Alana’s eyes frantically swept the space. “I blew it. We can go back the way we came, or…Wait! I think”—she started climbing over the rails toward another alcove—“there’s another gateway over here.”
Perfect! Forget getting killed by an evil god. I was going to get crushed by a racing bobsled.
“Hurry.” Ren tugged on my arm. “Before we get arrested by Disney policía!”
“Disneyland has cops?” Louie asked as we hopped the rails. “You think they wear Mickey ears?”
“You’re not helping,” I said.
“Think hot cave this time, with a seven-foot landing,” Louie said. “And don’t think about—”
Alana shot him a glare. “I got this, Louie.”
We joined hands, waiting for Alana to take the first step. When she did and we plunged into the gateway, all I could think was Please, Alana, don’t throw us into an avalanche of knives.
We hurtled through the air for 2.3 seconds. Yes, I counted them.
“AAAAHHHHHH!” That was Louie.
In a fierce gust of wind, we were whooshed out of the portal and dropped onto the floor of a cave. The air was thick and hot, barely tolerable. I peered across the dark watery world.
Alana gripped my hand tighter. “Are we…?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “You aren’t going to believe this.”
I raised Fuego over my head. Its blue light cast an eerie glow across the cave.
“Whoa!” my friends said on a long breath.
We stood on a barely there ledge mere inches away from a steaming pool where thick, towering white crystals grew in every direction. They poked out of the water like giant icicles or massive iridescent tree trunks that had fallen all slanted and skewed.
“They look like shimmering dinosaur bones,” Ren said, rotating her arm like she had a kink in a muscle.
Louie said, “This reminds me of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Did you ever see the movie where—”
“Louie,” Alana wheezed, “just turn down the heat!”
Pressing his mouth into a tight line, Louie rolled up his sleeves. “I kinda need inspiration.”
“Like what?” I asked, already feeling light-headed from the 99 percent humidity.
“BOO!” Alana leaped at Louie, who startled so bad he would’ve gone over the edge if I hadn’t grabbed his arm.
“Not cool, Alana!” he said with a scowl.
Snowflakes began descending from the cave ceiling.
“But you are, Louie!” Alana said, side-hugging him.
He grunted in surprise.
I nodded my agreement, totally grateful that we weren’t going to get cooked. The snow fell thicker and faster, and the temperature plummeted. The water below us froze with a crackkksss shppplitzzz.
“Seriously, that’s so, so amazing, Louie,” Ren said, blinking snow off her lashes. Then she turned to me. “You should use the sunglasses, Zane. You never know when a god’s help could come in handy.”
I’d almost forgotten about them between Disneyland and Venus turned North Pole.
As soon as I put them on, the world tilted. I saw purple and silver flashes, like a strobe light. An image of Itzamna burst out of one of the sparks, and it was like he was standing right in front of me. Well, more like his face was floating right in front of me. The image looked like a selfie, with the god’s hair blowing in the wind as he smiled wide for the camera. When I lifted the glasses off my nose, no Itzamna.
“Are we going to FaceTime or not?” Itzamna said with a voice as clear as if he was standing right next to me.
“I can hear him!” Louie said. Ren and Alana nodded that they could, too.
“FaceTime?” I asked. Gods did FaceTime?
“Move your head to the right,” the god said. “I can only see what you can. Ah, yes. I remember this cave—I think I held a New Year’s party there back in 300. Or was it 400?”
“Itzamna!” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me you could turn into a dragon?”
“I did! Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said? Dragon is my most powerful incarnation.”
“But I thought you didn’t have much power left,” I argued.
“Are things okay at SHIHOM?” Ren butted in.
“No demons yet. The magic is holding for now.”
“Why don’t you sound worried?” Alana asked. “Like before?”
“Oh, let me explain,” he said. “I am a segment of Itzamna’s consciousness—not the god in his glorious totality. Do you understand?”
“Uh-huh,” I muttered. The gods were pros at splitting themselves into pieces so they could be in more than one place at a time. It was pretty weird. But we didn’t have time for chitchat. “What should we do next?” I asked, wondering if I was going to have to look at his floating face for the entire quest.
“How should I know?”
I was about to argue that he was an all-seeing god when Ren’s left arm jerked up over her head in a spastic sort of way.
“Do you have a question?” Louie asked. “Like, how do I make it snow?”
“I didn’t raise my hand,” Ren said, her eyes wide as her arm continued to waggle over her head like she was a marionette whose strings had been pulled. A bright light pulsed from the watch on her left wrist as a single strand of gold, no longer than four inches, peeled away from the band and hovered in midair.
“Uh, Ren?” I said, staring at the suspended strand.
She followed my gaze and gasped, struggling in vain to bring her arm back to her side. “It’s a piece of the time rope,” she said. “But why is it loose?” She grabbed the end closest to her with her upraised hand, and it stuck fast to her palm.
“It isn’t loose now,” said Louie. “I think it likes you.”
Ren still couldn’t lower her arm, and the string started pulling her forward.
“It’s leading us somewhere,” Alana said, pointing.
“Probably to our deaths.” Louie groaned.
We all stared in awe as the gold string stretched longer and longer, floating across the ice, weaving between the crystal towers.
“Follow the gold!” Itzamna commanded.
“Right,” I grumbled. “Great idea.”
We stepped onto the ice and trailed the gold thread as it zigged and zagged, snaking up some of the massive quartz formations like it was sniffing them out before dropping down in front of us again.
“It’s looking for K’iin,” Ren whispered.
“No,” Itzamna said in a hushed voice. “They’re looking for each other.”
“How do you know?” Louie asked.
“Because the watch was made with pieces of the time rope,” the god said. “And K’iin is made of the same threads. They’re like magnets trying to connect.” He sighed appreciatively. “I must hand it to Pacific—she’s quite ingenious.”
Ren’s expression brightened.
White puffs streamed from our mouths as we stalked the now nearly ten-foot-long gold thread. It stopped and hovered over the ice before it slipped out of Ren’s grasp. It formed a hoop that floated down to the surface we were standing on.