The Sanctuary

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

I stormed into the prisoner room. The Farsay hardly had time to get to his feet before I was marching towards him. I shoved him, so hard that he again, fell back down. He struggled to get back to his feet, but I kept pushing him, livid.

“You Farsaian filth!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “You are the most vile, foul kind –you can’t even let us live in peace – you have to be so –“ I shoved my hands into my face, crumpling it up. I couldn’t handle it, I couldn’t handle the thoughts. I knew I was going absolutely crazy, but the images in my head wouldn’t stop relentlessly hammering at me.

I let out a scream of frustration.

“What is wrong with you?” The Farsay shouted back, angrily. He struggled once more to get to his feet, but I was done pushing him. I stalked to the other side of the room, banging on the wall with both fists frustrated. The wound in my arm pulsated in a painful protest, but I could hardly care.

Haunted images of headless Saiyaran children raced through my head. The children left behind, locked up in the Farsay Castle, awaiting their own torturous demise.

My near fate.

“You are what’s wrong with me.” I turned to the Farsay, letting my anger control me. “Your kind is what’s wrong with me. Have you no decency, no moral compass? Your Father just – your FATHER.” I moaned. “The king, that foul king is your father!”

Silence met my words. I was breathing hard, but calming down slowly. I didn’t know why I had come here, yelling at the Crown Prince like he could bring those children back to life. But I could not help the guilt that was flooding through me.

I felt like I had betrayed my people, somehow. By seeing this Farsarian as a human, treating him like he was no longer my enemy; I had betrayed those children.

I didn’t deserve to be a Rider.

The Farsarian was staring at me with a face that seemed to know what was coming next “What did my father do,” he asked, lowly.

“Two children, Saiyaran children. Mutilated, tied up to a horse. Headless,” I rapped out stoically. “They had been tortured. He finally found some Saiyaran children, hidden away. And he sent them to us for a message.”

The Farsay’s face grew grim.

“He is holding the other three children captured in ransom. He wants to make a trade. You for them,” I whispered.

The expression on the Farsay’s face was nothing I had seen before. A flurry of emotions; surprise, shock, horror. He turned his face away, the clank of his ankle chain a striking noise in the silence.

I felt the anger ebb away as I watched him

“What are you going to do?” He asked, quietly.

I clenched my fists.

“Make the trade.” I bit out. “We aren’t monsters, like your people think. We wouldn’t give up three children just for your life.” I laughed hollowly. “Unlike your father.”

The next words he spoke shocked me.

“That man is not my father,” he said, viciously. Angrily. He turned away from me, his face shadowed.

I tried not to let my jaw hang at his words.

 “Do you miss your father?”

 “No.”

“But your father is the King.”

“He is my father. And the King. That is all.”

My anger ebbed away slowly, and I turned away from him, staring at the dirt wall at the far side of the prison. “We’re heading out tomorrow,” I said quietly.

The Farsay didn’t respond. I fidgeted in my spot, trying to think of something else to say so that I could leave the in-between silence.

“Did you become a Rider?” he suddenly asked.

I straightened my shoulders. “Yes.”

He observed me carefully and then the corner of his mouth curved up. “Congratulations, Alaya,” he said.

Again. My name.

I looked away, not willing to look into his blue eyes.

“Aren’t you happy?” I asked quietly. “Going back to your home?”

“My weapons trainer always said this to me,” He suddenly said, looking somewhere past me. “A soldier is above all else a servant. We fight to keep those who cannot protect themselves safe. We fight for the prosperity of our people. We fight to achieve peace.” He looked down at the ground then, his fists clenching. “We do not hurt the defenseless.”

I looked at him, sharply. He hadn’t answered my question. And his words; they seemed so much like Jonrick’s words.

I wondered again, who the true enemy was.

“You will be coming with me right?” he suddenly asked, looking directly at me. “To the trade off point? You will be there?”

Taken aback, I tried not to gape at him and instead, nodded wordlessly. He smiled at me, a smile that made my chest hurt with a deep ache.

“Then I’ll be fine,” He said.