The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  Not Abbadon. He looked more like the tradesman he had portrayed when he infiltrated our Castle. It was as if he wanted to look average. He too had steel gray hair, but he wore it longer, so a lock fell onto his forehead. He also had dark eyes. Eyes which others had said were kind. However, the closer he got to me, the more I thought differently. I thought his eyes were blank as if a screen had been drawn over them.

  I had never heard Abbadon speak. I suppose I thought it would be a booming voice like Earl’s, full of unmistakable power. So when he spoke for the first time, I was surprised again. My expectations were completely thrown off. It was soft, and to me, sounded ingratiating.

  “I am so glad you could make it. My Anne has spoken of the three of you so much. Of course, I know you, Garth,” Abbadon said, grasping Garth’s hand in both of his. Inside myself I hissed. The first hint of the need to control had shown itself.

  Abbadon bowed to Aki and kissed her hand, and then turned to me. It took every ounce of self-control to tilt my head to him and say, “I am so happy to meet you.”

  Abbadon lifted my hand to his lips, and said, “Not as happy as I am to meet you.”

  It wasn’t the words that froze me to the core. It was the pulse that passed through my body like a warning signal, and the brief flash of his eyes as they came alive. I was the mouse being hunted by a hawk.

  He knew who we were.

  Abbadon Forty-Six

  We met late that night in my room. Although we knew it was possible we were being watched, we had no choice. We had to see each other and decide what to do next. We had all made it look like we were asleep in our beds just in case someone was watching, and Aki placed an invisibility shield around us as we talked. Another one of her hidden skills. Envy of Aki tried, once again, to take over my feelings, but it paled in contrast to my growing terror that we were now all prisoners of Abbadon.

  He had us exactly where he wanted us. It was as if it had been his master plan all along. Do all those horrible things and then the only choice we would have would be to come back in time and stop him.

  “It’s an interesting theory, Hannah,” Aki said.

  It was strange to hear people call me Hannah again, and I realized that I didn’t like it anymore. I was no longer the girl who had been sent to the Earth dimension. That girl had faded in my memory. I was Kara Beth of Erda. I couldn’t wait to return to being called that. Even Princess Kara Beth felt better to me than Hannah.

  For a moment the longing for all of this to be over and to return to our own time overwhelmed me and tears rose to my eyes. “Will we be able to get out of here, Aki, or are we trapped?”

  Aki grabbed me by the arms and stared into my eyes. She might not have looked like the Aki I knew, but she felt like her. “Stop it. This is not how it ends, with us trapped in here. Remember he is alone, and we are a team with many skills. And we have strength of character. We have no choice. We have to stop Abbadon and return home. Do you understand?”

  I nodded mutely. Aki was right. I had to pull myself together. If not for myself, for everyone that was counting on us to succeed.

  I knew that if Beru were with me, she would have pinched me by now, or given me a look that told me she was disappointed in me. I thought back to the first few days of my training and remembered something that didn’t make sense.

  “When Beru first told me about Abbadon, she called him the Evil One. She also told me that he looks different than he used to. And that seeing him is a death sentence. Her exact words were, “Only a few have managed to escape. Even then, they rarely live for long after that.”

  The three of us paused, and it was Garth who said what we were all thinking, “Then we haven’t seen Abbadon yet.”

  A knock on the door froze us all into silence. The knock came again and a whisper, “I’m coming in. It’s me, Niko.”

  I wanted to fling the door open, but Aki and Garth shook their heads, no. It could be anyone imitating his voice. Only Aki would know if it was really him. For a moment, Aki disappeared and then reappeared, smiling this time. Niko came in a second later.

  After hugs all around we asked why he didn’t do what Aki just did. Appear inside.

  “Didn’t want to scare the ziffer out of you,” he answered with a smile in his voice.

  It was true. If he had come in the door either by opening it or appearing inside without opening it, we might have tried to hurt him. He had transformed himself to look like one of the young men guarding our doors.

  “You figured it out. You’re right. You haven’t met Abbadon. That man calling himself Abbadon is one of Abbadon’s creations.”

  “You mean he is like a robot? A machine?”

  “Some of the people and beings you have met are that. Like the men serving you food. Others are real men, and some women, who have been modified to do his bidding. The man you see as Abbadon is one of those men. He has a few Abbadon duplicates. Some of them are better than others. The one you met at dinner seems to be his favorite. Maybe because he appears the most like him?”

  All three of us stared at Niko in terror. “He can modify people to do his bidding? How do we recognize who is a machine and who is a modified person? And will they ever be changed back?” Garth asked.

  As Garth finished asking that question, we heard a rustling in the corner of my room, and three of us turned prepared to fight. I was preparing to flash lightning bolts, and Niko and Aki were ready to pounce. Niko had pushed Garth behind him, to keep him safe.

  To our amazement, Pita appeared in the corner of the room, the blue ring around the circle that brought him up disappearing within seconds.

  “What the zonk!” Aki whisper yelled. “We were ready to blast you to kingdom come!”

  “But you didn’t,” Pita said solemnly.

  “How long has that circle been there?” I asked.

  “Not long. We built it after we figured out which room you were in. We could take you all out of here now if you wish.”

  “It’s tempting, but we can’t go. We got in here, and we can’t waste it. Now we have to find the real Abbadon and shut him down,” Aki answered

  We filled Pita in with what we had learned so far, and what we needed. He listened with his whole being. His lighthouse eyes fully open as if he heard with his eyes too.

  Addressing Niko, he asked, “So, you think that some of the people you see here are machines, and some are people that are being controlled by Abbadon. But you can’t always tell the difference, and you don’t know how he is controlling them.”

  “That’s about it. We also don’t know where the real Abbadon is, or what he looks like. He may be disguising himself as one of his captives, or he could look like the monster that he is. We don’t know.”

  “Can you capture one of them that you think is a machine and one you believe to be a manipulated person and get them to us?”

  Niko nodded, “No one pays much attention to the Raiders, which I believe are men he has captured from villages. And perhaps I can get one of the table robots. Where do I bring them?”

  Niko and Pita made arrangements based on a place in the Keep that Niko said was well hidden. As he turned to go, I asked, “Why aren’t we using the channels anymore? We could have told you we were coming, and I need to know that Zeid is safe.”

  “I don’t think our channels are safe, Kara. I shut them all down. I can hear your thoughts when we are close, but other than that we have to do this without our channels being open. And I forgot to give this to you, Kara.” Niko handed me a piece of paper folded up so small I could barely see it in his hand. I grabbed it and retreated to a corner of the room to read what it said.

  Turning to Pita, Niko said, “I’ll be there within the hour.”

  To the rest of us, he added. “Don’t go anywhere. Stay here. At the moment it’s the safest place
for you.”

  Abbadon Forty-Seven

  I never noticed Pita or Niko leaving. All I could look at was the note in my hand. It was a tiny scrap of paper folded over and over again. I knew Zeid had folded it that way to keep it hidden from the ever-present eyes. I opened it slowly, treasuring every moment of the unfolding process, careful not to rip it. Finally, it lay open in my hands, with the most beautiful words I had ever read written on it. It said, “I love you, Kara Beth.”

  Of course, I knew that. Zeid had shown me in countless ways how precious I was to him, but seeing the words, and knowing how careful he had to be to write them, overwhelmed me with gratitude and love for Zeid. I carefully folded the paper again and tucked it into the pocket of my leggings. We had all traded our fancy ballroom clothes for our own clothes as soon as we had returned to our rooms, grateful that Anne had told us to bring our things to the Castle.

  This note was the exact opposite of the one I had found on my bed after we discovered the man we thought to be Abbadon had left the Castle. His note had said: “See you soon, Princess Kara Beth. To our future together, Abbadon.”

  “Sorry, Abbadon, we don’t have a future together,” I said under my breath. I was looking forward to saying it to his face.

  Garth and Aki were sitting on the floor, waiting patiently for me. I wiped away my tears and joined them.

  “I have a question, Aki.”

  Aki tilted her head to the side and waited.

  “It’s about the story you told me a few days after I returned to Erda. The one about the two bored brothers traveling in a serpent-shaped space ship through the galaxies. You said they had been traveling for eons and were looking for adventure. Although the rules of their civilization were that they could only be observers of other planets, and never instigators, these two brothers decided to risk the punishment. I guess they were so bored they didn’t care what happened to them.

  “They decided to run an experiment, like a bet between them. At first they were going to pick two planets and mess with them, but in the end, decided it would be easier if they picked one planet and used two dimensions instead.

  “Am I on track so far?”

  Aki nodded, and Garth had closed his eyes to listen. I wasn’t sure if it was because he knew the story, or had never heard it before, but I continued.

  “The planet they picked was this one. Gaia. The two dimensions they picked are the ones we call Earth and Erda. Although I know there are more, as Garth and Anne can tell us, these are the only two these brothers picked to do their experiment with on this planet.”

  “Lucky us,” Garth mumbled.

  “I remember you telling me, Aki, that the brothers seeded each dimension with people and beings that they had captured from other planets or universes. I suppose it was the ones that could live on Gaia. Then they started setting up the parameters of their ‘game.’

  “Have I got it right so far?” When Aki nodded yes, I continued.

  “Because they were not staying on Gaia, the brothers set up two other men, who were also brothers, to take their place in Earth and Erda. They made them different. How they made this happen is something I want to know, but I’ll continue with the story first. They made one brother kind and generous and the other brother greedy and jealous.

  “In the Earth Realm they were Cain and Abel, and Cain almost immediately killed his brother. This resulted in greed and envy being part of the fabric of life, which the kind and generous people in the Earth dimension try to overcome. In the Erda Realm, the brothers are Abbadon and Darius.

  “There were some major differences in how they set up Erda. First, the people were allowed to remember their gifts, which on Earth would look like magic. In Erda, other beings are acknowledged rather than relegated to myths, or even worse killed. In Erda, the brothers were placed far apart. In Erda people don’t consider age a “thing” because they view time differently, so the original brothers are still alive. Unlike in the Earth dimension where the people alive today are descendants of the original Cain and Abel.”

  Garth and Aki were listening to me carefully, and I caught a glimmer of pride on Aki’s face. Her student just might be becoming awake.

  “Now, here are my questions and I think, Aki, that the answers may be in the part of the story I don’t know, and I think that you do because you hinted that you did when you first told me the story. If not, I hope that the three of us can figure it out.”

  Aki nodded, and Garth looked at her with hope in his eyes.

  “I can see how keeping the brothers far apart held the peace for a long time. In the Kingdom of Zerenity, peace has reigned all these years. But, then one day, for some reason, Abbadon decides that his part of Erda is not enough for him. However, he doesn’t just want to kill his brother. After all, what fun would that be?

  “So he plots and plans and decides to kill everything. He makes machines, captures people and turns them into his slaves, and as we know eventually intends to destroy all sentient life. Why? What changed? And why would he want to be the only life left? In the end, he wouldn’t survive either.

  “So, there must have been something else that was different between Earth and Erda that has caused this. And although I have a feeling there is no logical answer or any way to find out, what were the bored-brothers betting? What would constitute winning?”

  I looked over at Aki. “Did I get the basics right?”

  She nodded and looked away. Sighing as if she had made up her mind, she turned back and looked at the two of us.

  “You forgot one question, Hannah.” Seeing me flinch, she said, “Okay, Kara Beth. Might as well say your real name now because obviously, he knows who we are.”

  Although I realized that was true, my whole body froze in terror. Then hearing what Aki said next, that terror sparked into abject fear and a wave of anger so big I barely heard what she said.

  Abbadon Forty-Eight

  “The story I told you was told to me by Abbadon. That’s how I knew it,” Aki whispered, looking us both straight in our eyes and at the same time pinning us both to the floor with one of her magical tricks.

  I knew why she did that, because otherwise I would have reacted and probably have done something stupid.

  Garth looked as if she had slapped him. That’s what it felt like. The person we had trusted the most had betrayed us. Could things be worse than that?

  Aki waited for a beat and then said, “I have you pinned down because I was afraid you wouldn’t let me finish. Are you ready to listen?”

  I nodded, but I knew my face was broadcasting a combination of despair, betrayal, and anger. Aki released the hold on us, and now I had to contain myself. It wasn’t easy.

  “Ask your questions,” Aki said.

  “Really? Do I have to ask? You knew Abbadon. Correction, know Abbadon? When did you meet him? Do you know the real Abbadon or one of his minions?”

  As I asked that last question, Aki raised her hand to stop me.

  “See, I knew you would get to the heart of it. Was it the real Abbadon? But let me start by answering your first questions. The man I thought was Abbadon told me the story when Niko and I were children and captives in this Castle. For all I know, an Abbadon is telling my child-self that story right now.

  “I thought he was telling me a fairy tale. Especially since he started it the same way I had started it with you. Once Upon A Time. I was crying, missing my mother, and he found me huddled in a corner trying to become invisible. He gathered me up, gave me some water and a bit of food, and then asked me if I wanted to hear a story.

  “Of course I did. I didn’t know that was Abbadon then. I just thought it was a kind man who took pity on me. I tucked the story inside myself, and told it to myself over and over again, often wondering who that man was who had told it to me—wondering if it were true.

/>   “It wasn’t until the picture of the man we were calling Abbadon was shown to me after we defeated Deadsweep that I remembered the man. But it was almost impossible for me to reconcile that monster we were chasing with the man who told me the story.

  “Then Anne and Garth came along, and Anne said she had felt love for the man she knew as Abbadon, and I began to accept that it must have been the same person.”

  Garth and I looked at each other, our anger gone. Instead, a glimmer of hope began to stir within me. Maybe the man that Aki had met told her something we could use now.

  “Or maybe it was someone who looked like the man who told you the story,” I said.

  Aki nodded. “Yes, now that we know that Abbadon creates many replicas of himself, or what he wants to look like, I don’t know if it was the same person. But that man came back a few times, always bringing water and food for me and then for Niko, so he saved our lives.

  “And now that we are here, I realize he must have known what was going to happen. Somehow he knew that we would return as adults, and attempt to stop the real Abbadon, and if I knew the story, I would know what to do.”

  “And now we are back to these questions,” I said. “What changed? Or did nothing change? Perhaps the real Abbadon has always been plotting against life. So who is he? What was the difference that changed everything?”

  Before Aki could answer my question, the door blew open, and a band of Raiders burst into our room. Abbadon, or an Abbadon, was with them. He didn’t say anything. He leered at us as the Raiders grabbed us, pinning our arms behind us, and dragged us from the room.