“It does,” Suzanne answered. “Its name is Deadsweep.”

  “Because it leaves everything it touches dead?” I asked, thinking of the Shrieks and Shatterskin.

  “It does. But it doesn’t work at all like the Shrieks or Shatterskin. They were crude killing machines. The Deadsweep is much more subtle and effective.”

  The blood drained from my face, and I could see that my hands had turned white. I couldn’t see how anything could be more effective than Abbadon’s last monsters. No, they weren’t subtle. They were loud. They announced themselves. But to me, they had seemed to be very efficient killing machines.

  “How?”

  “After you fainted, what happened?” Aki asked.

  “I woke up.”

  “And did what?”

  Now I flushed. They knew that I had been rude to Beru. How did they know?

  “I treated Beru as if she was my enemy,” I whispered, so embarrassed I wanted to run out of the room.

  “Imagine that feeling one hundred times worse. What might you have done?” Niko asked.

  I looked around the room. Everyone was still waiting for my answer. Whatever I said, it would have to be true because my friends were trying to tell me something.

  “I think if that feeling was a hundred times worse I might have tried to kill her.”

  The room was still. It was as if a deadly secret was hanging in the air, and speaking it would bring it to light.

  When no one spoke, I asked, “Does this have something to do with what you are calling the Deadsweep?”

  Leif put his hand on my hand, and said, “I am afraid it does, Kara. I am sorry that we had to show you that way, but you needed to experience it for yourself.”

  “It was like something else was thinking for me and making me feel that way,” I said.

  It was Beru who whispered it. “That is the Deadsweep.”

  Eighteen

  “Okay,” I said, trying to keep things as light as possible in spite of what I had just heard. “You are telling me some kind of thought-worm got into my head and made me act that way? And you are calling it the Deadsweep?

  “There are just too many weird things about that. How could it get in my head? Why? This is Abbadon doing it? I don’t get it,” I finished. I was utterly frustrated and frightened at the same time.

  “Those are all great questions, Kara,” Leif said. “We don’t have all the answers yet. It’s one reason we kept you away for the last few months, to keep you safe from what you are calling the thought-worm, because we are not sure how people are getting infected with it.”

  “Wait, that’s why you kept me away? I thought it was for me to learn to train by myself. And how could I have been safe? I was all by myself.” I paused, remembering that the Priscillas knew Berta and that Lady was always flying above me. “Was I all by myself?”

  “Good lord, sometimes you can be dense,” Pris said, pulling my hair. “Of course you weren’t. And yes, you were supposed to be training by yourself instead of waiting for other people to show you things.”

  “Did a pretty good job of it too,” Niko said, and Aki nodded in agreement.

  That took me by surprise. I felt myself tear up again. After that morning’s training session I thought I had been a complete failure.

  “No, you would have never made it through the morning if you hadn’t done well training by yourself the last few months,” Suzanne added, seeing my reaction.

  “As for being by yourself, are you serious?” Beru added. She might have understood what had happened in the training area that morning better than I did, but I could tell she was still upset with me. This thought-worm thing was scary. Even though I hadn’t meant to hurt her, I had damaged our friendship.

  “Do you think we would have left the village of Eiddwen, with your father, the King, and you, the future Queen in it, unprotected? Ever?”

  I silently shook my head, ashamed for not knowing. Ashamed for not being aware enough, or doubting my friends.

  No one spoke, letting the silence gather, waiting for me to snap out of it. I could feel what Beru called my pity party coming on. In so many ways I wanted to just put my head down on the table and go back to sleep. Let someone else be Princess. I was too stupid to be a ruler.

  Pris pulled my hair. “Cut it out!” she yelled as loud as she could.

  “Kara Beth, that thought process that takes you down doesn’t feel dangerous to you, but it is,” Sarah said. “It’s almost as dangerous as the evil thoughts you had this morning towards Beru.”

  Everyone nodded, and Aki took over. “If we are going to win this battle, defeat the Deadsweep, then the first thing to be aware of is what you are thinking—more than you have ever done before. None of us can let ourselves sink into depression, or despair, or the idea that we can’t do something or we aren’t good enough. It’s opening the door to what Abbadon is doing with Deadsweep.

  “We’ve talked about this so many times, Kara. What door, what channels do you have open to others? You have to monitor what you are listening to and communicating at all times. There isn’t any room for self-doubt. You, we, can’t afford it.

  “This affects all of us. We are all susceptible to these kinds of suggestions. That’s why, once again, we have to do this together. We have to watch each other for signs of infection.”

  I nodded, letting Sarah know that I had heard her, and then asked Leif, “So Abbadon planted that suggestion in my head this morning? The one where I was furious with Beru for no reason?”

  “No, we did,” Niko answered. “First we had to get you so exhausted you weren’t paying attention, and then we planted the suggestion in your head that Beru was your enemy. Beru knew what we were doing. She agreed to it.”

  Niko broke off and looked over at Beru before continuing, “And in spite of that, she reacted, even though she was fully aware that you didn’t know what had happened. You can see how dangerous this would be if it were worse, and people didn’t know what was happening to them.”

  “What about the scary thing Leif did? Was that part of the suggestion?” I asked.

  Leif answered this time, “Yes. We wanted you to use the ability to see the illusion and call it. You know me. You know I would never hurt you, so you were able to see through the hypnotic suggestion that I wanted to kill you.

  “However, it works the other way around too. Evil can masquerade as friendship producing the illusion that you are safe when you are in danger.”

  What Leif was saying was scaring me. The implications were staggering.

  “We have been monitoring the increased levels of violence that are being recorded around the Kingdom. We had thought that it was the residual sound waves from the Shrieks that was causing it. People acting out. Fighting between neighbors.

  “But even though there are no more Shrieks these outbreaks are occurring more and more. We have never had a problem with violence of any kind, so not only is it terrifying that it’s happening, but no one knows how to respond.”

  I thought about the police force in Kinver where before Abbadon the biggest problem they had was animals stuck in trees. That level of peace and harmony had existed throughout the entire Kingdom of Zerenity. Now that their peace was being disturbed by their own people, I could see how dealing with it would be overwhelming.

  “It’s like a disease that is sweeping through towns. But there is no way to know when someone has been infected with it until they act out. They don’t look like anything is wrong. They could be your friend or neighbor and then one minute they are not. They become an enemy bent on destroying. We’ve even had incidents of people killing each other,” Suzanne said.

  Now I understood the fear I felt.

  “There is no way to know?” I whispered.

  “Not that we have found. Yet. That’s what we have been working on.”

  Aki spoke up, “We think that the person gets taken over. But what we don’t know is if they are gone forever, or temporarily. They are like what the Native Americans in the Earth Realm called Skin Walkers. People are walking around in their skins, but not the people you know.”

  I thought of all the movies I had seen about Zombies or the movie Body Snatchers.

  “More like body snatchers,’ Professor Link said, reading my mind. “They don’t look scary. They seem like the same person. They aren’t weird beings walking around with half their face falling off. Nothing has changed, except for something that will trigger them into violence.

  “We have to find how they are being infected and stop that. And we have to turn off the trigger. Otherwise, we have people acting like suicide bombers walking among us, ready to destroy everything. Which is how we know this is Abbadon’s doing. It’s his goal. Win at all costs, including destroying everything that lives.”

  Nineteen

  When Leif stood up, we all understood that the meeting was over. I had no idea what to do. Everything I had heard made it seem as if we were up against impossible odds. However, I knew that I couldn’t let the news lead me back into depression or helplessness. But I could feel the urge to give in beating against the walls of my mind, trying to take over.

  No one said anything as they left the room. What was there to say? Leif gestured for me to stay, so I remained seated. He waited until everyone was gone, then sat back down, and swiveled in his chair to look at me.

  Leif in Erda looked almost like the Leif in the Earth dimension. It made sense because they are the same man. Aki had explained to me that not every dimension had a version of ourselves in them. Sometimes we were the only one. Like Suzanne, Leif, Sarah, and me. Maybe more of the people I knew were only found in Erda, but so far we were the ones I knew about.

  On the other hand, other versions of ourselves could be in dimensions no one had visited yet. There are so many dimensions it is probably impossible to know. Besides, I hadn’t met anyone who had traveled to more than Earth and Erda. However, I understood that there were people in Erda who had traveled extensively. I wondered who they were and if I would ever get to meet them.

  The difference was that in Erda, everything about Leif was a bit more vivid—his hair whiter and his eyes bluer. If Leif wasn’t smiling and you didn’t know him, you might think he was angry because his look was so focused.

  But as far as I knew, Leif rarely got angry. Instead, he got more focused. That morning’s encounter showed his ability to direct his energy to where he wanted it to go. It also made me think that I hardly knew Leif—at least how he existed in Erda.

  He wasn’t smiling when he swiveled in his chair to look at me. I was glad that I knew him well enough to know that look just meant he was focused, not angry. I don’t know why it took me so long to notice what Leif had reminded me of all along. The clue was probably that innocent-looking staff waiting in the corner of the room.

  One of my biggest problems is saying what comes to mind without filtering it first. So without thinking, I said, “Zut, Leif, are you a wizard? Like the ones in fairy tales, or in Harry Potter books?”

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wondered if it was a wise thing to ask someone if they were a wizard. Was it against the rules? Rude? Stupid?

  “None of those things, Hannah,” Leif said, resorting to my Earth name. Since I knew that Leif never said or did anything without a reason behind it, I thought that he was reminding me that I already knew him. There was nothing to fear from the Earth Leif, so, therefore, there was nothing to fear from the Erda Leif.

  When Leif smiled at me, I knew I was on track. That was reassuring.

  “But you still want an answer, don’t you?” Leif said.

  I nodded, all the thoughts of Deadsweep temporarily gone from my head.

  “I guess I look like a wizard, don’t I?” Leif asked.

  I waited.

  “Well,” he sighed. “I suppose that I am. However, even I am not sure all of what being a wizard means—still working that out. Just like you are working out what a princess is, and what a princess does. Perhaps we get to choose the role that we play inside this story in Erda, Kara Beth.

  “For now, there is something you must do. It’s the most important thing all of us need to do. Repair any rifts in our lives. And for you, right now that is working out what is going on between you and your friend, Beru. Instead of the physical riff where we went to find the Shrieks and Shatterskin, we have to find the mental and emotional rifts within ourselves and with our friends, and close them up. Heal them.

  “It is those rifts that Abbadon will target. It’s how an infection like Deadsweep might be able to get in. Just like infections can get in through cuts in the skin. They need to be healed.

  “Deadsweep is a mental infection. At the moment, it’s an invisible infection, which makes it more dangerous than the Shrieks or Shatterskin. Therefore, we can’t take any chances. Repair the riffs. No matter how small.

  “The one that is right in front of you is the one with Beru. It’s dangerous for you both, and then ultimately for all of us. See if you can discover why her feelings are so hurt. That’s something you can do right now.”

  I nodded and then impulsively leaned over and kissed his cheek. Leif smiled, his blue eyes twinkling back at me. At that moment all was right with the world. Leif patted my hand and said, “You have it in you to be a great Queen, Princess Kara Beth.”

  Stunned, I watched him as he stood—almost like water standing up it was so smooth—and reached out his hand for his staff. Before I could blink, the staff was in his hand, looking ordinary even though I knew it wasn’t. As Leif walked out the door, he turned once more and smiled at me.

  I stood and looked down the hallway after him, wondering at what I had just seen. I didn’t see what I now knew to be a wizard. Instead, I saw a blue haze surrounding a blue light—Leif and Sarah.

  There was so much I didn’t know. And I knew there was not that much time to learn it.

  Twenty

  I went looking for Beru. The fact that she wasn’t waiting for me reinforced what Leif had told me. We had a problem. Beru always waited for me. She had been my guide from the moment I fell through the portal.

  Ruta, on the other hand, hadn’t been particularly happy about my arrival. Truthfully he had been a huge grouch head. However, Beru took on my clumsiness, confusion, and lack of awareness as if it was a pleasure to help me.

  It was Beru who taught me how to feel in order to see things that are invisible to the eye. I first learned to do that by internally feeling to find the door to get to my room in the Castle. After that, I could feel, and then see, all the door numbers previously invisible to me.

  It was Beru who taught me to feel nature, the earth, the trees, wind, and sky and let them carry me along as we ran from the Shrieks. It was my first taste of what people in the Earth Realm call magic. In Erda, they know it is the way the world works, it is the essence of Life.

  Now, as I searched for Beru, I didn’t need to do anything to see the door numbers. And even though we were indoors, I could feel the light that the roots were radiating from where they were hidden with the walls. So many things that I had struggled with had become easier because Beru had been my guide.

  Now, I couldn’t find her. I couldn’t feel her. That meant she was hiding. I stopped to think about why she would hide. I hadn’t been that mean to her that morning.

  Mean enough, but we had tiffs before and then laughed them off. Was it me that had hurt her, or was something else going on and I had pushed her over the edge?

  We had just come from Beru’s village. Had she been happy there? Thinking back I realized that something had been wrong there too. She had looked like the beautiful flower person that she always looked like, but I wasn’t sure I had heard her tinkling bell laugh. If she had laughed, it had sounded a little off. No bells. Why hadn’t I noticed?

  Perhaps it was because I expected her to be a little sad. Her parents hadn’t returned to the village. She hadn’t seen them since they left after Beru warned them about Shatterskin.

  When I had first come to the Castle, Beru had berated me for not getting to know the people that were helping me. Instead, I was calling them things like Miss Floaty, Professor Pinhead, and Gazelle man. I had learned their real names after that—Aki, Professor Link, and Niko—but not much else.

  We had trained, fought, laughed, worried, and planned together, but I didn’t know their history. I barely knew Ruta and Beru’s even though I was with them the most.

  Had Ruta and Beru known me before I went to Earth? I remembered the Priscillas and Zeid, but what about everyone else?

  The temptation to fall into the rabbit hole of beating myself up was so intense I had to stop and put my hand on the wall and feel the light pulsing through it. I couldn’t afford that emotion. I could rectify the situation as it became appropriate, but regret was not going to defeat Deadsweep or find Beru.

  Putting my hand on the wall gave me an idea. I took off my shoes and felt the earth through the Castle floor. It wasn’t as hard as it might seem even though we were in a building. In Erda, everything retained its life force. Probably did in Earth too, but I didn’t know to look for it when I lived there.

  I walked in meditation, feeling our connection. I let my love for Beru and her strength send out waves like sonar. I stopped looking for her. Instead, I remembered that she and I were connected. It was a very different feeling than searching for a lost person.

  It didn’t take long before I knew where I was going. I had never been there before. I was going to Beru’s room. Why hadn’t I been there before? She always came to me, that’s why. She did most of the work. She took care of me.