Center of the Universe (Only the Inevitable Book 1)

by N E Riggs

  But the monster tumbled to the ground in a spray of blood, its head flopping half-off, clearly dead.

  “I did it!” David threw his hands into the air and turned to Cethon.

  Cethon shot again, killing another griffin. She glanced towards David, and her eyes widened. “No!” She grabbed David, pulling him down to the ground. David blinked stupidly, not understanding. He continued to stare as Cethon screamed in pain, and blood spurted down at David.

  They hit the ground, Cethon on top of David. Then he could see the last monster right above them. It raised a massive paw, gleaming red drops falling from its claws.

  David let out a wordless scream. There was a flash of gold, and suddenly Bramira appeared from behind the monster, boomeranging back towards David. The monster raised its head just in time for Bramira to cut through its neck. David yanked Cethon out of the way before its body crushed them. Bramira fell to the ground to his left, but he didn’t pay it any attention.

  Cethon lay on the ground, bleeding heavily, breath harsh. Her eyes were closed against the pain. She’d saved his life again. “Cethon?” His voice shook.

  Somehow, she smiled. “Don’t feel guilty. I came here tonight knowing I would die.” She had to stop, coughing up blood. She winced, continuing, “Whatever you do, do not fall in love. You have to—” she cut off in another cough.

  Suddenly the clearing was enveloped in a soft, blue light. David stared, jaw hanging open. Just before him stood a large doorway, wreathed in blue light. On the other side stood a group of people, each holding different weapons and wearing heavy, brown jackets. Beyond the people, he could see impossibly tall towers, and a clear blue sky.

  “Go!” said the man in the front, gesturing towards David. The people with him ran through the glowing doorway. David watched as they grabbed the bodies of the monsters and dragged them back with them through the doorway. One man grabbed David’s arm and pulled him across the door. There was a faint tingle as they crossed it.

  “What—” David finally managed when they reached the other side. It was the middle of the day here and too warm for late fall. The man ignored him, dragging him further from the door. David turned to see two men gently carrying Cethon across. She wasn’t moving. She was dead, he realized, a lump forming in his throat.

  Less than a minute passed, and all the monsters had been pulled through the doorway. Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the doorway vanished. David jumped, realizing that, wherever he was, he’d just been stranded here.

  He saw the first man holding Bramira, staring at it closely. The weapon no longer glowed. “That’s mine,” he said without thinking.

  The black man looked up, frowning. He continued to carefully finger Bramira. “What happened to Cardinal Jing?” he asked.

  David blinked and trembled. The man who’d dragged him here finally let go of his arm, and David sank to the ground. “What happened?” he asked weakly. “Where is this? Who are you?”

  The first man’s expression softened. He stepped over and placed a hand on David’s shoulder. His grip was strong but kind. “I am Rolan Duran, Steward of the sixth traditional division. Welcome to Bantong, the center world, Aeons’s world.”

  2

  The World of Aeons

  A large truck floated up the street, suspended a foot or so off the ground. It landed, the back flap falling open. The people started to pile the dead griffins inside, looking as calm as if they did this every day. David turned, gaping at everything. He’d never seen such a mishmash of ancient history and crazy sci-fi. Some of the people – who he assumed were some manner of warriors – carried swords or spears. Now that he could see their brown jackets more closely, he noticed how heavy and stiff the material was – kevlar, he guessed, or something similar. Most of the uniforms were plain brown, but some of the warriors had black accents on their jackets, and Rolan had white accents. Rolan had called himself a Steward – must be some sort of rank. Despite the swords, all of the people had futuristic guns like Cethon, and David wondered if they fired lasers like Cethon’s had. Rolan tapped a metal circle clipped on his ear lobe and started speaking. Bluetooth too? David wondered.

  He seemed to be in a residential area. The houses along each side of the street were as mismatched as the people. Some looked like modern buildings that David wouldn’t be surprised to find at home. Another was built entirely of wood with a thatched roof. The house beside that was abode style, the red slates of the roof glinting dully in the sunlight. A house on the other side of the street looked vaguely Asian, with sliding paper doors and a gate around it. Further down the block stood a house that was made of some strange, grayish, semi-transparent material. There were no people in sight save the ones who’d greeted him.

  Calmly, he pushed back his sleeve and pinched his arm, hard. Then he winced in pain; it seemed he wasn’t dreaming.

  He glanced behind him. The man who’d pulled him through the doorway still stood beside him. He caught David’s look and flashed a quick, mischievous smile. He had dark hair and a wiry build, and he carried a sword and a gun.

  David scowled and clambered to his feet. There was blood and dirt on his clothes. His whole body ached. His scowl turned fiercer. “Why did you bring me here?” he asked.

  The man raised an eyebrow. “After everything you saw? How could we not?” David noticed his mouth movements didn’t match his words – Rolan’s hadn’t either.

  David fisted his hands. “You kidnapped me. You took me against my will to— to wherever this is. After I nearly got killed! And what are you going to do with Cethon! She saved me.” He’d lost track of Cethon’s body and couldn’t see it now. He swallowed, feeling even more lost and alone. “And— and— and that’s mine!” he cried, seeing that Rolan still held Bramira.

  Rolan tapped his ear-piece and stopped talking. To David’s surprise, he handed him Bramira without any argument. As soon as it was in David’s hand again, it resumed glowing. “Let me handle him, Alosh,” Rolan said to the man. Alosh nodded and turned to join the other warriors. To David, Rolan said, “I know you must be confused. Don’t worry, you’re not the first person to come to Bantong by accident. I’ve sent for a Lost Priest to explain things to you.”

  “I didn’t come here by accident,” David said. “Alosh dragged me here through that weird doorway thingy. What is this, Narnia? I thought you needed a closet to get there.”

  “That was a gateway,” Rolan said, nodding at where the blue doorway had stood. “They connect the different worlds to Bantong – that’s this world. Sometimes creatures from other worlds, more violent worlds, cross gateways. We Sword Priests,” he gestured to himself and his associates, “exist to fight these creatures. Cardinal Jing was a Sword Priest as well,” he added more softly. “Don’t worry. She will be forever revered. Even now she fights alongside the Yesterlords.”

  The last of the griffins had been dumped in the truck. The back hatch raised, closing slowly, and the truck lifted straight up then flew off. It hovered about a foot off the ground again. No smoke or exhaust came off it. David watched until it turned a corner, passing out of sight. Bantong had griffins, dump trucks, and swordsmen with bluetooth. Maybe if he got royally drunk, it would all start to make sense.

  “I’m sorry we had to drag you here, but Alosh was right. We had no choice,” Rolan said. “After you saw the creatures, and Cardinal Jing, and the gateway… Well, we had to bring you here.”

  “Can I go back?” David asked, staring at where the gateway had been. There was nothing there now but an empty street.

  Rolan winced. “That’s a bit more complicated. I’ll let the Lost Priest explain it to you. But,” he added, looking at Bramira, “I wonder if you’ll want to go home. Fighting otherworldly creatures alongside a Cardinal, wielding a legendary weapon...” He shook his head. “I think you belong here.”

  David thought of his life back home, a life that had been going nowhere. He’d had no purpose, no job, no family, and few prospects for the future. It hadn’t b
een much of a life, but damn it, it had been his life. He shook his head. “I want to go home. As soon as possible.”

  A car turned down the street, floating above the ground just as the dump truck had. It was ancient, straight out of the twenties – there was no roof, and it chugged along very slowly. It had no wheels and the body shone as if it had just been washed. David eyed it closely, admiring. A woman merrily waved from behind the steering wheel. “Ah, she’s here already,” Rolan said, relieved.

  The woman parked the car a short distance away from David and Rolan and hopped out. She had a blond braid and bright blue eyes – David stared at her for a long moment, admiring her slim curves. She wore a similar outfit to the Sword Priests, though her brown jacket was tighter and had a high collar and didn’t look as stiff. David thought she’d fit right in on Earth. Assuming of course he wasn’t still on Earth and having the most amazing beer-fueled hallucination. She nodded to Rolan and said, “Thank you for waiting, Steward Duran.” Her eyes lit up at the sight of David, and she hurried over to him. She clasped both his forearms and held on for maybe three seconds before letting go. “Welcome to Bantong,” she said. Her voice wasn’t synced up, and David no longer felt surprised by it. “I am Sister Brigid Dana, your Lost Priest. You must be horribly confused, but don’t worry, I’ll sort you out.” She grabbed David by the elbow and pulled him towards the car. “We get lots of travelers, and some of them are a lot worse off than you. You’ll settle in, no problem. Now let’s go to Kumarkan!” She pushed him up into the passenger seat of the car.

  David turned to stare back at the spot where he’d appeared in this mad place. Rolan raised three fingers on each hand, folding in his thumb and pinky. David waved back. He hoped he’d see Rolan again. He’d seemed almost sane. Brigid sat next to him in the car and started it. David couldn’t hear a motor, and he wondered what powered the car – maybe it was electric. Or, considering where he was and that the car flew, maybe he should just assume it was magic. Chalking everything up to magic made him feel better.

  As she drove – flew? David wasn’t sure which word he should use – through the streets, Brigid chatted nonstop. “I heard you met Cardinal Jing,” she said. “You’re very lucky, you know. I never had the chance to meet her, of course. Regular priests like me never get to meet cardinals. She was the youngest person to become Sword Cardinal in centuries, you know. She liberated the people of Selsey and single-handedly killed a dragon in Buyan. An amazing woman, truly amazing.” She turned the corner onto a busier street. David gaped around him, only half-hearing Brigid’s prattle.

  The other cars on the street were as varied as the houses were. He saw cars that wouldn’t have looked out of place back home, except for the flying bit. There were sports cars, old-fashioned cars like Brigid’s, cars that looked like they should have horses pulling them they were so out-of-date, and shiny, flashy affairs that didn’t seem to have a straight line anywhere.

  People walked along this street, and they were just as random as everything else. He saw a man dressed in furs and leathers, a woman with a dress that could have been from a Renaissance Faire, a man in a suit modern, a woman with a bikini that barely covered anything – David stared at her for some time – and a couple in green, shiny, form-fitting clothes. The people wandered in and out of shops, carried bags, chatted into thin air.

  “There are Roman ladies with laptops,” he said as they passed what looked like a coffee shop. He laughed, although it had a slightly hysterical edge. “Why the hell not?”

  Brigid laughed too. “Every world is different. We’re in Gimoki, so there’s lots of travelers about. Some worlds have a great deal of technology, others less. When people come here, they don’t just abandon everything from their homes. At the same time, they quickly learn to adapt to many of the comforts and conveniences of modern life.”

  Wouldn’t want to leave behind a nice toga, he thought. “Are they trapped here too?” He saw a couple with a little boy. They looked straight out of a Dickens story, but the parents were smiling and the little boy was laughing freely. There were also wearing tennis shoes, but he supposed this wasn’t the place to go looking for historical accuracy.

  “Some are,” Brigid said, and for the first time her voice wasn’t perky. “Bantong is connected to the other worlds by gateways, like the one you came through. Some gateways stay open all the time, and people can freely cross between here and their own world. Some gateways open and close, but at regular, predictable intervals. These days, most gateways aren’t very stable. They stay open for a minute or two, then close, before opening again for a short time. After that, it’s hard to say when they might appear again. Even the Passion Priests can’t predict gateways with one hundred percent accuracy. You’ve never heard of other worlds before?”

  David considered that. There were lots of fairy tales about different worlds and crazy people raving about getting probed by aliens. He wondered if that counted. He hadn’t seen any probing equipment yet. “Not really,” he said. “I mean, no one at home would seriously believe in other worlds.”

  Brigid winced. “Then it’s likely the gateway that connects to your world isn’t very stable.” Her voice brightened again. “But maybe not. When we get to my office, I’ll look it up for you.”

  “Thanks,” David said.

  “Just doing my job.” Brigid turned another corner and pointed ahead. “Those are stable gateways. The second on the right will take us to Kumarkan.”

  David gaped. His jaw already hurt he was doing that so much. Down the road a little bit, with cars disappearing through them and coming out from the other side, stood twenty huge gateways, each easily thirty feet across. The edges were blue, just like the one he’d come through. The cars flew along, each going through different gateways in an orderly manner. He could see through to the other side of the gateways, but most just showed other roads.

  “Is Kumarkan another world too?” he asked as Brigid veered right through traffic.

  “No, it’s one of the districts here on Bantong, part of Pardis. But it’s on the far other side of the world. It’d take hours to drive there. Don’t worry. The gateways that go from one place to another in Bantong are perfectly stable.”

  “I see,” David said, though he didn’t. He saw it was night on the other side of the gateway to Kumarkan. Then the car went through the gateway. David thought he felt a faint tingle as they went through, but maybe that was just his imagination. As if this place needed his imagination to give it spice.

  It had been the middle of the day and quite warm, but it was chilly in Kumarkan. David shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, glad he still had his jacket on. Huge, fully-lit buildings surrounded the car. They stretched far into the sky, higher than any sky scrapper David was used to. He couldn’t wait to see it during the day. Glancing back, he saw many other gateways alongside the one they’d gone through.

  Brigid drove inside a parking garage in a few minutes. It was quite full, and she had to search for many minutes before finding a spot. It looked like any parking garage on Earth, if cleaner and with higher roof clearance, which David found comforting. Leaving the car, they walked until they found a bank of elevators and David boggled at the number of buttons. Brigid hit 29-EG, and the doors closed.

  The elevator rose up, then paused and started moving to the left. David’s jaw dropped as the elevator changed directions twice more before the doors opened again. He could barely feel the elevator moving.

  “Here we are,” Brigid said cheerfully. She led him out into a well-lit hallway with faded green carpeting and a poster on the wall that read, ‘Welcome to Bantong!’

  “It’s a good thing you speak English,” David said, staring at the sign.

  “Oh, we don’t,” Brigid said, leading him down the hallway. There were offices on both sides, most of which were empty. Through the window in one, David saw two people with purple skin, horns and clothing that looked like it was made out of scales. He had to stop and stare as the man behi
nd the desk, who looked refreshingly normal and who was dressed identically to Brigid, pointed things out to the purple couple on a white board. While he muttered about purple people eaters, Brigid grabbed his arm and pulled him away, saying, “Don’t stare at them. It’s rude. Some worlds like body modification.

  “Like I was saying, I don’t speak English,” she continued. “You’ve got a translator. See, I have one too.” She pointed to the metal circle attached to her temple. “Right now, I’m speaking Bantonan, but you’ll hear it as your native language – English, was it? Unfortunately, the only way I can understand you is if I wear one too. Every priest on Bantong has one, as do most of the lay people. And we give them out to travelers like yourself.”

  David rubbed a finger across the metal. Before she’d given it to him, he hadn’t understood Cethon. “Is that why you look badly dubbed?”

  She laughed. “Yes, at first. If you stay here a long time, your brain will gradually adapt to Bantonan, and we won’t seem badly synced anymore. Give it a month or so, and you’ll start hearing our slang and expressions, rather than equivalent versions.”

  “Okay,” David said, only understanding half of that. Half was pretty good for this place. “Hope I don’t have to wait a month for your slang – no offense.”

  “None taken.” They were near the end of the hallway when Brigid finally stopped at one of the doors. Then she frowned, looking David over. “You might want to get cleaned up first.”

  David looked down at himself. Dried blood and dirt covered his jacket and jeans and shoes. Not as much as he’d thought before, but still a lot. He made a face. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

  Brigid stepped inside the office and opened a closet. She pulled out a loose, fluffy white bathrobe, a towel, and a basket containing shampoo, soap, a hair brush, a tooth brush, tooth paste, deodorant, shaving cream, and a razor. David raised an eyebrow at the sight. Apparently having people show up in a state was common. She led him the rest of the way down the hallway to a large bathroom with a shower.