Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
He can leave, and come, and go.
Be the dragon we love and know.”
And poof. Like… magic, again… there is another door. With a ring floating in front of it.
“Holy hell, Pie! I had no idea you were such an adept!”
“Um.” I just stare at the door and the ring. “Me either.” Then I let out another long breath. “Tomas? Can I tell you something?”
“Anything, sunshine.”
I point at the door. “I didn’t do that. And earlier, when I put those ruby things on the walls?” My gaze darts over to the walls. They’re glowing now. And just a moment ago, they weren’t. I look back at Tomas. “I’m not in control of this. I’m not in control of any of it.”
Tomas reaches out and places a hand on my cheek, stroking it as he looks fondly into my eyes. “Of course you’re not, Pie. None of us are. Do you think I want to burn things down? I don’t. But what I want doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Doesn’t it scare you?”
He shrugs and pulls his hand off my cheek. “Maybe, back when I was new. But now? It is what it is. And for what it’s worth, most of the last several thousand years has gone without incident. It’s only recently that things became a problem again.”
“Recently. Like… since I got here.”
“Perhaps. But then again, perhaps not. It might just be my time, Pie. It might be something as simple as that.” He grins and rubs his hands together. “At any rate, look at this beautiful door! And what is this? A ring? Is it for me? Shall I put it on?”
And, as always, Tomas’s innocent, child-like wonder is contagious. And the troubled feeling inside me ebbs away like a wave leaving the beach. It’ll come back. That’s what waves do. But it’s gone right now.
I pluck the ring out of the air and look at it for a moment. Do I recognize it from the bag? Not really. It’s silver, like most of them. And fairly plain, with no stone. But there is an engraving along the outside.
“Does it say something?” Tomas asks, his voice low and reverent now.
I squint until the words come into focus. “It says… ‘Be the dragon.’” I look over at him. “Please don’t take that too literally.”
He grins, then crosses his heart with a finger.
I offer him the ring and he takes it, eyes squinting, just like mine did. “Hmm.”
“What?”
“‘Be the dragon,’ you say?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“That’s not what I see.”
“What do you mean?”
“It doesn’t say that when I look at it.”
“What do you see?”
“It says… ‘Property of Pie Vita. Please return to owner when finished.’”
I huff out a laugh and shake my head at him. “That’s not what it says.”
“No. But it should. It’s your ring, Pie. I’m simply borrowing it. Feel free to take it back if you feel it’s necessary.”
This is a warning. Well, no. Not really a warning. More like a forewarning.
He is going to do something with this door. Something big.
But not even Tomas knows what that big thing is yet.
“Where do you think it leads?”
I turn and face the door. It’s closed, of course. “It will probably go wherever you want it to.”
“How do I make it work?”
“Well, I do a spelling and the spelling tells it where to go. But I’m not really an expert. I’m sure there are many ways to make these doors work.”
“I’ve never been a poet. But I will work on it.”
“Where do you want to go, Tomas?” I’m a little bit sad when these words come out. Because I can feel him slipping away and it’s not fair, really. We should have decades of friendship ahead of us. Days of tripping the hallways upstairs, and eating dinner together, and just… enjoying each other.
But I don’t think that’s how this ends and that’s what this sadness is.
“I don’t know,” Tomas says. “I don’t know what’s out there.” He looks at me, his eyes a little bit panicked. “What if I can’t go anywhere because I’ve never been anywhere?”
And now I feel selfish for wanting him to stay here. He’s a prisoner. And like I said, no matter what he did thousands of years ago to land in this place, this punishment does not fit the crime. He deserves to leave and find his own life. “Maybe it’s like the hallways? Maybe you just… trust it?”
He relaxes, smiling again. “Yeah. Maybe it is.”
CHAPTER SIX –PELL
There is tension in the sanctuary as I weave my way through the tombs in the direction of the cathedral. I only get to marry Pie Vita once, so I’m going to do it right. She will wear this ring for the rest of her life and that means it should be special.
I am a talented blacksmith. I could bang out a ring in a matter of minutes. But I’m not going to do that. I want to take my time and, if there is any real magic inside me, I would like to put it in that ring and share it with her.