The Silver Sphere (4 page)

"Mr. Dempsey, the floor...."

"I feel it, too. This is so strange."

Her eyes adjusted to the easing darkness, and she could just
make out the shadowy outlines of some type of corridor. As they advanced, Shelby
strained her ears. The steady trickle of water echoed from somewhere far off.

An orange glow appeared up ahead. Every muscle in her body tensed,
and her heartbeat sped up.

Mr. Dempsey stopped and touched her elbow, and Shelby halted
as well.

"I don't quite know what's going on here," he whispered
in her ear. "I actually thought I dozed off at the front desk and this was
a dream. I even pinched myself."

"Me too," she said, glad he was present to protect
her. If anything went wrong, Mr. Dempsey would help her.

"We're in some sort of cave. The message on your computer
drew us here. We should proceed cautiously, so keep quiet."

Shelby nodded, calmed by his logical evaluation of their situation.
Mr. Dempsey knew everything. As long as he was with her, nothing could hurt her.

The light guttered as they crept forward. The scent of fresh
air entered the cave and Shelby sighed. Its essence was refreshing.

"Shhh...." Mr. Dempsey put his forefinger in front
of his nose.

The murmur of voices rose ahead of them. She glanced at Mr. Dempsey,
and he again pressed his finger hard up against the tip of his nose. She nodded.

They moved forward a few more paces and halted. The cave ended
and bright light shone outside. Shelby examined her surroundings as she listened.
They were in a forest, where thick trees and foliage encompassed them.

The voices sounded clearer, and she could make out the conversation.

"Now, now, we will find her, Sculptor. You worry too much.
Only ten minutes have passed. Give her time."

"I can't understand how after all these years the great
Achernar has not perfected the mobile portal. I mean, really now, Barrick. We should
be right in front of the entrance, ready to greet our guest. They're always frightened
as it is."

The first person, Barrick, said, "Many energies are at work
in the portal, Sculptor, both scientific and arcane. Near impossible to perfectly
harness such a force, no matter how much research Achernar and the mentors conduct."

"Maybe we should rely on Malefic to decipher the solution
then. I hear he was quite the mentor trainee up in Catonia."

"Come on, Sculptor. All you do is gripe. We've been entrusted
by Achernar himself to carry out this crucial task. Intercepting Kin is an honor,
and you sit gossiping and grumbling like a schoolgirl." Barrick bellowed. "As
far as Malefic goes, you should join him if you're so impressed. A mixed breed like
you would be enslaved on the spot. Don't you recall the number of lives lost in
Hideux's camps on Andromeda? I'd lop Malefic's head off without hesitating."
Hurt seemed to lurk under his angry voice, accompanied by fear. "But no, you
constantly praise him like some lunatic."

Harrumph.
"It's not clear if he's even Biskara's
son," wheezed Sculptor. "Those are just rumors, you know that."

"He's still a renegade and a criminal."

A brusque silence followed, until insects chirped and their buzzing
filled the air. An animal rustled in the underbrush somewhere in the distance. Shelby
was sure she heard a bird quack above, but when she glanced up, there was nothing
in the trees except leaves.

Mr. Dempsey's typically calm expression was strained, and he
appeared about as confused as she.

He peered at her and motioned to lean in. "Seems these are
our friends who sent you the message," he whispered. "From what they're
saying, they don't sound hostile. They mentioned a portal of some sort, I guess
like a teleportation device. It sounds inconceivable." He shook his head. "I
want to talk to them. You hide here and listen. When I know it's safe, I'll call
you in."

"No way! No way will I let you go by yourself."

"Now, Shelby, I would never forgive myself if something
happened to you. This isn't a debate. Your safety is my priority, and that's that."

She nodded, but it still bothered her. After all, she'd stood
up to the beast and managed to escape. Didn't he realize she was the
ninja girl
?
She'd be more help to him if he'd take her with him.

He studied her a moment with a puzzled frown. "You seem
different—older or something. Maybe it's just the light." They were still crouched
at the mouth of the cave.

She shrugged.

"Okay, wish me luck." He walked toward the flickering
titian.

She crept forward, straining her ears as the two strangers spoke.

"We'll wait a little longer," Barrick said, "and
then we should spread out. I don't want to be the only Meridian soldier in history
to lose a Kin," he hollered. He seemed to have a bad temper.

Shelby repressed a shiver. The shouting man reminded her of the
beast, but she forced herself to stay calm.
I'm the ninja girl,
she thought,
mouthing the words. Her fingers tightened around the cold rock of the cave.
I
can do this.

She squinted and tried to view what was occurring ahead. Mr.
Dempsey still shuffled forward through the foliage. She watched him for a moment,
but spotted little else. While she strained to see, she heard the other man use
that word again—
Kin
. What was a Kin, anyway? Could
she
be a Kin? Maybe
Mr. Dempsey was right, and these two were waiting for
her
.

She snuck closer and hid behind a tree to get a clearer picture.
As Mr. Dempsey approached a campsite, she crept beside a wide, short evergreen.

Pine needles dug into the palms of her hands and scraped against
her pants while she crawled. As she ducked under the tree, branches grabbed her
hair. She pulled her strands free, careful not to make a single sound. Once settled,
she poked her head around the trunk.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes bulged at what she witnessed. Nothing
could have prepared her for this.

Mr. Dempsey stood speechless before two figures crouched beside
a campfire. Dusk was falling, bruising the twilight above. It had been sunset when
she and Mr. Dempsey arrived, but night was truly upon them now.

"Who goes there?" Sculptor demanded, jumping to his
feet.

She blinked hard. The voices had sounded ordinary, but these
individuals weren't normal. They had typical skin and hair, yet they were built
for war. Even the football players at her high school seemed scrawny compared to
the two troopers—especially the one called Barrick. They resembled characters in
a movie about Camelot and King Arthur, not people from modern-day Earth.

Barrick rose, his muscles bulging through the studded armor and
boiled leather he wore. His beefy forehead was almost absent in an untamed jungle
of eyebrows, and his neck seemed as thick as a ship's mast. He eased a large sword
from its scabbard. The blade gleamed in the flickering light of the campfire.

Mr. Dempsey stood motionless while Barrick glowered at him.

In one swift motion, Sculptor stepped toward Mr. Dempsey and
aimed a pistol at the librarian's head. Sculptor's lean, abnormally long face expressed
little. Shelby thought she glimpsed a glimmer of fear cross his eyes, but it was
gone in an instant. The dark blue cape strapped to his shoulders stirred in the
breeze. One portrayed a medieval warrior and the other some sort of futuristic policeman
in Arthurian armor.

She wanted to dart out from behind her tree to keep them from
hurting Mr. Dempsey, but fear froze her to the spot. Barrick, the short one with
the sword, wore a fierce sneer, and for a moment, she thought she saw the beast
in him. A whimper escaped her. Her nails dug into the tree's soft bark, and cold
sweat rolled down her temples. If she allowed them to hurt Mr. Dempsey, she'd never
forgive herself.

"Speak up, dear sir," Sculptor snapped, "or I
will unleash Barrick upon you. They say his people are closet cannibals."

"Shut up, you raging idiot," Barrick said, his glare
still focused on Mr. Dempsey.

"I, uh-um, w-well, I, I..." Mr. Dempsey stammered.

"Well, well," Sculptor said. "You are quite the
vocalist, my dear sir. Perhaps you should audition as an announcer for the games
at Fornax. You would do just fine, better than the biased gibberish Jeb Rooza and
his sidekicks regurgitated at last year's events, eh, Barrick?"

Barrick seethed with anger. "Shut up, you blasted fool.
This is serious. He resembles a citizen of Earth, yet he may be Malefic's spy."
The brute trudged forward a step, his long sword raised, the sharp blade glittering
like magma.

Shelby shook with terror.

"Identify yourself at once," Barrick said.

"How original, my dear Barrick," Sculptor scoffed,
throwing his partner a weary glance. "I didn't suspect you were an avant-garde
man. Such a progressive demand merits your potential as a poet."

Mr. Dempsey snapped out of his stupor. "Hold on now,"
he called. "I presume I'm present due to something about a portal you opened.
I was in the library, and went to the storage room for supplies, and then I was
here."

Sculptor cocked an eyebrow. "The Rutherford B. Hayes Library?"

"Why y-yes, actually. I-I'm its curator, Walter Dempsey."

"Please tell me, how'd such an average president manage
to get an athenaeum named after him?" Sculptor offered a wry smile. "Why
not a school, or better yet, a stadium?"

Barrick huffed. "Stop jesting! We need to learn if this
person knows anything about Shelby Pardow."

He sheathed his sword and prowled closer. Though Mr. Dempsey
towered over him, Barrick appeared a formidable figure. The stout man looked much
stronger than Mr. Dempsey, and twice as mean as the beast.

Shelby ducked lower to the ground, trembling. She prayed Barrick
wouldn't hurt poor Mr. Dempsey.

Barrick bowed on bended knee. "Forgive me, my friend, and
trust me. We'll not harm you. Seems to be a miscommunication. We were looking for
a girl named Shelby. But now that you're here, you must come with us so Lord Achernar
can resolve the issue. We apologize, sir, for any inconvenience we have caused you."

Sculptor holstered his gun. "Yes, we're sorry, sir. My personal
apologies that I was placed on this all-important mission with a bumbling buffoon
like Barrick. Why, he can't even open the mobile portal at the right place!"

Barrick, still on his knee, grimaced at Sculptor and discharged
a low growl.

Such odd cohorts.
Shelby exhaled. Some bark of the tree
remained stuck in her nails as she released her grip. Barrick, though a fearsome
person, seemed more easily tempered than the beast.

"What do you need Shelby for?" said Mr. Dempsey.

"Well, sir, the situation is complex. Let's just say our
destiny sways in the balance without her help and the rest of the Kin. Always the
case when Biskara is involved." Barrick rose from his knee. "The Kin are
the only ones who can locate those on the Aulic Assembly, who have gone missing."

Mr. Dempsey looked lost in thought as he tapped his chin with
his forefinger. "Lord Achernar... you said before. Hmm, if I do recall, Achernar
is the brightest star in the constellation Eridanus in the southern hemisphere of
the universe."

"Oh yes, sir, you are absolutely right." Barrick beamed.
"He is the brightest king of all, Achernar is."

"A king, you say. Pray tell, where on Earth are we?"

Sculptor belted out a high-pitched laugh as he strode closer
to the librarian. The sound startled Shelby, and she drew farther behind the tree,
ignoring the tingling sensation running through her like an electrical current.
Crouching for so long must have put her limbs to sleep.

"Earth? My dear sir," Sculptor said, "you aren't
listening to us. We are on Azimuth, over two hundred light years from your planet."

Shelby leaned back around the trunk, examining Barrick and Sculptor.
The unsettling pang in her stomach was fading. Barrick still made her a little uneasy,
but she really liked Sculptor. He was funny and kind to Mr. Dempsey so far.

"Nonsense. Where are we? Traveling that distance isn't possible,
especially without the proper... uh... a ship or... or...." Mr. Dempsey fell
silent.

Shelby frowned. The two men were pokerfaced.

Mr. Dempsey must have seen it too, because he whispered, "You're
not kidding about this portal, are you?"

"'Tis a shock, sir, always is. Methinks I'd react the same
way if the tables were turned. Thank heavens the portal makes it so we speak the
same language."

Barrick held out his water canteen. "Thirsty?"

"No. I mean... yes." Mr. Dempsey sounded parched. He
accepted the container and guzzled. After returning it, he walked several steps
from the side of the campfire and gazed up into the darkness.

By now, the sky was black and Shelby could make out a few stars.

Mr. Dempsey was silent for a few long seconds.

Shelby held her breath, waiting to hear his next words. She yearned
to know what a Kin was and why these two wanted to see her.

"You don't mean to harm me in any way?" Mr. Dempsey
asked at last, and turned toward Barrick.

"On my honor as a Tuskarian, sir, no. I wouldn't let you
wander around and get yourself killed, either, considering it's my fault you're
here." Barrick walked over and extended his hand.

Mr. Dempsey hesitated briefly before raising his hand, and Barrick
grasped his forearm. Mr. Dempsey returned the gesture, and they nodded to one another.

Releasing his grip, Mr. Dempsey said, "Now, Barrick, how
do I get back to Earth? Can you reopen that portal gizmo?"

Barrick shook his head. "Alas, it only accepts guests from
Earth. Yet all is not lost. Lord Achernar will be able to transport you back. I'm
sure of it."

Mr. Dempsey nodded, holding his chin. "What do you intend
to do when you find Shelby?"