Revary

by Abigail Linhardt

  Clare was leaning away from Stella now as she had taken some very drastic steps forward while raging her feelings out.

  Taking a chance, Clare touched Stella, only to be swatting away. She spoke anyway. “I thought maybe the witch was right. Maybe you were stronger than me and could use magic. I thought maybe that’s how it worked there. I was just a ranger. You were a great sorceress.”

  “That’s a lot of maybes.” Her hostility had been dropped and replaced with something else.

  Stella sighed but Clare couldn’t translate the emotions behind it. “I have to go. I’m going to live on campus in Lawrence and need to get some things in order.” She turned and her black heels clopped on the black road, taking her away from Clare. “Don’t worry, Clare,” she called back, not turning around. “I’m sure you’ll find acceptance in your own little world.”

  At the corner of the driveway was a black car. A tall senior got out and greeted Stella with a little hug then opened the door for her. After she got in, he looked at Clare before driving away into the candlelit night.

  “Stell!” Alice’s voice chased the car down the street as she panted up beside Clare. “She really left?”

  Clare nodded. She was afraid her voice would quiver if she spoke. She leaned onto Alice’s shoulder and sighed, still not speaking.

  “I’m sorry, Clare.” She put her dark, strong arm around Clare’s shoulders. “But I actually came out here to get you. I think the Troll has found some treasure.”

  Clare stared into the dark night that had swallowed up her friend. Was she so wrapped up in her own life that she hadn’t noticed Stella’s pain? Was she really too late? Part of her wondered if there really was something wrong. Perhaps friends just part.

  Alice led her back inside to a large living room where the Troll King was reading to a group of enraptured listeners. Sadly, his narrative voice wasn’t that bad and even his tone was intriguing.

  He read, “‘The battle of the barbarian horde was desolating. The wounds I bear should have killed me but I used my earthling powers to will them away and heal a few others. I have found that when more of my kind cross over, we are stronger.’”

  Clare looked up in horror. What was he reading?

  He went on, “‘I have named a chief among them as I have done with other tribes in this area. I am beginning to think there are no borders to this land. The woodland queen and the queen of the steam kingdom have written a peace treaty as well. How long I have been here, I cannot say. How to go back, I may never know.’” He paused for dramatic emphasis. “‘I am becoming more like them and less like myself. I have to wonder: if I am here becoming less earth-like, is Noiralice in my world? Can a darkness that spans a limitless world taint my world?

  “‘Tonight, I go back to the steam city. There is a prince there who has a device that can cast lightening from his hand. The demons there are more ravenous than others…’”

  Clare gasped and covered her mouth. In Dwyerstoph’s spindly hands rested the green leather book with Revary across the front. She charged up to him through the crowd and snatched at the book.

  “That’s mine, Troll, give it back!”

  He jerked it out of her reach. He had always been taller than her, but she had never noticed until now.

  “This is good stuff, Clare. Didn’t know you were a writer.” His voice was mocking as he sneered to his Troll companions. “It seems your stories suck in fiction as well as in Sun Age.”

  Clare snatched at the book again and this time Dwyerstoph gave her a little shove that knocked her off balance. She stumbled, tripped over a little footstool, and fell into the crowd of cheerleaders who were comparing thigh size. They shrieked and scattered, tumbling all over each other and Clare.

  “Hey!” Max called, approaching the Troll. “That is hers. You took it, now give it back.”

  Dwyerstoph was no doubt about to signal his goons to demolish the goth boy, but when Lance appeared, helping Clare to her feet, he gave it a second thought.

  “Fine,” he tossed the book to Max and led the way out to the back, calling, “Let’s dance, everyone!”

  “It’s disgusting how everyone follows him here when they hate him at school,” Jeff mused as Clare righted herself. He handed over her plastic princess crown. “I suppose that’s what money buys you.”

  “No kidding,” she sighed. “Almost makes you want a ‘real job’ so you can have power like that.”

  When the cheerleaders saw Lance was not going to pay them any attention, they too went to the back yard and the flashing dance floor.

  Max handed her the book. “What is this?” he asked. “Some of that stuff sounded familiar, if you know what I mean.”

  Clutching the book to her chest, Clare said, “I haven’t had a chance to read it.”

  Al appeared next to Max and shook his head. “Where’d you get that?”

  A part of Clare wished Al had not arrived at that moment. “Doesn’t matter. Everyone,” she sat down on the couch and Alice sat next to her. “I know we’ve all been on hold for a while.” Guilt from nowhere rose in her chest and made tears in her eyes. “Please understand when I say I want us to be friends forever. I know it sounds childish, but I mean it. Why do we have to pull apart?”

  “You’re talking about Stella,” Al put in. He had said it like it was part of a business plan that had gone wrong. “In her defense, Clare, you left her out. And me, I might add.”

  “You did that yourself,” Max said snidely. He looked away from Al at once when he realized the tone in his voice.

  “I have done nothing wrong.” Al stood up and straightened his jacket. “Forgive me for wanting to keep my head on my shoulders and be the adult we’ll all be by the end of this semester.” He ran his hand through his helter-skelter hair and pushed his glasses up onto his nose. “Clare, apologize to Stella, get rid of that book, and just focus on our world. Nothing you do in some fantasy world is going to change when midterms are or how much a house mortgage costs.”

  No one spoke after this. Al nodded, smiled as though his job was done, and took his keys and left the circle.

  “What are you even going to do?” Lance called after him. Al stopped and turned. The belly dancers were entering as he was leaving. “You keep talking like you have a plan. Do you even really know?”

  Al nodded and shrugged. “I got into business school, Lance. That’s going to make me a lot more comfortable and pleased with the way I spend my life than playing football ever will for you. And what happens when you get an injury? Or you just can’t play anymore? Or the owner of your team goes south? I, however, will always have a job and food on my table.”

  A nerve in Lance’s chiseled temple pulsed. “I don’t mind living on the bare minimum if I have to,” he said.

  “If we’re doing good and love it, why is that wrong?” Max added.

  Al nodded again, smiled, shrugged, and left this time for good. Lance didn’t make eye-contact as he too took his keys off his belt and disappeared into the dark night.

  Jeff sat down next to Max. “I know he has a point, I just don’t know what it is.” His eyes wondered over to the belly dancers who were hot and leaning up against the kitchen bar with drinks. One of them smiled at Jeff and waved. He nervously waved back.

  “His point is he just wants to be comfortable,” the one that waved said. She had little silver diamonds at the corners of her eyes and a genuinely happy smile. “Not happy with life. Just secure. That’s not so rare in this age. I understand.”

  “Why does he insist on taking us all down with him?” Max groaned.

  The belly dancer shrugged. “Sometimes what I love takes people down. I can’t always pay my bills on time. I don’t eat three meals a day sometimes. But I have my sisters and I am so happy. And I have a shower.” She smiled most charmingly.

  Clare met her dark eyes. “Where do you find happiness if you live so on the edge?”

  “In what I do. I don’t hurt anyone and I’m alive. That is how much I
love the dance.” She took a long drink of water to refresh herself. “It keeps me healthy and I teach other people to dance. To listen to music and feel it.” She became lost in thought as she swayed a little back and forth. “I consider it a noble cause.”

  Clare looked down at the book in her lap. She loved stories. That was no way to make a living.

  Chapter 16

  Revary

  The rain was thick and seemed to be assaulting the tin roof with all of the weather god’s fury. The firewood was too wet to light. Around the table, eager ears waited for her to read from the green book.

  “‘I knew after my journey to the Astral Plane, nothing could surprise me. I felt invincible and I wanted to meet her. The one who ruled all of Revary. She was called the Golden Daughter, for all in Revary saw her as one who watches over them. Her palace was in the Celestial Plane. I took Chel, the princess from the steam kingdom of Regent with me, as well as a fae named Jinx.

  “‘With Chel’s airship, we sailed straight through the clouds to the gatekeeper of that immortal plane.

  “‘Why have you come to the Celestial Gate?’ the gatekeeper asked. It was a winged cleric with a spear of gold.

  “‘To see she who is Sister to all,’ I replied. ‘I am the earthling she has called for and am here to take my quest.’

  “‘That is how my first quest began. I cannot describe in words the feeling of seeing the Golden Daughter. Her palace is a great tree of white bark and golden leaves. It is nestled among billowing clouds where the sun always shines. She had called me to fight Noiralice and the corruption of Revary.

  “‘No, never could I be corrupt,’” she said in answer to my question of her safety. ‘But the earthlings may forget about me in their corruption.’

  “‘I asked how the corruption from this world could get across to my own. It seemed unlikely.

  “‘Without Revary,’ the Golden Son replied, ‘your world cannot exist. Earthlings build on ideas and invention. That is what Revary is. Without your world, ours cannot exist. Without our world, neither can ours. Do you not see?’

  “‘I took Chel and Jinx on my quest to find Noiralice, the one behind the corruption. I had named her on a previous journey here, but had never found her. Her spies and servants were everywhere.’”

  Clare flipped a few more pages and scanned them for what she was looking for.

  “‘I have failed! Too many stories have I made in Revary and none to be finished. I have stayed too long in this world and cannot find a way back to my own. Chel has even taken me to the wizard in the tower who knows all and he has said there is no hope for me if I stay any longer. How can I leave these people? Every day, the land is decaying more with corruption and I cannot find a way to stop it. Ghosts are appearing everywhere.

  “‘Jinx has betrayed the fae and I when he led us to a great dragon. All of the dragonfly warriors have been taken the Nether Plane as well. I went to this plane only to be challenged by the great Gatekeeper when I wished to leave. The horror of that plane is unbearable! The under elves attacked my party and stole most of our talismans and weapons. If only I could have slain them all!’”

  Again she flipped the pages, looking for one word that would answer her question.

  “‘I returned to the Celestial Plane and begged for forgiveness from the Golden Sister. The corruption was at her gate. When I reached her heavenly palace, the Gatekeeper contorted and changed before my eyes. His wings fell away and his skin turned to pitch. Fire blazed from his eyes and he fell from that golden plane all the way to the Nether.

  “‘But there is one hope,’ the Sister said to me as I wept at her feet. ‘Do you have faith that another earthling can accomplish all that you started?’

  “‘If I had failed then who could finish all that I had started?’

  “‘Sacrifice yourself in this world and leave your tales untold, your deeds undone, and your glory unsung. You shall have more power in this world than any in Revary. It cannot be awakened until another earthling comes and takes up your burden. Kingdoms have fallen, people have been slaughtered, and the magic runs thin in Revary. You have done this to my once glorious realm.

  “‘To remove yourself from your world is dangerous. Only you can say if another earthling will have the courage and wisdom to complete the task that you yourself could not beat. Do you have this faith?’

  “‘I thought I had no choice. I said I believed in the people of my world, that there were others there stronger than me. I was willing to become a part of this dream and never return if only another would come. I did not know if another would.

  “‘I bade farewell to the steam giants of Regent and left for my execution. Going alone to Noiralice, I presented myself as a sacrifice to the corruption that spread across Revary. I bound as much of this darkness into the Mirror as I could. I had hoped to use it as a door. I wish I could know if my life was of use. The Golden Sister has changed form as she does when Revary is reborn from darkness and is no longer the one I knew. I failed so many people in my world and here. This, though a brief chronicle, is part of my life in Revary. If my children could ever believe in a world beyond their own, of hope not in their reach, let this be the story that teaches them that. I cannot see it, but I know my sacrifice was not for nothing.’”

  The little book was full of stories like this. All narrated by one person and in the same hand. It would have taken weeks for her to read the whole thing. But this was the proof she needed. The link between their world and the fantasy one was strong and very real.

  She met the eyes of her friends across the table that had once served as the Great Hall for the council meetings. Only Stella’s seat was empty.

  “I don’t think the destruction of our camping grounds and me going to Revary that first time was a coincidence,” she began. “That might be an example of the effect the corruption has on our world. There is a lot I don’t know, but I want to go back. It’s like the book is saying people are affected, not just our world.”

  Across the table, Al shook his head. “I know this place is real to you,” he said. “But it’s none of our business. They have warriors and heroes there already. If you ask me, this world is the one that needs a hero.” He stood up. “I can’t go on like this, Clare.”

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” After all this time, how could Al be so blind? “Ask Stella, she was there.”

  “And she won’t even talk to you!” He had leaned across the table to shout. Realizing what he must have looked like, he pulled back. “Call me when this phase of your life is over and you’re ready to grow up.”

  With Al gone, there were only five of them left. Would that number of earthlings be enough to bring about an end to the corruption? Clare’s heart fell. Was this even her fight now? Was she taking the book and her adventures too far? When she was old and wrinkled, would she look back and wish she had stayed in her own world? The chances of her returning were not strong either. Not if she planned to wage a war against an enemy that already had such a strong hold on an entire world.

  “I’m sorry,” she sighed. “I am wrong. This is no one’s quest, but mine and I don’t think I want it anymore.”

  Jeff picked up the book and slowly turned the pages lightly as though they would crumble in his fingers. No one tried to tell her otherwise. Perhaps this was all too strange for every one of them.

  Max shifted and sighed. “You said it’s not that simple,” he looked up at Clare. He was speaking slowly like the thoughts in his head were not complete or his heart was not in them. His voice was honest. “This corruption is not the destruction of our site. It has to do with people somehow.”

  A few more eyes flitted to him as he spoke. When he noticed some of the others watching him, he went on, determined to have Clare watch him too.

  “Decay, corruption, darkness, and even the emptiness you described in the stone city—these are not things you can see. Yes, you saw them in this world, but it’s different here. You said wraiths came back with you.
I haven’t seen any.”

  Lance looked up at his friend with wide eyes. “That’s not what happens here. They’re not the same in that world as they are here.”

  “You’re right,” Jeff said, not taking his eyes off the book as he continued to read. “This earthling says that those in Revary can cross over to our world, but then they will not be the same.” He paused and scanned. Suddenly he stopped and looked up. “Noiralice is here.”

  “What?” several voices echoed each other.

  Jeff nodded nervously. “He says that in a confrontation with a servant of the corruption, it said that she, Noiralice, may freely walk between worlds. This means,” he looked up like an old college professor over his glasses. “This means that the effects are here and there. The same, but different, like the Golden Daughter said. Maybe for this guy, it was called Noiralice. For you, Clare, it’s Umbra. It’s the same thing.”

  Another stone sank in Clare’s chest. This book couldn’t be lying, but was it up to her? It was too true to what she had seen with her own eyes in the other world to be a lie. In Revary. Someone else had been there and that someone had failed. But he had placed this book in her world. Maybe it was a call to finish his task. Maybe even someone from Revary had sent it to the earthlings.

  No, it was too big a task for her now.

  “I can’t go back. I wish I’d never told you!” She dropped her head into her arms.

  Max leapt up from the table and dashed to her side. He lifted her head up with his hands and met her eyes. How she loved his deep blue eyes behind his black hair.

  “You told us so we could help you, remember?” he whispered. “That’s what friends do. They help each other and stick together, even if you’re crazy.”

  She winced. “I may be crazy.”

  “Don’t care.” His voice was so quiet she could hardly hear it, yet every word was clear and meant just for her.