by Holly Martin
‘Lucas you have to stop him. Get Seth to rest, get him to wait for Eli.’
Lucas shook his head. ‘Eve, I couldn’t even if I wanted to, which I don’t.’
Tears filled my eyes. ‘Please, you have to stop him. Seth will just barge in there, he won’t stop to think, being stealthy won’t even enter Seth’s mind, he’ll be dead before he even enters the castle, please, I can’t lose him, not again. Please, Lucas.’
Lucas’s face softened. ‘Eve, Seth won’t listen to me…’
‘Then get Eli to order him to stop.’
‘And when has Eli’s orders ever stopped him, do you honestly think anything we say will make him stop. Besides there’s no reasoning with Seth now, he hasn’t slept for over a week. He’s barely communicating with us now.’
I paced away from him and looked out the window.
I turned back. ‘Then tell Seth that he needs to sleep so I can see him, tell Seth that I don’t believe he’s alive that I’m giving up, that if I don’t see him I’ll…’
‘Eve… I’ll try…’
‘Make something up if you have to, tell him anything to get him to wait. If I know when Seth gets there, if he waits, I can get Mason to come out and co-ordinate with him. At least he’d stand more of a chance if he was fighting with someone.’
Lucas nodded. ‘I’ll do my best. Now, tell me where you are in the castle.’
I paused.
‘Look if Seth waits for Eli or the rest of them, as you want him to, then there’s no point in him or us risking our lives looking in the wrong part of the castle. As I said, the more we know, the more it will help us.’
I bit my lip, but then nodded reluctantly. I told Lucas directions from the main entrance, through the heavily guarded great chamber where Adam sat and along the main corridor, the thoroughfare filled with hundreds of Guardians.
‘There might be another way that avoids the great chamber, but all the roads lead to that main corridor, and that corridor, as far as I can tell is the only one that leads down to the cells where I’m kept.’
Lucas nodded gravely.
‘Mason is trying to co-ordinate an attack from the inside, but he says he only has five that will fight with him at the moment. He was hoping to have more time to find out people’s allegiances but Adam wants me dead sooner rather than later.’
‘And Quinn?’ asked Lucas. ‘Does he know you’re there?’
‘No. He can’t know. He would have done something by now if he did. Mason doesn’t trust him but I know he would never betray me.’
Lucas shook his head. ‘It is more likely that I would turn against you than he would. Look get Mason to tell him that you’re there. Don’t tell him anything else, nothing about Mason’s plan or that your personal guard is on their way, just get Mason to accidentally let it slip that you’re there and then we’ll soon see. But my guess is he’ll be so furious, that he’ll come straight down to the cells and get you out.’
‘I think so too,’ I said, quietly.
‘Look, I better go, I need to tell Eli what I know, and I need to talk to Seth, but look for me again after an hour and I’ll be here.’
I nodded.
Lucas stepped forward and hugged me tightly. ‘I’ll see you soon Eve, I promise you that.’
As he kissed my forehead, I forced myself awake, the strange sucking sensation ripping me from his arms and spat me out, back in my cell.
Mason was waiting for me. As I opened my eyes, breathing deeply, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. ‘You’ve been gone hours, I thought you were unconscious again. Adam came down to continue his torture but I told him you were never going to get better if he did. At least, you being unconscious and unresponsive helped to prove my point.’
‘Hours? Really?’ It had felt like minutes, ten or fifteen at most. Was any of it real though or was my brain just giving me false hope. Seth and my personal guard coming to get me. It certainly gave me something to focus on rather than my all-consuming grief.
As if he could read my mind Mason asked. ‘Did you find out about my brother?’
I shook my head. ‘No, Lucas didn’t know, he said he’d ask Eli though.’
Mason bit his lip, and I knew my credibility was quickly dwindling. ‘And so are they coming for you?’ He didn’t really sound like he believed it.
‘If it’s true, if I can and have entered their dreams then yes. Seth is a day away, Eli is about three days away and the others are about a day behind Eli. You have to look out for Seth, work together if you can.’
Mason nodded. ‘Another pair of hands would certainly be handy, though I don’t know how I would get him in. I have another Guardian willing to help me, with me and Rhesa that’s eight, Seth would be nine,’ he shook his head doubtfully.
It wasn’t enough, I knew that. I needed my powers, if I had my powers the fight would be over very quickly then.
‘How are my powers blocked, is it just the electric field, or has he got me drugged as well?’ The drugs he had given me had lasted a lot longer than the others I had been given before, were they a permanent thing until I was healed from them. ‘How far does the electric field extend?’
‘I think it’s just this room, maybe the corridor beyond.’
‘Can you not turn them off?’
Mason moved to the machine. ‘This is only part of it, the electric field comes from somewhere else. I don’t know much about it.’
‘Maybe, you just need to get me out into the corridor, then I can use my powers, I could fight, I could slide out of here.’
‘Maybe, but what if it’s something more than just the electric field. I could quite happily kill the guards outside now, but I’d hate to find out once we are halfway up the corridor that you still can’t reach your powers. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Tomorrow? I thought I had two days?’
‘When I last spoke to you it was yesterday evening. You’ve been asleep for ten or twelve hours. Your infection isn’t really getting any better, the drugs are just helping control your temperature, and possibly helping you to enter people’s dreams.’
I looked at the ceiling. How had my conversation with Lucas lasted ten hours? I had either been asleep before I found Lucas or after, though I had no recollection of it, or… or I had never entered his dream in the first place. It was impossible to tell, and it was very convenient that Lucas didn’t know about Mason’s brother. I didn’t know so my subconscious, my false realities didn’t know either.
I turned back to him. ‘Mason, you have to tell Quinn I’m here.’
Mason’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Can we trust him?’
I nodded. ‘I know we can. Seth was convinced he left me to protect me. And as you said to Adam before, he’s been my brother all my life, he loved me for seventeen years. I refuse to believe that was just about money and power.’
Mason looked doubtful.
‘Look, don’t tell him about your plan or that the Guardians are on their way, just tell him I’m here. Then we’ll know one way or another.’
Mason nodded. ‘Do you want some more medication? I’m not sure if it’s a good idea, you’re sleeping for so long.’
I looked down at my wound, the red soreness was the whole of my lower arm now, swollen and bruised where I had tore at it the second time. My other wounds where Adam had tortured me were bad too. I nodded. ‘Even if it’s not helping me enter people’s dreams, it’s keeping my temperature down and stopping the hallucinations.’
Mason pulled a syringe out of his pocket and I looked away as he injected me.
‘I’ll get you some food.’
I nodded, sleep creeping up on me.
Mason left but seconds later he came running back in. He closed the door behind him.
‘Adam’s on his way down.’
I looked at him, in alarm. ‘To do what? Is Quinn with him?’
‘No, just pretend to be unconscious again, I’ll try to get him to leave.’
I nodded and closed
my eyes.
I heard the cell door open.
‘You’re still here?’ came Adam’s cold voice. He sounded surprised or angry at Mason’s presence.
‘Your Majesty, I have been giving her medication as you said. I wanted to let you know as soon as she was fit enough.’
‘And?’
‘She surfaces from unconsciousness from time to time, but she is incoherent, and her temperature is still very high.’
‘I’m not a patient man.’
‘I’m doing everything I can your Majesty, her body doesn’t react to the drugs in the same way a normal human would, I might need a few more days.’
‘I’d like to be alone with her,’ Adam said.
That wasn’t good.
‘Your Majesty, I don’t think that’s a good idea, when she comes round she mostly mumbles about killing you. What if she accesses her powers again, she could hurt you. For your own safety I think I should stay.’
‘Very well.’
I heard Adam move to the machine and the scraping of metal as he picked up the electric rod he used to torture me.
‘Your Majesty, I don’t understand. You want her to be well enough for Quinn to kill her tomorrow which she probably won’t be, but you want to torture her which will make her worse.’
‘Do you question me?’
I suddenly felt a horrific burning sensation across my shoulder, the smell of burning flesh hit my nose as my skin buckled underneath the prongs. I just had to ignore it, just for a few minutes until he got bored.
‘No of course not your Majesty,’ Mason’s voice was suddenly closer.
The white hot burning moved to the elbow of my infected arm, I gritted my teeth against the agony, but I made no other movement, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
I had to project, the antibiotics helped me to do that. If I projected I wouldn’t feel any of the pain.
‘I grow bored of sitting in that chamber. Just sitting there, waiting for the end of the world to come. Though I don’t get any reaction from her, this is still good fun.’
I relaxed my breathing, trying to block out the pain, visualized floating above myself, visualized myself light, like air.
Then a horrific, sickening, crippling pain seared through my arm, as he burned my already infected wound. It took every ounce of strength not to scream out, but then to my upmost relief I was standing next to my body, watching as Adam pressed the prong into my wound.
He was sick. How did I ever think we could work together, he was twisted and cruel. And the Oraculum had put their trust in him. How could they be so spectacularly wrong?
Adam dragged the prong across the back of my hand and I looked away, though I couldn’t feel it, it didn’t make it any easier to watch.
I turned to look at Mason and realised with a sick horror that he was standing behind Adam with his knife out. He intended to kill him. I wanted to shout out, to stop him, I wanted to hold him back. If Adam turned round now and saw Mason with the knife in his hand he would kill him instantly. If Mason attacked and didn’t manage to kill Adam straight away, then Adam would kill him in the ensuing battle.
I couldn’t let someone else die for me, especially not my friend.
Mason inched closer, his fist tightening around the knife as Adam continued his torture.
Mason stepped forward judging where best to stab the knife, he knew he had to kill him outright as well. And a part of me wanted him to do it, for the agonizing torture, for Seth, part of me wanted to see Adam die in pain. But like in all good horror films, the bad guy or evil monster, wouldn’t go down without a fight. It wouldn’t be that simple, just a slight error of judgement, or Adam just had to move slightly when Mason stabbed him and he wouldn’t die. Adam would kill Mason and probably then kill Rhesa too. Mason moved the knife to Adam’s back, intending to stab it right through the back of the heart. He placed his flat palm over the end of the handle, so he could hammer it through the back of his rib cage, like ramming a stake through the heart of a vampire. Mason raised his palm in a sudden quick movement and in a moment of sheer panic I reached out for my powers, sending a force of energy exploding from where I stood. Adam and Mason were both thrown in opposite directions across the cell, into the wall and crumpled to the floor. Mason’s knife was thrown out of his hand and clattered to the floor.
I was stunned at what I had done, not even sure how I had done it. I reached out for my powers but they were gone again. How could they be there when I needed them most, but gone again the next second?
Mason was the first to recover. He scrambled to his feet and looked over at my body in confusion. Adam groaned as he tried to get to his feet.
Mason looked over at his knife and back to Adam, clearly torn as to whether he should carry out his original plan now that Adam was injured or to resume his role as the Royal Guard.
I silently pleaded with him not to go for the knife. Adam was aware now, and probably shielded against another attack from me. If Mason went for his knife, he’d be dead before he even got anywhere near it.
Mason obviously agreed with this assessment as he moved quickly to Adam’s side and helped him up.
‘Your Majesty, what happened, are you ok?’
‘She… she did this,’ Adam said, stunned as he leaned on Mason heavily.
‘But… she’s unconscious… how could she?’ said Mason, clearly as stunned as Adam was. ‘The electric field is still on, it’s supposed to stop her using her powers.’
I smiled to myself as Adam made slow progress across the room, he had been injured badly when he had fell. He stopped when he came back to my body and looked at me with disgust.
‘Maybe it wasn’t her, maybe it was some kind of fault with the machine or…’ Mason trailed off.
‘It was her alright,’ Adam said, he suddenly looked round the room, as if he was looking for something. ‘She projected,’ he hissed.
‘What?’ Mason said, clearly playing dumb.
‘Astral Projection you idiot, what medication are you giving her, it’s allowing her to use her powers, its making her stronger.’
‘Your Majesty it’s just antibiotics, as you requested, and she’s been mainly unconscious for the last day, I’ve seen no change in her.’
‘You will not give her anymore, I could have been killed.’
‘But she won’t be well enough for…’
‘Oh she’ll still know, she’ll see it, she can see us now. No more medication, don’t give her anything. No food, no water, nothing, do you understand.’
‘Yes your Majesty, of course.’
Adam turned back to my body and ripped out the drip from the back of my hand, blood poured from the wound, but my body stayed unresponsive.
Adam hobbled out and Mason looked back at my body and then followed him.
Damn it. I had relied upon the medication to allow me to enter people’s dreams. Plus it had kept the fever at bay. The hallucinations, the high temperature had stayed on the edges of my mind, over the last few days. My body fought the effects of the drugs so quickly, by tomorrow the fever would have taken hold again and I’d probably be dancing with flying pigs. The drip too had provided my body with much needed nutrients and fluids that I wasn’t really getting elsewhere. I’d be parched by tomorrow.
I had to use this time wisely. The last time I could enter people’s dreams.
I forced myself back in my body again. When I woke up in my own body, I cried out with the pain that had been caused to me. It was horrific. I felt sick from the pain. My arm, where he had burnt through my infection was so agonizing, I would quite happily have chopped it off just to stop the pain. At this moment, I would have taken the grief and the numbness, because at least that way I couldn’t feel the pain.
I had to go back to sleep, but the agony burnt through my body. How could I relax and sleep when the pain was so bad.
I writhed around on the table, in pain, closing my eyes, trying to sleep, but the agony was at the forefront of my mind.
I heard my cell door open and Mason came in.
‘Eve, god, are you ok?’
‘Mason, what are you doing here, he’ll kill you if he finds out.’
‘The Zekis here are dealing with his injuries, he’s a bit preoccupied at the moment. How did you do what you did?’
‘I don’t know, I just saw you going to kill him and I knew I had to stop you.’
Mason shook his head in confusion. ‘Eve, if I’d killed him, you’d be out of here by now.’
‘And if you didn’t you’d be dead by now, and so would your wife.’
Mason sighed. ‘Eve, I can’t come down again, he’s ordered that no one comes down here. The only reason I got down here was because the order hasn’t filtered through to most of the Guardians yet. We’re going to act in the next few hours. I’m not going to wait for tomorrow, whilst he continues to torture you. I’m not letting him near you again. We’ll get you out, Eve. Next time I see you, I’ll be coming through that cell door to take you home.’
‘Please don’t get yourself killed, Mason.’
Mason looked grim, as he took my hand. ‘I don’t intend to Eve, I’m going to get you out.’
I squeezed his hand.
‘Here, I couldn’t get any more antibiotics but I found some more pain killers, it might help with the pain.’ He undid the strap and helped me to take them.
I lay back down.
Mason turned to go. ‘I’ll see you soon Eve, I promise you.’
And he was gone.
I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the pain still riding through me, but it was still sickeningly painful.
I had to sleep, I had to tell Lucas that they intended to act this afternoon.
Thankfully, the painkillers kicked in very quickly, and though the pain didn’t go completely it became a dull ache. I quickly forced myself to sleep, and as I stood on the edge of my dream I reached out for Lucas once more. I was ripped from my cell, through the tunnel and landed on the beach of my tiny island.
‘Hey, what are you doing here?’ I asked, automatically running to him for my habitual hug. He held me tightly in his arms.
‘I don’t know, I was thinking about the island, and my dreams just sort of took me here,’ he pulled away to look at me. ‘You look awful.’