The Giant Eagle in Kerenger was small, and stayed open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Saul was grateful for both those facts. He hoped to get away from Olivia with time to reach the passage house, or, at least, diffuse the situation quickly. With any luck, he’d be in Mortressa by the time the sun rose over Pennsylvania.

  Olivia propped her back against a wall by the men’s room at the back of the store, across a narrow hallway from Saul. Her arms folded. In the severe electric lights of the store, her hair was more brown than black, and darker than her eyes. She wore a gray trench coat that hid much of her shape.

  She nodded to him. “So, tell me about that man, the one who died outside Gatewood Hall tonight.”

  “His name was Pete, an ordinary drunk. That group he was with lured him in for some reason.”

  “His screaming probably woke up the whole campus.”

  “Including you? Are you a student?”

  “No. I used to be.” Olivia shook her head. “How do you know about the monsters?”

  “They’re called abei-gern.” Saul would have laughed at himself five years ago if he had known he would ever tell the hidden truth to an earth born exile, let alone do it twice. Just like the first time, he could use an ally to watch his back. He hoped, this time, things wouldn’t end as badly. “They live between the realms. Stop me if this sounds familiar. They’re made of stolen pieces of what people on this world call souls.”

  She frowned. “Souls?”

  “Yeah.” Saul shrugged his head. “They usually steal the part they want, we call that the taph, from ghosts between realms.”

  She scowled. “We, huh? Let me say something. I think you sound nuts. Besides, what are they doing here if they get what they need between worlds? I’ve killed a few of them. They seem like animals to me.”

  Saul shrugged. “Some of them travel corporeally to hunt for more taphs, or for juicier food. Still, I don’t think that’s why I ran into the two I killed tonight.”

  “Go on.”

  He sighed. “It’s tough to explain. You didn’t even know what gern were an hour ago.” And I hadn’t fought one until just before that. She probably has more first-hand knowledge of them than I do.

  “Enlighten me. I’ve seen stuff. I’ll listen.”

  “Alright.” Saul glanced at the clerk behind the counter at the front of the store. The tired-looking woman regarded him and Olivia with unconcealed amusement. No doubt she assumed they were friends or lovers. Saul turned back to Olivia. “Where I’m from people have always told stories about gern. Originally there were only five of them. Those five made themselves, and each one started its own line of abei-gern.”

  “Abei. What’s that word mean?”

  “It’s an old word from where I grew up. It means child.”

  “And gern?”

  “Monster.”

  “So child-monsters.”

  “Yeah. Child-monsters. But the five originals are called aleph-gern.”

  She frowned at him.

  He shrugged. “Infinite-monsters, I think that means. They hunted people where I’m from a long time ago, but not as much lately.”

  “Lucky. Where are you from?”

  “That’s a long story too. Let me finish this one.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You’re giving me a lot of information. How do you know you can trust me?”

  “I don’t.” But I could use your help. “There’s a law against spilling my guts to people in this realm. It just isn’t easy to enforce on me while I live in Kerenger.”

  “Alright, so the gern hunted your people.”

  Saul smirked. “They used to be bad. A long time ago, a few people stood up to the aleph-gern. The leader of these people, Seffuin, went after the meanest of the five.” Saul remembered the common word the two gern he had just killed had spoken. “That gern was call Apahar.”

  “So Seffuin took on Apahar.”

  “Yeah. But he was just a man, for all the stories would have people believe. He made a trap for Apahar in a deserted place and fought him with a whole arsenal of weapons. Long story short, he won, by draining Apahar’s power with a blood-drinking sword.”

  “How does a sword drink blood?”

  “Through the blade, the stories say. But this sword couldn’t contain Apahar’s power. The blade broke from the hilt, but Apahar was defeated. Seffuin left the broken hilt of his sword right where they fought that battle. And that’s where Gatewood Hall stands now.”

  “Wait a minute. How long ago was this?”

  “Thousands of years ago. Maybe tens of thousands.” Saul sighed. “I don’t expect you to believe me, but those people stole the hilt of Seffuin’s sword from Gatewood Hall tonight.”

  “Seems like that was easy. How did it stay put for so long if people could just walk away with it?”

  Saul sighed. “The wards placed on Gatewood Hall were mostly destroyed in a battle four years ago. Only the ones that kept gern from finding the place were left after that.” And now the ones left over aren’t gonna do much good.

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  “A battle, four years ago? I think I would have heard about that.”

  “Mostly it happened underground, and my people covered up the noise.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Okay, say I believe you. Why would someone want a broken sword handle?”

  “Because of what it absorbed before it broke. Apahar’s power is raw, the kind people can use for all sorts of things.”

  “Like what?”

  Like making a new world. “What’s the biggest thing you can think of?”

  “A nuclear bomb.”

  “A split atom is nothing compared to what this thing can do. And the people who killed Pete took it with them.”

  Olivia massaged her temples, eyes closed. “Where did they go?”

  “To the world I’m from, Hidria.”

  “So are you some kind of alien? Because you look human to me.”

  “I am human, but my world is older than yours. We have powers you don’t.”

  “Like what?”

  Saul shifted his shoulders. “Nat.”

  Nat poked his head out of Saul’s collar. “Yes, Saul?”

  “A bug that talks?” Olivia wrinkled her nose.

  “He’s not a bug. He’s an art-child, and his name is Nat.”

  “You’re starting to convince me you’re from another planet.” Olivia leaned forward and looked at Nat closely. She drew so close he could smell her, a little sweet. Not a bad scent.

  “But you made this little guy?”

  He felt her breath on his neck with her words. “Indeed. His body was once a series of wires held together by a little clay. But look, I don’t have time to explain everything to you.”

  She stepped back from him. “So you’re going to just run away? You haven’t told me one thing, and it’s important. Why did the gern attack you?”

  “They’re looking for Apahar, convinced he is still alive. They can sense the hilt moving, even between worlds. More and more of them will come to Kerenger, and a lot of others will follow that hilt because of its connection to him, which is why I need to retrieve it.” And so I can take the hilt and become a worldmaker, but you wouldn’t understand that if I told you, Olivia. He raised his hands. “I only want what’s best.”

  She scowled. “You expect me to believe that load of bull crap?”

  “Not at face value. How much did you know before?”

  “I knew ‘gern’ were bad news. And they can appear and disappear like that.” She snapped her fingers.

  “They can cut their doors between adjacent worlds. That’s how they get around.”

  She paced back and forth between him and the closed door to the men’s room. “When do you go?”

  “Before morning.” Saul’s eyes moved along the pair of pale scars, barely visible through Olivia’s hair. “If you’ll let me.”

  “You’re some kind of magic alien.” Olivia unfolded her arms and let them swing to her sides as she paced to the wall with her back to him. “How am I supposed to stop you?”

  “On the contrary,” said Saul. “I’m just one man. I think you could help me.”

  She turned to him and frowned. “How?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “You seem okay. Maybe. If you’re not actually a murderer. That’s a big ‘maybe’ to me.”

  “Well, the people from my world don’t feel so charitable. They won’t let me between worlds to follow the thieves, but if they don’t… Nuclear weapons look tiny next to this broken hilt. And my people won’t believe me if I tell them what I just told you.”

  “How do we get ‘between worlds,’ Saul?” Olivia’s eyes gleamed.

  He raised an eyebrow, secretly pleased at her taking his hint. “We?”

  She nodded. “The a-holes that took the hilt killed a man, and they endangered my town. It’s the least I can do to ruin their plans.”

  “It’ll be dangerous.”

  “I’m used to danger.”

  Saul felt a smile tugging at his lips. “You clearly know how to kill gern. I would appreciate that sort of help.” Even earth born exiles can be experts, no matter what other makers say back on Hidria. They used to be like us, after all.

  “So how do we follow these thieves?”

  “There is a house on Sixth Street, a place owned by authorities from my world. It’s called a passage house. Most of those passages lead to my world.”

  “Just one more question for now.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Two of them I know. Two of them I don’t.”

  “The ones you know?”

  “Irene and Rufus. They’re both makers from Hidria, like me. I also got a name for the leader. He’s called Luther Mansard.”

  “Luther?” Olivia scowled. “You’re kidding.”

  Saul shook his head. “You know him?”

  Olivia’s fist clenched. “I met him a week ago. He asked me if I had noticed anything out of he ordinary at the college.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  Olivia looked down at her feet. “I told him he should be careful. Bad things happen to people who go looking for strange things in this town.”

  “Do you speak from experience?” Saul deliberately kept from looking toward the scars by Olivia’s ear.

  “A friend of mine in college—Gern killed her when we sneaked into Gatewood Hall. Justice always mattered to me, but that’s why I started hunting gern.”

  Saul was silent for a moment, eyes on the floor.

  He looked up at Olivia after a few seconds. “Did Luther tell you anything?”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Not really. I guess he mentioned something about how he was working with a team for a change. Apparently he wasn’t used to being in charge of anyone.”

  "That could be helpful. He probably isn’t a maker if he’s not used to teamwork.” But if he’s not a maker, what does he want with the hilt? And how did he convince Irene and Rufus to work with him?

  “Can you say that for sure?”

  Saul thought back to the deadly resonance at Luther’s fingertips. “Not for sure. But if that’s true, it narrows down where he could be from, and that might be able to tell us where he’s going. But I know where he is now. We need to get to Hidria.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” She punched her fist into her palm. “Let’s go.”

  “It’ll be dangerous.”

  “I fight gern. Every night is dangerous.”

  “You from around here?”

  “I studied at the college, but no, I’m from west of here.”

  “When we get to Mortressa be ready for a culture shock.” Saul smiled. “Hidria is a bit like Earth, but it’s different.” He reached out and tentatively put a hand on her shoulder.

  Their eyes met. “If you can handle that, we can go.”

  She brushed off his hand. “Lead the way.”

  Saul nodded to her, then turned. He picked up his backpack from the floor and marched past the woman at the front desk. They left the Giant Eagle for the deepest darkest part of the early morning.

  * * *

  Saul rolled the idea of where Luther could have come from around in his mind. The ability he had used to turn Pete into a world gate wasn’t like anything Saul had ever seen or heard of before. That kind of ability would be noticed in a young maker, on Hidria, or even in one of the child realms.

  He and Olivia crossed a street a few blocks from the passage house. She kept up with his brisk pace without complaint. He wondered if telling her as much as he did had been the right idea. She wasn’t a maker. She might not be much use in a fight though she had fought gern before, and seemed to have dispatched the ones tonight easily.

  Back to Luther. He probably wasn’t from any of the maker worlds. He could have been born on Earth, but Saul doubted it. Luther had made deals with Irene and Rufus. Rufus, especially, couldn’t stand earth born exiles.

  Even as a red-haired little boy visiting Saul’s father’s estate, Rufus had disliked being around the servants. Rufus’ family must have employed reborn slaves themselves. Most wealthy families on Hidria did. Saul had never asked Rufus why, but he doubted Rufus would ever ally with anyone earth born for long.

  Irene might. But Rufus? Never. Saul found himself disliking the idea of taking Olivia with him but didn’t know how he could stop her now. And he might need help on the way ahead.

  So that eliminated the Earth from the list of places Luther could have originated. The list became short indeed. Saul rolled the thoughts over in his mind. Other than the interior worlds, he didn’t know any other major places where human souls could move, and the interior wasn’t easy to reach without a world gate. Then again, Luther had a world gate.

  Maybe that mean he came from the interior, but maybe not.

  Saul stopped walking. He stood by the doors of the passage house on Sixth Street. He turned to Olivia. “This is it.”