“That’s because you’re Asian,” began Raven. “Your boys all got big brains.”
“Seriously, though,” started Heather, “first you disappeared with those guys in England for three weeks and now you’re hanging out with them all the time. Come on, what’s going on?”
Anna sighed, noticing Raven’s camera recording. She’d ask her not to post anything about what Heather just said, or her response, because it would reveal her identity.
“We’ve just been hiding out from the press. They were driving us crazy and the only people who understood what it was like was them. I didn’t have to explain anything to them, or answers questions I can’t answer.”
“You really don’t know where you were all that time?” Jade asked.
Anna repeated the agreed upon lie that Ryan had told Daniel.
“I don’t know where we were during those three weeks,” Anna concluded. By now, her car had reached the highway and they were doing 70 mph in a big block of vehicles, heading south on I-270 against rush hour traffic toward Rockville.
“Maybe you need one of those healers that people keep talking about,” began Jade, still not wearing her seatbelt. She was making Anna nervous. “They could get your memories back or figure out how three weeks of time went away for you.”
That was just what Anna needed, someone poking around and forcing her to make up more lies. She felt stressed by it, but she knew they were just making small talk and would likely drop it soon.
“I think you mean a hypnotist,” Heather corrected.
“No. I don’t. We could find one of these people and they could answer the mystery.”
“That shit ain’t real, girl,” said Raven, still taping on her phone. “Come on. And you know Anna don’t believe in that.”
“Yeah, but they showed that one on video,” said Jade. “The guy’s leg was mangled and it just went back to normal.”
That surprised Anna. She hadn’t heard of that story, but then she’d been too busy and not really catching up on these stories as much as she should, especially when it sort of concerned her. She would get on that tomorrow. “Seriously, Jade, please put your seatbelt on.”
“Come on, that video was fake, like the moon landing.” Raven let out a cackle, since she wasn’t serious.
“Would you let someone heal you?” Jade asked Anna, putting her seatbelt on with an eye-roll.
Seeing that, Anna relaxed. “If it actually worked? Yeah, sure.”
“See?” Raven asked. “She had to qualify that.”
“I would want a hunky doctor type to heal me,” began Heather, “and then I could show him my gratitude.”
They erupted in laughter and Anna said, “I’ve really missed you guys.”
Her face hurt from the grin, and then she felt a tingling in her stomach. A moment passed before an awful realization struck. Her wide eyes went to Jade beside her, then the cars hurtling along around them. A glance in the rearview mirrored showed a freight truck a little too close behind. White light blinded her, but it wasn’t coming from the headlights there, just around her body. She frantically looked to the left to plow through the HOV lane to the median and stop, but cars blocked her way. She began screaming “no” as her foot plunged for the brake pedal and passed through air, her hands no longer around a steering wheel. The faces of Ryan, Matt, and Eric appeared before her, their resigned expressions turning to alarm on seeing her screaming.
Chapter 3 – Unexpected Company
Soliander of Aranor felt nervous. Some would have been surprised that a man of such power could feel that way, or that he would admit it to himself, but he was no fool. Refusing to acknowledge it could lead to death, and worse. He had summoned sentient forces to do his bidding many times, and some of them could detect such a feeling and exploit it. That would lead to first one mistake and then another. All but one of his apprentices over the years had resisted acknowledging their feelings and potential impact, so he usually made the most prideful summon a demon, inevitably lose control of it, and have it take them away to eternal damnation while the other candidates watched, aghast. He smiled. Either their willingness to heed his advice soared or they left his tutelage for good.
That lone standout apprentice had always been the most promising. Soliander had been trying to find him for years, but the former student knew it and was in hiding. Far worse than being a demon’s slave awaited Everon for betraying Soliander. Tracking his whereabouts had been especially difficult during Soliander’s years as one of the Ellorian Champions. Any pursuit was doomed to fail when you could disappear from the trail without warning. His spies had turned up little, and in the years since breaking free of the quest cycle, Soliander still hadn’t found Everon, though he’d come close.
His eyes went to a window, beyond which lay the darkness of night and a tower, golden light twinkling from its windows. A prisoner occupied the top room, guarded by the supernatural and dark elves. Diara’s capture had been fortuitous. She had refused to give up her lover Everon’s location, but the Mind Trust spell had solved that problem. All ethical wizards respected that forbidden magic and wouldn’t use it. But it had its uses.
Magically sifting through her memories had yielded much, including Everon’s hide-out, but Soliander had acted in haste and cost himself his quarry. He should have taken time to plan an ambush, rather than immediately arriving via magic portal and laying waste to everything in his path. Everon was not there. If Soliander’s vast network of spies asking questions about Everon had not made it clear that someone dangerous was after him, the destruction Soliander wrought on his home had. He knew from Diara’s memories that Everon was unsure if Soliander was behind the inquiries. After all, everyone thought Soliander was missing, just like the rest of the Ellorian Champions, and yet dark elves with bluish-steel blades had often done the asking.
Only two people knew how to create such items made from the soclarin ore. And Everon only knew because he’d stolen the secret from Soliander. Those items were how they were inadvertently tipping each other off as to their activities, whereabouts, or both. One of Soliander’s spies had captured a man with such a blade, which Soliander knew he hadn’t created. The Mind Trust spell on the man led to Diara, and then to the home she shared with Everon. Since Soliander’s attack, Everon abandoned every place he’d been with Diara, who he was sure to notice had gone missing. The degree of abandonment—and the fear it revealed—told Soliander that Everon knew it was him, even if the former apprentice did not understand how that was possible. Setting traps might be the only way to get him now.
It was one reason Soliander had opened the Dragon Gate on Honyn. Not only had he needed more of the ore, but he wasn’t sure if Everon knew the gate led to the only place to get it. Had the apprentice run out of what he’d stolen from Soliander’s stash? If he knew where to get it, learning that the gate was open would lure him there, Soliander’s Detect Presence spell triggering an alarm that would bring them together once more at last. These betrayals about the ore were minor except for how they had enabled the betrayal that really mattered, the one for which Everon was to pay for eternity once Soliander got him. It was all arranged. He just needed his victim.
But now another mystery beyond Everon’s whereabouts had Soliander’s attention. Somehow his life had become all about finding people. First Everon. Now Ryan, Anna, Eric, and Matt. And maybe Korrin, Andier, and Eriana. He didn’t know where his fellow Ellorian Champions were any more than anyone else did. He had assumed they were dead or trapped on Earth. But he hadn’t been able to find Earth with any locator spell since he had returned from there years ago, and last seen the champions. He had never heard of Earth or seen it before someone summoned all four of them there, or since. It was as if Earth had never existed.
But now the locator spell found Earth on the first try. And second. And third. Even his apprentice Darron could find it. Soliander knew why, even how. Magic had returned to working on Earth, rendering the planet detectable. And the pendant being
returned to Stonehenge had triggered this. He knew this even without the images in his head from the brief Mind Trust connection with Matt. Stonehenge looked about the same as when he’d last seen it in person, but the stones appeared considerably weathered, far more so than a few years would have suggested. This wasn’t the only sign that the world had transformed. When he had been there, it hadn’t been noticeably different from any other world he’d been to, but the images in Matt’s memories were startling.
Vast buildings and cities of glass, steel, and precisely carved stone. Little boxes with moving images and sound. Enclosed, moving wagons of metal. Portable, long range communication devices. Handheld devices that fired deadly projectiles. An enormous mushroom cloud that obliterated an entire city. And more. So much more. He knew the names of these from Matt’s thoughts. Computers. TVs. Phones. Guns. Nuclear explosions.
All of them revealed a world far different from the one he’d visited years ago with his friends. The images of Stonehenge had included a flashlight, a phone, an SUV, and a visitor’s center that certainly hadn’t been there before. Someone could have added it since, of course, but the technology apparent in it suggested that only a few years having passed was highly unlikely. A suspicion had formed and seemed the obvious explanation, but he had to go there to find out.
There were two names he would have expected to find in Matt’s memories of important people, but there had been no trace of them. Maybe it wasn’t surprising and meant nothing. Everything he had learned was unusually disjointed due to the way the Mind Trust spell had been abruptly broken. That had apparently scattered the retained information, and the thought made him feel lucky. Sometimes it isn’t the memories gained that are scattered, but the caster’s mind, leaving the wizard infantilized, a useless, drooling idiot. This was another reason the spell was forbidden. He had dodged a bullet, to use an Earth expression he now knew. Matt had nearly destroyed both of them when he escaped the Mind Trust spell.
It gave more reason to visit Earth. He needed to understand what was happening there. That he might find some sign of his lost friends compelled him to go, even if nothing else would have. He certainly wanted answers to the mystery of why Matt and the others had impersonated him and the real champions. He sensed from Matt’s memories that there was little they really knew. There were no images of Korrin, Eriana, or Andier. But he’d seen Lorian, the elf who had shouted Soliander’s name at him in the ruins of Castle Darlonon. He had been considering grabbing the elf for information, but Lorian was less important. What really mattered now was this visit to Earth.
He needed to know so many things, including who truly controlled the nuclear warheads. Only he and a few others held such power, and he had purposely destroyed most of the others. That wasn’t a power any mortal should have, only the gods. As far as he knew, only he could do it now, but he sensed from the spell Lorian had done on Matt that the latter was unusually strong in magic. Perhaps he had the power, if not the skill. Matt was no wizard, he knew. Not really. And yet he had taken control of the staff in Soliander’s hand and burned him with it. He was caught between grudging admiration and irritation about that, but vengeance on Matt wasn’t a priority, not that he wouldn’t take the chance if it arose. But he had more pressing concerns. He wanted to know who controlled these warheads.
But even that paled compared to understanding the changes on Earth and what had happened since his departure from there. The latter had been eating away at him for years. And now he could finally learn a great many truths, not the least of which might have been where his former friends were, and where they went. The fate of Korrin and Andier concerned him, but not like that of Eriana, the Lady Hope, her disappearance crushing any hope—or even goodness—left in him. Had she seen the look of fear and awful realization in his eyes the last time they were together? He was certain she had, as their eyes met one final time before they disappeared in a flash of light.
His eyes again went to the window and the tower where Diara sat in chains. What would Eriana think of him having imprisoned her younger sister? He wanted to laugh. If Eriana still lived, she would likely be furious. But she would also understand. After all, if it hadn’t been for Diara, Everon could not have betrayed them all. While Soliander was certain the Lady Hope was dead, he could never fully resign himself to the idea. And it was the primary reason he hadn’t killed Diara. Eriana might understand imprisoning her sister, especially to gain information on his former apprentice, but she would never forgive killing her, even if Diara had it coming. If Soliander ever found Eriana alive, he would have some explaining to do, but stating why he’d locked up her sister was a lot of less troubling than why he’d killed her.
And so Diara lived, and in good health, at that. He had made no secret to his prisoner that Eriana was the only reason he kept her alive. Besides, he didn’t need her cooperation when the Mind Trust spell bypassed all of that, so telling her the truth affected nothing. He had long since learned everything he needed to know and had not visited her in some time. Maybe he would after his trip to Earth, depending on what he learned of Eriana’s whereabouts.
The possibility that she still lived caused his heart to pound. And he knew that this was why he was nervous. Never mind the strange visions of Earth, and what Matt and his friends might know, or that magic had resumed working there once more, possibility heralding an extraordinarily dangerous situation, made all the worse by the existence of nuclear warheads, among other inventions. No, what threatened his self-control was whether or not Eriana was alive. He calmed himself and summoned his current apprentice, Darron, a dark-skinned dark elf who would excel at the excursion now planned. The black hair would hide the pointed ears, but something would have to be done about the red eyes.
The apprentice wizard entered his chambers wearing clothes neither had seen anyone wearing before, except in Soliander’s memories from Matt. Blue jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers covered his lithe form. He carried a black backpack in one hand. It had taken implanting the idea in someone’s head to get her to create these replicas, which would have to do for now. Darron fidgeted quietly, as if tying to get used to the attire.
“Must I really wear this, Master Zoran?” Darron asked, tugging at the tight jeans and using the false name Soliander had been using since even before the Ellorian Champions had vanished. No one knew that Zoran the Devastator was really Soliander of Aranor, the Majestic Magus, hero wizard from among the missing Ellorian Champions.
“Yes,” Soliander replied. “It is the fashion there. You must fit in, as will I if I can join you. You will carry your wizard’s robes and other items in that bag.”
The apprentice lifted it awkwardly. “Its design is strange, but I must admit the many pockets seem quite functional.”
“What I have seen of this world is strange. You must not gawk upon arrival.”
“Yes, master. What is it you want me to do?”
“You will arrive near the home of the man named Matt. It will be night. You will ensure no one is watching. I need you to act nonchalant while finding a quiet place to contact me via the orb, while no one can observe you. You must avoid suspicion.”
“Of course.”
“This world does not know magic, from what I understand. Once you can contact me, I will ask you to perform a simple spell while I watch via the orb. If the spell works, I will join you.”
“And if the spell does not work?”
You will be trapped there forever instead of me, Soliander thought. “We will deal with that at the time. You may have trouble getting the orb to work as well, but keep trying.”
He didn’t get into what would happen next. The apprentice would likely find fitting in difficult and would get stranded or apprehended on a strange world without magic to help him. Soliander didn’t much care. If that befell the apprentice, they’d never see each other again. He didn’t think it likely, however. Matt and the others could not have been summoned from Earth unless magic was working on Earth again. Even the spell Soli
ander was about to cast to send Darron there would fail if the planet was still locked, but he had to be sure. If the spell worked and the orb functioned on Earth, and the apprentice performed magic while Soliander watched, then and only then would he feel comfortable casting himself there personally.
He sighed. The time had come. He rose from behind the stone table with its spell books, scrolls, and magic runes carved into its surface. Along the way, he stopped at a table to place a soft, black cloth over a golden orb that had been glowing softly, various images fleeting across its surface. Then he went to stand before Darron. The apprentice didn’t seem as nervous as Soliander felt, but then he had little idea how important this moment was. That inspired Soliander to calm himself and place one hand on Darron’s shoulder. Words of magic slithered from his mouth as the power began to course through him, enveloping the apprentice, who seemed remarkably trusting as Soliander made him vanish from before him. Strange how the disappearance of someone so unimportant to him might lead to the reappearance of those who mattered so very much.
Erin Jennings tightened the top of the white thermos she’d brought from Florida, a comfort from home just like the tea itself. She seldom went for designer flavors or even coffee, just regular tea, mostly because the taste was a holdover from a life long gone but never forgotten. How could anyone forget such a life? The only equivalent in this world were fictionalized stories. Sometimes it all seemed like a dream, but she knew better. And everything she had done since helped her prepare for today.
Twenty years had passed since it ended abruptly in what she had surmised was an explosion, but she didn’t really know. One moment she’d been standing with her dearest friends and the next she stood in a rural field somewhere by herself, a little dazed, very confused, and apparently not at all dressed for the fashions of the day, as she learned when she went to the nearest home for help. The style of the house had been as strange to Erin as her clothing to the occupants, who had initially assumed she was taking part in a nearby festival.
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