Realm Keepers 01 - Realm Keepers

astonishment that I must have been wearing.
    Only Calvin seemed excited. “Oh my God, that was so cool! ” he shouted, running his hands excitedly through his hair. “Dude, that was real ? Can anyone do it? Can you teach me?”
    Greystone sniffed and looked past him, back to me. “Are you satisfied, Sarah?”
    Why was he asking me ?
    Miles stepped in before I could respond. “Hey, man, what was with those stones? They, like, attacked us or something. It hurt.” He rubbed his chest ruefully where the blue stone had struck him.
    “Forget about that,” I said. I stepped forward, coming to stand beside Calvin as we faced Greystone together. “Where are we, and how do we get back to school? Are you keeping us prisoner or something?” It seemed like everyone else was willing to go with the flow of all these new happenings, but the only thing I could think about was that some weird, possibly crazy old man had kidnapped all six of us, and was now keeping us in a courtyard in who knows where. I wanted to find out if he was just crazy, and would let us go once he had a bit of fun, or if this was something worse.
    Greystone gestured toward the door. “There is your exit. At any point, you may take it. However, may I kindly suggest that you do not, at least not without me, unless you all wish to suffer a most gruesome and painful death.”
    I stepped in front of Calvin once more. “Are you threatening us? There’s six of us, and no offense, you’re kind of old. We could so take you.”
    Unexpectedly, Greystone burst out laughing. He roared, guffawed and slapped his knee as he doubled over. For a moment I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack.
    “You could ‘take’ me, eh?” Greystone finally choked out. “In the interests of our continued, if unwilling, relationship, and in the interests of the continued existence of both our universes, I will allow that little slight to pass. Besides, I needed a good laugh.” He wiped his eyes and let out a little hoo noise. “There is some gumption in you, Lady Sarah. I’ll give you that.”
    Suddenly his face became serious. “But gumption alone will not save you. I suppose you are disoriented and want to know much about where you are and why. I will, I suppose, be forced to explain it all to you eventually. But in this precise moment, you have to come with me, or we will all perish.”
    “We’ll what?” asked Blade behind me.
    Calvin turned to him. “‘Perish’ means die.”
    Blade hesitated. “I know… I was joking,” he quickly said.
    “Enough!” said Greystone sharply, cutting them off. “Darkness above! Are all children of True Earth as gabby as you six? Now is not the time for words, but for action.” Once more he fixed on me with his piercing blue stare. “What you must know right now is that if you care to live you must follow me.”
    One by one, the others all turned to look in my direction. I felt my chest grow tight and I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. They were all waiting for me to decide. Like I was some kind of leader. What, because I was the student body president?
    But if Greystone was right—and I’d just seen the guy make a fireball, so I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt—we had to go. And if the others wanted to listen to me anyway…
    “All right,” I said, nodding. I stepped toward Greystone. “Let’s go.” One by one, everyone fell in behind me. There was a twitch at the corner of Greystone’s mouth, and then he led us to the large oak doors on one side of the courtyard. When he reached them he stopped and turned to look at us.
    “Listen to me very carefully, and ask no more questions. On the other side of this door is a battlefield,” he told us.
    “I don’t hear anything,” said Blade suspiciously.
    “That is because of the magic that surrounds this place,” Greystone explained. “But outside, thousands of people, good people of Midrealm, are fighting to protect you. They are laying down their lives in order to protect yours.”
    His eyes roved over our tiny little group, sizing us up. I couldn’t help but feel that he was judging us, and that he was finding us unworthy of the sacrifice. Each of us shifted nervously under his stare.
    “Us?” squeaked Calvin. “Why?”
    “I said no more questions,” Greystone shot back in exasperation. “What I am trying to tell you is this—your lives are important. So do not lose them. We must cross the field to reach the portal on