Chapter Nineteen
Tony opened his eyes and found himself looking straight up into a clear late afternoon sky streaked by wispy cirrus clouds. He sat up. Caroline stirred beside him.
"Where are we?" she asked groggily.
"Looks like we're back on the trail to the Witch's -- to Paz' -- house. Except that I can't see the house anymore. We must be some distance away from it now."
Caroline sprang to her feet.
"Look!" she said. Sitting on a patch of grass beside the trail was an obsidian five-sided obelisk, about a foot high, mounted on a varnished wooden base.
"A gift from Paz?" asked Tony.
Tony picked it up. A faint red light rhythmically pulsed from its center, diffusing through the dark, glassy exterior. Tony stared into it. There seemed to be an entire universe within the obelisk, liquid and shifting, vast and intimidating.
"Like a nebula..." he said out loud.
"Tony."
Where was he?
"Tony!"
Caroline's voice called him back to the present.
"I feel as if I've forgotten something."
"The Wolf King? Storming the castle?"
Tony set the obelisk down gently.
"Never mind this now. We need to figure out what it is that Paz wants us to do."
Tony sat down cross-legged in the grass and Caroline sat facing him, the obelisk between them.
"Paz told us to solve the riddle of Kevello and Calendenny. What did she mean, Tony?"
"I think I have an idea. But wait, what was that other thing she said? Something about not being able to help you?"
Caroline looked down again.
"Caroline, what is it? Can I help?"
Caroline stared into the ground for a while as if concentrating, then looked back up at Tony.
"Remember when Elizabeth died? It seemed as if there was no warning. But actually she had developed this mysterious nerve condition a year before that. Something that caused uncontrollable trembling, in the arms and legs, like Parkinson's disease. The doctors were completely baffled."
Caroline closed her eyes.
"Six months ago I started having the same symptoms."
"Oh Caroline. No. It can't be true. Have you seen doctors?"
"Yes. They still don't know anything. They're not even sure if it is directly related to my sister's death at this point. She had other latent health issues. So maybe it's nothing serious. My symptoms aren't too bad so far."
They sat quietly for a minute. Tony felt as if the ground had suddenly vanished from beneath him and he was floundering in mid-air, looking for a toehold on solid earth again.
"Have you ever been in love, Tony?"
The question caught Tony off guard.
"Well, I..."
He trailed off and looked away, pretending that there was something suddenly very interesting about the fields of wildflowers nearby.
Caroline laughed.
YOU ARE READING
The Foster Children of Time
Khoa học viễn tưởngTEMPORAL AFFAIRS Tony Marco doesn’t have his driver’s license yet but he has a ticket to ride a bus – a Time Bus. Soon after the start of his sophomore year at Diaz High School, he and his irrepressible friend Caroline Montano catch a free ride to...
