Chapter Twenty-six
“Because he’s a Nomad,” said Roman as he ran his hand over his face and glanced at his wife, Evelynne, whom everyone called “Evie.”
Cal looked from one to the other.
“And not just any Nomad,” said Evie, “but basically the offspring of two of the most powerful and most evil Nomads in existence.” She straightened from the table over which she and several other people had been performing complicated scrying spells in a desperate attempt to find the twelfth queen. “But more importantly, he probably has the help of his parents, so to speak. The Entity has a promise to keep. From what Lilith says, the drive to fulfill your end of the bargain is very strong for a Nomad. No doubt, they are helping to hide Arach and Eva. That’s why we can’t find them,” she said with a tired sigh.
The room was filled with nearly every powerful witch, warlock or mage known to the Thirteen Realms, which made it crowded. Most of the attendees who were more familiar with scrying spells were bent over the table and the scrying bowl at its center, lending it their strength.
Calidum looked away from Roman and Evellyne and turned to face the woman who was presiding over the proceedings. She had long, very light blonde hair, delicate features, and enormous, highly luminous blue eyes. He would have recognized those eyes anywhere, and on anyone.
Her name was Lilith McLaren now, but it had once been Lalura Chantelle. More importantly, she had once been a firebrand of a woman born into her first human body as a red-haired lass named Katrielle. Mother to Evangeline.
And not even Katrielle could find her. Evellyne was probably right.
What was worse was that Calidum couldn’t feel her either. He knew she was alive. Never mind the fact that Eva would probably be the last person in the world Arach would want dead – this was just something that Cal knew deep down. She was alive.
But in San Francisco on the Embarcadero, he’d sensed her fear, he’d been able to detect her worry. On the cable car, he’d felt the wound the Entity had given her as if it had been his own. In one way or another, for as long as Cal could remember, he’d been able to feel Evangeline’s presence in the world. Sometimes it was small, only in the background, like a heartbeat you’d stopped listening to long ago because it was your own. But if you concentrated, if you stopped and listened, you would recognize it, beating steadily – to let you know you were still alive.
That was silent now. There was nothing.
It was one hell of a shield.
And while they were shielded, what would Arach be doing to her?
Nothing without a whale of a fight, he reassured himself. Eva was strong. She was the epitome of strength, in fact, the daughter of the Great Black and a Nomad… she would find a way to give as well as she got. He knew that.
But no one’s strength was bottomless, and Arach had the help of two other powerful beings. It was an unfair match.
Calidum turned away again so that Lilith wouldn’t see the look on his face, and he closed his eyes. They were hurting anyway, burning far too bright for far too long. He had been on the verge of changing completely for hours, and soon the transformation would be unstoppable.
I have to find another way, he thought. We’ve been trying to breach the boundaries of space, and it isn’t working…. Cal frowned and looked around the room again. Thinking of space made him think of time. That was when he noticed not who was there, but who wasn’t.
William Solan, the Time King, was missing.
*****
“Are you ready, my love?”
Coy, beautiful laughter floated around the Entity, brushing along his skin like a caress. As nothing else could, this single laugh coaxed a smile to his now handsome face. He was whole again, fully draped in the body of a human male, tall and dashing and deceitfully normal.
He left the mirror to face his long, lost queen and cupped her cheek so he could look upon her longer. She was so animated, so filled with the fire that made her who she was. Her eyes sparkled, and her smile was beautiful. She fussed with his tie for a moment as a human mate might, straightening it where he’d failed.
Then she gave him a shy shrug and said, “I admit I’m excited. There’s so much to experience in this new world.”
“The theatre is only the beginning,” he told her. “Man is flying now.”
Amunet’s dark eyes widened. “How do you mean?”
He chuckled, the sound as beautiful as her laughter. “Not like you or I can, but in great machines.” He gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Never mind. You will see it all soon.”
“I hope so,” she said with another nervous laugh. “Before it is all destroyed.”
“Indeed,” he said casually as he took her hand and led her to the door of the apartment. “Perhaps they will rebuild it.”
She shook her head as he helped her put on her light coat. “They never regained the knowledge they lost when the library was burned.” She sighed. “They chose fiction.”
“And a zealous defense of it, I might add,” said the Entity. Then he grinned. “But you and I would not be here had they not.” He opened the door for her. “Remember that.”
“True enough. I’m hungry.”
“It’s all the energy we’re using protecting our younger son.” He locked the door behind him as any human would, and somehow the small, random all-too-human act made him happy. “Soon he will have what belongs to him, and the power to defend it on his own.”
“Yes. I can feel him growing stronger. And she grows weaker.” But this last part, Amunet said without the certainty of her previous statements.
The Entity stopped them in the hall and regarded her. “You sense something. That there is more to her….”
Amunet thought for a moment. Then she smiled again, and her brilliant happiness was back, washing over him like a miracle. “Whatever happens, whether this is a hard lesson learned for Arach or an easy one, she will make a lovely addition to our family.”
The Entity smiled as well, and his chest felt light. “Agreed.” He crooked his elbow, and she took it like the lady she was. “Now let us hurry. The curtain will soon rise.”