by T. C. Edge
Suddenly, the carriages stop. I hear a sequence of doors opening, hinges straining. I hear footsteps pounding as the soldiers escape their transports, a number of them getting into tight formation and marching off out of sight into what appears to be a barracks of some kind.
Others appear at the rear of our carriage. I see the same gigantic figure who tossed me inside return with that ugly grin, his tablet sized teeth far too white for a man of his profession. He opens up the rear gate, his huge frame blocking the way should any of us try to escape.
Locked in this city of gods, such a thing would be the definition of an exercise in futility.
"Come on out," booms his voice, several other, regular sized soldiers taking position behind him.
He stands to one side, and motions for us to leave the carriage. I do so with a hint of reluctance, though refuse to let go of Jude's hand for even a second as we move to the edge and step into the courtyard.
It seems a mistake. The ugly beast lets out a rumbling laugh at the sight, nudging a couple of his friends. "Isn't it beautiful," he says, heavy voice simmering with amusement. "Young love."
The others snigger cruelly, regarding us with contempt. I drop to the stone with Jude and pull him even closer.
"Such a shame to part you," rumbles the oaf once more. "Tell you what, I'll give you a chance to say goodbye." He steps back, pushing Raymond and the others off to one side as they leave the carriage, sweeping them away with one of his mighty arms. They're immediately taken up by a couple of other soldiers and hurried towards a stone building, disappearing into the shadows within. I watch, but barely take it in. The words of the brute rattle in my head.
A chance to say goodbye...
I begin to panic, staring up into Jude's chestnut eyes. I pull him close and cling tight, refusing to let go, angling my head to look up into the giant's dark, deepset eyes.
"He's done nothing wrong," clatters my voice, looking up at the giant looming above us. His grin rises at my words, their desperate, pleading tone. "I said it before," I go on. "This is all my fault. Don't blame him. Don't hurt him!"
I turn to look for Perses, but find him absent. I can't see his carriage parked among the others, likely taken off to his own residence in a more prominent part of the city.
"Perses!" I shout anyway, betraying the rules, calling his name. "Perses, please..."
I feel a heavy hand swipe across my face. It connects hard, forcing my jaw to collide with Jude's, knocking his head back. My head blurs momentarily, my eyes watering, a dribble of blood falling from a split in my lip.
I hear muddied words seep into my ears, growling, angry. "Don't you ever say his name," the giant says. I turn to the source to find his face right before me, dark eyes simmering as he bends down. "You're vermin, nothing," he growls. "You'll sleep tonight with the rats who birthed you, and tomorrow you'll meet your fate."
I blink hard, trying to come to, to regain my faculties. The forms of the other soldiers behind the brute begin to clear. I feel Jude's grip tighten on me, holding me firm. I turn my eyes and look into his once again.
And in that blur, I kiss him.
The connection is heartbreaking, and only momentary, as our lips are torn apart, the giant gripping each of us by our scruffs, dragging us away from one another and into the air. I feel my feet leave the ground, my arms reach out to my friend, my soulmate, my love...
"No..." I say. "He's done nothing! Please...don't...."
I feel my body shaken violently, the words slipping incoherently from my tongue. The soldiers laugh like hyenas, displaying their base humour, revealing themselves to be nothing like the divine figures they try to portray. Just men, cruel and driven by simple pleasures. Bullies who take great joy from seeing those beneath them suffer.
My eyes well up, my outstretched hands flowing from side to side as I'm shaken. I see a smile rise on Jude's face, lopsided as always, beautiful as always. A smile to comfort me, to console me. It's the expression he wants to leave me with, the one that warms me on cold nights, brightens my mood when I'm feeling down.
And now, the one that causes my eyes to shower with tears, flowing down my cheeks, knowing that I may never see him again.
"Poor baby," cackles one of the guards. "Let her down, Krun, let them say goodbye."
The shaking stops. The giant named Krun turns to the soldier, casually holding me off the ground. A second later, he shrugs, his thick fingers opening up. I fall, dropping from his grip and landing back on the stone. My knees give way with the sudden impact, and further laughing ensues as I stumble and fall. I feel myself lifted, my body trembling violently with rage and profound sorrow. I prepare to lash out, to set my fingers to these so-called gods and see if they truly bleed, but find only Jude ahead of me.
He holds me up, hands clasped to my arms. His eyes glue to mine, and the others fade away into the darkness, suddenly so inconsequential.
"Remember what you promised me, Amber," Jude says softly. "Whatever happens, you won't try to help me. I came willingly. Don't blame yourself for this."
The laughing of the mindless soldiers barely registers, just a soundtrack of ignorance in the background.
"I..."
"Keep to that promise," he goes on. "And don't lose hope. This isn't the end." He grins, lighting up the world, and leans in to kiss me once more. I feel his lips meet mine, and wonder why it's taken so long for us to do this. Wonder how much we've missed, what we might have become. Wonder why I didn't just accept my life and be happy with him, rather than try to fight everything, let myself be so consumed by the state of a world I knew I could never change.
He pulls away, holding that grin, and I feel stump-like fingers loom down on my shoulder.
"All right, that's enough," grunts the giant. "Very touching, but girlie here's got a date with death." He looks at Jude with a hateful smirk, spread across his sprawling face. "So, yeah, it is the end, Fringe rat. But touching. Very touching."
He laughs loudly, and I feel myself hauled backwards, dragged so easily away from the boy I love. Other soldiers stamp towards Jude, pulling him in the opposite direction. He doesn't struggle, his fate accepted. I watch him go through bleary eyes, reaching out to him as he's drawn away.
He disappears from sight, and a fury engulfs me. I reach up with my nails to stab at the giant's flesh. It has no effect at all, his skin thick and too hard to penetrate. I try anyway, ripping and roaring, thrashing with all I have.
And inside, I feel an intense burning, something beginning to boil in the pit of my gut. Heat begins to flow through me, running up from inside my body and out through my limbs, like scorching water through pipes. I feel it enter my fingers, my digits suddenly raging with an intense heat.
I stop my scratching and hold them tight against the giant's hand, gripping firmly at his fingers, his flesh. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he bellows out in unexpected pain, pulling his hand away from me sharply.
He staggers back a step, drawing his hand up, cradling it in his other. I see red scorch marks upon his flesh, marks in the shape of my fingers. He stares down at them and then looks at me in shock, hand trembling in pain.
A flow of confusion spreads across his dumb face. "What...how'd you do that?" he says, shaking his hand, blowing on it through bulbous lips.
I glare at him. At this pathetic excuse for a man, let alone anything more.
"Magic," I grunt, stepping towards him menacingly.
I take a step but feel the burning within begin to fade, the surging wave of fire in my blood receding like a tide in fast-forward. It draws my energy with it, an intense feeling of fatigue permeating me. I stretch out my hands to attack, but they soon drop back down, my knees crumbling as I stumble forward.
The giant lets me hit the stone, refusing to touch me, hurrying back as I tumble to the ground. My hands break my fall, pressing into the stone. They sizzle gently but nothing more, like a hot poker cooled in icy water. My mind begins to close up, darkness creeping around my vision.
"Just a trick," grunts the giant, as though trying to convince himself. "No, you're not...you can't be..."
He cuts himself off, and I can hear him shaking his oversized head, so large it all but creates a wind. A moment later, my body is once more lifted, hauled up into a standing position.
Onto his shoulder I go again.
And into the darkness of a dungeon I'm taken.
17
I've never in my life experienced such a profound darkness. A place where no external sounds, smells, or sights exist. A place of sensory deprivation that makes you feel like you're dead, lost out of time and place, alone with only your thoughts for company and whatever smells and sounds you bring with you.
This cell of mine is designed for torture. Torture of the mind, if not the body, though the cramped confines make it seem like it was intended for both. Deposited here by that brutish giant, I've spent the last hour or so screaming, pleading, begging to be heard.
No one is listening. No one can hear me.
My voice has turned hoarse from the effort, strained and raw. Now, I sit in silence and darkness, the only sounds within this cell those I make myself; my heavy, panicked breathing, the loud thrashing of my heart, the scramble of my feet as I feel around for a way out, knowing I'll never find one as my hands scrape across the rough stone walls.
It's cold here too, cold enough to set a shiver to my bones. A chill hangs in the air, my rugged travelling attire not enough to hold it back. I try to move around to stay warm, but barely have any space to do so. If I were much taller, I might have to stoop to stop my head from hitting the stone ceiling above.
There's nothing here with me. No bench to sit on, let alone bed to lie on. No toilet should I need to relieve myself. Nothing at all to provide comfort. Just a tiny, cramped stone chamber, set with a thick metal door, so flush against the wall that I can see no light around its perimeter.
No, just darkness. A pitch, suffocating lack of light that seems to take on a life of its own. As though the dark takes form, a black mass of menace that wraps me up, hugs me tight, refuses to let go.
I know it's still morning time, but beyond that know little more. I don't know where Jude was taken. I don't know what has happened to Raymond and his friends. I don't know exactly what they intend for me and when, though heard enough from both Raymond and the giant to know my fate is likely fast approaching.
I've got a date with death, the beast had growled. That I'd sleep tonight with the vermin, and tomorrow I'd meet my fate.
Tomorrow. My fate. A date with death.
A single word enters my head: sacrifice.
Yet...they said nothing of Jude, and that, at least, gives me some hope. Perhaps he will be spared? Perhaps they know that he never spoke out as I did. Perhaps they will merely brand him Defiant, send him off to become a faithful Devotee?
It says it all that such a thing warms me within that cold stone chamber. Only days ago I'd have hated the thought of that fate befalling Jude.
Now, I pray for it. If only to save his life.
A rare sound, one not made by me, reaches my ears in the silence. A scratching of claws on stone, joined by squeaking and the sniffing of a tiny nose. I brace from my position on the floor, my legs pulled up to my chest, my arms wrapped tight around me, protective. More sounds join, as a troop of rats seem to appear from nowhere, marching into the little cell, sniffing about as they search for food.
I stand quickly, startled, and press myself into the furthest corner I can find. I go only a few feet before meeting the wall again, grimacing in the pitch darkness as my cell is overrun. There must be a secret hole, a tiny tunnel in here that I missed during my search. A passage for rats to file in, preventing me from sleeping, ever threatening to nibble at my flesh should I fall away into slumber.
Torture, I think. More mental and physical torture.
I steel myself, controlling my breathing, trying to acclimatise to the presence of my new cellmates. I've never had a problem with animals before, never been one to be afraid of spiders or snakes, or leap at the sight of a mouse or rat scurrying across the floor. This is different, yes, but nothing I cannot handle.
"I will not break," I whisper in the darkness, my voice dull in that small cell. "I will not let them break me."
I draw a breath of defiance, my legs still weary as I stand there listening to the sound of scratching, squeaking, scurrying all around me. I wonder what will happen if I sit. If I drop to the floor and try to get some rest. Will they merely scramble over me, or begin to sense a chance to feed? Are these mere rats, or something more, bred here in this strange, otherworldly place?
I turn from such thoughts, knowing they'll lead me to places I don't want to go. Instead, I kick out at any creature brave enough to venture my way, flicking them off as they climb onto my boots, feeling at least thankful that I wasn't stripped to my skin, that I have some barrier against this sudden plague.
I begin to feel overwhelmed, not knowing just how many are in there with me. Ten? A few dozen? A hundred? Are they still coming through, creeping endlessly down their passage? Will they soon be clambering over one another, taking up all the floorspace, a heaving cell full of rats, several layers deep?
No, I'm just exaggerating. There aren't that many here with me, are there? Enough that I can still hear individual squeaks, their unpleasant squealing not yet joining into a single, blurred note, the sort you'd get if too many crawled their way into this chamber, amassing into a sea of fur, fangs, and sharp, scratching claws.
Unable to sit, I continue to stand, pressing myself against the wall as I attempt to rest. My fatigue, briefly forgotten as my cell is stormed, lingers in the background, my body and mind weary, my limbs beginning to ache. I feel a throb in my jaw and lip, split by that great oaf, dried blood staining my chin and, probably, being sought out by the rats attempting to climb my legs.
Their assault grows more pervasive, sharp claws scratching at my boots and the sturdy cargo pants that, thankfully, cover my legs. Some try to claw their way up, shaken off when they get too high. I try not to stamp down on them when I plant my feet to the stone, feeling no great hatred towards them.
But gradually, as they continue to swarm, an anger begins to build inside me. Not at them, but my predicament. At this despicable treatment I'm being subjected to. And the thought that Jude is suffering the same.
Warmth starts building from within, offsetting the cold in that frigid chamber. My breathing heightens, speeds up, my chest pressing out and in with greater intensity. My hands close tight at my sides, legs flicking at the vermin with greater purpose.
I need to lie down and not be disturbed. I need to rest and recover. I need these damn things gone!
A flood of fire swells inside my body, pouring through my veins. My limbs begin to shudder at the violent explosion, and within that pitch darkness, a muted light begins to shine.
My breath catches as the cell comes into view, my eyes taking in the scene. I see rats, dozens upon dozens of them, swarming across the floor, crawling upon each other's bodies, right up against the walls. I turn around and see the tightness of the space, the claustrophobia, the black stone that shines as it reflects the light.
The light...
The light...is coming from me.
I slowly raise my hands from my sides, and see them glowing with a dull golden radiance. I stare wide-eyed at them, my fingers tingling, flesh seeming almost translucent as fire seems to rage inside them. Shocked, I pull up my sleeve, and see the raging red and yellow flames spreading through my veins, running all through my body, my form set ablaze.
A heat, a terrible heat, seems to burn from my skin. I sense its ferocity, but feel no pain, only an awareness of the damage it might cause. And there at my feet, the rats begin to flee, screeching wildly as they press up against the walls, attempt to escape back down the passage from which they came.
A smell of burning fills the room. I sniff deep and see that my clothes are beginning to smoke,
light grey spirals rising from my shirt and pants. I act immediately, disrobing, pulling off my garments and tossing them to one side. Within a few moments only I'm standing naked in that cell, no longer cold, no longer in the pitch darkness.
Light blooms from every part of me, my veins glowing from inside, my blood turned to fire. I look upon myself and marvel, shocked and awed by what I see. The rats continue to escape the cell, scrambling towards the passage, desperately trying to squeeze through. I watch them, see the fear, wonder just how hot the cell must be...
The air seems to shimmer with heat, the walls weeping with condensation. I take a short step towards the rats and they quickly grow more frantic, squealing loudly, calling out in common pain.
The sound cuts into my ears and I press back once more, my naked back hitting the wall. I hear a sizzling sound, and turn to see the stone growing black, scorched by fire. My hands lift and press to the stone. Smoke quickly rises as the stone heats and threatens to crack, unable to withstand the inferno that permeates from within me.
I turn again, and see death before me. Several of the rats lie still, those on the perimeter of the evacuation, unable to escape before their blood was boiled, their organs cooked. I shake my head slowly, hardly able to take in what's happening, the cell growing misty with smoke and steam.
Yet, somehow, it feels natural.
Somehow, it feels right.
Gradually the blaze in my blood settles, the glowing radiance beginning to fade from my limbs. I stand there, watching the final rats woozily clamber through the hole in the wall, as the cell begins to fall back into darkness, accompanied by the sound of dripping as droplets of water gather on the ceilings and walls.
I regather my clothing before the light fades completely, pulling my garments back on in a blur. I do it all robotically, feeling in a state of partial shock, my emotions somehow numbed by the experience, my body and mind turning weary once more.
