A Quill Ladder (54 page)

They all stared at the map for a few seconds. But Mark had taken back the pencil and was placing dots on the southern and eastern points of the cross. He labeled them with a D and a question mark.
“
The docks?
”
Abbey asked.

Mark shook his head. He pointed to the bottom one.
“
It
’
s not quite right. This one fits. And this one, I think.
”
He pointed to the docks they had seen most recently in the forested future.
“
But there are also the docks near the stones on the causeway. It
’
s not quite right.
”
He shook his head again with a furrowed brow.

“
And there are also the stones in the bubble city that don
’
t quite fit,
”
Abbey mused.

Mark added a dot in the center of the pentagram and labeled it with
“
statue
”
and
“
center.
”
He underlined
“
center
”
and then added
“
QFM.
”

“
What
’
s that?
”
Abbey asked.

“
Does he mean the statue of Quinta Francis Merry?
”
Kasey said.
“
It used to be where the train station is, but now it
’
s on the library roof, in the garden.
”

“
Did you say Quinta?
”
Abbey said.

Kasey nodded.

Quinta. For five. Was that the meaning of the five lines that Mrs. Forrester had drawn? Or was it the five lines that made the pentagram? Or something else?

“
Can I ask a question?
”
Caleb asked. Abbey swiveled her eyes to her brother. Caleb pointed at the easternmost point of the pentagram, where presumably another set of stones lay in the Circle Mountains.
“
Why does it look like there
’
s a blank space here?
”

Abbey stared at the spot that Caleb was pointing to. Sure enough, even though Abbey knew the area to be part of the Circle Mountains, and therefore obviously mountainous, there was a break in the hachures, almost as if part of the map had been erased.

A part of the map that was the exact size of one of the cards that Ian had given them.

Abbey pulled the third card from her pocket and fit it in the blank space. The edges met up perfectly.

“
Now we just have to see what
’
s on the card,
”
Abbey said.

“
What do you mean? It
’
s blank,
”
Kasey said.

“
We could rip it open,
”
Caleb said.

“
But what if we wreck it and there
’
s nothing printed underneath?
”
Abbey replied.

“
We have two.
”
Caleb held up the card he had taken from the file room in their house.

Just then one of Kasey
’
s cats pushed its way into the room and wove around the bottom of their chairs, purring. Abbey bent to pat the cat and looked at the map again, but the strange sense of depth that she had noticed with the original map was gone. Maybe that had somehow not transferred to the copy.

“
I thought I left you outside, Tabitha,
”
Kasey said, scooping up the cat.
“
No cats in the map room. Hair is bad for maps.
”

“
You
did
leave her outside,
”
Caleb said.

It seemed like everything happened quickly after that. The room was suddenly filled with Selena, Nate, Damian, and Dr. Ford (and Selena
’
s horrid perfume). It felt to Abbey as if they had simply apparated there, although in reality she knew they had walked. But Kasey
’
s look of surprise and horror put a whole new level of gravity on the situation. There was no way out of the room, other than the door through which they had all come in.

“
Ah, just the map we were hoping to see,
”
Selena said, leaning over the map, her hair falling in a dark curtain across Caleb
’
s arm.

Mark whipped the map off the table and started crumpling it into a little ball. Selena and Dr. Ford reached out and grasped at the map, but Mark dropped to the floor on his knees and curled himself around the crumpled paper.

“
Give us that map,
”
Selena ordered. Nate and Damian rounded the table, but were blocked by Kasey and Abbey on either side of Mark, due to the rather tiny size of the map room.

“
Whoa, whoa, whoa,
”
Kasey said.
“
I
’
m not sure what
’
s going on here, but perhaps we could all step out into the living room and discuss this like rational adults.
”

Dr. Ford stepped forward and extended his hand to Kasey.
“
My apologies. We
’
ve met before. I
’
m Dr. Ford. I hope you don
’
t mind that I brought some colleagues. Your door was open, so we just came in. Selena was just excited to see the maps.
”
He gave both Damian and Nate a stern look as he said this, as if he hoped to snap them into the act.

Selena pushed past Dr. Ford.
“
Get that map,
”
she ordered.

Damian and Nate, clearly listening to Selena, not Dr. Ford, strong-armed their way past Abbey and Kasey. Caleb moved in to stop Damian, but the older man threw Caleb into the armoire that held one of the Tiffany lamps, which crashed to the floor and shattered into a million blue slivers
—
to Kasey
’
s screams
—
and then both Damian and Nate were on top of Mark, trying to pry him up so they could retrieve the map.

“
Wait! Aren
’
t you going to create paradox somehow?
”
Abbey yelled.
“
Isn
’
t this risky?
”

“
You let the adults worry about adult things,
”
Selena snapped, trying to push the map table out of the way so she could have a go at Mark from another direction.

“
Where
’
s our dad? What have you done to him?
”
Abbey said.

A small, secretive smile crossed Selena
’
s face even as she struggled with the table. She was, Abbey observed with a choking feeling, extraordinarily beautiful with her dark hair and high cheekbones. And extraordinarily young, compared to their mother.
“
Only what should have been done to him ages ago. I brought him to his senses,
”
she said.
“
Get over here and help me, Ford. The rest of you, get out of the way!
”

Abbey wanted to slap her.

“
I don
’
t know who you are, or what you
’
re doing here, but you need to get out of my house immediately,
”
Kasey ordered.

Everyone ignored him, and Caleb jumped on Damian
’
s back. Between them, Damian and Nate had managed to hoist Mark a few centimeters into the air, and were now pulling at the white sheet of paper Mark clutched between his knees and his hands. Mark started to frantically shred it; Nate clawed at the torn pieces, while Mark shoved others into his mouth and swallowed them.

Everyone else watched as the Damian-Mark-Nate-Caleb blob crashed around the room, knocking the map table into the wall by the door. Abbey wondered if she should be swinging punches at someone, but she didn
’
t know whom, or how it would help. Should she wrestle with Selena, while directing Kasey to clobber Dr. Ford? Kasey looked equally uncertain. Dr. Ford stood with his back pressed against the far wall as if he didn
’
t wish to be hurt.

Finally Nate managed to pull the remainder of the crumpled bit of map away from Mark and shoved it in his pocket. They lowered Mark to the ground, and he remained there in a ball.

“
This is trespassing and theft. Please leave my house,
”
Kasey said.

“
There
’
s got to be more maps,
”
Dr. Ford said.
“
That one was just a copy. He has the original, and he may have the others too.
”

“
We want the rest of the maps,
”
Selena demanded. Damian and Nate both withdrew guns to emphasize their point.
“
Just give us the five maps, and nobody will get hurt.
”

“
I don
’
t have any more maps,
”
Kasey said, throwing his hands in the air.
“
The other ones burned in the museum fire. You know that,
”
he said to Dr. Ford.

“
I
’
m not convinced of that. I would search the map cabinet,
”
Dr. Ford said.

“
Get out of the way,
”
Nate ordered Mark, trying to shove at Mark with his booted foot.

Abbey tried to reassure herself that they wouldn
’
t shoot anyone. That shooting someone would create paradox, and she was sure none of them wanted to go back to Nowhere. The guns were just a threat. Otherwise they would have shot Mark while he ripped up the other map. She hoped.

Mark recoiled from Nate
’
s boot, rose to his feet, stumbled, and fell heavily against the map cabinet.

“
Out of the way, dopey,
”
Nate said.

Mark righted himself.
“
It is completely inappropriate to talk to me that way because I am different. It is quite likely that my IQ is higher than yours. I know where the maps you want are. They
’
re in drawer 309 in the map room at the library.
”

Abbey stared at him, but tried not to show too much surprise. Were the maps there? Or was Mark actually lying? She wouldn
’
t have thought him capable of it.

Mark
’
s words silenced everyone for a few seconds. Nate made swaggering moves, as if he expected everyone to laugh at Mark
’
s statement regarding his IQ, but nobody did.

“
309,
”
Selena said.
“
That
’
s it. The meaning of the card. All this time. We need to get to the library.
”
Evidently, Selena didn
’
t think Mark capable of lying either.

Dr. Ford gave Mark a long, assessing look.
“
I
’
d take our young friend here along as a helper. Mark likes maps. Don
’
t you, Mark?
”

“
I
’
ll go, too,
”
Caleb said.

“
I don
’
t think you have any expertise we require,
”
Dr. Ford said.

“
I
’
m in charge here,
”
Selena interrupted.
“
We may not have a lot of time before the energy from the stones is gone.
”
She narrowed her eyes further at Abbey and Caleb, as if assessing how exactly they had gotten here.
“
Nate and I will take Mark to the library. You and Damian search the rest of this room.
”

“
We were just about to head off, anyway,
”
Caleb said.
“
We don
’
t find maps quite as riveting as you all. As far as I can tell, they
’
re just a bunch of lines on paper. Not sure what everyone
’
s so worked up about.
”