Chapter 10
10
KAEL
She was a threat to my people.
As I watched Mia, who’d just turned toward me in her sleep, I had to remind myself of the fact. Not only was she human but somehow she’d managed to come through the closed Gate. She’d also lied, though exactly how I couldn’t be certain.
She was a threat, even if she had the face of a goddess, and the body of one too.
Her eyelids fluttered open, even though the sun hadn’t yet risen. Stars shone more brightly here than in her realm, casting a soft glow into the openings of our shelter. Enough to see her, to sense her fear.
Hardening myself against her, remembering tales of a mother I never knew courtesy of a human, like her, I stood. “Come. We leave at once.”
We didn’t speak while I readied Stormbreaker, Mia heading wordlessly to the same thicket she had when we’d arrived. I’d put the fire out long ago. Summoning a tremor that rattled our shelter to the ground, I covered all evidence of our presence with a fresh growth of grass, the small mound blending seamlessly into its surroundings.
“How can you do all those things?” Mia asked, riding behind me as she had the day before, though this time without her wrists bound.
“Are you going to question me all day?”
Able to envision the face she made even without turning in my saddle, I was tempted to smile. The woman had very little ability to hide her emotions.
“Is that a problem? I’d think it was the least you could do, kidnapping me and all.”
There was no help hiding the fact that I was, indeed, taking her against her will. Mia had made it clear she wished to return to the Gate. And I had every intention of sending her back home, but not until we learned how she’d gotten through and why, and ensured no one could do it again.
“As for the kidnapping?—”
The rest of what I’d been about to say was cut short by a scream. Specifically, her scream. If our pursuers were anywhere nearby, particularly of the Aetherian variety, we would be easily discovered.
“What. Was. That?”
I looked up, having hardly noticed the shadowwing flying low above us. With a wingspan of over six feet and feathers that absorb the light around them, it often appeared as if it were a moving shadow.
“A shadowwing. It will not harm you.”
“Maybe you can tell me about some of the other creatures here? Specifically, which ones are deadly.”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I put all of my focus into feeling beneath Stormbreaker’s hooves. I closed my eyes, allowing him to lead. Feeling the ground beneath us.
Nothing.
“In my world,” she said as I opened my eyes once again, “it’s considered rude not to answer someone when they talk to you. And to kidnap people against their will, too.”
This time, I did smile.
“Shall we play a game?” I asked, debating our path forward. If I’d convinced our pursuers that we’d headed southwest, they would not realize their folly until reaching the gorge. Already having decided I could not take her immediately home, as that was exactly where the others would be heading, I also had to consider those following us may have split up.
If we continued on this path, it would take us due south, but I could not be certain we weren’t being followed. Which left one option none would expect me to take. East. To Estmere.
“Is the game you don’t talk to me and I try to read your mind instead?”
An intriguing idea. “I thought you had no intuitive abilities?”
“Ugh. You are positively maddening. If I’d met you back home…”
I waited, but Mia didn’t continue. Turning just enough in my saddle to catch her expression, one I could not read, I prompted, “Aye?”
“Never mind.”
If I didn’t dislike humans so much, I might have found myself admiring this one’s spirit. Turning back to the road, knowing it would get trickier as we headed on a downward path, I continued.
“A question for a question. I’ll begin. If you’d met me back home…?”
She went quiet.
Truth was, this was not my game. The very person we were going to ask for refuge, one of the few humans I trusted, had taught me the game.
“If I’d met you back home?—”
I interrupted her response as inspiration struck. It was wrong of me, but…
“If you lie, I will know and the game will be over.” It had been so long since I’d met an Uninitiated, I nearly forgot how easy they were to manipulate.
“How will you know?” she asked, taking the bait.
“Just as I know you lied, at least in part, about how you came to be here.” It was a calculated risk, but the reward was worth the potential payoff.
I’d turn back to see her expression but did not wish to give myself away. No doubt those full pink lips of hers were turned down in a pout. Her perfectly arched eyebrows would be furrowed together, her hazel eyes a storm of indecision.
“How is lie detection earth magic?”
“It is not… earth magic,” I reminded her. “We are in Elydor. Is that your question? Do you agree to the rules?”
“Fine. Yes, that’s my question.”
She was as disgruntled as ever, but thankfully was not kicking me or attempting to flee. “There are enhancements to our magic. Like when I used a bit of quartz to conceal our lodgings last eve. One of many of the minerals Gyoria mines.”
A partial truth.
“Including lie detection?” she asked, rightfully skeptical.
“Ahh, but you forgot the rules already. A question for a question.”
“Holy shit.”
Because we’d just turned a corner, uncovering a small clearing, I knew her rather colorful phrase had not to do with me but the view. Closer to the borders, misty forests and towering trees with silvery bark began to give way to small rocky outcrops, hinting at a sturdier terrain. With the same pristine rivers as up north, this region’s rolling hills, its tall grass swaying softly in the breeze, would appear even more spectacular as the weather warmed. I tried to remember the budding spring of her world, but had forgotten much of it. The human realm offered nothing to me which was why I’d visited so rarely when the Gate had been open.
“Why do you not tell me the full truth of your journey here?” I asked her.
“I cannot say.”
She believed my claim. Otherwise, Mia would not have just admitted shielding the truth from me earlier.
“Cannot? Or will not?”
“My turn. How quickly you forgot your own game.”
Quick-witted too. “What is your question?”
“You introduced yourself as Prince Kael. What does that mean? There is a king? Or queen? In each realm?”
“Four questions, so I will be generous and answer two. Aye, there is a king or queen of each clan.”
“Seriously?”
Ignoring that, I slowed Stormbreaker, sensing a movement in the land ahead. Listening, waiting, I prepared for us to ride hard, though I’d no desire to turn around. Likely it was not another Council member but… ahh, yes. Riding to the side of the white graveled road, we stopped. A few moments later, a herd of deer bounded toward us. One by one they filed past.
“Silver-winged deer,” I said. Without waiting for her to ask about their delicate wings, I added, “And yes, they can fly. But only very short distances.”
Content with the knowledge there was more to her tale than she’d first claimed, I backed off on that line of questioning.
For now.
“If you’d met me back home?” I asked, for the third time, more curious than I should be.
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “If I’d met you back home,” she said, obviously convinced she had no alternative but the truth, or to end the game, “I’d want to hate you but would probably end up dating you instead, the red-flag magnet that I am.”
Date. I knew the word, akin to courting. “Red flag?” That was new to me.
“Boy, you are really bad at this. Try again next time. My turn. So, does prince mean the same thing here as it does for me? In other words, are you the son of the Gyorian king?”
“Most Uninitiated ask about our magic. Our immortality. Yet you seem more interested in my standing, why?”
Silence. I was on to something, it seemed. “Ah yes, an answer first. Yes, it means the same thing in your world as it does in mine.”
“So you are the son of the Gyorian king?”
I didn’t answer. In response, I got a shove to the back.
“Aye, the King of Gyoria is my father.”
“What is a red flag?”
“It’s like… a sign that someone, a man in this case, is trouble. Something that should warn you off, but doesn’t.”
Interesting. “You’d wish to date me, in your realm? Even knowing I was trouble, as you say?”
I’d been trained to detect the smallest of movements, from long distances away, in the land beneath us. Mia’s slight stiffening at my question did not go unnoticed. I turned once again. As expected, she was upset. My eyes narrowed.
“It’s a sensitive topic,” she blurted. “The reason why I date the absolute worst guys. Walking red flags. We’d need an entire afternoon on that one.”
Sensitive topic. Hmm.
We rode in silence, the terrain requiring my attention, even though Stormbreaker was well-trained. Sometime later, when the land once again flattened, she broke the silence.
“Am I truly in an immortal realm called Elydor with clans who wield elemental magic?”
Her complete acceptance came quicker than most. “You are,” I said, waiting for her to continue. But she never did. I knew Mia had more questions. They always did. But she asked none.
I should have pressed her for answers. Attempted to learn why she was so curious about my standing. Taken advantage of her belief of my lie-detecting abilities. Instead, I wondered why she dated “walking red flags.” Why it was a sensitive topic. Was she dating one now? Was she married? I’d not noticed a ring, as the humans wore.
Fortunately, I had no time to dwell on answers to those nonsensical questions. There’d been a shift in the ground below us. We were being followed. And whoever it was, though they were some distance behind us, were coming more quickly now than before.
“Hold on,” I yelled, just before spurring Stormbreaker forward. The chase, it seemed, was on once again.