Chapter 4

Chapter 4 YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN! CHELL, YOU CAN, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND THERE. When they first came to the field, Harper thought it was a graveyard. Play auditions were over, and school was out for the day, so Harper and her friends had returned to Minecraft. They'd left their temporary shelter for good, and they had continued their march toward coordinates 0,0—of the very center of this world.

They were nearly there when they came across the field. It was a vast expanse of green. Every few yards, a piece of granite stood atop the grass. The blocks looked to Harper almost like simple tombstones. But they were something else entirely. "MY SCULPTURES!" said Jodi. "What happened to them?" Harper gasped. Jodi was right. She and her friends had been here before…. This was the site of Jodi's sculpture garden. She'd spent hours on it during their earliest visits, before they'd even heard the name Evoker King. They'd left the sculptures behind many weeks ago. But this world had no wind, no decay, no erosion. Harper had expected those sculptures to stand forever.

"What happened?" Jodi said again. "These were my masterpieces! They've all been reduced to rubble." "Our castle doesn't look much better," Morgan said. He stood atop a nearby hill. "COME SEE FOR YOURSELVES." Harper and the others climbed the hill to stand beside Morgan. From there, they had a view of the castle they'd built together, back when Ash had first joined them. Or rather, they had a view of what was left of the castle. It had been picked apart. All the doors and decorations were gone. Random blocks were missing from the walls and turrets.

"Our castle," Harper said sadly. "IT LOOKS LIKE…OLD, HAUNTED RUINS." "It looks more like Swiss cheese!" Jodi said. "This is the Evoker King's doing, isn't it?" "Maybe," Ash said. "Or maybe the Librarian really needed the materials? It would be hard to be mad, in that case. We haven't seen her recently, but she's left a lot of materials behind to help us." "ANYWAY, STUFF YOU MAKE IN MINECRAFT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE PERMANENT," Morgan said. He patted his sister on her on the edge of one of her square shoulders. "IT ALL GETS RECYCLED EVENTUALLY." "Speaking of recycling, I can't believe we're all the way back to where we started!" said Po. "We basically traveled in a huge circle." "ZERO, ZERO IS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD," said Harper. "It's also our original spawn

point. And I believe…" She scanned their surroundings. From the hilltop, she could see a good distance. "Over there, by those trees. THAT'S WHERE THIS ALL BEGAN." "And where it ends," Morgan said. Po gulped audibly. "For the Evoker King, I mean," Morgan added quickly. "I'm sure we'll be fine…." Harper led the way down the hill and toward their spawn point. "We still don't even know what we're looking for," complained Morgan. "THE SOURCE OF THE EVOKER KING'S POWER? IT COULD BE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING." "It could be a unicorn!" said Jodi.

"Jodi…," said Morgan. "It could be!" she insisted. "OR…OR A MAGICAL WISHING LAMP. WITH AN AI GENIE INSIDE." "Is it a tree?" asked Po. "Because I see a tree over there. And a tree over there. And not much else." "It's underground," Harper said. "What is?" asked Ash. "The source of the Evoker King's power. HE SAID IT WAS IN A DUNGEON." She hopped up and down. "It must be beneath our feet!"