Chapter XVI

"Lucius!" someone was shouting his name from far away. "Lucius, wake up!" he heard the voice closer and opened his eyes. He felt strange after waking up. "Lucius!" Uriel was calling him and shaking him.

He squinted his eyes, looked around, and saw someone else in the room, apart from his people - a soldier in the uniform.

"What is going on?" he asked, half asleep.

"Lord Felix wants to talk to you," answered the officer politely.

"Who?" Lucius asked, surprised, and before the officer answered, Uriel said that Lord Felix was the commander of the city.

"Now?" he asked with the hope he would not have to leave instantly, but the face of the officer told him otherwise. He got up carefully, so that he would not wake Laili up, put his coat under Laili's head, and followed the officer.

They strolled along the hall. Lucius tried not to look down, but sometimes he could not help and, looking down, saw the wounded soldiers on the first floor. He could hear their moans, which made him wish he could close his eyes and cover his ears with his hands to stop hearing them, but he could not do that in front of the soldier.

They walked along a luxurious corridor and finally approached a huge wooden door, which must have been Lord Felix's room.

The commander's room was splendid. In the corner of the luxurious room was standing a marble statue of a severe man, on the wall one could see a stuffed wild bird, and on the other one, there was an enormous portrait that depicted a man who did not seem familiar to Lucius. His attention was drawn to the commander sitting behind a large desk who looked up they both looked into each other's eyes.

He could not say whether this was his typical look for those whom he invited to his office, or only it was Lucius' privilege. As soon as the commander beckoned him to go closer, Lucious stepped towards him.

When he walked to the desk, he was asked to sit on a sofa.

"I prefer to stand, my lord," Lucious answered, questioning himself if that was the form of address.

"As you wish," answered the commander, looking surprised at his boldness.

"I need to talk to you about Lord Marcus," he moved straight onto the business.

"Who?" asked Lucius, surprised again.

"Oh, you don't know the name of the wizard?" replied the commander, no less surprised.

"Is his name Marcus?" the boy answered with a question.

"As I understand, you do not know his name!?" Lord Felix asked again.

"That's exactly what I mean," agreed Lucious.

"So you want to tell me that after all this, you haven't even asked his name?" said the commander.

"That's right, answered Lucious simply. "What do you mean by, after all this?" he asked again.

"You were together in that damned tavern!" the annoyed commander raised his voice.

"I was not there, only my friends."

"Even so, he accompanied you to your friends' room," replied Lord Felix, emphasizing the word "friends".

"Yes, he asked me to take him there, and I helped him," Lucius answered in a calm voice again.

"And while you were in the room with him, you never wanted of getting to know him?" the Lord asked.

"I haven't even thought about that."

"Okay, that does not really matter," the commander gave up. "What did you talk about yesterday?"

"Why not ask him yourself?" Lucius instructed the Lord.

"Because!" the commander's angry voice echoed in a large room. 'He had no time for me. He wouldn't even tell me why he had made us do all this stuff, or what was happening, or where he was going!"

"Has Lord Marcus left?" Lucious gasped.

"As I see now, he hasn't told you either. Several hours ago our savior wizard disappeared and took around twenty fine soldiers with him, and this happened after we had been following each of his instructions and even locked the gate," Lord Felix stressed the word "savior".

"Are you sure he has left?" Lucius could not believe his ears.

"We are certain he is not within the wall, and as he told us, we can't leave the city," answered the commander.

"How many people did he take with him?" asked Lucius.

"Eighteen, I am not sure."

"What is he planning to do?" Lucius asked himself rather than the commander, as the Lord himself sought the answers to his questions.

"How on earth would I know what is going in his damned mind?" the lord growled. "You'd better tell us what he told you!"

"He asked about my friends' health and told us the help would come in ten days."

"I know that. Did he say anything else?" the commander seemed tense.

"He told us the guardians of the Fire Temple will come to Mondelay to help us, as they are the closest to our city."

"I have never heard of such temple," said the commander after a while.

"You don't know many things!"

"What did you just say, you little brat?" cried the enraged commander.

"That was the last words Lord Marcus told us, my lord,"

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He asked nothing else; he sat at his desk with his face plunged into his palms. "Lord Felix!" Lucius heard a distant shout. But judging from the reactions of the lord and the officer who had accompanied him and was still there, they did not hear a thing.

"Lord Felix!" the call was close already. The commander lifted his face up and asked who was calling his name, but before someone would answer, the breathless officer ran into the room:

"What's wrong?" the commander did not let the officer catch his breath.

"The wizard... the wall... the people..." the officer tried to gather his thoughts, but because of the scant breath or some other reason, he failed.

"What wizard, what wall, what's happening!" the Lord got nervous.

"Come see it yourself, my lord," the officer pleaded.

The commander said nothing else, but pushed the officer away and went out.

Lucius had to run after the commander. His guts told him something was really wrong. He ran towards the end of the hall in several seconds and rushed down the stairs, heeling Lord Felix. In a minute he was running after the Commander who was far ahead.

In this short time, the streets of the city had radically changed - the streets of the rich quarter were full of tents and people. In the buzzing crowds of people, Lucius found it difficult to follow the commander, but he was still managing not to lose him out of sight. Lord Felix was running towards the gate of the city- the huge wooden and iron door that was obviously locked from inside.

In front and on top of the wall, a sizeable group of guardsmen had gathered. They were yelling and presumably trying to push the door open but in vain. The reason they wanted to open the door, however, was unknown to Lucius.

As soon as the guardsmen saw Lord Felix, they divided into two groups and let the commander pass, however; the latter was so tired that before he could walk along the line of the soldiers; he took a little rest, which gave Lucius a chance to keep up with him, use the privilege of walking in the freed- up space in the footsteps of the commander and get on top of the wall.

Lucius' heart was beating fast, but he would not give up. He had to follow the commander. He knew if he stopped, he could not make his way through the soldiers, could not observe from the top of the gate and see what was going on. So he did not spare any strength and his efforts paid off in the end.

On the stairs of the wall, he realized that with the help of Lord Felix he would get to the top, and soon he was looking down from the top, eager to learn what the hell was happening after all.

Taking the number of the soldiers into consideration, this did not seem to be a simple task, although not that challenging as he initially thought. The soldiers did not get to the edge and see what was going on. Those people who were standing in the second row did not move into the first row, which people usually do during such situations. They were just standing frozen on the spot. They did not even talk but mumbled prayers to Rahail to protect them. Lucius broke through the people and finally stood on the edge of the wall. However, as soon as he saw what was happening downstairs, he felt the blood in his veins freeze.

In front of the wall, Lucius saw Marcus- the wizard in his black robe with golden signs... There were several people lined up behind him. Three of them, two women and a man, stood closer than others. Horror was imprinted on their ashen gray faces; as if turned into ice, they could not move.

Lucius could see from above that one woman was bleeding from her chest, but she did nothing to stop it. The wizard wetted his hands in her blood and was drawing something on the gate.

"Open the gate!" the commander shouted. Lucius could not hear or see anything, he just stared at the woman bleed to death. Then the wizard moved on to the man. The officers were screaming and no matter how hard they tried, they could not open the gate.

The man also bled to death and when the wizard moved to the third person, Lord Felix started shouting: "Shoot that bastard with arrows!"

The people near Marcus were standing silently and their glassy eyes were staring at the painting the wizard was making on the gate.

They shot the arrows towards the wizard; however, he continued painting without stopping. Neither an arrow nor a spear touched him.

People were screaming from above, begging him to stop, but he heard neither shouts nor arrows.

Lucius could not tell how long it took Marcus to paint, but when he finished, the third victim dropped dead as well.

Lucius thought Marcus would explain his actions, at least now that he had finished, but he strolled along the wall. People followed him quietly as if they had not witnessed the terrible sight a moment before.

"He has obviously bewitched them, that's why they are so obedient," Lucius heard somebody scream, but he could not see the speaker, as everybody on top of the wall was walking simultaneously with the people down on the wall.

"Where are they going to? Why won't the gate open?" Lucius heard the same question repeatedly, but the answers were if not the same, but, at least, similar - the gate was bewitched too.

After quite some time, the wizard stopped, so did the people on top of the wall.

The wizard approached the wall, and three people followed him. One of the three was a woman again and two men. Lucius understood that the same would happen again.

Lord Marcus cut the woman’s throat open, painted something on the wall, and left three dead bodies under the painting.

It was obvious what would happen to the remaining dozen people - four women and eight men.

The soldiers started shooting the arrows, but now they aimed at the victims too. They must have wanted to relieve them from pain, but as soon as the arrows reached them, they would either break or scatter around. When they achieved nothing with shooting, the people started swearing and threatening the wizard or begging to spare the ones who were still alive.

"Don't kill my child!" an elderly man begged him, but the wizard did not listen. He continued with unheard-of calmness and led the remaining three people to death.

Lord Marcus finished the sixth painting, and he was about to continue his road alone when the old man screamed and jumped from the fence. The wizard turned around swiftly and the airwave created during the spinning movement not only stopped the man but threw him back behind the gate, killing him on the spot.

Lucius stared at the dead man and then looked at the wizard, who calmly continued his road as if nothing had happened. Nobody dared to swear and threaten him. The people only stared at him in silence.

Lucius did not understand what had just happened. Couldn't the wizard have made the man fall on the ground? Why would he have thrown him up over the gate? Why was it so important on which side he would die? Behind the gate or outside it?

However, soon enough, these questions were turned into abundant emotions- the wizard's unpredictable actions filled the boy with terror.

Lord Marcus had killed everybody around him. There were dead people lying next to six paintings on the wall. According to the Commander, the wizard chose these people himself. Now that no one was alive, Lucius could not even predict what the wizard was up to and what he was planning next.

One thing was certain, he was slowly marching along the wall.

He reached the gate where the wizard had created the paintings and the first three victims were lying. Lord Marcus stopped at the gate, exactly in front of the painting. He put his bloodstained hands together as if praying and, after several seconds; he started moving them in the air as if carving out some invisible things.

At first, the spectators standing on the top of the wall noticed nothing, but soon a small blue lighting figure took shape. However, it was difficult to make out the contours of the figure from above. However, it got more and more radiant and soon turned white. The wizard stopped twirling his hands around the light, caught it in his fist, and thrust his open hand onto the gate.

The entire wall trembled as if an earthquake shook it. People lost balance but still managed not to fall over and waited for what was next to come.

The wizard stepped back from the gate and turned around swiftly. He did not move but just stood waiting. Lucius was fully consumed with horror.

"Look what's happening!" somebody screamed and pointed at something downstairs.

The painted sign right under them was glowing red, but most horrifying was something else: the red hands came out of the wall paintings and dragged the lifeless bodies inside. But what would happen next Lucius did not want to contemplate. When the bodies disappeared in the paintings, the red smoke streamed up into the sky.

"Look, other paintings are in smoke!" they heard a desperate scream. Lucius counted five more places covered in a red mist, getting stronger and stronger, creating the illusion that the smoke from all the six paintings was gathering into one stream.

This supernatural sight stunned everybody. The red smoke covered the city in a haze. Somewhere in the middle, the smoke coming from six different paintings united into one stream of dark red smoke.

Suddenly they heard Lord Marcus' voice: "Demons, hear me out..."

The wizard was neither screaming nor talking loudly, but everybody could still hear him.

That was the only thing Lucius heard before everything got blurred and sank into darkness...