“I won’t just give up…”
“And no one is asking you to.” Mike hesitated again, “I just want you to be prepared.”
“Thank you, but I have to believe that Allyra will always find her way home to me.”
Mike nodded at him sadly, gave his shoulder one final squeeze, then left the room, the doors closing silently behind him.
Jamie turned back to Allyra – it would be easy to believe that she was just sleeping. Her chest rose steadily and the heart monitor beeped, a reminder of her continued existence. He dipped down and kissed her forehead – she smelled like citrus and lemon verbena, both spicy and sweet, and it flooded his mind with a million images of her, smiling and happy and in love.
“Come home to me.” He whispered softly, “You promised you would always find your way home.”
Chapter 10 – Allyra
Allyra slept restlessly on the tiny plateau. Without the physical exertion that the climb demanded, heat had quickly left her body, leaving her sweaty, clammy and cold. She drifted in and out of consciousness, haunted by restless dreams and shivering in the cool mountain air.
As she faded once more into sleep, she felt Alex wrap himself around her. His breathing was long and even, warm against the back of her neck. His heat bled into her skin, chasing the chill away and finally sending her into a dreamless sleep.
When she jolted awake in the morning, she could still feel a whisper of his warmth lingering around her. But as she looked up, she saw that he was standing at the edge of the plateau, staring pensively into the distance and suddenly she wasn’t sure if she had dreamt it.
They walked continuously for three days. At least, what appeared to be three days. There was no marker, no sign of the passage of time. The only indication she had of the start and end of a day was Alex telling her to stop and rest.
The Between was inexplicable and magical.
During their journey Allyra had seen all manner of things that no logic could ever hope to explain. There was the river of fire that snaked through a desolate landscape, smoldering and bubbling ominously, its source a continuously erupting volcano. There was a field of lighting; bolts of electricity sizzling horizontally along the ground, travelling faster than the eye could follow. And finally, there was the ground that moved, not shaking like a earthquake, but actually moving – green hills that crested and dipped like waves in an ocean, able to swallow anything unfortunate enough to blunder into it.
She’d also seen some truly magnificent things – a snow-capped mountain range reflected in a lake so clear it was like a silver backed mirror. A grove of plum trees with fat, juicy plums with deep maroon skin that she ate with relish. A field of carnations – red, pink and white all swaying gently in the breeze. A rose bush as tall as she was, with a single black rose, so perfect it seemed impossible, every petal flawless, shimmering and iridescent.
She had wanted to ask Alex about all the things she saw, but couldn’t – they hadn’t really spoken to each other since that moment on the desolate mountain plateau. A restraint had grown between them.
They were endlessly polite to each other – he would offer her a plum or an orango, she would reply with a polite thank you. She would offer to keep watch and he would graciously refuse – it was the type of conversation that couldn’t really be counted as conversation.
*
They were walking over flat grassland, the grass was pale and straw colored, and she let her hand drift over the tips of them. Closing her eyes, she could almost imagine herself back home on the African veldt. Almost smell the dusty, spicy scent and feel the air sizzle around her with the promise of life.
A single mound rose up ahead of them, suspiciously green and encircled by a roaring, frothy river. Alex led them through a gap in the river, so narrow that she hadn’t noticed it and had almost expected to have to swim to get to the other side.
Alex had been distracted since they got up that morning – a couple of times he’d turned to her as if to say something before changing his mind and walking on.
It unsettled her.
In the short time that she’d known Alex, she’d grown used to his cool self-confidence. His hesitance gave her a fatal sense of doom, as she wondered about what awful thing he wasn’t telling her.
Finally, just before they crossed the churning river, he turned and surprised her by actually speaking – a full complete sentence, not just a jilted polite word.
“This is Sanctuary Hill, one of the safest places in the Between.” He gestured to the river, and the surrounding grassland, “The river gives it natural protection, and the grassland makes it easy to spot any approaching danger – Revenants rarely venture here.”
Alex hesitated again, before finally making up his mind and continuing. “There’s someone here that I want you to meet. His name is Mandla – he’s a friend. A close friend and well… Well he is also… different.”
There were other people here? She didn’t know whether she was excited or afraid.
“Different?” She asked.
“Different.” Alex reiterated, not answering the question in her voice. “Don’t be afraid, he doesn’t mean any harm.”
With that enigmatic and slightly alarming statement, Alex crossed the narrow gap in the river towards the green hill. Allyra followed him as he traced the edge of the river around the hill, the slope of it beside her getting steeper and steeper until it became a sharp, vertical cliff face.
Alex stopped and brushed away a curtain of green vines, revealing a narrow cave opening. An exclamation escaped from within the depths of the cave and she stumbled backwards, suddenly unsure.
Allyra wasn’t sure what she expected to emerge from the cave, but the tall
