Earth

Alex

I opened my eyes slowly. Daylight streamed in through curtains billowing in the sea breeze, the smell of the ocean filled the room, and a noise, a horrible trumpeting noise assailed my ears.

Wondering where the hell I was, and what the horrible noise was, I lifted my head from the luxuriously soft pillow it rested upon and saw Jamie slumped in a chair next to the bed, his chin heavy against his chest as it rose and fell in concert with the almost growl of a snore that came from somewhere deep in his throat.

Bloody insufferable man won’t even let me get a good night’s sleep, I thought as I laughed to myself. The bloody insufferable man has been sat at my side all night.

I smiled, but then the memory of Sarah’s voice came back to me; Sarah’s voice on the phone only hours earlier. Panic, fear and elation all somehow filled my mind at the same time.

What the hell is going on? I knew that it couldn’t be Sarah. At least that was what my logical self told me. The rest, the rest ruled by my heart and my love of Sarah, replayed over and over the voice. The voice that I knew belonged to my sister.

Jamie snorted and, as I again turned to look at him, he raised his head and opened his blurry eyes.

‘You’re awake,’ he said, through a mouth that was obviously less awake than his eyes. ‘Thank God. I was worried sick.’

I smiled inside, a warm feeling filling me at hearing his words and the obvious relief in his voice. But Sarah came first; she always would.

‘Give me the phone, Jamie.’

He looked taken aback by my request – a response he had obviously not expected after his heartfelt concern for me – and not a little confused.

‘The phone,’ I repeated, slowly. ‘Give me the phone that David gave to you. I’m going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.’

‘Jalholm still has it, Alex. He said he’d hang on to it in case another warning came. I told him that David had given it to me, but he outright refused to hand it back.’ Jamie flushed as he finished.

‘Well he’ll bloody well give it to me. That was Sarah on the phone… her voice anyway. And I want answers,’ I said, angrily.

Jamie flushed even more as he said, ‘He’s gone… Jalholm’s gone—’

‘Gone? Gone where? Why? If he’s run off again, I’ll—’

‘Calm down, Alex!’ Jamie interrupted. ‘He’ll be back… he said so. And I believe him—’

‘So where’s he gone, then? We only just got here, and now he’s off on a jaunt?’

Jamie grinned. ‘Alex, you’ve been out for almost a whole day. Flat out… almost as if you were in a coma or something. We were all worried sick.’

His voice trailed off as his face again filled with colour.

‘A day…’ I said, surprised. ‘Well that’s irrelevant. Where’s he gone, Jamie? And more importantly, why has he gone?’

Jamie shrugged. ‘He didn’t say. One minute the three of us were talking… Pauline was up here watching over you, and then suddenly Jalholm went silent mid-sentence. We stared at him for a moment, but before either of us could speak, Jal said that there was something urgent he needed to do, but not to worry because he’d be back soon. He held out that rod of his…’

Jamie’s voice wavered for a second and his eyes went wide, almost as if he was reliving what he’d seen. ‘And then he just vanished, Alex. He faded away into nothing, right before my eyes… I know that he brought us here with that rod of his, but that was different. To watch him just fade away like that was weird, really weird… and more than a little frightening.

I knew what he meant. David’s hand dissolving into nothingness in mine was almost more than my mind could take. I shivered at the thought.

‘You okay, Alex? You look a little peaky.’

‘I’m fine, Jamie. Where are the others?’ I asked, as I began to pull back the covers. ‘Christ, I’m just about naked! Who undressed me, Jamie?’ I flushed scarlet as I spoke the words. Please, please don’t let it be Jamie.

Jamie grinned and his eyes sparkled, and it seemed ages before he finally answered. ‘I wish it had been me, Alex. I really do. But I cannot tell a lie. It was Pauline. Jal and I carried you upstairs… for a little ‘un you don’t half weigh a lot—’

‘You cheeky bugger!’

‘Joke, Alex. Joke, honest,’ Jamie said, grinning wider. ‘Anyway, we carried you up you and got you in the bed, and then Pauline shoved us all out. I was disappointed as hell. That girl is almost as scary as you are… and I don’t have quite the same rapport with her as I do with you.’

‘Stop bloody wittering. Where are my clothes?’ I said, forcing some mock anger into my tone, but I could see from Jamie’s face that he knew how relieved I was. Then, past his almost leering face, I caught sight of my clothes neatly folded on a dressing table behind him.

‘They’re—’

‘Never mind, Jamie, I can see them. So just pretend like I’m Pauline, and get your arse outside while I get dressed.’

Two minutes later, my hair a total mess, I was hurrying down the wide, spiral staircase behind Jamie.

‘They’re in the sitting room,’ he said. ‘Well, one of the sitting rooms, that is… This place is bloody huge, Alex. There’s got to be ten bedrooms… and every one seems to have a bathroom of its own.’

‘Been exploring, have you?’ I said, flippantly. ‘Jalholm’s buggered off somewhere… again, and you’re off playing Dora!’

‘Dora? What’s Dora?’

‘Oh never mind! Just take me to the others, will you?’

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‘Okay, grumpy guts, follow me.’

I hurried after Jamie as he wound his way first down one hallway, and then another, passing doors and openings all the way.

Finally he came to a wide set of double doors. Throwing them open, he said, ‘As you commanded, so have I obeyed, O Great and Mighty Alex.’ His tone was snide as hell, and the smirk on his face belonged on Jamie the prankster, not the Jamie who had been so full of concern for me only moments ago in the bedroom.

I did my best to ignore him as I strutted past into the room. Sitting room didn’t do the room justice; it was almost the size of our works canteen, but breathlessly decorated and furnished. He might be a bore, but Jalholm certainly had taste. Seemingly sprawled haphazardly around the room’s centre were at least half a dozen sofas and numerous easy-chairs, obviously intended for lounging given how plush and comfortable they looked.

Sat together on one sofa were Pauline and Tony, both of them with their heads turned to the door. Seeing me they both smiled, leapt to their feet, and rushed to greet me.

‘Alex! You’re awake. Thank, God. We were worried sick,’ Pauline said, as she rushed to me and took me in a hug.

Tears started at the corners of my eyes. Stop it, fool. It’s just a hug, that’s all. But it was so very good to have someone who cared for me.

‘Where the hell has Jalholm gone?’ I asked, gruffly in an effort to hide my embarrassment.

‘We don’t—’ Pauline began, and then she gasped, eyes wide, looking over my shoulder.

Almost as the surprise filled her face, I felt the air chill. Turning, the air behind me was shimmering, and for an instant I though I could see trees and lush grasslands.

And then Jalholm stood before us. He was soaked to the skin, his blond hair again plastered to his head. History repeating itself? I asked myself.

‘Where the hell have you been?’

Jalholm smiled. ‘Why nice to see you, too, Alex. It’s nice to see you up and well… and as touchy as ever.’

Jamie snickered, Pauline covered her smirk with her hand, and I blushed.

‘I’m sorry, Jalholm. I was concerned, that’s all… I was anxious.’

‘Christ, Alex, that’s a first.’ Jamie blurted.

‘Shut it, you,’ I said. ‘So where have you been, Jalholm, if you don’t mind sharing it with us, that is?’

‘May I change out of these wet clothes first? As you may have noticed, I am rather wet… and very cold too, as it happens.’

‘Just bloody tell us, Jal!’ Jamie said, the tone of his voice giving away how worried he’d been about Jalholm’s disappearance.

Jalholm let out a big sigh and shrugged off the sodden jacket he’d been wearing and let it fall to the floor. Lifting his shirt, he exposed a bulging brown leather money belt strapped around his waist.

‘To retrieve this,’ he said, smugly. His eyes glinted with excitement as they scanned each of our faces in turn, no doubt waiting for one of us to ask what this was.

I, for one, was not going to give the smug bastard the satisfaction. When his eyes fell on me, I simply smiled and stared back, trying my damnedest to seem totally uninterested.

‘So what—’

‘Shut up, Jamie,’ I said. ‘He’ll tell us soon enough. He can hardly contain himself as it is.’

‘Oh, Alex, you are such a bore, taking away my moment of theatricals.’

I said nothing.

Jalholm unhitched the belt and dropped it at my feet. ‘See for yourself,’ he said, somewhat deflated.

Before I could lean forward to retrieve the belt, Jamie snatched it up and plonked himself down on a sofa, a look of triumph on his face. ‘So let’s see what treasures you bring, Jal.’

I sighed. He’s like a bloody big kid. What do I see in him?

Slowly, almost teasingly, Jamie unzipped one of the belt’s many pouches. His eyes widened somewhat as he looked inside. ‘What the hell’s this, Jal?’ he asked, as he upended the open pouch into his hand to reveal a dozen or so glittering stones of various sizes, all a light purple in colour.

Despite myself, I looked at Jalholm questioningly.

‘Tanzanite,’ he said.

‘Tanzanite, what the Hell do you need that for?’

‘His smug look returned an instant after my question, and his eyes gleamed again.

‘Oh no, not more dramatics,’ Jamie said, echoing my own feelings.

‘My dear, Alex, tanzanite is a rare, valuable, and a much sought after gemstone… and in that it very much resembles a mineral gem from my home-world… Dersium.’ He let the last word hang in the air before us, a knowing smile on his face.

‘And?’ Jamie said.

‘Alex knows what I allude to. Don’t you, Alex?’ Jalholm stepped forward and took the gems from Jamie’s open hand.

‘These,’ he said holding them out on his palm for us all to see, ‘are a close cousin to the mineral, Dersium. The colour and chemical composition is similar… but far more important is that the crystalline structure is almost identical. The end result is that these stones, I believe, can be harnessed in the same way that I used Dersium… perhaps it will not be as powerful, but it will suffice—’

‘What the hell are you talking about, Jal?’

‘Hush, Jamie,’ I snapped. ‘Let him finish.’

‘It’s okay, Alex. These, ever so expensive adornments, I believe, will allow me… or rather us, Alex, to travel to my home… Ellas.’

‘So Tanzanite is Dersium?’ I asked, not quite believing what he’d said.

‘No, Alex. But close enough as to make little difference. I will need to perform more tests, of course. But I believe that we have a solution to our problem.’

‘So David used Tanzanite, too, when he used the rod to go… wherever it was he went?’ Jamie asked.

‘No, Jamie. That rod… the rod Alex described, was the one I made… the original one. It contains Dersium, a Dersium core… the rod surrounds a cylinder of the mineral. I found a way to compress and shape the crystals… or at least to bond them into a semblance of a cylinder. It took months and a huge quantity of Dersium… it is so rare, you see. I believed that I needed vast amounts of energy to bring him to us…’ His words trailed off, and tears formed in his eyes.

Jamie, insensitive as ever, said, ‘Come on, Jal. Stop the dramatics, and get on with the bloody story.’

‘Jamie, can’t you see that he’s upset, you bloody moron.

Jalholm sniffed and held up his hand. ‘No, Alex. Jamie is quite right. I am being overly dramatic. What is it that you people say? What’s done is done, that’s it… And what I did was a long time ago. And if David is to believed, a very long time ago, indeed. I was a fool… but that is done with. Now, I must look forward, and do all I can to help in his downfall.’

‘That’s the boy, Jal, up and at ‘em.’

‘Jamie!’

‘Oh come on, Alex! All the bloody reminiscing and dramatics is really getting to me. So far we’ve heard David and Jal’s life stories… stories of some weird and supposedly wonderful world far, far away, been somehow magically transported half way around the world on the basis of a phone call from someone you believe is your sister… and then we just sit here while good old Jal breaks down over something he did hundreds of bloody years ago.

'What are we actually supposed to be doing here… the five of us, I mean? All we’ve done so far is listen, argue and bloody well run for our lives. You’re the project manager, Alex. So plan… take control, and tell us what it is we’re going to do.’ Finishing, Jamie let out a sigh and sat back in his seat with a blush rising to his cheeks. ‘It’s all so bloody confusing,’ he muttered, almost to himself.

Silence dominated the room as slowly all eyes save Jamie’s turned toward me. I opened my mouth to speak, not at all sure what I would say, when Jalholm cut in over me. ‘Well said, Jamie. Well said, indeed. As you say, we need a leader. And I, too, agree that it is Alex that should lead us. What say you, Pauline, and you, too, of course, Tony?’

‘Couldn’t agree more,’ Pauline replied, without the slightest hesitation.

Tony, on the other hand, looked as though he had just been roughly awakened from a nightmare. ‘I just want my father back. I don’t care who leads. All of this is way beyond me. Way beyond anything I could ever imagine. But I’ll do anything, anything at all… So, yes, I’m all for a leader… Alex is fine by me.’

‘It’s settled then, Alex. You are the leader of our merry little group,’ Jalholm said, a smile now replacing the look of guilt of a mere moment ago.

‘Me?’ I said, as the realisation dawned that it really couldn’t be anyone else. Jamie, Pauline and poor shell shocked Tony were on the fringes of all this, bystanders almost. And although Jalholm came from Ellas, the place at the heart of the story, and was some sort of a magician, I was the only one who knew all that David had told me, all that had happened to us. Besides, I couldn’t, wouldn’t take orders from Jalholm. Advice yes, but not orders.

‘We work together,’ I said, ‘…but I have final say… and what I say goes. No arguments. And that includes you, Jamie. Look at me!’

Jamie raised his head slowly, and as his eyes met mine, he said, ‘No arguments, Alex. I promise,’ then he grinned. ‘But I can still bitch, can’t I?’

I couldn’t help but laugh, and one by one the others joined in.