WorldGate Crossing
WorldGate Crossing follows Ryan Franklin, a master assassin for a shadow government agency called the organization.
The organization inexplicably turns on Ryan, and while he fights for his life he's pulled into a world of wizards, demons, and other magical beings. If he can't stop an evil wizard from taking over that world, other worlds-including ours-will be next.
Welcome to the Kingdom of Lorr
Dan's Warning
“Remember the stories I used to tell you when you were a kid?” Dan questioned.
“About the Kingdom of Lorr?” Ryan replied. “Yeah, I remember them well. I really believed those fairy tales.”
“They weren’t fairy tales.”
I think it’s time to call the nurse. Ryan thought.
“Reach for that call-button and I’ll break your fingers.” Dan warned, reminding Ryan that he could somehow read his mind. “Now listen. Those weren’t just stories, they were histories...”
Dan went on to tell Ryan all about the Old Ones and the Kingdom of Lorr. He retold all of the stories that he told when Ryan was just a child. He told his grandson about the Gatekeeper and Raxe, and about the god-forged weapons. He told Ryan that Raxe had a son. Dan’s eyes closed as he quoted the legend as told to him.
“And there was a Child. A son of Raxe, grandson to the Gatekeeper. When the evil rained down upon them, that son would be far too young to help them overcome the hordes of evil that would descend upon the house of the Gatekeeper, so the Gatekeeper and Raxe would send that son across the WorldGate, into a land that would provide him safe haven. The progeny of that son would bare Children. One of his progeny would bear the weapon. That Child would have the power to fell both demon and man, and a day will come when the progeny of that son finds the other to save the Kingdom of Lorr and beyond.”
Dan opened his eyes. “And Raxe’s son,” he concluded, “was my father’s grandfather. You are the sixth generation in this world.”
“Gramps, come on,” Ryan pleaded. “Maybe you need to talk to someone--”
"A time will come," Dan interrupted. "A time will come when you’ll have to choose between helping to save the Kingdom of Lorr and keeping your job as a lousy hit-man. When that choice comes, you have to choose Lorr.”
Hide and Seek
Ethan was a master tracker, and he sharpened his skills by playing hide-and-seek with his younger siblings. Sometimes he would hide and they would seek. Tonight, however, was their turn. The twins were getting better and better at masking their paths but Ethan found their tracks as he knew he eventually would.
He was supposed to be this good. The best hunter this side of a changeling or were-beast had trained him. His father was not only a high captain in the Royal Army and considered the best sword in the Kingdom, but it was also rumored that Meldrick Sureblade’s tracking skills were near elvin. Ethan was old enough to know that was a bit of an exaggeration but he knew his father’s reputation was well deserved.
Meldrick had once admitted that Ethan was much further along in his skill development than Meldrick had been at the same age. And although Ethan would never admit this aloud, he was sure that at the age of nine his skills were not as developed as his younger siblings’. But he would not worry about that now. His intent was to win this game. Ethan continued to follow his siblings’ well-hidden tracks until he saw something strange.
There was another set of tracks. Ethan knew they were animal tracks but he was not certain what type of animal had left them. They led in the same direction as his younger brother and sister. The animal, whatever it was, had been clearly following little Arielle and August Sureblade.
The strange tracks were not big, but they were deep, indicating that the beast was heavy. They were spaced far apart, indicating a long stride and probably great speed. Ethan’s heartbeat quickened. He did not know what was following his younger siblings but he knew he would stop it. He gave a reassuring pat on the quiver strapped to his back and tugged at the taught cord of the bow on his shoulder. He stepped up his pace.
Ethan saw two of the three moons of Lorr peeking over the eastern horizon. The sky was a wonderful rainbow. On the eastern horizon, the color of blue steel faded softly into a brilliant silver hue. That ocean of silver flowed slowly into a band of bright gold where the higher of the two suns still burned. The golden sky bled into a deep orange where the lower of the two suns was already hidden below the edge of the western skies.
It would be dark soon, and something was hunting Ethan’s little brother and sister. He traveled as fast as he dared. If he moved any faster he would risk losing the trails in the fading light.
Be Careful What you Look For...
His torch burned down to a quarter of its original length. Raxe could feel the fire’s heat but it was not burning nearly as intensely as it had been. If the torch burned out he knew he might as well be blind. He began to search the tunnel floor to find other materials that could be used to fashion another torch. No such luck. Things were starting to look darker...figuratively and literally.
The dark trail came to a fork and the offworlder was torn. He had no clue which way to go. There were, however, strange and foul smells emanating from the path that on the left. Could that be the dragon? He sincerely hoped not. If the dragon smelled like that he did not think he would be able to breathe in its presence, let alone communicate with it. Raxe stood there in complete silence. He must have become accustomed to the dripping sound at some point because he realized that it had stopped and he could not recall when. His mind shifted back to the matter at hand.
Which way should he go? He leaned tiredly against the wall of the tunnel. Raxe had been nervous and somewhat excited when he began his trek into the mountain. But now he was bored, frustrated, and exhausted. To make matters worse, severe soreness set in his legs as soon as he stopped walking. The entire situation disheartened him, and that was a feeling to which he was not accustomed.
If not for the rank odor assaulting his nose, he may have dozed off. Instead, he just continued to lean against the wall. And then he felt it. There was a vibration, a very slight vibration, moving through the wall. The offworlder’s weary senses sprang to life and became as taught as a bowstring.
Raxe continued to lean against the wall as he pressed both hands against it. There was definitely a tremor, a rhythmic one. Without removing his hands from the wall, he walked further along the trail. He followed the tremors until they led him into the right fork of the tunnel. In a few moments his straining ears finally heard something. A faint rumble came from somewhere within the mountain.
Raxe knew his luck had changed but he was not yet sure if it was for the better. He moved at a hurried but cautious pace in that direction, concluding that the slight rumbling from the right path beat the hell out of the stench from the path on the left.
His internal clock told him that he had walked through that branch of the tunnel for nearly an hour, and with every step he took the rumbling grew more pronounced. Soon, the sound became vaguely familiar. The noise made Raxe think of a bowling alley, of a heavy bowling ball rolling slowly down a lane. He half expected to hear the crash of pins at the end of each roll, but apparently they were all gutter balls. There was another roll, and again, no crash; another roll, and yet another gutter ball. The rhythm of the sound then brought another image to mind. He visualized his grandfather sleeping. Dan snored louder than anyone Raxe had ever known...
Until now?
The memory of the monstrous winged silhouette gliding through the night sky intruded on Raxe’s thoughts.
After another minute or so or of following the sound, he no longer had to concentrate to feel the tremor that accompanied it. The rumbling grew easily twice as loud as the busiest bowling alley. The vibrations were so strong that loose dirt and pebbles danced around the cave floor like hopping insects. Excitement quickened Raxe’s pace. At the same time, a slowly growing fear urged him to go back the way he had come. He had come much too far to turn back, though, so he stubbornly continued forward. He rounded a sharp curve in the tunnel and saw a weak, pale light up ahead. It was sunlight. He dropped the torch – by then it was nothing but a barely smoldering stub, anyway – and hurried in the direction of the light.
The sound began to hurt his ears and the cave shook violently. The closer he got to the light, the more he stumbled. The dim light finally revealed that the tunnel ended in a steep drop, but from his current distance Raxe could not tell how far or steep the drop was. As he closed the gap between himself and the edge, the tunnel ceiling rose at a sharp angle and grew broader. The end of the tunnel opened into yet another much larger cavern. The full width of this new cave was not yet determinable and its floor was still not visible. Raxe could see the far wall of the cave but there was at least seventy-five yards of open space between it and the edge of the tunnel.
The far wall of the huge cave contained the source of the sunlight. There was a long, thin crevasse that allowed a small amount of light into the mountain. There was just enough light to see, but not enough to see clearly. The cave was blanketed in shadows. He guessed the crevasse was about five feet wide and thirty feet long but it seemed tiny in proportion to the soaring wall that contained it.
As Raxe approached the tunnel’s edge, the upward-sloping path suddenly angled downward at more than a thirty-degree angle. At another twenty feet the tunnel floor dropped at an even sharper angle. Raxe slowed his pace and tread with much more caution. The sudden slope of his path, the rocky, unsure footing of the tunnel floor, and the intense shuddering made the going extremely treacherous. Rhythmic trembling reverberated through the tunnel like thunder.
How big could that thing be? Raxe put an arm out to the tunnel wall to steady himself against the quaking. He had to drop to all fours to keep from slipping uncontrollably down the tunnel and still he stumbled. The only way to keep his balance was to move with the rhythm of the tremors. When the cave shook, Raxe was still and held his ground. When the shaking paused, he scrambled forward as far and as quietly as he could. He finally reached the edge of the broadened tunnel. The ceiling of the larger cave beyond rose about thirty yards higher than his position. And then he looked down. The edge of the tunnel completely fell away at almost ninety degrees. The bottom of the large cave was roughly fifty feet down.
The cave floor was littered with brilliant jewels and gems of all colors. Gold and silver coins, bejeweled crowns, staffs and finely crafted weapons were scattered everywhere. The weak morning light filtering in through the crack in the cave wall was reflected and magnified by the sparkling treasures. Thin beams of light bounded and fluttered all over the cave floor like dancing fireflies. It was beautiful, a greedy man’s heaven.
But there was one serious catch:
A snoring dragon lay sleeping right in the middle of it.