"W—Wyssa?" Zann stammered. His lips were still numb from the scatter beast's attack. "How did you—?"
"Save your energy, boy." Wyssa sounded irritated.
"The more you talk, the more you slow us down. Now, where are the others?"
Perda gasped. "This is the old woman we spoke with in Wormwood! She's Wyssa?"
"Yes," Zann said. The effects of the scatter beast's magic were wearing off.
But being in the vortex still made it hard to think clearly.
"How did you find us?" he asked Wyssa.
"How did you even know to look for us?"
"I have my ways," Wyssa said. "Now we need to get you kids back to Magica. Where are your friends?"
"Back to Magica?" Zann immediately thought about his parents.
He couldn't go home until he'd found them!
"You can do that?" Perda sounded relieved. "You can get us home?"
"Of course," Wyssa snapped. "But where are the others?
There should be another Red with you. A girl, yes? And the young Void?"
Zann felt his heart sink as he thought about Gliss, Darb, and Zing.
"They're gone," he said. "We got separated in the vortex earlier.
I don't know where they are now."
"What?" Wyssa snapped. She yanked at Zann's arm so hard that he cried out in surprise.
He felt his body being sucked through another wormhole.
A moment later he, Wyssa, and Perda were standing on a cliff overlooking a rough sea.
Cold wind whipped around them, and strange gray birds circled overhead, letting out shrill cries.
But Wyssa didn't seem to notice any of that. She was glaring at Zann.
"Let me make sure I understand this," Wyssa said.
"You brought your friends into the vortex.
Then you lost track of two of them?"
"Three, actually," Zann admitted. "Zing, my pet dragon, was with them too."
"You found us," Perda said. "Can't you find them too?"
Wyssa glanced at her. "It's not that easy, girl."
"Perda," Perda said. "My name is Perda. Not 'girl.'"
Wyssa gnashed her teeth, and Zann cringed.
He didn't want Wyssa and Perda to start arguing.
Not when his friends were still missing.
"How did you find us?" he asked Wyssa.
"Maybe you can find Darb and Gliss the same way."
"As I said, it's not that easy." Wyssa paced back and forth along the cliff's edge.
"The Interworld Tracking spell I used to find you is complicated.
To do it, you need an object that has some of the lost person's magic energy."
Perda folded her arms. "I've never heard of a spell like that."
"There are whole worlds out there you've never heard of, girl," Wyssa told her. "That doesn't mean they don't exist."
"So you tracked our magic energy?" Zann asked. "Mine and Perda's? How?"
"Not hers—just yours." Wyssa stopped pacing. "I used this."
She reached into the folds of her cloak and pulled out a small object. Zann recognized it right away.
"That's a chew toy I created for Zing yesterday," he said. "How did you get that?"
Wyssa tucked the chew toy away.
"Since you created it so recently, it still contains traces of your magic energy," she said, without answering Zann's question.
"I was able to use it to track you through the vortex and into Fardark."
Zann shivered, but only partly because of the cold wind.
Hearing the name "Fardark" reminded Zann of his visit with Perda to that dark and dreadful world.
"Thanks for saving us," he said. "But can't you use that chew toy to track Zing? He drooled all over it."
"The spell doesn't work that way." Wyssa frowned.
"It requires magic energy, not dragon drool."
"You said you can get us back to Magica, right?" Perda said.
"I'm sure we could find something Gliss created there."
"That would take much too long." Wyssa started pacing again.
"Your friends could be in grave danger, alone in the vortex."
"Then what are we going to do?" Perda cried. "We have to find our friends!"
Zann could only nod. His throat was too dry to speak.
He couldn't believe he'd accidentally led his friends into danger again.
If they were lost in the vortex forever, it was his fault!
Wyssa stopped pacing and looked down at the ground.
She appeared to be deep in thought.
A minute later she looked up. "I have an idea. Come."
She grabbed Zann and Perda and yanked them through the wormhole.
Soon all three of them were rushing through the vortex again.
"What's your plan?" Zann asked.
"I know how to make a potion that will show me which wormholes have been used recently," Wyssa replied.
"If your friends managed to get through one and into another world, I might be able to track them."
"Great," Perda said. "But what if they haven't gone through a wormhole?"
"Yeah, what if they're still in the vortex?" Zann added.
"It's not easy to grab one of those wormholes, you know."
Wyssa shrugged. "Let's just hope they have gotten out by now," she said.
Zann gulped, afraid to ask what she meant.
Still, he was glad that she had a plan.
First they needed to find Darb, Gliss, and Zing.
Then Zann needed to figure out a way to keep searching for his parents—without dragging his friends into more danger.
"Hold on," Wyssa said. "I need to find a world that contains the ingredients for my—"
Zann gasped, not hearing any more of what she was saying.
As he slid past another wormhole, an image of his parents' terrified faces flashed through his mind.
The vision was just like the horrible nightmares he'd been having about his mother and father.
Only this time Zann was wide awake!