Sofia stood on a slippery slope of rust-colored sand, squinting in the brilliant sunlight at the small, iron chair that stood rigid on top of the dune as if held in place by magic. She’d stood up and gotten away from it the second she’d winked there, not wanting someone else to come through and squish her.
Tick showed up a minute later, an instantaneous appearance that shocked her even though she’d been expecting it. There was no effect—no smoke, no sound. One moment the chair was empty. The next, it wasn’t. Tick’s face looked like he’d just bungee-jumped off the world’s tallest bridge.
“What took you so long? Hurry. Get up,” Sofia said, slipping in the sand as she stepped forward to help him, sliding down the steep dune. The hot sand seemed to find its way through every teeny hole of her clothes and scratch at her skin.
Tick didn’t answer, but stood up and was making his way down the loose sand to Sofia when Paul appeared, a small cut on his right cheek.
“Dang thing got me,” he said, wiping the blood away with his fingers. “Couple more seconds and I’d be . . .”
He trailed off, looking around him with huge eyes.
With her friends safe, Sofia finally had a chance to take a good look at their surroundings as well.
They stood in the middle of an enormous desert, an endless sea of dunes stretching for miles in every direction. The white-hot sun blazed down so the distant horizons shimmered in a wavering haze. The only thing breaking the monotony of sand was a large, shiny pipeline about a half-mile away. The tube of opaque glass sat above ground, at least twenty feet in diameter, and ran from one direction to the other for as far as Sofia could see.
“Where are we?” Paul asked. “And what is that?” He motioned to the giant pipe.
“Looks like a huge straw,” Tick said. “Maybe a giant sand monster dropped it.”
Sofia ignored them and started walking toward the glass structure. Her heart hammered in her chest, a rise of panic as she thought about their situation. They’d just barely escaped a horrible metallic spider and now they were stuck in the middle of a scorching desert. Anger at Master George rose in her as well. How can he waste our time with this? What if we’d been killed? But deep inside, she didn’t think it was him. Something had gone wrong.
“Wait!” Paul called from behind her. “Where’s Sally?”
Sofia stopped; she’d completely forgotten about the odd man. She turned and said, “Maybe he didn’t want to follow us.”
Paul was standing on the dune next to the chair, looking around. “No way—he winked away before we did.”
“Yeah,” Tick said, also searching. “He went right after you.”
Sofia felt a disorienting chill in her gut. “Well . . . he never showed up here. I’ve been watching the chair since I winked in.”
Paul stumbled through the soft sand to stand next to Sofia; Tick joined them as well. Both of the boys had baffled looks on their faces, still glancing at the chair now and then as if expecting Sally to show up.
“You’re sure he didn’t wink in?” Paul asked.
Sofia rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m sure. Where would he possibly hide?”
“Dude,” Paul whispered, and that one word summed up how they all felt.
“What could’ve happened to him?” Tick asked. “Why would we wink here and not him? And what was up with him poking me in the ear?” He rubbed at the side of his head.
“What?” Sofia asked.
“Right before he winked away,” Tick explained, “he acted all weird and slammed his finger into my ear. It hurt, too. Then he sat down and disappeared.”
“He slammed his finger into your ear?” Sofia repeated. “While a giant spider monster was trying to kill you?” It was such a bizarre thing, she couldn’t believe she’d heard him correctly.
Tick shrugged. “Don’t ask me—maybe he went crazy from the panic.”
“What if he’s in trouble?” Paul asked. “I like him—we need to help him. Even if he did try to stab you in the brain.”
Sofia felt the same sadness at Sally’s disappearance. He’d been so humble and sincere; there was just something likable about him. But she also knew that standing there waiting on a nice sunburn wouldn’t help anybody.
“Not much we can do,” she said. “Someone must’ve sent us here for a reason. Let’s go check out that glass thing.” She pointed at the tube that looked like a giant crystal worm stretching into the distant horizon.
“What if Sally shows up and we’re not here?” Paul said.
“He’s an adult,” Tick said. “He can take care of himself or come find us. I agree with Sofia—we should see what that thing is.”
Sofia started walking again. “Come on, then.”
Paul and Tick joined her, all of them marching as best they could up and down the slippery, hot dunes.