looked at Silas with sympathy.
“There is no escaping,” Maroke said. “Do not give up your lives to buy you time. The gate has not been opened for many years. You need more time than you have. Do not be foolish.”
“I failed,” Kaden said. “I am so sorry, Silas.”
Before Silas could speak he felt a sharp pain run through his chest and the shock of it made him drop his weapon. As he looked down, he saw a sword embedded in his chest, puncturing his heart. Kaden stood, holding the sword’s hilt, staring regretfully at Silas. A shout resounded from Maroke yelling for his guards to take action. As Silas felt his life ebb away, he saw only sadness in Kaden’s eyes. Silas wanted to ask him “Why?” but the words would not form on his lips. He could see that Kaden hated what he had done, but for some reason, this was the only way. The Stühocs were nearly on top of them now.
Kaden knelt down with Silas as he fell to the ground, helping Silas fall softly.
Silas could barely hear as his companion was hit hard on the back of the head. Silas’ body was wet with blood and the pain was unbearable. Finally, the blue-lit room turned completely black and Silas Ainsley was dead.
Chapter Seven
Darkness. The last thing Silas could remember was being suspended above his own body, screaming, yelling, but no sound would come. He rose further and further from his body, which lay on the rocky ground, drenched in a pool of blood. He had sensed fire, but could not remember from where. Creatures surrounded his body on the ground, things he could not make out from the increasing distance. There was also a man, bound and tied by the creatures, a prisoner. They were taking him through some sort of blue swirling light, a pulsating wall that seemed to have opened up from the inside. But all this was fading. Silas continued to rise, to float away more quickly until he was past the clouds and on further through the chill of the atmosphere. Faster and faster he went. Stars flew past him in streaks. With each passing moment his heart thumped harder with an increasing tempo and his growing flight speed made his insides flip uncontrollably. Eventually he was able to maneuver himself to face the direction he was moving. The light. To him it looked like a bright, white version of a black hole, spinning, sucking every object to its destructive core. Silas’ breathing became deeper with worry as he realized he was one of those objects. The light soon enveloped him. Sounds in the distance grew to a loud piercing harmony and then, darkness.
When he opened his eyes, he thought that what he felt before was a dream, but what he felt now was more real than anything he had ever experienced. The creatures surrounding his body were nothing more than a distant memory. He reached to his chest, not knowing why. There was no pain as he had expected.
He opened his eyes and found himself in a room.
It was cold and made of rough stone like an old prison cell. As a prisoner, Silas was wrapped in sackcloth. The burlap rubbed harshly against his skin.
His eyes took a few moments to adjust to the darkness, but there was nothing to see apart from a wooden door across the tiny cell – a door with no handle. Silas tried to lift himself up, but his arms and legs felt weak. He felt as if his neck would not be able to handle the overbearing weight of his head. He slumped back to the cold floor and tried to remember something of how he came to be in this prison.
All he could think of was his flying experience, and his name. Silas. Silas Ainsley. It meant little to him other than he knew that was what he went by. That was what people were supposed to call him. But what people? He could not remember any people. Perhaps that is what the man bound by the creatures had called him.
The creatures. What were they? Who was that man, and why had Silas been floating above his own body? And where was he now? His own questions were beginning to frustrate him. But none of them mattered if he couldn’t lift himself off the ground.
He breathed in the chilled air and closed his eyes. He felt almost lifeless, as if he had been asleep