Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen (15 page)

Without more, that was the plan. Elizabeth´s eyes lit up upon hearing her beloved´s name, but her serious expression did not change.

“What makes you think that I want to destroy my master?”

“It isn´t the first time that I see you close to the castle. Nobody comes here if they don´t need great help.”

The girl thought about it for an instant until she recognized her mistake.

“What do I have to do?”

“I need you to take a thing on you the day of the battle,” he got up and moved towards the shelves that were behind Elizabeth. He took a perfume bottle and gave it to her. “You only have to give me this when I ask you for it.”

“With that you guarantee to me that you will protect Gabriel in the battle?”

“I promise.”

“I agree
.”

“I forgot one last detail; the night before the battle I need you to heat it in your hands until the liquid boils.”

The girl looked curiously at the scarlet liquid that allowed her to see her fingers at the other end of the bottle.

“The bottle could melt.”

“It won´t,” he concluded. He opened the door for Elizabeth to leave and bowed to her when she passed.

“It has been a pleasure doing business with you, princess
,” he smiled with his white teeth and closed the door in Elizabeth´s face.

A peculiar wizard, she thought. She disappeared and reappeared in her room in a second. She heard how they called her through the door. She hid the
bottle and lay down on her bed. Robert, the diligent warrior of Ian´s troops opened the door as she looked at him in a threatening way.

“Miss
,” he said in an apologetic manner with his thick voice, “I came in before and didn´t see you, I thought something bad had happened to you.”

“You have no right to come into my room Robert. You know that
,” she stood in front of him, her eyes as ice. He was much taller than her, but he felt intimidated by the powers of the young girl.

“Do not come in again
,” she said as she put her hand round his wrist, freezing it. She went downstairs hearing Robert´s screams of pain behind her. This produced in her a sense of great satisfaction.

Morgan was sitting beside the empress. Venice´s dark skin was covered by a delicate beige outfit which highlighted her blue eyes. He had received two letters five minutes ago and looked with disdain as he rested on the small table in front of him. One had Morgan´s name and the other Samantha´s. He knew who the letters were from even without reading them. He opened his, with the hope that they
contained good news. The empress left and he could start to read.

“My dear Morgan, I need your help once more. I know that you cannot enter or leave the palace, but I imagine that you will have heard of the arrival of a new girl to the Kingdom. Her name is Samantha. My request, dear friend, is that you keep an eye on her. I want to know what she does and with whom, her strengths and her weaknesses. Above all, I want you to stop her from leaving the Kingdom, should this be her intention. I am not going to remind you of the advantages of helping me and remaining faithful in my services. I am an angel and the divine protection will always be with you.

With all my love, Ian”.

Since when had Ian become caring and friendly? He didn´t think that there was anything good about being by his side, but he couldn´t resolve the errors of the past. Ian had saved his life and he would serve him for life. He still could not leave the palace, so he thought about who he could trust the job to. He called a servant and asked her to take it to where his helper was. He had been a counsellor, who had foretold the future, but he hadn´t seen him for a long time. His powers were blocked and he didn´t know why. His helper Susan helped him on occasions such as these. The servant stopped before the library door and left. Morgan entered decidedly and closed the door behind him. He returned and looked for the girl. The library was very big, however, he knew his friends hiding place.

He took a few paces to the left and went up a small stair. He continued to walk forwards until he stopped in front of a bookshelf at the end of the library. He touched a well-disguised lever in the frame of the shelf and this moved. An inviting room appeared before him. It had a small chimney and a window from which the marvelous forest that surround
ed the palace could be seen. There, in a small armchair, Susan was to be found, a strong but sweet girl. Her hair, which was as red as fire, surrounded a smooth face that was in the pages of a book.

“What brings you here?” Susan asked without lifting her eyes from the book. “It must be very important if you come to look for me
,” she lifted her eyes and stared at Morgan.

“I need a favor and I won´t accept no for an answer
,” after a silent pause he continued, “I want you to leave the city and spy on Samantha.”

“Who is she?”

“I don´t know,” he answered indecisively. He didn´t even know her last name or where she was staying. “Search for her, find her and spy on her. But make sure she doesn´t know you are there.”

“When do I start?”

“Now,” his neutral voice resounded in the room. He turned around and left leaving her alone.

Morgan would
do this every now and again, but she had never seen him so nervous under his outer layer of serenity. She had the ability to see the emotional status of people. It must be a very important matter for him to lie even when he knew her ability.

Susan got up. She had a black outfit, the same as the training one, but slightly modified so that it was more flexible. She put her book down on the table and moved towards the window. She opened it and jumped to the green grass. She breathed in the clean morning air and walked towards the city in search of the girl.

She walked at a quick pace through the forest shortcuts. She touched the trees with her hands on both sides of the path; she was content. The trees opened and became smaller the closer she got to the city. She stopped on the top of a hill and observed the small wooden house on the left. This was the point where the city of Light started. She restarted her walk, until she reached the training center of the city, the only building constructed after the princess disappeared. The Kingdom had changed a great deal. Physically it looked the same, but the inhabitants did not radiate happiness and serenity, every second the evil forces took possession of one more lost soul. In a short time the city would be full of wanderers, from this moment on there was no way back. She had a good view from the height of the building. She lowered her gaze and saw how a girl with black hair entered. The young girl showed no emotion, she didn´t know how she felt and that awakened curiosity in Susan, who jumped from the roof and landed gently on a street corner. She entered the hall and hid.

Morgan entered into the room leaving Samantha´s letter on the desk without opening it. He had just sat down when the servant knocked on the door.

“The empress has summoned you,” he heard a low voice.

He sighed and got up again to attend this new call.

Chapter 11

I woke up confused. I opened my eyes
slightly and saw how the room went round in circles. I quickly closed them when I heard the door opening.

“Samantha
, wake up,” Gabriel said in a soft voice.

I didn´t want to open my eyes. A great uncertainty invaded me. Where was Eric? Was he alright or had he been hurt in the fight? Would he come back to look for me? Why was Gabriel not upset? All of a sudden I felt a pain as though I had been drowned out by the strike to the head.
There existed the possibility that I would never see Eric again, that they had murdered him and that Gabriel had kidnapped me to convert me into someone that I am not. A tear ran down my cheek. Guilt and sadness engulfed me.

Gabriel sat on the edge of the bed and spoke softly to me.

“I know that you are awake and you have to get up. You have to train hard today.”

I opened my eyes for the second time to find a different Gabriel. His expression was peaceful
and his eyes revealed his tiredness. And, something more, deception. I looked at him, I knew he wasn´t pretending. I sat up in the bed and continued to look at him as though I had just discovered something totally new. I didn´t know what to say. I just kept looking at him until he spoke again.

“I am very sorry about what happened to you last night, you shouldn´t have intervened.”

A fire ignited in my interior, crackling until it reached my throat.

“Are you crazy? You are telling me that I shouldn´t have intervened?” I said furiously as he looked at me heavily. Heat began to invade my body, “They were taking Eric
,“ I shouted, “I couldn´t just stay there with my arms crossed.”

My body burned in fury and impotence for being there instead of Eric. Soon I noticed how my hands changed shape as I pressed them against the sheet. Almost without realizing it, the sheets went on fire as well as my arms. The fire did not burn me, but it burned everything around me. Gabriel got up alarmed and went running to the bathroom. When he returned he sprinkled a jar full of water on me, until the fire was extinguished. I remained there breathless. He looked at me with his eyes wide open, impressed.

“Let´s go,” he said with a firmer voice. “We have no time to lose.”

I got up and put the training outfit on. I didn´t say another word until we finished breakfast.

“Eric is fine,” he said without looking at me, “don´t worry about him; the one thing you need to do now is train and learn.”

I looked at him disconcerted.

“Do you know where he is?”

“No.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“The person that took him and I have common interests. Nothing will happen to him.”

I did not want to speak anymore. The sadness had disappeared from within me, the anger too. At that moment I stopped feeling everything and I put myself into a bubble. I didn´t want to experience any sensations. We left the house and headed towards the great training hall. I told myself that I seemed like a zombie, without feelings, but I didn’t care, I kept walking until we entered the building.”

The same trainer from the previous day, whose name I couldn´t recall, greeted us with a gesture as we entered the weapons hall. He brought me what I thought were two daggers. Before starting with the sword he had taught me a concentration technique and he told me that I had to apply the same one.

“We tend to use swords. These beauties are called Sais, they are very sharp and for the majority of people very difficult to use,” he said moving the dagger he had in his hands. Try them and concentrate to see if you hit a marked spot. Remember that the wanderers will always be bigger than you and in occasions you will have to jump to hit them.

He gave me them and I felt how they molded to my hands. They were bigger than normal daggers, but smaller and lighter than a sword. They were silver, shining under the sunlight that flooded the hall and had etchings on the blades. Furthermore, on either side of the central blade there were small sharpened points that could
cause more injury with other deliveries of the main blade. I loved them and noticed how little by little a smile formed on my face. In that instant, I forgot about everything that I had done the day before with the sword and decided that I would not be brought down. I bet on fighting for what I wanted and nothing would get in my way. The bubble burst letting a giant grow inside of me.

I lifted my vision forward, decided, and moved away from the practice dummy. I turned my back on them and closed my eyes as the trainer and Kenneth had taught me
. I felt the weapon in my hands, feeling everything that surrounded me. I felt strength and power. I felt that I could do this. In an instant of absolute silence, I crossed the knives in front of my breast and took a deep breath. Wrapped in an infinite force I turned and threw them in the direction of the dummy. I felt adrenaline invade my whole body. When I opened my eyes I saw how they watched me surprised from the corner of the room, I looked at the dummy and saw that I had nailed the two knives into it. One had hit the neck, it was about to fall to the floor and the other was buried into the depth of the fictitious heart of the dummy. Content, I looked enthusiastically and thought that there was something else that I did well, other than ask questions.