The Sweet Series Box Set: Books 1-4

by Bailey Ardisone

  “Why?” I questioned hesitantly, not really sure I wanted to know the reason for that horrifying statement.

  “Your eyes have passed into complete darkness.”

  My heart stopped beating. “I know that they’ve been growing black ever since my first resurrection. But what does it mean?”

  “As Maite’Ona Healers, we consume the death seeping into its victims’ souls. The darkness is extracted from them and siphoned into the Healer. Of course, this is only the case concerning victims at death’s door. A simple paper cut repair or bruised knee mending is irrelevant.” Döron waved a hand in the air lightheartedly before going back to complete seriousness. He inhaled a large breath, readying himself for what he was about to say next. “However, withdraw too many from their graves, the darkness will devour the Healer’s soul until they are spent and desiccated into nothingness. Or, if left just on the precipice of withering away, they instead live on in utter anguish as the darkness feeds off the little light their soul has remaining.”

  “But I’m not experiencing pain, and I’m not dead…I don’t think. So what gives?” My heart was in my throat again. I never could’ve guessed how serious this whole healing business was. I thought at the most I’d lose the ability, but not die from it. Or be tortured by it…I let my eyes drop to the wolf and fox near Lissë’s head. She had it lowered to the ground to sniff them, and they in turn were sniffing her back.

  “Mmm, precisely. I repeat—I know not how you have managed to skirt either fate.” Döron placed a hand over his chin and lightly massaged it, deep in thought. “Regardless, there will be no more healing or reviving ones from death for you, Nariella.”

  “What about your eyes? They’re pretty dark and you’re still fine,” I pointed out, facing my grandfather once more. I ran my hands back and forth over the tops of the pillowy grass, searching for comfort in some tangible way.

  “Perhaps they are a bit dark, but not completely, unlike yours, which resemble a moonless, starless night. No, not even that can do the color justice. I suppose one would say there could be none more black than yours, my dear.” He patted my head as if to make me feel better, but it didn’t.

  And he was right. His eyes weren’t completely black and never had been since I met him. It was obvious they were a dark purple, especially when the light hit them. But apparently mine had lost all of their vibrant, violet color…and for once, the thought made me a little sad.

  Chapter Six

  ~Naminé~

  “No, no, no, no!” I whipped my head back and forth, fighting the urge to dream-weave with Ender or Nariella. Ohtar pressed me into the wall with a force so strong, I did not know how my bones were not crushed into powder. Prior to my torment, they had extracted the lorda potion from my veins so that I might use my ability, but I knew once this round of torture was over, I would be forced to drink it yet again.

  I could feel my mind creating the dream, and my eyelids fluttered with heaviness. I felt intoxicated and out of control, as if nothing I did made a difference to resist. I cried out in pain, “Stop, please stop! No!”

  “Silence,” Ohtar hissed, his will dominating over me with an even greater power. “No one else has been able to penetrate the Guardian’s defenses. And no one can locate the girl! Why! Do it, quisling, do it!”

  Tears streamed in a constant flow, and my heart begged silently for release. But it would not come. I once again thrashed my head and screamed with all my might. I could not give in. I will not.

  I pushed back his desire with so much force that I unintentionally lost consciousness.

  The damp darkness of the dungeons overwhelmed my senses completely. I could not see, smell, or feel properly due to some sort of dank interference. Not to mention my hearing was adversely affected by the constant quiet or the opposite—any loud noise was amplified by the emptiness of the stone walls.

  After being caught trying relentlessly to break the other Maite’Ona from Ohtar’s compulsion, I was then thrown into a different holding cell, for he feared what I could do. Though I remained steadfast in my refusal to dream-weave with Ender or Nariella to acquire their whereabouts for Ohtar, I did not feel hopeful. If not me, surely he would find someone else who could provide what he needed. None I had tried to wake from Ohtar’s dark hold would hear me. They were far too deep in his clutches.

  Rydan was nowhere near me. If we were to speak to each other, we would have had to shout our throats raw. Though he was kept just down the hall, the distance felt like leagues between us. However, to my utter surprise and joy, I had been thrown into the cell next to my beautiful mother, and for that, I had to be thankful. As for Cathar and my father, their locations remained unknown.

  “Mother, are you all right?” I called to her the moment Sarqua left, my voice raspy.

  “Naminé! Oh, my love, I am more than all right. To hear your voice—” she cried from her cell next to mine, not able to finish her sentence. I could not see her, but the familiar sound of her voice brought me great comfort as well.

  “Please forgive me for keeping my gift a secret from you and Father. I did not wish to involve you in my treachery. I knew if I were to be discovered that I would be punished, but perhaps if you, Father, and Cathar had been left in the dark about it, then you would not have had to suffer the same fate,” I explained.

  “Naminé, the worry your father and I were put through over your disappearance was one of the worst time periods of my long life. I only wish you had trusted us with your secret, for we would have rather been punished alongside you than endure the torment of not knowing what had happened to our daughter completely. We had no warning or insight to what could have come about in regards to you. It was devastating,” she choked on the words.

  “I understand very well, Mother. I cannot describe how remorseful I am. But I cannot say I regret it. I could never forgive myself if I involved you in my own sins, even if I believed them to be for a worthy cause. Can you understand even a little? I did what I had to for your protection and no more. Please forgive me.” My voice broke.

  “Oh, Naminé, there is nothing to forgive, my child. However, please do not keep such secrets from us. Trust that as your parents, we wish to know everything about you. There is nothing about you or Cathar we would not support. You two are the most important to us out of anything else in this world. We love you with all our hearts.” I could hear the emotion in her voice, and it amplified my own that I fought so hard to keep in.

  “I am truly sorry, Mother,” I cried. I did not wish to bring them pain or any sort of worry. “My fear for your punishment was too great. And I was tasked with a deadly mission. One that I had hoped would mean all of our survival. But it appears that was only a dream.”

  “Come now, let’s dry our tears. We need not waste them on things we cannot alter. What’s done is done, is it not?” She sniffed, and I wiped my cheeks using the long sleeves of my frock.

  “I am eager to hear what transpired after I fled Aselaira and what led to your capture.” I bent my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Cathar informed me that you were brainwashed by Ohtar, much like the rest of the people. Please, tell me, how were you able to overcome his darkness?”

  “It took a great deal of medicine. That was the reason we were caught, for Cathar had claimed us to be born of Lassaira long ago. Neither your father nor I could remember such details. In fact, we could not remember much from our lives prior to being in Aselaira. Not our own mother and father, or our childhoods. We sought a medicine healer at once during the commotion,” she explained, and my heart sank. I was not a medicine healer. I had no medicine to speak of at all, nor anything that which could break the Maite’Ona from their trance. My efforts had been in vain.

  I drew up on my hands and knees, my head resting on the bars, just wishing I could see her as she spoke. “How soon did they find you?”

  “Not immediately. The army of Lassaira was retreating, but it did little to cover our escape, and so we were forced t
o hide. We did our best to remain undetected, my child, but too many years had gone by under Ohtar’s wretchedness. We were found shortly after our cleansing and thrown into the prisons. We pretended to still be under Ohtar’s influence.”

  “I loathe him, Mother. I have never felt so strongly about a creature in all my cycles of life. How can anyone follow him as they do? I do not understand it at all.” I turned my back to the cold iron and dropped my head into my trembling hands.

  “For what he did to you, I loathe him as well,” she said with menace in her voice. “Cathar shared with us that he had seen you in his dreams. We understood then that you must be a Dream Weaver and that it was the reason for your disappearance. That could be the only explanation for it, and we began to piece things together for ourselves from that information alone.”

  “I am glad he told you. It was only because I had finally connected with him upon returning to Luïnil that I learnt of your pending execution. I am so terribly sorry that I was not there for you sooner, Mother. If I had known—”

  “Shhh, my love.” She did not let me finish, and I shut my eyes to take in her comforting words. “I do not want you to be haunted by such things. There was nothing you could have done for us, and your father and I would not have wished for you to put yourself in danger on our behalf.”

  “Amin mela lle, Mother.” I loved her with all my heart.

  “Amin mela lle, my child.”

  The fire in Remycah’s eyes collided with the color that was bluer than the Erulissë Sea as he stalked his prey. Lithe and precise were his movements. But my heart could not bear to see the deadness in his expression. Though he fought valiantly, there was a clear disconnect in his emotions. I could only guess he was overburdened by grief over the loss of his Fëa, by sorrow over the loss of his kingdom, and by despair over the killings he was forced to perform.

  And yet, he did not let any of that show in his demeanor. He was lifeless instead.

  Perhaps moving on instinct and without thought, I did my best to imagine myself in his position. Unfortunately, there was no way that I could truly understand what he was going through.

  I cringed away and shut my eyes as the goblin he fought punctured his shoulder. Ohtar allowed the goblin a weapon but left Remycah unarmed. I fumed as I was yet again forced to watch game after game. Rydan was by my side at his own shaming post, and he, too, was mesmerized by the battle ensuing before us.

  Occasionally I would watch his jaw tick with the close calls Remycah had somehow managed to dodge, or when he delivered a fine hit. At times, I found it somewhat easier to set my eyes upon Rydan watching Remycah fight rather than viewing it for myself.

  Then I heard an uproar ignite and my focus returned to the battle. The goblin was atop Remycah with a deadly gaze and his weapon to his throat. Remycah pushed the blade away, but the goblin did all he could to sink it back into Remycah’s flesh. I shook my head and closed my eyes as I thrashed against my restraints. This was unbearable!

  “Come on!” Rydan bellowed, startling me. “Fight! Fight with all you’ve got!”

  “What do you bloody think I’m doing?” Remycah returned in a growling grunt. Though not entirely close, our sensitive hearing enabled us to hear each other over the crowd, though it was faint.

  “Dude, I’m going to disown you if you let him beat you to a pulp!” Rydan, too, tried tearing from his shackles, but could not break from them.

  Remycah did not speak after that, for he was much too occupied with countering the goblin’s strength. The blade drew closer to his throat, and I refused to watch another second of it.

  “Oh, god, there’s blood,” Rydan muttered, defeat exuding from his voice.

  “No!” I could not help returning to see for myself, not wanting to believe that Remycah had lost. If he were to lose, then the strongest creatures in all the kingdom would be set loose on him, ordered to abuse him until unconscious. The blood Rydan spoke of dripped from his neck that the weapon slowly cut into. “Rydan, I thought him to be defeated. You gave me a fright!”

  “I’m sorry, this is just too much. I can’t…I can’t stand these stupid chains!” He yanked against them as hard as he could. “I need to be out there!”

  My attention was fastened to the fight. I prayed Remycah would find a way out of this. My heart pounded wildly within my chest as I watched.

  And then before I knew it, Remycah twisted the goblin’s arm to the side and broke it at the elbow, and in one swift motion drove the blade into the creature’s heart.

  Rydan and I screamed in delight and then laughed as I let out a few tears of joy. I had not been so relieved over anything in quite some time.

  A noise startled me awake. A soft tap on the bars of my cell sent my heart spiraling out of control. “Hello? Who’s there?” I inquired.

  It was not usual for guards or the soup maid to be down here at this time, and so my mind worked to come up with an explanation for the unexpected visitor.

  “Shhh,” the stranger demanded. “It is I, Námoman.”

  My body shot up from the cot on its own, and I wrapped my fingers around the steely bars. “What are you doing here? Have you come to break us free?”

  “There are things I must know first. Things I do not understand and need clarification,” he replied.

  “Yes? I will answer anything. Please, we need your help.”

  “When Ohtar had me surveying you, my Fëa detected an innocence I had not come across in many cycles. There was a drive in you to keep your secret hidden from Ohtar like no other. A fierce protectiveness over someone important to you.” His voice was softer than a whisper.

  I quickly replied, “Is that why you lied for me? Is that why you did not give me away?”

  “Yes. But I must know. Tell me, what is your involvement with King Remycah?” He lowered his voice even more as he looked to his left and right for unfriendly eyes.

  “I conspired with Ender, King Remycah’s Guardian, to contact our lost king and prince who had remained in the Earthly realm and to direct them home to us. To take back what was rightfully theirs and redeem their kingdom. They were to eradicate Ohtar’s darkness and save us all. That had been my reason for protecting the secret I had carried. I had held to my determination to never betray King Remycah, regardless of what Ohtar had threatened to do to me.” Even now, after everything we had been through, the fire that burned inside my heart remained strong. I would do it all again if given the chance.

  “The High Guardian Ender? He truly lives?” he asked, disbelief painting his words.

  “Yes, he lives.” Then I thought about that statement and realized I actually did not know for certain. “At least, I do indeed hope he still lives. I believe him to have escaped during our capture. He must have fled with his daughter Nariella. That can be the only explanation.”

  “Then I must find him. There is not much I can do for you all on my own. Guards patrol these quarters frequently, and already I have lingered too long. I must leave at once and locate Ender.” He placed a gentle hand around my cold fingers that had curled around the hard iron of the cage I was kept in.

  “Is there truly nothing you can do?” my voice faltered, and I chastised myself for sounding weak.

  “Forgive me. I will do what I can to find Ender. If I succeed before the night of the Hunter’s Moon, we will return for your freedom.”

  At that, he swept away from my sight completely, and I was left alone for the darkness to consume me once again.

  Chapter Seven

  ~Nari~

  “So, it’s a mystery that I’m still alive and not suffering in agony? And you of course have no idea what the reason could be, or what the heck I’m even supposed to do now?” Well, there went my hopes and dreams for getting all those needed answers. I now had new questions to plague me. Including why I suddenly felt Isil instead of Tavas. But I was hesitant to bring that part up just yet. “Surprisingly, I feel fine.”

  “It is a mystery, and I do not believe there is anything t
hat can be done, Nariella.” Döron took my grandmother’s hand lovingly as they stood together, staring at me in wonderment. “We are grateful you at least kept your life.”

  “Then if there’s really nothing we can do about it, let’s put a pin in it for now, because I don’t have a single minute to lose. I have people waiting for me, one of whom is my absolute best friend in the whole world. I can’t just sit here a second longer chatting about things that have no bearing on what I need to do next to rescue them.” My chest felt like it caved in at the mere mention of what was to come. “By the way, why is there a bed here?” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the luxurious and way-too-extravagant furniture sitting at my back. I couldn’t help asking, especially since you’d think we’d be inside the castle instead of out here in the forest.

  “We thought it best for you to remain with your Fëa,” my grandmother clarified. But I was still confused. Then I saw through Lissë’s eyes that they had wanted her to go inside the castle, but she had refused. She had chosen to stay in the freedom of the forest, deciding it was best for the both of us if we remained out here. Good call. Especially since Cílon said he would have my head if I didn’t heal Aglar…which reminded me. Why was I still alive? “Nariella, you cannot leave. You are needed here.”

  “What do you mean? You know I can’t stay. In fact, I’m probably late. How long was I unconscious for? I need to figure out where I should be right now. I was supposed to meet back up with Ender.” I finally stood up and brushed off the dirt and leaves from my clothes, ready to get a move on and finish what we had started. My main focus was on the impending war we were about to wage against Aselaira. That was what was most important. And if Cílon happened to forget about his vow, well, all the better to get going before he remembered it.