Alive (The Veiled World Book 1) (24 page)

The people in the rectangles turned, their shields facing us and glinting against the harsh rays of the sun.

Dust stirred as the groups moved towards us.

“They’re on horseback,” whispered Noah. “And wearing full armour.”

“Wish I had my helmet now,” said Reuben.

Nobody laughed.

We’d just ended a war.

And started another.

Chapter 26

Axel

I should have expected this. That someone’s idea of heaven would be war. I could picture the man who the afterlife probably belonged to, someone much like King Cyril.

“Run!” shouted Amber. She turned and grabbed my arm, dragging me with her, but I pulled back and held my ground. I put a hand to her shoulder.

“Wait. Look.”

The warriors on horseback slowed and as they neared us and tugged at their horses’ reins until eventually they slowed to a trot and stopped altogether. The horses whinnied in protest, their hooves digging into the sand.

I ducked my head low and pulled Amber into my embrace, tucking her head down against my chest to shield her from the brunt of the dust that assaulted us.

The others crouched to the ground, curling into a ball as sheets of golden sand sprayed across their backs.

Eventually, when the dust settled, everyone stood up, coughing and dusting sand out of their eyes.

Bruce stood protectively in front of us all. Despite his recently aged appearance, his height and muscular body presented an underlying fierceness. He did not want to die. That was clear in his stance and his raised chin.

Amber mumbled against my chest and I released her.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “The dust was flying…”

She brushed her fingers through her hair, but her face, because it had been pressed against my chest, was sand free.

It filled me with a strange sense of pride at having protected her from it.

“Thanks.” She gave me an intense look. A look that said she wasn’t finished with me. That we still needed to talk, and I nodded to show I understood before turning to face the hundreds of warriors in front of us.

Half were dressed in black beneath their armour, and the other half white. Some had removed their helmets.

They were strangely beautiful, both the men and women. Some I could not determine their sex. They were androgynous in appearance.

“Gods and Goddesses,” Noah whispered, his face crinkling up into a smile. I wondered, briefly, if Noah, Reece, and Bruce would remain aged, but that hardly mattered now that several of the soldiers were dismounting and unsheathing their swords.

Amber unsheathed hers and came to stand in front of me.

One of the soldiers noticed and came at her with a raised sword.

I slipped in front of Amber, my dagger raised. I would rather die and never make it to the Land of Resting Souls than let this man harm a hair on Amber’s head.

He stopped, stared at my dagger, and tapped it with his sword so that it made a ding sound. It spun out of my hands and into the sand.

He was a couple of inches shorter than me. I could take the man on. He looked too pretty to be able to fight well. I made for my grandfather’s pocket knife, but Amber placed her hand over mine and held it there.

“Don’t,” she whispered in my ear.

I did as I was told, hating myself for not disarming the man first.

“You are hereby at the mercy of the queen. You will be her guests, and her subjects, for as long as she wills it and you will not utter a single word against her wishes.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but was silenced with the tip of a sword at my throat.

“Come quietly and there will be no bloodshed.”

Without warning, Amber tugged me back by my shirt collar and tossed me to the sand beside her. Swords clashed.

I spun around on my knees to see Amber walking the man back, his heels digging up sand as she pressed the tip of her own sword against his white throat.

“We will come with you, but only because we have no food or water. We will stay as guests but only as long as we wish to stay. Tell your queen that we will leave when we like. We have travelled too far and faced too many dangers to be told what to do by a bunch of strangers. I don’t care how good-looking you all are.”

Amber’s chest rose and fell. The man smiled, raised his hands, and dropped his sword.

“Peace.”

The others edged closer to Amber, their swords spinning in their expert hands.

Jacob and I moved in.

“I said peace!” the man shouted, his voice echoing across the desert.

His men sheathed their swords and stood back.

Amber breathed a sigh of relief and withdrew her sword and looked ready to sheath it when she swayed on her feet and collapsed.

I managed to catch her just before her head hit the ground.

“Water,” she whispered before her eyes fluttered shut.

I took my canteen off my neck and opened it, then I teased her lips open with my finger and carefully tipped the water into her mouth. She coughed at first and spat up a little, but then managed to gulp down the last two mouthfuls until the bottle was empty.

“Thanks,” she whispered, her hand sliding up mine to rest on my arm.

“We have water and food,” said the man who had held his sword at my throat. He seemed genuinely concerned for Amber’s well-being.

I nodded my head at the others, who had gathered around us. They nodded back, looking old, thirsty, hungry, and tired. My own throat burned and my empty stomach grumbled at the idea of food.

“We’ll go willingly, like she said. But it will be our own choice when to leave.”

The man nodded. “I believe my queen will agree.” He smiled, his white teeth dazzling against his tanned skin. “I also believe she will enjoy meeting you all.” He shook his head and stared at Bruce, Noah, and Reece, who happened to be standing near each other. “Even the elderly ones.”

Claire giggled, seeming delirious from lack of water, and slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry, Reece, but you look so old.”

“Do you have a cure for this?” Noah asked the man. He stared at the other warriors, still on their horses. “You seem to have a lot of smooth skinned people in your kingdom.”

The man threw his head back and laughed. “My queen certainly
will
enjoy you all. Come. You will ride with us.”

A large breasted woman with emerald eyes and pouty lips took Kyle by the hand and led him to her horse. She seized a hold of his waist and he giggled as she hoisted him up onto her steed. Then she swung her long legs over the horse and guided Kyle’s hands around her waist.

The others accepted invitations from waiting warriors and were hoisted atop the splendid-looking horses.

Amber, who was sitting up now, got to her feet.

“You,” said the leader, pointing to Amber. “You will ride with me.”

“Give me a horse and I’ll ride with her. You join with someone else,” I said, shifting to Amber’s side. I didn’t care for the hungry gleam in the man’s eyes every time he looked at her.

“It’s okay, Axel,” she said, briefly squeezing my hand before following the man to his horse.

I hoisted myself onto the back of a blonde woman’s horse. She’d been smiling at me in what I took to be a suggestive fashion so I chose her on purpose, hoping to gain information on who these people were and what they had planned for us once within their castle gates.

Her perfumed hair and dust fluttered in my face as the horse galloped, along with the others, towards the castle.

“What will happen once we are at the castle?” I asked.

She laughed and took one hand off the reins and placed it over mine before sliding my hand, along with her own, up her waist and through the gap between her armour, to rest on her firm breast beneath it.

Heat scorched my cheeks and, involuntarily, blood stirred below my belt.

I yanked my hand away and she laughed.

I refused to ask any more questions after that and kept my fingers tucked around the saddle as opposed to her waist.

But as we rode, I could not help but relive the feeling of her warm breast in my hand. It was intoxicating. However I wasn’t picturing this woman in my mind. Inside my head I was touching Amber’s warm, naked skin.

“Here we are,” the woman said, laughing again when I said nothing in response.

A drawbridge lowered over what appeared to be a moat.

“A moat. That’s so typical,” said Noah, who’d been riding beside me. “I’m sure we’ll see a jester soon, cracking bad jokes and wearing a jingly hat with bells on it.”

I smiled, despite not knowing what we were doing here in this strange kingdom.

I watched Amber being helped down off the horse she’d been riding and at the same time heard guards order for the bridge to be drawn up after the last horses came through.

“The horses,” said Bruce, leaning towards me, from atop his horse. His rider had dismounted and was waiting for Bruce to do the same. “Only the black clothed soldiers have been allowed in the gates. The white horses have remained outside. They’ve set up camps. Perhaps it was no war we had seen.”

He dismounted and I decided to do the same.

My female companion had already done so and had removed her armour. I averted my eyes to her revealing tight black clothing, which emphasised what I had felt earlier. I turned my head and slowly slid off the horse’s back.

The woman’s hands went to my behind, feeling my buttocks as I came down and I fell back against her.

“I’ll call on you after the games,” she said in my ear, her voice low and seductive, before walking away, swinging her hips as she did so.

Amber called for me through the gaps of the crowd, which was now thick with guards, soldiers, and plain clothed people.

“Amber!” I called out, but I had already lost sight of her.

Someone wrapped their hand around my arm, tightening their grip.

“This way.”

I gripped his hand and peeled his fingers back, until the man cried out.

“We were promised to be treated like guests. Unhand me. Take me to the others.”

He nodded. “I have been ordered by the queen to take you to your resting quarters. You are to eat and rest.”

The idea of food, drink, and rest was so appealing my head felt faint at the thought of it.

“Take me to the others.”

The man bowed slightly and the others around him laughed, their white teeth shining and long lashes fluttering against their tanned skin.

“Follow me, my master,” he said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

He led me into the castle, through a side entrance littered with hay. The hairs on the back of my neck pricked as the man led me down a long, dark corridor and down a winding set of stairs. I imagined that guests normally stayed upstairs rather than down.

Familiar voices echoed from the base of the stairs and I ran ahead of the man.

“Bruce! Jacob!”

They were inside a cell, calling at me from behind a wooden door with bars at the window.

“Axel!” Claire screamed. “We’ve lost Amber. They’ve taken her.”

The man watched on, his hand on his sword.

“Where is she?” I asked, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against the wall.

Hands seized me from behind and dragged me away from the man, pressing down on my shoulders and forcing me to my knees.

The man I’d grabbed coughed and felt his throat.

“Save the aggression for tomorrow, boy. You’ll need it.”

He laughed and the other guards joined him.

“Which cell should we put him in?” someone asked.

“Put him in with her. The other cell is getting a little crammed.”

“If you say so.”

“But isn’t that the one with—”

“Do it!” ordered another guard.

A lock turned and I was hoisted to my feet and pushed through a darkened doorway.

Chapter 27

Amber

The door to my cell opened and I saw Axel, on his knees, being raised to his feet before being tossed inside.

He fell against me and together we stumbled to the floor as the lock on the door clicked.

“Don’t exhaust yourself tonight,” said a voice outside the door.

A set of eyes peered in through the bars.

“One of you needs to be strong for tomorrow.”

The laughing carried away up the stairs until it died on the floor above us.

My eyes adjusted to the dimness of the room. Luckily enough light beamed through the small, barred window at the door to allow me to see Axel’s face as he knelt on all fours over me.

“Sorry, for knocking you over,” he said, staring down at me, his chest rising and falling while he caught his breath. His eyes widened when he saw that my mouth was bound with cloth, so he quickly used his dagger to slash it away.

I coughed and spluttered and sucked in the damp, mouldy-tasting air. Still, it was air.

Axel’s eyes roved down to my lips and back up to my eyes again. Weirdly enough, he looked like he wanted to kiss me.

“Amber! Axel!”

The screams and shouts of the others broke the spell. Axel got up and helped me to my feet.

“We’re here,” I said. “Is anyone missing? Is everybody okay?”

“Yes. We’re all here,” said Claire. “They told us we need to choose a champion by morning.”

Axel swore. “They want us to fight,” he said, his voice low and just for me.

“I’ll be the champion,” he said, pressing his face against the bars.

“No!” I shook my head. There’s no way he was going to sacrifice himself for us. Not after he’d been disarmed so easily out in the desert.

“I want to be the champion,” I cried out. Though I’d made peace with Reece and he no longer blamed me for Axel’s death, a lot of people in my life still blamed me. Most importantly,
I
still blamed myself. I’d let Sam down. I hadn’t been able to save him. I wasn’t his champion. But maybe I could be the champion tomorrow, for these guys, who I’d grown to really care about.

Axel swore again. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”

I sighed. Frustrated. “Well, who disarmed that man, me or you?”

“That’s because I was…because my mind had been occupied at the time,” he said, his blue eyes dark in the dim light of the cell.

Something about staring into the depth of those eyes weakened me.

He looked at my mouth again, like he wanted to kiss me.

“With what?” I whispered “What distracted you so much?”

He exhaled and stepped away from the barred door, towards me, until I was backed up against the wall.

“Can’t you guess, Amber?”

I shook my head, unable to speak. Hot blood coursed through my veins at the sound of my name on his lips and at the proximity of his body, so close to mine.

Axel placed one hand against the wall, beside my face, and the other on my waist. I gasped at his touched and his breath caught.

He stared at my lips again and tilted his face.

“Can I kiss you, please?” he asked, his voice deep and gravelly, his breath warm against my cheek.

My head felt light and I looped my arms around his waist to draw him against me in a big, silent “yes.”

He closed his eyes and pressed his mouth to mine, moving his lips slowly and softly at first. But then I moaned and the sound seemed to excite him, because the kiss grew heated, his tongue exploring my mouth hungrily. It was exquisite.

“Oh, Amber,” he groaned as his lips moved down my jaw and along my neck, back up to my ear where his breath came hot and fast. He slid his hands down my waist, to my butt, and lifted me up, positioning himself between my legs as he held me up against the wall.

I raked my hands down his back and he threw his head back, his eyes screwing tight, as he swore.

Only then did I realised what I’d just done.

“I’m sorry! Your poor back. I’m so sorry.”

Great. I’d gone and ruined the moment by opening his wounds.

His eyes opened and he stared at me through hooded lids, his expression a mix of pleasure and pain.

“I’m so sorry, Axel,” I whispered as he set me on my feet.

“You can kiss it better,” he said, a soft smile on his lips.

“I will,” I said, my lower belly fluttering as I started to unbutton his shirt.

His breath caught as I slid the shirt off his shoulders and pressed my lips to his chest, right where his heart was thudding a furious beat. Then I kissed his shoulder and slowly moved my mouth to his back, where the scabs that had been healing were now raw and angry-looking again. However I was relieved to find no fresh blood.

Tears came to my eyes as I kissed each and every scar, even the faint old ones. How dare anybody hurt Axel. How dare they scar his beautiful back.

More tears came when I realised that we hadn’t made it to the Land of Resting Souls yet, and this may be our one moment alone, together, before we met certain death.

Axel turned and took my face between his hands, his thumbs lightly brushing away my tears.

“Don’t cry, Amber, please don’t cry. Not tonight.” His eyes glazed over with tears. “Because if you cry, then I’ll cry.” He laughed softly and drew me into his arms. My cheek rested against his shoulder.

“Tell me what you told Bella,” I said suddenly. Because if we were going to possibly die in the next day or so, then I wanted to know the truth.

His arms loosened slightly.

“You’ll hate me,” he whispered into my hair.

“Amber! Axel!” the others shouted. “Hello!” said Claire. “Where did you guys go?”

“Ignore them,” I said when I felt Axel pull away.

He drew back and turned to face the wall, resting his forearms against it and hanging his head.

“Tell me, Axel. Please.”

“You’re going to hate me and wish you never kissed me.”

I smiled and put a hand to the small of his back. “Just tell me.”

“Do you remember when the king was speaking at the first feast and I earned a salting for interrupting?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I earned a salting because I was trying to warn you all.”

The hot blood that had been coursing through my veins earlier cooled suddenly.

“Warn us about what?”

I leaned my head against the wall and stared up at Axel’s face. He was grimacing as though in physical pain.

“We don’t all get to bring our loved ones back, Amber. Just one of us.”

“What do you mean?”

He sniffed and rubbed his eyes against his forearm.

“Even if we all get there. Leirza, the one who guards them, she only ever grants two souls. One will be the king’s dead wife and the other will be who, Amber? All of us have survived so far. There’s a good possibility that if we survive tomorrow, we’ll all make it to the Land of Resting Souls. How are we going to decide who gets to have their loved one back?”

I stepped back. No. That couldn’t be true.

Axel spun around. His eyes were blazing and his face red. He was shaking with rage.

“How do you know for sure?”

“Because that is what the two survivors said. That’s why the king is happy to send someone else other than himself. Because he knows that he can send out someone to do it for him.”

I stayed silent for a while, allowing this information to sink in.

“We have to tell the others.”

Axel shook his head. “No, Amber, if we do, there’s no telling what will happen. How it will change things.” His eyes turned dark. “No. We won’t know who to trust if we tell the others. Everyone will turn on each other.”

I understood, thinking how much Bruce wanted his wife back or Jacob his dad. We all wanted our loved ones alive again and now that we were so close to getting them, it would be dangerous for the others to know there was a huge chance they wouldn’t be returning home with their loved ones by their sides.

It was terrible.

I collapsed onto the floor and rested my head in my hands.

After a while Axel slid down the wall and sat beside me, draping his arm over my shoulder.

We must have been dog tired, because after my eyes fluttered shut for what seemed only a few minutes, all of a sudden the door to the room opened up.

“Breakfast,” said the man who’d had his sword at my throat yesterday in the desert. He wasn’t dressed in armour today, today he wore black, head to toe, and had his hair slicked back.

A tray of food was placed in front of us.

I stretched and my back cracked, making me wince. Axel and I had slept the whole night leaning against each other.

“Have you decided on a champion?” he asked, stepping back.

“Me,” I said before reaching forward to snatch a bread roll of the plate. I passed it to Axel and got myself one.

“Not you?” the man said, eyeing Axel, a broad smile on his lips.

Axel looked away, his jaw working the bread, a vein twitching against his forehead. He looked about ready to kill the guy.

“That’s a shame. I believe Valeria was looking forward to watching you compete in today’s games.”

Axel blushed and I wondered who this Valeria was.

“I rode on the back of her horse,” he said, staring down at the plate of food.

“Very well.” The man’s eyes gleamed. “I will enjoy watching you, Amber.”

“How do you know my name?”

His eyes skipped away guiltily, and he stepped back and motioned for a guard to lock the door. Perhaps he’d been spying on us last night. I looked at Axel, who was splitting the food into two piles, and felt my cheeks heat as I recalled the way he’d lifted me off the ground and pressed me up against the wall.

It took my breath away to remember what it felt like, to have him pressed up against me like that.

“Are you all right?” Axel asked, and I realised that I’d gasped out loud.

My face burned even more and I reached out and grabbed a potato and bit into it.

“Someone will come for you and dress you before the games,” the man said through the barred window before he disappeared.

We ate in silence. Though I was hungry, I only ended up eating the potato and the one bread roll. I was too nervous. My mind kept conjuring up battles with gladiators swinging spiked medicine balls or sharp axes. Or being set upon by lions.

An hour later, they unlocked the door and dragged Axel out—it took four men to drag him away from me—before they threw him into the next cell with the others.

“Amber!” he shouted, his fists banging against the door.

A woman entered my cell and dressed me in a skin-tight black dress that dipped low at the front, revealing the space between my breasts.

“How am I supposed to fight in this?” I asked, but the girl remained silent, save for the secretive smile on her lips.

After she worked my hair with a waxy substance so that it was slicked back and away from my face, she began to do things to my face.

She patted on a cream coloured powder, which looked a little like mineral makeup. Then she took a tiny brush and dipped it in a thick, black paste and began to line my eyes.

Twenty or so minutes later, she nodded and grinned.

“Beautiful. I wish you well.”

“Thanks.”

Guards came and lead me up the stairs. The other cell had been silent when we passed.

“They are waiting in the amphitheatre,” said the man, smiling kindly. “You’re lucky to have arrived late yesterday. If you had arrived the night before last, you’d be facing the lions.”

I laughed nervously, thinking he was joking, but when he didn’t laugh, I realised that he was speaking the truth.

“What does the queen have planned for today?”

He paused in step and shook his head. “It’s best you don’t know.”

“Why?”

“Helps with the stage fright.”

We arrived at a double door and before he announced us, he leaned over and whispered. “I had a daughter like you, strong and tall and beautiful.” His eyes filmed over with tears. “Just remember that it’s not a game of skill, but a game of endurance.”

The door opened as he shouted, “Here!”

The drone of murmurs of a large crowd met my ears. There must have been thousands of people waiting to see us die.

The man ushered me towards a black curtain, where six other men and women stood, the women dressed just like me and the men in loose black trousers belted at the waist and bare chests.

Trumpets sounded and the curtains were drawn, revealing us to the massive crowd. There was no chance of spotting Axel or the others. I just had to hope they were out there, cheering me on, for whatever it was that I had to do.