his hat and was gone.
“We’re all tired,” Mrs. Dimond declared, always the mother hen. “We should get some rest.”
“You guys go,” Mark said. “I want to walk a little.”
“I’m coming with you,” Courtney declared.
A few minutes later Mark and Courtney were strolling along the southern border of Hyde Park, the massive expanse of green grass in central London. They looked like any other couple from 1937. Mark wore a dark gray suit with a fedora cap and a wool overcoat to ward off the November chill. Courtney wore a dress and a cream-colored overcoat. She even wore high heels and stockings. To her it was a costume for their meeting with Paterson. She didn’t think a stiff British businessman would take her seriously if she wore the pants and floppy wool hat she’d bought at Macy’s in New York. Turned out it didn’t matter.
The two had grown up since their adventure began when Bobby Pendragon left home to travel through the territories. They were now both seventeen…and felt around a hundred. They walked together along the sidewalk, their minds a million miles away from their bodies. For the longest time neither said a word. They walked past Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and on to the Houses of Parliament, where the famous Clock Tower with the bell known as Big Ben rose into the sky. Both stopped to look up at the immense tower in awe.
“Wow,” Courtney declared. “I had no idea. They should call it ‘Really Big Ben.’”
They continued along the river Thames until they reached Westminster Bridge. But their walk wasn’t about sightseeing-it was about taking time to think. Finally, on their way back toward Hyde Park, Courtney broke the ice.
“You know, maybe it’s a good thing we couldn’t stop KEM,” she offered. “At least now we know how things are going to play out. Technology on Earth is going to change. The dados are going to be created, but Bobby is going to beat them on Ibara. That’s all good, right? Who knows what might have happened if we’d stopped Paterson and his KEM geeks? We might have started a whole nother chain of events and Saint Dane might still be in business.”
“And Bobby might not be trapped on Ibara with him,” Mark muttered.
“Yeah, that,” Courtney whispered softly. “But it was his choice, Mark. He ended the war. Halla is safe from Saint Dane. Who knows? Maybe that’s the way it was supposed to be.”
“This is my fault,” Mark said.
“Stop!” Courtney shouted quickly. “You had no idea you were being manipulated. It’s not like you set out to invent something that was going to change the course of Halla. Come on!”
“I should have seen him coming,” Mark muttered.
“But you didn’t! Just like a whole lot of people all over Halla. What about me? I was fooled too, remember? Whitney Wilcox? Hello?”
“Except when you got fooled, it didn’t start a chain of events that changed the future of a bunch of territories and created a war.”
“Details,” Courtney said quickly.
“Really bad details.”
“Okay, so it led to a war, but it was a war that Saint Dane lost! Look at it this way, maybe he blew it. The way things have worked out, by getting you to invent Forge, Saint Dane set up his own defeat on Ibara. Now he’s trapped there. It backfired on him, Mark. Maybe you’re the hero in this whole thing!”
Mark stopped walking and looked directly at Courtney. “Do you really believe that?”
Courtney wanted to shout out, “Yes!”
She didn’t. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But it’s possible, right?”
“Let’s go home,” Mark said. “We’ll have plenty of time to figure things out on the boat.”
“I can’t believe we’ve gotta get on that tub again,” Courtney complained. “It’s nice and all, but it’s still just a floating hotel. Talk about claustrophobia.”
They had reached the Royal Albert Hall, the large round brick concert hall. Behind it was the small hotel where Dodger had found them all rooms.
“I want to walk a little more,” Mark said. “On my own.”
Courtney nodded. “Don’t be long. The sun’ll be down soon, and it’s getting cold.”
The two of them hugged.
“We did okay, Mark,” Courtney added. “Bobby would be proud.”
Mark didn’t respond. He wasn’t so sure he agreed. Courtney left him, headed for the hotel. Mark turned the opposite way and entered Hyde Park in the area known as Kensington Gardens. The trees were alive with autumn colors. Kids played pickup games of soccer. The air was turning colder, and Mark had to button up his coat to fight the chill. It was a beautiful day. Mark stood in the middle of a wide, grassy area and did a three-sixty to take it all in.
He had a moment. A brief moment. In spite of the fact that his best friend had sacrificed himself by destroying the flume so he couldn’t leave Ibara, and in spite of the fact that he felt embarrassed by having been duped by Saint Dane, Mark allowed himself a moment to think that the sacrifices might actually have been worth it. Saint Dane’s evil quest might be over. Halla might be safe. He even had the hope that they might have the chance to recapture some semblance of a normal life.
It was a great moment.
It didn’t last long.
“Hello, Mark,” came a familiar voice.
Mark spun quickly to see a woman standing near a thick oak tree, her hands shoved into the pockets of her long wool coat, her feet set apart defiantly.
Mark froze. The moment of bliss passed as quickly as it had arrived.
“You don’t seem all that surprised to see me,” Nevva Winter said.
Truth be told, Mark wasn’t.
In his heart, he knew he had been kidding himself.
He knew it wasn’t over.
FIRST EARTH
(CONTINUED)
The two stood facing each other. Mark didn’t want to talk to Nevva. She was a traitor. She was the enemy. What he wanted was to turn and run away. He didn’t. He didn’t want to show weakness.
“It’s over, Nevva,” Mark said, trying to sound as if he meant it.
“Is it?” Nevva asked while raising an eyebrow.
Mark thought that Nevva was beautiful. She had dark hair and flawless skin. Mark didn’t know how old she was. Maybe in her early twenties. Like Courtney, she wore a dress and overcoat that were stylish for 1937. When he first met her, she’d taken his breath away. Mark wasn’t used to dealing with beautiful women, especially women who were trying to bring about the destruction of all that existed.
“Where’s Saint Dane?” Mark asked, though he knew exactly where the demon was. On Ibara. Trapped with Bobby. Mark didn’t know if Nevva knew. He wanted to be cagey.
“You don’t know?” Nevva asked as she slowly approached him. “He’s trapped on Ibara.”
So much for being cagey.
“You must have heard,” Nevva continued while glancing at
Mark’s Traveler ring. “Surely Bobby told you that he buried the flume on Ibara under tons of volcanic rock.”
“He might have mentioned something about that, yeah,” Mark said, trying to sound casual. He had given up on cagey.
“Walk with me, Mark,” Nevva said with a small smile. She turned and took a few steps. Mark didn’t budge. Nevva stopped and looked back at him. “We need to talk.”
“Why should I talk to you?” Mark barked angrily. Casual wasn’t working for him either. “All you’ve done is manipulate me and cause us all grief.”
