Ethon (The Other Worlds Series Book 2) (24 page)

She hesitated, as if not sure she really wanted to continue. “What are you talking about? What is this ‘Ethon’ you keep bringing up?”

Zedgry cocked his head to the side. The gesture seemed like something Olinia would do, not him. “Yes, Will. Why don’t you define the word Ethon?”

Will snorted. “Me? I wasn’t the one to come up with that name.”

“Very well.” Zedgry turned to Hillary. “You are an Ethon, as is Will. Ethon is the name my realm has given your world. My siblings and I aren’t from your world. We come from the Other Worlds.”

“The Other Worlds,” she repeated. “Do you think I’m stupid? You’re not an alien.”

Alien wasn’t a word Will would use to describe an Other Worlder, but in the basic sense of the word it was true. “Yeah, they actually are. I’ve been to the Other Worlds. It’s nothing like here.”

“But that means Legann…” she let her voice trail off.

“Isn’t from our planet either,” Will finished for her. “He’s what we’d call a prince to his world of Caprith.”

“A prince?” She gawked.

“Well, we call ourselves Lantzes. Only the crown heir is a prince, or a princess, as in Olinia’s case,” Zedgry remarked. “But that’s not really important right now. We need to know how we can get to Legann.”

 Hillary reached out her hand, touching Zedgry’s face with her fingertips. “But you can’t be an alien. You look human. Are you wearing some sort of bodysuit?”

Olinia’s twin looked to Will for help. He grinned. “No, that’s Zedge’s real face, sadly. Apparently Earth isn’t the only world inhabited by humans.”

“How’d they get here?” Hillary asked Will, as if Zedgry, who still had her hand over his face, wasn’t even there.

“Through a portal,” Will answered.

Zedgry must have decided he was done with having his face explored. With one hand, he removed her fingers and lowered them into her lap.

“Can you think of where exactly in DS Legann could be being held?” Will asked.

Hillary shook her head slowly. “I don’t think-” she stopped. Then, “Wait. I could pull up security footage. I haven’t been in all the rooms of the plantation so I don’t really know where he could be.”

“Plantation?” Will raised an eyebrow.

“That’s what we students call the school,” she replied as her hands passed over the keyboard again. “DS restored an old plantation house to be its school. It has a prestigious feel to it that parents seem to love.”

Zedgry reclined in his seat. “So, you accept us not being from Ethon?”

“Do you mean Earth?” Hillary’s eyes took on the glazed look once more. “Because that’s the planet I’m from.”

Will couldn’t help but smile at her response. He sat down beside Olinia again and realized with a start that she was awake, watching his great-grandfather, who had dozed off in his chair. “Olinia,” Will said softly.

She turned. “How long have I been asleep?”

“About an hour.” He knelt on the floor in front of her and kissed her forehead. “Do you feel better?”

“I’ve got the footage,” Hillary informed Will. “Want to take a look?”

“Yeah, be right there.” He stood and extended his hand to help Olinia to her feet. “Care to join me?”

She smiled and let him pull her up. “Thanks.”

“Ohreen doveem naunt!” Zedgry exclaimed.

“No,” Olinia breathed, whirling to face to her twin. Their eyes caught. “Are you sure?”

Will blinked, startled by the exchange. “What’s going on?”

Olinia nearly flew around the couch to the table. She gripped onto the backs of Hillary and Zedgry’s chairs, leaning down toward the laptop screen. “When was this filmed?”

Apparently Will wasn’t the only one surprised. Hillary stared up at Olinia. “This is a live feed.”

Will joined the group at the table and peered down at the screen. The recording was in black and white. Two figures stood facing the camera and a small group of rough-cut men. One of the figures was Legann and the other was a one-armed man with a face that made Will’s jaw drop. “Is that Dagon?”

Hillary’s gaze darted between the three of them. “Who’s Dagon?”

“Our uncle,” Olinia and Zedgry answered.

:  :  :  :  :

The guards turned just as the black-leathered office chair from a desk Legann had glimpsed in the outer hallway came crashing into the room. Legann knew the chair wouldn’t knock over the men – his gift wasn’t strong enough for that – but it could distract them long enough for him and his new friend to bolt.

As planned, the men split apart, dodging the chair. Legann, still very much aware of the handgun one of them held, reached out his hand. The black pistol yanked free and flew to Legann through the air by his unseen force. For once, Legann appreciated all those weekend practice sessions with his sister.

“Get back!” He shouted, aiming his new weapon at the guards.

They didn’t move. They just stood frozen in place, gaping. Legann doubted the pistol was what stunned them. He realized too late that he had broken Trenton’s number one rule in Ethon.
Never show your gifts to a native.
Legann mentally kicked himself. He’d somewhat unconsciously used his gifts. Under the pressure of a potential fight, he evidently slipped into his old ways of relying on instincts. The Ethons definitely noticed his bizarre abilities. The chair blasting through the door could have possibly been mistaken for a mere coincidence, but the stealing of the gun was a blatant violation to Trenton’s regulation.

He winced as his new friend placed a hand on his shoulder. “Time to go, Wend.”

“Right.” Legann noticed the Ethons were slowly backing toward the door, their faces pale. They weren’t going to attack after all. Legann wondered if the men were simply hired hands. That would explain their lack of enthusiasm toward a fight. “Are you able to run?” He asked in Eveon.

“Briefly,” came the reply.

That would have to work. They didn’t really have much of an option. Legann tightened his grip on the pistol. “Let’s run.”

:  :  :  :  :

“Where’d they go?” Zedgry exclaimed.

“Is there another camera angle we can follow them on?” Will asked.

Hillary’s fingers flew across the keyboard, clicking the keys, as the laptop shifted images, pulling up multiple security videos. “I’ll try to find them again.”

“Stop! There they are.” Zedgry pointed.

Legann and Dagon appeared – Dagon with his arm around Legann’s shoulders and Legann’s arm at Dagon’s waist. They were no longer in the white clad room. Their hallway was paneled in a rich, dark wood. Red carpet covered the floor, and old-fashioned lamps, like those that were once gas powered, lined the walls.

“I’ve been there before,” Hillary remarked. “That’s in the basement.”

“What’s down there?” Will frowned.

“Just the offices of the instructors.”

As Legann and Dagon left the camera shot again, Olinia took a step backward, away from the table, while keeping her gaze locked on the screen. Hillary hurried to find them again, and a thought struck Olinia. “Why aren’t they being followed?”

All the instructors should be up in their classes for another fifteen minutes,
Hillary thought.

“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Olinia mumbled.

Zedgry scratched his chin.
You’ve got a point. Those four thugs couldn’t have been the only guards.

“Found them,” Hillary stated as the footage switched again.

Will grunted. “I guess that sort of answers your question, Olinia.”

Legann and Dagon were cornered in what appeared to be one of the offices Hillary had mentioned. At one end of the room – blocking the only exit – stood two tall, thin men, who looked to be in their late thirties. Legann had his back to the desk with his stolen gun targeted at the men. Behind him and the desk, Dagon was focusing on a flat round object that appeared to be a paperweight.

Hillary pointed at the men on the screen. “Hey, I know them. That’s Lyam Frilk and Evvot Wuble. They’re instructors.”

“Interesting names,” Will noted.

“They’re foreign,” she replied. “They speak a rare language with some of the other instructors.”

“And they’re still just two people,” Olinia added. “Shouldn’t there be more?”

“DS doesn’t have that many instructors,” Hillary thought and said simultaneously. “Even though the plantation was the first, it’s a lot smaller than the California school and labs.”

“What sort of rare language?” Will asked. “Did they ever tell you the name of it?”

She shook her head. “But they repeat this one phrase between themselves a lot. I think they say
netha neme corecna
.”

“What?” Zedgry blurted. “They call you an ignorant child?”

Olinia exchanged glances with Will. “They speak Eveon.”

Zedgry pointed at the screen again, “What’s Dagon doing?”

She turned. Dagon had picked up the paperweight. One of the men said something causing him to look up and Legann to toss a quick glance over his shoulder. Olinia frowned. “Hillary, can you get the sound to this?”

“No, sorry,” she shook her head, “DS only records images, not sound.”

“Why do they even have a camera in the offices?” Will leaned forward over the table beside Hillary. “Isn’t it more common to stick cameras in hallways and lobbies?”

“This is the only office with a camera,” Hillary told him. “It belongs to the new director.”

“Aeorin,” Olinia said.

Just then, Dagon slid his thumb across a sheet of paper, drawing blood. He then smeared his thumb over the top of the paperweight. It took a moment for Olinia to understand the gesture.

Zedgry must have figured it out sooner. “Is that a Sinith?”

:  :  :  :  :

Something felt off to Legann. His new friend stood behind him, rustling some papers. Even though Legann had his gun aimed at the two men in front of him, they were staring straight past him, as if he weren’t even there. Legann decided to repeat himself.

“Let us go and I won’t shoot you.”

“Quiet, Lantz. We’ll deal with you later,” the one on the left muttered in Eveon.

“Drop the Sinith,” the one on the right barked.

Legann wasn’t really sure which man had surprised him most. He felt like he didn’t know anything anymore. The two men spoke Eveon and knew who he was. Also, there apparently was a Sinith in the room. Legann threw a quick look at his new friend and recognized the device immediately. It was a Velvitor-made traveling tool. The Kendrens had used Siniths to open portals to different worlds.

“All these turns, I’ve thought you dead, Evvot,” Legann’s new friend remarked casually in Eveon. “So nice to see you in such good health.”

“The feeling isn’t mutual,” the man on the right, Evvot, murmured. “I was not supportive of the king’s idea to bring you here.”

“You believe he should have killed me.”

Evvot sneered. “Of course.”

“Wend, don’t let them get near you,” his new friend ordered. “Use your weapon if they do.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Evvot replied. “We know better than to phase in front of true High Royalty.”

Legann had the vague inclination that that comment was meant to be an insult to his new friend. He felt thoroughly lost. The only time he’d heard someone speak of phasing had been Archrin. Were these men Craeles?

“True High Royalty?” His friend repeated slowly.

Evvot exchanged looks with his companion for a moment before he released a somewhat grotesque laugh. “You don’t know who this boy is.”

LEGANN!

Olinia’s inner voice screaming inside his head caused him to flinch.
Yes?

His new friend stepped up beside him, frowning. Legann noticed he still held the Sinith. “Who is he?”

Legann felt Olinia’s shock course through him.
That man is NOT your friend. He’s using you to help himself escape
.

Who is he?
Legann employed the same question just asked about himself.

He’s Dagon
, she answered just as Evvot said, “Allow me to introduce the Lantz Legann Reien of Caprith.”

The next minute was a blur. Dagon – the man responsible for the death of his birth parents – tossed the Sinith at the floor-to-ceiling wall of books to his right, just as the two Craeles leaped toward Legann, morphing into their animal forms mid-air – despite what they’d previously stated about not phasing. Out of instinct, Legann pulled the trigger to his gun twice. In one fluid movement, he shot both Craeles, sending them into heaps of fur and flesh at his feet. Being only half-phased, Legann couldn’t discern the animals they were supposed to have become.

“Vrenyx.”

Dagon’s voice rang clearly and the Sinith widened into a portal, eclipsing the wall of shelves. Legann whirled to aim his pistol at his uncle, but Dagon had gripped onto his shirt’s collar, yanking him to the side.