The Willbreaker (Book 1) (21 page)

              "We'll have no more problems from you, boy. We are going to fix you up good," Florian said with a sneer across his face. Brandon looked right into Florian's eyes.

              "You aren't going to do anything, Florian. You can never break my will. I am stronger than you are, and no amount of torture or punishment will ever change that. I am here because I haven't figured a way to get out yet."

              Florian scoffed, "There is no getting out. Soon, you will be on my side."

              The crowned Bauth'Dok stood and with the wave of his hand, he motioned Florian out of the way. Brandon had never before been as defiant. He stood tall with shoulders back as the odd creature approach him. It began speaking. Brandon looked into its mouth as it talked, looking at its two rows of thin, sharp teeth, one behind the other. It had razor thin lips that barely covered its teeth. The creature stopped right in front of Brandon. Its eyeless gaze penetrated him. Brandon could hear Florian in the background.

              "Here it goes!" he said, seeming excited.

              The creature's face drew all of Brandon's attention; it pulled at him. Brandon lost focus of everything around him as he became lightheaded. He stared at its dark, maroon-colored skin, feeling small tickles within the corners of his mind. Brandon's head filled with thoughts and ideas that were not his own.
The Bauth'Dok people are protecting themselves from the evil that harbors in the outside world. The Bauth'Dok are not evil. They mine the metal for protection, for power, and for survival. The Bauth'Dok are unable to have children, but because of the metal, they have figured out how to have everlasting life. The Bauth'Dok are not evil. They have to have the metal to survive. The men on the outside want the metal for themselves. They are the evil ones. The Bauth'Dok are not evil. The Bauth'Dok capture the evil men on the outside to help them attain their metal, and to make them pay for their evil ways. It is not their metal, it is ours. The humans that were captured are evil. They must earn forgiveness, and only in their death shall they have it. We are not evil. We must make the evil men mine the metal so that we may survive. We are the Bauth'Dok.

              The creature that wore the black, bladed crown shaped Brandon's thoughts. They were so effortless and fluid that Brandon would not have noticed the change in his thoughts, but something inside of him clicked. He felt the magical fingers of the creature inside of his mind. He felt the strings of his own ideas and morals shift. This was not mind-control; this was will-bending. He remembered what Edward had told him as they sat around the fire, many months ago.

             
"People of Will are a rare breed. Their magic can alter the strings of free will, or bar strands of personal will from being broken. I haven’t seen anyone gifted in the Will aspect of Spirit since I was a child."
Edward told him.

              A real life will-bender, and now Brandon faced one.
No. I cannot fall victim to this. I am Brandon Pike. I am a good person. What they are doing is wrong. Slavery, in any right, is evil. These creatures torture and hurt innocent people. They take these people away from their families. Most end up dying. No. I will not allow this. This is going to stop now.

              Brandon pulled at his gift, flooding his senses in a cool rush. The wave of energy cleansed the foreign magic within his mind and cut the strings that pulled at him like a massive weight.

              "Out of my head, creature! I am not yours to toy with!" he yelled at the crowned Bauth'Dok with fired defiance. The Bauth'Dok king stepped backwards, and although he did not have eyes on his snake-like face, Brandon thought if he did, they would have showed surprise. The creature turned its head towards the other two Bauth'Dok, then back towards Brandon. Still keeping its head facing Brandon, it spoke in hisses and clicks. Florian looked at Brandon as if he saw a ghost.

              "Back . . . to the sleeping quarters with you," Florian stuttered, still looking shocked. Brandon ran his eyes over the creatures one more time, and turned back towards the city. As Brandon walked back towards the sleeping rock, things seemed different. For the first time, he felt empowered. He felt that maybe, just maybe, he
was
supposed to do something out of the ordinary. Did he have the tools to be a hero?
No. I am an ordinary man that refuses to be walked upon. Anyone would do what I have done, if put into my shoes.
Even though he tried to tell himself that, Brandon did not know if other people
could
do what he had done. He walked into the bedding area and sat. Two Bauth'Dok trailed behind and stood by the walking path, standing guard.

              Inside of the caves, one could not differentiate between day or night, but Brandon's stomach told him that he should have eaten already. Today would be another one of the days he went without food. He sat alone, staring up at the two Bauth'Dok guards that watched the paths leading into the city. Brandon wondered why the Bauth'Dok did not put him back to work after his meeting with the Blademaster. He wondered many things. Why did the slave drivers have white hair, because of the will-bending process? What would happen now that he resisted the Bauth'Dok king? How could he stop the Blademaster from altering his thoughts? Would he ever get out of these caves alive?

              Brandon leaned back against the wall and pulled his skullcap over his eyes. He would have to talk to Galadin and hear his thoughts on the matter.

              Brandon woke up to the sounds of the others coming back from their work. Galadin lead them, and even though he did not look well, he walked without aid and spread a smile for Brandon as he entered the sleeping area.

              "Good to see you, friend," Galadin said, exhausted. It did not matter how often they mined, the captives would never get used to it.

              "How are you feeling, Galadin?" Brandon said, as Galadin sat next to him.

              "I feel like I mine metal for a race of spiteful creatures, and I am tired. I am getting sicker every day. I don't know how much longer I can do this. I don't know how much longer I am going to sur. . ."

              Brandon cut him off. "Stop thinking that. You are going to be fine. We are going to get out of here. You are not going to die."

              Galadin chuckled. "I wish I had your optimism. I don't think we can get out by ourselves, and I don't think anyone is going to fight the Bauth'Dok to save us. For all we know, our friends and family think we are dead."

              "Look, something happened today. After you went down to the mines, Florian took me to the Bauth'Dok Blademaster. Florian told me that I wouldn't be causing any more trouble and that I would be on his side. He told the Blademaster that I needed to be
changed
," Brandon said.

              Galadin watched Brandon speak.

              "The Bauth'Dok king came up to me and he somehow got inside of my head. I could
feel
him digging around in my mind. I started to think like them. I started to feel how they feel. I don't know how it happened. As he was changing my thoughts, I stopped him. I washed away his filthy manipulations, and after, I was brought back here. Something happened to me up there. Something changed."

              "I don't know, Brandon. That might not be a good thing. Maybe they know you can heal. You are the only one around here that isn't dying. We need to get out of here. I found this today," Galadin said, looking around to make sure no one watched them. He pulled out a piece of trexalite coated in pieces of black rock, the size of his thumbnail. Galadin scraped it along his pant leg, trying to get some of the rocky bits off the raw metal.

              Brandon spoke in a hushed voice. "Galadin! What are you doing? If they find out that you have that, you are going to be punished! And you can't keep that, you are too sick to take any more radiation!" Brandon's emotions ran wild. The black casing held more trexalite than they had seen since their mining began.

              "I am not going to keep it. It is for you. Maybe you can use it somehow. You are Gifted. It will help your magic," he said as he placed the metal in Brandon's hand. Brandon looked down into his hand. He did not know what he could do with the help of the metal, but the opportunity could not be missed. Brandon closed his fingers around it.

              "Hang in there, Galadin. I will find a way out of here." The other men already fall asleep. Galadin reclined and closed his eyes. Brandon did the same, except he did not sleep. He calculated and thought of what he could do. No longer did he fight for himself, he fought for everyone else. He had the strength that no one else did. He stared at the ceiling, letting his ability float in and out of reach until he entered the land of sleep.

              Florian strode in, smacking his paddle on his hands as usual. "Get up. Time to find some more metal," he said, looking over the men as if they disgusted him.

              Brandon's eyes opened, surprised; Florian's footsteps typically woke him up. He must have stayed awake longer than he thought. Florian eyed Brandon differently today. If Brandon could have put words to the way he looked at him, it would be 'with caution.' Brandon put his hand over his pocket, checking to ensure its contents. The small piece of trexalite still hid inside. He reached his hand towards Galadin and helped him to his feet.

              Brandon activated his power and looked over the men. The radiation showed its effects on everyone. None of the men here, none of his friends, showed any of the healthy blue color. Hugh was the least hurt. He worked in the back of the line, loading and trading out the carts because of his height; he stood a hand and a half taller than Brandon. His only had small patches of yellow. The other men, Ivan, Lance, Geoff, and Michael, were worse; the damage put their skin in hues of deep yellow. Sadly, heavy orange stained Galadin's skin. Brandon closed his eyes and shook his head in anguish.

              As the men traveled the walkways towards the processing pools, Brandon noticed the extra Bauth'Dok guards on patrol along their path. Each time they came near, all the men would drop to a knee and bow. Florian stopped to let the men grab their mining carts. He did not yell at them anymore to do these daily jobs, but he never hesitated to hit someone with the paddle across the face or in the back of the knees if they did not do what they should. The men grabbed their carts. Brandon went as well, but today he paid more attention to everything around him. Working down here for months made him dull to his surroundings. He had gotten used to seeing the things around him, but today he saw things that made him wonder what he could do with them. Piles of egg-sized rocks sat back behind the cleansing pool. Down by the guard tents, near the entrance to the cave, Brandon remembered seeing pick handles, stripped of their picks. One of the flaming braziers that lit the tunnel halfway down to the central station had a bowl that came free of the base. In some way Brandon, or the other men, could use these things against the Bauth'Dok and the slave drivers.

              After grabbing their carts, they started the dark walk into the mouth of the cave that lead to the mines. Right before the caves, the men picked up their mining picks. The two Bauth'Dok guards still watched those entering and leaving the caves. Brandon followed the men inside of the caves until they reach the central station.

              The ground of the central station flattened out, and from here, the arms of the mining caves spidered outward in all directions. Each tunnel had been marked with a number. Brandon, and his fellow captives, worked on tunnel four since arrival.

              The first time they entered tunnel four, they had to unbury a group of miners; a ceiling section twenty feet long collapsed, killing them all; an awful job. Brandon and Galadin were at the head of their worker's line, and they pulled the twenty men out from the fallen rocks, which had completely crushed their bodies. The bodies of the dead miners were soft and unrecognizable. Their bones were crushed, making them seem more like loose bags of human remains than bodies. It took twenty days to clear out the cave-in. Even though the smell of the dead had long since vanished, Brandon could still smell the rotting bodies as he passed the cave-in point.

              Florian waited outside the cave entrance, as usual, as the men entered the mine.

              "Hurry up, maggots, the metal ain't going to mine itself," he said, hitting the flat of the paddle against his palm. Brandon stopped to look at Florian, who eyed him back as if trying to figure him out.

              "What are we to you, Florian?" Brandon asked, curiously.

              "What are you to me?" He laughed. Florian walked around Brandon, eyeing him up and down, as he spoke. "You are worms.  You are evil, conniving demons. You and yours alike seek the metal that my masters claim, for yourselves. You want the power. You want the energy it possesses. It is not your metal to take. My masters cannot survive without it. You pay for your evil ways down here by mining. Consider yourself lucky, mule. You have been chosen to earn forgiveness. You have been chosen to mine for us, and in your death, you shall earn forgiveness."

              Brandon had never heard Florian say anything other than yelling at them to get moving, or to mine faster, or to get out of bed. His words weighed heavily on Brandon. Although in different form, the words Florian spoke were the words of the Bauth'Dok. They were the words that the Blademaster tried to burn into Brandon's mind. Florian had been brainwashed; the Blademaster bent his will.