Chapter 90: Chapter 90
She knocked on my door. I only knew Isabelle Castellane through legends, rumours and the few conversations exchanged since our meeting. Her deeper character was still unknown to me, but the face that I discovered behind the door showed me all her determination at that moment. A shiver ran through me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her, keeping a finger on her mouth. Discretion was essential. The corridors were empty, which was strange in itself, but it was no time for questions and I followed her to the dungeons when, at the bend of a corridor, I saw a pile of unconscious bodies. The guardians. I didn’t know by what mastermind my mother had taken them without alerting anyone, but it allowed us to wander for a while, without being seen. We continued our way through the meandering corridors of the jail. I found Eric’s cell in the same place as the first time. I threw myself at his feet. He was clutching his stomach and in pain, a pool of blood smeared on the floor. They had let him drain off his vital energy. An insurmountable outrage ran up my spine, but my mother grabbed my hand and repeated her gesture, her index finger resting on her mouth again. She gestured for me to wait. I took the opportunity to tear off a large piece of my dress and wrapped it tightly around his chest. His suffering, when I performed this gesture, tore my heart.
I levitated Eric, who writhed in pain, then finally passed out. The pain that his torture triggered in my flesh was equal to the anger I felt at that moment. I was transfixed. I looked at my mother insistently, my patience was at an end. A few endless minutes later, an explosion shook the whole mountain. The walls were still spitting dust when my mother motioned for me to follow her. It was time, and I assumed, correctly, that my brother was behind the diversion. With Eric hovering a few metres behind me, we headed towards the back of the temple, the exact opposite direction to the sound of the detonation.
“There is a backdoor over there, hurry up.”
I felt a presence to my left, Connor! I stopped and looked at him for a long time. He saw Eric and raised an eyebrow. My inquisitive gaze tried to dissuade him from sounding the alarm, and his nod told me he wouldn’t. I nodded back and led Eric down another hallway. We were able to carry on for a while longer before the deafening sound of a horn being blown echoed through the corridors behind us. Our absence had been noticed, or perhaps they had discovered the bodies of the guards. We had to go faster. Crossing new rooms, climbing dozens of stairs, we soon encountered our first difficulties. My mother sent guards crashing against the stone walls so brutally that I doubted they would come out of such a fall alive. A few seconds later, another formation approached. My mother was busy with the first one and let me take care of it, but, just as I was about to repeat her gesture and eject my assailants, a young woman intervened and took the full force of the huge rock that I threw in their direction. Cassandra. She died instantly. Eyes terrified by my involuntary act, I followed my mother.
“This path is almost unknown to everyone, we should have a few minutes of respite. Then they will find us.”
“Hurry up, then!” I said as I rushed after her.
We went through the back door, hidden behind a tapestry. After a run down a dark hallway, we were now levitating up a spiral staircase, Eric still unconscious behind me. Our ascent was endless, and I heard another explosion below, they were right behind us. In a few seconds, they would catch up with us. We picked up speed. My mother blew the huge door at the top of the stairs and blocked the passage with her mind after we passed through it. On a roof, overlooking one of the isolated cliffs of the mountain, a hundred metres above sea level, I understood what she expected of me. Isabelle Castellane caressed my cheek with the back of her hand.
“Kiss my brother and thank him, please,” I told her, my mental voice shaking with emotion.
“I will.”
“See you soon, Mom.”
“See you soon, my daughter.”
A tear rolled down my face. Another flowed over hers. I gave her one last smile before rushing off into the void. I caught Eric midair, and together we dived at breakneck speed. I had erected a shield against the impact of the surface on our bodies, but the impact nearly drowned us. Submerged, I succeeded in maintaining a bubble of oxygen around us, when I felt myself being grabbed by an invisible force. I slipped my arms firmly under those of Eric and concentrated all my faculties to dive deeper to better project ourselves. So I thought back to my arrival, to my fortunately resuscitated brother, to the torture of Sarah the servant, to the weeks with Eric, to his stabbing. The visceral fear of losing him gave me the strength to progress through the waters. Despite the Five’s attempts to bring me back to the island, from the top of the cliff, I managed to break free from their grip and sped like a torpedo.
My stay on the island of Eos had just ended.