The Dragon's Eyes (26 page)

“How often do you take him to other worlds? Show him
the stars, so to speak,” she asked.

I shook my head. “Too dangerous. He learns magic
quickly, but there are evils out there that he is far too young for.”

She laughed, and it wasn’t a friendly one. “I see
what your problem is. Yours and his. He wants the adventure that you just told
me you wanted to give to your kids, but you’re too afraid to let him have it
because you don’t want to lose the only Dylan you have. You can’t have it both
ways. I know Dylan, I knew him before you ever did. His entire life, he’s been
told he couldn’t do something, then been left alone. He’s learned that he can
do anything he sets his mind to, but he can figure out a way to do it on his
own.” She glared at me and I felt a profound epiphany in the making. “If you
won’t show him the stars, he’ll find them himself. Do you want to be there to
teach him or not? You can only control what you do, not what he does. That is
what you never had before; someone who can do anything, including control his
own destiny.”

How could Dylan have ever left this wise, brilliant
woman? I have married women who couldn’t light a cooker, yet he left a woman
who could figure out the secrets of the universe.

“By the way, if Dylan asks about your eye… Don’t tell
him I hit you.”

Since I had forgotten her that she punched me, I
automatically reached up to feel my left eye. It stung, but didn’t feel
bruised, so I shrugged. “I heal fast. I’m sure it will be gone tomorrow.”

She squinted with disbelief. “You haven’t seen
yourself in a mirror lately, have you?”

Once again, I was reminded why I preferred sweet,
quiet women.

*          *          *

Vivian and I tried to set off early in the morning,
but our plans were squandered by a screaming little girl who would not be
deterred. The child never said a word, but she could make demands like a pro,
and she had a tight grip on my leg. Vivian went out to get some backup; even
though she didn’t speak the native language, I would not make it out of the
room without hurting the child. Finally the pretty maid from the previous day
came with some food to lure the octopus child off of me.

“Where are you and your…” she paused, looking
pointedly at Vivian.

“Friend who is in a committed relationship with
someone else,” I supplied. Her slight grin grew and she set plates of food
down. It was rice with some meat in it.

“Great. I am Leina.”

“My name is Kiro. She is Vivian.”

“Where are you and your friend off to so early?”

“Not sure yet,” I answered. She stepped forward and
was suddenly close enough that I could feel her breath.

She was taller than I thought; the top of her head
coming nearly to my chin, but she wasn’t too tall. I usually preferred women
who were small enough to fit comfortably in my arms, since they were the ones
who liked a protective man. Feisty women, like Vivian, were not my type, which
just goes to show Dylan didn’t get it from my side of the family. Confident,
yes; argumentative, no thanks.

“Then you should not rush off so soon.” She boldly
put her hand on my chest. I could tell she was normally shy, but wasn’t willing
to let the opportunity slip her by.

Fantastic.

“I guess you could show me around. Maybe show me what
the bedrooms are like,” I said, happy to reward her bravery. She blushed and
her heartbeat picked up. She stood on her toes to kiss me.

“Oh, my god. Really?!” Vivian demanded, interrupting
me from tasting the cute little woman. I looked over in time to see the
irritated red-head roll her eyes. “I don’t even know what you’re saying, Casanova
but you’re moving too fast. Do you normally pick up women like fast-food? I
mean, I get it, you got muscles, you’re tall, and you have this manly aura…
kind of like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but really?!”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not,” I
answered in English. Leina started to step back, but I wrapped my arm around
her waist. “What do you care, anyway? We’re stuck here and might as well get
comfortable. Go find a store to shop at, because Leina and I are adults.”

She huffed, spun on her heels, and stormed out.

“Can we go to my place now?” the woman asked eagerly.
I glanced over at the children, absentmindedly eating while watching us. “They
will be fine on their own; everyone in the city looks after them.”

“Are you okay for now?” I asked. The older girl
nodded. When the younger girl stood up to attack me, the other girl grabbed the
back of her shirt and pulled her back down.

A few minutes later, Leina was leading me through
buildings and over bridges that hadn’t been destroyed. “We are just about
there,” she said. She was pulling me by my arm now.

“Leina, come here!” we heard someone call.

Looking up, we spotted a man leaning over the balcony
of the building we were about to enter. Leina sighed and slumped against me,
her back to my chest. I knew she hadn’t meant to be seductive, but I realized
exactly what her bland clothes were hiding.

“My brother lives in the place across from mine. He
was not supposed to be here; he is early to arrive from his trip.” She looked
up at me with pleading eyes. “I can make him leave if you can wait,” she said.

“Anticipation makes the dessert sweeter.”

She smiled and I followed her into her into a hallway
with several doors and a set of stairs. We walked up three flights, passing
identical halls with identical doors, much like in one of Earth’s apartment
complexes, and came to a door that she unlocked with a key. Where she pulled
the key from, I didn’t know. I would have to watch where she put her hands more
carefully.

“You can wait in here while I see what my brother
wants and get rid of him.” She left through the opposite door, leaving it open
just a crack.

As I opened the door to her place and took a step in,
I was bombarded by my Guardian instincts; I was going to miss something
important.

Heeding the warning, I closed the door and followed
after Leina into her brother’s place. There was very little furniture, boxes of
papers, and a bed perfectly made. No pictures or art were displayed on the
white walls, or anything to identify this as a home. The kitchenette looked
like it had never been used. I found Leina and her brother on the balcony,
looking out over the sea.

“What is it?” I asked. Leina jumped slightly, but
pressed her back against my front. I put my arms around her because it was
getting cold out and her clothes were fairly thin.

She pointed to a small island not far from the city,
maybe ten minutes by boat. The island was secluded with thick trees, but
something felt wrong about it. I actually felt as if something there was
watching me. Still, except for my instincts, I could see nothing wrong.

“What about it? It looks fine,” I said.

Her brother turned to look at me. “It looks like a
nice enough island. The problem is, it was not there yesterday.”

“What do you mean, ‘not there yesterday’? Islands do
not develop overnight,” I argued.

“I agree, but this one did. I arrived this morning and
passed right by it. I almost landed there to explore it, but there were
horrible sounds coming from the forest.” He shivered as he looked back at the
island. “Truly horrible sounds, and not just one. That island is bad. People
will go there to explore it and they will die.”

I patted Leina’s arm and let her go. “I will take
care of it.”

“What?” she demanded as she turned to me. “There are
monsters there and you want to go find them?”

“If it is a threat, I will take care of it. That is
my job, and I do my job well.”

“You are a monster hunter? That is a terrible job!”
she said. I laughed and went back into the room. “What about…?” she asked.

“If the sounds are from the same creatures that
attacked this city, they could return at any time for a second round. It could
take all day to uncover and neutralize a threat hiding on that island, and I do
not want to be there when it gets dark. I need to go now.”

“You can take my boat,” the brother supplied. He told
me where it was tethered. It was difficult to leave Leina there, but I had to;
my duties as Guardian come first.

Just when I found the boat, I heard my name called
and looked over to see Vivian standing there wearing a dark blue, fitted dress
and brown leather boots. “You went shopping? How? You don’t have any money,” I
said.
The skills of some women…

She shrugged. “I traded for the clothes I was
wearing. Did you have fun corrupting that woman?” she asked.

“No,” I answered.

She frowned. “I’m sorry it wasn’t that good. Maybe
the next city we stop at will have a more-experienced slut you can play with.
Or maybe women of the sea are not that great.”

“I meant no, I did not get to do anything with her.
I’m going to check out a creepy island that screams danger and grew overnight,”
I answered, purposely trying to scare her off.

“Ooohh! Sounds like fun!” She jumped in the boat
before I could untie it.

I sighed and got in. Nano was going to kill me.

I knew something was wrong within a few minutes. By
distance, it should have taken about ten minutes; however, I realized that the
closer we got, the quicker we were eating up the distance. We were not actually
moving faster, the island had some form of time warp around it. It was drawing
people in.

“I think we made a mistake,” Vivian said.
“Something’s wrong. I don’t want to be here. Turn around.”

“I need to find out what’s here and fight it. You can
stay on the boat.”

“Are you kidding? I’ll get killed in two minutes!”

“Then I’ll get off and you head back to the city,” I
said. She was muttering when we reached the island. The boat hit sand and I
hopped out. “Come back for me before nightfall, but don’t come alone.” I gave
the boat a shove. The boat drifted off a little, then rolled back with the
tide. I pushed it off harder, but it came right back. Vivian used the row, which
stuck right into the water and struck no dirt.

“There’s a steep drop there. Oh, god. I don’t like
this. I would rather die with you on this horror movie than drown alone at sea.
Oh, god! The ocean’s so deep!” She was panicking now. She actually stood up
like she was going to jump, but the boat rocked hard and she fell. When the
boat hit the sand a third time, I helped her out.

I had to listen to her rant about drowning until we
reached the trees that towered over us. Then fear took her breath and voice.
Inside it was dark, not to the point that I couldn’t see through it, but
definitely dark enough.

“I don’t want to die. I have a baby.” Vivian started
crying and held onto my arm tightly. “Please, we have to leave. Please.”

“We can’t,” I said. I pointed back out to sea, where
our boat was drifting away into the open ocean. She started crying harder and I
sighed. I knew what I had to do. My life would be in danger the moment I did,
but I could never stand a crying woman. “Alright. We’ll go back to the beach
and I will call for Nano.”

“What?” she asked, startled out of her crying. “I
thought you said you couldn’t do anything!” she yelled.

“I can’t travel worlds, but I can send out a signal.
I can make sure it finds Nano, and he’ll come.”

I expected it when she slapped me. “Why didn’t you
tell me before?! He can’t come here; he’ll be killed with us!”

At least she cared about his life. Once I gave up my
hiding spot, I was free game for the gods to kill me. “He can travel,” I said.
“He can take you and get out of here in an instant. Even the time field will
have no effect.” No effect to them, anyway. It was likely that the Guardian’s
power would react with the time field and blow this island to bits as soon as
they left.

I grabbed her arm to escort her back to the safer
beach, but at that moment, I felt the jerk of something else grabbing onto her.
She screamed as she was pulled into the dark. I raced after her, but the speed
of whatever had her was insane. Abruptly, she was dropped, but at the haste she
was going, she rolled quite a ways.

I pulled her into my lap as she cried and shook and
used my magic to check for damage. Unfortunately, there was an energy barrier
around her; Nano had created a shield to protect her from magic, but it was
keeping me from helping her. I could have broken it, being the stronger
Guardian, but the backlash would have hurt Vivian.

Instead, I had to hope there was no internal
bleeding. I took the healing cream out of my bag and covered the minor scrapes
on her delicate skin. While it stopped the wounds from hurting, prevented
infection, and sped up the rate of healing, the real reason I used it was to
cover up the scent of blood. I learned a long time ago that in the dark, you
don’t want to smell like blood.

A loud screech had us back on our feet. Whatever it
was, it was big, and we did not want to meet it. Vivian ran with me, but limped
a little. “Where is your gargoyle? Shouldn’t he be helping us?”

I hoped we were heading in the right direction
towards the beach. “He isn’t my gargoyle; he is a wild gargoyle that can do
what he wants.” As we made our way to the beach, the roots in the ground
started to whip around like some kind of psychotic snakes. The faster we ran,
the more they moved.

I slowed to a stop, holding Vivian back with me. She
didn’t question me and used the time to catch her breath. I reached into the
ground, sopping with moisture, and froze every drop of liquid I could. The
roots instantly collapsed. I reached for Vivian to get us running again, when I
felt something hit me. A force of energy shoved me back hard into a tree trunk.
Whatever it was, I could see nothing, but it was strong and solid. When it
compressed me harder into the tree, I lost my breath. I couldn’t even tell
Vivian to stay away when she tried to pull me off the tree. It didn’t just
compress me from the front; it wrapped around me and constricted like a snake.
I tried to draw enough energy to fight, but it was like there was nothing
there. My energy could actually feel an absence of everything.