Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (59 page)

“Try me,” Matthew said.

“Okay,
the ocean is called the Sea of Serenity.”

“There is no ocean by that name.”

“You’re right, not on Tullah, but broaden your horizons.”

“How can he go broader than the entire planet?” Clash asked.

“Think
Wybb.”

“Wybb?
”
Matthew scratched near is ear
.
“Doesn’t sound familiar.

“Wybb?
”
Mandy
asked
.

“How far
is Wybb
from
school
?
”
Olivia asked.

“
I
nfinity
,
”
Glory
said, staring ahead as she repeated what Needle had told her back on
Tullah
.
“But through
the
Elboni
we’re only a step away.”

“
Oh,
crap!
”
Clash
said, looking at the others
.
“She means Wybb
—
as in the legendary
world of the
W
ybbils.”

“She can’t expect us to believe that
?
”
Olivia said, her customary superior
ity
complex returned to replace the charity she had showed back on the bus.

“
I
don’t expect anything from you at all.
”
Glory
said. “All I know is that the
W
ybbils brought me here because I took the
ir
Elboni
Stone
out of Queen’s Mesa
.
”

“Let me get straight.
”
Mandy stood with
hands on hip. “You’re saying
Wybbils are real
,
and we’re no longer on Tullah, but
on the Wybbil world of Wybb, because you’ve stolen some stone of theirs
?
”

“Yes.”

“
Stealing
—
now t
hat
’s something I believe.”

“So you believe me?”

“
Doesn’t matter.
Whether you’re lying or telling the truth—either way you’re insane.”

“Sh
ut up for a minute
.” Clash
said
, still filming everything with his Sliver
.
“Say it is true—explain to me why the Wybbils want this stone so badly.”

“They
’re trying to feed me some sob story, saying
the stone is like the greatest thing ever, it’s the source of all magic, their planet depends
on
it, without
it
everything will crumble, and other worlds will follow…
blah
,
blah
,
blah. Personally,
I think they’re lying
—
wouldn’t be the first time
.”

The
other kids
looked at her as if she was trying to serve them a cow patt
y
on a dinner plate.
“I
’m sorry
.
I
know the whole thing
must
sound crazy…”

“Sound
s
crazy
?
”
Mandy
said
.
“
It
is
crazy.
You’re
crazy.
”

“We’re here though,
”
Olivia said, titling her h
e
ad way back to look up
at
the st
ack rising out of
the Bamboozle.
“
T
hat much is hard to deny.”

“
Where is here though?”
Matthew asked.

“The Bamboozle, I already told you.”

“
Quit with the games,
”
Matthew
replied, slowly turning around to absorb the view
.
“I think we’re in a cavern.”

“That’s got to be it,”
Olivia
surmised
.
“Queen’s Mesa no doubt.”

“I know Queen’s Mesa
well,
”
Clash
said, looking around
.
“And this ain’t it.”

A rush of conversation ensued
.

Glory sat patiently, letting them
go over
this recent change of circumstances
with one another.
They deserved that much.
Unlike the
m
,
she
ha
d
been
slowly dr
agged
into this new reality.
Getting
sucked in all at once must be
even more
overwhelming.

“We’re all on drugs,” Mandy said, pacing back and forth
.
“That’s the only explanation.”

“If
only we were really on another planet
,”
Clash
said wistfully
.
“
How co
ol wo
uld that be?”

Matthew
and
Clash
dug through their school bags, producing a pile
of
odds-and-ends
. T
hey tried to use a spoon and fork to dig their way out, but quickly ga
v
e up.

“Matthew,”
Olivia
said
,
plopping down
at the edge of the circle of sunlight
.
“What about your slingboard?”

“What about it?”

They all
glanced at
the fish-shaped board on
the ground
. It lay
near
the
spot where the
green door used to be
.

“Maybe you can use it to
escape out
the top of this place
,
”
Mandy suggested.

He shook his head. “Even with the safety off
,
twenty feet is maximum clearance.
”

“But I’ve seen you go higher than that out on the field.”

“Only if I have something to sling from—like a ramp
,
or
a
hill
,
or one of the tubes
.
This
place
is a
big sphere
.
If I try to sling
around the curve
,
the best I can hope for is
perpetual loop
.
The worst
—
I get ricocheted into a wall head first.”

“Can’t you go straight up
the chimney
?
”
Olivia asked.

“Like I said, twenty feet is the highest it will go
.
That
chimney’
s a good
hundred
feet.”

“Can’t you at least try?
”
Man
d
y said, voice
losing its hard edge, to break into
scared
little girl quivers.
“I want to go home.”

“Okay, okay,” Matthew said
.
“
Just don’t cry.”

He picked up the slingboard
, opened
a compartment
at
the bottom
, and
removed
a
long
shiny
T-
bar
.
It snapped into place at the front of the board. A button on the
T-shaped handlebars glowed blue
, indicating all systems go
.
A
push of a button near the right handle made the motor purr to life
.
Matthew stepped on the board
. It
rose waist-high
t
o hover in place.
A twist of the right handle grip, a
long with a slight lean
of his body
to the left, glided
the
slingboard
around the perimeter
.

“
Sand is a tricky surface,
” he
explained from above.
“S
o
I’m letting
the
s
ling’s
computer scan
the terrain and
make the necessary adjustments
.”