The Silver Dream (InterWorld 2)

I took a breath, finding the gate in my mind. It opened, and I followed the path that was home, leaving the dead Walkers and the empty one behind.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

OF THE DOZEN OR so prehistoric planets where InterWorld made its home, my favorite was still the first one I’d ever come to. I know it sounds odd to say, but it felt a little bit like my home—it was familiar, even though the landmarks in each world looked almost identical. Still, I don’t care if it was just my imagination, just nostalgia for the first world I’d come to after I’d left mine. The sunsets always seemed rosier, the sunrises brighter, the sky bluer. Today was no exception as Acacia and I stood on a cliff overlooking a great valley, so close our clothing touched with every breeze. The valley was beautiful; the world around us was calm; the sun was setting.

We’d been standing there in silence for a few minutes, waiting for InterWorld to pick us up. There were tears on my face, and I didn’t even care if she saw them.

“I know you wanted to save him,” she said, not looking at me. “I’m sorry, Joe, I really am.”

“What was that thing?”

“…I don’t know.”

“You looked like you knew.”

“I…” She looked away, which was impressive since she still hadn’t been looking at me in the first place. “I don’t know what it was, exactly. I know it was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever felt. It felt like it…could just erase me. And I can cast anchor to any time and place in the Altiverse, Joe. I can run as fast and as far as I need to.” She paused for a moment, and her voice was very small when she spoke again. “I don’t think I could run from that.”

“He called it FrostNight,” I said after a moment, watching a flock of birds skim along the surface of a small lake in the distance. “I was warned about it once before.”

She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Was it completed?” I asked, afraid of the answer. “You said we were powering it. Did they…?”

“I don’t know,” she said again. “I don’t…think so.”

“We have to figure out what it does.”

“We can go back to TimeWatch, search the archives—”

“No,” I interrupted, turning my gaze to the sky. “We’re going to report first.” She was silent for another moment.

“I don’t report to InterWorld, Joe.” She sounded apologetic. I turned to face her, looking down into her eyes. I was just glad to see someone looking back at me.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t, Cay.” Her brow furrowed slightly, but she allowed the nickname, obviously considering this. “You were there, too. You saw everything happen. I’m…” Now I had to look away, swallowing hard against the sudden hopelessness that settled in the pit of my stomach. “I’m liable to get thrown out again if it’s just me coming back with another crazy story. I’ve seen the deaths of two Walkers—three, if you count Joaquim. Hundreds more, if you count all those souls. I’ve seen the end of InterWorld, thanks to you.” She drew in a breath, shifting slightly, but I kept on. “I signed out to go for a Walk, and accidentally brought on the thing I was warned about when I first arrived here, something that even scares a Time Agent and took the essences of a hundred of me to power. Just come report with me, okay?”

She was looking up at me, a maddening little smile starting to turn up the corners of her mouth. “So you’re asking for my help.”

“It’s the least you can do for betraying me.”

She paused. “Joe…”

“You were just trying to help me, I know.”

“No, I was trying to save you. There was a massive power flux in InterWorld Prime that was—I know now—because of Joaquim. I didn’t know who the traitor was, but I was going to have to bring the information that there was one to Captain Harker, and he was just as likely to suspect you as anyone. More so. That is even if he was able to do anything about it, and with the massive amount of power being channeled from them, I didn’t think so.”

“Joaquim had his memories,” I said quietly, taking her hands. She let me, nodding. “It’s because he was stealing them, right? Taking their power, like the machine tried to do to me?” She nodded again. “So they might all be—” The image of the InterWorld of the future flashed through my mind, abandoned and wrecked….

“No, they’re stable. I promise; they’re all okay. They’re just…I don’t know that they’re coming, Joe.”

“Why not?”

“If you were Captain Harker, and you had a traitor on your ship slowly siphoning the energy from everyone on it, what would you do?”

“Find the traitor.”

“What if he was gone by the time you found him? What if he’d taken what he needed and gotten away with it?”

“I’d try to break the link. I don’t—” But then I did understand, all at once. I’d try to break the link. I’d throw the ship out of time, as quickly as possible, and get as far away from the receiver as possible. I’d punch it. And God help anyone left behind.