by T.M. Nielsen
Chapter 11
Sedomer cried and toddled over to where Kyrin was sitting beside Ryche. She picked him up, and he laid his head against her shoulder. At a year old, she was finally getting more attached to them and felt more like the mothers in Valhara.
They both seemed accident prone though, and she always felt guilty when Alric found a bruise or scrape on one of them. She still felt it was her responsibility to keep them safe, but the normal falls of being a toddler were more than she could keep under control.
Emerisa spent a lot of time with Kyrin now, and Azimeth had slowly faded into the background as Lady in Waiting. Kyrin found Emerisa an interesting confidante and trusted her more than the elf. Her experience as a mother was something Kyrin listened to and utilized.
“Ma,” the twin cried, and sobbed against her shoulder.
“What happened?”
“Ma”
She sighed. She never felt comfortable consoling the twins. It seemed unnatural in a way and wasn’t in her character. Not sure what else to do, she sat him down in front of her. “What happened, Sedomer?”
“Ouchy,” he told her, and pointed to his leg.
Kyrin pulled up his pant leg but didn’t see anything. “Well, I can’t take you to Alric with no injury.”
“Da?”
“Yes, your dad.”
“Go”
Sedomer crawled to his feet and started for the door, but Kyrin took his hand. “No, he’s busy.”
“No,” Ryche said, shaking his head.
“What was that no for?”
“No,” he said again, and then ran for the door also.
Kyrin started after him but turned suddenly when she heard someone behind her.
“Let them go,” Daemionis told her.
She dropped to her knees as both twins ran out of the room.
“It is time to leave Paragoy Dimension.”
Kyrin looked up at him. “Why?”
“I need someone to take over Carathis Dimension now that I own it. It is the perfect place for you and will keep you away from the Consortiums.”
“I’m safe here, my Lord.”
“I’m done with this place, and so are you. Shift out tonight.”
“Please don’t make me do this.”
“Why are you here?” Alric asked, coming into the room with Ryche in his arms.
Daemionis growled softly before answering. “It is time for Kyrin to leave this dimension.”
“No!”
“You have no say, boy. I have somewhere I need her, and it isn’t here.”
“You can’t take her.” Alric put the toddler down.
“I have already issued the order.”
“Please, Daemionis. Don’t make me leave my family,” Kyrin said.
“Remember, Kyrin, the blood oath.”
“I know but…”
“Amoxy”
“I know, okay? I’ll do anything you ask. Please don’t make me leave.”
“I’ve spoken.” With that, Daemionis disappeared and Kyrin looked over at Alric.
“No, you aren’t leaving,” he said to her.
She sat back on her knees and looked around the room.
Alric moved toward her. “Kyrin, no.”
“I have to go,” she whispered.
“Why? That’s enough of Daemionis. Sithias will protect you! It’s time to stop running and stay here.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Is it that blood oath he spoke of?”
“Yes”
“You were, what? 11-years-old?”
“So?”
“That’s too young to be held to a blood oath.”
“Eleven is old enough to know what I was doing.”
“We have to break it.”
Kyrin stood up and took his hand. “I can’t break it.”
“Tell me why.”
“It’s a blood oath. I swore my soul.”
“Sithias can help you.”
“I cannot.” Sithias’ voice sounded.
“Why not?” Alric asked.
“Blood oaths are what hold the demons to their followers. It’s a binding pact.”
“She was a child.”
“It doesn’t matter.” A glowing orb shone from beside the window and then slowly grew into the deity. “I’ve told you that I cannot interfere.”
“She’s in your dimension.”
“She belongs to Daemionis.”
“What if she swears her allegiance to you?” Alric asked.
Sithias walked over to her. “What was the oath exactly?”
Kyrin hesitated and looked over at Alric. She wasn’t sure if Daemionis would appreciate her speaking to another god.
“Tell him, please. Maybe he can help.”
“He can’t help me.”
“Tell him.”
Kyrin sighed and then addressed the god. “Daemionis’ blood oath swears an eternity of allegiance in return for his protection.”
“Which he doesn’t give!” Alric yelled.
“He does though. He’s saved me many times,” Kyrin explained.
“I’ve seen him take blood out of you in return for that protection.”
“I couldn’t have survived on my own without him.”
“That was as a child. You have us now.”
“What is the Amoxy he spoke of?” Sithias asked.
“It’s… it’s part of the oath.”
“What part?”
“I didn’t think it would happen.”
“Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
The god smiled. “That’s right. I forget you aren’t afraid of me.”
Kyrin swallowed hard and then bit at her lip. “The blood oath extends to my offspring.”
“It what?!” Alric gasped.
“I didn’t think I’d ever have children.”
“What does that mean, exactly?”
“I cannot interfere with Kyrin and Daemionis, but where the twins are concerned, I can,” Sithias explained.
“Tell me what it means,” Alric said sternly.
Kyrin began to wring her hands. “If I break the oath, then my soul and the soul of my offspring will be in eternal torment.”
“Keep going.”
“Daemionis doesn’t take well to disloyalty. He takes the souls of those disloyal to him, and he keeps them for eternity in pain and suffering.”
“You agreed to this?”
“I had to,” Kyrin told him.
“How could you?” Alric was finding the entire idea ludicrous. How could someone be so desperate for protection by a demon, that they would offer up their soul? He looked over at Kyrin, shocked that she had done something like that, even in her childhood.
“Don’t blame her, Alric,” Sithias said. “You don’t know what the dimensions are like. She was a child on the run from the Shadowmere, and Daemionis offered her a glimpse of peace.”
“For her soul?”
She nodded. “I can’t defy him.”
“How does he do it?” Alric asked Sithias.
“The same way I lead my followers into paradise. He chooses to torment those who don’t do as he wishes.”
Kyrin walked over and with shaking hands, began to put things into her backpack.
“Don’t go,” Alric said, wrapping his arms around her. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Don’t you see? I don’t have a choice.”
Alric turned suddenly toward Sithias. “Agree to it.”
“No,” Sithias said, frowning.
“Agree to what?” Kyrin asked them.
“She can’t leave!” Alric said.
“King Alric, no. I will not allow it,” Sithias told him.
“We can’t let her fall into his hands!”
“Tell me what you’re talking about,” Kyrin interrupted.
Alric fell to his knees before Sithias. “Agree, please.”
“A
gree to what?!”
He looked down at the floor. “Daemionis told me that if he’s allowed to build a temple in Valhara, he’ll leave you here forever and not send you on any more missions.”
“He never said that to me.”
“He told me.”
“He’s not having a temple in my dimension,” Sithias said.
“Alric?” Kyrin said, kneeling beside him.
Alric looked up at her.
“I’m not going to allow Daemionis to ruin what you have here. You said he can’t get to the twins under Sithias’ care, but it’s too late for me. I have to go to Carathis, but I can try to get back here once in awhile.”
“That’s not good enough.”
Kyrin kissed him softly and then met his eyes. “I’ll try to come back.”
His heart pounded in his chest as he thought of her disappearing. “Please, don’t go.”
“I can’t risk angering him that badly. This won’t be his blood torture. He will kill me.”
“Kyrin”
“I love you.”
Alric pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “There has to be something we can do.”
Kyrin tried to memorize everything about that moment, so she could hold onto it when she was gone. Nothing felt more right than being in his arms.
“Let me talk to Daemionis and see if we can work something out,” he whispered.
“It’s too late. I have to go before he gets mad.”
“We need your help, Kyrin,” Sithias told her. “You know the Consortiums, and they will find Paragoy someday.”
“I can’t stay.”
“We need your magic.”
“I…”
“Agree, so she can stay then,” Alric said.
“I can’t do that.”
Kyrin stood slowly, looked around the bedroom, and then slipped on her black leather vest.
Alric started to panic. He felt like the situation was out of his control, something as King, he’d rarely had to deal with before. His mind swam with the thoughts on how to keep her with him and to stop the harsh rule of Daemionis in her life.
When Kyrin started out the door, he followed her, not sure how to stop her. He had the means to force her to stay, but he knew that would be damning her soul.
At the orchard, Kyrin grabbed an apple. She stared at it and found even its sweet taste didn’t sound appealing. She didn’t want to leave, but she felt she had no option.
Alric looked over when she turned toward the west and sighed.
“You found a portal, didn’t you?” he asked her.
Kyrin nodded. “Yes.”
“Wait, don’t go. We have to figure this out.”
She kissed him again and looked at him with tear-filled eyes. “I wish I had a choice.”
“I’ll find you.”
“You can’t shift.”
“I’ll still find you.”
They kissed again and then Kyrin reached down to grab the portal key from the ground. She looked through the glowing portal at the snowy terrain on the other side.
“I hate snow,” she whispered.
Alric followed her gaze but saw nothing. “Sithias, do something.”
“You know my price.” Daemionis appeared and stood tall beside Kyrin.
“Not in my dimension,” Sithias said, shimmering into existence beside him.
“Then she’s leaving.”
Kyrin and Alric stood back away in case the two decided to fight again.
“What do you gain by a temple in my city?” Sithias asked.
“I gain a lot.”
“We need Kyrin.”
“I need Kyrin too, and she’s mine.”
“Why a temple? We can’t allow that kind of evil here.”
“Kyrin can’t stay in a dimension where she cannot properly worship me as I deserve,” Daemionis said, smiling. It was apparent that he knew he was infuriating Sithias.
“No, it’s out of the question.”
Daemionis looked over at Kyrin and then turned fierce eyes to Sithias. “I will release Amoxy on Kyrin.”
“Full Amoxy?”
“Not her soul, but those of her offspring.”
“For eternity?”
“Of course.”
“Why would I do that? I have their souls anyway.”
Daemionis grinned. “Not if they turn out to be shifters. They set foot out of Paragoy and they’ll be mine.”
“You would take them, even if they chose to follow me?”
The demon nodded.
Sithias’ eyes narrowed. “Does it have to be within Valhara?”
“Yes”
“What about in the forest?”
Daemionis turned to look at the dense trees. “Keep talking.”
“With no priests or priestesses of yours. I still abide by the agreement with Erianah not to allow evil into Paragoy,” Sithias said.
“I will need a follower to watch over it.”
“Kyrin can.”
“No, another. Someone with no other purpose than to make sure my way within the temple walls is upheld.”
“No chaotics.”
“Loyals then?” Daemionis asked, looking over at the deity.
“Nor evils.”
Daemionis glanced at Kyrin and then nodded. “That can be arranged.”
Sithias nodded. “Yes.”
Both deities turned to look at Kyrin and Alric, who were still standing beside the portal watching them.
“I can stay?” Kyrin asked, taking Alric’s hand.
“You agree?” Alric asked him.
Sithias sighed. “On a trial basis.”
Daemionis faded away as a malicious laugh sounded.
“For now,” Sithias said angrily, and disappeared.
Dimensions Saga Books
Dimension Shifter (Book 1)
Paragoy Dimension (Book 2)
Shadowmere (Book 3)
After the Dimensions (Book 4)
The Fall of a King (Book 5)
The Claiming of Carathis (Book 6)
Rising Nobility (Book 7)
Alorian Ascension (Book 8)
Accepting Evil (Book 9)
Watch website for more…
Other books by T.M. Nielsen
The Heku Series
Heku
Valle
Encala
Equites
Proditor
Ferus
Eternity of Vengeance
Ancients and Old Ones
Banishment
Sins of the Son
Return of the Encala
Heku Series Companion