Divided (73 page)

A child that Aela had yet to notice.  Yet, there he was,
sobbing and reaching desperately for his mother.  Juliet’s eyes were filled
with tears as she stared at her son.  “Lady, you’re going to sentence your
little boy to death?  Don’t forget your daughter is still inside, and we can
have a little fun with her before we get her to talk too.”  Juliet took in a
quick, horrified gasp of air. 

“How can I allow you to keep ruling the people when you care
nothing for them?  This revolution needs to happen!” she cried. 

The silence that transcended over the area was deafening—the
men stood, as if stunned, staring at the woman before them.  At last, though,
one of them stepped forward and slapped her viciously across the cheek.  “Very
well—then you have made your choice.  If logic cannot appeal to these rats,
then perhaps fear will!  Bring her and the boy!”

“No!  Aitken!”  Juliet reached desperately for her son, but
she was subsequently hit another time.

Alyx’s reaction was immediate.  She leapt up from where she
knelt, and she appeared to intend to jump off of the wall.  Leif moved forward
and grabbed her.  “Moth—”  His hand clamped around her mouth as she fought
against him.  She struggled for several moments, even as the men started
towards Dark District. 

“Stop—stop, Alyx!  Stop!  If we go there now, then we will
all be killed.  I have only a dagger, and the rest of us are weaponless.”  His
voice was a worried hiss.

“I will not let them kill my mother!”  Tears streamed down
Alyx’s dirty and bruised face.  Aela felt her heart twist and convulse
further.  They couldn’t let Juliet be hanged for this—and the child—the child
couldn’t hang!  No.  Aela would not let them do this!  “I won’t!”

Leif glanced back to Aela, and his eyes shone with resolve. 
“We need to get to the noose before they do.  We can take them by surprise. 
Come with us, Alyx!” he commanded.  The blond girl stared up at him, as if she
were debating his words.  With another glance towards her mother, she nodded. 
“We have to climb down.”  This was the only warning he gave before he began
pushing himself down the wall.

The other three followed as closely as they could.  For
someone who had just been beaten, Alyx seemed to be climbing extraordinarily
well.  She pushed her body downwards, with a steely determination that Aela had
to envy.  Then again, her mother’s life was on the line.  Aela knew she would
be an expert climber if Taeru’s life had depended upon it.  “Hurry,” Leif
instructed. “But be careful—if we get caught, we’ll never make it.”

They each reached the bottom, Katt reaching it last, but
much more quickly than she had climbed upwards.  Leif started off the moment
she was on the ground, though, moving back the way they had come.  This time,
the route was a little less roundabout.  They moved through as much open area
as was possible.  Though, there were still plenty of guards and nobles with
which to contend. 

They were forced to stick to roads that occasionally
dead-ended and left them with nowhere to go but back the way they came.  In
spite of everything, Leif remained collected, as though he had nothing to worry
about.  Aela, on the other hand, felt as though she might burst.  How could
Leif be so calm when a little boy was just moments away from being made a
public display of?  “We have to hurry, Leif,” Aela whimpered.

“We won’t be too late,” he said, with confidence that calmed
even Aela’s racing heart.  Katt seemed to trust him, as well.  Alyx, on the
other hand, was very near madness.  She even looked the part, with blond hair
stringy and frizzed.  Aela couldn’t blame her, but she did hope that Alyx could
keep herself in check long enough for them to reach the wall.  Time was running
out—and they weren’t moving as fast as they could have been.

Finally, twisting through a few more back ways, the wall
came into sight.  Aela was relieved to find that no guard had bothered to
notice the crumbled hole in it.  Then, though, as if some divine being had heard
her plea, and wanted intentionally to thwart her, a man appeared.  He
frowned—and though he didn’t look to be a guard, he stared at the hole. 
“Guards!” he called at once.

They were upon him at once, a group of five men—as was the
usual patrol.  They glanced at the man, and then they gawked at the hole as if
it was a personal offense.  “Did you do this?” one of them asked him. 

“No, you lout,” the man snapped.  “It was like this when I
arrived.  I can’t believe none of you’d seen this!  No wonder we’re having such
trouble with those peasants—imagine if one of the rats got in here!”  Aela’s
mind snapped instantly to violence.  Oh, she wished the guards hadn’t arrived
so quickly—she would have taken Leif’s dagger and run him through herself. 

He was a thin man, with white hair and a purple robe that
just looked gaudy.  Her teeth clenched as she watched the scene.  Leif had his
hand outstretched, indicating that they shouldn’t move just yet.  There were
too many armed guards for them to have been able to slip by unnoticed, but this
diversion was not what they needed.  She could see the way Leif’s jaw clenched,
as sweat beaded on his brow.  He was beginning to worry.

“Just wait,” Leif begged, though Aela didn’t think she was
the addressee.  “They’ll have to go get someone to repair it, we can…”

“No!  We can’t wait!  My mother and brother are in danger! 
No!”  Alyx finally snapped.  Her eyes squeezed shut, and she sprung forward. 
Leif tried to grab her, though his hand just missed, and she ran towards the group,
slamming one of the guards back against the wall—hard—before they knew what had
hit them.

Then, though, the other men reacted.  One of them slammed
the hilt of their sword towards Alyx, hitting her across the jaw.  She
staggered, and another of them grabbed her by her hair, slinging her to the
ground as though she were a doll. 
Help her, fool! 
Aela’s mind found
itself quite agitated with her paralysis.

One of the guards raised his sword over his head, preparing
to end Alyx’s life with a single strike, but the blade met Leif’s dagger
prematurely.  Then, garnering the shock to his advantage, Leif slammed his foot
into the man’s stomach, and then he threw his other arm back and cut the man’s
throat.  He’d just killed the guard—he had killed a Telandan guard!  Aela’s
body reacted instinctively, sprinting forward and managing to catch one of the
guards in the face with a well-timed punch.

“Bloody…”  One of the men slashed, and Katt managed to catch
his arm.  Aela staggered backwards, into a blow to the back of the head by one
of the other men.  Her head snapped up just in time to see Leif roll out of the
way of a stab.  She reached for the man’s foot, yanking it out from under him.

Leif used his downed  position to get a kick in to the
fallen guard’s head.  “Aela!” he shouted.  Aela jerked her head to the side,
just as a sword cut down and into her side.  She let out a cry.  “You are going
to regret that, you flea-bitten miscreant!”  Then, with another solid, strong
thrust, Leif ran the man through. 

“Get over here, you worthless men!  The gate is about to be
overrun!” another voice called from somewhere in the distance, though Aela’s
head was spinning with pain due to the gash in her side. 

In a whir of feet, the men were leaving.  Aela found herself
entirely confused, and then someone was lifting her up.  Panic ran through her
as she thought that it might be a guard, but as her orientation returned, she
realized it was Leif.  “Aela—oh, Aela… are you alright?  Aela, look at me… oh,
please, please…
please
, Aela.”  His voice so sounded unlike his own that
Aela questioned her orientation again.  So much raw emotion, unlike any Aela
had ever heard from Leif.

She blinked up into his eyes, though, certain that she was
indeed looking at Leif Firenz.  “Wh-where did they go?”

“There was a commotion at the gate.  I think they were
afraid of me… are you alright?  Can you move?”  She had never heard him sound
so anxious, and she squirmed with amusement at the newness of it. 

“Juliet!” she yelped. 

Apparently, Alyx had been knocked over, and had just
recently acquired her feet.  “We have to go!  We have to go!  They are going to
kill them!”

Leif, despite Aela’s recovery of her own feet, kept his arm
around her waist worriedly.  His eyes flashed dangerously as they regarded
Alyx.  “You could have gotten us all killed with that stunt!  Do you have any
idea how foolish that was?” he snarled.

“I-I… she’s my mother…”  Alyx choked out the words.  “I’m
sorry.  But… please…”

“Leif,” Aela whispered.  “I’m fine.  We have to go.  If
there was a commotion at the gate—that means we don’t have any time left.”

After a few moments of consideration, Leif nodded before
casting another warning glare at Alyx.  “No more stunts,” he snapped.  Alyx
nodded mutely, and they hurried through the hole in the wall.  Aela thought
curiously if the men that had abandoned them realized that a hole like this
could seriously compromise their defenses.

Alyx had sprinted ahead, and Leif was staying back this
time—mostly because he was too worried about keeping Aela on her feet.  Despite
her best efforts to inform, and show, him that she was alright—he insisted on
helping.  Katt was following Alyx closely, obviously trying to ensure that she
kept her promise of no more stunts.

When the crowd came into view, a thick sense of dread spread
into Aela’s abdomen.  She swallowed, realizing that there was an entirely new
feel to the crowded people here.  They were quiet, and most of them seemed a
little fearful.  “And now, let me remind you all—what aiding Cathalar will
bring,” a man that Aela could barely hear shouted.

They hurried forward, and Aela’s entire body felt as though
it was going to collapse in on itself.  The pain had nothing to do with her injuries,
and everything to do with the words that continued to echo in her mind.  No—he
was just a little boy.  She had seen him—he was only a child. 

Then, it came into view.  The gallows—the stage that was
designed with its post for public whippings and hanging square to end it all. 
The people were clustered around it, and a few of them were still screaming
out, though most of them were silent.  A little ways ahead, Aela could make out
Alyx trying to fight through the beginnings of the crowd. 

There they were, then, Juliet and her little son.  Juliet
was sobbing, and the rope was already tied around her neck.  Aela’s heart sank
in her chest.  She needed her bow—she needed anything.  But there wasn’t
anything that she could do.  She heard Leif’s intake of breath as they
watched.  The little boy was standing near to his mother, and Juliet was crying
out some desperate plea.  She was reaching for her son, and he was sobbing,
reaching back for her.  The two of them were separated by what looked like over
fifty men.  They were in the square, keeping people back with swords.  “I’m
sorry, ma’am—but you made your choice.”

With a shove, she and the child were shoved off the raised
platform.  “Aela!” Leif choked.  He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her
so that her head was pressed against his chest.  Even from so far away, she
could hear it—the snap seemed to ring through the air, echoing off the complete
silence that had overtaken Dark District.  She could hear the quiet crying of
the lone girl near the back of the crowd, and Aela knew who it was. 

“Let that be a lesson—that no one is above King Lavus’s
laws.  Any further insurrection will be met with this same fate.”  The guard’s
voice carried, though the snap was still lingering in Aela’s ears.

Aela let out a choked cry.  “Did they kill the boy?  Please,
please, say they didn’t kill the little boy, Leif,” she begged.

“We have to get out of here. ”

“Tell me!” she pulled back and stared into his eyes.  They
were glowing with agony as they looked into hers.

At last, he answered her. 

“I’m sorry, Aela.”

“And so he died, a sacrifice to his own selflessness.”

-A Hero’s Peace v.ii

Sickness had been clawing at Calis’s stomach, and he’d
finally spilled said sickness all along the floor of his room.  The garbage
that he’d forced down his throat all spilled right back on his bedroom floor in
front of him.  Though, to consider this place his bedroom would be to consider
the dungeon his home.  The dungeon.  Taeru.  Again, his body convulsed and he
dry heaved so violently that he was forced to his knees. 
Taeru…

Claudia had come back.  She had returned with her apology,
and a very teary expression of how wrong she’d been.  But that had been the end
of it.  She was still of Telandus—and that meant that she was a coward.  She
had been unable to help Taeru, or even Calis.  Tears spilled down his face,
though he was scarcely aware of them anymore. 

The few times he’d seen his father, Calis had resorted to begging. 
Pained, desperate pleas—just to be able to see Taeru.  He didn’t know what it
would accomplish, but he thought that if he could just see those blue eyes—that
he might be able to find out a way to save him.  But now, he sat uselessly,
stuck in his foul room, unable to do anything to stop the events unfolding all
around him.

The only object keeping him sane was the silvered amulet
that he still had in his pocket.  He pulled it out, bringing it to his chest
with another sob.  Here he was crying like a child, while Taeru was being
tortured for information that he would never give—oh, like information was
really the object anymore—they were just torturing Taeru for fun.  That was
what hurt worse than anything.  Taeru couldn’t have saved himself if he’d
wanted to.  Nothing would end the pain—and Taeru knew that as well as Calis.

Memories of the Cathalari prince flooded Calis’s mind, just
as they had through every shift since he’d been confined to his room.  Holding
that small body against his own, the softness of Taeru’s lips—everything about
him was like a light, trying to pull Calis from darkness.  But then, the idea
that he had allowed Taeru, the only thing or person he’d ever loved, to come to
such harm kept him there, in the darkness.  Oh, why couldn’t he stop this?  Why
couldn’t he find a way to get out of this wretched room?

A few moments later, he could hear some noise outside the
hallway.  The guards spoke quietly and respectfully, and Calis knew who was at
the door before he ever heard the voice.  Lavus.  Calis shoved the amulet back
into his pocket and slammed his fist hard into the stone floor.  A crack sprung
up, spreading all along the floor and under the debris.  The conversation was
brief, then the door came open, and Lavus appeared before him.

The king was wearing all of his nonsensical clothes.  His
cape, his ceremonious sword, his gaudy armor.  None of it was left unattended
as he stood before Calis.  Not wanting to be on his knees, Calis yanked himself
upwards, glaring into his father’s eyes with a black anger that had long since
consumed him.  “I am going to kill you,” Calis said, venom spilling into his
words.

Lavus chuckled brightly.  “Oh, Calis.  You think that—but I
know you’re stronger than this.  I wouldn’t keep you here if I didn’t know you
could move past this.  I can’t trust your brother, and I feel like this
experience will make you stronger—immune to these feelings.”  Calis jerked
forward, and Lavus drew his sword, the blade edging towards Calis’s throat. 
“Don’t be a fool.”

“Get out of here!” Calis shouted.  “I am not going to ever
understand you!  You are a monster!  A monster, and a fool who is dooming his
country, and do you know why?  Because you are too much of an spineless coward
to admit that you are being manipulated by an unseen force.  You know you are,
Father!”  The Magister.  Lee’s final gift to Calis had been the information that
the Magister had been orchestrating Lavus’s choices for a long time.

Drawing back his sword, Lavus slammed a fist into Calis’s
face.  The blow was painful, and it sent Calis slamming back into the wall. 
Calis’s teeth ground upon one another, and his eyes met his father’s once
again.  “Oh, stop yammering like a child,” his father snapped.  No, Lavus
wasn’t his father.  Lavus was a monster who should be killed.

“Let him be, Father.  There is no reason for this.  He’s
done nothing.”

“Oh, quite the contrary, Calis…”  The way his words were
purred, as if Lavus was about to inform Calis of one of the most devious
schemes he’d ever concocted, frightened Calis.  The prince’s heart clenched at
the tone.  What had happened? 

Taeru…

Lavus chuckled.  “Your advisor has been helpful in revealing
a bit of information that my guards and I have found ourselves wanting for,”
the man slurred the words, as though he was saying them in a drunken stupor. 
Though, his eyes flickered with amusement to say that he was very aware of his
actions.

Lee.  Lee had done this.  No—why would he?  Why would Lee
tell anything about Taeru that would hurt him?  Calis felt sick—sicker than he
already had.  He felt as though a knife had been stabbed so far into his back
that he’d never get it out.  “Wh-what?” Calis choked.  “What do you mean?”

“Your advisor understands what a traitor is, Calis, and
after what I’ve discovered—you ought to as well.  Really, hanging around with a
boy who considered himself a vigilante.  A boy who had injured several nobles
on many different occasions.  He wore a mask, you ought to have known he was a
coward.”  Calis’s eyes widened.  “What did they start calling him—the Phantom
Blade?”  The smirk on his father’s face was too much.

Calis shook his head, tears falling down his face without
filter.  He lunged forward, catching his father hard across the jaw.  Lavus’s
eyes widened at the blow, and then the sword came across Calis’s cheek, and
Lavus’s large body forced Calis against the back wall.  “You insolent boy!”
Lavus growled.  “I ought to kill you.  But, just because I can see the pain in
your eyes—I’m going to make you see this through.  I’ll let you see his corpse
after its hanging from a noose!”

Calis snarled and fought back against his father. 
Unfortunately, another punch to his cheek and Calis’s head was spinning.  “He
isn’t a coward!  He is far better a man than you or anyone in Telandus.  You
will pay for this,” Calis growled.  “I will stop you!”

“No, no, I don’t think you will,” Lavus said thoughtfully. 
“You know, I had them hanged.”  The words struck Calis like another blow. 
“That rat family that your little lover was living with.  I hung them, to make
an example.”

Pain choked him, and Calis felt himself sliding down the
wall.  Juliet, Alyx—Aitken?  That boy had only been eight.  Eight years old. 
And now he was dead—dead because Lavus was a madman.  Calis choked out a sob,
and then he shook his head.  “No, no, how could you do this?  They hadn’t done
anything!”

“I did it because it was needed.  People need to know that
they cannot cross Lavus Tsrali.  It is a lesson that you are going to learn,
eventually, son.”

“Don’t call me your son,” Calis growled.  He tried to get
off another punch, but Lavus managed to restrain him in time.  After all,
shackles made it incredibly difficult to get off acceptable punches. 
Oh,
Taeru… I’m so sorry.  This is all my fault… I love you—I’m so sorry.

Again, Calis’s father laughed cruelly at him.  He shoved his
son back against the wall, and Calis’s back slid down without much resistance. 
“Look at you, crying like some sort of a child.”

“Like the one you murdered?” Calis snapped.

A kick from Lavus’s thick boot busted Calis’s lip, and the
prince snarled, pulling his head back and away in reaction.  Blood seeped down
his chin from the newly acquired injury.  “Yes, like that one.  And also,”
Lavus pulled something from the seat of his pants, flinging it down to Calis,
“as far as being a coward is concerned, your little rat sure whimpers like
one.”

With shaking hands, and widened eyes, Calis moved to look at
the piece of cloth that had been flung at him.  A red rag—no, a white rag that
was covered in red—dried, splattered blood.  Calis shook his head.  “No… no,
stop this.  Stop hurting him!  Please—
please
!” Calis gasped.  He brought
the rag into his hands, staring at it in shock.

Lavus just offered another dark chuckle and then excused
himself from the room.

Lee, I will kill you.  I will kill you for letting this
happen—not just for letting this happen, but for making it worse.