by Maya Banks
“There, there. Don’t cry, girl. Everything is fine now.”
He patted her awkwardly on the back then settled her back on her pillows.
“Let me look at you,” he said, surveying her intently.
He reached out a hand to touch a lock of her hair. “What happened to your hair?”
She opened her mouth but found herself unable to speak around the knot in her throat.
She breathed deeply, shaking, trembling. Then she asked the question uppermost on her mind.
“Why, Papa? Why the deception? Why was I led to believe you were in danger?”
His eyes softened with regret. “I did not like lying to you, girl. But I did what I must to ensure that you would come. I wasn’t sure after what happened in India that you would be willing to honor a request.”
He looked down at his hands. “Arcane didn’t like that I went to such elaborate lengths to deceive you. He thought I underestimated you, and perhaps I did. But...I wasn’t sure how you would feel about me after...after you discovered that I was here.”
Her heart seized, and her jaw ached with unshed emotion. “You left me,” she said, her voice cracking.
He closed his eyes. “You cannot know how many nights I’ve lain awake wishing with all my might that I could go back and change the past. I thought you dead. I didn’t think you had a chance of survival, what with the British High Command refusing to negotiate for your release. It wasn’t until I arrived here that I learned you were alive and had returned to England.”
“They refused?”
He nodded. “There was so much tension in the region, and the regiment commander didn’t feel that one woman was enough to risk the tenuous peace.”
She looked down at her hands, pressing them together to keep from shaking.
Hadn’t she meant more to him? Shouldn’t he have moved heaven and earth to try and free her?
“Then Sir Roderick found me. He waved Gabriel’s Bracelet under my nose like a carrot to a donkey. He knew I would take the bait. We struck a devil’s bargain. We would work together to find the city. Only once we did, he plotted evil.”
“I don’t understand,” she said quietly. “How did he die, Papa?”
“He stole out of the city with the key,” her father said.
“And that is why he died?” she asked.
He shrugged. “There is much about the city you don’t know. So much neither of us knew. It’s all so utterly mind boggling. I knew we had to have the key back. And I knew you were our best chance at recovering it. So I embellished my circumstances a bit and hoped you would see fit to do this one thing for your father.”
“But why didn’t you come?” she cried. “Why allow me to believe you were dead? Didn’t I mean anything to you? You thought me dead in India, and yet you suddenly knew I was the one to retrieve the bracelet?”
“Only when I arrived here did I know you were alive. Arcane informed me of the error in my beliefs. Then I made the decision to stay here rather than return to England.” He paused and looked her in the eye but then ducked guiltily. “Even knowing you were there. I had hoped...I had hoped you would come and that you might also stay,” he said in a quieter voice.
A buzz began in her ears. Stay? Never had she even considered this in all of the possible scenarios she had played out in her head. She had assumed she would rescue her father and that they would return to England. Together.
She leaned back against her pillows feeling oddly deflated.
Her father leaned forward eagerly. He reached for her hand and clasped it against his chest. “We could be a family again, India. Just you and me in this magnificent place. We’ve spent so many years trying to find it, and now we have. I know I’ve let you down, but I’m hoping you can find it in your heart to forgive a foolish old man.”
She softened when she saw the sparkle of tears in his wrinkle-lined eyes. Deep within all the hurt and disappointment, she was so relieved not to be alone in the world. Her father was alive. Her flesh and blood.
There was so much to think about, and she was so tired. So very tired.
“I need to rest,” she said.
Her father nodded and slowly stood. “There is a young man quite anxious to see you. Shall I send him in?”
She shook her head. “Not now. Let me rest.”
She needed to think. Needed to sort out the horrid sense of betrayal she felt, and the overwhelming sense of relief that followed so closely behind. What Ridge had experienced at her hands was now what she had been dealt by her own father.
She closed her eyes and listened until she heard her father’s footsteps fade from the room. A hot tear leaked from underneath her eyelid and slipped down her cheek, below her ear and around to the back of her neck.
###
When India awoke, the room was dark. She twisted her head to look out the window of the cottage and could see that night had fallen. How long had she slept?
She pushed herself off the pillows, moaning softly as her shoulder protested. With considerable effort, she managed to swing her feet over the side of the bed and steady herself by planting her feet on the floor.
She was well on her way to standing up when she saw Ridge sitting in a chair by the door. She squinted her eyes in the dark trying to see if he was awake.
“Ridge,” she whispered.
He didn’t move.
She pushed herself from the bed with her good arm and stood for several long moments in order to get her bearings. She needed fresh air. Maybe it would clear the cobwebs from her brain. And her heart.
She tiptoed past Ridge and eased out the front door of the cottage. As the cool night air blew over her, she inhaled deeply, closing her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them, she looked skyward, marveling at the brightness of the moon and stars. Then she glanced around, determining her destination.
A small path between the cottages led toward the lake, so she followed it, moving slowly and stiffly.
After much effort, and considerable discomfort, she managed to heave herself onto a stone bench that overlooked the tranquil water.
Then she allowed herself to look around. Truly look around at Pagoria. She couldn’t believe she was here. That she was sitting in a place of legend. People throughout time had sought the city without success. Why had she been successful? Why had her father?
“You have the look of a person in torment.”
She twisted her head to see an elderly man in a long blue robe standing a few feet away. He studied her, probed her with his gaze.
“Who are you?” she asked.
He smiled and moved forward. “May I?” he asked, gesturing to the space beside her on the bench.
She slid as far to the left as she could to make room, and the man sat down.
“I am called Arcane.”
“I am India,” she replied.
He smiled again. “Yes, I know. I have heard much about you, daughter of Phillip Ashton.”
“You are...Pagorian?” she asked hesitantly.
He turned to look out over the waters. “I sense much turmoil in you, India. While many would be happy to see this great city, you value answers, the truth, much more.”
“I have so many questions,” she said wistfully.
“Then ask and I shall answer what I can.”
She looked at him in shock. Could it be that easy? Would the secrets of Pagoria unfold before her very eyes?
“What is this place?” she asked. “I mean why has no one ever found it? Why is it secret?”
He paused and stared at her as if pondering his words very carefully. “Tell me, India. Do you believe in the creator?”
She reared her head back in surprise. “You mean God?” How ironic that she be asked once again. First by Ridge, now by this man in Pagoria.
The man turned his gaze upward. “I suppose to you, yes, God. He has many names. Many faces. Many manifestations. He is many things to many
people.”
He shifted around so that he faced her. “Let me tell you a story, India. How it all began. I think you will then understand the origins of Pagoria and why we lay hidden from the world.”
She nodded slowly, a mixture of fear and excitement building within her. Somehow she knew that what was to come would shake the foundations of her perceptions.
“Time is infinite,” he began. “It has always been. It will always be. What is perceived to be a beginning is merely the ending of something else. An ever revolving cycle.
“In a time long ago, the favored one sat on the right hand of God. He was given dominion over earth, over this city. Pagoria was the seat of all civilization. But the favored one rebelled. The son of the morning fell from grace and was cast from the city, taking one third of the light with him.”
India leaned forward unable to contain her excitement. “Lucifer. I knew it! You are speaking of Lucifer’s fall. I had thought it merely legend.”
Arcane continued on, his voice steady. “There was much sorrow in heaven that day. Tears fell from the sky. They covered the earth, bringing about great change. Those were tumultuous times. Where great beasts had once roamed the earth, the land was now barren. Cold. Uninviting. Man was forced backward, clumsy, made to hunt with only the tools of the earth. It was a slow progress, many years in the making.
“Then the Great One, with a wave of the hand, pushed back the veil of waters, reformed the great mountains which once spewed fire and rock. He filled the skies with wings and the waters with many fishes. He made the earth hospitable again. The mother and father of modern mankind were brought forth from the dust of the earth. Civilization sprung forth again.
“But here, in the bosom of Orion, we have quietly existed. Born of the almighty, loyal to Him. We were protected from the great waters, not once, but twice. We are as old as time, ageless and yet ancient.”
India stared at him in awe. “You speak as though you have lived it.”
Arcane smiled. “Indeed we have. Time is a complex thing. Here, it passes differently. What is an unfathomable amount of time to you is merely the passing of a season for us.”
“But that means...”
“It means that in the time you have been here, short though it is, many days have passed in your world.”
Her mouth formed an O. “Then my father has not waited long for my arrival at all.”
“Not long at all, India.”
She leaned back and stared over the water in complete stupefaction. Her mind simply could not digest all she had been told. It wasn’t logical. But matters of faith rarely were.
“That is why you must now make a decision,” he said gently. “You may stay here with your father as he wishes, or you may return to your home. It is a decision that cannot languish lest you return to a world you are unfamiliar with, and should you decide to leave, you will be unable to return.”
“Why?” she asked.
“The bracelet you returned. It is the last of its kind. We have waited long for this moment. A time when we can be assured of our safety, of our way of life. We have long lived with the fear of discovery, but now there exists not a way back into the city.”
She frowned. “But my father came with the bracelet. Why did you not keep it then?”
Arcane’s eyes flashed regret and sadness. “The man known as Roderick fled the city, taking with him the bracelet we had rejoiced so over finding. Your father was sure you could find it in the place called England. So we sent out our guardians to see to your safety and protection and prayed for the return of the key.
“This time it will be destroyed along with the other six.”
She pursed her lips, thinking of the man in her cottage. “Is that how others have come here? The other bracelets?”
He nodded. “There were seven bracelets, and when the favored one was cast out, there was much confusion. The bracelets disappeared from the city, scattered over the earth as some of the inhabitants fled.
“Over the course of time, the bracelets have slowly filtered back to us as those seeking the city have made their way here. When Maximus came to us, he brought with him the sixth bracelet. Yours was the seventh and final.”
She let out a long breath. Nothing in her wildest dreams had prepared her for the truth of Pagoria. Theories, speculation, existed, abounded about the city, most of which she was intimately familiar with. But to sit here and have confirmed something so utterly amazing, it was the single most incredible event of her life.
“I can see I’ve given you much to think about,” he said. “I will leave you to ponder all I have said.” He stood, the material from his robe falling to the ground. “You must make your decision by the next sunrise. You may stay, or you may return to your world.”
She watched him walk away, her mind nearly exploding under the pressure of her ultimatum. She had come here in search of her family only to discover that maybe she had never had the sort of family she wanted. Now she must decide whether to stay and salvage what little she had or leave and give it all up. Her dreams, her wants, her needs. Leave to a life of uncertainty.
Her hands trembled, and she squeezed them together in one big ball to keep her entire body from following suit. If she stayed, she would never see Ridge again. But if she left, she would never see her father again, and she could not live the sort of life Ridge wanted. And she couldn’t, wouldn’t take away from him any more than she had already. Was she doomed to a life of misery either way?
She was afraid. So very afraid of making the wrong decision. So much so that the safe decision seemed to be the most attractive. The one that entailed no risks, no chance of her being hurt. She wanted to be sheltered for once. Away from the life she had led. Away from the possibility that she would disappoint Ridge.
She stared up at the sky as if the answer would be there written in the stars. She was afraid to look inward, to her own heart. She was afraid of what it might tell her.
There was so much to think about, and she only had until dawn.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ridge woke to the uncomfortable sensation that he no longer had feet. He raised his head from his shoulder, and nearly groaned in protest. Then he moved his feet in an effort to restore the circulation, wincing as painful twinges shot up his leg.
He eyed the window and noticed the first streaks of dawn lighting the sky. His gaze slid over to the bed to where India lay, only she was not there.
He shot up from his chair. “India?” he called out, looking frantically around the room.
He hobbled out of the bedroom and scanned the living area for any sign of her. Where the devil had she gone? She had no business being up with such a serious injury.
Swallowing back a curse, he staggered out of the cottage, stomping his feet on the ground to restore proper feeling. “India?” he called again.
He looked in all directions, then started down the path to the lake. He relaxed when he saw her sitting on the bench, her back to him, staring out over the water.
He approached her and slid onto the bench beside her. She looked up at him, startled for a moment until she saw it was him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked. “You shouldn’t be up.”
She smiled. “I’m sore and stiff, but I needed some air. Needed to think.”
He put a hand out, twirling the ends of her hair with his fingers. “And what were you thinking so hard about?”
“This place,” she replied, staring out again over the rolling terrain.
“It’s amazing isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Your father was very glad to see you,” he said, uncomfortable with the strange awkwardness between them.
She sighed softly, the sound echoing in the night. “We need to talk, Ridge.”
His heart sped up. He didn’t like the edge he heard in her voice. “All right. Talk.” He reached over and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over the soft skin of her wris
t.
“Would you stay here?” she blurted. “I mean would you be willing to stay...forever?”
His hand stilled on hers. “Stay? You mean not return to England?”
She nodded and continued to stare out across the water.
“I can’t do that. I can’t do that to my father...my mother. She’s already lost one son. She never had a chance to say goodbye to Robby. I can’t simply desert my duty.”
He broke off. He could say so much more, but the thing uppermost on his mind was why she was asking him to stay. It could only mean she had no intention of leaving.
His breath left him in a panicked rush.
“I can’t stay, India. But you could come with me.”
She turned sad eyes on him and he knew. He knew in that moment precisely what she would say.
“And leave my father?” she asked. “I can’t leave him any more than you can leave your parents. He’s the only family I have left.”
“What of Kavi and Udaya?” he challenged.
“They would want me to be happy.”
“And will you be?”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t look at him.
“Will you see to Kavi and Udaya once you’ve returned to England?” she asked.
“Of course I will, but India, I want you to come with me,” he pressed.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “How could I leave my father?”
“Your father, has he always placed the same value on you?” Ridge demanded. He knew he hurt her with his words, but he had to make her see reason. She couldn’t do this to him, to the both of them.
“I can’t leave.”
“You won’t leave,” he bit out. “You’re afraid to leave. Afraid to trust me with your happiness.”
She swallowed hard, her throat working up and down. “I can’t be who you want me to be,” she said in a stricken voice.
He stood up. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to yell. He wanted to weep.
“I never wanted you to be anyone but you,” he said softly. “No one else. Just you. The woman I love. But I’m not going to beg, India. I can’t make you trust me. I can’t make you love me.”
