Page 96 of Search for the Lost

Dietrich must have thought so too because he looked up from his breakfast, but when Leo stared him down with a Chaos Glare—there ought to be a little ™ after that, Leo decided—Dietrich turned his attention back to his pancakes.

After a moment, Dorothy turned around. Her hands were soapy and she looked deeply unhappy. “Okay, I’ll tell you. But it’s super risky. You need to be careful.”

“Careful is my middle name,” Leo lied. It was actually Lucky—his parents’ misguided attempt to ward off his innate Chaos nature—and was something he hadn’t even told Crispin.

But until recently, careful might as well have been Crispin’s middle name. He’d changed over the course of their quest. He took risks now. He was willing to make a small mess when necessary. He took charge of situations. Oh man, he was so sexy. Leo wanted very badly for this quest to end so he and Crispin could have some private time.

Oblivious to Leo’s inner turmoil, Dorothy nodded. “All right. She’s at the center. In the cyclone.”

A short while later, Leo and Crispin were up in the air again, in a Luft that Dorothy had summoned for them. Aspin and Minkis were with them, but Dietrich had remained behind to help Dorothy with the Duke disposal, and Myra stayed to help nurse Cypher back to health. Leo had noticed the secretive glances between Cypher and the organic farm owner. Maybe there was something there? Time will tell.

The WOLFs stayed on the farm too, which was pretty good because the balloon basket would have been really cramped with them in it. Leo missed them, though. They’d given him slobbery kisses and a nice farewell howl.

The daytime view from high in the air was pretty at first, but after a while Leo got bored with looking down at the green patchwork of farmland. He sat down inside the basket, his knees drawn to his chest, and thought about their recent adventures. He wasn’t usually a thinking-about-things type of guy, but if Crispin could experience personal growth, maybe Leo could too.

Aspin and Minkis were sitting too, Minkis in Aspin’s lap and both of them quickly falling asleep.

Eventually Crispin sat beside Leo. “Are you all right?”

“You’re the one who got sliced.”

“I heal quickly.” Crispin bashed his unwounded shoulder into Leo’s. “What’s up? If you’re worried that reuniting with Mother means I’ll give you up, don’t be. I don’t care how difficult she is—I choose you.”

Leo smiled. “I know.” And he did know, with one hundred percent confidence. “I was just thinking about… home.” That was the theme of Oz, of course, and they’d been living a very Ozian life lately.

“Which home?” Crispin sounded hesitant. “If you don’t like the treehouse, we can⁠—”

“The treehouse is great. I was just…. When I was born—or created, or whatever—your mother sent me to Earth One. You told me that was to keep everyone safe, because my chaos magick would be muted here.”

“Yes, I think that’s so.” Crispin cocked his head. “Does that trouble you?”

“No, I totally get it. But the Dukes, they apparently dragged your mother here too. Or maybe she came here on her own and they kidnapped her. Plus, even when we were questing in other worlds, we kept getting caught up in childhood stories from Earth One. Why does this place seem so prominent? And not, say, Fromlith the Giant’s purple place, or the world with the carnivorous moths, or even Juzir’s version of Earth?”

Crispin seemed to think for a moment. “These are excellent questions. But I don’t know the answer.”

Leo scratched his chin. “Maybe it’s because⁠—”

The basket bumped gently onto the ground. They’d arrived.

The Luft drifted away as soon as everyone disembarked, which left Leo wondering how they were going to get out of this place when they were done. A problem for later.

They all stood, looking around, although there wasn’t a whole lot to look at. They were in the middle of a street with crumbling asphalt, and the old brick buildings on either side were boarded up, the signs fading, hanging crookedly, or missing altogether. A faded mural on the side of one building depicted a field of sunflowers with the words Damascus, Kansas: The Center of It All!

There were no people in sight.

Their little party walked a couple of blocks, at which point the commercial buildings gave way to small white houses, each on a large lot overgrown with weeds and tall grass. Rusted pickups were parked in front of a few of the houses. They passed a long, low structure that must once have been a school, and then a wooden church with peeling paint and a collapsed steeple.

“This is creepy,” Aspin said quietly.

He was right, but it was also sort of interesting. Leo used to sometimes watch videos of urban explorers who went poking around abandoned buildings, and he’d always been intrigued at the way that entropy gradually took over these spaces. Maybe it was due to his Chaos essence that disorder was fascinating to him.

But Aspin clearly didn’t share these feelings, and Crispin looked a little uneasy too. “It’s a ghost town,” Leo explained.

Aspin looked wildly around. “Ghosts! I don’t like⁠—”

“No actual ghosts.” Leo chuckled. “It’s just a term meaning a human settlement that’s been abandoned for some reason. There are lots of them in California, mostly old mining towns that went bust when the mines played out.”

“Was there a mine here?” Crispin asked.