Chapter 8
Chapter eight
Iwatched again from a distance as the group broke apart, people giving their condolences, and the knight holding Emma up so that she wouldn't topple over into the open grave. She had been wobbling throughout the entire ceremony, her sorrow affecting her body’s capability for accessing even the most basic functions.
Sorrow poured from her melody. I could hear the pain and the hurt that curled its way inside of her, winding down deep and like a snake coiling up, preparing to remain silent until the ideal time to deliver the death strike—with venom.
“What should we do, Sire?” the soulless who came with me asked as I watched Emma and Rykerian, the knight, walk away from the grave. I counted their steps as they walked across the lawn, back to their cars: twenty paces.
“What we need to do,” I said, flexing my fingers which hung at my sides.
Her melody was being shielded by both Rykerian and Mary, her knight and her aunt, and although they could not shield it completely, they did a decent job.
What she really needed, though, was a seeker's crystal.
I walked back to my car, slowly. The soulless came trailing behind me.
I stopped. “What is your name?” I asked without turning around.
“Ten.”
“Ten?"
“Yes, I was the tenth child of my mother.”
“Ten children?”
“I am all that is left; well—soon there will be no more left at all.”
“Do you remember, Ten, which kingdom you came from?”
“I was from the Kingdom of Tolston.”
“Tolston,” I said, raising a brow. If my recollection was correct, he had to be an old soulless, and I wondered how he’d hung on for so long.
“I spent most of my youth in the Kingdom of Sorra before it was destroyed, however, Sire.”
“I have hardly met any from that kingdom,” I said, sliding my hands inside my pockets, still not turning to face him.
“Yes, well, everyone is dead, and any who still live, they are actually dead, as well, even if their bodies still breathe.”
“What do you mean?”
“There is a sort of dark corruption in Sorra, one I have never before seen, not like the soulless, not like myself—and, after I left, that corruption devoured the souls of all my people, not slowly, but very quickly; then, their bodies continued to move and function for years, although inside, they were hollow.”
“Such a thing is not possible,” I said, continuing my walk to the car.
“I assure you, I have not lost my entire mind yet.”
I then remembered the reason this soulless was next to me.
“You killed the rightful heir of Haleston’s throne, along with his wife, and injured their child, the next heir to the throne.
What do you have to say to that?” I turned to look at him.
Dark hair, beady eyes, and pursed lips faced me.
His clothing, while possibly fine on their own, appeared to be sitting upon a skeleton of a human.
The dark circles under his eyes and the gaunt look of his face would forever haunt my memories.
“Take me.” It was a plea, his black eyes serious as he gazed upon me.
“Take you?”
“End me, now. I know I am useless to the Ancients; I forsook my soul—if it wasn't for you, I would be in the corruptor’s grasp, and indeed, I am now aware and grateful to you, but I do not wish to suffer the not-knowing, the changing at the end, the powerlessness of it.”
“I cannot kill, outright—” I paused, touching my chin with my forefinger, willing to find another way to help him cease to exist on the mortal plane.
“But there might be another way to meet your end.”
“Yes?” he asked as I got into my car. He remained standing by the driver’s side window as I rolled it down.
“Get one of your soulless brothers or sisters to do it for you.” I, for certain, was not going to do it.
I had only killed once in my life, and I could still feel the effects from it.
I was saving any future killing for two people and two people alone, and although I did not like Ten in the slightest for what he had done, it wasn't enough to warrant getting my hands bloody. There were only two souls who were worth that—not Ten’s.
I drove off, hoping to never see that particular murderer ever again.