Image (Insight #3)(12)

The passage did lead inside the palace, to a stone room. An enormous bed draped in black silk centered one wall, and the ceiling opened above us; the night sky was clear. Around the bed on the floor stood tall ivory candles, and paintings reflecting my image hung on every wall. At the foot of the bed was a podium, and you could see the outline of a book in the dust.

“This must be where they invoked the nightmares,” Marc said.

I could feel the anger and tension building in the room, but my emotion - one of sorrow - was the strongest one among us. I imagined Drake as a little boy, being asked to lie in this bed with lit candles all around him and Alamos speaking words over him; seeing the demons, hearing them. Though it was obvious that Drake had grown used to his monkey friends, I couldn’t imagine that was always the case.

Landen looked at me curiously. I answered his emotion and thought, “When they started, he would have been too young to stop them; he was just a little boy”

Landen tilted his head and looked at me. “It’s not the child he was that I have an issue with; it’s the man he is now, the one that chose to invoke them after eight months of peace,” he thought.

“The childhood makes the man,” I thought, defending my point of view.

“I don’t want to debate now, Willow,” Landen thought, smiling slightly. He took my hand, then turned to follow Marc and Dane to the lit hallway.

From the ceiling in the room, we knew we were on the top floor, the same floor that held the observatory. Landen tilted his head to the left, letting Marc know that we could feel August and Perodine in that direction. The hallway was wide, like the estate I’d stayed in just days ago; it had large paintings on the walls and narrow couches between the doorways. We walked past at least twenty doorways before the walls ended. The floor continued, and over the banister we could see more than eight stories down. In the distance, we could see the walls begin again.

“How would you debate it?” I thought when I couldn’t contain my curiosity anymore.

Landen looked down at me and shook his head side to side; I could see a sparkle in his blue eyes, which took my breath away. “I just think that people who hide behind their childhoods are foolish. Just because your parents were great doesn’t mean that you are, and just because they’re bad, it doesn’t mean that you are. All the time people spend using their past as a crutch could be spent living a life they want to have. We control our thoughts - no one else,” he thought.

I stared forward at the hallway that was approaching, going over every word he just said.

“Waiting for your comeback,” Landen said aloud in an amused tone. Marc looked curiously over his shoulder at me.

I blushed slightly and smiled. “Well, don’t faint: I don’t have one. I agree,” I answered, looking up at Landen. He laughed under his breath.

“If you’ve managed to leave her speechless, you have to tell us how,” Dane said.

I playfully glared at him, and he shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just saying,” Dane said, avoiding my eyes and adjusting the books he was carrying. Shaking my head, I reached for one of the books.

“From the outside, it doesn’t seem as big as this,” Marc complained as he continued to walk forward.

“Go to your left up here,” Landen said, still smiling at me.

We passed five more doorways before we turned left into another hallway; from there, we could see August and Perodine at the end of the long hall. We entered the room through one of the doorways that framed the fireplace. August looked up, startled to see us come from that direction. Perodine never lost her gaze with the scroll. Marc looked back at Dane and us when he saw her; it was clear they weren’t expecting to see her so dressed down: she’d pulled her silver hair back into a ponytail, her pant legs were rolled up, and she was still barefoot. Landen set our bags beside the couch and took the book from me. Marc let his and Dane’s bag fall next to ours.

“Is Nyla safe?” August asked. Landen nodded. “Did you bring the right books?” he continued.

Landen and Dane set the books on the table. “The ones about Samilya and Jayda, yes,” Landen answered.

Perodine looked up at us, then to August. “Who are they?” she asked, puzzled.

“They’re from another dimension. Long ago, Jayda managed to defeat the darkness inside of her sisters Samilya’s husband.”

Marc pulled out a chair at the table and took a seat. Landen leaned over the table, looking at the notes August had made. Dane and I leaned against the back of the couch.

“How?” Perodine asked, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear.

“Well, love, I guess they were twins. Samilya was given to a ruler; years later, she ran to her sister Jayda, telling her that darkness had consumed the man she loved. Jayda was taken by mistake by the ruler’s guards. When she stood before him for punishment, the darkness left, and Jayda and the ruler lived a very long life completely in love,” August explained.

I could feel astonishment come over Perodine; her face lost all of its color, and she slid into the chair in front of which she was standing.

“Are you OK?” Landen asked.

“I just...I just remembered Donalt from long ago...he wasn’t always...cold,” Perodine said in a quiet voice. She looked at me. “I told you that at one time I did love him. I...I lost our first two children. The grief changed me, and I went months without even seeing him. I just don’t remember when he changed. I mean, I remember coming to him, wanting to try again, and...he felt empty. He made me feel like a nuisance,” she said. She sighed and looked to the shadows of the room, then to the scroll. “I just want to know what I’m fighting: the man I gave my life to, or a darkness that took him from me.” Perodine reached for the books and turned the pages, then looked up at August. “Can you read this? Tell me more so I’ll know.” she said.