Excursion

Chapter Twenty-Five - Yvette's Fate

 I could make no further comment as my friend grabbed my wrist and we began sprinting down the halls of the Lazuli palace. It wasn't long before I began to see little red lights in my peripheral vision. Looking up, I noticed small boxes mounted onto the ceiling, each with tiny red, blinking lights. I remembered reading about such contraptions in the books in the guest room. They were called security cameras and supposedly, they watched your every move.

  "Salandil?"

  "What?"

  "I think we're being watched."

  "By whom?" He looked towards the doorways, all of which were devoid of life.

  "By those." I pointed towards the ceiling. "I've read about them. They're similar to bodiless eyes."

  "Well, no matter if we're watched or not," he grunted, picking up the pace.

  "You aren't afraid?"

  "Not right now." He kicked open the door in front of us.

  It was one of the doors leading out into the main city of Lazuli, and for the first time in a long while, I felt the fresh, clean air upon my face. I could hear the sound of the rushing waterfall without the impediment of glass and the people chattering down on the marble streets. Salandil didn't give me any time to enjoy it, for just as I took a deep inhale, he was dragging me down the palace steps and towards a cacophony of voices in the distance.

  As we approached, I realized that the voices were coming from where the execution was going to take place. We had come to a large, open square in the middle of a neighborhood filled with clean, white buildings. People were trailing into the square from every open road. Even though the execution showed no signs of starting, the square was already almost full. But it wasn't so full that I couldn't see the large device placed at the far end of the area. I shuddered. I had never seen a contraption that looked like that before, but it only took a glance to be able to tell it was used for murder. A massive wood block sat at the bottom with a perfect hole carved into its center, while two wooden poles formed the frame, stretching up, up, up to support a giant slanted blade. The blade was kept aloft by a rope tied through it but it still wavered slightly in the gentle breeze, flashing menacingly.

  I coughed. Something seemed to unlodge from my throat, and all of a sudden a sticky, spicy, floral taste filled my mouth. I smacked my lips for a moment, wondering where it had come from when the answer came to me. It was the drink that Valentino had given me. Goodness, that thing took awhile to go down, but now it had seemed to come free from my system. My head began to feel lighter, and I started to see things in a new light. The palace's drone was no longer filling my mind, and the almost dreamlike guest room was a mile behind me. I began to remember things. Notice things. Understand things. I was becoming more like myself.

  "We have to go save her," I declared, looking Salandil straight in the eye.

  My friend's eyebrows raised upon hearing my tone of voice and gave me a curt nod.

  "I agree. But how?"

  I shook my head. "With all these people sitting around, I don't know. Do you have any idea where they're keeping her?"

  "Probably behind bars in one of those buildings." He pointed to the large white structures of the neighborhood. "Keeping her tucked away until she's ready to make a big entrance. Or maybe she's finishing up her Standardized Exam..."