Chapter 6

Being left alone in a room Emma had time to look around a little and to think. She was not granted so much as a minute before, due to the speed of all the things happening around. Where was she and how on Earth did she get here?

Now Emma had actually realized that it was hot in the room and that she was in her coat all this time. So she put it off and looked at her clothes. They looked somewhat out of place here. Emma sighed.

The young woman came closer to the window. Outside was a heavy fog. At least some things did not change.

If there is a door that will help her find her way home where on Earth will she find it? Home. Not so long ago she didn’t even want to return there. Emma smiled sadly at the thought. Oh, how she would give anything now to go straight home from that bus.

Well, at least she wasn’t alone in all of this. How grateful was Emma now that she had stumbled upon that woman. Sandy. She was not like Emma. And not just in one way. They had different mindsets. No wonder, Emma thought. They grew up in different times. Who knows what else can be different about this place.

Emma thought of the possibility of her actually getting home, while looking through some of Sandy’s things that were lying around. She didn’t actually realize that but she was looking for a piece of paper and a pencil or something to sketch with. She just needed to do something familiar.

Emma didn’t find any paper, so she looked again at the map on the table. It was crazy how different and yet how similar it looked. There were places like The shadowed land and The Mossy Rock. And where her hometown Egham was supposed to be was “Groat” neatly written. But then she found some familiar names like The Russian Empire and France. So, she guessed some things were the same.

She remembered vaguely some Si-fi movie that talked about the multiverse. Something about the time going differently, and all the differences because of the small choices people made. It makes much more sense when you are just watching a movie. Not actually experiencing it yourself.

Emma sighed heavily. What do you do when you woke up this morning not expecting even the slightest thing happening to you and on your way home you accidentally discover a multiverse?

But she was not given time to think about that. For at that very moment the door burst open and a young man casually walked in, beginning to say “Well, isn’t it…” and then stopping when he saw Emma near the table.

He seemed to be as stunned as Emma was. He then turned his gaze at her clothes and a smile appeared on his face: “Oh, you must be Sandy’s new maiden”.

Emma’s throat was dry so she only nodded, thinking whether she should curtsy. She then decided that she should and did it quite clumsily. The young man laughed at her attempt. But when she raised her eyes angrily the young woman saw that he did not intend for his laugh to be cruel. His eyes were sparkling blue, and she saw a hint of happiness in them. They were beautiful, those eyes. Not anything like her dark hazelnut which looked more like mud (though her mother disagreed).

“I’m sorry if my laughter caused you any discomfort,” the young man was quick to say, cutting out any laugh from his voice. Apparently, those eyes saw more than many others. Then he curtsied in return and said: “I’m Mercury Sanders, but most people call me just Cury”. Emma studied him for a moment to see whether he was joking. But he was serious.

“May you be so kind as to tell me your own name?” he said.

“Why are you so interested in a name of a simple maiden?” she asked suspiciously.

He gazed at her for a moment and then replied: “I have been disappointed more than once in loud names”.

Emma looked him straight in the eyes. He was defiantly something for his time. Whatever this time is, Emma thought to herself. She was about to name herself but their conversation was interrupted by another young lad coming in.

“Are you two coming or what?” the newcomer asked angrily. His voice was so low it was unpleasant. And unlike Mercury’s eyes he had deep green. Snakelike eyes. Emma did not like this lad.

“Who is that?” he asked indicating Emma, though he barely even looked at her.

“It’s Sandy’s new maiden”.

“Great,” the newcomer said wrinkling his nose. “Can we go now?”

And with those words he went out of the room. Mercury followed him with his gaze and then turned back again. Emma saw that he wanted to say something else but she didn’t want to hear what it was so she quickly interrupted him: “Shouldn’t you be going now, sir?”

He looked at her puzzled. Then smiled a little, his eyes sparkling. Then Mercury curtsied, turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Emma was alone again. She took a deep breath and sat down on the couch. She was almost caught there. But Emma’s mind refused to believe it. This lad, Mercury, he wouldn’t hurt her. She just knew it. Although he was hell of irritating.

After quite some time (Emma did not have a watch on her, so she didn’t know how much exactly) Sandy finally returned. It was already dark outside. She was red from all the dancing, but was not smiling. All throughout the ball she was thinking about Emma. She could not relax for a moment. What if anybody found her?

As soon as she came into the room she closed the door and looked at Emma. “Did anybody see you?” she asked immediately. Emma was taken aback a little. After what had been hours of silence she was talked to again. And Sandy’s voice that was in fact no louder than a whisper sounded as the loudest thunderstorm.

“Somebody named Mercury,” Emma answered finally. When she saw a splash of fear in Sandy’s eyes she said quickly: “But he thought that I was your maiden”. Sandy sighed, relieved. But then fear arose anew in her mind and she said out loud: “What if he tells my parents? Or they find out from somebody else?”

“What do we do, then?” Emma asked, starting to worry too.

Sandy started to shake her head but then she stopped suddenly and looked up: “Mercury is best of the best in history”.

Emma did not see what Sandy was getting at. “He also is good in all the magicy theories and stuff”.

“What are you saying?” Emma understood what Sandy was going for but she did not want to believe it.

“I want to say that we can tell him,” Sandy’s eyes suddenly glistened as much as Mercury’s. But this glisten seemed to Emma a madman’s. “He can help us”.

Emma shook her head. “He’ll just think we are crazy”. The girl did not like that plan at all.

“Crazy? What’s that?”

“Not good in the head, out of mind, insane, mad”.

“Ok, I’ve got it. But what if he won’t? We can’t possibly do it all by ourselves”.

Emma saw sense in it and she knew deep down that Sandy was right. They needed help. As much help as they could get. But the girl was scared of what might come if Mercury does not believe them. Maybe it was more a fear of Mercury thinking badly of her rather than the fear of actually being discovered.

“What other choice do we have?” Sandy said in desperation. “I can’t keep you locked up in this room forever”.

This hit Emma right in her stomach. She knew the truth of that. She knew she cannot live in Sandy’s room. And she knew she cannot stay in another world or time for that matter.

And on the opposite side she remembered the small smile on Mercury’s face. It was so warming and welcoming. Maybe Sandy was right and the girls should just tell him. But at that moment Emma remembered another guest, the one that came with Mercury. “There was some other lad with Mercury, but he did not say his name”.

Sandy glared at Emma. “How did he look?” she asked frantically. Emma felt an unpleasant twitch inside her just by looking at Sandy’s expression. “Well, he had piercing green eyes,” Emma said the first thing she thought of when thinking about this lad.

“This is bad,” said Sandy under her breath.

“Why? Who is this lad?”

“Why didn’t you tell me the first thing I came about him?” asked Sandy instead.

“I didn’t think it was that important. And besides I didn’t know his name. I thought if I mention the Mercury lad, you’d know they both were here,” said Emma. She was trying to think of reasons to protect herself from Sandy’s “attack”. Though somewhere in her mind, she understood the stupidity of her not telling Sandy the first thing about this shady lad.

“He’s name is Glenn. And he’s one of the most dangerous young people out there,” Sandy said. “And I mean not only for us. His father was the criminal in law. Both of them are skilamalink7. He died a few years back and his son took over all the millions. There was some story about Glenn killing his own father, but the community “decided” not to believe it. The area of his expertise goes far beyond money. He’s dangerous because of his knowledge. He knows everything about everyone. And I mean everything. From when somebody eats their breakfast to when you got your first pimple to your fears. He can read almost everyone he meets. Though he can look uninterested in you at first”.

Goosebumps crawled up Emma’s spine. If that was not shady she didn’t know what was.

“Why is Mercury with this guy?”

Sandy looked at Emma and the girl noticed in Sandy’s eyes what she didn’t see there before: wisdom beyond her years. She actually seemed much older now. “He’s not the one to say no to”.

“What do we do?”

Sandy turned to the window to think. When she turned back to Emma, the latter saw a sparkle of an idea in her eyes.

“Did you interact with this guy in any way?”

“Well, not exactly,” Emma said, thinking back to when the boys came into the room. “He came in for a second. Mercury said that I’m a new maid and that’s pretty much it”.

Sandy nodded. “So he doesn’t even know your name, right?”

“Right. To be completely honest, neither does Mercury. I never had time to introduce myself”.

“Good, the less he knows the better”.

“So what’s your idea?”

“It’s not exactly what you might call a brilliant idea,” Sandy said. “But, we need to get you out of the palace, out of everybody’s eyes, especially this guy’s”.

“OK,” Emma nodded. That made sense.

“We have a summer palace right over here,” Sandy pointed at a place on the map that was still lying on the table.

Emma looked down at the map. Emma was surprised to see that it was right about where Egham was. “Where exactly are we right now?” Emma asked, only now realising she didn’t know that.

“We are here”. She pointed at the place called City of Stones. So they were in London. Good to know. She’s not in Egham anymore but at least it’s still Great Britain.

“This palace is built as a residence so nobody will be there until late June. You can stay there for a time. We’ll take some food and clothes for you”.

“But how am I going to get there? You said yourself nobody is going to go there until late June”.

“Well, this part is kind of tricky,” Sandy’s voice became unsure. She sighed and continued: “We tell everything to Mercury”.

She paused waiting for my reaction.

“Come again?” Emma asked. She had already forgotten that Sandy wanted to do it in the first place. “We can’t do that. Not now that we know he’s with this guy”.

“Especially because we know he’s with that guy”. Sandy saw Emma starting to shake he head, so she stated again more calmly this time: “Listen. We know that Mercury is with Glenn, right? But we also know that he’s a good guy. Well, kind of. So, if we tell him about our little situation he might not only be able to help situate the portal but get Glenn’s attention off of us”.

“And what if he won’t? And what does he has to do with your summer palace anyway?” Emma was trembling.

“You see, he’s one of the main guests this week in our house. And also my mom wants us to spend more time together,” Sandy rolled her eyes. “Anyways, if I tell my parents that we should go say for a week with Mercury to our summer palace, they will not be against it. In fact they’ll encourage it”.

“So you want to use this as our cover to get to the palace?”

“Yes, and there we can freely discuss our situation and help you”.

“If I can be helped,” muttered Emma. She then saw confusion on Sandy’s face and shook her head.

“Anyways,” said Sandy. “Mercury has to be on to our plan so that he’ll come along and help us figure stuff out”.

Emma really didn’t want Mercury to know anything but she saw now that it was a pretty good plan. She still felt deep inside her that she might never find her way back home. But at least this way she had something to do and not just sit around and worry. Emma sighed.

“OK,” she said quietly.

To her pleasure Sandy did not smile. She just nodded a little. And that was the end of the conversation.

“Wait,” said Emma. “There is one more thing. Tell me the year”.

“Right,” Sandy said turning to face her. “Almost forgot about that. Finn said it would have been 1826”.

Emma stared at her. Then composed herself and said. “I guess that makes sense. Your Earth is younger than ours”.

“I don’t know if that helps us to bring you back, but I guess so”.

There was a little pause so that information settled in the minds of the two girls.

“Now we have to think where you will sleep tonight,” Sandy said, breaking the pause and looking round her room.