"Stupid little orphan boy. Look at you on the ground. Big Kentite warrior." Samael knelt close enough for Aliah to see his face. He looked into the same green eyes as his own, the same thin straight nose and full mouth. Even the dark hair was the same. The right side of Samael's face looked swollen and purplish-black.
Samael touched Aliah's face and the heat from his finger seemed to burn into Aliah's cheek. A small comfort to know he could feel it.
"Zev crushed your back, kid. But he did you a favor. You won't be able to move, but you won't feel much pain either." Samael leaned over and whispered in Aliah's ear, "Just tell me where the Book is and I will help you."
Aliah spat and tried to shake his head.
"Then tell me what this means." Samael moved to draw something in the thin layer of dirt on the floor. Aliah's eyes hurt from the strain so he closed them.
"Look at it!" Samael grabbed the back of Aliah's sweater with one hand and his trousers with the other and half-lifted, half-dragged Aliah closer to the drawing.
Scratched into the dirt, the size of a man's hand, were three interlocking circles.
"I think you already know what it is."
Samael released him and Aliah’s face smacked the floor.
"If I did, why would I bother to ask you? I've seen it on you and now Shai. What does it mean?"
Aliah frowned. If Samael doesn't have the Book and he doesn't know about the Coalition then he isn't the one trying to prevent the Coalition from forming. But who is?
He spat dirt out of his mouth then spoke into the floor. "How can you not know that brand, Samael? Haven’t you seen the Book? Isn’t it you who writes the Laelites’ infractions in the Book every evening? You’re the one who makes us go through the Readings, so how can you not know what that symbol means?" Aliah braced himself for the blow he was sure to receive for speaking insubordinately. But the prison cell remained still.
When at last Samael spoke Aliah had to strain to hear it. "I’ve never written in that bloody Book. If I had I wouldn’t have bothered with all that pettiness. That Book has the power to control people, more than the pendants you begged me for."
Anger burned in Aliah. "All you’ve wanted was the Book? Then what does Shai have to do with anything? Why involve her?”
"Stupid boy. For revenge." He snorted then laughed. "Your jealousy over your brother’s relationship with Shai made you turn on him. From there it was too easy. When you thought you'd killed your brother and you came to me for help it was simple to make you think your father disowned you for what you'd done."
Aliah's head swirled. "You planted those thoughts in my mind!”
“So? I didn’t make you act on them. That was all you. All I wanted was revenge for what Elchai did to me. Shai is just a pawn. Losing both you and your brother will be Elchai’s undoing.”
Tears burned Aliah’s eyes. “Why did you convince me that you’re my father?"
Samael knelt beside Aliah again and ran his fingers through Aliah's thick, dark hair. With a jerk, Samael snapped Aliah's head back and Aliah found himself looking into Samael’s eyes. Two swirling, black pools of hate and revenge.
How could I have believed I looked anything like this man?
"I didn’t convince you of that. You came to that conclusion on your own after the pendants altered your memories. I never wanted to be your father. But I was willing to do anything to get back at Elchai. I hate Elchai, and you... because you look just like him!" Samael slammed Aliah's face into the stone floor and Aliah waited for the pain. Samael rammed his face again, but Aliah only felt the pressure of Samael's hand gripping his hair, and the wetness of his own blood as his face was crushed against the floor over and over. A loud crunching noise echoed in the stillness of the prison cell, and a shiver rippled through Aliah when he realized it was the sound of his own nose breaking. He spat out broken fragments of his teeth that glowed bright white in the dark crimson puddle of his own blood.
The memory of Remiel’s voice flashed into his mind: it’s the truth that counts. Beliefs will either be a prison or a key to freedom.
Just before everything turned dark, Aliah finally knew he was nothing like this man.
I really am free of him. He smiled when he thought of the irony: that the brutal tyrant he thought was his father was disfiguring the face he had once believed they shared.
He closed his eyes knowing he would die looking nothing like the man who never loved him.
His heart ached as he thought of his real father, Elchai.
I’m sorry I was so angry with you. I wish I knew then what I know now. Thank you for never losing sight of who I really am. I'm glad I got to come home and see you. Good-bye, Father.
CHAPTER 67
Shai
The length of time they had been running through the dark, putrid-smelling hallways was measured only by the sounds of Remiel’s labored breathing, and the slapping sounds of his feet on the stone floor.
Remiel ran slower now, as his heart beat a staccato rhythm beneath her cheek. If it weren’t for the fear icing her veins, she might have fallen asleep in his arms.
A pale circle of light from a ceiling lamp splashed the walls and floor in a milky-white pool just ahead of them. The softness of the light only accentuated the horrors of where they were. The effect startled her.
The walls were a strange, dark sludgy color. They were made of jaggedly-cut stones with chunks of mortar missing where patches of something dark and fuzzy clung to the stones like gnarled fingers. The walls merged into the floors and ceiling and gave the impression of being in an underground tomb.
The more Shai looked around, the more it seemed as though they were somewhere deep in the earth, away from sunlight and fresh air. She imagined tons of earth pressing in on the sides and top, sealing them in this place of death forever. She closed her eyes as Remiel stepped away from the light and cut into a dark recess in the wall that was hidden in the shadows.
He put Shai down and she scooted against the wall, the cold stone stole her breath and cut sharply into the warm places where Remiel’s hands had been.
He squatted in front of Shai and pulled the fabric band from his mouth. She cringed at the horrible mass of white flesh that hung loose, stretching from the corner of his mouth to his ear, intersecting the scar he had before.
"You'll be safe here." His tongue made a clicking sound against his teeth when he talked.
Shai shook her head and grabbed his arm. "Don't leave me. Please."
"It's time for me to go. But I'll stay with you here until you fall asleep. You've got to cross back over."
"No Remiel! Not without you. I won't lose you again!"
He squeezed her fingers and looked into her face. "Do you remember the 'What If' game?"
She nodded and grabbed his hand in both of hers. “I think so.”
He leaned close until his good cheek touched hers. "What if I can save the whole world?"
"What if I don't want you to save it? What if I want you to come back to Kent with me and stay?"
He shook his head and his whiskers rubbed against her skin. His warm, damp tears fell on her face.
"What if I told you that you're dying? That if I don't do what I came here to do, then you won't live?"
"What if you're wrong?" But she knew he told her the truth. She felt funny here, heavier somehow, like soft bread dough. Just a lump of flesh without muscle.
Questions flooded her mind. Everything she had wanted to know about the Book, about the key and the War Between Worlds, about the Division and her purpose in the Coalition, died on her tongue. There was only one thing she wanted to know now.
"Who are you, Remiel? Are you the one we've been waiting for?"
He moved away from her then, and slid the neck of his tunic over his left shoulder. She looked closer and sucked in a breath. The smooth skin of his chest was interrupted by a raised scar. Lumpy flesh left by a fire-brand in the shape of three interlocking circles. She looked up at him, her wide eyes reflected
in his. The same pale shade of blue, hers mirrored his, and his mirrored hers, into eternity.
"I am the Son of Thunder." He placed both hands on either side of her face and touched his forehead to hers. "And one day, I'll see you on the other side."
"Where? Other side of what?"
"Of death." Remiel smiled, then pulled away, looking down the hallway at something. A shadow fell across him as he stood. Hollow clomping of heavy boots and the sound of jingling keys made her shiver.
"One day," he whispered again and stepped away from the alcove and into the pool of light.
For a brief moment he stood there lit up, his hair a crown of white, the blood a sharp contrast against his pale skin, then he stepped away and was gone. All she heard was a thud. She squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around herself. Something touched her hair and she screamed. A sharp sound that was wrested from her mouth as a hand yanked her from her hiding spot by her hair.
CHAPTER 68
Shai
Her back ached from sitting against the hard, stone wall, waiting for Remiel to be brought back to the cell they shared. For hours they had sat on the cold floor where the guard had tossed them. They had huddled together for warmth and comfort until Remiel was taken for ‘questioning.’
She drew her knees to her chest and rested her head on her arms. Dim light filtered into her narrow cell from a single lantern nailed to the wall in the hallway. The other cells in the block stood empty. Only a blackish-red stain on the floor of the cell across from hers revealed it had recently been occupied.
She inhaled slowly. Her chest ached and burned like she'd been punched in the solar plexus. Her lungs rattled and wheezed with every breath. She shifted her position and tried to ease the numbness that crept into her rear end, then promptly buried her nose in her sleeve as a rotten odor wafted up from the dirt she disturbed.
The jingling of keys made her head snap up. The same guard that had found her pressed into the dark alcove earlier returned with Remiel, whose hands were bound with a single iron cuff.
Remiel held his head up and squared his shoulders as the guard slid the cell bars open and removed the shackle. Remiel’s left eye had swollen until it was just a narrow slit. His right eye drooped beneath a deep gash over his dark eyebrow. Dried blood smudged his upper lip from multiple cuts around his mouth. His nostrils were ringed with dark red.
The guard shoved Remiel, who stumbled into the cell and fell to his knees. A cry escaped Shai and she crawled toward Remiel, pulled his head onto her lap as he curled up on the ground.
“What have they done to you?”
A mottled mixture of bruises and cuts marked his face, his features swollen beyond recognition. She sat for a long time stroking his hair, not speaking.
The guard didn’t return. And when the lantern in the hallway sputtered out she eased Remiel’s head off her lap and curled up beside him on the ground, facing him. The cell block became alive with noise. Skittering, scurrying sounds, a monotonous dripping, and the rattling of their own breathing.
Time folded in on itself. Seeming to repeat an endless cycle of darkness so deep it seeped into every pore, every orifice. Still, she sucked in deep draughts of air, trying to get enough oxygen to push back the panic. She concentrated on matching her breathing with Remiel’s. She tucked her hands under her cheek and pulled her legs up until her knees touched his.
She must have fallen asleep, because when she opened her eyes the lantern was flickering again and she was lying on her other side away from Remiel. The weight of his arm around her comforted her and she laced her fingers in his, feeling his calloused palm, his strong fingers, and the bulge of his veins on the back of his hand. Her body fit closely into the curve of his. Every breath he took whispered along the back of her neck.
She closed her eyes and listened to a faint sound. A wordless whisper that came from Remiel. She strained to hear him against the sounds of her own breathing.
“I’ve made… a deal.”
“A deal?” A leaden feeling crept into her stomach and spread into her chest.
Remiel inhaled against her. “He… will let you… go. Let Lael go.”
She licked her dry lips and blinked back tears. The first threat that her internal dam might break. “What about you?”
But Remiel said nothing more. She buried a whimper in the back of his hand as she pulled his arm across her tighter and let sleep drag her into nothingness.
When she awoke again, her throat felt hot and dry and the chill along her back told her Remiel had gone. A pale-faced guard with long greasy hair and a thin face approached Shai's cell. He rapped his knuckles on the bars of her cell.
"Get up!" His barking voice made her jump. "Samael wants to see you."
She stood on legs that didn’t feel like hers. Every step towards the guard threatened to buckle her knees.
"Slide your hands through here." The guard tapped a rectangular cut-out in the cell door. As soon as her fingers touched the cold metal plate inside the cut-out, he grabbed her wrists and bound them together with a heavy iron cuff that dug into her tender rope burns. She winced which made him laugh. The sound echoed down the empty hall, mocking and sinister.
"Don't be weak. You should be grateful for the deal Remiel made.”
He was the same guard who had dragged her from the alcove as she kicked and screamed, twisting against the pressure of his arm across her chest as he crushed her against his bony side with an inhuman strength.
As he slid her cell door open and roughly grabbed her upper arm she glanced sideways at him.
"Where’s Remiel?" Her voice sounded raspy and dry as she forced the words out through cracked lips. The guard squeezed her arm tighter as an answer. She looked at the ground as she shuffled down the hall. Her bare feet stuck to the dirty stone floor, the occasional pebble pressed painfully into the softer flesh of her heels.
As they passed the last few cells in the hall, she stepped in something cold and thick with her left foot. She turned and saw a man lying face-down on the floor in a dark puddle that spread from beneath his head into the hallway. She shivered.
"Samael’s revenge on Elchai.” The guard sneered, exposing long yellow teeth peppered with darker yellow and brown spots.
The guard yanked her arm and she stumbled, then fell to one knee. He dragged her across the floor until she regained her footing. Her captor never broke his stride. With every bend, her knee stung where her trousers had torn and the stone rubbed her skin raw.
The guard opened a metal door at the end of the cell block and pushed her into the darkness yawning ahead of them.
"Who was that?" Her voice echoed. With a dull thud the door closed behind them and every whisper of light scattered. "The man back there, who was that?" She heard her voice, high and tinny, saying everything multiple times before dying somewhere in the darkness beyond. "Who!" She was losing control. She heard it in the pitch of her voice, felt it in her legs as they refused to support her weight any longer.
The guard shoved her from behind and she fell, unable to put her hands in front of her to break the impact. She landed on the floor which was warmer, wetter than her cell.
"Move!" He gripped her hair and yanked her to her feet.
"His name! Tell me his name or I won't move!" He released her hair and sighed.
"You'll move even if I gotta drag you." He shoved her between the shoulder blades, but she planted her feet shoulder-width apart and wedged her right foot against the wall for support.
"Name!" It took every effort to sound steady when tears threatened to break the surface. They pricked her eyelids and she blinked them away.
"If it matters so bloody much his name was Jachin. Remiel's older brother."
"Was?" Her throat tightened with tears. She didn’t have to ask, she knew the man was dead, she knew it when she had stepped in the congealed pool of blood. Was he the reason Remiel came here? To save his brother?
The guard's cold, bony fingers touched her shoulder t
hen slid down her arm where he grabbed her again. His snuffling snort of exhaled breath stunk up the confined space. He whispered in her ear, "Jachin Elyon."
Elyon. Elyon. The name rang through her, attached to a memory just out of reach. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. The guard breathed heavily down her neck.
"You might have known him by his Laelite name; Aliah."
She teetered forward, but the guard tightened his grip. He didn’t let her fall. Suddenly she became aware of a wetness soaking into her sock.
He's dead. He's dead. Aliah's dead!
She stood, rocked back and forth, back and forth then collapsed against the guard's bony body.
CHAPTER 69
Shai
Shai woke with the sound of her blood pulsing in her ears, a sharp pain in her abdomen, and the ground rushing past her face. The guard's pointy shoulder jabbed her stomach with each jostle of his step. It took her a full minute to realize he was carrying her over his shoulder with one arm slung across the back of her legs for support. Her head throbbed with the pressure of being carried upside down.
She struggled to move away from his bony protrusions and heard him snicker, "Almost there. No sense fighting me now."
The guard’s boots make a sschtick sschtick-ing sound as they stuck and unstuck to the gooey grime on the filthy floor.
Her captor shifted Shai's weight on his shoulder before he tossed her in a corner onto a pile of dirty rags and sticks. Her head slammed against the wall and she closed her eyes until the pain diminished. One of the sticks scraped her arm and she started to move it away, then screamed.
The jagged pile she sat on wasn’t dirty rags and sticks but a heap of bodies, past the point of decay. Scraps of cloth that used to be clothing hung from broken arm and leg bones. Skulls with toothy grins and gaping eye holes stared sightlessly at her. She scrambled off and landed in a heap on the floor, huddled against the wall with her legs drawn up.
It this some sort of torture chamber? Tables with various shining instruments she couldn’t name and cells with metal doors and barred windows lined the wall to her left.
The Coalition Episodes 1-4 Page 22
