The Legend of the Blue Eyes (5 page)

“Where is everyone?” Arianna asked. “I heard
my aunt and uncle out here before.” Arianna could smell the
lingering scent of her aunt’s perfume.

“We wanted to make sure you got some rest,
so they went to meet with your grandfather already. I told everyone
you were awake now, and they are waiting in the formal living
room,” Molina explained. “I’ll lead the way.”

Molina stood and opened the door on the
farthest wall from Arianna’s bedroom. Turning to the left, Molina
led Arianna down a long hallway. Her shoes clicked on the light
brown marble floors. Arianna tried to count the doors as they
passed room after room. Large oil paintings were interspersed
between the gold and white trimmed doors. At the end of the
hallway, Molina paused at a large door before pressing at a space
on the wall. A panel swung open to show an elevator pad.

“How big is this place?” Arianna wondered
out loud.

“Right now I think it stands at sixty-four
guest suites, along with four family apartments,” Molina
replied.

“No wonder I heard so many voices before,”
Arianna added.

“Before?” Molina wondered.

“Yes, right after I woke up. There were
voices all over the place,” Arianna replied, not understanding
Molina’s shock. “The walls must be thin,” Arianna added as the ding
of the elevator told them it was opening. Arianna stepped inside
the door behind Molina, and watched through the glass as it lowered
to the ground level. To the left was a large portrait hanging over
a grand split staircase. Arianna paused in the elevator as she
stared at the painting.

“Mom,” she said quietly, knowing immediately
who the person in the painting was. Arianna turned to follow Molina
out the elevator, but she stopped suddenly as she remembered the
letter from Gabriel. “I need to go back upstairs,” Arianna said. “I
forgot; I have a letter to give to grandfather. It should be in my
coat pocket from last night.” Molina turned to rejoin Arianna in
the elevator. “You don’t need to come with me. I’ll be back in a
minute, and don’t worry, I can find my way back this far. Besides,
I can hear someone talking in my room. Auntie and Uncle must have
come back looking for me.”

Molina stepped into the elevator. “I’ll wait
in the elevator for you,” she explained, as the door opened to the
floor Arianna’s room was on. Arianna gave a quick wave and ran down
the hallway. It was easy to find her room as it was the last door
on the right.

“Auntie?” Arianna asked, opening the door to
the sitting room. The room was empty. Arianna looked around, as she
was sure she had heard two people, including a woman, talking in
the room as the elevator reached the floor. Arianna hurried into
her bedroom and quickly opened the closet. Hanging on the right
side was her winter coat. Arianna found the letter from Gabriel,
but accidentally dropped it as music began to play. Arianna turned
and stepped into the doorway of her closet to find that on her
desk, a music box was propped open. Arianna stared at the little
ballerina girl who twirled in circles to the familiar tune. Quietly
behind her, a man approached. With one swift movement, he bent down
and covered her face. In an instant, Arianna was unconscious.

Arianna kept her eyes closed as she regained
consciousness. From the feel of cold stone beneath her face, she
had been moved to a new location out of her carpeted bedroom. She
could hear two men gruffly talking only feet away from her, and she
heard a dripping near her head that kept a beat to their
conversation. The cold, damp floor she was placed on felt nothing
like the ornate rooms she had seen in her grandfather’s house. She
was somewhere else. The damp smell of mildew around her made her
immediately think of a basement, but she didn’t dare open her eyes
and look around.

“That went easier than planned. Since this
girl has not met Lord Randolph yet, he will definitely not be able
to tell the difference,” a deep, rusty voice said. “It has been
years since the old man has seen his granddaughter.”

“Still, we need to watch out. You know her
guards were all chosen to be the very best, but they only met her
last night for the first time,” the younger raspy voice replied.
The clanking of a large latch being opened made Arianna want to
open her eyes, but she remained still, feigning sleep.

“How did it go?” the younger voice
asked.

“Serine got in fine. No one seemed to even
notice,” a third man’s voice said as he walked into the room.
Arianna heard him near her. “She’s still out?” he asked his two
comrades as Arianna felt something drop on her back.

“Yes if she were a dearg-dul, she’d be
awake, but she’s human right now after all,” the older voice
replied. “Then what is the plan to do with her?”

“For now, everything is set. At tonight’s
party Serine will turn. After receiving Lord Randolph’s blessing,
we won’t need this girl any more. Just leave her here and make sure
all the exits are properly locked,” the leader said.

“But,” the younger man said with a trembling
voice. “This one will also turn tonight, and if she doesn’t get
blood,” he trailed off, imagining the outcome.

“It’s a horrible way to die,” the older
voice said, finishing his younger comrade’s sentence.

“Does it matter?” the leader responded.
“Actually, we need her dead. If they find out Serine isn’t Lord
Randolph’s granddaughter, everything will be ruined, but it will be
especially worse if this brat is alive. Without an heir, Lord
Randolph will have to go on with the act of Serine as his
granddaughter.” Arianna could feel the reluctance in the two
follower’s voices as they grunted their agreement. “Besides, she’s
an orphan. She has no one besides her grandfather. Who’s really
going to miss her?”

“Can Serine really pull this off?” the
younger voice asked.

“We’ve been grooming her since the day
Randolph sent this one away. With all the surgeries, no one will be
able to tell the difference physically. She is a perfect replica of
the girl we have here. The only way this plan will fail is if they
find the real Arianna,” the leader explained. “This girl must stay
hidden and die, no matter what.”

Arianna waited until she heard the man in
charge leave before finally opening her eyes. In the darkness of a
single candle she could see that two men were huddled over a table
in the middle of the room. She could faintly make out cards in one
of the men’s hands. Without making a sound, she peered around the
dim room and cell. There were metal bars separating her and the men
with an ancient and oversized large lock on the door. The other
three walls surrounding her were made of stone. She was in some
sort of old-fashioned cell. Arianna was certain that the only way
out was through the locked door. Arianna lifted her face from the
cold, damp floor and watched the two men. Neither noticed that she
moved.

“Where am I?” she bravely asked.

Startled, both men immediately turned to
her. “Doesn’t matter,” the younger one with the raspy voice
replied. She could see he wasn’t much older than her, and the scar
across his throat accounted for his voice.

“Why did you kidnap me?” she asked.

“None of your business,” the older one now
replied. Arianna stared at the long scar that ran from his left eye
to his right cheek. “Keep quiet.”

Arianna moved to sit
against the stone wall. She was trapped. They intended to kill her,
but there was no way out of her jail cell. Arianna looked around
the outside room. Only one door led into the small, cramped space.
Arianna went back to lying on the ground. With her palms down on
the surface, she listened to the vibrations of people walking. She
was definitely underground, in an area filled with tunnels. No one
spoke as they moved, silently turning down individual tunnels to
their destinations. Arianna listened to find any friendly voice.
Without a person talking, Arianna continued to listen to the
footsteps. Arianna sat up as she recognized the faint click of
Molina’s boots.
Three people coming for
me
, Arianna thought.

“What time is it?” she asked her guards to
judge the distance of Molina from her prison cell.

“Doesn’t matter,” the older scared man
replied.

Arianna leaned against the wall and listened
to the footsteps of Molina while the two guards ignored her. She
was still far away. Arianna began to quietly tap on the wall as she
anxiously waited for Molina to near. When the footsteps were close
to the outside door, Arianna heard Molina pause. Arianna stood and
walked to the bars.

“Hey, are there any bathrooms around here?”
she asked the two men who both turned towards her. “I really have
to pee,” she lied, as Molina quietly opened the door behind the two
men. The younger of the two men stood and walked toward
Arianna.

“Stop that,” the older one
ordered. “She’s not to leave the cell.” The younger one stopped
halfway between Arianna and his fellow guard. As he began to turn,
Arianna noticed Devin also entering the room.
I need to buy time
, she
knew.

“Wait,” she said to the younger guard.
Across the room, Devin and Molina quietly moved into position to
subdue the two guards. Arianna watched helplessly as a fight broke
out between the four people. In the darkness of the room, she
thought there was a slight change in Molina’s features as she dove
near Arianna.

“Forget these two. I’ll take them. Kill the
girl,” the older man said to the younger one. The younger man
nodded as he moved his fight with Devin closer to Arianna’s
cell.

“Where’s the third person?” Arianna asked.
“There were three of you coming this direction.”

“Three?” Devin asked as he neared.

In his slight hesitation, Devin was only
able to place his hand in the direction of the knife that was flung
by the younger man at Arianna. The knife plunged through Devin’s
hand and slightly sliced into Arianna’s shoulder. The blood
dripping from Devin’s hand didn’t hinder him as he moved, in one
swift motion, to remove the blade from his hand and use it to pin
the young man to the ground. At the faint scent of Devin’s blood,
Arianna could feel a warmness in the pit of her stomach, and the
thirst began to compel her closer to Devin. The pain of the cut on
her shoulder dimmed as she felt herself warming up. Molina moved
and caught the man she was fighting between herself and the bars.
With his face pressed into the bars, Arianna heard the crack of his
arm being twisted behind him. He didn’t seem to even notice or care
as he stared at Arianna.

“Blue… blue… it can’t be… blue eyes,” he
stuttered as he stared at her. In one movement, a hand fell across
his head, and the man fell limp to the floor as Devin quickly
opened the door to Arianna.

Devin paused as he stared
at the cut on her arm. “Does it hurt?” he asked quietly as he
gently touched her. Arianna cringed as she finally noticed the
pain, but stopped as Devin placed his hand near her face. The
dripping blood distracted her. “Take some,” he offered. Arianna
shook her head,
no
. Her blackouts were connected to following Devin’s orders.
Devin shrugged and reached for her, scooping Arianna into his arms,
he followed Molina out the door. Arianna looked down at her ripped
shirt to see she was no longer bleeding.
Wasn’t I just stabbed?
she
wondered.

As they exited the prison cell, Arianna
struggled with Devin to put her down.

“We need to leave now,” he explained
quietly. “You are in no condition to be walking. If there’s a third
person following us, they didn’t come with us and can’t be too far
behind. Our goal is to get you out of here safely.”

“Lock the door,” she ordered, grabbing the
keys from him. Molina took the keys, and locked the door as Arianna
had ordered. “The man that was in earlier told them to leave me
there and lock the door. This way if he comes back now, he won’t
know I’m not there.” Devin nodded. Arianna threw her arms around
him as he began to quietly move through the tunnel behind Molina.
Arianna closed her eyes and listened to the footsteps. The third
person was still following them. As they came to a fork in the
tunnel, Molina began to lead them to the left.

“Stop,” Arianna said quietly. “There’s a
group of five men that way.” Molina nodded and began going to the
right. “Five more that way,” Arianna explained as the group turned
to go back the way they came. “The one person following us is that
way.”

“Our chances are better against one than
five,” Molina said as Devin nodded and followed her. As they began
to backtrack, Arianna heard their follower stop. Arianna opened her
eyes and stopped listening to the people walking around the tunnels
as they neared the unknown person.