She scrunched her eyes up tight. Cries and wailing filled the room. Shai covered her ears, but the inhuman sounds still reached her. Another more distinct sound rose above the other clamor. A low hollow moan laced with vibrating undercurrents that could only be described as the noise someone makes when they've given up. The sound of untold agonies with no hope of an end. Of flesh hanging off bones and rocking back and forth on broken kneecaps. Of mental torment and physical pain beyond measure.
The guard watched Shai with his mouth wide open in a dark cavern of laughter. But his laughter was cut short by a shout.
"You fool!" Samael lunged toward the guard and back-handed the guard’s skinny face so violently, the tight skin stretched across his cheeks shook. "I only told you to bring her to me, not toss her around!"
Samael stepped in front of Shai and sighed. "She's a sight to behold, isn't she? I want her unblemished. Untouched. I'm the one who gets to touch her."
He knelt down and dragged his finger along the angle of her jaw in a slow caress. "Look at me."
She lifted her eyes to his face. The features she had thought looked so much like Aliah, the brilliant green eyes, dark hair and smile, twisted into a horrible smear of hate.
"You were never Aliah’s father." Her words came out slurry and thick like she was speaking out of someone else's mouth.
"Oh, in his mind I was." His eyes dropped from her face to her neck. "Right. You can't remember anything past your twenty-one days." He stood again and pulled her to her feet by her arm. "Does this bring back any memories?"
He shoved her in front of him around a wall to the middle of the L-shaped room. A body. Pinned to the wall. Arms and legs stretched out, blood streaming from wounds in his palms where metal spikes were driven to secure him to the stone wall. His head hung forward, chin on chest, stringy shoulder-length hair obscured his features. But she recognized him. She would recognize him anywhere.
"No! Remiel!" She ran on rubbery legs to him and fell on her knees at his feet. He had been stripped to his underwear; bruises covered every part of him and turned him into a swollen, blackish-blue lump of flesh. When she looked up into his face he was staring at the floor, his eyes full of horror and agony.
"What did you do to him?" Deep rage boiled up from within her, burning and bubbling like molten lead. She ran to Samael and clawed his face, his eyes. Tore at his throat and pulled his hair. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, a slow smile spread across his mouth.
He's enjoying this. She gripped the collar of his shirt in both hands. “What. Did. You. Do!" Every word burned her throat and spread more venomous hatred through her blood.
Samael looked at her through half-slitted eyes. "What did I do? What did you do?" He grabbed her upper arm and wrenched her toward Remiel. "Look at him! This is all your fault! Yours, his brothers, and all of Lael’s. You can’t save him. I’ve accepted his deal."
The room spun and Shai had to close her eyes and breathe. When she opened them again she asked in a whisper, “What deal?”
Samael smiled. "His life for yours. For the release of Lael from the pendant’s power."
“Why?” Her voice came out as a whimpered, half-strangled sound. “Why?” She turned and looked at Remiel. “We don’t need saving! Why did you do this?”
Samael motioned to the guard near Remiel who touched something on the wall that made a clicking sound. The room was cloaked in darkness with only a large rectangular block of white that shimmered on the wall near Remiel.
Samael turned her to face the glowing wall. “The pendants covered up Aliah’s infraction, but they became your death sentence. Allow me to show you.”
They say when you are near death that your life flashes before your eyes. At first Shai saw nothing but a stark-white square on the wall, but then a picture appeared. An infant. Tiny and naked with large blue eyes. She watched as a younger version of Eliana with smiling eyes handed the infant to an older man with a halo of white hair. He laid the child across his knees and pressed something against the tiny chest. The infant wailed and when the man moved his hand away, Shai saw the infant’s seared flesh with three interlocking circles embedded in it.
A few more scenes flashed across the wall and Shai watched the child grow before her eyes in a matter of seconds. Some of the pictures she recognized from her Old World thoughts.
She heard conversations in her mind, familiar voices calling the child LiShai. She saw Eliana standing in the middle of a desolate street holding the child's hand, now older. The wind blew and lifted Eliana's hair away from her face, revealing the tell-tale shine of tears on her cheeks.
"A rebellion is coming. Another war that will destroy the rest of Edan. But Elchai has made a new land where we will be safe. He calls it Lael. You will have a new name there and so will your friends, to protect you. To keep your identity hidden.”
The young child tipped her face to look up at Eliana and smiled. "Like a game?"
Eliana nodded, "Yes, like a game. Can you play the 'What If' game with me?"
The little girl grinned and bobbed her head which sent her blond curls dancing in the wind.
Eliana walked slowly, past towering stone factories. "Okay, what if I said your new name is Shai. Can you say it?"
"That's easy, Mama. Jachin and Remii call me Shai."
"Good. Now Jachin will be Aliah. That's a little harder. And Remii will be Remiel."
"Until when? When does the game end? How can I win, Mama?" The child's face shone bright with hope and expectation.
Shai searched her mind for this memory and came up empty, but the ache in her chest confirmed what she already knew. This is my own past flashing on this wall. And Eliana really is my mother. She scrubbed at her wet cheeks with her knuckles. Her steel shackles clinked with the movement. She focused on the wall again.
Eliana's voice sounded sad. "When you've grown up a little more, LiShai, you'll know when it's time for the game to end. Just keep this and stay close to Jachin and Remii."
"It's Aliah and Remiel now, Mama. Remember?"
Eliana bit her lip and handed the girl a book that looked too big for her small hands. The Book. A few more scenes flashed before Shai recognized another face. Her breath caught in her throat and a deep yearning rippled through her.
Aliah.
CHAPTER 70
Shai
Shai smiled as she watched the image of a younger Aliah with a boyish grin and thick, dark hair that he constantly brushed off his forehead. His expression changed whenever he was near her, and she watched as her own cheeks flushed pink every time they bumped elbows, with each brush of their fingers. Next she saw Remiel, his strong hands and gentle smile. She saw the tug-of-war on her face whenever she was with both of them. She saw the image of herself clasp hands with Aliah while ignoring Remiel. Aliah constantly interrupted her conversations with Remiel and she continually chose to be with him over Remiel. I remember that. She turned her face away.
Samael poked her in the back. "Watch!"
She turned back to the wall in time to re-live the moment when she had stood near the bridge in Lael talking to Remiel as Aliah approached. The scene seemed to move in slow motion. She gasped as she watched Aliah attack Remiel and shove him face-first into the water. Then Aliah flipped Remiel over and slammed his fist into Remiel's face again and again. Shai watched herself cover her face with her hands and scream, “No! No!”
That singular memory came back in a flood while she watched herself jump on Aliah's back, who shoved her onto the embankment. He left bloody fingerprints on her tunic and arm. Even back then I had worn Remiel's blood. She watched Aliah push Remiel's lifeless body into the water.
“Stop!” She cried out. I can’t watch this! She began to turn away again, but something made her heart nearly stop. The wall flashed an image of Samael in Lael, handing out pendants. Then it flashed to Samael and Aliah talking with each other just out of Shai's earshot. A second later she saw Samael's fingers on her throat as he fastened a pendant
around her neck. She shivered at the hungry look in his eyes as his hands lingered on her skin.
She watched scenes of her friends in Lael as they walked around with long faces and empty eyes, dutifully obeying the Mothers’ instructions. Every color and pleasant sight or sound seemed to drain away, leaving everything drab and grey.
It revealed her own internal change. Suspicion and anger towards Aliah. Irritation instead of enjoyment. Remiel was gone and no one mentioned him. He seemed to be forgotten.
Next, the Readings were displayed on the white wall in front of her: a girl exiled for her infraction and the Laelites fearful faces, as a boy was sentenced to isolation. Another young child was chastised with ten lashings from a leather whip. And so on, until the moment she was called up for her ‘reward.’
Shai watched it all with tears dripping off her chin. She re-lived the mistakes she had made, felt the anger that simmered just below the surface every second. She stared at the moving images on the wall and grieved for the pieces of her earlier past that she could barely remember. For Aliah, who was laying cold and stiff on the floor not far from her. For Remiel, who was tacked to the wall just a few feet away, whom she couldn’t bear to look at.
The scenes skipped then repeated. The same events, same Readings, same punishments, same reactions. Everything on fast forward. The scenes repeated again. And again. And again, until they blurred on the wall in front of her.
Samael laughed. "Do you like that? It's your whole life in under three minutes. Then the last twenty-one days on repeat for the last five years."
What was he saying?
"That part was my gift to you! No one grew old and no one died unless they took off their pendants and their memories returned. Aliah wanted his infraction erased from everyone’s minds, so the easiest thing was to keep everyone on a memory loop. Twenty-one days of repeated events. No harm done at all unless you were to wander too far from Lael. Then the pendant’s poison would erase your mind permanently.” Samael reached out and rubbed a lock of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “Shai, your mind is being erased right here, right now, while your body is back in Kent. If it weren’t for Remiel, you'd be nothing but an empty shell soon."
Like someone had kicked a rock loose from a dam, something inside Shai broke. Her sobs echoed in the room and she pressed her fists into her burning eyes. "You stole our memories! You forced us to obey your Laws and now you're killing us?"
"No, no, no. I had nothing to do with the Book or its Laws. You have Elchai to thank for that, and Aliah to thank for the pendants. I merely watched over you. Kept you safe for those last five years. I can’t help it if the pendants have a built-in fail-safe. If you wander past the Borderless, it’s lights out.” The look of satisfaction on Samael’s face stirred the deepest anger in Shai. Years of bottled-up emotions uncorked. Anger had gone rancid. Murderous rage which she turned on Samael. Her mouth opened in a silent scream. Her mind went blank. Fuzzy and thick like spoiled milk, that clotted her ability to think clearly. She reached for Samael’s face, but he grabbed her hair and pulled her backwards, screaming.
"Shut up!" He shoved her. She staggered then fell, her knees cracked hard against the floor.
Samael rammed her with the toe of his boot. "Get up!"
She staggered to her feet and faced him.
Samael's eyes ran up and down her body. "Zev! Come here." The glint in Samael's eyes made her flesh crawl. "Strip her." He pointed at her shirt. "Rip it off if you have to."
Zev grabbed her shirt and completed the tear that Samael had started earlier. The remaining buttons popped loose and pinged across the floor. Shai slapped at Zev’s hands as tears ran down her cheeks. Her nose dripped down her lips and chin.
Choking sobs clogged up her throat. "No, Zev. Please don't. Please Zev. Don't!" She struggled to get away from him, but he had wrapped one hand in her hair in a wicked grip.
His eyes flashed to hers as he ran his finger along the waistband of her trousers. Please no.
"NO!" Remiel's voice ricocheted around the room. Zev released Shai with a sudden shove, his eyes wild. Shai stumbled backwards, coughing and choking on the violent sobs that wracked her body.
Zev glanced at Remiel. Then Samael.
"We made a deal… Samael. Let… her go.”
Shai held her arms tight against her chest as Zev backed away, his eyes fixed back on Remiel.
"It’s me… you want. For…revenge. Remember?"
Samael’s fists curled against his sides and he strode to Remiel.
Remiel didn’t blink, his one good eye flashed a deep blue-grey like Lael’s stormy skies. Hard. Fearless.
"Life… for life."
Samael stared at Remiel then turned and walked away, shaking his head. Shai scrambled to move out his way, still trying to hold her shirt closed.
Samael sneered. "Shut up, Remiel. I still get to deliver my reward. You said nothing about that in your business proposal."
Remiel pulled against his restraints. "Samael! Overseer and second in command over Edan. Isn't that who you were? Before my father stripped it from you?"
Samael paused in his next step and looked at the ground.
"Rem, what are you doing? He'll kill you!" Shai started to run to Remiel, but he shook his head at her. She stopped and looked back at Samael.
"What happened, Sammy? Did Elchai have everything you wanted and all you received was just a few crumbs? Did people fall all over themselves just to be near him?" Remiel's taunting escalated, his voice grew louder and filled the room. The resonance overpowered the death-moans of other prisoners. "Your jealousy made you try and steal the hearts of the Edanites from my father. But they began to see who you really were. Didn’t they? You couldn't get even a tiny army to fight against Elchai, could you? So you tried to steal his Book. You started the War! And in the end you couldn’t find the Book, and you were banished to Gershom! Banished to live in this dark hole with no way out unless you can find the Book."
Samael finally turned around, his face scarlet, his teeth clenched.
"Say it Sammy! Say you want to kill me! Tell me…it’s revenge against my father that you want! You… hate my father! Look at me!"
Samael tore across the room and grabbed a leather whip from a nearby table.
Zev whispered, "It’s all over now.”
How can this be happening? I just lost Aliah. I can’t lose Remiel too... again. "You can't! No, Samael!" Her screams pierced her own ears.
"Are you stupid? Why draw attention to yourself now? Remiel made a deal." Zev glowered at her with hate-filled eyes.
"You're a coward! You’re just Samael’s lackey. His puppet! You’d love to see Remiel dead even more than you’d love to see me raped!" She hissed through clenched teeth.
A loud crack filled the air as Samael brought the whip down across Remiel's chest. The leather strap tore open his bare chest with one strike. Blood poured from the gash. Large, red drops splattered to the ground. Remiel inhaled, a sharp, brief sound before the next crack of the whip. The next strike connected with Remiel's face, slicing open his other cheek. His head rolled back. "Life... for life, Sammy,” he whispered.
CHAPTER 71
Shai
Rage, like liquid fire, threatened to drown Shai. Her hands shook and burned, her chest blazed with heat. She ran at Samael and flung herself on his back. He flicked her off like an insect. She slammed her steel wrist cuffs against his back again and again until her wrists became bruised and swollen. But Samael remained fixated on Remiel.
He struck with the whip again and Remiel's chest was flayed open. White bones protruded through the ribbons of red flesh. Shai ran to Remiel and dropped to her knees, the warmth of his blood on the ground soaked into her trousers.
"Get out of the way!" Samael flicked the tip of the whip across her bare chest and the pain of it added fire on top of fire.
"Don't kill him!" She twisted around and looked up at Remiel as she yanked the pendant from her neck and dropped it into the p
uddle of blood around her. "Remiel, I should’ve listened to you."
Remiel gasped. "Take... my chain. Put it around... your neck. Wear the key."
She reached up, but just as she touched Remiel's gold chain Zev tackled her. She twisted in his grip and kicked at him, but he dodged and shoved her against the wall where her life had flashed minutes before. With one arm he held her in a painful grip while he grabbed a thick, metal chain that dangled above her head with his other hand, and attached the chain to her steel cuff. She twisted and writhed against the restraint. No sound came from her throat that was swollen from screaming. She sucked in huge draughts of air that burned as she inhaled.
Remiel turned his bloodied face to her. "What if..." He began.
His voice rang out clearly in her mind. Familiar. Strong. She shook her head. Don't. Please don't. I can't do this. Hot tears poured down her cheeks. She choked on sobs and couldn’t breathe for a second.
Remiel began again.
The whip cracked.
His blue eyes held hers. "What if..."
Crack!
I can’t watch. But she couldn’t turn away either. Not while Remiel was looking at her.
Crack!
Remiel hardly resembled himself anymore. His flesh hung in ribbons, exposing his ribs, stark white bone against a backdrop of deep red.
Crack!
Crack!
"What if... I died... for you."
No! No! Remiel, no! She couldn’t tear her wrists from the wall and run to him. She couldn’t scream his name. I can't watch you die. This is all my fault. If only I had listened to you and Aliah about the pendants. She hung there, dangling from the wall, limp and useless.
Remiel lifted his head, slowly. In the midst of a mass of bloody, pulpy-flesh was a flash of blue. Remiel’s one good eye cut to Samael who breathed heavily, his face wet with sweat.
"I never wrote those Laws, Remiel, but I imagine there have been several of them broken here today."
The Coalition Episodes 1-4 Page 23
