She focused on the men fighting her friends. One by one they stirred, for the first time in a long time, emotion registering on their faces. They blinked their eyes back into focus, staggered as they started to control forgotten limbs.
There was a murmur of surprise that fast turned into an elated chorus. The villagers scooped the men into their arms. The men slapped each other on the back, laughing with their new-found freedom. They tossed off their black broad-brimmed hats, shrugged out of their black coats, taking away signs of their unearthly imprisonment.
“You have done it, Estelle.”
She was instantly swept up in Gregory’s strong, protective arms. He held her off the ground, pressing her into his chest to that they were face to face. She threw her arms around his neck, elation washing through her as it finally registered she was back. Back in his arms, back where she wanted to be — her rightful place.
“I think I did,” she said, amazement washed through her voice.
She looked at the men, her face stretched wide into a heartfelt smile, wondering at the power of her gift, for that was what it was to her now. Not a talent or a defense tactic. It was a gift, used to help, not to fight or flee. It had blossomed within her, so much a part of her now as her everlasting love for Gregory.
“Estelle, my daughter!”
Gregory slowly let her from his grasp and she faced to see her father elbowing his way from the jostling men. His pale face held such tenderness. An immediate heat that prickled her eyes. She rushed to her father, feet stumbling on the ground, embracing him with all her strength. She buried her face into his shoulder. All she could do was to hold him and ride out the emotion that cascaded through her.
“I am back. Thanks to you. This is truly a blessing, to have you in my arms again. I am so sorry that I left you, but knowing you were under the protection of Gregory took some of the worry away.” He combed her hair with his shaking fingers, still cold, but slowly warming. “But how could you come to us. How did you know we were there?”
She pulled back, laughter spilling from her lips. “I can only answer one question at a time and I’m afraid this is going to take some explaining,” she said.
“Well, now I have all the time in the world for you,” Elias said. “But first, I have to feel you in my arms again, my beautiful daught — ”
His face writhed in shock and pain. Estelle held him, uncomprehending. “Father, what has happened?”
He clutched his side and fell to one knee. Behind him, Estelle saw a dagger coated with dripping blood.
“Father!” Estelle screamed.
She crumbled to the ground next to him, hands fluttering over him, not knowing what to do. Blood seeped from a deep wound in his side. She sobbed, heat clogging her throat. She grasped his shoulders and rested him to the ground.
She closed her eyes, bent her head back in a prayer. She cracked open her eyes in the gloating face of Cutlass. His face was masked with a gloating look of pleasure. Rage such as she’d never known coursed through her veins. “I’ll kill you for this,” she said.
“Kill? I’m not sure if you’re in the right position to offer a challenge such as that,” Jack said. “As for you, old man, if it wasn’t for that meddling Lilura of mine, your interfering daughter would have still thought you dead and buried.”
“I was never yours, Jack,” a seductive voice said.
Estelle faced the witch that had sold her to the spirit god, now knowing a name to her face. Jack’s confusing words failed to find purchase. This woman, Lilura, had abandoned her, forsaking her to the black void. Why then, had Jack said she meddled?
Jack faced Lilura, anger etched his handsome features with ugly lines. It was the first time Estelle had seen anything, other than bland indifference touch him. But she didn’t stop to wonder. She took her sword from the ground and lunged at Jack in one fluid movement, forcing him back and away from her father. The men and women stepped back out of the way.
“Estelle, be careful.” It was Claire. Dalia stood next to her, her impassive face now crumpling. Estelle had no time to speak. She acted purely on rage and instinct.
It was only Jack’s experience as a sword fighter that had him back-stepping from her thrust, her miss achieved with a slight tilt of his shoulders. She took her stance, lunging again, propelling forward from her back foot, stabbing with her sword arm. Her aim was true and Jack a little too late to save himself. She nicked his arm, the cut of his shirt quickly stained and spread with his dark blood.
“I’m amazed you have anything human left in you at all,” she said.
He touched his wound, his fingers coming away with blood. He exhaled a surprised gasp. “I never thought you had it in you,” he said.
“There’s a lot more of me than you give credit for,” Estelle said between clenched teeth. “The last thing you’ll ever know is that it is my ultimate wish to see you end your life today on the sharp end of my sword.”
She recovered, before leaping suddenly forward from her back leg as she aimed at his heart. He quickly clipped her sword with his, sending her aim to the side and away from his body. He grabbed her sword arm at the wrist and swinging her to the ground, stabbing down as she fell.
It was a dirty move, but she expected as much. She rolled, watched his sword tip hit the dirt s close to her face. Using the movement of her roll, she rose to her knees and swiped her sword in an arc around her. There was a rip of clothing and a gasp from Jack.
She pivoted to her feet, protecting herself with her sword. Jack staggered backwards, a laugh erupting from his mouth. She withdrew her dagger from her boot and circled Jack, ready to serve the final hit with whatever hand or weapon was able to.
“It seems as though you have had some practice,” he said.
“No. Just sick of living on the same earth as you,” she said.
“If I could feel, I might be hurt by that remark, but instead I’ll call an old friend for some help,” he said.
“No,” screamed Lilura.
Her hand dug into a pouch at her waist. Sparkling dust scattered through the air. A torrent of wind ripped from the mouth of the cave, scattering it away. Lilura tried to scatter her dust again, but the wind ripped the particles away. Lilura stared at them, eyes wide, mouth slack with growing horror.
Icy tendrils tore at Estelle’s clothes. Strands of hair obscured her sight, but she kept her eyes trained on Jack. Nothing touched him. The wind seemed to part around him, as though he were in an impenetrable void, while the rest of them just managed to stay on their feet.
“Fall back, Estelle.” Gregory was at her side, struggling to remain upright.
“We have to do this now,” she yelled into the screaming wind. “There will be no other chance.”
He nodded, wiping grit from his eyes. “Together,” he yelled.
She nodded. “Together,” she replied.
They circled Jack, each taking the opposite side. Jack merely smiled, as though he knew something they didn’t. Estelle indicated to Gregory to maneuver Jack into the cave. They circled, positioning themselves. She lunged sidestepping to attack but Jack backed, expecting the move. As she recovered her balance, Gregory advanced on Jack, but before he had completed the advance, Jack stepped away just out of reach. The wind worked to obscure their vision, picking up sharp stones and twigs that battered their bodies.
The mouth of the cave loomed behind him. Together, however much Jack anticipated their lunges, Estelle and Gregory managed to position Jack so that he was only a step or two from the gaping black mouth. There was an immediate connection, two sword fighters that worked beyond the need for words, experience, gut feeling, and skill deciding their next move.
Gregory lunged to Jacks right at the same time at Estelle covered his open left side. Gregory pivoted on the ball of his foot, his back open, but Estelle anticipated Jack�
�s attack, moving too close for Jack to raise his arm to hurt Gregory.
She slashed from her head to the ground, aiming a ground-ward laceration that would open him up from neck to abdomen. His shirt ripped open in a gaping tear as Gregory grasped his neck and held his sword beneath Jack’s chin. A drop of blood trickled from the soft area as the tip nicked his skin.
Shock masked Jack’s features. His eyes wide, mouth falling open as a strangled gasp fell from his lips. The wind buffeted them, cutting with fingers of ice, inhaling them with a force that had them fighting for balance. The wind turned into vacuum, sucking with tremendous force. Something hard smashed into her heels. Jagged pain ripped through her legs. She collapsed. Her sword fell from her grasp and was sucked into the black void of the cave.
“Estelle,” Gregory cried.
She went to tell him she was all right, to keep his hold on Jack. Opened her mouth to do so. She saw Gregory’s hold on Jack’s neck weaken as he went to help her. Jack grabbed Gregory’s arms, locking him in a tight grasp. At the same time Jack used the momentum of the wind as he propelled them both backwards. Gregory slipped. His legs disappeared into the blackness of the cave. Jack clung to Gregory’s back. Gregory clawed the ground, trying not to slip into the cave, the strain on holding etched his face.
Estelle leapt from the ground, ignoring the pain the ripped through her legs. She caught a hold of Gregory’s arm, sunk her fingers into the cuff of his shirt. Wind screamed around her, whining its anger and need for destruction.
She pulled, desperately trying to bring Gregory from being drawn into the cave. His fingers closed around hers, locking with her grasp.
“Such a decision,” Jack yelled. “Lose him and you get rid of me. Save him and the world gets me back. Ironic that now you have to save me, is it not?”
She didn’t bother to reply, instead concentrating the whole of her energy on keeping Gregory from the spirit gods’ hungry jaws. Her feet slipped on the loose gravel, loosing purchase. They inched backwards. Her fingers strained as she fought against the forces that wanted them all imprisoned.
“Estelle, you have to let me go,” Gregory yelled.
“I can’t,” she yelled.
“If you don’t it will take all of us. I can’t let that happen. Estelle, if you love me, you will let me go,” he yelled.
“Yes, Estelle. Let him go and lose him forever,” Jack said.
Her feet skidded as wind driven invisible hands pushed against her back, propelling her towards the cave mouth. Her body was tiring, but as long as she had an ounce of strength, she would not let go.
“We have to stop this, it is the only way. Let me go and remember that I will always love you, Estelle.” He let go of her fingers. She kept her grasp locked on his arm, but without his hold on her it was impossible to keep purchase.
His arm slipped from her fingers and both Gregory and Jack were sucked away from her. Jack reached out, catching her clothing to stop them. For the first time, it seemed as though he realized the danger he was in. “Pull me out, Estelle. Save me,” he yelled.
Gregory appeared as a shadow behind Jack’s shoulder. He mouthed the words “I love you” before reaching around and ripping Jack’s hold on her. Instantly they were lost in the absolute ink black, disappearing as though they never existed.
The wind ceased and all was still. The cave had its feed and was settled.
Blood pumped a pounding rhythm in her ears. She heard her ragged gasps but was numb to everything else but the black of the cave. As much as she strained to see, there was no sign, no movement, nothing at all in the depths of the dark.
A shattered, forlorn, wordless cry tumbled from her numb lips. He was gone.
Taken.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
There was a monotone chorus of voices that echoed around her. Slowly coming out of her daze, Estelle looked up to the ridge that ran on the top of the cave, seeing but not immediately interpreting what she saw.
A line of transparent apparitions lined the ridge, looking down at them all.
“The ancient guardians have come to close the cave,” a soft voice said behind her.
Estelle turned. Lilura was on her knees next to her father, tending to his wound. Claire and Dalia next to her. Her father’s pale, sweaty face was twisted with a mixture of sympathy and pain as he looked at her.
“You did this to him,” Estelle said. Her voice cracked tonelessly. She had lost Gregory. The pain was indefinable. “You did this to us.”
“That is the meaning of Amor Fati. Without the two of you falling on love and sacrificing your greatest treasure for the good of the world, the spirit god could not be put back into the earth. The two of you were the only ones with the strength to be able to do that. Without love there can be no sacrifice,” Lilura said.
“You tricked us,” Estelle said.
Lilura shook her head and looked at her with wide exotic blue eyes. “It was all real. It was no disguise. Jack tricked me. He sold me to the spirit god for power. I was drained of my energy, my magic, my youth. I became the old woman you saw for too many years than I can recall. What had been taken had to be returned. Me. These men. If not, the spirit god would be too powerful to entomb again.”
“So we were the sacrifice. Is that why you helped us?” Estelle demanded.
“It had to be done. So many had died, so many more deaths to come. Too many for me to try and help,” Lilura said.
She placed her hand over Elias’s wound. Elias groaned and went rigid.
“What are you doing to my father?” Estelle demanded, running to her father’s side, ready to push Lilura away.
“Estelle, it is all right. It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Elias said slowly, as if he couldn’t believe that pain had vanished.
Lilura moved away. Elias pulled his shirt up. Around the bloodied area, the skin was perfectly healed. There was no scar or even a red mark. His mortal wound had been erased. Estelle touched the place where her father had been wounded with trembling fingers, not daring to believe that this miracle could have happened.
“You’ve healed him,” Estelle said.
“My power has been returned in full. I am a healer in love with the wrong man. I didn’t know about Jack’s lust for power, or the lengths that he would go to achieve them until it was too late. Between Jack and Marcus Worthington, they kept the spirit god a secret from me until it was too late. I had believed myself to be in love with Jack only to learn too late that he had always planned to trick me and sell me to the god for my power. You have saved me, brought back my gift so that I may heal again,”
Lilura reached out and gently held Estelle’s hand. Her skin was as soft as when Estelle had touched her before when she looked to be an old woman. Now she knew why.
“You could have told me before all this,” Estelle said.
“No. I could not have,” Lilura said gently. “If you had known you were to lose each other, you would have never come here. You are good people, both of you, but without sacrifice, the spirit god was unstoppable. I had tried so many ways, so many years only to learn that the love I felt for Jack was not strong enough. It wasn’t returned. I was not bound to him the way you are to each other. I saw that your ties were strong and became stronger still when I first met you, even though you had only met a few days before.”
“When I kidnapped him,” Estelle said.
“What’s this?” Elias said.
“It is a long story, father,” Estelle said wearily.
“The way of fate cannot be questioned. You were meant to meet, fall in love, whatever the circumstances,” Lilura said.
“Then it cannot be fate that it ends like this,” Estelle said.
“It is the prophecy of Amor Fati, the Fates of Love. It cannot just be said. It has to be proven. That is what your lover did today,” Lilura said.
“Lover? He was meant to be her guardian if anything happened to me,” Elias said weakly.
“They were fated to become lovers. The fates were changed when you were taken by this god,” Lilura said.
“It is still not fair. We have our whole lives together, we had a future worth living. For once in my life there was more than just endless days of fighting and anger,” Estelle said.
“Estelle. What has happened to you since I have been gone,” Elias said.
Estelle regarded her father. The hurt, the pure pain that was written on his pale face told of his heartbreak. “In truth only good things as it turns out. I have an island I call home, friends I call sisters and Gregory whom I call … ” her voice cracked.
Elias gathered her in his frail arms. At long last she fell into them and cried the tears that should have fallen all those years ago, but were unable to be let out. She cried the pain of a lost father, a lost youth, and a lost lover. It was a cry of undeniable pain that wracked her whole body. It was the pain of having lost someone she loved to the core of her being.
The pain of wanting someone beyond life.
An idea formed, held, took root. She wiped her tears on her sleeve. Sniffed. Faced Lilura.
“Can you still see our ties?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Lilura asked.
“The ties that you saw that bound Gregory and I together. Are they still there, even though he is in that cave somewhere?”
Estelle waited while Lilura concentrated her eyes grew unfocussed as she looked around Estelle’s body as she would study a shadow. “They are beyond this realm, but, yes, they are there,” Lilura eventually said.
“Then that is enough for me,” Estelle said.
She faced Elias. Kissed his cheek. Clutched a hold of his shoulders. “I know you have just come back to me, but I have to go,” Estelle said.
“Where are you going?” Elias asked, confusion crossed his brows.
Estelle pointed to the cave. “In there. If there is a chance that I can save Gregory, I will take it. He gave himself to me, and I will do my best to return that favor. Goodbye, father.”
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