Chapter 19 Prophecies
Chapter nineteen
Prophecies
Alaceandra
Iam in pain. Opening my eyes to darkness, I try to blink the grogginess away.
I either just had the worst fucking dream of my life or I am in a lot of danger.
Taking a quick inventory of my body, it seems like it is doing okay.
I am disoriented. It is not usually this dark when I wake up in the morning.
Further, there seems to be something soft and tickly under my feet.
More importantly, my shoulders are aching.
I go to rub one, but my hands are shackled above me.
Holding back impending panic, I blink in rapid succession to try to make my eyes adjust quicker to the darkness.
Sorin comes into focus across the room. My eyes widen and I start to call out to him.
A vine rushes up and covers my mouth. Sorin puts a finger to his lips and then mouths, “Not now. Stay still.” The feeling under my feet recedes causing the ache in my shoulders to increase.
Confused, I nod, trusting him but still very unsure of everything going on around me.
Once my body slackens against my restraints, the vine around my mouth releases me and recedes back into the soil beneath us. A large door swings open and in walks a guard.
“Oh, I see the little princess is awake?”
I cringe away from the intruder, my body swinging slightly.
He keeps his eyes firmly on me as he stalks in my direction paying no mind to Sorin behind him.
He is covered in a thin sheen of sweat and dirt and the look he gives me turns my stomach.
I curse the chains holding me and glare at the man, struggling against them.
He reaches up and rubs a bit of my hair between his fingers. I flinch at the contact.
“Oh, the murderess is afraid of me?” He chuckles and licks his lips then grabs a hold of my neck.
An involuntary whimper escapes me. I only now recognize him as one of the men who had captured me earlier.
Shit. “You should be. You killed my friend, you bitch,” he growls in my face, his grip tightening.
A small, choked sound escapes me. “You will be repaying that debt with this body of yours. A body for a body, seems fair, no?” He smiles.
“I do not give a fuck what Sydon says, I can’t let you get away with killing, now can I?
Who would have known that dagger of yours had a slow acting poison, if we would have caught it…
” His face screws up and he grits his teeth.
“No matter, I have many potions around the corner that will make you willing should we need it. We can keep you relatively unharmed for the kings use with those, but I won’t have to use any of them if you behave.
You will, won’t you? Knowing what you have done?
The king doesn’t even have to know about this little meeting, does he?
” His voice is now filled with an unhinged excitement, and I feel his other hand tracing up my belly making its way to my breast. I try to struggle but his hand around my throat only tightens further.
I try to gasp for air but nothing happens.
My chest tightens painfully as fear takes hold.
I cannot breathe. “Maybe the little commoner over there will wake up to enjoy the show before he dies. Wouldn’t that be nice?
” I have the opportunity to flick my eyes over to the very much awake Sorin, his face red with fury, before the guard blocks my view, his body pressing closer to mine.
I try not to gag as the stench of death and rot overwhelms my senses and my head goes light with lack of oxygen.
I close my eyes against the sensations and try not to panic.
Sorin! This would be a great time to help!
My mind screams as I start to black out.
Just when I feel the tip of the guard’s fingers reach my breast, I am suddenly released.
A crunching noise fills the space, and I snap my eyes open and suck in air, coughing at the tickle in my throat each inhale summons.
A huge vine lays wrapped around the guard’s ankle.
A guard who is now sprawled on the floor, his head canted at an unnatural angle.
Sorin stands above him. We make eye contact.
The vine snakes its way towards me and up to where my hands are chained above me.
After a second the lock clicks softly and the tension is released.
Dropping my shoulders I watch as the vine gently lays the cuffs to the ground before transforming into a bundle of grapes. I stare at Sorin, mouth agape.
“Did—” he shakes his head at me and puts a finger to his lips.
On light feet Sorin makes his way over to me barely making a sound as he crosses the small room.
His clothing is blood-stained, and he has little bruises dotting his skin.
My brows furrow when he gets close to me, and I reach towards a bruise on his face, but he catches my hand and shakes his head again.
Giving my hand a gentle kiss, he rests his head against mine and takes a deep breath.
I am shaking, my body still filled with adrenaline from the encounter with the now deceased man at our feet.
Sorin lifts his head and traces his finger over the marks that are sure to be forming on my throat, his brow knit with worry.
Where is Sam? Pulling away from Sorin, I search the room, but do not spot him.
I figured that if they captured both me and Sorin, they would have caught him too, but he is not here.
I hope that means he was not captured like the two of us.
I bite my lip. But…what other dangers does this land hold?
What if he is meeting a worse fate than us?
What if--? I cut my train of thought off. He must be okay; he has to be okay.
Sorin squeezes my hand once again and nods towards the door.
Right. I will speak to him about this after we have escaped.
I tilt my head at him in a “well now what?” move.
He smiles once again, a cute dimple appearing on his face before he pulls me down into a crouch, his hand still holding mine.
He scoops up the grapes placing them in his lap and popping one in his mouth before offering me one.
I take it and eat it. Luckily, the remnants of Sorin’s magick have always proved tasty, but I cannot help but be a little annoyed with him at the moment.
Why did he wait so long to save me? He shoves the rest of the grapes in his pocket and then leads me to the prison door.
He pulls out a leaf which I assume was on the vine he made earlier, then looks outside the bars of the cell.
Seeing no one he shoves his hand through the bars and expertly picks the lock with the leaf’s stem.
I stare at him again. First, the skill in which he killed that guard and now master lockpicking skills?
Why-- How does Sorin know how to do all this?
Biting my lip to keep the questions from spewing out, I follow Sorin as he drags me out of the cell doors and around a corner before dipping us into another room.
My jaw drops. The room is filled with different bottles and vials of liquids.
Sorin, less amazed, sweeps his eyes across the room before grabbing a couple of vials and storing them in his pockets.
He grabs my hand once again and pulls me from the room.
My eyes are now the size of saucers, but I am trying my best to keep my shit together.
Shouts erupt from behind us. They probably found their guard.
Sorin squeezes my hand and pushes forward at a pace I can barely keep up with.
Stupid dress. I cannot wait to tear the bottom off as soon as we are out of here.
We round another corner and find ourselves confronted with a huge door reading:
“Warning! Beware Those Who Enter. Once Truths Have Been Revealed, Fate Cannot Be Undone.”
“The dark lands,” Sorin whispers. “If that is where we are, then that means that behind this door…” He pushes it open, but hovers at the entrance.
There is a huge stone at the center of the room.
I can tell there is writing on the stone, but I cannot quite make it out.
The sight of it is oddly familiar, but I cannot place where I have seen it before.
Was this in one of Helomasi’s texts? No.
It could not have been. Then where have I seen it?
Glancing at Sorin, he seems to be almost entranced.
A look of determination flits across his face.
Abruptly, Sorin pulls us into the room to the stone and starts wiping off the dust with his shirt, finally revealing the engraving written on it.
Before her twenty-fifth birthday is upon her, this shall come to pass.
Catastrophe will strike those who wish to mar her skin.
Demoni shall roam the land in which she once called home.
Every creature shall know her name. Fear will strike those with the most might.
Giants will pass away. Hark, you who do not wish to hear this warning!
Ignorance will not save you from her bloody fists!
Justice will soon rule this land again. Kindle her fire, make it worth her while and maybe her flames will not scorch those she loved so fiercely (though her flames are strong and grow hotter with her age, do not worry about their effect on you, they will not last too long—do not be afraid of her or yourself in this journey—we are counting on you to show her the true way to salvation, a way not lined with bodies, loss, and despair, but instead alight with the truth of the meaning behind her sparks—you are the only one who can achieve this, S, you are our only hope, please bring her back to us).
“Look, Sorin,” I manage to whisper, pointing at the mark of blood at the bottom of the stone that is all too familiar to me.
A dagger. Not only is it a dagger but it is my family crest’s dagger.
My hands are shaking, and my body has gone cold.
Oh fuck, who in my family could this be referring to?
Despite my father’s best intentions, I am his only heir.
There is no one else under the age of twenty-five in our lineage.
It cannot be. My hands go clammy, and my heart starts to race.
“Quiet!” the guard on the other side of the corridor shouts at the other guards—they are on to us.
“Rely on me to get us out of here?” Sorin holds my hands together.
I take a deep breath, and close my eyes, nodding at Sorin.
Utilizing a sharp rock lying next to the huge stone, he runs at the guards rounding the corner and swiftly incapacitates them, before pouring something over their bodies.
Victorious in this quest, he runs back over to me and grabs my hand pulling me towards the entrance of what I now can see was a cave.
“What if they find us?”
“Xanthosoma potion, it’ll at least stave them off so we can find another place to hide.” Yellow potion bottles appear from his pockets, and he smirks at me. Zipping them up into the safety of his bag he grabs my hand once again and off we run back to the safety of the spindly woods.