Page 18 of Keeping Sarah

I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly. “Open minds are best leftinsidetheir skulls and not manipulated by magic.”

“He will not manipulate you, Sarah,” Rex replied in a soothing tone. “He is my friend. He will see reason.”

I gulped the dry air, because what choice did I have right now? “If I get so much as a whiff of trouble from your friend, I will defend myself in whatever way I think is appropriate,” Iwarned my companion. “The jem’hora are never far. Keep that in mind, Rex.”

He huffed. “I can hardly do little else, when you won’t let me have control of your mind, now can I?”

“Ready?” I asked him, straightening my shoulders.

“As ever.”

I closed my eyes and let myself step backward in my imagination, letting Rex come forward to take control. He noted a bit deviously, “For him to see reason and assist us, I may need to seduce him with your body, is that—"

“The fuck you will!” I snapped.

He laughed hard. “Merely a jest to help lighten the mood. Here we go.”

Rex walked forward, now fully in control of my body. I tensed, expecting an evil Gandalf or a noseless bald man hunting for a magical child. A chant of, “eye of newt,” or, “one of us, one of us,” in multiple voices. I almost hoped for it. Anything that would give me an excuse to take control back and run the other way.

Instead, as we entered the cave, there were cushions and candles and the smell of mouthwatering food.

Many of the cushions were in rich colors and patterns all along the edges of the cave. Some of the candles were lit, while others were mere decoration. Large cushions were piled together with a few furs—a makeshift bed, I supposed. The cave was large enough to put me in mind of Valor’s cottage, but without the walls. In the middle, a firepit burned brightly as a tall, thin, middle-aged Ladrian man watched the flames.

He glanced at us, and as he spoke, his deep voice crept up my spine. “The fire told me you were coming, dear. It is not often that I get a human here on Halla. Tell me, what brings you to my lair?”

“Tolkabern, it’s me, Rex.”

The other man raised his eyes to mine. They were unlike any I had seen—Ladrian eyes were a shade of brown, violet, or once, I saw them gray. His left eye was solidly black, while the other was purely white. Like an onyx stone and an egg. His golden skin had a turquoise shimmer to it. I would have thought he was bald, were it not for the black hair that appeared like a snake over his shoulder. An animated ponytail of sorts. Both he and the hair snake stared at me. I was grateful the hair snake did not also have eyes.

Tolkabern smirked. “A human woman claiming to be my friend Rex? Now thisisan interesting night.”

“Look—look at her aura,” Rex insisted.

The magician’s eyes traced over my body, making me even more uncomfortable. But then his black eye locked onto my face, while his white eye took me in, from my feet up. Slowly, the white eye studied every inch of me. It was like I was naked or exposed in some personal way I could not explain.

Finally, his eyes lined up again and he grinned. “Took a human for a spin, did you, Rex?”

Rex laughed. “Not exactly.”

“Care for some banwine?” Tolkabern offered. “I’ve been amending my brew after you called it dreck piss.”

“Sure, thank you.”

I reminded him in our minds, “We are not here for a drink, Rex.”

But he ignored me when Tolkabern passed him a glass. They drank and it wasn’t all that bad.

“Much better, old friend,” Rex said, complimenting the man’s banwine. “Did you see the split disk game?”

“I couldn’t believe the Cinas won.” Tolkabern scowled in annoyance. “I lost far too many credits on that one. How did you make out?”

“Not too bad, thanks.”

“So, what brings you to the Neck?” the other man asked.

“Shipwrecked,” Rex said. “Can I use your portal?”

Tolkabern frowned. “Are you alright? Your crew—"

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