The Sister Paradox

by Jack Campbell

  But as I stared at the elves surrounding us, I thought I could recognize something, and then I realized what that something was. The elves might think and feel differently, but some of the ways they acted I could grasp. These elves felt like schoolyard bullies, projecting that same casually cruel attitude which said they didn’t really care about what happened to someone or something else, that they were ready to inflict a little pain and suffering on whatever got within reach just for fun. Only unlike schoolyard bullies, who were human after all even though they didn’t seem like it a lot of the time, these elves wouldn’t stop at just humiliating and hurting us a little bit.

  Kari, moving very slowly, grasped her sword and drew it, bringing it around in front to a guard position. She spoke in a loud, clear voice. “I am Kari, She Who was Born to Elven-kind, Bearer of the Sword of Fate, She Who Is Apart, and Spirit Daughter of White Lady of Eveness.”

  The elves didn’t seem impressed by any of Kari’s titles, still not looking directly at her, and again exchanging glances in which I probably imagined seeing malicious amusement. First one elf, then another, stepped closer to us in blurs of motion. Man, they were fast. Forget trying to run away.

  “They don’t care,” I said out loud, knowing that I sounded baffled. “They’re not messing with us because they hate us, but just because they don’t care whether or not we get hurt.”

  “That is what I told you, dearest brother,” Kari agreed, taking a deep breath and raising her sword higher so the blade caught the sun and flashed.

  The threat seemed to impress the elves, as they paused in their advance, but I didn’t think it would work for long, and I didn’t have anything to threaten the elves with. No branches anywhere nearby, nothing but pebbles on the path. Without really thinking about it I patted my pockets as if I might have left, say, a hand grenade in one of them and forgotten about it.

  What I touched wasn’t a weapon. Copying Kari’s slow, deliberate motions, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. Still no bars or connection, of course, but the screen lit up just fine.

  Now what? I couldn’t call nine-one-one for help, and the elves didn’t look like they would be amused by the dumb videos I had downloaded, or any of the game applications. That left… “Kari, what kind of music do elves like?”

  She took her eyes off of the elves long enough to give me a look like she thought I was crazy. “I do not have my harp, Liam, and even if I did—”

  “Just tell me, what kind of music do they like?”

  Another elf did the blur movement forward as the circle around us contracted a little more.

  Kari swallowed before she could answer, pivoting slowly to keep her sword before the closest elves. “String instruments. Harps, mandolins, liras—”

  “Liras?”

  “They’re also called violas. Liam, what—?”

  “Okay. Acoustic strings. Got it.” What music did I have on my phone that featured acoustic strings? Despite my growing nervousness I tried to think. Harps, no. Violins, not sure. Guitars…

  Guitars.

  I tapped frantically, bringing up the hot Spanish/Rock guitar album. Setting the external speaker to max volume, I started playback and set it to repeat until the battery ran out.

  The phone’s external speaker wasn’t any surround-sound wonder, but in the near-silence of Kari’s world it provided enough volume to be heard clearly. The elves stopped moving, their heads turning slightly from side to side as if trying to find the source of the music. Kari gave me an amazed glance, then focused back on the elves, apparently trusting me to know what I was doing.

  But what did I do now? It had worked to distract the elves, but that would only help if I ditched the phone. I looked down at it, hating the idea. I had really downloaded a lot of stuff and personalized it and…and, it was just a phone. I mean, so what? I could get another one. It might take a few months, since Mom and Dad would be real unhappy with me for losing this one and would make me sweat it out a while to teach me a lesson about taking care of my stuff and blah, blah, blah, but that would be a whole lot easier to endure than having these elves rip off my arms so they could watch me flop around in the dirt for a while. Worse, they would do the same thing to Kari. Sometimes you just have to set priorities, and when you get right down to it, she was my sister and my arms were kind of important to me, too, and junk really is just junk even if the junk is a smart phone.

  So I extended my arm out from my side, and the eyes of the elves focused on the phone. “Yeah,” I coaxed them. “Shiny! Pretty music! Lots more fun than tearing up a couple of kids, right?” I looked toward the forest, then tossed the phone in a low arc toward it, praying that the thing would land in the grass softly enough to keep working.

  It did, the guitar notes still ringing out as the phone bounced to a stop.

  The elves waited for a long, heart-stopping moment, then bolted in a group toward the phone almost too fast for me to see them move. Kari’s hand hit my back an instant later. “Run!” she ordered.

  I ran, Kari beside me, over the nearest crest and down the other side, the pounding notes of Diablo Rojo fading gradually as we put distance between us and the elves as fast as we could. Sorry, Rodrigo y Gabriella, but I could replace a download easier than I could any of my limbs or vital organs. We didn’t stop running until the music could no longer be heard, and then we only slowed to a really fast walk.

  Kari started laughing softly as she gasped for breath. “Dearest brother, how fortunate that you, too, had an enchanted object!”

  “It wasn’t really enchanted,” I explained, wheezing and worn out. “The phone works by science.”

  “The Archimaede says that enchantments are just science beyond the science we know,” Kari said.

  “He does?” I thought about it. “I bet he’s right.”

  “The sacrificing of your fone was a noble act,” Kari continued, smiling at me.

  “Ah, it wasn’t any big deal. It’s just a phone.” A week ago I wouldn’t have said that. This morning I wouldn’t have said that. But I had realized while facing the elves that it was true. Just a phone. Not having it wouldn’t change my life. And not having the newest, best phone as a replacement wouldn’t matter all that much, either. “Yeah. Just a phone. No big deal.”

  Kari gave me another smile, a smile like she was proud of me again, and that felt like a big deal. Her expression turned thoughtful as she looked back the way we had come. “Your fone is an object from your world. But it, like you, is newly come to Elsewhere. It should not cause problems for some time, and since we can describe it for the Archimaede and tell him who has it he can retrieve it.” She rubbed the side of her face, unhappy. “Still, it does not feel proper to leave such an object for others to deal with. If time permits, Liam, perhaps we can make an attempt to recover it.”

  “You want to deal with the elves again?”

  “It’s not what I want, it’s what I ought to do,” Kari explained.

  “Oh. You mean like Frodo.”

  “Frodo? Is this Frodo a friend of yours?”

  “No, he was just somebody who had to do something important.”

  After about what I guess was another half hour but felt a lot longer, the path we were on finally began curving away from the forest. We climbed up another long slope, my legs burning with the effort, then as we descended the other side finally losing sight of the elven woods. Kari sighed with relief at getting away from the woods while I sighed with relief at being able to walk downhill for a while.

  After that the path wore along, up and down and mostly in the open. At one point, a flock of birds so numerous it covered the sky flew past, leaving us in shade for what must have been five minutes. Otherwise, the sun stayed bright and hot in a cloudless sky of the most amazing, brilliant blue, and since we had turned inland the breeze had lost its sea cool and become dry and warm. We finally came to a place where a small stream cut across the path, its bright water laughing over smooth stones.

  Kari stoppe
d and stared at the sky while I knelt down by the stream. “Is this water safe to drink?”

  Kari pointed into the stream. “The fish believe so.”

  I saw the tiny fish shapes flitting by under the clear water and grinned. The water was cooler than I’d expected and it tasted wonderful. I drank several handfuls, washing the dust out of my throat, while Kari drank some as well and poured a few handfuls over her head. When she straightened, she shook her head, sending droplets flying. “Surely our goal cannot be much farther.”

  I shaded my eyes and squinted at the sun as well. “How far are we from the Archimaede’s place, anyway?”

  To my surprise, Kari pointed without hesitation. “That way. Following the land, we’ve gone over and then back, so when we return we’ll be able to cut across directly and it won’t be as far. But making the distance before sunset won’t be an easy journey if we don’t come across the well of fire soon.”

  I was thinking that the journey hadn’t been all that easy already when my stomach made a rumbling comment of its own. “Sorry.”

  Kari grinned. “It is well past the noon-day meal.”

  “Tell me about it. I could eat a horse.”

  “That would not be wise, Liam. If we had a horse it would be better employed helping us travel.”

  “I know. It’s just an expression.” My stomach growled again. “You don’t happen to have any trail mix on you, do you?”

  “Road food?” Kari shook her head again. “No.” She looked around carefully, then smiled. “I believe there is an old orchard gone wild over there, Liam. There may well be fruit.”

  Fruit. My stomach grumbled approval. “Let’s go.”

  “It is a little ways off our path.” Kari scanned the skies and frowned. “Just our luck that there are no birds at hand to ask whether that orchard has ripe fruit.”

  “I guess we’ll have to walk there and find out.”

  “No, Liam, that is not necessary. I can tell you are not as accustomed as I am to long journeys on foot. This will be a chance for you to rest. I will check the orchard and come back.”

  I know it’s dumb, but the idea that I had to rest while Kari could keep going stung my pride. “I’m all right.”

  “I did not say otherwise,” Kari replied. “You have kept alongside me without complaint. But we have no idea how much farther we must go this day or what we must face when we reach the end.”

  It made sense. I knew it made sense. And I was the guy who had pulled Kari back from the place where all dreams are dead. It wasn’t like I needed to stand on my pride over taking a break. “Okay. I’ll wait here.”

  Kari grinned, obviously relieved. “I will be back in two sweeps of a gryphon’s wings!” she promised, before leaping nimbly across the stream and set off toward the trees.

  I sloshed through the stream after her, loving the feel of the cool water around my overheated feet, then sat down heavily on the grass along the far bank, wondering why the characters in fantasy books never complained about their feet throbbing with pain after trudging along for hours. But at least the throbbing in my feet kept me from noticing the aching in my legs as much. I wondered how long it took a gryphon to sweep its wings.

  Meanwhile, Kari jogged off toward the orchard like she had been resting all day. I watched her, still trying to decide what I thought of her. What I thought of everything. When she had been in danger in the mirror I had just been thinking of saving her life. I hadn’t really been thinking about long-term stuff. But hey, Liam Eagan, she’s coming home with you when this is all done. Assuming we and the walls between worlds survived, that is. Life won’t be the same. I still wasn’t sure how I liked that. I was slowly coming to the conclusion that Kari was okay, for a girl, I guess, and twice now she had used that sword to save us both. But it’s not every day a sister walks into your life. Especially one carrying an enchanted sword.

  Just about then somebody yelled. “Hey! Liam!”

  I looked in the direction of the voice and couldn’t believe my eyes. I had decided that things like unicorns and castles that appear out of nowhere were just the kind of stuff you had to expect in Kari’s world, but I hadn’t expected to see my best friend from back home. “James?” He was standing by the side of the path, on the other side of the stream, grinning at me. “How’d you get here?”

  “I walked,” James said. “Just like you.”

  “But I was with Kari. Boy is she going to be surprised to see you.”

  “Kari? You’re still with her?” James’s grin faded and he shook his head.

  “Yeah.” I was sure my own voice didn’t sound too happy that time. “What?”

  “Nothing. Come over here so we can talk.”

  “Why don’t you come over here?” I pointed back toward the orchard. “I’m waiting for Kari.”

  “Liam, she’s not important. I mean, really. Some girl you just met today? Come on.”

  I shook my head. “When you met Kari at the school you said she was my sister.”

  “Did you believe me?”

  “Uh…no.”

  James nodded. “Liam, from the moment she showed up at Hillcrest she started getting you into trouble. What kind of nut brings a sword to school? And dresses like that? Do you want everybody pointing at you and saying that’s Liam, the guy with the scary sister who looks like she escaped from a game? Let’s go, before she gets back and ruins everything. Before she ruins your life.”

  I have to admit that I didn’t like thinking about Kari doing her clueless routine around my friends. And she might insist on wearing those same clothes. And the sword might be a little hard for people back home to adjust to. But… “James, if she doesn’t come home with me, she won’t have any place to go. She can’t stay here.”

  “Who told you that?” James asked. “She did, right? Her and that weird, talking beaver.”

  “Yeah,” I admitted, “but—Hold on, how did you know that?”

  “I told you. I’ve been with you, man. Because I’m your friend,” James insisted, “and I care about you. Come on, over here.”

  It didn’t seem like a big deal to walk across the stream to him, but for some reason I didn’t want to. “James, I’m waiting here for Kari.”

  “Why?”

  I felt reluctant to tell him what Kari and I were doing. It did sound kind of off-the-wall. “Well, there’s this quest, and we have to, um—”

  “And you bought all that?” James sounded pitying. “Have you seen even one bit of proof for all this stuff they’ve been telling you? That she’s your sister? That you have to save the universe?”

  “Two universes,” I corrected. “We did find a wristwatch at the keep, and—”

  “They set you up, Liam,” James insisted. “Set you up to make you go through all that pain while they filmed it for everyone to laugh at when it’s posted online.”

  “Huh?” The strange thing was, James was bringing up everything that had been sitting in the back of my mind bothering me, all the little doubts which I had dismissed or hadn’t really focused on. Was this all a reality show come-on? “How could a reality show have faked all this? The Forest of Doom and the Archimaede and—”

  “Green screens,” James said. “Computer graphics. Come here and I’ll show you.”

  Something about all of that did not sound right, but I realized I was having trouble thinking. My brain felt like it was wrapped in packing foam and something was urging me to stop arguing with James because it was too hard and I should just go with him.

  But, you know, along with all of my other not so great qualities I could be pretty stubborn when someone is trying to make me do something. Just ask my mom and dad. “I have to wait here for Kari,” I said, the words coming out slowly.

  “Why?” James demanded. “So she can make you feel bad about yourself?”

  “Uh…”

  “She does, doesn’t she? She makes you feel like you have to change the way you do things. Is that what a friend does, Liam? Now, come here, before sh
e gets back!”

  James had that much right. Kari had made me feel a little bad about myself. I wavered, one foot taking a step closer to James. “But, she never said anything bad about me.”

  “Helpless? Noisy as a herd of trolls? Either of those ring a bell?”

  “Oh, yeah, she did say that.” What was wrong with my head? “How did you hear her?”

  “I can be quiet when I want to be,” James said, extending one hand toward me. “Come here.”

  My other foot took another step closer, while I tried to clear my thoughts. Had there been something in that water I drank? “I can’t—You don’t walk out on people, James. It’s wrong. That’s like when that guy tried to take the ring and then the orcs attacked and—”

  James reached out toward me again. “Come here, Liam. Think about what happens when this is over. Everybody’s going to think she’s a freak. Which means they’re going to think you’re a freak, too. Do you think girls like Tina are going to want to hang around with you if you’ve got a freak for a sister?”

  For some reason, that made me angry enough to think a little clearer. “Since when do you know so much about girls?”

  “And old lady Meyer! You’ll be toast the next time she sees you and asks where that sword is.” I felt my stomach knot up at the thought of that. “You helped Kari. You’re going to take the heat for her stealing it out of Meyer’s office, Liam. As long as you stay with her, you’re responsible for whatever crazy stuff she does. But if you’re with me, you’ll be fine. Life just like it’s always been.”

  Life just like it’s always been. That should have been the ultimate argument, right? I mean, that’s why I originally agreed to come here, to get rid of Kari so my life wouldn’t change.

  But what about life just like it’s always been was all that great?

  I hadn’t said anything else, but James shook his head. “You’re already afraid of her.”