TO BE CONTINUED IN…
CAPTURED
CALVIN
MY NAME IS CALVIN WELLS, and I’m living a double life.
Normally, it’s basically the best thing ever. Imagine being a crazy powerful Jedi. Like, Yoda powerful. Okay, well, maybe not really Yoda powerful—although Tess, I guess, is basically Yoda powerful. Me, I’m more along the power level of Empire Luke, or maybe Darth Vader, but—
Right, okay. You don’t care about all of that. But the point is, I am powerful. One of the six most powerful wizards in Midrealm, in fact, not counting Terrence, who shouldn’t really count because he’s kind of a skeezball. He’s the one trying to kill us. And, as we’d learned, he’d already killed the last Realm Keepers.
So just considering the six of us, we were basically the most powerful people in all of Midrealm, the alternate dimension that was like every fantasy world I’d ever dreamed of rolled into one, so yeah, life was pretty awesome.
Most of the time.
Of course, it was hard to be as happy or excited about my life when I was—
“What do you mean you’ve been kidnapped?” roared Sarah.
I flinched. Normally Sarah was pretty cool, but she could be downright close to terrifying when she got upset. And recently, she’d been given more than a few reasons to be upset. From finding out that Terrence used to be a Realm Keeper himself, to problems back on Earth with her sleep disorder, to having to manage our cross-country trek to summon the dragons, and now this. I felt a little bit bad adding to her worries, but at the same time I didn’t understand why she was mad at me. I mean, she wasn’t the one in danger here. At least, no more so than usual.
Sarah took two deep breaths.
“Are you sure this isn’t some stupid mistake?” she demanded. “Are you sure you didn’t get home and pass out in your room on the floor or something?”
My eyebrows raised in disbelief. “Sarah, I was on the phone when I was taken. I was on the phone with you, remember? I was by the school. I wasn’t anywhere near my house, or anywhere else with a bed for that matter.”
“Okay, explain to me exactly why you think you were kidnapped,” Sarah said. “And let me just be frank—I am so far from in the mood for a joke that if I think I smell one coming, I will slap you so hard your mom will feel it across the dimensional gap.”
Let you be Frank? I thought your name was Sarah! screamed my mind, begging me to unleash what was, admittedly, a pretty hilarious response. I battered the thought down like it was a Whack-A-Mole.
“Okay,” I said carefully. “I was by the school. But I wandered a little bit, and there was no one else around. Then, I thought I heard a soft footstep behind me. Before I could turn to see who it was, I saw a white gauze pad flying toward my face. It smelled like chloroform.”
“Are you sure it was chloroform?” she demanded.
I gave her a deadly serious look. “Sarah, I know what chloroform smells like.”
“How can you be so—”
“Sarah, you are questioning my expertise on two subjects in which I am a master: chemistry and doing things I really shouldn’t do,” I said, slowly and deliberately. “Do you really want to know how I know what chloroform smells like? Do you really want to go down that road? You won’t like where it leads.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed and a hint of anxiety tinged her furious scowl. “Sometimes you scare me, Calvin.”
“That’s not an area of expertise, that’s more of a fringe benefit,” I said with a smile.
Now that she seemed to be out of hyperactive mode, I took a moment to look around. It was night time, but the sky was growing steadily brighter. The campfire was burning low, unheeded. The Runegard were all standing around us, wearing expressions that ranged from merely concerned to downright worried.
“Lady Sarah,” said Cara. “If I may ask, what is happening?”
“It seems Calvin has been captured on True Earth,” Sarah said. “But he doesn’t know by who.”
“By whom,” I corrected. “My mystery assailant is the object of that sentence.”
“Remember what I said about the jokes?” Sarah growled.
“Grammar isn’t a joke.”
“Was it the Association?” Cara asked me, deadly serious.
I shrugged. “No idea. Like I said, I didn’t see the guy.”
“Did you see anything?” Darren pressed. “Anything that might lead you to the person’s identity?”
“Nada,” I said. “That means nothing,” I added helpfully.
Sarah growled in frustration. “Of course it was the Association,” she said. “Who else would it be?”
“Um, it pains me to have to say this, but it could have been literally anyone,” I said. “I know you’re sheltered, but even you and I don’t live in a bubble that thick. Kids get kidnapped all the time.”
Sarah’s eyes darted back and forth. “Okay. Okay, I’ve got to go back and tell the police.”
“No!” I said forcefully.
Sarah balked. “What? Why not?”
“What if it is the Association?” I asked. “If you make a ruckus about it, you’ll just be painting yourself as a target right along with me.”
“But what if it’s some random kidnapping, like you said?”
I paused. I scratched the back of my head.
“Lady Sarah, what can we do?” Cara asked. “We are responsible for all of your safety.”
“Yeah, but you can’t go to Earth,” I said. “So there’s not a whole lot you can do in this situation.”
Cara’s mouth set in a firm line. Clearly, she didn’t like that.
“Even if it is the Association, maybe letting the police know would be a good idea,” Sarah said hopefully. “They still might be able to find you. And meanwhile, they might protect the rest of us.”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so. If the Association is really as big and powerful as Greystone says they are, then they’ll have lines in to police around the country. If we all show up in the system, it’ll probably just make it easier to track us down.”
“But if they did track us down that way, then why wouldn’t they have grabbed all six of us?” she demanded. “Why just you?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe I was easiest to find. I am the one who was busiest online. And I probably had more Google searches about Midrealm-type stuff than all of the rest of you combined. Maybe I didn’t do a good enough job of scrubbing my online presence.”
Sarah put a hand on her forehead and massaged her temples. “Calvin, I have no idea what to do here. We need to find you, pronto. Whether it’s the Association, or something else.”
An idea clicked. “Give me a sleeping potion,” I said abruptly.
“What?” she asked, confused.
“Give me a sleeping potion,” I said. “It’ll give me a chance to look around, see if I can identify my surroundings. Then, I can come back here as soon as possible and tell you guys what I see. You can go back to Earth and track me down. At least, I hope so,” I added.
Sarah snapped her fingers. “That’s actually a good idea.”
“Of course it is,” I said with a modest shrug. “Mine usually are, even though I’m often more of an unrecognized genius.”
Sarah ignored me and dug through her travel sack. She pulled out one of the small bottles of purple liquid that contained the sleeping potion we used to travel back to Earth at a moment’s noticed. She uncorked it and handed it over.
I went back to my bedroll and lay down on my blankets, then took a swig of the purple liquid. Its familiar, neutral taste, reminiscent of salty chicken, washed down my throat. I felt the familiar slump of consciousness as my body went slack.
Everything was blurry and dark. The thrum of the engine beneath me was a harsh, thrusting assault on my already-painful headache. I couldn’t move my limbs—they were tied. I saw white metal walls, and—
—I woke up, shooting out of my bedroll into a crouch.
“What happene
d?” Sarah asked shrilly.
“I only woke up for half a second,” I said, massively disoriented. A keen sense of vertigo seized my stomach, and I nearly threw up. I clamped down my jaw, put my head between my knees and waited for the feeling to pass. Once it did, I looked back up.
“Why didn’t the sleeping potion work?” Sarah asked, her voice gaining another notch on the panic scale.
“I don’t know for sure,” I said, “but it’s probably because I was drugged. I’d be willing to bet that if there’s something keeping you asleep in one world, you can’t wake up there even if you do sleep in the other.”
Behind Sarah, Cara nodded. “That’s true. If you were drugged, you wouldn’t be able to wake up even with a sleeping potion here.”
Sarah gave a frustrated cry. “What did you see?” she demanded. “Could you see a person? The person who kidnapped you?”
“It was too dark,” I said. “I couldn’t see anything. The only thing I know is I was in a van or something.”
“A van? What kind of van?”
“White,” I said. “White metal walls.”
“And who was driving?”
“No idea,” I said. “I was facing the back.”
Sarah slumped. She simply sagged to the ground in front of me, her limbs going weak of their own accord.
“Calvin…” she said slowly. “I don’t know what to do.”
Her lack of confidence was scarier to me than a thousand kidnappings. This was Sarah. She was the girl with the plans. She was the one who knew what to do.
“But, like, you’re going to be able to find me, right?” I said, feeling my voice get higher with each word. It cracked as I continued, “You’re not just going to leave me there, right?”
Her eyes drifted down. “I…I want to,” she said quietly. “But if we call the cops, we could get ourselves killed. If we don’t call the cops, you could get killed.”
And that was it. I knew it. We had no idea what was really going on, and of the two ways we could go, either one could be a terribly wrong decision that would end it all, right here and now. I wasn’t going to die in some epic battle in Midrealm. I was going to die on Earth while my body lay sleeping—either at the hands of the Association, or of some creep with mental health issues.
I felt my lower lip start to tremble. “Sarah…I don’t want to die. I only just got here. I don’t want this to end. Things are just starting to look up for us.” I felt the first tears creep into the pits of my eyes. “I never even got to see the dragons.”
Sarah looked up from her hands into my face. And seeing my expression, her own turned hard. It was like she reached down and found something there to hold on to, and I saw the same look on her face that had been there for the whole siege of Morrowdust; the same look she’d given Greystone when we talked with him on the telestone a few days before.
“Of course we’re not giving up on you,” she said, her voice crisp and businesslike again.
I sighed with relief. “Okay. So what do we do next?”
Sarah took a deep breath. “All right. I have to go back, right now. My mom’s probably looking for you, and she’s probably close to getting worried. I’m going to tell her you went to…um…which friend’s house? It has to be someone your mom will be okay with, too.”
“Blade,” I said automatically.
Sarah blinked. “Seriously? How does your mom know Blade?”
“He’s come over and stayed at our place before,” I said. “Back during the siege.”
Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said uncertainly. “Blade’s home life doesn’t exactly have the best reputation. If your mom knows about it…”
I remembered Blade when he first showed up. He had a bruise. He was upset. He arrived in the middle of the night.
“Okay, good point,” I said. “My mom won’t be cool with me being at his place. Um…let’s see…Miles?”
Sarah guffawed. “Fat chance. You and he have never been chummy. And besides, if I tell your mom and my mom that that’s where you are, they’ll both call Miles’ mom. They know her.”
“Ooh!” I snapped my fingers. “That’s it! Tell them I spent the night at Eugene’s place.”
“Who’s Eugene?”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, Sarah, do you know anyone who isn’t on a sports team or the cheerleader squad? Eugene is a friend of mine. We play D&D together. And best of all, his parents are pretty loaded and spend most of their time out of town. He’s got like a permanent live-in maid who takes care of him most the time. My mom doesn’t know his folks at all. She won’t call.”
“Okay,” Sarah nodded. “That’s good. What do I tell them when they ask why you went over there so suddenly?”
“Tell them we have a last-minute chemistry assignment,” I said, in a stroke of what I was sure would be unrecognized brilliance. “One I forgot about until today. You know my mom and dad. You tell them I’m working on a chemistry project, and they’ll move mountains to stay away from me.”
“Okay,” said Sarah. “Now, hopefully I can catch Miles and Blade before they decide to go to sleep. If I can’t, and they come here, send them straight back. Give them sleeping potions. They’re the only two with cars, and we’ll need them in case we get a clue where you are.”
“So what, they’re just going to drive around aimlessly until then?” I asked skeptically.
“Basically, yes,” Sarah said. “We need drivers on call. But if Raven gets here, have her stay with you. Meanwhile, you keep trying the sleeping potion. Knock yourself out as soon as you can. Once you get to Earth, try to figure out where you are, then come back. Tell Raven, send her back, and tell me.”
My mind reeled. It was the most complicated relay race of all time. “Okay, I get it. But Sarah, we don’t have a bottomless supply of the sleeping potion.”
Sara frowned. “You’re right. I forgot about that. How much do we have?” she asked, turning to Cara.
“Fetch the sleeping potion supply, immediately,” Cara snapped to Darren. He scrambled for his saddlebag, dumping it out onto a blanket. We had maybe fifteen, twenty vials, each vial enough for one dose. We hadn’t predicted needing the sleeping potion very often on the road. We were on a regular schedule, which mean that we could just go to sleep normally at the end of each day.
“Well, we can send Miles and Blade back, no problem,” I said. “But I can’t keep overloading on this stuff. I’ll run through everything we’ve got. And besides, who knows if it’s even good for you to drink that much?”
“It isn’t,” said Melaine solemnly. “I wouldn’t suggest taking more than a couple of doses in the course of a day.”
“One of us could try knocking you unconscious,” Samuel said helpfully. “I’m quite sure I could do it with a well-placed blow. Here, perhaps,” he said, poking my cheekbone. “Or perhaps here.” He tapped my temple.
I batted his hands away with mock kung fu gestures. “Okay, nobody’s beating me unconscious.”
“Why don’t you have Lady Tess put you to sleep?” asked Nora eagerly. “I’m sure she could do it.”
Sarah pursed her lips. “Can she do that?” she admitted.
Cara looked at Nora sharply. “Does Lady Tess have the training necessary?” she asked.
Nora shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not sure. But I know she has the power. If Greystone has taught her how it is done, it would be nothing to her. As easy as blinking.”
“Perhaps if the Watcher has not taught her yet, he can instruct her by means of the scrying stone,” suggested Barius. “If such a thing can be explained with words.”
Sarah snapped her fingers. “Perfect. Good. This is good, guys.”
“Well, I’ve been doing this for some time,” grumbled Barius, looking pleased. “I ought to have a trick or two up my sleeve.”
“Sure you do,” said Samuel with a smile. “For an old dog.”
“All right, I’d better go back,” said Sarah. “Remember, if Raven shows up, she
stays here as your warning system. If Tess shows up, you get her on the line with Greystone. Blade or Miles, you send them back right away.”
“Got it,” I said. “Good luck. Oh, wait!”
Sarah paused with a vial of sleeping potion halfway to her lips. “What?”
“What are you going to do once you tell our parents?” I asked her. “Are you going to stay there, or come back?”
“I’m going to stay,” said Sarah. “I’m going to swing by the school and see if I can spot any clues from the spot where you were abducted.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What are you, Nancy Drew?”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Good night, Calvin.”
The purple sleeping potion disappeared down her throat, and in seconds she was out. Then it was just me and the Runegard. Barius, Nora, Samuel and Melaine went to the camp’s perimeter, keeping watch as sentries. Cara and Darren sat beside me to keep me company.
“I’m sure this will be sorted out soon, my Lord,” said Darren, smiling in encouragement. “I’ve got a good feeling about it.”
I tried to smile bravely, but my heart wasn’t in it. “Sure it will,” I said. “Sarah’s got it under control.”
“She truly does, you know,” said Cara, looking at me earnestly. “Lady Sarah is an exceptional woman. If anyone can find you, she can.”
“Yeah,” I said morosely. “If anyone can. I don’t know what to hope for—that I’m in the hands of the Association, or some random abductor.”
“You had better pray it is not the Association,” Cara said, sounding genuinely worried. “If they were able to find you, it will not be long before they find the others. If they do not have them already, they will learn their locations from you.”
I started. “What are you talking about?” I said angrily. “I’d never tell them where the others are!”
Cara looked at me. “The Association most likely has men who specialize in extracting just that sort of information,” she said, clearly confused as to why I was upset. “It is no statement against you that they would be be able to—”
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 9