Chapter 10 #2
Ryder closed his eyes, bowed his head, and reached for their king. But there was no answer. No, no quite. There was the slightest stirring of the breeze. But that was it. His eyelids popped open. He found that Charlie was staring at him with eyes wide, nostrils flared and lips parted.
“This is like the War, too,” Charlie gulped. “And like a long time before it.”
“When Daemon was asleep,” Ryder said through lips numb with the possibility of it.
“What are both saying?” Fiona asked, growing horror was in her face too.
“Fiona, I know that you’re able to teleport through space and between dimensions, but can you also do so through time?” Ryder asked.
She took one staggering step back. She lifted her hands to her temples. He saw the understanding flash through her eyes.
“You’re saying… that we… that it’s not now, but then?” Fiona gasped. “It’s during the War, isn’t it?”
“If it was before, we would have, at least, Eyros’ mental web. But that is shut down. And why would Kaly–not Caemorn–have an army of the dead keeping guard outside of Lasting? Only if they were guarding against something or someone,” Ryder said, feeling the ground tremor beneath his feet.
He reached down and took comfort in the solidity of Khos’ big, burly body under his hand.
The Dire Wolf looked up at him and Khos’ tail swished across the forest floor.
Khos was happy, because he was happy. And it had been so long since he had been happy, Khos told him.
His mind was light again. Not dark. Full of fun hunts not simple bloodlettings.
“We’re in the past,” Ryder said, swallowing hard. “In Lasting. During the War.”
Charlie tipped his head back and muttered what sounded suspiciously like a prayer. When he lowered his head, he said quite audibly, “I was able to escape once, but twice? When we’re on Lasting’s doorstep?”
“The Kaly slices will all be in Lasting.” Fiona pointed towards the city. “Who knows how many? And imagine the traps… Even if we manage to get to a gate that will take us to Nightvallen, it won’t be the present. It will be the past! None of our friends will be there. Daemon will be asleep!”
Ryder thought of being so far from Grayson. Not just space, but time. So much time. Eons of it. He had never worried about having too much time on his hands, but it was like torture now to think of the millennia that separated them.
Charlie put a firm hand on both of their shoulders. “No, no, we can’t give way! We must buck up! You’re two of the strongest Immortals, I know. You won’t let a little time travel and the undead stop us. Oh, and forget about Kaly! Those are slices! Just little things you can flick away!”
Ryder grunted. “Thank you for the pep talk, Charlie, but even I can’t quite allow myself to believe I could flick any part of Kaly away.”
“Not easily,” Fiona murmured. “What do we do?”
Ryder stared down at the ground for long moments. “In a way, nothing has changed. We need a gate to get out of here and the only gates I know of are in Lasting. So that’s where we still need to go.”
Fiona slowly nodded. “I suppose that’s true.” She gripped her arms tightly. “We’ll have a fight on our hands and I’m not sure how much I’ll have to give. My powers might not return in time.”
“We have loads of time,” Charlie said sadly. “Loads of it before the current moment comes back.”
“We cannot stay out here forever. We must keep moving,” Ryder told them. “We have to, at least, get some reconnaissance on Lasting.” He looked meaningfully at Charlie who gulped.
“Ah, well, yes, I can see that might be my skill set to infiltrate the evil city ruled by insane people, but I can only do that if you can get me to it. And right now, there’s an army of the dead in our path and a minefield of soul gems,” Charlie pointed out.
We cannot walk or run or burrow, but perhaps we can fly, Ryder thought.
Ryder petted Khos’ massive head while he explained what he had shown him. “The army does surround Lasting. We can’t go through the undead, but we can go above them. I have several large winged forms that could fly us all across.”
“The three of us? At once?” Fiona’s eyebrows rose.
“I don’t think it would be safe to ferry all of us over separately. One time will attract enough attention,” Ryder told her.
“How big are these forms?” she asked.
“Massive,” he admitted with a smile. “Think dinosaur-type massive. We will need to get out of this forest for me to shift otherwise my new body alone won’t fit, not to mention my wingspan.”
Fiona blinked at him. “Wow.” Then she grinned. “I admit I’m sort of looking forward to seeing this. And you’ll be big enough for us to ride on your back?”
“I’ll carry Khos in my claws, but yes, you two will have to ride on my back,” he said.
“You don’t think that will be a little obvious?” Charlie asked. “Two Vampires riding on a magnificent winged beast? Sounds like a fantasy movie or some such!”
“Well… it won’t be exactly subtle,” Ryder admitted. “Kaly might think that I’ve taken Khos for food, but you two…”
“But two Vampires riding you? I suppose if you flew high enough maybe no one would notice.” Fiona tapped her chin.
“I was thinking it might be better to stay low so that we’re less noticeable to anyone in the city. Kaly might assume that this dead army is enough to keep most out,” he admitted.
“Low is better,” Charlie agreed, looking a little anxiously up at the sky.
“You aren’t afraid of heights, are you, Charlie?” Fiona teased.
“Me? Ha! Never! I just like the ground more,” he muttered.
“If we hunker down on your back, maybe no one will notice us, Ryder,” Fiona sounded unconvinced even as she said it.
“I was thinking of calling a flock to fly with us perhaps to obscure you,” Ryder suggested.
“A giant bird accompanied by a giant flock, that won’t draw attention at all!” Charlie said dryly.
“True, but we have to work with what we’ve got,” Ryder reminded him.
“I am quite aware! But you are forgetting my talents, meager as they may be in comparison to traveling through space and time and turning into a dinosaur,” Charlie sniffed. “I can disguise both Fifi and I. No problem!”
“What?” Fiona stared. “Disguise us both? But how–”
“Fifi, while nothing can compare to your loveliness, I can make you like anyone or anything!” Charlie chorted happily. “So long as you are within my eyesight, no one will notice a thing! I can even do it for short periods when you’re away from me. Give you your own glamour.”
“Not just anyone, but anything?” This time Ryder lifted an eyebrow.
“I assume your massive bird has feathers?” When Ryder nodded, Charlie continued, “We will look like nothing more than additional plumage. Kaly won’t notice a thing!”
“Really?” Fiona gasped.
“I didn’t know the Mirryr could do that.” Ryder admitted with a raised eyebrow.
Charlie coughed into his hand. “Well, not all Mirryr can, but I am quite good with the gift.”
“You must be the best at the gift to do that.” Ryder stared hard at Charlie who colored and began to whistle silently. “Are you trying to tell us something, Charlie?”
“What? No, no, why would you think that?” Charlie feigned all innocence.
“Are you the best at the Mirryr gift?” Ryder pushed.
“Well, I’m the best that I know of! I don’t know everyone even though I do try,” Charlie said.
“Right.”
Ryder let out a breath through his teeth. Was Charlie telling them he was the Immortal Mirryr without telling them he was? But, if so, why was he being so coy yet so obvious at the same time?
I did not kill Mirryr and I do not believe that Kaly did either. They just disappeared sometime during the War. The thought was that someone had taken them out, but what if no one did? What if they just changed their face and walked away only to reappear as a very normal Mirryr named Charlie?
It was very possible. But why wasn’t Charlie admitting who he was now?
The Mirryr Palace–a structure made of shifting reflective glass–was dark and unoccupied.
Charlie had not announced himself as an Immortal and, as he’d noted before, his best friend, Darcie, ran the House he was a part of.
But maybe he was misunderstanding what he was seeing.
Or was it all a deliberate trick to make Charlie seem like a good time partier but nothing else?
Considering the terror of the War and how awful the other Immortals had been to one another, maybe Charlie–or Mirryr–had decided he wasn’t quite sure of things yet.
He didn’t trust them to remain civilized this time around either and he might not want to draw attention to himself or put a target on his back.
A wave of sadness–and understanding–passed through Ryder.
Charlie had admitted to them that the Mirryr weren’t terribly martial.
Hiding, maybe in plain sight, was probably all they had.
He clapped Charlie’s shoulder. “No worries, Charlie. I trust you to get this done.”
Charlie blinked up at him, but then tentatively smiled. “Yes, well, yes. You, too, Ryder.”
“Khos tells me that there is a clearing big enough for me to shift. Let’s head there now and then we can fly over this army of the dead,” he suggested.
The other two nodded and the four of them loped off with Khos leading the way.
Ryder would have loved running with a Dire Wolf and his fellow Immortals in the Ever Dark.
He tried to imagine doing this when they weren’t facing off against a horde of undead and an angry, insane Kaly.
Maybe he could convince them to do this again and next time he’d include Grayson, Balthazar and maybe even Seeyr.
He was pretty sure he could convince Julian to join so maybe Daemon would be game, too.
Being with their king in the wilderness was always an experience.
It had been too long. But those happy thoughts could not survive the concern he felt about Grayson.
If he allowed his mind to wander even a little bit, he felt that welling of love and the desire to protect Grayson build up inside of him.
Grayson is strong. The only way to get to him is to get into Lasting and find a gate to get back to Nightvallen. And then cross oceans of time to reach him.