The Royal Pursuit (25 page)

“
What did you do to her?”
he yelled though he couldn’t move.

William pulled out his sword. “Besides
committing adultery, I killed the one man she truly
loves.”

The man in white grimaced as he
watched William stab Hathor. He immediately pressed the button to
stop the scene. Then he cleared the mirror.

His heart grew heavy as his mind
processed the images he witnessed. He should have taken time to
investigate the kind of person he was partnering up with when he
went to William about bringing Atlantis back on the map. He had
just been so excited about being home he didn’t consider the price
involved. He knew it was too soon to love Ann, but he knew he could
love her if given the time to. He also knew someone else already
loved her enough to risk his life for her, someone who would also
wait as long as necessary to be with her.

He put the mirror down and walked over
to the large window. He studied Atlantis, marveling at its majesty.
He had hoped to bring this beauty to Earth. After what he saw, he
realized that for once in his life, he was going to have to put
someone else before himself.

Without another word, he turned and
walked out of the room. He knew what he had to do, even if it meant
watching his beloved city sink back into the ocean.

***

Second Commander Jaz was the first to
wake up in the diamond cube. She banged on it, trying to find a
weakness in it so that she and her fellow prisoners could escape,
but she couldn’t find one. After five minutes, she gave up and took
out her telecommunicator.

“
Leader Paff? This is
Second Commander Jaz.”

“
Jaz? Thank goodness! First
Commander Zak and I have been worried about you and Guard Falon
ever since we lost communication with you back on Lone,” Leader
Paff said. “We’ve searched for you but couldn’t find
you.”

“
For some reason, this
telecommunicator didn’t work on Lone. There must have been some
strange interference that we couldn’t detect.”

“
Where are you now? Are you
on your way back to Pale?”

“
I wish.” She sighed.
“Right now I’m trapped in a large cube. We’re on Earth in a city
called Atlantis. I’ll send you the coordinates now.” She typed in
the necessary information. “Did you get that?”

“
Yes, I did. What are you
doing there?”

“
It’s a long story, but the
queen’s life is in danger. We met up with Hathor, but he’s not with
us now.”

“
Who are you
with?”

“
I’m with Guard Falon,
Athen, and five Nicals. We need to be rescued.”

“
I will send out an
emergency rescue team immediately. Do you think you will be able to
survive until then?”

“
Our chances are good of
that,” she said, examining her prison. “There doesn’t seem to be
any immediate threat to our lives.”

“
Good. I will gather a team
and head out there as soon as I can. Paff out.”

She ended her transmission and sat
back.

Athen was the next one to wake up. He
sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What happened?”

“
Someone trapped us in this
cube,” she replied. “They also took Hathor and the Book of
Spells.”

“
Did you recognize the
person who did this to us?”

Her mind ran through their capture.
Before she passed out, she did recall a familiar face, but it
wasn’t a face she had seen on any planet but Earth. “Now that I
think of it, yes. His name is William Nichols, and he knew Queen
Ann very well in her past.”

“
William Nichols? Isn’t
that the same person who almost injected her with the mind
controlling chip three years ago?”

She nodded. “He was exactly the kind
of puppet Omin-2 needed.”

“
But how does he remember
that Queen Ann rules Raz?” Guard Falon asked, sitting
up.

“
That is a good
question.”

The Nicals slowly woke up from their
sleep. As soon as they accessed their situation, they gathered
closely together, obviously scared. Jaz noted that Athen seemed
upset by the way Sando comforted Optima.

“
I contacted Leader Paff
and he is on his way with a rescue team to save us,” Jaz assured
them. “We shouldn’t be stuck here for long.”

“
Thank goodness our
telecommunicators work here,” Falon said.

“
We have to save Queen Ann
and Hathor,” Athen said. “Since we know she’s pregnant with the
next queen, she will be my priority.”

“
She’s a priority for all
of us. We’ll help you save her and the king.”

“
I hate to mention this,”
Ruler Dour interrupted, “but the Nicals aren’t able to fight. We
have been greatly weakened by the virus, and though we are now
cured, our bodies need time to regain our strength.”

“
That’s understandable,”
Jaz said. “We will put you on the spaceship as soon as it
arrives.”

“
I feel so helpless,”
Optima replied. “We were nothing but pawns in that man’s game, and
we couldn’t stop him.”

“
You let the queen escape,”
Athen argued. “Thanks to you, she’s still alive right
now.”

She smiled at his kind words, her hair
turning a pretty shade of pink.

Jaz settled back and saved her energy
for the battle that would soon come.

Chapter
Twenty

Captain Reed walked up to William, who
stood in the room that once belonged to Hades. Hathor, Stacey, and
Kent were still asleep on the floor where he had put them. William
was tapping the mirror in his hands against his knee impatiently.
When would they wake up? Surely, the gas couldn’t have been that
potent.

“
I have killed Stephen and
Mark,” Captain Reed said. “They’ve been disposed of so no one will
find them.”

William smiled. “The alibi is
set?”

“
It’s perfect, just as you
said,” he replied.

“
Good. I hate to leave any
loose ends. You will be my vice-president. Oh, and the five million
dollars will transfer to your account by tomorrow
morning.”

“
Is there anything else you
want me to do?”

William considered the question. He
didn’t trust the man who wore white. He was reluctant to get rid of
Ann’s child, who would ultimately abolish William’s reign over
Atlantis.

“
There is one loose end we
need to tie up,” William said. “Ann is pregnant, and I have
foreseen that child destroy Atlantis. We have to make sure that
never happens.”

“
You want me to kill
Ann?”

“
No. I will spare her life
since she spared mine in the past. I try to be fair when I can be.”
William paused then asked, “Do you know how to perform an abortion
with this city’s technology?”

“
It’s easy. I reviewed some
of the books in the library,” he replied. “Stephen and Mark didn’t
think I could read the language here, but they were
wrong.”

“
Of course, the abortion
will upset her.”

“
No, it won’t. The
Atlantians knew how to wipe people of their painful memories. It
was one of their quests for eliminating sorrow.”

William was amazed at the things the
six leaders created in their rule. It was a privilege to follow in
their footsteps. “Good. Wipe that memory from her. There’s no need
to bother her with minor details.”

“
Yes.” He turned to
leave.

“
And Reed?”

He stopped and looked back at
William.

“
I’ll give you another five
million for this task.”

Reed nodded then hurried out of the
room.

William snickered as Reed left. It was
incredibly easy to control someone whose primary motive in life was
to make a lot of money in a short period of time.

Hathor groaned as he began to wake up,
Kent and Stacey following suit.

William patiently waited for Hathor
and his friends to stand up.

“
Why am I not surprised to
see you again?” Hathor dryly asked, his hard gaze on
William.

It wasn’t the reaction William had
hoped for. He’d hoped Hathor would display some level of fear, but
William should have known that his nemesis would say something to
piss him off.

“
I remember everything that
happened from the time you bothered me on Earth,” William replied,
not hiding his hatred for the Razian. “Do your friends
remember?”

“
Remember what?” Kent
asked.

William chuckled. “This is going to be
better than I anticipated. I have some distressing news for you,
Kent and Stacey.”

“
I remember you,” Stacey
interrupted. “That’s William Nichols, Ann’s ex-boyfriend. He’s the
one I told you about.”

William frowned. “Yes, it’s me. I
found Ann without your help. Of course, you weren’t willing to help
me.”

“
Why would I?” she snapped.
“You broke up with her so you could date her friend Teresa. Not
that I can think highly of Teresa either. I will never understand
why she wanted you back after that, but I talked to her earlier
today, and she has no desire to see you anymore so your game won’t
work on her this time.”

William burst out laughing. “That’s
rich. Why does everyone assume I want Ann back?” Turning to Kent,
he asked, “You don’t remember meeting Hathor before?”

“
You shouldn’t mess with
the past,” Hathor tensely replied.

He ignored Hathor and showed them the
mirror. “You don’t remember meeting Hathor at Wright State
University?” he asked Kent as the memory on the mirror played
before them. “You two were good friends. Or were you? Wouldn’t a
good friend let you remember that friendship? Perhaps he didn’t
trust you enough to keep his identity a secret. What kind of a
friend does that?”

Kent looked at Hathor in disbelief.
“Is this true? Did we already know each other, and you robbed me of
my memories?”

“
Yes, but for a good
reason,” Hathor replied.

“
A good reason? You didn’t
trust me to protect your identity?”

“
Ann and I wiped everyone’s
memories of that time. We didn’t want to cause any potential
damage. William had known Ann was the Queen of Raz, and he sent us
back into the past so he could marry her and be the king of Raz. It
created a lot of chaos on Earth.”

“
Yeah, a lot of good that
did you. Look where you’re at now,” William snickered.

“
I can’t believe you didn’t
trust me.” Kent shook his head. “I’m nothing like
William.”

“
It wasn’t a matter of
trust. We just thought it was easier to keep things simple,” Hathor
argued.

“
So he says.” William
yawned. “The fact remains he didn’t think much of you as a friend.
I would understand if you left now and never saw him
again.”

“
Let’s get out of here,”
Stacey told Kent.

“
What did I do to make you
think you couldn’t trust me?” Kent asked.

“
Kent,” she interrupted.
“Don’t waste your time.”

“
Listen to her,” William
said. “For once, she’s making sense.”

She rolled her eyes, but he didn’t
care.

After Kent and Stacey left the room,
William grinned, loving what he would say next. “You have not only
lost your friends, but you have also lost Ann. You’ll be happy to
know she will live after all. However, the man who wears all white
and carries that ridiculous cane is in love with her and plans to
marry her. Of course, we still have to eliminate Amanda, which
we’ll do by performing an abortion.”

William knew the attack would come so
he dodged Hathor’s punch when it came.

Furious, Hathor lunged at him. “I’m
not letting you go. This time you’re a dead man!”

William quickly slipped out of the
room and pressed the red button on the side of the doorway. He
smirked in satisfaction as the invisible field shocked Hathor,
throwing him back into the room.

“
I may not be able to
outfight you, but I can outwit you.” William threw his watch into
the room, which landed beside Hathor, who was still lying on the
floor. “You have five minutes to live before the room
self-destructs. Enjoy your torment.”

Hathor bolted up, raced to the doorway
and yelled, “I’m going to get out of here, and when I do, I’m going
to hunt you down and kill you! Do you hear me? I’m going to kill
you!”

William ignored him and kept walking.
The more threats Hathor made, the sweeter the victory tasted.
Revenge, indeed, was sweet.

***

Ann couldn’t stop crying. She was
trying to be strong and plan for a way to escape, but it was hard
when faced with the very real possibility of losing Hathor and her
child. She had to get her magic back. If she had that, then she
could at least do something. She wasn’t sure what she could do, but
it was better than sitting around and crying.