We followed him to the little cabin. I saw a sudden,
slight movement from Divina and the lid of her backpack lifted. Shinobu’s
glowing silver eyes peeked out at me and I felt a rush of joy. I had no idea
what Edward would do, but I had time to figure it out.
At the very least, if
she is as deadly as everyone seems to believe, she can help fight, which may
convince Edward to let me keep her.
We reached the cabin and Edward knocked three hard,
even knocks. The door burst open, there was a gasp, and then the door was
quickly pulled shut until it was only slightly cracked. A small man, about a
head shorter than me and startlingly delicate-looking, poked his balding head
out.
“Yatunus-mal. Madate.” He shut the door.
I was startled, but both Divina and Edward were calm
and focused, as if this was normal. I heard the sound of a woman’s voice a few
seconds before the door opened wide and the small man barreled out, pulling on
a dark green robe. I almost lost my balance trying to move out of his way as he
dashed towards the giant sphere. As he did, he pulled a key out from inside his
robe.
We followed him to the globe, which he halted in
front of the stand. When he stuck the key into the podium, the glass dome split
down the middle and rolled back until it was completely open. To my great
fascination, a two-foot-wide section of the smooth, white, lower half molded
into a solid set of steps.
Edward and the little man spoke for a few minutes
before Edward gave him money and Divina nudged me towards it. I really didn’t
want to be the first to get on that thing, as I could see no flat bottom, but
the thought of refusing in front of Divina was unacceptable.
It didn’t creak or give as I walked up the steps,
fortunately. The platform had a hard foam-like floor, similar to the hotel’s
floor, and was lined with a long bench seat. Without needing to be told, I took
a seat. Divina removed her backpack and sat very close to me. Edward joined us
a few minutes later, the steps dissolved back into the sphere, and the glass
top slowly slid back into place.
“I hope you don’t get motion sickness or dizzy
easily,” Divina told me.
I actually got both, but I didn’t feel I needed to mention
that.
“You’re going to want to close your eyes when we get
in the water.”
The sudden sound of grinding metal was ominous as the
globe lurched toward the water.
The water line had almost reached the glass when the
globe suddenly plunged into the depths of the ocean. By the time we came to a
full stop, we were completely submerged in the ocean, and the air was very far
away.
This is asking for trouble.
The spherical ship seemed to handle the water and the
pressure, though I couldn’t imagine how.
A soft clicking sound broke the silence as lights
came on. There were two of them, one on either side of a track, much like a
rollercoaster track. I stood to see them and as I did, another set came on
about four feet away, scaring a school of particularly scary fish away.
Divina pulled me back down just before the dome began
moving again; however, this wasn’t forward. The dome started to spin, slowly,
but gaining speed. I closed my eyes and I was pretty sure we were also moving
forward. The dome got so fast that we were pressed tightly against our seats.
It was apparently moving forward super fast as well, because the spinning
started to slow after only about ten minutes.
I felt a jerk as it came to a halt, then rose, and
then stopped again. The gust of wind as the top parted suggested we were
stationary, but I was too nauseous to tell.
Divina nudged me. “You can open your eyes now,” she
said.
I shook my head and instantly wished I hadn’t. “No, I
don’t think I can.”
Divina pulled me up onto my feet. “Just take it slow.
That was the quickest way across and everyone hates it at first.”
Her soothing, silky voice had a positively glorious
effect on me. I opened my eyes and allowed Divina to push me down the steps,
which had returned. With the forest of Shomodii before me and the bright twin
moons above, I didn’t feel overwhelmed like I should have; I felt like I was
back home.
“Wasn’t so bad, was it?” Edward asked.
“Any landing you can walk away from is a good one,” I
said as I tried to hold onto the ground. We headed into the forest, but I had
to take a quick side trip to relieve my churning stomach. After a few minutes
of trying to decide which way was up, I found that I was making it through the
woods much better than I had the first time.
When we broke through the trees, it was unexpectedly
comforting to see Edward’s cabin, even though I had only been there for a few
days.
“Hurry up,” Divina said, “I won’t be an hour.”
I handed her my book and she disappeared into the
forest.
“You heard her. Get in,” Edward said.
Once inside, Edward dropped the bags to the floor,
opened the trap door, and disappeared down it. By the time I got down into the
bedroom, there was a lit lamp, hanging close to his bed and he was pushing
aside the bookshelf to reveal a secret room no bigger than a closet.
Edward dragged out a long chest that scraped loudly
across the floor. Before he could even open it, I felt like it held something
powerful and dangerous. He propped open the lid, exposing a sword. This sword
was something entirely amazing. The shape was that of a katana; a samurai
sword. The handle was wrapped in a thin metal cloth overlain with a firm, thick
black net to give it better grip. The hand guard, with two enclosed slits, was
made of a black material and I couldn’t tell if it was stone or metal. The
sheath was black leather over wood.
“Go ahead,” Edward said.
I picked up the sword gently, startled to find it
warm, and pulled off the scabbard. The blade itself was the beauty of the
sword. As reflective as marble and as black as space, the blade seemed to ward
off the light around it with an aura of power.
“That was Ronez’s sword. It was created for him; for
the Guardian of Earth, so even as his twin brother, I cannot wield it. The
blade is made of a metal from Vaigda called azurath. It was made for Ronez as a
gift from Vaigda’s Guardian. This metal is unbreakable by physical or magical
attack. Magic cannot be used on it and fire cannot heat it. The fact that you
can lift it tells me more than anything that you were meant to be the Guardian
of Earth as much as Ronez was. No one but you and the gods can even lift it for
long.”
And yet, the sword felt so very light.
He turned and began rummaging through the closet. I
fitted the sword into the belt harness Edward had made me get. Edward handed me
a basic, black-handled dagger, which I stared at expectantly. When it didn’t
reveal to me where it was supposed to go, I stuck it in my belt as well, and it
stayed well enough. Edward came out with a sword and a dagger at his side, and
slipped a throwing knife into his boot.
I had no warning this time. I was with Edward one moment,
and the next, I was opening my eyes in the room I saw Vretial in so often.
There was a light lit behind me and Vretial was turned the other way so he
couldn’t see me. We were alone.
“Hello,” Vretial said. I was startled for a second,
seeing as how no one was here but the two of us. “Sit down.”
A wooden chair came out of the dark and I had to move
out of the way so it wouldn’t hit me. It stopped, facing Vretial. I’m slow
sometimes, but I’m not dumb. I sat.
“How long have you known I’ve been watching?” I asked
him, my voice more casual than I had dared to hope.
“For as long as I needed to. Of course, if I try to
look at you, your book will pull you away. Then I’d have to pull you back and
that can get very annoying. I would prefer to just talk.”
“How am I able to move and speak this time when I
couldn’t before?”
“I have called you here myself this time, using your
bond with Earth. So tell me, child, why have you been running from me?”
His politeness was unnerving and I found myself
sitting on the edge of my seat, ready to run. Where to, I had no clue. “Because
you’re after my book.”
“Yes, so?”
“So, you can’t have my book, or Edward’s.”
“Why not?” he asked, as if he couldn’t imagine.
“Because they don’t belong to you. You have two
worlds already. That’s more than enough for the other gods.”
“I want it and I have just as much right as the
others to have it. If anything, I have more. I don’t let my worlds shrivel up
and die like the other gods.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying Tiamat can’t handle
Earth? I lived there and I had no complaints.” Well, maybe a few…
“You like that the people of your world suck the life
out of the planet and each other?”
“Of course not, but that’s not her fault.”
“Isn’t it? She controls the world yet she pays it no
attention. Has she told you the last time she listened to a human’s needs?” he
asked.
I frowned. For a god, he seemed to be missing a few
key facts… and screws. But then again, he didn’t know where I was.
Maybe a
god only really knows the beings of his own world.
“We haven’t spoken.”
“I highly suspect otherwise. Tiamat must have
contacted you. I suspect she has and you just don’t know. That’s the problem
with you lower beings. I could suck your life out right now, but here you are,
only wanting a conversation and not fearing me.”
“You requested the conversation. You said you only
wanted to talk.”
“That I did, but I would appreciate a little fear.
It’s a bit rude, you know. I’m the higher being, so I should decide if there is
peace while you graciously accept whatever mercy I give you.”
“Why do you care if I fear you if you can kill me so
easily?”
“What has everyone put into your head? If I were to
kill everyone just because I could, there would be no one and nothing to rule.
I have no interest in killing you. It really doesn’t matter either way to me,
until you start being rude. I don’t like it when people do not fear me.”
“Then make me fear you. You’re a god, aren’t you?”
“I’m working on that. The humans of Earth and sago of
Duran will fear me as they should and Tiamat and Erono will be defeated soon
enough. And with my new power, I will overcome the other worlds. Then I will be
the only one to fear. There will be balance.”
He completely lost me there. Cold wind swirled and I
could feel my body grow heavy and numb. I slid out of the chair and my eyes
closed.
* * *
Edward was shaking me awake. When I sat up, there was
no suffocation. “He wanted to talk.” I dove right into the explanation. “He
said Tiamat would want to talk to me and I’m pretty sure that he thinks what
he’s doing is good. He was very polite.”
“He’ll be very polite as he’s melting your brains,
too. Tell me later what happened. If it wasn’t important, we have to go. That
may have been to stall for time,” he said.
It wasn’t, though. I didn’t know how I knew, but I’ve
always been good at reading people, and Vretial seemed to be one of the
easiest. “Divina won’t be able to get you to your apartment, but we shouldn’t
be long. Stay where she leaves you in case she needs to pick you up quickly.
Practice your studies while you have the chance.”
He then moved on to collecting certain books from the
shelf. “Can’t you take me back? You can take me back to my apartment…”
where
Vivian will be
.
“No. I have to …” He went silent and my heart
followed suit. “Dylan… go to Divina.” By his posture and expression, I knew
that he was listening to something.
“Are the bad guys near? Come with me. You can’t fight
them alone.”
“I am over two thousand years old and studied magic
my entire life; I can handle a fight. Go to the springs and follow it up until
you reach Divina’s house. She has your book and she can’t protect herself as
well as I can. At the very least, you need to warn her.”
He was right. As much as I wanted to help Edward,
Divina needed to be warned.
“Go.”
I did. I hated it, but I had no choice. Moreover, I’d
seen Edward take on the servant cats on Earth, where his power was “weak,” and
I couldn’t imagine one wizard taking him out.
The run to the springs was an easy one, which I
contributed partly to my new boots. I couldn’t get over what I was doing;
leaving Edward behind. However, when I got there, I found myself stumped. I had
no idea which way was “up” the springs. The water was still and there were no
identifiable mountains in one direction or the other. I could practically hear
the seconds tick by over my deafening heartbeat. The answer was right in front
of me; I just had to figure out how to use it.
Sitting on the same large rock as earlier was the
little spirit girl with whitish hair. She sat in her cross-legged position with
her eyes locked on me. With my vast experience with women to back me up, I
decided to ask her with as much charm as I could muster. “Excuse me, uh, spirit
girl? Can you please tell me which way is up?” She didn’t move, so I slowly
approached her and tried again. “Do you know which way it is to Divina’s?”
She disappeared. Startled, I stepped back, tripped on
a rock, and fell… right through the little girl. As I looked up, she was facing
away from me, but then, without turning, she was facing me.
“No names.”
There was a whisper in my head,
yet her mouth didn’t move.
“The bright one,”
another voice whispered.
The overall effect was creepy as hell. There was a
sound in the forest behind me; something like a deep chain saw. The girl was
suddenly frightened.
“He’s coming.”
With that, she pointed the
opposite way down the springs, and then was gone.
I struggled for a second with the idea of going to
help them, but I had no idea how, and I already had a problem on my hands. I
climbed to my feet and started in the right direction when suddenly my path was
blocked.