by Jason Wilcox
“No.” He looked towards the door then back to her. “Or at least I don’t think so. I believe they’ve agreed to protect us.”
“Who are they?” Bridget took a bite of one of the fruits. They were delicious, slightly tart, but very good.
“I guess you could call them my relatives.”
Bridget almost choked as she swallowed. She hadn’t expected Raestal to say that, even though it made sense, they were demons.
“How? I mean…” She didn’t know how to ask the question, nor was she sure if it was appropriate.
Raestal frowned and looked away. “I was ordered to never tell you things like that.” He looked at the doorway. “I think it best we don’t have that conversation.” Turning his attention back to her, he looked down at her bowl of food. “Eat up. Your body needs those nutrients to keep healing. I’m going to go wait outside.” Without another word, he left.
Confused by the conversation, Bridget gave a scowl once Raestal had disappeared. She went back to eating. Everything tasted good.
Once she was done, she stood and walked out the entrance, wanting to see what was going on. Raestal sat by a large fire that was burning just outside. Two other demons sat with him, all of them in silence. As she stepped down from the hut, the demons looked over at her and then at her belly.
The wound ached, and having them look at it, brought her attention to it more. She looked down and saw the hole in her clothing where she had been stabbed.
“You can put the bowl in that pot of water over there,” Raestal spoke up, pointing to a large pot that sat to the side of the hut. As she dropped it in, she looked around. It was amazing, easily the most beautiful place she had ever been. Massive trees grew around them with roots that seemed to start half way up the trunk. The diameter of the trees had to be at least the size of two houses. The branches made a canopy above with twisting and twirling branches intertwined. Birds chirped above, hopping around on the branches of the towering trees.
Huts were intermittently placed around the trees and led back to a cliff face that was covered in green moss and vines. She thought she could make out some ancient carvings on the outside of the cliff wall, but wasn’t positive with all the vegetation growing. She saw what looked like a couple of doors made out of stone along the wall. One of them she knew was a doorway, since there was no door.
“Come. Sit down,” Raestal said. If she didn’t trust Raestal so well, she would’ve been worried about going over there with the two demons.
Both of the demons stayed silent, even after she sat down on the smooth rock that had been carved into a stool of sorts. They acted as if they were uneasy with both Raestal and her. By the look of it, she figured they were probably guards watching over them. They both had swords leaning against their stone seats.
Bridget looked back to the cliff wall, curious about what might be in the open doorway. “Can we look around?” She looked back to Raestal, who raised an eyebrow to her question. “Or are we prisoners?”
Looking down at the fire, Raestal picked at his sharp fang with his claws, ignoring her question. He held a small stick and leaned forward to poke at the fire causing sparks to float up.
An empty sheath hung on Raestal’s back. “Where’s your sword?” Bridget asked while reaching over and touching the empty sheath. Raestal quickly sat up.
“They took it.”
“So, are we prisoners? Or, can we look around?”
Raestal bit his lip for a moment and shrugged. “Let’s take a walk.” He stood, holding his hand out to help her up. She took his hand and stood up with a smile. “So where to?” The other demons didn’t pay much attention to them as he spoke.
“I don’t know. Let’s just take a walk.” Bridget headed for the cliff with Raestal in tow. They walked past the different huts and enormous trees. She inhaled the crisp and fresh air.
“How are they your relatives?” Bridget asked again while looking back to see if the demons were following them. Neither of the demons budged. They didn’t seem to care that Raestal and Bridget left.
“I thought I told you, I’m not to talk about that. Azgiel told me it was off limits.”
“Yeah, and you know, Azgiel is probably going to show up any minute and take us back home so we can have our beds back.”
Raestal stopped walking and looked at her. His dark black eyes showed sorrow.
“We’re not going back, are we?” Bridget began. “I mean, we’re stuck here, aren’t we?”
“I don’t…” Raestal looked away. “I mean...”
Emotion flowed through Bridget. She fell into Raestal’s chest, tears flowing down her cheeks. The reality of their situation set in. It was too much. The only thing she had left was Raestal. She no longer had her home, her planet, Maselda, her mom, or most of all, Caden. Any chance of finding him, if he was even still alive, was gone. She ground her teeth and hit Raestal in the chest as the tears kept flowing.
Large, strong hands pulled her in, wrapping around her.
“Why?” Bridget cried. “I…” she didn’t know what else to say, there really wasn’t anything. It had been her choice to come along. She took a deep breath and swallowed, slowing down the tears. Raestal’s comforting arms helped.
“It will be okay,” his deep voice vibrated her arms as she rested on him.
Knowing he wasn’t right, but there wasn’t a lot that could be done about it, Bridget tried to pull herself together. She needed to stay strong. She sniffed one more time and wiped away tears.
“I’m okay.” Bridget pulled out of the demon’s arms. She noticed the other demons by the fire were now looking at them, not in a threatening way, but more in a curious way. When they noticed that she was looking, they quickly turned away, pretending not to pay attention. The image made Bridget chuckle slightly. Raestal turned to look, but nothing was out of the ordinary any longer.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.” Bridget smiled. “Let’s keep walking.” With one last look at the demons, Raestal followed her. They walked up to the cliff, and Bridget stepped into the open doorway. Raestal grabbed her shoulder.
“Don’t go in there.”
After many times of Raestal being wrong, with the cactuses, the giants, and possibly even the demons, Bridget figured this time she could ignore him. She ducked to evade his grip, and ran into the entrance.
“Bridget!” Raestal barked while following her in. “You’re not supposed to be in here.”
The entrance led to a large room with many other doorways that were blocked by stone doors. Carvings and ancient writings were all over the walls. A small fire burned in the middle, which looked like it was fueled by a type of oil that came out of the ground. Carvings covered the ground, circling the fire.
“Bridget!” Raestal’s voice became more aggressive. “Do not step into that room. It’s forbidden for you to go in there.”
“Oh and how do you know?” she chuckled. “Kind of like how you knew the glowing cactuses were bad?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on this planet. I forgot about the cactuses, but I didn’t forget about this place. If you step in there they will kill you, and I won’t be able to stop them.” His harsh tone began to fade away, overtaken by a more concerned tone.
Bridget lifted a foot and hovered it over the line that separated her from the room. “Then tell me about how it is they are your relatives.”
“It’s as simple as that.” He gave a hand signal for her to pull her foot back while he talked. “This is my old planet, where I came from, and these are my people. We once populated a large part of this planet. Azgiel came along with his colony of humans; he lived amongst us for hundreds of years. He showed us powers that were unimaginable. He grew to love our kind and discovered he could offer us something that only our kind could have, which was giving us tremendous power. However, there were side effects like gaining immortal life, and our procreating abilities disappeared.” He paused and looked behind himself.
; Pulling her foot back, Bridget leaned against the wall. “Please continue.”
Letting out a sigh, he complied. “Almost all of us agreed to receiving the power, loving the idea. The powers were inscribed into our bodies through these tattoos.” He pointed to his white tattoos. “I won’t complicate the process, but each of us were given different powers. Azgiel had no control over which powers we received. It had to do with our own internal makeup. However, we quickly learned that the immortal part didn’t stick for the females and only ninety percent of males. Those that didn’t get the side effect of immortal life passed away over time.”
“So, that’s why I’ve never seen a female demon until last night?”
A noise came from outside the tunnel, and Raestal again looked back. He rubbed his hands together and shifted his weight.
“Please continue.” Bridget stepped closer.
“The leader of the Contie…”
“The who?”
“You know us as demons. We were renamed by humans, but back then we were known as the Contie.” He rubbed his hands together. “However, the leader of the Contie at that time was named Hermue, and he led a revolt against Azgiel, believing that Azgiel was evil. Hermue taught his followers that Azgiel was corrupting us and stealing our souls. It was the first big war that we fought and terribly tragic. The pure Conties were almost completely wiped out, and Hermue was locked away in a cell of time, the worst punishment anyone can be given.”
His story was creating more questions for Bridget. She looked in the room that she so badly wanted to enter and noticed that the carvings and drawings in the room looked familiar. There were pictures of wars, demons against demons with a large man leading one army, which had to be Azgiel. Six planets were carved and painted into the ceiling, and one planet that was red, had a black circle surrounding it.
Just below the red planet, above one of the doors, was a picture of Azgiel holding a strange looking sword. Humans, demons, and all types of creatures lay dead around him. Some of the creatures looked like white dragons.
The next door to the left had an interesting picture above it as well. There stood a man with hundreds of dark creatures all around him. The man’s face was gone, replaced by a skull. She was curious as to who that was.
“When I was last here, there were only a few Contie tribes left scattered across the planet. We stayed clear of them, and they left us alone.” There was a sense of regret in his voice as he spoke, a little sorrow.
“What are the carvings of planets in there?” Bridget pointed into the room, unable to contain her curiosity any longer. Raestal stepped beside her and looked into the room.
“Those are the six planets that are connected by the gates, the planets in this universe that have life on them.” He lifted a hand and pointed to one of the planets, a small blue one. “The first one right in front of us is planet Failen, the next planet is Myree, your home planet. Next is planet Terris, this planet.” His finger stopped on the red planet, and he swallowed. “That’s Prem.”
“What’s the black circle around it?” she asked before he moved on. “And why is it red?”
Raestal chewed on his lip and gave Bridget a concerned look. “What I’m about to tell you can never be repeated if we get back to planet Myree. Understood?” He was gruff which startled Bridget.
“Okay.”
“Once the war started, and Azgiel made up his mind to destroy all the kings of the other planets, he started with that planet.” Raestal took another breath. “We slaughtered them all. The planet is desolate of life,” his voice cut out and he leaned against the wall.
His emotional reaction surprised Bridget. But Raestal constantly surprised her. Even though she wanted to ask more questions about Prem, she could see the topic was difficult for him, so she decided to change topics. “What are the last two planet names?”
Letting out another deep sigh, Raestal looked at them and continued with a deflated voice, “Levem, and Earth.”
Bridget looked back at Terris and the picture that was below it of a man with a skull face and dark creatures around him. “So who is that?” she pointed.
“That’s Triaad, or at least their rendition of him.” Raestal shifted his weight and moved to sit on the ground. “He doesn’t actually have a skull for a face.”
“He’s the one that rules this planet, right?” She stared at the picture, captivated by the odd symbols that surrounded the image.
“Yes.”
Part of Bridget felt that she should stop asking questions, especially since Raestal was acting more and more frustrated. But she also knew if she stopped asking, she may never get the answers again. “Can you tell me about him?”
“Not much to tell.” Raestal scratched dried dirt off his leg. “He betrayed Azgiel. He was Azgiel’s most trusted advisor, and the first and last human Azgiel ever gave power to. Azgiel, with his assistance, unlocked the secrets of how to give that power. However, shortly after the powers were given, the war started to evolve. Azgiel’s other advisors began to betray him. Azgiel ordered their deaths and expected Triaad to carry out the sentences. In the end, there was only one advisor left, Triaad. It was about that time that we headed to Prem for the first stages of the war. When we finished there, Mauldrin, the highest king, pulled the other kings together and gathered on Myree, Mauldrin’s home planet.”
Bridget began to get wide eyed. She was starting to see why she wasn’t supposed to know this information, but Raestal kept going. “Azgiel found out about the kings gathered on Myree. He went there to end the war and destroy all the kings to vanquish their corruption.”
“What corruption?”
“The kings plotted against Azgiel and had been trying to overthrow him for befriending the Contie and then having a civil war with them. They tried all manner of ways to get rid of him and finally the lowest blow, Mauldrin killed Maselda. Fortunately, in Azgiel’s research he discovered a way to bring her back to life, which made her what she is now.” He looked Bridget over. “The same as you. That infuriated the other kings. There were rules with powers and they felt he was breaking those rules. Threats began to show up, and that’s when he began to find out his trusted advisors were betraying him. Unfortunately, he didn’t find out about Triaad’s betrayal until it was too late, and by then, Triaad had built an army of dark souls.”
Bridget had to know more about Mauldrin. She wasn’t too concerned about other parts of the story, because if she understood Raestal correctly, his information changed everything. “So, you guys went to Myree to kill Mauldrin? And what happened after that?”
“Well Mauldrin won of course. He put Azgiel in a cell of time and hid the sword deep in the planet, placing a…” Raestal’s eyes grew big and he closed his mouth so quickly that he made a clapping noise. “Umm… I mean…Mauldrin and him…Well…”
“They’re actually enemies?” Bridget wasn’t sure if she should run or stay. If Mauldrin and Azgiel were enemies, and Raestal served Azgiel, where did that put her? Raestal blinked at her question and opened his mouth a couple of times, but nothing came out.
“We didn’t come here to save Caden, did we?” Bridget asked.
Raestal looked down at the ground and tapped the floor with his claws. “I’ve told you too much. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just started talking. I forgot about your relation to Mauldrin.”
Bridget’s mouth grew dry and she tried to swallow. She gathered the courage to ask the question that had to be asked. “Are you going to kill me?”
A sword slammed into the rock just above Bridget’s head, which caused her to scream. The large dark orange demon that had stabbed her the previous night stood in the room with a couple of other demons. His black fangs were showing, and he looked angry.
“Tobana!” the orange demon yelled, which reverberated through the room and tunnel. He pointed to the exit as he did so. Both Raestal and Bridget quickly jumped up and ran out of the tunnel, Bridget leading the way. Once out, a large strong hand gripped B
ridget’s arm. She looked up to the dark orange demon, but he ignored her and barked orders at the other demons that had swords out and pointed at Raestal.
After the orders, the dark orange demon began dragging Bridget into the woods.
“Raestal!” Bridget yelled, feeling he was her only hope.
“It will be okay Bridget,” he called back, ignoring the swords around him. “I’ll talk with them, and we’ll get this figured out. I promise.”
She quickly lost sight of her friend, and possibly her enemy, as they went around one of the large trees. A stone building with a large, thick, wooden door was in front of them. Vines and moss grew all over the small dwelling.
“You’re not going to put me in there are you?” Bridget asked, but was shaken hard as she spoke.
The door opened with a loud creaking noise. Without another word, the demon threw her in the chamber and slammed the door shut.
CHAPTER 25
Caden shifted in the sand. In the distance, a guard walked along rubble that littered the ground from where one of the missiles had blown out a portion of the large wall. He leapt across larger piles of the wall and came to a stop where the wall was still intact. Turning, he sat down and began to play with his rifle, pointing it in random directions and pretending to shoot, like a child with a toy.
Hopping up, a small lizard shook off sand in front of Caden and ran down the dune that James, Tagen, and he lay on. Knowing the lizard was distracting him, he looked back to the man fooling around with his gun. The man pretended to get shot and dropped off the wall. After a moment or two went by, he climbed back up to start his pretend shooting again.
“I only see one guard down there,” Caden said. They had barely crawled to the top of the dune.
“That’s all I see as well,” James replied crawling a little bit farther in the sand. “I don’t even see dark souls anywhere. Do you Tagen?”
Tagen shifted and looked at James with his brow raised. “You’re asking me?”