Bethany looked suspicious. “Upset for nothing? What do you think I’ll see?”
“I don’t know.” He backed off. “Nothing. It’s just . . . you know how looking into the future is.”
“No, I don’t know. And speaking of that, every time I asked you about what you saw at the Oracle, you seemed to change the subject. What’s going on?”
Erec closed his eyes. All of his secrets had become too much. If he couldn’t tell his best friend, then who could he tell? “Promise not to say anything to anybody this time?”
“I won’t. Believe me, I regretted making June so upset. It was all for nothing, too. You can trust me, really.”
“Okay.” He paused. “I saw myself giving the scepter to Baskania. And . . . my dragon eyes.” He could not bring himself to tell her that he had also given Trevor over and then thrown him in a trash compactor to die. It was just too horrible. “I could see him start to use the scepter for awful things, right away, too.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding!” She thought a moment. “Well, it’s no problem, right? You can change the future. You know that. Now when you get into that situation, you’ll know not to give the scepter to him. If you’re the one holding it, the power will still be yours. It will be your choice.” She sounded satisfied.
“We’ll see.” Erec was doubtful that would work. Some spell had obviously been cast on him in the future, or he would never have given the scepter to Baskania in the first place.
“I’ll be working on reading the future while you’re gone,” Bethany said, arms crossed. “It will make me feel like I’m with you, I think. At least it will give me something to do. I’m getting good at the close stuff, but that’s really easy. Like I can see you doing a somersault in one minute.”
Erec waited to see what would happen, and had no urge to do a somersault at all. He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”
“Oops.” She giggled. “Okay, so it doesn’t always work. I think
when I told you, it changed things. Let me try again.” She put a finger against her cheek in thought, and waited.
Erec still felt no urge to do a somersault. Instead he scooped up a pink coral fragment near his foot and tried to throw it in the water. It sank down a foot away from them.
“There!” Bethany sounded triumphant. “I saw you doing that!”
Erec laughed. “That’s kind of hard to prove, isn’t it? You can’t tell me I’ll do anything in advance, so I just have to take your word that you read it in my future after the fact.”
“I guess.” She shrugged. “But I also saw that two blue fish started nibbling at the coral in a minute.” They waited, and sure enough two fish found a meal in the coral piece nearby.
“Cool. How do you see that kind of thing? Is it by imagining something in your mind?”
“No—it works totally different from your dragon eyes. It’s all math, which is why I love it so much. There are patterns everywhere, in everything that happens. And the future can be predicted using those patterns. Most people couldn’t do it.” She shrugged, turning a little pink. “Not to brag or anything.”
Erec laughed. “No worries. I know you’re slightly good at math.”
Her eyes grew dreamy. “I love it. It’s like I was born to do this. All I have to do is pay attention to everything around me. I watch the patterns in what happens, and sometimes they start to fit together in waveforms, or three-dimensional structures like crystals. It’s so cool. Everything that happens is part of a giant plan, I think. All of the events are woven together into a massive math problem that has spinning and moving parts, worlds within worlds within worlds. . . . Sorry. I get a little carried away.” Her face turned pink again.
“It sounds amazing.”
“I’m really bad at it so far. But I love the challenge. The more that I look, the more I can see what’s coming. But right now it’s only
a few minutes in advance. Once I get better, I might be able to look years into the future.”
“Sounds like you’ll be the perfect AdviSeer for some lucky king of Alypium one day.”
“I hope so.”
Erec fought the urge to give her a hug right there.
Maybe even more than an AdviSeer,
he thought.
Maybe a queen.
Spartacus paced in Erec’s room, banging into things on purpose to keep him from sleeping.
“I know!” Erec finally shouted. “We’re going. In the morning, okay? I’m not just putting it off, I need some rest! I’ll be too tired to do anything if you don’t leave me alone awhile.”
Spartacus sighed impatiently. “All right. Fine. Shall I wake you at seven?”
“You’re more annoying than my old alarm clock. No, let me wake up on my own. And then eat breakfast. And then say good-bye to Bethany. Then we’ll go.”
Spartacus threw his hands into the air, but he walked out and left Erec to sleep.
Not that Erec could relax. For hours he thought about what he was giving up, questioning if he was doing the right thing. He was walking away from everything he loved—his whole life. And working for Baskania was the worst thing that he could think of. It was the opposite of everything that made sense. He must really trust those Fates.
Erec’s good-bye with Bethany lasted a lot longer than Spartacus liked, but finally Erec gave the nod. Spartacus placed his hands on Erec’s shoulders, and in a minute they were flying through the sea. Erec was glad that he had Instagills. In Spartacus’s impatience, he
may have forgotten that Erec could not breathe underwater.
As nice as the water felt, Erec shook like a leaf when he was whizzing through the air afterward, soaking wet. “C-can’t we take a break? Or go slower?”
Spartacus set him down until he dried a little. He was all smiles again now that they were traveling. “I’ll stay with you as long as I can when you’re with Baskania. Just because you’re his servant doesn’t mean that I will be. I’ll be watching out for you, kid.”
That made Erec feel a little better. But not much. Because he was heading closer and closer to the fortress in Jakarta. The last time he had been there was a disaster.
A thought hit him—there was one person where he was headed that was on his side. Rosco Kroc, his old friend, still worked for Baskania, even though he was secretly against him. Erec had to contact Rosco and tell him he was coming. Rosco would be able to help him for sure.
Erec fished a snail out of his pocket. He began to look for paper to write on, but then remembered that Rosco told him to just send an empty snail and he would find Erec. Erec told the snail to go to Rosco Kroc and dropped it into the grass.
“We need to camp out here awhile,” he told Spartacus. “Rosco is going to meet us. I need to talk to him before seeing the Shadow Prince.”
Spartacus asked, “Why didn’t you just ask me to get him? I’ll be right back.” The ghost disappeared.
Erec wondered who would make it back first—Rosco alone or with Spartacus. It didn’t take long to find out. Within a few minutes, a stunned and freezing Rosco Kroc dropped out of the sky in front of him.
“Rosco!” Erec grinned. “That was fast. Did you get my snail?”
“What snail?” He looked annoyed. “Why bother with that if
you were going to bring me here by magic? Just so you know, it’s not considered the way to do things. I was in the middle of something, and . . . you nearly gave me a heart attack. How did you send me so high in the air? It felt like I was being held by something.”
“You were—by a ghost. It wasn’t me that brought you here. It was Spartacus Kilroy. He was the AdviSeer of King Piter—”
“S-Spartacus Kilroy? He came to get me? D-does he think I’m responsible for his death?” Rosco’s green-scaled face registered shock, and his teeth began to chatter.
Spartacus shook his head. “Look how he talks in front of me like I’m not even here. Pathetic.”
Erec laughed. “No, Rosco. It’s nothing to worry about. Spartacus was just trying to help me. I told him that I needed to talk to you.”
“You’re commanding ghosts now?” He looked around him in fear. “What kind of ghosts would that be? I should be able to see Spartacus if he’s a spirit.”
Erec shrugged. “Not this time. But I’m not commanding him, anyway. He’s helping me because he’s my friend.”
Rosco calmed down a little. “I’m glad he’s helping you. . . . Tell me what’s going on. What did you need me for?”
“I’m on my way to visit Baskania and offer my services to him.” Erec told Rosco the entire story that had led him here.
“I thought that I’d heard everything,” Rosco said. “But this tops it all. I can’t believe that you are going to help the Shadow Prince. And you saw into the future that you are going to give him your scepter and your dragon eyes? You
can’t
do that, Erec.”
“No kidding. I don’t want to. It’s just that . . . I don’t exactly know how to stop it. I’m guessing that Baskania might put a spell on me to make me completely brainwashed. He did it before.” Erec shuddered.
“Well, I’ll be on the lookout so I can stop it. We have to be really careful. Baskania can’t have any clue that I’m aware of all of this. I’ll
have to be with you the whole time—maybe I can get you assigned to me somehow.”
“I’ll be with you too,” Spartacus said. “And I’ll make sure that scepter doesn’t get into Baskania’s hands. At least, as long as I’m not called away.”
“Thanks, Spartacus.”
Rosco looked creeped out. “What did the ghost say?”
“He’s going to help me too.”
“You mean he’s going to stay here?” Rosco sounded disturbed.
In a moment, Rosco was hanging in the air upside down. “Something has my feet! Is it him?” He sounded terrified.
“Spartacus, put Rosco down! He didn’t mean anything by that. Rosco’s just nervous, that’s all.”
Rosco was set back onto his feet, trembling. “I’m sorry, Spartacus. I’ll try not to say anything bad. . . .” He closed his eyes for a moment and refocused. “Okay, let me help you, Erec. I’ll go tell the Shadow Prince that I need assistance with something. . . . I’ll figure out what. You can show up when I’m there. That way I can help if things go wrong. And I’ll try to work it out so that you get the job of helping me.”
It was a relief to have a friend looking out for him. “That’s great. Even if I give myself to Baskania—which I’m supposed to do—you can make sure I don’t do anything bad.”
Rosco cringed. “Wait a minute. This will never work. What was I thinking? The Shadow Prince can read minds. He’ll know exactly why you are coming to him, and that you aren’t really there to help. He’ll never trust you to serve him.”
“Don’t worry—Baskania can’t read my thoughts anymore! Nobody can, except for ghosts. So I’ll be safe. That was a gift from the Furies.”
“You’re kidding! That’s perfect. Oh, he’s not going to like that.”
Rosco chuckled. “He can’t read mine, either, remember, so we’re set. After I traveled back in time something happened, so I’ll always be a mystery to him. We’re the only two that will know what’s going on.”
Spartacus put his head in his hand. “Once again, it’s like I don’t exist.” He picked a stunned Rosco up by his ankles and lifted him high in the air. “This’ll help him remember there’s more than just two of us.”
“Put Rosco down!”
Spartacus set Rosco onto the ground, a little more roughly this time.
“S-sorry. I’m sorry, Spartacus. I’ll try to remember that you’re here. Always here . . .” He shook his head. “I need to think of a project to present to the Shadow Prince. Something we can work on together. He’s been obsessed lately with finding Bethany’s brother—the one who is supposed to be able to give him the secret to learning the Final Magic. That prophecy is obsessing him. I’ll tell him I have a lead and need someone to go undercover with me. Someone that can pose as a kid.”
“We really
should
track down Bethany’s brother!” Erec lit with excitement. There was nothing he’d rather do with his time working for the Shadow Prince. “Only, we’ll tell Bethany who he is, not Baskania.”
Rosco nodded. “Again—we need to be very careful. No information can fall into the wrong hands. I know who is heading up the team that’s researching her brother. We’ll see what they’ve learned so far.”
Erec nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
Rosco dusted himself off. “I’d better head back.” He held a hand up. “And I don’t need help, thank you, Spartacus. Not that the rocketlike ride thousands of feet into the sky wasn’t a blast—if you like having early heart attacks and that sort of thing. But I’m perfectly capable
of using my own magic. The Shadow Prince is in his Paris megacorp complex today. It’s the first time he’s been in Upper Earth for a while, though. Seems like he’s been busy at the Jakarta fortress, which means that he might be planning some kind of battle or war. I’ve been listening for information, but he doesn’t like to share unless it’s necessary.”
Battle or war? “I hope it’s not all about getting my scepter from me. I’m sure he wants it like crazy now.”
“He wants everything like crazy. But having that scepter taken away made him go ballistic. You are lucky you weren’t on the same continent; he was smashing mountains. But you gotta know that guy—as angry as he was, he didn’t slow down one bit. If anything, it only sped him up. He’s got so many plans, a battle or war is nothing to him.”
That sounded worse than Erec thought. And he had to go help this guy? “Thanks, Rosco. I’ll see you in Paris, then. Good thing you told us—we were headed to Jakarta. What time should we be there?”
Rosco pursed his lips in thought. “It will take me an hour to show up and get ready. I usually get in to see him right away, but since I’m not sure, let’s give it two. That will give me time to warm him up to my idea about needing a kid to find Bethany’s brother—and also a little time to talk to the team that’s working on it.”
“What if you’re done talking to him before I show up?”
“No problem. I can always pop back in for something once you are there. But I’ll time it right at two hours. I’m pretty good at sticking around and discussing things, anyway. I know how to keep him interested.”
Rosco raised his arms and flew into the air. “Much better this way, Spartacus. I’ll see you guys soon in Paris.
La Place des Yeux du Monde
, on the Champs-Élysées. You can’t miss it.”