“The world is not ready for this,” Oblivia said.
“You don’t go onstage because you’re ready,” Joey said. “You go on because it’s showtime.”
“If that’s how you truly feel, what are you waiting for?” Oblivia asked Joey. “You have the wand. You have the power. You can change this world with a flick of your wrist, but only if you believe in your mission as much as I believe in mine. I don’t think you do.”
Joey reached for the wand again. This time Oblivia didn’t tell him to stop. “You’re saying I should use the wand to bring the island back.”
“She’s practically daring you to do it,” DeMayne told Joey, speaking out of the side of his mouth.
“I’m simply pointing out the truth,” Oblivia said. “He won’t do it. If he was going to, he would have done it already from the comfort of his living room couch. You could have avoided all of this, Joey. Why didn’t you?”
“You know why,” Joey said. “That would’ve killed me.”
“And?” Oblivia paused, waiting for a more valid explanation. “What’s one life weighed against the fate of the world? If you truly had the courage of your convictions, you wouldn’t have hesitated. But you did hesitate. You spent a whole year plotting and scheming, desperate to escape this most difficult decision. The ultimate test of your beliefs—your life in exchange for an undisputable new age of magic. You didn’t do it because you aren’t sure if it’s worth it. You aren’t ready to pay the price.”
“None of us are ready for that,” Shazad said, incredulous. “We came here to change the world, but not that way. Not at the cost of Joey’s life.”
“What if there is no other way?” Joey asked. He stared at the wand in his hand, wondering if his fate had been sealed the moment he first picked it up.
“There’s always another way,” Jack told Joey. “You choose your fate. It doesn’t choose you. Believe me, I know.”
Joey didn’t know what to believe. Or what to do. If Oblivia was telling the truth and the tower was empty, where did that leave him? He had hoped to find something here he could use… some final dark marker he and his friends could break in order to reveal the Imagine Nation, but there was nothing. That meant it was all up to him, and that scared him more than anything.
“I didn’t come here to sacrifice myself,” Joey said. “But I can’t surrender the wand either. It doesn’t work that way.”
“It does if you want it to,” Oblivia told him. “You have the power to do anything, including give it up. You can renounce the wand. Give it to me. I’ll hide it where no one will ever find it. Set down your burden, Joey. I’ll take responsibility for it.”
“But it’s not your responsibility,” Joey said. “It’s mine.”
“No, it isn’t. I understand why you might think that. You have all this power at your fingertips and you think you need to do something important with it, but you don’t have to do this. The truth is, you don’t know what to do. You’re just a child.”
“That’s an advantage, not a disadvantage,” Jack said. “Children see things more clearly than adults because our view isn’t cluttered with all the rationalizations and compromises you’ve made over the years.”
“Your view is overly simplistic, informed by movies and comic books instead of reality,” Oblivia said, rejecting Jack’s logic. “You’re guided by visions of the heroes you think you have to be, but that doesn’t have to be your fate. Put the wand down,” she told Joey. “You can forget about all this. I can help. You can still walk away and live your life.”
“What kind of life would that be?” Joey asked.
Oblivia considered that. “Compared to this? A boring life. There’s no shame in that. There are many people in this world who wish they had the luxury of a boring life. Deep down, I think you’re one of them. Otherwise, you would have waved that wand already. You’re stalling.”
“I’m thinking,” Joey corrected. “It’s not that I don’t believe in what we’re doing. I just have to believe there is another way to get there.”
“There isn’t,” DeMayne said. “This is the end of the line. She thinks she’s got the upper hand, but she’s underestimating you. I’ve seen your resolve. You can do it. Show her.”
“Shut up!” Shazad told DeMayne. “You just want him to use the wand too much and kill himself, so you can pick it up next.”
“Yes,” DeMayne admitted. “I’ve been very open about that. But you’ll still get what you want. A new age of magic. You have to take the bad with the good.”
“And what do you get?” Leanora asked. “What’s the bad thing you’re not telling us about?”
DeMayne just smiled.
“You’re never getting that wand,” Shazad told him. “I’ll pick it up and finish the job myself before I let you anywhere near it.”
“We both would,” Leanora said in solidarity with her friends.
Joey appreciated the sentiment, but he still racked his brain for better solutions. He wanted to search the tower with his friends and find some other way to win, but they couldn’t do that. Not as long as Oblivia was threatening to kill Hypnova. The only options he could see were to surrender the wand or use it one last time.
“This isn’t right,” Mr. Ivory said. “A child shouldn’t have to do this. There’s got to be another way.”
“Actually, there is,” Hypnova said, coming around on the mezzanine. She rubbed her head and frowned at the sword, which was dangerously close to her throat. “Do you mind?” she asked Oblivia, pushing herself backward. Oblivia stepped forward, keeping the tip of the blade close to her jugular.
“Hypnova!” Shazad called out. “Are you all right?”
“Of course I’m all right,” Hypnova said. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”
Inside, Joey felt a tremendous sense of relief. He didn’t understand how Hypnova could possibly have wanted to be in this position, but he was comforted to learn he had not stranded her in the mirror world after all. “I told you she’d be okay,” he said to Leanora.
“Really,” Oblivia said. “You wanted to be my prisoner?”
“How else was I supposed to get here?” Hypnova asked. “You didn’t honestly believe I just set down the shield back in the mirror world, did you? Do you think so little of me that you actually believe I would make such a careless mistake?”
Joey saw a hint of concern flicker across Oblivia’s face. She had called Hypnova a traitor and a liar, but she had never called her a fool.
“I’ll spell it out for you,” Hypnova continued. “I let you capture me.”
Oblivia’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. She didn’t lower the blade. “I could have killed you.”
“No,” Hypnova said. “I knew you would use me as a bargaining chip, just in case Joey made it this far. You had no choice. His concern for his friends would be your only defense against the wand.”
“And why would you want to give me a bargaining chip?”
“I needed all of us here at the same time,” Hypnova said. “It was the only way I could convince you to help us.”
Oblivia scoffed at the idea. “You’re concussed.”
“No, I’m one hundred percent clear,” Hypnova said. “And you will join us. After you learn the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That your sacred mission was never meant to be carved in stone. Your understanding of the Secreteers’ true purpose has been flawed from the very beginning. This Order, everything you believe… it’s not what you think.”
“That’s enough,” Oblivia said. “You degrade yourself with your blasphemy. Don’t try to drag me down with you. Just because you’ve lost your faith—”
“You don’t have to believe me,” Hypnova cut in. “The proof is standing right there.” Hypnova motioned to DeMayne. “He was here in this very spot a thousand years ago. His memories can show you the truth of what happened the day the Imagine Nation was born. It’s been kept from him all these years, hidden by the first Secreteer. It t
ook everything I had just to glimpse the memory. I can’t tell you what it is. You have to see it for yourself.”
“How convenient that his memories are beyond my reach at the moment.”
“Mine aren’t. I’ve seen the world through his eyes. I can show you.”
Joey could tell Oblivia was intrigued. He watched as Hypnova reeled her in the rest of the way. “Don’t you want to know how the Order was founded? The secret to end all secrets?”
“If this is a trick…,” Oblivia warned.
“It only takes a moment to find out.” Hypnova pointed at her own head, offering her memories to Oblivia. “You’re welcome to see what I saw. If you still want to kill me afterward, go ahead. I won’t stop you. But, trust me, it’s going to change everything.”
Oblivia was skeptical but also too curious to resist. With the golden saber still at Hypnova’s throat, she reached out her free hand. Hypnova’s body went stiff and her eyes glazed over as Oblivia connected with her mind. She closed her eyes, searching intently. Joey watched her eyes darting back and forth under her eyelids like a person deep in REM sleep.
Suddenly, they shot open, wide as they could. She dropped the sword. It clanged on the ground and fell from the mezzanine, landing at DeMayne’s feet. “Impossible.” Oblivia looked at Hypnova in disbelief as she came out of her trance. “It can’t be!”
“It is,” Hypnova assured her. “You know it is. You can tell a fabricated memory from the genuine article. This is real.”
“How can it be real?” Oblivia demanded. “How can this be?”
“What is it?” Janelle asked. “How can what be?”
Oblivia looked like she was about to faint. She needed to lean on the wall to keep from falling over. Joey looked to Hypnova. “Tell us what’s happening,” he pleaded. “What did she see?”
“She saw the founder of our thousand-year-old Order,” Hypnova explained. “The person whose actions formed the basis of everything she believes. Everything she’s done, her whole life.”
“My whole life!” Oblivia repeated. Joey could tell she was shaken to her core. “All this time… What have I done?”
“I don’t get it,” Jack said, exchanging a confused look with the others.
“You will. I promise,” Hypnova replied. “First, let’s give her a moment. She’s dealing with a lot.”
Oblivia put her head down, and when she looked up, she had tears in her eyes. She looked at Jack but had to turn away. Joey wondered what was happening in her brain. Eventually, she held out a hand to Hypnova. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but you’re right. I will help you.”
21 The Clockwork Castle
“You will?” Leanora asked. “No more fighting?”
“Not everything has to be a fight,” Hypnova said as she and Oblivia made their way down from the mezzanine.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Leanora threw up her hands. “I don’t always want to fight.”
“I don’t understand what just happened,” Skerren said. “Are we all on the same side now?”
“We were always on the same side,” Hypnova replied. “Oblivia simply didn’t realize it.”
“Really.” Ledger DeMayne scoffed at that and picked up Hypnova’s golden sword. “Forgive me if I’m not inclined to believe this change of heart.” He backed away from Oblivia as she neared the bottom of the steps.
“What you believe isn’t important,” Hypnova told DeMayne. “Not anymore.”
DeMayne scowled. He held his tongue, but the expression on his face said, We’ll see.
“What’s going on here?” Joey asked. “Are you telling us this tower isn’t empty?”
Oblivia shook her head. “I’ll show you.” She motioned for everyone to move in toward the center of the marble floor. “Come closer. Make sure you’re standing on the compass.” She held her arms out and spoke a magic word:
“Descendit.”
“What was that?” Skerren asked.
“It’s Latin,” Janelle said. “For descend.”
A second later, the ring around the compass-rose floor design lit up with a bright bluish-white light. The room shook, and the section of the floor that everyone was standing on turned counterclockwise, disconnecting itself from a series of latches. Then it dropped like a high-speed elevator platform, plunging through the column beneath the tower.
“Whoa!” Joey blurted out, trying to keep his balance. He went down to one knee as they sank at an alarming rate, plummeting deep into the canyon. The interior walls of the column seemed to fly upward as they fell. It was dark inside the column, but the walls twinkled with lines of light drawn in specific patterns. There was ancient technology in the marble, just like the magic circuits in the trees.
When they reached the base of the shaky column supporting the tower, the platform slowed and settled gently into place. That was when Joey saw what the magic circuits were plugged into. The true Citadel of the Secreteers was waiting for them, shrouded beneath a layer of fog. It was a castle, just like DeMayne had said, but it was like no castle Joey had ever seen. The hidden stronghold was a mixture of industrial revolution and medieval times. Iron walls topped with spikes rotated around the keep, sealing it off against intruders. Behind those walls, a series of turrets and spires that rose up from the steampunk fortress were also in motion. They turned in time with a sea of gears and machinery that surrounded the group. A complex network of turbines and rotors, some of them the size of houses, covered the canyon floor in its entirety. A bridge lined with footlights ran over the gearscape of interlocking metal teeth, leading to the gates of the castle.
“What is all this?” asked Janelle.
“The Clockwork Castle,” DeMayne whispered, a spark of recognition in his eyes.
“What’s it doing?” Joey asked.
“This is the engine that drives the Imagine Nation,” Oblivia revealed. “The Clockwork Castle keeps us protected, hidden, and locked in a state of perpetual motion. It’s a colossal machine, powered by magic. It never runs out of energy.”
“Does it have an off switch?” Jack asked.
“It must,” Joey said, coming to a realization of his own. He pointed at Oblivia. “You were going to let me use the wand to finish this? When all we had to do was come down here and turn off the power?”
“It’s not that simple,” Oblivia said. “First of all, I was bluffing. I knew you wouldn’t sacrifice yourself and use the wand. Not because you’re afraid, but because I know it’s not the way you think. You’re a problem solver. Escape artists always try to find another way out. Second, it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. This island floats all around the world over a ring of waterfalls. I don’t know what’s at the bottom, but if you somehow manage to turn this off, we just might find out. The whole island could drop from the sky, killing everyone on it—including us. This place… this mixture of magic and technology is beyond my understanding. It’s beyond all our understanding.”
“Maybe not beyond Jack’s,” Allegra said.
“Exactly,” Janelle agreed. “If we can’t shut it off, can we throw it in reverse? Jack, what’s it telling you?”
“Nothing I want to hear,” Jack said. “It won’t work with me.”
“Why not?” Skerren asked. “The trees up there were friendly. Tell the castle to talk to them. They’ll vouch for you.”
“I tried that already,” Jack said. “It doesn’t care about the trees. It says it knows why we’re here, and it isn’t going to help us.” He paused and put a hand to his ear, listening to what the castle had to say. He blinked in surprise, seeming taken aback by what he heard. “It’s really angry. It says it hasn’t ever been allowed to fulfill its purpose. It wants to do what it was built to do, but it won’t say what that is.”
Everyone looked at Oblivia for an explanation. She turned up her palms. “Don’t ask me. I don’t know how to turn it off or use it.”
“I do,” said DeMayne. “I’ll tell you something else I know. That wonder
ful shield of yours? The one you left up in the tower? We’re outside of its range down here.”
Oblivia gasped as Hypnova’s golden saber broke through her chest. A crimson stain bloomed on her snow-white robe.
“OBLIVIA!” Hypnova shouted as DeMayne pushed the blade through. He let go of the hilt and gave her a shove. She collapsed into Hypnova’s arms. “Help!” Hypnova said, catching her. “Somebody, help!”
“Stop it,” DeMayne said. “Five minutes ago, she was ready to kill you.”
“What did you do?” Joey screamed at DeMayne. “We had a deal!”
“I’m altering our deal.” He took the Sword of Storms off his belt and aimed it at Joey and his friends. “Turnabout is fair play,” he said as a violent wind blew them all off the bridge.
22 Doomed to Repeat History
“Well?” DeMayne asked.
Joey heard movement near the edge of the bridge. “I don’t see them,” Mr. Ivory said, looking over the side.
“They’re gone,” Mr. Clear confirmed.
“You’re sure?” DeMayne pressed.
“I’m not sure,” Mr. Clear replied. “I can’t be sure. The boy could have used the wand to save himself. However, if that were the case, I think he’d be back up here already. Most likely you caught them by surprise.”
“You certainly caught me by surprise,” Mr. Ivory muttered.
“That was the idea,” DeMayne said. “It’s a shame about the wand, but it doesn’t matter now. Follow me. We have work to do.”
DeMayne and his henchmen turned their attention to the Clockwork Castle. Joey and the others couldn’t see them, but they heard them travel down the bridge, their voices and footsteps growing fainter until they faded away completely. Everyone stayed perfectly still, waiting until they were gone before anyone said a word. They were hanging underneath the bridge. Not off the edge where Mr. Clear and Mr. Ivory had looked, but from the support structures underneath—something that should have been impossible to reach while falling.
The New World Page 21