A Grave Tree

by Jennifer Ellis

  “Sandy?” Abbey said, confused. “Sandy’s here?”

  “She’s a very bad person,” Mark said, an almost desperate look on his face.

  Abbey flicked her eyes to Caleb, who shrugged. “I’m not sure what she’s up to, but Mark seems to have had some bad experiences with her before I arrived, and…” Caleb hesitated. “I seem to be able to see some things in people’s minds. Not any useful information. Just flashes and stuff. I know it sounds crazy. I could always read people a little. I just thought it was good intuition, but it seems to be getting stronger the longer we’re here. Anyway, for some reason Sandy seems to lie a lot, and there’s a lot of fear around her. I’m not sure what it means. But she’s afraid of something. Maybe Quinta. Anyway, we kind of abandoned her down at the dam. I feel bad, but I was getting a weird vibe from her.”

  Sylvain had joined them silently, his shoulders hunched, a brooding scowl on his face.

  Mark started speaking in a loud monotone before Abbey could get her next question out. “She locked me and Jake up, and she’s sending the water to nowhere.” He paused, his eyes focused just over Abbey’s right shoulder. “Not the Nowhere. The water is just disappearing into turbines in that building, and she’s making Jake stand on platforms by the generators because she needs a camel. She can throw energy, she hit me, and she’s very bad.”

  A creeping leaden weight—actually more like a plutonium or uranium weight—came over Abbey. The note from her older self to her younger self: Save Jake – March 9, 2013. How could she have let that slip her mind? Today was March 9, 2013—or at least it was in the present, if time was flowing along at the same rate as it was in the future. She had to get to Jake.

  “She can throw energy?” Sylvain said.

  Mark nodded vehemently.

  “So can Mark,” Caleb said.

  Mark shook his head in response. “Not like her.”

  “And she’s sending water nowhere?”

  Mark nodded again.

  “And by platforms, Mark, do you mean docks?” Sylvain said.

  Mark seemed to be considering, then he nodded again.

  Sylvain’s eyes narrowed. “We need to get over to that building.”

  “Now you think so,” Abbey grumbled. She squinted at the diversion. “We can swim across upriver. Your men are guarding the building, but I’m sure they’ll let you through, Cale. Maybe you can convince them to let Sylvain through too.”

  Caleb stared out at the black reservoir. “Ab, I don’t know. The water’s freezing. It’s a long swim. Even if we could get across, I’m not even sure they’ll let me through anymore. They got pretty spooked about the possibility of magic. I think they finally realized it’s pretty weird that I look twenty years younger.”

  Mark shook his head. “Sandy threw energy at them.” Then with effort, he added, “That’s why they got scared.”

  “Why didn’t I feel it?” Caleb said.

  “Because if she’s Quinta, she can do almost anything she wants with energy,” Sylvain interrupted. “If she wants to direct it at certain people, believe me, she can.”

  Sandy, Quinta? “But that would make her…” Abbey trailed off, thinking about the implications of someone being able to do anything they wanted with energy.

  “Fairly invincible,” Sylvain said.

  Abbey shivered. Could Sandy really be Quinta? It would fit with Abbey’s misgivings about Sandy. But she could see the doubt on Caleb’s face.

  Caleb raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. She couldn’t open the door to the circular room in the dam.”

  Sylvain blinked and licked his lips. “You found your way into the wormhole room?”

  “If that’s what it was. The wormhole was a little defunct though. Mark said he saw our parents there earlier, as ghosts. He says they said they’re trapped and we need to bring the statue back to center.”

  “Mark saw our parents?” Abbey repeated. “Where?” The sharpness in her voice had ratcheted up a notch.

  “In a room under the dam. There’s a pentagram on the floor,” Caleb said. “I think they’re talking about the statue of Quinta Francis Merry that should be at the train station. We just need to take it back.”

  Sylvain squinted at Caleb. “What do you mean? The statue isn’t at the train station?”

  Caleb drew his eyebrows together. “No. It’s at the library. Didn’t you know?”

  Sylvain reached up and raked his long fingers through his silver hair. He turned and walked away from them. “No, I didn’t know. That’s why nothing is working, why all the points of power have shifted.”

  “So can’t we just go and move it back?” Caleb said. “Then everything will be fixed and our parents won’t be trapped anymore.”

  “Maybe,” Sylvain said. “Maybe…”

  “So we need to go back to Simon’s future and move the statue.”

  Sylvain had his fingers pressed against his temples, but his tone was severe. “We need to go home first and reassess. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what your parents meant. I have one of the stones from Coventry Hill. Now that we have Mark with us, we just need to get to a point of power, like the docks over there, and go… I think.” His voice dropped as he uttered the last two words.

  “So you’re saying that we can use the stone on any point of power?” Abbey said.

  “Yes.”

  “Then why are there only stones in some places and docks in other places? Why have the fancy pentagram?”

  Sylvain folded his long fingers together. “I believe certain points are better attuned to certain types of travel. When using other points, traveling is possible, but not as easy or safe…”

  Sylvain believed a lot of things, Abbey decided. Just like Dr. Ford. Although Sylvain’s beliefs seemed a bit more credible.

  “We have to rescue Jake and Russell first,” Abbey declared. “And Ian,” although she was a bit less certain that she felt as strongly about rescuing Ian. But they at least had to rescue Jake.

  “Where are Ian and Russell?” Caleb said.

  Abbey gestured to the building where the fur-clad men stood sentry. “Ian’s over there, with Jake. At least I hope that’s where Jake is. If we could find a way to get across the diversion unnoticed, we might have a chance. And Russell is… I don’t know. He ran off.”

  “Is he really a panther?”

  Abbey grimaced. “Looks that way.”

  “Is he a friendly panther?” Caleb asked.

  Probably not with a spear sticking out of his side, Abbey thought. “I don’t know. Let’s just hope he’s not a dead panther. Some of your men were trying to take him down. I have no idea how we’re going to rescue him.” She glanced over to where Sylvain stood wringing his spindly fingers and staring out at the reservoir, and she gave a little stomp of impatience. Clearly he wasn’t going to think of a solution.

  She looked back at the diversion. “We just need a rope, and a heavy stick. Then someone needs to toss it across the gap in the diversion and catch it between the rails of the platform. Then…” She didn’t really know what then. How would that help them get across the river? What were they going to do, walk the non-existent rope like a tightrope? They needed a cable ferry.

  Caleb looked at the diversion and platform doubtfully and removed a yellow plastic bag that he had looped around his shoulder. “Maybe we can do something with this.” He withdrew a bunched-up mess of cable. “It’s like booster cable. It seems to be able to draw energy from us, especially Mark, and charge things.”

  Abbey stared at the cable, trying to imagine how that was even possible, while Mark shook his head. He’d plunked down on the grass and was eating some sort of bar of something from his own yellow bag. Abbey suddenly realized that she was famished; the meal by the chapel felt like long ago.

  “Where did you get that cable?” Sylvain demanded.

  “It was in my mom’s purse. In the circular room,” Caleb said, offering it to Sylvain. “Have you seen
something like this before?”

  Sylvain examined them. “No, but I’ve heard of such… artifacts of our people. Your parents were on a committee once that was focused on trying to retrieve them.”

  “Retrieve them from where?” Abbey said.

  “Oh, you know,” Sylvain said, waving his hand airily, the way he did when he lied. “Old buildings, attics, and the like.”

  Abbey scowled at him and turned her attention back to Caleb. “Assuming the cable works, and you didn’t just imagine it, what would we boost exactly?”

  Caleb darted her a look. “You’re accusing me of imagining it, really? Says the person who sees and talks to panthers.” He looked around, as if hoping to see a lightning rod or battery post sticking out somewhere. “And as to your question… I don’t know.”

  Abbey slumped on the ground next to Mark, intending to remove the can of sardines she’d brought from the chapel, but as she sat, the can in her pocket jumped and strained at the fabric of her hoodie, pulling at Mark. She put her hand on it in surprise.

  “Do you have a magnet or something, Mark?”

  Mark nodded, his mouth full of the brown gooey-looking bar.

  “Can I see it?”

  Mark obediently opened the seal on the bag that lay beside Abbey, and after some fumbling around, he withdrew a cube the size of Abbey’s fist. She pulled the tin out of her pocket, but it was no longer pulling as hard in the direction of the cube. She shook her head slightly, confused.

  “That’s weird. Why isn’t it pulling anymore?” she said.

  “The box was open in my bag. It fell open while we were swimming,” Mark said, offering her the cube. She ran her fingers over all six sides, feeling the hinges on the top. It was a case. A case for a magnet? She checked over her body to make sure she wasn’t wearing or carrying any other metal objects.

  “You guys might want to back away a bit if you have any metal with you or on you. Take the can of sardines,” she said. “I’m going to open this.”

  Caleb raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean? How far?”

  “I think the box is a shield for a magnet, but it can’t totally damp the magnetic force. If the magnet needs to be shielded, then I suspect it’s a pretty strong magnet. I’d go at least fifteen meters away.”

  Mark rose and scurried away in a flash, snatching up his bag as he went. Caleb and Sylvain followed more slowly.

  Abbey carefully opened the box, which consisted of a thin layer of metal, a layer of wood, and then a layer of a plastic material. Inside was a silver cube, about six centimeters along each side. She withdrew it from the box with shaking hands. She’d seen experiments with super magnets. They could crush your hand or slice off your head, depending on what metal bits they attracted from around you. This was a small one and therefore likely less powerful, but still.

  It had an odd symbol on the underside. A circle with four leaves that met in the center, and she could feel it pulling lightly in two directions—toward the others, and toward the diversion.

  “It’s lifting the end of the cable!” Sylvain shouted.

  17. Be Leave

  Abbey quickly shoved the magnet in the box and snapped the lid closed. She whirled to see the end of the cable, which had risen into the air, fall back into a slack position.

  Sylvain’s voice turned blustery. “It’s okay. I wasn’t going to drop it. It just surprised me. You can try it again. I’ve got a good hold.”

  “You’re sure?” Abbey said, rather more severely than was necessary.

  She stared out at the diversion. They had to get across it to save Jake, and maybe Ian, and access the point of power at the docks to get home, so they could figure out a way to get to Simon’s future to move the statue, so their parents would potentially no longer be trapped.

  Simple, Abbey thought. Not. She suspected making a list wouldn’t help.

  She wondered if they could just use the docks to go to Simon’s future instead of going home first, but Sylvain had seemed very opposed to that plan. They could deal with that later. No matter what, they had to get across and into the building.

  She looked at the shafts of rebar sticking up out of the diversion. The magnet had been pulling in that direction. Was there a way they could use the magnet to secure the cable between the bits of rebar to create some sort of handrail to help them cross the diversion? If she threw the magnet, would it go to the closest piece of rebar? Or would it go to some closer, unseen bit of metal? If the magnet did go to the rebar, would she, or more realistically Caleb, be able to pull it off and toss it to the next rebar post? Probably not. It was silly thinking. Even with something to hang on to while they crossed, the force of the water would still pull them over the edge.

  She thought about their collective abilities. Mark’s apparent ability to throw energy and send his head flying, her and Sylvain’s ability to build screens out of molecules in the air. Caleb’s strength. There had to be some solution.

  “Mark, when you send your head flying, can you touch or carry anything?” Abbey said.

  Mark shook his head.

  “Technically he should be able to,” Sylvain said. “It’s like the dogs. They were in fact there, and able to bite Russell, because they believed they were there, and we observed them being there. It was enhanced by the fact that we were close to a point of power, which makes all our abilities stronger. And if there are working docks in that building, then we are close to a point of power.”

  Abbey squinted at Sylvain. “So you’re saying that if Mark believes he can carry something, and we observe him doing so, and he’s close to a point of power, he should be able to do it.”

  “Technically. But it’s several steps up from simply teleporting his consciousness, so without practice, I doubt he could. These things all have to be learned.”

  “Was anybody ever going to teach us?” Caleb said.

  Abbey ignored Caleb and tried to recalibrate her plan. “Okay, so here’s my proposal. Sylvain and I can make a screen out of molecules in the air. We’ve used it to make ourselves invisible to people passing by. We just have to do the same thing and make a raft—same idea, just a denser knit of molecules. And we have to make it wider than the space between the rebar.”

  She flicked a wary glance at Sylvain, who had started to sputter. “But that’s preposterous. Build a raft? Stitching molecules together with our very unreliable heads is all well and good when we’re blocking someone from seeing us, but it’s not exactly what I’d like to be out on a raging river with. We don’t even know if we can make something of substance.”

  “What’s your suggestion, then?” Abbey said.

  “I suggest we go and find another point of power and I escort you home. Then I come back for the others—alone.” Sylvain’s spindly limbs almost seemed to be quivering with indignation.

  “What happened to your stretch goals?” Abbey demanded. “So we just abandon Jake and Ian… and Russell?”

  “Temporarily. Besides, Ian can look after himself, Russell may be a lost cause, and Jake’s situation is… well, it’s more than a little unfortunate. I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with that, but I’ll do my best. But right now, four of us are alive and free, and I’ve been charged with your safety. Risking our own lives with some harebrained plan is not on the list of activities I think your mother would approve of.”

  The fact that Abbey had been the one calling plans “harebrained” just a few months ago was not lost on her. Could they build a raft with their minds? She had no idea. But she definitely wouldn’t be able to if she didn’t believe she could.

  She crossed her arms and fixed Sylvain with a glare. “I’m not leaving Jake behind. Can we make a raft or not?”

  Sylvain crossed his arms too. “Possibly. But it would be a very major and potentially catastrophic stretch goal.”

  “Great, I’ll take that as a yes then,” Abbey said. “If you look at the reservoir, you can see that even though the current is
pulling the water over the diversion, there’s also another strong current pulling the water toward the building. So if we attach the magnet to the cable and go out into the middle of the river, then once we get close enough, we can throw the magnet at one of the pieces of rebar. It should fly through the air at the rebar with considerable speed because it’s such a strong magnet. We then use the force of its movement to slingshot ourselves out of the current going over the diversion and into the current going into the building. With the lack of friction on water, it might be doable. If we manage to get into that other current, we might be able to land the raft right near the platform and get into the building unseen.”

  “So if I understand you correctly,” Caleb said, “we’re going to let go of the magnet and cable.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t know,” Caleb said. “They could be important.”

  “So could Jake,” Abbey said.

  Mark rose unsteadily to his feet, his face chalky. “I feel sick,” he announced and staggered off into the trees. Abbey wondered if it was the gooey bar thing he’d been eating.

  “Look, we need to get something happening,” Abbey said. “As far as we know, Sandy could be murdering Ian and Jake as we speak.”

  “Or they could be having a tea party,” Sylvain replied.

  “It would be a rather grave one, I suspect. Don’t you want to stop her from doing all the things she’s doing to the future? You said yourself that being near a point of power will enhance our abilities. So can’t we at least try to build a raft?”

  Caleb raked a hand through his tufty hair. “I don’t know, Ab. Maybe swimming is a better option. Or maybe we could wait until the water drops below the edge of the diversion. Then at least we don’t have the current to deal with. Or we could walk down and get the propeller unit that Mark and I left at the dam, recharge it and use that to swim across, or pull the raft across. It’s a bit of a hike though.”