God of the Abyss (30 page)

“Sick? Why do you think I’m sick?”

“I can smell your illness.”

“In person form? You are so powerful. Is that why you
came back for me?” she asked, giving me her sweetest smile. Despite the fact
that Rojan and I both knew she was deceitful, she gave off a “protect me” aura.

“How long?” I repeated.

She shrugged. “A day maybe. I have been unable to eat
anything today.”

“Where are your guards?”

“Most of them were poisoned and died. The ones who
lived left,” she said. “Only ten of my people are still here on the island.”

“If you were poisoned with whatever killed the
others, how are you still alive?” Dylan asked. He grabbed my arm and pulled me
away from her. Although it was for my protection, Rojan didn’t like it.

Emiko’s emotions were in turmoil, but as much as she
tried to hide it, I could smell that she felt abandoned. She was threatened and
everyone who was supposed to protect her ran. That didn’t sit well with Rojan
or me.

“I guess I am stronger than the others,” she said.

“If you let me near your girlfriend, I can heal her,”
Dylan said.

“Do it.”

Dylan smirked and held out his hand to Emiko. “Come
on, little lady, let’s get you into bed.” She didn’t hesitate to jump out of
the chair and take his hand. I really tried not to growl as she led us to her
bedroom. It would have helped had the room been a little less suggestive.

She obviously liked softness. The room was dark and
the walls were painted dark blue, and everything about it screamed sensual. The
floor was a soft wood that you could fall to from a decent height and not be
hurt. Dominating the room was a large bed, big enough for at least four people
and covered with thick, dark red satin and cotton blankets and more pillows
than any bed needed. The bedposts were tall and metal, the kind meant for tying
people to them. There was a foot chest, a wardrobe, and two bedside tables, all
made of dark wood with elegant, decorative etchings. A silk folding screen just
about my height, gold with trees full of pink and red flowers, was against the
wall opposite the door. In front of the screen was a large, elegant, white tub
on four gold legs. Beside the door, across from the bed, was a large fireplace,
which I lit with little thought. On the nightstands were candles, which I also
lit with magic.

Be careful about using your dragon fire in front
of dragons,
Rojan warned.

She would assume it is wizard magic. After all, my
father is a wizard.
Whether I was trying to convince him or myself, I
didn’t know… which was awkward because Rojan and I were essentially the same
being… Nevertheless, I really had no idea what Emiko thought. She believed I
was a dragon, but knew my father was sago. Since dragons and people were
absolutely incompatible as far as breeding goes, she was likely very confused.

Emiko reclined on the bed and Dylan sat next to her.
He put one hand on her stomach and the other on her forehead. I sensed his
magic, but while I knew my friend wouldn’t hurt her, Rojan didn’t like it.
Rojan seemed to be upset because she was in such a dangerous situation to begin
with.

After a moment, my friend looked at me. “She’s
fighting it. I don’t know for sure she would have died from the poison. I’m
going to give her a little more strength to fight it off herself. That way if
she is poisoned again, she has a better chance of overcoming it on her own.”

“She will not be poisoned again,” Rojan growled,
taking control of my mouth.

Dylan got back to work and I felt her discomfort as
her body fought the poison. I expected her to whine and moan, but she didn’t
open her mouth at all. It was interesting that she could be so petulant when
she was safe, yet so dignified at this time.

“I’m going to make her sleep. It’s better for
her,”
Dylan said. I nodded. As Dylan worked, I sensed her breathing even
out. Finally, Dylan sat back. “She’ll be fine now.”

Dylan stood up and I took his place next to her. A
deep inhale made my nose burn and started another series of sneezes, but Emiko
smelled healthy again. If the poison was still on her, that would explain my
reaction, but that would also mean the poison didn’t have a scent. I couldn’t
smell anything particularly wrong on her.

“Dylan, you should go back and get the pantacle. I
need to stay and help Emiko,” I said.

Dylan sighed and pulled out the crystal ball and map.
“I figured. You have to help me find out where it is. I’ll return to the house
and ask Edward to go with me. When you get done here, head home by ship.”

He set the map on the foot chest and put the crystal
ball on top of it. When we both poured our magic into it, a star map formed.
“How are we supposed to know what world that is supposed to be of?” I asked.

“We guess… but we take an educated guess. You were
right; there is a pattern. The air dagger was in the air tribe, the water cup
was in the water city, and the fire wand was in the dragon kingdom. That means
the pantacle is associated with earth or ground. If I’m not way off, we are
either looking at Earth’s sky, which is unlikely, or one of the underground
worlds.”

“Can you tell if it’s Earth?”

He scrutinized it real hard. “Astronomy was never one
of my interests. In a magazine, I can pick out the big dipper or something, but
I lived in Houston. Stars are hard to see in large cities. If we focus on one
world and nothing happens, then we can focus on another. Really, I don’t think
it’s Earth; I think it’ll be an underground world.”

“Like Dios?”

“Enep and Dios are underground worlds because the
people destroyed the surface. I think Mulo is the only world that was
originally not habitable to people.”

“That should be easy to focus on; just remember the
blizzard.”

“Actually, all I remember is pain until we woke in
the cabin. I can remember the feel of Mulo’s energy.”

“I’ll just concentrate on the miserable blizzard,” I
said. We did concentrate, but after about five minutes, it was obvious that
nothing was happening. “Either our memories aren’t strong enough, or we made
the wrong guess. Let’s go on, and if nothing happens, we can try again. Enep or
Dios?”

Dylan frowned. “I’ve only been to Enep for like a
minute, and you weren’t there. Let’s try Dios.”

I recalled Nila’s underground kingdom, the dark
tunnels, and the synthetic forest that Nano lived it. The gravity was similar
to Duran, but everything smelled like dirt and everything smelled sun-starved…
even the people.

The energy in the sphere reformed to a new room,
which we both recognized as an old study in Nila’s kingdom. Neither of us broke
our concentration as Dylan pulled the card Edward had given him out of his bag.
It was a small, white, circular plaque with a painted hexagram. After a moment
of thinking about the room and the pantacle, the pantacle appeared in the
crystal ball on a bookcase and the sense of time came to me.

That is a few years in the past.

Dylan slipped everything in his bag. “I think the
apple should work with Edward. He knows Dios well and can concentrate. Keep the
sword in case you need it. I can’t risk flashing back here and running into
myself. If you get sick, come home as soon as possible, no matter what. Don’t
try to finish anything off, just get home so I can heal you.”

“Of course. I’ll come back as soon as I take care of
this situation.”

“Maybe I should stay.”

“It could take days for me to find out who has been
poisoning these people and stop it. You need to get the artifacts and close the
gates. If I could get away with coming with you and solving this poison problem
afterwards, I would, but the longer I wait, the more people that could die.”

“It’s alright, Edward can help me. Should I send one
of the other Guardians to help you?” he asked.

I shook my head because I didn’t know any of the
Guardians enough to trust them except for Dylan and Edward. “Are you kidding?
Next to you, who else in this world could protect me if I really needed it?”

He nodded and said, “Rojan. I get it. You know, from
Sammy and Ron’s point of view, you vanished from existence for fifteen hours.”
He sighed. “Do you really like this girl?” he asked.

I looked at him. “I don’t even know her. I can smell
that she’s malicious, selfish, and cruel. She is extremely irritating and she
tried to stab me.”

“Yeah, but she’s pretty and seems to need a man to
protect her. I knew you wouldn’t go for someone like Divina, I just didn’t
think you wanted a pretty brat who needed a good spanking,” he said. I opened
my mouth to argue, but I really didn’t know what to say to that. “I’m looking
forward to meeting her outside your dreams when she isn’t ill. Just don’t be
upset if she is a little more capable than she looks.”

“Capable?”

“She’s small and harmless looking, but she has made
it as a queen of dragons. She might be spoiled and selfish, but I doubt she’s
weak. Maybe you should see what she can do in dragon form. Right now, though,
ask Rojan for the time at home.”

Before he even finished, that familiar, weird feeling
came to mind. My friend may have started to understand it, but it was alien to
me. I knew he felt the time that Rojan gave me when he pulled out the apple and
closed his eyes. There was no bright light, nor did he instantly vanish.
Instead, Dylan faded.

That was disturbing.

I turned back to see Emiko waking up. Even though
Dylan was worlds… and hours… away, I thought his magic over the young queen
would last longer than that. As she rolled onto her side, I tried to scent her
lightly and got only a small irritation instead of another sneezing attack. The
poison was still on her, even if she wasn’t dying from it.

A heavy lock of curled hair fell across her face,
accenting the color of her skin. After a moment, I reached out and brushed it
aside. It was like waves of thick silk. Her eyes opened and immediately focused
on me, then she smiled and I knew nothing but evil would come from her
sweet-looking lips.

“I knew you would come back for me.”

“Before or after you tried to stab me?”

“You forced your way into my palace and took my pet.
You yelled at me and smacked me. I had to
try
. It does puzzle me,
though… I can smell that you are a dragon, but I also smell sago on you, and
you called my pet your father. As far as I know, sago are not compatible with
us. So what are you exactly?”

Wouldn’t I like to know…?
Funny, that was
the one question I never could really figure out. “I am Mordon.”

“Are you related to Rojan of Kaled.”

“Seventh orient child of the Kaled,” Rojan growled
before I could stop him. It was rare to feel such a high level of pride from
him unless he was talking about his children, so it came as a surprise to me.

You just gave it away. Now any wizard magic we do
would be suspicious.

She was already questioning whether we are dragon
or sago. Whatever we are called, I am a Kaled and that is something to be proud
of. You can renounce your throne, but you cannot renounce your blood.

She sat up. “So you are related. You look like the
paintings I’ve seen of him and you seem far too powerful for your age.”

“You’re one to talk. How old are you?” I asked.

“Twenty-two,” she lied. I growled and she blushed
before shrugging. “I will be twenty in three months.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest, which made her
loose dress ride up to her hips and I got a look at her light blue panties. My
fire flared and I exhaled smoke through my nose.

She’s underage
, I reminded myself. “Do you
have any idea who is behind this poison?” I asked.

“So far, I believe what is affecting us is a plant
that is only a poison to dragons. Also, I can smell poison even in person form,
but this I cannot detect. The dragons who were not instantly dead when exposed
seem to become confused and dizzy. One of my guards ingested a single
contaminated bite and immediately threw it up. He lived for about an hour
before he died, but he was in more pain than I ever saw anyone suffer through.
He had no idea where he was or why he was dying.”

“In the desert, Verusta, there is a large clutch. Way
too large, really. They said they had found an alien plant dust that
disorientates dragons. They got a wizard to harness it to hide from other
dragons and exposed themselves to it enough to become immune to it. I don’t
know that there is a correlation, but I couldn’t smell it.” At least not until
Dylan gave me some of his magic.

“Alien plant dust?”

“The remains of a plant from another world, I
believe.”

“How did it get here?” she asked. There was a
thoughtful look in her eyes as she seemed to forget to act cute and pouty.
Surely she wasn’t beautiful
and
smart.

“I don’t know. It could have gotten imported by
accident from a traveler.”

“You mean a person who travels to another world?”
Emiko asked, shocked.

I never told people about the things Dylan and I get
up to, and certainly not about other worlds. While several worlds were open and
friendly to visitors, Duran and Earth were not. Humans didn’t believe in other
people and while sago knew we were not alone, we wanted to be
left
alone. As far as sago knew, only the gods and those chosen by the gods could
travel worlds.

“A plant isn’t going to fly up into the atmosphere,
travel through space, and land here.”

“Maybe it’s a space plant,” she said. I gaped at her
until she started laughing.

The room seemed warmer suddenly. It must have been
the fireplace.

“I have never heard of anything inherently poisonous
to only one species.” It made me wonder what would happen if I were exposed. If
it was the same plant that the dragons in the desert used, then we could become
immune to it, at least in small doses. The fact that it did affect me meant it
was unlikely that I could withstand the real poison.