Chapter 5

Leila climbed down the stairs quite with ease this time around as compared to before. She had now gained her composure and also obtained dexterity in feeling relaxed, despite how messy things seemed. She felt really pleased to come that far with her feelings.

            Though it had been a week since she met Hox, she still hoped another encounter and if possible be granted clemency. To be faithful to Hox was undoubtedly laborious, having got to serve her highly committedly for a very long time. What pain and trauma! Paige shall see me triumph again. Leila thought for a mighty long time. The rationale behind Paige taking those sorts of actions was to make Leila, her adversary cower under the weight of pain, and finally have a kiss on Hox, which connotes death, damnation.

            As Leila opened the door of the kitchen, a thought dawned on her.

Why don’t I meet Delaney? I’m certain he would be able to help me meet Hox once again. She thought to herself, exasperated. I wouldn’t want to clutter up my dear life with pain and misery. She thought, quite hard.

            She paced to the dry sink and glared at it. Feeling a bit dizzy, she spun around and shockingly there was Hox. She leaned on the freezer and smiled understandably. Soon, the smile faded into oblivion.

“Goddess Hox, I politely appeal that amnesty be granted me, even if it means losing your trust,” Leila said and waited expectantly. In a matter of seconds the environment felt different and so did Leila, her body measuring the meaning of it. Hox stood silent, her beauty radiant, and her hair, sassy.

“I know perfectly well,” Hox said and disappeared into the ground.

            Leila heard, turned swiftly to look and was terribly amazed. She had had a strong feeling everything would be alright and it had. Well, though she was not fully assured of her safety, Hox’s words were very soothing.

            What Hox had said echoed in her mind severally, and with each echo, she felt extremely at ease. Filled with awe and radiance, she opened the tap and washed her hands. She dried them and baked some pies.

            For goodness’ sake she had to enjoy life at least with signs of life unfolding. As a matter of fact, under normal circumstances, unfaithful witches or wizards of Hox do not leave to see another day. She had woken up that morning so her case was different wasn’t it?

            Later that night Leila slept and found herself dreaming. She felt completely horrid and used by god knows who. In the dream she had dreamt again and eventually in that dream again, with her eyes wide open, another dream commenced.

She had found herself waiting atop one of the Makomi hills eastwards of Zaccrota. The night was excessively chill and the wind seemed to dislike the fact that she was there; it blew boisterously for eons.

            Leila started to feel uneasy with where she was such that, she made up her mind to find her way back to her bedroom. Various figures passed around her. They had no definite faces and looked like they were shadows but were solid.

            While she still sat on the hill, she lost herself to night dreams of her and the great demon, The Escapee Magrid, Drakeizar, as he is otherwise known. Fear gripped her unscrupulously; she had totally lost control of herself. The shadows with their faceless faces grinned at her thunderously that the hill quaked slightly.

…as The Escapee Magrid surely would be! Leila had no doubt that The Escapee Magrid, as he is fearfully called, would have killed ten thousand Lermils and wizards – for how could they stand against such as him! The Escapee Magrid would return, apparently drenched in the blood of his despicable enemies, and the numerous witches that served under him would wash it from him, slowly, and with many a lingering caress.

            At that skuzzy thought, Leila’s face became even more fearful looking and dreamy. Again, the shadows that flew belligerently around her, grinned at her in the most unseemly manner.

            Slowly and gradually, Leila brought herself under some bits of control, wondering if she should magically remark on the sheer insolence of the Vaylix shadows. They were many, almost uncountable. Undoubtedly all of them belonged to the wizard, The Escapee Magrid, which was not his real name actually.

            Leila swore-quite foully-and grabbed one of the shadows the grinned at her.

“Aveurus!”

She uttered, disgusted; the shadow gave off a horrid laughter that echoed awfully among the hills. Leila quivered and quickly regretted what she had done.

            Other shadows seemed to have gotten the hint and immediately scooted to the defense of the shadow Leila had dared. The next instant all the Vaylix shadows were roaring at Leila but failed to touch her. They clambered down and around the hills putting out hideous sounds that continuously pierced Leila’s heart. She cast her tearful eyes around disdainfully and gasped.

            Suddenly, a part of where she was turned into day, becoming a half night, half day. The sight was so astounding that she could barely frown, unable to comprehend what was happening.

            She saw three men, whose faces were masked; they looked to Leila as if they panicked. The men walked towards her direction in a way that made her think they were possessed; their war dignity forgotten. When the men got to Leila, their reaction was even more incomprehensible to her.

“Shut the cursed gates!”

One of the men screamed; the daylight disappeared afterwards. If the man’s face had showed fear, then his voice certainly revealed defeat. Leila stood up from atop the hill. She tried to walk but her legs were terribly weak and felt cut away from under her. Her tender legs gave way beneath her, she crumpled to the ground.

“Mother.” Leila heard someone call. It was from behind her.

“Golly,” Leila cried when she caught sight of a young boy of about thirteen.

“That is Merlyn, your son. You are in the future now.”

One of the men said. Confused-mindedly, Leila turned to Merlyn and wept for a while. It was a strange scene, obviously, she was still pregnant and the evidence that she carried a child in her womb was right there. Yet, she knew the boy the Vaylixes were talking about was hers…there was that intrinsic intimacy that coexisted between them both. Ah – it was the first time Leila was setting cursed eyes on the Merlyn child but seemed she had known him for thirteen years. The resemblance…the hair…the faint traces of Kartemis…

“Son, what do you here? Get back to a place of safety. Go! Go!” Leila screamed at the boy, hardly knowing what she meant by her words. Her brain could neither tell where he had come from nor where he expected him to run to.

“Mother,” Merlyn called. He extended a hand to Leila. She managed to gain her feet.

“What is wrong? Why? . . .”

Leila stumbled to a halt, completely oblivious to what would be following that why. Merlyn was grabbed by one of the deadly Vaylix shadows and disappeared into the ground with him.

            “Foulness, Wizardry and Magic.” The three men spat out in a horrible unison. Leila frowned, plainly because she could not understand a thing.

“Where is my son, Merlyn?” She asked, her right hand on her belly and somehow, she felt its emptiness, the name Merlyn starting to mean something to her. That was absolutely not what she had planned naming him…she cringed…

“Dead, most like,” the men said, shoving her into the hands of the Vaylix shadows.

“Get her into the dungeons and kill her!”

The men ordered. Leila screamed, cried and tore at the shadows, but their strength could not be compared to hers. She was far weaker.

            And so she dragged off without a chance to further question the men. Merlyn, Dead? How could that be? I haven’t really birthed you yet! Her faculties were ministering confusion.

“Merlyn,”

Leila whispered in shock. Eventually, the Vaylix shadows dropped her into the dungeon specified. So much solid gloom. Her descent started and it was a never ending flight down to a hell she had never been to.

“Ginala – Mambo,”

Leila shrieked with the intention of ceasing her uninterrupted falling. She still was going deep down the dungeon. And then, the falling came to an abrupt end…thankfully, her body didn’t hit the solid ground and get squashed like her intuition had suggested would happen. A woman was in the dungeon; she smiled and she blenched as Leila neared her.

“The men must be wrong right? . . .”

Leila said to the woman, boldly, and those words were almost unintelligible as those uttered by the men. Definitely, Leila thought her son yet unborn can never be dead.

It’s all happening in my mind…

            She fell to the ground in the dungeon and drifted off to sleep, a bit content that she would only dream of her yet to be born son, Merlyn. But instead, she dreamt most peculiarly. She found herself in a stone hall, it looked aesthetically pleasant. It was with an overwhelming beauty that she thought it was the goddess’ entire making. Above her glittered a golden vaulted roof, and to either side of Leila soared great stone arches that lined the shadowy side aisles of the hall.

            Although the outer wall of the hall were constructed with solid bronze, she could still see through them to the out where a majestic silver river wound its way around the hall. Even in the thick darkness, Leila could grope to the silver river. It looked deeply mysterious that Leila thought she had never imagined such before. Oddly, she saw her yet to be born son, Merlyn’s body, floating on the silver river when she bent to grab a cold drink.

            She frowned, and looked more closely. It was Merlyn, her son whom she had seen earlier on the Makomi hill.

“Merlyn,”

Leila silently mentioned, her wounding up dissipating. And just as she walked closer to the silver river, a hand hushed her from behind; a frozen chill sped down her graceful spine. She spun around; it was the lady in the dungeon. Leila, filled with terror and disgust, tried to take a step backwards, to evade the horrible lady, but there was nowhere to go. Suddenly, the lady raised a hand to Leila’s cheek; expectedly, she transformed into one of the Vaylix shadows. Leila gaped in apparent horror; she could not possibly shout and she could not as well defend herself.

            Then the Vaylix shadow was gone. Vanished as if it had never been there. Leila felt a burning sensation in her womb. She hissed and groaned in an agonious pain.

“Hox…”

She heard her lips part in a whisper, thinking she was in her bed room. The hall became empty all of a sudden save for her. Merlyn, gone. It seemed a very forsaken place indeed.

***

The night was still in a delighted procession. Leila woke up from the dream with a start. The dream was so nasty. She rushed out of bed and touched her stomach, where her unborn child dwelled. Her palms were clammy and beads of sweat snaked down her face with such an unrestricted ease. With her hand on her bulging belly, she felt a warm heaviness in its lower extremity.

“How in the world will my son die in such a terrific dream?”

Leila questioned herself, full of huge volumes of fear and terror. The pictures of the deadly Vaylix shadows flashed her mind.

“The Escapee Magrid is with my son, but why?” she mused, fear faced. For a moment, still befuddled by sleep, she wondered into the mystery of the silver river in which she had found Merlyn’s body. Dead body.

            She made a frown and thought to get to the kitchen for a glass of wine but just then, her door squeaked open behind her. Not in a hurry to turn, she felt a shape making towards her. For a slight moment, she guessed it might be Kartemis, for only he did open her door without knocking. An easy guess. By virtue of that she did not bother much, she opened her mouth to cast a spell on Kartemis for how spiteful he was toward her earlier; but, her mouth got shut with a weary snap. When she finally did turn… It wasn’t Kartemis. It wasn’t even the strange woman she had seen in the dungeon when she dreamt. It wasn’t Delaney either. You…

“Get up!”

The horrid Vaylix shadow instructed. In the instant between when he spoke and when he strode very close to Leila, she had swiftly nursed a plan to extricate herself from the demonic hands of the Vaylix.

            Leila wondered consecutively whether or not to execute her hard thought out plan the next minute. Disappointingly, her plan was going to be no good since it was a Vaylix shadow she was dealing with. The first time she tried to use magic on them she had gone through hell to say the least.

The intruder held her by the hair and dragged her out. Was her dream coming into reality or what? She wondered hard. It dragged Leila several paces before her feet were able to decide for themselves. Her voice too surfaced again.

“Let me go! How dare you touch me?” Leila yelled, shouted and kicked at him with all her strength.

            It was of no apparent use. He evaded her easily, in the next moment the Vaylix shadow delivered a stinging spell at her and she turned dumb all of a sudden. She had to condone twin shock and pain. Leila tried to make a few utterances but the words failed to come out, apparently after cowering under the spell of the Vaylix shadow.

            Now, terror had overwhelmed her shock completely. The deathly shadow seemed to understand her effort to extricate herself from his icy hands, for he gave a curt jerk of his own head.

“Pretty good, I have not come to kill you, but to take you to the home for Magrids like you, Magridinol. If you would be quiet and amenable, I will do you know harm,” he said in his hoarse, granite voice.

“Why should I be captured for Magridinol? I have been a faithful witch and…” Leila found her voice again – a covert extension of her powers.

“I just asked you to be quiet and tame.” He said again, coldly.

            Leila decided defending herself will just be her doom, she kept quiet but smartly.

            The Vaylix deathly stared at Leila with disgust the moment she halted abruptly devoid of fear and terror.

“I gave an instruction and you dare go against it? How dare you. The only reason I am not going to kill you right now is because I am tame and I am sensible to plight.”

Leila breathed hard. “I would rather die than remain a coward and do exactly as you say.”

Leila retorted with and outburst of determination. She cast around frantically for more words to speak but nothing could flood her mind at the time.

“You have guts, I admire you a lot, young woman, “he said.

All of sudden something happened that took her breath away. The deathly shadow that had been her captor had transformed into something else. From what she knew the Vaylix shadows of The Escapee Magrid were incapacitated when it came to making transformations.  It was a man the deathly had transformed into. He looked friendly and harmless but Leila dared not near him. His long black, curly hair was left unbound to course down his back. He was dark eyed and blunt faced. For a moment Leila thought keenly about what was going on and marveled why he would be the one doing that.

The man had a sword across his graceful knees. He stood radiant, staring unblinking at Leila Hagridar.

“Delaney,” Leila said, shocked.

“Aha, it’s me, your husband’s friend.”

“You are a Vaylix shadow now?”

“It’s damnably stupid to be Vaylix shadow. That was just a façade, I came to help you. And I have limited time so listen raptly,” Delaney said and conjured a couple seats and just as quickly sat his ass into one. Leila sat too and pulled on a look of confidence, her hand moving to her tummy for a habitual rub over Merlyn.

“Paige wants to destroy you and your husband, even your unborn child. She had taken advantage of Kartemis’ stupidity and is going to destroy him for that. The sad thing is that Kartemis trusts Paige so badly and that is damnable to him. Do your best.”

“Ridiculous,” Leila mused, not quite getting why to tell her that, Delaney had to make an unworthy transformation, pull her out of her own house by a grab of her hair and even make abusive utterances. She wanted to ask for clarity on that, yet, that fact that a huge revelation had just been made gave her the feeling Delaney knew what he was doing.

***

In Gramway School where Jesi and Caulin studied a secret cult dwelled at the blind side of thousands of students. It was a constitution of 11 students who had the same beliefs and technically felt they could rule the school with their powers. Of course they were young witches and wizards who had dead consciences and dud rationales. Hoffery Rannistar was the cult leader and the protector of the cult they possessed.

“I am not quite sure about this but I am sure what Hormil told me last Sunday was evidently true with no doubts,” Hoffery, his courage determined to see him through thick and thin.

“What the hell do you mean by that, Rannistar? Hormil is a candy boy that is silly and undoubtedly the dumbest kid in Gramway. Why would you tactlessly give credence to the words he speaks to you?”

That was Jaime. Jaime Owls, the son of the former town Mayor. He was known to be smart with computers and a little cunning to deal with. Hormil, the boy Caulin first suspected to be nosy and an affiliate of the bad actions been executed in Gramway; he was the one that had told Hoffery Rannistar what he thought was sinister about the actions of Caulin and Jesi recently. No one could tell the direct connection between Hoffery and Hormil to warrant the tip-off but most probably, he was doing that in return of a favor. Jaime had analyzed.

“Don’t get me wrong, Owls; I know perfectly well what I am talking about here. In these times I sure will not take this kind of information for granted. No one would, trust me,” Rannistar said.

“What did Hormil tell you anyway? I guess it’s pointless as it has always been.”

It was Percy this time.

“Well, he said he presumes Caulin is involved in something questionable in Gramway. I can’t tell precisely what Caulin is after but Hormil did not reveal the real details to me. He would rather keep in touch. I hate that boy passionately that I can do anything to get him rusticated from Gramway.”

“That implies you don’t know what you are after either. What if this whole thing is a trap? Remember you are not in good terms with Hormil; and I honestly don’t see why you should believe him so much! You mentioned hatred, why is that?”

Jaime Owls asked.

“Ehm… that isn’t all. He said it is possible Caulin is trying to grab Ariadne, the girl I love and can die for. I…I like her,”

Hoffery Rannistar said and paced around the room with eyes determined to scan the brain of Caulin who was quite far away from his reach.

“Hey, lover boy, we’ve got a lot to work in Gramway to avoid breach. If you would let your tender and boneless feelings to get in the way then you would have to take a bit from me. I can’t let you ruin what we’ve established so far,”

Jaime said.

“Wow! It seems to me you’ve forgotten so soon I am the boss and the protector of this cult? The next time you question my opinions or my feelings, you will be my next fool!”

“You think too highly of yourself, fellow kid. Don’t forget what you are!” Jaime got his feet, his distinctive eyes eyeing Hoffery and the rest of the boys present. Most had no intentions of speaking, just silenced up like the dumb mutes they were, Jaime thought.

“From today, the name of this group is Chess. We will operate darkly and be swift to avert things getting messy. As for me, I am not going to let that bitch, Caulin get in my way with Ariadne. And if I get to know that he is into something sinister too, I am going to kill him immediately. I can.”

Hoffery threatened, his voice lined with enough truth to it as though Caulin was present to cower beneath them. Having said that, the meeting was over.