anyone have a bit of fish first?" Claire asked. "I'm hungry."

Johnny realized that he was too, and wasn't sure he liked having an almost-real body again. Hunger was a pain.

Eating was great, he reminded himself. Grilled fish. Gingerberry sauce.

Pain was a pain.

Once again, Johnny wondered whether it was worth it.

Home.

Johnny tried to concentrate as they forded the shallow river and followed Salomon through a maze of hills. They scared a herd of caribou, and saw wooly rhinos snorting in the distance, their double sets of huge horns catching the sun.

It was such a good home for Kerid's people that Johnny expected him to turn around and fetch them. But when he said so, Kerid shook his head.

"I'll go with you to the end," he said. "I need to pay you back for bringing me here. And I'm curious to see the Door to your home."

"So am I," Brendan said.

Kerid looked surprised. "You're strange little people," he said. "You have so many words, and so few explanations."

"Well," Johnny said. "I guess we have more questions than answers."

"You're children," Kerid agreed.

"Then our people are children, too," Claire said. "My mother says that about herself all the time. At least, she used to."

Claire looked into the distance, and Johnny overheard her thinking about her parents, how much she missed them. He wished he had a pebble left so she could see their faces. She brooded as they passed more hoodoo hills and hot springs, crunching over patches of ice and snow. Then she perked up.

"That must be the lake," she said.

Johnny made out a glint of blue in the distance. As they rode closer, he saw the lake nestled into a range of low mountains. The mountains were coarse limestone—a fossilized coral reef, Johnny figured. A quarry had brought him here. It seemed logical that a Door in limestone mountains would take them back home. Spurring his horse, he led the others toward the lake. After a final hour's ride, they clip-clopped onto a beach of bleached stones. The lake lay as still as a mirror beneath the winter sky.

"Where's your Door?" Kerid asked.

Johnny surprised himself by pointing at a narrow ribbon of ice high in the mountains—one of the many frozen waterfalls across the lake. "Behind there," he said.

"How can you tell?" Claire asked.

Johnny raised his token and saw a carved limestone Door behind the falls. "I don't know how I knew, but that's the one," he said.

As he kept looking, the Door changed, turning into the cruel face of the Shadow. Their opponent was laughing at him. He took in a breath, puffing out his cheeks hugely before blowing it out. The sudden blast of swamp gas knocked Johnny off his horse.

"Are you all right?" Brendan leapt off his horse to kneel by Johnny. The others followed, crouching around him.

"I think so," Johnny said, taking Kerid's hand for a lift up. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to clear away the Shadow's face.

"But you need to get home, don't you?" Kerid asked, looking at him gravely. "Let me build you a raft to cross the lake."

"Do we have to go on water?" Claire asked fearfully.

Nodding tersely, Kerid slung off his pack and took out a stone axe. Its sharp blade was tied onto a pine branch with a strip of leather. He tested the blade on a piece of dried grass, slicing it neatly before heading over to a stand of trees behind the beach.

"I can do that, too," Brendan said, raising his token to his mouth.

Why don't you let Kerid say thank you? Salomon asked.

Brendan just kept speaking to his token, looking proud as he let it drop. "There'll be some beavers showing up any minute," he told the others casually.

Suddenly, the horses whickered. Old Shoulders danced, blowing out his breath grumpily. Looking down, Johnny saw a family of gerbil-sized beavers scamper between the horses' legs. They dragged their tails behind them like butter knives. One turned back to Old Shoulders and slapped his tail defiantly on a wet pebble, raising the world's tiniest splash. Old Shoulders stamped his hoof and the mini-beavers scurried into the forest.

"Brendan!" Johnny said. "You've used up your token!"

"I don't think so," Claire said. "I've used my token more than anyone, and it still works. I mean, not perfectly. You shouldn't use it for stupid things. But I figure I can probably melt the waterfall when we get there."

"He's used his more. And he can't concentrate. I wish he'd grow up!"

"Calm down," Brendan said. "What's your problem?"

For once, Brendan sounded like the older brother, and Johnny felt ashamed of his outburst. "I can feel him," he said, rubbing his eyes. "He's nearby. He saw that."

Which is why you have to calm down, Salomon said.

Behind them, Kerid started took his axe to a tree. Johnny tried to calm himself by listening to each chop: Re-lax. Re-lax. Re-lax.

But the Shadow wasn't going to let him, was he? A shriek ripped through the air. With a toss of its branches, the tree came alive. Eyes opened in the trunk, and its leaves turned fiery red. Kerid threw down his axe to run away. But he wasn't fast enough. The tree threw up a root and tripped Kerid, sending him sprawling into its shadow. Leaning over, the three shook its leaves down on Kerid's legs. He cried out. They burned!

He isn't under the Sentinel's protection, Claire cried, racing over. Johnny ran past her, and grabbed Kerid's arms to drag him away from the tree. As the leaves fell off Kerid's legs, Johnny covered his mouth at what he saw. Kerid's pants were in rags from the acid-red leaves and his lower legs were badly burned.

"Let me through," Salomon said.

The Herder slung off his pack. Unwrapping some green leaves, Salomon told Kerid to chew them. Eloya gave her baby to Brendan and knelt down beside Salomon. They cut off Kerid's pants and got to work on the burns, smearing Salomon's ointment on his legs, and wrapping them in long pieces of waxy cloth from Eloya's pack.

"Thanks," Kerid said when they were done. "I don't know why, but it's stopped hurting. You can't have healed it already."

"It's not healed, but it will be," Salomon said. "You'll have to be careful on your way back."

"I can't leave now," Kerid said. "I'm falling more and more in your debt."

"No one's keeping score," Salomon said.

"But they're children," Kerid said. "We need to guide children. They didn't ask to be brought into this world."

Salomon nodded. "We agree with each other," he said. The two exchanged a long look, and Kerid finally nodded. A little awkwardly, he held out his hand for Salomon to shake.

"A new custom for us," he said.

Afterwards, both Salomon and Kerid turned towards the lakeshore. Johnny looked over and saw Brendan walking Eloya's baby on the pebble beach, joggling her and making faces. Everyone always said how good Brendan was with little children. Claire walked beside him, giving her pinky finger to the baby to hold. Her red hair gleamed as she bent over and kissed the baby's forehead.

The world spun in Johnny's head. Suddenly, Claire and Brendan were grown up. Brendan's curls were darker and his face had gone square. Claire was with him and strong. They stood even closer together, looking golden, and held a baby of their own.

The picture broke into pieces. Now Claire and Brendan were tumbling down the waterfall in the mountain up ahead, two somersaulting bodies hitting the rocks at the edge of the lake and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Johnny blinked again and saw the sun setting. He felt Eloya's hand on his arm.

No one can know what will happen, she said. One thing or the other, or something else entirely. We'll set up camp now, and spend the night here. Let's think about tomorrow in the morning.

I can feel him, Johnny told her. More and more.

I know, Eloya said. The end is starting.
The Boat Song

Johnny was the first one up the next morning. It was a cold clear day, and the first thing he saw when he left the tent was a straw boat waiting on the lakeshore. It looked woven instead of built, made of dried grasses and twigs all braided together. Two square sails flew from the mast. Each was coloured like the eyes on a peacock's tail, blue and black and bronze.

As Johnny looked into them, the morning turned back to last night. Countless stars shone above like paint spattered on the sky. Something moved, and Johnny leaned forward to see grasses and branches at the edge of the lake braiding themselves together. Eloya watched, cross-legged on the beach, her furs thrown back from her head.

Very softly at first, and far in the distance, Johnny heard Eloya sing. She didn't sing in words. Her voice was like a burble of clear water, or the wind raised by the earth's turning. The song grew louder until its pictures filled Johnny's head.

Eloya was singing a song to the boat. She promised it would soon spend its days riding a stream through a golden forest. The banks of the stream would be chalky and the water ice-green, and the boat would never reach the roughness of the sea. Invisible voices harmonized with Eloya. The words still hung out of reach, like birds' nests in the trees.

Johnny frowned to hear another sound in the background, and see flashes of daylight. Aw-aw-aw, somebody said. He turned his head slowly away from it. He just wanted to hear Eloya, although he had to turn his head almost forever to escape the gawky voice. When he stopped turning, he saw something very strange. A huge beast was frozen above the ground in a patch of morning.

It was a sabre tooth cat, and it wasn't frozen. It was running so slowly that Johnny could see all four feet in the air at once. The first foot went down and after it, the others. Each time a foot hit, the cat crouched lower. He seemed to be gathering his strength—a ragged, spotted tiger-sized cat with foot-long teeth and bright red eyes. This was an interesting thing to see, but Johnny preferred the song. He turned his head away from the cat and tried to look back at the night.

But Johnny couldn't escape daylight, and saw an arrow hanging in the air on its way to the cat. It moved almost as slowly as the cat did, and it hummed, an annoying burr that got in the way of Eloya's song. Johnny wanted to knock it out of the air. Knock the daylight out of the sky. He raised his arm, but it moved even more slowly than the arrow. He knew he'd never stop the buzz, although his hand kept rising.

The other sound came back. Aw-awn-awny. It made him unhappy. Something was happening, calling him back to the day, when all Johnny wanted was to hear Eloya's song. She sang about the golden trees now, blossoming with bells. He wanted to hear about the chalky banks forever. But he kept seeing daylight. Kept seeing the cat stand up on his hind legs, jaws open and front paws stretching.

The arrow angled in under them, sliding between the big cat's ribs. As a red sun shone, Johnny saw drops of blood leave the cat as thick and slow as mercury. They sailed toward him through the frozen air. A drop got longer and reached for his hand.

Suddenly, things speeded up. Warm blood splashed Johnny. It burned, waking him up. The sabre tooth cat dropped to the ground, dissolving into red mist.

"Johnny!" Brendan ran up and grabbed his arm. "Why didn't you move? Didn't you see it?"

"Where were you?" Salomon asked, appearing beside him.

"In Eloya's song," Johnny answered, still feeling confused. "For the boat."

"You shouldn't have heard that," Salomon said. "You shouldn't have been able to hear that."

What's happening to you? he asked.

"I feel..." Johnny didn't know how to describe the way he felt. He looked into Salomon's golden eyes. The Herder stood beside Kerid, who was holding his bow. "I feel like a snowflake. I could melt."

"Then we have to leave now," Salomon said. "And get you through the Door."

Johnny turned to Kerid. "Thank you for getting the cat," he said.

"It was a near thing," Kerid said. "He almost caught you."

Eloya came up to Johnny and handed him the folded tent. She wouldn't look at him, as if she was afraid her eyes might take him back to the song. Slipping the tent into his pouch, Johnny wished they would, and shook himself. He was starting to forget about home and hoping to stay in Mizzenglass, inside its magic. Now he truly understood why so few people in the Sentinel's realm wanted to play the Game.

Rosa, he thought, his heart reaching toward her.

"Let's get going," he said, although he wasn't sure where he wanted to go.

The boat let down a gangplank. After saying goodbye to their horses, Claire and Brendan hopped on board. Kerid limped toward the gangplank after them. As he did, the boat snapped itself closed, and sailed a few feet out in the lake. Kerid stepped back, looking startled. As he did, the boat drifted back to shore. When he stepped forward again, the boat sailed back out.

Eloya held up her hand and went to speak to the boat. Johnny felt Salomon's palms clapping over his ears—inside, he meant—to keep him from hearing what she said. He still got the idea that the boat wasn't under Eloya's control, even though she'd sung it into being. She didn't like that, and Johnny had already thought about the way parents wanted their children to grow up, but didn't really like them to be independent.

In the end, the boat won. Eloya shook her head and sent a thought to Salomon.

"I'm sorry," he told Kerid. "It looks like you're not going."

"The other magician must be controlling the boat," Kerid said. "He saw how I killed the sabre tooth. Let's fight him, and make the boat take me. The boy needs all the help he can get."

"You just helped him," Salomon said. "Now you're being asked to help Eloya."

"By staying here?" Kerid asked. "I trusted you. Now you don't trust me."

Salomon touched his arm. Johnny heard the faint jingle of bells under his parka. "There's Eloya's baby," he said. "If we don't come back, will you raise her?"

Eloya looked up, her golden eyes pleading. Kerid drew his hand down his face. "Of course I will," he said. "I'll raise her as my daughter."

Eloya looked deeply into her baby's eyes. She handed the child to Kerid and walked over to the boat, getting on board without looking back.

"She'll be okay," Johnny said. "You're just babysitting, that's all."

Salomon put his hand on Johnny's shoulder, steering him towards the boat.

"Don't wait for us," the Herder told Kerid. "Take the horses and go back to your people. Old Shoulders knows the way. Eloya and I can always find you."

"The horses!" Kerid said. "You're giving them to us?"

"I think you'll live very happy lives in this valley," Salomon said, "and become famous horsemen. Old Shoulders might know about a few fillies out there, too."

The moment Johnny and Salomon stepped on board, the boat set sail. Johnny sat in the stern, waving at Kerid until he disappeared. When he faced front, Johnny saw that the limestone mountains were much further away than they'd looked from shore. The lake seemed bigger and choppier now they were on it.

As cold waves slapped against the boat, Johnny began to wonder if Claire was right. He wasn't sure they should meet the Shadow while riding a woven boat over a deep lake. The boat wasn't very long and barely as wide as it needed to be. The others had to sit in the bottom, leaning against ribs made of carved branches between a clutch of oars.

"This isn't going to work," Johnny said, sitting down beside Salomon. "We probably should have hiked to the Door by land."

"Isn't this faster?" Salomon asked.

"You can freeze a lake and thaw it," Johnny said. "Boil it, and turn it to steam."

"I'm supposed to be the one with the imagination," Brendan said, trying to joke him out of it. But Johnny couldn't shake free of foreboding, and Claire looked rattled.

"I better sit up front and keep watch," he said. Holding onto the sides, Johnny walked to the prow, staring warily at the water. Freezing, he thought. Floods.

Then the lake began to bubble. 
The Red and White Water Fight

Johnny expected heat to bubble out of the lake, burning their boat. Instead, the water stayed cold but grew muddy. Silt from the bottom of the lake bubbled up to the surface, thickening the water into swampy black sludge. Their sails filled with wind, and at first they skimmed over the sludge like a water beetle. But as the muck grew thicker, it slowed them down. They might as well have been sailing through syrup.

"He isn't wasting any time," Brendan said.

"Let's row," Johnny told them, handing out oars. "I need to get to the Door."

It felt like rowing through hot tar. On the first stroke, Johnny could feel open water underneath, but the top layer was getting thicker by the second. On the second stroke, the tar set like a driveway. Johnny couldn't even get his oar out in time, and it stuck in place like a flagpole. The boat was stuck, too. Not just stuck: the hard lake pushed against their hull the way freezing water tried to crush an icebreaker.

"I figure it's not smart to get out and walk," Claire said. "Then he'd melt the lake—and you know how much I love swimming."

The boat groaned as the tar pressed in. Johnny turned to Salomon. Isn't there anything you can do to help us?

Use your ears, Salomon replied, and in the distance Johnny heard grunting.

Looking up, he saw a herd of wooly rhinos race over the mountain, trotting through the woods and onto the lake. It was strange. Johnny felt he could already see them close up. They were shaggy and ugly with hunger, swinging their heads, their twin horns sharpened, their tiny red eyes glinting like lasers. When the first rhinos reached the boat, they starting running back and forth beside it, restless and snorting.

"Keep your hands inside the boat," Salomon said.

"If the boat can protect us, why bother sending rhinos?" Brendan asked.

He got his answer as the boat groaned. A wooden rib popped, breaking as the tar pressed in from all sides. The boat could splinter apart at any moment—and an evil, impatient crowd of rhinos was waiting to get them when it did.

Suddenly, an enormous rhino charged the boat. As it tried to leap on board, Claire shot it down with a burst from her token.

"One down," she said. "A million to go."

As she finished speaking, Johnny felt something snatch his mind. Before he knew what was happening, he flew high over the lake. From this distance, their boat looked tiny, a pale log floating on a dark sea. The water was black as a mirror from the muck, and Johnny seemed to see double the rhinos: each beast and his reflection. They milled around like ants, butting into each other, their laser eyes crossing like infra-red sensors. Johnny knew he was seeing what the Shadow saw. He didn't know how, but he knew why. The Shadow had brought him up here to show him the Company had lost.

But you don't have to worry, Johnny Bey, his opponent said. You'll just fall back into the Sentinel's realm. Then you can spend all your time flying. You're better at flying than fixing things. You don't really want to be trapped in a frail boat called "home."

Johnny tried to squeeze his mind shut. The Shadow was crawling inside his thoughts and Johnny wanted him out. Doing a mental backflip, he threw himself down from the sky, dropping back into his own head. Made it, he thought, rubbing his eyes.

Salomon shot him a worried look.

"I've got a plan," Johnny said.

As all three members of the Company began concentrating hard, the rhinos started moving, spreading out from the boat. Each one picked its own piece of lake and guarded it with grunts and charges. Soon they dotted the lake, all of them looking down at its mirror-like surface. Seeing their reflections, they snorted with rage. As far as they were concerned, another rhino was invading their territory.

That's your turf, not his, Brendan told them. And you're not letting him get it!

The rhinos snorted in fury, tossing their heads.

What are you? Rhino or gerbil? Brendan asked. Get that guy out of there!

The rhinos lowered their horns and charged their reflections. Hundreds of razor-sharp horns crashed into hundreds of reflections. They cracked the silted-up water—and their reflections charged back.

Pawing the lake, the rhinos charged even harder. Bigger cracks opened up. Water bubbled up from underneath. Now their reflections looked even clearer in the slick of fresh water. The sight of their own red eyes made the rhinos crazy. They charged again and again, jackhammering the water with their tusks.

Get that sucker! Brendan urged. Get him before he gets you!

Water gushed through the cracks. Rhinos began to lose their footing. More and more of them crashed onto the lake—one-ton crashes that tore huge holes in the muck. The lake was churning now, the tar breaking apart. Some rhinos kept charging. Others tumbled into the lake. The water hissed as they vaporized.

Johnny glanced at Eloya, doing a double take when he saw that she was concentrating, too. The lake was almost clear now, the boat floating free. But as the rhinos vaporized, they were heating the water. By the time the last one fell in, the lake was steaming, ready to boil. If the Shadow couldn't get them one way, he'd try another.

Eloya called cool air down from the mountaintops and blew an icy breath on the lake. The Shadow's eyes red glowed underwater as he struggled to keep it steaming. Ice from above, heat from below. They fought a great battle and Johnny was scared, knowing it was against the unspoken rules for Eloya to help them, even if he didn't know why.

The lake grew reddish, even as she called down more icy air. Eloya turned as pale as the moon, and Johnny was afraid she was losing. Then she drew the deepest of breaths and exhaled into the air above. A whirlwind rose, and out of the cloudless blue sky, pure snow began to fall, drifting down slowly at first, then falling thicker and thicker until it blanketed the lake. The water turned a sickly pink, then Johnny felt the Shadow shudder in defeat, and the lake lapped back to the spearmint colour of Johnny's eyes.

Johnny hadn't paid any attention to the boat during the fight, but now he found they'd drifted close to shore, not far off a pebble beach where they could land.

"Let's get rowing," Johnny said. "We're almost there."

Claire grabbed an extra oar and Johnny followed, trying to enjoy their victory. Yet the Shadow nagged at him like a guilty conscience. Johnny figured he didn't have anything to feel guilty about. The Shadow had kidnapped his mind and made him fly over the lake. It was his own fault if Johnny had used what he saw to beat the rhinos. But as he paddled, a sharp pain shot through his head, and the Shadow muscled back in his mind. You've got plenty to feel guilty about, he told Johnny. It's your fault your brother's here.

You're right. That's why I've got to get him home, Johnny said.

Wouldn't you rather take him back to the Sentinel's realm? Your brother's happy there, and you'd be happy. No more danger, no confusion. You could just be a boy.

Johnny rowed harder. But the Shadow must have been holding them offshore. They weren't getting closer to the beach, and Johnny's head felt like it was splitting.

You could fly. You could ride. You wouldn't need to fix anything.

I'm not listening, Johnny said.

Now you're a liar, the Shadow cackled. Don't you know what happens to liars?

Go away. We're beating you.

NO YOU'RE NOT! the Shadow shrieked.

With a great splash, a huge green monster shot out of the lake, its long neck arching over the boat, its eyes glowing like rubies.

"He can't get us while we're in the boat," Johnny told the others. "Keep rowing!"

The Shadow laughed. Don't you know liars hurt their friends, Johnny Bey? Especially friends who break the rules!

Suddenly, the Monster bent into the boat, grabbing Eloya in its mouth and lifting her into the air. Before Johnny knew what was going on, Claire pulled out her token and blasted the monster's neck. As it dropped Eloya into the water, Salomon's whip cracked out and pulled her back in the boat. With another great splash, the monster dove back underwater.

"What just happened?" Johnny asked. "It got past the boat's protection."

"Keep going," Salomon said tersely.

"Something's wrong," Johnny said. "Is it because Eloya helped us?"

Rules are made to be broken, Eloya said, trying to sound as mischievous as Salomon. But she was forcing it, and Johnny couldn't help leaning over the side of the boat to see if the monster was lurking.

The Shadow stared back. Johnny gasped, never having seen him so clearly before. Their opponent was as beautiful as an avalanche.

"Don't look!" Salomon called. "Just row! Row!"

Johnny tore his gaze away, but he felt even more shaken. They weren't making any progress, and he could feel the monster swimming beneath their boat in tightly-coiled figure eights. It was dreadful to wait for the next attack. Johnny didn't know how he could stand it. He couldn't stand it.

HA! the Shadow cried, and the monster leapt out of the water. Its long green neck swung down toward the boat, its eyes shooting red lightning at Eloya. Johnny watched helplessly as jagged bolts circled her waist and pulled her high in the air. Leaping onto the edge of the boat, Salomon cracked his whip, wrapping it around the monster's neck to keep it from dragging Eloya under. The monster and Salomon glared at each other, neither able to move. The white whip and red bolts stretched through the air, taut as rigging. Everything in the world was frozen.

Except Eloya. Johnny saw Eloya move as slowly as a dream. She melted herself thinner, and soon the red bolts clasped her only loosely. The monster didn't notice. Eloya didn't move—until suddenly she spun free and somersaulted into the boat. Salomon loosened his whip and dropped down beside her.

"Row!" he ordered.

"No!" Brendan cried. "It's no use. He'll just do something else" Throwing down his oar, Brendan reached into his parka. "I need to call out the Sentinel to stop him."

"Are your crazy?" Johnny asked, grabbing his arm. "If you call her here, she might get trapped in the Game."

Brendan shoved Johnny away, pushing so hard that Johnny tripped over an oar and went down, hurting his leg. He grunted in pain.

"Brendan!" Claire cried.

"We're almost at the Door," Brendan said. "I'll make it through, and she can go back. We've got to think big."

"Stop him!" Johnny called, trying to get up as he saw Brendan reach for his token.

As he did, the monster heaved out of the water for a third time, its eyes burning even more fiercely as it shot two great bolts of lightning. Eloya focused her power and blew out a freezing breath. The bolts shattered into cold red barbs that scattered around the boat. When the monster dove back underwater, Eloya turned to Brendan, who was raising his token to his lips. She froze him in place, and Johnny heard an echo of her powerful order to stop.

They all heard Brendan's reluctant surrender in their heads. Claire sucked in a relieved breath, and even Salomon had to smile grimly. But no one paid attention to the scraps of lightning at the bottom of the boat. Whipping around like baby snakes, they coiled back together, twisting themselves into a live red wire that pulsed just out of sight. As Eloya freed Brendan, tousling his hair long distance, the wire suddenly leapt up and gave her a powerful shock.

Eloya flung out her arms helplessly. In the same moment, the monster reared up and grabbed her in its jaws. Eloya twisted to face it.

"YOU WON'T," she said. Her voice was so mighty that Johnny's hands flew to his ears and his mind was filled with explosions. Through a fog, he saw Eloya flung high into the air as the monster blew apart. The blast sped their boat across the lake to scrape onto the pebble beach.

Eloya drifted down slowly toward the lake. Johnny could feel her using up the last of her power to fall gently, wanting to make sure they were safe. Once she saw Salomon pull them on shore, Eloya slipped into the water, disappearing like a flame going out.
The Road Up

They pitched their tent on the pebble beach. It was still daylight, but Salomon said they could rest a while before they went on. Looking at the pebbles didn't cheer them up. They were ordinary pebbles, and blank. After throwing his down, Brendan led the way into the tent. He hunched in a corner, looking pale and guilty, while Claire bit her thumb and tried not to cry. Johnny's mind echoed with voices he had trouble telling apart. He thought one belonged to Eloya and came from someplace green.

"Is Eloya with the Sentinel?" he asked, as Salomon rubbed medicine into his leg.

The Herder nodded. His golden eyes looked as deep as mines. Johnny felt as if the past was hurting his friend, and suddenly knew why.

"You used to live in this world," he said. "You used to eat."

Salomon smiled sadly. "A very long time ago," he said.

"Your people are dropping out of here into the Sentinel's realm," Johnny said. "It isn't just because of us. Kerid's people are winning."

"Are they?" Salomon asked. "It's true Kerid's people will prevail."

"What does that mean?" Brendan asked. "Prevail?"

"It means they'll conquer the world," Salomon said. "I'm just not sure you win when you conquer something. It's a lot of work." His smile looked dark.

"Will Eloya's daughter drop back there, too?" Claire asked. "So she can grow up with her Mom?"

"I think Kerid will take care of Eloya's daughter," Salomon said, as if working it out. "And I think Artan will be her friend. And maybe someday she and Artan will have children. And maybe their children will have children, and the two peoples will join. Maybe one day, no one will be able to tell there was ever any difference. Except that some of the ones with a little more Eloya in them will be called Bey."

Salomon smiled again. "But that's just an idea. No one can know the future."

"I don't know anything anymore," Johnny said. "I like things to be simple, and I used to think they got simpler when you got older. And okay, maybe you learn the rules. But you still don't know what's going to happen if you break them."

The Herder looked at him closely. "There's a trail up the mountain to the Door," he said. "You just have to put one foot in front of the other to get there."

Johnny thought he could handle that. Yet he also wondered whether it mattered if he lost the Game. He was so mad at his brother for what happened to Eloya, he wasn't sure he cared whether Brendan made it home. And since this was Salomon's home, the Herder might prefer staying here. When you thought of it, either Johnny or Salomon would wake up at home tomorrow morning. Either Johnny or Salomon would see Rosa and Eloya. There was no bad ending.

But Johnny couldn't help fearing there wasn't any good one, either.

Brendan packed up the tent after their rest, even though they wouldn't be using it again. He folded it neatly, handing it to Johnny with an apology on his face.

"I'm sorry I messed up," he said. "I really want to go home."

Johnny stared straight at him. "I'm not exactly proud of you right now."

Brendan scuffled his foot on the ground. "How's your leg?" he asked.

Johnny realized it was better, and shrugged.

"You going to be like that?" Brendan asked.

"I think so," Johnny said. "I need to figure a few things out."

"I guess I do, too," Brendan said. He walked away, saying over his shoulder, "You're kind of forcing me to, aren't you?"

Soon afterwards, Salomon led them to a trail that switchbacked up the mountain. Johnny could see it would take them to a ledge at the base of the waterfall that guarded the End Door. The waterfall was frozen so solid, it looked like a giant stalactite hanging down from the peak. Johnny hoped the Shadow wouldn't slice it down like a knife.

Yet in a funny way, he felt ready for the final push. They would leave the Game soon, one way or another, and he was curious to see what would happen. Curious, and a little bit excited. He wouldn't even mind one or two adventures along the way.

Snow began to fall as they hiked up the lower flanks of the mountain. It was a gentle snow with big fat flakes, and for a while, it made the world look pretty. Johnny figured Rosa would have liked it, at least until they reached the first rock face. The wind had picked up by then, and ice pellets clattered against their backs. Their mitts weren't working any more either, failing to keep the cold out. As he blew on his freezing hands, Johnny wondered whether the magic was draining out of them. Could the Shadow do that?

"Doesn't really matter if it's him, does it?" Brendan asked. "We've got to do something about it."

When they reached the top of the rock fall, Brendan pulled out his token. Suddenly, their mitts disappeared—and baseball gloves flashed onto their right hands.

Johnny looked at his in astonishment.

"Hey!" Brendan said. "I wanted thermal gloves!"

"Cool mitt, though," Claire said, checking it out. She drew herself up on her toes as if she was about to pitch. Brendan squatted to catch. Claire put her hand in the pocket as if she had a ball. She pretended to throw...

...and suddenly, a baseball blasted out of the trees. It slammed into Brendan's glove and threw him backwards on the icy ledge.

"You okay?" Johnny asked, jogging over to give Brendan a hand up.

Brendan looked down at his glove. The Shadow's baseball had melted into red dye and stained the leather. "I was going to try to take it home," he complained.

Johnny felt exasperated. His impossible brother was more concerned about the mitt than himself. "You'd better get us some real ones," he said, as the wind picked up.

Nodding, Brendan mumbled to his token. Thermal gloves began to appear on their hands, zizzing like static and looking see-through at first. Finally they settled into place.

"That took too long," Brendan said. "My token's really fading, isn't it?"

When Salomon didn't say anything, Claire said, I guess we all know the answer.

The wind blew harder as they hiked higher on the mountain, whipping snow into their faces. Their eyelashes and eyebrows soon crusted over with ice. But their new gloves seemed to help them climb, and the wind was never strong enough to hurt. By the time they were halfway up the second rock face, it was dying down.

Scrambling up onto another ledge, Johnny wondered where their opponent was. He couldn't see any spies and wasn't picking up messages. Yet the Shadow could come after them at any moment, and Johnny felt on edge. By late afternoon, as the Company hiked onto the upper slopes of the mountain, he was watching every step. The path was steep and icy, although the wind had died down completely and the clouds had cleared, leaving the pale sun shining.

Johnny turned to look down the mountain, where Kerid's new country was spread out far below. He saw a great expanse of hoodoo hills, the clear-running river and stands of burly forest. Elk and caribou raced across the plains, and as he watched, some of his tension drained away. Kerid and his people would be happy here for generations. From this high up, Johnny got a sense of how long history was, and all the past that went into making people's lives.

"I've been thinking," Brendan said, coming up beside him. "Claire has to save her token to melt the waterfall. But if we need to, you and me can use ours up to call help out of the Sentinel's realm."

A lilt of happiness entered his voice. "Which means we're pretty much home."

"We've got your token," Johnny said, not wanting to bring him down too fast. "But I can't use mine. If I did, Salomon would be stuck in the Game like Kahchen."

"We agreed you'd do what you have to," Salomon said.

Johnny shook his head. Throughout this level, he'd been wondering what he was like. Rosa had asked him about his weaknesses, but there was also the question of his strengths. Johnny had finally decided on something: he was a person who liked fixing things up and making them better. A maker, a mover, someone who was happiest when he was helping. That's why he'd come into Mizzenglass, to bring Brendan home. Afterward, he'd tried to help the twins and Claire. That's just who he was: a fire that tried to warm people. Johnny didn't think that made him special, but it was the only simple thing he knew anymore, and he wanted to hold onto it. The Shadow wasn't going to make him hurt anybody, no matter what.

But as he looked up at the waterfall, Johnny shuddered.
The Summit

The last leg of their climb brought the Company to a wide mountain ledge. The great waterfall hung down the mountainside before them, all icy spikes and brilliance. In summer, if there was summer here, water must have plunged off the glacier above and into the pool at their feet. A stream would flow out of the pool before tumbling down the mountain. Now the pool was like a skating rink, and the stream looked like a long, frozen canal. The sun shone brightly through the thin air, and their ears were filled with the tinny crickle of icicles breaking.

Walking as close as he could to the mountain face, Johnny could see the outline of the Door through the ice. Not the Riddle; the ice was too thick for that. But with the sun this bright, Claire wouldn't have trouble melting the waterfall.

"It's almost too easy," she said. "I better do a test run."

Raising her token, Claire aimed at a high drift of snow beside the mountain wall. She caught the sun—and blasted a laser beam straight into the mountain. Rocks exploded into the air. They threw themselves behind a boulder, barely escaping the shower of rocks that clattered onto the ledge.

When they came out, they found a new cave blasted in the mountainside. Squinting up at the sky, Johnny saw why Claire's token had worked so well. The real sun had two round copies beside it. Sundogs. And they were reddish.

"The Shadow's playing tricks with the sun again," he said.

"I told you it was too easy," Claire replied. "Ready for another test?"

Putting her thumb over half her token, Claire caught a ray from one of the suns. She aimed at the canal of ice stretching from the pool to the edge of the mountain. With a zap, she melted the ice. Water flowed over the ledge and splashed happily away.

"Okay," Claire said. "I'm going to start at the bottom of the waterfall and work my way up."

Yet the moment Claire raised her token, all three suns slipped back together, focusing their power through her crystal in a brilliant laser of light. With a tremendous HISSSSS, the great waterfall melted. Water roared down, a whole Ice Age of water, a great roiling flash flood that rampaged toward them like a tidal wave. No time to run. They were engulfed in the red-tinged flood, Johnny tumbling head over heels as Brendan kicked into him and Claire somersaulted along beside, trying to be brave about water. He didn't know where Salomon was or how any of them could survive.

The flood surged across the ledge, carrying the Company with it. In the confusion, Johnny had one clear thought. They were going to be washed down the mountain and out of the Game.

Suddenly, a net tore into Johnny. A net? As the meltwater raged over him, Johnny found himself trapped in an enormous net with a very cold and slippery Brendan and Claire tumbling up against him. The water quickly drained away, leaving them hanging over the ledge, staring down at the mountainside through a web of cold white rope.

"What?" Brendan asked.

"I called a soccer net out of the Sentinel's realm," Claire said, her teeth chattering.

"I never got to play," Johnny said, remembering very clearly the first time he saw Claire, when she scored a goal. He found himself wishing he'd played a few games before they'd left the Sentinel's realm. Wished he'd taken Rosa's advice and stayed longer—although in a clearer part of his mind, he knew that would have been a bad idea, making it even harder to leave the magic behind and go home.

Suddenly, the net jerked. They flipped back up over the ledge, bump, bump, bumping across solid ground. Still trapped inside the net, the Company fumbled to their feet on the rocky ledge. Looking around, Johnny saw that Salomon had tied himself to a boulder and hauled them back up.

"You used up your token," Johnny told Claire.

"You might try saying thanks," Brendan said. "'Thank you, Claire. Thank you, Salomon.' How come you're so hard on everyone lately?"

"Because the Shadow is so hard on him," Claire said. "He's been going after Johnny, right from the start. Remember the quicksand? And the Northern Lights?"

They all paused to think about that.

"I don't think he's finished," Claire said.

After Salomon freed the Company, they walked over to the Door, which stood behind a bowl in the ledge where the frozen pool had been. It was a huge wooden slab set in an archway of limestone blocks. Their boots squelched and squished as they walked. Without Claire's token, they couldn't dry off, and Johnny felt miserable.

He felt worse when he didn't see the Riddle, even with his token. Nothing seemed to be written above the Door. It looked hazy and smudged, and Johnny knew why.

The Shadow was blocking it.

He heard a cackle in his head, and suddenly Johnny saw The Shadow standing in front of the Door. His skin was milk white, his eyes burned red and his hair was as black as shoe polish. He couldn't help thinking their opponent looked weak. He was dressed in a black suit and seemed very thin, like a sick person wasting away.

The Shadow must have heard Johnny's thoughts. His skin turned as black as his suit while his eyes glared yellow. Now he reminded Johnny of a black cat crossing his path. The Shadow liked that, laughing quietly at the idea. His laughter made Johnny feel balanced on the razor edge between joy and pain.

Let us see the Riddle, Johnny said, trying to stay focused. We've beaten you. We got to the Door. Now we want to go home.

You don't want to go home, Johnny Bey, the Shadow said. You want to stay here with your friends. You don't usually make friends quickly, but you've made friends here. You didn't really get over your weakness. You just found a place you belong.

Johnny realized the Shadow was half right. Clenching his fists, he tried to hang onto the other half. We want to go home, he said.

But things are much simpler in the Sentinel's realm, the Shadow said, sounding far more reasonable than he had at the lake. Don't you like things to be simple?

Going home is simple, Johnny said. I can slip right back into my family. They won't even know I've been gone.

Claire let out a cry. Turning, Johnny saw her pacing the ledge, hands tucked into her armpits.

"I heard that," she said. "Going home is simple?"

Claire sat down on the Doorstep. Salomon stood nearby, although he seemed to want to stay out of this and let the Company play the endgame themselves. Seeing the way he held back, Johnny finally understood the rules. You had to win the Game on your own, just as you had to grow up on your own, much as adults might want to help you.

"Or hurt you," Claire said.

"What's the matter?" Johnny asked, sitting down beside her.

"I'm glad there's no Riddle," she said. "I can't even remember why I said I'd do this. Who wants to go home? Nothing's simple in the Real World. I want to go back to the Sentinel's realm, where it's safe."

You see? the Shadow said, drifting towards them.

Johnny ignored their opponent. "After all this?" he asked.

Inside, Claire started to cry even harder than she had when she'd realized her token was a weapon. Without Rosa to lean on, Claire got restlessly to her feet, hands going back to her armpits.

"You want to know how I got here?" she said. "A bad person brought me, okay? It was a neighbour. He called me over to his car on the way home from school and he offered me a ride. But he didn't exactly take me home, did he? He gave me some water, and there must have been something in it because the next thing I remember is waking up in this cabin. And he, and he... and afterwards in the, the bathtub, he held me under..."

Johnny had already half known that. He just wished he hadn't been right.

"He left me in a cave," Claire said. "That's how I came into Mizzenglass, okay? And I guess they still haven't found me. And if I go back, I'll have to tell people all about it. I'll have to make sure they get him. I might even have to see him again."

Poor Claire, the Shadow murmured. It's cruel to make her go back. Let her forget what happened. Take her back to the Sentinel's realm. She's your friend.

Johnny struggled to ignore him. "You're strong," he told Claire. "You're a fighter. Look how well you've played the Game."

"I never wanted to fight," Claire said. "I never asked for a stupid laser token. I hate violence. I've got every reason to hate it."

That made Johnny pause. "But you learned how to use your token," he said. "You used it for good things. You're strong. You protected us. You're a fire that warms."

Johnny looked to Brendan for help, but Brendan was busy. He seemed to almost sense the Shadow, and was looking very hard in slightly the wrong place.

"I can't do it," Claire said, slumping back down beside Johnny.

"If you don't, the Shadow gets stronger," Johnny said. "You need to help the twins, too. If we don't get out, how will anyone ever go home again?"

You shouldn't exaggerate, the Shadow said. It's just a Game. You take everything too seriously, Johnny Bey.

We're winning, Johnny shot back.

I know, Claire said, overhearing him again. But at home, winning will be harder.

We've got our families, Johnny said, reminding himself as much as Claire.

Hunger, said the Shadow. Danger. Hurt.

He leaned over them. Bad people, he whispered.

You should know, Johnny said. But he also knew the Shadow was right.

"Let's go back to the Sentinel's realm," Claire said. "The Real World is just too hard."

"No!" Brendan cried, striding forward. He was still looking in the wrong place, but he managed to grab the Shadow's suit and throw him away from Johnny and Claire.

"Ew. He feels disgusting," Brendan said. "Like greasy old dishwater."

Brendan hunkered down on the other side of Claire, his brown button eyes finally serious. "Don't let him get to you, okay?"

"Our families," Claire said, as if waking up.

You sensed him, Johnny told Brendan. Just like me.

"He was blocking us from seeing the Riddle, wasn't he?" Brendan asked.

"That's not fair," Claire said. "Even if I stay here, you guys need to go home."

"Think about your family," Johnny urged. "We all have to get out. Then the twins can go home. A whole other Company can get out with them. If we don't, he'll be strong enough to stop them."

Johnny could see from Claire's face that he was convincing her. He was even starting to convince himself. Finally, Claire agreed in a whisper, And if I go home, other girls might not have to ride in that guy's car.

"You can help," Johnny told her.

"You're strong," Brendan agreed.

"And so what?" the Shadow crackled in a static-y, out-loud voice. He wafted towards them, back to being milk white and sickly. He seemed to be putting all his power into facing them directly. "So what?" he insisted. "There are so many bad people in the world, you can't fight them all. Look at Rosa, caught up in a war. Her whole family died in a war. You don't think you can fix wars, do you? You're just a child."

"NO!" Claire cried, jumping to her feet. "You're not beating me with that!"

Before Johnny knew what she was doing, Claire grabbed his pouch out of his pocket. She pulled out scraps of northern lights and threw them at the Door.

The Shadow screamed as the scraps exploded, lighting up the Riddle.

"I can see it!" Claire yelled.

I am a coin   
That has many sides  
They face every direction  
So divided  
And tied.

Johnny knew the answer as soon as she read it. But before he could speak, the Shadow grabbed him in his greasy hands, trying to wrestle him away from the Door.

"I'm not letting you go!" the Shadow cried.

"Leave my brother alone," Brendan said, seizing the Shadow and throwing him away from Johnny. The greasy figure flew over the cliff with a shriek.

"Hurry," Brendan said, running toward them. "He'll be back. What's the answer to the Riddle?"

"Words," Claire said quickly. "Words can mean everything and nothing."

She told the Door firmly, "Words!"

It didn't open.

"Truth!" Brendan called even more urgently.

The Door stayed stubbornly shut.

"Come on," Brendan said. "All sorts of things are true."

"The real truth isn't divided," Johnny said, as the Shadow levered over the edge.

"Then what's the answer?" Brendan asked.

"People," Johnny said sadly, and the Door swung open.

The Door swung open, and it should have been over. Yet the Shadow flew at Johnny, looking both sick and strong at once.

"You can't go back," he cried, dragging him away from the Door. "You're a special Bey. A leader. I need to play you again and again, and beat you over and over and over."

"I told you to leave my brother alone!" Brendan yelled, yanking the Shadow off Johnny. Clutching his suit, Brendan tried to throw him down the mountain again. This time the Shadow stuck to him like grease, wrapping his arms around Brendan. Brendan tried to push him away, but the Shadow fought back and they tumbled into the empty streambed, hitting the rocky ground. Johnny tried to run over, but found he couldn't move. The power of the Shadow seemed to be holding both him and Claire in place, although at least that made their enemy weaker. Giving the Shadow a powerful kick, Brendan was able to struggle free.

"We're going home!" he yelled, scrambling out of the streambed. "Wake up, you guys! The Door's open. Let's go!"

But the thought of the open Door seemed to give the Shadow strength. Growling out static, he leapt up and grabbed Brendan by the hood, throwing him right to the edge of the mountain. Brendan landed hard on his knees, crying out in pain.

"Brendan!" Johnny screamed.

His token burned against his chest. Time seemed to move like mercury as the Shadow slinked toward Brendan, who was getting slowly to his feet. This couldn't be happening. His brother couldn't fall out of the Game. Johnny had to take him home. It was his fault Brendan was here in the first place, and he had to take him back to their parents. Johnny refused to let the Shadow win, and called up every drop of his strength to try to reach for his token. He would call Faron out of the Sentinel's realm and get the great beast to carry Brendon to his side.

Yet calling Faron would leave Salomon locked in the Game. Johnny knew he couldn't do that to Salomon. He couldn't do that to the Missens, who needed the Herder.

But what about his family, who needed Brendan?

Salomon, the Missens, Brendan, their family. Johnny wanted to help, but helping one person hurt someone else. You couldn't fix everything. He didn't know what to do.

Then he did, and managed to wrench his token to his lips.

Don't! Brendan called. It's not your fault I'm here. It's mine!

A silver staff flew out of nowhere, breaking Johnny's token into countless brilliant crystals.

Brendan stood at the edge of the mountain holding up his token, which sparkled merrily. "I called the Sentinel's staff out of her realm!" he crowed.

"You spoiler!" the Shadow cried. Growling in fury, he leapt on Brendan, pinning his arms to his sides. For a moment their opponent held Brendan at the very edge of the cliff. Then Brendan kicked and the Shadow tottered, losing his balance. Johnny drew in an agonized breath—as the Shadow fell over the precipice with Brendan still locked in his arms.

"NO!" Johnny screamed. Racing over, he saw Brendan and the Shadow tumble down the mountain in a welter of blood-red sparks. Suddenly there was a radiant flash, and Brendan disappeared back into the Sentinel's realm. Below him, the Shadow fell time without end, staining the mountain a furious red.

"I'm coming back, too!" Johnny yelled, ready to jump.

"And what will it be like for your parents to have two sons missing?" Claire asked.

Home, Johnny thought. With the Shadow gone, the feeling of a warmer and more solid place rushed back at him. The mountaintop felt hollow. It was almost as if the Game wasn't real anymore and home was.

"Brendan and the twins will form another Company," Claire said, leading Johnny away from the edge. "If you went back, the Shadow would get so strong, you'd never be able to beat him."

Johnny saw the truth of that. The truth of what Brendan had said. It wasn't his fault his brother was missing. Back at the lake, Brendan had said that Johnny was making him think about things. Now Brendan had given Johnny something to think about, too. "Let's get going," Claire said. "The Door's open."

Johnny felt a flicker of happiness. "You're coming?"

"You're right, I'm a fighter," Claire said. "And I'm ready to grow up."

The two remaining members of the Company walked to the Door. As they reached it, Johnny looked up at the archway feeling tiny and sad.

"Wait," he said.

Johnny drew himself up to a proper height. He aimed for Joe's dignity and Rosa's calm, for Brendan's imagination and Claire's strength, Kerid's humanity, Salomon's wisdom and Eloya's golden way of seeing—with maybe just a pinch of Kahchen's sense of humour in there, too.

Johnny knew he fell way short of being special. He wasn't really that much older than the twins. But it was a fine combination to aim for, especially when he added a bit of himself.

"Let's go," Johnny said.

Nodding goodbye to Salomon, Claire walked through the Door and disappeared.

Johnny followed. When he had one foot inside, he turned to take a last look at the Herder. Salomon's snow clothes were dissolving, leaving his beautiful woven robes billowing around him in the mountain wind. His hair shone out brightly, braided with shells and beads and dancing bells. The air went so soft, Johnny could almost see the Sentinel taking him back into her realm.

"I'm sorry," Johnny said. "If Brendan had let me use my token, I would have called Faron. You would have been staying here."

Salomon smiled in his golden eyes as if there was nothing to forgive. "This is what happened," he said. "Don't forget any of it."

Johnny smiled back and stepped through the Door. Bells jingled faintly on the other side as it closed.
Home

Johnny joined Claire in a cavern. There was no sign of the Door, or even its outline. The cave was dimly lit and warm, and they wore their shorts and tee-shirts from the Sentinel's realm. Their tokens were gone.

The moment Johnny noticed that, the cave walls glowed. He saw stalactites and stalagmites made of crystal, their colours changing as if they were ripening fruit. Silver sand was underfoot, and comets arched across the high dark ceiling.

"Congratulations," the Sentinel said, stepping into the light. "Not many people win the Game. But you did it, Claire McGregor and Johnny Bey."

Johnny gave Claire a quick glance.

"He forgot I'd have a last name," Claire told the Sentinel.

The Sentinel laughed like birds. She wore a silver dress with hanging sleeves, and as she raised her arm, her sleeves rippled like curtains.

When the curtains parted, Mizzenglass children waved out at them. Johnny looked for Brendan, and found his brown eyes smiling. Rosa stood beside him, looking taller and happier than she'd ever been, and so far out of his reach that Johnny's heart came near to breaking. The twins stood beside her, Alexa jumping up and down and Alex giggling into his hand. All around them other children looked as glad as summer.

"Goodbye!" they yelled. "Goodbye!"

"You better come home soon, Brendan!" Johnny called.

His brother gave him two thumbs up. "See ya!" Brendan cried, as the picture faded out.

The whole cave faded, stalactites and stalagmites shading to black and the comets flying away. Everything grew dim, with only a pale moon left shining in the ceiling. The Sentinel stood under its glow.

"I hope it didn't hurt you too much that only two of us won," Johnny said.

The Sentinel smiled and shook her head. "I'm very proud of you," she said.

"What do we do now?" Johnny asked.

"Live good lives," she said. Then the Sentinel was gone.

The first rocks fell where the Door had been.

"I hated this part," Claire said.

"It's even dustier this time," Johnny said. He coughed as the rocks loosened form the ceiling, covering them with grit.

"Did you just cough?" Claire asked.

"Let's get out of here," Johnny said.

They raced for a passage at the back of the cavern. The moon dimmed even more as they ran, and as soon as they reached it, the passage turned as black as black. Johnny stopped running and Claire ran into him. How did they know which way to go?

Suddenly, Johnny's pouch flew out of his pocket. It hovered in the air and glowed—just as a stalactite crashed down behind them, closing off the cavern.

"Come on," Johnny urged. They followed the pouch as it flitted through the cramped passage. The walls were rough, and stones bulged out as they ran past, ready to fall. After turning a corner, they began to branch and zigzag, following the pouch through a maze of tunnels. Johnny wondered if the pouch was the last piece of magic he would ever know, and felt sad as the stones fell behind them, blocking every possible route back to Mizzenglass.

The passage finally ended at a large, dark opening in the wall. The pouch hovered in front of it, as if inviting them to go in.

"No way," Claire said.

"You don't feel the Shadow, do you?" Johnny asked.

"I don't feel anything magic," Claire said. "I can't even hear your thoughts."

Johnny realized he couldn't hear Claire's, either. But before he had time to think about it, a stone crashed down behind them. Another crashed, and another and another. The whole ceiling was coming down.

"We don't have any choice," Johnny said, and jumped. In the darkness, his feet flipped out from under him, and Johnny found himself rocketing down the world's smoothest slide. Claire rode behind him as the slide twisted and curved, bending and circling and finally straightening out, tumbling them into a cavern. The pouch flew out in front of them, lighting the walls. Behind them, the slide disappeared.

Picking himself up, Johnny recognized the cave where he and Brendan had started out. The rocks were all back in place, and the door was waiting in the wall.

"This isn't where I came in," Claire said warily.

"It's okay, I did," Johnny said. "Maybe you end up where the leader started."

"Yeah?" Claire asked.

"My house isn't far away," Johnny said. "You can call home from there."

Johnny reached for the doorknob, wondering if there would be one last test. Nothing happened, although the pouch darted out the door as soon as he opened it, and he saw his first rays of real sunshine since he didn't know when.

"Be careful," Johnny said. "We're high up in a quarry, on a ledge. We're going to have to climb down some tree roots to get out of here."

"I think I might be able to manage," Claire said, and Johnny realized how much they'd been through since he'd landed in Mizzenglass.

Stepping out on the ledge, he took a good look around. The sun said it was late afternoon. The quarry was empty. Johnny wondered if it was still the day he'd left, then saw his backpack nestled by the rock face. Marika would have come up here to look if anyone had thought he was missing. Johnny slung on his pack, and saw another one waiting beside it. The new pack looked suspiciously like a bigger version of his magic pouch. Claire's name was written on it in sparkly handwriting.

Claire looked inside. "I seem to have a tent," she said. "Some shorts, tee-shirts—and a baseball glove. It would be pretty weird if I showed up without anything, I guess."

"You'll do fine," Johnny said.

"I'm going to tell them I wasn't ready to face the bad guy until now." Claire rummaged in the backpack and held out the glove. "That's yours," she told Johnny.

"Yours," he replied. "You're the athlete."

Her face lit up, and Johnny realized that Claire hadn't changed. The red-headed girl on the ledge was the same red-headed girl he'd first seen playing soccer, taller and stronger than him, but about the same age. She still wore her Mizzenglass clothes, too. They both did. And weren't they maybe just a tiny bit transparent?

"Let's get going," Claire said, slinging on her backpack.

Johnny decided not to say anything and see what happened. "This way," said, letting himself over the edge. Hand by hand, knee against knee, Johnny climbed down the tree roots and jumped onto the ledge. Hand by hand, Claire followed. Afterwards, they inched along the narrow path like Egyptian pyramid people, one foot in front of the other.

"Can you still cough?" Claire asked.

"Maybe I don't want to right now," Johnny said, glancing down. The deep pool lay just below them.

Finally the path widened out, and Johnny made himself cough. Claire copied him, and they coughed their way down the hillside, laughing as they ran across the quarry floor, feet beating up the dust.

"We've got to climb this fence," Johnny said, launching himself at the metal links and scampering up to the top. He paused there, the way he had before. Glancing down at his knees, Johnny saw something strange. His legs flickered like a television coming on. So did his hands. Suddenly, he felt the weight of the nautiloid fossil in his pack. It was so heavy, the straps cut into his shoulders.

Johnny started down carefully. But the pack was too heavy, and he fell halfway down the fence, landing hard.

Claire landed with a thump and sat down beside him.

"You okay?" she asked.

Johnny glanced over at Claire, and did a double-take. She had to be about sixteen years old.

"What?" she asked.

Claire looked down at herself. "Oh my," she said weakly.

Johnny and Claire walked through the woods and into his suburb. Claire was a head taller than he was now. She wore jeans and a tee-shirt with some pretty roughed-up sneakers, while Johnny wore the same clothes he'd worn that morning. He felt a little older after everything that had happened, and all the hard questions he'd asked. Salomon had said you needed to think about death so you could decide how to live your life. To confront pain and hunger and well, girls. That's what Johnny had been doing, and as he looked up at Claire, he found it more than a little unfair that he didn't look any different than he had a whole adventure ago.

When they reached his street, the Mr. Chimminy Fix-It truck was still parked in front of the Morra house. Binkie must have done a real job on the chimney this time. Mrs. Cragge was home from work. She'd painted their front door red again and was stretching a volleyball net in front of it.

Turning up his walk, Johnny met Marika coming out the front door. "I was just going to look for you," she said, glancing at Claire. "I won javelin and blew the shot-put. Mom and Dad will be home soon."

"Good stuff," Johnny said. "This is Claire, by the way. She needs to use the phone."

"Sure," Marika said, holding the door open. She gave Claire a curious look. "I'm Marika," she said, leading the way into the kitchen. Johnny slung his pack on the table.

"I was at the quarry," Johnny told his sister. "Claire was camping out with some friends. She's decided to go home."

"She didn't see Brendan, did she?" Marika asked. Turning to Claire, she asked, "Did you ever run across a guy named Brendan Bey?"

Claire and Johnny exchanged a glance. Johnny was conscious of being a real kid beside her, despite everything he'd learned.

"I've met Brendan," Claire said, just as their Grandpa walked into the kitchen.

Grandpa stopped, keeping his hand on the doorknob.

"I think he might decide to come home soon," Claire said. "Is this your phone?"

Grandpa and Marika watched her silently. Opening his backpack, Johnny hauled out the fossil, knowing that Grandpa would like it.

"See?" he said. "I got this nautiloid."

Grandpa put a hand on his shoulder. "You've worked hard," he said.

Over at the counter, Johnny heard Claire dial. He held his breath until someone answered.

"Hi, Mom?" Claire said.
Lesley Krueger is the author of eight previous books. Her most recent novel is Daily Life, published this fall as an e-book and available though Amazon. Her previous novel, The Corner Garden, was called "masterful" by the Ottawa Citizen. It was published by Penguin Canada and is now available as an e-book, as well. Lesley is also the author of the novels Drink the Sky and Poor Player, the short story collection, Hard Travel, and two non-fiction books, Contender and Foreign Correpondences, a third e-book. Johnny Bey and the Mizzenglass World is her first novel for children.

Please check out Lesley Krueger's webpage or find her on Facebook and Twitter. 
