After washing the porridge down with some water, Ethan pushed himself to try some more. All things considered, it wasn’t as bad as what he’d been eating since D-Day.
Jonas leaned in. “As I told you before, you are in Lumnia now. You were sent to Earth by your mother, Lady Illyrian, when you were a baby. I was sent along to protect you.”
Ethan frowned. “If you’re supposed to protect me, why did you wait seventeen years before showing up?”
“I didn’t. I passed through the portal only seconds after you did. But it’s unpredictable and dangerous. That’s the very reason why it’s so rarely used. I was fortunate in that your mother had the foresight to tether you magically to the amulet, otherwise I may never have found you. It must have brought me to your location.”
“Magically?” Ethan couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not a kid. There’s no such thing as magic.”
Jonas fixed him with a hard stare. “If that is so, then how did you get here?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But you can’t expect me to believe in magic.”
“From the little I know of Earth, magic doesn’t exist there. Why is a question for a scholar. And I am just a servant.”
“Okay.” Ethan pushed back the bowl. “Let’s say for a minute I believe you. Why did my mother send me away in the first place?”
Jonas drew a long breath. “Trust me when I say she did not want to. But she had no other choice. Had you remained with her you would have certainly been killed.”
“Killed by who?”
“By the Eternal Emperor Shinzan,” he replied darkly. “To him, all who wield magic are a threat to his power.”
“But I don’t wield magic.”
Jonas chuckled. “Not yet. But I suspect you’ll learn soon enough.”
“I’m not going to be learning anything,” Ethan told him. “I’m going to find Markus and then get us back home.”
“And just how do you intend to do this? How will you find him? Considering what I’ve learned about the portal, he probably arrived many years ago and is long dead.”
Ethan sprang up from his chair. “He’s not dead! And I will find him.”
Jonas held up a hand. “There’s no reason to get angry. I’m only telling you the truth.”
He waited until Ethan had sat back down. “Let’s just suppose that he is still alive. How will you find him? I had the amulet to help me locate you, but you have nothing that connects you to your friend. Lumnia is a vast land. It would take years, and you don’t have the faintest idea where to begin.”
“I don’t care,” Ethan said stubbornly. “Markus would look for me.”
Jonas sighed. “Very well. If you are determined to go on a fool’s errand, I can’t stop you. But first you must learn how to stay alive. I’ve only spoken briefly to the farmer who lives here, but from what I can tell, things are now very different from when we left. How different remains to be seen.”
“Different in what way?”
“Back then, Lumnia was divided into the five great kingdoms – Kytain, Malacar, Al’Theona, Ralmaria, and Traxis. All of these had sworn fealty to the Emperor ever since the war was lost and the Council of Volnar destroyed.” He noticed the confused expression on Ethan’s face. “It was a council of the wisest and most powerful mages in the land. But that’s not important right now.”
Ethan saw a flash of emotion in Jonas’ eyes at the mention of the council. He was hiding something.
“Even the dragons could not endure the Emperor’s wrath,” Jonas added.
Ethan recalled the tiny dragon-like creature on the windowsill. He was about to mention this, but then stopped himself. Better to say nothing, he thought. If there was one thing he had learned in the Airborne, it was never to give information to someone you didn’t trust. And he sure as hell didn’t trust Jonas. Even if everything the guy had told him was true, Ethan suspected that he had an agenda of his own. And until he knew what that was, he’d be watching his every move.
Jonas continued with his explanation. “You were unconscious when we exited the portal in Lumnia, but I scouted around and found this farmhouse nearby. I told the farmer and his son that you’d tripped and hit your head and asked them to help me carry you here. I gave the farmer a copper dractori so that we might stay the night. He looked at it like he’d never seen one