Soul Control

by C. Elizabeth

  He stepped forward. I stepped back.

  “I couldn’t come out in the battle until they had my duplicate engaged in the fight.”

  I took another step back. He moved one step forward.

  “When you threw that fireball, it was a direct hit and I had my duplicate run off. It was exactly what I needed.” He waited, then shuffled from one foot to the other. “Now I can enter the battle healed and it will be the ultimate attack.”

  He held his hand out. “Saydi, please, there’s little time. Job and Joshua are focused on my duplicate’s emotions which are hidden from them. But it won’t be long.”

  He stepped forward, reaching. “Can I see your hand?”

  I twisted away from him.

  “I won’t hurt you.” He cautiously moved closer. “Please.”

  At first I thought about it, then pulled that thought away.

  He moved forward just a little. “Please!”

  A warped logic entered my brain. Even if it was a trick, did it matter? No. Either way I was dead, and if I could have the feeling of love like before...well, I offered him my hand.

  Gently, he drummed his fingertips under mine and glided his hand into my palm. He stepped forward and raised them, then placed my palm over his heart. “Feel me, Saydi,” he whispered.

  The second my hand touched his chest, my heart jumped to be near its true love, instantly taking up his rhythm. A soft glow illuminated between us. We both looked down as the centre of my teardrop diamond radiated a pure white light. I looked up into his eyes, the tears fell down both our faces.

  He was my Nathanael.

  Then all the emotions of betrayal and deceit emerged. I yanked my hands away, pulled my arms back, and impaled my fists into his chest. “How could you do that to me?”

  His feet left the ground and he slammed against a tree. “Damn it!” he yelped.

  Don’t ask me how, but the battle was all but forgotten. I tromped up to him and grabbed him by the collar. “How could you do that?”

  “Saydi, stop! Would you rather have me be a Pyre?”

  How dare he? My advance against him halted. “Not that! Eww! How could you not somehow get news to me?”

  He quickly looked behind him to watch his footing as he backed up. “Think logically. Something could have slipped, and honestly if you knew, it would make it one thousand times harder for me to stay away from you.”

  “You left me! Then you performed the ultimate betrayal.” There was no help for him. I shoved against his chest again, pushing him a few feet back.

  The glow from the diamond cast a shadow on his face. He looked at me from under his eyelashes with a small smile. “You want to do this? You think now you can beat me?” He playfully pointed at me. “No nards, though.”

  “Deal! Let’s go!”

  We both took off from the ground at the same time and when we met in the air, I grabbed him around the head, but before I could twist him over, he caught my waist. His legs thrust forward and flipped me. He landed smoothly on his feet... I was being held upside down, my chest against his back. He bent down and looked between his legs at my face. “Do you want to try again?”

  Then he turned me on his hip upside right with no effort, placed my feet back on the ground.

  Without answering, I lunged. He did two back flips, barely touching the ground in between. Anticipating his next move, I jumped into the air and did a somersault, landing on the other side of him. But I anticipated wrong. He wasn’t there.

  He chuckled from above me and when I looked up, he pounced from a branch, gently taking me down, rolling us across the ground until he sat on top, pinning me down. “You’ll have to do better than that, sweets.”

  My strategy had to change. I threw my legs up, arched my back and bucked him off, steadying myself on my feet. Without hesitating, I spun around, bringing my knee up, readying it to strike, but before I could get to him, he flipped right over me. I turned around. He was crouched down in attack position and I did the same. We jockeyed in the circle as I eyeballed him.

  He smiled a crooked smile.

  The light in my diamond went out. Suddenly Nathanael was at my side, pulling me to the upright position and holding my arm, his emotions closed.

  “Ah, my boy, you found her,” Braxton rang out.

  My heart stopped, and with my eyes not used to the dark, all I could see was the silhouette of two coming through the trees. Though I couldn’t see them well, I darted back and forth from them to Nathanael. Had I been set up after all?

  They stood uncomfortably close to us as Braxton slapped Nathanael on the back. “Good to see that fireball wasn’t all that strong.” Braxton paused. I could feel his piercing eyes on me. “We thought she ran away.”

  Nathanael sounded like my Nathanael. “Yes Father, they hid her behind their lines. It was quite easy.”

  I gulped.

  “Wonderful. Well, we’ll leave you to it. When you’re done, be sure to bring her back. But don’t take too long, son. This battle is getting boring. We need her to liven up the party.”

  Braxton put his arm around his other son’s shoulder as they walked off nonchalantly back to the battle.

  A glow could be seen bouncing off the branches and leaves of the trees—a fire still burned in the clearing. I stepped aside, praying he’d release me. In a flash, he pulled me into his chest and my breath caught. His arms were all around me. “You know I had to shut my emotions off?”

  I nodded, only to be compliant, still not sure who he was. I looked down.

  “Oh boy.” He chuckled and reached across, lifting my chin. “Are you in need of a little reassurance?”

  There wasn’t an answer.

  He took a deep breath. “I can’t let you feel it right now, but I love you and you make my heart go...” He patted his hand on his chest. “Thump thump, thump thump. Is that enough reassurance?”

  Silence.

  “Hmm, will this do?” My body was squished against his, his lips silkily wrapped up mine. His breath was warm... I melted into his calm peacefulness, the battle again gone.

  He was definitely my Nathanael.

  Though I wanted more, we released and I asked, "Can’t we just run, run now?”

  I could hear his gulp. “Yes. But they would find us, murder me, and still get what they want.”

  He took my hands. “We have a better chance here now, especially with them believing I’m on their side.”

  The fear petrified me again. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

  “Saydi, you had all the courage in the world when you thought I was turned, and now you don’t have any?

  The sound of his voice made me believe he was irritated. “I’m sorry.”

  Nathanael rested his lips on my forehead and uttered, “We will beat them. Good versus evil, remember.”

  I curled up against his chest. “What do I have to do?”

  “We have to come up with an elaborate plan to have you come out as my prisoner, but still keep you safe.”

  “How?”

  His grin was crooked. “Mother was always good at reading my decisions.”

  The confidence he gave off boosted me. “What do I need to do?”

  “Just follow my lead,” he said, taking my hand.

  The battle sounds were prevalent, making me wince, and each time I did, Nathanael squeezed my hand. The illumination from the fire got closer and closer until it covered the whole horizon. We stopped just before the clearing.

  He turned to face me, kissed my forehead, and swallowed hard. “When I take hold of your arm...” He sighed with a sob. “It’s going to get very cold and I don’t want you to look at it, or at me.”

  “You have to change, don’t you?”

  “Yes, it will be the first time in my entire life. I won’t be able to mind-talk, as a Pyre.”

  His body stiffened and though his emotions were concealed, I could tell he hated having to do it.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  “I love
you too.” He took hold of my arm. “Please don’t look. I don’t think I could stand knowing you saw it.”

  Little did he know how much I didn’t want to see it. It wasn’t something, at least at the moment, I could handle. “I won’t.”

  We started out slowly. A sickening, juicy limb stretching sound began again. I cringed at the sound and so did he. His hand turned ice cold, his fingers lengthened and felt scaly...rough. Every step he took got heavier and heavier in the earth, sounding like those movies when you hear the footsteps of a T-Rex coming forward. His breath was labored and seemed to grind when he exhaled. He was a mass that saturated the air around us.

  We stepped out into the clearing. The fire line was no longer just one. The glow was from caverns upon caverns of fires coming from deep within the earth. The worst of it was the death and carnage that lay about and I wondered why there were no police or ambulances around. Why was the world outside the swimming hole oblivious to so much? I looked to the ground, wanting so much to cuddle against the warmth of Nathanael. But it wasn’t him.

  The world stopped. The wind was no more, and the clash of lightning and rock dissipated. It was silent.

  I looked straight ahead at only the eyes of Tovs who were standing and made sure my Dad and Magisters were among them. Dad had Braxton surrounded in a ring of some type that glowed like fire, but was not of fire.

  Braxton’s teeth showed as he called out to us. “Nathanael, show what you can do to Miss Saydi if her father does not release me.”

  Judging from the smile on Braxton’s face, Nathanael obviously agreed. His voice was heavy and sandy as he turned toward me, and whispered, “Don’t look.”

  “No!” Dad yelled. “See Nathanael? I’ve released him.”

  Braxton stepped aside and slithered to the other side of the swimming hole, then spoke loudly. “Come, my comrades, and stand with me while my son, the warrior, brings us our victory,” he gloated.

  Dad and my Magisters huddled together and talked quietly while watching me and Nathanael. We moved slowly across the clearing toward the swimming hole while the rest of the Tovs opened a path for us to walk through. Mora caught my eyes and smiled with a nod. She understood what was going on and, judging by the look on all their faces, she had told them. Word spread around the clearing like wildfire, a hope trickled in the air.

  Behind us, I could hear their footsteps follow. There was no way for me to know what the plan was, though something told me there was one. As Nathanael requested, I simply followed his lead.

  We stepped closer and since I didn’t have a clue, the feeling of being a lamb led to slaughter ran rampant inside me. I was suddenly terrified. What if it were true and he had turned?

  Nathanael gently, well, as gently as he could, squeezed my arm and rubbed it with his thumb. Though I couldn’t feel him, he could feel me.

  We were getting a little too close for comfort, suddenly Nathanael’s hand clamped down on my arm and in one smooth motion, he drew it back, swung me up and threw me in the air behind him. I screamed. Numerous hands caught me on the way down and stood me up.

  My Nathanael and Dad were in the air, their fists poised toward the earth. They came down so fast and hard that when their fists connected, the dirt shifted under our feet. The power unleashed and buckled the very rocks we stood on, pushing them into a jagged edge of a defining line, four foot high, between good and evil. Nathanael had me in his arms, glaring at his dad.

  Braxton’s face twisted. His eyes were red as spit fire and his jaw curled up, baring his teeth, the anger was clear.

  I took a quick glance around our troupe. They were all crouched, ready for the onslaught. Nathanael slowly bent his knees, bringing me down with him. He gently pushed me over and back a couple of inches. Then he took my hand in his and held his other one out from his side, making sure we were crouched and at the ready.

  Braxton’s face cleared as if he rethought his retaliation at that minute. “Well, it seems I was wrong,” he ground out. Then he curled his lips into a hideous grin. “I really wasn’t in the mood to kill one of my children today.”

  Mora squeaked a mother’s squeak.

  From under his breath, Nathanael warned, “Mother!”

  Braxton flipped his hands in the air. “No matter, I have a story to tell anyway and this has given me the perfect opportunity. Please do stay and listen, won’t you?”

  Forty-nine

  He didn’t wait for a response and went right into it. “Everyone knows that the vessel, with truth and strength, will reveal the catacomb. However that statement alone poses more questions. Define truth and strength. What does it mean? How do we know the vessel possesses it? How does it reveal and open the catacomb? And last but not least, where is the catacomb?

  He took a breath, then continued, “Those questions went unanswered for thousands of years, not that we tried very hard to solve them. But when we heard the vessel was born, our brains worked overtime to figure out what it all meant. So allow me to answer them for you.”

  With a sneer, he looked every one of us in the eye. “Define truth and strength.” He paced back and forth. “At first, we thought it meant the vessel had to be truthful throughout their entire life time. Of course we know that couldn’t happen, so what could it be? And after many discussions, it came to us. The truth the prophecy speaks of means the vessel must know the whole truth.”

  We all listened as he blundered on.

  “As for strength, we knew what that was. You see, I wasn’t entirely truthful when I said earlier we kept Nathanael alive because he was the warrior. Yes, of course that had something to do with it, but alas...” He was showing his showmanship state again. “Truth be told, the warrior will lead us to victory, because you...” he said, pointing at me. “Don’t have the strength. You need my son to open the catacomb. Ah! Young love.”

  His mouth twisted up in an evil grin that rocked my bones to the core. “Nathanael is the strength.”

  “Get on with it!” Zack boomed.

  “I will, good man. Now this poses yet another question, but I’ll get to that in a bit and will skip over the next two as well, as they all only require one answer.”

  Some of his audience grumbled and some sighed, like an audience at a really bad theatre production. And as with all bad actors, Braxton ignored it.

  The show must go on, I thought to myself.

  Someone behind me giggled.

  “Now, where is the catacomb? That was easy. The catacomb would not stray too far from the vessel, and wherever they went, it was sure to follow, just like Mary’s little lamb. Have you ever noticed how violent those rhymes are? Hmm, that always perplexed me.” He shrugged.

  I actually rolled my eyes as he hesitated. Nathanael’s father was simply pompous.

  “Oh well, on to bigger and better things.” He watched us closely. “The Tov had to keep the catacomb close, so as to be sure the catacomb did not reveal once the vessel turned eighteen, because if it did, they would have no choice but to intercept it.”

  He looked directly at me. “Now Saydi, have you ever wondered why they simply just didn’t hide the Rondure elsewhere, somewhere you would have nothing to do with?”

  I stared blankly.

  “Well, allow me to tell you. You see, Saydi, the Tov put the finality shield around the catacomb.” His voice dripped with sweetness. “Sorry to say this, but there was no way to move the Rondure unless they killed you.”

  Gasping, I looked to my Dad and the rest of them. As if to confirm it, they hung their heads low.

  “Yes, it’s a sad thing. You see, it is tied to you permanently. Your Spirit Light would have to be released on death, and only then could they move it, and of course we all would lose. But alas, your parents loved you so, they made sure that would never happen. This tidbit of information has no bearing on the truth the prophecy speaks of and is for your own knowledge only.”

  “I love watching Tovs squirm in their human skin.” He chuckled. “Now this question is for yo
u, John. Did you ever wonder how we found out the vessel was Saydi?”

  Dad didn’t answer.

  “Well, it was your beautiful wife. Oh, not on purpose. She was so distraught after we gave Saydi the book and figured out who we were that she approached Father Lacombe.” Braxton made a cross over his chest. “May he rest in peace.”

  The sorrow was fleeting.

  “She needed his help to hide Saydi and, well, as we say, the rest is history. Hmm, when you think about it, Father Lacombe was a very good ally. Maybe I was hasty in that killing.”

  Again, it was back to him. “Let’s get back to the other questions. Now that you’re eighteen, why isn’t the catacomb opening? We know where the strength is...it’s here.”

  He sneered. “As much as I hate to admit it, my son is very much in love with you and he is your strength. So, I guess that leaves the truth.”

  The thing had a fixation with pacing and tapping its chin. “What do you not know about who you are?” He glanced over at Dad, then back to me. “You see, dear Saydi, you would never be able to bring forward the catacomb, because you don’t know the whole truth.”

  A rush of gasps could be heard all the way down the line. Nathanael held my hand tight. I looked at Dad. He shook his head and sighed.

  “Joshua!” Braxton called. I hadn’t even noticed Joshua wasn’t there.

  He came from the trees, holding Mom in his clutches, then threw her to the ground at Braxton’s feet.

  “Mom!” I screamed, moving forward. Nathanael had my waist.

  “Adina!” Dad panicked, taking only one step forward while the rest moved tight against the line.

  Braxton gripped her arm and yanked her up. “Now Adina, will you...”

  “You hurt her and I will kill you with my own hands!” Dad seethed.

  Braxton waved his hand. “I have no intentions of hurting her. She will be free to go when she tells Saydi the whole truth.” He shook her. “Adina, now!”

  Mom’s eyes were red and swollen. I inspected her the best I could, to make sure all her limbs were intact and there was nothing to indicate they’d hurt her. Tears streaked down her face.