Changing the Prophecy Chapter 25

 

Chapter 25 Singing Home the Algae

Sonjay ran to Doshmisi’s side and fell to his knees. He shouted, “No, no, no, you stupid book! Give them back. Figure it out. You have to give them back!” Kneeling beside him, Doshmisi put her arms around him and together they sobbed for their lost friends, while everyone else, who had remained on the crest of the rise at the edge of the beach, made their way across the sand to join them. Maia had her arm around Cardamom, who wept silently. Many of the others were crying as well, but none of them more noisily than Hyacinth, who could not control his great, wet sobs. Saffron held him close and Honeydew patted his arm.

“What will become of Daisy?” Maia asked softly. Daisy was the golden-haired twelve-year-old daughter of Crumpet and Buttercup. The Four had met her on their previous journey in Faracadar and they knew how much she adored her father.

“I will take care of her,” Cardamom replied. “She’s my niece. I will see that she receives her training as an enchanter. Coming from such talented parents she is destined for greatness.” Cardamom’s voice broke as he declared, “Oh Daisy, Daisy, how can I bring you this news?” He had trouble catching his breath since the air quality had deteriorated so much. Elena took his hands in hers and made him look into her eyes and breathe in rhythm with her until he stopped gasping for air.

“It’s a mistake. It’s not fair,” Denzel mourned.

“There’s no rule that says life must be fair,” Reggie said quietly, with a note of bitterness in his voice, as he put a hand on Denzel’s shoulder. Denzel thought about his mother Debbie, who had died so young.

Jasper hovered over Doshmisi and stroked her short, short hair. Iris rubbed Mole’s arm comfortingly. Bayard perched silently on Guhblorin’s nearly bald head and, for once, remained silent. The intuits bobbed dejectedly in the air beside them.

“I wish we had time right now to mourn, but we don’t. There’s work yet to be done,” Doshmisi said firmly. “The herbal provided a final message.” Sonjay wiped his eyes with the end of his T-shirt and, after a deep shudder, stopped crying. Hyacinth stopped blubbering but still clung to his wife. Everyone listened attentively as Doshmisi shared with them the words provided by the herbal.

Cardamom wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his robe. “The herbal has made it clear,” he said resolutely. “We must mobilize the people. We need to enlist the aid of as many people in the land as possible. We have to let everyone know what happened here because no one knows that Sissrath is gone and the Corportons with him. No one knows of the brave sacrifice of Crumpet and Buttercup. And no one knows about singing home the algae.”

“Or why the air grows unfit to breathe,” Iris added.

“Exactly,” Cardamom affirmed.

“We be needin’ to communicate,” Mole stated, as the wheels in his head began to turn toward problem-solving.

“The Dome was down when Dosh and I were there,” Jasper pointed out.

“We don’t know what might be happening at the Dome now,” Denzel said.

“But we can find out,” Sonjay told them, with a knowing glance at Reggie.

“True that,” Reggie agreed, as a smile flickered at the corners of his mouth.

“Locomotaport,” Jack and the intuits began to call out. Bayard circled up above and echoed the word, squawking it over and over again.

“I can locomotaport to the Dome Circle and see what’s going on there and hopefully manage to find Violet or her technicians, who can help me send out the message about singing home the algae,” Sonjay explained.

“How does that work? Does your body stay here?” Denzel asked.

“Yes, his body will stay here,” Honeydew confirmed.

“Watch Bayard,” Reggie instructed.

Sonjay punched his fist in the air and proclaimed, “For Crumpet and Buttercup.” Then he walked a short distance apart from the group and sat down facing the water. Bayard circled above him as Sonjay crossed his legs yoga-style and rested his hands on his knees. He sat up straight as a pencil and closed his eyes. Bayard swooped in the air in several graceful loops and then he landed in front of Sonjay on the sand. The large, bright bird stood perfectly still in front of Sonjay, watching him intently out of one eye and then turning his head abruptly to watch him out of the other.

“He’s gone now,” Reggie told Denzel, as he headed across the sand to sit protectively by Sonjay’s body.

“C’mon,” Mole said to Denzel. “There be a transmission screen at the compound. If they get the Dome working then we can pick up a message on it.” Mole and Denzel headed swiftly back up the beach to where the tigers milled, alert, on the edge of the sand.

“I’ll go with you,” Doshmisi called after them. The others followed more slowly behind Mole and Denzel. As they passed Reggie, Bayard, and Sonjay’s body, Honeydew informed Reggie that they were headed to the compound to keep an eye on the transmission screen.

“I’ll stay here to look after Sonjay until he returns,” Reggie said.

Elena and Guhblorin sat down beside Reggie. “We’ll stay to keep you company while you wait,” Elena told him.

“You don’t have to,” Reggie said. “You can go on with the others.”

Elena shrugged. “De nada,” she assured Reggie. “That means it’s nothing, easy to do,” she explained to Guhblorin.

“Easy,” Guhblorin agreed.

Having left the others behind on the beach with his body, Sonjay arrived at the Dome in his locomotaported self. At first, he thought something had gone drastically wrong with the locomotaport and that he had become stuck in a time warp or a hole in space because the Dome Circle appeared completely deserted. He saw no special forces there, but he saw no one else either. He walked around the entire Dome Circle and didn’t see a single person. Cautiously, he entered the Crystal Communication Dome through the main doorway. The enormous crystal at the center of the Dome remained covered in canvas in the dim room. Sonjay hated to see the crystal like that. He remembered the year before when the Goodacres had first witnessed the inside of the Crystal Communication Dome and it had sparkled and danced with light and rainbows, dazzling and exhilarating. The gray, dull room before him stood in stark contrast to the memory he had of the magnificent crystals sending messages far and wide.

Sonjay left the Dome and walked down the road leading to Jelly’s Tollhouse. The circle seemed like a ghost town. For a terrifying moment he wondered if Sissrath and the Corportons had not been the only people in Faracadar swept away with the oil when the herbal did its housecleaning. What if all the other people in Faracadar had disappeared at that moment too? What if the prophecy of the end of the land had already come true and he and the few people left behind at the North Coast were the only ones left? Sonjay forced himself to stop picturing such a horrible outcome.

He stopped in the middle of the road, stood still, and listened. In the eerie quiet of the vacant street, he thought he heard a muffled sound. He wondered if he had imagined it. He listened harder. He felt certain that he heard a sound. Two sounds, in fact. One was a faint thumping and the other was a barely audible tone, a single droning note. But where did it come from? He closed his eyes and concentrated on listening. He walked away from the center of the circle and toward the hillside that rose from the edge of the circle. He could hear the thumping and the steady tone more clearly as he walked in the direction of the hillside.

He found himself in a small park with swings, trees, and a climbing structure. Along one side of the park the hill sloped upward sharply. Sonjay saw an enormous boulder, twice the size of Aunt Alice’s Toyota, embedded in the hillside. The thumping and the tone came from behind that boulder. Sonjay floated up the hill to the boulder where he paused and then he locomotaported right through the boulder and into a giant cave on the other side of it.

The instant he appeared inside the cave, a dozen people surrounded him and raised a cheer. A couple of women burst into tears and a man attempted to thump Sonjay on the back, but his hand went straight through Sonjay’s locomotaported body. “What is this? Who or what are you?” the man exclaimed in astonishment.

“I’m Sonjay, the youngest son of Debbie, one of the Four, and I have locomotaported to the Dome Circle to find Violet. Why is the circle empty? What are you doing in here?” Sonjay demanded.

“Locomotaported!” one of the women repeated excitedly. “Only Hazamon could do that.”

“Correction,” Sonjay responded. “Hazamon and me. Where’s Violet. Where are Mr. and Mrs. Jelly?”

One of the men called out, “Violet! Jelly! Come quick.”

As Sonjay’s eyes adjusted to the darkness lit only by a faint glow-lamp, he noticed several hammers lying on the ground. “Were you trying to pound your way out?” he asked.

“Not really,” one man answered. “We were trying to make enough noise to attract attention.”

“How long have you been in here?” Sonjay asked.

Just then Violet appeared from the depths of the cave. She recognized him immediately, even though he was transparent. “Sonjay, thank goodness. How did you find us?” she asked.

“It’s a long story and I haven’t much time. I’m locomotaporting. We need to get the Dome back online and send a message out. What happened here? What’s up with the Dome? Why did you come in here?”

“We didn’t come in here on purpose,” Violet answered. “The Special Forces imprisoned us in here. They trapped everyone inside this cave. Did they go away? Did you see any of them out there?”

“Not a single one,” Sonjay replied. “They are most definitely gone. I’ll explain about that later, but right now we need to get you out of here.”

“What a good idea,” Jelly said as he materialized behind Violet. “Good to see you Sonjay. We’ve been in here for two days and we have no food, only some water from an underground spring. The boulder blocking the entrance is too heavy for us to move, even when all of us push together.”

“Everyone who remained at the circle after the Special Forces shut down the Dome is trapped in here,” Violet added.

“And no enchanters?” Sonjay asked.

“None,” Jelly answered mournfully.

“Hang on,” Sonjay told them. “I have to go back to my body at the North Coast and talk to Cardamom. He’ll know what to do. The Corportons got sucked into the herbal with Sissrath. That’s a long story, but they’re gone. Now we need to work quickly to bring the algae back across the water before the air becomes too polluted to breathe. This must sound totally confusing. Sorry. Listen up. Stay here and I’ll come right back.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Jelly said. “Trust me. Hey, do you think you could bring us some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or some mannafruit or something?”

“I’ll do what I can. See you soon,” Sonjay called over his shoulder as he disappeared from the cave and sent himself back to his body on the North Coast.

Sonjay found it easier to return to his body this time than he had the last time he locomotaported. For one thing, he had not remained out of his body for as long as he had on the previous occasion. For another, he was getting the hang of it. When he returned, he found himself sitting on the beach with his father, Elena, and Guhblorin. Bayard alighted on his shoulder. He stroked the bird’s chest absently and Bayard squawked appreciatively.

“We’ve got a problem,” Sonjay began, and he told the others about the Dome Circle people trapped inside the cave.

“Cardamom can help with this,” Reggie assured Sonjay. “He can tell you how to move that rock. He went to the compound with everyone else. Let’s go discuss the situation with him.” The fact that his two teachers in the art of enchantment had died weighed heavy on Sonjay’s heart as he and the others accompanied his father to the compound to consult Cardamom.

Once they arrived at the compound, Sonjay wasted no time. He explained what had happened at the Dome Circle. “I wish I could locomotaport you with me,” Sonjay told Cardamom. “You could probably move that boulder in a hot minute with enchantment.”

“You can move it too,” Cardamom told Sonjay.

“I’ve never moved an object,” Sonjay argued.

“Yes, but you will have a powerful tool to help you,” Cardamom said as he produced the box that contained the Staff of Shakabaz and opened the lid. He pointed his finger into the box, swished it around in a circle, and scattered sparkles of light in all directions. The Staff of Shakabaz emerged from the box, rising to its full height. Cardamom gripped it in the middle and handed it to Sonjay.

“How do I take it with me?” Sonjay asked.

“It will follow, it is an enchanted object. It defies the laws of physics,” Cardamom reminded him.

“OK, then how do I use it to move the boulder?”

“This is a matter of life and death if I ever encountered one. The Staff of Shakabaz specializes in matters of life and death. Aim it at that boulder and send it a message in your mind about what you need it to do to free the Dome people,” Cardamom instructed.

“Anything else I need to know?” Sonjay asked as he sat down on the floor and settled the Staff across his lap. Reggie quietly sat behind his son.

“Before you use the Staff, remember to clear your mind as Buttercup taught you,” Cardamom said. His voice quavered slightly at the mention of Buttercup.

Sonjay nodded solemnly and then he closed his eyes. It took him several minutes to calm his thoughts and his breathing since he felt apprehensive about the task at hand and also because he could barely contain his excitement about the possibility of freeing the Dome people with the Staff. Reggie, Cardamom, and Honeydew meditated with him. He listened to their breathing and the four of them brought their breathing into alignment so that they breathed in and out together. He cleared his mind as much as he could and sent the stray thoughts that entered his head on their way as they passed through. He used his secret word “feathers” to help him and he recalled the first time he had locomotaported, when his father had told him there was a great enchanter in him.

Eventually, with his mind calm and his breathing even, his ability to locomotaport came to him. Once he left his body, he went quickly to the cave at the Dome Circle. He stood in front of the boulder and aimed the Staff of Shakabaz in its direction. It did not seem necessary to speak out loud. He focused his thoughts on the people inside the cave and the need to free them so they could eat and regain their strength and he banished all extraneous thoughts from his mind as Buttercup and Crumpet had trained him to do. Sonjay’s arm became one with the Staff. He felt his hand tingling and lightning flashed overhead. His amulet glowed with brilliant golden light, which traveled down his arm and into the Staff. Then it flew from the top of the Staff to the boulder, engulfing the boulder in golden light. Slowly, steadily, the boulder slid to one side, revealing the opening to the cave.

Among the first to emerge, Violet and Jelly cheered loudly.

“You rock!” Jelly exclaimed.

“You unrock!” Violet joked with a joyous laugh.

The light in the Staff of Shakabaz extinguished itself and Sonjay’s amulet glimmered faintly for a minute before going dark. “We have no time to waste,” Sonjay said urgently. “Violet, gather your technicians and let’s get that Dome back up and running. Walk with me and I’ll explain.”

“I thought it was just because we were inside that cave,” Jelly wheezed, “but the air out here is dreadful too. In fact, it’s worse than the air in the cave.”

“We have to sing home the algae to clean the air and we have to do it before the air becomes too ruined for us to breathe,” Sonjay explained. Jelly nodded silently. Meanwhile, Violet rounded up her chief communications technicians. Jelly stood at the mouth of the cave and told the people as they emerged that anyone who worked at the Dome should proceed there immediately. Mrs. Jelly announced that she would bring them something to eat as soon as possible.

Sonjay joined Violet, who turned to him expectantly as they walked down the slope away from the cave. Sonjay informed her, “I can’t stay here. How long do you think it will take you to get the crystals in the Dome operating so that you can send a message out to all the circles in all the settlements?”

“I don’t know what damage has been done. If the Special Forces simply powered everything down and didn’t do any damage then I’m thinking maybe two days,” Violet replied.

“We don’t have two days,” Sonjay stated flatly. “We need to send a message to all the people no later than sunrise tomorrow. It will take time for the message to travel to further locations and we need as many people as possible to set out by tomorrow morning for the coast. Doshmisi doesn’t know what the tipping point will be in terms of how many people need to participate. Mole figures that we have two days at the most before the air becomes completely unfit. Those most vulnerable to the poor air quality, like babies and old folks, will start having trouble sooner. The minute you can send messages, tell the people that we will begin a collective sing at four o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Anyone who can get to the beach or within sight of the ocean should go there. Those who can’t get to the beach should participate from wherever they are. Drumming will probably help, but Doshmisi says the main thing is to hold a musical voice tone. One note. Tell people to choose one tone and to hold it and to keep at it, to keep sounding that tone. While they sing, they should send out thought-messages to the algae requesting that it return to our aid.”

“How will we know if it’s working or not?” Violet asked anxiously.

“How long must we sing the tone?” one of her technicians added.

“You’ll know if it’s working if you can breathe,” Sonjay said grimly. “By tomorrow the air will be in even more terrible shape. Keep singing until the air begins to clear.”

“We’ll do our best,” Violet promised.

“You have to do better than best. You’ve heard the prophecy, haven’t you?”

“Of course,” Violet responded, with a note of fear in her voice.

“Don’t believe it,” Sonjay told her. “Treat the prophecy as a warning. We can make it happen differently. Get that Dome working to send the message and the people will do the rest. Now I have to go.”

“We’ll begin sending messages to closer places soon, maybe by sunset today if we can do it. May the work of the Four continue,” Violet said with resolve. Sonjay smiled encouragingly at Violet before he vanished.

When Sonjay returned to his body, he found the others prepared for travel. Maia had her drum over her shoulder and Reggie had buckled up his knapsack that bulged with books.

“How did it go? Did you free them from the cave?” Reggie asked.

“Yeah, they’re out. Violet and her technicians will get the Dome working as soon as they can. They don’t know how fast they can get it back up and running, but they’ll give it their best shot. What’s up? Are we going on a road trip?”

“We see no point in staying here,” Denzel replied. “We’ve decided to ride to the Passage Circle. If Violet can’t get the message out then at least we can bring out the people in the Passage Circle to come together to sing.”

“And drum,” Maia added. “I feel certain that drumming will help bring the algae back. You know how good those drummers are at the Passage Circle.”

“Sure enough,” Sonjay agreed. “I told Violet to encourage people to drum when she sends the message.” Maia nodded approvingly.

“How do you feel?” Doshmisi asked Sonjay. “Are you strong enough to ride?”

“I’m good. I’m getting better at locomotaporting,” Sonjay boasted.

“Excellent,” Cardamom said, as he folded the Staff into its box. “Your tiger awaits.”

With not quite enough tigers to go around, some people had to double up with others. Doshmisi rode Dagobaz. They galloped away from the North Coast in a cloud of dust kicked up behind them and no one looked back at the abandoned prison compound or the former site of the oil rig that had poisoned the ocean. The tigers and Dagobaz could not travel as quickly as usual because of the poor quality of the air. No one could fill their lungs with a good pull of oxygen and it exhausted them to breathe the nasty air. The travelers rode slowly but steadily down the coast and arrived at the Passage Circle in the middle of the night. Governor Jay greeted them after being roused from his bed upon their arrival. Once they had explained the situation and the plan to follow the instructions in the herbal and attempt to sing home the algae, Governor Jay found beds for the weary group to catch a few hours of sleep. He dispatched a messenger to Big House City to inform the people there about the need for them to travel to the coast for the collective sing.

Denzel, Jasper, and Mole slept on cots in the Passage Circle’s communication center, where the crystal communication screen remained dark. They hoped that it would light up with a message from Violet any second informing them that the large crystal at the Dome was working again, and that messages would then stream from the crystal throughout the land.

No one slept well, despite their exhaustion. Everyone felt anxious and they all had difficulty breathing.

A vivid orange and gold sunrise exploded on the day. The particles of dirt in the air caused the colorful sunrise. Just as they sat down to a waffle breakfast that Elena had masterminded with the help of her trusty helper Guhblorin as well as Governor Jay’s kitchen staff, Denzel, Jasper, and Mole rushed into the dining room whooping with excitement. Violet had the Dome working well enough to begin transmitting the message. While many circles had not yet received the transmission, others had already received the news about the reason for the problem with the air and how to fix it by singing home the algae.

Soon after breakfast, people began to arrive at the circle from Big House City. Throughout the day, people from places near to the beaches appeared and the circle swelled with those who came to help. The air had become so thick and smutty that people would frequently begin coughing and then have trouble catching their breath afterward. Doshmisi discovered that inhaling steam from boiling water gave her lungs some relief from processing the filthy air and she passed the word to the people that they should boil water and breathe the steam for a few minutes to help their lungs. The steam method proved particularly helpful after someone had a bad coughing fit.

Maia and her drummer friends started drumming on the beach shortly after noon. There they remained, drumming as if in a trance. Elena managed to get Maia to drink some juice and eat a sandwich for lunch. Otherwise she drummed nonstop.

Tents and temporary shelters sprang up along the coast as the beach filled with people. Sonjay stood the Staff of Shakabaz upright on the sand where everyone could easily see it. He chose a dry spot, well out of the reach of the waves, and he sat down on the beach, ready to sing. But Doshmisi said it was too early to start. She insisted that they begin at the appointed time of four o’clock. She thought they should begin when as many people as possible across the land could join them. As the hour approached, they gathered at the water’s edge. Jack and other intuits hovered nearby while Bayard swooped overhead. Bisc paced near Princess Honeydew like a caged lion. At four o’clock, Doshmisi nodded her head to signal the beginning and each person selected a tone and gave it voice, sending a message with their combined voices across the water to the algae.

“Come home to us and clean our air so we may breathe and live,” Doshmisi thought as she sang her tone.

“The Corportons are gone now so you can safely return,” Sonjay thought as he sang his tone.

Maia had no concrete thoughts in her head as she surrendered herself to the beat of the drums and projected her message in that way.

“Please save Faracadar,” Denzel thought as he sang his tone.

All over the land, people thought about their hopes and dreams for a future. Each person sent their own individual thoughts and messages to the algae. The thoughts of each of them combined, blended, and joined in the musical tone that traveled across the water in a song sent to the algae, begging the algae to return and restore balance to the fragile ecosystem of Faracadar. “For our children and grandchildren,” the mothers and fathers thought. “For the animals and plants that share the land with us,” the children thought. “For the beauty we have created with our work, imagination, and ingenuity,” the enchanters and leaders thought. “For the possibilities of things to come. For laughter and joy. For the love that we share. For the gardens we have planted and the dances we have danced. For all that we hold dear, please preserve our lives and our world,” the people thought.

Was it her imagination, Doshmisi wondered, or had the air become slightly easier to breathe? She stared at the water so hard that her eyes ached. She sought a sign, any sign, of a change in color from slate-blue to the bright-green color indicating the presence of the algae. She thought perhaps the water had started turning slightly green. Or maybe her eyes just played tricks on her.

Then, as Doshmisi gazed out to the horizon, she saw a whale spout. Soon another spout followed and then another. Tears coursed down her cheeks. The whales would not have returned alone. They would only have returned if the algae came with them. Moments passed and then she heard the whales singing in the distance. Soon the dolphins joined them, and Doshmisi heard them singing together. She could not make out the words yet, but she recognized the whale and dolphin voices.

“It’s working,” Doshmisi cried in excitement. “We’re going to be OK. Look there!” She pointed toward the horizon, to the spot where she had seen the whale spout appear. “Watch right there.”

Only Reggie and Elena could hear her over the loud musical tone and the drumming. But everyone could see her pointing. They looked in the direction in which her finger pointed and they saw the whales spouting far out on the water. The word spread up and down the beach and soon everyone laughed and cried and hugged each other all at once because they saw the whales spouting and they realized what that meant. Meanwhile, the water had started showing signs of green color as the jubilant people of Faracadar continued singing the algae home across the water.

Changing the Prophecy Chapter 24

 

Chapter 24 The Work of the Herbal

Doshmisi rode off toward the ocean through the open gate. Elena (with Guhblorin clinging to her) and Maia followed Doshmisi out the gate and toward the water, but Dagobaz swiftly left them trailing behind. By this time, the air had grown thick and oily. Doshmisi had never had asthma, so she didn’t know what an asthma attack actually felt like, but she imagined it felt like trying to breathe the thick, oily air that surrounded her. She had to force the oxygen into her lungs and it seemed as though the air left a sticky film inside her chest with each breath. Dagobaz wheezed and had to slow down. Doshmisi went over Clover’s instructions again in her mind. Clover had said to put the Emerald Crystal into the indentation in the cover of the herbal and then to place the herbal under the water at the edge of the ocean near the oil spill. She hoped that the others had managed to keep the Corportons imprisoned inside the compound and that Sissrath had not shaken free; but restraining Sissrath was someone else’s job. Doshmisi’s job was to get the Emerald Crystal into the herbal and into the ocean.

Dagobaz clambered up a low hill, crowned the top of it, and came to an abrupt halt. They had reached the shoreline and the sandy beach fell away from them toward the water. Dark green-black slime embedded with mounds of dead fish and birds coated the beach, emitting a stench that smelled like burning tires and rotten seaweed. Dagobaz whinnied and shied away from stepping onto the foul sand. The once-green ocean appeared even worse than the beach. A film of filth and oil floated atop the water. The bodies of dead dolphins, birds, and other marine life drifted in the water and dotted the shore. Dagobaz tossed his head and stepped back and forth at the edge of the sand, half-screaming his outrage and terror at what lay at his feet.

“It’s OK,” Doshmisi soothed the horse as she stroked his neck. “You don’t have to step onto the beach. Just let me off. I’ll go.” Dagobaz stood still and Doshmisi slipped off his back. He nudged her with his head. They both wheezed as they tried to breathe the awful air. The speed with which the air had deteriorated without the algae to clean it astonished Doshmisi. She cringed at the odor of rank oil, rotten seaweed, and death, as she stepped onto the greasy sand, immediately slipping and falling as she slid along in the disgusting filth so that it coated her backside and her hands. She gagged, which made it even more difficult to breathe. She tried to stand, but kept sliding. Meanwhile, Dagobaz paced back and forth like a caged panther at the edge of the sand, whinnying plaintively and bobbing his head up and down. Maia, Elena, and Guhblorin soon appeared beside him. Their tigers also balked at the edge of the tainted beach and refused to set foot on it.

Doshmisi crawled toward the ocean on her hands and knees. It was the only way she could move through the muck. She did her best to avoid the multitude of dead fish and oil-coated bird carcasses, but she could not help touching some of them as she made her way across the beach. It seemed like it took her an hour to reach the water. She felt as if she was running in slow motion in a dream.

From where they stood at the edge of the sand, Maia and Elena sang a song in Spanish. Doshmisi didn’t know what the words meant, but the song lifted her spirits. The singing voices harmonized beautifully. She imagined that they told her she could do this. The song strengthened her resolve and assisted her in the dreadful trek across the ruined beach. Her amulet glowed incandescent green, bursting forth from her shirt with rays of light.

At last she knelt at the edge of the soiled ocean. Her hands, coated in oil embedded with sand, shook uncontrollably. She fumbled with the clasp on the carrycase for the herbal and managed to open it. She wondered if she would ever in her life be completely clean again. She took the enchanted book from the carrycase. By this time it had become smudged with oil. It made her sad to see it so dirty. The oil on her hands left streaks of grease on the Emerald Crystal when she removed it from her pocket. She clung to it to prevent it from slipping from her grasp. Then she firmly placed it into the indentation in the front cover of the book in the place where she had often placed her amulet in the past to activate the herbal.

As it did whenever she put her amulet into the indentation, the herbal began to glow with green light, which comforted Doshmisi. It cheered her to see something so bright and clean. The herbal flew open and revealed to her the following instructions:  Sing the algae home. Sing along the coast on the beaches. The more singers, the stronger the song, the stronger the pull for the algae. Even those not at the water’s edge should sing. Anyone can add to the song, from anywhere. Call the algae home across the water. It will take many songs, many voices, for this healing. The energy embedded in these pages will always gravitate to your efforts and will continue to be one with the healer.

It seemed as if the herbal had become a living creature and she sensed that it had chosen to say farewell to her with these parting words. She tenderly placed the herbal, with the Emerald Crystal in the cover, under the water and pushed it out from the shoreline. The green glow from the Emerald Crystal grew and rose above the oil-black surface of the water. A bolt of green lightning crackled in the sky and shot down to meet the herbal. A hum began to sound across the water. It grew in intensity, a single tone, growing louder and vibrating with sound. As she heard it, Doshmisi flashed on the knowledge of what it would mean to sing home the algae. Everyone would have to sing one note like this vibrating sound, everyone together.

Slowly the sand beneath Doshmisi began to slide, as if the ground had become a blanket on which she sat and someone had begun to pull the blanket out from under her. The oil that coated the beach slipped like an enormous stretch of fabric, moving toward the herbal, picking up speed. Doshmisi struggled to scramble up the beach, away from the water. The oil slick continued to slide beneath her as the herbal sucked it in. At the same time, the herbal sucked in the oil that spread across the water. The oil rushed toward the Emerald Crystal and the herbal faster and faster. The green light emanating from the herbal grew into a large cloud that resembled smoke and it surrounded the area where the herbal lay submerged in the ocean. Lightning continued to crackle in the sky above and occasionally a lightning bolt shot down and zapped the herbal, which sparked with red, blue, and green light.

The oil, the carcasses of dead birds and fish, and everything in the whole abysmal mess gradually glided to the spot where the herbal rested under the water. Before long, pieces of metal from the oil rig began to appear sliding across the surface of the water, and the herbal sucked them into it also. The herbal had formed a vortex that became larger and larger as it drew all the nasty consequences of the oil spill to it, sucking them in like a magnet.

Then, to her fascination and horror, Doshmisi saw Corportons begin to appear on the rise at the edge of the beach. The Corportons rolled and tumbled uncontrollably across the sand. Dagobaz had walked further down the beach as it had cleared and the magnificent horse tossed his head and retreated from the stream of Corportons appearing over the rise.

As the vortex created by the herbal sucked the Corportons down the beach, they tried desperately to grab hold of anything in their path. They grasped for the scrubby bristles of oil-coated beach plants and tried to gain purchase on slick dolphin carcasses. But the things they tried to hold on to were being sucked down the beach along with them. Miraculously, the vortex did not pull Doshmisi into the herbal under the water. With an eerie feeling of safety amidst the chaos, she watched all the things around her as they flew to the ocean’s edge while she herself remained where she stood, impervious to the suction force of the herbal.

Then Sonjay appeared over the rise, mounted on a tiger. And immediately after she saw Sonjay, Doshmisi saw Jasper appear; and soon all the others astride their tigers, all except for the enchanters. At first she thought her friends and family were being sucked into the vortex, but then she saw that they remained free of the pull of the vortex just as she did. They stood on the rise from where they witnessed the scene unfolding below. She wondered why the enchanters had not appeared with everyone else.

The vortex from the herbal sucked the oil coating from Doshmisi’s hands and her clothing, leaving her clean and dry, as if not a speck of oil had ever touched her. Although the air remained thick, making it hard to pull it into her lungs, it did not seem to be getting any worse. She found it a little easier to breathe with the terrible stench from the rot on the beach dissipating.

The Corportons struggled comically yet frighteningly as the herbal sucked them down the beach and into the vortex it had created. They scrambled to save themselves to no avail. Doshmisi’s heart leapt into her throat as she saw Aldus Shrub himself appear over the hill. He had lost his helmet and his mask along the way so she could see his panicked face quite clearly. “Help me,” he squealed. “Help me, help me.” Over and over again he pleaded. Doshmisi stood too far away from him to reach him even if she had wanted to, which she didn’t. The ground beneath her moved rapidly and even though the vortex did not suck her in, she had to concentrate to keep standing amidst the motion beneath her feet. The Emerald Crystal and the herbal sucked Shrub down the beach along with the Corportons. Shrub grabbed a large piece of metal, a piece of the oil rig, embedded in the sand near the water’s edge. Doshmisi had one last glimpse of his face, twisted with terror and dread, before the vortex sucked the entire piece of metal out of the sand, with Shrub clinging to it, and the man and the metal disappeared under the ocean and into the vortex of the green-glowing herbal. A startlingly dramatic bolt of lightning flashed out of the sky and struck the herbal with a spray of red-orange sparks as the air hummed with an electric buzz.

Doshmisi wondered what had happened to Sissrath. If the enchanters still contained him back at the compound, then what would they do with him after the herbal cleaned up the oil spill and dispatched the Corportons? What Doshmisi did not know, could not know, and would not find out until afterward, was that the enchanters had contained Sissrath at the compound while the Corportons flew off one by one toward the ocean, sucked away. Finally, after the Corportons had all disappeared, Sissrath had been slowly sucked out of the compound as well. Crumpet, locked in the bubble of light that he had created to prevent Sissrath from performing enchantment, had been pulled along with him. “Let go,” Crumpet called to the other enchanters. “Let go of me!”

Princess Honeydew did as Crumpet commanded and removed her hand from Cardamom’s shoulder. But Cardamom said, through gritted teeth, “No, dear brother, I am with you.”

“Please. You must let go. You must release me while there is still time to save yourself,” Crumpet pleaded. “Think of Alice and release me for her sake, for all the years you have spent apart. She deserves a few years with you.” At those words, reluctantly, Cardamom dropped his hand from Crumpet’s shoulder and entreated his brother, “Crumpet, you too must let go, come what may!”

“I can’t,” Crumpet replied. “I’m bound by a power that will not release me.”

“You have proven yourself to be the mightiest enchanter of all time,” Cardamom shouted to his brother as Crumpet was dragged through the front gate of the compound. “Mothers and fathers will whisper your name to their children for generations to come.”

“Don’t say such things,” Crumpet called back to his brother.

“I wish for you to hear your praise from my own lips because I fear that we will never see each other again,” Cardamom replied as he ran to keep up with Crumpet, who continued to pick up speed, trapped in the bubble of light with Sissrath. Cardamom’s voice broke with emotion and tears coursed down the great enchanter’s cheeks.

“Who is to say?” Crumpet called out. His eyes locked with his brother’s for a brief moment. “Perhaps death is not as permanent as it seems. We may yet see each other again.” After those words, a force beyond his control pulled Crumpet, and Buttercup who still clung to him, away toward the beach.

Cardamom hopped onto a tiger so he could follow the others as they rode out of the compound after Crumpet and Buttercup, who fairly flew through the air, trapped in the enchanted bubble of light that controlled Sissrath. Buttercup clung fiercely to her husband’s arm, her long hair streaming behind her. Cardamom chased after them to the beach on a tiger’s back.

At the water’s edge, as Doshmisi was wondering what had become of Sissrath and the enchanters, they appeared at the top of the hill. She realized instantly that Sissrath did not have any control over his body. He moved like a marionette, like someone else pulled strings to move his arms and legs. The vortex sucked him in along with the Corportons. He might have resisted the pull of the herbal and the Emerald Crystal more effectively if he had not remained locked in that green bubble of flaming light created by Crumpet (supported by Buttercup). The green-bubble enchantment seemed to prevent him from using his powers.

Doshmisi heard Crumpet call to Buttercup as they slipped past her on the sand, “Buttercup, my dear wife, my love, please let go of me and save yourself. I will hold him on my own and you may die if you do not drop your hand from my shoulder.”

“I would never leave you, babycakes,” Buttercup replied. “We’re in this together as we always have been. You are my husband and there is no other. You are my brilliant enchanter, the greatest of them all. Love of my life. Where you go, I go.”

To Doshmisi, it seemed as though Sissrath, Crumpet, and Buttercup slid down the beach toward the herbal in slow motion as the deep enchantment of the Emerald Crystal and the herbal swept them along in its grip. She hoped with all her might that her friends would not share Sissrath’s fate, that they would not be sucked into the vortex with him, that the Emerald Crystal would understand that they were separate from Sissrath.

Sissrath tumbled head over heels toward the water, his faded yellowish robe flapping around him so that he resembled a giant bird. At the water’s edge he let out a final furious howl of rage that gave Doshmisi goosebumps. Then the glowing green vortex sucked Sissrath into itself with all the rest. To Doshmisi’s horror, and the horror of all those who witnessed, Crumpet and Buttercup, trapped in the bubble of light with Sissrath, were also sucked into the herbal and disappeared under the water.

Doshmisi expected the herbal to spit Crumpet and Buttercup out as soon as it realized its mistake. But it didn’t. As the seconds and then minutes ticked by and the herbal continued to clean up the ocean and the beach without releasing Crumpet and Buttercup from its enchantment, Doshmisi came to realize that they had sacrificed themselves and were gone as completely as the Corportons, Shrub, and Sissrath. To where? She would never know. She pounded her fists on the beach. “No, no,” she moaned. “Not them too. Don’t you understand?” If anyone could talk to the herbal, she could. If anyone could make it spit her friends back out she could. “You are an instrument of healing, not an instrument of grief!” Doshmisi screamed at the herbal. “You must understand. You must make it right!” Her words and wishes fell around her in tatters and changed nothing.

Almost no oil remained on the sand. The ocean water had cleared and turned a clean grayish-blue color. The oil rig had completely disappeared. The dead bodies of all the marine life had also vanished. While Doshmisi and the others watched, the green vortex sucked up the last remnants of the oil from the beach and then the vortex closed. The lightning died away. The sky cleared. The electrified hum faded out. Except for the fact that the air remained heavy, still making it difficult to breathe, everything had returned to normal, with no visible sign of the oil drilling operation or evidence of the spill.

Doshmisi waded into the water to the root of the vortex and touched the herbal, now entirely black, cold, and hard, like obsidian. The light in the Emerald Crystal had gone out and left it dull and gray. Much as she tried, Doshmisi could not lift the book, which had become so heavy it felt as if glued to the ground under the water. She sank to her knees and wept for the loss of Crumpet and Buttercup.

One drop of oil oozed up to the surface of the water just as the herbal disappeared completely under the ocean, under the sand, out of the world.

Changing the Prophecy Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Crumpet's Transformation

By the time Doshmisi, Denzel, and Sonjay returned to the outdoor cage, night had fallen. Their father rushed to greet them, relieved to see them unharmed. They filled him in on what they had learned from Aldus Shrub. Guhblorin, Iris, Mole, the intuits, and the royal couple had bedded down and fallen asleep. Even in his sleep, Guhblorin clung to the little comb that was Crumpet. All three of the Goodacres felt tired, trapped, and out of ideas. They had set out on their journey early that morning filled with hope and determination, and they had traveled a long and difficult day.

“Get some sleep,” Reggie advised his children. “Our brains need to recharge to come up with fresh ideas.”

As her brothers settled down for the night, Doshmisi removed the herbal from its case and found a small flashlight in her bag. She put the herbal in her lap and watched it open to a page; but the herbal no longer told her anything she could figure out how to use. After the revelations provided by the conversation with Shrub, she understood the words in the herbal better, but she couldn’t see how to apply them to her present situation or the unfolding chain of events in Faracadar. Reggie sat down next to her and she shut the herbal quickly. Her father put a hand on her shoulder. “What does it say?” he asked gently.

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she told him.

Reggie looked at her thoughtfully and insisted, “I’d like to see it if I may.”

She stared down at the book in her lap. She hated to admit that she couldn’t interpret the words to provide any useful information to act upon.

“Doshmisi?” She did not reply and he touched her shoulder. “I might be able to help. I’ve spent a great many years communicating with an enchanted book, you know.”

She studied her father’s face and saw in his eyes the suffering and compassion that had brought him wisdom. It comforted her to have an adult to whom she could turn for assistance and support; someone who could help her make important decisions, someone with good sense and her best interests at heart. She opened the book and read the words printed there aloud to Reggie.

Those people who do not transform themselves will perish. Nothing begins or ends but rather exists in constant transformation. A world without people is possible. A world that continues with people must go a different way. Transformation takes courage, creativity, ingenuity, passion, commitment, perseverance, and vision of truth. These qualities require cultivation and nurturing, they require practice to develop fully. Creativity is a muscle that requires exercise to grow mighty. The people must use their creativity to think differently, to think anew, and to imagine changes necessary that will bring survival.

After she finished reading the words, Doshmisi gently closed the herbal and peered into her father’s face. “Beautiful words. And true. But how do I use them for healing?”

“That’s all it says?” he asked.

“That’s all it has on this page and it won’t open to any other one right now,” Doshmisi confirmed. “You can try to get another page, but I doubt it will open or that any other words will appear. I don’t get what it wants me to do, what kind of transformation it wants me to imagine.”

Reggie nodded. “I see,” he said. Then he sat in silence for a few minutes with his eyes closed. Doshmisi sat quietly next to him and listened to the chirps and calls of the night creatures in the nearby forest.

When Reggie opened his eyes, he suggested, “Perhaps the words in the herbal are not for you. Perhaps that message is for someone else, not the people of Faracadar. I think those words are for the people in the world from which the Corportons came. In that world, the people need to imagine new resources, new energy sources, and new ways of doing things to preserve the environment in order to sustain human life. Such transformation as it mentions applies to every civilization but in this moment, I think it applies most to the world of the Corportons not Faracadar.”

“The Corportons came from our world,” Doshmisi reminded him. “The Farland.”

“That’s why I say this,” he told her.

“Do you believe that things will ever change in our world where countries fight wars over oil, putting profit above people; where leaders and the powerful kill and destroy with no conscience or care? Because of the destruction of the environment, my generation have inherited a ruined planet and we fear we have no future. If the Corportons came from that disappearing future, as Shrub claims, and if they continue to rely on oil instead of developing other energy sources, then their mission to bring this oil back from Faracadar won’t make any difference.”

Reggie replied sadly, “I’m sorry to hear that the environment deteriorated so much more after I left. I believed things would turn around. Those of us who could see what was coming should have fought harder for the kind of change described in the herbal.”

“It wasn’t all on your generation. Many others went before you and damaged the planet. It’s exhausting to think about what it would take to keep it habitable by humans.” Doshmisi switched off her flashlight, stretched out on the ground, and rested her head on her father’s thigh. “You did the best that you could at the time,” she mumbled drowsily. “Not sure my generation could have done any better.”

Reggie kissed the tips of his fingers and touched them to her forehead. “Sleep well, baby girl.”

Doshmisi closed her eyes. When she opened them again hours later, she discovered Guhblorin tapping her insistently on the arm. “Shhh. I have to show you something,” he said softly. She could just barely see Guhblorin in the milky-blue light of early dawn. “Come with me,” Guhblorin whispered, with a note of urgency. He led her to a tent that stood in one corner of the cage. The Corportons guarding the cage had dozed off at the entrance gate and did not waken to see Guhblorin or Doshmisi enter the tent. Once inside and out of sight, Guhblorin held his hand out in front of him. “Watch this,” he said. He held the little black comb that had once been Crumpet on the open palm of his hand. Suddenly it bounced into the air and landed on the ground, where it transformed into Crumpet.

“How…” Doshmisi started to speak but then words failed her.

Crumpet chuckled. “I can control it,” he said with excitement. “I figured it out.”

“You mean you turned into a comb on purpose?” Doshmisi asked incredulously.

“Not exactly, but almost. I changed on purpose, I didn’t pick the comb, though,” Crumpet said. “I figured I could prevent Sissrath from freezing me like he did to the other enchanters. It took me a while to manage to change back, but I have it figured out now,” Crumpet reassured Doshmisi and Guhblorin. “So I’m going to have you throw me through a hole in that electrified fence before the sun rises. Just don’t fry me on the fence, OK? Put me through without touching. I’ll pick my moment and then I’ll incapacitate the guards and unlock the gate to this cage. After that you won’t have much time to escape so spread the word to the others to be ready.”

“Neat trick, Crumpet. I’m impressed,” Doshmisi complimented him.

“Thanks. I have an even better trick. Follow me. Quietly. Watch.”

Crumpet slipped out of the tent and walked to where Cardamom, Buttercup, and Honeydew lay stretched out straight as boards on the ground. With great concentration, he placed the palm of his hand on each of their foreheads in turn. The enchanters gasped softly and began to stir. Doshmisi leaned over and whispered in their ears, “Pretend you’re still unconscious. Don’t move. We may not have another chance to revive you so don’t let on that you’re conscious. Cardamom opened his eyes for a second and winked at them before resuming his frozen pose. Honeydew nodded almost imperceptibly. Crumpet leaned over and brushed Buttercup’s lips with his. “Love you babycakes,” he whispered.

“Forever,” Buttercup whispered back. “Proud of you.”

Crumpet stood to his full height, then he commanded Doshmisi, “Tell everyone to stand by for action. Look after Buttercup. Now throw me.” With those words, Crumpet turned himself back into the little comb. As the sun rose rapidly over the ocean, it cast light across the compound. The sleeping Corporton guards began to stir. Guhblorin and Doshmisi went behind the tent and carefully tossed Crumpet through the fence without touching him to the electrified metal. The enchanter transformed himself and scurried away, concealing himself behind the charred remains of a building.

“What was up with that?” Sonjay asked, as he stretched and rubbed his eyes. He had appeared suddenly at Doshmisi’s elbow before she even noticed and she jumped with a start at the sound of his voice.

“Shhh,” Guhblorin hissed exaggeratedly.

“Crumpet,” Doshmisi told her brother and then she explained quickly about the comb and Crumpet’s new level of skill. She clued Sonjay to the fact that Crumpet had revived the enchanters, who faked unconsciousness.

“Cool,” Sonjay said happily. As the other prisoners roused themselves from sleep, Sonjay lay down on the ground next to Cardamom and put his head next to Cardamom’s mouth. His posture appeared innocent enough, but Doshmisi knew better. They were plotting together.

When Sonjay stood up, he held a box in his hands. He surreptitiously beckoned to Doshmisi and Denzel, who followed him into the little tent. Reggie, who made a point of noticing everything about his children, took in Sonjay’s gesture and followed the three into the tent.

“He brought the Staff of Shakabaz,” Sonjay informed the others with excitement. Sonjay’s amulet began to glow with a golden light beneath his shirt.

“The Staff is looking for you, man,” Denzel told his brother. “It wants to work with you.”

“And I want to work with it,” Sonjay replied with determination.

“Crumpet said he’ll find a way to deal with the guards and open the cage so we can escape,” Doshmisi told the others, wasting no time.

“We have to circulate and let everyone know,” Reggie pointed out.

“When will he do it?” Denzel asked.

“Soon,” Doshmisi replied.

“When he opens the cage, I’ll take the Staff out of the box. I hope I can use it like I did at the Battle of Truth so I can keep the Corportons from harming us. Cardamom says I should hold it since it has an intuitive sense of my intentions, which he says carries more strength than any enchantment he can do with it,” Sonjay informed the others. “So when Crumpet opens this cage, you run and I’ll see what I can do with the Staff. The most important thing is for Dosh to get to the ocean with the herbal and the Emerald Crystal.”

“It’s quite a distance to the beach from here,” Reggie said anxiously.

“Then I’ll have to run, won’t I?” Doshmisi replied with determination.

“Let’s go clue the others about the plan,” Denzel said as he hurried out of the tent.

Reggie and Doshmisi followed close behind Denzel. “I wonder what happened to Maia and Elena,” Reggie worried.

Doshmisi patted his arm as she reassured him, “Maia can take care of herself.”

The Corportons, suited up as usual in their white jumpsuits, assembled in the yard and began to line up at the gate to the compound, most likely to go to work collecting oil. Meanwhile, several of Sissrath’s Special Forces appeared with food for the captives. “Stand back,” they ordered as they gestured to the prisoners to move to the back of the cage on the opposite side from the entrance. The Corporton guards then opened the door to the cage to allow the Special Forces to place the food inside.

At that moment, while the cage stood open, a bolt of electric green light shot out from behind one of the half-burned barracks. The green light hit the Corportons and the Special Forces. The Special Forces collapsed to the ground, unconscious, but the Corportons appeared somewhat protected from the enchantment by their jumpsuits. They could still move, albeit slowly.

Cardamom, Honeydew, and Buttercup leapt to their feet and swiftly ran from the cage. The intuits trailed behind on their hovering skateboards. Sonjay opened the box containing the Staff of Shakabaz and removed the collapsed Staff. Seeing that Sonjay had not moved toward the entrance to the cage, Denzel planted his feet and blocked the gate to prevent Sonjay from becoming trapped inside. But Denzel’s effort proved unnecessary the instant Sonjay grasped the powerful Staff, which unfolded itself and took on its true, magnificent shape. Sonjay’s amulet blazed with golden light.

Despite the enormous size of the Staff, Sonjay wielded it easily. The Staff became weightless when it came to Sonjay’s hand; it had always done so. He tilted it toward his adversaries and held it in front of him as he walked toward the doorway of the cage, where he met his brother. As he swept the Staff from side to side, it appeared to freeze the Corportons in their tracks. Aldus Shrub emerged from his office. He did not wear his helmet so Sonjay recognized him. Shrub screamed commands to his followers and waved his hands above his head in agitation. But the Staff of Shakabaz had rendered Shrub’s Corporton soldiers useless.

Sissrath appeared beside Shrub and threw an enchantment at Sonjay, who gasped and fell to one knee. The Staff apparently lacked the strength to hold off all the Corportons while at the same time resisting Sissrath. Sonjay sent thoughts to the Staff to incapacitate all their foes. The Staff had enormous power, but even that power had its limitations.

To add to the difficulty of the situation, the air had become quite thick, making it difficult for everyone to breathe. Perhaps the Corportons, in their jumpsuits, did not have this problem. Perhaps their jumpsuits purified the air for them. Everyone else began to wheeze as they struggled to take air into their lungs. Despite the thickness of the air, Sonjay managed to maintain his grasp on the Staff and to keep it trained on the Corportons and Special Forces. He concentrated on using the Staff to immobilize them.

While Sissrath and Shrub focused their attention on Sonjay and the Staff, Crumpet hurried to the entrance gate to the compound and he opened it. Immediately, Elena and Maia, each riding a tiger, swooped out of the nearby forest and rode in through the open gate and toward the opening of the cage within. Dagobaz and the travelers’ tigers followed them. The tigers congregated in the path of the entrance gate to prevent it from closing. They stood their ground and ensured that it would remain open. Dagobaz galloped full-tilt to Doshmisi and barely paused as she leapt onto his back. Horse and rider instantly became one.        

Sissrath had thrown two more enchantments at Sonjay while Crumpet was opening the gate. Sissrath then whirled around, poised to throw an enchantment at Doshmisi and Dagobaz. But Crumpet faced off with Sissrath, uttered a few words of enchantment, and held out his arms. Piles of cockroaches began to drop from his sleeves. Sissrath recoiled with a shriek, dropping his hand to his sides, momentarily incapacitated by his terror of the disgusting little insects. In that moment when Sissrath had let his guard down, Crumpet threw a chartreuse ball of light at the enchanter, who, preoccupied by the cockroaches, did not resist or defend himself. Astonishingly, Crumpet did not transform into a comb or a tea kettle or even a pastry. With a strong gaze of complete concentration, he engulfed Sissrath in flaming light.

“Way to go, Crumpet,” Cardamom said softly. He stepped up behind his older brother, stretched his hands out, and threw additional light into the stream of light that Crumpet had produced. As Sissrath howled and attempted to break the restraining enchantment of the brothers, the stream of light began to shake violently. Buttercup hurried to Crumpet’s side, touched his shoulder with her hand, and added her own stream of light. This seemed to stabilize the enchantment and the light did not shake as much. Taking his cue from Buttercup, Cardamom also laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder. The stream of light holding Sissrath in check became steadier and wider. The three enchanters had successfully locked Sissrath inside the bubble of light that they had created.

Denzel wove in and out of the frozen Corportons and took away their weapons. “Can you hold them with the Staff?” he hollered to Sonjay.

“So far so good,” Sonjay replied as sweat broke out on his forehead.

“Guns, we need to get these guns,” Denzel called to the other captives, who snapped into action. Reggie, Hyacinth, Saffron, Mole, Iris, and Jasper immediately joined Denzel and they formed an assembly line, passing the guns that Denzel grabbed from the frozen hands of the Corportons down the line and into a growing pile at Sonjay’s feet.

Meanwhile, Guhblorin jumped onto Elena’s tiger behind her and clung to her for dear life, his long skinny arms wrapping tightly around her waist.

Princess Honeydew, determined to fulfill her destiny as an enchanter, stepped up behind Cardamom and placed her hand on his shoulder to add strength to the enchantment that held Sissrath captive.

Sonjay called to his sister, "Go Dosh! Ride Dagobaz to the water. Ride like the wind. Do the Emerald Crystal thing. Don't look back."

Changing the Prophecy Chapter 22

 

Chapter 22 The Legacy of Shrub

Cardamom instinctively raised his hand to throw an enchantment at Sissrath, but the Corportons reacted swiftly. A series of shots rang out and Cardamom froze as if made from ice. Sissrath pointed to Buttercup and commanded, “Her too.” Another shot caught Buttercup and she also froze into a statue. Crumpet howled in fury and raised his hand to cast an enchantment as he screeched, “What have you done to my wife? Restore her this instant!”

Sissrath threw his head back and laughed. The Corportons trained their weapons on Crumpet, but Sissrath instructed them, “Don’t bother with him. He’ll take care of himself. No point wasting a valuable freeze blast on him. Watch.”

Crumpet’s eyes locked with Sonjay’s for a brief moment and he nodded his head almost imperceptibly. Then his golden-brown face turned several shades darker while visible electric sparks crackled up and down his arms and then, with a pop, he transformed into a little black comb with tiny teeth set close together. Such a comb was a useful object for people with the kind of hair for it, but quite useless in a land inhabited entirely by people with African-type hair. Crumpet, or rather the comb, flew into the air. Elena leaned way out from her seat on her tiger and managed to catch the comb as it dropped toward the ground. She held it in the palm of her hand and gazed down at it with a dazed expression.

Sonjay had the distinct impression that something was different about this transformation of Crumpet’s. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. Guhblorin snatched up the comb and ran it through the sparse hairs on the top of his head while the Corportons looked to Sissrath for guidance about what to do next. However, Sissrath, to his own horror, had begun to dance uncontrollably. His legs had taken over, dragging him into a wild cha-cha that he did not wish to be doing.

Denzel was the first to figure out why Sissrath had started dancing because Princess Honeydew had recently used that same enchantment on Denzel. He studiously avoided looking at Honeydew because he didn’t want to give her away. Her face the very definition of concentration, she kept her hand (from which the enchantment had sprung) partially hidden in the folds of her dress. Sissrath had incapacitated the experienced enchanters from jump street, but he had underestimated Honeydew, who had already begun her studies and had a few enchantments stashed away in her toolbox.

Sissrath appeared so comical jigging and jouncing around in a jerky dance, his robe flapping awkwardly, that Doshmisi and Maia laughed out loud. Unable to resist a good bout of laughter, Guhblorin joined in, his geebaching laughter exploding in the air and setting everyone off so that no one could keep a straight face. Even Honeydew cracked a smile. But Sissrath quickly ascertained the source of his affliction and pointed a bony finger with its scraggly jagged fingernail in Honeydew’s direction.

“No,” Hyacinth yelled, “not my daughter.” But the Corportons took aim and blasted Honeydew with their weapons. She froze with the expression of extreme concentration and a hint of a smile locked on her face. Saffron burst into tears. Everyone stopped laughing abruptly.

No longer dancing, Sissrath doubled over, inhaling sharply, winded by his episode of exercise. When he caught his breath he said, “Your friends are still alive for now, you fools. I can’t have enchanters romping around though, can I? It would have given me great pleasure to finish off Cardamom. However, I must obey orders. So you will come with me. The tigers remain here.” He gestured in the direction of Dagobaz, “That beast remains here too. Dismount. And no sudden moves.”

The travelers reluctantly climbed down. Dagobaz whinnied with displeasure. While the tigers watched with large, woeful eyes, the Corportons surrounded the travelers, pointing their weapons at them. Guhblorin still held the little comb (Crumpet) in his hand. The Corportons removed Cardamom, Buttercup, and Honeydew from their tigers and stretched them out on the ground side-by-side.

The travelers had just barely emerged from the Canyon of Imaginary Reality when they had encountered Sissrath. In fact, Maia and Elena, who rode at the back of the group, remained partially within the canyon. Corportons as well as a couple of Sissrath’s Special Forces stood on either side of them, however, no one stood behind them. For that reason, it surprised Elena when she noticed movement behind her out of the corner of her eye. Without drawing attention to herself, she half-turned to observe more closely. In the canyon, tacos scooted among the trees, bumping into the rocks behind her. She thought they must have come from her own imagination, for who else would have thought about tacos but her? So she purposely thought more about tacos and the more she thought about tacos, the more of them she saw and the faster they whizzed back and forth. She scrutinized the hillside behind her. If only she could imagine the tacos in full force, she thought, she could use them to shield her while she scrambled to cover behind a large boulder not far from her on that hillside.

“Maia,” Elena said quietly in Spanish, “Do you see that boulder up the slope to my left that looks like Mr. Pinter the P.E. teacher’s nose?”

Maia glanced up the wall of the canyon and sure enough she saw a boulder shaped just like Mr. Pinter’s bulbous nose. “Sí,” she answered in Spanish automatically.

“When I say ‘ahora’, we’re going to run for it and hide behind it,” Elena instructed, in Spanish.

“I think they’ll shoot us before we make it to safety,” Maia replied, worriedly, still in Spanish.

“Hey!” Sissrath shouted when he realized that Maia and Elena were conversing. “What are those two talking about back there?”

One of the Special Forces called to Sissrath, “They’re speaking gibberish. Nonsense language.”

“Trust me,” Elena reassured her, continuing in Spanish. “I see something. Flying tacos will protect us.” Guhblorin, who stood a few steps in front of Elena, glanced back at her quizzically. Elena wished she could explain the plan to Guhblorin, but he didn’t speak Spanish. She would have to leave him behind in order for her plan to work. Elena imagined flying tacos with all her might and the air filled with soaring tacos, which attacked not only the rear guard of Corportons and Special Forces that stood beside Elena and Maia, but all the guards surrounding the prisoners. The guards ducked and attempted to protect their heads by covering them with their arms. A super-sized taco flew toward Sissrath, who bent in half trying to avoid it. Meanwhile, the two girls scampered up the hill, dodging tacos as they fled. They leapt behind the boulder that looked like Mr. Pinter’s nose. In the excitement, and with the air thick with flying tacos, their enemies failed to notice where the girls had gone. It seemed as though they had simply vanished.

Sissrath’s Special Forces fled from the canyon, herding the travelers before them so that the entire group shifted outside the walls of the canyon where no tacos could reach them. Sissrath sent a few reluctant Corportons back in to drag out the inert bodies of Cardamom, Buttercup, and Honeydew.

“Don’t bother with those strays,” Sissrath instructed the Corportons and Special Forces. “A couple of worthless little girls on their own in the wilderness can’t do any damage.” He sneered in disdain.

Denzel, Doshmisi, and Sonjay glanced furtively at one another. They shared the same thought:  Maia and Elena had escaped and would find a way to get into mischief. Denzel smiled smugly with the knowledge that Sissrath’s assessment of Maia and Elena as a couple of harmless little girls flew vastly wide of the mark. He hoped the girls would do some significant damage soon.

Sissrath marched the travelers down the hill toward the compound. The area surrounding the compound still smelled like smoke from the fire that had swept through only days earlier when Doshmisi and Jasper made their escape. Few structures remained intact. At the compound, Sissrath and his Special Forces disappeared and the Corportons kept their weapons trained on the prisoners.

“I’m having a déjà vu,” Denzel said.

“What’s that?” Mole asked.

“When you feel like you’ve already experienced something before,” Denzel replied.

“OK, mon. I be havin’ one of them too,” Mole said. “Except I did experience this before.”

“Where are the sprites or the butterflies when we need them to help us escape?” Doshmisi complained dejectedly. (The sprites had rescued them from an impossible situation the previous year, and taken them to safety in Spriteland.)

“Good question,” Jasper responded. “If help is out there, this would be a good time for it to reveal itself.”

“Remember that two harmless little girls lurk in those hills,” Denzel reminded the others with a chuckle. “Give them a minute and they’ll think of something harmless to do.”

The Corportons locked everyone except the Goodacres into an open cage in the compound. Then they led Reggie, Doshmisi, Denzel, and Sonjay into a trailer. The many Corporton guards surrounding them kept their weapons trained on the captives. Denzel wondered if the guns shot slime, death rays, or something unimaginably horrible; something other than bullets or freeze-rays. The door of the trailer opened and Sissrath entered, flanked by more of the mysterious Corportons in their white jumpsuits with their gray face masks that hid their features completely. Sonjay studied Sissrath, who wore a grimy robe. He noticed that Sissrath’s fingernails, usually long and spiky, were broken and blunted. Sissrath’s eyes darted around nervously. The once-powerful and formerly self-confident enchanter appeared anxious, and not as smooth or authoritative as he had acted at the Canyon of Imaginary Reality. Sonjay figured that Sissrath did not have control of the situation at the compound, where a Corporton leader probably called the shots.

“The delusional Four,” Sissrath said in a snake-like voice that slithered from his lips with the faint touch of a hiss.

“Minus one who got away from you,” Sonjay taunted.

Sissrath ignored the comment and continued. “When will you learn to refrain from meddling in the lives of the natives here in lovely Faracadar?”

“We could ask the same question of you,” Sonjay snapped back.

Sissrath’s lips curled in a creepy excuse for a smile. “Don’t fret. You’ll be rid of me once and for all soon enough,” Sissrath assured Sonjay, “when I leave this exquisite paradise of stupid, backward-thinking, unimaginative people, which will sink rapidly into oblivion as predicted in the Book of the Khoum.”

“I disagree with your assessment,” Sonjay shot back at Sissrath.

Trapped in such close quarters with Sissrath, Doshmisi found his presence so frightening that her mind went blank. The mere sight of Sissrath made Denzel furious because Sissrath had caused the death of their mother. If those Corportons had not had weapons aimed at him, Denzel would have charged at the enchanter and smashed him to pieces. Sonjay, however, remained calm, self-possessed, and fully capable of countering whatever Sissrath said with a rational response calculated to get under his skin.

Sissrath laughed with a laugh that sounded like metal scraping on gravel. “Do you think you have arrived just in time to save this land? Faracadar will die and you can do nothing to save it. You should have stayed in the Farland.”

“You have it so wrong,” Sonjay countered. “The people are smart and resourceful. Too bad you can’t see the beauty standing right in front of you. I see a land full of creative, magnificent people. You don’t see it, do you, you unobservant dimwit? The land will not die. It will transform into a place you lack the ability to imagine. It will outlive you.”

“How dare you?” Sissrath spoke a brief enchantment that shot a sharp electric charge at Sonjay’s chest. It lifted Sonjay off his feet and slammed him against the wall. Sonjay slid down the wall and landed in a sitting position on the floor, gasping for breath. Reggie and Denzel lunged at Sissrath, but the Corportons restrained them. With a snap of his fingers, Sissrath commanded Reggie, “Tell him, Prophet! Read him the words of the prophecy as set forth in the Book.”

“He has heard the words already, Sissy,” Reggie informed him through clenched teeth, to the welcome amusement of his children when they heard that nickname.

“Watch your step, Prophet. I don’t care how many times he has heard the words,” Sissrath replied angrily. “I wish for you to say the words again and so you shall. And I have told you in no uncertain terms not to call me that.” Sissrath pointed a bony finger at Reggie, said an enchantment, and tossed an electric charge at Reggie just as he had done to Sonjay. The charge hit Reggie full-on and he was similarly lifted into the air for a moment as electricity crackled and then dropped in a heap. He moaned and clutched his chest. Doshmisi was terrified that Sissrath had given him a heart attack.

“Daddy! Daddy, are you OK?” Doshmisi called out.

“Yes, yes, baby girl, I’m alright,” Reggie gasped. “I’m used to it.”

“Enough family chit-chat. Tell your son the words,” Sissrath commanded.

Reggie took his knapsack off his back, opened it, and removed the Book of the Khoum. He turned to a worn page and began to read out loud quietly. “The time will come in the…”

Sissrath interrupted, “Louder. Read it loud and clear so we can all hear every word.”

The Corportons picked Sonjay up off the floor and stood him next to his father. They held his arms pinned behind his back.

Reggie reluctantly started reading again in a voice that carried to the edges of the room. “The time will come in the four-thousand fifty-second year when an underground energy will rise to the surface and will turn the land inside out, leaving it uninhabitable. This energy is capable of destroying all life and ending the flow of one generation to the next. It will unbalance the balance, fill the ocean with death, exile the algae, and suck the breath from all living creatures. It will bring an end to what has gone before.”

Sissrath poked his finger into Sonjay’s chest while Sonjay could do nothing to stop him. With each poke, Sissrath repeated a word of the prophecy, “It will bring an end.” Poke, poke, poke, poke, poke. Sissrath stepped back, satisfied with his performance. “All life will be destroyed, except for me. I’m leaving all of this behind and going on an adventure. I’m going someplace where I will be appreciated, unlike in this provincial small-minded backwater of a sorry ignorant little land.”

“Go then,” Sonjay said, with fire in his eyes. “And good riddance. You go with these aliens who have come with nothing more than exploitation and destruction in their minds. Please go. I’ll stay here and change the prophecy.” Sonjay’s eyes flashed with defiance as he added maliciously, “Sissy.”

Sissrath pointed his finger at Sonjay and Reggie spoke sharply, “Don’t. Enough.”

The enchanter lowered his finger and glared at Sonjay. “Good luck with that change-y miracle-y thing,” he said. Then he turned to the Corportons and ordered them to place the captives in the compound before he whisked out through the door.

The silent Corportons did as told, marching the captives to the compound where the battery makers and other prisoners were being held. From the compound, Doshmisi could see the launch site for the boats that traveled back and forth to the damaged and leaking oil rig. She looked at the entrance gate and remembered how she and Jasper had escaped the compound with Dagobaz during the aftermath of the explosion on their previous visit. That had happened only a few days ago, but it seemed like years ago because so much had happened since.

Sissrath confined the captives in an outdoor cage with a corrugated tin roof and an electrified fence around the perimeter. The fence left the cage open to the outdoors, but the roof offered protection from rain. Doshmisi wished it would rain. The sun beat down on the tin roof, which absorbed the heat, making the inside of the cage radiate like an oven. Fortunately, a breeze blew off the nearby ocean and through the open cage; and when the long day came to a close and evening approached, the air turned cool. The frozen enchanters, Cardamom, Buttercup, and Honeydew, lay stretched out inert on the ground inside the cage, as limp as rag dolls. Doshmisi attempted to rouse them with no luck. They continued breathing so they still lived.

Hyacinth sat on the ground with his frozen daughter’s head cradled in his lap. Hardly speaking, he stroked her forehead and her hair.

The Corportons provided the prisoners with essentials, such as blankets and sleeping pads, firewood and food, as well as cooking pots. Their captors apparently expected them to cook something for themselves to eat. Saffron and Iris sorted through the provisions they had received, handing things off to Guhblorin, who announced the appearance of each food item, naming it out loud and defining its condition. “One bag of garnet yams, a bit muddy, good with butter and cinnamon but no cinnamon on hand,” Guhblorin stated. “Six onions, a bunch of celery, twenty-two potatoes, and fourteen carrots,” Guhblorin recited. “Would taste delicious with a goose-chicken but none on hand,” Guhblorin added woefully. Iris then produced a goose-chicken from the depths of a wooden box and Guhblorin shouted with glee, “One uncooked goose-chicken. Perfect.” Iris, Saffron, and their eager helper went to work over an open fire. For the meat-eaters, they roasted the goose-chicken until it was tender and juicy. The vegetarians ate the roasted yams and a vegetable stew. While they ate, they watched the ancient green-tinged Faracadaran sun dissolve into the ocean.

After eating dinner and before they could clean their plates and prepare to bed down for the night, Sissrath and a contingent of Corporton guards appeared at the locked gate of the cage. “Much as I have advised against it, I must take you to speak with someone,” Sissrath stated sullenly, as he pointed at Sonjay, Doshmisi, and Denzel. Disapproval and rage smoldered in his voice. Sissrath’s behavior left no question in Sonjay’s mind that the enchanter, who had once ruled Faracadar with an iron fist, had been forced into subservience by another individual. But who, he wondered. “You three come with me,” Sissrath ordered. Sonjay hoped the Corportons would take him to meet this individual who had subjugated Sissrath.

“Take me too,” Reggie insisted.

“I’m pleased to inform you that you will not be coming with us,” Sissrath told Reggie. “You are not invited.”

“It’s OK, Daddy,” Doshmisi said softly to Reggie. “Don’t worry. We can manage.”

“No, no!” Reggie shouted desperately as the Corporton guards separated his children from the other captives and led them from the cage. “If you touch a hair on their heads, you’ll have the Prophet of the Khoum to reckon with!” Reggie called after them. Sissrath smirked as he locked the gate and led his three prize captives across the yard and into a portable building.

They entered the building flanked by the armed Corporton guards and walked down a short hallway before their guards ushered them through a door and into a room that contained only a desk, a chair, and a file cabinet. A shade drawn over the window concealed the dying light of the day and a dim lamp barely brightened the room enough for them to see. The Corporton guards prevented Sissrath from entering. He growled at them as they closed the door in his face, leaving him out in the corridor. Ten armed Corporton guards crowded along the back wall of the room, blocking the door. The Goodacres glanced nervously at each other, wondering what would happen next.

A Corporton entered the room from a door behind the desk. He stood for a long moment facing them. They had the feeling that he or she or it, whatever hid behind that white jumpsuit and that gray face mask, was sizing them up. Even though they could not see the Corporton’s eyes (whatever type of eyes it had), they could tell that the Corporton could see them. Then, abruptly, the Corporton removed its helmet, mask and all. To their surprise, the Goodacres found themselves looking at a quite ordinary man. He had straight sandy-brown hair, green eyes, and a thin mustache. He was a white man, not brown-skinned like the inhabitants of Faracadar. Doshmisi thought he looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. He gestured with his hand and the Corporton guards at the back of the room also removed their helmets. Eight of them were men and two were women. The women were Asian and three of the men were brown-skinned but not as dark as people of African descent. They could have been Native or Latino. Two of the men looked like Africans and the remaining three were white. They looked to the Goodacres like regular people from their life at Manzanita Ranch in the Farland.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Sonjay demanded of the man behind the desk.

“I could ask you the same thing,” the man replied.

“I asked you first,” Sonjay insisted.

The man laughed. “OK then. I’m Aldus Shrub,” the man said. “Now your turn.”

“I’m Sonjay Goodacre,” Sonjay introduced himself.

Doshmisi turned the name Aldus Shrub over in her mind. She knew that name, but how?

“Why are you drilling for oil in Faracadar?” Sonjay continued.

“I am doing the interrogating here,” Aldus Shrub said. “I am the one entitled to ask the questions, not you.”

“Yes, well, that’s because you don’t know my brother,” Denzel informed the man quietly. Aldus Shrub glared in his direction.

“Speak up,” Aldus Shrub commanded Denzel. “Who are you?

“Denzel,” Denzel replied. “Denzel Goodacre.”

“And where did you come from?” Aldus Shrub asked.

“Same place as my brother Sonjay.”

“And where is that?”

“Manzanita Ranch,” Doshmisi stated matter-of-factly, with a faint smile playing across her lips because she felt quite sure that Aldus Shrub had no clue where Manzanita Ranch was located.

She was correct. Aldus Shrub pursued his investigation. “And where is Manzanita Ranch?”

“About a hundred miles north of Oakland,” Doshmisi told him, wondering if Oakland would mean anything to him. Suddenly she remembered what she knew about his name, and she had an idea about why he appeared so familiar. He looked a lot like the President of the United States, Spartacus “Spud” Shrub; and she felt sure that this man who stood before them had to be related to President Shrub.

Shrub’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of Oakland. “Oakland, California? How did you get here?” he demanded.

“We walked,” Sonjay replied belligerently.

“You could use a lesson in manners,” Shrub said threateningly. “When did you come here? Did you use a Polydestinographer?”

“Never heard of him,” Doshmisi answered quickly, worried that Sonjay would continue to speak rudely to Shrub and that Shrub would lose his temper and hurt Sonjay.

“Poly-huh?” Denzel asked.

Shrub laughed. “You know something? I believe you. I think you really don’t know about it. And it’s not a who. It’s a what.”

“What does the what do?” Doshmisi asked, before her brothers could say something that would dig them deeper into trouble.

Shrub scrutinized the Goodacres before replying. “You really don’t know, do you?” He seemed pleased.

They stared at him blankly. Doshmisi stole a glance at Denzel, who shrugged.

“How long have you been in Faracadar?” Shrub asked.

“Not long,” Sonjay answered evasively.

“A lot longer than you probably think, I’d wager,” Shrub told them. “Everyone knows about the Polydestinographer. If you really have no clue what it is, then you’ve been here for at least six years because it was invented six years ago and widely publicized. It was our only hope of survival. Everyone on the planet knows about it; including the people in Oakland.”

“What is it? What does it do?” Denzel asked, keenly interested to hear more about a new gadget or device.

Shrub seemed torn between leaving his captives in the dark about the Polydestinographer and explaining it to them so he could boast about it. His desire to show off won out and he continued. “It locates oil across time and space and takes you to it. It’s about the most important invention of all time. A team of researchers in Oklahoma devised and created it. My grandfather Spud Shrub put together that team and funded the research when he was President of the United States.”

A small gasp escaped Doshmisi’s lips.

“When we came to Faracadar just a few weeks ago, Spud Shrub was still the President,” Sonjay said evenly. “And he didn’t have any grandchildren.”

“I told you,” Shrub replied with a malicious curl to his lip, “the Polydestinographer locates oil across time as well as space. So I amend my assessment. I think you haven’t been here long at all. Instead, I believe, in fact, that I come from your future. Interesting. This means that you don’t know what lies ahead back in our home world. The oil shortages, the pandemics, the collapse of governments, the militarized zones. You would therefore have no idea of the urgency of our mission to collect this oil and return with it as soon as possible; no idea how much rests on our success here. Nothing short of the survival of human civilization. And we must embark on this type of mission again and again and again, throughout space and time, to gather as much oil as we need.”

Doshmisi found it difficult to believe what she had just heard.

“How does this contraption work?” Denzel asked, his eyes glittering. His curiosity about the construction of a time-travel mechanism trumped his desire to hold Shrub at arm’s length. “Did you climb into it, like a plane that travels with you inside? Or is it a device that can send you where you wish to go? Who invented it?”

Shrub laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know?!” he taunted Denzel.

“So what is the plan?” Sonjay had no interest in the physics of time travel. He wanted more information about Shrub’s next move.

“The plan?” Shrub replied, as he raised one eyebrow and studied Sonjay.

“What do you plan to do next?” Sonjay demanded as he met Shrub’s penetrating gaze with one of his own.

“The plan, my friends, is to extract as much oil as possible from this ridiculously primitive land and then to leave. We have almost reached our quota for this expedition. And I refuse to allow you do-gooders to interfere with our extraction before we complete it.”

“What about the leak from the oil rig?” Doshmisi demanded. “Your oil spill is killing the blue-green algae, has driven the whales away, and will soon destroy the land and all the living creatures in it. We have to stop that oil spill.”

“Not my problem,” Shrub replied, with an unconcerned frown. “You sound like one of those environmentalists,” he suggested with disgust. “I, and my people, which, may I remind you, are your people from your future, are not concerned about this land or its people. Whatever happens to it once we have left is not our concern. Survival of the fittest. We came to find oil and take it. We have met with success. The oil spill is unfortunate. We could have used that oil we lost and skedaddled out of here sooner. But I have almost filled my containers, so I consider our mission accomplished.”

“You don’t care about destroying Faracadar? That the death of the blue-green algae will make the air unfit to breathe? That the people of this land will die?” Doshmisi demanded angrily.

“Why should I care about any of that?” Shrub asked, dismissing the question with a wave of his hand.

“What happened to solar energy? And wind energy? What about geothermal?” Denzel asked Shrub. “What happened in the future to all the other ways to make energy? Why did people try to stick to oil? Couldn’t you guys change things?”

“Not fast enough. Besides, we like oil,” Shrub answered. He grinned. “We know how to use it and it’s very profitable for those of us who control it.”

“Scientists say we have enough wind power in South Dakota to provide energy for the whole country of America,” Denzel said. “We just need to build the windmills to harness it.”

“Windmills are not all they’re cracked up to be,” Shrub responded casually. “They have their down side. Dead birds. Noise pollution. Besides, they’re boring and they don’t make me any money.”

“I can’t believe humans didn’t find a way to transform our energy systems into something sustainable in the Farland. Something in tune with the planet,” Doshmisi said wistfully. She thought about the words in the herbal and suddenly they began to make sense to her.

Shrub readjusted his white jumpsuit and prepared to go. “Helmets,” he ordered the others in the room. The Corportons placed their helmets back on their heads, once again obscuring their faces. Aldus Shrub lifted his helmet off the table where he had placed it when he entered the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have oil to collect. My faithful followers will escort you back to your cage. It has been a pleasure. I would appreciate it if you would stay out from under foot so I can complete my critical mission. Then I will leave you in peace. You and all the others in this land. May you all rest in peace.” He placed his helmet back on his head and hurried out of the room.