A Quill Ladder (35 page)

*****

“
I just step on them, and then I go to the future,
”
Abbey said. She was feeling a bit ridiculous now. But Sam was watching her earnestly, probably trying not to think that she had completely lost her mind. Abbey was also trying not to think that she had completely lost her mind. She was completely disobeying her parents, possibly sharing critical family secrets, and Sam probably thought she was crazy. They had parked on the side street a few blocks from the house and then taken the other path up to the stones.

The presence of the two Franks
’
burgundy Camry on the side street had given Abbey pause. Perhaps they just lived in the area. But she doubted it. This was a bad idea. Yet this might be one of her only chances to show Sam the stones. Or to use them herself. Now that she was back near them, she felt the old familiar pull, and had to wonder how much her scientific approach to figuring this out was all just a smoke screen for a deep-seated need to use the stones again.

The stones themselves had interested Sam significantly, particularly the symbols on them: pyramids, spirals, pentagons, hexagrams, tree branches, snowflakes, flowers. All examples of phi. Abbey felt stupid for not having noticed this before, but too much had always happened when they were in the vicinity of the stones, and, unlike her, Sam could touch the stones, brush aside the dirt and bramble that covered them, and have nothing happen, which gave him a much better opportunity to examine the symbols.

“
It even happens just when I touch them,
”
Abbey said.

“
Then why am I not in the future?
”

“
Apparently it only works for some people,
”
Abbey said. She didn
’
t want to say
“
witches,
”
as that sounded completely stupid.

Sam
’
s eyes betrayed his incredulity.

“
Do you want me to show you?
”
Abbey said.

Sam shrugged and smiled, as if to suggest he didn
’
t think anything would happen, but that she might as well.

Abbey scowled and brushed past him. She placed her foot on the stones, experienced the familiar
whoosh
, and found herself standing in the lush overgrown forest of Caleb
’
s future
—
or former future, Abbey corrected. She couldn
’
t quite wrap her mind around the time periods becoming linked, as Sylvain had suggested. But he had said that there were exceptions. So she could have arrived before Caleb
’
s people would even leave this future.

The fact that she was in this future at all was a bit of a surprise. She had expected to arrive in the desert
—
her future
—
or on the more familiar causeway, for no reason other than that it was more familiar. So that meant someone had opened the portal to this future. Someone else was already here.

Abbey whirled all about, expecting to see someone else standing in the trees, but then she chided herself. Whoever came through first could be long gone and already engaged in whatever nefarious activities they had planned
—
she was becoming a bit cynical about the users of the stones. The ground and underbrush around the stones looked trampled, as if a large number of people, or a few very large people, had just paraded through the area. It looked like they had headed off opposite the direction she had traveled to get to Caleb
’
s camp, assuming she was remembering the direction correctly and wasn
’
t turned around.

She was about to go back and show Sam that she could in fact travel in time, and ensure that he hadn
’
t panicked at her disappearance and gone running off to inform her father
—
which, in retrospect, she ought to have warned him against doing
—
when she heard the buzz of voices approaching. She sank to her knees behind the closest tree and tried to peer through the underbrush.

“
Either way, we
’
re going to need Jake
’
s help. Or you
’
re going to have to find someone else
…
like Jake.
”
Abbey recognized that voice. It was Russell.

“
I
’
m working on it. It
’
ll all come together,
”
said Sylvain in a low voice.
“
Keep your voice down. I told you, someone else is here, and we must be getting close to the stones.
”

The two men emerged from the trees several meters from the stones. Russell carried a pickaxe and a shovel. Sylvain
’
s hand was wrapped in a large white bandage, and he was looking around suspiciously. She wondered if his doorbell talent worked in this future too. He carried a compass flat in his other hand and appeared to be trying to follow a bearing. Abbey made herself as small as possible behind the tree.

“
You keep saying it
’
ll come together. But we haven
’
t found Dr. Burton yet, and all the evidence suggests that he died. So what makes you so sure there even
is
a Burton extraction process?
”

“
Because before everything went kaput, Dr. Burton had a grad student named Sam Livingstone, who was doing most of the primary research. Livingstone was considered a genius. If Burton died, my bet is that Livingstone continued the research.
”

Abbey nearly fainted. Sam? They were talking about Sam. Or future Sam. She couldn
’
t believe it.

Sylvain and Russell arrived at the small clearing where the stones were. Sylvain gave a quick blink of surprise at the sight of the stones, pocketed the compass, and looked around more intently. He evidently spotted the path of broken branches and flattened shrubbery because he walked over to it and followed it for several meters. At this point, all he had to do to see Abbey would be to turn around; but she couldn
’
t move, otherwise Russell would see her.

“
So you think he
’
s elsewhere, in another future? Are we sure there
’
s only three? He could have just died, you know.
”
Russell
’
s voice came from the other side of the tree.

Sylvain continued to stare in the opposite direction.
“
Hmm. Could have, but I think he
’
s worth looking for. And yes, let
’
s hope there are only three.
”

“
Funny. The name Livingstone. I
’
m assuming we need Jake then.
”

Sylvain
’
s voice was even lower now.
“
Quiet. There
’
s someone else here. Quite a few people, I would say.
”

“
What do you want to do about it?
”

“
You can ditch those things for starters.
”
Without turning, Sylvain waved his hand dismissively over his shoulder, and Abbey figured he must be referring to the pickaxe and shovel she
’
d seen Russell carrying.

“
What? These are new. I just bought them.
”

“
For God
’
s sake, just put them in the bushes. We can come back for them later.
”

Sylvain finally turned around, and of course his eyes fell immediately on Abbey. She smiled and waved, hopefully. She still hadn
’
t quite figured out whether Sylvain was good or bad. Or, more importantly at this point in time, whether he was to be feared or not.

“
Ah, it
’
s you,
”
he said. But then he looked back along the trampled path.
“
Did you bring friends? Or is this someone else
’
s path? Did you just get here? The doorbell has been ringing like crazy this afternoon. I
’
m assuming the last one was you?
”

Abbey stepped out from behind the tree and saw Russell do a double take.
“
Yeah, I just got here,
”
she said.
“
I didn
’
t make that path, and I don
’
t know who did.
”
She started to say that she really had to get back to Sam, who was probably freaking by now. But then she realized that if Sylvain was looking for Sam, it might not be a good idea to lead them directly to him, until she figured out exactly what it was they wanted from him.

“
Maybe you should go after whoever it was,
”
she said.

Sylvain looked at her a bit strangely.
“
Why would you suggest that?
”

Abbey shrugged.
“
Well, it
’
s probably important. You know, to know what
’
s going on. What the others are doing.
”

*****

“
All right then,
”
Ian said, pointing at the Madrona, Digby perched on his shoulder eating a sunflower seed.
“
That
’
s where we need to head. It looks due southwest from here. Let
’
s be off.
”

Mark felt like a bunch of blood vessels might explode in his head. They had just climbed an entire mountain only to turn around and go right back down. He sat heavily on a rock and folded his arms over his chest.

The claw-fingered woman and the two dark-clothed very bad man pushed past him, grumbling and giving him looks as if they knew he was going to be trouble, kind of like his first- and second-grade teachers had. He hadn
’
t had a third-grade teacher, because he freaked out in the middle of second grade when his teacher had insisted that he remain in the bin three reading level even though he could read the books from bin twenty-seven. He just couldn
’
t read them aloud, which, she said, was required before moving on to the next bin. And then he
’
d had to be pulled out of the classroom, because he was considered disruptive.

Jake followed, looking irritated, and Ian strolled past next.
“
Lovely day for a walk, isn
’
t it?
”
he said.
“
Rather a lot of exercise for a wild goose chase of course, but I thought you might like to see the sights.
”
Ian placed a strange emphasis on the word
“
sights,
”
and then gazed down off the outcrop across the bank of trees.
“
We can wait for you at the bottom, Mark, if you want to take a little rest. But don
’
t take too much time. Selena is very anxious to keep moving.
”

HT One plunked himself down on a rock next to Mark and wiped some sweat from his brow with a rather dirty hankie. Mark tried very hard not to recoil.
“
It
’
s ridiculous, isn
’
t it?
”
the hairy man said. Mark jumped. He didn
’
t expect to be spoken to by one of the hairy and tattooed.
“
I
’
m Frank,
”
the man said by way of introduction.

“
Frank, Frank, Frank
…”
Mark repeated to himself.

“
They aren
’
t going to find what they
’
re looking for,
”
Frank said.
“
Them wormholes have been destroyed or covered over. Sylvain and Marian saw to that.
”

There was that word again. Wormhole. Mark could hardly imagine what they meant by that. A shortcut through spacetime? Or something else? Something else, probably. And Ms. Beckham and the bad man had worked together, or separately (he wasn
’
t sure), to see to the destruction of the wormholes. He was a bit confused.

Mark rose and stepped carefully out to the edge of the outcrop where Ian had been standing previously, and stared down at the vibrant and massive Madrona. He let his eyes drift westward, tracing the ocean of trees, until his gaze came to rest on one of the humps of the Stairway Mountains. They looked different than he was used to. Instead of the curving cement of the Granton Dam, the valley between the first and second stair mountains was open, and he wondered if he could just barely make out the white froth of a waterfall. The Moon River
…