Chapter 44: Chapter 44

ISABELLE

As Izzy came around and tried to sit up, she felt the all too familiar pain of broken ribs. She cried out and fell back onto the hard surface she lay on.

~Broken again. I must not have felt it earlier because of the adrenaline.~

She relaxed her body, gripping her side, and looked around the dingy room. She spotted a small window, high up on the wall in front of her and a door to her right, but nothing else. Only the cold block beneath her.

She used one arm to push herself up, gripping her side with the other and stifling a groan. With enormous effort she curled her legs and managed to place her feet on the cold, wet ground.

She tried to fill her lungs but a sharp pain and a bubbling sound made her flinch.

~Punctured, again. I’m going to die here, aren’t I?~ A tear rolled down her cheek as she closed her eyes and reached inside for Infernia, but only a hollow feeling remained, not only in her body, but in her mind as well.

She thought back to what happened. The fall, the fire bursting out of her, and the gunshots coming from the hole she made.

Mikhlas jumping out the room with her boys hanging off him, and the incandescent rage she felt before the world went dark.

~James! Lucas! Oh no, I need to get out of here and find them!~ She tried to stand, pushing herself up with one arm, but another sharp pain in her side made her legs weak and she fell back onto the stone block.

She drew in as much breath as her lungs would allow and called out, “I need help.” Her voice sounded weak, and as more tears rolled down her face, she forced more air in and called out again.

The sound of a bolt sliding open on the other side of the door startled her. She backed away, pressing her back against the cold and filthy wall waiting for the door to open.

As it swung aside, two guards dressed in what looked like ceremonial suits, covered in gold and silver, came in. A large emblem on the front looked familiar, engraved in a bright-red metal.

“I need a doctor. My rib…is broken. It’s piercing…into my lung,” Izzy said. The guards stood motionless in the threshold of the door, just staring at the wall in front of them as if she didn’t exist or her pain matter.

“Did you hear me? I need a doctor. You can’t just leave me to die like this.”

“You will be seen to,” one of the men muttered to her. Izzy saw the second man shift a little in his spot and then return to the same motionless stance.

“Where…are my children?” she asked, but neither of them spoke.

She heard sharp, clicking footsteps outside the door and waited for whoever would turn the corner outside her dank little cell.

As the tall, thin shape stepped around the corner she recognized her by her shock of bright-red hair, and the evil expression that twisted her blue lips. ~Kasana.~ Izzy immediately felt a shiver run down her spine.

The smile on Kasana’s face looked triumphant. As if she enjoyed seeing her pain, surrounded by filth in this tiny cell.

“Bring her.”

The two guards came over to her and picked her up under the arms. Izzy cried out as the pain drove into her lung and she fell limp in their arms trying to breathe.

The men dragged her out of the room, and down the hall, as Kasana strutted ahead, her shoes loud and somehow ominous on the floor.

“Where are you taking me?” Izzy asked. “Answer me, dammit!”

“Do not speak to me, you vile impostor,” she said and walked into a white room.

“How can I be an impostor? Infernia came to help me.”

“Did she? Yet where is she now, hmm? Do you really think the real Sentinels could ever be contained? Ridiculous!”

She gestured for the men to put Izzy onto the table in the middle, and as they did, thick metal straps locked her legs and arms in place.

“What are you doing?” Izzy asked. The fear inside her sent shivers down her body that traced lines of agony across her side.

“Go find the others. And make sure you bring at least one of her offspring back alive, but kill the rest, we don’t need them,” Kasana said, and the guards quickly nodded and walked out.

“Leave my boys alone, you crazy bitch!” Izzy shouted at her, but her voice had no strength.

Kasana leaned over, resting her elbows against the table. “Should I call them back? Perhaps there is one of your sons you prefer over the other? Should I tell them which one to kill and which to save?”

Izzy felt cold rage inside her for this monster, but no answering swell from Infernia. “When Infernia gets back, she is going to burn you to ash.”

Kasana chuckled, and a blue tongue exited her mouth to lick her blue lips as if she found Izzy’s impotent rage delicious.

“But that’s the thing,” Kasana whispered, one long claw-tipped finger tracing down her trapped arm.

“Infernia never left. I admit, when you rose into the air on a pillar of flame, your eyes blazing, and threatened to destroy everyone, the fearful peasants truly believed you were the Chosen One.

“You flew in through that hole in the wall and all my men prostrated themselves before you as if you were a god.”

Kasana’s claw found a sensitive spot on her upper arm that she hadn’t noticed under the pain of her screaming ribs and pressed it hard enough to draw a drop of blood.

Kasana held the red droplet on the end of her claw up to the light as if examining it before she flicked it across Izzy’s face with a negligent twist of her hand.

“Yet once I used my little gift, and you collapsed, they knew it couldn’t be the ~real~ Infernia, and the proof of my claims that you were not the real Chosen One became visible to everyone.”

~Did she put something in my blood? ~“What did you do to me?” Izzy whispered.

“All in good time,” Kasana said, standing up as two men in white clothing entered the room.

“Put her to sleep now. I do not have time for this,” Kasana said and waved her hand at the two doctors. They came up to Izzy and began tapping on screens.

“No, please don’t do this. She’s lying to you. I am the Chosen One. Please, don’t…,” she said, but the darkness swallowed her.

MIKHLAS

“She still hasn’t come out, sir,” Iry said from her vantage point at the top of the large storm drain, looking out of the metal grill. “We should go.”

Mikhlas nodded, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder and breathing hard, wishing he could block his nose.

That crazy leap from five stories with not just his own weight, but the two boys as well, had dislocated his shoulder.

He could feel the ball joint sitting just on the rim of the cup, but his spasming muscles wouldn’t relax enough to let it go back in.

“Are we going back for her?” James asked. He held one of the two remaining guns, the others lost in their wild flight.

“Mikhlas, your shoulder looks funny,” Lucas said.

“It’s dislocated,” Mikhlas said. “With Infernia, having begun ascension, she should be able to handle well-nigh anything. I am more concerned about you boys.

“Without the other Sentinels to balance Infernia, your mom is a dangerous force. We should get as far away as we can, just in case.”

“But what if she’s captured?” James said, frowning. “We have to go back for her.”

“Quiet! Soldiers are coming this way,” whispered Iry, climbing down the wall and shaking her claws with a disgusted frown on her face.

As one they shifted into the shadows of the pipe, away from the light from the drain in the stinking darkness at the sounds of many boots.

“They were last seen in this area. This is point zero. Everyone fan out from here and stay in contact. Remember Lady Justice’s orders. Go!”

Mikhlas listened, trying to count the number of boots and failing.

Lucas tapped him on the hip, pointing at his arm and gesturing with his own in an exaggerated fashion. He held one arm hanging down and used his other hand to lift it well above his head.

Mikhlas frowned, and then did as he suggested, hissing in pain as his hand got above shoulder height. He felt a slight pop as his hand scraped the roof of the pipe and the relief was instantaneous.

~Where’d he learn to do that?~

Mikhlas nodded at Lucas, giving him a smile. ~At least I can use the arm now, even though it still hurts.~

Once he could no longer hear movement from above, he put his arms around the boy’s shoulders and leaned in. “Let’s get outside to the forest. Once we are there, we’re going to head for the city.”

“But Mom!” James said.

Mikhlas could feel the tension and anger in the teenager. He sounded frantic over Izzy. ~I’m worried too. She should have come looking for us by now.~

“Your Mom will be fine James,” Iry said.

“Infernia is with her. You saw what she did, burning that hole in the wall, flying up on a pillar of flame. Nothing can stop her. You are the Royal Princes. We need to worry about you right now.”

“Wait. I’m a Royal Prince. I can ~order~ you to take me back to rescue Mom.”

Mikhlas turned James so he looked directly at him. “She probably doesn’t need rescuing, but you can. Two guns versus unknown hundreds. The four of us, including your little brother.

“You’re really willing to risk his life too? But if you command it, I will do it. Not just because you’re a Prince, but because I love your mother too. I promised her I would protect you both.

“Don’t make that harder than it has to be. Make your choice, James.”

At the frustrated grimace, Mikhlas looked at him. “What’s wrong, James? We need to go.”

“I…” James looked at Lucas, who stood frowning at his brother and rubbing his nose. “I can’t say.”

“It’s 'cause of Dad, isn’t it?” Lucas said.

“Don’t call—how?” James said, tears forming in his eyes.

“I might be nearly twelve, big brother, but I’m not stupid,” Lucas said, with his chin wobbling.

“I know he hurt Mom. I heard Grandma talking to Aunt Amy on the phone when Mom went into the hospital. Aunt Amy promised Grandma that she’d find him and make him pay for what he did.”

Mikhlas caught Iry’s eye and nodded down the tunnel. She nodded back and crept off silently to scout the way forward.

He then turned to the boys and nudged them in the direction Iry went to get them moving, giving Lucas’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

~Lucas is a surprising boy. The Prince might very well grow up to be the greatest soldier or master spy the Realm has ever seen.~

“You fear for your mother, James. I understand that. When she demanded I take her to Arkadia, I felt the same,” Mikhlas said, rubbing his sore shoulder and ducking to avoid something hanging down from the pipe.

“That she was making the job of protecting her impossible. Yet she was right. She needed to see what the lives of the ordinary people of the Realm are like so she could change it.

“And now that she has begun ascending, it is the people hunting us that need to be afraid. A fully ascended Monarch is a terrible adversary.”

“Will she get other abilities, aside from flames?” Lucas asked.

“When a Monarch ascends, the five Sentinels give them their power to harness. She already has the flames of Infernia. Garia will give her the peace of nature, and Aquaria mindful water.

“Prime already offers her knowledge, and Morkai will give her the ability to lift the veil to the other side. This is how the power of a Monarch is established, and how it has been for millennia.”

“She’s going to be like a superhero? Cool,” Lucas said.

“Wait, Lucas, you knew about Mom’s injuries all this time and you didn’t say anything?” James said.

“I don’t know how bad it was, bad enough to go to the hospital though. Why do you think I didn’t ask if Dad was coming too?” Lucas replied, looking at the ground.

“Don’t call him that!” James said.

“Why?” Lucas said, eyes flashing in the dim pipe as he looked up at his older brother. “He’s still our dad.”

“Because he almost killed her,” James said, “and we were not there to help her.”

~Prime was though, ~Mikhlas thought. ~She told me she disabled the gun.~

Lucas looked sad to Mikhlas’s eyes, a change to the energetic and bouncy child he’d met.

“Well,” Lucas said, taking a deep breath, “we just need to grow up to be better men than him.”

“Spoken like a true Prince, Lucas,” Mikhlas said.

Lucas nodded. “Damn straight, as Aunt Amy would say, but I never loved him as much as you, James. I think you were his favorite. I was the mistake that came later.”

“Garia ~never~ makes mistakes, Lucas. Every life has a purpose, each of us is in this Universe to find out what that is.”

Lucas wiped his eyes with his sleeve and sniffed. “Come on, let’s get out of here before Mom blows the mountain apart.

“Hey, James, remember that time we found a ground squirrel and brought it home? It got loose in the house and smashed up a few pictures and stuff? Remember how mad Mom got?”

James smiled and wiped away his tears. “Yeah, I remember. That one was my idea. She took away the iPad for a whole month and yelled at us so hard she popped a blood vessel in her eye.”

“Yeah. Now imagine how mad Mom is going to be that people were ~shooting~ at us.”

James took a worried look over his shoulder in the direction of the main building. “We need to move faster.”