Chapter Twelve

Jaden

 

They were not equipped for spending the night outside, Jaden decided. Wrapped up as they were in cloaks and blankets, they still shivered. Kitera was the only one sleeping; it seemed that girl was blessed with the ability to sleep through anything.

Realizing they were both miserably awake in utter darkness, the rattle of rain against rock assailing their ears, Jaden and Noah sat together, leaning against their shelter’s wall.

His eyes suddenly detecting a faint glow, Jaden wondered if a firefly had appeared. Wrong insect, Jaden thought as his gaze followed the light and landed on Noah’s arm, where the spider tattoo glowed softly.

“Why a spider?” Jaden felt compelled to ask.

Noah regarded him with amused green eyes. “Why not a spider?”

“Because it’s disgusting.”

Noah laughed. “Well it’s just a disguise anyway.”

“Is that what she told you?” Jaden asked.

“Yes.”

Jaden clutched his blanket tighter around himself.

“Does she have a name?”

Noah took a deep breath, eyes going to Kitera’s still form. She was still asleep, Jaden was sure of it; no one could fake snores like that.

“Arakili,” he said, “but I call her Kili.”

Jaden chuckled. “You nicknamed your demon.”

“I did, yeah.”

The silence lingered, filled of course with the sound of the downpour.

In that daft village, they probably believed this harsh weather represented the gods’ outrage"after all they had failed to complete the sacrifice.

Jaden’s arms hugged his knees closer to his chest.

“Those rituals are important,” Matt would always insist.

They used to get into such heated arguments, which Jaden loathed, for every time he got furious at Matt.

“If it were you,” Jaden told him once, “I’d save you. I wouldn’t hesitate a damn second. I’d kill the priest if I had to.”

“And I would hate you for it,” Matt replied.

Snapping out of the memory, Jaden realized Noah was staring.

“Where’d you go?” Noah asked softly.

Jaden shook his head. “I was merely thinking that… a friend of mine would truly despise me right now.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Jaden answered, “I killed that priest.”

“He had it coming,” Noah said.

Jaden forced his voice into steadiness before asking, “What about those other two?”

Noah waited a beat, then shrugged. “S**t happens. Maybe they deserved it too.”

“I appreciate your efforts to make me feel better…”

“Anytime.”

Then Noah broached a different subject.

“Can I ask you something? I heard the Dragon’s guys fight with the Azurian army, is that true?”

“It is true,” Jaden answered carefully.

“How does that work?” Noah asked, his tone one of earnest curiosity. “What kind of magic do they use in battle?”

Two dragons circling the night sky, breathing fire, Felleran soldiers writhing in pain as flames seared their skin, the scent of burning flesh reaching Jaden’s nostrils. An enraged hyena, hacking its way through his fellow archers. Atop the wall, alongside Azurian archers, a black mage hurtling his snake demon at the king…

“They use… their demons, of course…”

“It’s all right,” Noah said. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“Right, I’m sorry…”

“Pulled a muscle?” Noah suddenly asked.

Jaden realized he’d been massaging his shoulder, and stopped.

“It’s nothing.”

 Noah peered out into darkness and rain, sighing.

“Maybe we should meditate,” he suggested. “You could teach me.”

“I could certainly try.”

 

***

 

“A circle?” Noah tilted his head, brow drawn in confusion.

Jaden offered an apologetic smile. “This is the only technique I know, the one my mother taught me, contrived from thorough study of her old books.”

“Well,” Noah said, “it’s not working.”

They sat on their makeshift beds of cloaks and blankets, facing one another, cross-legged, back straight; Noah got the pose right, if nothing else.

“You must visualize a circle,” Jaden attempted to explain again, shaping it with his hands as he did, “starting from within, and slowly expanding outward. Everything in that circle, you control. You are safe, you are at peace"there is nothing but the circle. Whether you picture it growing fast or excruciatingly slowly, it doesn’t matter. It could also pulse with every beat of your heart, or expand ever so slightly with every breath, or every exhale; you should develop your own preference.”

“I don’t get it"what does the circle represent?” Noah asked.

Jaden smiled. “Your energy.”

“Oh. Right…” The confusion didn’t leave his eyes.

“You must simply try it,” Jaden stressed, “many, many times. I, myself, don’t fully understand it. I suppose a mentor can help but I’m afraid this comes almost solely from practice.”

“How long have you been practicing?” Noah inquired.

“Nearly my whole life.”

Zealous that my mother was, forcing a young child to do this...

Noah did give it an honest try, then, closing his eyes, taking deep breaths.

For perhaps thirty seconds.

Then he announced he’d rather try to sleep, thanked Jaden for the lesson, wished him a good night, and curled up on his side, struggling to fit all of his long legs under a blanket.

“You should try to get some sleep, too,” Noah told him.

 

***

 

The smell of salt and pitch clung heavily to the air. Darkness and humidity shrouded the harbor; a storm was coming. The anchored ship swayed dully from side to side.

Jaden was on his knees, surrounded by hooded cult members.

The Dragon appeared on deck, cloaked, gloved and masked, and they all bowed ceremoniously. Two dragon demons flanked his sides, their long claws scratching the wooden planks, long reptilian wings folded. Jaden shivered despite the warmth. Thunder roared in the sky, but rain was slow to come.

The chanting began.

Dread curdled at the pit of his stomach. Not this again.

Abruptly the chanting stopped, there was only silence. His shivering becoming violent, he felt as though he’d slipped into a crack in a frozen lake and been swallowed by the icy water. Every breath was so cold it hurt.

But the worst was the terrorizing feeling of emptiness"of nothingness. Let me wake up.

Something emerged from the darkness, onto the white platform with him.

A pattern of black flames, a smile revealing teeth that were all fangs, and dark eyes watching him.

And everything changed.

He found himself beholding a circular chamber with rough, uneven stone tiles and thick iron bars for walls. A fire pit roared in its center, flames leaping out of the grate. A man hung suspended from the high ceiling. Tight chains wound around him kept his arms clasped to his sides. Metallic loops ringed his neck, waist and ankles. The loops were linked to yet more chains attached to a rusty pulley in the ceiling.

A sturdy man with tan skin and a thick beard turned the wheel to which the chain was connected, the shackled prisoner coming lower, and lower, with a sickening rattling of metal rubbing against metal.

Wearing only ragged trousers, the prisoner looked thin, pale, and young. His fingertips were bloodied, dripping red. His nails had been ripped out, Jaden realized with a lurch of his stomach. Long dark hair veiling his face, he began to writhe in his chains and scream in pure agony as the tips of the flames licked his chest and arms.

The man working the mechanism barked out: “Tell us what we want to know and I’ll stop.” He spoke in an unfamiliar language, yet Jaden understood the meaning of the words.

“We already told you…” The young man’s voice was half-moan, half-scream. “Told you everything, but you won’t listen!”

A flash of anger crossed the torturer’s face and he turned the wheel. The chain rattled, another blood-curdling scream escaping the prisoner.

With a sudden pang of terror Jaden realized the screaming now came from his own lips as he hung shackled, fire lapping at his chest, peeling his skin like the claws of a bear.

He heard a woman’s cry, answering his scream with her own, though where it came from was unknown to him. 

“Please,” she begged, voice nearing hysteria, “please you have to stop hurting him…”

Fear lanced him then, cutting deeper than before, for he found the thought of her being maimed as he was pained him more than any torture ever could…

 

***

 

He woke, gasping and panting, to Noah shaking him.

“Finally,” Noah sighed, relief obvious in his tone.

Feeling under his shirt for any sign of burns, Jaden calmed down as his fingers found only smooth skin.

The rain had ended, he noted. A timid orange glow slowly chased away the indigo-grey of night above the hilltops, as Jaden cast an eye over Kitera’s sleeping silhouette, the scattered bags, blankets and saddles, and the shapes of the horses resting in the mouth of the hollow.

He turned back to Noah.

“What happened?”

“You tell me,” Noah replied, drinking from his waterskin. “I’m assuming you weren’t dreaming of rainbows and butterflies.”

“Thank you for waking me.” Jaden sat up completely, Noah passing him the water.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jaden hesitated. “I might like to… ask you a question.”

“I’ll see if I have an answer,” Noah replied.

“At the time of bonding with your demon, could you describe how that was like for you, I mean…”

“You mean the bridge?” Noah prompted.

“Is that what you call it, then? In Treon they call it pleian, Etreoni for platform,” Jaden said. 

Noah leaned against the rock wall, knees propped up. “I guess that makes sense. Ours is a metaphorical bridge, linking the human world to the demon realm. Why bring that up?”

Jaden cleared his throat. “They made me do it, actually.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “But you don’t have a demon, do you? So it didn’t work.”

“No, however, on the… on the bridge, I saw something, or someone, and ever since that night I’ve been plagued with those dreams that aren’t about rainbows and butterflies as you so wittingly put it.”

“Someone?” Noah frowned. “What do you mean you saw someone?”

“I’m most likely wrong,” Jaden amended, “I’m not at all sure what I saw.”

Noah gave a slow nod.

“Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” he said at length. “It’s common to have nightmares after going through that experience, whether it works or not. It’ll pass.”

Jaden relaxed a bit; he realized he’d been holding his breath.

“I do hope so.”

“Kit had nightmares for a while,” Noah went on, “after"”

“I had nightmares after what?” Stirring, Kitera rolled their way, leaning on her elbow.

“After I put a spider in your bath, that one time,” Noah grinned. “Remember?”

Kitera closed the distance between herself and Noah in an impressively short time, saying: “Actually I had forgotten. But thank you, for reminding me.”

And Noah earned himself a vigorous jab to the stomach. 

Author's Note

Which point of view do you like best so far?