Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELEVE
Vallis
The Other World, Frost’s Pit, Dern’s Kitchen
We all sat around the table as Mori filled in his dead wolf friend about the events of my life.
The old wolf leaned back in his chair, resting an elbow on its back, and nodded along.
I had a feeling that Dern knew what was going on before Mori did.
He wore that expression that older people often did when they knew more than they were letting on but remembered the confusion of youth and wanted to let Mori talk his way through it.
Mori drank from his own ‘tea flask’ but I took the risk that the old wolf might try to kill me and drank his sweet rose and honey tea.
It was sweeter than what I normally drank but sugar was energy and these days, besides Lero, energy was the one thing I couldn’t seem to get enough of.
The kitchen looked old-fashioned but tidy. A phoenix shifter came in and out seemingly for no reason, but I didn’t believe that for a second. There were a few phoenixes on my home world, and those birds never did anything without a purpose.
“Maybe he’s making sure that we’re still here,” my bear cut into my thoughts.
Maybe the furry guy was right or maybe he thought Pami might break into the kitchen and kill us all.
“Yeah. Pami’s on a list,” Dern nodded when Mori finally shut up. “She’s been on a watch list for a while. It’s not the first life she’s done something like this.”
“So what do we do?” Mori asked.
“Uh….There is a reason I told you to keep Teddy with you,” Dern laughed.
“He’s at your house with his family.”
“You could be there too,” Dern said.
“Dude? Did we come all this way for a dead man to tell us something I already knew?” I snapped and the phoenix man appeared in the kitchen doorway again.
“No,” Dern said, waving to his mate to come refill his teacup.
“Mori brought you here because he figured I’d know how to get him there in the flesh.
He brought you as proof this was actually happening.
He also thought I’d like to know that Sharon Claudis was over there. Well, maybe, according to him.”
“I saw her go that way,” I said.
“And I believe you but she’s a sneaky snoot,” Dern said before thanking his mate for refilling his teacup.
“This one really is simple, Mori. You don’t even need to understand the magic she used.
Kill her and the magic dies too. If you can’t find her…
Then that’s another story. You might have to get the coffin out of the ground and find its weak point. ”
“It can’t be that easy,” Mori sighed.
“I never said it was going to be easy. I said you have to kill someone – maybe more than someone if she has minions- to save him. If you’re thinking that’s simple or easy, maybe I chose the wrong guy to teach,” Dern said and the scent of his wolf turned irritated.
I scooted my chair away from him and the phoenix man walked back into the kitchen and stood behind his mate’s chair.
“I meant it seems like something like this would…. I don’t know… Take more things,” Mori said.
“Oh, it will for everyone else involved. They’ll have a society to fix if she has minions. Saving Vallis is easy more or less.”
“Mori, you should get going,” the phoenix man said. “I’ll walk you to the appropriate gateway. Then I’ll drop off a card to your mate,” he turned his attention to me. “That way he knows you made it that far at least.”
“Appreciated,” I nodded my thanks.
“Watch out for bears and dragons. Not everything is as simple as it seems,” the phoenix man shrugged, tucked in his brown wings close to his back, and motioned for us to follow him.