Chapter 15
The Guard
Solar was already cursing vividly by the time they returned to the spaceship, while his two companions listened with suppressed grins. They understood her frustration perfectly well, as they were also sweltering in the heat. Sweat was dripping under their cloaks, soaking through all their clothes and sticking their hair to their foreheads.
Of course, they didn’t want to leave just yet, as they informed the Trians. At first, the council didn’t understand why they wanted to stay, but Serion firmly stated that they needed some rest. The family members seemed reluctant about their stay, but since they hadn’t done anything wrong, they couldn’t chase them away or send guards after them. Reluctantly, they granted permission for them to stay.
They returned to the spaceship because they needed to cool down a bit, and they also didn’t think it was a smart idea to wander around with a sack full of bounty. The ramp of the spaceship was lowered, as if Angron was waiting for them, or perhaps he simply forgot to close it.
Solar threw her cloak at the ground as they arrived to the ship. Although her species enjoyed warmth, this was too much even for her.
“This is disgusting!”
“Calm down,” Sephra reassured her. “The weather is nice here; we’ll dry off soon enough.”
A few moments later, Angron appeared, constantly scratching himself due to the dryness. His blue scales were already losing their shimmer. He was having a hard time with the heat, even in the otherwise pleasantly warm spaceship.
“I hope you came back because we can finally leave this place. I can’t stand it much longer,” he grumbled.
“No, actually, we haven’t done anything yet,” Solar muttered, keeping her distance.
In response, Angron let out an irritated groan and went back to the cockpit.
Serion placed the sack on the ground and opened it. The pale blue light emanated from it again, shining on the faces of those leaning over it. Solar reached in, then withdrew her paw. She held a pile of shiny little coins.
“Damn!” she whispered as she turned her paw over, letting them fall back down. “I’ve never seen so much money at once! Where does a place like this get it from?”
“It comes from the fact that Gadzen is one of the five planets where this crystal exists,” Sephra replied. “They mine it locally, underground. That’s why it was so important for the rebels to occupy it.”
“If it’s only in so few places, why doesn’t the Empire reclaim it?”
“Because we currently have three such planets under our control, while the rebels have only two. The Emperor was quite angry about the loss, but it wasn’t a significant setback in reality.”
Solar just grumbled something in response and continued to touch the coins. They didn’t scold her.
What lay before them was the most valuable crystal in the entire galaxy. There were brighter, stronger, more extraordinary, larger materials, but none matched this in value. That’s why it became the widespread currency on all planets after its discovery, which was quite a long time ago. It was used in the Empire just as it was by the rebels, and neither side was willing to change. Their units were standardized. Each small coin was worth a hundred. The money didn’t have a name. There was no need for one. As the price for everything, they simply said a round number, and everyone knew what they were talking about. Counterfeiting was impossible, as attempts had been made a few times, but no other cyan-blue crystal existed exactly in this shade in the galaxy.
Although it had been discovered for some time, the problem was that there wasn’t enough of it. Mining operations were halted for a while, and the crystal reappeared in the same places within a few years from where it had been dug up before. No scientist had yet found a concrete explanation for this; only speculations arose, some involving the inner structure of a planet. Nevertheless, they obviously needed a virtual currency to exist. They couldn’t pay out millions only in coins.
Serion, finally tired of the girl’s amazement, grabbed the sack to hide it somewhere on the ship while Solar and Sephra went to the map and enlarged the image of Gadzen instead of Rangza.
The admiral looked at the planet with a troubled expression before glancing at the girl.
“Where would you have hidden the shard?” she asked.
“I would have thrown it into the lava.”
“Take the question seriously for a moment, please.”
“I was serious. Besides, we should have discussed this before they took Daron away.”
“We don’t need him; he’s just a distraction. It can’t be in the mine because they would find it. It can’t be in the cities either because they would find it there too.”
“What if it’s somewhere else? I mean, what if it has nothing to do with these three cities? It could be anywhere on the planet. At least on Shouta Hyraus couldn’t have gone far…”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Serion conceded. “Maybe we’re completely at the wrong place. Is there anywhere else nearby that Hyraus could have reached?”
Sephra pursed her lips and began nervously twisting one of her purple locks. She started muttering to herself almost inaudibly.
“He entrusted it to Mirella… Who or what would he entrust it to here?”
At that moment, they heard a little knock. Serion walked to the gate and opened it. On the other side stood Kyen, looking rather uneasy.
“We need to talk,” the woman whispered.
Serion let her in.
“How can we help?” he asked.
Kyen closed the door behind her and swallowed nervously.
“I know who you are and why you came.”
“Really?” Sephra asked in an unusually gentle tone.
“I don’t want any trouble. I came to help. I received orders from the Emperor.”
Serion looked at the admiral, who folded her arms and nodded.
“It wouldn’t be surprising. He has spies everywhere. Alright, let’s hear it!”
Kyen pushed back her black hair and nervously adjusted her belt. She visibly feared.
“I know you are looking for Alsen’s sword. You won’t get to it without Daron’s help.”
“Why not?”
“An outsider cannot endure all the trials they must go through to find it.”
“But Hyraus somehow survived.”
Kyen shook her head sadly.
“No. He never went there. He wouldn’t have survived. I took it. He paid a lot for me to do it.”
“Then we don’t need Daron. It’s enough if you go again.”
The woman hesitated, shifting from one hoof to the other.
“No… I can’t go back anymore. If I could, I would have gone already to have it with me by the time you arrived.”
Sephra wanted to ask their guest what she knew, but at that moment, Solar stood in front of the woman and grabbed her neck with her paws.
“What did Daron do to have a bounty on him? Tell me! I want to know!”
“Treason!” Kyen gasped out as she choked. “The boy’s family committed treason against the former Emperor.”
Sephra’s expression remained unchanged. Serion was taken aback. Solar became uncertain and released the woman’s neck.
“Her sister, Myrren, was the leader of the rebellion when they destroyed the imperial fleet. The Emperor personally came to take Myrren and everyone from the Nerus family with him. He was right. They all took part in the rebellion, except for Daron. He was too young, he didn’t even know about it. My brother smuggled him off the planet. That’s the only reason he survived.”
“How do you know this?” Serion asked.
Kyen swallowed before speaking again.
“The Emperor spoke with the other three main families that day. They weren’t like you saw them today. They were terrified and begged for his mercy, claiming they knew nothing. They professed their loyalty and insisted that whatever happened, they still stood with the Empire. I was Myrren Nerus’s servant back then. I had to be present at the interrogation. It was horrific. In the end, the Emperor showed mercy the other families and me too.”
“Why?”
“Because the others truly didn’t know that the Nerus family were rebels. And I… I told the Emperor that my mistress was the leader of the rebellion. I showed him the documents I found earlier, but I didn’t know what they were about. He was satisfied with me. I never saw Myrren or the other Nerus family members again. I don’t know what happened to them.”
“Does Daron know what happened to his family?”
“I don’t think so. He’s the last survivor.”
“I don’t understand. The former Emperor is already dead, and the planet is under rebel control,” Solar puzzled. “So why was there still a bounty on him?”
“It’s true that Quilen took over, but nobody forgot about the Emperor. All three other families want to erase any memory of him. That’s why they wanted to get rid of Daron,” Kyen explained.
“So, he’s actually innocent. He was condemned for something he had no part in,” Solar remarked.
“I told you, his family’s crimes affected him too. There was no way he could escape punishment,” Kyen replied.
“Isn’t this a bit unjust? Why punish someone if…” Solar started, but she was cut off.
“Anyone who treats a criminal kindly becomes an accomplice. They could be punished just as well for speaking kindly to him. That’s why I had to greet him as a convict, even if…”
“If you actually feel sorry for him,” Serion finished the sentence.
Kyen swept back another invisible strand of hair from her face and looked around nervously.
“It was my fault that his family was taken. Myrren and I were close. If they’re dead…” Kyen trailed off, grief-stricken.
“It’s obvious they’re dead! My condolences! Let’s move on and get back to Hyraus’s visit for a moment! Why did he entrust you with… with what he gave you?” Sephra interjected impatiently.
“He was in a hurry. I could say he was fleeing. He knew who I was and also knew I regretted helping the Emperor,” Kyen explained.
“Where did you take it, and why can’t you go back?” Sephra inquired further.
“I have a tracker on me. They don’t trust me anymore. If I step out of the city, they’ll kill me. I… I took him to the Black Cathedral, beyond the Stone Desert. I felt it would be a fitting place after everything that happened,” Kyen revealed.
Sephra looked up at the map, biting her lip in frustration.
Solar sighed and raised her arm in resignation.
“Obviously you know where it is, when it was built, what it’s for, and why it’s dangerous.”
The admiral gave the girl a stern look.
“Obviously,” she replied.
“So what do we need to know?”
“When was the Cathedral sealed?” Sephra inquired.
“Right after they took the family members,” Kyen answered.
“What’s the defense system like? Is anyone monitoring it? Are there guards?” Sephra asked further.
“There are no guards. It’s completely abandoned. Nobody tries to cross the Stone Desert. I barely survived myself. However, since it was sealed, it’s impossible to enter. I was only able to because I had something from my mistress. She cut off her finger before they took her and gave it to me. After I left the Cathedral, I threw it away for safety. That way, they can’t get in,” Kyen explained.
“I don’t understand,” Solar spoke up.
Sephra rolled her eyes in frustration.
“The Nerus family was the fourth main family. They had the highest religious authority. The Cathedral was theirs, and only with their permission could you enter. Only their fingerprints open the gates, nothing else. That’s why only Daron can get in. Of course, they could have demolished the whole building, but I guess they didn’t want to go that far…”
Kyen shook her head. “No way. The Black Cathedral is a monument; however, nobody goes there anymore since the treason. People have forgotten it exists. Vehicles used to go there in the past, but not anymore,” she added.
Then Angron, who had been silent in the cockpit until now, suddenly rose from his seat and popped his head out.
“Wait! Are you saying that the only person who can open the Cathedral’s gate just happens to be traveling with us when we’re searching for the sword?” he exclaimed.
Solar nodded in agreement. “He’s right! This is not normal…”
“We can worry about that later. Right now, the question is how do we get there?” Sephra intervened.
Angron sighed resignedly. “Can we land somewhere nearby?”
“As soon as they see where we’re heading, the air defense will shoot us down. Even if we manage to evade them, they’ll send troops after us in moments,” Sephra explained.
“And they just took Daron away,” Solar added.
“Don’t worry about that! I trust my brother. He’ll get him out and tell him where to go. They won’t be looking for him for a while.”
“He’s just a kid. It’s hopeless for him to survive alone.”
“I’ll find him,” Serion declared, prompting the others to turn to him with questioning looks. “I’ll accompany him there.”
Sephra disagreed with his idea. “It’s too dangerous. There’s no guarantee he’ll survive.”
“Maybe the two of us can make it. Where exactly do we need to go?” Serion asked.
The admiral turned the map and pointed to the barren wasteland to the right of the city, indicating a small, black dot. Serion took a deep breath to calm his rising anxieties.
“I’ll do it. I’ll help him get there. He won’t survive out there alone. He’s just a kid,” Serion concluded.
“Fine. Never take the communicator off your arm! If you’re in trouble, signal immediately, and we’ll come for you! Clear?” Sephra instructed.
“Yes, Admiral,” Serion affirmed.
***
Daron never imagined that life down there could be so bad. In his childhood, he often walked around here with his parents, and sometimes even alone when he had to go from one city to another, but then he experienced it completely differently.
Like every child, he was taught not to care about the slaves because they weren’t worth it. Back then, he didn’t understand, nor did he really care. He wasn’t allowed to observe them closely, so he didn’t gain any real knowledge about their way of life. Generally, by the time members of his species reached adulthood, they became completely insensitive. But he left the planet, so many years were missing from this process for him. Normally, he shouldn’t have felt sorry for the slaves, just like the others didn’t.
Daron thought that his people were simply sadistic. On every other planet, robots worked on mining the crystals, except on Gadzen.
After being led away from the council chamber, they had to descend stairs until they reached one of the mine’s gates. Before them stood soldiers who silently let them pass. He could almost see them grinning from behind their helmets.
When he entered, he saw a completely different world. Here, both the temperature and the air were much more pleasant. A gentle breeze came from somewhere and passed through the hand-carved passages, driving away some of the heat. He knew that the people banished here would not have survived if they had to work under the same conditions as in the upper world. Darkness would have been constant if the material they mined, the bright cyan crystal, hadn’t illuminated the passages. Despite being extracted from the walls, there were always new crystals emerging, as if they never wanted to run out. This was the only reason why Gadzen remained a habitable planet to this day, and its people didn’t move elsewhere.
There were corridors where they didn’t encounter any crystals. These were the ones used for traveling from one city to another because they wouldn’t encounter a slave there. Originally, they were designed to find even more crystals, but they didn’t find any. They wanted to bury them back, but they realized that it was much safer to travel through here than above. They experimented with planting vegetation in these corridors until one species of mushroom survived and multiplied, pleasantly illuminating the passages.
As Daron watched the slaves, he pondered for a moment why the rebels let all this slide, and then something occurred to him. Suddenly, he began to understand why Quilen’s tactic was successful in occupying planets. Although he supervised the people, he didn’t interfere in their affairs. He didn’t want to forcefully change their habits, erase their traditions, even if he completely opposed them. Nobody couldn’t protest against non-existent oppression.
He snapped out of his thoughts when one of the guards stopped them. With the whip in his hand, he gestured to the soldiers, who departed. Clearly, he wasn’t worried that the boy might attempt an escape.
Somewhere, sometime, he had seen the man before. There was something about him that felt very familiar, but he couldn’t place it. He didn’t know how to relate to the man.
Then, the guard struck the boy’s chest hard with the whip, causing him to feel as if every muscle in his body conducted electricity. He fell back, but clenched his teeth and didn’t make a sound. He knew he wouldn’t be able to endure the second blow quietly, yet he didn’t want to give in immediately. Sitting on the ground, he silently awaited further beating, but it didn’t come.
He cautiously looked up.
The guard was smiling as he swung his arm again.
This time, Daron screamed when his body convulsed in agony.
Once the pain subsided, the man finally spoke.
“For now, this is where you’ll stay. I assume you know the rules, and I don’t need to enlighten you. Discipline, obedience, and respect. If you adhere to these, then perhaps you’ll survive for a while.”
“Who are you?”
The guard’s face reflected surprise.
“Don’t you remember me? Seriously? We’ve met countless times! No matter, it’ll come back to you. For now, this is where you’ll stay. There’s the tool, get to work!”
The boy raised his cuffed wrists.
“My hands?”
“They are fine like that. Move it! Get to work!”
Daron did what he could.
The guard, still unrecognized, randomly beat him at intervals with fabricated excuses. Once, he said Daron wasn’t working fast enough; another time, he accused him of being careless. It was difficult for him to lift the pickaxe again when his muscles stopped twitching and he weakly slammed it against the wall.
He made little progress. He wasn’t particularly strong, both his arms ached from exertion. Yet he felt somewhat proud when the crystal, the source of his suffering, dislodged. He picked it up, turned his head back questioningly to the guard, who rolled his eyes.
“You’re very good,” he said in a bored tone, then gestured to the side. “There are only six thousand more until your death. Take it there!”
Daron got up from the ground and dragged himself along with the crystal to the tram standing against the wall, where they temporarily stored them until they were full and someone took them up to the surface. They could have made elevators or provided any tool for them, but they didn’t, just as they didn’t want to employ robots.
He had no idea where the way out could be. Whichever way he looked, every corridor was equally dark. Even if he ran, he would surely encounter another guard.
Daron didn’t want any of this. He didn’t want to work here. He didn’t want to search for the sword. He didn’t want anything but to go back to the spaceship. He sighed and tried to focus.
The wasted time spent banging on the wall only served to allow him to contemplate. He thoroughly considered every possible option that came to mind regarding where the shard could be. The appearance of the cities was hardly ever changed, as they couldn’t build onto them. There were no hiding places. Inside this labyrinth, the shard couldn’t be, as someone would have already found it.
He dropped his pickaxe and screamed again when the guard struck him on the back. His clothes were starting to tear.
“What have I done now?!”
The man pointed to the ground. Daron looked down and saw the crystal fragment lying before him. Wearily, he grabbed it and threw it into the storage. He had always been a good shot, so it hit its mark, only he wished he hadn’t heard it shatter. It was no wonder the guard hit him again.
When he collected himself, he started thinking again. It was impossible for the sword to be here. His people used these corridors, and thousands of slaves worked in the tunnels. It was impossible not to find it. No, the shard, as much as it fit into this environment filled with crystals, simply couldn’t be here, or someone unauthorized would have found it. But if it wasn’t here…
Daron dropped the pickaxe. He immediately knew he had made another mistake, but this time he couldn’t deal with it. He felt his throat tighten with terror.
The shard couldn’t be anywhere else but outside, somewhere in the lifeless wasteland.
An hour later, he lay on the ground and cried, partly from pain, partly from despair.
Because it would have been so simple! They could have landed anywhere else to look around, but they didn’t.
He had no chance of getting out of here. The others didn’t know the conditions here; they couldn’t know how wrong they were. Moreover, Angron wouldn’t be able to bear it here for more than two days.
He thought his companions might abandon him and fly away. After all, he was just a traitor in their eyes.
This thought robbed him of his willpower.
When the guard swung the whip, he raised his hand to shield his face.
“No! Enough!”
Nothing happened, so Daron peeked through his fingers. The man stood over him with a big smile, his weapon lowered. He immediately understood why the guard was so satisfied. He was showing for the first time that he couldn’t take the torture anymore. Obviously, this was what the guard wanted to achieve.
He flinched when the man leaned down to him.
From up close, he was even more familiar. If only that long scar that ran all the way down the right side of his face, blinding his half eye… If only that weren’t there…
“Congratulations! You survived your first half day down here! However, whether you’ll survive your first night, that’s another question.”
“Why?”
“You know… Many soldiers and guards down here have implants. They don’t care if you’re a woman or a man. Just that you’re young. And if they like you, they will find a way to get some entertainment.”
“You’re lying…”
Perhaps he was just bluffing, but either way, Daron didn’t want to find out.
The guard stood up then.
“My shift is over. I highly recommend you take care of yourself! See you tomorrow! Tell me how your evening went!”
Daron didn’t move, just lay with his head resting on the cold ground. There had to be a way out.
The guard duties were taken over by soldiers, armored, helmeted, weapons in hand. Clearly, they were more prepared for escapes and riots at this time, as now the slaves had time for anything other than work. When he wasn’t being beaten by his own guard, he could still hear screams from the others. He noticed that now the others were just lying in their own areas, resting.
The soldiers paced back and forth, keeping a close eye on the prisoners. He leaned back against the wall and pretended to try to sleep. The guards didn’t seem particularly interested. All they could see was a beaten, torn-clothed, bloodied-faced captive trying to recover from his injuries. They only glanced at him occasionally.
He couldn’t say exactly how long he waited, but he suspected at least an hour had passed.
Once, when the guards changed direction, he got up and began to sneak around. If any of the soldiers turned in his direction, he immediately hid behind one of the containers filled with crystals. He knew his life could depend on the smallest mistake, so he concentrated and was patient.
He only moved from his hiding places when he felt it was safe, trying to move as quietly as possible, despite his injuries. He felt somewhat lucky that his skin was dark, as it made him blend into the environment much better.
He had no idea where he was heading. Every time he found a new passage, he walked in, even though he felt completely lost by now.
Suddenly, he felt like someone was following him. He heard footsteps, but he didn’t dare to look back. He quickened his pace.
In one of the corridors, he ran into three silent guards who caught him. Daron tried to break free, but it was futile. The first guard held his arms, while the other two looked amused.
“Is this the Nerus boy?” one of them asked curiously. “Wasn’t he sentenced today?”
“I heard the same.”
“Lucky he wasn’t taken with the others by the Emperor.”
One of them then grinned and looked down at the boy, reaching for his face.
“Yes, but we’re even luckier… We still have some time until the shift change. How about we have some fun with him? He is quite young.”
In response, Daron bit the man’s hand, prompting the other to punch him in the face with his fist. The first guard shook his wrist angrily with a hiss, rubbing the wound.
“He’s still got some fight in him, but I’ll break him. Come on, help me out!”
Daron struggled, but they were stronger than him. When they pressed him against the wall, he screamed for help, but he didn’t know if anyone heard him. One of them held his handcuffs so he couldn’t hit, while the other started tearing off his torn clothes. The third, rubbing his sore hand, waited with a dark smile.
“What a sight. To see the last descendant of one of the main families so helpless and vulnerable… It will be fun to play with you.”
Daren let out a desperate sob, kicking around. When the guard stepped closer and run his hand on his chest, he pleaded in a high voice.
“Please, just leave me alone!”
From the corner of his eye, the boy noticed a shadow darting past them. Before the guards could react, two of them had their throats slit, and the last one was shot in the head.
Daron fell to the ground, trembling, clutching his chest. He was trying to cover himself with his torn clothes. He saw two figures looming over him, but he didn’t look up, he just started crying.
Then one of the shadows squatted in front of him and gently reached out to his arm. The boy flinched in fear.
“It’s me.”
Daron raised his head and noticed the white strands of hair under the black hood.
The boy leaned forward, burying his face in Serion’s chest, sobbing for long minutes. Everything hurt from the beating, he was fed up, and terrified of the three guards.
The man seemed to want to hurry, but in the end, he just hugged the boy and let him cry it out.
“I don’t want to do this! I don’t care about any of this! I just want to get out of here!”
“Calm down. Everything’s okay. I’ll take you out.”
The boy slowly calmed down and clumsily wiped his face, then looked up at the other shadow. He recognized the one-eyed guard who had beaten him all day.
Serion spoke quickly before Daron could freak out.
“He’s with us. Without him, I wouldn’t have found you.”
The guard nodded.
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I was warned to watch out at night! If we hadn’t found you…”
Daron shivered and shook his head.
“Just… Don’t mention it anymore! Who are you?”
“Raen. Do you remember me? I’m Kyen’s brother.”
The boy looked puzzled for a moment. He tried to figure out where he knew the man from, then suddenly realized.
Raen Gelum was the fiancé of his sister, Myrren, back in the day. He was the one who smuggled him out of the city when the others were caught. The only thing that saved the man from being taken by the ruler was that, lacking a marriage, he wasn’t yet part of their family. So he only lost one eye.
“I’m sorry I was rougher than necessary. The electricity destroys the tracker the rebels implanted in you. That’s why I beat you up so badly.”
Daron clumsily sniffled and didn’t even ask how the man knew about the tracker.
“I understand. So what now?”
“We know where we need to go. The sword…”
Tears started flowing down the boy’s face again.
“I don’t care about the sword! I just want to go back to the others! Please, you can find it without me!”
“No, we can’t. It’s in the Black Cathedral. We can’t get in without you. Come on!”
Serion put away the dagger he used to cut the guards’ throats and helped the boy up. Raen tried to pat Daron’s back reassuringly, but the boy flinched when he reached out.
“Sorry. You don’t need to be afraid of me. Come on, let me help you take off the handcuffs!”
They walked for long minutes. Daron didn’t know where they were going, and he didn’t care. He just wanted to get out of the maze.
They reached a narrow opening, from which a gentle breeze flowed in. The passage was thin and crumbling.
Daron didn’t count the minutes as they struggled through the narrow crevice. With closed eyes, he sidestepped between the two men, taking breaths so sparingly as if someone had slowed down time. If he had looked up and seen two walls pressing in on him, he would have panicked. He considered himself lucky that his tough skin barely felt the sharp pieces protruding from the walls. Ahead, Serion hissed a few times.
Daron understood why nobody tried to escape this way. The slaves down there didn’t have masks, and they would have likely suffocated from the poisonous air instantly.
For a moment, he was almost surprised when his hand didn’t touch anything and the walls didn’t close in on him. He cautiously opened his eyes.
The landscape was filled with black ash, stretching out as far as he could see. The glow of lava boiling in the volcanoes was reflected by the dark clouds. Wherever he was, he had made it out, and that’s all that mattered.
Daron had never been outside the cities. Their rules explicitly forbade it, as there was nothing waiting for them out there except a few heat-tolerant predators. The smaller villages were located elsewhere, in safer areas. Here, there were only volcanoes.
Daron wiped his face again and looked at his two companions.
“Thank you… I… I wouldn’t have made it out alone, but… I don’t know where the Cathedral is… I was very young. I don’t even remember it…”
Raen reached out his arm and pointed to the right.
“We have to go that way. It’ll be beyond the stone desert, among the mountains. You can’t miss it. All you have to do is touch the panel of the gate. It’ll let you in.”
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Daron asked.
“I can’t. I need to be inside when they start looking for you. There’s still plenty of time before the shift change. You have time.”
Serion nodded. “Thank you very much for your help, Raen. Take care of yourself!”
In response, Raen winked and turned around to crawl back through the narrow crevice into the labyrinth.
Serion put his arm around the boy’s shoulder.
“Let’s go!”
The thick layer of ash covering the ground muffled the sound of their footsteps.
“I couldn’t have imagined a worse idea than this,” Daron muttered exhaustedly.
“I’m sorry we put you through this,” Serion replied. “Kyen only told us where to go after they took you. If we had known, this wouldn’t have happened. You know, she told us what happened to your family.”
“I barely remember anything, but I know the ruler took them and they never came back.”
“Did you know what they did?”
“They were accused of treason, but I had nothing to do with it. My sister… Myrren was always stubborn and willful. She hated this oppression, but she hated the Empire even more. She took the chance to join the rebels.”
Daron clenched his teeth and tears welled up in his eyes again.
“If she hadn’t gotten information, they wouldn’t have harmed her or the others!”
“I’m sorry, but she chose to use what she knew. Nobody could expect the ruler to overlook treason.”
“I hate them! I hate all of them! I hated the families for not protecting mine! I hated the ruler for taking everyone from me, and I hated Hyraus for filling my sister’s head with such nonsense! I hate them all!”
“Did you know it was him?”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out once Sephra told us! Why is it that my family suffered so much, but not his? Why is it that Quilen survived?! Why didn’t the Emperor kill him?! He could have! I hate him!”
“Daron…”
The boy didn’t want to stop crying.
Since childhood, Daron had been fleeing something he hadn’t even done. He wasn’t part of his family, yet he was blamed for their actions. Surviving as a child alone, living as a vagrant, was difficult. He took on any job to survive. Everyone was taken from him, and he never dared to imagine what the ruler did to his parents, his uncle, and his sister.
And after all that, he found himself serving the son of a traitor. He didn’t know earlier that Quilen was Hyarus’ son, but during this time, he managed to put together the whole picture.
But it was also true that the Rebel Leader saved his life. A year ago, a few soldiers captured the boy for the bounty and brought him before Quilen, who, upon learning who he was, didn’t want to take him to Gadzen. Instead, he offered him work, and Daron accepted. He was grateful to him, so he didn’t understand why the leader suddenly turned against him last time.
Serion cleared his throat cautiously, prompting the boy to look up.
“I’m really sorry about what happened to your family. Seriously. Look… I’m not good with this kind of thing, but if you want to talk about it, I’ll listen. I can see you’re feeling terrible. In the meantime, as we walk, there’s time until we reach the Cathedral.”
***
“Someone’s coming…”
Angron looked up at the monster’s whisper. He knew Sephra and Solar had gone out for a while to look for something to eat. The man sniffed the air and turned his head. Two beings were sneaking onto the ship. They looked just like Daron. Maybe they came to steal. Angron looked down at his sticky fingers, which had just torn open their bellies. Something dripped from his chin. He had been chewing on something. He wiped his mouth, only to find more red blood smearing his hand. He spat out the chunks of meat and bit down on his arm to stifle his groan. His condition worsened, more than ever before. It changed without him even noticing. He buried his face in his hands. He could still taste the disgusting flavor of the alien creatures’ blood. He couldn’t take this anymore. He needed help. He would give anything to anyone to save himself.
“Please, someone help!” he whispered, his voice breaking. “Anyone.”
Stella Watson author/író 