Haven: Book Seven of "The Liminality"

Chapter 27 - Return to Paradise

Urszula found herself standing, not atop a cairn amidst volcanic desolation, but in a dewy meadow abloom with feathery-foliaged purple vetch and spikes of red lupine. The scent of freshly cut hay was on the breeze. Bluebirds and yellow warblers flashed their plumage in the branches before winging off over the marshes flanking a stream.

"Oh my God! It fucking worked! You did it!" she said, her voice unbridled, face alight with unfiltered glee. "This is the place!"

"No, it's not," said Grehl, looking up at her from the damp grass.

Urszula looked around, wracked by a flash of uncertainty, but she spotted the path she had walked with Jan beneath apple trees, the familiar buildings at the base of the glen. Something seemed a little off, but this was certainly the place.

"This is not the Doozy," said Grehl. "The Doozy looked different. Smelled different. We saw ferns as large as trees. Parrots."

"Maybe this is not the part you saw, but this realm is a place of a million tiny heavens. Over that hill is a desert oasis. Every corner is different. See that barn? It belonged to Jan's grandparents. And there is the farmhouse and the chestnut tree. Oh my God! Jan!" she shouted. "Jan! Are you here? Jan!"

Only a few days had passed she had slipped away to Sheol, but the paint was now peeling on the barn and the house had a broken window and several missing clapboards. One side of the roof was sagging. Some of the shrubberies were dead.

"What the fuck happened?" Panciking, she shouted as loud as she could. "Janusz! Are you here?"

Grehl rose to her feet and flailed around with her fingers spread wide—her signature dance. She looked upset about something.

"What's wrong?"

"The seam. It did not stay open behind us."

"Was it supposed to?"

"Yes! When I open a seam, it generally stays open. That's the whole point. How else would more people cross?"

"Then maybe this is not your normal type of summoning. A different kind of interface."

"Clearly," said Grehl, holding up the notched key stone. "I suppose we could go back ... with this."

"Hold on! Before you touch that, let's have a look around first."

"You wish to find your boyfriend?"

"Well, yeah. But also, something happened here. This place is not as I left it."

Grehl thrust her head back and resumed her dowsing ritual.

"I do feel a little bit of a flutter. There is definitely a node here and it is active."

Muffled hoof beats and snorts carried from over the hillside. Grehl's eyes met Urszula's.

"Quick! Into that copse."

They scrambled into a thicket of young willows nestled in a deep crease on the hillside and crouch down, beside a tiny trickle of a stream, disturbing a leopard frog in the process.

"All this green!" says Grehl.

"Shush!"

Four riders appeared over the rise. Their mounts were horses, not camels. These were different folk from those she had encountered with Jan, just before she had passed into Sheol alone. They were all men, dressed like Argentinian gauchos in leather hats and wide chaps. Each carried a rifle slung over his lap. They came down the trail clearly agitated, watchful and wary.

Urszula pulled out her gun and crept forward a bit through the underbrush to get a better view. The men passed down the path and dismounted down by the ruins of the house and barn. They threw open a creaky door. Two entered the structures while the others poked around the overgrown shrubbery that surrounded them. After a time they reconvened and conversed before mounting back up and returning from whence they had come.