“A farspeaker!” Pindor gasped out. “Why didn’t you tell us you had one!”

“I did. Back when I first ran into you all,” she reminded them. “I had been calling Papa on my farspeaker when I was snatched here.”

Jake took the crystal, remembering her story. Normally such crystals were suspended within a web of tiny fibers inside a paddlelike frame.

Marika explained. “I broke its holder when I crashed in the desert. Still, I tried to reach my father again, but nothing happened.”

Kady put her hands on her hips. “So like I said, crystals must not work here.”

“Not necessarily. The two halves of the crystals may be too far apart. It might take more power to get them to link up across such a distance. If only we had more power …”

An idea began to form in Jake’s head. He remembered that, back in Calypsos, the battery from his flashlight had accidentally touched a ruby crystal and the crystal ignited into a crimson minisun. Could the same be done here?

He turned to his sister. “Kady, do you still have your cell phone?”

She scowled. “Of course I do.” To prove it, she reached into a hidden pocket of her slacks and pulled it out. “I wasn’t about to let them take it away from me.”

Jake held out his hand. “Does it still have power?”

She flipped it open and showed the glowing home page. Jake forced himself not to roll his eyes at the sight of her cheer squad posing defiantly, swords pointed at the screen.

“Pass me the battery.”

Kady frowned but obeyed. With the skill of a surgeon, she extracted the battery and placed it in Jake’s hand.

Kneeling on the stone floor, he held the green crystal gently between his thumb and forefinger—then touched it with the battery’s positive contacts. He winced, expecting the worst.

But nothing happened.

Maybe someone has to speak into it, get it vibrating.

Jake glanced to Marika and lifted the stone and battery toward her. She understood and leaned in close. He felt her warm breath across his palm as she whispered, her lips almost touching the stone.

“Papa, if you can hear me, answer. …”

Everybody held their breath and waited. Jake tried to feel any vibration in the crystal. But it seemed as dead as before.

Pindor spoke up. “Maybe you have to turn the bat tree on.”

Jake was about to dismiss his friend’s suggestion, then remembered that the fusion of ancient alchemy and modern technology did always take a spark of some sort, whether generated by the spinning crystals in the Astromicon atop the Tower of Enlightenment or the flip of a flashlight’s power button.

Jake stood up again. “Kady, let me have your phone.”

She handed it over. “Be careful with it.”

He replaced the battery, leaving the compartment open, and powered up the phone. Again Kady’s cheer squad pointed their swords at his face, as if also threatening him to be careful. He pressed the green crystal against the exposed battery, picturing the power coursing into the phone.