Andrew shook his head. ‘With any luck, they won’t.’
She blanched. ‘What?’
He slid his hand over a flat section on the wall, eyes narrowed. ‘Like you said: if people find out, can you imagine what would happen? The majority in these cities verge on savage barbarians. If they are suddenly introduced to the possibility of…this: powerful beings from another world, how do you think they’d react?’
Victoria shrugged. ‘Probably think they were gods.’
Andrew stepped back and scowled at the wall. What had him so fascinated was beyond her. ‘They did think they were gods when they first arrived. However, since your cousin’s rebellion things have tensed in this city. Thanks to what those Denizens tried to pull no-one trusts anything religious. Unveiling something like this could be disastrous.’
Victoria studied him. He was back to tracing his fingers over the wall. ‘You think they’d turn on you, don’t you?’
He raised his pale eyes to her. ‘They’re this close already. Sure, they are fascinated now. That will wear off and turn to mistrust the moment the steam pipes stat running down their streets. I don’t want to throw myself out there as some prophet of doom.’
Victoria looked to the ceiling. ‘You’ve already done a good job of that. Everyone is close to thinking you’re some sort of monstrous god the way you’ve been showing off these past few weeks. That little toy steam engine you made was like magic!’
He sighed. ‘I know. That was a mistake. I just…can’t help myself.’
That was one of his most honest statements, she decided. ‘That’s a bit of an understatement.’
He gave her a wry grin.
Victoria turned back to the wall. ‘What about this?’
Andrew tilted his head to one side, eyeing it curiously. ‘There’s something behind it.’
Nerves suddenly fluttered to life in her stomach. ‘How…how can you tell?’
Swiftly, Andrew caught her hand in his and pressed it against the stone. ‘Feel anything?’
Victoria stood still. It took her brain time to turn her focus from Andrew’s hand over hers, which was sending waves of heat dancing up her arm, making her insides twist. She finally became aware of what Andrew wanted her to feel: The wall was trembling; vibrating with a steady, uniform pulse.
‘What is that?’ she gasped, pulling her hand back.
Andrew shook his head. ‘Something mechanical?’
She scowled. Mechanical things were still fairly novel to consider. ‘But…’
Andrew’s eyes were shining with a wild light. She could almost hear his brain kicking into a run. That look always frightened her. Andrew rarely showed emotion and this now was intimidating.
‘There has to be a way in,’ his voice was a quiet, hungry whisper.
‘But…’ Victoria stammered again. ‘How can it still be working after all this time?’
He shook his head, sending his blond hair sweeping across his tall forehead. ‘It must be a technological wonder.’ He stepped back and clenched his teeth together. ‘There has to be some trick to getting inside.’
‘Why not just break through?’
Again he shook his head. ‘No. Those who built this, they were clever, and advanced beyond anything we know. Breaking into this room could cause untold consequences. There’s a proper way to go about it. I just have to figure it out…it…wants me to.’
Victoria glowered. ‘How do you mean it wants you to?’
Andrew closed his eyes for a quick moment. ‘Hush. Let me think.’
Victoria pressed her lips together irritably and left him to it.
Not a moment later his eyes snapped back open and he moved his head up and down, dashing to the left and right, muttering faster than she could understand.
‘There’s a way in. So, what does it need, a key? Or is it simpler than that? Hullo, what’s this?’ Andrew halted before a mound of sand and went to pawing at it. The grains dusted away to reveal a flat pillar which stood about waist height. He cocked his head slightly to look at it and then, shakily, lowered his hand.
The instant his hand touched it things went wrong. Even as his skin pressed to the stone Victoria found her insides tightening warily.
Andrew went ridged. His head snapped back, eyes staring wide, letting out a strangled groan. She yelled in horror and lunged forward, heart clogging her throat. ‘Andrew!’
All of a sudden, the wall grated and began to retract. Victoria, hand outstretched to Andrew, could only watch in frozen amazement as the last of the wall disappeared into the ceiling.
Andrew moaned and slumped over.
Victoria tore her gaze from the sight to grab Andrew by the shoulders.
‘Are you all right?’
Andrew lowered his head, blinking rapidly. ‘Fine. I suppose it needed human contact to draw power…Fascinating.’
Morbid curiosity drifted Victoria’s hand towards the pillar. If Andrew could, why not her, too?
She wasn’t to know, however, for he caught her in his strong grip and gave his head a terse shake. She didn’t protest. As much as she wanted to do something, being twitched about was not it.
‘Well now,’ Andrew purred, releasing her to peer into the new beyond, ‘what have we here?’ He stepped through to the room which was, mercifully, nearly void of sand. ‘Bring that torch, will you?’
Victoria obeyed and trailed in after him.
The chamber was much like the one before, yet not quite as worn. Andrew swiped the torch from her and advanced, unafraid, towards the dancing shadows; the light reflected back to him from the walls which were, Victoria saw, of polished metal. Inscriptions marred their otherwise smooth surface; more of that strange, alien writing. A long panel ran about waist-height along each of the shining walls. Strange things jutted out from those surfaces and a large pipe, which Victoria realised accounted for the vibrations, stood off to one side. Several big gears sat still in one corner. In the other corner stood a statue of a three headed person.
‘Well,’ Andrew said after a quick sweep with his eyes, ‘this is…intriguing.’
‘What is all this?’ Victoria demanded, not really thinking Andrew knew but unable to come up with anything else to say.
‘I don’t…’ Andrew didn’t finish his sentence.
Victoria shuffled round, dazed, and stopped. Across from her was a large ball, glowing with a ghostly light. She stepped towards it cautiously. ‘Andrew…?’
He was busy with his own discoveries, so of course didn’t bother acknowledging her.
The orb flicked as if in greeting and suddenly flashed; she went stumbling back.
‘Andrew?’
He finally looked up. Whatever witchcraft was responsible for the brightening light now forced her to squint. All of a sudden Victoria was faced with the blurry face of a girl reflected back at them. Her image pulsed in and out of focus.
‘Well, this is interesting,’ Andrew said.
Victoria’s vision finally fizzled in adjustment. The girl appeared about their age and very pretty—Victoria noted with a slight twinge of jealousy.
‘H—hullo? Is anyone there? Can you hear me?’ Victoria caught a a Scottorrian accent.
Andrew cast a look at Victoria, then positioned himself before the orb. He flashed one of his rare, charming grins. ‘Hello there!’
The girl looked like she might faint. ‘Oh! Thank the gods. Andrew? Andrew O’Neill?’
He frowned in confusion. ‘Yes,’ he said slowly. ‘How do you know me?’
The girl took a deep breath. ‘It’s a long story. My name is Samantha Turner. I need your help.’
Chapter Eleven
Victoria was staring in shock. Andrew could practically feel when her mind jumped to the assumption he had been sneaking about without her—and not up to anything good.
‘What have you done, O’Neill?’
He shook his head, willing her to be still, whilst not taking his eyes from the girl. ‘My help, aye? Not so fast. Where are you?
Who are you? And how do you know me?’
She could hardly keep still. ‘Look, I know this is going to sound mental, but I’m from the future.’ She bit her bottom lip. ‘From a different world in the future.’
Andrew lifted his eyebrows.
‘We have a mutual friend!’ she said quickly. ‘Tollin! The Traveller?’
‘You know Tollin?’ Victoria cried.
Samantha swallowed. ‘From the future. Is…is Tollin there by any chance?’
Andrew again gave his head a curt shake, scowling as he thought. ‘No. And even so, I don’t think it would be wise to allow you two to meet since you are with him in the future, not now.’
She looked a bit disappointed. ‘Hadn’t thought of that…Yeah, of course.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Sorry, I don’t mean any offense. I just wish I had him here to help me. I—I’m not really thinking clearly at the mo.’
Andrew leant back and turned to business. The more disinterested he appeared, the more desperate shew would become. That worked to his advantage. ‘And what exactly is this problem of yours?’
She looked a tad nervous.
‘Come now,’ Andrew growled impatiently.
Samantha sighed. ‘It’s rather hard to explain.’
‘Try.’
She huffed her breath. ‘All right. Well, me and Tollin, we travel. He’s a Realm Jumper, you know.’
No, Andrew didn’t know. He hadn’t the foggiest idea what it meant. He didn’t bother with a response.
‘Well, anyway, we came to this Realm—he called it the Time Realm. We were exploring and…’ She looked genuinely miserable. ‘I accidentally sent him to a different Realm…in a different time.’
A smile pulled at his lips which he couldn’t quite stop; of course it appalled Victoria. She shoved him. ‘It’s not funny!’
Well, that was debatable. He raised his eyes back to the blurry image of the girl. ‘You accidentally sent him to another Realm and time? That is too good.’ He did laugh then, as he thought it over. ‘And you can’t get him back?’
The girl was glaring at him with blatant dislike. ‘Right. Apparently the place he’s stuck isn’t so easy to get him back from. We can kinda communicate. That’s how I got stuck with you; he wanted me to find you.’
Andrew tilted his head to one side. ‘He knew we’d be here?’ he frowned. ‘Intriguing…’
She shifted impatiently. ‘So, can you help?’
He glanced round the room, taking in what he had to work with. He knew nothing of Realms or time travel or, for that matter, technology so advanced. It had all been a dream for him till now. And now he was expected to not only figure it out, but save Tollin? That was a lot to ask.
‘Exactly how far in the future are you?’ he asked at last, ignoring her question. ‘Your accent is clearly Scottorrian.’
Samantha looked down. ‘I’m about five-hundred years in your future.’
Victoria gasped. ‘Five-hundred!’
Samantha nodded. ‘Yeah.’
Andrew let that settle in him: excitement at the strange impossibility. They were dead to this girl. She lived five-hundred years in the future and Victoria and he were long gone by then. She was, essentially, talking to the grave.
When he raised his eyes to her, he knew she understood that, too. She almost looked…guilty.
Andrew shook it from him. It was pointless to let it bother him. ‘Well, Samantha, with the information you’ve given me I can do nothing.’
She brightened. ‘Oh, please, call me Sam, everyone does. And I think I can help with that!’
She took a step back and he received a blurry view of a cavernous space, similar to the one he was in now.
‘This control panel, here, is what connects to every time and Realm—apparently,’ Samantha—or Sam, if she insisted, explained. ‘It can send you wherever you want to go, I think. And once that hologram wakes up we can work out what it all means. Just need to work around whatever firewalls this thing has put up to keep me from getting in.’ She spun back to him. ‘So, will you help me?’
Andrew debated. It was, truly, an interesting problem. Absolutely fascinating. But something darker, something angrier, clamped itself round his thoughts. ‘Why?’ He had to ignore the stunned look on Victoria’s face.
Sam lifted her chin. ‘What?’
‘Why should I help you?’
‘Andrew!’ Victoria scolded.
Sam looked at him steadily. ‘Because it’s the right thing to do. You wouldn’t willingly banish him to that life if you knew you could do something. He asked me to come to you because he trusted you. If you two’ve got some problem then punishing him hundreds of years in the future does you no good.’
Andrew searched her expression, wanting to find something to connect with—as difficult as that was. Her mouth was pressed into a determined line, nothing scared or weak in her. And…there was something about her he couldn’t put a finger on. Something that the transmission and years wouldn’t allow him to sense… ‘I don’t see why I should help some girl who was stupid enough to trap him in the first place.’
Anger sparked in her eyes at that. Yes, she was definitely a fighter.
‘You’re not a bad person. Tollin knows how to judge character. He wouldn’t have told me to contact you if he didn’t trust you. I don’t know what your problem is, but I know that you’ll help me just as soon as you’re done…trying to prove whatever you’re trying to prove.’
Andrew was amused. ‘Oh? And why is that?’
It was her turn to smirk. ‘Because he knew you would help him. He’s lived through it.’
Andrew disputed the logic of that. Tollin was not in this Realm at the moment. He didn’t know his future self was trapped and asking for help. But what if that changed? What if Tollin came back? Could Andrew really just leave Tollin trapped there in the future?
Did he like Tollin? No. Not at all. Perhaps it was because they were so similar—or so different—but the Traveller had always managed to rub his nerves raw. Leaving him trapped in some future time and Realm because some girl was dumb enough to trap him there felt like a fitting end for the puffed up prat…and yet…Andrew felt a sourness fill him. He wasn’t so sure he could do it. Even as emotionless as he considered himself, there did feel something almost cruel about leaving Tollin to die.
‘Fine,’ he growled at last. He felt Victoria relax beside him. ‘But I’m not doing it for him. I’m doing it for curiosity’s sake.’
Sam flashed a smile. ‘As long as you help I don’t give a damn!’
Andrew groaned, stood and rubbed his face, feeling them watching him closely. He wracked his brain. ‘I’ll need all the information you have on that thing. Full explanations of the control panels, how it works, what it does, everything you can give me.’
Sam nodded. ‘Think I can manage that. I don’t really know myself but there’s a…helper thing here, like a hologram.’
That word again. ‘A what?’
Sam paused. ‘Um, like a…book that is in human form? I don’t know how to explain it; it’s a fake person that has information.’
Andrew waved a hand. ‘Fair enough. Get that thing up so I can talk to it.’
She bit her lip. ‘Afraid it’s shut down till morning.’
Andrew grumbled to himself. He was growing impatient to start. His pulse had been quickening since the orb had activated and he was nearly trembling now. He was fascinated, as much as he wanted to hide it.
There was a ruckus somewhere off-screen and the girl’s head whipped round. Whatever was making the noise widened her eyes with fear—a rattling of a door and animalistic shrieks.
‘What’s the matter?’ Andrew barked, hoping his tone hid that it had startled him.
Samantha slowly tore her eyes away to meet his. ‘I’m not sure.’ She was gnawing on her lips again. ‘Look, would you mind too much if,’ she took a deep breath, ‘if you just stayed here till morning?’
Andrew pressed his mouth into a hard line, but som
ething about the look on her face stopped him from saying no. ‘I suppose I’ll have to,’ he said at last, ‘if we’re going to get any work done freeing your friend.’
Sam brightened considerably.
Andrew pulled out a notebook. ‘Now,’ he purred, ‘let’s start at the beginning.’
* * * * *
Tollin slid the crystal up his neck, letting the razor edge scrape along his skin. He winced as the uneven surface nicked him. In the foggy reflection of the stone he watched a small trail of coppery blood snake down his throat. He dabbed at it peevishly. Shaving so primitively wasn’t exactly ideal, but Tollin couldn’t stand the beard he’d been growing lately. In the past ten years he’d been trapped in the Realm, his appearance had certainly taken a turn for the worst.
He sighed and set the crystal down before studying his reflection. Ten bloody years…Sixty to go before he could finally reach the point to speak with Sam again—if he could manage to fix the viewer. That useless viewer that didn’t let him manipulate time.
He had to admit: he looked tired. Rough. Not himself. That was what ten years alone did. Well, he wasn’t truly alone. There was Craven…
At the reminder of his prison mate, he cast a glance over his shoulder. Nothing to be seen.
He’d kept his distance from the creature. There was something about the way Craven watched him that made Tollin want to sleep with both eyes open—as he often did now. It was not that the creature had ever done anything threatening, in fact, Craven almost appeared to have forgotten Tollin’s existence; not surprising since creature slept most of his days. Yet that didn’t let Tollin relax his guard.
For that reason, Tollin had created his own little living space as far from the main island as possible. It hadn’t been easy finding a way out to the distant island housing the damaged transmitter, but Tollin had managed.
He’d found a length of strong cable and, after some ingenuity, he’d managed to land on the smaller island and anchor the cable so that it spanned from the main part of the castle to his little isle.
Welcome Home (Alternate Worlds Book 3) Page 13