by Joshua King
My eyes met those of each member of my group. The offer didn't sound appealing to any of us, but we knew there wasn't really any other option available. This is what we had to do if we wanted to find the stolen object and earn our way through the portal.
"Fine. We accept."
The king smiled in a way that I could go the rest of my life without seeing again. His gaze scanned the group and stopped on Bex.
"You will go first."
5
Bex drew in a deep breath and took a step toward the king’s throne.
"I will," he said.
The king lifted one hand and gestured to the side. A billow of smoke crept across the floor to the base of the wall. As it crawled up the stone, the section of the wall gradually disappeared, revealing an entrance that led deeper into the building.
"Go ahead."
Bex hesitated for a second and the muscles along the side of his neck tensed like he was resisting the urge to turn back and look at us. Finally, he started forward, striding with intense purpose toward the entrance into the collections. As soon as he walked through, the smoke billowed up again and when it dissipated, the wall was solid. Silence fell over the room. A strange feeling of anticipation settled over me as I waited for something, anything to happen. I expected the king to keep talking, but he hadn’t said a word since he told Bex it was his turn to go into the collection. Time slid by and the silence grew thicker. Anxiety made my feet move and I paced back and forth across the room.
"What’s going to happen?" I heard Aurora mutter.
"What do you mean?"
She lifted her eyes to me.
"We don’t really know what’s happening. We just agreed to his terms without knowing anything."
"He already wouldn’t tell us what he took. That’s kind of the point of this whole game."
"And what if Bex can’t find it?"
What she was actually asking sank in and I stalked toward the king.
"What’s going to happen to him?" I demanded.
"What do you mean?"
The casual lilt of his voice makes my fists clench by my sides.
"You sent Bex in there but didn’t tell us what would happen if he didn’t figure out what we’re looking for."
The king let out a short laugh.
"It seems I find myself without a full set of guards to protect my fortress. I think the five of you would make ideal replacements. But don’t worry so much yet. There is still plenty of time."
He stretched his hand out beside him and an object appeared in his palm.
"What is that?"
The strange object drew me in, and I walked up to the table where the king placed it.
"This is one of my favorite artifacts. A Time Chaser. It will help us count the time down."
Wooden frames held glass panes that reminded me of the suspended box. Instead of the woman being in the box, there were several grooved shelves tilting back and forth. A row of metal balls along the top shelf shifted slightly, then one tipped off the edge, falling onto the next shelf. I watched it until another of the balls fell and then pushed away from the table, going back to pacing. After a few passes, I turned back to the king.
"What is your name?"
"My name?"
"You have us dancing around like your little puppets, but you don’t think we should actually know your name?"
"Ryu," Aurora said.
"You know his name?"
She didn’t look at me.
"That is it, isn’t it?" she asked. "That is your name." She looked back at us. "I’ve heard Malakan mention it. He never said who or what he was, only his name. Ryu, the Shadow of the Forest. Now that I’m here, I know he couldn’t be talking about anyone else."
"I like that," the king said. "The Shadow of the Forest. That’s a great honor coming from someone like Malakan."
I bit my tongue to stop the response that was bubbling up. Bex was still somewhere in the collections and each of us had a turn ahead of us. Pissing off the one man who held the ability to get us out of the fortress alive probably wasn’t the best move at the moment.
"Ryu, why do you have this collection?"
"Why does anyone have a collection? The objects amuse me. I like to look at them and, in some instances like this Time Chaser, I use them. It doesn’t seem fair that these creations should be kept away from others."
"But why steal them?"
"You think I’ve stolen everything in the collection? You think so little of me."
"I’m not like the rest of the group. They were all born here in the Underworld. I know nothing about you and so I have nothing to think of you except for what I’ve seen so far."
"And what do you think?"
"That you wouldn’t put it past you to take anything you want, from anyone, at any time."
"An interesting perspective. Not untrue, but interesting. I suppose you’re right in a way. Most of what comprises my collection are items the original owners would consider stolen."
"And you don’t?"
"In this existence, what matters is perspective. It is a very rare thing when everything is exactly as it seems, but people forget that. It’s easier to just look around and assume what you see is the truth. People structure themselves around that. They determine what they believe is happening and what they consider their place in the world, and they make their decisions based on that. Which then makes that into their reality."
"You mean perception."
"No. Perception is awareness. It’s knowing something exists. Perspective is what you make of it. I am aware of all that is around me. Far more aware than most creatures. That means I am able to make more of what exists than others. While some are content with only what’s on the surface, taking what they see as the unchangeable truth so they can release themselves of the responsibility of changing it, I am not. Everything is able to be changed."
The words kept tumbling out of him, but they had long since stopped having any meaning. That is, if they had any to begin with at all. It seemed like he was talking just to take up the air in the room and eat through the time the balls counted as they slipped along each of the shelves. Finally, the last of the metal balls glided along the bottom shelf and fell still.
"Time’s up," Ryu said.
He reached over and touched the Time Chaser. The instant his fingertips touched the top of the wooden frame, the balls moved back up to the top shelf in a perfect, undulating line like a snake. When they were in place again, they shifted slightly back and forth, seeming to move with anticipation of when it would be time to start counting again. Turning toward the wall that led into the collection, I waited for Bex to come back through, but nothing happened. After several seconds, my eyes snapped to the Dark Fae King.
"Where is he? Where’s Bex?" I demanded.
"Your friend used up his time," Ryu said as if that gave enough of an explanation. "It’s time for the next person to try their luck."
Stepping up closer to the throne, I let my gaze burrow into his. Remembering the same control I had over Bex the night he followed us to my parents’ house, my mind focused intently on the king. I tried to dig through his thoughts, to dig out the answers I wanted the same way that was so effective that night in the basement. Only this time, nothing happened. Rather than suddenly spilling all the answers of the questions I’d asked him, bringing us to Bex, and then offering us a tour of his collection culminating in the reveal of what was stolen, Ryu just stared back at me. Suddenly, his eyebrows lifted.
"Is something supposed to happen?" he asked.
"Fuck," I muttered.
"Oh, were you trying some of your magic on me, Hayden? Perhaps trying to control my mind. I’ve heard you may have some rare traits. But never mistake that you are still, and will always be, a novice compared to me. You may have arrived in this world with the convenience of inborn magic and then been given even more through Aurora, but it is still new in your veins. Your body doesn’t know what to do with it or how to really use it.
Sometimes you will feel like the most powerful being in the world, capable of anything, and then there will be moments, far more moments, when you can do nothing. Either way, you will be nothing like me. I am far too strong for you to manipulate that way."
I stepped back away from him, an extremely uncomfortable blend of anger, embarrassment, and frustration coursing through me. Having my friends taken from me and not knowing where they were was wearing on me and I had to focus on maintaining my calm, so I didn’t explode and destroy all chances of the five of us getting out of here.
"Let me go next," I asked.
Ryu acted like he didn’t hear me and looked over me to the rest of the group.
"You." His finger pointing at Stephana was like an arrow. "Friend of enemies. Comfort for the lost. You have spent so much time among those who no one else even acknowledges. Maybe that will give you special insight into my collection? There’s only one way to find out."
Before the smoke could open up the wall for Stephana, I rushed over to her and wrapped my arms around her. Her hands pressed tightly to my back as she tucked her head into my shoulder and let out a long breath. She shook slightly, but I just held her harder, not wanting to give the king the satisfaction of seeing how much he was affecting her.
"You’ll be fine," I reassured her. "Whatever happens. You’ll be fine. Just go in there and look carefully. Take in everything. Do what he just said. Use the insight you have into all the types of people throughout the Underworld to look for what stands out. Don’t be afraid. And keep an open mind."
I hoped she’d understand the last phrase. It wasn’t the most elaborate code I could have come up with, but right now was not the time for me to try to remember my brief research into the Windtalkers. We would just have to hope Ryu either didn’t hear me or wouldn’t understand what it meant. Stephana understood. I saw it in her eyes when she pulled away from our embrace and looked full into my face, creating a perfectly still moment between us, before walking toward the wall. I watched her only for the first few steps into the collection before turning back to the table beside the throne so I could watch the behavior of the metal balls now that another person was within the coiling recesses of the palace.
The movement of the metal balls got faster, one splitting off from the connection with the others to slide close to the edge of the shelf.
"Why are you here?" Ryu asked.
This seemed to be a pattern. Suck one of my friends into his funhouse and then ask me deep, philosophical questions. I wasn’t enjoying this game show format. There was no way he was getting through Sweeps Week pulling this shit.
"I told you why I’m here."
"You’re really here to find what I stole from the Fae?"
"I’m here because I was sent here to complete a mission."
"Why?"
"What do you mean why?"
"Missions always have a reason, and it is always more than what it seems at first. You aren’t just here because you want to restore something to the Fae. There’s no purpose behind that."
"I guess I can’t really expect you to see being helpful to another person as a purpose."
"No," Ryu said simply. "I don’t. I never have. And I don’t believe you do, either, Hayden. You came to the Underworld for yourself and you continue along this path for yourself. The promise of power is what appeals to you."
"I’m doing this, all this, to help bring conflicts and war to an end."
"Perhaps. But there’s more to it than that. If you came here and Aurora wasn’t the princess, but just any other vampire who bit you and tossed you away, would you still have so much determination in you? If you were only meant to be a pauper in this world, but had the ability to save it, would it matter so much to you?"
"Yes."
My voice came out with a distinct hiss and I felt the anger inside me building.
"There’s no need to be so defensive, Hayden. Everyone has their motivations, and everyone has a price. This is true for you and it’s true for the Fae. I only asked you because I’m assuming the reason you’re here is you need to use something of theirs – one of their portals?"
"Hayden, don’t answer him," Aurora said, stepping up beside me.
"I know the Fae have control over two very difficult to find, and very useful, portals, but they are never generous with who can use them. Their prices are often steep, and sometimes impossible. They’ve been known to ask prices that are meant more for their own amusement than to actually earn someone’s way through."
"What do you mean?"
"You came here with nothing. Not a single weapon. No map. Not even the simple bit of information of what you were looking to bring back to them. Why do you think they would do something like that?"
I reached down by my side and took Aurora’s hand. Without answering the king, I turned my back and we walked back over to where Ashe was waiting.
"Stand behind me," I muttered under my breath.
The women took their place between me and the king, exactly where I wanted them. It kept me from feeling his eyes on me and allowed me to reach out to Stephana. By then she had been in the collections for a few minutes, giving her the opportunity to gain her bearings. Now I wanted to see what she had discovered. She was in the middle of a thought when my mind melded with hers. Her voice was quiet, like she was whispering, but distinct enough for me to understand her. Looking through her eyes, I could see a deep blue object in her hand. It looked like one of the huge, gaudy paperweights the coach of my college football team used to have on his desk. Maybe that was actually what it was. To the Dark Fae King, the world of college football might very well be an exotic species he would want to memorialize by taking a souvenir.
Somehow, though, I couldn’t really imagine Ryu perched in the stands with a pennant in one hand and a cheap beer in the other, shouting out nonsensical taunts as he watched the game. I decided to go with the object not being a gaudy paperweight.
"The mine is far from here. Too far for them to have just happened on it."
Stephana’s observation confirmed my suspicion. She put the blue object down and looked up, giving me a view of the collection. The room around her was long and narrow, almost more of a hallway than a separate room. Rather than being the dark, rough stone of most of the rest of the fortress, this room was much more like the glistening white of the section Aurora had been in when I connected with her right before she found her way back to us. Tables, shelves, and curio cabinets scattered randomly throughout the space held a mind-boggling assortment of objects. There didn’t seem to be any sort of organization or sense about what was shoved into the room. Huge, ungainly statues with missing body parts sat beside delicate bits of shimmery somethings that looked like they could be blown away with one breath. Several things were stacked on top of or leaning against each other, making it hard to tell if they were supposed to go together or were just stuck there when space started running out.
It looked like an old woman’s garage sale from hell.
"There’s so much here," Stephana muttered. "I don’t recognize all of it."
To anyone else who might be listening, it would just seem like she was talking to herself, but I knew she was directing it at me, helping me prepare for my own turn. Her hand rested on what looked like a hammer-beaten chunk of metal.
"This is from the Ogres. They are not a very social species and I haven’t heard of any of them coming anywhere near here in many years. A few of these things belong to some of the species that are easy to find in Solan City. I don’t know what all of them are, but most of them are pretty mundane. A few are ritual objects. He might have stolen them, but they also might have been given to him during a visit, especially if there was ever the possibility of an alliance."
She moved away from the table where she’d been standing and stepped up to a tall, narrow glass curio cabinet. Her fingers played along a series of multicolored glass pieces. Their smooth, flowing shapes were almost mesmerizing, and the light bouncing off them create
d the impression they were dancing.
"These are incredible," Stephana whispered. "I’ve never seen so many together. They are from the mermaids."
"Mermaids? Did she just say fucking mermaids?"
Aurora poked me in the back to quiet me and I glanced over my shoulder toward Ryu. He was looking in our direction, but soon his eyes wandered back toward the Time Chaser beside him.
"These are Fae."
The words in Stephana’s voice snapped my attention back to her. No longer beside the curio cabinet, she had moved over to a round table made of tinted purple glass. I tried to look at as many of the objects in front of her as I could, looking for anything that seemed out of place.
"Nothing is standing out to me. I don’t think any of these are what he stole. They are too simple. He could have gotten them easily from any Fae or travelers who had encountered them. A few of them might have been stolen, but there’s nothing here impactful enough to make the other Fae so upset."
Suddenly my connection with Stephana started to fade. I couldn’t see in front of her as easily and her voice went silent. There were a few flashes and then she was gone. I pushed through Ashe and Aurora to go back to the Time Chaser. The metal balls were making their way back to the top. Her time was over.
Ryu gave the counter an amused smile and looked at Aurora.
"Princess. Your turn."
6
Aurora let out of breath that sounded like the wind has been knocked out of her. It immediately struck me that the king was purposely keeping me for last. He wanted me to watch each of my friends go in his collection and not come back out. Refusing to show any fear or anger, I turned to Aurora and hugged her the same way I had Stephana before she took her turn. She leaned into the kiss I pressed to the side of her neck.
