The World Walkers: Athare: Frane: An Uncomfortable Landing (part 2)

[k_a_webb]

Part 1

“How did you get here?” Leolin asked, his arm still around Frane’s waist, and Frane wasn’t sure whether he felt trapped or relieved.

Choosing relieved he let Leolin hold some of his weight as he attempted to deal with the effects of the journey and push the fear that had surrounded him aside. “There was a door…” Frane could still see it in his mind. “I don’t know exactly why I ended up here, but we were attempting to reach you, so I think that might be part of the reason.”

“None of the natural doors I know of lead here.”

“It wasn’t a natural door.” Frane sighed. “We’d been arrested by the Council and Auberon could create doors, so the best option we had seemed to be walking through the door, even though we didn’t know what was going to happen. Lisette mentioned you, because she thought you might be able to help us.”

“How many of you were there?”

“Twelve.” Frane looked around again, unable to believe he’d found himself on Athare, even though it was, according to Leolin, not the main continent. Until then Frane hadn’t even known there were other continents. “I didn’t know any of them, but I didn’t want to die, and the door looked real enough.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to die, Frane, although I’m not sure I would have dared to walk through a door created by someone I didn’t know even if I was going to be executed.”

“For a while I wasn’t sure I was going to, but when it worked… I thought I really had a chance of survival.” Frane bit his lip. “Now I’m not so sure.”

“You don’t need to worry about the Council or the Walkers here. This is one of the safest places you could be, because no one travels to the other continents of Athare, and I don’t think very many people even know they exist.”

“I didn’t.”

“When the fae first created the races of Athare they were placed on the second and third continents. It wasn’t long before they chose to move to the main continent, the one everyone knows now as the home of the Council and the centre of the Web, believing they were much more likely to survive there. They may have been right.” Leolin gently guided Frane forwards. “I’ve built a place here I can come when I don’t want to have to deal with the Council, although I come here less often now I have a house on Oracle.”

“Lisette said that you were attempting to learn everything you could about the doors.”

“I think it’s important that we know exactly where each of the doors are and where they’ll take us, because there are so many people who find themselves lost when they step through a door.”

“You lost someone?”

“My sister.” Leolin sighed. “The problem I have is that I know travellers who’ve found themselves in different times and I think that might have happened to my sister, because I haven’t found her even though I’ve been searching for her for nearly twenty years.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.

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