by Devan Skyles
“No, no!” Rhydian pleaded, his heart pounding so hard he though his chest would explode. His whole body trembled with terror like he’d never felt before. “Please, just let her go.”
“You have the same weakness for the humans that your father did,” said Corvus. “Now, give me the timekeeper, and she’ll be fine. I promise.”
Rhydian, a sense of dreadful despair filling him, reached one trembling hand into his shirt and retrieved the timekeeper. He held it in his hand for a moment, during which Corvus depressed the trigger slightly. Defeated, he unclasped the chain and held it out. One of the men snatched it and brought it to Corvus.
“Excellent,” Corvus said keeping the gun pointed at Ellie. “Now search them.”
“You have what you came for!” Auram exclaimed. “Now leave us alone!”
The men proceeded to search them. One of them discovered Taya’s timekeeper and held it out for Corvus to see.
“Bring it with us,” Corvus ordered. “I don’t want them following us back and causing trouble. Especially this one.” He pointed at Auram. “Do you know how much trouble I’m having trying to quash the rumors spread by this so-called ‘Auram’s word’?”
Auram smirked belligerently.
When Corvus was satisfied with the search, he tossed Ellie into Rhydian’s arms. “I do hope you’ll reconsider, Rhydian, when all this is over. I consider you a good friend, and I can see you being a great general by my side one day, when you realize this was a necessary step for our kind.”
With nothing more to say, Corvus gave a nod and they all retreated back into their vehicles and drove off. Desmond waited for the SUVs to pass and fell in at the end of the line, following them down the dirt road.
Rhydian felt completely defeated and helpless. He had failed to keep not one, but two of the master timekeeper’s out of the wrong hands, and all because he trusted the wrong person. They’d lost, and there was nothing more he could do about it.
The group dealt with their defeat in different ways. Auram paced around, not saying much. Taya occupied her time with a sword, running through complex solo drills until she glistened with sweat. Ellie read through her mother’s journal entries again. But Rhydian couldn’t bring himself to do anything. He’d lost everything he’d ever cared about: his home, his family, his father’s inheritance to him, Ellie…
Ellie built a fire and brought them all sleeping bags and pillows. Rhydian, Auram, and Taya, all camped outside in the yard. No one said much.
Ellie lay wide awake in her bed half the night, staring at the ceiling. Conflict stirred within her heart. She felt she’d let down her mother by not completing her work, but what was more, she wasn’t sure she cared anymore. She knew she was about to lose her whole world as she knew it, and she didn’t want to waste any more time without the one thing she knew she still had.
Getting up, she walked outside into the cool night air. The stars were bright tonight and crickets chirped all through the fields. Making her way quietly through the yard, she knelt by Rhydian, who was sound asleep on top of his sleeping bag. He stirred as she slid her hand up his chest.
He stirred and blinked up at her. “Ellie?”
She shushed him quietly and settled in next to him, sliding her hand up to his cheek. Her skin felt warm and soft against his, and he reached up and ran his fingers up the back of her neck. Moving closer now, she rested her delicate frame against his body. She leaned in close and exhaled nervously, looking deep into his eyes. He stared back into hers. For a moment, their lips brushed together softly and she closed her eyes. Rhydian ran his fingers up through her hair and pulled her in close, pressing his lips to hers. They embraced passionately and kissed for much of the night before falling asleep in each other’s arms, Rhydian gently cradling her head against his chest.
He woke to the sound of songbirds and the golden rays of sunlight warming his skin. He smiled, feeling the warmth of Ellie’s body nestled close to his. Her breath was warm on his neck as she exhaled deeply. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so safe, secure, and content as she snuggled in closer and he wrapped his arms tight around her.
She blinked her eyes open in the bright morning light and smiled at Rhydian. “Good morning, handsome.”
“Good morning,” he replied, kissing her forehead.
“You know, I’ve never slept so well knowing the world was about to end.”
He gave a weak smile. “Well, don’t you worry. I’ll make sure you acclimate to Ilimíri technology easily. I’m just going to miss ravioli.”
Ellie laughed. “Are you sure you’re still going to like me when I’m all slow and clumsy?”
“Ellie,” he said, turning her head towards him gently, “you are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. There is no power on this earth that could make me stop caring for you.”
She looked fondly into his eyes and kissed him on the lips. Then she saw something in the distance and squinted in the sunlight. Someone was approaching from the woods.
“Someone’s coming,” she said urgently, standing up.
Rhydian grabbed his sword and stood as well, waking the others. Within seconds, everyone was up in arms, waiting for the stranger to approach. The man walked with an unsteady gate, slow and deliberate. When he came close enough, everyone immediately recognized him as the old man, Nicodemus.
“What’s he doing here?” Auram exclaimed.
“Wait,” Ellie said, looking out and the man. “I know him. He won’t hurt anyone.”
Rhydian turned to her in alarm. “Ellie, what do you mean, you know him? He’s been here before?”
“Yeah, he’s just a sweet old hermit who lives out in the woods somewhere. I think Rose mentioned knowing him.”
Auram gawked at her. “Ellie, that’s Nicodemus! He’s the Gatemaker responsible for this whole thing! He’s the one performing the rift that’s going to end human life as you know it!”
“El, when has he been here before?” Rhydian asked, concerned.
“Um, I don’t know. Now and then for the last year or so, I guess. Ever since my parents died.”
Rhydian and Auram exchanged bemused expressions.
“Why does he come around? Does he say?” Rhydian questioned.
“No reason in particular,” she replied. “He’s always just seemed like a lonely old man.”
“Well, that’s a fair description,” Auram replied, “but what are his reasons?”
“Hang on a sec,” Ellie exclaimed. “You’re telling me that he’s from Ilimíra, too? Is there anyone I know who’s not secretly from a parallel world?”
“He can’t be here alone,” said Taya, raising her sword. “If I had to guess, I’d say the soldiers are flanking us from the woods.”
“But why would they leave us here only to come back for us now?” Rhydian said.
No one had an answer to that.
“I am unarmed,” said Nicodemus as he approached the group. “I came alone.”
They all fanned out and surrounded the old man.
“You look lovely today, Ellie,” he said.
“Who are you, really?” she questioned.
“I suspect that, by now, your friends have already told you the answer to that question.”
“They say you’re the one who’s threatening the human world; that you’re performing this— this rift.”
He nodded his ancient head slowly. “Regrettably, yes, I am.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you do that?”
“I have been given very little choice,” he sighed. “If I refuse, General Corvus will have my son killed.”
“Nice try, old man.” Auram interceded. “Did you forget most of us are from Ilimíra? We know your son died in combat twenty years ago. Everyone knows that.”
“At the same battle where my father died,” Rhydian added.
“That was how it was meant to seem,” Nicodemus replied. “My son knew of Corvus’s plot all those long years ago, and when Corvus betrayed Gideon, he went
into hiding. But he was eventually captured and is now held in a secret prison in the northern colonies, somewhere in the Sandstone Spires. I have come to ask for your help in rescuing him. If I get my son back, I will not perform the rift, no matter what Corvus does to me.”
“You should refuse anyway,” Taya spat. “One man’s life is insignificant next to the fate of a civilization. Only a coward uses that as an excuse for his lack of moral convictions.”
“When you have children, my dear, I have no doubt that you would do whatever it takes to keep them from harm as well. Besides, I am old and tired. What convictions I once had disappeared with my youth, before I lost my family to war.”
“So, admitting you’re a coward makes it okay?” Auram rebutted.
The old man breathed a deep sigh and asked, “Will you help me?”
“What’s to stop us from killing you right now?” Taya questioned him.
“What’s stopping you is, without me, you have no hope of ever returning to Ilimíra.”
“Yeah, I can live with that,” Auram returned, putting the point of his sword against the old man’s chest. Rhydian and Taya nodded in agreement.
“I’m a soldier,” Taya said. “I’ve always been willing to sacrifice myself for the good of the people, even if they’re not my people.”
Ellie surprised everyone by lifting the blade of Auram’s sword gently. “I think we should do it.”
“What?” Auram exclaimed. “You can’t be serious! Ellie, we’ve won! He just walked right into our hands!”
“I just think it’s the right thing to do,” she said. “I mean, if you could stop the rift and save his son, why wouldn’t you do it?”
“Because this way is sure to work!” Auram argued.
“Yeah, that sounds an awful lot like your friend Corvus’s reasoning,” she came back. “I mean, what are you going to do, execute him right here in cold blood?”
Auram faltered and looked down at his feet.
“Follow me through the threshold,” Nicodemus said, “and I will explain everything to you.”
“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Rhydian asked.
“Because you are no threat trapped here, and because if I wanted to capture you, I would have simply brought troops through with me. As a show of good faith, I have come alone.”
They all stood and stared at each other. No one had an argument.
“Are we really considering this?” said Taya. “What if we’re not able to save this guy?”
“She’s right,” Rhydian said. “We can’t just let him go. But we can hold him hostage.”
Ellie nodded. She wasn’t happy with the solution, but she understood his logic.
“I believed you are under the false notion that I am giving myself up to you freely,” said Nicodemus. He then reached into his robes and pulled out the most elaborate timekeeper any of them had ever seen, with two winders, four dials, and numerous hands in various colors. There were markings and indicators on the face that appeared to be written in strange languages. He pulled the top winder up until it clicked three times, wound it twice, and then pressed it down four clicks. The device began to hum and glow bright red as waves of energy surrounded the old man.
Startled, everyone jumped back, raising their weapons defensively.
“Meet me on the other side of your threshold, and we will discuss things further,” Nicodemus repeated.
“And how are we supposed to do that, exactly?” Rhydian argued. “Corvus took our timekeepers.”
“Dear boy, anciently all creatures passed freely through the thresholds. It wasn’t until Ilimíri discovered how to harness their energy and presumed to control them that we required a gate key. I have left it open for you.” And with that, the energy surrounding him increased and overtook his body. He then pressed down on the second winder of the device and vanished, the energy ceasing all at once.
“He’s gone!” Ellie exclaimed.
“Did he just make his own personal threshold?” Auram asked in alarm. “Is that even possible?”
“Apparently it is for a Grand Supreme Gatemaker,” Rhydian replied.
Taya took off running for the trees.
“Where are you going?” Auram called after her.
“To the threshold, dummy!”
He rolled his eyes and mumbled something about ‘the things he had to put up with,’ and then ran after her. Rhydian and Ellie followed.
When they arrived at the cave, Taya stopped them. “Okay, we should prepare ourselves for anything when we get to the other side. We don’t know if this could be some kind of trick.”
Ellie pushed past her and walked deliberately into the cave. Rhydian grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he said.
“I’m going with you,” she replied resolutely.
“Ellie, I told you, it’s not safe there.”
“And yet you’re all willing to go charging through without regard for your own wellbeing. When I said I thought we should do this, I meant we should do it.”
“But, you can’t even fly. How do you expect to get around Ilimíra?”
“Carry her,” Taya chimed in.
Everyone looked at her with dubious expressions.
“Oh, come on,” Taya continued. “I happen to know, on good authority, that you are one of the best heavy load flyers in the Monolith City. Are you telling me you can’t carry this skinny little thing?” She pinched Ellie around the elbow for emphasis.
Ellie turned and looked at him as if waiting for an answer.
Finally, Rhydian conceded. “Okay. But if we run into the slightest trouble, I’m taking you somewhere safe.”
Ellie beamed at him with that smile that always warmed him from the inside. “Well, what are we waiting for?”
Auram passed her a sword and the four of them proceeded through the tunnel. To Ellie’s astonishment, it didn’t end where it normally did, but continued on. She felt a strange sort of charge flow through her body as she walked. Surges of energy washed over her and her vision went blurry, like looking through intense heat waves. When they came through on the other side, Rhydian led them out onto the rocky ledge and into the sunlight. He stared out at the home that, twice already, he thought he’d left for good. Golden sunbeams filtered through the sky and lit the trees below. The canyon walls towered majestically over the landscape.
“Rhydian!” Ellie exclaimed.
He turned and beheld her standing in Ilimíra for the first time. But she was not as he’d expected. The green of her eyes had intensified and become brighter. Her auburn hair had an even brighter luster, and her features became more prominent and angular. Her ears came to a slight point. But the most noticeable difference of all was the majestic pair of snowy white wings that rose from her back. There were tears in her eyes as she approached him, her hands reaching out for his.
“How is this possible?” he gasped.
“I don’t know,” she replied. She was crying, but her face exhibited only pure joy.
Tears soon came to Rhydian’s eyes as well. “I’ve never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life.”
“Indeed,” came Nicodemus’s voice from behind them. “You look just like your mother.”
“My—” she couldn’t bring herself to say more.
“Yes, your mother. She would be so proud to see you now.”
“So, my mother wasn’t trying to discover Ilimíra. She was looking for a way back!”
“Meredith was the most promising young Gatemaker I ever taught. When she married my son, I couldn’t be happier.”
“Your son?” She was becoming overwhelmed with emotion now. “So then, your son is my father?”
Nicodemus smiled and nodded his head.
Tears flowed down Ellie’s face as realization hit her and she clapped both hands over her mouth. “Then— that means my father is alive!”
Rhydian brought her close and embraced her reassuringly. “We’re going to save
him, Ellie.”
She beamed up at him with joy, and then turned to Nicodemus. “What happened to my mom?”
“She died protecting you, my dear,” he replied. “But she will forever live on in our hearts and minds.”
“But, I don’t understand. The cruise, the boat went down. It was on the news and everything.”
“It was set up by Corvus’s spies to appear they had died. In reality, they never got on the boat at all.”
“W-why? She stammered.
“I told you that your father knew of Corvus’s plan to initiate the rift. Your father was there on the ground with Gideon to help secure the treaty. Your mother was there as a Gatemaker to facilitate the inception of the Grimalkin into the threshold system. She was to bestow one of the master timekeepers to their leader as a token of our devotion to peace.
“When Corvus turned the troops against Gideon’s cause, your parents opposed him. When the battle broke out, they fled and came to me. Corvus was a dangerous man, and your mother was pregnant with you at the time. So to protect you all, I sent them to hide on the other side until Ilimíra was safe for you again. They took with them the master timekeeper and kept it hidden away, out of Corvus’s reach.
“After that, it was not safe for me to see them. I was being watched constantly, and couldn’t risk exposing their hiding place. So instead I went to my old friend, Rose, who had abandoned Ilimíra long ago. Through her I could get word to them; warn them if ever Corvus’s spies got too close to discovering them.
“Then, last year, I received word that your parents had been captured, and I created this threshold in secret so that I might check on you; so I could be sure you were safe. Rose’s mind was too far gone with age at this point and I could no longer rely on her as a resource.”
“Why is it my parents never told me anything about Ilimíra?” she inquired. “I mean, not even stories.”
“The only thing I can imagine is that they were trying to protect you. Your father had come to accept his life among the humans. Your mother, however, believed it was time to return and take a stand against Corvus, so she started searching for a way back. She nearly succeeded many times, too, but I was too scared for your safety to allow it.”