Chapter Eight

Heirus

                The night was dark and starless no light came from Geiya. One could barely make out one’s hand nor could one see the path one walked on. Shadows there was none. All one could see was the pitch black darkness that threatened to devour everything tangible.

                Through this darkness a little boy trudged behind his mother, with a small torch in his right hand while the other clung tremblingly to her burgundy colored skirt. The torch he held did not do much for him; all he could see was darkness. He stumbled as he came across a rock but the woman paid no heed and even scolded the boy for stalling them in their journey. With his little lamp he walked on in darkness trusting the woman who gave him life to keep him safe.

                “Mother where are we headed?” he asked as they crossed steep cliff.

                “Just follow on child and ask not where to.” the woman replied as she pulled him along the treacherous trail. They reached a clearing and he saw a cave at the end. He followed his mother as she walked straight towards the cave. He was curious and afraid at the same time they were on forbidden ground he just knew it but he trusted his mother…she will keep him safe.

                They reached the cave and his eyes grew wide as he saw shadow beasts moving on the crevices of the cave. Their huge razor sharp teeth and blood red eyes were the only thing distinguishing them from the shadows. He was trembling now he knew of their tale she told him herself that they devoured the flesh of men, tearing them limb from limb like livestock. Why had she brought him here?

                He turned around and a saw the fanatical look crossed his mother’s face, her eyes were blood shot like the beast. They blazed with fury and with a dark and unknown force he could not describe.

                “Mother?” he asked afraid. He gasped when she took him by the shoulders and forced him to face her. She raised her hand and he saw something shiny and pointed. No! What was happening? This was not the woman he knew, she was not his mother! She would never hurt him.

                The dagger swung up in the air and pierced his small chest. She was saying something in a language he could not understand. All the while as she stabbed him twice with the dagger he was crying out to her in pain and begged her to return to her old self.

                “Hush child can you not see this is the only way you can become STRONG! I cannot let you die in his hands! You CANNOT LOSE!” she yelled at him but how can a 7 year old boy understand what she meant?

                Tears flowed down his face as he continually said to himself.

                “This is not you mother! This is not you!” he cried as the pain from the sharp dagger piercing his skin made him lose his consciousness little by little. The shadow beasts came; they gorged on his blood that was splattered on the floor of the cave, them his mother started chanting again in a language he never understood. He had lost consciousness, totally blacking out. He remembered hearing the voice of men rushing into the cave and a man’s hand pulled him away from her grasped.

                The woman who was the child’s mother laughed hysterically screaming.

                “It is done! It is DONE!” she said then charged at the king who fought hard to have her restrained.

                Crown Prince Ryutaro awakened from the nightmare that had plagued him ever since he was a child. The nightmare was not actually a nightmare but a memory. The woman was his mother the late queen while he…was the boy. He never fully understood what had happened his father and the elders told him nothing, but the servants all gossiped about that tragedy. The queen had offered him as a sacrifice to darkness that was what they said.

                He had remembered it as if it was just yesterday. They brought him back bloody and barely breathing. He had multiple stabs all over his body. His mother the queen was imprisoned in the tower , she was accused of dark sorcery and of having connection with the ancient evil that plagued the land before the arrival of light. He did not believe them how could he when his mother was everything to him?

                Memories of his time with her flooded his little head. He remembered the times he would run to her when that nightmare came. A nightmare he would no longer remember since that incident at the cave. He remembered sitting on her lap as she sang him songs of the old. How she told him stories of the beast and how to overcome them. To his 7 year old self she was his sanctuary the light in his shadow world. The one who inspired him to be a better person better than all of Heirus he swore to her. He escaped from the infirmary a week after what happened. The men from Onaris cured him.  He remembered how he raced to the tower where she was imprisoned. After reaching it he thought of a way to get inside the cell where the queen was imprisoned. He saw and opening at the small window, and he reached the top rail and squeezed his little body between the window opening beside the barred door.

                He found the whole cell vacant no one was there. His small feet made ginger steps into the dark room lightened only by a faint light from Geiya, she shone through the circular window at the back end of the cell.

                “Mother? Mother are you here?” he called then he turned as saw her standing in the shadows her hands were chained to the wall.

                “Mother what had they done to you?” he asked sobbing. There were dark shadows under her eyes and her skin was pale ghost like. She looked weak and tired.

                “Free me child.” She told him. He hurriedly broke the chains but as soon as he did a great explosion rocked the whole tower. Dust was everywhere and a huge gaping hole was made through the cell wall.