Page 33 of A World Enough

Camber nodded. “This is one of my little hideaways, and there are a few others that I have on my map.”

“That’s amazing.”

“The map only responds to me, so the Abnobians have to find me as well as the map.”

Brogan sat down again. “That’s a lot. Do they know about the portal at Oipra?”

Camber shook her head. “No. That’s why it’s important to keep these things secret. Oipra is close to Abnobia, but they still have a fair way to go to distribute the minerals they mine. If transport was instantaneous, they would gain even more power.”

Brogan’s foot was tapping, as well as her fingers now. Camber could sense the tension.

“Can we get out of here soon?”

“I’m waiting on a signal, to make sure it’s safe,” Camber said.

“I thought no one knew we were going to your safe moon.”

“I sent a signal to a trusted contact before we left. They will let me know when it’s safe to arrive. I know it’s hard for a wolf to be stuck in a small space with nowhere to go.”

“How do you know that about us?” Brogan said.

“It’s why the GallowGlas wolves rarely leave their planet if they can avoid it. They like to be near their Great Forest.”

“The Great Forest?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Camber said.

“On Earth, all the packs believe that when our life’s journey comes to an end, we go to run with our elders in the Great Forest.”

“If the wolves on your planet were seeded from this realm, then it may have become mythology.”

Brogan looked crestfallen.

“It doesn’t mean there isn’t an afterlife. Maybe that’s just the way your ancestors could express it.”

Brogan nodded, but Camber felt like she wanted to be alone with her thoughts. “I’m just going to have a rest back there.”

“You trust me enough to close your eyes?” Brogan asked.

“I suppose I have to, since I’m not going to cuff you again, and I need to sleep.” Camber patted her satchel and put it under her head as a pillow. “You don’t know what I’ve got in here to protect me.”

“I know. Don’t worry.”

“Tell me if you hear a beep. It might be my message.”

Brogan gave her a quick salute and a small smile. “Aye, aye, Map Keeper.”

Camber did feel sad for Brogan. She was clearly out of her own realm and lonely for her own kind. There was no badness in Brogan, she was now sure of it, and Camber’s intuition always had served her before.

There was one thing that was making her feel guilty. She believed she could find the portal to take Brogan home, in time and with work. But she still planned to hand her over to the GallowGlas wolves and let them figure out how to get her home.

Clearly lots of beings from this realm had been to Earth in the past. She remembered Vorka telling her about many worlds that had been forbidden by the Tuatha De Danann, after violent beings like the Abnobians threatened to target them.

Vorka said these worlds were rubbed off the map before she was born the Map Keeper. But Camber could find Earth if she tried hard enough.

I’ll see how things pan out first before I give away my secrets.

Camber had hardly drifted off. Brogan was doing too much pacing. This was why wolves rarely left their planet for long. They got too claustrophobic.