she smiled. "it couldn't hurt. foreseeances are tricky things. i never place much stock in them myself."

"but you're the one who foresaw this crap storm!" my forehead wrinkled with consternation.

she smiled. "as my mentor beulah used to tell me, 'honey, you're having an episode'." she perfectly mimicked the genteel accent of a southern belle with the last bit, laughing afterward. "what a character."

"wait a minute-are you talking about beulah t. atkinson?" her name was on the list of foreseers underborn had given me. most of them were listed as dead. beulah remained one of the few living ones, as far as i knew.

"she came down here to mentor me once i discovered my sensitivity to future shock."

this woman might have answers. better yet, she might have insight into the mysterious sentences underborn had given me. it might be worth hanging out a little longer if i could get more info. but first, i had to call dad and the others. right after the meeting.

i decided to wait before pummeling bella with more questions, instead watching her greet the people piling in, each one giving me curious looks, and some hanging around behind bella. maybe they wanted a chance to speak with me, or maybe they were just sizing me up. bella looked around the room and motioned for me to take a seat next to her. an older man closed the front door and stood with his back to it.

bella stood and smiled. "welcome council and citizens. we have long guarded el dorado, the dark city of shadows, and hidden its terrible truths and secrets. over eighteen years ago, i foresaw the coming of a tattered young man from the dead city. though my words were mysterious, we now have hope of discovering the deeper meaning behind this mystery."

as she continued to speak, i looked around the room and noticed a smattering of ethnicities. though the majority of people looked hispanic, this place was obviously a hub for arcanes from all over the world. it also explained why she spoke in english.

"justin," bella said, turning to me, "would you enlighten us on this foreseeance four-three-one-one alejandro told me about?"

great. as if explaining it all over again was going to help. but i forged ahead anyway, going so far as to pull the papers out of my backpack and reading back the few mysterious snippets of 4311 underborn had managed to recover. i read each one as the audience dutifully took notes, making me feel like oprah winfrey giving diet tips.

after an hour of discussion, the council was no closer to deciphering the foreseeance than i was. though my internal clock was painfully aware of each passing minute and desperately eager to be on the road, another part of me realized getting this information out there was exactly what i needed. there had to be some geeky arcane with the answer. and the other side-whoever they were-wouldn't be able to suppress the information any longer.

"it is a shame this foreseeance was blockaded by the enemies of truth," bella told me after she called for a break so everyone could stretch their legs. "for so many foreseers to have had a similar vision, the upcoming event must be catastrophic indeed."

"didn't you have your foreseeance about me around the same time as forty-three eleven?"

"if underborn's dates are correct, it would appear my foreseeance occurred on almost the same day."

"when you say 'occurred', do you mean you can't control this prophecy stuff?"

she smiled. "there are very few who can activate foresight, and even fewer still who can control it enough to see farther than a day or two ahead."

"isn't there a way to re-see the thing?"

she tapped a finger on her chin. "what an interesting question. one of the major theories of foresight is the ripple event, which theorizes a major event in the timeline will cause ripples traveling not only into the future, but into the past as well, like a stone in a lake. when a ripple washes over our present, it triggers a foreseeance. for something so far into the future to trigger a ripple reaching back almost two decades, it must be the metaphorical equivalent of a boulder in a lake."

"but if it already happened in the future, can it be changed?"

"there are entire courses on that very question. i happen to agree with the corollary, which states such a ripple is only a potential event as two opposing paths in our present converge. others argue there is no such thing as free will and our destiny is written in stone, much like oedipus."

"remind me never to take those courses," i said, pressing a hand to my forehead to ward off a headache. "for one thing, your ripple theory doesn't explain how you knew i'd show up in your town. it's not like i rode in bareback on a dragon, and nothing exploded when i got here either. so the boulder in the lake theory doesn't hold water. on the other hand, i sure hope we do have free will because killing my dad and marrying my mom doesn't appeal to me in the slightest."

a cute laugh tinkled from her throat. "dragon riding and explosions are not the only sorts of major events, young man. the mere fact you survived and arrived here is obviously of great import and my physical nearness to the future event is probably why i alone experienced it."

"will you stop calling me a young man? i know you're older than you look, but it's kind of creepy when a cute girl is talking like an old lady."

another giggle escaped her lips. "i know, i know. i suppose living so long will do such things to your perspective even if the same person stares back at me in the mirror every day."

i smiled, hoping my comment hadn't come across as too harsh. "look, i'm smart enough to realize helping you guys decipher this stuff will help all of us, so i'm willing to stay longer. but i absolutely have to call my dad and girlfriend and let them know i'm okay. can alejandro take me outside town so i can use his cellphone?"

bella raised an eyebrow. "there's no need." she reached inside a large, very pink hello kitty purse under her chair and pulled out a phone wrapped in a hello kitty case. i wondered if she wore hello kitty underwear like elyssa. she pressed the top edge of the phone and an orange logo appeared onscreen. with a swipe of her thumb, the virtual orange peeled naked and the home page of her smartphone appeared. the signal strength boasted two solid bars.

"how in the world do you get a signal?"

"magical signals are stronger out here, even if we are miles from the powerful ley lines beneath el dorado."

"and i can call a nom phone with this?"

"of course!" her eyes sparkled with amusement. "arcphones are far more versatile than what the noms inaccurately refer to as smartphones."

pulling out my cell phone, i scrolled through and found elyssa's number. my memory had gone soft relying on a contact list. i dialed her number. less than a second later, a 'service disconnected' message responded. fear clenched my stomach. i dialed dad's cell number. his voice mail answered immediately, short and to the point: "leave a message."

i almost hung up, but decided leaving a message was the smart thing to do. "dad, i wanted to let you know i'm fine, but i'm stuck in colombia in a small town near el dorado. please call me back at this number when you get this message." i recited bella's number.

scrolling through my contacts, i found shelton's number and dialed. his returned a 'service disconnected' and suspicion crept into my mind. then again, maybe shelton had changed numbers after the messes i'd dragged him through. i didn't have smith's number because he didn't have one. i called his sister, felicia, but reached voice mail. since she was back with maximus, supposedly undercover, i decided leaving a message wasn't a good idea. stacey didn't have a cell phone, and i didn't know ryland's number. calling katie wouldn't help. she might know about the overworld now, but drawing her into my affairs would only get her killed. both ash and nyte, my friends from normal high school, remained blissfully unaware of the supernatural world, and i wanted it to stay that way. i was out of options. my last fragile hope rested on dad hearing his message.

"any luck?" bella asked as i handed the phone back to her.

i shook my head. "no. i'm really worried."

she rested a hand on my elbow and gave me a reassuring smile. "look, i have a little secret which may help once we're done here."

"oh?"

she leaned over and whispered, "i have a flying rug."

my eyelids sprang wide open. "you mean a flying carpet?"

"rug, carpet, beach towel-really, what's the difference?"

"and you'll take me for a magic carpet ride?"

"i'll take you all the way to bogota if i have to. well, at least to a place close-by because a flying rug would give the noms a collective heart attack." she giggled as though cardiac arrest on a major scale was the funniest thing ever.

i grinned and hugged her, the fear melting away, if only a little. "you're my new best friend."

she kissed my cheeks and tucked away her phone. "now, i suppose we should finish the business at hand."

we went over the foreseeances and all sorts of other related items, but really only ended up chasing our tails in an endless circle. i told them my theory about the ancient masters possibly utilizing the obsidian arches one day, but they'd heard that one before. a good portion thought it was true, while others figured it didn't make any sense. several hours and a whole lot of empanadas later, bella called the meeting to a close.

exhaustion weighed me down like a sack of bricks.

"it's dark," alejandro said. "we can leave for the bus in the morning."

i told him about bella's magic carpet offer and his eyes lit up. "she never told me she had one."

"well, don't go telling anyone then," i said. "maybe i shouldn't have spilled the beans."

he laughed. "her secret is safe with me."

i said i'd meet him outside in a minute, but first, the bathroom was screaming my name. damn all those beans! i went through a door in the back of the large room, into a cramped hallway, and toward the tiny unisex bathroom crowded in the corner near an exit. the door at the end of the hall was propped open a crack, letting the air-conditioning escape into the oppressive humidity outside. a dark-tanned man with a bandanna on his head and a scar across his left eye entered the door and walked to the bathroom, reaching it about the same time i did. he stank of cigarette smoke.