Ruins

can only take twenty or fifty or a hundred at a time, I can send Rigg back with the mice again and again, bring Rigg back to the present, and send him again.”

“I wish I could sense paths through the curvature of the planet,” said Rigg. “I can see them through hills, but they get faint and then invisible as more and more planetary mass gets between me and them.”

Param got up from her chair and walked to the door. She put her hands on Umbo’s shoulders. “What are you planning, Umbo?” she asked.

“I’m planning to do whatever we decide to do,” said Umbo, puzzled by the question.

“If you push Rigg into the past,” she said, “and then leave him there, he can’t get back to the present. He can’t see paths in the future. He can’t shift forward.”

“But I won’t leave him there,” said Umbo, blushing as he realized what treachery she was accusing him of.

“I’m sorry,” said Param, “but I’m trying to figure out what great wellspring of loyalty you’re drawing from here. Aren’t you the one who got rid of Rigg before, when we were still on our way to Odinfold?”

This was too much to bear, coming from her. “You’re the one who refused to go on hiking! I was trying to help you.”

“You were trying to get out from under Rigg’s thumb,” said Param. “Don’t blame it on me. Stranding Rigg in the past would make you the only time-shifter left here in the present.”

“But I won’t do that,” said Umbo.

“And we know that because . . .”

“Because I say so,” said Umbo.

“And we’re supposed to take the word of a peasant boy?” asked Param scornfully.

“The word of peasant boys is worth a lot more than the word of the royal family, as far as I’ve been able to see!” shouted Umbo.

In answer, Param gave him a shove out the door.

Umbo stumbled backward, lost his footing on the ramp, and fell off to the side into the grass. Above him, he could hear Param say to Rigg, “Now let’s take the flyer and go.”

“I see,” said Rigg.

“See what?” asked Param.

“That you’re our mother’s true daughter,” said Rigg.

Umbo was still getting to his feet when he heard a scuffle above him. He looked up to see Param stumbling down the ramp, tripping, falling.

Umbo might have caught her, or broken her fall a little. Instead he ducked under the ramp. She fell unimpeded into the grass, just as he had. Only she wasn’t used to falling. She didn’t have the catlike reflexes that Umbo had developed growing up in Fall Ford, playing in the woods, by the river, on the rocky cliffs, climbing every tree, every boulder, with other boys and many a girl scuffling with him. She fell like a lump and then cried out in pain; she curled up, holding her elbow.

Umbo had seen the elbow bend way too far in the wrong direction. And now it hung limply. Torn ligaments, broken bones—it had to be one or the other, or both. It wasn’t a hinge joint anymore. It was more like loose skin between two bones.

“That was ugly,” said Umbo.

Param screamed in agony and then . . . disappeared.

“Param,” cried Rigg, rushing down the ramp. “I didn’t mean to . . .”

Loaf and Olivenko followed him out of the flyer and down the ramp. “Rigg, you stupid little—” Loaf began.

“I know!” shouted Rigg. “But she had no right to treat Umbo that way! Who does she think she is?”

“She thinks she’s the Queen-in-the-Tent of the Sessamids!” said Olivenko. “And oh, surprise: As soon as your mother dies, she is.”

“She’s not queen of anything, here,” said Rigg.

“She’s my queen wherever she is,” said Olivenko.

“Well isn’t that sweet,” said Loaf. “As big a collection of idiots as I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“We have to get her back,” said Rigg.

“Any bright ideas about how to do that?” asked Loaf.

“I can write her a note. I used to write her notes on a slate back in Flacommo’s house. Before we actually met.”

“She can’t have gotten far,” said Olivenko. “It’s not as if she was in any shape to move.”

“If she isn’t moving,” said Rigg, “she wouldn’t disappear. Time-slicing only makes her invisible if she’s moving.”

“How can she move with that elbow?” asked Umbo.

“She doesn’t walk on her elbows,” said Rigg.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot,” said Umbo. “I’m the one who came up with a plan to get us and ten thousand mice through the Wall at exactly the right time.”

“Well, now we’re not doing anything,” said Olivenko.

“Listen to yourselves,” said Loaf. “Is there anyone here with a brain? This didn’t have to happen.”

“But it did!” shouted Umbo. “And it’s not my fault!”

“Nobody thinks it’s your fault,” said Loaf. “And it was Param whose ignorant arrogance caused this particular problem, that plus Rigg’s misguided loyalty to you. So here’s what you’re going to do. Rigg and Umbo, you’re both going to go to the top of this ramp and make a magical appearance a few minutes back in time, just before stupid Rigg pushed his stupid sister down the stupid ramp so she could shatter her stupid elbow.”

“But then all this will be undone,” said Umbo.

“Yes,” said Loaf, incredulous. “That’s what we need to accomplish—undoing all this wonderful nightmare!”

“But then I’ll never know that Rigg is still my friend!” said Umbo. And to his surprise, he had tears on his cheeks. He was crying. Why was he crying?

“Silbom’s left . . .” Loaf began. “Silbom’s left and right and middle everything. Go up there and tell yourselves what happened but stop this stupidity from going so far. Do you understand me?”

“You’re not my father, you know,” said Umbo.

“I’m as close to a father as you’ll ever get,” said Loaf, “and don’t you forget it.”

“I will forget it,” said Umbo. “That’s what you’re sending us up the ramp to do.”

“Yes, I am. So do it. Erase this lovely moment of agony for Param and stupidity for you and Rigg and utter frustration for the only grownups in our little company.”

“Are you counting me as a grownup?” asked Olivenko. “How sweet.”

“Go,” said Loaf.

Umbo and Rigg walked up the ramp together.

Umbo hit the ground after his fall from the ramp. He could hear Param saying, “Now let’s take the flyer and go.”

“I see,” said Rigg.

“See what?” asked Param.

But instead of Rigg answering her, Umbo heard his own voice coming from above him. “Don’t do it, Rigg,” he said.

“Don’t do what?” asked Rigg.

“Don’t push her, you fool,” said Rigg.

Rigg?

Umbo got to his feet. He could see himself and Rigg standing at the top of the ramp, talking to Rigg and Param.

Something bad must have happened, and he and Rigg had come back together to prevent it.

“I won’t,” said Rigg-of-the-present. “I never would.”

“You did,” said Rigg-of-the-past.