Beyond: Snillotia Trilogy Book One

by Donna Wagner

  He could see the questions in Ronnoc’s head. Ronnoc wanted to know what had happened to Aaron. He only knew that whatever it had been had destroyed most of the castle. He also wanted to know why Tim looked so much older that before when Retep did not. Tim was tired of waiting. Anna go block the door so he can’t run and when I say your name again, reappear.

  “To answer your questions, Uncle Ron,” Tim started, knowing his uncle hated when Tim called him that, “What happened at Aaron is simple. Anna happened.”

  Ronnoc’s eyes widen as he realized Tim answered a question, he hasn’t asked out loud. He visibly jumped when Anna appeared by the door. Tim heard his thoughts immediately jump to the fact that Anna had grown as well. “What is it you want to know? Oh, why I look older? Why Anna looks older? All I can tell you is you know nothing about me or Anna and the way we look is the least of your concern.”

  Tim focused on Anna for a moment, projecting her as she was at thirteen, then releasing the projection. He saw Ronnoc stand up from his chair and start towards her.

  “Stop.”

  Ronnoc froze about a foot in front of her. Anna smiled and started playing the same game. “You want to know if I’m really here? Yes, I am.”

  She grabbed his hand to prove it to him and he collapsed in fear. “Stand up and go back to your chair and sit down,” Tim told him.

  “We didn’t come here to scare you. We simply want you to answer our questions. Just know we will learn the answers one way or another.”

  Ronnoc just nodded, not trusting his voice. Tim asked him for the second time, “Who would have Aaron’s portal key?”

  Ronnoc’s mouth started moving. It took a moment for him to actually speak. “His.. His.. his son!”

  Anna and Tim glanced at each other than both focused on Ronnoc again. “Any son he has wouldn’t be old enough to kidnap my parents!” Anna said, picturing Adam, who was only in his late twenties.

  Ronnoc shook his head, disagreeing. Suddenly, the whole story came tumbling out of his mouth. “Aaron used that portal key constantly. He always went back and forth between here and the backwards world. He was the one that told the Rebels that was where your parents had escaped to and that you and Anna even existed. Each time we saw him, he looked different. Sometimes he was older- middle aged even. Other times he was in his early twenties. He said that time was different in the backwards world and he never knew when he’d get here or there when he went through. Sometimes when he would come back, we would know things he had told us, but he didn’t even know them yet! It got very confusing sometimes! Anyway,” Ronnoc returned to the point, “On one of his many trips through, he met someone. He fell in love with her. He sent a message back with one of our other members saying he was done with Snillotia, wished us luck and said he wouldn’t be returning. He said he couldn’t chance not being able to get back to the time the love of his life lived in. We knew that was a lie because we’d already seen him when he was older, so we thought nothing of it at first, but then we remembered a time previously, when he had appeared older when he had been ranting about finding a way to fix something. It was during that visit he told us about your parents and you, Tim.”

  Tim thought for a moment. If Aaron had gone back to the backwards world at an earlier time than his own, and stayed, it would be possible for that child to be old enough to be who they were looking for. He could see Anna had come to the same conclusion. “Do you know anything more about the son? His name? How old is he? Where he lives?”

  Ronnoc shook his head. “Not much. He brought the boy with him only a few times, and always when he appeared here with him, he was in his older years. I don’t remember his name since it sounded strange to me, being from the backwards world. The last time I saw him was right after the incident at the castle. He came, wanting to know what happened to his father. He said he hadn’t seen him in months. I didn’t tell him about what happened at the castle since I don’t know what it is that happened. I just said I hadn’t seen him since you all arrived. He asked a lot of questions about you two, and then left.”

  “So, we’re looking for a man we don’t know the name of. Picture him in your mind so we can see,” Anna said.”

  Ronnoc tried. The image that they could both see in his thoughts could have been anyone. All they really got from it was dark hair. “I am sorry. I didn’t think it was important enough to remember him. He is not from this world.”

  “He lives in the backwards world?” Tim asked.

  “Yes. He only came here with that portal key you have. If you have it though, I fear he is now stuck.”

  Tim did not correct his assumption that meant the man was stuck in Snillotia. They at least knew that Einna and Tre were being kept in the backwards world. It was time to go home. He nodded to Anna. She gave one last look at Ronnoc. “Is there anything else you can tell us about this man before we leave?”

  “Only that he is not a man. Not yet. He is maybe a year or so older than my son. Perhaps older than you two, as well, or perhaps not.” Ronnoc stated, eyeing them warily.

  “One last question, how did he get Aaron’s portal key? Didn’t Aaron have it that day?” Tim asked.

  Ronnoc squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “There was a man, he was one of mine. After that day, he was obsessed with what had happened. He was the only one who thought Aaron’s plan was foolish. He found it in the castle and made it his mission to return it to the son. I never saw him again, but I know he’s no longer with us.”

  Anna and Tim left the room. Ronnoc did not follow. As they entered the living room, Peter jumped up from the couch where he’d been sitting with his mother. “Is it time to go?”

  “Go? You just got here! You cannot leave again!” Arat exclaimed.

  “Mother, this was only a visit. I am not staying. I will visit again soon.”

  “No! You will not leave again. Ronnoc! Retep is trying to leave us again!”

  There was no answer from Ronnoc. Arat looked at Tim and then Anna when she realized Anna was even in the room. “What did you do to my husband?” she screamed at them and ran from the room.

  “We didn’t do anything to him, but talk, really,” Anna told Peter.

  Peter shrugged. “Let’s go before they both try to stop me.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  When they reached the castle, the children where all waiting, and ready to go. To make it easier to get everyone through the portal, Tim had Anna carry Xela and asked Peter to carry Yma. He would be carrying Nevets and Kram and Derf were old enough to walk through on their own. He made sure everyone was connected and led them through the portal. They all landed in a heap inside the secret room. Yma was the first to recover. “That was amazing!”

  Anna smiled. “Pete, can you go let everyone know we’re back? We’ll bring the kids out in a moment.”

  Peter agreed and left. “Okay, now we just want to warn you there are a lot of people out there that want to meet you. They’ll call you by your name if we’re here in this house, but when you go outside, they’ll have to call you by your name backwards, so you fit in, in this world! Does everyone know what their name is backwards?”

  “I do!” Yma exclaimed, “I’m Ah-me!”

  Anna smiled. “Close! Here they say it Amy.”

  “Amy,” she said trying it out, “Hey! That was my mother’s name!”

  Anna nodded and proceeded to make sure everyone else knew how to say their names properly backwards, Fred, Mark, Steven, and Alex. Once she was satisfied, they let the children out of the secret room. She could see them looking around and taking in their surroundings, noting things the same and things that were different in Snillotia. Peter came back and met them halfway. “Everyone is waiting in Grandma An’s sitting room.”

  As they reach the room, Kram was the first to say anything. “Where’s Woof?”

  Goldie stood up from where she’d been laying and came over to him. “Hello Kram. I am here. My name is Goldie, if you please. It is nice to finally be able to tal
k to you.”

  Kram stood staring at her for a moment then picked her up and hugged her. “You’re still Woof to me.”

  “Okay,” Goldie agreed, with a sigh.

  “She really does talk!” Yma exclaimed.

  The little girl was so excited. She ran around the room and hugged everyone hello telling everyone her name, forwards and backwards.

  Once all the introductions had been made, Tim noticed Myra had gone deathly pale and was staring at Yma, who was on the floor petting Goldie.

  “It’s okay, Myra. Goldie won’t hurt her,” Tim assured her.

  Myra glanced at him, then back at Yma, and nodded quickly, though she still looked like she had seen a ghost.

  Adam saw the exchange and smiled at Tim and shrugged. Grandma An was the first to bring them back to the situation at hand. “What did you learn from Ronnoc? Who could have taken my daughter?”

  “Well, according to Ronnoc, Aaron had a son.”

  He let that sink in for a moment, watching Adam carefully. Adam looked very surprised. “I have a nephew?”

  Tim nodded, and continued, “It seems during one of his trips to this world, Aaron met someone and decided to give up his cause in Snillotia. He had a child, but then something happened, and he started going back. Ronnoc said the child was with him sometimes when they saw him, and he appeared at an older age. And it wasn’t until then, that he even told them Anna and I existed and that we and our parents were in this world.”

  No one said anything for a moment. “How could a child take Einna and Tre?” Grandpa Siul finally asked.

  “According to Ronnoc, this child is basically a teenager- a few years older than Anna and I are, or so he thinks. We left him kind of confused on that note,” Tim said smiling a bit.

  “Adam, when you last saw your brother, did he seem older to you?” Anna asked.

  Adam closed his eyes and thought for a moment and then shook his head. “I can’t really remember. I didn’t see him for all that long before he took Myra. I was too shocked to see him at all to remember anything else!”

  Anna turned to Myra. “When you were with him do you remember anything odd? Or maybe where he took you?”

  Myra didn’t answer. Adam took her hand and squeezed gently, getting her attention. After a moment, she blinked and pulled her gaze from where Yma and Goldie were still sitting on the floor. “What? Sorry!”

  Anna repeated her questions. Myra immediately nodded. “When I was with him, he dyed his hair. I remember thinking that was odd, since he wasn’t changing the color. As to where I was, I know it was a house, because I kept glimpsing a kitchen and part of a family room whenever the door opened and he came into the space he kept me in, but other than that I don’t know.”

  “Did you ever see a boy?”

  Myra shook her head. “No, but I heard him talking to someone else, sometimes.”

  “Do you remember anything he said to that other person? Or what they said to him?”

  “Not much. I remember one conversation that seemed to be about me, or so I thought, but I stopped listening once I realized it couldn’t have been.”

  “What did you hear?”

  “I heard someone ask him why. I assumed they were asking why he had me locked in the little room. Aaron’s answer didn’t make any sense, though. He said the whole situation could have been avoided had the woman responded to his letter. I knew I never received a letter from him, so I couldn’t be the woman. I stopped listening after that.”

  Everyone stayed quiet thinking about what Myra had heard Aaron say. Tim broke the silence after a few moments. “Do you think the woman was my mother? Do you think Aaron wrote my mother a letter for some reason?”

  “Why would he have written a letter to you mother? If he knew who your mother was, I don’t think he would have been a fan. She wrote books about a secret princess, right?” Adam questioned.

  Tim nodded. “Aaron was a true Rebel, even though he wasn’t from your world originally. He hated the royals with a passion most of the others didn’t even have,” Adam paused and glanced at Grandma An and Grandpa Mit, “No offense to you guys or anything, but my brother wouldn’t have read any fairytale books because of it. Plus, those books started coming out when we were older. I remember the first one was released right before our father took us to Snillotia for the last time.”

  Tim had stopped listening as soon as Adam had mentioned his mother’s fan. A memory gradually grew in his mind and suddenly he was seven years old.

  Mommy! Can I have another cookie?”

  Tim looks around the kitchen when Mommy doesn’t reappear. He slides off the chair he is sitting on while eating his after-school snack and wanders into the living room. Mommy is standing at the door with another woman who has a bunch of envelopes in her hand. The woman is talking to Mommy and waving a piece of paper around. “Ellen, I’m telling you, this one is a crazy one! I know you said you didn’t want to know about any crazy fans, but it seems the more books you write, the crazier they become!”

  The woman, Paula, helps Mommy with her books. Tim doesn’t know what she does exactly, but from what she is saying, it sounds like she opens her fan mail. It is weird to think Mommy had fans. He had written a letter to his favorite superhero when he was a little kid. Mommy had called it fan mail and then had to explain what the word “fan” could mean, when he didn’t understand how his letter was connected to the thing on his ceiling that blew cold air on him in the summer! He focuses again on what the women are saying. “This guy thinks what your writing is real, Ellen. I think once the crazies cross that line between fiction and reality; you need to be aware of them.”

  Tim laughs. Some guy thinks Mommy’s stories are real? The women hear him, and Mommy gives him a small smile. “Okay, Paula. I understand where you’re coming from. Thanks for letting me know.”

  Mommy reaches for the paper in Paula’s hand and takes the stack of envelopes filled with letters that had been chosen to get a personal response from her. She tells Paula she’ll talk to her soon and closes the door after her when she leaves. Tim watches as she glances at the piece of paper, then shivers, slightly. She looks up with a big smile on her face. “Did I hear you ask for another cookie, baby?”

  Tim nods and follows Mommy back to the kitchen. She puts two more cookies on his plate and says, “Stay here and finish your cookies, baby, I’ll be right back.”

  Mommy leaves the room, but Tim hears her stop outside the door to Daddy’s office. When the office door closes behind her, he runs to the door to try to listen. Mommy never gives him two cookies when he asks for one more. He’d already had four! “This man knows! How could someone here know? We need to leave immediately! Tim isn’t safe here, if this man comes here thinking we can help him!”

  Mommy sounds very upset. He could hear Daddy calming her down. Then Daddy says, “Honey, you have no reason to worry. No one knows who really writes your books and that’s why the mail goes Paula’s office instead of our house.”

  It is quiet for a moment. Tim knows he should go back to the kitchen and finish those cookies before Mommy realizes she gave him too many. He quickly runs back and slides into his chair just as he hears the office door open.

  Tim opened his eyes to find every person in the room staring at him. “I remembered something.”

  Yma bounced up to him. “I saw it! You were little!”

  His eyes flew to Anna’s and she nodded. Apparently, he’d projected that memory to everyone, including Myra and Adam. Adam was looking at him in shock. Myra was staring off into space again. She really didn’t seem like herself lately. “Sorry about that everyone. I didn’t mean to do that. The memory hit me so quickly. I guess it saves time explaining what I remember, though.”

  Adam seemed to get over his shock, quickly. “You think my brother was the one that sent that letter?”

  Tim shrugged. “I don’t know. Myra remembers him saying he wrote a letter to a woman. My mother got a letter from someone who knew her books were base
d on Snillotia. It seems like it was him. I just don’t know how to check.”

  Adam looked up in surprise. “I thought you went through the storage locker finally?”

  “Well, sort of. I really only went to get my mom’s laptop. I stopped looking once I found it.”

  Adam nodded and didn’t question him about the laptop, but Tim could tell he had questions. “Well, there are probably two or three boxes in there filled with nothing but fan mail.”

  Tim glanced at the clock on the wall. He and Anna had been awake for over 24 hours. He knew they needed to move quickly to find Anna’s parents and the storage place was open 24 hours, but he didn’t want to draw any suspicion to them by having two teenagers show up at two o’clock in the morning. “Look, Anna and I need to get some sleep. Anna, I know you disagree, but we really do need to sleep. We won’t be able help to your parents if we’re exhausted. A few hours, that’s all,” Tim said, mostly to Anna.

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed her an alarm set for five o’clock. “Myra, do you have any extra blankets we can use to make some beds in here? We’ll figure out permanent sleeping arrangements for the kids when Anna’s parents are safe and sound.”

  Myra nodded after a moment and got up to get them. Everyone retired to their own rooms to get some sleep themselves. Grandma Aras and Grandma Eilime stayed. “We’ll stay out here with the darlings,” Grandma Eilime said, as Myra came back with the blankets and a few pillows.

  “Thank you, dear,” she said to Myra.

  Tim watched as Grandma Eilime quickly made some beds. Grandma Aras walked over to where he and Anna stood with the children. She gave them each a hug. He immediately felt refreshed and knew she had used her power. “I know you want to sleep, son, but I wanted to help you a little as well.”

  Tim nodded and after speaking with the children, he and Anna left the room. He paused at Anna’s door and promised her he’d be in to wake her as soon as the alarm went off. She nodded and slipped inside her room. He continued to his own room, quickly cleaned up and slipped into bed. He had feared after Grandma Aras’ hug he wouldn’t be able to sleep but he could feel his body relaxing as soon as he lay down. As his eyes shut, he thought he felt someone sit on his bed, but he was too far gone to care.