“If I could get the dragons to reduce your sentence, would you be willing to help me track someone again?”
“Is it to aid in stopping MOME?” Torrence asked, his large brown eyes on me now, instead of staring into the distance.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Then there is no need to ask the dragons to reduce my sentence. I will gladly help.”
My mouth snapped shut in surprise. I’d been about to admit I wasn’t sure how much I could do. I didn’t really have the authority to do anything for Torrence’s sentence, I was just banking on the hope that speaking for him when his trial came would help reduce his sentence.
The more I got to know Torrence, the more I realized that I didn’t understand him at all. Who the fuck just volunteers to help the folks who have them imprisoned and refuses to get their punishment reduced? He’d said before that he regretted his past, but hell, lots of people said that, and some of them meant it, too. Meaning it and embracing retribution seemed like to vastly different things to me, though. Still, whether or not I understood Torrence, I was starting to like him. He seemed…honorable. Plus, how could you dislike someone who frolicked in wildflowers at the drop of a hat?
So I smiled when I reached out a hand towards his.
“Shake on it?” I asked.
He tilted his large, horned head to one side and eyed my hand suspiciously before reaching out his own deep brown, furred one.
As soon as his skin hit mine, I pulled us both through time and space.
WE BLINKED INTO existence at the bottom of the valley, not far from where I’d left Albert and General Aira only minutes before. Indeed, General Aira was seated a few meters away, in her human form, her legs folded beneath her and a rather elaborate tea set spread out before her. She was alone, which I supposed I should have expected. After all, I knew that Albert needed to track down the blood we’d talked about. But it was probably the first time I hadn’t seen General Aira swamped by dragons in all forms, asking her questions and giving reports, as she orchestrated what she had informed me was the largest fighting force of dragons assembled in over a century. I hesitated before approaching her, since she seemed to be enjoying the uncommon moment of calm.
Then I noticed Trev, Rhelia, Sol, and Seamus all huddled up a few meters away from Aira’s tea ceremony. The group turned as one when we moved towards them, and Seamus and Trev immediately came over to us to give Torrence a quick fist bump and say hello.
My eyebrows must have arched in curiosity, because Trev communicated silently, We all wound up fighting together once you and Sol made it into the dungeons. Torrence fought like a master. He’s kind of a badass.
Oh. Right.
Of course there had been a whole battle after we’d managed to rescue Siara. It only made sense that they’d have to fight their way out after I had whisked Siara to the only place I could think of where she wouldn’t blow up the entire universe. So much had happened to me since then, I almost forgot that everyone else had been rescuing Siara just yesterday. For me, it had been a week, several worlds, and a dimensional pocket ago. For everyone standing around me, it had been last night.
I restrained a sigh, and longed for, of all people, Az. They, at least, had been with me for the bulk of what happened after Siara’s rescue. Meanwhile, I hadn’t even had a chance to tell everyone else what had happened, except in the broadest terms.
While I stood there feeling strangely isolated, even while surrounded by my friends, Torrence seemed genuinely concerned about everyone’s health and well-being. He was even asking Seamus about how his Moms were settling into life in Unterberg.
Which is probably why none of us noticed the sound of steel being drawn. Or the sound of a blade cutting through air. Until the blade was buried in Torrence’s chest, and his legs collapsed beneath him.
Trev and I were instantly at Torrence’s side, while Rhelia turned, yellow eyes flashing as she sought out the enemy.
Which turned out to be the petite dragon General a few meters away, glaring at our group as though we were all demons of the worst kind.
“How dare you remove a prisoner from their cell?!” she shrieked. It was a sharp contrast to the calm tones she’d maintained through every conversation I’d heard with her yet. Even when she completely disagreed with people, her tone was, at worst, calmly dismissive. Now she was shouting at full volume, and when I took a brief moment to glance her way, I saw her eyes wide, whites showing prominently, and spittle flying from the corners of her mouth. “What would possess you to release that kind of menace on my realm? Have you lost your minds? Do you know what he could have done to us? Do you have any idea what his kind are capable of?”
I barely registered the words, because I was too busy fighting to keep Torrence’s blood in his body. It was a battle I was losing rapidly. The wakizashi that had been launched though his chest had been aimed with uncanny precision. His heart had been skewered. His eyes were already closed, and I could feel no pulse.
Trev, I sent silently, because if what I was about to do didn’t work, he was my best chance at plan B. Grab on.
I was already holding Torrence, and as soon as I felt Trev’s hand hit my shoulder, I reached to the one place that had always been there to save my ass in the past.
IN AN INSTANT, we were both blinking in the dappled light of a small clearing in the Northern Arizona woods.
“WHY ARE YOU BACK SO SOON, VICTORIA?”
“Life, can you save him?” I asked, skipping past all preamble, ignoring the fact that Life’s definition of “so soon” and mine were probably vastly different, and hoping against hope that Torrence wasn’t already dead, at least not the level of dead that Life couldn’t fix. I didn’t know if Trev’s phoenix fire would be enough to work on someone I barely knew. I had a feeling it had only worked on Sol because we’d already gotten close enough for me to use our mating bond to help call her spirit back, but I’d be damned if I wouldn’t try it anyway, if it came to that.
“THE BOVINE IS ALREADY HEALING,” Life replied, tilting his hooded head to one side. “HE WAS BARELY ATTACHED TO HIS LIFE FORCE, HOWEVER. A FEW MORE SECONDS AND HE WOULD HAVE BEEN BEYOND MY HELP. WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?”
I looked down at Torrence and saw that, indeed, the wakizashi had been ejected from his flesh and the wound was already knitting closed in its wake.
I sighed, collapsing to the ground. The shift from the dragon realm to here hadn’t taken anything out of me, really, even with Trev and Torrence in tow—thank you, Azrael—but the adrenaline leaving my system left my legs shaky, even without the drain on my power.
“I didn’t do anything to him except bring him here,” I said, as I caught my breath. “A pissed-off dragon threw a sword at him.”
Life didn’t have a face that I could see, beyond the two glowing orbs that marked his eyes within the wooden hood of his cloak, but I could have sworn he was frowning anyway.
“FRIENDSHIP WITH YOU APPEARS TO BE A VERY HIGH RISK FACTOR FOR THE HEALTH OF OTHERS.”
I laughed, though a part of me wanted to cry.
“I can’t argue with that,” I muttered, leaning back against one of the nearby trees.
After a few deep breaths of fresh mountain air tinged with the sweet scent of butterscotch pines, and a moment of staring in silence at the woods that surrounded the small open clearing of the Tree of Life, I looked at Trev. As soon as our eyes met, I felt a pang of guilt; it was probably the first time I’d really looked at him since I’d come back from my own dimensional pocket.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down against the tree beside me.
“Hey,” I replied, eloquence escaping me entirely.
He reached his hand out towards mine, but hesitated before our fingers met. I looked at him, frowned, and grabbed his hand from where it hovered a few inches from mine.
“I’m sorry,” we said in unison. Then we both laughed.
“Yeah,” I said, giving his hand a squeeze. “I don’t know why you kept Mom and Dad a secr
et, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it was for some noble reason.”
“I didn’t want them kicked out of the Realm of the Dead,” he said quietly.
“You think Hel would boot them, just because I knew they were alive?” I asked, one eyebrow arching incredulously.
He shrugged.
“They said the only reason it was safe to tell me where they were was that I was dead to the people who had known me.”
I stared at him.
“They sent me an e-mail, Vic. I don’t even know how they sent an e-mail from a different realm, but they did, and that was the only communication I had from them for ages and then…. Well, after everyone thought Rhelia was dead, she was able to go visit them, so…I found out a bit more then.”
“You couldn’t go visit them?” I asked.
“I probably could have if I’d gone back before I found you, but… after that I was alive again, at least to the people who loved me, and maybe even as soon as I replied to Mom and Dad. I don’t know exactly how it works. But no, I couldn’t go see them. But Rhelia could, even though you and I technically knew she was still alive… it seems like a weird set of rules, if you ask me.”
I shrugged. “We might have known she was alive, but we’d doubted it for a bit, and EVERYONE else thought she was dead. I mean, a large number of people believed that very firmly, and still do. Maybe that’s all it takes.”
“Did Mom and Dad tell you why they left?” Trev asked, his voice quiet.
“Not really,” I said, leaning my head back farther against the tree. I was too embarrassed to explain that I hadn’t given them a chance to explain anything. Although I wasn’t sure Hel would have let them talk to me, even if I’d been more cooperative.
“Well, we should—”
“We should be getting back to Albert’s office,” rumbled a very deep, now-becoming-familiar voice.
“Torrence!” I said, launching to my feet. The large tauren was standing up, looking decidedly healthy for someone who had basically died a few minutes ago.
“Vic, Trevor, I am deeply indebted to you both. I would not have survived that attack were it not for your quick thinking and incredible facility with teleporting.”
Trev waved his hands up as though fending off the praise.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said. “I was just here as plan B.”
Torrence looked slightly puzzled, but nodded.
“And you don’t owe me shit,” I said, smiling and giving him a hug. He stood awkwardly still for a moment, then wrapped his large furry arms around me in return. “I’m just happy you’re alive.”
“Regardless, I owe you my life.”
“Ugh, fine. You owe me your life. I’ll try to figure out a way for you to pay me back without dying, ‘kay?”
Torrence simply stared at me.
“You need to lighten up, Torrence.”
Torrence frowned.
“YOU ARE DISTURBING MY PEACEFUL GLEN, VICTORIA AND FRIENDS.”
Honestly, that whole day was almost made worthwhile by the sight of Torrence nearly jumping out of his skin at the sound of Life’s voice.
“Sorry, Life. We’ll get out of your hair. Life, this is Torrence. Torrence, Life. Life is really the one you ought to be thanking, Torrence. I just brought you here. Life did the hard part.”
“DO NOT LISTEN TO THE HUMAN. I CANNOT HELP BUT MEND THAT WHICH STILL HAS LIFE TO LEND IT. I WOULD LITERALLY HAVE DONE THE SAME FOR ANYONE. I EVEN HEALED THAT OBNOXIOUS VAMPIRE THAT KEPT COMING BACK HERE UNTIL VIC IMMOLATED HIS HEAD. THEN I COULD NO LONGER MEND HIM. THAT WAS SATISFACTORY.”
Torrence, not seeming nearly as composed as he’d been a moment earlier, sketched a formal bow towards the large talking tree, and then quickly turned back to us.
“May we go now?” he asked quietly.
I decided to take pity on him, since Life can be a bit much when you’re not expecting him, and I grabbed Torrence and Trevor by the wrists and blinked us to where I hoped we would find Albert and a vial of blood.
ALBERT’S OFFICE WAS empty when we reached it, save for two disgruntled-looking iguanas who hissed angrily at us when we popped into existence in the middle of their lair. The place looked pretty much exactly as it had the last time I’d been there, including the faint smell of weed permeating the elaborate throw rugs that sat beneath Albert’s desk, and the two wingback chairs.
“Where are we?” Torrence asked, after a moment.
“Albert’s office,” I replied. “He said he’d meet me here after he got ahold of what he needed, so—”
“Ah. Vic, Trevor, lovely to see you. Torrence, it has been…some time.”
We all turned to see Albert standing just in front of the door that led into the Flagstaff High School main corridor, though I was fairly certain Albert hadn’t used the door.
“Indeed it has,” Torrence replied. There was something oddly delicate about the way that they were addressing each other, which made me curious about how they knew each other, but there was no time for that now.
“Did you get it?” I asked
In response, Albert pulled a small vial of red liquid from a pocket tucked away in the thick, robe-like overcoat he always wore.
“Rebecca’s cousin seemed all too happy to help, when I asked. Seems they aren’t on the best of terms these days.”
Yet another topic I would love to ask more about, but we really didn’t have the time.
“Can you two complete the ritual without us?” I asked, gesturing between me and Trev, who hadn’t said a word since we’d arrived here. Albert and Torrence both nodded. “Albert, Torrence will have to stay with you. Nethia could have cast this spell on an object, but Torrence can only make himself a compass. Is that ok?”
Albert shrugged, as if he would make do with what he got.
“We should probably be getting back to see what the hell is wrong with General Aira,” I added.
“Why should anything be wrong with General Aira?” Albert asked.
I sighed.
“Because she threw a wakizashi through Torrence’s heart without so much as saying hello first. Still not clear on why, since we were too busy taking Torrence to Life to make sure he didn’t die. Maybe… consider not returning him to the dragon realm when you two are done.”
“I will return to the dragon realm to face my crimes and receive justice,” Torrence declared.
“Ok…your call. We have to go. Good luck finding Dryer. I’ll tell General Aira that you two are on the mission we’d planned, and she can yell at me all she wants. Hopefully without any swords, though.”
Then, before Albert or Torrence could object, I grabbed Trev’s hand in mine, felt a rush of warmth from the thought that things were mending between us, then closed my eyes and reached for a sunny valley filled with dragons and wildflowers.
BUT THE SUNNY valley filled with dragons and wildflowers appeared to be in absolute chaos.
I had taken us back to the spot where I’d last seen General Aira, hoping to find her in a calmer mood. General Aira was there, but so was everyone else, apparently. Twenty people or more surrounded the dragon general, all trying to speak at once, while the troops still massed on the field around us shifted anxiously, as though awaiting the final order to attack. I was honestly surprised that General Aira, currently in her dragon form, hadn’t started biting people’s heads off, just so she could actually hear people over the din.
I won’t lie, after what had happened with Torrence, I hesitated to approach the General in her dragon form, even though all the evidence suggested she was just as deadly in her human one. I scanned the crowd around Aira, hoping to find backup in the form of Rhelia. I didn’t see her.
Trev and I were still holding hands when I picked two other familiar figures out of the crowd, though, and that may have been the only thing that kept me upright.
“Is that…?” Trev asked, squeezing my fingers in his.
“Yes,” I replied, my voice cracking slightly.
And then we were both running for our Mom and Dad.
In that moment, I forgot about the lies, forgot about the abandonment, pushed aside every negative thought I’d had about my parents in the past year. They were here. They were alive, and in front of me, and not trapped in some strange dimension that I could only visit if everyone thought I was dead.
Trev and I ran, and for a moment, in the middle of a crowd of people trying to organize a war, our world narrowed to a tangle of arms and chests as we somehow managed to all hug each other at once.
“How are you here?” I asked, between hugs, trying to look at both my Mom’s and Dad’s faces at the same time. “How did you get away from Hel? I thought she was planning to keep you as collateral until I got back?”
“You managed to convince her that the fight against MOME was more important than whatever petty plans she had for a power grab,” my Mom replied, hugging me again, crushing my face to her shoulder and then holding me out at arm’s length. “After you left, we told her that we had to get to you as soon as possible, that if you were going to succeed in stopping MOME you had to know what we knew.”
Dad finally let go of Trev long enough to talk, even as he wiped away the tears from his eyes and cheeks.
“We have to get Albert and General Aira to listen. You can’t go after Dryer.”
“Dad, we have to go after her. If we don’t stop her, we don’t stop any of this. MOME will just keep coming after us,” I said, exasperated. “Besides, Albert is already gone.”
“True, but I don’t mean that no one should go after Dryer, only that you shouldn’t. Let Albert handle Dryer, he can handle her alone. You need to go after the Technetium itself.”
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 54
