Page 47 of Magic Claimed
Father hugged us as the doors exploded. Soldiers poured inside, swords drawn. A flash of metal arched through the air and I was covered in a warm spray of crimson.
“Dada!” I screamed as Dada collapsed to his knees, holding his stomach. His mouth dripped with blood and he toppled forwards and stopped moving. Father and Papa pushed us behind them, drawing their swords, but we were outnumbered by the soldiers.
Mama gathered me in her arms. She trembled badly. She closed her eyes for a moment. “For what I am about to do, divine please forgive me.”
Behind her, Father stumbled and collapsed to the ground. A soldier rushed Papa and with a slice of his huge sword, Papa’s head toppled to the ground. Mama whispered her strange words and my stomach twisted as though I was going to be sick.
“Mama, it hurts,” I cried out.
Mama’s mouth fell open and her breath whooshed out in a rush. She coughed, spraying me with drops of her blood. My stomach hurt. The more she whispered the words, the more it hurt. It hurt so much tears filled my eyes and made everything look watery.
She sagged, and I saw the tip of a sword coming out of her chest. Her limbs were so heavy and then she continued to fall, trapping me beneath her. I cried out, but she didn’t move.
“Mama. Mama!” I cried out, but she didn’t answer. She didn’t wake up and she didn’t move a muscle.
Everything became quiet except for my crying. The soldiers came towards me. They looked huge and scary, with their bloodied uniforms and their swords drawn in their meaty hands. I clutched Mama but she didn’t move to comfort me.
“Don’t touch her!”
I whimpered at the loud voice and then a man dressed in long, black robes descended on me. Esoti. It was Esoti!
He tugged me free from beneath Mama with a cruel grip on my arm. I looked down at her to see her lifeless eyes staring at nothing.
“Mama!” I cried out, trying to get to her, but Esoti dragged me away from her. I screamed as loud as I could, struggling to rip his fingers off me. He slapped my face with the back of his hand so hard it made my vision go black and my ears rang.
He towered over me and stuck me with the power of his wand. My skin burned with the magic. I screamed for Mama, for Papa, Dada and Father, but nobody came.
At last, Esoti threw his wand down in disgust. Through my teary vision I saw Drisella standing next to him. “Any luck with her?”
“None,” Esoti spat. “We were too late.”
Drisella barred her teeth and spat on the ground next to me. I’d never seen a lady do that before. “We will have to keep trying to get it out of her.” Drisella made a face when she turned her attention to me. “Ugh. I hate children.” She eyed me like I was a bug she wanted to step on. I didn’t like her. I didn’t like Esoti either.
“Too bad yours died millennia ago,” Esoti said.
Drisella shrugged. “I don’t really remember them, to be honest. Too long ago to be a concern.”
“She’s young, but we’ll make her forget this for extra security,” Esoti said, rubbing his chin as he regarded me. I was so confused. I didn’t know what he wanted from me. Didn’t understand what was so important that they had to do bad things to my parents.
Drisella looked at the carnage around her and pursed her lips. “Pity she won’t remember this. It’s a great way to keep her in line. A little fear goes a long way.”
“Don’t worry, Drisella. I’m sure you’ll come up with some good suggestions. You’re the scariest person I know.”
Drisella swatted him playfully with her wand. “You always know what to say to a girl.”
A uniformed guard charged through the door and ran straight to Esoti, bowing haphazardly in his haste. “Reports have come in, Master. Pockets of magic in all Territories are as strong as this.”
Drisella turned her head to the heavens and screeched, “We’re too late! We’ll never get it now.”
“Calm yourself, Drisella. All we have to do is find the children and we’ll get the book.” He faced the guard. “Find the sources. Get the children,” Esoti snapped at the guard.
The guard clicked his heels and scuttled away, taking some of the other guards with him.
Esoti knelt in front of me and I whimpered as he picked up his wand and held it to my forehead. “I’m going to like having a slave like you, vermin. Now listen to me carefully…” He uttered the same words as Mama, but these words split my head in two. I screamed and called for Mama and my fathers, but he didn’t stop until the darkness took me away.
The black became liquid gold and as I hung there suspended by the golden warmth, I cried out for the family that had been taken away from me. For Mama, Papa, Father and Dada. All ripped away from me.
Esoti had taken them from my life and then he had taken away my memory of them. I didn’t have a mother who sold me to him for the price of a meal. I had a family who loved me. My mother gave her life for whatever was stuck inside me.
