The Nexus Ring (4 page)

Mom planned the day’s magic. “I think the other veils of mist will be at the Giant Cedars Boardwalk, the Rogers Pass, and the Spiral Tunnels. Those are all places of great power. And the last one will be the Banff Viewpoint, because we’ll need a break by then.”

I sat shaking my head. We always stop at those places. We should be called the “Same As Always” family. I was glad, though, when we pulled into the Giant Cedars parking lot. There’s a boardwalk that winds up into the cedar forest, then down again in a long series of stairs. It’s dark and ­mysterious.

It had just rained, so the air was cool and the picnic table wet. Mom dried it while Dad set out lunch. As soon as we’d eaten and packed away the leftovers, we headed for the wooden steps into the forest. Maddy dashed up the stairs, and I ran after her, still watching for that man. I made sure we didn’t get too far ahead of Mom and ­Dad.

The steps wound up and up, with little landings in between, through a forest of trees so tall I couldn’t see their tops, and trunks bigger around than I could reach. We heard a murmur, then a roar, of water. A stream rushed between rocks, trickled through a ­log-­jam, then plunged down a ­waterfall.

We walked on, the boardwalk squeezing between trees. The clouds had broken up enough to let sunlight into the forest in gleaming lines. Maddy laid her cheek against the bark of a cedar tree where it was rubbed smooth by people’s hands. Her hair shone gold against the deep red of the bark. My fingers itched to pull out my new watercolour paints and match the ­colours.

Mom and Dad passed us on the landing at the top of the boardwalk, holding hands and talking. I tried to get Maddy to keep up, but she dawdled, looking at trail signs, and when we finally headed down, a huge group of tourists was surging up the stairs. I plunged into the crowd, dragging Maddy behind me. Finally, we eased our way past and dashed down the steps. We leapt out of the forest into the picnic area. Mom and Dad weren’t ­there.

“Maybe they went back in, looking for us,” Maddy ­said.

We ran into the forest the way we’d come out, racing up the stairs, squeezing past the tour group, then leaping down the steps on the other side. We came back to the deserted picnic table, ­puzzled.

“Maybe they went to the bathroom and there was a lineup. Come on, Maddy. You know Dad.”

They weren’t at the bathroom. We wandered back to the picnic table. Still not there. “Maybe they’re at the van,” I ­said.

We crossed the road, ­searching.

“There,” cried Maddy. “They’re leaving. They’re leaving without us!”

Our van was pulling out of the parking spot. We raced after it, screaming, “stop, stop!” and waving our arms. Mom and Dad didn’t even glance around. They just drove off, looking ­dazed.

Chapter Three

As Ugly As A Troll

M
addy and I stood in the road
,
stunned. How could they leave without us? Maddy started to ­cry.

I hugged her, then stiffened. “Maddy,” I whispered. “Look. That man. He’s here!”

The man from the gift shop stood in the shadows by the boardwalk. He was grinning, a look much uglier than his scowl. We stared at ­him.

“Your parents won’t be back,” he announced. “Unless you give me that ring. Then I’ll bring them back.”

I glanced down at the ring on Maddy’s finger. I couldn’t believe what he’d said. How could he make people go away, and then bring them ­back?

Maddy yelled at him, “They’ll come back. They won’t leave us!”

“They just did! They think you’re sitting in the back seats. I put two Shadows there. They look just like you, only they’re a lot quieter.”

“Shadows?” My voice squeaked. “What are you talking about?”

“Little pretend children. Very quiet. No trouble at all. And Shadows make people uneasy, so no one looks too closely. Your parents won’t notice a thing.”

Maddy slipped her hand into mine. I looked down at her; her eyes were huge and dark in her suddenly pale face. She whispered, “Josh, I’m scared. I want to go home.”

Me too. I squeezed her hand. “It’ll be okay, Maddy. I’ll get you home. I promise.” I turned to the man. “If we give you the ring, will you bring back our parents and leave us alone?”

He nodded, then reached out for the ring, fingers twitching.

“Josh, I don’t think we should,” Maddy ­whispered.

“What?”

“I don’t like him. I don’t think we should do anything he says.”

“But don’t you want to get back to Mom and Dad?”

“Yes, of course. But I don’t think we should give him the ring.”

The man stood, hand outstretched, scowling. Maddy scowled ­back.

“Maddy, we have to get back to Mom and Dad. Give him the ring!”

“I can’t, Josh. It feels all wrong. I just can’t do it.”

“Maddy!” I wanted to tear the ring off her finger and fling it at the troll. What was her problem? A soft voice behind us made me ­jump.

“Maybe I can help.”

Maddy and I turned and stared. The tall woman from the gift shop stood behind us, cloak swaying in the ­breeze.

“You were on the ferry yesterday,” said ­Maddy.

“Yes,” she said. “I can help you with this troll.”

“What do you mean?” I said. “He’s as ugly as a troll, but he’s not really one.”

“No?” She raised her left hand, palm towards the man, and wiped in a circle, like she was cleaning a mirror. “There. Now take a look.”

Slowly, the man’s face shifted. His nose grew larger and lumpier, his ears bigger, his skin rough. His body shifted too, becoming squat and lumpy. He looked meaner than ever. My stomach curled up on itself. Definitely a ­troll.

He glared at the woman. “Witch!”

She laughed, her dark eyebrows curving like wings. Even though she was wearing black, she didn’t look like a witch. She looked more like a dancer, graceful in her long cloak, with her hair tied up at the back of her neck. Except, when I looked closer, I realized she was a little strange, not quite human, ­somehow.

She knelt by Maddy. “My name is Aleena.” She gestured at the troll. “He wants your ring.”

“Why?” Maddy asked ­softly.

“He uses it to travel, to steal gold. You mustn’t give it to him!”

“But what should we do? Mommy and Daddy have left without us.”

“I can help,” Aleena answered. “I can take you to a place the troll can’t go, and I can get you back to your parents.”

“We’re not supposed to go anywhere with strangers,”
Maddy ­said.

“Parents aren’t supposed to drive off without their kids, either,” I muttered. What should we do? Dad would say, “Use your head.” But my head didn’t know whether it was worse to leave with a stranger, or to stay with a troll. Mom would say, “Listen to your intuition, Josh.” I tried, but all I heard was a voice screaming, “I don’t know what to do!”

I had to pick something, and the troll was giving me the creeps. I took a deep breath. “Maddy, if you won’t give your ring to the troll, I think we need to leave with Aleena.”

“I guess…” Maddy said. She pushed her hand deep into her ­pocket.

As we turned away, the troll began to shake and stomp and roar. He screamed at us, “It’s my ring. You stole it and i want it back!!!”

Aleena ignored him. Maddy and I kept glancing back as we followed her to the far path into the ­forest.

“We can’t go in there,” I said. “The troll will follow us.”

“Don’t worry. We won’t be here long.”

We hurried to the top of the boardwalk, then Aleena stepped off the wooden path onto the forest ­floor.

“We’re not supposed to go off the path,” Maddy ­said.

“It’s okay. You won’t hurt anything. Just be careful not to touch these,” she said, pointing to ­plate-­sized leaves near the path. “That’s Devil’s Club. Its prickles can give you a nasty wound.”

Maddy and I glanced at each other, then behind us, wondering where the troll was. Maddy’s eyes were huge and dark. She looked terrified. I reached out to take her hand, then, together, we stepped off the boardwalk, eased past the Devil’s Club, and followed Aleena into the ­forest.

We wound our way through the trees, stopping at a pair of huge cedars growing an ­arm’s-­length ­apart.

“Let me touch the ring,” Aleena ­said.

Maddy held out her hand. Aleena’s fist clenched as she reached for the ring, then slowly she opened her hand and touched the ring with one finger. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then gently blew out. As she exhaled, mist filled the space between the cedar trees. It deepened into a white glow, then a hole opened in the centre of the whiteness, a doorway in the ­mist.

Maddy and I watched with open mouths, then backed ­away.

Aleena stepped into the doorway, then held out a hand for Maddy. Maddy turned to me with wild eyes. I reached out to stop her, then heard pounding up the steps in the forest behind ­us.

We could hear the troll roaring, “stop! That’s my ring!”

Fear surged through me. I pushed Maddy into the doorway and jumped in behind her. I was immediately surrounded by a blanket of fog. I couldn’t see anything behind me. In front, I could just make out Maddy, and the back of Aleena’s head. The only sound was a strange whirring. I glanced at my watch; the hands were spinning ­wildly.

Aleena’s head moved forward, out of the fog into dappled sunshine. I grabbed Maddy’s shoulder, and followed her through the fog. It thinned, then cleared as we stepped out from between two cedar ­trees.

The forest was just like the one we’d left, except I couldn’t hear the troll. As I looked around, I noticed other differences. The trees seemed more vibrant here, in richer greens, and there was more birdsong. I could hear other sounds more clearly too: water tumbling in the creek, wind in the branches, ferns rustling. When I walked on the spongy forest floor, the scent of moss and decaying cedar drifted up on the cool ­breeze.

The misty doorway was still open between the cedar trees. Aleena said it would dissolve in a minute. She led us up the mountainside, over fallen giant cedars, past ferns as tall as Maddy. We stopped at the base of a waterfall plunging down in a deafening ­roar.

“If I’m to have human guests, I’ll need a firestone,” said Aleena as she stepped into the pool below the falls. She crouched down and ran her hands over the rocks lining the pool. Her eyes almost closed as she focused all her attention on her hands. Then, with a grin, she rose, her left hand closed. She opened her fingers and showed us a smooth stone, shining black with glints of ­gold.

“What is it?” I ­asked.

“Firestone. I’ll show you later,” she said, smiling. She slipped it into her cloak pocket. Then, as she stepped out of the creek, her smile vanished and the colour drained from her ­face.

Maddy and I turned to see what she was staring at. It was the troll, climbing up the mountainside, slipping through the shadows, fuming. My heart hammered as I turned back to ­Aleena.

“Gronvald! I thought I’d trapped him in the human world,” she said. “He must have slipped through the doorway before it shut.” She glanced around frantically. The troll had spotted us and was struggling up the slope. “Can you swim?”

“Yes,” I ­said.

“A little,” said ­Maddy.

“Just a little?” asked Aleena. “Okay, then not the creek.” She hurried away, studying the forest floor. Maddy and I followed, while we watched the troll closing in, panting from the ­climb.

Aleena stopped by a puddle of murky water surrounded by moss. As the troll charged towards us, Aleena grabbed our hands and yanked us into the puddle. I stumbled, and as I fell, the moss became a forest and suddenly all of me was wet in the puddle that was becoming a lake. The water felt cool and trickly on my skin. We moved through it into darkness, flowing deep into the mountains. Blackness suddenly shifted to blinding light, even through my closed eyelids, and then, with a splash, we ­stopped.