JAMES POTTER AND THE VAULT OF DESTINIES

       Petra spoke calmly. 'If there is someone there, then they're expecting us. This is what we came for, isn't it? Let's go. But… keep your wands handy. You never know.'

       The group began to make their way across the gentle hump of the plateau, wading through the whispering yellow grass. With a sinking jolt, James remembered that he had dropped his own wand during the last seconds of the Clutchcudgel tournament and had completely forgotten to retrieve it afterward. He cursed himself silently, but reminded himself that he was walking alongside one of the most powerful people in the magical world. If Petra proved unable to confront whatever was to come, then his wand surely would not be of any help anyway.

       As the minutes passed, the castle grew gradually closer. It was rather small, at least compared to Hogwarts, but nearly fantastically tall, scraping its towers at the grey clouds. James noticed that just as in the dream-visions, the castle was perched on the ledge of the far cliff, jutting partly over it in complete defiance of gravity. Perhaps magic held it in place or perhaps it was simply balanced there by habit. Either way, it was very disconcerting to look at. James felt that the mere weight of his gaze might be enough to send the structure collapsing backwards into the waiting waves below.

       'What's that?' Izzy asked suddenly, stopping and pointing. James turned and saw an object protruding from the grass some distance away, in the shadow of a low outcropping of boulders. Silently, the troop angled toward the object, cautious but curious.

       James was the first to reach it. He peered at it, trying to make sense of the shape of it. It was quite large, but low and streamlined, comprised of wood and metal and draped with tangles of thin, silky rope. It lay tilted onto its side, nearly buried in the grass.

'It looks like a boat,' Ralph suggested uncertainly. 'But how could it have gotten up here?'

       'It's not a boat,' Zane called from some distance away. 'Look at the hill next to it. See all that old fabric?'

       James looked. Next to the boat-shape was a pool of wrinkled blue fabric, faded almost white. It clung to the rocky hill like a skin, poked through in a thousand places with tufts of grass.

       'It was an airship,' Lucy said, her voice filled with awe. 'Someone came here by air. A long time ago, by the look of it. Maybe decades ago.'

       'Maybe even centuries,' Petra added. 'There's no way to know for sure. There're no bugs here. Nothing to rot the cloth or wood, nothing to corrode the metal. It looks almost like the day it landed except that the balloon is flat and destroyed by the grass that poked up through it.'

       'Travelers from one of the other island dimensions, you think?' James asked, approaching the wooden hull and peering in. The inside was nearly empty save for a few seats and a large rudder handle which protruded crookedly from the rear.

       'One traveler, at least,' Petra hazarded. 'I wonder what dimension he came from? And if he made it into our own world?

       James noticed a series of symbols painted onto the hull of the ship, faded almost into obscurity. Among them was the unmistakable shape of a unicorn, white and stern, its horn a pale purple. Ralph and Zane joined James there and saw the same thing.

       'The Rider,' James said quietly. 'The one from the tapestries in Erebus Castle! This was his ship. His and the unicorn that came with him.'

       'How can that be?' Ralph queried in a low voice. 'When the Rider came through, he arrived somewhere back home, in Europe, in the Middle Ages, didn't he?'

       James shook his head. 'These portals aren't like normal doorways,' he replied. 'I don't think time or distance make much difference with them. The Nexus Curtain may always be there, connecting to our world, but it probably looks different every time it opens. It may open up into entirely different times and places in our world. There's no way of knowing.'

       Zane was barely listening. He was moving along the hull of the abandoned airship, studying the symbols painted onto it. 'Look,' he said, touching one of the drawings. 'The unicorn that came through with the Rider wasn't just a regular beast. You can see that just by looking at the way it's painted. It was smart. It wasn't the servant of the Rider.'

       'They were partners,' Ralph agreed, leaning to peer at the drawings. 'They were explorers.'

       James shook his head darkly. 'Too bad their explorations led them here.'

       They knew the dangers they faced, a thin, ghostly voice said in James' ear.

       The three boys startled and spun around, their eyes bulging. Behind them, staring at them with sad curiosity was a wispy grey shape, almost invisible in the flat light of the plateau. It was the figure of a woman, young and moderately pretty, with huge eyes and a small, sad mouth.

       Sorry, she said faintly. I didn't mean to frighten you.

       'Are you a gh-gh—,' Ralph stammered, his face going white. 'A ghost?'

       'Oh good grief, Ralph,' Lucy said, approaching and shaking her head. 'You had a ghost teacher for the last two years at Hogwarts.'

       'Yeah,' Ralph admitted a little defensively. 'Well, it's one thing to have a scheduled class with one. It's another thing to have one whisper in your ear when you're exploring some weird dead island.'

       Sorry, the ghost said again, drifting backwards. It's been so long since I've seen anyone. I forget what it's like to deal with the living.

       'Who are you, miss?' Petra asked, tilting her head thoughtfully.

       My name is Fredericka, the ghost answered, and made a dutiful curtsy with her transparent hands. Fredericka Staples. I've been here ever since I… She paused before finishing, as if she was embarrassed or reluctant to admit it. Um, ever since I died.

       'Fredericka Staples,' James said, his eyes widening. 'You're the one who… the woman that Magnussen…! Er!'

       The ghost nodded and pressed her lips together, obviously not wishing to discuss the topic.

       'Who?' Lucy asked, but James shook his head.

       'She died on the campus of Alma Aleron,' he answered quietly. 'She was a Muggle and she got mixed up with the wrong dark wizard. I'll tell you the rest later if you really want to know.'

       'I don't,' Lucy said quickly. 'Pleased to meet you, Miss Staples. I think.'

       'But I thought there weren't any ghosts at Alma Aleron,' Ralph commented.

       Zane shrugged. 'I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.'

       Ralph rolled his eyes. 'I don't know what that means.'

       Lucy said, 'It means we aren't at Alma Aleron anymore, are we? The regular rules don't apply.'

       'Perhaps,' Petra mused, as if to herself. 'Perhaps this place is the reason there are no ghosts at Alma Aleron. Perhaps the portal into the World Between the Worlds is like a ghostly magnet, sucking them in or driving them away, or even both at the same time.'

       'But that can't be right,' James said. 'Nobody can get through the Nexus Curtain without the proper key.'

       'I think that's only true for the living,' Izzy commented thoughtfully. 'The dead can get through all kinds of doorways that were closed while they were alive.'