Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) - Gary Stringer (read e book TXT) 📗

Having cleared everything away, they headed out to Catriona’s Meadow where they relaxed for a while. As there was no danger of being overheard, now, Mandalee took the opportunity to broach a subject that had been on her mind since their initial conversation with their new friends from Phitonia.

“Why haven’t you done more to protect the Chetsuans of Phitonia from the dragons?”

“Strange that you would ask me that,” Daelen considered. “Not long ago, you thought I was just about the biggest threat to your world, despite how long I’ve been Tempestria’s Protector. Now you want me to be Phitonia’s Protector, too?”

Mandalee shook her head. “You don’t get off the hook that easily. Despite what anybody thought, that didn’t stop you from protecting us. Why should it matter what the Chetsuans might think?”

“Phitonia is just one world. If I help the Chetsuans of Phitonia, what about Lavos, the world where dragons are the endangered species? Should I go and help the dragons there? On another world, the people are just recovering from an invasion that could have destroyed their world. Should I have stopped that, too? As it turned out, a group of adventurers banded together and ended the threat in a far more ingenious way than my brute force approach – something you should appreciate, Cat. They achieved that victory all by themselves, should I have robbed them of that? What about all the troubles here on Earth? Should I swoop in and save the day like some kind of superhero? Put a stop to all their wars, resolve all their conflicts? I may be powerful, but I’m only one person. Am I never to have a life of my own? Am I always to be a slave to everyone in need?

“What if, while I’m on Phitonia, fighting the dragons, I get an alert that Kullos is attacking your world? Which world do I save?”

Mandalee turned away, face flushing. “You can’t ask me to make that kind of choice,” she objected quietly.

“Why not?” Daelen demanded. “You’re asking me to. What if, instead of preparing to fight Kullos in your world, I go and conquer Phitonia, instead? Because that’s what it would take. The dragons aren’t going to stop hunting Chetsuans just because I ask nicely. And what if, while I’m there, Kullos gets all the pieces of his control device, decides he’s tired of waiting for Michael and me to show up, and just uses Heaven’s Surrender to destroy your world? Or what if the dragons figure out how to follow me back to Tempestria? Now we have to fight a war on two fronts. What if they decide humans and Faery look just as tasty as Chetsuans, and do to your civilisation what they did to Sara and Jessica’s?”

Mandalee was deeply embarrassed. “I never thought about any of that. I’m sorry.”

The shadow warrior put a reassuring arm around her. “Don’t be sorry. I was having the same argument with myself centuries before you were born. I saved Sara and Jessica because not doing so would have meant genocide for their people. When I left you guys the other day, I was stopping something similar from happening on Lavos. Fortunately, I got to them much earlier in the process. Rescuing a pair of dragons and bringing them here to live with Jessica and Sara could have been a bit awkward.”

“Just a bit,” Catriona agreed.

Mandalee was still having a hard time processing all of this, and excused herself for a while, in hopes that a walk by herself would stop her moral compass from spinning wildly.

*****

“I put your world first,” Daelen told Cat, after a moment, “because, as I’ve said before, I’m partially responsible for the danger you’re facing. Even so, I generally only interfere when Kullos is involved, or in former times, my dark clone. Otherwise, you have to solve your own problems. When I first learned about wizards going missing on your world, I admit I wasn’t particularly interested. Not because I didn’t care, as my visitor suggested, but because it didn’t seem like something that I should concern myself with until I knew Kullos was involved. People go missing on your world all the time. Am I supposed to start up a missing persons investigation every time? Where would you have me draw the line?”

More than ever, Catriona understood the enormity of the decisions the shadow warrior had been facing every day for who knew how long. She offered no debate, no judgement – how could she possibly be qualified? Instead, she simply held him tight.

“This is just a friend offering comfort to another friend,” she whispered. For whose benefit, she wasn’t sure, but it felt right to say it.

“I know,” Daelen assured her, “and it’s very much appreciated.”

Still uncertain how long it was appropriate to hold him so close, on sudden impulse, she asked, “What’s your favourite animal?”

“What?” Daelen asked, thrown by the random question.

“Suppose you were just an ordinary, lonely human boy with a love of nature, and your best friend was an animal – not a pet – a friend you could love and stroke and talk to. A friend you could confide in, in a way that was pure, simple, uncomplicated,” she explained. “What animal would your friend be? What animal would you wish for? And don’t say the obvious.”

Daelen considered the question for a moment, then answered, “A rabbit. A little white rabbit with long floppy pink ears, cottontail and twitchy nose with whiskers. If I were that ordinary, lonely human boy, that’s the animal I would have as my friend. The only one I could ever really talk to. That’s what I would wish for.”

“Then I think, after so long, it’s time that lonely human boy’s wish was granted,” she decided.

With that, she stood and shifted into the form of a white rabbit, just as he had described. Picking up the rabbit and placing her gently on his lap, Daelen smiled and began to stroke