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The moment Ava mentioned this Darrow’s demeanor changed completely. His lips parted and he fell to his knees, bowing his head.
“Oh great one, please accept my apologies. I did not mean to be so disrespectful. Your mercy and your wisdom is most welcome,” he said.
Ava rolled her eyes. “Get off your knees Darrow. He’s not a god.”
“But he comes from Orestes,” Darrow replied.
“Yes, he does, but he’s not a god. They’re lions, just like you and I. But all the stories are true Darrow. Orestes is a world filled with forests and rivers and mountains as tall as the sky. It was incredible to see a world that had not been ravaged by time. It is a chance Darrow, a chance for us to live and thrive once again, to be one with the people once more,” Ava said.
“We are not worthy of that honor,” Darrow said.
Ava sighed again. “Perhaps not, apparently our ancestors who were sent here were criminals and this was to be their prison. They are debating whether to bring us back. Mika here is the one who is going to make the decision. They might agree with you and wish to condemn us to this world, but I suppose if they do that then I can try and find another world for us to inhabit.”
“Another world?” Darrow looked up and frowned. “You would still wish to use this curse?”
“I keep telling you it’s not a curse!” Ava turned towards me and Lanas. “Lanas, take Mika around the village. Let him meet the people. I shall return to my hut and think on what I am going to say to address them, and Darrow and I are going to need to have some words.”
I watched Ava walk away, with Darrow trailing behind her like a scolded child. I turned to Lanas, wondering what he thought of me, wondering how close he and Ava truly were. Such a formidable woman seemed out of reach for most, and yet he had been holding her and held by her. I was envious of how that must have felt, and I wanted it for myself.
“So Lanas, shall we begin?” I asked.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lanas
It was strange to have a visitor in our village. I could tell by the look on Mika’s face that he was stunned to be here. To hear about our plight was one thing, but to witness it was quite another. Even I was a little surprised. When compared with Orestes the state of our village was grim, and so my opinion of it had changed since leaving here.
“Come,” I said, and led Mika away. We walked through the sheltered paths, the cool air refreshing on our sun beaten limbs. Many people looked at us with curiosity, and when told that Mika was from Orestes they reflected Darrow’s reaction and fell to their knees as though he was a god. I expected Mika to embrace this reaction though, but instead it made him uncomfortable. The smile he wore was a forced one, and he tried to deflect the conversation away from Orestes whenever he got the chance, but of course it was all anyone wished to talk about. Instead he tried to ask them about their home and their feelings on what was happening. We had all been taught to try and believe that something good was going to reverse the state of our world and that once again life was going to bloom, but as we stood there in the heat it became impossible to believe, and instead now they were looking to Orestes for hope. Our lives, our destinies depended on this man.
I still was not sure if I could trust him with that.
We spent a long time speaking with people, for they wanted to know all about Orestes. In the end I had to move Mika along, otherwise we would never have made any progress.
“How did you do it Lanas? How did you live here all this time?” Mika asked when we were alone.
I shrugged. “We knew no different. The stories said that walking between worlds was a curse, so Ava was stripped of her ability to take us away from this place. It must have been a way to make sure that we paid our penance here. It would not have been much of a punishment if we had been allowed to leave whenever we wanted. Over the years that story became twisted and the truth of it was lost, but the end result was the same. We may be shells of who we once were, but we are still lions. We still have the same pride and honor, and we are not going to simply keel over and wait for death to embrace us. We are going to take what we can from this world while there is still something to take.”
“And when there isn’t?”
“I suppose then it becomes a matter of endurance. One by one the lions will die until there is only one left, one who I assume will be Ava. Unless she finds another world for us, if Orestes decides that it does not want us,” and of course by Orestes I meant Mika, for he was the one who held our fates in his hand.
“And finding another world will not be easy, at least not one that is suitable for your needs. She has no idea of the worlds that exist out there. In the library of the tower there is a book where all the world walkers have detailed their experiences, providing a wide range of destinations. There it is easy for people to see what dangers await them and which worlds are safe. But she does not have access to this. She could lead your people into a world that is even worse than this.”
“I cannot imagine there are worlds worse than this,” I replied.
“There are,” Mika said, and I saw the horror in his eyes.
We walked on, and as we did so a couple of small children ran before us. They were shifting in between lions and their human forms, chasing each other. Their giggles turned to growls and then back to giggles again.
“They have no idea what kind of future awaits them. Sometimes I think it’s cruel of people to bring children into this world. I have even thought the same of my own mother, but then I suppose when you have nothing the only thing left is life, and the hope that somehow a new generation might be able to make up for the mistakes of the past.”
Mika remained silent. I hoped what he saw was causing him to be sober. I hoped that these images clung to his mind and seared his thoughts, because if he decided to refuse our asylum then he was practically condemning us to death, and I hoped that this would stay with him for the rest of his life. It didn’t seem fair that one man could grant us life or death.
It did not seem fair at all.
But since we had returned here there was someone I wanted to see. I led Mika through a network of passages until we came to my home, a small dwelling that had long ago been carved into the rock. Before I entered I saw one of my neighbors emerge. Her name was Meela and she had a stricken look on her face when she saw me.
“Oh Lanas, she will be so glad to see you,” Meela said. There was something about her tone that was worrying. I could sense the despair in the air.
