Chapter Twenty-four
While Merriam stood gaping at where, just moments before, Timeron had stood, he was busy hurrying back across the hall to gather the others. And in the shadows, Sarian waited and watched and listened; he had arrived moments before, in time to hear what actually happened to Bowser. He was furious that Merriam was involved in whatever was going on, and he may have done a little gaping of his own while he divided his attention between the light-show—which he assumed was the portal—in one room, and the events playing out in the other.
Quickly unlocking the door and throwing it open with his powers before he was even halfway across the hallway, Timeron then burst into the room—and ran smack into a shield. Bouncing backwards and landing on his butt, he stared up at the others in shock. A couple of the others, namely Malory and Coliten, were busy trying to hide their glowing hands behind their backs. Timeron glared at them as he dusted himself off. This glare caused the two to begin inching backwards to try to hide behind the scientists.
During this little dust-up, Bowser had begun to bark. The sorcerers and scientists in the room heard Merriam call out to Bowser, who, upon hearing her, broke free from Jacron and raced across the room toward the door—and promptly ran into the shield. Yipping as he fell backward, he regained his feet and began to howl.
Timeron glared in the direction Malory and Coliten were hiding—although attempting to hide was more like it. It was hard to hide behind scientists who kept trying to hide behind you. Timeron tried to maintain his glare, but it was pretty hard, watching the young idiots trying to stay behind scientists who were doing all they could to stay behind them. After watching them try to hide for a minute with their hands still glowing, Timeron had a moment to appreciate that the two were not using their powers against the scientists.
Finally, his patience having been tried long enough, he told the men to drop the shield. Both men muttered, scared, "I'm trying," at the same time. It appeared that both men had raised a shield at precisely the same moment in the same area; somehow their magic had twisted together a bit, and they were too scared trying to hide from him to undo it.
Shaking his head, he finally muttered, "This is the exact reason Darian wants your head. This is why we train you. So accidents do not happen, so you can work magic together, and not get it all twisted. Both of you need to concentrate and pull your magic—just your own magic—back to you. Don't try to pull all of the magic of the shield back."
Both of the men looked scared as they concentrated and pulled their magic back to them. The scientists, on the other hand, looked terrified. Guess using a bit of magic earlier to move them about and quiet them down may have worked a little too well, thought Timeron. Or it could be that when a five-thousand year old sorcerer walks in glaring at everyone, nah, that could not be it, Timeron thought, mentally giving a little laugh. I wish I could save these looks for later. You cannot put a price on this kind of entertainment.
Once the shield was dropped, Timeron continued into the room. Bowser, seeing Timeron walking toward him, darted around him and ran through the door, heading toward the portal room as fast as his little legs would take him—which was much too fast for anyone to catch him without magic.
They heard Merriam give a little scream of surprise, which caused each man in the room to wince as they briefly thought about what the Lyra's reactions would be. Fortunately, the men then heard Merriam telling Bowser how absolutely beautiful he was. The tension in the room dropped noticeably—maybe if Merriam really liked the new look, she would be willing to go with the story Coliten came up with, and everyone would get to live another day.
Timeron realized, "I never told her what story we came up with to explain Bowser, but she came up with an idea of what we can do to try to see through the portal for a longer amount of time. I just don't know what kind of effect it will have on this side or that side of the portal."
He looked around the room to see he had everyone's complete attention. Rather than explaining to anyone, he just motioned for everyone to follow him. As they walked out of the room, they found Merriam standing in the hallway where she had met Bowser in his rush to find her. She had Bowser in her arms and was turning him this way and that. She looked up at Timeron long enough to say, "I love the colors, he is so beautiful."
Timeron then told her the story Coliten had come up with to explain the colors. Being young, Coliten did not have good control over his powers yet, and Merriam knew it, which was the only reason she thought the story would be acceptable. Listening to them concoct the story, and knowing they meant to pass that story not just to the general public, but to him as well, had Sarian shaking his head. He wondered briefly what they would do if he stepped out of his shadows, where he stood hiding.
Then Timeron asked her something—he knew before the words even left his mouth that it was going to get him in trouble. He knew it, but he had no choice. Merriam was their princess of the moment, and she was treated as royally as anyone could wish, considering she was not part of a Lyra and would never be in a position to rule. She also had the scariest guardians in the entire world, which made the request that much more important.
"Lady Merriam, I know you will want to stay, anyone would, but I have to ask you—no—beg you to leave. We want to try your suggestion, but we have no idea how the portal will react. We cannot take the risk of something happening to you. Until we know more, will you give us the time we need to study it? From a position of safety, which means you, young lady, need to be elsewhere, not here. Not in the room, not in this hall, not in this wing. Please. We cannot, we dare not test it with you around it. We will not."
Merriam looked at him, then she looked at the others. They seemed anxious and scared and excited. She desperately wanted to see if her suggestion would work—but she knew her father, she knew her uncles, she knew her father would destroy these people to keep her safe, and she knew that these people might be the very ones the planet needed. Reluctantly, she nodded her head. "I will go back to my home, I will keep your story as the reason for the beautiful colors on Bowser, but you have to promise that you will send for me when you know it is safe. You have to let me be the first person to see it, the very first person—well, besides all of you."
"When we know it is safe my Lady, I will personally send a runner to find you. But only when we know it is safe, and we do not know how long that will be." This was the best Timeron could give her.
Watching her sadly walk away, the men all regretted they could not share more with her. She could look like the saddest little waif when she wanted to, and that look had fooled many people.
Once she was out of sight, Timeron told the others what she had said about using a table. Excited, the men almost trampled Timeron in their haste to return to testing the portal. The only thing that saved him from getting run over was the fact that he threw up a shield at the last minute. Unlike Malory's shields, his shields would hold against multiple people. He’d had almost five thousand more years to practice them than Malory had. His shields didn't break for anyone, except for those Lyra-born.
After watching Merriam until she was out of sight, and waiting long enough to see the men start sliding a table in front of the portal, Sarian thought he should get back to the others in the hallway. They had some things to discuss, one of which was a certain colorful dog. It was hard to leave, because Sarian really wanted to see if the table idea Merriam had come up with would work, but if he did not hurry back to the others, they would come looking for him. Reluctantly, he left.
Chapter Twenty-five
After a while, Sarian came back into the hallway where the others waited. He had a concerned look on his face, which worried the others. While waiting on Sarian to tell them what he had seen, Darian suggested they continue to the Great Room. Before he could move, though, Sarian reached his hand out, grabbing his upper arm and stopping him. “I think we should go back to our meeting chambers, no, wait, I really need a drink. Let's go back to my house. We have some things
to talk about, and we really need to discuss what I just found.”
Kane popped his head up and quickly responded, “My bond-mate was supposed to be going to your house today to visit your bond-mate. I do not think your house is the best place to discuss anything.”
A thoughtful look came over Sarian's face. "Ok, we will go to the mountain retreat and talk. I have not been there in a while, but the caretakers should have stocked everything."
The men agreed, and moments later took one step forward and disappeared, reappearing seconds later half a continent away at the mountain retreat they’d taken turns visiting separately. It was a place to get some space from each other, and from the headaches that came with having a government ruled equally by four people who, despite being bonded through soul-threads, did not always agree on everything. The men had several such retreats, but this particular one was favored by all four. It helped that all four of their mates also enjoyed the peace and quiet that this particular retreat offered. The only way in was to step through the between, or the void, as it was sometimes called—the nothingness that existed between one place and the next—and even so, it was heavily shielded so only their Lyra could get in. Special arrangements were made for the caretakers, but even the four from the previous Lyra—and the four from the one previous to that one—could not pass through the protections surrounding this retreat.
Every Lyra was unique, even though each contained one fire-walker, two ice-walkers, and one shadow-walker. The fire, ice, and shadows produced by the individuals were unique to the individual, so even if one of the other two living Lyras came to visit and stepped out of the between, they could not mold their bodies to go through the fire, ice, or shadow shields. The shields were so thin and light as to be almost invisible, and the men, bound to each other as they were, passed through the protections as though they were not even there.
Soon they were inside the retreat, each with a full glass in hand, waiting for Sarian to tell them what he had found. After a few moments of sipping and waiting, Darian grunted to remind Sarian they were there. Sarian had been just staring into space. Sarian brought his attention back to the room, and looking at his glass, drained it in one go, then went to the counter where he refilled his glass.
He looked at the others, motioned with his glass, and said, "Balcony," while walking out the door to the balcony that over looked the valley. The three men he left behind looked at each other, then toward the balcony, down at their glasses, and as one headed for refills, though they had not yet finished the glass they each had. Whatever was causing Sarian to react this way called for a double shot of whatever. The men all drained their glasses, then after filling them back up, made their way to the balcony.
Taking a seat, they all waited for Sarian to begin. The first thing he said surprised them, though. "You each have to promise not to leave; you have to promise not to step back until the entire tale is finished. You may not like what I’ve found, but I will have your promise before I start."
The others could tell it was important they give this promise, but knew they would be bound by it if they did. Patro was the first to reluctantly give his promise, followed by Kane. All three men turned their heads toward Darian, who, with narrowed eyes, refused. Kane got up and was headed toward Darian, intent on throwing him off the balcony when Sarian intervened.
"Darian, it is important to me, but what I have to tell you involves the entire race. I need you to listen to everything. I know you don't want to give the promise, because all you can see is that it involves the—Kane, put him back down—I told you, no throwing him off the balcony again. The last time you threw him off and he had to step to safety, we got exactly nothing accomplished for weeks because he holds a grudge." Darian, watching and listening to Sarian, was caught by surprise and had not even had time to defend himself before Kane had grabbed him up. Struggling to free himself from Kane, he ended up taking himself and Kane down at the same time.
"Fine," Darian finally said when he had freed himself from the chairs and Kane had regained his feet. As he righted his chair and again took his seat, glaring at Kane, he said, "You have my promise—under duress—I don't think it should count, but you have my promise."
Sarian leaned forward, and before his first words, a look of worry and concern returned to his face. "What I am going to tell you will infuriate you, and yet give you hope."
He got no further because Darian jumped to his feet, shouting, "You knew it would infuriate me and you made me make a promise I would not leave? What in the name of the Great Shadows is wrong with you, man?"
"Shut up, Darian, just shut up. Let me finish before I help Kane throw you off the balcony." He waited until Darian had regained his seat before continuing. "The sorcerers have made a portal, and have gotten brief glimpses of the other side. If I understand right, it is not our planet on the other side of the portal." When it looked like the others would interrupt, he held up his hands and just said, "Let me finish before you say a word. They have tossed some things through the portal, but the portal only stays open for just a brief moment. Earlier today, they had a little incident where no one was hurt—you understand no one was hurt, right?" He looked around, waiting on each man to give a nod. When it looked as though Kane would say something, he just cocked his eyebrow up and said, "I'm not finished."
"It seems someone wasn't paying attention—or no one was paying attention—and a dog went through the portal. They had to play fetch with the dog to get it to come back. When they managed to get the dog back, it was uninjured, but—this is important—the dog was awash with the colors of the portal. I don't know if he gained the colors going through or coming back, but either way, this is not good. That is one colorful portal."
The others began trying to speak over each other in an attempt to find out where the dog was, who let the dog through; Sarian could not keep up with the questions that were coming fast and furious from the others. Instead of trying, he just gave them a look and kept his mouth shut. When the questions finally began to wind down and the others were just muttering, he took back up where he had left off.
"They have come up with a solution to the portal not staying open, and they were about to try it when I left. They returned the dog to the owner and gave her a fabricated story, so you will not let the real story out to the owner, do you understand?" This said, he looked at each of the men in turn.
Darian, being a bit hotheaded, was of course the first one to have problems with this, and he said so. "So you are not going to tell the owner something may be wrong with her dog?"
"Nothing is wrong with the dog, Darian."
"But you don't know that!" Darian retorted.
"Well, you better hope I am right, then, since the dog lives with you!"
"The dog… lives… with… me? Are you telling me Merriam has a colored dog... that Bowser is the colors of the portal and they just handed him back to her? Is this what you are telling me?" Darian was furious. "You are telling me that my daughter’s dog went into the portal, the portal no one knows is safe, and they just handed him back to her?" The venom in Darian's voice was unmistakable.
"Darian, you know I would never allow a hair on her head to be harmed. I will throw you off this balcony myself if you don't see reason. Malory made a portal. We have legends of coming to this world via a portal. Malory studied the legends and myths and recreated that which we said did not exist. If a portal got our people here, and he created a portal, think, man."
Kane had been silent while he listened to the two argue, but he could not be silent any longer. "This is Merriam we are talking about. How could you let them give her a dog we don't even know is safe anymore?"
Patro added, "I think we should all go and see this portal. We can see what the sorcerers are doing. We can not make decisions if this is all we have to go on. You said you saw Bowser?" Sarian nodded. "And he isn't white anymore?"
Sarian shook his head and said, "Nope, he’s got all the colors of the portal."
Kane
narrowed his eyes, "Well if going through the portal and back out did not hurt him, I say we toss the sorcerers through."
Darian nodded his head, "I agree, whoever sent my daughter's dog through the portal is going through. If Bowser came back, they can, too," an evil grin crossed his face, "then they can tell us what the other side looks like."
Sarian tried to reason with the two for a minute; he even tried to get Patro to take his side, but Patro was firmly on the others’ side. After a while, he gave up.
"Ok, so here is what we are going to do. We are going to step to the Great Hall, and if the Great Room door is still open, we will just ease our way in—and if it is not, we wait outside ‘til someone opens the door."
"Why can't we just step through to the Great Room?" Kane wanted to know.
"Well, do you know how the portal will react? Or how far we have to stay away? Or what happened when the sorcerers tried their latest experiment? Which involved pushing a table through, if I did not tell you already."
Darian was surprised, "What is a table going to tell them? Push one of them through, and we will have our answers."
Sarian considered what to tell them, "Well, seems the portal only stays open as long as it takes an object to travel through, so someone suggested locking it open with a table pushed partway through. They were pushing it toward the portal when I left."
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