Planets Falling (42 page)

“If I become the – what do you call it – gatekeeper, will I be able to move through time?”

“No.  To do that, you must completely abandon your attachment to this reality.  You would lose your ability to be a part of your world – you’d be unattached, like me and the dead.”

“So, you are a ghost.”

“Not yet, thankfully.  However, I can only stick around for a short while before I begin to fade away, back into the ether.  I belong in there and what lies beyond.”  He gestures to the lake.

“Will I be able to see the dead?”

“Yes, Amy.  You’re mother is eager to see you.”

I feel cold, thinking of her death.

“I bid you good luck, Amy Marksman.  You mother will be very proud of you when you meet.”  He turns and bounds along the wall.  He jumps over, falling an impossible height.  I run, looking over the railing.  He’s vanished in the mist hanging from the lake below.

I must have been a little drunk because I have a wicked headache and really want water.  I walk cautiously back to my room in the darkness.  There are a few lamps in the streets, but they are unable to penetrate the strange absence of light here at night.  I wonder whether the lake is sucking the errant evening light into it – a giant vacuum for the energy around us.

I fetch a drink and lay back on my bed.  I’m drifting off to sleep when Wenn stumbles in.  “Amy, wake up.  We’ve got to talk.”

“I’m not sleeping, Wenn.  We can talk when you sober up.”

“Now.  Not later.  How dare you embarrass me in front of everyone?  You think I’m a coward.  But look at this place.  The people here consider me their leader.  They need me.”

I’m exhausted and want this stranger to leave.  “Wenn, I don’t know who you are anymore.  You left the village a sweet man.  Now, you are selfish and, worse, self-important.  I’m done with you.”

“Wife.  You dare not speak to your husband that way.”  He walks toward me with his hand raised.

I should feel fear, but nothing but pity and disappointment well up.  Wenn strikes me across the face and my mind reaches out finding Etch nearby.  He hits me again and again, although I float above the pain.  Finally, Etch and Theo bound through the door, knocking Wenn on the floor.

Theo holds my face, “Are you alright?”

Wenn stands, slurring, “I knew it.  Theo, you’ve stolen her from me.  Amy, he’s wanted you all his life.  Once I’ve turned my back, at no fault of mine, you leap.”  He lunges at Theo but Etch holds him back effortlessly.

“Wenn, you have made an enemy of me tonight.  This is not to be taken lightly.  If you touch Amy Marksman again, I will tear you into pieces.”

Etch releases my husband who scurries out the door into the suffocating darkness outside.

“Thanks you two,” I sigh.  “I don’t know who he is anymore.  What are we going to do?  We need him to convince the villagers to help us defeat Thresh and defend this place from the outsiders.”

“I guess we’ll be evicted from Yellow Stone in the morning.”  Theo dabs my bloody lip with a cloth.  “Any ideas ‘bout what we ought to do?”

Etch rubs his chin.  “I think that I should pay Wenn another visit.”  He leaves, with Theo and I looking perplexed and a little concerned.

“What do you think Etch’s got in mind?”  Theo asks.

“I don’t know, but please lie down with me.”

As we rest listening to our breathing and the gentle lapping of the lake on its shore, we jump slightly at the sound of the Fuerst lifting off.  “There goes Etch and Wenn,” I surmise as I drift into slumber.

I shouldn’t be surprised that sleep would be eventful so close to the portal, but I am.  Within moments, I’m in the body of something new.  It feels like a grub but it’s more intelligent, dangerous, and huge.  I turn its head to have a look around and see Yellow Stone shimmering dimly across the lake.  I smell decay and sulfur all around the place.  Looking down, I see that there’s a huge camp of buildings assembled haphazardly with rough-hewn pine boards.  Creatures, both dead and alive, shuffle among the buildings with cautious purpose.  A feel a rush and there’s Thresh.

“Well, hello Amy.  Trying to highjack my friends again?”

I think to myself, if she only knew what I could do to her mind.  “Thresh.  You have no chance.  Give me back Eliza and you can slink in the lake.  Go somewhere far away and disappear.  Otherwise, you will die.”

Thresh giggles in the void.  “You have no plan, Amy.  Give up while you can.  Eliza is growing quickly.  She’s beginning to talk up a storm.  In fact, she called my husband, Jonah, daddy today.  We’ve become a very close family.  And I’m teaching her so much.”

I try to push away and re-enter the beast.  I could inflict considerable damage with that thing.  Light bursts forward and I’m free from Thresh, but I’m not in anything.  Rather, I’m floating in some strange limbo, not unlike the sensation I had while disembodied in the Raven’s circuitry.

“Hello again Amy, good to see you so soon.”  Warm comfort engulfs me.  Fromer’s here with me, although I can’t see him.

“Where am I?”

“It’s time for your lesson.”

“What are you going to teach me?”

“How to kick Thresh into hell.  You’ve been dabbling with these abilities.  But it’s time for you to master them.”

“Where’s Thresh?”

“She’s like you, playing with powers that she hardly understands.  In the Institute, children identified with the power to be pilots are recruited early and train for years before being given a ship.  Not only do you have to learn how to commune with a ship like the Raven, you need to learn how to control the telepathic pathways this portal is giving you.  Even I don’t know the limit to your abilities.”

“I don’t want this, Fromer.”

“You don’t have a choice Amy.  Luckily, you have a teacher and that evil woman does not.”

After what seems like days in this weird dream, I awake to Theo’s even breathing.  From the look of the sky, I’ve been asleep for no more than an hour.

I wrap myself in Theo’s large shirt and head outside.  The constellation of the archer is low in the sky, reminding me of Bets for some reason.  I climb the stairs and stare at the lake.  After Fromer’s tutelage in my extended dream, the lake is no longer chaotic to me, but organized.  I can see pathways swirling in the currents.  I can hear voices drifting in the wind.

“There you are.  And there’s my shirt.”  Theo’s standing next to me, shirtless and looking cold.

“Sorry.  I’ve no idea how long I’ve been standing here.”

“It’s nearly dawn.”  He peers at my face. “Dear gods.  That bastard really went to town on you.  If he touches you again, he’s dead.”

“I think Etch has the first rights,” I laugh, hurting my mouth.

As if on cue, the Fuerst appears in the sky, landing in the same spot.  Theo clucks. “Etch and Wenn are back. I wonder what they did?”

“It’s probably best not to ask.”

At dawn, a bell rings in the town square.  Sleepy villagers assemble in the moist, morning cold.  Wenn stands on a platform, dressed in his finest clothes.  Etch is absent, but I suspect he’s watching remotely.

Bets and Minns join Theo and I in the back of the crowd.  “What’s Wenn up to?”  Bets murmurs.

Wenns puffs up.  “People of Yellow Stone.  As you know, we have important visitors.  They are here to purge the evil amassing at the lake’s edge and allow us to take back our land and water.”

The crowd begins chattering.  We receive curious glances.  An old woman asks, “Where’s the one that looks like Fromer?  Is he here to save us?”

Wenn nods.  “His name is Etch.  He is very old and wise.  He’s traveled through the sky and will help us.”

“What happened to the other ship?  The one with Captain Leo?”

“The Captain will return with more items to trade.  Our relationship with the ones called the Institute remains strong.  In a fortnight, we will attack the ones camped on the west shore.  We have another guest, who is of great importance.  She is the keeper.  She’s come to banish the fog and its illness from our world.”  He points at me and the entire crowd turns, staring at me and my bruised face.  What must they think of the tiny beaten woman wrapped in a worn blanket?  “Amy Marksman, please come forward.”

I look at Theo, who’s dumbstruck.  He opens his eyes wide, sighs, and motions me forward.  I shuffle forward, all faces following me.  I find myself standing next to the man who beat me only a few hours earlier.

“Amy, what do you have to say to us?”

I’m back around the fire in the village, with the teacher forcing me to address the crowd about the season’s harvest.  My throat seizes and I want to run.  How is it that I can stand down a demon from another world but fear a crowd of townspeople?

My voice cracks.  “I am Amy, a garden tender.  I know who is tormenting you and she seeks to destroy all of us.” I lift my arms. “All of this.  Everything we hold dear and love, she reviles. The god Fromer, who you all revere, is my friend and teacher.  He tells me that I am the one who will deliver us from this evil thing.  I also will keep the lake from ever hurting anyone again.  The portal within the deep waters will serve us for peace and prosperity, not harm.  I cannot do this alone, however.  I ask you to join me – help me – to save this place and our very souls.”

The crowd is silent.  One person claps and then another.  Within moments, the square fills with clapping, shouts, and laughter.  I’m apparently the only one in the group that feels like crying.

Over the next few days, Wenn retreats into the shadows, while Etch, Theo, Minns, Bets, and

I are eagerly embraced by the villagers.  The town sheriff, a short, gruff fellow named Ricard, has given us his full attention and access to his best troops.  He stares at me constantly, as if he’s trying to determine what magic I possess or whether I’m a complete fraud.  I’m completely ordinary – not like Etch or Fromer.  What miracles can they expect from me?

At night, Fromer continues to give me lessons in my dreams.  I can possess many grubs at once.  Thresh indeed has no idea that I can step into her mind, although Fromer assures me that this will not last much longer.  To my relief, he shows me that Thresh is unable to occupy me in the same way, because I have long learned to close my mind to outside influence.  I’m quite proud of my stubborn streak and delighted to find that it translates to my telepathy.

The lake fascinates me.  The more I study it, the more I see patterns and connections.  I’ve discovered where the fog emerges and catch glimpses of the eyeless, lifeless ones beyond the portal. They are indeed like the grubs and other creatures wandering around Thresh’s camp.  Their home in the void has no light nor warmth.  Life confuses them and fills them with rage.  They will do anything to suffocate it, stamp it out like the last few embers of a fire.  Somehow, the travel of the pilot’s ships through the non-place called infraspace has disturbed them.  Most importantly, they want revenge.

I want Fromer to show me how to close the door to these beings.  About this, he is annoyingly coy.  I wonder whether he’s as unsure about this tactic as I am.  He provides one clue – I will need help from the other side of the portal to accomplish this task.  Who will be providing the assistance is anyone’s guess.

Bets and Minns have become Ricard’s lieutenants, teaching him how to use some of the simpler weapons from the arsenals in the Fuerst and Raven.  We’ve debated the wisdom of distributing this technology to the villagers.  But to have a chance against the enormous creatures wandering Thresh’s camp, we have no choice.  In private, Etch has warned us that the Institute and FRT forces will be back soon and we’ll need the ability to defend ourselves from them as well.

The fighters in the village are well trained and eager to learn.  Most barely remember a time when the horrific creatures didn’t roam their land, taking their family and friends.  The recent arrival of Thresh has incensed them – they’ve been looking for a leader to concentrate their frustration and fear.  We’re giving them hope and purpose.

Ricard and I have become good friends, much to my relief.  He is a few years older than me and moved to Yellow Stone when he was very young.  His hometown, east of the mountains, was destroyed by raiders – just ordinary evil people – no monsters or corpses.  His father was killed in the attack.  His mother and aunt escaped and managed to make it up the mountain with him to Yellow Stone.  He quickly rose as a leader in the village, being well known for his ability to fight the strange beings appearing on the lake’s shores.  When Wenn, father, and Fromer arrived, he welcomed them.  His wise judgment solidified his standing with the people.  He apparently views me similarly and is helping elevate my standing with the villagers.

Ricard, Bets, and Minns have begun training our troops.  While they fight imaginary monsters that will too soon be real, Etch has been giving me flying lessons in the Raven.  The ship has given its soul to me.  I’ve found that tending it is as satisfying and rewarding as caring for the gardens back home.  I use the ship’s synthesizers to replace worn parts and renew the interior.  I spend hours sitting in the pilot’s chair exploring the ship’s intricate systems, discovering new abilities and ways to reach out beyond myself.  The ship is more than a means of transportation. It’s a place for self-exploration and meditation.

Theo and I have been making up for a lifetime’s worth of affection.  Although it hurts for me to admit it, Wenn spoke the truth in many ways.  Theo and I were meant for each other at the start.  I drown each time I see those blue eyes giving themselves to me.  This is a strangely happy time and I know it will end too soon.  He feels similarly.  When he’s not training, he spends much of his time sitting on the city wall puffing on his pipe or doting on me back in our little house.