A Quill Ladder (58 page)

“
Abbey!
”
Her mother
’
s voice. Muffled.
“
Please talk to me. Are you okay?
”

“
Yes!
”
Abbey called back.
“
What happened?
”

“
Oh, thank God. The ceiling collapsed. These tunnels. They
’
re so old. I hate them. Are you sure you
’
re okay?
”

“
Are you okay?
”
Abbey asked Jake.

“
Aside from bleeding to death, just dandy,
”
Jake said, in a pale-sounding voice.

“
We
’
re the same,
”
Abbey called to her mother.
“
Jake
’
s pretty bad. What are we going to do?
”
She started digging at the dirt with her hands in the place where she
’
d heard her mother
’
s voice, but as she did, more dirt descended from the ceiling to fill the spot. Her mother seemed to be doing the same on her side, and dirt started to fall in Abbey
’
s hair. The pile of dirt seemed to be holding up this part of the tunnel like a column. A chilling thought of being buried alive crossed Abbey
’
s mind.

After several minutes of no progress, her mother said,
“
It
’
s no use. I
’
m afraid we
’
re going to bring the whole tunnel down. We don
’
t have time. You need to get Jake to a hospital. Can you still see the door to the apothecary?
”

Abbey turned in the direction where she thought the door was. But it was pitch-black. She groped forward with her arms outstretched. All around her she encountered walls of dirt, except in one direction, in which she managed to inch her way forward for about a meter before panicking and crawling back to Jake. Then she remembered her phone. She withdrew it from her pocket, pressed the home button, and shone it around the tunnel. All around her lay mounds of dirt, except for one open pathway.

“
Abbey!
”
her mother called.

“
I can
’
t see the stairs,
”
Abbey said.
“
There
’
s another tunnel though. If I stand with my back to your voice, it
’
s to the left.
”

“
Damn, damn, damn,
”
her mother said.
“
Okay, okay. I think that part of the tunnel leads to the library. It
’
s just over a mile and a half. There
’
s no trolley because that
’
s one of the shorter legs, but there
’
s a pair of docks on the roof of the library. Go to your future and get Jake some medical attention. Then get someone to drive you to the swamp stones.
”

“
How am I going to do all of that?
”

“
You can do it, Abbey. I have a feeling someone might be waiting for you in your future.
”

What did she mean by that?

“
I love you, Abbey,
”
her mother said.
“
Just be careful. Sometimes the doors are hard to see, and there
’
s no turn in the tunnel to tell you where it is.
”

“
I love you, too.
”
Abbey heard a slight hollowness in her own voice.

“
Tell Jake that to control the docks, he has to carefully picture the spot in the future that he wants to go to. Now go. Hurry.
”

After some coaxing and threats, Abbey managed to get Jake on his feet. She removed her shirt, trying not to feel exposed in her tank top, and tied the sleeves tightly around Jake
’
s chest, hoping to stanch the bleeding. Then she started push-dragging him along the tunnel, navigating by the glow of her iPhone and the feel of her hand along the periodically rock-studded wall. She wondered if the rocks were intended to shore up weak sections.

Jake seemed to regain some strength and they made decent progress for about fifteen minutes. But then he started to slow. Was this where Jake was going to die? And then, without him, she would be stuck in this future, until her mother or someone came to rescue her.

She ground her teeth together. It was too soon for Jake to die. Her list had said she didn
’
t have to save Jake until March. But then there was what Simon and Sylvain had said about the timeline changing.

She pushed on. She had calculated that it should take them about thirty minutes. They must be almost there.

“
So what do you think they
’
re after?
”
she said, hoping conversation might distract Jake.

“
Selena keeps talking about a different future. A glorious future where we can all be safe and happy. At first I believed her. She can be quite convincing.
”
Jake winced.

“
And is she in charge?
”

“
Of Nate and Damian, yeah. They
’
ll do anything she asks. Dr. Ford, I don
’
t know. They have an arrangement of sorts. But he doesn
’
t always take direct orders. But there
’
s someone else that seems to be over Selena. Some Quinta or something
…
I have no idea who that is.
”

“
You mean Quentin?
”

Jake hesitated.
“
No. I
’
m sure they said Quinta.
”

“
They didn
’
t drop any other hints?
”

“
Only that they don
’
t seem to like the person.
”
Jake groaned, doubled over, and stopped walking.
“
I don
’
t know if I can go much further. Please, just let me rest a few seconds.
”

Abbey shone her iPhone down the dark tunnel, which seemed to go on endlessly. By her math and counting of strides, they had already traveled over a mile. Had they missed the door? In the dim light of her phone, that was entirely possible. Should they go back or forward? She hadn
’
t turned on the GPS on her phone as she couldn
’
t risk running down the batteries and leaving them completely in the dark. She should have checked their UTM coordinates before they left Abbott
’
s Apothecary. Then it would have been a simple matter of checking their current coordinates and doing a distance calculation.

But she knew the coordinates of all the stones. Could she derive the coordinates of the apothecary? She ran the numbers through her mind. Abbott
’
s Apothecary was on the tip of the second-largest pentagram. The length of one of the lines forming the second-largest pentagram would be the same as the length of the longer arms in one of the acute isosceles triangles that formed the largest pentagram
—
and the distance from the stones to the apothecary. She drew a quick diagram on the dirt floor with the key. If the longest tunnel segments along the second-largest pentagram were 2.5 kilometers each, the length of the lines in the second-largest pentagram would be 2.5 + 1.5 + 2.5 = 6.5 kilometers. She used the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the coordinates of Abbott
’
s Apothecary, then turned on her GPS, praying that she could get a signal. When the coordinates came up, Abbey felt a small trill of hope. She punched the numbers into her phone, using the Pythagorean theorem once again to determine how much farther they had to go. If she was right, and all the tunnel entrances and exits were based on the pentagrams, this tunnel segment should be exactly 2.5 kilometers long, too.

They had come too far, she realized with a jolt, when she finished her calculation. The door should be about fifty to sixty meters back.

“
Wait here,
”
she said to Jake. She spun and ran back down the tunnel, scouring the walls by the light of her phone. Sure enough, fifty meters back down the tunnel, she made out a uniform rectangle in the dirt walls. The door was covered with dirt, moss, and rust, and the keyhole with the pentagon was barely visible.

Jake was slumped low against the side of the tunnel when she returned, and his eyes were closed.

“
I found the door, Jake. Time to get up.
”

Jake shook his head slightly and didn
’
t open his eyes.

“
Come on,
”
Abbey said.
“
We have to get you to a hospital.
”

Jake didn
’
t move.

She bent down and shook him slightly. His skin, or was it his blood, was warm against her icy hands. She fought back tears.
“
Jake, please. Becca will never forgive me if I don
’
t get you back to her.
”

His eyelids fluttered.
“
Becca?
”
he murmured.
“
We broke up after the Snowflake Dance. She didn
’
t like the rat very much. I
’
m coming. Help me up.
”
He extended his good hand to her, and Abbey pulled as he struggled to his feet.

She dragged Jake back down the tunnel, trying not to be appalled by the stain of blood that marked his jeans and the degree to which he listed to one side. She removed Ian
’
s key from her pocket with shaking hands, slipped it into the lock, and opened the door.

“
We
’
re almost there,
”
she said.

Jake leaned against the dirt wall by the door.
“
Selena has a key just like that. The pentagon is upside down on hers though.
”

The basement of the library was dark, and Abbey had to find her way through rows of shelves that seemed to be pressed together with wheels on the end. These must be the archives; you opened a space between the shelves to retrieve a book by turning the wheel. They creeped her out immediately. How easy would it be to crush someone unsuspecting between those shelves?

When they emerged to the main floor of the library, which was lit by a few fluorescent bulbs, Abbey saw how white Jake was and how much blood covered his face. Then she froze.

Voices were coming from the map room on the mezzanine at the front of the library. Dr. Ford and Selena. They were looking for the maps.

The stairs to the second floor were out in the open, in full view of the mezzanine, but maybe if Dr. Ford and Selena were distracted, they wouldn
’
t see them.

She put her finger to her lips and pointed at the stairs. Jake nodded, and they mounted the stairs to the second floor carefully, Jake
’
s foot placements weak and erratic. They were two steps from the top when Selena saw them, her red lips rounded and open in surprise.

“
Run,
”
Abbey said to Jake, and they both broke into the fastest sprint they could muster, which, given the circumstances, wasn
’
t that fast at all. Abbey looked over her shoulder as she flung open what she hoped was the roof door, only to see the top of Selena
’
s head already almost at the top of the stairs.

The winter air was freezing when they emerged onto the grass-covered roof. A crescent moon illuminated the lush greenery. Jake almost fell forward onto the moss- and grass-covered ground.

“
Get up. Get up right now!
”
Abbey yanked at his good arm and pulled him to his feet.

In the center of the roof, next to the statue that had once occupied the Square of the Mother, stood a small Madrona with drooping leaves. When they got closer, Abbey realized that someone had nearly chopped through the trunk. The axe lay to the side of the tree, as if someone had been interrupted. Without thinking, Abbey picked up the axe.

There beneath the Madrona stood two small docks. These ones were the smallest Abbey had seen, just two little platforms.

“
Get on the dock, Jake,
”
she yelled.
“
Think of my future, the bubble, with the Madrona, and the elephant
’
s-feet flowers and the two docks, where you left me a few months ago.
”