Between Darkness and Light Trilogy (25 page)

“You know I'm not good at lying.”

“Yes, unlike Novanus I fully understand that
point. Yet for this you will not have to lie, as long as you leave
the popular belief of the lack of a relationship between the two of
us up to me to explain. Not offering unnecessary information is not
lying, as you already know.”

“What if I am asked directly?”

“Then you may consider yourself under the
orders of an elder – as I am, you know.”

“Do you really think this would be
best?”

“I do, Shi'ahn, I do. For you, for Cas
Lydia, and ultimately, for Lumina.”

“Oh, all right. I dislike being so
universally hated almost as much as I dislike being revered on
Shiral, but if you truly believe it will be for the best…” She
nods. “Then yes, I'll not try to mend any fences during the
trip.”

“And continue not acknowledging our
friendship?”

“Even that.”

She smiles warmly, then abruptly changes the
subject. “By the way, I love what you've done with your rooms.” Her
smile turns playful as she disappears, and the passage of time, I
suspect, returns to normal.

I open my door to step out, startling a
servant.

“My Lady, I am to escort you to the
ambassadorial wing.”

“But William…”

“Here, Shi'ahn.” He closes his door and
joins us, a small travel bag slung over his shoulder. I’ll bet he’s
already wearing his gift from Puff. He smiles at my bag, which is
much larger than his.

“Got the kitchen sink in there, Sis?”

“Hardly. Zah-Ha’Gor’s gift does not fold
well. I’ve no idea how the material was worked into a dress, but
I’ll bet some pretty powerful magic was involved! I don’t suppose
you packed any food? I couldn’t fit any.”

He laughs, “Do you think of anything
else?”

“Quite a bit – but food is always necessary
yet not always attainable.” He puts his arm around me as we walk,
until we hear familiar voices ahead.

~~~

“What are you saying… that we’re going to
walk there? That could take months!” I recognize Nero’s grating
voice.

Darius replies, “It will not, we will be
taking what has proven to be a surprisingly swift passage.”

“Oh really! Funny, I have never heard of a
swift path between our realms. Will you be leading us into a
trap?”

“Of course not – we have sworn to protect
all who accompany us. If you doubt our sincerity, perhaps it would
be best for you remain here in Lumina.”

“Oh no, I wouldn’t miss this for
anything!”

William and I enter the room and Darius
smiles, turning his full attention toward us and away from Nero.
After a moment his eyes drop to my bag and he frowns slightly. “We
really will provide for your needs, Shi'ahn.”

“I certainly hope so, because all I have
here is one item that doesn’t pack well.”

He looks intrigued, but turns back to the
others. Nero, Gwenllian and Alma are looking at my slightly gaping
travel bag with expressions of disdain, while Celeste rolls her
eyes to the ceiling. Darius notes each reaction before
continuing.

“Now that we are all assembled we should be
going. All those who truly wish to accompany me please step into
the protective rune. We will be transporting first to our embassy,
from which we will transport to the midpoint. From there we will
Passage-walk.” I look around and see we are in a circular room, and
in the exact center is a large, highly magical circle. A balcony
looks down over us, as do a good thirty guards. What do they expect
to happen in here? We all step inside the strange looking rune.
“Ready?” He concentrates for a moment, and our guards change into
rather frightening creatures. No, that isn’t it… we have appeared
in a different, though extremely similar place that is also highly
guarded. Darius addresses the guards,

“Cas Darius ni Uisnach, escorting a party of
seven Luminarians coming to testify in the upcoming trial of Cas
Lydia ni Uisnach. They are as named; Gwenllian, Daughter of the
presumably late heir Prince Llywelyn, Lady of Lumina. Celeste,
Daughter of Countess Aurora, Lady of Lumina. Nero, son of the heir
apparent Prince Vespasian, Lord of Lumina. Alma, Daughter of the
deceased Prince Edward, Lady of Lumina. Casanova, Son of the
deceased Prince Edward, Lord of Lumina. William, unclaimed
descendant of Princess Nebulaea, Lord of Lumina, and Shi'ahn of
Shiral, unclaimed and unproven supposed descendant of Princess
Nebulaea. House Uisnach claims responsibility for both their safety
and their actions while they are in our presence.” Darius points to
each of us as we are named and the guards carefully scrutinize
us.

“Your oath has been duly recorded in the
register. You may proceed to the outer chamber.” Darius appears
relieved.

“Follow me, please.” He leads us down a long
hallway and into another warded room, though it seems different, as
though the warding is against something different. He steps into
the rune and again we follow. This time instead of finding
ourselves in a similar room, we are suddenly outside, surrounded by
very large and dangerous looking hound-like creatures.

Darius whistles a three-note chord and the
largest beast approaches him. Unfortunately, he is standing next to
me! Darius steps forward a little, reaches out and scratches the
beast behind its ears as it sniffs him at first tentatively, then
with growing pleasure. Darius sniffs it back, then smiles.

“Good Nightgaunt. These are our guests, we
are providing their safe conduct.” The beast looks us over, then
walks toward me. Darius assures me, “It’s OK, Shi'ahn. He
understands that he is responsible for your safety at this time.
Let him get your scent.” Ah well, it isn’t the first time a large
creature has sniffed me over. Everyone backs slightly away, but
then other hounds approach the rest. ‘Mine’ gets a bit
enthusiastic, whining happily at my travel bag, I instinctively
reach out and scratch him behind the ears and he licks at my face.
I hear the other hounds growl in distrust at the rest of our
party.

Dairus smiles, “Well, he seems to like you,”
then he drops his voice and asks quietly, “What do you have in
there, Shi'ahn?” I open it slightly and his eyes widen. “Really? I
look forward to seeing that.”

We both notice something odd going on with
the hound inspecting William, he growls questioningly while wagging
his tail… I’m sure of it now, my brother is wearing his armored
underwear. Darius correctly interprets my smile and moves to calm
the beast.

Since William and I seem to have passed
inspection, I look at our surroundings. The land is very open and
unspectacular, but the sky! There is a beautiful double blue star
looming large overhead, more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen
in space. Darius’s voice is soft in my ear.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? It lies at the exact
midpoint in our Universe – I’ve often wondered if it has a purpose
aside from captivating onlookers. Some say that they formed from
all that remained of the nebula matter left behind when Nebulaea’s
consciousness moved on to a more corporeal state.”

“Is it true?”

“No one knows. It happened a very long time
ago – few who witnessed it are still alive. What amazes me, if the
legend is indeed true, is that this is all that is left of that
nebula. It was not a small thing, after all, and yet, that which
awoke took with it a tremendous amount of mass. Have you ever met
Nebulaea?”

“Ah, no, I have heard it said that she no
longer walks among us.” I can’t pull my eyes away from the
magnificent stars, they seem to be moving rather fast, and they
sound… familiar?

“Go ahead and lose yourself in it for a
while – I have to make sure all the hounds fully accept their
charges before we move on… and they seem to be having a difficult
time with some of your relatives.”

I give my full attention to the amazing
sight above me. It truly does seem familiar, and yet that doesn’t
make sense – the larger sun’s
harmonies
sound
just
like… my sun – the sun of Shiral. Could it be? I call out to Gaea
through my new ring.

‘Yes, Shi'ahn? Where are you? Your thoughts
seem… near.’

‘I…’ I try to sense the ring’s link to Gaea,
and it stretches directly toward the smaller sun. ‘Gaea, I am on a
world not far away at all… I think I’m staring at you. You appear
to be a small blue sun in a dual orbit with a larger blue sun.’

‘That would be the moon-shield. It reflects
excess light and radiation away from the planet – without it we
would burn.’

‘You’ve never mentioned that before.’

‘I hadn’t known until recently. You told me
to grow stronger and protect Shiral; in preparing to do so I am
learning a great deal. Computer is being very helpful, by the way,
I thank you for introducing us and allowing our ongoing
communications. It is nice to finally have a friend.’

I’m not sure how to respond to that. ‘Gaea,
you must be careful with that connection.’

‘You do not trust Computer?’

'You misunderstand, I do trust my computer
to do its best to protect me, and therefore you; I do not trust
those of Lumina. Most do not like me, and in the past had used my
computer to spy on me. I removed their access, but they keep trying
to reestablish their connections. If they are successful in
compromising my computer, they may gain access to you, and that
cannot be allowed.'

'Shi'ahn, you taught me a great deal about
protecting myself, do you think any of that knowledge could help
Computer protect herself?'

Herself? 'Yes, I suppose it could. Just
always remember that you must maintain your own protective
measures; you protect not only yourself, but all our people.'

'Yes, of course, Shi'ahn.'

William has noticed my fascination with the
dual stars and places his hand on my arm, I send my thoughts
exploding toward him, ‘It’s Shiral! We mustn’t let anyone know, but
it is her!’ I feel his mind stretch toward the stars.

‘Well I’ll be… You’re right, we can’t let
this be known.’

Gwenllian’s voice cuts through our thoughts,
“What’s with you two? Haven’t you ever seen a double star
before?”

Tell the truth, Shi'ahn, just not the whole
truth. William beats me to it, “No, we haven’t. The moons of Shiral
are too bright to allow much of the night sky to be seen, our skies
are never very dark.”

She smiles at him, “Ah, I understand. It is
rather ironic, though. Rest assured, there are many such beautiful
sights in space - you have much to look forward too, William.”

Ironic?

William points out, 'We are Nebulaean – star
stuff, so to speak, and yet we have been denied the night
skies.'

'Ah yes, I suppose she would think of that,
being close to Novanus as she is. We will have to remember to be
awestruck by all night skies – if we aren't, this will in
retrospect seem conspicuous.’

‘That should be easy.’ We both scan the sky
for more amazing sights, but Shiral outshines everything else.

‘Gaea, we will be going soon. Remember, do
not speak to anyone but William and I, our dragons and my computer
– and don’t allow anything to happen that might draw attention to
your location from outside. Your safety lies in anonymity.’

Something sounds different nearby, the
growling has stopped for the most part. For some reason a couple of
the hounds really dislike Nero; they curl their upper lips and
continue to growl, though quietly. I can’t really blame them – I
don’t like him either.

Darius speaks with tremendous authority,
“Tindalos, Byakhee, stand down!” His eyes shine alarmingly as he
stares down the hounds, eventually they lower their muzzles and
whimper. “Good boys.” They look up and lick his face, he turns them
toward Nero, and while they still bare their teeth, they no longer
growl.

Darius turns to the rest of us, “It is time
for us to begin the real journey. Now due to… well, as I said
before, the unusual nature of this party, I have been ordered to
bring you in on a Passage that you will not likely be able to
retrace. Therefore, the hounds will lead us. Nightgaunt! Take the
lead.”

The hounds encircle us and we begin our
trek.

At first we simply walk along a footpath,
the only change I notice is that Shiral is no longer visible. Then
I begin to smell… sausages. We top a hill and down in the valley
there is a large building surrounded by something I can’t make out.
I smell it first – death. The grounds are covered by the remains of
bodies. Some of our hound guides whimper as though begging
permission to grab some bones for the trip, Darius’s voice booms
authoritatively, “No!” The whines subside. When we make it around
the building we see cases upon cases of canned sausages being
loaded onto transport devices… I feel kind of sick… and vindicated
in my dislike of sausage.

Still thinking of foods I dislike, my mind
is assailed by another unwanted scent – burned flesh. We come upon
a burning village; I can’t bear to look. The smell changes quickly,
though, to the smell of burning… chemical. Black smoke rises in the
distance, black round things stacked in high piles are burning, the
smoke is so black and thick all light is blocked out, it becomes
darker than I’ve ever experienced outdoors, and the air hurts my
lungs. Rats, I would have to be wearing leather, I cannot use it to
filter the air as some of the others do. Darius hands me a
handkerchief.

We emerge from the darkness as again the
scent changes, this time to that of a farmyard. A large machine
moves along an empty field, spewing brown stuff behind it. Manure.
Then a new smell, bacon.

Darius exclaims, “Ah, a restaurant - anyone
hungry?” Bile threatens to rise in my throat, I look at the others
and see similar reactions. “I guess not. Well, we should have
plenty of opportunities up ahead, the hounds like the smell of
food.”