Lor Mandela - Destruction from Twins, page 32
“Help the Borlocs,” Dallin replied cynically, “by abducting an innocent bystander?”
The Dweller that had been holding on to him stepped back and studied his face. He circled slowly around him and explained, “Shee ees de atoha, Dallin Doone. Shee ees joust not knowin’ eet yet.”
Dallin grimaced. Could it be? Could this Dweller be right? Shadow Dwellers always seemed to know more than anyone else and were rarely wrong. Was Maggie really Atoh Audril? “How . . . how do you know?” he tried.
“Hair fotter, de atoc . . . he has remembered.”
“What,” Dallin blurted, “her father? Atoc Jonathan? He’s alive? You know where he is?”
“Yes, and he ees needin’ our ‘elp.”
Dallin’s heart sank. If Jonathan needed help, it could only mean one thing. “Darian has him?”
Without a word, the other three Shadow Dwellers raced off into the forest. The remaining Dweller looked around and explained, “No, Dallin Doone, eet ees Ryannon. Ryannon ees who has heem . . . and de zervahnt girl.”
“Ryannon?” Dallin’s confusion showed on his face. “Darian’s son? Isn’t that almost the same thing?”
“No, eet ees not de same. Ryannon ees fah worse den heez fotter. He ees de real enemy, Dallin Doone. He ees plotting tings . . . very bad tings.”
“Like what? What bad things?”
“Maye friends ‘ave gone to save de atoc, but eet ees de faya atoha dat he really wants. She ees de Child of Bahlance, afta all.”
An expression of horror washed over Dallin’s face. “Wh . . . what does he want with her?”
“He wants hair to zolve de Advantiere, so he can rule all de Lor Mandela, and den he ees goin’ to destroy hair.”
“Destroy her?” Dallin was panic-stricken. “What? Where is she? Is she safe? Where did Lortu take her?”
“Lortu ees watching ovah hair, but she could deesappeah at any moment.”
“Yeah,” Dallin shook his head and walked toward the forest, “she could.” He seemed all at once quite determined. “Lortu can’t stay with her if she transports. I know receptors have no effect on Dwellers, but I can stay with her. I can protect . . . .” his voice trailed off as he walked away.
Within a split second, the Shadow Dweller was standing in front of him. “We moust go to de palace, Dallin Doone. Lortu ees watching ovah hair,” he repeated. “Yoah fate lies not by going to de atoha . . . Yoah fate lies at de palace.”
“At the palace? Right,” he snapped sarcastically, “and what if I refuse my fate?” he side-stepped around the Dweller and kept walking.
“Den,” the Dweller didn’t pursue. He didn’t have to. “Der will be none to saev hair. De atoha ees as good as daed.”
Dallin stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around. His own words ricocheted over and over in his mind. Shadow Dwellers know things. They see everything. He didn’t say a word. He just stood in place staring at the once-again circling Dweller.
“Yoah fate lies at de palace, Dallin Doone . . . in de Advantiere Room.”
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE MURDERER
“Lady . . . Lady!” Tabbit’s voice squeaked from somewhere nearby. “Lady, wakes up!”
Maggie stirred a little; she rolled her head to one side and moaned.
“Ohhhhh. Wh . . . where am I,” she asked groggily.
“Where am I,” Tabbit’s voice repeated. “Wakes up!” This time it was much louder than before. It startled Maggie wide awake.
“Who . . . who said that?” She sat up and glanced nervously around but couldn’t see anyone.
The perky little voice echoed, “Who . . . who said that? Mees said that!” Just then, Maggie noticed that a nearby tree had developed a rather shocking characteristic. Two bulgy, brown eyes were blinking on its surface a few feet off the ground. She gasped and shut her eyes. After a couple of seconds, she slowly opened them again—first one, and then the other. No, she wasn’t imagining it. The tree had eyes!
“Who are you?” she asked. “Where are the Shadow Dwellers?”
All at once, Tabbit’s pudgy little shape emerged out of the side of the tree. “Where are the Shadow Dwellers,” She repeated as her eyes darted side to side. “They is gones . . . all gones. I is Tabbit, goods Shadow Squanki . . . goods!” She brushed a flake of bark from her long, mossy green skirt—a skirt that just seconds before had been dark brown. In fact, her hair had been brown, and it was now white; her eyes had been brown, but were now baby blue. She rolled up and down on her bare toes, and sang, “Theys is chasing slarps in The Boggies.”
Maggie’s face bore an expression of both intrigue and alarm. She pointed at Tabbit, and stuttered. “Y . . . you . . . you’re my . . . my . . . my Hidey. It was you! You were the one in . . . in Pet Land!”
“You were the one in . . . in Pet Land,” Tabbit echoed. “We has to goes, Lady. Big Shadow folks coming back soons. Times to go . . . go and get yous to safety!” Tabbit grinned from ear to ear. “Takes yous to the atoc . . . yeps, to the daddy atoc!”
“My daddy, um dad is not the . . . wait,” she blurted, “you know where my dad is?”
“My . . . .” Tabbit’s reply was interrupted by the not-so-distant whoops and yells of approaching Shadow Dwellers. “Oooo, times to go,” she breathed.
Maggie sprung to her feet. She wasn’t certain how she’d managed to escape the horrors that the Dwellers were sure to have planned for her thus far, but she wasn’t about to stick around to find out. This little Tabbit was offering an escape, and she was going to take it.
“Come on,” she commanded, thrusting her hand out toward Tabbit.
Tabbit grabbed it and smiled. “Come on,” she repeated, and with a surprising amount of strength, tugged Maggie along behind her into the forest.
Before long, they were at the dark edge of the Bogs. Tabbit didn’t slow; she zipped right into them, and all light disappeared.
Maggie closed her eyes, and tried to concentrate on the subtle twists and turns that Tabbit made as she pulled her through the dark. Suddenly, Maggie felt something yanking on her around the middle. Not thinking, she let go of Tabbit’s hand.
“Lady! No! Don’ts let go!” The tiny voice seemed miles away. “Laaaaady!”
Suddenly, there was a muffled surging noise. Maggie stood still and waited. It wasn’t long before a brilliant flash of blue blasted through the darkness. Even through her closed eyes, the bright light sent a sharp twinge through her forehead.
When the flash finally faded, Maggie blinked her eyes open. She was standing in a large, stone room—the same room she’d come to before—the room where Darian had killed General Linetal—but this time she was alone. She tiptoed over to the open door, and cautiously poked her head out into the hall.
“Ryannon,” she whispered, “Ryannon? Are you here?” There was no response. She crept across the large marble hallway outside of the room, and peered through an open door—still no one in sight.
She was just turning back toward the room from which she’d come when a familiar voice echoed from down another hall.
“ . . . And what makes you think that anyone in their right mind would believe it?” It was Ryannon and Maggie was thrilled to hear him. She raced out down the hall toward the sound of his voice, but quickly pulled back when she realized that he was walking toward her with his father.
“Because I am the one saying it,” Darian answered. “If I say it, it is so.”
Maggie ran back into the room with the wall of windows. “Not Darian,” she panted. “This is bad . . . very bad!”
“But, she’s fully ten years older than she was a year ago,” Ryannon argued, his voice drawing nearer.
“And time on Drolana passes differently than it does here.” Darian’s usual silky tone held a hint of aggravation—and was also much closer. “You of all people should know that!”
Maggie heard their boots just outside the door.
There was nowhere for her to hide. The room was far too open. She rushed to the wall of windows, searching for some kind of escape, and much to her relief, the pair of windows in the center turned out to be a door. Without hesitation she flung them open and hurried out into the overgrown dried up courtyard outside. There wasn’t even time for her to close the door again before Ryannon and his father appeared in the doorway. Maggie quickly darted behind the skeleton of a once-full evergreen tree, and listened.
“Time on Drolana is not the problem, father! You aren’t listening to me! I refuse to be a part of your feeble plot!” Ryannon’s voice was strong and unwavering.
Maggie smiled. She loved the way he was letting Darian have it. It was clear that Ryannon was looking out for her, and as intimidating as his father was, he wasn’t afraid to stand up to him.
“How dare you,” Darian seethed. “You will do what I tell you to do.”
“Or what?” Ryannon sneered back.
Maggie cautiously peered around the tree. Ryannon and Darian were very close to each other, staring threateningly into one another’s eyes.
“Don’t anger me, boy.”
Maggie could see the fires in Darian’s eyes blazing.
Ryannon maintained eye contact with his father for several seconds, but then took a step back and sighed deeply. “You know what? This is pointless!” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “I don’t want to fight anymore, father.”
Darian smiled in victory. “Then I can count on you?” he sneered, and thrust out his hand toward Ryannon.
Ryannon looked at his outstretched hand and sighed. “Yes, father . . . fine.” He reached out with his own gloved hand, and shook his father’s. Darian chuckled and pulled him into a robust embrace.
“Oh great,” Maggie whispered. “What are you doing? Don’t give in to him!” She glanced at them again and noticed something glistening on the glove that Ryannon had on his father’s shoulder. “Are those . . . .”
Ryannon raised his hand high in the air.
“…spikes?”
In one swift motion, he swung his arm down, plunging the long, thin spikes into Darian’s back. Darian gasped and sputtered, and then crumpled into a lifeless heap at Ryannon’s feet.
“I’m sorry, father,” he hissed, “but it’s like you’ve always taught me. Power is everything. And now, it’s mine!” He laughed maniacally and pushed his father’s dead body over with his foot. “Omer! Grayden! Get in here!” he bellowed.
Maggie shrunk back behind the tree. “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she repeated breathlessly. Within a few seconds, she heard the voices of two other men in the room.
“So, I guess we can assume he didn’t listen,” one of them observed, not sounding at all surprised by the murderous scene.
The other man’s voice was a bit more timorous. “Wh . . . what are we going to do with him?”
Ryannon’s gruesome reply only added to Maggie’s current state of shock. “Oh, we’ll just feed him to Syltar. I’ll see to it. Don’t worry your nervous little brain about it, Omer.”
“So now what?” the first man asked. “Don’t you think people will notice that he’s not around anymore?”
Ryannon strolled over to the windows. Maggie caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and retreated further around the tree. “Haven’t you heard, Grayden? The atoc has returned.”
“You mean the atoc imposter?” Grayden responded.
“No matter.” Ryannon had been facing out into the courtyard, but turned and replied, “I’m sure we’ll have no problem convincing everyone that he killed my father.”
“What?” Maggie gasped.
“And what about the girl?” Omer asked. “Don’t you need her for this to work?”
“Indeed I do,” Ryannon oozed smugly, “but so far, my encounters with her have been quite pleasant. She’s been very easy to draw in . . . just some flattery and a little passion . . . .”
“Must be difficult for you to sacrifice yourself like this,” Grayden interrupted.
“Well,” Ryannon chuckled sadistically, “I suppose if I must make sacrifices, playing love games with such a magnificent young thing is the way to go.” He walked away from the window and continued, “Believe me, gentlemen; I won’t have any problem getting her help.”
“Wanna bet,” Maggie seethed.
“Well then,” Grayden replied, “if that’s the case, why do you even need her father? Isn’t he just in the way?”
“He was . . . both he and that Kahlie, the ex-ator’s companion servant,” Ryannon explained, “but I already took care of that. They can’t be in the way if they’re dead now, can they?”
“What? Nooooo!” Maggie wailed. She spun around the tree and looked directly at Ryannon. “You pig! You murdering cowardly swine!” she screamed.
Ryannon smiled. “Get her,” he commanded calmly, and Grayden and Omer raced toward the open door.
Maggie didn’t care. Let them come! She wanted to hurt them; she wanted to hurt Ryannon! If they happened to kill her, so what? It didn’t matter now. She just stood there, with tears spilling down her cheeks—enraged—waiting to kill or be killed.
It was unclear what happened next. A huge gust of wind blew through the courtyard, enveloping it in a cloud of thick dust, and slamming the glass door shut just as Grayden and Omer reached it. Grayden struggled with the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
Maggie had gone numb. She was in shock and completely oblivious to anything going on around her. Only after several seconds did she realize that she was moving away—being pulled by the hand. Someone was leading her out of there. She looked down and saw Tabbit guiding her quickly along. She didn’t feel Tabbit’s hand. She didn’t hear any sounds. She wasn’t even sure if she was moving her legs on her own or not, but the desolate scenery around her was somehow floating by in a hazy, dismal blur.
At length, Tabbit stopped running and looked around to make sure they hadn’t been followed.
Next to them was a big scraggly shrub that looked like unkempt chartreuse hair. Tabbit cautiously moved some of the shrub’s chaotic branches to one side. Behind them, was a tiny sliver of blue light—a portal. She lifted one of her bare feet and pushed it against the thin beam. Instantly, it expanded. She stepped through with one leg, and then the other—all the while holding tightly to Maggie’s hand. Maggie barely felt it as one of her own legs lifted and moved toward the blue light. It no sooner touched the portal, than the light stretched and surrounded her completely. She heard a strange popping sound, followed by a voice.
“Maggie!” Dallin rushed across the room and threw his arms around her shoulders.
Something about his embrace made her immediately dissolve. She leaned against his chest for support and sobbed uncontrollably.
“Maggie, what is it?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t answer for several minutes. Finally, she was able to gasp out a weak, “Dad.”
Dallin looked pleadingly at Tabbit, who was sitting in a corner rocking back and forth on her backside and shaking her head sadly.
“Dad,” she mumbled, “Ryannons, very bads.”
CHAPTER XXXVII
ELAHK A BER LOR MANDELA
“You fools,” Ryannon bellowed, “she’s getting away!” He raced up behind Grayden and shoved him to the side. The door, which had been giving his two generals such a hard time, opened easily for him.
“Come on!” he commanded and the three of them burst out into the courtyard. The dust had settled, giving them a clear view of the area; Maggie was nowhere to be seen.
Ryannon pointed to the west. “You two, go that way!”
Grayden and Omer immediately sprinted off as Ryannon headed east. He reached the edge of the sprawling courtyard and let out a disgusted, “Aaaahhhhh!” while slicing and slashing angrily at the shrubs next to him with his spiked glove.
One of them, a wild looking chartreuse bush, literally crumbled after just two or three blows.
Ryannon stopped and kicked at the remaining stubs of the plants. In his mind, he was already formulating suitable punishments for his inept generals.
As he turned away he saw it out of the corner of his eye—a small glint of pale blue, flickering in the dark behind where the bushes had been.
“Of course,” he breathed, “a Squanki.”
He glanced around to ensure that he was alone and then touched his foot to the light. The portal expanded and his foot disappeared into it. A devious smile spread across his face as he slid the rest of the way into the portal, and was immediately engulfed in light. He moved rapidly down a long, brightly flashing corridor, but then suddenly jolted to a stop, and the radiant flashes around him faded.
“We need to get her to a doctor.” Dallin’s voice was the first Ryannon heard as he came out of the light.
He squinted and blinked to force his eyes to adjust, fully aware that as long as he wasn’t seeing well he was at a disadvantage.
As his eyes cleared the forms of Dallin, Tabbit and Maggie rippled into focus. None of them were facing him at the moment so he seized the opportunity to duck behind a large pillar next to him.
“Need to get her to a doctor,” Tabbit repeated mournfully, “Doctor Slades is best. Tabbits takes her rights away.”
Dallin, whose arms were still around a softly sobbing Maggie, gently guided her out the door, followed closely behind by Tabbit.
Ryannon slid from behind the pillar with caution and looked around the room in which he was standing. It was large and lined on one side with a wall of windows. He started toward the door, but then stopped short and spun back around. “Wait a minute,” he muttered as he realized that the room he was in was identical to the one he’d left only a few moments ago. He turned back toward the windows. Just outside, a thriving, green hedge sprawled across the back of a stunning marble courtyard.
“Mandela Palace?” he whispered, “how?” He started toward the window wall but then paused as he noticed yet another surprise. There, on one of the walls of the room, tiny sparks of red light flickered across the glittery words etched in its surface. Ryannon approached the wall and ran his hand over the glowing Advantiere.
