Chapter Twenty-two
“Are you sure they will come?” Ninti asked.
Davor stomped around the grounds of Danus. “She’ll come.”
Ninti looked worriedly over at Vorka, who was reclining on a medical bed, breathing but not there. She’d panicked when Davor asked her to prepare Vorka’s body for transport to the surface.
At least she had deeply hidden the schematic she had taken to Vorka’s brain. That was for another day.
Next to Vorka, two Drazani guards had their guns pointed at her head.
“What if she’s far from us, Davor?” Ninti asked.
“She’ll have a secret portal. The Map Keeper has been cleverer than I gave her credit for. Map Keeper!” he roared.
He was not the calm logical Abnobian he had been, and that was scary.
“Madam Ninti, the one thing I took from being in Vorka’s brain was how much she would sacrifice for that girl, and the Map Keeper felt that, and I’m convinced she would do anything for Vorka. She’ll find a way.”
He heard a noise behind him, then the voice, “You called?”
He turned around and grinned. “I knew you’d come, Map Keeper, oh, and I see you’ve brought a rabid wolf.”
Camber put a hand on Brogan’s arm and said telepathically, Don’t. That’s what he wants. Just go along with it. I feel I’m meant to do this.
I won’t watch you die.
You won’t. Once this is done, we can save Vorka. You know what to do if they are distracted enough.
I love you, Cam.
I love you too, Wolfy.
“Right, let’s get this over with.”
“I am surprised you’ve finally decided that you can’t fight me. Take that bag off her,” Davor ordered.
A Drazani guard came over and yanked the satchel from her. He took it to Davor, who looked through it frantically.
“There’s no map here, there’s nothing here.”
Camber put her hands on her hips confidently. “Didn’t I say that only the Map Keeper can take out the map and read it?”
“Then come here, little Map Keeper.”
I can’t watch him hurt you. You’re my mate.
Camber walked towards him as she spoke to Brogan. I asked you to trust me. I will need you, but not yet.
Camber took the bag from Davor and took out the map.
“Give me it.” Davor grabbed at it.
“It’s blank unless I hold it.”
“The First Ones you bend the knee to and their pathetic little rituals. Take it.”
Camber took it, and the map filled in all the portals. “There.”
“As much as I would like to know all those portals, I want what’s called The Beyond, where you can be master of time and space.”
“It was rubbed out. There’s nothing there,” Camber said.
“Touch it,” Davor said.
She looked over at Brogan, then at Vorka. Deep inside, Camber felt there was a purpose for this.
Camber, don’t.
She couldn’t listen to her mate. This had to be done.
Camber touched the top of the map, and an arrow appeared.
“An arrow, is that it?” Davor shouted.
She saw it was pointing to the stone circle outside the cave systems that the monks used and protected.
Camber remembered that when she took Brogan into the RR, and she remarked on the hum of energy she felt. A kind of prickle against the skin. This had to be why.
She started walking towards the circle, and Davor followed.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Map Keeper.”
“I’ll try not to.”
When she walked into the circle, a white whirlwind whisked up around them. Then she had a sharp intake of breath. It was just like her dream. A golden road stretching across a black abyss.
When she looked down, it was so dark, and she felt the panic, like in her dream, of falling into nothingness. She looked around for Davor. She couldn’t see him but could hear him.
“Start walking,” he shouted.
Camber took a step and walked carefully down the trackway towards the portal at the end.
Vorka suddenly appeared at her side as she had been in life, with her stick to lean on.
“Vorka.” When she tried to hug her, Camber’s hands went through her.
“I’m sorry, Camber. I’m dead, but I’m here in my spirit form.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I sorry I couldn’t protect you. They said you were alive, out there,” Camber said.
“They are keeping my body alive and no more, but my spirit has gone to be with the First Ones.”
“Am I doing the right thing here?” Camber wiped away her tears.
“I’m so proud of you. You were chosen to be who you became. You’re the first Map Keeper to make it here. Always trust your instincts.”
Then she heard Davor shout, “Map Keeper, go through the portal.”
“He’s a desperate man,” Vorka said. “You’ll know what to do with him.”
“Vorka? What is this place?”
“A place where the First Ones created travel to any time and any space. A dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. Davor could go back in time, or space, or dimension, to change any mistakes he made, and make himself and the empire undefeatable. The First Ones trust you with the knowledge. Go through.”
When she did, Camber was hit with the sounds of millions, billions, trillions—she didn’t know how many—voices, all scrambled together.
She put her hands over her ears. Just like in her dream, there were portals on each side of the trackway at regular intervals looking as if they were hanging in the air.
She could see vistas of planets, moons, empty space, people going about their business, and suns exploding, and the trackway appeared to go on into infinity.
The vistas were moving at a high rate of speed, making her dizzy. But unlike her dream, she pushed through the dizziness.
Then she heard Davor telling her to find a particular planet called Cresa. Working on instinct, she reached forwards with her hand, and it glowed. She tested her control of The Beyond by sweeping her hands this way and that.
Camber found, as she concentrated, she could see the vistas starting to slow.
One of the windows slowed, until just one planet appeared. It was a dusty red planet and looked devoid of life.
“That’s it,” Davor said, “that’s Cresa. Move it back in time until it has civilization.”
The other side of the trackway had numbers. She swept her hand backwards.
As she did, the red planet changed from dusty bare rock to a desert planet with sparse vegetation, to oceans and green plants and forests. Then buildings and monuments, and artificial light coming from the dwellings.
“Stop there.”
In her dream she’d been grabbed from behind and dragged kicking and screaming from the portal. This time would be different.
She opened a window on a planet behind Cresa, a planet lacking life. It was all sea and ice.
As good a place as any, Camber thought.
She didn’t really know what she was doing, but she trusted Vorka.
Camber reached out and lifted Davor, as if aided by an invisible power. He came kicking and screaming. Then she threw him into the portal with the sea and ice world.
He screamed as he flew past Cresa, where he’d wanted to go.
Then the screaming stopped.
She fell to her knees, and she was back in the stone circle. Brogan ran to her.
“Are you okay, Cam?” Brogan lifted her in her arms.
Morrigan and the rest of Camber’s friends, Margot, Jhosa, Ziggy, and Thane, came running towards them.
Brogan growled, and Morrigan told them to hold back a bit. “Let her check her mate.”
“Tell me you’re okay?”
Camber reached up and stroked Brogan’s face. “I’m okay, Wolfy. Help me up. Where’s Vorka?” she asked.
Morrigan answered, “They took her body and retreated to their ships.”
“How did you all get here?”
“Your Great Mother let us come through,” Ziggy said.
Margot added, “When we found out what you’d done, we had to come and help.”
Thane said surprisingly, “We’re a team.”
Camber smiled. “We are a team.”
In the middle of the circle, Vorka appeared.
“Vorka!” many of their voices cried out.
“Before this spirit leaves you, I wanted to leave you this.”
Camber reached out for a leather-bound book. On the front it said The Navigator.
“There is no more Map Keeper. You are now the first Navigator. This book will teach how to precisely do what you did in there by instinct.” Vorka pointed to the circle.
“What, you mean…?”
“Control time and space. You don’t need a map any more. This power is inside your head, but you must study, and only with hard work will you master it.”
With that Vorka disappeared, but the book stayed in Camber’s hand.
“Did she say time and space?” Camber said.
“I think so, but don’t worry about that now.” Brogan kissed her deeply and said, “I love you. I’ve found home.”
“I love you. We will always have a home in each other’s hearts.”
Ziggy said, “You’re as sickeningly sweet as that tree sap the wolves sell me.”
The others laughed.
Brogan held Camber in her arms, and Camber looked and smiled at them all. “We are a motley crew. Let’s go.”
“Aye, aye, Navigator,” Brogan whispered.