“I am not with her. I am just as surprised as you guys!” I protested.
“I don’t believe you!” Taylor said.
“I don’t really care what you believe, Taylor!” I snapped back.
Taylor got in the middle and said, “Enough you guys!” She turned to the doctor and asked, “Are you certain that Kieran is dead? You looked like you weren’t sure before.”
“I can’t be one hundred percent sure but I don’t want to give you false hope. I didn’t find a pulse when I checked,” the doctor said.
“So, we’re really not sure if Kieran is dead... yet? And we left him there?” I said, incredulously.
“All the more reason we need to go find out what happened to him! Guys, we need to get Kieran back,” Hailey said.
Blaise said with his voice breaking, “I agree. He’s a coward but no one deserves that.” Taylor pulled Blaise closer and they huddled together by the fire.
I was beginning to gain control of my shaking knees and my pounding heart. I sat on the couch behind Taylor and Blaise and tried to make sense of things.
I can’t believe they are lumping me in with the doctor when except for the few sessions I had with her, I know next to nothing about her. This is not fair. Then I felt suddenly ashamed at my self-centered attitude after all, everyone was thinking about Kieran.
“What exactly happened in that corridor? Blaise, can you tell us what you saw?” Hailey said.
Blaise was still shaking and couldn’t speak without stuttering. I took the throw blanket from the couch and handed it to Taylor who pushed it away gently.
“Thanks. He needs something cold to ease his burn but it might be helpful if we find him something to drink.”
I looked at the doctor inquisitively.
“This is the exact copy of the floor plan of the Triangle. There’s a bathroom at the same corner. It’s safe here, you can go and get what you need,” answered the doctor.
Hailey looked at the doctor with disdain. “You see, I don’t know how you know that? That means you’re from...whereever this place is. How do I know you’re not with those hooded men? I don’t trust you!” She stood to go to the bathroom but not before she gave the doctor a glare that could melt paint. She came back with a bunch of wet towels and a glass of water. He handed the water to Blaise without removing her eyes away from the doctor. She gave the wet towels to Taylor who applied them to Blaise’s burns. He jerked away at every touch. Then he started to mumble. He kept shaking and murmuring something just slightly beyond our hearing.
It made my insides churn to see them like this.
Blaise took the glass of water from Hailey with shaking hands and took a sip, trying not to spill. He kept staring at the fire and trembling under the blanket as if the coldness in his body would never ever leave. He winced once in while when the blanket accidentally touched his skin.
He kept mumbling, “I don’t understand. The hooded men, they didn’t...do...they didn’t...Where did the fireball come from? I was ahead of Kieran then I was behind Kieran. I don’t understand?”
“Babe, what happened? You’re not making any sense. Please tell us what happened to you out there. You’re beginning to scare me,” implored Taylor.
He started haltingly, “There were flashing lights...there were hooded men after us...Kieran...he’s...lying on the floor...he wasn’t moving...”
He stopped and started to shake violently, crying and sobbing over his words.
“We need to get out of here. They are coming!” Blaise shouted all of sudden.
The doctor came around. “It’s the shock, please let me help him.” Taylor looked at me and I nodded. She got up from her seat and gave the doctor some room.
Doctor McGrath placed a hand over his head, murmured a few words under her breath, and Blaise calmed down. Then she moved her hand over the wound and continued murmuring and the blistered skin stopped bleeding. The wound was still clearly raw and painful but his body stopped trembling from the shock and it seemed the pain had gone away. She said, “That’s as much as I can do for now.” Taylor nodded her thanks.
“Now, Blaise, you are safe here. We are safe here. Tell us what you saw?” the doctor asked him gently. She closed her eyes and then ran her hands from the top of his head towards the bottom of his feet in a sweeping motion, as if dispersing some invisible dirt away from Blaise’s body. Once she got to the bottom of his feet, Blaise took a deep, long breath and visibly calmed down. He seemed like his pain was lifted from him and he started to tell us what he saw.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t shake the smell of the Sampaguita in the air.
“I went to the hallway to see if anyone was coming. It was very dark. All the lights in the hall were off. I got the front of the building and I heard something behind me. I turned to see Kieran. He was running towards me in the darkness. I continued on towards the front. Then I saw them. They were not there...I was watching the door but then suddenly, there they were standing right in front of me. Three men with dark hooded cloaks. They had this kind of golden belt around them that shone in the dark. That’s how I saw them. They started to walk, run, no, they were floating towards me and I stood there like an idiot and started to yell at them and tell them I was going to call the police. I thought I could scare them off. But they just kept coming. They stood there staring at me, floating in the air. A really short one in the middle and tall ones on both sides of him. Just floating there staring at me. I realized I couldn’t fight whatever this is so I started to run back to the library to warn you.”
“Did you notice if the ends of the belts had globes or knives?” the doctor asked.
Blaise gaped at the doctor like she was crazy. “Look, lady, I wasn’t really up to admiring their fashion sense at the time. So, no I didn’t notice what belt they had on. I just saw it glimmered, like gold.” Taylor patted his arm gently to calm him down. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” he said.
“The Knights of the Crown are hardened assassins. You’re lucky they didn’t kill you,” the doctor said.
“But they didn’t shoot at me or anything. At least not then.” He took a big gulp of the water and cleared his throat.
“Who are these Knights of the Crown?” blurted Hailey.
“Wait, let’s have him finish,” I said and Hailey nodded.
“I ran down the hallway. But even in the dark, I knew they were still behind me. Then I saw Kieran. He was just a few feet away from the library door. But he was terrified. He was paralyzed with fear. I told him to run! He started to run too. He was ahead of me a good few yards. Then all of a sudden there were flashes of lights whizzing past us. I saw fire on the sides of the wall and flashes of light. I saw Kieran pounding on the door and a fireball hit him square on the back right before you opened the door and he got in. I ran as fast as I could to get to the door. I saw it closing. So I yelled for someone to open the door. But I got hit. I barely made it in alive. I tripped but I crawled my way back to the library.”
He looked at his shaking hands and winced as his shirt touched the raw wound of his shoulder. He continued, “When I got in, there was Kieran on the floor. You know the rest.”
“How many men were there?” I asked.
“I only saw three. I don’t know if there were others behind them. I just remembered there were a lot of flashes and one of them hit Kieran. I remember I ran as fast as I could and nearly got hit too. I could have been dead too!”
“We don’t know if he’s dead,” I said.
“No, we don’t and for all we know he’s there on the floor, dying right now!” Hailey said.
“That’s it! I have had it!” Taylor jumped to her feet. “You need to get us back and you need to explain to the police that we had nothing to do with this! If anything happens to Blaise, so help me...I will sue each and every one of you!”
I looked up, startled by Taylor’s outbu
rst. I saw the bright white and blue glow around her but it flickered and disappeared. I must have had my mouth open because Taylor said, “What are you gawking at? You better figure out how to get this right or you’re going to think current trouble with the media is kid’s play!” I made a quick mental note, why blue for Taylor, red for Hailey but green for the doctor? Why for Taylor and Hailey, the halos are shimmering and glowing instead of slithering colors of green the doctor has?
“Look here, Ms. I-will-sue-you, I had nothing to with this, either. So you can get off your litigious-happy high-horse and shut up so I can think!” yelled Hailey.
Taylor said, “How dare you tell me to shut up! I have good mind to—”
“Everybody be quiet! This is not helping anyone! We need to figure out what we’re going to do next!” the doctor yelled.
With that, everyone fell back into his or her little corner of the Sanctuary. No one except Taylor and Blaise were sitting together. The air in the room felt charged with anger and frustration. But more than that, I could feel the fear.
All I could think about was why Taylor was glowing and Blaise had no glow at all. I took a quick look around and confirmed, yes, Blaise was the only one without a shimmer. Well except for me. I don’t know if I have a glow. Also, I don’t remember seeing a glow around Kieran but he’s not present in the room and moreover, I don’t know if the glow stays when someone dies. I pressed my fingers against my temples. I was getting a very bad headache from all shimmering and glowing colors in the room. Yet another secret to keep, I told myself.
“Should we do something about Kieran? What if the police find him there?” Hailey asked.
“Like what? He’s in a parallel universe library and we are stuck here,” I said.
“Worse, what if those hooded men are still there?” Taylor said.
“I know you guys don’t trust me but I may have a way to fix this,” the doctor interjected.
“You’re right! Why don’t you start with why we should even listen to you?” Taylor snapped at her.
The doctor ignored her and focused on me.
“Ok, Abigail,” Doctor McGrath conceded. “Your uncle asked me to make sure that you are safe. We agreed there something about this box and that it is a key to unlocking your memory. I’m here to protect you.”
“Does he know that you are a... witch?” I asked.
“No he doesn’t. He just knows that I’m very successful at what I do. And that I come highly recommended by the Trifama.”
“Oh great because not only do you use witchcraft, you’re a witch for the mob!” I sniped at her.
“This is all your fault, Abigail!” Taylor got up and screamed at me.
Blaise pulled her back down to his side. “It doesn’t matter. We need to do something about Kieran.” Blaise pushed his fingers through his hair, obviously wracked with guilt. “Tell us.”
“When you say, the Library Triangle is in a parallel universe, you’re somewhat correct. But it is not a parallel world. It’s the same one but with two or more different overlapping realities. The realities are separated only by a thin membrane of disconsonant vibration.
“We call our reality the Xana Mundi. And we call your reality, Terra Mundi. Xanas and Terrans for short. Some of your kind refers to our realm as the shadow world, or underworld even Netherworld. But history lesson aside, there is a way to cross over before Kieran...died.”
“Wait, time-travel? Get out!” Hailey exclaimed.
“Well, effectively yes. Through the Broken Realms, there are spots where time and space are severely distorted and we can cross from there. It’s like using the force of the distortion as a sling to send us back a few minutes or a few hours.”
“The Broken Realms? Time travel? This is all beyond me. How is this even possible?” I asked.
“I call BS! I don’t believe a single—” Hailey blurted but got interrupted by the doctor.
“Listen to me! There was a time when the world had equal coverage of magic,” Doctor McGrath continued. “There was magic in everything in nature and every being has magic in them. But such a perfect world can only last so long. Greed for power is in the nature of man. To make a long story short, the King Maker saw it fit to replace the old world with a new one. He invoked the Gunaw, a force so destructive it cut the old dominion into separate realms. Normally, they don’t mix, meaning, if you are a Xana, you can go a lifetime not meeting a “Terrans” as I’m sure there are Terrans who have never seen what you call magic. Because of the Gunaw, the fabric is no longer equally distributed. There are areas of both realities where the seam of time and space is not as strong or is completely rent. In those areas, you can cross from one to another if you know how. That’s how we were able to cross. I opened a portal at the layline that goes through the Library Triangle.”
“Lady, you lost me at overlapping worlds. This is just crazy talk. I don’t want to be involved in this. Not in Kieran’s murder, not in your magic quest crap about that box, and especially not with this fake doctor! I’m out! I bet we haven’t left the school. I bet if I walked out that door, I can march to Professor Andrew’s office. Like I said, this is all BS!” Hailey said as she got up and stormed toward the door.
To everyone’s surprise, before she got to the door she hit something strong that bounced her back a few steps back. “What the hell!”
She took a running start and gunned for the door. This time, she flew back and ended up on her back on the floor, dazed.
“I recommend you don’t do that anymore,” Doctor McGrath said. “It will just push you back just as hard and you might get hurt. We just need to wait for when the portal opens. This is not Harry Potter, you know. This is the real world magic and you can really get hurt here.”
“Are you ok?” I asked as I helped Hailey back to a chair. She nodded but didn’t say a word.
The doctor continued, “It takes a few hours for the portal to align. As best as I can make it out, to go from the library to the Sanctuary and back, there is no time difference. If you go form the Sanctuary to the Black Rose, you gain four hours back but if you go back from the Black Rose the reverse is true. The catch is of course that the Black Rose is in a separate county. It will take you about an hour to drive from there to the school library.”
“Does that mean if keep jumping from here to the Black Rose, whatever that is, we can keep going to the past?” I asked.
“Technically speaking, it will allow you to do that. Practically speaking, you shouldn’t. Another time travel law you shouldn’t forget. Remember, we are dealing with warped gravitational forces caused by a cataclysmic event, not a precise mechanical contraption. You could get lost in the loop and find yourself back in your timeline but years and years older. So yes, you could but you would be risking the Rip Van Winkle effect. The story goes that he went to the Catskill Mountains and fell asleep for twenty years waking up having missed the American Revolution completely. That’s the story we always hear. Truth is, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He woke up all right but found himself in the wrong timeline. He tried to keep going back to his present time but got caught in a loop. He finally succeeded but two decades had already passed in his timeline by then. He was that much older but not wiser because he basically physically aged in one night without the benefit of the experience.
“The time we are going to gain by going to the Black Rose today, don’t think that won’t cost you. Just because you know how to do it, doesn’t mean it’s not magic and doing magic is not free. As humans, the body will be four hours older and the effort will exhaust you. But you guys are young, what’s four hours? But to answer your question, no, you shouldn’t be jumping in and out of fireplaces.”
She went and picked up the box from the floor and hobbled over to me.
“Abigail, you need to stop pretending this doesn’t involve you. I took some time to research what this box could be
. From what I can find out, this is a Kerberian Box. It is very rare. There are only three known boxes to exist. This box is not made of Terran wood, I mean, anything from your realm. The wood is supposed to be alive but dormant. The sacrifice of keeping anything alive in this state indefinitely only to secure an object is proof that whatever is inside is a very powerful magical item. Legend has it that one of these boxes holds a certain crown. The crown is made of obsidian and it is pure power. If you think it’s bad that they are accusing you of murdering your parents to get money in your world, being found to steal one of these boxes in Xana Mundi is a crime worse by far. I think the Knights of the Crown found out that you have the box. They think you murdered your parents to get to this box. You need to figure out how to open this box, find out what is in it, and why they want it so bad. So much so that they are willing to kill us all to get it.” She stood there with her broken face and broken body waiting for me to take the box from her.
“I keep telling you I have never seen this box before and I don’t know how to open it,” I protested weakly.
I couldn’t help but glance at the box. The doctor was right; it is alive. I could see the forms moving, rearranging themselves under the doctor’s fingers.
“Your parents are gone. Kieran is dead. We are next if you don’t grow up and take responsibility!” She shoved the box at me. I had no choice but to take it. She sat back on one of the chairs, grunting from the pain of her multiple injuries.
“How do you know it’s not evil in there?” asked Hailey, directed at the group.
The Obsidian Crown of the Lost Dominion Page 7
