Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

~The Interrogation~

Now I was nervous.

My host wasn't, though. She merely put her hands on the table and proceeded to using her X-ray-like eyes to scan me again.

"Your name is unusual, if you are indeed of Laistrynian descent," she said.

"You said names weren't important," I countered.

She was silent for a moment. "If you tell me exactly who you are and where you came from, I shall feel obliged to tell you my name. But," she gave me a harsh look that made me shrink into my seat, "if you tell me a single piece of untruth, and I will know, then the consequences shall be quite severe."

What else could I do? I told her my life story.

Her expression was hard to read. Was it pity? Curiosity? Disgust at my staying with a bunch of hobos at eleven? "My name is Zyra," she said.

Zyra. And she said my name was weird.

"Ok... Zyra. At least I know what to call you now. But why wouldn't you tell me your name earlier?"

"I didn't trust you," she said. "I feared you were a spy."

"A spy? Whose spy?" I asked.

She muttered something in a different language, one that was soft but raspy, like rustling leaves. "You're much too inquisitive. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you, though."

She rose from her seat and walked to the other side of the room. "Come this way," she said.

I walked up beside her. She waved her hand and a door materialised on the wall in front of us. She walked through. So did I, and I almost fell off a cloud.

Thankfully, Zyra grabbed my arm and hauled me onto a silver disk. I looked down and immediately got severe vertigo: the sea was thousands of feet below.

That didn't bother Zyra, though. She just walked on air. An invisible rope pulled me after her.

We went around the back of the palace. Only then did I realise just how big it was: the grouped buildings were almost a mile wide. Thirty minutes passed before we were inside one of the castle's gardens. I stepped off my silver disk and Zyra turned to face me.

"Do you remember the tower you saw from the window I brought you to?" she said. I nodded.

"The ring of light that rested on top of it?"

I nodded again.

"We call that ring of light the Halo," she said, "But it is better known in your world as-"

"The sun," I finished. For some reason, I knew that it must be. "So this place is in the sky."

Zyra nodded solemnly. "The scientists on your planet, astronomers to be precise, are convinced that there is only one universe. Would you believe me if I said there was another kingdom in another sky?"

I pondered this for a moment. "It sounds crazy," I said, "But if this place is real, than there might as well be another like it."

She smiled faintly. "This kingdom is ruled by me, and it has been since the beginning of time."

Woah, surely no one could be that old, even if they were immortal.

Zyra frowned. "Close your mouth. You look like a fish."

"I don't--" I started. She glared at me. "Yes ma'm."

Zyra sighed, as if she didn't like what she was going to say next. "I wasn't alone, though: another divine being was born. He is known as Selenos." She said that name like it was the most evil thing that existed on earth. Oh, and above earth too, I suppose.