When Anna stepped into the boat, it moved away from what seemed like the only piece of land around. She realized that Burton wasn’t even rowing. But the boat was moving. The water looked like it went on forever.
“I’m guessing you did a bad thing under the new rule of Demitri Von Cobb,” Burton said.
“I spat in his face,” Anna said proudly. Yet she was still in awe that she was in the presence of Burton Lang. She couldn’t stop staring at each wrinkle on his face, wondering how much this man had seen throughout the ages. Each line told a story.
Burton got a good laugh out of that. “When you are sent away to an oubliette, they don’t expect you to live,” he said.
Anna could see that by the looks of the space. There were no animals or plants to eat, not even bugs. Even the water they were sailing on was salty and without fish.
“Actually, I escaped and chose to come here,” Anna said.
“Why did you choose to come down here, maiden of Mern?”
“I am from Mern, but I’m not a maiden,” Anna said, chuckling. She thought his assumption that she was an authoritative figure of Mern was amusing.
“My apologies, my lady,” Burton smiled and looked on in the direction they were moving.
“I came to find out what happened to my stepbrother, Rayne Volpi,” Anna said. “I thought you would know.”
Without too much detail, Burton explained Rayne’s demise and who was responsible for his disappearance.
The story saddened her. But Anna wasn’t surprised to find out that the same pig that had sexually harassed her was involved in Rayne’s assault led by a priest.
Burton continued. “Now, Rayne is an imprisoned soul caught between realms. His true name cannot be spoken by tongue. In fact, I’m too old to even remember my true name. I know I have one. Although Rayne doesn’t remember who he really is, he remembers parts of his previous human life, but the rest of his soul is disconnected from his mind. There is a quarantine placed around this planet to keep beings like me from coming here, and to prevent those of us who are here from leaving.”
“Is Rayne like you?”
“In some ways, yes,” said Burton.
“Then, how did he come to Naan?” Anna asked.
“With the help of Montague La-Rose, I opened a doorway. But there were consequences. Upon entering, the entity’s memory—Rayne’s memory—was wiped clean. It was a dangerous but necessary compromise. To win this war, we need both Rayne Volpi and Montague La-Rose to end the Nekrums’ madness. I already sent for Montague,” Burton said.
It’s all magic and sorcery, Anna thought. She didn’t understand any of it. “Montague is in the dungeons of Ikarus, heavily guarded. How are you going to get him out?”
“You got out,” Burton noted.
Anna smirked.
“Besides, there are other ways to get to him; from underground. The trolls are my allies,” said Burton.
“Trolls?” Anna asked.
“Yes, trolls.”
“I didn’t think that they were real.”
“They are as real as those waterbirds you keep seeing. And all those old stories that you were told as a child about the monsters in the sky; they were also real. Our sky is occupied by an evil force,” Burton said.
The news was a paradigm shift for Anna. What she thought she knew about the world was no longer true. The myths that Montague had exposed to her held more truth than written history. And she was shocked at how much Burton knew about her seeing waterbirds when she had never met him before.
“So how do we get Rayne’s memory back?” Anna asked.
“I need your help with that, my dear. When the time comes,” Burton said.
Anna saw land ahead. It looked like a castle within the mountain. “What is this place?”
“Come. It’s almost time for dinner,” Burton said.
The cave opened up to a beautiful, well-lit castle with chandeliers, sprawling red carpets, and gold décor. The place was illuminated brilliantly by something other than fire. There wasn’t a flame anywhere. Anna was amazed.
Burton led her to a dining hall with a long table with crystal utensils placed alongside ivory plates. No matter the elegance, Anna still didn’t understand how they were going to be served anything edible.
As they sat, people came out from the wooden doors along the wall. All kinds of people came from their own room, which also looked extravagant, even compared to her quarters at the castle. Anna was stunned that not only Burton Lang managed to live down here, a colony was thriving. Anna then saw the men she remembered from the wagon Demitri had sent. But they wouldn’t recognize her. They never saw her.
A man limped over to the table with wine glasses and a kettle of water that smelled of rot and looked like algae when his shaky hand spilled some. “Can, can, can, can I interest you in something to drink?” the man stuttered.
Burton took the kettle. “Yes, thank you.”
“We aren’t going to be drinking that, right?” Anna asked, hoping he’d say, no.
Burton laughed. “Of course! The cavern is our only access to water. It descends a mile down before it connects to the sea, right near the waters of Mern,” he said.
Mern, Anna thought. The idea of drinking disgusting water was put on hold.
“What do you know about Mern?” Anna asked. She was curious to know about her birth family. She had lived with her uncle for a few years before she came to Ikarus.
Before he answered, Burton stood and snapped his finger above the kettle and asked, water or wine?
Anna hesitated. “Clean water?” she asked.
When he poured water into her glass, it was now crystal clear and odorless. Anna was amazed.
“I’ll have wine!” said a guest, holding out his glass.
“Red or white?” Burton asked. “Sweet or dry?”
More and more people came in from the tunnels with shovels and wheel barrels of rocks and dirt into the room. They carefully organized each dish with a healthy combination of soil and stone with a garnish of spider webs before covering them with
