Terror of the Shadow

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

They led him to the edge of town, to the very border of the outer wall. There were very few buildings around, and none of them occupied. They stopped at a seemingly blank patch of ground. One of the guards knelt down and brushed away the dirt, revealing a wooden trapdoor which he flung open. A set of worn stairs led downward into a dirty, dark pit.

At least there were stairs this time, he thought to himself.

They brought him down into the hole. Laban could see by the dim light of their electric torches that the room was roughly circular and covered floor-to-ceiling with rough, stone brick. The cold floor was likewise paved. Several metal hooks jutted out of the ground, to which were fastened heavy metal chains and shackles that looked as if they hadn't seen any use in decades.

They released the ropes around his arms. Laban had half a brain to drive his fist into the guard's face and make a break for it, but he knew they would catch up to him eventually. Ura-chan was small, and there would be nowhere to hide.

They took the shackles and locked one around each of his ankles.

"A year, then?" Laban said, realizing that his fate had been sealed with the metallic clicks of the locks. "I don't suppose I'll be allowed any visitors."

The guards didn't say anything but just prepared to awkwardly shuffle their way out of the dungeon. He could tell that it really had been a long time since anyone had been locked up down here.

"I'd like to speak to him briefly if you don't mind," a voice said in the darkness. Laban realized for the first time that Kol had followed them down here.

The guards left up the stairs, leaving Kol behind. The open trapdoor still let some light through, but not nearly enough for him to be able to make anything out besides Kol's silhouette.

Laban lay down on the floor, which was slightly damp. He might as well start making himself comfortable now. Kol sat down cross-legged beside him.

"Come to give me a lecture?" Laban said.

"No," Kol replied.

"What, then?"

"Who are you, Laban? What happened to you? You aren't the same person I met in the sick tent all that time ago."

Laban scoffed.

"What do you think happened to me?" he asked. "I spent more than four days in a cave, being tortured by War'acks. They chopped off my hand and killed the only person I might have called a friend. Then they took from me the only thing in the world that I held sacred... the only thing I had to remind me of my family. After that, everyone treated me like an outcast. Some sort of freak."

Laban let the tears roll off his cheeks and onto the stone floor.

"I'm sorry, brother. I—"

"Yeah, just stop there. There's nothing you can say that can make me feel better. I guess this is what I deserve. At least now I can be spared everyone's judging faces. I won't have to hear any gossip from down here."

Kol was silent, but he made no move to get up and leave. Laban looked over at his dark figure silhouetted against the light.

"I was wrong. I was wrong the whole time..." Laban said. "I need your help, Kol. Will you just listen to what I have to say?"

"What is it?"

"I didn't want to tell the elders because they wouldn't have believed me anyway... there isn't really an easy way to explain this, or even a way that will make it make sense."

"Just tell me, brother."

"I think... no. I don't think. I know that I am trapped in the wrong world."

"The... the wrong world? How do you mean? What other world is there?"

"I don't know. I don't know how it works either or how to explain it. I just know that I am. So just listen. Sometime after I lost my seer stone, I had something of a vision. I was here, in Ura-chan, but everything was different. I mean, the people and the places were all the same, but it was different. Somehow, in that mirror world, things had happened slightly differently. I had two hands. My mother was healthy. We always had enough food to go around. I woke up and thought it was just a dream, but then these visions kept happening. My mother there—in the other world—explained that it was all because of the Shadow Man's magic, and he was using my seer stone to create this world, this hell that we live in, to keep me trapped. She said that he was keeping me trapped so that he could use his magic to spread his darkness to all the other worlds. She told me I needed to get the seer stone back in order to... to bring balance to the worlds or something. I don't know exactly. I haven't been able to go back to the other world in a long time."

"What does this have to do with the War'acks?" Kol asked.

"Ithtar told us that he was the Shadow Man. For some reason, I guess I believed him. I thought I could go back and get the stone from him. The bullet craft was the tool I needed to do it. That's why I agreed to work on the project."

"These... visions, as you say. How often did they happen?"

"It was random. Sometimes it only took days to get back to the other world, sometimes it was months. But it's been a very long time since I've been back. And the last vision I had was... very different."

"Different how?"

"I saw... a man. He was in our apartment. He was wearing some sort of mask. Everything around him was darkness. It was like he was made of it. Then he showed me a vision of the past, of what Ura-chan used to be, and then showed me its destruction. He said something about needing my help... and then he disappeared. I assumed it was just another one of Ithtar's tricks, but if he is not the Shadow Man, then I don't know where it came from."

"I don't... I don't know what to make of this, brother," Kol said. Finally, he stood up. "I will ask Aristarchus. If anyone will be able to interpret the meaning of your dreams, he will."

"They aren't dreams, Kol. I know sometimes dreams feel real, but then you realize they aren't once you wake up. These aren't like that. These are real."

"I understand," Kol said. He turned to leave. "I'm sorry that I have to leave you down here. I wish there was more I could do. I will be back as soon as I can."

"Kol, before you leave, there is one more thing," Laban said.

"Of course. What is it?"

"I want to see my mother."

Kol nodded.

"Of course, brother. I will see you soon. May the light of Those Above shine on you when no other light can."