by S. Y. Lee
When he finished his count, Alister took a coin and flicked it with the thumb of his other hand at one of the guards, who had to reach to the side to catch it. The look on the guard’s face was a mixture of astonishment and delight as he looked at the shiny object he had caught. Alister repeated the action with every guard until all of them were marveling at the gold coins in their hands.
“Well?” Alister asked.
The guard who had been doing the questioning took a while to find his tongue. “You, uh, you, uh, you may pass,” he stuttered.
Chapter 80
Qasper was back, although this time they huddled in the privacy of Elin’s room at the inn. It had been five days since they had met with the council, only to be denied access to the underground tunnel that led to Gormore. In the days since, Eva and Elin spent much of their time at the library trying to see if there was more information to be found that could aid them.
In the meantime, Leo and Jessica had been dispatched on various errands to procure supplies required for the journey, including two waterskins for each person. One was already filled with water for consumption, while the other was to be filled at the waterfall. According to Elin, in order to avoid being contaminated by the darkness of Gormore, they would have to drench their clothes in the water from the First River to shield themselves.
While they were preparing for the perilous trip, Qasper had been laying the groundwork for them to infiltrate the castle. The goblin was jumpy, more so than before, and he paused at every creak of the floorboards or a noise outside the door. It had taken a combination of cashing in on favors owed and doling out of bribes, but the goblin had arranged for the castle guards to let the group in right before the crack of dawn the next morning. That was when the castle was least busy and they would be able to make their way down to the tunnel unnoticed.
“But we still don’t know where David is!” Sarah stomped her foot in frustration. “We can’t leave without him.”
“Karine’s been searching for days. He should have known to come back here, but I guess it’s a good thing he didn’t,” Elin said. After Karine had first informed them about David’s disappearance, guards from the castle had stopped by every day to see if he was hiding in the inn. “We’ll all go out and try to find him one last time tonight, but we must leave tomorrow morning, with or without him.”
Eva had an arm around the worried Sarah. She knew the realistic chances of finding David in the densely-populated city were minuscule and she agreed on the importance of their mission. There was a limited window of opportunity that they couldn’t let slip.
“What if…” Sarah was close to tears and whispered into the American’s ear, “What if we go, and complete this trial or something, and David is stuck here? I can’t go back to London without him, Eva.” She had already let Themba get separated from them, even though it was hardly her fault, and now her brother was nowhere to be found just as they were planning to embark on a quest that might bring them home.
Eva didn’t know what to say as she lent Sarah a shoulder to cry on. There were seven packed bags on the floor in the middle of the group, one for each of them, including David. She looked over to Leo, who was gazing into the flickering flame of a candle, lost in thought. They were still a long way from home, even if Jessica was correct, but the anticipation of taking the next step towards their goal had everyone on edge. Even Karine, who was leaning against the door and on the lookout, seemed distressed at Sarah’s state of emotional turmoil.
Elin sighed. She was determined to proceed with the plan no matter if David could be found. “It’s getting dark, we should—”
The wizard was interrupted by a loud explosion, which was followed by dozens more in quick succession. Leo and Eva looked at each other in horror. It was happening again.
Chapter 81
The house was quiet and dark, save for a single candle burning on a short wick in a room tucked inside, away from the windows that faced the street. In their haste, David and Caitlin had barged in thinking the house was unoccupied or its owners were away. Instead, they found a family of four that was terrified at the intrusion. It took a while for Caitlin to assure the family that they meant no harm and merely needed a place to hide for the night. When she offered the father of the household a gold coin in exchange for refuge, he readily agreed and was even willing to sell Caitlin the house.
That was when David noticed that their belongings were mostly packed. It turned out they were making plans to leave the city and abandon the house to stay with relatives in the countryside after hearing rumors that the city would soon be embroiled in war. David wanted to just pay the family for the night, knowing that they would be gone in the morning and the house would be vacant anyway, but Caitlin insisted on giving them a few gold coins out of her pouch. She had always dreamt about becoming a homeowner in a major city far away from Sydney. She just didn’t think it would be in another world.
That night, they shared a small windowless room, lying in two tiny beds meant for the children. Caitlin could hardly sleep. She had long lost count of how many days it had been since she had woken up in this strange land, and until then, she had given up hope on ever finding anyone who knew where she was from. She recounted her story to David, from waking up in the cabin and her journey to Thermine, then the Kallen Valley, before arriving at the gates of Thelmont. She was shocked when David said he was in Thermine around the same time as she had been and their paths had nearly crossed.
Yet, the most earth-shattering news to Caitlin came when David informed her that he wasn’t alone. He did as best as he could to tell her about his sister, Leo from America, and the elf that they had met along the way who helped them through some tumultuous times. She almost thought he was pulling her leg when he spoke about the mystical mountain where people lived forever and hidden away from the rest of the world, but he kept a straight face and spoke in a serious manner. It sounded like paradise to her, though she admitted she could never stay in one place for long, not to mention for an eternity.
When David got to the part about the two other women from America he had just met days ago in Thelmont, he almost forgot to mention the revelation about the wooden boxes that had brought them here.
“Pandora’s box?”
“Pieces of Pandora’s box, inside each of the wooden boxes,” David corrected Caitlin. “I assume you found one too?”
The Australian sat up and nodded. She knew what he was referring to and described it to him. She thought about how she had come into possession of the box, the Greek man who had sold it to her, and the red flash of light she saw before passing out.
It all made sense to her now, to a certain extent, though she was still finding it hard to believe. If she were to concede that Pandora’s box was a real object that had resulted in her coming to this world, that meant that Greek gods were real. And what did that mean for the history of humanity or religion?
“So, somehow pieces of Pandora’s box wound up in Australia, America, and Greece?”
“And South Africa too. I forgot, Sarah said there was another guy whom they had gotten separated from in Thermine. Didn’t sound like he made it,” David explained. He was trying to be patient, knowing how difficult it was for Caitlin to be absorbing the torrent of new information. He had been in a similar situation before Sarah had found him, and he might even have spent his entire life here as a blacksmith, so he understood what Caitlin was going through in her head as she tried to reconcile two sets of memories from vastly different worlds.
Caitlin didn’t speak for a long while, staring at the steady flame of the candle between their beds. Eventually she laid back down. “We need to meet up with your friends.”
“I know. But I punched out that guard and I’m sure they’re looking for us. The inn would have been their first stop. We need to hide out here for a while.”
Caitlin sighed, though she knew David was right, and closed her eyes.
*
The next morning, the family
was already gone when they woke up. They had left without a word with all of their trappings. Everything in the house was gone, although they had left the small room David and Caitlin were sleeping in untouched. It had been a deliberate attempt to leave unnoticed and they were successful.
David and Caitlin agreed that they would at least wait until night time to go find his friends, and she stayed in the house while he ventured out into the city with a gold coin to purchase some new clothes for both of them. He was still wearing his guard’s uniform. While it didn’t stand out as much as Caitlin’s red attire with the emblem of the flame on her chest, he was still very self-conscious and wary, afraid that guards were on the lookout for him. He tried his best to compose himself as he walked around the streets, keeping a hand on his sword at all times while shopping in the marketplace in case anyone identified him.
He was on his way back to the house with new clothes in a bundle and a couple of loaves of bread, thinking he had blended in well, until he saw two guards walking in his direction. Luckily, they were engaged in conversation with each other and hadn’t sighted him. David merged into a crowd and veered off to the right. He kept walking with the flow of the foot traffic, passing a few buildings and streets, until he finally felt comfortable enough to look behind him, half-expecting the guards to have trailed him for amusement, like cats playing with their prey.
For a moment, he thought his paranoia was unfounded when he didn’t see the guards. However, as he turned back around, he bumped into a tall and wide man in a guard’s uniform.
“Sorry,” David mumbled. This guard was at least a head taller than he was, and he looked capable of besting David in a fight with both hands tied behind his back.
“Hey, watch it!” the guard growled in reaction, ready to throw a punch at the offender, until he looked down to see David standing before him. “Oh, you’re a guard too,” the man remarked. “Are you also a new recruit? Don’t happen to know where the armory is, do you? I’m supposed to report there.”
David awkwardly nodded to his left even though he had no idea where the armory was. The man grunted his appreciation and headed off the way David had pointed him in, soon disappearing down the crowded street. He was going to be angry when he found out that David had lied to him.
Heaving a sigh of relief, David made his way back to the house where Caitlin was waiting for him, walking as briskly as it could be deemed possible, while not breaking out into a run that would make him look suspicious. When he entered the house, David dropped the clothes and bread and slammed the door shut behind him, leaning against it with his back as he slid down to the ground.
“What happened?” a bewildered Caitlin asked as she came running out from the room in the back.
“Close call. Too close. I think we should wait at least another day before heading to the inn to see the others,” David gasped. His heart was pounding heavily and beads of sweat dripped down the side of his forehead.
*
They spent the rest of the day getting to know each other and exchanging stories about home. David had always wanted to visit Australia, having heard and seen pictures of its natural beauty. He listened to Caitlin’s fascinating stories about her long camping trips in the outback, weekends spent scuba diving off the Gold Coast, and treks through the aboriginal lands.
For the Australian, it was therapeutic for her to talk about home and reminisce about better, more fun times. When she was out of stories about Australia, she talked about all the trips around the world that she wanted to go on after they got back to their world, and she and David promised to show each other around their respective cities.
She had always wanted to visit London where many of her cousins lived, but David didn’t have too many interesting stories to tell about his hometown. He had grown up in a sheltered life that deprived him of the layperson’s view of contemporary life in London, and all his stories gravitated towards soccer.
Caitlin was less interested in David’s struggling soccer career, though she allowed him to keep rambling on, talking about his idols and dreams of playing in the big leagues. It was an experience that she couldn’t relate to, not to mention she didn’t have much interest in team sports.
As a swimmer, she focused on personal excellence and training. She didn’t compete in team events and the moment she dived into the pool, the only person she raced against was herself. She remembered the awe of watching the world’s best athletes at the Sydney Olympics many years ago when she was a child, and her mother had even brought her to see one of their own competing in the women’s breaststroke event. The swimmer lost, but she had bested her own personal record and there was a smile on her face even though she stood two steps down from the gold medal winner. Caitlin had taken that example to heart. While David sought the adulation of others, she just wanted to push herself to be better, no matter what the circumstance.
The day passed quickly without incident until the evening, when the two of them were huddled in the back room again, away from the windows as they ate the second loaf of bread David had bought in the market. It tasted stale.
Then, even from within the house, they could hear an audible thumping coming from outside. They would hear the thumps, a pause, then the thumps again. Each time, the thumping grew slightly loudly, as they got closer. Soon, David realized why he found the sounds to be familiar. He had heard similar sounds before, back in Thermine when he was awoken by guards going house to house to search for escapees from jail cells, which he later learned included his sister.
He quickly snuffed out the candle, their sole source of light, and shushed Caitlin, who froze and stared at him in the dark. They sat on the floor against the back wall in silence for a long time, as the thumpings continued to get closer, until they both jumped when they heard fists pounding on the front door of the house. Muffled voices of men yelling outside could be heard, and David held his breath, as if that might help him hide better. He felt a little comfort that Caitlin was equally terrified when he glanced over at her and reached out a hand. It was met with her cold palm, and they held onto each other tightly in the seconds that seemed like an eternity, before they heard the thumping again. This time, it was farther away.
As the sound of the thumpings waned in the distance, David and Caitlin sat there in the dark, until both of them fell asleep against the wall.
*
The next day, the moment the sun set, David poked his head out the door. He looked both ways, up and down the street, before slowly stepping out. He held up a hand behind him, signaling for Caitlin to wait until he was sure the coast was clear. There were a few disinterested civilians walking by and going about their own affairs, and after a while, he finally waved Caitlin over to join him outside.
She wasn’t as precautious as him and practically jumped out into the open and took in a deep breath of fresh air. She didn’t enjoy being cooped up for two days, and she looked around in excitement as she stretched her limbs. It was a funny thing to do she realized, when she considered that the house was fairly spacious and certainly hadn’t constricted her movements. It was just one of those things that humans were inertly programmed to think, that somehow, they had more freedom and space outside than indoors.
“I don’t see any guards,” David said. He was looking around nervously, afraid that men in uniforms would suddenly jump out from the shadows, like they had been patient enough to wait nearly an entire day for David and Caitlin to show themselves. While the Australian was taller and appeared to be more athletic than him, he still felt a sense of chivalry and responsibility to protect her. While he wasn’t very able at wielding it, he had the sword issued to him when he became a guard, and he intended to use it should the need arise.
“Which way to the inn?”
“Uh… I’m not sure. The castle’s there,” David pointed at the prominent landmark, “So the inn must be somewhere that way. It was south of the castle. Come on, let’s go. Try to blend in.”
“Chill, mate. We’ve changed o
ur clothes and there are so many people here in the city. I’m sure the guards have moved on by now. It’s not like we killed anyone or something,” Caitlin replied. She was happy to be able to move around again and eager to explore the city without having to run from the guards. She also couldn’t wait to meet the other people who had been brought here by the pieces of Pandora’s box.
David tried his best to navigate through the busy streets, although Caitlin kept pulling him aside to look at something new that caught her eye. The walk to the inn was an eyeopener for her, as she was able to take in the sights and sounds of this world with a little weight lifted from her shoulders, knowing that they would soon be reunited with people who shared her goal of getting home. She marveled at buskers who performed strange melodies on instruments she had never seen before, and the curious shops along the way that sold pelts of exotic animals and trinkets with the tiniest gears and bells she had ever seen.
Several times, David would look behind him and have to double back to find Caitlin and beg her to follow him before she was distracted again. He could empathize with her sense of wonder, but he didn’t share it. He knew his sister must have been worried about him and he hoped that they hadn’t left without him. He just wanted to find Sarah and go home.
Eventually, they made it to an intersection that David recognized from their first day in the city, and he pointed excitedly at the inn from there. He grinned at Caitlin as he grabbed her hand and started jogging towards the building where he hoped his sister and their other companions were.
They were steps away from the inn, when a loud boom rang out through the city. It was coming from the direction of the main gates. David and Caitlin spun around in surprise.
