"I know you're here," he murmured without looking away from Zoe's face. "You're watching me, hiding in the shadows, like a scavenger watching its prey. Let's go talk outside before dawn breaks, before my beloved's eyes kiss the day."
From the beach, Faïz watched the house on stilts, which was off the lagoon. Seen from here, it looked much smaller. The mist was beginning to rise in certain places on this calm and silent ocean. The fog would soon cover the whole island. Suddenly, a noise coming from the hollow of the cliff behind him disturbed the tranquility of the place and forced Faïz to turn around. At the entrance to the cave, dug directly into the rock, a woman with ebony skin and long hair with golden reflections was waiting for him. Behind his black eyes, Faïz glimpsed a flash of panic. So far, the horrible truth has been nothing but words in the mouth of his interlocutors. Now it was becoming a reality. The Banshee standing before him was proof of this. The young man appeared to be drained of all his blood. With a ghostly pallor, he faced death.
"It's so cold," said the woman, who was gazing at the horizon, absent-minded, her eyes empty of emotion.
Her clear eyelids, hidden under the white of her opaque eyes, seemed to get lost in the vastness of the ocean before her.
"You…you must leave," declared Faïz, trying to take a confident tone.
"Leave? I would love to," replied the Banshee softly, who was advancing on the beach without paying attention to the young man. "But first, I have to—"
"No!"
The woman, until then unperturbed, finally turned her head in his direction. Unmoved, she stared at the young man, waiting for him to speak again. The breeze brought her long hair back and made her long white dress float in the air. Her threadlike silhouette blended perfectly with the misty decor.
"There are always alternatives," said Faïz, looking mad with despair. "We can still change things. We can change the future. Nothing has been decided yet!"
The woman walked over to him and looked almost sympathetically at him before answering,
"If there was the slightest hope, the slightest chance that things would change, I wouldn't be here in front of you now. You have already made your choice, the outcome of which will be death."
The words of the Banshee ended Faïz, who dropped to his knees.
"I beg you," implored the young man in a low voice, his head bowed and his eyes bright. "Let me save them."
"We used to be so strong. Today we are trapped here. Few remember that we existed before the creation of darkness, but we will die in the absence of faith."
She suddenly raised her head to the sky and began to convulse. She seemed to be struggling with the pain. Powerless, Faïz watched the scene, plunged into utter dismay. Hearing the shrill cry that escaped from the Banshee, he realized at that moment that there was no hope. Kneeling, he turned his head towards the house in the distance. The fog covered it almost entirely. The young man put his hands on his temples to protect himself from the noise of her powerful howl. His heart filled with rage and hurt, he began to scream too with all his might. At the same time, Zoe woke up with a shock, looking around the room for Faïz.
15
The silence inside the vehicle didn't bother me. Part of me needed it. Absorbed in my thoughts, I looked through the glass at the landscape below me. The day that I had been waiting for and dreaded for weeks had arrived. We were finally going to get our hands on the ruby without really having a precise idea of the degree of danger of this last mission. Faïz's icy voice suddenly brought me back to reality.
"You're very calm. What are you thinking about?"
"I was wondering if William had arrived," I replied, taken aback, without bothering to turn to him.
I felt the weight of Faïz's gaze behind my back.
"I hope he's okay," I added in a small voice, uncomfortable.
"There's no reason!"
I immediately turned my head towards him, shocked by the harsh tone with which he had just answered me. The cold, serious man next to me had nothing to do with the guy from the day before. How could he have changed so much in just one night? Saddened by this brutal reversal of the situation, I looked away, preferring to concentrate on the sequence of events. I regretted at that moment the absence of radio and music in the car. It might have allowed me to find the air more breathable in this cramped cabin.
When I got out of the vehicle, Faïz was holding my door. His dark pupils stared at me with a shadow of regret. He grabbed my hand before I walked away to bring me back and sighed deeply.
"I spent the best hours of my life with you last night. I forbid you to doubt it for a single moment!" he insisted. "I'm just in a rush to get back to L.A. and end all of this."
The sincerity I saw at that moment on his face relieved me. So he didn't regret those moments with me. The lump in my throat eased and I let out a smile. His irises then seemed to revive, and he kissed me with a strange frustration that I couldn't explain. His arms tightened around me, which was enough for me to forgive him for his attitude the past few hours.
"So everything is okay between us?"
My head resting against his chest prevented me from seeing the expression on his face.
"Everything is fine. Promise me to take care of yourself."
"I promise. Everything will be fine," I said, absorbing the dizzying aroma emanating from his skin.
I crossed the entrance to the conference room alone. Faïz had left to consult with Min and Ray in order to receive the last instructions. Asarys and Lexy were standing near a table where dozens of crossbows and other equipment were placed.
"Hello, girls."
"Hey, Zoe!" cried Asarys, taking me in her arms, happy to see me again.
Lexy did the same with a burst of mischief in her eyes. She immediately asked me,
"So?"
"Hold on!" intervened Asarys. "Let her get comfortable before jumping on her."
She immediately swept her own remark with a wave of her hand and added,
"I'm kidding! We want to know everything, N-O-W."
I shook my head, unable to shake away that smile.
"Don't you want to tell me about your evening first?" I tried to negotiate to save time.
Asarys crossed her arms and ogled me up and down.
"Okay!" exclaimed Lexy. "Shower, sleep, and breakfast. Your turn."
"And…what did you dream of?"
"Oh, no!" cried Asarys, pulling me by the arm to guide me to a corner of the room, far from Min and Dewei who were listening to us discreetly.
My two friends sat at a table in front of me, while I stood in front of them, ready for questioning.
"Okay, let's start slowly. How was the place where he took you?" asked Lexy.
My eyes fixed on the ground, as if to remember better each moment spent with Faïz.
"Magical," I whispered, seeing myself on the swing above the void.
"What about your night?" continued Asarys.
Flashes came back to my memory, like the feeling of his breath on my skin or the images of his face, with its perfect structure a few millimeters from mine.
"Magical."
Asarys, desperate, raised her hands to the sky. "I'm giving up!"
I came back to myself and looked at my two friends, who seemed disappointed by this shallow exchange.
"The scenery was exceptional. Faïz was perfect. He has such infinite tenderness. To tell you the truth, we haven't slept much. I'm completely crazy about him."
The girls were smiling, satisfied with my words. They remained silent for a little while, which wasn't like them. Barthey's voice finally broke our quiet conversation. He invited us to join him near the table where the weapons were placed. Three soldiers began to equip us with a large waistcoat which they believed could withstand long-range attacks. Pockets at the back of it allowed us to store our arrows ammunition to reload our crossbows. We replaced our shoes with rangers' boots and the team gave us earbuds to keep in touch with central. Finally, two knives were placed above our ank
les for safety.
"Isn't that a little too much?" I asked the man who took care of setting up my equipment.
He looked at me as if I didn't realize the danger that awaited us. He shook his head, continuing to check the final adjustments to my outfit. The girls didn't say a single word. With closed faces, they concentrated on the latest directives given by the armed forces group. At that moment, the anxiety seized me in the guts. I was so angry about having embarked on this adventure.
In the hall, Malika encouraged us one last time and reminded us to follow the plan to the letter.
"You aren't alone," she insisted, clapping her hands three times. "We will cover you. We will succeed in this mission together!"
Her voice broke at the end of her sentence. For the first time, her shell cracked. She tried her best to hide her emotions by distributing our crossbows.
"Tonight we will celebrate our victory here, all together," she added before heading for the entrance to the inn, followed by Barthey and a few members of the forces.
Dewei and the rest of the group were waiting for us outside in the courtyard, where the cars were ready to set off for the Sun Lakes. I looked for Faïz, but in vain. Was he already there? Barthey, with his kind look, thanked us, my friends and me. Instead of shaking hands as usual, he gave us a warm hug that surprised us.
When I got into one of the vehicles, I heard Faïz calling me.
"Wait a minute," I asked the girls before rushing out to meet him.
Faïz froze, destabilized, his gaze shocked at facing the uniform and the accessories that I wore for the situation. However, he was just as equipped as me, or more so. His surprise instantly mutated into fear and I was amazed to notice, for a moment, such great distress contained at the bottom of his eyes. He placed his two hands around my face and looked at me, silent, as if to engrave me in his memory.
"I forbid you to put yourself in danger!" he declared in a threatening tone tinged with a plea.
"That's not my goal. I'm scared…scared of never seeing you again," I confessed, my voice trembling, staring him straight in the eye.
"Faïz?" intervened Barthey, embarrassed, by clearing his throat. "I'm sorry, but you have to go. You and Malika's team will get in the first two vehicles. Zoe and the others will follow. I'm staying here with the rest of the armed forces group."
Faïz nodded before looking into my eyes. Suddenly, his lips crashed violently on mine. His scented breath on my skin was almost painful. The pain pierced me deep inside.
"I love you, Zoe. Whatever may happen, never give up on living. Promise me!"
Asarys and I were helping Lexy attach her oxygen bottle on her back. We then aligned ourselves at the edge of the lake which, by day, didn't resemble the one we had discovered two days earlier. Even if we knew that the commando teams weren't far away, hidden at the edge of the cemetery lurking behind the thick fog, we felt very alone in the middle of this vast space. Asarys held our hands. At that moment, we wanted to say a thousand things to each other, wish each other luck, apologize for hurtful words that seemed to be nothing more than insignificant trifles, but we finally let the silence do it for us, because in the end, it was always the one who won.
"Group one?"
Dewei's voice in the headset reminded us of the harsh reality.
"You'll have to dive. Don't forget to turn on your lights."
The girls and I put our diving masks on our faces and the oxygen tube duct in our mouths, then we walked slowly into the black waters, whose freezing temperature tore a grimace from us.
The calmness and the absence of noise reigned supreme in the depths of the lake. My friends and I went further and further, guided by the lights of our lamps.
"Shit! It's deeper than we thought," Dewei said, worried.
His words hardly reassured me, but I still decided to continue swimming to the bottom. On our way, we encountered pearly freshwater rays, walleye, and many other species that coexisted in this underwater universe. The secret, hidden in these mysterious abysses, didn't seem to disturb them. After long minutes of swimming, Asarys slowed down and caught our attention with great gestures to indicate that we were finally reaching the bottom of the lake. I grabbed the transmitter from my belt to send the first Morse signal to Dewei and Min, who were in charge of operations with Barthey and his team.
"We have successfully reached the first stage! For the rest, you will have to separate and look for the stone. This will be done blindly. Turn on your cameras and be alert."
We activated our boxes, then I indicated to the girls with gestures the directions they should take in order to carry out our research. They nodded and immediately left on their own.
Algae and rocks covered the bottom of the lake. My eyes were clouded at times, tired from being asked to do more than usual. My concentration was at its maximum, and I prayed that one of my friends would send me the alert signal which would indicate that the ruby was discovered. My hands brushed against the undulating flora that inhabited the dark depths. The current in certain places was stronger, which forced me to fight against it in order to be able to advance and not sink to the bottom like a rock. My strength was gradually leaving me, and I had to tap into my mind so as not to give up. There was nothing in these waters of misery, and if I decided to stay longer in this lake, my whole body would end up frozen. Suddenly, Min's voice interrupted my somber thoughts.
"Zoe, look at your transmitter. Lexy and Asarys seem to be waiting for you at nine o'clock."
Indeed, the two dots, one next to the other on my box, showed them at a standstill. Without wasting a moment, I gathered all the energy I had left and went to meet them.
After several minutes of swimming, I found the girls at the entrance to a cave. I was relieved to see that they were fine. Asarys began to communicate with us in sign language, asking us to follow her. Lexy did it first and went before me. I did the same after sending a signal to Min's team. We rushed into this underground labyrinth, which seemed to lead us straight into the bowels of the Earth. The girls and I scrupulously followed the gallery, the walls of which were covered with drawings and objects carved in stone. They apparently represented rituals of human sacrifice, or even the daily lives of an ancient lost civilization.
At the end of this narrow path, we finally arrived at the heart of the dimly lit cave, submerged by the waters. At the time, I had no idea where we were. I had lost all sense of direction in this lake, and when I lowered my eyes to my box, I noticed that the GPS signal didn't work anymore at this place, surely because of the thick walls that surrounded us. I sent a desperate message to the operations team and was relieved to find that the radio contact was still working. In the middle of this unreasonably large cave was a pyramid with a dark facade, perfectly cut, and the height of the architecture was impressive. The three of us seemed so small at the bottom of this heap of stones.
Lexy waved her arms to attract our attention, then pointed at the top of the pyramid, where a large seashell was trapped in the walls of the structure. The shiny shell seemed to contain a precious treasure. We looked at each other, not daring to hope that Kushisake's ruby could be inside. After weeks spent looking for it, it seemed to be offered to us by the universe itself. As I rushed to the top of the pyramid, Lexy and Asarys' hands closed around my wrists. Lexy then made a gesture to my friend, who went immediately to check what the shell could be hiding. I immediately asked for explanations from Lexy and she replied, still in sign language, that there was a promise. I didn't ask more questions, knowing full well who she was talking about. Worried, I followed Asarys' progress up the monument. My friend was now at the height of the shell. The passing minutes seemed to me to be hours, and I guessed that something was wrong. Asarys was taking too long to return. What could she be doing? I couldn't take it anymore. In my turn, I decided to leave to meet her, and Lexy followed me closely.
The three of us were around the giant clam, in front of this closed shellfish which obviously wanted to keep its secret safe from
humans. After a long moment of reflection, we decided to extract the shell from the rock to bring it back to dry land.
"No, no, no!" panicked Min in the headset
We instinctively stopped our operation without understanding what was going on.
"They're coming! We can see them on the screens, a large crowd approaching the Lakes of the Sun."
"How many are they?"
I recognized Barthey's distant voice.
"Impossible to determine! A hundred or more."
"Shit!" cried Karl. "Warn Malika and the others. The confrontation seems inevitable."
"Group one, you don't have much oxygen left," Min warned us. "Come back as soon as possible with the stone to be evacuated. Time is running out!"
Lexy started to go after the clam, refusing to go up without it. Asarys and I also threw ourselves on it to help our friend. We put all our strength into it to free it from the walls, aware that we were playing for the future of the world. The rock began to crack all around, and we redoubled our efforts to finally manage to get the shell out of its vice. Exhausted, we hastened to leave the cave to reach the surface as quickly as possible, the oxygen in our bottles at its lowest.
FAÏZ
The ground crew had frozen. Silent and ready to attack, they waited for the moment when the enemy invaded the place.
"Which side are they coming from?" Faïz asked Min.
"Hard to say… They…they are coming from everywhere. East, west, north…"
"We aren't numerous enough," murmured the young man, worried about the turn of events.
He cast a desperate look at the huge lake, hoping to see the girls appear, but without success. The fog, too thick, was impossible to pierce with the naked eye. Racked by anxiety, he took his radio and spoke to Min again.
DARK FAÏZ Book 2: Nothing will ever be the same again Page 17