Welcome Home (Alternate Worlds Book 3)

by Leigh, Taylor

  His eyes locked with hers. They were so wonderfully deep, drawing; she found herself falling into them. It made her feel…fuzzy. That was the best way she could put it. Cloudy and flustered and it was quite a pleasant, satisfactory feeling. What he was saying was really quite sensible, wasn’t it? The pleasant fog of his eyes floated her along and she found herself nodding.

  With a gentle push, Noel directed her towards the doors and Victoria, stumbling, pulled up before the guards. She flushed, head still swimming, yet she stood tall. The two guards straightened. Behind her, Noel swaggered out. The guards’ eyes widened a bit.

  ‘Ah, hello, gentlemen. Here on official business; I believe you will recognise this seal?’ He pulled a chain from his neck that held the queen’s insignia. That of an advisor. How he’d gotten it, Victoria wasn’t wanting to investigate. Noel smiled again. ‘It gives me authority to act in the queen’s best interest.’

  The seal swung back and forth mesmerizingly.

  ‘W—what do you need, sir?’ one of the guard stammered.

  ‘Hmm,’ Noel purred. ‘I need in to the treasury. Princess Victoria and I. We’re looking for something. Something very precious to the queen. Something that has been lost.’

  Victoria felt her pulse thudding through her throat. She wished dearly that Andrew was here with her, if only watching from behind a pillar. Were these guards true? Or were they Myrmidons as well, like the one Andrew had spotted. Oh, she wasn’t sure.

  They smiled a little knowingly and one of them stepped forward to unlatch the heavy door. ‘We’ll be checking your pockets, sir. Do be careful not to fill them.’

  Noel flashed his charming smile. ‘I wouldn’t betray my queen for all the gold in the world!’ And with one last grin he guided Victoria inside.

  The treasury was really quite overwhelming. Bits of gold were cool beneath her bare feet and the piles of it reflected unnaturally from Noel’s eyes, lighting them with a hungry gleam.

  ‘What exactly are you looking for?’ Victoria asked, feeling numb at the sight of so much richness.

  Noel snarled. He was looking a little heady at the sight as well. ‘You know! Surely the Traveller has told you! He’s no doubt described it in great detail! Probably has it drawn in that bleeding notebook of his!’ All charm was gone.

  Victoria pressed her lips into a hard line. ‘Well. Then you should have asked him to come along, not me. I haven’t the foggiest.’

  Noel’s eyes flashed. ‘He is not as easy to convince, unfortunately.’

  Victoria kicked the crinkled corner of a rolled carpet. Noel had gone bounding to a rather large pile of coins and stones and armour and went tearing at it. The clatter of metals filled the room. He whirled on her, eyes blazing. Victoria quickly swept up a chalice, hoping it appeared she was looking.

  ‘Help me!’ Noel implored. He took a long, fluid step towards her. ‘You must know! The key!’

  Victoria threw the chalice aside. ‘I don’t know about a key, all right? I don’t know anything about it!’

  He advanced quickly, eyes shining. ‘It’s here. It’s buried but it’s here. I can feel it tugging at my soul. Scattered about…’

  ‘You’re mental!’

  Noel’s hands shot out and snagged her wrists. With hardly any force at all he hauled her through the piles of coins and other tat, swearing violently. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Oi! Let me go!’ She thought them rum guards indeed for not hearing this racket.

  He suddenly went very still and looked at her, face nowhere near human. He licked his lips. ‘You really do not know…he has not told you. And he won’t. He won’t tell anyone…not unless he’s sufficiently motivated.’

  His last words turned to a slurring snarl and he lunged, sending Victoria tumbling.

  Everything was coins and heat and a horrible roar and a more horrible trembling and Victoria could only scream for she felt she was falling.

  * * * * *

  Andrew scowled at the haphazardly drawn map he’d made of the tunnels. It was painfully inadequate, he knew, for he still had no idea where the tunnel Ramses and Noel were so interested in led, but it was a start. But Reginald needed a visual.

  ‘It is clearly a weakness to the defence of this place, and a shame that it has not been discovered till now. However, if we can keep it a secret, it could be a strategic advantage.’ He shook his head, ignoring the ache in his limbs. ‘But that is not what is important. What is important is bringing a troop of guards through the mountain and smoking Ramses and his little group out. Whatever they are doing there isn’t in your best interest and whatever it is, I’m the only one who will understand it.’

  Reginald shook his head. ‘But I don’t understand! I thought they were nothing but philosophers!’

  Andrew huffed his breath. ‘Well, they’ve clearly branched out.’

  The king sat down heavily.

  ‘Ah, and I would keep a closer eye on Lucinda, if I were you,’ Andrew went on. ‘I do not know if she knows what she is doing, but she is helping them. It could simply be due to her infatuation with Noel. And I need to be allowed into the treasury. I believe whatever they are after is inside.’

  ‘But—’

  Reginald’s protests were cut short, however, by a deep tremble beneath their feet. Another rumble rocked the ground. Shouts came.

  ‘Interesting,’ Andrew mused to himself.

  ‘Traveller? Traveller? Where is the Traveller?’ A voice went echoing down the hall.

  Andrew groaned and stood stiffly. He made it to the door just in time to stop the guards.

  ‘Yes? What’s the matter?’

  The men looked at him in overwhelmed relief. ‘Oh, thank the gods. You must come quickly. The palace is under attack.’

  More steps echoed down the hall and Marus pulled up behind the guards. His eyes locked with Andrew’s. There was a wide, panicked look to them that Andrew wouldn’t have thought the gladiator capable of.

  ‘Where is he?’

  There came a terrible, ear-shattering roar and the palace again shook like it had been hit by a missile.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ one of the guards stammered.

  Andrew wasn’t sure why—for it was completely illogical—but he knew he had his answer. By the wild look in Marus’s eyes, Andrew knew he was right. He swore under his breath, his pain momentarily forgotten.

  Marus snarled and went racing back the way he’d just come, boots squealing against the stone floor. Andrew didn’t pause to think but went tearing after him, Reginald’s shouts drowned out. He heard screams, cries. Andrew realised where Marus was headed. It wasn’t towards the trembles, but towards one of the verandas overlooking the city. Andrew put on a burst of speed, ignoring the burning in his lungs and his darkening vision, to catch the gladiator.

  Arkron was already there. Marus slid to a stop beside her and Andrew finally crashed against the railing, Reginald just behind.

  What he saw took him a step back.

  Reginald was speechless and Andrew wasn’t so sure he blamed him. The city was burning. And the amount of destruction that had occurred…Andrew was baffled. How could it have been accomplished in so short a period of time?

  ‘What’s happened?’ Reginald demanded hoarsely. ‘Why didn’t you get me the second this started? How long has this been going on?’

  Marus shook his head very slowly. ‘Just started. Not more than five minutes ago…’

  He gaped in disbelief. ‘But…but that’s impossible.’

  The gladiator was staring numbly below him. Andrew directed his eyes down and spotted what Marus was fixated with immediately. He let out a breath, one of surprise and anger.

  There was a giant hole blown in the palace wall: the size of which Andrew could think of no possible way for Noel to have made. No way except an explosion of immense power. The plume of smoke and dust now rising into the air was enough proof of that. He sent his eye scanning the rubble and crowd. He couldn’t see. He swore and pulled a spyglass from
his inner pocket. No good. There was nothing.

  ‘That’s the outer walls of the treasury…’ Reginald mumbled.

  ‘Where is he?’ Andrew hissed through clenched teeth. He knew it wasn’t much worth asking. Noel could be anywhere, in any of those squat buildings, in any crowd. Long gone. He slammed his fist down on the railing. ‘I told you to watch him!’

  Marus gave him a defiant growl. ‘I did! But then I lost him when he managed to get inside of the treasury. I came to get you—Victoria was with him. I thought perhaps you’d sent her to tail him?’

  ‘What? No! Of course not! Damn it! How could he have managed?’

  Marus didn’t have an answer for him.

  Andrew finally turned his attention to the wall of the palace that had been demolished. Victoria had been there in that blast?

  He backed up, unable to tear his gaze away. No, she was fine, she was fine…

  ‘Someone needs to find her! I left her in her room! Check if she is with her mother!’

  A roar from overhead made him jump and Andrew’s head snapped back in time to watch a giant creature—something so large he didn’t think possible—land above them at the top of the castle.

  Marus let out an unhappy moan, cowering in animal-like submission; Andrew couldn’t take his eyes from the beast. The sun was behind it, and Andrew’s vision was poor so he couldn’t see anything but a black shadow: simply a hellish outline of a creature unknown to his vast knowledge.

  ‘I found her,’ Marus said numbly. He pointed from his crouched position to the horrible beast. Andrew saw. Something small, like a miniature doll, was clasped in one of its great claws.

  Shakily, Andrew pulled his looking glass up, stomach turning over. He knew without looking. He recognised those skirts. ‘Marus,’ he was surprised by how hoarse his voice had become. ‘Tell me! What is that thing?’

  He took in the beast, all iron-plated scales and ginormous wings that shadowed the entire city. Victoria looked so small in its grasp. Limp, pathetic.

  There was an unfurling noise, as if a giant sail on a ship had been let loose and both Reginald and Andrew instinctively ducked as the gargantuan monster dropped from its perch to sweep low overhead, just missing the top spires of the palace. It blasted the next layer of the city into liquid fire, lighting up its horrible body, taking Victoria with it.

  Andrew stared after the creature in despair. It was huge, like a flying lizard, so full of spines and horns it was a living fortress.

  ‘What is that thing?’ Reginald’s voice rose in pitch.

  Andrew ignored his babbling—his own brain was doing enough of that.

  ‘Noel,’ Marus said bleakly.

  ‘But—’

  A tower in one of the lower layers crumbled and fell.

  Noel? Andrew’s mind went blank. The two did not add up. It was completely illogical. Animal and human were not the same. It was not—could not—be.

  ‘Should have stopped him when I had the chance!’ he snarled between clenched teeth, for lack of anything else. Victoria was gone! He could hardly come to terms with the reality of it.

  Arkron laughed unpleasantly. ‘No. You never had a chance. If he made it seem like you did he was simply playing a game with you.’

  ‘But how?’ Reginald demanded.

  ‘It was just an avatar, sweetheart,’ Arkron said emotionlessly. ‘Just a trick. He’s a dragon.’

  Avatar. Dragon. Dragoonian. He wished they’d just shut up with the nonsense. Victoria was—something clicked at last in Andrew’s head. The conversation between Noel and Marus he’d caught the first night the man had been brought here…

  He sent his eyes over to Marus. The man backed up a step from his intense stare. ‘What?’

  Andrew shook his head slowly and turned back to the torched city. ‘Nothing.’ He watched the dragon swoop low over another row of structures, feeling hollow. ‘Why isn’t he attacking the palace?’ he muttered more to himself than to the group. ‘Ah, yes, of course. They want us alive for some reason…’

  ‘Is this a takeover?’ Reginald asked.

  Andrew clenched his fists. ‘I don’t…think so. They’re leaving the palace alone. Leaving us alone…There is a reason he’s taken Victoria. She’s alive. I won’t consider otherwise. This is a move against me.’

  For the moment there was nothing to do but watch as the city below them was set to light by the flying beast. Andrew could feel the warmth as it rose against his skin. The heat and ash bothered his lungs and he doubled over against the railing in a fit of coughing. His throat burned. This was going to become unbearable, and with no rain to hope for, if it kept up…

  ‘How long till they make any demands, you think?’ Reginald asked.

  Arkron shifted. ‘Not long now.’

  ‘We could—’

  Andrew made a face, cutting off Reginald’s words. ‘Too late. I thought the same. They’re no doubt gone.’ It was crushing. He’d torture every last one of those damned Myrmidons if it would bring Victoria back.

  Reginald stared at him. ‘What?’

  Andrew felt ill. ‘They must have known this was coming. Maybe they planned it. But they’ve left. Taken to the tunnels, no doubt to the Bone Vault.’

  Reginald swore. ‘So all of the roaches have escaped and we have no answers whatsoever…I’ll send soldiers to scour the city—scour the tunnels! They can’t get out.’

  ‘That’s assuming that they want to,’ Marus muttered quietly.

  All eyes turned to him, but he was still as stone. Andrew’s eyes tracked the direction Marus was staring. Something new was fluttering over the streets below. A red flag. And scrawled on it in black were three triangles, all overlapping and pointed downwards. The symbol of the Myrmidons.

  Andrew’s brain went racing over Reginald’s words. ‘Demands…’ he mumbled. ‘He didn’t find what he was looking for. He brought Victoria with him, perhaps to let him in, perhaps to help him. But why get so frustrated and resort to these measures? Because he doesn’t know what he’s looking for! This is nothing more than a childish tantrum…on a massive scale.’

  ‘What the hell are you going on about?’ Marus demanded.

  Andrew stared at them. ‘Whatever they want is still hidden in the palace! It’s in the treasury, we know that, and Noel didn’t find it. And it’s something they do not want to take the chance of losing or destroying by razing the palace. They think we know of it—or more importantly, me. That’s why Noel has taken Victoria.’

  Marus threw up his hands. ‘But why would he care? He’s a dragon! Dragons are superior; they don’t give a damn about humans!’

  Andrew went to frantic pacing. ‘And yet they appear to be on the same side.’

  Arkron examined her fingernails. ‘If he’s claiming to be on the same side as the Myrmidons, he’s lying. He wouldn’t join with the humans if he didn’t have another agenda.’

  Despite his spinning head, he paused long enough to give Reginald a piercing look. ‘And that agenda is hidden somewhere in the treasury. Now, what could that be?’

  Reginald held up his hands. ‘I dunno!’

  It was a painfully pathetic lie and an insult to Victoria’s current predicament. Reginald quailed against him. Few could stand against his stare and Andrew knew it.

  He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears now.

  Reginald looked unsurely to Arkron. Her expression was unreadable.

  Andrew’s impatience was near boiling over. ‘Damn you! Isn’t it past time for such childishness? Lucinda bloody said that you’ve hidden something in the treasury!’

  Arkron shrugged. ‘There are many artefacts and curiosities buried on this world. Impossible to know which one they are after. Not till they give us a nice and proper list.’

  Andrew swept his gaze back to the city in mounting stress. Noel had landed on the city wall, hunched like some giant, scaly vulture. His heart ached to see Victoria in that beast’s grasp. ‘I would say it is more than a simple curiosity. And failing to iden
tify it will only jeopardise Victoria’s survival!’

  Reginald stood a little straighter. ‘We do not negotiate with terrorists.’

  Andrew lunged forward, throwing Reginald against the railing. He saw red. It would be an easy thing to push him over, easier still to ignore everyone’s horrified cries. ‘She’s your kin! You can’t leave her to that beast!’

  Reginald’s eyes were wide. ‘I know she is! But we don’t know what they want, do we? Now let me go!’ His eyes darted to Arkron in growing alarm. ‘Like she said, there are countless…treasures…until we are issued a demand, we have to wait. In the meantime, we come up with a plan to defeat that monster! That’s only logical, yeah?’

  Andrew fumed. His hands tightened on Reginald’s collar, ignoring Marus’s grip on his shoulder. He stared out at the city in growing despair. There were no such qualms in his mind about making a deal with the monster. Not if it brought her back. But not knowing what it was left him with nothing to work with. With reluctance, he let Reginald go, making a show of his disgust.

  ‘I am not going to sit back and play their games! I will not leave her to die!’ His lungs were aching which made his voice wobble. He squared his shoulders, hating this helplessness he’d been thrown into. It drove him mad. He needed to do something. Not just sit here as the world burned.

  With that he spun on his heel and marched back into the recesses of the palace, mind racing with the beginnings of a plan. Victoria would know he was coming for her. He was not about to let her down.

  Chapter Twenty

  Andrew pulled his cloak tighter round him as he pushed through the maddening crowd of the lowest layer. It was easy in the confusion, to forget the overwhelming wave of guilt that was crushing him for not doing more to save Victoria. It was shameful.

  From the palace the streets had looked bad, but now that he was actually walking down them, he realised just what a mess it truly was. The red glow of fires gave him the impression of some mythical city of hell. Broken buildings, the work of Noel, blocked the streets. And the thin calm that came from the fear of punishment had broken with the walls. That violent lot that fed off of chaos and disruption had crawled out from their holes and were jumping at the opportunity.