Pandora's Box: Land of Strife: Pandora's Box Series, Book 1

by S. Y. Lee

  She hadn’t been sighted yet, but she urgently needed to find a way to evade capture on her own now. She made her way down the alley she had identified earlier, walking briskly, but not too fast, to avoid drawing attention to herself. She was sure his running was one of the reasons why Themba had been so easily picked out by the guards. Running towards the exit while the alarms were being raised practically screamed “Catch me, I’m here!”

  Sarah passed some people who were going about their daily lives. There was a woodworking shop where an older woman browsed the wares while her three young children tossed around a wooden block. It seemed unnecessarily dangerous. Perhaps there were no balls here, the Londoner thought to herself.

  She avoided eye contact when the woman turned to her and quickly shuffled along, until she ran into a short man, causing him to drop a pile of firewood he was carrying.

  “Oh! I’m so sorry,” Sarah apologized and she bent down to help the man gather the pieces. He said nothing but sighed. The wood had been strewn all over the alley and it took them a while to collect them together. The pile of wood had been so tall that it towered over his head when Sarah helped to stack them neatly on his arms. When she was done, the man started walking and she hurried after him. She felt bad about crashing into him and wanted to make sure he made it to his destination without any further incident.

  “I’m fine, young lady,” the man said, though he did sway from left to right as he walked. He was finding his way by muscle memory after walking the same path hundreds of times, not by looking in front of him. Sarah smiled at his stubbornness and accompanied him in silence until they came to a blacksmith’s shop, where he just dumped the pile of wood against the wall.

  Sarah was about to leave and continue searching for a place to hide from her pursuers, when she heard the man shout, “David! Come get the firewood, will you?”

  Chapter 42

  Leo wasn’t sure where to run. He just knew that he should keep running. After a few turns, the street he was racing down led directly to a bakery. It was a dead end. He stopped in his tracks and Karine had to roll forward to his right to avoid crashing into him. He would have barely managed the same move on a gym mat, yet she made it look so easy on the hard ground while holding two blades in her hands.

  “Come!” Karine yelled at Leo, and she jumped onto a table against the wall, then climbed onto the roof of the bakery. A plump woman came running out of the store with a piece of long bread in her hand, cursing at Leo. He backed up as she waved the bread in his face while swearing angrily in some language he couldn’t understand.

  “Hurry!” Karine shouted. She had put her swords away and was reaching down the ledge to Leo. Her outburst had drawn the woman's ire and she turned her attention to the elf on her roof while Leo skipped past her and jumped onto the table to grab Karine’s hand. With his momentum propelling him forward, the elf pulled Leo up to join her. For a brief moment, Leo took in the panoramic view of the city. Most of the buildings were short and about the same height as the bakery, so he had an unobstructed perspective. Bells were sounding around them and Karine had started to run off to the left, where the walls bordering the city were nearest.

  The woman on the ground threw the loaf of bread at Leo, hitting him in the back. Ignoring her supposed expletives, he ran after Karine. The distances between many of the buildings were short so it was easy to hop from one to another, and he got the sense that Karine sometimes went with the easier option so that he would be able to follow. While it was faster to get around on the rooftops, Leo felt awfully exposed and worried that the guards in pursuit would be able to see them. If they had bows and arrows, Leo and Karine would be easy targets, though he remembered the siege on Silverbrick and how she had shielded him from the torrent of arrows that had rained down on them.

  It didn’t take them long to make it close to the wall and the elf had stopped to wait for Leo to catch up. There was a wide alley that stood between the building she was on and the next one, from where they would be able to climb over the wall and out of Thermine. The gap was at least fifteen feet wide and even Karine couldn’t make that leap.

  Instead, she was looking down at the alley, with her back to Leo, when she suddenly jumped off the edge and disappeared from his line of sight.

  “Girl! Over here!” Leo heard Karine shout. He couldn’t see who she was addressing, until he caught up and saw Sarah hugging Karine in the alley. Next to the blonde was a young man about her age. His hair was messy and his clothes dirty and stained with soot, but he bore a remarkable resemblance to Sarah.

  “Leo!” Sarah cried out in joy when she saw him. He too was excited to see her and he leaped off the building without thinking just as he had seen Karine do. He landed lightly on his feet and he looked back at the roof, surprised by what he had done. While it wasn’t a long way to the ground, it was still about a ten-foot drop and he wouldn’t have attempted it so nonchalantly under normal circumstances. Sarah’s warm embrace brought him back to the situation at hand, although out of the corner of his eye, he thought he had seen a raised eyebrow on Karine’s face. She wasn’t one to be easily impressed.

  “Who’s this?” Leo asked, nodding at the young man behind Sarah. Now that he was looking at them together, he realized that the man’s eyes were just as blue as Sarah’s.

  “This is my brother, David.”

  Chapter 43

  Sarah froze when she saw him emerge from the blacksmith’s shop. His hair was uncharacteristically unkempt and his clothes were covered in soot and grime. His appearance was wholly different from the dashing young man whom she was so used to seeing every day in their tiny apartment in North London. He was one of those men who took pride in how he dressed and styled his hair. Even though he had his mind set on becoming a soccer player, he also understood the value of looking the part. After all, there were tons of athletes who weren’t exceedingly good, but were effective marketing tools for their teams. The most successful professional athletes knew how to combine image and skill to advance their careers.

  He was wiping the grease stains off his hands on his blacksmith’s apron as he walked out from the room behind the storefront to see what the short man wanted.

  “David?” Sarah asked, almost in disbelief.

  He looked at her and it seemed like an eternity before either of them spoke.

  “… Sarah?” he said. He sounded unsure and confused. In the few days he had come to this world, David had completely immersed himself into his life here. At times, he had tried to convince himself that he really was a blacksmith’s apprentice and an orphan, but he could feel himself tearing up uncontrollably right then. His body was more attuned to the truth than his mind was and any lingering doubt faded.

  “Yes!”

  The twins flew into each other’s arms as they started crying in joy.

  “What’s going on? How did we get here? I thought you were… a figment of my imagination,” David said, when he finally let go of his sister. Ernus the blacksmith stood there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face, not quite sure of what to make of this development.

  “It’s a long story. But we’ve got to go. The guards are after us. Well, me. I got separated from them and—” Sarah stopped talking when she saw the shadow of a slim figure being cast on the ground between her and David.

  “Girl! Over here!”

  Sarah turned to look up at the source of the voice. The sun was behind the figure standing on the roof opposite the blacksmith’s shop, but the pointed ears were a giveaway.

  “Karine!” Sarah exclaimed with open arms and went to greet the elf when she descended from above. A few moments later, Leo appeared where Karine had stood.

  Chapter 44

  He felt bad about pushing over a fruit stand to obstruct the path behind him, but he was desperate. There was no way he could outrun the guards on even terms and he needed to make use of every advantage he could find, even the ones he had to create. The fruit vendor was yelling for people to stop Them
ba, but fortunately nobody was empathetic enough to intervene.

  He couldn’t see the guards who had given chase when he was spotted trying to escape the city, but that provided little comfort. Not only had he ditched Sarah, he had no idea what Leo’s fate was. Last he had seen, his cellmate was being boxed in by guards on both sides with his sword brandished. An ominous end was in the writing.

  Rounding a corner, he saw a small gap between two buildings that he had nearly missed. The other end of the gap was dark and Themba couldn’t make out what was blocking the way. It meant that this hiding place was a dead end if they saw him. Nonetheless, he was too out of breath to keep running and he knew the guards were gaining on him, so he quickly crawled into the poorly-lit opening.

  Themba heard a sound on the ground but he couldn’t identify it. It wasn’t until a few moments later when he felt something scurry over the top of his cloth shoes. Warm, furry creatures brushed against his shin as he realized that there were two rats, one behind the other. He had to cover his mouth with both hands to prevent himself from screaming out loud. He barely managed to catch a glimpse of a long, skinny tail disappear into the street. He hated rats and prayed silently that there weren’t any more lying in wait in the dark.

  The fear of more rats was sufficient to make him question his decision to hide there. But the prospect of being caught by the guards kept him in place. Even in their heavy armor, Themba wouldn’t have outrun them for long. By now, if they were on the right track, they should be upon him momentarily.

  True enough, the sound of metal boots clanking on the stone pavement could soon be heard and they grew louder.

  “Did you see him?” one the guards shouted.

  “No. He must have gone this way,” the other replied. Themba could hear his voice like it was right in his ear. Closing his eyes, Themba turned his head away from the opening. The last thing he wanted was to make accidental eye contact with his would-be captors. He could hear the guards huffing and puffing as they jogged along. Armor was good for defending yourself in a fight, but terrible attire for chasing after people, not to mention the heavy spears and swords they carried. Themba remembered how he had struggled just to keep the spear off the floor in the prison. There was no way he could have been a guard of Thermine.

  As the sound of the guards’ boots hitting the ground gradually faded away, Themba was still too scared to move. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was waiting for a hand to suddenly grab him by the neck and yank him out into the open. He was already thinking about what he would say to beg for his life. The idea of running or fighting never crossed his thoughts.

  After a while, he just started to sob quietly and finally opened his eyes, peering back into the street where the two guards had been earlier. He looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. He knew he should come out of hiding and maybe find a way to sneak out of the city undetected, but his body wouldn’t move. All he could do was tremble. He wanted to believe it was due to the cold setting in after the sun’s disappearance. But it wasn’t.

  Chapter 45

  “What? How did he get here?” Leo had so many questions. But then he realized Sarah had only just been reunited with her brother, and he stopped himself from inquiring further. She probably had the same questions.

  Next to them, the blacksmith was visibly annoyed. First, Sarah had knocked over his firewood. Now she was claiming to be the sister of his apprentice, whom he thought was an orphan and only child.

  “What is this? Who are these people, boy?” Ernus asked, forcing his way into the midst of the group.

  “I… this is my sister,” David tried to explain. Truthfully, he had no idea what was going on. Two different lives were now converging into one moment and he struggled to reconcile what was before him and what he thought was real.

  “Another one?” Karine shook her head. “Fine. If he must come, so be it. But we must go now. The guards won’t be far away and we’ve lost enough time. Quickly, we must climb up this shop onto the roof. We should be able to scale the wall from up there.”

  The blacksmith turned his attention to the elf. For a moment, it looked like he was about to attack her but he saw the blades at her side and recognized their lethality immediately. Having forged hundreds and thousands of weapons in his lifetime, he knew a sword made from moonsilver when he saw one. An individual in possession of two was unheard of. Ernus sighed and mumbled something under his breath, looking at David as he did.

  “What?” David asked. None of them could hear what he had said. None of the humans.

  “He said there’s a tunnel out back that will take us beyond the wall,” Karine said, acting as an interpreter for Ernus. Her sharp ears didn’t miss a word said in her presence, no matter how softly it was spoken.

  “There is?” David wasn’t aware of any tunnels in the back of the shop. The group followed Ernus as he led them into the shop and to the forge where David usually toiled over the sweltering heat. The blacksmith pushed one of the tables to the side and lifted some floorboards that weren’t nailed down, revealing a hole that was about six feet deep.

  Ernus sighed and put a hand on David’s shoulder. He was much shorter than his apprentice and he looked like a child reaching for cookies on a tall shelf. “I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into or where you’ve suddenly gotten a sister. But looking at her,” Ernus nodded at Sarah, “nobody would doubt that you’re related by blood. Go. Take care. You’re an excellent apprentice and you’re like a son to me. I thought one day this shop was going to be yours, it still could be, but if you have to go, don’t hesitate.”

  David hugged his master as everyone else looked on.

  Sarah had mixed feelings about the scene in front of her. Like David, she had found herself in this world as the ward of someone else. And although Alister hadn’t been as understanding as Ernus, in her memories, he had always been very protective of her and made sure she was never cold or hungry.

  Leo nudged her. “Where’s Themba?” he whispered.

  “He ran off on his own… I tried to stop him but he wouldn’t listen. He just ran.”

  “We have to go back for him.”

  “No,” Karine snapped. “One escape. You only get one shot at it. And you made it all the way to the front door before I showed up. He could never do that alone.”

  “We can’t just leave him here. He’s not from here!” Leo pleaded but the elf was unmoved. He looked to Sarah for support. “Sarah?”

  She shrugged. She didn’t want to tell Leo about how Themba had been spotted by the guards, fearful that he would insist they go back to rescue him. As far as she was concerned, Themba had made his bed and it was his to lie in. “We need to get out of here, please. I saw him heading towards the entrance of the city. It’s possible he got out.”

  Meanwhile, David had picked up an axe from the counter. It was a piece that he had worked on yesterday. It belonged to a hunter who had had an encounter with a beast of some sort and wrecked the edge on its horns. David shivered when he saw the damage. No animal should have been able to cause that. Nonetheless, he had mended the blade and it looked practically brand new. There had been some kind of symbol engraved on the side of the axeblade, but it couldn’t be discerned anymore. David couldn’t recreate it.

  “Leo, you go first.” Karine pointed to the hole in the ground. “I’ll bring up the rear in case any guards come by.”

  Leo was still thinking about Themba. He felt a sense of responsibility towards the South African even though the latter had repeatedly demonstrated that he would run off at the first sight of danger. “Damn it,” Leo muttered and climbed down into the hole. Ultimately there was only one objective that mattered: getting back to his world.

  Chapter 46

  There was no smoke, but Caitlin recognized the smell of freshly burnt wood. She had continued following the dirt road in search of Keela and Edan, even though she had no idea what she was looking for. There weren’t many other travelers, and those that Caitlin did encou
nter were reluctant to speak to her. Yesterday, one kinder man had given her some food, a cold meat pie of some kind, and she had eaten it under a tree before resting there for the night.

  The cold white meat baked into a pie had almost been too revolting for her to stomach, but she held her breath and took quick bites. The meat was tender enough that she fortunately didn’t have to chew and she swallowed as much as she could before setting the pie aside. Being a swimmer and avid hiker, Caitlin understood how important it was to replenish her strength however she could. She had been walking for two days, and it was unknown to her how much longer her adventure would take, or where it would take her.

  It was a while more before Caitlin came upon the source of the smell. Three cottages that once stood side by side had been burned to the ground next to the road. A few walls and pillars still stood rigidly amid the ashes but it was clear that very little had survived the fire. Caitlin ran towards the debris when she saw hoofmarks in disarray in the dirt surrounding the houses. This hadn’t been an accident.

  While the hoofmarks resembled the ones she had found at the scene of the destroyed fruit stall, it was hard to conclude if they belonged to the same rider or riders. She didn’t know much about horses, but she assumed that most hoofs were indistinguishable from others.

  Caitlin tiptoed around the decimated cottages in search of more clues that might help her find out more about the culprits. Not wanting to touch anything, she picked up a fallen tree branch nearby and used it to prod and poke around in the burnt structures. Some clay plates had survived the fire under what looked like a cabinet of some kind. Apart from that, it was hard to tell ashes from ashes. She noticed what looked like the upper half of a bed in the second cottage and went closer to investigate. Her eyes had seen something vaguely white that remained in the aftermath of the fire.