Heart of Darkness

Chapter 7

Naga, the White Serpent, erstwhile Princess of Saillune, destroyer of cities and all-you-can-eat buffets sat on the edge of the bed; an arm wrapped around Lina Inverse and sighed. In all of her madcap and rampant adventures with the redheaded sorceress, the busty brunette had never once considered that the fiery temptress of disaster would ever fall in love. The thought that she, the oldest daughter of Sailune would be sitting on a bed in her father’s palace, consoling a completely distraught Lina Inverse had never even remotely crossed her mind.

But here she was, doing just precisely that.

And, oddly enough, she was finding that she was good at it.

“Lina, we’ll find him. I promise you. We’re not just going to let Zelgadis vanish like that,” Naga said softly, patting the sorceress’s arm. “Besides, he’s pretty powerful in his own right… certainly he’ll be able to hold his own until we can get to help him.” Granted, Naga knew that she was being entirely too confident, and a distant part of her wondered if she had managed to out-do her sister with that declaration of optimism over this… and she still knew little to nothing about it.

“He’d be back by now,” Lina replied, her voice flat and emotionless for all of her tears. She didn’t lift her head, didn’t move to look at Naga. She simply sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over and staring at the floor with dull eyes.

“Well, maybe he’s waiting for you to come rescue him!” Naga said, and then sighed at herself. “Okay, enough of that fake overly cheerful crap. I can’t handle it any more than you can. Look, Lina… we’ll all do our best to get him back. I don’t know how, but we will.”

“We will get him back,” retorted a sharp and firm voice from the doorway, and it was enough to make Lina look up from her study of the pristine oak floorboards.

Jedah stood in the door, dressed in black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt that was open at the collar, his hair pulled back from his face, those eyes that were so similar to Zelgadis’ glittering brightly at both girls. As he entered the room, he moved across to kneel at the foot of the bed. As he looked up at Lina, he continued. “I swear to you that we’ll get him back, Lina. I have some friends working on it. With any luck, we’ll know where he is very soon now.”

Scarlet eyes narrowed at the youth, but she looked away without saying anything, leaving Jedah to lift his eyes to Naga in concern, who sighed with a slight shrug.

“Lina…” Jedah sighed. There were times when the adorable boyish persona simply wasn’t appropriate. This was, beyond shadow of a doubt, one of those times. And so it was that when Lina looked back at him, she was surprised to see how very much like his older brother he seemed, the same slight quirk of his mouth, the same shape of his eyes… Her own eyes widened, and she looked away all too quickly, again seeing Zelgadis pulled into that darkness, swallowed by the night in that hallway so far away.

“I… I know that you want to help, Jedah… but… I just don’t see how you’re going to be able to help. Zelgadis…” her voice caught at his name, but she forced herself to continue, “Zelgadis said that you don’t have any base magic of your own…”

He smiled a gentle sort of smile that held a great deal of secrets hidden within it. Of course, they were secrets that he didn’t particularly feel like divulging at the moment, so he chose an answer that would placate, but not educate. “Lina, I’m just going to have to ask you to trust me in some things right now. I can’t tell you a whole lot right yet…” he paused as he noticed Naga staring at him. “What?”

Naga leaned forwards and looked Jedah straight in the eyes. For a moment, she was reminded of a certain purple-eyed Mazoku, and the chilling suspicion that Xellos had taken on the appearance of Jedah had planted itself into her mind. “Who are you?”

Crystalline blue eyes looked back in return. “Jedah.”

Naga snorted, leaning back. “You aren’t the Jedah that I’ve been watching flirt with my sister Amelia. He doesn’t know how to be serious. You, on the other hand, could give that damnable Mazoku Priest a run for his secrets.”

As if she had summoned Xellos by the mere mention of him, the purple-haired irritant on two feet materialized in the room, staff in hand. “It is as you feared, Lord—“

Before the Mazoku could finish his sentence and ruin it all, Jedah silenced him with a lift of his hand. He had little doubt that’s precisely what the pain in his side of a Mazoku had intended to do… but the stage was not quite set to Jedah’s desires. They didn’t need to know. Yet.

Violet-black eyes opened, turning a dark glare against Jedah, but Xellos closed his mouth. He could drop enough hints later. By the looks of things, Naga was already suspicious and questioning. With a self-satisfied smile, he gave Jedah a sardonic little half-bow and vanished from sight.

“What was he saying, Jedah?” Naga asked, keenly aware that Lina had withdrawn into herself and had most likely missed the entire arrival, exchange, and subsequent departure. But Naga hadn’t. She’d heard what Xellos had said… and not said. She also knew better than to think that Xellos aided anyone of his own free will. So if Xellos was aiding Jedah... by what means had Zelgadis’ somewhat mysterious little brother managed to bind Xellos into such behavior? Naga’s blue eyes narrowed as she watched Jedah as he seemed to consider what to say.

Finally, Jedah turned a strangely hooded gaze to Naga, “I know where Zelgadis is.”