Souls of the Never: A Fantasy Scifi Romance Time Travel series, with Dragons, Elves and Faeries. (Tales of the Neverwar Series Book 1) (14 page)

Kat and Krista giggled at the image of Perri accosting some poor unwary guy on some distant planet. God help the galaxy if Perri ever managed to escape, Katheryne thought, smiling.

“You need to be what you’ve always been to me Perri,” she said, “You need to be my rock, I need you here so I have something to anchor myself to, something that I can use to bring us back if this doesn’t work.”

“What do you mean if this doesn’t work,” Krista interjected, “Sorry Katheryne, I trust you but we could be lost, end up anywhere, anywhen in fact.”

“Is that even a word?” Perri asked before she got what Krista had meant, “You mean you can time travel? Cool!”

Krista smiled but adopted a serious attitude right away. “Yes, time travel is possible, but it’s never done. The risks are just...terrible. It just can’t be done. It’s written into our core being, some sort of genetic law handed down through all of us.”

Perri, indeed Katheryne as well were looking at Krista blankly. Some further explanation was obviously required.

“Okay,” explained Krista, putting on her school teacher voice again, “Let’s say that I left here now and went back in time and killed my own grandfather as a boy...I know, brutal, but it’s just an example,” she added as the girls’ faces blanched.

“So, with my grandfather dead before he could have had children, then how could I have existed...Are you with me so far?”

They nodded.

“Right, well here’s the rub. If I never existed, then who went back to kill my grandfather?”

She watched as confusion mixed with understanding and then back to confusion again on Katheryne and Perri’s faces.

“That’s...that’s just mad,” said Perri.

“That...is a paradox,” said Krista, “and something like that happening can rip realities apart. Although similar natural events are happening on a smaller scale right now.”

“You mean people are killing their own grandfathers all the time?” Perri looked across at Katheryne, “Doesn’t sound very natural to me.”

Krista laughed, not quite sure if Perri had been serious. Perri winked at Katheryne who giggled again.

“Nothing that drastic Perri,” the school teacher voice said, “But the decisions we make each day change the paths of realities, even if it’s almost too subtle to notice. For instance, a girl could get up one morning and put on a red dress instead of a blue one, and the guy she passes in the street smiles at her because he likes girls in red dresses. They talk, go on a date, get married and have children. And all because she wore the red dress instead of the blue.”

“While in another reality she chooses the blue dress and he walks past her in the street, never noticing her,” finished Perri, “Wow, this is heavy stuff.”

“Quite,” said Krista, smiling widely. “But these are natural events, not intentional incursions into the past in an attempt to change the future. Such events would wipe out...well….limitless realities. So it’s never done and there are barriers at the core of all Liberi to prevent it happening.”

“So, that’s why you need me to stay here,” said Perri, “Well I suppose if I have to save reality single handed I can forego the holiday...this time anyway.” She turned to Krista, “But when all this is over you owe me a trip to some pleasure planet somewhere….I suppose they do exist, don’t they?”

Krista laughed musically, “Perri, if we get through this I’ll show you sights that’ll blow your mind. And I won’t even be stealing your boyfriends,” she added under her breath, just loud enough to make Perri gasp.

Katheryne and Krista laughed out loud at Perri’s shocked expression and a second later she joined in.

“Well,” she said in between breaths, “I never saw that coming.”

After much more utterly deserved and required giggles had been giggled, the girls finally calmed and Katheryne turned to her two friends.

“Ready?”

Both nodded nervously. The tension ramped up again as Katheryne began to stretch out her awareness, faintly hearing a voice say, “If we die, Amanda’s going to kill us, you know that, right?”

She couldn’t laugh but she could feel the humour deep in her soul as she soared across the Never, part of her still attached to Perri as she sought the place she needed. She linked to Krista and used her knowledge of the stars to find a suitable world, and finding one, she reached back and guided her as she created the portal.

Instantly Krista and Katheryne were surrounded by trees, in a wide clearing with an odd shade of blue sky overhead. There was life everywhere and Katheryne could sense birds and animals throughout the area as she cast out her awareness. She drank it all in, delighting in the exquisite differences between here and Earth.

“We’re on Dalryras,” Krista said in wonder, “My God you did it, I can’t believe you actually did it.”

Katheryne was smiling too, “I thought you said you trusted me, why so surprised?”

“Do you think I’d have even gone along with this quite frankly bonkers idea if I hadn’t?” she said, laughing warmly.

Katheryne joined in but she started to feel a sense of urgency, as if she needed to be somewhere, fast.

Krista noticed and began her own preparations for a portal, but Katheryne became concerned. Her knowledge of portals was still incredibly limited.

“Where will we go? Is there somewhere on Sanctuary you know is safe?” asked Katheryne, “I mean something must have gone wrong if the barrier was still there.”

“Don’t worry, there’s a place only Derren and I know about. He took me there once, but I always felt as if I was intruding, like it was his place somehow.” Her expression was thoughtful for a second, as if she had almost grasped a stray notion before it had escaped unfulfilled, “I can get us there, ready?”

Katheryne held her hand as they walked through the shimmering air to be transported into a dream.

28 – Sanctuary – Plan B

Derren knew something was wrong. The number of guards in the cell block had just been tripled, and though the security systems prevented a clear link to the outside world or his friends, he could sense confusion and something like a controlled edge of panic.

He wondered if the attack had begun as planned. He knew the allotted time had passed and he worried for the safety of Katheryne and the others. They should be on Sanctuary by now, but they had a combined force of twelve Liberi, more than enough to handle what the Corps could throw at them.

He was taken completely by surprise when Toshi and Laren fell through the portal in the ceiling on top of the group of guards in the room. Pandemonium reigned for a few seconds as the two of them quickly regained their equilibrium and dispatched the guards within the immediate vicinity. The whole process took about thirty seconds but Derren heard alarms going off throughout the building.

Laren went to the security panel to lower the force field as Toshi stepped forward to embrace his friend.

“We have a little trouble, my friend,” he stated.

Derren graced him with one of his crooked grins, “That’s what I always loved about you Toshi, your gift for understatement.” His smile vanished, however, as Toshi and Laren’s expressions conveyed the gravity of the situation.

“The others?” asked Derren, meaning the other teams.

“Unknown,” replied Laren. She had avoided contact with them. Two teams hadn’t responded to her last link, which meant at least one member of those teams of two was a traitor. No normal being could have silenced another Liberi so quickly.

She thought it unlikely all the teams had been compromised and they had probably gone dark in order to get to safety. So until she had been contacted by at least a group of four she would not respond. She decided if more than three Liberi had been turned, then they were in real trouble.

“So what went wrong?” asked Derren as they stripped weapons from the guards.

“Not a what,” said Toshi, “More of a who.”

Derren look confused.

“OK, short version,” continued Toshi, and told Derren about the confrontation in the control room.

Derren’s head was reeling as Toshi finished. “This, Dwenn, was she my height, slim, dark hair?”

“Sounds about right,” said Toshi, “You know her?”

“Knew her,” hissed Derren, “She’s dead, or at least she’s supposed to be.”

“That is...unfortunate.” Toshi was rarely flustered but this news shook his calm demeanour. “At least that explains the aura she was emanating. She’s no Liberi Derren, but she has power, a lot of it. She’s the one blocking the portal to Earth.”

“Which is still up I assume?” Toshi nodded.

“Right,” Derren said, “I take it you have one of your legendary plan B’s in progress?” He smiled and Toshi returned it.

“Oh how well you know me my friend.” Toshi glanced at Laren who was manning the security cameras. “How long?”

“Two minutes tops,” replied Laren, grimacing. She turned to Toshi, “You were the only one of us with the clear image of the cell so fortunately none of the others can portal here. But the guards are coming down the riser and the stairs. I’ve closed all the doors I can but it won’t take them long to break through.”

Toshi paused for a second, going over the plan in his head. He turned to Derren.

“We have been betrayed, my friend.” The calm composure he outwardly projected was a mirror for what he felt inside. These people had been their friends for years. They were clearly the same persons they always had been, or else they would have been found out over the last few days of planning.

So what force was out there which could turn them to betray and kill their friends?

“Our choices are to run, or fight. If we escape to wherever we can, however, we lose the opportunity of taking out the traitors,” said Toshi.

“And if we leave, we spend the rest of our days looking over our shoulders,” Derren agreed, “We will never know who to trust, no matter how long we’ve known them. But they can’t have turned many or else we’d be dead by now.”

“We know they’re here now so we bring them to us?” asked Laren.

“Exactly,” said Toshi, “however this is neither the right time nor place. We should depart and create one of our own choosing. And there is also this Dwenn to deal with. She is an unknown.”

“When the time comes, leave her to me.” Derren’s face was a mask. “That creature, whatever it is, isn’t Dwenn. I’ll be doing her memory a favour. Besides, we still need to deactivate the block she has on Earth. And if I need to kill her to do that, well, its two birds with one stone isn’t it?” Derren smiled cruelly.

“We need to go, now!” shouted Laren as an explosion went off outside in the passageway.

Derren nodded and began to open a portal to a place he hoped only two people knew about. As the shimmer widened he beckoned the others through and followed on himself. One minute they were in in the cell block surrounded by dead or dying bodies, the next they were...not where Derren had expected.

The view was spectacular but familiar, as he took in the wide azure sea and the white powder beach backed by the thickening trunks of the jungle. It was the island he had visited many times while on Sanctuary, when he had wanted total seclusion to ponder the face in the drawing. Now as he looked around, it was as if the colour had intensified a hundredfold. Everything was sharper, more vivid, and his eyes widened as he understood at last where he was. His heart jumped. This was Katheryne’s Island.

Why hadn’t he seen it before, when they were together there? True, they had been...distracted, he thought with a smile, but it was unmistakably the same place. The only details missing were the other Powers.

Another question entered his head. How had Katheryne imagined this place and created it in her dreams? He thought about his months of shielding her from the beast. Perhaps he might have subconsciously revealed this place, but as he followed the thought through, the truth dawned and his heart swelled.

Katheryne had been dreaming of this island for years before they had ever met. Derren was overcome as he realised what this meant.

He had been dreaming of her, searching for her for years. And every time he came to this island, to clear his mind and think of her, she had been here with him, somehow. She knew he was coming, maybe not consciously but her heart and soul were already bound to his, even as his were to her, from the first thought they shared of each other.

“Derren!”

He heard the voice but he closed his eyes, not wanting to believe the impossible truth. His soul tore his eyes open as he turned to see her, running towards him. She flew into his embrace as their essence merged. They were together, and nothing would ever tear them apart.

29 – The Glade – The Brownies

“Did you see that?” asked Amilee, pointing off to the side of the path. They were walking to her parent’s cabin, a journey they had undertaken countless times.

Gwenyth looked to where Amilee was indicating but saw nothing.

“I don’t see anything,” she said, shielding her eyes from the sun as it glimpsed through a gap in the trees, “What was it?”

“I’m not sure. I could have sworn for a second I saw a dinor,” said Amilee, “But there’s no way they’d come this deep into the Glade. They know the Faer folk rule the forest.”

“And I can’t imagine the Faer folk allowing a dinor to get this far in the first place. It’s over one hundred leagues from their lands to here, and why would any dinor want to travel this far to a place where he could get killed on sight anyway?”

“Hmm, I suppose,” agreed Amilee, “It must have been a trick of...OOF!”

She was cut off short by the impact of a large green ball hitting her at the base of the back, and as she sprawled forwards onto her hands, she saw a similar ball topple her friend.

She looked down at her cut hands and knew her knees were bleeding too. This path wasn’t well travelled so the ground was rough. Gwen was just about upright again when a gravelly voice came from the undergrowth.

“Not hurt us, please not hurt us!” The voice was obviously terrified but Amilee was angry.

“Us hurt you?” she shouted, indignantly, “You’re not the ones lying on the ground with cuts and bruises.”

“We sorry,” said the voice, and there did seem to be a feeling of regret in it. “One panicked and another...panicked too.” The voice struggled with its limited vocabulary.

Gwenyth was upright now and walked warily over to help Amilee to her feet. They stood back to back to guard against further attacks. Amilee could feel Gwen raising protective spells around them both.

“You can come out now,” she said loudly, “If you promise not to attack again we won’t hurt you.”

They heard mutterings in a strange language and after a few moments a solitary figure stepped out onto the path. It was small, about 3 feet tall, very hairy and extremely dirty. It stood stooped over with a rounded back and Gwen realised it had been these beings, bent over and rolled into a ball, who had quite literally bowled them over.

“You’re a Brownie, aren’t you?” asked Amilee in disbelief. The small ‘person’ shifted its feet uncomfortably but nodded quickly.

“Brownie, what you call us,” it said in stilted English. “We are called, different to ourselves, but Brownie is...fine.”

“But what are you doing here?” asked Gwenyth. “Don’t your people normally live in the deep forest? I’ve never heard of any of you ever being seen this close to the edge.”

The muttering increased around the trio and the Brownie said something in their tongue. Seconds later the girls were surrounded by small untidy people, dozens of them.

“Wow, you guys move quietly,” said Amilee.

The Brownie smiled. “Sometime we need be quiet. Safer be quiet. Now good time for quiet.”

The two girls exchanged a glance, “Why? Why is now a good time to be quiet? Sorry, but what’s your name?” Gwenyth asked.

The Brownie’s chest swelled as he seemed to raise himself to his tallest posture, almost prideful. The girls waited in anticipation, expecting a long winded announcement.

“I called, Gak ,” said the Brownie as he bowed, almost becoming a ball as his head touched the ground. He was obviously very proud of the name but the girls had to suppress a giggle.

“Okay, Gak,” said Gwenyth, her lips twitching, “can you tell us why being quiet is good?”

Gak’s face shadowed and as he looked deep into the trees, back to his home, and Gwenyth could see a glimpse of moisture in his eyes.

“Something is bad, back there,” Gak gestured toward the heart of the forest, “Home not safe. We need to run, be quiet, need to....hide.”

Gak looked up, switching his glance between the girls and the forest, “Will you help us? Please?”

Gwenyth was stuck half way between pity and an instinct to pick Gak up and cradle him. He and the rest of his ‘family’ were lost. These people were the gentlest of creatures, the attack on them evidence of how afraid they were.

“We could take them to see the Faer folk,” suggested Amilee. “They might agree to help. Let’s face it, it won’t hurt to ask, and by the look of them they’re on their last legs.”

As Gwenyth looked out among the Brownies she began to see past the untidiness, realising her first impression of them had been completely wrong.

These people were not dirty and they were not smelly. They were the forest and they were a long way from home. But they were tired, and as she looked closer she could see babies among them. Like little bunches of twigs, their mothers held them protectively to their chests.

Yes, the Faer would look after them. They would, or by the great one they would have her to answer to.