by Beca Lewis
A few minutes later, after wiping the tears off my face, I said, “Oh, I needed that!”
Leif nodded. “We all needed that. Laughter and joy is another weapon we have that Abbadon does not.”
We were still smiling as we left the planning room heading to where we needed to go. We were mentally adjusting to our next mission. We all had a different one, but each task would be working in harmony with the whole.
Niko, Zeid, and I were to free the villagers frozen in time and space.
Others were handling the mental virus called Deadsweep. There was a whole Kingdom to clean, but we knew how to do it now.
Reports of violence taking place in villages all over Zerenity had come in, but teams of Whistle Pigs, Ginete, and the goats were going to every one of them.
The Ginete and Whistle Pigs were using the same techniques that we had used at the schoolhouse. They brought with them the drones to test people, and technology that would disrupt the signals from Abbadon to the thought-worms and the sensors within them. The hardest part was stunning the infected without hurting them.
Since I couldn’t go with them, Pita was using a version of the sound signals that the Shrieks had used against us. Abbadon had provided us with that idea, and we were using it. It was a terrible weapon, but we weren’t using it that way. It was safer than gas and, using the correct decimals no one would suffer any damaging effects from it.
Once the team contained each village, Leif and Sarah would transport there and reverse any mental damage that the worms may have caused to the people. They were using the same idea on them that we were going to use to rescue the frozen villages.
On the individuals, there was always the chance that what they were doing would send them into insanity. Lock them into a place from which we could never rescue them. That’s why Leif and Sarah were doing it. They wanted to take full responsibility. In case something went wrong, it would be only their fault.
But Kinver was ours to rescue. However, before we did, we had to find the one person who could help us. The person who understood portals better than anyone else. Who had traveled back and forth between the Earth and Erda dimensions for years. Who had lived in both places without disrupting the time continuum in either one. We had to find Suzanne. That was the first step. We were going to Eiddwen.
As we headed to where the Sound Bubble was waiting for us, I asked the question everyone was thinking, “What if that village is frozen too?”
“It could be worse,” Niko said. “They could all be dead.”
No one said anything. Niko was right. They could be. I thought I had prepared for anything: tree worms, destroyed villages, or frozen villagers. But the one thing I hadn’t thought of was what we found.
It was worse than I could have imagined.
Deadsweep Fifty-Five
We smelled it before we saw it. Not the smell of worms. That would have been much better. The air was rancid, dense, and filled with ash and the smell of fire.
Afraid that it would alert the wrong people to our arrival, we had decided not to take the Sound Bubble. Instead, Zeid transported us back to the forest outside of Eiddwen. I couldn’t believe that only a week had passed since the day I decided to leave Eiddwen and walk back to the Castle.
It had only been a week since I had seen the silver trail and followed it out of the village where I found Cahir waiting at the edge of the forest.
He was waiting for us now. Even if I hadn’t smelled the smoke, I would have known something was terribly wrong. As calm as Cahir usually was, this time, he wasn’t. He was pacing back and forth and growled when he saw us arrive out of nowhere.
Did he think that what happened was our fault? Because of how many days it had taken for us to get here?
“Stay here,” Niko said to all of us.
No one obeyed. Ruta, Zeid, Cahir, and I walked behind Niko until we stopped on the hill that looked down onto the village below. The last time we had looked at this view together, Aki and Beru were with us. We had marveled at the crystal blue sky and thought how lucky we were to be together on such a beautiful day.
Now we had no idea what had happened to Aki, or if we could save Beru. And instead of a beautiful village, there was nothing. Just a black, burned out wasteland.
I fell to my knees and screamed. I screamed so loud I was sure the hawks circling in the sky overhead heard me. I screamed as I started running, calling out for my father, Berta, Suzanne, and Aki.
Niko and Zeid tried to grab me and stop me, but I ran the way that Beru had taught me. I breathed in the power of the earth; I reached out to the trees and let their energy flow to me. I ran faster than the wind. Even Cahir couldn’t stop me.
I ran until I reached the village and then the reality of what had happened stopped me. There was nothing left. Blackened beams jutted up into the sky. Large pieces of burnt wood littered the street. There was nothing. All the people I had met who had been so kind to me, were gone.
Was I responsible for this? Was it because this was our hometown? Did Abbadon hate us that much? I knew who had burned the village. I didn’t know how, but I knew that Abbadon was responsible. He was responsible for taking away my family’s home town, for the homes and lives of all the people who lived here.
I screamed and screamed until there was nothing left inside of me. Niko, Zeid, Ruta, and Cahir stood beside me, tears running down their faces. It was okay. I had screamed for them too.
When there was nothing left, I turned away, ready to leave, when Niko grabbed my arm.
“Do you give up this easily? Are you still just that little girl who returned from Earth? Have you not learned anything at all?”
I pulled my arm away and yelled, “How dare you! They are all gone. My father is dead. Abbadon won here. Don’t you get it? We lost. And now without Suzanne, we have lost Kinver too. What good did your training do here? None!”
Niko slapped me.
I started to slap him back, but Zeid caught my arm. I was so furious by then I was ready to hit Zeid and maybe kick Ruta, but I caught a glimpse of Cahir looking at me, and I realized what I was doing.
“Zut! Am I infected? Oh, my gods. I need to go back to the Castle and have Leif take this out of me.”
“Stop it, Kara Beth,” Zeid hissed. “You are not infected with anything except your own self-importance. Do you think all of us don’t feel what you are feeling? Grow up. Niko is right. Haven’t you learned anything?”
Seeing Zeid mad at me did something. I sat down on the road and put my head between my knees and cried.
I didn’t deserve it, but they waited for me, and when I was done crying I stood up and forced out the words, “So, you aren’t as upset as me. What am I missing?”
“We are upset, Kara, but you are right, not in the same way. Yes, the village is gone. But what is wrong with this picture? What do you see besides burned buildings?”
“Nothing,” I whined.
No one said anything. Then it dawned on me. “Wait, I don’t see any bodies. Wouldn’t there be bodies somewhere?”
Suddenly a whiff of hope flew through me. “If there are no bodies, where are the people?”
At that point having them frozen like the people in Kinver sounded pretty good compared to everyone dying in the fire.
Zeid nodded at the star I wore around my neck. I understood. I needed to see what was invisible to our regular sight.
Before I pressed it though I had a horrifying thought. I remembered using the star before and seeing hundreds of Shrieks surrounding us. What if I touched it now and saw millions of worms? Which was worse, seeing them or not seeing, or imagining them? It had to be imagining. I could almost feel them crawling on me as I thought about it.
At least I would be able to stop them if I knew they were there. Trembling I lifted my hand to the st
ar and pressed it. The world adjusted itself, and the picture I couldn’t see before appeared in front of me. No, the villagers weren’t frozen. They weren’t there at all.
While the vision lasted, I walked through the village, the black ashes coating my feet and legs. No walls were left standing, and seeing that blackness in 4D made the destruction a thousand times worse. But still, there was no sign of life.
With only a few minutes left before my sight changed back to 3D, I made it to where I thought my father’s house had been. I thought of Berta and how organized she was. Everything in place. She knew what was happening at all times. Did she know that the fire was coming and that Abbadon would target this village differently?
If she did, I asked myself, what would she have done? Standing in the hallway where I had hugged Berta goodbye, I looked down at the blackened floor and saw what Berta had done. And that’s when I knew where Aki, Suzanne, and Berta had taken the village.
Deadsweep Fifty-Six
“The trouble is, I have no idea how to get them back, or tell them to come home,” I said to Niko, Zeid, and Ruta.
They had seen me whoop in excitement, so they knew I had seen something, but they were still trying to follow what I was telling them.
“Back up, Kara,” Niko said. “Because you saw something that you believe Berta left for you, you think that the village is still here? Where?”
Niko spread his arms out taking in the blackened, ash-filled village. “Where would they be if they are here?”
“Well, they are not actually here. They are here and there. And I think I am going to need help to contact them.”
Of course, Professor Link had been listening into the conversation, so he asked, “What kind of help do you need?”
“Suzanne had once told me there are people in Erda who have traveled to more dimensions than just Earth and Erda. Dimension travelers. I need one or two of them, please. And I need them yesterday if you know what I mean.”
“Hum, okay, give me a minute and let me see if I can find you one,” Link said.
I turned to the three of them looking at me as if I had lost my mind, and said, “You know what I wish?”
“Besides, a dead Abbadon, Deadsweep eliminated from the face of the planet, everyone returned unharmed, and oh, maybe a shower?” Zeid said, pointing at my blackened state.
“Yes, besides that. I wish I had a clean place to sit. Like a rock.” Before I finished speaking, I sat down—on a rock that hadn’t been there the moment before.
“Wow,” Zeid said. “When did you figure out how to do that?”
“Not that long ago. I didn’t do anything. The rock was already here before I asked for it. But because I saw it during the 4D time, I could aim myself right above it and sit on it. I’m trying to make a point here. I think that is what is going on with the village. They are all still here. But not.
“I think that somehow one of them, or maybe all three, opened a giant portal and shoved everyone in there before the fire swept through the town. But I don’t think Suzanne opened the other end of the portal because she wants them all to stay in the Erda dimension. They are inside something that is an in-between place. Like a waiting room.”
“But how do you know this? Did you see them?” Zeid asked.
“No. That’s the thing. I don’t know how to move between dimensions. Suzanne pushed me through the portal to get to Erda. So I couldn’t see the people, but I did see something that made me think that what I am saying is true.”
“What?” Niko asked.
I pointed down to what used to be the floor of my father’s house. “Look closely. What do you see?”
I waited patiently while the three of them looked and looked. “Okay, cross your eyes or something. Expect to see it.”
“Zounds,” Niko said. “A silver thread… going up into the air and then it disappears.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Where do you think the other end of that silver thread goes?”
Link broke in just about the time everyone said, “Oh!”
“Found someone. Actually, I found two of them. Well, I didn’t find them, Pita did. He said they were old friends of his. Well, not friends so much as someone he drinks with, and that’s how he knew they were dimension travelers. All the stories they tell. Sorry, rambling. Not like me. Anyway, they are on their way to you now.”
I didn’t even have time to ask how they were arriving when Leif popped into view holding the hands of two ordinary looking people. I don’t know what I expected. Ghosts? These two looked so much like each other, I thought they might be siblings.
“Thought I would bring them to you,” Leif said. “I have had some experience traveling through the Earth to Erda portal, but these two youngsters seem to have been moving around for hundreds of years to many dimensions. Of course, since Abbadon had been active, all the portals are closed, so they claim to be a little rusty, but they know more than the rest of us.”
The two “young people” laughed. The young woman spoke up, “We’re not young, we just stopped our aging at twenty-five. We are both hundreds of Earth years old. I’m Anne and this is my twin brother, Garth. How can we help?”
I explained the situation to them. We thought the town was in the waiting room of a portal to somewhere. When I showed Anne and Garth the silver thread, they nodded at each other.
“Well, this should be easy. Since we have your permission, we can open the door to where the villagers are and let them all out. But do you want them to come out here in this?” Anne said waving her arm at the filth we were standing in.
“You can open the door anywhere?” When they nodded yes, I suggested the meadow.
The two of them held hands and vanished. A few minutes later we saw the strangest thing. Out in the middle of the meadow, people were stepping out of a hole in the air and onto the ground.
We started running, and we got there just in time to see Aki and Suzanne step out into the meadow. Right behind them was Berta. And with her was a man who looked like my father, except he was walking.
“You’re well,” I squealed and ran into his arms.
“About time, don’t you think,” he said.
I wanted to stay and find out everything, but we still had to free Kinver. We quickly caught Suzanne and Aki up with what we needed to do.
They both looked exhausted, especially Suzanne. For days they had to keep both doors of the portal closed while trying to keep the people from the village from freaking out. Everyone was tired and hungry. Although before stepping into the portal, Suzanne had them all bring food, water, and clothes, the food had run out, and they were low on water.
Now, seeing their village burned to the ground, most of the villagers started to cry. It had been a beautiful village, and it was gone. Abbadon had burned it for no reason at all other than for spite.
However, there was some good news. Aki said that there had been no worms when they arrived. Perhaps Abbadon didn’t want to bother with slow death for the village his brother called home. He wanted immediate and painful deaths for everyone.
What Abbadon hadn’t counted on was Suzanne being there. He would be disappointed to discover the townspeople had survived and would rebuild.
“I’m going to stay here,” Aki said. “We need to get food and water and shelter for the villagers. Berta, your father, and I can handle this, Kara. The rest of you go take care of Kinver.”
“May we help?” Anne and Garth asked. Suzanne nodded. “I’m going to need help. From what you have told me, Kara Beth, Abbadon didn’t just put them into a portal, he has frozen them in time and space. If we make a mistake, it could instantly kill them all.”
Deadsweep Fifty-Seven
Leif took us to Kinver. He waved his staff over our little group and the next thing we knew we were standing back on the road
we had been on the day before.
“That’s a wizard for you,” Zeid whispered to me. “I was exhausted after moving only four of us, and he just moved all of us with a flick of his wrist.”
It was true. Leif looked as if nothing had happened, except maybe a brief stroll to the other side of a room.
“That’s a pretty good description of it,” Leif said. “It is like a stroll to the other side of a room.”
“Do you need to wave the staff to make it happen?” I asked. “Or is that just theater.”
Leif laughed. “You decide. I need to get back to helping restore the infected. We can talk about that later.”
I thought the question was kind of like asking me if I believed there was a Santa Claus. No. And then yes. Depended on how one saw the idea of it.
As soon as we arrived, the twins went into a huddle with Suzanne.
That left Zeid, Niko, and I waiting for instructions. Waiting was hard. I wanted to be doing something, anything. But locked portals and villages that were frozen in time and space was not something my magic could fix, at least not without help.
Usually, I would hug Cahir to calm myself down, but Cahir wasn’t with us. He refused to be transported around by anyone, even a wizard. So I had sent him off to check on his family since there wasn’t anything he could do at Kinver
“Go now,” I had whispered to him, “But don’t stay long. We have to go get Abbadon.”
He hadn’t wasted a moment. He gave me a chance to give him a brief hug and then he ran off towards his home. I knew he would meet me back at the Castle once he had checked on his family.
Family. These people were my family. Kinver was a home for me. It was where I could be Hannah. Not Princess Kara Beth. Just a beloved daughter. I needed them back.
