Zann and his friends stood silently for a moment. Perda was the first to speak.
"We just rescued Morb!" she cried.
"But how is he even still alive?" Darb blurted out. "Wyssa said . . ."
"And how did he get enough magic to send Zann those messages?" Gliss said.
"Or do that Masking spell? Or even make the houseboat?"
"Never mind all that," Zann said. "We have to get back to Magica and warn everyone!"
"How?" Gliss glanced toward the wormhole. "We don't have the guidelink to help us anymore."
Zann realized she was right. He gulped. Still, they had no choice.
"We'll get home," he said, trying to sound confident.
"Now let's get out of here. This world is freezing."
They shackled themselves together and returned to the vortex.
"Now what?" Darb asked.
"Let's just check every wormhole we pass," Perda said. "We have to pass Magica eventually."
Each time they passed a wormhole, they grabbed the edge and looked in.
First they saw a world with grass taller than their heads.
Another world had three white suns shining over pale yellow trees.
The next wormhole revealed a world with thick purple fog.
Finally they reached a wormhole with a view of a beautiful spired city.
"That looks like Pax," Perda said.
Zann remembered the pleasant world they'd visited before.
"Let's stop here for a while. We can regain our strength before continuing."
Pax was just as nice as Zann remembered, but it was hard to enjoy it when they were so anxious about finding their way home.
As soon as they'd rested enough, the group returned to the vortex.
After that, Zann lost track of how many worlds they passed. But none of them was Magica.
When they came to another world they recognized, called Gabble, they stopped to rest again. Then they continued on.
More worlds followed—worlds with blue suns, polka-dotted trees, odd-looking creatures. None looked anything like Magica.
Zann felt his magical energy faltering again.
"We need to stop for another rest," he said. "Here's a wormhole—" He froze with fear.
"It's Fardark!" Perda cried.
Zann pushed himself away from the wormhole, and again everyone tumbled through the vortex.
"We definitely don't want to stop there," he said. "We'll try the next world."
But they recognized the next world too.
"Ugh," Gliss said. "It's that weird place where nasty dragons are in charge."
"Drac," Darb added. "We can't stop here either."
"Okay." Zann felt exhausted. "We can't go much longer without a rest though."
The next wormhole revealed a bustling city.
People hurried along, carrying shopping bags or talking with friends.
A trio of small boys kicked a ball in the street.
"This one looks okay." Perda sounded tired.
Zann started to pull himself through.
"No!" Darb cried. "It's the no-magic world! Remember our last stop here?
We won't be able to open the wormhole once it closes."
Zann looked more closely, wondering how Darb had recognized it.
"How do you know it's the no-magic world?"
Darb pointed. "That black-and-white ball. It's just like the one we saw last time."
Zann hesitated. The ball did look the same.
But lots of objects ended up traveling from one world to another.
"We can't risk it," Gliss said.
Zann knew his friends were right. "Okay, let's keep going.
But whatever world we come to next, we're going to have to stop. No matter what."
When the next wormhole came into view, Zann took a deep breath and pulled himself and his friends through.
They landed on a gnarly tree root.
Zann sat up and looked around. When he spotted several tiny houses, he felt a surge of hope.
"We're in Rood!" Gliss cried. "Hooray!"
Zann's friends talked excitedly. But Zann was too relieved to speak.
Rood had once been known as World X.
It was the only world where the outgoing wormholes led directly into other worlds, bypassing the vortex entirely.
Morb had come here to try to take over all the known worlds, but Zann and his friends had stopped him.
"We got lucky," Darb said.
Perda nodded. "All we have to do is find the queen of Rood.
She can find a wormhole back to Magica!
Then we can warn everyone about Morb!"
A short while later, the kids stood before the tiny Queen of Rood.
"I'm so glad your travels brought you back to Rood," the queen said.
"I've been hoping to thank you again for ridding my peaceful world of Morb's evil influence."
Zann looked down and so did his friends.
Nobody wanted to tell the queen that they'd just accidentally released Morb!
"Um, thanks," Zann said. "We were happy to do it."
The queen smiled up at them as she summoned a wormhole with a wave of her hand.
She waved again, and the wormhole spun open.
"This wormhole will take you directly into the palace in First City," the queen said.
Zann and his friends thanked the queen and then stepped through the wormhole.
They emerged into a shadowy corner of the palace throne room.
The scene there was chaotic. People hurried back and forth, shouting frantically.
For a second Zann wasn't sure what was happening.
He spotted his parents and Boz. Near them were Venna, Teplo, and Gliss' uncle, Gar.
"This is an outrage!" Boz shouted. He hadn't noticed the kids in the corner.
Zann gasped as he realized his grandfather was immobilized by magical shackles. So were his parents and Teplo.
"I'm sorry, sir." A palace guard stepped toward the shackled adults. Several other guards followed.
"We're going to have to lock the four of you in the dungeon until we get to the bottom of things."