Rachel Golden and the Retriever of Sin (3 page)

‘Come stand here,’ he said. Rachel went and stood next to him, and followed his finger to the old dead tree he was pointing at.

‘What? That tree? What about it?’

Kel scowled and moved to stand behind her, lowering his head so that he shared her line of sight. He took hold of her shoulders and moved her fractionally to the right. ‘There,’ he said. ‘See it? Just to the right of the tree.’

Rachel squinted her eyes, then peered over the top of her glasses. She couldn’t see anyth… Oh wait. There
was
something there, a sort of shimmering in the air, like you sometimes see over roads on hot days. ‘What the…’ she began, and ducked and moved around to try and see it from different angles.

The patch in the air was about the size of a door, just a normal door like in your house, and roughly oval in shape. It was hard to tell as the edges blurred and faded into the surrounding air. ‘What is it?’ she asked, slowly walking towards the shape. The hairs on her forearms stood on end and she shivered a little. There was something not quite right here.

As she moved closer she stepped side to side a little, and noticed that you could only see the shape if you were looking from
just
the right angle. One step to either side and it appeared to vanish. Something else that was odd was that the ground on the other side of it appeared darker, as if she were seeing a little window of the same world she was in at the moment, but later in the day. They stopped just a couple of feet from it, staring.

As they stood there, rain drops began falling gently, but only in an area about five feet square.
Through
the shape. Rachel frowned and looked up at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in sight. This was getting weird. She walked around the shape in a wide circle, and stared back at Kel through where the shape should have been. ‘It’s gone,’ she said.

‘Nope. I can still see it. Can you see me okay?’ Kel asked, and waved his arms around. Rachel nodded.

‘And me?’ she said, and copied his arm-waving. Kel nodded. She walked back around and stood next to her friend. The rain, wherever it was coming from, was falling harder now, but still just in that little patch of darkness. She reached out a hand, tentatively, and felt warm drops hitting her skin. When she pulled her hand back it was wet. She and Kel stared at each other, open-mouthed. Rachel wiped her hand on her pants and took a step toward the hole, as if to walk through it.

‘I wouldn’t do that if I was you, girlie,’ said a voice behind them. Rachel and Kel both jumped and spun around. An old man was sitting on a rock about 15 feet away. He had an amused glint in his milky eyes, and struck a match on the rock and used it to light his pipe. He sat there puffing on it as he eyed them up. Had he been there the whole time? No one could have walked silently over that rock-covered shore.

‘Wh—who are you?’ Rachel stammered. An old black Labrador was circling the man, his nose pressed to the ground. She turned back to where the shape was, half expecting it to have vanished, but it was still there.

‘You can call me Sinbad,’ the man replied, then added, ‘Rachel Golden.’ Rachel felt shivers run up and down her arms. How did this guy know her name? She felt genuinely frightened, though not
by
the man. He seemed friendly enough. But how did he know her? She turned and looked at Kel who was staring neutrally at the old man.

‘Sinbad,’ he said, and nodded at the guy.

The man returned the nod and said, ‘Kelsey.’

Whoa! Rachel’s head felt like it was going to explode. ‘You know this guy?’ she asked her friend, and Kel nodded, smiling just a little. But the biggest shock of all was hearing that Kel was apparently short for ‘Kelsey’. ‘Kelsey??’ she said, staring at her friend. Kel’s cheeks reddened slightly and he looked uncomfortable. He gave the tiniest of nods.

He cleared his throat, then nodded at the dog. ‘Ros,’ he said. The old black retriever stopped his sniffing for a moment and looked up at the two of them.

‘Hey Kel,’ he said. ‘Rachel,’ and gave them a little salute with his paw. Rachel almost fainted.

That’s it, she thought. I’m asleep and dreaming. No way any of this is happening. She looked from the dog, to the old man, to Kel and back again. Wait, not dreaming. It was too real. I’m in a straitjacket somewhere, drawing on the floor with crayons between my toes. I’ve lost it.

The old man smiled. ‘Oh I’m sorry, where
are
Kel’s manners? As he doesn’t seem about to introduce us, I will. My name is Sinbad, and this is my dog Ros.’ [He pronounced it Roz.]

Rachel gave a small wave, completely unsure as to what else to do. ‘Hi,’ she said vaguely.

Ros, who had gone back to his sniffing, stopped and looked up. ‘You were right,’ he said to Sinbad. ‘There were two of them, but they’ve been gone for about a day. It’s a little hard to tell because it rained.’ Sinbad nodded grimly and consulted his pocket watch.

‘Mm, I thought as much. There’s not much time then,’ he said. ‘You’ll need to get going soon.’ He looked up at Rachel and Kel.

Rachel was still reeling. She looked at Kel who was wearing an expression of grim determination. ‘Hold on,’ she said, raising her hands, ‘Who is this dude? How do you know him? And why can that dog talk?’ She pointed at Ros and her voice was getting louder. ‘What’s he talking about? Go where? And why is your name KELSEY?’

Ros had stopped to look at them and Kel shuffled his feet. He sighed. ‘I’m called Kelsey because my mom thinks Kelsey Grammer is hot.’ Rachel shook her head to try and absorb this shocking news. ‘Sinbad and Ros are Guides. I’ve been watching over you for the last year, making sure you were okay and reporting back to them. I’m your Safeguarder.’

Rachel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Kel, watching over
her
? Not possible. If anything she’d kept
him
out of trouble. Kel turned around and gestured to the shimmering shape in the air behind them. ‘And this,’ he said, ‘I’m guessing is our first mission.’

Rachel turned and looked at Sinbad and Ros, who were nodding seriously. This couldn’t be real. This REALLY couldn’t really be real. Kel looked at Sinbad. ‘Did I miss anything?’ he asked.

‘No, I think you got everything. Oh, except that Ros will be going with you and Rachel into Altworld.’

Ros froze, mid-sniff, and blinked. He turned very slowly to look at the old man. ‘Excuse me?’

ROS WASN’T THE ONLY ONE WHO WAS UNHAPPY. Rachel was having a hard time taking things in as well. She held up her hands. ‘Look,’ she said, ‘Just hold on a minute. I don’t know
what
is going on here, but if you all think I’m going into some weird floating space-hole with a talking dog, then you’re crazy.’

Sinbad opened his mouth to speak, but Ros cut him off. ‘She’s right. What’s all this crap about
me
going in there too? When was that decided?’ He jabbed a paw at Sinbad. ‘I have a contract you know. I’ll sue. And I don’t just mean the department. I’ll sue YOU personally. And you,’ he added, turning to Kel. Kel gulped.

‘What did I do?’ he protested. ‘This is the first I’m hearing of it!’ He turned to Sinbad. ‘But he’s got a point. Since when does a Guide go into Altworld with the Safeguarder? It’s just supposed to be me and the trainee.’ Rachel was looking from one to the other in disbelief. She had no idea what was going on. One thing was sure though, there was no way in hell she was going through that hole.

‘Guys, guys,’ she said, trying to sound placating, ‘it looks like there’s a little confusion here. I think the best thing would be if you all calm down—talk things through, figure out who’s going to Wallyworld and who’s not—and let me know how it was when you get back. In the meantime, I’m going home. Peace out yo.’ She turned to leave.

‘Rachel, please!’ Kel said. ‘You have to go into Altworld. You don’t really have a choice.’

Rachel turned back to look at him, thinking, oh really? I don’t have a choice, don’t I? ‘And just what are you gonna do if I say “no”, Kelsey?’ she asked, meanly putting a little emphasis on the ‘-sey’ part of his name.

Kel sighed. ‘Look, Rach. The portal is here for you. You
have
to go through it. And besides, you can’t go home. It’s… not there anymore.’ He looked like he was going to cry. Rachel turned and glanced in the direction of her apartment. Not there? Was he on crack? Although it was kinda strange that a mist was coming up out of nowhere… She shook her head.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ she said, and began stomping away across the pebbles. Behind her she heard a faint ‘ting’ sound, like a silver bell. Sinbad yelped.

‘Rachel! Stop! You don’t know how right you are that we don’t have time for this. We have less than a minute.’ Rachel shook her head again and kept walking. This was just too nuts. It was probably some trick dog or something, and she was on a hidden camera show. Wow, that mist had gotten awfully thick awfully fast…

Behind her she heard Sinbad talking quickly to Ros. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, old friend,’ he was saying, ‘but there was no way you would have agreed. You know what would have happened. The Council has insisted that you are to be tested as well. You don’t have a choice.’

The fog was almost too thick to see through now, and the voices behind Rachel were becoming muffled. She stopped and scowled, listening. A muted rushing-clicking-roaring sound was coming from somewhere just in front of her. And getting louder. As she stared into the gloom she became aware of a shadow on the beach, like a dark line, moving steadily toward her. She squinted her eyes and crouched down to try and see what it was, and all the while the sound grew louder. It was almost painfully loud now. It sounded like a waterfall.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Kel’s face looking down at her sadly. ‘I’m sorry,’ was all he said, and pointed at the ground close to where she was crouching. What she saw was impossible. The ground was falling away right in front of her eyes. It was like they were in a giant penny arcade machine, and the shelf they were standing on was slowly sliding back beneath their feet. The pebbles and rocks on the beach were all tumbling away into a white misty nothingness. She wanted to scream but her throat was too dry. The lake to her right was pouring away also. It was like they were at the edge of the world.

Kel gave her shoulder a squeeze, then pulled her to her feet. She could do nothing but blindly run back to the others, holding her friend’s hand. Sinbad was standing by the hole talking to a terrified looking Ros. There was sadness in his eyes. ‘Rachel,’ he said as they came close, ‘I’m sorry there wasn’t more time to explain things, but I have a feeling this is something you’ll need to see to believe. Kel and Ros will tell you more on the other side. Now you must hurry. There really is no more time.’

Rachel looked from him, to Ros, and then Kel. She looked over his shoulder and saw the world falling away. She turned back to the portal and saw that it was about half the size as when she’d first seen it, and it was shrinking fast. Sinbad thrust his dirty old backpack into Rachel’s arms. ‘You have to
go
,’ he pleaded, and the look in his eyes told her he was telling the truth. She nodded tersely.

Sinbad turned to Ros, who was still looking terrified. ‘Hey, is that a wiener on the ground?’ the old man asked. Ros’s head snapped around to look, and as he did so Sinbad picked him up bodily and threw him through the portal. ‘Tell him I’m sorry,’ he said to Rachel and Kel, ‘but that really was the only way.’ Kel took Rachel’s hand and together they stepped through into Altworld.

***

After the roaring noise of Beaver Lake falling away into… somewhere, the world on the other side of the portal was positively tranquil. The shore looked identical to the one they’d just left, except it was darker, and rain was falling gently onto the stony beach. Rachel realized she was still holding Kel’s hand and shook it free angrily. She was feeling pretty betrayed. She turned around and saw that the portal had vanished. Ros was sitting and staring dejectedly at the ground.

‘Great,’ she said. ‘Now what?’

‘I’m sorry, Rachel,’ Kel began, ‘but you saw what happened on the other side of the portal. If we’d stayed, we’d be dead now.’

Rachel frowned. ‘But what about that old guy? Sinbad. Is he..?’ she turned and looked back at where the door had been.

Kel shook his head. ‘Sinbad is a Guide. He will have split as soon as we went through. Don’t worry about him.’

‘I wasn’t worried,’ she said flatly. ‘And what about Courage the Cowardly Dog here?’ she said, pointing at Ros. ‘I thought he was a Guide too.’

Kel sighed and sat down on a rock. He picked up a handful of stones from the beach and began throwing them into the lake. ‘He is,’ he said, ‘but he’s just a trainee. We’re all just trainees really.’

Rachel was tired and confused. She sat down on a rock facing Kel. ‘You’d better tell me everything,’ she said. ‘First, why am I holding this?’ She held up the ratty old backpack Sinbad had given her.

Kel brightened. ‘Oh! Well, at least we have a bag. That’s something.’ Rachel couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. He reached over and took it from her, and started poking around in it as he talked. ‘Technically,’ he began, ‘you’re a trainee. I’m your Safeguarder, and Ros is your Guide. Sinbad was the Guide before him, but I guess he’s retiring. So now, instead of just you being tested, all three of us are going to be, to see if we can get our licenses.’ He said it like it was supposed to make sense.

‘I’m not a trainee,’ Rachel protested. ‘And anyway, a trainee what?’ Ros and Kel looked at each other.

‘You
are
a trainee,’ the dog said, getting up and coming to sit with them. ‘At least, that’s what your nametag says.’

Rachel looked down at her shirt. A plastic nametag was pinned there, that read ‘Hello! My name is: Trainee’. ‘Oh hell no!’ she said, and tried to unpin it. But there was no pin. It seemed to be glued to the fabric of her shirt. Ros snickered as she tried to rip it off. ‘We’ll come back to that,’ she said gruffly as the badge refused to budge. ‘Now what am I supposed be training as?’ She looked at the other two.