He was sprawled out on the ground. There was grass in his face, pushing up against his nose. Someone turned him over and picked him up. They were shouting.… Who was it? Joey couldn’t make out any faces. They were all masked by shadows. He didn’t see them. Strangers carried him off. Where to? And was he alone?
Where were his friends?
Joey opened his eyes back up. He tried to get out of bed, but he couldn’t sit up. He looked down and saw his arm was wrapped in thick red linen, all the way up to the fingertips. Using his left hand, he tugged on his collar and looked under his shirt. His shoulder and upper chest had been bandaged too. It was the kind of wrap job Joey had seen on major league pitchers who were icing up their shoulders and arms after baseball games. Only his arm wasn’t cold. It was warm and tingly. Joey took that as a good sign. Whoever had picked him up was trying to help him. With some effort, he sat upright and saw Leanora and Shazad sleeping on a couch across the room. Relieved, Joey quietly got out of bed. He turned the blinds on a nearby window and looked out upon green fields.
Joey was baffled. He could see that everyone had made it back to Earth in one piece, but that was the limit of his knowledge. He inspected the immediate area with a keener eye. He wasn’t in a hotel room, and it wasn’t a room in a house, either. His first thought was that he was in a mobile home, but those words didn’t do the place justice. This was a luxury trailer. The kind of place a movie star would hang out in on set or a rock star would use to travel from one tour date to the next. Anything that was too short to fly but too long to drive without all the comforts of a five-star hotel. Joey spotted some handbills on a nearby desk. They were printed on rough parchment paper. He picked one up and read it. The tiny poster advertised a performance by the Nomadiks. A magic show. One night only. The date, time, and venue had yet to be filled in. Joey felt safer now that he knew who it was that had gathered him up and treated his wounds. The question was, how had Leanora’s family found him and the others—and where were they? “What’s going on here?” Joey whispered to himself.
On the couch, Shazad and Leanora began to stir. “Hey,” Joey said, waving from the window.
Shazad stretched and looked around, thoroughly confused. “Where are we?”
Joey held up the mini poster. “Ask Leanora.”
“Me? Why m—” Leanora broke off midsentence, recognizing the room. “My parents’ trailer? What are we doing here?”
Shazad did a double take at Leanora. “This is your parents’ trailer? Really?”
“I know, right?” Joey said. “Not what I pictured, either.”
Leanora fixed a pointed look on the two boys. “What exactly did you two picture? Horse-drawn carriages and covered wagons?”
“No,” Joey said a little too quickly. The truth was, that was pretty close to how he had envisioned Leanora’s life on the road, but he didn’t want her to know that. “I didn’t think you had any kind of trailer,” he said, trying to cover. “I figured your family used magic to go from place to place. Like with your doorknob.”
Leanora seemed to accept that explanation. “No,” she said, her expression relaxing. “My father says it’s important to see the world, not just hop from one city to the next. We have to appreciate the spaces—and the people—in between. They all deserve magic. So, we drive.”
“How did we get here?” Shazad asked, joining Joey at the window. “The last thing I remember is almost falling off the bridge.”
“Nothing after that?” Joey asked.
“After that… we were trying to get the map.” Shazad took in a sharp breath as an unwelcome memory crystalized in his brain. “The map!” he exclaimed, putting both hands on his head. He looked around the room, hoping to spot it. This time, it was nowhere to be found. “I lost the map!”
Shazad collapsed back onto the couch. Everyone was quiet as he hunched over, covering his face with his hands. Leanora and Joey looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Joey had actually forgotten the map was gone until the moment Shazad had mentioned it. The loss hit him hard too.
Leanora put a hand on Shazad’s shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” she said weakly.
Shazad scoffed at that, pulling his shoulder away. “No? I was holding it. Whose fault is it?”
“It wasn’t you,” Joey said. “We got hit by a comet! After that, a giant wave of light rushed us. I think it was the bridge itself. It must have taken a while to build up, but when it came down, it came down hard. That was probably always going to be the way we got down to Earth, but we didn’t know it was going to hit us. We couldn’t have known. The map didn’t give us any clue about that.”
“That’s what I’ll tell my parents, then.” Shazad pushed an angry tear away with the heel of his palm. “It was the map’s fault. It didn’t specifically tell me not to drop it while I was out in space.”
“If it’s gone, it’s gone. Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Joey told Shazad. “It doesn’t do any good. I know. If anyone knows how you feel right now, it’s me. At least you didn’t do it on purpose.”
“It doesn’t matter how it happened. All that matters is it’s gone. This is on top of losing the staff!” Shazad leaned his head back on the couch and looked up at the ceiling in a daze. “What a disaster. This trip is over. I’m over. What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know,” Leanora said. She had a shell-shocked expression on her face too. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”
“It could be worse,” Joey said.
Shazad snorted. “That’s what you said when Leanora lost her necklace. There’s no bright side this time, Joey.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Joey gestured to his arm, which was wrapped up like a birthday present. “At least you have your health.”
Everyone got quiet when they looked at Joey’s arm, suddenly remembering what he was going through. “Right,” Shazad said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry. You’re going to have your health too,” Leanora told him. “Soon. Those are special bandages. I broke my arm when I was nine years old and my parents wrapped my arm up just like you are now. I was good as new an hour later.”
Joey’s eyebrows went up. “I like the sound of that. Will it work on what I’ve got?”
Leanora shrugged. “I suppose it’s like any magic item. It depends on you.”
Joey nodded. “Think happy thoughts,” he told himself.
“Let’s find out where everyone is,” Leanora said, getting up. “And how we got here. I’d like to get that story.”
He and Shazad followed Leanora to a spiral staircase that led down to a floor with a living room, an entertainment center, and a full kitchen. “This trailer is practically the size of my apartment,” Joey said. “I can’t believe this is how you guys get around. How much do you charge for tickets?”
Leanora made a face at Joey. “Don’t be ridiculous. Our shows are free. Every audience is a chance to make people believe in magic. You think we’d turn someone away just because they couldn’t afford a ticket?” She shook her head as if Joey should have known better. “We have other ways of getting money.”
“Like what? A goose that lays golden eggs?” Joey joked.
Leanora smiled. “Something like that.”
Joey’s eyebrows went up, realizing she was serious. “That must be nice,” he said. “Still, I would have thought you guys kept a lower profile out on the road.”
Leanora opened the trailer door and held it for Joey. “Have a look out here.”
They stepped outside, and Joey saw that from the exterior, the Nomadiks’ luxury trailer looked like a plain old tractor trailer.
“Just a big boring truck.” Leanora smiled, letting the door swing shut with a bang. “Not the kind of thing that gets a second look from anyone.”
“Not bad,” Joey said, impressed by the illusion.
“It’s a glamour charm,” Shazad said, opening the door to look back inside. “That’s a magical object used to disguise the appearance of so
mething,” he added for Joey’s benefit. “This is a good one. One of the best I’ve seen.”
“What about the rest of these?” Joey asked. “More magic camouflage?” The truck was parked on the shoulder of a country road miles from anywhere. A trail of rusty RVs and broken-down jalopies were lined up behind it.
“That’s right.” Leanora walked up to one of the cars. Actually, it was not so much a car as it was a dumpster with wheels. It was dented all over, and a clear plastic garbage bag had been duct-taped over a broken window. Inside, the car was stuffed with so much random junk it looked like the driver had just robbed a garage sale. “This one’s a Maserati,” Leanora announced. She opened the door, and Joey gawked at the spotless interior of a sleek, stylish sports car. He stuck his head inside. It still had that new-car smell.
“You see?” Leanora said. “We take precautions too. Even when it hurts. Believe me, this car’s not nearly as much fun to drive when it looks like this.”
“You know how to drive?” Joey asked. “And your parents let you?”
“Why not? With the glamour on, it looks like there’s an old lady behind the wheel. Not that anyone would see me out here.”
Leanora motioned to the wide-open fields. Rolling hills and pastoral meadows ran out in every direction. The landscape was empty except for a large circus tent that had been erected nearby. As Joey turned to look at it, he saw a man and a woman coming toward them. He could only assume he was looking at Leanora’s mom and dad. “How do your parents feel about you disappearing for the last two days?” he asked her.
Leanora took a breath. “I’m about to find out.”
Joey and Shazad waited on the side of the road as Leanora went to meet her parents halfway. There was a brief reunion out on the field and a conversation Joey couldn’t hear, but it was clear that Leanora was not in trouble. She and her parents hugged it out and walked back toward the trucks together.
“In my house, that would have gone differently,” Joey said.
Shazad nodded, looking grim. “It will definitely be different when my parents get their hands on me.”
Leanora and her parents returned holding hands, a happy trio. Her father was tall and well built. He wore black pants and a loud, multicolored shirt. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a stubbly beard. Her mother wore a patterned folk dress and a single jeweled pendant around her neck. She had long dark wavy hair like her daughter and mysterious, hypnotic eyes. “Joey, Shazad,” Leanora began. “These are my parents. Dimitry and Natasha Valkov.”
Shazad stood up a little straighter. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said.
“And you,” Leanora’s father said with an accent slightly thicker than Leanora’s. He offered his hand, and the boys took turns shaking it. “It’s about time we got to meet Lea’s friends.”
“Yes, I was wondering when she was going to bring you by,” Leanora’s mother agreed. “I didn’t expect it to happen like this.”
Joey thought that was an odd comment, since they had not been allowed to visit before now, but he let it slide. “Sorry to drop in on you like this,” Joey said. “Thanks for putting us up.”
“You should not be up. Especially you,” Leanora’s father said, noting Joey’s bandages. “We were letting you rest.”
“I appreciate that—and this,” Joey said, gesturing with his arm. He was able to move it a little, which was a big improvement. “I feel like I’m getting better. Can these bandages heal me all the way?”
“Those are the Bandages of Panacea. They can heal just about anything,” Leanora’s mother said. “Of course, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she added, examining Joey’s arm. “What happened to you?”
“It’s a long story,” Joey said.
“You should lie back down,” Leanora’s father told him. “Rest.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I could sleep any more.”
“What about food?” Leanora’s mother asked. “Can you eat?” Joey’s empty stomach growled audibly, answering the question for him. Shazad and Leanora’s stomachs made similar noises.
Leanora’s father laughed. “Is there a pack of wild dogs nearby? Come. We are eating. The whole family. Join us.”
He led the way to the tent. As they approached, the smell of food nearly lifted Joey off his feet like a cartoon character. He didn’t know what was on the menu, but it didn’t matter. He was starving. He could have eaten a rock at that point. Inside the tent, it smelled delicious. Tables had been set up, and the rest of Leanora’s family was eating, drinking, and laughing. Joey estimated the tent held somewhere between twenty and thirty people. There were children younger than Leanora, older cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. There was also more food than anyone there could hope to eat. Leanora pointed out various dishes with growing excitement. Joey’s mouth watered over the blini, which were thin pancakes that looked like French crepes. They were folded in triangles, filled with strawberry jam, and not to be confused with the syrniki, which were cottage-cheese-based pancakes topped with yogurt and caramelized fruit. Joey thought he could eat about a hundred of each, but he had to save room for the buterbrody: open-faced sandwiches layered with different types of cheese, sausage, smoked fish, and various flavorful spreads. There were dozens upon dozens of them, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. The breakfast feast was so plentiful Joey could hardly keep track of it all.
“What’s all this for?” Leanora asked her parents.
“We’re celebrating,” her mother replied.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much to celebrate right now,” Shazad said.
“Don’t be silly,” Leanora’s father said, shaking Shazad by the shoulder. “We found you, didn’t we? Also, we have guests. That’s reason enough.”
Three chairs opened up at a table in front of Joey, Leanora, and Shazad. “Here, sit,” Leanora’s mother said, ushering the children into their seats. “We’ll make you plates. Lea, introduce your cousins. Dimitry, come.” As Leanora’s mother dragged her father off in the direction of the food, Leanora introduced Joey and Shazad to the other people at the table. As she spoke, Joey reached for a basket filled with black bread in the center of the table. Shazad and Leanora did the same. Joey slathered fresh butter on a hearty slice and took a bite. It was heaven. He quickly lost track of who was who as Leanora rattled off the names of first cousins, second cousins, and second cousins once removed.
“Sometimes forcibly removed,” one of them joked. Everyone laughed. Even Shazad, despite his sour mood.
“Are we in England right now?” Joey asked the table in between bites.
“Wales,” answered one of Leanora’s cousins with a nod. “We’ve been here all month, touring the countryside, putting on shows. Lucky for you.”
“Is that how you found us?” Joey asked. He remembered Shazad’s mother had said that Leanora’s family was somewhere in England at the moment. “You just happened to be in the right place, at the right time?”
“That’s some coincidence,” Shazad said.
“Maybe it was fate,” Leanora said.
“It wasn’t fate,” one of her cousins said, dismissing the idea out of hand. “We knew you were going to be here. We canceled our show to go looking for you all day yesterday.”
“What are you talking about?” Shazad said. “How did you know we’d be here?”
“We told them,” Shazad’s mother said behind him.
Shazad shook in his seat at the sound of his mother’s voice. Leanora’s parents had returned to the table with generous helpings of food—and both of Shazad’s parents.
Shazad turned around in his seat, his eyes the size of quarters. His mother and father were dressed in khaki pants and white shirts. They looked to Joey like archaeologists on a dig. Both of them had stern looks on their faces.
Shazad scrambled out of his chair and stood up straight like a soldier who had been called before a superior officer. His father stepped forward to face him. Shazad was tall, but his father was even taller an
d had a larger, more powerful frame. He had thick black hair and a neatly trimmed black beard with touches of gray around the chin. He was painfully silent and was giving Shazad a hard stare. It was uncomfortable for Joey to watch. He couldn’t imagine how Shazad felt.
“Do you know how worried we were?” his father asked after what felt like forever. His voice was soft and somehow all the more threatening for it.
“I’m sorry.” Shazad choked on the words. “I didn’t mean… I didn’t think—”
His father closed the distance between them with a great sweeping stride and wrapped Shazad up with both arms, clutching him tight. He was on the verge of tears and had a hard time speaking. “We found the carpet at the Devil’s Teeth! We were afraid that…” He trailed off, unable to finish his sentence. Instead, he hugged Shazad even tighter. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”
“Don’t ever do that to us again,” Shazad’s mother said, giving Shazad a hug of her own once his father finally let go.
“I don’t understand,” Shazad said, clearly shocked to find out he wasn’t being yelled at, punished, or killed. “How are you here? How did you know we’d be here?”
“Please,” Shazad’s mother said. “Give me some credit. I saw the map too. I knew you were looking for Camelot. We’ve been scouring the area ever since you ran out of the house. We didn’t know for sure where you’d end up, or if you’d even make it here, but it was all we had to go on. So we came.”
“Your parents contacted us early yesterday morning,” Leanora’s father said. “They told us the three of you had taken on some kind of quest?”
“Don’t ever do that again,” Shazad’s mother said one more time for good measure.
“We won’t,” Shazad said, his spirits sinking once more. “We can’t. It’s over.”
Lost Kingdom Page 21