Chapter 9

I laid on my back on the cot.  I took deep breaths, recovering from a pain attack.  The door opened, and I sat up to look at the person who entered, Valency.

"Why are you holding me prisoner?"I demanded.

Valency scoffed.  "Girl, you think you can triumph over me?  Find him?  You are sorely mistaken, Sister."  He growled the title almost angrily.

"Love is dying.  I need to find him, or she will die," I persisted.

I could see a twinge in his eye.  "Let her die," he said with all the coldness of any villain.

"You wouldn't!"

"I would.  She turned her back on me.  She betrayed me.  She is dead to me."

"I thought you loved her!"  I cried out.

"I did, you silly little girl.  You would never know and much.  She was the one who turned on me.  I offered her everything."  He sneered and composed himself.  "You wouldn't know.  You're not going anywhere, insolent girl."  He slammed the door as he exited.

Lightbulb!  

Do not ask me why such a crucial revelation came then, but my escape just fell into place.  The window had no glass.  I fit comfortably on the windowsill, meaning, I could get out.  I'm immortal.  I can defy gravity. It was so obvious.  I dashed to the window, sat on the sill, and casually stood.  One breath, and I was walking straight down the stone tower.  

I was free.  I ran along the wall of the dark castle, laughing quietly at myself.  I reached the ground and dashed through the courtyards, and when I came to the most outer wall of the castle grounds, I leaped over it easily.  

My next mission was to find Etharnealis.  He would be worried:  He was supposed to be watching me.  I would need his help, besides.  

Actually knowing where to look for him was a different matter.  Like the golden castle, Valency's fortress was completely surrounded by clouds.  These clouds were much different, though.  Nothing could be seen through the clouds, the darkest, light-absorbing clouds.  When I looked anywhere, it was as if I was in a dark closet, all light blocked out, but the absoluteness of the dark was infinitely more than a closet.  It was thick, and nothing could even be sensed with your eyes.  There was a time when Love was high in the snowy mountains, the same time she was sledding, and the highest point to start from was high above anything, above the clouds, and we could see for miles over the sky and clouds.  As we raced down the hill, we came into the clouds, and they were so thick around us that all we saw was white, white of the snow, white of the clouds.  It would play tricks on our eyes since we saw only white everywhere.  The monotony was like that, but the darkness was much more final, much more serious than the foggy whiteness.  This was almost like all light was absorbed into this dark, rendering eyes useless.  There was no way to apply what I had seen above in the tower to right here on the ground.  It was difficult to make out my hand an inch from my face.  There would be no way to find a way out of this, but there had to be.  I couldn't stay up against the wall of Valency's castle forever.  He would find me, and the outcome would not be pleasant.  I just had to get out of the dark.  

I started off in a direction, hoping that after enough wandering, I would find my way out.

"Oi!"somebody cried out to me after several hours of walking.

"Who's there?" I called back, excited and scared that someone else was in the dark with me.

"Your worst nightmare," the Australian voice hissed.  Suddenly, the dark cleared slightly at the command of a man which the clearing dark revealed.  His form looked to be nineteen, perhaps, and he was much taller than me.  He had short, windswept ginger hair and eyes bluer and deeper than the one time I saw the ocean.  His angular face held a stony cold emotion. His lips were perfectly formed except for a pearly white discoloring in one corner.  He wore black clothing that gave him an air of sorcery and nobility.

"My worst nightmare?" I laughed.

"You are one of Valency's witches, are you not?" he hissed, showing an inkling of doubt.  

"Nope, only an escaped prisoner.  Yourself?"  I looked up at him, not afraid at all of this man who called himself a nightmare.

"Bounty hunter, witch specialty," he stated coldly.  He turned away, the darkness already beginning to seep back to where it was.  "Don't get caught, little girl."

I didn't want him to leave me alone yet.  "Alright, although I don't think you could catch anyone, especially if you had to ask me if I was a witch."

He was suddenly in my face, a dagger at the side of my neck.  "I'm fast, little girl.  Don't discount people you don't know."

I held still.  "Sorry," I whispered.

He re-sheathed his dagger.  "That's right.  It's probably none of my business, but you're--were a prisoner of Valency's.  Why?  And how did you escape?"

I shrugged.  "Stranger danger."  

He eyed me.  "Curious girl.  You won't tell me?"  I could see he was intrigued by me and thought I was only an innocent young girl.

I shook my head.  "Nope.  I'm on a quest.  I need to find my companion."  I turned away and started to walk off.

"You don't know where you're going," he said.

I stopped and turned.  "What if I do know where I'm going?" I inquired.

"People don't walk like that when they now where they're going."

"So what?" 

"You're lost.  You're not going to get out of the darkness if you don't know where you're going."

I glared at him.  I would not be doubted by someone I did not know.  "How do you know?"

"It's the nature of the darkness.  You can't find your way out of it until you know the way.  You clearly don't know the way."

I wrinkled my nose at him.  "Would you stop lecturing me?"

He chuckled. "Feisty little girl.  Well, if you're lost in the darkness, Valency's shadows will find you in no time."

'Stranger danger,' I thought.  "I can deal with them," I scoffed.  This man was no help and insisted on questioning me every which way he could.

"Let me guess how you became Valency's prisoner.  His shadow servants got you."

I glared at him.

He only chuckled, as if angering me was a form of entertainment.  "Well, Sheila," he snickered, awfully annoying in his perfect Australian accent.  "I'm going to escort you.  You need the help."

I gaped for a moment before continuing my glare.  "I am not incompetent."

"You are if you don't know your way through the dark.  It's not bad to admit that you need help once in a while."

It's not that I didn't want to admit that I needed help, it was that I didn't want help for him.  There was something about his utter Australian perfection that grated against me.  "If you insist…" I said slowly.

"I do, Missy."

I sighed.  As much as I hated accepting help from him, I couldn't keep wandering around in the dark while Love was waiting on me.  "Then, what is your name?"

"Markum, at your service," he said, giving the two fingered Boy Scout salute.  

I nodded.  "Aemy.  So which way to the golden castle in the clouds?  We got separated not far away from there."

Markum nodded cockily.  "I know then."

We walked long distances through the thick dark.  It was simply tedious following Markum's back through the nothingness, even though he was able to make a small bubble around himself which the darkness would stay away from.  

After a long bout of silence--we had only tried small talk to little avail--I crumpled to my knees.  The pain spasm was bad that time.  It had been a long while since I had felt the pain before, and it was past due for a sharp pain.  I clenched my teeth so I wouldn't cry out.  Markum hadn't noticed and continued until I couldn't even hear him anymore.

"Markum!" I cried out breathlessly.  My voice was muffled in the dark.  "Markum!"  I couldn't move through this pain, only holding my stomach and praying for it to pass.  Once I could stand through my softening pain, I was off looking for Markum.

Nothing happened for a terribly long time.  I mean terribly awfully long, to the point where I could not count how long I had been wandering nor how many times my wound hurt.

I grew frantic, running for as long as I could, but I was sure to be silent in case Valency had sent his shadows after me.  

The darkness lasted forever.  I could not escape.  There was no change.  I would not survive.  I could not die.  The dark cloudiness seeped into my mentality.  I was doomed to fall into insanity.  I don't remember all of my travel.  Only glimpses and moments.  A spasm.  Crying.  Running.  Yelling.  Endless walking.  I laid down to sleep and thought I was dreaming when I awoke. The last shimmery smudges of ink on my arm.  Hearing things.  A familiar crying.  Laughing.  Voices that I swore I knew from a reality.  Images wafted through my mind and were projected on the darkness.  My subconscious recognized them sometimes, but I did not.  

When they came, I thought I was dreaming.