on an emergency panel. The room went white—except for a rectangular area where the tablet had hung at the far end of the chamber. The water began to drain from the room like when a stopper is pulled in a tub. The flood was being sucked into the rectangular space where the tablet had been.
“Hold on to something—or we’ll be drained away too!” Dylan yelled.
Ines latched onto a door handle, Eli wrapped his arms around a table leg, and Dylan grabbed onto the grand piano. But Emma had been caught by surprise.
“Dylan—help!” she cried.
The water was almost all sucked out of the room. Emma was in a swirling pool being pulled into the portal. “Emma!” yelled Dylan, letting go of the piano and splashing toward her.
Too late—her face disappeared in the deluge and a beastly roar filled the room that sounded like the combination of a breaking dam and an avalanche.
The room was dry now and the tablet had reappeared and swelled to the size of a door. Its flat surface showed the image of rushing water. Emma was gone.
Like most twelve-year-olds, Dylan had gone his whole life without ever seeing magic.
Sure he had observed card tricks, watched palm readings, and a couple times he had seen street magicians performing for spare change. But seeing real magic was completely different—it made special effects in movies seem totally un-special. Real magic is more than an experience for the eyes. True wizardry wakes up the body and puts the senses on notice as they struggle to make sense of what’s going on. All of Dylan’s senses were awake and screaming for explanations, like baseball players shouting at umpires.
“This isn’t happening, right?” Dylan asked Ines. “Tell me this is a prank!”
Ines’s face was flushed.
Eli dragged himself back onto his wheelchair and rolled over to the weird opening. He reached out a hand and when he pulled it back it was dripping water. “The portal—if that’s what to call this—is still open.”
“This is a sick joke,” Dylan cried. “Let’s jump in the portal and find her!”
“Whoa—hold on and think about this,” Ines said, recovering a bit.
“You’re filming this for TV—is that it?” Dylan said.
Ines shook her head. “This is not a TV show. I don’t know where your sister went.”
“Things like this don’t happen in New Rock!” Dylan yelled. “This can’t be real!”
“Maybe we should call the cops,” Ines said. “Or the coast guard.”
“You told us that Xamaica was real!” Eli shouted. “Greatest. Adventure. Ever. Why weren’t you better prepared?”
“This is magic!” Ines shot back. “How can you prepare for that?”
“This isn’t happening!” Dylan moaned. “We’ve got to get my sister—now!”
“This better not be some corporate trick to cheat us from our prize!” Eli added.
“Will you shut up about the prize? This is about my sister!”
“You know how I feel about Emma! I just think the spokesmodel here is hiding something! You can’t trust a corporation, I’m telling you!”
“What about the red-eyed stalker guy?” Dylan asked. “Is he behind this?”
“He couldn’t have gotten by security,” Ines said. “We need help. Call 911!”
“I don’t know if this is a game, a trick, or what, but there’s no time to call anyone,” Dylan said. “We don’t know how long this portal will stay open. This has to be linked to the forty-fourth level. We’re Xamaica’s greatest players. If anyone can find her, it’s us.”
“Let’s do this,” Eli said. “I got your back, Dylan. Another mission for the Game Changers!”
Eli strapped himself securely into his wheelchair and gave Dylan a fist bump.
Ines paused for a moment in thought. “I started this—so I’m going too,” she said at last. “But no group hugs or anything. This bromance thing you guys got going made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.”
“You’ve got an heiress and a paraplegic as bodyguards,” Eli said, putting up the hood of his snuglet. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Dylan wondered about that, and about the wounds on his chest. Maybe something in this game was out to kill him. He didn’t know what it was but he was going to find out very soon. He just hoped he’d find his sister before whatever it was found him. It’s just a game, he thought. I’m not really here. This isn’t happening.
He took a step forward into the portal, Eli and Ines by his side.
The roar of a waterfall filled their ears and they were submerged in liquid and gulping for air. Dylan had a vague sense he was plunging from somewhere high to somewhere down below.
The Professor had once taken Dylan and Emma to Niagara Falls. It wasn’t a vacation or anything, she had a conference and couldn’t afford a babysitter. After about five hours of bird lectures (including a ninety-minute symposium on molting), Emma and Dylan had gotten a chance to see the falls, and heard all about the daredevils who used to go over it in barrels. This was exactly like that only multiplied by skydiving and minus the barrel.
It was dark and they were tumbling down falls stretching from the clouds to the earth.
Suddenly they hit an invisible barrier and stopped falling. They seemed to be on the deck of a ship, but it was like nothing Dylan had ever seen. In fact, he could barely see it. Everything in the vessel was made of glass. But it was more than glass—upon close inspection, the stairs, the deck, everything was composed of some sort of hard crystalline substance that sparkled in the night sky. They were in an almost-invisible sailing ship, several hundred feet long, with a single mast in the center. The sails were made of a material that was lighter than a spider’s web and could scarcely be seen. The sharp smell of citrus fruits and sea salt blew across the deck.
The ship began to drop. Not as quickly as the falls, but fast enough.
Eli gripped the wheels of his chair. “Dude—where are we?”
“No idea—but do you see any sign of my sister on this boat?”
Eli and Ines peered around the deck and Dylan leaned over the ship’s railing. There was a name on the side of the vessel in nearly transparent letters: BLACK STARR.
“The Black Starr—I’ve
