Prologue~Ch. 1~Ch. 2~Ch. 3~Ch. 4~Ch. 5~Ch. 6~Ch. 7~Ch. 8~Ch. 9~Ch. 10~Ch. 11~Ch. 12~Ch. 13~
Ch. 14~Ch. 15~Ch. 16~Ch. 17~Ch. 18~Ch. 19~Ch. 20~Ch. 21~Ch. 22~Ch. 23~Ch. 24~~Ch. 25~Ch. 26~
Ch. 27~Ch. 28~Ch. 29~Ch. 30~Ch. 31~Ch. 32~Ch. 33~Ch. 34~Ch. 35~Ch. 36~Ch. 37~Ch. 38~Ch. 39~
Ch. 40~
Howard ran his hands through his already disheveled hair, ending with his head in his hands, elbows resting on his work table. It was so bizarre, utterly fantastic, but who was he to disbelieve the two disembodied voices? Part of him wished he could rewind time back to before he’d ever tried his teleportation spell, but the other part of him . . .
“Tell me again why you’d send a baby to this dimension?”
The image of Thackery in the shallow scrying bowl on the table threw up its hands in disgust and disappeared. The image of Paranithel moved to the foreground.
“I never intended to leave her alone in your world,” he said sadly. “But I had not anticipated how badly the lack of magic would affect me.”
“I tried to warn you.” Thackery’s voice was heard in the background.
“Aye, that you did. But once the woman accepted the babe as a substitute for her own, there was no reason to stay. At first I worried that her mind was not right – she believed Jesseminathus to be of her flesh and blood, forgetting her own babe had died – but I realized this would be to our advantage. Who would think to question a new mother of the origins of her child?”
“You say there’s a lack of magic in this world?” The question seemed to just pop out of Howard’s mouth on its own.
“It’s one of the reasons I chose your world. There are no Wells, no magical reservoirs. In time even my inner magic dwindled to a mere spark. I could not stay and so I left my granddaughter in the best hands I could find.”
“Jess never had a clue she was adopted,” Howard said. “I have no idea how she’ll take the news now.”
“You must not tell her!” Thackery shouldered Paranithel aside. “If Anankaron were to learn of her presence he would stop at nothing to possess her. As it is she is in danger every time she wields her power unwisely. He is drawn to those of great power.”
“Wait a minute. Before you were saying this Anankaron wanted you all dead, including Jessica. Now you’re saying he wants to possess her? Which is it? And what exactly do you mean by possess?”
Paranithel gently pushed Thackery to one side again. “When she was but a babe Anankaron would have killed her just to see her father suffer. But now she is a woman grown, and looks very much like her mother, the woman Anankaron desired above all others. He would stop at nothing to possess her, to make her his and have her bear his children, whether she be willing or no.”
“Okay, but if she’s in so much danger in your world, why didn’t you just let her stay here?”
“Because she belongs here, with her family. Or what’s left of it,” Paranithel said softly. “And because sooner or later she would feel the pull of her world and if she did not know how to cross over, she would be pulled apart by the force of it.”
Howard sat back in his chair and digested this information for a moment. There was one question he wanted to ask that was burning a hole in his brain, but he didn’t know if he truly wanted the answer to it.
“You say there’s a lack of magic in this world,” he said slowly, reluctantly. “Does this mean I’ve just been fooling myself all these years? That no matter how hard I try I’ll never be able to truly work magic?”
Paranithel hesitated. “The small magics work well on your world, but the large scale magical spells . . . no, it would not be possible.”
“So that night in the park, I only imagined the power rising.”
“Oh, no. That was quite real. It was very impressive, the amount of power you were able to raise using the collective energy of your group. It was most unexpected and was likely the cause of Jesseminathus over-shooting her mark when she returned to us.”
“Oh.” Howard felt marginally better. It was just too bad he’d never be able to talk the group into working together like that again.
“Your ability to help your friend is quite admirable,” Thackery said unexpectedly. “Were you able to visit this world you would be a powerful wizard indeed.”
And the chances of that ever happening were several million to one, Howard thought morosely. “Okay, let’s get down to brass tacks. You know that Jess has her heart set on helping Prince Ewan?”
“Yes, we have seen this,” Paranithel admitted. “I would ask that she choose another to . . . befriend, but he seems to find favour in her eyes.”
“There’s something not quite right about him,” Howard muttered. “He’s got a dark streak in his aura.”
“You have seen this?” Thackery asked.
“Well, yeah. Wait, you mean you guys can’t see?”
“It is not our forte,” Paranithel hedged. “Spirit reading is one of the most difficult arts to manage.”
“He’s up to no good,” Howard said. “I can feel it in my gut.”
“I would have to agree,” Thackery said. “I know him of old, and he has not improved with age. You would do well to warn her away from him.”
Howard snorted. “Jessica never takes dating advice from me. She’s got it bad for this prince, and once she sets her sights on someone she’s not easily discouraged.”
“Much like her mother,” Paranithel muttered.
“Our best bet it to help her get his castle back and hope that he shows what he’s really made of. So, how are we going to do this?”
“I have an idea,” Thackery told him.
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