“King.” Cyra’s voice was so low, Leonidas almost didn’t hear her over the din of battle.
“What?” His eyes were on the advancing Immortals, now less than fifty feet away. Pandora in the lead. At the very least, he figured he could kill her.
“I can open a portal”
Leonidas didn’t understand. He held the Naga Staff across his body, ready for action. The skin on the back of his neck tingled. He’d felt this before. He turned away from the Immortals. Even as the Assyrian ranks smashed into the depleted Spartans holding the Middle Gate.
Leonidas saw that Cyra’s eyes were closed and one hand was running lightly over the surface of the sphere.
“I see the path.” Her hand wrapped tightly around one of the strands. A golden glow suffused her, then extended out about three feet in front, between her and the King.
Leonidas stepped back as a portal began to open there. He heard a female yell and could see that Pandora was leading the Immortals in an all-out charge toward them. His time sense had slowed, as it did in the heat of battle, and every second dragged slowly.
Cyra stepped toward the portal, the map sphere in her hands, still covered in gold. “Come with me.”
Leonidas smiled, and held out the Naga Staff toward her, drawing his sword. “My place, my destiny is here.”
Cyra didn’t argue. She took the staff. Leonidas spun about, bringing the sword up, the haft of Pandora’s staff slamming into it, the blade stopping just short of slicing Cyra in two. The priestess stepped into the portal, and it snapped shut behind her.
CHAPTER 27
They had crossed what used to be the Potomac, and Dane’s best guess was that they were in the vicinity of where the Pentagon had once sat. A black circle hovered a foot over the ground ten feet in front of them.
“Is the map through there?” Dane asked.
Ariana’s answer was less than reassuring. “So I have been told through a vision.”
Dane felt the urgency of their quest. Yet he paused, so many unanswered questions nagged at him. “What happened to this timeline?” he asked. “Why wasn’t the core — and the planet. This planet-destroyed”
“The Shadow was able to tap all the energy slowly and under control,” Ariana said. “I would guess that your fight against the Shadow in your timeline has caused it to act precipitously, with a certain amount of control being lost.”
“’The crystal skulls?” Dane threw out. “Are they useful?”
“I don’t know,” Ariana said. “They obviously still have some residual power and can definitely channel the larger power from the planet.”
“Can we travel back in time and save your planet?” Dane asked.
“I don’t think so,” Ariana said. “As far as I can figure out, from the visions I have been given, the Shadow can use the portals but they didn’t make them.”
“I don’t understand,” Dane said.
“The walls between parallel universes are thicker in some places and thinner in others. And, in some places there are openings-portals-through the walls. I think the Shadow searches for these and uses its power to open the portal. But what that means is that it doesn’t control where and when the portals go in those worlds. The Shadow just takes advantage of what it finds. Also, we affect portals somehow.”
“What do you mean?” Dane asked.
“Our minds just don’t channel power, they help create it. In some level we’ve never known. When enough minds are one place, pushed to the limit, I think they can affect the portals.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us,” Dane asked, “that might help?”
“I don’t think so,” Ariana said. “It is hard for me,” she added. “My world.” Her white arm lifted and slowly swept from side to side, indicating the desolation around them. "Everyone I knew, including, you” —she pointed at Dane—“are gone.”
“How did I die?” Dane asked, feeling the absurdity of the question as he asked it.
“A tsunami took out the FLIP and everyone on board,” Ariana said.
“Are you coming with us?” Dane moved toward the portal, Earhart at his side.
“No. I’m dying. I had to go through another portal to get this ‘suit’. It’s sustained me enough to meet you, but I don’t have much longer.”
“You can go to my camp in THE SPACE BETWEEN,” Earhart said.
“No. This is where I belong.”
Dane had already experienced Ariana’s-his timeline’s Ariana’sdeath. To realize it was going to happen again in this timeline was ripping the scab off a barely healed wound.
“Do you know what is through there?” Dane pointed at the portal.
“I just know enough to bring you here and tell you it is the next step.” The white figure floated a few feet away, as if there were no one inside the suit. “I am very tired.” Her right hand went to her left arm.
Dane knew what she was going to do and reached out to stop her.
“No!” her sharp rejection caused him to halt. Ariana’s fingers punched in the code, and the suit split open. Dane’s breath caught in his throat as he recognized the woman he had first met during a rescue mission in the Angkor Gate as she stepped out of the suit. She staggered and this time accepted his arm to help her from falling. Her skin was covered in red lesions and pus was crusted around her eyes. Dane now understood her desire to end it quickly.
Ariana waved toward the portal. “Go. Go now.”
“Thank you,” Earhart said, then she stepped into the portal and disappeared.
Dane hesitated, reaching with a white-armored hand toward Ariana’s face, clearing the yellow gunk away from around her eyes. He realized she was crying.
“We did it wrong,” Ariana said, looking up at him. “So far, your timeline has done it right. You need to take the next step.”
Dane couldn’t find words to say what he was feeling. He turned and went into the portal, leaving Ariana sitting alone and dying on the surface of her devastated planet.
Captain Stokes and his surviving crewmen from the Connecticut were stuffed into Deepflight. On the video monitor above the controls, Rachel was clearly visible, swimming back and forth slowly as they followed as quickly as they could. They passed between two small portals, leading farther out into the middle sea.
Stokes pushed the throttle forward and increased speed to keep up with the dolphin. After a couple of minutes, there was no doubting their destination. A large wall of black, a massive portal, was directly ahead. When they were less than fifty meters from the portal, Rachel stopped.
Stokes didn’t hesitate. He kept the throttle at full speed, and they went into the blackness, each man on board instinctively flinching as the screen went dark for a moment. When it cleared, they were on the surface of a circular body of water with a large, black portal over three-quarters of a mile taking up the center directly behind them. And on the black beach that delineated the edge of the water were thousands of craft: ships mostly, with planes, and even two dirigibles.
But Stokes was only interested in finding one craft. He threw open the hatch and climbed on top of Deepflight, the other members of his crew joining him. They scanned the shoreline, searching among the multitude of ships.
“There.” The executive officer was pointing to the left.
The Connecticut was half beached. Bow first, near a Spanish galleon.