by Kealohilani
Pain such as Lani had never experienced jolted through her body— as if someone had one needle for every square inch of it, and had slammed them all in with great force, simultaneously.
Lani had to fight not to scream for the siren to stop— a reflex from the pain— but there was never even the smallest thought in her mind to actually do so. Jharate was everything. Failure was unthinkable.
She stifled an anguished scream as the torture continued. Her blood raced through her veins— burning like molten metal— stinging like poison. Her lungs throbbed as if all of the oxygen was being sucked out of them. Worst of all was the pain in her forehead as a silver white orb began to materialize and emerge from it.
Now Lani felt as if she were being electrocuted. But the siren’s power kept her perfectly still and on her knees. Only tears streaming from her closed eyes indicated what was happening, as Lani stifled any sounds that could emerge from her lips.
The orb exited Lani’s head and floated above her in the air. The pain stopped and Lani crumpled to the ground quietly. She remained conscious— gasping for air— completely drained of every particle of energy.
“Brilliant!” the siren trilled. “Who are you?”
The siren did not wait for an answer.
“This is the strongest life force I have ever felt! I have only taken a year, as I promised— but I will be able to go at least three hundred years with this energy alone!”
The siren opened the sparkling-red heart-shaped locket that hung around her neck and placed the orb inside it. It glowed so brightly that it lit the entire cave surrounding where she stood.
A rush of air burst around her as she closed the locket. The siren’s beauty intensified as some color returned to her skin and fullness to her cheeks.
“Release them… now,” Lani strained to say. “I kept… my end… of the bargain.”
“Yes you did!” the siren exulted in admiration. “And I shall keep mine.”
The siren made no motion of any kind, but the men were instantly released from their stupor— blinking and shaking their heads. Some ran their fingers through their hair as they came out of the daze.
Drakne muttered the same words that had freed Lani— releasing everyone else’s legs at that same moment— in order to maintain the illusion that the siren had been responsible for holding them each in place as well.
“I shall never forget this,” the siren promised, as if she owed Lani a favor.
The siren turned and disappeared into thin air. The men shook their heads more vigorously, wondering what had just happened. None of them had seen the siren. Each man had beheld what he wanted to see most in the world.
Jharate’s yearning for his family made him see his mother.
Justin’s deep longing for a different life when it came to his family conjured up a mirage of his father calling him to a family picnic, where he and Justin’s mother were happily married.
Although Erik’s deepest wish might have been much like Justin’s, recent events had changed things. Erik had seen Arante smiling at him, dressed in a breathtaking white wedding gown.
Raoul looked the most uncomfortable of them all as his hallucination faded from his eyes. He vowed to himself that he would not tell anyone what he had seen.
“What happened?” Justin asked.
“You men were under the power of a mountain siren,” Arante explained— staying where she was, even though she wanted to run to Jharate and Lani and hug them both— in hopes that giving Jharate another minute to process might help him forgive Lani. “Lani saved you all by willingly giving up one year of her own life. It was an excruciating process.”
It was only then that Raoul and Justin noticed Lani on the ground. They ran toward her too fast for Arante to hold them back.
Jharate heard what Arante had said. He looked down at Lani and saw that she was still in tremendous pain.
“Why?” he asked in a voice so low that no one but Lani heard him.
From where she lay on the ground, Lani caught a glimpse of warmth in Jharate’s eyes. She smiled weakly before she managed to whisper, “I couldn’t let her… hurt you…”
As Justin and Raoul rushed to her side, the line of sight between Jharate and Lani was broken. Jharate blinked. His eyes grew instantly cold and distant again. Every muscle in his body tensed as he got up and walked back to Arante, without another word.
Lani blinked back the tears that wanted to fall. A prickling, dizzying sensation moved throughout her body— as if she were falling from a great height. She waited indifferently to feel the thud of her body hitting the ground. But the thud never came.
Instead, Jharate’s stab to her heart, combined with what she had just gone through physically, caused her to lose consciousness. Her eyes closed and her head rolled to one side, pressing her cheek against the cold damp ground, as she fell completely still.
Drakne tried to blink away his surprise as he stared openmouthed at Lani. He could have sworn— no, he was sure. Right before Lani’s eyes had closed, he had seen the same white flames— which he had seen replace the blue of her eyes on the battlefield— flicker in them once more.
He looked at Justin and Raoul, but their faces registered nothing out of the ordinary. He searched every other face. No one was reacting to this phenomenon. Had they not seen it? Drakne watched expectantly as Raoul handed Justin his torch and activated the white light from his hands.
“Come on, Lani,” Raoul pled quietly— moving the light from her head, to her sternum, to her stomach, and back again— watching for any improvement. “Wake up.”
Arante looked from Lani’s motionless form to Jharate. An angry scowl crossed her face. Before she could even think, she slapped her cousin hard across the face.
“She saved your life by sacrificing some of hers, you idiot! You didn’t even say thank you!”
“I did not ask it of her.”
Arante’s mouth fell open and she shook her head slowly in disbelief. She tried to say something in response, but only a few quiet indistinct sounds came from her throat. Instead, she slapped him again— harder— across the other side of his face.
Kendra’s eyes had narrowed the moment Jharate uttered his harsh statement. The second after Arante slapped him again, Kendra jumped as high as she could and decked Jharate. Jharate staggered back and fell against the cave wall, mainly because he had not expected it.
Kendra turned and walked away from him, cradling her broken hand and hoping that her punch would leave a mark to at least compensate her a little bit for the excruciating pain she was now experiencing. She realized she should have given him a roundhouse to the stomach instead. But at least Raoul could heal her hand later.
Jharate took both the slaps and the punch without reacting. He had been raised to never even lift a hand toward a woman in anger. He had never done so, and would not begin today. He simply turned his back on his cousin and prepared to leave.
Jharate’s people had seen Arante and Kendra attack him. However, they quickly busied themselves with picking up the few items that had been dropped during the hypnotic episode— pretending they had seen nothing.
From what Arante had said, they all owed Lani a debt beyond repayment. Jharate’s dishonorable behavior confused them greatly. Arante was right— Jharate had not even thanked Lani!
They continued to avert their eyes from Jharate in order to continue the illusion of not having noticed, and thus remain out of a potentially problematic loyalty issue.
Jaresh had the hardest time pretending. Had Jharate’s father, King Karahn, been living— he would not have allowed such behavior to stand! And had Jaresh not been Jharate’s subject, he would have taught Jharate a lesson he would not soon forget for treating his niece in such a cruel manner. Alas, he could not take the liberty that Princess Arante had.
Jaresh did his best to cool the boiling rage in his heart. Jharate was still his ruler. And his friend— more like family. Jaresh had known him since the day Jharate was born. Jaresh had t
o trust that the Prince he knew would correct his egregious actions when he came to his senses.
Arante shook her head yet again with her mouth still hanging open in shock. She felt like she couldn’t possibly be awake. This was the worst thing she had ever seen Jharate do in her entire life. This was not him. It could not be him!
And yet, he had done it. She had heard it with her own ears and she had seen it with her own eyes.
He was dishonoring his family name— and dishonoring her by his relation to her. Their Kingdom of Trisakne. The memory of his parents and brother. Their ancestors. Dishonoring all that was right.
She couldn’t bear to look at him. She walked briskly past him over to where Raoul was still trying to heal Lani. She placed her hand gently on Raoul’s shoulder and spoke quietly.
“I’m sorry, Raoul. You cannot heal her from this. A loss of life is permanent. She gave it up for him. She will never get it back.”
“She won’t wake up,” Raoul bemoaned softly, still trying.
“She probably won’t for a while. I have never known anyone personally who has gone through this. I have only heard of it in faerie tales until today.”
“But—”
“According to legend, it is supposed to be an extremely traumatic experience for the victim. They cannot move for hours. And in the legends, the people who gave up the one year did it to save their own lives.
“For her to have done this so selflessly and have Jharate act so coldly to her afterwards— that has got to make it harder. There is no way of knowing when she will recover.”
Raoul reluctantly ceased. The white light disappeared. He wiped away the sweat from his forehead, exhausted from the effort. Looking down at Lani, he felt so helpless— helpless and frustrated for failing her in this moment.
“I’ll carry her,” Justin volunteered.
Justin carefully placed her sword back into its sheath. Deep gratitude swelled within his heart— for everything she had done for him in his life— not just for this particular moment. Justin handed the torch back to Raoul and lifted her limp body into his arms.
He used his gift to partially levitate her and then held her, lovingly, ready to guide her body safely through the tunnel. Jharate, Arante, and Erik passed Justin and went ahead. As Jharate walked by him, Raoul stuck out his leg and tripped him.
“Oops! I’m so clumsy sometimes…” Raoul glared at Jharate.
One of Jharate’s eyebrows rose and he looked down at Raoul with a warning glance. He knew it had not been an accident, but did not react further. He simply turned and resumed leading the way through the cavern.
“Better hope you don’t need to be healed any time soon,” Raoul muttered under his breath, unheard by all around him.
Raoul’s focus was diverted away from Jharate as Kendra came up to him, cradling her broken hand with a grimace. Raoul continued to bear the torch with one hand while healing Kendra with the other, until her hand was as good as new.
Drakne followed closely behind Kendra and Raoul so that the remaining rebels would not discover him. Drakne had been too powerful for the siren to affect, which had allowed him to observe everything uninhibited.
Lani had managed to impress him yet again. He was amazed that her love for Jharate was strong enough for her to give up part of her own life. He could not imagine willingly giving up any part of his life for anyone. And he was astounded that another creature had been able to tell how strong Lani was.
At least three hundred years! Usually one entire life gave a siren a mere fifty years at best. One year willingly given had only ever been known to double that.
Drakne felt a little more comfortable now that Lani had been weakened. The loss of one year was not a simple blow. He was sure he wouldn’t have to worry about her sensing him again for quite some time. Even better was the fact that the spell was still holding on Jharate.
How interesting. Lani had broken out of her spell when Jharate had saved her life— and Jharate hadn’t even lost anything permanently. And Raoul had healed him quickly— once Drakne had brought him back from death— so Jharate’s suffering had been quite limited.
Here Lani had given an entire year to save Jharate— two feet in front of him— and was still unconscious from the effort. And what had Jharate done? Nothing!
Drakne wished he could laugh as freely as he wanted to. He was now certain that Jharate would be the weapon for Lani’s destruction. Jharate seemed to be the only force in this world that possessed power over her— and it appeared as if he possessed a great deal of it.
Watch Your Step
The incredulous look on Justin’s face as the travelers reached the most dangerous part of the cavern pretty much said it all. Nearly a hundred sarcastic comments raced through his brain, but he kept them to himself. Kendra, on the other hand, did not.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
“We’re totally gonna die,” Erik added, as he looked at the path ahead. “I’m not a tight-rope walker!”
“It’s wider than a tight-rope, Erik,” Justin mocked.
“Not by a lot!” Kendra shot back.
“There is no other way,” Arante stated, coolly. “Go slowly and make each step sure. We’ll get across just fine.”
“Okay, babe,” Erik answered, giving her a quick kiss.
Justin rolled his eyes. But he quickly reset his focus to make sure he got Lani across alive as he started to follow Jharate, Arante, and Erik— now single-file— in front of him.
One cautiously-placed step after another. They made their way forward across the very long and very narrow path— no more than two feet wide. A seemingly bottomless pit lay on either side. Pebbles fell into eerily soundless depths as they slowly inched their way across.
A rumbling noise in front of Justin made him stop dead in his tracks. A section of the path gave way directly in front of him. He scrambled backwards— bumping into Kendra— to avoid falling in with Lani in his arms. Kendra grabbed Justin’s shoulders to stabilize him, her fingers digging in a little more than she meant to.
Erik tried to run forward with Arante, but the path crumbled beneath his feet. Arante slammed her body to the ground and simultaneously grabbed Erik by the wrist as the fragments of the pathway plummeted into the darkness below him.
Erik’s face turned white as he looked down. He looked up quickly into Arante’s eyes with a panicked and pleading look.
“Arante, I’ll never forget you— even on the other side!”
“Oh no you don’t. You’re not saying goodbye to me now. You have promises to keep!” Arante had a firm grip on him and pulled him up slowly. “Grab the ledge with your other arm!”
Erik did so as she struggled with his weight. The piece of ground that Erik grabbed crumbled beneath his grasp. Erik screamed as Arante was yanked forward and dragged almost a foot over the edge.
“Let go of me! I don’t want to take you down too!”
“No!”
The same instant Arante started to slide over the edge, Jharate dropped his torch on the path behind him and lunged forward. He grabbed both of Arante’s ankles and quickly pulled her back onto the stable part of the ledge.
“Nice of you to drop by,” Arante barked bitterly at Jharate, still holding onto Erik with everything she had.
Jharate did not reply.
“Hold on, I’ve got an idea,” said Justin.
Justin carefully switched to using his arm muscles to hold all of Lani’s weight. Once he was sure that he had her securely, he used his gift to help take the burden of Erik’s weight off of Arante.
Soon Erik was once again on solid ground. Breathing hard and fast, he looked down with a queasy expression. Looking back at Arante, he took her face in both his hands and kissed her passionately.
Justin rolled his eyes again and frowned. He was glad Lani was not awake for this! It would only hurt her more to see the contrast between what Erik had just done to thank Arante and what Jharate had not done to thank her.
Ju
stin felt nauseated at the very thought. I’d love to show Jharate how it feels to be shot with a paintball gun point-blank right about now.
“As much as you know how I hate to interrupt…” Justin began with an insincere tone. “Erik! Surface for air, bro! Surface for air! I need you to focus for a minute!”
Arante broke off the kiss and pointed at Justin. It took Erik a few seconds to snap out of it but he finally came back to the real world and saw his friend across the gap.
“What? Oh. Hi Justin. What do you need?”
“I need you to stop being Captain Casanova for five minutes and take Lani so I can jump across.”
“How?”
“I don’t know… uh… let me think. Oh! I can levitate her over to you and then you can use the two arms that Heaven gave you to catch her when she gets there! What do you mean, ‘How?’ Are you kidding me, Kook?!”
Justin rolled his eyes, yet again, with an exasperated sigh at the fact that Erik always let people around him do the thinking so that he wouldn’t have to. Erik dusted himself off and held out his arms.
“Ready when you are.”
“Alright, here she comes.”
Justin used his telekinesis to send Lani’s body gracefully across the five-foot gap into Erik’s arms.
“I’m going to let my power go now, okay?”
“Yeah, I’ve got her… Man! She’s heavier than she looks!”
“Duh! It’s different when someone’s completely unconscious, genius! Back up slowly, you wimp, so you don’t go tumbling down with her! I need some room to jump!”
Erik did as he was told without talking back. The brush with death had left him feeling quite charitable at the moment and so he let Justin’s flak slide.
Kendra released her grip on Justin and she and everyone behind her shuffled several steps backward to give Justin some room. Justin backed up, inhaled, and took a calculated jump across the missing piece of path— landing like an action hero on the other side.
He straightened up and held out his arms for Lani with an impatient look on his face. He wasn’t going to leave her life in Erik’s hands for a second longer than he had to. Erik handed her over.
