Gaia's Secret (6 page)

“Where we’re going tomorrow. Where the Aegis
Quarters is located.”

“The…what?”

Sonya laid a hand on my shoulder. “Where
we’re meeting your father.”

“But I don’t see anything.”

“That’s because it’s night.”

“What does that have to do with…?” Maps
weren’t influenced by time of day. I ran my finger over the page
and froze. My finger sank
into
the page. And it felt cold. I
jerked my hand back. “What just happened?”

Sonya continued, “
The
Orbis
Terrarum
is a sacred manuscript. One other exists, but it is
kept in a vault. This is an atlas of the present.”

I trailed my fingers over the page again.
They sank in like before, disappearing into the blackness. Like the
manuscript was a living, viable object. My mind tried to refute it,
but my eyes won the battle.

The Andersons—Del Contes—or whoever they
were, all hovered around staring, their apprehension palpable. I
flipped through more pages; some of them were black, others muted
in color. One was so bright it lightened the room, but I knew that
was impossible. Wasn’t it?

A page entitled
Sea of Despair
made me
stop. It was dark like the others, but I thought I heard distant
whispers, almost like the crashing of waves. Something bright
streaked across the page, followed by the clang of thunder.

I slammed the book shut. “What is this
thing?”

Sonya leaned close to me, her eyes warm.
“Relax. Cicero wanted you to see this so that you would
believe.”

“Believe what?”

I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed the candles
dimmed a bit.

“Gaia is a world full of magic.”

I knew it. They weren’t done dropping bombs
on my sanity. My mouth opened to argue, but the words wouldn’t
come.

Magic wasn’t real. I knew that.

Are you sure? You know you’ve never seen
anything like this before.

So what? Technology’s incredible these
days.

This isn’t technology. It’s a book.

That was it. It was bad enough having
everyone I knew turn against me. My own conscience doing it was
unacceptable.

I went back to the book in my hands,
searching for mechanics, hardware, wires—anything. All I could find
was paper, leather, and old adhesive. An unsettling truth began to
wiggle its way in.

This book was supernatural.

I couldn’t deny its uniqueness, its power.
Cicero had known that. They all had known that. They expected me to
need some sort of hard proof, and a magical book would be the most
convincing tool for someone like me. No wonder they needed to bring
me here before explaining anything. If they’d said any of this back
home, I would have called the police. Immediately.

“This atlas shows the present,” Cicero
continued. “It isn’t so much a map as a way to see places
throughout Gaia at any given time, and it is all possible through
magic.”

No, I couldn’t believe it. I
wouldn’t
believe it.

“You’ve been down here before?” Sonya
asked.

Even though it’d only been a few hours, it
seemed like so long ago. “Yes, I…found it earlier today.”

Alex looked a little startled. He also
received an apologetic look from Cicero.

Sonya glanced around the room, her hand still
on my shoulder. “These shelves are filled with books from Gaia:
concordances, histories, biographies, magic.” She glanced at me
before walking over to the globe.

She lifted it by the supports and brought it
before me. Clouds floated in their manufactured atmosphere,
lingering over landmasses and hiding them from view. Here, in the
ambient candlelight, it looked magical. I remembered the little
flash, thinking at the time it reminded me of lightning. Maybe,
just maybe, that was because it
had been
lightning.

“This—” Sonya stared at the globe “—is a
miniature representation of Gaia.”

The object held me entranced.

“What do you notice?”

The little sphere continued to rotate on its
axis. “Well, it’s moving on its own. And…does it show the
weather?”

She smiled. “Yes, like everything from Gaia,
it’s fueled by magic.”

If Gaia did exist, and this globe was its
representation, no wonder the layout of the land looked all wrong.
It wasn’t Earth. That little white smudge continued to move from
water to land, as the world turned.

“It’s where we are all from—including
you.”

Sonya’s gaze was tender, confident. I could
almost feel the truth in her words, even though my mind—my
logic—still fought against me. This couldn’t be happening.

But something deep within accepted it against
my will. Some part of me already knew it existed—my backstabbing
conscience—and it had waited patiently for this moment. It was
prepared all along, unbeknownst to me.

“Magic runs through your veins,” Sonya
whispered. “It is as much a part of you as your own blood, just as
it is a part of your father. You feel it. You know—deep down
inside—that it’s true. You’ve always wanted more from your life and
that’s because this world is not your true home.”

Sonya always understood me better than most.
But after she said that, I was certain she’d crawled in my head and
poked around when I wasn’t looking. My whole life I’d yearned for
more, begged for more.

But not for this.

I felt Alex’s eyes on my back even though I
couldn’t see him. He’d remained out of sight ever since we had come
down here.

“The atlas.” She nodded to the book in my
hands. “It focuses on different territories within our world with
greater emphasis on the portals.”

I swallowed, taking a deep breath.
“Portals?”

Cicero smiled. “Yes. Those bloody things are
the only way between worlds. And they keep us employed.”

“You’re serious.”

“Well, about the first part.”

He waited for my response but my emotions
were so overwhelmed I felt numb. My brain was supersaturated with
information.

Cicero continued. “At one point, well before
anyone remembers, Gaia coexisted with Earth. They were one and the
same.” He paused a moment, his eyes fixed on the spinning globe.
“As mankind continued turning to their own ways, they turned their
backs on Gaia. They wasted her gifts and powers—disregarded them
under the false notion that they didn’t need her. What they failed
to realize was that the only reason they had power was because Gaia
had given it to them. So, Gaia left. She took her spirit to a place
where it would be safe, in balance with all other powers, becoming
her own world.

“Gaia’s strongest remaining vestiges of
influence are where the portals formed, linking parts of Gaia to
Earth. Like everything in this world, over time they’ve been
forgotten. Now, only the citizens of Gaia know of their existence,
and they’re guarded.” Here, he grinned proudly. “Gaia’s magic is
too dangerous in the hands of the people of Earth now. That
knowledge might destroy both worlds.”

My eyes were trapped on the sphere. “These
portals. Where are they?”

“There are seven in total, all of them in
fascinating and unique places around Earth.”

Dad. He’d always traveled to the exact same
locations, in the exact same rotation.

“Let me guess. London is a portal?”

Sonya nodded. “Stonehenge.”

Which meant Rome, Cairo, Moscow, Auckland,
and Lima were all portals to another world.

London was the closest one. But there was no
way Dad would’ve had the time to get there, meet us in the morning,
and expect us to meet him. As I turned the locations over in my
head, I realized they only added to six.

I looked at Cicero. "Where is the nearest
one?" 

"Bridal Veil Falls."

Seven.

I thought of the portrait in the library
upstairs. How ironic. “But how…with that many tourists?” I
asked.

“You’ll see in the morning, when we take you
to your father.” Cicero climbed to his feet.

Morning seemed so far away, but what choice
did I have? They were the ones that had seen my dad, or so they had
said. I could be patient for now, but there was just one more thing
I needed to know.

“How did you get to my house?”

Sonya knelt at my side. “This,” she
whispered. In her hands was an object: a round, bronze amulet
hanging by a circuitous bronze chain. Engraved on the surface were
strange symbols I’d never seen before, almost like runes.

She continued, “It is a magical device. Your
father insisted we keep one in case of emergency. It stores power.
Since Earth is not a magical world, it takes a great deal more
effort to perform magic here—especially great magic. This item has
accumulated power over the years, and even then it was only enough
power for the three of us to wrap it around ourselves and use it
just this once.”

“For what?”

Her warm eyes stared into mine. “For
transporting ourselves straight to you.”

T
ap-tap-tap.

The sound echoed in my head. I fought against
the haze to open my heavy lids. Moonlight slipped through a crease
in the thick draperies. Wait, those weren’t my draperies. I didn’t
even own draperies. Where was I? It looked like…

Tap-tap-tap.

The memory dropped on me like an anvil. I was
in the guest room at the Andersons. Except they weren’t really the
Andersons. Well, they were, they were just from another world, used
magic to get to my house, and their last name was actually Del
Conte.

My temples wrenched in pain.

The door creaked open, the light from the
hallway stabbed through the shadows, and I winced.

“Morning, dear.” It was Sonya.

I tried to answer her but all I could do was
yawn.

“Time to go.” She flicked on the lamp beside
my bed.

Craning my neck, I looked at the hands of the
little, round clock standing on the bedside table. Three-thirty in
the morning. I plopped back down on my pillow and stared at the
ceiling. I was about to follow them through a portal into a magical
world to meet my dad.

It was highly probable that my sanity got fed
up and deserted me.

Sonya sat on the edge of my bed. “To your
father, remember?”

How could I forget? I glanced at Sonya. I’d
never seen her so demure, and a sad humility dulled her eyes, the
kind that stems from guilt. She probably thought I had changed my
mind and would run away the first chance I got. Truth be told, I
was still considering it.

“Clara made fresh maple scones for you,” she
said.

Well, there was one thing about my morning
that wasn’t disastrous. “That was nice of her.” I slowly propped
myself up on my elbows.

At my reply, Sonya seemed to breathe a little
easier. “She wanted to help you ease into your …unusual
morning.”

I took a deep breath. “Clara knows then?”

Sonya nodded, studying my face with eyes full
of genuine remorse. “I know you’re upset.” She touched my hand.
“And we understand if you’re angry with us. I wish I could tell you
more, but we’ve sworn an oath to your father to not only protect
you
but to protect certain information. And he’ll share that
information with you once he feels it’s safe.”

Her regret was sincere, but I couldn’t rid
myself of resentment. How could they do it? See me all these years,
knowing things this fantastic existed, and never—not even
once—allude to it. And, apparently, they were going to continue
keeping things from me.

As if sensing my thoughts, she sighed. “We’d
like to leave within the hour. Feel free to go back to sleep till
then. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to gather yourself.
I laid out some towels for you in the bathroom.” She kissed my
forehead and stepped out of the room.

I rubbed my eyes and looked around the
Andersons’—Del Contes’ guestroom. I’d slept in this room too many
times to count. Things were so different then, and simple. The
stained mahogany armoire filled with blankets that Alex and I made
forts with, the old school-desk in the corner that would screech in
pain every time I wiggled in its wooden chair.

Hanging on the wall above was a painting of
an enormous, gothic castle. The castle was surrounded by mountains,
but not even they could outshine the magnificence of the stone
structure. It loomed over the world it sat upon, daring anyone to
disrupt the tranquility of the valley below.

I used to wonder if that castle really
existed somewhere in our world, if people really lived there. As a
kid, I imagined stories of goblins and trolls and a knight that
fought dragons to rescue the fair maiden trapped inside the tallest
tower. I didn’t really care much for fair maidens; if I lived in
that castle, I’d be the knight. I’d slay that dragon, send the
maiden back home, and be crowned the ruler. Alex had laughed at me
when I told him that, but stopped when I punched him in the stomach
so hard it knocked the wind from him. I would’ve been a just ruler,
too.

To dream of a magical world is one thing. To
be told one exists is quite another.

Shaking off the memories, I crawled out of
bed and went to take my shower. The steam brought back my senses as
the hot water ran over me. Was I really about to abandon everything
I’d ever known? But abandon what, exactly? My life in borrowed
fields? Cadence? Hours spent in solitude while I yearned for
adventure? Here was my chance, and besides, what did I have to
lose?

The shower ended, I toweled myself off,
dressed, and made my way downstairs with wet hair.

I wonder if Alex is awake.

Angry that my mind would think such a thing,
I focused on the strong scent of maple coming from the kitchen. I
ignored the fact that my eyes kept scouring the rooms for him.

Clara was busy frosting her last batch of
scones when I entered. She glanced up and smiled. “Morning, miss.
Sleep well?”