Darlings (19 page)

“You dumb girl,” he growled as he caught the
dark skinned girl by the back of her neck. “You need to be
punished. Come on. I’m sick of you.” 

He began dragging the girl to the steel door,
but just before he got there Lilly threw herself at the pirate’s
feet. “She’s a girl Morge. I’ll take her place.” The pirate
shrugged her off. Refusing to let her daughter be beaten, she took
the pirates repulsing face in her hands and looked into his beady
eyes, “I’ll take her place.” The pirate stared into Lily’s eyes,
contemplating her proposal. 

“Come on then,” he said throwing the girl to
the ground as he led Lilly inside the steel doors. Lilly watched
her daughter as she made her way to Gwen, then finally she
disappeared through the doors. 

“My mama said I should come to you. You have
to keep working. The girl picked up the rock her mother was working
on and began to work on it herself. Her tiny hands moved swiftly,
much more swiftly than Gwen’s clumsy ones. Tears ran silently from
the child’s big green eyes. 

“What’s your name?” Gwen asked, working
slowly. 

“Tiger,” the girl answered softly. “Are you
really the princess?” she asked, wiping her running nose with her
bare arm. Tiger was wearing a very faded sleeveless yellow dress
with a tattered blue ribbon around the waist. 

Gwen wondered that herself. “I guess. That’s
what they tell me.” 

“Pete and Uncle Andrew?” she asked, eyes full
of yearning. 

“Yah. Pete and Andrew.” Gwen forced a
smile. 

“My mama tells me stories about them and
Tina. They’re not like the people here. They look pretty like you
and they can go outside and they’re going to save us someday,” she
said now smiling. “Did they send you here? To help us?” 

Gwen’s heart sank. “Um…Yes. They did. We’re
going to get out of here,” she lied. 

“Mama will be so excited. I have to tell
Marriam,” the girl beamed as she spoke. 

“No!” Gwen said much louder than she wanted.
“No we can’t tell anyone, ok tiger? This has to be a secret. Can
you do that?” 

The girl nodded. Just then a loud horn
sounded and Tiger scrambled to her feet. “Hurry, get up,” she
whispered. “We have to line up. Follow me and don’t get
lost.” 

Gwen obeyed the girl and followed her through
the crowd to the side of the arena like circle. She took her place
in one of the huge lines of people and Gwen followed. All the
captives began lining up. Gwen counted five rows with at least
fifty per row she figured. She looked to her right, a boy, though
she knew he could be hundreds of years old, stood beside her. He
had long brown hair, freckles, and wore only too large of pants
held up with a piece of rope. He was so thin; she thought his ribs
were going to pop out of his paper like skin. The boy kept his eyes
straight ahead with hands to his sides. Gwen did the same. Soon, a
large set of double doors opened to her left. Gwen could feel the
tension as prisoners all around her shifted and stiffened. It made
the hairs on her dirty arms stand on end. Her toes gripped the
dusty dirt beneath her. She heard the growling before she saw them.
Manticans, only…different. There were four, two brown, one gray,
and one midnight black. They were massive and something was wrong
with their eyes. So…red. Nothing like Andrew’s in Mantican form.
They foamed at the mouth as they circled the group. Soon they were
followed by a group of pirates who opened up, making way for their
leader. 

Captain Jamison Hookner made his way through
disgusting members of his monstrosity of a crew. He looked
surprisingly…clean, Gwen thought. Like someone out of one of her
mother’s decorative magazines positioned perfectly on the end table
in the sitting room of her…home. His hair was black and slicked
back like some sort of count, and he wore a matching handlebar
mustache. He had on a perfectly tailored black suit with a deep
plum undershirt. If Gwen had seen him on the street, she thought
she’d have mistaken him for some sort of Italian mobster. 

He walked with a small limp as he made his
way to the front of the lineup. The captain took his position in
front of the group. He twisted a side of his mustache as he
surveyed his prisoners. “My, my. We all look so sad today,” he said
with what Gwen knew was false concern. “You’d think I’m not
providing my guests with a pleasant stay,” he added. This set his
goons off, shrieking and laughing their disgusting
laughs. 

“Laugh you stupid worms,” he commanded in
such an eerie soothing voice it made Gwen shiver. Just like that,
everyone around her mustered up their best fake laughs. “That’s
better,” he smiled. “My Manticans are very hungry this evening,” he
petted the midnight black one as it brushed by him, still circling
the group. 

All of the sudden,  the steel door Lily
disappeared out of reopened and she limped out, followed by the
pirate Gwen heard her call Morge. All eyes were fixed on Lily. Gwen
peeked at Tiger out of the corner of her eye. At that moment she
wished they were in the back row, not front and center. She could
see Tiger lock her knobby knees and her hands turned to fists. The
girl seemed ready to run to her mother at any moment. Lily spotted
her daughter and shook her head in disapproval. Sensing something
was wrong, Gwen reached over and took the girls hand. Out of
nowhere Gwen felt the energy. She found it. Just a small spark, but
it was there. The frail girl shook her hand free from Gwen’s and
wobbled over to where she stood. 

“Lily, how nice of you to join us. Bring her
here Morge, I almost forgot we still had her,” the captain smiled.
The ugly pirate ushered Lily across the circle to his captain.
Captain Hookner studied Lily. He brushed her dark hair out of her
stunning brown eyes. “Shame he hasn’t come for you my dear, isn’t
it? Either one of  you. After all this time.” The captain
looked thoughtfully at Lilly as he pet her silky hair. Lily stood
strong as she put up with the charade. An idea had struck the
captain. “Oo Ooo! Have you met Gwen yet?” Gwen’s stomach dropped at
the mention of her name from his slimy slips. “Come Gwendylon. Come
you must meet Lily.” 

Gwen commanded her feet to move, but move
they wouldn’t. She stood still as a picture. Stuck to the dirt. An
old pirate hobbled over and grabbed Gwen by the slender arm. He
drug her to his commander. “Gwendylon meet Lily.” They stared
blankly at one another, not sure what to do next. “Oh come on,
surely you’ve heard of one another?” He looked into Lily’s eyes.
“Oh Lily of course you know about Gwen. The long lost princess.
Destined to marry your sweet Petren.” He studied the tanned woman’s
beautiful face. “Yes you knew that didn’t you,” he mocked. Her
sweet Petren? Gwen thought. Then he moved to Gwen. He stared deep
into her eyes, gauging her reaction. She attempted to stay as
expressionless as she could but after what seemed like an eternity,
he burst out laughing. “Petren, that sly dog. He never told you
about her did he? Ha! Well meet Lily, the mother of Pete’s child.”
Gwen was confused. Tiger? It finally began to make sense. “Where is
my little princess anyways? Tiger?” His dark eyes darted through
the crowd. “Come Tiger. Come to Jamison.” Pete’s daughter? Gwen
felt her stomach tighten further.

The small girl walked slowly up to the
captain. He leaned down and pinched her cheek hard enough to make
her flinch. “There you are my dear. My, have you grown. Pretty
little thing, aren’t you? Awe, too bad your daddy’s never come to
rescue his little girl. Shame on him.” With a sigh he patted her
head and ordered the group back to their places in line. “Well now.
Let’s get back to business. We have a problem I am hoping you fine
folks can help us with. It’s come time we need to harness your
energy once again to power our world. There will be a draining in
two days’ time. As some of you remember from the last
draining…sadly not all of you will make it. I wish you luck! In
honor of our newest guest, Princess Gwendolyn, we will be
adding…meat to your rations tonight. Enjoy my friends!” 

He turned and walked slowly out the doors as
his Manticans reluctantly followed. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief,
but noticed she was the only one relieved. Everyone else stayed
perfectly still, barely breathing. The black beast whined a gravely
whine at his master. The captain stopped and hollered back in
afterthought. “Oh alright. Just one.” 

The beast walked slowly up to Gwen licking
his lips and baring his large teeth. She shivered in terror and
braced herself for the attack. Just before the beast swiped her
away with his massive paw, the captain yelled once more, “Not that
one!” The dark mantican settled on the boy next to

her instead. He swiped him from beside her
with one swift almost graceful movement. The boy barely had time to
let out a scream before the beast snapped his neck. He carried off
his prize like a dog with a biscuit. 

As soon as the monsters disappeared through
steel doors the group scurried back to their positions. Gwen still
couldn’t move. The boy. His freckled face. His long brown hair. He
was gone in an instant. She almost didn’t hear Lily’s worried voice
as she knelt down to her daughter, scooping her up off the dirt.
She carried her swiftly to the only water pump in the work arena.
Gwen followed. 

“Tiger, baby, what happened? She poured water
over the girls face. 

“I, I don’t know mama. She did it. She took
my power.” 

Lily looked cautiously around. “Shhh. Tiger,
you know we don’t talk about that when we’re not alone.” 

Gwen began to make sense of it all. The girl
had gotten some sort of ability from Pete. When she took the girls
hand, she subconsciously took her energy…through her collars
walls. 

“It’s not possible baby, she has on a collar,
see?” Lily motioned to Gwen’s lime green collar.

Gwen interrupted in a hushed tone, “No, I
think she’s right. I felt it. It was faint but I felt it.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a borrower? Or
a taker?” she asked quickly. 

“I…I don’t know. Tina, a fairy, thinks a
borrower. I don’t know much about my ability. I just know
it’s…dangerous.” Gwen pushed thoughts of her incident in the gazebo
out of her mind.

“Yes. I know Tina. Takers are the most
worrisome.” Lily added. “Come on baby, we have to get up. Lily
picked her daughter up and winced as the girl wrapped her hands
around Lily’s neck. Gwen looked at Lily’s back and was horrified at
what she saw. Blood stained the beauty’s thin shirt. 

“Are you alright?” Gwen asked. 

“Fine. Come on. We have to get busy. I don’t
want to draw attention from the guards again.” They made their way
back to the rocks. 

“Does Pete know?” Gwen asked
quietly. 

Lily sighed. “Yes. I told him before we were
taken.” She clenched her tan jaw as she worked the rock. 

He knew. He knew and he never spoke a word to
Gwen. Were his feelings for her real? Was anything about Pete real?
She couldn’t decide. 

“Does he know you’re here?” Gwen hoped for a
no answer. 

Lily nodded. 

“Is it true, he hasn’t ever come for you?”
Gwen could feel her blood begin to boil. What kind of man leaves
his child in this sheer hell? She hoped there was more to this
story than met the eye.

She nodded again.

“Why didn’t you tell Andrew?” Gwen
asked. 

Lily looked at Tiger who was feeling better.
“Honey, why don’t you go work with Marian again, ok? But be careful
this time.” 

Tiger walked wobbly across the dirt to find
her friend. 

“It’s unheard of Gwen. I don’t know what you
know already about our world, but Pete and I are unacceptable.
Punishable. Immortals and Manticans aren’t meant to be together.”
Gwen remembered the times when she and Andrew even touched. She
couldn’t imagine going any further. “I was never even sure Tiger
and I would live through the birth. We were always taught
interspecies relations would more than likely kill us, and if it
wouldn’t our children would die from having both genes. My family
would have been killed for my actions. I couldn’t tell them.”

“What were you planning on doing?”

“Escaping to middle earth. I guess we were
going to go into hiding. We’d live normal lives and whatever
happened to Tiger…would happen. That was when I went to a dark
fairy for help getting a portal. She betrayed us and turned us over
to them.” Lily brushed her silky hair out of her eyes as she dumped
her scrapings into the bag. 

“Why didn’t Tiger…die?” Gwen hesitantly
asked. 

“That I don’t know. I’ve never heard of any
others like her that lived.” 

Gwen whispered, “Can she use her
ability?” 

“Yes. She began to use it around two years.
How did you borrow from Tiger? The collar is supposed to block out
he energy.” 

“I. I don’t know.” Gwen wanted to tell Lily
about the incident in the gazebo. About the boy she…killed. She
wasn’t sure if that was the kind of thing she should be telling a
stranger. 

“All I can figure is you’re an extremely
strong borrower…or weak taker.” 

Gwen didn’t want to be a taker. She prayed
she wasn’t a taker. Everyone seemed terrified of takers. “Why is
everyone scared of takers?” Gwen forced herself to ask as she
chipped away at her stone brushing the fine powder into the bag.
She was afraid she already knew the answer. 

“Being a taker is a very difficult ability to
control. I only know of one in history who perfected the art…the
others…didn’t.” 

Gwen knew she was concealing more than she
would reveal. “What happens when they…can’t control it?” 

“I’m not sure. Let’s dump these and get new
bags-” Lily said, quickly changing the subject. 

“Tell me,” Gwen interrupted. 

With a sigh Lily stopped working for the
first time since Gwen had met her. She made piercing eye contact
with Gwen. “They’re killed.”