Alastair Stone Chronicles Box Set: Alastair Stone Chronicles, Books 1 through 4

by R. L. King

  Stone sighed, exasperated. “All right, then—yes. An alternate dimension.” He looked around at them with a challenging gaze, as if expecting them to object. When they didn’t, he continued: “The Evil—the Darkness—whatever you want to call them—are native to another dimension. And the thing we believe happened five years ago is what we think caused this—intermittent rift between our own dimension and theirs.”

  “What happened five years ago?” Prudence asked.

  “That’s part of what I’m not at liberty to say.”

  Gary’s eyes narrowed. “Did you have anything to do with what happened?”

  Stone shook his head. “No. I didn’t even know about any of this mess until a month or so ago. But none of that’s important now. What’s done is done, and there’s no way to go back and prevent it, unless you lot have access to time-travel powers in your Forgotten bag of tricks.” He paused, looking around at each of them in turn. “No? All right, then. So our plan, and the reason we’re up here in the arse end of West Virginia—no offense—in the first place, is because we think that if we can locate this rift between the two dimensions, we might be able to close it.”

  “How?” Gary asked.

  “We’re not sure yet,” Stone admitted. “I’ll have to see the rift first. And that’s the first problem—we don’t have any idea where it is, except that we think it’s in this area somewhere. Do you have a telephone here?”

  The four Harmony people were startled by his sudden change in subject. “Er—yes,” Sykes said. He pointed to one of the doors leading off from the hall. “There’s a couple of community phones in there.”

  “Good, because I’ll be needing to make some calls,” Stone said. “And probably go into town later today, if you can point us in that direction.”

  “I’ll give you a ride,” Sykes said. “You still have to get with Jimmy about digging your car out of that ditch.”

  “Let’s get back to this rift,” Prudence said. “What makes you think it’s around here?”

  “Something else we’re not allowed to talk about,” Verity said. “But I just thought of something else.” This last was addressed to Stone.

  “Yes?”

  “Well,” she said slowly, “If it’s really true that the rift only shows up every once in a while, and we don’t know how often it shows up—how long are we gonna have to hang around here waiting for it? For all we know, it could be once a month, or once a year—or completely random. If it even does it at all. We’re still not sure.”

  “She has a point,” Jason said. “I mean, it’s not like we have to go back tomorrow, but you’ve got your classes, and V and I have our jobs, and—” He spread his hands. “I’m sure these folks aren’t gonna want to put us up forever while we wait for the Doorway to Hell to open up. We—what?” He stopped, because the Harmony people were now staring not at him, but at Joshua. The old man’s expression had gone strange. Jason leaned forward. “You okay?”

  Joshua didn’t answer, but Prudence did. “I think we were all having the same thought,” she said, also sounding odd.

  “And that is—?” Stone asked.

  “That we might be able to tell you when your rift is open—and give you a pretty good idea of where it might be.”

  “Indeed?” Stone raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s unexpected. And how can you do that?”

  The four looked at each other. “Joshua here,” Sykes said at last, nodding toward the old hippie, “he gets—spells—sometimes. He gets strange. A lot like he used to back in the old days when we used to...er...experiment a lot more.”

  “When does he get these ‘spells’?” Stone asked. “And what makes you think they have anything to do with the rift?”

  “Because right around when he has them, after he snaps out of it, he always says he senses the presence of the Darkness a lot more.”

  “Hmm...” Jason said. “So you’re sayin’ that maybe that might mean the po—the rift is opening up and the Evil are coming through, so he’s sensing them until they get through and head off wherever they’re going?”

  “It’s possible,” Prudence said. “We had no idea what might be causing it. The first few times it happened we thought the Dark-tainted were coming for us, but they never did, so we just wrote it off to Joshua being so much more sensitive to it than the rest of us.”

  “And how often does this happen?” Jason asked. “Is it a regular thing?”

  Joshua shook his head. “Unfortunately not. The last time it happened was a couple of months ago. The time before, only a month before that. But the time before that, it was nearly six months back.”

  “That one was worse than usual,” Prudence said.

  “So possibly more of them might have come through,” Stone said, thinking. “That lends credence to my idea that it builds up power and then has to recharge periodically. If it let more of them through—or possibly one or more of the powerful ones—it might need more time to sort itself out after.”

  “But none of this helps us,” Verity reminded them. “It sounds like we were right about it winking in and out, but if it’s only here every once in a while and it’s not on a schedule, how will we be able to get to it when it comes back? Especially if it doesn’t stay long.”

  Stone’s thousand-yard stare was fixed on the dog at Gary’s feet, which now lay on its back with its paws in the air. “Hmm...” he said at last. “Perhaps if we knew where it was when it showed up, we might be able to—induce it to make an appearance.”

  “Induce it?” Jason asked. “How?”

  “No idea. I’ll have to work on that, I think.” He switched back on and focused on Joshua. “You said that you might be able to tell us where the rift is, though.”

  It was Sykes who nodded. “We might. See, there’s this place—it’s a little town up in the hills about ten miles from here. It’s pretty much a ghost town, and it’s got a reputation for bein’ haunted, and dangerous. It’s dangerous, all right, but it’s not haunted.”

  “No?” Verity asked with interest.

  Sykes shook his head. “Nope. Whole place is full of the Dark-tainted. People go up there to investigate, and when they come back down they claim there’s nothing going on up there. Everything’s fine, they say.”

  “But it’s not fine,” Prudence said. “We can’t prove it, of course, but we’re pretty sure everybody up there in Decker’s Gap is possessed by the Darkness, and if anybody else goes up there they grab them, too. They come back down, and seem fine on the surface, but we know better. Mostly people just don’t go up there anymore. It’s too far off the beaten track for tourists, and there isn’t really anything for them to do anyway.”

  “What’s up there?” Jason shifted around in his chair; his knee was starting to act up again and he was thinking longingly of the bottle of aspirin in his overnight bag.

  Sykes shrugged. “Not much. A few houses, some closed businesses, an old cave that’s been closed to the public for years—something about bats and rabies—the remains of an old summer camp, not much else. Every once in a while somebody from up there will come down to pick up supplies. We don’t know where they get their money, and we stay away from them whenever we hear tell they’re around. Mostly they go to a couple of little towns closer to where they are, though.”

  “Hmm...” Stone said, pondering. “Interesting, indeed. May I use your phone?”

  “Sure,” said Prudence. She pointed. “Through that door over there.”

  When Stone had left, Gary gave the door through which he’d left a sour look. “I’m not sure I trust him,” he said, apparently not caring that Jason and Verity were still sitting at the table.

  “Why not?” Jason asked, annoyed. “Do you trust us?”

  Gary shrugged. “I haven’t heard enough out of either of you to know one way or the other. But anyway, you two are just kids. I’ve seen his type before. Full of himself. Thinks he knows everything. Hell, I used to be his type. I’m old enough and cynical enough now to know that mo
st people who think they have all the answers are the ones you want to stay away from if you know what’s good for you.”

  “He knows what he’s doing,” Verity said, defensive. “He’s proven that to us more times than we can count. And he really does want to get rid of the Evil. We all do. We’ve all lost friends to them, and we’re tired of looking over our shoulders all the time to see if they’re after us.”

  “We’ll see,” Gary said. “I hope you’re right.”

  Stone returned about ten minutes later, a preoccupied expression on his face. “What was that about?” Jason asked him.

  “Called the rental agency to tell them about the car,” he said. “Told them I’d have it towed into town and they could pick it up at their leisure.”

  “You had to do that right now?” Verity asked.

  “I also called Nancy Weldon,” he said.

  That got her attention, and Jason’s too. “What’d she say?”

  Stone took a deep breath. “I asked her if she had any idea where Daphne’s friend Neil was from, and if she might know where he played when he was a child. She said Daphne mentioned it in a couple of her letters—she remembered it because she recalled being worried about a little boy being allowed to play in such a place.”

  He met Jason’s eyes, then Verity’s. “She said it was a small town called Decker’s Gap, and he used to play in a place called Gorley Cave.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Harmony Farms residents’ stares joined Jason’s and Verity’s. “You think this—conduit is in Gorley Cave?” Prudence asked. “How can that be? How would you know that?”

  Stone shook his head. “We don’t know it for sure, but it makes sense. Do you know how large this cave is?”

  “Not too big,” Sykes said. “It was too small to really be a tourist attraction, I know that. I haven’t been up there in years, but if I remember right it was just a couple of chambers: a small one in the front and a bigger one in the back.”

  “How large is the bigger one?”

  Sykes shrugged. “Room sized, maybe. Big room. Ceiling’s about maybe eighteen-twenty feet at its highest. Some kid got bitten by a bat a few years back, and they boarded up the entrance so the bats could get in and out but the people couldn’t, and shut it down. And then after—things started happening, that’s when Decker’s Gap started getting the reputation as someplace you didn’t want to go, and that was it. I don’t even think the teenagers go up there to make out and explore anymore. For one thing, it’s too hard to get there. The road’s in bad shape even in good weather, and barely passable this time of year. You’d need a four-wheel drive vehicle and chains.”

  “How long would it take us to get up there?” Jason asked.

  “If you had the right vehicle and gear, maybe an hour,” Gary said. “And that’s if the road’s clear all the way up. If it isn’t—and if that’s the Darkness up there, it’s not likely to be—you’d have to hike. Which means you won’t be going for a while.”

  “Why not?”

  Gary gave him a can you really be that stupid? kind of look, then pointed at his leg. “You’ve been shifting that knee around all morning, and the walking stick’s a dead giveaway. You wouldn’t get a mile on that thing the way it is now. You’ll have to wait until it heals up.”

  Jason started to protest, but Stone shook his head. “No, no, that’s fine, Jason. It works out well, actually. As I said, I still need to do a fair bit of research if I’m going to have a prayer of coaxing that conduit to come out and play with us safely—let alone figuring out a way to shut it down once it does. I’ll have to call Madame Huan and ask her to send me some things. There’s no way we can go for several days anyway. You just stay off that knee as much as possible. We’ll need you in good shape.”

  He turned to the Harmony people. “Is there anywhere in town we might be able to stay? I know you said we were guests here and we’re honored that you’ve taken us in, but it would be quite rude of us to expect you to put us up for as long as we’ll likely be needing to stay here and prepare.”

  Prudence shook her head. “You’ll stay here, Dr. Stone. No argument. If you really can stop the Darkness, you’ll be doing us an immeasurable favor. The least we can do is give you a place to stay while you get ready.”

  “That’s not all we’re gonna do,” Sykes said. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Mr. Sykes—”

  “Like the lady said, no argument. I’ll bet some of the other folks around here would want to help out, too. You just tell us when you’re ready to go, give us a day or so to get set up, and I’m guessing you’ll have quite a few of us joining up.” His expression grew serious. “I don’t think you realize what you’re getting yourself into. There’s a whole town full of those people up there. It’s a small town, sure, but are the three of you gonna take on even twenty or thirty people? You’ll need some backup. And quite a few of us are handy with guns.”

  “I thought you said you wouldn’t kill anyone,” Stone said.

  “We don’t have to kill ’em. But if it comes down to that—if that’s what it takes to get rid of the Darkness for good, it’ll be worth it. It’s so remote up there that nobody will even know what happened until the spring.” It seemed odd to hear such coldblooded words coming from the amiable Sykes, but he looked utterly serious.

  “I sure hope it doesn’t come to that,” Verity said, looking scared. “Hopefully once we evict some of the people up there, they’ll fight on our side.”

  “Okay, so it’s settled, then,” Prudence said. “Do you need anything to help you with whatever you’re doing?”

  “I need to go into town to pick up a few things,” Stone said, “and arrange to get the car towed somewhere the rental company can pick it up. I don’t think they’ll be coming right away. I suppose we ought to file some sort of police report about it, too.”

  Jason grinned. “Did you get the license number of that deer?”

  The next couple of days left Jason and Verity mostly on their own with the Harmony Farm people. Stone accompanied them into Highland, where he picked up several blank notebooks and pens and pencils from the drugstore, went the post office and rented a large post box, and then placed a lengthy call to Madame Huan. He described the items he needed, and asked her to ship them via the fastest possible method. She agreed to do so, and didn’t even ask too many questions.

  He also called Stanford and arranged to have a teaching assistant take over his classes until he returned, citing unavoidable circumstances that would almost certainly keep him away from Palo Alto until after the quarter started.

  Jason called Marta at the restaurant and told her he and Verity would be away indefinitely as well; she was understanding and wished them luck in whatever they were trying to do. All three of them picked up some warm jackets, gloves, hats, and sturdy boots from the local merchants. Their own clothes were sufficient for hanging around the Harmony compound, but inadequate for outdoor hiking in the winter chill.

  Jimmy, an affable and perpetually baked man in his late twenties, was happy to help them dig the Lincoln out of the ditch and tow it up to Harmony Farm, where they covered it with a tarp and left it parked in front of the guest cabin. Surprisingly, no one had bothered it; Jason half expected to go back and find the wheels gone and the windows covered with graffiti, but he supposed people did things differently around here. Either that, or they just hadn’t found it yet.

  Prudence and Joshua decided to let Stone work from the home of Zachary, their healer, who was currently out with several friends in a van following a band called the Electric Platypi. “He won’t mind,” they assured the mage. “He’s real mellow about everything. And he won’t be back for a while anyway.” Jason and Verity would then have the guest cottage to themselves during the day.

  Stone immediately set to work on the research he could do without the books he was waiting for from Madame Huan. “Take care with that knee,” he told Jason. “It sounds like we’re going to have quite a hike, and
we’ll need you at 100%.”

  Jason listened a little: he discovered that Prudence was the resident mundane mender of cuts and scrapes, so he asked her to wrap up the knee, and borrowed an old pair of crutches from her so he didn’t have to put weight on it. “I know I gotta let it heal,” he told Verity, “but I’ll be damned if I’m just gonna sit around on my ass until whenever Al figures out what he’s trying to do.”

  On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Jason knocked on the door to Zachary’s house. “Al? You in there?” He hadn’t seen much of Stone over the past two or three days; the mage had spent all his time sequestered away, and only turned up for occasional meals and late at night to fall into bed. He was usually up and out of the sleeping cabin before Jason or Verity were awake.

  “Come in,” came Stone’s distracted voice.

  Jason pushed open the door and peered inside. Stone sat at a large table under a window providing the cabin’s only light. The entire area around him, including parts of the floor, were covered with open books, notebooks, sheets of paper with strange notations and diagrams scribbled on them, and maps with multi-colored lines radiating out in various directions. Some of these were tacked up on the wooden walls near the table. A cardboard box half full of wadded-up papers lay on the floor near Stone’s chair. A small radio off to the far side of the table softly played something that sounded like AC/DC.

  “I—uh—guess you got your stuff from Madame Huan, huh?” he asked, pointing at the box.

  “Yesterday,” Stone said without looking up. With his disheveled hair and two days’ worth of stubble, he was starting to look like he’d fit right in among the Harmony Farm crew.

  “Are you getting anywhere with that?” Jason asked.

  “Who knows?” He sighed, looking up at last and running a hand through his spiking hair. He pointed at a notebook in front of him, one of the five from Daphne’s storage locker, and waved his pen around vaguely. “I can’t even tell how much of this I’m making proper sense of. I think I’m learning more about the nature of how these portals work—or were supposed to, anyway—but who knows if I’m right? And there isn’t even anyone I know of I can call and consult with. Even if we revealed the Evil’s existence, nearly no one knows anything about portals these days, beyond how to use them. So I’m on my own.”