This is not treachery.
This is freedom.
In the middle of Heaven and Hell, the days of rain and mist are long gone. Now, the Gap World is a kingdom of light and darkness, goodness and evilness, sunshine and clouds. When clandestine forces weave toget...
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THERE WERE THREE MEN in their early forties with shackled hands and faces contorted in pain and fear. And yet, they didn't look hurt or bruised, or anything that would explain their screams. Their eyes were all focused on the ceiling, their stares not moving in the slightest. If at first I'd been worried that they would notice my looking in through the window, now I wasn't even trying to hide. Because their eyes never met anything else but the cobwebs that adorned the walls.
They looked hypnotized, magnetized by something I couldn't see, carried away to some distant world.
Silence.
Crowded with packages I suspected that contained illegal remedies, the room was small, forgotten by the world and lightened up by two candles.
Taking in a shuddering breath, I cursed the moment I hadn't taken a jacket with me, even though Cloudien had insisted I would need one, and continued surveying the men's jailer. He was everything I'd expected him to be. Dressed in black and with a hood covering his head, he almost reminded me of some men in Hell. I shook my head at the memory.
I couldn't see his face since he was standing with his back against the window. I couldn't even understand what he'd just done that had brought his captures back to their senses.
I fell to my knees, hoping that they hadn't spotted me.
Sitting on the grass, I monitored the place. I tried to hear something; anything. It wasn't difficult. Because the darkness was dissolved once again by that holy light and the screams echoed louder than ever. If there were merchants traveling from the countryside to the capital, they would have heard them long ago. But there was no one here.
It was contradicting. So much light coming from a place of torture; a symbol of hope being mixed with pain. Refusing to yield one inch to the horrific memories creeping in my heart, I decided to stay here a little longer to figure out what was going on.
If my breath had been caught the moment the light disappeared for one more time, it should have stalled by now. Because the jailer spoke. He spoke with such calmness that would have made anyone wonder if he was the predator or the prey; if he was hiding strength behind that icy tone or lack of power. I knew it was the former. Because there was no way I could have mistaken this voice.
"Why did they want you dead?" Denfer asked the three men, and I wished I could look at him without getting caught. I couldn't.
He was supposed to be at the other side of the Gap World, examining the financial state of the countryside. Not so close to the capital. Not so close to me. I was supposed to be locked in my bedroom by now, not wandering in perilous roads when the sun had set and all the monsters were hitting the road running. We were both supposed to be symbols of trust and hope. Yet no one could trust a man who kept his prisoners blinded by his own light in order to get the right answers out of them. And no one could find hope in a young woman who ran back to her past without looking forward to what she might be missing in the present.
