Chapter 11: Blinded
When Michael awoke, they were in the woods off to the left of the stone road. He noticed that there was something was wrong when he rubbed his eyes. He opened his eyes fully, but his vision was not normal. He blinked, first the left and then the right. His left eye was fine, but through the right all he saw was a blur and black spots. He panicked and woke Reno up.
“What’s the matter Michael?” Reno asked.
“My eye is… I’m going blind in my left eye!” he said to Reno With wide eyes and a shaking voice.
“What?” Reno asked, looking down. He gasped, “Michael, your eye is changing!”
“Changing?”
“See for yourself,” Reno said as he handed a polished piece of metal to the prince. He looked into the reflective surface. Michael touched his fingers to his bottom eyelid, not believing what he saw to be true.
“No. It can’t be real,” Michael began to feel a lump in his throat and tears form in his eyes. It wasn’t an illusion, what he saw in his reflection was genuine. His left eye was, in fact, changing. The white part of his eye was turning even whiter, his iris was fading to a lighter shade, and his pupil was gray. There were two crossed scratches on his pupil. The prince started to cry.
“It’s fine Michael,” Reno said, trying to calm Michael down. “Just give it time to heal.”
All day Reno reassured Michael that the eye would heal, but he was wrong. By the end of the day, Michael saw nothing out of his left eye, and it appeared pale and lifeless.
After the group set camp toward the small city of Renadale, Michael looked toward Tristan and said, “It was you.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was you; you told the guards where we were. It was you!” Michael shouted as he lunged toward Tristan.
“That is ridiculous!” Sphergol said as she floated in between them.
“I went in the forest to practice my archery!”
“That’s just what you wanted us to think, but you really told the guards where we were. I have it all figured out!” Michael lunged at Tristan again, but Sphergol placed an invisible barrier between them.
“Stop it Michael!” Reno shouted. “Think about this for a moment; if Tristan did tell the guards, then why would he kill one of the men that Malumous sent?”
“Exactly!” Ryan exclaimed, trying to sound like he was part of the argument.
“If he didn’t, then who did?” Michael asked.
“The most powerful magic users have one thing in common,” Sphergol began. “Their mind can leave their body and the consciousness can travel the land at light speed. Because of the bond between Malumo and Sharvaus, Malumous is powerful enough to do this. You must become powerful as well, or all of Magentara is doomed.”
“Nevertheless, I will watch you closely, Tristan,” Michael said in a tone of authority. “From now on you will not train unsupervised by Reno, Sphergol or I. Am I understood?”
“But—”
“Am I understood?”
“Yes…”
“Well,” Ryan said as he yawned, “who’s sleepy?” Everyone agreed and then drifted to sleep, all but Michael.
The prince tossed and turned, tired but unable to sleep. His one-eyed vision blurred with exhaustion, but rest was out of reach to his troubled mind. He forced himself to think only on the darkness, until finally the world went black.
Sea of the Dead Page 11