Page 31 of The Knight
“You cut me with a Corruptor’s blade?” I gasped as I felt the life drain from me and pool around me. Corruptors blades were painless when used, and then the pain was tenfold after the cutting was done.
“Let’s see if this will break that little vow of yours.”
“I don’t care if you kill me slowly, I will never tell you anything.”
“And I don’t care if I have to keep you alive for all of eternity.” He finished wiping his blade, and then he looked at me. “I am Prince Cadian of the Embra, and I will be the next king.” With that, he left the room, and I had to try and repeat over and over again in my head what he had just said. He was a prince of the Embra? He was Prince Cadian? Prince Cadian died. But he looked so much like Shad. Could this man really be Shad’s brother? I wondered. That was the last thought I had before blackness took me, and I hoped it didn't take me back to the beach on Terra with grey eyes and brown hair, blowing in the sea breeze.
“Anymore talking?” Cadian asked for what felt like the ten thousandth time as he stabbed me again. He wasn’t using the corruptor's blade, so I felt the pain right away. I bit my cheek to keep myself upright and alert. How long had I been down there? Days? Weeks? Months?
“I do not have the information you seek,” I gasped as he slid his silver knife into a patch of flesh yet untouched by him, near my neck. The cave was cold and dark. Half of the time, I just laythere, wondering if I had gone blind—until he came back with a lamp in order to torture me again, and I knew that I could see all too well. What I wouldn't do to feel warmth again.
“Sir,”
I watched as Cadian turned to look at a soulless guard, entering the cavern.
“Yes,” he asked, setting down the knife and shoving me to the floor.
“There is someone in the cave.”
Cadian nodded. “Finally, took them long enough.” He wiped his hands on a towel, for they were covered in my red blood.
A sickening feeling crawled up inside of me. No—they didn’t come. Mary, she wouldn’t really let that happen, I thought.
“Should we catch him, my lord?”
“No, let him think he has a fighting chance. I would like to see how this plays out.”
The soulless man nodded, and I thought it strange how human-like the soulless seemed to be.
“Don’t hurt her,” I begged, hardly able to speak anymore.
“Emma?” he asked, looking at me with fake sadness. “Oh dear, of course not. I need her soul.” With that, he was swept from the room, and I lay my cheek upon the frozen and rocky cave floor.
“Ryker?” I was being shaken as I slept, and I flinched back awake by instinct.
“Ryker, I am here to save you. It's Keil.” I opened my eyes. It wasn’t a dream if Keil was right in front of me. Who else was there? I prayed to the Ancients that he was alone.
“Tra-p—” I barely spoke before the doors were shut, and a soulless man took Keil and shackled him beside me in chains.
“Who is it?” Keil asked after the soulless left. His eyes were wide. I looked at his entire person and saw the comforting sight of the ancient warrior armor. How had he been captured if he was a warrior? I wondered.
“Cadian.”
“How is that even—” He paused before speaking again. “What have you done, Ryker.”
“Nothing,” I said, coughing onto the stone floor.
“You are not a noble cause. The Ancients didn’t see fit to save you. If they had, I wouldn’t be chained here beside you.”
“I have no idea why your abilities are blocked,” I whispered. At the same time, I still wondered if the Ancients wanted me dead because of Lamont and Ara, because I had failed them. Maybe it was what happened to failing guardian knights, or perhaps, it was the corruptor's blade that had marked my soul.
“You better hope that she doesn’t come,” Keil said in irritation. “Knowing her, and only from the little information I have picked up on, she doesn’t give up very easily, and she cares for you.” The words were torture.Emma—is she here?I wondered. Cadian would get everything then.
“Tell me, she isn’t—” I gasped, pulling my body up to look more fully at him.
“Emma, Mary, Prince Shad, and I all came under Mary’s direction torescueyou. Mary said you hadn’t responded in the allotted time.”
I nodded. I was completely aware that Mary would try to find me. That’s when Glasson’s voice echoed in my head, telling me in my mind that I had become too close to my heirs; I had gotten too close to Mary and too close to Emma. It was true, and because they had learned to care for me as I did for them, they were going to be destroyed for it.
