Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

~I'm Not in the Book~

"Luke!" Zyra greeted me with a hug that crushed the air out of me.

I was so weak from my swim, all I could do was gasp. I opened my eyes and met Zyra's electric blue ones. I still couldn't breath with Zyra crushing me and the intimacy being a little too much, and I tried to send a silent eye plead to her. She let go suddenly, and spread her hands.

"When they shot the cannon at you, I thought..." She didn't finish her sentence. She looked up at me, but her expression was harsh. She put her hand on my chest and an electric shock went through my body.

"Zyra!" a voice shouted. I recognised it as Cleo's voice. My vision went blurry and I fell on the marble floor. Another sister, Perlissa, ran over and helped me up.

"You idiot! You revealed your gift to him!" I saw Zyra trying to get out of her sister's clutches. Perlissa was still trying to stabilize me. Whoa, I was in the arms of death. Scary.

"We are in even graver danger now that he has that information! He knows exactly what your weaknesses are, as well as mine!"

"It isn't my fault! Please!" I pleaded.

"He's right, Zyra. He would have died if he didn't use his gift." Perlissa's voice was mild, but I had a feeling there was anger under that softness.

"He said not to kill him! I heard those words come out of his very mouth!"

"'Don't kill him' isn't the same as simply letting him die. Think of our chances without him, Zyra! Laistrynia will be overcome."

Zyra glared at me. She was still struggling against Cleo. She didn't say anything else. She just stared.

"I have not passed judgment," she said. "I have another task to carry out, though. Let us go and view the Book of Swaniquet."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We travelled to the city in a solid gold litter.

Zyra had changed her clothes first: she wore a drop-dead gorgeous blue Greek-style dress with silver clasps and hems. She had a silver choker around her neck and silver bands around her upper arms. Her hair was braided with blue jewels. Her usual silver tiara topped her head.

A few eagle-human mutants carried the litter, a golden box with curtains, down one of the many roads snaking across the plains. I sat on one side. Zyra sat on the other, still seething and looking out the window.

My shoeless foot was freezing. Nobody bothered giving me a replacement. I wondered why: I mean, Zyra got to change, and she had just attacked me. Why didn't poor little me get a fresh set of clothes?

I had to say something.

"Why are you still mad at me?" I asked. I was answered with silence.

"You seemed so nice before that electric attack," I pointed out. Zyra glanced at me, muttered something in that other language, and turned away again. That was annoying.

"I didn't want to die! Try to understand that!"

"Would you sacrifice yourself to save a whole nation? What about your whole world?" Zyra snapped. "You would not believe the sacrifice I made at the last battle. It is now happening again. If you had just kept your mouth shut, I would have helped you to escape Selenos's clutches!"

Maybe I was being selfish. Maybe Laistrynia was really in danger. But I had just been introduced to a world I never knew existed. I couldn't have known that I would endanger a nation by singing.