“So, the green beings are real and not in my imagination?”
“Of course, they’re real. The xyn have long known about the relationship between the natural world, living things, and portals. A few of them decided to pay you and your ancestors regular visits. Let’s just say they’re rooting for you.”
“How’d you know I was thinking of the garden?”
“You weren’t just thinking about it. You were there for a moment. You’re able to use the living growing things on this planet like a communications network. This is the reason you’re a natural pilot. You can travel all around. Etch is not nearly as good as you are. But he’s catching on. Melat was a natural like you. But someone beyond the universe exposed a weakness in her and exploited it. Interestingly, Thresh has a similar weakness.” Fromer shrugs.
I want to be angry at Fromer — blame him for this condition. But I can’t seem to keep the flame burning in my gut. It seems I’ve used up all my energy on Wenn and the others. “Fromer, are you going to keep manipulating us?”
He seems genuinely surprised. “What do you mean Amy? I have done no such thing. As I’ve said before, I cannot interfere in your affairs.”
“Are you kidding me, Fromer? Look at this place. It’s fortified with tools that you’ve given them. You brought Wenn and father to them when they needed help.”
Fromer smiles mischievously. “The watchkeeper has to wind the clock occasionally or it will stop. That doesn’t mean he controls the passage of time. Amy, you have and always will have free will. I can’t tell you, of all people, what to do.”
I rush him, my face in his chest. I stand on my toes and stare at his angular face. My anger’s back. “What freedom do I have when you keep manipulating the playing board? I feel like a chess player responding to each of your moves.”
“Well, I must confess. This may be somewhat true. I’m happy to know that you are an accomplished player.”
“Do we kill Thresh and get Eliza back?”
“I can’t tell you that. Honestly, I don’t know. Each time I move into the future, it changes. The past is firm. The path ahead — it wiggles and jumps.”
“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?”