Dark Lord of Kismera: Knights of Kismera (38 page)

THE FOLLOWING DAY Cerise and Drace did some sightseeing and the third day left for Paris.

Paris was the one city Drace had always wanted to see. He wasn’t disappointed. Only one thing would have made it better and he tried very hard not to think of her.

Drace and Cerise took rooms in an old, posh hotel on the Seine with the view of the Eiffel Tower visible from their windows.

He talked Cerise into walking a few blocks to a small café with alfresco dining.

Drace sat back in his chair with a glass of wine, waiting for their order while he watched the river and pedestrian traffic.

After a meal of vichyssoise and filet mignon with herb butter, they relaxed over soufflé-filled crepes with red raspberry sauce and rich black coffee.

“Thank you,” Drace said quietly.

Cerise looked over the rim of her coffee cup and asked, “What was that for?”

“For talking me into coming on this trip.”

“Well,” she smiled, “you’re welcome. What brought that on?”

He sat back in his chair. “Even if it’s just for this moment, this is the most peace I’ve felt in a long time. Even when Ki was with me in Vegas, it always hung over my head that the end was near.” He heaved a sigh. “Don’t get me wrong…I’d do it all over in heartbeat.” He stared into the night.

“I think I follow you,” Cerise sympathized, relaxing.

“Sometimes it’s just a dull ache and other times I feel like someone ripped my heart out of my chest and I can barely breathe. I don’t know whether to scream or cry.”

Cerise looked at him with tears in her eyes. “But you’re not just choking to death on it anymore?”

“Well…not as often. I think it was harder the first time. I didn’t even know if she had survived, although I was fairly sure she had. Maybe it was because I felt she hadn’t given me the choice to stay or go.”

“From what you told me it was to save your life.” She took a sip of coffee. After you recovered and I went back to Virginia, I did some research….Astral Planes, quantum physics, that sort of thing.”

Drace raised an eyebrow.

“Not light reading, I assure you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Not that I didn’t believe what you’d told me, but more out of curiosity. I wondered if someone could control it.”

“It was magic. Didn’t you feel it at the arena the night Ki went back?”

“Yes I did. But what is magic? Isn’t it just a matter of controlling the universe around you?”

Drace gave her a frustrated look. “So you want to try your hand at magic, or whatever, and then what? You’re going to send me back?”

Don’t be obtuse. I can’t do it. Didn’t you say that Nimbus told you that particular spell could be controlled forward and back for each person once? After that you could be lost, right?”

“Right.”

“If a powerful dragon wizard…”

“Sorcerer,” Drace corrected, placing his elbows on the table.

“Sorry, sorcerer. Anyway, if Nimbus couldn’t control it, there’s no way under the sun you or I could. I know that, but I think there is a way to get you back. To get us
both
over there.”

A waitress came to take their plates and to refill their coffee cups, giving Drace the chance to gather his thoughts about his stubborn, persistent aunt. He ran both hands through his shoulder length hair. “What do you mean, get us both over there?”

“Just listen, okay? It’s not as far fetched as you think, and I’ll tell you why. On the plane today, when I fell asleep, I had this dream. I felt this presence, like someone was standing behind me. I turned and no one was there, but I could still feel it. I wasn’t afraid; I knew it wouldn’t hurt me. I asked who was there and what they wanted. I got an answer.”

Drace leaned forward. “What was it?”

“It was a deep, masculine voice, and it said, ‘There is a way. The Knight and his kinswoman prepare. When they find it they will make the journey’. Then I saw a glimpse of a lion and it disappeared into a mist.

“Oh shit,” Drace whispered, his surprise reflected on his face.

“And if you go, I’m going. You’re not leaving me behind…again.”

Cerise and Drace walked leisurely back to the hotel along the river. Drace had an arm draped over her shoulders in big brother fashion.

“I hope you realize that it might just have just been a dream. We may be facing something impossible to do,” she warned.

Drace gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I know. I’m not getting my hopes up. It does warrant further study, but I know the score. However…I don’t want to go if it is do-able but I have to come back. I won’t go through that again. I can’t. It’s just too damn hard, C.”

I know, hon.”

“It’s a one way ticket or I don’t want it.” With a sigh of resolve, the two continued on to the hotel, both deep in thought.

Drace entered his room. He took off his coat, and boots, he opened the drapes and looked out over the City of Lights. He could not stop thinking about Cerise’s dream. He had done some Internet searches back home, trying to learn more about Werren culture. He Goggled Werren language, Werren legends, and Werren culture and only got one hit. A book scanned by the Google Books project, which was in French. He had it bookmarked on his smart phone.

THE NEXT MORNING Drace went for a stroll. Cerise was still asleep. They had planned on visiting the Eiffel Tower together in the afternoon, but he just wanted to stand in its shadow by himself. On the way back to the hotel, he noticed a small shop tucked in on a side street between a second hand bookstore and a milliner. It was a jewelry shop. He reached in his pocket and felt the dragon’s tear.

Drace stepped inside and was greeted by an elderly man who was a master goldsmith. The man was waiting on another customer, so Drace browsed through glass cases. He studied a tray of wedding bands and felt a tug of longing. He was startled from his thoughts when the gentleman spoke from the other side of the counter. Realizing that Drace spoke no French, he addressed him in English. “These rings won’t do for you,
monsieur.
You need something more,” he searched for the right English word. “Powerful.”

Before Drace could correct him on why he was in there, the elderly man brought out a smaller tray. “These may interest you,
monsieur,”
he stated. “I made these a few years ago before my hands could no longer do the intricate work. They are
tres bon
but most people find them a bit, how do you say, medieval.”

Drace was going to tell the man what he had come for when one set of rings on the tray caught his eye. Three of the four pairs of rings were done in different patterns of Celtic rope work. Drace made an involuntary sound at the fourth set. Engraved in the wide gold bands was a pair of lions in the Scottish fashion, facing each other with scroll work in between.

“Try it on,
monsieur.
I believe it suits you.”

Drace slid the man’s ring onto the ring finger of his left hand, the metal warm against his skin. Even with the size of his hands, the ring fit perfectly.
What are the odds?”
he thought.

Once, after a winter’s afternoon of making love, Drace had toyed with a ring Ki had been wearing, removing it from her finger and slipping it on one of his pinkies. Drace picked up the lion ring’s mate and slid it on his little finger.
Oh Christ,
he thought,
A perfect match.
I’ll take them both,” he said, impulsively.

“I knew you would like them,
monsieur.
You have the look of a warrior about you,” the jeweler said.

Drace looked up at him, surprised.

“One cannot really hide what they truly are, no?” the gentleman said with a smile.

Drace returned it with his own broad smile. “I need a chain so I can wear this one,” he said, indicating the smaller of the two rings. “Until I can give it to my wife.” He winced inwardly at that.
I just want to keep it close to my heart.

Drace reached into a front pocket of his Levis and pulled out the dragon’s tear, laying it carefully on the counter.

It was the jeweler’s turn to gasp. “I have never seen a stone such as this,” he breathed.

“Can you make a fitting for a necklace for it?” Drace asked.

“Of course, of course,” the jeweler said. “But you will want leather to hang it if it is for you, monsieur. It is too much, too powerful for a chain, I think.”

Drace agreed and told the man he would be back after lunch to pick up the red stone and the rings. Reluctantly, he moved to take the man’s ring from his finger.

“Non,
monsieur.
Wear it. I have your stone; I can tell you value very much. I will see you later today.”

Drace thanked him and was about to leave when he stopped and turned back to the jeweler. “May I ask you one more thing?” Drace asked as he pulled out his smart phone.

“Oui monsieur.”

“Do you know where I might find this book?”

The jeweler took the phone and pulled it close to read the small text.
“Oui, Bibliotheque Nationale,
the National Library.”

“Merci,”
Drace said.

After a lunch of quiche Lorraine, Drace and Cerise went together to the Eiffel Tower.

Drace stood on the observation deck, looking out at the panorama of Paris. He remembered going up with Ki to the mock Eiffel tower in Vegas. After both his parents had died, memories would be triggered at odd times and the loss would hit him. Time softened the pain, but it was still there, even years later. The same sort of emotion jarring memories of Ki haunted him. There hadn’t been enough time to soften her loss. How long will it take before the memories don’t make my heart bleed?

Cerise hit him on the arm, bringing him back to awareness. “What?”

“I’ve been trying to take a picture of you for the last couple of minutes but you’ve had this scowl on your face.

“Sorry. I was just reminiscing,” he admitted, and then turned to look back at the view. “I think I could live here,” he said, putting his hands on the railing and leaning forward. The wind caught at his hair, making loose dark strands fly around his face. “If I didn’t have the farm and could pick a city this would be it,” Drace mused.

Cerise wanted to do some shopping and Drace said he would catch up with her at the hotel. He went back to the jeweler for the rings and dragon’s tear. The man handed the pieces back to him along with a piece of paper with the national library’s address and the name of a woman, a librarian there who could assist him.

The man came around the counter and put his hands up on Drace’s shoulders. Drace leaned over and the man kissed him on each cheek. Drace bowed his head in thanks.

He walked back to his hotel, the smaller lion ring and the dragon’s tear warm against his chest, the jeweler’s note in his pocket.