Page 41 of Ever Dark Academy: Volume 6

“So this feels like the War for the two of you?” Fiona pointed between them.

Ryder nodded. “I don’t know how that could be, but it does.”

“What about Daemon? Can’t we contact him? I expect that Julian, Christian or even Elgar couldn’t hear us all the way out here, but Daemon surely could!” Fiona exclaimed.

Ryder nodded. Maybe it was time to bring in the king. Grayson might be in real danger. He had to chance it even if he was admitting he couldn’t do this all by himself.

Time is of the essence. Even if we can get past this army, we will need to get to a proper gate to get back to Nightvallen. If this is Lasting, it should be hooked up to Nightvallen, but… ah, it matters not!

Ryder closed his eyes, bowed his head, and reached for their king. But there was no answer. No, no quite. There was the slightest stirring of the breeze. But that was it. His eyelids popped open. He found that Charlie was staring at him with eyes wide, nostrils flared and lips parted.

“This is like the War, too,” Charlie gulped. “And like a long time before it.”

“When Daemon was asleep,” Ryder said through lips numb with the possibility of it.

“What are both saying?” Fiona asked, growing horror was in her face too.

“Fiona, I know that you’re able to teleport through space and between dimensions, but can you also do so through time?” Ryder asked.

She took one staggering step back. She lifted her hands to her temples. He saw the understanding flash through her eyes.

“You’re saying… that we… that it’s not now, but then?” Fiona gasped. “It’s during the War, isn’t it?”

“If it was before, we would have, at least, Eyros’ mental web. But that is shut down. And why would Kaly–not Caemorn–have an army of the dead keeping guard outside of Lasting? Only if they were guarding against something or someone,” Ryder said, feeling the ground tremor beneath his feet.

He reached down and took comfort in the solidity of Khos’ big, burly body under his hand. The Dire Wolf looked up at him and Khos’ tail swished across the forest floor. Khos was happy, because he was happy. And it had been so long since he had been happy, Khos told him. His mind was light again. Not dark. Full of fun hunts not simple bloodlettings.

“We’re in the past,” Ryder said, swallowing hard. “In Lasting. During the War.”

Charlie tipped his head back and muttered what sounded suspiciously like a prayer. When he lowered his head, he said quite audibly, “I was able to escape once, but twice? When we’re on Lasting’s doorstep?”

“The Kaly slices will all be in Lasting.” Fiona pointed towards the city. “Who knows how many? And imagine the traps… Even if we manage to get to a gate that will take us to Nightvallen, it won’t be the present. It will be the past! None of our friends will be there. Daemon will be asleep!”

Ryder thought of being so far from Grayson. Not just space, but time. So much time. Eons of it. He had never worried about having too much time on his hands, but it was like torture now to think of the millennia that separated them.

Charlie put a firm hand on both of their shoulders. “No, no, we can’t give way! We must buck up! You’re two of the strongest Immortals, I know. You won’t let a little time travel and the undead stop us. Oh, and forget about Kaly! Those are slices! Just little things you can flick away!”

Ryder grunted. “Thank you for the pep talk, Charlie, but even I can’t quite allow myself to believe I could flick any part of Kaly away.”

“Not easily,” Fiona murmured. “What do we do?”

Ryder stared down at the ground for long moments. “In a way, nothing has changed. We need a gate to get out of here and the only gates I know of are in Lasting. So that’s where we still need to go.”

Fiona slowly nodded. “I suppose that’s true.” She gripped her arms tightly. “We’ll have a fight on our hands and I’m not sure how much I’ll have to give. My powers might not return in time.”

“We have loads of time,” Charlie said sadly. “Loads of it before the current moment comes back.”

“We cannot stay out here forever. We must keep moving,” Ryder told them. “We have to, at least, get some reconnaissance on Lasting.” He looked meaningfully at Charlie who gulped.

“Ah, well, yes, I can see that might be my skill set to infiltrate the evil city ruled by insane people, but I can only do that if you can get me to it. And right now, there’s an army of the dead in our path and a minefield of soul gems,” Charlie pointed out.

We cannot walk or run or burrow, but perhaps we can fly, Ryder thought.

Ryder petted Khos’ massive head while he explained what he had shown him. “The army does surround Lasting. We can’t go through the undead, but we can go above them. I have several large winged forms that could fly us all across.”

“The three of us? At once?” Fiona’s eyebrows rose.

“I don’t think it would be safe to ferry all of us over separately. One time will attract enough attention,” Ryder told her.