"What?" Perda cried. She stared at the mysterious man. "Morb is your brother?"
"That's why you look familiar," Zann said. "You look kind of like him."
"What were you saying about my brother?" the man demanded.
Zann's heart pounded. What if Morb's brother was just as evil as Morb?
What if Morb had sent him to capture the kids?
"None of your business," Zann blurted out.
He grabbed Darb with one hand and Gliss with the other, hoping that Perda saw what he was doing. "Zap!"
Splash! They landed in a courtyard fountain just inside one of the palace entrances.
Several guards hurried toward them. "Where did you kids zap from?" the biggest guard demanded.
"The use of magic within palace walls is forbidden without permission!"
Zann stepped out of the fountain. "Since when?"
"Since yesterday." The guard narrowed his eyes. "Who are you anyway? You look familiar."
"Nobody," Zann said quickly. "We were just trying to leave."
The guard snapped his fingers, and the Directory appeared.
A second later he was reading Zann's page. "Oh, I see," the guard said.
"Your parents and grandfather are in the dungeon. Maybe we should take you there as well."
Zann gulped. He tried to figure out how they could escape.
At that moment Morb's brother zapped into view nearby.
"It's all right," he told the guard in a stern voice.
"These rascals slipped away from me, but it won't happen again."
"They're with you, Maff?" The guard sounded surprised.
"Yes. Laddno wishes to speak with them." Maff rubbed his hands together.
Magical shackles appeared around the kids' arms. "Thanks for catching them for me."
"Hey!" Perda cried.
"But . . ." The guard sounded slightly suspicious.
"That will be all, sir." Maff turned away. "Come, all four of you. It's this way."
Zann didn't trust Morb's brother, but he didn't want to end up in the dungeon either.
So he followed Maff out of the courtyard, pulling his friends along.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Perda whispered. "What if he's working with his brother?"
Zann wondered the same thing. "Are you really taking us to see Laddno?" he asked Maff.
Maff glanced at him. "Of course not. I hold no loyalty to that bully.
He's as crooked as the Wormwood tree itself."
"What do you mean?" Gliss said. "He's running for King of Magica."
"Yes, and we can only hope that Venna crushes him in the election," Maff said grimly.
"Who knows what Laddno has in mind for Magica if he's elected.
His entire business empire is based on shady deals and black market goods, mostly from other worlds."
"Really?" Perda's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"
"I have my ways," Maff said. "I found out Laddno provided several of the items my brother used in his evil contraptions."
"I thought Wyssa brought Morb all that stuff from other worlds," Zann said.
"She brought most of it," Maff said. "But there were a few things that even she wasn't willing to help Morb with."
"Wow." Zann was stunned. He hadn't paid much attention to Laddno, or worried much about the election either.
But now it sounded as if Laddno was really bad news!
Then again, how could he be sure that Maff was telling the truth? After all, he was Morb's brother.
"If you're not taking us to Laddno, where are you taking us?" Darb asked.
"Wherever the guards won't find you," Maff replied.
"If they dump you in the dungeon, you won't be able to tell me why you were talking about my brother just now."
Zann traded a look with his friends. Perda was frowning.
"We're not going to tell you anything while you're holding us prisoner," she said.
"What?" Maff blinked and then glanced at the magical shackles still holding the kids together.
"Oh, the Shackle spell. Sorry, I only conjured that to trick those guards.
If I release you, will you promise not to zap away again?"
"We won't promise you anything!" Gliss cried.
Maff grinned and snapped his fingers.
Zann braced himself for some horrible new spell to hit them. Instead the shackles disappeared.
Perda rubbed her arm where the shackles had been. "I thought you'd only release us if we talked."
"I'm not my brother," Maff said.
"I hope you'll tell me what I want to know. If not, I'll still help you escape."
"Really?" Perda shot Zann an uncertain glance.
Zann wasn't sure what to say. He was surprised that Maff had released them before getting what he wanted.
That wasn't a very Morb-like thing to do. Maybe Maff wasn't much like his brother after all.
"Come in here." Maff stepped into a nearby room. "We should stay out of sight."
Zann hesitated. Then he shrugged and followed Maff into the room.
"We might as well trust him," he told his friends. "Maybe he can help us free my parents and the others."
"Okay." Perda still sounded uncertain. "So should we tell him about, you know, Morb?"
"Please do," Maff urged. "Then I'll tell you what I know."
"Okay." Zann took a deep breath.
"It started several days ago. I thought I was receiving a Red Share . . ."
He went on to tell Maff the whole story, with his friends chiming in now and then.
Maff looked more and more alarmed. When he heard that Morb seemed to have magic power again, his eyes widened.
And when the kids described how Morb had grabbed the guidelink and disappeared into the vortex, Maff went pale.
"This is terrible!" Maff exclaimed.
"We didn't mean to release Morb," Gliss said.
"He tricked us," Perda added.
"I know." Maff nodded wearily. "You kids shouldn't blame yourselves. This is all my fault!"