Dream and Nightmare

Chapter 23 - The Fires of Hell

The palace was a brilliant orange color, rising above the indigo fields like a flower. It was nearly a gothic style building made of light stone littered with pointed arch windows, tall spires, and thin flying buttresses. Anah was no artist by any means, but she could imagine huge oil paintings of that very scene, hanging in an art museum.  

Jack stood next to her, his eyes fixed on the distance. His face held something of a pained expression. As much as she would've liked to comfort him, Anah's pride stood in her way. He'd apologize first, or there would be no apologies. She'd done nothing wrong.  

"It's beautiful," Anah said, still staring at the orange building. 

"It burns orange like the fires of hell," Felidy mumbled. "Trust me; it's not what it seems. From here you can't see the destruction, fear, corruption, racism and death that fills that city. It's the worst place I've ever been." 

Rendel stood next to her, slipping an arm around her waist. "We have to go there, Love. It won't be for long." 

"Don't call me that," Felidy demanded, but she let him keep his arm around her, and Rendel grinned like that was the best thing in the world. They were annoyingly cute.  

Roze was conscious, but after her session with Rendel, she'd been scared into silence. Anah liked her better silent. She stood, staring at the Palace with a similar expression to Jack's. It was as if they were both searching for some lost memory.  

"What are you looking at?" Roze mumbled to her sister.  

Anah shrugged, annoyed at her own sympathy for the girl. "Are you okay?" 

Her sister just pulled her jacket closer, shivering in the warmth of the afternoon. She looked scared and cold and alone, and despite Anah's hatred of her, a trickle of pity seeped through. Whatever Rendel did to her hadn't left her as unharmed as he had promised.  

Taking a chance, Anah placed a hand on Roze's cool skin. "Why are you so cold?" 

Roze frowned at her hand but shocked them both by not shaking her off. She shrugged her shoulders, remaining as silent as ever. 

Anah took an even bigger chance by removing her jacket and placing it around Roze's shoulders. "Rendel really isn't that bad," she said as if that would make Roze feel any better. "He's a good guy under it all." 

"No." She looked at Anah with a deep, dark fear in her eyes. "He's not good. He has you fooled, I could see it in him when he... Just, believe me; we can't trust him." Her voice was so sincere and desperate that Anah almost believed her. But Roze wasn't in her right mind. She had been tortured; of course she was going to think the worst of the man who hurt her. And since when did Anah take the wisdom of her sister as fact?

Roze let a little, annoying smirk twist her lips. Anah was all too familiar with that expression. "You don't believe me? I know what it's like to go mad. What he is, is far beyond madness. It's cold, calculating evil. You'll see." 

Looking out across the plain with his back to them, stood Rendel. His eyes were hidden from her, but his shoulders were tense, and Anah could almost see an evil, maddened look on his face. Then Rendel turned around with a little grimace and teasing eyes. "Ready to go to hell?" Something in those words brought goose bumps to her arms, but she decided in that moment that she'd trust Rendel over her crazy sister.  

"Why not?" She turned away from Roze and followed Rendel through the indigo grass.  

At some point, long grasses faded into blue dirt, and the dirt slowly changed to brown as they neared the palace that grew ever larger with each new step. The palace became so large that Anah had to crane her head back to even see the top of the gate. The orange was so bright it hurt her eyes to stare at for too long, but when she looked away from the wall, the world seemed obnoxiously blue.