Ch. 14
Numair woke slowly, the light from the window momentarily blinding him. As he yawned he felt the tracks from last night's tears on his face and remembered his dream. It had seemed so real…
Numair jumped with a start as he heard the door sliding open. He leapt to his feet and braced himself to see his captor. At first it seemed like no one was there, but suddenly the air shifted to his left and a tall man appeared. Numair gasped as he saw the man's face, or rather his left eye which was made solely up of a single ruby that glinted in the light. The man spoke.
"Arram Draper… or Numair as you like to be called. Do you know why you have been kidnapped? No? I thought not. I will tell you, since I am not completely lacking in manners, even for one such as you who deserves none."
Numair's nostrils flared. "Inar… how dare you…" Numair started forward with a word of power on his lips but was flung back when the bracelet prevented him form using magic. He picked himself up. "Damn you, Inar! What do you want?"
Inar laughed. "Why, surely you know of Emperor Ozorne's anger towards you? You escaped him yes, but you will not escape me!" With that Inar gestured at Numair who flew back and hit the wall with a crack. A small trickle of blood appeared from behind his ear. He struggled to his feet, gasping. Inar gestured again and again, repeating the magic upon Numair.
Numair tried to lift his head up and fell weakly back onto the ground. "Inar… stop…"
Inar sneered at him. "No, I don't think I will. I'm having too much of a good time. Are you not? Well, I'm terribly sorry- we'll just have to fix that now won't we!" Inar clapped his hands together and drew them apart. Vines sprang up from out of no where and wrapped around Numair's wrists and ankles, digging into the skin. Inar sauntered up to Numair and smiled evilly. "But before I rid myself of you, well, I'll just have to see what I can do about you're little student that intends on rescuing you." Numair gasped. Inar chuckled. "Oh yes, I know she's coming. My spies have been posted around this accursed tower for days, monitoring her movements. What do you think I should do to her first… hmmm… how about I cut out her heart and give it to her, since I can tell that she means so much to you."
Numair's face had slowly gotten redder as Inar had talking and with a roar of rage that surprised even Inar, the vines snapped and the bracelet shattered around Numair's wrist. With a sudden bloom in power that shone black in the bright room, Numair pointed at Inar's ruby eye and yelled out a word of power. The tower began to shake from the force of the magic emitting from Numair's body.
Suddenly all was quiet. Not even the birds outside the tower made noise. One mile away Daine and the raven froze, hair and feather alike crackling with static electricity. She started running.
Back in the tower it seemed as if time had frozen. Numair lowered his hand and shouted one last word of power before he crumpled to the ground.
Five feet away the ground shimmered around Inar's feet. He couldn't move and screamed helplessly for the tower servants to come help him. All of the sudden a single drop of water fell from the ceiling, landing on Inar's eye. With a ground-shuddering jolt, Inar's body began to melt, forming a pool of indistinguishable liquid which flowed into the drain by the door. He continued melting until all that was left was the ruby eye.
At that moment a servant had finally realized that his master was calling for help so he raced up the stairs to assist his master. By the time he made it up to the room that Earth had stopped shuddering and jolting. He stumbled into the room, tripping over the ruby eye. He looked at Numair's motionless form and started to grin until he looked down to see what had tripped him. He snatched up the eye to examine it and upon realizing what it was he ran screaming down the stairs and out the front door, startling Daine and the raven.
Daine jumped as a servant came crashing out of the tower, clutching a large ruby and screaming. She stared after him as he ran into the forest. She snapped her head back to the tower and raced up the stairs. She checked in every room for a hint of her teacher with no avail until she reached the top of the stairs and entered the very last room.
Daine cried out as she noticed Numair's limp form. She ran to him and fell down at his knees, sobbing.
"Oh, Numair… what's happened to you? Oh, no…" Unsure if he were still alive, Daine knelt over to place her head on his chest in search of a heartbeat. Detecting a slight pulse, she let out a sob of relief and collapsed fully against him, crying and shaking in relief and fright.
She felt a slight pressure on her head and turned to come face to face with a large hand. The hand stroked her cheek softly and she turned even more to meet Numair's dark eyes. His cracked lips parted.
"My… magelet..."
A tear fell from his eyes as he trembled and sank back into a deep sleep. Daine smiled a small smile and rested her head on her arm to join him in slumber.