The Return To Erda Box Set

by Beca Lewis

  “What the zonking, ziffering, zonking, zut was that?” I yelled. It wasn’t a loud yell. I was still shaking, and my voice matched my insides.

  I turned the most withering look I had onto Zeid who was standing there casually with the Priscillas on his shoulder. He narrowed his azure eyes at me and smiled.

  “What right do you have …,” I started to say, but then everything started turning black, and I heard someone say, “I’ve got you, Princess,” and everything went dark.

  Deadsweep Seventeen

  “You fainted,” Beru said.

  “Really? I wondered what that was,” I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster lying flat on my back in the dirt. It was just the two of us. If I didn’t feel so zonking awful I would have thought the whole morning was just a bad dream.

  “No need to get all snotty about it, Miss Kara,” Beru snipped right back. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You didn’t do anything?” I huffed as I attempted to sit up. “Who brought me to all these ass-kicking training sessions this morning? Don’t try and tell me that you didn’t know about it.

  “To think I used to think you were part of some fairy-like race. I think you are really part of a medieval torture crew, you cow, you!”

  Beru stepped back. “Well, for one thing, the Priscillas are the fairies, and you know that, and for another, I don’t know what medieval torture is unless it is putting up with you taking things out on me, and being an ungrateful brat!”

  I was getting ready to respond when I heard, “Hey, hey, hey. What’s going on Bunny Hops, and Miss Beru?”

  At the sound of Teddy’s voice, I broke down. “What’s wrong with me,” I said as he gathered me into his arms. “How could I talk to Beru like that?”

  I looked over at her and was shocked to see that Beru was crying too.

  “I’m so sorry, Beru. I didn’t mean a thing I said.”

  Beru nodded at me and smiled, but I could tell she was hurt, and it would take a while to regain her confidence. I wasn’t kidding when I asked what was wrong with me. It felt like some strange thought-worm was in my head for a minute making me feel as if hurting Beru was okay because she deserved it.

  “Beru knows what happened, don’t you Beru,” Teddy said reaching for Beru’s hand while holding me close to him. Beru hesitated but let him touch her and gather her into his side.

  “Come on,” Teddy said, walking us towards the door into the Castle. “Let’s get some food and drink into you, Kara, and maybe a bit of a rest, and then we’ll talk about it.”

  It was Teddy who took me to my room where a side table of food was waiting for me. Beru had begged off saying she had to take care of something, but her face gave her away. Maybe she understood what had happened, but it didn’t change the fact that I had hurt her feelings. Beru, who could face Abbadon’s monsters, was hurt by my words. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

  “What did you mean when you said that Beru knows what’s going on Teddy? We’ve teased each other before, but this was different. I didn’t feel like myself at all. What is happening?”

  “Think about what it felt like, Kara. You are going to need that information. Eat now. Get some rest. Aki will come to collect you in a bit. I’ll talk to Beru and make sure she’s okay.”

  “Thank you, Teddy,” I said and leaned back onto the bed. The food would have to wait. Rest first.

  *******

  Aki didn’t have to wake me. I woke up ravenous and had just finished devouring everything on my plate when Aki popped her head in the door and asked me if I was ready.

  I had so many questions to ask that I didn’t ask any. What was the point? Aki didn’t volunteer any either. Just before we reached the meeting room, Aki touched my arm and smiled at me. It was hard not to smile back at her, so we were both smiling when we entered the room filled with everyone who looked relieved that I was smiling.

  “Well played, Aki,” I pushed into her mind.

  “I thought you would like them to know that you are ready, Kara Beth,” Aki answered.

  She was right. Whatever had happened that morning was for my benefit. Not to hurt me, but to show me something. They would be worried about my reaction. A smile was the perfect way to let them know that I understood. Not that I understood anything except that it had been part of my training for whatever we were going to face next.

  Leif took my arm and led me to a seat beside him. His staff was leaning against the wall in the corner. It was looking innocent, if an inanimate object can look innocent.

  I heard someone ask, “Who says it’s inanimate?”

  I wasn’t sure who asked the question, but it was true. Who said it was inanimate? One thing I was learning was that nothing is inanimate.

  I looked around the table. I expected everyone to be there, but the Ginete, Teddy, Earl, Ariel, and the men from the village were missing.

  “Is this a planning meeting? Why isn’t everyone here?” I asked Leif.

  “They are busy doing other things right now. This meeting is for you, Kara,” Suzanne said. “This meeting is to bring you up to date with Abbadon’s latest weapon.”

  “Does it have a name yet?” I asked.

  “It does,” Suzanne answered. “Its name is Deadsweep.”

  “Because it leaves everything it touches dead?” I asked, thinking of the Shrieks and Shatterskin.

  “It does. But it doesn’t work at all like the Shrieks or Shatterskin. They were crude killing machines. The Deadsweep is much more subtle and effective.”

  The blood drained from my face, and I could see that my hands had turned white. I couldn’t see how anything could be more effective than Abbadon’s last monsters. No, they weren’t subtle. They were loud. They announced themselves. But to me, they had seemed to be very efficient killing machines.

  “How?”

  “After you fainted, what happened?” Aki asked.

  “I woke up.”

  “And did what?”

  Now I flushed. They knew that I had been rude to Beru. How did they know?

  “I treated Beru as if she was my enemy,” I whispered, so embarrassed I wanted to run out of the room.

  “Imagine that feeling one hundred times worse. What might you have done?” Niko asked.

  I looked around the room. Everyone was still waiting for my answer. Whatever I said, it would have to be true because my friends were trying to tell me something.

  “I think if that feeling was a hundred times worse I might have tried to kill her.”

  The room was still. It was as if a deadly secret was hanging in the air, and speaking it would bring it to light.

  When no one spoke, I asked, “Does this have something to do with what you are calling the Deadsweep?”

  Leif put his hand on my hand, and said, “I am afraid it does, Kara. I am sorry that we had to show you that way, but you needed to experience it for yourself.”

  “It was like something else was thinking for me and making me feel that way,” I said.

  It was Beru who whispered it. “That is the Deadsweep.”

  Deadsweep Eighteen

  “Okay,” I said, trying to keep things as light as possible in spite of what I had just heard. “You are telling me some kind of thought-worm got into my head and made me act that way? And you are calling it the Deadsweep?

  “There are just too many weird things about that. How could it get in my head? Why? This is Abbadon doing it? I don’t get it,” I finished. I was utterly frustrated and frightened at the same time.

  “Those are all great questions, Kara,” Leif said. “We don’t have all the answers yet. It’s one reason we kept you away for the last few months, to keep you safe from what you are calling the thought-worm, because we are not sure how people are getting infected with it.
”

  “Wait, that’s why you kept me away? I thought it was for me to learn to train by myself. And how could I have been safe? I was all by myself.” I paused, remembering that the Priscillas knew Berta and that Lady was always flying above me. “Was I all by myself?”

  “Good lord, sometimes you can be dense,” Pris said, pulling my hair. “Of course you weren’t. And yes, you were supposed to be training by yourself instead of waiting for other people to show you things.”

  “Did a pretty good job of it too,” Niko said, and Aki nodded in agreement.

  That took me by surprise. I felt myself tear up again. After that morning’s training session I thought I had been a complete failure.

  “No, you would have never made it through the morning if you hadn’t done well training by yourself the last few months,” Suzanne added, seeing my reaction.

  “As for being by yourself, are you serious?” Beru added. She might have understood what had happened in the training area that morning better than I did, but I could tell she was still upset with me. This thought-worm thing was scary. Even though I hadn’t meant to hurt her, I had damaged our friendship.

  “Do you think we would have left the village of Eiddwen, with your father, the King, and you, the future Queen in it, unprotected? Ever?”

  I silently shook my head, ashamed for not knowing. Ashamed for not being aware enough, or doubting my friends.

  No one spoke, letting the silence gather, waiting for me to snap out of it. I could feel what Beru called my pity party coming on. In so many ways I wanted to just put my head down on the table and go back to sleep. Let someone else be Princess. I was too stupid to be a ruler.

  Pris pulled my hair. “Cut it out!” she yelled as loud as she could.

  “Kara Beth, that thought process that takes you down doesn’t feel dangerous to you, but it is,” Sarah said. “It’s almost as dangerous as the evil thoughts you had this morning towards Beru.”

  Everyone nodded, and Aki took over. “If we are going to win this battle, defeat the Deadsweep, then the first thing to be aware of is what you are thinking—more than you have ever done before. None of us can let ourselves sink into depression, or despair, or the idea that we can’t do something or we aren’t good enough. It’s opening the door to what Abbadon is doing with Deadsweep.

  “We’ve talked about this so many times, Kara. What door, what channels do you have open to others? You have to monitor what you are listening to and communicating at all times. There isn’t any room for self-doubt. You, we, can’t afford it.

  “This affects all of us. We are all susceptible to these kinds of suggestions. That’s why, once again, we have to do this together. We have to watch each other for signs of infection.”

  I nodded, letting Sarah know that I had heard her, and then asked Leif, “So Abbadon planted that suggestion in my head this morning? The one where I was furious with Beru for no reason?”

  “No, we did,” Niko answered. “First we had to get you so exhausted you weren’t paying attention, and then we planted the suggestion in your head that Beru was your enemy. Beru knew what we were doing. She agreed to it.”

  Niko broke off and looked over at Beru before continuing, “And in spite of that, she reacted, even though she was fully aware that you didn’t know what had happened. You can see how dangerous this would be if it were worse, and people didn’t know what was happening to them.”

  “What about the scary thing Leif did? Was that part of the suggestion?” I asked.

  Leif answered this time, “Yes. We wanted you to use the ability to see the illusion and call it. You know me. You know I would never hurt you, so you were able to see through the hypnotic suggestion that I wanted to kill you.

  “However, it works the other way around too. Evil can masquerade as friendship producing the illusion that you are safe when you are in danger.”

  What Leif was saying was scaring me. The implications were staggering.

  “We have been monitoring the increased levels of violence that are being recorded around the Kingdom. We had thought that it was the residual sound waves from the Shrieks that was causing it. People acting out. Fighting between neighbors.

  “But even though there are no more Shrieks these outbreaks are occurring more and more. We have never had a problem with violence of any kind, so not only is it terrifying that it’s happening, but no one knows how to respond.”

  I thought about the police force in Kinver where before Abbadon the biggest problem they had was animals stuck in trees. That level of peace and harmony had existed throughout the entire Kingdom of Zerenity. Now that their peace was being disturbed by their own people, I could see how dealing with it would be overwhelming.

  “It’s like a disease that is sweeping through towns. But there is no way to know when someone has been infected with it until they act out. They don’t look like anything is wrong. They could be your friend or neighbor and then one minute they are not. They become an enemy bent on destroying. We’ve even had incidents of people killing each other,” Suzanne said.

  Now I understood the fear I felt.

  “There is no way to know?” I whispered.

  “Not that we have found. Yet. That’s what we have been working on.”

  Aki spoke up, “We think that the person gets taken over. But what we don’t know is if they are gone forever, or temporarily. They are like what the Native Americans in the Earth Realm called Skin Walkers. People are walking around in their skins, but not the people you know.”

  I thought of all the movies I had seen about Zombies or the movie Body Snatchers.

  “More like body snatchers,’ Professor Link said, reading my mind. “They don’t look scary. They seem like the same person. They aren’t weird beings walking around with half their face falling off. Nothing has changed, except for something that will trigger them into violence.

  “We have to find how they are being infected and stop that. And we have to turn off the trigger. Otherwise, we have people acting like suicide bombers walking among us, ready to destroy everything. Which is how we know this is Abbadon’s doing. It’s his goal. Win at all costs, including destroying everything that lives.”

  Deadsweep Nineteen

  When Leif stood up, we all understood that the meeting was over. I had no idea what to do. Everything I had heard made it seem as if we were up against impossible odds. However, I knew that I couldn’t let the news lead me back into depression or helplessness. But I could feel the urge to give in beating against the walls of my mind, trying to take over.

  No one said anything as they left the room. What was there to say? Leif gestured for me to stay, so I remained seated. He waited until everyone was gone, then sat back down, and swiveled in his chair to look at me.

  Leif in Erda looked almost like the Leif in the Earth dimension. It made sense because they are the same man. Aki had explained to me that not every dimension had a version of ourselves in them. Sometimes we were the only one. Like Suzanne, Leif, Sarah, and me. Maybe more of the people I knew were only found in Erda, but so far we were the ones I knew about.

  On the other hand, other versions of ourselves could be in dimensions no one had visited yet. There are so many dimensions it is probably impossible to know. Besides, I hadn’t met anyone who had traveled to more than Earth and Erda. However, I understood that there were people in Erda who had traveled extensively. I wondered who they were and if I would ever get to meet them.

  The difference was that in Erda, everything about Leif was a bit more vivid—his hair whiter and his eyes bluer. If Leif wasn’t smiling and you didn’t know him, you might think he was angry because his look was so focused.

  But as far as I knew, Leif rarely got angry. Instead, he got more focused. That morning’s encounter showed his ability to direct his energy to where he wanted i
t to go. It also made me think that I hardly knew Leif—at least how he existed in Erda.

  He wasn’t smiling when he swiveled in his chair to look at me. I was glad that I knew him well enough to know that look just meant he was focused, not angry. I don’t know why it took me so long to notice what Leif had reminded me of all along. The clue was probably that innocent-looking staff waiting in the corner of the room.

  One of my biggest problems is saying what comes to mind without filtering it first. So without thinking, I said, “Zut, Leif, are you a wizard? Like the ones in fairy tales, or in Harry Potter books?”

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wondered if it was a wise thing to ask someone if they were a wizard. Was it against the rules? Rude? Stupid?

  “None of those things, Hannah,” Leif said, resorting to my Earth name. Since I knew that Leif never said or did anything without a reason behind it, I thought that he was reminding me that I already knew him. There was nothing to fear from the Earth Leif, so, therefore, there was nothing to fear from the Erda Leif.

  When Leif smiled at me, I knew I was on track. That was reassuring.

  “But you still want an answer, don’t you?” Leif said.

  I nodded, all the thoughts of Deadsweep temporarily gone from my head.

  “I guess I look like a wizard, don’t I?” Leif asked.

  I waited.

  “Well,” he sighed. “I suppose that I am. However, even I am not sure all of what being a wizard means—still working that out. Just like you are working out what a princess is, and what a princess does. Perhaps we get to choose the role that we play inside this story in Erda, Kara Beth.

  “For now, there is something you must do. It’s the most important thing all of us need to do. Repair any rifts in our lives. And for you, right now that is working out what is going on between you and your friend, Beru. Instead of the physical riff where we went to find the Shrieks and Shatterskin, we have to find the mental and emotional rifts within ourselves and with our friends, and close them up. Heal them.