by C. G. Garcia
Diryan eyes softened, and he sighed as he squeezed Aidric’s shoulder reassuringly before he said, “No lad, I do not disapprove of you pairing with the girl. I know how lonely you’ve been feeling of late, and I believe the maiden will be good for raising your spirits. I only want you to be careful, Aidric. Both of you are very special individuals, and you must never forget that.”
“I know,” Aidric said somberly. “I wish I could forget, but we all can’t have everything we wish for, can we?”
“No, lad,” Diryan agreed with a sad smile. “We cannot.”
***
I’m still dreaming, Allison reasoned when she had felt a warm hand gently brushing a lock of hair from her forehead and had opened her eyes to see Aidric smiling down at her. At least the nightmares are gone.
“Come on, little cat, wake up,” he coaxed gently. “I do believe you’ve slept long enough to last you a lifetime.”
Blinking stupidly at him, she whispered, “Are you really back, or am I dreaming?”
He chuckled. “I most certainly hope you are not dreaming! I’m too exhausted to still be sitting on the back of a horse!”
Allison started to sit up, then blushed a fierce scarlet when she realized that she didn’t have a stitch on. She quickly pulled the blankets up to her neck, and croaked, “Where are my clothes?”
“You had a fever, so the healers undressed you to try to lessen your body temperature,” Aidric explained hastily as he reached over to grab a robe from the chair next to her bed. He handed it to her and said, “You shouldn’t try to get out of bed just yet, but if you’re uncomfortable, put this on. While you do that, I’ll go and fetch you food and drink. You’ve been long without real subsidence.”
Then before she could blink he was gone. With some difficulty, Allison managed to shrug on the robe. She felt so weak, and her muscles screamed with stiffness and soreness as if she had overdone a workout.
How long have I been asleep? she thought, remembering Aidric’s earlier comment. Surely I shouldn’t be this weak and hungry even after I was sick.
As she was stubbornly trying to drag herself out of bed to at least sit in the chair, Aidric returned with a tray heaped with food and a bottle of wine.
“I told you that you shouldn’t be out of bed,” he scolded. He set down the tray onto the chair and turned to glare down at her in disapproval. “Recovering from magical shock is no small matter. You could make yourself more ill, and right now we can’t have that because you and I’ll be taking a journey tomorrow morning if you are well enough.”
Feeling guilty, Allison obeyed with a word of argument and settled herself back against the headboard. “Where are we going?” she asked as she eyed the food on the chair hungrily.
“I’ll tell you later,” he said firmly, following her eyes. “For now, you need to eat. Let’s see if we can get some color back in your cheeks first.”
He presented her with the tray, and Allison automatically reached for a piece of meat before she suddenly remembered that she still didn’t know from what animal it had come from.
“Aidric,” she said somewhat hesitantly, “I don’t mean to be picky, but what kind of meat is this?”
He seemed to find her question extremely amusing, although he was trying very hard not to show it. Allison could distinctly see the laughter in his eyes even though his voice was neutral when he answered, “It’s ang, derived from our main supply of livestock. I suppose you might not be familiar with our types of livestock. The animal is called an antar, and it’s as large as a horse and has a white hide. Do you know what a horse—oh, good. I assure you that it’s quite safe to eat. Our people have been feasting on its meat for centuries, and none of us have died from it yet!”
“You’re making fun of me!” she accused, blushing in embarrassment.
“I’m sorry,” Aidric said with a smile, looking not at all sorry. “I shouldn’t, I know, since you are a stranger in our world. I promise to behave henceforth. Now, before you ask, the rest of the meat is mutton and venison, and they are derived—”
“I know where it comes from,” Allison interrupted sharply. “We have deer and sheep on Earth, but as long as we’re playing this Name That Food game, what’s this?” She pointed at a piece of fruit that looked to be a cross between a peach and an apple. It was similar to a peach in its fuzzy texture and softness, but it was larger, shaped like an apple, and blood red.
“A mitis,” Aidric said. “Very sweet and quite delicious. I recommend that you try it. Our best wines are made out of the juices of mita.”
Allison daintily picked up a piece of ang, and with a look of uncertainty, she tore a small piece off and popped it into her mouth. To her surprise, it was quite good. It tasted very much like beef, but with a much richer flavor, as if it had been seasoned with a variety of exotic spices. Well aware that Aidric’s eyes were on her, she began to eat more of it, pausing only to take a few sips of the wine he offered her and wondering if they used silverware at all since he hadn’t offered her any.
She even tried the mitis, which was every bit as sweet as Aidric claimed it to be, with a mingled “greeny” flavor that reminded her of pine forests. It didn’t taste even distinctively like any fruit she had ever eaten.
After a few moments of silence, Allison looked over at Aidric and said shyly, “I was afraid you wouldn’t come back.”
“What and miss the opportunity of a lifetime to instruct a living legend? Never!” he said with a lopsided grin. She made a face at him, and he laughed and then said soberly, “Seriously though, if it hadn’t been for your warning, I might not have returned with my life.”
He was watching her closely.
“So, it wasn’t just a dream, was it?” Allison said flatly, putting down the piece of bread she had been nibbling on. She had suddenly lost her appetite. “My God, Aidric, I hate being able to see the future! It scares me! Can’t you just—turn it off somehow?”
Sighing, Aidric knelt down beside her bed, took her hands in his, and said, “I’m afraid I can’t, little cat. Foresight is a gift given to you by Seni, and there are only two ways you can rid yourself of it. You must either damage your brain beyond that which the healers can repair, or Seni, Himself, must take the gift away. I can’t shield it either because apparently, yours is an ability so powerful that it breaks through even my shields. Besides, even if I could, do you think something as trivial as a mortal’s magical shield could obstruct what Seni wishes you to Foresee?
“Even when you’re trained, you cannot prevent the images from coming to you. I share your Foresight ability, though obviously not as strong as yours, and I never know when I’ll be overcome with a vision. Although it, at times, is troublesome, Foresight is very useful, and over the years, it has saved many lives.”
“Like yours,” Allison said with a nod.
“Ah, but what happened between us was not Foresight,” Aidric explained with what appeared to Allison to be a touch of fear. “You weren’t seeing the future but the present.”
“But—but—” she sputtered, taken aback. “How can that be? Besides, I was asleep!”
“Asleep, awake, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “Our mage powers work when we are in either state of consciousness. However, yours is a power that no mortal has ever possessed in recorded history—the power of Soulwalking. I don’t expect you to understand what that means when I, myself, don’t fully comprehend it. That’s why we are leaving tomorrow morning to see the Order of the Providence, for they know more about the Golden Mage than anyone. I don’t know how to instruct you on how to control your power to Soulwalk, but I suspect they do.”
He stopped, his expression suddenly turning both hesitant and distant, as though he had abruptly forgotten that she was even there and his mind was a million miles away mulling over a matter that greatly troubled him. More bad news for me, I’m sure, Allison thought bitterly.
“There’s more,” Aidric finally said a couple of minutes later.
“Isn’t t
here always?” she noted resignedly.
Aidric nodded, his expression sympathetic. “I’m beginning to have my suspicions that something greater than your coming here is stirring in the wind, and it has me extremely worried. There is a prophecy, told over millennia probably, a prophecy that may or may not involve you.”
“I don’t understand—” Allison began before a look from Aidric made her fall silent again.
“You will in time,” he assured her, “but for now, I can tell you this. The Prophecy of the Six is the foretelling of a possible ending of mankind, of a time when all six hells of Ter-ob, the dark plane, are aligned with the plane in which our world resides, and a mage has the power to Summon all the demons of each hell to overrun Seni’s lands, demons with the power to Summon the dark god, Arioch, to our world, a being with the power to destroy Seni, Himself. I’m beginning to suspect, as do the twins, that the time of alignment is near and will occur sometime during our lifetime. This will be one of the things, among others, that I wish to discuss with the Providencen priests.”
“You don’t think that I’ll be the mage who—” Allison said, her eyes widening with horror.
“No!” Aidric interrupted fiercely. “I don’t, but if everything is as I fear it to be, then you’ll be a part of it—as shall I and the twins.”
Allison shivered at his tone, wondering for the thousandth time what she had ever done in a past life to deserve the fate in this one that had landed her right smack in the middle of this convoluted mess. I almost wish that I was back home getting religion beat into me every day by Will! Allison thought and then abruptly paused, startled by a realization. Wait—I’m not supposed to remember anything about that bastard at all! I must’ve broken through those mental shields Aidric put in my head. Crap! What if I—
“We’ll leave by portal, of course,” Aidric said, breaking her out of her panicky thoughts. “We can’t possibly afford to delay your training any longer than necessary.”
“A portal?” she all but squeaked. “Once was enough for me, thank you. The one that brought me here made me feel like I was experiencing death. That’s something I don’t care to experience again until my time comes.”
“I assure you it’ll be different this time,” he insisted. “The first time you weren’t aware that what you were experiencing was a journey through a portal. Besides, you aren’t well enough to travel ahorse. It’s a long and perilous journey. The Seers’ abode lies high in the Calamon Mountains at the edge of our northeastern border. It’s extremely difficult to reach by horse, thus we would have to walk several spans on foot along steep, icy paths to reach it. It would take us a half-moon at the very least to reach our destination, so you must agree that a portal is more sensible.”
“Yes,” Allison said reluctantly. “I admit that as terrible and weak as I feel right now, a half-moon trip riding and hiking up mountains doesn’t sound like too much fun. There’s also the little problem that I’ve never ridden a horse in my life.”
“Truly?” Aidric said, surprised. “If you didn’t ride horses, then how did you get around?”
“On my feet,” she replied with a smile, “or I drove what we call in my world a ‘car.’ The best I can describe it is that it’s sort of like a carriage, but instead of being pulled by horses, it’s powered by a system of mechanical devices and fuel.” At his puzzled look, she added with a shrug, “That’s the best I can explain it. Your language lacks all the terms I would need for a more thorough job, and I really don’t know the exact mechanics of how they work, either.”
Looking thoughtful, Aidric muttered a few strange words under his breath, and Allison gasped when an object appeared in his hand from literally thin air. She was equally surprised to see, on closer inspection, that it was her wristwatch.
“How did you do that?” she asked, her eyes wide with wonder.
“Magic,” he said simply with a shrug. “I’ll teach you how it’s done later. For now, can you tell me what exactly this is? Is this a ‘mechanical device’ as you say this ‘car’ contains?”
“Not exactly,” Allison replied. “It’s called a ‘watch,’ and we use it to tell time.”
“And the bars within don’t move with magical energy?” Aidric asked skeptically.
“I told you that we don’t have real magic in my world. It’s a form of energy that makes it run, but not magic. I suppose that it’s useless to me here, so if you want to keep it, you can. King Diryan mentioned that the clothes of that French man who appeared in this world are in the archives of that kingdom. Since the clothes I came in seemed to have disappeared, I wouldn’t doubt that someone took them to Lamia’s archives. You might as well have the watch, too, for future generations to gawk at.”
“It’s really a quite clever idea,” he said, more to himself than to her as he continued to frown down at it with a perplexed expression. “I’ll give this to our mage-smith to study. Perhaps he will be able to devise a magical counterpart to it. It would be very useful, I think.”
Aidric muttered another set of strange words and the watch banished just as quickly as it had appeared. Then he rose rather stiffly from his kneeling position and said, “I don’t want to tire you, Allison, so I’ll take my leave. I still have much to do before our journey tomorrow. I’ll leave you to your meal, and then I want you to get some rest. A healer will arrive later on to examine you and to determine if you are well enough to go. I’ll send Raya in shortly to keep you company, for I fear I’ll return in only enough time to wish you pleasant dreams. From what I’ve heard, you’ll need it.”
Then before Allison could say another word, he was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dressed in her apprentice uniform, Allison dubiously eyed the portal Aidric had constructed only moments earlier in the center of his sitting room and sighed. How she wished that Raya was there to lend her cheerful support, but no one was present to see them off.
King Diryan had wanted to keep the whole trip as quiet as possible to prevent unnecessary speculation and panic. Only a handful of people knew they were even going—Maldon, Raya, Selwyn, and the twins—but they were all off on various assignments. Diryan, of course, was presently occupied at the Council meeting he had called the previous day.
I swore to myself that I would never go through one of these things again, Allison thought irritably as she gathered up the pack Aidric had assembled for her and mentally began to prepare herself for the dreaded journey. Now, here I am, seven days later and fixing to deliberately go through another one. God, I can’t even keep my promises to myself!
“Ready?” Aidric asked with a tired smile.
“No, but do I have a choice?” Allison replied wryly.
“Yes, we can always walk,” he teased. “However, I prefer this method because right now I feel as though a herd of antar just trampled me.”
“Are you going to be all right?” Allison asked him worriedly, thoughts of her own discomfort instantly forgotten as she eyed him critically. He did appear to be paler, although it was hard to see since his skin was already so pale. “Shouldn’t we wait awhile and let you rest a bit before going through?”
Aidric shook his head. “I’ll be fine. When you build your first portal, then you’ll understand how I feel. The weariness in my body will vanish once it’s had enough time to recuperate from the shock of channeling so much energy through it. We’ll have plenty of time to rest once we reach the Seers’ abode. Now come. Despite what you may believe, I can’t hold this thing open forever!”
“Oh! Right…sorry,” Allison said as she took a hesitant step towards the shimmering, multicolored oval light and then stopped. She could feel her knees begin to shake with nerves as she turned to him and pleaded, “Can we please go in together? I know that I sound like a whining brat, but I—I don’t think I can face going in there alone again.”
“Of course,” Aidric said gently and reached out to take her hand. “Now, hold on to your skirts!”
Then before she could beg
in to feel nervous again, he suddenly pulled her into the brightness and then there was only chaos. He was right. This time was not as frightening since she knew what to expect and especially since she could distinctly feel Aidric’s presence, acting as her personal anchor, almost within her very being. It was warm, strange, and exhilarating all at once.
Her first time traveling within a portal had felt like an eternity. This time it seemed only seconds had passed before Allison was suddenly falling into Aidric’s arms. She shivered as an icy wind immediately tore through the thin material of her dress.
“You need to work on your landing a bit more, little cat,” Aidric said with a chuckle. “You almost earned yourself a face full of snow!”
“Snow?” Allison asked stupidly, clinging tightly onto Aidric’s shirt and trying to find her bearings again.
For the first time, she really saw her surroundings and sucked in a sharp breath. True to his word, they now stood deep within a mountain range. Mounds and mounds of snow lay all around them, and not a single green thing was visible anywhere. Gray rock protruded here and there above the snow, but other than that, there was no color present anywhere. In this snowy landscape, they seemed to be the only life around.
It was no wonder that Aidric had insisted that she wear one of his cloaks. She now gathered it more closely around her body and shivered harder when an icy draft nevertheless found its way underneath again.
When she turned to look behind her, she gasped. An enormous, steep staircase carved out of the mountainside rose up before them. It stretched up until she could no longer see it as the clouds swallowed the mountain’s peak. The stairs, themselves, seemed to sparkle with a golden light. It almost appears to be—holy, she thought, stunned.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Aidric commented, noting her expression. “Yet, it’s only an illusion. The staircase doesn’t rise so high. Although the Providencen priests would like any visitors to think that this is the staircase to the Thrones, it’s far from it. I suppose if I were to live out my life in this cold desolation, then I would construct something such as this just to amuse myself.”