Page 30 of The Knight
“Let me help you. I can get your head checked by a healer and some new clothes,” I said, worried about the severity of her head injury.
“Oh, I appreciate that.” She lifted her gaze up toward me, the lightning in her grey eyes held me there. Then slowly she swayed, and then before I could catch her, she passed out onto the sand.
“Ah, so this is how a soulless is made naturally,” a voice echoed around me as the Terran blue ocean and grey eyes of a lost girl lingered in my mind for just a moment longer. Blast that box. What was the point in having it if it never kept the memories away? I looked up, realizing that I needed to focus on the present, not on the past. I saw a man before me. I spit at his feet. I would have spit on his face; however, the ties at my wrist and ankles prevented me from standing upright. He held my head by my hair, and I groaned. His black, soulless eyes stared back at me.
“I knew that my informant would do a good job getting you here. I am just sad that you didn’t bring Emma.”
“What do you want with her?” Fear shot through me.
“What do I want with her?” He shoved me back down to the cave floor, and my head hit a rock, causing me to see stars, but I kept my eyes open. I had to keep my eyes open.
“I need her soul,” he said, walking out of my view as I tried to sit up. “I need her soul in order to go back to Terra, and I also need to find the portal that let you through. I have heard whispers that a knight knows where the portal is. That knight is you.”
“You were misinformed; I do not remember where it is.” He walked over to where I lay on the floor, and he kicked me in the side.
“Donotlie to me, knight.”
“I am not.”
“And I assume that you think I am supposed to believe that? The word of a guardian knight used to mean something. At one time in my life, I would have believed you in a heartbeat, but now?” He bent down and moved the hair from my face. There was a gash on my forehead from when I fell, and I felt the sickening, sharp pain as he dug into the cut with his fingers. I pulled against the urge to cry out.
“You are no guardian knight of Terra. You are no honorable guardian.”
“My vows are unbroken,” I retorted as he let go of my hair and face. The stinging pain from the cut on my forehead made me clench my teeth. I tried to focus on it, feel the pain, and let it help me stay awake and keep me from losing consciousness.
“Really? Lamont is dead, knight. Dead—unless I am mistaken, that was a vow broken.”
I flinched. That hurt worse than anything else he had done to me.
“Don’t even get me started on this whole soulless thing you have going on.” He waved a hand at me as he walked around a table and sat down.
“I am no soulless.”
“Knight, I am sorry to inform you, but you seem to be mere months away from beingcompletelysoulless. Why not let your melody sing? Why do you hide it in shame? Many would kill—and have killed—for a simple melody.”
“I do not have to tell you anything.”
“This is true—very, very true.” He set his elbows on the table where he sat, leaning his chin on his hands as he looked atme. His eyes, though dark and soulless, seemed to be searching mine, genuinely curious. He was a disturbing creature to behold. His inky, black, oily hair. His nose, which looked to have been broken at one point and never fixed properly, made his face look all the more wrong. His skin was pale and sickly.
“But if you do not tell me where the portal is, I will kill you, and it will not be fast; it will be slow and painful.”
“Do what you will. I will not break my vows.”
“So, it is a vow is it that keeps you silent?” he asked as he stood again, taking more interest in me, coming closer. I shouldn’t have indulged him. I shouldn’t have told him I had another vow. His steps echoed in the large cavern.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I spat at him. This time hitting him in the face. He laughed as he took a napkin away from one of his soulless men and wiped his face.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked with a smile, but I just stared at him. I didn’t know who he was, other than he was the one who murdered Lamont and Ara. I didn’t care to play his games.
“I asked you a question, knighty-boy.” He took out a knife and cut my arm.
I made no noise, not a sound. I pictured Emma in my mind. I pictured her safe, and I smiled.
“I think you need more of these,” he said as he cut me again.
Still, I was numb. I thought of Emma, and I imagined her being safe. I pictured her brilliant emerald green eyes, her smile, her hand in mine—so warm and so wonderfully right. I would die for her. Even if it took a thousand cuts to slowly drain the life from me, I would gladly die, gladly sacrifice my life for hers. Maybe someday, I would end up with the Ancients in the next life. I smiled again as cut after cut tore at my flesh.
With bloodied hands and an enraged face, he kicked me, and I felt each cut then, and I gasped. He looked at me, and the painengulfed me. It was agony everywhere. It hurt as if I was being stabbed over and over again, feeling the blackness of corruption coat my soul. I looked at his weapon and saw the markings it held.
