فصل 41

CHAPTER 41

OASIS

THE CARPET WAS DESCENDING—and sagging in the middle—as the starstuff wore off. Behind the carpet, the camel carrying Molly and George was also rapidly losing altitude.

Peter, shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, scanned the horizon. Far in the distance he could see the spires and sprawl of Maknar. Otherwise there was nothing but an endless sea of sand.

Then he spotted it—a patch of green in the vast expanse of desert.

“To the right!” Peter shouted. Holding the edges, he and the other boys leaned right, steering the carpet. They didn’t have quite enough lift to make it to the oasis and came down a bit short. Behind them, the camel—now an experienced flyer—landed without so much as a stumble.

The noonday sun had turned the sand to fire; the boys had not had a drop to drink for hours. So when Peter pointed to the palm trees and said, “Water,” the race was on. In a minute, James, Tubby Ted, Prentiss, and Thomas were plunging their heads into a small pond in the shade of a towering palm.

Peter was thirsty, too, as were George and Molly. But instead of racing to the oasis, the three of them stood in an awkward triangle on the blistering sand. They had not seen each other since London, the day after that terrifying night at Stonehenge. They had much to say to each other, but nobody knew how to start.

Molly broke the silence, stepping forward and giving Peter a hug, which made his face even redder than the sun already had.

“I’m so glad we found you,” she said.

“I’m glad you did, too,” said Peter. “Thanks.” He straightened up, making himself as tall as he could, although he was no longer as tall as Molly, and never would be again.

I’m the one who found you, noted Tink, landing possessively on Peter’s head.

Peter, ignoring her, turned to George. They shook hands awkwardly.

“Thanks to you as well, George,” said Peter.

“It was nothing,” said George.

That’s true, said Tink.

“Be quiet, Tink,” said Peter. He turned back to Molly. “Molly, I’ve so much to tell you. Your father—”

“Where is he?” said Molly.

“In Zarboff’s dungeon,” said Peter. “He was brought in with another man.”

“Bakari,” said Molly, her face falling. “This is awful.”

“It’s worse than you know,” said Peter. “First of all, Ombra is still alive. And he’s here.”

“But how can…”

“I don’t know,” interrupted Peter. “But he’s definitely here, along with others like him, and they’re controlling Zarboff and the Others. They’re after starstuff, Molly, but they don’t just wait for it to fall. They can make it fall. They made it fall last night.”

“The lights in the sky,” said Molly softly.

Peter nodded.

“How did they make it fall?” said George.

“They sent up a rocket,” said Peter.

“A what?” said George.

As George and Molly listened with growing amazement, Peter told them about Viktor Glotz and the huge, monkey-piloted rocket. George had many questions about the rocket, which Peter answered as best he could. When he was finished, Molly said, “So they send up starstuff to bring down more starstuff?”

“Yes,” said Peter. “They call it a…a Disruption. And when they collect the starstuff they’ve just brought down, they plan to send it up in another rocket—they’ve one left—and it will…” He hesitated.

“It will what?” said Molly.

“Glotz said it will change the universe,” said Peter.

“That’s nonsense,” said George.

“Well, it’s what he said,” snapped Peter.

“Then he’s insane,” said George.

“Is he?” said Molly. “Seems to me his plan to make starstuff fall wasn’t insane.”

George reddened. Peter enjoyed that sight, but only for a moment. “Anyway,” Peter said, “whatever they plan to do with the starstuff, they have it now, thanks to me.”

“What do you mean?” said Molly.

“I mean,” said Peter, “I led them right to it.” He told Molly how Zarboff had threatened to kill his mates with the snake if he refused to cooperate. He spoke with his face down, unwilling to look Molly in the eye. When he was finished, she put her hand on his forearm.

“Don’t blame yourself, Peter,” she said softly. “You had no choice.”

Peter nodded. “The odd thing is,” he said, “they knew I would be able to find the starstuff. They—Ombra—brought me here from the island just to find it for them. They said they used my parents for the same thing. I never even knew who my parents were, or whether they were alive. And they were here, Molly!”

Molly and George exchanged a significant look.

“What is it?” said Peter. “Do you know something about my parents?”

“Yes,” said Molly. Peter listened intently, his eyes locked on hers as she told him what she had learned on her trip with George to Oxford—the notices placed in the newspaper by the mysterious Mr. Pan; the disappearance of Pan and his wife at the same time that Peter, as a baby, was placed in St. Norbert’s Home for Wayward Boys.

“Pan,” said Peter. “That’s my name, then? Peter Pan?” Nobody at St. Norbert’s had ever told him that.

“Yes,” said Molly.

“And my father…my parents…they worked with the Starcatchers?”

“Yes,” said Molly again. “They warned us when the starstuff was going to fall. Somehow they could predict it. The Others brought you here because they knew you could, too.”

“But I didn’t predict it,” said Peter. “I only felt it after it fell.”

Molly thought about that for a moment, then said, “Well, somehow you have a special connection to the starstuff, as your parents did.”

“The Others forced my parents to help them,” said Peter bitterly. “And now they’ve forced me to do the same thing. Thanks to me, they have all the starstuff they need for whatever they have planned.”

“This Glotz fellow,” said George. “Did he say when they were going to send up the last rocket and…change the universe?”

“Yes,” said Peter, thinking back. “He said something odd, about a…shower. In two days, he said.”

“The Leonid shower!” said George.

“What’s that?” said Molly.

“A huge meteorite shower,” said George. “It happens only once every thirty-three years. I believe it peaks after only a few nights. That must be when this Glotz fellow intends to send up the rocket.”

“Then we must stop him,” said Molly.

“How?” said Peter.

“First, we must get Father and Bakari out of that dungeon,” said Molly.

“That won’t be easy,” said Peter.

“Well, we must,” said Molly.

She likes to give orders, observed Tink.

“Yes, she does,” agreed Peter.

“What did she say?” Molly asked suspiciously.

“She said you look thirsty,” said Peter. He gestured toward the oasis, with its beckoning pool of shaded water. The three of them began walking that way. Tink, riding on Peter’s head, cocked her head, then took off and flew high into the sky. She returned a minute later, landing on Peter’s shoulder with a brief burst of bells. He nodded to her, then turned back to Molly, who was outlining her plan.

“Before we get to Maknar,” she was saying, “you and the other boys will need robes.”

“We’ve no money to buy them robes,” said George.

“No,” said Peter, “but we have a very fine carpet.” He grinned. “A carpet fit for a king, in fact. I’m sure we could trade it for robes.”

“Who are we going to trade with out here in the middle of the desert?” said George.

“The caravan,” said Peter.

“What caravan?” said George.

“The one on the other side of that dune,” said Peter, “approaching the oasis now.” He winked at Tink.

In half an hour’s time they had traded King Zarboff’s carpet to the caravan merchants for five robes, some bread, and skins for carrying water. It was clear from the eagerness with which the merchants had accepted the trade that the children were getting a terribly unfair bargain, but they were satisfied. And so, as the afternoon sun burned in the desert sky, seven robed figures—and one camel—began trudging across the sand toward the spires of Maknar.