God of the Abyss (26 page)

Edward left the room and returned a minute later with
two small boxes. He sat on the floor next to us and set the boxes down before
opening the first. The box was lined with red felt and there was six-inch
crystal ball wrapped in a soft green cloth. “This is a regular ball.” He opened
the other box to reveal a crystal semi-ball in a bed of black silk. It was
round except for one flat side. “This one is meant to sit on a flat surface.”

“That one is perfect,” Ron said. “Set it on top of
the map.” He got up and set the card on the table. We all stood and Edward
placed the odd crystal ball on the card. “Both of you fill the crystal with
your natural energy.”

I held my hand over the ball and poured Iadnah energy
into it. The ball glowed deep green. Mordon held his hand over it and the green
glow started to move and flicker across the surface like fire. After a moment
of acting as a light show, the energy suddenly formed into a three-dimensional
figure of bright spots surrounding a dark center.

“Okay, completely
not
understanding this,” I
said.

“It’s a star map,” Edward said. “Each of the gods’
worlds is the only one in its solar system with life. The spots are scattered
precisely. They are stars around the solar system of one of the worlds.”

“Which world?” I asked.

“I don’t know the star maps of every world,” he said
as if I were nuts. “All I know is that it isn’t Duran. We need to ask the
others if they recognize it.”

“Have them come in one at a time. We don’t want their
magic interfering with the signal,” Sammy said.

Edward left and returned with Azyle. After a moment
of examining the sphere from different angles, he shook his head. “It is not
Mulo.” He left and Edward brought in Nano, Shiloh, and Ghidorah. Mordon
breathed a sigh of relief when Ghidorah said it was not Skrev. Then Edward
brought Emrys in.

“That is Malta’s sky.”

“You’re sure?” I asked.

“Definitely.” He pointed at a small cluster of stars.
“That cluster is unique. From Malta, it looks like a magic symbol. Magic is our
life on Malta; we know our magic symbols.”

“Now we know what world. What do we do about place
and time?”

“You need to narrow your focus,” Sammy said. “Focus
on the world. The look, the feel, the sound, the smell… What does its magic
feel like? You both have to concentrate, but look at the map while you do.”

Mordon and I stood across from each other and
remembered everything we could about the world. I thought of the water tribe;
about the smell of the ice, the cold, and Emrys’s daughter. I thought about the
land tribe; about the stars and the swamp. I remembered the choking heat of the
cave in the fire tribe as well as the white walls and painted glass of the mend
and ken tribes.

The glowing spots in the crystal ball started
swirling and blending until they formed a place. It was outside, but the ground
was solid stone and there were stone columns in rows until they broke formation
to form a circle around a huge statue. The sculpture was of a woman with her
hands outstretched as if she were handing something off. A robe was just barely
covering her figure, but her face was done in strong detail, which made me
assume the statue wasn’t a symbol of women but a specific person.

“Air temple. The air tribe has many temples, and each
has a different monument. It is outside and only the air tribe has shrines
outside,” Emrys said. “Furthermore, I recognize that one. Amkahe. According to
the monks, Madus told her the night before her son was born that he was meant
for a higher life and that she had to give him up. She refused, no matter how
much the people demanded it. The baby was born and all people lost their magic.
Without magic there was no fire, no rain, no plants growing, no wind, no
healing… everything just stopped. For five days the whole world was silent.
People died. On sixth day, she came to this spot on the mountain and gave up
her baby. Magic was returned to the land and she killed herself. The last
person who spoke to her said that she didn’t do it for the loss of her child
but for the death of those who died because of her refusal. They built this
shrine for those who have lost to grieve in peace.”

“A lot of stories like that on Earth are myth. Is
that one real?” I asked.

“I think all myths are based on something true. In
this case, it was all true.”

“Why would Madus want her child?”

“Because none of the Guardians except for you were
allowed to grow up with their parents,” he said. Now everyone looked at him as
he studied the statue in the little sphere. “That was my mother. She gave me up
to be raised by the monks on an island that was never found again. By the time
I was old enough to be returned, the shrine was already there.”

“Dad, you’re starting to lose the connection,” Sammy
warned. He was right; the shape was fading. “You need to find the time now. The
exact time and date that this map is indicating. Think of the item you are
looking for.”

“A dagger,” I said.

“That’s it? What does it look like?” Edward asked.

“We didn’t ask. He just said a dagger was the first
thing we were getting.”

“He said air dagger,” Mordon corrected. 

Edward rolled his eyes. “Dylan, sometimes I wonder if
I ever taught you anything,” he groused, walking around the table to rummage
through his scattered cards. “This is what you are looking for.” He held up a
card with the image of a small dagger. The handle of the dagger was yellow with
symbols written on it.

“Focus on the object. It will appear in the crystal
ball and you will get a weird feeling. You didn’t explain it very much. Focus
on the weird feeling and that’s the time you need to go to,” Sammy said.

“A weird feeling?” Mordon asked.

“Sammy can see the future and past, but he is not a
time traveler,” Ron explained. “Vretial said that with Iadnah magic, we can
bend time, but we have to
feel
it. We have to feel time.”

“How often does Vretial talk to you?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Once a month or so in the last year.
He’s a bit silly and sometimes it’s hard to understand what he’s telling me.”

“You know that the gods think he’s the bad guy?”

“Daddy, you taught us to make up our own minds.
Didn’t the gods think you were dangerous when you were born? You talk about
him, but you never said he was bad. He never tried to hurt either of us. He
doesn’t act like a bad man,” Ron said.

“What does a bad man act like?” I asked, getting a
look from Mordon. “What?”

“Vretial asked you that question when you told him he
didn’t act like a bad man.”

“What does that matter?” Edward asked.

“Everything matters,” I said. “Mordon is right. He
was always so hung up on me not fearing him. Then he asked me that. He said
that he hadn’t changed, but he had. He was psychotic when I met him.”

“Before he took a mortal form,” Mordon said.

“He did what?!” Emrys asked.

Mordon had caught Edward and Divina up on everything
that had happened while I was recovering, but the other Guardians were in the
dark.

“You probably shouldn’t hear this,” Edward said,
guiding Emrys out. “Plausible deniability.” He closed the door behind the
eccentric Guardian. “Too many people. Too much power swirling around, sucking
up the energy.”

“Eddy, are you sad that they are messing up your feng
shui?” Sammy asked. My son was a brat sometimes… just like me. 

Ron elbowed him in the stomach. “You’re being rude.
He doesn’t like being called Eddy. Concentrate, Daddy,” Ron reminded. The image
in the globe had mostly faded because we were distracted, but we quickly
regained the shape.

Getting back to work, Mordon and I focused on the
dagger. Within a few minutes, the energy reformed until the statue held the
small dagger in one of her hands. Something shaped in my mind. It was a feeling
very close to urgency, like I had a very important appointment and I was afraid
I would be late. However, that feeling quickly faded and I felt something much
deeper, something I really couldn’t explain.

I pulled the glass apple out of my bag and set it on
the table. “Edward, will you get the scabbard for the katana?” I asked. I
didn’t think I should leave the table in case the globe faded again.

Edward went downstairs and Mordon grabbed my sword
off the kitchen counter. When Edward returned with the scabbard fitted into a
harness and belt, it was Mordon who took it and strapped it to himself before
sheathing the sword. Obviously, it would be good to have if we were attacked by
fish people… or bird people… but I was very unlikely to use it. Between my luck
improving over the years and lessons from Edward and Mordon, I could trust
myself not to get skewered on my own blade, but I still hated using it.

“I have no idea how this is going to work, so if
anything freaky happens, it is okay to panic.” I held the glass apple out for
Mordon. “I don’t know how to use our new apple time-portal, so you think real
hard about the place, and I’ll focus on the time.”

“What if it splits us up?” he asked, putting his hand
on the apple hesitantly.

“We can deal with it. I can flash to you or get
Divina if we end up in different times. I get the feeling we’ll only have one
shot at this. If we manage to be there at the right time, we
have got
to
get the dagger, because we can’t go back to the same time and place.”

“Alright, so if there’s a monster trying to attack us
like last time, you focus on the dagger while I fight the monster off. If it’s
a flying creature, you need to put up a shield.”

“And if it’s people, you can eat them while I focus
on the dagger,” I suggested.

He sighed. “Or we can see if they are peaceful
first.”

I gave him my best “why?” look before we both gave
our attention to the apple. I concentrated on the feeling hard enough I almost
didn’t realize the apple was getting warm. It was not surprising when images
and smells of the air tribe appeared in my mind.

“Stop thinking so loud,” I said.

“Get out of my head,” he grouched. We were just
picking on each other, because I knew he was getting some of my thoughts, too.

It was amazing, really, how compatible our minds
were, that we could actually talk to each other in our heads without using
magic. With no one else could I
share
my magic. Sure, I could use my
magic on someone, but Mordon could use my magic and I could use his. That
wasn’t normal and I couldn’t do it with anyone else; not even Divina. Plus, I
knew that we had still not discovered everything we could do.

“No, don’t start wandering. We are working.”

Right. Work. Think of time.
I renewed my
concentration, closed my eyes, and knew the moment I lost contact with Duran.
While I still felt the gravity of the world, the energy and sense of home
disappeared. The feeling I fixated on felt like it was changing, but it was too
foreign to understand. When it stopped shifting, the world seemed to tilt.
Coupled with a sudden increase in gravity, I couldn’t keep my feet under me.

I opened my eyes and twisted in order to save the
glass apple from shattering. Mordon grunted as he hit the ground beside me. We
were outside, surrounded by rock columns. The ground we stood on was solid
stone with huge, circular symbols carved into it like ritual etchings. The sun
was setting and the sky was clear. Off to one side of the temple was a sheer
drop, but in front of us was the statue of the woman.

“There is no one very close. I feel no threat in the
air, not even a basic trap. I guess nobody knew we were coming,” Mordon said.

“I also don’t see a dagger,” I said. As soon as the
last word was out of my mouth, a small double-edged dagger appeared in statue’s
hand. I quickly grabbed the object in case it vanished.

“Now what?” he asked as I examined the artifact.

It was about ten inches long with a six-inch blade.
The short hand guard, approximately three inches across, made it look a little
like a cross. Across the yellow handle and guard were magic sigils and Hebrew
words written in red paint. At the end of the handle was a small metal piece,
which looked like the head of the pawn in a chess set.

I felt nothing special over the dagger; no great
power running through it, nothing worth risking our lives over. I worried for a
moment if this was the wrong dagger, but I trusted my father so I slipped it
into my bag.

I shrugged. “We go home, I guess.” I held out the
apple and he reached to touch it before pausing. He frowned and sniffed the
air.

“I hear screaming and I smell blood and fear.”

“Sounds like something we should definitely be a part
of. Lead the way, Barry der Menschenretter.”

“What?” he asked.

I gave him my best eye roll and shook my head. “No
classical education.” He returned my eye roll and walked around the statue. I
put the apple in my bag and frowned at the unsightly lump.

Whereas one side of the temple was a cliff drop, the
other side merged into a stone garden. The ground was covered in small stones
that served for sand and moss instead of grass. Small waves and circles
patterned the pebble-sand. Across from the garden was a rock wall with a bamboo
gate. The only pathway into the gate was a narrow strip of closely placed, flat
stones. At this point, I could hear screaming.

With my mortal magic badly weakened on Malta, I
should have hesitated. However, I was a Guardian; it was in my blood to help
people. My Iadnah energy held strong and I would do what I could with what I
had. 

Beyond the bamboo gates was a little village. Though
it was most likely normally a clean, peaceful village with a fish pond and
children playing, it was currently going up in flames. People were running
around screaming, trying to get inside while it rained burning stones from the
sky. The small palace built into the side of the mountain was partially
collapsed, and the pond was glowing with eerie orange water.