Meeting (20 page)

“Portals?” Maya said. She didn’t trust Sibyl, but Sibyl seemed to trust her. Maya felt a little icky asking Sibyl questions about secret things when she planned to tell the Janus House people everything she learned. Or maybe she wouldn’t tell them everything. So many secrets. She couldn’t keep track of who knew what.

“That’s how we travel from one planet to another. It’s not like spaceships. You walk through this weird red light. There’s a lot of—well, it hurts, but it goes pretty fast. And somehow you end up somewhere else.”

“Weird,” Maya said. “And it’s expensive?”

“Yeah, it’s intense, kind of painful, and it uses a lot of energy, so they save it for special projects.”

“You’re a special project?”

“Sure. So were Bikos and the Hasible.”

“What kind of a project are you?”

Sibyl opened her mouth, closed it, fiddled with Yiliss. “I don’t think I’m supposed to talk about it.”

“Oh, okay.” Better not to push. Maya changed the subject. “You say you’re not good at talking to people, but I saw you sitting with Helen and some other kids at lunch the other day. You’ve been making friends here.”

“Not really. Helen is just really nice. She invited me to sit with her and her friends. Awkward. I don’t know how to talk to people, I really don’t.” She sipped the remains of cocoa from her cup. “Like jokes. I totally don’t get jokes. Everybody’s laughing and I don’t get why.” She wove her fingers through Yiliss’s end fringe, which twined around them, made knots, and untied them. “Back home, we had jokes I could understand.”

“Back home on Thrixa?”

“Yeah.”

Just then Peter and Mom breezed in through the backdoor. They stopped when they discovered Maya and Sibyl.

“Maya? What happened to your piano lesson?” Mom asked.

“I was feeling kind of sick, so I called Ms. Barge and told her I couldn’t come,” Maya said. “I feel better now. Mom, this is Sibyl. Peter, Sibyl. Sibyl, my mom and my little brother, Peter.”

Sibyl nodded. She fiddled with her scarf.

“Hi, Sibyl,” Peter said. He had Sully’s water bowl in his hand. He went to the sink and poured out the old water and refilled the bowl, then opened the backdoor and whistled.

Sully came in, smiling a drop-mouthed dog smile, and sniffed at the bowl Peter set down. Then he looked at Sibyl. His black lip lifted in a growl. The sound spun out and out. Sibyl stood and backed away from him, her hands wrapped in Yiliss.

“Sully!” Peter said. He grabbed Sully’s collar and pulled him back out the door, shut the door behind him. “Sorry. He usually doesn’t do that.”

“Dogs don’t like me,” Sibyl said. “Anyway, I guess I should be getting home now. Thanks for the cocoa, Maya. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Maya said. She walked Sibyl out.

On the front porch, Sibyl looked at Maya. “I’m really glad we talked,” she said, and then she ran down the steps and on up the sidewalk.

“Maya,” her mother said when Maya returned to the kitchen, “I’m glad you’re socializing so much at school, but you can’t just blow off a piano lesson because you feel like it.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. It was kind of an emergency.”

“Did this emergency involve throwing up?”

“Almost,” Maya said. She remembered the shuddering shakes and terrible off-balance feeling she’d had after Yiliss had shocked her.

Her mother stared at her for a long, uncomfortable minute. “All right,” she said at last. “I’m glad you thought to call Ms. Barge.”

“Thanks.” Maya picked up Sibyl’s two mugs and her one, rinsed them, and put them in the dishwasher. She checked the kitchen clock, a black cat with eyes that moved back and forth and a tail that twitched from side to side as the clock ticked. It was a little before four. “I have to run next door.”

“Practice first,” said her mother.

“Can’t I practice after curfew? I will, I promise. An hour instead of half an hour.”

Mom sighed, then said, “All right.”

Maya grabbed her pack and headed for Janus House.

Maya knocked on
Columba’s door. Columba opened it. “Maya. What is it?”

“I have—I know—I found one of the missing
sissimi
.”

“
Kiri ah!
Come in!”

Maya followed Columba into her kitchen and sat at the table.

There is someone else here
, Rimi said.

Standing against the wall by the power picture. It’s Evren. He is in that
twizzle
mode he stays in when he’s at Music Night.

Invisible.
Maya stared at the wall with the power picture on it. She couldn’t see even a ripple in the air.

“Tell me,” Columba said, sitting down across from her.

“But—Evren—did you know Evren is here?”

Columba heaved a sigh. “Evren is my apprentice, practiced in stealth, and you’re not supposed to be able to detect him.”

“Rimi can see him.”

“Ah. An interesting wrinkle,” Columba said. “Evren, uncloak.”

Evren faded into sight. “Hi, Maya.”

Maya squinted at him. “Stealth, huh? Are you really interested in my sister?”

“I like her.”

“But you taking her for a walk—”

“You’re right. That’s a job. I’m supposed to distract her, maybe give her bad information,” he said. He came and sat down at the table, touched Maya’s hand. “Don’t look at me like that. This is one of the nicer ways we have of handling a problem like Candra, and I really do like her.”

“Maya, let’s not get off track,” said Columba. “You have something to tell us.”

Maya studied Evren, deciding whether she wanted to tell him. If he was Columba’s apprentice, he probably knew lots of secrets, and she could tell he could keep them, too. Anyway, once she told Columba about Sibyl, Columba would probably tell Great-uncle Harper and a lot of other people. Then what would happen?

“What happens when I tell you this?” she asked.

“We need to get in touch with the Interportal Force. You know the
sissimi
was stolen. It’s a criminal matter.”

“But he’s bonded now. They can’t reverse that, can they?”

“I don’t think they can.” Columba straightened. “You’re worried about what will happen to the person and the
sissimi
?”

“Yes,” Maya said.

“I respect that.” Columba tapped her fingers on the table, one hand, then the other, in a complicated, galloping pattern. She stared at the ceiling, her eyes moving. She lowered her gaze to meet Maya’s. “If the situation is stable, we will just take stock of it. No sudden moves. We may need to assign a watcher.” She glanced toward Evren. “Evren is our best watcher. In all likelihood, I’ll need to bring in someone from the Force, maybe Ara-Kita because of her
sissimi
knowledge, or another
sissimi
bonded pair. This is an interportal matter, Maya. It affects many worlds. It’s all of a piece with the Krithi movements of late. Lots of people are worried about this.”

Maya closed her eyes and let out a breath. Then she sat up straight and faced Columba. “It’s another seventh-grade girl, named Sibyl Katsaros. Her
sissimi
is a scarf she wears around her neck. She says the third stolen
sissimi
went to a person called the Hasible, and he was sent somewhere else, to—to Shostrunim? Is that right?”

Is this right?
Maya asked Rimi.

“Rimi says it’s right. Shostrunim.”

“Shostrunim. That’s Ara-Kita’s home planet,” Columba said. “Or Ara’s, anyway. Did this girl tell you anything about the Krithi plans for these stolen
sissimi
?”

“She says the word Krithi is an insult,” Maya said.

Columba frowned. “It is?”

“She said it means drones or lower-class people. The Krithi call their planet Thrixa, and the teachers and government people are Kalithri, and some other people are Methry. I kind of lost track after a while; she used so many words I didn’t know. So I might have some of that backward.”

“Interesting cultural notes. Plans, Maya?”

“She said she and Bikos and the Hasible were special projects, but then she clammed up.”

“Anything else?”

“The guy who sent her here fixed her up with a foster family. Oh, and her
sissimi
attacked us, and it hurt.”

“Are you all right?”

“We’re okay, but I had to cancel my piano lesson, and now I’m in trouble with Mom about that.”

Columba laughed. Then she coughed. Then she laughed again. “Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh about you being in trouble, but it’s such little trouble compared to interportal theft and stealth and plans to violate edicts and create mischief.”

“I guess,” said Maya. “Anyway, I have to get home now and practice the piano.”

Columba rose. “Maya, thank you so much for coming to me. Has Sarutha talked to you about apprenticing with me?”

“She mentioned it.”

“Please consider it, my dear. I have so many things I could teach you and Rimi, and I’m sure Rimi could teach me a few things.”

“All right,” Maya said.

“Maya, can you draw us a picture of Sibyl?” Evren asked.

“What? Oh. Sure.” She got out her sketchpad and drew several pictures of Sibyl. Sibyl looking belligerent. Sibyl looking lost. Sibyl with her hands buried in her scarf, a tender look on her face. “This is Yiliss, Sibyl’s
sissimi
,” Maya said, pointing to the scarf in each picture. She tore the pages out of her book and handed them to Evren.

“These are great. You’re really good,” he said. “Thanks, Maya.”

“Sure.” She shouldered her pack. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yes,” said Columba.

 

 

 

As Maya headed out, the door to Benjamin’s apartment opened and he emerged. “Hey, Maya. What are you doing here on an off day?”

“Things to report,” Maya said. Should she tell him about Sibyl and the
sissimi
? She decided she should. The Janus House kids were already suspicious of Sibyl. They should know why. Or maybe Columba was supposed to decide who got to know what, but she hadn’t told Maya not to tell anyone.

“Sibyl has a
sissimi
,” she said.

“But, in other news, do you have plans for Halloween?”

“Aya!”
he said again, and then, “We don’t really do things on Halloween. We strengthen the wards so nobody trick-or-treats here, and that’s how we celebrate. I like your pumpkins.”

“I’m trying to talk Gwenda into going out with me. You could come, too.”

He smiled and shook his head. “What would I dress as? I’m boring.”

“You’re not boring,” Maya said. “You’re just secret. The point of Halloween is to let your secret self out. I think you’d make a great pirate.”

“A pirate!” He laughed. Then he stopped and looked into the distance. “A pirate,” he said, in a different tone of voice. “Yo ho. Which secret self are you going to be?”

Maya bit her lower lip and said, “Rimi is my secret self. We have to figure out how to show that.”

“You’re going to show it? But—”

“The thing about Halloween is everyone wears a costume, and they all think everyone else is wearing a costume, so we can come as we are, and they’ll think it’s fake.”

“A pirate,” Benjamin said. “Does the costume cover me so no one will recognize me?”

“It can if you want it to.”

He looked at her, then nodded. “I want it to. I want to go with you, too. Thanks for asking me.”

“Well, sure,” said Maya. She looked at her watch. “Gotta go home and practice piano.”

“But wait. Sibyl has a
sissimi
. That’s kind of major.”

“Ask Columba about the rest.” Maya waved and slipped out the double front doors.

 

 

 

Peter waited through the last ten minutes of Maya’s hour of piano practice, even though she was playing the same piece, the Bach Bourrée in E Minor, over and over. It was a tune she had learned the year before, but she liked it better than most of the songs in the new book Ms. Barge had made her buy. While she played it, she could think about things.

When she looked up at the clock and it ticked over to six P.M., she heaved a sigh and closed the cover over the keyboard, then looked sideways at Peter.

“Halloween,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Can I go out with you? I don’t think Mom and Dad will let me go by myself.”

“What are you going to dress as? If you’re going to be a zombie dripping rotten meat, I don’t want you around.”

“That wasn’t even me! That was my friend Alex!”

Maya laughed. “I know. What are you going as this year?”

“A fox. Mom helped me put it together.”

“Sure. You can come with us.”

“Us?” He looked uncertain.

“My plans aren’t firm,” she said, “but I invited Benjamin and Gwenda. They’ve never trick-or-treated before. And I asked this girl from school named Helen, but she didn’t say yes yet. There’s this other girl I might have to ask just because she’s lonely.” If she invited Sibyl, that would cause all kinds of problems, Maya realized, but . . . “And”—Maya glanced around the living room, then leaned close—“Rimi’s coming,” she whispered.

“Yaaay!”

“I mean, she couldn’t
not
come, but we’re going to try to make her my costume.”

“Yaaay! But how the heck could that work?”

“We don’t know yet. I’m going to have to get some alone time to figure it out.”

“Oh, boy!” Peter stood up. “Thanks, Maya,” he said, and raced off.