Page 48 of The Void

She tilted her head. “You said you loved me.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. “Later.” His eyes opened and landed on hers. “We’ll talk later.”

“I love you, too,” she said quickly.

He smiled and pulled her close and kissed her. When he pulled back, he said in a lowered voice, “We can’t bring him directly to Atlantis. There’s a reason I had to pass through the Kri. We have to bring him to the water’s edge. He has to make it to the city gates himself.”

Mia sighed and nodded. She had known that would be the case. It was one of the reasons the people had instantly trusted Lucas, because he’d passed the Kri test. If she just brought Lei into the city… she didn’t want to think what would happen.

“Agreed,” she said just as Lei turned and started walking towards them.

“I’m ready,” Lei said, stopping in front of them.

Mia motioned to the shadow creatures. “They’re leaving?”

Lei nodded. “Believe it or not, they’re good. They saved me. We only attacked you the other night because I felt your power. I thought it was Feng, somehow. Then they attacked you, Lucas, thinking you were the one who had taken me.”

“They’ve slaughtered my family,” Jain said from behind them. Everyone jumped slightly when she appeared. None of them had known she was there until the entire hillside moved. Mia was once again shocked at the creature that had saved Lucas. The sheer size of the being was breathtaking, along with the fact that she appeared to be made out of moss, trees, and dirt.

“Wow,” Lei said, standing back. “I thought I’d imagined you.”

“Tell your friends to stop eating my family,” Jain said again.

Lei frowned and looked around at the bones of the animals his smoke friends had consumed in the past days.

“They have to eat,” he said with a shrug.

“There are fish.” Jain pointed to the river.

“Not enough in the mountains,” Lei said.

“I can arrange that,” Jain said. Then she disappeared. It took her only a minute to return with a pile of fish the size of a truck.

Lei’s smoke creatures rushed over and gobbled some of the fish up.

“This will keep them happy as they return,” Lei said after the creatures chattered in response to the new food.

“I will assure that they leave my forest safely,” Jain said. The smoke creatures scooped up the fish and started to disappear into the trees and Jain followed.

Lei turned towards Lucas. “Ready?”

“There’s just one more thing.” Lucas stepped forward. “You have to earn your way into Atlantis.”

Mia reached over and took her brother’s shoulders. They flew until they reached the edge of the water just outside the city.

Lucas spoke up. “To the Aynah, go directly, Kri’s visions may cause thee, Hinder not thy path, resolutely, Embrace the journey, ardently.”

Lucas turned to her and nodded and they both shot up into the air.

“See you soon, brother,” Mia called out to him as they passed the small space between the water’s edge and the city.

It took her brother less than an hour to knock on the gates. Lei was, of course, welcomed into the city with cheers.

Since they had fought Feng all night, the morning meal was very welcomed by all. Lei was cleaned and dressed in the standard clothing that all men wore inside the walls. Lucas even changed, and she had donned another dress.

She was looking forward to returning home so she could wear clothes that fit her style better. Not to mention she wanted to eat some of her favorite foods again.

“What are we going to tell them?” Lucas asked, motioning to the room.