Lin put a hand to her mouth. “It must have been Mister Torres. I’ll send someone through the Waypoint to recover the body.” She shook her head. “Sadi will not take this well.”
“Who’s Sadi?” Jenny asked.
“The dead man’s girlfriend,” Lin said. “It’s probably best to not say anything to her until we’ve verified his identity.”
“Okay.”
“Jenny.” Lin looked serious. “I want you to keep the Riftkey hidden.”
“What, why?”
“The Selkans brought one with them, and there should only be one Riftkey per system, but now we have two.”
Where did they take it from? Cobol asked Jenny.
Jenny echoed Cobol’s question. “Where did they get the Riftkey? Did they take it from another system?”
“No,” Lin said. “One of the Selkans, Kett’l, crafted it in his forge.”
That is impossible, Cobol said to Jenny. They should not be capable of creating a Riftkey.
How do you know it’s not possible? Jenny asked Cobol. You’re a talking sword—
Key, Cobol reminded her.
Key, sorry, but you shouldn’t be able to speak into my head, and there shouldn’t be ladders inside boxes leading to cabins.
What’s that about ladders? Cobol asked.
I’m just saying, we have no idea what’s possible. So what if there are two Riftkeys? Jenny looked at Lin and asked, “I still don’t understand. If you have a new Riftkey, why do I have to keep this one hidden?”
“We invited you here to compete against other Æons for the right to possess the Riftkey. If the other contestants knew you already had one, they’d be jealous. Some may even try to steal it, or worse…”
To use a Riftkey, Cobol said, the previous bond must be broken—by death.
Jenny gulped. “Why would anyone want to…steal it?”
“Any Æon who owns a Riftkey is granted power and prestige in this galaxy. It is a prize worth killing for.”
A chill traveled up Jenny’s spine, and her hands felt clammy. “Okay, I get it. Where should I hide it?”
Lin unstrapped her backpack and handed it to Jenny. “In here.”
Jenny looked at the simple bag, which was even smaller than her duffel bag. She narrowed her eyes. “It’s too small.”
“Just take it and look inside. You might be surprised.”
Jenny took the bag and opened it. The dark, smooth fabric of the lining shimmered. She reached inside and felt a large, hard box instead of the lining. Her hand brushed against a stack of books, knocking them into a pile of clothes. Somehow, there was more than enough room for the Riftkey inside the bag.
“Kett’l calls it a burstepi. You can fit a trunk’s worth of supplies inside, and it will never weigh more than it does now.”
“It’s amazing. Thank you.” Jenny placed the Riftkey inside. As Lin said, the bag weighed the same. These four-dimensional whoosy-whatsits sure are handy, Jenny thought.
“But I’ll want it back after the mission. Deal?”
“Deal.” Jenny transferred her personal items from her bag to the burstepi, followed by the empty duffel. When she tried to put it on, she became confused by the straps. There was one long, wide belt; two short, thin straps; and a set of straps for adjustments. She figured the belt should come over her left shoulder, and the two smaller straps should wrap around her waist and clip to an attachment point at her chest. That way it wouldn’t shift as she moved.
Rygelus pulled the flask from his jacket and took a sip. He tucked the flask back into his jacket and turned to Jenny. “How are you feeling?”
“A bit better,” Jenny said as Lin helped her adjust the straps. “Still a bit cold, though.”
When they were done with the burstepi, Rygelus wrapped the woolen blanket around Jenny’s shoulders. “That should help.”
“Thanks.”
“You should at least stay until you’ve finished your drink,” Brock said.
“Yes,” Lin said. “That’s a good idea.”
“Moving around should help too,” Brock offered.
Jenny nodded and stood up. Holding the blanket around her with one hand, and the warm mug in the other, she explored the treehouse. Everything, including the furniture, was constructed of the most beautiful handcrafted wood. Not a nail or screw was in sight. Jenny had no doubt that these men had built everything by hand. She noticed a set of hand-carved wooden animals lining some shelves. Each one had a brass plaque. Whittling tools sat on the nearby chest of drawers. An unfinished Barney Beaver sat next to them.
“Brock carved these forest creatures himself.” Lin picked up a wooden badger.
“It passes the time.” Brock shrugged.
“Where’s Shelly Squirrel?” Jenny pointed at the plaque marking an empty slot on the shelf.
“Brock doesn’t like squirrels,” Rygelus said.
“It’s their bushy tails.” Brock shuddered. “They give me the willies. But I’m not the only one with a hobby.” Brock huffed. “Rye has shelves full of steamy romance novels.”
“Epic poetry,” Rygelus corrected. “Not romance novels.”
Jenny pictured Rygelus reading his poetry while Brock whittled his wood figures and sniggered.
Lin looked over at Jenny and asked. “How are you feeling now?”
“Warmer,” Jenny said. “I think I’m ready.”
Brock opened a trapdoor in the floor of the treehouse and dropped through. He caught himself on the floor and lowered his massive frame through the opening and onto a rope ladder.
Jenny looked through the trapdoor. Brock had already covered half the length to the forest floor, fifteen meters below. How did they get me up here? She sat at the edge of the opening and stretched out with her foot until it touched the first rung of the rope ladder. Putting a hand on the floor, she lowered herself, rung by rung, down the ladder. From here, she could see the roof of the cabin through the trees to her left and the ruins of the fort on top of a hill straight ahead.
“You should consider installing an elevator,” Lin said as she lowered herself out of the treehouse.
“Why did the VRGo puzzle bring me to a cabin in the woods?”
“The cabin contains one half of a tesseract, and the VRGo puzzle is the other half. When you activated the puzzle, the tesseract became whole and formed a pocket universe—similar to the interior of the burstepi—with one end opening into your room, and the other into the cabin,” Lin said. “But why it’s here in this forest is a rather unusual story. You see, five years ago, a bride and groom were found wandering through the woods, as if they had come straight from their wedding.”
No, it couldn’t be the same couple. Jenny’s hands and feet went numb.
“Rygelus found them in the exact location of the cabin. They had no idea as to how they came to be here.”
Jenny’s foot slipped off the ladder, and she stumbled backward. With one flailing arm, she managed to hook her elbow around the rung.
“Jenny, what’s wrong?”
Jenny found her footing and took a deep, shaky breath. Though her body trembled with adrenaline, she stepped off the ladder onto the roof of a shed. She swallowed past a lump in her throat.
Lin stepped off the ladder and rubbed Jenny’s shoulders.
“I was at that wedding.” Her voice shook with emotion. “Their names were Nadya Rose Sanford and Marco Donovan Barrett. For a long time, I thought—no, I knew—it was my fault that they disappeared.”
“Well—” Lin lifted a trapdoor on the roof of the shed. A wooden ladder waited inside. “It’s a good thing they did.”
“What?” Jenny looked at Lin. “Why?”
“If they never came here”—Lin stepped onto the ladder—“then we wouldn’t have known about your realm.”
Jenny stood frozen. “My realm, like a different universe?”
“Exactly.”
That would explain the strange journey through the VRGo puzzle, Jenny thought. Not to mention Heather,
the visions of giants, and a talking sword.
“The appearance of Nadya and Marco was proof of an alternate universe,” Lin continued. “Cabin established a research program and hired me to lead it.”
Jenny followed Lin down the ladder and out of the shed. She jumped as Brock’s colossal hand gripped her shoulder. Jenny turned and looked up at the modern-day Viking.
“I’ve never seen Rye look so alive,” Brock said. “You’ve got to come back.”
Are you kidding? Jenny thought about the distraught man taking sips from his copper flask. “I don’t know.”
“I’m a great cook.” Brock winked. “I’ll make you dinner.”
Jenny looked over at Lin.
“He is a great cook.”
Jenny shrugged and looked up at the treehouse. It was an elaborate series of structures connected via spiral staircases and ladders. Five catwalks stretched out to neighboring trees. Rygelus stood on the roof of a wooden shed that wrapped halfway around the base of a titanic tree. He took another pull from his flask before climbing down the ladder. Jenny felt pity for the man. After all, she knew what it was like to lose a loved one. Losing a child must be even worse than losing a mom. Jenny looked back at Brock. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Think about what?” Rygelus asked as he stepped out of the shed.
“I invited Jenny back for dinner.”
Rygelus looked down at Jenny, and with no emotion in his voice, he said, “I would like that.”
Jenny felt as if Rygelus could read her soul by looking into her dichromatic eyes. After a moment, it unnerved her enough to look away.
“This way.” Brock turned and led them into the woods.
“Where is this place?” Jenny asked Lin as they followed Brock. “Is this even Earth?”
“Yes, this is Earth.” Lin held a branch back for Jenny. “But it does get confusing to refer to each world as Earth. So, we call your universe the Astrea Realm, after the woman who created it.”
“You mean”—Jenny gasped—“she created a universe using the Riftkey?”
“Maybe not created, but she did form a connection to it.” Lin looked around the forest. “And we call this one the Nimue Realm.”
Nimue. Jenny looked at the ghost following Rygelus. “Wait.” Jenny cocked her head. “This Earth? Are there more?”
“At least one more, and as far as I know; it’s the original one. We call it the Prime Realm.”
They passed through a ring of deciduous trees and into a clearing. Sunlight kissed Jenny’s face, and warmth seeped into her damp clothing. A natural gazebo stood at the center of the green grass. Jenny walked up to the gazebo and caressed the thin trees that had been bent and woven into one another to form a domed shape.
“This is where we leave you.” Rygelus stopped. “Goodbye, Jenny Tripper.”
“Let’s do this again,” Brock said. “I don’t mean finding you in the woods or carrying you to our house. I mean, you should visit sometime—”
Jenny touched Brock’s arm. “Thank you for finding and saving me.” Though she usually shied away from physical contact, Jenny hugged each of the big men in thanks.
“Be safe.” Rygelus turned and walked into the forest.
“It’s been a pleasure,” Brock said before he turned and followed Rygelus.
Lin led Jenny inside the tree-woven gazebo. Jenny’s chest tightened, and a chill ran down her back as she recognized the object that lay within. It looked like the obsidian bowl that Nadya and Marco had stood on before they disappeared.
Lin studied Jenny’s dirty face, which had grown pale. “You’ve seen this before, at the wedding.”
Jenny hugged herself and nodded.
“These are Waypoints.” Lin stepped onto the edge and slid into the bowl. “They were first discovered by Astrea Baillie in the early fifteenth century.”
Jenny’s eyes widened. “The same Astrea from my vision?”
“The same.” Lin held her hand up to Jenny.
Jenny took a deep breath. If Lin can do it, so can I. She took Lin’s hand in a death grip and walked herself down the bowl.
“Ow.” Lin shook her hand. “That’s quite a grip.”
“Sorry.”
Eerie red and blue light swam in the obsidian depths of the Waypoint.
Lin smiled at Jenny. “Are you ready to discover your destiny?”
“Yes.” She rubbed at the goose pimples forming on her arms. The scratches on her back and the pain of her tongue seemed secondary to getting warm. “Especially if it involves getting clean and dry.”
“I know just the place.” Lin reached into her yellow button-up shirt and withdrew a silver tuning fork. It was identical to the object that Astrea had given to Rygelus. “This is a Waypoint key.” She knelt down at the center of the Waypoint and inserted the forked end into a hole.
The entire Waypoint thrummed with power. One of the sixteen blue symbols around the perimeter lit up. Jenny noted that one of the symbols matched the pattern on her amulet. The same symbols were on the VRGo puzzle too. Are they numbers? Jenny thought.
Lin twisted the key, and a different symbol lit up. “Stay close to me.” Lin waved her forward. “I don’t want you getting hurt when I activate the Waypoint.” Jenny jumped and moved closer to the center of the bowl. Then, Lin pushed down on the key.
Jenny waited, but nothing happened. She was about to say something when her stomach lurched. Forest sounds faded away, and the air around them crystallized. A thousand faceted surfaces twisted the trees and grass into shifting fractal patterns. The crystal walls formed a mist that became a light that flowed like liquid. This gave Jenny the sensation of flying backward at incredible speed. Her ears pounded. She tried to yell, but she couldn’t hear her own voice. The process played out in reverse. Liquid light became a mist, and then a crystal wall. This time, the fractal patterns gave the impression of architectural elements.
Solid ground materialized under Jenny’s feet, and she stumbled forward. Her stomach was doing backflips, so she sat down in the bowl to catch her breath. The natural gazebo was gone. As was the forest. Six stone columns, carved to appear like tree trunks, surrounded them. The upper branches formed a lattice roof above their heads. A park, with paths through landscaped trees and shrubs, bordered the gazebo. Beyond that was a city. Buildings of red, yellow, and blue built of old-world architecture. Tourists shopped at street vendors and sat at outdoor tables. Jenny sighed at the sound of so many voices, and her mouth watered from the smell of cooking meat.
Lin smiled. “Welcome to Acacia City.”
12
Marching Orders
“Deceleration will begin in T minus five minutes,” said the Strider’s computer in an authoritative female voice. It had been twenty-two hours since Jack and Victus had set off for Earth from the Sol Terminal, and it was time to begin deceleration. The Strider shut off its engines. Without continuous acceleration, artificial gravity disappeared. Jack jerked awake as he floated up from his bunk. He checked the ship’s status. Huh, we’re halfway there. Jack had spent most of these last twenty-two hours in his cabin. Now, he made his way into the cockpit and strapped into his seat. Victus entered a moment later.
Jack had to keep reminding himself that even though Hocco’s body was alive and well, his soul was dead. Jack clenched his fists. Vae Victus tricked me, and now I’m trapped in the Sol System with the fleet admiral of the Terminal Defenders. Even worse, he’s my only ticket back to Lan Station.
Jack ignored Victus as he reviewed the flight plan with the computer. Their current velocity was over four million kilometers per hour. To avoid slamming into Earth, they would have to turn completely around and reactivate the engines. Jack confirmed the flight plan, and the maneuvering thrusters fired until they were pointed backward from their destination. The female voice of the computer counted down from ten. As it reached zero, the Strider’s engines activated. Jack’s seat slammed into his back, and his stomach lurched.
Under constant a
cceleration, artificial gravity was restored. Jack unfastened his restraints and climbed down to the galley. He opened the cooler and set an airtight package of rehydrated meat and vegetables on the counter.
Victus climbed down after him and said, “I can find no sign of the Endeavor.” He took a fatty, protein-rich white sauce and a package of tortillas from the cooler.
Jack grabbed the items from Victus’s hands. “You mean the stolen ship isn’t here?”
“A lack of evidence is not a lack of existence.”
“Oh, that makes me feel much better.”
“It is likely hidden.” Victus leaned on the counter.
Jack spread the protein-based condiment onto his tortilla. Then he added the rehydrated white meat and crunchy green vegetables.
“Which means I will need you to go planetside—”
“And do what?” Jack interrupted. “Look under every rock?”
“You need to meet my contact, Randolph Torres, in person.” Victus took the ingredients after Jack had finished making his wrap.
Jack pointed at Victus. “What will you be doing while I’m completing your mission?”
“After you deliver proof—”
“Why doesn’t your contact send you proof?”
“I will not commit the Tamarack until after you deliver proof that Selkans are on Earth.”
“You don’t trust this contact of yours?” Jack took a bite of his wrap.
Victus ignored Jack and grabbed a data tablet. “Here is your destination.”
Jack leaned in to look at the screen. It displayed a map of a city, Acacia City, on a large island called New Spain.
“You will fly in here.” Victus zoomed in on the map until street details were visible. “A festival is being held on the day we arrive in Earth’s orbit. Odd traffic in and out of the city will be expected. Your airport of entry is the Acacia City Airfield.”
Jack took the tablet from Victus and studied the map.
“You have been precleared for entry,” Victus continued. “Randolph Torres will meet you at the Waypoint Plaza at nineteen hundred. He will provide you with a job as a pilot. I volunteered your spaceplane.”
The Key of Astrea Page 13