The Call by Michael Grant

you seen the golem?” the ancient creature asked in his dry-leaves voice.
    â€œYeah. And the snakes,” Mack snapped.
    â€œI know not of snakes.”
    â€œYeah, well, I know of them,” Mack shot back.“Some old dude in green stuck ’em in my window. They bit all over the golem.”
    The ancient’s eyebrows shot up. The effect was particularly odd since the round chrome surface exaggerated every expression. “This is very bad news.”
    â€œYeah, I thought so, too,” Mack said.
    â€œThe forces of the Dread Foe are already aware of you.”
    â€œOkay. I don’t have any dread foes,” Mack said.
    â€œHe’s under my wing,” Stefan added belligerently.
    â€œYou have foes of which you dream not,” the old man rasped. “Foes which, if you only knew of them, your blood would freeze like a mountain stream in winter and your hands would tremble and lose their strength.”
    Mack found this alarming. “Hey! I don’t have any enemies. I’m not looking for trouble. I have a math test.”
    â€œWe choose not our enemies. Your foes are the foes of your blood. For in your veins runs the blood true of the Magnifica.”
    â€œIs that Latin?”
    â€œYou are called, young hero. Called! To save theworld from the nameless evil.”
    â€œWhat’s the name of this nameless evil?” Mack asked.
    â€œThe Pale Queen! But we name her not.”
    â€œYou just did.”
    The old man looked irritated at being caught in a contradiction. “I am trying to move things along. I don’t have a lot of time. My magic is weak, nowhere near what it once was. I fail…I weaken…I can scarce hear you or make myself heard in return.”
    â€œThen spit it out, grandpa,” Stefan snarled.
    The ancient glanced at Stefan. “This one will be useful. You will have need for a wild dog such as this.”
    Mack thought Stefan might take offense at this, but Stefan only swelled a little bit and nodded in agreement.
    â€œI will spit it,” the ancient said. “I am called Grimluk. One of the first great band of heroes called the Magnifica. We it was who first fought the Pale Que—the Dread Foe and bound her tightly within the bowels of the earth never again to trouble poor frightened humanity. We placed spells that wouldkeep the world safe forever!”
    â€œOkay, then we have nothing to worry about, right?” Mack said hopefully.
    â€œWell…,” Grimluk said.
    â€œUh-oh.”
    â€œYou must understand that this all happened a very long time ago. These were the days before most people knew anything of numbers. We had no algebra. Nor did we partake of geometry. Or long division. Or multiplication.”
    â€œSo you had…”
    â€œWe could add and subtract. In theory. In practice most people could count only to ten. Nine if they’d had an accident with a scythe. Which was very common.”
    â€œAnd?” Mack urged.
    â€œAnd in those long-ago days ten was a very big number. A rich man was an elevenaire. Peasants would fantasize about striking it rich in the lottery and having ten of…of anything.”
    â€œI would have been happy then,” Stefan said thoughtfully.
    â€œSo, when we were deciding how long to imprison the Dread Foe, we called upon our greatest astrologers,our mathematical prodigies, importing great thinkers from the four corners of the earth. They worked for weeks and weeks. Maybe as many as eleven weeks to conceive of a number so impossibly large that it would be the greatest number ever conceived by human minds!” He sighed, and for a moment the image faded.
    â€œHey!”
    â€œSorry.” The face was back. “The number these geniuses conceived was…three thousand!”
    â€œSo you tied up this Pale Queen for three thousand years.”
    â€œExactly. Forever. Or so we thought. It turns out three thousand years is still not forever. And now