Outside Hell (5 page)

Vrakug then seeking revenge also stepped up
his spell learning too. He’d used his portal late at night to get
into the study and took some of the deeper dark books from the back
shelves, the ones with more sinister spells in them. Then after
he’d learnt them and tried casting them in his cold stone room,
some of them had powerful results. Windows appeared that he could
watch outside the castle from and also follow Vrakug with, only
when the evil bastard had turned around once and looked straight up
towards the window as if could see it, Dracus had shit himself and
closed the spell. Then the other ones he’d summoned had started to
form hideous beasts, but again when he’d only a few words left to
read, Dracus had stopped reading the words again and let the beast
vanish.

Dracus felt that it would only be a matter of
time now until he’d found a spell that would be so powerful that he
could attack Vrakug with it, but feared deeply the consequences
should he fail. So far he only knew how to give life to dead
animals, light a candle, summon a portal, make some beasts and
apart from a few other things, make his bedding warm before he’d
got into it, hardly powerful sorcery enough to kill Vrakug with. No
if he’d rushed into it and Vrakug laughed at his spells that he
threw at him, there wouldn’t be jail time from the evil bastard,
instead he’d just vaporize him with those crimson red rays, which
is probably what he did to the former king and queen too, Dracus
thought.

Then as time went on and with summoning his
portal to visit Janus who still wouldn’t run away with him,
something else had happened that meant everyone had no choice but
to run.

He couldn’t stay in the castle a second
longer either, Vrakug would find out about it and then he’d be
killed too.

Dracus had been in the caves wearing a hood
just in case Vrakug turned up to snatch a woman to pleasure him for
the night, and as he was kissing Janus in her small cave where
she’d slept, her father Jonyk had come for him. He’d asked him to
follow him, and told him that he’d something very important to show
him.

Then and in response he and Janus had got up
from the soft blankets that they were wrapped in, and then after
putting on some clothes with Dracus again wearing his hood, both of
them had followed Jonyk much deeper down into the mountain.

They’d walked along in the flickering light
from her fathers burning torch, whilst navigating for half a mile
down through the craggy uneven passageway. The path had led them
around boulders that were precariously scattered here and there,
and then occasionally they’d also had to duck down under some
lethal looking Stalactites, formed from the precipitation of
minerals that the water had brought through after dripping through
the ceiling for thousands of years.

Then once her father had reached the place
where he was going, he’d passed the burning torch to Janus, and
then with some difficulty due to his large frame, he’d squeezed
through a tiny gap in the rock wall.

Janus went next holding the torch up, and
with her curvaceous body she’d glided through with inches to spare
either side of herself, as if setting the standard that Dracus had
to follow in, only he’d failed too. Although he wasn’t as big as
her father, his non-curvaceous bum had snagged the wall.

Then once inside, Jonyk lit another bunch of
sticks that were already in there and together with the bunch that
was Janus had been holding, he’d placed them in the walls on the
opposite sides of the cave. The ardent flames had lit up the place
brightly, and washed it in their flickering glow.

A second past and then Janus’ mother Easarta,
a small lady similar in height to Janus but with dark hair and blue
eyes also appeared in the cave, whilst Jonyk then walked over to
the back of the cave. The wall he was standing in front of though
was strangely flat, and not craggy or rough like the other walls
around him.

As he’d walked towards it, Jonyk he’d looked
like a teacher that was approaching a blackboard, and preparing to
scribble on it with a chalk as the lesson was about to begin.

Jonyk paused and then turned around and
whilst looking at his daughter and smiling, he’d looked up with the
same loving smile towards Dracus too.

Jonyk said to Dracus that even though he’d
felt like he was his own son, and that they’d all loved him so very
much, they’d always known that he wasn’t truly their son, and had
something to show him.

The suspense was beginning to get to Dracus
and whilst he stood there next to his love, Janus held his hand
tightly.

Then as Jonyk had turned back to face the
wall, he’d raised his hand and started to wipe away the dirt that
was over it. All the time he was saying that a few days before
they’d found him in the wastelands, something had appeared in his
mind and then brought him down to the cave, and when he’d reached
it, he’d found that it had shown him who Dracus’ real parents
were.

Dracus then suddenly thinking of the woman
that had been killed in the forests when he was six and who he’d
always thought of as his mother, watched quietly as the big mans
hand past back and forth through the dirt in front of him.

Every pass that Jonyk had made revealed more
and more colors from underneath that were beginning to take the
shape of people.

Then as Jonyk had finished wiping away the
dirt from the wall, there before the bowman was an old cave
painting that showed a man and a woman in clothes that he’d never
seen before.

The woman was holding a naked baby up in her
arms that was facing into her chest, and apart from it being no
more than a year old, Dracus instantly noticed the mark on it’s
upper back. It was in the same shape as the crest on the spell
books that he’d seen in the evil lord study.

Then and with the extreme shock that was
suddenly passing through him, a million thoughts also raced through
his mind too.

The man was in a blue velvet suit with a
white fur cloak that was speckled with tiny black dots and flowed
down from around his neck, spanning out to within a foot of either
side of him. Then around his feet he’d worn shiny black shoes with
long white socks that ran up to, and then splayed out frilly about
his knees. Around his neck he’d white ruffles, and from beneath
he’d worn a long gold chain with a medallion the size of your hand
and en-scribed on its face, were the four planets overlapping one
another of the Valstrath Realm. Then on his head he’d worn
something that was also gold and filled with an array of
magnificently sparkling stones, and along from his elbows he’d gold
studs that were pushing through, until reaching more white ruffles
that appeared to encapsulate his hands from his shirt beneath.

The man had a rich colorful bronze complexion
with soft caramel hues and a somewhat jovial look about his face,
that appeared to be there just for show as if it was somehow
attempting to mask a deeper, and more bitter sadness within. He’d
also a black beard that hung down into the ruffles beneath, and
medium to dark eyes that looked like they were in deep thought.

Then the woman that was standing just an inch
to his side was unbelievably beautiful. She had dark hair and her
skin was just the same as his, a rich bronze color with the subtle
hues of warm caramel, and her face was slim and extremely beautiful
with dark eyes and small lips, that enhanced her shallow
jawline.

She was wearing a long burgundy dress that
appeared with its fold and shadows, to have a frame underneath it,
as it raced out a foot either side of her, and then gracefully
touched the floor beneath. Her shirt that was partially masked by
the child, was in the color of blanc d’innocence virginale, and
climbed up to within an inch either side of her narrow neck, before
racing out horizontally and then stopping in two equally sharp
points above her shoulders.

Dracus who was lost for words with his frozen
stature just stared forwards in disbelief at the pictures, before
saying, “but how do you know the babies me?”

Jonyk and his wife had smiled at him and then
said that they’d come to that in a minute, but first there was more
they’d wanted to show him. Dracus watched as Janus’ father then
knelt down and rubbed more dirt away from the wall, that was
beneath the painting.

As he did then letters appeared that
gradually took the form of a message.

It read,

To our beautiful people, who we loved and
cherished with all our hearts,

We have handed over our castle to an evil
lord called Vrakug, who appeared one day from a dark mass floating
above the Valstrath Realm and masked out the glorious light from
our god Lianor’s meteor, that she’d blessed us with so many years
before,

We are your king and
queen. Our names are King
Rasviult and
Queen Siarui and we ruled Eldor for hundreds of years. The land of
Eldor was a rich place and we never fought, we ate well and had
many parties up in the castle above. When Vrakug battled us with
his magic, it was too powerful against our magic, and we had to
succumb to his evil demands,

We sensed the deal of our surrender though
might not stand, and refused to hand over our magic to him, but
instead chose to place it in our only son that you can see in my
arms,

We also had the grave fear that should he
let you live, he might wash your minds of your past before his
arrival, and hope that as you are reading this, that you can find
it in your hearts to trust us when we tell you, that you all had
beautiful lives beforehand, that were free from the persecution and
tyranny of his evil ruling,

Our baby here Dracus, and in moments because
time is now not our friend, will be sent out into the forests with
his nanny to live far away, escaping Vrakug’s evil wrath. The path
they will take will lead under the witches cave, and their magic
will mask Vrakug’s from being able to follow them.

All our magic bar a little is within Dracus
now and when we are gone, if we can guide you to finding him,
please do not tell him until he has reached a manly age, because
before this he will not be ready to bear the responsibilities that
he must hold.

Dracus must find a way to kill Vrakug, and
then in doing so restoring Eldor to its former glory,

We love you all, and hopefully one day we
will be reunited again,

King
Rasviult and Queen Siarui.

Then after letting Dracus read it, and
everyone witnessing that he’d turned a pale shade of white in just
doing so, Jonyk said.

“When we found you, you were not of the age
then to tell you, but seeing that you held the same mark as the
baby, we hurriedly brought you back with us in our hunting bag, and
then covered you in the blood of a kill so that the Zamourn death
hounds wouldn’t find you. Now that you are of the age to
understand, and as we were asked to do so in the message, we hope
that soon you will know within yourself what it is that you have to
do to save your parents, and free Eldor from Vrakug’s evil
reign.”

Janus’ mother then walked forwards and poured
water over the back wall of the cave and a beautiful reflection
suddenly appeared, as it ran down the rock and then trickled into
the dirt beneath. Then as she’d held her hand forwards to him and
smiled, she’d asked him to remove his top so that he could see the
proof that he was the child for himself.

Dracus who was deeply aware of Vrakug’s plans
to kill the baby or person when he’d found it, and that he’d only
just thought that he had to warn the person so they could flee,
hoped with all his heart that the mark wouldn’t be there. Only as
he’d removed his top revealing his broad muscular body underneath
and then twisted around to see, it was there. The mark that for
obvious reasons he’d never seen before, was in the same place as on
the baby high up between his shoulder blades in the shape of the
royal crest.

The sudden deep concern for every ones safety
and the fact that he was a royal child and that these were his
parents was too much for him, and then in response, he’d sunk to
his knees.

Everyone had asked him if he was ok, but for
the second he’d remained quietly staring up from the dirt at his
parent’s picture. Janus was equally shocked and had no knowledge of
the mark either, and it was on her lovers back. She’d felt sure she
would have seen it, but obviously not!

Then looking at her parents with the same
look of shock that Dracus had deeply washed across his face, they’d
responded.

“Janus my darling, we couldn’t risk telling
you either to protect the request of the king and queen. If Dracus
is our only hope for freedom, we had to guard the secret with our
lives and tell no one.”

Janus who aware of the horrible life outside
the caves, and of the evil Vrakug who she’d only narrowly missed
having to bed, then fully understood her parents and smiled as
she’d looked down at Dracus with those naughty cat like eyes. A
second past and then she’d said to him, “I new there was something
special about you, you little bastard.”

Then and in response to everything, he’d
smiled and stood up a changed man.

When he’d come to the cave he’d not expected
anything, and then to have everything thrown upon him as he’d just
had, it had caught him completely off guard. Only now he’d felt
happy inside like an immense weight had been lifted off his mind
because he knew who his true parents were.