Darkest Designs (2 page)

Wherever she was, she lay surrounded in a dense gray fog. Not shadowy, like the Louers' world, but a completely empty type of gloominess. In spite of her attempts to stop it, shudders slid down her spine in a continuous tremor. What had happened?

Then she remembered. Of course. They'd almost made it home – her, Eric and the Councilman. Then she'd been pushed out of the portal.

Damn.

“Eric?” She called out tentatively. No answer. She called out louder. “Eric.” Still nothing. She yelled his name next, and when only a deafening silence answered, she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Eric! Are you there?”

Silence. And not a normal silence. A total absence of…anything. Beyond weird.

What had she expected? Why was it she hadn't seen this coming? Not that she'd expected decent behavior from the man that had tried several times to have her killed, but to actually do the dirty work himself? That surprised her.

Stylus. She slapped her hands over the stylus, her pencil-like computer thingy. “Stylus, can you hear me?”

Yes.

“Oh thank you, God,” she murmured. She closed her eyes. She wasn't alone. She could do this. With the stylus, she could do anything. Taking a deep breath, she let it go gustily, feeling her sense of optimism settle in. This was going to be okay. Feeling better, she asked, “Where are we?”

In-between.

Uh oh. Cautiously, she asked, “In-between what?”

Time and place.

She winced. That so didn't sound good. “What does that mean?”

It means we have no location.

No location? How could that be? She existed. Somewhere. Therefore there was a place. It was here. “Sooo…” she pressed. “How do we get out of this?”

We don't have that information.

Okay, so maybe this wasn't going to be so easy. She shook her head, more to clear the negativity than in denial. Although denial of the circumstances was there – by the bucket loads. “So not a good answer. We'll have to find the information. The longer we stay stuck like this, the harder it's going to be to get home.”

So saying she took a deep breath and stood up. Her surroundings looked the same. She placed a hand out into the dense space in front of her, but there was nothing there. And that freaked her out more than she cared to admit. She crouched down and studied her feet. Her shoes were muddy and showing signs of damage after the past week. She'd have to find new ones soon. She winced. She was focusing on her shoes to avoid thinking of the fogginess around them, in front of them…under them. Yet she could see her feet – barely. She straightened. In the Louers' mine she'd at least been able to tap the hard surface of the floor and recognize that she'd come to the end of whatever drop she'd taken.

Here…she stretched out the tip of her right shoe and tried to tap the space in front of her left shoe. Her shoe went below her left foot. She gasped and pulled her foot back. She tried to stand on her right foot like she had been a minute earlier, only now there was nothing solid beneath it. Her foot slipped down until she caught herself and leaned all her weight onto her left shoe. Slowly she moved her foot around and tested the ground behind and in front of her. Only there was nothing there. Oh God. Oh God.
Oh God!

She straightened and rested her right foot on her left foot and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her balance. Why wasn't she one of those agile gymnast-cheerleader types who could stand on one leg for hours? She breathed in and out, in and out. Somewhat balanced, but knowing she couldn't keep this up, she called out, “Stylus…a little help here.”

When there was no response, she snapped, panicked, “Like now!”

Researching our database. Our records show some people going In-between.

She brightened. “That's good right? So how did these people get out?”

They only traveled to In-between as part of the journey to their end destination.

“In other words they didn't stop in…In-between. Which really means it doesn't apply to us,” she said in exasperation. “Has anyone gotten stuck In-between that you know of?”

Of course. You.

She groaned and leaned her head back. Her left leg was starting to ache. She wasn't going to be able to do this much longer. She spread her arms out to stabilize her footing. “Anyone else?”

We are continuing to search the archives for more cases.

Damn. “So best guess? Am I going to continue to fall if I put my weight on my right foot?”

It's possible.

“Possible? Yeah. I know it's possible. But is it likely?” She'd woken up here. Surely she hadn't been sleeping standing up? What if she tried to sit? Did she dare? Did she have any choice?

Her left leg trembled. Beads of sweat formed on her upper lip and the headache she'd had since she woke, minor pounding until now, started to kick her butt. She groaned with the effort to continue standing on one foot.

You could fall. See where you stop.

Well, it couldn't be worse than this. Could it? Oh boy. She so didn't want to try it out and see. The fall could knock her out again too.

But…maybe she could sit very close to her feet? There had to be something there for her foot to stand on. She ignored the fact that there had to have been something for her right foot initially too. She hadn't heard anything drop away either. In fact, she could barely hear anything.

She took a deep breath and crouched down slowly, swearing at her unsteady movement. With her bum down as far as it could go, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, she dropped her weight onto her backside, as close to the heel of her left foot as possible.

And sat down.

And fell backwards.

***

“Storey! Where are you?” Eric spun around inside the confines of the portal. Only his father stood at his side. “What happened to her?” he asked him, a hard knot of suspicion forming in his gut.

His father opened his eyes wide, and held his hands out in innocence. Eric's suspicions solidified. “She must have fallen,” his father said, his voice holding just that perfect mix of concern and confusion that he'd used so many times before.

And Eric knew. “You pushed her, didn't you?” He watched as surprised anger lit the depths of his father's gaze.

“I did not.”

“Did too.” Eric didn't care if he sounded like a two year old arguing the point. In truth he wanted to break down and cry. Things couldn't get much worse. For the first time, he didn't know what to do. Somehow, this seemed too big to deal with. How could he possibly help Storey now? And all because of his father.

His father snorted. “So what if I did. Good riddance I say. Her influence on you was nothing less than a disaster. You'd never have spoken so disrespectfully to me before.” He stabbed the air with his index finger. “I blame her for the mess my life is in.”

Eric glared at him, emotions welling up. He wanted to punch that smug look off his father's face. He balled his fist and pulled back his arm. A red wave of anger and a need to hit out at something overwhelmed him.

“Eric. Don't.” Paxton's sharp voice caught Eric just as the power built in his upper arm. Eric stopped, frozen, a fierce welling of denial inside. This wasn't fair. His father deserved to get his ass kicked and Eric was just the one to do it.

“No! Not you.” Paxton seemed to read his thoughts. “He will be punished. I heard what he said. We all did.”

Releasing his breath in a heavy gust, Eric let his arm drop and turned to face his mentor and friend and a dozen of the council. He tried to school his features back into the non-emotional, calm expression his people were used to. He knew he didn't make it when Paxton took a small step forward, his hand outstretched toward him.

“He pushed her out of the portal,” he cried out, anguish cracking his voice. “He pushed Storey out into the In-between. After she went and risked her own life…again…to rescue him.”

The look of horror on the collective group of faces made him realize he wasn't alone in his shock and dismay. These people knew how final such a move was. How absolutely wrong it was. His people were peaceful, serene. Acts of violence were few and always shocking when they happened. But this…that their leader, even one that had been recently deposed…had done something so horrific to the visitor who'd saved them all…

If nothing else, it was satisfying to see the repugnance in their faces as they stared at his father.

Paxton ordered the Councilman to be taken under guard. Eric almost snorted at that. They didn't have much in the way of guards. At the rarely used underground dungeons, there might be a few on retainer, but they were hardly in prime condition.

“Throw him in the dungeon. That way he can't bribe anyone to let him out.” Eric caught the outrage in his father's face. He turned. “Did you really think such an act would go unpunished? That you could return home a hero? That all your problems would go away if you could just get rid of Storey? Because I have to tell you, your problems are just starting. I for one will be asking for the death penalty.”

At the shocked outcries from the others in the room, Eric strode as far away from his father as he could get and headed to Paxton's workbench. He had to focus on Storey. There was little information in the archives about In-between, the layer of nothing that existed between dimensions. Growing up he'd been fascinated by the early trials of portal travel. There'd been a few people who'd lost their lives in the development process. But he needed to go back and see if they'd ever rescued anyone who'd gotten lost In-between. Maybe there was a way to retrieve Storey. Or to help her find her way home.

Of course there was. Her stylus. Eric spun around searching for Paxton in the growing crowd. Where had all these people come from? He watched as more people rushed in to confirm the news. Had Storey really disappeared In-between? They'd talk until they had no more words to say, but that wasn't going to help Storey come home. He caught Paxton's eye, motioning him to come to his workspace.

“Everyone, let's move this discussion into the conference room.” Paxton opened the double doors and motioned the crowd out of his space and into the large common room. “I need to speak with Eric first, then I will give you all an update as I know more. Please go in and get comfortable. We'll find a way to handle this mess.”

“You'd better,” someone called from the crowd.

“Storey needs our help. She helped us…”

“And the Councilman must pay for what he's done.” Shouts and raised voices followed the group as it made its way into the larger room. Finally Paxton closed the main doors to the lab, locking them, and walked over to the workbench. “Now maybe we can have a few moments.”

Eric strode over to the adjoining conference room door and shut it behind the last person moving through the lab to join the group mingling and talking loudly. This and the recent battle with the Louers had given them something to talk about for decades to come. Too bad most of it was at Storey's expense.

Paxton hurried toward him. “Now Eric, are you sure she's lost In-between?”

Eric ran a hand through his hair as he thought on what had happened. “She was in the portal with us. I could see her, then there was a small rush of wind, she shrieked and was gone. I searched the blackness, but you know you can't see very much at all during a transfer.” He stopped for breath, and closed his eyes briefly. Would the echo of Storey's scream ever fade? He almost hoped not. He needed to keep her alive…until he could find a way to bring her back.

“We'll find a way to help her.”

“We need to contact her stylus," Eric said. "See if it can communicate from In-between. If it can, we might be lucky and get a way out of this fast.”

Paxton was ahead of him. He already had his stylus in his hand and an electronic tablet on the desk. In seconds his hand flowed over the screen. “My stylus is already checking. Our connection is growing every day.” Paxton shook his head. “It can hear and anticipate my needs now.”

Eric snorted. “After all this time? Unbelievable.”

“I wished I'd known about their abilities earlier,” Paxton admitted. “If it hadn't been for Storey…”

“Exactly. She's done so much for us,” Eric muttered, peering down at the tablet. He couldn't read what Paxton's stylus was writing.

“Eric, back up. I can't see what I'm doing.” The exasperation in Paxton's voice made Eric smile. He stepped back to give his friend room to work.

“It says it can hear the stylus, but there is great distance between them. Communication is splotchy.”