8 Gone is the Witch (34 page)

“What do you mean
, what took us?”

“I’ve been waiting here for weeks.”

“Tony, I told you we’d meet you back up on the ridge. That was like an hour ago.”

“
No, that was three weeks ago. I waited up on that ridge all day and half the next. You never came. Ever since then I’ve been going back and forth, five times a day, looking for you guys.”

I glanced over at Carlos and Ursula. If not for the look on their faces, I’d have thought I
’d gone crazy. Even seeing Tony with a beard, I still wasn’t completely certain.

“This is weird,” I said. “Tony,
do you remember sleeping at all?”

I watched his gaze drift
. It seemed such an easy question. If he actually waited three weeks for us, then surely he’d remember sleeping some of that time. He mulled it over briefly before returning to me on a thread of apprehension.

“
Sure, I slept. I think.”

“You
think?”

“Yeah, I must have.
I mean a body can’t go three weeks without sleeping, right?”

“
You tell me. You said you’ve been going back and forth between here and the ridge five times a day. Did you use the portal?”

“
Of course. How else could I do it?”

“That’s why I’m asking.
I think you’ve been flirting with time.”

“Lilith, listen
. Carlos, Ursula, all of you, listen. I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“Carlos, you asked why you hadn’t seen any indications that Doctor Lowell had been anywhere we’ve been.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s because he hasn’t. He didn’t have to go through any of this.” He splayed his arms, casting a broad sweep that encompassed the entire landscape. “I doubt he’s ever seen any of this.”

“
You think he’s still back at town?”

“Oh, no. Not at all. I’m sure he sitting comfortabl
y up in his cozy little fortress far from the thieving cutthroats running around that town.”

“Be it the portals?” asked Ursula.

Tony smiled at her. “Bingo, little lady.”

“Wait. What
are you suggesting?”

“
Lilith, she’s right. It’s the portals.” Tony turned and pointed back at the campsite. “They’re all over the place. Don’t you see? That one there, the one up on the ridge, the one in town. They’re everywhere.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Seriously, I’ve found over a dozen in the past three weeks. There are all kinds of `em, too. Some are stationary. Some wander. Some fade out and come back later. Yesterday... or was it last week. I don’t know. Anyway, I found one so tiny that a bug would have had a hard time squeezing through it. Another was so large you could drive a semi through. You see what I’m saying?”

“You’re saying you believe Doctor Lowell learned about these portals and used one to
go from town straight to his fortress.”

“Exactly
.”

“But there’s
a problem.”

“What?”

“They’re unpredictable. Take the one up on the ridge for instance. We all went through it, and yet look what happened. It dumped us out all over the place. Poor Ursula, she ended up in a hole at the bottom of a dry lakebed.”

“
That’s because we didn’t know how to use it.”

“
I don’t get it.”

“Look, remember when you told me to go back through the portal after I cut my hand?” He held his hand up for me to see. It had healed completely.

“Yeah,” I answered, almost too surprised to hear what followed.

“You might also remember I was worried
that I wouldn’t come out on land, that I’d come out somewhere over the ravine and fall to my death.”

“
I remember.”

“Well, as you pushed me into the portal, I pictur
ed that flat spot up on the ridge where we all jumped off. It was the only thing on my mind. I concentrated on that one spot, and when I popped out on the other side, guess where I landed.”

“On th
e ledge,” said Carlos.

“
No, but close enough to it that it started me wondering. Later, when I decided to come back here to find you guys, I concentrated again on where I wanted to come out.”

“
And that worked?”

“Like a charm. After a couple of more tries, I got to where I didn’t even have to roll. I simply landed on my feet like stepping off a bus.

“In fact, you can think of these portals as a bus, or a bus route. I believe you can step into any one of them and come out anywhere you want, just like getting on a bus and riding it to any bus stop.”

“What does this mean for us?” Carlos asked. “Can we just hop into a portal and come out on Doctor Lowell’s doorstep?”

I could see Tony hedging on that one. “Yes, in theory, I suppose.”

“In theory?”

“It’s like taking any bus ride. The bus can pick you up and drop you off anywhere along the route you like. You just have to know where to get off.”

“In that sense,” I said, “it’s more like a moving sidewalk than a bus, because there’s no driver
for you to ask questions.”

“So what do we do?”
asked Carlos.

“Not sure
.” Tony looked at me. “Lilith, now you know what I know, what do you think?”

I took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.
I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of flying around the ES through a system of portals; some that I suspected could end up dropping us down the throat of an active volcano. Of course, I didn’t share that concern with the others. I saw no sense in everyone walking around with sore muscles from puckering their butts holes so tightly.

Tony said
he believed the portals interconnected, and I suspected as well, but he’d only gone between two stops: the ridge and the campsite. What if some were dead-ends? Worse, what if it scattered us around the ES? It had no trouble sending Ursula off on her own distant adventure. It wasn’t as if all of us had a witches’ light we could use to reunite in case of separation.

Tony nudged me.
“Lilith?”

“I’m thinking
.”

“I thought this would be easy for you.”

“Oh, really?”

“Ye
s, I mean come on. Look around. That portal is our ticket out of here.”

“Out
of here to where? Are you ready to step into it and just let it whisk you away to some place you’ve never been before? We don’t know where the fortress is. How do we step into that portal and expect to arrive at the same place when none of us know what the fortress even looks like?”

“Methinks it may be wise to hold hands. For what doth
bind be not broken.”

“What
do you mean?”

“
Did we not stay together, you and I, for what time we held hands in the portal?”

“We did, but remember it wouldn’t spit us out until we let go
.”

“Would not or
could not?”

“
Same thing, isn’t it?”

“
Methinks not. Thou had thy vision where ye wished to go. My mind had naught but a fear of an early grave.”

“You were thinking of a grave?”

“Aye.”

Carlos said, “And that’s where we found
you.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tony.

“We found her in a hole. For lack of a better word, in a grave.”

“That’s right
.” I said. “It makes sense now. The portal wouldn’t spit us out as long as we were holding hands because we were thinking of two different destinations. But as soon as we let go of each other’s hand, the portal delivered us to where it thought we wanted to go.”

Carlos said, “That hol
e in the dry lakebed was as close to any grave as the portals could get.”

“That settles it then
,” said Tony.

“Settles what
? The fact that we could all end up in a grave somewhere?”

“Yes, I mean no. That is, it doesn’t matter. Don’t you see? If we all come out somewhere we don’t want to be, we can simply step back into the portal and try again.”

“He’s got a point,” said Carlos. “What do we have to lose?”

I thought about that active volcano again.
Spilling out of a portal didn’t necessarily mean we’d have the luxury of hopping back into it. But the others had made up their minds already, so I guessed it didn’t matter. I looked at Jerome, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet.

“What do you think, Pip?
”

He
turned his stereoscopic eyes up at me and grinned. “I go with amigo.” He pointed at Carlos.

“Of course.” I stepped back and let him take Carlos’ hand. As I started toward the campsite, I
called out, “Let’s get a move on, folks. The bus is rolling out.”

Chapter Nineteen

Before stepping into the portal, I instructed the others on what I expected from them.

“Look, based on what happened to Ursula, I think we should talk about where we want to go.”

“
We wanted to go to the fortress,” said Carlos.

“Jerome go fortress!”

I reached down and patted lumpyhead. “Yes, we know.” I looked back at the others. “But what is the fortress? I’m sure we all have our own ideas of what a fortress looks like. It’s important that we have the same image in mind. If there’s more than one fortress in the ES, the portal will try to drop us off at the one closest to what it thinks each individual wants.”

Carlos
said, “Like a search engine.”

“
Come again.”

“Sure. You type in what you’re looking for and it returns its best guess to match your query. The portal will do the same thing.
That’s what it did for Ursula.”

“Right, so
we’ll all try to give it the same query.”

“I have a better idea
,” said Tony.

“
Let’s hear it.”

“
It seems to me that you’re right about one thing.”

“Just one thing?”

He ignored me. “We all have our own idea of what a fortress looks like, and we can all settle on what we want it to look like in hopes of ending up at the same place. But if, as you say, there’s more than one fortress in the ES––”

“And there probably is,”
Carlos interrupted.

“
Probably. So, you know as well as I do that no matter how much we try to paint the same image, without an actual picture to focus on, we’ll still resort to the fortress in our own minds.”

“
What do you propose?”

“Th
is bus needs a driver.”

Carlos
laughed. “Tony, did you fall on your head or something? You do know there’s no actual bus.”

“No, wait,” I said. “He’s right.
Think about it. There’s much less chance of us getting split up if only one person drives the destination image.”

“How do
you propose we do that?”

“
You
do that by doing nothing.”

Carlos said, “I can do nothing.”

“I know,” said Tony. “You’re good at that.”

“Hey!
”

“Boys
, please.” I looked at Ursula. “What do you think, cupcake?”

“M
mm, cupcake,” Carlos uttered.

Ursula said,
“Methinks thou art the driver.”

“Jerome?”

He looked up at Carlos. “Jerome go with friend.”

“Yes, I know.
I mean can you not think of a fortress, keep your mind clear?”

“I no think. Is easy.”

“Then it’s settled. Everyone, clear your minds. We’ll hold hands and step through the portal together. I’ll think of the destination and, hopefully, we’ll all arrive at the same place at the same time.”

Carlos asked, “What if I can’t clear my mind completely?
I mean, I have this image of a cupcake stuck in my head now. I’d hate to––”

“Carlos!” Tony reached across the huddle and smacked him.

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’ve already considered that.”

“You
considered his cupcake?”

“
No. I’ve considered how I’m going to help you all clear your minds.”

“A spell
?”

“Yes, a basic will-chill.
It’ll cloud your thoughts temporarily.”