The Echoes Of Souls

Chapter 2

“Give me your hand.”

The girl’s voice was soft. Almost musical.

Everett hesitated. He still didn’t understand why Darian brought her here. The commander had just stepped aside. That made him careful. After a moment he held out his hand.

She took it. Her fingers were cold.

She lifted his hand. The sleeve of her dark blue cloak slipped back. More black markings showed on her skin. The tattoos under her eyes ran down the sides of her face. They disappeared under her collar. Similar patterns went down her arm to her wrist. The lines connected. It looked like one big design. Too precise for normal tattoos.

She tightened her grip.

A faint breeze touched Everett’s skin. Cold spread through his hand. Then warmth climbed up his arm. The heavy feeling that had stuck to him since he woke up started to fade.

He looked into her deep-blue eyes. The color changed.

A soft light appeared in them. It grew brighter as she stared at him. Her gaze went past his face. It reached into a part of his mind he couldn’t access.

Then the markings moved.

The black lines under her eyes spread across her skin. The ones on her arm slid past her wrist. They reached toward her fingers. A sharp pain tore through his head.

He gasped. The cell disappeared. He was somewhere else. A place he didn’t know. Several people stood around him. Their clothes felt familiar somehow. They weren’t soldiers. But something about them made him feel he had known them before.

One of them was talking. Everett couldn’t hear the words. He watched the mouth move. Then he saw himself laughing with them. Completely at ease. Like he belonged there.

The laughter turned into screaming.

People ran through unfamiliar streets. Voices shouted everywhere. Faces flashed past too fast to recognize. Something burned in the distance. Panic spread through the streets.

He tried to understand. The harder he searched, the worse the pain got.

The girl’s grip tightened.

The screaming grew louder. It filled his head. Everett tried to pull his hand away. His body wouldn’t move.

Then the noise stopped.

He stood in front of a door.

Nothing else was there. Just the door. Strong blue light shone through the gap underneath. The light spread across the floor at his feet. Looking at it woke a strange recognition.

He knew this place.

Without knowing why, he stepped closer. He reached for the handle.

His fingers touched it. The pain vanished.

The girl let go.

Everett dropped to one knee. He gasped for air. The prison slowly returned. Stone walls came back. Iron bars. Dim torchlight. The light in the girl’s eyes was gone. The markings on her skin had settled back into place.

She turned to Darian.

“Free him.”

Darian looked at Everett. Then at her.

“But why?”

“He did not come here to harm the Sovereign,” she said. “Whatever brought him across the Northern Wasteland, he did not cross it to betray us.”

Darian stayed quiet. Everett’s appearance in restricted territory right after the attack had been too suspicious. No identity. No explanation for crossing the Northern Wasteland. Almost no memory of how he got there. But after looking into his memories, the girl reached a different conclusion.

Darian remembered the meeting with the Sovereign earlier that day. He had reported everything about Everett. He asked if the interrogation should continue.

The Sovereign gave a simple answer.

“Whatever she decides, that is what must happen.”

Darian looked at the girl. He gave a slight nod.

“I understand.”

He turned to Everett.

“Come.”

Darian walked out of the cell. The girl followed.

Everett stayed on one knee a moment longer. He caught his breath. Then he pushed himself up. He followed them into the corridor. His thoughts stayed on what just happened.

He had spent days under Veyrith. Accused of High Treason. No one knew where he came from. No one knew why he crossed the Northern Wasteland. Now a girl he had never seen before reached into his memories. She decided he was innocent.

He wanted to ask who she was. What she had seen. Those questions could wait. The door was all he could think about. The blue light under it. The feeling that whatever waited on the other side had been waiting for him.