The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (18 page)

There is a dim light at the end of the
passage way, the passage way that is enclosed to the point where I feel as if
it will tumble down upon me, crushing me underneath the heavy weight of the
stone it is made of. What am I to fear, of music and light? What sorcery, what
darkness is there to it? That is not already in my life! I want to feel the
light soak upon my skin; I want to feel it embrace me, to save me from
darkness' arms. Where light is, darkness cannot exist. So I let the light and
the music draw me in, and I step out into the dim light that fills the
cavernous room, hollow and round, like it was simply carved out of the stone.

Along the walls are markings, some are
ancient numerals that I barely understand, some are drawings primal in their
nature, some are words in a language so old that no-one who was born within the
past few centuries would understand them. All of these are drawn and written
with a heavy hand, scratches upon the walls, marking them forever with a
meaning that I cannot understand. I turn around to take in the rest of the
room, on the opposite wall is a wooden bookcase, straining - to the point of
breaking - underneath the heavy weight filled shelves, adorned with black
leather-bound journals, each with a golden gilded title made up only of a name
and year. I wonder if these journals can unravel the mysteries written upon the
wall. I wonder if the ink splattered words would bring some comprehension to my
mind, give me some understand of this madness.

I trail my fingers against the black
leather books, noting the years that they were written in, some dating back to
the early fifteenth century, and the most recent being a decade and a half ago.
I pick up the recent journal; my name is scrawled across the cover in the
gold-gilded scrawl. I begin to read the carefully formed words that mark down
every thought Victor has had of me.

All my planning, all my
devices have finally paid off. The pathetic excuse of a King - Rupert, I
shudder at the name - has finally had a daughter. She is pale and weak as all
humans are, small even for a babe, but I can feel her life pounding through my
veins, I can feel her life force within me! It brings a strange sensation, I've
never been alive as the humans consider it, my heart has never raced, never had
one beat and yet now that I can feel her life within me, it feels as if I,
myself am alive. The experiment I guess finally paid off, and I know the sense
of having her life within me is because a sliver of my soul is within her. Now
all I have to do is sit back and wait to reap the benefits.

I flip through several pages until; I
stop upon another page and begin to read.

It has been several years
since I last checked up on Anna, there has been no disturbance in her soul, and
everything has been innocent within her until now. I cannot say why or how this
has come about, but there is turbulence within her soul, such sorrow that it
overpowered me tonight within the middle of a party in honour of my
adoptive-father's birthday. One minuet I am dancing with a beautiful woman, the
next I am stumbling over the steps, as wave after wave of sorrow overcomes me.
I do not understand why she would be suffering, she is so young, too young to
know sorrow, and yet even saying that I know that I am contradicting myself,
for wasn't I as young as she when I lost my parents? I had no choice but to
leave the party as soon as I felt her pain, I had no where else to go but down
here. I had to see if she was okay, and so I went to the immortal, Sadar, the
unseeing one and demanded that he show me Anna, that he show me why she is
suffering.

As I read the journal I find that Victor
tends to repeat himself, going over and over a single point. I stop again a
couple of pages along and read.

By the Angel! I should have
killed that blasted devil of a man, I should have ripped out his throat when I
had the chance! How dare he abuse her! How dare he treat her so! The little
wriggling worm! He has escaped me once but not again, this time I shall destroy
him! He will beg for mercy, and I shall treat him as he has treated my Anna!
This time there will be no mercy!

Closing the book as a shudder rolls over
me, there is nothing that I can say about this. He has been following me all my
life, perhaps even before then. Placing the book back onto it's shelf I turn
around once more, and my jaw drops. I cannot understand why I didn't see this before,
in the far reaches of the cavernous room is a single cage, completely barred in
silver. Within it is a poorly robbed figure, with silver hair and onyx skin.
This, I think to myself, must be Sadar.

The immortals blank white eyes have been
trained on me this whole time, I realize belatedly. There is no emotion on his
face, except for the blank look. He seems to be Unseeing; perhaps that is where
his title comes from.

The music hums vibrantly through the
air, it swarms and embraces me as I stand before the Immortal his lips move
creating the beautiful sound, but within my mind there is a soft whisper,
caressing, comforting until I feel claws scratching, digging through my mind.
The pain that unfolds within my skull sends me crashing down onto my knees. I
have no power to stop him, to push the Immortal away. All I can do is scream,
scream until the pain ebbs away.

It is a long time, stretched out even
further through the agony, before the Immortal stops. My breath comes out
heavily, as I will my heart to stop racing. I have no strength to get up,
barely enough to look up through my hair to see the satisfied smirk on the
Immortals face.

"You are the girl, the
girl that is infiltrated by a soul that does not belong to you. You are the girl
that he experimented on, took advantage of before you were even born. How
strange, that you continue to love him, though this knowledge is not unknown to
you."
Sadar's voice is hoarse as he whispers
in my mind, like nails sliding down a chalkboard, an unpleasant, unbearable
sound.

"I love him despite of it, how can
you, an immortal, someone who cannot be touched or even feel love ask me such a
question," I reply simply, keeping my eyes locked with his blank white
eyes. Is it even possible for him to see me, with his eyes the way that they
are?

"I believe that you
would think differently, if you understood what had been done to you, if you
understood what it has made you. You are no longer human, I'm sure you can
understand that."
Sadar whispers,
sighing a heavy breath before muttering "
Nostra spes, ultimum forte
"
over and over again.

"I understand that something is
going on within me, I don't know what or how or why, but I know that I am no
longer who I used to be. You've seen inside my mind, I'm sure you've seen
inside of my heart. You've granted Victor his every desire, whether you wanted
to or not. I ask that you show me the future that my friends are about to meet.
I need to know if they'll live or die, I need to know what they are going
through. I cannot afford not to see it, not to know. Please I beg it of
you." The words are barely a whisper upon my lips but I know he hears
them, hears the sincerity within the words. Sadar seems to pause for a moment
in his muttering before turning back toward me, there is a difference within
him now, he no longer seems sarcastic and bitter, there seems to be a plain
softness to him that was not there before.

“Deus damnaret eam! You are
not like him, where he is cold and bitter, you are kind. You ask me to help
you, where he forced my hand, bound me in runes to force my will to match his.
For that kindness alone, I will show you what you wish to know. Close your
eyes, and give me your hand."
I hesitate
for a moment and there is another sigh passed from Sadar's mind to mine.

"You can either take my
hand girl, and find out what is going to happen to your friends, or you can sit
there and be ignorant. Either way I'm stuck in this prison, and cannot do a
thing. It's really up to you."
I look up
into his blank eyes, wondering if I could see into his soul through them, but
they remain empty, keeping the secrets of his soul. I reach out for his hand,
and he starts to softly chant, his lips moving rapidly as he mouths another
mantra.

"Whatever you see,
whatever happens, know that the future is never set in stone. Know that it can
be changed by a single action or thought. Your friends may die in the events
you are about to see, but it does not mean that they will certainly die. There
is nothing to fear, so trust me."
Sadar
whispers one more time before the chanting becomes louder, more melodic, more
heavenly sweet music than a simple chant. I can feel my eyes getting heavy, my
mind falling asleep. I see their faces flash before my eyes, Victor's,
Kayden's, Shade's, and most unwanted of all Christian's. I can feel my heart
rate slowing down, my breathing getting heavier as I slip away from the light
that emits from Sadar, into darkness' cold arms.

Victor's P.O.V

It has been days since we left the castle, and at
first all I could feel from Anna was her loneliness, her misery. I could feel
the painful slow beats of her heart, her blood calling for me through the
distance and then, in the late afternoon, I could feel nothing from her, and
although it allowed me to feel and think for myself, the absence of her
feelings left me concerned.

We had separated from a group of twelve into three
separate groups of four. I already missed Kayden, my oath brother and my best
friend, the one guy that has never left my side through out all of this and
now, by my orders, he is gone. There is also Shade and Will to consider, and of
course Augustus and Astoria, my two god-parents. They are all gone, all doing
as I have asked of them to help my people, to rid our world of the disease
which is the Skin-walkers.

My group of four – including myself – had not filled
ourselves for days, with human food or blood, we are starving; the hunger
growing as our starvation drew onward. It would have been impossible to resist
any calling of a stranger's blood, and so I am grateful that we have not passed
a single soul in our journey to the forest. We have spent nights sleeping
underneath starry skies, with nothing separating us from the bitter wilderness.
To be truthful, it is a complete step-down from the luxury of my castle, but it
reminds me of a time, far too long ago, where there was nothing but the
wilderness, torn rags and madness; a time where I had no parents, was unknown
and unloved by all.

My men are growing weak, and their need for blood,
need for shelter and the luxuries of the city urges them onward. It is hard at
times to resist what we have constantly surrounding us, to be without the
luxuries of any ordinary day, but we are on a mission, a mission to save our
world, and the people within it from the poison that runs underneath the skin,
the poison which can take on any form or any being at their simple wish without
all but one penance, their need for blood.

The forest is within sight, and as we draw nearer I
can hear the others cries of joy, cries of freedom from the mess that they had
allowed themselves to get into. If I was to be asked if the wilderness was
worse than the forest, I would have denied it, and admitted that the forest is
worse, far worse than spending a lifetime in the wilderness. Because where the
wilderness had been deserted, without anyone but ourselves, it is better
because at least we know where we came from, where we were and where we were
going. In the forest you could not tell the difference. In the forest you could
get lost, and be walking around in circles for days. In the forest it feels as
if I had returned to the madness I knew in my childhood, as if I was that
scared, lost little boy again.

We hunt before the sun can set on us, and the small
animals are easy game. It gives little satisfaction, in our need for food and
blood. I wish for larger game, but there is no answer to our needs, and we are
left to satisfy ourselves with the small prey that we are able to capture. The
first night in the forest is horrible, none of us are able to create shelter,
and I wonder why these useless, scared boys – well they are men, however the
way that they are acting you wouldn't be able to tell the difference – are my
secret soldiers, why they are a part of my Acer Tempesta.

The second day in the jungle we seem to be
continuing the same pattern from the day before, treading circles into the
dense forest grass, and soon our progression in the forest is so clear, that
there is a 'crop circle' in the dense grass. The second night in the forest is
even worse than the first. I can feel snakes slithering on the ground, snaking
their way in between my legs. The chatter of nocturnal animals continues on
into the night and it allows me little rest. My mind drifts to Anna, and I'm
wondering how she is fairing, how she is coping without having me close by. It
is late into the evening before my drooping eyes finally slide close, and my
mind drifts off into the ever comforting darkness.

The third day becomes unbearable; I know that we
need to feed properly before the sun sets, and I hope that we find their camp
before the sun sets as well, as soon madness will be descending upon us.

The men's complaints are becoming louder, cruder and
more demanding than I had ever heard before. I wish that there is something
that I can do to appease their cries, but there is nothing that I can do, not
without the help of the forest vampires, and they are no where to be seen. I
continue to push on, to hope for the best, as in that our salvation will come
soon, but as the sun sets for the third time my hope quickly vanishes, and
before long I'm sitting in front of the fire as the men sleep, my arms wrapped
around myself as I slowly rock back and forth.