God of the Abyss (4 page)

“Unless this meeting is about you guys suspecting a
Guardian of treason, as is usually the first reaction you all have. Then if she
gives me information, I’m the first one suspected of being a spy when someone
knows something they shouldn’t.”

Regivus looked at Divina, who had a resigned frown.
“Is he normally that quick?”

“When it comes to people and Iadnah, yes.”

“I am confused,” Samorde said. Regivus snapped his
fingers, there was a crack in the air, and Samorde vanished.

It was our last peaceful night for a while. I wanted
to take a bite of adventure and had no idea that it would bite back.

*          *          *

Divina woke me sometime in the night to tell me she
had to go. We shared a slow, lazy kiss and she told me to go back to sleep. She
always woke me so gently. The second time I was awoken, it was as the window
shades were thrown open. Sunlight jarred me from my slumber and before I could
even open my eyes, a sock was thrown at my face.

“Wake up, lazy, or I’m going to feed the boys
chocolate and lock them in here with you,” Mordon threatened. I threw a
fireball at the general direction of his voice. “That’s it, I’m getting the
kids.”

“No! I’m up! No chocolate!” I got up and found them a
few minutes later in the kitchen. Sammy and Ron turned their twin pouts on me
as they ate vegetables for breakfast. “What did you do?” I asked them.

Sammy sniffled. “It was an accident.” The boy could
pull off a pout like a pro. His hair was dark, intense auburn that always had a
shine to it and contrasted beautifully with his vibrant purple eyes. They
weren’t the violet-blue that sometimes occurred in humans; they were purple
enough to stop people in their tracks and make them stare. When he was sad or
ashamed, they darkened.

Ron was small for his age. He had the same dark brown
hair and green eyes as me, but it was too early to tell if he would get big or
inherit his mother’s slimness. While he rarely cried, his weepy expression was
intense and heartbreaking.

“They got into your coffee this morning and spilled
it everywhere,” Mordon said. “You were asleep so I had to clean it up. I can’t
believe you still drink that nasty stuff.”

“We were trying to get a bowl for fruit and the
coffee fell.”

“And instead of cleaning it, I found them sitting on
the floor eating fruit.”

I frowned at the cabinets; the treasures inside them
were usually locked with magic. Having ‘biracial’ children caused some
disagreements about what kind of food to keep in the house. Honestly, grilled
meat with seasonings, fruit, and bread got old, but the cheap junk I ate on
Earth was not good enough for my kids.

“Well, you did a good job of cleaning it up. The next
time they make a mess, they will think twice about not cleaning it,” I said.

I reached into the ice box to grab a sack of fruit
for my own breakfast. The berries tasted like nectarines but were the size of
grapes. Mordon turned away to wash a couple of dishes and both boys looked at
me. I tossed a fruit to each of them and they popped them in their mouths. Two
more fruits each and I shook my head that more was too risky. I pulled the
strips of sweetened jerky out of the cabinet and Mordon frowned at me. He could
smell my deceit, but he wouldn’t call me on it in front of the kids. I tossed
him one of the fruits.

I sat down at the table and plopped my feet on the
only open chair. “What’s the plan, then?” I asked, eating the jerky. My boys
pouted harder. Sammy hated meat, but he hated vegetables even more. Mordon came
around the table and took half of my loot before yanking the chair out from under
my feet and sitting down.

“You’re teaching the boys bad habits. We’re going to
Verusta, Mokii.”

I paused. Mordon hated going anywhere near his
homeland for fear of facing his father. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of
Verusta.”

“I’m not surprised. It’s a desert.”

“Okay. I don’t think deserts make great vacation
spots. Any particular reason we’re going to a barren wasteland?”

“Yes. We’re going dragon hunting,” he said. Seeing as
how he was part dragon, this came as a shock to me. However, Mordon and I liked
to trip each other up; we pretty much made a sport of it. He rolled his eyes
when I didn’t speak. The boys gaped at him like he lost his mind.

“Mom, you are a dragon,” Sammy said, as if he were
telling the man a horrible secret that Mordon should have already known. It was
a phrase that should have followed, “I hate to break it to you, but…”

“A dragon has been sited bothering nearby kingdoms,
including my father’s.”

“So you want to go take care of a pest problem?” I
asked. He gave a blank stare. “I didn’t think so, but it’s early in the morning
and you just woke me up. Give me the whole picture.”

“The dragon sited can blend in with anything- it can
change the color of its scales,” he said.

I got it. “Like Rojan. Does Rojan have any long lost
family?”

“Apparently, his mother may or may not still be
alive. There are people hunting this dragon to kill it, and we need to go and
help.”

“Even more so because this particular dragon may be
your dragon’s mother. I remember you telling me she was cruel.”

“Well, she was, but that was about three thousand
years ago. Maybe she changed. And either way, no matter who that dragon is,
whether they are related to Rojan or not, we need to save them.”

“I guess the faster we get going, the better. You
pack some bags while I go tell Edward what’s happening,” I said. He nodded and
I flashed to Edward’s cabin. This had been my home for three great years and I
missed it sometimes.

I always flashed to the porch because I didn’t want
to interrupt anything. Unfortunately, I discovered he didn’t always keep
everything behind closed doors. If Edward were my biological father instead of
uncle, I probably would have been much more disturbed to see him making out
with a woman. The woman in question was startled by the flash.

Edward didn’t appear to be bothered by the
interruption. “This is my son, Dylan,” he told her. “Dylan, this is Meri.”

Meri closely resembled Divina, with long black hair
and porcelain skin. However, her eyes were green instead of Divina’s blue and
she looked a bit more delicate. She also lacked the mischievous glint in her
eye that Divina had. Whereas Divina appeared to be in her middle twenties, Meri
seemed to be in her late twenties to early thirties. Of course, I knew that
people of this world were very rarely the age they looked.

Sago were friendly with magic, unlike humans, but
their suspicions of other-worlders were inherent. Once, religion and politics
were equally weighed, and now even with religion diminished, fear of the gods
remained in their hearts. To their knowledge, only the gods and their chosen
“demons” could travel the worlds or flash. However, Shomodii was a very rural
place and among my family I grew lenient with my power. I expected Meri to
freak out.

She reached out her hand on reflex and I shook it. My
magic reacted to her touch with a slight static spark. “Not from around here,
are you?” I asked. It took a few seconds to recall where I felt that magical
signature before. “Kahún, yes?”

“Yes. Kiro has told me a lot about you,” she said in
perfect Sudo.

Funny… he never mentioned her
. “How long have
you two been seeing each other?”

“We met a few years ago, but I just found her again a
couple of months back,” Edward answered. “Did you need something?” he asked.

“No, I just wanted to let you know the house will be
empty for a few days. Divina went to talk to her brothers and said she’ll be
gone for a while. Mordon and Rojan want me to help them track down what may or
may not be Rojan’s psycho mother and we’re taking the boys.”

“Are you sure the boys should–”

“Mordon and I can take care of it, and if we get into
trouble, I can call some of Divina’s brothers to help, or you or another
Guardian if you are…” I glanced at Meri. “Busy.”

“If you need help, call me. If one of the boys needs
help, call everyone and anyone,” he said. “Now, make sure you close the house
up and put up the ward. There’s a storm coming.”

I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. My uncle
wanted nothing more than to protect me, and I refused to give him any cause to
doubt his parenting skills when he was the only parent figure I had. “There’s
always a storm coming,” I said instead.

“Welcome to Shomodii.”

After saying goodbye, I flashed back home. Mordon was
holding Ron in his arms as the child struggled. Sammy was chasing after
Shinobu, who had his stuffed dragon. The bookshelf, marred with char marks, had
been knocked over. Sammy shot a fireball at Shinobu, but Mordon killed the fire
before it could reach the small creature.

“What’s going on here?!” I asked. Everyone froze,
even Shinobu. Ron’s eyes were watery, but no tears fell yet.

“She took my dragon,” Ron said.

This was the second time he spoke and I was ecstatic
that he was making an effort.

Shiloh gave the stuffed toy to Sammy when he was a
baby, and Sammy gave it to Ron when my son was born. Sammy was never a selfish
child when it came to the youngest member of our family; he shared everything
from his toys to his food. He even wanted to give Ron his clothes when they
were too small for him.

“Shinobu! Drop it.” She did instantly, but Sammy
didn’t make a grab for it. “Sammy, why did she take the dragon?”

“I don’t know. Ron and I were playing with it and she
ran up and took it.”

“I was packing so I didn’t see anything,” Mordon
said. “I think she wanted the toy for herself. It’s not like she has any toys.”
He let Ron go, who immediately ran to get his dragon.

Sammy grabbed his arm to hold him back. “Wait for Dad
to say it’s okay.”

Wow, talk about support.
I loved my kids so
much.

I reached out with my magic to take the dragon. As it
moved away, Shinobu pounced to pin it, claws extended. Her tail swished.
Something was activating her hunting instinct. She hunted her own food outside,
but was always calm inside and normally didn’t want to play with toys. I went
to open the door and she ran outside, leaving the dragon behind. “Go ahead,” I
said.

Sammy used his magic to pull the dragon towards them
and Ron snatched it out of the air. Mordon muttered something about the plan,
but I ignored him. Mordon and Vivian came up with a plan when Sammy was a baby
that was basically to keep the monster occupied until I arrived. Shinobu was no
monster.

“Maybe Shinobu should be an outside pet,” I said. I
hated to suggest it; she had saved my life at least twice and was a loyal and
protective pet. She was smarter than any dog I knew, cuter than a kitten, and
more friendly than some friends I used to have.

“No, Daddy. Shinobu is an inside kitty,” Sammy
declared. Shinobu wasn’t a cat, of course, but he always called her one.

“We need to get going if we’re going by ship,” Mordon
said. “Do you think we can flash there?”

“Ron hates traveling that way. I can only flash to a
place if I can see it or if I’m flashing to a person I know, though I should be
able to flash to somewhere I have seen in a picture. However, the better I can
imagine the person or place, the more accurate I will be. Sounds and scents help
a lot. Still, even then it’s not a good idea to flash somewhere where there
could be people.”

We grabbed the bags, locked down the cabin, and
headed out. One bag was full of fruit, bread, and other snacks, because there
was nothing worse than a hungry little boy on a road trip. I was carrying Ron
by the time we made it to the docks. He was a little trooper, but he was only
four. We nearly missed the ship because Sammy wanted to go back for half a
dozen things he forgot. Because there were no family-sized cabins, we paid for
two rooms. Sammy and Ron got one to themselves since they shared a bedroom at
home.

Over the next few days, the ship was their
playground. At one point they decided to make the crew think the ship was
haunted. Ron tried to scare me and Mordon by hiding in weird places like
barrels and popping out, yelling “boo.” We tried to act frightened, but it was
hard not to notice a wiggling barrel, especially the third time he hid in it.

Sammy somehow flooded one of the storage rooms, which
had steps leading to an elevated door, and spent most of his time swimming.
Then he “found” a random detached door, so he and Ron played sharks and
fishermen.

The one-day trip to Mokii took three days because the
captain decided to go around Mijii and circle back to Mokii. Rumor had it there
were pirates in the water between Shomodii and Mokii. By the time we reached
land, we were all going out of our minds. The boys were bored and had resorted
to pranks using their magic. Mordon and I were constantly putting out fires and
preventing fights. The poor travelers had never encountered anything like my
boys.

Mordon

It was a fairly short trip to the desert once we
arrived on Mokii, but since it was nearing dinner time for the boys, we decided
to stop at a little town right outside the desert for the night. The sun was
setting as we wandered through the nearly deserted streets. The buildings were
small and a bit rundown, but they looked sturdy enough to hold up in a battle.
Towns just outside of kingdoms in Mokii were known to be targeted because they
made a good base from which to attack a nearby castle.

Since we were so close to my father’s kingdom, I took
to wearing my hair back and covered with a hood. Dylan had disguised my eyes
with magic to look dull brown, but he warned me that if I shifted my eyes, it
would break his spell. It was our intention to look as forgettable as possible.
I didn’t feel the need to drape myself in cloaks, because I was still on the
slim side when I ran from my future. Having lived the last four years on
Shomodii, I had become more built that I thought I ever would have, but still a
fair amount less than Edward.

Rojan said it had a lot to do with latent dragon
abilities; it was common for dragon children to be very small and then get much
bigger when they reached a certain age. Rojan also told me that in about two
more years, I would stop aging.

We found a restaurant that looked warm and went
inside. The floor and walls were dark and wooden and all over the walls were
paintings of battles, kings, and even dragons. Across the room was a large
fireplace. The ten tables were small and each held a lamp. A waitress stood at
one of the two occupied tables, serving their food. Nobody addressed us, so we
took a seat by the fireplace. It hardly seemed like a place for kids, but both
boys became the image of calm and collected.

The waitress handed us menus and asked what we wanted
to drink. Seeing as how we were going into the desert, we all chose water.
Sammy and Ron asked for fish and fruit while Dylan and I both ordered meat
dishes. Mine was chopped up meat with noodles and vegetables and Dylan’s was
glazed meat kabobs. None of us were really focused on the food. This was sort
of a test run for the boys and neither of us knew what to expect.

Living on Shomodii, we were all fairly isolated and
the boys had only left the island a few times, so they were not used to a lot
of strangers.

“So, how do you plan to save this dragon?” Dylan
asked.

“First, we need to find him and convince him we’re friends,
not food. Second, we need to find out why he is going out in dragon form into
villages and kingdoms. Once we know his motive, you come up with a plan and
Rojan and I will follow it.”

“Once I come up with a plan?” he asked with wide
eyes. “This isn’t that kind of mission. This is a dragon-related mission; your
PowerPoint, your game plan.”

“What is PowerPoint?” I asked. He just stared at me.
“You
are a Guardian; you were born to solve problems and figure things out. I’m just
a… I’m just me. I was raised to give advice and lead people… poorly I might
add. Rojan is more likely to eat someone than help them. We’re going to face a
possibly feral dragon and even though Rojan may be the most powerful dragon
there has ever been… I’m just a wizard.”

“Just a wizard,”
he scoffed. “There’s no such
thing. If there is one thing I learned from the Doctor, it’s that there’s never
been a person who wasn’t important.”

“Mom, if he’s talking about the Doctor, he’s already
won the argument,” Sammy interrupted.

I glared at Dylan. “What have you and that wife of
yours been teaching my kid?”

“He’s mine, too, and he’s a Whovian.”

“We discussed this; we would wait until he was old
enough to decide for himself what to believe,” I argued. Yes, we really did
have that discussion, but he had lied when he said he would wait to push the
followings of the Doctor on the child. I knew he was lying at the time.

“He’s going to be a Guardian; he had to know the
Doctor.”

Our waitress interrupted to ask if we needed
anything. “Can you tell us anything about a dragon that was sighted around
here?” I asked.

Her eyes widened and I noticed that she was pretty
cute. She had long white-blond hair and hazel eyes. Her mouth was her only
distinguishing feature; the rest of her face was a bit plain, but it was
symmetrical and worked for her. Still, I could find only a passing interest in
anyone who lived on Mokii, because this was a land I wanted to avoid.

“I have only heard of the dragon. My brother saw it
while he was at school. It flies in the daylight, never fearing getting caught.
Sometimes it damages something like a statue or tree, but never a house or
shop. It never even steals food, so some people believe it is a prank, but my
brother swears that he saw the creature. It changes its color.”

Dylan and I looked at each other.
“Why would he
fly in the day? Maybe he can’t shift into a person,”
he suggested.

“Even if he couldn’t shift, he could still hide in
the day. If he isn’t stealing food, he is either hunting at night, has food at
his den, or is injured.”
I turned back to the waitress. “Has anyone thought
the dragon might be wounded?”

“No. Why? Do you know something about it?”

“The only reason I think he would be flying around
outside is that he is trying to be seen,”
I said. Rojan agreed.

“But he’s changing colors, trying to use
camouflage.”

“Changing colors, yes. Trying to blend in, maybe,
maybe not.”
The ability to change the color of our scales was extremely
rare and as far as I knew, limited to Rojan’s powerful bloodline. Using the
camouflage skill incorrectly would be extremely noticeable and distinctive.

“Hunters have been called to the Ishte kingdom,” the
waitress went on. Dylan sighed and dropped his head to the table, startling the
waitress.

That was my father’s kingdom, so I immediately
assumed he was the one who called a hunt down on the dragons. Honestly, he was
a likely suspect, seeing as how he admittedly hated the dragons with a passion…
but I was really hoping he would change.

“This is probably a big misunderstanding,”
Dylan suggested.
“When I last saw your father, the man wanted to repent.
Surely he would not threaten the slight chance that he could see his son
again.”
He sat back and regarded the woman. “The king ordered a hunt on the
dragon?” he asked.

“No, the king has been on leave for weeks,” she said.
“It was his adviser who ordered the hunt.”

“On leave? What for? Why is Rojio not with him?” I
asked. That was my protective instinct taking over. The king was prone to
walking into danger and it was always me who got him out of it. There was a
good possibility that we would have to go rescue the king after the dragon was
safe. Unfortunately, I would duck out at the last minute and force Dylan to
finish the rescue so that I would not have to face the man. I feared nothing
more than returning to the throne, and Rojan was of the same mind.

The waitress knew little about the kingdom and
offered nothing more helpful. We left and decided to head into the desert
instead of finding an inn. Both moons were full so we had adequate light and my
internal fire kept me from freezing in the cool night.

Rojan scented the dragon immediately in the sand.
Odd…
he thought.
It is so easy to hide your scent in the sand, yet this dragon
made no attempt to.

Do you recognize the scent?

No, it is familiar, but it was so long ago. This
is definitely someone I know. It is possible that they have become senile and
that is the cause of this erratic behavior. Or perhaps they are suicidal and
want to be caught.

We followed the scent for several hours. The boys
were very good and patient, even when we had to stop five times to dump sand
out of everyone’s boots. Sammy did complain once that Ron was cold. I was used
to this interaction between the boys.

“Do you miss Mokii?” Dylan asked out of the blue. I
looked at him and he shrugged, causing Ron to stir. He was carrying his son,
who slept with his arms draped around Dylan’s neck. “You always said you were
more of a city person,” he whispered.

“Yeah, but I think living somewhere like Anoshii is
asking for trouble. I still think my father might find me and somehow force me
to return. I’m his only child, and since my mother is dead, he will never get
another one unless he meets someone else. It’s hard to believe he would just
give up; he really wanted me to take his place.”

“He worked his entire life for it,” he agreed. “I
doubt he would find another wife, because what happened to her and your sister
was so violent. That kind of thing leaves scars on the survivors, like you.
Luckily, you have Rojan to keep you sane.”

“And Rojan is definitely not a city dragon. It’s hard
enough on him that he cannot fly, because I can’t shift. The least I can do is
make our home comfortable.”

We could live in a cave…
Rojan suggested, as
he often did.

Living in a dark, warm cabin is close enough,
I argued.

I was deep enough in conversation with Rojan that I
nearly missed the soft thud. Dylan and I turned to find Sammy had collapsed in
the sand. We were instantly by his side, asking him if he okay and what was
wrong, but he waved us away. “It’s not me, it’s Ron. Vretial is talking with
him.”

I spread my cloak down in the sand and Dylan gently
laid his son on it. Dylan tried to wake him, but the little child would not
stir. I shifted my eyes to see what was going on. Ron’s soul was intact, which
meant that the god hadn’t pulled him away to speak with him, as was the normal
means. Dylan’s green energy filled the air and when Ron didn’t react to it, it
started crackling and sparking. The Guardian was a threat to the entire
universe when he was desperate. He proved that when I was in danger… and this
was his son. He was building his energy, but the sparks were just a warning to
Vretial to let his son go. As long as Vretial had Ron, it was easy for my
friend to track him.

Before Dylan went any further, Ron’s eyes snapped
open and Dylan let his energy die down. Sammy hugged Ron as if his arms could
keep Ron safe. “What did he want this time?” Sammy asked.

“This time?!” Dylan demanded. “Ronez, has Vretial
talked to you before?” Dylan asked.

Ron nodded. “He can’t talk to Sammy, so he talks to
me.”

Dylan turned to me and I shook my head. I knew that
look; it made my blood chill and my internal organs shrink in on themselves. He
wanted me to watch the kids because he was going to kill Vretial… again.

“Wait! Dylan, I know you want to kill, more than
anything. I know. I get it, but use your head. Think.”
His energy flared up
again and he would lose control of it if I couldn’t calm him down.
“He was
powerful enough to survive Divina’s attack. The only way you can beat him is by
outthinking him.”
Lightning cracked across the cloudless sky. I grabbed his
shoulders and poured my fire into him, not burning him, but to bond with his
furious magic.

His magic took my fire and adapted the weapon… but my
fire was calm and the magic didn’t know what to do with it. I leaned my
forehead against his and thought soothing thoughts, focusing on my breathing.
At first, I tried to think of sitting by a campfire, but it wasn’t calming
enough. Rojan took over, remembering his days of flying. I felt his wingtips
skimming the surface of the warm ocean as he glided over. He recalled the feel
of diving in and out of the clouds at night. The clouds would glow brightly in
the moonlight. In the dawn, the clouds would glow with yellows, oranges, and
reds until it looked like he was flying through fire, but it was cool and wet
instead of hot and dry. My fire and Dylan’s energy calmed enough to get through
to him. After a few minutes, he sighed.

Crisis averted for now.

“Daddy, Vretial said that we need to get out of
here,” Ron said. We both turned to him. “He said we’re being hunted.”

Dylan looked at me for my input, but Rojan growled.
No
one could hunt me. There is no one in this desert but the dragon we are
tracking.

“Rojan says there is no one here but us and the
dragon we’re looking for.”

“I am more inclined to trust Rojan than Vretial,” he
said.

Rojan was pleased with Dylan’s confidence in him, but
Ron smelled of worry. We continued for another twenty minutes before Dylan
stopped suddenly.

“Something’s wrong.”

I sniffed and scented nothing but sand and dragon. “I
can’t…”

“Look around. I feel magic. Really, really old
magic,” he said.

I shifted my eyes and saw what he was sensing. There
was a fog ahead of us, which was invisible to the normal eye. “How could I not
smell that?” I asked. I breathed deeply and still smelled nothing. Dylan
grabbed my arm and drew in some of my fire.

“Wow. That looks like something we don’t want to walk
into.” My fire rushed back into me, along with a bit of his magic. All of a
sudden, I could smell the danger we were in. “Does that help?” he asked.

Somehow, something was blocking my senses. There were
dragons everywhere in that fog and it was soaking with anticipation. “It does,
thank you. We need to get out of here.” I let my eyes shift back to normal for
just a moment to see that the fog and everything in it was still invisible.

“We’d never make it on foot,” Dylan warned. He picked
Ron up and pulled Sammy closer. I backed up to their side and Dylan put a
shield over us. “Want to stick around and find out what’s going on, or flash
out?”

“This is a trap set specifically for a dragon,
by
dragons. Let’s go.” The fog reached out for us in the span of a blink and I
shifted my eyes back so that I could see beyond the magic.