One Between the Stars

Chapter 46

 "What do you mean?" Ionia asked, aghast. She turned to Nimue. "What does he mean?"

"Io," Carson said in a low voice, placing a hand on her arm.

"No, I want to know," Ionia said, pushing him away. She looked Merlin square in the eye. "He's your master, right? So why don't you know where he is?"

Merlin's eyes betrayed no concern for the princess's raised voice, only a vague sadness that made her hesitate. "You have heard the tale of how the Wealthy One disappeared, have you not?"

"I...." Ionia sat back, stumped. "But....you were close to him..."

"That I was," Merlin said. "So you can imagine my surprise when he stole off into the night, never to be seen again."

"But - " Ionia wasn't sure what to say, but her very soul seemed to want to eject itself, to fight the terror suddenly gnawing at her stomach.

"Io, we should listen to him," Carson said in a soothing tone, reaching his hand out again to her arm. "Why would he lie to us?"

Ionia didn't know. But she was hoping beyond hope that he was. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't.

"Is there some way you could point us in a direction?" Carson asked. "We've been searching for so long...surely you know of something that might help us."

Merlin seemed to chew on his tongue for a few minutes, thinking. He stroked his beard. "Hm..."

Then Nimue popped up from behind the shadows she had been sinking into. "My Lord, there is - "

"I know what you are going to suggest," Merlin said. "And it is too dangerous."

"But Sir," she insisted. "It's their only hope."

"What is it?" Ionia asked, fighting back the heat in her face that meant she was about to cry. "Whatever it it, we'll do it."

"It isn't something you do," Merlin said, cutting a glance at Nimue. The young princess was stony-faced. "But you do not even know what it is that Nimue is suggesting."

"I don't care," Ionia said, and Carson's hand tightened on her arm ever so slightly. "If it will lead us to my people's only hope, it's worth it."

Another wave of sadness crossed over Merlin, and she wondered if that happened as often as it had today. If being immortal meant having to see people willingly run to their own demise, and live to tell every sad, devastating tale. But he said, "Very well then. Nimue, can you get...?"

Nimue nodded and reached from behind the armchair to produce an old walking staff: dark wood gilded in tarnished metal crafted in swirling patterns, with a curved over top in a spiral and a jewel in its center that looked like some amber reptilian eye. Ionia startled when she realized it was the same staff that the statues in the gardens carried, and suddenly they all made sense. They were all depictions of Merlin and Morgyn.

Merlin leaned heavily on the staff, and Carson and Ionia stood up from the sofa. But before Ionia could follow him, Carson stopped her with his hands on her arms. He made her look him in the eye, even though Merlin was walking on through the book shelves.

"Are you prepared for this?" He asked her.

"Yes," she said.

"You don't even know what it is you're supposed to be prepared for," he protested.

"Nevertheless, I am ready. I have been ready since the day I left." She tried to stand straighter, but found her mind wanting to make her spine shrink in on itself. In all honesty, she was terrified, but she also knew that this had to be done, whatever it was.