“No time for that, Ridge!” I said. “Why didn’t you ask her those questions while we were sitting around?”
“I didn’t think of them till now,” he said. “I’m bad at goodbyes!”
We moved toward the exit she had told us about, and I yanked open the door. The four of us hurried onto the hillside of Powder Peaks Ski Resort.
But there was no snow.
The August sun shone through the trees, and a few birds chirped happily. Behind us, the crooked poles of the lodge sign jutted out of the mountain soil. We stepped forward and a tree dropped all its leaves on Jathon.
Ms. Gomez rose from a large rock where she’d been sitting. Tina’s mom looked very tired, and her expression was like that of an upset parent waiting to scold a child for staying out past curfew.
“Ay! Raspberry swirl!” she shouted. “It’s about time. What happened in there?”
“We got the spool of string.” Jathon held up the trinket triumphantly.
I swallowed, afraid to ask the question. “How long were we gone?”
Ms. Gomez put her hands on her hips. “Three days.”
Chapter 9
“We were gone for three days?” Jathon shouted as we followed Ms. Gomez down the dirt path toward the ski lodge. “I don’t understand. We were only in there for a few hours at most.”
Ridge began to say something, but I subtly elbowed him in the ribs to keep quiet. Okay, maybe it was not as subtle as I had meant, since it left him gasping for air.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said. “We don’t know anything.”
“There must have been some sort of time warp,” Ms. Gomez said. “Making time pass faster outside the vault.”
“So, now it’s Thursday?” Vale asked.
“Sí,” answered Ms. Gomez, heading up the lodge steps. “Almost suppertime.”
Jathon moaned. “What about my quest? Oh, this is bad.”
“When did you open Vale’s jar?” I asked.
“Last Saturday afternoon,” he answered. “Now I’ve only got two days to finish my quest! And we don’t even know where the next trinket is!”
“Give me a little credit,” said Ms. Gomez. “I haven’t just been sitting around waiting for you kids. Three days gave me plenty of time to figure some things out.”
So, accelerating time outside the vault hadn’t been totally bad. As an added bonus, I realized that some of my short-term consequences had gone away. I no longer shivered when I said I.
Ms. Gomez pulled open the lodge door and we all stepped inside. It was very different now that it had returned to summer. The fireplaces were cold, and the skiers were gone. The fluke day of winter weather had been short-lived, and now the place was totally empty. I didn’t know if Ms. Gomez had permission to be in there, but it looked like she’d been living in the lodge the whole time we’d been gone.
I saw blankets piled in one corner like a makeshift bed, and several of her belongings spread across a table where skiers would normally stop for lunch. Only one thing in the room made me feel nervous. Sitting in a stuffed armchair near one of the empty hearths was a familiar figure.
Thackary Anderthon glared at us, his greasy dark hair combed to one side. “Ahoy there, buckaroos. Did ye think ye could maroon me so easily?”
I scrambled backward, bumping into Jathon, who was also scrambling backward. The four of us were desperate to get away from the man. Could you blame us? We didn’t have a great history with him. He’d stolen from me, pushed Ridge off a cliff, manipulated Jathon, and a whole lot of other cruel things.
But we couldn’t escape through the lodge door because Ms. Gomez was suddenly blocking our way.
I felt my heart sink. Had she tricked us? Like mother, like daughter, I guessed. Ms. Gomez had led us right to Thackary. So, now what? I was going to have to make a wish or unleash polar bear Ridge to help us escape.
Thackary Anderthon stood, thin fingers steepled in front of him. His pants were too short, and his T-shirt looked dirty and tattered. “Jathon, me boy,” he said. “Ye must be punished fer runnin’ away from yer ole dad.”
“Thack!” Ms. Gomez shouted, like they were on a nickname basis. I had learned at the end of my last quest that the two had known each other when they were Wishmaker kids, although I didn’t imagine that they’d stayed in touch over the years.
“Get ahold of yourself and sit down,” Ms. Gomez fumed at him. “Caramel cashew!”
“Why do you always do that?” Ridge asked. “Whenever you get mad, you yell something that sounds delicious.”
Ms. Gomez was rubbing her forehead. “It’s an old consequence from when I was a kid,” she said. “Instead of yelling swear words, I have to yell the name of ice cream flavors.”
“Har har har!” laughed Thackary. “I can say all the swear words!”
Thackary didn’t sit like Ms. Gomez had demanded, but he stopped advancing on Jathon. Instead, he gave a patronizing bow toward Tina’s mom. “Yar! Whatever ye say, Cap’n Maria.”
“What is going on?” I finally said. “You two partnered up while we were gone?”
Ms. Gomez sighed. “Something like that. I saw Thackary just after you entered the vault. He was setting traps to catch you when you came out.”
“And the traps would’ve worked, too!” said Thackary. “I would’ve had the lot of ye!” He swung his arm, closing his bony fingers as though he were wringing the neck of a small animal.
“Why were you trying to trap us?” Ridge cried.
“I want to join ye on yer journey,” he answered. “But ye keep trying to ditch me.”
“I have explained the situation to Mr. Anderthon,” said Ms. Gomez. “He knows about Jathon’s quest to save Tina and he has offered to help in any way he can.”
“Why?” I asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“That poor girl . . .” said Thackary. “I felt a wee bit bad about what happened in Chasm’s cave.”
Jathon stood and spun in a circle. Oh, because felt rhymed with belt.
“I don’t believe it,” I said. “How do we know you’re not just using us to get what you want?”
“I would neverrrrrr!” said Thackary. “Me dreams were shattered when I missed me chance to open Chasm’s jar. All I want now is to help free Maria’s daughter.”
“I don’t trust him,” Ridge muttered.
“Neither do I,” I said. “He’s one of the bad guys!” Last time, my whole quest had been centered around stopping Thackary from carrying out his selfish plan.
“He can’t be trusted,” Vale agreed.
Everyone looked at Jathon to see who he would side with. The boy was shaking his head, eyes wide.
“You’re not coming, Dad,” Jathon finally said.
Thackary slowly turned to look at his son. I thought his expression seemed kind of scary. “What was that, sonny?”
Jathon clenched his teeth. “I ran away for a reason.” His voice started out small, but it grew louder as he continued. “You always treat me like garbage. And you almost ruined my last quest—which would have ended the world. I don’t want you to come with us.”
I held my breath, hearing Ridge gasp at my side. Jathon was finally standing up to his mean old dad! But the boy looked like he was about to collapse in fear. I could see his legs shaking.
“Vale is right,” Jathon said. “You can’t be trusted.”
“No, he can’t,” Ms. Gomez said, suddenly stepping between them before Thackary could say anything. “We shouldn’t trust him. We shouldn’t even listen to a word he says. But if you want my help, then your dad comes with us.”
“What?” the rest of us moaned.
“Why are you defending him if you don’t even trust him?” I asked.
“Thackary begged me to let him come along,” she said. “I don’t have the heart to turn him down.”
“Find the heart!” shouted Ridge.
“He’s only going to cause trouble,” I said. “Leave him behind. You don’t owe him anything.”
“You’re wrong,” said Ms. Gomez. “I owe Thackary a lot. We were Wishmakers together. Many years ago. He finished his quest early, but he stayed by my side to help me complete mine in time.”
“That sounds too nice,” Ridge said. “Must have been a different Thackary Anderthon.”
Ms. Gomez glanced sadly at the thin man. “He was a different person back then.” To that comment, Thackary snarled. I thought only animals snarled. But in that moment, Thackary didn’t seem much different from a savage raccoon.
Ms. Gomez sighed. “Thackary stays. End of conversation.” She gestured to the soft seating around the hearth where Thackary had been. “Why don’t we all sit down? We have a lot to discuss.”
Reluctantly, like mice sniffing out suspicious bait, the four of us drew closer to Thackary. We sat down on a couch as Ms. Gomez plopped into an armchair. Thackary remained standing, probably just to spite her invitation to sit.
“You got the spool of string?” Ms. Gomez asked.
Jathon held it out, looking much less enthusiastic than he had when we’d exited the vault. Ms. Gomez took it ceremoniously from his hand. As soon as she touched it, she began to speak.
“The Wishmaker that created this trinket wished that the string could be tied between the wrist of a genie and another person to create a visible tether between the two.”
“Phew,” I said. “Glad we got the right thing.”
“Do you know the consequence?” asked Jathon.
“I can sense it just by touching the trinket,” replied Ms. Gomez. “It is one of my gifts as the Trinketer.”
“Well, what is it?” I finally dared when nobody else asked.
“Every time the string is used to make a connection,” Ms. Gomez said, “my ankles will be tied together.”
“Well, that’s going to make it hard to get around,” I said.
“How long will it last?” asked Jathon.
“For a whole day after the string connects genie to Wishmaker,” she answered.
“Hopefully we won’t need to do any running away,” I said. “The plan is to cut Tina free as quickly as possible. Won’t that send Chasm back into his jar for good?”
“It should,” answered Vale. “A genie can’t stay in this world without being tethered to a Wishmaker.”
Ms. Gomez nodded. “Now I must reactivate the trinket.”
“Okay,” I said. “How long is that going to take?”
“Bazang,” said Ms. Gomez. The string twinkled magically for just a moment before returning to its ordinary look. “It’s done.”
“Oh, so, just like two seconds,” I said. “For some reason I thought that would be more of a process.”
“How do ye even know if there be enough string to reach between Chasm and Tina?” Thackary asked.
“It looks like there’s plenty,” I said. “Way more than forty-two feet.”
“We should measure,” suggested Vale.
“Will it hurt the trinket if we unspool some?” Jathon asked.
Ms. Gomez shook her head. “The magic of the trinket will only activate when the string is tied between two people.” She handed it back to Jathon. “You can unspool it, study it, even cut off a forty-two-foot piece without any effect.”
Jathon stood up, unwinding the loose end of the string from the spool and handing it to Vale. “Let’s find out how much we have,” he said.
Jathon held the ends of the wooden dowel loosely, while Vale carried the end of the string across the huge lodge. She stopped on the far side of the room and turned to look at her Wishmaker.
“This is about forty-two feet,” she called.
“You’re a pretty good judge of distance,” Ridge said.
She glanced at him. “I’ve been a genie for a long time. I’ve got an eye for it.” Then she called to Jathon, “How much do you still have?”
“Lots,” Jathon replied. “Here, Ace. Hold on to the string right here.”
I stood up and grabbed on to the spot where he indicated, pinching the string where it came off the spool.
“Stay there,” Jathon instructed as he walked toward Vale, letting the string continue to unwind from the spool in his hands.
“So, that’s forty-two times two,” Vale said, holding on to the string as Jathon looped back toward me.
Jathon continued like this, unspooling the string and delivering it between Vale and me, over and over again. Each time he came around, the spool grew smaller until I finally saw bare wood.
The thin white string made only a few more wraps around the wooden dowel. Jathon didn’t go any farther, but instead began rewinding it.
“That’s a lot of string,” Ridge said, looking at the lines draping back and forth between Vale and me.
“Enough to go between them thirteen times,” Jathon replied.
“So, five hundred and forty-six feet of string,” said Ms. Gomez. “Thirteen times forty-two.”
“Arrr!” said Thackary, who clearly wasn’t as impressed with her math skills. “What good does it do ye to know that useless fact?”
“It’s not useless,” I said. “It tells us exactly how many tries we have to save Tina.”
“Is that so?” said Thackary.
“If something goes wrong the first time we tie Tina to Chasm,” I explained, “then we can cut off another length of string and tie on again.” I didn’t actually know if that would work, but it made me feel a little better to know that we had plenty of extra.
“Yarrr.” Thackary scowled. “It don’t matter if ye have thirteen tries or a hundred. Ye will never beat the mighty Chasm.”
“Whose side are you on?” Ridge shot Thackary a glare.
“Jathon should keep the spool of string with him,” said Ms. Gomez. “His quest will depend on using it.”
“What about the second trinket?” I asked. “The dagger that is supposed to cut the tether?”
Ms. Gomez sighed. “While you were gone, I learned the general location of the ancient dagger. But it’s going to be nearly impossible to retrieve without a wish.”
“Where is it?” Vale asked.
“Somewhere on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean,” she said.
“Yar!” added Thackary. “It be sunken like pirate treasure!”
“So, we’re going to have to dive?” I asked. On my last quest, I had swum to the bottom of Lake Michigan. A helpful wish allowed me to hold my breath for an hour. But this sounded way deeper.
“Even if you dived,” said Ms. Gomez, “you’d never find it in time. It could take years to search the bottom of the ocean.”
“That’s why ye must wish fer the dagger to wash ashore,” said Thackary. “Narrow the search to a single beach.”
I didn’t want to admit it, but the pirate man actually had a pretty good idea.
“Why don’t you wish for this one, Ace?” Jathon said. “I opened the ski resort and got us to the first trinket. I think it’s your turn.”
I sat down, shrinking into the couch cushions. “But . . .” I stammered. I’d been doing pretty good so far. I didn’t want to take on any consequences that could be avoided. “It’s Jathon’s quest. Shouldn’t he make the wish?”
“Really?” Vale cut in. “You’re so busy bragging about how you abandoned your quest to help us free Tina, but you’re not doing your part. If you are truly as committed as you claim to be, you’ll give Jathon a break and make the wish.”
Well, she had me backed into a corner now. I really did care about Tina. She’d paid some kind of consequence for me to be reunited with Ridge’s jar. It was the least I could do to make a wish to help us find the dagger that could save her.
I sighed. “Fine.” Then turning to Ridge: “I wish that the dormant trinket dagger capable of cutting a tether would wash up . . .” I hesitated, not sure where. Then I remembered a postcard that my foster parents had on their fridge. “At Myrtle Beach.” I didn’t actually know where that was, but the postcard made it look like a nice sandy place. “But not until we get there.”<
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“If you want the trinket dagger to wash up on Myrtle Beach,” said Ridge as my hourglass watch popped open, “then whenever you shout, smoke will come out your ears.”
“Will I catch on fire?” I asked.
“It’s just smoke, not fire.”
“How do you have smoke without fire?”
Ridge shrugged. “You’ll have to take that up with the Universe?”
“How long will it last?”
“A year.”
“What if I set off a smoke alarm?”
“Just don’t shout indoors,” Ridge said. “That’s not polite, anyway.”
“Okay,” I said. This was for Tina. “Bazang.”
Thackary clapped his hands, moving toward the lodge exit. “We best set sail fer South Carolina.”
Well, at least Myrtle Beach was in the United States. Nobody seemed too upset about the location I had picked for the dagger to wash up.
“That’s all the way across the country,” Ms. Gomez said. “And we need to get there quickly.” Everyone turned to Jathon and me.
I held up my hands in defense. “Not it.”
Jathon sighed. “I guess I’ll take this one.” He scratched his head in thought for a moment. “I wish that everyone in this room would teleport to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.”
I glanced down at his wristwatch, but I was surprised to see that the hourglass didn’t appear.
“Umm . . .” Vale said. “Sorry, but apparently you can’t wish that.”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I didn’t think there were limits to wishing.”
“There are really only two,” Vale said. “No wishing away old consequences. And no wishing away other people’s wishes.”
“But Jathon’s wish was fine,” I said.
Vale shook her head. “Obviously not.”
I turned to Ridge. “I wish to know what is stopping Jathon’s wish from coming true.”
“If you want to know that,” said Ridge, “then whenever someone laughs, you will hiccup.”
“How long will that last?”
“Until the end of the week.”
Well, that was only two more days, anyway. “Bazang.”
The Wishbreaker Page 7