Chapter Twenty-Seven

“You’re his son, aren’t you?”

Mhavrych stopped at the sound of the voice behind him but didn’t turn around to face the man he knew was standing there. He didn’t want to look at him, to face the look of recognition in his eyes and the unsettling confusion that it caused.

“Aren’t you?” the voice asked again.

Finally, Mhavrych knew that there was nothing that he could do to ignore it. He turned around and saw Rilex approaching him from the end of the hallway as if he had been waiting for him to emerge from the infirmary where Mhavrych had been looking at the bones again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded flatly.

“Of course, you do,” Rilex said. “You know exactly what I’m talking about and you know exactly who I am. I can see him in your eyes. They are your grandfather’s eyes. I know them as well as I know my own. You can’t hide them from me. What are you doing here?”

Mhavrych straightened, feeling strangely defensive against the man and his questions.

“I can ask you the same question.”

Of course, Mhavrych knew who Rilex was. He had heard his name his entire life, seen images of him, read chronicles of the amazing things that he had accomplished when he lived alongside Mhavrych’s grandfather, helping him not just to rule, but also to seek to untangle the challenges that had defined his life and his role among his people. Though he had known of him his whole life, Mhavrych had never expected that he would see Rilex. He had never encountered him and had known only that he had disappeared from their stream well before Mhavrych’s father was even born and not heard from again until his mother arrived through a portal believed long-sealed. Rilex hadn’t returned to the stream, though, even after he learned that he had the opportunity to. He chose to remain on Earth in the life that he had built there rather than returning to the stream that he had left behind and the people that had searched for him for so long. Mhavrych could somewhat understand his choice. His grandparents were both long-dead and the kingdom had changed dramatically, and Rilex had stated that he knew that there was more to be done in the time that he had settled in, but there was still a sense of betrayal when he looked at this man. Rilex knew that it was possible to return. He could have come back and soothed some of the pain and heartache that had been caused by his disappearance, as well as aided Mhavrych’s father in all that he had faced since Mhavrych’s birth.

There had been a time before Mhavrych was born, when there was a sense of peace and stability across the streams. It hadn’t lasted nearly as long as his parents dreamed that it would. That is how Mhavrych had come to carry the role of Protector, a role that he sometimes struggled to accept, feeling as though he was not the person who should have been given the job. Not yet. It wasn’t yet his turn. But he had been given the responsibility and he had to take it. He had no choice.

“You didn’t know that I was here?” Rilex asked. “I would have thought that your father would have told you about me.”

“He told me about you,” Mhavrych said. “I know all about you. I know that you stayed here when you could have returned and that you never tried to contact anyone from home. You didn’t come for my birth or the birth of my sister. You didn’t come for my installation. By the time that I was an adult, we all considered you dead. It was the only explanation that we could come to that my parents would accept.”

“They could have come back,” Rilex said. “They knew how to get to me. At any time, they could have traveled back if they needed my help.”

Mhavrych shook his head. He didn’t want to hear any more. The startled, confused emotions that he had felt when he first saw Rilex from across the quarry had given way to anger. It wasn’t fury or bright, explosive rage. Instead, it felt like slow-burning embers inside of him.

“I’m not having this conversation,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” Rilex asked, sounding almost accusatory. “Why would you come here?”

“That’s not something that you need to know,” he said.

“Of course it’s something that I need to know,” Rilex insisted. “I’ve spent my entire life working to guard the streams and destroy the source of destruction. If you are here for something that has to do with that, I deserve to know.”

“Maybe there was a time once when you would have deserved to know,” Mhavrych said, “but not now. You aren’t involved anymore.”

Without waiting for a response from the older man, Mhavrych turned away and stalked down the hallway, disappearing around the corner before he could allow him to see the tear that slid down his cheek.

The morning light was barely touching the edge of the desert when Mhavrych approached the door to the passenger pod where he knew Aegeus was sleeping. He had been awake for more than an hour, barely able to rest after his conversation with Rilex the night before. He had tried to hold off waking Aegeus, wanting to give him as much opportunity to rest as he could, but now he couldn’t wait any longer. He felt like he was just wasting time, pacing through the ship with little purpose as he waited. Though he had been vigilant about what was going on around him as he wandered through the various levels of the vessel, he didn’t know what he should be looking for. He had known nothing about Frederick until Maxim told him, and even though he now knew why the men had returned to the ship from the compound, he wasn’t familiar with this ship or what it had been like during their crossing, so he was unlikely to detect anything of relevance.

He approached the door to the passenger pod and knocked, taking a respectful step back from it to give Aegeus a few moments to answer. When he did he was wearing only pants, revealing grisly scars across his chest and wrapping around his waist as if created by something that had been secured tightly around him and had rubbed away at his skin over a long time. Mhavrych withheld his reaction to the physical reminders of the torture that he had sustained during his years in Ryan’s imprisonment and gestured in the direction of the kitchen.

“Will you join me for breakfast?” he asked.

Aegeus nodded, looking pleasantly surprised to see Mhavrych standing there. He walked back into the pod and returned a few moments later wearing a shirt and boots. They walked together toward the kitchen, a saturated silence between them. There was so much to be said, and yet neither of them seemed to be able to form the right words.

When they arrived at the kitchen, Mhavrych went about making each cups of coffee. He had formed a taste for the Mikana version of the beverage when he was much younger and Aegeus would bring it to his stream as a gift for his parents during his visits. He liked the human version even more, finding it more complex and smoother than what he had had before. Mugs filled with the steaming beverage, he placed both on the elevated island in the center of the room and crossed to the bakery closet in one corner. It was a familiar feature, one that he had seen in other ships as well as compounds and colonies that were just beginning, and it was comforting in a way to see something within the glinting metal walls of this vessel that he understood. He opened the door to the closet and then one of the many drawers embedded in the wall within. The smell of freshly baked bread, instantly finished from a par-baked loaf set within the drawer before takeoff by the heat technology of the closet, wafted out at him and Mhavrych realized how hungry he was. They sat on the tall stools across from one another eating thick slices of bread and drinking their coffee for a few silent moments before Aegeus spoke.

“It’s so good to see you again, Mhavrych. I can’t thank you enough for what you did for my son. For both of my sons.”

“You’re welcome, Aegeus,” he said. “I was so relieved when I found out that you hadn’t died.”

The older man’s face darkened, but not in a way that made Mhavrych feel as though he were angry or upset by the comment. Instead, it seemed that he was angry at the entire situation, at the concept that anyone had been forced to think that he had died and that he hadn’t been able to get out of the imprisonment that had held him.

“What is the status of the war?” Aegeus asked, his voice solemn as though he was reluctant to actually hear Mhavrych’s response.

Mhavrych took a long sip of his coffee and set the mug down.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said. “Casimir is still alive.”

“He is?” Aegeus asked, sounding both surprised and happy.

“Yes,” Mhavrych told him. “If you are prepared, he is. The plan is back in action. All he is waiting for is you.”

Mhavrych watched as Aegeus climbed from his stool.

“When can we leave?” he asked.

“Are you sure?” Mhavrych asked. “The stakes are even higher than they were before and the danger is much higher.”

“I have been waiting for this for decades,” Aegeus said. “There is nothing that could stop me.”

They rushed out of the kitchen and back to the passenger pod. Ellora was inside with Maxim and both turned toward them as they swept inside. Ellora’s eyes registered fear as she crossed the room toward her husband, her hands reaching for him.

“What is it, Aegeus?” she asked, her hands resting on his chest.

Aegeus took her hands, holding them against his heart as he looked into his wife’s face.

“I have to go,” he said.

“Go?” she asked.

Maxim stepped up beside his mother and looked at Aegeus.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“The work that I started long ago is waiting for me,” he said.

“Must you really go?” Ellora asked. “I just found you again.”

Aegeus took one hand from Ellora’s and stroked along the side of her face.

“I know, my love,” he said softly. “But I have been waiting for so many years. What I fought for was never resolved. I have to do what my duty calls me to do. Please understand.”

Ellora reached up and wrapped her hand around Aegeus’s wrist, leaning her face further into his palm.

“I know,” she said, her voice tremulous. “I understand.”

Aegeus leaned down and touched a kiss to her lips.

“I promise you that is not our last kiss,” he said. “Protect it for me while I’m gone. Return it to me when I return.”

“I will,” Ellora said.

Aegeus released her reluctantly and then rushed around the room gathering what he could fit into his satchel to bring with him. As he walked toward Mhavrych, settling the strap of the satchel around his body and over his shoulder, Maxim stepped up to him.

“I’ll go with you, Papa,” he offered.

“No, Maxim,” Aegeus said. “You need to stay here.”

“But I can help you,” Maxim argued.

“I know that you could,” Aegeus said. He cupped his hands around Maxim’s face, holding it so that he could look into his eyes and then leaned forward to touch their foreheads together. “My son,” he whispered before pulling back and releasing him. “Your responsibilities are here, Maxim,” he said. “You must take care of Ivy and that new baby of yours. Protect them. If Ryan hears that she has delivered a child, he will become even more aggressive. Stay here and continue to raise up your army. I will be back and together, side-by-side, we’ll fight.”

Aegeus kissed his wife a final time and then he and Mhavrych rushed out of the room and toward the exit of the ship so that they could cross the desert and return to the frozen realm. Malcolm had already released Casimir from his bonds, but it was Aegeus who would bring him out of exile and back to war.