by Ben Alderson
I moved as quickly as I could, feet tapping across the paneled flooring as I ran towards the staircase and lost myself in the lower decks. It would not be long until Hadrian or someone came looking for me. And once Fadine, Vianne and Illera had returned from getting their golden tipped weapons, someone would be forced to become my guard since Nyah had still not arrived. That would prevent me from visiting Marthil alone again.
The prison was easy to find, thanks to the smell that seeped from the half-closed door before me. I gagged, clogging my hand over my nose and mouth in hopes to stifle the stench. Days of heat had intensified the smell, enough to ward off any unwanted visitors. With my foot I kicked the door open, startling the restful guard within.
“I didn’t expect my shift to be over with,” he said, face red and hands flustered as he flattened his blond curls. He was young, his creaseless face screamed it. I was certain he had seen no more than fourteen moons.
“Stand down,” I said, voice muffled by my hand. “I am here to see the prisoner.”
The boy squinted, soon realizing I was not a guard but a random visitor in rags for clothes.
“I-I can’t let anyone come in. That has been my orders.”
“Order’s given by myself and Prince Hadrian.” I stepped through, into the room, so the light didn’t block out my features. I wasn’t sure if this would work but as soon as the guard got a properly look at me he dipped his head and scuffled out of my way.
“My apologies, Zacriah, I did not mean to offend.” His tone was panicked.
I raised a hand, tapping him on his shoulder to show I was no threat. “No need to apologize, but please, wait beyond the door until I’m finished. Oh, and why don’t you inform your fellow peers who are resting and not doing their job that I’m here, and Prince Hadrian will hear about their slack attitude?”
“Of course,” he said, not turning away from me as he took steps back from me. “Again, my apologies.”
I didn’t remind him not to apologize again, as it was clearly driven into him that it was the right thing to do. I only smiled at him and closed the door between us, leaving me in the room with the prisoner.
Weak beams of light cut in through the small slits in the wooden walls, and the occasional portholes made it hard to see a foot in front of me. I tiptoed around the shadows, trying to stay in the thin pools of light that were dotted around the room sporadically.
“Come to gloat?” a voice purred through the darkness. It was rough, harsh and sounded as painful as I was sure it felt to make.
“I’ve come to see how you fair,” I replied, eyes jumping from shadow to shadow, in search for Marthil.
“How convenient.”
The rustle of metal made me snap my attention to the left. Raising my hands out before me, I walked cautiously till the kiss of cold iron touched my palms.
“Have you been eating?” I asked, kicking out at a plate of moldy bread beside my feet.
Marthil didn’t respond. Her silence was cold, a warning that she didn’t want me here. But I couldn’t live with myself if she was ignored and mistreated.
“Not hungry,” she snarled.
“You really should be eating something Marthil.” I made a mental note to ask the young guard to bring some fresh food in as soon as I left.
“Your attempt at kindness makes me sick. It’s days too late.” More clinks of metal sounded. Even in the darkness of the room, I could almost imagine her turning her back to me.
“If we knew you would not attack us, you wouldn’t be kept here. But, no matter what you think, this is the safest place for you right now. So many people want to harm you for what you have done. My choice to keep you here is my own way of making sure you stay alive.”
“My savior, how thankful I am.” Marthil laughed, making the hairs on my arms stand. “You speak as if you are my owner. That I am no more than a pet you keep locked up in the shadows because you have lost its muzzle.”
“Unlike Gordex then,” I said. “He lets you roam free with your muzzle on. I do not keep you locked up to control you, to make you do things that are not in your nature, like murdering, hurting.”
“You think he makes me do that?” she said, her face suddenly between the bars. There was enough light to see her dirt streaked face and tangled hair. Her frail hands clamped around the metal bars, each nail either broken or riddled with muck. “Gordex doesn’t control me. He merely encourages me to do what I want to do.”
This was wasted effort. Maybe Emaline was right about Marthil. I turned away, walked towards the door and left her to giggle at her own statement.
“I see your weakness as clear as I see my future,” Marthil announced, deranged. “You care too much for others and even more so when others do not care for you. You look for the good, when sometimes there is no good to be found.”
I pinched my teeth down on my lip and just kept walking. I wouldn’t let her see that her words got to me.
“It will be your downfall, Zacriah. Just you wait.”
Gripping a hold of the wooden door I turned over my shoulder, unable to keep quiet a moment longer. “My heart pains for you Marthil, truly it does. I wish you’d see through your clouded judgement one day. I only hope it isn’t too late.”
I threw all my weight into slamming the door closed, blocking out her mocking laugh. No matter how many deep breaths, I couldn’t calm my anger. It creeped up on me, snaking its darkness through every vein in my body. Maybe this was her plan. Provoke me to lose control, to give Gordex his chance to take over?
The young guard came bounding down the steps, breathless and flushed. “Everything fine?”
I nodded, trying to swallow down the lump that blocked my throat. “It will be.”
“Did she speak to you? She has not said a word to anyone else since we arrived,” he explained.
“Yes, she did.” I walked passed him, readying myself to take the steps up. As I placed my foot on the first, I turned around, unable to stop myself. “Make sure she is fed. Bring her plates of food until her temptation overwhelms her and she eats.”
“Everything we give her she leaves to rot in her cell,” the young Niraen guard said.
Even with anger threatening my being and her incessant mocking, I still couldn’t leave without commanding that she was fed. My weakness. That was my weakness.
“Try again and again.”
“We will.” He bowed.
“I want daily updates of Mart—”
I doubled over, hands slapping against the stairs as my mind spun violently. It felt as if the entire floor beneath me shifted, although it was not the ship that moved.
Burning cold cut across my head, Nyah’s presence slamming into mine with such force I lost consciousness for a moment. I couldn’t open my eyes, not as the slightest bit of light would pain me.
“Zacriah, are you well?” the young guard said, lifting me up from the floor. “Do you need me to call for someone?”
I couldn’t response, not with the sweltering panic that now coursed through my body, dousing the anger out instantly.
Nyah.
I pulled myself from the guard and pelted up the stairs, two at a time.
Reaching the top deck, I threw myself over the railing, willing my Dragori form to burst free. It didn’t take me long to reach camp, not with the pump of my powerful wings that kept me soaring forward.
Nyah.
I shot down for the sandy beach, landed and ran straight into Hadrian’s tent. He jumped, looking at me as I burst through the entrance and interrupted the conversation he had with Fadine.
“What is it?” he said, eyes wide as he saw my own panic.
“Nyah,” I said, finding it hard to breath. “Nyah has been captured. Someone has her somewhere in Morgatis.”
Fadine ran for help before either of us needed to tell her.
I sagged into Hadrian’s arm, unable to keep my legs up. “The pain, I felt her pain. There is so much.”
“Shh,” he hushed into my ha
ir as he held me tight. “We will find her.”
“Hadrian, what have I done?”
THE RESIDUE MEMORY of pain was overwhelming. I’d shared images, memories with Nyah, but never a feeling. It seemed that every time I blinked I felt more. I tried to keep my consciousness, but the phantom agony still had hold of me.
“You need to tell us what you know!” Kell was suddenly inches from my face, her own plastered with concern. I could have sworn she was not in the tent before I closed my eyes. How long had I been out for?
Moving my eyes up I saw Hadrian, then I felt him. He’d laid my head in his crossed legs, his hands stroking non-stop across my sticky forehead. “Petal, Kell needs to know. If we have a chance of finding Nyah, then we must start searching straight away.”
It could’ve been Hadrian’s urgency, or the mention of Nyah’s name that kicked me out of my state. I bolted up, knocking Hadrian’s hands away with my quick change in position.
“She didn’t speak to me, not like we normally do. This time was very different. I felt… pain. So much of it. But I saw the sky, sand, sea. And, I think I saw the broken walls of a building. I can’t be sure now.” Even as I spoke, I tried to contact Nyah again, but there was no presence behind the door into her own mind.
Kell rocked back on her heels, eyes lost to the tents ceiling for a moment. The silence was agonizing. When it finally broke, I could have shed a tear with relief.
“I know where she is,” Kell said, eyebrows furrowed above her wide, dark eyes.
“How far? We must leave with haste,” Hadrian shouted at Kell as her face melted with clear worry.
“We can, and if my guess is correct, we would reach it in a matter of hours. But there are risks to this.”
“Risks?” I said. “You do not know Nyah yet, but I assure you she is worth every risk you could possibly throw at me.”
“There seems to be risks with everything at the moment,” Hadrian added quietly.
Kell raised her hands and nodded. “I understand your urgency, I do. But you need to understand what we will be getting ourselves into. You have faced hostility from those within Vcaros, you understand the disdain they have for the Dragori. But there are others, Morthi who refused to live beneath ground after the war many moons ago. A small pocket of Morthi overrun with hate for anyone who hid beneath the ground after the Great Destruction. If that is where your friend Nyah is, I cannot promise she will be living by the time we reach her.”
I could’ve screamed at that moment. I could have teared down the entire camp with a single breath and shown these elves who have Nyah captive just why they should be fearful of us.
“Then we leave right this moment,” Hadrian commanded.
“If you go, your guard will need to follow.” Kell paced, her nails between her teeth. “And I will come for Zacriah in case the worst happens.”
“So be it,” Hadrian said, pulling a long sword from the top of the dresser. In a giant heave, he pulled the weapon free from its sheath, allowing the light to dance across its metallic surface. “We must fetch Emaline and Illera. They will join us. I do not want us to be separated again.”
“I will return in a matter of moments,” Kell said, already moving for the tent’s exit. “Be ready.”
“Decorate yourself.” It was the first thing Hadrian said to me once Kell left us to prepare. His skin blotched with splashes of red as he too had to battle to keep his anger at bay. “Leave no inch of your body untouched by a weapon.”
“What if we are too late?” I asked, needing to hear Hadrian’s confidence in our task to save her. If I admitted what I really thought, I would’ve broken down on the spot.
“Petal, let me help you prepare.”
Hadrian didn’t answer me properly.
We all changed, preparing for the unknown.
Hadrian wore no armor. Nor did he need to. The less he wore the freer he was to shift into his Dragori form. His scaled skin would be all the protection he needed. But that did not stop him from showering his body in weaponry. The long sword was strapped with leather ties down the middle of his back, adjacent to his spine. On either side of his hip, twin daggers hung from a belt. His last weapon was the power that lay dormant beneath his very skin. Looking at him in the streamed light from the burning sun outside I could imagine his entire body combusting and devouring his chosen enemy. It made my knees weak with excitement.
I wore the dark uniform Gordex had gifted me for no other reason than being free to shift without ruining my clothing. Hadrian looked out the side of his eye as I pulled on the pieces. I could see my own reflection in his curious gaze. But not once did he make a comment
“Here,” Hadrian said, handing me over a bow. I had not noticed it in the room before now, but as the smooth wood graced my hands I knew of its familiarity. “Do you remember when I gave this to you?”
I nodded, mouth open and wordless.
“Such a beautiful weapon. Fadine retrieved it before she left with our fleet to get us. It was the first item I saw when I finally woke from being soul lost.”
I ran my finger over the gemstone that was embedded into its hilt, and the rivers of purple decoration that graced its surface. “I almost forgot this ever existed.”
“Then let us hope you have the opportunity to re-familiarize yourself with it when we take down those who have Nyah.”
“And her brothers,” I said. “The twins. They traveled with her. And what of the Alorian soldiers who helped man the ship? They will be there as well. So many lives we must retrieve, I only hope they are all still intact.”
“As do I.” Hadrian kissed my forehead, brushing a strand of silver hair out of the way with his thumb.
We left the tent to find Emaline, Illera and Kell each dressed head to toe for battle. Emaline did not have any weapons attached to her belt, but two skins of water that were full and dripping. That was the only weapon she would need. Fadine came rushing over, elk-helmet atop her head which shone with a fresh layer of sweat. I had not seen her wearing it since Olderim, something which filled me with a sense of home.
“I don’t know about you all, but I am ready to kick some—”
“Thank you, Fadine,” Hadrian interrupted.
“We will be riding the serpents, which already wait for us beyond the camp. I do not believe your soldiers would appreciate the serpent’s arriving so abruptly,” Kell explained. “Follow me.”
It was a short walk to our meeting point. Already my boots began sinking into the sand, and my tunic itched under the heat. Then, as the three serpents caused the entire ground to shake before they burst skyward, they brought with them more discomfort.
Like the first time I saw them, they were both beastly and impressive. The sun reflected off their palm sized scales, causing light to dance all round where they slithered in anticipation. This time each serpent was as black as night, the odd white scale speckled amongst the sea of darkness. Forked tongues licked out at the air as they familiarized themselves with our scent. Then, when they were ready to accept us, they bowed their pointed snouts and pushed their cold bodies against the sandy bed.
“Climb on, two each, make sure your Dragori have your chosen guard with you,” Kell said, giving me the eye to follow her to the first serpent.
“Is that necessary if you do not have the weapons for us yet?” Hadrian asked, his discomfort at leaving me was clear.
“Well,” Fadine said, hooking her arm with his and walking towards the next serpent. “We do have them.”
Even I looked at Fadine as she lifted her untucked tunic and flashed a dark holder at her side. It was not made from leather like the rest of her sheaths, but from a material that mirrored the same serpents scaled body beside her. Dark scales stitched together, enough to hide the small dagger at her side.
“You will not sense the gold until it is pulled free from the Morthi made holder,” Kell explained to me as Fadine did the same to Hadrian. From Emaline’s unbothered expression, I could tell it was not news to h
er. Kell then raised her voice to the group, “We will arrive by dusk, if all goes well. Be prepared for anything. Blade and light may be our only greeting when we arrive…”
“Blade and light?” I heard Fadine mumble to Hadrian just as the serpents shot forward. I didn’t catch his response as I was too focused on gripping ahold of Kell around the waist to stop myself from falling from the serpent’s slick back.
There was no room for conversation as we rode the serpents into the horizon. We hugged the shore, slipping across the damp ground with such speed that the air whistled past my ears. I quickly learned that pressing my face as close to the creature’s body stopped the sand from getting into my mouth, nose and eyes. I followed Kell’s actions and let our companions guide us knowingly. I couldn’t help but think about how easy this journey would have been with a griffin to ride.
Kell hadn’t told us of where we were headed too. Not with the rush we had to get the journey started.
The silence was torture. It left me in the deep pits of my mind, imaging what Nyah was going through to cause her so much pain. Different scenarios filled my mind, flashing from one bloody vision to another. I had to occupy my mind with other thoughts as I risked the anger to grow further. I could not lose control now. Not yet. There was a teasing nature to anger that was both hypnotic and exciting. I knew what would happen when the Heart Magick took over and gave Gordex his welcome to command me. If it meant I could destroy those who had Nyah, I would gladly give up control.
We rode until the sun dipped behind the dunes of Doom desert and the sky morphed into a painting of dark navy. It was a cloudless night, but still humid and dry.
By the time we came to a stop, I was thankful to use my legs. The serpents lowered their bodies, enough for us each to slip down their smooth skin onto the ground. We’d stopped in the middle of a valley of dunes. Billows of sand flew in circles at the peaks of the dunes as the wind beyond our protected pit teased them. We could not see beyond our pit, nor would anyone see into it unless they stood at the top of one of the dunes and looked in.
