by K. C. May
“Welcome home, Your Majesty,” Quint said. “It’s so good to have you back again.”
“How now, Quint. Where’s Edan?” They went inside and started towards the back staircase. Though he wasn’t anxious to see Feanna, he wanted to touch her belly and his son’s life within.
“I’m sure he’s—”
Edan turned a corner, walking at a brisk pace. “Gavin, thanks to the heavens you’re back. We’ve got a problem.” The skin beneath his eyes was so dark, he looked like he’d been brawling.
“Let’s go to my library.”
Quint bowed and slipped away, while Gavin, Edan, and Daia continued on, their boots echoing with determination on the marble floor.
“You look like you’ve been dragged to hell and beaten. What mischief has Feanna stirred up to chafe you so much?”
“Her mischief is the least of our concerns.”
They entered the library, and Gavin took a seat behind his desk. Edan sat in one of the two chairs facing him while Daia shut the library door and joined them.
Edan told him about the Cyprindians’ visit, their mysterious message, and the reports of strange apparitions.
Quint arrived carrying a tray of cheese and bread, fruit, and a bottle of wine with three goblets.
Gavin wasted no time stuffing his mouth. Quint bowed and left, shutting the door behind him.
“Queen Feanna’s gone,” Edan said.
Gavin coughed, spraying bits of bread and cheese across his desk. He took a swallow of wine. “What the hell do you mean, she’s gone?”
“Gone where?” Daia asked.
“Eriska was late bringing her morning meal, but no one thought anything of it until it occurred to Ragetha, guarding her door, that the queen hadn’t made a fuss. When she came into the room, the bed looked like it had been slept in, and her night clothes were on the floor, but the queen wasn’t here.”
“Bloody hell,” Gavin said, leaning back in his chair. Nothing ever worked out in his favor. Not one bloody thing.
“How did she get out of her room?” Daia asked. “It’s far too dangerous to climb out the window.”
“The door to the servants’ passage was open. We’d nailed it tightly shut before she arrived, but it looked like the nails had been pried out with a shank from one of her shoes. We searched the palace top to bottom, checked every closet, every cupboard, every nook and cranny. No one had seen her, though we suspected she’d been exploring the palace during the night and might have found her way to the Cyprindians’ guest room. The Cyprindians left the very next day.”
“Wait. You think they abducted my wife?”
“I did at first,” Edan said. “I... I’d done something in desperation that I regret. It offended the emissary greatly, and he began packing his bag, threatening to leave right then.”
“What the hell did you do?”
Edan hung his head. “They discovered that the queen was in the palace and insisted on seeing her to deliver their message. I couldn’t bring her to them, not in her present state of mind, even if I’d known where she was. What would she say to them? I was afraid she’d make matters worse or even start a new war. So I talked Liera into posing as Feanna to hear the message.”
Gavin groaned. Though it was deceptive, there were extenuating circumstances. It wasn’t a terrible idea. He’d had worse.
Daia shook her head sadly. “Edan...”
“Unfortunately,” Edan went on, “he must have an eye for faces, because she didn’t match the woman in the portrait in the great hall. He’d seen Liera the day he arrived, when I told him the queen was away. That’s when he started shoving his belongings into his bag, accusing me of dishonor and threatening to leave.”
“So you think he left and took Feanna with him?”
“No, not at all. He left his satchel behind, as did his guard.”
“Curious,” Daia said.
“What about their horses?”
“Still in the stable,” Edan replied. “None of ours are missing, either. But they aren’t the only ones who’re unaccounted for. Jophet says he can’t find Tennara or Norna. I’m beginning to worry that the apparitions have something to do with it.”
“Did they look like cat people?” Daia asked.
“Some do,” Edan said. “Others are more human-looking but sickly with black lips and tongues.”
The heavy feeling of dread crept back into Gavin’s chest. “When did you first start seeing them?”
“I saw one late at night seven or eight days ago,” Edan said. “One of the guards first reported seeing them a day or two after that. It worries me, Gav. If Feanna had run off, someone would’ve seen her, but Tennara and Norna too? If Feanna had somehow convinced them to take her somewhere, they’d have taken the matter to Jophet. It’s as if they’ve vanished from this world, the way you do,” Edan said. “And now the Cyprindians are missing as well. Something isn’t right.”
Don’t you understand the consequences of pulling the Nal Disi into your own realm? Rarga’s admonition seemed especially poignant now.
The apparitions of strange beings were odd, to be sure, but the disappearance of people was the larger concern. If the apparitions were the symptom of some phenomenon, and the cause was pulling the gem-bound Elyle out of their own realm and into his, then the consequence might be some kind of rift in the barrier between them. His heart climbed up his throat. Had he started it all over again—the rift that had brought the invasion of beyonders from the red realm? Only this time, it was a rift between the blue, green, and yellow realms. This time, his people were the invaders.
“Gavin?” Edan asked.
“I think I know where they are. The Guardians are Elyle, so it’s only natural the rift would open between our realm, the blue, and theirs, the green.” The more he talked it out, the more confident he became that his hypothesis was right. “I took the Nal Disi to the yellow realm with us. That’s why the rift is in both yellow and green. The ones who’ve disappeared have got to be either in the green realm or the yellow.”
“Depending on which apparitions they saw right before they disappeared?” Edan asked.
“Right. Unless someone saw them disappear, there’s no way to know.” He opened his wooden chest and removed the second summoning rune. If Cirang re-etched them, he could summon Feanna home again, along with the Cyprindian emissary.
“Now that you have Cirang’s carving skill at your command,” Daia said, “could you summon her back?”
He winked at her. “I was about to send for Cirang. I have two summoning runes. I should be able to bring Feanna and the emissary back.”
“And Tokpah,” Edan added. “The emissary’s champion. He’s missing as well.”
“The summoning rune won’t work, Emtor,” the Guardians said. “You can use it to summon only beings who are native to a realm other than your own.”
O’course not. That’d be too easy. “So much for that idea. The Guardians said that won’t work.” Edan and Daia muttered soft curses, and Gavin nodded. “I’ll have to go to both realms and hunt for them.”
“Your mate and the Cyprindian visitors are in the yellow realm,” the Guardians said.
“Awright, then. Yellow realm it is. Give me a minute to change into clean clothes, and I’ll get started.” He drained his wine goblet and slammed it down onto his desk.
“You can’t go back there alone,” Daia said.
“Can you take someone with you?” Edan asked.
Gavin headed to the door. “I can take two.”
“Oh!” Edan stood as well. “I know you’ll want to take Daia, but don’t think for a second that you’re leaving me behind this time.”
Gavin cast a regretful look at his champion as she rose. “No, not Daia. I’ll take you and Calinor.”
Edan looked at Daia with raised brows. “What? Why?”
Her eyes welled as she met Gavin’s gaze. “He needs me here.”
Chapter 51
The dizziness began to subside, and
Kaoque took her by the elbow and helped her stand. Tokpah stood in front of them with his weapon gripped tightly, ready to engage the black-lipped people who began to close in. A figure in a black robe and mask appeared out of the air as if he suddenly existed where he hadn’t before. Distantly, Feanna wondered if her amulet worked like that.
“What do you want?” she asked the figure.
He raised his hand and pointed at Tokpah. The warrior vanished.
Feanna clutched Kaoque and gasped. Where had Tokpah gone? Was he dead?
“Stop,” Kaoque said. “We mean you no—” And then he vanished, leaving Feanna alone.
The figure raised his hand and pointed at her.
“I can give you gold and jewels,” she said in a rush. “Whatever you—”
Feanna found herself in a room full of people. The floor and ceiling glowed with a soft light, and the walls were pale orange and completely smooth, without a door or window. Beside her stood Kaoque, looking around with a confused expression. Tokpah, in front of them, was now unarmed. The smell of sweat and fear was thick, and she put a hand over her nose.
“Come stand over here,” said a tall, thin man with a drooping moustache. “The new ones arrive there. You might find someone standing on your shoulders if you stay there.”
She didn’t want to mingle among the common people, but neither did she want some portly man landing atop her. People looked at her with worry wrinkling their brows and their hands wringing, but they didn’t seem to recognize her.
“What is going on here?” Kaoque asked.
“We all been taken,” some woman said. “We was in our homes, minding our own business, when those spirits came.”
“If you don’t try to touch them,” said the tall man who’d first spoken, “you probably don’t get taken. My wife was beside me, but she isn’t here now. She warned me not to get too close. Why didn’t I listen? Why?”
Feanna was glad Tokpah had tried to stop her, else he and Kaoque would still be in the palace, and she would be here alone with these ill-smelling strangers.
“Excellence?” Kaoque said. Across the room stood some fellow dressed in the same manner he was, with a long, embroidered, silk tunic. Kaoque rushed towards the other man and bowed with his palms pressed together. “Praise to His Glory! Are you hurt?” he asked.
She pressed her lips together and hardened her gaze. Who was that, and how dare he attract attention away from the Queen of Thendylath after she’d been abducted from her home?
The man spoke the same sort of gibberish that Tokpah did. Those barbarians didn’t even speak properly.
She was about to raise her voice, to demand to know what was going on here, if only to draw attention back to herself, when part of the wall slid apart, and the black-robed wizard entered. There was something unsettling about the way he glided across the floor, unlike the two bare-chested men in black masks who flanked him, each carrying a sword. They looked like Tokpah but for their perfectly unscarred, unblemished, and untattooed skin, and of course their black mouths. That they wore no armor at all was bewildering.
The other abductees in the room shrank back as the wizard floated across the floor. When he raised his arm and pointed at the man to whom Kaoque had bowed, people shifted away, leaving the man standing alone.
“What is happening?” Kaoque asked.
Tokpah stepped forward, putting himself between the floating wizard and the chosen man, but the wizard tapped his staff on the floor, and Tokpah became stiff as a rock—in fact, everyone within a dozen feet of the wizard stood in place like they’d been turned to ice. One of the brutes pushed Tokpah aside and reached for the man Kaoque had addressed as Excellence. The brute pulled the rigid fellow along, sliding him across the floor while his eyes darted pleadingly around the room.
“No,” Kaoque cried. He started to step forward, but people grasped him by the arms and urged him to keep his distance.
Feanna didn’t know what they wanted with the Excellence fellow, but she wanted no part of it. She took the amulet from her pocket and put it on. Let them take those other people. She would wait here, unnoticed, and figure a way out.
When the doors slid shut behind their captors, Tokpah and the others were released from their magical ice.
“What is happening?” Kaoque asked again. There was desperation in his voice, and fear. “What do they want?”
No one answered. Everyone stood quietly, heads bowed, not looking at anyone.
From behind the wall, the man began to scream.
Chapter 52
Gavin gathered Daia, Edan, Calinor, and Jophet together in the upstairs library and explained his plan. When he told Daia she would stay behind, she simply nodded, though he saw the longing and regret in her eyes. Once this business was over and he had his people back home, he would spend some time figuring out a way to shield her conduit from those who would steal it for themselves.
He’d employed Cirang to re-etch both of his summoning runes, and put them, along with the Rune of the Past, the Rune of Exchange, and the Nal Disi, into his knapsack. He might not need them all, but better to go prepared than wishing he’d brought them along. With everyone dressed in mail and equipped with their weapons of choice, Gavin slung the knapsack onto his shoulder once more.
He told Edan and Calinor what to expect when they stepped into the vortex, and they said a quick farewell to Daia and Jophet. Gavin hated leaving her behind as much as she hated being left. The longing and concern in her eyes struck him in the chest like a fist. He gripped his two companions by the forearms, opened the vortex, and stepped in.
As in their own realm, they were on an island in Lake Athra, but there were no buildings, only a couple dinghies resting near the water’s edge, and a few men standing on the shore, fishing. There was a low, wooden bridge connecting the island to the mainland, where a village lay.
While his companions recovered from the dizziness of traveling across realms, Gavin used his hidden eye to search for his people. Finding Feanna’s haze would be next to impossible here, where everyone else’s haze was predominantly kho, but if she was with the others, or even the Cyprindians, he should be able to spot their zhi-bent hazes amongst the kho. Hopefully where he would find them, she would also be.
He lifted his mystical vision high into the air and searched as far as he could see, which was only as far as Saliria in his own realm. “They’re not here,” he said. “Maybe they’re in the green realm.”
“Your friends are here, Emtor,” the Guardians said.
“They are? They must’ve been taken somewhere,” he said, remembering how the Callers had whisked Daia away to the Baron’s palace and him to some sort of gaol.
“Can you see where?” Edan asked.
“No, they’re too far. We’ll have to go back and travel on horseback. I can come here myself long enough to search for them and bring you when we’ve gotten close enough.”
“They’re far away, Emtor. Across the body of water you call the Quirjan Sea.”
“What?” Gavin said loudly. “Bloody hell.” Why did everything have to be so damned difficult?
“What’s wrong?” Edan asked.
“Gavin,” Calinor said. His eyes were locked on the fishermen, and his hand curled around the hilt of his sword. “We got their interest.” The four of the kho-bent fishermen huddled together, watching the three battlers.
“Are they all together?” Gavin asked.
“Yes, Emtor. They’re in a holding cell. They’re in danger.”
“O’course they’re in danger. They’re in this bloody kho-bent realm.” Gavin explained the problem to his companions.
“How’re we s’posed to get there without bein’ captured?” Calinor asked.
Gavin thought about it for a moment. “We’re not.” He put disguises on them all, fashioning them after the four fishermen to conceal their armor and weapons. “We’re going to give ourselves up. Keep weapons sheathed. If they don’t know we’re armed, we got a good chance o’resc
uing our people and getting back in one piece.”
He led the way across the bridge and into the village. The valley looked so much larger without the city of Tern sprawled across it. It was thickly forested with pine- and aspen-like trees, though their needles and leaves were a dull yellow-green instead of the rich green colors he was used to. He wished some remnant of the valley’s natural beauty had been left untouched in his own realm. Maybe he’d encourage the residents of Tern to plant more trees.
The village people watched them with alarm, asking where they’d come from and who they were. Their unwelcoming shouts became threats, and though Edan and Calinor didn’t understand their words, no one could miss the malice in their tones or faces. Both men walked close beside Gavin, watchful and ready to defend him.
Gavin stopped in the center of the village and looked around at the people, who shook their fists and shouted, red-faced, at the intruders. Some arrived with brooms and hoes and shovels.
“Go away, pink mouths!”
“We don’t want you here!”
“Get out of our town!”
They inched forward, growing bolder with every passing moment. Calinor and Edan grew tenser, ready to fight.
“Where’s the Clout?” Gavin yelled. His deep voice carried well enough that at least some of the villagers heard him over their own shouting. “Summon the Clout, or we’ll bring down fire to raze this village.”
The crowd parted, and two Clout stepped forward. As before, their chests were bare and perfect, their faces hidden behind black masks.
He felt Calinor twitch beside him, ready to draw and fight. To the Clout, he said, “Ah, there you are. Where’s your friend?”
“So the Wayfarer has returned,” the Caller said in a raspy voice. Dressed in a full-length, black robe with a hood that shadowed its face, the Caller pushed its way between the two Clout. “The Baron is mighty upset with you.”
