A Key to Worlds: A Parallel Worlds Novel

by Mara Amberly

  “What? I’m up here,” she said from the top of the stairs.

  Nessa relaxed at the sight of her.

  “Woo, you are tense, aren’t you?” Katy asked.

  It caused Nessa to nod. “I can’t leave James at the hospital like that alone. I’m going to get a taxi in. I don’t feel up to driving.”

  Katy started walking down the stairs. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll drive you. There’s no point wasting money. I’ll probably be up half the night anyway. The insomnia’s kicking my butt.”

  Nessa blinked. “Weren’t you just drinking coffee?”

  Katy sighed. “Oh don’t you start. It was decaf.”

  Nessa bit her lip. She looked taken aback but confused. “You gave me decaf and I didn’t notice?”

  “Wonderful world, isn’t it?” Katy said with a smile.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Pandora's Home Dimension;

  Red Mountains, Alverron – 4:22 p.m.

  “Anders and I think this has been here since before the domes were built; it was intended to be found when people ventured out again.” Olsen’s voice was muffled by his breathing mask, but it couldn’t hide his smile. He – like the others – had donned his protective suit against the harsher environment, as there was no terraforming in this area. The dark red mountainside lay ahead of them all, but it was no ordinary mountain. A great archway was carved into the rock – something that would undoubtedly stand the test of time. It was decorated with the shapes of great dragons.

  Pandora thought they looked like they were swimming through stone.

  “It’s massive,” Kailen remarked, staring up at it in wonder. “It must be taller than Terania Settlement’s dome. What’s inside of it?” Even as he admired its craftsmanship and the fact it must’ve been built by the ancestors, Kailen felt annoyed. The council are full of secrets and lies. Why did they keep this from us? It’s miraculous.

  Karen had already walked on ahead, but she stayed within sight of the rest of the team.

  Pandora was the only one who’d opted to take off her mask close to an hour before. There wasn’t much scientific method to it, but Olsen recorded the time, date and details in his data pad.

  Even in the open, she was still comfortable, but she held her mask in hand, so she could pull it back on at any time if she needed it.

  Olsen carried the smaller of two medical kits, along with a case of equipment, in case Pandora or the others ran into problems.

  “There are caves in the mountains that look to have been hewn from the stone,” Olsen explained. “There’s also some kind of altar or something like one.”

  Anders looked unconvinced about that. “It could be a slab; it needn’t be an altar. Maybe it has something to do with the dragon theme. It raises some interesting questions. You’re going to love it and maybe you could spread the word back in Terania, eh?”

  Olsen grimaced. “Just don’t let Bastian find out,” he said. “He’d kill you.”

  Pandora wasn’t sure how serious Olsen was about that. If word got around, it wouldn’t be too hard for Bastian to figure out who might’ve talked. We’ll need to be careful.

  For the time being, Pandora wanted to see what was beyond the great arch and inside the caves. It felt like an honour to walk beneath this vast, beautiful arch and help unravel a mystery this profound and old.

  “How did this survive the earthquakes?” She wondered aloud, surprised that the carvings were near-perfect after all this time.

  Anders had an answer for her. “It’s carved into the mountain, and we believe it’s reinforced. It has the strength of solid rock behind it, but the arch registers as metallic.”

  Pandora took Kailen’s hand as they made their way uphill beneath the arch and to a large cave entrance. Rubble had fallen over the years – centuries, more likely millennia, and the earth was such a deep red, it seemed almost to be stained with blood. It didn’t feel threatening, though – it was lovely in its own way and contrasted against the blue sky, which had begun to darken toward sunset. It seemed to bring the colours of this place to life in ways they never were inside the dome of Terania Settlement.

  The ground felt rocky beneath Pandora’s feet as she made her way uphill; the distance further than it appeared. Perhaps the fact she wasn’t wearing her breathing mask made it more difficult to catch her breath. Kailen accompanied her as they took on this adventure together. He was keeping a close eye on her, just in case she had any trouble with the planet’s atmosphere. He and the others wore their masks, so talk was kept to a minimum. The cave entrance was well-lit due to its size and angle toward the sun’s position, but after the bright planet outside, it seemed very dark within.

  Pandora ran her hand over the smooth cave wall but didn’t feel much through the lightweight gloves that formed part of her suit. She saw two tunnels led off from the cave. There was almost an elegant artistry to their placement and it seemed to serve an architectural purpose.

  Anders and Olsen stood by the entrance to the left tunnel talking as Pandora and Kailen caught up. “I think you have the right of it, Olsen. It’s to do with time outside. Enough to adjust but not enough to kill you.” Both men quietened as they realised they could be overheard.

  A loud tapping noise drew Pandora’s gaze and she saw that Karen was chipping away at the wall with a hammer and chisel. She placed the contents into a small vial she’d brought with her and screwed on the top. “There’s lichen growing on the rocks,” she explained. “We didn’t plant it here but perhaps we transported it here by accident. I think it might be the environment reasserting itself.”

  “That’s amazing,” Pandora said, watching as the female Scientist stashed away the sample in her backpack.

  “Oh, I think so too. We’ve long known that there are simple forms of life lying dormant. We’ve found some interesting samples.” She seemed to want to tell Pandora so much more, but Olsen appeared impatient.

  “If you’re ready, the altar is down the left tunnel.” He gestured with his hand.

  “More likely a slab,” Anders said, correcting him. “Or maybe a box.”

  This peaked Pandora’s curiousity.

  “Whatever it is, the thing is this way,” Olsen said. “You’ll need your lights.”

  Pandora pulled hers from her backpack and switched it on. Kailen did the same. It cast a brilliant spotlight wherever she directed it.

  “If it’s all the same, I might stay out here with Karen,” Anders said. “That’s unless she wants to–”

  Karen shook her head and smiled. “No, I have samples to take.” She seemed grateful for his company and not being left alone.

  ***

  Pandora was expecting the tunnels to extend for miles, but it only took them about a minute to reach the chamber that Olsen told them about. The tunnel continued on into the distance before curving out of sight. The range on the lights they’d been supplied was excellent, but they couldn’t illuminate around corners.

  Olsen shone his light around the chamber. It was formed entirely of the red stone that comprised the mountain around them.

  “That’s incredible,” Pandora said. “It’s been completely carved out of the rock, hasn’t it?”

  It didn’t seem to impress Kailen as much, but then to him it was a near-empty room.

  Pandora wondered what tools they must’ve used to create it. If they had so much technology and ability to shape the world, how was it they couldn’t stop the cataclysm from happening?

  Kailen approached the raised section of stone that Olsen had called an altar. The truth was it could’ve been anything.

  The box of stone was around waist-height and a bit over five feet across. It appeared to be a solid block of stone, but there was a possibility it might be hollow. It sat seemingly without reason in the centre of the room.

  “Are we sure this wasn’t their dining table?” Pandora asked with a grin.

  Olsen laughed. “That’s exactly what Karen said when she saw it.”

 
“There are no chairs though,” Kailen murmured aloud. “It’s a bit low to stand and eat your lunch, but too high to sit on the floor.”

  “I suppose there’s that,” Pandora said with a smile. “If it’s been here thousands of years, what if the chairs rotted away? Still, this room is very clean.” There was sand on the floor, but that was all she noticed.

  She wondered if this could be the mystical box her grandmother had entrusted her to protect, but she lived in the settlement and not out here. Her mother had been an outsider though, because she’d chosen to leave the settlement. It might be a reason why, though Pandora had assumed her father had more to do with it.

  “Olsen, do you know where my parents lived when they were outside of Terania Settlement?”

  She wondered if it might be somewhere like this, only she’d envisioned a compound underground. Supposedly people lived in them until one by one their air filtering failed or they died from hunger and thirst. She wasn’t finding it so harsh out here so far, and while the others wore masks, the environment seemed far safer than she’d been led to believe. While she didn’t doubt there were recent improvements, she assumed the dangers had been exaggerated.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know where they were,” Olsen said “I know of one facility far north of here, and there’s little left of it now. Davenport salvaged the useful technology.”

  Pandora appeared unconvinced. “So these facilities aren’t a lie made up by the council or someone else?”

  Olsen shook his head. “No, they’re definitely not. They were unquestionably real. They were the reason the council made it so tough for citizens to leave the settlements. People were rebelling, causing disharmony and eventually getting themselves killed.”

  Kailen exchanged a glance with Pandora. “Maybe you should put the mask back on,” he said, “to be sure.”

  Pandora shook her head, but it did plant a few more doubts in her mind.

  “So what do you think it is?” Olsen asked of the stone box, encouraging them to draw their own conclusions.

  Pandora ran her gloved hand over the rock, and it felt smooth and cool beneath her fingertips. There was a slight dusting of sand on top of the stone but it was far less than on the ground.

  “Has someone cleaned in here?” she asked, perplexed.

  “Nobody has,” Olsen said.

  She tapped on the stone slab and it hurt her fingers. “Have you found any more of these boxes or anything else strange?” Pandora couldn’t fathom why they’d leave the entire mountain empty other than for this one stone slab.

  “Well... some artifacts were recovered for study. There were old ceramics and metal jars.”

  Kailen pushed on the box, and there was a slight grating of stone. It was incredibly heavy but he succeeded in moving it about an inch.

  “That’s odd,” Olsen said in surprise. “How strong are you? Anders and I tried to move it last time we were here and we couldn’t get it to budge.”

  “I guess stronger than I expected,” Kailen responded with a shrug.

  Pandora put her hand on top of the stone slab and pushed downward. She heard the stone crack beneath her hand. “It’s fragile. Easily broken.”

  “How can that be? It wasn’t like that,” Olsen said, moving closer to examine it.

  Pandora pushed down on the stone until it fractured, unsure whether she was doing a good or a bad thing. Am I damaging some ancient relic that survived the cataclysm, only to fall victim to me?

  The cracking of the stone kicked up a fine dust, so she took a step back and waved it away. She had no proof that breathing it in would be bad for her, but it didn’t seem like it would be a good idea either. When the air cleared, they all looked inside the stone box. In the hollow, they found a much smaller metal container. It was a little bigger than Pandora’s hand, and it was marked with long grooves and etchings that matched the dragons of the arch.

  Pandora picked it up, and she noticed it had a keyhole on one side and a hinge on the other. The keyhole was about the same size as the key contained in her locket. She didn’t understand how it could possibly be the right key, but she wondered. What if Emily had been this box’s guardian and Emily’s daughter after her? As a member of the council, Emily could’ve helped protect this place, if she knew of it at all.

  Pandora’s scientific instincts told her she was trying to rationalise disconnected information, and might be drawing false conclusions, but her heart told her this was the way to the truth... and most importantly, that this was her birth-right. She was lost in thought, and only noticed the annoyance in Olsen’s tone as he demanded, “Give it to me.”

  Pandora held out the box, but spoke her mind. “I believe this should be mine to protect. My grandmother was its guardian, as was my mother – adoptive or not – and the duty should be passed to me.”

  Olsen looked confused. “Err, what are you talking about? We just found this.” He stared at Pandora like he hardly knew her at all.

  “I know what she’s talking about.” There was another voice in the room, as someone had entered unexpectedly. It was Anders.

  “What she says is quite correct, though until now the box hadn’t been found. It’s been known to exist, and each guardian has had a place on the council, other than the one who deserted Terania Settlement.”

  Olsen sighed. “If there’s one thing I bloody well hate, then it’s politics. You’re sure this is the box?”

  Anders seemed sure. “It was said to be hidden in the red mountains. It’s likely the box. Besides, Pandora has the key.”

  Her eyes widened at Anders’ explanation. “How could you possibly know? Even I’m not sure.”

  “Please,” he said. “They’ve been watching you for months. The necklace was a test. If you’d seen it elsewhere, you would’ve been drawn to it the same way because it was meant for you.”

  Pandora took the box when Olsen handed it back to her. She resisted the urge to shake it, wondering if it was indeed some kind of weapon. “My grandmother came to me in a dream a while ago and told me the box shouldn’t be opened except in a time of dire need or if the box’s time had come. I thought she meant if the world faced a great peril or it was in imminent danger, but the world is finally healing and this is a peaceful time. How do we know this isn’t some kind of weapon and that it won’t bring about a second cataclysm?”

  Somehow, Pandora knew it wouldn’t. That wasn’t the purpose of the box. “I – I take back the last question,” she said confused. “It isn’t a weapon. At least, it doesn’t have to be.”

  Anders nodded. “That’s our understanding as well. The aligned councils have authorised its opening, if we find it, which we have. If you don’t open it then the box will be retrieved and opened by someone else who will. I would suggest you do it here rather than in Terania Settlement in case there are any unforeseen complications. The councils believe it contains a chip with the stored technologies of the old world.

  “No,” Pandora said.

  “No you won’t open it or no, it doesn’t?” Olsen asked.

  Kailen moved toward Pandora protectively, so if the men had ideas about taking the box off her they’d have to get past him first.

  “I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Anders said. “I didn’t expect you’d find it and my heart was in the right place bringing you out here. It’s just our orders about the box are firm.”

  Somehow Pandora felt a sense of her grandmother’s presence. It belied the tension in the room, and when she thought of her grandmother, she felt perfectly at ease. Her grandmother spoke. “Open it, dear.”

  Pandora’s grip tightened on the box when someone tried to take it out of her hand. It was Anders.

  “I’ll do it. I’ll open it. Just let it go,” she insisted.

  Surprisingly, Anders acquiesced.

  She handed the box to Kailen, who she trusted deeply, while she retrieved the key from her locket. The catch was still fiddly, but she opened it more easily this time. Withdrawing the key, she clicked
her locket closed.

  Kailen handed the box back to her, and then Pandora took a step away from the others.

  “I wish you’d let me do that,” Kailen said, hoping to minimise the risk to her. He was worried its contents might hurt her, but he also knew that once Pandora made up her mind, it was very hard to change it.

  “I’ll be alright,” she said, certain that she would. “It’s meant to be me.”

  Pandora slid the key into the lock and it fit! It was the right key. Once she got over the initial surprise, Pandora turned it and the box unlocked. Even though it was metal, it had a crystalline coating inside almost like a geode. She heard three clicking noises, one after the other, though she couldn’t see where the sounds came from. They sounded like ancient clockwork. She leaned in closer to look, and then she felt a puff of metal dust from inside the box. It sparkled in the air for the merest of moments.

  “What?”

  Pandora gasped out that single word before her consciousness deserted her and she dropped to the ground. The metal box fell closed as it landed on the sandy floor beside her. Kailen rushed over to her, ignoring Olsen’s shout to stay where he was. Kailen tried to shake Pandora awake. She was breathing but didn’t respond to his attempts to wake her.

  “What did it do, Pandora? Wake up please. Please be alright.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Nessa's Home Dimension;

  Georgia, United States – 11:48 p.m.

  Katy and Nessa arrived at the district hospital just before midnight. Nessa knew from experience how long she could spend waiting for treatment, but James’s injuries had been severe when the doctor brought him here, and she had a feeling they wouldn’t leave him to wait unnecessarily. There was no sign of him in the waiting room, so she approached the registration desk, where a nurse worked.

  “Hi. I’m looking for James Lowry. He was brought here earlier tonight.”

  The nurse was an older woman with fine, tidy blonde hair, and she wore a blue cotton dress. She had high cheekbones and was beautiful in a mature way. A badge showed her name, ‘Alison’.