by T.M. Nielsen
***
She began to pull out of a deep sleep but couldn’t remember where she was. The ground at her back was cold and hard, but she felt covered in something. Taking a deep breath, her lungs filled with dust, and she started coughing violently.
When she sat up, rubble fell from on top of her, and she brushed dirt off of her arms. Something seemed wrong though. She looked around the cave room and glanced up high to the ground above.
Remembering her encounter with the blue scaled dragon, she scrambled to her knees and looked back at the entrance, which was now completely obscured with rubble. Coughing again, she looked over herself quickly and couldn’t find any injuries.
It was then that she noticed how silent things were. Even the sound of her own breathing couldn’t be heard, nor the shifting of rocks as she got to her feet and stumbled a bit on some of the rubble.
Reaching up to touch her ears, she found dried blood around them and again heard nothing. She tested the rope and it seemed stable, so she started up it carefully. Her back was sore from the fall, but she didn’t think there were any other injuries.
Kyrin started for Valhara and used that time to try to decide how to get Alric out of Qualsax. Even though she still hadn’t seen him, she was sure they had him, and now she had to find another way to rescue him.
It was dark by the time she walked up to the castle, and Finn ran at her. She saw his mouth moving but couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“Stop,” she said, and then coughed again when her lungs filled with the dust still flying off of her.
Finn frowned slightly and she again saw his mouth moving.
“I can’t hear,” she told him. At least, she thought she said it. It was odd not hearing her own voice.
Finn took her arm and began to lead her inside. She gasped when she saw Alric, and she ran to him. He wrapped his arms around her.
“Kyrin, are you okay?” he asked, looking down at her.
“She said she can’t hear,” Finn explained.
“Kyrin?” Alric asked again, a little louder.
“Nothing,” Kyrin said loudly. “I can’t hear.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“Still nothing.”
“There’s blood by her ear,” Trox said from beside them.
Alric pulled her hair aside. “I’m not sure what could do that.”
“Where were you?” Kyrin asked sternly.
Alric just looked at her.
“Oh right. I can’t hear you.”
He led her over to a chair, and she sat down in a puff of dust. Alric waved his hand to get rid of the dust and coughed slightly.
“Think she was caught in the earthquake?” Trox asked. “It only shook the castle, but maybe she was closer.”
“There’s no way to know until she can hear,” Alric said, and then began to run his glowing hands along the side of her head.
Finn heard a commotion and quickly moved out of the room to see what was going on.
Trox studied Kyrin. “Her clothes are singed.”
“I saw that,” Alric said. “I don’t see any burned skin though.”
Alric finished healing her and then took her hands.
“Can you hear me now?”
She just shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Perfect”
“Sir,” Finn said, rushing into the room. “Reports from Qualsax say that Kyrin angered Orion.”
They all looked at Kyrin, but she was looking out the window, oblivious to their conversation.
Alric touched her shoulder, and she looked at him. He picked up her flail and studied it. “There’s no blood. I’m not sure she was fighting.”
“It’s dirty. It’s very unlike Kyrin to have a dirty weapon,” Finn said.
“Kyrin, look at me,” Alric said, and touched her face lightly so he got her attention. He then pointed at her.
“What’d I do?” she asked him.
Alric picked up her flail and showed it to her.
“Did I get into a fight? In a manner of speaking.”
He frowned slightly.
“Well, it was more like a run than a fight. I was outnumbered.”
Alric just watched her.
“What?”
“Who?” he asked her.
Kyrin read his lips and sighed. “Qualsax.”
He motioned for her to keep going.
“I was checking their dungeon. I thought they had you,” Kyrin explained, irritated. “When I opened the wall the last time, they were waiting for me.”
“That’s not what I need to know.”
“What?”
“Get Saith in here,” Alric ordered. He hated how his healing wasn’t as strong as the priests. When Sithias had chosen him as the Holy Knight though, he hadn’t hesitated and immediately accepted the honor. Fighting was more important to him than healing, but at times he wished he had full healing abilities.
“Did you fight a dragon?” Finn asked Kyrin, exaggerating each word.
“Did I find a what?”
“You need to teach her how to read.”
Alric nodded. “Let’s see if Saith can return her hearing, and then we’ll find out what’s going on.”
“I’m going to clean up,” Kyrin told them, and disappeared into the wash room.
“We encountered Orion when I was rescued,” Finn said, walking over to look out the window. “He startled us though. It’s not often you see a blue head come out of the abyss. So if I had to guess… when she went into the Qualsax dungeons looking for you, she somehow ran into Orion again.”
“What exactly is Qualsax saying?” Alric asked.
“They’re saying that Kyrin angered Orion and then sent him into Qualsax.”
“So he’s surfaced?”
“I don’t know that much. I have some knights going to check on that hole in the cave to see if there’s any sign Kyrin was there.”
“That makes sense though. She went down to see if I was in the dungeon. What I can’t figure out is how you all thought I was gone for two weeks when my conversation couldn’t have lasted more than an hour.”
“Kyrin would be the one to ask. Sounds like you weren’t even in our dimension.”
Alric nodded and sat down to think.
When Saith came in, he bowed to Alric. “It’s good to have you back, sir.”
Alric just motioned for the door. “Kyrin lost her hearing. Can you see what you can do?”
Saith walked over to the door and paused. “So do I just walk in?”
Finn couldn’t help but grin. “I wouldn’t walk in there without permission.”
“But how do I get permission if she can’t hear?”
“You wait.”
Saith nodded. “Right.”
“Rumors from Qualsax say Orion is awake and mad,” Alric said.
“Is he above ground?”
“We don’t know. They’re trying to blame Kyrin.”
“Of course they are. My guess is then that he hasn’t come up,” Saith said, and walked over to wait beside the door.
Kyrin came out a few minutes later, finally clean and no longer leaving a dirt trail behind her. She was drying her hair and stopped when she saw Saith.
He smiled and walked over to her.
“Have a go,” she said, and stood up straight so he could try to heal her.
Saith gently put his hands over her ears while everyone watched. When the light-blue glow showed, Kyrin’s eyes grew wide, and she grabbed his hands and tried to pull them away.
“Stop,” she whispered, but his hands didn’t move.
Saith’s eyes shut, and the glow became stronger. His hands pressed harder against the sides of her head, even though she was pulling at them.
“Stop!” she screamed. The pain in her ears that started when he touched her was intensifying, and the loud hum was growing too strong to bear.
“She’ll cast on him,” Alric said, a
nd moved quickly to take her hand. Finn took her other and pulled it away from Saith.
Kyrin felt like her head was going to explode. The pressure was building, and the hum had grown to a fierce rumble. She had to cast on Saith to get him to stop but someone was holding her hands, and she couldn’t pull away. Her anguished screams pierced the now quiet halls of the castle.
When she collapsed, Alric gently laid her on the floor and looked up at Saith.
“I’m sorry,” Saith whispered. “The damage was severe.”
“What does that?” Finn asked him as he grabbed a blanket off of the bed.
“I’m not sure. Sound, I would imagine. It would take a very loud sound.”
“Kyrin?” Alric asked, and touched her face lightly.
She sighed softly and finally managed to open her eyes.
“Can you hear me?”
She sat up slowly and tapped the side of her head with her palm. “There’s a loud ringing now that I can’t hear over.”
Alric looked up at Saith.
“That’s an improvement. I would imagine that will go away, and her hearing will be back.”
Saith glanced at Kyrin, and she was glaring at him. “I trusted you!”
He smiled slightly and then left the room before she could continue.
“Kyrin?” Alric said, and then touched her shoulder. When he had her attention, he grabbed her flail and pointed at it.
“I told you, Qualsax,” she said loudly.
He shook his head, sighed, and then did his best dragon impression, using his hands as claws and trying to look angry and menacing. When he looked over at her, she was grinning.
“Keep your day job. You make a much better king than a bard.”
“Would you focus?!”
“Yelling doesn’t help.”
He took another deep breath and then grabbed a blue blanket and showed it to her.
“I’m not cold.”
Alric pointed at it again.
“Blue?”
He nodded.
“Oh! Do you want to know about the dragon?” Kyrin asked.
Alric finally smiled and then nodded again.
“Well, he ate a couple of Qualsax, and I ran. There’s not a lot to tell.”
He held up her flail.
“Did I fight him? Hell no! I’m not dumb enough to fight a dragon.”
“Could Orion have caused her hearing loss?” Finn asked.
“I don’t know actually. He’s been dormant for so long, no one’s really had to deal with him.”
“I didn’t mean to overhear,” Trox said, coming back into the room.
“What do you know about Orion?”
“Well, other than he’s been lying in wait since before I was born, not a lot. However, the ground shaking, her hearing loss, and now the knights are saying the tunnel leading to the Qualsax dungeons is blocked by rubble. That’s too much of a coincidence.”
“We may never find out,” Alric said. “Make sure the lookouts on the castle keep an eye out for him. For now, we wait to see if Kyrin’s hearing comes back. If it does, we need to deal with Naylor.”
Trox frowned. “Was she at all upset by him being here?”
“No, which has me concerned.”
“She wasn’t happy.”
“No, she wasn’t anything. She showed no more emotion than if I’d have brought in a complete stranger.”
“I would think she would be mad that he abandoned her.”
“Abandoned her and then left her mother to die.”
“So all of these stories about how women are treated are true?” Finn asked.
Alric glanced at him. “I’m afraid so.”
“I guess I just assumed she lied.”
“She isn’t always lying.”
“No offense intended, sir. However, she does lie quite often.”
“Well, not always.” Alric wondered if he was ever going to get to stop defending Kyrin’s ways. He realized that most of the time the accusations were warranted, but he hoped someday she would stop proving them right.
Over the next three days, Kyrin’s hearing began to come back slowly. The buzzing was keeping her up at night, and she was starting to get grouchy because of it. No amount of begging could talk her into another healing blessing though, so she suffered through it and the castle servants just stayed clear of her.
Naylor called often for her. When Finn finally went down to see what he wanted, the shifter told him that he wanted to apologize to Kyrin for all he’d done and to make amends. Finn suspected he just wanted out of the prison and would do anything in his power to do so.
After another sleepless night, Kyrin sat up and sighed. She then smiled when she realized she could hear her own breath again. She looked over to tell Alric, but he was already gone for the day, and the twins were in his place in bed. The eldest, Ryche, looked over at her and smiled.
Kyrin had to admit she was becoming attached to the twins slowly. She found herself wanting to be with them more and more, and enjoying the time she spent with them. She hated when they cried though, and she still wasn’t sure what to do with them when they wouldn’t stop. Azimeth often took them when Kyrin became frustrated, and Kyrin kept meaning to go talk to Emerisa about it but hadn’t been able to yet.
Now that she could hear, Kyrin mostly wanted to find out where Alric had been for the two weeks he was missing. She grabbed a piece of toast after pulling on a dress, and then headed out to find him. She loved how she could now hear the sound of footfalls behind her when she headed down the stairs. Course, she also realized that meant she had knights with her, and she wasn’t quite sure why.
Alric looked up from his throne when she walked into the throne room. He smiled and watched as she walked up.
“Where were you for two weeks?” she asked. Kyrin stopped just in front of him and crossed her arms sternly.
He just smiled at her.
“I can hear again. Now explain.”
“Oh, that’s great!”
“Talk”
“Sithias took me to speak to Daemionis about Naylor.”
“For two weeks?!”
“It wasn’t two weeks for me. It was only about an hour, but I suspect I was in a different dimension where time runs slower than here.”
“You shifted?” Her eyes began to darken.
“I think so, yes.”
“Without telling me?! You aren’t equipped to shift.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. Now calm down. Sithias just took me to a neutral location to talk to Daemionis.”
“You had no right shifting out of Paragoy without telling me!”
Alric couldn’t help but smile. “Yet you do it all the time to me.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“I know what I’m doing! I can find my way back.”
“I didn’t have to find my way back.”
“Which dimension were you in?” Kyrin asked, still angry.
“I don’t know. It was all white.”
She just watched him.
“Don’t get mad! Sithias just wanted me to talk to Daemionis. I didn’t shift out on purpose, and I had no idea that while I was there, time here was moving faster.”
“Well stay in Paragoy where you belong!” Kyrin turned to leave, but Alric called her back.
“Sit down, please. I want to talk.”
Her eyes narrowed and she sat down beside him on her throne. “About what?”
“First of all. I have some questions about dimensions other than Paragoy.”
“Like what?”
“Does each dimension have its own time? I mean, when you shift out for years here, is it only a day or so in other dimensions?”
“I have no idea.”
“How can you not know? You shifted constantly for seven years.”
“Well I never really paid attention. I slept when it was dark wherever I was. I have no way to compare
them, now do I?”
“I guess not. Have you ever been to that dimension? Where things are all white in every direction?”
“No, and I’ve never heard of such a place.”
“Maybe it takes a god to go there.”
“Maybe”
He smiled. “You’re still mad.”
“Well you shouldn’t have shifted without telling me, and I fully plan on yelling at Sithias for that too.”
“Why don’t you not? Okay? I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”
“Well you appearing outside of Paragoy is unacceptable.”
“Again, yet you do it all the time.”
Kyrin just stared ahead.
Alric took her hand. “Don’t be mad. I had to talk to Daemionis about Naylor.”
“So what did you find that was worth the entire upheaval of Valhara for two weeks?”
“I found out that Daemionis didn’t send him.” Alric hadn’t finished speaking before Kyrin stood up and ran for the door.
“I knew it!” she screamed.
Alric ran after her. “Knew what?”
He followed her down into the dungeons, with Finn and two other knights behind him. Kyrin stopped at Naylor’s cell, and she looked in at him. Her hands were balled into fists, and a dark shadow had crossed her features.
Finn started for her when he saw how mad she was, but Alric held him back, and they watched her carefully.
“Get up,” Kyrin scowled.
Naylor jumped slightly and looked over at her. He sat up and stretched, and then took a drink of water that was sitting beside him. He seemed disinterested in her, even though he’d been yelling for her for weeks.
“Who brought you here?” she asked him through the bars.
“I told you. Daemionis did.”
“No, he didn’t. Now tell me before I have to force it out of you.”
“I just shifted into here. Same as you.”
“No, you didn’t. Sithias has the ways into Paragoy blocked.”
“You got in.”
“Tell me!”
Naylor smiled. “I came looking for you. I care about you, okay? I know that’s not the norm, but I always wondered about you. I saw you on wanted posters, and I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
“Did Mika send you?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“No, I told…”
“Ryder?”
“Kyrin”
“Was it Kagan?”
“No one sent me,” Naylor said calmly. “All 12 Consortiums have joined to find you, and I was worried about you.”
“What’s the bounty then?”
“It’s up to over 100 platinum and a room with the Clemency.”
“You disgust me!”
“I’m not here to get the bounty.”
“Of course you are. You can’t turn down a room with the Clemency. All the water you want. All the food you can eat.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Yes, you would! Now tell me how you got into this dimension,” Kyrin demanded.
“I shifted.” Naylor stopped speaking when Kyrin drew her flail.
“The goodies in this dimension may not beat the truth out of you, but I sure as hell will.”
“Goodies?” Finn whispered.
Alric didn’t answer but kept a close eye on Kyrin. He didn’t want her beating anything out of Naylor but was still hoping she could get the truth out of him before she got through the bars.
Naylor forced a smile and he stood up. “You care about me, Kyrin. Now that you’re a parent, you realize how much I really care about you.”
“Stop lying to me. I don’t give a rat’s ass about you as a parent. What I want to know is how you got into this dimension, so I can stop the Consortiums from doing the same.”
“I shifted in.”
“If you shifted in,” Alric said, stepping forward, “how is it you appeared suddenly in front of me in the throne room?”
Kyrin glanced at Alric, and then looked at Naylor. “I’ve never seen a portal drop into a building.”
“It can be done.”
“Stop lying to me! I’ve shifted enough to know they only appear in nature.”
“I shifted in,” Naylor said again. He backed up to the wall when Kyrin pulled a set of keys from her pocket and began going through them.
“Did you give her dungeon keys?” Finn asked, tensing.
Alric moved forward and took the keys from her. “How did you get these?”
Kyrin tried to get them back. “Let me in there.”
“Where?”
“My nicker had them. Now let me in there to get answers before the entire Shadowmere Consortium shows up in Valhara.”
Alric looked over at Naylor. “I suggest you answer her before I’m forced to let her in.”
“I’m not afraid of a woman.”
Finn cringed. “I wouldn’t say that if I were you.”
“By nature, she’s weaker than I am. She has her mother’s magic though, so I would be careful.”
Kyrin smiled. “Let’s you and I meet outside then.”
“No,” Alric said. “Now, Naylor, stop with the insults and tell us why you’re really here and how you shifted into Paragoy in the middle of my throne room.”
He shrugged. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”
Kyrin began to pace in front of his cell, watching him. “It took a god to drop you into the throne room.”
“I shifted.”
“So the way I see it is, Erianah brought you here.”
“Who?”
“The Consortiums don’t have a deity. No other god cares about me or even knows about me, for that matter.”
“Daemionis thought the same thing,” Alric said. “What does Erianah gain by bringing him here though?”
“Getting rid of me,” Kyrin said. “That leaves what Naylor has to gain.”
“You’re wrong,” Naylor said.
“Here is what I think. Erianah found my father, mistakenly assuming there was an attachment there. She figured he could get me out of Paragoy. He saw the opportunity to turn me over to Mika and then live his life like a king.”
“Is that it?” Alric asked. “Is Mika still personally after Kyrin?”
Kyrin looked at him. “Of course he is. Mika never gives up on a possession.”
“You belong to Mika,” Naylor said, moving toward the bars. Alric studied him as a darkness crossed Naylor’s features. It didn’t entirely surprise him when Naylor’s eyes began to turn black.
“I don’t belong to anyone.”
“Well I’m not giving up a chance to live in luxury! Your old dad has it coming. I deserve this, and you owe me.”
“For what?!”
“For giving you life! For knocking up that no-good mother of yours.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“Mika can teach you your place too. You’re living it up so high and mighty here that you’ve forgotten what a nothing you are.”
“That’s enough!” Alric yelled. “I’m not going to let you insult my wife.”
“She belongs to Mika.”
“Take her hands,” Alric said, and began to unlock the cell door.
“No!” Kyrin screamed when Finn took her left hand, and another knight took her right.
The second Alric got into the cell, he drew back and punched Naylor in the nose, dropping him instantly to the floor. He looked down at the suffering shifter. “Do not talk about my wife like that.”
Naylor tilted his head back and tried to stop the steady flow of blood from his nose.
“As King, I’m denying your trial and sentencing you to life. We can’t risk you getting out and getting word to Mika, so you get to stay here. Don’t think it’s going to be comfortable either.”
Alric stepped out and slammed the cell door shut. The others let Kyrin’s hands go, and she watched Alric closely. She’d never seen him hit anyone before.
Fin
n and the knights were the first to start out of the dungeon, followed by Alric. Kyrin caught up to him beside the storage room and pushed him inside.
“What?” he asked as she locked the door behind her. She glanced quickly at the neat shelves full of extra chains and locks, and then moved to Alric and kissed him.
He spun her around and pushed her against the wall.