Lambert yet?” Sophie asked. “Caroline’s a scientist and she built a machine that acts like a window into other universes in the Multiverse. Or, well, she thought it was a window but it turns out that for certain people, it can act more like a door. Caroline herself got sucked through into a different universe and we had a terrible time trying to get her back again.”
“Really?” Alli shook her head. “Whoever heard of being sucked into a whole other universe?”
“Well, that’s exactly what we were afraid happened to you,” Sophie explained. “Especially after you told me about those strange dreams you had about the Kru’ell One warrior.”
“What?” Alli’s temples began to throb for some reason. “What are you talking about?” she asked, frowning. “I never had any dreams of any warrior.”
Sophie frowned.
“Yes, you did, hon,” she said. “You were telling me all about it the last time I saw you. About how you always saw him in a hall filled with shadows and he said he was coming for you.” She shivered. “Really scary stuff! So of course we were afraid that you somehow got sucked through the PORTAL and wound up in his universe.”
By now Alli’s head was positively pounding.
“I don’t…don’t remember telling you about any dreams,” she said to Sophie, rubbing her temples to try and ease the ache. “I don’t even remember having any dreams. I’m beginning to feel like I’m going crazy!”
“Oh dear—I shouldn’t have said anything!” Sophie exclaimed. “I’m so sorry, Alli!”
“No…” Alli took a deep breath, trying to calm the pounding in her head. “No, it’s all right. It’s just hard to hear that I’ve apparently lost even more of my memory than I thought. I mean, an entire month is gone but so is the conversation I apparently had with you about weird dreams and warriors from an alternate universe.”
“Sylvan and I were so worried about you after that,” Sophie confessed. “We were actually glad that you went back down to Earth because the PORTAL can’t work there—it has to be out of Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field. But when you went missing…”
“Show me the PORTAL,” Alli interrupted. She didn’t know why, but it seemed important to see the machine Sophie kept talking about that led to other universes.
“Oh well, if you think it will help jog your memory or something,” Sophie said uncertainly.
“Maybe it will, if I somehow went through it, like you seem to think,” Alli said.
“I don’t see how, since you disappeared from Earth. Though I supposed it can’t hurt to have a look,” Sophie said thoughtfully. “But you’ll have to stand well back from it—it can be dangerous!” She frowned. “I have to tell Caroline—Doctor Lambert—to cancel her search for you, anyway. Come on—we’ll go see her and the PORTAL now.”
“Let’s go,” Alli said grimly. “I just want to get to the bottom of all this and put it behind me.”
“Come on then.” And Sophie led the way.
Thirty-Seven
Dr. Caroline Lambert was a plump, pretty woman with wild, fly-away golden-red curls and a shy smile that Alli liked at once. When she found out who Alli was, her pretty face broke into a huge grin of relief.
“Oh, you don’t know how worried we’ve all been!” she exclaimed, wringing Alli’s hand enthusiastically. “I was so afraid that awful warrior from another universe that Sophie was telling me you dreamed about had somehow used my PORTAL to get in here and steal you away!”
“I can assure you, nobody stole me away anywhere,” Alli said dryly. But even as she spoke, her temples started to throb again.
“Can Alli have a look at the PORTAL?” Sophie asked Caroline. “From a safe distance of course,” she added quickly.
“Of course! I have a guardrail installed now,” Caroline answered. “It reminds people where to stand since they just seem drawn to it when we fire it up.”
She walked them to the back of her laboratory where the machine was. The PORTAL had a shiny, brass rectangular frame and looked a little like an oversized mirror but with no glass in it.
“Hmm,” Alli studied it, but the machine which supposedly allowed one to look into other Universes—and sometimes to travel in them—didn’t ring any bells.
“Does it jog your memory at all?” Sophie asked anxiously.
Alli shook her head.
“Not a bit, actually.”
“Maybe if I start it up,” Caroline suggested. “Though of course, even if you were sucked into the universe with the Kru’ell Ones in it, the chances of you seeing that particular world are pretty slim.”