by K. G. Wilkie
"We can only go through the barrier if we are near a portal," he responded calmly. "I can move wherever I want to in my own world, and I can manage it decently here as well, but I couldn't guarantee how well you'd do if I just randomly took you across far from one of the decent dimensional gates," Aeron said.
Alyss scrunched up her nose. "A portal? To where?" she asked.
"We can't fly through dimensions by ourselves," Aeron laughed at her. "This is how we plan to get you home." They traveled on for a few miles more.
"Are you really taking me home?" she asked quietly. "This isn't a setup? You really mean it," Alyss said.
He pondered that for a minute. "Yes," he said. "We`re going straight to the palace, and that is your home for now," Aeron said.
She kicked him angrily. Though the action lacked any real effect with his arm still grasping her firmly so she was sitting more in a chair-like position than a kicking stance. "That. Is. Not. What. I. Meant! You jerk!" Alyss screeched at him. "You know what, you`re such a jerk. I absolutely hate you," Alyss said. She worked herself all out, finally hanging limply in his arms. "I just want to go home," she whispered quietly, brokenly.
He listened impassively. "Someday you will be happy for all of this," he said calmly. "You'll appreciate being kept safe from all of this. From war, from your family..."
"What does my family have to do with any of this? You aren't going to do something to them, too, are you?" Alyss gasped.
He shook his head. "That's not what I meant at all. Your family there has issues, but your other family," he paused. "Well, when you are feeling more yourself, you'll know what I'm talking about. I promised not to tell you unless you came back to your memories on your own, though, so I'll leave it at that for now," Aeron said.
She punched him. "Stop trying to be so mysterious! You aren't cool like that. Or at all, really. And I really do hate you," Alyss said. "Besides, more like myself! What do you mean? I am myself," she exclaimed. "I'm not some sort of amnesiac; I remember everything about my life," Alyss said. She was beet red in the face and obviously ready to try to punch him again without any concern to the risk that it might pose to herself. Her anger had burned away at any practical restraint she may have once shown.
"It doesn't matter now," Aeron said. "Look down." She immediately complied, regretting it when she saw green fields cut into squares and clouds shielding a sleepy farm community.
"We're above clouds," she gasped. "Get us down from here," she growled.
He chuckled. "I only mentioned it because you can see now that we're near a portal to the Shadeworld," he chuckled. This time he spoke words in some arcane tongue. There was a blue column of fire surrounding them, heightening, breaking through the sky. And then a sheer blue disk came into being in the air in front of them.
The disk began to pulse in and out of existence. Strands of sky and cloud formed in front of the portal, and tangled rips tore through the portal itself. Aeron growled, low and guttural. He made a false start, then inched forward a few more inches. He braced himself, clasping her body even closer to him. Then, in a great burst of energy, he flew through the portal and broke past the filmy gauze obscuring it.
They lay in a muddled heap on the other side. There were trees and grass, and no conspicuous tall buildings. The palace was nowhere to be seen. Alyss sniffed in exasperation. "If you are going to go through so much work in the first place, I wish you could at least have gotten us to the right place," she humphed. "It also looked like you had to try way too hard to do that."
He shrugged. "It's easy to transport within the Shadeworld," Aeron said. "It's not too hard to move people who have some of their magical essence left behind their either," he said. He didn't mention that her magical essence had been locked away years ago and had made the journey just as difficult as it would have been if he'd had a Mundane human in tow. The Shadeworld was a purely magical construct and made moving magical things easy. Every rock and river might have had a twin in the original planet Earth's past, but their shadows in this world were made completely out of magic. That meant that spaces and distances were magical, not physical. As such, the transportation spell was actually more of a magic-moving spell than a caster-moving spell. Its real action was pushing magic out of the caster's area and replacing that with the magic of the destination. The person casting the spell didn't actually move an inch during the process. With the total lack of magical aura around Alyss, he hadn't been able to use his normal, easy portal spell at all. Aeron had basically had to muscle his way through the division between the realms, and only a skilled magic user could do that at all, let alone be unfazed by the amount of power and force necessary to use to do such a thing.
He didn't take any time to recover his energy, however, and dragged Alyss up the dozens of floors until they finally reached his suite again. Aeron pushed her back into the guest suite and tried to close the door.
The girl wasn't buying it, however. She stuck her foot in the door jamb and refused to move it, even when it almost felt like her foot was breaking at the impact.
"I don't understand any of this," Alyss panted. "Why are you trying so hard to get me back? Why does it matter so much?"? Pouting, she added, "Why won`t you just let me go home?"
He stopped, turning slowly to face her. "Why?" Aeron asked, deadly. "Why would I care?" He leapt forward and pushed her on the rug deeper in the room. She suddenly realized that, just like that, she was now sitting snug as a postage stamp on his lamp. She protested the position, and he just held her more firmly. "I have been looking for you for all of these years," he whispered. "I'm not about to let you get lost again so easily."
Alyss's forehead wrinkled. "What lost?" she asked. "Why does everyone keep whispering about how forgetful I am, about how much of my memories I've supposedly lost? I don't forget things," she said sulkily. "I've got a very good memory," she added.
Aeron shook his head, quietly chuckling. She could feel his chest moving with it, felt each little sound wave. It was very unsettling. She tried to distance herself, tried to punch him away, but his grip was made of steel. "I'm setting up a guard now who, hopefully, can manage to keep you in, because I can't trust you anymore to only go out with someone to keep an eye on you. That means no more exploring the grounds with Murray." He snapped his fingers and poked a finger at the still open doorway. Aeron's finger refused to go through the open space though. "This is a barrier. I've had to take the extreme measure of basically locking you up now. If you are good we might reconsider these standards later, but for now my priority is that keeping you safe is more important than keeping you happy," he said. Aeron summoned one of his portals in midair, too high for Alyss to jump and escape through, though she did give a half-hearted attempt at it. He flew away through it to the council meeting on the other side.
CHAPTER NINE
The Council
The delegates in the meeting hall had run through two courses of appetizers. The footmen struggled to keep up with the demand for treats tasty enough to soothe their restless energy at a meeting delayed more than an hour.
Heads turned to stare as the prince strode in. "I'm sorry for the wait," he said very politely. "I had to take care of urgent matters of state." The representatives in the room mumbled their agreement, their expressions clearly stating they trusted not a word.
"So glad you could finally join us properly, brother dear," Richard smirked. Aeron gritted his teeth to resist the urge to stick his tongue out at his brother. Both brothers locked eyes across the expansive wood and promised battle in their gazes, ignoring the representatives trying to bring their attention back to the meeting.
One of the vampires leaned forward to look at the young prince. "Now Richy," Richard grimaced at that, "I love a good joke as much as the next guy," Cillean cut in affably. "I've got to say, though, that scolding a guy for a problem you created seems to be going a bit far," he said. Richard turned away, refusing to back down.
Both of the royals opened their mouths to argue
more. King Vovin stood up and yelled for everyone in the room to observe silence. He stared threats at his sons in particular. "I did not gather any of you here today to discuss petty squabbling," he scolded. "We are here to discuss an even graver matter," Vovin continued. "We have heard rumors of terrible things that could destroy the whole Shadeworld. Rumors of rebellion, not only to disagree about which of my children should keep their inheritance of the monarchy, but more alarmingly we have heard rumors of rebels who disagree with the monarchy itself," Vovin said. He met the eyes of each of his delegates to impress on them the importance of that. He then went on to remind them all what the kingdom had been like before it was unified and achieved something similar to peace. "Now that you understand the importance of this situation, the kingdom needs your help. Tell us, what news have you heard?" he asked.
A cacophony of voices broke out. The representatives from distant continents had blanched at the news, asking each of their neighbors for any scrap of information. The leaders of each race on the continent were whispering to each other, trying to clarify what each of them had heard before sharing it to the public forum.
"People, people!" The troll to the left of the king clanged her gavel. "We will have order!" Her wig of formal purple feathers threatened to fly off as each strike of the gavel shook it from side to side. "Those who wish to speak must make a motion to take a stand. It is not open season here people," she snarled.
Vovin waved her down. "These are extenuating circumstances. As long as they are somewhat orderly in speaking, I do not think we need to observe all of the formalities. The random chatting, however," he turned to glare at a fairy and mermaid, "is simply unacceptable. These are serious matters and deserve some levity. Even if that weren't so, however, I do expect at least the minimum level of professionalism from my delegates. Any who choose to play instead of work may find that they've chosen to be ousted completely from the proceedings," he said. The two in question blushed and subsided. He nodded in approval and waved for the meeting to commence.
The troll raised her own hand to get his attention. The king rolled his eyes and gestured for her to get on with it. "We know some of what you are speaking," she said. "But I think it would be good to clarify the goals of this meeting, just so we can all be on the same page. I am guessing I am correct in saying the, well, unease in the kingdom is our focus."
"Rebels," Layel said. Somehow this low-ranked vampire had wormed his way into the high clearance meeting, but no one seemed to mind too much. Earlier while waiting, the crowd had appreciated the curiosity of speaking with him, and now that the meeting had begun they'd almost forgotten he didn't belong here. They all stopped talking when he stood up and now waited respectfully for him to continue. It seemed that he was somewhat more than he had seemed to be.
A mermaid in the middle flicked her tail. She had clearly quickly recovered from her chastisement and acted cool and composed once again. Those seated next to her muttered their peevishness but she ignored them. "My king, how are we to know these rumors are real? I suspect they are just trying to make us think there's this grave danger and get all worked up over the possibility," she said.
Vovin squinted at her. "I'm sure you understand that the possibility this is a minor issue has already been looked into and discarded," Vovin said. The king looked down his nose at her. "I trust those in charge of the intelligence of the monarchy to be able to do a good job of sorting between throne squabbling and true threats to us all," he said.
The mermaid sunk down into her tank. She glowered at the room. "Just because that's not what was happening at first doesn't mean those dumb princes aren't doing exactly that again," the mermaid muttered. "They just want to get us all excited that they have figured everything out."
Now the oldest of the princes in question stood. "We have news," Aeron said diffidently. "Our informant has been put into protective custody and granted this protection in return for the news. The wizards," he continued, "plan to hunt down and target different people in our kingdom." He looked around the room and saw that the rest weren't really concerned about the fate of these unknown people very much, so he decided to change tactics and reveal another issue to them. "Not only do they mean all of us and our peoples harm, they also plan to dissolve the barrier." He paused at the sharp intake of breaths. A harpy woman three seats over on his right fainted at the news.
"In fact," he hesitated, "they want to destroy the entire Shadeworld. If they can, they will try to make it as if none of this, or us, ever existed," Aeron said. This time the werewolf representative, a burly warrior of a man, fainted. The Fey man sitting next to the tank clutched the speechless mermaid`s arm.
"Why ever would they want to do that?" the mermaid whispered. She hugged her Fey neighbor. "Xirzer, what will become of all of us?"
The Fey man next to her shrugged. "Listen, Kaelia. Whoever really knows why humans do what they do? They're a very unpredictable species." He patted the woman's arm and quickly dried his now damp hand by wiping it on his shirt. "To join the Mundanes," Xirzer said. His pale face and quivering fingers betrayed his appearance of stoicism.
"No," Aeron said solemnly. "We do not believe that is the case." The group leaned forward, eager to hear further news. "They want to rule over the Mundanes, and all the rest of us as well."
His brother shook his head. "How can they plan to do that when the Mundanes had already almost wiped all of us out so few centuries ago?" Richard asked.
Xirzer nodded agreement. "The pain of the turf wars. The dragon wars. Those demented fairy hunts. The Mundanes aren't trustworthy enough to rule. It was always easy for my people to take a handful at a time and enchant them, but they multiply quickly and managed to defeat enough of the Fey, even before the rest of you had many problems, that we were forced to be the first to take shelter in this land."
Daerick shook his head two seats over. "You've forgotten, my friend. Some species like yours and mine have long lifespans, but the humans are one of the shortest-lived peoples in any realm," he said. He sighed. "All those events you spoke of? I'm sure they have long since been forgotten by such a short-lived race," Daerick said solemnly.
A kappa wilted over the table, his ever present puddle a gloomy, murky green sort of water rather than the clear cerulean he normally dripped. "But if all of this is true, how can we fix something on this scale?" He cradled his head in his hands. "How far have things even gone now? What will we even do?" he asked. The slightest hint of a wail broke through his usual calm reserve of strengths at the depressing realization of how difficult the situation they faced was.
No one answered. They didn't quite know how to. And the king still stood by and said not a word on the matter. To admit a lack of insight in front of the monarch was something no loyal subject would jump at, but the thought of these elites revealing such a weakness surely rankled too much for any of them to admit to it.
One of the vampire party stood once more. "We do not know," Daerick said solemnly. He hung his head. "I am not sure we will ever know, but as things are, it seems unlikely for this matter to be resolved in the efficient manner we are all accustomed to."
His friend nodded. "We need to know more," Cillean said.
"Yes. To find the leaders of this, and get some information out of all the people we can," Richard said.
Murmurs of assent spread through the room.
Aeron stood up. I see none of you know what to do, which is understandable. I feel from my similar experience with unease," he stared pointedly at his younger brother, "that I may be the most qualified to address this, besides my honorable father." He gave a bow to the royal question and was graciously granted leave to continue. "As such, we're going to need to get cracking," he said. Aeron turned to the woman seated by his side. "Jane, my friend and witch extraordinaire," he said. "Can you research into the workings of the barrier spell, and figure out how to fix things if it gets too out of hand?" The woman nodded both of her heads in agreement. "Can I get the rest of you on sniffing out
our spies and getting information out of them," he asked the rest of the table. All nodded their heads, fierce determination blazing in their eyes.
Richard shrugged. "I think we've done the most we can do today," he said to his father. Richard turned to the troll. "I'd say meeting adjourned then," he said. "Find, capture. You have royal permission to do any method of interrogation which will grant us a result. Whatever it takes to get the job done. We need to know more, and quickly, before we all die in their plans."
The king shook his head. "I don't think that's quite enough," Vovin said. "I don't want to hear that my delegates plan to do something. I will not allow the rest of you to leave until there is an actual solid plan in place. Just learning the movements of the rebels will not provide us a solution for when they act, especially as we mostly already have an idea of how they plan to act. We are staying, we are working this out, and we are going to get this done. In fact, no one will leave until this is actually done," he said. He looked at his son. "Aeron, you may have asked for this meeting, but now that this has started, we are going to do this the right way." He looked at the other delegates. "Now, I want to hear from each of you what your people plan to do to support our kingdom in these trying times. Feel free to speak up," he said.
The delegates groaned as quietly as they could and settled in for a meeting that looked like it would last for days.
CHAPTER TEN
Battle Plans
Priscilla and Jackie were sent by a footman to the public portal in the palace and dumped out at Layel's Hall as ordered. Jackie's orders greeted them on their arrival with the hidden second set of orders glowing brightly at them where they had once been altogether invisible.
