The Royal Pursuit (22 page)

As soon as they heard Hathor run up
the stairs, the man quickly moved the desk away from her.
“Obviously, I don’t have much time.”

She was greatly relieved to have the
pressure of the desk off of her. She fought to get up, but her body
was weak from the weight of the desk. He picked her up and stood on
the chair with ease. It was then she noticed he had removed a part
of the ceiling. So the gods and goddesses had kept trap doors for
an easy escape.

He pushed her through the opening in
the ceiling. She grunted as the top half of her body landed in a
small passageway that was between the ceiling of Athena’s room and
the floor of the office above her room. She managed to move her
arms enough so that the rest of her body was in the passageway. The
scuba gear was uncomfortable, but she forced herself to keep
crawling. She doubted she would escape him since he wasn’t
restricted by a heavy outfit like she was, but she had to
try.

Below, she heard someone enter the
room. It sounded like it was Kent. “She’s up there!” He called
out.

Without warning, there was a loud
thump.

Ann wondered what the man had done to
Kent but knew she couldn’t go back. She had to keep going. Maybe
Hathor was ahead of her somewhere. She turned a sharp left at the
corner and kept crawling.

She made it halfway down the small
passageway when someone grabbed her ankle.

She shrieked. Looking back, she
grimaced when she realized the man had caught up with
her.

“
Nice try, but you didn’t
actually think you’d get away from me in that heavy suit, did you?”
the man asked, not at all upset by her attempt.

“
I had to try,” she
replied.

He grinned at her. “Yes, I guess you
did. You wouldn’t be a queen if you didn’t. It looks like you have
more courage than I anticipated. That’s an attractive
quality.”

She rolled her eyes. She wasn’t trying
to impress him.

“
Come. Let me show you your
private room.” He crawled in front of her. “It’s not far from
here.”

She considered turning around and
going back the way she came, but she knew it would be useless. He
would only catch her and take her back this way. She reluctantly
followed him. She only hoped Hathor would track her
down.

“
I’m not a bad person when
you get to know me,” he casually remarked. “You have to give me a
chance.”

She considered not responding, but her
curiosity got the best of her. “What do you plan to do to
me?”

“
I’m going to show you what
you can have.”

“
Could you be less
clear?”

“
I know it’s not the answer
you were looking for, but I don’t want to give away all of my
secrets before the time is right.”

She sighed, not liking the sound of
this. By the time he stopped, the growing pit of dread in her
stomach had grown to the size of a melon.

He opened a panel beneath them and
jumped down. “Come on. I’ll catch you.”

She peered down at the elegant room.
She tried to hide her awe at the lavish splendor of the place but
it was impossible. The room was decorated much like the Olympians’
guest rooms except for the soft blue furniture and crystal floor.
She squinted at the floor. It seemed to change colors, one right
after another.

“
Don’t be afraid. I won’t
let you get hurt,” the man assured her.

Breaking out of her thoughts, she
glanced at him. She whirled around to crawl away, but he must have
expected her futile attempt to get away from him, for he lifted his
cane and caught her ankle with its curved handle. She kicked at the
cane but was unable to get it off her boot. He proceeded to drag
her down the hole until she fell into his arms. She swiftly jumped
out of his arms and landed on her stomach.

He sighed heavily, shaking his head.
“I can see this will be a contest of wills. I hope you understand
that since I have my own Stone of Immortality, I have been around
much longer than you and have more experience in patience than you
can imagine.”

“
What do you want?” She
stumbled as she stood up. He caught her under her elbow and helped
her up. She pulled her arm away, not delighting in the physical
contact.

“
I want you to put this on
and freshen up,” he answered.

Her eyes narrowed at the long blue
flowing dress. He pointed to the large bathroom with a shower and
all the cosmetics she would need to make herself look as if she
hadn’t just taken a long journey through the galaxies.

“
No,” she said. “I won’t do
it.”

“
If you don’t do it, I will
bathe you and dress you myself.”

Her jaw clenched at the ultimatum.
“Fine. I’ll do it.” She grabbed the dress.

“
I thought you might be
more agreeable to my request once you understood the terms. I will
give you one hour to make yourself presentable. Then I will summon
you.”

She couldn’t believe the audacity of
the stranger. He probably wanted to kill her. What difference did
it make whether or not she was wearing jeans or the
dress?

“
I’ll explain in good
time,” he stated, as if reading her thoughts. He turned and
strolled to the door. He glanced behind him. “Oh, and if you think
you are going to go through that hole in the ceiling, you’re
mistaken. The furniture in this room won’t move, so you can’t stand
up on anything to reach it.”

She watched him as he left, shocked
and horrified. She wanted to cry, but a part of her couldn’t
believe this was happening. It seemed like a bad dream she would
soon wake up from. She swallowed the lump in her throat and removed
the scuba gear. Please get here soon, she silently told
Hathor.

Chapter
Eighteen

In the Wilderness

Planet: Lone

Jaz picked up the Book of Spells,
relieved they found it. She knew Queen Ann would be anxious to get
it back. She turned to Falon, who stood with Xan, Tan, and Sando
who were as eager as she was to find the other group that had left
with the man in white.

“
I was wondering if we
should notify Hathor of the situation,” Jaz told them. “He would
want to protect the queen.”

“
Can we locate him using
any of those spells, or do we have to go to Raz?” Falon
asked.

She opened the book and searched
through it.

“
Is this a magic book?” Xan
asked.

“
In a sense it is, but it’s
primarily used to locate the queen,” Jaz replied. “And the king is
the one who usually carries it since it’s his job to protect her.
The queen has all the magic, so she doesn’t need the book, but he
doesn’t have magic so he needs it.”

“
That is strange. We elect
our leader, but everyone else is equal in status on this world,”
Xan commented thoughtfully.

“
If our leader does not do
our will, we have the obligation to overthrow him and elect someone
else,” Tan added.

“
That’s similar to our
world,” Falon said. “We also have a First Commander and a Second
Commander whose jobs are to ensure the Leader does his job right.
We aren’t necessarily equal in status though.”

“
I think I found it!” Jaz
exclaimed. She glanced at the Nicals. “Would you like to come
along?”

“
We are concerned about
Ruler Dour and Optima. With the Stone of Immortality in our
possession, we don’t need to fear death,” Xan said, glancing at Tan
and Sando. “What do you think?”

“
We need to be with them if
we can,” Tan and Sando agreed.

They looked hopefully at
her.

She reflected on the way the Nicals
defended and supported each other. There was a sense of closeness
about them that Palers and Laxes lacked. Although the Palers and
Laxes got along with each other remarkably well, they would never
share the close friendship the Nicals did. The Nicals seemed to
have one mind, and she couldn’t imagine they would ever hurt
anyone. It opposed their peaceful nature.

Turning her attention to the spell,
she said, “We should hold hands. The spell should transfer to
everyone if we maintain some form of physical contact.”

They obeyed her.

She took a deep breath and read the
spell, hoping it would work. It did, except they expected it to
take them to Raz. Instead, it took them to Atlantis, where they
appeared in an immaculate room with a woman’s picture in front of a
desk.”

Before Jaz could assess the situation,
Hathor ran into the room, the top of his scuba gear off since he no
longer needed the oxygen in the tank to breathe.

“
Hathor, what are you doing
here?” Jaz asked, surprised to see him in such a strange
environment.

“
Thank goodness you’re
here,” he replied, slightly out of breath. “Ann is somewhere in
this building, but I don’t know where he took her.”

Sando looked at Xan and Tan in alarm.
“The man in white?”

Hathor blinked. “Yes. I never saw him,
but Ann described him to me.”

“
This isn’t good,” Jaz said
with a groan. “He intends to kill her.”

“
I know. We need to find
her.”

“
We have the Book of
Spells. You can use this, correct?” she asked.

He smiled as he took the book. “This
is great! It’s just what I need.”

Before he could open it, the room went
dark and gas floated into the room, which caused them to fall
asleep.

***

An hour after Pallid left, Ann had
taken a shower and put on her long dress, which swayed softly at
her ankles. She let her curls fall loosely over her shoulders,
deciding against her usual style of pulling the sides back in a
barrette. She sighed. She didn’t care to look in the mirror. If she
wasn’t dressing up for Hathor, she didn’t care how she looked. She
hoped Hathor, Stacey and Kent were alright and that she’d soon be
with them.

A knock at the door broke her out of
her thoughts. She reluctantly walked over to it and opened it. She
knew it was Pallid before she saw him. He was still dressed in his
white suit, his white hat, and his white cane.

He smiled widely at the sight of her.
“You are more beautiful than I imagined you’d be,” he
complimented.

She rolled her eyes. “Can we get this
over with? What do you want?”

Not disturbed by her impatience, he
held his hand out to her. “I need a blood sample.”

She stepped away from him.
“No.”

“
I need it to find out
something important. It will determine your fate.”

“
Tell me what it’s
for.”

“
I don’t want to upset you
with minor details.”

She frowned. “You want to draw my
blood and run a test on it. It wouldn’t be a pregnancy test, would
it?”

His eyes widened in surprise. Then
understanding lit up his eyes. “Oh. So you found out why I captured
you back on Lone.”

“
I was filled in on the
details, yes.”

“
Hmm… Apparently, I was
careless in my actions back there. The Nicals must have overheard
one of my conversations to that William Nichols person.”

She gasped.

“
You recognize the name,”
he observed. “He recognized yours as well when I met him. You two
share a romantic past.”

She frowned. Would William always
haunt her?

“
He is coming here to
establish Atlantis,” Pallid continued. “Do you still have feelings
for him?”

“
No. I don’t even like him
anymore.”

“
Good.” He swiftly took her
hand and pricked it with a small needle before she had a chance to
protest. “We will discuss this when we learn the results of the
test. Now join me.” He held his arm out for her to
accept.

She crossed her arms in
response.

He gently pressed his hand on the
small of her back and guided her forward.

She moved away from him. “No. I’m not
going with you. This is absurd. I am the Queen of Raz, and I won’t
let you kill me.”

“
Don’t worry. I won’t let
it come to that. One way or another, I will make sure you
live.”

His soft tone was reassuring, but she
couldn’t fight the uneasy feeling in the pit of her
stomach.

He sighed. “I will give you an option.
Either you come willingly with me, or I will have to put this rope
around your wrists.” He pulled out a purple cord from his jacket
pocket. “It may not look like much, but I assure you this rope will
not only bind your wrists together, but it will create a force
around you that won’t allow you to get six feet away from
me.”

When he put it like that, she didn’t
have a choice. “Fine. I will follow you.”

She walked with him down the hall, and
he stopped by a tiny room with various machines and equipment that
she didn’t recognize. He slipped the needle into a circular
one-quart container and pressed a button. She knew what he would
find, so she wasn’t surprised when she saw his frown.