Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen

by Ariadna Marrero Saavedra

  Chapter 14

  A nuddle with a great grey beard walked briskly through one of the subterranean tunnels where he lived. There was a whole city underneath the Kingdom. The nuddle, who was called Harri, ran with two daggers in his hand. They were sais; he was desperately looking for his wife, Doris, the stone mounter. She could encrust any type of stone in weapons or jewels. The blacksmith had given him the daggers only 15 minutes earlier. They had passed inspection and he had added some engraving. Now it was necessary to put the precious stones on them. At last he arrived to his wife´s workshop, he was tired, he believed that this work was no longer for him, he felt old and worn out.

  “Harri my dear. Why have you taken so long?”

  The man was gathering breath; he sat down on a chair beside the workbench and breathed calmly. He relaxed his body and looked at his beautiful wife. She had golden brown hair, almost orangey, a slim figure and a beautiful smile.

  “I almost didn´t find you, I have searched for you everywhere.”

  “I was at work, as always. You should have known that. If you arrive and I am not here just leave the weapons here, nobody will take them.”

  “These daggers in particular I have to give them directly into the hand of their consignee and I cannot lose sight of them until their construction is complete.”

  “Who are they for?”

  “I cannot tell you, but they are very important.”

  “It is alright. Rest while I do my job.”

  The woman took the daggers and started to select some not too big stones to encrust them into the handle. The engravings were very pretty and if they were for someone important she must take great effort to do an even better job than normal. After a good while she finished, what she called, her work of art and showed it to her husband. When she went to give them back to him she observed the blades of the daggers and decided that they were missing a stone, right were the handle ended, between the two lateral prongs, where the daggers began, she encrusted a round ruby in each one. That way they were balanced.

  Harri looked at them, satisfied by the good job that his wife had done and wrapped them up well to take them to the next workshop. He had never entered into this one before. It was the workshop where the magical elements were added to the weapons. It wasn´t normally done but this was a special occasion. He entered into the dark workshop; he thought that there wasn´t anybody until a voice directed him to the dim light at the end of what looked like a cave. There a fair haired boy with great big eyes extended his arms so as to receive the weapons. Harri doubted he had never seen a child in the workshops; he looked around and saw no-one else. Finally he gave them over with great care. The boy put them on the barely lit workshop table and opened them. He searched from with the shelves full of jars until he found what he needed. He powdered a fine layer of iridescent dust, with blue reflections. He covered the daggers completely. He examined them and when he was satisfied gave them back without exchanging a single word.

  Harri left, flabbergasted. He had to leave to the Surface to hand them over as quickly as possible. There was little time before the battle.

  Eric smiled from ear to ear as he looked out the window; he was distracted listening to the song of the birds, when a shout brought him out of his daydreaming.

  “Eric, what is going on with you?”

  “Nothing, I am fine.” He smiled at the wizard.

  “It is the fifth time I call you and I am right beside you. Tell me. What happened last night?”

  “Last night? Nothing? Why do you ask?”

  “Because you have been half an hour with a foolish face and you have bags under your eyes.”

  “Hey, I am fine, okay,” he recovered his composure, “what is the next step of the plan?”

  “We have to go to the city and lay traps in the square.”

  “But, it is day time, how to you expect us not to be seen?”

  “Leave that to me,” Elizabeth replied when she came in through the door. She had a combat outfit on and her hair was tied back, it seemed strange to see her this way.”

  “What do you propose?” asked the wizard.

  “I have stolen something from Ian that will help us. It was in his study, which is where he stores the most important things. One day I saw him use it and I believe it works.”

  “What is it?” Eric asked curiously.

  “It is a liquid that makes you invisible,” responded the magician triumphantly. He well knew what was in the bottle. “Many centuries ago I made the last bottle; he must have conserved it very well.”

  “And, does it work? I mean, I have seen it but I don´t know how long it lasts or what effects it has,” Elizabeth sat down and looked fixedly at the wizard, although she had noticed that Eric was different.

  “Of course it works; it is one of my best inventions. Come on, we don´t have time to lose, the sooner we do it, the better.”

  The three left the stone caste and vanished to appear in the square, right in front of the Council.

  “Drink,” ordered the wizard.

  The bottle seemed to be empty but the liquid became yellow when it touched the girls lips. In an instant she disappeared, leaving Eric surprised. He took it too and then the wizard. They could see each other, but others couldn’t see them. The wizard explained that the effect would wear off in a few hours, so they would have to make the best use of the time they had.

  The wizard sprinkled a few drops of elixir all over the city, that way the wanderers who passed by would die and the families would be protected.

  Eric and Elizabeth placed traps all over the square and then they went to the palace. Between the three of them they had managed to decipher that there was the connection between Ian and someone who worked within the palace, so they were decided to put traps all around and some elixir drops to be sure.

  They finished just in time, the effect was starting to wear off and the hands and feet of the two youths could be seen, even though the wizard was still invisible.

  “Why does the effect last longer with you?” Eric said almost angry.

  “I am a wizard Eric, and it is my magic.”

  That was the only answer he found. But it kept him happy, Samantha had declared her love and they had passed the most marvelous night that could be imagined. He felt like he was floating. He no longer feared rejection; both knew the feelings of the other. He loved her more than anything in the world and his mission was to protect her until the fight was over.

  Ian knew that Elizabeth had left; he knew her plans but did not fear them. He also kept that ace up his sleeve. He made sure that no one saw him as he opened the door of the small room where the battle clothes of the wanderers were stored. He didn´t need any armor. He smiled happily when he thought about it. He separated the clothes that were on a clothes hook in two and a door appeared before his eyes. It had been a few days since he had last gone down; his house was full of people because of the war. He closed the door of the closet so that nobody could see him and opened the new door with a smooth turn of his wrist. He turned to see the worn staircase before him; he closed the door and moved down stealthily and with precaution. He touched the firm floor of the basement with his bare feet and lit an ancient torch laid into the wall. The house was very old but the basement was even older. The small room lit up, it was cold and humid and appeared to be empty. Nobody knew, except for him, that there was a woman captive behind those rough walls in a much bigger room. Ian arrived to the final wall and touched it with his surly hands until he found what he was looking for. He placed his finger in a hole until pressing a button that was like a spring. The wall started to slide to one side until it disappeared completely, leaving in sight a small bed, lighten by an almost spent candle and a simple desk upon which a pen and a blank piece of paper could be seen.

  “Gaia, how are you on this splendid day?” Ian mocked.

  The woman looked at him without saying anything. She was sitting on the floor beside the bed. Her clothes were dirty and her star
e was dark. She had lost all trace of hope of salvation, she knew that she would die here and she didn´t care. She was young, or so it seemed. Ian sat on the desk chair and stared at her.

  “Are you not going to plead for your life?” when he didn´t get any reply he continued, “I see you haven´t written anything that I asked of you, you have had all your time, you know. I have given you that and you haven´t valued it. How can you be so wretched?”

  The expression of the girl shone upon hearing these words.

  “Wretched?” she shouted at him “You kidnap me, you bring me here without compassion, you force me to cast spells for you, you want me to defeat my teacher and formulate your immortality and you call me wretched. You are sick,” she said without even looking at him.

  “Oh, Gaia, my dear witch, you didn´t really think that I was going to make any deals with Phoenix. That is an insult for me to hear that. It is too easy, don´t you think? Elizabeth believed him without thinking about it and now she conspires against me thanks to him.”

  “Why me? I am not the most powerful witch.”

  “But, I know that you are the most astute one. I have seen how you cheat others and you won´t do that with me. I am a fallen one and you cannot deny me the help I need.”

  “Yes I can.”

  “But you won´t.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  Ian smiled from ear to ear, he had what he wanted, her attention; to trick her from there would be like sewing and singing. He got up and moved closer to the broken girl to speak to her in a low voice.

  “I know who your messenger is, dear Gaia. And I am not going to threaten you with his death, that would be horrible, but I can cause him great harm, snatch everything from him and I know how much that would make you suffer. You love him, even though he doesn´t know it. It would be a tragedy if something bad happened to him,” he determined with a cold and calculating expression. “So don´t try to escape or deny me my request, because I will harm him until he cannot bear it and when he gets better I will torture him again, and I will keep going this way for the rest of his life if you do not obey me.”

  The eyes of the girl started to fill up with salty tears. She felt impotent, he knew her weaknesses. She couldn´t say no to him.

  Ian started to leave without looking behind.

  “I will return soon to know your answer,” he said without turning round, just before the stone wall returned to its original place. “All fall for love,” he told himself, “and that is why I will win.”

  He left the basement happy to find his stressed wanderers walking from one side to another, trying to prepare the weapons for the battle. He felt like he couldn´t leave them alone for a second, they would convert his house into a disaster zone.

  Her blue eyes looked at her from the mirror. She found herself tired and alone, and fed up of looking in the mirror. Her eyes had lost their life and her chestnut brown hair had lost its shine. The sons of the night didn´t age, but she did. That is why she didn´t allow anyone to see her, the people couldn´t see how their empress was consumed. She got up and moved away from the table that supported the great mirror; she went out to her room´s balcony and breathed in the fresh forest air. She heard a knock on the door and turned around to see her counsellor enter. She missed Kenneth, but he never understood that she distanced herself for his own good, to maintain him safe.

  “My lady,” inclined Morgan.

  “Oh, forget the show, will you, I can no longer bear it.”

  “Are you alright?”

  “What do you think, my dear friend? This face no longer maintains itself. I can barely walk without being pained in my soul. The pain consumes me every day. I should have died years ago you know. But this curse only desires to make me suffer. I grow old but do not die.”

  Morgan knew perfectly what she was talking about. Venice had made a deal with a wizard a long time ago. She wanted to be alive when they found her daughter, so she asked him for immortality. But she paid a high price to be able to see her daughter, a price that consumed her slowly every day. Morgan didn´t know what it was, he couldn´t even imagine. But the empress repented it every day.

  “Tell me, why have you come Morgan?”

  “I imagine that you will know that the weapons of the Kingdom have disappeared. There are signs of an imminent battle, my lady. What do you want us to do?”

  “Prepare for the worse, I fear that this Kingdom will not stand for much time. Now retire.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  Venice slumped onto the bed observing the ceiling of her room full of etchings and paintings to protect her. She thought that she didn´t deserve such appreciation. She had taken the Kingdom to its ruin. Every day she cursed having asked the wizard to make her immortal. She didn´t deserve it. The wizard had tricked her and that was the reason of her disgrace.

  The night that she gave birth to two precious girls she felt like the most fortunate woman in the world. She was happy and radiant. One girl was dark and the other fair, they were the perfect balance, she had thought. The fatality occurred a few hours later when a fallen one entered into the girl’s room and kidnapped Elizabeth. The guardians surprised him when he returned for the other girl, killing him in the act. But Elizabeth was no longer there, she had disappeared and with her a part of Venice´s life. Samantha cried and cried due to the separation from her sister. That same night, Venice called the most powerful wizard in the Kingdom. She wanted to see him immediately.

  “My empress,” he had bowed down in reverence, “how can I serve you?”

  “I want them to return my daughter,” she had said with Samantha in her arms. “I want them to bring her. Search for them, I don´t care how.”

  “My lady I am afraid that I cannot do that. But I can do something else for you,” the greedy wizard said to her.

  “Tell me what I can do, do something” she begged of him.

  “I can cast a spell my lady, which will make you stronger, more agile, wiser, a spell that will help you to find your daughter. But in exchange you will have to pay a high price.”

  “Yes,” she exclaimed “I will pay what is needed, whatever, only bring me back my child.”

  “I agree, my lady.”

  The ambitious wizard looked for his utensils, returning he observed the girl that slept placidly in her cot and smiled to himself.

  He moved his arms, until he made a floating suitcase appear in the air right in front of his face. He touched it and the magic vanished letting it fall to the floor with a dull thump. He bent over and opened it to start taking out the beakers and more bottles full of colorful liquids. Some were full and others had only a few drops inside of them. He stomped strongly on the floor, making a sound that resounded throughout the room; he made a not too large round table appear and started to put the bottles there. With the rapid movements of his hand he made things appear and disappear on the table.

  The empress watched him suspiciously and was unconvinced by his aspect. He wasn´t dressed with a suit and jacket, more of he wore a long tunic that only allowed her to see a small part of his neck and his boney wrists. All of a sudden the wizard mixed some potions which upon collision produced a deafening spark making Venice jump.

  “Don´t be afraid my lady, it is almost there,” he said without looking at her.

  A potion as red as blood smoked from his old cauldron making him smile, filled with emotion. When he had mixed all the ingredients, he closed his eyes and placed them over the smoke that came from the cauldron. He started to recite some words that nobody could understand, time and time again, until the potion filled with light for an instant and then became as dark and sinister as the wizards own heart. The black liquid bubbled in the cauldron when the empress moved closer.

  “Have you finished?” she asked wishing the answer to be <>.

  “One last stop, I need your blood,” the empress extended her hand on top of the cauldron and closed her eyes; a few instants after she noticed how a not too sharp kn
ife scratched the palm of her hand and her blood fell into the cauldron. The wizard gave her a glass with the liquid and Venice took it, not too sure of what would happen afterwards. “Drink,” he ordered her with a smooth voice as he did the same with the glass that he had in his hands.

  When she finished, the empress felt strong and able, with her strength renewed. Astonished, she thanked the wizard a thousand times, but he didn´t want gratitude.

  “My lady, I would prefer that you paid me first.”

  “Of course, how much gold do you wish?”

  “I don´t want gold, I want your daughter and I explain to you that you cannot stop me,” he paused to observe the incredulous face of the empress. I have united our bodies in blood, if I die you will too and then nobody will be able to take care of her.”

  The empress, not able to understand what was happening saw how the wizard went to the cot and took the girl with great chestnut eyes in his arms. The glass that was still in her hands slipped and fell onto the hard floor where it shattered into pieces.

  “Do not be sad, this spell with make you immortal, you will be able to see your daughters again someday,” he paused, “if the pain doesn´t consume you first, of course, then you will live but your face, all of you will age, and you will be like this until the end of times.”

  The evil wizard smiled triumphantly for having tricked her and left, leaving behind a defeated empress. She cried for the loss of two daughters in the same night. She could not believe how she had allowed it to happen, but the wizard was right. She saw before her own eyes how the wizard lifted the knife with which he had cut her and tore the sleeve of his tunic, leaving his forearm exposed; without pity he thrust the knife into the inner part of his forearm with a big smile in his face, in the same moment Venice felt a profound pain in her right arm. She slid her sleeve up and saw how her blood flowed from the new wound inflicted by the wizard. She felt destroyed and cried to comfort her inconsolable pain. She had been tricked and she had lost both of her daughters.