Fallen Allegiance

We set up camp in tents Ianthe had brought. Melissa, Cozae and I were cramped in one while Ianthe, Zane and Sayer shared the other. I could hear Sayer and Ianthe bickering as I laid down and tried to sleep. They seemed to be arguing about Andor and it gave me some comfort Sayer was sticking up for me.

“She knows what she’s doing, Ianthe, and what the consequences are. Just leave her alone,” Sayer growled, getting annoyed.

“She’s bloody banging a Valithor! She could have any guy she wants, yet she picks him?” Ianthe cried incredulously. I cringed at his words and rolled over on my side. I could feel Melissa eyes on me but refused to look at her. I really did not want to talk to her about Andor.

“She’s not banging him, Ianthe, Morgana isn’t like you nor is she like Khadi,” Sayer retorted.

“Great, she’s not even dating him, now what excuse does she have for traveling with him? Oh! Let me guess, she’s secretly planning to kill him at midnight? Wait, no, she would have done that already. What is the idiot doing? She’s not dating him, planning to kill him or-“

“Why don’t you try the obvious answer, Ianthe, not the answer which would apply to someone like you,” Sayer groaned.

“And what’s that supposed to mean? Something that wouldn’t ‘apply’ to me?” Ianthe hissed. “And there is no other reason why someone would travel with an Valithor.”

“She’s traveling with him because she trusts him and he is her only chance of saving her friend. What I meant is that you are a selfish git who likes to bang every girl you lay your eyes on, just like Melissa.” Sayer shouted at him. Ianthe said nothing in reply and finally everything was silent and I was able to close my eyes and sleep.

***

“Where are we going?” A boy squeaks at me, staring at me with his big blue eyes.

I smile and pat his head, “Somewhere magical.” I take his hand and pull him along with me. I recognize him from my past dream. Byron, the boy who served Silera, but this time Silera is nowhere in sight. 

We walk down the street, a few cars past us but otherwise it’s silent.  I keep glancing around, checking we’re not being followed. No one can know where we’re going, what we’re about to create. A portal is a dangerous item in the wrong hands, and I guess you could call my hands the wrong hands. I smile slyly, this would teach those fools Sayer and Dwynwen a lesson when they saw me again.

A shadow begins to tower over me and I steady my breathing, clutching my knife in my right hand, ready to attack. These are dangerous times for me and I would do anything to succeed. Anything. Even if that meant killing a few people. The Valithors did that all the time so it couldn’t do me any harm… no one would know.

I pull the boy down a narrow alleyway, trying to lose the shadow, but it keeps following me. I don’t know who it is, and every time I glance around nothing is there. Byron keeps screaming for no reason, pointing at shadows on the floor, stars in the sky. I don’t understand what he’s trying to tell me. Silera told me he had a connection to the universes and could see things others couldn’t, but this was just getting on my nerves. Every second something was wrong, I just couldn’t handle this. The boy had to get a grip on life.

Unless something was there… Something I couldn’t see. Unless someone had found out what had happened, and was now coming to take me to the place of nightmares…

***

I bolted away, breathing heavily, my hands in fists. I heard the sound of chuckling and turned to see Ryan staring at me. He smiled and in a moment of relief, I launched myself onto him and hugged him.

“You’re alive!” I cried as he hugged me tightly back.

“Nah, I’m a ghost,” he teased.

I slapped his chest gently, “I seriously thought you were dead out there.”

“Really? Aw, I feel loved,” He laughed, “Try to have a bit more hope in me next time.”

“Ryan, is she up yet?” Sayer shouted from outside the tent. I immediately let go of Ryan incase Sayer open the tent door.