Kingdom of echoes an urb.., p.1
Kingdom of Echoes: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (The Portal Chronicles Book 1), page 1
KINGDOM OF ECHOES
E.S. NISAN
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Kingdom of Echoes (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright © 2023 by E.S. Nisan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Version 2.0
CONTENTS
The Portal Chronicles
1. Visions
2. Madame
3. Lessons
4. Nighttime Breath
5. Answers and Questions
6. Disturbed Waves
7. The Drop that Breaks a Branch
8. Within Reach
9. Run up a Tree
10. Hand in Firm Hand
11. The Difference of a Bird
12. Pulled Away
13. Echo Master
14. Days of Dreams
15. An Empty Chair
16. Empty Streets
17. Worn to the Soul
18. Details Sharpen
19. It’s Not Her
20. A Window to Another Life
21. Losing their Way
22. A Hammer to the Face
23. Innocence
24. A Foot in Every World
25. The Young Sister of Curiosity
26. Empty Promises
27. Invisible Borders
28. False Friends
29. Best Possible Care
30. Garden of First Memories
31. Voices of the Ages
32. Solace
33. Swirling Would-Be Photographs
34. Cracks
35. Time to Heal
36. Sunrise
Note from the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Author
THE PORTAL CHRONICLES
Kingdom of Echoes
Peril of Dreams
Wrath of the Masters
To Ally, see? You can do anything.
To Craig, as these words wouldn’t have been written without you.
And to all the kids waiting for a forever home, you are my hero.
CHAPTER ONE
VISIONS
“You’re going to get that stuck in your eye.”
“Give me a break.” Ravlen spun the thorny vine, albeit a touch slower than before.
“Don’t touch that!”
“Relax! It’s just a caterpillar.” Ravlen let the caterpillar crawl up her arm. “And this one is cute.”
“Caterpillars are not cute! Focus.” Marriel let out a tense sigh. “You’re the one who insisted on going to this imaginary pond.”
“It’s not imaginary.”
“If we’re not back by nightfall, Carer Laan will lock us up again, call it another one of your nightmares.” Marriel cast a dirty glance downward at Ravlen.
“I don’t care.”
But Ravlen did care. She’d spent too many hours locked up during her fourth year. For Ravlen, it was a prison of silence.
And yet she needed the quiet.
It was on her seventh birthday that images and sounds began to swirl. Voices that drove her crazy, though she’d tried to hide it. The carers saw it in her despite her attempts to control what felt like several lives living in her head at once.
The walls of the place they’d put her were stuffed with wild cotton. Ravlen had slammed herself against them time and time again, the nightmares overwhelming, but the walls had held strong while cushioning her violence in soft embrace.
Yes, Ravlen hated those walls, but she also owed them her life.
“There it is.” Ravlen smiled into the distance. The pond, the one that had appeared in her dreams with a vision of her lost mother. She knew it was just beyond the next clearing. Years ago, it had been an apparition, a sensation, nothing more. But recently, words rose in her head insisting the spot was real, her mother’s spirit its constant visitor. And in the dream, it was on the island.
Marriel stopped and set her hands on her hips with a dramatic flair that made Ravlen roll her eyes. “There’s nothing there.”
Ravlen loved her overseer, but sometimes Marriel got in the way. “It’s just ahead.”
Marriel tripped on a tree root, diving toward the ground and grabbing at her ankle. “Oh, it hurts! Is it sprained? Is it broken? You have to help me up.”
“Don’t look at me!” Ravlen’s neck grew hot. “You are supposed to be my overseer, ‘helping me navigate the growth of the year ahead’,” Ravlen quoted from the rules. “I don’t care that you’re three years older than me. You’re a mess.”
Ravlen stormed off, leaving Marriel whimpering against the tree. The hypocrisy of the rules could get to her in times like this. Ravlen, now finally twelve, was still considered the young one, the frail one, while four like Marriel were showered with the benefits of age. Freedom to roam in the compound alone. Choice of exercise activity. The opportunity to learn various fighting arts for future missions on the mainland.
It was unfair that Ravlen had to wait until she was sixteen for even a chance at the mainland. Instead, she was Ravlen-with-Marriel, her identity strung together with a girl who had two left feet.
The sound of old leaves crunching under her steps calmed her as she marched toward the pond she knew wasn’t far. Her tunic—the uniform of all school-aged girls—caught on branches, tearing little holes in it, but Ravlen would deal with the carer’s reprimanding looks later.
Marriel had been right that Ravlen couldn’t see the pond yet, but she knew the way from her dreams. When the scent drifted to her, it felt like the welcome call of an old friend. She’d been to its edge in her fifth year during a particularly acute attack. She had run into the depths of the forest, overcome by sounds and sights and sensations foreign and frightening. When her toes had finally touched the water, her dreamlike state broke and she ran back to the dorms, not knowing how she’d gotten there or how to get back.
Only in the past week were she and Marriel at last technically allowed to go for walks in the forest. She had been counting down the days to this moment.
Now that it was finally in her grasp, Marriel had to go and trip on a tree root.
Of course, she would. She’d do anything to stop me from having the one thing I want more than anything else. She probably fell on purpose, that manipulative meat-eater.
Ravlen stomped through the forest, her renewed anger at Marriel’s betrayal driving her forward.
A breeze moved around her. Her wild red hair lifted as she slowed her steps. There shouldn’t have been a breeze, not in a forest as dense as the one that encircled their island encampment. Ravlen closed her eyes and felt her way forward. With eyes shut, she tuned into the details that surrounded her, quieted her pounding heart, slowed the breath that rushed between her ears.
The crunch of dead leaves against moist branches under her feet.
The odor of wet forest floor upset by her leather sandals.
A wave of movement, of atmosphere disturbed, rolled over Ravlen’s skin.
This is it.
She smiled with eyes shut tight, losing herself in the blackness, soothed by the single focus of maneuvering her feet over unseen rocks, fallen trees, and thorny vines.
The sound of lapping water in the distance became her blind destination. It sang to her of promises. The voice of an unknown soul whispering comfort, enveloping her. The promise of a mother in the depths of a dream of a pond.
She stopped when the water kissed her toes, tender tickles like wishes sparkling against her skin. She batted her eyes open to take in the embrace of her protector, the spirit of the mother she’d never known. The water danced in gentle glides, Ravlen’s heart at once full and transfixed, the shock of cold water rushing up from her feet as she looked across the surface for the answer to a question she didn’t know how to ask.
That’s when she saw the eyes.
Ravlen blinked, uncertain that they were real. Eyes that shone dark and bright like black moons in the bushes. She blinked again and began to see a face in the shadow, a face that resembled no other girl on their island, for it was too old. Not like any of the carers either, for the angles were too hard, the hair too short, the shoulders too broad.
Ravlen hadn’t seen anyone quite like this person, and their island was well isolated from the mainland. Surprise visits never happened. Leaves and branches bent away from the spot, the forest itself disturbed by the presence of a foreigner. Nothing in nature was quite right.
The man crawled out from the bushes, staying close to the ground, across the pond from her. A haze kept Ravlen from being able to see the details in his face. His clothing was dark, so dark that Ravlen couldn’t say if it was a uniform or a tunic, or something else entirely. He stood with his shoulders back, but with his head tipped to the side as though Ravlen was a mild curiosity.
Ravlen adjusted her toes in the water, calling upon whatever she’d felt in her dream to protect her. She imagined it expanding to the size of the ocean if it had to, anything to keep her at a safe distance from this unexpected visitor,
But the pond didn’t do a thing.
The man spoke from his crouching place, his tone low with sounds that bounced off his tongue. It was unlike any language Ravlen had ever heard. Her language was spoken with a full mouth.
But this—this was like a song.
The man sang a question at her, his head tipped sideways and his eyebrows high. Ravlen’s collarbone vibrated as though he spoke thunder.
She didn’t know the words, nor how to respond.
The water lapped. She shifted her toes so that the caress rolled under the arch of her foot.
Then the man stood.
Alarms rang in Ravlen’s head, though the man made no effort to approach her. He raised his hands, as if showing he had no weapon.
He took a single step toward her. It was a small step, but its trajectory was clear, and Ravlen felt her breathing shallow. She prayed at the water to open wide, to swallow the man, to suck him under and out of sight.
But she didn’t move.
His words lulled, transfixing her. Honey words with hands turned, palms up, dangerous palms with quiet words, and Ravlen didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She watched him approach.
A step, a word, palms upward.
A step, no words, palms turn.
A step, hands settled at his sides, and Ravlen was certain he was growing taller and stronger before her.
The man walked around the pond, closer but not yet close, and Ravlen felt a different fear. Instead of the fear she knew so well, the fear of all that had come before, this was the fear of all that had not yet happened.
Save me, she thought at the pond.
A hand grabbed hers from behind, spinning her around and yanking her away, and then she was running, stumbling, climbing through bush and brambles. Marriel never let go of her hand until they at last reached the edge of the forest with the encampment finally in their sight.
Ravlen’s terror was primal, her skin alive to every scratch, cut, and tear, though she felt no pain. Marriel bent down to be at her eye level.
“What were you thinking, Ravlen? You can’t go off on your own! Can’t you get that into your head? Remember what Carer Laan said about reporting the presence of strangers? You cannot let them touch you and you cannot let them take you away. Ever.”
Ravlen nodded quickly, the words joining with others she had in her head, words that rushed as though from her earliest days, spoken before she knew meaning from sounds.
“You need to clean up.” Marriel’s voice wavered. “You have to tell Carer Laan everything. Every last detail. Memorize it, Ravlen.”
Ravlen didn’t need Marriel to tell her. The memory of the man was burned into her mind, his broad silhouette against the bush, his reflection cast in multiples across the waves of the pond. She would never forget the sight of him.
Never.
CHAPTER TWO
MADAME
Ravlen’s wrist ached but she didn’t dare ask Marriel to loosen her grip. Carer Laan had been clear—they had to get to the Madame before the stranger risked any more appearances on the island. Ravlen knew nothing of the history, but the way Carer Laan’s voice broke and the panic in her eyes had been enough to send her pulse racing. Ravlen tripped on tree roots and grasses, but Marriel dragged her forward like a riptide. Nothing felt real, as though everything that had just happened was only a dream, and Ravlen didn’t remember Marriel ever being so tall. Ravlen stumbled once more and fell on the hard-packed ground of the village.
“Get up! It’s okay. We’re safe now.”
“Marriel!”
“When will you grow into your feet? They will be the death of you.”
Ravlen stopped fighting the hand that held her and stood. After a glance behind her, she laughed nervously. “Of all people, you—with your two left feet—are warning me to watch my step. Besides, I can’t go to the Madame like this.” Ravlen tried to wipe herself off, but not all of it was dirt. Muck clung to her side as if glued there. She ended up spreading it all over her hand. “I’m filthy.”
“You heard what Carer Laan said,” Marriel’s breath quickened and she spoke without looking back. “You have to recount everything to the Madame right away. Don’t you dare forget a thing. You got that, Ravlen?”
Ravlen nodded. She had to save her words for when they would count. She couldn’t clutter her mind with thoughts that didn’t serve a purpose. Especially not when she was about to go before the Madame.
“Ravlen! Hey, Ravlen!” a boy’s voice called out—the only boy on the island.
“Not now, Daniel,” Marriel replied before Ravlen could say anything. “We’re going to the Madame.”
“The Madame? What’d she do?”
Ravlen shouted, “I didn’t do anything! Don’t let them say I did something!”
Daniel cocked his head. “Ravlen, what’s all over your dress?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Marriel tugged at Ravlen. “Don’t you be thinking about those girls in your class now. I’ve told you that they are mean and you shouldn’t listen to anything they say. Forget about them. Focus on the Madame.”
The Madame was the last thing Ravlen wanted to think about. Ravlen had seen her on several occasions, talked to her on a few, and been scolded by her more often than she liked.
Ravlen would have been just as happy never to see the Madame again, with her tight bun, draping black garb, and skinny legs that reached into the sky. There were days Ravlen thought the Madame was more spider than woman, and it gave her nightmares. In her dreams, she was being followed by the Spider-Madame. Or chased across fields where Spider-Madame ran faster, up trees where she climbed faster, through the forest where she jumped faster.
Ravlen shook the thought from her mind.
It doesn’t matter that it’s the Madame. I just have to tell my story.
Ravlen’s legs started shaking in spite of herself. She thought of the man, something so familiar about him, even though she was sure she’d never seen him before. The way the bushes shimmered behind him in a haze, as though they weren’t real, even though they were the same bushes that grew throughout the forest.
They reached the edge of the village, nearing the Madame’s hut. Ravlen held her breath without meaning to. The dark hut came into view, separate from the others. The Madame wasn’t worried about being on her own, it seemed that was how she liked it best.
I bet she sips eucalyptus tea and thinks up ways she can make life harder for all of us.
“Walk faster.” Marriel yanked on Ravlen’s wrist.
She probably comes up with new tests to push the limits of our abilities or trials to prove our worth. We always have to prove ourselves around here, like we’re worth nothing unless we prove it.
“Faster, Ravlen!”
Always training, training, training. Physical education, mathematics, metaphysical studies…there’s always something. We’re never good enough as we are.
Ravlen didn’t understand why the others just bucked up and did it. Those who excelled stood out and were rewarded with pastries and extra time strolling in the woods. Ravlen loved pastries, but was it worth it? The training was trying.
But in brief moments, she caught glimpses of the wisdom in it. If only she could pay better attention in class…
When the material from the lessons connected in her mind, it was powerful. It made sense of the world and her place in it. Why she had to be on this island, why she was learning metaphysics and ancient history when children on the mainland lived such different lives.
