The Grey Star by James Bartholomeusz

Author:James Bartholomeusz
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Medallion Press
Published: 2013-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

TO THE EDGE OF DARKNESS

This world was Light, and it was Dark. The dome of the sky was splintered in two: one hemisphere a serene, balmy gold, the other an ebony abyss. The sea, too, was broken, split between lapping tranquilly and churning froth. All was silent.

There was only one notable landmark. On the boundary between the two halves, wreathed in a pillar of cloud, the dim silhouettes of cliffs rose. It seemed to be an island just beyond sight, although there was no way of telling where the land finished and the sky began.

The dimension ship slid through the water, white trails extending like tail feathers silently behind. Ruth was at the helm, and the other four stood atop the benches behind. The journey had been an exceptionally short one. The black mirror was affixed to the command board, pulsating like a heart transplanted onto the ship. No direction had been necessary. They had hurtled into a rainbow void and found themselves floating in the middle of this ocean.

Jack was disconcerted. He had not known what to expect at the other end, but this certainly wasn’t it. It was like photos he’d seen of Pacific islands—serene but eerily muted and deserted. He had a horrible sensation this was the calm before a storm, a storm they were steadily advancing toward as the ship cut its way closer to the bank of cloud and the Darkness behind it.

There was a low rumbling as gravel made contact with the ship’s underbelly, wedging it into the shallows. Ruth was the first to exit, her splashes echoing far louder than they should have. The others followed, wading through the last few feet of water onto the beach.

Jack moved to wring out his trousers but stopped. They were quite dry, as if he had only been walking on land. He looked around at the others. All of them were experiencing the same sensation.

“Any idea where we are?” Dannie ventured.

None of them replied.

On closer inspection, the beach was not of sand but something closer to ash: grey flakes that shifted under their feet. There was only one way forward. A path snaked up before them between high flanks of rock, disappearing into the mist. Exchanging looks of trepidation, they moved on.

Soon, they were entirely enveloped in fog. The beach disappeared behind them in a wall of grey, and with the silence, there was no hint it had ever been there. They felt entirely abstracted, trudging upward through opaque cloud.

Jack found himself in front and held his arm back to Ruth—partly to make sure they stayed together, partly for comfort. He was only slightly reassured when she took it and when the shifting behind him indicated that the others had formed a chain.

After some indeterminate amount of time and distance, the path began to level out. The air was still but seemed slightly colder. The flanks of rock had fallen away, and they were out in the open. They continued onward.

It took Jack a while to notice the change in the ground.

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