moment she didn’t even notice Ed Stillman shifting and sliding on the hall tree next to her. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“What do you think?” he snarled back. “Ending this charade right now, that’s what I’m doing!”
In a couple of seconds Stillman had stepped down from the sideboard and headed back down the hall toward the kitchen end, moving much more quickly than she would have guessed of a man near Gideon’s age; by the time she could scramble after him he was gone.
What’s he going to do? Is he going to shoot somebody? For a moment she hoped the house would defeat him as it did so many newcomers, but then she remembered that Stillman had spent lots of time here when he was younger.
As Lucinda reached the stairs she heard the creak of the old wooden floorboards-Stillman getting away, or someone approaching? Kingaree? Panicked by indecision, she at last clambered into a broom closet and held the door closed. The footsteps paused near her hiding spot, and for a moment Lucinda heard nothing except the hammering of her heart. Then whoever it was moved on, moving slowly but heavily up the squeaky stairs. When the noise had faded Lucinda poked her head out to make sure the hallway was empty, then scampered for the kitchen. As she stepped through the swinging door she almost knocked over Azinza, the kitchen’s African princess.
“Lucinda!” The tall woman stepped back, raising her hands in as if to defend herself. “What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be in this house. Go away before she finds you!” Her forehead wrinkled. “How did you get here?”
“Never mind.” Obviously Azinza hadn’t seen Stillman. Lucinda went up onto her tiptoes to throw her arms around the tall woman and kissed her on the cheek. “Oh, I missed you so much! Pema and Sarah, too!”
Azinza smiled and started to say something, then stopped, head cocked to one side. “Someone coming. Might be her. You go on now-hurry!”
Lucinda didn’t argue. She waved to Azinza, then trotted across the kitchen toward the back door. She paused for a moment, startled by thunder, and stared out at the dark ocean of the garden and, though she couldn’t see it, the lonely island that was the ancient greenhouse.
Never. I’m never going near that place again.
Something floated to her through the rumble of the storm. It took a moment to realize it was inside her head.
Frightened! Carrot girl help-frightened!
In all the frightening time with Stillman she had almost forgotten about the young dragon.
I’m here, she thought as clearly as she could. Desta, I’m here! I’ll come as soon as I can! But not now, Lucinda told herself. It would be crazy to start across the huge farm in the dark, with no idea of who or what might be out there. No, as guilty as it made her feel, the young dragon would have to wait.
She made her way instead along the front of the house, in and out past the window boxes, dodging from one sheltering part of the complicated facade to another. She could hear strange animal sounds floating across the distance on the rainy wind and the ground at her feet was boiling with bugs and snakes and even uprooted worms toiling across the ground, heading for the far end of the house as if they had all been invited to some gala party. It was like what she had seen near the greenhouse, but now it was happening here, hundreds of yards away!
Stop, Lucinda, she reminded herself. One thing at a time. Right now you’ve got Man with Gun, Dangerous Witch, and Brainwashed Gideon-that’s enough to deal with.
Water drizzled from overflowing roof gutters as she crept from one hiding spot to the next, but for the moment the lightning and thunder had died away. At last she reached the Snake Parlor’s front window and crept up close to peer through a lighter-colored spot near the bottom of the stained-glass window. She could hear voices through the old, thin glass. Mrs. Needle was there, her pale face rigid and expressionless. Dankle the lawyer stood beside her, looking in every way like a grown man who was about to wet his pants. That was because of the third standing figure: it was Ed Stillman, gun in hand and anger plain on his face.
Stillman was inspecting Gideon Goldring, who looked even worse from this angle, his face like a wax dummy’s, mouth agape and deep-sunken eyes focused on nothing. Lucinda felt a sudden fire of hatred inside her. Patience Needle had done this to him-had turned their great-uncle into this pathetic old thing.
“What have you been doing to him, woman?” Stillman demanded. “Poisoning him? That seems a bit old- fashioned.”
“You are a trespasser, sir,” said Mrs. Needle so calmly that if it had been anyone else Lucinda would have admired her courage. “And you have threatened us with a gun. I don’t care who you are, Mr. Stillman, you are now a criminal. And Mr. Dankle here is an officer of the court.”
The lawyer raised his hands like a man trying to keep friends from disagreeing. “Now, Mrs. Needle, now let’s not… ”
Stillman laughed. “Then call the police. Go ahead! Dankle, you should know the number.” He looked around. “Nobody in much of a hurry, eh? I thought not. Obviously Gideon’s got something going here that you think is valuable-isn’t that right, my lady? And you thought you’d like to have it for yourself.”
“See here, Mr. Stillman,” said Dankle, stuttering a little from nervousness, “we’re all civilized folk. Please put the gun down and we’ll talk this out.”
“Oh, really?” Stillman suddenly turned and pointed the gun right at Barnaby Dankle. “You mean you’re going to tell me the truth about your little double-cross-or is it a triple-cross? Are you cheating her, too? Because you’ve certainly put the screws to your other employers, me and poor old Gideon.”
“This is… it’s a misunderstanding…!” The lawyer began to back away from him. “You see, it’s… it’s just that… ”
Lucinda didn’t hear the rest because at that moment something sharp and icy cold pressed against the side of her throat and a hard-callused hand covered her mouth.
“Don’t make a sound and you might live,” said a quiet but horridly familiar voice. “Well, well, well… who’s this sneaking around in the dark?” Jackson Kingaree’s mouth was so close to Lucinda’s ear she could feel his hot breath. “Didn’t I tell you we’d meet again, little girl? Didn’t I? ”
Chapter 34
Colin Needle climbed the ladder from the cavern up into the silo. There were footprints on the dusty floor that he didn’t remember having been there before, and for a moment he froze in fear, but he hadn’t seen anyone in the Fault Line cavern and the silo itself was obviously empty, so he decided he just hadn’t noticed the tracks on his way in.
Besides, why would anyone be messing around near the Fault Line on a night like this, anyway? The Jenkins kids were gone, Gideon’s sick, and Mr. Walkwell had plenty of work to keep him busy.
Colin closed and locked the hatch behind him, then slid out of his backpack and set the Continuascope down on top of it to keep the brass he had so carefully buffed and polished from getting scratched again. He reached into the pocket of the jacket he had chosen to wear for his experiment-a far, far heavier garment than what anyone else would be wearing even on a stormy night like this-and took the handkerchief out of his pocket before unwrapping his souvenir.
There it sat, the symbol of his triumph, glistening in the beam of his flashlight like a Christmas ornament, but it was both far more plain and far more wonderful than any mere decorated glass ball.
A twenty thousand year old snowball, he thought to himself. But what made the snowball really special was not just it came from the Ice Age, but from at least a day before Tyler Jenkins had entered that snowy world. Colin knew that because he had set the Continuascope carefully, and this time when stepped out of the Fault Line in the same place he had visited in his first experiment, there were no footprints-not his, not Tyler Jenkins’s.
I made the Continuascope work! Colin wanted to laugh and dance in triumph. I set it and it took me right where and when I wanted it to go! Even old Octavio himself would have had to admit that Colin Needle deserved to be the Continuascope’s new owner!
But as he stared at the tightly-packed white sphere he saw that the handkerchief darkening around it: the
