by John Corwin
"Why aren't you flying?" Max shouted, his words echoing over the hundred yards of marshy plains behind me.
"Something's wrong with the broom." I pulled up again, but it was to no avail. The broom halted a foot off the ground and refused to rise. I got off and pulled the broom away from the edge and tried once again. Only when I was twenty yards from there did it once again work.
Gravity does not operate the same here, Della said. You cannot fly, so you must walk.
Walk? I stared at the expanse and shivered. What if I fall?
You will not fall, Conrad.
I wondered how she knew that. I picked up a rock from the ground and threw it towards a group of smaller asteroids. It floated through space, arcing gently to begin orbiting around them. It struck one and bounced away only to return and begin another unstable orbit.
"Gravity," I murmured.
"What's happening?" Ambria said.
I turned to the others and shouted back. "The broom won't fly. Gravity is different, so I'll have to walk."
"Are you mental?" Max called.
"I have climbing gear and ropes," Gwyneth said. "Give me a moment and I'll join you."
Ropes and gear will do nothing here, Della said. Look at that stone embedded in the ground near the edge.
I found the one she meant and saw the Arcane Crest engraved on the top. Beneath the crest it said: Only the stout of heart may walk this path. Only my blood will pass. Ezzek Moore had left a trail of crumbs. Who had he expected to come this way?
I think Ezzek meant for you to find this, Conrad. Della sounded very sure of herself. I think he left a path of stepping stones through this starry expanse for you to follow.
Me? But he put the heart here centuries ago. I couldn't fathom what made her think I had anything to do with it.
The Seers spoke of the foreseeance—of you finding the Heart of Jura.
I thought back to my last confrontation with Plinth. I thought he meant the Broken Relic.
He spoke of your quest—never anything specific. I caught a mental image of Della tapping her ethereal chin. Throughout history and all his many disguises, Moses, Ezzek Moore, and Jeremiah Conroy, very few foreseeances escaped his notice. I don't think he would have left a trail if he didn't mean for someone to find it—just as you found his vault, Conrad.
How am I supposed to breathe in space? I asked.
Della laughed. Magic, of course. The Glimmer is a broken realm. These asteroids are simply smaller chunks of the land itself. I suspect the atmosphere extends all the way to the edges of the asteroid field, and I also believe Ezzek enchanted this path so that only one of his descendants could cross it.
I didn't know if she was right or not. All I knew was that the heart lay out there somewhere and I needed it if I was to find the Broken Relic. I needed it for my Cora, and for Delectra. I stepped to the marked stone, gauged the distance to a rock floating in space and leapt.
Della cried out in my mind just as I shouted in surprise as the weight of the world vanished. I was floating free, drifting without gravity and the temperature dropped to nearly freezing. Slowly but surely my trajectory arced down toward the small rock. My feet touched it. It wobbled and rotated. Had it not been flat, I might have fallen off it like a man trying to walk on a rolling log in a river.
As Della thought, I could breathe as easily here as back on land. The only difference was the cold. Why didn't my impact cause the asteroid to start drifting? I asked.
Della made a thoughtful sound. These asteroids seem to be charmed to remain in place. That is why the normal laws of gravity are not functioning here.
It made sense. Moore had created a path of stepping stones not for the faint of heart. I kept balanced, heart pounding like mad, blood racing through my veins, sweat trickling down my forehead despite the cold. My breath frosted into sparkling crystals that drifted away like miniature stars.
The next rock was even farther away. I braced myself and threw myself forward. Since there was no gravity between the rocks, I flew forward, landing on my stomach. The rock was lopsided and rolled with my added weight. I grasped desperately at the sides and managed to stay on it. I crawled to the middle it, balancing it like a seesaw until I could climb unsteadily to my feet. I looked at the vast distance still separating me from the goal. I pictured Cora standing beneath the tree, orange hair drifting in the breeze, her hands beckoning me to come rescue her.
My lips trembled. What if I don't make it?
Della spoke firmly. You are brave. You are strong. You are a Moore.
It was as if she lent me her own courage. I needed every ounce to make it.
I leapt from meteoroid to meteoroid. After a long while I reached the asteroids. They were easier to aim for, but harder to hold onto. During my leap to the third one, I smacked hard into the side and nearly lost consciousness. The world dimmed and blinked back into focus. I felt myself sliding off the edge, falling away into space.
I grasped desperately at the rough surface, but my fingers slipped free and I floated away. "No!" I shouted. I spun slowly around the asteroid, its surface just out of my reach. Moments later, my erratic orbit decayed and I skidded back to the surface.
Their gravity will always catch you, Della said. Just take care not to fling yourself too far away.
There were meteoroids orbiting just out of reach of this asteroid. I didn't want to join them in that eternal orbit.
I pushed onward and reached the first planetoid. I had no problem reaching it since its higher gravity gripped me at once. I stood and watched the rest of the world go upside down as the planetoid rotated with me on it. A field of bright green grass covered the ground—a strange color for the Glimmer—and on the other side of the tiny planet was a single red rose growing from a plot of soil. A misty shield hung over the flower, protecting it, preserving it.
I knelt next to the rose. "Where did this come from?"
Ezzek must have planted everything here himself. Della sounded astonished. Why he would do such a thing, I have no idea.
It must be a very special rose, I said.
Della didn't reply.
Three more planetoids stood between me and my final goal, each one with a unique surface. Trees were scattered on the surface of the next one, and the last looked like a desert with a small hill. I leapt toward the tree world but instead drifted back to the surface of the rose world. I tried jumping several more times, but I wasn't strong enough to break the spell of gravity.
I sat on the ground next to the rose, forlornly looking at the tree planet as the rotation of this planetoid brought it in and out of sight. I took out my arcphone and scrolled through the spells, but I had nothing that would propel me into the air.
Unless I came up with something brilliant, I was trapped.
Chapter 31
I closed my eyes to ward off the dizziness I felt from seeing the edge of the Glimmer go upside down so frequently. The rotation of this planetoid, while not incredibly fast, was probably several miles per hour.
Science, you buffoon, Vic growled. Escape velocity already exists on this bloody rock.
I flinched, surprised to get advice from the devil himself. Then again, he'd already inserted himself several times, if only to cause rage and mayhem. I suspected he had an agenda of his own.
I shook off the foreboding feeling and reviewed what he'd said. How does escape velocity already exist? I watched the edge of the Glimmer vanish two more times before it hit me. The rotation of the planetoid! It could slingshot me. I shut my eyes to ward off the dizziness, then stood and ran with the rotation.
The rose world was perhaps a hundred yards in circumference, but running with the rotation made me feel like I was practically flying as stars and heavenly bodies blurred overhead. As the tree world came into view, I realized with dread certainty that if I miscalculated, I might fly completely out of the asteroid belt and to my doom.
This had to be perfect.
I waited until the next go-round and jumped.
The extra velocity shot me toward the tree world like a rocket. I smacked hard into the top of an oak, gripped it, and felt it torn from my grasp. The very same slingshot effect that had carried me to the tree world, flung me out into space. I flew toward the desert world, but missed it by fifty yards.
I continued my flight, arms flailing, body spinning, and smacked into a meteoroid. My body bounced away, leaving me just out of reach of the rock. I kicked my feet and flapped my arms, all to no avail. The final worlds taunted me with their proximity, several hundred feet away, but I was too far for them to pull me closer.
My rotation brought the Glimmer back into view. From this height, the marsh looked beautiful and the forests spread out forever. I suddenly realized my friends were no longer hovering on their brooms. On the next rotation, I realized why. A score of robed figures stood around our camp. I couldn't quite make out how many, but there were more than enough to outnumber my friends.
The Seers had somehow followed us into the Glimmer and they had my friends.
I twisted around to keep the land in sight, but it was useless. Without help, I was stranded in space and my friends were prisoners. I dug into my satchel for the arcwand, trying to think of some spell that could get me out of this situation.
My hand found something smooth and hard. A blink stone! I'd completely forgotten about it. Even if I'd remembered, I couldn't have used it to travel all this way, at least not without making myself dreadfully sick like Max. Its limit was about forty or fifty yards. That was enough to bring me in range of the planetoids. I just hoped it didn't make me too dizzy to make a safe landing. The rotating planetoids would crush me between them if I wasn't quick on my feet.
I held the blink stone, stared at the small worlds, and willed myself there. Everything blinked away in shadows and suddenly I was only feet away from the planetoid forming the upper left side of the Arcane Crest. My stomach felt queasy and a horrendous belch that tasted like yesterday's supper erupted from my mouth.
Gravity yanked me down before the dizziness wore off. I smacked into the smooth surface. There was no time to recover as the planetoid's rotation carried me toward the narrow zone between it and the next one. I scrambled to my feet and ran against the rotation, like a hamster in a wheel. Thankfully, this world's rotation was slower than that of the rose world; otherwise, I would have been ground to bits between the two grindstones.
I made it to the relative bottom of the barren rock and saw the world with the single tree. It bobbed up and down, the tree narrowly missing the other two planetoids during its slow rotation. On its journey up, it met the other two worlds, perfectly aligning the tree in the middle. I suspected it was further proof of Ezzek's magical prowess. Who else could have created a puzzle that altered the law of physics? Then again, this was the Glimmer—a broken realm that seemed to defy the very basics of physics.
The timing to the lower world was tricky. I ran fast enough to keep pace with the rotation of this world then leapt for the tree as the lower world bobbed up into position. I grasped its branches and hugged the trunk as it bobbed up into the space between the three tiny worlds.
I ducked, but there was no chance I would have hit my head. I scrambled down the tree, fighting disorientation with the constant bobbing and rotating motion. Once I reached the bottom, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The motion wasn't as noticeable if I didn't see the horizon moving.
Keeping my eyes on the tree, I knelt in the dirt at the base and dug with my hands. But the soil was shallow, and there were no roots beneath it. The tree was embedded in the bedrock, not actually growing there. I looked up at a low branch and plucked a leaf. It felt and looked real, but this tree couldn't be alive—at least not in the traditional sense.
I paced around the thick trunk to the other side and there I found the Arcane Crest painted on the wood. Standing in just the right spot, it looked holographic, like the one in the keep. I reached out and grasped it. Instead of a copy coming free in my hand, something clicked and a section of the trunk opened, revealing a spiral staircase.
My stomach grew queasy as I thought of walking downstairs with all the rotation and movement of the planetoid, but I steeled myself and followed them down, ignoring the centrifugal push on my stomach. At the bottom I found a small room carved in the center of the world. In the middle of the room was a pedestal. In the middle of the pedestal sat a crystal in the shape of a human heart no larger than my hand.
It was perfectly smooth and clear all the way through but for a crack running from the top and deep into the center. Beneath the heart was a piece of parchment that read, Only one power can mend a broken heart. Only one power can change the world.
The power of magic, Della said, her voice cracking with emotion. You have found the heart, Conrad.
Another sentence beneath it read, Let one who is without darkness take this heart, lest the world be destroyed.
I swallowed hard, thinking about Plinth's warning. Were the soul shards considered darkness? Would I destroy the world by taking the heart? If I wanted to save Cora and retrieve the Broken Relic, I had no choice.
I stared at the relic for a moment then hesitantly reached for it. The moment my fingers touched it, the room began to quake. I took the heart and put it in my satchel. The parchment fell to the floor. Rock cracked and chunks fell from the ceiling. I stuffed the parchment in my satchel and raced up the stairs.
The three planetoids came together again, but instead of a narrow miss, they slammed into each other. The worlds cracked, broke, and shattered. I shouted in alarm as the tree snapped in half. The planetoids collided again. Something struck me in the midriff and my feet left the ground.
I pushed a leafy branch out of the way and realized I was on a broken section of trunk, hurtling away from the three worlds. A chunk of one planetoid struck the desert world. It careened into the tree world which smashed into the rose world. All three crumbled to dust and rocks.
"No!" I reached my arm toward the planetoids as if by some miracle I could hold them together. My path back was destroyed, but even if it had survived, the broken tree was carrying me out and away, toward the chaotic sections of the asteroid belt that had not been tamed by Ezzek Moore.
I crawled onto the trunk and looked toward stable land. My trajectory would take me closer, but not close enough before I reached the violent section of space. Even now it took me lower, beneath the edge of the glimmer until I saw only the raw bedrock of the shattered realm.
The asteroid belt came to an end not much farther below. I suspected that was where the atmosphere left off and the airless void of space took over. If I didn't stop myself in time, I might carry the heart beyond the reach of everyone.
A spinning asteroid drifted at an acute angle to my direction. When it was close enough, I sprang from the tree trunk and grabbed hold of an outcropping. My impact slowed the rock and sent it drifting slightly west, if direction had any meaning in this place. It plowed through a clumped group of meteors, sending them scattering like billiard balls, and then gently bumped into a larger rock, causing little change in direction due to its superior mass.
I transferred to the larger rock and stared up at the expanse between me and solid land. I was hundreds of feet below the surface, standing on the cusp of the atmosphere. I studied the asteroid field, drawing a mental path from here to the top. I could blink across the spaces too large to bridge with a jump.
Wishing I had Gwyneth's climbing gear, I began my ascent, first climbing this rock and then another one hovering just above. I ascended fifty feet before reaching the first gulf. The closest asteroid was thirty feet to the west and ten feet above my current position. I found a spot, focused on it, and blinked.
My face rested on the other asteroid, but nausea clenched my guts. I gagged, somehow having the presence of mind to grasp a handhold before a convulsion launched me out into space. I took deep breaths and held still until the sickening dizziness passed. There was still a ways to go, so I swallowed hard and cli
mbed.
I was still over a hundred feet below the edge of the world when I came to the final hurdles. There was nothing but the rubble of meteoroids between me and the last few asteroids that bridged the gap upward. That meant I couldn't climb. I'd have to blink at least four more times. From there, I could reach the cliff on the edge of the world and hopefully climb it the remaining distance.
My first blink drove me to my knees when I reached the next asteroid. Once again, I barely held in the contents of my stomach. I gave myself some time to recover, but it wasn't enough. The next blink made me so dizzy and sick, I nearly tumbled from the boulder-sized asteroid. Vomit spewed into space, drifting in chunks and joining the astronomical company of meteoroids. Cold sweat broke on my skin and frosted in the bitter cold. I curled into a ball until the worst of it passed and then rolled onto my back, staring up at the lengthy journey ahead.
"I'll never make it." My throat felt raw from the acidic vomit. I hadn't thought to bring water or food. I probably wouldn't die, but there wasn't much chance I'd make it to the top anytime soon. I'd have to give myself at least an hour before blinks. I hoped that would be long enough for my body to recover.
I took out my arcphone and stared at the time. Several minutes had passed when movement above caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a small red meteor coming my way, but as it took shape, I saw it was something else entirely. Tears burned in my eyes—tears of absolute joy.
Shushiel launched herself from an asteroid nearly fifty feet away, leaving behind a strand of web and landed next to me. She was missing one of her forelegs, but looked otherwise unharmed.
I buried my face in the soft fur of her head and sobbed. "I thought you were dead. I thought the birds ate you."
Her whispery laugh lifted my spirits. "I bit the condor. It released me, but the fall tore off a leg. I camouflaged and hid so I could seal the wound with webbing, then came after you."
"We flew a good ways, so we probably left you far behind." I backed away. "I'm so sorry. I flew after the bird and tried to find you."