by Abby Smith
“Pettikin, are you OK? What happened? Where are we?”
Pettikin was a few feet away exploring the new landscape but came rushing over to me when I called.
“I think we did it, Allie! I think we made it through the Gateway, but I don’t know where we are. It doesn’t feel like your Earth.”
“Yeah, I’ll say,” a voice said from behind us.
I yelled and jumped up, turning toward the voice, but Pettikin started screaming and running in circles around my legs so I fell again. Once I was down, Pettikin dove behind me for cover.
“You have some serious balance issues,” the voice sounded amused.
I squinted up at it.
I couldn’t believe it. It was the kid from my dream—the cute guy with the light blond hair and impossibly bright green eyes. He was wearing skinny blue jeans, a green and purple button-down shirt, and shiny black boots. He towered over us, his arms folded across his chest, grinning broadly.
“Hi!” I blurted out without thinking and then cringed. He couldn’t possibly have any idea who I was or why I thought I knew him.
“Hi!” he answered back, mimicking my enthusiastic tone and tilting his head slightly to one side.
Pettikin climbed up my back and peeked over my shoulder, then let out a small cry. He leaped over me, digging his clogs into my shoulder and pushing down on my head with his hand for support.
“Ow, Pettikin…”
When he reached the ground he straightened his jacket and walked toward the blond kid. He pressed his palms together and bowed formally from his waist. The boy watched him with a gentle, interested expression.
Pettikin rose up and said, “Oh great and wonderful Guardian, I am Pettikin Periwinkle from Arcorn. We have come to ask for your help.”
Oh, crap. Guardian. This was the Guardian. I was already wrong.
The Guardian took a step forward, bent down and touched Pettikin gently in the center of his forehead. The light inside Pettikin got even brighter for a moment, like someone had turned the key on an oil lamp.
“Pettikin Periwinkle, I am Vala,” he said.
He straightened up to his full height and turned his gaze toward me.
I scrambled to my feet, trying to collect my thoughts. I glanced down. My jeans and sweatshirt were covered with grass stains and dirt. I brushed frantically at them until I felt a gentle but firm force pulling my eyes upward.
His eyes locked on mine and I couldn’t move or look away. It wasn’t like looking at another person, but into some kind of void. No, void wasn’t the right word because he wasn’t exactly empty, but vast. He looked like a kid, but he felt ancient.
He squinted his eyes slightly, and I felt a strange sensation in my chest, as if there had been a knot around my heart that was loosened. He shifted his gaze, and I felt a tingling sensation in the top of my head. He looked at me for a few seconds more, then nodded his head once, as if he approved of something. He dropped his gaze to the ground, and a shy expression came over his face. He scuffed one toe in the dirt, like Bob sometimes did.
I stared at him, transfixed. This wasn’t good. Professor Theopolous would probably kill me if he found out I’d fallen for the Guardian.
“So,” he said finally, raising his head. “You wanted my help?”
A soft, golden-white light hovered around him, and he had some kind of presence larger than his physical body that I could feel even from where I was standing a few feet away. I had no idea what to say to him, and I suddenly felt terrified.
“You were expecting an old guy with long white hair, flowing robes and a wizard’s staff, weren’t you?”
I relaxed a little. “Yeah, something like that.”
He waited, as if expecting something.
“What’s your name?” he asked finally.
“Oh!” I kept forgetting that the dream from the night before hadn’t really happened and that we hadn’t actually met. “I’m Allie. Allie Thomas.” Feeling stupid, I tried to copy Pettikin since he seemed to know the protocol for this. I bent forward at the waist in an awkward bow.
Vala laughed, and Pettikin ran over to me, giggling. He climbed up my leg and arm to my shoulder, perhaps sensing I could use the moral support.
“You’ve got a major gnome situation going on there,” Vala sounded impressed. “They don’t usually like people.”
“Uh, yeah, that’s what everyone keeps telling me.”
He folded his arms. “So, Allie Thomas, what is it that you want? Obviously I’m interested in helping you or you wouldn’t be here, but I don’t have all day. We Guardians are a tad bit busier than we might appear, you know.”
“Right, sorry!” A looming image of Professor Theopolous’ disapproving face appeared in my mind.
I took a deep breath and the words came tumbling out in a rush. “Well, my great aunt May died last week, but her funeral wasn’t until yesterday, and afterwards my best friend Andie and I wanted to spend the night in her cottage…” I was completely rambling. I tried to remember what Mrs. Widgit and Professor Theopolous had told me to say, but my mind had gone blank.
“Oh, so you’re May’s niece!”
“Well…great niece, actually. She was my mom’s aunt.”
“She told me about you. She was my friend, you know.”
“Uh…”
“That was rhetorical—you don’t have to answer. Just continue.”
I was seriously blowing it. “Well, uh, basically when Andie and I went down to the cottage last night, we found Pettikin there.”
“Uh oh.”
“I know I shouldn’t have done it,” Pettikin said. It sounded like he was struggling to hold back tears.
“It’s not even that easy to do, Pettikin. I’m surprised you were able to,” Vala sounded thoughtful.
“He didn’t know Aunt May had died,” I said, in Pettikin’s defense. “When he got to Earth, he was trapped because she wasn’t there to take him back through the…the secret Gateways, or whatever. And not just Pettikin, but some of Aunt May’s other friends are stuck there too.”
“Viola Widget and Theodore Theopolous?” Vala asked drily.
“Yeah.”
“I felt them trying to get through my Gateway earlier.”
“They seem to think that our only chance for getting Pettikin home is if you could reopen the secret Gateways on Earth. So they sent us here to ask you if you could do that.”
Vala laughed. “Viola and Theo told you to ask me that?”
Not the reaction I was hoping for. “Um, something like that. I might be phrasing it wrong.”
“They know I won’t reopen the Gateways on Earth without a Gatekeeper to watch them.”
“Yeah, they said that.”
There was no way that I was going to mention that their plan was for me to be the Gatekeeper. Now that I had seen Vala I realized that the idea was patently ridiculous. Professor Theopolous was right.
Vala’s countenance changed while I was thinking this, became more gentle.
“Tell me something, Allie,” he said, moving closer and leaning down toward me. “Putting Mrs. Widgit and Professor Theopolous aside for a moment—why are you here? If they hadn’t told you what to ask for, what would you want from me?”
A million desires ran through my mind, most of them highly inappropriate. Pettikin stirred on my shoulders bringing me back to earth. Or wherever we were.
“I just want to help Pettikin get home safely. He can’t stay on Earth—he’d be miserable there. I’ll do whatever you need me to do, but there’s no one else to help him, and I don’t think we can do it without your help...”
To my complete horror, my voice cracked and my eyes filled with tears. It was as if I had stored up all of my sadness over Aunt May’s death and worry for Pettikin for this one moment, and now the emotions threatened to overtake me. I clamped my mouth shut and blinked my eyes furiously, determined not to cry.
Vala seemed to be considering my words very seriously. He turned away from us and pa
ced slowly back and forth, looking down at the ground. His gait was uneven, weaving around instead of following a straight line, and sometimes he paused with a foot suspended in the air, as if he was deciding where to place it next.
Finally, he stopped pacing, and turned to face us.
“OK,” he said.
“OK—you’ll help us?”
“OK, I will help you to get Pettikin home, and then you in turn, Allie, will help me. Deal?”
It seemed almost too easy. “Oh, wow, yes, deal! Pettikin, did you hear?”
Pettikin hugged my head. “Oh thank you, Guardian, thank you!”
Vala didn’t seem to share our bubbly enthusiasm. “Tell me, Allie, are Professor Theopolous and Mrs. Widgit waiting on Earth?”
“Yes.”
“You came from my pond? The one behind May’s house?”
“Yes.”
“All right, then let’s go there. I need to figure out exactly what has happened.”
He stepped forward and placed one palm against the center of my forehead, the other against Pettikin’s, and then everything went white.
8
I felt like the atoms of my body were being reassembled—pulled together from the far reaches of the universe around a gravitational core of me-ness. It took a few seconds before I could feel my eyes, let alone pry them open. When I finally did, everything was too bright, like an overexposed photograph. I blinked a few times, and things slowly came into focus.
We were back at Walden, standing next to the boulder.
“Allie!” Andie ran toward us.
Vala stepped in front of her. She stopped and stared up at him.
“You must be Andie,” he said. He gazed at her for a few seconds while she stood with her arms hanging limp at her sides.
“Don’t worry, I’m a friend,” he said finally, moving away with an amused smile. He walked over to the other side of the boulder where Mrs. Widgit and Professor Theopolous were standing.
Andie raised one hand weakly, index finger extended toward his back.
“Who…?”
“Viola Widgit and Theodore Theopolous! Once again you are causing me no end of trouble.” Vala’s voice was equal parts humor and irritation. He stopped in front of the grownups and folded his arms. Mrs. Widgit pressed her hands together in front of her, and Professor Theopolous bowed from his waist, like Pettikin had.
“Now, Vala, surely you’re not still upset about that small matter last spring,” Mrs. Widgit fretted. “It all ended for the best after all.”
“Yes, because you had me to take care of everything.” His voice was still severe, but he was smiling and gazed into each of their eyes for several seconds, just as he had with me and Andie.
Andie came up beside me, leaned her head close to mine and whispered, “That’s the Guardian?”
“Yep.”
“He’s…hot.”
“I know, right?”
Pettikin shifted himself on my shoulder, presumably so he could see better. It was bizarre watching the adults show such deference to someone who, from the outside, didn’t look much older than Andie or me.
“You must forgive us, Vala,” Professor Theopolous said. “It was our intention to approach you ourselves. We realize that the girl is quite young and untrained.”
“And yet she and the gnome did what you weren’t able to.” Vala’s voice was flat. “Do you know why?”
Mrs. Widgit and the Professor were silent.
“Well, come on, it’s not that difficult. Or at least it shouldn’t be for an old Gatekeeper such as yourself.” Vala’s eyes bored into the Professor, who still proffered no answer.
“Fine. Allie, do you know?” Vala’s countenance changed, became more playful and less severe.
“Do I know what?”
“Why you were able to get through my Gateway when Viola and Theo failed?”
I wanted to answer him, he looked so sincere and appealing, but I honestly had no idea. I shook my head, trying to convey apologies for my stupidity with my eyes.
“Then I’ll tell you.” Vala turned to the grownups. “When Viola and Theo tried to access my Gateway, they thought only of their own predicament, how they could help themselves. Allie, on the other hand,” he turned back to me and, again, became softer and more gentle, “thought only of how she could help Pettikin.”
He gazed at me for a long moment with an expression almost like adoration. I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I certainly didn’t feel I was being anywhere near as noble as he was allowing.
“And of course Pettikin,” he turned his gaze to the gnome, “Pettikin thought only of his own Guardian. But gnomes are another story altogether. They’re innocents.”
I glanced up at Pettikin sitting on my shoulder. Even in the daylight he seemed to be glowing. He beamed at Vala.
Vala addressed the adults again.
“Remember why we do things,” he said so quietly that I had to strain to hear him. “We help each other out.” He dropped his gaze and played in the dirt with his toe for a moment. Mrs. Widgit and Professor Theopolous were silent.
When Vala finally raised his head, his expression was serious.
“And you’re going to need my help. I feel sslorcs here, and normally, they wouldn’t dare approach Aunt May’s cottage or my pond. Do either of you know what happened?”
The Professor and Mrs. Widgit exchanged glances.
“Vala, we’re worried someone may have made a contract with the sslorcs,” Mrs. Widgit said.
A strange feeling spread through the air, like the barometric pressure dropped a few points. Vala narrowed his eyes and set his jaw forward. He turned abruptly on one heel and began circumnavigating the pond with long, powerful strides. A strong wind kicked up behind him, stirring leaves up off the ground and causing his shirt to billow. The sky darkened, and I felt my hair prick up with static electricity, the way it did before a thunderstorm. Andie and I inched closer together. Pettikin clung to my neck so hard, he was almost choking me.
When he reached the far apex of the pond, Vala turned around. He no longer seemed aware of any of us. The wind grew stronger around him, and he reached both palms toward the sky and exhaled slowly. Bright light shot out of his hands, spiraled in the vortex of wind swirling around him, and then exploded into several beams which arced over the pond and into the woods. Andie and I ducked, and I clamped a hand against Pettikin to steady him on my shoulder. It sounded like he was muffling a scream in the crook of his arm. The light beams pulsed and ricocheted through the air for several seconds and then faded away. Vala lowered his arms and the wind around him died down. The charge in the atmosphere faded, and the sky brightened.
He walked toward us, his expression calmer, although I thought he looked tired. Pettikin was limp against my head, and Andie clutched the sleeve of my hoodie. He didn’t look at us as he walked past, but I felt waves of soothing energy flowing our way.
He stopped in front of the Professor and Mrs. Widgit.
“There is a Contractor here. I stopped short of eliminating him, because something’s not right. What was May keeping from me?”
“We don’t know for sure, she didn’t tell us anything, but…” Mrs. Widgit paused and glanced over at the Professor.
“She knew who it was? You know who it is?” Vala asked.
Mrs. Widgit hesitated.
“We think it might be Jim Cutter,” she said finally.
Vala’s shoulders fell.
“Ah, that idiot.” He brushed his hair from his face and paced slowly along the edge of the pond.
“OK, let’s head over to the cottage. I need to talk to the alpacas.”
“Right,” Mrs. Widgit said, and she and the Professor turned and headed back the way we had come.
“You three stay close to me,” Vala said to Andie, Pettikin and me.
We followed him up the hill to the main path, at which point Andie sped up so she was next to him.
“If I may ask a question,” she said.
He gave her a brief, sidelong glance.
“Yes.”
“Why do you all keep talking about the alpacas like they’re the Godfather or something, instead of cute, but not necessarily useful, farm animals?”
Vala checked to make sure I was still following. I put a hand on Pettikin’s legs and sped up so I was walking next to them.
“The alpacas work for me,” he said. “They are magical beings that can protect Gatekeepers and travel in and through the secret dimensions with them.”
I stopped walking.
Vala also stopped.
“What?” he asked.
“The alpacas are magical?”
“You have a gnome sitting on your shoulder and just traveled to another world not twenty minutes ago. Are you saying they’re not? And you’re not?”
“Well, I… OK touché.” I wasn’t entirely satisfied with that answer, but couldn’t immediately think of a way to follow it up. We resumed walking.
“Anything else?” Vala asked Andie.
“Yeah, what’s a s… sl…” she looked over at me.
“Sslorc?” I finished for her.
“Yeah.”
“The sslorcs are shadow beings. In a way they’re the opposite of the Guardians. If the Guardians represent light, happiness, peace, and protection, the sslorcs are anger, hatred, violence, and depression. They’re strong on the shadow worlds and nonexistent in the higher worlds. On the forbidden worlds the two opposing forces struggle. Sometimes the good forces dominate, and sometimes the sslorcs do.”
“And that’s why you close the Gateways on the forbidden worlds?”
“Yes. The higher worlds vibrate at a much higher frequency than the other worlds and are filled with an inherent power—the light of the universe. The sslorcs know that their own power is weaker and constantly seek to steal the power of the higher worlds and corrupt it. Since there are no Gateways to the higher worlds on the shadow worlds, they try to get there through the Forbidden Worlds.”
“But, I mean, what are they?” Andie asked. “What do they look like?”
