by K.N. Lee
Faye exhaled her relief. “You’re welcome. I have a plan to get it out, but before I tell you, I need to clear something up first.”
Lorcan sat, leaning against the wall. “Please…entice me.”
“Kai, if he moves wrong, could you please punch him?”
Kai cracked his knuckles. “With pleasure,” he said.
Lorcan rolled his eyes.
“The three pieces snap into one complete piece only when someone loves someone else more than his or her own life. Even if we extracted the pieces from your body, if you die, we still can’t put it together.”
“So the key is broken, and someone with great love can put it together. Sounds mythical, but I get it,” Lorcan said.
“This is the hard part. Judging by the way your mind works, I believe you’re not one hundred percent human.”
“My mother would be offended to hear that. But please continue.”
“Not only that, it seems to me if the right piece of information is triggered, something in your mind just switches on and takes control. To what extent, I don’t know. But so far, I gather that one of the triggers is anything that has to do with your relationship with Orla. And when your mind is taken over, it rejects life.” She stared into his eyes.
“Don’t worry. I’m still here. If you’re right, I think the process only kicks in when I’m in helpless situations. When I believe I can’t get out of a situation, all the life and death thought processes kick in. But now, I’m fine, and if you touch me again, Kai, I’ll kick your ass.”
Kai smiled. “All right, so now that that is out of the way, what’s your solution to get the key, Faye?”
“I asked Millie to borrow her father’s pass to the gateways. He used to be one of the gatekeepers. When you sank down to Nepolymbus, you went through several dimensions of time and space, not just water. If we travel back up and choose the right gate, we can get back to the time before the explosion.”
Lorcan smiled. “Perfect plan. That way I can avoid the involuntary implantation of foreign objects into my body, and you can get the key in entirety. But will I remember anything when I travel back?”
“This isn’t standard time traveling. So in theory, yes, you will remember. Just like us.”
“Great, so let’s do it,” Kai said.
Lorcan stood and said to Kai, “I don’t really like not being in control of my own body. So if you ever knock me out again, make sure you kill me, because I’ll kick your warrior ass when I get back.”
The door slid open, and Fabian stepped in. His purple eyes sparked when he saw Lorcan. “Going somewhere?” he asked.
Chapter 19
Fabian crawled on the muddy road, soaking wet with the storm water. He hated himself for surfacing and walking on human land against the advice of his council. He clutched the toddler Faye in his arms, covering her with his cloak as much as he could to keep her out of the cold. She looked at him with her big striking blue eyes. Most toddlers would cry in the same situation. She didn’t.
Exhausted, he sat leaning against a rock, the rain splashing on his face. The water was too far away. He was sure he would never make it back home. In Nepolymbus, traveling through the water was like eating and breathing. But here, the rain water only accelerated his pain and made the wound on his side bleed more.
“Father, you’re hurt. I’ll go and seek help.”
He smiled weakly at his daughter. She had spoken even before she’d eaten, walked, and swam. Her first word had been father, and her second word was fight when she demanded he take her to where he trained the Nepolymbus soldiers.
One day he would make her queen of Nepolymbus. But he didn’t want her to devote her whole life to the reign. He wanted to bring out the human side of her, the warm-hearted qualities from her human mother, so he had taken her to land to be blessed by his human white witch mentor.
All he had found was her ruined cottage and lots of blood. Then he’d been attacked by unknown creatures. He wouldn’t regret dying here, but it pained him to think about what would happen to Faye if he died on human land.
From the the midst of the storm, someone walked toward him from the bush. A large cloak to keep the rain off covered most of the person’s body, but he could tell by the posture that it was a woman. She approached and crouched at eye level with Faye. The light was just enough for him to see her piercing green eyes, eyes that didn’t belong to an ordinary human.
“I am a shaman,” she said to Faye.
“Then please heal my father.”
“Come here, Faye,” he called, reaching out for her, but she stood still in the rain, eyeing the woman.
“I can see you are a strong child. I can see no weakness in you. And I can see your future of being a great leader of a place far, far away.”
“Come back here, Faye.” Fabian had figured out he’d been immobilized. The last thing he did was shout, “Don’t listen to her, Faye!” and then even his ability to speak vanished.
“Don’t worry, Father. I won’t let her harm you or myself.”
The woman chuckled. “Oh, look at what have we here, both a mind reader and a leader at this age. Fascinating.”
“Please heal my father. He’s injured. He needs to take me home.”
“What will you give me for healing your father?”
“What would you like?”
The shaman laughed. “What a little negotiator you are. Your father will die here if I don’t heal him. So for me to save his life, what you give must be quite significant.”
“I’m only a child. I don’t have any money. But I can vow a debt to you if money is what you want.”
The shaman laughed harder, opening her mouth wide and almost choking on the falling rain. “You have made my day, child. I like you so much I’ll do this for free.”
“Thank you.”
“I have no intention of harming either you or your father. But I do have a prophecy for you. You will grow up to be the queen of a faraway place. You will be a strong and judicious queen and have no weakness except one. You will fall in love with a Silver Blood soldier. And that will be your fatal weakness.”
“I shall remember that. Will you heal my father now?”
“Not so fast, child. You’re smart, but you don’t know the power of this prophecy. Here is what I want to heal your father. When your weakness becomes the truth, and you are at a loss, you must come to me for help before it kills you. This is not a debt. It’s more like a favor. As I said, I like you. Do I have your word?”
“Yes, I promise. I might be very young now, but I know how to keep my promises.”
The shaman nodded. “All right then. I am the shaman of the Black Mountain, in the Middle Land. I hope to see you again one day.”
Chapter 20
Faye exited the hallway and headed toward the door. Kai walked by her side, with Lorcan dangling over his shoulder. Her father had put Lorcan out, again, for this trip. It was the most convenient way to handle the situation. Faye glanced back at the Great Hall and saw her father standing still, his hands in his pockets. He nodded at her with blessing and encouragement, as he always did.
She promised him she would come back as soon as she had obtained the key. She promised him she was well aware of the prophecy and wouldn’t let it get to her. She didn’t know what Lorcan was exactly, but she knew he wasn’t a Silver Blood soldier. Silver Blood was mere rumor, anyway, and so were the soldiers who were supposed to carry that powerful property of the multiverse.
Millie scurried along, trying to match Kai’s very long strides.
“Can you please pretend that Lorcan has some weight to him. Isn’t he like six foot five?” Millie said, running and out of breath from having to keep up with Kai.
“He’s six-eleven.”
“You measured him?”
“No, I’m a fighter. I’m quite accurate when gauging my opponent’s size and weight.”
“See if you can measure up my Grant. He’s the best fighter,” Millie muttered. “By
the way, did you see Grant when you went into the Heating Ducts, Faye?”
“Huh?”
“Did you message Grant at the Heating Ducts?”
“I sent the message, but it didn’t get to him. I didn’t see him there.”
Millie pulled a seaworm from her side pocket.
“No, Millie, please don’t take the worm messenger with you. We’re in a hurry here!” Faye said.
“Yes, Faye.” Millie let the worm go and scurried toward the carriage that Kai had put Lorcan inside.
Inside the carriage, Faye checked the box containing the white and jade pieces of the key. They were intact.
“Are you ready, Millie?”
“I am,” Millie said. She pulled out the rectangular pass to the gate, and Kai began to navigate the carriage dolphin to the correct gate.
Soon, they passed into the dark water, through layers and layers of time and space dimensions. Gradually, a dimly lit surface appeared above them.
“This is as far as the dolphins can go. We have to get out here and surface,” Millie said.
Faye was about to check on the wound on Lorcan’s side where the jade piece was when Kai grabbed her hand. “Be patient, Faye. It will work.” He tapped on the side of the carriage, signaling the dolphins to stop.
They got out of the carriage and kicked their way to the surface, breaking through the water in the middle of the open sea in the human dimension.
Faye had been here before, and she was sure the experience would be much the same. Kai still held Lorcan in his arm, keeping his head above the water’s surface. “Are you both okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Kai said.
“Me too,” Millie said, her teeth chattering loudly.
Faye pulled out the box containing the two key pieces and opened it. The stones had vanished. She showed it to Kai and Millie. “It worked. That means the red piece has gone from Lorcan’s heart, and they’re all back on the boat now.”
A short distance away, they could see the cruise ship lit up with party lights and alive with music. They began to tread water and move toward the ship. When they got close, they waved their hands to get the attention of the boat’s passengers.
“Someone’s in the water!” A man on the ship holding a champagne glass in one hand pointed at them. A spotlight from the boat shone on them in the water.
When Lorcan was placed on the floor of the boat, a woman in a red velvet dress asked, “Is that Mitch Wayland? What was he doing in the water? Is he okay?”
“He hit his head on the way down. He’s fine,” Faye said.
Kai pressed on Lorcan’s chest, causing him spit out water and gasp for air.
“The medical doctor is coming,” the man with the champagne glass said.
“We’re from the other boat,” Kai said and pointed out in the distance. “Water camping for the night. Then he came to us on a small boat, asking these two ladies to go out fishing. He wasn’t as good a boat driver as he’d promised.”
“I bet he has a gallon of alcohol in his blood,” the woman in the velvet dress said.
The doctor rushed in. “Please take him down to the medical room,” he said after checking Lorcan’s eyes and his pulse.
Lorcan tried to sit up, but he was still very dazed.
“Let me,” Kai said. He threw Lorcan over his shoulders and followed the doctor.
In the medical compartment, the doctor was happy with Lorcan’s condition and had stepped outside for a moment.
Lorcan opened his eyes immediately, grinning widely.
“How…? You looked like you were dead just a second ago,” Millie said.
“Well, I’m not now.” He sat up, and his eyes landed on Faye. He paused there for a second, but not long enough to embarrass her, and then he hopped off the bench.
“This is my turf, so I’ll take care of this. Just follow my directions. I know where the key is. I can break the lock, and give you the box with the key in it. But keep an eye out for a woman in a red velvet dress. She was the one who set up the explosive.”
He gestured toward the door. Kai and Millie exited. Faye was about to follow when she felt Lorcan’s touch at her elbow. “May I have a word with you?”
“Sure.” She stayed in the room with him.
He looked at her with his blue eyes, the ones that always made her stomach quiver. “I heard more of the conversation between you and Kai than the part about the red piece implanted in my heart.”
Faye could feel her face burning. She tried to read his mind to guess what he was about to say, but her mind-reading talent was only consistent in her own dimension. When nothing came to her from Lorcan’s mind, she gave up and prepared herself for what was coming.
“You’re blushing now, but I have to say this. I am flattered that you have feelings for me, Faye. But I am a spy and a data thief. You’re a royal, and you deserve a lot better for what you have done for your family and your people.”
“There’s a prophecy—”
“No, Faye, I am a scientist. Magical explanations aren’t going to work with me. But I do understand this—your reign and your work has occupied your mind for years, and when you saw the human emotion in my mind, you fell in love with it. You love the idea of being in love and being cared for. And you deserve all of that. But not from me.”
“Enough said.”
“No, I don’t think you understand. I think you’re overlooking what you’ve got, and who you’ve got. I am just an illusion, a dream to you. A dream is beautiful, but it’s not real. You have a real man standing by you and loving you in every waking moment he has. You’re overlooking that.”
“I said that’s enough, Lorcan.”
“Okay, I’ve said what I had to say. If we part after this, and if whatever happens makes me forget all of what happened in Nepolymbus, I want you to know I care about you. And please, do yourself a favor—love the man who loves you. You both deserve it.”
“Shall we go?”
“Sure.” He pushed the compartment door open.
Chapter 21
From the foyer of the ship, looking up to the upper deck where the tycoon host was entertaining his VIP guests, Lorcan could see the woman in the velvet dress. She glanced at him, nodded, and smiled. But unlike what had happened before, she remained there, talking to the other guests, and didn’t approach him.
Faye stood next to him, so Lorcan turned and asked, “Is it possible that the situation here has changed compared to what happened before because I’ve come back from Nepolymbus?”
She nodded.
This is not good, Lorcan thought. It meant he didn’t have any advantages from the come-back, and there was no way they could benefit from what he had learned before. There was one thing, however, that he was certain was unchanged, and that was his thievery mission.
He entered the hallway and used the boat’s phone to contact his client. He entered the passcode and pin number. The encoded message he received suggested that the mission was still on. He nodded at Faye, Kai, and Millie and headed downstairs. They followed him.
In the narrow corridor that led toward the compartment where he knew the tycoon kept the safe, the light flickered a couple of times and then became steady. Lorcan waited. Before the group caught up to him, a waiter carrying a tray of drinks on his hand walked toward Lorcan.
Lorcan stepped aside to let him pass. As he moved past, Lorcan noted he wore a large ring on the outside of the gloved hand with which he held the tray above his shoulder. When the hand got close to Lorcan, a needle poked out of the ring. Lorcan figured the woman’s role had been passed on to this waiter.
He grabbed the waiter’s hand with one of his own, scooped the tray away from him, and then stuck the waiter with his own needle.
The group approached him. He thrust the tray at Kai and caught the waiter as he slumped down.
“To the elevator compartment on the left, second to the last door,” he said.
He half-dragged, half-carried the waiter to the el
evator compartment and squeezed him in. Then they went down a level. Lorcan navigated back to the where the explosion had occurred previously.
He pushed the waiter in. “We need to wake him,” Lorcan said.
Kai said nothing. He picked the waiter up by the collar and punched him in the face. The man moaned, and his eyes fluttered open.
Lorcan searched him, pulling a gun from the waiter’s pocket. “Did you plant explosives in here? Don’t lie because you’re going to be staying right here with us,” Lorcan said.
The waiter shook his head.
“Is there a disposable submarine attached to this compartment?”
He shook his head again.
Lorcan grabbed a rope he found behind some equipment and tied the waiter securely to a steel rail. “Where’s the safe?”
“I don’t know about any safe.”
He pointed the gun at the waiter’s head. “We don’t have time for nonsense. Where is the artifact? Tell me, or I’ll blow your head off.”
“Don’t…please. It’s here. In here. There isn’t a safe.”
Lorcan pressed the gun harder against his temple.
“It’s under the tank. In a box. Please don’t kill me. It’s just a job. Take what you want.”
Lorcan left the waiter and headed to the tank in the corner. It was empty, and from the bottom, he pulled out a large steel box with a lock.
“It’s primitive technology. Shouldn’t take long,” he muttered and quickly decoded the lock. In a few seconds, the lock clicked open. He opened the lid and saw a time bomb staring up at him. Its clock was counting down.
“Explosives. We’ve got sixty seconds. I’m sure this is your Key of Pisces box. But I don’t have time to unlock the key box to check.” Lorcan carefully pulled out a box with carving on top that he knew he had seen before. He thrust it at Faye.
He turned back to the bomb.
“Shouldn’t we run now?” Kai asked.
“Untie me, please. Let me go. I know nothing about this!” the waiter cried.