Image (Insight #3)(40)

“What is it? “ I asked as I watched them walk to the window.

“The sun is rising in the West,” Landen said quietly. I stood and walked slowly to his side.

“Just as it does on the planet Venus; we’re all trapped in an illusion now,” Alamos said in a sullen tone.

I watched as the sun rose. I’d seen so many sunrises since I’d found Landen; I knew that it rose gracefully, that you could barely see it climb through the sky. This sun was different, though; within a moment, it was suspended in the middle of the sky. A purple haze reflected below it, and darkness above it. The city of Delen, the wall that always had workers surrounding it, was abandoned. We were alone in this dark world.

Chapter Ten
Perodine turned and crossed the room to the doorway that led to the long hall. Drake hadn’t moved from his seat. He seemed unsurprised by the sun rising in the West (as it did on Venus), and that right now, in theory, the world was trapped in a prison - and the guard that held the key was the devil himself.

I walked slowly back to Dane’s sleeping body. Alamos leaned against the back of the couch and let his hand rest on Drake’s shoulder. Landen and August stared at the sun, which refused to rise any higher in the sky.

Perodine returned with a large hourglass; the top and the bottom of it were made of gold, the bars that framed the glass bowls were made of emeralds, and the sand was black. She sat it on the wide base of the fireplace.

“We will have to watch this and turn it twelve times; can we reason that that is how much time we have?” Perodine said to us.

“For all we know, we have only minutes,” Alamos argued. “This illusion could have begun days ago.”

I felt her frustration; I knew that she had her doubts about the time of day as well. Suddenly, chills spread across my skin, and the hair on the back of my neck rose; I felt something. Drake was staring at me, and his eyes widened as he leaned slowly forward. His emotion caused Landen to turn to look at me.

“Wake him,” Drake said quietly, keeping his eyes locked on mine.

My trembling hand reached for Dane’s knee, and I squeezed it as hard as I could. Perodine, August, and Alamos were now frozen in place, staring at me and Dane, who sat forward abruptly. I didn’t look at him. My eyes were locked with Drake; I felt safe in his gaze. A look of terror, though, was across my face.

“Calm...be calm...hide the emotion of fear...think of something else,” Landen thought.

I tried to, but I could feel the cold of the darkness all around me. Every muscle in my body tensed and began to tremble, and the beat of my heart was as loud as drums in my head. I held my breath for so long, I felt dizzy.

“Stand and walk her to me,” Drake said quietly to Dane, who was still staring at me as he stood.

Dane put his arm around my waist. As we stood, from the corner of my eye I could see a dark shadow on the edge of Dane’s Aura. As we moved to Drake, we woke Marc; the darkness hovering around me and Dane was the first thing he saw, and he jolted up and searched the room for Landen. Finding him, he climbed over the back of the couch and walked backwards to Landen’s side. Landen had been slowly stepping closer to me, wanting to take me away from there. August and Perodine were behind him, searching for an idea to save me. I felt them suppressing their fears, struggling to make their energy as strong as they could. When we reached Drake, he reached for my hand; his warm, mesmerizing touch brought a calm that I wasn’t capable of finding on my own. When he saw the relief in my eyes, he moved his eyes above me and pushed me behind him into Landen’s arms. I turned and saw a dark wall floating in mid-air; it moved from side to side, teasing us. A low growl came from the shadow, and Drake raised his hand - sending a force of energy at the wall. Landen shielded us with his energy. Drake’s energy was repelled by the wall, which sent back at us the shields of energy that we were all hiding behind to protect ourselves from the blow. The cloud then evaporated, taking its chill with it.

Suddenly, I felt the tension in the room release. Marc pushed through us and leaned over the couch where Beth was sleeping. “Mom, are you OK? Wake up,” he said as he reached for her shoulder.

Drake turned to look at Marc. “She won’t wake for at least twelve hours,” he said in a low tone.

As Marc’s eyes moved to Drake, anger engulfed him. “You drugged her,” he accused.

Landen let go of me and walked to Marc’s side, reaching for his shoulder to give him a sense of calm - but Marc brushed him away. “No, this is uncalled for! How dare you? What else have you done to her?!” he yelled.

Drake’s expression was placid. “I wasn’t going to allow her to listen to all of you debate my execution; she’s endured enough,” he answered.

I looked at Landen.” You knew that’s what he was doing,” I thought, offended that he hadn’t told me.

Landen looked at me.” I knew he wanted to protect her from what was to come; I didn’t know he already knew what they were going to ask you to do,” he answered. His eyes reflected the truth I heard in his thoughts.

I stepped forward, angry at Drake. He refused to look me in the eye. “You knew...you knew what they were going to say. If you knew, then you know a different way out of this – and if you don’t, you better find one because I refuse to touch that knife to take anyone’s life.”

Dane and Marc were staring at each other, realizing what they’d missed as they slept.