Page 22 of A World Enough

“Let’s go, then, and get our Map Keeper back,” Jhosa said.

“Is there a portal to take us there?” Morrigan asked.

Margot sighed. “I believe Camber knows one, but it’s not one of the well known ones. Vorka has Camber keep those locations a secret, so the information can’t be extracted from us.”

“You mean tortured out of us.”

“Something like that,” Margot said.

“So what shall we do? We can’t land on Oipra,” Thane said.

Jhosa turned in his seat. “Why don’t we get close enough so we can scan the planet and pick up their comms. There should be a lot of chatter if the Map Keeper is travelling with a wolf.”

“Good idea,” Margot said.

Jhosa input the directions. “Let’s go.”

“You ready?” Camber said.

They were crouched down at their makeshift camp and ready to move out of their comfortable dome. Camber shut off the heater, and they were exposed to the cold night air.

Brogan shivered.

Camber had to admit, it was quite sweet seeing the big wolf affected by cold. “You’ll warm up soon, Wolf.”

Brogan flashed her a smile and said, “Don’t worry about me, Map Keeper.”

She winked straight after, and Camber’s stomach flip-flopped. Stop that, Camber told her body.

Concentrate. That’s what she needed to do.

She put her satchel across her body, and they moved off. Below them was the door. They followed the line of the rocks until they came to a drop.

“The camouflaged door is down there. It’s too big a jump for me—”

Camber never got to finish her sentence. She was grasped around the waist by Brogan’s two cuffed hands, and Camber raised her arms around Brogan’s neck.

Their eyes were fixed together for seconds, until Camber remembered who she was with and where they were.

“Put me down. What do you think you’re doing?”

“Helping you down,” Brogan said.

“Well, don’t do that again. You are following me, not the other way around, and remember you have cuffs on. They are there for a reason—to keep me safe.”

“How can I forget,” Brogan said angrily.

“Right, the door is here.”

Brogan looked at the rock wall. “Where?”

Camber put her hand through the rock face and demonstrated the illusion. “Just like the large door at the Temple. The Abnobians use programmable matter to create illusions, the appearance of magic.”

“What is programmable matter?” Brogan asked.

Camber opened her mouth to explain but thought the better of it. “It’s too much to explain just now. Just accept that what you see exists.”

“Another time, then, when we’re not running for our lives. How do we get in?”