Ethon (The Other Worlds Series Book 2)

by M. L. Greye

  “A silver birthmark?” The director blinked.

  “I know, it’s an obvious lie, but that’s just what she told me.”

  “What does the birthmark look like?” She blurted. “Did you get a good enough look to recognize it again?”

  Porter raised an eyebrow. The director had completely ignored his reservations about it actually being a birthmark. He frowned. “Yeah, it’s a round symbol, sort of looks like an ancient European engraving.” He quickly scanned the room for his instructor’s book. It was sitting beneath a pile of papers. Porter picked the book up and extended it to the director. “This is the symbol she has on her left shoulder.”

  The director jumped to her feet, her fingers running over the soft leather cover of the book. “Does she have any family with her?”

  “A little brother.”

  “Her twin?”

  “No,” Porter shook his head slowly, “I don’t think she has a twin. He’s still in high school.”

  “Another brother,” the director mused. To Porter, she asked, “What is his name?”

  “Legann.”

  The director turned to Porter’s instructor. “This is tremendous news.” She glanced at Porter. “Do you know where we could find Olinia?”

  “I know where she lives, yes.”

  “Excellent.” She grinned. “You shall be my escort. I believe I should pay a personal visit to Olinia and her brother.”

  Unfortunately, he’d had no idea that the director would bring an army of hired guns to capture Olinia and her two friends. Where she managed to find those men on such short notice was beyond Porter. Normal citizens didn’t know mercenaries. Why the need to bring them along anyway? Porter felt like the director had kidnapped Olinia, handcuffing her and all. A part of him wanted to tell the cops. And then, what about Legann? The director had mentioned meeting with him too, but she’d either gone without Porter or not at all. Did she nab him against his will as well?

  The entire instance with Olinia made him feel uncomfortable. Something seemed off, like he was missing a very important detail. This was the reason why he’d come back to the plantation that day. He wanted to confront his instructor concerning the matter.

  As Porter stepped down to the basement level, a sick feeling crept through his gut. Would Olinia’s kidnapping get him in trouble with the law? Prison wasn’t really his sort of scene. He didn’t like being lied to either, and he had the growing suspicion that he’d just been used by the director in capturing someone he’d thought she only wanted to influence to join DS.

  Porter approached his instructor’s office and hesitated to knock. Down the hall from him, he noticed the director’s office door ajar. Raised voices echoed down to him in a language he’d overheard the instructors speak with each other before. The sick feeling was getting stronger. He moved closer to the door slowly, trying to get a better look inside.

  The sound of two gunshots and a nauseating thud stopped him dead in his tracks. Without really thinking it through, Porter ran toward the director’s office. Just as he reached the door and was able to look inside, he glimpsed a black hole open up inside the office. Porter gaped. He almost missed Olinia’s brother being dragged through by a one-armed man. Before he had the chance to take a closer look, the black hole collapsed in on itself, leaving behind the wall of books.

  Porter felt like his eyes might pop out of his head. Olinia’s brother had disappeared through some kind of portal! He leaned on the doorjamb for support and took a deep breath. That’s when he noticed the giant mess on the floor. Two forms, unidentifiable under pockets of fur, lay still halfway to the bookshelf from where Porter stood. These were the victims of the gunfire.

  That sick feeling in his stomach was crawling up his throat. This time he was sure it was from the sight of the mangled bodies below him. Porter took a step backward into the hallway, covering his mouth with his hand. This didn’t make sense. DS wasn’t a place where walls opened up and ate people.

  He needed fresh air. Porter spun on his heels and headed out of the basement the way he had come. He wanted to put as much distance between him and that office as quickly as he could. The sight he’d just witnessed wasn’t helping the uneasiness he felt toward the director and her capture of Olinia.

  Porter reached his motorcycle in record time. He ran a hand through his hair as he hopped on, realizing that he was more than just confused – he was terrified.

  16

  ------------------

  White was quickly becoming Tiara’s least favorite color. It was everywhere – on the walls, ceiling, floor, and even on her. Before she was placed in her holding cell, she was given a t-shirt, pants, and slippers – all white – to change into. She wished she had Archrin’s olive skin so that when she looked down at herself she wouldn’t just see white on pale arms. She wanted to have color around her again, or to at least know what time it was.

  It seemed like she’d been in the labs for hours and hours, but she knew that it had to have been much less. Time was inching by at a snail’s pace. When there was nothing else to do but watch the white of the walls melt into the white on the floor, boredom came in ample amounts. She didn’t particularly enjoy being left to her thoughts – she always ended up missing her mother.

  After Tiara’s airplane landed, she, Archrin, and Sazx were marched off into another windowless white van. What was it with these people and the color white? The van took its hostages to a parking garage for an office building that was a front to the DS labs. The three prisoners were then presented with matching white attire before being separated into individual rooms that locked from the outside.

  Tiara was hungry and tired. Yet, she was too concerned about Archrin to care about her issues. For now, she was obviously safe – sitting in her drab and sterile chamber. Archrin, on the other hand, could be in the middle of being tortured for all she knew. Tiara was envious of Olinia’s ability to see into Archrin’s head.

  As much as she hated to admit it, Tiara’s envy wasn’t simply because of the gift. Olinia had a connection with Archrin that Tiara would never have. While Olinia could experience firsthand the way Archrin’s mind worked, Tiara could only observe him from the outside. Of all the people she’d ever met, Archrin was the one person Tiara had ever cared to know the thoughts of, and Olinia was the one who could hear them.

  Just then, the door to her white box clicked open. Tiara jumped up. She’d been sitting on the floor with her back against one of the walls. As the door swung outward, a thin, dark-skinned man, who appeared to be twice Tiara’s height, emerged from the hallway. His long hair was a beaming yellow and was slicked straight back. His eyes were mismatched – one violet and the other turquoise. Tiara couldn’t help but stare.

  The man was definitely a Craele, but unlike any other Tiara had seen. True, Archrin was really the only Craele Tiara had knowingly met in person, but that still didn’t change the fact that this man was a stark contrast to her fiancé. Archrin looked human, this man was clearly something else. What surprised her the most was his unnatural height. Tiara was sure he had to hunch over everywhere he went.

  Even if Olinia hadn’t previously mentioned the Velvitors running DS, Tiara wouldn’t have doubted this man’s breed. Her mother had once told her that the inhabitants of Zeedyr, while in human shape, kept some aspects of their animal form. Tiara wondered what animal this man became. From the yellow hair and how tall he was, only a giraffe seemed plausible.

  When he didn’t say anything, Tiara cleared her throat. “What do you want?”

  “You must come with me, your highness,” he replied in Eveon, his deep voice like thunder in the small room.

  Tiara flinched. Eveon was not her strongest language. Archrin was much better at it than she was. If everything said to her were going to be in Eveon, then she would struggle to sound fluent.

  “Where are you taking me?” Tiara asked, hoping her Eveon didn’t sound too fragmented.

  “To the king.”

  Fantastic.
Tiara kept her face emotionless as she joined the giraffe man outside her cell. He led her down a hallway that continued the white theme, and into another room.

  “The king will be with you shortly,” her escort told her before shutting the door, leaving her alone again.

  “Can’t wait,” she grumbled in Saerdian, taking in her new surroundings.

  This room was slightly larger than her previous one. On one wall, several televisions hung, displaying various feeds of what appeared to be different parts of the office building. A long stainless steel capped desk was situated against another wall with a large computer and a few other instruments Tiara didn’t recognize strewn on top.

  Tiara stepped closer to get a better look at the televisions. All at once, each screen split down the middle – the left sides showing Sazx and the right were of Archrin. Both men sat on the floor of cells identical to what Tiara’s looked like. Archrin had one leg stretched out and the other raised, his arm resting on his knee. His head was tipped back against the wall behind him. Tiara brushed her fingertips over his figure on the nearest screen.

  It was good to see he wasn’t being tortured, but she still felt guilty for his plight. It was her fault that he was in this position. She’d urged him to rescue Olinia. Tiara frowned. They never should have left Tlaid.

  “Even-tide, your highness.”

  Tiara whirled. In the doorway, with the giraffe man behind him, Talik stood with his hands clasped behind his back. He was dressed in Other World garb, complete with a cloak of violet. The scar down his face had healed a little more since the last time she’d seen him while Globing, but it was still somewhat fresh.

  She took a deep breath. Time to pretend. “Is it? I’ve been your captive for so long that I wouldn’t know. I thought we would be nearing morning by now.”

  A muscle twitched in Talik’s cheek before he waved the giraffe away. “Leave us.”

  He obeyed with a quick bow. “Yes, sire.”

  Talik didn’t remove his gaze from Tiara. “What is Yrond’s heir doing with a Craele and the Nagreth Captain?”

  Excellent question. Tiara ran her tongue along the back of her teeth. She decided telling Talik the truth would make most sense. “Sazx is no longer a Nagreth.”

  “Obviously.” Talik moved further into the room, placing himself beside Tiara. “Perhaps I should rephrase my question: why is he not gray?”

  Tiara had no idea how to answer that. Neither Sazx nor Olinia had ever mentioned it, and Tiara hadn’t really cared to know. “He chose to desert that life. He follows me now, not Dagon.”

  “Lies!” Talik thrust his face inches away from Tiara’s, startling her. “He cannot break the binding to Dagon on his own. I have made it impossible.”

  “Nothing is impossible.” Tiara wrinkled her nose as Talik’s hot breath hit her face. “Need I remind you that we’re currently in a mythical world?”

  He straightened. “I assure you, princess, there are indeed impossible circumstances.”

  “And to reverse his binding would be one of them?” Tiara lowered her eyebrows. “How?”

  “Through the implementation of the Bead,” he replied, eyeing the screens in front of him and Tiara.

  She had no idea what he was talking about. “Bead?”

  “It is a technology my people have discovered in this realm,” he responded. “We have developed various programs, you could say, to have our Beads behave the way we need them to.”

  “Explain,” she said slowly.

  “Well, for instance, in Dagon’s binding ceremony, we administer our Bead through a syringe into the neck of a future Nagreth. The Bead will then latch onto the cerebral cortex, allowing us to monitor and control the Nagreth’s emotions,” Talik told her. “At first, we needed a sort of sign to display the success of the binding. Thus, we would have the Bead drain the skin pigment of its host.”

  Talik paused a moment, letting his words sink in. “In order for Sazx to no longer be gray, he must be dead or have had the Bead removed. Our system tells us that his Bead is still active, and he clearly is not dead, so I ask you again. Why is he not gray?”

  Tiara gawked. She wasn’t entirely certain she’d fully understood his Eveon, but it sounded like the binding of Dagon’s Nagreth was nothing more than Ethon science. “How long have you had this technology?” Her voice wavered more than she’d intended.

  “In Ethon years, no more than twelve.” He smiled smugly. He could see that he’d impressed and somewhat stunned her.

  “But binding has been around for generations in the Other Worlds.” Tiara frowned.

  Talik smirked. “Siniths are a remarkable creation of my breed. I can tell my Sinith an exact date and time, and it will open a portal to the very second, as long as it is still within my future. It will not take me to a time I’ve already lived.”

  “Let me guess, that’s another use of Ethon resources?” Tiara grunted.

  All her life, the Kendren devices – made by Velvitors – were described to her as mystical. In Drivian, Velvitors were spoken of in hushed tones. They were believed to be powerful, spell-casting half-beasts, devoted to their rituals. Now, Tiara was discovering that Velvitors were nothing more than glorified Craeles with Ethon toys.

  “In a way, I suppose it is,” he answered. “In conjunction with existing Ethon knowledge, we used a shimmer stone and an Enblith as our guides to produce the first Sinith. Without the dissection of both, the Ethon information would have been futile.” Talik had that conceited grin again. “Now true, we added a few advantageous aspects to our version of a world traveling tool.”

  “Like what?” Tiara knew it was what Talik wanted her to ask by the greedy look on his face. He wanted to intimidate her further.

  “We integrated DNA and voice recognition into the device, so that only one person can use a Sinith at a time,” he replied. “Also, we placed a tracking mechanism inside so that no Sinith could ever be lost.”

  Tiara was aware of this detail. It was how Foehn had managed to locate her and Archrin back in Kepleth. She still didn’t quite understand how portals were actually opened by a Sinith though. An Enblith was the Eveon device for world travel, but it demanded the application of gifts for it to work. Shimmer stones were more for the ungifted. Tiara knew that the first shimmer stone was created during the time of Balinorre for those who weren’t Eves. She pulled a face. “Which object do Siniths take after more? Enbliths or shimmer stones?”

  “In the end, Siniths resembled Enbliths the most,” he told her. “Just as an Enblith employs the energy of the gifted, a Sinith requires electricity – drawn from miniscule solar panels secured within its surface – to produce a large enough current to thin the boundaries between worlds.”

  Tiara folded her arms, rubbing her bare skin with her hands. “What about your other devices? Like the Screams and Drainers?”

  “The Screams are simply high-powered whistles, designed to deafen the unprotected human ear.” He waved that away with one hand. “The Drainers are more complicated, involving the Green Strand.”

  “The what?”

  Talik turned to her, flapping his cloak back in the process. “The gifted have DNA that contain an anomaly we have deemed the Green Strand. The Drainers, to put it plainly, emit a particular wave in a set radius that weakens only those with the Green Strand in their blood. It really is quite genius.”

  “Genius,” she repeated, suddenly feeling like she needed to sit down. The Drainers killed her mother. All this time, Tiara had blamed the Kendrens when really she should have been angry with the Velvitors. She clenched her fists, determined to learn as much as she could from Talik. “What about your elixir and Crystal Gems?”

  “From samples of Eveon blood, we have managed to recreate their long life,” he answered. “That was simple enough. The real challenge was devising a way to rid an Eve of the Green Strand.”

  “But you obviously succeeded,” she pointed out.

  He sneered, scrunching up the scar down his face. “We
generated a virus. When the Gem is worn, it pricks its victim and releases the virus. Once finished, the Gem glows, mostly for theatrics. The gifted love a good show.”

  Something about his explanation seemed off. Tiara lowered her eyebrows as she remembered Olinia’s story of Balinorre and the Vrenyx’s destructions. Will’s great-grandmother had used a Crystal Gem, but if all it did was give her a virus then how had she been able to do what Olinia did generations later? Tiara decided to voice her question.

  Talik’s smirk faltered for a moment. “I was not aware of your knowledge on such events.”

  “Of course I know of it,” she retorted. “Balinorre should have been mine.”

  “I suppose so.” Talik rubbed his bristled chin with one hand. “Crystal Gems do not destroy cities. The fall of Balinorre was entirely the doing of Dagon’s former betrothed.”

  Tiara glanced back at the TV screens. Both Archrin and Sazx appeared to be deep in thought. Talik was no doubt planning to do something with them. As long as he was with her, though, he wasn’t harming them. Tiara needed to keep Talik talking, stalling him from taking any sort of action against Sazx or Archrin.

  “What about DS?” She blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Why construct a school for the gifted when you despise them?”

  “Fascinating world, Ethon,” Talik commented. “A world filled with potential, yet so many know nothing of it. Ethon children are so quick to see themselves as special, and have never heard of Velvitors. It was quite easy to take them under our wings.”

  Tiara ran her tongue along the back of her teeth. “What are you going to do with the gifted Ethons?”

  “I will dispose of the Eves with them,” he replied evenly. “I personally will see to the deaths of all High Royalty, including yourself, and claim the Other Worlds as my own. I assumed you would have deduced this on your own, princess.”