“What kind of chaos?” asked Raven.
“No kind of chaos. Chaos itself. The very raw, undiluted essence of strife and turmoil. You see, there are other worlds in the fabric, and sometimes the loom casts our threads close together, sometimes far away.”
“What’s that mean?” asked Blade.
“You know, alternate dimensions, that kind of thing,” put in Calvin. He turned back to Greystone. “And so Chaos came from one of these…threads, right?”
“It appears you will be useful, after all,” said Greystone. His words were gruff, but his eyes were pleased. “Yes. Chaos came pouring into True Earth all at once, and like a hurricane. We had never fought something like it before. It was dark, and terrible. Where its creatures spread, the land died. Trees and plants fell to rot and ruin. Animals could not survive unless they changed into terrible, twisted versions of their former selves.”
“This was on Earth?” Miles asked skeptically. “Listen, man, I may be bad at history, but I’m sure I would have remembered something like this.”
“It was millennia ago,” Greystone said, shrugging. “Before history had even begun. Very few tales tell of this even here in Midrealm, and they have lost much of the truth of the matter. But some of us have the memory. Some scholars remember and teach it to their pupils, who pass it on in turn. And all accounts are very clear: to protect Earth from Chaos, we created Midrealm.”
“You’ve said that a couple of times now,” I said. “What is Midrealm?”
Calvin looked at me like I was an idiot. “This,” he said, waving his arm around. “Where we are. This world, or dimension or whatever. This is Midrealm.”
“Correct again,” Greystone said.
“Wait, so we’re not even on planet Earth any more?” I asked, feeling my heart leap into my throat. Tightness seized my chest. “Oh my God, we have to get back home. I can’t be stuck here for the rest of my life!”
“First of all,” Greystone said, and his voice was like a solid rock trying to anchor me. “You are still, technically, on Earth. Just not your Earth. It is…a copy. A duplicate that was created in order to hold Chaos at bay.”
“A parallel universe, cuz. Remember?” said Calvin.
“You’re the only one who remembers anything about this, because this is crazy,” Raven said. “Alternate universes? Magic? I mean, this has gotta be a dream, or something. No way I’m actually here with you all and we’re all actually talking about this like it’s not the craziest thing ever.”
“I’m not a dream,” said Tess, so quietly I barely heard her.
“Neither am I,” Miles said. “Maybe you’re all fake, and this is my dream.”
“I’m every girl’s dream,” said Blade with a smirk, making a show of brushing back his slightly longish hair.
“Ugh,” said Raven and I at the exact same time.
Greystone looked like he was reciting some sort of very private and very urgent prayer for patience as he waited for us all to stop talking again. He caught my eye and asked through gritted teeth, with what I was sure was incredible restraint: “May I continue, my Lady?”
“Of course,” I said, surprised. “You don’t need my permission.”
“Not entirely accurate, but we’ll shortly discuss that further,” he said. “Now, the ancient wizards created Midrealm, the world in which you now find yourself. And in order to use it as a buffer between True Earth and Chaos, all magic had to be removed from Earth to Midrealm. Slowly, over the course of centuries, it faded away from your world, and is now only felt or seen as faint echoes of its former glory. For it is magic itself that is the stuff of Midrealm, and the binding agent that holds the entire universe together, protecting your world from Chaos.”
“You’re clearly not up on current events,” Blade said sarcastically, “if you think our world is protected from chaos.”
Greystone scowled at him. “Are legions of Shadow creatures marching through your lands, under the sway of a dark wizard whose power stems from death itself and against whom all are powerless to stand?”
Blade opened his mouth to speak, didn’t, and closed it again. Finally he mumbled, “I thought you were ignoring me.”
“So Chaos is trying to destroy Midrealm so it can get to Earth?” Calvin asked, as though everything made perfect sense to him now.
“Correct, young Lord,” Greystone said with a nod. “And for a long, long time, we have been fighting it. We can never truly defeat it, only wear it down and send it running. So we do just that, again and again and again. The brave men, women, elves, dwarves and all members of the Free People, are the only things standing between your world and Chaos. That, and the Realm Keepers.”
A chill ran down my spine. That’s what the leader of the Shadows had called us. “What are the Realm Keepers, exactly?”
“The Realm Keepers are you, and you are the Realm Keepers,” Greystone said. His voice sounded as though he wanted to sigh, but he restrained it. “You have many names. The common men know you as the Realm Keepers, for it is you who will now be entrusted with Midrealm’s safety. The Runegard will call you the Rune Holders, for they know that you are each imbued with a rune of power — a power they are sworn to protect. Kings and Queens will call you the Chosen, for this title reminds them that their power stems from luck of birth and riches, whereas your powers were granted to you by almighty Destiny.”
“Whoah, who’s entrusting us with what now?” exclaimed Raven.
“Did you say powers?” asked Calvin.
“So when we meet a King, will he, like, bow to us or whatever?” asked Blade, smiling suddenly.
“Regardless of what you are called, you are the Realm Keepers,” Greystone soldiered on, ignoring them. “The stones chose you to be the guardians of Midrealm, a duty you will now carry out until your dying day. Which, if we are not very careful, will be extremely quick in coming.”
“Out of everyone on Earth why us?” I asked. I still wasn’t sure I believed this guy, but we were in another world — that much I could believed based on what I’d already seen. I wanted to know why.
“Because we’re awesome,” Calvin said, waving me away dismissively. “That’s not the important question though. The important question is, why anyone?”
“What are you talking about?” Miles asked.
Calvin looked up at Greystone, their twin pairs of pale blue eyes holding in a gaze. “Why anyone from Earth at all? Why aren’t the Realm Keepers selected from the people of Midrealm?”
“A surprisingly insightful question,” said Greystone with a nod. “It appears I may have underestimated you. Well,” he said doubtfully, casting a disdainful glance at Blade, “at least the skinny one.”
“Bite me, grandpa,” said Blade cheerfully.
“The Realm Keepers come from Earth because Earth is the source of Midrealm’s power. Magic, after all, came from Earth in the first place. Only by maintaining a link to its original home can magic continue to exist, however tenuously. You are not only representatives of your home, you are imbued with all of the strengths of the Magic of old. The ancient wizards, those who summoned Midrealm into existence in the first place, had a power and a strength unlike anything the world had ever seen. The earth bent itself to their command, the air was their plaything, fire and water danced together from their fingertips, they could summon the stormcloud, and the minds of all men were under their sway.”
I thought back to the pillars where we’d first come into Midrealm. I saw in my mind’s eye the symbols carved on each. “There were six of them,” I said, suddenly understanding. “Six of them, each with different gifts. And there are six of us.”
Greystone nodded. “Indeed. You have been granted the powers of the Ancient Circle, each of you holding dominion over a different element that makes up the world. I can summon fireballs, shoot lightning from my fingertips, and cause wind gusts. But one of you can set a nation ablaze, another can create a storm that would sunder the very earth itself, and another can cause a torna
do with a snap of their fingers. No one is mightier in your magic than each of you.”
“What did we all get?” Calvin asked eagerly. “What’s my power?”
Greystone shook his head. “I do not know. It is forbidden to enter the circle when the new Keepers are being summoned. But you will find out very shortly. You will need to use your gifts to rebuild the wall that guards our kingdoms from Chaos.”
Suddenly there was a flickering in the air around us. The bubble that stopped the world seemed to fade before springing back to life. Greystone glanced at it and suddenly grew impatient.
“We are running out of time,” he said. “The hold will not last much longer. We are going to need to act very quickly to construct the wall.”
“How do we do it?” I asked, stepping forward.
“You see those pillars over there?” Greystone asked. His crooked old finger pointed to the six pillars arranged in a row to the north of the platform. “Each of you must choose a pillar. Whichever one you like. Your choice will be guided by the rune that has chosen you.”
“And then what?”
“Then you must unleash the powers that you have been given by the Stones. Use it on the pillar, and when all six of them have been activated, their ancient magic will throw up a barrier that the Shadow cannot pass through — for now.”
“Why did the barrier get turned off?” I asked, confused. “Seems like the kind of thing you’d just leave on.”
Greystone’s eyes grew grim. “The barrier only remains active as long as at least one Realm Keeper is alive to sustain it.”
“You mean…all of the Realm Keepers died? At once?” I asked in shock.
“Not all at once,” Greystone said ominously. Just then, the time bubble blinked off. Cara and her men started moving again. I heard the cry of the birds flying above. And far, far in the distance, in the north where the black smoke still poured up in a column, I heard the clarion call of war horns.
SARAH
“WE NEED TO ACT FAST!” said Cara, looking at the northern skyline nervously.
“Quickly now!” Greystone said impatiently. “Choose your pillar! Go!”
I ran toward them, the others following my lead. The pillars all looked the same to me, but I picked one at random and ran for it. The others broke at the same time and, miraculously, none of us chose the same pillar. Soon we were all standing in front of them, looking at the stones before us expectantly as though waiting for them to spring to life.
Greystone strode up, and for some reason his gaze fixed on Tess. He looked between her and the pillar she stood by. “Interesting,” he chuckled. Then he strode between us the pillars. His voice was crystal clear in the afternoon air. “Now, I want you all to concentrate on — ”
“Oh my God, look,” said Raven, pointing past him.
I looked. To the North, just over the lip of the hill that couldn’t have lay more than two miles away, came a horde of black shapes. They sprinted across the ground like their lives depended on it, howling and calling for blood.
“Don’t pay attention to it,” Greystone said, looking at each of us sharply in turn. “Right now, our only hope of survival lies with you and your ability to concentrate. I want you each to look at the stone before you. Think about it. Search for something within yourself, calling to you.”
Blade burped.
“Blade, can you be serious for one second?” I snapped at him.
“I was trying!” Blade said defensively.
“That was good,” Greystone said, surprising Blade and me both with his encouragement. He moved to stand beside Blade. “Try it again. Now.”
Blade concentrated, and his chest heaved. Right before he belched, Greystone (sporting a look of extreme satisfaction) lashed out and slapped him on the back as hard as he could. Blade nearly flew forward. Instead of just a belch, a stream of flame came out of his mouth, engulfing the pillar before him. The pillar caught fire as if it was made of wood, sending forth a wave of heat and light.
“Holy crud!” cried Calvin, bursting into hysterical laughter. Blade was sporting a look that was half disbelief and half pure joy. Miles was staring in awe. Raven was trying not to look impressed, but she was failing. Only Tess seemed unmoved. “I want to puke fire, too!” said Calvin.
“One each, I’m afraid,” said Greystone. “Now, the rest of you, concentrate! Hurry!”
“Get ready to fight. Again. We defend the Rune Holders to the death,” Cara said, drawing her blade and rotating her shield arm.
“I assure you, that will not be necessary,” said Greystone. Cara only grunted.
I cast another nervous eye at the black throngs running across the grass toward us. I forced my eyes to my stone and tried to concentrate, but I kept glancing over at them.
“Focus,” Greystone said gently, now standing right beside me. “Remember: if you can all do this, we’re safe.”
Cara and her soldiers were standing behind us, their weapons and armor clearly useless against the vast number of the creatures coming right at us. “Form a line in front of the pillars,” she commanded, and her men began to move forward.
“Don’t!” said Greystone. “If you do, you’ll be trapped on the other side when the wall comes up. And if the wall doesn’t come up, the Realm Keepers are dead regardless. Stay where you are.”
Cara gave an impatient growl. She seemed to be itching for a fight, though she clearly couldn’t win.
Greystone looked at me once more. “Come, child!” he said, drawing my attention back to the pillar. “Concentrate!”
“I can’t do it!” said Calvin beside me.
“Me neither, man. This is bogus,” Miles said. His arms were straining like he was trying to push something out of himself.
Greystone went to Calvin first. Calvin’s face was growing red, and I could see veins popping on his scrawny little neck. Greystone stood beside him. I could hear little groans escaping from Calvin as he tried to do…whatever it was he was going to do.
“Don’t forget to breathe,” Greystone said impishly, and he thwacked Calvin across the stomach with his staff. Calvin’s breath rushed out in a whoosh, and a miniature tornado sprang into life, rushing forward to surround his pillar. The wind whistled and tore at the stone, staying in place, a cylinder of whirling air.
“I sneezed a tornado!” Calvin said excitedly. “Did you see that, Sarah?”
I tried to smile at him, but I think all I managed was a strained grimace. The creatures were getting closer by the second, and I had no idea what my power was. Was I supposed to breathe? No, air was Calvin’s thing. Mine was…what? I didn’t know, and apparently Greystone didn’t either.
Or maybe he did. “Remember the battle,” he said, his eyes on mine.
The battle?
I remembered fleeing from the creatures, dashing across the battlefield as we fled for our lives. Blade had punched one of the Shadows, setting it on fire, as we now knew, that was his element. But I hadn’t…
Or had I?
I remembered standing at the portal, looking back at Cara as she and her men fought hopelessly against the Shadows. I remember screaming and pounding my fists against my thighs, and the massive rise that had sprung from the earth out of nowhere. I didn’t do that, Greystone had said.
I remembered the circle of the Stones, the way the ground had felt against my back and under my fingers. Warm, inviting, like an old friend.
Was it possible?
No way.
Greystone saw the look on my face. “That’s it,” he said. “Remember how you felt.”
I remembered the battle again. I was scared for my life. I was worried about the others. But most of all, I was angry. Angry that Cara was staying behind, fighting and dying when there was no need. Angry that she wouldn’t listen to me and run.
I looked up at the Shadows again. They were getting closer by the second, and they showed no signs of slowing down. They would kill us, I was certain. But I couldn’t allow that. I didn’t know half of wha
t I should have known about Midrealm. I didn’t know why I was now a Rune Holder, or Realm Keeper, or whatever. But I wasn’t going to go down like this, in another universe I hadn’t even known existed until hours ago. I had a life. I had a school, a hometown, and a family. I was going to make it back to them, somehow. And these Shadows wanted to take that away?
I felt my blood rising, and I stomped my foot on the ground. With a crack, two great jets of stone shot from the ground, slamming into either side of my pillar, and crushed it into dust between them, replacing the old grey rock of the pillar with fresh, brown, bone-of-the-earth stone.
My anger died, and I’m sure my face took on the same look of disbelief and excitement that I’d seen on Blade’s when he spat out the fire. “Whoah!” I screamed, for a moment forgetting the Shadows. “I did it!”
“Well done!” Greystone said proudly.
There was a sharp crackling noise, and my eyes shot to Raven. Her eyes were wide open, and twin jets of lightning shot from them, surrounding her pillar. The lightning sprang to life around the rock, running around it in little currents like it was alive. The lightning died away as she blinked, but it stayed on the pillar, crackling in the air.
“Nice,” she said with a satisfied little smile.
I saw Miles. He was moving his hands in the air, and I saw a little ball of water hovering between them. It morphed and twisted in the air, following the movements of his hands. A wide grin was spreading across his face. “I got it!” he said excitedly. “Okay, now what do I do?”
“Throw it at the pillar,” Greystone said. His voice was still calm, but I saw him cast a furtive glance at the approaching Shadows.
“They’re getting closer,” Cara said in agitation behind me. She was right. I could hear their howls loud on the wind, close enough to pick out individual voices.
Miles pushed forward, and the ball of water flew away from him. When it touched his pillar, the whole thing changed instantly into a standing pillar of water. Miles gave a little chuckle. “That was cool.”
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