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CHAPTER 17: THE SHATTERED CAGE
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Isle
"Lord Rief!" the guard barked, saluting. "There's nobody in Cell 31! Not a single prisoner!"
Rief almost dropped his glasses, which he had been in the process of cleaning. "Not a single one?! When did you first notice this?"
"Well," the guard explained, "the other guards and I first noticed something was wrong when Zhungmyen didn't show up to her post. I went off to inform you, but on my way I decided to check on the cell she guarded… and there was no one there at all. After that, I rushed here as fast as I could."
"Is anyone searching for Zhungmyen or the prisoners right now?"
"Yes, three other guards are."
"Good job," Rief said, with a kind smile, "you've done well. The Tuaparang thank you for your service."
"…thank you, sir," the guard said awkwardly, unaccustomed to compliments from his superiors.
"Remind me, which sort of prisoners were kept to Cell 31?"
"Cell 31 is the one that contained the female of the pair of adepts Latakia recently captured. The bulk of the other prisoners work in the mines, but a few work in the weapons depot instead."
"I was afraid of that," Rief sighed.
"What shall we do?" the guard asked.
Rief paused for a moment and pondered this, rubbing his bruised arms as he thought. "Please report this to Lady Latakia and do as she tells you," he said finally.
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Tyrell's cell
"It's not over for you," Tyrell told Myalkni, as he clenched the bars of his cell. "You can still make up for everything you've done wrong and more!"
Myalkni wasn't so sure he could really make up for everything he'd done. Tyrell probably doesn't know half the stuff I've done, he thought. Myalkni certainly didn't want him to.
"You can't change what happened in the past," Tyrell was saying, "but the future is still yours. It's not too late."
"But there's the curse," Myalkni countered faintly. "I don't have control over my future. Latakia and Arcanus do. I have to follow their every order."
Tyrell paused for a moment, sighed and spoke. "Aren't you disobeying them right now?" he asked. "Aren't you supposed to be torturing me?"
Myalkni hadn't realized that. He certainly hadn't consciously been disobeying Arcanus' orders, he thought.
"I'm not directly disobeying, I'm just delaying executing the order… maybe that's different," he guessed. "Though I really have no idea how this curse works. It's definitely activated before when I've disobeyed them and it was horrible beyond words."
The top of Myalkni's mouth felt heavy, as if some weight was pulling it down. Tyrell will think I'm lying about the whole curse now, he fretted.
"Unlocking your cell would definitely be disobeying her," Myalkni thought aloud, "so that would probably activate the curse."
"And so you won't do it, because of that?" Tyrell asked.
"No… I, I didn't …mean that," Myalkni stammered. It hurt that Tyrell thought that he'd forsake him just to avoid pain… even though that was exactly what he had done before.
I'm not like that, he wanted to say. But a voice inside his head reminded him that he really was that person, the pampered little prince who betrayed his because he couldn't endure physical pain.
Tyrell opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it, apparently changing his mind.
This could be my last chance! Myalkni realized. Arcanus could read his mind. If he discovers the memory of this conversation in my mind, he'll make sure I never get a chance like this again, and furthermore, by not trying to escape today, I could be condemning Tyrell to some horrible fate.
I already did that once before, Myalkni thought. I can't screw up again this time. It's now or never.
Still, there was fear. Fear of that horrible, unspeakable pain. That fear of pain that left him rolling on the ground, prepared to surrender anything for a respite. He couldn't deny he had that fear. He gritted his teeth and marched himself over to the table at the side of the room, opened the top drawer, and forced his trembling hands to snatch up the key.
"I knew you'd come through," Tyrell said.
"I decided," Myalkni said, "that forsaking you again would be much, much worse than anything this curse can do."
With slow, halting steps, he walked over to Tyrell's cell, bracing himself for the explosion of pain that was sure to come. As he put the key into the hole, he realized that a part of him was actually looking forward to it. A part of him wanted to suffer that way, because he knew he deserved to. He wanted Tyrell to see him enduring it.
But when he turned the key and opened the door, he felt nothing.
"What?" Myalkni said in shock. "Nothing's happening…"
"Well, that's great!" exclaimed Tyrell, as he climbed out of his cell. "Why do you make it sound like a bad thing?"
"I wasn't lying about the curse, I swear!" Myalkni said, having barely listened to him.
"It's not important. What's important is that we get out of here," argued Tyrell. "This is our moment, and we have to seize it."
"But I don't want you to think I was lying to you," Myalkni protested. "It was real before, I swear!"
"Maybe the curse has stopped working for now, for some reason," Myalkni thought aloud. "if so, this is definitely our chance to get out of here. We can't blow it."
"Yeah, it's our chance," Tyrell said. "It'll be hard, but there is a light at the end of this shithole cave we're in."
There's a light at the end of this cave, Myalkni repeated to himself silently. I can salvage myself… I can live again as myself, rather than Arcanus' perfect pet goon.
"Do you know the way out of here?" Tyrell asked.
"Yeah I do," Myalkni replied. "But first, you need your gear, don't you? Let's go get that."
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Corridor leading to the weapons depot
"Halt!" echoed the voice of the guard through the corridor. "Who goes there?"
"Why don't you come over here and see for yourself, you swines?" jeered one of the former prisoners.
A group of guards came charging down the corridor. Karis saw the panic in their eyes as they digested what they were seeing. They saw that they were outnumbered by the prisoners they had betrayed and tortured – prisoners who would slaughter them without a second's hesitation.
But the guards knew that only they had weapons.
"Surrender now or die!" shouted a guard.
"That's our line!" one of the prisoners yelled back. "You surrender, or we'll slaughter every one of you bastards."
"You'll die for your insolence," screamed the guard as he threw his spear. It pierced through the prisoner's heart. He fell to the ground soundlessly, in an almost dignified way.
The prisoners were not fazed in the least. While the guards clearly didn't completely comprehend how doomed they were, but Karis could see that they were beginning to realize the mistake in throwing the spear as they watched one of the other prisoners retrieve it.
Karis knew this was her time. She lifted her hand into the air and sent forth a gust of wind, sending the guards sprawling backward.
"Blast, it's the Adept!" cried one of them.
She then used her Shine Plasma Psynergy, and explosions of light and blue electricity filled the corridor. Most of the guards were left stunned on the ground, struggling to get up.
The other prisoners took this as their cue. They flew forward and swarmed the grounded guards. Screams echoed through the corridor as they began tearing each others' lives away. Karis looked to her side to see that only Zhungmyen was still there, her eyes wide with horror at what was happening to her colleagues.
The two guards that had still been able to stand after Karis' blasts struggled in vain to save their peers. One of the two was quickly swarmed by the fugitives and unable to fight in such a short range with her spear as she was beaten to her death. The other managed to sink her spear into quite a few prisoners before she herself was felled by the spear that a prisoner had seized.
For her part, Karis quickly healed the wounds of the fugitives. Before long, it was clear that the guards were finished. But the prisoners made the point of kicking them around a bit more before running each of them through with a spear, twice to make sure.
"Thank you so much for saving me," said Zhungmyen from Karis' side, as she watched the carnage.
"I wish I could've saved some of them from this too."
"The guards here might do horrible things, but in the end we're people too," said Zhungmyen softly.
Karis wasn't sure what was worse: that thought, or the thought of being the type of person who forgot that. The type of person that most of the fugitives seemed to be at the moment.
She watched as the fugitives began defiling the dead bodies in all sorts of unspeakable ways. I guess I just wasn't in here long enough to get messed up like that, she thought grimly. As she looked on, she noticed that, in fact, some of them weren't participating in this behavior, but were standing by and turning their heads away, unable to watch what their comrades were doing.
In the end, what bothered Karis the most afterwards was actually what happened to the bodies of the fallen prisoners. Or rather, what didn't happen to them. They were just left there. There was no farewells, no expressions of grief. The living took no notice of them at all, as if they hadn't been alive just a little earlier. And that bothered Karis to her core.
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Isle, short distance from Tyrell's cell
Tyrell's gear was stored in a small room a short walk away from his cell. Tyrell and Myalkni managed to sneak into the room without being caught, but when they were exiting, the door literally smashed into a guard as he ran.
Tyrell tensed for battle, but Myalkni cautioned him, holding him back with his hand. Let me handle this, please, Tyrell, he thought.
"Whoa," Myalkni said. "Are you alright there?"
"Yes, sir," the guard said as he got off the ground, "I'm fine. I was running to carry an urgent message to Latakia, but you should know too, my lord."
"What is it?"
"Lord Rief suspects that there's a rebellion going on," he explained. "A cell housing 40 prisoners was found empty."
Tyrell's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Rief is here?!"
"Shut your mouth," Myalkni snarled. "Remember your place!"
He really hoped Tyrell would take the cue. Myalkni knew from experience that Tyrell's mouth sometimes got the better of him. But, thankfully, Tyrell seemed to understand, and didn't say another word.
"The cell housed prisoners who worked in the weapons depot as well as one of the two adepts," the guard continued.
"Oh, that really does sound like trouble," Myalkni said, "but I trust that Rief and Latakia can keep it under control."
The guard narrowed his eyes as he looked at Tyrell. "Where are you going with him?" he asked.
"We're executing a special operation," Myalkni replied quickly.
"Is it necessary for your prisoner to be armed?"
"Excuse me," Myalkni said indignantly, "the details of this mission are very important and top secret. I certainly won't disclose them to the likes of you."
The guard took a step back. He still looked a little suspicious though, Myalkni thought.
"Don't forget who I am," snarled Myalkni, "or what I can do to you. Don't you dare question me, you grunt. I'm Lord Arcanus' son, and I answer directly to him."
"I'm so sorry, Lord Myalkni!" he whimpered, his eyes wide with terror.
"Now go," Myalkni said. "Scamper off and do your job, whelp."
The guard sprinted away.
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Latakia's chamber
"Lady Latakia, it's urgent!" the guard barked.
"What is it now?" said Latakia with a sigh.
"Cell 31 is completely empty! All the inmates are nowhere to be found."
"How long ago was this discovered?"
"A while ago. I reported first to Lord Rief, who sent me to you," he answered.
Latakia felt a chill. She had feared something like this would happen. The conditions had been perfect, too perfect. But, as far as she knew, the worst she had been dreading had not yet arrived.
"Okay, listen carefully," instructed Latakia. "I will assemble a force of guards to deal with this affair, but you must run as fast as you can to alert Lord Myalkni. He should be in Tyrell's cell. You know where that is, right? Bring Lord Myalkni to me."
"Uh… I don't think that's possible," the guard said.
"And why not?" asked Latakia, the edge in her voice masking the fear beneath.
"Because I ran into him and that red-haired prisoner leaving the cell," the guard reported. "Lord Myalkni said they were executing a 'special operation'. He was armed, and so was the prisoner."
Those words pierced Latakia like an icicle through the heart. Was Myalkni trying to flee again? "Did you… ask him where he was going?"
"He refused to tell me, and told me it wasn't my place to question him."
Everything went cold. Everything she had feared was coming true. Had Myalkni already figured out the curse was a hoax? If only I had mastered how to do a real one, Latakia thought bitterly.
This had to be dealt with, quickly. She couldn't let Myalkni escape. A bunch of prisoners could be replaced, but Myalkni escaping would be catastrophic- and he was with Tyrell! Latakia rose, quickly grabbed her weapons and headed for the door. There's no way I'm letting him get away.
"I need to deal with this urgently," Latakia declared. "You, go. Go straight to Lord Arcanus, tell him everything. Tell him I've gone to stop Myalkni and Tyrell."
The guard opened his mouth, but Latakia cut him off.
"There's no time for questions. Go! Run to Lord Arcanus as fast as you can!"
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At the entrance to the cave
"So," Matthew said, "it seems that they're in this cave."
It seemed so. At least, according to the Echo Gem gem, they did seem to be in this cave on the side of a volcano on an island in the middle of the sea.
It all seemed very ominous to Nowell. Was this the site of a major Tuaparang hideout, or was it just where Arcanus decided to keep them. But, she thought to herself, isn't that insane? Who would stay in a cave inside a volcano? What if it erupted?
I have no time for these thoughts right now, she reminded herself. Now is the time to save Rief and the rest of them.
"Well then," she said, "in we go."
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Cliff inside the cave, along a path leading away from the prison facility
"We're here," Myalkni said. "At this point, we're out of the prison facility. All we have left to do now is to make it out of this cave."
They had almost made it. Tyrell could barely believe it. It seemed too easy.
"Not so fast," said a voice from behind them. Tyrell and Myalkni whipped around to see Latakia right behind them.
"Where did you come from?!" cried Tyrell.
"A better question is you two think you're going," replied Latakia coolly. "And Myalkni, why haven't I been informed about your 'special operation'?"
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Next Chapter: Between Life and Death
Author's notes:
Please remember to review! Tell me anything that comes to your mind- I love reviews :). Predictions (without spoilers though!), constructive criticism, comments, anything is welcome.
Wow, it's been over a year that this story's been running. I never expected it to go so long, and it's been interesting for me how the story has evolved in my mind over time. There was a time when I thought this would be only six to nine chapters… so much for that. As for now, I'd say it is drawing to a close, though. Three or four more chapters are left, I'd estimate.