by J. D. Hale
And, the second it was over, I began dashing down the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Rowan grabbed my shoulder, but I shook him off.
I looked into his black eyes and sighed.
“I have to know what the words on Cal’s chest say.”
Rushing down the steps before he could react, a sick feeling settled in my stomach.
June 19th 10:00 pm
Anacapa Island, LA, California
I rushed around the house looking for Cal. It was hard for me to think of him now, knowing the link he had between my unknown enemy. I was terrified of what the words said, but I just had to know. If it truly was a set of directions, or a prophecy, for the Xeron theft, it was absolutely necessary.
The hallways seemed eerily quiet with all the lights out. The mansion itself was only three floors and an attic, but the place was wide and immense. The bottom two floors were desolate, no sound but the chirp of cicadas outside to break the silence. But, when I reached the third floor, there was light. All the way down the hall on my right was a large white door, and bright yellow light was seeping into the blackness of the hall. Taking a deep breath, I slowly and silently stepped down the hall, my heart jumping higher into my throat with each step.
The doorknob was cold in my hand as I quickly pulled open the door. The room behind the door was a vast, round library. Thousands of books – thick and thin and consisting of all the colors – lined the walls and hung from the ceiling. Red candles sat on the tops of shelves and all over the floor, each one lit and sitting in a decorative gold holder. A massive fire burned inside some sort of crystal orb, illuminating the whole room. At the center of the great hall, directly below the orb, was Cal. Behind him, whispering in his ear, was a woman who I knew to be his mother. But they both looked terrifyingly different.
Cal’s normally scarlet hair was jet black, spiked around his head like a halo of death. His beautiful crystal eyes had transformed into disturbingly bright yellow eyes, his pupils elongated like a cat’s. His clothes were ripped, revealing the runes beneath. What had previously been only a few shades darker than his skin were now black as night. Cal’s chest heaved as he convulsed on the floor. The woman was obviously causing these spasms. I could hear, even from a ten feet away, that she was whispering in Nalakine into his ears. I translated it instantly. …must be killed if she understands.
The woman flicked her eyes, matching to Cal’s, up to me.
“Hello Kairee dear, how have you been?” She asked innocuously, as if this wasn’t the single most terrifying thing that had ever happened to me. “I take it you’re here to read the words, huh? Well, go right ahead, there’s no one stopping you.”
She smiled at me kindly as I crossed the few feet between us. We locked eyes for just a moment, and then Cal looked at me. His eyes were full of torture as he gripped a knife at his side. It was obvious that the knife was to kill me the moment I understood what the letters on his chest said. It was just as palpable that he was being forced to do this. Against his will, he held the long, silver knife close. The knife was coated in dark poison, black as night. I didn’t even want to know what it was.
I glanced back and forth from the knife to Cal, deciding whether or not it was truly worth it. He hardly looked dangerous from here – eyes full of terror at simply the thought of killing me, hands shaking as he held the knife – but it was clear that he would do it. I thought of the times I had been poisoned. Searing pain, burning flesh that ripped itself apart under the toxins. Then I thought of Cal stabbing me, and a pang of anger, sadness, and horror filled me. I almost retreated right then from reading the words.
But I had to.
Reaching down, I fully tore his already shredded shirt off him. Almost immediately, the letters looked familiar to my eyes. Before I read the words, I looked into Cal’s bright yellow eyes. As we locked eyes, I was suddenly sucked through some sort of vortex, and ended up somewhere entirely different.
The room I now stood in was wispy on the edges, as if it were a dream. The place had ripped red wallpaper and gray wood floors. Roaches skittered across the floor, breaking the silence with a scary scratching. The ceiling was zenithless, blackness beyond comprehension. An awesome sense of fear struck my core when I recognized the figure standing at the center of the room. It was my brother, his eyes swirling like a demonic tornado, ready to suck me in. He began speaking in a ghostly, eerie tone.
“Four children with amazing gifts,
Will head to the country of blood red cliffs.
There they will head underground,
Where what they are seeking will be found.
Each will realize their latent power,
But one might face their final hour
Each other will be left behind,
Until only one can finish the crime.”
I flashed back to reality when Cal looked away from me. The vision left me haunted, but I knew that was the prophecy. My head snapped around as Salah peeked in and then walked into the room. Immediate fear struck into him as he assessed the dire situation.
The woman, who had been standing behind me silently, saw the recognition in my eyes as I glanced from her to the writing on Cal’s chest, grabbed my shoulder and pulled me upwards. She clutched me to her chest, and I struggled. She had an iron grip. I elbowed her numerous times, stomped my foot onto hers, and clawed at her face but nothing stopped her as she held onto me with crushing force.
“Do you understand, darling?” She purred in my ear.
I snapped my mouth shut, and she responded by pressing her razor sharp thumbnail into my neck.
“Answer me!” She shrieked manically, pressing her nails further into my neck. Her thumb was beginning to, slowly and painfully, rip open my flesh.
“Yes!” I snapped, “I understand the words.”
“Callahan, do what mommy told you.” She sent him a piercing glare.
Salah did not hear this but saw me as I began to struggle harder, and he came over to me quickly. He tried to pry her claws off of me, but she simply lashed out her hand, slapping him across the face. Blood trailed down his cheeks, and rage filled his eyes.
Despair gripped me as I saw Cal stalk unwillingly up to Salah.
I couldn’t bear to look as he slowly lifted his rune-covered arm. Tears filled my eyes when Cal forced Salah to his knees with brutal strength. He plunged the dagger straight through Salah’s heart in an agonizingly slow movement. Salah’s final, soul-shattering scream pierced my heart like the knife that had just pierced his. The woman let go of me immediately, and I collapsed onto my knees.
The woman and Cal escaped out the window, and I clutched Salah. He was still alive, but just barely. It was too late. I could still feel our kiss lingering on my lips, as he whispered in my ear his final words.
“Finish this.”
“Don’t.” I whispered hopelessly, “Don’t give up. Not now.”
The life left his eyes, and an ice cold tear rolled down my flushed cheeks, and landed in the blood flowing out of Salah’s chest. Laying down next to him, silent tears slid down my cheeks, and Salah’s final words pounded through my mind. The theft, I thought, he wants me to finish the theft.
There was only that moment, and then Rowan knocked on the door.
“Kai? I heard them land outside the window. Can I come in?” Rowan’s exceedingly concerned voice came through the thin door.
I chose not to answer, instead allowing Rowan to continue to worry.
“Kai?! Are you okay?!”
He pushed the door wide open and stepped in. He sucked in a nervous breath as he walked over to me.
“Oh my god.” He whispered, “What happened?”
My eyes opened, but it felt like I wasn’t truly there.
“Cal killed Salah.” There was my voice, monotone and sounding so out of place in the dark silence of death.
“What?” He was in disbelief, his face twisted with indecision. Rowan took my hand and pulled me up. I swayed in his arms, but my
brother held me up.
“Take me home.” I pleaded. In moments, I was passed out Rowan’s arms.
??????????
??????????
Performing a mental check of myself, I checked what kind of weapons were still on my person. There was still the constant, dull pressure of my cloaked dagger against my back. The family ring still sat on my finger, a Rizer clipped just below my dagger. There was another gun in my shoe, for some odd reason. Rowan must’ve placed it there while I was out, however long that was. From the size and pressure, I deduced it was a classic Seecamp LWS.32 .32ACP, a gun the size of my palm that would blow brains out. Razor pins dug into my scalp. Satisfied with this, I tuned in to my surroundings.
Voices. The first sense that came back to me was hearing. Two very distinct and one unknown voice ran into my ears at what seemed like a deafening volume. The first, a deep male voice, was clearly Rowan’s. Another, a powerful, low female voice was easily recognizable as the Prime Minister’s. From this it was suddenly clear that I was in Saize, in the enormous state capital that functioned as the Prime Minister’s mansion during her time in office. The third and final voice had a thick north Saizian accent (which remarkably represented a clean British accent), high and tinny female voice. She sounded angry, but I couldn’t make out her exact words.
Sight came next. The room I sat in after who knows how long was a large, lavish room. The walls were red, the carpets pristine white. Around the huge room were touches of gold – a massive bed fit for a queen decked in gold piping, curtains that matched the bedspread, and several bright red recliners with golden tassels. The Prime Minister sat in one of these chairs, my brother and the angry women on two others. Floor to ceiling shatterproof windows looked out on the spectacular view of a courtyard with grandiose marble statues of each and every previous Prime Minister. I recognized Jayan Halag, the eighth Prime Minister of Saize, but couldn’t make out the others from here. There were cameras attached to the ceiling in six places, so I knew there must be a viewing room just down the hall. There was a set of French doors to my left, and through them was a completely marble hallway with officially-dressed looking people rushing to and fro. There were very quiet voices coming from down the hallway, and I figured it was some sort of conference. There were chairs up and down the hall, ornately decorated and inviting. The room was lit with golden light fixtures that brought in a shining yellow light that cast eerie shadows across the furniture.
In a flash, the voices that rang around the room were understandable.
“…wake her up then, imbecile!” The third voice said.
“I’ve tried! She’s been comatose for almost three days! And, I can assure you, my IQ is at least forty points higher than yours.” My brother growled back.
“Shut it!” The Prime Minister said in a hoarse yet authoritative voice. Her use of crude phrasing was shocking, at least to me. “Dunham, you better find a way to wake her up, and soon. She has to fix this, or I’ll die.”
Ah, I thought, this is about the ‘little cut’ I gave her at the meeting.
It took all my power to force open my eyelids open. The rush of sensory awareness sent my heart racing for a few moments, until I regained my composure.
“Rowan.” I groaned as loudly as possible.
“Kairee? Thank god! I was worried you’d never come out of it.” Rowan walked over to me and whispered in my ear, “I know you’ll want to know, so you’ve been comatose for three days, we’re in the Prime Minister’s mansion, the one that doubles as the capital building, under technical, but un-enforced, arrest, and the other woman in here is Veela Hanson, the chief something-or-other of the Prime Minister’s. She keeps insulting me and it’s really getting on my nerves. Anyways, she says that after you negotiate the poison business with the Prime Minister, she’s going to take us into the custody of the nation. We really need to figure out a plan to get out of here before you speak to the Prime Minister.” My brother’s voice was so hushed I almost couldn’t hear him as he whispered in my ear. There was a glint from then nape of his neck, and I realized he had both a gun and a knife clipped around his chest to a hidden holster on the inner side of his jacket.
I glanced around the room, my sight coming to me in full now. My brother looked bedraggled and tired, as if he hadn’t been sleeping for a few days, which could very well be possible. The woman whose voice didn’t ring a bell in my mind by voice sat by the Prime Minister, and the moment Rowan said her name, her identity snapped into place. Her official job title was Secretary of National and Foreign affairs, but she was truly the Prime Minister’s right hand woman. She had short, pin straight, blonde hair, large, light brown eyes and black glasses that made her look inquisitive, genius, and dangerous all at the same time
I risked a look at the Prime Minister’s ‘little cut.’ Her entire shoulder was wrapped in gauze, but blood still seeped through. Around the gauze, her skin continued to eat away at itself, so quickly you could almost see it being torn away.
My mind began racing, as it normally does, to figure out a master plan. This was a truly precarious situation. Whenever something involves legalities, arrest, poison, and public figures, it gets messy. And, you’d be surprised to know, situations like these happen much more often than you’d think.
“Hello, ladies!” I said excitedly, “What can I do for you today?”
Something Hanson, the dangerous woman, glared at me, “Is your entire family made up of cretins, or is it just you two?” She glowered.
“You know, Hanson,” I began, and in a moment I was up, my dagger pressed to her neck. I stepped away when mortal terror gleamed in her eyes instead of inflicting any damages, but retained a threatening look in my eyes, “insulting my family will get you absolutely nowhere if you’re trying to earn my help. And you, specifically, are in no position to affront my family. If I remember correctly, which I always do, you come from a family in the lower slums of Saize. You’re mother was an addict, and your father was an…oh wait, he left you to take care of your six little siblings when you were four. Two of your siblings were arrested young, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and the others disappeared and you haven’t heard from them since.” I said in an especially insensitive manner, “You can insult whatever of mine you want, just not my family.”
She was taken aback, her face contorted in a mixture of rage, sadness, and confusion, as if she couldn’t decide how to feel. “How did you know all of that?” She whispered.
“I do my research. Now, since I already know what you want, I’ll step outside for a moment and talk it over with my brother.”
“You can’t do that!” Hanson half-yelled, “We can’t let criminals run around the capital building unsupervised.”
“We both know that my brother and I won’t be unsupervised. You have cameras every-where. We’ll be just fine, and I simply need to tell him something. If it would make you feel better, you can send a royal guard, or whatever, in with us.” I smiled.
“I will then,” She replied, walking out into the hallway. She called one of the guards that was watching the door to our side.
“Come on, Row.”
He, the guard, and I all took a walk to the end of the hallway. My brother and I went past many doors, each time checking if there were people behind it until we came to a completely empty room.
“In. Now.” I commanded the guard.
“You can’t order me around like that!”
“Watch me.” The order escaped from my lips with extreme ferocity. I was not in the mood for someone not to cooperate with my plans. I gripped his arm and pulled him into the room as he struggled to get away from me.
“You’re strong for a little girl.” He grunted.
“Shut it.” I demanded harshly, taking off my left shoe and pulling out the gun. Holding it in my hand, I shot every camera visible with such precision it would scare a sniper. The guard looked as if he would suffer a heart attack at any moment.
“Rowan, remember when we visite
d here a few years ago?”
He nodded.
“Well, in the main conference room, just down the hall, there’s a huge passageway to the stage. So, in our usual manner, we’ll have to disrupt what must be a very important conference so we don’t get taken into the custody of the state. Row, are you up for it?”
He nodded again.
“Alright. Then I need you, Mr. Guard-man, to alert every armed person in the facility to our plan; I expect each and every one of your men to be on my tail the moment I come out of speaking with the Prime Minister. But, you must let her talk to me, in private, because I’m going to save her life. You all need to congregate in the meeting room, but don’t tell anyone that there’s a problem, just wait for us.” I informed the guard.
“O…kay?” He was clearly confused.
“Well get to it then!” I gave him a push towards the door. He was out in a moment.
“Okay Rowan, I’m going to need all of your cunning to get out of here.”
I briefed him on the real plan, and we walked back to the Prime Minister’s room.
Hanson opened the door for us, and we stepped in. The Prime Minister herself had fear in her eyes as I walked over and began unwrapping her gauze. She winced and flinched and tried to pull away.
“Calm down, I’m going to fix it. I just need something in return.” I told her quietly.
“Anything.” She whispered back. Hanson and my brother were bickering loudly behind us. I sighed loudly.
“Rowan!” I snapped, aggravated, “Must you always argue with someone? I am trying to concentrate here!”
He muttered something of an apology and stayed silent from then on.
“You were saying?” The Prime Minister grimaced.
“In exchange for healing you, I require twenty minutes – that’s all – in the Saizian National Archives.”
“Not that. I don’t want the most powerful sixteen year olds in the galaxy in my archives. There’s way too much information in there that you could get your shrewd little hands on.” She argued, rather reasonably.
