The Two Worlds (11 page)

Nia gave a low whistle as she stepped
over a lamp on the floor. I touched one of my walls, which had a
deep crack in it.

“
You are
strong...sturdy...without any flaws,” I whispered. Immediately, the
wall sealed and became stronger. Nia had begun to peek out of the
living room window.

“
What do you see?” I asked,
nervous.

She stiffened and turned back to me.
“Come take a look for yourself.”

The world had been completely
destroyed. Or so it seemed. Glass and debris lay strewn everywhere.
Trees were either non-existent or barely there, slumped over cars
that had been blown to pieces in the crossfire. I walked outside,
looking around. The air was still, stagnant. In the distance, I
thought I could make out an alarm of some sort. All of the animals
seemed to have disappeared.

“
What are we going to do?” I
muttered to myself.

“
Looks like there’s a
meeting of all group sectors,” Rena answered. She had her DiGi open
and was frowning. “It says here that Nia is supposed to take us
there.”

I frowned and continued looking at the
disaster in front of me. “And where is
there
?”

Nia turned the couch upright and sat
down, sighing. “We’re going to Caldbeck.” I whipped around and
stared at her.

Rena did the same. “Caldbeck?” she
asked.

Nia nodded. “It’s the safest place in
the city.”

Rena slid down a wall until she was
sitting on the floor. I leaned against the door frame and closed my
eyes. We were going to Caldbeck.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A large rip appeared in front of me,
and I stepped through it. Sticking my hand behind my back, I pulled
Rena in after me. “I will never get used to this way of travel,”
she said, shaking.

Nia had created a portal for us to step
through after we had made sure Dia was taken care of. The portal
was a rip in space—or time. Nia had explained to me, but I couldn’t
follow along. But we had made it to our destination, which was
presently looming in front of us.

As I looked up, I took in the sight of
Caldbeck. The building was gigantic. Bright white spotlights glared
down at us from the ledge of one of the roofs. A pointed fence
surrounded us, and I jumped, startled as I saw one of the fence
posts morph into a hideous creature. Bones groaned and creaked as
the figure slowly changed. I winced when the post gave a loud
screech and bolted into the sky, large molting wings flapping while
the talons on her hands and feet stretched out as if catching
unsuspecting prey.

“
Harpie,” Rena whispered as
we watched the beast disappear into the night’s sky. A line of
people was moving towards the prison’s tall, menacing
gates.

“
I’ve never seen so many
people trying to get in to Caldbeck,” Finny commented, sounding
amused. We walked around to the end of the line and began moving
forward ourselves.

“
I don’t understand,” Rena
said, “why all of these people are attending the
meeting.”

“
A lot of these beings are
more powerful than they appear,” Yolonda piped up from my neck. “If
I’m guessing correctly, this meeting is going to be about
strategically planning a defense.”

“
Our city is finally being
pushed into the war,” Finny agreed.

“
So what are we doing here?”
I asked. “We’re just students. I’m new for God’s sake!”

“
You’re a lot more powerful
than you think,” a deep voice said from behind me. I knew who it
was before I even turned around.

“
Grandpa!” Nia exclaimed for
me, throwing her arms around him. I turned, and tears welled up in
my eyes. There before me stood my grandfather, looking very healthy
and happy. His mustache had a few more gray hairs in it than it had
the last time I saw him, and he had far more wrinkles around his
eyes. But he gave me a confident smile.

“
Hello, young lady,” he
said, his eyes twinkling.

“
Grandpa...”I choked.
Grandpa reached out and gave me a big hug. I leaned my head on his
chest, trying to take in the scent of him. After what seemed like
ages, he finally released me and looked at Rena, who blushed a shad
of orange.

“
And you are?”

“
Rena,” she said, sticking
out her hand. “I’m in the same Awakener group as Kay.”

Grandpa shook her hand and looked back
down at me. “We should go somewhere private and talk.”

“
Why?” Nia asked. “What’s
going on here? How come our DiGis wouldn’t tell us anything
more?”

“
It’s not safe right now to
have information out in the open,” Grandpa answered, placing a hand
on Nia’s shoulder. “But we have something far more important to
discuss.”

“
But what are you doing
here?” I asked. “You were in a coma, and Paul said you are an
historian, and why have you come to see me? Did you know I was
here? What have you been doing?”

Grandpa held up his hand to silence me.
“I’ve been busy, honey. But I have been keeping an eye on
you.”

I shook my head, still trying to
process what was happening. I was thrilled to see Grandpa, of
course, but he could have come to see me! Wasn’t I more important
to him than his work? And what exactly did an historian do here on
this planet anyway? Before the anger that was slowly starting to
build inside of me could reach a peak, an ear shattering screech
came from the sky. Everyone looked up as we watched dozens of wild
Harpies swoop down upon us, screeching in what seemed to be alarm.
For a moment, everyone continued to stand frozen, mesmerized by the
sight. But that moment passed, and people and creatures ran in
different directions, trying to take cover.

“
What the—?” Nia yelled. “I
thought they were supposed to be protecting us!”

“
I think they are!” Grandpa
yelled back at her. He grabbed our arms and I grabbed Rena. We ran
towards the front doors, pushing our way around in the panicked
crowd. Yolonda and Finny had grown very warm against my skin, but I
tried to ignore that and keep my eyes on Nia’s back in front of me.
Chaos broke out all around us. Harpies were picking people up with
their claws and dragging them into Caldbeck.

“
What are they doing?” Rena
shouted, a wild look in her eyes.

“
They’re trying to get us
out of the way!” Grandpa yelled back at her. He ducked his head
around a blue glowing light that looked faintly like a fairy.
“Something is coming this way!” Just as those last words left his
mouth, the screeching stopped. Everyone stopped running to turn and
look towards the sky. Grandpa, however, kept his pace, his hands
tight around Nia and my arms. I clenched Rena’s hand in mine to
keep her at my side. When we reached the door, Grandpa finally
stopped and turned to look up, with the rest of us following his
action.

The sky had become a bright red. It
seemed to be dripping. I frowned. But how could that be? Yolonda
pulsated against my skin. I ignored her and kept looking at the
sky. The red continued to drip until it formed raindrops. A red
drip landed on my cheek, and I slowly reached up to touch
it.

“
It’s blood,” I whispered.
Looking back up in horror, I watched in awe as the red began part
like clouds. A painful feeling of fear rippled through my spine as
I viewed a battle being carried out in the sky. They were Harpies,
moving slowly and gracefully around a smaller group that was
hovering as well. Blood, from the wounds of those who were
battling, continued to rain down on us. A roar ripped out from the
smaller group, and the group caved in. The Harpies gave another
intense battle cry and spread out, circling around the group like
vultures. The group became smaller and smaller. Then just as
quickly as the group had folded on itself, it expanded. The
movement reminded me of fireworks that would explode and then
gracefully extend to the rest of the sky.

“
What’s going on?” I asked,
frightened out of my mind. I turned back towards Grandpa, who was
surveying the scene with a grim look on his face.

“
We need to get inside
quickly,” he said, ignoring my question. “We have work to
do.”

***

Caldbeck was nothing like I expected.
Instead of rows of bars that looked like the typical prison, I was
faced with rows of books that seemed to reach into the depths of
infinity.

“
What is this?” Nia
breathed. It hadn’t occurred to me that she had not visited the
prison before this. Grandpa moved swiftly through the aisles,
navigating as if he had been here thousands of times
before.

“
Caldbeck,” Finny breathed
from my neck. “Just like I remember it.”

“
What are all of these books
for?” Rena murmured, looking up. The rows of books were as tall as
they were wide.

Grandpa turned his head to answer her.
“They are the prisons, Rena. When an inhabitant sentenced here,
their minds are bound to these books. The books are then sealed
with strong magic by a powerful council of warriors and placed in
these rows. The rows are in order by the severity of the
crimes.”

Nia whistled. “Those rows go back
pretty far. How severe are we talking about, Grandpa?”

“
When magic is involved,
there are no limits,” came Grandpa’s sharp response. He continued
to walk quickly through the rows until finally I didn’t think I
would be able to keep going. Just when I was about to ask for a
quick break, he stopped in front of a white wall that was
sandwiched in between two rows. Grandpa knocked three times and
whispered something that I couldn’t make out. The wall changed into
a brown door with strange symbols etched into it. As the door swung
open, Grandpa motioned for us to step in.

Inside was a room that resembled a
classroom. There was a round table with a few chairs around it. A
small black chalkboard was placed on one of the walls, and it
looked like it was brand new. There was a window on the opposite
side of the chalkboard, but when I looked through it all I saw was
a sky full of stars.

Grandpa took one of the chairs, and we
did the same. I sat down with a sigh, gingerly moving Yolonda and
Finny off my chest for a few moments. They had remained very warm
since this whole ordeal had started. I noticed that Rena looked at
me weird, but didn’t say anything.

“
Okay, Grandpa, what’s this
all about?” Nia demanded, raising her eyebrows at him. “Why are we
here?”

Grandpa sighed as well. “You’re here to
learn about your history.”

Nia frowned. “Our history? What are you
talking about?”

Grandpa shushed her and looked down at
his hands. When he looked back up at us, it seemed that the
wrinkles around his eyes had deepened.

“
You are a part of a
legend,” he began. “A powerful legend that we are watching being
played out right now.”

I watched him, wide-eyed, as he rose
from the table and went to the chalkboard. He studied it for a
moment and then put his hand up to the chalkboard. A drawing seemed
to leak out of his fingertips and spread across the board until it
took up the whole surface. Grandpa stepped back, and I realized I
was looking at a drawing of Mom and Dad. They were smiling at me,
and Dad looked around to spot Nia before waving at her.

Nia stared at the board.
“W-What?”

“
Once upon a time,” Grandpa
began, “there was only one kingdom on Turgor. The Felkne kingdom
was the most powerful in this universe, highly feared and respected
by everyone. The King and Queen ruled with justice and grace. Those
were peaceful times.”

Grandpa glanced back at the board. I
hadn’t taken my eyes off of it since he began talking. “A rebel
group by the name of Bulen wanted to overthrow the royal family and
bring themselves into power. They were not large enough or strong
enough, though. For centuries they plotted, attempting to find a
way to complete their plan. Finally, they discovered another rebel
group that was much smaller but much more powerful than they were.
They convinced the new group to join their ranks, and from that
union the KaKonians were born.

“
The KaKonians eventually
began a battle with the Felkne, but they still were not powerful
enough to overcome them. While hiding out after a particularly
unsuccessful attack, they came up with a plan. The Felkne King and
Queen had six children. The last two were girls, who were said to
have been more powerful than the King and Queen combined. When the
girls were born, an oracle prophesied that as long as they lived
they would bring victory and peace to the kingdom. Of course, when
the KaKonians found out about this, they assumed killing the girls
would ensure their victory. So they went after the girls, who were
no more than your age at the time, and kidnapped them.

“
The King and Queen were
both devastated and enraged. A full-scale war broke out among the
KaKonians and Felkne. For decades the war raged on. Finally, one
awful year, the girls were found inside a KaKonian base camp. They
had been tortured and killed. The King and Queen, so devastated at
their loss, could not continue fighting. The remaining Felkne
children tried to continue on in war, but were not as powerful as
their parents. The kingdom was eventually overrun by the KaKonians.
The Felkne kingdom was no more.”