7. Chapter 6
Chapter 6
S aying goodbye to Emma was the hardest thing I ever had to do. School let out, and summer break began, yet she still was as depressed as ever. Mary tried to help as best she could, but the corruption was already starting to work its way inside of Emma, inside of her beautiful soul. I needed to leave, and hopefully, I could figure things out fast, and then return soon, and somehow, tell her about who she was and help train her to keep her soul from becoming corrupt. It would be a lot for her to take in, but I needed to do it.
“Did you get everything squared away?” I asked as I loaded up the truck bed. Glasson stood on the grass to my left, and I looked at him, expecting a remark about how stupid I was.
“Everything is ready. Are you sure leaving her at such a fragile time is a good idea?” There it was, his criticism.
“I have to find who did this. He’ll be coming for her; I know it.”
“Mary can’t shield her fully. She will become even more exposed,” he added as he walked near the edge of the lawn.
“Glasson, what do you want me to do? If this person, whoever he is, gets Emma, I have no doubt they will be after your precious Ashlyn next.”
I watched as he frowned. “I understand the importance, which is why I am helping. However, I do have concerns.”
“I have to find who did this, and I have to find a crystal. It is as simple as that.”
“Ashlyn is safe in her new home. Emma needs to be safe, too. I am concerned that perhaps this isn't the best way to go about doing things. Even though I am able to be in the area and keep an eye on things, she really needs her knight.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it.” I nodded, intentionally not addressing his concerns. I had them, too. Emma also had Mary. She needed more, and I knew that Glasson could help her; heck, even prince Shad would protect her. But, if Prince Shad ever found Emma, he would never let her go. She—if she really was what he thought she was, if she really was what he had been searching for—I knew that she would mean everything to him. I hated Shad even more as that thought came to my mind.
Then unwanted memories with Shad came to my mind.
“You look upset,” he spoke, and I glanced at him with irritation.
He was always the picture of calm . Not one hair was ever out of place. You would never have suspected that he and I had just spoken with some insane woman who had opened a portal to another world with her fingertips. Sure, we were free of the cursed Dungeons of the Mist, but did he have to act like he was merely sitting down to eat lunch? I was in shock at what had just transpired. Shad sat down on a rock in front of the cave as if all was well in the realms.
“Upset? Yes, why of course, Your Highness , I am upset.” I brushed my fingers through my hair as I took in his calm demeanor. “Mind telling me, what has you feeling so calm, Prince?” I asked, standing in front of him.
“I am calm because I have received the answers that I feared I would never obtain throughout the entire span of my existence.”
I wanted to laugh His “entire existence?” Really? He was just born, from my Terran perspective. How could he have something already causing him to worry with such intensity? Being a royal heir wasn't hard. What could someone like him be lacking?
“That old crow just gave you answers? She gave me a million and one questions—like for one, where in the realms are we?” I touched my sword in nervousness. I knew that I should not be speaking to a royal in that way, but it was difficult to hold it together. For five years, I had searched for Lamont. In vain, I searched for him, day and night. When I discovered that he had been right there, within those cursed mountains, inside the Dungeons of the Mist, the entire time, in I was filled with hatred for myself. The only peace I found, even though I could not be with him to protect him, was in the fact that I could feel the pull—the bond that we shared, inside of me. I knew that he was alive because I was tethered to him.
“I have a song,” the prince said as he placed something into his shirt pocket.
I shook my head, not sure I had heard him correctly. From what I gathered, that old lady had just sent us into another realm without any ancient magic, a realm where Lamont was living. That part was good; however, how would I find him? Would we be safe? Right away, I could feel the pull, even stronger, toward Lamont. I knew he was close, and that knowledge gave me back the hope I had lost all those moon cycles earlier.
“You have a song , Prince?” I asked, trying not to laugh. Songs of the soul were lost to us. I was not sure they even existed at all. I tried not to treat him like he had just matured, but it was hard to avoid it with him spouting about having a song—like we were living in Ancient, blessed times. Fairytales, and nonsense.
“I understand, Rykerian. You do not believe in them.”
I held up my hands, but my face held the truth that I thought it was humorous. “I will not tell you what to believe in, Your Highness.”
He looked up at me then, for the first time. I saw the look of pure hope in his eyes. His melody soared into mine, and I knew how he felt about songs, and I knew he did not joke about them. I understood that he didn't want to hear my critiques.
“I apologize, Prince Shad. Of course, I should not joke at a time like this.”
“I know that you find me naive. I understand, I have only just matured in the last moon cycle; however, I know what I know.” He looked around at the forest where we stood as if he were taking inventory. The trees were the typical brown-barked and green-leaved kind. The sky was the normal blue.
Where are we? I wondered.
“And you believe in songs?” I asked, sitting down on a boulder. It seemed that we were not leaving anytime soon, although having that conversation with prince Shad, when Lamont was yet to be found, was the last thing that I wanted to do. But, there we were.
“Of course,” he said, pulling a leaf off of a small plant beside him. I watched as he lifted the leaf to his lips, and then to his nose to smell it. “I believe we are inside a realm called Earth. There is no magic in the land,” he said, standing up.
“Uh, how do you—know that? No one has come here before–”
“That you are aware of. Please know, Rykerian, that the realm we have just left had many secrets, secrets that even the Dallard family line doesn’t know about. I believe that the real connection that Terra has to Earth is one of these secrets.” His thoughts lingered, and I listened to his melody as he tried to memorize the way the cave looked, the cracks in the rocks, the trees, and the plant life nearby. What was he, some kind of scientist? I was surprised that he didn’t take specimens to study with all the attention he was giving to our surroundings.
“I agree, but unfortunately, Haleston has become corrupt,” I added to his assessment.
“Yes, that was confirmed for me when I was locked in the Dungeons of the Mist,” Shad said with a smirk. “It is as if the traitor King Falcon exists in the air there.”
“His soul–it tortures whoever enters,” I said with a shiver. The traitor King Falcon of Haleson had long ago tried to remove magic from Terra. He was of course unsuccessful, and he was locked inside one of Haleston’s deepest mountains. Over time the mountain somehow opened, and the Traitor King, although long gone, his evil lingered there in that mountain for hundreds of years. The Haleston royals and other royals sent the worst of the criminals within its depths. There, one often gets mad within a few hours.
I hated how he seemed to know something I did not.
Pompous prince.
How was it that he could cause me to feel like I was the one who had just matured? I felt like a child, but he was the one who was spouting off fairytales and being his annoyingly calm self.
“I would suggest not sharing too many of those feelings, Rykerian.” He raised his eyebrows as he gazed at the cave one last time and turned around. Oops, I had forgotten to shield those thoughts.
Seriously, he made me feel like a schoolboy being caught doing something I wasn't supposed to do. I switched my thought patterns to other things so that I would not insult his Royal Highness. I watched as he walked a few paces; then he froze.
“Everything alright, Prince?” I asked, standing up and preparing myself for a battle. The look of intensity was in his gaze. I looked behind me, but all I saw was the cave.
“Everything will be alright, knight.” I watched as he closed his eyes and looked one last time at the cave’s entrance; then he turned around. “We are exactly where the creator needs us to be.”
“Will you tell her aunt?” Glasson asked me.
I shook my head of the memory, trying to forget about the annoying threat that Prince Shad had brought to Emma. Out of all of the threats I knew about, he was the least of my worries, because he would never hurt her. Take her from me? Yes. Make her believe his fairy tales? Yes. But she would live. I hated him.
“I told her already. I don’t keep secrets from Mary."
I watched him as he nodded.
“Good. So where are you going, and when will you be back?”
“Just a month or two. I need to get information from the police and then go back to the scene of the crash and figure out how to track down the person who did this.”
“Do you have a tracker?”
“No, but I have some skills in it.”
Glasson nodded, and I knew it wasn’t the way things would happen on Terra. I knew that going on a mission and leaving my royal heir unprotected was a horrible thing to do, but I needed to do it. I had to do it—to keep her safe.
“I will do my best, Ryker.” He placed a hand on his heart, then moved it to his eye. I met him in the middle, and we saluted. He nodded and walked back down the sidewalk. I leaned against the car. I had already said my goodbyes to Emma, so I was free to go. But as I looked back at the house next door to mine, I thought about Emma, and about how sad I was to leave her, and—about what it might feel like to kiss her goodbye.