Isao bit back an insult and settled for glaring at them instead. The guards stopped, holding him and Khalem upright and in one place.
"So, Prince Isao, you have come here for help, and found none," Juben sang. "Did you sleep well last night?"
Isao's voice shook. "You are vile, Juben Ular. The worst kind of betrayer."
Juben giggled in a snide way that sent a chill down Isao's back. "Oh, Isao. You naive fool. You are just like your father. He and I used to be close once, you know. We would have all kinds of discussions. But he was a stubborn man, and no matter how much I planned and strategized, he would never accept my ideas for reforming the religious system in the Empire."
Juben stepped forward holding a scepter with a serpent’s head. He stroked it affectionately with his other hand, like it was his pet. "It was time to change, Isao. Simple as that. Too many edicts from your father. Too much of a limit on the system."
"A messenger just arrived this morning, Isao," Kamon said in a crisp tone. "I have been informed that Sheng Saemon was slaughtered during the attack."
Isao's heart was crushed. His body seemed to lose the will to live.
"Yes, a devastating blow, I'm sure," Juben hissed, his bright yellow eyes alight with fervor. "But Saemon had to die for a new Empire to come in, you know. For the betterment of everyone."
Isao struggled to slow his racing mind. His father couldn't be dead. Men like Saemon were indomitable. The Sheng was healthy. Strong. Virile. People in the Empire adored him, and he would lead forever. There was no chance that they had endured all this hellish misery just to lose now.
A litany of curses rose from Khalem's mouth. Tears gathered in Isao's eyes, dribbling down his cheeks and dripping to the ground below. A bitter, metallic taste rose in his mouth. He realized he'd been biting his cheek and hadn't known it.
"Why?" he wrenched out. "WHY?"
Kamon rolled his eyes. "Your father was weak, that's all. We are strong. You are not."
Juben strode forward a few steps, motioning to the giant snake head behind him. "Do you see this, Isao? When you climb through this, you gain access to a very special place." His voice lowered. "A very special place. We call it the Sarpa Karul, or you may know it as the ‘Snake's Gut.’ Some call it the ‘Haunting Prison.’ We don't care what you call it, really, as long as you enjoy your time there."
With a gleeful, hissing giggle, Juben reached over and pulled a golden lever. A grating sound followed.
Isao blinked in terror as the mouth of the snake dropped open. The golden snout gave way to expose a completely dark space behind the mouth.
Isao sucked in a sharp breath. Sorcery. It had to be.
"Have fun!" Juben sang.
He and Kamon strolled past them, hissing in their strange way, their eyes alight with an amber glow.
Terror gripped Isao as the guards each grabbed a torch, then used their remaining hand to drag Isao and Khalem into the snake’s great, black maw.
Inside, they followed an unknown path that wound through the dark in what felt like every direction. Right. Left. Down. Over. The path twisted and turning so much that Isao felt like a small mouse moving through the belly of a snake.
The screams of other people across the landscape filled his ears, turning his entire body cold.
My father is dead.
The Ular are traitors.
Isao’s guard stopped, and the sound of wood grating on the floor followed.
The guard shoved Isao into a small cell. The other guard pushed and kicked Khalem inside the same cell before he slammed the door shut.
"You’ll find out soon enough why this is the ‘haunting prison.’"
With a cackle, the guards moved away, bearing their torches with them.
Once the sound of their footsteps faded, giving way to the distant shrieks of the other prisoners in the great belly with them, Isao pressed his head to the floor. Tears trickled out of his eyes, leaking onto the dirt floor, which felt gritty against his cheek.
It was over. Everything was over. There was no escaping the main prison of the Sarpa Palace, and certainly not this one. Besides, why should he continue? His father was dead. The Empire had been betrayed by several clans: Nari. Ameya. Ular. There was no redeeming such a lost world.
"Khalem," he cried, his throat thick with sobs.
"I'm here, Sheng."
"There is no hope."
A struggling, hesitant reply came. "We are in a bad place, Sheng."
"We are too far from the sun or moon for there to be any light shed on our path. Nothing can brighten the dark hole we are in. Nothing can save us. The Empire has fallen, my father is dead, and soon, so are we."
There was nothing for Khalem to say.
Epilogue
Ranbelt entered the great temple with a weight on his heart.
The shining silver shrine of the Triad awaited him, as always. The right hand was outstretched and clasping a sphere in the colors of burnished orange and white. The sun and moon. The five elements lay on top of the hand’s five fingers: Water. Earth. Air. Fire. Wood.
Ranbelt bowed to his knees before the symbol of the Sacred Order of the Triad, reverence in his heart.
The prayer seemed to reach up from his chest, seize his throat, and begin of its own accord.
Ranbelt chanted and intoned for several minutes, allowing the prayer to flow freely from him, ridding him of his heaviest fears and thoughts.
Once he finished and was set free of his pain, he stood, backed away from the shrine, and sat on a marble bench along the side of the narrow room.
For a long time, he didn't move. He simply studied the shrine, drawing in peace from the stillness all around him.
As expected, a robed figure eventually approached him. A pendant swayed from this person’s neck – a pendant in the shape of a right hand.
"You are here," the priest said in a his deep, rich voice.
"Yes. I sought peace, as usual."
"Peace is sought by many right now."
A long silence stretched between the two. Ranbelt's thoughts lay heavy on his mind, but he knew the priest would already know what he had come for, and what he wanted.
"We must save him before it's too late," Ranbelt began.
The priest nodded. "Yes. I think you already know that this is your burden to bear, don't you? That you alone will be able to save him. We have given you a new life, free from your marauding sins of the past, as a way to rid yourself of your pirate filth. This is your chance to do so. Do you accept?"
"Yes," Ranbelt murmured. "Gladly. I am prepared to remit the stains of my former life, as agreed. Through Isao, I will do this, and I will be happier and better for it."
"May the Triad be with you…Beltran."
The priest faded away, leaving Beltran – now called Ranbelt – alone in the shrine room with only his thoughts to guide him.
The residents of An Wan were asleep, with only a handful of guards awake.
Quietly Yuna moved through her room with an owl with yellow eyes perched on her arm.
Hanging from the owl’s leg was a small scroll with the coiled snake seal of the Ular clan.
Yuna accepted the delivery of this scroll. She pulled it open, and quickly read. A grin crossed her face.
She released the owl out her window, then slipped into the dark hall and wound through the palace in the utter quiet. Not a soul detected her movements.
Soon, she pushed through the doors to the throne room, leaving them open to the moonlight spilling in from the high windows and corridors.
With a graceful motion, she lowered onto the throne, stroking the arms with her long fingers. The throne seemed to sparkle around her, accepting her as the new ruler.
Her throne.
The moonlight spilled into the room, illuminating her face and her strange aura that twinkled as if she were a goddess among mortals.
Mortals. They were her silly little pawns.