The End of Time by P. W. Catanese, David Ho Page A

was the moment the crew was waiting for, and they howled along with him. Some of the sailors above laughed so strenuously that Hap was afraid they might lose their grip and tumble to the deck. “Told you I’d string up my laundry to push us along!” Sandar shouted to Umber above the din.
    Hap’s own laughter faded when he saw Balfour trudging back downstairs. He waited for Umber to wipe a happy tear from his eye, and then spoke to him quietly. “Something’s wrong with Balfour.”
    “I know,” Umber said, growing serious. Oates wandered past at that moment, and Umber pinched his sleeve. “Oates, do you have any idea what’s eating Balfour?”
    “Yes,” answered Oates.
    Umber made a whirling motion with his fingers until his patience expired. “For pity’s sake, Oates, would you mind telling me what it is?”
    “I don’t mind at all. You mean you don’t know?”
    “I do not.”
    Oates angled his head. “So I know something that you don’t?”
    “Right you are, but we can do something about that, can’t we?”
    Oates folded his burly arms. “ You’re bothering him, Umber.”
    “Me?” Umber cried. “But . . .”
    “You’re keeping secrets from him.”
    “I always keep secrets,” Umber protested.
    “You always kept secrets from everyone, but not anymore,” Oates replied. “Balfour is your oldest friend. The first man you met in Kurahaven, isn’t he? After you came from wherever you were before. He’s been loyal all these years. But now you’ve made Hap your favorite. You share things with the boy that you keep from Balfour. Balfour figures he’s earned your trust. And he has, you know. This has been eating at him, and he can’t pretend to take it any longer. Listen, it doesn’t bother me when you don’t tell me things. That would be daft—I can’t keep my mouth shut! But Balfour can hold a secret. And look at all he’s done for you. You’d be in the Aerie moping around right now if it wasn’t for him. It was his idea to take the dragon eggs back!”
    Umber’s mouth shrank to a pinhole, and his forehead wrinkled. “Curse me for a fool. You’re absolutely right.” He walked to the rail and stared at the foam in the Bounder ’s wake. Then he thumped his fist and hurried down the stairs.
    Oates snorted. “For a smart man he can be quite stupid at times.”
    Hap saw Umber and Balfour later, in the central cabin, sitting on chairs pulled close. He went back on deck, not wanting to interfere. Hours later, when he ventured downstairs again, the two were still talking, and it was obvious from the look on Balfour’s face—a shining, moist-eyed, grateful, and mildly astounded expression—that his humor had been restored.
    Again Hap kept his distance, ducking into Umber’s cabin to take another look at Caspar’s notebook. Umber came in a while later.
    “Oates was right,” he said, yawning. “Balfour is too loyal a friend not to trust. He knows everything now.”
    “Everything?” asked Hap. He was thinking about the strange machine that Umber kept hidden in his tower in the Aerie, the source of all of the miraculous innovations that Umber had brought to this world. Hap had accidentally discovered the “computer”—a slender, metallic, folding thing with the word REBOOT engraved on its silvery face—and had always figured that Umber would otherwise have never told him about it.
    “The whole crazy tale,” Umber said.
    Hap remembered how dizzy he’d felt when Umber told him his story. “What did Balfour say?”
    “He said he’d believe any fool thing, where you and I were concerned. But he posed a question that has me thinking. He asked if I was the same lunatic back where I’d come from. Referring, of course, to my mood swings and my wanton disregard for personal safety.” Umber chuckled at his own expense and dropped heavily into a chair. He picked at the stubble on his chin. “And you know, I think he’s onto something. Sure, my emotions always ran deep, and I was