Page 63 of A World Enough

Ninti called the palace servants back, and they worked quickly to finish. She walked quickly, with her servants following behind, pushing a hover trolley with her luggage.

At her palace dock, a shuttle waited to take her to the ship. The Abnobian cruiser was exceptionally large, and so she had to take a shuttle just to get her there. She got in and started her journey to the upper atmosphere.

This was going to be hard, Ninti told herself.

Chapter Thirteen

Camber woke up the next morning feeling rested and comfortable. She was lying on her front near the edge of the bed. She must have been moving about a lot during the night.

Then it came to her—the dreams, nightmares more like. About her friends, her brother and sister monks being on Danus with the Abnobians, and Camber didn’t know what they were doing to them. Then there was Vorka. She was like a grandparent to her.

Surely even they wouldn’t torture an elderly person.

Then in her dream, she saw a golden road stretching across a black abyss. When Camber looked down it was so dark—if you fell, it would be into nothingness. That was terrifying.

But the trackway was lit with gold. When she got to the end, she said some words she couldn’t hear.

Then suddenly the room opened up with lights and an ethereal glow, which soon dissipated. Now she could see a portal at the other end. It looked like the golden road.

Camber took a step and walked carefully down the trackway and into the portal. When she did, Camber was hit with the sounds of a million, billions, trillions, she didn’t know but voices all scrambled together.

She put her hands over her ears. There were portals on each side of the trackway at regular intervals, looking as if they were hanging in the air. She could see vistas of planets, moons, empty space, people going about their business, and suns exploding, and the trackway appeared to go on and on into infinity.

The vistas were moving at a high rate of speed, and Camber felt her brain was scrambled. She was so overwhelmed she fell to her knees, clutching at her head.

Then she heard a voice telling her to find a particular planet called Cresa. Camber was now watching from outside her body. She watched herself raise her hand and it glowed. One of the portals started to slow.

It slowed until just one planet appeared in the portal. It was a dusty red planet and looked devoid of life. A voice gave another command, and it was then she noticed numbers either side of the trackway.

Camber’s body reached out and used her hands to spin the trackway and the numbers backwards. As she did, the red planet was changing from dusty bare rock to a desert planet with sparse vegetation, to oceans and green plants and forests. Then buildings and monuments, and artificial light coming from dwellings.

The voice told her to stop. Then she was grabbed from behind and was dragged kicking and screaming from the portal.

After that nightmare she felt calm, not fear.

She dropped her hand to the side of the bed, and she felt a furry pelt. She looked quickly down by her bed and found Brogan’s wolf. Camber smiled and ruffled her ears. “You were keeping watch, weren’t you?”

Brogan made her feel safe, and after the kiss they shared last night, Camber knew she had feelings for her, but she was going to have to let her go sometime, when she found her way home.

As she stroked her fur, Brogan started to move and waken, and she let out a big yawn and stretched her limbs. Then she remembered she had fallen asleep guarding Camber. She jumped up and found Camber smiling back at her.

Thank the Great Mother Camber didn’t mind her here.

Camber held Brogan’s head in her arms and rubbed her ears and stroked her snout. “Did you hear me having nightmares and fall asleep, Wolfy?”

Brogan nodded. She wished she had telepathy with Camber in her wolf, it would help them on their mission, but only the mate bite could give you that. She pictured herself in human form, standing with Camber at their mating ceremony.

That made too many feelings surge inside her. She indicated with her snout that she was going to shift. Brogan ran back to her room with her dressing gown in her mouth, then shifted to skin.

She looked into a full-length mirror and rubbed her neck where a mate bite would go. Brogan had never imagined a mate bite with anyone, not any of her previous girlfriends, even one she had taken home to meet her pack.

Now, after flying through a portal who knew how many light years away, she found an argumentative Map Keeper, and she fantasized about mate bonding.

Brogan lifted her dressing gown and put it on. What do I do with this? Brogan thought.

Emotions were not something she was much in touch with. It was better to remain unemotional. As a lone wolf and a tracker, it was best for everyone to keep unattached. If you’re training to find someone, you need to be clear-headed and sometimes cold.

But then there was her art. She put all of her unwelcome emotions into her art. Maybe that would help her sort her feelings out?