8 – Fire

Even after the others were long asleep, Rachel lay awake and looked up at the black sky. It was very similar to the desert sky, except the moon was bigger. Just how much like home it was made her cry.

If she had been at home now, she and Jordan would probably have spent the evening watching what little television they got reception for deep in the desert, then gone off to sleep or stayed up for a while having – well, you know what I mean. Myst, despite its tranquil beauty, would never be a substitute for that.

The stars almost seemed to taunt her as they smiled down at her. It'll be harder than you think, they said. If only you'd never found that book...

Rachel glared at them for a minute, rolled over and went to sleep.


Rachel awoke with a start to find Jordan shaking her.

"What? I'm awake!" she spluttered.

"Come on, Rach, we're waiting for you!"

She got groggily to her feet and followed Jordan off towards the cabin, where Maddy and Brittany were waiting. Quite different to the silence she had heard last time she was in here, the small room was now filled with a soft crackling, rumbling noise, which Rachel soon realised was coming from the furnace.

"How did you -"

"Well, it was really rather simple in the end," said Maddy. "We reasoned that the last page must have had something to do with the tree..."

"The last red line on the map," chimed in Jordan. "When we went up to the tower to check the plaque, it said '7,2,4', and the only place we could think of to use that was here."

He gestured to the safe, which was now sitting open. Rachel could see that the numbers on the door had been set to 7-2-4. Inside the safe was a box of matches.

"So we lit the furnace," continued Brittany, "because it was cold. When we turned it up, though, something outside made a hell of a noise, and we think that that might have something to do with the last pages."

"When we went outside," Maddy explained, "we found that the tree was getting taller and taller. There was some sort of elevator in it, but we missed it. When we brought it back down and sent it up again, we got a nice view of the clock tower, but not a lot else."

"In other words," finished Jordan heavily, "we're stuck. We can't work it out."

Rachel pondered this for a minute. "So you say that when you turn the furnace up, the tree rises, and when you turn it off it drops back down again?"

The others nodded.

"Did you try riding it down instead of up?"


{Brittany's journal, 25-6}

Once again Rachel has displayed her regularly astounding powers of reasoning. I don't know what we would do here without her. Surely we would work things out in the end, but we would be here for a long, long time.

I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I never expected to spend my eighteenth birthday quite like I did on Tuesday. At least, I think it was Tuesday... I've rather lost track of what day of the week it is since being here. It was fun, though. At least we found something to drink.

Jordan and I had decided before working on the cabin that we wouldn't link through anywhere today. We know that there is indeed a book under the tree, and it appears to connect to the last of the worlds described on the library bookshelf – Channelwood, as it is referred to as. A world completely swamped by water except for a small island, with huge trees growing from the water. However, he says that we deserve a day off. I personally think it's because he still has a hangover – he drank a lot more than any of us did.


{Maddy's journal, 06/25}

I'm still trying to reason out how we managed to survive in Selenitic when we didn't have Rachel around to help us. I mean, it's not like she deliberately got hit by that rock, but Jordan and I still somehow managed to fight our way out of there through those tunnels. And then Brittany showed up. That was unfortunate. Wait, did I actually just write that? Dammit, I hope she doesn't read this...

Hopefully all of us can come out of this next world – Channelwood, or whatever it's called – unscathed. That would be a feat. Then maybe we'd be able to get off this island. If only I'd never wondered what had become of Jordan and Rachel when they didn't show up in town for three days straight.


{Jordan's journal, 25-Jun}

Heaven forbid, but I'm starting to enjoy this. I'm still not used to these books, though. Look, it's all very interesting, but despite the routine of it all, these freaking books are something I don't know if I'll ever get used to.

I think this was the most enjoyable, despite my disorientation, before Mop showed up. Back then, it was just me and Rach. But that only lasted three days, and then Mop showed up, and then Brittany. I don't know what we'll do if Jack wonders where Mop's gone and comes looking for her as well.

One way or another, we deserve a rest. Plus, I still have a bit of a hangover. I nearly walked into the wall on the way out of the cabin earlier. Nobody noticed, luckily, except I think Brittany might have seen it out of the corner of her eye.

I don't know where we'd be if Rach wasn't here, though. I mean, look at what happened this morning. We'd all been awake for three hours working on that, and Rach staggers in, having just woken up, and works it out for us. She's got brains, that girl. I consider myself lucky to have her.


{Rachel's journal, 25th June}

Get me out of here!

I mean yes optimism, yes hope, but there comes a time when I must simply look at all the bad aspects of this unintentional trip and think to myself, "Why me?" There's no food, for a start. I'm starving! Fresh water is scarce – the only fresh water here is in the stone basin, and that has a timber aftertaste. Stoneship taunted me – water everywhere, and not a drop was fresh, except the rain. Mechanical was the same. Selenitic is the only source of decent water that I've seen – the water in that stream is fresh – a little earthy, but still very nice. The champagne from Mechanical isn't really something that you drink on a regular basis, although I'm sure that Maddy would be happy to give that a go.

And then there's my clothes. If they were a bit worn to start with, it's nothing compared to them now. They've been soaked in water a lot, scratched by rocks, torn on trees, burnt by meteors, stained with blood, dirt, sweat and tears, and we've barely been here a week. I haven't showered since we left, and the numerous dips in oceans barely count there. Neither has Jordan, mind you...


Dawn broke over Myst, and the four companions rose feeling rested – not exactly refreshed, but rested. None of them spoke as they made their way down to the cabin, but as they walked inside, Rachel swore loudly for no discernible reason.

"What?"

"I'm starving, that's what!" Rachel wasn't one to be deprived of her food... even lemons, which she loathed, would be welcome right now.

"So am I, Rach. We all are." Jordan had an excellent point.

"Yeah, well, you lot didn't lose what little you had in your stomachs when we were on Mechanical, did you?" Rachel had an excellent point as well.

"Calm down, Rachel." Brittany was very skilled in calming down potentially violent situations such as this one. "We are all hungry. I've only been here a few days and I'm starved. But if we can find these last pages then maybe we'll be able to get something to eat."

Rachel's shoulders sagged. She mumbled an apology under her breath, and they all headed off in the direction of the tree.


Jordan was sure he was not going to get used to book travel in a hurry, and indeed, this link was no more pleasant than the others that he had experienced. It was a relief to step out of the spinning blackness next to Rachel and Maddy onto a small wooden pathway. Everywhere he looked, colossal trees stretched up out of the water, as if seeing just how tall they could be. Actual land, indeed, was in the minority – a tiny rocky island jutted out of the water a short ways away, completely dominated by a large windmill turning lazily in the breeze. But what made this world even stranger than the others, Jordan thought as Brittany linked in next to him, was that whilst the others were quiet, with only a select few sounds to hear, this world constantly buzzed with sound. The water lapped softly at the wooden pathways, frogs croaked, insects buzzed around, birds chirped – the mix of noises was very strange, and very much different.

Very much different.