God of the Abyss (38 page)

A man about my age, holding a little boy about five,
followed us as I healed the injured, but he didn’t approach and the child never
cried. Finally, when I finished healing a pregnant woman with just a little
internal bleeding, I held my hand out to stop the troll from picking me back
up. I looked at the man and little boy. When I didn’t say anything, he
approached hesitantly.

“Please look at this one. I found him in his family
home, which had collapsed. His parents are both dead, but he was not crying or
screaming.” He sat the boy in front of me.

“Hey there, little man. Can you tell me your name?” I
asked. He stared blankly at me. “Can you hear me?” He showed no sign of hearing
me, but that didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t. “Okay, then. I am going to
take a look at your throat. I will not hurt you. I need you to open your mouth
and stick out your tongue. Can you do that?” I asked. He didn’t respond.

I pulled out my silver penlight and gently pressed
down on his jaw to open his mouth. His eyes finally moved from his dull stare
to look at the thin flashlight. He held his mouth open and flattened his tongue
out. As I focused the light in his mouth, I let my energy search him for
injuries. His throat looked fine and the only injury I could find was a badly
sprained ankle.

“Well, I can see nothing wrong there, let me look at
your ears,” I said. Then I clicked the button on the end to turn the light off.
He flinched. I put the light to his ear and clicked it on. He flinched again.
“So your hearing is fine. Can you tell me what happened?” I asked. I focused
the light in his other ear before clicking it off. He turned his head to study
it.

“What is that?” His voice was a whisper.

Obviously he wasn’t about to pass out, and I was
still supposed to hide my magic from everyone. People needed my help much more
than him, but I was worried about his mental condition if he could watch the
death of his parents and not cry. “This is Vaigdan technology. It can heal
little wounds.”

“Not the dead?” Still a whisper.

“No, not the dead.”

“What heals dead people?” he asked.

“Love, I guess. You can remember people you loved.
Everybody will die someday. The only thing you can do is love them and hope
they’re happy in the spirit world.”

“Can I have one of those Vaigdan healing wands? Can I
heal people with it?”

“You have to be a doctor for it to work. Is that
something you want? You will never be able to heal people back to life.”

“But you did. You pressed on that girl’s chest and
she came back. You used magic to bring her back from death.”

“Yes, I guess you are right about the bringing her
back, but that wasn’t magic, and it doesn’t work every time. You can save life
without magic. There are doctors on Earth who save people every day without
magic.”

“I will grow up and be a doctor and healer. Then will
you give me one of those Vaigdan healing wands?” he asked.

“Yes. Tell Nila when you are all grown up and can
heal people with and without magic. He will send for me and I will bring you
one.” I had an idea that would stretch beyond my abilities now… but by then I
would have a way.

I was healing a little girl who had over a dozen
major breaks as well as a punctured lung when the wave came again. Silence fell
over the people. All crying, talking, begging stopped. And we waited.

No earthquake. Edward held out his hand and a
blockage of wreckage came apart. “The magic is back,” he said. I felt around me
for nominal energy and sure enough, he was right. With their power back, people
became braver and held themselves together. Soon I was no longer needed, and I
passed out.

*          *          *

“You remembered what I told you,” Vretial said. We
were at the apple tree and he sat on the large boulder under it. The pain from
healing was gone, but it felt like the energy inside me was swirling and
squirming.

“I remembered what you told me, but I didn’t
understand.”

“I know you didn’t understand. When your energy
clashed with an equally powerful force, your magic used that opportunity to
help you remember, but you were only seven. You need to see it again, from new
eyes.”

“You said you couldn’t send me back there.”

He sighed. “I thought you of all people would pay
attention. Mordon saw everything you remembered because you can share memories
and thoughts.”

“How are we able to share thoughts when we focus and
talk to each other in our heads without magic? I don’t know what it is between
us, but I think Sammy and Ron are the same.” Although I knew Vretial couldn’t
be trusted to tell me the truth any more than my wife, any answers, even lies,
were better than no answers.

“Yes, it appears they have problems with bad
translations as well. They say they are brothers. I like that translation,” he
said thoughtfully.

“If ‘brother’ is the wrong translation, what is the
correct one?” I asked.

He smirked. “Balance, of course. Or equilibrium, or
stability. It is such an unrestricted word, that brother works just as well.”

“They say Mordon and I are brothers. I thought I was
supposed to balance Divina.”

“According to our people, who have long since died,
there exists a mate for each of the Iadnah. It was said that we could never
mate with another god because it would throw off the balance in the universe. I
honestly always thought it was a myth in order to control us, since the idea
that we had to adhere to the balance was preposterous at the time. Then I
watched my people fall and I learned that the balance is the only thing holding
the universe together.

“Unfortunately,
you
throw off the balance. You
are not a god, yet not a mortal either. It is a mistake I think, that you have
the power you do. In order to correct its mistake, the natural reaction of the
universe was to create Mordon. Like a mutation, there is a three-way
equilibrium. While you and Tiamat are mates, Mordon and you are balanced. The
more powerful you become in one aspect, Mordon becomes in another. To add
insult to injury, outside forces threatened to disrupt the balance between
you.”

“Rojan.”

“Yes, but he would never have come into the picture
if Mordon had not needed him. And of course, Mordon would never have survived
on his own, because the balance created him to counteract you. You have just
become a more powerful healer, so Mordon will become a more powerful dragon
very soon.”

“But if Mordon was created to balance me for the
universe’s sake, wouldn’t he be against me in anything I do? Like my opposite?
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction…”

“The universe doesn’t see two opposing forces as
balance. That is chaos. Balance is more like a peace, complete and utter peace,
with your magic, your soul, and your mind. Mordon will be whatever you need him
to be and you will be what he needs. When you first met him, he needed an
adventure more than anything, and you needed a friend. When you took him to
Earth, he needed the strength to leave his father and you needed someone to
stop you from being yourself too much.”

I pushed my palms into my eyes. “This is so
complicated.”

“Is it really? The universe does everything it can to
balance itself. You were born too powerful and the universe couldn’t kill you.
Then you just kept getting more powerful. What else was the universe to do but
grasp at straws?”

It bugged me, though. His words bugged me deep in my
mind. I didn’t know why until I said it. “You’re lying.”

He laughed. “I do that a lot. Still, I am not lying
that you and Mordon are balanced. Without him, you would be destroyed by the
universe, and without you, Tiamat would never be happy. And you are correct;
Ronez and Samhail are balanced, like you and Mordon. Their balance is a lot
safer because they have no outside factors like dragon blood and Iadnah mates.
Ronez is a demigod, but Samhail has the same power as you. Neither will find a
mate more powerful than themselves, so their balance is stable.”

“You keep talking to them. Why? I know you want them
as your Guardians, but Sammy was born to be the Guardian of Lore. Avoli
specifically wanted him to protect his world against you.”

“He was born to be a Guardian, yes, but not to fight
me. I am also relatively confident that they will choose me over Avoli, because
unlike my weak-minded brother, I wouldn’t dream of separating them. I
understand the force they make together. Besides, it’s highly unlikely that
they would choose to serve him when they both know well enough that you
disapprove of him.”

“I never said a word against him.”

He laughed. “You’re not difficult to figure out,
Dylan. At least, not for me.”

“I may not care for Avoli’s particular style, but he
is peaceful, and that is definitely better than what could be said about
Azenoth, Erono, or Zer. I don’t think I can approve of them working for you
after you killed my father.”

“Actually, I learned the error of my ways after
getting yelled at by a furious three-year-old. Also, I never instructed Shio to
kill anyone, and the ghost of the Noquodi that I destroyed was harming the
balance. That was a different life.” He sounded almost contrite. “I am hardly
mortal, but I am alive. Sure, the majority of my power was destroyed, but I can
still create a world with ecosystems and populations.”

“You wanted some pretty unnatural things of your
people last time.”

“A different life. Let’s just say I had more on my
mind than I could handle.”

“So you’re good now and you just want to live in
peace? You think the other gods will accept that? What about the books and the
gates?”

“The gates are the natural order of things. The
worlds were created around them. That being said, if the gates open then the
Noquodi become obsolete. Personally, if it means having Ronez and Samhail as my
Noquodi, I am willing to live happily with the books.”

“And if they refuse to be your Guardians?”

“Well, then I will ask your next child. A daughter, I
believe.”

My jaw about hit the floor and my heart skipped a
beat. Yeah, I would be hoping for that daughter. Part of me prayed Divina never
found out about the god’s prediction, because she may refuse to sleep with me
ever again.

“You do understand that almost everyone thinks you’re
the evilest being in the universe, right?”

Vretial nodded. “I do. The thing is, my mortal body
dampens my power. I didn’t take my brother’s world in order to gain more power;
I never needed it. Even now, as weakened as I am, I could still defeat any of
my siblings.”

Somehow I knew he wasn’t lying. “Why did you take
your brother’s world, then?”

“That is between me and him.”

“On Dios, there was a wave of energy or something
that took away the magic, and then an earthquake. I feel that that can’t be a
good thing.”

“There are multiple gates, all of which are being
opened. The gate from Dios has been fully opened. I believe Nano will soon find
himself no longer a Noquodi. His book is losing power as we speak. His people,
on the other hand, will become more powerful.”

“Will that reverse when I get the gates closed?” I
asked.

He smirked. “You are so sure of yourself.” He
shrugged. “If the gates are closed, the Iadnah can return the power to the
books and everything will be as it was.”

I hesitated, unsure whether to bring up the vision or
not. Divina had brushed it off, but that really hadn’t surprised me. “I had a
dream,” I finally said. “It was like a vision, but not one of the Guardian
warning dreams.”

“And you know Guardian’s aren’t supposed to have
dreams, so you’re not sure what to make of it?” he asked. I nodded. “Let me
guess. The gates to Earth opened, your book was destroyed, and all your people
were dead in under a minute? That absolutely sounds like a regular nightmare to
me. I wouldn’t worry about it, and I certainly wouldn’t ask your wife, the god
of that planet about it.”

“Have you ever heard of sarcasm before? You should
try it; I think you’d enjoy it.”

*          *          *

Waking was a painful struggle. Everything hurt and it
required a fair amount of concentration to open my eyes. It took several
minutes to recognize my own bedroom, but no time at all to realize my boys were
cuddled up on either side of me. I sat up too quickly and had to focus on
breathing in order to keep from retching.

Divina entered the room and handed me a glass of
water before kneeling on the bed in front of me. I drank the water, set the
glass on the bedside table, and pulled Divina into my arms. It was quiet and
peaceful for the moment and her scent helped clear my head. She always smelled
like vanilla, passion fruit, and something unique. Her aroma matched her
personality; sweet, mysterious, and exotic.

“You are so high maintenance,” Divina said.

“But you’re a god, so I think you can handle me.” I
gave her a light kiss, but my head hurt too much to be passionate. “What
happened?”

“You passed out from overworking yourself. Edward
called to Erono, who at first ignored him. Apparently he got through to Erono
that you needed help and my brother felt obligated to inform me. I pulled you
back here to the right time. I know you’re doing what you can to close the
gates, but it’s extremely dangerous for you to be in more than one place at one
time. With your power, if there are two of you at the same moment, as near as
on the same planet, there could be serious consequences. Also, you have to
remember that the more you strain your magic, the more you create. Your excess
energy has been seeping out of you since I brought you back. Edward was worried
sick about you,” she said, indicating the reading chair in the corner, where
Edward was sleeping.