by Eliza Tilton
“This way.” Cael walked to the back of the shack and pressed against the wall. He moved his right hand across the wood, then stopped. He pressed in and a door slid open.
Another hidden entrance. Great camouflage.
The door led to stairs that wound below the tree into a tunnel supported by beams and rock. Torches lit the darkened passage, and the stench of sewage disappeared with each step. Stagnant air laced with the scent of wet mud filled the passageway. Our feet shuffled against the dirt floor, creating the only sounds around us.
We arrived at another door, and Cael repeated the early maneuver.
Luckily, this door didn’t open into a chamber pot.
Clashing swords and grunts replaced the quiet. Men dressed in black gear were sparring against one another, some wielded swords, some their fists, all of them sweating. The open room contained nothing but weapon racks and target dummies. Archers launched arrow after arrow into the stuffed targets, almost all of them hitting the center. Seeing the longbows made me miss my own bow. Maybe The Order had a spare I could use.
A man wearing the signature black and red robes of The Order walked over and greeted Cael. “He’s ready for you two.”
The man looked me over with a sneer, exactly what I would expect from one of The Order’s own.
He ushered us into a back room where a bald man with a black braided beard stood over a table of maps.
He acknowledged us and frowned. “You’re late,” he said to Cael.
“Sorry, I—”
“I don’t care what your excuse is. Is this the boy?”
“Yes, General.”
General Malak stood straighter. He inspected me from head to toe. “Cael says you’ve met Lucy.”
“Yes.”
“We’ve been tracking her movements for the past few years. One of our men noticed her near the mountains while we were mapping. When she disappeared, he waited for her return. It was then we realized she was passing through to the other side. What do you know of her and this Lord Lucino you fought?”
I told the general everything, from Jeslyn’s kidnapping to the night in the temple. I almost left out the part about forgetting, but decided it didn’t matter. Lucino was dead. Lucy was our biggest threat.
General Malak nodded and listened attentively, asking nothing. When I finished, he sat. Cael and I waited while the moments passed. Finally, Malak clasped his hands onto the table.
“Take him to Ezekiel.” He stood and went back to staring at his maps, completely ignoring me.
I glanced over at Cael, who stood there gawking at me.
“Yes, General.”
“And when Ezekiel is done with him, bring him back to me.”
When he’s done with me? Before I could ask who Ezekiel was, a man escorted us out of Malak’s office and back to the dimly lit hallway.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Avikar
Cael led me through another underground passage to the holy tree. Out of all the ancients, this is where The Order learned and practiced holy magic—or what they called invocation. During our last meal together, Ginna had explained the differences between magic and invocation. The Order considered magic a deformity, a disease bringing destruction, chaos, manipulation, and death. The Creator chose his priests and priestesses, and through his power, the spells needed to counteract magic were learned. They called this invocation.
My father taught me to be wary of everyone, including The Creator’s chosen ones. But if that’s truly what The Order did, why was everyone so afraid of them?
The inside of this tree looked nothing like the others. It reminded me of a temple library. Priests stood and sat around intricately carved tables rising from the ground, reading and writing on scrolls. Shelves covered almost all of the walls, which had been stuffed with large tomes.
“Not what you expected?” Cael asked.
“No.”
I didn’t know what to expect, but this wasn’t it.
“What are they doing?” I kept my voice hushed, not wanting to disturb the priests.
“Scribing prayers.” Cael led me past a group of priests who sat around a candle, chanting. The flame on the candle twisted and grew larger, changing shape as it moved. Every third word, their pitch changed and the flame morphed into the shape of a different creature.
Watching these people sit around, reading, writing, and chanting, they sure didn’t seem evil.
What about all those stories? For years, villages whispered of The Order coming and taking their children, husbands, and wives. What happened to them? Ginna never explained where those people went, and I doubted they just disappeared.
A nervous itch tickled my skin and I reached into my pocket, grabbing a marble. No, I didn’t trust these strangers.
Cael took me through another long corridor. It still boggled my mind all this was housed inside a tree. Tables and bookshelves had been carved from the tree as if the carpenters chipped away at the wood until they had a completely furnished room.
Birds nested in the ceiling. I couldn’t see them, but their chirps echoed high above us. I hoped one didn’t poop on my head.
“Where are we going?” I wanted to get back to Raven. I didn’t like leaving her alone.
“To see an old friend.” As he said that, we entered into a circular room covered in piles of scrolls. Piles covered the floor and filled the shelves. I’d never seen so many scrolls in one place. How did anyone find anything? Amidst all that mess stood an old man without a lick of hair on him.
“Ezekiel,” Cael said.
The man stopped and smiled, waving his hands, which were full of scrolls. “You’ve returned.”
Cael nodded.
“And you’ve brought a guest!”
Ezekiel stuffed the scrolls beneath his armpit. “What’s your name?”
“Avikar.”
“A strong name. You are from Daath?”
“No, my home is in Lakewood.”
His forehead scrunched, which looked strange because he had no eyebrows.
The messy room closed in around me, and with nowhere to go, I felt stuck. Why did Cael bring me here?
“Ezekiel is The Order’s primary scribe,” Cael said. “He keeps track of the history and prophesies.”
Prophesies? If I knew little about The Order, I knew even less about their prophecies.
“Avikar might not be from Daath, but he stayed there for a time.”
Ezekiel’s eyes widened.
“You two have fun.” Cael patted my shoulder. “I’ll be back before supper.”
“Wait, you’re leaving?”
Cael smiled. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t leave out the details. Ezekiel is very particular about the details.” He said the last part in a whisper.
Before I could grab Cael’s shirt, he ducked aside and left me with Ezekiel, who had surprisingly cleared a space on the desk to write.
“Sit,” he said.
“Where?”
He pointed to a pile of scrolls. Looking more closely, I found a chair hidden underneath. Carefully, I placed the pile on the floor and sat on the chair.
“Avikar . . . Avikar . . . ?”
“Desdar.”
Ezekiel nodded and dipped his quill in a bottle of ink. “Tell me everything, and please, start at the beginning.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lucino
Dawn colored the white sand. Little islands like this dotted the waters surrounding Tarrtianya, most uninhabited. I pictured the map of the lands in my head. I couldn’t recall any western islands this far out.
“Where are we?” Jeslyn gazed around at the giant palms.
I wasn’t sure, which unnerved me. “Somewhere off the coast.”
Black rocks edged around the beach, contrasting against the bright white sand. In the distance, hig
h hills bordered the jungle, which sang with varying chirps of birds.
Jeslyn pressed her forehead to the sand, whispering a thank you to her god as if he was the one who had saved her. We were lucky to find this island. It wasn’t magic that saved us, but knowledge. If Jeslyn hadn’t known about those mysterious glowing bugs, we wouldn’t have found land, and I’d still be trying to ask my sister for assistance, and for that, I was very grateful.
Jeslyn picked herself off the sand and stood, hand against her head, peering at our surroundings.
I’d have to fashion a boat to escape this place, which would take time. I brushed the gritty specks off my chest and shook out my twisted pants before putting them back on. Our shirts were tangled. I undid the knots and laid them out on a nearby rock to dry.
“We need to look for water and shelter.” I reached for my sword before realizing I had lost it during the fall.
I didn’t need a weapon. I was a weapon.
I stepped cautiously through the overgrowth, pushing giant leaves out of the way, Jeslyn stumbling behind me. A large bird with black and red markings across its body sat on a nearby branch, chirping and ruffling its feathers. If birds were the main species on this island, we would be fortunate.
However, things were never quite that easy.
We came to a small lagoon with a waterfall that plunged from one of the hills. The sight reminded me of the one by Daath. Without its weekly meals, the guardian outside of Daath’s entrance would get hungry and search for its own food source. Lucy would’ve had to take over the feedings, a task I enjoyed. I smiled. She wasn’t fond of the giant snake, even though it wouldn’t kill her. She preferred her pets a bit more controllable.
Jeslyn kneeled by the water, cupping her hands into it and drinking. “It’s fresh!”
I knelt beside her and stuck my mouth into the water, drinking heavily. The cool liquid refreshed my parched throat, and I dove in to wash off the remaining sand and salt.
“I highly recommend taking a swim.”
Jeslyn smiled and stepped back from the pool, then took a running leap into the water, splashing me as she went under. Her head popped out of the water, her face still bearing a wide grin.
“This is wonderful.” She sighed and floated on her back, eyes closed. “I never thought I’d see land again.”
“It’s been a long few days.”
I swam to where the waterfall crashed into the lagoon. Using the rock as leverage, I pulled myself up and stood beneath the water, rinsing my hair. When I turned my head, I spotted a cave behind the waterfall. I walked in and inspected it, no creatures, but too narrow for Jeslyn and me to rest in comfortably.
“What is it?” Jeslyn swam over.
“A cave.”
“Anything inside?”
“No, but it’s too small. We’ll need to find somewhere else to sleep.”
She frowned and paddled around in the water. Her braids bobbed along the surface and for a moment, I imagined what her hair would look like fanning across it.
Being trapped at sea with Jeslyn had softened me. I wanted to protect her; whether for her sake or mine, I didn’t know. The lines between desire and need were slowly blurring.
We left the waterfall, Jeslyn a little begrudgingly—I think she liked swimming more than finding food. The jungle opened to a wide grassland filled with tall trees whose branches bunched at the top. The trees were spaced apart, but the branches intertwined at the crests, creating a large canopy.
“How beautiful,” Jeslyn said.
“And very inconvenient.”
“How so?”
Cleary she did not understand our dilemma. “The branches and leaves are too high to reach. How do you suppose we use the wood for a boat?”
“Oh . . . .”
“Let’s go back to the beach. There’s nothing for us here.”
We walked back by the same route. Once we returned to the beach, I searched for shelter. This side of the island had a long stretch of beach, but far on the other side, the large black rocks reached out like a peninsula.
“Down there.” I pointed to the rocks.
As we hiked to the rocks, the suns began painting the sky with dusk. Big waves rolled and splashed against the shoreline. Jeslyn purposely walked in the water, carrying her boots in one hand. The breeze blew against her sun-kissed skin, pushing the small hairs that had fallen out of her braids away from her face. Her tiny freckles were more prominent, but they gave her a charismatic glow, and I couldn’t stop myself from admiring them.
“Is that it?”
I pulled my gaze away from her beauty and looked ahead.
The block rocks at the beginning of the peninsula created an alcove with enough room for us to sit beneath. We walked the hot sand to the east end of the beach.
“This will do.” I stretched before finding a spot to sit.
Jeslyn stood, staring at me. “Shouldn’t we make a fire?”
“We may not need one.”
She pursed her lips, before turning around and wandering off. With her gone, and us settled, I had more time to think about our predicament.
The chance of the ship searching for us was unlikely, if they even survived the ravager attack. Tavo would survive, and probably the captain—both seemed resourceful enough. Hopefully, Jeslyn’s lap dog had perished.
I should have seen the fire on the ravager ship. Replaying the events that had taken place, I considered my miscalculation. How could I have been so distracted as to not notice a wall of flames at my back?
Her.
The answer was simple and infuriating. When the ravager took Jeslyn, I lost control of myself. Seeing those pale, bony hands hold her, the dagger dangerously close to her neck, had changed me. I had only one thought—killing him to protect her, and in that moment, nothing else mattered.
Was this my human side? My weakness?
I’d never cared to protect anyone who didn’t offer me something in return.
That must’ve been it. Subconsciously, I knew her worth. My mind had just forgotten.
I couldn’t care . . . humans cared.
Jeslyn returned with an arm full of twigs, face flushed and sweat beading around her scalp.
“This is all I could find. I didn’t want to go too far,” she said breathlessly.
I gathered the brush she collected and formed a cone.
The wilds on Mirth were nothing like the wilds in Tarrtainya. Only the strongest Reptilian males returned from their trials—a journey all Reptilian males made. Young males I had known during my youth were lost in the wilds, and no one shed a single tear. Our race thrived on strength and power. If a Reptilian male couldn’t survive the trials, they weren’t meant to live. All those months in the wilds taught me survival. I remembered those days clearly as yesterday.
“Here.” Jeslyn handed me two sharp rocks, perfect for striking.
I took the rocks and smacked them against each other, right by the brush. It took a few moments but the spark lit, and I slowly blew on it, feeding the flame. The fire wouldn’t last long, but it would warm her if it got too cold.
She sighed and placed her waterlogged boots by the fire. My boots were already sitting by the rocks drying along with my shirt. I knew her clothes were damp and they needed to dry, but a girl like Jeslyn would never remove more than her outer shirt.
Her toes were close to the fire and she hugged her knees, head resting against them.
She needs to eat.
The suns had left and clouds blocked the moon. Finding food would be extremely difficult. We would have to wait until morning. Our only light came from the small fire, and it only illuminated the area surrounding us. As night arrived, the animals and insects of the jungle made their presence known with loud chattering noises.
And incessant biting.
Fat flies buzzed around,
and when the wind blew the smoke to the side, the flies would dive in, searching for flesh to feed on.
Jeslyn shifted closer, rubbing her hands by to the fire.
“Here.” I lifted my arm.
Her right eyebrow slightly rose.
“You’ll be warmer.”
She nodded and leaned against my side, curling into my chest. I brought my other arm around her, hugging her. Warmth spread through me. I couldn’t dismiss the natural feeling of her beside me. I’d rather not think of her, but the memory of our kiss in Daath wouldn’t leave my mind.
I wanted to stroke her arm, to kiss the top of her forehead, but I couldn’t give in to those desires. Her breath blew against my chest, and I wanted to push her away, wanted to stop the difficult feelings stirring in my mind, but she needed rest and I was obliged to give it to her.
“What is that?” Jeslyn jumped as a loud screech rang through the air.
The high-pitched sound emanated from the jungle. Whatever creature created the noise, it wasn’t alone. The screeching varied in pitch and tone, all of it loud and ear shattering.
I pulled Jeslyn deeper into the alcove of rocks, shielding her from the threat in the darkness. She didn’t pull away from me or speak.
With our backs to the stone, we sat and waited.
The screeching went on for most of the night. We never saw what beasts created the noises. With the flies biting and the loud sounds, I was surprised I fell asleep at all. The days at sea must have exhausted me.
In the morning, Jeslyn and I headed back into the jungle to look for food. Most islands carried some form of fruit. I could last a few days without food, but I feared Jeslyn would be too weak, and I needed her alert. Constructing a boat would take the both of us.
We walked back to the part of the jungle with the tall trees. The random bird chirps and forest noises didn’t reach this grassland. I walked no more than a few steps when I noticed a large carcass, nearly bones, on the ground. From the shape of the body, it appeared to be a large sized cat, which made me wary of its attacker.
