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“Nice place you have here,” the mimic said as we entered the World of Legends together. “Good thing you spent some time fixing it up.”
I rolled my eyes. Who would have thought that I’d be stuck with him in the next life, too?
Sadness, heavy as a stone, weighed on me. I had so many regrets. And now, I’d never have a chance to make them right. I’d never really told Saboraak what a good friend she was. And now, if she lived, she’d have to build her dragon city without my help. If I could do it all over again, I would be better to her from the very start.
I hadn’t thanked Hubric, either. He’d taken me out of the gutter and yeah, the life he’d given me wasn’t an easy one but it sure was more exciting than the one I’d left behind. Without him, I wouldn’t have these friends.
If I could do it over again, I’d be as crazy as Bataar and see if I could con Zyla into marrying me. It would have taken quite the trick, because she was too smart to be talked into anything she didn’t want to do, but I would have tried. I liked that about Zyla. She had a mind of her own and I had to work to impress her.
If I could do it over again, I would even be nicer to the mimic. Maybe.
“Oh, thanks,” he said sarcastically. “It’s been your approval I was missing all these days. By the way, this isn’t the next life. That comes when you go over that horizon.”
He pointed to the horizon – the very one that always pulled at me. It pulled now, stronger than ever. And despite the beauty of the World of Legends – the meandering creek I’d laid out with the trees bending over it and the cool shade dappling the soft grass and the huge moon hanging in the sky – I still felt drawn to it.
“You could go there,” he said as I watched other travelers working their way toward the horizon.
From where we stood on the rocky ledge of a cliff looking over the creek, I could see a long way off. And there were hundreds – thousands, maybe – of souls working their way through the gorgeous landscape toward that horizon. I wondered if they were hungry or thirsty or cold. I hadn’t thought to provide for that here when I built the new World of Legends.
“They aren’t,” the mimic said.
“How would you know? I thought you can only know what I know.”
“Not here,” he said. “Here, I’m more than that. I’m not just your mimic – I’m something more.”
“I guess it worked out for you to come here with me,” I said. The look he gave me was surprisingly penetrating for someone who could already read my thoughts. “What?”
“It all depends,” he said. “Remember when you chose me as your gift?”
“Yes. And what a wonderful choice that turned out to be,” I said cynically.
He grinned. And for a moment, I felt like my old self, a carefree boy who had nothing to worry about in the world – no nations depending on me to keep them whole, no dragons needing me to build them a city – no love.
My heart sank.
Responsibility wasn’t all that bad when you factored in the love and purpose that was all woven through it.
“Oh, there’s love. Beyond the horizon,” the mimic said. “If that’s what you choose.”
“What other choice is there?”
He laughed. “I was just getting to that. Remember when you chose me as your gift?”
“We’ve covered this already.”
He ignored me. “Well, I really am a gift. Not just because I make you self-aware so you do fewer foolish life-killing things. Not just because I showed you the shadows of the Magikas so you could find their flaws. Not just because I’m a much more interesting person than you are. No – there’s a bit more to our relationship, Tor.”
“Oh yeah? Let me guess, I owe you something, too.”
He looked sheepish. “Actually, I owe you. I’m your other life.”
“Other life?”
“Like, you know how you keep spare throwing knives in your sheaths for if you lose one?”
“Sure.”
“I’m your spare life.”
“Are you saying that when I walk to that horizon that you get to go back to my body and live my life?” Panic welled up in me. What a disaster that was going to be! “See Saboraak’s eggs hatch? Ride my dragon?”
He snickered. “Kiss Zyla?”
“Shut up.”
He sobered. “Could be, sure.”
A cold fist clamped on my heart.
“Or, I could walk to the horizon and you can go back. Kiss your own girl. Watch your friend’s babies hatch and take over the world because there’s nothing so charming as more ravening carnivores in this world. You could, I don’t know, generally take all those responsibilities back.”
He couldn’t really mean that. Could he? Because if it was true, if I could really get a chance to go back and keep trying ... well, I’d do better. I’d try harder. I’d be less irritated by Bataar.
“No, you won’t. You’ll still find him irritating. He’s your polar opposite.”
But I’d be kinder to him.
And I’d get revenge on Apeq.
“Yeah!”
Or maybe not ... not if it made the mimic so happy.
“Ha! How are you going to make decisions when you can’t blame me for everything?”
Somehow, I’d muddle through.
“So,” I said, feeling suddenly awkward. “How do I do this.”
“Close your eyes.”
I closed my eyes. “This feels weird.”
“That’s why I told you to close your eyes.”
“I feel like I should be thanking you,” I said.
“About time!” he agreed. “Oh. And I should mention ... this is going to hurt.”
Pain flashed through me so hard and fast that I wondered for a moment if he had tricked me, if perhaps he had gone back to my body and I had gone to my final destiny – one where I would be repaid for all my cruel thoughts and heartless actions.
When the agony subsided, there was only a dull pain in my chest and indistinct murmuring from above me like I was surfacing from underwater.
I opened my eyes.