home or she would have flunked tenth grade. As it was, she was barely able to concentrate long enough to do the absolute minimum, and she barely squeaked into the eleventh grade.
It was a difficult time, but beneath it all Courtney was still a fighter, and committed herself to a new challenge. She wanted to put her life back together. She knew that to face the world again, she was first going to have to face herself. To that end she convinced her parents to send her away to summer school. She figured that six weeks on her own, with people who didn’t know her and who had no expectations, would be the perfect way to get back on her feet. She was right. Courtney slowly began to feel like herself again.
It bothered her that she left Mark alone to deal with Bobby’s journals, but she wisely realized that if she was going to have any hope of being useful to Bobby as an acolyte, she was going to have to get her life back together. Mark understood and supported her decision. It was all working out beautifully.
Until she met Whitney Wilcox.
Saint Dane had come to Second Earth and set her up for a fall. Literally. He took great trouble in getting her to trust him, and to like him, only to pull the rug out and try to kill her. Courtney spent hours trying to figure out why he’d done this. Was something to Bobby? Worst of all, was this somehow part of his overall plan to target Second Earth in his quest to control Halla?
Courtney and Mark began discussing these questions on his very first visit to the hospital after the accident. Courtney’s parents would pay for Mark to take the train, and stay in a motel so he wouldn’t have to make the trip up and back in one day. They couldn’t be there all the time because of their jobs and knew that having visitors helped Courtney. They had no idea that Mark was there not only to be a supportive friend, but to discuss the future of all existence.
On one visit in early autumn, Mark brought all of Bobby’s journals that detailed his adventure on Zadaa. Courtney read them in one straight shot. Mark wanted Courtney to know all that was happening with Bobby, but he dreaded her finding out that Bobby had fallen in love with Loor. It was Bobby and Courtney who were supposed to be together. That was the way it was meant to be. They had kissed, and not just a dumb make out kind of kiss. It was real. They truly loved each other. Mark could barely breathe as he waited for Courtney to read the part where Bobby admitted he had such strong feelings for Loor.
But when Courtney reached that section in the journal, she looked to Mark calmly and said, “I saw that coming.”
“You did?” Mark said, surprised.
“You didn’t?” was Courtney’s response. “C’mon, Mark. Things have changed a little, don’t you think? I mean, we aren’t the same people we were in junior high.”
“Well, I suppose,” Mark said sadly. “We’re getting older.”
“Yeah,” Courtney said quickly. “And we’re dealing with a powerful demon who’s trying to throw all time and space into chaos. Let’s not forget that little detail.”
“Right,” Mark said. “That too.”
“I love Bobby,” Courtney said. “And I know he loves me, too. But it’s not right for us now. Who knows? Maybe someday…”
Courtney’s voice trailed off. She didn’t want to speculate on anything. There was too much to deal with in the present. “I’m okay with it, Mark,” she said sincerely. “Really” Mark nodded.
“Besides,” she added. “Loor doesn’t want to be with him for the same reason. Things are too weird right now. But they won’t be forever.” She gave Mark a sly smile and said, “This isn’t over.”
Mark smiled too. Courtney was starting to sound more like Courtney every day. After reading the journals the two of them walked slowly around the grounds of the hospital. The leaves were starting to turn and the sky was the kind of deep blue that only comes with autumn. Courtney used a walker to keep weight off her leg. It was difficult for her to move. Her left arm was still mending, and she was incredibly stiff. Mark let her set the pace, which was odd for him, because usually he was the one who had to work to keep up with Courtney. Courtney was strong. She had the body of an athlete. The doctors told her she would heal and be back to her old self before she knew it. Her goal was to dump the walker before she got back to school, and be ready for spring soccer. She was right on schedule, though she was going to miss the beginning of their junior year at Davis Gregory High. The plan was for her to get assignments sent to her so she could keep up, then if all went well, she would be back in regular classes by Thanksgiving. Everyone felt confident that she could meet that timetable. Courtney wasn’t just confident. To her, it was a lock.
Both Courtney and Mark knew that as bad a time as Courtney was having on Second Earth, Bobby was still out there chasing Saint Dane and they were still acolytes. They had to get back with the program. Bobby had written some disturbing things in his last journals that had to be faced.
“I’ll just say it,” Mark announced boldly. “Are you as freaked as I am that Bobby brought Loor back from the dead?”
“I don’t know,” Courtney said with a smile. “How freaked are you?”
Mark didn’t laugh.
Courtney said, “I don’t think Bobby brought her back from the dead.” “But-“
“Let me finish,” Courtney said quickly. “Yeah, maybe he had something to do with it, but I don’t think it was all about him. I think it has to do with the Travelers in general.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s stop kidding ourselves, Mark,” Courtney continued. “I know we grew up with Bobby and played with him when we were kids and pretty much had the same life he did until he took off with his uncle Press, but after all that’s happened, I think it’s pretty obvious that the Travelers aren’t normal. This fast-healing thing is only part of it. Why is it that they’re able to go through the flumes and everything is fine, but when we go through, they tear apart?”
Mark didn’t answer. He kept looking at the ground, weighing Courtney’s words.
She continued, “And how is it that when Bobby left home, every trace that he ever existed disappeared right along with him, including his family? And the house he grew up in? And every record, document, and photograph? Even his dog disappeared! I know we’ve been living with that for a couple of years now, but we’ve got to face it, there’s some force at work here that we know nothing about. Things don’t just disappear. At least not if you go by the rules of how things work here on good old Second Earth. You know that better than anybody. You’re the scientist. Whatever Bobby Pendragon is all about, I don’t think it has anything to do with the reality we know. He said it himself in his journal, he’s not so sure he even belongs on Second Earth.” Courtney took a breath and then said, “I’m not so sure he belongs here either.”
Mark shot Courtney a look. “You really have been thinking.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I have a whole lot to do,” she fired back. “I’m not really sure how to say this, but I don’t think the Travelers are human.”
“Are you serious?” Mark asked.
“What other explanation is there?” Courtney said. “None of them know who their real parents are. Sure, they were raised by people from their home territories, but then they were all told that their parents weren’t their biological parents. So who were their biological parents? I think if we ever find that out, we’ll know why they’re able to heal like they do.”
“And come back from the dead,” Mark said.
“Exactly. That’s not something humans can do, last time I checked.”
“What about Press and Osa and the others who died?”
“I don’t know,” Courtney said. “But Press said Bobby and the others were the last generation of Travelers. Maybe they had to die to give way to Bobby’s generation.”
“Okay,” Mark said. “So Bobby and the Travelers are operating under a different set of rules than the rest of us. Any idea who made up those rules?”
“That’s the big question,” Courtney said firmly. “When we find that out, we’ll unravel this whole thing.”
Mark let that sink in, then said softly, “Do you really think Bobby isn’t human?”
“C’mon!” Courtney snapped. “Tell me you haven’t been thinking the same thing!”
Mark nodded reluctantly.
“Of course you have,” she said. “I didn’t say I’m not weirded out by the idea, but what else can we think?”
Mark said, “So how does Saint Dane fit in?”
