Darkest Designs

by Dale Mayer

  The voices brought her back to her surroundings.

  And her lip curled.

  “Why did you walk away?” the Councilman growled. “I gave you important information. You can use it to get more of what you want.”

  “And I wanted to check the information.” Tammy’s father motioned Storey closer.

  “What is she doing there?” The Councilman gasped in horror. “Kill her. She’s right there. Do it. Now.” His voice rose to a shout as temper and outrage rippled across his face. His color went dark and he appeared to be on the edge of an apoplectic fit.

  Storey laughed. “Still trying to get someone else to do your dirty work. Does the Louer leader know that you were cheating him?”

  The man at her side straightened. She kept her mocking gaze on Eric’s father. “That you promised to give them technology you don’t have the power to give?” She snorted. “And of course you haven’t told the Council members or Paxton either, of your deal. And what about Eric?”

  “Don’t you even mention my son’s name. You’ve ruined him.” This time the Councilman appeared to be hopping from one foot to the other. His rotund face twisted and reddened with temper. “Kill her.”

  Storey tried to not to look at Tammy’s father’s face. She didn’t want to know if he was of the same mind as the Councilman. But eventually she had no choice. Shit. She turned to face Tammy’s father. “You know…Potre….Paxton is a Louer. But he is also a very revered Toran scholar. And he is capable of helping you.” As an afterthought, she added, “If he wanted to, that is.”

  There was a silent murmur behind her. “As for Eric, yes, it’s true he is the Councilman’s son. But Eric is not like his father. He is what his father could have been. And never will be.”

  She didn’t know if they could understand that message. She didn’t speak Louer properly.

  But the stylus did. Stylus, can you tell them? Can you explain?

  We have.

  And?

  He isn’t sure. He doesn’t trust us.

  Wait…does he have any relatives who are related to any of the souls in the styluses we have? Are there any Louers today that remember styluses?

  The stylus bubbled with the concept. Noise filled the back of her mind. She waited, watching the Councilman and the Louer leader glare at each other. How could she convince Potre? “Tammy, have you told your father about all the adventures we had?”

  “Yes!” Tammy shouted at her. “He asked lots of questions.”

  “Good. Do you understand that Eric’s father is asking your father to kill me?”

  Tammy gasped. She cried out and her arms wrapped around Storey and squeezed her tight. “Did your father say anything about it?”

  Tammy shook her head.

  “Has he said anything about the new dimension, problems with the Torans? Anything at all.”

  This time, Tammy nodded.

  “Yes? What part?” Storey bent to look into Tammy’s face.

  “He asked about how we went from one place to the other. The types of guards you have. Eric’s guards.”

  Storey groaned. All Tammy had seen was her house and Paxton’s lab. His father must think the two dimensions were playgrounds. Neither had visible guards and both would appear developed, but empty. Sigh.

  She wondered what he had planned. And why?

  The Councilman’s face swelled in temper as he ranted and raved about the damn people betraying him, about their lack of appreciation and how he was going to get his own back when the traitor Paxton was shown for the liar and fraud he was.

  The longer Storey listened to his rants the madder she got. Finally she’d had enough. She stepped back up in front of the monitor. “That Paxton is a Louer doesn’t surprise me. And of course he had to hide his identity. When your people became sick and started dying, you blamed the Louers. Your people enslaved them. Turned them into something they weren’t supposed to be. When they protested and started to fight back, you banished them. How difficult it must have been then, when so much of your knowledge went with them. The knowledge in the styluses. The styluses couldn’t be renewed because that technology was lost. Because it was Louer technology. Paxton’s technology created in the Toran dimension.”

  She gave a hard laugh. “You are such an egotistical bastard. You deserve to spend your lifetime in servitude. In service to others so you can understand an honest day’s work. To teach you to give, not just take. Wait until your people find out how you let the Louers back to your world out of revenge. That you were willing to give up their safety out of spite. You never counseled your people. You have been a ruler without compassion. A monarch over serfs. Do your people understand that it was you and the leaders before you who banished the Louers, and turned your own people into their replacements? Instead of all Torans being above the Louers you made yourself above the Torans.”

  The last words ran through her like lightening, giving her the understanding of their truth. “How many people have you hurt by your greed? Or have you been just a rotund clown at the head of the table, while the worker bees carried on without knowing what you were really like? You couldn’t even spend time with your son, could you? Be a part of raising him? You left it to Paxton.”

  She laughed. “So maybe he was the lucky one after all.”

  The stylus spoke quietly. The Broken One remembers the time of the banishment.

  Storey nodded, sorry for the pain the Broken One had been through. “Do you realize that there are still souls that remember all this? Everything that happened when the Louers were banished?”

  The Councilman spluttered. “Not possible.”

  “Yes, it is possible. It’s a fact. The styluses carry Louer souls.” She shook her head. “I rescued several that had been damaged, forgotten. Lost through time. The Broken One is alive and well. I don’t remember his original name…but he is here.”

  Her stylus spoke. His name was Barrat.”

  Storey repeated the name aloud, “Barrat – the Broken One was once called Barrat.”

  A shocked hum rose around her. Excited murmurs filled the air. Storey didn’t understand what they were saying and she couldn’t take the time to work it out as she was trying to keep two conversations together at the same time. The Councilman shrugged. “So. He is nothing to me.”

  “Maybe, but from the reaction I’m getting here, he means something to the Louers.”

  Potre leaned forward, his commanding voice breaking through the rest of the noise in her head. And spoke to her directly – for the first time. “What do you know of Barrat?”

  She turned to look at him. “Everything. I carry his soul.”

  ***

  Eric and Paxton stood shoulder to shoulder as they watched the byplay between the Councilman and Storey with Tammy’s father popping on screen every once in a while. Eric was horrified at his father’s machinations.

  “Barrat? Barrat,” murmured Paxton. “Why do I know that name?” He grabbed up his stylus and asked him for information on Barrat. The stylus started writing, filling the tablet in no time. “Barrat was the leader of the Louers. Enslaved by the Torans and sent to join the stylus when he became too old and broken to work. His knowledge was important, but his physical presence too dangerous.” Paxton looked at Eric.

  “How is it that Storey is carrying him? She can’t have bonded to two styluses.”

  Eric winced. “I guess you weren’t told all the details, huh?” At Paxton’s wide eyed stare, Eric nodded. “You know Storey, she can’t leave anyone to die. So she is carrying the Broken One inside her until he can be moved to a new stylus. If she dies, so does he.”

  “That is not good. We need his information.” Paxton looked ready to panic. “I understood she was doing something to help him, but not what or how that help would be administered.”

  “Yeah, that’s Storey all over. Now she’s trying to fix the Louer and Toran problem.”

  Paxton looked at him sideways. “What problem?”

  “She wants our people
to share technology with the the Louers. And she wants peace between the dimensions.”

  “They aren’t my people.” Paxton stared straight ahead. “I’m a Toran.”

  Eric sighed. “See that’s the problem. There shouldn’t be them and us. We were all the same at one time.”

  “But no longer.”

  “And that’s wrong. We banished them and they suffered. Now they have a chance at a better life thanks to Storey and they need help to get started. They don’t even have enough necessary food stores for the coming winter.”

  Paxton’s lips thinned.

  Eric grinned. “I’m warning you now, Storey won’t let them suffer.”

  Paxton spun on his heels. “What does she expect us to do?”

  “Help.”

  Paxton gasped. “They attacked us.”

  “Because they couldn’t stay where they were any longer. When they found a way through…”

  “That was Storey’s fault. She opened a portal. If she hadn’t done that…”

  “You would never have found your brother, the Councilman would never have been put in a position to show his true colors and I’d have never met Storey.” He smiled, a gentle twitch of his lips. “And that is something I wouldn’t have wanted to miss.”

  “You can’t keep her. You know that – right?” Paxton said slowly. “We have enough problems with just one dimension. There’s no way we can handle dealing with multiple dimensions. That would be a political nightmare.”

  “I know that. But,” he faced Paxton, “I have no intention of breaking off what’s happening with her. I’ve spent all my life watching cold Toran relationships and wondering why none felt right for me. Now I’ve met Storey, I know. She’s different. I saw her as a young girl when I first met her – only she wasn’t. I was seeing what I expected to see. Not what she is – what she has become. She’s a woman. She’s become the star here. Not you or me or even the styluses. It’s been her that has risen to the top of each challenge. I’m blessed to know her and I’ll be incredibly lucky if she decides that I’m right for her – as I know she’s right for me.”

  Paxton shook his head. “She can’t keep going back and forth like this. It’s going to cause problems.”

  “Maybe. But that door has been opened. We can’t just ignore that.” Eric shrugged. “I’m sure there’s a way we can live in both dimensions. No one has to know. Just think of all I can learn. And Tammy is going to want to see Storey, too. And Storey will want to see her. Just think, the three of us can represent our worlds to each other.”

  Paxton’s face puckered as he considered Eric’s words. “Would Storey leave her world?”

  Eric’s eyebrows flew up. “She might. Particularly after her mother is gone. In the meantime, she’d certainly want to come back and forth. She’s seen almost nothing of our world.”

  Just then, Storey’s face filled the screen. “Eric? Paxton? Are you there?”

  Paxton immediately tapped the keypad. “We are here.”

  As he tapped, the door opened and Toran council members and many others poured into his lab. Their voices raised in both outraged and terror.

  “What has he done?”

  “Are the Louers attacking?”

  “What can we do?”

  “Why has he been allowed to do this?”

  Eric rounded on the last councilman who’d spoken, his temper flaring red once again. “He’s done this because you people didn’t believe Paxton and I. You let him loose. You gave him the means and methods to do this.”

  The group stopped and stared at each other. “We didn’t think he’d do something so awful.”

  And Eric realized another truth. His people were as innocent as newborn babes. They’d handed over control, given complete power to his father and when he’d accepted it and made it his own, they were stunned. Now they felt betrayed. In truth, they should have seen it coming. He had. Storey certainly had.

  “And…Paxton, is it true?” the elderly councilman Marxel asked, his voice tremulous. “Are you really a Louer?”

  Eric stepped in before his mentor could try and explain. “Paxton’s family descended from the Louers.” He smiled at them, his face grim, “As did we all. Remember that? Even the Councilman comes from Louers.”

  They all stared at each other, unsure of what to say. Who to listen to. Who to believe.

  Then a woman stepped forward and brought the conversation around to the biggest issue.

  “Is he still free?”

  Eric didn’t recognize the speaker, but the woman was tiny and wedged in-between several other women. He was happy to see them here. To see them sticking together and speaking up. He wouldn’t be surprised if they’d been influenced by Storey’s behavior to do so. Not that they’d had much of a chance to see her. But they’d have heard of her. And her exploits. These women could do so much more than they did. Storey would be good for them.

  It was Storey that had opened his eyes.

  “Is the human, Storey, coming back?” asked one of the woman.

  “How can she?” said one grim faced male Eric didn’t recognize. “The Councilman has ordered her death. Now he is trying to arrange an assassin to kill her.”

  “Are the Louers going to kill her? Paxton needs to help her.”

  The mass of questions and cries rose as each person set off another until Eric held up his hands. “Stop!”

  Silence. Everyone looked at him, even Paxton, who said, “Eric, what do you suggest?”

  “I suggest we take care of my father, and if that means sending him out to the fields as a laborer, then we do so.”

  “No.” Paxton shook his head. “We can’t trust him. Even out there he will find followers and rise up again.”

  Eric nodded, relieved that Paxton’s words echoed his own thoughts.

  “And he’s sent many a prisoner to his death.” Paxton added, “Or left them alone to exist in that horrible prison. He needs to experience the same isolation. Maybe after ten years, then he could work in the fields. Not now. He has to learn repentance.”

  Privately, Eric wasn’t sure such a thing was possible. Maybe after a decade. He doubted it though. “And Storey?”

  The cries were unanimous. “You have to go rescue her.”

  Eric waited to hear a dissent amongst them. Nothing. Neither did Paxton’s vague origins appear to be more than a news item, quickly discarded as not important.

  He smiled. “Good. But there is more to that.” Just then Storey’s face filled the monitor. Tammy was beside her. “Hi, Tammy,” Eric said. He motioned the crowd to look at the monitor.

  Several of them gasped and shrank back. Then Tammy smiled. A big toothy grin that made her more adorable than ever. “Everyone, this is Tammy. A Louer child that Storey saved from the old Louer dimension after my father banished Storey there secretly.” Storey’s face disappeared and then reappeared. This time she had Tammy in her arms.

  Eric studied the group of Louers in the room standing behind Storey. He presumed they were looking at the motley group of Torans standing around him. His group showed mixed emotions at the sight of the Louer child in Storey’s arms – or maybe it was the sight of all the Louers lined up behind her. Some showed shock, some understanding, some disgust, but there was a softening to their expressions. Enough that he could see, with time, they’d come to understand the Louers were not so different.

  Paxton tugged him back away from the crowd staring fascinated at the screen. He whispered beside him, “Do you see how they turn to you?”

  He had, but figured it was just the situation.

  “You have changed yourself, son. You’ve gone from a green ranger to a leader. Matured into a good man.” He paused a moment, then said, “You should be proud of yourself.”

  Eric heard the quiet pride in Paxton’s voice and smiled. “I guess I am at that.”

  He had changed. He might not be quite as far along the road as he might want, but he hadn’t done anything that made him ashamed of his actions and
that had to account for something. At least he knew value when he saw it. And Storey was valuable.

  In a quiet voice, he said, “I still want Storey in my life.”

  “And we’ll work on a way to make that happen.”

  Paxton’s hand holding his stylus jerked. He raced over to his tablet where he’d left it on his desk. Immediately the stylus started writing. “They are ready to transfer the Broken One to a new stylus.” Paxton read off. “Storey wants Eric there when it happens.”