Mrythdom: Game of Time (28 page)

Aurelius reached the princess’s quarters. The doors were guarded, but the guard who had escorted him there explained to his fellow guardsmen.

“It’s the middle of the night!” one of the princess’s guards hissed.

Aurelius’s escort shrugged. “I believe that’s the point.”

The princess’s guards gazed at Aurelius suspiciously, then he thought he caught a flicker of envy before they turned to open the doors and escort him inside.

Once inside the princess’s lavish quarters, Aurelius felt a trickle of icy dread prickle his skin. Maybe his idea to seek Lashyla out had not been a good one. He had assumed that the princess would know better than him how to search the city for Gabrian, but now that he thought about it, mentioning the old man’s disappearance to her might not be such a good idea. What if she dreamed up some horrible punishment for Gabrian once he was found?

They reached the double doors to Lashyla’s bedchamber and one of the guards knocked lightly. No answer came. After a long moment of waiting, Aurelius wondered if the princess had heard them.

Then all of a sudden the doors swung wide to reveal the princess. And revealed she was. She was wearing nothing at all. Her angry gaze swept over the guards who had disturbed her.

“What is it?” she demanded.

They bowed low. “Your apologies, beauteous maiden, but we have come to you with a this vestal.”

“I requested no vestal.”

The guard who had knocked turned to Aurelius with a deadly look. “You were not summoned?”Aurelius shook his head and the guard’s expression grew darker still.

“Wait—Aurelius, is that you?” Lashyla asked, leaning around the guards for a better look. “Never mind. This vestal is always welcome to visit me.” She waved her hands to the guards in a shooing gesture. “I will call for you when you are needed.”

The guards bowed once more and then left. Aurelius heard the front door shut, and then they were alone. He found himself staring at Lashyla, and she gave a knowing smile. She walked up to him with seductively swaying hips and then she pressed those hips against his, and Aurelius had to work very hard to control himself. “Changed your mind I see. . . .” she purred, her hand caressing his cheek.

He closed his eyes and tried to think of something else. “Ah . . .” He forced himself to look at Lashyla. “I couldn’t sleep.”

A sultry grin spread across her lips. “I’m flattered you were kept up at night thinking about me.”

He matched that grin with a shaky smile. “I was hoping maybe you could show me around the city some more. . . .”

And suddenly her grin faded and she took a quick step back. “What?”

Aurelius faltered for words. “I felt like our tour before dinner ended too soon. I barely saw anything of the city, not even the pools you spoke of. . . .”

“You woke me in the middle of the night just so I could show you to the baths?”

“Well . . . not
just
for that. . . .” As he said it, he knew he was getting into dangerous territory.

“Why else then?”

“I was hoping we could get to know each other better.”

Lashyla squinted up at him suspiciously, and for a moment he was afraid that she could detect the lie. But finally her expression brightened. “Just let me get dressed, and we’ll be on our way,” she said, walking back inside her room.

Aurelius smiled and said, “I’ll be waiting,” while to himself he thought,
that was close. . . .

*   *   *

Lashyla led him through a part of the city he hadn’t seen before. They passed through countless corridors, up and down stairs, across glassed-in bridges with stunning vistas of the coral-crusted city and seafloor below. After passing over one such bridge they reached a wide open space which Aurelius recognized as a terminal of some kind. It was dark and shadowy from the airy size of it.

He cast a quick look over his shoulder to check for their guards and saw the pair of them ambling along at a distance of dozen or so meters. All along the way Lashyla’s guards had trailed them at a discreet distance, though they hadn’t encountered more than a solitary maiden walking about the city. Aurelius began to wonder if those guards weren’t more to ensure that Lashyla would have her two witnesses should they decide to mate than to ensure their safety.

From the terminal, they started down a long corridor that was glowing gold with coral.

“Where are we going?” Aurelius asked, turning his gaze on Lashyla. She was walking close beside him, her hand entwined with his as it had been since they’d left her quarters. Aurelius had to constantly fight the tide of pheromones which made his head swim with desire. He wanted to let go of her hand to make it easier to keep his head clear, but he didn’t think he could afford to further offend the princess.

“We are nearing the Launch,” she replied.

“The Launch?”

Even before she could explain, the corridor they were travelling down ended in a large, circular room which was dominated by a pool of water. Floating in the center of that pool was a large ship, only the rounded top of which was visible above the waterline. This was nothing like captain Dagrell’s rickety submersible, but rather a fully-functional submarine. Aurelius set foot toward it with barely-concealed awe, letting go of Lashyla’s hand to get a closer look at the ship. From the glowing lights on the bow to the perfectly smooth, rounded hull, he knew this vessel was thousands of years ahead—or rather
behind
—it’s time, but he had to ask anyway: “Did your people make this?”

Lashyla shook her pretty head. “No, we found it here with the city.”

“Then . . .”

“
Your
people made it,” she answered. Aurelius’s eyes found hers and he held her glittering blue gaze for a long moment. “You needn’t act so surprised, Aurelius. It’s obvious who you are.”

“Is it?”

“Yes.” She took a step toward him and reached for his hand once more.

“Who am I then?”

“You are an elder.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The way you were dressed for a start.”

Aurelius frowned. “That’s not much to go on.”

“And the way you act. No man I’ve ever come across has tried so hard to resist a maiden’s attentions,” she said, plucking at his tunic as though trying feebly to remove it.

“You’re not even two years old. You can’t have come across many men in that time.”

“Nevertheless, I’ve seen many things, and I am not the only one who suspects who you are.”

“Oh?”

“My mother has many more years and much more wisdom than I, and she too believes you are not from our time. But how can it be? Are you really that old?” Lashyla asked that last question with a wrinkled nose and frown which told him that she associated age with ugliness.

Aurelius didn’t want to confirm or deny that he was an elder, but somehow the way that Lashyla was caressing his arm, the way she gazed adoringly, innocently up at him, he felt he could trust her, and more than that, he
wanted
to tell her. It was about time he confided in someone, and she had already guessed who he was anyway.

“No, I’m not that old. I was brought here by mistake, by magic apparently, taken from my time and transported instantly to yours. Ever since then I’ve been looking for a way back. . . .” Lashyla was nodding slowly. “I shouldn’t be telling you this,” Aurelius said, feeling suddenly guilty and apprehensive for disobeying Gabrian’s unspoken command to keep who he was to himself.

“No, it’s okay, I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me, Aurelius.”

He nodded, feeling somehow that what she said was true. Of all the maidens in Meria, he knew he could trust
her
, rely on
her
, love
her
.
She
would never leave him or never grow tired of him as the others would. She would be different. She was different. Aurelius caught that train of thought with a sudden frown and shook his head. Where were those thoughts coming from?

“I think maybe we’d better go,” he said, suddenly noticing how close her lips were to his. “I’m feeling tired now, and I’m sure you must be, too,” he said.

“Of course.” Lashyla pulled back with a short sigh, but grabbed his hand and led him from the docking bay.

As they were walking back down the corridor to the terminal, Aurelius asked, “Is this the only submarine in Meria?”

“The only working one. There are many others, but they no longer function.”

“Hmmm. . . .”

“What?”

“I was just thinking that I should take a look at them. I might be able to fix one or two by taking parts from the others.”

Lashyla’s eyes glittered, and she smiled in a way that made Aurelius’s flesh crawl. “That would be most appreciated.”

Aurelius cocked his head. “And what would you show as a token of your appreciation?”

Her smile became seductive and she squeezed his hand,
hard
. “What would you like?”

“Would you let me leave Meria?”

Lashyla suddenly stopped walking and let go of his hand. Her expression was dark and dangerous. “Leave? Why would you want to leave?”

Aurelius instantly regretted asking the question. He could see he’d hurt Lashyla’s feelings. That was the last thing he’d wanted to do! He wanted to take her in his arms and never let her go. To ask her to come with him. They’d find the relic and go back to his time; they could make a life for themselves smuggling illicit cargoes through space, or maybe he'd settle down, get a legitimate job, and . . .
and what?
Aurelius frowned, suddenly recognizing that his thoughts were not wholly his own.

“I’m not from here, Lashyla. You know that, so how can you keep me here? It's like forcing a fish to live out of water. I don't belong here.”

She sighed and shook her head. “It’s useless with you!” She turned from him to face their guards. “Escort this
vestal
back to his quarters! I’m going to bed.”

And with that, she stalked off. Aurelius watched her go, feeling like his heart was breaking in half. He had to work hard to fight that feeling and to clear his head, to remember that his thoughts and feelings weren’t wholly his own.

He might allow himself to feel sorry for her, but the way she was acting, the way she had treated him like a disobedient child, he couldn’t feel
that
sorry.

The guards appeared one to either side of him, took him by the arms and shoved him along. One of them spoke as he was half-carried, half-shoved back the way he’d come. “You dare much, vestal. Were you not such a pretty face, the princess would have you thrown into the ring to fight the trolls. Have a care; her patience with you wears thin.”

Aurelius smiled wryly. “Yeah, I noticed.”

As they walked back, Aurelius noticed the corridors growing gradually brighter, though not from any discernibly greater concentration of coral. Once he was back inside his quarters, stifling a sudden yawn and a desperate urge to go back to sleep, he could have sworn the coral and barnacle clusters inside his room were brighter than they had been when he’d left. So far beneath the waves, he’d thought that the day/night cycle of the city was arbitrary, but Aurelius now wondered if maybe the phosphorescent life followed a cycle of its own.