“That you realized that you are in love with me?” Nile said, then forced a smile.
Dywnwen smirked. “No. I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
Nile shrugged. “Don’t apologize. This is how it was meant to be. Roland Enmore can be everything you want. I can’t. I’m not as brave as he is, and I can’t bring you the head of an Erquial – or whatever that twelve headed thing was he killed.”
Dywnwen burst into laughter and snorted. Nile laughed as well. Their laughter continued for several seconds before Dywnwen waved it off. “The great Roland Enmore.”
“Well, that is the legend,” Nile said.
“You are great too, Nile. Don’t forget that. You are just as brave as anyone. You have heart and compassion. You are a hero, just like your father. You will see that one day, I promise.”
“I needed to hear that,” Nile humbly replied.
“Just don’t forget me. You can come to the castle anytime you want. You just can’t come through my bedroom window anymore.”
Nile laughed.
“I guess this is good-bye.”
“A twenty-one-day good-bye.” Nile smirked.
Dywnwen kissed Nile on the cheek. Her lips were cool to the touch. She stepped back, pulled the hood up over her head, and opened the door. Leo was sitting at the bottom step. He jumped to his feet and dusted off his pants.
“My dear Leo,” Dywnwen said.
“Princess,” Leo replied.
“Watch Nile for me,” Dywnwen said, then turned toward a white wagon, pulled by four white horses. Roland sat on top, holding the reins. He glared at Nile. Nile knew Roland didn’t like him. He stared back and even waved, hoping that Roland would grow some respect toward him. Nile knew that Roland had heard all the stories about him and Dywnwen. It was enough for any man to create barriers.
The two watched as the wagon rolled off into the sunset. Nile felt an ache throb in his chest. It sunk down into his stomach and this feeling of loneliness overtook him. He saw them disappear out into the valley.
“What’d she say?” Leo asked.
Nile forced a smile. “She wants me.”
Chapter 6
Nightmares
The day was young and I was eighteen. My mother and brother were there. The angel statue where Mother always took us was there too. Isaiah was only sixteen. I remember . . . I remember him standing next to the statue.
But what happened? I remember it all so well.
But I don’t want to remember.
Isaiah said it was pretty and it was a very beautiful day. He then kissed my mother on the cheek. I remember her smile. She loved little kisses from Isaiah. She hugged him tightly. But what was I doing?
I asked when Father was coming home.
“When the war is over,” she replied.
But the war might not be over for another twenty years, I thought. I knew that was a possibility. She reached for my hand and pulled me beside her. She told me I had to stay strong. She told me not to give up hope, that Father would be back soon. She then kissed me and I pushed away, rebelling. Why did I rebel?
We talked more. I said something to Isaiah that made my mother upset. What did I say? Oh, Isaiah wanted to hear a story that my mother always told—a story about angels. I told him to grow up, that angels don’t exist. My mother got upset, told me to go home. She believed in angels.
I walked away, toward Woodlands. That’s when it happened with these crows. They flew in front of me, then they flew at me, and I . . . I . . .
Nile jumped awake, breathing hard. He glanced to the moonlight for comfort. He looked to the corner of the fireplace and saw a wooden sword. He grabbed it. “Isaiah Whitman” was carved on the handle. Nile cried.
The fire was dying. Nile forced himself out of the chair and went outside. He leaned up against a post on the porch and looked to the stars, then the castle. A falling star caught his attention. It flew over the castle, disappearing beyond the Elkanah Mountains.
“Where does time go?” he asked himself. He reached deep into his pocket and felt the gem slide against his fingertips. He pulled out the gem and held it up to his face. “Do you know?”
The gem caught the reflection of the moon and sparkled. He wondered if there were any more of these gems. He went back inside and sat in his rocking chair. The blue mesmerized Nile into a trance, and he thought about his mother, his brother Isaiah, the day he stepped on a thorn, his father hugging him, Dywnwen, the court jester, his first strawberry, death, the taste of honey and wine, his favorite fable and so forth. All of these thoughts elicited an emotion. The gem began to rotate as it sat in Nile’s hand.
The gem flashed white, sucking the room into a place Nile knew as Time’s Space, the long dwindling tunnel with the giant hole that warped Nile between worlds. The hole was welcoming, and Nile realized that the impact was shortly awaiting him. Where would he be? Where would he go? There was a sound like a million echoes, and he hardly recognized the voices. His memories fell upon him like a great flood, and as he neared the end of the tunnel, he knew he was time traveling.
The hole engulfed him and threw him into a universe he knew so well. It was the Woodlands Kingdom. Nile was able to catch a glimpse of the castle as he spiraled out of the womb of Time. He braced himself before the impact. He rolled to a stop and quickly got to his feet, feeling like he triumphed over some obstacle. The hole faded into a dark hazy mist, and then cleared out.
The sky was gray and harbored many black clouds. The castle—sunken into a depression as the towers laid waste and crumbled on the ground, as if some war was fought. Nile’s eyes widened and he studied the courtyard. His cabin had been demolished and nothing remained but a knoll of wood and broken furniture, most of it burnt. Nile squinted—feeling fear.
Then, almost too quickly that Nile did not catch it, two dragons rose among the remains of the castle. One was black, and the other was red. They did not look like the pictures of dragons he had seen, with scaly skin and batlike wings, but like the dragons in the futuristic city. They towered over Woodlands, forging great destruction from their arms. Their paws opened out into a cylinder hole and white flashes of light shuttered in small globes, releasing some sort of sword that spit into the earth. The swords pierced stones, wood, and then . . .
“Nile!” someone screamed.
Nile turned and a pillar of fire was thrown upon the earth from the mouth of a dragon. The dragon roared as it hovered in the air, and Nile then knew that the dragon wasn’t a dragon. One of the dragons landed, opening its rib, and released eight soldiers, each holding a cannon. They aimed the cannons at the villagers, screaming.
One of them approached Nile.
He fumbled for the gem.
“Do you join the Lucian Empire?” the soldier screamed.
Nile screamed. The Lucian Empire was from his world. Why would they be fighting with them? He gripped the gem tightly in his hands and thought of home. The gem broke out into a portal of light, surrounding him. It devoured him back into Time’s Space and he found himself soaring through the whiteness. He was thrown out of the space and landed back in his rocking chair.
Nile struggled to breathe, scared of what he saw. He jumped from the chair and crept out onto the porch. The August air was cooler now. He jumped off and the porch and marched to Leo’s cabin.
Nile knocked on Leo’s window. Leo was bundled up in his bed under several stitched blankets. Nile could barely hear him snore. He wanted to crack a smile, but the worry would not let him. He knocked on Leo’s window again.
Leo opened his eyes and sat up. He saw Nile at the window and pushed it open.
“I need you now,” Nile said.
“Why?” Leo asked half asleep.
“It’s the thing we found. I just used it. I saw something—something horrible. Please, Leo.”
Leo shook the sleep off his face and stood up. He fumbled for his pants and shirt, then disappeared out
of his room. Moments later, he stumbled out onto the porch and his pants were on backward.
“Leo, your pants,” Nile said.
Leo squinted, then looked down at his pants. “Damn it.” He quickly took them off and straightened them out. When he lifted his leg to put them in, he tripped and fell off the porch. He groaned in pain.
Nile jumped to Leo’s aid. “Come on,” he said, and he guided him to his house. Once they reached Nile’s cabin, Leo sat in the rocking chair and Nile held out the gem.
“What did you see?”
“Okay,” Nile took a deep breath. “I was asleep and I had the dream—the one of the day my mother and brother died. In the middle of the dream, I wake up, came in here, and sat down. I’m thinking about everything. I’m thinking about life, and love, and family, and the taste of honey. I think about everything that makes me cry and happy all at once. Then the gem sends me into a darker world of Woodlands. I mean, there are dragons—”
“Dragons?” Leo asked.
“The dragons in that kingdom we went to.”
Leo’s eyes widened and he sat up straight. “Really?”
“The castle was nearly destroyed and their knights were killing us. One of them told me to join the Lucian Empire.”
“The Lucian Empire?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Nile shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Leo began to rock back and forth. “Are you sure it isn’t a dream?”
“No! I was there as real as you are here. I held the gem and thought about it, and there I was.”
“The future?” Leo asked. “You thought about the future?”
“Yes,” Nile said, “I know that’s funny, but it was that simple.”
Leo reached for the gem; Nile placed it in his hands and waited for Leo to do whatever it was he was going to do. Leo stood and closed his eyes, thinking about the future. Nothing happened. He opened his eyes and looked at the gem resting peacefully inside his palm. Leo closed his eyes tightly and began to mumble. Nothing happened.
Leo grew impatient. He widened his stance and continue to hold the gem in place. His eyes were still closed, but nothing happened.
“I give up,” Leo said, handing the gem back to Nile. “How do you use it?”
“I just think about different places. It’s like this thing reads my every emotion. I thought of being away, down the road when we went to that city.”
Leo challenged him. “Think of a happy place.”
“No,” Nile said, raising his eyebrows.
“Let’s just see what happens?”
Nile took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He thought of a place long ago, before his mother and brother died. He thought of the Woodlands Kingdom that was founded upon peace and mercy. He thought of his childhood friends, Dywnwen and Leo, and how they sat up late at night in the castle telling each other stories.
The gem rotated in Nile’s hand, gathered what light was shining in the room, and then stretched it forward, consuming the house like a fire. Nile opened his eyes to see that he was traveling through Time’s Space. Leo was waving his arms and legs, trying to grab something. Nile knew he would be thrown into whatever was awaiting him at the end of the tunnel.
The hole widened, accepted them, and then rejected them onto a grassy knoll. They both stood to their feet, stumbling as they did. Leo rubbed his head, confused and in pain. Nile was beginning to get used to the time travel, but this time he felt nauseated. He rubbed his stomach and bent over.
“Are you okay?” Leo asked.
“I don’t know,” Nile said.
Leo helped him straighten up. Nile took in a deep breath and felt better; he looked around the kingdom to see the blue sky and the welcoming earth blossom in the warmth of spring.
Leo laughed. “This is it? Woodlands before that day?”
“I guess so,” Nile said, looking around.
The vines were starting to grow up the castle towers, eating the railing on the balcony that harbored Dywnwen’s room. Her windows were open and welcoming. The villagers were out tending their gardens and their markets. They paid no attention to Nile and Leo. Nile looked over at his home; his mother was rocking back and forth on the porch. His mother. He hadn’t seen his mother in a long time. At first glance, he didn’t even take notice, as it had been second nature, but after a moment of seeing her welcoming smile and brown hair, he knew that he hadn’t seen her in a long time.
His heart pounded in his chest and sweat beaded on his forehead. He felt as if he were seeing a ghost. Nile took a step toward her, wobbling as he did. His lips wanted to whisper, “Mother,” but he couldn’t speak from the swelling in his throat.
All he ever wanted was a moment where he could be with her again, where he could see her and kiss her. He wanted to hold her like she used to hold him and tell him was going to be okay.
He took another step.
Leo quickly grabbed Nile’s shoulder. “What are you going to do?”
“I . . . I have to see her, Leo,” Nile said, not taking his eyes off her. He continued forward, throwing his shoulder from Leo’s grasp.
“You have all the time in the world to visit and revisit memories. Let’s see something else.”
“Like what?”
Leo paused for a moment. “The Magic War—you know, with the wizards.”
Nile turned from his mother and looked at Leo. When he turned back to her, the world around him began to change, and everything swirled like the mixing of paint. Every memory and image became one, and the tunnel sucked them inward.
“Not so bad,” Leo said, “but we are in your house.”
Nile glanced around to see that he was. He used the rocking chair to help himself up to his feet. “I don’t know—”
Nile turned toward the window at the sound of horses. Dywnwen’s white chariot flew through the courtyard. Roland was screaming at the horses. He looked worried. Nile quickly ran out onto the porch. There were several dozen knights wearing dark green armor with gold lining. They rode their steeds up to the castle and across the drawbridge.
“What’s going on?” Leo asked.
“Those are Walsh Knights,” Nile said. “Quick, follow me.”
Chapter 7
A Parallel Universe
Norcross was much disorganized. He finally realized this as he was searching for some documents, fumbling through the papers and the books muddled over his desk like a swamp. He reached for a small disposal can under his desk and pulled it out, tossing papers and snack wrappings away, and then he came across a folder he was looking for. He flipped through the files as he walked over to his window.
“The Barliem Factor did not maintain the work effort we had hoped for,” Norcross said under his breath.
Something twinkled in the sky, catching his attention. His head jerked up and glanced around the city of Silvago. It was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. The rivers of light flooded the streets and he could see the insects swarm them. His office doors slid open and a soldier walked in behind him.
The soldier saluted Norcross.
“At ease, soldier,” Norcross said.
“I have some bad news.”
“Proceed.”
“The two magician kids have escaped.”
Norcross sighed, lowered his head, then turned toward the soldier. “Have you checked every level in the prison?”
“We had all prisoners come out of their cells, and we searched them thoroughly, sir.”
“And they’re nowhere to be found?”
“Correct, sir.”
“They have to be. A marble-sized gem cannot do this alone, can it?” Norcross doubted.
“I don’t know, sir.”
Norcross clenched his fingers around his head. “This is bothering my every thought. I need to know more. What if they were right? What if they came from another time, or another world?”
“Another world, sir?”
“Yes, another world.”
“That seems
highly impossible.”
“And time travel doesn’t?”
“Good point, sir.”
“Take some of the airships and search the city. They could not have gotten far.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thank you, private,” Norcross said.
The soldier left Norcross disgruntled. Norcross flattened his hands against the windows, his breath fogging up in front of him. “What is happening? I need answers. I need real answers.”
He stared at his reflection in the window for a moment. His eyes met the small pupils faintly sketched on the glass. Then he laughed. “There’s no such thing as magic.”
***
The large arched doors burst open, revealing King Aidan at his throne. Roland, disgruntled, marched to the throne. The Walsh knights followed in behind him, their armor clanking to the beat of their step. Dywnwen trailed in after them. Roland fell to his knee before King Aidan, kissed his hand, and then stood.
“Sire, we were on our way to the Crystal Kingdom when we stumbled on the knights of Walsh.”
“I’m familiar with their colors,” the king said, looking upon the knights.
One of them with a burlap sap stood forward. “I have a word for the king.”
Roland nodded, as if giving him permission.
The doors opened and Nile and Leo staggered in. Nile never dared to enter the king’s throne, but seeing the knights ride into Woodlands startled him, and since he was close with Dywnwen and his father was once a favorite to the king, he knew he would be safe. They made their way toward Dywnwen and stood there. The knight proceeded to read from the scroll. “The Lucian Empire is marching toward Walsh.”
“You’re back early,” Nile whispered into Dywnwen’s ear.
Dywnwen glanced at him quickly. “Something terrible is happening.”
Nile asked. “What?”
Dywnwen shrugged.
Nile turned his attention toward King Aidan, whom was speaking to the knights.
King Aidan replied, “The Walsh Kingdom? Why? What for?”
“King Loren believes it’s over Enaya,” the knight replied.
“Enaya?” King Aidan repeated.
Enaya: Solace of Time Page 4