Hello, everyone! Here is the next chapter in the story. This one has more improv, worldbuilding elements, and takes a turn some people might find strange. But I also hope it will be interesting.
DISCLAIMER: The 'Amulet' series is created and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi, and published by 'Scholastic'. The author owns any original characters and custom elements included into the story.
Onward!
Nighttime came to Cielis like anywhere else. As darkness came over the floating city, the sky became filled with stars. Looking at them did not provoke any real fasciation for Caleb, mostly because he didn't know of any constellations visible from Earth. But there was little else for him to do but look at the outside world. No matter how much he wanted to explore, he couldn't go out into the city on grounds of the locked doors and the high fall from the balcony.
But watching the changing skies got boring after some time. The Hayes family had not provided much opportunity to do something else after Max had left, either. But, as a sign of their resilience against misfortune, they each had found their own things to do to occupy themselves.
Emily stayed quiet, sometimes practicing swings and thrusts with her staff against a phantom opponent, and otherwise sitting on her chosen bed to think. Navin gave up on jury-rigging the locked doors open, or making any other escape route, and began reenacting the times he had piloted Charnon House while sitting on the edge of his bed. Karen quietly watched both her children while organizing all their clothes and new sleeping spaces, not willing to interrupt this impromptu playtime with questions or comments.
The only big interruption in the day's limited activities came when an evening meal was brought in by Milo the security guard and two unknown male accomplices. There was only a fleeting moment to view them before Milo closed the doors again, far too quick for Navin or Emily to try and stage a breakout. The meal was very good, some mixture of nuts and beans mixed with rice along with small, closed containers of a sweet-tasting drink, but the flavor was diminished because it felt like they were captives rather than guests.
Caleb had never been to a prison, but he felt like the fancy room had become a cell, just with fancier wallpaper and comfier bed sheets.
When night came, Karen advised everyone to go to sleep early. No one argued with that logic, and getting ready for bed was done in just a few minutes due to the lack of toiletries. Karen placed the remnants of dinner by the front doors while Emily and Navin got beneath the covers of their respective beds. Caleb followed suit, removing his shoes and outer coat but keeping the rest of his clothes on. The covers felt surprisingly soft to his skin and deceptively thick against his body.
Sleep came to Caleb quickly, but he had enough time to think about how many strange places he had slept in recently. It would only add more amazement to the story he would get to tell when he got back home.
Caleb hesitantly opened his eyes. Something didn't feel right. When he looked down from his position, lying sideways on the bed, he saw the covers had been pulled away from him. He didn't remember doing it.
As the teenager started to move to the front of the bed to grab the covers, he froze at the sight of a reflected face of a metal mask looking down at him from beside his bed. The mask only had holes for eyes, everything else covered by overlapping plates. It reminded him of a bird's head, minus the beak. The Corvid were here?
"Who…?" Metal hands grabbed Caleb's arms and jerked him to his feet. The metal mask was attached to some of these hands, a man or woman clothed in metallic body armor and sporting a large black cloak. "Woah! Watch it!" Caleb hissed as another armored person, clothed in the same fashion, took hold of his right arm. Then a third one appeared and picked up his shoes and coat, holding them in its hands like evidence from a crime scene.
A large hand, covered in a gauntlet, was slapped over Caleb's mouth. "You have been summoned by our Captain," one of the armored intruders sharply said through their mask, their tone not revealing anything about their identity. "We will escort you to him. Do not resist."
Caleb growled and shouted against the gauntlet and the guard who owned it, but the metal proved thick enough to block out his voice. The hand pressed harder against his face, crunching his mouth and nose, cutting off his ability to breathe. Panicking, he struggled as the guards holding him pulled him to the door. He had no chance to turn around and look to the rest of the room and get help from the Hayes before they were out in the adjacent hall.
An unseen hand had opened the door for them, and it was gone from sight by the time the guards were out. The guards demonstrated great strength even as Caleb's strength left him just like the shrinking amount of oxygen in his lungs. The group went through hall after hall, and a few more automatically opened doors, before they were suddenly outside in what looked to be the entrance to an open-air garden filled with trees and dirt.
Max Griffin stood by the entrance, wearing a silver bodysuit – or maybe it was a silver shirt and pants, it was hard to tell in the limited light – beneath his cloak. He still had his Stonekeeper's amulet inside the collar, as expected. He gestured towards the guards as Caleb's vision began to turn black, and the gauntlet was finally removed from the boy's mouth.
Coughing, Caleb gulped precious air into his lungs again. "Max," he heaved out once he got the chance to form coherent words, "What's going on here?"
"I've realized something crucial about our situation, Caleb." Max sounded calm, but there was visible anger in his eyes and stiff posture. "There should be enough time to explain it to you before the Council's trials begin."
Caleb shook against the guard's grip. "Was it necessary to pull me out of bed like this?"
"Yes, and you will understand why when I tell you what I've learned." Max cleared his throat and looked Caleb right in the eyes. "Emily told me you were part of her family when we docked here. I have since learned that is not true."
Caleb's stomach turned cold. He tried to ask, "Why does that matter?" in a calm voice, but the words came out as wavering pieces of a larger lie.
"Well, Emily is a Stonekeeper like me. And we have lots of power. People who aren't Stonekeepers usually react in one of two ways to that power. They either fear it or want it for themselves." Max raised a hand to his amulet, touched its surface. "From how you are looking at me right now, I can see how you've felt about Emily's power."
"That doesn't concern Emily, or you, or any of the Stonekeepers here." Caleb rushed to form a reason, something useful, that he could put as proof. Luckily, he knew what Emily was here for: "You're here to train with Emily, right? I'm not part of that training."
"That's true. So, by that logic, if I remove you from Emily's presence, she should be less distracted from her training. But she wanted you to stay with her family. She lied to my face about you."
Caleb jerked and pulled against his bonds, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He knows, he knows and now he's mad at me. I'm going to be punished!
Max came right up to Caleb, his frown and stare drilling into the teenager's panicked gaze. "Do you remember what I said to you about my authority here?" he quietly asked. "I assure you, the punishment for lying to the captain of the military is severe."
Caleb swallowed hard. It seemed the secret was out. He was being interrogated for the truth, despite Max knowing it already. But why had Max not punished him already, if that was what he wanted? Maybe he didn't want to hurt Caleb unless there was no other possibility.
Caleb's mind leaped to a conclusion: Max wanted something from Caleb. He wanted to negotiate, make a deal. Strike a bargain. Something to keep the secret a secret for a while longer. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Caleb realized there was no way out of this save for playing along; well, unless he preferred being sent to prison.
"What do you want, Max?"
"Tell me why Emily chose to lie for you, a stranger, someone who wants the power of a Stonekeeper's amulet for themselves."
So, Max wanted answers. He wanted Caleb to give the truth, "out of the horse's mouth" as Caleb heard his parents say. Well, Caleb was an honest person, with his feelings and actions, and this was a chance to show his honesty. But that prompted new concerns; what would Max think of his "obsession" with the Hayes's safety and happiness? Would he lock Caleb up even after the truth was told?
"Emily trusts me," Caleb eventually said to Max. "I have helped her, and I know what she has gone through in her life. She's been through a lot, and I want to help her, Navin, and their mother feel happy." He locked eyes with Max as he gave the crucial point: "I don't like seeing other people hurt when I know I can help them."
Max smiled, a genuine gesture of understanding and recognition. "That's very sweet, Caleb. And foolhardy." He looked at the masked guards, dropped his smile instantly, and snapped his fingers. "Guards, restrain him."
The guards squeezed Caleb's arms, shoved him to his knees on the hard soil. "Hey!" he protested. "Easy, that hurts!" The guards didn't listen to him.
"Hold him steady." Max walked to just in front of Caleb's new position. "I figured you would be stubborn. I'll have to use force to get the answers I want."
"I already answered you!" Caleb shouted. Would anyone hear him if he shouted at this time of night?
"You've beaten around the bush, Caleb. I want to cut straight into the center of this web of lies. You all are hiding something from me."
"Let me go, damn it!" Caleb yelled, desperate for someone to hear his struggling. "Let me go, or you'll be sorry!"
Max narrowed his eyes and smiled at the struggling teenager before him. It was clear to both boys who held power here. Caleb's struggles and threats were dead weight, but he still made them anyway. He felt required, as an intelligent human being, to do something!
Max's concentration wavered, but he kept smiling while standing tall. And then, as Max recovered from the momentary lapse, his amulet started to shine a dark green light. Caleb's eyes were drawn to that light by his own senses and a gauntleted hand jerking his head to look right at it.
"What are you trying to do?" Caleb spat out. "Stonekeeper powers aren't as effective here! Emily told me so!"
"Did she now?" Max concentrated even harder, and the amulet shone like a lantern in the darkness, the light shimmering in waves of darker green that pulsed out a few inches from the stone and then vanished from view. But Caleb's eyes saw those waves; they locked onto them, in fact, the green light magnetizing his gaze. Pulling him into it, stronger with each pulse.
"Stonekeepers have many powers, Caleb." Max's words barely registered in Caleb's head as his thoughts were drawn further and further into the light. "This is one of the subtler ones. Used only when necessary."
The emphasis Max put on the final word coincided with the light growing even stronger, muffling out all other sounds and sights. Beyond its reach, everything turned to darkness. The contrast amplified the amulet's pull, the marks on its surface visible even through the light. They were all Caleb saw; all he could sense. And that felt… strange.
What's happening… to… me?
Suddenly, a shadow slid out from the center of the rings. It curled, twisted, and then sprouted a pair of human-shaped arms with elongated fingers. Wispy tendrils of darkness shined a dim purple as a series of purple lines carved themselves into a blank part of its form. The lines shone with the same light as Max's amulet; they were the same, Caleb realized, and then he forgot all about that fact.
The lines bulged outward, attaching themselves to a shadow that crawled out of the amulet with elongated hands. It grew a human mouth, smiling with a perfect replication of human teeth. It looked at him without eyes, staring right at him and smiling at his terror.
"Hello, Caleb," it said: or rather, it hissed with a rattling click on every syllable. Its hands reached out and grabbed Caleb's face, fingers sinking into his cheeks with a freezing touch. "I'm glad to finally meet you, face-to-face."
The shadow pulled him fully into the light and its own dark embrace. Caleb forgot that he was supposed to be afraid of the darkness in just a few moments' time. Then he forgot about everything else than the voice, its light, and the fact it knew his name.
"It is done, Max. His mind is yours, as agreed."
Beyond his amulet's influence, and through the whispers of the Voice inside the stone, Max Griffin saw Caleb's face go slack. At the sight of any futile resistance disintegrating beneath the amulet's glow, Max knew his plan had worked. The Voice had contributed, but he had conceived it himself.
A large droplet of sweat slid down Max's cheek as he quickly regained his stamina. He breathed out a slow sigh, eager to move forward with the plan. But just to be sure it was working as intended, he chose to test his control.
"Listen to my voice, Caleb," he commanded loudly enough for Caleb to hear. "Listen and obey."
"Listen." Caleb sounded as tired as he looked, his eyes open just enough to see the amulet's light. "Obey." He was entranced, held fast by the glowing stone and receptive to its owner. The guards held him down, kneeling in submission, just in case the trance was somehow broken.
"Tell me the truth," Max ordered. "Are you related to Emily Hayes and her family?"
Caleb's lip visibly twitched before he answered, "No."
Max frowned. So, the lie was real, after all. "How did you come to Alledia with Emily, then?"
"Her parents knew my parents." Caleb's eyes flickered closed, and then opened again to look even further into the amulet's light. He spoke clearly, but he had to pause and take deep breaths between bunches of words. "I helped them all to go to… a new place. Then Miss Hayes was kidnapped by an Arachnopod. We rescued her near… Gondoa Mountain."
"What about you work with Leon Redbeard?"
"We met in Kanalis. We are with the Resistance." Caleb sharply inhaled, his eyes widening for a moment and then falling back down into trance. "We are… friends." And he bobbed his head up and down, agreeing with himself, until the gauntlet still around his head held him still.
Max's frown did not go away, despite the information that was proving his theories correct. There were still more things he could, and wanted to, discover. The only limiting factors were time, and his own concentration. He didn't have much of either left.
Max's next question was softly spoken: "Do you want to be a Stonekeeper, Caleb?"
Caleb's eyes widened again, staring straight at the amulet with dilated pupils. "Yes," he hissed in obvious need. "Yes, yes, yes."
"Why? Tell me exactly why."
Caleb's arm jerked forward, as if to grab the amulet. The guards shoved him down, forcing him into a prostrating position. But the boy still spoke, rapidly now, being forced to reveal his secrets as he strained his neck upward to keep staring at the bewitching light.
"I want to protect Emily's family. I watched them suffer. I could have helped them, and I was too scared to do it. I don't want them to suffer anymore. If I had a Stonekeeper's power, I would make sure they were happy."
"Really? You wouldn't want the power for yourself?"
"No. Yes. No. Wait…" Caleb's eyes closed and widened to match his denial, or acceptance, of wanting what Max and Emily had. "I-I need the power to h-help… them… help me… help. Help. Help." Caleb repeated the same word in a loop, eyes stuck wide and vapid, lost in a repeating cycle of his own making.
"Be quiet," ordered Max, and just like that the loop was cut. Caleb's mind hung in blankness, not doing, or wanting, anything for itself. Max signaled the guards to pull him back up to a kneeling position. Caleb blinked twice as this happened, his eyes briefly filling with tears that never fully formed.
"Caleb," Max firmly said, "listen to me. Listen and remember what I say here. You will lodge it in the back of your mind, and you will obey it, but you will not question or wonder why you are doing it. Understand?"
"Listen. Obey. Yes." Single syllables were all Caleb's mouth and mind could conceive. Anything more complicated had been rendered beyond him.
Max smiled, took a deep breath, and gave his instructions to his silent subject. When he was done, his amulet's light winked off like a flashlight. Caleb hung still for a second, and then slowly tipped forwards with fluttering eyelids. The guards caught him before he hit the ground, the boy already breathing the deep and slow rhythm of heavy slumber.
Max looked down at Caleb, rapidly planning to keep this otherworld teenager alive and dependent. "Dress him and take him to Yarboro Prison," Max told the guards. "Cell Block Four. Put him in the deepest cell available."
"Yes, Captain." The soldiers put Caleb's clothes on his nonresistant body, scooped him up, and held onto his arms before dragging him away. His shoes slid against the ground without trailing against anything sharp or obstructive. He continued to sleep as the guards travelled for several minutes, never slowing their pace, or stopping along the way.
The inhabitants of Yarboro Prison's Cell Block Four, miscreants and criminals all under the eyes of Cielis's authorities and the block's brutal warden, did not react much to the arrival of Cielis's guards late at night. They gave the boy they dragged between them a second glance, but lost interest when they realized he would not be in their cells. The more sympathetic or emotional prisoners guessed that the boy had been subdued doing something very wrong. They didn't try to ask the guards for the truth.
In one cell, two dirtied and depressed elf prisoners wearing traveler's clothes saw the guards go by with their charge. After noticing who the newest prisoner was, they looked at each other in shock. "Was that… Caleb?" the older one asked the younger. The second elf nodded before his own shock changed to a grim anger.
"Now do you believe what I said about the city being compromised, Luger?" The young elf, Prince Trellis in name only, placed his hands over his eyes, rubbing them free of fatigue and brushing the long scar along his face. "If they have him locked up here with us, then Emily and the others won't be far behind."
"They can't do that!" Luger protested. "Emily's a Stonekeeper, and they need her on the Council!"
"That's if she passes their tests." Trellis lowered his hands and looked through the bars of his shared cell. The guards had already gone to whatever open space they had been told to bring Caleb. "And that possibility is becoming harder by the minute. If things don't change soon…"
Luger didn't finish the sentence, and Trellis shut his mouth as the guards passed by again. Caleb was no longer with them. Perhaps, if they could find out what cell Caleb had been placed in, they could learn more about how badly things were going wrong.
Alright, that's all for now. Like I said, this chapter took a different turn from the rest of the characters. What will happen next to Caleb is something he will have to deal with most likely on his own.
As usual, feedback and/or constructive criticism is appreciated.
Draconos is taking off!