Echoes Of A Gloried Past (Book 2) (21 page)

You will never see me coming, Dark Master,
a voice hissed. 

Rather than spin about, Mactar kept moving in the direction he was going. He reached out and cast a net of energy all around them intent upon finding Tarimus. A slight tremor pulled his attention toward the roof. He activated the travel crystal in his pocket and emerged on the roof, only to see the dark form of Tarimus grinning as he melted away before his eyes.

C
HAPTER
14

THE PRICE OF CAPTURE

VERONA felt a sharp jab of pain on the side of his head. He pushed his eyelids open and groaned as he tried to sit upright. His vision began to clear, and the bitter smell of human excrement hung in the air, biting his nose. A gentle hand helped him sit upright.

“Are you all right?” Roselyn whispered.

Verona sighed and shook his head, coming fully awake. They were in a dark holding cell with bars all around. 

“I am still breathing, my Lady.” 

A small smile lit up Roselyn’s face, and Verona’s pulse began to quicken.

“Have they hurt you?” Verona asked.

Roselyn shook her head. "No. We’re all here, but we’ve been grouped with some others from the inn. You’ve been out for hours. They’ve been taking small groups away.”

“Eric?” Verona asked already knowing the answer but dared to hope anyway.

Roselyn’s face drew down sympathetically as she wordlessly shook her head. Verona swallowed down the lump in this throat. There would be time for grief later if they were lucky. He sat up, and his motion aroused the attention of Gavril and Sarik in the neighboring cell. They all looked relieved to see him awake. While all of them appeared bumped and bruised, they were none the worse for wear.

“Is Braden here?” Verona asked.

“The last I saw, Eric had thrown him out of the window. He might have escaped.” Roselyn said.

That was something at least. Verona was hopeful that Braden had indeed escaped. “What about … ” Verona began but was cut off as Gavril started coughing and gestured around them. After a moment, Verona nodded. They were not alone and probably being listened to at this very moment.

“They haven’t told us what they want,” Gavril said and then whispered softly as Sarik began to cough loudly.
“Tanneth and Aaron are still free. Neither has tried to make contact which tells me they are planning something.”

Verona nodded and looked up as the doors on the far end of the room burst forth and a hush swept over the people in the cells. Four Elitesmen walked into the room, dressed head to toe in their customary black uniforms devoid of any markings. He could sense the energy gathered within each of them as if they constantly fed upon it. They glided to a halt in front of their cells, and with a slight gesture the cell doors opened. Ordinary guards followed the Elitesmen and waved the four of them out of their cells. Verona glanced at the others, but did as he was told. Now wasn’t the time to put up a fight, but they needed to escape. 

One of the guards yanked off Roselyn’s hood, and her silky black hair fell down in waves. The guards openly leered and went to grab her, but in the blink of an eye Verona seized the guardsmen’s hand and twisted it, then roughly threw the man into the door of the cell where he collapsed to the floor in a heap.

The Elitesmen hissed, and two appeared on either side of him and bound his hands tightly behind him. The guardsman rose to his feet and planted a fist into Verona’s stomach, and he collapsed to one knee, expelling his breath. He glanced above him and launched into the air, driving the top of his head into the guardsmen’s face. Blood geysered from the guard’s face, and the man fell stiffly to the floor, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling.

“He’s dead!” The guard gasped after checking on his fallen companion. The other guards moved in and drew their clubs, but one Elitesmen stopped them with a wave of his hand.

“Enough,” the Elitesman hissed. “Bring them forth now.”

Some of the guards began to protest and the Elitesman grabbed the nearest one by the throat, holding him several inches off the floor. "Do not believe for a second that I value the life of any guard more than these prisoners. You will obey, or we can find other uses for you." The Elitseman said, letting the guard fall to the ground gasping for breath.

Roselyn spared him a small smile that was gone in a flash, and as the growling guards surrounded him, he knew that his actions had been worth it. He would gladly take the beating of a thousand clubs if it spared Roselyn the leers of the prison guards and what followed them.

The guardsmen guided them away from the holding cells, but not without taking a few shots with their clubs. At least they had left the smell behind. Verona focused his mind, continuing to draw the energy into himself and began feeding it to his aching parts. His body slowly began to repair itself, and the aches faded away completely. Aaron had tried to describe the feeling as aligning one's patterns to their correct course, and he now understood what his friend had meant. He was able to draw upon the energy around them with increasing ease, but holding onto and manipulating it was something both he and Sarik continued to struggle with. Aaron had postulated that the reason he was able to achieve so much was that he had spent a lifetime learning to focus his mind without any thought to using life’s undercurrents that surrounded all of them. Aaron had faith that in time they would all be able to do the things he could do, but Verona wasn’t so sure. 

They were brought into an empty room save for a solitary mechanical wooden chair and a table. On top of the table were knives, various steel spikes, chains, and other tools stained with blood. The pit of Verona’s stomach sank to his feet. 

Torture.

He immediately looked at Roselyn and felt his eyes draw down as shame washed over him. He hadn’t been able to protect her or get them to safety. 

Some hero I turned out to be.
 

He banished the useless thought from his mind and focused on an escape plan.

The Elitesmen stood to one side of the room where several windows with wooden shutters were tightly closed, allowing only the faintest traces of sunlight from the outside. Having Aaron and Tanneth show up now would be convenient, but he had no such illusions that this would happen. He wished he knew the time so he had something to measure against how long they would need to hold out or better yet to escape. The others glanced around their surroundings, taking them in. Gavril’s face looked set in stone as he regarded the Elitesmen in the room. The air of defiance grew thick around them much to the amusement of the Khamearrians.

The guardsmen gathered to the side waiting on the Elitesmen and Verona glanced at Gavril. The Hythariam colonel was completely at ease, and Verona suspected, judging by the impassive look in his eyes, that if Gavril were by himself that he could have escaped anytime he chose. Gavril met his gaze and gave a slight nod toward Roselyn, and Verona thought he understood. For all of Roselyn’s tough exterior, she was no soldier. With the exception of Gavril, who survived the last days of civil war on Hytharia, none of them were prepared for what the Elitesmen were about to do to them. The Elitesmen’s ruthlessness was known throughout all kingdoms, and despite Aaron’s insistence that they were men and to not allow fear to give your enemy power over you, Verona was afraid. He was not afraid for himself, at least not that much. He had faced death before, but Roselyn and Sarik? One so young shouldn’t have these weights thrusted upon him. Despite surviving the trek into Shandara, Sarik was barely older than eighteen. Verona glanced at Sarik, who stared back at the four Elitesmen with clenched teeth. Though Roselyn appeared to be the same age as himself, Verona knew she was much older, but she was a healer at heart.

The Elitesmen had done nothing but watch the four of them, who were now all bound at the wrists. Verona looked down at his shackles and noted the smooth surface that held neither lock nor clasp. He focused and probed along the smooth shackles sensing the energy within that kept them locked together.

“One has been trained,” an Elitesmen hissed.

Verona looked up quickly. The Elitesmen removed their hoods, revealing bald heads adorned with black tattoos. One stepped forward and came before him. Verona returned the Elitesmen’s cold gaze and felt him graze his senses, but Verona did not respond. The Elitesmen moved on to Roselyn and reached out, putting his hand under her chin to get a better view of her face. Roselyn met the Elitesman’s challenging stare, and then he stepped back and closed his eyes. Roselyn shrugged her shoulders at first and then started shaking off something that she couldn’t see.

“
Hythariam!
” The Elitesmen hissed.

Gavril roared, and in a single motion broke the shackles that held him and launched himself at the Elitesmen. The Elitesmen stepped back, attempting to use Gavril’s momentum against him, but he spun, kicking the Elitesman back toward the others.

Verona stepped forward, but Gavril held up his hand.

“Protect her. Use what Aaron has taught you,” Gavril said then he spun throwing a small object at the advancing guardsmen. 

An explosion rocked the room, capturing both the guards and the Elitesmen by surprise. At the same moment, Verona seized the energy around them and felt Sarik do the same. He projected it outward, shielding them as the flames from the explosion rushed forward. Verona held onto his concentration by a thread, trying to keep the small barrier in place that protected Roselyn and himself. Sarik’s barrier sprang up at the same time and merged with his extending it to protect the three of them. 

Gavril went to his knees, bringing his cloak up over him, and the flames bounced harmlessly off him. A strong wind swept through the room, and one of the windows burst open, sucking the flames from the room. The Elitesmen stood unharmed with barriers of their own in place, but the guards that had been in the room were nothing more than smoldering corpses. 

The closest Elitesman recovered first and drove his hands forward, sending a blue orb crackling with lightning toward Gavril. He brought up his cloak again, and the orb bounced off harmlessly. Gavril closed the distance between them and fought the Elitesmen in a blur of fist and foot. 

The other three Elitesmen made no move to interfere, but casually surrounded the lone Hythariam soldier. 

Gavril and the Elitesman’s arms were locked, each straining against the other. Verona could see the energy gather into the Elitesman, coalescing along his arms.

“This one is strong,” one Elitesman observed.

“I think we’ve seen enough,” another Elitesman said. 

The Elitesman came up behind Gavril and raised his hand to strike. In a quick motion, Gavril pivoted on his foot and sent the Elitesmen colliding into each other. 

The remaining two Elitesmen appeared immediately at his side. One laid his hand upon Gavril’s head, who then collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

Roselyn cried out but didn’t move from the shimmering barrier kept up by Verona and Sarik.

One of the older Elitesmen frowned as he looked at the barrier that separated them. He turned to one of the other Elitesmen. “Fetch Master Gerric.”

“What should I tell him?" the Elitesman asked.

“Tell him that our prisoners are the companions of the Alenzar’seth.” The Elitesmen said, never taking his eyes off Verona.

Verona’s mind reeled. This had been a test. A way to get them to reveal themselves. He glanced at the charred remains of the guards and back at the Elitesman, whose lips curved into a cold smile. The Elitesman had gotten what he wanted. The fact that there were ten dead guards mattered not to him. They had revealed themselves. He didn’t know how long he and Sarik could keep up the barrier, but he had no intentions of letting it down.

“Now,” the Elitesmen said, “we can begin.”

The door opened, and several cloaked servants carried a table with three small stone chests on top. Heat ripples appeared over one of the chests, while a cold mist swirled out from the center chest. The third appeared to be plain. 

Two Elitesmen heaved Gavril into the chair, striping off his boots to expose his bare feet. One Elitesmen nodded to the other, and Verona could see two bands of energy bind Gavril’s wrists behind him. The other Elitesman put his hand on Gavril’s head, and his eyes popped open. Gavril struggled against the bands that held his wrists and feet, but they didn’t budge. The Elitesman dragged his hand across Gavril’s face, exposing his golden eyes, which stared grimly back.

The third Elitesman retrieved metal tongs from the table and opened the chest with the heat ripples above it. The lid of the stone chest opened, and the Elitesman reached inside and retrieved a glowing red crystal. The other Elitesman pulled a lever on the chair, and Gavril’s exposed feet shot forth in front of him. 

Gavril’s eyes shot to the red crystal then to his exposed feet and he closed his eyes. His body sagged as if he were almost sleeping.

Heat ripples radiated from the red crystal, and Verona could see beads of sweat dot the Elitesman’s face. The Elitesman casually brought the tongs with the crystal to the bottom of Gavril’s exposed foot, and Verona winced as the flesh began to smoke and turn black. Gavril did not cry out and appeared completely aloof to what was being done to him.

The Elitesman withdrew the red crystal, and Verona’s mouth hung open in shock as the burnt tissue on the bottom of Gavril’s feet immediate began to repair itself. After a few minutes, the skin appeared unmarked as if it had never been burned.

The Elitesman repeatedly put the smoldering crystal to Gavril’s feet, yielding the same result. The Elitesmen glanced at each other and then put the crystal back into the stone chest. Still using the tongs, the Elitesmen opened the centermost chest, and a cool mist oozed out. Verona could see the Elitesmen’s breath as the room grew cooler around them. 

Gavril was still in his meditative state and completely unresponsive despite the Elitesmen’s attempts to garner his attention.