Ines sighed. “Let’s just keep going.”
So they went on. The adventure points were pouring out like coins spitting out of a slot machine that had hit the jackpot. Soon they came to a place where the land met the sea.
“This is it!” Ines exclaimed. “The end of the forty-third level.”
“I can’t believe we’re already here!” Eli said. “I thought the forty-fourth level was one of those things corporations make up to keep you buying products, like static cling or morning breath!”
“Dude, morning breath is a real thing,” Dylan said. “So is static cling.”
“Really?” Eli said. “Well, that explains my problems with girls and with laundry.”
Dylan looked around. “Hey—I got here once. I carved my name on a tree.”
“It’s as far as anyone has gotten,” Ines said. “The question is, what does the next symbol mean?”
“When is a smile not a smile?” Eli wondered out loud.
“Maybe it’s not a smile,” Dylan speculated. “Maybe it’s something else.”
“Maybe it’s laughing at us,” Eli said.
“Come on, think!” Ines demanded. “These symbols are the opposite of what they look like. This looks like a mouth. What else could it be?”
“What else has a mouth?” Eli said. “A shark?”
“Too easy,” Dylan replied. “What about a bottle? Or a cave?”
Eli started chuckling. “We’re right next to the answer.”
They were standing on the bank of a river.
* * *
Starting from the river’s mouth, they followed it farther inland.
“We still have to figure out the last clue,” Ines said.
“We could use Emma’s help right about now,” Eli mumbled.
“We don’t need her,” Dylan shot back. “Stay on point. We can do this.”
At last, they came to a waterfall. But it wasn’t just any waterfall—it was the mother and father and maybe the aunt and uncle of all waterfalls. It was so high Dylan couldn’t see the top, which extended into the clouds. And where it crashed into a river below, it exploded into golden spray—it was the source of all the mist in the area. It was a column of crashing water connecting heaven and earth. And the water was gold.
“The forty-fourth level is behind the falls,” Ines said. “How do we get to it?”
“When is a lock not a lock?” Eli said.
“When it’s an air lock?” Dylan ventured.
“Dude, what about a leg lock—y’know, like in wrestling?” Eli said. “Not that I would know anything about wrestling or legs.”
“The Erie Canal,” Dylan said. “There are locks on that.”
“I got a mule her name is Sal . . .” Eli sang.
“. . . fifteen miles on the Erie Canal!” Dylan finished.
“I am gonna put both of you in a headlock unless you shut up and focus,” Ines said.
The kids stood there for the longest time but nobody had any more ideas.
Ines stomped her foot. “I can’t believe we went this far, only to come up short!”
She tugged at her curtain of hair in frustration. Dylan and Eli looked at each other. Eli nodded and Dylan walked over to her. As usual, her black hair cascaded down the right side of her face. Dylan reached out and Ines jerked back a bit.
“When is a lock not a lock?” Dylan said.
Ines stared at him—and then smiled. “When it’s a lock of hair,” she said.
He brushed back the lock of hair that always covered her right eye. In the image before them, the curtain of waterfall moved aside. “My dad used to brush my hair back like that,” Ines said. “I was connected to the game all along.”
Eli pointed. “Look—behind the water, something is carved onto those rocks.”
“It’s an inscription,” Ines observed. “There is no way—but The Way.”
“Some of the lines have been struck out,” Dylan added. “But I think I can make out a few. Give your life—and you will find it. That sounds dangerous.”
Eli looked closer. “It’s signed or something. Look at the bottom—those are probably initials. The Inklings—H.G., J.K., C.S., and . . .”
Ines unconsciously brushed her hair back in front of her face. “No!” Dylan shouted.
It was too late: water began to gush from the ceiling onto the floor. The images were suddenly real, and the chamber quickly began filling up with water. The children were caught in the current and started to be swept around the room. Just then, the door opened.
“What’s going . . . oh!”
Emma had entered the room and the torrent had taken her by surprise. Now she was caught up in the raging waters too.
“Brush your hair back!” Dylan shouted over the sound of the surge.
“I tried that!” Ines said.
“Kill the power!”
“What?” Ines asked.
“He’s right!” Eli hollered. “We’ve got to turn off the tablet!”
Ines dove down and surfaced a few moments later near a far wall, coughing up water. She slammed her hand on an emergency panel. The room went white—except for a rectangular area where the tablet had hung at the far end of the chamber. The water began to drain from the room like when a stopper is pulled in a tub. The flood was being sucked into the rectangular space where the tablet had been.
“Hold on to something—or we’ll be drained away too!” Dylan yelled.
Ines latched onto a door handle, Eli wrapped his arms around a table leg, and Dylan grabbed onto the grand piano. But Emma had been caught by surprise.
“Dylan—help!” she cried.
The water was almost all sucked out of the room. Emma was in a swirling pool being pulled into the portal. “Emma!” yelled Dylan, letting go of the piano and splashing toward her.
Too late—her face disappeared in the deluge and a beastly roar filled the room that sounded like the combination of a breaking dam and an avalanche.
The room was dry now and the tablet had reappeared and swelled to the size of a door. Its flat surface showed the image of rushing water. Emma was gone.
Like most twelve-year-olds, Dylan had gone his whole life without ever seeing magic.
Sure he had observed card tricks, watched palm readings, and a couple times he had seen street magicians performing for spare change. But seeing real magic was completely different—it made special effects in movies seem totally un-special. Real magic is more than an experience for the eyes. True wizardry wakes up the body and puts the senses on notice as they struggle to make sense of what’s going on. All of Dylan’s senses were awake and screaming for explanations, like baseball players shouting at umpires.
“This isn’t happening, right?” Dylan asked Ines. “Tell me this is a prank!”
Ines’s face was flushed.