Instead of remarking on the assignment, which was a new thing for the woman to give him that directly, Troy looked at the little girl seeming being.
“That is really creepy, saying it that way while looking like that.”
Zack snorted and rolled his eyes but Ann smiled sweetly.
“I know. If you have a problem with it, emotionally, then change. I expect to see constant emotional control from now on. Anyway, I have something for you to work on. First, this letter. Just put it in a pocket for now. Then…” She had a silver and copper disk in her hands.
On seeing it, Zack went wide eyed.
“That…”
As soon as Troy had the tri-folded piece of paper in his right front jacket pocket, the demon spoke.
“Exactly. This is the world’s first line walker trap. Think of it as a dimensional puzzle. You can get out of it. In fact, the first half of the day’s adventure will be for you to do that. It has both spatial and mental effects. I hope that you’ve been working on blocking telepathy? If not, this will be pretty hard for you. When you get out, read the letter. It will explain the other part of this. You’ll need to hurry, since you have work tomorrow morning.”
Then, as if it made any sense at all, the tiny, fairly pale, fingers, carefully handed him the nice-looking amulet.
The world, as expected, went black.
It was after all, a line walker trap. One that he could get out of. It tried to tear him apart, just like the void would. That was a sense of dissipation that spread his essence outward. Pulling that in helped but after a while, he got the difference. This wasn’t a real effect at all. He was, most likely, in a tiny but stable pocket dimension, like what Ann was using as a purse.
It would be easy enough to step out of that, or should have been. Except that, of course, when he tried, the space around him became slippery and wouldn’t allow him purchase on it. He was, no doubt, supposed to fight against that for a while, then realize that it was all in his head. She’d warned him about that for a reason, so instead of struggling that way, he worked to shield himself.
It was still really hard to pull off.
Troy had kind of worked out how to vaguely keep his thoughts from being read. Mainly by controlling them to a point where they weren’t functionally happening in the first place. You couldn’t read what wasn’t written, after all. That wasn’t nearly enough for the moment.
What he needed to stop was something more like compulsion or magical mind control. That took actually blocking, using a powerful construct that he placed in the way that simply turned that kind of thing back on itself. He didn’t use any magical energy for it, just willpower. That meant it took time. Nothing around him changed at all but when he tried to simply twist space a bit, it worked, popping him out onto a stone walkway.
In front of a glowing palace. The place was huge. Nice, too. It wasn’t run down at all, seeming to be made of wood and stone. It wasn’t though, he didn’t think. It felt wrong, inside his head, for that. The world had a scent to it. Plant life and moisture, in the main. Spinning, in case there was something behind him, set to attack, he saw a large glass circle, with people in it. The sun over head hit him almost instantly, with torturous pain, naturally.
Meaning it was either a very good hallucination or illusion, or he was actually there. From the feel of the place, it was that second one.
Troy reached into his pocket then, since he was willing to bet this was the second part of the game. The lesson, he supposed.
He read it out loud.
“Good. I knew you could do it. I just knew it!” He tried to read it in the spirit he hoped it had been written. With a lot of energy and goodwill. “Now, you have several days to work out how to get home. The place you are in does have line walkers but none are local. Clearly, you could do it yourself but that isn’t the point. Time there is different, so you have more of it but still, hurry. I’ll see you Monday.”
That got him to think for a bit, working things out.
“Of course you will. That only makes sense.”
Troy had been thinking all about how hard being stuck in a different reality would be and then Denise had walked over and patted him. Grabbing information from him, that had been separated out and handed over by his subconscious mind. Like a greater demon, which, clearly, she was. It should have been more of a shock but he was well and truly aware that he wasn’t allowed to have a normal life, free of things like that. Why that was the case, he wasn’t certain. It probably had to do with things from a past life, given the severity of what he had going on all the time now.
Back when he was a god, or something, no doubt. No one else could have generated so much bad karma.
“Nifty then. Well… I guess I ask for help then? Maybe get thrown into the dungeon here first thing? The gate guard can tell me a lot, no doubt.”
Except there wasn’t a gate at all. Just a door, about fifteen feet down. On the ground, at his feet, there was the line walker trap. It was tempting to leave it but being a good boy, he wrapped it up in the letter, so he wouldn’t trigger it again, and tucked it into the pocket of his scorched and partially ruined jacket. No one had been commenting on that at all, as if it might just be a style choice on his part.
If so, then everyone seemed to think he had no taste at all. He could live with that, he decided.
Moving to the door, he took in energy and used a good bit of it to kill off pain as totally as he could. That, and left himself feeling happy and confident. Being stressed out or annoyed probably wouldn’t help him at all. Then, not knowing what to expect, he knocked on the front door of the palace.
Nothing happened for a long time.
After the fourth try, he was about to turn around and walk away, when it opened up. The person standing there was a woman. A very attractive one, if kind of short. About five feet and a smidge, at a guess. She had long black hair, and smiled at him.
“Keeley? I… Ann left me here. Or… No, this is a different world, so, not Keeley. Um… Sorry, I’m Troy Lopez. I was dropped off here by a greater demon, and told to try to get back home. I don’t suppose you speak English, or a language I can at least hope to learn in a few days?”
He probably sounded just a bit desperate but the girl, who looked to be about eighteen or so, if not younger than that, smiled up at him.
Then she spoke, in English, if with an accent.
“Hello! I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Taman Baker, the Ancient of this land. Soam. You say that you were left here by one of your Ancients? Ann… I’ve met her, of course. I’d say she was delightful but things were a little tense at the time.”
He took a deep breath then, to show his relief.
“Ah. That’s her then. Still I must be doing something right, if she put me in a place where someone speaks the same language. Taman Baker… Do you know a Tor Baker, or um, a Willum?” He didn’t hold out much hope, until she straightened a bit. Her face was still pleasant, at least.
“I do. Tor is my brother. Will is my student, and nephew. I’m his… I don’t know the word in your language. I teach him but in special skills? Whatever is needed.”
“Mentor? That’s, I guess it’s what I have going on with Ann. I’m not a demon though. Just a vampire. That’s…” It was kind of hard to explain the concept without being scary.
Especially if they didn’t have them there. The walking dead that needed to drink your blood might not be the most popular off world innovation possible.
The really attractive woman tilted her head a bit.
“Like Ambassador Benson? Eve. She’s from a different reality, where they have that sort of person.”
That got him to honestly feel the relief he’d been showing a moment before.
“She’s a friend of mine. From back when we were both human. Um… we used to date.” That one might be a problem, he realized, if they were really puritanical there. No one had mentioned that part to him that he could recall, how they handled that kind of thing.
“Please, come in. Eve is known to me. We haven’t dated of course. I should probably put out some feelers there. Do you recommend her for that?” There was an air that was a bit stiff and formal, as well as lightly playful. Thinking about it all, he nodded.
“Okay, I get it. You don’t know how I’m going to respond to these things either. Do you have relations with women, though? If not, then I can’t really suggest that one. If so… Well, she’s a very nice person, for one of us. I mean, she hardly ever goes on killing sprees or anything. Maybe once or twice a month?” He stopped then, since it could be taken the wrong way. “Uh, that’s for her job, not just her doing that kind of thing?”
She smiled up at him, then moved to close the door behind him, like him being a vampire was no big deal.
“Now, I can call on… I think that Dareg would be the one for this, actually. To get you back to your own world. It’s a bit harsh, stranding you like that, isn’t it? I know that the older Ancients can be a bit difficult that way but… Well, I can’t claim I haven’t been as much so with Will.”
They moved into a room to the left, which was filled with very nice cream-colored furniture. The floor was in polished white stone and so were the walls. There were windows, and the ceiling glowed, to produce even more light.
He looked around.
“This is nicer than what I have back home. My little apartment burned down the other day. It was an attack by a being made of fire. I should upgrade from that, I think. Nothing like this, of course. I’m doing public service work, at a low level. If I live anywhere too nice it will make it seem like I’m doing something wrong. Stealing from the public, for my own gain?” It was a hard concept to get across, he bet.
Not taking it as a judgment of how she lived, which wasn’t how he meant it, the girl smiled.
“I understand that, then. I don’t normally live like this either. I put it up yesterday, because I have guests coming in a few days. People from another reality, which normally strikes people as impressive but probably won’t to you. Ambassador Avery Rome and Ambassador Cindy Mableton.”
That got him to smile.
“Okay, here I thought Ann was being a total creep. Avery would get me home. Not that I can’t do it myself. I mean, I’m a line walker, so that’s doable. It’s just against the current rules. I’m not really stranded. That probably doesn’t make sense though, does it?”
The small woman, looking delicate and almost a bit like a living doll, if one dressed in flowing black velvet trousers with a matching top, settled into a large and comfortable looking chair.
“No. It does. She’s clearly pushing you to do things that might be difficult for you, so that you can find your strengths and weaknesses. Really, I should insist that you learn Standard, so that you can negotiate with Dareg for passage home that way. Are you good with different tongues?”
“Not really. I can speak a little Spanish but that, English, German, Italian, French and a few words of different things is about it. I picked up a little, from my travels.”
“Ots mal…” Then the woman grinned a bit wickedly.
He nodded then.
“Right. Too bad…”
What happened next was both good and bad, he supposed. Not one more word was spoken in English after that. She did however, take him around her giant palace, pointing at things, then making him memorize the names. That took a lot of visualization and focus on his part. She kept it up, until she had to sleep. Then she pulled out a cellphone, or a thing that seemed like one, and used it to call a boy.
Dumas. He caught the name, and about a quarter of the words used to describe his place in the world.
About ten minutes later, the kid, who looked to be about fourteen or fifteen, showed up, smiling. Also locked on to what the language lesson plan was. They worked that all night, without a break. It would have been boring, except that he didn’t really have that kind of luxury. He made the feeling go away, and filled himself with interest. Then, almost as an afterthought, he tried to use a bit of magic and the right concepts to make the language stick in his head.
That hurt a bit but also seemed to work.
As the sun came up, the next morning, after two full days of being drilled by Taman and Dumas, he finally had it. More or less. He hoped.
“Thank you. I think I have the basics now. I should hurry. How do I find Dareg Canton?” They’d each mentioned the name to him but it was Dumas Thomson, Countier Thomson, which was his title, who hopped up then.
“He’s on Mars. We can use the transport hut down the path to get there. You’ll need a shield, first thing. In case the air goes out.”
He shrugged.
“I don’t breathe, so it shouldn’t be a big issue. Mars? That’s kind of big. I don’t suppose we could call him first?” How they were going to do that, he didn’t know but Taman just nodded, and pulled out her cellphone again. After a few taps, she answered it.
At least it was a woman that looked like her. That one spoke in Standard as well, which was a bit like German, Troy thought.
“Hello, mother!” There was a bit of a giggle but Tam giggled back.
“Hello, daughter of mine. Is Dare around? We have a man here who needs passage to a different reality. His Ancient mentor dropped him here, and is forcing him to find his own way back. To make it harder, Dumas and I forced him to learn our language, even though Dareg knows English already.” She glanced at him sidelong, as if he might not have worked that one out already.
He had, of course. She’d mentioned making it harder on purpose, to push him, in the spirit of the thing. Or at least what she took that to be.
Troy grinned then. He spoke in Standard, since he could.
“You do know that I’ve met Dareg before, right? We spoke at the time, in English.”
A voice called out from the device, if off to the side.
“Come in at Samantha’s? I can be there in five minutes, if that works for you?”
Troy didn't know but Dumas waved toward the door to the room.
“We’ll be there, sir. Directly.”
The trip wasn’t a long one. Or, it was but it didn't take long. The dirty blond boy got him outside and into a decent sized red hut. From there they warped in space, and ended up a long way away, from the feeling of it. When the back wall opened up, they were, he supposed, on a different planet.
Troy spoke in Standard, since he’d been doing that for hours.
“Useful, these boxes. Where do we go?”
That turned out to be nowhere, since a somewhat familiar man walked up, shook his hand, then moved past him, back into the box. The fellow was nice looking. Too much so, really. Like Tor Baker a bit. Smiling, he closed the door, and moved them into the void. Given that the space was a node point, Troy wasn’t that shocked by the move. It was just as surprising that he was dumped out in the back of a Yoghurt World, actually.
The man spoke to him in English then, seeming familiar in several ways. That made sense given he was a vampire, in the world they were standing in. Ben Epson. Eve’s old boyfriend. Also, Dareg, who had been around the shop, before Troy had left working there. Normally looking for Eve.
A nice enough guy, except for that part of things, breaking up with his friend like that.
“Here we go! Now, for payment…” The guy actually managed to look shrewd, as if he were going to ask for something bad. Then he spoke, his words giving the lie to that. “You can come for a visit soon? You learned Standard, so we can use the contact here. This is Eve’s place, is it not?”
The man sounded a little foreign but was very clear, even with that being involved.
“It is. I can do that, I think. I’m kind of working without line walking right now. To teach me not to be reliant on it, I think?” It was getting a bit muddled, to tell the truth.
Then
again, he’d been pushing into other skills, because that one was temporarily not his to use, so Troy could see some utility there. The stranger just seemed to think that kind of thing made sense.
“We will see you soon, then? Bring Eve, so that she can carry you? That will work, I would give good wager. She seems most hardy, as to hoisting folk about, does she not? I must now be going. Goodbye!”
Then, with a small wave, the man moved into the natural node and vanished.
Chapter seventeen
When Troy left the back room of the Yoghurt World, the same place that he’d worked for years, he felt a bit surprised. The first reason was simply due to Zack being there, instead of his store. Wearing the same clothing that Troy had last seen him in. It wasn’t super stylish but the work on the clothing, a button up shirt and black slacks, was tailored. Probably thanks to Avery, since she did things like that.
It was clear that her particular demon mentor was expecting Avery to outfit her future family very nicely.
He was standing at the front counter. That was an expanse of marble, with a drink carrier on it. The cardboard thing was sturdy enough for the six large treat cups inside of it. Those would all be for Zack. Greater demons ate a lot, when they could. It was an energy thing. They just had higher needs that way than almost any other kind of being.
Behind the counter was the real shock though. Not that it should have been. Barb, his ex-girlfriend was smiling at Zack, as she pushed the food across to him. They looked well done but Troy was still rocked a bit, for half a second. Then he focused and calmed his spirit a bit. It was, after all, the place where she was the assistant ambassador. She belonged there. He was the one that was supposed to be gone. Not her.
Not the woman that he still loved.
That part surprised him a little as well. Not because he hadn’t known it to be true but in just how powerfully everything had come flooding back. Just on seeing her.
She looked…
Different.
Her hair was short now. Sporty and off her collar. Still jet black. She also had makeup on, which hadn’t really been how she’d lived most of the time they’d been together. Vampires didn’t really need it, day to day. They had perfect skin, as a rule. Pale though, which Barbara had going on in spades. She hadn’t been dark when she’d died, and hadn’t gotten darker over time at all. Her lips were red but she also had some kind of paint over the rest of it that made her seem almost alive. Only the fact that her breathing came when she was about to talk gave her away. The rest of the time she didn’t do it at all.
Hell, In a Troy (Lopez Time Book 2) Page 24