Broken Promises – Chapter 7

On December 8, 2018December 22, 2018 By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Free Write4 Comments

Chapter 7

Queen Maura sat on her throne glaring at the daze healer the two idiots she had assigned to keep him alive dumped at her feet. Said idiots promptly took five healthy steps back and stood closer to the door than their queen. Not that that would save them. No. Once their visitor had collected his package she would string them up in the healer’s place and teach them a lesson they would soon not forget.

Slowly, her hand gripping her staff in an attempt to stem her anger, electricity sizzling across the medallion at the top, Maura stood. Today for their special guest she wore her favorite outfit. The material was modest in cut. A halter style top that tied at the back of her neck and mid back, covering her small breasts while leaving her back bare. The skirt flowed around her, a silver belt holding it in place low on her ample hips, draping down around her legs with a small train. But that was where the modesty ended. The translucent white material left nothing to the imagination and set off her dark creamy skin to perfection. Holding her long shocking white hair in place was a circlet of red gold, twisted in an intricate design with a large white jewel set in the middle.

Immediately those who surrounded her, including the guards, dropped to one knee, head bowed. As befitting one of her station, she thought with an evil gleam in her grey eyes. She was a goddess after all. Dropped from the heavens the gods know how many years ago, when she stumbled out of the woods covered in soot and dirt the natives saw her exotic looks and the fact she had emerged from the place of The Great Release as a sign from the heavens that she was here to save them. What they didn’t know was that she was an interstellar thief running from the authorities and was shot down on this backwater little planet and left for dead. She had hoped to entice the handsome Lord Sahen into taking her with him and far away from this technological void she had been forced to live in.

As she neared the healer who lay crumpled on the floor, her dreams of escaping dwindled. She was not ignorant of who Aden Sahen or his emperor were. Rumors of their power and thirst for domination were the stuff of nightmares told to little children who did not obey their parents. Maura had seen for herself what was left of a world that refused to bow down to them. Now they were here, and what she promised them was half dead at her feet. With a tap of her rod on Tanis’s side, a small jolt of electricity shot through the healer’s body forcing him to turn over. When Maura saw the growing bruise on the side of his face her temper exploded.

“You fools!” she bellowed. “I cannot deliver him in this condition. He was to be broken, not damaged beyond repair.”

“We are sorry mistress, but if I hadn’t backhanded him, Tenan would be dead,” Reyal whined.

“Better him than the entire world,” she hissed. “Get a healer in here immediately. Maybe we can fix this before it’s too late.”

“Too late for what,” a calm authoritative voice asked.

The queen whirled around to see Aden standing in the doorway of her throne room, two men dressed in red behind him. Her first thought was how handsome the young sorcerer was. The second was she wondered what he would look like without his long black coat or the black shirt tucked into tight black pants. As he strode closer she realized he wore black boots that rose to just under his knees. How delicious it would be to strip those boots and pants slowly down those long legs, and lick her way back up to what she was positive was as impressive as the sorcerer himself. Those wicked thoughts were quickly replaced by apprehension when Tanis groaned behind her and Aden’s eyes narrowed, flashing red.

“My Lord Sahen,” she cooed swaying up to him. “So wonderful to finally meet you. I had not expected to see you until after the noon meal.”

Aden regarded the queen with indifference. Although a handsome woman, the clothes, or lack thereof, she wore disgusted him. It reminded him of the outfits Caius forced Kara to wear when he wanted to distract his enemies during negotiations with thoughts of Kara theirs for a night. It had taken every ounce of will power not to kill the bastards with every leer or carnal thought that raced unfiltered across their faces. Every one of those thoughts that Kara could hear, feel while she stood by the emperor’s side like some expensive toy the emperor had brought out to show and tell, but not touch. It had been physically painful for Kara not to act on those thoughts, a side effect of what she called her curse that the emperor took great delight in.

“We arrived earlier than expected. The Emperor wants to finish our transaction so we can move on to more important tasks,” Aden gruffly answered the queen. He wanted to be gone from this place as quickly as possible. Something was not right. He just could not figure out what it was.

“More important?” the queen repeated, unable to keep indignation out of her voice that she was obviously being dismissed. Pasting an expression on her face that promised Aden any desire he wished, Queen Maura sashayed towards him, placing a hand on his arm and sliding it up to his shoulder as she move so her body was a breath away from his. “But I thought you were to bring the girl here and they would both be trained by my men,” she pouted.

As if he would allow her men to touch Kara. Ignoring her obvious ploy to distract him with her body, Aden brushed past her to where Tanis lay groaning. Squatted down next to him, Aden studied the man. A large bruise covered the upper half of the left side of Tanis’s face. His dark shoulder length hair was wet and combed away from his face which was gaunt as was his body from malnutrition. Outward there was nothing special about this man. A simple healer that had led a simple life. Six months. They had given Maura six months to break this man, yet his mind was still whole. Still a threat. It spoke of an inner-strength that was as rare as the woman who waited for them up on the emperor’s ship.

So this is the man that will take Kara from me, Aden thought. A wave of intense jealousy had his hand up as if he were going to strangle Tanis before he could think of the consequences. Quickly Aden reigned in his powers before he did something very foolish. Bringing Tanis to his master dead would do neither him nor Kara any good. But before he could stand, Tanis grabbed Aden’s wrist with the strength that belayed his weaken state. His dark blue eyes flew open locking with Aden’s, freezing him where he crouched.

“Help her,” he croaked.

Images of arms and legs intertwined, bodies moving, skin against skin, rough hands, stings of leather. Moans of pain and pleasure, of cruel laughter and pleas for mercy that would never come. The sense of hopelessness and loss of will to go on as a life force slowly diminished.

Gasping, Aden stumbled backwards, his eyes wild as the world spun around him. As his eyes darted around the room, the images in his head slowly fading as the room around him came into focus. The first person he saw was the queen, who stood frozen with one hand on her chest and eyes wide. The rest of her people looked at him with more than a little fear. The two men he brought with him watched with dispassionate eyes, used to the oddness that was ever present in their world.

“Are you alright, Lord Sahen?” Queen Maura asked taking a step forward, a worried frown on her beautiful face.

Was he alright? The images filled his vision again along with the confused emotions of unbridled pleasure and despair. The emotions cut through him, piercing his heart and driving him to his knees. One hand on the ground while the other clutched the front of his shirt over his heart, he looked at Tanis who was watching him and gasped, “What have you done to me?”

“You have to save her,” Tanis whispered hoarsely, reaching for Aden. “She will not last much longer.”

With a sudden clarity that drained the color from Aden’s face, he knew who Tanis was talking about and what those images meant. “He wouldn’t,” he breathed in horror.

Tanis’s only answer was a stricken expression and a slight nod of his head. Those dark blue eyes that shone with deep knowledge and intelligence dimmed and became confused, dazed. Glancing around him, his hand going to his head as he winced in pain, Tanis mumbled, “Where am I? What’s going on?”

The terror that consumed Aden at what was being done to Kara squashed down the questions that rose about Tanis’s sudden change in behavior. He had to get back to the ship. Now.

“The deal has been altered,” Aden announced in the quiet as he lurched to his feet. With a motion of his hand, his guards started for Tanis. As they hauled him to his feet and began to carry him out of the room, Aden turned his murderous glare to the Queen who blanched. “I hope the Emperor is not too displeased with his condition,” Aden snapped.

“Two of my men claimed he tried to kill them. They acted in self-defense,” the queen explained quickly.

“Are they still alive?” Aden followed the queen’s gaze to the two guards who were kneeling by the wall vainly trying to be invisible. With a flick of his wrist they both fell over, dead.

The queen gasped at the sheer power it would have taken her to do such a thing but seemed so easy to this Sorcerer. She looked back at Aden wide-eyed, realizing that the rumors were true and maybe she would be better off staying on this backward little planet. Especially with the mood the foul mood the sorcerer was now in. Without even so much as a glance at her, he strode out of the throne room.

Aden ignored the queen, who was calling out to him, desperate to get back to the ship. Never in his wildest dreams did he thing Caius would do something so vile. They had talked many times about going back and killing Colin for what he forced on Kara, and now….

Closing his eyes Aden sought Kara out with his mind. When he finally found her, the images and feelings that came back to him were a jumble. The fear and pain he felt before slammed into him again. Staggering, he grabbed the wall for support. Shit! Racking his brain trying to figure out what they had done to upset the emperor enough to warrant this kind of punishment, Aden ran for his cruiser, desperate to return to home as quickly as possible to prove his fears wrong.

Chapter 6
Chapter 8

Broken Promises – Chapter 6

On December 1, 2018December 8, 2018 By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Free Write5 Comments

Chapter 6

Kara stared out of the window of Caius’s immense spaceship onto the planet below, the cowl of the rich green silk cloak that covered her from neck to foot lying against her back, highlighting her deep auburn hair that reach down to her lower back. Under the cloak she wore a white dress made of sheer silk. The material was layered so there was only a glimpse of the pale skin that lay beneath. At each shoulder was a delicate silver clasp that held the dress in place, so with a click it would fall away from her body. The deep V neckline exposed a pale line of skin down to her bellybutton. Just below that a silver belt delicately engraved with vines and flowers rested low on her hips. The piece was beautiful, and if Kara had been less exhausted, less numb she would have admired it.

Caius had always lavished her with gifts like this after a conflict where the nightmares she inflicted on their enemies were particularly gruesome. It was his way of apologizing for forcing those images into her own head, because what the victim saw, so did Kara. Yet on the times she had fought him, refused to do his bidding, he used those same nightmares against her. Forcing her to relive them as if they were her own. It was as if two different people lived inside of him. One who care for her, was gentle with her, maybe even loved her in his own way. The other used her, forced her to do things for the only reason that it would hurt her, and he enjoyed her pain, was viscous in his punishments, a monster in every sense of the word.

When they first arrived on the ship, she had caught a glimpse of the man who cared for her well-being even though she was his to command, to use. That glimpse had been fleeting. Once she and Aden refused to break their bond the monster roared to life. When Aden told Caius that they could not break something magical when they did not know how it was forged, and that even if they could they would not, the monster exploded.

Kara did not know how long she spent in that small white room with no windows or doors screaming. The short coarse shift she had been given to wear lay in shreds on the cold floor, her pain so intense, unrelenting, that she had shredded the thin material to reach her skin. Praying that if she spilled enough blood the pain would bleed out with the precious fluid. She begged, pleaded, promised things she would have never conceived of doing, just to stop the pain. Nothing short of her denying Aden would suffice. The one command she could obey.

On the other side of a wall size two-way mirror that looked like a blank wall on Kara’s side, Aden was trapped in his own room, helplessly watching. With Kara’s screams echoing around him, unable to reach her, to help her in anyway, he too had promised things that had made him cringe in revulsion. Begged Caius to punish him, not her, but the emperor had refused.

There was a time when Aden thought his power rivaled Caius’s. Now he knew different. With barely a thought, without any effort, Caius bound Aden’s powers completely. Bound them then left him unable to stop the torturous pain Caius inflicted with gleeful abandonment on Kara, laughing as he watched Aden break in front of him. All because Aden dared to love her. He had asked Caius who he really was, because the man who stood before him was not the man he had grown to respect, to love as a mentor.

“I am someone more powerful then you could ever imagine. As powerful as the gods themselves,” Caius had seethed. “And you will do well to remember that Kara is mine to do whatever I wish. She will obey me. As will her mate. As will you.”

“I cannot give you what you want,” Aden cried desperate to make Caius understand that he asked the impossible. On the other side of the mirror Kara’s screams intensified. Aden tightly closed his eyes and looked away, the agony that sound caused him threatening his sanity.

“Cannot, or will not,” Caius quietly hissed, his own rage barely contained at Aden’s refusal to do as he was told. Aden could not meet Caius’s eyes, his silence an answer on its own. His voice squeezed down to a whisper in his rage, Caius repeated, “I will ask you one more time. Break your connection with Kara, or you will both wish for a death that will never come.”

“You have taken everything from us,” Aden agonized whisper filled the sudden silence. Eyes filled with defiance, he glared up at the monster before him and hissed, “You can do your worst, but we will not give you the only thing that makes our existence bearable.”

For a long moment they glared at each other. Aden on his knees, his conviction and determination etched in his expression. Caius looming over him, his rage mounting with every second Aden refused to bow down to his authority.

“So be it,” Caius hissed into the silence.

With a swish of his cloak, Caius turned and left the room, the metal door whooshing shut behind him. The moment the soft click of the door sounded Kara’s screams began once again. Closing his eyes, Aden slowly bent over until his forehead touched the cold metal floor, agony washing over him. Nothing short of total obedience would stop their torment, and that was something neither of them could give.

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

Kara felt gently arms lift her from the floor of her cell. Exhausted, her mind clinging desperately to what little sanity she had left, the only thing she remember in those next hours were flashes of light from the ceiling as she was carried back to her rooms. Of gentle hands washing the blood from her already healing body, each ragged gash tended to so it would not scar. Of her tangled hair being carefully brushed out, each tangle handled with care not to hurt her as they were pulled apart. Of being laid on a soft bed and being tucked under warm blankets. Of blessed pain free, dream free darkness.

Now, as Kara stared down at the innocent planet, she wondered what had changed. Why had the torment ended when it was obvious they had not given Caius what he wanted? It had something to do with this planet, but she had not the opportunity to ask Aden and she was too afraid to ask Caius. His anger was there, just under the surface, so she made it her life’s mission to be as invisible as possible so she would not bring his wrath down upon her again.

A calm soothing presence drew near her, enveloping her with a love so warm, so deep she felt the lingering pain of the last weeks subside. Closing her eyes, Kara allowed herself to fall into that warmth if only a moment. Then, very gently, she began to pull away.

Aden, her mind breathed into his. You take a big risk doing this out in the open. If Caius found out…. She let the thought finish itself. Opening her eyes, Kara fixed them on the planet before her as Aden came to a stop next to her, his eyes also on the offending planet.

Down there was the man who would take Kara from him. Down there was her destiny, his destruction If he had been given any wish he desired, it would be to take her as far away from here as possible.

It is a risk I am willing to take if it gives you a moment of peace, he countered. He projected a mental image of him wrapping his arms around her, pulling her back against him. So real was the image they both felt the heat of each other’s bodies. His love, his need for this woman defied logic. She was his drug he could not get enough of. He was addicted to her and he never wanted to be cured. Feeling her shiver against him, he mentally nuzzled her neck. Again this was a huge risk he was taking, because if Caius caught them he would punish them both. Aden was not sure either of them could survive another round of the last two weeks. When he thought about how long they have been trapped in their never ending cycle of torment, he shuddered.

“I will not allow him to deny us this one pleasure,” Aden vowed adamantly yet quietly as he gazed down at her. He took a step closer.

“Aden,” Kara began, but before she could turn towards him or assure him that she would not give in to Caius’s demand, that she loved him too much to lose him, she hissed in pain.

The pain in her lower back that radiated up to her lungs and outwards was so sharp it took her to her knees. Because they were wrapped around each other in their minds, the pain leaped into Aden. Gasping, he grabbed onto one of the steel girders that held the windows in place before his knees could collapse from under him. Quickly backing his mind away from hers so he could think clearly, Aden stared at her in horror before looking towards the doors, feeling his master’s murderous glare from across the room.

The black cloaked figure moved slowly across the room, his pale blue eyes gleaming from under his cowl. Raising hands twisted with arthritis, showing the blue veins just under the grey skin, he pushed his cowl back to show a face that looked every inch of his two thousand years. Shoulders hunched with age, his true height was hidden, although he did have to look up slightly as he narrowed his eyes at his young apprentice.

“Must she spend more days in agony because you refuse to heed my wishes?” Caius growled, his voice gravelly as if it had been used too much. “Have you learned nothing? Do you not care for her well being?”

Aden bristled at the last comment knowing that after those torturous hours of watching Kara writhe in pain, Caius knew exactly how he felt about her. “My lord,” Aden bowed before walking towards him. “I only asked how she faired. Nothing more. You know I would not risk her health any further.”

Caius looked from his most trusted servant to the girl on her hands and knees doing her best not to scream because she knew he would enjoy her pain. Frowning, he knew under normal circumstances he could trust Aden to do anything he asked of him. Yet when it came to this girl Aden refused one simple request.

The part of his brain that he had kept under lock and key from the moment he ordered Aden to retrieve Kara whispered, What did you expect? That they would bow down and grant you your every wish? You have taken everything from them. Their family, their freedom, their will. All they have is each other. Besides, no matter how powerful you may think you are, you cannot take what they cannot give.

Scowling at the unwanted reminder of that little known fact, Caius mentally put a muzzle on his prisoner. I do not need advice from weak love sick fools. I will have what I came for, prophecy be damned!

With a flick of Caius’s hand towards Kara, her pain subsided and she was able to breathe again. As much as he enjoyed seeing her suffer, there was no time for small pleasures. Noting how Aden made it a point not to look at Kara, or go to her side to help, Caius watched as Kara slowly climbed to her feet using the wall for support. Although Caius could tell it cost Aden a great deal to stay where he was.

No matter, Caius thought to himself. After tomorrow she will not even care if he is in the room.

The muffled humph in the back of his mind that spoke of a naivety Caius had lost long ago did nothing to cool his irritation. Well two could play that game.

“I have a job for you, my friend,” Caius announced in his gravelly voice as he walked over to where Kara stood, reaching out to gently stroke her hair. Inside his head, his prisoner slammed himself against the bars of his cage, desperately trying to escape so he could stop Caius from touching her. A few steps away, he could feel Aden’s desperate need to yank her away from him. Caius was impressed with the amount of willpower it took for Aden to stay his hand. Two men who were desperate to protect one small woman from her destiny. Fools. “I want you to go down to the planet and retrieve the package.”

“I thought the original plan was to bring Kara to him so we would know for sure he is the one we seek,” Aden frowned. Watching his master study Kara as if she was some prize possession, a pet, threaten to tear down the fragile walls he had built around his rage. Attacking the emperor would do neither of them any good. Looking away, he forcefully shoved the unhelpful emotion back into its box. Closing his eyes, fisting his hands in frustration, Aden realized that was exactly what Kara was to Caius. A prize possession, and soon he would have the matched pair. That thought had Aden gritting his teeth again. Kara was his.

“It was,” the emperor answered. “However, I have recently learned he is not as well trained as our young pet here. I will not risk losing all I have worked so hard for because of someone else’s incompetence.” He turned to Aden, who was now looking at Caius with neutral eyes. “You will go down and inform the queen since she could not break him then she leaves me no choice but to do it myself. Something that displeases me greatly.”

“And if she gives me trouble?” Aden asked.

“Dispose of her,” Caius ordered coldly.

“As you wish,” Aden bowed. With one last worried glance towards Kara, that unfortunately the emperor did not miss, Aden left the room.

Caius looked at the door pondering what he should do about Aden’s refusal to heed his wishes concerning his pet. It didn’t matter their connection would be severed this time tomorrow. What concerned him was it had occurred in the first place. Kara should not have been able to bond with anyone aside from the one who would father her children and one of two who had been connected to her through the prophecy for more lives than he cared to count. It was the way it had been since the beginning of time. What was different this time? The scrolls he had in his possession yielded nothing he did not already know, which frustrated him to no end. His gaze went to Kara who stood quietly staring out the window, doing her best not to be noticed. Maybe there was something new in the ones he had discovered just before he brought Kara home.

Home. This metal city was far away from her home or even his. It was a means to and end, and once they finished with this next step of his plan then, maybe, they could think about going home. Before that could happen, there was the small matter of the continuing disobedience he needed to attend to.

“How much more must you suffer before you heed my wishes?” Caius’s voice hissed through the room as he turned and walked towards his throne.

“You ask the impossible,” Kara answered not taking her eyes off the planet. There was something down there. Something familiar, but for the life of her she could not remember ever being here.

“I only ask for what is mine!” Caius bellowed, slapping his hand to his chest in emphasis.

Jumping at the sudden sharp anger, Kara’s eyes snapped to Caius. He had reached the three stairs to the dais where his throne sat. She had no real excuse for what she said next. Maybe it was the fact she was exhausted, or that she could feel Aden as he moved further away from the ship, like taffy being pulled thinner and thinner, threatening to snap in half. Or maybe it was whatever was drawing her attention down to the planet. Pick one. None of them explained her sudden stupidity.

“What is yours? What you ask for has never been yours because it belongs to Aden therefore I cannot give it to you,” she snapped in frustration.

Caius froze as he placed his foot on the last step. The stillness in the room, for there were the ever present elite guard watching over their emperor, was deafening. Wide eyes regarded Kara as if she had lost her mind, and maybe she had.

It was when the emperor began to move that the room began to breathe again. Eyes filled with horror, Kara watched him slowly turn and carefully place himself on the large black throne, making sure that his robes were just so. That the long sleeves hung just right as he gently placed his hands on the arms of the throne. He was moving with that controlled carefulness that spoke of a fine burning rage. One that would consume everyone in its path with white hot flame. When he finally spoke, his voice was the calm before the storm. A deceptive controlled emptiness that with one breath would break, destroying everything in its path.

“Maybe I have been too lenient with you. Maybe I should take a page from your past, from before I found you and you begged me to save you from the bastards that abused you. Maybe I should and give you to one of my garrisons for a few hours. Remind Aden how the touch of a man, any man, fills you with hunger and lust. Then maybe he will see you for the worthless whore you are and sever your bond as I have commanded!” his voice growing louder as his anger grew.

Kara shuddered at the thought of being raped repeatedly. Because that was what he was suggesting. It had been Colin’s favorite form of punishment. Watching as his men used her. Knowing if she did not perform to his satisfaction he would turn her over to them again the next night bound and gagged, leaving her to the mercy of the men. Knowing that once her appetites were appeased that the horror of what she had just done would eat away at her soul.

“No,” she breathed. Taking a step towards him, Kara pleaded. “Please, my lord. I beg of you. Don’t do this! We cannot give you what you want.”

“It’s the ‘we’ in that sentence that displeases me,” Caius snarled slowly rising off his throne, his eyes narrowed on Kara with rage. “There should be no we!” He began descending the steps of the dais, one after one, his voice raising as his rage did. “There should only be Aden and then you. You do not belong to him. You belong to ME!” yelling the last word to emphasize it.

“Please,” Kara whispered, her eyes locked on some far point, arms stiff at her sides, her body trembling as Caius stopped close enough to her his robes brushed her cloak.

The small voice locked away in the back of Caius’s mind broke the gag Caius had put on him and screamed his outrage. He could not do this to Kara. She was precious, she was all he had. Everything that he had done, every sacrifice, every foul act was for her, for all of them. If the bastard that stood glaring at the trembling woman forced this vile act on her it would be the one thing that would break the strong vibrant woman he loved.

Ignoring that small voice, Caius leaned down, his lips close to Kara’s ear and hissed, “Break the bond, or so help me gods I will carry out my threat.”

The movement of her head was so slight Caius barely saw it, but it was enough. She would not, or could not, obey him.

“Very well,” his voice sounding as dead as his heart was. Louder, “Captain Hiram!”

Kara jumped at the sudden loudness, her eyes snapping to the emperor, wide with terror and disbelief. Hiram had been Newell’s second in command. He had worshiped Newell, followed him blindly. Hated Aden and Kara as much if not more than Newell did. The chance to avenge his mentor’s death was a dream he thought would never come true. And now the emperor was handing her to him to do with as he wished. Hiram stopped in front of them, his red robes swishing around his ankles as he saluted his emperor and gave him a small bow.

“My emperor,” he replied sharply.

“Take her to the Red Guard’s garrison,” Caius ordered as he very slowly pulled Kara’s cloak from her shoulders uncovering her to the men’s stares, his eyes locked with hers the entire time. Draping it over his arm, he took one step back and turned to his captain. “There should be on a few who are off duty. Take care not to tear her clothing. She will need the dress when Aden returns with his package. As for her body,” he hesitated, watching the hope in Kara’s eyes spark to life as she thought maybe there would be limitations to what they could do to her. “As long as there is no permanent damage and she is able to heal adequately before tomorrow’s festivities, do with her as you will. You have until this time tomorrow.”

Kara paled.

“You promised,” she whispered. When Caius only stared at her, his expression impassive as if he did not know what she was talking about, she took a step towards him. “When you rescued me from Colin, when you brought me here, you promised you would never force me to endure his form cruelty again.”

There was a flash of compassion in Caius eyes. Just enough that Kara thought maybe the man who had made that promise was still in there, somewhere.

“You can stop this,” he said gently, reaching up to touch her cheek with the tips of his fingers. A feather light touch with eyes full of sorrow. His next words crushed that hope. “All you have to do is break the bond between you and Aden,” he smiled. That smile did not reach his eyes. Those had bled red and held a malice that Kara cowered away from.

“I can’t,” she whispered hoarsely.

“Then you leave me no choice,” his smile dimming. “Captain.” With that one word, Caius turned away from Kara and walked towards the dais, dismissing her.

“With pleasure, my lord,” Hiram smiled, the heat in his eyes turning them darker. With lightning speed, he reached out and grabbed Kara around the neck, yanking her to him. “I am going to enjoy teaching you your place, witch,” he sneered. There should be at least four men in the garrison at that moment. Four to one sounded like one hell of a party.

Chapter 5
Chapter 7

Broken Promises – Chapter 5

On November 24, 2018December 2, 2018 By HeidiIn Creative Writing4 Comments

Chapter 5

What day was it? What time? As he pried his eyes opened, Tanis did not have an answer to these questions floating through the pain filled haze that permeated his mind. He did not even know how long he had been unconscious. Minutes, hours, days. What he did know was that once again he was lying on the filthy floor of his cold dark dank cell.

At least the pain has subsided, for the most part, he thought, his body screaming in agony when he tried to move. Panting Tanis decided he did not have the energy to move. Did not have the energy to chase the rats away that scampered over him, or even the energy to wonder for the thousandth time why he was here in the first place.

The queen definitely had not been forthcoming with answers. Instead, she took a great deal of pleasure torturing him. Endlessly. Before this last session she seemed anxious about some piece of news she had just received. Something to do with him. Whatever it was, she had stepped up her attempts to break him. When her own exhaustion finally set in and she ordered him back to his cell, Tanis was not sure he would survive the night. There was nothing left in him to heal himself, and to be honest he did not want to. He had done that once. Once was enough. When she had found out what he had done, she took great pains, mostly his, to make sure he did not attempt to heal himself again.

Every once in a while, when her anger was high and she had been particularly vicious with her torturing, she would force some sort of sleeping draught down his throat so she would be sure his magic would heal him while he slept, like it had since the day he had been born. How she had known this piece of information was lost on Tanis. It was something only his parents and his wife knew about him. If the villagers knew exactly how powerful he really was, then he would have come to the attention of the queen far sooner than this. Queen Maura was a jealous queen. Anyone she felt was a threat to her reign or would be useful she either killed or forced to serve her. Maybe that was why he was here. Someone had figured out his secret and told her.

Groaning, every muscle screaming as he carefully rolled over onto his back, Tanis wondered vaguely how his family was fairing without him, or if they even knew he was still alive. Usually when someone was dragged off to the castle they were never heard from again. The thought that his wife and child would be left alone to fend for themselves with no place to call home tore at his soul.

Why. Was. He. Here?!

The Queen’s Guard had come into their small village mid-afternoon looking for The One of the Prophecy. A man of great power, whoever the hell that was. Saying that their mistress had determined he resided in Amulree. Since magic was not uncommon on Krynn, no one knew what the soldiers were talking about, and as far as the villagers knew there was no one of great power who lived in their small village. When they had called out Tanis’s name everyone had stood in shock. Luckily his best friend had retained enough wits to run to Tanis’s office where he was busy healing a broken bone and warn him of the danger. The friend had just taken his wife and two year old daughter out the backdoor into the forest when the guards broke through the front door.

Maybe that was when they figured out his secret, when he stepped out of his house and saw what was waiting for him, something inside of him shifted. As if another consciousness that he did not know existed within him took over. With a wave of his hand he had leveled most of the guard the moment they rushed him. The ones who were still standing took a moment to gawk before they rushed him. Then he had done something that even surprised him. He fought them hand to hand. Being a healer, Tanis had never practiced hand to hand combat. It was against his beliefs. But on that day he fought as if he had years of practice. It was disorienting while at the same time familiar. It wasn’t until someone had managed to come up behind and hit him in the back of the head that they were finally able to subdue him. It left Tanis barely conscious, bound and gagged on the ground outside his house while the guards took great pleasure in burning it to the ground. Then everything faded into darkness.

The next thing he remembered was being woken by a bucket of cold water thrown onto his half naked body as he hung in chains from the ceiling by his wrists. When he focused on the queen who stood before him, his fear grew tenfold. She told him of a thousand year old prophecy that depicted two powerful beings separated by time and space, each living their lives not knowing who they truly were. Once brought together, everything would become clear and their powers would rival that of the gods. She informed him he was one half of that pair, and once he gazed into the eyes of the other he would be lost to her forever.

Tanis had tried to tell the queen that she had the wrong person, that the magic he wielded was nothing compared to what she had described. He was a small town healer, not some prophesied demi-god.

The queen had asked if he was as he said, a small town healer of no consequence, then how had he knocked six men unconscious with a wave of his hand? How had he fought like a warrior as if he had spent his life training as one? Tanis did not have answers to her questions. That whole episode seemed like someone else’s memory, not his.

The queen had not allowed him time to think about it any further because she had brought out a strange device made of a shiny black metal and started to explain what it did. It was about twelve inches long, thick on one end so it fit comfortably in the queen’s small hand, narrowing at the tip like a wand certain witches in their world used to wield magic. He had never seen anything so beautiful, nor had he been so afraid. When the tip of the metal wand touched his skin, it felt as if every muscle tore into a thousand pieces at once. When she took the wand off and the screaming stopped, he realized that he was still in one piece. That his muscles in his fingers, his legs, his neck had not shredded. That he could still move. With a delighted giggle, the queen began to…experiment with the wand. First it was with range, finding she could shrink the area of pain down to a pinprick before slowly radiating it out until it encompassed his body then back again. Then there was intensity. From a small hum that grew into that muscle tearing searing, not stopping until one of his bones broke from the tension.

Drifting in and out of consciousness, he was not sure how long she had tortured him that first night, throwing more water on him when he passed out from the unbearable pain. When she grew tired of the game, she left him hanging, barely conscious, only to come back far too soon for Tanis’s sanity to start the cycle all over.

He wasn’t sure how long he had hung in that accursed room before her guards had thrown him into this dark rancid cell. When he finally fell into a fitful sleep, it had only seemed like he had just closed his eyes before the door opened again, streaming light onto his face. Two guards hauled him off the floor and dragged him out of the cell, laughing at him as he cried out in pain, so the nightmare could begin again, and again, and again.

Blinking up at the dark ceiling, he tried to breathe through the pain, to relax so he could assess the latest damage the queen had done to him. Tanis was sure a couple of ribs had been re-broken and maybe a couple of the bones in his feet. Not as many as last time. Tanis did not know whether he should be grateful or worried that she had gone easy on him. The moment he thought that he began to laugh, which turned into a cough that left him groaning in pain.

As his body finally settled down to something more manageable, a sudden sharp pain sliced through his head. A voice that sounded far away cried for help. Holding his head between his hands, Tanis grimaced. This was not the first time in the last hours he had felt something…someone pushing against his mind. Even though he had never felt anything like it before, the presence felt somehow familiar. It had been curious before. As if it was not sure if what it felt was real, like he felt. This time the presence was in distress. There was a part of Tanis, that part that he did not recognize, that desperately wanted to find that presence and save whoever it was. It was overwhelming. So much so that he was starting to rise off the floor, the pain forgotten when the when the door banged open again. Blinking against the sudden light, the confusion of what was and what was going on in his head left him unable to fight as someone grabbed an arm and dragged him into the light.

“You’re to be cleaned up for some special guest Queen Maura is expecting,” the guard Tanis had learned was named Tenan announced in his gravelly voice as he and his flunky dumped Tanis into a tub of cool water. Tenan’s voice was due to an injure that left a nasty scar across his neck. It looked like the thirty something warrior had his head almost decapitated, but with the help of a healer, the only tell-tale signs were the scar and his voice. The injury was enough to grant him the privilege of becoming one of the dungeon guards. Something he was not too happy about. That sour mood translated in the treatment Tanis received whenever the man had drag him from his cell to the throne room.

The second guard was very young. Tanis thought he had heard someone call him Reyal, but he was barely conscious at the time so could not be sure. Barely twenty, if Tanis’s assessment of the boy was correct, being a new soldier, Reyal won the luckily detail of being down in the bowls of the castle until he proved himself. Like Tenan, he was unhappy about his lot in life.

Eyes lowered, two barely clad slave women stepped next to the tub and began to remove what was left of his pants. Quickly and methodically they scrubbed his body and hair clean, being extra sure to clean any open wounds. When they were done, Tanis felt even more battered and bruised, even though they had been as careful as they could. At the nod of one of the women, the guards hauled Tanis out of the tub setting him down on the cold stone floor. The guards continued their conversation, ignoring them as the women dried and dressed Tanis.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Tenan sneered. “The only power I’ve seen this lowlander do is basic healing. You should have heard the queen when she found out he had been healing his own wounds.” His laughter filled the room, grating on Tanis’s nerves and making the women cringe in fear. “She almost killed him then forced him to heal himself so she could do it all over again. I’ve never seen her so angry.”

“I don’t understand the interest in this one either. Healers are a dinar a dozen, and from what I’ve heard he’s not anything special,” Reyal scoffed from where he sat with his arms crossed, tipping the chair onto its back legs. “Have you heard of him doing anything else?”

Tenan regarded Tanis. The women were combing out the snarls in his shoulder length brown hair. Tanis did not dare look up to meet the guard’s eyes, knowing it could earn him a kick in his already sore ribs.

“There was something when they went to get him. I guess he leveled a half a dozen guards with just a wave of his hand. Then he fought the rest with moves I had never heard of.” Tenan walked over to the group huddled on the floor, shoving one of the women away so he could grab Tanis by the hair, yanking his head back, sneering at the defeat in his dark blue eyes. “Rendering three more useless until someone managed to knock him out. Now he won’t even heal his own wounds without queen Maura’s permission.” With a shove, he pushed Tanis face first into the ground.

“Doesn’t sound like someone who can defeat our best warriors,” Reyal sneered. “Maybe that’s why he allowed his family to burn with his home. To scared to fight for their lives, only concerned with his sorry hide. Selfish bastard.”

“After today it won’t matter,” Tenan said, stepping towards one of the women who sat trying to be invisible. “He’ll be out of our hair and someone else’s problem.”

Someone else’s problem? A scream broke through Tanis’s puzzlement. Looking up he saw Tenan had grabbed one of the women by the hair and was dragging her over to the only table in the room. Reyal was chuckling that masculine chuckle when they are thinking sinful thoughts as he watched the woman struggle, a gleam in his eyes that said he was more than willing to join Tenan in his fun.

When Tenan slammed the woman’s upper body onto the table hard enough to stun her, leaving her legs over the edge, and ripped what little cloth covered her body, something in Tanis broke. That other foreign consciousness that Tanis now realized had resided in the back of his mind for as long as he could remember boiled to the surface. Along with it came an emotion his gentle heart had never felt before. Hate. Hate because he was tired of the pain, tired of the abuse from people he had done nothing to. Hate because he did not know if his family was alive or dead and their lives were worth much more than his. Hate because there was nothing left in him to feel anything else.

Suddenly he knew that if he could heal, then he could kill. It wouldn’t take much. A bit of concentration and he could mend a broken bone or steady an uneven heartbeat. It would stand to reason it would only take a thought to stop a heart from beating, or lungs from breathing. One thought, one flick of his finger and the bastard that had tormented him and these women would be on the floor dead, but Tanis did not want it to be that easy. He wanted the guard to suffer as much as they had. As Tenan began to work the ties on his pants, Tanis struggled to his knees, leveling his gaze at the unsuspecting man.

Suddenly Tenan clutched his neck, his pants falling to his ankles as he struggled to breathe. It took a moment for Reyal to realize something was wrong, then another to realize who it was that was slowly killing his comrade.

With a yell, Reyal jumped to his feet, closing the distance between him and Tanis in two strides, the woman beside him scrambling out of the way. With a vicious backhand, he knocked Tanis onto his back, breaking the eye contact. Tenan dropped to his knees gasping for air.

“Are you all right?” Reyal asked kneeling down next to Tenan. All Tenan could do was nod his head. “I’ll kill him!” Reyal hissed, grabbing the hilt of his sword as he made to stand. Tenan grabbed his arm stopping him.

“No,” he ordered hoarsely. He swallowed hard a few more times before going on. “The queen said not to harm him. Whoever is coming wants him in one piece or the alliance will be broken. She dare not anger this person or he will destroy our world.”

“Is he that powerful?” Reyal asked, eyes wide, his voice barely above a whisper. Everyone knew Queen Maura was the most powerful sorceress on their world. To know there was someone even more powerful, even more dangerous, was frightening.

“Yes,” Tenan answered as his friend helped him to his feet, pulling his pants up as he went. “Now help me drag him up to the throne room. Whoever is coming is supposed to arrive any minute.”

They walked over to where a dazed Tanis lay. Each grabbed an arm, pulling him to his feet. The world spun around him, leaving him unsure which side was up. Tanis had not missed a single word of their conversation. Evidently his predicament was about to become worse, if that was possible. What he wasn’t sure of was what frighten him more. This new threat he was about the face, or the fact using his magic for something he considered evil had felt good. So very good.

Chapter 4
Chapter 6

Word Bank – Prompt #51

On August 1, 2016 By HeidiIn Creative Writing, Flash Fiction, Free Write2 Comments

Here is my response to prompt #51 for Writing Outside the Lines.

Phone, green, twig, storm, past, light

Follow the light, they always say. But what if you don’t want to follow the light? What if you don’t want to have your past played out before you one last time? Trust me. It wasn’t that spectacular the first time through. God only knows I made some horrendous mistakes I was still beating myself up paying for, so why go through it with him again? Or maybe I’m heading down and I will finally answer for my sins. There’s a thought that wasn’t comforting.

Yet the better question was, how did I get here in the first place?

Last thing I remember was walking through the wood and hearing a twig snap. Then it was a whirlwind of crashing, yelling – me – more crashing then…nothing. There wasn’t even any pain. If I was at heaven’s, or hell’s, gate, shouldn’t there have been pain of some sort? One would think so.

The light grew brighter but I refused to acknowledge it. Nope. Not going to look at it, follow it, and I’m sure as hell not going into it. Unfortunately, all I could move was my eyelids. Everything else seemed to be frozen.

“Don’t more, Mr. Green,” a female voice soothed. “It will all be over soon.”

What will be over soon? Where the hell was I? Opening my eyes I tried to get them to focus but the light proved too bright.

“Here,” the woman said kindly.

Suddenly the light was dimmed and I could see my surroundings. Or at least the ceiling, which was white and filled with lights you might see in an operating room. I wouldn’t know for sure because I had never been in an operating room, only had seen them on T.V.

I tried to ask where I was, but it only came out a croak. Swallowing in an attempt to put some moisture into my cotton filled mouth I tried again. “Where am I?” I rasped.

“That would be hard to explain,” the woman answered hesitantly from my right.

Blinking and trying swallowing again, I said with as much command as I could put in my voice, “Try.”

There was a few moments of silence before she finally said, “Maybe it would be better just to show you.”

Show me what? Now I was really beginning to worry. As I listened to her move around the room, I suddenly could hear the sounds around me. Beeping and whirring of machinery. Faint voices whispering somewhere above me in a language I did not understand. The sounds of footsteps as people moved around what seemed like a very large room, and still I could not move. What was more confusing was I should have understood them. I was walking in the Olympic Mountains in Washington State. If I was in a hospital nearby they should speak the same language as I did.

Suddenly my limbs felt lighter.

“There,” the woman said cheerfully. “You can now move, Mr. Green. Please be careful though. You still haven’t quite recovered from the procedure.”

Procedure? I started to sit up quickly and realized what she meant. The world took a spin around me and I almost fell off the table I was laying on. Strong hands caught me and held me in place until it stopped.

“I’m good,” I murmured, nodding my head I had it. Those hands slowly let go, probably afraid I would still fall. Swinging my legs around so they dangled over the edge, I slowly righted myself. Taking a few moments to make sure I would stay in place, my hands on either side of me gripping the table, my head bowed, I finally decided opening my eyes would be all right. When I did, I wish I hadn’t.

There could have been armed men ready to shoot me, a volcano exploding, my guts hanging out I would not have noticed, because what was in front of me took all my attention and held it fast. Before me was a smooth white wall with huge picture window. Outside was darkness streaked with white lights. There was only one explanation and I did not want to believe it until I had more proof. Gingerly slipping off the table, I stumbled to the window until my hand rested on the cold surface, my eyes never leaving what I was not coming to realize was true.

I was on some sort of ship.

In space.

A Little Bit about Broken Promises

On January 30, 2016 By HeidiIn Blog, Uncategorized2 Comments

Lately it seems that the story I have dubbed Broken Promises had been pushing at me to work on. It shows in the latest flash fiction and free writes I have been doing. Kara, Caius and Tanis keep speaking to me, (well yelling actually) asking me to pay attention to them. Aden has been silently waiting in the background, yet his presence it very much there. Out of the four, I would say Aden has the most patience. It’s probably because his presence is so powerful that he doesn’t have to say anything. You just know what he wants. The problem? I’m suppose to be working on Fated to Be! It’s very frustrating.

A little background I think is needed for this particular story. As I have said in my little excerpt about myself, my 8th grade teacher would put something on the board that we were to put in a journal and then write about. One day she put a small paragraph about a forbidden forest and a twig snapping in the quiet. I really wish I still had the original passage, but over the years I have modified it to the point the idea is there if not the exact words.

So I wrote this paragraph down and for some strange reason I could not stop writing. That early draft was all fan-fiction. I took my favorite TV shows from the 70’s (yes I am that old) and mixed them together in my own plotline. At the time it was easier to use characters and actors I knew and just write the plot, such as it was, because I had them firmly in my mind. So I would put into words the movie that was playing in my mind as best as a 14 year-old could up through high school. It was a story that never ended and anything could happen. There were no limits.

That particular rendition of Broken Promises ended up being over 700 HAND WRITTEN pages long. Unfortunately most of it was in pencil and so over time faded. I eventually had to recycle the papers because I could not read what was on them. I cried that day. I remember most of it, and let me tell you my teenage mind had some….. interesting ideas. Somewhere in there I started writing other stories with the first rendition of Obsession being in there, but that is another story for another day. With my memory probably one I have already talked about. lol

Broken Promises was a sort of Sci-Fi slash fantasy slash contemporary romance all rolled into one. When I found it in a cupboard and started to read what was left, I thought that there was a story in there somewhere that I could make all mine. I also thought with some of the scenes and they way they were written (remember I was 14 when I started), “OMG this is scary. What was I thinking! Gah! How embarrassing!” So I began rewriting, changing names of characters and places as I went. (Rewriting those scenes as an adult had much more experience in 😉 ) As per my usually way of writing, it has gone through many many rewrites and changes since then. I think I have something that might be publishable, but it’s not quite ready and I don’t have an ending I am satisfied with. The other problem I’m wrestling with is the storyline starts in the middle. I have tried to go back and rewrite the beginning, but I always get stuck. I think it’s because I am trying to update the time and place and end up going so far off what was originally written my characters balk.

So about Broken Promises. Well the Sci-Fi part is pretty self explanatory. Space, aliens, advance technology species, backwards planets, etc. The fantasy part is more that I have made up my own rendition of how the universe keeps spinning. I have another story called Angels and Demons that was started because of a free write I was participating in. As most writers have had happened, it was a picture or sentence that took on a life of its own. I have since renamed it Forever Lost, for obvious reasons. Angels and Demons was already taken in a big way. In some ways the basis for this story is the same. My version of how the universe started and how it remains still spinning today. A constant battle between good and evil (two males) over the glue (a female) that keeps everything together that has spanned time and space since the beginning. I’m starting to think that maybe the characters of Broken Promises were trying to find there footing in another way since I was ignoring them. Although the place and events are different. Both of these story are borderline horror. The atrocities the characters go through are events only immortals could survive, and sometimes not even then. A cycle that not even death can stop because they are reborn only to begin it again.

Maybe after I finally have Fated to Be published I will go back and look at Broken Promises again. Maybe finally finish it. Although I think this is a Kindle only book and my mom won’t be helping me edit it. I have scandalized her enough with the Destiny series. LOL

Have a wonderful weekend. 🙂

Heidi

Star Wars

On December 13, 2015December 13, 2015 By HeidiIn Blog2 Comments

When I was 11, there was this new movie coming out that everyone was talking about called Star Wars. Since it was a long time ago I only remember bits and pieces of that day we went into the big city of Seattle, waited in line to go into the biggest theater I’ve ever been in, (it even had a balcony!) and watched this new Sci-Fi movie. Everyone was glued to the huge screen, and when Luke lit his Father’s lightsaber the entire theater gasped and jumped.

Since then I have probably watched Star Wars: A New Hope a hundred times. It was the one movie my best friend and I would rent when there was nothing else we wanted to see. We probably wore the video store’s copy out. (For you young’ns. A video store is a place we used to rent these things called VHS tapes.) Then Empire Strikes Back came out and we all received the shock of our lives. Darth Vader was Luke’s father! When I watched Return of the Jedi, I had just finished the book not two hours before we went to see the movie. So I had all the inner monologue in the book that you don’t hear on the big screen fresh in my head. There was a time period from when Vader too Luke to the Emperor until almost the end I had completely forgotten I was in the movie theater. I was that engrossed in the movie.

As we all know, quite a few years later Lucas decided to tell us the story of Darth Vader before A New Hope. Many criticized these movies, saying they weren’t as good and some of the actors were bad choices. Personally I liked them. In Phantom Menace, the fight between Qui-Gone Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul is magic to watch. Yes, Jar-Jar Binks is annoying, but then that is what he’s suppose to be. And the rumor of how Anakin became Darth Vader, that last fight, was finally revealed and, from what I had heard and then seen, it was true! The only trouble I have is determining which three I call 1,2,3. I mean, do I go in order by chapters or by release date?

Now they are going to show us the next generation and their fight against a new Sith Lord that seems to worship Darth Vader in The Force Awakens. I’ve watched the trailers and speculated on some of the things I’ve seen and asked many questions of “why is this person doing this?” I will keep those speculations of myself, though, since I know some don’t want any spoilers. (I’m not sure how I would spoil anything since I haven’t even seen the movie yet, but my son insists I keep quiet so I suppose I will do this here too.)

December 18th is next Friday and I can’t wait!! 3D Imax here we come! We probably will go on the 19th in the morning. I had found that when a big movie comes out, those morning shows tend to be almost empty so no waiting in line for 3 hours before the movie. Always a bonus.