by Dale Mayer
"Broken One? Is there a problem?” Storey frowned.
Her voice changed, deepened, as he said, “Your mother. There are some issues there. A time element that makes it difficult.”
She groaned. Now that going home had been brought up as the ideal option, she couldn’t stop the yearning inside to return to her own dimension. “Do what we have to do to get out of here.”
“That might not be an ideal location with our limited power. Even with your strong feelings.”
She closed her eyes and worked on bolstering her diminishing patience. “Then what is?”
“Someone else you care for, enough for us to build on the energy.”
Her gaze flew to Eric. “Someone else is Eric. But he’s here with us.”
“Building a portal to him means a portal to here,” said the Broken One. “Of no value.”
She rolled her eyes. “Was that an attempt at humor?”
“We are learning. You have much laughter in your memories. Much joy. We would like to experience that.”
“Don’t you remember laughing?” As the question left her lips, she was bombarded with memories of his childhood. Sober, sad, alone with other slaves and working as he was given work to do. The life of a child slave hadn’t been much fun. Although there were some times that were more lighthearted, she couldn’t see any instances of real joy. There were no rocks being kicked around in a game, or running in sunlight just for fun. There were only solemn instances of work, discussion, aloneness and…not a hug in there.
“Were you abused?” She didn’t think so, but…
“Not by your definition.”
“Loved?”
“Not by your definition.”
“Loving relationships? What about your mother? Father? Siblings? Friends? Lovers?”
“No.”
His thoughts were clear, curious, detached. He had no experience with relationships. At all.
“Not true.”
Right – he could read her mind. How weird was it that they were reading each other’s minds, but were both speaking aloud using her vocal cords so as to include Eric in the discussion.
“I have a strong relationship with my community.”
She smiled slowly, and inside her that sense of connectedness brightened. It was a strong, caring bond and she was glad he’d had that much. In fact, it was more than many people experienced in her own dimension.
“That is possible. I am not unhappy with my existence.” He made an odd sound. “Especially now that you have saved it.”
“And you are very welcome for that,” she said sincerely. “Now I hope you can help me regain my life.”
“We do too.” He was silent for a long moment. “You need someone else you are connected to. Preferably someone where your feelings are still strong today. Not a relationship from a long time ago.”
No one came to mind. She didn’t know what to say. Who did she care about? Her mother, Eric, a few school friends. She had no siblings or nieces and nephews…she gasped. “Tammy!”
Eric looked at her in surprise. “You do really miss her, don’t you?”
“I do and…” she emphasized, her voice rising. “Remember, I said she was trying to communicate telepathically with me? There is that bond as well.”
“Will that be enough?”
The Broken One stepped in and said, “There is much affection for her. That is good.”
“Is it?” Storey asked. “We can’t see each other. I can’t communicate with her and even though she’s back home again where she belongs, I miss her.”
“It’s dangerous for us to go there.” Eric groaned. “But it’s still better than being here.”
“And that is the emotional energy we can use to leave this place.”
Storey paced a small circle. “What can I do to help?”
“And me?” Eric said. “There has to be some way we can both help.”
Storey heard the answer like a faint echo in her mind. The two styluses were talking, but so low she couldn’t understand the conversation. “They’re busy doing something. I can barely hear them.”
Eric squatted down slightly and pulled out one of his packs, expanding it. “I have your sketchbooks here. Maybe you can do something with them.”
Storey squatted beside him. “I don’t suppose you have anything to eat in there, do you?”
Eric laughed as his hand found the block of cheese he’d pulled from her house. He lifted it free and waved it around in front of her. She gasped in delight, but instead of going after the cheese, she dove into his pack. “What else have you got hidden in here?”
She found the granola bar within minutes. “Yes!” She unwrapped and bit into it immediately.
The look in his eyes made her stop. She held it out to him. “Sorry, do you want a bite?”
“Go ahead.” He shook his head and chuckled. “You need it more than I do.”
Storey broke the bar in half and handed over the second piece. “Here. We both need our strength.” He took it with a smile and popped the whole thing in his mouth.
She shook her head. She’d seen her male school friends eat like that. It always amazed her. How could so much fit in one mouth? But he wasn’t worried about choking. He’d already pulled out his knife and was slicing chunks of cheese into her hand. Greedily she popped the largest one into her mouth. “Any chance there’s an apple in there?”
Eric nodded. “Maybe the Broken One should use your love of food to mine the emotional energy they need. They could create a portal to your mother’s kitchen.”
She grinned. “I love it. It should be a cakewalk to mine a path to Tammy. Hell, if she knew I had this food, she’d be coming here to find us!” The smile fell away and she chewed very slowly. Both on the cheese and the worrisome thought in her mind.
“What?” Eric raised a brow at her as he popped more cheese into his mouth.
She swallowed the last of her mouthful, then stared at the slices in her hand. “Does this mean we’re going to Tammy? And the rest of the Louers? The ones that held us prisoner last time?” She looked at him, knowing her fatigue and fear had to be showing. “They hate us. I’m not sure I can deal with all that again.”
He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “You can do it. At least there, we know what the problem is. What the solution is.”
She nodded. “I’m just tired. I can draw a portal and use it to escape as soon as we arrive.”
“Why not do that now? We may not have much prep time before the Broken One has things ready.” He pulled the sketchbook forward and handed it over.
Reinvigorated, she shoved the last of her piece of cheese into her mouth, wiped her hands on her jeans and reached for the book. She frowned at it. “Where did you get this?”
“From your room.”
“I don’t have any like this in my room. This is smooth paper. Silky. I prefer a rougher texture.” She shrugged, not wanting to delve too deeply into why this book would be in her room. “Whatever.”
She pulled her stylus free from around her neck. Opening to a blank page, she closed her eyes and asked her stylus, What do I need to draw? Portals? Or Tammy’s face?
Her head started to vibrate inside. She squeezed her eyes shut, afraid her brain was going to bounce off the inside of her skull. A shudder drummed its way down her spine.
Stop it. That hurts.
The pounding in her head ceased. She took a shaky breath. Thank you.
We must work. It would be better if you slept.
I can’t just sleep. I’m not tired. Well I am, but I can’t just go to sleep when I want.
Yes you can.
Storey smiled. It’s not that ea—
She fell to the floor. Asleep.
***
“Storey? Storey, what’s wrong?” Eric knelt beside Storey. She breathed easily, her color remained normal. He reached a hand to her forehead. Reassured that she was in fact still alive, he settled back on his heels to wait.
“Damn it, Sto
rey. What the hell do I do now?”
Of course no one answered. Typical. But he could talk to Paxton. He quickly sent a message, bringing Paxton up to date. And asked about the status of Dillon.
He read the response out loud. “No information on Dillon. Why is she sleeping?” He snorted. “As if I know. And I’d like to.”
He reached over again and stroked her hair back off her forehead. Surely this wasn’t a normal sleep. She lay as if dead, not even shuffling or rolling over. She slept as if she hadn’t seen sleep in days. Sure, she was exhausted, but this…it wasn’t normal. He could only hope this place wasn’t affecting her like it had Dillon.
All he could do was stand guard over her.
But for how long?
He waited and waited. And waited.
Storey came awake slowly. She opened her eyes and saw Eric sitting at her side. She had no recollection of falling asleep, yet she felt…rested. And depressed. She was still in In-between. Grey fog totally encompassed the two of them. Damn.
Her head was full. Her thoughts had some clarity though, as if the rest had been what she’d needed. She sat up slowly, happy to see there was no residual headache. That pain had been crippling. “Eric?”
He leaned toward her, his smile a bright light in the gloomy atmosphere. “Hi. Enjoy your nap?”
She winced. “I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d woken up in one of the other dimensions.”
“You and me both,” Eric said with a groan.
Feeling good, she could sympathize. “And that wasn’t sleep as much as enforced rest.” She explained what the Broken One had done.
His mouth formed a big O. “What? He knocked you out without your permission?”
She winced. “Permission is a difficult thing when you’re sharing a body.”
“You’re not sharing. He’s a guest. Remember that.”
She struggled to her feet. “I’m trying to. And if I’m awake, I’m going to assume that he’s done whatever they needed to do. Maybe,” she glanced around, “we can leave now.”
Eric stayed sitting. “I hope so. But I doubt it. Nothing is going as planned this trip,” he said gloomily.
She laughed, reached a hand down, waiting until he grasped hers, and helped him stand up. “Are you trying to tell me that you actually had a plan this time?”
He grinned modestly. “Hey, I thought we could wing it. We’ve done that a time or two before.”
She went to say something when a shutter blanked the words from her mind and the Broken One spoke using her vocal cords, his gravelly voice surprisingly deep. “It is time.”
Eric shouted, “Yes!”
Storey was a little less enthused. She wanted to hear the details first. She asked, her voice surprisingly normal, “Broken One. Where are we going? And how are we travelling?”
“To Tammy’s home. By your portal drawings.”
Eric’s brows shot up in surprise. “Tammy’s dimension? Is that safe?”
“It doesn’t matter. It is the only option.”
Storey spluttered. It didn’t matter? Is so mattered. His next word stopped her in her tracks.
“Tammy is waiting for you,” the Broken One said.
She gasped in joy. She’d forgotten that the styluses could communicate telepathically with the Louers. Something about their combined abilities, adaptability and technological advancement. “You spoke with her? How is she?”
“She is well.”
Eric said, “I still don’t get this telepathic stuff.”
“It is only language. And using energy as the translator.”
With a shake of his head, Eric said, “I wanted to ask – is Dillon the first Toran to be soul bound to a stylus?”
“No.”
Storey remembered Eric hadn’t been in on the earlier conversation. He didn’t know what Dillon was.
The Broken One added, “Dillon is not a Toran. He is a Louer.”
She gasped, finally realizing what she’d missed earlier. She stared up at Eric.
Eric frowned down at her, obviously not understanding.
She didn’t know if he hadn’t put the dots together or if the connected dots really didn’t matter. Cautiously, she said, “I didn’t realize you have Torans and Louers intermingled in your Toran dimension. I’d assumed all the Louers had been banished.”
He shrugged. “They were.”
Storey sucked in her breath. And waited.
Eric shook his head. “I’m not dense, but the way you’re looking at me, as if I’m missing something important, is making me feel that way.”
She took a deep breath and hoped she didn’t have to explain.
“Oh, hell.” Eric shared at her stunned.
Yeah, he got it. Finally. He narrowed his gaze. “You’re saying Dillon is a Louer. And he was in the Toran dimension. So therefore at one time, they were mingling.”
“Dillon wasn’t a slave.”
“I remember that, too.”
“And,” she prompted.
He frowned. “And what?” His expression cleared as he finally understood what she’d been getting at. Then a thundercloud swept across his face. “It can’t be. There has to be some mistake.”
“I don’t think there is.”
“It’s not possible. Paxton is Dillon’s brother. If Dillon is a Louer, that means our top philosopher, our greatest scientific leader, the confidant of our Council and the eldest of all the council members – is a Louer.”
Now he got it.
***
Eric couldn’t think. The facts, as he understood them, swirled into a dark, chaotic form that made no sense to his brain. Was it possible that Paxton was a Louer? Dillon looked like the same race as Eric or Storey, but then from what Eric had learned from her and the styluses about his people’s history, Dillon would. The Louers’ appearance had changed over time due to hardship – a hardship that Dillon…and Paxton…had missed. It boggled the mind.
How could it have happened?
“In all societies that employ slavery, some slaves hold higher positions than others. It’s quite possible that Paxton’s parents or grandparents were free people.” Storey suggested, her tone quiet. “Maybe they had migrated from Louers to Torans and no one knew.”
“It could change everything at home.”
“If anyone finds out.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I won’t tell.”
It wasn’t that easy. Eric had no idea how he should feel. His mentor, the man he preferred to think of as his best friend, perhaps even as a father, was the enemy.
As if reading his thoughts, Storey said, “Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that Paxton and Dillon are the enemy. Paxton has shown by his every action that he is as much a Toran as you.”
Eric nodded. “I understand that.”
“But?” Storey narrowed her eyes at him. “It makes no difference. You might want to also consider that given how long ago this could have happened, that Paxton might not even know.”
Shocked, Eric studied her features. “How could that be? Of course he’d know.”
“First off, his own parents might not have known. If they didn’t, then he wouldn’t have. It’s not something you’d speak about normally. And even if he did know, Paxton has devoted his very long life to serving the Torans. He’s kept you safe and helped in every way he could. You can’t blame him for this.”
“I’m not blaming him,” Eric said slowly, “But there is a sense of betrayal.”
That garnered him a dismissive look. “For not having told you? How could he? Especially once all the problems started. If he knows, he’d have to wait for the right time to tell you. And understand – there is no good time for bad news.”
Eric didn’t want to discuss it anymore. He couldn’t. He had no idea of how to feel and certainly wasn’t going to hash out the issue right now. He shoved it all away and tried to refocus. “The Broken One says it’s time to go. Let’s deal with that first. There will be plenty of time later to talk to Paxton.”
Storey gave him a slow nod. “True. You and Paxton need some time alone to discuss this. Your father is already a big issue in your life. You don’t want to do anything that would put a rift in your relationship with Paxton, too.”
She was right. He knew that. Even the thought of losing Paxton brought a pang to his heart. But later. He’d deal with that later. Firmly, he said, “Let’s get out of this mess first.”
