Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (38 page)

"No
doubt. Well, oops? I'll know to do that next time." He smiled back,
wondering if it was about like what his new friend was doing. Kind of fake, and
not really showing from the inside now.

The only
thing there was that Zack could get his inner self to do it, making it feel
more real. Gwen laughed and after a moment, so did Heather. They were
different, but it really did have some common thread between it, if filtered
through different life experiences.

Without
waiting, Zack started in on what he had to say.

"I
was attacked, a... Day ago? In real time. I was on vacation, and my old friend,
Big Shadow... He's an arch-demon, from where I come from. Um, anyway, this was
before we were friends, so..." He stopped, thought about it all as the
women looked at him, and smiled again. "Right. Okay, let me see here. Big
Shadow, that's the name I gave him as a child, in the void, where he basically
raised me. It's a different place, and time runs differently there. So I was
there with him for a very long time. When he attacked me... Yesterday, it was
from before he met me. Um... Time travel?" He looked at the women with
him, and Gwen nodded, accepting it.

"So
it was his first time meeting you, but you've spent thousands of years being
his friend? Got it." She really seemed to, though Heather looked a bit
puzzled still.

"Yeah.
So, you know, I couldn't kill him, which left me possessed. That... Well, I
ended up having to slow time and walking toward home, so my wife Merry could
behead me. It hurt more than I can express and lasted..." He shrugged, and
looked from one woman to the other. "Forever? That sounds like I'm just
talking. The perceived time it took me was longer than all of time, from
beginning to end, I think. It wasn't fun, but Big Shadow and I made it. It wasn't
nearly as long for him, thankfully, or
he'd
have gone insane, too."

The
women nodded then, as if it just made sense that he wasn't exactly right
anymore. That made him wonder just how funny he was acting, not realizing it.

There
were questions that they both had, but neither knew how to ask them. That
wasn't what they needed to know anyway.

Listening
to their inner selves, he understood what was needed, for them to understand
him.

"Ah.
So, I guess the right thing to say is that Big Shadow was sent by the elder
gods to drive me into opening a bridge, or gateway for them to come back to
this place and time. So that they can destroy reality, in their madness. It
isn't the only way to get that, but it
is
the only way they have left.
For the moment. Coming in on the mind of a human, not just me."

The
women, both of them, went white then.

Gwen
winced, and looked upset for a bit. Scared, really. He only got that because
her inner self told him however. It was a thing that he just couldn't connect
to now. Fear.

"Fuck.
So this is about
them
? I thought, really, that we were done with that.
We had a thing a few years ago, where a group of insane mages tried to open up
a gate for them. What do we do?"

Zack
looked at her and didn't speak for a long time, deciding not to really tell her
all of it, since he doubted it would help at this point. She didn't need to
know it
all
, just enough to save everything. That path would lead to
fall out later, when she understood it all, but until then it would let her
still live.

"We
can stop it. Working together. There is a section of reality, of worlds,
really, with people there that are part of their bigger plan. Us, Kate... Um, a
friend of mine. She's pretty much Katherine, I think?" That got Heather to
sneer a bit, and look away.

It was
clear she wasn't a fan of that particular being.

Zack
shrugged.

"Not
all of us will be the same, even if we are on some levels. She's an Alede...
Um, a succubus? Also a line walker, which means she can, um, teleport between
worlds?" He looked at both of the women, as Gwen made a fake, deep
chuckle.

Then she
looked at Heather.

"See,
I
told
you that we called it that. It's called
teletransport
here. I can do it, but I've never gone between worlds. Not that I've known
about. That kind of makes sense. That Katherine here is involved too? Are there
others?"

He
shrugged.

"Yes?
My friend Troy, I think. He's a vampire in one world, and a line walker in mine.
I don't know if he's here, but it wouldn't shock me to find that he's around
someplace. There are about six of us, I think. Maybe more? If we can work
together... We might be able to end this. For now."

Heather
looked at him, so he did it back. She wasn't as good looking as Gwen, but part
of that was age, and the rest the hard line from around her mouth. From being
stern for so long.

"
That
doesn't sound good."

"I
know. This has all happened before. It will happen again. Until, eventually,
they walk through one of the gates, and destroy it all. I don't know how many
times, but this
isn't
uncommon. We also aren't the only ones that have
had to do something like this. There's a battle, and it's been going on longer
than humans have existed and if we do our part correctly, it will be left to
someone else after humans are gone." Part of that was true, anyway.

It was,
in the end, a simple truth that had to be looked into. They were going to be
around until the end. Some version of their intelligence was at any rate. It
was just the way reality worked.

He
didn't mention that, since it was too big for them to make a part of
themselves. They didn't need to yet, since they could be young and partly free,
for the time being, if he wasn't a jerk about it all.

Still,
shadow Gwen turned to him, her inner voice soft, and gentle.

We
are
them, aren't we? We are
the Elder Gods...

Inside
he nodded, but smiled too.

The
ones that do not seek an end to all existence. The good guys, but yes. We are
them. We all are. Every being you've ever met. All that have been, and will be.

Shadow
Gwen took a deep breath, but didn't pass the data along to the conscious part
of her own self. Getting what was probably needed to allow her to keep going.

Outer
Gwen moved toward him and touched his arm. It was interesting, but not
flirtatious. She actually felt slightly bad about doing it, being so ugly. Which
wasn't true. Not now, at any rate.

"What
do you need us to do?" She was scared, having connected with the utter
madness of what was coming before, once. It lived inside of her now. Heather
too, he realized. Just brushing against it had left them twisted and scarred.

"Prepare.
Make your minds focused, and be willing to do anything. It...We can't fail, and
it will be worse than I can make you ready for. So... Keep that in mind and get
ready?" It didn't make sense, but both of them weren't strangers to pain
or hard work. It would be enough for them, he thought. For now.

Gwen
finally moved back and nodded.

"I
think I get it. I need to learn to move between worlds. That will be fun."
To her that meant being tortured, until she did it correctly, and probably
being stuck forever in some other place, unable to get back.

Zack
shook his head.

"It's
easy
. If you can move from one place to another, you just need to know
where you're going. I'll show you. We can... Can you get away for a bit? You
can come with me, as I redo this little talk. Maybe people will be nicer if I
have a girl along. You know, being less of a threat like you are?" He
smiled, since Gwen was rather dangerous in a lot of ways. Heather was, too. She
didn't teleport however, so wasn't going to come on this trip.

There
was a nod, and an inner knowledge that if she left from there that day, she
might never return. That was the risk of life, which was a thing she was
hardened too now.

"We
can do that. Now?"

"Sure.
Heather... Can you get away soon? It will just be a few hours. Well, on the
outside. I need to teach you to line walk, and it might take a while in the
void." He didn't want to scare her off. Still, being able to move around
was probably the most basic of skills needed. It was a power, after a fashion,
but without it they weren't going to be valuable enough to stop what was
coming.

Really,
they might fail anyway.

The
woman looked at him, and figured that he was going to torture her too, which
was how they did things here. They took children and pushed them with pain into
doing things no one should ever have to. It wasn't these peoples fault, but he
felt so sad about it for a moment, before he let that part go.

"It
doesn't hurt, doing it my way. You'll change, but that's just what we have to
do. If I could keep you both from it, I would." He meant it. They were
both so young and fragile in a lot of ways, even as they stood there being hard,
and in control.

Heather,
understanding that they had a plan for the moment, put her head piece on, and
then spoke calmly.

"Come
at night, and I can get away. About ten?"

"It
will be a few days, I think. Plus, I can't guarantee the exact arrival time.
I'll wait for you, back here?" Unless the guards came to kill him. That
would change things.

Heather
sighed.

"Which
means I have to check every day? Great. Well, a walk won't hurt me. See you
then." She had to walk in a half circle to turn in her armor, and moved
off sounding like a giant.

Then he
held his hand out, and took Gwen's. She was a bit reluctant to do that, so he
looked at her white hand, and tilted his head.

"Is
holding hands wrong here?"

She
looked at him funny, but laughed a bit.

"Yeah.
That isn't it. I used to be... Kind of warped. Deformed? In my old body. So I
keep expecting everyone to treat me like they used to. Forcing themselves to
touch me, and then only when needed. It wasn't fun. Not walking through
hell
for all eternity either, so I'll try not to let it be a big deal now, I
guess." She winced a bit, as if bringing up most of his life was
forbidden. It did bring back the idea of the pain, but he forced his mind away
from it smoothly.

"Oh.
Well, it will be easier to take the shortcuts to the node here if we do. You
won't need that, I bet, but I do for now. I need to stay in the physical world
as much as I can for a while, so I don't forget about it. Come on?"

The walk
took about half an hour, and they held hands the whole time, since letting go
would make it seem like he was judging her, when he wasn't. She looked fine
now, and even the image of her how she was before seemed correct to him. Lumpy
and not symmetrical, but still, she was
him
. No matter what they looked
like. Or what she did.

She
seemed interested when they got through the first shortcut, and glanced at him
on the other side of the trip, after three more hops. They ended up in front of
a node, which she didn't see, clearly.

"That's
different. Is that hard for you to do, taking someone else?"

"Nope.
We just walked through rips and tears that were already there. I can just see
them, so it makes it easier for me. There's a big one right here, in the rock
face? We can enter the void from here." He pointed at the tan rocks. It
was probably in the Grand Canyon, or whatever they called it there, a good two
or three thousand miles from where they started.

Gwen
stared then shrugged. Then, for some reason flipped her hands up.

"I
don't see anything. Then, I didn't before. Shall we?"

Zack
stepped in, Gwen moving along with him. He didn't really have to move
physically to do it now, of course. Really, if he were alone, all he had to do
to end up in the void was die. That or rip open a shortcut to a node directly.
This was less messy, so he carried Gwen through with him, ending up not in his
world, but in a room that wasn't there, in space. With the giant version of
him.

Tor.
That seemed like a mistake at first, but the man turned to look at them, seemed
confused for half a second, then spoke. This time his words weren't strange and
foreign at all.

"Hello!
I'm Torrance Baker."

"Zack
Hartley, or at least one of us. This is Gwen Farris." He was about to
explain when he tilted his head. Like Zack and even Gwen did.

"I...
Know you. Here. I think that you're my friend, Trice. My sister-in-law?"

She
seemed to be about to explain, so Zack waited, amazed that the man was speaking
the right language now. The man looked at him, touching his shadow, answering
instantly.

"I
learned it. I have a friend, Doris, who knows it. It's really old. It pretty
much hasn't existed in a few thousand years. It took me most of the last week
to pick up. I'm still not perfect at it. Doris keeps making fun of my
accent." He did have one, and sounded slightly German, but it was a soft
thing, and no one would have had a problem with it back home.