Sacrifice of the Septimus: Part 1 (Afterlife saga Book 7) (38 page)

Chapter 36

Unknown Arrows

I don’t know what I was expecting but waking up with sand in my mouth and the baking sun on my back wasn’t it. I opened my eyes and it hurt, blinding me as though I was stood under the Spanish sun in August. My mind was blurry and still trying to piece together all that had just happened. I remembered holding hands, thinking back to my dream and being the first one to step in. But what about the rest of them…had they followed me?

I pushed myself up and wiped the sand from my face. Then I looked round seeing the heat haze in the distance, rising up as if I was looking through fire. There was nothing for miles but sand and no sign of my friends. I got to my feet, not allowing myself to give in to panic and I dusted myself off creating clouds of sand to fall around me.

“Sophia! Ari! Pip!” I shouted them one by one but heard nothing back. Had I been the only one to come through the gate?

“Where is everyone?” I asked myself out loud. Again I squinted, looking out to the endless vast sands only to find myself nowhere. There were sand dunes to one side and I decided it best to climb one as my friends might have been on the other side, like me waking to find themselves alone. I started up the hill and walking in the soft sand wasn’t as easy as it looked. I liked warm weather but right now I think I would have given anything to swap this sand for snow.

By the time I finally made it to the top I was gasping for breath and sweating a bucket load. But it had been worth it, for what I found might not have been my comrades, but it was the reason we had come here. It was a city…

“Ctesiphon.” I remembered when Pythia had told me about this place. But more importantly who I would have to meet once inside it,

“Arsaces of Parthia, the King of Kings.” It would be strange knowing him by this name but stranger still would be seeing him in this new unknown world. As I looked out to that sand coloured city I knew that the sooner I ventured into its high walls, the sooner I would be going back home.

But first I needed to find my friends. So with this in mind I started walking and I did so cursing the damn Stairmaster that I never got around to ordering. I think it was time to admit that getting fit for my next adventure was going to have to be a priority because this was getting ridiculous. I wasn’t even a quarter way to its gigantic gates and I was out of breath, hot and sweaty and could have drunk a lake dry. But more than this my anxiety levels were through the roof considering I always thought I would be doing this with Sophia, Pip and Ari by my side. Now though, I wasn’t even sure they had made it through? What if the Janus gate would only let one of us in?

Then what? What did that mean for the prophecy and what Pythia had told us of the Fates? It was all so confusing and this long walk ahead offered me too much time to get even more frustrated. The city still looked miles away and I could see shadowed images in the distance as the wind blew the sands into small tornados that caressed the ground.

I untied the zip-up sweater I had around my waist to put over my head to shield me from the wild sands. What was that moving closer to me? In the end the wind dropped and I never got to find out as the sound of horses behind me drew my attention elsewhere. Suddenly there were six men on horseback surrounding me and I couldn’t be sure but they didn’t look like guards. They rode around me at speed, kicking up the sand in my face, telling me pretty quickly that they weren’t friendly.  

I was starting to think this day couldn’t get any worse but then one of them got off his horse and started to approach.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you’re saying.” I told them all when one of the men kept demanding something of me. He was dressed like I would have expected, in a tunic style wrapped jacket and loose trousers, with a wide belt finishing off this ancient look. I couldn’t help but fixate more on the large curved blade that hung from that belt than anything else. The man walking up to me said something again and in turn I replied,

“I told you that I don’t…Ahh!” I finished on a painful sound as he first looked back to the riders and then pulled back his arm, backhanding me across the cheek. I fell down in the sand and I could feel my anger growing inside me.

“Oh you shouldn’t have done that.” I warned snarling back up at him but he took this as another reason to strike me. I cried out again, gasping for air as he reared his foot back and kicked me hard enough in the stomach to wind me. This obviously managed to enrage me further but nothing would happen. I tried to bring forth my powers but that usual tingling in my fingertips never came to me.

“My powers, they’re...AHHH!” I screamed again as the bastard struck out at me once more, this time at the side of my head, hard enough to make my vision go blurry, and my ears ring. I don’t know why this person was attacking me but the next thing I knew he was kneeling down beside me. What came next was the stuff of nightmares for any girl. I started lashing out at him as soon I felt him fumbling with my pants and there was one universal thing I did understand and that was his sick laughter.

Now, I knew why he had just started attacking me, he wanted me hurt and weak so that I couldn’t fight back when he raped me.

“GET OFF ME!” I screamed only to get hit again, but this time I couldn’t stop myself when I spat on him, shocking him enough to stop and that’s when I lashed out one last time, scratching down his face leaving my bloody mark. He fell backwards in his surprise and put a hand to his wounded face. Utter rage filled those cruel eyes and he stood up so that he could pull out his sword.

This couldn’t be it I thought! This couldn’t be what I had travelled all the way to the fucking past for! Just to die here by the hand of this raping bastard!

I watched him raise his weapon high, about to deliver the killing blow and instead of closing my eyes against death I couldn’t keep my eyes off that blade. First I watched the sun catch it, glinting so bright it almost blinded me but then I saw something else. It was coming fast and getting bigger and it reached him in half a second, meaning if I’d blinked I would have missed it. The black blur flying towards him reached its mark just as his arm fell towards me, the blur quickly becoming a visible arrow, deeply embedded into his wrist, making him drop his sword instantly.

“AHHH!” He roared in pain and suddenly the horses became as unsure as the men to what was happening. He tried to reach his fallen weapon with his uninjured hand but another arrow swiftly struck his shoulder, making him howl once more. He shouted out what could have been an order to the others but without knowing where the shots were being fired, they were simply left turning their horses around looking everywhere in quick frantic movements.

“AHH!” Another man cried as he was hit in the chest, falling from his horse as it reared up, throwing him to the ground before galloping off into the desert lands. This time two of the men decided it wasn’t worth their lives and commanded their horses to a quick getaway back towards the city gates. However, they didn’t get far as they too met the same end as the other one, both coming off their horses and landing, already dead. Now only three remained and one of those was the rapist bleeding close to me on the ground. My vision started going hazy, no doubt due to the hardest blow to the side of my head. But I could still hear the screams of the other two, one of which I watched land not far from where I was. I squinted, barely seeing the haunting image of the next victim falling to the floor with an arrow sticking out of his eye.

I don’t know what happened to the last one on horseback but I doubt that far cry in the distance meant that he got away. The only ones left were me and this now snivelling asshole who was no doubt begging for his life or to the Gods, I didn’t care which.

I heard someone approaching and kept blinking my eyes rapidly trying to stay focused. But the only thing it managed was to help me stay conscious for a few moments longer. Snippets of images joined together in my mind to show me the end of this worthless man’s life. First there were soft fabric boots which took soundless steps, coming closer and then I closed my eyes for what only seemed like a few seconds. But the next time I opened them the assassin stood over my attacker and fired an arrow at close range, shooting it straight through his skull.

I didn’t know if I was next or not but the place my mind wanted to go right now was far from caring.

“
انتخاب شده
”
(‘Chosen One’ in Persian
)
I vaguely recognised the voice as it was softly spoken in my ear and I moaned out in pain, only seeing a blurred vision of dark hair. I felt my head being lifted gently and something being put to my lips. 

“
نوشیدن این و پس از آن
…
then you may be able to understand me.” I don’t know what had happened but whatever this person gave me suddenly made me understand their language. Well so far so good I thought, because unless they wanted me to understand them before they killed me, then I think my chances at surviving my first few hours in the past were looking better.

“Can you hear me Chosen One?” Now I could hear them speaking in English in my mind and it was strange. It was as though the person now knelt down beside me was speaking my language and I wondered if I spoke, what would they hear in return.

“I…I…my friends, they didn’t…” This was all I managed to get out before a felt a cool hand being held to my cheek and then to my forehead.

“Ssshh now, you are safe.” It was after these softly spoken words that something in my mind clicked.  

I could finally recognise the voice and upon opening my eyes once more it was confirmed, and with the last of my strength I said their name…

“Ranka”

Chapter 37

Behind the Blade

Once more I found myself awakening but at least this time I had exchanged sand for silk. I opened my eyes feeling the sudden pain at the side of my head as soon as I tried to move it too quickly. I would like to believe all this had been a dream and as before I would find Draven by my side. But from the new smell of a distant land and the pain I was now suffering, I knew that no amount of wishing would make it so. This was when I needed to get my thoughts in order of what had just happened. I thought back and remembered waking in the sand, getting up and then searching for…

“Sophia, Pip and Ari?” I asked in a raspy voice that spoke of my time without water. This was when I moved despite the pain, sitting up and holding myself steady when I rocked to the side.

“I need to find them,” I said realising this was the next mission that lay ahead of me, and finding three people, who might have been separated, in an ancient city I didn’t know was going to be like finding a four leaf clover growing in the desert.

I looked around the room, trying to get my bearings on where I was this time. The main thing I noticed was that the room I had been put in wasn’t one I recognised from my dreams, so at least could I breathe easier knowing that it didn’t belong to a king. It wasn’t a large room but it was still decorated comfortably and I had to wonder if this was Ranka’s room.

“Ranka.” I remembered everything now, the attack and the pain of being struck down. Putting a hand to my ribs, I hissed in pain as I could feel the tender tissue that was no doubt bruised and I had to wonder why I hadn’t healed yet? I still held Draven’s essence inside of me, knowing from experience that it lasted quite some time even after we had parted. But then again I had travelled back in time, so maybe that’s why it hadn’t worked…could this also be why I no longer had my powers?

One by one it felt like every advantage I once held had been stripped away leaving me more vulnerable than ever before. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew waiting here wasn’t going to help my situation right now and even if it could, what about the others?

At this point I didn’t even know if they had made it through and if they had, what if they had been attacked like me. The thought made me fist the silk cushions underneath me as that worrying thought gripped my heart and wouldn’t let go. Well at least I wasn’t as alone as I first thought, now having Ranka who was obviously helping me in all this. And speaking of Ranka, I decided it was time I made an attempt to find her.

I looked around the room for any obvious exits and found the only door across one corner. The rest of the room consisted of little more than a cushioned bed, a large wooden chest and numerous bows hung on the walls. I had to say that her weapon choice certainly suited the attire I had last seen her in, and if she hadn’t seemed like a bit of a loner, I could have quite easily pictured her with a band of merry men, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Getting up was a challenge and one I attempted a few times before getting it right. I must have taken quite a blow for it to still be causing me problems. I wasn’t one for normally getting headaches and if I’d have known none of Draven’s essence would have followed me this far then I would have at least slipped a packet of aspirin in my jean’s pocket. Actually scrap that because knowing me I would need a whole first aid kit and a course of antibiotics to get me through even two weeks of being here. I mean I had only been in the past for a few hours and already I had lost my friends, been brutally attacked and witnessed six people killed by someone who was undoubtedly in love with my husband. At this point I was afraid to ask if it could get much worse.

I looked down at myself and shook my head.

“We didn’t plan this very well,” I said to myself and lucky for me no one else was listening. I referred to the fact that I had thought it a great idea to drop into the past nearly two thousand years before my own life and about one thousand and eight hundred and sixty years or so before jeans were even invented. This wasn’t one of my finer ideas that was for sure. This had me thinking that if Pip had made it through at least she would be easy to spot considering she had green hair. Saying that, even in my own time, she was easy to spot if not for her hair then certainly for her crazy outfits.

I looked around to see if there was anything useful I could use to conceal the obvious ‘time traveller’ style I was wearing and thankfully found a cloak of some sorts. It was a rich green colour, which wasn’t surprising given this must have been a favourite of Ranka’s.

“I hope you don’t mind.” I said out loud as I spread it out over my shoulders, happy that it hid most of my twenty first century get up. I raised the hood and knew I couldn’t put it off any longer…I had to venture into this new world.

I lifted the iron latch and opened the door slowly praying there was no one on the other side keeping guard. Thankfully the hallway was empty and I slipped out of the door, shutting it quietly behind me. I lifted up the hood to hide my face and walked slowly along the hall, hoping not to bump into someone.

For a start I wasn’t sure that I would be able to understand them, not knowing if the drink Ranka had given me would only work when speaking to her. If this was the case then that would make chatting Draven up incredibly difficult, especially considering I wasn’t exactly a seductress when it came to acting cool or luring people in with my sexy body language. Now if there had been a prize for face planting, snorting and tripping over when trying to get dressed, then I would have nailed it.

The sandstone arches I walked past showed me a view of another world and I could easily believe I was in Egypt, half expecting to see the pyramids through the next arch along. I still hadn’t passed a soul and was more than grateful for that but I knew it couldn’t last, not when I heard what could have been the cause for such isolation. The sound of exotic singing combined with drums, lured me closer and led me through the passageways as if I was transfixed on the authentic sounds of ancient Persia.

It led me through an elaborate scalloped arch that was painted gold with tiny red flowers. I walked through, pulling my hood down concealing me further from the many people I now saw. I must have walked into some kind of banquet or celebration of sorts because the room below the balcony I now stood on was full of people. It was a sea of vibrant colours of embroidered silks, gold threads and jewels from distant lands that reached the far corners of the globe.

The hall itself was lined with pearl white pillars that were cut from the finest marble, carved into giant vase shapes. The balcony I stood on surrounded three sides of the room and was highly decorated with the same arched scalloped design underneath as it was above where I stood. Lush Persian carpets covered the stone floors on different levels and mosaic patterned walls matched the fountain in the centre of the room where half-naked dancers shook their hips. There looked to be hundreds of people all sat around the edges of the room, drinking from decorate
d
chalices and eating fruits from large serving dishes made of gold.

The music continued to play and there were plenty of exotic beauties to entertain the people. I also took note of all the guards that stood along the walls, all dressed in white and heavily armed. It was as incredible to witness as it was terrifying. I felt like an intruder and I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking because of it.

“You can do this Keira, just keep your eyes on that exit.”
I whispered to myself as I spotted my goal and that was getting out of here as quickly as possible before I got myself into trouble yet again. At the end of the room were two castle sized doors which thankfully were open and if I could just make it through the mass of people then I knew I would be safer out there than in here. I couldn’t see what lay beneath me as the part I stood on jutted out further than the rest but if it was who I thought it was, then I wasn’t ready for him to see me yet. No, first I needed Sophia, Pip and Ari to help me then if that failed and it turned out they weren’t here then I would come back to the palace I was obviously in and find Ranka.

So with this in mind I followed the balcony round and through another arch before coming across a staircase down to the main floor. I quickly found myself with my back against the wall as a man and woman ran laughing up the stairs, obviously lovers in haste to be reunited once more. They paid no attention to me and just as I stepped down into the lower level some kind of flute and a tambourine started to play, giving the next song a quicker pace so the dancers could shake their hips to a faster rhythm. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make my escape as all eyes were on them, so I walked quickly, stepping around all the servants and guests scattered everywhere. Some were sat and others stood around in groups chatting and laughing. Some smoked great long pipes and passed these along to their fellow men…and this was when the next lot of trouble began.

I was trying not to look at the front, I really was but because I knew he would be there I lost the battle with my mind to my heart. Just one look would be enough and it was just this one look where it all went wrong. For there he now sat, as magnificent and glorious as I knew he would be and just as terrifying as I knew he could be.

“My husband.”
The uttered whisper escaped before I could control it. And for that small second in time he looked up and found me, frozen in the mass of people all moving around me. He sat upon a mighty throne of gold and there above his head was a cruder symbol of my birthmark, carved from stone. But these were the only details I could absorb as the man himself was a stronger harsher version of Draven, who held a raw beauty I was scared to look at for too long. So I tore my hooded face from his and turned so quickly that I ended up pushing into someone by accident.

“I am sorry it was an…”

“Little fool, you dare to push a Royal Satrap!” The man said, enraged that I had spilt his drink, grabbing me by the throat and squeezing hard. I struggled to breathe for a second and just before I passed out he let go. I gasped for air and if I’d hoped not to draw attention to myself then I had certainly failed. The music had stopped and a small crowd had gathered to watch the unfolding drama.

Meanwhile my anger was getting the better of me and when he slapped my face and said,

“Now be gone with you, you ugly little whore!” I officially lost it.

“Hey dickhead, you forgot something.” I said patting him on the shoulder and when he turned back around to face me and said,

“What!” I let my fist fly the way Draven had taught me and punched him square in the nose. The gasps of horror around me and the silence that followed could have cut the room in half. Everyone took quick steps away from me and it took me a moment too late to realise it wasn’t from me, it was from their King. I spun round and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Draven was no longer seated at his throne but instead was walking straight towards me as his subjects parted for him, falling to their knees and lowering their bodies to the ground.

I didn’t know what to do, whether to run or to follow them to the ground and join in worshipping him. The look on his face told me to run but the speed in which he reached me gave me no time to do either and in that moment I knew this had all been a mistake. This man didn’t love me. This man didn’t adore me or be willing to risk his life for me. For this man, this Draven…

Didn’t know me.  

So if you could choose how you would die which would it be? Would it be a quiet and peaceful death surrounded by those who love you, whereby you simply slipped into an everlasting slumber? Or would you go out basking in a blaze of glory and forging your name in history for all of those who love you to remember?

Or…

Would it be by the hand of the man you loved. Would it be by the blade he quickly held against your throat. Because this was no longer a fairy tale of love and honour.

That story had come to an end.

And what if you
couldn’t
change that ending? What if it was the person you never thought possible who held control of it all in the palm of his hand? The one you would have risked everything you ever cared about to prove time wrong. What if the knife that was threatened against your throat was being held by a hand you knew…by a hand belonging to a man you loved?

No, when I thought about my own death I never saw what faced me now. If I could have been ruler of my own fate then my death would have been in sacrifice to save the other half of my soul. It would have been so that the man I loved would live because of my death. So many times before I felt myself die without actually leaving this earth and every time I spoke the name of who I lived for the most.

But now… well now I spoke his name to save my life. Because he held my life in his hands and as the blade dug deeper into my fragile flesh, one already bruised and beaten, I knew the horrifying truth…

Love couldn’t save me now. It was all for nothing. My sacrifice wasn’t my happy ending it was my lost beginning. I could see that now as clearly as I could see my fear reflected in the cold metal that collected my tears. So did I see myself dying of a broken heart and soul along with a broken body…no, that was never supposed to be my sacrifice. That wasn’t written in the fates or seen by any God, which could only mean one thing…

I wasn’t
his
Chosen One after all.