Out of This World (24 page)

“Don’t you think we’ve thought of that? We’ve been studying humans for years, Wyland—not months like you thought. Earth’s one working portal appeared years ago, not months. Human technology is very powerful. And while it’s almost impossible to coordinate magic coming from thousands of different magicians, humans are able to coordinate their forces quite effectively.” He paused. “We agreed to your test only so we could study their teamwork and problem-solving, and human behavior under stress. You hoped it would be part test and part a chance to learn more about humans. To us, they weren’t being tested. They were being
studied
. To determine what kind of enemy or ally they might make.”

“Even better,” said Wyland. “Then you and the Council surely saw what
I
saw while observing them. That these humans would make
fantastic
allies.”

“Wrong,” said Hirth bluntly. “We came to the opposite conclusion. And everyone agreed.”

“Impossible,” said Wyland. “Not if you were watching the same kids I was.” His eyes narrowed in confusion and he scratched his head. Then his already large eyes widened more than Zachary and Jenna would have thought possible. “It’s because they can do magic after all, isn’t it?” he said from out of nowhere.

Hirth looked stunned. “How did you know th . . . I mean, that’s ridiculous,” he said, trying to catch himself. But it was too late.

“How did I know that?” said Wyland. “Because I listened to Zachary and Jenna’s conversation on the last world they were on. And paid attention. Zachary was able to tap into our transmission in the cave. He saw what
we
were seeing. What the crystal was showing us. For just an instant. And not with his eyes. He had to have used magic for that.”

Now it was time for Zachary’s eyes to widen. Jenna turned to him with her mouth open. Her brother had actually performed
magic
. Real magic.
Incredible
.

“Since I’m your prisoner,” said Wyland, “you might as well tell me everything. What’s the point of keeping secrets from me now?”

Hirth considered. “Since I know you can’t escape, why not? We discovered that the entire Earth, for reasons we don’t understand, is surrounded by a field that dampens magic. Like the field I’m using to suppress your magic right now, but slightly weaker. Even I, the most powerful magician on Orum, struggled to do the simplest magic while on Earth. I barely managed to teleport this family to the portal while I was there.”

“What are you talking about?” said Jenna. “The portal just appeared in our kitchen. You didn’t teleport us
anywhere
.”

Hirth laughed. “Didn’t I, Jenna? You know we can’t open or control portals. And there is only one currently open on your world—and, trust me, it isn’t in your kitchen. I put your entire family into a trance, so you would follow my instructions without knowing it. First I transported your parents to the portal and sent them through. Then I placed you in your chairs around your kitchen table, awoke you, and created the illusion of your parents disappearing in front of you.”

Zachary searched his memory, but couldn’t find even a hint that this had been done. If Hirth could pull off an illusion this impressive, even while suppressed, his magic was astonishing. “So you must have created the illusion of the talking bird also,” said Zachary.

“Very good. I did. As the first part of the test, as you guessed. Then, when you and Jenna decided to go after your parents and stepped into what you thought was a portal, I froze you in a trance again. Then I transported you to the actual location of the portal, and sent you through.”

“And my parents in the cave were an illusion also. Right?” said Jenna.

“Correct,” said Hirth. “And, obviously, your parents were never on Mesrobia. When you—unexpectedly—passed their Challenge, we wanted to be sure you went where we wanted you to go. So a magician of ours caused their Chief Justice to have the illusion of speaking with one of his men, who told him he had seen your parents.”

Hirth turned back toward Wyland. “Now where was I before I was interrupted?”

“You were telling me you experienced a powerful magic dampening field on Earth.”

“Right. I’m the most powerful magician on Orum, and I’ve been refining and strengthening my magic for a lifetime. But if I had been
born
on Earth, the dampening field would have prevented me from ever taking the first step as a magician. You have to walk before you can run, and I would never have been able to walk.”

“So if even
you
wouldn’t have developed magic if you’d been born on Earth,” said Zachary, “our lack of magic might have nothing to do with having poor minds or imaginations. It might only be because of this strange field that suppresses it.”

“Unfortunately, this is true. I came to this same conclusion, and knew this was a possibility I had to test. So I forced your parents to become test subjects. They were not treated like royalty, even though this is what Wyland believed. They were put in a cold, damp cell, in complete darkness. I told them if they didn’t use magic to create light for themselves, I’d let them starve to death.”

“They had better still be alive,” hissed Jenna, her eyes blazing with rage, now knowing that Wyland’s earlier assurances meant nothing.

“They are,” said Hirth. “They were finally able to produce some magic, after all. Although I had to starve them for days, and when they finally succeeded, their efforts were incredibly feeble. They were able to create a dim illumination for a few seconds at a time. It was
pathetic
,” said Hirth with a sneer. “And light was the only thing they were ever able to control at all.”

“Because magic is like a muscle that they’ve never used,” said Wyland. “But with a little exercise, who knows how strong they could get?” He paused. “So what have you done with them?”

“I’ve erased their memory of all events since I joined them in their kitchen. And I’ve frozen them in another trance.”

“You have to let them go!” demanded Zachary.

“I don’t have to do anything!”

“Where are they?” asked Wyland.

“They’re resting peacefully in a trance state only a half mile to the west of us,” he said, pointing to his left.

Zachary’s hands balled up into fists. If he could get his hands around Hirth’s neck for just a second,
then
Hirth would see who was powerful and who wasn’t.

Zachary took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. If this journey had taught him anything, it had taught him the dangers of not keeping a clear head. “So humans can do a little magic,” he said as calmly as possible. “So what? How does that change anything? Maybe that could make us even
better
um . . . allies.”

Wyland turned to him. “No, Zachary. Don’t you see? Hirth has become terrified of humans. He’s more afraid of your species than of the species that has been conquering worlds. Because he’s guessed that your race could well turn out to be the most powerful magicians in the known universe. You’ve built an advanced civilization, not through the use of magic, which would have been almost effortless, but by the strength of your minds. And the strength of your collective will. You had to be able to understand things to get anything done. We didn’t. Hirth knows that with time, training, and practice, your magic could be greater than our own—greater even than that of this new species of magicians threatening so many worlds.”

Zachary looked at Hirth to see if he would challenge this statement, but he remained silent.

“And your people now have a deep knowledge of this thing you call science,” continued Wyland. “And my intuition tells me that this gives you a huge added boost. We tap into scientific principles without knowing what they are, or how we do it. But you would know how to best take advantage of these principles. This could well make your magic more potent than any we have ever seen.”

“Very good, Wyland,” said Hirth. “You are exactly right. If these humans ever get off Earth and discover their potential in the realm of magic, they could be unstoppable.”

Wyland nodded. “So you’re intent on destroying the portals emerging on Earth, not because these children
failed
. But because they succeeded too well. They performed
too
brilliantly. Seeing these kids in action has you more afraid than ever. And you were able to convince the Council to side with you on this.”

“The potential danger from these humans is beyond imagination,” said Hirth. “You know I’m right. What is that infallible intuition of yours telling you?”

Wyland tilted back his head and closed his eyes for almost a minute. Finally, he frowned deeply and shook his head. “I don’t know. Right now, my intuition on this subject is a blank.”

“Too bad,” said Hirth. “It would have been nice to have someone as talented as you side with us on this.” He shrugged. “But so be it. I’m off to the Grand Council to power up the crystal that will destroy Earth’s portals. And while I’m at it, we can determine what we should do with this human family. If they should live in a prison for the rest of their lives, or be executed. I’ll be back in twenty or thirty minutes with a verdict, just before I isolate Earth forever.”

A large black crystal emerged from one of Hirth’s many pockets and began spinning by his head. “As for me,” he said with a cruel gleam in his eye. “I’m going to recommend execution.”

And with this said, the red-robed alien vanished into thin air.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Escape

“I’m so sorry this has happened,” said Wyland. “I want you to know that most of the people of Orum are very decent. We’ve been the most powerful species in this section of the universe for many generations, and we’ve never sought to conquer others. Unlike this upstart species coming our way. I’m afraid Hirth has a cruel side. And he seems to have had an irrational reaction to your species, and has poisoned the Council against you.”

“As great as it would be to discuss this right now,” said Zachary, “in case you didn’t hear, unless we do something, we probably only have twenty or thirty minutes left to live. So let’s get out of here and figure out a way to defeat this guy. And stop him from destroying California.”

“Impossible,” said Wyland simply. “No one has ever escaped from this type of prison.”

“
Really?
” said Zachary in amazement. “Wow, maybe we humans really
could
kick your buts,” he added with just the hint of a smile. Wyland had said that while living things couldn’t pass the invisible barrier, everything else could. It was time to test this out. Zachary flicked a tiny pebble at the barrier and watched it pass right through, as easily as did the air. His smile spread into a wide grin. “Well, watch carefully, because you’re about to see your first escape.”

Zachary turned to his sister. “I need you to gather rocks as quickly as you can and put them in a pile next to me. About the size of my hand would be good. But I need as many as you can get.”

Jenna smiled as his plan became obvious to her, and she rushed off to find stones.

Wyland, on the other hand, wore a blank expression. “How will small stones help you?” he asked.

“You said all we need to do is move that crystal, right?” he said, pointing to the crystal still sitting on top of a large boulder fifty feet away.

“Right. But I’ve already told you. We can’t reach it, and my magic won’t work at all. So moving it is impossible.”

Zachary shook his head. “Wow, magic really does spoil you. You really can’t think of
any
other way to move that crystal?”

Wyland’s brow furrowed in concentration, but he finally shook his head no, just as Jenna returned and deposited an armful of stones by her brother.

Zachary picked up one of the rocks, took careful aim, and fired it at the crystal. After a second or two of flight, Zachary’s missile crashed into the large boulder on which the crystal was sitting, missing the target by several feet. He quickly picked up another and launched it at the crystal once again. There was no time to waste.

Wyland’s eyes widened. Zachary guessed the alien was suddenly wondering how the people of Orum, so spoiled by being able to move things with their minds and shoot beams of energy, had never once thought of using their
arms
to launch an object at something to get it to move.

“I’m just warming up,” explained Zachary as he threw another stone, missing the crystal once again. He picked up another as Jenna deposited ten more in the pile beside him. “We have a sport back home we call
baseball
—and I’m not trying to brag or anything—but I’m
really
good at it.”

Zachary rifled another stone at the crystal, but it curved away at the last instant, missing by inches. If he had a few baseballs, he would have hit it by now, but the stones were odd shapes and weights and didn’t fly perfectly straight.

On his eleventh try he hit the crystal dead center and it shot off the boulder into the woods, shattering as it did so.

A slow smile spread over Wyland’s face and he floated five feet into the air. He caught Zachary’s eye and shook his head in wonder. “That did the trick quite nicely. Thank you,” he said happily. “But boy do I feel stupid,” he added.

Zachary was about to say,
you should
, when he caught himself. “Nah, you just aren’t used to thinking that way,” he said instead, realizing as he did that it was perfectly true. “Believe me, if things were reversed—if we were on Earth and my arms were tied—I’d never think of using
magic
to move a distant object.”

“Now what?” said Jenna. “Hirth won’t be gone for long.”

“We need a plan, and we need one fast,” said Zachary. “What keeps our parents in a zombie state?” he asked Wyland. “Is it another of these crystals pointing in their direction?”

The short alien nodded.

“If we toss the crystal away, how long until they come out of the trance?” asked Zachary.

“Immediately,” replied Wyland.