The Two Worlds (8 page)

“
Yeah,” Rena and I both
answered. Neither one of us was excited for our task at hand. Nia
laughed, laying a few gold coins on the table, and we headed out
into the night.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“
How was school?” Dia
quizzed me as soon as I woke up.

“
Very boring, considering,”
I muttered, rolling off the couch with a thud. I rubbed my eyes and
squinted as I heard singing coming from upstairs.

“
It’s Rena,” Dia informed
me. “She’s taking a shower. Mrs. Spelling dropped off her bags this
morning.” I nodded and yawned. “Nia wanted me to tell you that
she’s on her way over. So—”

“
Already here, Dia,” Nia
replied, walking out of the kitchen. “Just got here,
actually.”

“
It’s creepy the way you do
that,” I threw at her.

“
And it’s horrible the way
your breath smells,” she threw back. I grinned, yawned again, and
staggered up to the bathroom.

“
Hey, Kay,” Rena said,
passing me on the way up and looking super chipper. I grumbled a
good morning and went into the bathroom. When I came back
downstairs there was a hot breakfast on the table and Nia, Rena,
and Dia were in a heated argument about something.

“
I can’t believe she was in
your group!” Nia almost yelled around a mouthful of eggs. “I hate
her!”

“
It’s not nice to say hate,
Nia,” Dia scolded. “I’m sure she’s just misunderstood.”

“
No, she’s not. She called
me out on being an orphan,” Rena tossed in, grabbing a piece of
toast.

“
She what?”

“
I know,” Rena said, biting
her toast. “But that’s okay.
I
know who I am, and that’s the
important part.”

I cleared my throat and sat down next
to Nia. “What’s going?”

“
We’re talking about little
Ms. Erika Williams, the wizard,” Nia said, chewing on a piece of
fried ham. “Rena told me how she’s in your group.”

“
Yeah, what was up with the
whole ‘I know your sister and you’ thing?” I frowned and glanced at
Nia before pouring a cup of orange juice. “Is there something I
don’t know?”

Nia sighed. “Well, you know I’m a
Creator, right?”

“
No,” I replied
sarcastically. “Really?”

Nia ignored me. “And you’re an
Awakener. Grandpa Lamont’s an historian partly because of us. We’re
part of a legend, if you will.”

“
A legend?” I echoed,
skeptical. “What, like slaying the dragons or
something?”

“
Sort of. We’re supposed to
be the messiahs or something for this planet. That’s what people
believe.”

“
It’s farfetched, I know,”
Nia admitted, twitching her eyebrows. “That’s the thing with
legends. You never really know.”

“
Well,” Rena jumped in, “You
could always just ask your grandpa.” Nia and I looked at her. “I
mean, if he spent a great deal of his life researching whether or
not the legend is true, he’s probably got more information than we
do.”

Nia grabbed a piece of bacon and chewed
slowly.

“
But Grandpa is
investigating Caldbeck,” I pointed out. “And we have assignments to
do.”

“
We could always just stop
by Caldbeck on our way to Giza,” Rena suggested.

Nia chocked on her bacon. “Stop by
Caldbeck?” she said. “People don’t just
stop
by Caldbeck.
Once you’re there, you’re there. You’re crazy.”

“
Maybe,” Rena admitted,
crestfallen.

I, however, knew why Rena was so
gung-ho about Caldbeck and gave a small smile. “I think we should
try it,” I declared. Rena, Nia, and my house all made a noise of
surprise. “I want to know what I have to live up to. And I know you
want to find out how Grandpa’s doing, sis.”

“
I agree,” came a small
voice from my neck.

I jumped and rolled my eyes. “Londa,
you’ve
got
to stop doing that.”

“
Well, what do you want me
to do, ring a bell whenever I want to say something?” Yolonda
replied. “Anyway, I know there aren’t any rules on visitors at
Caldbeck. We could sneak around for a minute, see if we can find
your gramps, and if not, on to Giza to dance the zombie
dance.”

“
You think it could work?”
Rena breathed, her eyes dancing with excitement. “You really think
we could get in find someone?”

“
I don’t see why not,”
Yolonda kept on, her voice beginning to swell with pride. “I’ve
been here on Turgor for thousands of years, before Caldbeck was
even built, and I happen to have a cousin who knows the ins and
outs of the place.”

“
Oh yeah?” Nia asked,
sucking her teeth. “And exactly
where
is this cousin?”
Yolonda mumbled something incoherent. Nia leaned forward and raised
her eyebrows. “I’m waiting.”

“
Well, Cousin Finny
is...complicated. See, he’s...um...well, he’s buried. Alive, if you
must know.”

“
He’s buried alive?” I
echoed, wincing. I didn’t like where Yolonda was going with this.
“Why?”

“
Because he made people
angry and they sort of overreacted...but he really is a cool guy.
All we—”

“
You sure like using
we
a lot, Yolonda,” Nia snorted.

“—
have to do is dig him up
and bring him with us. He can be our compass.” Yolonda finished,
unperturbed by Nia’s accusations. “Easy as one, two,
three.”

Dia sighed. “Yolonda, where exactly is
Mr. Finny located?”

“
He’s buried underneath
Nipsin’s Lodge.”

“
And of course, you’re
speaking of the Nipsin’s Lodge that is inside the KaKonian
Bubble?”

“
Yup.” Yolonda said, unaware
that Dia had begun to quake.

I looked around the table at my sister
and friend. “What’s Nipsin’s Lodge?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

“
OH, THE BARREL OF
ROM

HAS COME AND HAS
GONE

AS TRAVELERS MOVE
AND

MAKE WAAAAAYYYY

BUT DEAR OLD BEARD
JACK

HAS SNATCHED ‘EM RIGHT
BACK

AND THE RUM MAKES SURE
THEY

STAYYYYY!

IN HERE YOU COME

FOR SOME OR FOR
NONE

EACH HAS ITS OWN
MISFORTUNOUS

DAYYYYYYYSSS!

BUT ONE SLIP OF
TONGUE

AND YOU NOW OWN
NONE

FOR DEAR OLD BEARD
JACK

THE PRICE YOU
PAYYYYY!”

“
You’ve got to be kidding
me,” I whispered to my companions as we watched the thick crowd in
the small little shack bump glasses and roar the song with
ferocity. We were crouched down behind the hut and peering through
the small opening of wood that just happened to be shaped like a
fist. Nia insisted that we dress in all black, and as I watched in
awe I became very appreciative she had. Inside were all shapes and
sizes of men, creatures, and the occasional woman in a tattered
dress, who looked like she had been kidnapped and had no chance of
escaping. A very tall creature with thick nostrils, no hair and
harsh, green teeth growled, slammed his fist down onto the rickety
table, and demanded more rum.

“
Troll,” Nia whispered. “And
the thing there...that’s a KaKonian.” She pointed to a medium
height man who was a violet color and had bright white eyes. Smoke
rose out of his ears as he gulped from his mug, and his long
fingers tapped impatiently on the table in front of him. When he
opened his mouth to burp, nothing but smoke came out. “They’re
allergic to the Turgorian sun,” Nia continued. “That’s why they
live in the bubble. And they’re an anti-social group. They were one
of the original races here and feel superior to the rest of us that
came along. Oh, and they hate Awakeners.”

“
Wonderful,” I yelped,
crouching lower. A burly man with four eyes (two located evenly on
his face where his nose should’ve been) growled and began the next
chorus of the song. “Who’s this Beard Jack anyway?”

“
Him,” Nia whimpered and
pointed. The den grew louder as a dark figure emerged from the
crowd, towering above the rest. Rena covered her ears, and Yolonda
shivered against my skin as the figure appeared. His face was
completely smooth , and he lacked a nose. A trail of hair began on
each side of his head and met in the middle to form a beard. The
beard was impossibly long, dragging across the floor as he stalked
slowly through the crowd, surveying the drunken faces around him
that began another verse of tribute.

I took a deep breath. “You know, we
might be in over our heads with this one.”

Nia and Rena both nodded.

Yolonda took a breath as well and said,
“Look, I understand if ya’ll don’t want to go in after someone
you’ve never met before. I mean, it’s dangerous, a bunch of drunken
hooligans and the faceless guy. We can just go home. It’s
just...he’s my only family...and I thought...” Her voice cracked
and she let the sentence trail. Nia sighed and Rena looked down at
the ground.

I thought for a moment. If Nia was
buried in there, and she was my only family, I’d want to go and get
her. “Where is he, Yolonda?” I asked.

“
H-he’s in the middle of the
place. Underneath a small trap door.”

“
Okay,” I said breathless,
my heart pounding. “We’re going to need a diversion. Nia, that’s
your job.”

“
Me?” Nia squeaked. “Why is
it
my
job?”

“
Because we need someone to
create
a diversion, and you’re a Creator, aren’t you?” Nia
grumbled a reply, and I kept going. “Rena, I need you to stand
guard. If anyone should turn around and see me, tell this shack
here to start quivering. Anything to shake these goons up. They’re
good and drunk, so it shouldn’t take much.” Rena gave a nervous
nod. “Yolonda and I are going in as soon as they turn the other
way. Nia, we need something really good. Let’s see what Erika was
talking about. All right, let’s go!”

We split up, and Nia ran to the back of
the shack and lifted her arms. Out of the calm sky came a small
orange glow, followed by another and another. Nia began to perspire
as the orange glows became larger. She was creating a big sun.
Moving her arms together slowly, we all watched as the orange balls
of fire joined together and cast a bright glow upon the Nipsin
Lodge. The inhabitants of Nipsin’s noticed, too, and began to watch
Beard Jack to see what he would do. Jack himself was snarling at
the new sun, allowing long ropes of drool to disappear in his
beard. If I hadn’t been frozen with a mixture of fear and
admiration of Nia’s talent, I would’ve gagged.

The light wasn’t very strong,
flickering in and out sporadically as if someone was placing their
fingers over a light bulb. I ran to the corner of the house and
stuck my hand out as a ray of light hit my hand. Just as I
suspected, the ray was ice cold. Feeling a slight shiver along my
spine, I waited for another ray to hit, and as it did, I whispered,
“You are strong, incredibly warm, the source of immense heat.” The
ray disappeared from my hand, and, on cue, the air began to warm. I
turned around and noticed that a small group of the Nipsin’s
patrons had gathered in front of the shack and was beginning to
advance towards Nia. Peering into another small hole near my head,
I saw the KaKonian bare his teeth and crouch down behind the
counter as the rays began to pour in.

“
Nia, watch out!” I yelled,
darting under the hole so the KaKonian wouldn’t be able to see me.
But it was too late. He gave a sharp glance to where I was hiding
and paused for a moment, hesitating as another ray hit the floor,
this time leaving a trail of smoke behind it. My rays were heating
up faster that I thought they would. I crouched there under the
hole with my back pressed against the shack, eyes darting for a way
to hide myself.

Just as I was about to make a run to
grab Nia from the angry mob, the shack lurched forward. I shouted
and fell over, looking around for the source of new movement and
spotted Rena. She had her hands pressed against Nipsin’s with a
tight expression of fear on her face as her mouth moved quickly,
egging the structure to continue to move. The shack obeyed and
lurched forward again, sending the KaKonian tumbling forward,
glasses of rum splashing on top on him. I stood up on trembling
legs and placed my hands against the shack as well, whispering a
few words to the shack, along with Rena, to keep it
sturdy.

“
Kay, behind you!” Yolonda
shouted. I was preparing to turn around when I felt a large hand
wrap around my neck.

“
You,” the voice said, its
breath rank, “have caused me a lot of trouble.” Opening my mouth to
reply, I gasped as the ground moved away from me, and I felt myself
being lifted into the air and swung forward.