“You disagree?” I asked.
“Of course not.”
“Volkan, you have been by my side since we were children. There is nothing that we have not shared. Now is not the time for you to be reticent.”
“It’s just that… I think there should be more to life than just instinct. As you said, she has been impressive. I think she deserves more than to simply be used as a breeding mate,” he said.
I barked out a laugh and slapped him on the shoulder. “You old romantic, Volkan. Ever since you were young, you have been blinded by love. The world needs people like you to keep believing in things like this. Now then, I suppose we should go and pay her a visit. I would like to know exactly how she bested these beasts.
We walked inside the tower towards the room in which she had been left, only to find it empty. I let out a low, rumbling growl.
“I thought you said she was secure here,” I said.
“She was! I made sure of it myself. I stripped her of her weapons and locked the door behind me,” Volkan said as he strode around the room, peering in every nook and cranny, although there were few of these. Steam rose in the air, and it was filled with a light fragrance. The bath water was still where she had been, as though undisturbed. For a moment, I thought of her in here, naked and glistening with water, and I felt a twitch of arousal. It passed as quickly as it had arrived though.
“Where has she gone?” I growled.
“I do not know,” Volkan asked. We sniffed the air and returned to the doorway, the air cleared of steam, and I looked down, noticing wet footprints leading away from the room.
“There’s only one place she would have gone,” I said.
*
This woman was proving more trouble than she was worth. I don’t know what happened to the lions who left our pride, but they had clearly lost their way. She had forgotten how to submit to authority, how to respect the Alpha, so I was going to have to give her a stern reminder. We reached the ruins and I saw that Marrin was struggling to pull the statue from the wall. He had managed to form a small opening, but he was still straining his muscles to open the path fully.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice booming through the room. They all turned to look at me. Marrin froze with fear and immediately let go of the shrine, stepping away. Tania, the infernal wisdom, looked scared, but Kara saw an opportunity. Her dark hair was wet against her scalp, her skin looked paler than it had before, and the gown she wore perfectly encased her femininity. Before anyone could say anything, she darted through the narrow opening, disappearing into darkness.
I let out a low growl and ran through the room, getting to the shrine. The opening was too small for me to get through, so I had to push it aside, wasting precious seconds. If Kara had escaped, then we could never follow her, and this opportunity to venture into new worlds and conquer them would be lost to me. I chased after her, rushing through the short passageway towards the doorway to the other world. There I found Kara, letting out sharp grunts as she flung herself against the doorway, only to stagger back. The barrier shimmered every time she hurled herself at it, rippling like water. It was murky like a deep ocean, but as I stared at it, I could just about see glimpses of another world. It was an incredibly profound feeling.
“I think you can stop that now,” I said in a low voice.
Kara muttered a curse and then ran towards the door again, as though she believed that, if she just managed to make a hard enough impact, then she could force herself through. The intent itself was impressive, but she was clearly not going to succeed. I approached her and just as she was about to run into the doorway again, I placed a hand on her shoulder and shook my head. She pulled away from me, pushing away my arm as she did so, and she glared at me.
“Don’t touch me!” she yelled. “I don’t want any of this! I just want to go home!” she screamed. Then she turned to the doorway again and slumped to her knees, looking entirely forlorn and pitiable. She curled her hands into fists and beat them against the impassable door, each strike weaker than the last, before her words turned into sobs and she looked as though she was unable to move. If she did have the power to pass between worlds, then it was inert at the moment, and she was not going anywhere.
I stepped away from her and returned to the shrine. I looked at Volkan. “Take her back to her chambers. See that she has a good meal,” I said. I then turned to Marrin. He trembled with fear. “I will excuse this mistake because you are young, but never do something like this again, else you shall never rise through our ranks.” Marrin nodded sharply and helped Volkan fetch Kara from the passage. That left Tania. She stood tall and stared at me, perhaps trying to show her strength.
“Come with me, we must have words,” I said in a dry, bitter voice.
*
I led Tania all the way up towards the throne room, it was a long journey, and the silence grew heavier the longer it took. We walked in and I stood beside the window. Tania remained in the middle of the room; her hands clasped together. I waited a few moments before I spoke, just enough to let the tension rise.
“What were you thinking?” I asked.
“I-” she began, but I was not going to give her the luxury of explaining herself yet. I turned to her, and my gaze was as sharp as a dagger.
“You led her back to that shrine. You gave her the opportunity to escape. You are supposed to be the wisdom of this pride, and yet, you do something so foolish? I have half a mind to strip you of your position and ban you from the library for the rest of your life. Not only did you take her to the shrine, but you persuaded Marrin to aid you as well. I know you must have said something to him, because he would never have disobeyed a direct order. Do I have to worry about mutiny? You should know better than to plot against your Alpha.”
For a moment I saw a glimmer in her eye and thought that she might have actually snapped back at me, but she knew better than that. Her head bowed and she sank to her knee.
“I do apologize Alpha. Of course, I would never plot against you. That isn’t what happened here.”
“Then perhaps you would like to enlighten me as to what exactly did happen.”
“I was only speaking to her out of curiosity. I wanted to see for myself whether she was the world walker that had been promised. She is lost, Axanar, and I thought I could help find the reason why she was here. She said she wanted to learn about this power, and I thought I could help her. I thought that, by taking her to the doorway, we might have been able to see some reaction, or she might have learned something that would help her control the passage. She promised she was not going to try to escape.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at this. “She promised? Well then, clearly that’s all you needed. I thought better of you Tania. That woman may be a world walker, but she is still a prisoner, and she is clearly going to try and escape. You should not have done this without my approval. I can’t believe you thought that you could get away with this.”