Reborn Legacy - Chapter 6 Into The Zone

Henchmen stopped us in the stone corridor as soon as we had exited the cavern. Some of them individually yanked our arms forward, so they could slip a plain brass bracelet on our wrists. I sighed when it was light compared to the iron cuffs.

My sighs gave way to cursed groans from the tickles I felt from the humming bracelet and yelped when the metal seemed to be melting into my wrist, leaving a painted impression of a bronze coloured band to my skin.

The henchmen abruptly lined all twelve of us up from what I counted being towards the back with the two blond-haired beauties behind me.

Like all the other kids, I yelped again when our wristbands glowed and threw out a thin line of silvery bronze light, linking the wristband of the person in front of me and so forth.

My wrist hurt with a searing sharp pain when the boy in front of me tried to break from the line. We both collapsed to the stone floor panting for breath and copping an unbearable pain. More curses pained our ears as all the others in the line suffered the same fate.

One of the henchmen removed the boy from the line by severing the link with a small iron sickle. The boy collapsed the ground in an unconscious state. I felt my fear clog my throat when his body was dragged back into the cavern, out of our sight.

“Ugh!” I yelped when my wristband reformed a new link to another boy in front of me.

A stinging pain to my shoulders prompted me to stand, I wobbled to my feet calming myself with slow breaths. I flinched at a gentle touch to my shoulder and reaffirmed my condition to the ash blond boy with a thankful nod.

“I’ll help you if I see you about to fall,” he whispered his support into my ear when he felt sure the henchmen weren’t looking our way. “I’m Troy.”

“I’m…” I opened my mouth to respond and closed it realising I still didn’t know my name.

The henchmen moved us forward before I could think of one. We walked the stone corridor that opened into another where gusty winds howled and chilled our skin. Torchlight struggled to illuminate our way due to the fierce breeze.

I poked my head out of the line to see the henchman in front fish through his belt pouch and pull out a handful of small silver-glass marbles, which he threw into the air.

The marbles whizzed a circle of bright white light around us as we continued to walk, guiding our indeterminate path through the dank obsidian corridors.

We shuffled for ages down black corridors that were without markers to tell us if we were actually walking somewhere and not in circles.

“Keep going Kurokami Girl, we’ll reach the end before you know it.” Troy’s voice soothed my aches with his affirmation whenever I wavered with a threat of collapsing from exhaustion.

“Kurokami Girl, tsk.” I sighed semi-insouciant, feeling beyond fearful for the way ahead.

I was too tired to feel annoyed by Troy’s cheek. Still, I didn’t appreciate the fact that I’d go through this crappy new life as Kurokami Girl whatever that name meant.

The corridors eventually opened to a view of a circular wooden platform with planks that creaked and sighed against shrieking winds from a tenebrous space.

“Oh great, a creaky boat.” I whispered, that stirred spurts of heated breath to the nape of my neck. The most Troy could do for laughter.

The henchmen herded us at the platform’s center where a couple of the glowing marbles drew out the form of a huge rusty iron wheel. Two of them tugged at the wheel, so it slowly turned in a direction.

I cursed when I stumbled into Troy’s arms as we struggled to keep ourselves standing against the platform’s jerky rotation.

Some of the boys at the front cried out with pain from their wrists being twisted in the binds. A sickle broke their links, so they could be rejoined once we were in a stable line again.

The platform abruptly stopped at the landing of another rock stairway that was cut into the cliff face .

Was there any end to this tiring journey into the pit of Hellbore? If this was going to take forever, throw me into the darkness already and let me die like I should have done the first time around. At least I’ll be at peace.

“Will you find this in death?” Memory of a wind’s whispered words rushed to my mind.

“Gah! Not fair!” I cursed in thought at the vivid recollection of my struggles in that fateful river.

Only a way forward it was then. I peered at the misshapen moist steps that descended into a howling darkness. Nasty wind stung my eyes and slapped my skin to keep me from slipping back into sleep.

My eyes widened with wonder as the arms of the henchman in front stroked the air in a graceful dance and fluid motion.

A humming and constant vibration to my wrist drew my attention to the link before me. I saw it was thicker and stronger. The glowing marbles revealed the vast and unknown space on the rail free side of the stairs we descended.

I gulped with realisation that it would only take a slip on a step to pull us all down into oblivion and sure death. Nerves and adrenaline fuelled with fear of falling made my mind more vigilant to the way before me.

Ferocious winds wrapped itself around my body with threats of pushing me over the edge. I felt Troy’s arms at my waist a few times to keep both of us steady and in the line.

There was a loud whoosh to the front and a blood-curling scream trailing off into silence. I gulped with thoughts of staying awake and surviving this hellish descent.

My body was frayed with heightened nerves by the time we reached the safety of a cavern opening, which was illuminated by warm torch light. My head count of our line went down by three, most from the front.

No relief. The henchmen pushed us onwards through the cavern and into another set of black stone corridors.

“Did I really die?” The question kept nagging my consciousness as I walked autonomously “Or was I suppose to die, but somehow lived?”

Senseless nagging question after question my mind worked over until we found ourselves in a small squarish stone chamber void of the imperial banners. Instead, the walls sparkled with flecks of light blue like a constellation of stars amongst the obsidian.

My questions became pleasant visions of a calm sea beyond a round window of a cabin. It felt a long time since I had eaten the Old Man’s meaty stew. I hoped he was keeping his hearth clean regularly. The soot tended to build up quickly if not brushed out.

“Sweep a day, soot away.” I giggled, not realising the strange voice I was letting out.

A stinging slap to my face drew me out of a daze I seemed to have gone into. The fingers of a henchmen gave me a gesture I took as a word of warning.

I gulped and acknowledged his warning with a nod.

“Are you okay?” Troy bravely whispered to me when the henchman had walked away.

I nodded.

Heavy footsteps entered the room. We came face to face with the nasty scar face chief from earlier. He flicked his hand with a gesture that dismissed all the henchmen from the room then did the same flourish of hand movements to strengthen the links to our binds.

“Still alive, but for how long I wonder. Either way, it’s not for me to care. You’ll soon be in the care of your masters. It’s up to them how they forfeit your life.”

He circled our line with deliberate steps. I tensed when I felt his sick breaths tickle the nape of my neck. He’s breath lingered for a long while before it moved on and my nape turned cold.

He was before us again and clapped his hands to bring the henchmen back into the room with sickles they used to sever our links. The chief said a spell that caused our wristbands to disappear along with the sensation of weight.

“The smaller boys are for the training infantry in the North Hold.” He said to a henchman with both his voice and movements of his hands. “The two older boys are to go to Chief Randell’s sentry. Make sure they get there or else you pay his tithe with your head!”

Another henchman made a series of gestures with his fingers. His attention was on me.

“Those two girls are tithed to Master Asuras.” The chief answered through an unsavoury smirk. “Make sure you mention they’re from me, Chief Morisset. That old coot will have to write off my fine for good.”

Chief Morisset left the chamber and our care to henchmen.

I glanced to Troy realising our separation.

“Be strong and brave Kurokami Girl. We’ll meet again if fate allows it,” Troy whispered into my ear before he was coerced out of the chamber with all the other boys.

My heart thumped painfully as the door they passed through closed with a loud bang. I was standing in the chamber with the blond girl and two henchmen.