Page 16 of Somber Prince

I pounded with both fists against the chests of the guards who stood in my way.

“Hush now.” The woman’s voice sounded from behind me. Black tendrils slithered around my wrists. Getting hold of my arms, the smoky appendages moved them aside and away from the guards. “Yours is not the worst fate, child. It’s best for you to learn to be happy here.”

“But I don’t want to be happy. I can’t! Definitely not here.”

“Nonsense,” she said, using her tendrils to turn me around. “Happiness is the heart’s deepest desire. Everyone longs to experience joy. You’re one of the lucky ones who can. Why deny it to yourself?”

A man held up something constructed from wide black ribbons and studded with golden star-rosettes.

Was that the harness that they all kept talking about?

In my struggle, I tripped over my feet, and I would’ve fallen had the woman not held me with her tendrils.

“If you don’t want to cooperate, we’ll do it without your help. But it will be done,” the woman cooed, uttering the threat as if it were words of comfort.

“It has to be done,” a man echoed.

Another woman cut my t-shirt and my bra off me with a small dagger.

“You ruined my clothes!” I cried, trying to cover my breasts with my arms.

“You’ll get new ones.” They pried my arms away from my chest and laid me out on the table like on a sacrificial altar. “Be still now.”

The rest of the Joy Guardians released their tendrils. They slapped them like ropes around my arms, legs, and torso, immobilizing me. My heart raced so fast it echoed in my skull.

“Now, let’s slip this on,” one of the women said, gesturing to the man with the harness. “We’ll be done in no time, Sweet One,” she said in a sing-song voice.

She sounded kind, as if she was helping a child get dressed in the morning. As if she was putting cozy socks on my feet, not some devious contraption that was designed to do god-knows-what to me.

They threaded my arms through the two loops of ribbons on each side, then closed two other loops, one around my neck, the other just under my breasts. The soft ribbons lay flat and snug against my skin. The cold, metal rosettes pressed against my arms and my spine.

“Now relax your body and feel.” A male Guardian pressed a hand on my shoulder, urging me to stay down. The rosettes on my back scraped against the hard, black metal of the table-altar.

I breathed rapidly, staring at the high vaulted ceiling where the painted wooden beams met in a hexagon in the middle. Small white, orange, and green tiles made a pattern inside the hexagon. Counting the green tiles in my head, I prayed all of this would be over soon.

So far, nothing hurt, but the loss of control was unnerving. I couldn’t move a muscle, tied with the solid, black ropes of their tendrils.

Resting their fingers on the edge of the altar, they murmured softly. I listen to the words they recited in unison. It sounded like a call to gods I’d never heard of.

“Nelinu, God of Darkness, lend us your magic to reach the realm unknown. Help us connect to the hidden world of her emotions.”

“Melas, Lady of Night, the First Priestess of Joy, guide your Vessel. Let her feel.”

The altar appeared to hum. The metal stars on my harness vibrated against it with a soft clinking noise. A golden glow rose from the altar, arching like a sarcophagus around me.

“What’s happening?” I whimpered, but they didn’t hear me, lost to their chants.

Their eyelids hooded their eyes. Their features relaxed as if in meditation. The glow shimmered in the candlelight. It looped to the stars of the harness. The metal warmed, then heated, searing my skin.

“It burns!” I screamed, jerking in the hold of their tendrils.

But the Joy Guardians wouldn’t let me move.

I was trapped. Burning alive.

The physical pain grew unbearable. Everything hurt, even the sight of the candle flames. I shut my eyes. The metal burned through my skin, melting into my body. I howled, gritting my teeth.

In addition to the physical pain, something darker and far more sinister gripped me from the inside. The pain of loss. The agony of grief. Sadness so dark it was mind-blinding. The emotional torment was deep and all-consuming. Tears streamed down my face, but they brought no relief. For there was no relief from this devastating anguish.

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