As the door through which Adri had gone clicked shut, I turned toward the other kids: Esme, who’d taught me everything I knew about memory-work and respecting the minds of others; Bogle with his genius ability to invent almost anything from what people might call scraps; Shui Li and his power to move water with nothing but his will; Martí’s ability to transform into any kind of insect; and of course, Luna, light-carrier and leader.
I tried to find the words to tell them what I saw in each of them, how powerful they were and would become. Somehow, I knew deep-down that the Council couldn’t control or contain them for long.
I tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. 293
“Don’t cry,” Esme came to my rescue with a small sparkle in her eyes, “I have a feeling I’ll see you again someday.”
“Yes,” Luna vowed, eyes burning into mine, “We will. And when we do, don’t think I’ll forget what you did.”
Despite her threats, it was all I could do to keep from giving her and Esme a huge hug.
Yara gave us a piercing look. I wondered if she was remembering her own sister and how the Council had forced her to say goodbye.
“Alright, alright,” Cap’n Peg cut in, clearing her throat, and tapping an imaginary watch. “Enough chit-chat! Stay strong eh Girlie,” she encouraged me with a surprisingly warm, spidery grin.
My fellow-warriors and lost friends spun on their heels to go, marching after Cap’n Peg’s hologram.
“Come with me,” Yara growled in my direction.
“Will I ever see them again?” I asked.
Yara gave me a strange look and one tap of her bejewelled nails, “That’s up to the Council, but …” her voice dropped below a whisper, “my sister Kala always used to say, “Love is the key.””
Suddenly, I remembered the key she’d secretly 294slipped me, back when we first met at the Big House. I still had it in my right pocket.
I looked around wildly. If there was a key, there had to be a door. Clearly, there was something more at work.
“Stop!” I shouted.
I had seen something.
“You, Cap’n Peg, Yara, everyone. Stop!” I interrupted their trek to the dorms.
“Let me tell you what’s about to happen.” The shock on their faces was priceless. “You’re going to back away, Yara. Or I’m going to tell Cap’n Peg and the Council everything!”
“What …?” Cap’n Peg spluttered. “Girlie, you gone mad?”
Yara moved away slowly as I pulled the dragon-shaped key out of my pocket.
There, on the wall, was a bit of fretwork that matched its shape.
Cap’n Peg gasped. “How did you get that?”
“Back away,” I warned Yara. “And not a move from you Cap’n Peg.”
The other kids looked completely confused. Luna stared at me like I was unhinged and a traitor. 295
I held the key up and pointed to the spot on the fretwork that matched it. That spot started to glow bright gold.
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I was right. It was a keyhole.
“So, listen up,” I announced. “I’m going to use this key and every single one of us kids is going to walk out of here.”
Luna’s eyes lit up when she saw the golden shape of a door forming in the wall around the dragon-shaped keyhole.
Esme bit back a sob of relief.
“I knew it!” Kendi gave her a huge hug.
“Zeen …” Bogle laughed.
“Now we’re talking,” Shui Li pumped his fist.
Marti grinned, “You heard the girl. ¡Vámonos!”
They all rushed up to me and the new door.
“Fools!” Yara fell back with a burning smile on her face. “You have no idea where this leads!”
Since she was the one who had secretly given me the key, I guessed that she was just acting.
Cap’n Peg, however, looked distraught.
“Um, listen, Girlie,” she stammered. “Zo. Friend. This is not it, okay? This is not the door you want 296to go through.” Her voice trembled, giving me pause.
I looked around at the others, then nodded, “Let’s go,” and moved the key toward the lock.
“Wait!” Cap’n Peg squealed. “I’m getting a message.”
Her hologram turned around as if listening.
“Okay. Okay. Your Eminence-ness. Of course. A grave breach … Me? I have no idea. I would never, your High-ness-nest. Never! But yes, of course, of course. Whatever you say.”
Yara stayed still as a statue, on the other side of the corridor. So, who was Cap’n Peg talking to? And were they going to try to stop us?
With a click, I put the key into the lock.
“Stop! Please, Girlie,” Cap’n Peg begged. “There’s no need for that. The Council has made an unprecedented decision.”
She tried to smile but ended up shivering nervously.
“You can go back to your family as discussed. And your little friends here, can go anywhere they choose.”
“New York!” Kendi piped up softly. “I always wanted to go there.”
Bogle patted him on the shoulder. “Lil’ man might be right. Is a hard place to find people still. Might be jus’ what we need.” 297
Luna and all of us looked at each other. Was the Council telling the truth? I kept my hand on the key and turned it slightly in the lock.
“Please!” Cap’n Peg moaned. “Believe me.”
“I want to see,” I said firmly, not moving.
“Headmistress!” Cap’n Peg signalled Yara, who sullenly bent her neck closer to the Dragon Door behind us: the one that Adri had gone through.
The golden collar around her neck beeped and the door opened to reveal a crowd packed in front of what looked like a New York City subway line. Their backs were to us, and no one seemed to notice we were there. A sign on the wall said: ‘Times Square’.
I could hear the rumble and roar of a train approaching.
Esme, Luna, and the others hesitated, on the lookout for some kind of trap. I kept my hand on the key in the other door.
“This is your chance,” Cap’n Peg croaked, flapping her robotic leg. “Go!”
“One thing first!” Luna ordered.
Then she gave me a huge hug.
All the kids laughed as I reeled from shock.
“Bet you weren’t expecting that,” Esme grinned, 298giving me one of her own.
“Okay all! Hold hands,” Bogle advised.
They did, as each looked back to give me one last smile.
“Thank you!” Kendi sang sweetly.
They paused for a second then sprinted forward through the door just as the train pulled in.
“Her too,” I demanded.
“Who?” Cap’n Peg’s one good eye bulged out of her head.
I pointed at Yara.
She was the one, after all, who had given me the key and a way out. Now she stared at me with what looked like surprise and a hint of joy.
“Do it. Now!” I yelled at Cap’n Peg’s hologram. “Or I’ll open this door.”
I hoped that whoever she was communicating with could hear me. I turned the key in the lock.
“Fine! Fine!” Cap’n Peg screeched, huddling and whispering with the person or people off-screen. “Duly noted. Remote authorisation approved!”
With a ‘click’ the golden band fell off Yara’s neck, falling with a thud to the ground. There was a mark where it had clenched her throat. She had been 299their prisoner too.
Fire and wind filled Yara’s eyes as they met mine. She was herself again: fierce and wild.
“Well done Zo …” she offered with a lightning smile. “Orevwa, daughter of Sekou.”
An electric jolt ran through me.
“Wait!” I called, “How do you know my Da?”
But she was already gone. As the train took off, she flew through the Dragon Door and disappeared into the tunnel, in the opposite direction.
From inside the subway tunnel, a powerful wind blew and shut the door with a bang.
“Happy?” Cap’n Peg croaked.
“Yes, in fact. I am.” I smiled.
“Now you have to go home chile,” the spider shared gently. “Your family is waiting for you.”
Cap’n Peg ignored the locked door at which I was standing with the key, as if by avoiding it she could make it go away.
Instead, she inched past me and clicked the Dragon Door open once more. This time, instead of the New York subway, it revealed my room back at the house on Monos island.
Ms. K thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. 300
The sharp, sweet smell of cedar reached out to greet me. The gleaming wooden room, with billowing white curtains like sails, still looked like the inside of a ship.
Where would it take me next?
“Ready to give me the key, Girlie?” Cap’n Peg reached out her robotic arm.
“Almost,” I assured her. “Once I’m in, safely. For now, you just stay back please.”
“Okay, okay Missie,” she obeyed.
As I stepped through the Dragon Door to my old life, I held on to the key to the door I hadn’t opened. What was so powerful and dangerous behind it that the Council had been willing to cut loose everyone I wanted released?
I fiddled with the key in my hand, as Cap’n Peg kept her distance. She watched me with concern and pride on her face.
“But Girlie, you not easy …” she noted with a rueful smile. “Small, but mighty!”
“You too!” I waved at Cap’n Peg, tipping an imaginary beret … Who knew what stories she could tell?
I pictured everyone I had grown to love. At least, 301now, they were free … So was I.
Thanks to the memory-work Esme had taught me, I didn’t have to be afraid of a hug. My gift no longer controlled me. A big grin crossed my face thinking about the long squeeze I would give Mum and then Da when I saw them again. I couldn’t even wait to see Jake and Tayo.
Wherever I went, I would carry them with me. And I would always find my way back. I didn’t feel lost, and I wasn’t alone.
It was time to open a new door.