Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen (18 page)

“I have brought something for you,” she continued without looking at Eric.

Phoenix observed the silver feather in the white hands of the girl and dared to take it.

“Did you take it from him?”

“He gave it to me, as a promise, but I don´t believe him. What I do believe is that he is losing it.”

“Oh, thank you so much, I can do a thousand things with this, I will be right back.”

He continued muttering in the corridors as he went off. He was more than happy. Elizabeth turned her back to Eric, she didn´t want to look him in the eyes. She was ashamed
of all that she had done to make her sister and him suffer.

“How can it be possible that you are here, helping us? Was it not your intention to destroy us?” Erick said angrily, getting up from his chair as he saw how Elizabeth bowed her head. “Why have you punished her in this way? She has suffered greatly because of you. You have made her have more questions than answers with your little numbers and mental games. You have harmed her
.” With every word he got closer to her without seeing the minimum movement from her. “Look at me,” he said upset.

After a few seconds, Elizabeth turned round letting him see her face full of tears of repentance.

Eric, confused, relaxed and backed off so that the girl could sit on one of the chairs in the room.

“I am so sorry
,” she said with a weak voice, “I don´t even know how to apologize.”

She broke down into tears and threw herself on the table full of plans. Her sobs broke Eric’s state of paralysis and he sat beside her to console her. He did not know what to do. She calmed down little by little until she could speak again.

“To begin with I did it happily. The first times I got into her dreams and into her mind. I was wrong. Ian has been with me since I was little; he brought me up and educated me to hate everyone who was not like him or his followers. But I was wrong. The night I met Gabriel I knew I should have stopped but didn´t know how to. I decided to distance myself from all good people; I thought that if I obeyed Ian then nothing would happen, until I decided to follow my instinct and flee from him. However, I cannot do it until the battle. That is why I came here, in search of help. I want to help you,” for the first time she looked at Eric in the eyes and he could see the broken heart of a girl in her eyes. He saw her thoughts, everything was true.

“If you want to flee, why have you continued to get into Samantha´s mind?”

“Ian makes me, that´s why. I cannot trick him. He knows when I lie to him.”

Eric stroked her hazel brown hair. He got up again, but this time to look for the wizard. He moved towards the corridor, he looked up and down slowly without getting any clues as to the whereabouts of Phoenix. He entered the room again and sat beside a calmer Elizabeth.

“Well, what is the plan?”

“Great question my dear and adorable Elizabeth
,” exclaimed Phoenix appearing from nowhere. “I have the answer here,” he smiled pointing towards a small bottle he held in his hands. “This is the elixir of death.”

“What have you made now?” Eric asked curiously yet fearfully.

“This is the culmination of all my work, of all my life. I could die right now in the sea of contentment,” he determined smiling from ear to ear. His outfit was dirty and his hair messy, but such was his joy that he didn´t care. “Thanks to Ian´s feather I have been able to prepare the deathly elixir for the wanderers and the Fallen Ones. You see, having a feather of his, I have been able to separate his DNA from the blood that was still fresh on it. In his blood his badness is concentrated, it is his essence.” He was so excited that he couldn´t stop moving around the room. “Thanks to a very powerful spell that I have been formulating for many years now, I have managed to magnify the evil in this drop of blood and that way, anyone who touches the liquid or drinks it will die in the act.”

“That is dangerous for us, imagine what Ian would do if he had it in his hands
,” Eric observed.

“I know but he doesn´t know it exists. We play with vantage.”

Eric continued not to be convinced, but he didn´t say anything.

“We have you and the bottle that I offered to Elizabeth to stop him before he talks the elixir. If he dies, the wanderers will with him. Last night I cast a spell so that they were connected.”

Elizabeth and Eric looked at each other not knowing what to say. It seemed that Phoenix had everything clear. They would let him map out the plan.

Chapter
13

We were entering into the porch of the Kenneth´s house when Francis appeared in front of me.

“Francis? What are you doing here? Why did you leave? You didn´t even help us, Samantha could have been hurt.”

I could tell that Gabriel was angry.

“Everything is fine Gabriel, let him explain.”

“Come on in.”

They opened the door and I could see Kenneth´s lounge was more furnished than the last time I had been there. It was appealing and peaceful. I went to the sofas and sat down, the same as the other time, in front of the chimney. Gabriel remained standing as Francis excused himself to him.

“Samantha, thank you for coming, we have to tell you some things about your mother. You cannot go to see her tonight.”

“How to you know that I would go today?”

“I am a wizard and foresee things, remember?” he smiled in a friendly manner.

“I have come because I have many doubts unresolved. And I believe that you are the best one to answer that.”

“Hey, can I call you Sam?”

“Of course,” she answered surprised, that diminutive hadn´t occurred to me.

“Look Sam, you should be very careful, you shouldn´t go to the palace. If the empress doesn´t want you to leave, you will never leave. She has lots of people under her command. Well, I think that I mentioned to you already, Morgan is her new assistant and I believe that he is an ally of Ian.”

“Who is Ian?”

“The Fallen One who kidnapped your sister.”

“My heart stopped listening to this. I felt I couldn´t breathe. I rested my hands on the coarse cloth of the armchair and close my eyes.”

“They didn´t kidnap us together?” I was able to say even with my eyes closed.

“There is no doubt that he tried. But he didn´t manage to grab you in time; however, your sister wasn´t so lucky.”

I didn´t understand why
, but the fact that they had meant to kidnap us together had a special value to me.

“You had just been born. And before I tell you anything else, I want you to forgive me because I let him escape. I feared for my life and I let him go.”

Silence was felt in the room until I looked at him and hugged him.

“It wasn´t your fault, if you had impeded him then he would have possibly killed you. If Ian didn´t kidnap me then who did?” I reflected indecisive.

“Your mother was awake that night. She did the first thing that occurred to her and they tricked her. You disappeared from within her arms and I couldn´t do anything either. That is why your mother exiled me from the palace,” he continued painfully, “And after that she changed. She became cold and dark. She lost all her love and affection for others. However, I know why that happened.”

<That night I saw how Ian entered into her room and gave her a liquid as silvery as his body while she slept. She changed; I saw how her essence was consumed. Venice had left and I don´t know if she will return. That is why her reign has gone in decadence. The laws are absurd and although Ian doesn´t control her completely, I think that this Saturday she will help him to enter the Kingdom.>>

“This Saturday! We have little time
,” I heard Gabriel say from afar.

My mind was in another place, until I found what I wanted.

“I want you to teach me to use the rest of my powers now,” I said without thinking, but I was very sure that that was what I really wanted. I would go from training my body to training my mind.

“You are crazy! You cannot absorb so much information in such a short time
,” Francis was scandalized.

“I think that I can and I want to do it.”

I got up decided, I left to the forest and I sat where I had been two nights ago, beside a long path of fallen trees.

Everyone followed me and they looked at me without saying anything, until Kenneth sat in front of me.

“Well they are two-fold; I saw how you used fire this morning. Although it was somewhat involuntary it is normal that it showed up, your channels are now open to receive all the strength and energy of the elements.”

I opened my eyes, it had gone dark. I had been in a trance for hours like the other time. Kenneth smiled at me.
I looked around, I didn´t see either Gabriel or Francis but I could hear them inside the house speaking. I felt different; a part of me had changed. I looked at my hands, their aspect was the same but they felt different. Kenneth helped me to get up and we went into the house. After a pleasant supper in the small kitchen we returned to the lounge.

             
“What did you start to tell me before about Morgan?” I said calmly to Kenneth.

             
“He works for Ian, as does the girl that stole the weapons today from the training hall works for Morgan.”

             
“Who is that girl?”

             
“She is called Susan,” responded Francis, “Eric will be able to tell you more about her.”

             
“Do you know where he is?” I looked at Kenneth in a pleading manner.

“I am sorry, I didn´t see anything.”

I bowed my head and looked at my hands, feeling lost. I didn´t know how to find her. I only needed to concentrate on my training to prepare me and help him in the battle or whatever it was that was about to happen. I missed him greatly. As I thought about him a question sprung to mind that I wanted to answer urgently.

“Kenn
eth, I need to ask you about something. I am sure that you will know about it.”

“What worries you?”

“Why do Eric and I feel such a strong attraction for one another? Well, not just attraction, it is love.” My cheeks were burning “I know that it is love and that it is mutual.”

“Of course it is mutual; one only needs to see you
both.”

“So, how has it happened so quickly? I suppose that this is not normal. It is a union so strong that I cannot even explain it.”

“I understand what you are saying Sam, I feel the same way about Francis.”

That comment left me surprised, but I didn´t say anything.

“You see, in our world, in this dimension nothing is normal. Why would it be in love?

“I don´t know
,” I replied sincerely.

“An old legend, prior to our existence, says tha
t true love is only found once in a lifetime and that when it does it shines brightly. Every mortal has a love that they share with their other life, to form an unbreakable link. You know, love has its mysteries.”

A smile forme
d on my lips and happiness flooded my body when I heard these words. But it left quicker than I would have liked.

“If that is so, if Eric and I love each other in this way, why does he not want anyone to know? What does he wish to protect me from? Why does he not want me to go to see my mother?
”

“Oh, my dear child
,” Francis hugged me with his voice dulled. “He has a strong motive why he does not want you to enter into the palace. Your mother over the years has put in place diverse laws, many of them without reason. One of them is that no man could get close to you before taking you to her, that they could not look at you nor touch you, that they could not love you. If they did without her consent they would be punished, by death.”

My world faded. For a moment, I knew not where nor who I was. I could not contemplate the death of the person I loved most. That is why he had been so distant from the start. He tried to resist, but our love was so much bigger than that.

I woke up to reality instantly. The three men were discussing, it seemed like Gabriel didn´t know that law wither. He was asking what would happen with Elizabeth. The empress only asked about one of her daughters and nobody knew why. I only wanted to sleep and not wake up until knowing that Eric was beside me. I just wanted to see him.

“Kenneth, can I sleep here?”

I caught him unprepared but he quickly knew how to react.