Free The Secret of Ka by Christopher Pike Page A

mood, although Amesh was puzzled.
    "What's wrong?" I asked.
    He gestured to the island. "I don't recognize this place."
    "You told me there were plenty of islands out here. Why should you recognize it?"
    He frowned. "Let me see that map you brought."
    I reached in my pack and gave it to him. As he studied it, his frown deepened. "Well?" I said finally.
    He sighed. "I don't know where we are."
    "Can you make an educated guess?"
    He handed back the map. "I suspect the carpet picked up speed while we slept and flew us deep into the Aegean Sea, maybe close to Greece."
    I almost mentioned the fog we'd passed through but something held me back. I didn't like thinking about it, never mind talking about it. Plus, he'd never believe I couldn't wake him up.
    "That's good, right? The Greek islands are crowded with tourists. We should be able to hitch a ride back with someone."
    Amesh nodded, although there was doubt in his eyes.
    "We'll be okay," he said.
    We debated sticking to the shore and heading right or left, but felt that hiking straight inland would bring us to civilization faster. I favored the latter course for another reason. I worried about our water supply. We had four one-liter bottles. With our dozen protein bars and eight candy bars, we could do without real food for a while. But we would be dead in two days—three at the outside—without water. I hoped we'd stumble upon a stream soon.
    The wind disappeared as we left the beach behind. But there were problems with hiking inland. First, there were no paths and the ground was loose and rocky. Gravel kept seeping into my shoes. I had to keep stopping to empty them. Second, the hills that looked low and gentle from the sea were nevertheless hard to climb. I had always hated walking uphill. While Amesh coasted along, I panted heavily.
    The temperature increased rapidly as the sun rose higher.
    But the biggest problem was, we didn't know where we were going. At least if we had tried circling the island, staying by the shore, we would have had a clear direction. But even with our compasses, we couldn't plot a course because we would no sooner crest a row of hills than discover another row behind it. Just as I had guessed, the island was much larger than it appeared from the sea.
    After three hours of hiking, Amesh called for a halt. I was grateful. My throat was parched and I had blisters forming on my feet. Amesh opened another bottle of water. He had greater endurance and was carrying more weight—he had our backpack and the bottles on his back—but he was going through the water faster than I was. Naturally, I carried the carpet.
    "Careful," I warned. "We only have two bottles after that one."
    He gestured to some tired-looking grass and a few low-lying shrubs.
    "There has to be water here for this stuff to grow," he said.
    "I wonder. They look pretty thirsty. Maybe they live off the rain."
    He shook his head and handed me the bottle. "We have no choice. We need to drink to keep hiking, and to find water, we have to hike. Unless you want to find some shade and take a long nap and wait for someone to rescue us."
    I accepted the bottle and took a hearty slug. "That idea's not as silly as it sounds. Not the rescue part, but the waiting until dark. Then we might be able to find another ley line and explore the island from the air."
    "You wouldn't use the carpet to take us home?"
    "I'd like to take a look around first." Amesh did not look happy with my answer so I added, "Well, I don't think it took us here to die."
    He snorted. "There you go again, speaking as if it were alive."
    "Maybe it is."
    He threw his hands in the air. "That's ... that's blasphemy!"
    I was suddenly angry. "How can you say that? The carpet has proven its worth. It can fly! It can fly because it's a magic carpet."
    "If it's so magical, why can't it fly during the day?"
    Not long after peeing, I had tried to get the carpet off the ground with the sun up, but nothing happened. It either needed the stars