Rescued by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page B

because the royal family spoke it sometimes.
    Not surprisingly, they hadn’t taught him the word for “treason.”
    â€œLeonid, it’s not JB’s fault,” Anastasia said. “He’s not being mean. Time travel messes up everything.”
    â€œBut remember, all of us would be dead if it weren’t for time travel,” Chip said. He glanced at his girlfriend, with her tangled crown of blond hair. “Well, except for Katherine. She’s the only one of us who was safe in her own native time.”
    Leonid did not want to talk about death. He looked around the blank, bland room. Somehow it seemed well lit, even though he could see no sign of any light fixtures.
    Maybe there were other things here he couldn’t see?
    â€œShow me the kitchen, and I will make us all a meal,” he said. “It’s time to eat.”
    Leonid had no idea what time it was. It had been the middle of the night when he’d sneaked down into the basement to look for Alexei. Since then, there’d been so many gunshots and so much zooming back and forth through time—surely it was long past time for breakfast.
    Katherine giggled, a startlingly girlish sound.
    â€œThere’s no kitchen here,” she said. “There’s no time, either. And as long as we’re here, we’ll never get hungry or thirsty. That’s how time hollows work.”
    Leonid could not imagine not being hungry. His uncle had always been a little vague about exactly when Leonid was born, but the royal cook, Ivan Kharitonov, said it was clear Leonid was somewhere in his teen years by the way Leonid could eat and eat and eat, and then be hungry five minutes later.
    But—this was odd—Leonid actually didn’t feel any hunger pangs right now. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t felt hungry.
    Before Ekaterinburg, before Tobolsk . . . probably when the tsar was still in power? he thought.
    â€œWounds can’t heal in a time hollow either,” Chip said, as if he was trying hard to make sure Leonid understood. “That’s why Alexei and Jonah have to be treated in a hospital in the future, apart from us, while we’re all waiting here.”
    Katherine raised one of her elbows, as if showing it off.
    â€œI’m just lucky the future medicine could cure my broken arm so quickly, and I didn’t have to stay in the hospital too,” she said.
    Leonid had not even known about Katherine’s broken arm. There’d been so much danger, pain, and death in the basement they’d all left, it was impossible to keep track of everyone’s wounds.
    JB slid the item that might be an Elucidator into his pocket.
    â€œI have to go straighten some things out,” he said. “The five of you will be perfectly safe here. Chip and Katherine, can you take care of everyone? And, um, be careful about how much you reveal. We’re still double-checking the best placement for Maria and Leonid. What if we’re wrong about everything working out for them to go to the twenty-first century with the rest of you?”
    Anastasia put her arm around Maria’s shoulder.
    â€œMaria goes to the exact same time period as me!” she cried. “She’s my sister! She’s the only sister I have left!”
    Because Olga and Tatiana are dead , Leonid thought with an ache.
    He could barely allow himself to think the names of the two grand duchesses no one had been able to rescue. They’d died alongside the tsar and the tsarina and the cook and the doctor and the maid and the valet. . . .
    Stop! he told himself. Stop!
    â€œAnd Leonid—Leonid was almost like a brother to Alexei,” Anastasia continued. “They need each other!”
    Leonid never would have claimed such a relationship.
    â€œDaniella,” JB said with a grimace, using Anastasia’s other name. “We’re doing our best. But . . . original time was not kind to your family. Or to