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

by S. Y. Lee

  There was a different smell that filled her nostrils as she neared the bed. When she was close enough, she saw what had attracted her attention. It was teeth. Stained yellow-white teeth that were still in a skull, attached to a small body. It was either a woman or a big child.

  Her stomach reacted so fast she had no time to turn away or run to the side of the road. Caitlin felt her body convulse and involuntarily hunched over and vomited. She tried her best not to look at the body again, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away. The skeleton was mostly charred, except for the remnants of some burned flesh deeply ensconced into the skull, though the face of the victim was impossible to identify.

  Her senses were overwhelmed and Caitlin just crouched there in the middle of the cottage and cried, stopping occasionally to fight back her gag reflex. She had never known such despair in her life.

  Chapter 47

  The foursome managed to avoid detection once they were outside the confines of Thermine. The wall that had kept them in was not conducive for patrolling or guards to be posted along it. They would have been spotted making their escape if they had climbed over the wall or went out the main entrance, but Ernus’ secret tunnel helped them escape without the guards noticing.

  They were on the run again, this time from yet another enemy. Leo was starting to wonder if he was just bad luck. First the invaders of Silverbrick, then the confrontation in the giant tree. Now, they were being pursued by the guards of a city, after escaping from the cells the Lord of Thermine had them thrown into.

  Even though they were out in the open, night had settled in to conveniently mask their escape as Karine led them towards the trees in the distance. It was her favored tactic in her playbook, to disappear into the woods, and Leo and Sarah were familiar with it by now. David kept close to his sister without saying anything. He had no problem keeping up with the pace and his mind soon drifted to recall the strange few days he had just lived. He had accepted his place in this world so readily that he was now somewhat disappointed. Wherever they were currently, he would have to go home eventually and face the harsh realities of life.

  He thought about the soccer trial his father had painstakingly arranged for him. While he relished the opportunity of another shot at professional career in sports, he was also terrified of the prospects of failure. If he didn’t succeed this time, it meant the door to a professional career would likely be closed forever. A lifetime of working towards his goal would be for naught. Unlike his smart sister, he had no other skills to fall back on.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” Sarah said. She was panting heavily, but determined not to stop before they reached the shelter of the trees.

  “Me too. I’m sorry, I should have come look for you,” David responded.

  Sarah still managed a chuckle despite her shortness of breath. “Don’t worry about it. You’d never guess where I was. I’m lucky Leo and Karine showed up when they did. Otherwise, I don’t think we would have seen each other again.”

  David had many questions for his sister and about their companions, but he kept them to himself for now. It was too much for him to process.

  After they reached the edge of the forest, Karine didn’t let them stop running until they were a safe distance in and well hidden within the foliage. She was probably capable of going on in the dark, but Leo and the siblings were already tripping over branches and roots as they tried to keep up. As the elf had done previously, she found a big tree which she deemed suitable for sleeping under until the morning.

  “Karine, why did they want to catch you? And why did they throw us in the cells for no reason?” Leo asked. It was just two of the many questions that had been percolating in his mind during their detention. He wanted answers desperately.

  The elf leaned back against the tree and sighed. “I don’t know. Not for sure, at least. All is not well in Thermine. While they haven’t been corrupted by the reach of Gormore, it looks like Rylance has aligned with the Blood Throne. They might have thought they could leverage me against my father and Ifprin.”

  “Do you know Rylance?”

  “I knew his brother Renance, the former Lord of Thermine. There was a coup not long ago and Rylance overthrew his brother. Did you see anyone else in the cells? There are rumors Renance still lives.”

  Leo shook his head and fell silent as he rested his head against the tree. Sarah had cuddled up against her brother, who put an arm around her shoulder and held her close. He could hear the twins talking in whispers, though he couldn’t make out much of the conversation. It sounded like Sarah was describing how she had gotten here and later met Leo and his group.

  Leo soon lost interest and started to doze off. In the pitch dark of the forest, there were many creatures and dangers to fear, yet he felt safe knowing that Karine was right there beside him. She had come back for them after all, even if it had taken longer than he would have preferred. Since crossing paths with her, she had proven to be a reliable partner. Knowing that gave him peace of mind to fall asleep.

  Chapter 48

  It didn’t help that she could feel Elin staring at her. It was tough to perform under pressure, especially under the watchful eyes of a wizard. They were resting again by the long winding river that they had been riding along for the past few days. Elin said it would lead them to the Shining Bridge, whatever that was, which was on the road to Thelmont.

  They hadn’t encountered anyone else along the way, which was fine for Eva. It seemed most people here were dangerous in some way. A majority of the people she had met since coming here either wanted to kill her or her friends. She was still wary of the mysterious wizard who was a closed book except for a few moments of candor and lightheartedness. Eva had gone through the details of her own life here in her head many times, in case Elin asked about it, but she never did. She didn’t appear to be interested in Eva’s life before meeting her, and was rather focused on her future.

  Eva wasn’t sure if she considered herself to be Elin’s apprentice. There had been no formal discussion of it or any kind of ritualistic ceremony either. Elin had been patient yet stern in her teachings, and when she wasn’t instructing Eva, she demonstrated a variety of her magical skills to the American. From what she had shown Eva, her magic mostly revolved around the elements. Her conjuring of fire was second nature. She repeated the trick back at the giant tree with the vines, commanding them to emerge from the ground to wrap around rocks and boulders. The vines were wound so tightly around a large boulder that it had started to crack from the immense pressure before Elin waved her hand and stopped it.

  After that, the wizard somehow summoned water from the nearby river to form a whip that she held in her hand. When she lashed it at the already fractured boulder, it exploded into dozens of pieces.

  Currently, with her eyes closed, Eva was trying to recreate some form of the water whip while her mentor watched on. This time, the gushing water made it harder for her to concentrate as she struggled to summon the water to her.

  “Feel it. Don’t think,” Elin said as she sat down beside Eva. “Don’t think about doing exactly what I showed you. Like I said, each person channels magic in their own way.”

  “Shouldn’t we be moving?” Eva asked. Normally they would have resumed their journey after a short break so that they could cover more distance before nightfall.

  “We can rest here tonight. We’ve made good time and if we set out early tomorrow, we should reach the bridge at the right time to cross.”

  “Right time? What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see. Everyone is always surprised the first time they cross the Shining Bridge. Now, concentrate. Don’t let the moving water distract you.”

  Both of them stopped talking as Eva recalled Elin’s lessons and focused on her breathing. She slowed it down to long and deep breaths as her mind went blank. Gradually, the river became an afterthought and she felt herself starting to enter a state of unconsciousness, like that moment everyone feels right before they fall asleep, hang
ing in a suspended darkness and weightlessness. She lifted her right hand resting on her knee and reached out to the water. She couldn’t differentiate if she was moving her hand subconsciously or if it had somehow taken a life of its own.

  Nothing happened at first. For a moment, she even thought she had fallen asleep. Then suddenly, Eva felt an invisible force jerk at her hand and she pulled it back reflexively. She cracked her left eye open just enough to sneak a peek and she saw a sphere of water floating towards her from the river, having been rendered free by an unseen force. It had been hovering in the air until Eva looked at it and there was a momentary lapse in her concentration. The ball of water simply fell apart and dropped to the ground before her like a water balloon.

  Embarrassed, she turned to Elin, expecting the wizard to be displeased. That wasn’t the case, however. Elin was smiling warmly and she gently clasped her fingers around Eva’s hand.

  “Do it again, child,” she said. Eva had come to notice that the wizard always called her “child” whenever she really wanted Eva to do something. She had first done it when they had met in the giant tree and gotten her to accompany the wizard on this journey and separate from Leo. “Keep your eyes open this time. Once you’ve rung the bell, it cannot be unrung.”

  “So, it’s like riding a bike?” Eva responded without thinking.

  “What’s a bike?”

  “Uh, it’s just some contraption we had back where I’m from. Never mind.”

  Elin looked unconvinced but she didn’t question Eva any further. “The same goes for magic. Once you’ve done it, it will come to you again naturally. Do it.” Elin nodded and let go of Eva’s hand.

  With her eyes open, Eva reached out her hand again towards the river. It took just a few seconds for her to experience a reaction to her concentration this time. She saw it clearly, as a ball of water formed out of the river and began to float over to her. It was bigger than the one before, almost twice as wide in diameter. When it was close enough, she rotated her wrist until the aquatic sphere was floating just inches over her open palm. She could see tiny air bubbles rising to the surface and disappearing.

  “Good. Good,” Elin said quietly, like she was coaxing a baby to sleep. “Now, throw it at that tree right there.” She was pointing to a tall oak tree to the side.

  Taking a few deep breaths, Eva looked at her target, glancing back at the water ball in case it fell apart. Counting to three in her head, she drew her hand back and swung it towards the tree like she was throwing a baseball, though her hand never made contact with the water. To her amazement, the ball of water flew at the tree at a high velocity and hit the tree squarely in the middle of its trunk.

  She was about to jump up in joy when something peculiar happened. The dark spot on the tree where the water ball had struck started to freeze over and the frost spread rapidly until it covered the entire tree. After a few moments, even the leaves and branches were frozen.

  Eva felt a hand under her arm as Elin pulled her up and they approached the tree together. It was a marvel to behold and Eva couldn’t believe what she had just done. It looked like a work of art made from crystals, and she could feel a chilling breeze emanating from the tree. It reminded her of how it felt every time she opened a freezer back home.

  Conjuring the ball of water and throwing it had been difficult enough. She hadn’t expected there to be an aftereffect that caused the tree to freeze over. Elin picked up a small pebble from the ground and threw it at the tree. It shattered like glass.

  “Impressive,” the wizard said. She was genuinely awestruck.

  Chapter 49

  Sometimes good doesn’t prevail. Sometimes people who have done nothing wrong have to run away for the greater good. At least, that was how Leo rationalized his situation. Since coming to this world, it had been a series of running away from places and enemies. The only place that had been safe so far was in the forest with an elf by his side. The three humans would have been lost if not for their elven companion.

  Leo wanted to think of Karine as a friend, having been through travail after travail with her, but he wasn’t sure. She had gone out of her way to help them and thus far their journeys continued on parallel tracks, even though their destinations couldn’t be more different, and it was only a matter of time before they reached a divergent point. Karine was looking to heal her father and stem the threat of evil spreading across the land. Leo, Eva, and the McCallister twins just wanted to get away from this land.

  It had been two days since they fled Thermine and they had ventured through all sorts of terrains.

  The forest outside Thermine ended in a rocky hillside, before they came upon a stretch of barren land that supported no plant life at all. That later turned into a swampy marsh which was particularly difficult to navigate, even for the skilled elf. In there, creatures lurked openly and it took multiple reassurances from Karine to convince the humans that they wouldn’t become prey as long as they kept moving. This had meant treading carefully in the dark of the night and getting no sleep at all.

  The dense air made it harder to breathe freely and exhaustion slowly set in for all of them. At some point, as they waded through the thick muck that went up to their knees, Sarah settled for draping her arms around Leo and David as they half carried her for a distance. It was the only way they could keep moving.

  Big, yellow, and luminescent eyes followed them everywhere in the darkness and they could never tell how far away the creatures were. Leo tried not to think about the possibilities as he pictured vicious animals that made lions and tigers look like household pets, standing mere feet away, waiting to pounce on the tired travelers. There was at least one thing that was similar to their world. The chirping of crickets echoed throughout the marshlands and was occasionally so loud that the group found themselves covering their ears. Karine’s heightened sense of hearing appeared to work against her in those instances, as she winced in pain with each step, but endeavored forward nonetheless. She couldn’t, and wouldn’t, be deterred.

  On the second day, the marsh suddenly ended with no warning and the four of them stepped out into the open. Dawn was still hours away, but being free of the bog immediately lightened their spirits. A small mountain stood before them in the distance and they walked towards it, presumably heading west according to Karine. The night sky was overcast that night and they only caught intermittent glimpses of the moon. It wasn’t clear how Karine was navigating, but she seemed to know which way to go.

  Once they were a safe distance from the marsh, even the elf was too tired to go on. Apart from grass, there was nothing around them in the plains, so they all laid down together, shoulder to shoulder, and rested for the first time in a long while.

  *

  They would have all wished to get more sleep, but out in the open grass, the orange sun’s warm glow was impossible to hide from once dawn came. Leo was the first one up as he felt his cheeks getting warmer. Sitting up, he looked at his companions, partly to make sure they were still there and hadn’t been dragged away into the marsh by some savage creature. Sarah was stirring in her sleep as she rolled on her side away from him. David was on her other side and he was somehow sleeping face down with a hand under his forehead.

  Leo looked down at Karine on his other side and he smiled when he saw her still sleeping soundly. Her long blonde locks shined under the glow of the sun and looked like golden threads. That made him think of the story of Rapunzel, and then he chuckled when he imagined the tenacious elf trapped in a tower. She would have escaped in no time, instead of waiting for some prince to come calling for her to let down her hair.

  Her eyes opened as Leo chuckled, and he quickly looked away awkwardly. Of course, she had caught him staring, but she said nothing and just laid there. Leo was too embarrassed to look back at her so he tried to divert his attention elsewhere. They were facing the marsh and in the daylight, it looked like an impenetrable combination of low-hanging trees and fog. Only the edges were visible and he felt like h
e was staring into a black hole that sucked all light and oxygen into it.

  He turned around to take a gander at the journey ahead. It hadn't been abundantly apparent in the dark, but they were in the middle of a vast pasture of grass that stretched in all directions for as far as the eye could see. In the distance, Leo saw the mountain which had only been an outline the first time he had laid eyes on it. It was nowhere as tall as Mount Everest or K2 from their world, but this mountain was just as majestic.

  It stood alone and proud, unencumbered by any other rock formations or trees. Like all picturesque mountains, it started out brown around the base and as it got higher, the color of rock and dirt turned white, into snow that powdered all the mountains Leo had seen in postcards. This was the closest he had ever come to a mountain in reality, if this was even reality at all. It looked like the mountain had been dropped there in the middle of the plains just because there was nothing else around.

  As Leo shifted his body to face the mountain, Karine sat up and did the same.

  “It’s beautiful. It feels like we’re in one of those huge paintings they hang in museums that you could just immerse yourself in all day,” Leo said.

  There was a long silence before he realized what he had said. He turned his head slightly to Karine who looking at him with curiosity.

  “A museum, it’s a place where they collect art and historical items for display so that everyone can see them,” he explained.

  “You’re really not of this world, are you?”