“Was it fun?” the old man asked, following my gaze. “I’ve never been.”
I turned and looked at him again. “Who are you?”
“Porton,” he said, extending a frail, wrinkled hand. I shook it out of habit, and I felt him test my grip. He was much stronger than he looked. “I’m a Watcher…one of fifty. We keep an eye on the doorways. Of course, you’re one of fifty too.” He laughed again. “But they weren’t expecting you, my dear. I can tell you that. On that note, you should get along. Head for Arnwell Castle. Well, it’s a training ground these days, really, I suppose. If you want to call it that.”
“A training ground for what?” I asked nervously, my eyes on the great stone castle in the distance. How was any of this possible? How was I under the ground?
He smiled. “You’ll see.”
I looked back at the elevator, thinking maybe it was time to get out of here. Porton obviously guessed my thoughts, because he smiled and folded his frail hands in his lap.
“You can go back, of course. But I don’t recommend it. Have you seen the yellow eyes yet?”
I frowned. “Yes.”
The smile disappeared from his face. “Then go to Arnwell. Your time has come.”
I held his gaze for a moment, locked on those stormy eyes. There was something in his soft voice that told me he was the kind of man you wanted to listen to. That he meant what he said. I shifted, still looking out over the strange landscape in front of me. Rocks and boulders and stalagmites rose from the grass like quiet sentinels, watching me.
“Will you at least tell me where I am?”
“Of course. You’re in Derwin, one of the last five realms in the Under Earth. The smallest of the five, but perhaps the most important.”
He smiled again when he saw the look of incredulity on my face.
“I suppose you never thought there was life beneath your feet?”
“But…how can that…I don’t get it.”
Porton nodded. “Understandable. Be content for the moment to know that there have always been two worlds, and only one has ever really known about the other.” He gestured to the gleaming white castle. “Now go. Eldon is waiting.”
I had a million more questions for the frail old man, but I sensed he wasn’t going to answer any more. I was still tempted to get back on the elevator, but could I really just ignore this now? There was an entire world in my closet, and I figured I might as well get some answers before I risked my life on that rickety, old wooden elevator. I certainly wasn’t coming back down ever again, not on that death trap.
“Okay,” I murmured, and then I started down the pathway.
I looked around numbly as I went, trying to figure out if I was dreaming. The cavern, if you could call it that, was almost endless, rolling with lush green hills and tranquil woods and babbling streams cutting through the landscape like ribbons. The air was warm but comfortable, and almost unnaturally still, as there was no wind underground. It was the strangest and most beautiful place I’d ever seen, made all the more so by the glittering white castle that looked like a stalagmite of pure ice in the distance. I saw a few lizards perched atop rocks, as if sunning themselves—all with big, glassy eyes and dark skin. Multicoloured birds flitted around overhead, perhaps nesting way up on the cavern ceiling, which loomed over everything like a great canopy of storm clouds. The whole scene was earth-like but distorted: the lush meadows pockmarked with stone outcroppings, the forests with purple leaves mixed in the greenery, and the sky that ended in hard stone.
Soon the squat houses I had seen before appeared around me, perched in the grass like cute little toadstools. Most were built of grey stone slung into place with mortar, though their roofs alternated between planks of wood or straw or even looser brush tied into bundles and laid over the stones. I wasn’t even sure what you would need a roof for, considering the ceiling that covered the entire realm surely didn’t allow rain, but what did I know? I also wasn’t sure why people were living in a hole in the earth, so it was all relative.
It wasn’t long before people started noticing me too. Villagers poked curiously out of open windows or peered at me from tilled wheat fields, while small children stopped playing to stare and whispered amongst themselves. I awkwardly waved at a couple of little girls in dresses and they ran away. I felt like the Closet Monster again—I could picture my aunt laughing at the irony that I had literally emerged from the closet.
The houses grew closer and closer together, and the pathway soon turned to dirty white cobblestone as the scattered farmhouses became a bustling village. Now there were people everywhere: they looked normal enough, though a bit behind the times. The women wore coarse brown dresses and hide boots, and they all stared at me and whispered. There were only a few men, who wore the same kind of woollen peasant clothing, and many had thick beards and thicker arms. Some of them just laughed when they saw me, which would have been insulting except that I’m sure I did look pretty ridiculous with my pink-and-white striped socks, red pyjama pants, and blue hoodie.
I did notice one peculiar thing about the people of Derwin: many of them had weapons. In fact, almost all of them did. Swords and knives were sheathed at their waists, and some even had broadaxes slung on their backs, the metal blades banged up and worn. Others wore necklaces
