Courtney asked, “So you think Saint Dane cares more about messing with Bobby than about ruling Halla?”
“No,” Mark said. “Just the opposite. I believe that for Saint Dane, the road to Halla goes through Bobby. Until Bobby is defeated, he can never truly win. Just killing off the Travelers won’t be good enough for him. Everything he does has a bigger purpose.”
“Including setting up the Traveler from Quillan to die?” Courtney asked.
“Yeah, it’s sick, but that’s what I think,” Mark said with confidence.
Courtney glanced at the yellow pages of Bobby’s journal from Quillan. “You make it sound like it’s all one big game,” she said.
“It kind of feels that way,” Mark said. “With very big stakes.”
Courtney looked out the window again and said, “The more we learn, the less sense it makes.”
“I’ll make it even more confusing,” Mark said. “If I’m right about all this, then the really big question is, why? If this is all some big cosmic game, who made up the rules? What’s the point? Why is Bobby so important? What is Saint Dane trying to prove? And-“
“And who’s he trying to prove it to?” Courtney finished Mark’s thought.
“Exactly,” Mark said. “There’s nothing in Bobby’s journals that gives me a clue, other than what Gunny said-“
“Right,” Courtney interrupted. “He thinks that somebody out there chose the Travelers.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t know who it might be and neither does Bobby. Which means all he can do is keep playing the game and hope for the best.”
“Courtney! Mark!” Mr. Chetwynde called from downstairs. “Dinner’s getting cold.”
“Coming!” Courtney shouted.
“So what do we do?” Mark asked.
“What do you mean?” Courtney shot back. “It’s not like we can jump into a flume and hop over to Quillan to tell him our theory.”
“No, I mean about you. Saint Dane nearly killed you. We both agreed that Bobby should know.”
Courtney stood up. “I changed my mind,” she said with finality.
“But-“
“It doesn’t matter anyway. Even if we wanted to tell him, how could we? We don’t know if the Traveler from Quillan had an acolyte. Who would we send the message to?”
“We could send it to one of the other acolytes, like Saangi, and she could tell Loor and-“
“And Loor would go to Quillan and do what? Tell Bobby that he’s gotta get home because Saint Dane is messing with poor Courtney? What if that’s exactly what Saint Dane wants? I’ve had a lot of time to wonder about why he came after me, and all I can come up with is that he wants Bobby to run home to protect me.”
“Yeah, I thought about that too,” Mark agreed.
“Look,” Courtney said. “We can’t travel to another territory, that’s a fact. We’re stuck here. But you know what? That’s a good thing. Saint Dane is going to come after Second Earth. What he did to me might be part of his plan for this territory, or maybe he was just trying to distract Bobby. We don’t know. But the fact remains, Second Earth is in play. It’s not our job to go to other territories and interfere. Our job is to help Bobby protect Second Earth. I say we hold off on telling him anything about what’s happened until the turning point on Quillan passes, no matter which way it goes. The battle isn’t on Second Earth right now; it’s on Quillan. That’s where Bobby belongs, and it would be wrong for us to distract him.”
Mark nodded.
“Now let’s eat, I’m starving,” Courtney said, and walked stiffly for the door. Conversation over.
The dinner that Mark shared with the Chetwyndes was a lot of fun, in spite of all that was bothering Mark and Courtney. They did their best to put their concerns about Bobby aside and focus on the celebration to welcome Courtney home. It was a warm, wonderful time. The tension between Courtney and her parents that existed before she left for summer school had evaporated. Courtney realized that her brush with death went a long way toward putting her priorities in order. Not being the best girl on the soccer team suddenly seemed trivial. Her parents were just happy that she was alive. Courtney kind of liked that fact too. If Saint Dane had accomplished anything, it was to bring Courtney and her family back together.
For Mark and Courtney there was an added reason to celebrate: They had survived Saint Dane’s plot to hurt Courtney. Courtney’s body may have been worse for wear, but their resolve was stronger than ever… and their confidence. It truly was a time to celebrate, in spite of the sad and scary news from Quillan.
Mark and Courtney decided to go about their lives as normally as possible, which meant Mark started his junior year at Davis Gregory High, and Courtney continued the grueling process of physical therapy. Both knew they had to stay aware, in case Saint Dane made another appearance, though neither knew exactly how to do that, or what to look for. Of course they were wary of strangers or anyone new who came into their lives. Courtney wasn’t about to let another Whitney Wilcox weasel his way into her confidence. At least not until Saint Dane was done for good.
Mark brought Bobby’s latest journal to the National Bank of Stony Brook, where all of Bobby’s journals were kept in a safe-deposit box. Every day he would check the newspaper and the online news services, searching for any hint of something that might lead to a turning point on Second Earth that Saint Dane could exploit. After a week of sleepless nights spent online, he realized it was futile, because everything seemed like it could lead to a turning point. There was no shortage of stories about strife in other countries as well as at home. There were countless reports of terrorism and border disputes and sickness and crime and any number of things that Mark could easily imagine blossoming into a full-blown turning point. It was making him crazy. He began to realize that even if he ran across the right information, he’d never recognize it and make the connection to Saint Dane. He had to accept the fact that he’d never come across an item on Yahoo! that read: stranger appears out of nowhere to offer prosperity but really plans disaster. Short of that, he knew he was spinning his wheels, so he reluctantly gave up doing research.
Courtney’s mom dropped her off every day at the High Point Rehabilitation Center, where she spent a solid two hours being tortured. She worked right alongside many elderly people with various problems. One man had suffered a stroke and had to learn to use his legs again. Courtney found herself being a cheerleader and coach for the guy, encouraging him to keep trying. She also helped a young boy who had injured his hand so badly, he had trouble holding a fork to eat. Courtney sat by him, telling him jokes and getting him to focus. Many times the older man was nearly in tears out of frustration, but Courtney was able to get him to think ahead to where he would soon be, as opposed to dwelling on where he’d been. In the few weeks that Courtney was there, she saw great improvement in both the old man and the kid. The therapists told her she played a big part in their recovery, which made Courtney feel great.
Her own recovery went very well. Most of the patients there would have to be coaxed and cajoled into exercising, since exercise usually meant pain and frustration. With Courtney it was the opposite. The therapists had to caution her to back off, for fear she’d hurt herself again. The term “back off” was not in Courtney’s vocabulary. She had a deadline. She wanted to play soccer that spring. But more than that, she was driven by her hatred of Saint Dane, and what he’d done to her. It fueled her and it healed her.
The investigation continued in Derby Falls as to who the stranger named Whitney Wilcox was, who showed up at Courtney’s summer school, pretended to be a student, nearly killed Courtney, and then vanished. Courtney spoke many times with the local detectives and with school officials, answering the same questions over and over again. But it was all for show, because she knew they were wasting their time. They’d never find the guy. At one point she wanted to blurt out, “Look, Whitney Wilcox was actually a demon named Saint Dane who is trying to crush all of humanity, and the reason he tried to kill me is because my friend Bobby Pendragon is off in another time and territory trying to stop him, and I think he wanted to get Bobby to come home and protect me. Does that clear things up for you now? Have a nice day.” She didn’t say that.
Instead she bit her tongue, answered their questions as truthfully as possible, and secretly felt sorry for them because it was such a total waste of their energy.
By the time November rolled around, Courtney was itching to get back to school. Up until then she had been getting her assignments brought to the house. Her parents even hired a tutor to help her with math. (Courtney wasn’t big on math.) Her grades rebounded from the disaster of the year before, and after the first quarter she was back on the honor roll. As great as that felt, Courtney was still frustrated. She wanted to get back to normal, and
