Chapter Thirty-Nine

The early morning hours slowly crouched into the afternoon and Stan, Rick and Frederick had all of the items laid out around the table and throne in a circle. The candles were spread out sporadically and the basins had been laid on the floor directly in front of the throne and the ashes, at this time, still concealed in their urn, sat on the throne itself.

Stan stood erect and walked back to the doorway to get an overall look at the scene. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and looked down at it, only to glance back up at what they had prepared. He sighed and then placed the paper back into his pocket. He was obviously satisfied by what he saw. Without moving, he looked over at Rick. “You still want to go through with this?”

Nodding, “If I won’t, then who else would do it? You?” he replied looking back at Stan who shook his head.

“Hell, I’m still trying to figure out what’s at stake here,” he explained behind a nervous smile and Rick went about looking around at their scenery. “Look, we’ve got a while before the big moment, why don’t you get some shut-eye. You’ll need all your strength.”

Rick surrendered and walked up to Frederick. “Do you think we can trust him?” he asked and glanced over at Stan.

Whitaker gave him a reassuring smile. “I would trust him with my own life,” he said.

Rick nodded and sighed. “I’m going to relax before I talk to King Darvon,” he explained and Frederick smiled.

“Don’t worry, Richard. It will all be over soon enough,” he reassured and patted Rick on the shoulder.

Rick threw out a “Humph” and walked past Stan out into the darkened corridors. Although it was only a little after noon, the darkness of these corridors was almost foreboding. A shiver raced through his body and Rick shuddered into the darkness.

Unfriendly thoughts crept into his mind as he made his way back toward the light. Those thoughts always found their way to Emily. There was so much he wanted to tell her – so much he needed her to know – but he knew that he must rely on secrecy in order to save her life. If he gave Orion an inkling of his life, Emily would surely fall prey to the Dreamkillers atrocious ways.

Rick suddenly whirled around when he felt a hot breath blow on the back of his neck. “Who’s there?” he asked in the darkness, only to receive silence in way of an answer. He slowly turned back around and walked several more feet and then heard a low hiss off to his side. With it being so dark, he was not sure from which side the sound originated. “What do you want?” Rick asked and prayed for some answer.

“Your fears,” came one answer that he could have lived without. Within the darkness there formed a shadow which had outstretched arms. “I need to know your fears, Richard, so I can take them from you.”

Hypnotized, Rick didn’t recognize Orion’s voice, but merely opened his mind to the master Dreamkiller at command. Orion smiled to himself when, at first, he saw Rick’s wife; how little did Rick know of Emily’s plan to come and try to save her husband, only to die. Then he became enraged to know that Rick was going to attempt to contact his own beloved Daddy.

Orion’s shadow fingers went deeper into Rick’s subconscious and found what he was looking for: Memories of a lost battle. The one he had paid with his own hand. Tears were running down his face at the horrid memory.

Drained, Rick fell to his knees and covered his eyes, head bowed, with his hands. This was one memory he was trying to hide away from everyone – including himself. But now here it is, staring him in the face. There is nothing to learn from the memory – nothing to gain by it. And then he heard a satisfied sigh.

“Thank you, Richard. I’ve always wanted to know how Allen defeated you,” the voice of Orion cried out in a mocking tone. “Now that you’ve shared with me, let me share something with you,” he paused, having Rick’s undivided attention. “Emily is on her way here. She should arrive by tomorrow morning.”

This quickly brought Rick to his feet once again. “What?” he asked in anger. He didn’t need to know how the Dreamkillers knew of his wife; all he wanted to know is what bait was being used to lure her here.

“Oh yes.” Rick could almost feel the bastard smiling. “She’s almost here now. It’d be a shame, though, for her to miss Daddy’s shining moment.”

A million thoughts raced through Rick’s head as he pondered this interaction. If she is to arrive in the morning, yes she would miss the séance. But there was more malice in what Orion had said. He was up to evil – this much he was sure of. The million horrifying pictures he conjured in his head, he could not force out and so he raced back to the Great Hall where he saw Stan and Frederick where he had left them.

“Frederick!” Rick called behind panic as he ran up to them.

Rick had turned a whiter shade since they had left him only moments ago. “Richard, what’s wrong?” Frederick inquired behind nervous eyes.

He waited a moment to catch his breath before speaking. And when he did so, he looked deep into Frederick’s eyes. “I need you to find Emily. She’s in danger.”

Both Frederick and Stan gave forth confused expressions. It was Stan who spoke next. “How do you know this?”

“I happened to have a little chit-chat with our friend Orion on my way back to the camp. He told me she was on her way here to find me and that she would miss our séance,” he explained and Frederick smiled reassuringly – he didn’t seem too surprised that Orion was making house calls.

“How can you trust what Orion has been telling you?”

Rick looked down at his feet. “Because I gave him something in return for the information,” he responded behind apparent embarrassment.

Frederick cocked an eyebrow in suspicion. “Yeah? What information was that?”

Rick looked up at Frederick with childlike eyes of fear. “My memories.”

Whatever memories Rick was still concealing at this moment, Frederick did not press but merely accepted his new mission to find Rick’s wife before some terrible fate befalls her.

In a matter of half an hour the three men stood in front of the main entrance with grim features upon their faces. No words were spoken during this time. They stood in silence for a while and it was Frederick who broke the monotony with a clearing of the throat and a “Well.” He bent down and grabbed his bag; he would not be taking his suitcase in case he came back to the castle. Turning toward the door, “I’ll contact you as soon as I’ve found her. God be with you,” he glanced at Stan, too. “Both of you,” and then he made his exit.

Rick closed the door and Stan gave forth a gloomy smile. “How is it that I know I’ll see him again, but somehow I don’t feel so sure? Like that was the last time I’ll see that old buzzard?”

Rick nodded and walked over to his tripod and began dismantling it. “It’s Orion. I really don’t know who I’ll see again and who I won’t.” A new feeling overcame his insides as he rammed the folded tripod into its black bag. Anger. Rage. It was Orion who was the cause of many of his friends dying.

He saw the faces of Connor, Steve, Vincent, Britany, and Laura clearly in his mind. There was nothing he could have done to prevent their premature deaths. During the eleven years that have separated the old and new Rick, he had learned to let go of his love for Laura, otherwise there would have been no room for Emily.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

* * *

Her flight had landed an hour ahead of schedule and as Emily departed the plane, she glanced around the busy airport for any signs as to where her husband might have gone. He is a reporter. Journalist, as Rick would like to be called. So where would he go for any leads for stories? A bar, she thought with a smile and headed for the main doors and hailed a taxi.

During his ride over to the airport Frederick kept glancing down at the wallet-sized picture of Emily Hopman he held in his hand. He prayed that he could find her for his friends’ sake. He didn’t much care for Stan, but Richard had been almost like a son to him; he had, after all, watched after him since their days at Lungland. And if Orion was up to something, he was damned to let him get the upper hand – not at this late in the game.

When his taxi halted in front of the busy airport, he jumped out after paying the driver and thanking him. As fate may have had it, once his head popped up out of the car, his eyes scanned the location and they befell upon the beautiful young woman that graced the picture in his hand.

Unfortunately however, he saw that she had entered another taxi which had slowly pulled into the street. He quickly jumped back into the car, to the shock of the driver. “Please, could you follow that taxi? It’s very important that I catch them,” he pleaded as they looked on at the taxi that was beginning to pick up speed.

The driver grinned and readjusted his cap. “Sure, mate. Sit back and hold on,” he said and turned back to the front and pushed down on the accelerator. He cut off two other taxis, both of which sounded their horns, and sped into the street just moments behind Emily.

The chase lasted no more than fifteen minutes when they saw Emily’s taxi stop in front of a pub on a busy street. Frederick watched as Emily exited her car, hoist her purse back up on her left shoulder, and disappeared inside the pub. Looking into his rear view mirror, “Well, ain’t you going in?”

Frederick pondered this a moment and then sat back. “Not yet.” Then he looked at the driver. “You wouldn’t wait here for a while with an old man like me would you? You will be compensated for your time.”

The driver seemed to think about this for only a moment, only to sigh and lean back as best he could in his seat. “Sure. I s’pose,” he replied and locked his hands behind his head.

She squinted her eyes when she first entered the dimly-lit pub and looked around the establishment for any clue to Rick’s whereabouts. Her eyes finally found the bar and they rested on the beautiful young barmaid. Hell, it always works in the movies, she thought and headed for the bar.

Claudia placed a napkin in front of Emily and fixed her green eyes on Emily’s. “Meeting someone here?” she inquired and Emily smiled.

“No. I’m just looking for someone,” Emily replied while glancing over her shoulder toward the door.

“Husband?”

Emily snapped her head back to Claudia with confused eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Claudia stepped back. “It’s a bad habit of mine – making up little stories about people. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Emily leaned forward and put her hands, palms down, on the bar. “How’d you know?”

Claudia raised her eyebrows and looked her customer up and down. “Your wedding ring and no mate by your side. Who is he?” she asked.

Emily paused for a moment and then tears began welling in her eyes. “Richard. He said that he was coming here to do a story about haunted castles. But now I’ve got a bad feeling about all this – I’ve got to warn him.”

Claudia smiled reassuringly and put her hands down on Emily’s shaky ones. “He’s all right, Dear. He was here two days ago asking about haunted castles.” This bit of information made Emily look up, her heart beating heavily.

“What? Where is he? Did he say where he was going?”

“Slow down. Yes he did say where he was going. And if you’d like to wait another thirty minutes, I’ll take you to him,” she explained and Emily sat back, more relaxed than she had been in hours.

The sound of the drivers’ snores caused Frederick to grit his teeth as he lay asleep in the front seat with his hands still behind his head. He had taken in all the sights he could take in from the back seat of the taxi. The architecture here was almost quainter, or older fashioned, than back in the States. Just about every building on the street had been constructed only of brick. And just about every business on the street contained large hunter-green awnings over their doors.

Thirty-five minutes later he saw Emily and another woman exit the pub, cross the street and had walked into a near-by parking lot. He didn’t wake the driver right away. Instead he waited until he saw them enter a small red Saab.

Another couple of minutes and Emily and her companion drove right past him without a second’s glance. It was an odd feeling – seeing the beautiful woman sitting next to the driver. In that one-and-a-half second glance, Frederick saw everything. It was in her eyes; her terrified eyes. He saw Rick’s future life and his own fate. He saw Tracy in her brown eyes as well. He was confused at her position in life, but he did not question it. He saw, too, what horrors were coming to England. Dear Lord, how he fell instantly in love with Emily Hopman. She was the messenger of death and she didn’t even know it.

He quickly aroused his driver, who jerked awake with a start. “Huh?” he asked and shook his head.

“There,” Frederick pointed to the red vehicle. “We need to follow that one – but keep a distance.”

* * *

Tracy studied her reflection in the vanity mirror as she sat in front of it brushing her sandy-blonde hair with a gold plated brush. She could clearly see the queen’s past as if they were her own, but when it came to Rick and Orion a black cloud hung over her own memories. Surely they would return in time; but, she wondered if the queen herself was the one responsible for that black cloud. After all, with painful memories able to haunt her, would she be able to fulfill the queen’s destiny and destroy Orion?

And then that odd poking feeling in her head signaled the queen’s appearance. “It is time. My son is approaching soon and we must go to him by nightfall,” announced the queen in an anxious voice that concerned Tracy.

Staring into the brown eyes in the mirror, “Are you sure you are to destroy your son? Is there a guarantee on that, or are we just doing this like a shot in the dark kind of thing?”

There came a long pause; a pause of regret, Tracy thought. And then she heard the queen sigh. “There are no guarantees in life – you should know that. And so should it remain my war with Orion. All I can do is pray that we prevail,” replied the queen behind somewhat of a sorrowful tone.

Standing, Tracy turned toward the window. “Fine. But before we go I need to see Vincent. I need to see my child,” she said and felt a prick of pain in her heart. Deep down she knew that it was Nanaac’s own pain she felt toward her only child. She really didn’t know who she damned more: King Darvon, the one who gave her Orion or Orion himself for what he had become.

On the ground floor Tracy found Sister Agnes in her small chamber feeding Vincent a bottle by light of a small fire. “Sister,” Tracy announced upon entering. She sat down on the bed and reached out her hands to her son. Sister Agnes handed the child over to his mother and she watched longingly as Tracy held her son to her bosom.

“The time has come,” Tracy said as she looked, first at her child then at Sister Agnes. “Your queen and I must take our leave and head to Darvon Keep.” Sister Agnes threw a concerned expression on her young face. “If anything happens to me, I want you to give Vincent to a man named Rick Hopman.” Tracy reached out and produced a folded piece of paper.

Sister Agnes retrieved it and placed it in the pocket next to her rosary. “May the Lord be with you always,” she called out as Tracy stood, handing her child back to Sister Agnes.

Tracy headed for the door and stopped when she reached it. She looked back at Sister Agnes and sighed. “I really don’t think the Lord had anything to do with this, so I’m not expecting him to lend a hand – I’m sorry.” And then she left Sister Agnes’ chamber and quickly found the front door.

She watched as Sister Agnes sat back down and continued feeding her son. Tears welled in her eyes as she found it almost impossible to believe that she would return for her son. There were a million things she wanted to say – a million wishes she had for her baby. Then flooded in the images of Alexandria and the pain in her heart caused her to drop to her knees.

Sister Agnes stood up but it was Sister Catherine who picked the young woman up to her feet. “You must fulfill your prophecy. Only then will Vincent and Alexandria live to fight another day.”

“Alexandria,” Tracy whispered and looked up into the Sister’s warm eyes. “She’ll live?” There was a new hope forming in her soul.

“Only if you go now.”

But, she will live, Tracy thought with a smile.

Tracy and Queen Nanaac slipped out the doors once Tracy came to accept that her children will be all right and they cast their eyes up into the sky and saw the dark clouds scream toward England and knew that it was that direction they must head.