If she’d had chills before, the next sentence that came out of Dragot’s tusked face sent ice though her veins. “Keep running into the wall until you get through...or are dead!” His voice was sickeningly calm. The shell of a man did, or tried to do, exactly what he’d been ordered.
Addel was not sure how long they were there or how many times the semblance of a human crashed into the wall, but she thought she would pass out by the third attempt. By the fifth, her stomach was empty, and convulsing hard to release more. It had to be the most horrifying experience of her life.
She had never wished someone to die before, but she did now. Addel wanted this to end, but it didn’t. Even with his eye hanging from the socket and the wall stained red, the sickening spectacle continued. Through all the carnage she tried desperately to block from her mind, a clear thought came to her. She was repulsed by it, but there it was nonetheless. Dragot had been absolutely right! The pure endurance and physical limits of humans were unreal if you took out all other factors, of course. Factors like, well, conscious thought, common sense...pain!
She huddled in the corner with her eye shut and hands clasped tightly over her ears. Hearing it might have been worse than watching it. She couldn’t take it anymore! Dragot finally drifted over and pulled her hands from her ears. “It’s over now,” he said in that bloody calm voice, smiling with those hideous features. “Tell me something. Do you think the bravest, most loyal warrior in the world would do that for his allegiance...his deity...his family?” She looked at the bloody mess crumpled up on the floor, then sunk her head between her knees as she began to sob. His point was well taken.
Dragot beamed, “As I told you once before: the perfect soldiers.”
Chapter 9
The sky was pitch-black as dark leathery creatures swirled through air. Yellow eyes gazed down on him, judging...mocking...laughing. He tried to get to his feet and run, but his legs wouldn’t work. Lying in the street flat on his back, all he could do was look up at the sky and watch them soar in a spinning circle. There was no way to tell if it was day or night, as wings, eyes, and wicked pointed tails covered every inch of visible sky. Night or day would have looked exactly the same. However, they didn’t attack. They simply pointed and laughed at him as he lay there, humiliated and unable to move.
The swarm divided in half, swirling faster and faster in the air until it looked like two living black tornadoes spinning next to each other. Suddenly, the tornadoes began to take shape as each formed the outline of a human dressed in black. The black figures slashed away at each other with silver daggers while still elevated high in the sky. Steel on steel rang through the night as he lay there paralyzed, still hearing the laughing and taunting as they called out to him...Eric...Eric...
“Eric. Eric, wake up!” he heard the faraway voice somewhere off in the distance. “Common, you’ve slept long enough. We have to move, now!” Groaning loudly, he could feel his body being rolled back and forth. The nightmares were fading as the real world began to seep into his consciousness. He was drenched with sweat and came to the quick conclusion that, although the nightmares were twisted and unsettling, they hurt far less.
His head was throbbing like never before. He felt like he had been drinking ale for two weeks straight. After attempting to sit up, he got no further than lifting his head a few inches from the ground before a spinning nausea flooded through him. He slowly sunk back into the ground.
“Look, I know you feel like you’re at death’s door, but we have to leave. Are you listening to me? Eric!” The voice had been mixed in with the nightmares, making it seem a far-off reality. Dream and reality had all been a blur. It was only during that last clear sentence that he knew someone was really next to him. His eyes shot wide open as he tried to stand once more, but got only a little farther than the first attempt.
Jade put her hands on his shoulders lightly. “Look,” she said in a soft, reassuring voice, “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you, but I can’t explain everything right now.” Eric was turning green. Every time he tried to speak, a quick dry heave proved to him it would be best not to try again. It was morning now, and the sun was making things worse as it peeked through the treetops. Bright beams hit his face on and off as the leaves shifted in the light breeze.