Chapter 27

“So, what the hell are we supposed to do until tomorrow night? Play cards?”

The young Orion chuckled at Mykella’s attitude. “No,” he said. “I am going to find out why you look so familiar.” He looked into her emerald eyes with yearning in his own black pupils. “You have similarities, however subtle, of my mother.”

Orion looked away and shook his head. “But we both know that is impossible. The whore bore no other offspring.”

Mykella grinned at him in her own malicious way. “Are you so certain? We could be brother and sister for all you know,” she said and he lowered his head.

“I am certain,” he answered, a sound synonymous to guilt oozed from the young man’s lips. “From the day I was born, Mother has been kept in the dungeons – you saw her yourself, did you not?”

He stared at her from across the room and finally he stood up with a sigh. “But still, you are a Dream Crusader. You must have powers I do not understand. It is possible that you made yourself look familiar.” He knew it sounded ludicrous, but it was the only thing he could come up with. When he was a younger boy nothing would have surprised him; especially once he had been visited by that angel with no wings.

She stifled a laugh and shook her head. “I wish I had powers that you didn’t know about. Unfortunately, I’m no more human than you.” She meant for her words to be offensive.

Orion crossed the room and looked out the large window and looked out into the dark night. There were a million longings struggling in his heart at the same moment. He was blessed by powers from that odd angel Ilias, but he was almost certain that this Mykella must have powers of her own – why else was she here? He wanted desperately to see his mother to beg for her forgiveness for what he was about to do. He wanted to hear his mother say three tiny words to him that he has never heard before. He wanted to run naked in the night so that all would see he had nothing to hide; he wanted to show everyone his scars and fresher wounds caused by his father – their King. But most of all he wanted to begin creating his new army. His Dreamkillers will show no mercy.

“You say you are no more human than I,” he turned his head to look at her and she thought she could see the tiniest trickle of a tear on his young face. “I have long since given up my humanity.”

There was a strange feeling of pity coming from her heart. But that changed quickly as Orion took two long strides and bent down so that his nose was mere centimeters from her own.

“My mother prophesied that you would destroy me,” he said in a calm sadistic tone. “I shall disprove her. Morrow hence I will defeat you and you will become the second Dreamkiller to serve me.”

He turned from her with such force she thought her chair would have fallen over and he stormed toward the door. “I shall return once I have regained my thoughts.”

He opened the door and Mykella called out, “I can hardly wait!”

He slammed the door, more out of annoyance than anger, leaving a satisfied Mykella watching the door, making sure he would not return anytime soon.

She stood up and went to the window and looked out, trying to locate whatever Orion might have been looking at. It took her a short while and then her eyes turned left and she noticed a light coming from a window. A shadow danced around the room and a sensation ran through her. She knew whose room this window belonged to; she had looked out Barbus’ window a couple times tonight to know that this was his window.

Barbus was awake – why, she didn’t know nor care. He was awake and on the move – that was what she cared about.

Mykella took another look at the closed chamber door. It all comes down to this, she thought. It’s now or never.

* * *

Mykella could not know how close her father and friends were to her. Even if she looked out a window, she still could never know. She was trapped in an unconscious world about to fight the first crusade.

As Vince stood and stared at the castle slowly approaching them (they were coming to it, but by the stillness of the water, it looked just the opposite) he couldn’t help but to know how close Mykella was. He knew that she was somewhere inside the Keep – whether conscious or unconscious.

He closed his eyes for a moment and forced his mind not to tread the same thought-path. He, instead, looked down into the black water. The sun was beginning to set and he watched his shadow tower over everything on the waters’ surface.

He turned his head and watched Cain steer the boat for a few moments and then went over to the Captain. “Do you ever get tired of this?”

Cain, who looked shocked that someone was talking to him, lowered his eyebrows. “I…” It was difficult to find words; not because it was hard to find the words, rather because it had been centuries since he had used his voice. “My Lord found me and punished me. Therefore I take the souls across this lake to the other side.”

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“Are you saying that death is over there and you’re taking us there?” Vince did not like where this was going.

“You seek death and I am taking you there to the other side of this lake – that is my eternal duty.” There was no facial expression that could be read on Cain’s flawless face.

“So,” said Vince and turned his gaze back to the ominous castle. “No one will live? Once we get to the other shore, we’re as good as dead?” Vince looked back at everyone sailing in the same boat as he with guilt weighing heavy on his chest.

“It is nothing personal, Vincent Hopman, however I have my duties,” replied Cain.

Vince almost wanted to tell Cain to turn the boat around but there was something in his soul that told him that it would be useless to give the order. Cain was a one-way man and would obey no one except God. And besides, there was a battle to be fought regardless of where they really were.

An eerie thought crept into his mind. Was this Purgatory?

* * *

Everything is coming to an end, thought Barbus when he heard the faintest footfalls of the approaching guards. “No,” he whispered and sheathed his sword. “This is only the beginning,” he said and then ran into the corridor, running in the opposite direction from the guards of course.

He reached the end of the corridor and stopped at a door, turned around to see how close his enemies were, and then pushed the handle down. An instantaneous terror engulfed him when he could not push the handle – someone must have disabled this door. But who? And why?

The noise of about twenty guards thundered throughout this section of the castle. He could barely keep his own thoughts in order.

“Barbus Whitaker!”

He was trying his damnedest to be ready for death – he would never surrender to the man-child Prince. He would die before giving them that pleasure.

“Barbus Whitaker!”

How many bloody times do they need to call my name? He could now see the shadows of the first several guards coming round the corner. Instinctively he wrapped his hand around the hilt of his sword and was preparing to draw, but the door suddenly opened and he almost fell backward into a darkened room.

The door closed as quietly as it could and Barbus looked down and was surprised and delighted to be looking at Mykella. He dropped onto his knee as quickly as a soldier on the battlefield drops when slain. He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Thank you, M’Lady. You have saved me,” he said and she took back her hand with a grin.

“We’re not out of this yet.” She put her ear against the door and heard the guards pass them by before looking back at Barbus. “I have a question for you.”

“Ask anything.”

“Tonight I must leave this place for a different time.” He looked at her in confusion and she smiled. “I am here only through Orion’s dreams.”

“He has seen everything? You?”

“No. He painted the pictures of the world in which he lived. You and I have added color to his memories.”

He stared at her for a few moments and then he finally nodded his head. He really didn’t understand a damned thing she said, but he trusted her – she had just saved his life after all. “What is it you wish to ask?”

“I’m going to need a guide when I change times. I was hoping that you could be my guide.”

No one really knew who blushed more but Barbus felt both warmed by her affections and guilty by the truth. He smiled and slowly shook his head. “Nay,” he said and withdrew a gold medallion from inside his shirt.

Mykella looked at it but from the lack of adequate light in this room, all she could make out was an eagle carrying a sword in its claw.

“It comes from the House of Grendel. As hungry as I am for the adventure, I must return to my home. My wife awaits my arrival and has a child inside her. It is also my duty to inform my kingdom of the demise of our Queen.” He was afraid to look into her eyes for fear of her disappointed expression.

Mykella could see his reaction and smiled. She reached out and took hold of both his hands and squeezed them gently. “Look at me Barbus,” she said, feeling an entirely different entity controlling her soul. He looked at her behind reluctance and instantly fell into the green seas of her eyes. “You are relieved of guilt. Your relations with Nanaac are forgivable but will become too much for Sonia.”

Barbus felt the weight of the world lift from his chest, but he knew it was not all Mykella had to say and he listened for her to continue.

“You are relieved of guilt, Barbus, but you will need to take the Book of the Forbidden Realms and pass it down to your son, along with the tale of the Dreamkillers. You are to go and take your place as the first guardian to the gate – but this will wait until everything is in motion.”

But still, he knew there was still more to come.

“Henceforward, the gates of Salvation have been reopened. No matter what becomes of my flesh against the demon, the gates are open to all that seek Heaven. Your Queen did not prophesied the fall of Orion, rather the salvation of the human soul.”

Here Mykella stopped talking and she blinked her eyes and Barbus knew that whoever it was that had been talking was done.

She looked at him as if she had not seen him enter the room, although she knew what she had recently asked of him – and that he had said no. He had a wife back home, with a child.

“Will you be alright?” She had hope in her eyes as she looked at him for, possibly, the last time.

“Aye,” he replied with a grin. “Tomorrow I shall steal his book as I had originally planned and journey home. I shall not rest until the Prince is downed.”

“I admire your gallantry, but it is I who must bring down Orion.” She turned and a small push came from inside her head. “I must leave you now.”

Barbus looked at her behind a concerned expression and then glanced at the door. “But how? We’re trapped in here until the corridor is empty. How can you -?” He turned back around and realized that he was now standing in this small dark room alone.

Where she had gone, and how, was a mystery that he would never quite understand. What he did understand (only when he was an old man, burying his second wife, Samantha, into the ground, did he finally understand what God had said to him through the Dream Crusader’s lips that dark night) was that time was beginning to be short and he had to act soon if he were to put “everything into motion.”