The Armor of the Soul

By Dixxy

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Journey to the Jewel

(Sam)

I guess I kind of trusted Sage. Maybe it was the connection of the armors, but I could tell he only wanted to protect me from harm. Poor guy was in a tough position to do that. I felt bad for him, to an extent. I only KIND OF trusted him, after all.

Still, what he said about normal family life did make sense. Sara and her family were like that a lot. I don't think a day goes by that she doesn't complain about something one of her siblings did to bug her- she's like Sage, a middle child. Even in their unusual position, what with both parents in wheelchairs, Keisha's family was similar to what Sage told me about. Were other families like that?

Cara and Cale escorted us into Trulpa's throne room. Now that I saw Cara I understood why we could never see her eyes. These big, maroon swimming goggles covered her eyes. They shone in the dim light, giving her an eerie, mad scientist look. But something about those glasses just seemed wrong. Something about them. . . I didn't like them. Given I was in a world where just about EVERYTHING was wrong, but the glasses were something I couldn't describe.

"Keep moving," she said coldly. Sage shot her a look. She didn't responded to it.

Before long we were brought into a large throne room decorated in bloody reds and ebony blacks. Six more warlords and ladies stood before Trulpa, who was sitting on a deep black throne. Unlike the last time we saw her, she wore a purple and red dress , but her little skull tiara remained.

I looked over the other people. One of the women had deep, ash black hair and a gruesome black spider web tattooed on her face. The man standing next to her looked like a pirate with his black eye patch and white hair. Two very snakelike people, the man with green hair and the woman with purple, also stood before Trulpa. The last two looked more. . . normal. The man had dirty blonde hair and the woman had Anubis' hair color with yellow streaks throughout it.

"Ah, welcome, welcome," said Trulpa, standing up and walking over to us. I started welling up spit in the bottom of my mouth. Then, when she got close enough, I'd spit at her. Right in the eye hopefully.

"Swallow your saliva, Samantha," said Trulpa. Not sure how she knew, I did. I looked over at Sage and he just shrugged. The look he gave me told me that he and his friends had tried that game before. And lost. Miserably. "Now I'm guessing Sage told you why you're here, or do I have to tell you the whole story?"

"You can get him to do it because you have his friends, whatcha gonna do to get me to do it, too, huh?" I said.

Trulpa smiled. Then she snapped her fingers as two thirteen year olds stepped out. The girl wore a green leotard over white leggings and a small, light brown armor over that. Long, blue hair was held in a high pony tail. The boy had the same hair, only shorter and wavy. His armor was a simple light samurai outfit. "May I introduce you to Lady Kayura and Lord Kamusa?"

"The last of the Ancient's clan," I said. Sage nodded, acknowledging my statement as correct.

"Sage told you a lot, I see," said Trulpa thoughtfully. "How cute. No matter. Kayura and Kamusa are easily the stealthiest, the most efficient, and most deadly assassins in the Dynasty. How would your dear Aunt Ella fare against them?"

"Ella!" I said, my eyes widening. No, not Ella! She'd raised me! Taken me in after my parents died! If you take away the Senshi, she was all I had. If something happened to Ella. . . I didn't know WHAT I'd do. "Let her go!"

"I didn't capture her, you dimwit. She's safe and sound back in Boston. But we know exactly where she is, you see, and these two will get rid of her," said Trulpa. Both assassins began to sharpen very sharp swords, each glinting in the candlelight that lit Trulpa's throne room.

"She's telling the truth. I haven't actually seen Kamusa in action, but Kayura's a walking lethal weapon," said Sage. "I don't think your aunt would stand a chance, even if Anubis and your friends got there."

"Listen to the boy," said Trulpa. She grinned, then chuckled. "He knows the sting Kayura can leave. She enjoys tormenting her victims before making the killing. I would like to say the same for Kamusa, but. . . as of yet, he's only been a spy. Though I'm sure that he'd make some very interesting cuts and stabs given the chance. Or perhaps they could just kidnap her back here- I'm sure the Warlords wouldn't mind her company."

"You. . . you. . ." I started, getting very angry. Cara held me back.

"Uh-uh-ah!" said Trulpa, shaking her finger and clicking her tongue. "Now, we have a somewhat long journey ahead of us, so, don't disobey me. You, my dear Senshi, loose your only family. You, my dear Warrior, loose the only people who you trust and cherish as friends that you can show your face around without causing a commotion."

Sage grimaced. I knew that Trulpa had definitely hit a sensitive spot. I felt even worse for him now. Did he really put up with this for a YEAR!? Dear Lord, I don't know if I'd survive a few days without going completely insane!

Trulpa just stood up. "We leave immediately."

"Leave?" I asked. I exchanged a look with Sage. He shrugged. "Where are we going?"

"The location of the Jewel of Death: the White Mountains," said Trulpa.

That was interesting. The White Mountains are the northern most mountains of the Appalachian Mountain Range. They're known as the White Mountains because of lots and lots of snow. In fact, that's where Keisha's family had their summer house. And, if I was lucky, they weren't too far from where Rona was.

Speaking of which, I had no idea what she did. Did she go back to Boston for help? Or did she stay put and try to figure out what happened?

"Where?" I asked.

"That's why we need you brats. We don't know WHICH mountain," she said.

"And there's a lot of mountain range to search through," I said. The girls will bust us out before that happens. . . but what about his friends? They don't even KNOW about the other two. . . oh, what to do, what to do. . .

This was going to be hard. . .

~

Trulpa took Cale, Cara, Sage, and me to the mountains immediately. I was in my regular clothing, while she'd given Sage and her minions their own clothes. We were briefly in a store since Trulpa wanted something to bring back (Why an evil Dynasty empress was souvenir shopping is beyond me). Sage and I were instructed to "act normal". Cara and Cale tried to do that, although Cara got a few stares due to her bug eye glasses. She didn't seem to notice.

Weird. . .

I noticed Sage seemed to look relieved. It must have been his first time back in the Mortal Realm for a long time. He looked at some of the things in the store with a serious monotone, running his hands over a few of the items. Some of those things must have either brought back memories from his family (his mother was an American and part of their home was furnished as if it were in the Western world) or he was just going into some sort of a state of shock. I wanted to say something nice, but I never really learned how to do that. Especially with a guy, since I spent two thirds of my fifteen years avoiding them.

Me, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next. I wasn't exactly thrilled about helping Trulpa, although I didn't have much of a choice. I knew Sage must have felt the same way, but it was that or loose the ones closest to us.

After Trulpa bought a box of some sort of candy, we left for the first mountain. As we started off towards the wilderness, Sage took my hand and squeezed it. Somehow, I needed that.

~

After several hours of failures, we set up camp on one of the mountains. Trulpa warned us that if we tried escape that we knew the consequences, so we stayed. I didn't want to, though. Cara and Cale set up three tents, one for Trulpa, one for Cale, and the other were Cara would be guarding me and Sage.

Lucky us.

The tent was a weak cotton that let the wind in. Trulpa had our armor orbes in case we tried anything that might get us out of obeying her and saving my aunt and his friends, so we were stuck in what we had. Cara had a warm, woolen blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she sat just outside the shoulders.

After about a half hour of sitting in the dark tent and saying nothing, Sage began to crawl for the exit. I wondered what he was doing.

"Sage get back in there," said Cara. Her back was still to the entrance, she hadn't moved a muscle, and it was as if she just. . . KNEW. . . that Sage had moved. Sage, you're busted. . .

"But I gotta go," he said.

Cara grumbled. I almost laughed. "Fine. But make it quick. No more than five minutes, got it?"

"Got it," he said, standing up and disappearing into the night.