Yes... I think... my mother... it's been so long.
I cocked my head. It hadn't been that long. The wyrm had only been on earth for a few days...
Your mother sent me to you...
Do you mean my father?
Your mother and father, both. They're looking for you.
The king is looking for me?
I bit my lip. You think of King Conand as your father?
He cares for me... the only one I've ever known... he visited me...
He visited you here, in this cave?
He met me here... he took me somewhere else...
Where did he have you go? I asked.
Follow me...
The baby wyrm's body slithered around the cavern until it found another tunnel. I hadn't noticed the tunnel before. The wyrm's body had obscured it. But I followed him through it.
At the end of the tunnel was a whirlpool of green and gold magic...
I'd seen pools like this before. It was a gateway.
"Where does this go?" I asked, not realizing I'd switched to speaking out loud.
To Fomoria...
I nodded. I couldn't believe it. I mean, if Fomoria was swallowed by the void... but at least if we went there, we'd be with others. Probably Nammu, too.
And if we were all together, we'd have a chance.
"We need to go through the gate," I said. "Your mother is waiting for you."
Hold on to me, friend...
I grabbed onto Nammu's child, and, like I'd done with her, I slid my hands beneath his scales.
"I'm Joni," I said, having figured out he could hear me out loud, like his mother did.
My name is Enki.
Enki plunged into the gateway... a golden light, then a green light... and then...
There was a firmament... but no void bringer. I didn't see Nammu.
The city wasn't all that different than the one I'd seen before. Many spires. But they were different. Arranged differently. Nammu had pulled down the king's spire before... but I didn't see any rubble.
Where are we? I asked through my mind again.
"Halt!" a voice said before Enki could respond. "You are not the future king!"
I turned, and there he was. The ancient Fomorian I met before... the one who'd helped me through the cave... the one who told me what I was destined to become.
He was as rugged as ever. A massive figure, but he didn't have a tail. The ancient Fomorians didn't... they were still shifters, but so far as I knew, the ancient ones had a harder time maintaining other forms. Evolution happens, apparently, even for magical species. He was holding a massive spear—not a trident, like mine. And from the look in his single eye, square in the middle of his forehead, he didn't recognize me.
"Balor?" I asked.
26
"HOW DO YOU know my name?" the old Fomorian king asked.
I cocked my head. "It's me! Joni. Remember?"
His solitary eye squinted. He didn't remember me...
There was only one reason why that might be the case...
This Balor hadn't met me yet.
The gate we went through was a passage to Fomoria... but not the Fomoria I knew.
It was the ancient kingdom... the one off the coast of what we now know as Britain...
But we hadn't just moved through space... we'd also traversed the fabric of time. We'd went back thousands of years...
"Well, color me pink and call me a rooster," I said out loud.
"Why would me call you that?" Balor asked.
I shrugged. "Something my gran used to say."
"Is this gran you speak of related to King Conand?" Balor asked.
I cocked my head. "Not that I know of..."
In truth, I was referring to my human gran. I supposed there could have been a chance there was some kind of relation between my ancient Fomorian ancestors and King Conand—not likely, But I couldn't rule it out entirely. I knew next to nothing about my Fomorian heritage...
A deficiency I was hoping to ameliorate at some undetermined point in the future after I'd settled into my new home.
What I'd give for a home where I could rest... a safe place...
My childhood home, the Campbell Plantation in Baton Rouge, had a long history... one that led to a Voodoo attack on my family when I was in my early teens. Then we moved to St. Louis, and I got caught up, almost immediately, in more cosmic, magical, shit... got knocked up...
Elijah and I started trying to make a home for ourselves at a place he'd inherited in the Ozarks. Then more shit... I ended up caught in a cave, turned into a dragon, and the rest was history.
And now the Fomoria I knew and hoped to make my home had been swallowed by the voidbringer.
Go figure.
I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever find a place I could call home.
I looked at Balor curiously. "So King Conand... he's been coming here all this time?"
"He visits us often, La Sirene."
I narrowed my eyes. I hadn't told him that name. When I met him the first time, he called me Miss Joni. But this version of Balor, he must've recognized me, even if he didn't think we'd ever met.
"You called me La Sirene. How do you know that name?" I asked.
Balor smiled wide. The few teeth he had were yellowed and rotten. What else would one expect from someone who came from a time before the advent of oral hygiene? "The king has said I should expect you. Only I never imagined I should meet you so soon."
I pet Enki on the side. "I think we have a lot of catching up to do. All three of us."
"What is there to catch up with Enki?" Balor asked. "Me have known Enki for years. Me practically raised the wyrm."
I raised my eyebrow. "Enki, how old are you exactly?"
I cannot say... I do not know how to count one's age...
Balor piped up. "I've known Enki ever since he was a baby. Me spent at least ten years with him between the future king's visits."
I took a deep breath. From our perspective, Enki had only been missing from his mother for a few days. But in that time, he'd been sent by the king back in time, sent to the ancient Fomorians that they might raise him. From Enki's perspective, it was no wonder he barely remembered his mother. So far as he was concerned, all he ever knew was this ancient world... and the cave beneath modern-day Fomoria.
"Balor," I said. "This future king. Conand. What was he doing here?"
Balor shrugged. "His concern was only for Enki."
"And he offered you nothing in return for helping raise the wyrm?" I asked.
Balor looked back at me blankly. "He offered us you, Miss Joni. You and the rest of the Wyrmriders."
I cocked my head. "I don't follow. First, we're the only ones here. And second, offer us for what reason?"
Balor nodded behind me at the portal we'd just passed through.
The magic swirling in the portal brightened.
Then out of it came Nammu, with Cleo on her back.
And shortly after... Agwe and Tahlia on their wyrms...
"I don't understand..."
"Finally!" Balor exclaimed. "Victory will soon be ours!"
I furrowed my brow. "Victory over who?"
Balor didn't have a chance to answer. With four wyrms all roaring through the water, I don't think he even heard my question.
Nammu charged through and spotted Enki immediately.
She cocked her head. She was confused...
My baby?
Enki didn't respond. Instead, he nuzzled his head under Nammu's chin.
Did Enki remember her? He didn't seem to before. But now... it was like all the time he'd spent without her was gone. And for Nammu, it hadn't been long at all.
Cleo dismounted Nammu and swam up beside me.
Agwe and Tahlia followed not far behind.
"What happened out there?" I asked. "And how did you..."
Cleo put her hand on my shoulder. "Agwe and Tahlia took on the voidbringer... they held it off as long as they could... I found Nammu an
d..."
"What about Fomoria?" I asked. "What happened to the city?"
"Swallowed by the void," Agwe said. "For now."
"For now?" I asked.
Agwe nodded. "This gate joining our Fomoria to this ancient Fomorian city... it has tethered our city to this one. The voidbringer cannot destroy the city so long as the gate remains open."
"But the voidbringer did swallow the city."
Agwe nodded. "And that's all it can do. So long as the tether remains by this gateway, the voidbringer is trapped, too. It cannot consume Fomoria. But it can't release our city either."
"What about King Conand and his legion?" I asked.
Agwe looked at me with a blank stare. "Why do you think he brought his entire legion out to meet us when we returned with the wyrm?"
I shrugged. "I just figured... you know... because we were showing up with three wyrms!"
"He sent us into Fomoria," Tahlia said. "He insisted we needed to go inside the city so that the wyrm could fend off the voidbringer from within the firmament."
"Why from the inside?" I asked. "Wouldn't it make more sense to take the wyrm against the voidbringer from the outside?"
Cleo shook her head. "It was because Nammu was inside already. It made sense at the time. She is the strongest of the three, even if her power is diminished temporarily. And when we tried to stop it from the outside, with just two of us, we weren't making any progress."
We couldn't bind the voidbringer, Nammu said, even as she and Enki continued to nuzzle together. Not until we saved my boy. But with three of us together, combined with Fomorian power, we thought we might be able to slow him down.
Agwe nodded. I wasn't aware that he could hear Nammu even as I could. But I suppose it made sense. I mean... hello... he's a frickin’ demigod. "Since you and Nammu were inside, we had no choice but to go to her."
"I take it the plan to slow down the voidbringer failed?" I asked.
Cleo, Agwe, and Tahlia exchanged glances. "It was my fault," Tahlia said.
"It was no one's fault," Agwe insisted.
"No. It was mine. Agwe and Cleo could bolster their wyrm's power with Fomorian magic. They had a chance. But I'm not a Fomorian. I couldn't help out my wyrm that way. We were the weak link."
"You're a selkie," I said, finishing her thought. "But it isn't your fault. If I'd been out in time, if I'd found my way through that cave more quickly."
Agwe raised his hand. "Be as it may, it appears we fell into King Conand's trap. All set up to lure us into the city just before the voidbringer consumed it.
Wait... can I say something? Enki wanted to speak. And since he saw all this from a different perspective than the rest of us, having been effectively raised by King Conand, I suspected he was about to come to the king's defense.
"Enki, Nammu's child, has something to say," I said. "I'll share with the rest of you what he says."
So long as this gate is open, the other Fomoria is tied to this one. The voidbringer can't consume it, right?
I nodded. "Enki is confirming it is because this gate remains open the voidbringer can't destroy our city entirely."
"Of course," Agwe said. "But how long it will hold."
It will hold, Enki said. It was the one thing King Conand made sure of. He said it was more critical than anything else. That this gate would be permanent. That only I or the gatekeeper himself could ever close it. It's why he brought me here. To grow in my magic... to meet the gatekeeper, and he would teach me...
"Wait," I said. "Did you say the gatekeeper?"
"I believe that's what he said, mother," a familiar voice said from behind me. There he was.
My Merlin. All grown up.
Not the old Merlin I'd met before. But not my baby either. Call him a middle-twenties Merlin. His beard was still brown. And he'd managed to fashion for himself a mer-tail. I dove at him and wrapped my arms around him. "My baby!"
"It's nice to see you too, mom."
27
I HAVE TO be honest. Seeing my son around my age, maybe a few years older than me, was even weirder than seeing him in old age. I'm sure it was weird for him, too. Think, Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Of course, unlike Marty's mother, I was fully aware of who my son was. No weird crushes that might threaten his future existence.
"There's so much to talk about!" I said, grinning ear to ear.
Merlin nodded. "Indeed. But right now, mom, we don't have the time. And it's probably best we don't talk the past."
I raised an eyebrow. "You mean the future?"
Merlin chuckled. "Yes. Your future. My past. What must be, must be."
"One question," I said. "Your childhood..."
"Was a good one. I don't begrudge you for what you had to do, mom. There might have been a time... when I didn't understand. But I'll grow out of that. And dad always spoke about you in the best of ways."
"When will I see you again?" I asked. "I mean, the baby you?"
"We'll have our chances, mom. I realize, given the timing of this encounter, the whole issue is probably quite painful for you." Merlin smiled kindly.
"It's only been a couple days," I said.
Merlin nodded. "It will get easier over time. And while I might have wished you were there all the time, mom, you did the right thing. Dad and Emilie were fantastic parents."
He was an empathetic man. Took after his father. And it made me proud, not only comforted, to hear him articulate his concern for me. But he mentioned another woman. Someone I knew. A little jealousy bubbled up inside of me.
"Emilie?" I asked. Emilie was Elijah's best friend. I always knew he was in love with her. He always had been. Not that he wasn't in love with me, too. But Merlin didn't say they got married or anything. He referred to her as Emilie, not mom... which was something.
Merlin cocked his head. "Yes, Emilie has always been very supportive... she and dad..."
I raised my hand to stop him. "It's okay. It's best I do not know... like you said... we don't have time to talk about your past."
Merlin nodded understandingly.
I'd be lying if I didn't say I thought Elijah had been the love of my life. Sure, it was a pretty short-lived relationship, all things considered. And so much of it was based on magic. And on the surface, what it probably looked like. He could wield magic. I could wield his magic. And together...
Well, we were a force. I mean, he basically had a constant connection to Annwn, the Otherworld, the source of earthen magic. And in my hands... tapping into his power... siphoning it and amplifying it...
But that wasn't, at least for me, why I was into him. When I first moved to St. Louis in the middle of my senior year of high school, he was probably the nicest boy I met. He was the only boy who took any interest in me who wasn't only hoping to score. Elijah was kind. He asked me questions about things I liked. He understood me.
He was rare. Not a lot of guys like that. At least not many I'd ever met. While I'd been so focused on the pain of leaving Merlin behind... leaving Elijah behind sucked, too.
I know, not the most graceful way to describe my heartache. But what else could I say? It sucked. It really sucked. Insert an f-bomb here to accentuate the point if you must. It really f-bomb sucked!
Not that I won't drop an actual f-bomb from time to time. But I was raised to watch my tongue. I swore a little here and there. But if my gran ever heard me curse... woo lordy... that bar of soap would be in my mouth faster than sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving.
Merlin and Agwe shook hands.
"Wait," I said. "Y'all know each other?"
Agwe grinned. "We've had our encounters through the years."
"Well, it's fitting, I suppose," I said. "After all, Agwe helped..."
"Yeah, yeah, Mom. He helped me become a real boy again." Merlin smiled wide. "I've heard the story a few hundred times."
I smiled back. "But I've yet to tell it, son. So you'd best mind your manners."
Merlin chuckled. "Now there's my momma!"
I put my hands on my hips. "Been here all the while, son."
"I'm not getting involved," Agwe interjected.
"Best you don't!" I shot back.
Merlin was laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked. My hands out and palms turned upward.
Merlin shook his head. "It took you a whole five minutes to go from, holy crap, my grown-up son is here... to just being my momma."
I nodded. "Well, you should know well enough that I've seen enough weird that you showing up like this isn't going to send my mind spinning too long. I adjust fast. I have to."
Merlin walked over and placed his hand on Enki. "Good to see you again, buddy."
Likewise, Enki replied.
"One question," I said.
Merlin smirked. "Yes, mom?"
"How in God's green earth did you know to come here, to help with Enki... to meet us here right now?"
Merlin laughed. "Well, mom. You've only told me I'd better show up here now ever since I was little. Almost every time we saw each other, so far back as I can remember."
I cocked my head. "So you're only here because I told you to come. But how would I know to tell you to come here unless I survived this to come back and tell you that? And how would we have survived this at all if you weren't involved?"
Merlin smiled. "The fabric of time abides in mystery."
"Well, that's about as helpful as a three-legged sled dog."
Merlin laughed. "Call it a paradox, I suppose. All I know is that these events are not connected in the fabric of time."
"But still, that don't make no sense, son."
"Doesn't make any sense," Merlin said.
"What?"
"Don't make no... it's a double negative. Bad grammar, mom."
I rolled my eyes. "That's what I get for letting you get brought up in high falutin' Yankee country."
Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Missouri is Yankee country? You can't be serious, mom."
"They don't drink sweet tea in Missouri. Means they ain't southern."
Merlin chuckled. "You realize your southern drawl comes out more when you're talking to me? When you were talking to them before I showed up, you spoke like a normal person."
I cocked my head. "And my son, the time-traveling wizard destined to tutor King Arthur, is going to lecture me about being a normal person? One of these days, I'll have to tell you about the time I first met you."
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 43
