Neiko's Five Land Adventure (Neiko Adventure Saga Book #1)

Chapter 33

Genghis khan fed them a dinner of fish. They told him of all their adventures, how they met, and how they arrived. "I should've known. Well, I didn't think he had enough power to reach Hawote. He has attempted before and failed. I think the Boundary has been broken."

"What?" they asked in unison.

"The Boundary of Reality and Imagination. It has separated our worlds since the beginning of time—I always wondered for what, from what, or why. You thought we were made up and vice versa. Not even the Dark Pharaoh is powerful enough to break it. The only way it could break is if a powerful person from Hawote summoned a powerful person from the Five Lands to come through. Yet, the person from the Five Lands would have to be as powerful as Sisper-Bijou, and no one can match him, so how could Ramses enter?"

"You lost me," Neiko said, shrugging. "Who is Sisper-Bijou?"

Genghis Khan chuckled. "No knowledge of magic, eh? Sisper-Bijou is an ancient tongue and it simply means 'Dark Pharaoh'—so that makes it self-explanatory. It is just his title, and no one knows the first name, so Sisper-Bijou is like a last name."

Neiko drummed her fingers on the table as she thought, and it dawned on her. "Of course! Raven somehow summoned Ramses in that plot I told you about, and he is the most powerful man in Hawote—the only one with extensive magical knowledge! I bet he has the Eye of Mohica—no wonder. So when Raven called him, and that's exactly what Ramses said, and it opened it for him! Now I get it! Now he can come and go as he pleases, but how can I get back? This is totally not what Raven and Bloodhawk had planned."

"Wait. Hold on. Ramses does not have that kind of magic! What do you think was the scheme of these enemies of yours?"

"Oh, yes he does! Now I know exactly what they were up to! They used him to destroy my reputation, and then one day they'd kidnap me. It was probably the same day Ramses brought me to Qari! They were close to carrying it out. If Ramses hadn't gotten me, then they would have! I think Ramses butchered their plans; they had no idea he was real and that he was after me. I bet they have no idea what happened to me. I wonder if family, friend, and foe all think I'm dead," she said weakly. "There is something you need to know about Ramses—but first, tell us everything you know about the Dark Pharaoh that Quickstrike doesn't even know."

"Alright, he is immortal; he was never born. He is the most powerful being just below The Almighty himself. He is extremely evil, even worse the devil—even though the devil doesn't reside here. He is capable of killing immortals because of his power just as easily as he can kill a mortal. Only immortals can kill each other in case you were wondering. It is said that he left his dark kingdom in search of a bride, and he had been gone for countless years. There were sightings of him in the Five Lands, and they stopped after the death of Xerxes, thirty billion years ago. There have been no more sightings reported since then until there was a case about thirty years ago where a man saw a dark, shadowy form kill his brother in the woods. The moon shone on it, but it was still black and didn't emit light. He supposed it was the Dark Pharaoh, and he was sent to the loony bin because the trauma made him insane. People didn't believe him because no one really ever believed the Dark Pharaoh was real. Now he lives as a hermit in Bird Wood near Norak. I followed the case for years, yet I've never found any more information on Sisper-Bijou, or better yet, his identity. Sometimes I feel that he could still be living among us—hiding—and no one would ever know. He probably laughs at people's unbelief in him. If he revealed himself—oh, how the Five Lands would panic!"

"That's it!" Neiko exclaimed. "Now I know why Ramses is hiding his identity! He would get more panic by revealing himself now than if he did it years ago! Ajax would've never let him see Lydia if he knew the truth! She came too close several times!"