Page 109 of Gate of Chaos


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“And the other terimus—”

I owed her an explanation, so I flopped my way into human form. “Leystone.”

“Leystone couldn’t have been moved, like this one was,” she asked.

“It might have been moved, but would still be on Homeworld.” No point in boring her with the technical details of how the entire Gate matrix got forged and why they required being built on a rocky planet of a certain minimum density and mass. And while yes, moving the leystonecouldbe as simple as loading it up on a flatbed and transporting it to a new location, the underlying point forourconcerns was once a Homeworld Gate, always a Homeworld Gate.

“The Gate on the other side isn’t powered.” I didn’t want her to be shocked if she emerged into a coat closet or on a remote mountain top. “It does tell me the Gate has been neglected.”

I didn’t add that the Gate on the other side would eventually close once the fuel in its proverbial lines ran out. I could re-open it, but I didn’t want to scare her further.

Alana walked up to the terminus. I slithered with her and nodded my horns at the disconcerting cosmic view. “It’s an illusion. A Gate’s not actually a bridge or hallway or path. It’s two doors back to back, and you step through them. The reason you can’t see what’s on the other side of the door is because fromhere, you aren’t close enough to perceive it. When you cross the threshold, there will be a brief, intense moment, like you’ve seen something out of the corner of your eye. That’s the moment when you’re exactlybetweenthe doors, and you’re neitherherenorthere. You might also be disoriented on the other side and have the urge to throw yourself back through the Gate. Which you shoulddefinitelydo if you end up somewhere like a volcano.”

“If I am nowhere, then how do I end up somewhere?” she asked with a shrewd look in her eyes.

“Gravity. When you come through one side, the tube spins one way. The other side, tube spins the other way. It’s a whole lot of noncommutative geometry and phase-space mishmash in there that I don’t have human words for, but my younger sister might be able to explain.”

“I see. Akoni got his mechanical aptitude from me,” she added with quiet pride and a hint of mischief. “I was a machine dragon myself.”

I bobbed my head and pointed a wing at the Gate. “Then you’re used to swimming into sketchy places.”

Soft laughter.

“Good travels, Alana,” Hekon said, his bells jangling softly.

Sorren clasped his hands together.

She stepped across the edge into the cosmos. And disappeared.

A ripple went over my battered scales.

We waited. The bucket steamed. Sorren didn’t drop dead, so wherever Alana was, she hadn’t instantly been crushed or set on fire.

Portal travel wasn’tinstant, just like my teleportation “trick” wasn’t instant, depending on the distance involved. To the traveler, it was instant. To everyone else in normal space, time passed. According to my acquired knowledge, a Gate of this distance would have about a twenty minute delay each way.

I checked my tablet with a tap of my tail. Twenty-four minutes. Sorren had not dropped dead. Alana was alive. No idea where she was beyondHomeworld, but she hadn’t met a quick demise.

At thirty-two minutes, a ripple coursed over my scales.

At fifty-six minutes, Alana flung herself over the terminus.

She fell to the ground and started screaming.

Thirty-Two

Chaos broke out. Without my assistance.

I lunged out of the way as Akoni and Auryn dove for Alana. Hekon, in a rush of bells, went for her as well, but Keon caught him and held him back. Alana curled into a little ball and scream-sobbed into her hands. Auryn tried to untangle her to see if she was injured while Sorren threw sparks from his feet and his hair as he reached for her.

Keon now grabbed Hekon and rasp-shouted to me. “Helena! Not enough air in here.”

In the chaos, Auryn had lost his hold on the bucket of air. I dropped to human form, grabbed Akoni’s hand, and hauled him after Keon, who was wrestling Hekon down the tunnel back towards the outside.

“He’ll be fine,” Keon rasped, as he and Hekon stumbled down the hallway wheezing. A’ka rushed down the tunnel towards us, and he rasped to her, “Auryn has it under control.”

Alana’s scream-sobs chased us up the tunnel into the desolate plains of northern North.

Keon collapsed to his knees in the grass, wheezing and coughing, his lungs making horrible, terrible wet paperbag noises.

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