Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (37 page)

“The smart kind.
”
Grandpa
tapped his temple with a hairy finger
.
“
You don’t think
we’d go advertising about
believ
ing
in
Wybbil
s, do you
?
No one believed us when we were kids, and they sure won’t now
.
They’d say we’ve go
ne senile
and send us off to the Land of the Living Dead.”

“Land of the Living Dead?”
Glory
’s
voice went up in pitch
.
“Where’s that?”

“The old folks home.”

“Oh.”
Glory
gave a nervous laugh. “Uh, you don’t think the
Wybbil
s
will try to hurt us, do you?”

“
Only if desperate,
”
said
Grandpa
.
“
And if they lost the
Elboni
, desperate they will be
.
You’ve been playing up at Queen's
Mesa
again, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but not since
...
”

“
Watch yourself, young
lady
.
Wybbil
s have the magic
.
If you took their
Elboni
, you
’
ve brought down a whole lot of trouble on yourself and possibly the entire
Alley
clan.
”

“What do you know about binding
Wybbil
s?
”
Glory
asked.

“The old-timers used to say if you caught a
Wybbil
by the toe he’d have to give you whatever you wanted.”

Glory
shook h
er
head. “I already tried that
—
didn’t work.”

“You’re kidding
.
”

“No,” said
Glory
.
“I grabbed a
Wybbil
by the toe just last night and hung on real tight, but he said it wasn’t the toe that mattered, but what’s under
hand
.
Whaddaya suppose that means?
”

“My own grand
daughter
caught
herself
a Wybbil
.
”
Grandpa
slapped his knee.
“Ain’t that just something.
”
Then he
made a prune face
.
“That was a
dumb
thing to do
.
Wybbil
s are
dangerous
, but
if I was a betting m
a
n,
I’d say what needs to be under
hand
is the
Elboni
itself.
”

The wheels in
Glory
’s
skull
turned
.
That w
ent along with what
the Sliver had said, too. The
Wybbils themselves
told her
eight
conditions were required for a binding
.
If
Grandpa
was right,
Glory
knew
one
of the conditions
already
.

The screen door swung open and
Patrice
poked her head outside.

“Me and
Nana
are almost done making lunch
.
W
e need you to
make the powdered punch
and set the table.”

“Give h
er
a few minutes,”
Grandpa
said.

“
D
on’t keep h
er
too long,”
Patrice
said and let the screen door slam shut
.

“Nope,”
Grandpa
winked, “won’t be long at all.
”
Then he moved his second knight,
the one with the
golden key, toward
Glory
’s
treasure chest
.

“
Dragon's Bane!
”
Grandpa
shouted with glee as he slayed
Glory
’s
dragon
.

“What!”

Grandpa
had set h
er
up and was about to win the game
.
Glory
surveyed the situation
.
H
er
knights were way over in
Grandpa
’s lair, across the game board, so there wasn’t enough time left to move back and defend
her
own treasure chest. Dejected,
Glory
s
at with
chin in hand watching the inevitable pilfering of h
er
gold.

“I s
ought
, found, persisted
,
and conquered,”
Grandpa
bragged
.
The usual
lecture was about
to
commence
.
“
Ya fall for it every time
.
As we danced in the daisies, you thought that I was only shuffling my feet, but I was actually lining up both barrels
.
When the jig was up
,
I open fired.” He pointed at
Glory
’s
heart
.
“BANG
!
Y
a
didn’t have a prayer
.

“
Ya have a good head on your shoulders,
Sprout
.
But your strategy lacks
foresight
.
Remember;
never take your eyes off the treasure. Got it?
”

Glory
gave a sarcastic half salute
.
“Never take my eyes off the treasure
.
Got it.”

“Whippersnappers,
t
hink ya know everythin
g and never listen.
Now put the game away, while I find my teeth
.
Ya haven’t happened see
n ‘em
lying around anywhere, have ya?”

Glory
picked-up the Treasure Quest box and saw the fake pink gums and yellow
ish
teeth lying inside
of
it
.
Yuck.
Sh
e
held the box out to
Grandpa
to avoid touching them
.

“Ah,”
Grandpa
picked up his upper plate and slurped it into place,
doing
the same with the bottom
.
“I’m always losing my c
hoppers
.”

“I know.”

Grandpa
wriggled
his lips
, while
Glory
put away the game
.

“Wheel me to the table, will ya?”

“Sure, Grandpa.”

Glory
spent lunch staring
out the window,
barely tasting h
er
food
, mind turning
. Plan A had been foiled by
Nana
’s unfortunate accident
.
The toe thing didn’t work either.
If
s
he wanted to bind a Wybbil
s
he better come up with a Plan
C
—
and fast
.
Maybe it was time to pull in an
a
lly.

Next morning
,
s
he planned to tell
Clash
everything that’d happened since th
e day she found the mystical stone
in the cavern
and get his inpu
t
, but when she got on the bus he wasn’t there. Crud!
The day went downhill from there.