The Icon Unbound

Chapter Fourteen, Part A -Rigel

Tried to fix some dialogue issues here. Let me know if it reads any better. In this chapter we will get a look at what the world looks like outside of Waterwall. --Elizabeth, UPDATED 06/04/20147

So the monsters out of every legend had sprung from the pages of books to walk and talk in real life. And the powers of the Icon had been put on display like no Icon had done since the wall had gone up thousands of years ago.

Rigel kept expecting her to diminish. With every bolt of white-hot lightening, with every shard of ice she called forth...for those moments she looked fully alive. Now the earth had rents in it twenty feet long. Slabs of rock were blackened from the flash burn of the lightning. She was so much more than human.

With such power, she should have been able to protect one innocent girl.

Surreptitiously, he knocked an arrow to his bow string. They were all distracted, he could draw in an instant, he almost did so.

Then, she tore the veils away and he could read her face.

She looked...not like an Icon at all; but young and frightened... like Era.

He wished she would put the damn veil back on.

No matter what the circumstances, she had to pay. Everyone who had anything to do with Era's death had to suffer. Including this girl-Icon who was beloved by his brother.

"Soon," He whispered.

Nadir swiveled his head to look at him, gray eyes glowing with intelligence. Had the beast heard him? It didn't matter.

Rigel put down his bow. He needed to know more about the creature that brought the Twisted here in the first place. This Icon might spend herself soon anyway.

While they tied their wounds and made plans, his sister spoke out of the darkness and frightened another ten years of life from his body. Her little arms pushed out a small box, the sight of which caused the Icon to react as though struck. She'd stumbled to the box, opened it, and promptly collapsed.

Saiph rushed to her side, but even he couldn't outpace Nadir. The drakys had coiled around the Icon, nosing the strange wooden box shut before Saiph could take two steps.

"We are going to follow him to the southern gate? Through the...the tunnel?" Ethan held his broken arm protectively.

"That's up to the War Master." Rigel reached into his bag and pulled out a skin of water. His hands shook as he brought it up to his mouth, and he could hardly swallow past the lump in his throat. "I think Saiph will follow. He's practical that way. I will too. I have to see that drakys."

His brother and the Icon secluded themselves with the drakys, holding a whispered council of their own.

Meissa was all mixed up in this. How the devil had she laid hands on that box?

Corwin plodded over, his face bone white. "Going into the earth is against every precept of the Order! Do you cretins have any idea what's crawling around down there? Damn this place! Sit close to me, Ethan. I must heal your arm. You must be strong and fit to face this. Hold still while I prepare."

Taking a knife in one hand and Ethan's good arm in the other, Corwin muttered a string of fowl gibberish that set Rigel's teeth on edge. A moment later, he sliced the knife upwards across his bare arm, mutilating three inches of flesh and allowing thick red blood to pour onto the ground where it vanished.

Ethan's arm straightened with an audible click, the angry red flesh mended. The moment the blood stopped flowing, Ethan snatched his arm back and rubbed it grumpily. "I'll be ready to go, then."

Corwin smiled as if he had gained some sort of victory. He sheathed his clean dagger and swaggered away.

Rigel found himself fascinated. "What did he do to you?"

Sneering at the back of Corwin's neck, Ethan replied. "Being marked by the Chosen is a great honor... for some. Devout mothers bring their children to the Bone Palace in order for the Chosen to bless them. A few lords and ladies will go to them every time they get a cut on their finger. But I've seen what the price is for such blessings." Ethan gestured to his arm. "I'm lucky that this is the worst that happened to me. Regardless of their benefits, I would rather they stuck to making crops grow and the weather turn than meddle with people."

"Curious. How did you end up traveling to Waterwall with one?"

"They offered a substantial reward in order to become a shield for their precious Chosen. Sometimes I think a Chosen could make stones bleed and water dry. They are very good at getting things to act against their nature. Your Icon being an exception to that of course."

"Perhaps. Perhaps she has other ways of getting what she wants."

Ethan stopped rubbing his arm and focused. "You don't approve of her the way the others do? I thought your precious Icon was universally adored."

"We aren't made of gears. We can have...opinions."

Ethan shook his head. "Well, you have an advantage over people outside your wall. I've spent the better part of my life believing that the power of the Chosen corrupts them. Our Chosen are picked from the best bloodlines, from the most influential houses. They like to keep all the power in the family." Ethan laughed. "Such an opinion has gotten me into more than enough trouble. Which landed me in the position I'm in now. I hate being bound to them, it's repulsive as well as dangerous. If you knew what was good for you, young man, you'll steer clear of your Icon and Chosen both." Ethan stared at his hand. "I would rather have a broken arm than their help."

"None of our Icons are capable of corruption, and we have no bloodlines here to protect."

"Oh really? Someday, when you've grown up a little you'll realize that anything can be corrupted. Believe what I say, your Icon has the same secrets, the same weaknesses as any Chosen. Everyone who relies on arcane, a power based on bloodletting and death, has a life made up of secrets. Your testimony is less than believable."

An interesting idea for consideration later.

There had been too much quiet from the others. Had Saiph roused the Icon from whatever fit she was having? Rigel looked to see that the Icon had indeed regained her feet, although she leaned heavily on the drakys.

Saiph's voice interrupted the silence of the mountain. "Rigel! Get Ethan up here. We're going to follow Meissa."

Under the ground. Rigel did not consider himself a superstitious person but he had scarred himself silly with stories over the years about what still stirred where no one could see. If they went down there... his stomach twisted like a rag.

As if drawn by an invisible force, Rigel walked closer to the doorway into the mountain, the others gathered around it as well.

The Icon looked as bloodless as he felt. Hazy memories of her before she donned her veils mainly consisted of a too wild, too small girl, with haunted, hunted eyes and skin of darkest golden. Her small, elfin face and delicate features had hardly changed, and she was still too damn skinny. Her hair hung in a tangled mess all the way to her knees. Right now she clutched a wooden box in her hands tight enough to make him think her life might be contained inside...

Considering who she was, that might be the case.