Duplicitous: The Leordian Chronicles Page 8

  We sat for hours, passing the time with stories of Leaha's time in this world. She was careful not to including any details that may alert someone passing by to the unusual nature of our home world, or her work with the UTF. Leaha capitalized on our time alone to try and inform me of some of the gifts provided by modern technology here in this world as well as the terminology.

  "I'm famished!" Leaha rubbed her growing belly, walking back to the woman at the counter.

  Soon after, she returned, picking up her satchel, which she had explained earlier was actually called a purse or a handbag.

  "There is still no word as to when Professor Wright will return," Leaha said with a sigh, as she retrieved the device I had seen her used earlier, which she explained was called a cell phone and began to type away.

  "Do you mind waiting alone for a bit, Vel?" She asked, placing her phone back into her purse. "I'm going to get us something to eat while we wait. I've instructed the woman at the reception desk to let you know if Professor Wright arrives."

  I could tell by her rapidly increasing grumbles that it was well past time for Leaha to eat. Even still, I was curious just how exactly she had planned to retrieve a meal.

  "Sure," I replied, thinking that she must have access to Portronic’s kitchen. "Do you have access to all of the kitchens in the city?"

  Leaha burst out in laughter, drawing the attention of everyone in our immediate area, which caused her to calm herself quickly. "Sorry, Vel," She apologized, still working on regaining her composure. "I forget sometimes that you still have so much to learn about the customs and conveniences available in this world. I'm actually going to a restaurant, which is a place where they serve food at a cost, called Minetta Tavern for their famous Black Label Burger," she said, her eyes beaming at the thought.

  "Okay, Leaha. That sounds good," I agreed, nodding in approval, even though I was unsure what a Black Label Burger was. "I'll just wait here to see if the Professor returns."

  "Oh trust me, they're heaven, Vel! You will love burgers," she said, seeing past my attempt to disguise my ignorance. "I'll be back soon. Be very excited!" She turned and began walking back toward the garage.

  I wondered if she would be okay. It seemed very unlikely she was allowed to drive very often, based on the ride here. Fortunately, since most people traveled using portals, there were very few cars on the roads. She had told me on our journey here, that when she first arrived before portal travel became widespread, the streets of New York City were so full of cars that most people used an antiquated system, called the subway to travel around the city.

  After some time had passed, as I sat waiting for Leaha to return, my thoughts were interrupted by the woman at the counter. "Mr. Wright!" She said aloud, her voice sounding surprised. "Your father is away on urgent business, though we expect he'll return soon."

  I turned quickly to see Lucas had walked into the building and was speaking to the woman. My heart fluttered as I stood to my feet, walking to where he stood.

  "Lucas!" I shouted as I made my way to him. "Thank goodness you're okay!" My relief was genuine and I couldn’t stop myself from wrapping my arms around his neck.

  As I hugged him, I thought it must appear strange that I would react as I did toward a man whom I just met, but my concern for his well-being had all but consumed me for the last few days and I allowed that concern to take over.

  "Ummm hello, Miss," Lucas said, stepping back and looking at me as though it were the first time we had ever met.

  "Should I call security, Mr. Wright?" The woman at the desk asked.

  "Oh, no need Sarah, this lovely young lady must have me confused with someone else, that’s all," Lucas replied, taking another step back, putting space between us.

  "It's me, Vel,” I said puzzled, as my heart sank. Could he really have simply forgotten me? "You rescued me from drowning, and you brought me to the hospital just a few days ago. Surely you remember?" I pleaded as if I were speaking to a longtime friend. I took a step toward him, and he lifted his hand.

  "Stop, please," Lucas said, his voice cracking slightly. "I don't know who you are, but if you insist on coming closer, I will have to allow Sarah to call security and have you removed from the premises."

  The slight break in my heart became a gaping wound as it shattered, like a glass orb striking the ground from great heights. As I felt tears begin to form in my eyes, I heard Leaha behind me.

  "Get back, Vel!" She yelled. "I just got word from Ethan, and we received Intel confirming that Lucas has been working with Astiel for months now,” the sadness of her words clearly displayed by the look on her face.

  "That's not possible," I said somberly, turning towards Leaha, only to feel an arm wrap around my neck.

  "Back off, caster!" Lucas yelled across the room to Leaha, placing a gun to my head. "Make a move, and her corpse will be all that makes it to Lord Astiel," he said, confirming what she had said was actually true.

  All around us, people were rushing to any exit they could find, after the woman at the counter had announced that Lucas had a gun. Lucas removed a device, much like the one the caster I had poisoned had used. With the push of a button, we were instantly transported atop a steep cliff, and as my feet dangled over the edge with only Lucas's grip keeping me from falling to my death, I felt an overwhelming combination of both fear and sorrow.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Dragon

  "I truly am sorry, Vel," Lucas said in direct contradiction to the fact that he was dangling me over the edge of a cliff. His grip was weakening each moment from the stress of holding my full weight. "Astiel has my father captive. We've covered it up, fearing retaliation, but we can't explain his absence away for much longer. He is the only one, other than me, who knows how to recalibrate the light waves used in the portal technology," Lucas explained as he moved me onto the land and released me. Despite his words, I couldn’t help but notice that his gun was still clearly aimed at my head.

  "Lucas, don't you realize that he'll kill you and your father once you bring me to him?" I asked, coughing as I caught my breath after having had my full weight placed on my throat.

  "I am not an idiot. Of course, I do," he replied in a somber tone. "But I saw you defeat Frede the other day from a rooftop down the street. I've also seen what Astiel and his horde are capable of," he said, turning his face. "They kill people from my world every day in their camps. They make it sport, hunting them down and killing them; it makes me sick," he said, finally lowering his gun.

  My body reacted, and I knocked him to the ground, disarming him. As his gun fell into the ravine below there was a long silence, and while I considered how to deal with Lucas, I sat atop him with his arms pinned.

  "I trusted in you, Lucas!" I said, unable to hide my disgust at his betrayal. "You took advantage of me when I was at my most vulnerable. You have lived up to your reputation once again," I cautiously removed the device he used to transport us from his pocket and tried to control my trembling hands. I stood, ever watchful, tears flowing in a steady stream and staining my cheeks.

  "I honestly had no choice Vel," Lucas said, finally finding the courage to speak. "Astiel told me that he would kill my father, and destroy this world, if I didn't do as he commanded," he continued, rising to his feet. "Astiel ordered me to move you to the lake, and to gain your confidence. He had discovered that a man from some Dark Council, sent to the two of you as children, had survived a run-in with his men, who had left the man for dead. He wanted me to take you to the hospital, where this man was being treated, so you could learn the truth," he explained, tears forming in his eyes. "I delivered the man a message from Astiel, posing it as an order from that same Dark Council, that he was to destroy the hospital. Astiel is a monster, the Dark Council he opposes discreetly are viler yet, but I've seen your abilities, and I now have hope for this world. Twice now, I've seen what you can do. Twice, you have bested both Astiel and the Dark Council. Astiel surely knows by now that we are here, so my father is
most likely already dead; however, I cannot continue to help them slowly eradicate my people or our world," he finished, bowing to his knees. "Please, despite the fact that it seems like I betrayed you, understand that I only did what I had to. I have seen first hand, that you are our only hope. You alone have the power to save this world. I don't ask for your trust, all I ask is that you let me help you protect this world from those who would destroy it."

  I stood before Lucas, taking in everything that he had said. A part of me wanted to believe him, to pick him up and comfort him, but I knew, even if what he said were true, that he had been tainted by Astiel's lies.

  "How can I possibly trust you, Lucas? Everything, from the moment I met you, has been a lie," I said, anger welling inside me, standing to my feet so as to allow Lucas to stand before me.

  "No, Vel, not everything," he replied, standing once again as well. "My orders were to bring you to the hospital and to return with a ‘Norm’, as your brother likes to call my people. He has tasted our women, and helps himself to them before turning them over to the hunt," he explained. "That was the true purpose behind my courtship with Veronica, but something awoke inside of me that night. I don't know why. Perhaps it was the importance Astiel placed on your capture or perhaps the fact that he instructed me to take you to that hospital and instigate its destruction, but something that day led me to believe in you. If Astiel knew you could stand against a member of the Dark Council, I inherently knew you could stand against him as well," his voice grew stronger with each word of his proclamation.

  My body reacted to my emotions again and before I could stop myself, I had slammed my fist into Lucas's abdomen, dropping him back to his knees.

  "I will not allow you to stand with me, Lucas!" I shouted, enraged. "What you have done belies all of your pretty words. You have manipulated me, and used me for your own gain, and you clearly seek to do so again. You have no right to stand before me," I said, driving my knee into his face, and rendering him unconscious.

  As I scanned the portal device I had taken from Lucas, unsure on how to use it, the dust on the ground shifted, as though an unseen wind had blown, and moments later, Astiel appeared enshrouded with glorious robes and jewelry, as if he were a king.

  "Ah, sister," he said, his voice sending chills throughout my body. "I see you've had a chance to speak to the real Lucas Wright," he said with a smirk.

  "Yes, brother dear, I have," a look of disgust plastered itself to my face.

  "I'm not sure what he was able to tell you prior to you letting that fiery temper of yours take over, but I'm sure you've heard, I have plans for this wonderful world and its glorious technology," he said with a grin I had grown to despise since his departure from Leordia City. The dust shifted once again, and Astiel's grin became an enraged stare. "Who are you!" Astiel screamed, pointing his finger behind me. "Are you with those fools in the Dark Council?" He asked, beginning to chant an invocation.

  I could feel his Ether flow into me, and I prepared myself for his attack. No one knew my brother better than I, and there was no way I would turn my back to him, regardless of how convincing he may be.

  "Astiel, I won't allow you to have your way with this world, any more than I would with Leordia City!" I was ready for any attack he could muster.

  I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, and as I fell to the ground, I saw a robed figure wearing a mask, resembling the face of a dragon, behind me.

  "You will not have your way, boy!" A woman's voice shouted from behind the mask, then everything went dark.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  All things Forbidden

  I awoke to find myself in a room that appeared very much like the room in the hospital which Lucas had brought me to. The only difference was that the bed was more comfortable, and there were many more gadgets throughout the room. As I sat up, I heard a door open.

  "It seems you finally decided to wake up," Leaha's voice rang out, as she walked into the room.

  "How did I get here?" I asked, my memory flashing to the robed woman who had knocked me unconscious.

  "After Lucas ported with you, I contacted Ethan to see if he could track the waves you followed. Fortunately, there hadn't been any portals opened between the time you were taken and the time he was able to boot up our tracking system," Leaha explained, sitting on the bed next to me, and gently placing a bag of ice on the back of my head.

  "Ouch!" I yelped, trying to push her hand away.

  "From the amount of destruction we found at the scene, it seems you were lucky to escape with just this," she said, pressing harder. “Stop pushing the ice away, you big baby. This will help keep the swelling down," she concluded.

  I laid down on the bed, leaving the bag pressed against the spot on my head from where the pain originated.

  "Astiel," I said, as my memory began to become clearer. "He appeared while I was trying to figure out how to use Lucas's portal device," I said, everything still a little foggy.

  "Lucas!" I bolted up in the bed, remembering how he had defied Astiel in bringing me to that location.

  "He's okay," Leaha reassured me. "We found him unconscious at the scene. He looks a little beat up and has a broken nose, but overall he'll be fine," she chided, looking at me the way a mother looks at a child who injured a sibling. Leaha was going to make a scary mother. "Were you able to defeat Astiel, or did he just get away?” She asked, hopeful.

  "I never actually fought him," I replied, remembering the masked woman. "There was a woman there, or rather, she just kind of appeared while I was speaking to Astiel," I explained. "He seemed to recognize her, though, and he reacted to her appearance almost fearfully, but I assumed he was attempting to distract my attention so he could attack me from behind," I started, embarrassed to tell her the rest of the story. "That's when I felt a pain in my head, and just fell out. I only know it was a woman because I heard her speak before I lost consciousness completely. Her body was concealed by a robe and she wore a mask that looked like a dragon's face," I concluded, remembering as I spoke.

  "That's The Dragon." I heard a voice I had longed to hear from outside the door, and my heart leaped for joy as Seles walked into the room, fully recovered.

  "We haven't ever heard it speak, but there have been a few instances where we engaged Astiel, and The Dragon showed up and saved our skin," Grimaldi said, following behind Seles.

  I was so happy to see Seles had recovered that I jumped out of bed and embraced her.

  "I'm so glad you're okay," I said squeezing her, nearly tight enough to re-break her bones.

  "I'm glad to be here," she said, coughing to catch her breath after I released her.

  "The Dragon manifests invocations we have never seen before, including some we can only assume are from Fredzberg's Forbidden Grimoire; she's definitely not a friend, but the enemy of our enemy may as well be, right?" Leaha asked, standing to her feet.

  "So she is a caster from our world then?" I asked, rhetorically. "And, if she knows spells from Fredzberg's Forbidden Grimoire, she'd have to be very old," I continued my thought, remembering stories my father told me concerning the invocations contained in the Grimoire.

  "Your grandfather was the one who destroyed the Grimoire, and labeled them forbidden, right, Vel?" Leaha asked though she knew the answer already.

  "He was," I answered.

  My grandfather on my mother's side, King of Leordia at that time, had defeated Fredzberg Golmag in battle, during the war to which my mother had been born into. Our father had told Astiel and me gruesome stories of the power that the invocations contained within the Grimoire represented. While assaulting Leordia City, during the war, Fredzberg Golmag threw an invocation, which drew from not only his Ether but that of fifty of his men, whom he sacrificed to raise the dead of Leordia City within the city's walls. Those raised by his necromancy ravaged the city, and eventually the castle until my grandfather manifested a costly invocation, which left the lowermost part of the castle grounds scorched and barren, unable
to grow any living thing to this day. Invocations of this magnitude were commonplace in those days, and many of the most fascinating and unusual sights in the kingdom were the result of great battles where they had been used, literally scarring the land. Due to their ferocious nature, after my Grandfather defeated Fredzberg Golmag, he sought to destroy any record of the invocations, and forbid them to be used or taught, under strict penalty of death.

  "Well," Leaha began, bringing me back from my thoughts. "Speaking of Labeling, I saved your Black Label Burger from Minetta Tavern; I bet you're starved after the day you've had," she finished with a relieved smile, walking out of the room.

  "On that note," Grimaldi followed. "Seles and I will search the UTF's files and see if we can come up with anything else about The Dragon," Grimaldi stood and began heading out the door.

  "He's been so bossy since they pulled me out of the rejuv tank," Seles said with her usual spunk. "It seems Regali rubbed off on him more than we thought!" Seles was grinning as she followed Grimaldi out of the room.

  I had forgotten that tomorrow was set to be Regali's Berf. Although I wanted to ask Lucas more questions, Leaha was right, I was very hungry. Lucas would have to wait until after the Berf. He wasn't going anywhere, not locked up in the UTF headquarters.

  "Come on, Vel. Minetta Tavern waits for no one, not even a queen," Leaha chuckled from outside the room.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Regali's Berf

  I awoke the following morning, saddened, mournful, and full of despair. My sleep had been haunted by the task that I would face this day. In the short time that I had been in this world, I had found little to be thankful for, other than the friends who had been transported here as well. Today, I would lay one of them, that I had come to love, to their eternal rest. My disheartening thoughts were interrupted by a light knock at the door.