The Inner Realm

by Dale Furse

  The king’s son looked worried and angry as he barked orders at the four men with him. “Mount up. We will find them this day.” Derek and his men pulled their hoods over their heads, jumped on their horses, and galloped away with the three riderless horses in tow.

  The lay of the land was different around the lake. Cliffs rose from below the water on the west side. Derek’s group headed there and the horses disappeared behind a high crag.

  “Noor,” Mike said when she didn’t move. “They’ve gone.”

  Wiping her face with the sleeve of her shirt, she nodded to the roasting beast. “Go on, they seem to have left it for us.”

  He didn’t have to be told twice and ran to the spit. He tore a handful of meat from the shoulder of the animal. It was skinned and butchered expertly as far as he could tell. He didn’t notice the night before, but the Mashki’s hind quarters were massive—twice the size of its front ones.

  Two water bags dropped on the ground beside Mike. So taken by the smell and taste of the Mashki, he started and nearly choked on a half-swallowed bite of meat.

  Vala pulled her knife from the back of her belt and grinning, helped herself to the meat.

  Noor dropped another bag of water. “It looks as though Derek thought we might need these as well,” she said.

  Rubbing his full stomach, Mike asked, “Do you really think they left this for us?”

  Noor nodded. “Derek’s not stupid. He knows we tracked him. I think he even slowed to make sure we found their camp.” She took another bite and chewed gazing across the lake. “They still have our horses, but they don’t have Terni with them.”

  “You’re right.” Mike gazed at the red dirt cliffs, orange where the sun’s rays washed over them. Small, grassy shrubs poked out of the top like a punk hairdo. “What do you think they’ve done with him?”

  “Derek would never hurt a child.” Noor spoke as if she were trying to convince herself more than Mike. “No, I know he would never hurt Terni. Perhaps he has left the boy with someone, someone who would take care of him until he returned.”

  “But that could be anywhere.” Mike picked at a crispy bit of meat.

  “Come on.” Noor collected a water bag. “Whether they know we’re behind them or not, we have no choice but to follow.”

  Mike started pulling off chunks of meat.

  “No.” Vala hit his hand away with a water bag. “The meat won’t keep long in this heat. We’ll have to make do with what’s in our stomachs until we find more food.”

  “What should we do with it then?” Mike tried to fit more into his stomach, but it was already stretched to extreme.

  “Bury it and put out the fire.”

  After dealing with the remnants of Derek’s camp, Mike, Vala and Noor filled the water bags and continued on their way.

  It took some time to round the lake. With over-full stomachs, they walked instead of ran. Mike soon wished he had eaten more of the meat. His body used fuel fast, and soon he would be running on empty again. The fear of the infection spreading never left his mind. He would be useless if he fell down with a fever. Hunger, thirst, and exhaustion wasn’t the way to go about avoiding it.

  Once around the crag, they turned west and entered a system of canyons. At first, the path was wide and the towering cliffs on either side seemed a long way off, but the track narrowed as they traveled along it. Every now and then, other paths appeared, forming either tee-junctions or crossroads. They ran or jogged as the sun’s course across the sky signaled the hours passing.

  Noor stopped and pushed her face close to the ground periodically. The terrain was rocky, although tufts of grass sprouted in patches.

  The cliffs ahead threw shade onto the canyon floor and the sun disappeared. Noor, checking the ground once more, seemed puzzled by the look of the tee-junction where they had stopped.

  She rubbed her sweaty face. “I believe there was a struggle here.” She walked left a little way, and then right. “At least six shod horses came from this direction.” She turned back. “Derek’s five horses and our three mounts had already started moving west before they turned and galloped back to meet the advancing group.” After she trotted west for about twenty meters, she ran back. “They either let Bruno go, or he got away because he took off on his own.” Head down, she continued examining the ground.

  Mike could not believe her fitness level. He was exhausted. Welcoming the excuse to rest his legs, he got on his hands and knees. He tried to see what Noor saw, but he could still only make out smudges in the dirt.

  Vala sat with her back against the base of the cliff and watched.

  “You’re not going to help?” Mike asked.

  “Noor’s a master tracker. I couldn’t do any better.”

  Giving up, he stood and, about to wipe his forehead, he noticed a reddish-brown mark on his hand. He rubbed it with his other hand. “Noor, what’s this?” He held out his palm.

  Noor studied the mark then squatted. “Here.” She touched a clump of grass. “It’s blood.”

  On her feet and by Noor’s side in less than a second, Vala peered closely at the grass. “Blood.”

  “So they were fighting,” Mike said. “I wonder who got hurt.”

  Spotting something, Vala moved to where the rocky cliff rose out of the ground in front of them. “More than one person was injured this day.”

  Mike gasped. There was blood everywhere. It was smudged and trodden on by hooves and shoes, but there was no mistaking it. Mike could even smell the death there. Sweet and sickly. He absently rubbed his thigh. He wasn’t sure whether the sight of blood or the thought of dying made him turn away.

  Noor put her arm around his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “Sure. I’m tired is all.”

  “We’ll rest then, but not here.”

  She took the lead, and they wound their way along the track until she thought they were far enough away from the blood and stench.

  Mike sniffed the air and, glad he couldn’t smell anything, perched his tired body up against a rock as far away from the bloodshed as possible. He rubbed his swollen thigh. Talking his body into relaxing, he closed his eyes.

  When Mike awoke, he stretched his leg, willing it to stop hurting. Maybe he could keep the pain away by ignoring it.

  Noor had her arms wrapped around her bent legs, and her head rested on her knees. Vala had an arm around Noor’s shuddering shoulders. She was crying. He remembered Noor hadn’t slept a wink since the morning before. Guilt replaced the relief he had felt only seconds before. He coughed as he sat up to let her know he was awake.

  She wiped her face on the sleeve of her grubby shirt and smiled. “You’re awake.”

  He knew it was a forced smile—too wide and too straight. “Yeah, how long was I out?”

  “Long enough. It will soon be night. The sun is already well below the cliffs.”

  “Shouldn’t we be lighting a fire?” A picture of a Mashki filled his head.

  “We will have a moon tonight. A sliver, but enough to see by. And don’t worry, the Mashki don’t usually venture out of the forests.”

  Mike didn’t like the way she said usually, but scanning the area once more, he saw there was only dirt and rocks. There was nothing to make a fire with anyway.

  “We should be safe for the night.”

  Should be safe? “I hope so,” Mike said, noting they were in a dead end. He hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a trap. “I’ve rested enough. Now it’s your turn.” He stood up and loomed over the girls. “I mean it, Noor. You will go to sleep. You too, Vala.”

  Noor’s smile, though small, was real. “Thank you, kind sir,” she said, and positioned her back against the cliff. Her eyes closed.

  “Yes, thanks Mike, but stay alert.” Vala grinned, stretched out on her side, and faced the cliff.

  Mike waited until Noor’s breathing settled and began to take on a rhythmic sound before he sat against the opposite cliff. He thought about everything that had happened to him. Ter
ni must be scared stiff. Where the hell did Derek take him? Noor said he wouldn’t hurt the kid, but Mike wasn’t so sure. If the ape of a man still had Terni, anything could happen.

  He thought about the blood. Somebody had been hurt, probably killed. He hoped whoever rode the other horses proved their friends.

  As soon as Mike was sure Noor and Vala were fast asleep, he relaxed. The cliffs weren’t as high as the ones he’d seen earlier, but they were still too steep to climb. He eyed the dead end. If an unfriendly person or persons happened on them, they would have nowhere to run. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pack up and find a place where they at least had an escape route.

  Something moved at the edge of his vision. Mike jumped and swung his head in the direction of the cause. A brown-robed arm appeared from around the cliff. A long pink finger beckoned and a scratchy voice floated to his ears. “Binkla arore.”

  The Monk! Mike looked at Vala and Noor. They were fast asleep. Rising slowly, every instinct yelled at Mike to run in the other direction, but there was no other way out. He had to find out what the strange monk or magician wanted. He glanced at the girls. Should he wake them? No. He didn’t want the strange man messing with them. With his heart in his throat, he sprinted around the corner.

  The big man held out a crimson, circular stone attached to a string of leather. “Hankley distel.”

  Brown robe jabbed the necklace in the air. “Arore furr-at,” he said, his smile widened.

  Mike frowned. The man wasn’t threatening him. Shrugging, he took the stone as the man spoke. Mike heard two distinct voices, the first nasally voice said, “Arore.” And less than a second later, a low-pitched male voice said, “Take it.”

  “Put it on,” the man said. “I’m Hankley.”

  Mike put the black chain around his neck and held the crimson stone in his hand.

  “The gem will allow us to converse,” Hankley said.

  “Who are you?” Mike asked.

  “I told you. My name is Hankley.”

  “Yes, that’s your name, but who or should I say, what are you?”

  “I’m a servant of Oln.”

  Mike thought he was deliberately being evasive, or he was the dumbest monk ever. “Okay, I’ll play. Who’s Oln?”

  “He is our god.”

  Mike had always believed in a God and knew there were many names for the same god. Hankley had used a name he hadn’t heard of before. “And what does Oln want with me?”

  “We need you and the little boy from Salteren to return to your home worlds.”

  All Mike heard was home world. “Do you know how I can get back to my own world?”

  “I am the keeper of the wall.”

  “That was your wall?” Mike’s heart pumped rapidly once more, but it was from excitement. Finally, he could go home. When he did, he had a lot of questions to ask his mother. He could almost hug Hankley. “Well, make it come back then so we can go home.”

  The monk screwed up his face in what looked like an apology, and said, “It seems we have misplaced it.”

  “You lost a humongous wall?” Mike wanted to hit the man.

  “Well, yes, I suppose we did.”

  “You’ve got to be joking.” Mike couldn’t believe a god could lose anything, let alone something as big as the wall. It didn’t make sense. “How are we supposed to go back to our homes without it?”

  Hankley pushed a hand through his near non-existent hair. “We will find it.”

  His voice didn’t hold much conviction.

  “When you get the little messenger back, go stay near the tree where we first met so you can go through the doors when the wall between worlds returns.”

  Mike peeked around the corner at the girls.

  “Don’t trouble yourself, they are sleeping and will remain so until I go.”

  “You’ve drugged them?”

  “No, they are unharmed.”

  Mike returned to face him. “I don’t even know where Terni is, and even if I did, the men who have him are armed. They have swords and bows and arrows.” Mike gazed down the canyon.

  “Wait up.” Mike hit himself on the side of his head. “You’re some sort of magician or god or whatever. You get Terni back.”

  “I can’t. We are forbidden to interfere with the goings on of worlds.”

  “Yet you’re here.”

  “Yes.” Hankley rubbed his balding head. “However, Oln explicitly warned me not to help you boys return through the door. You must do it yourselves.”

  “Of course you have been warned.” Mike felt like he was in a z-grade movie. “Well, your god can help us himself.”

  “He is away.”

  “Away?”

  “Yes, away.”

  “For Pete’s sake. Okay, when do you expect to find the wall?”

  “Any time now. You go get the boy.”

  “Uh-huh, I’m not going anywhere. You get the boy. I’ll wait by the tree.” As soon as he said the words, Terni’s tear stained face appeared in his mind.

  “I told you, I can’t.” Hankley waved his arm and began to float off the ground.

  “Wait. You have to help.” Mike shouted. The man was about to disappear, and with him, Mike’s hopes of going home.

  “You have to find the little messenger. You are responsible for him.”

  Mike did feel responsible for the kid, but he didn’t like someone else telling him he was. “Who says I’m responsible.”

  “Oln.”

  He didn’t know why, but the way Hankley said the god’s name made Mike a little awestruck. “Are… are you an angel?”

  “You could say that.” Hankley smiled. “But I prefer servant.”

  “Oh.” He looked Hankley up and down. He was roundish with no waist to speak of, but his cheeks were pink and his eyes, friendly, even, Mike thought, heavenly. If such a thing existed.

  “Can you tell me where the bandits took Terni?” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know.” His eyes glazed over for a few seconds. “However, while I can’t physically interfere, I can try to find out.” He peered at the western cliffs. “Hmm, a mystical energy—far in the west.”

  “Great. Are you telling me a magician has Terni?” Images of long, grey-bearded sorcerers sprang to Mike’s mind. Zandell would suit that sort of thing.

  “No… not a magician.” Hankley tilted his head as if listening to something. He grimaced and shook his head. “Run along and don’t lose the gem.”

  “But—”

  Hankley disappeared.

  Mike grunted at the sky before hurrying back to Noor and Vala.

  ***

  Hankley sat heavily on the sofa in the wall office and waited. Oln had called for him, but his master wasn’t in his sanctum. He sighed, sat back, and closed his eyes. It was the longest day of his existence, and his existence counted centuries.

  Oln’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Hankley, you must come to the Outer Realm.”

  Hankley screwed up his face. The Outer Realm also meant passing through the void. He shivered. Once someone entered the void, they couldn’t back out. Every muscle was frozen until they were delivered to the other side. The void wasn’t an empty place. Standing up, he asked, “Now?”

  “Now.”

  Hankley began scratching at an imagined bite on his arm. “Yes, Sir.”

  Once Oln’s unseen presence evaporated, Hankley fell back onto the cushions. Something was definitely wrong. Oln didn’t sound angry, he would already know Hankley had visited Cillian and, in particular, Zandell. However, his voice was different.

  Dread passed through him as he remembered the mystical energy he had felt when he spoke to Mike. Gart. He felt the god’s presence. He was up to something sneaky, and whatever it was, Oln’s position could be in jeopardy. From what Hankley had heard about the Quarter Realm, Gart didn’t even like being there. He was always finding excuses to visit the other realms, especially the Inner Realm. Oln’s realm. And by extension, Hankley’s, realm.

&
nbsp; What if Gart had not only appropriated the wall again, but also led the boys to Zandell and the king. But why? Whatever the reason, the boys might be in danger. Gods like Gart did not have the empathy towards their people Oln did.

  He moved to the desk and pressed the Shanks button. “Meet me above the wall office.”

  Once he ascended into the Inner Realm, he nodded to the Shanks to follow. One thing about mornts, they were obedient. About to step on the red dot on the corner, Rone appeared beside Hankley. He hesitated, the Shanks bumped into him, causing him to overstep the mark.

  Rone playfully hit Hankley’s arm. “I haven’t seen you for ages.”

  Familiar heat filled his face. “I’ve been busy.”

  “Are you busy now? We could grab a sandwich.”

  “Sorry, I’m still busy, but I’ll catch up with you later.”

  She dropped her bottom lip. “Are Oln’s requirements really more important than me?”

  Hankley opened his mouth, dismayed she could ask such a thing. Oln always came first to all servants, including her.

  She giggled. “Don’t look like that, I was only joking. You go do what you have to. You’ll still be at the club for dinner?”

  “Look forward to it.” Hankley smiled what he hoped appeared a confident smile; although he had no idea how long he would be gone. He stepped back, pushing the Shanks out of the way so he could find the red spot. “Gold quarter.”

  The Shanks appeared directly behind and he ushered them along, speaking quickly. They passed the designers offices and eateries as he told them everything that had passed. Nearing the keepers’ half of the street, the Shanks eyes filled with concern, but they kept quiet. Hankley hoped they understood everything he had said.

  He guided them into a keeper eatery. Once seated at an isolated table of solid ruby in the back corner, he continued. “I have to go to the Outer Realm and I fear the boys are in great danger. You need to watch Mike… I think Terni is safe for the time being, but that might depend on what Mike does. Keep him out of trouble without making yourselves known. We cannot be seen interfering. However, a thought in a dream here and there would probably be all right. Try to point him in Terni’s direction.”