Chapter 34: Liam

Sorry for the sudden disappearance. I had to deal with some things and if I'm being honest the break was nice. I was gonna write last week but then my birthday happened and I just gave up. Anyway, I'm here now and I guess that's what matters, right?

Off we go!

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"Are you sure this is it?" Reid asks hesitantly.

"It has to be," I say with confidence I know I don't have. My fists clench as a layer of dread settled into my stomach, tears burning the back of my eyes. "It just has to be."

"Well I mean The Teller said we would find it near a 'broken tower' and if that isn't a broken tower I don't know what is." Amber muses, gliding on the winds towards the crumbling watchtower in the distance.

"I hope that Frosty Tide plant is here so we can get out of this freaking snow," Reid calls through clattering teeth, his white hair looking even brighter in the blank landscape around us.

I look down to see myself shivering, though I don't feel the cold. Though the snowfall pecks gently at my face as we fly along, I can't feel the wetness from the flakes. My mind is somewhere else, occupied with thoughts and worries and feels I can't shake. What if we're too late? What if I can't save her?

Soon enough the crumbling tower of stone passes by and beyond it is nothing but never-ending snow. Anxiety creeps up my spine as I stare at the white tundra before us.

"Well…" Amber tries to start. "I'm not seeing a 'deepest valley'....how about you guys?" She tries to be sarcastic but her voice trembles with fear. We're all thinking the same thing: what if we can't find it?

I feel my body shrink with hopelessness, my eyes glazing over the barren white expanse of land that flies by below us. The weight that had been steadily growing on my chest, ever pressing, ever swelling, seems to come to a climax - a wonderful crescendo. It feels as if it's crushing my insides, pressing my organs tighter on themselves and squeezing my ribs together. My shoulders drop and I feel myself doubling over. I can't breathe. I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe.

I failed her. My goddesses…I failed her. It was a hopeless endeavor, trying to find a practically extinct flower on the other side of the world within a couple months. Yet still I tried, still I carried on with my damned optimism. I thought I had finally, finally done something right. But there was no use. I couldn't be as good as her, and I never will be. Thanks to me, I'll never get the chance to apologize for never paying attention to her lessons, I'll never get the chance to learn, I'll never get the chance to be better. I failed her.

In the back of my mind I register a hand on my shoulder, but I don't care enough to acknowledge them. A dry sob escapes my throat and I can't help but wrench my eyes shut in hopes of blocking out the cold that's seeping through my body, and it's not just from the snow.

"Liam! Liam, look!" Someone's shaking my shoulder. I think it's Kate, who had been practically silent since we left Willow Isle. I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, trying to shut out everything. I can't face them right now, especially not whatever elaborate ruse they've thought up to try and cheer me up.

"Liam!" Reid now. Can't they just give me a moment?

"For the goddesses sake Liam, would you just look?!" Something in the way Kate says it makes me raise my head and peel open my eyes to the blasting cold. Once my eyes adjust to the temperature my breath is ripped from my lungs.

Below, down on the ground, the snow gives away. Like a tidal wave it falls in front of us, feet of cold powder plunging from its prior home. With an ear-shattering boom the final part of the wide cavern gives way, a mist of snowflakes being shot into the air as the snow settles. Amber flutters a bit, adjusting to the wave of forceful air flowing by us. She hovers there, letting us all take in the sight we're seeing.

It must be a mile wide, and a couple more long. It's so deep even V wouldn't be able to reach the top. Some last bits of snow follow its brethren into the cavern, but other than that it's silent, as if the ground hadn't just created a brand new landform that otherwise would've taken millennia to form. An enormous scar carving its way through the Earth.

"Well that was unexpected." Amber says after a long moment of stillness. She glances back at us, her cat-like eyes alight with new found determination. "We were looking for the 'deepest valley' right? Well, if that wasn't a sign from the goddesses then I don't want to see what an actual one would look like." I can't help but laugh, a single hysterical sound that rips its way out of my throat, taking all of my hopelessness along with it. Maybe we have a chance. Maybe it isn't too late.

Amber swoops down to soar closer to the ground, her wings barely brushing the snowflakes resting on top of the ground. Six eyes stare down at the ground, searching restlessly for a speck of anything green. A sign, a message, a glitter in the snow, anything.

Fear grips at my chest, constricting my heart and trapping my lungs in a vice-like grip. I feel my hands squeezing my pants so hard my knuckles turn as white as the landscape, but I don't feel it. I don't feel anything but fear. A primal sense of terror that races up and down my spine. Yet under all of that, is a single spark. A flicker, a ghost of a flame. It's hope. A whisper of the hope that once dominated my mind, yes, but it's there nonetheless. And as long as hope lives, so can I.

"There! Oh my goddesses it's there!" Reid cries out, jumping to his feet behind Kate. He slips a little before finding balance on Amber's back, but he stands strong, his finger pointing straight over my head. I follow it,my heart thumping so very loudly in my chest. I furrow my brow as I scan the landscape looking for the plant he claimed he saw. I'm just about to look back at Reid in confusion but I pause.

I see it.

I see it.

Another hysterical laugh slips out of my throat, my eyes welling up with tears. We did it. We did it.

There, swaying in a cold breeze that contained the first whispers of winter, lay a lonesome flower. It's brilliantly blue petals glistening with freshly fallen snowflakes, its stem a pale green and its leaves shaped like hearts. This was the flower we had traveled the world for. This was the flower that would bring my sister back from the dead.

I'm leaping off of Amber's back before she has time to land. I sink lower in the snow than expected, the cold kicking the wind out of me. I really should have dressed for the weather.

I wrench my leg out from the thigh-deep snow and step down again. Over and over I force my leg up just to sink it back in only a few inches forwards. I hear the others struggling along behind me, but I don't slow down for them.

After what seems like eternity I reach a small hill that the flower is perched on. Somehow, only a tiny layer of snow covered this hill, making it possible for the plant to grow. As soon as my boot hits solid ground I take off, practically flying up the horn distance to the crest of the hill.

Once I reach the beautiful plant I can't help but sink to my knees in front of it. I cup it in my hand, feeling the velvety soft petals under my worn, calloused hands. All this time, all this pain and suffering. All this danger and sacrifice and bravery, it was all for this. To find this one shiny gem in a sea of dull ones. A needle in a haystack. We had found our needle, and we were going home with it.

Painstakingly, I peel the plant from the ground. Careful not to even breathe on it wrong, I separate the plant from its roots and lift it gently from the ground.

With it finally in my hands, the tiny flicker of hope catches light, and it bursts into flame. It scorches away all previous fear until there's nothing but pride and faith and pure joy. I turn to look at my friends still trudging through the snow, and they all look up at me, their faces mirroring the same emotions I'm feeling.

There, on top of that little snowy hill, in the middle of nowhere, with only my friends as witness, I felt as if I was invincible.

Until I wasn't.

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They came out of nowhere. Where it had once been completely silent, battle cries erupted from the sides of the valley. Men clad in white armor that blended in so perfectly poured down the sides in numbers I didn't have time to process.

Before she could react a giant net was slung over Amber, the weights on the sides burying themselves deep into the snow. She bucks and twists, roaring in outrage but the more she struggles the more the weights bury themselves and the harder it gets for her to move. In a last ditch effort, fire spews from her mouth, burning so hot it's the same color as the snow around it, blue fringes weaved into it. It melts a layer of snow around her, but it does nothing to the net, and hurts none of the men. Another rope gets thrown and this time it crosses right over her nose, and when the weights catch it tightens over her snout, making it impossible for her to open her mouth.

Panicked, I look over to Reid and Kate. Reid is on the ground already, three of the armored men pinning him into the snow. Kate is the only one left standing, her sword expertly whipping around, but she can't move well enough. The armored men wear strange boots that seem to be able to make them float on the snow, making it easy for them to dodge her attacks. Pretty soon, they disarm her and wrestle her to the ground. She flings a man off and her and a yell of outrage tears from her as half a dozen soldiers descend on her.

"Go!" She yells once she catches my eye. I'm there, frozen, watching as my world crumbles. "RUN!" She screams right before getting punched in the face. That's enough to get my legs moving.

I tuck the plant into my jacket and run. I run as fast as my legs would carry me. Maybe I was delusional, maybe I felt I was going faster than I actually was, or maybe I was just wishing it to be true. But I swear I never felt my feet sink into the snow. As I pump my legs faster and faster they slam into the ground as if it were solid rock, not soft powder. Perhaps it was divine intervention. But it wasn't enough.

They catch up to me, and even as I yell for mercy, a large black object hurtles towards my head, and all goes black.

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I wake with a horrible headache. My entire skull throbs, feeling as if it were pounding on my brain. I sat up, or was I already sitting? I groan, rubbing the back of my head. I come back with sticky blood on my fingers and I sigh, wincing as a new wave of pain hits me. My entire body aches.

Finally, I open my eyes. I'm in a cell, definitely. A stone square box with nothing but a crusty price of fabric bundled up in the corner that I imagine is supposed to be a blanket. It smells horrid, a mixture of sweat, blood, and other bodily fluids I don't want to think about. I force myself to stand and walk towards the door. Half of it seems to be made out of heavy metal, while the other half is barred so close together I can't even wedge a single finger between the poles.

"Hello?" I yell, my voice echoing around me.

"Liam?" I voice calls back. I perked up and look through the bars to see Kate staring back at me from the cell across the small hallway right outside.

"Oh thank the goddesses you're alright." I say. Wincing as I take in her black eye and busted lip.

"Guys!" Another, softer voice calls. It sounds from the right, and Kate's eyes drift that way.

"Reid!" She cries in relief. "He's in the cell next to yours." Kate explains.

"Good, we're all here then. We'll, almost all of us. Any idea where Amber is?" I say.

"No, when they marched us in here they took Amber a different way." Kate says.

"Any idea where 'here' is?" I run my hand through my hair, wincing as I accidently hit my wound.

"It's a palace, I think." Reid comments. "They kept talking about the Queen or something."

I sigh, walking to the back of my prison and back again. "So, we got nothing?"

"I've already tried the locks. I can't pick them. The metal's too thick to bend and there doesn't seem to be any holes in the rock." Kate sighs.

I'm just about to say something when the sound of a door opening is heard, followed by footsteps. I back away from the door and in a moment the light bleeding in from the doorway is blocked out by three forms. The two on the sides are obviously knights, clad in snowhite armor and a bright green cape. Their stoic faces are worn and scarred, obviously seasoned by battle.

The third, in the middle must be the Queen Reid was talking about. Her white hair falls elegantly down her back in one giant braid, her piercing green eyes burrowing into my mind. She's wrapped in heavy furs, a gray crown perched on her head.

Suddenly, I'm aware of just how cold it is. I take a measured breath, the air forming a white cloud that dissipates. I wrap my jacket tighter around myself, my limbs beginning to shake.

"Liam Emmerson." The queen says. "I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting."

"No, we haven't." I say, my voice quivering from the cold. "Got a name?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be telling you. You can find that out easily enough. But that's not what I've come to say, Emmerson."

"Oh yeah? And what did you come to talk about?" I squint my eyes defiantly. A measured, tactical smile spreads over her face, one that sends shivers down my spine. And not from the cold.

"Sage Emmerson, Queen of New Eladea…is dead."

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Word count: 2549

Heyooooooooooo……..please dont murder me. If im really nice to you will you consider it? Thanks.

Anway, what did we think? I wanted this to be much longer but when I reached 5000 words i just thought I’d split it in two lmao. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions? You know I love to hear them!

Cya next week!