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IGNITE (The Heir Chronicles Book 1)

Page 14

by Shretima Bahadur


  "Ugh, you have no sense of humour. Anyway," she looks between us. "Well, then I found him and started a ritual. Don't ask what, long story. So, as I was saying, this ritual enabled me to take over his mind, slowly however, but it was the only way to plant a spy among you so, I did what I had to." She shrugs and starts standing up.

  Altin stands up and takes hold of Mirella's hair and I run up to him to free her. As soon as my hand reaches his hand, I try to swat it off, but he reaches out and catches it with his own and throws it back to my side. I try to do it once again and the same thing happens.

  "Oh, don't tire yourself. He's been commanded to do so by me. So, until I tell him to release her, he won't do so," she says casually.

  "Then tell him to do so," I say, irritated with her schemes.

  "Not so easy. You'll have to wait for it," she replies. "Altin, fight Serafina until I tell you to stop," she says, turning towards Altin and he immediately snaps to attention, as if under a spell. Ironic. Because he is.

  "Altin, no. Altin don't make me do this, no, Altin. Stop," I say as he itches closer to me. "Altin, no. Don't," Adrian joins in. He walks forward and stands in front of me, extending his hands in front of him in an attempt to stop Altin who now has almost reached me, his fingers fisted so tight that his knuckles have turned white.

  At first, I thought that maybe his elder brother pleading to him not to do something would stop him, but No. He is under a kind of spell which won’t enable him to even breath out of his own free will.

  He walks up to Adrian and says, "Move out of my way," through gritted teeth. It's as if he doesn't recognise anyone of us.

  Not me. Not even his own brother.

  "No," Adrian replies.

  "I won't repeat it again," Altin threatens.

  With one swoosh of her hand, Nadora throws Adrian to the side as someone would a paper ball.

  He tries to get up but stops as he gets tied up by a rope which magically appears on him and seems powerful enough to pin him down to the spot.

  "No cheating," Nadora says in her perky tone.

  "Adrian . . ." I say helplessly and look at him. He nods at me and I nod back in understanding.

  "Come on, give me something," Nadora says impatiently.

  I give her a stink-eye and focus on Altin and get into position.

  He tries to side-kick me. Amateur move. I block it easily and twist his leg which makes him fall, face-first. "Sorry Altin," I apologise.

  He gets up once again and swings his fist at my face, which I raise my hands to block, but at the last second, he twists it and gets to me in my gut. I wince and step back, holding my stomach.

  "Fena!" Adrian exclaims.

  "There's the sugar!" Nadora screams in excitement.

  Taking advantage of my moment of distraction, Altin directs another punch at my face but I block it once again, although with me hand. The other rests on my stomach where he hit me.

  "Altin, please don't make me hit you," I plead but in vain. He stops and looks around. Then I get it. Nadora has lost her focus. My eyes move straight to Adrian whose eyes are fixed on Nadora. Not wavering even once. He is using his powers to control her mind.

  “Your petty little tricks won’t work on me,” she growls. Literally. One more flick of her hand and Adrian is crouched, holding his own head in his head.

  “Leave him alone. It’s between you and me,” I say to her.

  “Oh, honey, see, that’s where you are wrong. This is between all of us. Between me and all of you little protectors,” she says. “Finish your job!” She shouts at Altin, who, in turn, has again surrendered to Nadora.

  He raises his leg to hit me and is successful in doing so as I am paying attention in playing defensive instead of offensive.

  "Sorry Altin," I mutter and aim my punch at his face and hit him squarely in the jaw but he seems unfazed, as if he doesn't feel anything, although he stumbles back a bit. That's gonna leave a mark.

  Before he can contemplate my next move, I give him a full roundhouse kick and send him off-balance and he lands on his back.

  I wait for him to stand up and position my hands in front of myself. As soon as he gets up, I deliver a bunch of punches to his face. He also gets a couple of punches at me, but I am powered by the fury I felt when I felt at the moment I saw him hauling Mirella by her hair.

  I'm not sure how long I have been fighting. Hitting him wherever and whenever I get a chance. I don't care if I get hit myself.

  I know that this is not Altin. This is a slave of Nadora. The woman who is responsible for keeping me apart from my sister for ten years. The woman who is responsible for my father's death. The woman who has Altin trapped in her clutches.

  And, in this moment, the Altin-replica becomes all of it.

  "Fena! Fena! Stop! It's over. Control yourself!" Someone grabs me by my shoulders and hauls me away from Altin who is clutching his face, although, he is silent, which is very abnormal for a person who just got beaten to pulp by a supernatural creature who cannot keep her fury in check.

  I am still wiggling in the person's grip when I look up to see the person. Drake.

  "Let me go," I say.

  "No, thanks. You've done enough," he says in his cool demeanour.

  "What?" I say and he releases me of his grip.

  "What are you asking me? See for yourself," he gestures towards Altin who is sporting a swollen eye, a cut on the lip and more bruises than I can count.

  "I . . . did this?" I ask him, the vision which Nadora showed me of me massacring a large mass of people coming back to me.

  "Yes," he says before I push past him and dash out the door.

  CHAPTER-37

  I lean heavily onto the stone boundary of the fountain at the back of the mansion. I do not remember getting here. All I remember is running out of the gym upstairs.

  I hold my hands in front of me. They are still shaking vigorously. My knees buckle and I sit down on the freshly-trimmed, green grass; my back against the tiny fountain wall.

  How could I lose control of myself so much that I blindly assaulted Altin? How could I let it come to this?

  What Nadora showed me was true. I am a sadist. I lose control of myself because of my anger. I rub my face with my palms to calm myself down.

  I stand up and splash my face with the cold fountain water.

  "Fena," A small voice comes from behind me. I turn and see Mirella advancing towards me. Her hair is pulled back in a neat bun such that no one can even think that blood was dripping off the same hair.

  She reaches up to me and tries to hug me but I step back.

  "What?" she asks.

  "I just . . . I'm sorry, okay. I just saw my worst nightmare come to life. Sorry if I am a little freaked out," I say, my fright turning into anger.

  "I know what you're going--"

  "The hell you do!" I exclaim, my anger getting the best of me. "You don't know what it's like to see yourself slaughter hundreds of people mercilessly and then realize that you really are capable of doing it. So, no. You don't understand." I turn to leave but she whips me back by my elbows.

  "You think you've had it rough, huh? Well, guess what, you haven't. You weren't the one trapped with that monster for nine years. Do you have any idea of what she put me through? No. And you never will. The only thing that kept me going through all these years was that you were out there," she motions around herself. "That you will come for me. Sometime. Somehow." She turns around and walks away, leaving me feeling a lot guilty than I have ever felt.

  "What the hell happened between you two?" Drake asks as he walks past a fuming Mirella.

  "I . . . " I stop short of words.

  "Let me guess. She came to look for you. You shouted at her. She shouted back and walked away and now you feel guilty about shouting at her," Drake says.

  "Yeah. about sums it up," I agree.

  "What!" Adrian exclaims.

  "Yes. And I have absolutely no idea how to make it up to her so that she will at least tal
k to me." I raise my arms and let them drop to my sides showing my helplessness.

  "Well, you could go and apologize," Adrian suggests.

  "No. That's crazy talk," I wave away the suggestion while both the boys glare at me.

  "Okay, fine. I will apologize to her. But if I don't return in thirty minutes, she froze me," I say.

  Just as I am about to turn to leave, I remember something. "Oh, and Adrian, I'm sorry about . . . well, everything," I say to him and he regards me with a strained expression. "Yeah, me too," he says and rubs his hands together.

  "Well, I have to go patch Altin up," Adrian says and we both turn to leave but Drake stops us this time.

  "Wait, guys," he says.

  "What now?"I ask.

  "It's almost noon. Just make sure to be together before night breaks and during the ceremony. And memorize this," he says and hands us both pieces of parchment. Two to me and one to Adrian. He notices the confused look on my face as he says, "the other one is for Mirella."

  "Yep, Mirella. I knew it," I say in a failed effort to hide my stupidity.

  "Yeah, of course you did," Drake says and rolls his eyes.

  "But why do we have to memorize this?" Adrian steals the words right out of my mouth.

  "That's how you're going to kill Nadora. Sort of," he says.

  "What do you mean, sort of?" I question.

  "I mean that she has the fur of the Red Marmadox and the wearer of the fur of Red Marmadox can be killed by the one who too, has access to the fur of Red Marmadox. However, that is impossible, so a dagger, known as the bone dagger which is made from the bones of the very first Hinak leaders is made capable to paralyse or partially kill a wearer of the fur of Red Marmadox until the moment it is taken out of him or her," he says.

  "Well, that's disturbing. Is that going to work?" I ask.

  "Well, yeah. It's supposed to. You may not believe but our ancestors had a lot of magical power in themselves. Literally," he says.

  "Well, 'our ancestors' better be capable or we're going to be meeting them face-to-face very soon," I say.

  "And where exactly is this dagger?" Adrian questions.

  "The last time someone saw it, it was in the darkened world with Nadora."

  "And how are we supposed to get our hands on it if it's with Nadora. And more importantly, who is this person who last saw the dagger?" Adrian inquires.

  "For the second part, the answer is right in front of you," Drake says and Adrian and I look around ourselves.

  "It's Fena," Drake says, irritated.

  "Oh. Oh," I say, finally understanding.

  "But wait, how do you know what I saw—oh," I say when he gestures to his wrist. The link.

  "Is someone going to tell me what is going on?" Adrian says.

  "Okay, it's simple actually. The link enables Drake to become a part of the visions I get. In one of these visions, Nadora cut my cheek with a weird-looking dagger. Now I get what that dagger meant. It had all those inscriptions and etchings and all," I explain Adrian and he nods, finally understanding what is happening.

  "And as for how you are going to retrieve it, let's go to Mirella's room. Fena, first you will apologise to her and then, I will tell the plan to all of you," Drake says and we all start towards Mirella's room.

  CHAPTER-38

  It's almost time. I cannot see Adrian or Drake anywhere in vicinity.

  I look around at the hoards of people dressed in their best clothes, waiting for the night to fall. Opposed to them, I am secretly wishing time would stop and the night would never fall.

  I look towards my right and see Mirella making her way towards me. God, did it take a lot of time to make things up with her. She sure has strong pair of lungs.

  I was sure I wouldn't be able to come out alive if Drake and Adrian hasn't been there to stop her. But neither of us left unscathed. I had a scratch on my arm while Adrian and Drake each scored an elbow in their guts each.

  "Hi," she says. "Hey," I return back.

  "So, have you seen them yet?" She asks.

  Thank God all the maids and the other helping staff have been allowed to celebrate together, although some of the nobles, including me, look happy for this arrangement, most of them have frowns on their faces and cast a dark look towards the workers if they stand beside them, or even come near them.

  "Hey!" Yashid waddles his way towards us through a crowd of wealthy, selfish, smug nobles.

  "Well . . ." he says.

  "We haven't spotted Drake or Adrian yet," I say.

  "That's a bit of downer," he jokes.

  "This is no joke," Mirella says in the most threatening tone she can but it sounds as if coming from a mouth of a five-year-old child who is not being given the candy he wants.

  "I know. I joke when I'm stressed," Yashid says.

  "Does that mean that you’re always stressed?" I mutter.

  "I--" he closes his mouth as soon as he spots Adrian and Drake making their way towards us.

  I meet Drake's eyes and he gives a slight nod, telling me wordlessly that the favour I had asked of him a few days ago has been completed. I turn back towards Mirella, practically bouncing now due to the nervousness and the bashful feeling that she is among civilization again.

  "What are you doing?" Drake asks her in his normal lazy-ish tone.

  "Give her a break, would you?" I tell him and punch him in his stomach.

  "Hey! Try not to injure you own soldiers, would you, punchie," Yashid says.

  I hit him too and he cries out, "What was that for?"

  "Eh, was just feeling like it" I say with a shrug.

  He tries to punch me back, but Adrian stops him.

  "Guys, stop. Look," He says and gestures over to the sky which, by the way, has turned dark-blue, signifying that the ceremony is due to begin any moment.

  "Get ready," Drake says in a serious tone and we all hold each other's hands and start the spell just as the ceremony starts. All the people have been escorted towards the front of the mansion for the feast and the other festivities and even if someone comes this way, they won't be able to see or hear us as the Hinaks have cast a spell due to which we are basically invisible to the people other than Hinaks themselves.

  I close my eyes and concentrate solely on the spell, and in a few minutes, we all open our eyes and we are in the Darkened world. The sky looks exactly as it looked in the mortal world. The Hinaks too, have been transported along with us. I draw the sword from its hiding place, which, by the way is behind the slit of my specially-designed combat dress-slash-party-dress, designed by Mirella. She too has her whip out, although I don't have any idea how she hid it or if she even hid it. Adrian has brought his shield out and his sword too, is drawn. Drake has a dagger in both his hands and Yashid has a spear in his hand. The other Hinaks too, are well-armed and we all look around ourselves for any sign of Nadora or the Nemeses.

  Technically, we have kind of weakened her by entering her territory. We have only partially weakened her by performing the spell but I doubt she's going to be so easy to defeat.

  We all look around ourselves and decide to walk ahead and find some clues leading to the bone-dagger

  I walk ahead and soon, we all are separated into pairs and are looking in different directions.

  I am with Drake and Mirella is with Adrian while Rafelia is with Yashid.

  "Where the hell is the dagger?" I say in exasperation.

  "Well, considering it’s the only thing that can kill Nadora, she sure did not hide it under a pot in her garden," Drake jokes.

  "Would you just concentrate," I say.

  "Yeah, yeah. I am waiting for all this to be over," he says and we walk together in silence for some time.

  "We could get him back, you know," I tell him.

  "What?"

  "Your father. We can get him back if we defeat her," I explain and he looks away.

  "No."

  "What?" I ask.

  "No. I don't think so. I have already had my hopes dashed once
, I won't repeat that mistake again," he says in a stoic voice. Before I can ask what he means by 'once more', the ground beneath us shakes.

  "What's happening?" I question, swaying side-to-side, arms flailing in the air.

  "I don't know!" Drake shouts over the commotion.

  My hands find his shoulders and I place them there to maintain my balance. Miraculously, neither of us loses our balance.

  Before anything can be done, some stone walls appear from under the ground.

  The walls continue rising until we can't even begin to imagine climbing them.

  "What the hell is this?" Drake questions, touching the wall.

  I take a few steps ahead to confirm the lingering suspicion.

  "It's a maze."

  CHAPTER-39

  "What?" Drake asks.

  "It's a maze--" before I can say anything else, a voice seems to come not from on but many directions. From wherever it might come, I would recognise this voice anywhere.

  "Fena . . . Fena, help us," my dad's voice says.

  "Dad?" Drake and I say together.

  "It's my dad's voice," we both say together.

  "No, it's my dad's," we both say again.

  "Wait a minute," he says, taking a few steps towards me.

  "What's cooking in your mind?" I ask sceptically.

  "This isn't their voices at all. It's Nadora. She's messing with our heads," Drake says and my mouth hangs open.

  "She can do that?" I ask in disgust.

  Impossible as it seemed, I was happy to hear his sound one again. I doubt Drake hadn't felt the same elation I felt.

  "Yes."

  "Well, then. What do we do now?" I ask.

 

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