17

PUZZLE PIECE

That’s it,” said Toby. “The rest of the pages are missing.”

“We need to go back to the desert temple. I bet that voice we heard was Oliver,” Harriet said.

She closed her eyes, but it was hard to sleep. There was so much to do tomorrow.

When they woke, the gang put on armor and made their way to the desert temple.

They stood in the temple and listened for the faint cry they had heard the day before, and they also kept an eye out for Julian and the man in the black helmet—Ezra.

They walked down the stairs and could hear the voice more clearly. “It sounds like the person is trapped in a room underneath the desert temple,” said Harriet.

The gang got out their pickaxes and began to dig a hole on the bottom floor of the temple.

“Do you see anything?” asked Jack.

“Not yet,” said Toby.

But then Harriet shouted out, “I found a stronghold!”

The group was about to open the door to the stronghold, when they heard a voice behind them.

“What did you find?”

Harriet whipped around and saw Julian standing by the wall.

“It looks like a stronghold,” said Jack.

Harriet shot Jack a dirty look.

Ezra entered the desert temple. “Did you say a stronghold?”

“Yes.” Jack looked down at the door. The sound of the voice called out again and this time it was much louder.

“Oliver, is that you?” shouted Julian.

“Julian!” the voice shouted gleefully. “Save me!”

Harriet, Toby, Jack, Julian, and Ezra stormed into the stronghold, and rushed to free Oliver.

They raced through a series of tunnels until they reached a door. Toby tried to open it.

“It’s blocked.” He looked at the others.

Oliver was calling from the other side of the door. “Break a hole in the wall. Do you have a pickaxe?”

The gang took out their pickaxes and began to break down the door and the wall. Oliver crawled through the hole. “Julian!”

They hugged. Julian was happy to see his old friend.

“Where’s William?” Oliver looked at the group.

“We don’t know,” said Julian. “It took us years to find you. We thought this temple was empty.”

“We need to find William.” Oliver began to pace nervously. “I hope Charles didn’t destroy him.”

“But we thought Charles was destroyed,” said Ezra.

“No,” said Oliver, “he’s the one who trapped me down here. This is his stronghold. We should probably try and make our way out of here. We don’t want him finding us.”

“Too late!” a voice called from the dark hallway.

“It’s six against one! You don’t have a chance. But we’re not going to fight you anymore,” Julian shouted. “We’re going to tell the Overworld how you trapped a world-famous explorer and they will deal with you.”

“They’ll never find me.” Charles splashed a potion of invisibility on himself and disappeared.

“Do you think he trapped William, too?” asked Oliver.

Harriet and her friends stood beside him, in awe. They couldn’t believe they were actually meeting the famous explorer who had created most of the maps of the Overworld.

“The Overworld is going to be so excited when they find out you are alive,” said Harriet. “People have been talking about your disappearance forever. There will be parades and many celebrations.”

Oliver looked at Harriet. “I can’t celebrate until we bring William home. I have to hope that he isn’t destroyed and Charles has him trapped somewhere in the Overworld. And it’s my mission to find him.”

Julian and Ezra vowed to join Oliver in his quest to find William. “I don’t know where he is, but I will help you,” said Julian. “I will never forgive myself for selfishly choosing to travel to the End, and leaving both you and William. I spent my life living with that regret and I will do anything to help find William.”

“Thank you.” Oliver smiled at his old friend.

Harriet and her friends also wanted to continue their search for William. “We’ve been searching for both of you all this time,” said Harriet. “We would like to continue our search.”

“And,” Jack added, “we have a copy of William’s first journal.”

Toby said quickly, “It’s what led us to you. But we finished it and we reached you, but it doesn’t say anything about William.”

“There are some pages missing,” said Harriet.

Julian pulled the second journal from his inventory. From it, he pulled the missing pages. “I thought this book was a hoax, but I started to read it last night and I think I have to share these with you. I believe it can help us find William.”

The group crowded around Julian as he read the loose pages.