As mentioned in my Part One and Part Two posts, in honor of Hutra’s belated birthday, this is the final installment of my cutting room floor scenes from the original version of the novel. There are others, but this scene is a good place to stop.
Summary of Parts One and Two: After he secretly witnesses six-year-old Kinny disappear inside a portal, Nor races home to a surprise birthday party. At the height of the festivities, his father offers him a challenge. He is given a large monetary gift and expected to properly invest or donate it. Still reeling from his experience at the portal site, he is in no frame of mind to consider such a challenge. Then Tenna, who was also at the portal site when her little brother Kinny vanished, arrives at the party. Nor delays his father’s test by asking to join the revelers on the dance floor. While dancing with Tenna, he confesses what he saw at the portal site. He believes she must have rescued her brother. Why else would she and her father come to his party? Before answering, she orders him to take her outside.
Part Three
Nor guided her through the ballroom’s outer door to the portico. Tenna let go of his arm and lurched toward the nearest column, gulping for breath. He hovered nearby, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. She tended to kick friends in the shins if they disturbed her before she’d fully collected her thoughts.
Finally, her breathing slowed. She faced him, eyes round with fear. “How can you know anything about that?”
“I hid in Elder Belack’s wood to watch the portal rise but left after Kinny fell inside. I missed your rescue. How’d you do it?”
“I didn’t.”
“Then who did?”
She leaned so close that her hair’s sweet, flowery scent tickled his nose. “No one. I told Mama he ran off. You know how he is, always going on his little adventures, disappearing for hours. Mama stayed home to wait for him.”
Nor’s pounding heart already knew the answer, but still, he had to know for certain. “You mean … he’s still in there?”
“Where else would he be?” Tenna spun from him and started to pace. “I’m a horrid, horrid person. It’s all my fault, and I lied about it.”
Nor fell into step beside her, marching along the outdoor promenade. “If it was anyone’s fault, it was mine. If I’d come out of hiding, I might have been able to stop him.”
She snorted. “Knowing you, you would’ve played the hero and jumped in after him. Then you’d both be lost.”
Nor’s feet skimmed to a stop. “I’m not stupid.”
She turned to face him, her pale eyes glowing with kindness. “I only meant you do things spontaneously sometimes.”
Like running away, he thought miserably.
Tenna clutched his hands. “We both know I’ll be blamed for this. Please, Norrie, don’t tell anyone. Not yet. Promise you won’t. They’ll beat me. They’ll send me away.”
“They’d never do that. Besides, we’re going to get him back.”
“How? The portal’s base has already left the ground. Even if it was possible to save him, we couldn’t reach him.”
“We’ll find a way. We have to.”
Tenna shook her head. “What am I even saying? I deserve to be disowned. Maybe I should go inside and tell Papa the truth.”
“If you feel you must, then tell him it was an accident. That’s the truth.”
“I don’t know what’s true anymore.” She released his hands. Her shoulders sagged, and the corners of her mouth turned down. “What if I secretly wanted to be rid of him? What if I’m a monster and don’t realize it?”
“You’re perfect. You warned him away from the portal. I heard you.” He might have said more, but a flash of blue caught his attention through the window. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one to join the party straight from work. “Tenna, don’t say anything yet. Stay here. I just found our answer.”
Inside, Nor paused at the drinks table beside a thin woman with close-cropped gray hair. She wore the bright blue, single-piece uniform he’d seen through the window. The insignia above her right breast pocket classified her as an investigating agent.
Nor bowed. “Greetings, Portal Investigator.”
Lively blue eyes gleamed from her lined face. “Hello, guest of honor!” She put down her glass to shake his offered hand. “I’m Agent Aidan. I’m usually stationed in Sector Four, but I couldn’t resist Lord Norved’s invitation. We don’t have mansions in the western sectors.”
He bowed again. “Agent Aidan, could we speak briefly in private?”
On her nod, he led her from the party noise to a deserted corridor. Both sat on a padded bench pressed against the wall.
“I appreciate your asking to meet with me, Master Norved,” she said. “Our P.C. told me you might be donating to nonprofit causes, but–”
“P.C.?”
“Oh, sorry. Portal Commander. He told me not to expect anything, so please forgive me if I’m being too bold. Would you like to contribute to the Portal Authority Fund? Even the smallest amount will help further our studies.”
“That’s why I asked to speak with you. I’d like to donate.” He held out his hand for her company point card.
Aidan’s face lit up. “Thank you so much.” She produced her card from one of the many pockets in her uniform. “We have a number of premiums. For a donation of 25 points, you’ll receive our quarterly newsletter. A 50-point pledge comes with the newsletter and a coffee mug with the Portal Authority logo.”
Nor swiped the card along the side of his palm-com, only half listening to the rewards he might receive for his generosity. He keyed in his transfer code while Aidan announced that Platinum Membership came with a pledge of 500 points. Nor returned her point card.
“Thank you, Master Norved.”
Her palm-com chirped from inside one of her many pockets, indicating the completed transaction. She removed it and glanced down. “The Portal Authority appreciates–” Her eyes bulged. She looked up. “Fifteen hundred? But … but I’d heard his lordship was giving you one thousand.”
“I added 500 from my personal account. I’d give more, but until I’m 20, my father allows only limited access to my Animal Communicator earnings.”
“This is more than generous. It’s unprecedented. In the fifteen years I’ve been with the Authority, our organization has never received more than 400 points at once. I don’t know how to thank you.”
Nor grinned. “I do. By sharing information.”
Aidan peered again at the donation figure. “You’ve certainly reached the highest level of any non-agent. That should come with extra benefits, including answering any question you might have.”
His insides fluttered with hope. “I know it’s illegal to enter a portal, but have any of your agents ever gone through and come back out again?”
Aidan glanced up and down the empty corridor, then turned toward him. “Before that prohibition law came into effect, my father volunteered to do just that. He was the last to enter legally. That was sixteen years ago. It’s why I joined the Portal Authority. Judging by his echo, he’s still where he entered.”
“Echo?”
Aidan nodded. “When any living thing enters a portal, it leaves an afterimage. We call them echoes. We’ve even got special, sanctioned equipment that can photograph them. A part of my father is still there. He’s holding up his left arm like he’s waving.”
Nor’s heart thudded. Before he ran away, he saw Kinny’s silhouette inside the portal.
“We haven’t been able to prove it,” Aidan continued, “but we think if the lost person can return to his echo, we can retrieve him.”
Nor let out an excited gasp. “Then there’s hope!”
“There’s always hope. Whether that’s enough ….” Aidan shrugged.
“It has to be. I mean, it wouldn’t be called a portal if it didn’t work both ways, right? Which leads me to my next question. Has anything ever come through, but the Portal Authority never mentioned it to the general public?”
Again, Aidan glanced around. The corridor remained clear. “The P.C. will deny it,” she said in a low voice, “but yes.”
“Really?” He leaned in, desperate for more.
“There’s a reason it went unreported. We think it came from a different world.”
Nor mouthed the words, “Another world?”
She nodded.
“Is that even possible?”
“Apparently so. Whatever it was had two hearts.”
Nor could only shake his head in disbelief.
Aidan bent closer. “There’s more. It wasn’t alive when it appeared.”
Nor gulped.
The agent nodded. “It was such a gory mess we had no idea what it was. We couldn’t even tell if it came through that way or if the portal turned it inside out.”
Nor shuddered. All he could do was pray to the Grand All that Kinny hadn’t suffered a similar fate.
***
Thanks for letting me share those scenes from the cutting room floor. And now, it’s time to work on Book 4.