Creatures of Snow (40 page)

“
And you and Sara would
have been taken.” Lee’s deep voice resonated off the bare, stone
walls. “And the realm of the Living would be facing its greatest
threat. Things happen for a reason Allen, I do believe
that.”

Al shook his head, “Why
doesn’t he wake up?”

He could hear Lee step into the room, “He
will. When he is ready.”

“No, he’s getting farther
away, I can feel it.” Al squeezed the cold hand he held. “And even
if he comes back…”

Lee placed a heavy hand on
his back, “Believe in him, he needs our strength as well as his
own.” He gestured to the seals and symbols that were written across
the bed, on the walls and across Sky’s still body, “All the charms
in this world are worth nothing if our energy doesn’t fuel
them.”

Al stood, he had heard it all before. They
kept telling him to be strong and he had tried, he really did, but
what did it really matter when the cause of all of it was still out
there?

Lee was right though. If
it hadn’t been for Sky stumbling on the Man of Mist, he and Sara
would certainly have been taken by now. But to just run and hide,
it wasn’t just cowardly, it was insulting. Zeph assured them that
his people would take care of it, but how could they? Al was the
only one who could stop it, the only one who could find the Book of
Nine.

“Lee…” Al gently touched
the fabric covered in ancient symbols that lay across Sky’s
eyes.
“How bad do you want to go back to
Archaios?”

“I do wish to return,
but...” He said with reservation, “Allen, what do you plan on
doing?”

Al turned around and headed for the door,
knowing Lee would follow. “I’m going to find the Book of Nine,” He
said as strongly as he could manage, “and I’m going to destroy
it.”

Lee didn’t say a word; he
just followed silently behind him as they wove through the dim
halls to Al’s room.

“Your room is much bigger
than mine.” Lee stated, looking around.

Al was quite surprised he
hadn’t heard any protest from him yet. “Have you ever heard of the
Path of the Mind?” He asked, crossing his room, a particular bag on
his mind.

“I have.” He answered with
slight reservation.

“Then you know how it
works?” Al rooted around in the bag until he finally found what he
was looking for. He sat back on his heels as he pulled out a wooden
box.

Lee looked over curiously,
“Yes. On Agon we often studied other types of telepathy, often to
reassure ourselves that our form was the most superior. However, I
always found the Telic version quite interesting.”

“
Good.” Al pulled a locket
from the box.

“
Is that a link to your
mother?” Lee asked while he watched Al closely.

“Yup.” Al clasped it
around his neck and gestured Lee over. “Just to warn you, I’ve
never done this before, but I’ve read that having a second will
help with focus. That’s where you come in.” He sat Lee down on one
of the tattered wingback chairs that made its stand near the
window. “Just help me concentrate. I’m sure you know better than me
how to accomplish that.”

“You think this is wise?”
Lee sat stiffly in his chair.

Al sunk back into his
chair, almost absorbed by it. He pulled at the chain around his
neck and let his fingers find the smooth round locket at the end of
it. “Probably not.”

Lee tried what looked like
a smile, but ended up more of a grimace. “Allen, you can not really
mean to do this.”

Al kept his focus trained
on the shine of the metal, “I do mean to do this. I’m finding that
damn book and I’m gonna destroy it.”

Lee leaned forward, most
likely he wanted to reach out towards Al, but he never followed
through, “You do not know the consequence of such
action.”

“This isn’t going to stop,
Lee. No matter how well they hide her, no matter how well they hide
us, nothing is going to stop until someone finds that book and it
might as well
be
us.”

“I just do
not-.”

“You want to go back to
Archaios, right? Back to REALM? Back to normal? This might be our
only chance to make that happen.” Al shook his head, “Please,
Lee.”

Lee sighed heavily,
dropping down onto the bed. “I do wish to go back, like I said, but
do you really think these Councilmen will forgive you for
destroying their chance at taking control of the realm? Or have you
considered what the other Telics might do if you do this to one
of
their
last
sacred artifacts?”

“I don’t care about any of
that. Sky’s dying because of them, they’re ruining our lives, and
in the wrong hands that book is nothing more than a gateway to
destruction…so, I think I can take whatever punishment they have in
store.”

“You are truly brave,
Allen Kane. You have a warrior’s heart and a champion’s mind. A
true hero.”

“I’m no hero. I just want
to do right for my friends.” Al gave his most pleading look to Lee.
“Will you help me?”

Lee stared down at the
necklace in Al’s hand for the longest time. If there was breath in
his lungs he did not show it. “All right.” He finally said. “I will
help you find your mother.”

Chapter
T
hirty

She stood there, just
looking down at him.
Move. Just do
it.
She kept telling herself. But she just
stood there. She wondered if she should get Master Zeph or Rintin,
or his father or Al. She hadn’t expected that he would be alone and
in the dark.

Sara took another small
step forward, but got the feeling like something was pushing her
back.

The sheets were pulled up to his collarbone,
but were so thin she could see the bandage that covered his chest.
That was there because of her – the result of her stabbing him
without a thought for his safety. If she had been thinking, she
would have realized that without the Furies power he wouldn’t have
been able to heal. She swallowed hard and braved another step.

In her own defense she had
been terrified. She swore in those last few moments when he was
being sealed that the world had once again gone gray and she could
feel the fabric of reality pulling apart, molecule by molecule, and
the only thought in her head was to save her own ass and so she
tried to kill him.

She backed up a step, not
having realized it before. Sara pulled the stone to her chest and
fought to breathe in a regular pattern, unable to grasp the thought
that she had intended to end his life to save her own. That would
mean the feeling that had been gnawing at her this whole time
wasn’t grief, it was guilt.

“
First time I’ve seen you
in here.” A silky voice floated across the room.

Sara wanted to turn and looked surprised at
Ixanna’s silent arrival, but it just wasn’t in her. “I’ve been
meaning to come.” She forced out once the silence grew too
long.

Ixanna crossed the room with a grace not
found in humans and sat beside the bed. She stared curiously down
at him and moved like she was going to pull the seal across his
eyes away, but let her fingers play with the few strands of hair
that still clung to his forehead instead. “He never much cared for
me.” She said, “I was never very affectionate towards him, so I
can’t blame him.”

Sara inched closer, but didn’t dare stand
beside the bed. She didn’t know what to say. This Iko, more then
any of them, was a mystery to her.

“
I wish I had treated him
more kindly.” Ixanna whispered, mostly to herself. She looked so
sad, almost desperate.

“
He’s not dead.” It came
out bluntly even though she had meant it to be
encouraging.

Ixanna’s red lips
quivered, and she gave an unconvincing nod. “I suppose not.” Her
hand gently pulled the seal across his face away. “He just looks so
much like his father.” She slid her long fingers down his unmoving
face. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t…” she trailed off with unspent
tears glazing over her wide eyes.

“I, well,” Sara couldn’t
let it go on any longer. “I came here to wake him up.”

Ixanna nodded solemnly, “I
know.” She said and tapped gently on Sky’s forehead and smoothed
back his hair, “Set the stone here, but only for a moment. The
power will wake him, but it won’t accept him.”

She was dumbfounded to say
the least, “How-”

“I buried the stone. Long
ago.” Her eyes drifted off towards the door, “I felt it the moment
you pulled it from the earth.”

“
You knew about it?” Sara
stuttered, coming up beside Sky. “And you knew it would help
him?”

“
I knew it could possibly
wake him,” Her eyes came back from the door and bore into Sara’s
cold stare, “But I don’t know if that’s helping him.”

Her mouth turned down, “Of
course it’s helping him. What good is being a vegetable? It doesn’t
matter that he’s been marked if that’s what you’re worried about,
we sealed it and that’s all there is to it.”

“I’m not opposing you, am
I young one? Now, I’ve told you what to do, and
that
is all there is to it.” Ixanna
said it so matter-of-factly that there was no doubt those were her
final words.

Ixanna stood, and in an
elegant bow leaned over Sky and placed a soft kiss on his still
lips.

A fire broke out in Sara’s
veins. She did not like this woman. This Iko had admitted to being
uncaring towards Sky and would have now denied him the one thing
that could save him. “Get out.” She wished she could breathe the
fire she felt.

In a swirl of white she
was at the door, looking back only momentarily to softly whisper,
“Smiles of the Creator to you children. I’ll let Zeph and the
others know.” And then she was gone into the darkness of the
hallway.

Sara stared after her, her hand tight around
the stone, trying to shake the sudden coldness that she felt.

Turning her attention back to Sky she
absently wiped the smudge of red left on his lips and messed the
hair Ixanna had smoothed until he looked more like himself.

“You better thank me for
this.” She muttered to him and brought the stone up. She let it
hover briefly over his forehead, wondering just how long a moment
actually was, and what would happen if she left it on too long.
“Screw that.” She clenched her jaw and placed it to his
skin.

A rush of energy swept
through her body, pulled up from beneath her feet and right out
through her fingertips. She pulled the stone away, it was more a
reflex then anything else, but it must have been the right thing to
do.

Sky’s eyes snapped open
and he inhaled sharply. She stepped back, half expecting him to
burst up from his bed. But no, he just laid there, eyes wide and
searching, breath quick and frightened.

She let her hand clasp
onto his and squeezed it tight. “Sky.”

“Zar.” He croaked
quietly.

“
It’s gone, Sky. We sealed
it.” She tried to sound comforting, “You’re back to normal…or at
least, as normal as you were.”

Sky struggled to sit up, but his weak body
wouldn’t let him. Instead of helping him up, she placed a solid
hand on his chest. “Just rest. Zeph will be here soon.”

He let out a defeated sigh and let his head
fall back to the tattered pillow. “I feel strange.” He managed.

“You’ve been unconscious
for a few days. Everyone’s been pretty worried.” She rounded the
bed to the chair and sat down beside him, holding back the rush of
excitement and relief. He needs calm and cool right now, not a
giddy school girl. “I was worried too. About you.” There. She
admitted it right to his face.

“
I had the strangest
dream.” He rolled his head to the side to look at her, “Over and
over, the same strange dream…” His words drifted off and the look
in his eye told her that his mind did too.

“
What was it about?” She
leaned in and tried to catch back his attention.

“
I feel strange.” He
mumbled again.

She heard them coming down
the hall long before they arrived. Her moment alone with him was
about to end. There was so much she wanted to say, so much she
should say, but she ended up looking at him blankly right up until
Zeph and Roland burst in followed by the Captain and Rintin. Zero
was the last to arrive, hanging back to lean casually by the door
with mild interest.

There was a whirlwind of
arms flying around - she wasn’t sure which belonged to who as seals
were pulled off, wires adjusted and monitors checked.

“
He seems stable enough.
Vitals are strong,” Roland was reporting from his ever present
tablet. “Brain functions seem good.”

Zero let out a chuckle from the edge of the
room, but left it at that.

“
I need room.” Zeph spread
out his arms and everyone backed away instantly.

“Zeph.” Sky was on the
verge of tears, lost and confused, “What did they do to
me?”

The Captain took a step towards the bed, but
Zeph put his arms out once again, “Everyone out.”

There wasn’t one word of
protest as the herd shuffled out of the room, catching
Sara up in their
midst.