Dark Faïz (Book 2) [Completed]

Chapters 11-2

We joined a larger group already at the meeting place after having covered a journey of almost twenty minutes in silence. Despite my hood over my eyes, I discreetly managed to look briefly at what was going on around me. The place was large and completely open. In the foreground appeared an extraordinary and magnificent vastness of eight large cascading lakes at the edge of the cliffs and with translucent blue waters. The reflections of the stars seemed to dance on the surface of the waves. The light breeze stirred the grass and made the cherry blossoms swirl, which covered a good part of the soil, giving it a color with purple and pinkish hues. The many plants that filled this place were simply exceptional. In the background, much further, mountains majestically overlooked this peaceful kingdom where only the sound of waterfalls broke the Olympian calm. The crowd rushed abruptly around a particular lake, giving me an opportunity to subtly whisper a few words to David.

"Where are the girls? I'm not far from the entrance to the clearing."

"You and Asarys must join Lexy, who is under the bear-shaped rock. Do you see it?"

The hoods all around me prevented me from finding the said rock. I followed the crowd, trying not to get noticed.

"I can't see it! Besides, I don't see anything with all these people."

"Move to the left."

I did so by jostling a few people in my path in spite of myself because my balance wasn't completely assured. A little on the sidelines, I desperately looked for a heap of stones representing the animal. After several minutes of anxiety, the bear-shaped rock finally appeared a few meters from me. In a hurry to find the girls, I unfortunately ran headlong into another tunic. Under the badly positioned hood, I recognized Lexy's still ringed face. Distraught, she tried to recover from the shock with difficulty.

"It's me, it's me," I reassured her in a low voice, throwing myself in her arms, happy to find her.

"Zoe!" she exclaimed, relieved. "I just had the fear of my life. Where are all these people going?"

"We will soon find out. Let's hurry to find Asarys."

We then hurried on, taking care not to hit anyone in our path. Asarys shook our hands, trembling, when we finally managed to find her. Without letting go of each other, we continued to follow the members of the Brotherhood around the lake.

"We're together, David."

Now, there were over a hundred of us around these transparent waves where dead silence reigned. The anguish deep inside me grew more and more with the passing minutes. Suddenly, a shadow moved over a small wooden pontoon built above the lake, which served as a platform to better address the faithful. Nobody spoke or moved from what I perceived under my hood. There was silence. It was then that the person on the pontoon uncovered his head, revealing a man with long and fine hair, and thick eyebrows whose curves were extremely arched, which accentuated the frightening features of his face. He was too far away to be able to fully identify him. The man, with his massive and impressive build, observed his followers for a long time, then began his speech in a language which was unknown to me.

"Ainu is an ancient language," David said. "The guru welcomes his entire community under this new moon, as well as the spirits of the lower astral."

"Lower astral?" Lexy repeated in a barely audible whisper.

"Yes. To put it simply, he's talking about Hell."

At that moment I felt Lexy's hand closing tightly on mine.