I spend the next few hours desperately trying to get the talisman to work. There are no numbers or dials or symbols to give me any indication of how to make it connect to the person I want to call. I try pressing the center stone as if it were a button, I try rubbing it like a genie’s lamp, I try holding it up and saying, “Call Haden,” as if it operated like Siri on my phone. I try holding it in my hands and thinking of Haden. I try picturing him with my mind’s eye until my heart begins to ache with longing.
I contemplate waiting for Shady to return so I can ask him if he knows how to use this thing—but I then I realize that he may have no idea what he’s given me. As far as he knows, it’s just a medallion on a chain—a pretty gift for his queen—and not a communications device. Since he is trying to keep me captive here, it wouldn’t make sense for him to give it to me otherwise. If I dare ask him about it, he might take it away—and then I would have no chance of making contact with the mortal realm.
“Call Haden,” I say to the talisman again.
Nothing.
“Call Haden,” I say louder and clearer. Crap, maybe it only understands Greek? I remember the Lesser boy telling me that I was speaking perfect Greek, but I have no idea how I’d done it . . .
Was it the same with Shady? Was he speaking English or was I speaking . . . um . . . Shadese? And how?
I concentrate on the idea that I can speak Greek and then practically shout, “Call Haden!” at the medallion.
It sits as dark and cold as ever in my open hands.
Tears flood my eyes and I am about to toss it aside in frustration in favor of eating a few turnips for dinner . . . when the idea of turnips makes me remember something. The talisman Haden has doesn’t belong to him. It had belonged to Simon. Haden found it after Simon’s death, hidden in a bag of rotten turnips in Simon’s fridge . . .
I clutch my talisman tightly in my hands and try a new tactic.
“Communicate with Simon’s talisman,” I say to it.
Half a second later the talisman lights up with a faint green glow. It pulses brighter and brighter, as if to indicate that the connection is growing stronger. I laugh with joy, holding the talisman out in front of me. It’s working! I can’t believe it’s working!
Now all I need is for someone on the other line to answer . . .