by Oxford, Rain
After he helped me turn back over, I looked around for Mordon. We were outside, in the same place as before, and the ground was still wet, but the sun was shining strong and hot. Mordon was curled up on his side, just out of arms reach.
“He is alive, though unresponsive,” the boy said.
I wiggled closer the best I could until I was able to reach his neck and feel for a pulse. It was strong.
“Do you think you can stand up?” he asked me.
I ignored him and rubbed Sammy’s back. I needed time to process what happened and determine if there was any damage. Mordon definitely needed help. But that wasn’t the only problem. I had a dream… something about the void.
“Dylan?” the boy prodded.
He was distracting me. I had to remember my dream, but it was slipping away. I looked up at him. “How do you know my name?” I asked.
He looked confused. “Are you unable to feel my power? I am the Guardian of Enep. My name is Samorde.”
“You’re a Guardian?” Mordon asked. I looked over to see his eyes open, but he didn’t look like he was focusing well.
“You look a little too young,” I said.
He smiled. “I suffer my people’s punishment. Stand and join me on Enep. I am not very welcome here and I must take you to meet Regivus.”
“I don’t think I want to meet someone named Regivus. What are you doing here if you aren’t welcome?” I asked. What I really wanted to ask was why he wasn’t welcome.
“You asked for help.”
“You saved us?”
He shrugged. “I stopped the beast from taking the child and killing you both, but you should return the favor by meeting Regivus. I did not ask his permission before responding to your aid. Forgive me, my Sudo is sketchy and I never learned any languages of Earth.”
“Your language is fine, just a little proper for someone so young. Where is Emrys?” I asked.
“The other Guardian returned to his god so that he could be healed and so that I could arrive here to help you. Madus does not like me personally, but he would let me be here to save you. He took Emrys because Emrys would kill me on sight.”
“That doesn’t sound like the man we know. How old are you?”
“Around one-thousand, five hundred of Duran years. Can you stand now?” he asked.
As much as I wanted to lie still, I didn’t want to get him in trouble by keeping him here. The climb to my feet was difficult, but Mordon struggled with getting up as well. Before I was even standing completely, we were in a brightly lit room. I had thought it was a flash of light, but it was actually just the brightness of the white walls.
In front of us was the most intimidating god we have met so far. The reason being was that he looked exactly like my first stepfather. His short black hair was combed back like he had no time for stray hairs. Frown lines marred his weathered face and dark brown eyes, with just a hint of red-copper, glared. As he stood about half a foot taller than me, but was slender enough to be called willowy, I could only assume that the god purposely chose this form to upset me. This one is going to be bad.
Mordon took a step closer to me, as if he wanted to protect me, but he didn’t know how. “He is more powerful than Madus or Enki,” he warned me. I nodded, grasped his arm, and seeped my magic into him to heal any lasting damage caused by the frigid rain.
“You look quite startled, young Noquodi.” The god’s voice was a purr and I had the image of him as a lion, sitting upon a rock throne, watching pray wither around helplessly beneath him. Nobody ring the dinner bell. “Interesting interpretation.”
“It is nice to meet you. Nice outfit.” I was referring to his body, and not the simple black clothes he wore.
“You like it then? I thought it would befit the circumstance.”
“You take the form of a man who tried to kill me, before you kill me? Yes, I think you hit that on the head. Kind of a mortal thing to do, though.”
“I thought the gods were above cheap scare tactics,” Mordon finished.
“This is more for my own amusement. I will not stretch this longer than it needs to be. Child Noquodi, do you have any defense for yourself?
“And what would I need a defense for?” I asked. This was the reaction I am sure the god should have predicted; I was an extremely sarcastic person to my stepfather.
“Your betrayal of the gods, for one. For another, you were never meant to be a Noquodi, as Tiamat did not create you as one. Then, of course, your enslavement of her affections and trust can be judged against you. Shall I go on?”
“Please do, you sound like Alec even while speaking English.”
He looked startled. “I am not speaking English. You and I are both speaking Enochian.”
“That would be difficult for me, because I never learned it.”
“I’m hearing Sudo,” Mordon said. All three of us looked at Sammy at the same time to see his eyes glowing slightly.
“You are a contagious abomination, I see.”
I opened my mouth to defend Sammy when Mordon beat me to it. “Neither Sammy, nor Dylan are abominations! No more than you, when you were born with your own power.”
“Are you saying this half human, half sago wizard is a god?” the god asked. He was furious now.
I handed Sammy to Mordon and blocked them from Regivus. “He only means that I cannot help the magic I was born with. However, I have Kiro to train me and he is an honorable man. If I am only ever trained to use my magic for good, then there should be no problem.”
“‘Ifs’ and ‘shoulds.’ Pathetic. All Noquodi think that upholding honor and a greater good are their purposes. They are wrong. The purpose of the Noquodi is to serve the gods. That is why you are called servants. If you knew this, you would have been accepted by the gods as the new Noquodi of Tiamat’s, but you think as the others do. Therefore, I judge you an improper Noquodi and a betrayer. Your punishment is immediate death.”
“Stop it.” Her voice was not loud, but it could stop a jaguar in its tracks. Apparently a lion-like god, too.
We all turned to see the goddess of Earth. Divina was truly the most beautiful woman I knew, both inside and out. She was loving and affectionate, playful and passionate, curious and clever… but she was also a warrior when it came to being a goddess. She was the youngest of the gods as well as the only female, but she made up for it by being manipulative and daring. She was a master at deception and knew when to play her cards. With incredible power, she could stop any foe with brute force, subtle influence, or seduction. But most importantly, she was the person I loved more than any other on any world.
Having not seen her in weeks, I felt like I had been holding my breath and could finally breathe. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her or worried about her until she stood in front of me. I wasn’t worried about a goddess, but the woman I loved.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t looking at me, and she had that look in her eyes that said someone was going to die. I usually got smacked at this time.
“You cannot judge my Noquodi based on your prejudices. Just because yours is a mere servant, does not mean the rest of us should treat ours the same,” she said.
Poor Samorde looked extremely offended by that.
“You are a cruel and unforgiving brother and you are no better a god.”
“You have no say; you cannot even follow simple instructions!” the god exploded.
Divina’s anger was much more threatening as she kept her temper. “You cannot command me to carry on the family line when there are no Iadnah left other than you and our brothers.”
“They want you to have babies with someone?!” I asked. They both looked at me, stunned.
“When did you learn to speak Enochian?” Divina asked me. Obviously they had not meant to be overheard. I just pointed at Sammy. “My brothers and I are the last of the Iadnah, and we will forever be the last.”
“Divina?” Mordon asked. He was staring at her with his mouth open.
“Yes, Mordon, I am Tiamat.”
“Yeah, I kind of already figured that out. It’s just that you’re prettier here than in the real world,” he said.
“First of all, how did you figure it out? Second, really? This is my real body, not a swappable form.”
“It is not your true body; the Iadnah have no mortal body!”
Well, I could say right there that he was wrong in Divina’s case; she had a fantastic body that I was intimately familiar with. In fact, she did look a little extra amazing. I knew she had heard my thoughts when she gave me a grin. Divina always wore stunning outfits, but it looked as if she were dressing for me. She wore cowboy boots, short jean shorts, and a small, thin, red, plaid flannel shirt. She knew I loved that look, but it was made so much better by how well it fit her.
“Disgusting! Lusting over your god!” Regivus started to say more, but Divina interrupted.
“Ren, stop yelling. He is my mate whether you accept it or not. Even if you killed him or me, he will always be mine.”
Now he turned his glare on me. “You would be loyal to her even though she could never give you offspring? You would live for eternity without children for her?”
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “But whether or not we have kids has nothing to do with you. There are many children out there for adoption who need loving parents. There is also surrogacy and other methods. And if she never wants kids, I will deal with that, because I need her more than I want kids.”
It was such a familiar gesture; I felt her hand slip into mine. I turned to see Divina’s face just a few inches from mine. “You were really upset when I explained that I couldn’t have kids, though. You would be happy with a child that isn’t yours?”
“I wanted a little girl with your eyes, but I’ll be just as happy with a little girl that calls you ‘mommy.’ Or we could have a boy. We’d have to name him---”
“No, you dork.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me close, but turned her head when I tried to kiss her. “Give him a chance to prove his loyalty to us,” she said to Regivus. “He has already saved Vaigda and Malta from the damage done, so let him show you how much of an asset he is. He would never betray me. I am more likely to turn against you than he is.”
Mordon made a soft choking sound as he tried desperately to hold his tongue. More than likely, his prince and advisor training was kicking in and telling him to stop the woman from condemning herself.
“I am not convinced. He could decide that you would take his side against us as you are now, and his betrayal would be unpredicted. Now is the time to kill him.”
“I have to disagree.” This new voice was unfamiliar.
The god who stood before me was older looking than Regivus, with short black hair, sharp facial features, and a heavily muscled frame. Other than the muscles, he looked a lot like Regivus. While the voice was unfamiliar, I knew the magical aura surrounding him; Duran. He was the god Erono, extremely fierce and perpetually cross by reputation. Surely he came to watch me be put to death.
“He has lived on Duran for some time now with no malicious intentions. I believe if he did have any such intentions, our sister would set him right. If she does not, it will be her to blame. I agree that we should reserve judgment until we see if he can prove himself to be loyal to us.”
“There is enough damage done to our worlds, do not add blood to the waters,” Divina said softly.
That struck something in my memory, but it passed within a few seconds.
The god considered this for a few minutes before finally nodding at Erono. “I will allow him a chance to prove himself if you insist.”
Erono turned to me. “Take this opportunity to live; give up the book, go back to Earth, never travel between worlds again, and forget about Tiamat.”
Somehow I was not surprised that this was my ultimatum.
“First, I will never give up my book unless Tiamat asked me to. Second, not unless Tiamat moved to Earth with me. Third, I don’t even know how to travel worlds. And finally, there is no forgetting about her.”
“If you will not give up the book willingly, you will die.”
“But I will die a Guardian loyal to my goddess and unwilling to abandon her.”
“And you, sago, will you return to Duran to live peacefully or will you die with this human?” Erono asked Mordon.
I could have lip-synced what he said next.
“Dylan is just as much sago as he is human. Tiamat may not be my goddess, and Dylan may not be my Guardian, but they are my friends. I will stand by them.”
“Even against your own god?”
This put Mordon in a no-win situation; Erono is the god of his world, but he already said he would stand by Tiamat. He wisely took a few minutes to think about this.
“My mother died when I was born, my father tried to make me into something I didn’t want to be, and I was always kept alone as a child. Dylan is the closest thing I have to family. As he is like my brother, I have to accept his goddess as mine. In this case I would say I owe my loyalty equally to you and Tiamat. That being said, she’s not the one threatening to kill my brother.
“I can protect you both from them if you never give up on me,” Divina whispered to me.
I knew that look in her eyes. If enough of her brothers decided to kill me, there would be nothing she could do about it. But I would never say that, and I was willing to die a Guardian over living as a human. It wasn’t the power that I needed; it was her. What was the point of breathing when the woman I breathed for was gone? “Of course you can,” I lied.
She smiled. “Then show them what you can do.”
I felt a pulse before everything went black. When I opened my eyes, Mordon, Sammy, and I were standing in the Aradlin forest, right in front of Blood’s cave.
* * *
“We are back where we started,” Mordon said.
I nodded. “Well, we can heal Duran while we’re here.”
“How? Just heal the whole world at once? Where are the pressure points? No, I’m not going to sniff them out.”
This was going to take some getting used to. I could only assume that his dragon had said something. Honestly, I was happy for my friend, but he needed to learn how to multitask quickly. If another person heard him answer a question that was never asked or stare blankly into space, someone they may think something is wrong with him.
“We can find Edward. He’ll know where to go to heal the world. First, though, I think we need to find Blood.”
“We don’t know he’s back. He disappeared from Dios.”
“But how did he get to Dios?” He paused. “Rojan said he was probably attacked by a creature that belonged on Dios, from the past, present, or future. He says that with damage like this, the universe struggles to repair itself as quickly as possible. I guess that means that when two things or people that should never have touched do, the universe splits them up.”
I caught on. “But it may not always send the right person or creature to the right place. So say those cat things were from Dios. A future creature, maybe… it somehow got stuck here, attacked Blood. Nothing happened at first because the universe couldn’t keep up. Then the third time they attacked him, after we left, the universe tried to right itself and sent the dragon to Dios.”
“Then the creatures attacked something else and were returned to Dios. Blood saved us but disappeared again. If we had touched Blood, we could have disappeared because he was not meant to be there. That must have been how the griffin got to Malta; it was somewhere it was not supposed to be or exposed to something that was,” he said.
“But to what end? How many millions of people and creatures have been misplaced this way? One misplaced creature could attack thousands of people a day. People who would never see their families or even world again, who are out there spreading it.”
“The universe cannot be that stupid; one or two creatures here or there that are extinct or do not yet exist, likely, but people certainly can’t be that confusing. People hav
e homes, places, families… Each person lives in the minds of hundreds if not thousands of people.”
I nodded. “I suppose. But Shiloh… he was misplaced.”
“He was a Guardian. Not a regular person.”
“You’re so racist,” I argued.
“Hey, I’ll have you know my best friend is a Guardian,” he returned.
“Yeah, well, my best friend isn’t a regular person. I mean, who tells his god that he would stand by another god?”
“I had a valid excuse. And if you are going to say I’m not a regular person, at least be referring to my dragon, and not my poor choices in life.”
“Apple!” Sammy demanded.
We looked at him. “We don’t have any apple-juice,” Mordon said.
“No, I think he’s associating our arguing with apples. I don’t get it, but he said that when we were bickering on Malta. He has learned so many languages in such a short period of time that I think he’s having trouble keeping it straight what language to speak. Somehow, apple must relate to arguing to him, and that is the only English word he could think of.”
“Sleep,” Sammy said.
“What?” I asked.
He hid his face. “No sleep.”
I didn’t understand.
“I can smell he’s really upset and embarrassed,” Mordon said.
“How come? He has nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, he should be proud of his vocabulary; boys usually develop speech slower than girls.” Then I switched to speaking out loud. “Can Rojan hear me speaking telepathically to you?”
“Yeah. Rojan and I can speak the same way, but he can also hear my thoughts and feel my feelings, and I can do the same. Well, not so much hear his thoughts as I have a really good idea of what he’s thinking. He can hear what you say to me and I say to you, but he can’t talk directly to you. Yeah, Rojan, I’m getting to it.”
“Getting to what?” I asked.
“When the demon attacked, I had a dream. It was really weird, because you were there, but I wasn’t.”
“You had a dream you weren’t in?” I asked. He nodded. “I had a dream, too, but I can’t remember it. All I know is it had something to do with the demon and the void. I think it was a Guardian warning dream, but I don’t know why I can’t remember it. What do you remember?”
