Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (14 page)

Chapter 16

Axel

Outside, by the weapons keep, all nine of us plus the blacksmith and the king gathered.

Eight sets of helmets and mail that hung on the walls were mirror copies of the original, earliest documented, helmets. The oldest documentation showed that they had been crafted as far back as the Dark Age.

I mentally prepared myself for receiving the helmet with a large metal horn sticking out of the top of it. Ridiculous was the only word that could get close to describing how I was going to look wearing it. Then again, at least it wasn’t the hog helmet. That one was not only hideous, but it also had large metal tusks protruding from the front of the helmet, from the nose area. Ridiculous
and
dangerous. At least my horn was at the top of my head. I’d have to warn Amber not to stand too close to Reuben once he put on that helmet, so she didn’t get an eye poked out.

When I looked over, I saw her eyes searching for her helmet. But it wasn’t hanging against the wall by thick, rusty hooks like the others. No. Hers was a special helmet. The helmet worn by the last successful challenger.

It was well known that a splatter of blood still decorated one side of the helmet. The king refused to wash it off because he thought altering the helmet in any way would jeopardise the future luck that it might bring to the next dragon’s dodaem.

The dragon’s helmet rested in the king’s large, sun spotted hands. The entire headpiece was shaped like the head of a dragon, with flames streaming back against its jaw to look like wings of fire on either side of the helmet. The dragon’s mail was also designed so that it appeared as though the wearer was completely protected by a shield of flaming silver.

“For you, dragon girl,” said the king as he beckoned Amber forward to accept her armour.

She kept surprisingly steady for someone wearing ten or so pounds on her head. Even when the king draped the mail over her arm, she didn’t falter. Merely accepted it, muttered a thank you, and stepped aside.

She didn’t appear comical, as you would expect a teenage girl to look wearing a massive helmet of dragon’s flames and mail slung over her arm. She looked fierce and even fiercer still when the blacksmith handed her a sword and belt. He fixed it around her waist and she sheathed the blade as though she’d done this every day for most of her life. Those pangs of jealousy I’d felt earlier returned and I hated myself for it.

The king repeated the procedure with each of us. I didn’t wear mine for long, as the horn kept scraping the ceiling. The hoots of laughter that followed me were short-lived as the king presented everybody with their own extremely heavy and ridiculous-looking helmets.

Lastly, Claire approached the king.

The king carefully slipped the helmet, with its lion head piece and the slightly smaller and decorative goat’s head protruding out the side of it, over her head and I winced, knowing her thin, delicate neck was not going to be able to carry its weight, which was almost double the weight of our helmets because of the two heads.

Almost immediately Claire’s head leaned to one side, the solid goat’s head weighing her down. She wobbled on her feet, stumbled across the room, then back again into Reece’s arms. For once he wasn’t laughing or smirking.

“She can’t wear this,” he said, concern and then fury darkening his features.

“It’s too heavy,” she screamed, her voice muffled by the helmet. “Take it off! Quick!”

Reece carefully lifted it off and whispered something in her ear and she nodded before taking it in her hands and thanking the king, her cheeks flushed.

The king nodded.

“Return to your rooms, put on the mail, and meet at the front of the castle. Each of you will have a bag packed with food, bedding, clothing, and drink. You won’t need to take personal possessions with you, as you will all return,” he added with a smile, “to collect it and take it home with you.”

Nobody said a word or cracked a smile. This was really happening. I was going to leave the relative safety of the castle for the Land of Resting Souls. I couldn’t believe that I was finally doing it.

After entering the castle, I came away from the others and headed downstairs to my room in the servants’ quarters to put on my mail. It was heavy and weighed me down considerably. I raised my arms and tried to twist and turn. This thing would be more of a hindrance, surely. Amber immediately sprung to mind. She hadn’t complained one bit and here I was whinging like Prince Ollie. I shuddered with disgust.

The blacksmith had handed me a small dagger to sheath underneath it. Its hilt was a unicorn’s horn, twisting down until it touched the base of the blade. The provided black tights were hardly going to keep me warm if it got cold, but I presumed there would be jackets or warmer pants packed in the bags that they were providing us with. My mother warned me that it was forbidden for challengers to take any personal items so as not to be discouraged from the journey with homesickness.

I climbed the stairs two at a time, helmet beneath my arms, and spotted Noah dragging his alongside of him. I wondered if he’d make it to the castle gates let alone the entire journey before us.

“You want me to carry that?” I motioned to his Minotaur helmet, though I knew it was heavy and would tire even me.

“No. Thanks,” he said between puffs of breath, and an admiration for the short kid grew inside of me.

A small crowd had gathered at the end of the garden where the largest section of stone wall was separated by a wrought iron gate, similar to the one near where the aeroplane had landed. Roses of every colour bloomed here, their vines entwined around the gates, making it appear as though we were, in fact, about to enter a heavenly kingdom.

“Just because there could be bad out there, doesn’t mean there is,” Kyle said suddenly, his eyes on the greenery beyond the gates. He turned to face us all. His face shiny with sweat, his eyes wide with fear and excitement. “We could get a good, easy journey. Everyone’s amazingly wonderful, safe heavens.”

“I know my heaven is lots of babes,” said Reuben.

Reece high-fived him. “And a football field and endless fountains of beer.”

Everyone laughed, including the king.

“So true.” He slapped me on the back. “These boys are right. You needn’t fear doom and gloom, it could quite be an easy journey. Just because others in the past were not so lucky does not mean you need to face the same dangers.”

A bright spear of sunlight from the world beyond the gates caught against Amber’s face, illuminating the blue in her eyes. She smiled when she caught me staring and quickly turned away. Why on earth was my stomach fluttering like it was full of the tiny multicoloured butterflies that were at this minute hovering around the roses?

The king seemed relieved to see me smiling.

He turned to me and squeezed my shoulder before whispering, “I’ll see you again, my son. I believe it. Dream Master believes it.”

I was about to protest but he shook his head.

“I spoke to your mother. She was delirious with fever. Do not listen to what she says while feverish. She dreams of her heaven, but that is not the same as
your
heaven. Dream Master is never wrong.” The king turned and pointed to the small crowd. A cleanly shaven man, his grey hair brushed back into a neat ponytail, waved at me. I waved back.

“You’ve let him out?”

“I believe him now. And, more importantly, I believe in you.” A smile warmed the man’s features. “So go, get your brother, and my wife, and return to me victorious.”

I nodded, my heart swelling with pride and hope, hope that I could somehow manage to bring his wife back as well as my brother. “I will. I promise I will.”

Ollie’s shrill laugh, combined with Bella’s giggle, interrupted our heart to heart, ruining the moment. They’d been celebrating early.

Ollie moved to my side while the king addressed Bruce and the others.

“Say hello to your brother when you join him in hell, boy,” he said, his eyes narrow and his face red from too much wine.

The king heard and shoved his son aside so that he stumbled into Anya’s arms. She took a step back, causing Ollie to tumble to the ground, landing on his bottom.

“Do not listen to him, Axel.” It was the first time he’d used my name. Ever. My chest tightened. “Just return and prove him wrong, my son!”

I nodded and when the guards opened the gates, I felt Dream Master, Hattie, and other women and even the guards kiss my cheeks and slap my back. When I finally wrenched my way out of the swarm, I turned and waved before being the first to step through the gates.

My muscles clenched and I touched my dagger beneath my mail and relaxed slightly when I felt its smooth, spiral hilt. I relaxed even more when I ran my fingers over my grandfather’s knife, which was tucked in beside the dagger.

Though I expected danger the instant I stepped into the Veiled World, nothing happened. A soft breeze caressed my cheek, but that was it.

Vast green fields stretched out as far as the eye could see, some with sheep, and others with cows. As long as we were in this version of heaven, we wouldn’t go hungry.

There were trees and a stream in the distance. Nothing else loomed, no mountains, nothing. We were far from Leirza, the one who guarded the dead.

I turned and smiled at Amber, Jacob, and the others.

“It’s seems harmless so far. An endless farm, as far as the eye can see. Plenty of food for the journey.”

They all seemed to take one collective giant breath before they crossed the threshold. Amber the only one to touch her dagger while she did so. She had good instincts. I was thankful I wasn’t going to be the only one.

I stared at Bruce, who was grinning from ear to ear, more like a child than a grown man, but when he caught my eye I saw the glint of hard determination there, the hunger to retrieve his wife was so strong I had to look away. Okay, so maybe not such a child after all.

“Helmets on!” the king ordered.

We all placed them on.

Amber stared at me through her helmet and her blue eyes glowed like jewels beneath them. She looked good and strong, dressed in her mail and helmet. The other girl, Claire, stumbled around and wobbled like she had a stone for a head. I felt for her. But her boyfriend held her up and said, loud enough for us all to hear, “We’ll take it off as soon as were out of sight.”

The king and the others waved.

“You will return, all of you!”

I nodded, taking one last look at the beautiful glass castle, at the roses climbing the walls, and at the faces I’d grown to love, even the hazy memories of my little brother and father. My only home.

Goodbye, Mother
.

I shifted the weight of the backpack on my shoulders, trying not to think about my mother’s sickness. Trying not to wonder if she’d be here when I returned.
If
I returned.

“Once we reach that cluster of trees in the distance, we’ll all take stock of our gear, keep what’s needed and bury everything else at the base of the trees. We can dig them back up on our way home.”

“But won’t this change by the time we return?”

I shrugged. “Yes. The lands always change. Our things could end up underwater, or they could end up at the base of another tree.”

“I’m leaving this thing for sure,” said Claire, tapping her metal helmet.

“Me too,” said Reece. “It’s stupid and pointless. We’re not in the dark ages.”

“I’m leaving mine. We can leave all our helmets behind.” I stared at Amber, who still wore hers despite everyone carrying their helmets under their arms.

“I’m keeping mine,” Amber said.

“Why?” Reuben asked. “Do you think it’ll save you, like it saved the last guy?

She shrugged her shoulders and said nothing, just walked faster, away from the group, moving quickly ahead.

The energy between the members of the group had shifted once again. The earlier glee gone.

Claire and Noah started to complain about the heaviness of their gear.

They were moaning already, and we hadn’t even reached the tree. How were they going to handle the rest of the journey?

Chapter 17

Amber

Endless green pastures stretched out before us. Birds twittered as they flew by. Trees grew sparingly but in clusters across the rolling green hills. I filled my lungs with crisp, fresh air and puffed up my chest, the entire act exhausting me with the heavy helmet and chainmail bearing down on me.

Claire stumbled into the back of Bruce, who swore and rubbed at his chainmail covered back.

“Careful,” he said before wincing against the harsh daylight sun right above us.

“So if this journey doesn’t kill us, the helmets and chainmail just might,” said Noah, who had already removed his.

I turned around to see if the king was still watching us, but was shocked to see a mirror image of the pastures before us.

“The castle’s gone.” I pointed to where it had been only minutes ago and everybody turned around to see for themselves.

“Holy shit!”

Reece ran back in the direction of the castle, only to spin around in circles over where it had once stood. “It’s gone.”

Only Axel remained unimpressed.

“We’ve left the castle gates,” he said with a shrug. “We have entered afterlife territory.” He adjusted the backpack and bedroll on his shoulders and waved his arms about. “All this, this is somebody’s idea of heaven.”

“Oh my God,” said Claire, who’d removed her helmet. Her hair was stuck to her temples and down her damp neck. “That feels so much better.”

“At least it’s a pretty good heaven so far. Safe-looking,” Noah said.

Bruce grinned and started forward in long strides. “Come along, kids, we’ve got some travelling to do.”

Axel eyed Bruce and glared back at us. “Don’t be deceived by the rolling green hills. There could be anything out there. And I mean anything.”

“Three-breasted women?” said Reuben, laughing.

Axel stared him down and nodded. “Those three-breasted women could have knives, or swords or three heads or the body of a dinosaur or—”

“All right, servant boy, we get it.” Reece smirked at Axel then laughed and elbowed Noah. “Hey, nerd, what does that alien say on
Lost in Space
? ‘Danger! Danger!’ You can be him and warn us when the three-breasted women come to attack us.”

“It’s a B-9 robot, actually,” said Noah, staring at Reece with disgust.

Axel narrowed his gaze at Reece before turning to follow Bruce.

By the time I caught up to him I was out of breath because of the weight of the helmet I was now carrying by my side.

“So how do we know where the keeper of the souls is? Do you know much about her?”

“All I know is that her name is Leirza.” Axel kept his gaze fixed on the cluster of trees up ahead. Bruce was heading there as well. He was pretty quick for an old guy. But then again, his veins were probably filled with energy drink instead of blood.

“We’ll bury our things there, beneath the trees.” He glanced over his shoulder and I followed his gaze to the stragglers behind us. “At the rate they’re going they’ll die of exhaustion before they get to face any real danger.”

Hours passed in silence, until the trees appeared only a few hundred metres away.

Sweat trickled from Axel’s temple, down his cheeks, and disappeared down his shirtfront. He looked about as hot as I felt. The desire to wear my helmet for luck had worn off, but I still wasn’t sure I could bury it beneath a tree inside someone else’s heaven, a place we might never return to. So after a bit of fiddling around, I managed to slip a strap from my backpack through the eye and mouth holes of the helmet and tie a knot, securing it to my backpack. It was going to make my back hurt, but it was the best I could do.

The green grass beneath my feet hadn’t changed one bit. It was the exact shade of lush green we’d been walking on for three hours, according to Reuben’s digital watch.

Most of us had lost our mobile phones with our luggage. Only a couple were lucky enough to have slipped theirs into their pockets when we’d disembarked the plane. That was Claire and Kyle, who were now scrolling through images of family and friends. There was no signal here, obviously, but at least they had their pics and past conversations to look at. I envied them that. My phone, with all my precious pictures, was now at the bottom of the ocean.

“I don’t really know much about her. Leirza.”

The sound of Axel’s voice jolted me from my thoughts.

“All we know, from the man who’d returned and what he’d written—which was only three pages from his book—is that she lives on a mountain of fire, so possibly a volcano. The woman who’d survived didn’t record anything about Leirza.”

Reuben, who’d been listening in, stopped, threw his bag down on the green grass, and spun around, a hand shielding the sinking afternoon sun from his eyes while he surveyed the three hundred and sixty degree horizon.

“Great. No volcano in sight. This is going to take forever. How in the hell do we know if the king is just insane, or a liar, huh? How do we even know that this man returned with his loved one for real?”

Axel ignored Reuben and threw his backpack down. He took a swig from the canteen swinging from his neck, no more than three gulps, then screwed the lid back on. He looked murderous. For some reason his set jaw and the glow in his icy blue eyes made my stomach flip.

I took a quick sip of my own water, wanting to drink more, but resisting.

“Because his wife had been blown up during the first World War. Blown to bits. And yet he strolled back into the kingdom with her on his arm, as alive and as complete as can be. Many documentations support this.” Axel adjusted the bag on his shoulder and kept walking towards the trees.

After twenty or so minutes passed, I started to notice cows when I hadn’t noticed them before.

A herd beside us mooed and I noticed that some of them were beginning to group together and lay down beside some of the thicker shrubs.

The sky above us was a brilliant afternoon blue, but I knew from a lifetime of farming what was coming.

Jacob caught my eye and raised his brows to the sky and I nodded.

“Axel,” I said, coming up behind him, breathless again because he was moving so fast and with such determination. It seemed he wanted to get as far away from the group as possible. The way everyone was behaving, I couldn’t blame him.

“Yeah,” he said between puffs of breath. So he was getting tired too.

“Rain might be coming.”

He looked up at the sky and a tweeting bird flew overhead.

“I know it looks fine now, but when cows huddle and sit down like that, it usually means rain’s coming.”

He continued walking but slowed down a little. “We have rain jackets in our bags. But if we find some shelter before dark we’ll stay there. He stared out at vast green land in front of us. “I don’t like our chances of finding anything, though. We may have to camp beneath the trees, if you’re right.”

“Did the man who brought his wife back say anything about meeting people or towns or houses in his writings?”

Axel was silent for a long time before he shook his head. “No. He wrote about the Choosing Ceremony. He wrote sparingly of some of the dangers he encountered in the afterlives, but not in detail. He wrote more about the return to the castle from the Land of Resting Souls, saying that the journey home was more difficult and dangerous than the journey to it.”

“Oh. Okay. For some reason I thought the journey home would be easy, after surviving the first half.”

“
Screams so frightening they turn your entire body cold
,” said Axel, shaking his head. “That’s an actual quote from the last page of his journal.”

A chill ran down my back and I wondered about the blood on my helmet. Who, or what, did the blood belong to?

“But didn’t someone from the kingdom speak to him and document his findings later as well?” I bypassed a pile of cow poo and kept up the pace. “There must be more information on him. On his wife, and what she said of the afterlife, of her version of heaven. Did the man mention what happened to the eight with him?”

Axel stared at the ground and then ahead. “All I know is that he refused to speak of it and many said he never got over what he’d witnessed while out here. All I ever focused on was the fact that he survived and that he brought his wife back to life.”

Axel’s cheeks flushed pink and he watched me from out the corner of his eye, a small, tight smile on his lips. “And the dragon of course.”

I found myself smiling back.

The others started to whoop and cheer as we neared the trees. They were acting like we’d already reached the Land of Resting Souls.

“Did his wife live long after she was…reborn?”

“Nothing much is written about her. Except that her husband kept her away from the kingdom, from the other villagers. Some say he kept her in a dungeon at night, to keep her safe so that she wouldn’t die again.”

Daisies crunched beneath my feet.

“Wow. That’s so sad.”

Axel met my eyes and nodded. “But others say that he kept her in a dungeon at night because that was when she’d become unstable. Some say she’s still locked away somewhere in the castle, where nobody will ever find her.”

Axel laughed when he saw my face. “Ha! Don’t worry. It’s just an old story my mother, and every mother in the kingdom, used to tell me and the other naughty children to scare them into good behaviour.” A soft smile clung to his lips. “My mother used to warn me to be good or else she’d send me to the screaming lady.”

Goosebumps prickled my arms and legs.

“Do you believe it? About her being unstable? Do you ever worry that if your little brother returned that there’d be something wrong with him? That it was his time when he passed…and that he perhaps should be allowed to rest in peace?”

Because that is what I’m concerned about with my own brother.

Axel’s steps slowed and when I looked up I realised that we’d finally reached the tree. Bruce had already set his bag and bedroll down and was doing some yoga stretches.

“This is so much more difficult with the chainmail on,” said Bruce.

“I just want him back in my mother’s arms. He died because of
my
failings, not his own, so no,” Axel’s eyes turned frosty. “It wasn’t his time. He deserves to be alive.”

“I love you, tree!” said Reece as he pretended to make out with it. Claire slapped him on the arm, frowning as though she was jealous of the tree, but then giggled when Reece picked her up in one arm and swung her around before kissing her with an open mouth and setting her lightly on her feet.

Reuben and Kyle tipped their bags out and we all followed suit, except I didn’t exactly tip mine, neither did Jacob. We took our time, carefully sorting our things into piles.

“Food!” Reuben tore into a bread roll and my stomach grumbled.

“You should slow down,” said Axel. “You all should. This might be the only food we have for weeks or months, not just days.”

Reece shrugged and stuffed an entire roll in his mouth. “Plenty of cows and sheep.” He sniffed the air. “And if I’m correct, I smell bacon!”

Jacob shook his head and continued sorting through his gear.

Noah frowned but then sniffed the air. “I think he’s right. I think I smell bacon too.”

I sniffed the air and my stomach growled at the scent of fried bacon.

Axel stood up and turned slowly, his hand shielding his eyes from the setting sun. There didn’t appear to be signs of life other than the cows and now sheep dotted here and there over the land.

“Nothing. But there might be someone setting up camp for the night who is frying bacon. Who knows?” He nodded to where the blazing sun had started to set over the hills. “Could be a settlement, a village over those hills.” He shrugged. “It’s someone’s version of heaven, so there’s no way to know for sure whether the individuals we run into will be good citizens or dangerous people. All we know for certain is that hardly anybody who leaves the castle ever returns.”

“Such positivity!”

Axel glared at Reece. I could see the two butting heads and perhaps killing each other before we ever reached Leirza.

“It could be a murderer frying bacon,” said Bruce. “Or it could be a farmer’s wife cooking for her husband.”

“Or it could be the farmer husband cooking for his wife,” said Claire with raised brows. Reece rolled his eyes and Reuben punched him, punishing him for being part of the feminism movement.

“We’ll see,” said Axel, who spotted Jacob and me sorting through our gear. I’d decided, with regret, to leave my helmet behind. I’d keep my chainmail. And my sword, even though I didn’t really know how to use it. I’d be better off with a knife or a gun. I’d used them back at the farm plenty of times.

Rain started to patter against the leaves above us.

“Rain?”

“But there are no clouds,” said Bruce, frowning. He unscrewed the lid of his canteen and drew one of the branches down so that the rain could trickle into his bottle.