Free Aster Wood and the Book of Leveling (Volume 2) by J B Cantwell Page A

Earth?”
    He was recognizing me all over again, as if the last several minutes had never happened.  
    I stared at him for a moment as the reality of what I was facing stunned me. Our guide and savior had no idea who his own daughter was, and he thought I was his own son. We were in big trouble. Who could help us now?
    Don’t freak out. Think.  
    I needed to try to get through to him, to find a way into his fractured mind. Somewhere in there was the truth. Somewhere in there he had our answers.
    I tried a different approach.  
    “No… father , I didn’t find it,” I said, pretending to be his lost son.  
    His face fell with disappointment, and his hands released me.
    “Oh, no,” he said. “You were unable to find the champion or the gold? But you have been gone for so long.” His head drooped downward, his insane mind deep in thought about this new development.
    “Um…“ I stalled, trying to think of a believable answer. “Where should I have looked?”  
    His head whipped up again.
    “Where the mountains meet the water. There lies the gold, shooting up from the great, hot core of Earth.”
    “The gold?” I asked.  
    He looked at me, perplexed.  
    “We need the gold to balance the planets.” He looked at me expectantly.
    “Oh, right,” I said, trying to follow along. “And how do we balance them?”
    He paced away from me to the other side of the room and peeked through one of the narrow slits in the curtains.  
    “I know not. I have waited for you, so that we could move on to the Fire Mountains together. For there we will find the book. It will direct us in the ways of the ancients.” He turned to look at me and rubbed his hands together nervously. “But without the gold, I fear we shall not make it past the gates of Riverstone.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “We cannot jump to the Fire Mountains without the gold, and no gold remains on any of the planets in the Triaden.”
    “You mean, we need gold to make a link?” I asked.
    “Not just any link,” he snorted. I wanted to keep him talking; the conversation seemed to keep him lucid. “You know as well as I that the crafting of links to other worlds is no easy task, but without gold any attempt at all would be futile.”
    At that moment the door behind us creaked open, and I heard Erod’s muffled voice.
    “Aster?” he called softly. “What’s going on in there? You alright? What’s wrong with Jade?”
    “Aster?” asked Almara, looking between me and the door. “Who is Aster?”
    “Erod, can you come in here?” I answered. The enormous man lumbered through the doorway, and at his arrival Almara’s eyes became round and frightened again.
    “You!” he shrieked. He began to raise up his hands again, as he had in the sunlit room, as if he were about to release a curse.
    “No!” I shouted, approaching him with my hands in the air. “No, Father! Erod is a friend of mine! You musn’t—”
    “He is one of them, ” he hissed. His voice and eyes held the same fear Jade had shown just minutes ago.  
    “One of who?”
    “A Solitary,” he said, standing up as tall as his crooked body would allow. “No Solitary has the right to walk the halls of this castle, and I swear on the Book of Leveling—”
    “No! He is my friend. This is Erod.” I stretched out my hand to Erod, hoping that he would be brave enough to take it and enter the space with us. “He saved us. We nearly drowned.”
    Erod took careful, heavy steps towards us, and Almara backed away, his head half-turned, like a dog expecting to be smacked on the nose. His momentary courage had vanished. His eyes narrowed wickedly at the giant man.
    “You fool the boy, but you do not fool me, Erod ,” he said. “I know your kind. Your people have the book that could save us all, and yet you hoard it all to yourselves. Why? You broke my gates and you ruled this house for a time, yes. But only until I returned and drove you out.” He stretched out his bony arm and pointed an