18. Chapter 17
Chapter 17
I clicked Mary's number and held the phone to my ear. I wasn't ready for it.
"Ryker," Mary said in a quick snap.
"Upset?" I asked, trying not to laugh.
"This is just idiotic."
"This is what needs to be done." Before she could say anything else, I spoke again: "I won't be able to reach you for a while."
"What does that mean?"
"I'm hiking for three days there—and then three days back, so for about six days, I'll be away from cell service."
"You expect me to wait six days when you are walking towards a man who wants to kill you?"
"Who said he wants to kill me?"
"Me."
"I can't talk long, but I wanted you to know," I laughed
"Okay," I heard her say, and then I clicked off the phone.
The hike did take me three days. It was long, and I was very tired near the end of it. I camped in a small grove of trees about a mile or two from the mouth of the cave’s opening. I set up my small one-man tent in the clearing near the treeline. I wiped my brow with my shirtsleeve and took a long swig of water from my backpack. I had three hours until darkness covered the mountain top. I wanted to hike the rest of the way to the cave that night in order to check it out before going back to actually enter the cave in the morning. The best thing for me to do was to get a good night’s rest before journeying into that cave. I didn't know what was in there or who the man was I was searching for, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. The hike took about an hour because I slowed my pace to check my surroundings as I walked. I reached the cave, and I noticed guards standing at its mouth. They wore the emblems of the second kingdom, and I was confused. Was this all the second kingdom’s doings? I asked myself. I moved closer, noticing the blackness in their eyes and their lack of melodies.
"Soulless," I whispered under my breath. The cave had a larger opening than I had suspected. I sat there, hidden for a few hours, wondering if or when the guards would change. It was around midnight by my watch when I started back for my small camp for the night—with a plan in place.
I woke the next morning to the light of the sun. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and I began putting my things back inside of my pack. I took out a bag of beef jerky; I ate in silence. I packed my small one man tent into my backpack and swung it onto my back, checking to make sure that I had left no sign of having been there.
The two-mile hike took me half of the time that it did the evening before. Being well-rested and aware of my surroundings helped greatly. I hid behind a tree as the cave opening came into view. There were no guards. Surprised, I waited for a good ten minutes before I walked closer and closer. No one. What happened? Had they left?
I inched closer and closer until I found myself at the cave’s entrance. The cave was dark. The sunlight that morning wasn't bright enough to illuminate it much. I touched the walls as I maneuvered through it. Tunnels wove through the mountain, and I had no idea which one to take. I walked straight until I heard noises. I followed them, and they grew louder and louder. The sound of voices echoed off of the cave walls. I heard other noises, too. Is that a hammer? I questioned. I spotted a light and followed it slowly to an opening. I crouched down as I peered into the opening of a large interior cavern. There were hundreds of people in it. I looked at their eyes, and they all contained the blackness of a taken soul. They were carving black crystals from the walls and carrying them to large containers. Back and forth, they went. Could those be midnight crystals? Here in this realm? I wondered.
Before I had a chance to leave or find out any more, I heard a noise from behind me, and then there was blackness—I had been discovered.
“Madam, are you well?” I asked, staring into her grey eyes. I watched as she turned her face to the side and coughed up sea water.
“What happened?” she asked, sitting up. I moved to help her, but she moved away as if afraid that I would hurt her. I tried to soothe her with my melody, but then—I paused. She didn't have one. Was she corrupt? Was she a soulless?
“I just came upon you lying here on the beach,” I said.
“I guess I am alive then, right?”
“Yes, you are soulless?”
“Soulless?” she laughed, and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful that sound was—as well as her beautiful smile.
I pulled my melody back so that she couldn't hear my feelings, but then I remembered that she didn't have a melody, so it didn't matter.
“That is funny, but really, where am I?” She tried to stand, and instead, she fell over. I reached out for her again, but she moved away.
“May I assist you?” I asked, worried for her wellbeing, noticing an injury on the top of her head.
“No, you may not. Just, please, tell me where I am.” She finally gave up trying to stand and sank deeper into the clear pebbled rocks.
“The Kingdom of Torren.”
“How am I in Europe?” she asked with wide eyes. I had never heard of such a place before.
“You are in the blessed lands–”
“What is going on?” she asked herself in a hurried whisper. She felt her head, and winced, then touched her strange clothing–a rather strange style of dress. “I hit my head, and am wet.”
“Yes, it seems so.”
“I think I lost my memory.”
“Very possible, maiden—”
“Maiden?” she asked absently, looking out into the water. A hand covering her mouth.
“Let me help you. I can get your head checked by a healer and some new clothes,” I said, worried about the severity of her head injury.
“Oh, I appreciate that.” She lifted her gaze up toward me, the lightning in her grey eyes held me there. Then slowly she swayed, and then before I could catch her, she passed out onto the sand.
“Ah, so this is how a soulless is made naturally,” a voice echoed around me as the Terran blue ocean and grey eyes of a lost girl lingered in my mind for just a moment longer. Blast that box. What was the point in having it if it never kept the memories away? I looked up, realizing that I needed to focus on the present, not on the past. I saw a man before me. I spit at his feet. I would have spit on his face; however, the ties at my wrist and ankles prevented me from standing upright. He held my head by my hair, and I groaned. His black, soulless eyes stared back at me.
“I knew that my informant would do a good job getting you here. I am just sad that you didn’t bring Emma.”
“What do you want with her?” Fear shot through me.
“What do I want with her?” He shoved me back down to the cave floor, and my head hit a rock, causing me to see stars, but I kept my eyes open. I had to keep my eyes open.
“I need her soul,” he said, walking out of my view as I tried to sit up. “I need her soul in order to go back to Terra, and I also need to find the portal that let you through. I have heard whispers that a knight knows where the portal is. That knight is you.”
“You were misinformed; I do not remember where it is.” He walked over to where I lay on the floor, and he kicked me in the side.
“Do not lie to me, knight.”
“I am not.”
“And I assume that you think I am supposed to believe that? The word of a guardian knight used to mean something. At one time in my life, I would have believed you in a heartbeat, but now?” He bent down and moved the hair from my face. There was a gash on my forehead from when I fell, and I felt the sickening, sharp pain as he dug into the cut with his fingers. I pulled against the urge to cry out.
“You are no guardian knight of Terra. You are no honorable guardian.”
“My vows are unbroken,” I retorted as he let go of my hair and face. The stinging pain from the cut on my forehead made me clench my teeth. I tried to focus on it, feel the pain, and let it help me stay awake and keep me from losing consciousness.
“Really? Lamont is dead, knight. Dead—unless I am mistaken, that was a vow broken.”
I flinched. That hurt worse than anything else he had done to me.
“Don’t even get me started on this whole soulless thing you have going on.” He waved a hand at me as he walked around a table and sat down.
“I am no soulless.”
“Knight, I am sorry to inform you, but you seem to be mere months away from being completely soulless. Why not let your melody sing? Why do you hide it in shame? Many would kill—and have killed—for a simple melody.”
“I do not have to tell you anything.”
“This is true—very, very true.” He set his elbows on the table where he sat, leaning his chin on his hands as he looked at me. His eyes, though dark and soulless, seemed to be searching mine, genuinely curious. He was a disturbing creature to behold. His inky, black, oily hair. His nose, which looked to have been broken at one point and never fixed properly, made his face look all the more wrong. His skin was pale and sickly.
“But if you do not tell me where the portal is, I will kill you, and it will not be fast; it will be slow and painful.”
“Do what you will. I will not break my vows.”
“So, it is a vow is it that keeps you silent?” he asked as he stood again, taking more interest in me, coming closer. I shouldn’t have indulged him. I shouldn’t have told him I had another vow. His steps echoed in the large cavern.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I spat at him. This time hitting him in the face. He laughed as he took a napkin away from one of his soulless men and wiped his face.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked with a smile, but I just stared at him. I didn’t know who he was, other than he was the one who murdered Lamont and Ara. I didn’t care to play his games.
“I asked you a question, knighty-boy.” He took out a knife and cut my arm.
I made no noise, not a sound. I pictured Emma in my mind. I pictured her safe, and I smiled.
“I think you need more of these,” he said as he cut me again.
Still, I was numb. I thought of Emma, and I imagined her being safe. I pictured her brilliant emerald green eyes, her smile, her hand in mine—so warm and so wonderfully right. I would die for her. Even if it took a thousand cuts to slowly drain the life from me, I would gladly die, gladly sacrifice my life for hers. Maybe someday, I would end up with the Ancients in the next life. I smiled again as cut after cut tore at my flesh.
With bloodied hands and an enraged face, he kicked me, and I felt each cut then, and I gasped. He looked at me, and the pain engulfed me. It was agony everywhere. It hurt as if I was being stabbed over and over again, feeling the blackness of corruption coat my soul. I looked at his weapon and saw the markings it held.
“You cut me with a Corruptor’s blade?” I gasped as I felt the life drain from me and pool around me. Corruptors blades were painless when used, and then the pain was tenfold after the cutting was done.
“Let’s see if this will break that little vow of yours.”
“I don’t care if you kill me slowly, I will never tell you anything.”
“And I don’t care if I have to keep you alive for all of eternity.” He finished wiping his blade, and then he looked at me. “I am Prince Cadian of the Embra, and I will be the next king.” With that, he left the room, and I had to try and repeat over and over again in my head what he had just said. He was a prince of the Embra? He was Prince Cadian? Prince Cadian died. But he looked so much like Shad. Could this man really be Shad’s brother? I wondered. That was the last thought I had before blackness took me, and I hoped it didn't take me back to the beach on Terra with grey eyes and brown hair, blowing in the sea breeze.
“Anymore talking?” Cadian asked for what felt like the ten thousandth time as he stabbed me again. He wasn’t using the corruptor's blade, so I felt the pain right away. I bit my cheek to keep myself upright and alert. How long had I been down there? Days? Weeks? Months?
“I do not have the information you seek,” I gasped as he slid his silver knife into a patch of flesh yet untouched by him, near my neck. The cave was cold and dark. Half of the time, I just lay there, wondering if I had gone blind—until he came back with a lamp in order to torture me again, and I knew that I could see all too well. What I wouldn't do to feel warmth again.
“Sir,”
I watched as Cadian turned to look at a soulless guard, entering the cavern.
“Yes,” he asked, setting down the knife and shoving me to the floor.
“There is someone in the cave.”
Cadian nodded. “Finally, took them long enough.” He wiped his hands on a towel, for they were covered in my red blood.
A sickening feeling crawled up inside of me. No—they didn’t come. Mary, she wouldn’t really let that happen, I thought.
“Should we catch him, my lord?”
“No, let him think he has a fighting chance. I would like to see how this plays out.”
The soulless man nodded, and I thought it strange how human-like the soulless seemed to be.
“Don’t hurt her,” I begged, hardly able to speak anymore.
“Emma?” he asked, looking at me with fake sadness. “Oh dear, of course not. I need her soul.” With that, he was swept from the room, and I lay my cheek upon the frozen and rocky cave floor.
“Ryker?” I was being shaken as I slept, and I flinched back awake by instinct.
“Ryker, I am here to save you. It's Keil.” I opened my eyes. It wasn’t a dream if Keil was right in front of me. Who else was there? I prayed to the Ancients that he was alone.
“Tra-p—” I barely spoke before the doors were shut, and a soulless man took Keil and shackled him beside me in chains.
“Who is it?” Keil asked after the soulless left. His eyes were wide. I looked at his entire person and saw the comforting sight of the ancient warrior armor. How had he been captured if he was a warrior? I wondered.
“Cadian.”
“How is that even—” He paused before speaking again. “What have you done, Ryker.”
“Nothing,” I said, coughing onto the stone floor.
“You are not a noble cause. The Ancients didn’t see fit to save you. If they had, I wouldn’t be chained here beside you.”
“I have no idea why your abilities are blocked,” I whispered. At the same time, I still wondered if the Ancients wanted me dead because of Lamont and Ara, because I had failed them. Maybe it was what happened to failing guardian knights, or perhaps, it was the corruptor's blade that had marked my soul.
“You better hope that she doesn’t come,” Keil said in irritation. “Knowing her, and only from the little information I have picked up on, she doesn’t give up very easily, and she cares for you.” The words were torture. Emma—is she here? I wondered. Cadian would get everything then.
“Tell me, she isn’t—” I gasped, pulling my body up to look more fully at him.
“Emma, Mary, Prince Shad, and I all came under Mary’s direction to rescue you. Mary said you hadn’t responded in the allotted time.”
I nodded. I was completely aware that Mary would try to find me. That’s when Glasson’s voice echoed in my head, telling me in my mind that I had become too close to my heirs; I had gotten too close to Mary and too close to Emma. It was true, and because they had learned to care for me as I did for them, they were going to be destroyed for it.
I cursed.
“Mary should be coming after me. I told her to keep Emma safe,” Keil said. “Nothing about this is wise. Have you at least discovered what he is doing here?”
“Mining for black crystals and making soulless. He wants to go back home—” I stopped speaking as the doors opened. No one came in, but it was silent for a time, and before I knew it, blackness, blood loss, and exposure, no doubt, overtook me.