A World Divided

by Rebekah Clipper

  “My army should have been unstoppable, but I was too young. My ambitions got the better of me. I struck before the time was right and was exiled along with my mother. My mental training was too solid for their amnesia parlor tricks to work on me. I spent years, biding my time, until all the puzzle pieces fit together. Now I’m back and have you, dear sister. Together, we can bring peace to this land.”

  A bright light erupted from her mom, knocking food onto Elise’s lap before smashing into Daemeon.

  “Mommy!” she cried out. “Mom?” Daemeon was sprawled on the floor. He looked unconscious. Her mother lay on the floor, as well, with Essecks’ long nails digging into her throat. She turned her head to Elise and said in a raspy voice, “Run.” A white light burst from her again, engulfing the creature that held her down.

  Elise stared for a moment until her brain caught up. Then, she turned and ran to the closest door. Her food covered pink dress flowed behind her. Movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention. The large rodent was on her tail with a wicked looking spiked ball on a long pole. It made horrible, grunting noises as it gained on her. Elise was pushing herself as hard as she could, but the rat was too fast. It thrust its spiked weapon into the calf of her already injured leg. She fell forward, landing hard on her hands. She turned over just in time to see a spear thrust through the center of the creature’s skull. It fell to the ground right beside her.

  “Come on, Ellie.” It was Ashley, the gaping hole in her head free of the patch. She put her hand down and Elise grabbed it.

  “My leg,” Elise cried.

  “Put your arm on my shoulder.”

  “What about my mom?” Elise asked as she placed her arm over the other girl’s shoulders.

  “We’ll get Jade, and we’ll come back for her.” Ashley looped an arm behind Elise and moved for the exit. “We can’t help her now. We have to get out of here before the other creatures wandering the halls figure out what happened.”

  “Okay,” Elise said, trying hard not to think about her mother lying on the floor in a white light.

  Their going was slow. More than once Ashley left Elise propped against a wall as she silently scouted their route ahead. The castle was a maze. They kept turning corner after corner with no sign of the exit. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, they found a staircase that led down to the front entrance. Two human guards stood silently in front of the doors. Each held a long, wickedly curved blade. The girls hid behind a wall at the top of the staircase.

  “I need you to wait just one more time, Ellie,” said Ashley so quietly Elise could barely catch her words. “I’m going to take care of those guards and then we’re home free, okay?”

  “Okay,” Elise whispered back. Her nerves were jumping for her friend.

  Just as Ashley turned, the doors burst open. Jade flew through, blades flashing. The guards fell before they even had a chance to raise their weapons. Ashley stepped out from behind the wall and said, “What the hell, Jade? I totally had them.”

  Jade looked up at her and smiled. “You would look much more attractive with something covering the hole in your head.”

  “Well, I had something, but it didn’t take,” replied Ashley.

  Elise stopped listening to their banter. She stared in shock. “Daddy!” she cried as her father walked in behind Jade.

  He looked up at her. “Elise, watch out!”

  Strong arms wrapped around her. The smell of burning flesh invaded her nostrils. “The girl belongs to Essecks now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Caitlin

  Everything hurt. Her head pounded, and all she could see was black. She tried to move her arms, but they were bound above her head. Panic rose. She hummed unconsciously, fighting off the anxiety attack that threatened to render her useless. After several minutes her muscles relax and the pain in her head subsided.

  Once she was certain she was calm, she looked around. The darkness was penetrating. She tried to remember the events that led to the eternal blackness. She’d been slowly building her power as Dave monologued at her. His words fueled her anger, which helped to build up the magic more intensely. When he suggested she help him, the rage boiled over, and magic followed. She remembered hitting Dave with everything she had before she was taken down by Essecks. She was surprised when, instead of depleting, the magic just built up more strongly. She told her daughter to run and then hit Essecks with a second blast. After that, nothing.

  Her heart ached for her daughter. She had no way to know if Elise made it out of the castle alive. She had to, Caitlin thought. I’ll gladly die here as long as I know she’s alive.

  Will you? Whispered a voice that was not her own. Will you lay down your life, suffer agonizing pain, for the safety of your daughter?

  “Yes,” Caitlin said out loud. “I’ll do anything for her.”

  What if I were to cut one piece from you every day? the voice continued. What if you had to watch as I sliced off your toe and fed it to my monsters? Would you still feel the same if day by day you watched yourself be slowly consumed? When infection in the wounds set in and the pain intensified with every breath? In a week, two weeks, would you curse the child who forced you to suffer?

  “Never,” Caitlin said. “You can do anything you want to me. Now get out of my mind and talk to me like a man.”

  A fire burst to life before her. She was tied to something hard in the center of an enormous room. All around her were stadium seats made from stone. They were mostly empty, but a few strange beasts sat as a silent audience. At the top of the stairs to her left, two men entered carrying torches. Their faces were hidden in the shadows of their blood red robes. Their chants were a drumbeat. Caitlin strained her ears, but she couldn’t understand what they were saying.

  Behind them, more men in robes carried a large box down the stairs. The chant intensified as more people filed in. They made a semicircle around Caitlin as the men carrying the box centered next to the flames. Sweat dripped from Caitlin’s forehead. The heat of the flames licked at her skin, burning her lungs with every breath. No fear lived inside her now. No anxiety or panic. The fire ignited her anger. She visibly shook with rage.

  The procession split as a figure made his way to stand next to the box. His robes were as black as death. He lowered his hood. Dave’s face was horribly disfigured once again. The large, jagged scar sunk deep into his face. White scar tissue built on his face where half his nose used to reside. One of his eyes was milky white and the other was fiery red. A puncture wound in his cheek revealed his pearly white teeth beneath. He clicked his jaw. The chanting stopped.

  “I can feel your hatred, sister,” he said, his voice gravelly and flat. “It vibrates the very air around us. It is your element. The world could be yours if you learned to harness that rage.”

  Caitlin tried to pull the magic to herself, but something was blocking her. Instead, she spat on the ground in front of the sorcerer. He let out a hearty laugh that was echoed by the faceless spectators. They all stopped at once, leaving deafening silence.

  “Say you will join me, sister,” said Dave. “With you beside me, we would be unstoppable.”

  “Piss off,” Caitlin responded.

  “You don’t understand,” said Dave. “I’m giving you an opportunity to join me as an equal. Together, we will light the world ablaze and create a better world from the ashes. You can have anything you want. I’ll even let you keep your daughter and husband here. Elle will never know sadness or pain. No one will ever reject her. She will be the daughter of a conqueror. When she is older men will travel for miles to gaze upon her beauty.”

  “I told you not to call her that,” Caitlin hissed. “I would rather die than help you.”

  “It really saddens me you’ve made that choice,” said Dave. “Bring them out.”

  A large, barred gate on her right creaked into life. Slowly, it rose into the ceiling. The sound grated in her ears, sending a sharp, electric shock through her head. Finally, it cla
nged to a stop. A deafening roar echoed from the darkness beyond. After a few sharp thuds the beast was silenced. A moment passed… and then another. Minutes stretched on for hours. Then, Lesembo’s frame passed through the open gate. The steps he took were measured. Something was tied around his jaws. Blood dripped from countless cuts along his sides. Just behind him, Shuri followed, jaws red with blood. He stopped for a moment when he saw Caitlin. Shuri lashed out, biting into the back of his neck. A large chunk was removed as she pulled her head back. Lesembo grunted and continued forward.

  A man followed him in, his arms shackled. It took Caitlin a second to place him. “Detective Stathem?” she asked, confusion forcing her lips to move. He looked at her briefly and then returned his gaze to the ground. Behind him a powerful woman Caitlin didn’t recognize followed. Where the detective radiated submission, this woman exuded confidence. Her hard stare landed on Dave, and she fought to escape her bonds.

  “I invoke thee, dark knight,” said Dave. “Serve me as you have trained.” The black stone on his crown flared red. Something rolled over her eyes.

  “I am yours, master,” she said, bowing down to one knee.

  “Jade, what are you doing?” asked Elise’s one-eyed friend as she walked into the coliseum.

  The other woman didn’t respond. She remained down on her knee.

  “Stand, knight,” said Dave.

  The woman stood. One of the robed men walked to her and removed her shackles, handing her a long, slender blade. She took it and came to stand behind Dave.

  “Jade?” Ashley whimpered.

  Jade continued looking forward, ignoring the plea.

  “Now, sister, let me present your family. Shuri, bring them in.”

  The florean acknowledged him by walking back to the gate. She grabbed a rope in her powerful jaws and pulled. A wooden platform with a silver cage rolled into the room. Inside, Caitlin’s husband and daughter huddled together. “Elise! Henry?” The panic she had banished boiled up inside of her. “Please, don’t hurt them. Please! I’ll help you. Just don’t hurt them.”

  “It’s too late for that,” said Dave. “I can’t trust you now, but I am willing to make a deal. Pledge your loyalty to me. Tell me you will give your heart and soul to me, and I will free your husband and daughter.”

  “Don’t do it, Mom!” Elise called from the cage.

  Caitlin knew what he was asking. Knew what she would become if she took the deal. She looked at her daughter, so small in her billowing pink dress. She looked at her husband. He was the love of her life. A part of her had known all along that it would come to this. Once Dave had told her about her mother, she knew it would only be a matter of time before he bargained for her soul. There was no question what she had to do.

  “I have conditions,” she said.

  “You are not in a position to negotiate,” Dave replied.

  “But that’s where you’re wrong,” said Caitlin. “You need me, Dave.” She enunciated his name clearly. “And you don’t want to wait for years to infiltrate my mind. As you, yourself, informed me, I’m filled with power. So much power you coveted it before it was even fully recognized. You need me, and you know your little parlor tricks won’t hold me like they held those of lesser power. I would always fight, and you would always fear I would break free.

  “I haven’t realized my full potential yet, but I am learning quickly. One day, when you least expected it, I would escape your hold, and I would kill you. Everything you worked so hard for would be gone in an instant.

  “I will give you my soul. I will be your slave, because I choose to be to save my family. In return, you will let me return them, and all their companions, home. That’s the wish that binds my soul.”

  “Caitlin,” Henry said, as he clutched his daughter to his chest. “Please.”

  “Quiet!” Dave shouted. “I propose a counter offer. I’ll let you send the humans in this room back, excepting my dark knight, but the beast of the mountains stays as my prisoner. He has committed too many atrocities against my family, and he must pay.”

  Caitlin looked at Lesembo, the blood on his fur drying copper. He gave her a swift nod. “I accept,” said Caitlin.

  “Mommy, no!” Elise cried out. The torch light reflected from the tears on her cheeks. Her voice was drowned out by the chanting that rose again from the men in robes. Their pace increased faster and faster.

  The box in front of her blew open. Inside an enormous turquoise crystal let out light more blinding than the fire that burned beside it. Dave chanted as he pulled a blade out from beside it. He walked to Caitlin’s side, gripping the now familiar red handle of one of the knives. Runes flared on its blade. Dave shouted above the cacophony of sound in an unfamiliar language. The chanting stopped.

  “Caitlin Kowalski, blood of my blood. Give your wish to the Blade of Aragath. Commit your soul to the service of Daemeon, Son of the Healer. Spill your essence in the name of your family and serve as my protector until the day that I die.”

  Caitlin tried to drown out the sobs of her daughter as she said quietly, “I wish for my daughter, husband, and their two companions to be sent back to the world without magic to live happily and in peace.”

  The runes on Dave’s blade burst into light as he plunged it deep into her stomach. Caitlin cried out in pain. As swiftly as it entered, he pulled it back out again. Her blood sizzled as he dripped it onto the Hiseth Crystal. The crystal’s light flared so brightly Caitlin had to close her eyes for fear of being blinded, and then the light went out entirely.

  “Cut her down,” said Dave. One of the robed men did as he was told.

  Caitlin fell to the ground. Immediately, she brought her hands to her stomach. No wound was apparent. Even her dress was still intact. She jumped to her feet and ran to the cage that held her husband and daughter. She pulled them to her and held them as best she could through the bars. No one stopped her.

  “Oh, my loves,” she said, holding back her tears.

  “You can’t do this, Mom,” Elise cried. “You’ll become a florean. You can’t do this!”

  “I have to, baby,” Caitlin replied. “Please don’t be sad. I love you so much. So, so much. You’re smart and creative and so incredibly strong. I never knew how strong you were. I’m so sorry for everything I did and everything I didn’t do. I was so mad but never at you. There are so many things I regret over the last few months. If I could go back it would be different. I’d be better.” Caitlin’s chest ached. “I love you, Elle. I know you’ll do great things.” She grabbed her daughter’s face and kissed it.

  “I love you too, Mom,” Elise said through involuntary chokes. “I don’t care about the last couple months. I just want you to come home with us.”

  “I’ll do everything I can to make it back to you.” She kissed her daughter again and turned to her husband, her hand still intertwined with Elise’s. “I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again,” she said, putting her free hand up against his cheek.

  The stubble felt so comforting, like lying in bed after a long day at work. This was the man who stood beside her; a confused, scared teenage girl, who found out she was pregnant at the age of nineteen. He held her when she pushed their child into the world and let her cry on his shoulder when her cancer was diagnosed. He’d seen her at her best, and more often at her worst. She couldn’t begin to form words that would encompass her love for him.

  “I wish we had more time,” Caitlin said.

  “Caitlin,” Henry started.

  “No, please, let me finish. You’ve been my world for over a decade. I never knew I was worthwhile until you came into my life.” Caitlin took Henry’s hand. “Time and again, you stood by my side. I never questioned that you’d be there, but I still pushed you away. I didn’t think I was worthy of your love. I felt like I didn’t deserve it. I was broken, Henry, and too stubborn to take the support you so selflessly offered.”

  Henry’s eyes glistened as she spoke. He took his free hand and wiped away a tear.


  “I wish I could show you my love for you both,” Caitlin continued. She pulled her hands away and balled them into fists. “I’m not accepting defeat. Do you understand? This isn’t goodbye. I’ll find a way to fight and come home to you.”

  “Caitlin—" Henry said before his voice was cut off by a hurricane of magic that lifted Caitlin from the ground. Her hair whipped wildly as words came tumbling from her mouth. Words so familiar and yet so foreign. The humans huddled near the cage were encapsulated by a brilliant blue fog. First, Detective Stathem blinked out of existence followed closely by the one-eyed girl.

  “I love…” Elise said before she disappeared.

  “Caitlin, your father…” And then Henry was gone too.

  The power drained from her, and she fell to the ground. Her entire body became a lead weight. She tried to move her arm, but it was too heavy. Dave walked to her. “The deal is complete,” he said. “You’re now mine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Alexander

  He’d been here before. He learned then not to move an inch or the pain would be blinding. Still, it was impossible to stop every twitch. The nails sent shocks of agony down his arms from the palms of his hands. The wound on his forehead dripped into his eye. He’d tried blinking at first, but finally he had to close his eye. The residue had crusted over, effectively gluing his lid closed.

  The sound of a door opening caught his attention. He didn’t bother trying to turn his head. The thin strand of wire surrounding his neck didn’t offer range of motion. The bastard offspring of his wife stepped into view. Daemeon used camouflage, probably syphoning power off his pet chillala, Essecks. During the final battle in the War of Souls, Alexander had sliced Daemeon’s face so completely it would have been beyond his mother’s skill to repair. She never even had the opportunity to try.