| |
Jenny had scarce turned around when she felt her key warm. She immediately checked her cell phone. One of the apps Miriha had added to her phone was interdimensional texting and sure enough, there was a message inside the app for her. "Report." Was all it said.
The app had been designed to only respond to someone wearing an authorized key. Anyone else would see a crossword puzzle game app icon, which would actually take them to a crossword puzzle game.
Jenn looked up to see Tidbit staring at her from the window seat. "Get your gear," he thought to her. "And don't forget to trigger your auto-responders."
Jenny obediently went to her computer, keyed in the code to her personal email and messaging AI and then gathered her things, knowing she would appear to be responding to friends and family in a normal way, while she was in other dimensions.
She grabbed her official staff of office, grabbed her satchel out of the MDP, per her instructions, and left a text to Bob that she might be away for awhile, and could he please collect her mail?
She opened the door to the impossible little gate office room with Tidbit at her heels. She remembered that no one had given her an exact amount of time till her first assignment, but she had thought it would be a little longer. She hadn't even been home two weeks. And she just realized that she had told her hike club she would be going on the hike. Looks like she was going to miss it again, so she left a text for Sam to please send her regrets.
When they went through the door to The Gatekeeper's dimension, she realized something wasn't quite right. First, there were no gem eyes speeding across the sand to scan them. Secondly, an odd keening was coming from the trees that surrounded the path to the village.
Tarafau frowned. "It's the Linklings. I've only heard them do that once before and it wasn't good. Put your satchel back into the MDP and keep your staff handy."
Jenny was surprised at Tarafau's grim tone. "What would cause the gem eyes not to show up?" she wondered aloud.
They entered the shaded path. Linklings stood on their branches, their mustaches bristling, and their bodies completely erect in a posture of extreme alert. The sound was wrenching, like the wail of police sirens.
They emerged to complete devastation. The market square was empty of human life and the booths were collapsed or burning, goods spread across the ground as if discarded carelessly by some giant hand. Shop windows were smashed, and here and there buildings burned without anyone rushing to put out the fires.
"Where is everyone? What has happened here?"
Tarafau shook his head in answer to Jenny's questions. They peered around through the smoky air, still not a single person in evidence. As they rushed to the Gatekeeper's building, the large carved double doors hung off their hinges, splintered and broken as if by a battering ram.
Tarafau went ahead into the building his quarterstaff in readiness. No one greeted them there. The only light was from the high windows. They called for someone, anyone who might be here, but their voices echoed into the silence.
They climbed the curved staircase, which was strewn with rubble, evidently out of the ceiling, and the balustrade was missing in a few places. Hugging the wall, they got to the top without incident. The door to The Gatekeeper's office was intact, but there was evidence of someone trying to break it down and it didn't open automatically as before.
Tarafau's big fist pounded on the door. "Miriha, are you there? Are you all right?" he bellowed.
There was no handle on the door, but a small sound behind the door alerted them that something was going on in there. It sounded a lot like a moan.
"Stand back," growled Tarafau. He took a few steps back himself and launched himself at the door, his big booted foot impacting it not a bit.
"Wait," said Jenny as he prepared to try again, this time with his shoulder.
She "peeked" into the MDP and did a mental search for a tool they could use. And there it was. She pulled a large crowbar out and handed it to Tarafau. "Maybe you just need a little leverage," she said almost sheepishly.
For a moment Tarafau stared at the big metal bar in his hand, shook his head and placed the prying end under the edge of the door. He heaved it upward and there was a large cracking sound, almost like a rifle report.
The door swung open to reveal a darkened room, the floor covered with what appeared to be broken chunks of the ceiling. The only light came from holes in the egg shaped ceiling. And on that rubble strewn floor lay...
"Miriha!" Jenny shouted, at the same time that Tarafau demanded, " What happened here?" For just a moment, Jenny was afraid there would be no answer. Miriha lifted her head with an effort.
Her eyes were blackened and there was a cut on her forehead. "They're back," she said, her mental sending voice not more than a whisper and her brows furrowed with the effort. "They didn't get through to the portal room, but they told me that my people would be returned 'mostly unharmed' when I come to my senses and give them the key." This statement seemed to have used up all of her strength.
"Who's back? Jenny asked, sick to her stomach. In all of her life, she had never encountered anything like this. The destruction of that beautiful village with it's peaceful and kind people. Women and children! And now Miriha lay before them on the floor of what had been the beautifully appointed Gatekeeper's office. Violence had never been a part of Jenny's life, even though her father had been a soldier.
He never talked about the time he had spent in battle. On career day at school he had simply talked about defending his country, not about shooting people or seeing people die. And he certainly never harmed helpless innocents, although she knew it sometimes happened. It shocked her to her core now that anyone could be so cruel and callous.
Tarafau lifted Miriha gently and placed her on a couch near the entrance to the gateroom. Miriha groaned as he moved her, even as careful as he was trying to be. It never ceased to amaze her how graceful and gentle this big man could be.
Jenny examined her carefully, employing first aid skills she had never thought to actually use. It appeared that her collar bone and both arms were broken, and her body was covered in bruises. Jenny knew there were likely other injuries she couldn't see. It appeared that rubble from the ceiling had struck her in several places.
Miriha didn't answer her, closing her eyes wearily. It was Tarafau who finally said, "The Groga." He said it in a flat voice that suddenly sounded tired and defeated. "I thought the Council had been hasty in assuming they would stay defeated. I regret being right about this."
Miriha's breathing had become shallower. As broken as she was, Jenny suspected there must be some internal bleeding. "What can we do for her?" she asked, setting the Groga aside for the moment.
Tarafau shook his head. "The healers in the town were taken with the rest and I'm afraid if we move her again it will kill her. I don't have the skill, do you?"
Jenny had to admit she didn't. She so desperately wanted to do something. She suddenly realized Miriha was trying to say something.
"Take the key." As she said these words the little key around Miriha's neck developed a clasp that didn’t appear to be there before. "So that's how they do it," Jenny thought. Jenny unfastened the tiny key from Miriha's neck.
"Touch it to your key," Miriha gasped, as if it took all of her strength to utter these few words.
Jenny did so and as the key touched hers, it vanished. Jenny gave out a startled "Oh!" and Miriha sighed and was still.
Tarafau stroked her hair with tears streaming down his cheeks. "Give Lizzie my love," he whispered, nearly choking on his words. "We will take it from here."
He stood and turned to Jenny. "The Groga are a radical group from a dimension called Mefluance. Not all of the beings in Mefluance are evil, but the Groga definitely fit that description without exception. They raided the dimensions like the sea pirates of old Earth history. The Dimensional Alliance has been fighting them for hundreds of years. About 50 years ago, The Council believed they had eradicated the threat. Obviously, they were mistaken.
They have no mercy and no ethics. They take what they wish and delight in destruction, pain and torture. There was a man, here on your Earth, who is infamous for the number of people he had slain and the destruction he caused. Imagine if he had been given access to the portals."
Jenny cringed at the thought of someone like Hitler able to march through the dimensions inflicting terror and pain.
The big man looked so fierce as he spat these final words that Jenny was reminded of Tidbit backing that huge dog step by careful step down her driveway. She shuddered.
"So, what happened to the key and what do we do next?" Jenny asked, fearful of the answer.
"We have to get to The Council. Miriha just gave you access to the entire gateway network. This will be reflected in the gate room inside your home. You now have access to not only the full dimensional gate system, but all of the earth gates as well. You have become, by default, The Gatekeeper."
Jenny's harsh intake of breath made him look up from examining his hands.
"Me? Shouldn't this pass to someone who has completed their training?" she asked hopefully.
Tarafau regarded her soberly, once again catlike in that golden stare. "It doesn't work that way. Traditionally the key is passed to someone more experienced, it is true, but regardless, when it is passed, the recipient cannot pass it to another except when their body is failing, or they are dead and then only if the recipient is already a Guardian.
You have been given a great responsibility. But we will go to the council. They have dealt with unusual transfers of Gatekeepers in the past. For now, the gates, on this planet, in this dimension will seal when we depart. Only the Council will be able to reinstate them. We need to leave."
"But what about Miriha?"
Tarafau looked troubled, then his face cleared. "I will seal her into the gate room, a fitting tomb for such a hero." He put words to action, lifting Miriha tenderly once again. Jenny stood before the gateway to open the door.
Tarafau gently placed the body on the floor of the passageway. "Rest and rise," he said. Then he did something strange. He placed his hand on Miriha's diaphragm and pressed gently. A last puff of air escaped from her lips. Tarafau reached out with his large hand as if catching that last breath, clenched it into a fist and placed it on his heart.
"My honor. I will avenge your death and restore your people, dear one. This I swear."
Rising he turned to Jenny. "We must go."
He moved through the door to the gate office. "Tell it to seal," he instructed her grimly. Jenny sent a thought to the door. "Seal," she commanded, and the door glowed and disappeared as if it had never been there.
"No one can enter that again without your express command." Tarafau rumbled with barely concealed emotion. He moved toward the outer door, but something made Jenny stop and look around one last time. On the desk was a small figurine nearly glowing in the part light. She grabbed it and put it into her MDP. "I won't forget you, Miriha," she said blinking tears from her eyes. "I will not fail you." She imitated Tarafau's gesture, with her fist to her heart and followed Tarafau out the door.
As they navigated the rubble strewn streets of the beautiful little village, Jenny gave in to tears. She had no clue what she could do about any of this. She was barely trained in the absolute basics of her calling. She hadn't even met the other Guardians on Earth, much less the members of The Dimensional Alliance Council. She was nobody, a thought that had never occurred to her before now.
This was all too much. Then something even more disturbing came to her. "Can these Groga get access to Earth?" she asked, nearly panicking as she thought about the destruction that lay all about them as they approached the path to the beach where the Inklings had gone completely silent. This was even more eerie than their plaintive siren-like cries of earlier.
Tarafau shook his head. "I really don't know. The gates to your dimension are relatively new, in the scheme of things, and have only had active, trained Guardians for a couple centuries. It is hard to say how they got access to the portals here." He looked up. The branches above them were deserted.
"They will have migrated to a populated area up the coast, assuming the Groga haven't decimated the rest of this planet already. But we have no time to investigate," he continued, shrugging his broad shoulders. "We must get you to The Council right away."
They walked down the beach in silence, feeling the weight of these events and what they might mean like blocks of stone on their shoulders. As they passed through the gate, Jenny thought, "Goodbye, Miriha. Rest and rise. Seal."
