Louise followed her logic. “Which is why Esme was collecting the maps.”
“Collected them and kept them hidden. If she just had some weird love of caves, they’d be on her bookcases, not stashed in the secret room.”
Louise looked down at the dozens of maps. “If there’s this many choices, then he was still looking. He didn’t find a way.”
Jillian whimpered slightly, shrinking with disappointment. She looked as if she was in danger of collapsing back to the stranger that had huddled in the bed the last few weeks. “That’s true.”
“But your reasoning is sound.” Louise rushed to repair the damage. “It proves that the pathways are natural formation and that the elves didn’t destroy the ones in the Westernlands. Ming has been seeking a pathway, so he believes it’s there, but he doesn’t really know how to find it.”
“How could it be so hard? He found this place.” Jillian gasped. “Wait! This place has magic so it’s linked to Elfhome. Maybe this is like stately Wayne Manor with bat caves all under it.”
“There are caves!” Chuck Norris stated firmly.
“But there aren’t any bats,” Nikola added with some uncertainty.
“Not that we noticed!” the Jawbreakers finished.
“When were you in caves?” both twins shouted.
The babies cringed.
“Two days after we arrived,” Nikola volunteered.
“It was boring watching you sleep!” Chuck Norris cried. “So we went exploring!”
“We didn’t get into any trouble!” Green Jawbreaker stated.
“You never said that we couldn’t,” Red Jawbreaker stated.
“And why do we have to do what you tell us?” Chuck Norris asked. “Don’t we get to vote? We outnumber you!”
“Yeah!” her two sisters cried.
“No, you don’t get a vote!” Jillian shouted, throwing her hands up in the air. “Don’t ever leave the bedroom again without us!”
“Unless it’s important—like the mansion is on fire.” Louise earned an annoyed look from her twin. She was more worried, though, about the future than the past. The damage was already done. She couldn’t figure out how the babies even got Tesla out of the bed without them noticing. They always slept with the bed in the raised position.
“We didn’t actually leave,” Nikola said.
His sisters nodded. “We didn’t.”
“You said you left.” Jillian growled.
“We did, but we didn’t,” they cried.
“Oh, that’s perfectly clear,” Jillian grumbled.
“Tesla didn’t leave the room, but we did.” Nikola attempted to clarify. “We just didn’t have any bodies.”
“Huh?” Jillian looked utterly confused.
“Oh.” Louise realized what Nikola meant. It was like when she dreamed of the babies. They existed somehow separate of Tesla as well as integrated with him. If they could enter her dreams, then moving through the house like ghosts wasn’t completely impossible, just very weird. “I understand.”
“You do?” Jillian cried. “I don’t.”
“The babies dream-walked,” Louise said.
Nikola nodded vigorously and then pointed toward Louise’s feet. “Joy showed us how.”
Joy was pulling the clean underwear from Louise’s backpack and tossing them over her shoulder. She had cans of freeze-dried blueberry cheesecake stacked beside her. She looked up, wide-eyed with surprise at being the center of attention.
“Joy!” Louise cried. Their underwear was scattered all across the bedroom floor.
“Must take yummies!” Joy shoved the cans into the emptied bag. “Not stupid panties.”
“No, junk food is the one thing we can get easily!” Louise gathered up the underwear.
“Wait!” Jillian shouted. “Dream-walked? What the hell does that mean?”
“Shhh!” Louise bent down, trying to unload enough of the cans to fit the clothes back into the bag. “The secret elves might hear.”
“What does it mean?” Jillian whispered fiercely.
“They astral-projected. That’s how the babies are talking to us through Tesla. It’s their spirits. Their souls.” Louise sighed at the disbelieving look Jillian was giving her. “They’re sitting on top of a magic generator. And they’re elves. Maybe all elves can dream walk.”
Joy made a raspberry and jerked the can out of Louise’s hand. “Not elf. Dragon, silly!”
“What?” both twins cried.
“Joy says that we’re related to two dragons: Brilliance and Clarity. That’s why we can dream-walk.”