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“Enough of the crazy talk,” Clement chided Violet.

“If Ash were here, he’d fix everything,” Violet said. “We must find him.”

“My soldiers are still searching for him,” Lucienne said.

“We can’t thank you enough, Queen Lucienne.” Clement dabbed at her tears, pausing. “What if you find my son, and he’s . . . he’s—” she forced the words out. “What if he’s cursed?”

“Mrs. Fury!” Violet looked shocked. “Ash is your son!”

“I mean . . .” Clement looked ashamed at first, then said heatedly. “Of course Ash is my son!”

A buzz shot through Lucienne’s head as she caught Clement’s fading secret. Clement wasn’t Ashburn’s mother! And none of the natives were Ashburn’s parents. Unknown to the islanders, the boy was actually the first outsider.

“I only wanted to know if . . . if Queen Lucienne has a cure if Ash is—” She looked at Lucienne with sad anticipation.

“Of course, Mrs. Fury,” Lucienne said. “We have a cure.”

“The gods be blessed!” Peder rose to his feet, wringing his hands.

“But Ashburn must come to my world for the cure,” Lucienne said.

Ashburn’s parents froze. “But we’ve never been to the outside,” Peder said. “It’s forbidden for citizens to—”

“What are you afraid of?” Violet cut in. “Ash was trying to find a path out.”

“Violet!” Clement said. “You can’t say things like that. If the neighbors hear that, they’ll report to the king.”

“Right now, the most important thing is to find your son.” Lucienne stopped the argument. “I need to know more about him to find out where he might have gone.”

“He’s a very sweet boy,” said Peder, choked with emotion.

“It was so hard to watch him be bound to that chair while the other boys ran around free.” added Clement, dabbing her tears.

She regarded her son as a liability, Lucienne thought.

“Why is he called ‘Ashburn the Extra’? Does it have something to do with his birth?” Lucienne asked. If Ashburn was the one who activated the Eye of Time, then his genetic code may be the key to solving part of the puzzle .

The Furys’ faces went very pale. “After Ash was born, no boys have been born into the kingdom. Only girls,” Clement said.

Lucienne swooped into Clement’s mind. A wave of nausea came to her.

The intensity of the mindreading was burning her energy quickly.

She withdrew as soon as she got what she needed.

Only it was no help at all. Ashburn’s heritage was as complete a mystery to his adopted parents as it was to her.

Who was this Ashburn? Lucienne narrowed her eyes.

Clement looked at Lucienne nervously.

She thinks I’m judging her son the way her neighbors do. “Your son is a special boy,” Lucienne said, “and you must know that he didn’t cause this misfortune in Nirvana.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling everyone,” Violet said. “Don’t blame Ash just because their bellies can’t produce boys!”

“Mrs. Fury, if you don’t mind, I’d like to see Ashburn’s room. Every little clue helps,” Lucienne said.

Clement nodded and led Lucienne to her son’s bedroom, but Violet put a hand on Lucienne’s arm. “If you want clues, you should see the basement instead.”

Clement immediately protested in the local dialect; Violet argued back. Lucienne, who didn’t understand a word, also didn’t have time to wait for them to resolve their disagreement. “I’d like to see the basement first.”

As Lucienne and her team followed Violet down a ramp toward the basement, she realized that the track was built for Ashburn’s wheelchair.

Violet stopped at the door. “After you, Queen Lucienne.”

Sensing a trick, Lucienne smiled. “No. After you, the guide.”

With a shrug, Violet eased the door open, entered the basement, and pressed a series of symbols on a glass box on the wall near the door.

A red light inside the box turned blue .

This farm boy invented a keypad system? Lucienne thought, as she stole a quick glance at the electronic toys packed on low shelves.

Many of the innovations must be disguised weaponry.

She had seen how the Screamer had disabled her and her men.

She suspected that if she had entered the room first, she’d have been a target of the redhead’s amusement.

Lucienne followed Violet into the room. The floor was made of ceramic tile. The air smelled of pinewood and machine oil. Random tools hung on the wall.

“What’s that?” cried Ziyi, scurrying toward a redwood workshop table in the center of the basement. On it rest a thin, flat screen made of three crystal pieces—each the size of an iPhone. Texts and numbers pulsed on the screen.

“Don’t touch it! That’s Ash’s Picture Box,” Violet warned, rushing toward Ziyi. But the Chinese girl was faster—her fingers brushed across the screen, for the fun of it.

A three-dimensional, holographic city of gold and diamonds materialized, half of it floating outside of the crystal.

“The river flowing around the city is made of gems,” Ziyi gasped.

“Ash said it’s the City of Gods,” Violet said.

Eterne? Lucienne’s heart raced, then she noticed that the city’s golden gate was double-locked. The sparkling display that had stunned them was only the city walls.

“Perhaps Ashburn went to the City of Gods?” Lucienne said, testing Violet.

Violet laughed. “It’s a game Ash liked to play. That’s all.”

“Get us into the city, Ziyi,” Lucienne said. “Let’s play this game.”

“I was born for this.” Ziyi grinned, but before she could touch the screen again, the crystal piece turned off by itself.

Violet’s laughter died. She bumped Ziyi aside.

“Excuse me!” Ziyi called indignantly.

“You shouldn’t have touched it in the first place!” Violet snatched the crystal from the table. “The Picture Box only obeys Ash. ”

“Violet,” Clement said, “do not be rude to Queen Lucienne’s servant in my house!”

Ziyi glanced at Clement, then at Lucienne, pink-faced. Vladimir chuckled.

“Ziyi isn’t my servant, Mrs. Fury,” Lucienne said. “She’s my good friend. They all are.”

Violet turned the crystal piece over in her hand, but it remained transparent. “You’ve ruined it!” she said in tears. “Ash will be upset.”

“It’s an interface,” Ziyi said. “I can make it work again.” She pulled out a laptop from her computer case and booted it up.

Violet stared at the computer. “Is this a Picture Box, too?”

“It’s the best quantum beta,” Ziyi said with pride, “with class-one encryption software.” Her fingers danced over the keyboards.

A few minutes later, Ziyi’s face turned red as a tomato. “Luxianna,” she called Lucienne’s Chinese name and continued in Chinese, “I can’t get in. I think his interface might be beyond our technology. It doesn’t even need a power source.”

Violet’s green eyes travelled between Lucienne and Ziyi with suspicion.

“We need to take it to our lab,” Vladimir said.

“No one is taking Ash’s Picture Box!” Violet said, her eyes darting toward the shelves. Lucienne knew Violet was looking for a weapon. She’d have no trouble pinning the redhead down if she lunged for one.

“It’s only a silly toy Ash is obsessed with. My wife and I disapproved of him playing with it all the time,” Peder said. “So if Queen Lucienne wants it, then she’ll have it.”

“Mr. Fury,” Violet protested, “you don’t understand—”

“This toy might contain the only clue that will lead to your son,” Lucienne told Clement and Peder. “We’ll borrow it for a few days only. I can leave my gold watch here until I return. ”

“You don’t need to leave your watch, Queen Lucienne,” Clement said. “Please take the toy with you. I insist. It’s our honor that you take it.”

“You’ve been looking for our son,” Peder said. “We can never repay you.”

“I’m glad to help,” Lucienne said in her silvery voice.

Violet bit her lip.

Ziyi was quick to gather the interface and load it inside her computer case. Then she stuck her tongue out at Violet.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Fury,” said Lucienne. “I think it’s best if King Henry doesn’t know any of this. You can tell him I used strong spells on you and your memory was a blur after that.”

Lucienne, Vladimir, and Ziyi returned to Sphinxes later that day.

Kian stayed behind, tasked with overseeing the operation in Hell Gate and the search for Ashburn.

His team set up temporary generators and basic electricity for the natives and provided them with clothes and food to help them get through the winter.

A month later, Kian came to Lucienne. “We’ve searched all the islands of Alaska. I also paid a visit to the Aleutian inhabitants. That boy isn’t among them. It’s wasting our resources to continue looking for him.”

Vladimir sided with Kian.

“But he couldn’t have just vanished from the planet if he’s the one who holds the covenant key. Unless—” Lucienne’s eyes widened in realization “—he has jumped to a quantum plane.”

“Quantum or not, I’ll order the team to retreat in a week,” Kian said.

From Sphinxes, Lucienne watched Nirvana turn bleaker every day. And Ashburn’s fate remained unknown.