My heart began to race fast. I looked down below to see if I could see anyone on the land surface, but we were way too high up and could only see the shapes of land formations.
“Could it be Aver looking for us in Aurora Springs?” I said. “Or maybe it’s the community members.”
“Come on,” Shaul said, his voice edged with adrenaline. He pulled me ahead very fast through the sky.
If the intruders were Aver and his army, Aver would attack me again and probably hold me hostage so that if he impregnated me he could take the baby to use to gain entrance into the Garden of Eden. If the intruders were the community members, they would either kill us or put us back in a horrible dungeon where we’d be tortured. Either way, we were in great danger. That is, if the intruders were after us. We still did not know. These invaders could be after the faeries instead.
Thinking of all the possibilities, I became frightened as we hurried through the sky. But, then suddenly, we heard a loud sound and my thoughts shifted. We turned back to look.
In a rush, a giant-sized butterfly net scooped through the air. The net moved fast, sweeping the sky. Its pole lengthened and contorted digitally. I noticed the rim of the circumference that supported the net was lined with detection eyeballs set in metal lids.
I knew that before the Economy Crash, the United States military used synthetic eyeballs on their jet cruisers to scope landscapes and airways for relaying visual information back to the bureau. I imagined these devices were of a similar sort. That made me wonder again who was controlling this gigantic net and who or what were they trying to catch? And for what purpose?
Moving quite fast, the metal circumference supporting the net clanked against the head of the unicorn causing him to spiral through the air.
I gasped. The way it hit the animal’s head, it seemed like a careless mistake.
But, all at once, a blast of fire shot up from below, hitting the unicorn. The poor thing exploded in a visually graphic violence. The fire was so hot that he disintegrated quickly. It was a shocking sight to see such intense destruction. But, even worse was the recognition that at any moment we could be the next victims.
“Let’s go,” Shaul said as he pulled me swiftly through the clouds.
I heard the swish of the net behind us as it swept the sky.
I couldn’t see anything but a fog of white. Then, suddenly before us, the net contorted, recoiled and then scooped again just missing us. We made a sharp turn to the left. From the sound of it, the net made its next sweep to the right. Apparently, it couldn’t see Shaul and me through the white mist.
“Can’t you do a spell to stop it,” I yelled out to Shaul.
We were moving fast. “I tried…” he responded, his breath caught in his throat,” “…but it has light energy coursing through it. The devil’s powers are defenseless against light energy which is part of the Omnipotent Force.”
“Omnipotent Force?” I was confused.
“It’s the power from the side of Good.”
“Good?”
“As opposed to Evil.”
My adrenaline raced when I heard the sounds of the metal pole’s extension right above us. “Move right,” I screamed to Shaul.
But, there was no time. The net lifted straight overhead. For a split second, I could see it over us so close that the clouds didn’t obstruct my view. It came down fast just missing our feet.
Shaul pulled me into his arms and took an unexpected, angular dive downwards. He stopped midair inside a new cluster of clouds out of the path of the net.
“With that visual take,” he said, “whoever is controlling the net has detected us.”
Was he giving up? “Can’t you create a barrier around us for protection?”
He took my face into his hands tenderly. “Light is all powerful. It can penetrate any of my machinations.”
“Can’t you make us disappear or vanish to another location?” My voice was desperate.
“Serpents don’t have that ability.” I noticed a glint of ferociousness in his eyes. “We are not omnipotent.” He shook his head. “I’ve never seen anyone harness light against the serpents.”
My body trembled. “Are they going to catch us?” I didn’t want to die.
His expression was serious, loving. “Stay strong, Cordellia.”
My body tensed.
He ran his fingers over my lips. His voice was inaudible as he whispered something.
It must have been some sort of soothing spell. I immediately relaxed.
There were sparkles in his silver eyes that reminded me of the stars. He pulled me closer to him. I could feel the sensual rise and fall of his chest. And I surrendered to him. He kissed me like we were one. His lips were so soft. His breath was warm. He kissed me like the world was ending.
I never wanted the kisses to end. But, then, suddenly, all at once, he stopped.
“Cordellia, you must fly away.” His voice was edged with determination. “I’ll distract them. They can’t catch both of us if we are separated.
“I’ll never leave you,” I said. “I’d rather die in your arms than live without you.”
“Go,” He said forcefully as he pushed me away. But, then the net came down upon us and we were thrown back together into the netting.
5
We fell violently to the bottom of the gigantic butterfly net. I tumbled on top of Shaul. He let out a scream and I was thrown by the quick, jerking movements of the trap to the side.
The apparatus stilled for a moment. With my face pressed against it, I realized the netting we were trapped in was made of thin metal spokes. We struggled to gain secure positions. Once we were flat on our backs and could breathe for a second, tiny little strings of metal wrapped around our torsos, cocooning us beside each other in separate encasements like mummies. It was a horror.
“At least our heads are free,” Shaul looked at me as he spoke. His smile was wry. Blood trickled from his face. Apparently, he was initially thrown face down into the net and cut himself on the sharp edges.
I struggled to free myself, but as I threw my body around in the encasing, my thighs and armpits thrashed against the metal cocoon and caused me terrible pains. There was nothing I could do. Whoever was controlling this mechanical butterfly net had trapped us completely.
“Whatever happens to us…” Shaul said, his voice scratchy in his throat, “…I am with you in the music of your mind.”
I looked at him. His face blurred in my eyes. The sky above us spun as the net moved in a twirling motion downwards.
Suddenly, I felt tiny, thin metal spokes piercing my skin beneath the encasing. I screamed. I couldn’t help it. It was a cold sharp pain like needles were being inserted into my body all over and all at once.
Shaul’s voice was tight, strained as he struggled to free himself. “If we are separated, we can communicate through the music.” Even though he was right beside me, his voice trailed off, the sounds turned muffled and distant. I thought he was chanting in Latin, but I wasn’t sure.
I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body. “I don’t know how to do that.” I took a jagged breath as my torso shuddered. “I don’t know how to communicate through the music.” My voice was a scratchy whisper. Tears welled in my eyes, but when I wiped my lids with my hand, I saw that the tears were not water, but blood.
At once, I tried to lift my hand again to wipe away the blood, but now my arm felt heavy and I couldn’t raise it. Thoughts of terror rose in my mind. What was happening to us? Struggling, I tried to move my body parts, but nothing would move. My body was paralyzed. The needle like spokes must have injected something into my system that caused paralysis.
I wanted to tell Shaul that I loved him. I felt I had to say it even if he didn’t feel the same, but my lips wouldn’t move. Even my face had numbed.
The music became so loud in my head that I couldn’t hear Shaul anymore if he was even speaking at all. Maybe he was paralyzed too. My eyes welled over and I must have passe
d out.
I woke up. Dizziness overtook me. “Shaul?” His name came out muffled because something was covering my mouth.
My face felt strange. It was wrapped in something—bandages. My entire face was wrapped in soft, gauzy cloth. Even my eyes were covered. This frightened me. It was so strange.
Where was I? I tried to orient myself.
After some thought, I remembered being caught in a huge light powered butterfly net. Memories came back to me. Shaul and I had been encased in tiny metal spokes and then the spokes beneath the encasing had penetrated my body like tiny needles sliding deep beneath the skin. The pain had been shocking, but then my body became paralyzed and I felt nothing at all.
The memories brought my emotions aflame. Where was Shaul? Was he asleep somewhere beside me just out of reach? “Shaul?” His name was dry in my throat.
He didn’t respond.
My body was exhausted. I struggled to move. My limbs were in working order. And, at least, now, I felt the sensations of life coursing through me. No longer was I paralyzed, but I was strapped down.
With my hand, I felt around my body. There were material sashes wrapped over my torso and around what felt like a small bed that I lay upon.
I reached up to my face. My right eye hurt like hell. And as my senses became more coherent, I felt the hot sensations of wounds on my face.
Gently, I unwound the gauzy bandages from my face. The room I was in was still and quiet. I imagined Shaul and I were alone because besides the slow mournful tune playing in my mind, the silence was blaring.
It was difficult lifting my head to unwind the bandages because of the dizziness I felt. But, I managed to start at my chin and slowly unwrap upwards. The gauze stuck to small dried cuts on my chin and cheeks.
I flinched, but the pain was nothing compared to the brutal torture I experienced in prison from Lucindean, that huge, evil woman who barely escaped with her life when I collapsed the dungeon. Certainly, tearing open some minor cuts could not compare to being attacked ruthlessly with high volts of electricity from her laser baton. Just the thought of Lucindean made me stronger and more determined. I was glad Shaul had stabbed her in the eye with a rock.
Just when I was about to take the last of the bandaging off of my eyes and head, I heard the slightest rustle. At once, I yanked the wrap off tearing a layer of skin from my eyelid as it stuck. I let out a short scream. But, worse than the exposed flesh on my eyelid, was the horror before my eyes.
Jezebel Bradeere was staring me in the face with her sparkling amber eyes. Shadows of the night cast across her face. From the light of the lantern set on the small wooden table beside her, I saw the scar on her face redden as it often did when her emotions were set aflame.
She had the slightest smile that softened her harsh, yet attractive features as she towered over me. I couldn’t help but flinch upon seeing her tall, muscular, sleek body, remembering how fiercely overpowering she had been when she held me down in the woods and spit in my mouth before mutilating me.
Hatred flared up in me.
“Hello there, Cordellia.” Her voice was husky and sultry like a dome cinema star. “I saw you naked. The scars on your chest look more prominent than I could have hoped for. It still says, ‘slut.’” She placed her hand on my chest.
I flinched at her touch. The trauma she had inflicted upon me rushed back to me. I felt like a mouse caught in a trap. The helpless feelings I had back when she pinned me to the ground and carved into my flesh with a knife invaded my thoughts. I felt weak and powerless trapped again under her machinations.
But, I wasn’t going to let her weaken me. No. Never again. It didn’t matter that I was disoriented and fatigued from paralysis because my hatred burned stronger.
Jezebel Bradeere took away my power. Jezebel Bradeere robbed me of my human dignity. Jezebel Bradeere sent me to a life of horrific imprisonment.
I bit down hard on my lip as I tried to contain the rage that was now screaming inside of me. I didn’t want her to know she had an effect on me. My hands balled into fists. At this point, if I wasn’t strapped down so tightly, I would have pulled her head off.
Despite my bouts of weakness, imprisonment had hardened me and even though my body was much smaller than hers, I had a fierce determination that I hadn’t possessed in the past that leveled the playing field better than it had prior.
I felt a thin stream of blood slide from my eye and down my cheek. With the back of my hand, I wiped it off and onto the sheet. Looking around, I realized I was on my own bed in my mother’s cabin, the same place I had lived before I had been sentenced to life imprisonment for crossing the boundary line.
The thin white curtains were pulled shut on the windows and I could see the moonlight shining through. “Where’s Shaul?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
“He escaped.” Her smile was subtle, yet mocking.
My eyes widened.
“I guess your boyfriend didn’t care about you after all.”
“What do you mean?” I wanted to get her talking as a distraction, so I could figure out how to get the sashes untied that were pinning me to the bed.
“Shaul Hainsworth is an intense guy.” She shook her head like she was enjoying a memory. “The paralyzing fluids must not have worked on him. When the community members lowered the net to the ground, it appeared as if you and Shaul were both unconscious.
“Your mother ran over to you, gushing and hysterical. President Mazen Tratzel had to pull her off. I bet she’ll get lashes for that. Stupid woman.” She chuckled and walked over to a cabinet on the far side of the dim cabin room.
I couldn’t help it—my eyes welled up at the mention of my mother having any caring feelings toward me. It didn’t appear as if Jezebel noticed my reaction.
While she was at the cabinet looking for something, I felt around the sashes that strapped my torso down. I figured the knots must be under the bed because the surface of the fabric was smooth. My hands were free, so I pulled at the sashes, struggling subtly to feed the knot upwards. I was making headway, but I couldn’t let her see what I was doing. I strained to lift my chest as an attempt to loosen and stretch the material so I could maneuver my body around more freely. It worked.
Jezebel was still talking. “First, Tratzel’s men unfastened you from that fierce apparatus they had you mummified in.” She looked over at me momentarily as she brushed her hand though her shiny brown hair.
I could tell she was thrilled to be the first to tell me the story. In fact, her arrogance was rising, which was good for me because it kept her focused on herself rather than on me and what I was attempting to do.
“Once they got your nearly lifeless, bashed body from the net, Mazen ordered your mother into custody and he had the baker, his wife, and kids carry you to your cabin where they tied you down and bandaged you up.”
Now, I was beginning to understand why they did such an amateurish job tying me to the bed. They wanted me to escape! I had no idea why the baker and his wife would want me free, but why else would they tie me up in such a pathetic manner that even the most stupid could break free from if given the chance? No digital devices. No metal clasps wired to torturing apparatuses. Just plain, simple fabric ties.
Before my imprisonment, I had been friendly with the baker and his family. Well, mostly my mother was friendly with them. She was a dishwasher in their bakery sometimes. She often wrote down recipes and healing remedies and had me deliver the papers to them late at night when nobody was around.
“After you were out of the way, six of Mazen’s men unfastened Shaul. It looked as if he was dead. His body was entirely lifeless. No rise and fall of the chest like there had been with you. One of the men yelled out, ‘He’s dead!’, but just as the words came out of his mouth, Shaul sprang to life and snapped the man’s head entirely off. Hardly a second passed before he attacked the other five men, pulling their limbs from their bodies and snapping their necks…”
I tugged slightly at the sashes an
d realized that they were unfastening. From the looseness, it appeared as if they had only been tied in slip knots. I was all too familiar with this sort of tie from my years of working with horses.
Jezebel pulled a syringe from the cabinet and went to another cabinet where she sifted through a variety of bottles filled with various liquids. My body tightened realizing that she was probably planning to fill the syringe and inject some sort of poison or mind altering drug into me.
She continued talking merrily as she looked. “Mazen tried to shoot Shaul with his laser gun, but Shaul was too fast. He ran up a tree and then just seemed to vanish. Nobody could find him anywhere.” Her eyes were wide in bewilderment when she turned to me. “It was a shock!”
I held very still, hoping she hadn’t detected what I was up to.
“There’s a search team looking for him now. Later today there will be a community gathering where we will be addressing your mother’s outburst. After, we will access your crimes of escaping prison and demolishing the dungeon…”
She walked toward me with the filled syringe. “There’s talk that you are going to be used for medical experimentation. Your crimes are the most serious and deserve the severest sentencing. Have you ever had your skin peeled off your entire body? Laboratory rats injected with flesh eating poisons have been proven to show some regeneration with full body skin peels. Though, they often die from the injections.”
With that, I contorted my body, throwing myself face down on the bed where I reached beneath and pulled the remaining slip knots.
Jezebel yanked me backwards by my hair. My body flew in the other direction onto the bed. The anger flared up in me something wild and I grabbed the oil lamp off the table. I smashed it at once against the bed frame, lighting an immediate fire from the oil spill and flames. In a rage, I grabbed a large shard of glass and slashed it across Jezebel’s chest. Blood gushed forth.
Shocked from the sudden turn of violence, Jezebel pulled me to the floor, but I managed to flip her onto her back as I was fiercely out of control. Blood from my eye wound obstructed my vision, but I easily slashed her belly. Smoke was filling the room. And while her astonishment prevailed, I ran out of the cabin.
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 4