Finding Eden (27 page)

“
Okay,” he
says. “There's only one problem.”

“
And what's that?”

“
You don't know the
proper way to do it.”

“
Then teach me.”

Sahariel gives me an
exasperated look and rubs his forehead.

“
You don't think I
can do it.”

“
No, it's not
that,” he says, “it's just that, well, it's a very
intense process.”

“
Okay?”

“
I don't know if I
want you going through that.”

“
Oh,” I say.
“I still want to do it.”

“
I figured you'd
say that.”

He gets up from his chair
with a sigh and motions for me to follow him. He puts his finger to
his lips, telling me to be quiet as I followed him through the
hallway.

“
Where are we
going?” I breathe.

“
Samir and Perul
will know what to do. We're going to see them.”

We eventually reach a
door and Sahariel knocks softly on the nondescript wood. There's a
thump and a soft curse before the door opens and Perul is standing on
the other side, belting his robe.

“
Do you have any
idea what time it is?” He asks.

All I can think about is
that no, I can't, because there aren't any clocks.

“
I know it's late,
but her Highness,” I jab him in the ribs, “would like to
speak to you about binding a door to herself.”

Perul's eyes snap away
from their sleepy haze as realization washes over him.

“
Very well,”
he says, “let us go wake my brother.”

Perul shuffles back into
his room, only to reemerge seconds later with slippers on and a lit
candle in hand. He motions for us to follow him down the hallway to
another door around the corner. He knocks on the door only once, and
before the second rap can fall, Samir has pulled the door open and is
staring at us as if we've each grown a couple more heads.

“
For the love of
god, Perul,” he says, “I understand the Queen not knowing
the time, but you? It's too early for your shenanigans.”

I hear Perul sigh and I
stifle my laughter.

“
Not sure if you've
noticed, but my brother here is the more uptight of us both.”

“
I'm not uptight,”
Samir says indignantly, “just because I know it's much too
early to be bothering someone at four in the morning does not make me
uptight.”

“
So this is what
four in the morning feels like,” I mutter to myself.

“
You act as though
I don't have a good reason for bothering you,” Perul says.

“
You normally
don't.”

“
The Queen would
like to learn how to bind a door to herself,” Sahariel says
over the bickering brothers.

Samir stops and looks at
me, as if it's the first time he's seeing me. He then glances back at
his brother, questions in his eyes, before looking back at me with a
calculating look.

“
It'll be close,”
he says, “but I believe she can handle it.”

And just like his brother
he emerges from his room with slippers on and a robe tucked around
his body. We walk quickly and as quietly as four people can to the
library. Once inside, Samir checks the hall for followers, closes the
door silently and then locks it.

“
Alright,” he
says, “we have to do this quick. Someone is bound to come down
the hall and find the door locked. The library is never supposed to
be locked.”

“
And besides,”
Perul says, “I'm guessing it'd be prudent to keep anyone from
figuring out that we've changed the authorizing person to just the
Queen.”

I smile at both the men.
Somehow, despite their differences in both opinions and personality,
they always seem to agree on so much.

“
Alright,”
Perul says once we've reached the records room, “let's do
this.”

Without warning, Perul's
hand reaches out and snatches my wrist and he throws me to the door.
I hear Samir chanting in the background and my eyes dart to Sahariel,
who stands back looking at me with pity. My back hits the door and my
head connects with the wood. Then the pain starts.

It feels like someone has
reached into my skull, grabbed my spinal cord, and is attempting to
rip it up and out of my body. A deep, searing ache fills my bones and
I manage to hold back my guttural scream before it tears out of my
throat. Intense stabbing pain fills the rest of my body that the ache
doesn't touch.

Something invades my
mind, even through the pain I can feel it, and I try to fight it.
Tears wash down my face as I struggle the unknown force.

“
Eden,” I
somehow hear Sahariel's whisperings loud and clear, “calm down.
It's the magic from the door. The more you fight it the more it will
hurt.”

The cool wash of
Sahariel's voice dulls the pain a little and I manage to comply. The
magic warms a little, as if approving of my calming down. Magic seats
itself firmly in my brain, my body aching all over. Samir stops his
chanting of foreign words, and as soon as the last word leaves his
lips, the pain rushes from my body and I collapse on the floor.

“
Good job,”
Perul kneels next to me, “No one has survived that in a while.”

Perul offers me his hand,
and I take it. Sahariel is at my side in an instant, his strong arm
around my waist, offering me strength when I have absolutely none.

“
Come on,” he
says, “let's get you back to bed.”

Samir unlocks the library
door and Sahariel practically carries me all the way back to my room.
Perul and Samir go their separate ways. He carries me inside my room
and tucks me into bed, which seems to be a rather common occurrence
these days.

“
I'm sorry.”
He says.

“
Why are you
sorry?”

“
Because that
caused you pain.”

“
Yeah, and?”

“
And I don't want
to see you in pain.”

“
Well,” I
say, “that was kind of self-inflicted, wasn't it?”

“
That still doesn't
make it any better.” He says, “I wish you wouldn't put
yourself in situations like that.”

“
Well,” I
say, “you're the one who said I'm a magnet for trouble.”

“
That I did,”
he says.

He sighs.

“
Alright,” he
says. “Time for you to get some sleep. You're going to need as
much as you can get, otherwise you're going to feel horrible
tomorrow.”

I snuggle down into the
covers, my body relaxing into the fluffy bed. Sahariel moves to leave
my room, but my hand flashes out and grabs his, stopping him. I don't
want him to leave, and I think he can sense that.

“
Don't worry,”
he pats my hand, “I'm not going anywhere tonight.”

I smile and watch as he
pulls a chair from the corner and sits at my side. His hand finds
mine and soon I'm drifting off to sleep with his hand in mine.

The next morning I wake
up and feel Sahariel's warm hand in mine. I turn my head and look at
him, seeing that his head is resting on the bed between his arms, his
breathing deep. Looks like I've finally managed to catch him
sleeping. I turn over on my side to face him and run the fingers that
aren't twined with his through his hair.

I pull my hand back as I
feel him wake up and lift his head. He looks around the room then at
me, a sheepish expression on his face.

“
Sahariel,” I
say his name, an idea coming to my mind.

“
Hmm?” He
doesn't look up from our clasped fingers.

“
I want to learn
how to fight.”

His eyes snap to mine
before I'm finished with the sentence.

“
What?”

“
I want to learn
how to fight,” I repeat. “I want to be able to defend
myself.”

“
You're not a
fighter, Eden,” he sighs, “that's not the type of person
you are. Have you ever even been in a fight before?”

“
Well, no, but that
doesn't mean I can't learn.”

“
Eden,” he
says, “you're not a fighter. You're not built like one, and
that's not your strength. The only thing you should concentrate on is
learning how to control your magic. That's the only offense or
defense you'll ever need.”

I frown at him, but I
know that he's right. I've never gotten into a fight because I knew I
could never win. I always avoided them. But how can I train my magic
to use in battle only to forget it when it's actually important.

I look down at our hands,
which are still laced together, and try to figure out what to do with
Illidan. I can't help but wonder where he is.

“
Don't worry about
Illidan,” Sahariel practically reads my thoughts, “we
will find him. I have men searching as we speak.”

Sahariel lets go of my
hand in favor of wrapping his arms around me for the briefest of
moments, causing my heart to thump loudly in my chest. I hear
footfalls stop outside my door, and when the rapid knocking is heard
on my door, Sahariel lets go of me and goes to open the door.

“
We've found him,
Sir,” the man at the door says, “We’ve found
Illidan Sornova.”

My attention is
immediately brought to the man. Sahariel frowns at me and ushers the
man outside and quickly closes the door. I climb quickly and silently
out of bed and rush to the door, hoping that when I press my ear to
the wood, I'll be able to hear the conversation on the other side of
it.

I hear something that
sounds like a mutter apology and then a clipped reply. But my strain
pays off when I catch the words I've wanted to hear ever since I
found that missing page. Illidan Sornova has been found. In the
abandoned corner within the city.

I jump away from the door
and back into my bed only seconds before Sahariel opens the door and
looks at me. I look back at him with the most innocent expression on
my face that I can manage.

“
What was that
about?”

“
Nothing.”

“
You're lying to me
again.” I point out.

“
But it's for your
own good,” He says. “And you know it.”

I flop onto my back in
bed, “And there you go, being right again like always.”

“
It happens.”

There's a light knock on
my door and a boy, who I only know as being a servant for one of the
women on the committee for festivals, enters the room and slowly
walks toward me. I look over at him, trying to figure out why he's
come into my room. He motions to me and I sit on the edge of my bed
and lean down so he can whisper in my ear.

The pertinent information
enters my ear and as the little boy leaves I slowly sit up and stare
at the wall, my eyes wide. This cannot be happening.

“
Eden, are you
okay?”

I turn to him, my face
holding an expression that can only be described as horror, “Please
tell me this isn't happening.”

“
What?”

“
Dear god, this
cannot be happening.”

“
What are you
talking about?”

I don't really answer
him; I just sit there and stare at the wall for a few minutes before
cradling my head in my hands and shaking my head. Sahariel asks me a
few more times what's wrong before getting up and chasing after the
little boy.

This cannot be happening.
Is it possible to cancel something like this during a time of war,
even if it only happens once every 25 years? I pace back and forth
wishing that that little boy hadn't come to me and informed me that
the committee had finalized its plans for this mate finding thing.
There's not even an English equivalent.

I stop my pacing and
practically rip my hair out with frustration. I do not want to go to
it, but for some reason it's sort of mandatory. Does an ultimate
power have to go to something mandatory like that? It's like a
principal not going to a pep rally or something.