“What makes you think you’ll be able to work the spell now?” Zack asked me.
“Because now I have a way to focus on what happened when you went there. Could you take off your necklace, please?”
He did as I said and pulled the chain off his head.
“May I hold it?” I asked.
He nodded, then placed it in my palm. “Careful,” he said. “That’s worth twenty-two grand.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You remember how we did this last time?”
“I think so.”
“Good. Just try to stay calm while the magic works. Remember, we’ll only be seeing your memories. Nothing can hurt you.”
“I understand.”
Magic formed in my hands as I held the egg pendant. Blue and amber light glowed from my hands and into the stone, reflecting in the mirror. My hope was that the stone would serve the same purpose as the figurines and we’d have better results this time. But I wasn’t certain of anything, so when the mirror’s screen reacted to the magic and swirled with color instead of remaining empty like last time, I felt a tiny bit of hope.
“Now,” I told Zack, “put your hand on the screen.”
He hesitated, looking from me to the screen, as if uncertain whether or not he could trust me, but finally, he seemed to make his decision and placed a hand on the screen.
Warm magic poured from the glass, enveloping us both as we got sucked into the memory.
Zack and I stood in a small room made of metal and copper wires. A quiet, mechanical hum came from somewhere as the floor vibrated beneath our feet. The small cubicle seemed to be made for a purely functional purpose, although I noted elven aspects of the architecture—the way the metal panels were lined with ivy vines etched around their edges, the elegant curve of the room’s only table.
The room wasn’t what I’d been expecting. Usually a person’s memories took us to a typical Faythander location, somewhere in nature, but this room was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I felt for magic in the room, and a spell came to my senses. The bluish color surrounded us, hard to detect, but it felt like Queen Euralysia’s magic.
I spun around, searching for some explanation to our location, when Zack spoke up.
“I remember this.” He took a step forward, running his hand over the smooth metal table. “It’s difficult to recall, exactly. I remember the portal opening… I remember going through and finding a field full of these beautiful blue flowers. I’d never seen anything like them. Beyond the field, there was a strange building standing on top of a hill. After I went inside, I saw… elves inside. I know that sounds strange.”
I cleared my throat and smoothed my hair away from my ears. “I’ve heard of stranger things. Keep going. You saw elves inside the building?”
“Yes. They were building something—it was made of metal, and it was tall.” He tapped his fingers on the table. “I didn’t know what it was. And then… the elves spoke to me. They said they’d brought me here because they thought I could help them. I was confused and wasn’t sure what they wanted, so they threatened me. I remember being frightened. I thought they would hurt me—kill me, possibly—but then, something happened.” He paused.
“What happened?”
“I cooperated.” He stepped away from the table and searched the room, looking from the copper wires to a panel with symbols etched into its face. He traced his finger over the symbols. “The elves said they were interested in some research I’d done. I was a weatherman back on Earth, but that wasn’t how I’d originally started out. Before that, I was determined to be rocket scientist. In college, I’d even written a paper on an alternate form of rocket fuel using ions. I won an award for it.
“The elves wanted to know more about it.” He spun around as realization lit his face. “That’s it,” he said. “They were running out of their own fuel and needed something else. That’s why they’d taken me. I helped them engineer an alternate fuel, and then they put me on this ship and sent me to their base on the moon.” He spun around, his eyes wide. “I remember,” he said excitedly. “Dr. Kennedy, this is where I saw the egg.”
The room faded, replaced by a building with a domed, glass roof that looked out onto a gray, rocky landscape. Amazingly, the blue orb of Earth rose above us.
“We’re on the moon,” I gasped.
“Yes!” Zack said. “This is where they took me.”
I scanned the room and found neat rows of stacked treasures. Sitting apart from the rest, I found what I had been searching for. The vachonette egg sat on a silver pedestal. It was smaller than I’d imagined, about the size of a beach ball, and its golden bands swirled like clouds. Zack approached the egg.
“This is it,” he said quietly. “This is where they put the egg.”
Despite my elation at finding the egg, I felt my heart drop.
“So that’s where the egg is? On the moon?”
I’d suspected it was somewhere hard to find, but this? I would never be able to get it back, and that must have been exactly why the elves had put it there. I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache blossom. There had to be a way to take the egg back. There always was. I just had to think of a way.
A mist of magical fog surrounded us, the room faded, and we reappeared on the island.
Zack moved away from the mirror, then stood and started pacing, his feet crunching over the stray bits of sticks and palm leaves as rain pelted down around him. He didn’t seem to notice.
“But there was something else.” He grabbed his head. “What was it? Why can’t I remember?” He spun around, his face scrunched as he
