The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

The knife was cold against my bare skin. I tried not to wince as Odyssa added more pressure to it and it broke through, fresh drops of hot blood squeezing through the cut. As she drug it slowly across my chest, I bit back a cry of pain. I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of knowing they were getting to me.

I’d woken up a few hours ago, having no clue where I was or what was going on. I was in a dimly lit room, strapped down to a cold metal table. I couldn’t make out many other details about the room, other than there was a door a little to my left and a large glass window in front of me. The window appeared to be foggy, but I recognized it from training at the academy. It was type of window occasionally used in interrogations as a shock tactic. The fog could be cleared with a press of a button and then waiting on the other side usually was something that could be used against the captive, a.k.a. me.

When I first woke up, nothing seemed clear, thanks to the sedatives they’d put me under to keep my powers at bay. It had only taken a few minutes for me to regain enough brain function to remember what had happened: the mission, Alia and I going off into the woods, the fight… but I couldn’t figure out where I was. At least, not until knife-happy Odyssa came into the room and informed me.

Alia and I had been captured and taken here—to the same konna encampment we’d been sent to spy on. (I tried and failed to appreciate the irony of our situation.) I asked Odyssa what they wanted with us, to which she had just laughed.

“Well, really it was you we wanted. Getting Alia was an added bonus,” she’d answered.

I had demanded to know where Alia was, and Odyssa responded by opening the door to the room I was in. I could faintly make out the sound of Alia shouting profanities at someone, which made me feel a little better. At least she was alive.

That’s when the questions started. It didn’t take me long to figure out what they wanted from me. They wanted to know how to get into Einoth—a secret that only elementests from Einoth (and a few privileged leaders of Sankruus) knew. I’d spent five years of my life there… from the point I was sent to live with my dad’s family after my parents died to the day I left Einoth for good to go train at Edil. I knew well enough the secrets of how to get in and out, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell these guys what I knew.

Odyssa pulled her knife away and held it in front of my face.

“You know, I really hate cutting up such a beautiful body,” she said to me. Her other hand trailed uncomfortably across my chest, faintly tracing the line she’d just carved across it. “And I’m sure you hate it as well. So why don’t you just tell us what we need to know and let it be done with?”

I didn’t answer. Not that I could’ve easily, even if I had wanted to. Before Odyssa had brought out her knife, she’d had her friend Cayne, who I had faintly recognized from the night before as the tall beefy guy with super-strength, use me as a punching bag. My right eye was swollen shut and my bottom lip was busted, along with a blue and purple bruise that has blossomed along my lower jaw, making me almost unrecognizable.

“Fine,” she huffed. “I didn’t want it to come to this,” she said in a sing-song voice, “but you’re being unreasonably difficult.”

She pressed one finger down on small silver button to the right of the frosted window and talked into it. “Send her in, Tyrone. Our dear friend needs a little encouragement.” She smiled devilishly on the last word and my stomach bottomed out. She was talking about Alia. She clicked another button and the frosted glass cleared, revealing a room on the other side identical to the one I was in.

I kept my face blank. A stone mask that belied the anxiety and fear eating away at my insides. I sucked in a quick breath when they pushed Alia into the room. She was fine. Tyrone - the same jerk that had knocked me out when we’d been on the way to Inon and who had also led the attack against us last night - pushed her shoulders, making her stumble. He turned quickly and exited the room, securing the door as he left. Alia quickly righted herself, squaring her shoulders and standing tall. Her stony gaze met mine instantly, taking in my appearance, eyes widening for a millisecond as concern flashed across them. Then it was gone, the cool demeanor back as she walked to the window, stood at the left of it directly in front of Odyssa.

“Before we get started, I just thought it would be fair of me to give you a heads up.” Alia’s voice was low and menacing. “I’m going to make you sorry beyond anything you can imagine for what you did to him.” She pointed at me, her eyes burning into Odyssa’s with a hatred that would make a even the toughest Commanders at Edil flinch.

I couldn’t see Odyssa’s face but I could see the way that she tensed, shoulders tight, hands clenching. Then she let out a breath and pretended to relax.

“Oh sweetheart,” Odyssa said in a derogatory tone. “You’re in no position to be making threats. Besides,” she sneered at Alia, “it’s not like you could take me in a fight anyways.”

“You wouldn’t last two seconds,” Alia growled

I saw her arm twitch, like she was sensing for something to throw. These people had done their homework though. Alia’s room may have been identical to mine, but it was completely empty; not one single thing in it that she could use as a weapon. I watched as her gaze turned to the glass window that separated us, her eyes calculating and measuring, as if she was going to try and break the window.

Odyssa saw this too and responded with a challenge: “Try it if you want, but you won’t be able to break it.”

Alia glared and her but said nothing.

“You see,” Odyssa continued, “you two should actually feel really special! We had these rooms retrofitted specifically for the two of you.”

Just as she was about to say more Alia’s door swung open, letting in Tyrone, Cayne, and the lanky runner guy who I had fought against last night.

“Ah finally!” Odyssa exclaimed. “I’m glad you guys could make it!” She clapped her hands once, a beaming smile on her face. “I believe introductions are in order for our new friends! Alia, Alec, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce you to Tyrone, Cayne, and Lettner. They’ve been brought in to help find the truth!”

Alia glanced at the three guys with an unamused expression.

“Oh, we’ve met,” she said. “I got Cayne here good with a rock to the head last night, and Tyrone only wishes he was as badass as me.”

“Shut up, brat,” Cayne growled.

The three guys stood in a half circle around Alia, whose back moved to the glass as she stood tall and faced them. She was preparing to fight; I could see it in her the strained muscles of her back.

“Well boys,” Odyssa said lightly, “don’t let me stop you, go on ahead with whatever you were doing.”

Tyrone stalked back to the door and swung it wide, then pulled in a table much similar to mine, only without the metal restraints.

“Get on the table,” he roughly barked out at Alia.

“Make me,” Alia snapped back.

I groaned internally. Don’t be so stupid, Alia.

“Since you asked,” he cracked his neck and glared at her, black energy crackling on the ends of his fingertips.

I reflexively pulled against my restraints, struggling with what I was seeing. Tyrone sent a blast of his dark energy stuff at Alia, then another. She dodged quickly, trying to avoid the other two as they moved towards her. I could see it in Tyrone’s, eyes, he knew that this wasn’t going to work.

“You two, out.” He jerked his head towards the door.

Alia came to a stop across the cramped room, low in a fighting stance, ready to dodge another blast. It never came.

Her eyes widened in shock as Tyrone walked to the middle of the room and stopped, tilted his head, planted his feet wide and turned his palms up towards the ceiling. A black fog poured from him like a waterfall, from his hands, his mouth, his whole body emanating dark energy. It filled the room in the space of a heartbeat and Alia and Tyrone vanished from sight. As quick as it came it was gone, the blackness drawn back into him. My heart slammed against the inside of my chest when I saw Alia. She was on her hands and knees, struggling to not collapse, she body heaving in violent spasms.

Tyrone, upon seeing that Alia was down, casually walked back to the door and let the other two in.

“Restrain her,” he said.

They each went over and grabbed an arm, roughly pulling her up. But Alia, stupid stubborn Alia, tried to yank her arm away, kicking out at Cayne as she struggled to free herself. Cayne stepped behind her and planted his feet then wrapped his arms around her and held tight, preventing her from breaking free with his strength.

Cayne walked over to the table and roughly rolled Alia onto it. Her head lolled to the side as Tyrone pressed a combination of buttons that stuck up on the edge of the table. The restraints burst out of the table, I squinted and tried and make out what they were. They weren’t leather or metal…they appeared to be holographic, a light shimmery yellow that came up in a small, tight arc over her hands and feet. Tyrone hit another button and more arcs appeared, two coming over her stomach and chest, another over her knees.

Tyrone turned from the table and stalked over to the window and looked directly at me with his dark gaze.

“You are going to tell us what you know,” his voice was threatening, “or we are going to hurt her.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed hard. My thoughts were moving in rapid fire as I tried to figure something out. I thought of three options.

Option A) Tell them how to get into Eonith and risk Alia and I being killed anyways.

Option B) Keep my mouth shut and leave Alia at the mercy of being tortured, but keep us alive for a while. Hopefully.

Option C) Lie and try to stall until Megan and Sabin figured out that we were missing, and then get both of us killed when they found out I was lying.

My throat burned with acid trying to make its way up. I knew what I had to do. Alia would murder me anyways if I told them about Eonith. Everyone at the academy was trained and put through torture resistance training, I just hoped Alia could hold on long enough for Megan and Sabin to get here. I could hear her voice in my head, don’t be such an idiot Alec, we signed up for this, you’re weak if you give up this easily.

I sucked in a breath and steeled my gaze. “I don’t know anything.”

Tyrone turned around and nodded his head at Cayne, who was standing in front of the panel of buttons on Alia’s table. He turned one of the knobs and the arcs around her body started to glow brighter. Alia screamed, jolted back to consciousness by the arcs. Her screams blared into my room as if on loudspeakers, she tried to kick her legs and move her arms, but every time her body made contact with the arc smoke rose up from them. They were burning her. Then Cayne turned the knob back and it stopped. Alia was awake now, the screaming stopped, but her breath was coming out in ragged gasps.

Tyrone turned back to Alia, “If your brother doesn’t give us the information he knows, we will do much, much worse. Is there anything you would like to say to him?”

Alia turned her head towards me, her face glistened with sweat and her breathing rough, but she locked my eyes in a steely gaze and said, “Give ‘em hell, Alec.”

Tyrone pushed Cayne out of the way and cranked the knob on the panel farther than before. The arcs glowed brightly. Alia didn’t scream this time, but her body writhed against her control, burning and smoking under the arcs. Alia was biting down on her lip, I saw her break skin, blood pouring down her cheek and onto her neck. I wanted to scream, to do something. But I did nothing, said nothing. Tyrone switched the knob off, and walked to stand by Alia’s head. He leaned down close to her and spoke to her ear.

“What was that you said?” His tone was menacing and condescending. He thought he could intimidate her. I laughed in my head, he was in for a rude surprise.

Alia turned her head up to him, smiled as blood dripped from her mouth down her cheeks, and then spat directly into his face. Tyrone stumbled backwards; swiping at his face, then stood straight and wiped his face.

“You will regret that.” His tone set off another wave of anxious churning in my stomach. This wasn’t just about getting to me now. He was going to hurt her because he wanted too.

“Bring in the rest,” Tyrone ordered.

Cayne and Lettner walked out the door and were gone for a minute. Then the door swung back in and this time they had a different table with them, one covered with at least a hundred different objects, all meant to torture my sister.

It went on for hours. Every time Alia would pass out they would use the arcs to shock her back awake. Two hours ago I vomited. No one had bothered to clean it up, it was just me in the room now. Me watching as they took my sister apart and broke her down. They tortured her with knives, fists, drugs, and whatever else pleased them. Three hours ago they’d broken her left wrist, then shocked her back awake when she’d passed out. For the hundredth time Tyrone turned to me and said, “How do you get into Eonith?”

And for the hundredth time I answered, “I don’t know.”

I let my head hang down till my chin touched my bare chest. I closed my eyes. They wouldn’t kill her. They wouldn’t. That became the mantra in my head as the next hour drug on.

They won’t kill Alia. They won’t kill Alia. They won’t kill Alia.

I wasn’t going to ever give in, meaning they weren’t ever going to stop. Alia was barely recognizable. She had cuts all over her body dripping blood onto the floor, her clothes were all but burned off, and the skin under the arcs was charred, red and oozing, black around the edges. She had a black eye and a horrible dark blue bruise blossoming on her right jaw. She’d kept silent, hadn’t screamed or begged for them to stop. Just laid there, taken what they did to her, and persevered. I ached inside, a dark part of me wishing that Alia wasn’t so strong, so resilient. Wishing for her to make them stop doing this to her, to tell me that it was okay to tell them.

Was it really worth it? Was this information really worth letting this happen to Alia? I was breaking inside, I could feel it. It was killing me to see her like this.

No.

I lifted my head and steeled my thoughts. I would not let Alia’s torture be for nothing. They would not get the information from me.

After that, Tyrone left the room, leaving Lettner and Cayne behind. I looked at Alia, willed her to meet my eyes, to look at me. She rolled her head over, slowly, and met my gaze. Her right eye was swollen shut, but in her left one I saw what it was I was looking for. Strength. They had not broken her, she was still Alia, and she was still fighting. I allowed all the emotions inside of me to rise in my eyes and pour from mine to hers. Making her understand that there would never be a time that I could make this up to her, and that I was going to keep fighting. The corner of her mouth twitched in an attempt to smile. She understood.

The door swung back open and Tyrone came back in. Only this time, he had someone with him. She was short and muscular, with short blonde hair and piercing dark blue eyes that I registered with a hint of recognition inside of me, but my mind was so scattered I couldn’t place from where I knew her from.

When she spoke her voice was soft and lilting, but commanded the attention of everyone in the room.

“Alia, Alec, I have been made aware by my subordinate Tyrone that you two are being less than cooperative.” She clasped her hands behind her back.

“You see, what we are trying to accomplish here is no small thing, invading Eonith is only the start of what we’re planning. However, in order to invade it we must know how to infiltrate it.” She stopped in front of the glass and looked at me. “This is why you are so useful to us, Alec. We need you. And it would appear, from what has already transpired, we underestimated the two of you.” She walked back to stand at the foot of Alia’s table, “So all things taken into consideration we’re going to try a different approach. For now,” she turned to Tyrone, “take her to Daphne and get her out of those clothes. And make sure she’s fully awake. She’s no use to me unconscious.”

She turned to Cayne next. “Do the same for him, new clothes, cleaned up, and then taken to the conference room.”

An hour later my cuts were stitched up and I was dressed in loose white cotton pants and no shirt. Cayne and Lettner had my hands wrenched behind my back, shoving me down the hall towards what I assumed was a sort of conference room. A door opened ten feet in front of us and the blonde woman stepped out, motioning with her hand for my guards to deposit me in the room. Cayne pushed me in, forcefully, and I fell to my knees. As I stood up I saw Alia at the end of the room, sitting in a straight backed metal chair, with metal restraints holding her feet and wrists to the chair. Beside her was an identical chair that I assumed was for myself. The blonde walked back into the room and said,

“Alec, you may go ahead and sit beside Alia.”

I shuffled over, not seeing many other options than to listen to the crazy blonde. As I sat down in the chair the restraints clicked into place across my ankles and wrists. I glanced over at Alia, she was wearing an outfit like mine, white cotton pants and a sports bra. Only she looked a whole lot worse than I did. Still though, she was sitting straight and looking the blonde in the eye, unflinching.

The blonde started pacing in front of us.

“Are you two aware of just how valuable you are?” She stopped between us and cocked her head to the side. “I mean not just as hostages or informants, but just as people in Sankruus?”

Alia cleared her throat, but when she talked her voice sounded like it had gravel in it, “One of my instructors told me I was special once,” she let out a harsh bark of a laugh, “only I don’t think he meant what you mean.”

The blonde narrowed her eyes, “Very funny, Alia. However, one would think that the position you have yourself in right now wouldn’t one for making jokes.”

“Maybe if you’re you, in all your overlord dictator power,” Alia said nodding her head towards the blonde, and the wincing at the movement. “I however, find that jokes make for great conversation icebreakers. For example, we are now conversing, meaning my joke was a success.”

“Jokes are not the reason for which you are here, Miss Parker,” the blonde said icily.

“Then why are we? What are you going to do with us?” I asked before Alia could smart off again.

“I am...” She paused and assumed a contemplative look. “A last resort option, you could say. I use my gifts when others have not accomplished the objective with theirs.”

A small grin formed on the edges of her mouth. Her face… I swear I knew it from somewhere. I just couldn’t place it.

“Well then,” she said briskly, icy demeanor reassumed. “Let’s start with Alia, shall we?”

She walked over and knelt in front of Alia,

“This will only hurt for a moment, I promise.” Her voice said otherwise.

She placed a hand on either side of Alia’s head. Alia jerked her head around trying to remove it from between her hands, to no avail.

“What are you doing to her?” I yelled at the blonde.

She held my sisters head in an iron grip, then squeezed her eyes shut. Alia screamed with a bloodcurdling outcry.