Gaia's Secret (35 page)

Where was I?

There was another question, one I was afraid
to ask but my conscience did it for me.

What have you done?

I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious.
Had I been left to die in this room? Why lock me up at all? Was I
that much of a threat? My shoulders burned from the strain, my
wrists ached against the metal. I was certain the shackles would
carve right through them.

Just then the door creaked open. A tiny
person walked through, concealed in an oversized cloak. They walked
towards me with a small cup in hand. It was a boy, and a young one
from the looks of it. There was innocence in his features despite
the dirt and grime shading his skin. His face was pale and covered
with countless little red freckles and his eyes held a significant
amount of sorrow and wisdom for one so young.

He held the cup to my lips.

“Who are you?” My voice scratched.

He pushed the cup to my lips, forcing the
water into my mouth—the water was revitalizing as I gulped it down.
I finished it in two gulps, and the young boy stood before me,
staring.

“Help me…please.”

He stood a moment more, and turned around and
hurried out the door.

Hours passed in darkness and my shoulders
burned so badly I thought they might fall off. My spirit was heavy
with the same question: what had I done?

After what seemed like days, the door opened
again. This time, a man walked through, a guard following after
him. It was the man with jet-black hair. The guard stayed by the
door, but the man walked towards me, halting inches from my
face.

And I spat in his face.

His face contorted with fury as he gripped my
hair, yanking my head back at an uncomfortable angle. I fought not
to cry out in pain. “I advise you cooperate if you value your
father’s life.”

Seeing that I wasn’t going to argue, he
released my hair. My scalp throbbed.

“If that happens again, I will kill you.”

“What have you done…to my dad?”

The man walked towards a stone basin that
stood in one corner of the room, filled with what looked like
water. He kept his broad back to me. “I have done nothing to your
father.”

“Liar,” I hissed. “I saw you—“

“You saw what I wanted you to see.” He turned
around then, his features fixed. “Your father is not here, nor has
he ever been. That vision was fabricated to lure you away from your
friends and bring you here.”

My heart dropped through my feet and fell to
the ground. “You’re lying.”

The man smiled a wicked smile. “It is one of
the few times I am not, I’m afraid.”

The Del Contes had been right. It was a trap.
A trap I’d walked into alone. I had no idea where I was and chances
were no one else would know either. Any relief I might have had
about my dad’s safety was being quickly replaced by horror. “What
do you want with me?”

The man drew my dagger as he approached. My
heart beat hard in my chest, adrenaline moving through my veins so
strongly that I forgot the pain in my arms.

“You have something I need.”

“You’ve already taken the only thing I
own.”

“No, it is in here.” He tapped the tip of the
dagger on my temple. “A location.”

“A location? Of what?”

He frowned. “The box.”

“What box?”

His eyes narrowed. “The one that belonged to
your mother.”

I glared back. “I never knew my mother.”

“Do not take me for a fool,” he growled.

“I swear I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

He dug the edge of the blade against my neck,
the cold metal digging into my skin. “I will not play games with
you. Tell me where it is.”

I struggled against the sharp pressure on my
neck. “I don’t know.”

Fury burned in his eyes. He took a step back
and crouched to the ground. He extended his arm, letting it hover
over the cold floor and his sleeve began to move. It wriggled back
and forth like something was trying to climb out of it.

Two brown threads appeared first—like
antennas. A long, thin body followed, suspended between sleeve and
ground, until a handful of its tiny legs touched the floor. It
slithered from his robe, streaked in bright red and yellow,
slithering towards me on jointed legs like a centipede. A centipede
the size of my arm.

It writhed fast across the stone floor,
straight towards me, the torchlight reflecting off its glossy,
chitinous body. Once it reached my feet, its front end lifted from
the ground until those spindly legs caught hold of my boot. I tried
to kick it off, but it was no use. Each and every leg was secured.
Inch by inch it pulled the rest of its body upwards, crawling up my
shoe, and began moving up my leg.

My blood burned as sweat dripped around my
face, stinging my eyes.

The man watched with cold eyes as his
centipede tickled up my leg and slithered up my torso.

I tried not to cry out as it continued up my
chest, but once it reached my neck I shut my eyes tight. I couldn’t
take it anymore, the feeling of each leg, tickling the skin around
my collarbone. Its body was cold and wet and it just sat there as
the sweat beaded down my face.

After what seemed like an eternity of
silence, I opened my eyes.

The man stood before me with disdain on his
face. “Let’s try this again, shall we? Where is it?”

Cold, slimy pricks tickled my ear. “I don’t
know!”

Those black eyes narrowed in fury, inches
from mine. “The slithe will kill you. All I have to do is give the
command. Its poison will slowly dissolve your organs, saving your
brain for last. You will be conscious through the entire process,
wishing you were dead.”

His cold black eyes bore into mine, his lips
turned downward. I felt him then, like tendrils sifting through my
thoughts and feelings. His power was great—stronger than any I’d
felt since being here, save Tran Chiton. Closing my eyes, I waited
for the pain to come, trying to ignore the feel of the slimy
slithering creature on my neck.

My heart pounded in my ears as I tried to
calm myself. I was going to die here. Die without anyone knowing
what happened to me. Die because of my own foolishness.

The mental probing abruptly ceased. “You
really have no idea, do you?”

I opened my eyes and was surprised to see a
spark of amusement in his.

“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking
about.” The pointed legs slid around my neck like a collar. “I came
here for my dad.”

“And did you in all honesty think that a man
with the power of Alaric Regius needs the help of his
daughter?”

I stared at him and immediately forgot the
slithe. “Alaric…who?”

His smile made me recoil. “I see your father
picked a masterful guard in the Del Contes. Aegis Cicero never
would break an oath.”

“What are you talking about?” The antennas
poked my cheeks as its entire body tightened around my neck.

Tiernan frowned. “Your father is the son and
heir of Darius Regius, ruler of Gaia.”

A lump lodged in my throat and my heart
pounded. “No. That’s impossible. My dad is just a businessman…I
mean, Ambassador. You’re after the wrong man.”

“Oh no, no, no. The likeness to your mother
Aurora is uncanny.” He ran the backs of his icy fingers over my
cheek. “And the power that runs through your blood.” He trailed the
tip of the dagger along my arms. “It seems you are as the
prophecies have foretold; a blend of the unique powers from your
mother and father, making you a dangerous weapon. Gaia
has…surprised me.”

Was this what the Del Contes couldn’t tell
me? What Dad planned on telling me? No, it couldn’t be. This was
too much. This was insane. “I don’t have any powers. You’ve got the
wrong person.”

Tiernan studied me, thoughtfully. “I’m sure
your father thought he was protecting you, thinking I wouldn’t harm
you if you didn’t realize your power, because power, once
discovered, takes time to fully develop. Luckily, I have ways of
extracting that information which doesn’t require your knowledge.
You may thank your father for this, because it’s his fidelity to
Gaia that makes his own understanding of magic very, very
limited.”

Tiernan picked up the creature from my neck
and it writhed and jerked in his grip, struggling to break free. He
carelessly dropped it to the ground and with a blast of light, all
that remained of my poisonous torturer was a black spot on the
stone. The man turned back to me then, and dug the dagger into my
forearm.

Cold metal carved into my skin and I cried
out in pain. Blood trickled down my arm as he pulled the dagger
away; its edge coated in my blood. He walked over to the stone
basin and rinsed the dagger clean in the water. The water shone
shades of blue so bright it illuminated the room. He cupped his
hands together, scooped out some of the bloodied water, and
drank.

My stomach turned.

He stood erect, his features in ecstasy at
the power now trickling through him. My power. I felt a wave of
strength before he returned to my side, smiling. “You are more
powerful than I thought. My Lord will be very pleased with you.” He
trailed a cold finger along my cheek. “Yes, Gaia will mourn when
her precious daughter turns against her.”

“I will never help you,” I spat.

The man gripped my chin and forced me to look
into his eyes. “Those devoted friends of yours are on their way
here now, in an attempt to rescue you, and when they arrive, I will
kill them.”

I wouldn’t have believed him if it wasn’t for
the immense strength powering through him. Horror gripped my soul.
“No…please…”

“You have two choices.” He dropped my chin.
“Surrender your will and powers to my lord,
the
Lord, and
your friends will be left unharmed—that is my word. Or, you will
die in this room and I will take your strength and kill them.
Either way, I will have your powers.”

“You’ll never get away with this! They’ll
kill you if you do anything to me. Just let me go!”

He turned away and set something on the ledge
next to the basin. It was an hourglass, one filled with blood red
sand already streaming into the empty half.

“You have exactly one hour to make a
decision, at which point the last grain will fall, and your life
will end. I hope you make the right choice, for I should be sorely
disappointed to waste such beauty.”

With that, he left.

The guard lingered a bit, watching after his
master, then fixing his black eyes on me. A sickening shadow passed
over his face as he took soft, careful steps towards me. His breath
reeked of rot and ale as he gave me a decayed smile that spread
across his swollen face, glistening with perspiration. He lifted a
fat, square hand and dragged his rough palm across my cheek.

“So vulnerable and such…” He licked his fat
lips. “Delicious purity.”

I conjured all the saliva I could and spit it
on his face. He, however, held that black smile as he wiped off the
spit, inching his face closer.

His chuckle was low, sending ice through my
blood. “I’ll enjoy you,
princess
.”

He patted my cheek, walked through the door,
and closed it behind him.

I screamed after him—at myself.

No one listened. And no one answered, just as
no one came.

I was alone.

I fated myself to this. Dad, the Del
Contes—Tiernan was going to kill them. All because of me. All
because I wouldn’t listen.

But Tiernan had given me a choice. A choice
that would spare their lives. All I had to do was serve him. The
Del Contes and my dad didn’t deserve to die because of me. They’d
done nothing but risk their lives to protect me—their entire lives,
just as they were forced to do now. I felt as though a knife were
being run through my abdomen.

The red sands formed a threatening pile in
the glass. My time would be running out soon. I could yell those
words, serve this evil, and live the rest of my life as a lie. It
wasn’t so different, if I thought about it. I was used to living a
lie, only now I was choosing to live one in order to protect those
I loved.

Isn’t that what you’ve been so furious
about? That everyone lied to protect you?

I hadn’t understood their reasons and judged
them for it. What I’d done—the way I’d acted—was humiliating. Now I
might never get the chance to apologize. And Alex…

My chest throbbed as I remembered how I’d
treated him. All along he’d been trying to protect me from this
evil. Dad had been right. My resentment was going to be the death
of me, either physically or emotionally—probably both.

I didn’t have much time left. Maybe they
wouldn’t blame me for this choice. Out of anyone, they should
understand what I was about to do.

I opened my mouth, prepared to yell the words
that would forever alter my person and take away my freedom.

But I couldn’t.

Even if I lived that lie to protect them now,
what would happen later? When this unknown Lord’s power had grown
because I had given it to him and then I’d be forced to hurt
them?

There must be another way. There
has
to be.

I searched the room for anything I could use
to escape but there was nothing aside from that stone basin.
Besides, what could I do chained to the ceiling?

The chains.

Maybe, just maybe, I could break free. After
all, with my mind I’d been able to start a fire and I’d been able
to use the amulet. Was it so far from the realm of possibilities
that I might be able to use that same power to unlock the chains?
Tiernan had said I was powerful. It was a power strong enough that
he’d been hunting me for it. Just how powerful was I? Now was as
good a chance as any to find out.

I shut my eyes tight, concentrating on the
shackles. It was difficult, knowing the sands of time were running
low on my life. My mind fought to focus on my wrists. The shackles
had some sort of internal opposing force, rebounding my mental
attack. I focused harder, my face pinched, my teeth clenched as I
fought against the pressure of the brace. My skull ached from
straining; my teeth ground so hard I thought they might
shatter.