���You’re not feeling well,��� he said slowly. ���We need to get you home.���
���Leave me alone, Tim. I’m fine,��� she snapped, which was not like her character, but possibly could be blamed on her disorienting brain injury.
Timothy was slightly perturbed that she had the gall to speak to him in that way, but tried not to let it affect him. Continuing again, slowly advancing toward her.
���You’ve had an accident. You’re not feeling well. You should come back, or… you’ll die of cold out here.���
And those last words were slightly exaggerated, so that he could get her to agree with him. Though, as Barbara looked down at her outfit, she did realize that in her daze, she’d forgotten to wear her winter’s coat that night. And she now came to feel for the first time, how unpleasantly cold she was. Though still, she could not be swayed.
���Go away,��� she grumbled, a glazed look still in her eyes. ���I have to find it,��� she said.
���Find it?��� Timothy replied. ���Find what?��� he asked. ���Is this all about that stupid necklace of yours?… I’ll buy you another one,��� he said, and reached to take her back forcefully, but for her own good.
���No!��� she shouted, pushing him away.
Though in the struggle she tripped, falling backwards, down through the bushes, through the hole in the cave ceiling, screaming in terror, and landed on the sand and stony ground of the cavern floor, with a silent thud.
���Barbara!��� Timothy cried, seeing the outline of her body, lying still in the pale light of the cavern.
As one fluid movement, he took the rope from his saddle bag, tying it around the base of a nearby tree, and sliding down the line so quickly that the fibers burnt into his skin.
His mind raced through the little bit of medical knowledge he’d gathered from his grandfather, as he knelt down beside her, too frightened to cry, but still he managed a few tears in his panic.
Lowering his cheek to her face, he felt shallow breaths on his skin. She was still breathing. She was alive, but unresponsive. Blood poured from the back of her head, wetting the sand beneath her, and her leg was broken and twisted behind her.
Rapidly, he worked the numbers in his head. He could use the globe to take them back to Ismere, but he knew it would not be enough, he had seen men die from less than this in the Giant War, her bleeding was too severe. He could set the coordinates for Earth, choose the best hospital in England, and hope for the best, but that would take too much time. He had to stop the bleeding soon, that was her only chance.
And that is when he remembered it. ���Grandfather’s knees,��� he said in his thoughts. If that world really could repair his old knees in no less than ten minutes, perhaps it might also be able to cauterize the bleeding.
He ran to the globe, turning the crank faster than he thought possible, and adjusted the settings. ���But how much time for a wound like this?��� he thought. His grandfather’s injury was minor by comparison, insignificant really, but Barbara was dying.
���Three days,��� he thought. No reason to chance her life by setting the time dials for anything less. She needed all the time she could get to stop the bleeding, and perhaps repair her fatal injuries. It was a foolish hope, to take her into a world that might heal her, but there was nothing left to him, she would not survive any other way.
The high cavern ceilings were lit by the globe, fully charged. He lifted Barbara up in his arms, trying to be careful because of her injuries, but knowing it was far more important to be quick than to be careful.
Images of this last undiscovered world shone out of the cave painting. The scenes from that desolate planet made it seem lonely, and harshly vacant. He reached out a finger, touching some generic location around the center of that world. Light burst upward, and with so much light he could now see that his hands had become soaked in blood as he held her.
He was about to be drawn into the air, with Barbara clasped in his arms, when he suddenly realized that no other person, in Gleomu or on Earth, would know where to search for them. Timothy chided himself for having ventured out, alone that night, when he followed after Barbara. And though a search party would likely trace their path back to the cavern, there would be no way for them to know exactly how to find them.
And so, in haste, he scrawled the message ���city��� into the dirt on the cave floor, and an arrow pointing toward the globe, with the heel of his boot. That way they would know he’d put his finger on the globe, somewhere near a city. And as he finished that late message, they lifted in an orb of dazzling light. Barbara’s breaths were so faint now that she might not have been breathing at all. And for whatever reason, that even he did not understand, he bent to kiss her forehead, and they shot with all the glorious clamor of light, out into another distant world.
*
�� And here I use the word ���comfort���, intentionally, so to not give the impression that her necklace had any special magical powers within itself to draw her to it, for it didn’t, only the power of human nature; Which like the necklace itself, if used well, can be very good indeed, but if used poorly, can bring about all manners of ill repute.
Chapter Twelve
Found & Lost
Tavora awoke harshly the next morning, with her father standing over her, having already seen the medallion around her neck. She had forgotten to take it off the night before, and Oded immediately jumped to conclusions, saying he did not raise his daughter to be a thief, and asked if that is what she’d been doing all day, instead of selling trinkets like she’d been told to.
���I found it,��� Tavora answered. ���And I’m not a thief, either.���
���Found it? Found it where?��� he questioned, in a low voice.
���In the cave,��� she replied. ���I thought it was ours, but it wasn’t.���
Then he reared back to strike her for lying as well, but she swore that she was not. Though he still didn’t believe her, and so she swore on her mother’s grave, so that there was no mistaking that she was being truthful.
Although, in hindsight, it might have been better for her to have let him strike her. Because, once he’d been convinced that there was treasure to be found under the earth, in that secret cave, he would not let it rest until he had personally searched that entire cavern inch by inch.
And so with that, after a very tense and hurried breakfast, even more so than usual, Oded left their cottage that morning to return to the mysterious hidden cave near the waterfall. And Tavora followed after, still hoping to somehow keep her father from discovering the hiding place for the Globe of Gleomu, but having no exact plan in mind for how to accomplish this. She’d only hoped to think of something before it was too late.
And as if she’d not had enough misfortune, Oded had insisted to hitch a cart to Myre and to lead her along with them, in case there were chests of hidden treasure that they would need to carry back with them.
���Where is she?��� Matilde screamed, after discovering Barbara’s horse was missing from the palace stable. She, the Queen of Earth, had been considerably composed that morning during their brief search through the palace, but now she was, for good reason, worried.
���She’s in no condition to be riding a horse, or to be running off in the middle of the night,��� she said aloud to Wilbur, who’d also had some foul news of his own.
���Timothy’s horse is gone as well,��� he said.
Matilde threw up her hands. ���Has the whole world gone mad?��� she exclaimed. ���What are these children thinking?��� she said, staring blankly into an empty horse stall.
���We’ll find them… I’m sure we will,��� Wilbur answered, putting his arm around his wife’s shoulder.
What a terrible position Tavora had found herself in, as she traipsed
slowly behind her father’s footsteps, and the hoof prints of her kindly old horse, who’d both had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The morning sun had melted away the evening frost, and a golden hue fell through the barren tree branches, and ahead, if she listened intently, she could hear that ghastly waterfall. And the time ticked continually away from her, and she’d still needed to find some way to keep her father out of the cave.
���Wouldn’t it be better for you to stand guard outside?��� she asked, as her father turnt with a distrustful questioning glare. ���Just so… just in case someone came to look for their treasure.���
Though, Oded didn’t take well to his daughter’s suggestion, saying that he would go into the cave, with or without her, and if she wanted to stand guard that was her business.
���But there are tight spaces, you won’t be able to fit into,��� she said. Which was, however, plainly untrue; For the cavern was wide opened with tall ceilings, and no nooks or tunnels to crawl through, like you might find in any normal cave. The entire thing was more like a great dome room in an ancient cathedral, than a regular underground cave.
Yet still, Oded wouldn’t listen. Saying with a harshness in his tone, that he would crawl on his belly, if needs be.
And she knew from then on, that morning, that it was frivolous to argue with her father; For once Oded had set it in his mind to gather treasure, then he could not be stopped, and no force in that world could persuade him otherwise.
She felt the crunch of old snow beneath her feet, and as she continued, begrudgingly following after her father’s footprints, she became visibly saddened, thinking of the man her father had been: before the Giant War, before her mother had died. In times past, Oded would often make trinkets and jeweleries for the art’s sake, or as a form of protection for his family, to provide for all their basic needs. Yet now, with no one to save him from himself, and in the throws of grief, what had begun as a good intention, to financially safeguard his daughter from the harms of poverty, and to protect her in the ways that wealth will allow, gradually became something lesser, something foul. She saw it in the ways he obsessed over his work, and in the gold she would bring back from Ismere. Now, he’d loved money for money’s sake. He loved the feel of it, not only in his hands, but also in his heart.
And the sound of the waterfall became more abrasive in her ears. There was no way around it. She could not tell her father why he could not enter the cave, only that he should avoid it. And knowing her father’s temperament, she knew that would never be enough.
Chapter Thirteen
Gone
The nightwatchman at the South Gate would most certainly be dealt with, for raising the gate, and allowing a wounded girl to leave the city, alone, after nightfall. But reprimands of that sort could be dealt with later.
Yet, the good news in all this was that, at least they now knew the direction that Barbara and Timothy had gone, and that Timothy went out riding not too far behind her, to rescue her and to bring her back. But they had both not yet returned, and it was now nearing midmorning, as they could tell by the position of the cold winter’s sun.
���Something’s gone terribly wrong. I know it has,��� Matilde said, as they stood at the southern entrance to the city.
Though Wilbur tried his best to comfort her, saying, ���Now all we know is that they’re gone. There’s no reason to get ahead of ourselves-���
���They’re gone, Wilbur. And I promised Agatha I’d keep them safe. I think that’s enough reason to be ecstatic,��� she exclaimed.
And with that, Wilbur left her to her emotions, knowing that if he tried to comfort her further, that that would only aggravate her.
Oded began to tie a rope around a nearby tree, but found that one had already been tied and left there from the night before.
���See, we should leave it alone,��� Tavora contested, but Oded only glared at her.
���Hello,��� he called down into the dim emptiness. But his voice echoed across the walls, and there was no reply. So he pushed past the spiny branches, and past his daughter, who was now begging for him not to go into the cave. But still, his mind had been soundly made up, so he let himself down the rope, with Tavora following quickly after.
This cave, which should have been pale and dull, was not. Starlight sprinkled from a moving lifelike painting, drawn onto a column in that majestic cavern. And they saw no other jewels or buried treasures, except for the one most priceless treasure that they were both not legally allowed to behold: the Globe of Gleomu, shimmering in starlight. It was dangerous, forbidden, and incalculably valuable. And, Oded knew, if sold to the right buyer, it could fetch a bargaining price of a hundred lives’ wages, for it was very dangerous indeed.
The trampling of horse hooves on the plains was softened by a stale snowfall that still lay upon the ground. The King and Queen of Earth, and the Queen of Gleomu, galloped along at a determined pace, toward their secret cavern. While Ata flew high in the air, using his armbands and electromechanical ball to keep the pace with the speed of the horses, and to act as a scout, in case Timothy or Barbara could be seen off in the distance. But still there was nothing, only the emptiness of the plains, and a far away treeline; And beyond that, miles and miles from their current place, the gorge, and their presumably secret cavern.
Tavora cried for her father to stop, but he could not be pleaded with, yelling back that she would thank him one day, when she had her inheritance.
Yet, she cried all the more, through a wash of tears, saying that she would never take an inheritance from him, and saying that she’d rather die first, than to take anything from him. Which caused Oded to strike her powerfully across the cheek, echoing the sound of her pain off the cavern walls.
And she watched helplessly as he tied a rope to the globe, and the other end to Myre, and saw as her unknowing plow horse did as it was told, pulling the globe out of the cavern, and out into the open world.
He drug it onto the horse cart, and away from the cave entrance, just as a newer morning snow began to fall in large, rapidly descending flakes, covering over their tracks, and leaving no sign of what they had done.
And sadly, for Barbara and Timothy, the dragging of the globe over the cave floor had wiped away all traces of Timothy’s scrawled message.
By the time they came to the cave that morning, all signs of the stolen globe, of hoof prints and footprints, were completely covered over by the still falling snow. And once they entered the cave, they were instantly panicked, and any fleeting optimism that they’d managed to keep until then was finally swept away.
The globe was gone. Timothy and Barbara were gone. And what was left in their place was a dried patch of blood, mixed with sand. It was anything but hopeful, and they had no idea where to begin their search, since Timothy’s message had been wiped away.
The members of the group paced the ground, or collapsed on the floor in utter shock. There were several ideas presented that would try to explain what had happened, though the one that had seemed to make the most sense, given their poor evidence, was that there had been a struggle, and someone had been morbidly wounded, and as Wilbur was convinced, had likely not survived considering the amount of blood that they saw splattered in the dirt of the cave floor. (That would be noticeable if you knew what to look for, though if you hadn’t, you might have been able to walk right over it in the dim of the cave light, and not even notice that you’d been walking on a mixture of blood and soil.)
And after this conclusion, since the globe had been taken, it seemed obvious that whomever had stolen away the globe must also have been Timothy or Barbara’s attacker. And as the amount of blood would suggest, that person, whomever he was, must also be a murderer.
Thus, their new mission became one of righteous vengeance: to find this thief, and murderer, and to bring him to justice. But first they would need to form a royal search party, and send word to the outlying cities.
And so they rode with all haste, back to the palace, while the snow continued to fall, covering over any trace of this supposedly murderous villain.
Chapter Fourteen
To the Stars
Encapsulated in their orb, Tim held Barbara as the blood stained on his shirt. This last world of men seemed to be ages away from Gleomu, far from their portion of the galaxy, positioned at the very edge of the outer rim.
The space inside their orb was achingly silent. Barbara’s breaths were frail and shallow, and made hardly no noise at all. And as he still carried her in his arms, Timothy began to weep, sobbing like he had not remembered ever crying before. And he wanted to pray that she would be alright, but prayers to whom? And what name would he even call him: In Sonsuz Su, they spoke of ���The God���. In Gleomu, the name that they used was ���the God of our ancestors���. And on Earth, he remembered as a young boy, the very few times he’d ever heard from his parents that there might be a God at all, this divine being was never given a name, and seemed vague to him, as if they spoke only of the idea of God, and not of God as an actual person.
And so, not knowing what name to say, or if there was even someone out there who might hear him, through their sphere of impenetrable light, and far away at the edges of our galaxy, all that he said was, ���Please, please…��� as their orb descended through a fiery clouded sky, into the remnants of a ruined metropolis.
This desolate city seemed to stretch out infinitely, past the distance that his vision could take him. Its grand towers, and buildings were in varying degrees of wastedness; From massive pyramids and structures with cracks spread throughout, to entire skyscraper buildings in rubbled masses. The sky was torn, in a similar manner to the way Timothy thought nuclear war might have looked like. Indeed, this did seem like the most lonely place in the whole galaxy. There was no life to be seen: no plants, no grass, nor birds, a place where nothing lived at all.
The Histories of Earth, Books 1-4: In the Window Room, A Prince of Earth, All the Worlds of Men, and Worlds Unending Page 45