Entering the Weave
Open Minds

Kat was sitting next to Josh watching hisexpressionless face and trying to imagine what was happening inside his mind.

More of the alien control room had come alive afterJosh and Sir Trevor had logged into wherever they were. Most of the hologramsseemed content to stay in one place, but many of them drifted around liketransparent balloons. It was like being inside a giant kaleidoscope.

The professor danced around from hologram to controlpanel taking readings or tentatively pressing buttons. He was far too busy toanswer any of Kat’s questions about Josh.

Coel was sitting next to her. His hand still restedgently on her forearm, even though he’d said that his inner sight had returneda little.

“What is the door like to this room?” He askedurgently.

“What?”

“The door. To this room. Can we close it? Is itstrong?”

Kat glanced at the door which was currently guarded bytwo of the burly bodyguards. “Yes. I suppose so. But why?”

“We need to close it. Come on.”

Kat pulled Coel to his feet and they hurried across tothe door. One of the bodyguards turned to them questioningly.

Coel grabbed his arm. “We need to get everyone insideand close the door.”

The bodyguard pulled his arm away from the blind manand resumed his watch. Coel tugged at his sleeve again.

“Look, buddy. Just keep out of everybody’s way okay? Idon’t want to have to hurt you, but if you’re compromising the security of thisoperation then…”

He didn’t finish as a gigantic reptilian head crashedinto his side, knocking him to the ground. The dinosaur turned quickly and beforeanyone could react it had picked up the unconscious bodyguard in its enormousmouth.

Coel pulled Kat back into the room and the otherbodyguard heaved the door closed.

“Professor!” Kat screamed. “Can you lock this door?”

“Please, can’t you see I’m busy…” But he must havenoticed the frantic activity by the door and he scurried over to them. “What onEarth is going on?”

“There’s a dinosaur out there.”

“Yes. I know.” He snorted. “I almost ran into itsmouth while we were looking for this room.”

“It’s alive.”

“That’s imposs…” A momentous crash against the doorproved that it wasn’t. The door swung open and threw the bodyguard across theroom. For a second the dinosaur stood in the open doorway, but Coel managed toswing the door shut again.

The professor quickly connected his small computer tothe panel next to the door and, with a coolness that belied his usualeccentricity, keyed in some commands. With an encouragingly loud clunk, thedoor locked itself and hardly moved with the next resounding blow.

The dinosaur, however, continued to smash against thedoor and before long it had started to look decidedly bent.

Kat searched the room for another way out and foundnothing. The professor, now the door was shut, had gone back to hisinstruments, while every one else cowered as far away from the slowly crumplingdoor as they could possibly get.

“What the devil’s going on?” A stern voice demandedfrom somewhere.

The professor dropped his clipboard and scurried tohelp Sir Trevor who had fallen off his seat and now sat sprawled on the floor.“Professor Ackermann? What are we doing here?”

“We’re trying to help the entity, sir.”

“What entity. What on Earth are you blathering onabout? And who is this child?” He indicated the still serene body of Josh. Alook of sudden indecision crossed his face, only to be replaced immediately bycrossness. “Where are we?”

“Sir, perhaps you’d better calm down. It can be astrange experience to return from virtual reality so suddenly.”

“I will not calm down. I demand to know what is goingon here.” There was another monumental crash against the door. “And what’sthat?”

“It’s a dinosaur. It’s trapped us here in this spaceship control room.” Coel said mischievously.

Sir Trevor eyed Coel warily and turned to theprofessor. “Who is this raving lunatic.”

“I really think you need to calm down, sir. Please.”

“I remember this boy. I’m sure he had a spear. He hitme.” He said indignantly, rubbing his arm. “Then I arrived here.” He seemed tonotice the floating holograms and the situation then seemed to catch up withhim. His gruff superiority was replaced with smiling confusion. “Dinosaurs.Spaceships and fairies. Yes. Quite nice.”

“Were you with Josh?” Kat asked. “When you wereonline.”

“Who?”

“Him.” She pointed. “When you went online, were youwith Josh? Is he okay?”

“I think so. We were on an island amidst a beautifultranquil sea.” He said dreamily. “He sent me back, because he had to gosomewhere else. A battle I think.”

“What?” Kat and Josh’s dad said together.

“Isn’t this one pretty.” Sir Trevor carefully tracedthe outline of one of the bright holograms that was floating past him.

“Professor. Is Josh okay?” Kat asked.

“His vitals are running rather high.”

“Can we bring him out?”

“I am not sure it would be the best thing to do. Lookat Sir Trevor. I am thinking he came out too suddenly.”

“Is Josh safe?”

The professor shook his head. “I do not know, but ifhis vitals get any higher then I think we should risk extricating him. Hisheart rate is just over two hundred beats per minute.”

Kat looked at Josh and saw that he wasn’t sereneanymore. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his hands were clenched tightly byhis side.

Josh appeared before a giant white demon, howling itswrath into a broiling sky. Surrounding it were ugly, misshapen warriors andbeasts that joined their war cry to the cacophony.

He felt very small and clutched the spear verytightly, raising it above his head and gesturing for the ravening things tohalt.

“This must end.” Something made his voice resoundclearly over the smoking battlefield and everything suddenly stopped.

“Hello again Joshua. And thank you.” The demon createdthe symbols Geigerzalion used to communicate but then it growled real words.“You have left it too late to stop me. I have too many of your puny dreamers inmy power and the ones that have been brought to fight for you are powerlessagainst me.”

Josh had expected to meet Geigerzalion here and he hadhoped that he would have recognised some compassion in him. Now, with thealien’s demonic avatar towering above him, he realised that he had beenfoolish. Geigerzalion had planned this from the beginning and played uponJosh’s sympathetic nature all along.

“I am not powerless against you though. I havedestroyed your servant and I will defeat you.”

The demon laughed raucously and was immediatelymimicked by the army. “You can’t defeat me now, Joshua. I am here thanks to youand your feelings. Your emotions were excellent cover for my activities. Youwould not believe how much you affect this pathetic world.”

Josh glanced around to see his friends approaching.Spokes and Bandicoot were there with Toby and Michael, while the Gazetteerfollowed just behind them.

“Hah! Look at your puny band of heroes. These are thepeople burdened with the responsibility of saving your world. How can youexpect to beat me?”

Josh raised the spear once more. “With this. N’rindeknew what you are, but he couldn’t do anything to stop you until you showedyourself.”

“And he’s dead now. Scattered into the memories of allyour tiny minds.”

“No.” Josh swung the spear around his head. “He’shere.” The spear whistled through the air, vibrating and replaceing its resonantfrequency until it rang out like a bell.

The demon and its minions staggered back from thenoise. The smoke of the battlefield gained a life of its own and gathered intodense pockets coming together to form an enormous shape of a man with a spear.

“No!” The demon roared. “It’s impossible. He stoodaside for you.”

The smoke-shadow man raised his spear and swung it towardsthe demon’s chest. Geigerzalion howled and staggered back from the blow and athunderous shockwave exploded out across the battlefield. Warriors from bothsides fell from the force, leaving the two mighty figures in their own arena tocontinue their fight.

Josh managed to keep his footing by plunging the spearinto the ground. He clung to it with all his strength as a constant galeblasted out from the battle between N’rinde and Geigerzalion.

Dust swirled in the hectic wind but Josh was closeenough to see what was happening. He saw the white demon recover from N’rinde’sfirst attack by balancing himself with his huge leathery wings and then drivingforward, his powerful claws slashing into the wispy shadows of N’rinde’s body.

Josh could feel those terrible wounds like faintscratches on his own body and realised that N’rinde was somehow using him to behere. He willed his own slender strength into the shadowy form and felt hisconsciousness surge from behind his own eyes up high above the battlefield intoN’rinde’s head.

He was now struggling spear to claw with the terribledemon and he could sense its overwhelming power. He was also aware of N’rinde’spresence lending him his own natural strength and he began to feel like a corkbeing squeezed into a fizzing bottle, a buffer between two unstoppable forces.

The next time Geigerzalion landed a raking clawthrough the shadows, Josh felt the pain as if it was his own. Nothing had everprepared him for such a feeling, intensified a thousand times over as if thewound was being felt by so many more people than he. He cringed backwards andsaw the triumph in the demon’s eyes as it strode forward to deliver the finalblow.

Something else stirred within him then. He could feelN’rinde twisting and weaving the golden strands of the lives that weredependent on this battle and suddenly his mind was full of sound. Voices mergedwith animal calls and he could feel himself swelling up as if N’rinde waspouring souls into him.

Use the spear. N’rinde’svibrant symbols flowed before his eyes. Use the spear and channel theseminds.

Josh knew what to do now. He surged back towards theadvancing demon and clashed the spear against its mighty arms, fighting withthe ferocity that only desperation can fuel. He ignored the burning tirednessin his arms and the tightness in his chest and continued to batter away at thereeling demon before him.

The spear was a blur in his hands now and he hadlearned some technique from some of the minds crowding inside his own. Hefeinted one way and then lunged another. The spear cracked through the demon’sundefended ribcage and into its body.

Geigerzalion roared and clutched at the smoky spear,but there was nothing for his terrible claws to replace purchase on. A silencefell across the battlefield and the demon brought his head up to look Joshcalmly in the eyes.

“You cannot harm me with this, Joshua. Nothing canharm me here. You are defeated.” And it breathed acid fire into his face.

Josh thought his very nerves were on fire. He couldfeel his flesh melting away from his bones and his bones turning to ash and yethe held firm onto the spear that was still protruding from the demon’s side.

A rumbling groan rose in his throat and suddenly hecould feel the host of souls that N’rinde had pushed inside him coursingthrough what was left of his body and into the spear. A hundred million mindsshrieked past his own, every one of them intent on destroying the monstrousdemon that was threatening their home.

Geigerzalion stopped breathing his lethal fire andlooked down at the pulsing spear. He scrabbled frantically at it, this timejerky panic drove his movements. Josh drove the spear deeper and the demon fellto its knees.

The dark shape of a tornado fingered its way out ofthe sky and touched down on the ground around them.

The spear shattered and Geigerzalion slumped to theground. The wind whipped up ever stronger and Josh could feel himself swirlingaround in it, no more substantial than smoke. The crumpled demon was caught upin the tornado’s fury and whizzed round and upwards as the funnel of wind roseoff the battlefield.

Josh was sucked back into his own body with a jolt andhe collapsed onto his back just in time to see the tornado disappear into theclouds. Geigerzalion shrank to no more than a dark dot spinning away in thetumultuous sky and then he was gone.

The heavy metal door collapsed and the dinosaur’s hugehead poked through the battered entrance. It snorted once and, just as Katthought it was going to spring through and devour them, all the lights went outand the room was plunged into darkness.

Kat couldn’t help letting out a small yelp of frightwhen Coel touched her forearm.

“It’s alright. Don’t be frightened.” He whispered.

“I can’t help it. There’s a dinosaur in here with us.”

“We have to protect Josh. He’s helpless.”

Kat’s stomach lurched. She tried to remember the exactlayout of the room and found that she barely knew which direction the door was.

“It’s okay. I know where he is. We must move quietly.”

Kat realised that to Coel the darkness was nothingnew. Even without his arcane power he was now the most able person there andshe clung to his arm as he tiptoed across the room. She could hear the othersstumbling about in the dark, and she was certain that every breath she heardwas a prelude to a dinosaur’s snort.

Eventually they reached the makeshift virtual realitystation and found Josh’s limp body. His face was slick with sweat; hisbreathing was ragged, and all too loud. Kat ran her fingers over his features andwhispered to him that everything was going to be fine. She didn’t know if hecould hear her.

Coel heaved Josh up onto his shoulder and Kat steadiedhis other side and slowly they made their way towards the door.

Warm, fetid gas made Kat gag, and she realised thatthe dinosaur was close enough to be breathing on her. She could now sense itsenormous bulk somewhere behind her and she stopped breathing.

Josh moaned quietly and Kat froze. Coel pulled themalong with a little more urgency and Kat had no choice but to follow. Sheexpected the wicked teeth to close around her at any second. She could feel itshot breath on her neck.

A crash from behind them indicated that someone elsehad tried to move, knocking something over. Kat felt the end of the dinosaur’stail slash her back as it whipped around to investigate this new noise.

“Quickly. Hold on.” Coel hissed and pulled Josh evenmore forcefully. They were now almost running through the pitch darkness. Katcould see nothing, and yet Coel guided them unerringly.

Suddenly, in the distance behind them, she heard anagonised scream. The dinosaur had found someone.

Josh was caught between worlds.

In one he was being dragged along in the darknesssupported by unknown hands on either side of him. In the other he was kneelingdown looking at a shattered spear.

He could sense a living essence still within theshards of the blade, and he tried to nurse it back to brightness, but it wastoo weak.

I am spent, now. You did what you had to. A faint thought whispered through his mind and Josh could see theeldritch symbols flowing. We have drivenhim away for now.

“Will he return?”

Perhaps. I cannot feel his presence on this Earth of ours. He will haveto replace another way to corrupt us. We should be rejoicing.

“I don’t feel like it. You’re dying aren’t you?”

Yes. But I will still be with you in Trinity Vale. It will be nice tojust enjoy the view. You will be fine, Joshua.

He heard a scream, but it was in another world so heignored it.

You must leave here. The Gazetteer will purify the bodies and tomorrowthe world will wake up not knowing how close to catastrophe it has been. Yourefforts will not be rewarded or remembered, by anyone other than your friends,but that has always been our lot I am afraid. Now go.

Josh dropped the broken spear and left Vigrid Plane.He found himself in the dark, jostling along a corridor. Although his physicaleyes were accustomed to the darkness, his mind wasn’t and he found it difficultto adjust to the sudden change in his environment.

He stumbled and strong arms caught him as he fell.

“Josh?” Kat’s voice was to his left.

“Kat.” His voice was a coarse whisper because hismouth was so dry.

“Shhh! We’re not out of this yet! Remember thedinosaur.” Coel warned. “Come on.”

“Dinosaur?”

A huge crash erupted from behind them, followed by thesound of thunderous feet, accelerating up the corridor.

The three of them started to run as fast as Josh’sinjured leg would allow. He could make out the end of the corridor as a darkgrey against the absolute blackness of the surrounding walls. He fixed his eyeson it and hurried down the corridor.

They emerged into the light of the chamber ofstalagmites and stalactites, which after the utter darkness of the tunnelseemed almost blinding. The two spheres that guarded the entrance to the tunnelwere smashed and there was no sign of their saurian inhabitants.

“How many dinosaurs were there inside?” Josh asked.

“I could only sense one.” Coel said. “Why?”

“We’ve got two more to worry about I think, but atleast we can see now.”

“Well where are they then?” Kat’s voice was trembling.

A roar answered his question as the pursuing dinosaurhurtled out of the tunnel almost overrunning their position. It quickly turnedand stalked towards them. The other two must have been close by, because, toJosh’s horror he saw them approaching from the other direction.

They were trapped.

“Josh. Can you feel them?”

“What?”

“With your mind. Like the minds of New York, or thefrog in the jungle. Can you sense their minds?”

“I don’t know.” He closed his eyes and tried topicture the monsters stalking towards them. As he concentrated theymaterialised into his mind with tendrils of coppery-red lace flowing from theirheads.

He snapped his eyes open again and saw that his imaginationhad placed the dinosaurs exactly. They were close now; so close that Josh couldsee their teeth glistening like dripping stalactites.

He closed his eyes again. The delicate medusa snakesof thought waved around the dinosaur’s heads and he reached out with his mind,trying to gather them up like a puppet’s strings.

It wasn’t as difficult as with the frog because thismind was much more primitive. Each thought was connected directly to a singleaction and there was no subtlety in the way this creature worked. Chase, eat,sleep and eat again.

Josh now felt huge and feral and strong. Looking outof the dinosaur’s eyes he saw three soft people cowering before him. Theylooked delicious.

Part of his mind recoiled from the thought and hestruggled to control his hunger. Slowly and delicately he tried to coerce thesalivating dinosaur back away from Kat, Coel and himself.

It was fairly easy to stop the dinosaur from doingsomething, but quite another to actually make it do something he wanted. It waslike trying to stop thinking about something when someone keeps reminding youabout it. He found the key was to sort of pretend not to be bothered about whatyou wanted to happen.

He could see the other two dinosaurs standing stilland realised that Coel must be controlling both of them. Slowly, they turnedaround and crashed away. He managed to persuade his dinosaur to follow and theywent as deep into the cave as possible.

Now he felt like he had a tiger by the tail. Except,of course, that what he had was three times as big as a tiger and thirty timesas toothy and clawed. He also had no idea how long it would take for him toregain control of his own body. If it took too long the dinosaur might be ableto race back and devour him before he knew where or who he was. It was aterrifying thought, but he knew that he had to let go at some point.

So, after a very slow count of three to himself, hereleased the mind of the dinosaur and snapped back into his own body.

He recovered himself almost immediately. Coel must havelet go at the same time, because as soon as Josh was seeing out of his own eyesagain, Kat and the blind man dragged him away from the dinosaurs and towardsthe lights of the camp.

Josh could feel the dinosaurs behind them and heardthem smashing through the smaller columns of ancient rock in their feraldetermination to catch them.

“Run!” Coel yelled, warning the people they could seemilling about in the camp, as well as encouraging Kat and Josh.

Josh saw them stop what they were doing and peer intothe darkness. They were still quite a distance away. Josh added his voice toCoel’s shouting, hoping that they would be able to do something to help. Hethought about sending his mind back to the dinosaurs again, but he was usingtoo much effort to run. He would have to stop.

As he slowed, Coel heaved him onward. “Don’t you dareJosh. We need to get out of here. Listen to the rock.”

A splintering shriek echoed through the chamber as hespoke and an enormous boulder crashed to the ground somewhere to the side ofthem.

“The cavern’s collapsing.” Shouts reached them fromthe camp.

As they ran, Josh kept looking over his shoulder. Hecould see the columns snapping like twigs now and the ceiling was shaking andcracking. The dinosaurs were close now and the noise of their thunderingpursuit was inaudible over the collapsing of the cavern. Josh heaved in hugemouthfuls of damp air as he ran and his legs felt weak beneath him. Coelstopped him from stumbling and urged him on.

Then with a booming crack the roof completely caved inbehind them. The force of the blast knocked them all off their feet and Joshfound himself skidding forward on the slick stone. When he came to a halt hewas lying down looking back at the devastation and rubble.

“Dad?” He whispered without knowing. Then realisationpulled at his heart. “Dad!” He shouted and tried to stand up. His left leg gaveway beneath him as pain lanced through it. As he crumpled to the floor hethought he saw a fragment of bone sticking out through his thigh.

He fainted.

Toby watched the demon disappearing into the cloudysky and then looked back to the rabble of the dark army. They were confusednow, and the gamers picked them off easily enough, and before long there was noravening horde, just frightened beasts.

Spokes and Bandicoot were hunched over the pronefigure of DoomLord. An unhealthy green tinged his skin around his neck, andwithin these areas his veins were black, as if the blood within them had turnedrotten.

The Gazetteer joined them and cradled the warrior’shead in his gnarled hands.

“He fought bravely. I must try to cleanse him of theinfection. He must not wake in the real world if we cannot remove every traceof this malignancy. And that goes for all of these poor people.”

“You mean they’re not dead?”

“No, they’re not dead. They will awaken tomorrow.Although naturally some may not because their hearts could not handle thestrain of the battle, but the majority should be healthy enough. As long as weget rid of this virus.”

He breathed in the air around DoomLord’s head, suckingit deep within himself. Toby saw a faint shimmering, like steam, flowing fromDoomLord’s slack mouth. The Gazetteer held his breath for a second, stood upand coughed green clouds. He wafted a hand in front of his nose to disperse thegas.

“This is going to take longer than I thought.” Helooked out over the limitless battlefield covered with bodies.

DoomLord groaned. “This is the worst week of my life.I’ve been defeated twice in the less than a week. I’ll never live this down.”

Spokes laughed. “He’s okay.”

The Gazetteer continued to work tirelessly, healingall the fallen and wounded regardless of which side they had fought for. Theair became foggy with the green gas that he drew from them.

“I still can’t get my head round all this.” Toby saidquietly.

“I know.” Rose agreed. “To think that the future ofall humanity is played out here.”

“All life.” Michael added.

They stood silently for a while and watched as moreand more of the healed and unwounded disappeared. The gamers got bored as welland soon they too had all winked out of existence.

“Well I guess we’d all try and get home.” Spokes said.Bandicoot and DoomLord nodded. Toby looked at Rose, but she grinned at him.

“This is only the beginning of my adventures Toby.Don’t worry about me. I hope I can replace Vienopolis again, but if I can’t,well…” She shrugged.

Toby smiled at her and watched the others vanish. Thenhe closed his eyes and thought of home. When he opened them again he was lyingon the bed in the spare room.

He turned his head slightly and felt a sharp pain inhis neck. In fact whatever he tried to move seemed to hurt. Gingerly, he inchedhis legs over the edge of the bed and pushed himself into a sitting position.

As if she had been waiting for any sound of movementfrom outside, his mum bustled into the room.

“Oh, good. You’re awake. I’m glad you’ve managed tohave a bit of a sleep. Are you feeling better?”

He nodded and winced.

“You’re not alright are you? Mums know about thesetypes of things. Get back into bed and get some more sleep. Bed rest. That’swhat the doctor ordered.”

“But mum!” But it was merely an instinctive reaction.He didn’t want to get out of bed.

“No buts, young man. Now relax and I’ll bring yousomething nice to eat.”

Toby sighed and lay back onto his pillows again. Heclosed his eyes for a second, just to see where he would end up and saw theelegant, ancient spires of Vienopolis rising around him.

“Is he waking up?”

“I don’t know.”

“Josh?”

The whispers came from all around him. He opened hiseyes and was almost blinded by a light hanging directly over him. A dullhumming reverberated through the hard bed he was lying on, and he could feel asharp pain in his leg.

“Where am I?”

“Oh, Josh. I’m so glad you’re awake. We’ve been soworried about you.” A female voice said.

“My dad? Is my dad okay?” Josh frantically tried tosit up, but he was strapped down by his shoulders and waist. “What’shappening?” Panic juddered through him.

“Calm down, Josh.” His father leant over him and put acooling hand on his forehead.

“Dad? I thought you’d been… When the roof came down…”

“Shhh. You’re safe. We all are.”

Josh felt the restraints being loosened and he noticedfor the first time the thick, white plaster cast on his leg. “We’re going home.We’re on Sir Trevor’s plane, just coming into New York I think.”

“What happened?” Someone had loosened his straps andJosh could sit up now. He was in one of the small bedrooms on the private jet.Kat and Coel were sitting on a sofa opposite the bed and his dad was on a chairnext to him. It all seemed so normal.

“After the roof collapsed no one knew what washappening. All the generators failed and it went completely dark again, so wehad a hard time even replaceing you.” Kat’s voice was scolding, as she held himpersonally responsible for injuring himself.

“I’m sorry…”

“Do you want to hear what happened or not?”

“I’m…”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry Joshua Bennett.” Shewas by the side of his bed now and he could see tears in her eyes. “I’m so gladyou’re okay.”

He smiled at her weakly, not knowing whether she wasgoing to attack him or hug him. She did neither. She quickly leant over him,kissed him and hurried out of the room sobbing.

Josh dumbly watched her go. “What…?”

“Don’t worry about it Josh. She’ll be fine. She’s justrelieved you’re on the mend. She’s been really worried about you.” Coel said.

“Can you tell me what happened then? Without runningaway.”

“Well, you must be feeling better.” Coel laughed. “Ican fill you in on some of the details, but I think you’ll replace you know italready.”

Now Josh laughed. “Er. I don’t think so. The lastthing I remember we were being chased by dinosaurs and the cavern collapsed.”

“Did you listen to the rock, Josh? When we wererunning away?”

“Yeah, it was all I could hear.”

“No. I mean did you sense the rock? Did you feel themountain?”

Josh shook his head. “Not really. I was thinking aboutthe dinosaurs, I guess.”

“It didn’t collapse by accident, Josh. It was bydesign. And the design had been calculated by the most powerful intelligence onEarth: Trinity Vale. The microscopic organisms within the rocks were allinstructed in a particular way and that was it. Many people will be tiredtomorrow after their brains have been used to work that out I can tell you.”

“And they did it so accurately that we all survived?”

“Yeah. We had luck on our side, I suppose. You werethe only one with a significant injury. Everyone else came out of the cave witha few bruises and scratches.”

Josh snorted. “Typical.”

“What about the spaceship?”

“Well, that’s buried now. And I don’t think anyone’sgoing to want to unearth it in a hurry. Sir Trevor seems to have had quite achange of heart about alien technology recently.”

“That’s a relief.” Josh grinned, but then heremembered what N’rinde had told him on the battlefield. “He’s not dead though.Geigerzalion, I mean. N’rinde said we’ve just sent him back and he’ll be tryingeven harder now.”

“Don’t worry about that. It might be millions of yearsbefore he gets another chance. I think you’ve earned some time to relax fornow.”

A week later Toby came round to see Josh, who wasstill confined to his bedroom. He had been watching a news story on the TVabout how millions of people around the world had recovered from an unexplainedsleeping sickness. The strange thing was that most of the sufferers reportedhaving the same dream.

“Well that’s weird isn’t it?” Toby said wryly. “You’dthink people would put it all together don’t you?”

“Not really. Would you have believed it three weeksago?”

“To be honest, if I didn’t end up in Vienopolis everytime I close my eyes, I probably wouldn’t believe it now.” Toby chortled. “Doyou know I’m now easily the cleverest living person on the planet?”

“You’ve always told me that, Tobe.”

“Yeah, but it’s true now. Ask me a question.Anything.”

“Erm. What’s the capital of France?”

Toby closed his eyes, and then opened then quickly.“Paris. No. Ask me a really hard question that you think I’d never know theanswer to. Ask me a question about books or something like that.”

“Alright then, who wrote ‘The Book Of Three’?”

“Right. Good one. Hang on let me think.” He closed hiseyes for a few seconds.

“Toby?”

“Lloyd Alexander.” He said triumphantly reopening hiseyes.

“Well that’s not so hard. You might have heard metalking about it.”

“Ask me another then. I’m telling you I knoweverything.”

Josh narrowed his eyes. “Okay. In the Earthsea novels,what was Ged’s use-name?”

Toby close his eyes again and then said. “Sparrowhawk.I’m right, aren’t I?”

They played this game for a while with Josh askingmore and more obscure questions. Toby got every one right.

“How are you doing this? You don’t know anything aboutGeorge Eliot.”

“I beg to differ, Josh. I think I proven that I knowjust about everything there is to know about him.”

“Hah! Her. George Eliot’s a woman. You didn’t knowthat. How can you know when all her books were published, but not know she wasfemale?”

Toby looked a little sheepish. “I’ve got help.”

Josh frowned. “What do you mean? Have you wired yourselfup to the Internet or something?”

“Better than that. There’s a building in Vienopolisthat acts as a repository for all the information on the net. I can ask itanything I want any time.”

“That’s amazing, Toby.”

Toby grinned. “It’s fab. And it’s useful for school Ican tell you. By the way you should hear all the kids talking about theirShiver experience. No one tells the same story, but they’re all claiming thatthey were there. Everyone who’s ever played a computer game reckons they playedthe Vigrid Plane level of Shiver. It’s hilarious.”

“I wish I hadn’t been there.” Josh said quietly.

Toby looked at his hands. “It’s a good job you were.No one else could have stopped it you know. Before you arrived it was fraggingeveryone. You know Jonny White? I think he really played the game, because hebrought his console in to school. It actually exploded when he was killed byGeigerzalion.”

Josh smiled at his friend’s excitement and his spiritslifted a little.

“You’re a good friend Toby. Thanks for coming round.”

He had been thinking so much about his new arcaneresponsibilities that he had almost forgotten that he was still just a boy.Coel had told him not to worry about what could happen, but to concentrate ongetting better and enjoying himself.

He looked out of his window and saw a flock of birdsflying around and a broad smile crept onto his face.

The world was still turning. And he didn’t seem tohave to do any pushing to keep it going.