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Description
6~*~6

I traveled backwards down the corridor with all the open doors and arrived in my room exactly as I had left it, as though nothing had happened. The book about Egypt was still in my hands, the necklace just sliding out of the imprint on the cover. I glanced around to make sure that I was really home, then threw myself onto my bed and surrendered to sleep.

I woke up late for the second time in two days and hurried to breakfast.

My family had gathered around the table again, even though it was long past breakfast. I sat at my place and Grandma pushed some food toward me. While I was stuffing myself, I glanced up and down the table and saw that only Great-Grandpa Joseph was absent. I could tell from the tones of their voices that I should not interrupt the discussion, so I focused on the conversation until I could speak to Lapis alone.

Once again, Julian was causing the problem.

"Look, Lapis, I told you everything, so unless you missed a page-"

"The same thought had occurred to me Julian and I went through everything twice, but I still think that something is missing from your story. You never mention anything about the military and very little about trade on your journeys. These are very important, if small, details and I feel that-"

"Most of the people are farmers and there isn't very much trade between cities. Everyone is well trained to defend themselves and their land should the need arise. Satisfied?"

"No. You just said that everyone is trained-"

"Fine! Not everyone gets training, but most of the people can take care of themselves. Anything else?"

"Yes." Lapis stared at Julian as though she was trying to examine the sword on the mantelpiece right through him. "I'm very curious as to how you found the way out of the valley. The cliffs are high and the river tunnel is always full to within a foot from the roof with water. Care to enlighten me?"

Dead silence at the table. I stopped eating so that the sound of my clinking silverware would not be the only noise in the whole hall.

"Um, Julian?" came a quiet, timid voice. I was startled to see that it was Nelson.

"What?" he snapped.

"Should I tell them?"

The table erupted.

"Tell us what?"

"Nellie, if you've been keeping secrets from me, I swear I will-"

"Ooooh, the plot thickens!"

"What in Core's dungeon-"

"TAMMATHA!"

"Tell us! Tell us!"

Julian was furious. "Well since you've already alerted your whole family, fine! Go ahead!"

With that, he pushed back his chair and stormed out of the hall with Victoria on his heels.

Everyone turned to Nelson.

"So tell us!"

For a moment she looked torn between keeping a secret that everyone was dying to know and telling so that Mom would not turn her into stone. It was not a difficult decision.

"About seven years ago, when I was working in the fields, Julian came up to me and asked me to do him a favor. We talked a little bit about this and that, and he told me all about how he wanted to get out of the valley and see the world. I told him he was crazy and walked away, but he kept on pestering me. After almost a month, I asked him what he wanted me to do and he said that he wanted to ask one of the original settlers how they'd gotten into the valley."

"But they're dead," whispered Grandpa. "So he needed you to summon them."

Nelson nodded. "It took him well over two months to get me to do it, but after a while, I agreed. I have to admit, I wanted to use my skills, just for practice. We met in the graveyard at night and I summoned one of them."

"Which one?" asked Lapis, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"One of the fairies...Vireo, I think it was."

"What is it like," Tam asked eagerly, "to summon the dead?"

"Well, when I close my eyes and concentrate, I can see this tunnel leading away from Earth, and it's full of dead spirits zooming out into space. I follow the tunnel to the end and there's this man waiting there. I don't know his name, but he's really nice, we're very good friends-"

"You're friends with a man who guards the dead?" Mom was shocked, and I have to admit that I giggled to see that rare expression on her face.

"Yeah. Anyway, he asks me a few questions to make sure I'm me, you know, stuff that only I would know."

"How would he know the answers?"

"I don't know, he just does. Anyway-"

"How can you trust this man?" Mom demanded.

Lapis smiled. "Dana, anyone who can be trusted to guard the dead can be trusted to respect the living. Go on, dear."

"Well, I tell him who I'm looking for, and he'll slip through the gates, and then he either brings them out or says that they don't want to come. Then I come back, and in a minute or two, the person will come along. They exist as ghosts on Earth until I send them away."

"So what happened with Julian?" Grandpa asked.

"I summoned Vireo and Julian asked him how to get out of the valley. It didn't go too well. The old geezer started chasing Julian around the graveyard, telling him that he was a crazy fool for wanting to leave the valley and for pulling people out of death so that he could go off and get himself killed. I calmed Vireo down, convinced him that Julian was trustworthy and wouldn't give the location of the island away, and hours later he told us how to get out of the valley just so he could go back to being dead in peace.

"I didn't see too much of Julian after that, but I knew he was working toward his goal. He disappeared for several weeks on end, and with him went a whole season's worth of spinning. Later, when he came back, wood started to go missing from fences, roofs, walls, and even from inside people's houses."

"I remember that," said Grandma. "All those thefts that we could never figure out…Now that I think about it, we ended up blaming everything on Julian because it all stopped when he went missing."

"He must have used the spun thread to mark his turns in the tunnels and the wood to build a raft," remarked Lapis. "But none of those tunnels leads to the sea. The very furthest one only went out to the waterfall, so where could he have gone?"

Lapis sighed and the table fell silent for a moment. Then Mom noticed me.

"Myriam! Where were you yesterday? Tam had to do your chores in addition to her own!"

"I was...reading."

"Well you shouldn't have been! You know you're supposed to do your chores before enjoying your free time!"

"I'm sorry," I muttered.

"You should be. Don't let it happen again." She sniffed a little. "And I expect you to go back to waking up early and to have all your chores done to my satisfaction by the end of the day, no excuses. I'll have your punishment ready by tonight."

I glanced up at Lapis and she smiled at me.

"Don't be too hard on her Dana," she said. "It wasn't her fault that she never did her chores. She kept me company all day, quiet though she was, and I couldn't bear to see her go."

"Hmm..." I held my breath, hoping it would work. "Alright."

Lapis stood. "Come on, Myra, I'll walk out to the fields with you."

I stuffed the last of my breakfast into my mouth and hopped up to follow her. We did not say anything until we were in the boat crossing the river to the fields.

"Well?" She asked. "How was your first journey?"

I told her everything, right up to my return.

"And oh, Lapis, I killed Iras!"

"No you didn't honey. Even if you hadn't used her body on your visit, that snake still would have bitten her."

"How do you know?"

Lapis sighed. "How much of that book did you actually absorb?"

I blinked a couple of times, confused.

"Hand me the book."

I passed it to her and she flipped toward the back, then sat still as a tree while she read and I rowed. She soon snapped the book shut.

"It says in this book that in Shakespeare's play, Cleopatra and one slave were dead and another slave was dying when the guards arrived, but as it's hard to find specific evidence about her death, the snake story is accepted by many as truth."

She tucked the book under her arm and leaned forward.

"Listen, there's a lot of death in this world. Some is natural, some is not, some is fair and some is unjust, and if you're going to continue to travel, you'll have to accept that. For thousands of years, death is just part of daily life."

The boat touched shore and I jumped out to tie it up. By the time I turned around, Lapis had somehow managed to work her way onto the shore without stepping in any mud or water.

"Useful little magic," she said as the straightened her blue robes. "I'll return this book for you, and you can stop by for a new one whenever you have time. I'll be busy for the next few days, sorting out all this nonsense Julian has cooked up, but drop in whenever you want – I'll soon be desperate for a break."

She turned on her heel and strolled off.

As I worked in the cornfield that day, I could not help but think how strange it was that Lapis, someone who I had not known before, who always kept to herself, had become my best friend in just a day.

I stopped by Lapis' house later and picked up a book on ancient China, but I did not start reading it right away as I had done with the Egypt book.

Instead, I spent the afternoon locating a book of blank pages that I would be able to use as a journal (Although I have not gotten around to writing in it too much. After the Germany thing, I need some time off, so I'm catching up). It dawned on me that if I were to die on one of my journeys (as I have come very close to doing several times), no one but Lapis would know what happened to me. It would be all fine and dandy for her to explain to my parents what she had done for me, but I thought that they (Dad) would feel better if they could know what I thought about all my travels. Since I will be dead, Mom will not be able to kill me again when she reads what I have written about her. I just lock this in my trunk everyday and I'm fine. No one thinks my life is interesting enough to try to break into my room anyway.

Note concerning the discovery of this book: I had combed the library without finding anything, but as I was walking back up a row that I had already searched, I saw this leather-bound book on the floor, leaning against one of the shelves. I have no idea where it came from, but it has a strange signature in it.

Korcal

Description
6~*~6

I traveled backwards down the corridor with all the open doors and arrived in my room exactly as I had left it, as though nothing had happened. The book about Egypt was still in my hands, the necklace just sliding out of the imprint on the cover. I glanced around to make sure that I was really home, then threw myself onto my bed and surrendered to sleep.

I woke up late for the second time in two days and hurried to breakfast.

My family had gathered around the table again, even though it was long past breakfast. I sat at my place and Grandma pushed some food toward me. While I was stuffing myself, I glanced up and down the table and saw that only Great-Grandpa Joseph was absent. I could tell from the tones of their voices that I should not interrupt the discussion, so I focused on the conversation until I could speak to Lapis alone.

Once again, Julian was causing the problem.

"Look, Lapis, I told you everything, so unless you missed a page-"

"The same thought had occurred to me Julian and I went through everything twice, but I still think that something is missing from your story. You never mention anything about the military and very little about trade on your journeys. These are very important, if small, details and I feel that-"

"Most of the people are farmers and there isn't very much trade between cities. Everyone is well trained to defend themselves and their land should the need arise. Satisfied?"

"No. You just said that everyone is trained-"

"Fine! Not everyone gets training, but most of the people can take care of themselves. Anything else?"

"Yes." Lapis stared at Julian as though she was trying to examine the sword on the mantelpiece right through him. "I'm very curious as to how you found the way out of the valley. The cliffs are high and the river tunnel is always full to within a foot from the roof with water. Care to enlighten me?"

Dead silence at the table. I stopped eating so that the sound of my clinking silverware would not be the only noise in the whole hall.

"Um, Julian?" came a quiet, timid voice. I was startled to see that it was Nelson.

"What?" he snapped.

"Should I tell them?"

The table erupted.

"Tell us what?"

"Nellie, if you've been keeping secrets from me, I swear I will-"

"Ooooh, the plot thickens!"

"What in Core's dungeon-"

"TAMMATHA!"

"Tell us! Tell us!"

Julian was furious. "Well since you've already alerted your whole family, fine! Go ahead!"

With that, he pushed back his chair and stormed out of the hall with Victoria on his heels.

Everyone turned to Nelson.

"So tell us!"

For a moment she looked torn between keeping a secret that everyone was dying to know and telling so that Mom would not turn her into stone. It was not a difficult decision.

"About seven years ago, when I was working in the fields, Julian came up to me and asked me to do him a favor. We talked a little bit about this and that, and he told me all about how he wanted to get out of the valley and see the world. I told him he was crazy and walked away, but he kept on pestering me. After almost a month, I asked him what he wanted me to do and he said that he wanted to ask one of the original settlers how they'd gotten into the valley."

"But they're dead," whispered Grandpa. "So he needed you to summon them."

Nelson nodded. "It took him well over two months to get me to do it, but after a while, I agreed. I have to admit, I wanted to use my skills, just for practice. We met in the graveyard at night and I summoned one of them."

"Which one?" asked Lapis, genuine curiosity in her voice.

"One of the fairies...Vireo, I think it was."

"What is it like," Tam asked eagerly, "to summon the dead?"

"Well, when I close my eyes and concentrate, I can see this tunnel leading away from Earth, and it's full of dead spirits zooming out into space. I follow the tunnel to the end and there's this man waiting there. I don't know his name, but he's really nice, we're very good friends-"

"You're friends with a man who guards the dead?" Mom was shocked, and I have to admit that I giggled to see that rare expression on her face.

"Yeah. Anyway, he asks me a few questions to make sure I'm me, you know, stuff that only I would know."

"How would he know the answers?"

"I don't know, he just does. Anyway-"

"How can you trust this man?" Mom demanded.

Lapis smiled. "Dana, anyone who can be trusted to guard the dead can be trusted to respect the living. Go on, dear."

"Well, I tell him who I'm looking for, and he'll slip through the gates, and then he either brings them out or says that they don't want to come. Then I come back, and in a minute or two, the person will come along. They exist as ghosts on Earth until I send them away."

"So what happened with Julian?" Grandpa asked.

"I summoned Vireo and Julian asked him how to get out of the valley. It didn't go too well. The old geezer started chasing Julian around the graveyard, telling him that he was a crazy fool for wanting to leave the valley and for pulling people out of death so that he could go off and get himself killed. I calmed Vireo down, convinced him that Julian was trustworthy and wouldn't give the location of the island away, and hours later he told us how to get out of the valley just so he could go back to being dead in peace.

"I didn't see too much of Julian after that, but I knew he was working toward his goal. He disappeared for several weeks on end, and with him went a whole season's worth of spinning. Later, when he came back, wood started to go missing from fences, roofs, walls, and even from inside people's houses."

"I remember that," said Grandma. "All those thefts that we could never figure out…Now that I think about it, we ended up blaming everything on Julian because it all stopped when he went missing."

"He must have used the spun thread to mark his turns in the tunnels and the wood to build a raft," remarked Lapis. "But none of those tunnels leads to the sea. The very furthest one only went out to the waterfall, so where could he have gone?"

Lapis sighed and the table fell silent for a moment. Then Mom noticed me.

"Myriam! Where were you yesterday? Tam had to do your chores in addition to her own!"

"I was...reading."

"Well you shouldn't have been! You know you're supposed to do your chores before enjoying your free time!"

"I'm sorry," I muttered.

"You should be. Don't let it happen again." She sniffed a little. "And I expect you to go back to waking up early and to have all your chores done to my satisfaction by the end of the day, no excuses. I'll have your punishment ready by tonight."

I glanced up at Lapis and she smiled at me.

"Don't be too hard on her Dana," she said. "It wasn't her fault that she never did her chores. She kept me company all day, quiet though she was, and I couldn't bear to see her go."

"Hmm..." I held my breath, hoping it would work. "Alright."

Lapis stood. "Come on, Myra, I'll walk out to the fields with you."

I stuffed the last of my breakfast into my mouth and hopped up to follow her. We did not say anything until we were in the boat crossing the river to the fields.

"Well?" She asked. "How was your first journey?"

I told her everything, right up to my return.

"And oh, Lapis, I killed Iras!"

"No you didn't honey. Even if you hadn't used her body on your visit, that snake still would have bitten her."

"How do you know?"

Lapis sighed. "How much of that book did you actually absorb?"

I blinked a couple of times, confused.

"Hand me the book."

I passed it to her and she flipped toward the back, then sat still as a tree while she read and I rowed. She soon snapped the book shut.

"It says in this book that in Shakespeare's play, Cleopatra and one slave were dead and another slave was dying when the guards arrived, but as it's hard to find specific evidence about her death, the snake story is accepted by many as truth."

She tucked the book under her arm and leaned forward.

"Listen, there's a lot of death in this world. Some is natural, some is not, some is fair and some is unjust, and if you're going to continue to travel, you'll have to accept that. For thousands of years, death is just part of daily life."

The boat touched shore and I jumped out to tie it up. By the time I turned around, Lapis had somehow managed to work her way onto the shore without stepping in any mud or water.

"Useful little magic," she said as the straightened her blue robes. "I'll return this book for you, and you can stop by for a new one whenever you have time. I'll be busy for the next few days, sorting out all this nonsense Julian has cooked up, but drop in whenever you want – I'll soon be desperate for a break."

She turned on her heel and strolled off.

As I worked in the cornfield that day, I could not help but think how strange it was that Lapis, someone who I had not known before, who always kept to herself, had become my best friend in just a day.

I stopped by Lapis' house later and picked up a book on ancient China, but I did not start reading it right away as I had done with the Egypt book.

Instead, I spent the afternoon locating a book of blank pages that I would be able to use as a journal (Although I have not gotten around to writing in it too much. After the Germany thing, I need some time off, so I'm catching up). It dawned on me that if I were to die on one of my journeys (as I have come very close to doing several times), no one but Lapis would know what happened to me. It would be all fine and dandy for her to explain to my parents what she had done for me, but I thought that they (Dad) would feel better if they could know what I thought about all my travels. Since I will be dead, Mom will not be able to kill me again when she reads what I have written about her. I just lock this in my trunk everyday and I'm fine. No one thinks my life is interesting enough to try to break into my room anyway.

Note concerning the discovery of this book: I had combed the library without finding anything, but as I was walking back up a row that I had already searched, I saw this leather-bound book on the floor, leaning against one of the shelves. I have no idea where it came from, but it has a strange signature in it.

Korcal