CHAPTER 40

“I CALL SHENANIGANS. The power source to keep this cavern warm? Fine. The power source to keep the cavern warm and work the warp tunnel? Okay. The power source for the entire planet? Not buying it.”

“I can,” Lorraine said slowly. “Especially if Chuck’s right—and we know he is—and the core of the planet is loaded with plutonium or uranium or both. I think this is a nuclear generator of some kind.”

Every human, Chuckie included, took a giant step back, and dragged whichever A-C they were closest to back with them.

“Let’s move away from the source that turns people sterile and gives them horrible cancers, shall we?” It was clear I was speaking for everyone other than the girls, Chuckie included.

Claudia pulled out of Randy’s hold. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s shielded. But I think Serene’s right. Good job on pointing out the warmth, Kitty.”

“Wow, always willing to take credit for just saying something randomly that turns out to be right and all that, but radiation isn’t a fun thing, girls.”

“It’s shielded,” Lorraine repeated, patience clearly forced. “Trust us. That’s why we knew not to touch it.”

“Is it a shield you can see?” I really wanted proof. Hey, Chuckie and the flyboys had no regeneration and I knew they all wanted to have kids or more kids, depending, and live long, healthy lives. The rest of us did, too.

“That it’s shielded is something we can derive from a variety of factors,” Serene said. “Chuck, you know it’s shielded, you can do the math, too.”

“I’ll take your word on it,” Chuckie said. “Though the presence of a power source isn’t surprising.”

“Why here?” Jeff asked. “Why this cavern in this area?”

“It’s really cold and deserted in this part of the world,” Claudia said.

“Which would make this cavern more appealing to the life that’s out there,” I pointed out, “not less. Besides, how is it getting power anywhere? Though the stalagmite and stalactite?”

“Yes.” Lorraine sounded extremely pleased with me. “Exactly, Kitty.”

Chose to not share that, once again, I was tossing something out that just happened to be right. I knew when to go on sounding brilliant. “I’m with Jeff, then. Why would someone put the power orb here? Or, rather, why only the one?”

“Well, there could be others,” Serene admitted. “But I think this one is strong enough to cover the entire world, especially if this is truly the only continent.”

“I don’t buy it. I’m going to put forward a theory that the moment we find another cavern like the two we’ve been in already they’ll be in another part of the world and they’ll have both a warp tunnel and a power orb.”

“My bet is at least three power orbs,” Chuckie said. “Because I’m with Kitty—even if one is good enough, whoever put it in place must have put in a backup generator, if you will.”

“And there are seven sections, but the Purple Land is avoided by all for a variety of reasons. Meaning I think the tunnel we just took moved us from Bronze to White Land while avoiding the Purple parts.”

“Yellow is between White and Purple,” Christopher said. “And can we call it something other than the White Land? I feel like you’re telling me I conquered the place or something.”

“Sure. We already have Greenland here, let’s call this place Iceland.”

Chuckie laughed. “The names would be far more accurate here than they are on Earth.”

“Yeah, ’cause we’re not Vikings trying to fool everyone else and keep the good parts for ourselves without having to fight for them.”

Chuckie sighed. “You know that theory has been debunked.”

“Blah, blah, blah.”

“It’s possible that if we can find other caverns and tunnels that those tunnels will go to the Yellow or Purple Lands,” Serene said quickly, probably to forestall a conspiracies theory discussion. “We just have to find them and test.”

“We have hundreds of beings who are now homeless because we had to use their homes to save them and ourselves,” Jeff said sternly. “All the rest of this can wait. We need to determine what we do with and for the Lecanora and their animals before we do anything else.”

A throat cleared behind us and we turned to see King Benny standing there. “The Gods are coming together. There is not one of my people who would wish to be anywhere other than where you are, Leoalla.”

“King Benny, who are these women?” I pointed to the girls.

King Benny smiled at me, teeth showing. Decided it was just how otters smiled. “And still Shealla tests me. They are the Muses of Knowledge, Shealla. They give inspiration for creativity and science, and therefore assist the Gods with creation.”

“Right you are again,” I said cheerfully. “I told the other Gods that King Benny was always right about his God-knowledge.”

He beamed at us while the others all nodded quickly. That was one of the nice things about working with smart people—they tended to catch on quickly.

“What do you call the different lands?” Claudia asked King Benny. Which made me feel bad—because none of us so far had thought to ask.

“They were originally named for the Gods,” he replied.

“Originally?” Chuckie asked.

King Benny nodded. “Our king has demanded the names be changed. But, Shealla, the Giver of Names, is here with us, and whatever Shealla says we should call these lands we will call them. Therefore, we are now in Iceland.” Clearly King Benny had been listening to us for far longer than we’d realized.

“We can discuss these things later,” Jeff said with finality.

“Right, because the issue is how we move everyone,” Jerry said. “Since we had to sacrifice your wagons.”

King Benny shrugged. “They are things. You saved what mattered—the lives. All the lives.” King Benny bowed to us. “That the Gods would risk all to save the least of their creatures proves that the Gods are good and right and their laws are just.”

“Ah, just checking, but you don’t think we created the snakipedes, ah, I mean the Horrors?”

“Oh, no, Shealla. We know that they were created by Zenoca.”

This was a new one. “Just checking, but who do you think Zenoca is?”

King Benny shrugged. Somehow he still had his antlers on and the shrug moved them again in a humorous way. And again I contained the Inner Hyena. Go me. “He is the creator of all that is evil in our world and all others.”

“What does Zenoca look like?” Chuckie asked. “To you, I mean.”

“Zenoca can change his appearance, Alcalla, as I know you well know.”

“Then how do you know that one of us isn’t Zenoca?” Chuckie seemed intent, and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. I just didn’t know why they were so spinning.

“Zenoca always travels with the glittering Jewel of the Gods, which he stole from the First Father of the Gods. The Jewel cannot be hidden from our sight, the First Father of the Gods saw to that.”

And all of a sudden, I knew exactly why Chuckie was on this line of questioning. “King Benny, does Zenoca sometimes appear as a woman?”

“Yes, Shealla. Many times. Zenoca has much guile, and in one of his incarnations he used his influence to create a King of the Clans of our people.”

“Oh?” Jeff asked. “So your people didn’t always have a king?”

“No. We had our own clans and clan leaders, and while we interacted, we didn’t encroach on each other’s ways. But once we were under the rule of the king, we were forced to alter much of our lives.”

“How long ago did this happen?” Christopher asked.

“Two of our years ago.”

“Years are arbitrary,” Claudia said. “On Alpha Four, we counted a year as a revolution around one of the suns, but not both. King Benny, how do you count years here?”

“A full return, Muse. We must travel around both suns before our year is done, so that we honor all the Gods and shirk none.”

Did the math. “So, roughly four years ago for us. And you know who was sneaking around over in this solar system behind our backs at that time?” When I was pregnant with Jamie, and while they were setting up Operation Confusion.

Everyone on my team nodded. “The former Diplomatic Corps,” Christopher snarled.

“Assisted by Ronaldo al Dejahl,” Chuckie added.

“And LaRue, who I believe I’ve mentioned is a shape shifter. In other words, Zenoca is probably her real name.”

“Ronaldo?” King Benny seemed very intent. “That is our king’s name.”

“Really? That seems far too coincidental to me. What clan did he come from?”

King Benny shook his head. “He is not Lecanora. He looks more like all of you, like the Gods. Zenoca was in female form and convinced most of the clan leaders that we needed a strong king to protect us.”

“Protect you from whom?” Jeff asked.

“Threats.” King Benny shook his head. “The biggest threat on our world are the Horrors, and no king can protect us from them, especially one who just sits on his throne and does nothing. Some believe he is a God, but my people, we have seen his true heart, and he is of Zenoca.”

“And,” I said to the others with false cheerfulness, “lucky us, he’s probably also a clone.”