Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Author:Margaret Peterson Haddix
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

TWENTY-ONE

They decided to wait until dark to leave the crypt. It seemed safer that way, even though Alex figured out how to make them all invisible again.

Oddly, that was just about all they could figure out about the Elucidator. None of them could get the Elucidator to show the long list of choices they’d seen before. No matter how much they poked, prodded, pressed, rubbed, turned, tossed, or even shouted at it, the Elucidator’s screen showed only one option: INVISIBILITY? Y/N.

“Maybe it caught a computer virus, going through time?” Alex suggested, his voice thick with frustration.

“Or maybe it’s still broken from Chip throwing it at the ground,” Katherine said.

“It said the restoration was complete,” Chip argued.

“At least the invisibility works,” Jonah said, trying to calm everyone down. He amused himself by pressing the Y, then the spot on the screen where the N had been, when it was visible. Then Y again. . . . He could feel himself turning invisible, then visible, then invisible.

“Stop that!” Katherine said. “Now you’re going to break it!” She swallowed hard. “And . . . turning invisible, going back and forth—that makes me feel sick.”

“Really?” Jonah asked. He resisted the urge to hit N again, just to show her that he could.

“Timesickness, remember?” Katherine said. It was dark enough in the crypt that Jonah couldn’t be entirely sure, but he thought he saw her stick out her tongue at him. She went on in a scolding tone, “And what if there’s a limit to the number of times we can become invisible? What if you run down the batteries—or whatever that runs on—and then it doesn’t work when we need it to?”

“Stupid thing doesn’t work very well anyhow,” Alex muttered, taking the Elucidator from Jonah, turning it upside down, and shaking it. He turned it over once more—the screen still said, INVISIBILITY? Y/N.

“Maybe you’re just doing it wrong,” Chip said, jerking the Elucidator away. “Let me try.”

Pizza, Jonah thought. If we just had a big pizza in front of us, this wouldn’t seem like such a big problem. Or a big bowl of spaghetti. Or lasagna.

Maybe his true identity, whatever it was, had something to do with Italy, since all he could think about was Italian food?

Alex was yanking the Elucidator back away from Chip.

“Oh, no,” he said. “You’ll just end up throwing it on the floor again.”

“Stop it!” Katherine said. “Stop fighting! If we’ve got any hope of getting out of this place, we’ll all have to work together.”

“Fighting? Who’s fighting?” Chip said.

“Squabbling, then,” Katherine said. “You know what I mean.”

“We’re in the fifteenth century. In 1483 even squabbling involves bows and arrows or giant spears,” Chip said harshly.

“Or lances,” Alex said.

“Swords,” Chip said.

“Battering rams,” Alex said.

“You’re not making me feel any better about the fifteenth century,” Katherine said.

Alex stopped shaking the Elucidator for a moment.

“The funny thing is, I remember being really happy here,” he said softly.

“Me too,” Chip said. “Everybody at Ludlow Castle was always pretty nice to me.”

“Well, duh,” Jonah said.

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