With every moment Heck silently watched him decompress, he felt more self-conscious, not that he would have let anyone notice.
“Are you done?” Heck finally asked, his grin flattened into a thin line that didn’t resemble a smile at all.
Jemin nodded. He knew he wasn’t ready to accept the truth. Heck was right. They couldn’t portal right here at the main gate of Maray’s house, but Heck had forgotten one tiny little detail. He hit the wall again, this time an expression of insight, and beckoned Heck to follow as he wordlessly started running.
He didn’t slow down until they passed the blue school at the corner where, between a pedestrian zone and a church, a large building had been torn down. There were demolition machines sitting next to huge billboard-covered fences. He glanced over his shoulder and to both sides, making certain no one was watching. The street was empty, and the office building across the street from the demolished one had to be abandoned around this time of the week. “In here.” Jemin didn’t wait for Heck to catch up and, with a leap that was almost ridiculously effortless, reached the top of the fence and swung himself over it. As he landed with an all but soundless thud on the other side, Heck’s black shock of hair was appearing above the edge of the barrier.
“Are you out of your mind?” he hissed as he followed Jemin into a gap between a power shovel and a leftover fragment of whatever building had been sitting there before. “What if someone sees us?”
“What if?” Jemin bounced back the question.
Heck didn’t cease to give him an incredulous half-grin until Jemin took a deep breath and explained, “There is nothing here in Allinan. A couple of trees and bushes maybe.” Jemin knew. He had snuck out after his shifts and checked in on Maray’s neighborhood… which had made him even grumpier than he usually was these days—the days without Maray where he wasn’t able to simply pull his sword and shield her from any danger coming at her the way he had back in Allinan with Langley or with the Yutu. But Heck didn’t need to know. No one did. Soon, it wouldn’t matter how deep his feelings for her were; he would be pushed to the side by court protocol, and he was prepared. At least he liked to think of himself as prepared. He was desperate for any fight, any Yutu they could slay, in the hope of protecting her from a distance.
As Jemin indicated his plan of crossing the borders into Allinan in the construction site, Heck’s grin became authentic again. “Smart you,” he whistled. “Cross and then return to Maray’s place.”
Maray’s place, which didn’t exist in Allinan. Jemin knew that, too. Even when Scott had placed him on duty elsewhere so he wouldn’t be tempted to go looking for Maray—protect the royal family’s location, and prevent anyone from accidentally leading spies or enemies there—he hadn’t been able to follow Scott’s comment entirely. He had cased the area and checked whether it was safe to cross right into her bedroom and surprise her one day. And then, he’d remembered that he couldn’t just breach the apartment of the Crown Princess of Allinan and invite himself into her daughter’s bedroom—no matter how many times he had saved their lives. Now he wondered if it was his fault… if his selfish wish to see Maray had led Langley right to her door.
“Alright, then.” Heck nodded and pulled up his sleeve to reach for his bracelet.
Jemin didn’t praise him for his quick thinking or his supportive nature when it came to sudden changes of plans but conjured the white fog with his own bracelet to pull himself through the border instantly. Heck was there right beside him when they set foot into Allinan, already in motion when the air cleared.
They made their way out of the small patch of trees into a large meadow, which on this side of the border was Maray’s neighborhood. A dirt road led along the same angles as the concrete sidewalk in the other world. But the Vienna of Allinan was not the same densely-settled city as in the other world. Here, the historic core of the city with its cobbled narrow alleys and gas lamps was the strongest populated area. The rest of the town was smaller mansions and houses. Where Maray’s building stood, in the other Vienna was a meadow adjacent to a small stable, one which held horses for switching out when riders came from the West of the country. Not everyone could afford to travel with Krai salt. A majority of the population was dependent on horse and carriage for shorter distances. It was the curse of Allinan: magic portals and fascinating chemical elements such as Thaotine or Krai salt, but on the other hand, most of the people were fighting to have enough to get through the winters. Rhia’s peace was fake. Rhia’s Allinan of prosperity was a lie. Jemin knew that. Even when most of Allinan was oblivious to the truth.
“That’s great,” Heck whispered as they snuck further along the road until they got to the area of Maray’s entrance door. “We’ll easily find tracks here.”
They didn’t. The dirt was full of hoof prints, but there was not one claw mark. There were no signs of struggles or blood, no fabric unusual to Allinan on the branches of the hedge facing the meadow; not even usual fabric. Even as they expanded their radius of searching, they came up blank. Nothing.
“I am sorry, man.” Heck patted Jemin’s shoulder. But Jemin wasn’t ready to give up. He returned to the beginning of their search and traced every inch of the hedge again, he turned over rocks and combed through the soil with his boots, willing something to show up… anything.
Heck watched him with a weary face, an expression as uncommon for him as a lighthearted grin was for Jemin, until finally the cloudy sky greyed and darkened.
“It’s time, Jem.” Heck reminded him they couldn’t stay out here forever. “We have to inform Scott and—”
“Don’t,” Jemin cut him off. He knew the protocol. Full report, including losses and potential losses. But Maray wasn’t dead. She wasn’t gone. She couldn’t be. He couldn’t think of that worst-case scenario. For now, they had to think positive. “Maybe Langley never got his hands on them,” he said even if he was thinking primarily of Maray.
Heck shrugged. “You’re the boss.” But it was clear in his eyes that Heck couldn’t stand the thought of losing Maray any more than he could.
Heck was right again. There was nothing much they could do if they couldn’t track them. And together, they made their way home, slouching under the burden of potentially having lost the entire remaining Cornay line—but what made Jemin’s heart break was the thought of potentially having lost Maray.
Maray
“Down there.” Gerwin pointed, and Maray ducked into a niche where the facades of two adjacent houses weren’t level, behind her parents.
They had left the apartment a couple of minutes ago and had taken a zig-zag route through the district just in case they were being followed. Most of the smaller streets were empty, and empty meant whatever Allinan creature was after them had a chance to get them without exposing themselves.
“Is it still there?” Laura asked but didn’t lean forward to check.
A shadow had been following them from the moment they had turned into the first smaller street. It hadn’t come closer, but they hadn’t been able to lose their tail either.
“I can’t tell.” Gerwin peeked around the corner, face half-hidden behind his collar. In every inch of his movements, Maray could tell that he was anxious to keep going.
“We’ll be safe once we reach the bigger streets near the metro stop,” Maray thought aloud and earned a set of raised eyebrows from her mother. It wasn’t a disagreeing look but obvious surprise.
“The training seems to be working, Gerwin,” she said to her husband, and they exchanged an affectionate look that made Maray wonder what it was like for them to finally live together again after five years of self-inflicted separation. It was clear in their eyes that they wouldn’t want to be anywhere but where they were now, no matter how dangerous, as long as they were together.
“Our daughter is a fast learner.”
Maray also wondered how long their second honeymoon would last once they returned to Allinan where Laura was Crown Princess and Gerwin was… well, a commoner
and not even an Allinan commoner. No matter what title he was wearing…
Gerwin checked again and gave the all-clear with a wave of his hand, and together they rushed down the street, the red pedestrian light a quarter of a mile ahead like a lighthouse guiding them to safety. With every step they took, Maray felt better. Even if whoever had been following them picked up the trail again, they would be stalled by the tourist crowd which usually enclosed the castle grounds in no time.
When they finally reached the crossing, the droning sound of cars and tour busses was soothing to Maray’s ears. It was better than the suspicious silence behind them. And when the lights changed to green, and the standing couple on the red part of the light (in Vienna they had couples on their traffic lights) changed into a running green pair of angled people, Maray couldn’t get to the other side fast enough.
The hood of her cloak kept out the worst of the icy wind as they crossed the wide East-West corridor that led in and out of the city for both cars and metro along with a little stream which ran under a bridge at the same level as the metro rails. Beside her, Gerwin had taken Laura’s hand, and they seemed like a normal family—almost. If it weren’t for the ankle-length, dark, hooded cloaks, they might have passed for tourists, but this way, Maray was reminded that they weren’t on a sightseeing trip like the rest of the people who were streaming toward the palace gates, but on their way to another dimension to overthrow the current government and introduce her to the Allinan people… someday.
They slowly made their way into the park through the Western gate which sat between a chocolate shop on one side and a small church on the other, with a path blocked by disoriented tourist groups.
“Do you think it’s safe to portal? What if someone notices?” Maray found herself speaking her thoughts again.
“There are plenty of areas which should be abandoned during the winter.” Laura pointed to the left, and Maray’s eyes caught a sign that pointed out that that particular area of the park wasn’t maintained during the winter. “Perfect,” Laura commented, having followed Maray’s gaze, and strolled off into the narrow path which led away from the main roads of the park that soon brought them to a familiar tunnel.
Maray recognized the arched bare branches of two rows of hedges which seemed to be knitted into each other above their heads. Today, it was quiet here, unlike the first time she had wandered through this passageway. Then, Heck’s and Jemin’s swords had been—unsuccessfully—fighting off a Yutu, and she had found Jemin, wounded on the ground, and had for the first time in her life felt what it was like to be despised by someone for no apparent reason. The thought of Jemin’s bone-deep wounds sealing themselves before her very eyes still made her shudder… all the blood… and the crazy and dangerous journey that had followed… But, had someone given her the chance to go back in time and choose another path so she’d never have met Jemin and learned about her heritage, she would always choose Jemin—and Allinan. It hadn’t just brought her pain; it had also given Maray her mother back.
“Ready?” Laura asked and grabbed Maray’s hand on one side, Gerwin’s on the other. Then the fog set in, the familiar white haze which was a sign they were portaling to Allinan, and even if the next step they took would be on the exact same ground in the exact same place, it would be the exact same place in a different world.
In the distance ahead, at the end of the tunnel, the palace was the same palish yellow as in the other dimension. What was different was the hundreds of people who were absent in the Allinan version.
“Keep your face hidden,” Laura said, and Maray had another flash-back. When she had entered the palace yard with Jemin that first time, he had also hidden her under a hood. She lowered her head, peeking at the palace from under the rim of her hood, and hoped no one would ask questions.
Only a couple of uniformed men and women at the front gate and some servants who were rushing through the yard, collars up to their ears, were populating the area. None of them were paying attention to Maray or Laura in their hooded cloaks, faces deep in shadows, but nodded a polite greeting at Gerwin as he passed them in his ambassador’s uniform. And Maray wasn’t certain how official Laura’s marriage to the new ambassador was in Allinan—or that in truth, he had become ambassador so they could stay together when Laura had returned to Allinan to help her mother out five years ago.
She knew that everyone in Langley’s fraction of the revolutionaries must know. That rogue self-righteous group knew about Maray and therefore that she had a father and that that father had taken over the position as an ambassador when Langley had retired. If not in the beginning when he had kept the secret of her existence the way he had promised to, most certainly he had told everyone now that she was top on his hit-list because of her magic blood and what it could do in the wrong hands—the wrong hands meaning Rhia’s. Maray made a mental note to ask her father what reactions to expect from her environment—not only to herself, but to her parents as a couple.
“Do you still think this is a good idea?” Maray whispered to her mother as she led the way to the side entrance; the one that was covered by the archway that connected the palace to the servant quarters.
Maray grabbed the strap of the messenger bag she was hiding under her cloak and glanced over her shoulder, hoping to see Jemin or Heck or both, but all doors were closed.
The night they had made the decision to return, they had sent word to the Brendals, to Scott, and to Corey. Laura had. Maray still wasn’t in the possession of one of those silver bracelets which allowed traveling between the two worlds, or healed injuries, or switched on those intriguing basins which, in Allinan, sat in every bathroom instead of a normal sink.
“We need to get in, and what easier way than to sneak through the side entrance.” Laura gave her a knowing look. “Trust me, I have come this way before, and it’s one of the least guarded.”
“Shouldn’t we be taking a secret entrance?” Maray thought of how they had snuck into the palace to rescue her mother before. “An unguarded one?”
“I am not worried about the palace guards when it comes to my presence at court. They won’t know Rhia kept me prisoner or that I escaped. They are puppets.” She winked. “Besides, Scott promised to place trustworthy ones at this entrance so we can get in safely.”
Laura smiled at Maray over her shoulder as she stepped up to the palace guards. They were dressed in red and gold Thaotine armor. Maray recognized the fabric by its silken yet chainmail-like appearance. Both men wore helmets with a thin, red, velvet stripe running from the forehead to the pointed top. They looked bored, eyes flickering from the archway across the yard and back every now and then.
“Gentlemen—” Laura dropped her hood and faced them with all the grace of a royal, smile still in place.
Their eyes widened as they recognized her, the one on the left dropping to his knee first. “Your Royal Highness,” he stuttered, gesturing the second man to follow his lead.
“At ease,” Laura commanded before the second one could touch his knee to the marble-tiled ground. She wordlessly waited for them to straighten and open the door.
Maray was half expecting her to thank the men, the way she had learned from her mother in the other world. But here, in Allinan, Laura was royalty, and it seemed royalty didn’t thank soldiers for their duty. Her heart sank. If the same thing was valid for guards of dimensions, then Jemin would probably not be allowed to stand in her presence once she was officially introduced as Maray Elise Cornay, Princess of Allinan. She swallowed a lump in her throat.
Maray and her father followed Laura, Gerwin nodding at the saluting palace guards as he crossed the threshold.
“Are you sure we trust the guards?” Maray whispered to her father as they continued up a small flight of stairs.
Gerwin shrugged and picked up pace, giving Maray a knowing look. “If your mother says so.” He gave her an unidentifiable look. “The palace follows its own rules. Even if your mother hasn’t been around at court for a while, she is s
till royalty. The Crown Princess.” He glanced over his shoulder before they turned into another corridor. “And I doubt any of the guards know about the issues between Rhia and your mother…” He was referring to Rhia having held her own daughter prisoner so she could have the court warlock use her blood to make Rhia immortal. Maray swallowed at the memory of finding her mother with tubes sticking out of her arms, face ashen and hair greyed. “As long as no one sees your face, everything should be alright.” He reached over and pulled Maray’s hood just a little lower into her face, and she let him.
“Scott should be waiting for us in the ambassador’s chambers,” Laura commented as she led the way down a long hallway paved in black and white marble like a chess board and up a wide staircase with a handrail of wrought iron and a blue carpet covering the hard stone steps.
Maray glanced up at the high ceiling and found portraits of what must have been her ancestors eyeing her from above a row of wrought iron lamps along white walls. Awkwardly, she lowered her gaze.
“Not far.” It was her father who reassured her. “You’ll get used to the palace.” The shadows in his dark eyes gave away that he felt as small as she did under the stare of the Cornay line.
They crossed a small room with a flowery tapestry where another pair of guards saluted, faces displaying surprise and awe in equal shares as they recognized their grey-haired Crown Princess. They pulled open an enormous, white double door and stood aside, letting the three of them pass. None of them paid attention to her under her hood but recognized her mother and father, and she was grateful she didn’t have to endure the stares—yet; the stares she knew would come the second she revealed her face.
“This is the grand gallery,” Laura informed as she continued without slowing down through a room the size of a football field. Wide mirrors were lined up along the columns, reflecting the light that filtered in through closed shades on one side. Maray understood why it was called the grand gallery. It made her feel miniscule. “You’ll see it in all its grandeur one day.”
Two Worlds of Oblivion Page 3
