“Sir!” A soldier ran out of the woods struggling to catch his breath, as if he had been running hard. These soldiers had been conditioned for endurance.
“What is it? I already heard the gate is supposedly ready.”
“This is not about the gate.” The soldier straightened up.
“Then what is it?”
“We found an intruder, sir. He claims to be a friend of yours, but he does not appear trustworthy.” The soldier made complete eye contact.
“What is his name?” I hoped it was not Talen. I was relying on him to help show Ainsley to Belgard. Talen’s people were good, but I did not know any of them as well as I knew him.
“He identified himself as Denny, but he will not tell us what he is. We are sure he is not human.”
Denny? The Dire Wolf? Had he made his way to Energo? I had all but forgotten about him. “Take me to him.”
“He is truly your friend?” The soldier questioned.
I was not wholly surprised by his reaction. Denny was an interesting character, and he certainly was not someone my father would have allied with.
“He is a friend.” Or he had been loosely one. I was doubtful he would be interested in remaining my friend if he sensed the darkness welling through me, but if I could hold it back I might convince him to help Ainsley. That was the only thing I could hope for.
“I will lead you to him.”
I followed the soldier through the thick forest. The sun all but disappeared as he walked deeper and deeper into the woods.
Through the near darkness I saw a figure being held by each arm by a soldier.
“I was beginning to think you were going to leave me hanging here.” Denny grinned as I approached. It was still dark where he was held, but Dires, like all shifters, had far superior vision to humans.
“Sorry for the delay.” I stopped a few inches from him. The soldiers watched me, awaiting my command to do something.
“It was no problem.” He glanced at the two soldiers holding him. “I’m going to walk away now.” The soldier’s tightened their grips on him. He easily shrugged them off.
The soldiers reached out for him, but I shook my head. “Do not waste your time.” I laughed. “Why did you pretend to be captured, if you were not?”
“Because I assumed they would send more reinforcements and I would be forced to fight. It was much easier to let them believe they’d taken me easily.”
I shook my head. “That is one way to handle things.”
The two soldiers who had moments ago been holding him exchanged confused glances.
“He is a wolf,” I explained so they would snap out of it and leave us alone.
“A Dire,” Denny corrected. “Not just a wolf. You might have actually been able to capture a wolf.”
“A Dire.” I nodded.
“What would you like us to do with him, sir?” They waited with their hands on the handle of their swords.
I chuckled that they actually thought they could do anything to him after his display of strength. Evidently the strengthening my father provided did nothing for intelligence. “You can leave us.”
“Are you sure?” One asked warily. “We can stay.”
“No need. He was speaking the truth when he called himself a friend. Return to your duty.”
“Aye, sir.” All three said before disappearing into the woods.
“You have a fan club now?” Denny raised an eyebrow.
“A fan club is probably the wrong word.”
“Who are those guys?” He pointed in the direction they had disappeared.
“Employees.”
He laughed. “Employees, eh? I wasn’t aware you were running a business now.”
“A family business of sorts.” Just not of the typical sort.
It was too dark to see his face, but the way he held himself changed, and I knew my words had sunk in. “What trouble are you in, James?”
“Do not waste time worrying about me.” I glanced into the darkness further in the woods and then back to Denny. “Worry about Ainsley.”
“Is she still in trouble?” He headed in the direction the soldiers had gone. “I had assumed you found her. Otherwise what are you doing here with employees?” He stopped before we reached the edge of the woods. There was enough light that I could see the deep furrows of worry on his forehead.
“I did find her, but I sent her off.”
“Sent her off?” His jaw dropped. “The girl you love? The one who will die without you?”
“I was afraid something worse would happen if she stayed.” And I was afraid of what I would do.
“What could be worse than death?”
“Death of many. Eternal guilt.” I left off the fact she would never forgive and I would truly lose her forever. That would not help my case.
“Where is she?” He looked out toward the clearing. “Where did you send her?”
“Hopefully she is near to Belgard by now. She needs to get there so she can get help from the Essence.”
“And are those terms supposed to mean much to me? You promised my friend Gina you would get her in to meet the Essence, but that doesn’t mean I know what the Essence is.”
“The Essence is the only one more powerful than the Cipher.” I thought about my words. “Or equally as powerful. Instead of controlling the dark and death as the Cipher can do, she controls the light and living.”
“I’m guessing I should leave the light and dark side out of this?” Denny laughed.
“I have no idea what you are referencing.”
“Nothing.” He bit back a smile. “Nothing at all.”
“She refused to help me when I most needed it.”
“And you think she will be kind to Ainsley? Being tied to the light and living means she’s a nice person?”
“She would never hurt Ainsley. Whether she’ll help her is another question altogether.”
“Is there a reason you couldn’t take her there yourself?”
“There are many reasons.”
“Reasons you might want to share?” He pulled out his flask.
I narrowed my eyes.
“It’s water.” He tipped it back and poured some into his mouth. “I promise.”
“Those types of habits do not change overnight.”
“I am drinking water.”
“Today maybe.”
“What I drink isn’t the issue here. Making sure Ainsley doesn’t die is. Or any of those other people for that matter. The whole eternal guilt thing.”
“Your concern is noted.” It was time for me to ask questions of my own. “How did you get here?”
“You mean after you ditched me in Alak?”
“You volunteered to stay as collateral.” Our time in Alak was a blur. I had only been concerned with one thing: saving Ainsley.
“We planned to return the dragons.”
He laughed. “Yeah well, lucky for me they took me at my word, and I was able to leave. I think I’ll stay clear of Zales from now on though. They may be pretty, but intense.”
“Very intense.”
“Would have been nice to have warned me.”
“You seemed perfectly capable of protecting yourself.”
“Like Ainsley.” Denny frowned. “Is she perfectly capable of defending herself right now?”
I felt anger welling through me. My vision tunneled.
“Chill.” Denny touched my shoulder. “That comment was uncalled for. Sorry. Let’s focus on the issues.”
I pushed the rage back. Denny could help. “Before we get to any issues, I need to know how you found me here.”
“Find is probably the wrong word. That implies it was accidental.” He smiled, and I wondered if he was making fun of my verbiage from earlier. He was a strange man. One minute he was angry and pointing fingers; the next he fell back into jokes.
I did not particularly care. “Then how did you come to be here?”
“Talen came back for me.” He put a hand to his ches
t.
“And he told you where to find me?” I was not surprised he knew I was at the tower. It was close to the gate. What did surprise me was that Talen chose not to come himself.
“He told me I needed to find you. He made it sound pretty darn important.”
“I need help.”
“Isn’t that why you have employees?” Denny rolled his eyes. “I am uninterested in helping you, but I’ll help Ainsley.”
“The two things work together.”
“What can I do?”
“First, accept this at face value and do not waste time asking questions. I was desperate to save Ainsley, and there was only one person who would help.”
“You already said the Essence wouldn’t.”
I braced myself before admitting my crime. “My father.”
“Shit.”
I nodded. “Pretty much.”
“So, what? You’re paying him back or something?”
“He gave me his power, and the darkness is taking over.”
Denny stepped away. “I would kill you if it weren’t for your connection to Ainsley.”
“You could not kill me.”
“Everyone can be killed.”
“Not easily.”
“What can I do? Where do I find Ainsley, and how can I break her connection to you?”
“I wish I had an answer to all of those questions.” And a way to stop the darkness. Despite the powerful darkness welling through me, I felt weak when it came to changing anything.
“Do you have an answer to any?” He took another swig from his flask.
“I know how you can help.”
“Care to fill me in?”
“The soldiers.” I still did not fully understand their strength. My father wanted them for more than their obedience. He had made them virtually indestructible, but they lacked brute strength.
“You mean your employees?” He shook his head.
“Yes.” I nodded. “You can keep them in line and watch over them.”
“I assume you can too.”
“Yes.” Easily, but that was not the issue.
“But you don’t want to.”
“This has nothing to do with want.”
“Your father.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Ok.” Denny paused as if mulling things over. Then he nodded. “What do you need me to do?”
“Prevent them from finishing the gate.”
“And you aren’t going to try to kill me?” He eyed me skeptically.
“No. I don’t need the gate.”
“Is this you or your father talking?”
“Both. I believe our problems can be solved within Energo.”
“Ok… I’d prefer if you didn’t bring them back to my world.”
“I figured you would agree.” I smiled. It was my first smile since Ainsley left, and it felt wrong.
“Ok, so how do I stop them from completing this gate?”
“I will leave that up to you.”
“Wait.” He froze.
“Yes?”
“You said not to worry about your problems and to focus on Ainsley. Shouldn’t I be getting her?”
“Do you know the way to Belgard?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “Don’t even know where it is.”
“Exactly. You will be helping her if you slow them down with the gate.”
“What are you going to be doing?”
“Heading to Icentris. The answer to everything might be waiting there.”
“Is there a reason you didn’t do that before?”
“I could not leave my brother here unobserved.” Gregor was far more dangerous than I had counted on.
“So I am babysitting your brother too? I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
“I did not know of him until recently, and not babysitting exactly.”
“Does he have your power, or can I take him too?” Denny shifted his weight from foot to foot.
“You can take him. The only way he’ll get my power is if I kill him, or he kills me.”
“Because that makes sense…”
“I never pretended any of this made sense.”
15
Ainsley
“As long as I don’t have to go through a hole with corpses again I guess I can go along with your plan.”
“There is no hole and no corpses,” Elron assured me.
“So it’s a gate?” I looked out into the woods. “I preferred that entrance.”
He shook his head. “No gate.”
“Then what is it exactly?” I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.
“It may be better to show you.”
“Oh no.” I shook my head. “Nope. None of that.”
“What?”
“I don’t like that line. I prefer to be prepared. We’ve been over this.”
“Except you’ve been unprepared more often than not.” He raised an eyebrow.
“Still, no surprises.” I crossed my arms.
“Fine, I create the portal anywhere I want.”
“You make the portal out of thin air?” I gasped. “Right… because gates would be too boring.”
He laughed. “Passing into my land this way is painless, and the alternative is a three days ride.”
“We don’t have three days.” We had zero days. I wasn’t even sure how many hours we had, because I wasn’t sure how many hours we had wasted. And we were about to waste more, or pass more; I sure hoped we weren’t wasting more time by going to the Elf world.
“Hence the suggestion we use my portal.”
“Is this like Sci-Fi?”
“Sci-Fi?” He gave me a puzzled expression.
“Science Fiction,” I said more specifically. “You don’t know everything about the lost world.”
“Have I pretended to know everything?”
“No.” I sighed. “Sci-Fi is just a term for far out futuristic stuff. Well, sort of.”
“There is nothing futuristic about this. My people have been using the same type of portals for centuries.”
“Ok, point made.” I glanced around. “Where are you going to make this portal thingie?”
“Portal thingie?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Sorry if that is disrespectful. I’m tired and cranky, and well, not in the right state of mind to be polite.”
“Do not apologize, but I sense you lack faith in me.”
“I’ve gone along with you for this long. Why would I stop doing it now?”
“I sense you are anxious. I understand that.”
“I’m way past anxious.” I passed that point a long time before.
He pulled a black rock from his pocket and approached a large tree.
“What’s that?” I pointed to the rock.
He looked over at me. “A tool for creating the portal. Oh, and you might want to stand back.”
I backed away slowly. “I thought this was safe.”
“It is safe to travel through. The process of making the portal can be dangerous though.”
“Great.” I stepped back even further. “Is this far enough away?”
He looked at me. “Probably.”
“Ok, moving further.” I walked back a couple more feet. Things were messed up enough already without adding an injury to the list.
“You do not have to run away.”
“Then stop telling me my position is only probably safe.” Those words weren’t exactly reassuring.
“I can guarantee the spot you are in now is safe.”
“Good.” Guarantee was a word I could get behind.
He smiled before turning his attention to the tree. He took the black rock and started to rub it against the bark. I stepped closer, eager to see what he was doing. The rock left silver lines each place he touched. I didn’t see any pattern in what he was doing, but he appeared to be concentrating.
I stepped even closer. I heard him mumbling something in a language I didn’t recognize. All I could deduce was he w
as repeating the same words over and over. There was a beauty to the words even though I couldn’t understand them.
I was transfixed as I realized he was making the marks in time with his chanting.
He suddenly stopped making marks with the rock and instead traced each mark with his left pointer finger. His chanting changed. It was a different set of words this time, still in a language I did not understand.
Then just as suddenly as he started, he stopped, and he pressed both palms of his hands against the bark of the tree. Seconds later the woods were flooded by a bright light emanating from the tree.
I squinted my eyes.
“Come, Ainlsey. It will not last forever.” He held out his hand.
I walked the remaining distance to the tree, but the closer I walked, the brighter the light became until I had to close my eyes. I grabbed onto his outstretched hands hoping the journey would be as painless as he’d promised it would be.
My stomach dropped as I was hit by a sensation of weightlessness that lasted a few seconds. Then it stopped.
“You can open your eyes now,” Elron said from beside me.
I blinked a few times until my eyes adjusted to daylight. “Are we there?” I gazed around at the forest. Other than the change in light it could have been the same forest we’d just left.
“Yes. It was painless just as I said.” He smiled.
“Tell my eyes that.” I rubbed them, wondering when the tiny circles that danced in front of them would fade away. Sunglasses would have come in handy.
“I should have warned you to close them right away.” He blinked a few times. Maybe his own eyes were affected by the light.
“I’ll remember to do that next time.”
“If you are joking about returning, it could not have been all that bad.”
“As long as you don’t actually make me go near dead people we’ll be fine.” My corpse experience had been enough. Elron could go to the realm of the dead himself.
Forged in Fire (The Forged Chronicles Book 3) Page 11