"What are you talking about, Zann?" Perda demanded.
"How could Ello send you a Red Share?
He's not a Red—he's not even from Magica!"
Zann could hardly hear her over the noise of the rally.
"Let's go back to my house!" he shouted. He grabbed his friends. "Zap!"
Zann's house was a mess from the party.
When the kids arrived, Zing was standing on a table eating some leftover snacks.
He zipped over to Zann, chattering angrily and shooting flames.
"Sorry, boy." Darb patted the dragon. "We didn't mean to leave you behind."
Zann rubbed his fingers together and then pointed at some cups on the table. Poof! They disappeared.
Perda and Gliss magically cleaned crumbs off the floor as Zann removed the decorations from the walls. Soon the house was clean.
Remembering Ello's terrified face, Zann looked at his friends. "We have to help Ello."
Gliss sat down. "Tell us what you saw, Zann."
Zann described the mysterious Share as carefully as he could.
By the time he was finished, his friends looked worried and confused.
"Why would Ello still be trapped on Skellia?" Gliss said.
"Wyssa promised to get the Skellian people to safety on another world."
"But she was going to get rid of Morb first," Perda said.
"Maybe he did something to her before she could save the Skellian people."
Zann shook his head. "I doubt it. Wyssa is pretty strong, and Morb had no magic at all when they left."
"Yeah," Gliss said. "But Wyssa was really angry and focused on Morb.
Do you think she forgot about Skellia?"
"Maybe we can contact her and ask," Darb suggested.
He was sitting with Zing curled on his lap.
Perda wrinkled her nose. "Contact her? How? She could be anywhere in the known worlds."
"Or the unknown ones," Gliss said. "She seemed to know about worlds nobody else knew about."
Zann felt impatient. "I think Ello's in trouble.
We don't have time to try to track down Wyssa," he said.
"That will take too long—especially if she doesn't want to be found."
"Good point." Perda nodded. "So what should we do?"
Zann paced back and forth across the room. "I'm not sure."
Darb looked thoughtful. "I wonder how Ello got a mental message through to Zann.
I thought the Skellians had weak magic.
That's why they couldn't escape when the waters started rising, remember?"
"It was because of the gulpers too," Perda said.
"But never mind how Ello sent the message.
The important thing is that he needs our help."
Zann stopped pacing. "Maybe we can ask my parents to—"
A crackle of magic interrupted him. Boz, Saffa, Teplo, and Zann's parents appeared in the room.
They paid no attention to the kids.
"What are we going to do?" Asta rubbed her head.
"This is a disaster!" Teplo exclaimed.
The other adults started talking too. Zann hurried over and tapped his dad's arm.
"We have to tell you about something," Zann said.
"Remember that weird Red Share I had?"
"Not now, son," Nax said before Zann could continue.
"We need to figure out how to deal with what the king and queen just did."
Zann had almost forgotten about the king and queen's announcement.
"Their resignation is effective immediately," Boz told the kids, shaking his head so hard that his long nose swayed back and forth.
"And they've already gone into hiding."
Saffa nodded. "They refuse to communicate with anyone."
"That's weird," Perda said.
"Yes." Teplo rubbed his chin. "Worse yet, there's been no final decision on how to handle the relics."
"That's what the meeting was about earlier today," Asta told the kids.
"The king and queen wanted us to stop cataloging the relics until a new vote takes place."
"They didn't explain why," Saffa said. "Do you think they already knew then that they were going to resign tonight?"
"Listen," Zann said. "You have to hear what I—"
"Laddno isn't giving us much time to figure things out," Nax said to the other adults.
"Laddno?" Perda chimed in. "How is he involved?"
"He's already calling for an election to replace the king and queen," Teplo explained.
"Lots of people seem to agree that it should happen as soon as possible," Asta added.
"Many believe that the Red Council shouldn't be in charge of the election this time."
"What?" Gliss blurted out. "But the Red Council always runs elections!"
Zann was surprised. "Venna isn't going to like this," he said.
"Venna has already announced her candidacy," Saffa told him.
"She'll win easily, especially if nobody runs against her."
"That's fine," Boz said. "We should start preparing to help her."
Zann traded a look with his friends. This was all big news.
But they could worry about it later. Right now they needed to help Ello.
"Okay," he said to the adults. "But I was about to tell you—"
Once again the room crackled with magic.
This time Venna appeared, her face nearly as red as her hair.
"You'll never believe who just announced he's running against me," she said. "Laddno!"
All the adults gasped.
"What?" Asta cried. "He's not the least bit qualified to lead Magica.
He's never been involved in the government before.
The only thing he's done is run a business."
"I know," Venna said grimly. "I've already called an emergency meeting of the Council."
"What are we waiting for?" Boz rubbed his fingers together. "Let's go!"
Zap!
"Now what are we going to do?" Zann said after the adults had all zapped away. "Ello needs our help!"
Perda shrugged. "It's simple. If the adults can't help us rescue him, we'll just have to do it ourselves."