Jim tossed his amulet from hand to hand as he and Claire sat behind the stack of chairs at the back of the shelter. "We can't let her leave. And we have to get back to Trollmarket to get Kronisphere, but I'm getting worried about my mom. She's never run off like that."
Claire took Jim's abandoned burger and water. "You mind? I haven't eaten since dinner last night."
"All yours."
The amulet face, engraved with Akiridion symbols now instead of Trollish, resembled a set of twin planets with an orbiting moon. He read the inscription for the thousandth time since Krel returned it to him. For the good of all, daylight is mine to command. He traced a finger over the words.
"I'm sure your mom's fine. She just needed some time to process all this. You okay?"
Jim pocketed the amulet. "Just thinking. One of us has to stay with Newberry until we can get that recorder. I'm just glad Mary's not staying here. That would have been a real disaster."
"But Mary is here." Claire pointed to their former classmate, sitting on a nearby blanket, playing a game on her spare spare phone. She wasn't paying attention to anything around her. "I talked to her this morning before you got here. Her family had a generator, but they ran out of fuel last night."
"That's just great," Jim muttered. "Can this day get any—"
"Mary Wang?" a volunteer at the front called through his bullhorn. "Will Mary Wang please come to the host desk?"
Newberry stood at the front of the shelter, facing Mary. Thankfully, the girl's back was to the reporter, and she seemed enthralled by her game.
"We can't let those two meet," Jim said. "Mr. Strickler's old office at school! One of his glamour masks might still be there. You can wear it and pretend to be Mary. That'll keep Newberry from recognizing you and from talking to the real Mary."
Claire finished Jim's burger. "Be right back." She portaled away.
Ten minutes passed like claws squealing down a chalkboard. The volunteer at the front called Mary six more times. Each summons made Jim's stomach drop. But Mary ignored each call.
Claire stepped out of another portal right beside Jim. Concrete dust coated her shoes and leggings, and bits of sawdust sprinkled her hair. "Got it. The school's a mess. Still being remodeled." She put on the mask and assumed Mary's voice and appearance.
"You'd better go. She's still up there waiting." Jim pointed to Newberry. "Oh and take this." He gave her the charm.
"I'll portal outside, so it looks like she just wasn't here." Claire disappeared again and walked in through the front door a few seconds later.
Jim couldn't tell what Claire said to Newberry, but the reporter seemed ecstatic to have found her quarry.
Claire led Newberry outside to keep from accidentally encountering the real Mary.
Jim was so busy watching Claire leave, the hand on his arm startled him. "Mom! Where'd you go? Why didn't you come back sooner?"
"Hey, kiddo, I have something for you." Barbara Lake held out a thick bag.
Jim took it and peered inside.
Green light. Images of the impossible.
"Kronisphere," he said. "But how'd you…?"
"I don't have one of those troll key things, so I went to the biggest hole in the ground I could find near the canals and shouted until Mr. Blinky heard me and told me to wait under the bridge. That is what you were talking about, isn't it?" A mass of emotion filled her words. "I tried looking into it, but all it would show me was an old book laying open on my bedside table."
"What book?"
"I couldn't tell. It was mostly illustrations, but the few words I saw were in Trollish, I think. Walt… tried to teach me some of it, but the only thing I ever learned was my name, but only speaking it, not reading it." She smiled and spouted a string of syllables. "I'm not sure why, but there was a drawing of me in the book. And one of Walt."
The Book of Ga-Huel.
Jim tucked Kronisphere under one arm and took his moms' hand. "Did Mr. Strickler hide anything in the house?"
"Knowing Walt, yes, but he never told me where."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"Maybe in one of the bedroom closets."
"Too obvious," Jim said. "Is there a place only you or he would know about?"
His mom scuffed the concrete floor with one shoe until Jim was sure she'd wear off her sole. "Under the basement stairs. He said once it was the perfect hiding place. We had to keep all those rescued kids out of anything dangerous, so he put some things away while we helped get everyone adopted out or sent home. I never looked at what he set aside, but he could have hidden a book."
Jim checked on Mary.
Still playing games.
"Claire's posing as Mary to keep Newberry busy. I need someone to stay here and make sure Mary—the real one—doesn't talk to that reporter."
"I've got you covered." His mom hugged him. "Go find out what this thing's trying to tell us." She tapped the bagged Chronosphere, and though she didn't say it, Jim read the truth in her face. She needed Kronisphere's images to mean something—needed them to be true.
"I will, Mom." He hugged her back.
The amulet in his pocket warmed. He didn't take it out, but the soft tick-tick of the gears brushed his leg.
He wasn't ready to believe the impossible, but for his mom's sake, he was ready to humor it.