Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (16 page)

“Go back,” urged the prince, seriousness on
his face. “You don’t have much time.”

But Ian just groaned in pain. As glad as he
was that the prince had some compassion on him, it was already a
lost cause. “I can’t,” he murmured, dread growing in his heart. “I
already told him the truth and he won’t believe me if I tell him
otherwise.”

A wave of staunch coldness suddenly drenched
Taishan’s countenance, his kindness towards Ian vanishing like the
fog after sunrise: “Then I cannot help you,” he murmured aloofly,
flinging out his left arm to the side.

Nothing more was said. The prince led Ian to
a door coated entirely emerald green. Leafy purple-green vines
crawled up the door--sweet-scented tropical flowers of red, orange,
and yellow, blossomed in various places on the door. In better
circumstances, Ian would’ve carefully studied how the vines and
flowers were growing without any soil, but he had no time for this
now.

The prince inserted a bronze key into the
door and turned it; he pushed open the door and signaled for Ian to
enter. Without saying goodbye, the prince left silently and coldly
as if Ian had just deeply insulted him.

Distressed, feeling as if he’d just lost a
friend, however weak the friendship had been, Ian entered the room,
closing the door behind him softly which locked into place as soon
as it shut. The aroma of exotic flowers reached him about the same
time that his eyes took in the beauty of the place. Forest green
carpeting, resembling grass, overlaid the floor. Deep purple, pink
and green, gold, and many other varieties of flowers grew out of
the carpet near the walls. He was stunned.

Widening his vision, he saw giant leaves
floating in a small stream, which flowed from one end of the room
to the other. To his left, a painting of an archaic wooden ship
battered by waves hung on the wall. Near to his right, four blue
bushes grew, all of them two feet tall, emitting a strong cherry
lilac scent.

Yet as impressive as this room was, it gave
him little enjoyment. He’d likely not live another night. If Master
Thargon didn’t kill him, the Elayans would find him again, or the
fickle king would decide to execute him. He didn’t have a chance,
and to think … his day had begun so normally.

Grieved at his terrible misfortune, he sunk
down to the floor and buried his head in his knees, when suddenly,
he heard a thud. Startled, he swung up his neck and scanned around
him. He immediately noticed his cell phone sprawled on its side
near his feet; it must have fallen out of his cloak pocket.

Picking it off the grassy carpet, he stared
at it reverently, turning it around in his hands as if it were a
priceless relic from the medieval ages. And to him, it was
priceless--it was his last connection to earth; his gum hardly
counted.

After a minute of gazing dreamily at his
phone, Ian returned to himself. Maybe the phone would work now …
maybe he could call Eddy again … maybe it would bring him back to
his world. Flipping it open, breathless, his hopes energized, he
stared at it … no! The screen was black; his phone was still
dead.

Clenching his fists and scowling in
blistering agony, he felt a sick dread, as despair cascaded into
his heart. He’d do anything to be back in his world now. He’d be
nicer to Eddy; he’d join Sandler’s team; he’d even treat his sister
better.

Pressing his fingers against his temple and
rubbing them, he squeezed his eyes shut. The party was probably
still going on at Hazel’s house; everyone was most likely having a
great time. Yet, here he was--a death sentence looming over his
head. It wasn’t fair. He didn’t ask for this torture. Why couldn’t
have this happened to someone else? Someone who deserved it more
like Kenn?

In deep reflection, he arose from the grassy
floor and saw a green pillow made out of flowers, cotton, and plant
fibers lying on the bed in front of him. Walking over to it,
through the trickling stream that came halfway up his boots, he
touched it, feeling its softness and warmth; it reminded him of his
own feather pillow at home, except it was much softer.

Murmuring to himself, too depressed to stay
awake any longer or change into one of several thin nighttime robes
that lay folded on top of a black shelf right beside his bed, he
climbed into the bed, laid down, and rested his head on the silken
pillow, wrapping a thick cotton blanket around his body.

Ominous thoughts swarming him like vampire
bats, he descended into a troubled sleep, where enchanted dreams
were the farthest thing from his mind.

Rubbing his throbbing forehead, commanding
Prince Saku to leave the room, King Kadeth waited restlessly,
preparing himself for the unexpected visit from the Verandel
ambassador. His mind was a tangle of emotions. Today had not been
pleasant.

When he’d woken up this morning, the day had
started rather normal. However, it had quickly changed at breakfast
when he’d been served stringy Alaja vegetables, distasteful slimy
buttered rolls, and half-cooked Sevanx fish imported from the
Southern Isles. How his favorite rolls had became soft and even
mushy was beyond him, and he didn’t even want to know who had
cooked his vegetables and fish as it would only further aggravate
him.

In any case, after eating only a few Alaja
beans, some moist whipped pudding, and a lush black-purple cluster
of Alamia grapes, as everything else was revolting to him, he’d
shoved the rest away from him, his servants apologizing profusely,
and had then gotten up, not wanting to dwell on it any longer.

But from thereon out, his day had only gotten
worse. As he’d finished his breakfast and had just sat down on his
throne to listen to his citizens’ complaints, petitions, and pleas,
a captain, named Farille, had fallen down before him and hurriedly
told him of how one of his trading ships,
The Silver Maple
,
had just sunk in the Southern Isles near Tazik. Claiming
vindictively that the dwarves were responsible, he demanded a quick
retribution.

Already having denied Farille his request
when the
Whistling Wind
had received damage by the dwarves
several months ago, the king had no choice now but to oblige the
captain’s request in spite of his own misgivings. Just last night,
he’d told his wife that they stood on a razor’s edge with Odak
Valduum, the dwarf lord, and that any action, however slight, could
be cause enough for the dwarves to declare war against them.

Still, to refuse the captain’s request would
be foolish and would make him appear spineless and weak. Besides,
he was getting rather sick of the dwarves and their greedy
attitudes, and believed they needed to be punished.

With those thoughts weighing heavily on his
mind, he’d told Captain Farille that he had full permission to sink
two dwarven vessels of his choice.

Upon having his request granted, the captain
had exited the throne room, a grim smile on his face. No sooner had
he left than a youthful elf named Fariam was ushered in by the
guards. Upon reaching a suitable destination near the throne, the
petitioner began to speak his request in such a nagging tone that
it soon became impossible to endure. His complaint was simply that
one of his guests, a young female elf, had broken an expensive
window in his inn called the Crystal Lantern Inn and he wanted her
to pay for it.

Seeing no point in wasting any time
determining the exact amount that she owed him, Kadeth had casually
motioned to his wife, who quickly pulled out a beautiful shining
white gemstone from a small treasure box behind her and tossed it
haphazardly at the young elf’s feet. This had become a common
procedure for the king in quickly ending complaints, as paying off
his citizens had saved him much time and effort--it was well worth
the extra cost.

Watching the young elf pick it up and stare
at it, the king had leaned back against his softly padded throne,
waiting for him to thank him profusely and then leave as so many
others had done in the past.

Unfortunately, however, Fariam had instead
tossed the gem back to the queen, a wrathful gleam in his eyes,
loudly protesting that he wanted the silver-haired elf and only her
to pay for his broken window, and that he would not accept a
thousand gemstones from the king.

Outraged by his ungrateful behavior, King
Kadeth had tried to persuade him that he was being foolish and
should just except the gemstone, when Fariam broke into outright
hostility, shouting “Down with the king!” in a wild frenzy, and
charged at him, his fists clenched tightly in the air.

Before he’d reached the king, however, the
guards had intervened and seized the rebel, King Kadeth sharply
ordering that they take him to the Nakar Dungeon, a fitting
punishment for such a demented mind. How such a person had ever
been the owner of a well-respected inn was more than he could
figure out. In fact, now that he rethought the matter, if he were
the young elf, he might have just broken all of the Crystal
Lantern’s windows. Why stop with just one?

Amused by that thought, the king stared at a
wonderfully detailed painting of a fortified tower in the city of
Maravi, a painting his grandfather had made, and smiled faintly.
Then he frowned again, as he thought back to the rest of his
day.

An hour after Fariam had come in, a strange
woman was ushered in all by herself, as elven law dictated. Though
King Kadeth prided himself in knowing names and facts about people,
he had continually racked his brain over the past several hours to
try to think of her name, but couldn’t remember it. Neither could
he think of her petition. All he could recall was that she had a
set eye to steal the treasure box behind his wife’s throne.

His wife, Queen Jahla, who was not at her
duties at the time as she had a frequent habit of leaving her
throne at the most bizarre and inopportune moments, had claimed
that she was tired and wanted to embroider some garments and read
some elven history books until she was relaxed. Queen Jahla,
although co-ruler with him, let, or rather made him do almost all
of the royal duties, while she herself simply kept a warm smile on
her face as she sat on her throne awaiting his decisions like a
mindless deer.

This smile of hers, which his youngest son
Saku seemed to have picked up all too eagerly, irked him. How she
could be so happy when a war with the dwarves seemed imminent never
ceased to amaze him.

But that wasn’t the point. The strange woman
that had come into the palace had feigned intense boredom, and just
when the king had gazed at her in annoyance thinking that she was
about to fall asleep, she’d leapt ten feet into the air,
disrespectfully landing on his wife’s empty throne, and had quickly
grabbed the heavy treasure box on the table behind the throne like
it were a box of feathers.

As she was just about to escape from the room
though, Prince Taishan, who had a keen intellect and somehow
happened to be there, jerked a dart out of his vest and quickly
threw it at her, the dart lodging itself into her forearm, putting
her immediately to sleep.

As she dozed off, just about to drop the
treasure box onto the ground, Taishan had wisely grabbed it from
her hands and put it back into its place.

Remembering the incident with horror, the
king frowned deeply. She had singlehandedly swept up the treasure
box as if it were a pillow, something even the strongest of his
guards couldn’t boast of. How a young female elf had become so
strong, he didn’t know. It deeply troubled him. He suspected that
she might be involved in dark magic, though he couldn’t know for
sure.

Whatever the case though, unfortunately, his
terrible day didn’t end there. He’d had at least sixty other
citizens to deal with, and though most weren’t half as vengeful as
Captain Farille, a quarter as treasonous as Fariam, or a tenth as
wicked as the young female elf, still, several of them managed to
vex him with their outright stupidity and extremely trivial
concerns.

One elf, in particular, named Tayin, had
asked the king himself to help his mother find a pretty flower that
he had somehow lost in the woods, a flower that had by no doubt
shriveled up by now. Just thinking about it infuriated the king and
made his blood boil. Who did the young elven boy think he was? One
of his neighbors? his cousin? He had much better things to do with
his time than go looking for dead flowers. If anything, this should
be a job for Azadar the court herbalist.

Sighing deeply, as he stared at the dull
stone walls in front of him, Kadeth silently wished himself to be
ruling the Kingdom of Sarith instead of the Kingdom of Amalon, a
thought both as unusual as it were heretical. Elves were the
superior race as they had exceptional intellect and logic, extreme
agility, expert archery skills, and even some rare magical talent;
deny it if they could, every race knew it to be true. Why he wanted
to rule an inferior kingdom seemed illogical and even foolish. But
it did have some merits.

If he were King Ralin Taverak, he’d only have
a few cases a day, as they had courts for the rest. Even though in
the Kingdom of Amalon they had three to five judges presiding over
each city, here, however, in the capital city of Pelian, he and his
wife dealt with every case that came to them, which was at least
forty a day, as they were the sole judges for the large city. Worse
than that, no cases were even winnowed out, which explained the
amount of utterly ridiculous and petty cases he heard daily.

Sighing in anger, Kadeth realized, as much as
he hated to admit it, that the time had definitely come to give his
sons more court responsibilities. Prince Taishan had already proven
his wisdom and quick wit today by swiftly putting the elven thief
to sleep. He’d definitely be able to handle some cases.