There were people in the streets. Some were even smiling. I noticed that they stayed a little further apart from each other, still not knowing how the infection spread. But at least they were out, walking the streets, fixing their gardens, and shopping.

  Seeing Zeid and I were walking in wearing our suits, goggles, and breathers, wasn’t going to be inviting to them, but there was nothing we could do about that. Even though the breathers were almost invisible, the suits pretty, and the goggles stylish, we were still reminders of the danger.

  There was another danger. How would the villagers know it was us? We could be someone who meant to do them harm. Although I knew that it was unlikely that someone could copy the technology of the suits, they could duplicate the look.

  “We have thought of that, Kara Beth,” Link pushed into my head. “Let’s hope we discover soon how the infection spreads, and it doesn’t involve wearing suits.

  “I don’t want to hurry the two of you talking to the family, but if you could get it done and get back, we would all feel better about it.”

  I said, “Roger that!” and laughed. Link did not.

  As we walked into town, I thought again how much I loved these little villages with their English cottages crossed with a Hobbit look. In good times this would be the perfect town to visit and have a cup of coffee in the garden.

  Today was not so pleasant. As soon as someone saw us walking into town, the people rushed us for information. The Mayor shouldered his way through the crowd and Zeid quietly whispered that we were there to see the wife and children we had met yesterday.

  The Mayor knew why we were there. When I first met him, I hadn’t realized he was so perceptive. Perhaps he hadn’t been then.

  Once he walked us to the cottage where the man’s family was, the whole crowd stopped. They knew. Some of the women went back to their homes. I knew what they were doing. They went to get food or anything else they thought the widow and her children would need.

  I had never told someone that the one they loved had died. I never thought it would be something I had to do. I never wanted to do it again. The moment when all the light went out of his wife’s face was horrible. I knew that she was hoping it was good news, and then seeing the tears in my eyes she knew it wasn’t. It was as if something sucked the life out of her.

  The children just stared. How could they understand? Nothing like this had happened before, but I knew it would happen again. That’s what made it worse.

  As we left, the crowd opened for us and let us through, even though no one acknowledged us. I was glad. I wanted to be invisible. Everything had changed. The world that had been bright and colorful had turned gray.

  Thirty

  We met in the conference room. Link had called us all there, so I thought that he was going to run the meeting. I thought it would be the professor who would tell us what we were doing. At least I hoped he knew what we were doing.

  Instead, the two people standing at the head of the table were Pita and Teddy, looking both grim and satisfied at the same time. But then you had to know them well to understand what they were thinking.

  One thing I had to learn as I met new species like the Ginete and the Whistle Pigs was to determine how to tell them apart from each other, let alone know what they were thinking from their facial expressions. It sounds terrible, but it’s true. Humans are not good at recognizing the differences in other species.

  And humans are a strange species. We don’t look alike. It’s so rare to resemble someone else that everyone exclaims over it. We are fat, tall, skinny, wide, different facial shapes, a variety of skin colors, and even more hair types. We speak multiple languages with an amazing variety of accents. But we know how to tell ourselves apart in spite of the fact we are all so different.

  I hadn’t thought about the fact that other species looked mostly the same to me until one day I tried to determine if I was looking at Lady or another pileated dragon. I couldn’t decide if it was her or not, and she wasn’t giving me the clue of shapeshifting back into Suzanne. I had to concentrate on what I was looking at. And then I saw the little differences that made her Lady. After that, it was much easier.

  It was the same with the Ginete brothers. I knew Pita was the oldest, and the tallest. After spending time with Tita, I knew he had a softer feel, and his golden eyes were darker and more rounded than his brothers. Once I started noticing these differences, I got better at seeing the difference between all of the brothers.

  So far, Teddy was the easiest of the Whistle Pigs because he was the one that talked to me and called me made up names. I hadn’t gotten to know the rest of the Whistle Pigs very well. They were often busy in the tunnels, building and maintaining. It was because of those tireless workers that we had been saved from the Shrieks and Shatterskin. I appreciated them even if it was from afar.

  The Whistle Pigs didn’t live in the tunnels and rooms where we spent our time. They had their own homes further below. And when the Ginete had a choice, they preferred homes in mountains and hills. However, everything was different since Abbadon decided to rule the world.

  Now their villages were often found in these tunnels which were also common ground to both the Ginete and the Whistle Pigs, and a safe place for the rest of us.

  Zeid and I were the last to arrive. Usually, there would be talking and joking while waiting for a meeting to begin. Not this time. The room was deadly silent.

  “What the ziffer is going on?” I blurted out. That’s me. A big mouth. Can’t keep myself from saying what’s on my mind.

  Only Teddy responded with a tiny smile and a whisper, “Good afternoon to you, Twinkle Face.”

  I smiled back at him, grateful for the encouragement in what was promising to be a disturbing meeting.

  Link gestured at Pita to begin. It was apparent that he wanted to and didn’t want to at the same time.

  Finally letting out a huge sigh, he said, “Well, here’s the good news. We don’t think you need to wear the suits anymore.”

  “So it’s not an infection transferred through touch or air or fluids or…?”

  I was stopped from continuing by Pita holding up his hand.

  “Fair enough, Kara Beth. You come from a dimension where the belief is that infections spread that way, so you are aware of the many ways it can happen.”

  “Wait. Belief? That’s how it happens.” I snapped.

  Link stepped in, “I don’t think this is a productive topic of conversation. But as unifying thought, let’s say this: it’s like those open doors we are always talking about, Kara. Until those doors are shut, and rifts healed, things get in.”

  I nodded. I understood that I was leading everyone off topic, but I wanted to pursue what Pita said another time. I did understand the open doors. And rifts inside ourselves. At least I was aware of the need to understand them, anyway. It was a start.

  “Sorry, Pita,” I apologized. “You were saying?”

  Pita took another deep breath. I wasn’t sure whether he was recovering from my interruption or upset by what he was going to tell us. Once we heard what he had to say, I knew it was more the latter.

  “No, we don’t think Deadsweep enters the system in any of those ways that you mentioned, Kara. Although, we are not one hundred percent sure. Because what we saw could not have entered the bodies that way, because it’s not small like a virus.”

  He paused. “On the other hand, it could have been when it first entered their bodies.”

  “And then grew inside of the body,” Teddy added.

  So far the conversation was creeping me out, and from the looks on everyone else’s face, it was creeping them out too.

  “Maybe you two could start at the beginning,” Sarah said.

  She and Leif were sitting in the corner. At least they were then. I didn’t remember seeing them when we first came into the room. When Zeid looked at me with a question on his face, I knew he hadn’t seen them either.

  Whatever was going to be discussed was important enough for both of them to be present. I didn’t see Leif’s staff, but I knew it couldn’t be far away. Leif saw me looking at him and winked. Not really what some people might expect from a wizard, but it was definitely something Leif would have done in the Earth dimension. He and Sarah were holding hands. Something else they often did in the Earth dimension.

  It made me smile, and the thought that they were together again after being in separate dimensions made me think that what was wrong with Erda could be made right. When Sarah smiled and nodded at me, I knew she was thinking the same thing.

  But it was hard to hold on to that when Pita and Teddy finally got around to telling us what they had found. It was beyond creepy. It was absolutely terrifying.

  Thirty-One

  After the meeting was over, no one moved. We had been given things to do, but what we had heard was so horrifying it seemed impossible to do anything about it. I knew that given time, we would rally, but at the moment we were all too stunned to do anything.

  Seeing us all sit at the table without moving, Sarah stood and, turning to Niko, said, “Respectively, I think everyone needs to process what they have heard. How about some time off, and then meet later for dinner?”

  Niko nodded. He knew no one was going to be able to do anything until we had time to process what we heard. Yes, we had to hurry, but hurrying was not going to work if no one was able to concentrate. I wanted to take the longest hot shower I had ever taken, and I thought I wasn’t the only one who wanted to do the same thing.

  I had squeezed Zeid’s hand, checked to see if the Priscillas in my pocket were doing okay, and gotten up to leave the room, when Sarah touched my arm and asked me to walk with her. As we took a few steps down the hall, she peeked into my pocket and saw the Priscillas curled up together looking miserable. She whispered something, and some of their glow returned. Then Sarah lifted each one out separately, held them gently and whispered something else before they all flew down the hall. They still looked a little wobbly, but much better than they had been a moment before.

  “They’ll meet you in your room. They’ll be okay,” Sarah said.

  “Really?” I asked. I couldn’t suppress the sarcasm in my voice. How could any of us be okay ever again?

  Sarah didn’t react to my comment. She hooked her arm through mine and pulled me close. It reminded me of the many times in the Earth Realm when Sarah had comforted me, the child. Was I more than a child now? I didn’t think so. I wanted to lie down and curl up with my mother and have her tell me that everything was okay.

  My mom and I would review our day, and tell our secrets to each other. Then she would listen to my prayers while I gave thanks for everyone in my life, and kiss me before turning off the light and softly closing the door.

  That’s what I wanted. Instead, in Erda, I was no longer a child, and the mother I had here, the Queen, was dead, and I still didn’t remember her. Better that way. Then I would be mourning two mothers and two childhoods.

  “You can’t be a child again, Kara Beth. But you have had the gift of having more than one childhood and more than one loving mother. You gained wisdom and compassion from your time in the Earth dimension. You have the magic and skills from your heritage here in Erda. In one sense you are the mother now. The mother of the Kingdom of Zerenity.”

  “I don’t feel like that at all, Sarah,” I moaned, or whined, depending on your point of view.

  Sarah put her arm around me, and I laid my head on her shoulder. We stood that way for a moment, and then Sarah said, “How much do you know about your bracelet?”

  She was referring to the bracelet that Link had given me before we went out to fight the Shrieks and Shatterskin. I looked at it on my left arm. It fit as if it had always been there. It was so much a part of me that I rarely thought of it. When I did, I loved the picture-jasper stone set in the center. The veins of the stone formed a tree, and it had been in a beautiful wood box with a tree on it. I kept the box in my room at the Castle.

  “Only what Link said to me when he gave it to me. He said he was returning it. But I didn’t understand then, and I still don’t.”

  “It’s time, then,” Sarah said.

  She took my hand, and we went into the meditation room where I had first gone to meet with the Oracle. Then it was a little blue light inside of a tree trunk. Later I realized that the Oracle had been Sarah all along. It made sense to me. She was the wise woman everyone went to back in the Earth Realm. But in Erda, she was more than that. She had restored most of my magic abilities or at least opened the door for me to find them again.

  I knew that there were still some hidden from me.

  I was hoping that perhaps Sarah would be opening doors to more of my skills. The thought that I would learn more about the bracelet that I wore got me moving. Instead of shuffling along, I almost flew to the room with her.

  The door with the wolf head knocker was there, and I still had to duck to get inside. This time I knew that the different size door was there to make me aware I was entering a different kind of space. If someone walked into the room as if it was a standard size door, they would whack their head. Needing to duck broke the spell of being unconscious about entering a new place.

  Inside, Sarah motioned for me to sit on one of the pads on the floor. It was dark as it had been before. There was still a blue light in a tree trunk, but now Sarah sat opposite me. I realized that she had probably done the same thing the last time that I had been here, I just hadn’t seen her.

  “Yes, I was here with you, Kara, and I had to let your memory of what happened slowly return. Sometimes our thought processes get in the way of everything. We get caught up in trying to figure things out. Better to listen and let memories and information filter up and become visible in their own time.

  “So, you might not remember everything this time either. But you will in time. When you need it, the information will be there.”

  I wanted to protest. I needed to know now. I needed to be in control. At the same time, I knew those needs would work against me. What I wanted most was to be whole, and in my heart, my deepest wish was to be part of liberating Erda from Abbadon. Whatever that took, I was willing. Even if it meant I didn’t remember everything that happened.

  “So you trust me?” Sarah said.

  Those words brought back so many memories of things Sarah had done for me and my friends and family in Earth and Erda, that tears started sliding down my face. I couldn’t brush them off. Sarah was holding my hands.

  “Then you are ready. Let’s talk about this bracelet.”

  Those words were the last thing I remembered.

  Thirty-Two

  The next day we went back to the Castle. We got there using the underground passages instead of walking outside. I wanted to go topside so badly I felt as if I was going to explode with the wanting. It’s not that the tunnels and rooms underground are terrible. They aren’t. They are warm, cozy, surprisingly clean, and have everything we needed.

  What they didn’t have was sunshine, breezes, trees, and flowers scenting the air. Usually, this isn’t a big deal. No one stayed underground all the time. And we hadn’t been underground long either, but with all that was happening it felt as if we had been there for a few years. I had that claustrophobic feeling where everything seems as if it is closing in. I knew I was having that reaction because of what we had learned about Deadsweep, but it didn’t change the feeling.

  To keep myself from going stir crazy on our walk back, I decided to ask questions about things that had been piling up in my head—unanswered questions. I didn’t think any of them pertained directly to Deadsweep, but at least that little corner of my brain where things were that I didn’t understand might get tidied up a bit.

  My biggest problem was deciding who to ask. Should I move from person to person asking questions, or badger just one? I decided on only one. My first thought was Teddy. But he and the Ginete brothers were staying in their labs and weren’t coming to the Castle with us.

  Then I thought of Suzanne. But she had left the tunnels in her dragon persona and was meeting us at the Castle. Sarah and Leif were not around. They were two of the few people in Erda that rarely walked to where they wanted to go. They projected themselves there instead. I had already asked how they did that. How did they appear out of nowhere? But no one would tell me. I was aware that Zeid and Aki could also do that, but I rarely saw them use the skill.

  That was one of the questions that I wanted to ask. Why not? If you could project yourself, why walk, or ride a dragon or maybe a horse? That thought made me wonder. Were there horses in Erda? Why wouldn’t there be? How come I had never seen them?

  I had a head filled with questions, and I decided that the person who was going to answer them for me was Zeid. He was the one usually walking with me after all, making him easily accessible. Besides, we were betrothed, shouldn’t he be answering questions for me? That was my reasoning.

  “Okay, I’ll answer most of them, Kara. But I don’t guarantee that I will answer all of them. Some I may not even know the answer to. If you agree to those terms, we can begin,” Zeid said coming up beside me.

  “Look at that. I didn’t even have to call you!” I said. “Turns out I have a great first question. Are you always listening in on my thoughts?”

  “Zut. You know better than that, Kara Beth. I have to sleep sometime.”

  At my sharp intake of breath, he laughed, “Of course not. But your head was boiling over with unanswered questions, so all of your friends decided that it was me who should answer them.”