Half Heart

by Lacie Perry Parker

  Chapter 13

  I was afraid to leave my room. I wanted to go back to the library and go through the secret door, but I didn’t want to risk running into Soea again. I had done something to trigger his emotions, which I thought he didn’t have. When he protected himself, he did it with deadly venom.

  I knew there was almost as much of a chance of Soea flying through my wall as there was of him finding me while I was wandering about the palace. But nevertheless, I stayed in my room for three dragging days, seeing no one but Kirken when he brought my food.

  “Aduhlajh’s growing anxious with you. I’m afraid of what he’ll do.” Kirken had brought me a cup of Leflet tea, which I needed desperately.

  “Don’t fear for me,” I blew on the steaming liquid.

  “I can’t help it,” he said. “You are the only person that has ever been kind to me more than once.”

  It made me feel better inside that some good did come of my captivity. We both needed each other’s companionship. I finished my tea and handed the cup back to Kirken. He stood up and made his way to the door.

  “Kirken, can you do me a favor,” I asked.

  He turned around with compliant look in his eyes.

  “Don’t slump.” I watched him as his eyes lit up, and he straightened his back. I stepped closer to him. He was not close to my height at all anymore; he had at least five inches on me. I smiled.

  He looked excited as he left the room.

  I fell onto my bed. The word wistful kept going through my mind. Everything in my life right now that was good, it was good for a bad reason. I was so helpless, and although when I first came here it was a new feeling for me, I was getting quite accustomed to it. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I looked around. Had Kirken forgot something? I got off my bed to open the door for him. But it swung open by itself.

  And I wanted to go throw myself back onto the bed.

  I was frightened at the sight of the man standing in my doorway, though not as frightened as I would be if it were Soea. It was Aduhlajh. And he looked strangely happy.

  “Oh, no,” I breathed. “I’m about to die.”

  He stepped in and shut the door. “No, I’ve decided not to kill you.”

  “You’ve killed me already.”

  “Yes,” he considered. “I suppose you will feel like dying when I tell you that Brydon is dead. So, I won’t say it.”

  I collapsed. I held my head in my hands. No. No. I wasn’t going to believe it. He was toying with me, and Soea was too, from a distance, making me believe it was true. “No!” I screamed at him. Then I got my wits together. “It isn’t true. That’s preposterous. A sorcerer friend of mine took him a letter from me explaining why he needed to return home. I’m sure that’s where is by now.” I rocked back and forth, squeezing my eyes shut. A lump formed in my throat. I had to believe myself. I had to believe he was still alive.

  “Well, nonetheless, I am not going to kill you. If he isn’t dead, as you say, but at home making no attempt to rescue you, then there is on reason why you shouldn’t marry me.”

  I gasped, my body completely still. It wasn’t Soea making me still, though. It was shock.

  “In one week’s time.” He grinned his huge, blinding grin.

  I ran to the window and jumped up in the sill. “No!” I kept my head high. “I’ll jump first. I’d rather die a million times than marry you once.”

  He kept on grinning. Did he not believe me?

  “I will!” I screamed.

  Soea walked in the room, hands clasped together beneath his robe’s long sleeves. His grin wasn’t as huge, but it was worse. Far worse. I fell, unfortunately not out the window. I hit the stone, breathing hard. I had bit my cheek, and it was bleeding. I swallowed the blood, although I wanted to spit it in their faces.

  “No, you won’t.” Aduhlajh received a bow from Soea, and he nodded.

  “You said yourself that we hated each other, love,” Soea kneeled down at me. I closed my eyes. “But nevertheless, no hard feelings, okay?” Soea raised his hand, and as he did, I was lifted into the air. I couldn’t move, and I could scarcely breath.

  Aduhlajh bellowed, “You will not kill yourself. Soea will see to that. And if you won’t cooperate, you will find yourself in love with me.”

  Oh, he was so evil. I would fight it. I would fight any emotion that was sent my way by him. I couldn’t let it happen! I was dropped to the ground, released from Soea’s force.

  I cried out.

  “Soea will accompany you everywhere until the day of our wedding. I will give you the free will of your emotions until then, if you are a good girl.”

  “What have I don’t to you?” I said hoarsely, looking up at him.

  “Um, let’s see,” he held his chin, pretending to be searching for his words. “You cut off my arm.” He waved his nub at me, and left the room.

  I began to cry. Soea shut the door behind us. That only caused me to tremble. He got down at my level, but I wouldn’t meet his eyes. What reason did I have to live? I didn’t even have a reason to fear him anymore. Death almost seemed comforting, I thought for a second, but when Soea spoke I couldn’t help but be afraid.

  “Listen,” he said gently. “The tables have turned. Something has happened that has changed mine and Aduhlajh’s agreement, and I would kill him right now if it weren’t for his trillions of sorcerer guards.”

  I sniffled and looked at him. “Why would I help him who only helps himself?”

  “Because,” his voice was hushed now, his face getting closer to mine. “Helping me would be helping yourself.”

  “Is Brye dead?” His answer would decide mine.

  “He would have been if Viloria had died tomorrow.”

  I sat up. He was alive! Alive! I wanted to hug Soea, dance around the room, and spit in Aduhlajh’s face. But I held in my emotions. “Viloria is dead?” I asked suddenly.

  He nodded sullenly. “She contracted the disease of the sand. She must have caught it from her camel.”

  I hadn’t a clue what that was, but I wasn’t about to waste the breath to ask. “How do I know this is true?”

  “You saw me. You saw how angry I got with you, and Mem. You think that was pretend? That is how angry I am with Aduhlajh. And, in truth Layla, I have never hated you as much as you have hated me. I have despised you at times, but you truly have a sense about you that is easy to love.”

  I wasn’t sure about how to feel about his flattery. So I ignored it. “What are we going to do then?”

  “Well,” he said, devious conspiracy in his voice. “We will act as though we are doing nothing. You must pretend to hate me, and I must pretend to hate you.”

  There wouldn’t be as much pretending for me as there would be for him. Then something struck me. “You know what?” I said. “I think I have a plan.”

  I walked beside Soea in the open corridor. It was fairly easy to pretend to hate it, because it wasn’t as if I loved him or anything. But at the same time I was getting more and more excited by the moment, realizing there was some hope for me.

  We turned a corner and entered the library. Soea shut the door behind, placing down the bar to lock it.

  “Why did you want Viloria, anyway?” I asked, looking around the musty room.

  “Had you ever seen her?” He smirked boyishly.

  I shook my head.

  “Ah, surpassing beauty, that puts even you to shame,” he winked at me.

  Beauty should have been called the root of all evil. It caused Soea to break Mem’s heart and nearly kill her, and it was causing me to be wed to Aduhlajh. I wasn’t vain, but would a rich and powerful emperor marry me if I were ugly?

  “Now, which shelf?” Soea was standing akimbo, tossing his hair from his face.

  “This one.” I took How Sorcerers Fly off the shelf. I was about to set it on the table behind me, but I opened it instead. There was still no words in it. I set it on the table, not bothering to shut it. “Do you have the candle?” I asked Soe
a.

  “Uh,” He searched through his pockets. “Ah!” he pulled it out. “Yes, I do.”

  “But how do we light it?” I asked him.

  He smiled at me and gestured to watch. He brought it close to his face, and blew on the wick. A flame appeared.

  “Bravo,” I said. He was quite the showoff. “Now let’s see what’s behind this wall.” I took the key out and opened the door. This time I had forgotten to take the books off the shelf. But, no fear, they cleared themselves. They all jumped off the shelf.

  “You first,” Soea said, lifting me onto the shelf. I should’ve protested, but I didn’t. I fell through the tiny sideways door and hit the ground with a thud.

  “You alright?” He hollered at me.

  “I’d be better if you were the one who had fallen.”

  Soea jumped through the whole, landing on his feet. That was not fair. “May I hold the key?” He asked.

  I grasped it protectively. “Why?”

  “Just trust me.” He took it from me and held it out in front of his face. He turned a bit to the right, then to the left. “Ah!” He said, finally. “This is the way to go.” He knelt down and dusted the cobwebs from the floorboard. There was a trap door, with a lock that looked to be the same fit as the shelf-door. And also the key, for safe keeping, I remembered. “For if they lost it they would be weeping!” I knelt down beside him. “We’ll need the key more than twice, I suspect. The riddle said to keep it safe, or else.”

  “Or else what?” Soea asked, opening the door.

  I shrugged.

  “Would it make you feel better if I went first this time?”

  I nodded at him. “Without doubt.”

  He stood and took his cape in his hands. “Well,” he said, then jumped in.

  That definitely wasn’t the way I would have approached entering the hole in the floor. I heard a thud, and dust rose in clouds up out of the trap door. “Are you still alive?”

  “Fortunate for you, isn’t it?” he responded.

  I put my legs through the hole and slid down. Soea attempted to catch me, but we fell. What we fell on, however, wasn’t a wooden floor, but gads of old cloth sacks full of feathers. And dust. I could hardly breath!

  Coughing uncontrollably, we rolled off the dust sacks. I put the edge of my skirt over my nose and mouth.

  “See any sign of a door?”

  I looked around. There wasn’t much I could see. Soea began running his hands along the walls, searching for a deep crease. Then I saw it. “Soea, it’s right there.” I pointed to the wall.

  He came and stood by me. “I don’t see it.”

  I put my hand in his pocket took the key from him. He wouldn’t have given it to me if I’d asked. I went to the corner of the wall and put the key in the lock. I turned it.

  “Well, how do you like…”

  His words were drowned out when the whole wall fell. Luckily, it fell away from us and not toward. It was a tall, and not to mention heavy wall. But what I saw on the other side I didn’t exactly like.

  “Soea, what did you do with the candle?”

  “To late for that, sweetheart. Left it up one story.” He walked past me, out onto the fallen wall. I followed.

  In front of us was mud, mud, water and more mud. Light streamed through some parts of the ceiling, which was obviously a room from the palace.

  “Oh look,” Soea pointed up. “It’s Aduhlajh’s toilet room.” He reached his hand into my pocket and pulled the key out, tossing it up and catching it.

  I jumped, and glared at him.

  He tried to hold in his laugh. “Hope you don’t mind the muck.”

  What did he mean? I was a warrior, mud didn’t bother me. I stood and thought for a second. Then I added it up. Toilet room above, mud below.

  I gasped. “You’re wretched to think I’d walk across that!”

  “Oh, Layla, I’m only joking. I’d never do that.” He picked me up and we started flying across. “Of course you know, I could drop you at any second.” he smiled maliciously, like a child who knew he was doing wrong.

  “You wouldn’t do that.” Would he? I glared at him. He had swooped me up and started across before I had time to even protest.

  “If I dare to touch you, I dare to drop you.” He stopped grinning, and smirked smugly.

  I tightened my grip around his neck. “Go faster.”

  He sped up. How big could the room be? At least we had a little light. Finally we came to a door. It was high up, near the ceiling.

  “How are we going to open it?” I asked him.

  “You are, dear.” He lifted me up to wear I sat on his shoulder. He gave to key to me, and we flew closer to the door. I put the key up to the lock, then paused.

  “What if something pops out at us, and we fall?”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t fall,” he said. “You would.” Did he ever stop finding reasons to smile?

  I turned the key and the door fell open. It was like a cabinet. Soea pushed me up through it, and I groped at the walls of the tiny space for something to hold on to. But I couldn’t find anything. “Soea, don’t let me fall,” I demanded.

  His only response was a chuckle.

  “There’s another door!” I called.

  “Don’t you still have the key?”

  Oh, yes. I did. In fact, it was in my hand. I was lucky I hadn’t dropped it. I tried to reach my hand up to the lock, but the space was cramped, and Soea was still shoving me upwards. “Stop pushing me! I’m being mashed against the door!”

  “I can’t help it,” he returned. “The little door is closing on my legs.”

  The air was stuffy and it was hard to breath. I struggled to get my hand to the lock. My bones were all aching, ever single one, from being smashed. I tried to put the key in the lock, but it wouldn’t fit. My eyes flew open wide. “It doesn’t fit,” I started to panic. “Soea what do we do the key doesn’t fit?” I started breathing hard, terribly uncomfortable in such a tight space.

  “What?” He said, alarmed. “Alright, alright. Don’t panic.”

  “But you are!”

  “No I’m not!” he hollered. “I’m getting… excited. Now, knock on the wood and see how thick it is.”

  I knocked, but I didn’t know how to tell?

  “Knock louder!”

  I did it louder.

  “Okay, it’s not that thick. How strong is your punch?”

  “Um,” I started. “It’s not weak.”

  “Try punching through it.”

  I tried. It hurt. “I think it’s thicker than you thought it was!” I tried to bring my knuckle to my mouth, but it was too cramped.

  “We’re going to have to switch places.” He heard him shifting around.

  “What?” I hollered. “There’s not even enough room to breath! How is that going to be accomplished?”

  “Just press yourself against the wall then. I won’t make you move.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it?”

  I obeyed. It wasn’t out of fright this time, which was encouraging. Well, in a sense it was. I was frightened of suffocating in this dark tunnel. I couldn’t see a thing. “Why did it close, do you think?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know,” I said while struggling to push himself upward. “I’m a sorcerer, not a psychic.”

  I held my breath. He was now pressing against me, which made it even more difficult to breath. Up he scooted. Now I could feel his face close to mine. I was glad it was to dark to see his laughing, teasing eyes.

  “Couldn’t you have made it disappear from where you were?” I asked, turning my head.

  “Maybe,” he said as he punched through the little door. I could feel his devilish smile.

  “You’re very easy to loathe.” Light poured in, and I closed my eyes.

  “I know.”

  We both looked up, and the sight startled me. A lady with a white cap over her gray hair was staring at us. She had her hand on a pot that she had gone to retrieve. We h
ad ended up in a kitchen cupboard!

  Soea pushed me through, knocking pots and pans and other dishes out and all over the floor. We had ended up in the kitchen.

  Once Soea was out, he turned to me and dusted himself off. “Well, my dear, your plan has failed.” He brushed past me.

  I stood, dumbfounded. It didn’t make any sense at all. Why would someone take the time to make the secret rooms and secret doors that all had the same key, if there was absolutely no meaning in it? I was terribly depressed that the sweet little riddles were meaningless. They were so skillfully written. It was so difficult to believe, and even though I was here in the kitchen, I wasn’t sure that I even did.

  I turned and saw Kirken looking at me.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, and for a moment I thought he was going to laugh. Instead he just smiled.

  “I don’t know.” My voice was quiet, sad. I was hopeless. I couldn’t figure anything out. And I wouldn’t even have made it through that maze on my own! I walked out of the kitchen, ignoring Kirken’s troubled stare. He could tell I was out of hope. But, I couldn’t give up. Why not? I just did.

  I met Soea in the corridor. He looked sullen too.

  “I’m… I’m sorry. Really am. I didn’t mean to ruin your life, honest.” He sighed.

  “Honest?”

  He nodded. “How about a truce? If you’re going to be married to Aduhlajh, you’ll be living here. And I’ll be appointed as his counselor. At least we can mourn out lost lives together.”

  I looked at him, tears filling my eyes. “Lost lives? Am I really that lost?”

  “Aw, sweet, didn’t mean to make you feel worse. Maybe we can still figure something out.”

  “Can I go to my room alone?” I asked, pleadingly.

  “You know I have to follow you everywhere.” Oddly enough, he didn’t even look happy about it. Did he really feel sorrow for me?

  “Can I hide you in the closet?”

  “Of course.”