The Centurion - 8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight:

Day 5848

Turn left

Turn right Death will surprise you in a cave darker than night. Go up Go down

You will soon find there is no way out.

Bring sword Bring torch Doom is lurking all about. So boy So girl Be good or lose one’s self to the Labyrinth’s might

A Qul Tosian folksong sung to naughty boys and girls up to no good

It had started off like any other day. Jason sat in his room,

reading to his dolls. The skull of his father by his side, the roll Melissa had hidden in the Centurion skull eaten long ago. Then, for the first

time since the day he had been taken down to the palace, something unexpected happened. Melissa came bursting into the room, her sword out and a thick cloak in her other hand.

“Your highness put this on and come with me!” Melissa shouted, a look of panic on her face.

“What is wrong?” Jason asked nervously, crawling under the table. “Are the Centurions attacking?”

Seeing that she was scaring the young man, Melissa took a few deep breaths to calm down. “No, your highness, I thought you would like to go outside.”

Having been trapped inside the tower for over a year, Jason jumped up with excitement. “Go outside!”

“Shhhhh, but we will have to be very quiet... your mother is sleeping. You would not want to disturb her now.”

“No...” Jason whispered as he put on the oversized cloak.

Just past the door were three other guards, their swords out as well. Where are your clubs?” Jason asked, he knew that the guards were not supposed to have sharp weapons around him.

“It will be alright, Jason... we will be careful that you don’t get cut,” Melissa promised.

Except for the women with Melissa, the tower stairs were empty of guards. Melissa did her best to shield Jason’s eyes when they passed the dead women lining the way down, covering his eyes with her free hand. Once outside, the guards with Melissa all started to run, the Tower Captain pushing Jason along. Jason though, with his weak legs was unable to keep up. Soon he and Melissa were far behind the others.

“We need to hurry, your highness,” Melissa said as she put away her sword to try and carry Jason over her shoulder.

Now realizing that Melissa had to be doing something very wrong... something he was sure his mother would punish him for, Jason pushed her away. “Why are we running? Where’s my mother?”

“Your highness... you are no longer safe here. I am taking you down to the city.”

“But the Centurions control the city!”

“Jason... you are the son of a Centurion!” Melissa yelled, the words long in coming.

“No...Centurions are monsters! I am not monster! I’m a good person... you told me so,” Jason said walking away from Melissa.

“Jason you are not a bad person. Most Centurions are not bad. Those are just lies your...” Melissa tried to explain when from out of the tower the Regent, Rachel, and a dozen armed women poured out.

“That will be enough, traitor!” Eleanor shouted; her once pale

face now flushed with rage.

Melissa seeing Jason walk further away from her dived to catch him only for a single arrow to hit her right thigh, blood landing on the prince. “Get away, Jason... run into the cave!”

Jason, his eyes frozen on the blood staining his grey dress, went into shock, believing it was his own blood he saw.

“Jason, you will go back to your room now or else!” Eleanor warned, marching over to where her son stood paralyzed. Jason, however, did not move in either direction.

“JASON!” the regent shouted again, triggering Jason to dart his eyes away from Melissa and toward his mother.

“Mother...was my father a Centurion?” Jason asked almost whimpering.

“Yes he was, making you the most disgusting pathetic man I have ever seen. I wish you had never been born. But if you do not go back to your room now I will see that the mistake of your existence is corrected!” Eleanor barked as she drew General Agamemnon’s old gold dagger.

Seeing that there was no way that the frightened boy would dare oppose his mother, Melissa stood back up and drew her sword. “Jason... go back to your mother.”

“But...” Jason protested.

“Jason, if you do not go back with your mother now she will hurt you,” Melissa said as she slowly walked backwards toward the entrance of the cave where her comrades were waiting.

Turning around, Jason walked back to his mother but instead

of allowing him back into the tower, Eleanor handed him off to her

new captain... Rachel. Jason watched as Melissa turned and staggered

deeper into the cave as his mother’s loyal guards chased after her.

Looking up at his mother, Jason saw her eyes glaring into the cave. With each scream or yell, her scowl would change to a momentary grin that would quickly disappear.

After nearly ten minutes of fighting, the guards began to slowly

return, many of them wounded. “Well?” Eleanor demanded.

“They are all dead, Lady Regent,” one of the guards reported.

This time the smile lasted a little longer... that was until she noticed something missing. “Where is Melissa’s head? I told you I wanted it!”

“We cannot retrieve it, my lady... the former captain jumped down the cave shaft to the lower level when we surrounded her.”

“Then go down there and retrieve the body!”

“Wait!” Rachel shouted, as the guards were about to return to the cave.

“Yes, my captain,” Eleanor asked, brushing the woman’s cheek with her long thin fingers.

“Let me take the traitor’s head.”

“Yes... yes I like that idea. You have my permission and blessing to retrieve it.” Eleanor smiled before she placed a kiss on her new captain’s cheek.

Now alone with her son, Eleanor’s smile turned into a look of disgust. Grabbing her son by the wrist she dragged him to the smithy near the almost empty warehouses. “You will come with me. It looks like I will have to punish you myself.”

“No... please mother... don’t,” Jason begged.

“Don’t ‘please mother’me,” Eleanor seethed as she entered the hot workshop. “I can’t cut you, but there are plenty of other things I can do.”

Dragged inside, Jason was taken to an anvil. Eleanor then

lifted one of his legs onto the hard metal, and held there by a female

blacksmith. “Your father used the hammer and anvil to crush the

Confederacy’s armies. It is fitting that I do the same to you.” His mother

then picked up an iron hammer and slammed it down on her son’s calf, breaking the bone. This was done to both legs, leaving Jason on the dirt

floor crying, unable to stand up. It was not the first time she had broken one of his bones, but it was the first time it left him so crippled.

Dropping the hammer onto the floor, Eleanor spat on her son’s head. “Take him back to his room,” she ordered the blacksmith.

The first thing Melissa could remember after jumping from

the tunnel to the level below was the jangle of chains as the elevator platform started making its way down toward her. Trying to stand, the now former captain felt a sudden pain in her thigh where an arrow was still sticking out.

Since pulling the arrow out would only make the bleeding worse; she snapped two thirds of the shaft off, leaving the arrowhead in as she staggered back onto her feet. Painfully she walked deeper into the Labyrinth, while behind her she could hear Rachel’s voice cursing after her.

Leaning for support against the dry cavern walls, she stumbled in the pure darkness as she passed the open pits, crawled across the narrow bridges, and made her way beyond the narrow choke points long since fought over. It was only her considerable knowledge of the secrets of the Labyrinth that kept her ahead of her foe.

Hours later and once past the halfway point, the first sign of salvation came into view, lit torches lighting the pink granite walls. Knowing she was now in the areas patrolled by the Centurions, Melissa began shouting, not for help, but surrender, least they kill her by mistake. “I surrender! I surrender!”

Nothing...

Refusing to give up, Melissa followed the torches, continuing to shout but as time passed she weakened from loss of blood, while her voice became hoarse.

Suddenly the loud sound of armored feet came from behind and before the former captain knew it Rachel was right behind her.

“Melissa!” Rachel roared, spittle dripping from her mouth. She had been so frustrated by the twists and turns of the maze that by the time she caught up with the wounded former captain, she was half mad with rage.

Melissa, knowing that she lacked the strength to offer much more of a chase, turned around to face her rival, only ten feet behind her. If she was going to die at least she would not die with the dishonor of being backstabbed. “I see you have let things become personal.”

“What of it!” Rachel spat, her eyes wide with anger.

“You should never let things become personal,” Melissa said

calmly, the weight of over fifteen years of war melting away. For Rachel, however, fifteen-years of poisonous jealousy boiled

out of her mouth. “Why? You seem to have. You promoted women many years my junior when you knew that I am one of the best!”

“The only thing you were best at was looking out for yourself.”

“So!”

“So...I could never trust you,” Melissa said as she shook her head slowly.

“Yes... but look at us now. Soon your head will be on a pike and I will be in the Regent’s bed.”

Feeling her life slowly leave her, Melissa leaned against the stone wall and slid down. “You can have both... I no longer need either.”

Dropping her torch, and drawing a sharp blade, Rachel moved in. “I WILL take both!”

Not wanting to let fear show on her face, lest Rachel decided to stretch out her death just to see the former captain cower; Melissa closed her eyes and let weariness take over.

Silence...

Wondering why Rachel was not taking this last chance to torment her, she pulled away from the cold darkness of death wrap around her when the spark of curiosity brought her back into the world of the living.

Carefully she opened her eyes, ready to shut them at the first sign of sharpened iron. What she did see shocked her into opening them the rest of the way. Rachel was indeed standing in front of her, her sword ready to strike, but against the woman’s stout neck was a dagger held by a man whose lower face was covered by a black and red mask.

Gathering what strength she had, Melissa attempted to stand

but was stopped when a knife was placed against her own throat.