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“I really am sorry for not telling anyone about Char before. I was just so scared.”
“I’m glad to see that you’re settling in, and you don’t have to worry about it. Like I said, I should have known that she was up to no good. I just can’t believe that I missed it. I can’t believe what I heard. I bet you’re thinking that this is crazy, aren’t you?”
I arched my eyebrows and nodded. “I am, but it’s surprised me how quickly I’ve been able to get used to things being this way. It certainly makes my life seem boring in comparison.”
“Well, once we’re safe I’ll get you back home. I just need to get back to the tower. Hopefully Naaro will be with us.”
We both looked up as he said this. Ganang was almost out of sight. It looked as though the great bird was going to break free of the confines of this world.
Divad gulped and when he spoke his words cracked on emotion.
“He’s not going to make it.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Emilia asked.
Divad shook his head. “Naaro knew what he was doing. I guess the only thing we can do now is to try and make sure that we follow his wishes. At least if we survive then he’ll know that he’s done his duty, and that’s the most important thing for him.”
We clambered down another section of the mountain. I scraped my hands and knees against the rocks. The small scratches and bruises that appeared ached with pain, but I steeled myself against the sensations because I knew it was nothing compared to what Naaro was going through. Never had anyone done such a dramatic gesture for me, and I looked longingly towards the sky.
We eventually took a moment to rest on a plateau. There wasn’t long to go now until we reached the base of the mountain. I gathered my breath, while Divad wiped more blood from his face. We then looked up and saw a troubling sight. Ganang was not so much darting down from the sky, but falling.
“It’s happening,” Divad gasped. I don’t think I can watch, but I feel like I owe him this much,” he said, his gaze fixed.
“There has to be something. It can’t end like this. You’re lions. You can survive so much.”
“Not a fall like that,” he said.
Then a thought occurred to me. It was like in the game Naaro and I had played; sometimes you had to do something chaotic to win. “Divad, what if he didn’t have to fall?”
He looked at me strangely. “What are you talking about? There’s no way to stop him from falling. Believe me, I wish there was, but we can’t fly. Even if Naaro manages to land on the mountain the impact is going to shake his bones apart.”
“But that’s what I’m saying; what if he doesn’t have to deal with that? What if you go up there and save him,” my eyes flashed with wonder. His just looked confused.
“Emilia, I told you before that we can’t fly. I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
“You can create portals though, right? If you can get to other worlds then surely you can make one above us? Catch him and then bring him back.”
I could tell from the look on his face that the idea had never occurred to him before, but to me it seemed so obvious.
“I can’t,” he said weakly, and he looked crestfallen. “I need to be at the gate to activate the portal. I can’t just create one from nothing.”
“Why not?” I asked.
It was then that his brow crinkled and his face transformed. “You might be onto something. I asked Zizan why he wanted my gift when he wouldn’t be able to make it to the portal, but he acted as though it was a stupid question. If he thought that he could create a portal no matter where he was… of course,” he snapped his fingers, “that was why he was so confident. He didn’t think he needed the gates, which means that I might not need them either! But I haven’t learned. I haven’t studied… Naaro is going to die and it’s all because I was too lazy to learn the lessons that Tania was trying to teach me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Divad
I groaned and slumped against the mountain. I wasn’t sure I had ever been this low. Naaro was willing to die for me, and I could have saved him if I hadn’t been so lazy and selfish. I was a fool; a heartless fool and the guilt was going to be with me for a lifetime. I didn’t deserve to die, not over Naaro. It should have been me up there. I should have pushed harder to find a way to save him, but he was right. All his life I had been told that I was the special one, and I had believed it.
But I didn’t feel so special now.
Emilia rounded on me though. “Don’t be like this Divad. If this power is in you then surely there’s a way for you to harness it. Sometimes when things are most desperate, we don’t need to know exactly how to do things, we can just feel our way through it. Sometimes we know what’s right. It’s like you said, Naaro knows what’s right in his heart. Maybe this is something that feels right in your heart. You have to at least try for him. You have to,” she said.
I knew she was right. I pushed myself forward and braced myself, spreading my legs. I could feel the weakness shimmering inside me, making me want to fall to the ground and rest, but I could not allow it to win. I clenched my fists and breathed deeply as I tilted my gaze back and looked up at the plummeting bird. If I squinted, I could just about see Naaro clinging on until his last breath. I had no idea if this was going to work, but I had to try.
I took the lessons I had learned and went through them in my mind. I chanted the ancient words and I felt the arcane energy flowing through me, crackling in my limbs. I may not have been able to summon the lion inside me yet, but I could still immerse myself in this magic. I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw began to ache. I felt the energy writhing. It had never been like this before, so hot and molten. It felt as though I was going to burn up from the inside out. The pain was incredible, the strain was almost unbearable, yet I knew I must bear it for Naaro, as he would bear it for me.
