by Rain Oxford
“So you can’t beat it?” Mordon asked.
“No, it means I have to use my brain instead of my strength.”
“Oh, no, we’re doomed,” he moaned.
“Shut up. I need new friends. We need to get to the other Guardians and warn them. Not you, Dad,” I said when Edward grabbed his bag. “Mordon and I can handle this. I was hoping you would watch the boys.”
“What?! No, we want to fight the monsters!” Sammy demanded. Ron nodded his agreement.
“Why should I not go?” Edward asked. I had to tread carefully so that I didn’t injure his pride. He didn’t have Iadnah energy, but he knew so much more than me about nominal energy. He also had wisdom I would only get with age. However, I needed his power and wisdom focused elsewhere.
“Because it might be targeting Guardians, because the gods are paranoid enough, and because there is no one I trust more to take care of Ron and Sammy. Vretial might be after them and I need to know they’re safe. You protected me, and I know you can keep them safe. Please.”
He didn’t look happy about it, but he sighed and nodded.
“You should let the gods know about the change of plans,” Mordon suggested. I used my magic to reach through my book. It was the same as when I connected to Earth to heal it from the backlash of Vretial’s defeat, except I was specifically trying to connect with my mate. This was something I never did before using my magic and I had no idea how it would work. However, my magic could do anything.
“Divina? Can you hear me?” I thought real hard. I could feel the goddess of Earth through my book.
“Dylan? How are you doing this?”
“Not sure, and I don’t know if I can keep this connection up. Edward tried to contact Erono and was attacked. I don’t know what it was other than extremely powerful.”
“Are you putting yourself at risk?”
“This is probably safer than contacting you the Guardian way. It attacked instantly and I think it might be targeting Guardians.”
“Don’t let Kiro go with you. If Vretial is targeting Guardians, Kiro might be---”
“I know. I’m taking Mordon and leaving the boys with Edward. I’m still going to try to find the Guardians. I want to give Edward my pentagram. It can alert me if something attacks him again. I’m just calling to let you know that the plan has changed and the kids are fine.”
The connection snapped. I opened my eyes to see Mordon’s eyes shift from black to normal.
“How did it go? Did you get her?”
“Yeah. I told Divina what’s up.” I turned to Edward and took off my pentagram. “Please keep this on you for mine and Divina’s peace of mind. If you get hurt or need help, it’ll bring me to you.” He looked at the boys and agreed to take it. Edward was very protective of my kids. I turned to Mordon. “Let’s go check on Nano first.”
“How come?” he asked.
Sammy watched us with hawk eyes and owl ears. I hoped he had settled happily into our family, but no child wanted to believe his biological parents abandoned him.
“Because it’s been four years and they never came back for Sammy.” They visited a lot in the first year, but they stopped coming when it got too hard for Vivian to leave. Ron was old enough now to turn over the spell to Divina with some guidance, but we never told him about the magic. There was never a reason; the boys were always together. And if I did tell them, Sammy could go live with his parents. It would absolutely break Ron’s heart if Sammy left us, not to mention Divina’s, Edward’s, Mordon’s, and mine.
“I’m sure they had a good reason.”
I got down on my knees to be eye level with Ron. “Mordon and I will be back soon, so be good for your granddad, okay?”
“We’re always good, Daddy.”
Oh, Hell, he has the same mischievous glint in his eye as his mother. “Yes, I know you are.” “Watch him,” I mouthed to Edward. He nodded. Both of my sons were very well behaved, but I noticed an increase in small pranks lately. Sammy was a bit of a vindictive baby, but Ron was genetically prone to asking for trouble. I said goodbye and hugged them.
Regivus was right; I had eternity to be a Guardian, but my sons would only be little for a short time. I didn’t want to miss any of this. Besides, if I turned my back on Ron, he was liable to take over all the worlds. He was enough like his mother that he could probably talk the gods into handing their worlds over.
I flashed Mordon and myself to Dios, as flashing was my preferred method of long distance travel. We appeared before the huge doors to Nila’s throne room, where the goblin guards surrounded us and aimed their swords. They probably recognized us as Nila’s friends, but they still drew their blades. I couldn’t be offended, for I knew they even pulled their weapons on the king’s uncle, which proved that they were not very wise.
Mordon’s fire rose to the surface and I turned away from the door to face the goblins. If they did not surrender, Rojan would set them on fire. It was a dragon thing; apparently, they did not like people thrusting swords at them.
I heard the doors open behind me a few seconds before I was flattened. In one fluid move, the young king climbed off me and pulled me up, then hugged me until my organs shriveled and my bones creaked. He was unbelievably strong. Since I met him seven years ago, he grew just a little. Still very slim and small, he now looked about nineteen. In other words, he aged about two years in seven. Fortunately, he never lost that eccentric personality that made him so unique.
He then proceeded to hug Mordon, and even the dragon looked a little worse for the wear. No sago, no dragon, no Guardian that I ever met was physically stronger than a dile, and Nila was the strongest I knew. The boy was even stronger than Nano. At least Sammy knew how to keep from hurting people with his strength. Nila just never seemed to realize and used his strength to show his affection.
“Dylan! You’re home and you brought your pet!” he declared with excitement. The guards lowered their weapons and Mordon growled. Nila ignored Mordon’s warning. “Where are my nephews?”
Nila had adopted me as his brother and Rojan had something to say about that. Apparently I wasn’t big enough for two brothers. If that wasn’t bad enough, he made it official. Nila recorded that I was his brother and next in line for the throne should anything happen to him. I told him there was no way I could live permanently on Dios and he shrugged it off. The constant bickering between Mordon and Nila was exhausting.
What made Mordon so irritable was that his fire was considered magic to Nila’s void blood and could never burn the boy-king. On the other hand, Mordon’s fire could burn Nila’s guards to ash if they attacked him. Still, Nila always had a hug for my friend. I think it was a trick.
“Hello, Nila. I know I haven’t been around much, but I’m in the middle of some important work now.”
“Yes. Nano and the others are in trouble. Why do you never bring my nephews as I ordered?”
I ruffled his hair. “Because I don’t follow orders from my brothers.”
He sighed and motioned for us to follow him back into his throne room, then turned around as soon as we were inside and slammed the doors in the guards’ faces. “They follow me everywhere.” With an exaggerated eye-roll, he held his arms up in a gesture of frustration. I had the inappropriate image of him as a teenage girl.
“You are the king, Nila, you need their protection,” I said. Mordon glared at me and it suddenly clicked. “That’s why you are always picking on Mordon; he’s free. You never had a problem with him until you found out he was a runaway prince. Are you tired of being king?” I asked.
He flopped himself down on his chair with a sigh and propped his legs over the side. “No, of course not,” he sulked. I walked up to him, sat on the other arm of the chair, and ruffled his hair. Nila was like Ron; naturally happy. Nevertheless, he had an entire world relying on him, and that kind of pressure can weigh on anyone. Or maybe he’s going through teenage girl things. Who really knows with aliens…
“Your hair is too long. You
should cut it,” I said.
“Nobody ever asked me, you know. Everyone just told me I would be king. And I am High King, so I have to be protected. On top of that, many people think I am delicate because I’m a void. In order to go anywhere, even to another village, I must be followed by many guards.”
“Do you even have any enemies? Isn’t the surface culture flourishing?”
“People are happy outside. People in the under cities are unhappy. They are people afraid of change and miserable for hobby. They beg me to move above ground.”
“But your goblin guards can’t live above ground,” I reminded him. He grinned, his mind seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and I knew that wouldn’t help matters. “You have the most important job in the world, more important even than Nano.”
“You’re not helping,” Mordon advised. He was right; Nila looked miserable.
“But think of what you’ve done for the people. You gave them back the world they lost because of war. You made the entire surface world habitable. Why do you sit in this chair with your head down like you’re grounded?”
He looked at me. “Because if I leave, they will follow.”
“Of course they will; it’s their job to protect you. You stay here in a kingdom like a sitting duck. Everyone knows exactly where to find you, where to strike, so of course you need all of them. However, if you were to hire a single bodyguard, someone with skill in magic and the sword, you could go traveling. If they don’t know where to find you, you would be safer, so only one bodyguard would---” The rest of my words were cut off as my breath was forced from my lungs.
One second, I was sitting on the arm of the chair, the next, I was flat on my back with Nila hugging the life out of me. His words were a rushed jumble of English and Dego. Essentially, he liked my plan.
I finally got him calmed down and reminded him that I was here to speak with Nano. “Nano is not here,” he said.
“Where is he?”
“No idea. Another world. He disappeared many days ago and left Vivian to be scared. She is frightened that he is hurt. There was nothing I could do, not even call you.”
“He left her alone? Does she know where he went?”
“He was talking and then he was gone.”
I sat down on Nila’s throne, which didn’t bother him any, and focused my energy. Through my book, I reached my magic across the world. I could feel the emptiness of Nila, Mordon’s fire, and the occasional powerful wizard, but nobody as powerful as Nano. Nano was nowhere to be found.
Divina must have sensed me through my connection with my book. “What are you doing?” she asked me.
“Nano is missing.”
She paused. “That is not good. This is proof enough for Zer that Nano is deceitful. Is there any sign of a struggle or…”
“Or that he’s a traitor? No I haven’t found anything. I’m going to try to flash to him.”
“You have to prove Nano’s innocence. He has always been an informant for me, so he’s always one of the first to be suspected, but he’s also Sammy’s biological father. If he can’t be proven innocent, my brothers will be suspicious of Sammy by association.”
“But Avoli will still want him as a Guardian?”
“Avoli is terrified of betrayal. If Nano is a traitor, his son is the same. Regivus can be swayed since Sammy was raised by us, but Zer, Erono, and Azenoth would go on the warpath.”
“Again. I hate your brothers sometimes.”
“Me, too. Keep in touch. If this thing really is targeting Guardians… Don’t forget that you are one.”
I opened my eyes and stood. Mordon looked worried. “I’m going to try and find Nano. I’ll be right back,” I said. He nodded.
I focused on Nano, the sound of his voice, the feel of his magic. My magic caught and I let it pull me along, but when the flash cleared, I found myself facing Zer, not Nano.
“That didn’t work,” I said. Zer stared at me like I was the weirdest thing he had ever seen. “Your Guardian is missing, but don’t worry, I think he was attacked. Wait, that might have come out wrong.”
“No, I understand; you are afraid that I would misconstrue my Guardian’s disappearance as him being devious and running away,” he said. I opened my mouth to lie when he continued. “You are correct. When you find him and prove his innocence, he can return to Dios. Until then, I will not allow him to be on my world.”
He flashed me back to Mordon. “We’re getting nowhere real fast. My magic can’t even find him. That has only happened once,” I said, referring to when Mordon was lost in the void.
“But everyone remembers him,” he argued.
“You were pulled in by the demon without any form of protection. Something happened to one of the Guardians, Rasik, a little while before you were pulled into it. Rasik was somehow trapped there, like how other people and things were being misplaced. We never did find out what happened, but he was safe at the time, and nobody seemed to forget about him. Without knowing anymore, we can’t rule anything out. We need to get to the Guardians before this happens to anyone else, if it hasn’t already. Let’s go check on Shiloh.”
“I want to go,” Nila said. We frowned at him.
“Shiloh is a Guardian from another world. We would have to flash there.”
“You were able to flash me before.”
“Yeah, and you nearly died,” I said. He pouted. I understood that he wanted to be able to explore new worlds as I had, but I was not willing to risk his life. “Then when I tried to take you back, I couldn’t.”
“I never get to do anything exciting.”
I smirked. “Do what other kings do; open an arena and---”
“Dylan!” Mordon admonished.
“What? You don’t like baseball?” I asked innocently. “That’s all I was going to suggest,” I lied. “You hit a ball with a stick and run around in a circle.”
“Oh… is that fun on Earth?” Nila asked.
I frowned. “Yeah, to a lot of people.” I flashed Mordon and myself to Casten, the sky city on Vaigda. It was very stupid of me to forget the necessary measures to make sure I would not be seen. When the light faded, two young women were standing in front of us, astonished.
Flashing was a form of travel between worlds that even the Guardians could not do. Divina had explained to me that the light was an echo of the Land of the Gods. An echo of anything so ethereal had an effect on those who lacked any magical talent or were weak of mind. Either it felt enthralling or made them look inwards, which could be good or bad depending on what kind of person they were. I never asked Divina to elaborate, because at the time, I hadn’t intended for it to become my usual method of traveling across worlds.
One of the women smacked the other across the chest. “They are gods,” she whispered and they both got on their knees to bow. Even though they spoke in their language, my magic translated it. They had some kind of translation device in their identification bracelets that translated their words in our heads, but we had discarded the bracelets we were given after leaving Vaigda. That was before my own magic learned how to do it naturally.
“Don’t mind us,” I said in English, knowing their translation abilities would accommodate. I got a little kick out of suggesting that the gods speak English, since the people of Vaigda would know English was a human language.
We were in a white hallway, and there was really nothing to distinguish it from any other with few doors. As the women knelt, Mordon and I calmly left. We turned a few corners before Mordon took the lead. “I can smell him. Something is odd about him, but I never forget a person’s scent. He’s this way,” he said as we passed several people. “I think you might be committing a human sin by impersonating a god.”
“Funny, Divina said that to me once. Of course, we were in bed,” I said, earning a hard punch in my arm. All powers aside, sago were stronger than humans and I was half human; his punches hurt.
We were intercepted by a man in a dark blue uniform and we both sighed. �
�Where is your identification?” he asked us.
Somewhere in a forest on Malta. I waved my hand slowly. “You don’t need to see our identification. We are not the outlaws you are looking for.”
Mordon grabbed my arm to absorb just enough of my magic to understand and speak the guard’s language. “Shut up, Dylan,” he said. He turned to the guard and adopted a fierce expression. “Now you listen, this man is the Noquodi of Earth. Your identification bracelets are to prove we are not contagious. Are you suggesting that a warrior of the gods could have contagious germs?!” he demanded.
The guard looked unsure. “It is our policy.”
“You would stop one of the immortals from saving all life because you have a policy?!” he asked. The man took a step back.
“Oh, stop with the dramatics,” Shiloh said, approaching us. “You are free to go,” he said to the guard, who did not need to be told twice. “I would like to say it is nice to see you two again, but I suppose your being here means the universe is in danger.”
“Well, we came here thinking you might be in trouble. And I guess we were right,” Mordon said.
Shiloh looked the same and sounded the same, but I remembered the dense field of power that normally surrounded him. Mordon and I could both tell that he had lost his magic. “What happened?” I asked.
The Guardian sighed and led us down the hall. “I tried to get ahold of Enki to tell him a new idea I had about the council. Something attacked me before I could contact him and I barely made it back alive. When I did wake, it was with my powers absent. I have not heard from Enki or the other Guardians since.”
I explained that the gods were having trouble contacting their Guardians and started doubting their Guardians. He rolled his eyes. Then I told him what happened with Edward and Nano. “Have you seen Nano anywhere lately?”
“No. This is one of the reasons I want to get a council together; a Guardian could go missing for a year and nobody would have a clue. We also need that contact and collaboration for when the gods suspect us of one thing or another.”
“Shiloh, I am probably the last person who should be suggesting this…” I started. “So I’ll let Mordon suggest it. He was raised to be king, and those people need to be able to gain someone’s trust.” I knew Mordon was thinking the same thing, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put him on the spot.