Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen (22 page)

“Yes
,” the young Jack recognized overwhelmed by the interrogation.

“You can give me the letter and I will take it to the palace. I live there
,” she said.

“No thank you, I should do my job.”

Susan, tired of formalities stood firmly in front of him with her hands on her hips and she stopped smiling.

“Give me it, I don´t want to hurt you
,” she threatened.

The boy had sworn to protect it with his life and he was not going to allow anyone to take it from him. He started to run along the path, but a few seconds later the girl caught up with him. She took the letter from him and thrust a knife in the center of Jack´s back, without any mercy.

She left the young man’s body in the dirt whilst she followed her way towards the palace. Tired of walking, she vanished, appearing in her room hidden behind the library. A few minutes later, she smiled when she saw Morgan’s face of stupor as he came in the door.

“Can I know what it is you have here?” he reprimanded her in an accusing tone.

“I have just come home, don´t get so scandalous”.

“I had understood that the Council had retained you.”

“Yes, they had. The rooms weren´t so bad, but I didn´t want to spend the rest of my life living under the Council building. They locked me up, but they committed the error of giving me a room with windows.”

“What I am going to do with you Susan?” Morgan said defeated sinking into the sofa.

“Love me greatly,” she said giving him the letter. “I have read it and I have to admit that it doesn´t surprise me. But you should thank me that it didn´t fall into the wrong hands.”

Morgan, lifted an eyebrow, he opened it and started to read.

 
Dear empress, with this letter I wanted to inform you that there is a rumor of the start of a battle in our kingdom. A confrontation in the not too distant future could put in danger the lives of all of the inhabitants of the kingdom and of other dimensions. For this reason, we beg an urgent answer of how to act under this situation, hoping that they are only rumors that have motivated us to write this letter. We await anxiously your reply. Best regards

                                                                          
  Signed: the ministers of the Kingdom

Peter Jr. Smith    Marissa Jones    Eleonor White    Robert Shepard

“Thank you Susan, I know that your intentions are well meant, but you didn´t have to bother. The empress has gone.”

“What?”

“She left early this morning.”

“Where?”

“I don´t know, nor do I want to know. Without her it will be much easier to walk around the palace pretending that everything is fine.”

“How long until our dear Ian invades the palace?”

“Two nights.”

“Well, I think that I can go then. Don´t you think. I have been a great help robbing all the weapons and getting this letter, so I will be leaving.”

“It doesn´t make sense for you to leave, Susan. If everything turns out as Ian has planned in two days nothing
, nor anyone, will be alive on the face of the Earth. He will be the owner of all you know. And even so you want to go to the human dimension to see how the devastation flattens them.”

“Hey, I haven´t asked you explanations for why you help that monster, so let me do whatever I feel like and if I die, I will die happy.”

She started to walk towards the door when Morgan smiled and started to speak again.

“Happy? Have you ever been happy when your great love has not been near?” he said in theatrical manner.

Susan turned to look at him.

“Shut up.”

“Both of us know that you are still in love with Eric.”

“He doesn´t love me anymore, so shut up and let me go.”

She left, slamming the door. Morgan would have to wait for nighttime before contacting Ian and telling him about the letter, so he sat down to read peacefully on the sofa as they day passed.

His red cape waved amongst the trees. Despite his lack of care, everything had turned out fine. He had told Harri to meet him at Gaia´s house, that way he could see her once more before the battle. There was little time left to arrive when he noticed something different in the atmosphere. He hurried to arrive to the house. A few minutes later he saw Harri trying to pick up the disaster that had formed in the garden of the house.

“Harri, are you alright?”

“Yes, don´t worry. I don´t know, when I arrived everything was like this.”

“And Gaia? Have you seen her?”

The nuddle denied with his head and let the messenger into the house. Inside there was nothing out of place, except a sheet of paper full of ink that had spilt on the desk. He deduced that someone had taken her.

“They have kidnapped her; I have to search for her.”

“No
,” Harri imposed. “You know you cannot go. At this moment our best chance is the surprise factor, you cannot just show up.”

The messenger felt defeated in a chair.

“Why have they taken her?” Harri asked.

“She is a very powerful witch, I am sure that Ian wanted her to make some sort of spell for him.”

“Have you delivered the daggers?” Harri said looking at him without knowing how to comfort him.

“Yes, but I was almost discovered. I stood paralyzed when I saw her and returned to observe her a little more. So much time has gone by since I started to search for her. I couldn´t even say anything. That is what hurt me most.”

“Don´t worry, little time is left and you know it. In a few hours you will be able to hug them as you never have.”

“Thank you for your comfort, you are a great friend.”

He got up and left the house decided.

“I must prepare the things for the
battle; I will not allow them to touch them.”

“I know
,” Harri responded in an understanding tone.

“Goodbye my friend and thank you.”

The messenger left the nuddle alone again. Harri knew that he had done him a great favor allowing him to deliver the daggers himself. He felt proud to be a friend of a man so faithful to himself and with such bravery and courage. But, as in some occasions, he was starting to fear for his life, because he knew that this time neither nothing, nor anyone was going to get between him and his objective.

Leaving his thoughts aside, Harri finished tidying the garden of the woman who one day had saved his life and he hurried to arrive to the secret entrance of the sub terrain city. Soon, night would fall and the forest would no longer be a safe place. Furthermore they had told him that the weapons of the Kingdom of the Moon had disappeared, so the blacksmiths were fabricating swords and daggers, knives and spears, without resting.

He was nearly at the entrance when he heard a strange noise. He stopped dry and hid as quickly as he could. Harri, scared, looked all around trying to decipher where the sound came from. Soon, with his heart accelerated, he saw how two wanderers came towards him. They walked slowly and in a paused manner, as though their bodies were heavy. They didn´t have faces and their bodies were grey and ugly. Harri closed his eyes seeing that they were getting closing, awaiting a certain death. However he started to hear part of an already started conversation.

“But, if we don´t find that messenger, our master will kill us. I don´t want to die
,” the creature lamented as he walked.

“If we don´t find him we can tell him that he is dead
,” responded the other one in an audacious tone.

His companion looked at him in wonder for such an ingenious comment until he smacked him in the head and he realized the evident.

“He will asked us for the body, idiot,” he assured him looking at him as they passed by.

When Harri no longer heard them and was sure that they were far away he left his hiding place amongst the bushes, running towards the cave
´s entrance. He stopped in front of a small mountain. With rapid sweaty hands he brushed the branches aside that covered the small carved stone door and pushed it with all his might. Once inside he pushed it again and sealed the entrance so that the city continued to be secure. He couldn´t let his friend know that they were searching for him, he was sure that they would kill him before he could find him, the only thing he could do was hope that he managed to take care of himself as he always had and continue to make weapons for the great battle.

Some locks of hair stood out from the sky blue colored cape, full of difficult golden embroidery. She looked behind again to make sure that nobody followed her. She had been walking for half a day. Her plan was not turning out to be so bad, she had managed to cross the city unperceived and in a few moments she would be in the forest.  She was following an old pathway, by its aspect it was used very little. She noticed that as the day passed her vitality became stronger, little by little. For the first time in a long time she was doing something for herself. She was more concentrated in not being detected than in thinking about her daughters and that also benefited her youth. She liked the idea that soon it would all be over more and more as every minute passed.

The afternoon was starting to fall when she made out a house in the distance. She was alone in the middle of the forest. She didn´t know why it seemed so familiar to her. She walked a little slower to observe closely and stopped before the entrance. She heard voices inside. All of a sudden she remembered Kenneth and she had imagined all the possible occasions that she could to ask for his forgiveness. She couldn’t die without first telling him how much she loved him and how much she had missed him. She took one step towards the door of the porch when the door opened. Before her appeared a young girl, she hadn´t seen her. She was searching for something when she noticed her. Samantha didn´t know who she was but Venice could help smiling when she saw in her the eyes of her father.

In that instant everything changed, her death had no meaning, however the life of her daughter did.

“Do you need something?” Samantha asked in a friendly tone.

Before Venice could answer, Kenneth came out and saw his old friend standing there. After a small smile reflected on her face, Venice fainted. Kenneth ran to her aid, picking her up and taking her inside. Samantha still didn´t know what had happened. She had barely seen the woman’s face.

Francis helped Kenneth to put her carefully on the large armchair, as Gabriel went to the kitchen to get water. They were all very organized, meanwhile Samantha watched them there, standing still in the middle of the lounge. Seeing that nobody said anything she asked a question in a loud voice.

“Can I know what is going on?”

They all looked at her with uncertain expressions until Kenneth dared to speak after what seemed like some eternal seconds.

“Sam, she is your mother.”

Samantha opened her mouth in astonishment and sat down on the sofa to be able to cope with such an overwhelming sensation.

“Phoenix, are you crazy? You cannot make that spell, I don´t agree with it. I am going to fight and you have helped us all you can.”

“Listen well to me; I have
been around many more years than you. Due to this, my experience in what is about to happen is greater, so you will not tell me what I have to do,” Phoenix answered and gave for finished the conversation.

Eric,
fed up of trying to convince him, let himself fall onto one of the chairs beside Phoenix´s desk. He had been arguing for hours about the spell that Phoenix had found in his old golden book.

             
“I still believe that it won´t work,” Eric repeated.

             
Phoenix moved closer and sat beside him to see his face properly.

             
“It is my decision. You cannot save the whole world. It is much easier for you to save yourself and the others. I have lived too much and I hadn´t seen it until a little while ago.”

Eric, defeated, nodded as he covered his face with his hands. He felt tired.

“You must be hungry, today we haven´t done anything but search and read. Let´s eat something.”