Resounding Echo

by Michelle Louring

to life and lit up the entire room. Suddenly, Selissa’s small ball of light seemed weak and insignificant.

  “You have tried to do this to me before…” She said quietly. The scattered memories were wreaking havoc inside her mind, but she knew that much.

  “Getting to you was much easier back then.” He mused. “You didn’t have such ardent protectors. You father did fight valiantly, though…”

  Her eyes widened. Her father?

  Nowhere in her mind could she recall any memories of her parents. All her life she had believed that they were either dead or had abandoned her.

  Despite her situation, she felt a weight lift from her chest. She hadn’t been abandoned. She wasn’t unwanted. Her father had fought for her sake.

  She knew he had probably died for her sake too. But she was not going to let his sacrifice be in vain. She had no intention of dying there tonight.

  She had to keep him talking until she figured out how to get out of there.

  “So what went wrong?” She asked.

  Ilyan watched the shadows dancing across the walls. “We couldn’t subdue him…” He said slowly. “He managed to take over and fight us.”

  “Take over?” She asked confused. Cadeyrn had possessed her?

  Ilyan sighed. “The will of a child is much weaker. It was not hard for Cadeyrn to overpower you and take control of your body.” He said. The sudden gleam in his eyes made her heart sink in her chest.

  “He brought you to safety, before sealing away both his powers and your memories. He might have done so to protect you, to prevent us from finding you.” He smiled darkly. “Clearly he underestimated us.”

  For some reason, she felt the need to stand up for him. “It still took you years, didn’t it?” She sneered at him. “You didn’t find me before almost six years had passed.”

  “I have used fifteen years to reach my goal.” He said. “And all those years seem insignificant, when you think of what I will achieve tonight.”

  This man was utterly insane, she decided in that moment. The zealous look in his eyes told her that he was deadly serious.

  “Why do you want to release a demon lord? Do you really think he will reward you?” She asked defiantly. “You will be nothing but a nuisance to him once he is free.”

  To her surprise, he laughed out loud. “When he sees my potential, he will bestow his power on me.” He walked closer slowly, until he was directly in front of her, and leaned down to look her directly in the eyes. “I will be his most loyal and trusted servant.”

  She leaned back in repulsion. He was so close she could practically see the madness shining from behind his eyes. He really believed that a powerful demon would be thankful to a human.

  In the end, it didn’t matter. She would rather die than be his sacrificial goat. Only the thought that Calen needed her help prevented her from taking her sword and ramming it into her stomach.

  Ilyan rose and walked to the other end of the room. He bent down over the table and studied something lying there.

  “I knew you would come for your friend.” He said. “So everything is ready for the ceremony to start.”

  She wasn’t having any of that. She got up from the floor and charged at his turned back. Magic was crackling around her fingers, just waiting to be released.

  She didn’t get far. Ilyan turned in that same moment, and suddenly long strands of black magic shot out and wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, binding her in place.

  She glared at him as she stood restrained to the floor, unable to move. He merely smiled knowingly at her.

  “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” He asked. Her eyes fell to the item he had picked up from the table. The light from the candles hit the long blade and made it flash ominously.

  “Maybe cutting off a leg or two would make you a little calmer. “ He said thoughtfully as if the idea didn’t seem bizarre to him at all. He walked closer, raising the knife as he went. He was only a few feet from her, knife raised to strike, when a heavy weight slammed into him.

  He fell to the ground, the Devourer clawing and snapping at him. The knife clattered to the ground as he tried to avoid the deadly fangs that tried to rip open his throat.

  The dark magic that restrained her vanished the moment the demon hit him. For a second she considered helping it, but she knew she didn’t have the time. Sending a thankful thought to the creature for saving her life, she ran out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her.

  She found a staircase in the next room and almost fell over her own feet in her hurry to climb it. She ripped open the door at the top and quickly slammed it behind her when she was through.

  She leaned against it heavily and looked around her to see where she had ended. She was in a dimly lit hallway. It was empty.

  Catching her breath, she walked down it slowly. Her body was tense, and her eyes flickered warily. There was a good chance all the noise had alerted someone, and she would hate to be there if they came looking for the source of it. She didn’t know how long the demon could keep Ilyan busy either.

  The shadows formed eerie shapes on the walls, like hands reaching for her as she passed by. She knew it was just her paranoia talking, but she still watched them carefully, as if they would leap out and attack her at any moment.

  She opened the first door she passed, but all that greeted her was an empty room. It was the same with the three next doors she opened. It seemed like the entire building was deserted, but she knew that was all just an illusion. If Ilyan had prepared for the ritual, the Demios would be there. It was just a matter of time before they came to find her. Hopefully, she would find Calen first.

  She turned down another hallway, hoping to find some clue as to where they were keeping him. This hallway didn’t have any doors, but led to a huge staircase that seemed to lead down to the main hall. She was just about to go past it, when she heard voices coming from the hall. She quickly ducked behind the banister, hiding herself from view.

  Her heart was hammering in her chest as she listened to the hushed voices. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she could pick out two voices.

  She prayed they wouldn’t notice her. Had there been only one, she might have been able to knock them out before they saw her, but two persons would easily overpower her.

  She heard steps on the stairs and panicked. Still ducked out of view, she hurriedly ran back the way she had come, careful not to make any noise. She stepped into the hallway, just as she heard them at the top of the stairs.

  She straightened up and sprinted down the hallway. It would only be seconds before she would be in free view. She turned around a corner and opened the first door she passed in the hallway she entered. She closed the door behind her and leaned on the wall behind it.

  She drew one of her swords, listening for footsteps outside. If someone entered the room, she would slit the first one’s throat the moment he opened the door and hopefully catch the other by surprise.

  She heard the muted sound of footsteps and tensed. She didn’t even dare breathe as she heard them coming closer, and she gripped the sword hilt until her knuckles turned white.

  The footsteps sounded just outside the room, and she let out the breath she had been holding when they continued down the hallway.

  She waited until long after the sound of footsteps had disappeared. Opening the door, she peered outside. Finding the hallway empty, she slipped out and continued in the opposite direction of where the others had disappeared.

  She continued searching the various rooms in the mansion, but there were no signs of Calen. It didn’t help that the mansion was huge and there seemed to be an endless amount of halls and corridors. It didn’t take long before she lost her sense of direction.

  She was just closing another door, when she felt something snake its way up her legs. She looked down to see the shadows writhe at her feet like they had suddenly come to life. They seemed to take solid form, before
wrapping themselves around her legs like ropes.

  She tried to move her legs, but the living shadows kept her stuck to the floor. The more she struggled, the more the shadows spread over her body.

  “Seems like we have an intruder…” A figure literally stepped out from the shadows in the hallway. If he was able to cloak himself in the shadows it would explain why she hadn’t seen him coming.

  She had never seen him before. He had to be around her age, maybe slightly older. His sickly pale face was framed by dirty blond hair, which gave him an unhealthy appearance. The black tattoo under his eye stood out sharply against his pale skin. The shadows seemed to gather around him, causing him to be surrounded by darkness.

  Her hand shot to her sword sheaths, but the shadows writhed in response to her movement and shot out to wrap themselves around her wrist. Her other hand got strapped to her side, and she was suddenly unable to move.

  “Let me go.” She hissed at him. Of course, she knew he wasn’t going to do that, but sounding threatening beat just standing there looking like an idiot.

  The Demios slowly stepped closer, the shadows gliding around him.

  “Lord Ilyan would appreciate me bringing you to him. Let’s not—“ He stopped dead in his tracks when two strong arms wrapped themselves around him.

  “Let’s not what, Alecta?” Ardeth said softly into his ear. He had to bend his neck, since he was much taller than the other man.

  “So you really have turned traitor, Ardeth…”