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“Each lord builds according to taste and purpose,” Helori said. “Simply viewing and feeling the residences gives much information.”
That seemed quite true from what I’d seen so far. I glanced back at Helori. “Rayst and Seretis. Are they together together?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Yes. And have been for a very long time.”
I chuckled. “Well, no wonder they’re happier than all the other lords. Or at least they seem that way.”
“More at peace,” he said with a nod. “Though that too is a relative term.”
The nehkil veered slowly away from the dwelling. The faint flicker at the edge of my sight told me that there were probably aversions or some other sort of protective wards in place to keep wildlife away. I stayed silent long after the home of Rayst and Seretis disappeared from view, pondering everything that had happened since my arrival in the demon realm.
When the sun touched the horizon I turned back to Helori.
“I think it’s time for me to go back now.”
Chapter 23
I exited the tree tunnel in Mzatal’s realm with Helori by my side. My steps slowed as I looked out at the greens and dark greys of the mountains, the glinting glass of Mzatal’s palace, and the dark finger of the column. I wasn’t healed, not by a long stretch, but now I felt as if the fracture had at least been set. And I was ready to face Mzatal.
Helori, still in human form, slid a look at me as we made our way down the stone path and stairs. “Idris is working in the entry hall.”
Shame tightened my gut. I’d had the fucking gall to think that he was the naïve one. Wasn’t that a laugh.
“He was instrumental in your recall,” he continued. “Mzatal could not have accomplished it on his own. Both worked continuously from the time of your departure until the time of your recall.”
I stayed silent for several heartbeats. “I understand now why he stays with Mzatal.”
“It is as perfect a pairing of student and teacher as I have ever seen,” Helori replied.
The simple cave-like entryway beyond the stone and glass doors struck me as refreshingly unpretentious after the opulent grandeur of Rhyzkahl’s palace. Idris stood near the wall to the right, crafting a ward with an ease and elegance that I could only dream of someday having. He glanced my way as we entered, and his eyes lit up with surprise and delight. “Kara!” He turned to me and nearly fumbled the ward, then grinned in relief as Helori lifted a hand and kept it from completely unwinding.
Helori moved off, leaving me alone with Idris. “Yeah, it’s me,” I said, instantly realizing how dumb that sounded.
But his grin only widened. “God, Kara, you look so much better than—” He flushed. “I mean…shit. Sorry. You look great.”
I held back a low laugh. “Thanks. I feel a lot better, too,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sorry you had to go through so much to get me back. Running away to Rhyzkahl was about the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t know it was stupid at the time,” he said with a scowl. “It was Rhyzkahl you were dealing with. How would you know?” He shook his head. “I mean, back on Earth, that is. When you got here, Lord Mzatal should have…” He trailed off, then straightened his shoulders. “He should have told you more,” he said definitively.>And before I could blink, we were off again.
Since we seemed to flit all over the planet, I lost track of time. Yet it was clear that Helori wasn’t trying to distract me from either the horror I’d endured or my post-traumatic stress. Each place seemed to be a new opportunity for contemplation or conversation or simple self-discovery—like therapy at super-speed.
That second night, we slept curled up in a den of skarl—hyena-like creatures as friendly as house cats. I was dubious at first, especially since the den reeked of skarl-musk, but it turned out that the skarl gave off a comforting vibe that allowed me the best damn sleep I’d ever had in my life. As soon as I woke, though, Helori traveled us to hot springs surrounded by ice and snow to bathe the thick skarl odor away.
After bathing, I lounged on a smooth rock, neck deep in the water. “If you can teleport pretty much anywhere,” I asked, “why did we take the grove to the beach that first day?” That first day—only two days ago, yet it felt like a century.
“It was so it could truly be your choice,” he told me. “You were not ready to tell me what you wanted, but you could tell the grove.”
That made sense. “The climate and terrain here is a lot like Earth,” I said. “The fact that humans can live here so easily, on a completely different world, is kind of mind-boggling.” I gave Helori a questioning look.
He ducked under the water to slick his hair back, then nimbly climbed out of the pool and crouched beside it, apparently impervious or oblivious to the subfreezing temperatures. “Earth and this realm are closely tied in many ways, like sister worlds,” he told me. “A very close family resemblance.”
My lips pursed as I considered that. “Is the geography the same?” I asked. “I mean, is there a North America and Africa and all that? But, you know, with different names.”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head, eyes crinkling with humor. “Same family, not identical twins.”
I chuckled. “I can handle that.”
He laughed. “I am delighted, as I do not think it will change.”
