From the Embers (The Born in Flames Trilogy)

by Candace Knoebel

  Terron opened the door and stepped aside, waiting for me to follow. Lighthorn was directly behind me. “The room is right down this hallway,” Terron explained as he walked around me to take the lead. His chin was up in the air. I focused on the ever-changing patterns of purple light, letting it distract my thoughts.

  “Here,” he suddenly said, stopping in front of an open archway. Lighthorn came up beside me.

  I peered ahead, hoping there wouldn’t be any blood. The room was too dark to tell. I couldn’t make out a single shape inside the blackness.

  The sound of feet shuffling against stone reached my ears. Someone came out of the shadows of the cold room with a torch in his thick hands. Hard green eyes buried beneath a thick blonde brow line met mine. He tilted the torch towards me. I looked at Terron, unsure of what to do next.

  “After you,” Terron ordered, sweeping his arm out to motion me forward.

  I passed by the strange Priest with green eyes and walked into the darkness of the room, biting the inside of my lip. “I can’t see,” I stated, stabilizing my voice using Fenn’s reassuring vibes.

  “A problem that you can easily solve, Progeny,” Terron pointed out. The door shut behind me. I spun around, searching for his voice that seemed to drift around the room. “Why don’t you show us?”

  I snapped my fingers, the flame instantaneously erupting. I touched it to my shoulder, letting it slide all over my scales. The room brightened enough to finally see.

  The Priest with green eyes stood in front of me. He was bald, just like every other Priest, with swirling black markings that wrapped around his head and came to two points on his forehead. There was a gentleness in his features that set my mind at ease. He looked in awe as the flame along my body grew in time with my racing heart.

  “Let’s proceed, shall we?” Terron said. I followed his steps, maintaining a front of confidence. A large wooden table with metal shackles sat in the middle of the room. Gleaming under my fire’s light, a smaller table with instruments meant to probe and cut stood next to the examining table. Ropes and chains that could hoist someone hung from the ceiling.

  I kept my eyes on the table, certain they could see the rapid pounding of my heart beneath my armor. Laughter entered the room as the five Elders stalked towards me. I gulped down the need to flee, determination like cinder blocks in my feet.

  “Just in time,” Lighthorn said, smiling. His long, frail hands were out, fingers wiggling with excitement.

  “I’ve heard about you,” I said, trying to gain control over my heavy breathing.

  The Priests closed in a circle around me.

  “Enlighten us,” Terron said.

  “You torture people for knowledge. You kill for even less.” I spat out the words, thinking of Astral and his advice to stay away from here. I was beginning to understand the extent of his anger.

  “Yes, if we wanted to, we could kill you and be done with the whole fiasco, now couldn’t we?” I blinked a few times before Terron’s words registered. My heart slammed against my chest. I had walked right into a trap. I wasn’t immortal like Zordon, but I was the only link available to kill him.

  But my Foresight told me otherwise.

  I didn’t see harm coming my way, only intrigue, so I held back the need to strike. I slowly let my flames die down and watched the Priests through the haze of smoke rising off my body.

  “You won’t kill me,” I said on a whim, sounding certain. I turned inside the circle, eyeing each of the Priests to show my confidence. This was, after all, what they wanted.

  There was a long pause as the Priests gradually broke the circle, each taking a corner of the room, leaving only Terron in front of me.

  “No,” Terron finally said, “we won’t kill you. Unless of course, you break our agreement,” he added, his finger tapping against his chin.

  “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  He looked me over. “Yes, you are.” He turned to his brothers and made some kind of weird hand signal. Each Priest stepped up to his own small, amethyst altar, rising up out of the ground. They all placed their left hands on top of the altars and closed their eyes.

  A quarter moon smile spread on Terron’s face. He stepped aside. “You may lie on the table now,” his slick voice instructed.

  “Lie on the table?” I repeated, hoping he didn’t hear the hesitancy in my voice.

  “That is what I said,” Terron replied in a mocking tone.

  “Okay,” I said, quivering. I hopped up on the table and lay back, finding the shards of amethyst that hung from the ceiling a good distraction.

  All around me the altars began to glow underneath the touch of each Priest. The lavender light spilled onto the floor, sending beams of light directly to the table I lay on.

  I mustered up enough courage to ask the question that had been bugging me. “What does the test involve?”

  Terron chuckled menacingly. “If I told you that, then it wouldn’t be a test, now would it?” His face appeared in my line of vision, and I felt the coolness of the shackles being placed around my arms and ankles.

  What did I get myself into?

  As he locked the last shackle, a chill ran up my spine. I shifted against the sterile table, trying to ease the pressure of my weight off of my wings, but I was chained so tightly there was nowhere for me to move.

  Be strong, I told myself.

  His harsh face appeared again in my line of vision. He shackled my head to the table, twisting screws that prevented me from lifting my head. Claustrophobia struck, making my entire body shake uncontrollably.

  “The test will consist of two stages,” Terron went on to explain. “Stage one will be an entire examination. You are the first of your kind and could very well be the last. We must document everything we can for the Biblium.”

  He walked around the table, his voice drifting through the hollow room. “We must also be assured that you are strong enough to survive. Find your strengths and your weaknesses. If we find a weakness, we may be able to help better protect you.”

  It sounded like a good idea, except for the part about examining me. I hated doctors. I hated being poked and prodded.

  “If you pass that stage,” Terron continued, unaware of my internal panic, “stage two will commence. Now…this part may be a bit painful. The Priesthood connects with you using the Pool. This will allow us to see into your soul. The painful part is the actual infiltration of the soul. All of this will be documented and kept within the Biblium.”

  “Okay,” I said impulsively before I had the chance to reconsider.

  “Sam,” Terron called, summoning someone that I couldn’t see. “Let us begin.”

  I heard footsteps and then metal clanging against metal. The green-eyed man. I shut my eyes and tuned into my Foresight. The flash was brief, but I was relieved that it didn’t involve blood.

  Sam pressed a cold instrument against my cheek. I opened my eyes and glanced down, but I could only make out the sharp tip of the instrument poking my skin. His fingers pinched and prodded, and then he scraped off a piece of the rough outer layer of skin.

  “Hey!” I said, wincing from the sting. He left the table for a brief moment and then returned, moving the instrument down to my left hand to poke at my scales. A burning, stinging sensation formed under my skin. I bit the inside of my cheek to stifle back the word stop.

  After popping off a scale and leaving again, he came back, took my temperature, and then plucked a strand of my hair. He attempted to take my blood, but the needle wouldn’t puncture my skin.

  “The scales have a glass-like consistency and cover most of her body,” Sam told the Priests. “The skin untouched by scales on her hands, feet, and face is entirely reptilian though her internal temperature and hair are that of a mammal.” He sounded intrigued.

 
I listened, interested and slightly mortified.

  “How much pressure to puncture?” Terron asked callously. I couldn’t stop the trembling quake in my muscles. I felt embarrassed as my body continuously shuddered against my will.

  Breathe, I told myself, using Fenn’s energy to soothe me.

  “That’s just it. The puncture would have to come from an enchanted blade. Her scales are the same as a dragon’s. See—”

  I felt a slight jabbing pressure against the scales on my left arm. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I assumed he was demonstrating by trying to stab me.

  “That is most helpful news,” Terron said, delighted. “Her battle will be prosperous. What about her pain tolerance? She cannot buckle under Zordon’s power should he capture her.”

  My eyes widened. “He won’t kill me. Not so long as we are connected. You don’t need to worry about that. This should be enough information for you to record.” My temperature rose as I moved beyond fear and into anger. This had gone on long enough. “We are wasting precious time here.”

  “You gave your word,” Terron reminded me in a flat tone. It irked me that I couldn’t move to see his face. It irked me that I couldn’t move period.

  “Let me up,” I demanded, jerking my hands against the chains. The copper must have been enchanted because I was immediately shocked with electricity from the movement. “What the hell!” I yelled, trying to move my head inside the vice.

  “Let us finish,” Sam said smoothly. He calmly placed his hand against my shoulder, his face coming into view. His smile was kind when he looked down at me. “I will try not to hurt you,” he eased. “Just cooperate with me.” His eyebrows lifted, suggesting that I agree with him for my own good.

  I exhaled loudly and sunk back into the table.

  He left my side, and the metal clanking resumed once more. He was searching for something. “Do you mind if I pull from the Pool?” he asked, his voice a bit distant.

  “We must know,” Terron granted.

  Great.

  Sam came back a second later with a long metal wire. He wrapped the cool wire around both of my wrists and then my neck. Although I knew it couldn’t pierce me, my human instincts told me to stay still.

  “I’m going to use a simple electrocution test,” he explained. “We do this to all our projects.” He continued wrapping the wire, looking away from me.

  “Projects?”

  “We must document your pain tolerance. And since we don’t possess magic like most races, this is the most effective way with the least amount of blood spill. Also, this is the best way to determine how much torture you can take without having to put you through it all. If Zordon were to catch you with the elixir…”

  “I don’t plan on getting caught,” I bit off, trying to remain still even though every fiber in my being told me to run. Being stuck with my hands above my head and shackled to the table was quickly becoming unbearable.

  “No one ever does, Progeny,” Terron chided. The ridicule in his tone had me grinding my teeth.

  “Can we get this over with?” I snapped.

  “I am going to pull from the Pool now,” Sam said quickly from my right side. He muttered something to the other Priests in the room and then a loud vibration shook underneath me. They had connected the power from the Pool to whatever Sam was using on me.

  He looked down at me again. “When the electrocution starts, try to remain still.”

  “Okay,” I said, inhaling deeply for courage.

  “Bite down on this,” he instructed, placing a small piece of leather in my mouth.

  As soon as my teeth sunk into the strap, the first round of torture began. It started out as a mild tingle around my wrists but steadily grew into searing pain. Hot, white light flashed behind my eyelids as my toes curled into themselves.

  “Rory!” I heard Fenn shout from down the hall. He felt my distress, but I couldn’t communicate with him like this. My mind was swarming with the pain.

  Sam turned up the voltage, sending a higher course of electricity throughout my body. My back arched, practically lifting me off the table. I bit down as hard as I could on the leather.

  “She has surpassed human pain levels,” Sam said to Terron. My ears were ringing, and I felt like my head was splitting in two. My blood felt ready to boil out of my skin.

  “Keep going,” I heard Terron say apathetically.

  The pain eased up for a split second and then returned with a vengeance. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, leaving a scream sitting like a thousand pound weight in the back of my throat. I should scream…end this horrific pain. But I had to get the elixir. This was my only chance.

  “She’s surpassing Mage pain tolerance,” Sam noted.

  I think I heard a loud pounding on the door, but I couldn’t be sure. It may have been the sound of my brain throbbing in my head. Muffled shouting that sounded like Fenn’s voice tried to break through the awful ringing in my ears.

  Terron’s voice was obscured when he approached the table. “Are…close…finishing?”

  “Final stage…strong,” I heard Sam reply in between my convulsions. The room was beginning to float away from me. The searing pain was so intense, I could no longer see. Even if I had wanted to scream, I couldn’t.

  I felt darkness creep in, pulling me from reality. The same darkness that always carried me to Zordon. No, not now, I thought helplessly.

  But it was too late. When my eyes fluttered open, the scene around me flickered in and out. One second I was on the table, electricity pulsing through me, and the next I was lying on the floor next to Zordon, unable to move. This went on for a few seconds until Terron and Sam noticed my body moving in and out of time.

  “Where do you think she is go—”

  I caught the tail end of their conversation before I flickered back in front of Zordon, this time staying a few seconds longer. His eyes were wide and set on me, though he was just as paralyzed as I was.

  “Aurora,” I heard Terron say distantly. I flickered back into the pain of electricity, writhing against the table.

  “Should we stop?” Sam asked, and then he disappeared again.

  “You,” Zordon managed to groan out, his hand curled awkwardly into his chest. I tried to look around to see where we were, but I couldn’t move my head. I was stuck looking at his face.

  “I am going to kill those Prie—”

  And then the pain stopped.

  I felt the leather strap being pulled from my mouth. I tried to open my eyes but failed. My amulet pulsed against my chest. Healing energy and strength flowed throughout my being and kept me from losing my grip on what was real.

  “Look! Her chest,” Sam said

  I used what little energy I had left to pull from the amulet. My eyes fluttered opened. Sam was looking down at me, sweat marring his brow in tiny beads. He sucked in a quick breath, his eyes wide.

  “You passed,” he said. He wore a grin full of wonder.

  “Great,” I said weakly. “Can you take the restraints off now?”

  “Oh, yes,” he said, rushing to unravel the wire. “How did you leave like that? Your physical being, it just disappeared and reappeared. How?”

  I felt the locks turn on the shackles and then my arms were free. I pulled them into me, rubbing my wrists and wincing from the pain. I had somehow shifted back into my human form. Thank The Fates for my armor.

  “It happens sometimes because of the bond I share with Zordon. Our physical beings are linked,” I said, wishing I could erase Zordon’s face from my mind.

  “Outstanding! And your amulet,” Terron pointed at it, “what does it do?”

  I wrapped my hand around it. “It heals me and binds my dragon form to my human form, which is what allows the transformation.”

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nbsp; His eyes filled with ideas as he paced away from me.

  “You took more pain than I thought possible,” Sam said as he helped me sit up on the table. I waited for him to remove the shackles on my feet.

  As he removed the last shackle, the door to the room burst open. Fenn was at my side in a heartbeat, gently lifting me off the table. It felt good to be in his arms.

  “How sick are you?” Zane asked from the doorway, his face twisting in revulsion. His gaze skittered across the room, the sight slowly draining the color from his face. When his eyes fell on me, anger flickered across his face.

  He was in Terron’s face a split-second later.

  “Do you know what you’ve done?” he shouted, his fists clenched at his sides.

  Lexi ran into the room and stopped short at the sight of vomit and chains. “Aurora,” she practically yelled, her hand held over her heart. “Zordon knows.”

  My heart beat out of sync as the world in front of me spun off its axis.

  “Rory?” Fenn asked, brushing the hair from my face.

  I pulled harder from the amulet, knowing that this was the worst possible time to become dead weight.

  “Rory,” Fenn repeated, this time with a little more urgency in his voice. “Is it true?”

  “I saw him,” I said, nodding.

  Fenn set me down to my feet, his eyes growing in size.

  “The test, it was too much, it weakened the both of us. I was transported to him like I always am. He knows where I came from. I think he knows what we are after.” I looked over at Terron, hoping that this information would be enough to convince him to choose our side.

  He was ghostly white.

  “She has proven herself worthy of the elixir,” Sam spoke, sounding worried.

  “We do not hand out something so precious to just anyone,” Terron added. The other four Priests relinquished their places in the corner and stalked over to us, standing like statues.