Chapter Eight
Merelith
Merelith was an old friend of the royal Rothgar family, tall, beautiful, and red-haired with bright green eyes. She was a shifter too, but of a different kind. When she got Darilth’s message, she knew something was seriously wrong and immediately headed out to his rescue.
The night was cold and silent when a sleek panther snuck down into the dungeons. Silent as ever, it stayed softly in the shadows, sensing the demon guard’s presence. The panther shifted and there stood Merelith. The demon suddenly sat up. Merelith had cloaked her scent but the demon was sharp enough to sense a presence there. Still in the shadows, she quietly whispered an incantation and blew shadow dust from the palm of her hand toward the demon. The demon instantly fell asleep. Only powerful magic could make a demon fall asleep, but Merelith was no ordinary witch. She had years of experience. She had to hurry as there was little time before the old man woke up.
Merelith found Darilth half-conscious when she went inside. As soon as she removed his restraints, he staggered and dropped to the floor. She covered him with a cloak and then helped him up.
“Darilth, we need to get out of here, now,” she whispered.
He nodded. They made their way outside, cautiously evading the sleeping guard and hurrying back up the stone steps.
“Are you okay, Darilth? They seem to have beaten you quite badly,” she said, concerned. She could see that the Eye had kept him alive. Nobody could survive the kind of torture he had suffered.
“Merelith, I... I had a vision. We need to find Ella, my wife,” he said as he gasped for breath.
“Darilth, listen to me. Use the power of the Eye to heal yourself first,” she said.
“I... I can’t...” he said as he collapsed to the floor.
“You have to. Try to summon the power. Right now, you need all your strength if you want to get out of here,” she insisted.
Darilth concentrated, wishing for strength, and at once the stone on his band came to life. He felt the energy immediately, a lifeblood coursing through his veins. Some of his strength returned.
“Now, do tell. What was the vision about?” she asked him.
“I saw her in the dark. She was cold and shivering. The place resembled the prison on the Dark Moon, and she was weak,” Darilth said as they got farther away from the dungeons and outside in the open. “And she’s pregnant.”
“Death looms near. She is in grave danger. She might not survive after the baby is born,” Merelith replied. She saw the worried expression on Darilth’s face.
“What should we do?” he asked her, raw pain in his eyes.
“The only way to save her would be to turn her into your kind, but the transformation can happen only after the baby is born,” Merelith said. “Darilth, we must hurry before she dies of the brutal cold. Call the doctor right away. We’ll take him with us.”
Darilth again used his ring to call the doctor and asked him to bring some clothes and medical supplies.
They walked a little further and reached a spot in the wall of the castle that concealed a secret passage. They waited there for the doctor. After a while, the hidden door slid open and Dr. Wyern emerged. He carried a bag with fresh clothes and robes. They followed the doctor, hurrying over the snow-covered land until they reached a small cave-like tunnel. They walked through it and when they reached the other end, Dr. Wyern uncloaked the spacecraft that stood there.
“My lord, Prince Keralth had assigned me to keep the woman alive. So, I visit her frequently and monitor her health. I’ve been trying my best to keep her stable, but her health has been deteriorating,” he said as he tapped in commands at the console and revved up the engines.
“Thank you for taking care of my wife,” Darilth said. “Wyern, you do know that Keralth is the real traitor, don’t you?”
“Yes, my lord. There have been rumors around the castle and among the people in the city that Keralth may have a hand in the King’s assassination and not you, as it has been assumed,” he said as he hesitated a little, wondering how the prince would react.
“The truth will come out,” Darilth said. His wounds were really beginning to hurt now and he had a hard time standing up.
“My lord, please, I would advise you to lie down in the healing capsule. Your wounds don’t look good,” Dr. Wyern said with genuine concern in his voice. He could see that the prince looked pale. “If you stay in the capsule, the less deep wounds will have healed by the time we reach our destination.”
“You’re right, Doctor,” Darilth said, “but I need a drink first.”
“I’ll make you a drink. I’ll also make a potion for you to heal faster. You can have it with your drink,” Merelith said from the corner where she was already working away, mixing herbs and roots.
“Thanks, Merelith,” Darilth said with a faint smile and winced.
He drained his glass with the potion and lay back naked in the healing capsule. His mind numb with pain, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ella.
The ship hovered up and rose higher till it reached the outer boundaries of Iovis’s atmosphere and then sped forward toward the Dark Moon.
***
The Dark Moon was as cold as any planet that hadn’t seen the light of a star in many lightyears. It was far away from Iovis’s sun and positioned in a way that only a small part of the moon saw daylight. It took them almost four days to reach the moon and when they landed, they could sense the place was haunted, devoid of life. The only thing that seemed alive were the unpredictable snowstorms that hit the place.
Prince Darilth and Dr. Wyern walked up to the large iron gate and unlocked it with the help of the doctor’s entry pass. They were carrying bags containing medication and warm clothes for Ella. Darilth had instructed Merelith to stay back in the craft. They entered a dimly lit circular room and as Darilth tapped in the commands, the room descended steadily, hundreds of feet below the surface.
Most of Darilth’s surface wounds had healed and he felt his strength returning. His heart raced as he took a deep breath, silently wishing for her to be alive.
As the circular elevator came to a stop, the massive doors slid open. Darilth turned on a fluorescent light stick that emitted blue-white light. Dr. Wyern led the way through a dark tunnel. They walked for what felt like ages until they reached a door. Dr. Wyern opened the door and they stepped into a dimly lit hallway. A guard sat outside the first door in the hallway, asleep. Dr. Wyern went up to him and quickly injected him with a sedative in the neck. The guard immediately dropped to the floor unconscious. As soon as the door to the cell opened, Darilth rushed inside. He held up his light and there in the corner he found Ella. She was unconscious. Her chalk white skin was now pale gray and felt cold and damp. Her hair was matted to her face. She lay sprawled sideways, and he saw that her belly was big. He smoothed out her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.
Ella... forgive me...
Her breathing was erratic and shallow. Dr. Wyern checked her pulse. “She is weak and her body is going into shock,” he said. “Give her Merelith’s potion first. It will work faster than any other medicine. Let’s get her out of here now.”
Darilth scooped Ella up in his arms and slowly poured the contents of the vial into her mouth. He wrapped the warm robes around her and carried her outside as they quickly made their way back. All the while, Darilth fought back his tears. She shouldn’t have had to endure all this pain. She had to suffer because she chose to be with him. His pain turned into rage, hot and boiling as it surged through his blood. Keralth had to pay for what he had done. He would see to it. Vengeance now drove his every move.
Back at the ship, the doctor injected her with medicines. Then she was transferred into the healing capsule. Darilth set the course for his home on R13 and then went back into the healing chamber to be at her side. She lay there, still unconscious, oblivious to the world around her. He stared at the large bump that her frail body had to support. The life growing inside her sucking every ounce of lifeblood, taking everything she had. Eventually, it would kill her. And, yet, she had endured it all. She was a warrior like no other, fighting a grave battle with death.
He placed a hand on the glass, his long fingers spreading, wanting to touch her bulging belly. He could see the baby moving inside her and he felt a strong tug in his heart. She had sacrificed herself to give him an heir. He ached to touch her again, to feel her soft lips on his, her delicate body against his own, her warmth against his cold. If he were given a choice to save one life, the mother’s or the baby’s, he would undoubtedly choose her. He was nothing without her. His existence didn’t matter without her own. Nothing mattered without her. His heart grown cold with vengeance, he resolved to set things right and save her life. All he needed was a plan to destroy his enemy.