The Colorless Land

Chapter 22: Puppets and Puppeteers

"Edmian?" Jolette called, hoping this was not what it looked like. "Edmian! You're still in there, right?"

There was no answer. Edmian's eyes were unblinking and focused on nothing. His entire figure was rigid and motionless and unnaturally stiff.

"Edmian!" she tried again. "Tell me you're not just giving up over that!"

But he made no answer.

Tears blurred her eyes. Her hands shook inside their shackles, her nails digging into the palms of her hands. All these struggles, all the worry, all the battle to keep him human. And now this. Now he was just another one of the Colorless People.

Eyeing his figure and then the pendant in his hand, Theor paused in thought, then fixed his gaze on the boy again. Edmian lifted his head.

"You will do as I say," Theor told him, "won't you?"

Edmian's eyes glazed over. He nodded.

"And you are on my side," Theor continued, "aren't you?"

Edmian hesitated, as if something inside him still strove against it. Then he nodded again.

"Good." Lowering the pendant, Theor turned to the guards. "Take him back to the dungeon, just in case. We don't know how soon his Colorless education will kick back in. The others may go free, but watch them closely. They are not to do anything I don't know of."

The guards saluted and followed his orders. Jolette yanked and pulled against the shackles and chains. "No!" she screamed. "Give him the pendant back! Let him go! Let him go!"

Nobody listened to her. She thrashed against the metal. Her wrists and ankles bruised and bled, but she barely felt it. "Edmian!" she called. "Edmian, look at me!"

Edmian's gaze met hers. Her voice faltered.

His eyes were flat now, blank, unfeeling. There was no trace in his face of the Edmian she knew, the frightened but selfless boy who had become her friend. The boy in front of her was completely, wholly Colorless.

"Stop shouting," he said in a blank, mechanical voice. "This is for the best."

Silent, unmoving, Jolette watched as the guards took him towards the door and pushed him out of sight.

Then she fell to her knees and knew no more except floods of tears and bitter frustration.

~ ~ ~

Something had to be done.

Jolette stared unseeingly into the garden. Her tears had dried, and her despair had merged into a grim resolve. It was not yet over. It could not yet be over. The Edmian she knew could not be gone that easily. He was still in there somewhere. If only she could somehow get to him, talk to him, she might be able to bring him back.

But the dungeons were closed off to her, and even that still wouldn't bring the pendant back. Theor had it, and he would not return it. Was there a way to steal it? She wondered if there was a way to find out where he kept it. Could one of them sneak in and take it back before everything got even worse?

Aithal might know; he had been here before. Or Lisha. And then maybe Saryana had a strategy for getting their hands on it. Where had they all gone? In her daze she couldn't remember. Maybe the archives, to find out things about the dragons. If there was even still any point to that as long as they didn't have the pendant.

If only she could do something. It was her fault they had ended up in this mess. Why did she always have to rely on the others to solve everything?