Third Earth, page 8
I opened a lid. White, powdery crystals, the texture of sticky salt, filled the deep urns to the brim. Temnon sent his golden magic into the container.
“Monoammonium phosphate. Refined for purity and potency,” he confirmed.
I replaced the lid, which clinked with a satisfying metallic ring. “This will do. Thank you, High King Po Lan.”
“We are still in your debt.” He pressed an Aether Stone into my hands. “This will deliver you to my palace where you are always welcome. Return with the slightest favor and it is yours. Once your book is found, I will study your history with all enthusiasm. We will strive to adopt the good and learn from the bad.”
Poor guy was in for a lot of learning.
I stood awkwardly while he smiled, gratitude and joy threatening to fire up his tear ducts.
“We are happy to be of service,” Temnon said with natural diplomacy. “Now we must depart. Thank you for your hospitality. Goodbye for now.”
Claude leaned close to be heard over the applause.
“Agnes, I’m worried about the tremble in your hands. Go to First Earth and have Chevlin examine you. I’ll help Temnon deliver these urns. You need to be in top shape for the next mission.”
“That’s really nice,” I said, pleased by his sincerity, “but I promised my mom.”
I was secretly happy for another chance to procrastinate. The whole idea of dragon spies gave me serious anxiety. If Claude knew why I turned down his offer to help, he didn’t judge.
“Grimmal and I will head home and meet with Odric. I’m certain he and Serene have already devised a strategy. Tem, see you soon.”
Temnon’s magic lifted the pallets of heavy urns without effort, and they hovered over our heads. I placed my hand on my Aether Stone inside my pouch.
“Second Earth.”
A golden circle of light spread on the floor beneath my feet. Grimmal stepped out of the light’s borders.
“Well done, Lumi.”
She purred as we fell into the Jent Path.
The load of heavy urns, surrounded by golden magic, blocked the light from the coliseum. The edges of the Jent Path expanded to include the entire load. Now to get these urns and their precious contents to Dr. Buchanan and the Bounteous Life Foundation.
As tired as I was, I fought the comforting hum of the Fulcrum’s raw magic. Sailing away from the big, dry planet, I tensed, half expecting the dark vortex of tainted magic to open and suck us into space. Then again, if I did get sucked out to space, I wouldn’t have to go to Third Earth. There’s a bright side to everything, right?
9
Dr. B’s Interglobal Operation
With Earth 22 far behind us, the Jent Path seemingly stable, and the journey through the Fulcrum to Second Earth plodding along nicely, I succumbed to my exhaustion and fell asleep only to be plagued by vivid dreams saturated with sand, phosphorus crystals, and tainted magic melting into a looming shadow that coated Second Earth in a blanket of evil. The twinkle of tainted magic vanished, leaving only darkness. My arms and legs ached, confined in a hard, round cell.
“Has the future changed?”
That enormous voice shook in my head. I’d been waiting—half-asleep—for this moment.
“Let me out!” I screamed, but it was a ruse, meant to distract my captor.
Acting on my theory, I followed my gift’s connection to the bright light of power. Ignoring the pain of my body rattling against my prison, I flung a message into the endless bounds of space. The bright light still shone. I had to try.
Girl, I called mentally. Help me, please.
“Look into the future,” demanded the voice. “Surely, it has changed now.”
I loaded my plea with magical power. Find Kinza. Hear me? Kinza! Tell her I’m alive.
“What are you doing?”
My captor noticed my deception; already his magic dulled my mind.
Find Kinza, I slurred.
“Impudent traitor!” he bellowed. “Rot forever in dreamless sleep!”
Weightless, my heavy limbs rose. My cell was falling. That message was my only hope. He’d never give me the chance to try again.
I wished, like a child, for rescue. And for the relief of death.
I snorted awake when Lumi’s fluffy tail flicked my face.
“We’re here,” she said.
I pried my eyes open to see Second Earth looming ahead. I slept through the pressure of the wormhole? Wow. I licked my lips and pressed my palms against my eyelids. I had that crazy dream again: dry, confined pain. At least this time I got a hint. Kinza.
I had met the genie hiding in the silver rattle when my gift of truth led me to her in Dame Maudine’s private chambers. I tried to thank her for helping me save the sun larva in my planet’s core, but she refused to talk to me. It was my fault. I insulted her, but I would try talking to her again, just in case these bizarre dreams weren’t dreams at all. Why were so many crazy things happening all at once? The stress of it was getting to me. Even in the Fulcrum my joints ached. I rubbed my elbows and knees but felt no bruises. I think I grimaced in pain because Temnon stared at me, his brow wrinkled with exasperated worry. Oops.
“Doing okay?” I asked brightly to play down my aching.
“I’m fine,” he replied with a tone that hinted I wasn’t. “The Fulcrum kept me charged, and it doesn’t take much magic to carry a load in zero gravity.”
“You’re amazing. Thanks for letting me sleep.”
Hardly paying attention to the urns, he used magic to propel himself to my side and placed the back of his hand on my forehead. “We were lucky the new enchantments gave us a longer time limit.”
I knew what he insinuated. I spent too much time inside the sun larva’s mind. Without the enhanced spells, I’d have melted into carbon molecules and become one with the core. Literally.
“You haven’t fallen asleep after the last three missions,” Temnon continued, checking me for signs of illness. “Why did you today?”
The tainted magic stayed fixed in my waking mind. My magic had worked without me in the past, and now it seemed to know something I didn’t.
“Tem, have you ever heard of tainted magic?” I asked, knowing the answer.
He at least gave it some thought. “No. What is it? Another form of magic? Like you told us about at Adrina’s?”
“I’m not sure.” I hesitated, still pondering.
Second Earth grew as we neared. Early dawn glowed on North America, and we flew west, over California’s quake-shifted coastline. “Recently remolded,” the tourist ads claimed. I still wasn’t used to it, but grids of lights indicating cities shone in the pre-dawn, a sign of recovery from the earthquakes.
“We’re going to land soon. Will all these urns fit in the Apex, Temnon?” Lumi asked.
“Oh.” Temnon glanced back to estimate the size of the pallets of urns. “No. Not like this.”
A fresh wave of Temnon’s magic zipped into the urns. Dancing like a swarm of fairies, it reduced the space between the atoms and the urns shrank to a fraction of their true size.
“Why are you asking about this tainted stuff?” he asked me.
“The image in the sun larva’s mind—the one I stopped to watch—it showed two solar phoenix mothers,” I said. “One was injured. She had to lay her egg in a cloud of matter laced with a black, glittering magic. The second mother told her to find another spot, but she didn’t have the strength. Tainted magic.” I rubbed a stinging spot in my calf but didn’t feel it with my armor on. “That’s what the second mother called it.”
“And?”
“I’ve seen tainted magic before. That’s how I separated Vi Lorina from Nemmy. I picked out the bits of tainted magic from the magic she stole from First Earth wizards. I saw it again yesterday. It surrounded the vortex that nearly sucked us into space.”
Temnon puzzled the information as we left the dawn behind, and the shifting waves of the Pacific Ocean reflected glints of the moon.
“Was it First Earth?” he asked. “The injured mother’s egg? Did that matter become First Earth?”
It was a logical assumption. Each world had a limited amount of magic divided among the wizards born within its boundaries. If Vi Lorina used tainted magic, it had to be magic that existed in the world where she was born. However, First Earth’s magic rings didn’t contain tainted magic, and Chiri’s illusionist magic shone with translucent particles, not the dark glitter of Vi Lorina.
“I seriously doubt it. Vi Lorina most likely stole her tainted magic from someone else.”
“True, but I need to know for certain.”
Only one way to know for certain. I opened my mind and accessed my ocean of truth magic.
“The image I saw really happened.” My words didn’t stumble. Truth. “The egg the injured mother laid became Furrrst Eeaaarff.” Nope. Lie.
“Ask if there is any tainted magic on First Earth,” Temnon urged.
“There is currently tainted magic on First Earth.”
An empty feeling of abandonment filled my chest and swelled into my throat. A chill dripped down my face and onto my arms. What the heck?
“So, there is?” Temnon yelled in concern.
I wrapped my arms around my chest, suddenly cold. “I…I’m not sure.” Then I felt nothing. No hum of truth or buzz of a lie. My forehead ached under a heavy scowl of confusion. “I don’t think…” I started as the Jent Path curved down and hurled us toward the ocean’s surface. “I can’t tell if that was a lie or the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you discuss this after we land?” growled Lumi as we descended to my island.
Our insubstantial party passed through the silhouetted palm fronds and white sand. Under the island, firmly attached to a ridge of bedrock, my Apex extended into the ocean. Temnon landed and spread his magic into a glittering net, catching the load of urns. Lumi and I dragged my sofa back to the ocean window as Temnon stacked the pallets in a wide pile, the urns clanging against each other as they settled. My coat lay on the sofa. Cool. My donuts. Maybe my truth felt cold because I was hungry.
“Agnes?” Temnon called from behind the stack. “What do you mean, you can’t tell?”
I gave Lumi a donut and climbed around the pile of urns to continue the conversation. “Something feels different. I don’t know—Kinza once told me the truth wasn’t always perfectly clear.”
“Who’s Kinza?” He met me halfway around the pile.
“She’s the jiniri that lives in Dame Maudine’s rattle. She helped me realize that the sun larva might not be an enemy.”
He slumped angrily against the urns. “A genie would think that.”
“Don’t be so suspicious. She helped me a lot.”
“You’re telling me an all-powerful demon from Sixth Earth who has a soft spot for monsters said the truth isn’t always the truth and I’m not supposed to be suspicious?”
“Well,” I stuttered, defensively, “sometimes the truth is in limbo or undecided…”
“Undecided?” he said, his doubt ringing clearly. “Of course. Undecided. What was I thinking?”
Wow. Temnon had a real problem with genies, but he gave me a great idea. Kinza was friends with the Seer thousands of years ago, maybe she heard of a prophecy about tainted magic. Or Dominath might know something. Of course, this was just one more thing to add to my growing list of things to do.
A clatter and a pained feline yowl pierced Temnon’s irritated silence. I dashed around the pile to find Lumi frantically licking her tail while a heavy urn rolled away, spilling a trail of sticky, white crystals on the glass floor.
“It fell on my tail,” she mewed. “Why is it so heavy?”
Temnon slid to his knees by her shuddering tail. “I can only reduce the space between the atoms. The urns are smaller, but they have the same mass.”
While I stroked Lumi’s heaving side, he tried to gently hold her tail.
Yowling in pain, she jerked it away. “Don’t touch it.”
“I can’t help without touching it. Just hold still for one blessed second,” commanded Temnon as he grabbed the switching tail.
“This is your fault. If you’d stacked them properly, they wouldn’t have fallen on meeeeooooww!” She flopped her head onto my lap with a piteous wail.
“The bone is crushed.” Temnon’s matter-shaping magic ineffectively tried to penetrate the tail. “I can’t grasp the bone fragments to fuse them. Lumi is too agitated.”
“Stop,” squalled Lumi, her claws erupting from her toes. “You’re hurting!”
This wasn’t going to work. I clambered around the urns and dumped the contents of my spell box on the desk to find a circlet of silver. Back behind the sofa, Temnon hunched over the injured tail, while Lumi, teeth exposed, focused a little too intently on the back of his neck.
“Easy, Lumi,” I warned as I knelt.
Cradling Lumi’s head in my lap, I placed the circlet over her tufted ears. Rose-gold healing magic raced to the injury and glowed brightly under her fur. Lumi’s trembling slowed.
“The bone fragments are aligning,” Temnon said. “Where did you get that circlet?”
“Lord Chevlin gave it to me. It’s been enchanted with his alchemist magic. He has no faith in Second Earth doctors.”
“Fine with me,” Lumi relaxed in relief. “What can science do about a broken tail?”
Nothing. They’d have to amputate, but Lumi didn’t need to know that.
“Um,” I dodged the truth, “they have different procedures based on the injury.”
“Nice bit of magic, there,” Temnon admired.
“First time I’ve had to use it with you around.”
He glared at Lumi. “I can easily repair bone if the patient cooperates.”
She flicked her healed tail to see if it still worked. “You try making rational decisions with pain knifing through your favorite feature.”
“Agnes had more sense while Vi Lorina drained the life out of her,” Temnon grumbled. “That hurts far more than broken bones. Believe me, I know.”
“Next time,” I told Lumi, “let Temnon help. He’s very good with bones. They are mostly minerals, you know.”
“Next time,” she scolded Temnon, “stack the urns so they don’t tumble on unsuspecting tails.”
“Well.” I clapped my hands to distract them from arguing. “Let’s get these urns out of my Apex.”
A few swipes on my cell, and I had Dr. B on the line.
“Agnes, my dear,” he crowed happily, “everything go as planned?”
“Yup,” I said. “Sixty-eight metric tons of monoammonium phosphate ready for delivery.”
“You mother is texting you the coordinates as we speak. We are currently in the middle of the proverbial nowhere having a chilly picnic.”
That didn’t sound very pleasant. “Is Sadie with you?”
“No.” Suspicion colored his rich tenor voice. “Do you know what my granddaughter is planning?”
“She said something about negotiations, but if she wants to keep a secret, she knows better than to tell me.”
“Indeed,” chuckled Dr. Buchanan. “Very good then, there’s not a soul within miles, so transport as soon as possible. Lillian and I will be happy to get out of the mud and in where it’s warm.”
One transportation spell later, Temnon and I landed somewhere in Illinois with 150,000 pounds of re-expanded white powder and one reduced sciftan. Two semi-trucks with dented cabs were parked on the side of a long, straight road that carved a path between miles of muddy fields. Mom and Dr. Buchanan climbed down from a cab as we arrived.
“Another successful mission, sunshine?” Mom hugged me and when Lumi jumped into my arms, she said. “You too, Lumi. You two are becoming quite the entrepreneurs.”
Dr. Buchanan inspected the powder in the urns. “Smashing. Simply perfect. The Bounteous Life Foundation has been bombarded with requests for good fertilizer. This powder will help farmers feed the world.”
“So that’s why you wanted it.” Temnon turned to the empty field. “I should have guessed. You gave me plenty of clues. I’ll help you load the trucks.”
Temnon held his hands in front of him. Energy borrowed from nature joined the swirling power of his magic into a torrential current that sucked the dust from the road into its path. With an intense swoop of his hands, the urn lids clattered to the ground and the white powder streamed into the air. While holding the powder in the air with one hand, Temnon lunged his other hand at the urns. The shiny, gray metal compounded into a huge lump that mushed fluidly like a big, soft, ball of reflective putty. Pointing at the trailers, bricks shot from the lump, clinking into neat stacks of gray metal until the lump diminished entirely. With a loud whumph, Temnon dropped the phosphate in the trailers on top of the bricks. Both trucks bounced on their wheels under the weight and a dusty puff rose into the air.
“Erm,” Dr. Buchanan paused, perplexed, “what do you recommend we do with the metal bricks?”
“Sell them,” Temnon said.
“Sell them?” I asked, surprised.
Temnon shot me a sly grin. “King Po Lan kept saying your price was too low. He paid you your worth in spite of your protests. Those urns are solid titanium.”
“Titanium?” I hesitated. “Isn’t that super valuable?”
Temnon laughed hard and cradled my face in his hands, chasing away the empty chill I felt in the Jent Path. “When are you going to figure out your own worth?”
“I know my worth,” I countered. “What I don’t get is the exchange rate from personal worth to dollars.”
“I can understand your confusion,” he said, hands sliding to my shoulders. “It’s hard to think of numbers that big.”
Dang, that boy knew how to make my pulse thump. I stepped a bit closer, wishing my armor didn’t separate me from his warmth. His lips were free at the moment….
“We didn’t write a new contract,” Mom said. “Will a copy of an old one work?”
“Huh?” I didn’t follow.
