by R. L. King
She was listening now, with growing dread. “And then…Wisconsin?”
He nodded. “By that point, I was sure there was a connection. And when you mentioned stopping for gas and Jeremy finding a toy store—Daphne, that’s exactly where the fissure formed. Right there in the middle of the same intersection. There was a toy store on one corner and a gas station across the street. What kind of conclusions would you draw from that?”
He couldn’t see her go pale in the dim light, but her aura flared. She bowed her head. “Oh, God…”
“Daphne…” He went to her, gently taking her arm. “There’s more going on here than you’ve told me, isn’t there? You haven’t given me the whole story yet—or else you’ve been lying to me. Please—I can’t let you do that anymore. Too much is at stake.” He lowered his voice and leaned in closer. “My friend—the one who closed the Wisconsin rift—is very powerful, and he’s very concerned about this situation. He’s threatening…” He paused, unsure if he wanted to say it.
“Threatening what?” she asked sharply. “Is this the same friend you were texting with?”
“No. That was my apprentice. The powerful friend doesn’t know where we are. But he does know, or suspects as strongly as I do, that Jeremy is causing these rifts. We’ve got to do something, Daphne. This can’t be allowed to go on. People are dying, and the situation seems to be getting worse every time it happens. Gods know what might happen if another one pops up. Surely you recognize that something’s got to be done.”
She didn’t answer for a long time, refusing to meet his gaze. “This friend of yours—he wants to hurt Jeremy, doesn’t he?”
“He…” Stone let his breath out. “He wants to neutralize the problem. And he’s not known for his compassion.”
“I can’t let that happen. You know that, don’t you? I can’t let him hurt my son.”
“If he catches up with us…you might not have a choice. You won’t be able to stop him. I won’t be able to stop him. That’s why you’ve got to tell me the truth, Daphne. The whole truth this time. You can’t hold anything back. I’ll help you. I’ll do whatever I can to come up with a solution that will keep you both safe. But we can’t risk any more of these fissures popping up.” He looked away, then back. “Look at me, Daphne,” he said gently.
She seemed reluctant to do it, but finally did. “I can’t let you hurt Jeremy,” she whispered. “He’s my son. He’s all I’ve got left of Neil.”
“Then help me to help you. Tell me everything.”
She turned away from him then, her shoulders slumped, obviously struggling with something in her mind.
Stone let her do it. He didn’t try to rush her, because he knew there was no point. If he knew her as well as he thought he did—if she truly was Daphne, and this whole thing wasn’t some elaborate ruse—he also knew what conclusion she would inevitably reach. As long as Jeremy remained asleep and untroubled, he could afford to give her the time to reach it on her own.
Finally, after nearly a full minute, she turned back. Her face was wreathed in despair.
“Okay,” she said, and it sounded like someone was pulling the words from her by force. “Okay. I’ll tell you the rest. I’ll tell you everything.” Her fierce gaze came up. “But you’ve got to promise you won’t hurt Jeremy. That you won’t let anyone else hurt him.”
He hesitated, clenching his fist. He wasn’t sure he could promise her that. “I…I promise I’ll do everything I can to keep you both safe. I give you my word on that. But, Daphne—you’ve got to understand. One way or another, this situation needs to be sorted, and soon. If he is causing these fissures, you see what kind of danger could result.” He didn’t bring up the previous time one of her experiments had backfired, and how many people had died as a result of that. He didn’t think he had to.
“Yeah.” She packed a lot of despair in the single word. “I do. I know how portals work. It’s kind of my thing. And I know what can happen when things go wrong with them. Not too hard to extrapolate here. But he’s my son.” Her eyes cut away, then settled on him again. “I never asked you, Alastair—did you ever get married? Do you have any children of your own?”
He swallowed. “I…never got married. I do have one child, though. A son. He’s…an adult now. I didn’t find out about him until he was nineteen.”
“What’s his name?” She seemed very interested in his reply.
“Ian.”
“Ian…” she said softly. “Do you love him?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course I love him.”
Her gaze sharpened. “What would you do if you found out somebody wanted to hurt him? Would you protect him?”
“He’s fairly good at protecting himself these days.”
“You’re evading.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I am. But I see where you’re going with this, and of course I’d protect him.”
“Even if he did something that hurt people? Assuming he didn’t mean to, anyway?”
“Even then,” he said softly. “But I wouldn’t let him keep doing it, if there was any way to stop him.” He glanced toward the stairs. “What if we…sedated Jeremy or something? Put him under so he couldn’t accidentally cause any more trouble until we’ve figured out how to deal with whatever he’s doing?”
“No.”
“No?” He was surprised at her tone this time. It wasn’t confrontational; it was resigned. “Why not? I’m not suggesting we hurt him. I don’t make a habit of hurting children, Daphne, believe it or not. Just…make sure he sleeps peacefully for a while.”
She turned away again. “It won’t work.”
“Why won’t it work? If he’s asleep now, I could just—”
“No. You couldn’t. It won’t work.”
“Then tell me why. I’m trying to help you, but you’ve got to—”
She rose from the chair in an explosive motion, stalking around in much the same way Stone often did. “It won’t work because of…what he is.” She sighed. “You wanted me to tell you the whole story. Let me do it, and you’ll see. Maybe you’ll understand why I didn’t tell you before. Please…let’s sit down.”
Stone didn’t want to sit, but he forced himself to pull up one of the room’s ripped vinyl chairs and settle into it. He watched her in silence, waiting.
She returned to the chair she’d just vacated. “I didn’t think it would make a difference,” she said bleakly. “I never would have done it if I had. I hope you’ll believe me.”
When Stone didn’t reply, she continued without looking at him. “The story I told you about what happened when Neil and I went through the portal…I didn’t tell you all of it.”
“You lied to me again.” Stone spoke in an emotionless tone.
“I…omitted some details.”
He wasn’t sure there was much difference in this case, but he didn’t say so. “Go on…”
She stared at her hands. “When we went through the original portal—the one we’d built here—it didn’t go the way I’d explained it. The…things that attacked us were a lot worse than I told you.”
“What does that mean?”
“They killed Artie and Rochelle. I watched them die in there, torn to pieces, just like I told you. They also attacked Neil and me. By the time I found that exit I told you about, we were both gravely injured. Torn up, losing blood…pulling us through that opening was an act of sheer desperation. I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I figured anything through there had to be better than being ripped to shreds and eaten.”
Stone didn’t miss the shake in her voice. He wanted to go to her, to pull her into his arms. The intensity of the thought surprised him; he didn’t think he had any feelings for her anymore, aside from friendship. Apparently, he was wrong.
But that still didn’t change anything. “So far, everything you’ve said mostly agrees with what you told me before.”
“Yes. It didn’t change until we got through.” She looked up at him, her eyes haunted. �
��As I said, we were both terribly injured. And our friends…in the other place…did save us. Or rather, saved me.”
Stone frowned. “Saved you. So Neil…”
“Neil died,” she whispered. “Right there, right after we came through. There was just too much damage to his body, too much blood lost…there was nothing anybody could have done. My last memory of him was looking into his eyes, Alastair. He couldn’t speak anymore, but his eyes were pleading with me to do something…anything. And I couldn’t.” Her voice hitched a little, and she paused to get it under control.
“I’m sorry, Daphne…”
She nodded several times. “Thanks. It was…horrible. I wanted to die too. I thought I was going to die. The pain was so bad…”
“So…they healed you?”
“Not…exactly.” Again, she didn’t meet his gaze.
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’? You’re here now, so they must have—”
“I’m here. But…not the way you think I am.”
“What do you mean by that?” Stone studied her, scanning her with magical sight. She looked the same as she always had, the way he’d always remembered her. The only difference was that her bright blue aura pulsed with red patches, but that was to be expected. She was clearly under a lot of stress.
She stared at her hands, which shook. “Alastair…Neil died when we crossed over. But…so did I. At least my body did.”
It took him a second to realize what she’d said. He ran it over in his head to make sure he hadn’t misheard her. “What? What are you talking about?”
She spread her hands, indicating her form. “What you see here…it’s not really me. It’s a construct.” Dragging her gaze up, she added, “The only difference between what happened to Neil and what happened to me was that it wasn’t just Neil’s body that died. It was his consciousness, too. And there was nothing anyone could do about that.”
Stone’s brain was reeling. This wasn’t possible. Even as he thought it, though, he realized it was wrong. Part of being a mage was learning to accept the impossible. But all he could get out was, “You—”
Her expression was understanding now, almost kind. “I know this is a lot to take in. I’m sorry I had to lie to you before, but…I honestly thought it wouldn’t make any difference.”
“Not make any difference? Daphne, I still don’t understand. I’m sorry—I’m trying—but this isn’t making any sense to me. How could you be here, like this, if—” Now, the thoughts were whirling in his head so fast he couldn’t make sense of most of them. He barely managed to sputter out what he said.
“The place we ended up…the other dimension…the beings there are different. They…don’t have physical bodies. They exist as…sort of disembodied entities. Minds. Thoughts.” When he started to say something, she raised a hand. “I’m sorry…it’s really hard to explain, because it’s like nothing we have here. The closest thing would be echoes, except with full mental faculties. They’re people, just like us. They just…don’t have bodies.”
Briefly, Stone thought of James Brathwaite. He couldn’t sit still any longer, so he got up and began pacing again. “I’ve got so many questions, Daphne, and we haven’t got time for them all.”
She looked sympathetic. “Let me see if I can anticipate the big ones, and answer them.” After staring into space for a few moments, she said, “The beings there managed to keep me alive long enough to save my consciousness…and Jeremy’s.”
Stone gaped. In his shock following the bombs she’d dropped on him, he’d forgotten about Jeremy. “Bloody hell, that’s right. You were—”
“Pregnant. Yes. I didn’t even know at the time. I never would have tried our portal experiment if I had. But when I…I guess the best expression is ‘returned to consciousness,’ even though that’s not strictly accurate…they told me what they did. They told me they couldn’t save my physical body, since it was too far gone and they didn’t have any experience with them, but they’d been able to extract my consciousness and tend to it until it wasn’t in danger of dissipating. And then they told me about Jeremy.”
Stone was no longer paying attention to his surroundings. He fixed his gaze on Daphne. “They could save a child that young? One that had barely begun to develop beyond a mass of cells?”
“It wasn’t easy, and they nearly lost him a few times. They…did something, I’m not even sure what, to bind my consciousness and his together, so he could feed on me, just like a normal physical fetus would feed on its mother. He couldn’t have survived on his own. When I was aware enough to respond, they asked me if I wanted to continue, even if there was a big chance it might not work.”
“And you said yes.”
“Of course I said yes.” Her voice was full of vehemence now. “He’s my child, Alastair. The last remnant of Neil. Even though my life had gone seriously weird and I had no idea how I was going to cope, I knew I wanted to do everything in my power to keep him alive.” She gave a half-snort, half-chuckle. “I guess all that stuff about maternal instinct is true…even under the most bizarre circumstances any mother ever had to deal with.”
“So…obviously whatever they did worked.” He glanced up again, toward where Jeremy slept.
“Yeah. I have no idea how long it took. Time didn’t really work the same way there as it did here. But eventually, they told me we didn’t need to be bound together anymore. That his consciousness could exist separately from mine. I guess that’s how they reproduce there, too, so they had more experience with it.” Her eyes sparkled. “It was…amazing. It wasn’t like birth, not the way we know it, but even though they severed that binding, they didn’t sever the whole thing. I was still…connected with him. I could sense his mind, Alastair. His thoughts were still nearly formless, like a normal baby’s would be, but I could tell when he was happy, when he needed something…It was so much closer than a physical mother.”
Stone let his breath out. “Bloody hell…”
“Yeah.”
“So, he—what—just grew like a normal child?”
“Who can say what ‘normal’ is? I don’t even try, not anymore. He developed. I connected more with his mind, to the point where we could share each other’s thoughts. That’s not strange there—everybody does it. It’s how they communicate.”
“So it’s like some kind of hive mind?”
“Not exactly. Everyone has their own thoughts, and you can hide what you don’t want the others to know. But to communicate, all you have to do is connect with someone. It’s so much deeper than what we have, Alastair. There’s no chance of misunderstanding, or miscommunication.”
She looked down at her hands. “We lived there for a long time. I don’t know how long—like I said, time works differently there. But Jeremy grew, and I grew closer to him. But eventually, I started to get…homesick, for lack of a better word. I missed what we had here. I wanted to see it again. And more importantly, I wanted Jeremy to see it. I felt he deserved to see the place where his father came from. He’d heard all the stories, of course, and seen visions of Neil in my mind, but it wasn’t the same.”
“How did the others feel about it?”
“I…didn’t tell them. I didn’t think they’d understand, and frankly, I didn’t think it was any of their business. I felt guilty about it, since they’d saved our lives, but I didn’t think they’d approve.”
Can’t imagine why, Stone thought, but he didn’t say it. “But how could you do it? If you had no body, how did you know you could create one if you returned home?”
“The others had mentioned it. They had a way to create a physical body when they needed one. None of them liked to do it, because their way was their natural state and it felt…awkward to them. Constraining. But they showed me how to do it when I expressed interest, because they knew I’d come from somewhere with physical bodies. I’m sure it amused them. Once they taught me, I taught Jeremy. He thought it was odd too, since he’d never had a body of his own.” She gave a wistful smile. �
�I think he was just humoring me. I didn’t tell him about what I planned, either. Not yet, anyway.”
“What were you waiting for?” Stone glanced toward the window again, but both magical and mundane sight revealed no movement outside.
“I had a lot of work to do. I had no idea where we were. When I dived through that gateway to avoid getting torn apart, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. It was an ‘any port in a storm’ situation.”
“So you know where this other place is now? You can return?”
She looked troubled. “I…don’t know. That was another reason I took so long to make up my mind about doing this—because I was fairly sure if I did it, we wouldn’t be able to come back. Not without a lot of study, anyway. So I had to be sure it was what I really wanted to do.”
“What about Jeremy?”
“I didn’t tell him until I’d worked out the calculations. I not only had to figure out how to reach this dimension, but also how to construct the gateway to get us there.”
“You did all that without a physical body?” Stone was impressed.
She smiled. “Remember who you’re talking to, Alastair. I might be frazzled now because everything’s going wrong, but I’m still me. I’m still probably the best portal scientist on Earth.” She spoke proudly, and perhaps even a trifle arrogantly.
He mirrored her smile. It was one of the things he’d always admired about her: she didn’t minimize her achievements, her talent, or her intellect. No false modesty for Daphne Weldon. “No doubt you are. But even so, that’s still got you working under some fairly difficult conditions.”
Her expression sobered. “Yes, and that’s why it took as long as it did. Especially since I had to work in secret.”
“You didn’t want the others to find out? Why not?”
