Chapter 4
Chapter four
“You will!” The voice was familiar, and the pain was, too. The strikes, repeatedly, such a recognizable pain—a familiar feeling.
“I am sorry.” The apology shook the room, and it shook my father, who had to be the one landing the blows.
He paused.
All I could see was the stone wall, streaked with red splattered blood, which had been such a common sight that I barely registered it.
Why do I have to dwell on these moments? I thought, interrupting the memory. Why am I plagued by them? Will I ever be free?
Before I could respond to myself, I was lost once again in the past.
There was a melody there, a song; one that had never accompanied my beatings. My father’s soul was dark, barely even there, so I knew it could not be his. I had counted the days until he would become soulless and die. No soul which was pure could inflict such pain upon a person.
“You apologize?” my father spoke, shifting the shoulder of his victim around so that he was facing him. “Shadrict, you cannot say you are sorry; you are the prince of this kingdom and the future king! You never shall be wrong. Do you understand me?”
“But you said—”
He punched Shad in the face, the blow too hard upon what seemed to be a frail, boyish body of maybe twelve. Shad slumped to the floor.
“I know what I said!”
I could sense it then, in the melody, in the confusion of my brother. Not understanding the logic of his father, not trusting the only man he knew who was supposed to teach him to be a king. He was conflicted—confused—hurt.
“You will stay down here this evening. Maybe then you will learn what it is like to be nothing—and maybe next time you will learn what it means to be a leader.” He walked to the door.
Shadrict clutched his face in his hands, blood fell from his split lip, slipping between his fingers. The hurt in his soul, the disbelief on his face—his melody knew that pain; it wasn't new.
There yet again I saw that my brother had not lived the pampered life as I had always imagined. That moment faded, and a new one took its place.
Shadrict was laying upon a quilted bed, someone tending to his wounds. He had someone, too, like I had Hava. The pain that came with the cleansing, so that the wounds would not get infected, I knew all too well.
“You must remember what I said,” a female voice spoke, and I realized that it wasn't a maid; it was a girl, a girl who he cared for; she was a few moon cycles younger than he was.
“I cannot ever please him, Thea,” Shadrict said into the pillow as another wound was cleaned.
That was one difference—I never had a pillow—or clean bed linens as he appeared to have.
“It is not about pleasing him. You can show on the outside the man he wants you to be, but do not change what is within. But Shad, I am so sorry.” She paused in her cleaning as she covered her face with her hands. “How could mother have married a man like him?”
Shad winced. “The man who did this—this is not the man who mother married. The corruptor can do this to anyone. It is a warning to us, to never let the darkness in. I pray to the Creator daily for a way to end him. His soul is fading—before too long, he will be completely in the corruptor’s grasp,” Shad said, sitting up and putting on a clean shirt, slowly.
“I know—do not forget that you are not the only one in the palace who has scars.”
“Did he strike you again?”
“Only that one time, and since then, I will not stay in a room if he is there. Do not worry about me. You hold most of his attention.” She patted him on the hand.
I felt Shad’s feelings expand; he had wanted to be the only one who felt his father’s wrath. He would have gladly taken it all so that his sister and his mother wouldn't have to have any of it.
We had a sister?
“I wish you and mother could leave and escape from him.”
“I know, and believe me, Shadrict, I am not just sitting idly by. The best way to defeat him is by not letting him win.”
“Nothing else can be done. Soon, we will be free; I know it.”
“Build your strength, and someday you will be strong enough to defeat him.” She touched his cheek and kissed his brow. “May the Creator bless us, and may Father not ruin the entire kingdom and kill us in the process.”
“You are too wise for your own good, you know.”
“I have to be. Who else will be able to help you and rescue you from the dungeons?” Her light, soft melody laughed and echoed–then slowly faded away.
I sat up, realizing I had passed out on the bathroom floor, the suit I wore still spotted with blood from my broken nose.
I stood, taking the crystal necklace off from around my neck and setting it upon the counter.
I needed a break from my brother’s memories.
But as I set the midnight crystal on the counter, the melody did not follow.
The melody—the soul—was still inside of me; we were one, and it seemed as if all of the memories attached to it—had become mine as well.