Ember (3 page)

Cornelius guffed. “Well to the lodge of
course.”

Thoran nodded. “Ah, I see, the lodge full of
what?” He obviously knew something Cornelius hadn't realized.

“Rooms?” he guessed, shrugging his
shoulders.

“What else?” asked Thoran.

Cornelius scratched his head. “Well . . .
there's the boys and . . . oh,
the boys
.”

“Ah-ha.” Thoran nodded. “And she is a . .
.”

“Girl.” finished Cornelius flatly.

Now thoroughly confused, I decided I would
have to make myself speak my mind if I didn't want to go home.

“Look,” I stated. “I really don't mind
staying in the same building as a few boys if that's what you
think. I live with my brother in law.” I finished with a smile,
thinking that that should explain everything.

Cornelius’s face melted again and he turned
to Thoran.

After a few brief moments of silent
conversation, Thoran's face turned stern.

“Fine, Cornelius. But let it be on your head.
And for the love of God
do not
let her near Ikovos. And this
is only for tonight.”

Cornelius nodded repeatedly and my heart
filled with anticipation. I had no idea why, but I knew that there
was something important about these men. Something I wanted to be a
part of.

“Well my dear,” said the kind man. “I am
Cornelius, as I'm sure you've already gathered, and that is
Thoran.” He gestured towards the other man, but Thoran had already
started walking towards the dark wall.

“. . . He's really much sweeter than he
seems.”

I hid my skepticism out of respect, but maybe
Cornelius was right.

“We had better get moving,” declared Thoran.
“I'm going to have to go out early to scout tomorrow.”

Cornelius helped me up and we started towards
the wall.

As Thoran led us through a series of dark
tunnels, Cornelius asked me questions about the events that led to
our meeting. Thoran seemed hardly interested, although every once
in a while he would grunt or shake his head.

“And that's when Thoran came in with his
sword.” I finished uncomfortably.

“Hmm, I see,” Cornelius murmured. “Well it
seems it was indeed Sylvanus, Thoran, up to his usual tricks.”

Normally I was very quiet and reserved,
especially around people I barely knew. But for some reason
Cornelius made me feel comfortable. I made up my mind to ask him
about one of the things I had been wondering about.

“Cornelius, when I first met . . . Sylvanus,
he said he had control over water, or liquid rather, and then he
juggled some around between his hands. I've heard stories of
wizards such as this before. I was always very intrigued by it.” My
voice gradually became more enthusiastic. “I guess what I was
wondering. . . . It's real then, magic?”

I saw Thoran look back at Cornelius with a
stern glare.

“Well, you see—” Cornelius started, but was
quickly interrupted by a voice above us.

“Identify yourselves.”

I realized we were now at the edge of a very
small opening. After the maze of tunnels we had traveled through, I
was positive that there was no way I could find my way back
outside.

Thoran replied to the voice soundly. “Master
Thoran, order first-rank. And Master Cornelius, second-rank.”

“Proceed,” came the response.

It was now that I first realized just how
important these men might be. But before my mind could consider
what exactly I had gotten myself into, I saw a familiar light
reflecting off the cavern walls. It was the same glow that I had
seen earlier that day, in a different cave. The memories of my
previous encounter made me shutter.

Sure enough, as we rounded the tight corner
an orb-like portal hovered above the ground. It was at the back of
a large cavern, the same black-metallic softly glowing orange from
the light.

“No doubt this isn’t the first one of these
you’ve seen today,” said Thoran as he stared at the rift. Before I
could respond he turned to me and started again. “This is a Meoden
portal. It leads between the Meoden dimension, where we are now,
and the other dimensions, in this case ours. Which is yours as
well.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he
interrupted.

“There is no point in trying to figure out
how it works, just know that it does. Naturally if you jumped into
one of these you could end up anywhere in the conjoining dimension,
but we have altered ours to arrive at a specific point.

“So all you need to do is walk through.
Understand?”

Oh yeah, sure, that makes complete
sense,
I thought to myself . . . but I did have the basic idea,
and I could tell Thoran wasn't really asking.

“Yes sir.” I said, so officially that any
fool could tell I was intimidated.

“Good,” he replied. “Cornelius you go first,
followed by . . . hmm. Did you tell us your name?”

I bit my lip. “No . . . you never asked.”

“Well I'd say in this case shy is an
understatement,” he grumbled. “Are you ready to tell us
now?
”

My eyes narrowed at him, squinting slightly.
“Eve, Eve Avest.”

“Well, that's a beautiful name, such a
curious last name to. You know I know someone that has a hobby of
studying the origin of names, I'm sure he'd love to look that one
up. His name is—”

Thoran stopped him with a side-ways glance.
Evidently this man didn't want me to know about anything beyond
what was necessary.

“
Anyways.
Eve, you'll go after
Cornelius so he can meet you on the other side. Cornelius, I want
to check on Boron, so I'll meet you back at the lodge in an hour or
so.”

He turned towards me. “If everything goes as
planned I probably won't see you again, so—” he held out a hand
“—it was a pleasure meeting you.”

I shook it firmly, inexplicably disappointed
by the thought of never seeing him again.

And then, as quickly as he had appeared, he
vanished through one of the tunnel passages.

*

It wasn't long before I found myself with
Cornelius on the other side of the portal. We came in amidst a
clutter of trees: tall, rich green, much less foreboding than the
last forest I had been in. The sky above was a deep blue, nearing
dusk.

Has it been that long?

“Better than the last time I hope?” asked
Cornelius.

Not much
. I opted for courtesy. “Yes
it was, thank you.”

“Good,” he said. “Now if I can figure out
which portal we came in at, we can start heading for the—”

“Master Cornelius is that you?” came a shout
from one of the trees above us, it was a boys' voice.

Cornelius started to look up then froze. “Oh
no. Not good, what is he doing here?” He mumbled nervously as he
started to pace. “Thoran is going to kill me, this is the first
thing he told me not to let happen.” He turned his face upwards
again and yelled. “Ah, no. It's not Cornelius just some, umm, other
person. No need to come down Ikovos, I mean, person I don't
know.”

Cornelius looked at me and gave a
do-you-think-that-will-work shrug.

I sure didn't know what was happening, so I
shrugged as well. Obviously Cornelius and I shared an inability to
stay calm under pressure.

“Master I can tell by your voice,” said the
boy again. “Besides I can see you, hey, who is that with you? I'm
coming down okay.”

“Oh God, we're dead,” said Cornelius as he
paced.

“We're dead?!” I started to pace myself.

“Yes, dead! What are we going to do?”

“What
can
we do?”

“He's going to kill us.”

“He is?”

“You've got to calm down.”

“You calm down, I don't even know what's
happening.”

“I've got it!”

“What?”

“Hide!”

“Where?”

“There!” He pointed to a bush next to a tree
and pushed me down behind it.

Seconds later I heard footsteps running
towards Cornelius. I situated myself so I could see through the
leaves. Cornelius moved himself in front of me, one hand leaning
against the tree.

The boy came into view and I looked him over.
He was average build if not a little thin. The mat of short blond
hair on his head looked like it hadn't seen a comb in a while, his
ears were a bit oversized, nothing spectacular, that is until he
smiled. I was never one of those “omigod he has the most gorgeous
smile” girls, but . . . this was something.

Cornelius had just called him Ikovos, but
recognized the name like I'd heard it before.

Hmm . . . Oh, right, this was the person that
Thoran had told Cornelius not to let me meet.

Well, that explains the pushing.
I
grunted. Cornelius covered the noise with a cough.

“Oh, hello Ikovos,” said Cornelius in a
squeaky voice. “What are you doing out here this late?”

“I took over gate-watching for Luther,” he
said. “But hey, why were you saying you were someone else?”

“Well, I um . . . .”

“A joke,” I whispered from the bush. “Tell
him it was a joke.”

“Oh right, I was just playing a joke of
course,” said Cornelius. He forced an uncomfortable laugh.

“A joke?” Ikovos said flatly. “Right . . .
well, who was that with you? Where'd they go?”

“Oh that . . . that was a bird.”

“Huh?”

“Tell him it was
magic
,” I
interjected.

“I mean it was magic,” said Cornelius.

Ikovos raised an eyebrow. “Since when can you
make a fake person with magic?”

Cornelius backed towards me and whispered.
“Why did you say magic? That doesn't even make sense.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know? I've never
learned a thing about magic. Why did you listen to me if it didn't
fit?”

“Because . . . because you tricked me!” he
said.

“What?” I asked exasperatedly, jumping
aggressively to my feet.

Ikovos, who had been watching as Cornelius
argued, now stared at me wide-eyed, jaw to the floor.

When I saw him I screamed and ducked back
behind the bush.

Cornelius fainted.

After a few seconds I poked my head out above
the leaves. The boy forced a confused smile and waved. I dropped
down again.

Come on Eve, pull it together. You are a
confident and outgoing individual. You are a confident and outgoing
individual.
I repeated this a few times in my mind then took a
deep breath. Before standing up to face the boy.

“Hi.” I smiled. “My name’s Eve.”
Well,
that was original.

“Right, I'm Ikovos . . . sorry for scaring
you,” he said as he scratched the back of his head thoughtlessly.
“Ah, do you know Cornelius?”

“No, well, sort of I guess.”

“Cause you guys seemed to have something
going.”

“Heh, it's been a long day. I got a little
too excited. Sorry.”

“No, no it's okay. I just thought that you
must have known each other pretty well. But I guess not.”

“Yeah . . . no.”

Silence followed, crickets chirped, I figured
tumbleweed wouldn't show in the forest but kept an eye out
anyways.

“Hmm, okay, I'm gonna try to wake him up now,
cause I'm not doing a very good job talking,” said Ikovos, nodding
at me repeatedly.

“Right, that makes sense,” I said, before
realizing that I had just agreed he wasn't talking well. I did a
mental head bang against the tree.

I am not outgoing and confident. I am not
outgoing and confident . . . .

I watched Ikovos move to Cornelius’s side. He
poked him in the chest a few times, then tried shaking him. I knelt
cautiously beside the motionless body across from the boy.

“Ah, Master Cornelius?” tried Ikovos. Still
nothing. “. . . Corni?

Cornelius grimaced, and with eyes still
closed he responded. “Please don't call me that, Ikovos.”

“Ah-ha, you're awake. I thought that might
work,” said Ikovos, sounding very pleased with himself.

Cornelius still lay there motionless. “I had
the weirdest dream Ikovos, you would have liked it. Thoran and I
were out scouting in the other dimension, looking for some new
creature Demian mentioned, when we ran into a couple keepers. And
you wouldn't believe what they were after.”

“I could take a guess,” drawled the boy.

Cornelius continued. “It was a girl, a girl
of all things. Isn't that odd.”

Ikovos looked up at me and smiled
apologetically. I raised an eyebrow.

Why was my sex such a big issue with these
guys, did they have something against women? I've never considered
myself a feminist but that sure as heck doesn't mean I'm tolerant
of Chauvinists.

“Ah, Master, I think you should open your
eyes now,” said Ikovos.

“Of course you're right, my boy.” He lifted
his lids, squinting at Ikovos. “Hey, where are we anyway—AH!” As
soon as he saw me he jumped onto his feet.

After a few uncomfortable seconds realization
seemed to dawn on him.

“Hi.” I waved, adding a smile for his sake,
but inwardly feeling very out of place. You know inside jokes? It
was starting to feel like I
was
one that everybody but me
knew about. I looked at Cornelius face again . . . apparently it
wasn't a very funny joke.

“Oh, my dear, I am so sorry. Please ignore
everything I said, just an old man’s ramblings, and a half asleep
one at that.” He paused. “How, um . . . how was it that I ended up
on the ground, though?”

“Well,” began Ikovos. “First you came through
the portal and started telling me that you weren't you. Then
I
came down to try and figure out what was going on. That's
when you started talking to the bush . . . which ended up being a
girl . . . . You then began arguing with said bush-girl, who
proceeded to jump out from
behind
the bush. At that point I
pretty much went into shock, she screamed, you fainted, it was all
very confusing.”

“Yes, I can see that.”