Knights of Riona Page 15

  “I have to find Paula. Either help me or stay out of my way.”

  I turned and picked my way across the broken furniture and scattered remnants of the hospital I’d been stuck in once again. My foot caught on something but before I sprawled across the debris, firm hands caught me. Lonzo had followed me, as I knew he would. I had no idea how he and Taeren were alive and in the real world, but there was no denying their existence. Questions could be answered later.

  After passing the gaping hole that had once been the art therapy room and finding far too many lifeless bodies, we found a survivor near the nurse’s station. Doctor Larkin was partially buried under pieces of debris. He was barely conscious, but he was breathing.

  “Doctor? Can you hear me?”

  “Delia? What happened?” His voice was weak.

  “There was another earthquake. The hospital has partially collapsed. People are dead. We need to get out of here. Can you move?”

  He had a bloody gash on his head that would need stitches. Lonzo helped him to a sitting position while I did my best to move the chunks of drywall and unidentifiable debris that covered his body. Larkin was able to stand on shaky legs, but he was disoriented from the head wound and loss of blood.

  “We have to find Paula.”

  “Where does your friend work?” Lonzo asked.

  My stomach plummeted as I remembered all the helpless children I’d lived with during my time there. Undoubtedly, we would discover a similar scene in that ward. Words failed me, but Lonzo was still waiting for an answer.

  “She wasn’t working today.” Doctor Larkin soothed a fraction of my worry.

  “But the kids?”

  I didn’t think it was possible for Larkin to pale any further than he already had. He immediately set off in the direction of the door that separated the two wards. The adrenaline rush was making him reckless; he showed no concern for the exposed electrical wires that sparked and swung freely.

  I grabbed Lonzo’s arm to pull him back. “I want to help those kids just as much as he does, but we’re not a rescue team. Not even someone with your…umm…training could possibly hope to navigate what remains of this building. He’s going to put himself and any other survivors at risk.”

  To my surprise, Lonzo pulled out a cellphone and dialed for help. It wouldn’t be any use, we couldn’t be the only building in need of assistance.

  “We’re going to have to help these people ourselves, aren’t we?” I asked, as a feeling of desperation settled in my core.

  “I was thinking the same thing. I’m not getting anywhere with this thing.” He shoved it back in his pocket.

  “Help me get this door open!” Larkin called from up ahead.

  We picked our way down what was left of the hallway. Larkin was desperately trying to pry the door open. Through the window, I caught sight of the destruction that waited for us. After exchanging a look with Lonzo, I put everything I had into helping Larkin get the doors to move. I had little hope that we’d find many people to rescue, but with the smaller population of the children’s ward, there was a slight possibility that they were all in one location. As long as that location hadn’t ended up like the art therapy room.

  Lonzo let go of the door handle. Sweat and dirt covered every inch of his exposed skin. He looked around in our immediate area; I had no idea what he was looking for, and wasn’t sure he would find it in the rubble. Lonzo stooped and picked up a few broken pieces of plastic and what had once been a silicone key pad.

  “Don’t you normally need a code to move between wards?” Lonzo asked.

  Larkin was breathing heavily from his efforts. “Yes, but as you can see, the key pad isn’t working.”

  “I don’t know much about electricity, but I have worked construction for a few years. I know those doors aren’t going to move unless we bypass the security system. The building still has power, but it’s clearly not functioning the way it should.”

  “So, we need to jump start it?” Larkin tried to follow the logic.

  Lonzo nodded. I knew where he was going with his line of thinking, so I walked over to the loose wire that still sparked and sputtered as it dangled from the ceiling near the door.

  “Basically, we need to send an electric current through the panel. We need to make it forget what it was originally programmed to do. It needs ECT.”

  It was a low blow, but it was effective. Larkin blinked slowly at me. He understood that my words had duel meanings. The treatment he’d wanted to give me would do the same thing. It would scramble my brain and reprogram it. I would forget important things in an effort to gloss over the thoughts he wanted to eradicate. I reached for the wire.

  “Don’t! What are you thinking, Princess?” Lonzo clamped his lips together. It was too late to take back the word he used to address me. He cleared his throat, trying to find a way past the awkward moment. “You can’t just grab the wire like that, you have to avoid the frayed ends.”

  Larkin was silent as he looked between us. I didn’t know what to say either. I was at a crossroads. I could either embrace the crazy notion that the dreams from my childhood were somehow real, or I could ignore the slip altogether. As it turned out, Lonzo didn’t give me a choice. He came close to me and gently pulled my hand away from the wire.

  “Delia, you don’t belong in here. We need you to come home.”

  Tears formed in my eyes, he didn’t know I remembered him. I’d been very careful not to call him by his name, just in case I was wrong. This time, I threw caution to the wind. “Okay, Lonzo. I trust you.”

  His cerulean eyes widened for a moment before a grin broke across his face. “I never told you my name.”

  “I know.”

  He pulled me into a quick hug before grabbing the black wire himself. He yanked it to gain a little more slack as he stretched it until it touched the exposed electrical box that housed the inner-workings of the security pad. I closed my eyes as he shoved the two together, sending sparks flying in every direction. The sound of a buzzer and the faint click of a lock disengaging reassured me enough to open one eye. Lonzo was still standing. I opened the other eye and offered him a small smile.

  “It was just the wire that went to the box. If you’d touched the end, it would have given you a nasty shock, but it isn’t a high enough voltage to do much more than that.” Lonzo shrugged as I shook my head at him.

  “My hero.” I laughed as he pulled the door open for me.

  We made it into the other ward and propped the door open just in case we needed to return. By some miracle, many of the children were unharmed and not a single casualty had been claimed. The nurses and orderlies had the foresight to gather them in the stairwell, which had turned out to be the most stable part of the building. Unfortunately, the lower half of the stairs had collapsed so there was no chance of simply evacuating that way.

  Sirens sounded nearby. The psychiatric hospital was connected to medical hospital so it made sense that ambulances and fire trucks would be deployed to our location. We continued to move through the hospital. The closer we got to the middle of the large building, the less damage we seemed to encounter. A team of rescue workers met us as we exited the crumbling remains of the place that had been my home for the majority of what I remembered as my childhood. We insisted they care for the children first, but Larkin was in rough shape. Other than a few cuts and bruises, I was fine and so was Lonzo.

  “We’ve got to get to Taeren and the others,” Lonzo whispered.

  I shook my head. “I don’t really know what’s going on, and I’m still not entirely convinced of my sanity. All I know for sure is Paula is probably worried sick about me, and I need to be certain she’s okay.”

  He bowed his head. “We can call Taeren on the way.”

  The earthquake came before I could ask Alice what she meant about our enemies. My gut feeling about the Gorum trying to burst through the portal had been correct. If they were trying to leave Riona, what did that mean for my home? For my people? Had w
e failed in our mission to bring Delia and the amulet together in time to save everyone?

  Despite the distant crashing of what were probably priceless antiques, Alice continued to work. Nothing distracted her from her mission, not even the critical looks Orin was throwing her way. I had no idea how he was feeling, but it couldn’t have been easy to find out your wife had an entirely different life. I knew what she was doing must have been more important than I’d imagined, so I offered my assistance.

  “Trust me, there’s nothing you can do to help with this unless you’ve been trained in the alchemical arts.”

  I huffed out a sigh. “At least tell me what you’re doing.”

  “I’m making another stone.”

  “What? How?”

  “All I need now is one more ingredient. Give me your hand.”

  Without hesitation, I held my hand out, palm up. Alice pulled out a silver dagger and slid it across the tip of my index finger. Crimson blood pooled in the cut until it formed a droplet big enough for her purposes. She gently turned my hand until the blood dripped into the waiting vial. I didn’t flinch while she squeezed my finger until four more sizable drops joined the first.

  “How will making another stone help?” Orin had watched in silence until then.

  “One stone created your world and has kept it alive all these years. When that stone returns to Riona, it will restore your world, but you will still have to fight a war against powerful enemies. This stone will help you do that. This stone will give you the power to seal portals forever.”

  “Any portal?” My brain was working to comprehend the implications of what she’d said.

  Alice nodded as she combined the contents of each vial with careful concentration. When all that was left to add was the vial of my blood, she motioned for me to join her.

  “You have to add your blood. In order for this to work, you must be the one who sacrifices a part of yourself to the stone. Are you prepared to take on the responsibility that will come with this burden?”

  “Is this stone going to be tied to me and my children the way the other is tied to the descendants of Sophronia?”

  “Yes; however, you won’t need to wear it to keep the portals sealed. Once they’re sealed, they will remain that way until you put on the amulet and decide to walk through a portal.”

  “There’s no way to make this without tying it to my blood?”

  I couldn’t help but think of the sacrifices made by the bloodline that came from the Great Alchemist. If she had known what adding her blood to the stone would do, would she have gone forward with it?

  “No, I need someone’s blood to do this and since you’re the only one here who intends to return to Riona, you must comply.”

  My blood ran cold. The phrasing was off, what she’d said made it sound as though she herself had been to Riona. I think she must have realized her slip because she grew impatient and reached for my hand. I stepped away and pulled my arm behind my back like a child.

  “Have you been to Riona?”

  Alice crossed her arms. “Why would you ask that?”

  I stared at her, hard. While her hair was the opposite of Delia’s, I could see a small resemblance in her eyes. They were a soft shade of blue that reminded me of the sky on Earth. She looked away.

  “Who are you, really?”

  Her exasperated sigh told me everything I needed to know, but she told me anyway. “I told you I’ve been known by many names and I’ve lived many lives. Riona was supposed to be my world. I’d been working on the stone for so long, I hadn’t even noticed that the plague had swept through my village.”

  My heart beat so fiercely I thought it might burst from my chest. “Sophronia?”

  Alice bowed her head in acknowledgement. “I haven’t heard that name in many years. I knew the moment you arrived, you would need my help. But I couldn’t bring myself to seek you out. Leaving Riona behind was the worst betrayal possible.”

  I had no idea what she meant by that, but I now knew why she was able to mix the ingredients together to easily. I wanted to ask her how she was still alive, when had she left Riona, did anyone know she was still alive. But I couldn’t form the words. Instead, I glanced at Orin. He looked as though he may be sick. He’d just discovered his wife was the ancient alchemist who’d been widely revered by our world.

  I locked eyes with Alice and nodded firmly. “I am ready to serve my people and save my home, at any cost.”

  “Pour the blood in.”

  I did as instructed. The mixture swirled together, turning a brilliant blue. Alice quickly took the mixture and poured it into a mold before placing it in a strangely shaped oven.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we have to wait for it to harden. This is an exact art, if we don’t do it right, it won’t work at all.”

  My phone rang in my pocket. It was Lonzo. “Hello?”

  “Taeren, I have the princess.”

  “What? How?”

  “You know I started working as a janitor at the hospital where the other woman is employed.”

  “How did that get you to Delia? Tell me you didn’t kidnap her.”

  He chuckled on the other end of the call. “No, I saved her. When the earthquake hit I got her to safety and we helped get people out of what remained of the hospital.”

  “You saved Delia or her friend?”

  “There is a lot I need to tell you, but Delia was locked away in a hospital for the insane.”

  My heart leapt to my throat. “Is she alright?”

  “She will be. They told her she was going crazy. They did something to her head to make her think our home was just a dream.”

  I closed my eyes. No wonder she’d seemed so afraid when I saw her at the book signing. She thought I was just a character in her books; she wasn’t just telling people they were dreams, she truly believed it.

  “We’re with the alchemist. She’s made something that will help us. The Gorum and Sideon are coming to Earth.”

  “You were right. How do we stop them?”

  “I don’t know yet, but we’re going to figure it out.”

  I hung up with Lonzo and explained what happened. Orin shook his head sadly. Alice didn’t look the least bit surprised. I glared at her.

  “Why didn’t you do something for her? You had to have known she’d arrived. You had to have felt her presence. She’s your granddaughter!”

  Alice hung her head. “I was afraid. You don’t know the whole story, neither does she. I left my own daughter behind because I was selfish. I grew tired of ruling, and wanted to go home.”

  “Well, Riona is home for me, for Delia. You left us, and now I don’t even know if there’s a home to return to.”

  “If an apology would fix it, I would apologize. However, we both know that no matter how many times I say I’m sorry or that I wish I could take it back, it won’t make one ounce of difference.”

  “Then tell me why you left. I don’t believe for a single moment that you missed your smelly hovel in your long-forgotten village.”

  She flinched at my raised voice. In other circumstances, I would have been out of line, but we weren’t in Riona and she wasn’t my queen. She wasn’t even the “Great” Alchemist” anymore. She was nothing.

  “Taeren, be fair. How was she to know that the Gorum would invade? How was she to know about the danger the Sideon would bring?” Orin seemed to have snapped out of his shock as he came to his wife’s defense.

  “I knew.” The whisper was almost inaudible.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” I was begging for clarification.

  “I said I knew. I saw it all. I knew what would become of Riona if I were to leave and I did it anyway. Other than my own daughter, I didn’t care about the fate of anyone. None of them cared for me, why should I worry about their fate?”

  I was angry. I was ready to explode. The woman we’d all worshipped as the creator of our world had just admitted to the worst possible crime. She didn’t care if we
lived or died.

  “If you don’t care, why are you helping us now? If you knew who I was all along, why did you marry me? Did you ever love me?” Orin demanded.

  “Of course I love you! I knew who you were, but I couldn’t tell you who I was. You wouldn’t have understood. People change. I changed. I came to realize Riona wasn’t just something I’d made, it had a life all its own. The day I returned to Earth, I set a chain of events in motion that was supposed to end it once and for all.”

  “And yet, here we are,” I said through gritted teeth.

  She nodded. A tear ran down her cheek. “I never would have guessed you’d find me. I made it nearly impossible. Yet you found me, and I am ready to help the next queen of Riona.”

  I struggled to believe her words, but she was our only hope. The stone she had hardening in her oven was going to help us get rid of the Gorum and Sideon once and for all. I couldn’t ignore that she’d done that for us. Sophronia turned back to her wall of ingredients and continued to gather various items on the table. I couldn’t say how long we stood in silence when a “ding” tore me from my thoughts.

  “It’s ready.”

  I soon discovered that Sophronia’s idea of “ready” and mine were totally different. The newly molded stone had to cool, then it had to be set in the silver filigree she’d formed for the amulet. I waited, impatiently, until she finally turned around with the finished product nearly two hours later. The stone was breathtaking. It had veins of deep navy that streaked across the teal, and speckles of gray. It didn’t move like the amulet that belonged to the queen, but I could practically feel the weight of its power coursing through me as I hooked it around my neck.

  “Now, you must return to the portal. Your enemies have already begun invading this world. I can only imagine what destruction they’ve brought down on us so far.” Sophronia practically shoved us up the stairs.

  “Aren’t you coming with us, Alice? We’ll need all the help we can get,” Orin asked her as we neared the cupboard doors.