Gaia's Secret (27 page)

I glared at Alex. “You could’ve said
something!”

“Here.” He grinned and he moved behind me.
Right behind me. He started untangling the twig from my hair, his
hands surprisingly gentle.

“Alex.” Sonya’s hands hadn’t abandoned their
position on her hips. “I think you’ve done enough. I’ll take it
from here.”

“This is ridiculous!” Alex dropped his hands
and the twig fell from my head. “I didn’t…”

Sonya held up a hand, looking only at me. And
I took a drink of water.

“A little help here,” Alex whispered in my
ear, a smile in his voice.

I flashed him a wry grin and he rolled his
eyes. After almost eighteen years of knowing him, he should know
better. He nudged me lightly in the ribs and I choked on my water
as I laughed.

“What happened to her?” Cicero joined us,
gesturing at me with the stick of charred meat in his hands.

“Your son,” Sonya said.

And now, Alex was Cicero’s son.

Cicero raised a brow, taking a bite off the
stick. “Alex, what did you do?”

“Me? Might I point out that
my
clothes
have taken the greater beating?” He tugged at his now brown
tunic.

“Your point?” Cicero asked.

I felt Alex fighting back his laughter. “Why
do you always take her side?”

I took another swig from the canteen to hide
my smile. It had always been like this, his parents taking my side,
my dad taking his. And neither of us missed the opportunity to let
the other suffer. Ever.

“When you stop being the culprit, we’ll take
your side.” Sonya folded her arms.

Alex shook his head. He leaned close to me
then, his lips brushing my ear. “I
will
get you back for
this. And that’s a promise.”

There was a smile in his eyes that made my
heart skip a beat. He walked over to the tree trunk and sat,
sharpening one of his daggers.

When I looked back, Sonya and Cicero were
studying me. After Alex’s last comment, I didn’t feel the need to
hurry in order to clear his reputation, so I took another sip from
my canteen. It still tasted bad, but eventually started tasting
less like puke and more like water.

My “nice” side soon found its voice and
decided to liberate my resurrected friend. Well, in my own way.
“Don’t worry,” I cleared my throat. “Alex did exactly what you
asked him to do, but the problem is—” I looked over my shoulder at
him with a grin “—I’m still better than him.”

He glanced up and met my gaze. Challenge
flashed through his eyes as a smile spread across his face and he
went back to sharpening his knives.

When I looked back at Sonya, she was studying
me with skepticism. Her gaze halted at my shoulder and her brows
crossed. She hurried towards me and touched my shoulder. When she
pulled her hand away, something glittered on her fingertips.
“What’s this?”

Glitter? Where did that come from? Oh,
maybe…“I wonder if that’s from the pixie.”

Cicero stopped chewing. Sonya froze, her eyes
burning holes through her son. And Alex leaned back on his arms,
glaring at the tree with his jaw clenched.

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to share that
information.

“You saw a pixie,” Sonya whispered.

Alex moved his glare to me and I
swallowed.

What?
I mouthed.

He answered with a wave of irritation.

“You were in a Fiori?” Cicero’s anger sawed
through me.

Alex moved his gaze to his father. “Yes.”

“And you let her near one?” Cicero was so mad
that his ears turned red and a thick blue vein bulged at the side
of his neck.

“It wasn’t—“

“Do you have any idea what could have
happened?”

Alex’s gaze was steady as he held his
father’s. “Yes, I—“

“To let her wander into such a place—really,
Alexander, I’m surprised…”

Sonya placed a hand on her husband’s arm.
“Dear.”

But Cicero wasn’t finished. “Of all the—“

“Cicero.”

This time Cicero heard her. Slowly, he
removed his death glare from his son and looked at his wife.

Sonya held his gaze. “They’re obviously
unharmed, and you know he would
never
let anything happen to
her.”

Her eyes flickered to Alex, and I thought I
saw something pass between them.

“I don’t care.” Cicero was still mad, but the
fury was fading. “The fact remains that he—“

“It was my fault,” I interrupted.

I looked back at Alex, who was studying me.
His expression filled with warning, but I ignored it. I couldn’t
let him get in so much trouble for something I’d done, and besides,
I’d never seen Cicero this angry before. It was beyond fun and
games now. Alex and I had just become friends again and I wasn’t
about to let Cicero ruin it.

“Alex tried to stop me but I—“

“Nothing happened.” Alex’s tone silenced
me.

I caught his hard gaze and held it before he
turned back to his dad. “We saw a pixie flutter by and I pulled her
out of the garden before anything happened. Some of the dust must
have landed on her, that’s all. I won’t let it happen again.”

Cicero and Sonya’s confusion was strong as
they looked to me for confirmation. I wasn’t sure why Alex lied,
but his gaze was intense and his apprehension filled my senses.

Slowly I nodded, and Cicero’s fury
disintegrated. Alex’s feelings were masked from me once again as he
went back to sharpening his daggers. Cicero sighed, the color of
his ears returning to normal. “Sonya, I’m glad we never had a
daughter. It’s hard enough worrying about Daria. Alaric had better
take over soon because I’m about to leave her to the fates.” Cicero
grinned at me.

For some reason, his grin made me mad. As if
a smile would erase everything they were hiding, like their smiles
always had. Like they were still doing. Sonya must have noticed
because she felt the need to remind me that Cicero was only
teasing.

Good to know. I mean, for a second there I
had thought Cicero was going to march me right back to those
barghests with a bow on my head.

I dug into my meat, trying to forget my
anger. The flavor was smoky and sweet on my tongue, its juice
dripping liberally into my mouth. I’d forgotten all about my hunger
in my evening with Alex, Nightmare, and Lies, and now I was
ravenous.

“I suppose that’s the first magical creature
you’ve seen, isn’t it?” Sonya said, picking up a stick of seared
meat for herself.

I swallowed my bite. “The pixie?” I wasn’t
about to mention our dear friend Deadly Slinky after how they’d
reacted to the pixie. Alex was already in enough trouble, and I
wasn’t sure I could handle the amount of retribution I was
accruing.

“Yes.” Cicero wiped a drop of oil from his
chin.

“Yeah, I guess so. Are they all so
psychotic?”

Cicero chuckled. “They’re all slightly
bizarre. Magical creatures have a unique bond to the power within
Gaia, which lends them access to knowledge and abilities that we
don’t have. They also aren’t limited by our laws of nature, so some
may live hundreds of years. Mind you—” he took another bite “—most
magic folk think our limited lifespan a waste of natural resources,
so they care little for us. Most of them avoid us by living inside
this forest.” He looked up at the treetops like he expected them to
be hiding something.

“The barghests…they’re magical?”

Cicero’s brow furrowed. “Yes, but barghests
are created from shadow. The forces they draw upon are dark—Gaia’s
antithesis—and she has no control over them. But the pixies belong
to Gaia.”

How comforting.

The barghests had never struck me as the kind
of creature you’d put on a leash and walk through the park anyway.
But pixies? If they belonged to Gaia, and Gaia had control over
them, I didn’t think I liked Gaia very much.

“Pixies are remarkable creatures,” Sonya
said. “They can see the past, present, and future and they share
some of those visions with humans, though it’s rare. Their visions
have always proven true and it’s considered a great honor to
receive one.”

I almost choked on my bite. Honor? I wondered
if she’d feel the same way if they showed her that “honorable
vision” of her dying son. Even as I thought about it, the horror
and agony began to resurface. The image of Alex flashed through my
mind and my heart ached. I turned back to my dinner, feeling the
weight of Alex’s gaze.

Cicero continued. “I haven’t heard of an
account for years. Even so, the only time most people ever see a
pixie is at the Festival, and pixies rarely attend that.”

I swallowed my bite. “What Festival?”

Sonya exchanged a quick glance with her
husband. “Every seven years,” she answered, “Valdon hosts the
Festival of Lights. It is a commemoration for a war fought
centuries ago. The Festival is the one time the magical creatures
join us. Like Cicero already said, these days they don’t bother
with human affairs, but on that day, many of them celebrate with
us.”

“Which war are you talking about? One of
Earth’s wars?”

“Spirits, no,” Cicero answered. “Earth would
have crumbled beneath such raw power. When Gaia took her powers
from Earth, she brought another with her, a malevolent one.”

“Wait a minute. If she left Earth to create
her version of a perfect world, why do that?”

“She didn’t have a choice. This evil is also
a magical being, and when Gaia took all that was magical, it all
came: the good, the terrible, and everything in between. In order
to keep her world safe, she banished him to a spirit realm so he
was unable to physically harm a living soul.”

“He?”

“Mortis.”

A stiff breeze blew by and the light of our
low fire flickered.

Cicero took a deep breath and continued.
“He’s not a physical being, but his powers can reach through the
barrier into this world. Creatures like the barghest belong to him.
Some people try and tap in to his power, but serving the dark
always ends in death because the dark is never satisfied. It always
tries to gather more souls, which is what happened during the
battle over whose victory we now celebrate.”

Here Cicero paused, but I didn’t question
him. I was too curious to hear more.

“Many years ago, Mortis found one such soul
to possess—one who would do his work for him on the surface. Mortis
abhors his prison and has tried escaping ever since Gaia sent him
there. This man was given Mortis’ power and strength to control
armies in an attempt to destroy Gaia and break down the
barrier.

“But Gaia also found a man to trust, someone
called Galahad. She entrusted a great shield to him, one that
harnessed the power of the elementals.”

“Elementals?”

“Yes, just as you would think. Air, water,
fire, earth. All can take physical shape in this world. They are
the most ancient and strongest of the powers and once that shield
was created, man was able to channel their power. Hence, Galahad
was given the power of Gaia.”

“Well, that almost seems like an unfair
advantage.”

“Galahad didn’t win the war.”

“But with that much power, how—“

“I was getting to that.” He smiled. “Always
impatient. When Galahad took up the shield and channeled its power,
it defiled him. Sometimes great power brings out the worst in us
and, unfortunately, it isn’t until people are given it that we see
the true shades of their character.

“What ended the war was the death of Mortis’
chosen agent. Gaia was lucky Mortis’ agent was weak. He was killed
while the world was deciding how to hide from Galahad. At that
point Gaia destroyed the shield by tearing it into pieces. The very
action killed Galahad. Stories say his screams of agony were heard
in all the lands, even on Earth.”

That sounded…painful. “So the destruction of
the shield freed Gaia of evil?”

“The shield wasn’t destroyed.”

“But you said—“

“It was torn to pieces. Seven to be exact.
There is an order in this world called the Keepers of Light; their
members are called Dalorens. The Dalorens have access to magic no
others can use, and it is the Dalorens that used magic to protect
the seven pieces. Gaia couldn’t destroy the shield without
destroying her world, since they represented a physical embodiment
of her powers and the elementals. The Dalorens placed magic on the
pieces, each piece holding power that belonged to the whole and can
only be activated by a rightful lord. Once all the lords unite,
they could select one to rule sovereign amidst them. It was a way
to share the power without one man having too much.”

So. Much. Information. I sat for a moment
rubbing my temples, thinking through everything Cicero had said. A
war, magic, elements, pieces of some shield being protected by some
strange group of magicians until some rightful lord came along. And
I had thought Earth was a crazy place. “There are seven lords?”

“Six,” Sonya answered this time.

Arg. “No, you specifically said—”

“The seventh has been a mystery for over a
century. Pendel’s territory.”

The image of the tattered banner in the
shadows at Rex Cross flitted through my mind. “Pendel has no lord
then?”

“Pendel’s governed by someone acting in lieu
of the rightful lord. Rumor has it only the Dalorens know the
location of that missing bloodline.”

“Oh, so this shield isn’t currently
active?”

“Correct,” Cicero answered.

“Then how does Gaia have a king without all
seven lords present?”

“How indeed,” Alex mumbled.

I realized I hadn’t heard the sound of Alex’s
scraping for a while. When I looked back at him, his eyes were
hard.

“Alexander.” Cicero warned.

Alex shoved his dagger into its sheath and
joined the horses.

“The people—” Sonya’s eyes followed her son
“—needed a ruler. Too many years passed without one and society
started crumbling. So they elected King Darius. He was the
strongest, most able of the lords. It was a simple decision.”