Marysvale (43 page)

She was physically much stronger than I
would have given her credit for.

Hannah smiled a feeble smile and her
mind filled with the vision of Jane, her father, and me in their
kitchen. The vision replayed back in my mind from her perspective.
I could see and hear myself clearly, talking to her.

“
Hannah,” I said. “Sometimes
simply knowing information puts you in dangerous
positions.”

She sighed, and I continued, “It may
force you to say or do something you’d rather not, and it can be
used against you and those you love.”

I heard her voice reply, “I understand.
Still, I think I’m perfectly capable of dealing with it just as
well as you are. And I’m tired of people deciding what they think
is best for me. I can choose for myself.”

“
Yes, but freedom to make
your own choices doesn’t make you free from the
consequences.”

The vision blurred a bit as she rolled
her eyes. “Are you going to tell me or just preach me to death?”
Then she softened, “You told me to trust you and I do. Now it’s
time you put some trust in me. I want to help if I can and I won’t
betray anything. I promise to do the right thing should the time
ever come.”

The memory closed, and again I was
looking at her battered face.

In a whisper, she said proudly, “I kept
my word. I didn’t tell them anything.”

Tears gushed from my eyes and rolled
down my face. I smiled back at her and whispered, “I never doubted
that you would.”

She looked pleased, and then closed her
eyes. I brushed the hair from her face and gently laid her head
back on the floor.

“
How very touching,” sneered
Lyman. “But Jane told us everything she knows. She couldn’t wait to
talk once I was finished with her sister.”

I noticed the jewel-encrusted dagger
sheathed on his belt. The hilt was covered in blood.

“
Now,” said Lord Wright. “We
want to hear it from you. What else have you
remembered?”

“
I told you everything.
There isn’t much more,” I said meekly.

“
But there is something. Is
there not? And remember, we still have one sister to go if you
refuse to cooperate.”

“
No, don’t,” I pleaded.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“
That is better,” he purred.
Then, gesturing toward the massive Brean, said, “Now let us begin
with what you know about our leader, Naehume.”

My mouth dropped as I looked at the
hulking monster before me. His beady, red eyes stared at me,
unblinking.

Wright, missing nothing, said, “Ah, I
see that Naehume is not as well known to you as you would have us
believe.”

“
No,” I stammered. “I just
heard the name and assumed that he was your leader. I didn’t know
he was a Brean.”

“
And how did you come to
hear his name?”

“
In the forest a long time
ago, when I was a child. I saw some villagers doing something to a
Brean.”

“
What did you see?” he asked
with increased interest.

I described the scene of chanting
around the Brean. “I thought they were going to curse it or make it
a sacrifice…” I looked at Lord Wright with sudden understanding and
alarm.

He simply smiled.

“
The Brean was Naehume,” I
said in astonishment. “You were there, too. You weren’t hurting
him…you were worshiping him.”

“
Guilty as charged,” he
crowed.

“
But why?” I asked
incredulously.

“
Why? For power, of course.
It was the idea of our esteemed leader which made all of this
possible. How could I turn such a gift away? I was not going to
live like the average fool, and we never would have taken Marysvale
without him.”

“
But what does he get out of
it?”

He laughed. “The same thing we get:
opulence. No longer do they have to live like common animals and
forage the woods for food.” He paused and then pressed, “What else
do you remember?”

“
I remember the murder of my
mother,” I said, through clenched teeth, while glaring at the ugly
Brean before me.

“
Oh, we already know all
about that. It was your father who saved you and gave Naehume his
scar.”

“
Why?” I cried angrily. “Why
did my mother have to die?”

“
My, my; temper, temper,” he
said patronizingly. Then, with a hard edge to his voice, he said,
“I think it would be imprudent of you to forget the situation you
find yourself in and, more importantly, that of your
friends.”

Hatred boiled inside of me. However
despite the anger, I forced myself to calm down.

“
Why did she have to die?” I
asked again, more placidly.

“
You were all supposed to
die: your mother, your father, and especially, you. It would have
been a risk beyond foolish to leave you alive. You might have
exposed our plans.” He thought for a moment, “Is that everything
you remember?”

“
That’s all.”

“
Very well,” he said. “And
did you tell anyone else?”

“
No.”

“
Are you sure?” he asked
skeptically.

“
Yes. I promised a man…” I
stopped, as another realization came to me. “It was you! You were
the man in the forest!
You
charged me to keep it a
secret.”

He smiled a cold, weak smile. “So, did
you keep that promise? You told no one?”

“
Only Jane; but that was
just here, on our way to Marysvale. I didn’t remember anything
before then. In fact, I don’t remember anything of my childhood
before my mother died. Only bits came back to me when I started
seeing familiar people and surroundings.”

“
See how easily it all comes
out, once you decide to cooperate?”

Naehume said something; but I was too
astonished by his deep, animal, but strangely human-like voice,
that I missed what he said.

I looked at him dumbly.

“
He asked,” snapped Lyman
irritably, “if you remember anything else about that
day?”

I shook my head.

Naehume said something more in that
low, rumbling voice that sounded like, “Come.” It must have been,
because Lord Wright followed. So did Lyman; but Naehume held up a
hand and Lyman remained where he was.

They walked back into the torture room.
I could hear them speaking, but again was unable to make anything
out. After a moment, Lord Wright returned and Naehume lumbered off
in the opposite direction down the tunnel. I watched him quickly
melt into the darkness. Then something caught my attention. At the
far end of the tunnel, so faintly that it was barely visible,
flashed a brief pulse of illumination—the eerie, whitish glow of
lightning. Instantly, it fell dark again.

My hopes rose.
Of course there must
be another way out,
I thought.
The Brean couldn’t simply
stroll in and out of the castle through the streets of the
town.

Unfortunately, my hope was short
lived.

“
Excellent news,” said Lord
Wright enthusiastically. “We believe you, John. Regrettably, we
both have other business to attend to.”

Then, addressing Lyman, he said, “I
trust you can dispose of them properly? Any way you
please.”

“
Yes, my lord,” he answered,
with a wicked smile.

“
But we didn’t tell anyone,”
I cried.

“
So you didn’t…nor shall
you.” He disappeared down the tunnel leading back to the castle.
Soon, he called back, his voice echoing faintly through the
chamber, “Leave their bodies. The Brean will be back later to feast
on them.”

A
H
, let the fun begin,” sniggered Lyman. He leered at
Jane, who was still sitting on the damp ground.

“
Oh, no! Oh, please no!
Please don’t hurt her,” begged Hannah quivering. Her eyes were open
and full of terror.

I looked at Hannah’s broken, bloody
body on the floor and how she shook with fright. I looked at Lyman,
the evil being who had inflicted it upon her. There would be no
reasoning with him; his eyes were already full of madness and lust.
The rage I had been stifling now burned deep inside me.

“
Not to worry,” said Lyman
derisively. “I have something special planned for her.”

He walked over to Jane, yanked her up
by her dress, and viciously kissed her on the mouth. She struggled
with him, eyes wide. Then, unable to do anything else, she bit his
lip.

Lyman cursed while backhanding her hard
across the face. She fell to the floor. Reaching down, he tore the
dress from off her shoulder.

“
Don’t do that,” I
threatened, through clenched teeth.

He laughed and, withdrawing his
blood-covered dagger, said, “Why John, are you jealous? Rest
assured, when I am finished, I’ll make it swift…for her. Though, I
can’t promise the same for the rest of you.”

Hannah let out a small squeak of
fear.

The fire inside of me grew and burned
hot, like a blacksmith’s furnace, to the point of consuming me. I
rushed to the bars and grasped them tightly—my hands and body
shaking with rage.

“
Come to get a better view?”
jeered Lyman.

Placing the bloody dagger between his
teeth, he removed his coat and breeches so that he was only dressed
in his shirt and undergarments. Jane scooted away from him in a
desperate, but fruitless, attempt to escape. He removed the dagger
from his teeth and, with a mocking, triumphant look, turned to me
and said, “Now, watch.”

Our eyes locked. And the serpent, so
aptly analogized by Jane and Hannah, burst from me, past Lyman’s
gloating stare, and bore into his black soul.

He stumbled back a step in surprise and
his eyes went wide. I had more power than I’d ever felt. Everything
was open to me. I slithered through his mind, striking my fangs
into a random thought. It was of him as an adolescent. A man was
kneeling and pleading with him, “Please, don’t kill me, I beg of
you. I didn’t mean to strike you. It was wrong. I’m so sorry. It
won’t happen again, I swear it.” It was his
schoolmaster.

His father stood by his side, talking
sternly. “He is lying. Kill him. If you do not, you will never be
respected, and you will be worthless to me as a son.”

I could sense his internal struggle;
but the desire to please his father won, and he pulled the trigger.
It was his first murder. He felt horrified…and exhilarated at the
same time.

Leaving the memory, I slithered further
in and bit another thought. It was a man chained to the outside
wall. He screamed in fear, struggling to escape, as two Brean
approached him. Again, Lyman was fascinated by it.

I released that memory and bit another,
just a nip, and then onto the next without bothering to watch. I
went on, faster and faster, striking and moving.

Grasping his head, he moaned. His hands
shook, causing the dagger to slip and clatter to the
floor.

“
What are you doing?” he
cried frantically, unable to break his gaze.