by Sarah Noffke
Chapter Eighteen
“So no pressure, right?” Liv joked, putting the parchment away. “I just have to find an organ somewhere in this massive castle.
“He must have removed his heart because he couldn’t bear the pain,” Plato said slowly, putting it all together.
“You can do that?” Liv asked.
“Well, it’s isn’t safe, as you can imagine. However, with magic, you can do just about anything,” Plato explained. “And as you can see from the castle, Rooster is a very skilled magician.”
Looking up the stairs, Liv tried to hone in on where the sound of the heart was coming from. At times, it was louder than others. Sometimes it seemed to be coming from above her, and other times from behind her. She thought it was safe to assume that this wouldn’t be straightforward or easy.
“What if he doesn’t want his heart back?” Liv asked as she began to climb the stairs. “He did take it out for a reason, after all.”
“That’s a good point,” Plato said, following her. “However, once you remove a heart, it isn’t easy to reconnect with it. He might not be able to put it back in. Also, the reason he wanted to separate himself from his heart might not be worth the pain of not having it. Strangely, our hearts are what let us feel emotions, but without them, we suffer greatly. I suspect Rooster is tortured without his heart.”
The dark shadow swept overhead again, momentarily casting them in darkness. Liv spun and pulled Bellator from her sheath. She stood frozen for several seconds, waiting to see if there would be more mysterious movement. When nothing happened, she climbed to the top of the stairs.
As she suspected, the castle was vast, the seemingly unending hallway going on farther in both directions than she could properly see. It was lined with doors. Beside many of the doors were suits of metal armor with large swords, arranged to look like soldiers guarding.
“It’s going to take a while to search all these rooms,” Liv stated. “We could split up.”
Plato shook his head. “I don’t think blindly searching the rooms is a good idea.”
Liv tried the first door, finding it locked. “Well, and since I’m guessing most of the rooms will be locked, that’s definitely not going to work.”
“We just have to think like a broken-hearted man,” Plato suggested. “You’ve just found out on your wedding day that your bride is in love with your friend. You lash out, killing him—”
“Or maybe her,” Liv interrupted.
“That’s right,” Plato corrected. “Yes, he could have killed the girl.”
“So then you lock yourself inside this castle and remove your heart,” Liv mused.
Bu-bump. Bu-bump.
The echo of Rooster’s beating heart seemed to mock Liv as she tried to figure out this mystery.
“Wait, what did the inscription on the party favor say?” Liv asked.
“We thank you for being a part of our special day,” Plato answered.
She shook her head at him. “No, the other part.”
“Oh, I believe it said, ‘May you always find the music in your own heart, as we have found it in each other’s.’”
“So what if he locked it away with his music?” Liv offered. “Music would make him feel. Without it, he would be free of his heartache.”
Plato nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. It would be how he could have worked such a powerful spell.”
“How do you figure?” Liv asked.
“Well, one would need a method for removing the heart,” Plato began. “Notes from a sad ballad might work. But once the heart was out of his chest, he’d have to keep it somewhere safe. The heart works in very symbolic ways.”
“So, his guitar?” Liv posed. “Do you think that’s where he keeps his heart?”
“It’s possible,” Plato said, searching the long hallway. “Now the question is, where does he keep his guitar?”
Liv drew a breath and muttered an incantation her mother had taught her early on. It was a locating spell that only worked when an object was of major importance and was hard to find.
From her back, she heard a muffled banging. Liv whipped around, running in the direction of the noise, passing a dozen doors and as many suits of armor. She slowed when the banging grew louder.
Ahead a door shook every time the banging sounded.
“Do you think?” Liv asked Plato.
“That the guitar you just located is trying to get out of the door? Yes, I’d say so.”
“Well, this was easy,” she said, striding forward. Then she halted. Looked down at Plato. “I just jinxed myself, didn’t I?”
He nodded, a heavy look on his face. “I’m afraid so.”
Chapter Nineteen
In unison, the metal suits of armor all came alive in the hallway. Like soldiers, they snapped to attention, facing Liv.
In front of her were six phantom soldiers carrying long swords. Behind her were another six.
“Oh, hell,” Liv muttered, readying Bellator. “You try to help a guy out by reuniting him with his heart, and this is how he repays you?”
“Remember, part of him is afraid to feel again,” Plato said.
“Good point,” Liv said, whipping her head back and forth, trying to keep an eye on the enemies approaching from both directions. “There are a lot of these guys. Any ideas?”
“Duck,” Plato yelled.
Liv spun just as one of the suits of armor leapt through the air, swinging its sword at her. She dropped to the ground, kicking her leg around and taking out its legs from under it.
Immediately she jumped up, grabbing her shin. “Damn it! That hurt!”
“They are covered in metal,” Plato said, casually sitting to the side and licking his paw.
“Thanks,” Liv said without any gratitude in her tone. “Care to change into a lion and help me defeat these guys?”
The closest one was only five feet away, moving like a clumsy robot.
“I would, but I can’t,” Plato said.
Liv produced a fireball and launched it at the clunky soldier nearing her.
“Because?” she asked as the fireball ricocheted off the chest plate and sped back in her direction. She had to drop to the floor to avoid being hit by her own attack. The fireball blasted into a soldier on her other side, knocking it back into more, making them fall like dominos.
“Because it’s bath time,” Plato answered simply.
The screeching of metal as the soldiers tried to untangle their limbs from each other made Liv squint.
“Well, maybe when you’re done licking your butt,” she said, throwing a blast of wind at the suit of armor on her other side. The domino effect had given her an idea.
“After my bath, it is time for my early-afternoon nap,” Plato stated.
The blast of wind sent the five approaching suits to the ground in a cacophony of noise. “What about after that?” Liv asked, spinning around to the side. Unfortunately, the suits had recovered, rising back into formation.
“After my early-afternoon nap, I have a small gap of free time before my mid-afternoon nap,” Plato said. “But I’m pretty busy after that.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “Because then you have your late-afternoon nap, which is right before your early-evening nap.”
“You do pay attention,” Plato said, licking his hindquarters.
The soldiers were too close for her to try another elemental spell on them, and that had only knocked them down. What she needed to do was disable them, which meant only one thing would work. She brought Bellator up and around, smashing into the helmet of the closest suit. It shot off, flying toward where Plato was casually bathing. Just before hitting him, it redirected, shooting like a cannonball at the suits on the other side of them. The attack made one soldier explode into loose bits of metals.
Liv ducked to avoid the shrapnel. “See, you helped.”
“No, that was just luck,” he lied.
One of the suits grabbed Liv, clamping its strong arms around her and making he
r drop Bellator. She kicked, wiggling furiously to get her arms unlocked from its grip. “Want to throw some more luck at me, Plato?” Liv asked breathlessly as the robotic armor grabbed at from her either side. She went from having an advantage to being nearly surrounded.
The lynx stretched before settling down into a resting position. “I would, but I skipped my late-morning nap, so I’m pretty exhausted.”
Even with the turmoil of being seconds from being ripped apart, something suddenly occurred to Liv.
“That’s a great idea,” she said between measured breaths.
“Thanks. Napping is always a good idea,” Plato said, his voice trailing off as he slept while chaos continued to reign in front of him.
Liv lifted her legs up, making the suit holding her nearly topple backward. That made the other soldiers lose their grip on her momentarily. She used this tiny window to mutter a strong incantation, one she knew would drain most of her reserves. For a moment, she wasn’t sure if it had worked.
And then one by one, the suits of armor began to slump to the floor like it was suddenly their nap time too. The ones grabbing for her lost interest, slouching against the wall and sliding down, their helmets resting to the side. However, the one that was holding her didn’t let go.
She didn’t understand. She’d used her reserves to cast a strong sleeping spell on the soldiers. It worked because they were supposed to behave the same as whole individuals, and therefore, magical law dictated that spells affected them the same way as an actual person. However, if this one soldier wasn’t falling asleep like the piles of metal lying on the floor, it meant only one thing.
The soldier holding her wasn’t a whole person.
It was Rooster.
Chapter Twenty
Liv struggled, trying to free her pinned hands. However, Rooster was strong, holding her arms against her body as he carried her backward.
She yelled and kicked her legs, but that did her no good. Her energy was extremely depleted from the sleeping spell, and Plato appeared to be completely passed out.
“Damn it! Rooster! I’m trying to help you. I’m Liv Beaufont. I’m a Warrior for the House of Fourteen!” Liv yelled, squirming the best she could.
He was carrying her through the hallway, moving fast as if she weighed little. Liv ran through possible spells in her head that she could cast to incapacitate the magician, but all the ones she thought could work would take more energy than she had.
The armor slammed through a door, making it swing back violently, knocking into Liv. She continued to kick and squirm, not budging from his tight grasp.
The room they’d entered was darker than the hallway, and even over her struggling against the suit of armor, she could hear strange music filling the space. It was eerie, and brought strange images of darkness and death to her mind.
Thinking the music signaled her end, Liv prepared to use a spell that would most assuredly rob her of all of her energy. If it worked, she’d be free, but it would demolish the magician holding her. There was the very real possibility it would also end her.
She pressed her eyes shut and started the complicated arrangement of words. Liv felt the energy flow out of her and had to force herself to continue. However, when she was dropped to the hard floor, her words stopped, and her eyes popped open.
Springing to her feet, Liv prepared to fight. To finish the complicated spell. To do whatever it took to defeat the deranged magician. However, the suit of armor had backed up to the wall after depositing her on the floor. Rooster had his arm extended and was pointing at a man lying in the middle of the dim room.
At first, Liv thought it was the drummer he’d killed. She gasped as the realization came over her. A small beam of light from the only window in the room illuminated the body, showing her the one thing she’d been missing.
Lying on the surface of a table was Rooster, his blond hair brushed back and a grief-stricken expression on his young face. His eyes were closed and he was wearing a tuxedo, but in the center of his chest was a large bloodstain, the fabric ripped.
Liv glanced between the motionless form on the table and the suit of armor as it all came together. “You didn’t kill them. You ripped your own heart out in front of everyone.”
The screech of metal made Liv flinch when he nodded.
“And your friend? Your bride?” Liv asked, thinking she already knew the answer. “They ran away together, didn’t they?”
Another nod.
Liv’s own heart began to ache for the man or the fraction of the man before her. He’d done something most wouldn’t have been able to survive, and yet here he was.
“But you don’t have to live with the torment anymore,” Liv said, trying to figure out what she was missing. Rooster wanted her help. She could feel it. And yet, he was afraid. That was the reason he’d knocked her back from the front door and sent soldiers after her. But he’d brought her here to the room with his body, and there was an important reason for that, she realized.
Liv closed her eyes, listening intently to the music that filled the room. It seemed to get louder with her eyes shut. Suddenly she realized that the music had lyrics. They were so faint at first she could hardly understand them. But then it hit her, nearly making her double over from the realization.
“May you always find the music in your own heart, as we have found it in each other’s,” a soulful voice sang, weaving together the full story for Liv.
Her eyes sprang open. “You’re afraid she stole your voice, aren’t you? You believe she was the inspiration behind your creativity, and without her, you’re forever lost?”
The metal screeching told Liv the armor was nodding even before she could see it.
“But Moldy Oranges was big before her,” Liv stated. “And all your music has disappeared from the Earth; not because she’s gone, but because you disappeared. Rooster, you don’t need her to find the music in your heart. You never did. It’s always been inside you.”
They were only words. Silly words of compassion that many could dismiss as trivial. Unimportant. Inconsequential. This man, this musician, had lived for so long in this castle. How could Liv expect to change him by stating what she felt was the obvious truth? And then she realized that that was how battles of the heart were won. Love confounds most, but when someone with an objective perspective points out the truth, it has the power to shatter the illusions that chain the heartbroken to the Earth.
As if suddenly unchained, the suit of armor bolted forward.
Liv, fearing he’d gone crazy again, backed away rapidly, finding the opposite wall. However, her fear quickly dissipated when he simply removed something from the hand of the body.
Curiously, Liv leaned forward as he offered it to her. A shiny key winked through the darkness of the room.
“You want your heart back?” she asked, realizing she could not give it back to him without his consent.
He nodded, the screeching of his helmet strangely accompanying the music.
Liv took the key and sprinted out the open door and down the hallway.
Bu-bump.
Bu-bump.
The beating of Rooster’s heart was like thunder during a storm. Liv could feel it shaking the castle. It rattled the floor and made her nearly bang into the wall.
She skidded to a halt next to the door where Plato soundlessly slept. With shaking fingers, she slipped the key into the lock, pushing the door open.
It was another dark, nondescript room. However, lying on the mostly empty floor was an electric guitar.
Just like in the center of Rooster’s chest, there was a hole in the front of the instrument.
Carefully, Liv picked up the guitar and quickly carried it back the way she’d come.
Bu-bump.
Bu-bump.
The beating of the heart was so loud it was almost deafening, but Liv continued walking, focused on her mission.
When she entered the room, the suit of armor straightened suddenly, adding a screeching sound
to the mix of beating heart and the sad ballad playing on repeat.
Trying to hide the grimace on her face, she reached into the guitar until she felt the wet, squishy organ deep inside the recess of the instrument. As carefully as she could, she pulled it free, watching as Rooster’s heart beat in her hands.
Bu-bump.
Bu-bump.
Liv was fascinated that a human’s heart could beat outside the body. It proved to her the power of love. That in itself was our lifeforce. Breathing was only secondary to loving.
Fueled by a strange instinct, Liv plunged the heart into the opening in Rooster’s chest. She stood back, not knowing what else to do.
Nothing happened.
She worried she’d done something wrong. Messed it up. Killed Rooster for good.
But then the suit of armor spilled to the ground with a loud clanking noise. A dark shadow rose from the metal, and she caught the faint outline of a man. He zoomed by her like Peter Pan flying through the air. As if magnetized, the shadow slipped into the resting body.
At once, Rooster shot into a sitting position, choking and coughing, clutching his chest. The music in the room, the beating of the heart, and the darkness disappeared, replaced by light.
Liv glanced around to notice they were in a beautifully decorated office. Rooster blinked, seemingly disoriented as he slipped his legs over the side of his desk, staring around and trying to regain his focus.
His attention finally landed on Liv. He was to his feet at once, nearly falling to his knees. Liv caught him with an outstretched hand, holding him upright.
“Are you okay?” she asked the magician before her.
Even though his tuxedo was covered with dust and blood, he nodded and smiled, a new light in his eyes. “Yes, and you, Liv Beaufont, are a musician’s friend.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Liv took Rooster’s arm when he presented it to her, offering to accompany her out of the castle.
“I have much to do,” he said, glancing around the dusty hallway as they strode for the stairs.
