A Quill Ladder

by Jennifer Ellis

  They began shoving papers back into boxes and boxes back onto shelves. But they set aside the lockbox, the cards, and the piece of paper written in the strange language; these they would stash in Abbey’s closet.

  Once they’d put the last of the boxes back on the shelves, they propped the door and the frame up where it belonged and tried to wedge it back into place. Caleb went looking for a hammer, and Abbey leaned heavily against the frame. She was totally exhausted, and it seemed like they had learned nothing for their efforts. Farley let out a low growl from the top of the stairs, and then broke out into wild barks, skittering back and forth from the deck door to the front door.

  Caleb emerged from the workshop at a run. After giving the door and frame a good shove so it would stay, he and Abbey cautiously made their way up the stairs, clutching their phones. Farley had replaced his barks with low growls as he stared out the living room window. Nobody appeared to be in the yard, or the house. Abbey and Caleb looked at each other.

  Caleb withdrew a knife from the knife block, and, wordlessly, they resumed their back-to-back watch position in the living room, while Farley maintained his station by the window.

  Abbey must have fallen asleep slumped against Caleb, because when the key slid in the lock, the light of morning had already crested the eastern mountains and bathed the valley in crisp winter light.

  She and Caleb both sprang to their feet at the sound, and Farley barked, but not wildly this time.

  The door swung open to reveal Mark, his satchel tucked under his arm and a large box labeled “Sketchmaster” in his hands.

  Abbey shook herself more fully awake and flew across the room at Mark.

  “Where were you?”

  “I went to the dot, and found a tunnel, and my sister. Then the dogs came and took my maps, but I escaped, and I found another tunnel, and went to my other house and fell asleep.”

  “We need to go to the stones,” Abbey said. “Mom and Dad are both missing.” She almost added and Selena might have your mother, but decided against it. Yesterday she might have been excited about the discovery of the tunnels, but today there seemed like too many other things to worry about.

  Caleb appeared behind her, faint purple circles beneath his eyes. “Hold the phone, Ab. We should eat first, and think about what we might need. We should also get a bit more information from Mark about what happened.”

  Caleb cooked eggs and toast while Mark walked Farley around the yard and Abbey made sandwiches and gathered water bottles, compasses, and a hunting knife and packed them in a backpack.

  They sat and ate quickly. Mark updated them on the previous day, and they told him about the appearance of Selena, and the disappearance of their father. Like Abbey, Caleb was circumspect regarding their visit to the hospital and the possibility that Mrs. Forrester had been kidnapped by Selena.

  Mark showed her his new sketch map that showed the dots, plus sign, and watermark, and explained about the location of the tunnels, and the consistency in the length of the tunnel segments. Abbey was intrigued, but they all agreed that the first order of business was to go to the stones, and hopefully to find their mother. Abbey wondered if Mark had Sandy’s phone number, if they should ask for Sandy’s help—but some aspects of Sandy’s behavior with Mark in the tunnels seemed a little off.

  They trudged up the hill shortly after eight o’clock with Caleb in the lead. They had decided, against everyone’s better judgment, to bring Farley along, and the Chesapeake Bay Retriever trotted gamely up the trail with Abbey, thinking he was going for a walk. Caleb stopped abruptly, and Abbey almost walked into him.

  “Do you hear that?”

  “What?”

  “It’s like a backhoe or something. Like heavy machinery, near the stones.”

  Caleb started running, and Abbey followed along as best she could up the steep path, alternately dragging, and being dragged by, Farley. Mark, clearly not understanding the urgency, followed behind. As soon as they crested the rise where they could see the stones, Abbey saw a large yellow backhoe at work by the Madrona, unearthing the stones, dirt, and briar patch, and tossing them into a dumpster to the right of the tree.

  The stones. Their mother was still in the future. Was she now trapped? Abbey tried to control the sick feeling that had overtaken her stomach.

  Sylvain stood in front of the backhoe, observing its progress.

  Abbey reached Caleb, who stood beside Sylvain, breathless and with a stitch in her side. Farley, not realizing the run was over, continued barreling toward the backhoe and nearly jerked Abbey off her feet.

  “What are you doing?” Abbey said, giving Farley’s leash a good yank. She vaguely registered that Caleb said precisely the same thing at the same time.

  Sylvain gave them both a broad smile, which was entirely unexpected given the circumstances and the harshness of Abbey’s tone in addressing him, and clapped his hands together. “I know this looks bad, but I’m the one who bought the land, so this is all perfectly by the books. I’m trying to fix things so that some members of our brethren can no longer use the stones for their own purposes to try to find parallel worlds and split this world apart. I know it’s painful to watch, and I know you’ll miss them, but trust me, this is safer for you, and it’s better for everyone. You’ll thank me one day, and I know your parents will be in complete support.”

  “Our mother is on the other side of the stones right now, getting medical treatment. How is she going to get home?” Abbey said, slowly and deliberately, trying not to cry.

  The backhoe collected the last of the stones and deposited them in the dumpster.

  Sylvain widened his eyes. “Oh. Oh dear. That’s rather inconvenient. I guess I should have checked. I heard the doorbell last night, but assumed I had slept through the return doorbell this morning. People rarely stay over that long. Anyway, stop looking at me with those white little scared faces. She’ll be fine. There’s more than one set of stones. I’ll just go to the future, presuming she’s in the causeway future, and tell her she needs to come home the other way. It’s no big deal. She’s used the other set before. Of course, if she’s in one of the other futures, I may need some help getting there.”

  “More than one set of stones,” Caleb repeated.

  “Where’s the other set of stones?” Abbey said.

  “I’d rather not say.”

  Farley started barking at the backhoe, which beeped as it backed away from the stones.

  Caleb crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at Sylvain. “You’ve just trapped our mother in the future, and you’d rather not say? Tell us where the other set of stones is. Right now!”

  Sylvain gave almost a nervous chuckle. “Don’t get your knickers in a knot, young man. I have a set at my house. Only accessible by me, of course.” He flashed his bandaged hand in the air. “That’s why they tried to take my finger. It’s a fingerprint entry lock. That Selena is crazy as a loon. I’ve had to stick to public spaces and haven’t been able to stay in my own home alone ever since. But I think they’ve given up looking for me. We can go there now, and you can come with me to the future and find your mother.”

  “What are you going to tell him?” Caleb gestured at the backhoe driver, as if the man might now proceed to start ripping up the entire hill.

  “Oh, he’s done. I’m just going to get him to dispose of the dumpster.”

  “I can’t believe you did this. You have no right,” Abbey said hotly.

  “My dear, I have the deed to the property. I have every right. Trust me. This is what needs to be done—what someone should have done years ago.”

  “But you use the stones all the time,” Abbey said.

  “For moderate and reasonable purposes. Not to obliterate the future.”

  “Let’s go. We need to get to Mom,” Caleb said. “We can talk about this on the way.”

  “Fine,” Sylvain said. “I just need to have my man secure the stones.”

  “Wh
ere are you taking them?” Abbey said.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Abbey opened her mouth to reply, but she felt Caleb’s hand on her arm. “Ab, let’s get Mom and find Dad. We can figure this out later.”

  *****

  After Abbey and Caleb had a conversation about stranger danger, and Sylvain pointed out that he was not exactly a stranger and that at least he was an adult and there seemed to be a shortage of them at the moment, they all got in his Jag and wove through the sleepy Saturday morning streets of Coventry, then headed through the orchards that Mark had visited the previous day. (Mark had considered pointing out that he was in fact an adult as well, but decided it would be an unwanted contribution to the conversation.)

  Farley sat between Mark and Abbey and behaved as if he was going for a grand adventure, pressing against Mark’s side to stare at something out the window and offering Mark an occasional lick with his slobbery tongue. (Mark had to count to ten several times to avoid screaming, and he was trying to find an appropriate time to ask about Sylvain’s map.) Sandy’s car was gone, Mark noted as they passed Warm Hollow Road. They continued through the orchards up Top Point Drive for fifteen minutes and then started to head up into the hills.

  The conversation in the front between Caleb and Sylvain was heated, and Mark got the sense that Caleb wasn’t very happy that the stones had been ripped up. Caleb said something like “you couldn’t have just knocked first” and Sylvain said something about “backhoes being expensive and charging by the hour” and that “someone was changing the timeline and it was all going to end badly.” Then Caleb told Sylvain about Mr. Sinclair and Selena and seemed to be saying something else about Selena with his eyes (Mark hated it when people talked with their eyes), but Sylvain somehow seemed to understand and started to drive faster. Mark managed to insert a request to look at Sylvain’s map into the conversation, but was rewarded with pinchy-faced looks from both Caleb and Sylvain.

  The road wound up through expensive subdivisions with sprawling homes, and then pulled into one of the larger homes. Sylvain parked, but fluttered his fingers at Caleb, who had started to take off his seatbelt.

  “No need to get out. This isn’t my house. I just have to get Russell.”

  “Why?” Abbey said.

  “He’s the Energy for my stones.”

  “Hurry,” said Caleb.

  “Of course,” replied Sylvain.

  Russell emerged a few minutes later and followed Sylvain back to the car, his face still puffy from sleep. Farley was (thankfully) ordered onto the floor in the front beneath Caleb’s feet, and Abbey moved over to sit next to Mark. Russell squeezed in next to Abbey, who gave him a glare. Russell kept his gaze focused out the window. Even as unaccustomed to the nuances of human greetings as Mark was, he decided that Russell and Abbey clearly did not like each other for some reason.

  “I haven’t stayed at my house in a few weeks,” Sylvain said, after they’d driven another few kilometers up the road and pulled down a long and winding drive.

  “Why do they want to get to your stones so badly?” Caleb said. “Why not just use the ones they know about?”

  “Well, you see, that’s the thing,” Sylvain said, pulling into a small turnout in a patch of trees and cutting the engine. “They don’t think they’re stones. They think I have something else.”

  Sylvain got out of the car, holding his finger to his mouth.

  “But what else could you have?” Caleb whispered, following suit.

  “Docks,” Abbey said, and then gave Sylvain a squinty-eyed look. “Except they’re not interested in docks. So what else is there?”

  Sylvain flapped his bandaged hand at her. “That isn’t important right now. What’s important is that they are stones, and that the house may still be watched. So we need to be quiet, and approach cautiously.”

  “Why wouldn’t they just break in?” Caleb said. “If you haven’t been here.”

  “My house, young man, is like a vault, built around the stones, which are in the basement. I’d like to see them try to get in. And even if they did get in the house, they would never get in the basement. Fingerprint entry, remember?”

  They crept through the trees toward the house, having left Farley in the car. Mark was conscious of every twig that he laid his foot on, and conscious that he seemed to be the twig-stepper in the group. (They probably should have left him in the car too.)

  After several minutes of walking, the house emerged out of the forest: a rock-walled, monstrous, fortress of a thing, with a massive drive-through portico and shuttered windows.

  “Looks cozy,” Caleb murmured before Abbey gave him a look.

  A single Madrona tree arched up and out of a small circular opening in the pavement in front of the portico.

  They were about to emerge from the trees and cover the final distance to the house when Mark spied movement in the trees beyond the house—one of the dogs. He jerked Caleb’s sleeve and pointed. Caleb managed to catch the corner of Sylvain’s shirt just as he was about to step out onto the driveway, and they all crouched down behind a large, thorny blackberry bush.

  Selena walked around the corner of the house and called, “I’m back. Where are you two? You’re sure you have enough charge this time? Peter’s not cooperating.”

  Nate and Damian appeared around the other side of the house and approached Selena. They gathered in a huddle, and their voices became too muted to hear.

  “They’re going to blow up my house?” Sylvain whispered.

  “Sounds that way,” Caleb said.

  “But I have papers, and furniture, and… things that I like in there.”

  “You could go and talk to them,” Caleb said.

  “This is ridiculous. They’re not even going to find what they’re looking for.”

  “You might want to go explain that to them,” Caleb offered. Selena, Nate, and Damian had disappeared again around the back of the house.

  “Stop it, you two,” Abbey hissed. “What if Dad’s in the house?”

  “They wouldn’t do that. They need—” Sylvain started. His voice was drowned out by a giant kaboom that toppled the left wing of the house.

  Mark dropped to the ground and covered his ears.

  “My library! My maps!” Sylvain said, in a half moan. “That’s not even near the stones. They’re going to destroy my house. Russell, let’s go. I have to save some things. Important things. The three of you go back to the car. Don’t approach the house. If we don’t come back, get out of here. In fact, go now, before the dogs smell you. Don’t worry about your father. They won’t risk harming him. He’s too valuable.” Sylvain thrust a set of keys at Caleb and then ran off, followed by Russell, as Abbey and Caleb sputtered unintelligible things after them.

  More blasts followed. Mark pressed himself into the smallest ball he could. The pillars supporting the portico crumbled, and the roof fell forward and nearly took out the Madrona. Thick grey smoke and an acrid chemical smell washed over Mark, and his head started to pound.

  Above him, Caleb and Abbey bickered quietly about what to do. He wanted to start screaming, but the blasts didn’t stop, and his screams would add to the noise, which was already unbearable. He pushed his hands harder against his ears and started to rock in his small ball on the ground.

  *****

  After six explosions, the house lay mostly in ruins, stones and pillars jutting out of the foundation like wide-spaced teeth. Sylvain and Russell had darted in the front door, ducking beneath the collapsed portico between the second and third blast. Abbey wondered if they were dead. Once the blasts stopped, there were enough gaps between the walls that Selena, Nate, Damian, and the dogs were visible on the other side of the house. Nate disappeared for a few minutes and emerged from the trees driving a small Bobcat. He went to work clearing the rubble on the north side of the house. Already Abbey could feel the faint pulse of the stones pulling her toward them.

  The
dogs milled about in the rubble, sniffing. Mark had formed himself into the smallest shape possible and hadn’t moved in the last five minutes. A tremor of fear ran down Abbey’s legs.

  “Do you think they’re dead?” Abbey said. “Russell and Sylvain?”

  Caleb wore a bleak expression. “Dunno. The front part of the house was the last to go. It depends if they got in and down to Sylvain’s basement in time. Either way, we should go. I don’t like the look of those dogs.”

  “What about Dad?”

  “Well, he’s obviously not here. My guess is they have their vehicle parked out on Top Point Drive, farther up than where we turned off into Sylvain’s driveway, and that the road parallels the driveway. That’s why they seem to keep appearing out of the woods behind the house. They’re cutting from the road through the woods. Dad may be in their vehicle, which means we should head back out to the road. But we don’t know for sure if they even have him.”

  “And what about Mom?” Abbey’s throat was tight and dry.

  Caleb’s freckled face looked bleak. “We’re not going to get to those stones any time soon, assuming they still exist.”

  Abbey fought back tears at this and opened her mouth to argue, but Caleb placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “Sylvain said he had a set of stones at his house,” Caleb said.

  “So?”

  “So that was a strange way to say it. He didn’t say he had the other set. He said he had a set.”

  “So, you’re thinking…”

  “There’s more than two sets.”

  Abbey’s mind automatically spun through this possibility, the potential locations of another set of stones, and their current situation. She came up with a dismal outlook. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, and we haven’t the faintest clue where the other stones are.”

  “Let’s just get back to Sylvain’s car.”

  Abbey nodded, closed her eyes, summoned some sort of sense of fortitude, and then knelt next to Mark. “Mark, we have to go now. We need you to get up. We’re going to make a run for the car.”