by M. L. Ryan
Alex, Tannis, Sebastian, and I were summoned to a meeting by the queen. When we arrived at the relatively small, office-like room, she was sitting at the head of the large table flanked on one side by Alex’s father and on the other by one of the generals. The guards posted at the door pulled it shut once we entered and remained outside. Obviously, whatever this was about was meant for our ears only, and that did not bode well. Rexa revealed the heads of the other kingdoms had decided to try to negotiate with Keem, as there seemed to be no way to fight him. I knew it had to be ripping her apart inside, yet her façade of relaxed confidence never wavered. I supposed that Grace Under Pressure was likely a required course in queen school.
Alex and Tannis didn’t take the news well. Tannis tried to argue with her mother, but was silenced mid-objection by a reproachful stare that would have made anyone else likely crap in their pants. Fortunately for those in the room, Tannis only glowered. Alex didn’t say anything at first, until he reminded Rexa that the deadline had yet to pass and urged her to wait until the last minute to surrender to Keem.
“Alexander, this is not my decision. The Glyzimutitch Zolmere has already voted. However, they too agree to wait until we have no other choice. Unfortunately, I fear that time is growing ever closer. We are running out of options.” For the first time, I detected a slight quaver in her voice. “In the meantime, we are ordering all citizens living in low-lying areas to evacuate.” She glanced at her children and then turned to regard me. After a moment, she said, “Hailey, you probably know most Courso have no belief in a supreme being that guides the universe.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Alex had explained that because everyone knew one’s spirit survived even without a body, people in his dimension had little need for explanations for existence. That piece of knowledge was what prompted Sebastian to attempt the spiritual transference that trapped him in my Kindle reader and ultimately in me. It always seemed to me that religion was a means to explain the unexplainable. If you didn’t have any context for the sun setting each day, you were likely to come up with some mystical answer, and I wondered if the lack of religiosity here related to the everyday use of magic.
The queen continued with her questions. “But humans are religious, is that correct?”
“Well, most are, I suppose.”
“If you are one that believes, then please pray for divine intervention. We can use all the help we can get.”
Luckily, she looked away and began speaking to someone else before I had to respond. I didn’t have the heart to tell her my relationship with God had been pretty rocky, and my appeals were likely to fall on deaf ears. If, in fact, God had ears. Or any body parts, for that matter, because I had no idea. I could relate to her sentiment, though. If God existed and provided a little divine intervention, that was great. If not, you were no worse off than before.
Now that we’d heard the bad—but not entirely unexpected—news, we were excused. Yep, doom and gloom, bye-bye. One would think, given the gravity of her pronouncement, the queen would want to have more of a dialogue concerning the ramifications of the end of the world as they knew it. In my family, deciding something as mundane as what time to serve Thanksgiving dinner would elicit a more animated confab than what Alex’s mother just laid on us.
None of us had any appetite, but we hadn’t eaten for hours and weren’t likely to come up with some stupendous solution to our predicament with low blood sugar. On the way to find food, we stopped and grabbed Ulut. We planned to fix our own grub, but the staff reacted so poorly to the request that we let them prepare the meal. It wasn’t clear if their dismay was a result of not wanting workplace boundaries breeched, or if they couldn’t stand the idea of anyone messing up the spotless kitchen. Probably a little of both, but the rapidly concocted selection of open-faced sandwiches and salads was way tastier than anything we might have slapped together.
There wasn’t much to say, and we nibbled our food in silence. Eventually, Tannis asked Ulut about life in Dekankara, but I didn’t pay much attention to the details. All I could focus on was how we’d failed miserably. I was so sure we’d figure out how to stop Keem. My glass-half-full attitude was probably just wishful thinking because now that I really analyzed the facts, there was no good reason for my optimism. After a month of investigation, we weren’t much closer to thwarting a dimensional take-over than at the outset. Even our dream-state sting operation was kind of a bust.
I glanced at the window over the huge, metal sink across the room. Growing up in a place where the sun shines almost three hundred days a year, I enjoyed the occasional rainy day, but this was ridiculous. The storm showed no sign of letting up, and the dreariness added to my foul mood.
“Maybe instead of drowning us, Keem wants to overwhelm us with Seasonal Affective Disorder,” I complained.
Tannis and Ulut glanced around warily. “What is that?” Tannis asked, scowling.
Sebastian answered for me. “Humans get depressed when they don’t get enough exposure to sunlight. It is a common disorder during the time of year when daylight hours are shorter.”
Ulut inclined his head. “Why would Keem do that?”
“He wouldn’t,” I said with a dejected sigh. “I was joking.”
“That doesn’t seem that funny,” he remarked, brow furrowed with confusion. Tannis shrugged, apparently similarly baffled by my sarcasm.
“It wasn’t meant to be funny. I was being facetious.”
“I found it quite amusing,” Sebastian quipped. “You see, she was using absurdity as a comedic device. No one would ever try to conquer by despondence.”
Great. Now someone with the sense of humor of a dung beetle was explaining how amusing I was. To make matters worse, Tannis’ unconvincing chortle revealed she still didn’t get it, but was nice enough to try to make me think she had. Not that I didn’t appreciate the effort, but I felt a little guilty she was working so hard to make me less uncomfortable. My mother would be so proud.
Sebastian continued to detail the impracticalities of psychological conquest on an educated populace such as Alenquai, and I had to dig my fingernails into my palms to keep from screaming at him. Normally, Sebastian’s long-winded, esoteric rants were only moderately annoying. Today my stress level was already off the charts and listening to him drone on was agonizing. Plus, I was trying to prove to Sebastian that I was capable of expressing myself without swearing like a sailor. Telling him, as I so desperately wanted, to “shut the fuck up” was kind of counterproductive. Tannis had the good sense to claim a prior commitment to allow for her exit. Take me with you, I mouthed as she got up from the table. No such luck, she slipped out alone. Damn, I thought, I guess it’s every woman for herself.
It was getting harder to keep my pent-up anxiety in check, so I tuned back into Sebastian’s soliloquy in search of something—anything—I could use to change the subject before losing it completely. As he regaled Ulut with a description of how only once one has mastered a language can jokes be understood, I saw my opening.
“Speaking of languages,” I directed toward Ulut, “how is it you speak the English language so well?”
Eyes glistening with obvious relief that I interrupted, Ulut answered quickly. “There are thousands of different languages in Dekankara. I guess when you are exposed to many while growing up, your brain adapts to learning new ones fast. With nothing much to do for all those months as a dog except listen, I picked it up rather quickly. Not as easily as Courso; I’m almost fluent now after only a few weeks.”
“Geez. My grasp of Courso is still at the baby-talk stage.”
Sebastian snickered. “Perhaps a bit more colorful than the average infant, my dear.”
I was rather adept at memorizing profanity. If only Sebastian knew how I’d held my tongue just moments before. Regardless of my previous restraint, I had to make a request. “Teach me a swear word, Ulut.”
He tilted his head in thought. “Brixnil ech,” he said finally.
“Brixnil ech,” I
repeated. Easy enough. “What does it mean?”
“Fuck an egg.”
Alex laughed. “An egg? Why would anyone have sex with an egg?”
“Eggs are quite precious where I come from,” Ulut explained. “Only the very wealthy eat them. It is considered quite an insult to accuse someone of desecrating one.”
Alex regarded the Dekankaran. “Interesting. Is there some symbolism involved with egg-shaped items?”
“Not really, but many find the shape appealing. Why do you ask?”
“Keem’s ‘gift’ to Hailey was a stone egg. I just wondered if there was some hidden meaning.”
Ulut’s body stiffened. “Keem gave Hailey a stone?”
“Yes, blue with white veining,” I said, curiosity now peaked. “What’s up?”
“Tell me everything you know about it.”
I’d never seen Ulut so focused before, and his sudden intensity put me on edge. “It was in my hand when I woke up after one of Keem’s dream meetings.”
Sebastian explained, “It contained elements not known in either of the other two dimensions. We surmised it was provided as proof Dekankara exists.”
“Anything else?” Ulut prompted.
Another detail popped into my head. “It felt warm, but only to me.”
Ulut closed his eyes. “Please tell me the stone is here.”
“No,” Alex conceded, “the scientists were concerned it might aid Keem in some way and wanted it as far from Hailey as possible.” Ulut’s lids blinked open and disappointment etched across his face. Alex quickly added, “But I can have it here within the hour.”
Now Ulut’s eyes shone with something I hadn’t seen before—hope.
“I need to examine it as soon as it arrives. If it is what I think it is, our luck may have changed for the better.”
24
Alex nodded and hurried off to arrange for the egg to be delivered. Sebastian and I tried to get more details from Ulut, but he was adamant about waiting until Alex returned before explaining how the stone might be important. I’d never been good at delaying gratification, so it was fortunate that Alex was back in a few minutes.
Emphasizing my impatience, I wasted no time in growling out, “Okay, we are all here now—what might this stone egg be?”
“It’s not easy to break the bonds of reality and the subconscious,” Ulut began. “In order for Keem to transfer a physical object within a dream, he’d have to imbue it with a fair amount of magic. If he used enough, the magical signature will persist and we might be able to manipulate it to determine where Keem is.”
Not being up on the ins and outs of arcane imbuing, I was confused. “Like a homing device?”
“Sort of. I believe the stone is warm because it reverberates with Keem’s magic. Or more precisely, a mirror image of his magic. I’ve tracked some people that way in Dekankara.”
Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “Is it common for the magically inclined in your dimension to invade the dreams of others and leave gifts?”
“No, but the type of people I’m usually hired to find often use their power to enhance objects. Like making a cheap trinket appear to be a more expensive heirloom to trick someone into paying more than it’s really worth. If they’ve poured enough of themselves into the ruse, the leftover magic can be used to identify the perpetrator.”
“So how will that help us?” Alex asked. “We don’t need to identify Keem—we just need to find him.”
“When I’ve use this technique, I’ve been surrounded by many magically inclined people and it is only useful as a means to prove the crime.” A small smile curved upon Ulut’s lips. “But as far as I know, he and I are the only Dekankarans in this dimension. In theory, it should be possible to match the signature in the egg with Keem’s.”
“Of course,” Sebastian marveled. “Without all the interference, Keem’s signature and the one he left in the egg will act much like a magnet, attracted to its opposite pole.”
“Yes. As long as the egg and Keem are close enough, the egg will be attracted to its source magic.”
Alex cocked one eyebrow. “Just how close is close?”
Ulut considered the question. “I’ll have a better idea when I actually see the stone, but I’d imagine somewhere around five miles or so.”
“That’s a fairly small area given the size of Coursodon,” Alex countered.
“Yes,” I chimed in, “but we can narrow the search area based on the sites here that correspond to the portals Keem used in the human dimension. If he’s within five miles, we’ll have him.”
Sebastian snorted. “If he’s within five miles.”
“Hey, this is more than we had an hour ago,” I grumbled.
“Oh, I whole heartedly agree, my dear. I just wanted to point out potential weaknesses in this plan.”
Leave it to Sebastian to state the obvious and bring down the room at the same time. He was right, though. It was a big if.
“Actually,” Ulut interrupted, “I believe if Hailey accompanies us, the range will be greatly expanded.”
The muscles in Alex’s jaw clenched in response to that bit of news. “What does her presence have to do with it?”
“The stone was given to her in a dream. From what I understand about dream visits, which I admit is somewhat limited, any physical exchanges must be adjusted to both the giver and receiver. That’s why only Hailey can feel its warmth. I have a hunch that when in close proximity to both Hailey and Keem, the egg will vibrate somewhere between both their resonance frequencies.”
“Are we going to sway uncontrollably like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge?” I wondered aloud.
Ulut blinked and then looked at me like I was nuts. “I don’t understand the question,” he said finally.
I forgot he wouldn’t have heard about a bridge collapse in the human dimension in the 1940s. “Structures can vibrate, you know, because of wind or traffic. And every structure has its own resonance frequency where even small forces can produce large oscillations as the system stores more and more energy. When the stored energy exceeds the object’s load limit, it loses structural integrity.”
Ulut turned to Sebastian. “Is she speaking English?”
“You learn this in beginning physics,” I continued. “The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed on a windy day because it vibrated at its resonance frequency. They have film of it. It was flapping around and twisting until it fell into the river.”
“Be that as it may, there is no chance of your own… structural collapse.”
I made a mental note to avoid joking around Ulut, at least until he mastered more of the subtleties of human languages. “I know, I was kidding. And Sebastian, please don’t give another lecture on the use of hyperbole as humor.”
Sebastian raised one eyebrow. “My dear, I think your lecture was punishment enough.”
“Let’s get back to the subject at hand,” Alex admonished before I had a chance to respond. “Ulut, how sure are you that Hailey needs to be there?”
“I’m not sure at all. Like I said, I’m no expert, but if I’m right, it should be easier to find Keem.”
“And if you are wrong, Hailey will be placed in unnecessary danger.”
Sebastian placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Much as I detest putting Hailey in harm’s way, there is evidence here in Courso of similar magical enhancements. I think Ulut’s reasoning is sound.”
Alex glared at Sebastian and stepped toward Ulut. “How is it a man without significant magic knows so much about it?”
Not to be outdone, Ulut closed the small gap between them and poked Alex in the chest with his finger. “Where I’m from, those with magic usually use it to exploit those without it. I’ve found the more I know about the ways magic can be used against me, the more likely I am to stay alive.”
Sebastian quickly got between them and used his body to keep them apart. “When we are done saving the world, you two can beat each other senseless. I may even help. Until then, please control yourselves.
There are more important concerns right now than your posturing.” Alex mumbled something in response that I couldn’t quite make out, but he did relax his posture. Men.
Thankfully, the tension was further diffused when Cortez arrived with a small, metal box. He handed it to Alex, who flipped open the hinged lid to reveal the stone egg, sort of nestled within a white, satiny fabric lining. The packaging brought to mind how an engagement ring from a fancy jewelry store might be presented, but even from ten feet away, I felt the electric tingle of magical protection emanating from the case. Alex regarded the boxed stone for a moment before offering it to Ulut.
“It doesn’t feel warm,” Ulut remarked as he plucked out the egg, “But I can feel a bit of energy.” He moved a few feet until he stood next to me. “It’s stronger the closer I get to Hailey,” he announced, and a satisfied smile blossomed across his face. “This just might work.”
Everyone started to grin, and Alex actually looked at Ulut with something other than hostility. Not exactly trust or even moderate acceptance, but a definite improvement over the last few minutes.
“Hey, if Keem can be located this way, why would he have given me the egg in the first place?” I asked. “He’s a smart guy, and this seems like a big slip up.”
“But you forget, Hailey, he believes he is the only Dekankaran in this dimension. He’d never worry anyone here would figure out what could be done with the egg on their own.”
Bolstered by the newfound sense of optimism, Cortez, Alex, and Sebastian began planning the logistics of our scouting mission. Xyzok operatives in other parts of the human dimension had found no evidence of grisly, Keem-themed killings beyond the sites we’d already identified. That suggested wherever Keem was hiding, it was most likely not in any of the other kingdoms or their human dimensional equivalents. At least we had a limited search area. We decided to start at the site of the most recent event, and if nothing was found there, we’d move on through the other murder sites in reverse chronological order. That meant we’d start in Idaho and end up in Iowa.
