Beyond: Snillotia Trilogy Book One

by Donna Wagner

  Tim and Anna stopped short and stared at Retep. Tim had been surprised again that his cousin had spoken up. However, he couldn’t tell if Retep was just stating a fact well known in Snillotia, or if there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Before he could think about it more, Goldie stated, “He’s right, of course. We are here.”

  They had stopped in front of a door that looked no different than any of the others, but when the door opened, Tim knew it was completely different. He walked into a large, beautifully furnished, room. The ceilings were quite high and natural light seemed to be streaming from them. There were couches and chairs clustered around a fireplace. Here is where the grandparents and Anna’s parents had sat waiting. They had all stopped talking and turned when the door opened. No one seemed surprised at all to see that Retep was with them. Tim, as always, must have looked confused. “I had a vision,” Grandma An, simply said.

  Tim understood and nodded, wearily. He was mentally and physically exhausted. He sighed. There was one more thing he had to do before he could relax for a moment. He turned to Retep. “Give me your hands.”

  Retep hesitated at first, then then held out his hands to Tim. Tim held them lightly and closed his eyes as thoughts and images that were not his own flitted through his head. He focused on the most recent ones. He needed to be sure Retep was not somehow in contact with Ronnoc before he could relax. It seemed Retep was trying very hard to keep something hidden in his mind. Tim pushed harder. Retep struggled more. Tim opened his eyes and stared right into his cousin’s. Retep relaxed slightly, and this allowed Tim, not to see what he was hiding, but to know whatever it was wasn’t about Ronnoc. It was about Anna.

  He dropped Retep’s hands and released all the power he’d been holding on to. He sank into a nearby chair. Before anyone could even say a word, Tim was fast asleep. Anna watched Tim finally relax and the perception of his younger self disappear. She knew hers had as well. She went and sat by her parents. Grandma Aras gestured that Retep should come and sit with them. She smiled at him, warmly. “I’m glad you came.”

  Retep nodded, slightly, and looked around. He was waiting for something to happen, but it seemed like everyone was content to just sit there and relax. It also seemed as if Tim was actually the one in charge and no one was going to do anything until he woke up. He sat stiffly, aware that Anna was staring at him. Finally, she spoke. “Why weren’t you surprised that we look different?”

  Her question had not been what he was expecting. Then he remembered that Anna hadn’t heard what he’d whispered to Tim. “I, uh, already knew. When, um, Tim froze everyone. He didn’t freeze me. I don’t freeze.”

  Grandpa Cire stared at Retep. “What do you mean you don’t freeze?”

  Retep shrugged. “My dad can’t freeze me. Everyone always assumed it was some quirk- that my big power is that I’m the opposite of my dad. He freezes people and no one can freeze me.”

  Anna shook her head. “That’s different than what Tim does though. He freezes time, not people, like your dad.”

  Retep shrugged again. Grandpa Cire had a thoughtful look on his face. He picked up a book that had been lying on a nearby table. Suddenly a copy of the book appeared and then landed with a thud on the floor in front of him. “Retep, can you pick that up for me?”

  Confused, Retep knelt down to pick up the book. His hand went through it as though nothing was there. He felt his fingers brush the carpet. He looked at Grandpa Cire in surprise. Grandpa Cire nodded, as though he expected that to happen. He knelt and picked up the book himself. It appeared solid in his hand. He handed it to Anna. She was able to hold it as well. “Astonishing!” he exclaimed, “You’re a Ward!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “A what?”

  Everyone turned to look at Tim when he spoke. Grandma Aras stood beside him, her hand on his shoulder. “As soon as I realized what you were going to conclude, Cire, I thought Tim should be awake for this.”

  “What is a Ward?” Retep asked.

  “It’s not common. I have only ever heard of one other person with that power- my grandfather. Basically, most powers, probably anything but mind powers, don’t affect you, unless you want them to. Consciously, or subconsciously, if you want something to work on you it will,” he explained, taking the book back from Anna.

  He tossed the book to Retep. Without even thinking, he caught the book. He looked at it in amazement. It was a real book. Tim looked at his cousin, surprised that he felt happy for him. He’d seen Retep’s thoughts and memories. He knew Retep had always felt like he didn’t belong since he couldn’t really do anything, like everyone else he knew. “Wait. Retep, when you met us, did we look younger?”

  Retep nodded his head. “I guess, subconsciously, I wanted to see what you were projecting?”

  “But how would you know, even subconsciously?”

  Retep thought for a moment. “Well they,” he explained, pointing at their shared grandparents, “told me you were a few years younger than me. Maybe because I was expecting you to be younger, that’s what I saw?”

  He looked at Tim again, realization dawning on him. Then he looked at his grandparents. “Why did you lie? He’s not a few years younger.”

  “We didn’t, dear,” Grandma Aras said, softly, “He and Anna both look quite different to us. We saw them a few weeks ago and they had both just reached their thirteenth year.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Do we trust him?

  Anna nodded her head, slightly, in response to Tim’s unasked question. Tim looked directly at his cousin. “Retep, what do you know about the backwards world?”

  Retep looked surprised. It was clear he was not expecting a question. Tim waited for him to answer. “Well,” Retep started slowly, “I know they say things backwards- names mostly. My name would be…. Peter.”

  Tim laughed as his cousin figured out how to say his name backwards. He pronounced Peter with the emphasis on the end of the word, instead of the beginning and the expression on his face let Tim know he thought it was the strangest sounding name.

  “Right, Peter,” Tim said, saying it correctly, “Anything else?”

  “Not really,” Retep said, shaking his head, but then he added quietly, “I heard no one has a power there.”

  Retep had sounded almost wistful at that. Then Tim realized that until today, Retep had believed he didn’t really have a power. A place where he was like everyone else was probably somewhere he would have loved to live. “Right. No one has a power. At least, if they do, they don’t share it, since it’s not a world that believes in things like that.”

  Retep nodded, in understanding, though Tim could tell he was still confused as to why they were talking about this. “Your father didn’t ask where Anna and I were hiding for the last two weeks. I was kind of surprised that he didn’t, but I guess he didn’t feel like it really mattered. But I think it does,” Tim paused taking a deep breath.

  He was about to tell Retep the last thing Ronnoc didn’t know. Although Retep already knew Tim was unusually powered, he didn’t think Retep realized how different Tim really was. “You know Anna and I grew up in the backwards world?”

  Retep nodded, still not understanding. “That’s where we were. We went home. However, time moves differently there. It may have only been two weeks here, but for us, it’s been quite a bit longer.”

  Tim looked inside Retep’s head as he watched his cousin finally understand why he and Anna looked so much older than they had two weeks ago. He wanted to make sure Retep wasn’t hiding any way of sharing this information with Ronnoc. Retep’s thoughts were jumping from one thing to another. The only thing that stood out to Tim was that Retep seemed quite happy that Anna was really the same age as him. Tim frowned at his cousin, and then continued. “We’re going back, all of us. Anna and I think it’s the safest place for us right now. We have to learn more and figure out how to make everything right in Snillotia again.”

  Again, Tim watched Retep’s thoughts. He was
afraid of going to another world. He had no idea what to expect. He didn’t understand how they were going to get there. Satisfied that Retep really wasn’t a spy, after all, Tim relaxed and left his cousin’s mind. “Goldie, we need to know what you can actually do with these rooms from storage. My old house is big, but it’s not big enough for everyone to have a place to sleep. Does their have to be space for these rooms in the house already – like my mom’s room was above the secret room?”

  Goldie jumped onto the table so everyone could see her. “I do not know how to describe what I can do with the rooms, Tim. It is magic. I am a gup, and magic is what a gup is. If I bring the rooms, I can make it so they look like part of the house, but for everyone to have space, it will look like the house had what you call an addition built on. The only thing I cannot do is make people not wonder how it was built so quickly.”

  Tim thought about that for a moment. Having a few confused neighbors was better than being crammed in the house with no space, he decided. Plus, Adam and Myra had no idea what was happening and technically, Tim’s house was theirs now. “It’ll have to do.”

  “I will make a suggestion then, Tim. The royal rooms are quite large and have multiple rooms. If I send the Queen and King’s former rooms to the backwards world, everyone should have enough space.”

  Tim looked at Grandpa Mit and Grandma An, making sure that was okay with them. They had seemed pretty normal for Royals, but Tim really hadn’t been around them enough to know if they would mind sharing their space. They nodded. The rest of the grandparents and Anna’s parents had been quiet for a while. Einna cleared her throat. “Tim, our house is not far from yours, just in the next town over. Do we really all need to stay in one place?”

  Tim thought about it. “I guess we don’t have to,” he said slowly.

  “Yes, we do,” Anna said at the same time.

  Everyone looked at Anna. She looked at her parents. She opened her mouth to try to explain and then stopped. Then she tried again, “If you go home, I’ll go with you, but I really don’t want to.”

  She saw a hurt look on her parents faces. “No! That’s not what I meant! That’s why we all need to stay at Tim’s house. I want us to be together, but I don’t want to move out of Tim’s house.”

  The adults looked from her to Tim, wondering if there was something between them, they were missing. Anna caught on first. “No! I’m really not explaining this right at all! If I move back home, I’ll have to change schools. I like school. I like my friends.”

  “But honey,” Tre said, trying to understand, “You never went to school before. We always taught you at home.”

  Tim decided to side with Anna, even though he didn’t like her reasoning. Tim knew when she thought of her friends, she was really thinking of Jason. “I agree with Anna. She and I need to stay together, in the same house,” he looked at Anna as he continued, “Not because of school or anyone at school. Anna must learn about her powers. I know that’s hard because I did it on my own. I also think we’ll be safer together.”

  “Safer? The Rebels aren’t in the backwards world. Why wouldn’t we be safe at all?” Retep asked, truly worried and wondering if he’d made a mistake in coming with Tim.

  Tim looked at Retep. It seemed he didn’t know much about what his father was involved in. “The Rebels, at least some of them, can get to the backwards world,” he paused, seeing the surprise on Retep’s face, “It’s a long story. I’ll explain it to you later, if you really want to know.”

  Retep nodded, then asked, “So, what is this “school”? Is it like the Y? Will I have to go too?”

  “It would make sense if you did, so no one gets suspicious, but it might be hard for you since you’ve never gone to school,” Anna told him.

  He gave her a sharp look. “I think I’ll do quite fine, thank you.”

  Tim hid a smile, as Retep channeled his father. “Well, if you come to school, you’ll have to use your backward name. You’ll draw too much attention using your name as it is. It’s definitely not a name in the backwards world and people would always question you about it.”

  Retep looked at Tim with a sour look. “So, I’ll be Peter, from now on, or at least while we’re there?”

  “Yes, Peter,” Tim stated, again correcting the way Retep pronounced the name.

  “Maybe school isn’t for me then.”

  Anna snorted as she laughed. “Well, Peter, you don’t look old enough to be done school, so depending on how long we’re there, you may not have a choice!”

  Tim looked at Anna, surprised. She had sounded exactly like she did when she was annoyed with him and she was around her friends. Before he could say anything about it, Goldie interrupted. “I am ready to send the rooms now.”

  She closed her large eyes, then as she opened them, she stated, “It is done.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Retep jumped up, in surprise. "Already? We are already in the backwards world?"

  His voice cracked at the end of his question. "It's magic, dear. It'll be okay. This is new for most of us, too," Grandma Aras said, trying to calm him.

  Retep was breathing very quickly. He'd never felt this way before. He suddenly missed his mother and her calming effect very much. "So what do we do now?" he managed to ask between deep breaths.

  "You don't do anything. I am going to see where that door opens in the house and find Adam and Myra and explain what happened. I also need to see how much time has passed here. We might need to come up with a convincing story if Anna and I have been gone awhile."

  "I'm coming with you," Anna told him.

  Tim nodded. He and Anna crossed the room to the door and opened it. They stared out into a dark upstairs hallway. "We're on the second floor!" Anna exclaimed in surprise.

  Tim stepped into the hallway and held out his hand. Anna took it and together they left and went in search of Adam. The first door they came to was to Tim's bedroom. He glanced inside the room. "I think we may have gotten lucky. My bed looks exactly like it did when we left. Unless no one came in the room, I don't think much time passed at all while we were gone."

  He entered his room and looked at the clock on his bedside table. It said it was just after midnight. Now he knew where they'd find Adam. He just didn't know what day it was. "Come on. We're going to have to wake them up."

  As they stepped back into the hallway, Anna held up her hand to stop Tim from going any farther. “Someone is in the bathroom,” she said, pointing at the door that now had light peeking around the edges.

  Tim nodded, as they heard the toilet flush and the sink turn on. They stood in the dark hallway, waiting for the door to open. When it did, and a figured shuffled into the hallway, Tim was relieved that it was Adam and not Myra. Adam continued to walk back towards his bedroom, not even noticing them at the other end of the hallway. “Adam,” Tim called, quietly, to get his attention.

  Adam turned and barely looked surprised to see the two of them standing in the hallway in the middle of the night. “Why are you guys awake? You have school in the morning.”

  Anna and Tim looked at each other, in surprise. “We need to talk to you. Something’s happened,” Anna said.

  Adam seemed to suddenly be more alert. He came towards them and only when he was closer, did he realize there was an extra door in the hallway behind them. “What’s going on? I thought you two had gone to bed early.”

  “Adam, are you saying you saw us a few hours ago?”

  Adam nodded. “I saw you both at dinner. Then, Tim, you went to write your paper. Anna, Jason and Evan came over for a while, I saw you when you and Jason, uh- when they left,” Adam finished, stumbling over the end of his explanation.

  Anna’s face was bright pink. A familiar wave of loathing for Jason filled Tim, but he pushed it away. “I can’t believe we’ve barely been gone. I’ll never understand how time is so different between there and here.”

  Adam’s eyes widened as he finally understood what was going on. “You figured out how to
get back- a different way than the portal that leads to the castle? Wait, where did that door come from?”

  One question after another flew out of Adams mouth before they could even answer one. “Get Myra and meet us downstairs. We’ll explain everything.”

  After Adam disappeared back into his bedroom to wake his wife, Tim turned back to the new doorway. “You can open the door now.”

  The door swung open and Retep stood there, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry. We could hear you talking, and we wanted to know what was going on. I was just trying to hear a little better.”

  Tim nodded. “Just tell everyone that we still have to explain things to Adam and Myra. He’s waking her now. I’ll let you know when it’s okay to come downstairs.”

  Retep sighed and went back into the room and closed the door, hard. Anna winced as the thud echoed in the hallway. “I think he’s used to getting to do whatever he wants,” Anna stated, as they walked towards the stairs.

  Tim nodded in agreement, hoping, once again, that having his cousin here would not wind up being a huge mistake. They went into the living room and waited for Adam and Myra to appear. It didn’t take long. Tim had a flash of déjà vous. The scene was very similar to the first night he’d been back in his house, with Adam and Myra. Except this time, Anna was awake, and she and Tim would be the ones giving the explanations. “Well,” Tim started, “I did find a way back, and I tricked Anna into to going, since I knew she didn’t want to. The first thing, to let you know, is that everyone is okay. A lot less time has passed there than here. Maybe just two weeks or so.”

  Tim continued. He told them of finding out where everyone was- who the man who saved them had been and everything Ronnoc had told them and what he’d learned and suspected from those conversations. Questions were asked and Anna also gave her side of things as well. Finally, there was only one thing left to say. “Since we don’t know if Ronnoc can be trusted, we decided that this world would be the only safe place, since we kept it from him that we’d been here, that we’re older than he thinks, and that Tim has control of quite a few powers,” Anna explained.