Page 59 of Heart Broken Mate

“I sound eager to save those kids.”

“It’s nice in here. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to live here forever.”

I looked around at the people, the community they had formed, the joy on their faces, and how they all looked so content to be here. It wasn’t a bad way to live at all. In fact, it seemed like theperfect way to live. I could imagine Luke and me here, having our own little Yola, hunting in the mornings, taking long walks with friends in the afternoon, and making love like we did last night, every night. It would be the most blissful thing ever.

But there are bigger expectations of me, and before I can have the life I desire for myself, I have to fulfill those expectations first. The moon stone grants great power, and surely, with that comes great responsibility.

The crowd was gathered in the same place they were last night, and when they saw us, they became excited and made way for us to pass through. Yola led us through them and to the top of the hill, where Merine was waiting for us.

He looked different. He was dressed in an overflowing black robe and had a hood that he didn’t wear, making him look a bit like a monk. There were two boys beside him, each holding a wooden box with intricate flowery designs on them. Yola stopped right before him and bowed a bit before moving away. I was looking right at him now. He looked mysterious and gave off a sense of someone with such immense power in the robe.

“Welcome,” he said, and I could swear there was something different about his voice. It was more focused, and there was a sense of command. He sounded like a person who wanted every word he said obeyed, and I found myself bowing a bit as Yola did, but I nudged myself to get back in control.

Merine raised his right hand, and the crowd fell silent save for some kids who still chatted in the background. He cleared his throat.

“Everyone of us here was raised on the myth of the moon stone. We were told to wait for the day travelers would come in searchof it, and only worthy ones will be allowed to see it. Today, we have two travelers before us who claim to have a right to the stone. At the end of the day, we will see if they are worthy of the stone or if they are, like the others that have come before them, frauds that want the stone for selfish reasons. The stone will only show itself to people with royal blood who are loyal to the blood and the whole community of wolves. People who will dedicate their lives to erasing tyranny and restoring the order of things intended by nature. Today, they will undergo tests, at the end of which, they will either be cast out of the village as failures or will walk out with their heads held high and their names forever etched into history.”

He looked away from the crowd and then looked at Luke and me. He smiled a bit, and I could tell that somewhere in him, he believed we were the right people. The ones that will finally reveal the stone to them.

“Step forward,” he said.

I moved first, and Luke followed me.

Merine looked at the boy to his left, who turned around and opened the box he was carrying to reveal a knife. It was unlike any that I’ve seen them use in here. Its blade was made of brass, and it glistened in the morning sun. It had a long hold with a stone at the top of it. The stone was bluish and dull and held by a hilt made of black leather wrapped around it. It was an exquisite knife.

Merine removed and showed it to the crowd, all of whom were in awe, and the chittering among them resumed. Merine didn’t bother stopping them, and it soon died out on its own.

“Give me your hands,” he said, and I stretched mine to him first. He grabbed hold of it and looked into my eyes before nicking a part of my thumb, causing blood to flow. He did the same for Luke and then returned the knife to the box.

He turned around to the next boy, and the boy opened his box. There were two pieces of cloth in it. Two tiny pieces that looked like they were made of reed soaked in red dye. He removed the two and placed one over my pricked thumb and the other over Luke’s. He wrapped the clothes around the thumb but removed them again and changed their positions. He placed the one he had placed on Luke, which was now stained with his blood, over my thumb and placed the one he had placed over my thumb earlier on Luke’s, then he proceeded to finally tie them together.

“Now, you’ve been bound in blood and an oath,” he said and nodded. “Come with me.”

He turned around and started down the hill. We followed him and walked for about thirty minutes with the community behind us until we finally came to a cave hidden behind a thick vegetation of grass and trees.

“For your first task. You will go into the cave and find your way out.”

“That’s all?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “Now, get going.”

Luke and I looked at each before we started towards the cave, and when we got to the mouth, we saw an opening through which we could go in. We walked in, and behind us, the opening was closed, throwing us into semi-darkness. There were some rough natural stairs that must have been made from centuriesof trodding down the cave, so we followed them until we got to the floor of the cave, which was large enough to house a small community.

“Do we just walk back outside?” I asked.

“I don’t think that door will open for us anymore,” Luke said and turned around to consider the rest of the cave. “Maybe there is something on the wall that we can use.”

We spent the next couple of minutes walking by the cave wall, looking for signs or anything that might suggest a way out and ended up with nothing. It was just a standard empty wall, nothing interesting about it. We ended up on one of the stairs and sat down to think. I looked around me, searching eagerly to see if there was anything that we had missed.

“There has to be something in here that we are missing,” Luke said, but I couldn’t figure out anything. The cave itself didn’t look impressive—just an excavated interior of rock with bare walls. I stood up again and walked to the wall, this time touching them closely and running my hand over their rough surfaces to see if there were some carvings in it like they were on the medallion. There was nothing there. Just the normal serrations on a rock’s surface. Nothing looked out of place.

I was about to walk back to Luke and wait until the men outside got tired and rolled the stone out of the cave mouth when I decided to try one more trick. I glowed my eyes, just as I had done with the medallion. The walls came alive. I wondered why that didn’t come to mind earlier on.

There were carvings on it now that glowed in a sort of blue-green light. I stepped back, shocked by it, and Luke was by my side immediately.

“What is it?”

“Glow your eyes,” I told him.

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