when I come upon the waterfall where I waded with Trey before the Comantre Syndic soldiers found us.
I move on. There are glass doors that lead out to the grounds and some that lead to private, walled courtyards built into the interior of the castle. I pass archways with curtains that can be drawn to hide small niches. What interests me most is that there appears to be no stairs that lead to the gallery above and no way to access the rest of the house through this entrance. I make a complete circle and end up where I started, at the entrance.
“Are you lost?” Kyon asks with his cunning smile—the one that tells me he has a secret.
I’m drawn back to the portrait of the waterfall that Trey and I slept near. I remember what it was like to lay next to Trey—to have his arms around me, protecting me. An exquisite ache squeezes my chest. I want that back.
I gaze at the landscape. It’s so clear that I feel as if I could step into it and be transported there. My hand reaches out to test the theory, but Kyon stays it at the last possible moment with his hand on mine. “You don’t want to do that,” he says as he puts my hand to his lips, kissing the back of it.
“Would this take me there?” I ask. My hand trembles in his giant one.
“Nothing gets by you, does it, my little savage? This is a portal of a kind. I have yet to perfect it, however. It still has complications that make it . . . unsafe.”
“Complications?” I ask. I glance back at the landscape. The air feels misty, stirred up by the impact of water hitting water.
“Keenan,” Kyon says over his shoulder to my bodyguard who has been trailing us around the room. “I need a volunteer.”
Keenan goes to the entrance and hails a guard from outside. I glance at Fulton, who winks at me conspiratorially. A brawny soldier enters through the large doors. He angles his automatic weapon—a freston, which is actually three weapons in one—downward in a safe position.
“Come here, please,” Kyon requests as he continues to look at the landscape of the waterfall in front of us.
The soldier looks at us and decides that he was the one Kyon meant. He does as he’s ordered and stands next to Kyon.
“What do you think of my landscape?” Kyon asks the soldier.
“It’s very nice,” the soldier replies.
“Nice! It’s nice?” Kyon laughs, seemingly amused. He lets go of my hand and clamps his arm around the soldier’s shoulder. “Why don’t you have a closer look?” Kyon pushes the man into the landscape. The soldier disappears from the room and reappears on the bank of the waterfall in the portrait where he falls to his knees, blood dripping out of his mouth, ears, nose, and eyes. He collapses on the ground in the grass.
I take a step back from the portrait. Kyon glances at me. “You see? It has a few problems.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me the problems? You didn’t have to kill him!”
“I made it easy for you to understand that you can never use this to leave here. I could’ve told you, but you don’t trust me. This way, I can be assured that you believe me.”
“Why do you need it?” I ask, turning away from the dead man on the other side of the portal. I hold my hands behind my back so no one will see them shaking.
“Think of the ramifications that something like this can have for us. We could move troops—be everywhere and nowhere in a matter of seconds. It is a very useful tool—if I can get it to exert less pressure on the soft tissue of the body, it will be perfect. I have to find a way to protect the brain and internal organs,” he says absently.
“The funny thing about weapons like this, Kyon, is that the door works both ways. Someone could find it and come to us as well,” I reply.
Kyon turns and faces me. “I did not have you pegged as a ‘glass half empty’ person.”
“I’m not. I’m just being practical,” I reply to cover up my gut-wrenching fear of his intellect. He’s so smart. He won’t need priestesses or me soon. He’s a force all his own. I take another step back from him. I rest my hand against the nearby tree pillar for support. Instantly the glass floor becomes a platform