Arissa's Fate (Redemption Trilogy) (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

There was no point in trying to be sneaky when entering the house. They knew she would show up and she didn't have to worry about a soldier jumping out of the bushes at her. The General would have made it clear to everyone else that Arissa was to be his kill.

She released the bay horse as well, on the knoll. It was only a short walk through the landscape
d lawn and the graveled path to the manor. It very well may be the last time she could see it, and she wanted to take the extra moment to revel in it alone.

The General was not going to do anything drastic within the next minute. Even though it was still difficult to picture
herself in a grand house like this, Arissa had never felt more at home than in the years she had lived here. Of course, that had only been because Cayl had been with her the entire time to help make her feel that way.

She walked
purposefully through the gravel stones, eyeing the house as she gradually approached it. The slate grey panels that made the outer walls looked the same, as did the tiled roof and the dark shutters, most of which were bolted shut from the inside. There were three storeys, like the Governor's mansion, but the entire house was a much smaller scale than his. Through the large, double doors at the front of the house, was a short foyer, leading openly into the large, empty space that sat between the doors to a large kitchen and a glass-plated sun room that she had barely ever gone into. Even though the glass walls were bulletproof, it felt too open and exposed for Arissa.

Upst
airs was their master bedroom and an office that she never had used. Once she was able to leave the IT for the day, the last thing she wanted to do at home was to think about it even more. The last room of the upstairs hallway was a smaller room that made Arissa's heart cringe just thinking about it. It was painted a delicate cream color, with a rocking chair in the corner that Landon had specially made for her.

The stairs were straigh
t, rather than curved or spiraled, and sat in the very center of the open room, directly ahead of the front door of the house. The doors that Arissa would walk through in only a few seconds. She couldn't imagine what would be waiting for her there, but she didn't have the nerve, patience or will to wait any longer.

After climbing the dozen steps leading up to the manor, she had laid her hands gingerly on each door, feeling the smooth metal of the engraved handles. Summoning her courage and her strength, Arissa leaned heavily against the doors, shoving them both open as widely as they would go.

The interior of the house had been dark from the closed windows, but now a solid stream of light filled the room, lighting up the staircase like a spotlight. Everything was perfectly silent.

Before Arissa made any move to progress into the house, she mentally shut down everything she was feeling. She forgot about her family that was at stake, the
job that she hated to associate herself with, even the fact that she had promised Cayl time and time again that she was trying to become a better person. She didn't care about any of it, and it felt like she had suddenly been sucked into a vortex and every murderous, vindictive and heartless thing she had ever thought of in her life filled her now. She felt vicious and lethal. She wanted only to kill.

The sound of her boots walking heavily on the tile floor
bounced off the walls of the house, echoing. It looked essentially the same way that it had when she left, but something about it felt empty and hollow. It felt almost as if the spirit of the house had died when it had been vacated months ago.

Arissa didn't stop or bother to gaze around her
until she was in the very center of the open room, her face deadpan and solemn. For a moment, nothing happened. She stood, listening and waiting but there seemed to be no sign of another person in the house. The light from the doorway only reached the first half of the staircase; the rest of the house was still encased in the shadows.

Abruptly
, the open doors behind her slammed shut, the stream of light disappearing at the same time. The intense force rattled the walls and Arissa could feel the floor quiver beneath her feet.

This was
it.

It didn't remain dark for long. Within a few moments, the walls of the house lit up brighter than the ray of sun had. Arissa's face was still hidden beneath her mask and hood, but when her eyes climbed up the staircase that was no
w visible, she wasn't surprised by what she saw.

Cayl stood at the top of the stairs, fre
sh blood dripped across his shirt. He was standing crooked, heavily favouring his injured side. His head was hung down in exhaustion, his overgrown hair appearing sweaty and limp around his face. His hands were forced behind his back, an armed soldier standing on either side of him, grasping his forearms.

Arissa didn't move her head, only
swept the area with her eyes. At the top of the stairs, the hall stretched in both directions, and there was now a solid row of soldiers standing abreast for the entire visible length of the hall. Every one of them had his rifle trained exactly on Arissa.

Finally, she ducked her chin closer to her shoulder to glance behind her. Another row of soldiers had formed a half circle behind her, blocking her from any of the exits of the room. There had to be over fifty soldiers in the room, but she still didn't see
the General.

The
cynical, spiteful side of Arissa was rising quickly. She didn't bother to wait for him to appear before she simply called out to no one in particular, “You know, it's almost as if you don't trust me!”

Her words
rang off of the walls, calling back to her and echoing. At the sound of her voice, Cayl's head snapped up, his weak, tired face looking shocked.

“
Arissa! What are you doing?” he called back to her, almost angrily. One of the soldiers holding him rammed the butt of his rifle into Cayl's shoulder, causing him to crumple to his knees.

She didn’t try to move, she was
glancing to ever corner of the house, trying to find where the General was hiding. She knew he was there. Just being around the man sent sick shivers through her spine.

“
I told you to remain quiet, peasant.”

That voice. It was a disturbingly eerie, smooth voice that a person could never forget, as hard as they tried. Arissa would know, she's been trying to for ten years.

Her eyes burned with hatred as she glared upwards to the top of the stairs. From the shadows beyond where the light could reach, she saw him. The brief outline of the monstrous ruler of their doomed world appeared, moving slowly, conspicuously. Arissa had to bite her lip to keep from cursing aloud to the man she hated, She needed to keep her cool, and wait for the appropriate time to make her move.

“
Well, well,” he announced, loudly, the voice of arrogance carrying down to her level. He stood as if at attention, his arms linked behind his back, his nose raised arrogantly high. Even from the distance, Arissa could see the jagged, red scar that he was famous for. It had been a souvenir of the last battle that had ended the wars completely, leaving the entire world in mass destruction and ruins. The ugly scar reached close to his hairline, across his right eye and down to the chin that he held forward.

He remained at the top of stairs, his small, cruel eyes gleaming with joy at the sight of her capture.
“I must say I am rather surprised to see you here so suddenly. The last time I took away something you cared about, it took you months to act. Foolish. Though what can I expect from such a miniscule, impotent person.”

The General began to descend the staircase, as slow as Arissa thought was humanly possible. He would take one step and then stop, as if
he was pondering his next choice of words as he continued to watch her.

“
I think that you will notice by now that I have won, dear Arissa. I have taken everything from you. Your devoted husband. Your freedom. I have taken your morality and your spirit. And now I have taken over your own home! Which, by the way, I have been gracious enough to pay for all these years,” he projected, so that every person in the room could clearly hear every word. “What do you plan on doing now? You're defenseless. Weak. Everything that I love in my enemy. It makes my job a lot easier.”

Finally, Arissa spoke to him for the first time in months. Her voice was tense and gritted
as she spoke, remaining still as stone and her head bowed beneath her cloak. “You haven't won yet.”

The General stopped suddenly, as if surprised to hear her speak.
“Oh? I haven't? Because it seems to me like I have. You have no way of escape. The only way you're going to be leaving here is in a wooden box.”

He was blocking Arissa’s view of Cayl, but at the sound of his twisted words, another crunch and mutter sounded from behind the General.
His eyes were on her, scrutinizing, hoping to see a flicker of pain in her eyes.

Arissa gave him nothing to be glee about. She remained emotionless, having left her
sentiments far behind her. They could only cripple her now.

The General descended the rest of the stairs before speaking again. He moved slowly
, and it felt like he hadn’t blinked since she had first seen him exit the shadows.

Cayl was vis
ible again, but they had roughly yanked him back onto his feet, holding his head up by a fistful of hair so that he had to watch Arissa. His eyes were wide and frightened, as well as severely livid, burning like green fire.

With only a slight movement of his hand, the General called ahead two soldiers from the row behind Arissa. Wordlessly, they efficiently knocked her knees out from her, landing hard on the polished wooden floor of her home.
One grasping each forearm, the way they were with Cayl, the General motioned to them again, and in a swift, fluid motion, the hood was shoved off her head and the black mask she had improvised was ripped off.

Strands of her black, silky hair were caught around her face, her dark eyes ablaze as she stared into the General’s inhu
man eyes. His cocky grin melted into a serious pondering expression, as he took out his silver handgun, similar to the one she had just seen the man in the Governor’s manor with.

On the outside, Arissa appeared blank and
weak, completely given up on any chance to live. Even with Cayl’s angry shouting in the background, it seemed she didn’t respond to anything.

However, deep within where her soul was aflame with hatred and anger and revenge, she yearned for the chance to kill the man before her. She wanted him to suffer and to feel a fraction of the pain that she had felt because of him. She would get that chance, she just had to be patient. And pray that everything went according to her plan.

His lips curled as he spoke to her. “Goodbye...Arissa.”

She never stopped glaring into his malicious eyes, even when he pressed the cold, blunt tip of the
gun barrel to her forehead.

Chapter Twenty-Five

It wouldn’t end like this. Arissa had faith. Not in the General, of course, but in herself to remain strong. She had faith in the universe, that had been so cruel yet so gracious to her. Someone as terrible as the General couldn’t get away with the things he had done, and Arissa might very well be the only person who could do a damn thing about it.

Still, the cold metal pressing against her head was troubling. She hadn’t exactly thought it would come to this yet. Regardless, she never broke the eye contact. He needed to know that she was just as strong as he was.

The manor was completely silent, except for Cayl’s furious shouting in the background. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to him.

Arissa felt sick to her stomach, the waiting, the tension was unbearable and she was only now beginning to feel unnerved. Another moment and she might begin shaking.

The General’s eyes were wild and crazed with desire to pull the trigger. But in the next instant, something in his expression softened and she felt the pressure against her forehead ease slightly. Her eyes twitched with terror, but she never altered her expression.

His, however, turned suddenly thoughtful as he broke their eye contact, dropping his gaze and his gun from where it had been positioned for the last twenty seconds. Arissa wanted so badly to spit out a mouthful of bitter words for him, but this was unlike him to step down from an execution, especially one he would enjoy so immensely. Something was going on in his mind, and she already knew how terrible it was going to be. When he looked back at to meet her gaze, he was smiling.

"This is too easy. I want your death to be bigger than this. I want everybody in the nation, in the entire territory to see and hear about how weak you were before I mercifully obliged you...with death. They will know the truth."

He spoke directly in her face. She hadn't noticed until now, but Arissa had been holding her breath for so long that she now felt lightheaded. Her heart beat raggedly and uneven, her breath nearly shaking. Still, she summoned her strength to speak spitefully to him.

"The truth. You're too much of a coward to ever tell the truth. You are nothing but a fraud. When I came to you that day, you thought you had done me a favour, you thought you had done yourself a favour by getting me contained, isn't that right? Now I'm going to tell you something,
General
. You are going to regret lowering that weapon. I am going to make you wish that you had shot me on the first day we met. I am going to kill you and I am going to enjoy every...lasting...second."

Arissa struggled to free her arms but, luckily, the soldiers didn't put up much of a fight. She rose to her feet,
holding her head proudly high and her black cloak still streaming around her in waves as it fell to the floor. When she was at her full height, she didn't flinch when the General got in her face trying to intimidate her, without luck.

His face was red with fury, his bloodshot eyes darting viciously between her own as she spoke calmly. Arissa noticed his finger twitching on the trigger o
f the pistol that he held at his side, but refrained from raising it again.

Her words had cut, she could clearly see
, and he was trying desperately not to lose his temper. What he had in mind must be awfully important for him to be portraying such self-control.

"Take her to the hill like we discussed," he spat out through grinding teeth to the
soldiers behind her. Without a word, they each snatched up her arms again, forcing her roughly to turn and march from her own home. The soldiers that had formed an organized crowd behind them parted as she was escorted through.

As much as she wanted to, she didn't dare turn to see what had happened to Cayl. It was essential that she remain detached and powerful in front of the General. Using Cayl against her would work too well and Arissa hoped she could stop this before it came to that.

The moment they were outside, a blindfold was tied tightly around her eyes and she realized it was her mask she had used earlier, only now she was left blinded. The soldiers secured her hood around her face again and from then on, she was completely dependent on them. She couldn't see and she could barely hear what was going on around her. As far as she could tell, she was tossed into some sort of crate after they fastened her hands tightly behind her back. Whatever she was in began bouncing and jostling a moment later and she realized it was a carriage. But where would they be taking her?

The General had mentioned a hill. As far as she knew, there was no place in Daer that was generall
y referred to as that, although she realized it could be something new, or a code for something completely different. When it came to the General, Arissa didn't underestimate anything.

It seemed forever, but she was sure it had only been a few miles before they stopped. Her back was already beginning to ache from the awkward position she had been in, too cramped to even right herself. Again, the soldiers took her from the crate and when her feet hit the ground again, she was surprised.

Her boots didn't impact with the soft, yielding dirt like she had expected. Instead, her footsteps sounded loudly underfoot, as she was standing on some sort of wooden platform. She casually tapped the floor again with her heel and indeed, it was a hollow, wooden structure. But where in the world she was, she had no clue.

They walked a short distance with her, occasionally shoving her forward for the fun of it. They seemed to enjoy it when she nearly tripped on the lengths of her cloak. Several times, she was ordered to keep her head down. A moment later, she heard the roaring and excited shouts of many people. It wasn't a happy sound, but wherever the crowd was, they were definitely upset about something. The din kept growing louder as she walked and seemed to be shifting, as if she were walking among them.

Then it hit her. She was on display.

She had seen this several times before, although she had never known the exact reason behind it. At several executions she had witnessed, if the General had taken a serious dislike for the person, he would make a public
show of it and have the execution in front of the city square in Daer.

It made sense now. He had wanted so badly to kill her at her house, but his need for fame outweighed the desire. At the moment, Arissa was one of the most
infamous people in the territory. Her story was not a common one and maybe that was the reason behind the focused attention that had always seemed to be on her.

The soldiers stopped her and it sounded like she was directly over the angry crowd. Her hands were briefly loosened, only to have them reattached to a vertical bar that was icy to her skin. Again, her head was shoved down as not to reveal her face yet.

This was all a game to the General. She heard his voice from nearby, explaining to the crowd the basics of what was to be believed. To be honoured enough to live among his land, there were certain rules and the most important of those rules was that he knew what was best for the people and for his territory and what they were about to see was a warning of what would happen if anyone was to disobey him.

Simultaneously, her blindfold and hood were torn off again and the entire crowds erupt
ed into a chorus of shocked gasps and enraged statements.

Arissa was tied to a pole on a small wooden platform. Each of the four sides tapered down to meet the ground with soldiers blocking the paths of the civilians. She was perhaps tw
elve feet off the ground, but in plain view of any one of the thousands of people in the crowd. Arissa had never seen a gathering this big in Daer before, but she was confused about why they were so angry. She was a dangerous criminal and she worked for the General. That was enough reason for everyone to hate her and to look forward to her execution. But these people seemed enraged.

Th
ere was a similar platform built to her right, which was where the General stood. Arissa whipped her head around to glare angrily, her lengthy hair catching around her face. The sun was nearly down and her bronzed skin shone with perspiration and the fading sunlight.

Cayl stood behind the General, tied in the exact same way as Arissa, to the same type of pole. He looked like he had already been beaten badly.

Arissa didn’t listen to what else the General had to say. She tried to remain calm, but now she was beginning to feel panicked.

Finally, he stopped talking and within a moment, he had left the platform with Cayl, appearing on another that was
no more than ten paces ahead of them. The three platforms formed a triangle. He has his handgun gripped securely in place and a wicked, burning grin on his face. Very slowly, he took aim directly at Arissa.

The cries and desperate pleads of the crowds rose, as the throngs of people began swirling viciously. There were still two soldiers flanking her sides as well as the two behind Cayl. Of course, they wore the usual, military helmet and shield that completely blocked their faces from being recognized. It was why all the soldiers appeared the same to her.

She tried to strain against the ropes, but it was too well knotted, she was stuck. However, she would not go down without a fight and she refused to believe that it was over. As impossible as it seemed, she would find a way out of this.

Seeing as the General had not yet even pulled the hammer of his pistol to fire yet, the last thing Arissa expected was to feel the intense sensation of pain as a bullet ripped through her, directly below her collarbone.