Abyss

by Bethany Adams

  “What…what are you wearing?”

  Oh. Selia found herself chuckling despite the situation. “Earth clothes.”

  “They look good on you, of course.” He flicked a glance at her breasts. “But definitely different.”

  Selia smiled. “You’ll have to admire them later. I have a mission to do now that the crisis has passed.”

  “I should go with you,” Kezari said. “I am Moranaian now. That solves the problem.”

  Aris frowned at the dragon. “Not without me. You said our magic would work best together. We’re a team.”

  An unexpected sliver of pain sliced Selia’s heart. He didn’t protest her departure, but he didn’t want Kezari to go without him. There were plenty of good reasons for that, of course. Selia knew that. Just preventing the dragon from behaving rashly was difficult enough in Morania where dragons were known to exist. But on Earth, without Aris there to guide Kezari? Visions of humans running in panic from a flame-breathing wyvern flickered through her mind.

  But feelings weren’t rational.

  “I do not like this delay, skizik,” Kezari muttered. “The crack widens with each day.”

  Aris rested his arms on his knees. “Lial. While Selia and the others are on this first mission, I would like for you to repair my bones.”

  “No,” Selia said before the healer could respond. “What if that sets off bad memories and your magic leaks out again?”

  Lial’s nostrils flared. “That will not be a concern. Aris will be placed into a deep sleep, his nerves deadened during the procedure. Tynan will ensure that memories are not triggered while I work.”

  Selia frowned. “Why didn’t Tynan block the pain today?”

  The priest’s pacing cut off abruptly as he spun to face her. “I could not. Mental pathways formed by pain cannot be rerouted while sensation is blocked. Please do not think I am cruel in addition to inept.”

  “I meant no offense,” Selia said.

  Tynan nodded, but doubt shadowed his expression. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to deal with his insecurities. Meli and the others would be waiting on her to journey to Earth. Selia glanced at one of the small windows and frowned at how dim the light appeared. It was well past the midday meal. Why hadn’t anyone come looking for her?

  Aris stood, still wavering on his feet despite his healing session. Kezari shifted beneath his shoulder to help support his weight. “We can discuss my bones later. I want rest,” Aris said.

  “I’ll see you to your room,” Lial said. “If necessary, I can put you into a light sleep.”

  Selia stared at her husband’s back as he limped across the room with Kezari. He wouldn’t leave without saying anything to her, would he? Surely not, especially with her impending mission. Her throat tightened. She wasn’t jealous of the dragon, exactly—not in a romantic sense—but she did envy their closeness. He’d formed this connection alone, a symbol of the new life they didn’t quite share.

  Then Aris looked over his shoulder, his brows lowering. “Aren’t you coming with us, Selia? I want to see your face as I fall asleep.”

  A bit of the heaviness left her chest at the pleading in his eyes. The mission would have to wait. Aris needed her.

  Water sucked at Perim’s body as the waves surged in frenzied eddies around her waist. Salt stung the healing cuts from her crawl through the tunnels, but it was a small discomfort. Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. She stopped at the proper number and studied the sea around her. Baza had claimed there was an outcropping twenty-two steps from the shore. A quick swim from there, and she was supposed to find a fissure of energy that connected to the Veil.

  What a delicious secret that had been. All this time, Kezari had sought a way to convince the queen to petition the Moranaians for use of the portal while Baza had quietly been expanding a newly developing fissure. Like the other dragons, he had no desire to leave the island—or so he claimed—but gathering control of a valuable resource like a new portal would give him a great deal of power.

  If he didn’t want Kezari’s hoard of earth-magic gems so badly, he never would have revealed the truth to Perim. He’d even shared that Kezari was likely to head to Earth with Aris to solve a problem with the energy there. Perim grinned. The dragon wasn’t likely to get anything useful out of Aris after he’d been so thoroughly broken.

  Perim shoved her hand over her eyes and squinted against the sunlight striking the sea. The only outcropping she could see was at least another thirty paces away, maybe more. Had Baza lied about the whole thing? This was far more than twenty-two. Although… She groaned. How did dragons count steps? Not the way elves did, it seemed.

  She straightened her spine and started walking again, ignoring the pull of the water. She’d swim if she had to—anything to escape the living death of the island.

  As she exited the brooding tower, Selia gathered the edges of her cloak in her hands, blocking the sight of the strange Earth clothes from others’ view. With the dragon gone and the birds settled, the workers had resumed their preparations for the autumn festival. Only two days away now. Soon, crowds would gather to hear the omree practice their songs.

  Warriors from surrounding areas would also arrive to compete in the tournaments the day after the main festival. There would be archery and swordplay for certain, but Selia wasn’t sure what else they did here. At home, the mages held contests for the most innovative spells, but that probably wouldn’t happen at Braelyn.

  She’d been looking forward to experiencing the festival, and now she might not see it at all.

  Selia ducked into the door near the library and hurried toward the study. Once she’d checked in with Lyr, she could talk with Iren. It would be just like him to try to follow the group to Earth, especially considering his fascination with Arlyn’s stories. He’d already considered and discarded several ideas on how Moranaians could use magic to create a space station circling the planet like Earth had. She smiled. Elves in space—what a thought.

  To her surprise, Iren was already in the study, bent over a stack of papers in the seat next to Arlyn. She’d certainly wasted no time in recruiting his aid with those reports. When Arlyn cast a sheepish look her way, Selia grinned and inclined her head. She had no problem with other adults giving him tasks, within reason. It was good for him.

  Lyr stood with Meli beside his desk. His hand rested at her waist, and his face was pinched with worry. But as soon as he caught sight of Selia, resignation replaced it. His hand lingered for another moment before he sighed and straightened. Meli leaned up to give him a quick kiss on the lips before walking over to Selia.

  “Ready for our grand adventure?” Meli asked.

  “Now?” Selia’s brows drew together. “I thought we’d need to do more preparation.”

  Meli shook her head. “We’re only waiting on you. Kai, Inona, and Delbin are already at the portal with our packs.”

  Her cheeks heated. “Forgive me for holding everything up.”

  “It was necessary,” Lyr said, striding over. “Lial reported to me already. But now that Aris is settled, it seems best to proceed quickly. I didn’t want to say this in front of Kezari, but I would like to have a better idea of the situation before sending a dragon to Earth. Although I don’t doubt her honesty…”

  Arlyn glanced up from the report she held. “I wouldn’t send her without good reason, that’s for sure. There are lots of ways to explain pointy ears on Earth, but a dragon is sort of hard to pass off as something else.”

  “Just so,” Lyr grumbled.

  “Perhaps it will be unnecessary,” Selia said. “If I am capable of correcting the problem, would you like me to do so, or should I stick with gathering information?”

  Lyr’s lips pursed. “If you are certain you can fix it, please do. I would be happy to avert another crisis.”

  “Me, too.” Selia smiled at Meli. “Well, then. I’m ready when you are.”

  The younger woman nodded, turning to give her bonded another kiss. Selia walked ove
r to Iren’s chair and knelt to look into his eyes. He grinned at her, no hint of the nerves twisting her stomach in his eyes. “I’ll be good, Onaiala. I want to go to Earth, but I don’t want to be poisoned. Then I’d have to see the healer.”

  Selia chuckled at the dismay in his tone at the last word. In this case, it wasn’t just because of Lial’s grumpy nature. Iren balked at any healer. “Remember that, love. Perhaps you could check in on your father later?”

  “I will,” Iren said, his humor fading. “I promise.”

  “Good.” Despite the others in the room, Selia leaned forward to kiss Iren on the cheek. He groaned at the display, but his arms wrapped around her neck for a hug. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” he answered as she stood.

  Then Selia joined Meli by the door. Selia gripped her cloak together with shaky hands, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the hall.

  Toward her first real adventure.

  Chapter 17

  They emerged into darkness.

  Selia squinted against the sudden night, her eyes taking a moment to adjust after the dim glow of the Veil. After a few heartbeats, the thin trickle of moonlight resolved the world into shades of black and gray. She followed the others from the narrow passage in the wall of a ridge, and a bit more of the world came into focus.

  The small ridge followed a hill that sloped upward to their left and downward to their right. Beyond the small clearing where they stood, sparse tree-shadows stood against the navy sky, but the branches looked far smaller than the trees at Braelyn. Still, this wasn’t too different from the foothills on the edge of the plains. Hadn’t Arlyn said there would be cities on this world? Difficult to believe in this location.

  “It’s late,” Kai said, peering down the hill. “I doubt your friend would appreciate us calling her for a ride.”

  Delbin pulled a thin, rectangular device from his pocket. A phone, she thought it was called. He pressed on the side, and the glassy surface filled with light. The thin beam illuminated the frown creasing his brow. “Yeah, not at one in the morning.”

  “This does not look like morning,” Meli said from beside Selia.

  “Humans count the start of the day in the middle of the night.” Delbin shrugged. “You get used to it. But hey, I have a ride-sharing app. Once we reach the end of the driveway on the other end of the ridge, I’ll request pick-up.”

  “You don’t think that’ll look suspicious?” Kai asked.

  Delbin smiled. “Eh, maybe. We could say the party up at the house got a little wild. It’s too far away to see from the road.”

  Inona nudged Delbin’s shoulder with her own. “You just want a chance to use Ralan’s money.”

  “He’s a rich bastard. And I’m not stealing,” Delbin added when Kai frowned. “He gave me permission to hook his card to the app.”

  App? Card? Selia exchanged a confused grimace with Meli. “This sounds difficult.”

  Kai expelled a long breath. “And dangerous. We don’t want to keep showing up out of nowhere with no obvious means of transportation. Even Maddy’s periodic pick-ups may be causing notice.”

  “It’s not too much of a jog to reach a few human businesses,” Inona said. “I’ve found people willing to drive me places from there when needed.”

  Delbin spun to face Inona. “You hitchhiked? Ah, hell, that’s not a safe way to—”

  “I may not have your strength when it comes to telepathy, but I can tell when someone is dangerous. I can give them a bit of a nudge, too,” Inona grumbled.

  “Learn from your elders, man.” Kai grinned. “You might have lived here the last hundred years, but we’ve been doing this type of thing for centuries. It’s best in this case. We’ll find some place public, and you can take control of someone with a large vehicle. From my understanding, the cave isn’t near well-travelled areas. Your app would keep a record of our unusual destination.”

  Delbin shook his head. “There’s an official trailhead and a small campsite near the cave.”

  “Do humans begin such activities in the middle of the night?” Inona asked sweetly.

  “Not usually for legit reasons,” Delbin muttered, rubbing his neck. “All right, fine. I’ll let the elderly lead the way.”

  Selia studied their surroundings as much as the light permitted as she and Meli followed Inona and Kai. The insects’ chirps sounded a different tune, and the air carried an unusual blend of nature and…something else. A hint of something acrid, but she had no name for it. Even the energy felt different.

  What little she could pull in. It was like trying to grasp something on a tall shelf. She could brush it with her fingers, but she couldn’t get the leverage to pull. When Selia did finally manage a link, the flow was but a trickle. Drips from a water clock compared to a steady stream. Her fingers wrapped around the pouch of energy crystals she’d shoved in her pocket. If she had to do magic, she was going to need them, though she hoped she didn’t have to waste the one containing pure Moranaian energy. That one was a last resort.

  By the time they reached a road, Selia was out of breath. They’d alternated between walking and jogging, and the scouts’ paces were definitely faster than hers or Meli’s. More than once, she’d exchanged exhausted but resolved glances with the other woman. They might not have trained for this, but they weren’t going to hold the group back.

  Still, she was more than grateful for a short break.

  Selia bent over for several long moments, trying to steady her breathing. She stared at the odd, smooth material of the road as she gasped in more air. A harsh scent emanated from the…rock? Shaking her head, she straightened, and only then did she notice what was on the other side. Light poured from a squat metal-and-glass building situated in a sea of more smooth stone. A variety of conveyances sat between lines all around the place.

  Cars. These must be what Arlyn had called cars.

  “What is the ground here?” she asked softly.

  “It’s artificial,” Delbin explained. “This stuff is asphalt. It’s a mix of small stones and pitch. Humans spread it all over the place for cars to drive on. Sometimes, you’ll see concrete, which is made in a similar way to the walls of some of our houses. I think.”

  All along the road to the right of the building, more structures sat, little grass to be seen amidst the asphalt. Tall metal poles stretched into the sky at regular intervals, connected by a series of thin ropes, and little arms stuck out from the top with lights attached. Selia sent out a tendril of power, curious to see how the lanterns differed from mage lamps. But she retreated quickly at the intense energy surging through them, like lightning contained.

  Fascinating. She might be able to work with human electricity if it was similar to lightning, but it would take some research. “Remind me to speak to you later, Delbin, about how you use magic to charge your device. There may be more compatibility than I’d thought.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “Come on.” Kai gestured toward the brightly lit building. “Let’s cross the street before someone drives by.”

  Selia and Meli followed Inona and Delbin, Kai falling behind to guard their backs. As they hurried across the road and onto the broad expanse of asphalt, an odd sound like a buzzing whoosh echoed off the trees. Frowning, Selia spun around, only to step back with a cry when a large conveyance—car—rushed past with such force that her hair was tossed about by the wind. Gods, those things went fast.

  Without magic, too.

  “We’re supposed to ride in one of those?” Meli whispered.

  Delbin chuckled. “You get used to it.”

  Selia stared at the retreating red lights, her heart pounding against her ribs. Get used to it? No. She’d ridden horses on the plains, but they couldn’t approach that speed. It couldn’t be safe. Were humans insane? Fear crawled up her throat and coated her mouth with bitterness. She shouldn’t have come here. She wasn’t an explorer like Aris.

  “Selia,” Inona began softly, settling her hand o
n Selia’s shoulder. “It’s a lot to get used to. Don’t give yourself grief over it.”

  With a nod, Selia spun back toward the metal and glass building, though she wasn’t so certain Inona was correct. They were all at risk if she couldn’t handle this. Why shouldn’t she be hard on herself? But she didn’t give voice to her doubts, lest she affect their confidence, too.

  “I’m ready,” Selia said.

  As they resumed walking, Meli gave Selia a quick smile. “She’s right, you know. Shifting cultures is tough. In some ways, it was harder for me to go from Alfheim to Moranaia than it is to travel here. I get flickers of my past life sometimes, so I’ve seen some of these things in my head. You haven’t.”

  Selia arched a brow. “You seemed just as worried about the car’s speed as I was.”

  “The image in my mind wasn’t moving,” Meli said with a grimace. “Transportation portals are much safer and more efficient.”

  “You have the right of it.” Selia lowered her voice. “If I can gather enough energy after we find the breech, I’ll transport us back to the portal.”

  Kai spoke over Selia’s shoulder. “It would be nice if you can manage it despite the energy limitations.”

  Selia shrugged. “We shall see.”

  She followed Delbin and Inona through a set of doors that slid open as they approached, but she was too busy blinking against the intense light of the interior to marvel over that. Once her eyes adjusted, she stumbled to a halt, stunned by the shelves full of brightly colored packages. A tall display stood directly in front of her, purple and orange bags lined up in little compartments. The bag had words, but she didn’t recognize them.

  Selia’s brow furrowed. Lyr had used a spell to give her the English language, and he’d said the written form was included. Had there been a mistake? “What do they speak here?” she asked Kai.

  “English.”

  She frowned. Languages did change all the time, so these words might simply be new. “I thought that was what I’d been given, but I don’t understand the words on some of these items.”