Page 12 of Search for the Lost

“Oh yes.” Aspin set his bag on the ground and carefully pulled out the box containing the Thing. He removed the lid and set it down in front of Treebark. “I found this on the bed of the Queen of the Fae, who has gone missing. I took it to Crispin, and”—he gestured at Crispin and Leo—“this happened. They changed places, somehow.”

Treebark limped forward and sniffed at the Thing, which was now definitely silver or possibly gold, and was sloshing around in its box like milk and was as hard as a piece of obsidian glass.

“How do we find the queen? And how do we switch ourselves back?” Leo’s forlorn look broke Crispin’s heart. “This Freaky Friday thing isn’t nearly as fun as Jamie Lee Curtis made it seem.”

“Put that away!” Treebark’s voice descended into the lower notes again, and Crispin took an involuntary step back at the power of the Oracle’s voice.

Aspin rushed to comply, scooping up the box and dumping it into his pack.

Treebark put his tiny arms on his hips. “In order to find your mother and undo the curse, you must complete your quest. It will take you through places darker than a Batman film and scarier than a night at the Ombrokuh Frissan on Thauria. Only then will you be restored to your true states.”

Crispin frowned. Oh yay, another quest. He’d rather be home eating crumpets. Maybe Agnes had made a fresh batch⁠—

This time it took a slap to his own cheek to bring himself out of it.

“Okaaaaay.” Leo’s brow was furrowed in that adorable way of his, when he understood what was necessary but really did not want to understand. It looked out of place on his Crispin face. “So what do we actually… do?”

It was a fair question.

Treebark raised his arms and the whole room shivered. “You must start on Hades. Find the one who stole the Great Acorn from the Oracle.” Flames licked the walls, and the room started to spin.

“Hades? You mean like Hell?” Leo’s hands were shaking again.

The grand old squirrel’s white ears flicked with annoyance. “Good luck, and good riddance.”

A hot wind scalded Crispin’s cheek.

Cypher chose that moment to fling open the door and was sucked into the flaming whirlwind that engulfed them all.

Crispin tried to scream, but the air was ripped out of his lungs as the world went black.

When he woke—seconds or maybe days later, who could tell?—he found himself lying on a pile of… something. It was soft, but sharp on his hands. It smelled like dandelions and piwati manure. It’s like the Thing, writ large.

He’d never heard of Hades. Which in and of itself was strange. He thought he’d been to every one of the Connected Worlds at least once.

He sat up carefully, checking to make sure nothing was broken. Minkis was nibbling at a piece of the landscape. “Tastes good. And bad.”

Next to him, Leo, Aspin, and Cypher were all shaking their heads, looking about, and trying to make sense of the place they now found themselves.

“Leo, ask Thea to tell us where we are.” He was afraid he knew the answer, but there was no sense borrowing trouble until he knew for sure.

Leo pulled out the personal assistant, and in a trembling voice asked, “Thea, what is this place?”

“Just a sec, boss. My dragon friend and I just got disconnected….” There was a long pause, and then Thea whistled.

“What is it?” Leo glanced nervously at Crispin, who took his hand.

“We’re not in Kansas anymore, boss. Whatever this is, it’s not one of the Connected Worlds.”

Oh crap. Not again. They were on another uncharted world.

How are we ever going to get home?

4

Leopold

Since meeting Crispin, Leo had been to some weird places. Like, for instance, the purple world where he and Crispin had turned into some kind of deer creatures. To be honest, Leo had been to some damned strange places even back before he knew how complicated the universe was. Once, he was supposed to catch a train in Bakersfield but a semi full of ripe tomatoes had overturned on the tracks, delaying everything, so he’d wandered into a nearby gas station in search of snacks. When nature called and he went to use the men’s room, he’d nearly fallen into a deep, dark pit that smelled like matches. When he went to report it to the salesclerk, she had suspiciously glowing red eyes, and Leo had high-tailed it back to the train station instead.