Chapter 16
Jenna’s face loomed above my vision. I blinked, and sat up quickly, and she barely jerked her head out of the way in time to avoid getting smacked.
“What happened?” I asked.
Lilly popped her head into the room. “It’s about time you woke up. We’ve got our army waiting for us, and we don’t have any more time to waste. We need to get back to the Void and head off to our next destination.”
I sighed, and accepted Jenna’s proffered hand. She pulled me to my feet, and I looked out of the missing window slot. “How long was I asleep?”
“It’s been about a day, but they just finished getting the army ready a few hours ago. To be honest, I’m surprised how quickly they assembled.”
We headed out of my room and emerged to thousands of people staring at us expectantly. I frowned. How was I going to get this huge mob all the way back to the Grid? First things first. I closed my eyes, and the Grid flickered to existence. Suddenly, it bounced around my sight, rapidly enlarging and stopping somewhere around a mile from the castle.
“What on earth?”
Lilly and Jenna looked at me. “What’s wrong?”
“The Grid just moved! It’s never done that before. I don’t think any of the documentaries I’ve read ever mentioned something like that happening…”
“Pfffft. Is it any closer?”
Hesitantly, I nodded my head. Lilly shrugged, and turned to the huge army.
“Ok, follow your commander to where we will be heading!”
She turned to me expectantly. “Fly over to where the Grid is!”
Scratching my head sheepishly, I pointed to my now beltless waist. “Ah…I may or may not have fried all my stuff.”
Lilly glared at me. “How did that even happen?”
“Long story. Let’s suffice to say that we don’t have time to waste. Why don’t you lead them? If you head directly to the East of here, it’s in about a mile. I’m pretty sure it’s right next to that large boulder. Jenna and I will meet you there.”
Lilly shrugged. She wasn’t one to pass up the opportunity to lead a small army. She called for them to follow her, and sped off towards the boulder. After almost ten minutes of scrambling around and general confusion, the rest of the army began marching off after Lilly.
Jenna raised her eyebrows. “So…what now? Are we going to follow them or what?”
“What, you don’t want to be alone with me?” I grinned.
“No, that’s not it!” she replied quickly.
“Oh, take a joke, Jenna. I’m going to try something. Can you hold on to my arm for a moment?”
She did as I asked, and I focused on my Conduit. A thin line of darkness appeared in front of us, and the mouth opened.
Carefully, I stuck my hand into the mouth to see if anything would happen. When it stayed open, I glanced at Jenna. “Ah… I think we might be able to use the wormholes as a way to get places I can see quickly. I tried opening a hole in the Void itself, but that one didn’t open. I tried one in a different planet, but it didn’t work either. But I tried one on top of that boulder, and it seemed to work fine.”
Jenna cautiously peered into the hole. “Drake, shouldn’t we be seeing out of the other end of this wormhole? All I see is darkness…”
I shrugged. “I’m curious. I know it’s a stupid idea, but even if we get stuck in it, I can use the Grid to get us out. It’s everywhere, so as long as I can move freely, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jenna looked into my eyes. “Fine. I trust you.”
Oh great, no pressure at all. “Get me some coal, would you? I could make a few diamonds right now.” I muttered under my breath.
Before I could think otherwise, I quickly strode into the wormhole. Jenna continued holding on to me, and she followed me in.
Immediately, the wormhole snapped shut. For a moment, we were trapped in complete darkness. Jenna tugged on my arm nervously. Just as she did so, there was a rush of hot air. A line of light appeared in front of my face, and tore open, revealing the outside world again. We both quickly stepped out of it, and it closed behind us.
I looked down to see we were standing on the boulder, and Lilly was standing under it in the shade. I waved for Jenna to follow me, and we both dropped down behind her. Lilly spun around, her pistol trained on us. She lowered it when she saw it was just Jenna and I, and frowned.
“How did you get here?”
Whoops. I didn’t really think we would get this far, and I happened to be lacking something that people call a ‘plan’.
“We got his cube thingie to work, but it died right when we got here. We already tossed it.”
Lilly shrugged, and turned to wait for the huge army. I shot Jenna look of gratitude.
We sat down to wait, and the first part of the army arrived quickly riding on many different types of flying Shadows.
I glanced at Lilly to see if she was sad because her own Shadow was no longer with her, but she didn’t even seem to be paying attention to the army. She turned to me. “Are you ready to leave once the rest of the army gets here?”
I nodded, located the center of the circle several feet to my right. We all stood quietly until the rest of the army arrived, which was about twenty minutes.
The army clustered as close to me as they could, and with one final look at Trinton, I stepped into the circle and activated the Grid. Darkness washed over us, and I was back in the Void.