Box Set #3: The Serenity Deception: [The 4 book 3rd Adventure of Egg and the Hameggattic Sisterhood]

by Robert Iannone

  “When I was eight or nine, my grandmother called me to her house. We went up in her attic where she kept an old chest. She opened it and pulled out a suit and three pieces of jewelry. Then she told me the strangest story. In short, the suit allowed the wearer to fly. It also protected that person from being recognized because after an hour, whoever saw you would forget.”

  “Come on Grammy. You’re talking nonsense.”

  “Actually, you experienced it firsthand.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If I told you that for the last three years you’ve had dreams of San Francisco, would that impress you?’

  “How could you know that? I never shared that with anyone.”

  “Egg . . . if you please.”

  “I took you, Sis. You had broken up with Brad and were crying and upset. So I put on my flying suit and took you there. We had a great time. After we got back, I used the power of the bracelet so you would forget about how much Brad had hurt you. I also made you forget about Flying Girl and the trip . . . but a memory always seems to remain. It happened to Sylvia too.”

  “I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

  “We have posed a problem to you, dear one. Gather the facts, analyze them and come to your own conclusion.”

  “Okay. I’ll play along. Why did the suit go to Egg and not Mom?”

  “I had always believed that after seven years it lost power and needed fifty years to recharge. Therefore, it had to skip a generation. Your sister found out later that we were mistaken.”

  “How so?”

  “Wrong question for now.”

  Ashley smiled. This type of intellectual game was right up her alley. “Fine. So you passed the suit to Egg because you thought by temperament she would be better qualified to wear it. Action over intellect. I can accept that.” (Egg breathed a big sigh of relief). What about the jewelry?”

  “Right question. I never could figure out what they did. However, Egg . . .”

  “There was a bracelet, a ring and a necklace . . .”

  “Wait a minute. Didn’t I see you wear them that day you were playing dress-up?”

  “Yeah. You wanted to borrow them . . . it really freaked me out.”

  “I bet. So, if the suit lets you fly, what about the jewelry?”

  “The necklace has a translation crystal in it. I can speak and understand any language. The ring when worn on one hand let me change size, on the other, it gave me great strength. The bracelet on one wrist gave me the power to cure, on the other one — the power to control wild animals.”

  “Well, those are weird powers. Why would someone need them?”

  Grammy smiled “Another good question. Egg . . .”

  “To fight Mobius.”

  Ashley’s eyes went wide. “You said something about him the other night. Oh, the night of your party. Um . . . you had trapped him and he wasn’t very happy about it.”

  “Wow . . . you’d make a great Feminion.”

  “That’s the other thing you said. Sylvia was your Feminion and Dad thought you were referring to Harry Potter. What is a Feminion? Wait . . . she’s like an advisor. It has to be someone smart and . . . and loyal. That would definitely be Sylvia.”

  “Wow, again. That was amazing.”

  Ashley was beginning to get caught up in the mystery. “So, there’s a flying suit and the jewelry whose power Grammy couldn’t figure out, but Egg did. Wait, let me think. Um . . . wait, wait, wait. I may be way off base, but just let me say it. The suit didn’t lose power, it just went dormant because whoever wore it couldn’t figure out the purpose of the jewelry . . . they failed the test. So it was programmed to go dead for fifty years until two generations had passed . . . then it would let a new person try. In this case, it was Egg. And she figured it out.” She looked from face to face. “Am I close?”

  “No dear, you’re not close . . . you are exactly right.”

  Egg ran over to her sister and gave her a big hug. “You are too much.”

  Ashley returned the hug with great affection. “Apparently not ‘as much’ as you are.”

  “If you two are ready, we should complete the story.”

  “Okay, so Egg passes the test. The next questions have to be ‘who made the test’? What was the purpose of the test? And where did the suit come from?”

  “Excellent. Egg, please tell your sister the rest.”

  “It’s really long so I’m going to give you the very short version first. The suit is made of serpents crystals . . . from the planet Aerianna. It circles one of the stars in the constellation we call the Seven Sisters.”

  “That’s about a trillion miles from earth. How did it get here?”

  “A space portal . . . and they invented it and I’ve used it but have no idea how it works.”

  “You mean it’s still functional?”

  “No, Dazzle shut it down 'cause I don’t need it and somebody might find it.”

  “And Dazzle is . . . ?”

  “Okay, this is going to sound a little bizarre.”

  Ashley laughed. ”It can’t be any more bizarre then what I’ve already heard.”

  “Oh, yeah it can . . .,” and Egg told an abbreviated story about Dazzle, the Sisterhood and the Quest. She even mentioned Zynn-Zaz’zia. “And that’s the short version.”

  By this time, Egg was sitting next to Grammy and they both waited patiently while Ashley digested the information.

  “Okay, that is one amazing tale. Now . . . give me the proof.”

  Egg stood up. “Ring, tend to my suit,” and the gray mist swirled out of nowhere and covered her. A second later, it was gone and there, in all her glory, was Flying Girl.

  “OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH.”

  “Is that the way I sound?” teased Egg.

  “Well, sweetheart, one last piece of evidence should suffice to convince you.”

  “No?”

  “Yes.”

  “Now? To Aerianna?”

  Egg took Ashley’s hand in her right, Grammy’s in her left. “By the way I think it’s more than a trillion miles.”

  “How long does it take?”

  “Blink of an eye. Ready?”

  “Of course not . . . let’s go,” and she squeezed her sister’s hand.

  Egg pressed her ring . . . and everything winked out. A moment later, everything winked back in . . . but they were still standing in Grammy’s living room. “That’s weird,” and she pressed it again. Same results.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Ashley.

  “I don’t know. This never happened before.” Just then, Egg’s communications crystal came alive.

  “Egg.”

  “Syl . . . where are you?”

  “Home. My ring doesn’t work.” She sounded horrified.

  “Mine neither. If you figure out the problem, call me back.”

  “Okay. How’d it go with Ashley?”

  “Up until this minute, really well. Listen, I gotta go . . . talk to you when I can.”

  “What was that all about?” asked the older girl.

  “Syl was going to be there to greet us. Her ring isn’t working either.”

  Ashley shook her head . . . disappointed that this silly story hadn’t ended like it was supposed to and that she was gullible enough to believe it in the first place. “Well, I’ll give you one thing . . . the suit trick was pretty neat.”

  Ignoring her sister, Egg asked Grammy, “What do you think is going on?”

  “I have no idea, Sweetheart but it is very disturbing. Without the ring you can never get back to Aerianna unless someone on the other end reopens the space portal.”

  “Okay, you two . . . make believe is over. That was quite a show. Kudos; I fell for it.”

  Egg was getting annoyed which was unfair to Ashley. Nevertheless, she took Ashley’s hand and dragged her to the kitchen. “What are you doing?’

  “Just be quiet and come with me.”

  Egg opened the backdoor and stepped throug
h with her sister. “You want kudos . . . well, try this on for size,” and she leaped skyward towing a screaming Ashley. They landed in less than a minute.

  “Come inside, you two,” commanded Grammy who had watched the little flight with amusement.

  “I’m sorry,” were Ashley’s first words.

  “It is an extraordinary story . . . doubting its truth is what any rational person would do. No need to apologize.”

  “Grammy . . . this isn’t going to work.”

  “What isn’t, Egg dearest?”

  “If we went to Aerianna, I would change out of my suit then Ash would remember the whole thing . . . but we didn’t. So the suit will make her forget what just happened. An hour from now she’ll remember the story we told her . . . but not me as Flying Girl and definitely not the little flight we took. Sorry, Ash.”

  “Sweetheart, that’s not true. Need I remind you that your sister shares your DNA. Our DNA.”

  “Oh yeah . . . I forgot.”

  “What are you two talking about?”

  Grammy looked at her eldest granddaughter and said, “The three of us are descendants of Rose’Alynnia, Queen of Aerianna, former Knight Guardian of the Order of the Crystal Egg and honorary member in perpetuity of the Hameggattic Sisterhood.”

  Chapter 3 – Year of Living Dangerously

  Ashley smiled. She liked the sound of that. “What was she like?”

  “Is, not was,” said Egg. “Remember, I put her back together . . . well, I mean I had the Myst Tree put her back together after Zeke and I rescued her body.”

  “Hang on. I think I missed that part. You and Zeke? Your boyfriend? He’s been to Aerianna?”

  Egg giggled. “Yeah, I kind of tricked him. He helped me get Dazzle’s body out of the Crystal Mountain. Then we flew to Se’rene on the back of Storm.”

  Now it was Ashley’s turn to giggle. “Do you realize that every time you explain one thing, it raises at least a half dozen other questions. Like what is serene? How do you ride the back of a storm? Does Zeke remember what he did? Why did you even ask him to help? And if you gave me another few minutes I’d think of a couple more.”

  Before the girl could explain, Grammy said, “We can get into the fascinating details of Egg and her exploits in a minute. However, I have a couple of things that need to be said. Please, both of you sit down.” The girls did as they were asked. “Thank you. First, Ashley you may never talk of this with anyone. Not with your parents, a boyfriend, not even your husband when you do marry. Neither Egg nor I will back you up so at the very least they will think you are as crazy as you thought I was. Please tell me you understand?”

  “I do, Gram. Your secret is safe with me.”

  “It is yours also. No one will ever know that you are descended from royalty.”

  “Oh yeah. Too bad.”

  “The second thing that needs to be said is directed at both of you. Egg, you may never ask your sister to join the Hameggattic Sisterhood and Ashley, you may never accept such an invitation.”

  “Why?”

  “Why?”

  “What the Sisterhood does is dangerous business. But Egg has her suit and her ring, which affords her some protection. Ashley, you do not. Even if you did, I will not tolerate having both of you placing yourselves at risk – regardless of the cause. I want your solemn oath. Both of you.”

  There was silence for ten or fifteen seconds. Ashley broke it first and said, “You have my word.”

  “Me, to – I guess.”

  “Thank you. Both of you. Now, since we still have half a day left . . . and apparently no place to go . . . I think Egg should get her diary and the three of us can discuss the adventures of the Hameggattic Sisterhood. It will be a good time to get all of your questions answered, Ashley.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “No it doesn’t,” said the easily bored Flying Girl. “Grammy, would you mind terribly if I took Ash to see her new college?”

  “That’s thousands of miles away. How fast do you fly?”

  “Pretty fast,” replied Egg with a grin.

  “I think that is a wonderful idea. Just be back in time for lunch . . . say two hours.”

  Ashley was dumbfounded. “You’re kidding, right? Never mind, never mind.”

  “Let’s go Ash. It’s time for school,” and they walked out the back door, hugged Grammy and bounded into the air. Unlike the last time, the older girl didn’t scream . . . she just marveled at the passing scenery.

  “Egg, this is incredible.”

  “Not really. However, this is,” and she went straight up through the clouds, the atmosphere and into space . . . about the height where satellites fly. “Scared?”

  “Of course not . . . terrified.”

  “There’s California . . . let’s go find Berkeley.” Flying Girl dove down as fast as she could and this time Ashley did scream. Mere seconds later, they found a secluded place to land. It was Saturday so there were no classes and few students walking about.

  “Ring, tend to my suit,” and Egg returned to her jeans. “Okay, Sis, I got you here . . . now show me around.”

  “This is my first visit too. But, um . . . over there is the Sather Gate that leads on to the campus. Let’s walk through it.

  A hundred or so steps later, they were in the middle of a beautiful campus and looking up at the Campanile . . . a three hundred foot tall bell and clock tower.

  “Well, it’s different than what I expected,” observed the not easily impressed Flying Girl. “Pretty neat . . . for a school.”

  “Yeah it is.” Ashley was beaming. This would be her home for the next four years and she couldn’t have been happier. “Let’s walk around.”

  *****

  They were back at Grammy’s in under two hours.

  “Well, how was the Berkeley?” asked Grammy.

  “Gram, it was magnificent . . . just the way a university should look. I’m so excited. I can’t wait for the fall semester to start.”

  “And you, Egg . . . did you find it interesting?”

  Her semi-enthusiastic response was, “It was nice.”

  “High praise, indeed. Well, if you two will give me a hand, lunch is ready to be served. And, I do believe we have a lot to talk about.”

  “I’m starving,” was the predictable reply from Ashley.

  “You’re always starving. You sound like K’ssss and Soo.”

  “Which ones were they?”

  “Sea serpents.”

  Ashley shook her head. “Amazing. Simply mind-boggling, brain-freezing amazing.”

  “Grammy, I’m going to try my ring again,” and she did. The world blinked out and then blinked back . . . and she was still in her grandmother’s kitchen. “Rats.”

  *****

  “I’ve tried the ring like a million times and still nothing.”

  “Egg, I don’t think it’s the rings.”

  “Syl, what else could it be?”

  “Take my hand.”

  “Take it where?”

  “What?”

  “Where do you want me to take your hand?”

  “You’re such a goof. Take my hand as in take hold of it.”

  “I knew that. I was just pretending to be Soo and not understanding stupid earth sayings.”

  Sylvia giggled. “They are kind of dumb. Anyway, take it,” and she extended it to her friend.

  “Okay. So?”

  “Watch,” and Sylvia touched her ring. The world blinked out but when it blinked back, they were standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. “See?”

  Egg peered over the side. “Long way down. What’s your point?”

  “Egg . . . think.”

  To her credit, it took less than ten seconds. “Oh, the ring works . . . but only on this end. Something on the other end . . . on Aerianna . . . is stopping us from materializing there. Right?”

  “Yup.” Sylvia touched her ring and they were back in her bedroom.

  “So what does that mean?” asked her friend.<
br />
  “I don’t know. Something is happening on Aerianna . . . and it must be big.”

  “Like what . . . a storm?”

  “Maybe but not a hurricane type storm. Could be there’s some kind of event on their sun and it’s disrupting . . . um . . . whatever it disrupts which is stopping us from going there.”

  Egg shook her head. “No idea what you’re talking about but . . . it sounds pretty good. So all we have to do is wait for it to pass. How long do you think?”

  “It could be days or weeks or years or even longer. I have no idea.”

  They looked at each other but they were at a loss for words. Egg finally said what was on both their minds. “I guess I’ll try to talk to Storm or the Myst Tree in my dreams. Maybe they can tell us what’s going on.”

  “I hope it’s not anything really bad.”

  “Probably not,” answered her friend. “I’m not getting any goose bumps.”

  *****

  There was a gentle knock on the door. Then another. Then a third but this one was louder. Finally, “Egg . . . Egg . . . are you awake?” whispered Ashley.

  “No.”

  “What? What did you say?”

  “I said, no.”

  “No, what?”

  Egg forced herself to sit up. She looked at her clock, rubbed her eyes, then looked at it again. It still said seven. “Ash, what do you want? Is something wrong?”

  “Can I come in?’

  “It’s not locked.”

  The older girl opened the door then closed it behind her. She went over to her sister’s bed and sat down. “Good morning, sleepyhead” she said cheerfully.

  “Ash, it’s seven o’clock. What’s going on? Is everybody okay? Is Grammy sick?”

  “No. No. No. Nothing like that. Everyone is fine.”

  “Then why are you up this early? It is morning, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, silly.”

  “Well?”

  “I want to ask you for a favor.”

  “At this hour?”

  “Yeah, while everyone is sleeping.”

  “Are you going to tell me what you want or do I have to guess?”

  “Someone is grumpy, isn’t she?”

  “ASHLEY!”

  “Sorry. I need to go to Italy.”