The Inner Realm Read online

  “Yes, sir. I am to meet with them in the wall room. Before I did, I… um… I hoped to talk to you.”

  Oln spun his tall, lean body, and a small breeze ruffled what little hair remained on Hankley’s head. Hankley blinked, and his god suddenly stood before the far wall of books. His hair and eyes were as dark and as shining as his black cloak against the starkness of smooth white skin of his face.

  “But if you’re busy, I’ll come back,” said Hankley.

  Another blink and Oln’s face appeared a hand’s breadth from Hankley’s eyes. Hankley jumped back.

  “I’m not busy,” Oln said. “But you should be. I want Shank One and Shank Two trained by the next Meeting of Realms.”

  Two Cillian weeks. Hankley was to train the Shanks within two weeks? Why would—?

  “Because you will be accompanying me, that’s why.” Oln laughed and disappeared in a flash of white light.

  Hankley hated when he did that. Oln always answered questions before they had fully formed in Hankley’s mind. His shoulders slumped. He hated traveling to the Outer Realm. Oh, he loved Azu’s domain, but the path there was unpleasant.

  He pushed the chilling trip aside and thought about his other plight. How were the Shanks going to handle the study needed to work in the Wall Office? He wished they would go find some other brown robe job.

  The last time he had accompanied Oln to an All Realm meeting, the previous wall keeper had taken over wall duties. Was he about to lose his office? He rubbed his bald head. He had to make sure that didn’t happen. It was his office and no one was going to take it away from him.

  He scanned the vast room to make sure everything was in its rightful place. Satisfied, he left the sanctum and made his way along the palladium street of the Inner Realm kingdom. He passed an artisans café. Ah, someone had just opened an oven and the aroma of fresh bread wafted out into the street. His empty stomach grumbled. The Shanks could wait until he grabbed something to eat.

  With sandwich in hand, he dawdled past the artisan’s homes trying to comprehend some of the patterns brightly painted on the facades. Meandering around all the white-robed inhabitants going about their business, he veered past one home decorated with animals of the Inner Realm worlds.

  “Hankley, come here!” Shank Two’s voice floated up from under the platinum street.

  Hankley ignored Two and stopped. Rone headed to her home. He had heard she was back in the Inner Realm. He wished Rone would seek him out just once. It was always him who “accidently” bumped into her.

  She was always coming and going from realm to realm as it pleased the gods, but the last time he had spoken to her, she thought she would be spending more time in the Inner Realm.

  Her mouth opened in a wide smile at his approach and Hankley’s heart flipped at what he thought looked like fondness in her eyes. Was it possible she was glad to see him?

  “Still a brown robe, Hankley?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

  Hankley wondered whether her eyebrows were as white as her hair under the charcoal paint she had painted over them. He decided they were and smiled. “I like being a brown robe, Rone. I couldn’t keep one of those,” he pointed to her white robe with his sandwich, “clean for too long anyway.” He also thought the dark brown robe made him look slimmer, but he neglected to say that.

  “If you don’t like white robes, what are you doing in the platinum quarter?” She waved her hands about her at the silvery, platinum buildings and the many white-robed artisans about.

  Hankley regarded the street. As was custom in the Inner Realm’s kingdom, all the single story buildings on the right side of the street were apartments with shared walls, and their inhabitants decorated each residence. Artisans decorated their silvery-white, buildings’ facades in intricate patterns and precise pictures. They were a myriad of flowers and animals inhabiting the worlds of the Inner Realm.

  On the left side of the street stood the communal buildings, offices, workshops and eating parlors, each painted in a different pastel shade. Rone’s apartments, the nearest to where Hankley stood, had single-stalked, yellow flowers jutting from purple, green, and golden grasses painted on either side of her door. Small animals, some peeking, some jumping, some wrestling, and tumbling, were painted in their natural colors. There were tan, white and grey field mice from Earth, blue gothams from Landoran, and green prenties from Marlt.

  Hankley did not want to admit he had hoped he would bump into Rone. “I might not like white robes, but they have the best sandwiches in the kingdom.” He held out his sandwich.

  Rone flipped her snowy hair off her shoulder and roared with laughter. People passed and smiled in her direction.

  Hankley chuckled also, although he did not know why. What he said wasn’t funny, but then, Rone had a way of finding humor in everything. Her laughter was contagious.

  Rone calmed down. “True, even Oln likes the eating halls here. You like my apartment?”

  “Very nice, but I think I’d rather do wall duty than paint pictures.”

  “That’s not all we do.”

  Another white-robe stopped. Gelly bent in a nimble bow, his reddish-blonde hair brushing his naked toes in his sandals. “No, that’s not all,” he said, rising with a wink at Rone.

  Flashing Gelly a wide smile, Rone said, “Thanks for backing me up.”

  He grinned. “Anytime.”

  Hankley didn’t like the tight feeling springing into his stomach. He liked Gelly, but he didn’t like the way he always flirted with Rone. Sometimes he thought Gelly did it on purpose so Hankley would have to soak in the redemption tub until the tentacles of jealousy unwound from his heart. His so-called “friend” knew how he felt about Rone.

  Gelly turned to Hankley. “You were supposed to meet me for a sandwich.” He squinted at the triple-decker in Hankley’s hand. “You couldn’t wait?”

  “Sorry, my friend, but Oln has me babysitting the Shanks.”

  Rone raised her eyebrows. “Why?”

  Hankley sighed. “Oln wants them to take over wall duties while I accompany him to the All Realm meeting.”

  Gelly snorted. “Why does Oln want your company?”

  “None of our business, Gelly,” Rone said with a frown.

  Gelly looked suitably contrite as Hankley continued. “But I’ll tell you one thing. They are not going to take my office, not while I’m breathing.”

  Rone and Gelly looked at each other and laughed.

  “You’re not breathing,” Gelly said in between guffaws.

  “So I guess the Shanks will take over the wall office.” Rone tittered.

  “Oh, shush up the both of you, you know what I meant.”

  “Hankley get down here, now.” Shank Two’s voice drifted around the talking group.

  “I think you’d better go.” Rone’s eyes widened. Her mouth opened as if she was about to say something else but smacked shut again. Instead, a smile played at the corners of her lips as she spoke. “It sounds like something’s wrong.”

  “Yes, yes,” Hankley wondered about the look on Rone’s face. It was as if she knew something, but didn’t want to say. No. Rone was too direct for that. “I’d better get going. See you two later.”

  “Yeah, Hankley, you better get down here,” Shank One said.

  Panic edged One’s tone.

  Hankley frowned. Surely, they hadn’t been there long enough to cause any trouble. Hankley stepped onto the red spot that allowed the servants to go wherever they needed in the Inner Realm. The marks were in the centre of every crossroad intersection in the kingdom.

  “The Wall Office,” Hankley said, and a pale grey mist surrounded him as Gelly threw him an evil grin and put his arm around Rone’s shoulders. Hankley squeezed his sandwich with tight fingers.

  Chapter 3

  Mike racked his brains. How could his new location be so different from the bush in Trevel? Hang on, he thought. Maybe it is a set. Lots of movies have been made around Trevel. It might be a new one. He tried to lift h
is spirits by smiling, but something gnawed at the back of his mind. He ignored it and remembered the movie people always advertised for extras. Maybe he would have a go.

  Mike turned away form the pink-trunked trees. “Where is that kid?”

  A small figure appeared over a low hill some distance away from the wall. It was so small; Mike couldn’t make out who it was. Within seconds of the sighting, Terni stood in front of him crying. Mike gazed over Terni’s head still expecting to see someone walking down the rise. Nothing. “Did you just come over the hill?”

  “This is not my home.” Terni wept, rubbing his eyes with tiny fists. Next minute, he flung his arms about his head. “This is not my home!”

  Mike’s heart quickened. He groaned. It wasn’t his home either. With every second, the idea he was having a dream faded bit by painful bit. The dream had turned into a nightmare. He turned back to the wall. There had to be a door he could open. Any door. He had to keep trying until he found one.

  He took a step forward.

  The wall disappeared and in its place, more open-spaced land rose slowly until it merged with great mountains to the north.

  “No,” he cried. He stared at the empty space, trying with all his might to will the stupid wall back. He did not know how long he had stood there peering at what looked like a rocky pass though the mountains before Terni’s high-pitched sobs filled his ears.

  Tears made tracks in the grime on his face as they fell down the boy’s cheeks. “I want Ma.”

  Mike tried to concentrate on what the child said, but his mind shrieked with the question, where were they?

  He slapped his cheek. He wanted to wake up. He slapped his other cheek. That thought at the back of his mind screamed, he wasn’t dreaming. He argued he had to be asleep. There couldn’t have been any other explanation. But what if the kid, the wall, and the sun were real? Something—alarm—gurgled in Mike’s chest. His pulse throbbed in his temples. A howl raced the panic to reach his throat first.

  Terni’s frightened face, wet with tears and snot, gawked up at Mike.

  He roared to the sky. The boy dropped to the ground and covered his head with his full-sleeved arms.

  Mike huffed a breath. He had to stop scaring the kid.

  He took a deep breath. There had to be a way back. They just had to wait until the wall reappeared. He gazed at Terni’s feet and patted the boy on the back. “You’ll be right, mate.”

  Terni sniffed, hiccupped, and wiped his sleeves over his face. “I want to go home.”

  “I do too.” Mike tried to think of something else to say to calm the boy down. “You can run fast.”

  “I told you, I’m a messenger. Messengers have to be fast.”

  “Of course, how stupid of me.” Mike tried to collect his thoughts. “Hang on. You said this wasn’t your home world. What did you mean?”

  “My world is different,” Terni said. He took a breath, a small frown appearing between his brows. “As yours is.”

  Mike stared at the boy. What was he talking about? “We’re not on Earth?”

  “What’s Earth?”

  “Earth is my world, it’s where I live.”

  “This isn’t your Earth, and it’s not my Salteren either.”

  How do you know it isn’t Earth, and what are you talking about, Salteren? There is no such place as Salteren. At least, I’ve never heard of it before.”

  “I was alone on your world for a long time and even though I’m only seven, I can work things out. The door I came through was where my house’s door should have been, but instead of walking into our kitchen, I walked into your world. I tried to get back, but the wall of doors disappeared.” Terni’s bottom lip trembled. “Like it did here.”

  Mike shook his head. “You’re saying those doors take people to different worlds?” That is what his mother had said. She had walked through a door and wound up in Trevel, Earth.

  “What else could it mean? I am from Salteren and you say you are from Earth.” Terni’s screwed his face up and waved his arms about again. “This is not Salteren or Earth.” He started to cry again. “I will never get home. I will never see my ma again.”

  “Stop it, that’s rubbish. We are on Earth.” Mike gazed all around him. He refused to believe they had stepped onto another planet. “Maybe not in Trevel, but we have to be somewhere on Earth.”

  “Okay,” Mike said. “The wall came back after you came through a door after awhile, so we wait.” He plonked down onto the ground. “When we get back, Dan’ll know how to find your home.”

  “I don’t want to go to your Earth. I want to go home and my home is on Salteren.”

  Mike was about to tell Terni to stop talking rot again, but his gaze paused on the boy’s wings. The evidence mounted up against Mike’s dream theory. He was sure nothing like Terni existed on Earth. He turned his eyes to the forest. He had never seen trees with pink trunks either. No, he had to admit, he had no idea where they were—or on what planet.

  “There might be strange creatures on this world,” Terni said.

  Reverie broken, Mike took in the vista around him. A green plain dotted every now and then with a cluster of trees or a clump of taller grasses laced with yellow flowers. The flowers reminded him of the daisies his mother loved.

  The land stretched east from the forest and fell away. At least he figured it fell away because only the snow-capped mountain peaks rose in the distance. To the south, the plain disappeared behind the rise where Terni had appeared earlier. Mike guessed a valley, or valleys, existed behind the rise. There could be towns, cities, people, but no man-eating creatures. At least he hoped not.

  “You have a thing about scary creatures, don’t you?” Mike said, lounging back on one elbow. “Have you ever seen one?”

  “There are monsters on Salteren. I have seen the mountain ogres. If you are very quiet, you can sneak up on them and watch the young ones play in the snow. I haven’t seen the water dwellers and I don’t want to.” Terni shivered as if trying to dislodge something off his back. “My father told me they are fierce creatures. They carry huge clubs to bludgeon people and drag them into the sea.”

  “You’re joking.”

  Terni’s eyes widened and glared at Mike. “I’m not lying.”

  “I didn’t mean you were.” Mike wondered at a world where strange and terrifying creatures roamed about. “What do the ogres look like?”

  “The adults are about my size with fat stomachs and the little ones are small and round.”

  “Do they attack anyone?”

  “No. Not unless someone ventures into their caves. They leave us alone and we leave them alone.”

  Mike glanced at the boy’s feet. “At least you can run away from them. Does everyone on your world have wings on their heels?”

  “No, only messengers.”

  “Was your father a messenger?”

  “No, but my grandfather was, and not one other messenger ever outran him. He was the fastest ever.” He straightened and regarded the empty space where the wall had stood. “My ma said I would be as fast as him one day, if not faster.” He sniffed back new tears and held his head up high. “I’m already faster than my neighbor and she’s twelve.”

  “You might be fast and smart, but you an emotional thing, aren’t you?” Mike said. He jumped to his feet and patted the boy on the back. “Don’t worry, we’ll get home. Mind you, I’d like to check out your world sometime.”

  As he said the words, he knew it was no dream. “Maybe if we walk a little closer, the wall will reappear.”

  Before he could take a step, rolling thunder grew in Mike’s ears. “Shush. Listen.” Excitement welled in his chest. It could be the wall returning. He looked around, waiting for a mist to appear.

  Terni clasped Mike’s arm and stood as still as a statue. “Horses,” he said, eyes wide.

  Thundering hooves crashed behind them. Mike wheeled around. A horse’s chest barreled down on him. Hooves pounded the ground and echoed in his ears. White, f
oamy sweat hung off the horse’s pulsating muscles. It wasn’t slowing. It wasn’t going to stop.

  Mike tried to leap out of the way, but his legs refused to budge. He cried out, and flung his arms up to protect his head.

  Chapter 4

  “What are you yelling about?” Hankley demanded through the disappearing mist as he floated down to the wall office’s floor. He loved the office with its warm, orange décor. As with Oln’s inner kingdom some distance above, the office hung in time and space.

  “You were supposed to be here ages ago, not feeding your face again,” Shank Two said.

  “Yeah,” Shank One said. “Not eating.”

  Hankley opened his squashed sandwich, took a bite, and spoke around a mouthful. “Someone’s got to do it. You know,” he gulped, “with two mouths, you’d think you’d spend more time eating than anyone.”

  He looked the Mornt over. One stringy body and two long, thin heads resting on wide shoulders. Their black-as-night hair hung long and loose. Both had arrow-shaped noses, and Shank One’s eyes were perfect circles. Shank Two’s left eye was round also, but his right lid drooped so much, it appeared closed most of the time. Each set of eyes sported the one bushy, black eyebrow ranging from left temple to right.

  Shank Two screwed up his pointy nose and wiped wet crumbs from his cheek and the front of his grey robe. “Something’s happened to the wall.” He jabbed his thumb down at the world below.

  Hankley looked to where Two pointed and gazed through the clear floor at Cillian, in particular, the country of Zandell. He couldn’t see the wall of doors, but the red-haired Prince Ludo was sitting rigid on his horse and glaring at two boys on the grassy plateau of central Zandell. By their appearances, neither boy belonged there.

  “What did you two numbskulls do?”

  “We didn’t do anything, it must have been you,” Shank Two spat, not appearing to care he showered Hankley in the least.