The Ruby Circle
Page 24

The waiter brightened. “My uncle runs a campground that has vacancies right now. He’ll even rent tents and everything. Cheaper than a hotel.”
Cost wasn’t an issue, but after a brief discussion, we decided to follow up on the offer and go out to the campground, simply because of its proximity to the park. We were able to rent what we needed, get set up, and then make another trip to Ha Ha Tonka before it closed for the night. Once more, we found no answers in either the park or the brick. We tried to tell ourselves that morning would bring fresh perspective, but none of us would give voice to the burning question hanging between us: What were we going to do if we weren’t able to find the gold brick’s secrets?
I longed to discuss it with Adrian, but there’d still been no communication since my last update. Dutifully, I sent him another report about what was going on and then prepared for bed, unwilling to admit how much his radio silence bothered me. Exhausted from a long day, I soon fell asleep in the rented tent . . .
. . . and was awakened a few hours later by a panicked Eddie.
“Sydney! Jackie! Get up!”
I opened my eyes and instantly sat upright. “What? What is it?”
He was standing in the unzipped opening of the tent, pointing outward. Ms. Terwilliger and I scrambled to his side and looked where he indicated. There, out in the moonlight, a glowing puddle of what seemed like molten gold was oozing over the ground, coming toward us. Where it touched, it left scorched grass and earth behind.
“What is that?” I exclaimed.
“The brick,” said Eddie. “I was on watch inside and noticed it starting to glow. I picked it up, and it nearly burned my hand. I threw it outside, and it melted into that.”
Ms. Terwilliger murmured a quick incantation as the blob nearly reached our tent. An invisible wave of power shot out and knocked the golden glob back a few feet. Then it began making its way back toward us.
“Wonderful,” I muttered. She repeated the spell, but it was clear that was only a temporary fix.
“Can we trap it?” I asked. “There are a lot of stones around. We could make some kind of enclosure?”
“It’s burning right through the stones in its path,” said Eddie grimly.
Ms. Terwilliger gave up on the force spells and cast a freezing spell similar to what she’d used in the robot museum. She directed a blast of bitter cold toward the molten puddle, which halted in its tracks. Half of the blob began to solidify, though the other half was still liquid and mobile and tried to wriggle away, dragging its frozen half with it.
“Sydney, get to the other side!” Ms. Terwilliger said.
I hurried to obey, running out of the tent and standing on the other side of the blob, which had liquefied now that she’d momentarily dropped the spell. The ooze moved toward the tent again, and Ms. Terwilliger held up her hands to cast. “On the count of three,” she ordered. “One . . . two . . . three!”
Simultaneously, we released freezing spells, attacking the molten gold from opposite sides. The mass wriggled and writhed in the grip of the magic but slowly began to solidify. I’d never sustained the spell for a long time, but Ms. Terwilliger wasn’t letting go of the magic. I followed her lead until, at last, the gold was still, completely solidified into an irregularly shaped puddle. We let go of the magic and carefully walked up to it. The gold stayed as it was.
“That was weird,” I said. “Not quite as bad as the last attack.” I still had a few cuts from the little magical fireflies that had come after us in Pittsburgh.
“Only because it didn’t get to us,” warned Ms. Terwilliger. “I hate to think what would’ve happened if we’d all been asleep in that tent when it liquefied.”
I shuddered, knowing she was right. “But what does it mean?”
No one had an immediate answer, but Eddie surprised us when he spoke a few seconds later. “I’ve seen this before.”
“A golden brick that turned into a deadly, rampaging puddle of molten metal?” I asked.
He shot me a wan smile. “No. Look at that shape. Doesn’t it seem familiar?”
I tilted my head to study the golden form before us. There didn’t seem to be any design to the shape. It was an amorphous, vaguely ovalish shape that looked like it had hardened that way by coincidence. Eddie’s intense look of concentration said he believed otherwise. After a few more moments of concentration, revelation lit his features. He pulled out his cell phone and tapped in something. With shoddy coverage in the park, it took a little while for the phone to find what Eddie needed, but when it did, he was triumphant.
“There, take a look.”
Ms. Terwilliger and I peered at his screen and found a map of the greater Palm Springs area. Instantly, I realized what he’d tuned into.
“It’s the Salton Sea,” I breathed. “Good recall, Eddie.”
The Salton Sea was a saline lake outside of Palm Springs, and the metal puddle before us was exactly the same shape as that body of water. Ms. Terwilliger shook her head and gave a snort of dismay.
“Wonderful. I left Palm Springs to warn you, got caught up in a magical scavenger hunt, and am now, after all that effort, simply taking you back home.”
“But why?” asked Eddie. “Has Jill been there the whole time? And who’s the one pulling the strings behind all—”
“Get back!” cried Ms. Terwilliger, holding her hands in a warding gesture.
Not even Eddie could move fast enough from what she’d spotted. The golden blob had begun to tremble, like it was suddenly filled with energy that needed to get out. I tried to cast a shielding spell, but even as the words formed on my lips, I knew I wasn’t going to be fast enough. The blob exploded into a hundred little golden razor blades that came flying toward us—and then stopped. They hit an invisible barrier and fell harmlessly to the ground.
I stared at where they lay, my heart pounding as I thought of the terrible damage they would have caused if Ms. Terwilliger hadn’t been fast enough. So it was a surprise to me when she said, “Excellent reflexes, Sydney. I couldn’t manage it in time.”
I jerked my gaze up from the blades. “You didn’t cast that?”
She frowned. “No. I thought you did.”
“I did,” a voice behind us said.
I spun around and gasped as, incredibly, Adrian emerged from the trees. Forgetting the tragedy that had nearly taken place, I ran into his arms, letting him lift me off my feet. “What are you doing here?” I exclaimed. “Never mind.” I kissed him hard, so overwhelmed that I didn’t even care that Eddie and Ms. Terwilliger were nearby. Being away from him these last couple of days had made my heart ache more than I’d expected, and I think we were both surprised when he was the one who finally broke the kiss off.