Destroyer (The Elemental Series #7)(21)

"We did," Talan said.

"Will the people in the past be able to see us?" I asked.

Talan shook his head. "No, you won't be visible to them, though as I mentioned, you can be hurt. You will need to watch yourselves."

I glanced at my brother. It was like a three-ring circus and it would keep going if we didn't at some point just jump forward. Or in this case backward.

"I will go. No more questions. If you swear to me you will pull us out if there is trouble."

Talan nodded. "If you are in there longer than ten seconds, I will pull you out."

I had a feeling it was going to be the best we would get. And suddenly I was eager to go, to see what had happened and understand what the hell was going on in my world.

"How long will that give us on the other side?" I stared into the water as I spoke.

"Long enough."

Without another word, I lifted Peta off my shoulder and set her on the ground. She looked up at me, her green eyes narrowing before she gave me a tiny nod. No words. We couldn't say what flew between us without speaking. Because if Talan knew she was my safety net, he might put her out of commission. Assuming he was not playing by the rules.

I smiled at her and she winked up at me.

I drew a breath and put my left hand into the waterfall. Raven moved up beside me and put his right hand in.

"Ready, sis?"

I shrugged. "Nope."

He gave me a lopsided grin. The moment stretched, Raven disappeared, and there was nothing but the sound of water rushing around my ears, the feel of something tugging on my feet. I took a step, then another, and another, and the world as it had once been, long before I was born opened before me …





CHAPTER 8

THE PAST



What I expected when I opened my eyes after plunging my hands into the waters of the past was not what I got. I'd thought maybe I'd see things in snapshots, like human photographs in bits and pieces. What was laid out in front of me, though, was a living breathing place that was so like the world I resided in, I wasn't sure I could tell the difference. I wasn't sure I could tell I wasn't standing there in truth. 

I blinked several times and stared around me. To my right stood Raven. "Is this real?" I asked.

"I think so. It feels real." He was doing the same as I was, staring around us. Because we were in our home-the Rim. No, that wasn't quite right. We were in the Rim of the past. What it had been before our time. Long before our time. The center of the Rim was smaller than it was in our present day, and the trees were different, but not smaller. It was more like at some point the trees that were huge in the past had been cut down, or destroyed, and those we knew as the redwoods in the present were the seedlings we saw here. The sensation of knowing and not knowing the Rim was disconcerting.

There were far fewer homes and no Spiral to be seen. I could have stood for hours taking it all in, noting the differences. Seeing the similarities.

Terralings flowed and ebbed on the narrow beaten paths around us. In several cases stepping so closely, I could have reached out and touched one of them. Maybe Raven saw my intent because he slapped my hand down. "Don't interfere. I don't want to mess up anything."

I rubbed my hand. "Right. Let's go then. Talan said to just walk forward."

I took a step, half expecting the image to jump and move, but it didn't. The step was like any other. I glanced at Raven. He shrugged and we stepped again, side by side.

The farther into the Rim we got, the more differences I saw. The houses were very rough, nothing more than huts really, and the clothing on the elementals was nearly medieval in style. The women wore skirts that brushed the ground and peasant blouses that hung off their shoulders; not one of them wore pants. The men were not actually wearing anything terribly different, with pants and long-sleeved tops, thick belts and tall boots here and there on those who did not go barefoot.

"Funny, I didn't realize how much the humans had influenced our world," I said.

"It isn't that different than our current clothes," Raven said, agreeing with me.

I snorted. "You see any women dressed like me?" I waved my hand at my Ender clothing.

Our conversation slammed to a stop when a Terraling women stepped into our path, nearly colliding with us. I skidded on my heels and stepped to the side to avoid walking into her. I wasn't sure that touching her was even possible, but as Raven had reminded me, we didn't want to influence anything.

"Piss on them all." She snarled the words. Her long skirts were nicer than the other women's I'd seen so far, thick and obviously well woven. The darkest of reds, the color of her dress brought out the red highlights in her dark brown hair. Her features, down to her dark brown eyes and full lips, were reminiscent of Cassava to the point they could have been sisters.