The 7th Relic, page 19
We both become silent, lost in our own thoughts of love and sacrifice.
After a moment, I ask, “Why do you call him Andu?”
“We call him Andu because that’s his name. When he was sent to Pathen some of the elderly staff at the Ranch mispronounced his name, calling him Andrew. Konè liked the idea of another layer of anonymity and so Andu became Andrew while he lived in Pathen.”
“Anonymity? From what?”
“You really don’t know who he is, do you?”
“I know him better than anyone,” I say with conviction.
Vilzen smirks again. “The young presume too much.”
Something in his voice tells me I may have been presumptuous when it comes to Andrew, so I ask, “Why, who is he?”
“He is the ruler of Kalorii. He oversees all seventeen territories—or he will.” Before I can ask, he continues. “At least, he will after the Rising. Until then, he is in the middle of the Rii, a period where the other sixteen territories can challenge him for the seat. He only has one more challenger.”
“So, now that he’s back, does it mean the challenge is on again?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know. He never said a word to me.” A feeling of disappointment sinks in, thinking there is another part of Andrew’s life of which I’m not aware, and worse, not a part of. I swallow my pride and ask, “Could he get hurt during the Rii?”
“He has, but he has healing abilities, thanks to the relics. And he has Haro, who helps, too.”
I remember Reiko mentioning Andrew’s healing abilities. I shake off the feeling of being left out and change the subject. “What happens now? How long before we reach Kalorii?”
“We are a day’s walk from the borders. We’ll reach the city by nightfall.”
The silence falls over us and just when I think I’m about to fall back to sleep, another thought comes to mind. “Why are we walking? Don’t they have cars here?”
“There are vehicles that can get us to Kalorii faster, but if you haven’t noticed, we’re being tracked. To use motorized vehicles in this area you need light. There are too many obstacles that can take us down without light, but Jleroh is out there and light will bring him to us. But, who knows? He may have already found us.”
I ignore the catch in my throat at the mention of the demon’s name. “Is Pathen more advanced than this realm and the others?”
He laughs quietly. “No. Pathen is the youngest of the realms. It’s also the youngest of the Five Nations in Eirrell, the Nation of Man. Pathen’s civilization as you know it, the others have already lived, thousands of centuries ago. It’s why many from other realms are easily found there. There are beings and creatures there that can easily manipulate the energy in Pathen, its very fabric of time. There are elements in Pathen only a few are able to control. Yet, it’s there for anyone. It’s just that no one is looking. It’s in the land, in the air, the water and most importantly, it’s locked up in his mind. Mother Earth, have you met her? She is nurturing and life-giving, but she’s a real bitch when she’s pissed. No technology of man will prevent her from taking back what’s hers. And, as she’s done with the other realms, she will eventually do to Pathen.”
His words are daunting, a dark future for a place I call home. To distract my thoughts from wandering, I say, “So…no cars?”
“No, Grace, no cars, but you’ll see a few ‘vehicles’ in the city.”
A strange birdcall rings through the night: three trills then a low whistle. Andrew is up within seconds, followed by Haro and Reiko appearing at his side. I’m up, moving to Reiko’s left, staying out of range of his guns, aimed in separate directions into the dark. Haro’s silver knives are in his hands, his pouch empty at his hip. Vilzen remains on the branch hanging over us, and once again I feel a tingling sensation as the now-familiar shield is upon us.
Andrew puts his hand up, then signals Reiko. His weapons holstered, Reiko makes the same calling sound, filling the still night. Seconds pass and no response. Vilzen appears on the lower ledge below us. Again Andrew signals Reiko and again he makes the call.
I can’t see it, but I hear the disturbance in the water as someone steps out into the open. A man dressed for travel, in dark clothes, moves steadily toward us. His head is covered with a do-rag that is either dirty or made from a dark material. Another masks the lower part of his face. Only his dark eyes are exposed.
“Prince Andu,” calls the stranger, his voice low.
“Bilius,” answers Andrew. “Why are you here? How did you find us?”
“Morfais sent me. I don’t know how he knew where you would enter the realm or when, but he sent me off yesterday when the Elders felt an opening.”
Yesterday? Was I out that long? What happened to me?
I lean close to Reiko and ask, “Who is that?”
“Bilius, a messenger from Andrew’s uncle, Morfais,” he answers.
Andrew is quiet and I notice his head lean toward Haro. When Vilzen turns to them, I realize they’re speaking to each other. I glance at Reiko, but his attention is on Bilius, with a wary eye. I stare at the messenger, trying to catch what it is Reiko is sensing about the guy.
Reiko steps up, surprising the others. “Bilius, where’s your dooma? Why don’t you have it on?”
Bilius looks down, searching, as his hand goes to his shoulder. “I…I don’t know. I must have dropped it somewhere.” When he faces us again there is a panicked look in his eyes. “I’m sorry, but I have to backtrack and find it. I can’t return home without it.”
Andrew leaps from his ledge, his blades out as he flies at Bilius. But the messenger jumps back, pulling two whips, one in each hand—cat o’nines with thick braided strands attached to iron spikes at the ends.
Jleroh!
I reach for my throat, expecting the relic to start burning…nothing. What the hell? Did I lose it coming through the gateway? Crap!
When the demon literally rips out of the messenger’s body, we are on the move. Reiko is at my side and Haro reaches for his pouch before realizing he’s out of powder. His silver knives are in his hands; he spins them…too fast to keep track, and each blade becomes several as they shoot out, aiming for the assassin. Jleroh shifts right, then left, using his long coat as a shield, deflecting the knives and sending them to strike the nearby trees. Reiko comes in low, pulling his guns, following Haro’s blades to hit near their targets, a quarter inch apart.
Jleroh kicks two clay balls from the watery ground. One speeds toward Reiko; when it’s only inches away from his chest a foot appears, followed by the rest of the body…Skytes! Its kick connects with Reiko, sending him flying backward. He’s on his feet quickly, charging.
Haro sidesteps the ball thrown at him. As it flies past him, it transforms into another Skyte that torques its body in mid-air, smashing Haro with a steel bar to the head. The old man goes down into the water…his body still. The Skyte stands over his victim, staring at me, ready to charge. The second it picks up its foot Haro bursts from the shallow water, spinning in the air with his knives out. Blood spurts from the Skyte’s throat as he goes down. But the old man only has a second to breathe before three more clay balls are thrown his way.
I’m at Andrew’s side. I take one of my blades and turn in a reverse hold; a trick Lana taught me a long time ago. I move to the right as Andrew moves to the left, and somewhere behind me I hear the sound of lightning. I didn’t hear the mage land in the foot-deep water beside me, but he makes his presence known to all.
Jleroh looks past Andrew, eyes locked onto mine. “Ah, come to me, Child of Sorea, and this will all be over. It’s up to you whether your friends live or die; it doesn’t really matter to me. But we demons are a lazy lot, and all this extra exertion is tiring at best.”
“Thanks,” I say, “but I’ll take my chances with them.”
“Guess you’re going to have to move that fat ass of yours, Jleroh,” says Andrew. Before I make my first move Andrew is already at the demon, his scimitars flying in a fluid motion I’ve never seen before. This is Andrew…no…this is Andu with no restraint, no holding back. For a moment I’m lost in his movements, his action to reaction to action again. All those years…goddamn it, I could have been hurt.
I shift to the left when three Skytes come at Andrew while his back is turned. I take out the first easily, causing the other two to come at me, pulling them away from Andrew. At the pace he and Jleroh are going the only thing I would do is get in the way. I’ll watch his back and let him kill the beast who took our family from us.
When the third one goes down, more show up. I glance over at Haro and the elf is moving at high speed, taking down as many of the Skytes as possible. Reiko no longer has his guns—probably out of bullets. Instead, he not only has his wing blades out but he has the staff again. It’s bronze with silver filigree running along it from tip to tip and it looks heavy. How he got it or where it came from flits through my mind before I refocus on another attacker.
I barely avoid a knife to my throat when I hear the demon scream in pain. I take out my attacker and turn to find Andrew on top of Jleroh.
“Who hired you?” Andrew’s scimitars are gone and in their place is a silver sword. Andrew holds it upright with its tip cutting into the demon’s throat.
He spits at Andrew. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Realizing what the demon’s next move is, Andrew lifts his blade, ready to slam it down and cut off Jleroh’s head. Before the blade hits its target, the demon explodes into black flakes. When the sooty substance hits the water it begins to boil, and Skytes begin to materialize from the ashes. I see the insidious poison spread below the water, and the idea of hundreds of these things causes me to stumble backward.
“Jump!” yells Vilzen.
Andrew grabs hold of my arm, pulling me to him, then takes a hold of my waist. With strength I’ve never known him to possess, Andrew leaps in the air seconds before Vilzen punches the ground with his lightning fist. The effect takes my breath away and I cling onto Andrew for dear life.
“Hold on, Gracie,” he says against my ear, and I do just that.
The sparks from Vilzen’s arm fly around us, partnering with the exploding water as we hang in the midst of the fray. Andrew has a hold of a low branch from the giant mangrove tree hovering above us. I look over his shoulder to see Reiko holding onto his own branch while Haro is actually crouching on another. As Vilzen continues killing all of the Skytes below us, I hold onto the man I love.
What?
No.
Yes.
It’s true—I do love him, have always loved him.
Like a dream, there is no sound, only movement dancing at the periphery of my consciousness. Everything that is this moment, this space, is Andrew. Nothing else exists for me but him, and like a path meant to be traveled I am drawn closer to discover all that he has kept from me. And when our lips meet sound explodes, and my skin feels…everything. Sensations I have never felt before collide and a tide takes me until I’m pulled under. I find I can’t breathe, and yet my breathing comes fast and furious; I’m drowning but feel no need to resurface. He pushes deeper, invading everything that is me, and takes all of it the longer he explores, seeking and finding what I didn’t realize I had.
And like breaking through an icy surface, it stops.
When Andrew pulls away from me I feel dizzy, gasping for breath, and I have to lay my head on his shoulder. I keep my eyes closed, trying to regain my equilibrium. Is this what it’s like to be kissed? Will it always be like this? Because if it is I don’t think I can survive it.
I can feel myself shaking and Andrew holds me tighter. “It’s okay, Gracie.”
I can only breathe and nod, nod and breathe. I open my eyes to see over his shoulder Reiko staring at us, not one bit surprised.
“Reiko,” I whisper. He knew all along. Why did it take me so long to realize it’s always been Andrew? I continue to stare at Reiko, only to be surprised when a crooked smile appears on his face and he winks at me.
I feel Andrew tense, sighing as if annoyed. I move my head back to look at him but he’s staring over my shoulder, his face hard. I’m about to turn to see what has caught his attention when I realize it’s me; he didn’t want to look at me. Through clenched teeth he says, “I’m not Reiko.”
Then he lets go of the branch. We hit the ground hard, several feet from each other. Only a few feet, but it feels like a chasm.
~ * ~
Chapter Thirty
~ Andrew ~
I can still feel her lips, the softness of her during our kiss. How could I be so stupid as to let that happen again, knowing we can never be together? I can’t let her fall in love with a dead man.
Vilzen wouldn’t call on the mangrove trees for a thela when we first arrived because he felt it would be intrusive and disrespectful to ask. An invasion, he said, but after the attack we traveled another mile before he spoke to a mangrove about providing us with shelter. The tree he spoke to, this tree we are in now, he called a First: the First Children of Mother Earth.
I yank off my shirt, throwing it across the room. I’m furious with myself for letting the kiss happen, and my irritation is further aggravated when she enters the room.
“What, Grace?” I keep my back to her.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why would you push me at Reiko if you feel something for me?”
I sigh inwardly. I can’t believe this is happening. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you telling me that you didn’t feel anything when we kissed?”
Thinking fast, I say, “Of course not, Grace. I did it for Reiko’s benefit.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I figured he would be watching, and there’s nothing like getting a man’s attention by making him jealous. Trust me on this.”
“Are you serious? I don’t think he cares.”
I put a smile on my face before turning to her. “Of course. Why would you think it would be anything else?” A hurt look comes over her face. “And, seriously, Gracie, you call that a kiss? I can’t say too much about it but if that’s the best you got, then I guess it will have to be good enough.”
“Wha…what do you mean?”
“What I’m saying is…you pass. You don’t need any more lessons. Tomorrow we’ll go full on with project Get-Reiko. Before the Rising you two will be together. I promise.” I give her a wide congratulatory grin.
She blinks at me, then nods. “Of course, right. It’s just that when we…”
“When we what?” I interrupt. “When we put on that show for Reiko?”
I can see her struggling with what I’m saying, with how I’m acting, and it slices my insides. I keep up the facade, grinning so hard my cheeks hurt.
I move to her and she steps back, withdrawing like a wounded animal, and my heart breaks. “Listen, it’s getting late and tomorrow night we’ll be in Kalorii. So, get some rest and I’ll see you in the morning. I’m pretty tired myself.”
She doesn’t move, her eyes searching my own, and it takes everything in my being to hold her stare. She nods slowly and I wait for her to leave. Instead, she comes closer and I feel myself back up.
I turn from her. “You need to leave, Grace.” I feel my frustration rise, my anger following. “You don’t belong here. I don’t want you here.” I believe those words hurt me more than they do her. When she still doesn’t move, I’m about to turn on her and physically remove her from the room. But then I feel her fingers touch my back and I go still…my body tenses, the struggle to resist her becoming unbearable.
“So many,” she whispers as her fingers lightly trace a recent scar, then another. She steps closer and when her lips touch the first, I am about to lose my mind. No…you can’t let this happen. She deserves to be happy. I shake my head and pull angrily from her, moving toward the end of the bed. Big mistake, as images of her in it burn into my thoughts. I move away again, heading toward the door.
I forgot how fast she is, and she appears in front of me, cutting off my escape. She doesn’t say a word but I can feel her eyes on me. She places a hand on my chest, her touch both hesitant and curious. I keep my eyes on the wall, refusing to look at her.
“Andu,” she breathes. When she says my true name for the first time, my eyes drop to meet hers. And there it is. Everything I wanted to see from the first time I met her: her want, her need…her love.
She gasps when I grab her by the shoulders in a hard grip, shaking her once. Her eyes are wide but unafraid. There’s only trust, the same trust that was there the first day I met her.
“Grace, you don’t underst…” She doesn’t let me finish. Her arms are around my neck, stopping me instantly. Her lips hard against mine, wanting, waiting for me to let her in—to teach her, to guide her…and I give in.
Now that she is in my arms, I gather her up as I take from her as much as I give. My hands are under her shirt, massaging her back, unable to get enough of the feel of her skin, and when she moans I lose all sense. The taste of her, her scent, her softness takes me over the edge. And as for Grace, she is out of control. She moves against me, pushing hard as her fingers dig into my back, following her body’s instinct to release an aching need. I know because I feel it, too. The pain, the pleasure…it’s too much and I pick her up, making our way to the bed with every intention of taking her this night. She refuses to part from me, to stop the kiss—eager, hungry…and clumsy.
Clumsy.
Clumsy and innocent.
I will take her innocence and leave her damaged, hurt and alone. I can’t…I can’t do it. I love her too much to do this to her.
