by R. L. King
They stepped through the doorway together.
Instantly, the darkness lifted.
The room they stood in now was much smaller than the front part of the toy store. More skewed shelves lined its walls, each one stacked with more of the strange toys.
This time, though, the toys were all looking at them. If they had eyes, their gazes were fixed on the two newcomers. If they didn’t, they turned to face them. The clockwork sounds were louder back here, and the chocolate smell was stronger.
“Bloody hell…” Stone murmured.
Shadow-Jeremy was gone. In the middle of the room, surrounded by more toys, another figure sat watching them.
It was a small boy with dark, messy hair, big eyes, and a pale face. He wore a striped T-shirt and jeans, and his expression was melancholy and fearful. He was looking straight at Stone and Verity. In the crook of one arm, he gripped a furry brown teddy bear. He looked a lot younger than Jeremy’s ten years—perhaps no older than six or seven. The toys, mostly stuffed animals, dolls, and action figures, surrounded him in a loose circle. They were all looking at Stone and Verity too, and none of them looked happy.
“Er…” Stone said, glancing at Verity.
She gripped his hand tighter, but she was intent on the scene in front of them. She smiled. “Hi, Jeremy. It’s good to finally see you.”
The boy didn’t respond, but his gaze never left her.
“You know me, right? I’m Verity. And this is Alastair. We’re friends of your mom’s.”
No reply. The toys didn’t move either, but Stone got the sense they were all waiting for something.
“We need your help,” Verity said, crouching to get closer to his level. “Your mom’s out there trying to help another friend close the big hole, but they can’t do it forever. You want to go home, right?”
There was a long pause, and then the boy nodded once. He hadn’t blinked since they’d entered the room.
“That’s good. I know you do. And your mom wants to help you get home. So do we. That’s why she asked us to talk to you. Do you mind if we talk to you?”
No answer. The toys remained vigilant.
“Do you think we could get a little closer to you?” She took a tentative step forward.
Instantly, all the toys leaped into action, shifting their positions to put more of them between Jeremy and her and Stone. They didn’t have weapons, but their expressions were cold and uninviting.
“What the hell…?” Stone murmured.
“Shh. This is his mind trying to defend him in the only way he knows. It’s okay.”
Stone wanted to say more, but he kept his mouth shut. Verity was much better at this kind of thing than he was, so he had to trust she knew how to defuse this situation. Still, the clockwork ticking reminded him that time was passing. If they couldn’t convince Jeremy to help them before Daphne and Kolinsky lost their hold on the fissure, he didn’t know what might happen. Whatever it was, though, it couldn’t be good.
She didn’t move any closer. “Your friends are trying to protect you. That’s really nice. I’m glad you have so many good friends. But Jeremy—you have to tell them this isn’t helping. They’re only making things worse. You know that, right?”
Again, the brief, reluctant nod.
“Can you ask them to stop? To back away and let us come to you? I promise we won’t hurt you. Nobody wants to hurt you. All we want to do is help you get home.”
“I take it we can’t just move forward?” Stone asked under his breath. “They don’t look too formidable…”
“They don’t look it, but they are. Look at them with magical sight.”
When he did, a chill went through him. With mundane sight, the toys looked strange but mostly innocent. With magical vision, their auras blazed around them, much larger than their physical bodies, forming the shapes of looming monsters.
“I…see,” he said slowly.
“Yeah. If we try to force past them, they’ll probably take us apart. At best, they’ll kick us out of his mind, and we probably won’t get back in, at least not in time to do anything. Jeremy might not be a mage the way we know it, but he’s obviously got some pretty significant power.”
Stone wished he could talk to Jeremy. He wasn’t sure he’d do any better than Verity was, but he wasn’t used to being unable to act in such a dangerous situation.
Let her do what she’s good at. Your part will come later, but she’s got to get through to him first.
Verity dropped to her knees and then into a cross-legged seated position, still clasping Stone’s hand. “Jeremy…we can’t do this alone. Your friends are doing a really good job protecting you. So good that there’s nothing we can do if you don’t let us. But you know your mom’s in trouble out there, right?”
An odd, disquieting shift went through the scene. That was the only way Stone could describe it. It was as if the whole world around them suddenly tilted to one side, then settled again. Jeremy gave another of his slow nods. His wide-open eyes were still fixed on Verity.
“We want to help her, and we want to help you. But if your friends don’t let us past soon, we might not be able to do that. I don’t know what will happen if your mom and our other friend can’t close that hole. It might hurt her. It might hurt a lot of other people, too. Other kids, even. You don’t want that, do you?”
He shook his head.
“I know you don’t. Of course you don’t. You’re a good boy, and you love your mom. Please, Jeremy—ask your friends to let us through. You know what we’re here to find. Only you can tell us what we need to send you home.”
Jeremy looked at Verity. He looked at Stone. Then his gaze swept over the legions of toys arrayed in front of him.
One of them, a tall blue teddy bear with a red bow around its neck, stepped to the front of the group. With one furry arm, it pointed straight at Verity.
“What’s he mean?” Stone asked.
“I think he’s saying only I can get close to him.”
“That won’t work. You can’t get the information we need. You said yourself, you wouldn’t know what to do with it.”
“I can’t—I don’t know—get it and relay it to you?”
“I don’t think it’s going to work like that, unfortunately. He doesn’t know how to convey what I need. I’ll have to get it straight from his mind.” Stone resisted the temptation to look at his watch—which wouldn’t work here anyway. He was convinced he could feel the tension growing in the outer world, as Kolinsky and Daphne gradually brought the fissure under control. If they didn’t close it before he and Verity returned from their little jaunt into Jeremy’s terrified mind, then they’d be in trouble. Even if the fissure was gone, they’d still have to create the circle and open the portal to Jeremy’s home dimension. And he was deluding himself to think Kolinsky would give them that long.
If only they had a faster way to open the portal between the two dimensions, once they had the location—
Wait.
Maybe we do.
He gripped Verity’s hand tighter. “I’ve just had a mad idea.”
She was still focused on Jeremy and the lead teddy bear. “What is it? He’s not going to let you—”
“No, it’s not about that. It’s about how to get him home.”
“What?” She shot him a quick, confused glance. “You have to make a circle, right? That’s how you open the portal?”
“Maybe not.” He studied the boy again, this time with magical sight. Jeremy’s aura blazed bright and clear, obviously disturbed but just as obviously powerful. “A portal—even one of these fissures—is just an opening to another dimension.”
“Well…yeah. Even I know that, with my remedial portal skills.” Despite the gravity of the situation, her voice sounded wryly amused.
“The hardest part about making a portal work is getting it here in the first place.” Stone dropped easily into lecture mode. “The energy required to do it is immense, and it takes a lot of focus to get it rig
ht.”
“Yeah, and…?”
Even Jeremy seemed to be listening now. The boy had shifted his attention from Verity to Stone, and he was leaning forward a little.
“Don’t you see? We’ve already got a portal here.”
She jerked another startled glance at him. “What? That’s crazy. Who knows where that thing is pointing?”
“That’s just the thing—we don’t know where it’s pointing now. But as long as it’s here, assuming Stefan and Daphne haven’t closed it yet, it’s pointing somewhere. Maybe, once Jeremy gives us what we need to find his home dimension, we could sort of…hijack it.”
“Doc, come on. I know how much you want to do this, but that’s—”
“It’s not as crazy as you might think.” Stone was practically vibrating with enthusiasm now, part of it covering that he didn’t want to subject his plan to too much scrutiny yet, while it was still hypothetical. “Don’t forget, if it’s possible, we’ve got the optimal setup to give it a go. Daphne’s still the finest portal mind on the planet. Stefan is—well, Stefan—and trust me, he’s got a lot of knowledge about dimensional travel. And I’m no slouch myself. All we’re missing for portal superstars is Harrison. If we can convince Jeremy to provide the location, his affinity for his home dimension might be enough to help nudge that thing in the right direction.” He paced back and forth in front of the watchful teddy bear, almost as if he was trying to physically move as fast as his thoughts were racing. “In fact, he might not even need to give us the location, if he’s willing to help!”
“How does that work?” Verity looked dubious.
He pointed at Jeremy. “That’s not him. Unlike Daphne, he never had a physical body. He just manufactured one to live in this world. Ask him if he can return to his normal state, even on this dimension.”
She still didn’t look convinced, but nonetheless turned back to face Jeremy. “Jeremy…we need to know something. Do you need a physical body here, or is that just so you can go places with your mom? Can you switch back to your other form here?”
The silence stretched out for several seconds, and then he nodded.
“Brilliant!” The plan was starting to come together in Stone’s mind. He still wasn’t certain it would work—there were a lot of variables—but it was probably the best shot they had at sending Jeremy home before Kolinsky took things into his own hands. He resumed pacing. “Okay. Okay. So here’s what we’re going to do, if you can convince him to help us. His form has a strong affinity to his home dimension—we already know that. If we can take control of the portal and use him as a pattern to shift its target, we should have a few seconds to send him through before it collapses.”
“That sounds dangerous.” Verity frowned. “What do you mean, collapses? Could it blow up?”
“It…could,” Stone admitted reluctantly. “But it’s not likely—especially with me, Stefan, and Daphne monitoring things.”
“But Daphne’s going to want to go back with him, right? She’s his mother. She’s not going to send him through some unknown portal without going with him.”
That was a good point. “I think Stefan and I can hold it long enough for them to get through. It should be easier to close then, since it doesn’t sound like wherever they came from is nearly as malevolent as what it’s pointing at now. It won’t fight us as much.” Stone struggled to ramp down his galloping enthusiasm and think this through. If they were only going to get one chance, he needed to do everything he could to ensure it would be successful. Likely he’d never know if it was—or at least he’d never know if Daphne and Jeremy made it through safely.
“I don’t know, Doc…”
“Just…tell him. Ask him if he’s willing to help us. Come on, Verity—we don’t have a lot of time. Don’t you feel the pressure increasing?” When he took a moment to notice it, he realized it was getting worse. The strong, pleasant chocolate aroma was starting to take on a rancid edge, and the expressions on the silent toys ringing Jeremy were growing more sinister. “He’s losing control of this little haven, and trust me, we don’t want to be here when that happens.”
Verity looked at him for a long time, then sighed and turned back. “Jeremy…you heard him, right? Do you understand what we’re trying to do? If you can switch to your other form—the one without a physical body—you can help us figure out how to fix the big hole so it’s a good thing instead of a bad thing. You can go home. Will you help us?”
The silence stretched even longer. The little boy’s face showed uncertainty and fear, but also a desperate willingness to trust these people to send him back where the world wasn’t confusing and terrifying.
The world shifted again. The toys began to mass, forming an impenetrable phalanx between the boy and Stone and Verity. Their message was clear: they weren’t getting any closer.
“Jeremy,” Verity begged. “Please. Help us. Help yourself. Help your mom. We can’t do this without you.”
Stone watched with growing tension, unable to speak. All he could do was add to Verity’s plea with his eyes.
Jeremy’s gaze shifted between them. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
And then he nodded, and disappeared.
All around them, the world began to collapse, rolling up on itself, the shelves toppling, the toys tumbling, the images and sounds and smells turning to a discordant mishmash.
“Time to go,” Verity said quickly, and then the view around them faded to black.
31
For a second, Stone wasn’t sure whether they’d succeeded or failed.
But then the concrete, fluorescent-lit parking garage reappeared around them, with its familiar smells of diesel, car exhaust, and faint ozone from the fissure.
“Oh, bloody hell…” he murmured, pointing.
The fissure was bigger now. Not only had Kolinsky and Daphne not succeeded in closing part of it during the time Stone and Verity had been gone, but they seemed to be losing control of it.
Daphne was on her knees, and even the dragon was barely on his feet now. Both of them shook with the effort of holding the portal, and sweat ran down their pale faces.
“Doc! Look!”
Stone didn’t want to look away from the fissure, but he spun to follow Verity’s gaze toward where Jeremy had been seated behind the box truck.
He was gone now.
In his place was a shifting, faintly glowing cloud of energy. It was two or three feet in diameter at its widest point, shaped like a writhing amoeba floating four feet off the ground.
“Talk to him!” Stone ordered. “I need to explain what we’re doing to them.”
Without waiting for a reply, he hurried over to the fissure. “Stefan? Daphne? Can you hear me?”
“Little busy…” Daphne said through her teeth. “Did you get the coordinates?”
“No. But I think we got something better. Tell me if you think this will work.” He quickly explained his idea to her. He wasn’t sure if Kolinsky was listening; the dragon seemed fully focused on the fissure. Stone hoped so, though. He didn’t want to explain this twice.
Daphne was every bit the brilliant mind he’d remember. Even concentrating as she was on fighting the fissure’s edges, she still managed to make sense of what he was telling her. “It…might work,” she said, puffing. “It would be better to do…research…design a circle…”
“We don’t have time for that.” He pointed at Kolinsky. “He’s not going to allow it. If we do this, we can take care of two problems at once—close the fissure and get you two home. Will it work, Daphne?”
She looked like she didn’t want to answer, but finally she gave a reluctant nod. Sweat dripped off her chin. “I…think so. If you can…get Jeremy to help.”
“Verity!” Stone yelled. “Will he help?”
In answer, she hurried over to stand next to him. The sparking cloud moved with her, coming to a stop between her and his mother.
Stone’s heart was pounding now. This was the moment of truth. If this fa
iled, it could kill them all, and a lot more people besides.
No time to think of that now, though. Focus.
But first, he had to make sure Kolinsky would help—or at least not interfere. “Stefan…can you hear me?”
“Yes.” The dragon’s teeth were gritted, his jaw tight. Clearly, he was shouldering more of the burden of keeping the fissure under control than Daphne was.
“Did you hear what I told Daphne? Do you think it will work?”
“It…has a chance.”
“Are you willing to help? We can’t do this without you. I haven’t got the strength to fight it and you.”
“It seems…I do not have a choice.” Kolinsky didn’t sound happy about it.
Stone let his breath out in relief. He’d deal with the dragon later, if it became necessary. “All right. Good. Thank you. Now, let’s see what we can do here.”
He faced the cloud, which was now hovering uncertainly a foot behind Daphne. “Jeremy…what I want you to do is try to focus on your home. Concentrate hard. If you can, try to change the energy from this…er…hole so it points there. It’s all right if you can’t do that—that’s mostly our job. But we need to be able to see where your home is, and that’s your job. All right? Do you understand?”
The cloud changed from white with red sparks to a medium blue, then back.
Stone hoped that meant ‘yes.’ “Daphne—I assume you want to go with him?”
“Of course! I…told you before…I’m his mother!”
“All right. Okay.” Stone paced back and forth behind them. “This is the tricky part. When I say go, Stefan and Daphne, both of you will need to stop fighting the fissure. It might grow a little, but that’s all right. We all need to fix on Jeremy, take his energy pattern, and impose it on the fissure. Stefan, you provide the main power. Daphne, you use whatever bond you have with Jeremy and add the fine control. I’ll combine the two and try to shift the fissure. Once it changes, you’ll only have a few seconds to go through. Am I making sense? Do you see anything wrong with my reasoning?”
Daphne shook her head, flinging beads of sweat. “I…don’t think so. But…never been done…”
