by Rain Oxford
“An apple that sends you back in time? I was a little unsure myself. A mirror, sure, a door, no problem… but I have never heard of fruit being a portal before,” I agreed.
Azenoth rolled his eyes. “It is Vretial’s magic. Vretail always did weird and obscene things like that.”
It was a testament to my humanity that I immediately scoured my brain for ideas of what weird and obscene things the god would have done. Maybe I could learn something.
“He gave me enchanted socks when I took a mortal body,” Divina said. “They were forever warm.”
“That was nice of him.”
“I am a god; I do not need enchanted socks.”
“But I bet you liked them,” I said. She blushed. “If Vretial sent me the apple, why? To save the kids? Why not do it himself?”
“Maybe it was a trick. An illusion of something that never really happened to gain your trust,” Enki suggested.
“The dark god, your oldest and most powerful brother, uses simple illusion magic to win the trust of a mortal? I would hope he could come up with something a bit more frightful than a snowy forest and a monster I have already faced and defeated.”
“More frightening than your sons being endangered?” Azenoth asked.
I frowned. “Can Iadnah understand the fear of losing a son?” I asked. “I would think the death of a loved one is a fear only mortals would understand.”
Azenoth scoffed and Regivus glared at him. “Death is a god only mortals fear, that is true,” Regivus said. “The Iadnah are a race, like people and dragons. We are ageless, immortal, and have infinite power, but we also have desires and aspirations. We were never children, but we had parents. And had we not faced war, we each would have been parents.”
“So I have seen. But can you love your children? My wife excluded, of course,” I said, regarding her. “I know you can love.” I looked at the rest of them. “The rest of you do not have mortal bodies. You have never lived on the worlds, experienced the joys and hells of life. Can you love your children? Are you capable of it?”
Several of the gods scowled. “I do not know. None of us but our sister has ever had cause to love,” Avoli said. “Nevertheless, I have no doubt that Vretial understood what a father would do for his child.”
“And why would he work so hard to win a mortal’s trust?” I asked.
“You defeated him once. If he has indeed returned, which I am not convinced of, I believe he would want revenge. That would definitely put you at the top of his list. Besides, there are no mortals in this room,” Regivus said.
“It may have been his kind of magic and maybe it was not just an illusion, but I am not convinced he would drop an apple on your head. Vretial is more likely to appear and tell you himself,” Zer said.
Divina was shaking her head before he could finish speaking. “If he has not faced us yet, he is trying to be discreet. Going to Dylan would put him in the spotlight faster than anything,” Divina said.
It was my turn to disagree. “Anything except going to Ron and Sammy. Anyway, when I woke up again in the forest, Rilryn was attacked by a griffin, which completely ignored me.”
“Griffins are extinct,” Divina said. I gave her a look. “Except for the two that attacked a few years ago. But they should have disappeared back to their time when you defeated the demon,” she argued.
“Maybe they did. Maybe this is their time. I healed Rilryn, but was unable to bring him back and Kiro’s place was attacked, so I didn’t have time to figure it out.”
“Was that why you refused me when I called on you?”
Divina frowned and I shivered. He could have phrased it better, but dirty thoughts probably never occurred to the god. “Yes. The griffins had attacked Shiloh, Samorde, and Azyle. They ignored Mordon and Ghidorah, and Kiro was protecting the boys inside. Mordon said I was gone for two days, but from my perspective, it was only a few hours. Then the griffin reappeared with Nano, who said that Vretial attacked and the griffin saved him.”
“Did Vretial get Nano’s book?” Zer asked, looking ill.
“He didn’t say so. I don’t think it was Vretial who attacked. I think it was something else. I think what attacked me, Shiloh, and Kiro was something else. It wasn’t angry. It wanted something with an incredible determination.”
“Vretial wanted to take the worlds,” Mreje said.
I once again had to stop to consider my words. If I were alone with Mordon and Divina, I would have openly disagreed, but the gods were ancient and had a certain way of thinking. Anything I said otherwise would be offensive to all but Divina.
Divina shook her head slightly, warning me to keep my mouth shut. I nodded. They knew the god better than I, so I would take their word for it.
“Vretial was not very determined about anything until…” Avoli said. “Until he took my world he was just odd. He never went after anything that was not easy to obtain.”
“He was always suspicious,” Azenoth sneered.
“I hate to interrupt, but that is not the matter at hand,” I said.
“How is Vretial’s behavior not the matter at hand?” Enki asked.
“It looks like the Guardians are actually being targeted,” Divina said.
I shrugged. “Yeah, that is really important. But I was actually more worried about Mordon,” I said. They all stared at me like I lost my mind. “I am not saying that’s all I’m worried about. It will just make it much easier to save the other Guardians if Mordon could breathe.”
“You said it was like an allergic reaction. Is Mordon better when he is away from Ghidorah?” Divina asked. I nodded. “Then take him with you to find the other Noquodi and I will see about what might cause him to react that way.”
I nodded my agreement before opening my eyes back at the cabin. Ron watched me with worry. Edward had his arms wrapped around Meri on the porch and she looked a little shaken. Mordon hopped off the porch to land next to me and pulled me to my feet. There were too many people here.
“Ready to go?” Mordon asked. “Rojan is getting very irritated with all these old Guardians around. If Edward and Ghidorah growl at each other one more time, Rojan might eat them both. And Ghidorah keeps sniffing around Meri like she’s a rare steak. Rojan actually suggested we call his sister out here to sort them out, but he’s afraid she’ll figure out we can’t shift.”
“You should definitely not eat Ghidorah if you’re allergic to him,” I cautioned. “I thought you said you didn’t want to go on missions with me anymore. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here?” Since nobody else could hear us, it must have been very confusing when he punched me in my arm. I needed nicer friends.
“Hitting is wrong, Mom,” Sammy declared from the porch. Nano frowned and I figured we would have a discussion later on. Ron went to Sammy.
“Granddad can watch us, Daddy,” Ron said. Edward preferred Ron’s nickname for him over Sammy’s. “Go on to work and we’ll be fine.”
Sammy gaped at him and Ron elbowed the older boy before shooting him a pointed look. After a few seconds, they both turned back to me with matching grins. Oh, no. The boys were up to something.
“Can you smell anything? Smoke, maybe? Brimstone?” I asked, hoping Mordon could pick up some of their intentions.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t worry, I’m watching them,” Edward said in my mind. It wasn’t the same as the way Mordon and I spoke. If it made any sense, the connection between Mordon and I was more natural. I could use magic to speak to Edward, but it was like an inborn ability to talk to Mordon. There was no more magic involved than when talking to him out loud, which was a very good thing if magic ever started to fail like it had when Sammy was a baby.
“Book check,” I said, getting blank stares from half the Guardians. “Everyone get out your books and make sure they’re in order.” I pulled out mine, then Edward did his. Watching Edward, Samorde immediately pulled his out. Shiloh shrugged and followed suit. Azyle and Nano hesitated, but finally did as I s
aid.
“I don’t keep my book on me, Ghidorah said.
After skimming through the names, I slipped my book back in my bag. Everyone else scanned their books before putting them away except for Samorde, who was frowning at a page in his.
“What’s wrong?” Edward asked.
Samorde snapped his book closed with a jump as if he had forgotten he wasn’t alone. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong. My book is fine, yes, all names are accounted for.”
“We’re going to try to find Emrys,” I said.
“You want to bring him back here?” Samorde asked, his voice breaking with fear.
As the air filled with light, I already knew we would not land where I wanted us to. Flashing was based on a person or place I thought of in my head. A voice, the feel of their magic, the feeling of being somewhere, a picture of a memory… It was only by accident that I learned how to flash, and it was one of the few things I never asked one of the gods to explain.
I tried to flash us back to Malta, figuring that was as good a place to start as any. I was prepared to be attacked by whatever was after the Guardians. I was prepared to fight. I was not prepared to be intercepted peacefully. Instead of fighting it, I let the presence pull me to it, because I would have recognized him anywhere.
Chapter 6
Mordon
We landed in the middle of stone ruins, possibly the remains of a temple or castle, surrounded by tree-covered mountains. I listened and heard only the natural sounds of nature, including a river in the distance.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“In the forest where I met Rilryn. Only… in a different area of the forest,” he said. Then he explained to me everything that had happened since he left to look for whoever was calling him. When he told me about eating the apple, I slapped him. He continued until he got to the part where the shadow monster showed up, then paused.
“They are okay now,” I said, making him sit on one of the stone blocks.
“I opened the void. I didn’t really know I could even still do that, I just did. All I could think about was that burning light and then… They saw me. They couldn’t see me until I opened the void. Until then it was like I was just watching a 4-D video. I say 4-D because I don’t know what else to call it when you feel the cold of the snow and smell ice. Then I yelled at them about sneaking out at night, made them agree never to talk about it and promise never to sneak out again at night, and followed them until they made it home. Oh, the letter.”
He pulled out the letter he had mentioned before and handed it to me to read, which was silly because it was written in English, which I couldn’t read. He continued explaining everything, right up to the point where he arrived home. I examined the card and attempted to get a scent as he spoke. My nose was already clearing, but I still couldn’t smell much. I had seen it before; it had come through the void and smelled of death.
“He said it was a map?” I asked.
“He also said it was a game, that only brothers could read it, and they had to do so together. We need to ask Edward if Ronez ever explained it to him.” He put both the letter and the card back in his bag and stood. “How is your nose coming along?”
“Much better. But I thought we were looking for Emrys, not Rilryn. Why are we here?” I asked, standing.
“I have no idea; I didn’t bring us here. He did,” he said, indicating the being who appeared before us. I should have expected this. All the warnings, all the signs… yet nothing actually prepares a person for meeting a hostile god.
Dylan told me before that he had barely met Vretial, but he talked about the god often. He asked Divina and the other gods about Vretial. It was worse when Sammy was little and warned Dylan that the dark god was back. Divina told Dylan repeatedly that he didn’t have to worry, that Vretial was gone, but that wasn’t what bothered him. He still had questions, he just didn’t realize what they were, or that he was asking the wrong god. Vretial was a mystery that Dylan never got to solve; Vretial was his unfinished business.
“Hello again, Dylan,” the god said. He didn’t look at me, so I had a moment to observe. I was careful not to let my eyes shift, but I could pick up his scent easily. Vretial was definitely a powerful god and I could feel his power pulsing. “Afraid now?” he asked.
Dylan had told me that it bothered Vretial that he wasn’t afraid of him. The god was certainly fear-worthy, even with a corporeal form. If I had seen him on the street without sensing his power, I would never have given him a second look. Any woman would have, though; it paid to be able to design your own appearance.
He had medium-length, dark auburn hair. His eyes were light brown with a reflective tent. Just by looks alone, I would say he was about ten years older than me; around thirty-seven years old. There was no specific physical characteristic about him that was sinister; instead he had a vague, overall aura of darkness that made him appear deceitful.
Despite that, it was his scent that made me hesitate.
I could smell things that are not actually smells. Intentions, genetics, energy, and danger were just some of the scents I could pick out in most people. There was something in a dragon’s blood that made them able to analyze everyone and everything. It was possibly the greatest power that a dragon had… and I inherited it. It was what made me an asset to Dylan, even if I didn’t always know how to correctly use it. Sometimes, like with Dylan’s father (who died and kept being brought back for visits) it was difficult to understand what I was scenting. In Vretial’s case, it really wasn’t.
I was told that Vretial wanted to take over all of the worlds and control their people. I was told he wouldn’t hesitate to kill and was prone to fits of anger. I was told he was psychotic. It seems I was told wrong. This god before me had no such ambitions to conquer, he was very calm, and I could smell that he was only a little off. He was certainly no more psychotic than any Guardian. Most important though, wasn’t what he was missing… It was what I could smell in him that made me unsure.
“Sorry,” Dylan said, shaking his head with a regretful frown. “Maybe if you grew a beard. I think all evil people have beards.”
“Really?” the god asked, rubbing his jaw as if considering himself with facial hair.
Dylan nodded. “My aunt Patty had one. You were in my bedroom,” he said.
Obviously, weird things flew out of my friend’s mouth at any given time, but he never said anything about being visited in his bedroom by the god.
“When I was little. I forgot about it.” He frowned, thinking hard. “There were many strange men coming and going, so you weren’t really a big deal.” I never imagined a god could look so insulted, yet Dylan went on, oblivious. “But you had a magic trick… a card, I think.”
“This card,” the god said, holding a card up.
Dylan searched his bag before gawking at the god. “You got that out of my bag,” he said.
“Well, yes.” Vretial smirked. “It wouldn’t have been nearly as suave for me to say, ‘check your bag.’”
“You’re right, that wouldn’t have been as cool. But if you could take something out of my bag that easily, you could have taken my book.”
The dark god paced thoughtfully. “I could have, yes. Did you ever figure out the map on the back?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t had time to figure it out. It wasn’t on the back of the card when you showed it to me as a kid.”
“It was new then. Your father hadn’t gotten it until after I showed it to you.”
“You said something about the dark. You said that something was in the dark. Everyone has been saying that lately. What did you mean? The shadow monster from Skrev?”
The god shrugged. “Can’t say I know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You said it,” Dylan said, glowering.
He seemed to be forgetting that he was talking to an all-powerful god, but until the god in question realized it, I just hoped Vretial was as forgiving as everyone said he wasn’t.
Vretia
l stopped, holding up a finger as if to tell Dylan to wait. “Not yet, I haven’t.” He approached Dylan, but my friend didn’t step back and I didn’t feel the need to intercept him.
For the moment, Vretial was only interested in talking.
He stopped just an arm’s length away from Dylan. “You said I visited you when you were a child. I haven’t yet. Unlike my siblings, my superior memory leaves my personal foretelling skills lacking. I can read the timelines of others easily enough, but my own future is sketchy. At least I have a future, though. That’s nice. I love having a future.”
“So you’re holding a card that you haven’t created yet?” Dylan asked, gazing up at the sky.
“What are you looking for?” Vretial asked with genuine curiosity.
“Human-sized bat creatures, bleeding skies, maybe some burning wolves falling… you know; anything to suggest a paradox. The signs usually come from the sky.”
“If it would make you feel better, I could arrange for that. Are you going to introduce me to your dragon here?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. This is Mordon, my brother. His dragon is Rojan. So if time is a bit bent up right now and you haven’t met me as a kid yet…” he paused. “When was the last time you actually saw me from your perspective.”
The god smiled. “I last saw you when you and your mate destroyed me.”
“We failed, though.”
“No, you didn’t. I assure you that you successfully destroyed me. As a result, the universe took the hit and nearly shook apart. I’m sorry to say, this time it is my fault.”
“What is?” Dylan asked.
Vretial waved his hand around to indicate our surroundings. “Everything that is coming.”
“What if Tiamat and I destroy you again? Would that stop it?” Dylan asked.
The god shook his head sadly. In light of Vretial’s easy-going behavior, I couldn’t blame Dylan for not figuring out what was wrong with the god. I mean, he couldn’t smell it. “Dylan,” I said, hoping the god wouldn’t interrupt. He glanced at me, careful not to turn his back on Vretial. “Vretial doesn’t smell malicious. He doesn’t even smell psychotic. What I do smell is… It’s hard to explain, but life. He’s alive, Dylan. I can hear his heartbeat and breath. He blinks. He smells alive. He smells like Divina.”