God of the Abyss (43 page)

“Why were you in the king’s
room?”

She stared at the table. “That is
where I woke up.”

“And the king was there?”

She cleared her throat. “Yes.”
She handed me the bag and I caught her hand before she could pull away. She
wouldn’t look at me and her hand started trembling.

She had been gone a long time. I
tried to get a scent, but my senses were so dull. “Did he hurt you?” I asked.
She finally raised her eyes and a tear fell. I didn’t know whether to hug the
girl or kill the king.

Before I could do anything, she
gave me her fake, happy smile and took my hand in hers. “I am fine.” She was
lying, but I knew nothing about comforting women. When I picked up the lotus
wand to examine, my fire tried to stir as if it recognized great power, but it
settled back down.

The wand was about one and a half
times the length of the fire wand. The bottom of the wand was black, then there
was a thick stripe of red. Including the red, there were twelve even stripes of
colors leading back to red before a hand’s width of white paint beneath the
metal flower. The flower had three layers of petals and in the middle was a
small, yellow gem. The inside of the petals were white, while the outside of
the petals were green.

Now we had what we needed, we
just had to figure out how to get Dylan and home.
“Get out of there! They’re
going back, and they’re searching rooms!”
I heard Dylan’s words in my head
and looked around. There was no place to hide. 

I grabbed Emiko’s arm and pulled
her back into the hall, glancing both ways. We were alone for the moment. We
ran back to the king’s room to find the door closed. “Break the panel,” she
said.

“No, it would leave behind
evidence. Besides, if the door is closed, the king may be in there.” The words
were barely out of my mouth when the door opened. We ducked behind a table
beside the door. If he bothered to look, we could easily be seen, but the table
protected us from Maslye’s peripheral vision as he paused outside the room. We
held our breath until he finally moved on down the hall, then managed to slip
in just before the door slid closed.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“We wait until they give up
searching the rooms. Surely they wouldn’t search their king’s room.” I tried
not to notice the mussed bed or lamp broken over the floor, but there was no
missing the blood on the sheets. I leaned against the wardrobe, out of breath.

“How do you know the guards are
searching rooms?”

“Dylan told me. Now be quiet. I
need to think.” Of course, that had to be the moment when the only other door
in the room slid open.

Emiko shrieked before we saw that
it was Dylan.

“How did you get in here?” I
asked, seeing that he came from a bathroom.

“In a mansion like this?” he
scoffed. “Secret entrance from the library. We definitely don’t want to go back
that way, though.”

“Someone’s coming!” Emiko
whispered. Emiko and I hid in the wardrobe while Dylan dived under the bed. I
held her tightly only because there was little room. Pressed together with silk
on all sides, all I could hear was our breathing. I cracked the door just
enough for a sliver of air to pass through.

Maslye, visibly frustrated,
entered the room accompanied by two guards. “Find those trespassers. They broke
in to steal from me, I know it. We cannot trust a dragon’s words.”

“Why are they speaking Sudo?”
Dylan asked.

“Maybe it is the dominant
language of Lore. Divina said Lore would be a combination of many worlds.”

Maslye sat on the bed and laid
his staff beside him. My head was trying to focus on the danger we were in, but
my body was trying to respond to the warmth I had in my arms. When the king
stood, Emiko pressed her face against my chest. She was showing me trust that I
could protect her and Rojan purred with approval.

The king was advancing, obviously
about to open the wardrobe and discover us. He was reaching for the door…

And there was a knock. Outside
the room, a knock sounded, causing the king to pause with his hand still outstretched.
“What is it?” he demanded.

“There is a man here to see you.
He says he is the Noquodi of Malta.” I heard the door slide open, though I
couldn’t see it or who was there. “He said he had a matter to discuss with you
of the highest importance.”

Maslye snarled. “Tell him to come
back later. I do not answer to Noquodi.”

The guard hesitantly approached
the king until I could see him. “He has been mortally wounded. He faced
unimaginable creatures in the most perilous lands on a quest to find you, to bring
you a message that would save your kingdom from similar horrors. Those were
pretty much his exact words.”

Instantly I was suspicious. I was
sure the guard spoke the truth as far as he knew it, but I recognized that kind
of story. I knew only one person who used words like that, and it wasn’t Emrys.
“What did you do?”
I asked.

“Nothing! Yet… That does sound
like my kind of lie, though.”

“I understand. Call for the
physician to treat his wounds. I will meet him in the dining hall. Have water
and food ready for him immediately. And do not let him know that we have
intruders here.”

The king and his guards all left
and I waited only a moment before opening the door, for I could not stand
another instant confined with Emiko. Dylan got out from under the bed. “Did you
get everything?”

I held out his bag, which he put
on. “You have a plan, then.”

He smiled. “Oh, yeah. He said the
Noquodi of Malta. And who is the only Guardian we know that is a time
traveler?” he asked.

“Emrys. The one person in the
universe we needed walks right into our hands and that’s not suspicious to
you?” I asked.

His smirk only grew. “No way,
because we know for sure Emrys doesn’t talk like me. I must have sent him here
to save us. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I think I may be
brilliant.”

I laughed. “Be careful not to let
that big, egotistical head of yours get stuck in the doorway.” Even as I said
it, I agreed with him.

“I’ll think of a way to make it
fit. Let’s go. We still have to make it to Emrys without getting killed. We can
try going out the library, the guards should be gone.” I handed him the lotus
wand and he gasped. His eyes widened before glowing green. The glow quickly
faded, though not completely. “Come on.” He was breathless, but my senses were
too dulled to be able to smell what has happening.

We left through a hidden panel
behind the bathtub that led to a fair-sized study. Nobody was in the old
library, and the door opened as we approached it. We were only five doors from
the king’s room, but it was a dangerous walk to the stairs. While I could hear
people talking, Emrys was not one of them, so I couldn’t be sure we were going
the right way.

At the bottom of the steps, we
hid in a broom cabinet underneath the staircase. Once again, I left the door
open just enough to see. The greeting room was very cozy and friendly, unlike
the king who resided here. There were dark rugs across the floor and
comfortable-looking chairs surrounding a fireplace. A large painting of the
king rested over the mantle. On the adjacent wall was another painting of the
king, where he sat upon an odd, four legged, tall creature that was sort of
beautiful.

“They have horses here.
Awesome. I think I should ask Erono to import horses to Duran.”

People walked back and forth, yet
it was nearly an hour before we saw Emrys. He clearly had a head injury, but
someone had treated it a little. Emrys sat on one of the chairs and was left
alone. Seeing this as our only chance, we left the cupboard and went to the
man. At least I hoped he was still our friend after so many years.

Although his eyes were closed as
he rested from his injuries, he felt our approach. “You should have waited for
nightfall, Dylan.”

“We are anxious to get out. The
universe as we know it
is
falling apart after all.”

“How are we in the future now
if everything falls apart in our time? How is there still a Guardian?”
I
asked.

“Simple. Time can be
rewritten.”

“But the boys said that if
something is experienced, it will come to pass.”

“Or… we create a paradox that
will destroy everything.”
“We need to go now.”  The tired Guardian climbed
to his feet with a wobble. “Do you need to be healed?”

“Yes, but not too much, or it
will look suspicious.”

Dylan reached to touch Emrys’s
wound, then stopped and dropped his hand to fiddle with the metal bracelet on
his left wrist. “I can’t do any magic with this thing on my wrist.”

“Then why do you carry a wand?”
Emrys asked, indicating the lotus wand in Dylan’s left hand. Dylan studied it
and shrugged, but before he could say anything, the room filled with the king
and his guards.

The king raised his staff to
strike, but Dylan was faster. “Vadol!” he yelled, raising the lotus wand like a
weapon. Everyone froze. Quite still, in fact. Emiko stood without blinking or
breathing. Emrys, the king, and every single guard… everyone except for Dylan
and me were completely immobile.

“How did you do that?” I
whispered.

“It wasn’t me. It was the wand;
it pulled my magic from me.” He went to the king and took the staff. “I don’t
like being attacked,” he said to the frozen king. “I can forgive that. I can
forgive being threatened and held prisoner. But you hurt my brother.”

“Dylan, if my life had been in
danger, your demon would’ve showed up. Let it go this time. You took his staff;
that’s enough.”

He continued staring the frozen
king down. “I will not forgive him.” He turned away. Once he was back beside
Emrys, Emiko, and me, he raised the wand again. “Zacam!” Everyone unfroze, but
were too afraid to attack. Emiko wrapped her hand around my arm.

“Dylan, kill him,” she said. My
friend looked at her. “He hurt me. Please kill him.” Her voice broke and I
didn’t need my dragon senses to know it was sincere.

I could see the moment my friend
realized what Maslye did, but I could also see confliction. Dylan wasn’t a
killer, no matter how much Maslye needed to be punished. I watched his
expression carefully for a sign, because if he chose to kill the king, I would
do it for him. Dylan couldn’t live with himself if he killed an unarmed man
with magic. I couldn’t live with myself if I let him.

He looked to me for an answer,
but I had none. Not one I would give him. Maslye deserved the worst possible
fate and I couldn’t tell Dylan to let him go when Emiko was begging for
justice.

“Dylan, please!”

I drew my sword. If I maimed the
king, he couldn’t hurt anyone else like he had her. Dylan put his hand on my
arm to stop me.
“There are other ways. Better ways.”

I shielded the sword and caught
Emiko before she could attack Maslye herself. She was yelling in outrage as the
world melted around us. My eyes were forced closed and nausea threatened to
overtake me.

When the feeling of shifting time
settled and the nausea ended, I opened my eyes. We were in Dylan’s cabin with
Edward and the boys. Emrys slumped to the floor and Emiko went limp in my arms.

“Can someone get this off me?”
Dylan asked, holding out the bracelet. Sammy came forth and took it off as
easily as if it were a simple piece of jewelry. “Thanks.” He sighed, kneeled in
front of Emrys, put one hand on Emrys’s forehead, and the other on his chest.
Gashes healed before my eyes and the wounded man’s breathing eased.

“Not too much,” he warned. “It
would look suspicious. Thank you, Dylan.” Emrys vanished.

“Where did you get this?” Edward
asked, picking up the staff Dylan dropped. I picked up the wand and set it on
the table.

“We ran into a man who thought it
would be fun to attack total strangers. We had to explain that sometimes
strangers bite back, and he gave us the staff in thanks.”

“You should at least hesitate before
lying to me, child.”

Dylan smiled. “That would give me
away.”

“Daddy, you shouldn’t have
brought anything but the lotus wand back. It’s dangerous. Doing anything with
time is dangerous,” Ron said.

Dylan sighed. “Don’t talk like
your mother.”

“The staff can only cause harm.
You have to destroy it,” Sammy said.

Dylan stood and gave Emiko a
regretful look. The dragoness was standing on her own, staring at the ground
with tears dripping. Her arms were crossed as if to protect herself. Dylan used
his magic to pull a chair from the table to her knees and I sat her down as
gently as I could.

“I can never forgive you for
this,” she said.

“I know,” Dylan answered. I
opened my mouth to correct her, to explain to Emiko that she couldn’t get away
with threatening Dylan, but he shook his head.
“She doesn’t need direction
right now, she needs control and someone who is on her side.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve never been through
anything like what she has, but I was getting a degree in psychology. Plus, I
have known people who went through it. She has a right to her anger and it
doesn’t matter who she takes it out on. What matters is that the boys knew this
would happen.”

I looked at them with shock and
Sammy instantly dropped his head in shame.
“Why? Why did they tell us to
take her with us if they knew this would happen to her?”

“Simple. They saw what they
thought was a worse path. She saved us from the cell. Who knows what they would
have done to us? The boys made a choice. It was the wrong choice and not theirs
to make, but they made it anyway.”

“What happened?” Edward asked. It
must have been very stressful for him to be out of the loop when he was so
ancient and powerful. However, when Dylan shook his head, Edward let it go.
Like me, he trusted Dylan. “About two minutes ago, the wave hit again and
brought the magic back,” Edward said.