Ben the Dragonborn by Dianne E Astle Page B

invisible if I were you. I think everyone is asleep, but it is better to be safe than sorry,” Jared said.  
    A faint glow shone on the eastern horizon with the promise of a new day.  One moon hung low in the western sky, the other had disappeared.  Jared pushed the boat away from the lily pad and rowed it out into open water where he untied the sail and rigged it out.  He took hold of the tiller as a stiff breeze caught the sail.    
    “I figured you were around somewhere,” Jared said.  “I tried really hard to get that fish off the pad before the others came.  It wouldn’t budge. I pushed with all my strength.  Couldn’t figure out how it got so much easier until I thought about how you disappeared from sight right in front of the whole council. Then I realized you must have been pushing that fish alongside me. I’d sure like you to teach me how to be invisible.”  
    “I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s something you can teach.”
    “Yeah…it figures.  It’s a pity though. Where we are going it would help to be invisible.”
    “And where’s that?”   
    “Spencer Island.  It is where the tregs nest.  And from all accounts there are other dangers besides the tregs.  People almost never go to Spencer Island and when they do they almost never return.”   
    “And you want to go there?”
    “I have to.  That’s where my brother is and he needs my help if he’s going to come home again.   I told the council that and they didn’t believe me, just like they didn’t believe you when you said you were sent to find the crown.  I’m not sure I believe you either.  Why would anyone send a kid like you to do such a dangerous job?”
    Ben bristled a little at being called a kid by someone just a bit older than he was.  Finally he said, “I don’t know.  It doesn’t make sense to me either.” 
    “Who sent you?”
    “My school principal, Miss Templeton, but she really did not want to send me, someone called the Guardian told her to do it.” 
    “The Guardian?” 
    “The Guardian is someone or something who watches over six worlds that are somehow linked together. There are doors between the worlds and people like Miss Templeton on Earth and Lea Waterborn on Lushaka train people to send though those doors to other worlds to do the work of this Guardian.”
    “Which is?”
    “Peace, justice, help for people in trouble…I guess.  At least that is what I’ve been able to pick up in the past two days.” 
    Jared snorted and then laughed out loud, “That’s an unbelievable story.” 
    “Yeah,” Ben said.  “I wouldn’t believe it either, but here I am, in a world not my own.  I tried to convince myself it was a nightmare I’m having trouble waking up from. Perhaps it is.”
    Ben was silent for several minutes as he thought about all that had happened to him in the past two days.  Finally he spoke, “Your brother is on Spencer Island?” 
    “My brother and five others are missing.  Four weeks ago three of our bravest and best went out after that crown. They never returned. Six days ago another group of three went out including my older brother Gill.  I wanted to go, but they wouldn’t have me. They said I was too young.  Every day that Gill has been gone I have felt dread grow in me.  Somehow, I know he can't come back unless I help him.” 
    “Six days isn’t that long to be gone,” Ben said.  “He might be on his way back already.”
    “He isn’t.  Like I said, I can’t explain it, but I just know that my brother is in trouble, and unless I go help him he will not come home ever.  I don’t know how I know this.  I just do.  Every day this feeling that my brother’s life depends on me grows stronger.  The council is debating whether to send another group of three.  By the time they finish debating my brother will be dead and the war will have begun in earnest.”
    Ben was silent as he thought about Jared’s words.  Then he said, “If