Chapter Eleven
Chapter
Eleven
Razr could tell that Jedda was still shaken as they
materialized in the elven realm, which she’d said was
known to her people as Filneshara, The
Timeless Lands. Maybe being here on her home turf would be good for her, would
ease her rattled nerves and help them both find some answers.
That was, of course, assuming they could find her sister.
“That’s a pretty cool trick,” he said, as the tourmaline
she’d summoned for travel between elven hotspots and the The
Timeless Lands disappeared back into her palm.
“Tourmaline is the only stone that allows us to travel here.
We can only possess one at a time, and it can’t be heavier than two ounces. Any
more than that can throw us into dead space that we can’t come back from.”
“That sounds kind of horrible.” He checked out their
surroundings, disappointed that they could be anywhere in the earthly realm.
They were at the top of a grassy hill surrounded by forest and meadows, which
was scenic and colorful, but nothing special.
“It probably is horrible,” she said. “No one has
come back to describe the experience.”
He frowned at her. “Then how do you know it exists?”
She pointed to a pond nestled in the valley of more rolling
green hills in the distance. Its mirrored surface reflected sunlight from
overhead and bright, candy-colored flowers in the meadows, not a single ripple
marring the image.
“We can see them in the reflection sometimes. No one goes
there except kids looking to scare themselves.” She shook her head. “It’s like
when human kids play Bloody Mary with a bathroom mirror. Except this is real.”
“Have you seen them?”
She shivered and started down the dirt path toward the
trees. “My sisters and I went to the pond when we were girls. We saw three…I
guess you could call them apparitions.” She swallowed hard. “I can’t imagine
being trapped like that, clawing at the surface and hoping someone will save
you.”
Er, yeah. Razr’s punishment wasn’t looking so bad now.
A lavender-scented breeze rustled through the trees as they
entered a jungle forest unlike anything Razr had ever seen, and the deeper into
the woods they went, the more he realized he had been wrong about this realm.
The trees swayed with the fragrant wind, their limbs heavy with silver-laced
leaves that sprinkled glitter with every gust of air. It was clean here, with
no hint of industrialization. No smog, no chemicals, no man-made filth.
As they walked, the trees got taller and more ornate, and
Jedda giggled when he stumbled to a stunned halt. Mushrooms littered the forest
floor, lit up like little neon bulbs in every color imaginable. Tiny winged creatures zipped between them, bouncing off
their caps before darting upward in sprays of sparks. And here, in this forest,
the trees grew around gemstones of every shape and
size, their trunks surrounding them like string art.
“This…is extraordinary.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “It is.”
“Do these gemstones provide energy?”
She nodded and continued down the path. “They power
everything here. Every tree grows around a gem, and each gem grows bigger with
the tree. In the center of my town there’s an oak growing around an emerald the
size of an elephant.” She pointed ahead, where the forest parted to reveal a
village of buildings fashioned from live trees and thick vines, and there, at
the very center, was the elephant emerald.
He couldn’t stop staring in awe as she led him through the
village, which bustled with activity, from people hawking baked goods or
tending to gardens to a blacksmith who set a gemstone into each weapon he
crafted.
“They’re enchanted stones,” Jedda told him as they walked
past. “His weapons sell for a mint in other elf realms and Sheoul.”
“There are other elf realms?”
She inclined her head in greeting at an azure-haired female
who passed them with a basket of apples. “There are two, both connected to this
one. The elves of those realms aren’t allowed in Filneshara
except to trade.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “They’re kind of assholes.”
Man, he really needed to learn more about elves.
From somewhere above, a bird screeched, but the canopy was
so thick it could have been a pterodactyl and he
wouldn’t have been able to identify it. No one else looked up, so he assumed it
wasn’t a predator, but the way the village’s denizens were looking at him said
he could be.
“I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of visitors here. That
orange-haired dude looks like he wants to put his sword between my ribs.”
“The only otherworlders who come
here are guests of elves.” She picked up her pace, making a beeline for what
appeared to be a gem show at the edge of the village. “The people here aren’t
afraid, just cautious. They know you have no power here.”
“I don’t?” Instinctively, he reached for the weak abilities
he’d been left with, but it was like feeling around inside an empty box. Damn,
he didn’t like this. As pathetic as his remaining powers were, they’d at least
been accessible. Now he felt naked. Exposed. Not even the demon realm was this
disconcerting.
“Only elves wield magic here.”
Angelic powers weren’t “magic,” but he knew what she meant.
And he really, really needed to learn more about these people and this realm.
He couldn’t believe he hadn’t known it existed. Were any angels aware
of it?
“Jedda!” A slender male with pale pink hair and eyes waved
from a booth displaying gemstones in every shade of green. “I have freshly
mined jade and a cursed malachite I know you’d love.” He waggled his brows, but
she just laughed and waved him off.
“Not today, Tindol, but thank you.”
Another elf tried to sell her a sapphire shaped like a
banana, and another was convinced she’d love an ugly puke-green stone linked to
a Viking legend.
“I’m just curious,” Razr said as they passed yet another
silver-tongued salesman. “Why do you have a gem market when you could just
harvest the gemstones that grow with the trees?”
“Gods, no,” Jedda gasped, her gaze darting around as if
making sure no one had heard him. “That’s one of the worst crimes you can
commit here. No one gets away with it. No one.”
One of the winged creatures he’d seen in the forest buzzed
his ear, and he gently waved it away. “What happens to those who try?”
“Death by hanging.”
He blinked. “I thought you said it was peaceful here.”
“It is. It’s not us who do the hanging.” She lowered her
voice and leaned close. “It’s the trees.”
He eyed the forest with new appreciation. “That’s pretty
badass.”
“If you think the trees are badass, wait until you see—” She
broke off and stumbled to a stop, and he instantly went on alert.
It only took a second to follow her gaze to see what had
brought her up short. Just ahead, a red-haired, red-eyed female dressed in
brown leather pants and a gold tunic blocked their path. A sword with a
glittering ruby pommel hung at her hip, but it was the daggers she stared at
Jedda that made Razr put himself between the two females.
“Tell me that’s not your sister.”
“I can’t do that,” Jedda said, her voice tight. “Razr, meet
Reina.”
“Hello, Jedda.”
Razr’s arm snapped out to catch Jedda around the waist
before she even knew her legs had wobbled. A surge of emotion flooded her,
because no one had been there to catch her in a long time. His support meant
even more to her given how everything had crashed down on her so hard back in Sheoul-gra. She couldn’t believe she was still alive. Hell,
she couldn’t believe she was still alive and that Razr had forgiven
her.
And now she was sharing her realm with him, something she’d
never shared with anyone. She just had to hope the experience wouldn’t take a
nasty turn.
“Reina.” Jedda wasn’t sure what to think or how to feel, but
it was a relief to see her. She looked the same as the last time she’d seen
her, with sleek garnet hair and garnet eyes that required colored contact
lenses for visits to the human realm.
“I sensed your arrival,” Reina said, her lips pursed in
annoyance. “You haven’t been here in years.”
“I haven’t needed to come.” Jedda wanted to hug her sister,
but Reina had never been comfortable with physical affection, and Jedda wasn’t
sure where their relationship stood anyway. “Have you been here all this time?”
Reina waved her hand dismissively, but not before Jedda
caught a flash of fear in her expression, gone so fast she might have imagined
it. “I’ve always liked it here.”
Jedda gave her sister a skeptical look. “You hate
the elven realm.”
With a shrug, Reina turned to Razr, her assessing gaze a
little too appreciative for Jedda’s taste. “Who’s this?”
There wasn’t going to be an easy way to introduce Razr and
explain who he was, so Jedda just blurted it out and let Reina sort it out in
her own head.
“His name is Razriel, and he’s one
of the angels we stole the Gems of Enoch from.”
It took about five seconds for that to sink in, and then
Reina gasped and stepped back, her face draining of color. “Surely not...”
“It’s true.” Razr held up his hand and wiggled his ring
finger.
Reina lost more color, and a massive cloud of diamond dust
exploded around her. Through the glittering cloud, a faint crimson glow
outlined Reina’s body, a giveaway that she was drawing on the powers of her
gems to use as a weapon. And here in The Timeless Lands, elves were twice as
strong as in any other realm.
“Reina, you need to calm down––”
“Why did you bring him here?” Reina rounded on Jedda. “Otaehryn herwenys es miradithas?” What the hell were you thinking? “Cluhurach!” Idiot!
“He has no power here, Reina.” Jedda kept her voice calm,
trying to talk her sister down. “You know that.”
As she’d told Razr, only elves had power in Filneshara, but that didn’t bring back any color
to Reina’s face. She still eyed him like he was going to smite her where she
stood.
“Why is he here?” she demanded again, her voice at a near
shout that made everyone in the nearby booths stare.