Legend of the Touched (10 page)

Lance tilted his head to the side. "Uh, sure?"

"You look fine," Tai said and gave him a reassuring
smile. "We can wait and watch the movie when you're done. I mean,
you won't be taking all night with this will you?"

"I'm not sure." All of the ruling a country business
was new for him. How much information did the spies have, and what
would he be expected to do afterward? There were a lot of things
left in the open.

"If it's going to be longer than three hours, let me
know," she said and let out a long sigh. He could tell she was
disappointed. It was supposed to be their time to snuggle on the
couch. Given her delicate condition there wasn't a whole lot he
felt comfortable with doing. Anything could go wrong. He'd killed
his mother from the womb with his magic, and he didn't know what
kind of an effect it was going to have on Tai. Keeping her home and
safe, at least in his sight, helped put his mind at ease.

Darien blew her a kiss.
I love you.

I love you too. Hurry back.

He waved his hands at his brother to leave and
followed him out the door.

"I seriously didn't mean to interrupt." Lance ran a
hand through his short dark hair. He gave Darien a weak half smile
and his blue eyes softened.

"I need to get used to it sooner rather than later I
suppose." Darien gave a slight shrug.

"I guess."

"You know I'm right." As much as he didn't want to
say it, it was true. Being the Great Lord of the Oceina would mean
a lot of inconvenience for him, and Lance being his First Council
would be responsible for a lot of it. His brother had the duty to
advise and field a lot of the communication channels for Darien. If
anyone was going to be interrupted the most, it would be him.

"Did you call Arthur?" Darien asked.

"Yes, I told him first so he could be here by the
time you were ready."

Lance thought of everything it seemed which is why he
was made First Council. Dragon Lord law stated that a new Lord had
to have a new First Council. It seemed silly to Darien, but in some
ways it made sense. Most particularly with the Terran who elected
their Lord frequently. A new First Council guaranteed a new reign.
There was less chance of a secret political corruption. His Uncle
Arthur had been his father's First Council. Darien was honored the
man still wanted to help so much.

They walked quietly down stairs to the ballroom of
the apartment complex where they lived. Darien didn't have an
office, something he needed to change fast. His father Orion had
one, but much like the bedroom, Darien couldn't bring himself to go
inside of it. It was too soon. He'd want to remodel it to something
more of his liking, and the idea of moving all of his father's
things into storage hurt Darien's heart. Cleaning away Orion's
stuff made his death all the more official.

The ballroom would work well for the time being. It
currently was empty, outside of a few plush black chairs and a
wooden table. There was a lot of space which made the room
intimidating. Their footsteps echoed on the wooden floor as they
made their way to the chairs. Darien sat down at the head of the
table, Lance at his right, and he saved the one to his left for
Arthur when he arrived.

Ten minutes passed and then the doors opened. Arthur
entered with two other men. Dark circles rimmed the eyes of the two
strangers, and their bodies were slouched. The three walked slowly
through the room. Arthur trailed behind, as if to be polite,
helping one sit down in a chair before taking his seat next to
Darien.

"I am Clove," one said and lowered his eyes as though
he was too tired to bow as was the custom.

"My name is Raife," the other said. With a bit more
energy he nodded at Darien.

"I'm glad you have returned to us safely." Darien
leaned forward in what he hoped was a sympathetic fashion. He
wanted to press and demand answers from them, but he knew the
journey from Inero to Oceina City was a long one. With the borders
closed between the two nations now, he imagined it was a difficult
one to take. The Great Lord of the Inero had sprung that on him by
surprise. One day Darien woke up to the message from Lance, who
received it from one of his uncles who was supposed to be an
ambassador to the Inero. They'd been given the week to withdraw all
of the Oceina citizens from the country. Something about the fire
dragons only having enough resources to support themselves. Darien
wanted to give aide to the Inero people, but not to the members of
the Royal Guard. Lord Lynx would make sure it went to the wrong
hands, should Darien supply anything and so he held back.

Raife exhaled deeply and nodded slowly, eyes closed.
"I was barely allowed through the gate. If they had known who I
was, they would have killed me on the spot like they did the
others."

"There were others sent?" Lance's jaw dropped and his
eyes went wide.

Clove leaned his head onto a hand, squeezing his eyes
shut and nodding. "Lord Orion sent five men to observe the nation.
One was shot and killed in the middle of the street as he tried to
go towards the gate shortly after the proclamation of the borders
closing. Another was thrown into prison and died there. The other
went missing. I haven't seen or heard from him in over a month.
Raife and I met by chance in Katmos City which as you know is ten
miles into our country from the border."

Darien took in a sharp breath, doing his best to keep
calm. What he wanted to do however was go into a fit of rage. How
dare the Inero do that to
his
people. Darien was positive
there were Inero spies in his country, but if they were found he
wouldn't ever do something so horrible to them. At the very least
they would be given a trial before any action was taken.

"What did you find?" Lance asked.

Raife straightened his posture. "My station was out
in the country, along the border of the nation. Your father wanted
me to watch the activity in the farmland. The crops were plentiful
this year, but I heard many of the townspeople make business with
other means instead of money. They had money, enough of it, but the
food was hard to come by. Families had enough to feed themselves
but not the rest of the town, so they traded goods with each
other."

"So their food isn't poisoned like the Great Inero
Lord claims?" Darien leaned forward with great interest.

"Is that what he's saying?" Raife scoffed. "No, the
food is near perfect. I've never eaten anything like it before in
my life."

"The food where I was at wasn't excellent," Clove
said. "I was one of the three spies sent to watch the city. One of
the other missing spies had watched the country as well. In the
city, things were as different from the farms as night and day.
Even more so than what would be normal. The whole nation of Inero
is. The food supply for the upper class citizens of the city was
good, as would be expected. The middle class, where I was, so-so.
Produce was harder to come by, and getting fresh water, we had to
venture further into the city, or out. Something about the source
being contaminated. It was off-limits to humans. The Royal Guard
protected it as if it were a crime scene. In a way it was."

Darien raised an eyebrow. "So maybe he didn't lie
completely. Interesting." He had wondered how the Great Lord could
make his claims so convincingly. Half-truths were a lot easier to
sell than full-blown lies.

"It took some time, but I was finally able to sneak
in and get a look. The other two spies placed in the city joined
me. Their names were Paul and Eric. Eric played the look out while
Paul and I investigated. We were able to get right to the pool
where they purified the water, or where they were supposed to. The
pool was a dump of overflow from a stream. What we found instead
was something I'd never even heard of before. Magic was in the
water."

"Magic? Are you sure?" He wasn't sure if he could
believe it. He'd seen and heard a lot of things having to do with
magic before. Being Touched gave him an advanced knowledge in the
skill, though it wasn't necessarily one he used often. His magic
scared him. It had ever since he'd been told the truth behind his
mother's death. The best way for him to protect himself and those
he loved was to learn. In all of his studies though, not once did
he stumble upon magic being put into another object, or element. It
needed flesh and blood to survive.

"I'm positive." Clove took in a slow breath. "It
glowed in the darkness. A deep, brown and red glitter, flowed
through it. At first we thought it was the lighting of the moon and
how it hit the water. When we touched it, however, it burned our
skin. The same kind of pain felt when we're hit by the Terran's
earth magic. Maybe you haven't experienced it personally, but it's
a unique sting. One I will never forget. My hands absorbed the
glow. It took days to disappear."

Lance shook his head and leaned back in his chair.
His hands waved in front of his chest. "So you're trying to tell us
they had Terran magic in their water? Why? More importantly,
how?"

"The how I'm not sure on, but the why seems obvious.
We are weak against the Terran. There's more. We followed the
stream and watched as Inero guard members produced weapons and
armor. Molten hot pieces were being cooled in the water. The
residual magic is what drifted down stream, making the water
undrinkable by the people. I don't know if they have a way to fix
this. I'm not sure magic is supposed to be infused with objects to
begin with."

"I would agree," Darien said. His voice was caught in
his throat. No words were coming to mind to say anyway. "Wow."

His brother looked at him with wide eyes, and he
asked the exact same question on Darien's mind.

"What do we do?"

Chapter Twenty-One

The Inero

Matt knocked on his father's chamber door. Lately,
that was where the man preferred to do his business. It made the
meetings more personal, but he knew the reason Lynx wanted to stay
in wasn't for that. They had the meetings there in case Navi
returned. Matt didn't know how to tell his father that she wouldn't
be coming back on her own accord. Deep down, the man must have
known it too. If the worst ever happened and Kat left him, Matt
would delude himself in fantasies as well.

"My son, come in and make yourself at home." Lynx
ushered Matt to sit in the den then took a seat nearby. "Tell me,
is it almost time?"

"Yes, father. With the last of the Oceina spies
executed, we will not have to worry anymore about them seeing
something they shouldn't. Now we can focus our energies on
selecting who will be a part of the first wave of attack. The
infused armors are finally ready, as are the magic enhancers." He
thrust out his arm proudly to display the glowing olive green
metallic bracelet he wore. "Naturally, I had to be the first to
test it now that it's been deemed safe."

"Do share." His father's dark eyes seemed to light up
and he leaned forward in his chair.

Shifting in his chair slightly, Matt made himself
comfortable so he could focus. The Terran and Inero specialists who
had been working on this technological breakthrough had told him it
should work similar to his own natural magic. Nerves tingled in his
stomach as he closed his eyes. With a snap of his fingers, he
signaled his own fire magic. Something he'd done a million times in
his lifetime. Then he thought about the new earth magic inside of
him and summoned that instead.

"It's beautiful," his father whispered.

When Matt opened his eyes, he gasped in surprise.
He'd been expecting to see either the red fire he normally
conjured, or a flame the color of the Terran magic. What he saw
instead was a mix of the two. He focused on taking away the Inero
fire and watched the flame change from a rusty brown to the olive
green.

"Amazing," he breathed.

"Truly. What else can you do?" Lynx asked.

"I'm not sure to be honest. No one knows. They were
just thrilled the magic stopped leaking from the metals."

"So there is no pain? No problems?"

"None, it's incredible. If anything, I feel even
stronger and more alive than I ever did before with my magic." Matt
played with the small green flame, watching it dance between his
fingers as he moved his hand.

Lynx let out a happy sigh. "Everything is coming
together so well."

Chapter Twenty-two

The Oceina

Things were getting out of control and fast. Darien
wasn't sure how to prepare. Get the army ready? Even if his
military officials did finally decide to listen to him, how was he
supposed to stop the Inero? Not only were their numbers greater,
but they were allied with the Terran, the Oceina's weakness. They
wouldn't be able to be stopped, not without some kind of help. He
punched the wall with his fist.

Why is this happening to me?
The Inero had
planned this out for a long time. His father had known about these
plans, and that was part of why the enemy had him assassinated.
What Orion didn't do before he left was leave a plan, a guide,
something, to help Darien figure out how to defend his people.

"You said you were going to help me," he whispered.
"Where are you?"

The water; he had summoned his father's spirit
through that method before – surely he could do it again. He knew
he had to get back to Tai, but this was a lot more important.

I promise I'm almost done. I have to do one more
thing and then I'm all yours for tonight, and as long as you want
me for tomorrow too,
he told her. An hour and a half had passed
since his meeting with the spies. Much shorter than he had
anticipated it lasting, but that was fine by him. The rest of the
meeting was spent in a lot of silence. Raife and Clove were
exhausted and wanting to return to their families. The information
they provided was priceless though.