NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: On the road. Again.
If it wasn't for the panic trying to claw its way up his throat, Perry would run back to the tiny room in the temple and face-plant onto the mat until he woke up from this awful nightmare.
Instead, he followed Master Rennin out to where an ornate carriage waited in the courtyard. The polished surface was decorated with intricate carvings of clouds and something else moving through them. Dragons?
Golden details caught the lights from the few lanterns making the carriage loog beautiful and eerie at the same time. But what surprised Perry the most was that there were no horses.
Master Rennin adjusted his silk robes and pulled a golden coin from some hidden pocket. Perry watched, still unable to control his own body, as the other man approached the front of the carriage and placed the coin into a circular depression that Perry hadn't noticed before.
"To the Eastern Capital," Master Rennin announced clearly. "The Palace." He climbed into the carriage with fluid grace, and Perry's body followed without his permission.
The interior was a shock after the damp walls of the temple and the melted walls. Deep purple cushions lined every surface, so plush they looked like they'd swallow whoever sat on them. Thick curtains in the same shade covered the windows, their edges trimmed with an impossibly delicate golden thread. The ceiling was inlaid with something Perry couldn't identity, but that shifted and changed depending on how the light hit it.
"Sit," Master Rennin commanded, gesturing to the seat opposite him. Perry's body obeyed instantly.
The carriage began to move with unsettling smoothness, the absence of the jostling Perry expected somehow made everything worse. Master Rennin watched Perry with an expression that made him think of a cat that had just cornered a particularly interesting insect.
"I never expected such a gift to fall into my lap," the other man mused, almost to himself. "And to think the Crimson Star Lords almost had you." His eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you know what would have happened if hell managed to get their hands on you?"
When Perry didn't answer, his lips sealed by whatever spell kept him from controlling his own body, Master Rennin sighed and snapped his fingers. The invisible bonds holding Perry's voice back disappeared, and he gasped at the sudden freedom.
Before Master Rennin could say anything else, Perry blurted out, "What did you do to my face?"
Master Rennin all but rolled his eyes. "All princes really are vain creatures. I did not deform your handsome face, if that is your concern. I merely did some alterations. Everything will eventually go back to normal." Master Rennin smirked. "After all, it would not serve my purposes if they did not, Your Highness."
"I'm not a prince," Perry repeated for what felt like the hundredth time, his voice rising with frustration.
"Perhaps not by circumstance," Master Rennin conceded, "but you most certainly are by blood."
Perry shook his head violently and gritted his teeth. "What the hell did you smoke before kidnapping me?"
The other man's expression darkened, but he continued as if Perry hadn't said anything. "Twenty years ago, a rumor escaped the capital. It spoke of the queen making a bargain in the dark, paying for it with her own bloodline." He studied Perry's face intently. "I never gave it much credit – it made no sense. But then you walk into my temple, guided by my most devoted pupil, and suddenly all the pieces fell into place."
"What the hell are you even talking about?" Perry demanded. "I'm not a prince!"
Master Rennin sighed heavily. "I think I preferred you silent. Or better yet, unconscious, since you clearly have nothing of worth to add to this conversation." He flicked one finger dismissively, and Perry's mind went blank.
***
He was standing in the tall grass again. It swayed gently with the wind. Perry looked around frantically for the figure in yellow, but found that he was alone in the vast field. In the distance, he could make out the enormous ruins he'd glimpsed before, scattered at the base of the mountain.
With nothing else to do, he began to walk toward them, wanting a closer look. The grass reached his stomach, tickling his hands and forearms as he walked. The silence pressed against his ears, broken only by the whisper of wind through the stalks. His foot caught on something solid, and he stumbled. He tried to curse, but no sound came out – his voice was gone again.
He sensed a recurring theme here.
Kneeling down, Perry pushed aside the grass to see what he'd tripped over. A headstone, its surface worn almost smooth. What little carvings remained were different from anything Perry had seen before – the symbols had strange lines and seemed to shift the harder he tried to make sense of them. But they were oddly familiar.
Like a language he'd learned when he was little and had slowly forgotten.
He stood up and continued to walk toward the ruins. He caught a glimpse of another headstone through the grass. This one was also worn smooth with barely discernible symbols he also couldn't make out. Awareness tugged on the back of his head, that same feeling of distant familiarity. He'd seen those shifting lines before. He could almost make out the name. As he studied it, a soft voice spoke behind him.
"That one is not for you."
Perry spun around to find the figure in yellow standing further away than the last time he'd been to that place. He tried to speak, forgetting again that his voice didn't work here. The figure tilted their head back and Perry's blood ran cold as he realized there was only darkness inside the hood – no hint of a face, not even the suggestion of anything remotely shaped like one.
"It is almost here," the figure said, their voice carrying easily despite the distance. "And it is growing restless."
A deafening roar filled the air. Perry's first thought was that it must be the ocean, but there was an unmistakable animal-like scream to the sound that made his skin crawl.
A crack like the sky splitting apart ripped through the field, and darkness reached for him with grasping hands, pulling him away from the tall grass, away from the figure in yellow, away from everything.
Just away, away, away…
***
Perry's eyes flew open. He was still in the carriage with Master Rennin. Daylight streamed through the purple curtains. The other man reached over and pulled one aside, gesturing for Perry to look out.
"Welcome to the Eastern Capital, Your Highness."