Sahara Ashdell: The Son of Evil (Book 2)

Sahara teleports them to the Malorsty infirmary and yells for help as she holds Brystol’s arm, still trying to slow the blood. It only takes a few seconds for someone to come into the room, “Aranel? How did you two get in here?” Plansa, the Zori, asks.

“Help him, please?” Sahara begs with new tears of fear running down her face. “His arm won’t stop bleeding.

“We have him, you need to get out of here.” Plansa says as she places her hand on the cut allowing Sahara to move. Sahara only shakes her head because she doesn’t want to leave Brystol. “Aranel. Go.” Plansa says more firmly.

Sahara looks down at Brystol who is motionless and realizes that this could be it. This could be how he dies. This might be why he wasn’t in the first future she had seen. “It is my fault.”

“Get her out of here.” Plansa says to another zori just as Verdiwild comes running into the room.

“What has happened?” He asks looking concerned toward Brystol.

“I wounded him.” Sahara confesses but Verdiwild quickly grabs her by the arm pulling her out of the room with him. All she can do is sob as she tries to keep up with Verdiwild.

“What do you mean?” Verdiwild asks nervously as he shuts them inside a room of the infirmary. “How did you wound him?”

“My emotional magic took over and I, I was hitting him so hard with everything.” She tries to explain but Verdiwild shakes her.

“How did you wound him. I don’t care why, I want to know with what.” He says angrily.

“I had electrical currents on him and a storm going. I don’t know how his arm got cut. It wasn’t bleeding until I took out the electrical currents.” She wipes her eyes trying to remember the details. She had no idea how his arm got cut.

“You took it out?” He says angrily grabbing her by the upper arm and pulling her toward him.

“Yes, it was hurting him.” She says wondering why he seemed angry. He suddenly drags her back down to the large room they were just in and she can see they now have Brystol up on a table working on his arm.

“We can’t stop the bleeding sir.” One of the zori’s says to Verdiwild as he moves closer to them, after releasing Sahara and leaving her at the door.

He whispers something in Plansa’s ear before she looks up in surprise at Sahara. “Leave us.” She says to the other zoris as she continues to hold pressure on Brystol’s arm.

“But you need...” A zori, tries to protest.

“She said leave!” Verdiwild’s voice overwhelms the room with a loud boom and the other zori’s exit quickly.

“Put it back in.” Plansa says to Sahara after the room is emptied of the extra zoris.

“What?” Sahara asks nervously.

“The current.” Verdiwild clarifies. “He must have it to survive now.”

“What?” Sahara feels confused by what they are saying.

“Hurry! There is not much time.” Plansa demands.

“I…I…I don’t know how.” Sahara says nervously as Verdiwild moves back towards her and grabs her upper arm again, pulling her over to Brystol’s side.

“The same way you took it out.” Plansa says.

“I can’t!” Sahara says trying to back away but Verdiwild pushes her back up next to Brystol.

“He will die in minutes if you do not do it!” Verdiwild says hastily.

“But I am not angry.” She says knowing she has never created electrical currents when she was calm.

“The power is still in you.” Verdiwild says in a calmer voice. “You need not be angry to use it.”

“Now! It has to be done now. Or it will be too late.” Plansa says moving her hand from Brystol’s arm so that Sahara has access to his cut.

She sees the blood increase as it gushes out of his arm. She closes her eyes and tries to fight her fear as she attempts to create electrical currents. She shakes her head after a second and cries, “I can’t do it.”

“He is dying Sahara. Yes, you can.” Verdiwild yells at her as Plansa and Verdiwild hold down Brystol, who’s body begins to convulse.

Sahara raises her hands above her head as she tries to feel the electricity from the air around her. She feels a quick shock to her fingers and it surprises her but she loses the spark. She feels tears stroll down her cheeks as she focuses more. Suddenly a volt of electricity flows from her hands up into the air. “Now put it back into the wound.” Plansa says calmly.

Sahara causes the electrical current to move down into Brystol’s cut and his body begins to settle as the blood flow slows. “Not too much.” Verdiwild says to Sahara as she tries to calm her own nerves. “You must stop when the bleeding stops.”

She watches the electrical current go into his body until the bleeding stops and she stops the flow of electricity. She sees Brystol’s body begin jerking sometimes, like it was before she took out the current. “That is good. I will take it from here.” Plansa says moving in front of Sahara with an odd handheld item that she uses to close Brystol’s skin up.

“Will he be alright?” Sahara asks as she watches Brystol’s body jerk again as the electrical current jumps up out of the cut area she has not sealed yet.

“After some Bluothik.” Plansa says. “And a day or two of rest.”

“Bluothik?” Sahara asks.

“Yes, to rebuild his blood supply.” Plansa says as she lays the tool she was using down and Sahara sees Brystol no longer has a cut on his arm.

“What will the current do to him?” Sahara asks moving to the other side of the bed.

“Keep him alive.” Verdiwild says.

“I will have to run some tests but it seems you deformed his DNA and caused his body to become dependent on the currents.” Plansa explains.

“Has this happened before?” Sahara asks assuming that is how they knew to have her put a current back into him.

After a silent moment Verdiwild finally speaks, “No. And we will tell no one.” He says to Plansa, who looks over nervously toward Sahara.

“Of course not sir.” Plansa says after using a magical spell to clean the blood off of Brystol and from the bed he is laying on.

“Could you give us some time alone?” Verdiwild asks Plansa, who nods once and leaves the room as she watches Sahara.

Verdiwild waves his hand causing the door to shut behind Plansa. “Now, you may tell me why.” He says to Sahara.

“Why I hurt him?” Sahara asks sure that is what he means but she is stalling because she doesn’t want to tell him the full truth.

“Why the two of you snuck out of Malorsty.” Verdiwild says plainly. “You lied to me about being sick, and the two of your beds were empty all night.”

Sahara glances out of the window at the sun shining down on the plorksol field. “We were experimenting with something to see if I could learn some better emotional control.”

“Where were you?” He asks and Sahara knows he already knows the answer. She looks down in shame and stays silent for a moment until he yells the question at her, “Where were you, Aranel?”

“The human world.” She admits as she keeps her eyes down from his. His silence makes her nervous, so she looks up at him to see what he is thinking. But to her surprise she sees the Aran stepping into the room. She feels her heart fall to the ground at the look of disappointment toward her from the Aran’s eyes. “Aran?” She says looking over at Verdiwild for help but he just bows to the Aran before exiting the room.

“I am disappointed in the two of you.” The Aran says briefly looking at Brystol’s arm that now looks normal.

“I am sorry. We should not have gone. It won’t happen again.” Sahara says hoping it will cause some kind of a reaction from the Aran. He seemed so calm that it was scaring her.

“I know it won’t.” He says as he suddenly snaps a grey bulky bracelet onto Sahara’s arm. Sahara looks at the bracelet and sees an orange glow spin around it before she hears a locking sound inside the bracelet. She tries to take the bracelet off but it doesn’t budge. She can’t even use magic to remove it. “You are no longer allowed to teleport and are banned from the use of magic until your judgement of the elders.”

“My what?” Sahara asks in confusion.

“You are being sent to the elders, who were alerted of your actions. They will hear your case and cast your judgement.” She sees him snap a similar bracelet onto Brystol’s wrist. “Brystol will go as soon as he is well.”

Sahara feels speechless at what is happening. She tries to conduct a simple spell but nothing happens. “What did we do that was so wrong?”

“You have been told that traveling to the human world was forbidden. We have hid your past travels there from the elders but we did not know you were going so frequently as of late. They monitor human levels of response and a when a human sees magic or witnesses something supernatural it triggers a unique response that sets off the alarms the elders have created. You apparently have set it off twice now. The first time they were not sure who had generated the response. So, they were monitoring the alarmed human and to their fortune you and Brystol set it off again last night.” He explains as he sound sorrowful. “There is nothing I can do to help the two of you at this point.”

Sahara rolls her eyes remembering Trina’s surprise when she saw her the first time and the surprise she heard when she had seen Brystol last night. Trina managed to ruin her life a world away. No she shakes her head realizing it wasn’t Trina but herself that has ruined her life. She should not have been teleporting.

“Thank you for putting the current back in him. Now, you will go with Verdiwild.” He points toward the door as it opens and Verdiwild nods to the Aran.

Sahara looks down at Brystol wondering what is going to happen to them. She knew Brystol feared the elders and hated that when he woke up he would be powerless and alone. And, if what he had told her earlier about them skinning an elf alive was ture, she feared the elders too. “Come along.” Verdiwild says breaking her train of thought. She leans down and kisses Brystol on the lips before turning to leave.

She silently walks behind Verdiwild, as he leads her out to a dark grey carriage connected to a large winged horse-like beast. Student’s are all watching in amazement as Sahara steps into the dark carriage. “Good luck, Aranel.” Verdiwild says shutting the door. She places her hands on the door trying to open it but it will not open. She had thought Verdiwild was coming with her, but she was going alone. The thought of being alone and powerless as she travels to an unknown location scared her. After the carriage takes off, she sees the Tari join Verdiwild on the stairs of the academy and move up the stairs to go inside. She sits down defeatedly on the carriage seat after it leaves the protective walls of the academy. She felt more confused than her first day in the elf world.

A couple of hours pass before she begins to yawn and feel drowsy. She was not sure how long the journey was going to be, so she decides she might as well sleep, since she had not all night. She wakes hours later and the carriage is still flying. She sees only darkness outside as she looks out of the windows on each side of the carriage. There were no lights anywhere, and in fact she could barely see inside the carriage. This journey felt like punishment enough, she thought to herself as she wakes the next morning still moving through the air in the carriage. A small table appears in front of her with a small bowl sitting on it. She looks disgustedly into the bowl as she sees a bubbling grey oatmeal type of food. “Ewe.” She says pushing it away from her. She would rather go hungry than eat that. After about an hour, the small table and bowl disappear. She finds all the time she has to think is driving her crazy, before the small table appears in front of her again. This time it has a plate that has meat and some elven vegetables on it. She gladly eats the food before the table again disappears. She massages her temples as she tries to think of something new. She needed something to do in the small space. A book to read at least she thinks angrily as she shakes the door of the carriage.

It is not until the next day that the carriage finally stops. She wakes immediately as the wheels collide with the ground. “Finally.” She says standing up and trying again to open the door. This time it opens and she sighs in relief. She could not wait to breathe the fresh air. To her dismay, outside the carriage is not much to look at. She is standing on the top of a flat brown stone that appears to have nothing around it, not even land or water. It is like the flat rock is just floating in the air.

“This way.” She hears an ellon’s voice say behind her and it causes her to jump. The extremely old ellon is standing next to a dark circle that was not there a moment ago when she had been looking in that direction. She sees the ellon step through the dark circle and she realizes it is a door. She quickly moves toward the circle and steps in cautiously. She jumps as the circle swirls shut behind her. She sees the room she has entered is filled with old elves that are seated in chairs that surround her. The ellon that she had just followed inside sits in the only empty seat that is to the left of her.

“Sahara Ashdell.” A loud ellon’s voice booms towards her as she feels the ground beneath her turning her to face the sound coming from behind her. She struggles to keep her balance as the ground stops turning. “You have broken the law of traveling to the human world. What says you?” The voice asks and she is not sure what to say. “What says you?” The voice says louder and Sahara has to cover her ears.

“I went home. Why is going home a crime?” She asks and the room goes from quiet to the elves whispering amongst themselves. “What would you do if you were forbidden from going back to the only home you have ever known?”

“Though we sympathize with you, it does not excuse your various other actions.” The ellon says. “You were seen by a human, you transported another elf to the human world, and you used telepathy on a human.”

“Telepathy was used to hide the evidence that I was there from other humans. And I thought it was only outlawed to use on elves not humans.” She pleas her case. “Brystol didn’t want to go, I forced him. And yes my cousin saw me but she is harmless and she has no clue we are elves, she just thinks I am her cousin that ran away.”

“Cundu Brystol seemed to be there without protest.” One of the seated elleth’s says in comment to her plea.

“That is because I convinced him that I needed to go to the human world to help overcome some of my emotional magic issues.” She knows it is partially a true statement.

The group of elders whisper among themselves for a few moments as Sahara wonders what her punishment might be, if they do not buy her story. Finally, an elleth to her right speaks, “Shall we cast a vote?”

The ellon seated directly in front of Sahara speaks. “What says ye fellow elders?” Sahara feels the ground beneath her turn towards the ellon seated to the left. As she turns facing each elder, the elder speaks the word “Yay.” Sahara swallows hard as she finally makes it back around to facing the main ellon. “Yay.” He says as the ground beneath her stops rotating. She wonders what her punishment is about to be as she awaits the elder’s to tell her, but the main ellon’s words surprise her. “Then it is agreed, due to the uniqueness of her situation and upbringing, Sahara Ashdell is granted leniency in the instance, and this first instance only.” Sahara feels shocked by relief as she releases the breath she did not realize she was holding. “She will receive six months of blocking on self teleportation and telepathy. Further, she will be blocked from teleporting others for a years time. If you are caught after the six months teleporting to the human world or beyond the bounds of a student’s needs, you will will be stripped of your teleportation powers for ten years. If you are caught after the six months using telepathy on an innocent elf, you will be stripped of your telepathy powers for ten years. After the years time, if you teleport others, you will be stripped of your teleportation powers for ten years.” Sahara feels surprised by this being a lenient punishment. She wonders what a harsh punishment might be but she would never ask.

“Someone has arrived.” The ellon that walked her in says as he stands.

“We are not expecting anyone else today.” The main ellon says in confusion as the elves around the room seem confused.

Sahara sees the circle that she had entered through reopen beside her. The ellon steps outside and returns in a moment as he announces, “Aran and Tari Treegan.”

Sahara perks up at the sight of Tari Nathila’s friendly face. “Why have you come?” The main elder asks in a stern voice as the circle entry swirls closed.

“Elder Gahiem.” The Aran says as he and the Tari bow to him. Sahara realizes that she never bowed to any of the elders, she had not realized she needed to. “Other elders of the court.” The Aran says as he and the Tari bow again. “We have come to bargain for leniency on the punishment of Sahara.”

“There is no need.” Elder Gahiem says standing. “Leniency has already been granted due to her unique history and situation.”

“So kind, Elders. But can I ask what that leniency entails?” The Aran asks glancing over at Sahara.

The elder explains the punishment again before the Aran speaks again. “Is that also not too strict a punishment for Sahara, seeing as she has already had run ins with some of Patreek’s followers? Her teleportation ability put Fazor and Themanos in the dungeon. She was also able to escape and save two friends from Raglen, Patreek’s son, twice now because of her teleportation ability. It has proven to be a valuable and much needed asset to defeat Patreek.”

The elders whisper amongst themselves for a few moments before Elder Gahiem speaks again. “Very well. We will grant your leniency request for teleportation, in that we will allow teleportation within our own world and only when she is not present at the academy. She will be blocked of teleportation to the human world of self for six months and of others for a year. We will stand by the punishment on telepathy.”

“I have no objection to that, as I was unaware of her possessing that ability.” The Aran says looking curiously toward Sahara.

“Do you come to plea for your son as well? He will be here in two days time before you arrive back.” Another elder says.

“I assume he is being judged for traveling to the human world?” The Aran asks.

“He is.” Elder Gahiem says in response.

“I only ask that the elders consider the fact that he is not able to make that trip alone as he does not have teleportation abilities.” The Aran says.

“It will be considered.” Elder Gahiem says with a respectful nod.

“Thank you.” The Aran says with a bow.

One of the elleth moves toward Sahara and points toward her bracelet the Aran had placed on her before she started her journey to the elders. She holds it out and the elder uses a stone-like object to type in a information as she holds it over Sahara’s bracelet. Sahara was hoping it was being removed but unfortunately the elleth only reprogrammed it. “This will block all your powers for the journey home over the next three days, you will remain powerless until you arrive back at Malorsty. At which point, it will remain on your wrist for the next year until your punishment is carried out.”

“Do not find your way back here anytime soon Aranel.” Elder Gahiem says as the circular entrance opens.

“Thank you for your leniency and I will try to do better in the future.” She says with a curtsy.

“Good day elder’s, thank you for receiving the Tari and myself.” The Aran says politely with a bow.

The trio remains silent as they progress to the waiting carriages. “You may ride with us elfie.” The Tari says with a kind smile as their carriage door opens. Sahara quickly accepts their invitation knowing their company would be much better than being trapped in the lonely dark empty carriage the next three days powerless and bored.

Sahara enjoys the next three days as the trio play games and have a fun time on the way back to Malorsty. She had always imagined going on a family vacation would be like this trip back to Malorsty. It made her feel closer to the Aran and Tari.

She was not scolded by them as she expected. In fact, the incident was not ever mentioned on the journey back, aside from her asking how Brystol was doing and them responding that he was fine. She knew she would not get off so easily with all her friends at Malorsty with her new bulky and ugly wrist accessory.