"Ow—drat!" Zann said as he landed in a clawthorn bush.
"That's what you get for zapping in a hurry," Perda said with a laugh.
Zann pushed the prickly branches aside. He frowned when he saw that Perda wasn't alone. Darb and Gliss were with her.
"Hi, Zann," Gliss said as Zann climbed out of the bush. "Need help healing those scratches?"
"No, thanks." Zann wasn't ready to forgive Gliss yet.
If she hadn't ratted him out to Boz, he might be searching for his parents right now instead of being stuck in Swamp Bottom!
"Um, okay." Gliss sounded tentative. "Listen, Zann. Can we talk for a second? I really want to—"
"Not now," Zann interrupted. "Perda's note sounded urgent." He turned toward Perda. "What's up?"
"I ran into Professor Huli this morning," Perda said. "I asked her about World X."
Professor Huli was the kids' Advanced Magic teacher.
If anyone might know about World X, it was she.
"Really?" Zann said eagerly. "What did she say?"
Perda shrugged. "She's never heard of it."
Zann's heart sank. "Oh well. My parents' message made it sound like World X might be a newly discovered world.
So it's no surprise if most people—even an Advanced Magic teacher—haven't heard of it."
"I don't understand," Darb said. "How is it possible World X was just discovered?
I thought people have been everywhere through the vortex."
"No, definitely not," Perda said. "There are probably lots of worlds that haven't been discovered yet.
Most worlds are actually really difficult to find.
There isn't always a direct route from one place to another, and wormholes open and close all the time, which makes travel through them even more complicated."
Gliss nodded. "We just learned about all that in school."
"So if Zann's parents got knocked off course by that weird otherworld animal—" Darb glanced at Zann.
"A scatter beast," Zann said. "They're from a world called Fardark.
My parents mentioned them in one of their books, but nobody knows much about them."
"Zann's parents could be anywhere," Perda continued.
"For all we know, they're in World X right now!"
"Or maybe they're asking around about it while they're looking for a way back to Magica," Zann said.
"It might be a clue, anyway. If I can get myself back into the vortex—"
"That reminds me," Perda interrupted. "You never told us about your trip with Wyssa. What was it like?"
"Well, I wasn't in the vortex for long . . ." Zann began.
It was hard to describe the experience. But he did his best.
"Wow. I bet it was cool!" Perda looked impressed.
"But it sounds like Wyssa did all the work.
Do you think you could navigate through the vortex on your own?"
Zann shrugged. "I'll figure it out."
"What if you don't have enough magic?" Darb sounded worried. "You're only a kid."
"I'm a Red too." Zann touched his hair, trying to sound confident.
"That should give me some extra power."
"It just sounds too dangerous, Zann," Gliss said.
Zann frowned. "Everything sounds too dangerous to you," he snapped.
"Especially when it's my parents who are missing instead of yours!"
Gliss gasped, and tears came to her eyes. "I—I have to go," she mumbled.
Snapping her fingers, she zapped out of sight.
"Zann!" Perda scowled at him. "That was mean!"
"Gliss was just worried about you," Darb added. He glanced at Perda.
"Will you take me to check on her?"
"Sure." Perda grabbed Darb's hand. "Zap!"
They disappeared, leaving Zann alone with Zing.
Zann felt guilty for hurting Gliss' feelings.
But he did his best to shake off his guilt.
In a few days he would be stuck at school.
This could be his last chance to come up with a plan to find his parents.
If his friends didn't want to help, he would do it on his own.
Two days later Zann was no closer to a plan.
He'd researched the locations of all the known wormholes in Magica, but they were all far away from Swamp Bottom.
Zapping to any of those wormholes would use up all his energy, leaving little or no energy to navigate through the vortex.
He would have to rest for at least a day first.
That would give Boz enough time to notice Zann was missing, figure out what was going on, and stop Zann from leaving Magica.
The day before school was due to start, Zann zapped to the swamp to meet Darb.
Darb had stopped by earlier to set up a time and place to meet.
But when Zann reached their meeting spot, nobody was there.
That was surprising. Darb was almost always on time. Zann sat down to wait.
A moment later Gliss zapped into view. "Hi, Zann," she said.
Zann jumped to his feet. "What are you doing here?"
"I asked Darb to arrange to meet you so I could talk to you alone," Gliss said.
"You mean you asked him to help you trick me." Zann frowned.
"I'm sorry!" Gliss exclaimed. "But I've been trying to apologize, and you won't—"
Suddenly Perda zapped into view. "Zann!" she cried, her eyes wide and excited.
"I've been looking for you! I need to talk to you—now!"
"No problem," said Zann before Perda had a chance to notice Gliss standing behind her. Grabbing Perda's hand, he said, "Zap!"
They landed in another part of the swamp.
Perda looked confused. "Why did you zap us away?"
"Never mind," Zann said. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Oh!" Perda smiled. "Right. Listen to this—I just found a new wormhole.
And it's right here in Swamp Bottom!"