Across Worlds with You, Part 4
Kit Campbell
The Historian was an elderly woman who lived, or at least worked, in a small cottage on the edge of the village. Her long, gray hair hung loose around her shoulders as she opened the door and beckoned them all inside without saying a word. Inside, the cottage was clean though cluttered, mostly with books and tea cups.
Theo wrung his hands. “Greetings,” he started.
“Sit down,” the Historian said.
They all sat, squeezing onto an older sofa. Will found himself stuck between Destia, who took up more room than her size would entail, and Theo.
“I know we’re early…” Theo started again.
“Early? Ha!” The Historian put a kettle on a wood stove in the corner before bustling over to one of her overladen bookshelves. She pulled a large book, papers hanging out of the sides, off and dumped it unceremoniously onto Will’s lap. It opened onto a random page, where the drawings of three…necklaces?…were displayed.
Wordlessly, the Historian waited.
“Okay,” Will said. “Um, let’s assume I don’t have any idea what’s happening.”
Destia gave Theo a look across Will. Theo glared back.
“Oh, this is that timeline.” The Historian sighed, then dragged an armchair over. She lowered herself into it. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. When she breathed out, her breath misted, creating a dense cloud which floated between her and Will. “Many years ago, before you were born, a Darkness came.”
On the surface of the cloud, an island, green and plentiful, appeared, surrounded by a brilliantly blue sea. Several small ships floated on the water. But then a dark fog rolled over the top of the island, turning the vegetation to ash. It flowed down toward the water and across, the ships disintegrating as they were absorbed.
“Where did it come from?” Will asked.
“Through the worldslips. An old world, that long ago was stripped of all life.” On the cloud, the dark fog spread, plants dying in its wake. It began to roll over fields, towns. Animals and people, too, fell in the darkness, but they did not stay fallen. They rose again, pale, disjointed, crawling.
Beside Will, Theo sucked in his breath.
On the cloud, many people gathered in a grand, ornately-decorated hall. A council of some sort. A small boy stood in the middle, saying something, but the cloud images did not come with sound. Then an image of three sorcerers—or so Will assumed, as their eyes glowed blue like Theo’s did—each holding a necklace with a large jewel. The ones that were reflected in the open book on his lap.
“People from across the Helstena came together to stop this invasion,” the Historian said as the cloud slowly disappeared. “While they were gathered, a child stepped inside, claiming the gift of prophecy. A champion would use the weapons we could muster to dispel the Darkness from this world. The champion was not yet born, but would be soon, and the child prophet could point to the very family said champion would come from.”
“A prophecy seems like a bad way to mount a defense,” Will said.
The Historian inclined her head to one side, not disagreeing with him. “So it is. Our strongest sorcerers and swordspeople have spent decades defending against the Darkness. Holding it in check. For most people, life can be normal, maybe even safe. But we have not been able to regain any ground the Darkness has taken, and every year there are new incursions, even if they are small.” She paused to take the kettle off the stove, pouring tea into waiting cups on a low table by Theo’s knee. “Without some way to regain ground, to drive the Darkness back to the world from which it came, it will eventually consume us.”
Will stared at the steam rising off the cups. “And I am…for sure?…this person in the prophecy? Could this child be wrong?”
“This child would be older than you,” the Historian replied, a bit of amusement dancing in her voice. “But we can never know. He left the Council and has never been seen again.”
“Convenient.” He looked back down at the book in his lap. “And these?”
“Our greatest sorcerers came together to forge these.” The Historian tapped the book. “Amulets of pure light. In theory, once all are gathered, the light they generate will dispel any darkness, unnatural or not. They must be used together; they have been used on their own, and while they will cause temporary retreats, the effect is not permanent.”
“The idea,” Theo added, “is that the amulets are used to drive the Darkness back through the gate it entered through and then we seal it in its own world, where it can’t harm others.”
The Historian handed Will a cup of tea.
He took a sip. Warm, and cinnamon-y, and something else he couldn’t identify. Instantly, he felt better.
Maybe it would be best to approach this like he had had a psychotic break, whether or not that was true. Like he had nothing to lose. Because otherwise this was wildly stupid. “In theory” was not a phrase one wanted to hear related to a world-saving plan. “Okay,” he said again. “What can you tell me about this prophecy? Is it just that I—and apparently only I—will use these amulets against this Darkness?”
The Historian hesitated, glancing over at Theo, who had gone unaccountably pale.
“I mean, essentially,” Theo said.
Not encouraging. “And no one’s tried to use the amulets before?”
“They couldn’t,” Destia replied. She’d dug a dagger out of who knew where and was using it to clean her nails. “The amulets disappeared.”
“Disappeared,” Will echoed. Yep, that psychotic break plan was sounding better and better.
“When they were originally formed, the sorcerers who made them took them and marched against the Darkness.” The Historian offered tea to Destia, who waved it off with her dagger, and Theo, who took it and immediately set it down again. With a sigh, the Historian settled back into her armchair. “This was before the prophecy was spoken. The sorcerers used the amulets, as I said, and it looked for a minute like we would win, but the Darkness quickly rallied. It broke through our flanks and our ranks began to be turned against us.” Pausing, she took a leisurely sip of her own tea, like they were discussing the weather. “In a last effort to protect the amulets, the sorcerers conducted a spell that would hide the amulets from the Darkness. They disappeared, and have not been seen since.”
Will turned to stare at Theo. “So, you’re telling me that I have to first find these amulets, which no one has seen in…a while, and then somehow I have to use them to drive back an enemy that we don’t know how to fight?”
Theo shrugged apologetically.
“Oh, but I know where they are,” the Historian said. And took another sip.
Theo sat up so fast he almost upset both his own tea and the cup in Will’s hands. “You do?”
“Like Will here, they were hidden on other worlds, to keep them safe until the time was right.”
“That’s…that’s amazing.” Theo ran his hands through his hair again. “That will make this so much easier. Which worlds?”
The Historian sipped her own tea serenely. “Oh, I don’t know that.”
“Hold on, hold on.” Will set his own tea down to hopefully save it from Theo. “If the amulets didn’t work the first time, why are they going to work when I do it?”
Theo collapsed backward, sinking into the couch. “No one’s really sure. My favorite theory is that the first time they were each wielded by a different person, whereas this will be one person doing all the wielding. Maybe the amulets’ powers are amplified by proximity, or something like that.”
Will stared down at his tea. “This plan is bad.”
Theo made a pained noise in the back of his throat.
“Doesn’t really matter,” Destia said, not looking up from her nails. “It’s the only one we’ve got.”
It kind of felt like everyone had heard this prophecy and promptly decided it wasn’t worth trying anything else. “How many worlds are there?”
“Infinite,” Theo replied.
Great. “Just put me back on Earth to die.”
“The spell that hid the amulets was done in haste, a location not set,” said the Historian, pouring herself more tea. “They were masked, so the Darkness would not be able to find them. Like it wasn’t supposed to be able to find you.”
“So the Darkness will be able to find them too?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”
Either Theo’s obvious anxiety was starting to wear off on him, or the Historian was just being annoyingly calm about all this. “This seems like a problem.”
The Historian sipped her tea.
“It’s not a problem.” Destia slipped her dagger back from whence it came. “We’ll just have our sorcerer run a finding spell, and off we go.”
Theo groaned. “Are you crazy? That’s been tried a million times, and it’s never worked.”
Actually, maybe she had something. “But you have me,” Will said. “No one else did. If I’m tied to these amulets through this prophecy, maybe you can use me as a…compass, or something.”
Were there compasses in this world?
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” Theo extricated himself from the couch. “Here, give me your hands.”
Will held his hands out. Theo took them in his own and then rested them on his thighs. Closing his eyes, he began to murmur under his breath. Will tried to focus on Theo’s words, to try and make them out, and not where his hands were, or how warm Theo’s hands were in his.
The now familiar wind began to swirl around them, upsetting the book on Will’s lap and several papers throughout the room. Will hazarded a glance at the Historian, but she was still drinking her tea, utterly unperturbed about the state of her cottage.
Theo opened his eyes, once again burning a brilliant blue. But he wasn’t looking at Will—more like he was looking through him. Theo’s head moved, like he was following something with his eyes. It was a little creepy, but Will held himself still, worried the slightest movement would upset whatever Theo was doing.
Finally, the wind calmed, though there was still a whisper of it, and Theo’s eyes stayed blue.
“Which way?” Destia asked, pushing up off the couch.
“The world gate,” Theo answered, but his voice sounded weird, like there was another, lower voice overlapping with his.
“Makes sense.” Destia crossed the room and pulled the door open, disappearing outside. Theo followed, but his movements, too, were weird, and he was moving slow, like he was pushing through something dense.
Will stood. “Thank you very much for your help,” he said to the Historian, because it felt like someone should say something.
“Hmm.” She set her cup down and walked with Will as they quickly overtook Theo. “I wonder if you will thank me, when this is all done.” She laid a hand on Theo’s forearm, though it took him a long moment to register and look at her. “Good luck.”
Outside, Destia shifted her weight from foot to foot impatiently. “We’re going to have to drag him along if we want to get back to the gate in our lifetimes.” She huffed. “Sorcerers. They’re practically useless in the middle of a spell.”
With that, she took a hold of one of Theo’s arms, and started pulling.