“You bet we want to mute it,” Chip said, peering suddenly over Jonah’s shoulder.
“But then we won’t be able to talk to JB,” Jonah said.
“Exactly,” Chip said.
“No! Wait …,” JB’s voice came from the Elucidator.
Jonah thought about the glowing tracers plunging toward the ground. He thought about how JB had wanted that to be Chip and Alex. He stabbed his finger at the Y.
The Elucidator was just a silent rock in Jonah’s hand.
“So there,” Chip said.
“I thought you were all for fate,” Jonah said. “A few minutes ago you sounded like you were on JB’s side. Like you thought you were supposed to die.”
“Yeah …,” Chip said. His voice trailed off. “I don’t know. It was weird how I felt. But now—”
“Um, guys?” Katherine hissed nervously from across the room. She was still standing by the window, peering out at the men in the courtyard below. “I don’t think we have time to talk about fate and feelings right now.”
Jonah raced over to the window beside her. He looked out cautiously, hunched down so that only his eyes showed over the bottom edge of the window. Down below, he could make out four torches now, flickering in the wind. The men, whoever they were, appeared to have organized search parties. Jonah squinted, trying to make out which of the figures in the courtyard were tracers and which were actual men. But the courtyard was too far away, the light too uncertain.
The first time around, the courtyard probably would have been empty and dark, he thought. Someone would have secretly dragged the bodies away … or left them there to be discovered in the morning. …
He shivered, not wanting to follow those thoughts any further. Two of the torches down below separated from the others. Jonah couldn’t see where they went.
“They wouldn’t come back up here, would they?” Katherine whispered anxiously. Her teeth seemed to be chattering, but Jonah didn’t know if it was from timesickness or fear.
Down below, the men were shouting again.
“Search the chambers!”
Chambers. Chambers were rooms. The chambers would undoubtedly be the rooms the prince and the king had been in. …
Katherine grabbed Jonah’s arm, almost making him drop the Elucidator.
“You’ve got to turn the sound back on,” she said frantically. “JB can tell us what to do. No matter what, he wouldn’t want them to find us.” She choked back a hysterical sob. “We don’t have to listen to him later, but … they’re coming up here now!”
Indeed, Jonah could hear footsteps echoing outside the door, footsteps that sounded like a whole pack of men tromping up the stairs. They weren’t even trying to be quiet.
He crouched down and began stabbing blindly at the Elucidator.
“Where’s the unmute?” he hissed.
Words glowed on the screen: CHANGING MUTE STATUS NOT ALLOWED DURING RESTORATION PROCESS.
“Then, stop restoring!” Alex said over Jonah’s shoulder.
Jonah was glad to have his help.
“Uh … uh,” Jonah stammered, trying to feel for a button on the Elucidator—any button, but preferably one labeled ESCAPE.
RESTORATION CANNOT BE INTERRUPTED appeared the screen.
“Can’t we do anything?” Alex moaned.
DESIRE TO SEE LIST OF ACCEPTABLE ACTIONS DURING RESTORATION PROCESS? Y/N appeared now.
Four kids at once shoved fingers toward the Y. Katherine and Chip were now crouching beside Jonah and Alex, all four of them huddled around the Elucidator.
Jonah could hear the footsteps coming closer. They couldn’t have more than a few seconds before the door would burst open and men with torches would swarm into the room.
Words flooded across the Elucidator screen, moving so quickly that Jonah could barely read them. Or, if he read them, he barely understood. What in the world were “cogency rules”? Or “subtleties of vowel pronunciations”? Why would anyone need “theological arguments” in an emergency like this?
“That one!” Alex said, shoving Jonah’s hand aside so he could press a single word glowing in the long list on the screen. Jonah didn’t even see the word Alex had chosen until Alex pulled his hand back, letting go.
Jonah could hear the footsteps out in the hallway, so close now. He read the word on the Elucidator screen: INVISIBILITY.
NINE
The entire Elucidator instantly disappeared, even though Jonah could still feel its rocklike form in his palm.
“Was that just invisibility for the Elucidator?” Jonah asked. “Or are we all …”
He held his hand up in front of his face. He couldn’t see it, but it was so dark in the room that without the Elucidator’s glow he wouldn’t have been able to see his hand regardless. He thought about standing up, to check in the tiny amount of light coming in through the window. But that didn’t seem like a very intelligent plan with the men’s footfalls sounding just outside the door.
“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Alex groaned. “I just thought—we had to hide the evidence of advanced civilization, even if we can’t save ourselves. …”
“Well, duh! Try to save yourself, too!” Katherine muttered. “Quick! Behind the tapestry!”
Jonah wasn’t really sure what a tapestry was, but his sister was already yanking him up, toward the huge wall hanging beside the window. Okay, tapestry, wall hanging, whatever … His mind didn’t seem capable of cranking out anything but short, jerky thoughts. Behind him he heard Chip whispering, “What about the tapestry?” like Chip hadn’t figured out the plan either. Jonah crammed the Elucidator in his pocket so he’d have a free hand to reach back and grab Chip’s arm.
“This way!” Jonah said, the words barely audible. He pressed in close, into the tight space between the tapestry and the wall, between Katherine and Chip. He hoped that Chip had grabbed Alex, or that Alex was the type of kid who’d taken home ec along with all his science classes. Is home ec where you’d learn about stuff like tapestry?