Darlings (22 page)

A guard with a missing arm kicked the girl
hard. “Damnit!” he yelled. Captain’s not gonna be happy! Help me
get rid of this one,” he said to another guard. The line started
moving as Gwen cranked her neck to see the guards drag the
immortals thin body away. They walked in silence as they approached
the arena. The doors opened and they took their posts. Lily and
Gwen made their way to gather their rocks. They grabbed a bag and a
scraping knife from a rickety old wooden table and began their
final days work.

Lily tossed a shiny yellow stone to Gwen.
“Work on these. They’re the easiest to scrape.” Gwen wondered what
all the different colored rocks were for. She hadn’t ever seen so
many beautiful stones. The pile was massive, at least twelve feet
tall. Lily sat on the dirt. She tossed her silky black hair and
began scraping. Remembering the note, Gwen slipped quietly behind
the massive pile, where she saw Ry. He was observing the rocks
looking nervously around.

“Gwen,” he whispered. “You came.” 

She nodded. Getting directly to the point of
their encounter, she asked, “What can you…help me with?” 

He moved closer looking around to make sure
the guards were occupied. Indeed they were. The closest guard had
his beady eyes closed, sleeping on the job and the next closest
were yards away engaging in heated conversation.  

“It can’t be coincidence you’re here now. If
you’re planning something…I believe I can help,” he looked torn on
whether to reveal his secret. Sighing, he pushed his glasses up on
his nose. 

“I’m listening,” Gwen said
anxiously. 

“I…I’m not an immortal,” he whispered
quickly. 

“You’re not an immortal? Why do you have a
collar then?” she asked skeptically. 

“They think I am. I’m an…alchemist, from the
middle world. Florida. I traveled back with an immortal and they
were apprehended. They kill alchemists here, or worse, force them
to serve them for life, doing terrible things,” he said shakily. “I
couldn’t let that happen, I have too much valuable knowledge that I
have to get to the king.” Pete.

“How’d they not know? You don’t have a
Mantican.” 

“I was taken on my way back to the middle
world. We were on our way to find Pete and help the rebellion. I
was with a group of immortals and other alchemists. I had to think
fast and make up a story. They think my Mantican perished of old
age and I was in the process of getting another,” he
admitted. 

Gwen processed the information. It was an
intelligent move. “How long have you been here?” 

“Two years. Which poses a problem. I am
aging. I’m twenty two. They’re bound to know soon which is why I am
risking everything to offer you my services.” 

Gwen studied his face. The boy seemed
sincere. “What can you do for me?” she asked bluntly.

“I work with a specialized covert group of
immortals. I handle advanced abilities. I’m rather an ability
expert. I’m sure I know a thing or two about your ability that you
may not know? I also have…stocked up on these beauties here. These
are almost every powder in existence. Any alchemists dream. I
could-”

“Wait.” Gwen interrupted. “You’re an ability
expert?” 

He nodded. 

The stars had aligned. Gwen hastily asked,
“Do you work with borrowers, possibly…takers?” 

Rynnal looked around again. “I do. Why do you
ask this?” He suddenly looked concerned. 

“I. I’m a borrower…possible a taker,” Gwen
confessed, holding her breath. 

His eyes widened. “You couldn’t be. Do they
know?” Ry inched closer.

Gwen shook her head. “No.” 

He moved even closer to Gwen. “Does anyone
know?” 

“Just Lily,” she answered. 

“You tell no one else. Do you hear me? You
tell no one. Are you sure?” He began to look frantic. 

“Yes. What’s wrong?” Gwen picked up a pink
stone and pretended to examine it. 

“They will keep you. Use you…hurt you. Don’t
tell another soul.” He paused. Have you used it?” 

“My ability? Yes…it…wasn’t good.” 

Nodding as if he already knew, Ry said, “Tell
me exactly what happened.” 

Gwen filled Rynnal in on the events at the
gazebo and her plan for that night. He listened intently, eyes as
big as saucers. 

“Oh. My. Goodness,” the awkward boy stated.
Running his long hands through his hair he rambled. “It could be
but here? Yes, yes I suppose.” 

“What?” she nervously hissed.

  “I think you’re the one we’ve been
looking for. You don’t understand. Gwen your gift is
unparalleled.” 

“We?” Gwen asked with hast. 

“Yes, we. We, our group, have some of the
rarest abilities in all the worlds. We have one borrower, though,
nothing compared to your potential. We had a taker…once.” His voice
trailed off. “When we get out, you have to come with us. Become a
part of the Elite. We’re independent of any kind of rule Gwen.
We’re…free. We always use our abilities for good, and serve to
protect the weak of all kind. We will overcome them.” He nodded to
the guard pirate picking his teeth by the door. “You were born for
this.” 

She entertained the idea. Freedom from all
worlds? Could it be true? Andrew popped into her mind. His dream
was freedom. Equality. She wondered if the immortals in the Elite
treated their Manticans as equals. There would be time for that,
she reminded herself. Now she had to focus on the dangerous task
facing her tonight. 

“Thank you for the invitation, and I promise
I’ll think about it but, can you help me tonight? Can you help me
control it?” she begged. 

Ry raised his hands in question. “In theory
yes, I can give you the tools to clear your mind and tell you where
to focus the energy. What mental blocks to put up and such, but…in
the end princess, it all comes down to you. You have to be strong
enough to move the energy. To put up the blocks. To let it flow
like liquid through the cracks. To allow it to go through slowly
and keep it there. Then… you have to be able to push it back like
liquid lead through a straw the size of a pinhole.” 

He knew what he was talking about. Gwen could
feel it. “Tonight then? At our bunk as soon as the lights go off,”
she said. 

Lily appeared behind Gwen. Swearing in a
foreign tongue, she demanded, “What are you two doing? Trying to
get us beat? With the mood they’re in today I’d say we’d better cut
the small talk and get back to work.”

Ry picked up a jagged ruby red rock and
turned to leave. “Tonight.” He whispered just before he
disappeared. 

“Are you crazy?” Lily angrily hissed, her
almond chocolate eyes full of intensity. You told him about
tonight?” More foreign cursing.

“Lily, no. He’s…going to help us.” Gwen
explained Rynnal’s role to Lily. She told her the extent of their
short conversation.  She listened closely as they monotonously
worked.  

“I never would have guessed. Odd Rynnal. Odd
Rynnal’s an alchemist. Huh.” Lily shrugged. “Well you still should
have told me,” She snipped, her hands moving swiftly, puffy lips
pursed.

The horn sounded and the prisoners stopped
what they were doing immediately. Brown dust rose all around them
from the abrupt stopping of the laborers feet. A guard walked
slowly out of a steel door on the right to the almost finished
podium. It was made of some sort of gray stones about ten feet
high. Stairs were all around it, reminding her of some sort of
temple. A large huge ring made of steel sat upright in the middle.
Gwen wondered if they would set it on fire and order prisoners to
jump through like some kind of sick circus. 

“What’s the circle for?” Gwen asked Lily
quickly. 

“I don’t know. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Lily answered eyeing Tiger who was standing at attention beside her
friend. 

The guard shuffled slowly up the podium. He
was short with holes for a nose and a chunk missing from his cheek,
revealing his pointed teeth. 

Once at the top, he cleared his throat.
“Princess Darling. Get your royal ass up here,” He grunted. Looking
around he searched the crowd. Gwen’s heart stopped. She looked to
Lily for guidance, but was instead met with a look of sheer terror
through Lily’s usually tough exterior. “Princess!” he growled
again. She looked around as prisoners skeptically parted, making a
clear path for Gwen to make her grand walk to the suspicious
podium. Inhaling deeply, Gwen took the first step. Put one foot in
front of the other she told herself, attempting to avoid eye
contact with the other inmates. Their eyes pierced her like knives.
Whispers spread through the crowd. They bounced off the lips of the
walking skeletons like tiny bowling balls on sinister trampolines.
Oh no. Poor girl. What will they do to her? She put on her game
face she made her way to the podium, chin held high. Climbing the
stairs, she braced herself for whatever was to come. The guard
grabbed her slender arm so hard she feared it was broken. He yanked
her directly in front of the large circle. The pirate plugged a
remote into the back of Gwen’s green collar. 

“We’re going to find out what your ability is
darling,” he smiled as he snapped a heavy chain around her ivory
leg. Gwen examined the restraint. It was connected to the cement
stage by a large hook. She stood strong knowing there was no
getting free. Panic took over her trembling body. They couldn’t
know. Closing her eyes she prayed, whatever happens I truly am
sorry lord, please don’t cast me out now. 

The pirate picked up a bag of powder and
threw it into the center of the circle. Nothing happened right
away, but soon a dark cloud began to emerge. It swirled, slowly
building momentum inside the steel ring. The size of her hand and
looked like a ball of gloomy gray cotton candy it spun. Gwen had
the urge to reach out and touch the small thunderstorm like cloud
but decided against it. The cloud swirled faster and faster as it
began to howl and grow. It transformed from a freak show circus
treat into the top view of a full on tornado. A tornado, Gwen
thought. They were going to throw her into the depths of a man-made
tornado. 

Wind blew hard as Gwen struggled to keep her
balance. The crowd shielded their faces from the flying dust and
debris, but still refused to look away. She soon noticed the
Captain pushing his way up the stairs against the wind. He moved
slowly and deliberately, as if he were trudging through thick mud.
He reached the top just in time to see the face appear. A fairies
face; white and pointed. She had black hair and an ankle length
midnight dress, lacey straps draped over her protruding shoulders.
Opening her large mouth, a dull scream escaped her throat. She
threw her head back as her body began to shake in a seizure like
manor. Gwen was scared. So scared. Suddenly, like a fuzzy
television, the ring began to give out. It zapped and flickered
until the murky whirlwind disappeared. Just that like it was gone.
All was still. 

“Schmeedie” the captain said calmly, hands
placed behind his back. “What seems to be the problem?” 

Hobbling over to the ring, the white haired
guard threw more powder into the ring. Still nothing. He stood at
bent attention, facing his commander.

“Out of power sir,” he said
wearily. 

Jamison Hookner nodded and said, “Drain a
few…completely.” “Aye aye.” The guard responded motioning to his
comrades in the crowd to follow orders and select a few immortals
to have the life literally sucked out of them to power the
ring. 

“Wait!” Gwen screamed. The captain stopped
just before reaching the doors. “Take my blood. It’s royal. It will
surely be enough to power your ring,” she said without thinking.
Just before reaching the doors, the captain turned and
smiled. 

“How noble of you Gwendylon. Sadly your blood
won’t power my ring. It needs cold hard energy. Energy I can only
get from the abilities of you immortals.” Making piercing eye
contact with Gwen, he walked away, knowing the agony she would
suffer would be far greater than any punishment he could have given
her for speaking out. She would have yet more blood on her hands.
Gwen pulled at her restraint as the guards began making their way
through the crowd. They searched faces as they began their hunt.
“Eenie meanie miney mo,” a tall, burley pirate sang as he looked
through the crowd. His beard was black and his face was green in
spots.

 “Which ones have got to go?” another
slim pirate with a pointed chin and scared mouth finished. They
laughed sinful laughs as they pranced through the onlookers. Gwen’s
stomach dropped as they made their way to Lily. No, she’s not
immortal, Gwen reminded herself; she’s safe. Tiger too. They’re
safe. The pirate continued on his path toward Lily and Tiger.
Behind Tiger stood a woman with bouncing red curls and a missing
arm. She held tightly to her daughter…Marriam. The tall pirate
grabbed the red head by her surviving arm. 

“Yes. You,” he said. “Almost worthless, this
one here is with one arm.” 

“No!” the little girl screamed. “Mama!” she
clung to her mother’s canvas skirt. “Marriam, go to Nima. Go on
dear. It’s ok.” The little girl squished her face and held on
tighter. Looking to the pirate she shook her arm free and hugged
her daughter. She looked into her eyes and whispered, “I love you
Mimi.” The woman smiled as she cried. “We’ll be together again.”
Refusing to let go, the pirate kicked the girl to the ground and
pulled her mother to her faltering feet. 

“Go on, you brat! If you were old enough I’d
take you too!” he shouted ushering the screaming woman out the
doors. Another woman, who Gwen assumed was Nima, took the sobbing
girl in her arms and buried her face into her chest. 

Hot tears stung her face. Something, she had
to do something. She couldn’t let them down. Not again. But she was
helpless. 

Suddenly, a laugh resounded throughout the
crowd. A hysterical laugh. Where was it coming from? A boy. A tall
blond boy with crooked glasses taped together and awkwardly large
hands tucked into his pockets…Rynnal. “You think this is funny, do
you, boy?” the pirate hollered, examining Ry’s face. “Look at these
things,” the pirate said throwing his makeshift spectacles to the
ground.