"Oh no!" Zann exclaimed. He dropped the stone.
Instantly the vision of his parents was gone.
"What is it?" Perda asked. "Did you see them too?"
Zann nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. His parents had looked so real—and so scared!
"But why are we seeing them now?" Perda wondered.
"I've touched that stone lots of times."
"Message stones are mysterious things," Wyssa said.
"They hold on to the magical essence of all who touch them."
"That's how Mother used the stone to help us," Gliss put in.
"Mother? Who's that?" Venna asked.
Gliss, Perda, and Darb quickly told her about their adventure in Zon, the world with no boys.
"Interesting," Wyssa said when they'd finished.
"Mother's spell must have made the stone's messages stronger, allowing Perda to see them too."
"Does this mean Zann's parents are nearby?" Gliss asked.
Wyssa nodded. "Such magic works best when it's close to the source of the message."
"The source—you mean Zann's parents?" Darb asked. "Are they here in Rood?"
"It seems likely," said Wyssa.
Zann gasped. "Oh!"
Wyssa continued. "My guess is that Morb has just returned to wherever he's holding Zann's parents captive, and they became frightened."
"And their fear caused the stone to send that vision to whoever was touching it." Venna peered at the stone. "Fascinating!"
"If Morb is back with his prisoners, he probably found the Horn already," Perda pointed out.
"Not necessarily." Wyssa turned to Venna. "Tell me where it is."
"Wait!" Zann blurted out before Venna could respond. "Don't tell her."
"What?" Wyssa glared at Zann. "This is no time for games, boy."
Zann felt nervous, especially when he remembered how easily Wyssa had broken his Shackle spell. But he stood his ground.
"I know you want to punish Morb," he said.
"But first we need to find my parents.
Morb might be the only one who can lead us to them."
He expected Wyssa to get even angrier.
Instead she looked at the ground and sighed.
"You're right," she said. "This is my chance to make things right.
Not just by making Morb pay for what he's done, but also by doing what I can to help Nax and Asta."
"Thanks." Zann was relieved. He told Wyssa where they'd seen the Horn.
Her expression darkened again. "The only thing hiding it was some rubble?
I'm sure Morb had the Horn within seconds after leaving here."
"We need to find him before he uses it," Venna said.
"But how? I don't know if he has a lair here in Rood."
"I have an idea." Wyssa pursed her lips and whistled.
Several tiny people zapped into view. Whistlefeather was among them.
"Have you found him?" Whistlefeather asked eagerly. "Is Morb gone?"
"I'm afraid not," Wyssa said. "We need your help.
Does he have a lair in this world?"
Whistlefeather hesitated, trading a look with the other Roodians. "Yes, but . . ." His voice trailed off.
"We'd like to help," a Roodian woman said, her voice trembling.
"But we fear Morb's retribution. He's holding our queen prisoner."
"Your queen?" Zann recalled the tiny, frightened woman from his vision.
Whistlefeather nodded. "We're afraid that if we tell you where Morb's lair is, he'll toss the queen through the nearest wormhole."
Perda shrugged. "What's so bad about that?"
"It would kill her," Wyssa said grimly.
"The Roodians told me they cannot pass through any wormhole."
The Roodian woman nodded. "Many have tried in the past.
All were flung back into Rood—lifeless."
"Wow," Gliss said. "I guess that's why Rood stayed undiscovered for so long."
"Well, it explains why Roodians can't visit other worlds."
Perda glanced at a wormhole blinking nearby.
"But there are wormholes to so many other worlds here!
I'm surprised nobody has ever come through one of them."
"The wormholes here don't work like most wormholes," Whistlefeather said.
"One can pass from Rood to any other world.
But the wormholes only work in one direction.
Rood itself can only be reached via the vortex."
"Yes," Wyssa added. "And there's only one incoming wormhole in Rood.
It's very unpredictable." She sighed, rubbing her forehead.
"In any case, we can't endanger the queen. We'll have to find another way . . ."
"Wait." A young Roodian stepped forward. "Any other way will take too long. We'll tell you where Morb is."
"Prince Doni, no!" another Roodian exclaimed. "Your mother—"
"My mother would want us to help these people."
The prince squared his tiny shoulders. "She's the bravest person I know.
She would want to defeat Morb, no matter the risk to her own safety."
He snapped his fingers. A piece of parchment appeared in his hand.
"Morb is forcing many of our people to act as his servants, cleaning the lair and preparing food. They drew this map."
"Why would Morb need servants?" Darb wondered.
"He should be able to do that stuff with magic."
"He loves bossing people around," said Perda. "That's probably why."
Wyssa was examining the map. "Thank you," she told the Roodians.
"We'll try to rescue your queen if we can."
Prince Doni nodded his thanks. "But be careful!" he warned.
"The Gray Gorge is a dangerous place."
Zann wasn't worried about danger. He had to find his parents!
"What are we waiting for?" he said. "Let's go!"
Wyssa nodded. "Zap!"
Zann landed with a grunt on hard ground.
Looking up he saw a forbidding stone tower shrouded in ghostly gray fog.
He looked down and realized everyone was standing near the edge of a huge chasm.
It was so deep Zann couldn't see the bottom.
A howling wind whipped in and out of it, pulling in anything it could grab.
"Aah!" Zann cried as he felt himself suddenly losing balance.