Chapter 1 #2
“There might be a way tae get her the help she needs,” Taran spoke quietly behind him, his Scottish brogue thick with emotion. “But ’twillnae be easy.”
“Name it,” Noah cried, whirling to face him.
Taran shifted, arms crossed, the lines of his face were grim. “We would need tae find The Keeper.”
“Who?” Noah demanded.
Taran glanced at Paige as she joined them.
“The Keeper,” Taran repeated. “There are stories of a man who can control the portals.”
Noah’s breath hitched. The portals?
For years, they had believed there was no way back. For years, they had stopped talking about going back. It was the unspoken rule of their village. Survival meant looking forward, not back.
Noah had tried to bury the longing, the desperation to return to where they belonged. To find the family they’d lost. To make sense of why they’d been brought here in the first place.
Now, that old dangerous hope stirred inside him again. But he couldn’t think of home. He must think of Emily. As far as he knew, this thing that wracked her body hadn’t even had a name, let alone a cure in his own time.
“If The Keeper can control the portals, maybe he can send us back to my time,” Paige interjected, her voice full of hope. “It may be the only way we can get Emily the help she needs.”
Noah turned to Taran. “Do you believe such a person exists?”
Taran’s expression was noncommittal. “Old Man has heard of him.”
Noah knew Old Man was the closest thing this village had to a leader. A man of indeterminate age and unquestioned wisdom. No one knew where he came from or when. But he knew more than anyone about this place, its strange rules and, more importantly, its dangers.
Taran laid a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “Old Man admitted he has sent people to The Keeper before. None have ever returned.”
A ripple of apprehension skittered through Noah’s gut before exploding into anger. A muscle jumped in his jaw as he clenched his fists.
“That doesn’t tell us if their quest was successful or unsuccessful.
You warn me of The Others every time I go hunting, and we take turns standing guard against them.
How can we know if those missing people encountered The Others instead of The Keeper?
Or that The Keeper isn’t an even bigger threat? ”
They were chasing a ghost. A fanciful rumor. A fairy tale. All at Emily’s expense.
He turned back to her, noting her shallow breathing, her hands tucked limply beneath her chin.
Paige and Taran stepped silently to either side of him. Taran’s hand squeezed his shoulder as Paige took his hand. Even Brody, sensing the tension, slipped an arm around his leg.
“We love you and Emily as if you were our own,” Paige said softly.
“You are as much our son as Brody is. Emily is our daughter. But we understand what happens now is your decision to make. We’ll do everything we can for her here.
Or we will go as a family in search of the Keeper. Whatever you decide, we support you.”
Noah couldn’t look at them. Couldn’t bear the weight of their hope-filled gazes. Hope was dangerous. Hope could destroy you. He’d learned that lesson well when they first arrived here, spending months hoping to wake up from what surely must be a dream, hoping their parents would somehow find them.
But as he listened to Emily’s labored breathing, he knew he had no choice. He would find this Keeper, if he truly existed, and do whatever it took to save his sister.
The night air was thick and cool, the scent of damp earth filling his nostrils as Noah walked to the river’s edge. He grabbed a smooth stone, clenched it in his palm, then hurled it across the water.
It skipped once, twice, then vanished beneath the rippling surface. Was Emily’s life just as fleeting? Everything felt so fragile. So temporary. Safety was an illusion, threatening to slip through his fingers no matter how tightly he held on.
He’d learned that lesson the night he and Emily were caught in that massive storm walking home after visiting a distant neighbor.
It had come upon them so suddenly, with lightning exploding so violently in the sky, the only option they had was to take cover amid some boulders and try to shield themselves against the unnatural light.
When the storm finally passed, they still huddled in a group of boulders. But the boulders were no longer just outside Boston. Their family was no longer a mere two miles away. And the world around them was far different from the one they knew.
He remembered cradling Emily, his arms wrapped around her while she sobbed, asking if they’d ever see their family again and if she and Noah were going to die here.
He’d promised her then that no matter what happened, he’d never leave her and never stop fighting to keep her safe.
But how could he fight something he couldn’t see? Couldn’t understand?
Noah tensed when he heard a familiar soft footfall behind him. Taran.
“If throwing rocks will bring the right answers, I will join you,” Taran said softly.
Noah exhaled. “Not in the mood for idle chatter.”
Taran was silent for a moment before stepping up beside him.
“I understand, I do,” he said eventually, gripping Noah’s shoulder. “But ye dinnae have tae carry this alone. Ye’re no’ that lost boy that arrived here shaken and scared wi’ a sister in tow tae protect and provide for. No’ anymore, son. Ye’ve got us tae share yer burdens now.”
Noah felt as terrified as that young, inexperienced boy had been five years ago.
No. More so. How could he make Taran understand?
Taran, who he was sure had never been helpless the way Noah was now.
Taran fixed things. Even though Noah had spent the last five years pretending he could do the same, this wasn’t something he could hunt. Or physically fight.
“I don’t know what to do. Or how to help her,” Noah admitted, his voice breaking over the words.
Taran nodded slowly. “Then perhaps we should find someone who does.”
Noah huffed a humorless laugh. “You really think this Keeper exists?”
“I dinnae ken if he does or no’,” Taran admitted. “But I agree wi’ Paige. We have tae try.”
Noah hesitated, then turned to face him, unable to hide his helplessness, or his pain.
Taran studied him for a long moment. “Old Man mentioned somethin’ else.”
Noah raised a brow, wishing he could put more faith in Old Man’s stories.
“’Tis rumored The Keeper has a daughter. Skye.”
Noah shrugged. Rumors meant nothing to him. Nor did The Keeper’s family tree. He needed solutions.
“If we can find this Keeper, ’twillnae be easy tae convince him tae help us. We’ve naught tae trade or use tae buy favor. And ’tis said he doesnae grant an audience, or favors, for free. So, ’tis possible this daughter could be our best way in.”
“How so? Is her influence that powerful?”
“I dinnae ken. ’Tis only a whispered tale.”
Noah scoffed. “So, we’re to go looking for a rumored daughter of a rumored…
what is he again? An all powerful Grantor of Wishes?
Ogre? Wizard? Portal Guard? The whole thing sounds more like a fantasy the longer we speak.
We find the daughter and convince her to convince her father to not only see us but open up the, yet again, rumored portal to us? That’s your great plan?”
Taran shrugged. “If The Keeper really exists, ’tis possible she’s the one person who might convince her father to give us the help Emily needs. ’Tis a slim chance, but a chance Emily doesnae have here.”
Noah exhaled sharply, dragging his hand down his face. “Skye, is it?”
He’d be putting Emily’s life in the hands of a stranger. A gamble at best. But if she could help convince The Keeper to open a portal and help save Emily, then the quest was worth any risk.
Any cost.
Noah looked back at the river, the night sky stretching wide above them. For the first time in years, hope of moving beyond this strange world curled inside his chest.
For Emily, he had to try.
The alternative was unacceptable.