She didn’t need to finish the sentence. I had already picked up that vibe in my short time in Eastborne. I knew when to keep my mouth shut and assume a low profile.
I acknowledged the advice all the same. It was typical of Famil to be concerned about other people. It was one of the things I loved about her. I started. Loved?
“Which way to the cafeteria?” I said, managing a smile for her, and then my eyebrows furrowed.
“You okay?” she asked, laying a hand gently on my arm.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something, and it kind of took me by surprise.”
“Oh, I do that all the time, especially while I’m in the lab. Was it important? Perhaps you could write it down so you don’t forget it.”
I shook my head. “Not important right now, no. Maybe later.”
“Very mysterious.”
“Nah, stupid idea. Come on, show me the way to food. I’m starving.”
Famil slipped her arm through mine as we left the laboratory, and we chatted about old times on the way to the cafeteria. All the way there, I repeated the mantra in my head.
I loved her? I loved her? What made me think that?
Chapter Six
“THAT WAS DELICIOUS,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “What kind of protein was that?”
“That was the new protein we’ve developed. We’ve made it in various forms now—some like meat, some like fish—and we’ve even started to develop it into things like eggs too,” Famil said as she finished her own meal and carefully placed her knife and fork side by side on her plate.
“Is it lab-grown meat?”
“Nope, it isn’t. I can tell you that much but no more. The source and the process are highly prized pieces of information. I can’t go blabbing to our biggest competitor how we make it.” She said it with a smile, although her features didn’t radiate joy like they normally did.
“So, it’s plant based then?”
Famil drew her thumb and forefinger over her lips. Zipped up tight.
I chuckled. “Okay, okay, I get it, you can’t tell me. Maybe I should take a piece back with me and get it analyzed.”
“If you want to.” Famil hesitated for a second. “Good luck with that though. The process completely masks the constituent parts, so there is no way to break it down that would tell what is in it or how it is put together.” Her eyes went dreamy with a faraway look to them. “It really is a beautiful thing.”
I chuckled and raised my hands in surrender. “Fine, I give in. I suppose I should get going and try to do some work while I’m here. Can I walk you back to your lab?”
“That would be great. Come on,” she said, downing the rest of her glass of water. “Let’s walk and talk.”
We stood and carried our plates to the collection area. Then, arm in arm again, me particularly enjoying the close contact with Famil, we strolled through the site, following neat paths covered in thin gravel which wove between the neatly trimmed trees.
“Will you come back soon, Jevyn? I miss the days when we saw each other often.”
My heart did a little dip in my chest at the thought of seeing her more. “I’ll try to get over here more often. I miss seeing you too. Maybe we could—” I was about to do something I never thought I’d do, especially on this trip, and ask Famil out on a date, when I saw a bright purple flash rush across the sky. “Stay here, Famil. Don’t go any closer. That’s a rift. Stay here, okay?”
I set off on a run as the flash had originated on the other side of the building we had been walking alongside. Witness reports from previous rifts had reported a purple flash, but I’d never been nearby one when it happened. For the first time, I was hoping I might have a chance to find out who or what was behind them.
I hadn’t failed to register in my mind that it happened here of all places. Was Famil telling the truth about the Elmuakr not having a device to create rifts? Was it something dangerous from another dimension that could threaten Dracos?
I accelerated to a sprint to reach the end of the building and then stopped. People were streaming along the short side of the building, clearly drawn to the phenomenon.
This was not good. If it was a rift, chances were it wasn’t controlled, which meant someone could slip through if they got too close.
I sprang into a run again, windows and walls of the building a blur as I went by. When I reached the corner, I had to squeeze through the bystanders before I could get around the corner. The crowd was twenty deep ahead of me, and it took me a few moments to get to the halfway point. There was a scream from people at the front, and suddenly they were all turning and heading rapidly back the way they came.
I stood my ground while the crowd parted around me. If I could just get close enough, I had the magic necessary to close the rift. But a few seconds later, I saw the reason for the scream.
Through the rift in the veil, I could see two bodies that had been sucked through, spiralling away from me through the dimensions. Short of diving in after them, there was nothing I could do for them. If whoever, or whatever, had opened the rift was careful, they could end up alive on the other side.
If not . . . well, it would be a tragic end.
As I watched them slowly getting smaller in the distance, the veil on the other side parted.
I saw two women standing on a street. One of them was dressed in all black with matching black hair. The other I only caught a glimpse of—auburn hair, casual clothes, young. No sooner had I glimpsed them, they vanished, along with the two people who had been carried through.
The sinking feeling in my gut told me our people were unlikely to have survived the trip.
I could feel the pull from the rift, more so the closer I got, but when I heard Famil call out to me from behind, I quickly drew the sacred geometries and chanted the words to cast the spell to close the rift. There was no way I could risk her getting dragged through the veil.
“I said to stay away!” I turned on her angrily.
She stopped in her tracks, still too far away to be affected by the tear. I could see her face change immediately, from hurt to angry in a mere second. I guessed she wasn’t used to having someone shouting at her, and I felt thoroughly ashamed that I had.
“Sorry, Famil,” I said quickly. “I just didn’t want to risk you getting sucked into it.”
Her face recovered some of its usual serenity. “I know. I didn’t want it to happen to you either, and that’s why I shouted.”
“Okay, well, thank you for being concerned enough to yell at least,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for not letting me get sucked into the rip.”
“No thanks necessary.” I sighed. “But a couple of your people weren’t so lucky.”
She lowered her eyelids briefly. “I saw. I called security while you dashed around here. They’ll take care of finding out who those two poor souls were.”
“Thank you. I should be getting back to work as well.”
Famil stepped forward, and I opened my arms for a farewell hug.
“Come back soon,” she said, her head pressed against my chest.
“I will. I promise. As soon as I get these rips sorted out.”
* * *
The Library, Pathya Palace, Dracos
AS SOON AS I’d landed back in Pathya Palace from Eastborne, I‘d headed straight over to the library. The walk through the long corridors was pleasant, a slight breeze blowing in through the open windows. It was cool, which was to be expected given the height of Pathya Palace above the planet’s surface.
It was the perfect defense from land-dwelling invaders coming from other worlds. Only dragons can fly, so a quick shift down below and a few flaps of my membranous wings, and here I was.
When I reached the library, otherwise known as the Library of the White Dragon, an area of the palace that few people were allowed to visit, bar family members and only the most trusted of advisors, I found my mother already there, busy
at a desk next to the great window at the far end of the library.
It was truly immense. My mother looked so tiny right at the end. It was by far the most impressive room in the whole Pathya Palace, maybe even Dracos itself. As I stepped along the narrow walkway between furniture and reading tables, with an odd high stepladder to dodge, I couldn’t help but yet again be amazed by the sheer number of books that filled the shelves. Row upon row of dark, bound volumes lining every space of every wall. The collected knowledge of all of Dracos.
Eventually, I stepped in front of the desk my mother was working at and took a seat opposite her, waiting quietly while she finished what she was doing.
“Good trip, son?” she asked. She’d never been one for small talk, and right then I was glad about that.
“I managed to see Famil. That was nice.”
“Oh, how lovely. I haven’t seen the girl for years; she must be a young woman now.”
“She’s a scientist.”
“Really?” Mother’s ears seemed to prick up at that piece of news.
“Yes. I asked her about the protein, but she was not willing to divulge anything of importance. I also talked to her about the rifts. She said there was no traveling device they were working on or that had ever been worked on.”
My mother sat at her desk, dressed in her usual white, her silver hair flowing over her shoulders, her hands steepled and pressed to her lips. Her violet eyes added the only splash of color to the ensemble.
“And yet a rift just appeared there.”
I nodded, but with some reluctance, due to the subtle implication that Famil might have lied to me about possible inter-dimensional-travel technology.
“The same as the others?” Mother asked.
“Purple flash, small rift. We lost two people through it.”
“Do we know who? I could send a message of condolence.”
“Not yet. Elmuakr security will track down who they were. I’ll find out next time I visit.”
“So, you’re planning on going back soon?” I could see my mother’s lips turn up slightly at the corners.
“Maybe. It depends on the investigation.”
“And will you be seeing Famil again while you are there?”
She couldn’t help it, I told myself. What mother doesn’t like to meddle in their children’s affairs?
“Maybe, if I have time.” I refused to start babbling about Famil and displayed what I hoped was a nonchalant air.
“Make time, dear. Make time. Now, where are you going next?”
“To eat, to sleep, maybe a walk to give me time to think. I always loved the gardens at this time of year, so I might just combine all three,” I said.
“A picnic and a snooze in the park. How delightful. Well, don’t let me stop you. I have much to do.”
I stared at her desk. It was empty save one piece of paper, but her arm was obscuring my view of what was on it.
“So I see, Mother.” I gave her a nod, got up, turned, and headed toward the exit.
When I was halfway along, I heard my mother’s voice, tinkling with amusement.
“Say hello to Famil for me next time you see her.”
I just kept walking. Mothers!
Chapter Seven
Katie
Boise, Idaho, Earth
I WAS STANDING on the sidewalk outside Lynnette’s shop. It was not a pretty sight.
When I’d walked out of the shop, the rip was there, almost directly in front of us.
It kind of looked like an eye stood on end. Inside the rip was what looked like swirling dust, and then suddenly it cleared enough for us to see two somersaulting bodies heading straight toward us and just a fleeting glimpse through to the other side at a man standing and watching what was going on.
Then, before I could say or do anything, the two bodies hit the division between dimensions and seemed to explode into a bloody mist. To my additional horror, it sprayed through onto us. For a moment, all I could do was stare, open-mouthed, at the space where two people had been alive just seconds ago, and then . . . weren’t.
“What the hell was that?” I yelled, choking on the words.
“Oops,” Lynnette said, standing next to me, leaning down to pick something off her clothes. Whatever it was had stained the black even darker.
“Oops? Is that it? What happened?” Outrage strained my voice.
“We seem to have had a couple of people too close to the rip when it opened on the other end.”
“Well, I can see that.” My heart was pounding, and my stomach turned with nausea. “I mean what happened to them?”
“Let’s just say I haven’t got the whole inter-dimensional travel thing quite right yet.”
I turned to look at her. Her goth makeup was flawless other than one tiny glob of something that was stuck in her hair. I didn’t bother to mention it. She’d just witnessed the deaths of two people and seemed entirely too unperturbed. It was disturbing and made me have sudden, deep doubts about this entire thing.
“Are you saying that could have happened to me if I’d stepped through the rip?” I demanded.
“Well, strictly speaking, no.”
I waited for the but. I knew it was coming; it was in the air already. In the end I thought I’d help her out.
“But . . .” I dragged the word out.
As horrified as I was by what had just happened, I had to figure out whether we could really expect any help from this witch. My friends and I were in danger, and we didn’t have time to mess around.
“Okay, look, I set it up wrong. It was pulling things toward us, not dragging them away. My bad.” She shrugged one shoulder.
My fists clenched reflexively. “And we could have ended up like this if we had gone over to the other side?”
“Only if I put too much power into it.”
“And how do you judge whether you have . . .” I watched as she looked down, examining her fingernails intently. “Oh my god, you don’t know how, do you?”
“Well, I do, and I don’t.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I can do it, but I need you to forget what happened now. Can you forget, Katie?”
“No, I can’t forget! Are you insane?” I watched the witch closely. She had what I thought looked suspiciously like the start of a cunning smile on her face and was moving her fingers just slightly. I took a few steps back quickly. “Wait a minute. Are you using manipulative magic on me to make me forget so you get another go?”
“No. Of course not, why would I do that?”
“Because you stand to get whatever we find on the other side.”
She stopped wiggling her fingers.
I looked at Lynnette’s dark eyes. She glared back at me. It hit me just how dangerous she was. There was a ruthlessness behind her gaze that made me queasy.
“You were, weren’t you?” I demanded.
“Absolutely not,” she said, maintaining the stare.
“Come on, be honest, you were?”
“No,” she said, still staring, but I was sure I caught a flicker in the glare.
I just leered at her.
She huffed. “Oh, all right, I was. Look I need the cash, or the stuff, or whatever is over there. Do you know how hard it is to make a living selling spells these days?”
“Okay, but we need some conditions here. No magic on me or any of my friends, or the deal is off, understand?”
She stood for a moment, scuffing her boot against something that looked suspiciously like a faint spray of blood on the sidewalk. “Fine. You try to help people, and they go all snarky when things go wrong.” The last part she muttered under her breath, but I got the gist.
“Right, I haven’t got time to waste now, Lynnette. Can you or can’t you open a passable rip to the dimension where we’ll find the dragons?”
“Yes.” She nodded, and it shook her black hair over her shoulders.
“Really?”
“Well . . . sort of.”
; “Sort of?” I asked, incredulous at her audacity.
“Not alone.”
“So, you can with someone else?” I asked. This was like pulling teeth.
“Derek.”
“Okay, this is getting stupid. Who the hell is Derek, and what does he have to do with this?” I asked.
“My assistant, well more of a colleague, or maybe more like a—”
“I get it. You have some kind of flexible arrangement with this Derek.”
“Yes, and he is much more precise at doing what you want. More chance of surviving it.”
She’d taken a huge risk by opening the rip herself, and it was clear that she’d just wanted the full payment. It hadn’t worked, so she’d have to involve her colleague or whoever he was, and most likely that meant sharing the payout. I shook my head slowly.
“Where do we find him?” I was getting desperate. The chance of getting across the dimensions to find another dragon was too important to pass up. Lynnette alone was a bust, but maybe she and Derek together could help us out.
“In the shop.”
Your shop?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, why didn’t you ask him to help before …” I flicked my head at the gore on the floor.
“How shall I put it? He’s not great with people, shall we say.”
Plus, the payout. She didn’t say it, but her greed was as obvious as the silver piercings that studded her ears.
“I don’t really care at this point. Let’s go and get him.”
“Okay. Just a word of warning. Don’t make any loud noises around him. He can get a bit jumpy, and if he does . . .” She made the noise of an explosion and a mushroom cloud with her hands. “Like I say, not great with people. He’ll be fine when he gets to know you.”
“Is he okay with you?”
“Mostly.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Ten years maybe.”
My heart sank. We had maybe twenty-four hours before we needed the blood again.
Chasing Legends Page 5