God of the Abyss (17 page)

Unfortunately, even though the griffin was gone, Nano
did not get up. Ron squirmed around until I let him down, then he grabbed
Sammy’s hand and dragged him to Nano’s side. When Ron put one hand on Nano’s
head and his other on Nano’s chest, I knew what he was doing.

“Has he healed anyone before?” Edward asked me. I
shook my head. “What if he does it wrong? He could hurt Nano worse.”

“My son can figure it out,” I said. He gave me the
same look he always gave me if I became defensive.

“What would you say if someone asked you that about
Dylan?” Mordon asked him.

He considered me, then my son. “I would tell them
they needed to shut their mouth and that my son could figure it out. I’m
sorry,” he told me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I momentarily forgot who
I was talking about.”

Ron glanced up at me for a second as if to make sure
he was doing it right. I gave him a small nod and he smiled. It took him a few
minutes, but his hands soon started to emit a glow. When I first learned to
heal, my energy was visible as a green glow, but I had since learned to refine
my technique and could heal without anyone noticing it. Divina, a master of
Iadnah energy, still showed it sometimes; her energy glowed bluish-purple. It
was the same thing really, but the color depended on our souls somehow. Sammy’s
was vivid purple, while Ron’s was bright, vibrant, grass green.

Oddly enough, as roughed up as he looked, Nano wasn’t
bleeding anywhere visible. It only took a couple of minutes for him to open his
eyes and struggle to sit up. “Where’s Vivian?” he asked, looking at me instead
of his son.

Sammy was old enough to understand that he was being
ignored by his own father. He turned his face away from me so that I couldn’t
see his devastated expression. Ron glared at Nano. I moved to go to Sammy when
Mordon grabbed my arm.
“Remember that I can’t smell anything because of
Ghidorah. If Nano acts weird, get away from him.”

I nodded and went to Sammy. “Nila said she was safe
on Dios,” I answered, lifting Sammy into my arms. Sammy had his face buried in
my neck and didn’t see the longing in Nano’s eyes as he looked at the boy.
Normally, I would have felt sorry for Nano because of the misery he clearly
felt, but Nano had every opportunity to visit him. Ron was also old enough to
pass over the spell so that Sammy could return home, yet Nano and Vivian never
came for him and they stopped visiting.

Even when Sammy was a baby, Nano had always been more
concerned with Vivian than their son. If Nano refused to give Sammy the love
and care he deserved, I sure as hell would. Sammy was a dream child and should
never know rejection. I loved Sammy just as much as Ron, even to the point
where I considered him my oldest son, and I would never give him up to be
someone’s second priority.

“What happened?” Mordon asked. “You were missing for
a long time.”

“What?” He sounded shocked. “How long? I was with
Vivian, just a little while ago. I was talking with some people about a water
filtering system and heard Zer calling. When I tried to answer, I was
attacked,” he said.

“By griffins?” Ghidorah asked.

“No! The griffin saved me. It was Vretial!”

“Vretial was destroyed,” Ghidorah growled.

Nano glared right back at him. “Well, he’s back.”

Mordon took Sammy from me to take him inside while
Ron hung back to listen some more. That was pretty unusual; Ron always went
wherever Sammy did. It didn’t help the situation that Ron seemed very
interested to hear more about the dark god. If Vretial was indeed back, and
trying to lure my boys in, I wasn’t sure what to do. I had already told them
what happened and how bad he was. Sammy was terrified of him, but Ron always
seemed more curious than worried and that wasn’t good.

“Did you see him?” he asked.

“You talk now?” Nano asked, shocked. Ron nodded
shyly. “I didn’t see him, but I felt him. He was as powerful as Zer.”

“You never met Vretial, though. Right?” I said. “You
wouldn’t recognize his presence.”

“I know the presence of a god, and I know it was
malicious. It was definitely him. I need to get back to Vivian. Was she worried
about me?”

“I didn’t see her, I just spoke to Nila. And I’m
sorry, but you cannot return to Dios right now. Zer doesn’t know where you were
any more than any of the rest of us. With the fear of treason stirring the gods
up right now, he is suspicious. He said you couldn’t return until your name was
cleared.”

He sighed. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Can you get a
message to Vivian?”

I felt Divina calling on me.
“I’m getting called
away,”
I told Mordon. In one instant, I went from standing in front of the
others to standing before the gods. I didn’t like the room we were in; it was
the same place as before and made me feel like we were in a courtroom.

“Have you discovered anything?” Enki asked.

“I seem to be getting the runaround. You sent me out,
then Kiro was immediately attacked. Nano is missing. Shiloh was attacked and his
powers were gone. Emrys was acting a little odd but otherwise seemed fine. Then
I met Ghidorah, who caused Mordon to have an allergic reaction. Vretial has
contacted Ron, but Ghidorah swears up and down that Vretial has not returned.”

“Why is Ghidorah so insistent?” Araxi asked.

“Maybe he trusts you all to have handled it. Anyway,
I brought Ghidorah back and then Azyle arrived having had a Guardian warning
dream and lost contact with Roshne. Emrys arrived with him and said that he had
not spoken to me in a long time. Mordon still couldn’t use his nose to figure
it out. Then Emrys was attacked.”

“Is he okay now?” Madus asked.

I hesitated. Other than Divina, no god has ever shown
concern for their Guardian until now. “I’m working on it and I will find him. Then
I got sidetracked; Rilryn is lost in a forest somewhere, terrified of something
in the dark. I found an apple tree–”

“You were on Earth?” Divina asked.

I shook my head and considered my next words
carefully. Something was sketchy and they needed to know, but I was going to be
on the couch for the rest of the week. “No, we were not. It was an apple tree
on another world. Rilryn vanished and I sat down on a rock under the tree. An
apple hit me on the head and the word ‘eat’ was written on it. So I took a
bite.” I ducked.

“You did what?!” Divina yelled. “You are so stupid!”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway,” I said when I figured
she wouldn’t throw anything at me. At least for the moment she didn’t have
anything to throw and wasn’t close enough to hit me. “I woke up back home,
about a year or so ago. The boys had snuck out and found some eggs. Like, huge,
Japanese atomic, monster-sized eggs. The shadow monster from Skrev showed up,
so I scared it off and threatened the boys to within an inch of their lives if
they ever snuck out again.”

“They sneak out at night?” she asked, looking sick to
her stomach. She was blaming herself.

I shrugged. “Kids do that.” There was no way I could
let her think it was her fault. Sammy used to be afraid of the dark, but he was
fine with it when Ron was with him. “I highly doubt either of them do it
anymore.”

“I am more concerned with this apple,” Regivus said.

“An apple that sends you back in time? I was a little
unsure myself. A mirror, sure, a door, no problem… but I have never heard of
fruit being a portal before,” I agreed.

Azenoth rolled his eyes. “It is Vretial’s magic.
Vretail always did weird and obscene things like that.”

It was a testament to my humanity that I immediately
scoured my brain for ideas of what weird and obscene things the god would have
done. Maybe I could learn something.

“He gave me enchanted socks when I took a mortal
body,” Divina said. “They were forever warm.”

“That was nice of him.”

“I am a god; I do not need enchanted socks.”

“But I bet you liked them,” I said. She blushed. “If
Vretial sent me the apple, why? To save the kids? Why not do it himself?”

“Maybe it was a trick. An illusion of something that
never really happened to gain your trust,” Enki suggested.

“The dark god, your oldest and most powerful brother,
uses simple illusion magic to win the trust of a mortal? I would hope he could
come up with something a bit more frightful than a snowy forest and a monster I
have already faced and defeated.”

“More frightening than your sons being endangered?”
Azenoth asked.

I frowned. “Can Iadnah understand the fear of losing
a son?” I asked. “I would think the death of a loved one is a fear only mortals
would understand.”

Azenoth scoffed and Regivus glared at him. “Death is
a god only mortals fear, that is true,” Regivus said. “The Iadnah are a race,
like people and dragons. We are ageless, immortal, and have infinite power, but
we also have desires and aspirations. We were never children, but we had
parents. And had we not faced war, we each would have been parents.”

“So I have seen. But can you love your children? My
wife excluded, of course,” I said, regarding her. “I know
you
can love.”
I looked at the rest of them. “The rest of you do not have mortal bodies. You
have never lived on the worlds, experienced the joys and hells of life. Can you
love your children? Are you capable of it?”

Several of the gods scowled. “I do not know. None of
us but our sister has ever had cause to love,” Avoli said. “Nevertheless, I
have no doubt that Vretial understood what a father would do for his child.”

“And why would he work so hard to win a mortal’s
trust?” I asked.

“You defeated him once. If he has indeed returned,
which I am not convinced of, I believe he would want revenge. That would
definitely put you at the top of his list. Besides, there are no mortals in
this room,” Regivus said.

“It may have been his kind of magic and maybe it was
not just an illusion, but I am not convinced he would drop an apple on your
head. Vretial is more likely to appear and tell you himself,” Zer said.

Divina was shaking her head before he could finish
speaking. “If he has not faced us yet, he is trying to be discreet. Going to
Dylan would put him in the spotlight faster than anything,” Divina said.

It was my turn to disagree. “Anything except going to
Ron and Sammy. Anyway, when I woke up again in the forest, Rilryn was attacked
by a griffin, which completely ignored me.”

“Griffins are extinct,” Divina said. I gave her a
look. “Except for the two that attacked a few years ago. But they should have
disappeared back to their time when you defeated the demon,” she argued.

“Maybe they did. Maybe this is their time. I healed
Rilryn, but was unable to bring him back and Kiro’s place was attacked, so I
didn’t have time to figure it out.”

“Was that why you refused me when I called on you?”

Divina frowned and I shivered. He could have phrased
it better, but dirty thoughts probably never occurred to the god. “Yes. The
griffins had attacked Shiloh, Samorde, and Azyle. They ignored Mordon and
Ghidorah, and Kiro was protecting the boys inside. Mordon said I was gone for
two days, but from my perspective, it was only a few hours. Then the griffin
reappeared with Nano, who said that Vretial attacked and the griffin saved
him.”

“Did Vretial get Nano’s book?” Zer asked, looking
ill.

“He didn’t say so. I don’t think it was Vretial who
attacked. I think it was something else. I think what attacked me, Shiloh, and
Kiro was something else. It wasn’t angry. It wanted something with an
incredible determination.”

“Vretial wanted to take the worlds,” Mreje said.

I once again had to stop to consider my words. If I
were alone with Mordon and Divina, I would have openly disagreed, but the gods
were ancient and had a certain way of thinking. Anything I said otherwise would
be offensive to all but Divina.

Divina shook her head slightly, warning me to keep my
mouth shut. I nodded. They knew the god better than I, so I would take their
word for it.

“Vretial was not very determined about anything
until…” Avoli said. “Until he took my world he was just odd. He never went
after anything that was not easy to obtain.”

“He was always suspicious,” Azenoth sneered.

“I hate to interrupt, but that is not the matter at
hand,” I said.

“How is Vretial’s behavior not the matter at hand?”
Enki asked.

“It looks like the Guardians are actually being
targeted,” Divina said.

I shrugged. “Yeah, that is really important. But I
was actually more worried about Mordon,” I said. They all stared at me like I
lost my mind. “I am not saying that’s all I’m worried about. It will just make
it much easier to save the other Guardians if Mordon could breathe.”

“You said it was like an allergic reaction. Is Mordon
better when he is away from Ghidorah?” Divina asked. I nodded. “Then take him
with you to find the other Noquodi and I will see about what might cause him to
react that way.”

I nodded my agreement before opening my eyes back at
the cabin. Ron watched me with worry. Edward had his arms wrapped around Meri
on the porch and she looked a little shaken. Mordon hopped off the porch to
land next to me and pulled me to my feet. There were too many people here.

“Ready to go?” Mordon asked.
“Rojan is getting
very irritated with all these old Guardians around. If Edward and Ghidorah
growl at each other one more time, Rojan might eat them both. And Ghidorah
keeps sniffing around Meri like she’s a rare steak. Rojan actually suggested we
call his sister out here to sort them out, but he’s afraid she’ll figure out we
can’t shift.”

“You should definitely not eat Ghidorah if you’re
allergic to him,”
I cautioned.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to go
on missions with me anymore. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here?”
Since nobody else could hear us, it must have been very confusing when he
punched me in my arm. I needed nicer friends.