Original Souls (A World Apart #1) (13 page)

I realized that I had no idea how much time haspassed. The darts are usually weaker than the radius blast. Also, I wasn't using much magik at the time, but I had just used a spell with that cheetah gir
l’
s llave before they caught up with me. Abruptly, I recalled my fading mind on the bridge. Was it a dart or some new technology he shot me up with? Without my llave, things are-going to be very rough with these guys. Most likely it hadn't been very long, only a couple of hours
I’
d estimate.Then again, the sun was fading when I began fading, but now sh
e’
s standing tall in the sky, I noticed from one of two back windows.

The car came to a very sudden stop. With my body being pressed up against, what seemed like two outward opening backdoors, I still couldn't get any sort of vantage point. My mind raced about Corinth's well being. That sun-dried Gente Peligroso from the abandoned factory said something about a
transfer
.
I’
d never dream that Evan is willingly taking part in a plot that might end my so
n’
s life.

I kept on thinking sad and maddening thoughts until the two backdoors swung open and I rolled out off the floor of the van onto a road filled with shrieking people. It was a low drop, but still hurt, -as I could
n’
t even begin to brace myself for it. The masses had come out for some event, but it didn't seem like anything remotely cheerful. Some screamed, some threw their fist into the air in rebellion, and others even carried signs. Signs that nearly split my mind in half.

I thought it possible, but I never imagined the extent to which the 8ights Council would go to remain firmly in control of all that occurred in Draconia and abroad. But only here in Draconia could they amass a crowd like this. Full of angry parents, scared onlookers, -and lone strangers that just wanted something to yell about. This was the 8ight
s
’ way of making people feel like their voices were being heard. By giving them the opportunity to confront public enemy number one.

"Me," I whispered at first, while staring up from the ground at the crowds behind barredmetal barricades. "You think I'm the one to blame for all this. Open your eyes peopl
e
… you're being duped!" I started shouting, but with all the push back from the large crowd in Center Square, no one could hear my cries. Not even me. The collective voices of concerned citizens, or idiots, whichever fits best, drowned out my every word.

A set of Squadron goons, guys I never encountered before in my fourteen year career, picked me up off the ground where I fell from the van. As they erected me to an upright position, I found myself facing the crowd head on. They were held back by dozens of those barricades. I assumed they would, at the very least, unshackle my legs so that I could walk, but the opposite happened.

They grabbed me almost simultaneously. Onefrom underneath my shoulders, and the other from beneath my knees. Those two went on carrying me after a third goon dressed in a standard all black jumpsuit slammed shut the va
n’
s backdoors. These were the ordinary Squadron uniforms, but these weren't ordinary Squadron members. These guys seemed superhuman. Way too strong for their sizes, and just so damn emotionless.

Every time I caught a glimpse into one of their eyes, they appeared lifeless. The color of their eyes was also very strange. I had never seen a shade of blue like that in all my life here in Draconia. This is our race, we all have blue eyes, some lighter and shiny than others, but nonetheless just plain old blue eyes. This shade was so icy, so shiny that it didn't look like something that occurred in nature. At least not the nature I grow up around. Come to think of it, Evan had the same myopic stare shuttering through and through last I saw him.

Though it's possible that I'm the one who has become myopic. As I glanced back at the crowd behind me, all I saw was a gray blur of angry faces that I couldn't see past. I couldn't distinguish one mad face from another anymore. I lacked the ability to relate to the fears that must be enveloping all of the Worlds right now. To hear that a new World has been created must be terrifying. There were so many dangerous people out there, even groups of them like the Gente Peligroso, but no one believed that anyone had the power to do such a thing. Year after year, we hear different news stories about someone trying and failing miserably to use the forbidden spell that Julia masterfully wielded. Overtime, those stories occurred less and less. The very nature of them struck fear in the hearts of potential candidates for future attempts to create with the dreaded phrase:

Novus Ordo Seclorum

I didn't dare utter the phrase aloud, for fear of the outcome. I didn't even have my llave with me and I still couldn't muster the courage that Julia didn't seem to think twice about. To bring about a New Age Order is no small feat.

While I thought, I looked around at the buildings downtown and they didn't have the same vibrancy that I used to notice. Center Square at the Parthenon was crowded and tense, but all I saw was a uniformed image of gray on gray. The goons had gotten me to the large marble steps of the Parthenon and were carrying me up into the building, where I presume the 8ights Council would decide my fate.

We were close to the high extending marble columns that were the support structure of the large and slightly inclined rooftop. Everything in Center Square is made out of marble. Every texture, sculpture ... just everything. The crowds were huddled around the huge, you guessed it, marble circular fountain at the center of the square. The entire space was dominated by the Parthenon itself, but there were two smaller replica buildings that lay at it sides.

Also, a-plentiful group of trees that sat directly across from the Parthenon, over the large grounds that enclosed the area forming the square. The rectangular Parthenon building, and its slightly inclined triangular roof, had small statues of all the former Draconian leaders sitting inside the wide-open space. The square was technically a rectangle, because the replica buildings weren't nearly the size of the Parthenon. Though the Alley of Trees, as i
t’
s called, ran the length of the Parthenon from the opposite side. But why bother calling the square a rectangle if no one else has ever said a word.

From beyond the Alley of Trees I could see the rest of the City Center's gray buildings disappearing from my sight. The goons took me inside the government run edifice and hoisted me onto a rolling limestone altar.

The doors slammed behind us and silence took the stage. The Parthenon has always been sound proof, so that protest from the people never intimidated the Draconian council during any deliberation. As if it could. The small councils of each World and the 8ights themselves are the ones always doing the pushing and shoving. Especially in Draconia. I can't imagine how Sebastian would let them brand me a fugitive.

Some -of the signs out there said things like;"Aiding Criminals Is A Crime!" an
d“
You Have No Right To Your Draconian Blood, So Give It Back!" With as long as the phrases on those signs were, they really spoke volumes of the things that occurred in the day and a half that I spent behind Julia's crumbling walls of Corinthia. They branded me an accomplice in her failed attempt to shelter Corinth. I suppose that's chiefly due to my presence provoking her ego, but I couldn't just not see my son ever again. The stakes here are climbing higher and higher, and I have no idea how I can bring them down.

The goons in black continued the transfer of me, from their hands, onto the altar. They strapped me onto it like a sacrificial lamb. My arms were spread out slightly above my head and my legs were strapped down and spread out as well. "Where are you taking me?" No answer came back from the tall tan skin guy with the scar behind his left ear. "Where is Sebastian, the Chancellor? I'm a friend of his; I demand you take me to him!"

"Making demands won't get you anywhere with them, friend," Evan said, with a sly smile and giddy deposition. He was a few yards down the short corridor. He leaned up against a half-pillar that was built into the gray and black swirling texture of the walls. A small wood and gold coffee table sat next to him. On top of it, I noticed a black and gold lamp that brought back memories.

This was the same chamber of the Parthenon where I, and some of my Squadron team members, found the former Chancellor dead at his desk from a heart attack, at age forty-one. That lamp was on his desk at the time, which is just beyond the entryway that Evan is standing in front of, and then down the hall. The lamp was labeled as a treasure in memory of the late Chancellor. There were tours being given in his honor and things like that lamp were landmarks and talking points for the tour guides to explain his unlikely rise and fall as the youngest Chancellor in Draconian history.

Sebastian was a part of the senate before he rose to claim the seat of Chancellor. The senate voted him in nearly unanimously, which was odd considering the publi
c’
s disdain for his desires to return to the days of old. We probably should have had an election, but he was in the line of succession, and the elected senate approved him. Though true, he was anti-Phillip, some might say. Phillip became Chancellor while running against Sebastian and beat him with ease. Sebastian was a man without compromise. His first order as Chancellor, in Phillips stead, was to ban the use of magik. Something that hasn't occurred since the days when the Great Eight still walked the earth over a millennium ago. Those were different times, very different, but Sebastian was obsessed with that era. It's a wonder he hasn't done away with the 8ights Council all together. He didn't take their advice on anything anyhow.

Likewise, it's truly a wonder why he ever liked me. My marriage to Julia was something even the most liberal Draconians would think to be over the line. Her green eyes and different cultural background being the only reason. But I couldn't let that thwart love. It would have been the worst decision of my life. And that's saying something, considering where I am now. All because of her.

"I'm imagining your biggest concern right now is that troubling son of yours, am I right, Criston
?
” He was mocking me, but he also had Corinth in his grasp, so this one I'd have to play cool.

"I am really concerned," I started out calmly. "Corinth is just a boy, you know that. He can't handle all of this. If you need to take me in, then do it, but send him up north to my mothe
r’
s. It's the best place for him to be right now."

"You still don't get it!" Evan shouted in an angrily excited tone. He was scratching behind the left side of his neck like it was a lottery ticket. He'd start to bleed soon if he didn't get a grip. "You are not the prize," he went on, "your son, Corinth, h
e’
s the prize in all this! Not you, so get over yourself! Everything isn't about you!" his voice started to crack as he bent over and fell to the white and black marble floors of the same pattern from the walls.

I was silently hoping for him to drop dead, but I tried to keep a cool composure. The two goons guarding me at my sides rushed over to help, but he swatted at them like flies.

"Get your grubby hands off of me! I'm fine. Just get him into the offices and continue on with the operation!" They reacted on command and returned to my sides to wheel me into the former offices of Chancellor Phillip. Now the offices of acting Chancellor, Sebastian Wilcox. As we passed Evan, and made our way through the black arches of the threshold, he whispered something into my ear. "Things are
n’
t what they seem," he almost sounded like his natural self again.

When we entered the vestibule of the Chancellor's offices, I noticed something odd. A peculiar mark behind the ear of the other goon, who was a little bit shorter than the goon to my right. They both had the same scar behind their left ears. I saw this guy's scar as he dipped inward and turned his head. He was trying to get a better grip on the handlebars that helped them wheel the heavy altar they had me horizontally strapped to. At first, my only sight was the ceiling and their faces, and then they used the handles to redirect the position of the altar. They turned me upright and continued pushing me forward on the two bottom wheels.

The Chancellor's offices were subdivided into different chambers for the members of his staff. The hall we're in is wrapped around in a circle. There were dark brown doors every few feet. They all had small gold plated labels on them, bearing names engraved in black. These are the different offices of the staff that are important enough to warrant needing an office. The Chancellor's personal office is positioned at the very end of the hall, in either direction. There are two entrances or exits, if ever Sebastian chooses to use them. The office is large and has a huge window that covers the whole wall behind the Chancellor's desk. It overlooks a beautiful garden on the outside perimeter of the Center Square.