“Nnngg!”
Once again the painted hand dug into his shoulder. It hurt even more the second time around. Joey’s muscles locked up and his head jerked to the side. He looked like he was being electrocuted and felt worse. No one knew how to help him. Joey saw Shazad and Leanora trade agonized looks, forced to watch him suffer. Shazad took the map tube off his shoulder but stopped short of surrendering it. Joey shook his head.
Don’t do it! Don’t give it to her!
He couldn’t speak. Shazad couldn’t decide. Joey’s torment continued, but after a few seconds, Scarlett’s arm wavered slightly. She shifted her weight. Joey was sure it was to keep from falling over as the venom worked its way through her system. The pain he felt subsided momentarily. Just enough for him to get a couple words out.
“Don’t… She’s weak,” he rasped. “Snakebite…” Joey wanted to tell his friends that Scarlett was pushing herself to the limit. As far as she knew, she’d been given a lethal dose of poison. They could take her. They could grab the brushes and try to fix him without her help. Unfortunately, he couldn’t say any of that. The pain came back hard and strong, and Joey’s powers of speech deserted him again. Fortunately, Leanora understood him well enough without any more talk. She charged at Scarlett with a red, glowing fist.
Scarlett let go of Joey and got her brush up in time to paint a brick wall between herself and Leanora’s furious attack. The wall was no match for the power of a firestone punch. Leanora smashed it to pieces, but it had served its purpose, which was not to stop Leanora, but simply to slow her down. When the dust settled, Scarlett had fallen back to a safe distance and was making her escape.
“That’s enough for now, I think,” she said, stepping through the picture frame she had used to enter the jungle. “Even the best artists need a break from the canvas now and then. I’ll take your advice, Joey,” she said with a wave. “We’ll see you at the finish line.”
Scarlett dashed into the greenery and disappeared. The frame disappeared with her before anyone could follow, not that Joey was in any shape to chase after her. He turned around and sat on the ground, leaning against the newly formed and half-broken brick wall for support. Leanora kicked the wall in frustration, knocking a sizable chunk of bricks loose.
“That went well,” said Shazad, dripping with sarcasm.
Joey grunted. Yeah. Just like we drew it up.
He stared at the black hand on his shoulder, watching it slowly expand to cover his unblemished skin. He tried telling himself not to be afraid, but it wasn’t easy. Scarlett was gone but she was still with him. Joey wondered if he’d ever be rid of her now. He was a work-in-progress as far as Scarlett was concerned. Sooner or later, she’d be back to finish him off.
13 Where the River Goes
Joey’s arm was going numb. The paint had spread to fully cover his shoulder and tricep area. He couldn’t feel anything where his skin was painted black. The limb was still good below the elbow, and he had the use of his hand, but the arm itself hung dead at his side as if tied to his body by a rope.
He tried with limited success to will the black mark to stop growing while the others built a raft. Celestia, the next stop on the road to Camelot, was upriver, and the river was the only way to get there. Once again, Joey wished they still had the magic carpet. Instead, they were forced to make do with what nature provided. Leanora used her firestone to chop down trees with the edge of her hand, and Shazad tied the wood pieces together with vines. It was a big job, made harder by the fact that Joey wasn’t able to help. He still had one good arm—one and a half, really—but he was in a bad place mentally and in no shape to contribute.
Everyone was being pretty cool about it. No one blamed Joey for what had happened. Confronting Scarlett had been a good idea, and it had almost worked, too. They almost got the paint off Joey’s neck. And even though the plan had failed, it wasn’t a total loss. They’d managed to find out what the Invisible Hand knew about Camelot and the Caliburn Shield, and they’d slowed Scarlett down in the process.
“She’s going to be puking her guts out the next couple of hours, with or without an antidote,” Shazad told the group after she left. “A golden adder bite is no joke.”
“At the very least, we bought ourselves some time,” Leanora said. “We got that mind-control ruby away from her too. That’s good.”
“Yeah, that thing,” Shazad said, frowning. “Any luck finding it?” he asked Joey. “It’s got to be around here somewhere.”
“I haven’t seen it.” Joey had gone looking, but had come up dry. Given enough time to search the jungle, he would have surely come across it, but they weren’t sticking around, and Joey’s time was running out. Joey knew he wasn’t long for this mission. The painted mark on his arm seemed to be a little bit bigger every time he looked at it. He told himself not to think about it, but that was easier said than done. He thought about the pain he had felt when Scarlett was torturing him. He didn’t want to feel that again, and he worried the pain would be worse now that the mark covered more of his body. That kind of thinking made the mark grow even larger still. Scarlett had said Joey belonged to her now. It was hard to argue with that. She was in his head, under his skin, and everywhere in between. She could do more than track his movements now. She could hurt him. Joey just hoped she couldn’t bring the pain from a distance. If Scarlett had to be there in person to cast her spell, that gave him some breathing room, however minimal. Joey supposed he’d find out for sure if shooting pains suddenly came out of nowhere, striking his body like lightning on a sunny day. He knew he had to do whatever it took to get the paint off, and that meant he needed Shazad’s parents after all.
The plan was to get Joey out of the jungle and back to civilization. The next stop on the map was in England. He could call for help there. Shazad assured Joey that once his parents saw what condition he was in, they would do whatever they could to help him. Shazad was a little fuzzy on what that entailed, but he was confident they’d figure something out.
They better, Joey thought. Unfortunately, even if Shazad’s parents were able to help him, they couldn’t help with what he really wanted, which was to stay with Shazad and Leanora. Joey was being sent home, like a problem child getting bounced from a tour through Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Previously, they had ditched the magic carpet because Shazad’s parents could track it. Soon they would have to do the same with him. He wouldn’t make it to Camelot with his friends. His adventure was over.
When the raft was completed they got on board and shoved off, following the river and the next cryptic clue on the map:
A tower waits in a secret river you find at the end of the day,
Stay your course and take the high road, the stars will show you the way.
No one knew exactly what that meant, but they all trusted it would make sense when they reached their destination. It helped that the moving X on the map confirmed they were headed in the right direction. Joey settled in and tried to get comfortable. He had a hunch they would be on the raft all day and into the night. Using long branches as makeshift paddles, Shazad and Leanora steered the raft into a narrow offshoot of the Amazon. The map was like a GPS system, guiding them through another mysterious, hard-to-reach corner of the world. As they floated downstream, the jungle soon became thicker and wilder. Once again, there was something in the air. Some kind of magic. Joey could feel it. He glimpsed strange animals on the banks of the river—things he had never seen before. There were tiger-size cats with bright green and red stripes moving in between the trees, and birds with two sets of wings gliding through the air like X-wing starfighters. “Something’s happening, guys. We’re crossing over into another place. Like with the Dead Woods and Transylvania.”
“I think you’re right,” Leanora said. She pointed out a monkey that was fighting with a tree over a variety of fruit that Joey didn’t recognize. The tiny creature was trying to get its hands on what looked like a banana, except the banana was blue. The tree branch it
grew on kept pulling back, and the vines surrounding it swatted at the monkey like whips, keeping it at bay. “I was going to say we should try to get our hands on some of that fruit, but on second thought, I think I’ll pass.”
“Yeah, who knows if it’s safe to eat. It’s not even safe to go near it,” Joey said as the tree successfully fended off the monkey, knocking it into the river. There was no doubt about it, they had entered some kind of lost, magical place. Again.
“I don’t understand,” Leanora said. “How does this keep happening without us using a magical object? This isn’t like when you went through the magic mirror back in the theater. There’s no sand pit or door this time, either. We’re just here. How does that work?”
“Maybe it’s the place itself,” Shazad theorized. “Back in Romania, something happened when we went through those pricker bushes. We ended up on the edge of Transylvania, and once we crossed the bridge, we were all the way there. It feels like that now. Like we’re moving through lost pockets of magic in the world.”
“But how is it no one else ever found these places if all you have to do is get here?” Leanora asked.
“This place is pretty hard to get to,” Joey said. “The Amazon’s gigantic. A lot of it is still unexplored. Those pricker bushes back in the Romanian forest were no picnic, either. Maybe people do find these places, but they turn around when the going gets rough. Or they never live to tell about it.” Joey immediately regretted saying the last part. Worries spread the paint on his shoulder. He didn’t need to add to them.
“That’s got to be it,” Shazad agreed. “We didn’t turn back when we went through the pricker bushes or when we came to the bridge. Or here. We’re going up this river against all reason and common sense. No supplies, no preparation… nothing but the fact that we think this is the way. We believe it’s the way. That’s the heart of it. And we do have a magical object.” Shazad tapped the map tube on his shoulder. “We have the map to help us believe.” Joey and Leanora looked quizzically at Shazad, not quite understanding what he meant. Picking up on their confusion, he elaborated. “We called the forest in Romania the Dead Woods because that’s what the map said it was. I don’t know what they call it back in that village we went through, but I bet it’s something else. Something modern. Less creepy. Knowing the name of the place—its old name—changed it for us.”
“What are you saying?” Leanora asked. “We turned the forest’s magic on because we knew its name?”
“We knew its real name,” Shazad stressed. “To know something is to believe it. My parents taught me knowledge can unlock mysteries. That’s what happened back there, no doubt in my mind. All three of us believed we were going through the Dead Woods to Transylvania because of the map. Right now we all believe Celestia’s up ahead, and we’re going to find it for the same reason. That’s the key. We have to believe in it to get there.”
“My parents used to talk about a place like this,” Leanora said. “A magic place you can’t find unless you believe in it. I grew up hearing stories about a secret country with thousands of people. A place where all the fantastic and unbelievable things in the world… all the wonders of imagination… they all have a home.”
“You think that’s where we’re going?” Shazad asked. “Were they talking about Camelot?”
“I don’t know. They never called it by name.” Leanora gave the matter some thought. “It could be.”
Hearing Leanora say that rankled Joey. “You know, back when we first met I asked you about secret magical cities. You told me people didn’t live in places like that anymore. You said Jorako was the only one left, remember?”
Leanora looked away. “That’s what I thought at the time.”
“At the time you acted like I was clueless for even asking the question. Now you say your family’s been looking for some lost magic kingdom your whole life?”
Leanora looked embarrassed. “We never found it, Joey. We never found anything like this. I didn’t even believe that story.” She seemed to surprise herself with that admission. “Wow.”
“What is it?” Joey asked.
Leanora covered her mouth, stunned by the unwelcome realization. “I never thought about it before, but maybe I’m the reason why we never got there.”
“Don’t get carried away,” Shazad said. “It’s more likely someone was working against you, just as the Invisible Hand is working against us. Don’t you think, Joey?” He flashed Joey a look, telling him to drop it.
Leanora cracked a weak smile, buoyed by Shazad’s support. Joey nodded along. They still had to find Celestia, and they weren’t going to get there poking holes in each other’s confidence.
“Shazad’s right,” Joey said. “Don’t talk like that. We’re all true believers if we made it this far.”
“Exactly,” Shazad said. “We should be looking forward. Not back.”
Leanora agreed and Joey nodded, but his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t have much left to look forward to.
The day dragged on forever. Evening approached and Joey’s energy waned, but he got a boost as they neared their destination. In keeping with Shazad’s theory, he and his friends never would have made it if not for the map. They never would have known they were there because there was nothing to see but an empty dock where the river came to an end.
“This is it,” Shazad said, as they climbed off the raft onto the rickety wooden landing. He and Leanora had to help Joey up.
“There’s nothing here,” Leanora said, once they were all back on solid ground. The raft drifted away from the dock, abandoned. They let it go. Joey and his friends knew they couldn’t go back the way they’d come. There was only one acceptable direction, and that was forward. At the moment the way forward eluded them, even with the Secret Map of the World as a guide.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Shazad said, examining the map. “We’re in the right place. There should be a tower right here in front of us.” He looked around at the empty space, frustrated. “There has to be something we’re not seeing. You don’t build a dock in the middle of the jungle for no reason.”
“Maybe it’s invisible?” Leanora offered, stepping forward to inspect the landscape beyond the dock. There was a wide-open clearing in the jungle before them. Leanora walked through it waving her arms, hoping to feel out the unseen structure’s walls, but there was nothing but empty space.
Joey knelt down to examine the ground. The clearing had been pressed completely flat. It was as if a giant foot had stomped down on the jungle floor, but the area wasn’t in the shape of a footprint. Joey could see the edge of the clearing where the flattened land gave way to healthy vegetation. It ran out in perfectly straight lines and turned at right angles.
“Something very heavy was here,” Joey said to himself. “Recently.” All at once, it hit him. A charge ran through Joey’s body. He jumped up, shouting, “Leanora! Get back here! NOW!”
She ran to the foot of the dock in seconds with the help of her magic boots. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Joey breathed a sigh of relief. “I forgot you had those boots on. It’s all right. Nothing’s wrong. We’re safe.”
“From what?” asked Shazad, looking around. “There’s nothing here.”
“Not yet. We’re early.” Joey’s statement drew confused looks from Leanora and Shazad. “Don’t forget what the map said about this place… a secret tower in a secret river you find at the end of the day?” He motioned to the darkening sky. “It’s not the end of the day yet. We have to wait.”
They didn’t have to wait long. When twilight set in, the stars came out, and something else came with them. Twinkling stardust lit up the air inside the clearing, swirling around to form a gigantic slab of black rock. Joey could see it taking shape. It made him think of a skyscraper-size domino without any white dots. Its blank sides were perfectly flat and smooth with one glaring exception. Three-quarters of the way up the tower—about 150 feet up in Joey’s estimation—there had been some ki
nd of explosion. The smooth shaft had been blown apart by an unknown force. Scattered fragments of all shapes and sizes hung in the air, with the intact top of the tower suspended in the sky above them. Joey and his friends backed up, afraid the debris would rain down on their heads when the stardust solidified, but in the end nothing fell. The giant black obelisk arrived with a heavy thud and the earth shook, but the exploded tower was frozen in time, forever in midblast.
“Just when you think you’ve seen it all,” Joey said, but he didn’t really mean it. These days he never thought anything like that.
14 Star Maps
“Good thing I wasn’t still standing there,” Leanora said, thanking Joey for the heads-up. Everyone agreed the tower would have crushed her like a grape. It was more than two hundred feet tall, counting its disconnected top section, and had to weigh at least a million pounds. They approached slowly, wondering what to do next. There was no door that they could see, but the tower was lined with stairs that ran around the exterior of the mysterious structure. They appeared to go all the way to the top. Joey, Shazad, and Leanora had no idea what they would find there, but there was nowhere for them to go but up. “We better get moving,” Shazad said. “Before it gets too dark to see.”
Joey nodded grimly. If they lingered too long, they’d be hiking up the staircase with only Leanora’s pendant and his phone to light the way. They started the long walk up without delay.
The higher they climbed, the slower they went. Not because they were tired, although Joey’s legs did grow weary, but because the steps were so narrow. They jutted out from the tower wall, just wide enough to fit one person at a time. There was no banister to hold on to. Everyone had to walk up in a single-file line, hugging the wall the whole way. As night fell and the ground shrank away beneath them, it got downright scary on those steps, especially for Joey with his painted arm hanging awkwardly as dead weight. Trying hard to look on the bright side, he noted the steps were at least clean and clear with nothing to trip on. Joey had expected Celestia to be buried under a mountain of vines and weeds. The village they had passed through earlier had been completely reclaimed by the jungle, but the tower had none of that. There wasn’t so much as an errant leaf on the staircase. Joey attributed this to the tower disappearing and reappearing on a daily basis. Nothing got a chance to grow in.
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