Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Riley
I’m sitting in what seems to be town square, having a stare-off with the horse.
He’s not planning on backing down and neither am I.
“What do you think about just handing over my powers without me riding you? We could walk around just like… touching. Like my hand on your neck, presto,” I say. “My butt is sore; my back is sore.”
“I wasn’t that rough with you last night,” Torin teases from where he sits next to me.
“The damn horse is painful to ride.”
“Not sure how. He moves so slow I can’t even tell if he’s moving sometimes,” Torin says as he also stares at the horse. Sigma flicks his ears back and clearly glowers at Torin before turning his happy face back to me.
This is the third day Torin’s made me ride the horse. Every time I do, I can feel the connection, but it’s like there’s something missing that should link us.
“Do you think the connection between us has been permanently severed?” I ask. “I guess at least the stain has stopped spreading, and I can use my magic for significantly longer before the tremors start.”
Torin leans into me, his shoulder pressed against mine. “I wish I knew the answer to that, but for now, all you can do is keep trying to mend it. It sounds like at some point you were stronger than Aemon. Let’s hope that means you can fix whatever he did to you.”
I nod as I reach out and slide my fingers between his, squeezing them gently.
It’s nice to just sit and relax for a while.
Since the Obsian people came here, we’ve spent every moment helping rebuild the town.
We couldn’t have done it so quickly without the help of the undead, but quite a few of the houses are already livable.
But what’s surprised me the most is that only a handful of those from the capital have chosen to leave for my world. The rest have stayed.
Torin holds up a bracelet made of some kind of fiber and beads. “Story threatened to make a shrine for me if I refused to take their ‘offering.’”
“That’s really neat.” I pick it up and immediately feel magic rushing through it. “What magic is this?”
“He said it had a protection spell on it,” Torin says as he slides it over my wrist.
“Why would I wear it? They made it for you.”
“I told them that it was very kind, but if they didn’t mind, I wanted to put it on the person most precious to me so that it could protect them. Which is quite obviously you.”
I can’t help but smile when I hear that. “You’re too sweet sometimes.”
“‘Sometimes’?”
His reaction turns my smile into a grin. “Yes! Last night you were not sweet. I was all, ‘I’m tired,’ and you were all, ‘But look at my naked flesh.’”
“I wasn’t even trying to seduce you! I literally just stepped out of the bathroom and you jumped me.”
“I don’t remember that,” I assure him.
Kit is now trying to eat the shiny bits off the bracelet.
“Kit, no!” I say as I pull it away so she can’t.
She seems very dissatisfied by that and decides to deal with her woes by trotting over to the pen where the new baby chicks are that Torin purchased. There are also some adult laying hens that Kit licks her chops over.
Ever since they arrived, I’ve gotten to see them up close far more often than I prefer, all because Kit would love to eat one. I swear that anytime I’m in the area, I have to assume I’m going to lose my eyesight just so I can stare at a bird.
“They’re never going to be allowed to be free range, are they?” Torin asks.
“She’s as stubborn as you are. Convince her.”
“Just like you convinced Mickey to send some of his undead back?”
“Why are we so perfect yet surrounded by such stubborn beings?” I ask.
“You know what? We are perfect.”
I get to watch one of the chickens peck Kit through the wire fence. Kit seems rather confused by this.
“Kit, we’ll get you cooked chicken if you leave the live chickens alone,” I coax.
She ignores me.
“We’ll get you so much chicken.”
She perks up a little but she’s locked onto a little puffball of a baby now.
“Kit, come on, I can’t be involved in the massacre of baby chicks,” I say. “You want steak too? You can have whatever you want if you refrain from baby chick massacre.”
Torin suggests, “We could get some geese or something larger. Maybe they’ll run her off.”
I think about Kit’s level of determination but nod, hoping I can convince the genet that these birds are our friends.
“Once the land has more greenery, I want to introduce wild animals here too. Maybe she can go hunt those,” Torin says. “That sounds fun, doesn’t it, Kit?”
Kit thinks those fluffballs look more fun.
“This is going to be a lot of work. Like… how do you create a healthy ecosystem?” I ask. “You’ll need so much of… everything. Will bugs and stuff return now that life is returning? Will you have to bring them in?”
“Fuck if I know, Riley. I’m just winging all of this. Maybe Mickey can revive a scientist or something who can figure it all out.”
“He’s probably already revived five who are just out there living their best life. How is he functioning?”
“I… I’m not sure,” Torin says.
“Are you guys talking about me again?” Mickey asks as he approaches.
“Quick, switch to Shaarunen,” I tell Torin, switching to it myself while Kit leaps onto my shoulder.
Mickey gasps. “Don’t you dare. I’m going to learn this damn language, and then I’m going to… Riley, what’s the matter?”
I freeze, positive that I’m wrong, knowing I have to be wrong, but when I see Sigma looking in the same direction I feel it, I know I’m right.
Torin leaps to his feet as he calls Quill to him.
“A Door has opened. We need to get the people somewhere safe.” He turns to the people who are hard at work on their new homes and new lives, oblivious to what is about to happen.
“Attention! A Door has opened! I’m asking everyone to gather at the palace immediately.
Do not delay. We will send you through the Door to Riley’s world if we need to. ”
“Fuck,” I hiss, rushing to Torin before glancing back at the horse.
I really should ride on his back, right? If I need to use my magic, he will be able to help me, not Quill or Torin, but the idea sounds absolutely dreadful.
Torin looks at me. “Riley, stay here and help them.”
“Absolutely not,” I say as Mickey calls up two mounts. Vero leaps onto one without bothering to ask if Mickey had made it for him.
“No! That one’s mine! It’s all fluffy and this one is all scaley and likes to lick my feet,” Mickey whines.
“Why did you summon it, then?” Vero asks.
“Because… I wanted it to torment you,” Mickey whispers.
Not wanting to waste time, I turn from Torin and leap onto my horse…
or more precisely, smack right into the side of the horse because he’s so fucking tall that I can’t leap onto him.
Then I’m left kind of dangling there like a fool while all of Torin’s people question how exactly these are the people who are going to save anything.
Tommy rushes over and valiantly gives my ass a push, helping me up onto Sigma’s back. He even hands me Conquest’s bow, which I’d had out earlier to practice with. Torin and Quill are already moving, so I take a deep breath and grab the horse’s mane before asking him to catch up.
Sigma slowly moves from a trot that jostles me all around to a gentle lope that is terrifyingly faster but makes it easier to sit. And when he seems pleased that I haven’t just thrown myself off, his speed increases, flying past Mickey and Vero who are still bickering and catching up to Torin.
“You’re doing good,” Torin praises.
I try to ignore the fact that every part of this is horrifying. “What is our plan? We fought them once and had to flee. What the fuck are we going to do differently this time?”
“This time, we’re on my land,” he replies while I see the sky darken.
“That doesn’t look good.”
“Maybe not for them,” he says as I spot the Door in the distance.
I sling the bow off my shoulder when I see Selena standing in front of the Door next to Famine astride her horse. Famine isn’t facing us, she’s cutting us off from Selena, prepared to protect her from us, but Selena’s eyes are fixated on us.
With a wave of Selena’s hand, the ground shudders and cracks, and I’m afraid she’s going to eat up this world like she did with Obsian.
It seems so simple for her to do so, even on foreign land.
Famine’s horse scrambles back to avoid being swallowed up by it as I realize the attack wasn’t meant for us.
It was meant for Famine.
“Turn around and go back through that Door. These people are not worth this,” Famine screams loud enough that we can hear her as we draw closer.
“They aren’t even the ones who did this to you!
I’ve explained to you again and again that the people who stripped you of your power and tortured you met their death hundreds of years ago. ”
Famine drops off her horse and rushes up to Selena, whose eyes are locked in the direction the palace sits. It’s like she already knows where they are and is prepared to chase these people to the edge of the world.
But she’s going to have to go through the four of us to get to them.
My sister looks desperate as she grasps Selena’s shoulders. “Please, I love you. Please. Selena, turn around. This fight isn’t worth it. I just got you back—I can’t lose you. We did what Aemon asked me to do in order to set you free. We can go on with our lives.”
Selena shakes her head. “They have to die for what they’ve done. They are greedy, selfish… they don’t even deserve the lives I gave them. They prospered from all of my gifts then destroyed me, and you expect me to walk away?”
“They aren’t the people who did it! Those people are dead,” Famine yells. “Selena, please. We are free now! We’re free of your shackles and we’re free from Aemon. We are truly free. Please, let’s flee this place. Let’s live the life we promised to live all those years ago.”