Here we start Part II of the novel!
Part II
“The Prisoner”
When Aadi’s eyes opened, he found himself in a total different environment than he had expected. The last thing he recalled was the doctor blowing a green smoke toward him that caused him to black out.
Knowing the doctor’s reputation, he had expected to wake up tied to a table. Perhaps with a hand or leg missing. Or if he was really unlucky, he wouldn’t ever wake at all. He hadn’t thought he would wake up inside a rickety carriage. And he certainly had not foreseen being accompanied by other boys his age. Aadi counted ten of them, including himself. They all wore gloomy expressions. Thick chains encased their wrists and arms.
Aadi looked down at himself. Sure enough, he too was wearing the chains.
“Hey,” he called. “What is this place? Where are we going?”
“Shhh!” said a long nosed boy. “Do you want them to stop the horses and come in here?”
I was right. We are in a horse-drawn carriage. “Who is going to stop the carriage?”
“Shhh!” echoed the boy.
The boy beside Aadi looked up at him. “We’re being sent to Kilead Keep.”
Aadi shrugged. “That doesn’t sound too bad. At least I’m free of that man’s clutches.”
“You mean the short man with the big eyes? The one who sold you to the carriage master? He kept on complaining that you were useless to him and traded you for a few bronze coins.”
Aadi nodded. “Yes. That sounds like him. He’s a maniac who kills people for his experiments.”
“You would have been lucky to have stayed with him.”
“Lucky? Didn’t you just hear me? The man murders people!”
The boy’s frightened eyes met Aadi’s. “Better dead than where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?”
“Whoa!” called a voice from outside. The bouncing from the carriage halted.
“How many new recruits do we have today?” asked a deep scratchy voice. Aadi didn’t like it. It sounded like the man was sick.
“Ten strong boys, warden.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” countered the warden. “Let me see them.”
Loud footsteps hastily made their way to the back of the carriage. The sound of a key going into a lock and clicking came later.
The door opened. A mustached man gazed down at them. “Get out, you worthless vermin.”
The sound of dangling chains echoed against the eerie silence as the boys slowly made their way out of the carriage. Many, like Aadi, who were not used to walking while tied up, struggled to remain upright as the man lined them up in a row.
He took a glance at his surroundings and his mouth went dry. The moon provided enough light for him to make out where they were. They stood in the middle of a large opening. From all sides, thick metal walls that seemed to reach to the heavens surrounded them. A series of cabins were lined up in uneven rows. Dark holes, the size of ten horses, had been excavated on the hard ground. What have I’ve gotten myself into?
The answer came quickly. “Welcome,” called a skinny man with a scratchy voice. He was ghostly pale with sharp features. He wore a dark leather tunic and leggings. Over a dozen men with whips hanging from their waist flanked him. “I am the Warden Padstow, the leader of Kilead Keep prison.”
Aadi gulped. Prison?
“From now you will all address to me as Warden. Anyone who does not, will spend a night on the crusher.” The warden smirked widely. “Trust me when I say, you don’t want to find out what the crusher is.”
The men that surrounded the warden snickered to one another in amusement.
The warden shared in their laughter before returning to his speech. “I am the law here. No one has ever escaped Kilead Keep and no one ever will.” The gangly man walked down the line of new prisoners and stopped in front of the boy who had spoken to Aadi.
“What’s your name?”
“Lin—”
“You look like you’re good for nothing,” interrupted Warden Padstow. He poked the boy’s stomach with his bony finger. “You sure eat a lot, don’t you?” The men snickered once more. “While the rest of the world is dying of hunger, you’re stuffing your face.”
“No, Warden, sir. It’s just that….”
“DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?!”
The boy’s entire body suddenly began to tremble. He looked as if he was going to burst into tears at a moment’s notice. “No, Warden, sir. I’m sorry.”
The warden leaned closer, obviously enjoying the torment he was causing. “I think I’ll call you Worthless. Are you fine with that?”
“Y-yes, s-s-sir.”
“And you know what I’m going to do today, Worthless? I’m going to allow you to be the first person to enjoy the crusher.”
“N…no, sir. Please.”
The grin on the warden intensified. “Ahhh. I see that you have heard of my prison. Tell me, what else have you heard?”
The boy looked around to everyone else, almost as if he was begging for their help. “I…I hear that no one has ever escaped this prison.”
“That’s right!” He beat his chest with pride. “No one has ever escaped my watch. I will work you until the day your miserable life comes to an end. Forget about the people you left behind, you will never see them again.” He faced the boy again. “Now tell me, Worthless. How long do you think you’ll last in the crusher?”
“You’re wrong,” Aadi called out.
The warden’s left eye twitched wildly. “Who said that?”
“I did,” said Aadi, taking one step closer. “My name is Aadi and I did nothing wrong. I don’t belong in prison. I have people who are waiting for me.” He closed his eyes and saw Ishani’s beautiful face. But when he opened them, it was the warden’s furious face that was staring back at him. The putrid stench from his breath flowed into Aadi’s nose. It took all his willpower to not gag at the scent. “I will make it back to them. Kill me now if you plan to stop me.”
“Look around you,” the warden said through cackles. “No prisoner here is guilty of any crime, but they will die here nonetheless.” He moved his hands in a circular motion. “This entire prison is surrounded by giant earth worms. One step out and you’re dead.” He eyed the carriage. “And don’t even think of taking the carriage through the overhead bridge. We have taken measures for that too. Believe me when I say, you will never escape.”
“I don’t care about worms or measures. All I care is getting back to her. I will do it.”
The warden nodded. “You think you’re the first one to utter such words? You honestly believe that you’re the first to think you could escape Kilead Keep? In my forty seasons here I have seen high-spirited men come, making bold claims as well. But by the time I was done with them, their strong will was all but broken, their bursts of fiery optimism reduced to a dead lumps of lifeless coal.”
“Those men weren’t me. Only death will stop me.”
“Death is much too easy. There is no suffering if you’re dead, and if I kill you, I’ll lose countless years of your service in the mines. No, I will make an example out of you. So everyone can see what hope and strength will get you at Kilead Keep.” He faced the guards beside him. “Wake the prisoners!”
“At once.” The guards disappeared into the large holes in the ground. A few minutes later they appeared again, corralling what had to be at least one hundred men into the large field of dirt.
The chained prisoners moved quietly, heads down. All of them were caked with dirt from face to toe. A few of them wore ragged tunics, but most were completely shirtless. Aadi couldn’t help but notice that the men looked to be a mix of all ages. From boys his age to elderly men who could barely walk. It frightened him to think how long some of them had been unjustly imprisoned.
“This boy thinks he can do what no other man has ever been able to do!” Warden Padstow cried once all the prisoners had been lined up in front of a tree stump. “We all know what that kind of thinking can lead to. But perhaps some of you need a reminder.”
A guard grabbed Aadi and led him forward. His heart began to beat faster as he was forced to his knees. The two other guards pulled his hands around the tree stump and tied them together. A pair of cold hands ripped his shirt apart.
They had him facing forward toward the crowd. Some of the men looked up at him with pity, other simply stared at the ground.
“Aaaaaargh!” There was a sudden lashing of a whip, followed by a burst of immense pain on his back.
The warden walked in front of him and held his hands up. “I can make it all stop. Just admit that you will die after many years of service.”
With tears of pain trickling down his cheeks, Aadi looked up defiantly. “I’m going to see her again. I will get out. And so will all of you!”
Some of the prisoners, who had been looking down, now met Aadi’s gaze.
“Give him thirty lashes!” ordered the warden. “See if he’s making grand plans after that!”
Aadi tried to ready himself, but nothing could have prepared him for the immense stabs of pain that whipped his back mercilessly. He screamed into the cold night, time and time again, hoping that the pain would halt. But it continued for what seemed like an eternity. When the lashes finally stopped, he was only vaguely aware of what was going on. He felt someone drag him through the hard dirt as they laughed. His vision went in and out of focus, giving him a small burst of what was going on around him. He saw a hole on the ground. A second later he felt the air whiff past him as he was thrown into a pit. His head bounced with a loud crack on the rocky ground.
His emotions toyed with him as he saw her staring back at him. It had been months since she had haunted him, but yet, there she was again, reaching out for him, just like he’d done the day he lost her. His hand extended, but inches from reaching her, she disappeared into a whirl of nothingness.
That’s when he felt it. A pang of guilt burst within him for failing her all those years ago. The rock from the earth wall cracked and crumpled to the ground as he continued to reach out. He vaguely recalled Zoen telling him once that only earth wielders had the power to rupture solid rock.
He felt the power of the earth within him, and then his world went black.
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