Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall (15 page)

I looked down at the dragon fang on my leg.  "You killed a dragon to save the world?"

Shayla smiled bitterly.  "That makes it sound very melodramatic.  But it is close enough to the truth that I will let it stand."

"But what does killing a dragon do to change things?  I mean, back then?  Why did that made a difference?"

"The dragons guarded the portals between the realms.  There were two.  And while the beasts were there, while they stood sentinel, they made it possible for the doors between realms to be used.  But once the dragons were exterminated, the portals were sealed forever, making it impossible for those in other realms to pass into this one."

"And yet, here you are," I said.  "And there are orcs here, too.  How is that possible?"

"An excellent question," said Shayla.  "I wish I knew the answer, but I don't."

Garrett cleared his throat guiltily.  "A-
hem.
  I might be able to shed a little light on that issue, perhaps."

"By all means," said Shayla.  "Light up the night with your truth, Garrett."

He smiled thinly.  "We had two of the dragon souls in the Underworld.  And believe me, they were not happy about ending up there, since all they'd ever done was their duty - according to them."

Shayla shrugged.  "Someone has to be the bad guy."

"Exactly," agreed Garrett.  "But they preferred to be the bad guys in the Here and Now, and not in the Underworld.  They were never supposed to be there, you see.  They were to remain immortal, in the Here and Now, carrying out their roles as regular as clockwork - as regular as the elements.  I daresay they had begun to believe they were their own elements of sorts.  Quite arrogant, if you ask me, really."

"So what happened?" I asked.

Shayla picked up the story.  "The councils had decided during the Time of Sadness that the only way to get our realm back on track was to rely only on one another, and to stop leaning so heavily on the other realms and their inhabitants to right our wrongs and support us emotionally, or to do our dirty work.  So they ordered the portals closed forever, which meant their dragon guardians had to go too."

"Talk about arrogant," I said.  "Who gave them the power to do that?"

"Fae have always had the power to self-determine.  The portals were a crutch.  I don't necessarily think it was a bad decision then, and I still don't now.  It was a terrible time for us.  I cannot even now, with the wisdom of hind-sight, find a better solution."

"I agree with Shayla.  The last thousand years of contemplation has not revealed anything more clearly to me either.  We did what we had to do, and that was it.  The problem was solved."

"Until now," I said.

"Yes.  Until now," agreed Garrett.  "Someone or a group of someones in the Underworld has discovered a way to come back here.  And they want the portals opened up without their dragon guardians in place so they can come and go as they please.  I believe
this
is what they are working towards, as we speak."

"But if they're already coming back here, why do they even need the portals opened?"

"Because what they are able to do now is only on a limited basis.  They are restricted by time and in number.  Should the portals be opened, however, they would not suffer these restrictions - and believe you me, even if the dragons were finally released back into the Here and Now, they would probably do nothing to stop them from coming through.  I believe they would consider it the fae's and humans' just desserts for sending them to the Underworld unfairly."

"Where are these old portals?" I asked.  "I mean, are they in a place, like on the map?  Or is it more ... magical than that?"

"They are in places on the map," said Shayla.  "Although those places move, as time continues on, but infinitesimally so.  They are in the area you know as Europe.  I don't believe they have changed spots on the map very much, if at all."

"Do you know the town names?"

"You would do better with showing us a map," said Garrett.  "Towns move as people come in and out, families grow, or industries change.  Showing you the coordinates based on the landscape would be more accurate."

"My friend Tony, he's a wrathe, he said he thinks the orcs and that demon came through in the Gray."  I searched their faces for a reaction, but it had gotten too dark for me to see.

"I had assumed as much," said Garrett.  "I gather it is not an easy task nor one that is accomplished without some magic; but I did hear that there had been some success."

"Where did you hear this?" asked Shayla, right before I was about to ask the same exact question.

"Oh, there were rumors going around."

"What's it like in the Underworld, anyway?" I asked.  "Are you all just sitting around pits of fire or something?  Waiting for your chance to come back here?"

"No, it is not nearly so dramatic," said Garrett, laughing bitterly.  "It is very much like here, actually.  Only the creatures living there have a different set of values than those here or in the Otherworld.  And one special treat we enjoy as members of that realm is the constant, incessant reminders of the wrongs we brought upon ourselves and others in the Here and Now.  We get to feel their pain and experience their emotions, over and over."

"Even after they're dead?" I asked.

"Oh, yes.  Absolutely.  Actually, I have found it to be a very effective deterrent.  I am quite sure I never want to return there.  When I get my second chance, I will take full advantage of my knowledge and painful lessons."

"How will you do that, being born with no memory of your torture?" asked Shayla.  Her words were softer now, less angry-sounding.

"One cannot suffer as I have and not retain some of its echoes.  I will remember enough, I am confident of that."

"Assuming Maggie and I haven't totally screwed you over, you mean," I said.  I felt a little guilty now, thinking I might have sentenced him to more Underworld torture.  It sounded awful.  I could totally picture myself being punished, having to re-live all the times I did stupid stuff over and over, saying shit that hurt people's feelings.  I vowed right at that moment to do whatever I could to avoid that destiny.

"I was brought here against my will.  I will continue to function under the assumption that I will not be punished for it.  And who knows?  Maybe the demons will get their way and the portals will be reopened.  Then everyone will be here and we can have a big party."

"That's not even funny, Garrett," said Shayla, standing.  Her wings reappeared, lighting up the area with their blinding whiteness.

"Where are you going?" I asked.  "Back to the Overworld?"

Shayla sighed.  "Alas, I cannot.  Like Garrett, now that I have been summoned, I am stuck here.  Without the portals being opened, I am not free to travel back and forth."

"Did I do that?" I asked.  "I mean, you were already kind of here in my head, right?"

"Yes, the veil between our realms is thin enough that with a strong enough desire, I was able to make a connection with you.  But I could not cross over without you summoning me."

"Does that mean I can summon others?" I asked, my mind racing.

"Perhaps.  And because of this, I must caution you.  I believe your power to summon is equally strong in both other realms.  Be careful of accepting pleas or invitations from creatures you do not know.  You could bring someone to you who you do not ever want to see."

I swallowed hard, thinking about Torrie and how close I'd come to being his very unwilling lover.  "Yeah, okay.  Good advice."

Garrett stood and brushed off his pants.  "Well, then, Shayla ...  I hope it will not be too much of an imposition for me to spend the next few days with you, then - or however long we will be here.  I have nowhere to go, and I suspect we would not be welcome in the fae compound."

"What are you guys going to do?  Stay out here in the forest?"

"We are used to making shelter among the trees," said Shayla.  "Do not concern yourself with our welfare."

"How am I going to find you?  I mean, later.  And shouldn't I tell the council you're here?  I'm sure they'd want to talk to you."

"I ask that you keep our presence quiet for now.  After Garrett and I have had some time to discuss our situation and compare what we've seen, we will know better our next course of action.  Do you agree to this, Garrett?"

"Of course.  I defer to your wisdom, oh guardian from Silver House."

"Stuff it in your saddlebags, Garrett."

"Of course, my lady," he said, a smile in his voice.

"When you are ready to see us again, just reach out for me in your mind.  We are connected, you and I.  When you are distressed, I can feel it," Shayla said to me, her hand moving to rest on her dragon-fang weapon.

"Oh, goody.  Another empath."

"You know of another?" she asked.

"Yes.  My best friend, Tony.  The wrathe I told you about."

"I should like to meet him," she said.

"You will.  And Tim, too.  I can't keep secrets from either of them.  How about tomorrow?  After breakfast?"

"Very good."

"I will do what I can to find food," said Garrett, "but if I am not able to, Jayne, I would ask that you agree to provide for me once more."

Shayla hissed in a breath, spinning to face him.  "You've fed from her?!"

"I had no choice," he said calmly.  "What was I to do?  Turn to dust in the witch's house?  I think not.  I have waited much too long to walk away from my next lifetime; and you know how it works ... ashes to ashes ..."

"...Dust to dust, yes, I know, Garrett.  I don't need you to lecture to me as if I was a child."

"Sorry, guys, but I'm not following," I said, waiting for an explanation.

"I'll talk to you about it tomorrow," said Shayla, sounding tired.  "Just do me a favor - no more blood letting until we talk, okay?"

"Sure, no problem.  I didn't even like it, anyway."

"You didn't?" asked Garrett, sounding offended.  "Well, of course you did.  Don't be silly."

"No, actually I didn't.  It stung and it hurt, if you really want to know.  I feel very ripped off over the whole thing, to be honest.  I was ready to be all drugged out over it, but instead I got zipped."  I looked down at my arm and saw two swollen bite marks, oozing a little fluid but thankfully not bleeding.

Shayla started laughing and couldn't stop, resting her hand on my shoulder.

"Okaaay, so something I said was hysterically funny.  Anyway, I'm tired and I have to go to bed.  I'll catch you guys on the flip side."

I walked away hearing Garrett behind me asking Shayla, "Whatever does she mean by catching us on the flip side?  Where is that?"

I wondered how long Shayla would keep laughing, since I heard the tinkling sound of it all the way back to the infinity door, leading into the compound.  I couldn't wait to get to my room and tell Tim all about what had happened.  He was going to shit a brick over it.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I BANGED THE DOOR TO my room closed, scanning the foyer and then inside the sitting room for my pixie friend.  He was nowhere to be seen, but the instant my eyes fell on the pixie table, a little figure came buzzing up from amidst the flowers there.

"Oh, shit.  I woke the baby," I said aloud.

"Woke the baby!  Woke the baaaabyyyy!" said Willy, flying over to me in an even crazier, out-of-control flight path than normal.  I snatched him out of mid air, worried he was going to splat himself into the door if he kept going.

"Hello, Lellamental!" he said, his little wings buzzing on and off as he sat in my palm with his legs straight out in front of him and his face split in a huge grin.  "Wanna play?"

"No thanks, Willy.  I'm too tired.  I have to go to sleep now.  That's what you should be doing, too."  I looked around the room desperately.  "Where are your parents, anyway?"

He yawned, flopping over backwards in my hand, splaying his arms out at his sides, bending his wings all up.  "They're playing spider-nakies in the garden."  He started swishing his arms and legs up and down like he was trying to make snow angels.

I reached down to try and lift him back up straight with my finger, but all he did was giggle and push me away.

"Spider-nakies?" I asked.  "What's spider-nakies?"

Willy sat up all of a sudden, his giggling forgotten.  "Wanna play spider-nakies with me?!"

I closed my hand around him to keep him from falling out, laughing in spite of my fatigue and general uneasiness with being around a baby and no parents in sight.  "I doubt it," I said, opening my hand a little in response to his now struggling form.

"Come on, let's do it.  It's fun, Lellamental, you'll see."

"My name isn't Lellamental.  It's Jayne."

"No it's not.  It's Lellamental.  Now take your clothes off like
this!" 
He quickly stripped off his tiny pants and was wrestling with his shirt when I realized what the 'nakie' part of this game involved.

"Holy shit, Willy!  You can't take your clothes off in here!"  I looked around in a panic, worried someone was going to come in and see me with a naked baby sitting in my hand.  I tried not to look, but he'd launched himself up into the air and was zooming all over the place now, coming in dangerous proximity to the ground and walls.

I ran after him, scrambling around the room with my hands out, trying to catch him long enough to throw him back into his bed.  I figured I could put a pillow case over his sleeping area and at least keep him contained until his parents got back.

"Weeee!!  Spiiiiiider nakiiieees!!" he squealed, finally succeeding in getting his shirt off and tossing it to the ground.  It floated down slowly, like a piece of lint, while I tripped over a table leg, trying to keep the kid from hitting the wall.

He ended up on a tree growing out of the rock wall, gripping onto it with his hands and feet.  He turned his head and looked at me, a mischievous grin on his face, out of breath from all the flying around like a maniac. 

I couldn't help but laugh at the tiny pixie buns that were glaringly white compared to the bark of the tree.