The Whispers of the Fallen (2 page)

“The horses are in the back inside the barn,” Demetre said as he made his way through a small wooden gate near his mother’s quaint vegetable garden. Every time I entered this gate, memories came to mind. Demetre and I had been friends since childhood.

As we walked, I could sense heaviness in the air.

“Are you worried that the horses might not be in the barn?” I asked.

“No,” he responded. “I am afraid of what is happening. I still can’t quite grasp what I saw.”

The old barn was visible and not far from the gate. It had lost its color due to years of inclement weather. Near the barn lay a pond where Demetre and I would fish all the time.

Demetre violently opened the door and ran inside. As I walked in, I was relieved to see the two black stallions. Their coats shimmered even in the darkness; their manes were precisely combed and graciously sat on their necks and above their eyes. The one with white spots on his back was Bracken and the other one was Midnight, named due to his coat’s dark pigment. Paul Aliward tended to these horses well.

Demetre sighed. “This is a good thing.” He gave me a halfhearted smile.

“Good indeed,” I said.

“But also troubling…” he said as he opened the gate to get the horses out. “My parents never leave home without their horses.”

I grabbed Bracken by the reins and slowly made my way out of the barn. What words of comfort could I give him in such a situation?

We left the stable in haste, setting out toward the fields. It was a ten-minute ride from where we were but under these weather conditions, I was pretty sure it was going to take us longer. Because of the muddy roads, the fallen trees and also the flying debris, we had to be extremely careful. This situation only built up my anxiety, especially because it would take us longer to get to the fields. We rode in silence. I could see that Demetre was in deep concentration, focused on the road and on the goal we had set before us.

The rain did not stop. Large raindrops poured down so hard, I could feel their sting through my raincoat.

Suddenly, the horses came to an abrupt halt—they neighed and kicked violently.

“What is wrong?” Demetre said.

“I am not sure,” I replied, looking around.

“It must be the storm…it probably frightened them,” Demetre said as he alighted from his horse.

“There, there…” he said, caressing his horse on the head—trying hard to tame it again.

I got down from Bracken and tried to do the same, hoping it would calm him. Weariness grew inside of me. My heart was heavy and it felt as though cold air had settled in. I sensed someone watching me. When I looked behind me, I saw a dark being approaching us. I could not discern what it was because the being merged with the tree branches. After a while, not even the rain and the trees were able to hide the midnight-colored horse and its cloaked rider. The horse was fully armored; its eyes were hollow and surrounded by spike-shaped armor. The rider’s drenched cloak covered his entire body—including its head. The armor that sat on its shoulders had three spikes that stood almost as tall as his head.

The rider stopped a couple feet in front of us, still as a statue. The whisper of the trees resounded through the forest. There was so much fear coming from this one being that our surroundings seemed to dim.

“Can we help you?” I shouted.

The rider was non-responsive.

“Sir, are you alright?” Demetre asked.

Still, there was no answer.

“Something is definitely wrong here,” I whispered.

“What is wrong here?” the rider said. His voice was deep and the very sound of it made me tremble.

“Um…nothing, sir…we would like to go through, please,” I said.

“Isaac Khan and Demetre Aliward, it is an honor to find you out here,” the rider said in an ominous tone.

“Hhh…How do you know our names?” I stuttered.

Every time this rider released a word, the horses grew even more agitated. “Many know your names and many want you. You two are very important.”

A loud scream came from Demetre. He thudded violently on the ground with his hands pressed against his chest.

In fear, my eyes became fixed on the rider. He hadn’t moved a single muscle. He didn’t even appear to be breathing.

“Please, help me!”
I yelled at the rider in desperation as I tended to Demetre. His skin was losing its color and his breathing was becoming heavier. The horses fled to the forest once I let go of the reins.

“Help…yes, that is all I need from you.” This time, his horse slowly moved in my direction.

“Help fr-
from
-me?” I stuttered.

The rider stopped and alighted from the armored beast. The moment his foot met the muddy ground, he removed the cloak from his face, revealing a blond man with eyes so blue, they shimmered right through the darkness.

“Isaac, I simply require your services in leading me to your house. There is something that does not belong to you that has been there for a while now.”

I looked at this man and back at Demetre.

“What is happening to him?” I asked in anguish.

Demetre was mumbling inaudible words.

“The pain…the pain…” he whispered.

“What about the pain?” I asked in desperation.

“Him…it’s him…” As soon as he said these words, he let out a deafening scream.

Terror overtook me. I got up with trembling legs. “Who are you, sir?” I asked with a broken voice.

“Sir…” The rider sounded disgusted. “Not sir. Your mother and father did not call me ‘sir’ the last time they saw me in their room.”

I could barely believe the words I had just heard. Instinctively, I catapulted myself in his direction. I lost ground the moment I felt a sharp pain taking me completely. Not a moment passed before the unbearable feeling caused me to lose my footing entirely. I fell to the ground, writhing in pain. My head burned and my body felt as though it was being pressed against the dirt.

“My name is Cyro. I have come for you both before another immortal finds you. Trust me when I say I only want what is good for the both of you.”

I tried my hardest to pay close attention to him but I couldn’t. The pain was excruciating, spreading all the way to the very strands of hair on my head.

“I will make it stop now but you have to promise that you will do as I say.” His voice was void of emotion.

“I will…I will…” I tried to say it as loud as I could.

The pain rapidly released me. I gasped for air as if it was the last time I would take a breath. Startled, I got on my feet. “What is it that you want?”

Cyro smiled—his gaze encountered my eyes. It felt as though evil flowed from his blue eyes.

“Isaac, you ask too much. Lead me to your house and I myself will show you a very revealing truth about you.”

I scoffed.

“Will you leave me alone if I take you there?” I asked.

“Indeed I will,” he responded.

What choice did I have but to lead him to where he wanted to go? In the short time that I had stood before this rider, death itself had looked me in the eye.

“I will show you the way…” As the words drifted from my tongue, fear overtook me.

Cyro took hold of a rope that was attached to the horse’s saddle. He grabbed both of my hands and tied them together. The rope was so tight, it felt as if my wrists were about to break.

My heart skipped a beat as I could no longer hear Demetre’s screams. He was on the ground, lying immobile, with his face pressed against the muddy road.

“Demetre!”
I yelled at the top of my lungs. Tears of desperation descended on my cheeks.

Cyro slowly approached him and gently knelt beside him. “I would not dare leave you here, Demetre. You are riding with me on my horse.” He picked him up from the ground and placed him on top of the horse. As Demetre’s head reclined forward I caught sight that he was still breathing. I sighed in relief.

“Now you…” he spoke as he dragged me from where I was, violently placing me in front of the horse. “You will go ahead of me, like a dog, lead the way,” he said with a grin on his face. “Will you do a good job at it?”

“It amazes me how low you will go in order to achieve the desires of your lord,” a voice spoke from the woods. I desperately looked around, hoping to see a familiar face from Agalmath.

I heard Cyro grunt and his teeth cringe. “I did not think you were going to find us so soon, Nephilin.”

“And I thought you would have been done with your duty long before you had even arrived.” His voice was soothing but powerful. The sound of breaking branches came from my left side and shortly after, a rider appeared mounted on a white horse, his garments old and ragged. His dirt-covered boots showed signs that he had been out on the road for a while now, and his shoulder-length fair hair was scattered across his face from the wind. “Cyro, release the boys,” he exclaimed in a loud voice.

“I am not one to give up easily, Devin. It is a shame that you have chosen the harder path in this journey. One must be a fool to believe he can so easily neglect his own nature. You come from one of us.”

I did not understand what was taking place. Why did this Devin want to help us? Was he trustworthy? Who was he in the first place?

Slowly Devin descended from his horse. From his waist he removed a beautiful sword. Surrounded by a red glow, the sword very visible, even during this torrential rainstorm.

“I will not ask you again, Cyro,” he said as his hand tightened around the sword handle.

“I never said you had to ask me twice…traitor.”

My eyes could barely keep up with their rapid movements. They fiercely attacked each other with an inhuman agility and precision. No human could move the way they did. I could see the raindrops touching their bodies as they attacked each other in midair, in the woods, and on the ground. I could hear the whooshing sound of Devin’s sword trying to touch Cyro. From what I was able to capture, Cyro was extremely fast.

When I saw Demetre and the situation he was in, I knew there wasn’t a moment to spare. I mounted Cyro’s horse and galloped away, heading toward the forest. My heart knew of the risks and also consequences, but I had to do something.

I heard trees falling and branches breaking behind me, but I kept galloping through the forest, heading home. There was something that Cyro wanted that was apparently there and I needed to find it quickly. I heard Demetre’s low groans as I rode through the forest’s narrow path. The tree branches smacked against my face. As I made my way deeper into the forest, I noticed the noise from the fight had suddenly ceased.

I could see my house in the distance; I was almost there. I rode straight up to the door and I tied the commandeered horse to the tree. I helped Demetre off the horse and dragged his body inside the house. To my relief, the house looked exactly the same as it did when I first left.

I laid Demetre on the old settee near the fireplace. I stopped for a minute and tried to process everything that had just happened in the last couple of hours. I was so agitated that the soft ticking noise of the living room clock made me shiver.

II

I heard a knock as I covered Demetre with a blanket. It seemed that time stood still as I stared out the window, watching the rainfall. There was another knock.

“Isaac, please, open up!”
a voice shouted from outside.

I gasped as I felt my senses escaping me for a while. I was not able to move. I roamed around the living room trying to find something in case I needed protection. I was startled when I heard the sound of the door being brought down by what I supposed was a really strong kick.

“We need to leave now. Grab a couple of things you might need and let’s go.”

“What do you mean let’s go?” I shouted. I felt my body trembling.

He apprehensively paced around the house. His breathing was heavy. It was the rider that fought against Cyro in the forest. He was drenched from the rain but he showed no signs of weakness in any way. He immediately walked to the settee to see Demetre.

“What are you doing? Why are you not getting ready? Do you understand how serious of a situation we have here right now?” he exclaimed. I could sense agitation in his voice.

“As far as I remember I barely know who you are,” I said.

“Right now the only thing you need to be concerned about is gathering food and supplies. We are going on a journey and trust me—we have no idea when we will be coming back.”