Chapter 22: The Great and Terrible: Chapter 22

My shock only magnified when my escorts pushed me inside a prison cell already occupied by a bedraggled Patch and an anxious Leona. A soldier shut the metal bars in my face before he and the other took up posts only a few feet away. As if I was in any condition to figure out a way of escape.

I’d just gotten a peek behind the curtain, and my mind was nothing but a jumbled mess. Jasher wasn’t my friend, my partner in rescue or the love of my life. He wasn’t just a clone, either; he was a monstra. A creature of death and destruction who’d once killed one of his own, pretending to aid me while escorting me to his leader, the father of all royal guards. The father of all monstra. Evil. The Guardian and his clones were the beasts terrorizing towns and townsfolk. The killers decapitating innocent sacrifices.

A humorless laugh burst from me. No wonder the royal guard forced everyone to keep their eyes downcast. Jasher was the Guardian. Fruit of the same tree, exactly as I’d supposed. According to my mother’s stories and paintings, the Guardian and his monstra killed King Ahav. My father. And now the army from hell planned to kill me. No way they would leave me alive after this. I was only surprised my end hadn’t yet come. They must need something more from me.

“What’s going on?” Leona demanded. Moans of pain echoed, spilling from other cells. “Why am I locked in a dungeon?”

“We’re here because I trusted the wrong person and led you to slaughter.” I shoved the words between my clenched teeth. “Patch is here because she tried to kill me.”

The mayor gasped. “What?”

The redhead huddled in a corner, her arms wrapped around legs drawn up to her chest, saying nothing. Tear stains marred her cheeks.

Her remorse only fueled my anger. Too little, too late. Now I was trapped inside a small cell with the betrayer who’d plotted my murder from the beginning.

“The Guardian is pure evil,” I said. “His royal guards morph into monstra. At the moment, we are their greatest enemy.”

“But.” The color drained from Leona’s face. “That can’t be true.”

“It is, I assure you.” I perused my new accommodations. Dirty water dripped from a rocky ceiling, leaving puddles on the dirt floor. One wall was comprised of those metal bars, while the other three made of stone. Some kind of mossy green foliage grew over the rocks. There was a bucket for bodily functions.

“So the Guardian isn’t going to free Claudia?” Leona asked with a whimper.

Gut punch. “No. But you should be glad about that. He’s worse than any governor.”

She pressed a hand to her mouth and crumpled to the floor.

Splashing water drew my gaze to the biggest water puddle. Stiffness spread through my limbs. Of course. Iris had decided to join the party.

The scowling water maiden rose from the shallow depths, no longer pink but scarlet. “You are a liar!”

Patch scrambled to press herself into a corner. Leona was too busy sobbing to notice the intrusion.

“I might be a fool, but I’m not a liar,” I snapped. “I kept my end of the bargain and fulfilled your first demand. Don’t ask questions. I didn’t ask anything. Therefore, I owe you nothing else. We’re even.”

Rage blazed in the water maiden’s eyes. “You could have saved this world. Instead, you damned it.”

“How would the Guardian’s death save anyone?” And that’s what the disc would bring about; I had no doubts about that now. “There are countless others just like him, ready to take his place.”

“When the leader dies, they all die! To prevent a coup from those who share his aspirations, he made sure of it.”

So Jasher would die along with the Guardian. Well, I didn’t care. I didn’t! Let all the monstra perish. The pit in the bottom of my stomach meant nothing.

“You deserve what’s coming,” Iris hissed. “When the Guardian invaded this world, your father failed to stop him and you mother ran like a coward, leaving us to our doomed fate. That’s the real reason they are so hated. Now, here you are, their daughter, too weak to act.”

Bombs of fury detonated. “My mother was no coward. She was pregnant when she watched her husband die and probably desperate to protect her baby. Ahav did what none of the rest of you have even tried. He faced the enemy head-on. And he wasn’t ineffective. He did something the monstra can’t overcome. I’ve experienced it.”

My words had no impact on the water maiden. “Sandrine could’ve returned, gathered support, and led us to victory. I served her for years and would’ve helped. But because of her absence, the Guardian was allowed to spread his lies. Most citizens see him as a beloved liberator, the truth of his motives and actions forgotten. Only those of us who witnessed the death of our king know better. Now we work tirelessly to stop him, but it’s a losing battle. We kill one soldier, and he makes ten more. Citizens fight us, because his deceptions run too deep.”

And the shocks kept coming. “Why didn’t you tell me this from the beginning?”

“So you could doubt and question me, then spill my secrets to lover boy?” she spat. “No, thank you.”

A blush burned my cheeks. Yeah, I would’ve spilled.

Iris narrowed her eyes. “You were so determined to return to a home that isn’t yours. You wouldn’t have listened to anything I said, especially if I suggested you stay and fight the big bad on behalf of people you knew nothing about.”

Facts I couldn’t refute without lying.

“I gave you time, a protector, and experience, and this is how you repay me.” She scoffed. “If you are anything like your father, you’ll do what’s right, no matter the fate awaiting you.” She executed a mock curtsey. “Not that you have much longer to live.” Bit by bit, she sank into the puddle, disappearing.

My stomach curdled when I detected the sound of marching bootsteps. My cellmates jumped to their feet as soon as the Guardian, Jasher, and their gang of lookalikes rounded a corner. The minions marched behind them.

Jasher met my glare, rousing thoughts from the mire of my mind. He was monstra. Meeting my gaze was dangerous to him. I could hold him captive as long as I wished. But still he’d done it, as if he hoped to relay a secret message.

Or trick me into trusting him again.

Could I risk being fooled again? I released him, setting my glare on the Guardian. “Miss me?”

One of the stationed guards unlocked and opened the cell door. The Guardian and Jasher paused while six soldiers strode inside, wrenching me and the others to our feet and restraining us two by two. Only then did Ian enter, with Jasher directly behind him. My heart raced, the beat becoming erratic.

“Ah, but their fear is delicious.” The Guardian closed his eyes and breathed deep, savoring. “My favorite feast, I admit.”

Just a figure of speech to up the drama, or was he saying he fed on fear? Did it matter? I worked to project—to feel—nothing. “You must need something from me. Why else would you be here, conversing with a girl more reckless than her parents?”

He flashed a humorless non-smile. “Your mother left me a note. In it, she claims you are the only one capable of opening the case, and then only if you are willing. I want those rings, Moriah.”

“Why?”

Another flash of that non-smile. “Now, that’s not any of your concern, is it? Because whatever the reason, you will open the case for me, or I will kill your friends.”

“I will do nothing for you, no matter what you threaten.” The moment I complied, he would kill me, too. My best option right now was to buy time and find out how he opened the portal.

“Ah, but I never threaten. Only promise.” He dug the hat square from my pocket, and my blood iced. I’d forgotten it was there. “Bring me the one who attempted to kill the princess,” he said as he freed the disc from its wrapping and dropped the dark cloth to the floor.

“Princess?” Leona mouthed, her eyes going wide. “I thought it was a term of endearment.”

I gave a violent shake of my head, locks of hair slapping my cheeks as the guards forced the protesting Patch closer to the Guardian. “Don’t do this. Please.” I glanced at Jasher.

Though he stared straight ahead, he lifted his nose in the air, as if he sensed my attention. A vein budged between his eyes, and the cords in his neck pulled taut. Fighting to remain still?

“Don’t do this,” Patch echoed. “I only wanted⁠—”

Without hesitation, Ian shoved the disc into the redhead’s mouth and forced her lips to close. “Let’s find out what you and the water maiden planned for me, shall we?”

Dread skittered over my spine. No one moved for several seconds. An eternity. Color drained from Patch’s already pale skin, her freckles becoming stark. Tremors rocked her lithe frame. Eyes going wide, she began to gasp for breath she couldn’t catch. White foam bubbled from the corners of her mouth, and her knees gave out. She hit the ground, convulsed, and went lax.

The horror I experienced before? Nothing compared to what I felt now.

A screaming Leona struggled for freedom.

“Leave the corpse here,” Ian told the guards while staring at me. “If you refuse to obey when I return, the other female will die. Then I’ll go get your father from the otherworld.” He turned his glare to Jasher. “Talk some sense into her.”

Out the Guardian marched, the soldiers following him. He waited until Jasher shut and locked the cell door before leading his minions out.

Pressed against the back wall, Leona crumpled. I dropped to Patch’s side and felt for a pulse, hoping… But no. There wasn’t a telltale thump. Already the girl’s body cooled.

Remorse stabbed me. “Do you feed on fear, too?” I snapped, my gaze jerking to Jasher.

“I did. Once. Listen to me,” he said, a tinge of urgency in his tone. “I didn’t know about the disc. Had I, I would’ve destroyed it. We need to get you out of here or he will kill you, too.”

Scowling, I straightened. “I’m supposed to trust you now? You, the lying monstra?” He flinched, but it didn’t stop me from continuing. “How did he learn I’d put Iris’s disc in the cloth?”

“He watched you in the pool, I’m sure. But I was unaware he trailed us to the secret room. Couldn’t foresee he would take the ring and imprison you. Had I acted any way but loyal to him, I’d be dead or locked up with you and unable to render aid. What’s more, Anders and Reese would’ve been killed.”

A plausible tale. The perfect reason to use it. “Let me out, then. Right now.”

“I can’t.” Torment glazed his sunset irises. “I’m without a key in case I succumb to your wiles.”

Likely story. “So what can you do?”

“Tell you why he wants those rings.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “A royal’s actions represent those under his command. From what I’ve unearthed, Ahav’s ring acts as a piece of him. A symbol of his reign. Since he was innocent of all wrongdoing when he gave his life for his people, his sacrifice voids the crimen for each of them.”

So much to unpack. Truth or more lies? Either way, he wasn’t done.

“There are conditions to the wearing of the ring and actually making it work, as you did in the battle with the monstra, but I haven’t learned what those conditions are. I’m not sure the Guardian is aware, either.”

I turned away, giving Jasher my back. He’d given me a lot to ponder. Leona huddled in front of the wall where she’d crumbled, but she’d stopped crying. Thin sections of the greenery had wiped off as she’d slid to the floor, leaving small gaps. Something red glinted beneath them. Another painting?

Like a bull in a ring, I charged over. I scraped the edges of the hole with my nails, removing more foliage. Other colors appeared, a picture forming. “Help me,” I demanded.

Leona lumbered to her feet and, though she moved at a snail’s pace, she worked to remove the moss, too. Bits and pieces of rock tumbled to the floor.

“Keep going,” Jasher encouraged.

“Planned on it,” I grated, picking up speed.

When we finished, I marveled. A new mural, yes, painted around an actual door. Thank you, Momma.

I looked to Leona, who looked to me.

“Go ahead,” she said, motioning with her chin. “Open it.”

Tentative, I turned the knob. Hinges squeaked as the door opened, revealing a dark void. A soft breeze carried the scent of must.

“An escape hatch?” Leona asked.

“Maybe.” Probably. I didn’t enter but backed up to view the mural with the new opening. In it, Sandra Shaker gestured to the door with one hand and held onto a small rock with the other. Only, the rock wasn’t made of paint. Like the door, it was an actual object.

Unsteady, I detached the rock from the wall. Light weight, with a crack spanning the center.

“Let me.” My cellmate took the rock and pulled on both halves, which separated, revealing a tiny, yellowed paper and a velvet patch.

I caught the paper before it hit the floor but missed the pouch, which clinked against the stone. Tremors plagued me as I retrieved and opened the material, finding a ring exactly like the one the Guardian had stolen and two serpens-rosa, marveling at my mother’s foreknowledge. I returned the grains to the holder, stuffed the pouch into my pocket, and anchored the band around my finger.

The tremors worsened as I unrolled the paper. Familiar handwriting caused tears to well.

To my darling daughter, You must wonder how I know of you before you are even born. You must wonder about a lot of things. But I think we both understand now isn’t the time for a long, detailed letter. Take the tunnel. What occurs next will hurt, and I’m sorry for that, but there’s no other way out. You must survive, return to your father, then take your place as queen of Hakeldama. Tell the people the truth. War comes, whether they are ready or not.

I love you, Rye. Always and forever.

I pressed the paper to my chest. My heart cried, I love you, too, Momma. The hurt, whatever it was, I could bear. I would escape. Return to Ozworld, heal my father, then come back to Hakeldama and save the people. There was a way. Mom all but guaranteed it.

“Moriah,” Jasher rasped, as if he sensed our end.

I cast him a final glance. He watched me with heartbreak in his eyes. “Have a good life, Jasher.” I swiped up the cloth the Guardian had ignored and shook it until the hat reformed. Once the headgear was anchored to my head, I offered Leona a hand. “Join me?”

The mayor rolled back her shoulders and accepted. “Please.”

“What happened here?” Ian’s voice echoed, and I twisted to see him and his minions rushing to the cell. “Stop her!”

Urgency whipped me.

Jasher called, “You will not touch her.”

“Reece,” Ian snapped, and a guard quickened his step.

Jasher’s brother.

Both men roared and morphed into their monstra form. Jasher stood guard at the bars, daring his brother and the others to try and pass him.

Reese raked his claws over the floor, flames sparking from his nostrils.

Would Jasher truly fight his beloved brother for me? This could be an act, another trick, but…I believed him enough to hang back. The remaining soldiers morphed, too, and flanked Reese.

The brother lunged first, slashing and biting at Jasher. The others followed suit. A savage battle erupted, many against one, and I cringed inside.

Only the Guardian remained unaffected by the chaos and aggression. None of the beasts attacked him. Rather, they allowed him to step out of the war path. He observed me with slitted eyes. “This won’t save you. But it does mean the end of Jasher. Unless you’d like to stay and bargain for his life, of course.”

An endeavor that would only get us both killed, no doubt.

“Moriah?” Leona tugged me onward.

A broken sound ripped from me. Though it hurt, exactly as my mother had predicted, I seized the opportunity Jasher had provided and entered the void.