As soon as the soup was hot enough, I called the kids into the kitchen. They started eating, and I drifted down the hallway toward my room. I didn’t want them to notice me in there not eating. I didn’t want them worrying about me.
I poked my head into my mom’s room. She’d have to wake up in an hour for her night shift at the office building. She’d been working as a janitor for years now, seven days a week, always sleeping during the day and staying awake to work all night. Right now her head was hanging half off the bed, her mouth open and wheezing slightly. Her hair looked greasy. She probably wasn’t taking care of herself again.
The blanket had slid off of her feet. I stepped in quietly, grabbing it and pulling it over them. Her mouth closed and opened again, but otherwise she remained still.
I went into my room and lay down on my mattress. In the room’s opposite corner was the mattress for Nikki and Kellyn. They’d tuck themselves in. They usually did.
I lay down and readied myself to drift off to sleep. Just as I did, I heard a sharp buzz from my pants pocket. I pulled out my cell phone, the little black one that Anna had given me. It was the first cell phone I’d ever owned in my life.
Made a breakthrough. Things are almost ready. Meet tomorrow.
My eyes widened and I gasped. Then a smile broke out on my face. Finally. It was ready. Soon we wouldn’t have to worry about Medicorp on Earth ever again.
I lay back down and pulled my blanket over myself. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
The old man walked through the forest. His steps were hurried but even. His eyes pointed straight forward, unwavering. He held his staff in his right hand, its top a point of glowing light.
Deeper, deeper into the woods he went. I recognized them. The trees were beautiful and green, and soft moonlight filtered through their leaves. Flowers fell from branches and spun in the air in a joyful dance. It was the Fairgreen, the home of the Elves.
I couldn’t see anyone else in the woods. But suddenly the old man stopped. His head came up, his bushy brows furrowing as he looked back and forth in the trees.
From the branches above dropped a figure in a green cloak, dressed in brown. The figure’s hood was pulled down over its face. For one brief second I thought it was the hooded lady that I’d seen in Pieter’s dream. But then the figure threw back the hood, and I saw that it was Yinnilith. He looked different. Not as bright. His face still held a smile, but there was none of the unrestrained joy that I’d seen when I met him in the Fairgreen.
A smile filled the old man’s face, but he stayed put. Yinnilith came to him and stopped only a foot or two away. They regarded each other for a moment. Their eyes danced back and forth, and suddenly I realized that they were speaking mind-to-mind. I couldn’t hear anything.
Finally Yinnilith laughed, a high, clear sound, and stepped forward. His long arms wrapped the old man in an embrace, and the old man returned it. They hugged like brothers.
The dream faded. I awoke in Midrealm.
This time I kept myself from starting awake. I sat up slowly, blinking in the light of dawn. We were on a wide plain, with no trees to barrier my eyes from the sun. It glowed a faint, unearthly pink.
“Good morning, my Lady,” said Nora. “Did you sleep well?”
“You’d have to tell me,” I said, smiling. “I wasn’t here.”
She smiled. “Of course not. Come. Let us have something to eat.”
The smoke of Frith had long since disappeared below the western horizon. We still followed in the tracks of those who had destroyed it. But that would soon end, or so we hoped. Today we would finally swing south, hooking around the Black Sea and aiming for the mountain ranges where we believed we’d find Wyrmspire. With any luck, the trail we were following would continue east, and we’d no longer have to worry about running into the army that put Frith to the torch.
I went to the center of the camp to sit with the others, who were arranged in a loose circle. There was no fire—we hadn’t lit one since Frith, afraid that it could be spotted. So breakfast was cold, as it had been for almost two weeks now.
Calvin, however, was in a cheery mood. He hummed to himself as he tucked into his bread and salted meat. He actually started whistling.
“Dude, cut it out,” grumbled Blade. “It’s too early in the morning.”
“I’m sorry, but am I the only one who’s happy?” said Calvin. “Or did none of you see the text from Anna?”
“I saw it,” said Sarah, her voice neutral. “Let’s see the place first before we get too jazzed.”
Calvin snorted. “Jazzed? Really?” He made jazz hands as a big, fake smile plastered itself on his face. Sarah gave him a look.
I began to eat, thinking about my dream. It was unusual. Not the old man, he was normal. But Yinnilith. I couldn’t remember ever seeing someone I knew in one of the dreams. Just the old man and a bunch of other people I didn’t know.
After breakfast we got on the road again. What followed were more endless hours of riding. We went easy on the horses. There had been no sign of the army in all the past ten days, but we didn’t want to break into a gallop and suddenly find ourselves riding into them. So it was a nice easy trot, sometimes breaking into a light canter if we saw a long stretch of open ground.
And then, suddenly, we came to a jarring halt as the trail we were following swerved to the left. Before we realized what was happening, the footprints and trampled grass turned abruptly and began driving north, vanishing from sight within a few miles. We stopped where the trail turned, each of us following it with our eyes. There was still no sign of the army.
“Why did they turn away?” said Calvin.
But I already knew the answer. “That way must be where Meridia is. Or where they think she is. It must be one of the places they were told in my vision.”
“That’s fortunate for us,” said Barius. “They’re heading the opposite direction.”
“Speaking of which, now seems as good a time as any to turn south,” said Cara. “Now that we are certain we will not encounter them upon the road, we can ride hard and fast without fear.”
“You’re right,” said Sarah. “But let’s have lunch first. I’m starving.”
We walked the horses easily to a nearby copse of trees to tether them to, then sat on the grass to eat. Blade sat beside me. I munched on some food, but it was tasteless. My eyes kept drifting back to the track of hundreds of feet disappearing away north.
“Good luck for us, huh?” said Blade.
“I guess,” I said. I sipped at some water.
“What’s up?” he said. “I thought you’d be happy. Heck, I am. The day even seems brighter, now that I’m not freaked about running into those guys.”
“I was just thinking of Meridia,” I said. “We don’t even know who she is, but an army is hunting her down. I hope they never find her.”
Blade’s brow furrowed. “Right. I guess I hadn’t thought about that.” He raised a water skin as if he were making a toast. “Well, good luck, Meridia. You’ll need it if that lady catches up to you.”
“You fought her, right?” I said. “In Terrence’s camp, when I was unconscious?”
“I don’t know if ‘fought’ is the right word,” Blade said, his face darkening. “She was playing with me like a cat with a mouse. The only reason she didn’t kill me is because she was saving me for Terrence.”
“You couldn’t use your magic?”
“I tried,” he said. “You can’t believe how fast she is. She dodged my fireballs. And she kept me so off-balance that I couldn’t concentrate for more than a second at a time. I’m a little stronger now than I was then, but still. I’d be happy never seeing her again.”
I watched a shudder pass through his body. That set the hairs on the back of my neck tingling. Blade wasn’t afraid of anything. Or at least, not that he ever let me see.
“Maybe it wasn’t her,” I said helpfully.
He glanced at me. “There’s one way to find out,” he said
. “Read my mind.”
“What?” I asked, recoiling. “I couldn’t.”
“I’m giving you permission,” he said, spreading his hands wide. “I’ll concentrate on the time we fought. Just look and see if it’s the same girl.”
I glanced around. The others weren’t paying attention, each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts or another conversation. “All right, I guess,” I said. “Here. Hold my hand.”
I didn’t realize what I’d asked him until I saw him smirk. Then his thick, warm fingers were encircling my own. I felt a flush creep up my neck and into my cheeks. I forced myself to concentrate, and I reached inside myself for my power.
Blade closed his eyes to focus, and I watched the whole scene at Terrence’s camp speed by at double time. It was weird, seeing myself through Blade’s eyes. My face looked backwards somehow.
Then we got to the fight with the hooded lady. Right away, I knew it was her by the clothing, the height, and the way she carried herself. But then as now, I couldn’t see her face. Nothing more than a flash of pale skin and a wisp of hair.
I watched the fight play out. Blade was right—she was incredibly fast. It was the same lightning speed and deadly precision I’d seen in her fight with Pieter. Blade couldn’t keep up with her movements, and his fireballs never got closer than she allowed them to.
I broke the connection, the world turning from fog to normal once again.
“That’s her,” I said. I shivered, though the day was warm.
“I was afraid of that,” he said with a sigh. “Well, good thing she’s on her way north.”
I nodded, but I was thinking of Meridia again. Whoever she was, her chances seemed smaller than ever.
After lunch we remounted and drove south as fast as we could. I think that all of us wanted to be well away from the trail we’d been following. We pushed the horses hard, only pausing once at mid afternoon to let the horses drink from a stream.
The sun was nearing the horizon when we came atop a high grassy rise that gave a beautiful view into a valley below. The valley seemed cut into the earth by a large knife, a long scar that ran in a straight line for miles before rising up at the other end to level ground once more.
In the center of the valley was a statue. It was a young man with a well trimmed goatee, dressed in long flowing robes. The statue’s feet were half-sunk into the earth. I couldn’t imagine how long it had been there. It was big, its head level with the top of the valley on either side.
Calvin gave a low whistle. “That’s crazy. It must have taken them forever to haul all that stone here.”
“Maybe they used the stone from the valley,” I said.
“They didn’t. Look.” He pointed at the statue, then to the valley walls on either side. “The statue is white. But all of the stone here is a dark brown. They must have brought it from a quarry somewhere else.”
“That is the statue of Malus,” said Cara.
I glanced at her, my interest piqued. “The first Keeper of Mind?”
“Not precisely,” she said. “Remember, the original Six were not Realm Keepers. They created the Realm Keepers. They imbued you with their power, but it was only a whisper of their strength. They were greater than any wizards before or since.”
“Why?” I said. “Why were they so powerful? You’d think someone else that strong would have come along in ten thousand years or whatever.”
Nora shrugged. “Few stories are still told of the Six. No one knows the source of their strength, or how they were able to create Midrealm.”
“Let’s camp at the base of the statue tonight,” said Sarah, all business. “It’s almost time for us to be hitting the sack anyways.”
We spurred our horses forward. By the time we reached the statue, the sun had dipped below the rim of the valley, the sky above us dimming further with every passing minute.
“Will you be wanting dinner, my lady?” asked Nora as she helped me pick a spot for my bedroll.
I shook my head. “No, thank you. We’ve got to get back. It’s late already.”
Nora bowed her head. “As you wish.”
The others were already laying down. I joined them on the ground, wrapping myself against the night’s chill that I felt creeping up on me. But I didn’t feel the least bit sleepy. I closed my eyes and willed myself to stop thinking, but my body wasn’t getting the message. I was way too awake.
With a sigh I tapped into my power. Greystone had taught me how to put the others to sleep by going into their minds and planting a subtle suggestion. With a little experimentation, I’d figured out how to do it to myself as well. It was odd—like trying to look at your own face without a mirror. But once I’d gotten the hang of it, it was simple. I did it, finding a space in my mind that was clear.
Sleep.
Immediately I felt my body slacken, my consciousness drifting away. Only seconds later, I felt myself come to. I opened my eyes.
Something was wrong. I wasn’t on Earth.
I sat up and found myself not in my room, but still in Midrealm. Sort of. It was the same place I’d gone to sleep. The statue loomed above me. The grass was beneath my feet, and the sky was dark. But everything was obscured with fog, and the Runegard and the other Realm Keepers glowed from within with bright points of light. It was the way the world looked when I tapped into the power of Mind.
“What the heck?” I asked. My voice sounded odd and hollow in my own ears. I tossed my head forward to cover my right eye with my hair, suddenly nervous as I got to my feet.
“Nora?” I said. I saw her sitting by the campfire, the glow within her soft, warm, muted. She was stirring the coals gently with a stick, humming softly to herself.
She didn’t answer me.
“Nora!” I said, truly frightened now. She didn’t so much as flinch.
I reached out to touch her shoulder, and my hand passed right through it.
I felt my breathing quicken, my heartbeat running like a race car. What was this? Was I some sort of ghost? Had I…
I turned and looked at my bedroll, and my worst fears were confirmed. My body lay there peacefully, its eyes closed, unmoving. I ran to it and fell to my knees, trying to grab my shoulders, trying to shake myself awake. But of course my hands just moved through my own head and shoulders, and they lay still.
How could this have happened? I was too young to die in my sleep. I couldn’t possibly have had a heart attack. How could I?
Then I noticed something that made me pause. A rise and fall under the blanket. My chest was moving. I leaned in closer, holding my ear near my mouth. Yes. I was still breathing.
I sank back to sit on the grass, my breath leaving me in a whoosh. I wasn’t dead. My body was still alive.
But then, what was this? If I was asleep, I should be on Earth. The others were asleep around my body, but none of them were here with me in this odd, dreamlike state.
What had happened to me?
I felt a pull. Something like what had happened in Frith, where my attention had been drawn by something beyond my understanding. I followed the pull, allowing my attention to be drawn to the feet of the statue not twenty feet away.
And there stood the old man.
It was the old man from my dreams. He was shorter than I’d thought he would be, or maybe that’s just because he was a bit stooped over. His robes looked even more threadbare than they did in my dreams, and his face seemed to have more wrinkles. The top of his staff was aglow with a faint pink light.
I noticed something odd. When I was tapped into the power of Mind, people had ghostly outlines that glowed from within. But this man looked as real and solid as could be, and there was no glow within him. So whatever this was, he must be in the same state as me.
He smiled as I looked at him, then put a hand out and beckoned to me.
I hesitated, looking back to the campfire. The Runegard still sat around it. I felt like I should tell one of them where I was going. But how could I? They couldn’t hear me.
<
br /> I sighed in resignation and walked over to him.
Before I reached him, he turned and stepped around the statue’s edge. I followed him, curious. Then before my eyes, he walked into the stone of the statue’s left heel and vanished.
I gave a little gasp. I stepped carefully up to the statue and stared at the stone. It certainly looked solid. I put out a hand gingerly. As soon as it touched the stone surface, it sank from view. I yanked it back with another gasp.
There was nothing for it. I took a deep breath and took a step forward. I couldn’t stop myself from flinching as my face reached the stone. No matter that I’d just seen my hand and an old man pass through it—my brain still thought I was about to smack my nose on hard marble.
But what I found inside wasn’t stone at all. I was in an old room with bookshelves lining the walls and an ancient wooden desk in the center. The only light was the faint glow from the man’s staff.
He smiled gently at me as I stepped into the room. Then he beckoned again and turned. He began walking up a staircase I hadn’t noticed. Within seconds he’d vanished from sight.
I took a look at the wall behind me. It looked to be made of solid wooden timbers, but of course that was just an illusion. I put a hand out to reassure myself.
My hand made a little bonk as it hit the wood.
I pounded both fists against the wooden wall. It was no use. The wood didn’t budge an inch. I tried attacking it with a solid blade of mental force. Nothing.
I looked wildly around the room. There were no other doors. There was only the staircase the man had ascended.
Now on my guard, I stepped carefully up the stairs. They turned left. Then left again. And again. They circled around and around. There was a stone column in the middle that the staircase wrapped around, so I couldn’t see any levels above or below me. It was just one long, long staircase leading up and up and up. I began to get a little claustrophobic.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 37