Welcome to the party, Manoo and I’ve been out of my mind for a while now.
“Get back to the Agronomy Society,” Uncle Press ordered Manoo. “Make sure they track down and stop every shipment. Can you do that?”
“I suppose,” answered Manoo. “But who are you to tell me -
“Just do it, Manoo!” barked Yenza.
She called to the two aquaneers, “Make sure this man gets back to the Agronomy Society safely.”
The aquaneers both offered a crisp salute and stood ready to go with Manoo. Yenza took Manoo by both arms in a warm gesture of trust and friendship.
“Do what you can, Manoo. Hobey-ho.”
Manoo stood up straight as if the entire fate of Cloral were now resting on his shoulders. He was now on a mission, and he took it seriously.
“Let’s go!” he shouted to the aquaneers, and the three took off.
Yenza then turned back to Uncle Press and said, “And why must we leave Panger City?”
Uncle Press looked to me and held out his hand. I knew exactly what he wanted and handed him the two pieces of map.
“Ever hear of the Lost City of Faar?”
In minutes we were back on the speeder boat, blasting away from Panger City, bound for, well, the plan was to head for the Lost City of Faar, but at the time it seemed like we were chasing a fairy tale.
When we put the two pieces of the map together, this is what we saw: The horizontal solid line that was a third of the way up from the bottom on the left half of the map continued on to the right half of the map all the way to the far side. The curved line that began at the lower left corner formed a complete semicircle with another curved line on the other half. It was now a wide, upside-down smile beneath the horizontal line. The spray of dots that was above the horizontal line on the left half of the map was also on the right half. Finally, the series of numbers from the left half continued on to the right.
We had no idea what the horizontal line or the semicircle beneath it or all the dots meant, but Spader and Yenza knew what the numbers meant. They were map coordinates that marked a very specific point in the ocean. We now had a location, but it was a long way off from Panger City. Their best guess was that it would take us all night to get there, even with the speeder boat throttled up to the maximum. Spader set the course and locked it into the speeder’s automatic pilot to make sure we wouldn’t stray. When traveling that long of a distance, even a minor error could have sent us way off course. Unless something bizarro happened, by morning we would be at the exact spot where the map said we would find the Lost City of Faar.
I was excited, but also pretty doubtful. The idea of finding a lost, sunken city seemed pretty far-fetched. But as Loor said, after all we’d seen, nothing was impossible.
I also hoped that Saint Dane had a lousy memory. He had only looked at the map for a few seconds before Yenza and the aquaneers came in with their water-guns blazing. Hopefully he’d forget a number in the coordinates, or switch two, or mess up something else that would send him in the wrong direction. That’s what I hoped for, but I didn’t think for a second that it would happen. I knew that Saint Dane now had the same information we did. The real question was how quickly he could catch up. It was going to be a race, but a race to what?
It was a beautiful night and the water was so calm that the stars were reflected in the water in front of us. I was standing on the bow looking out on this awesome sight, when I sensed that someone was behind me.
It was Spader.
“Tell me about where you come from,” he asked.
“That’s a lot of ground to cover,” I answered.
“It’s called Second Earth. Don’t ask me if there’s a First Earth or a Third Earth because I don’t know. I live in a town called Stony Brook. We have big cities and farms and small towns just like Cloral, the only difference is they don’t float on the water. I think something like four-fifths of the planet is covered with water; the rest is dry land.”
“So how do you get around if you can’t use skimmers and speeders?” he asked.
“Well, we have cars… vehicles that can go long distances on land, and big trains that travel on rails. And, oh yeah… we can fly.”
“What?” he asked in shock. “You can fly?”
I laughed. “Sort of. We have vehicles that fly. Some are small and hold only two people, others are big enough to carry four hundred.”
“Hobey, that’s magic!” Spader said in awe.
I guess to someone from another territory that didn’t have airplanes, the power of flight was pretty amazing. It was almost as amazing as being able to breathe underwater with plastic globes that molded to your head. Every territory was unique in its own way and believe it or not, I was beginning to like the idea that I was going to see more of them.
“And you have a family?” he asked me.
“Yeah. Mom, Dad, and a little sister named Shannon.”
We both fell silent for a while. We knew what we were both thinking. What had happened to our families?
“You know something, Pendragon?”
“What?”
“I believe Press,” he said with confidence. “We’re going to see them again. But not before some amazing adventures come our way.”
I had to smile. Maybe he was beginning to accept our fate.
For the rest of the night Spader and Yenza took turns at the controls and keeping watch. We all tried to get some sleep, but it wasn’t easy. We went below to the cabin, where there were some bunks. As excited as I was, I really needed some sleep, and konked out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I planned to sack out for only an hour or two, but as it turns out I slept through the entire night!
What finally woke me up was the sound of the engines slowing. I immediately sat up in the hammock, banged my head on a beam of course, swore to myself, then headed topside.
Uncle Press, Spader, and Yenza were already standing on deck. We must have made some pretty good time because the sun hadn’t come up yet. It was still pitch dark and the stars still shone off the water. It was very quiet, especially now that the engines were killed and we weren’t moving. I did a complete three-sixty and saw nothing but water.
“Are we here?” I asked.
“Right on the spot,” answered Spader.
“It’s strange,” Yenza said. “According to the charts we’re over a huge trench, one of the deepest on Cloral. But my instruments show it to be fairly shallow. I don’t understand.”
“Could we be in the wrong spot?” I asked.
Spader answered the question. “Not a chance.”
I walked up to the bow of the speeder and looked out onto the water. It was so calm that it was tricky to find where the horizon stopped and the water began. Especially since the stars reflected off the water.
The stars. The stars reflected off the water. That’s when it hit me.
I ran to the others and shouted, “Give me the map!”
Spader had it. He had glued it together using some kind of, well, glue. I held it up toward the horizon. Then I slowly turned, still holding the map out in front of me until everything lined up and -
“That’s it!” I exclaimed.
“What’s it?” asked Uncle Press.
“Look,” I said, pointing to the map. “The horizontal line represents the horizon. And all these dots above it are — “
“Stars!” shouted Spader. “Hobey-ho, look!”
It was incredible. The dots on the map lined up perfectly with the constellations in the night sky. There was no mistaking it. We were in the right spot.
“Good thing we got here at night,” Uncle Press added.
“So then what’s this big half circle below the line?” I asked.
I think it hit all four of us at the same time because we all looked at one another cautiously. We knew exactly
