Chapter 28 Who Sits on the Throne?
Jasper fell on his knees; all strength had left his body, he was over the moon seeing his brother alive even though just barely, emaciated, dirty and his body a bag of bones.
He had been a huge man, the cloak that was in tatters fit his huge body snugly, and his body was a display of abs and muscles. How he had been reduced to this state was frightening to think, after all he was the most powerful man in Grundolf.
Who was the man that occupied the throne at Grundolf?
Jasper was beside himself with grief, pity, and anger that he had no words come out of his mouth except the sobs that wracked his chest. After a while, Carita knelt beside Casper and touched his forehead. He seemed to be fine, she lifted her hand and passed it over his brow to check his mental condition and sighed. The man was alive but on the brink of death, in his mind he seemed to have given up hope. Without wanting to, Carita found herself shedding tears for the man that lay there on the ground, beaten by circumstances. She cried for what he had to go through to get to this point, she cried for his brother who could not seem to stop sobbing.
Jasper had spent the last twenty years or so thinking he had lost his brother, at first he thought he had lost him to grief that had turned him into a tyrant after his mate and the love of his life died. However, looking back, he realized that his brother had been the first victim of the impostor that sat on the throne of Grundolf.
Everything that had made him give up on his brother came rushing to him, how could he have been fooled to think that his brother could be capable of doing half the things that impostor did? Guilt was crushing Jasper, had he trusted his brother he would have known something was wrong, and found him sooner, Jasper sobbed loudly, his brother was tortured into submission when he spent his waking moments in Grundolf blaming, him for being a tyrant
"Oh Casp, forgive me brother, I have failed you, I failed Sam and I failed Cellie, I deserve to die for my negligence, I should have known you could not be turned by grief into a ruthless monster," he sobbed as he knelt by Casper.
Carita took him in her arms but he was stiff against her, he was in a world all by himself wracked by the guilt of his apparent abandonment of his twin brother He felt unworthy of any kind of comfort; he felt that his brother's state was his fault. Knowing he needed to beat himself up until he was spent Carita left him all by himself and took Casper laying his head on her lap and started chanting. His soul was so far gone that it was out there in the void wandering. His mate would have recalled him with her presence but for Carita to be able to do so, it would take all the energy she had. As she was chanting, Mirabel came rushing towards where they were and shook Carita.
“The tyrant is on his way, we need to go back," she said with a sense of urgency.
When they heard what Mirabel said, Carita quickly stopped chanting and gently lay Casper back where he had been lying, took Jasper's hand and led him back to where he had been chained to the ground. He followed her mindlessly though in his mind he had registered that there was danger. When they reached the part, where Carita had broken the iron bars she waved her hand and there were bars as before even though it was just an illusion. She did the same thing to every part where they had broken bars then took those broken pieces that lay on the ground and hid beneath their dresses to use as weapons.
Jasper could not stop sobbing; Carita was just hoping that he would be able to hold his anger when he saw the man that impersonated his brother. Carita tried reaching out to him through their mind connection but he had blocked her, she feared he would do something to jeopardize his life. His anger had always been something else, Jasper had a fiery temper that had once caused him to m*****e a whole colony of rogues that had been terrorizing innocent people. One of the people who had fallen victim to the rogues' terror had been their one and only sister Angelique. Her death had brought out the dark part of Jasper to the fore that even his brother could not calm him down.
She feared today was such a time and they were at a disadvantage because the odds were stacked too high against them.
The door to the dungeons opened and in came emperor of Grundolf strolling towards where Carita pretended to be sleeping. He kicked her awake, forcing her to sit up to avoid being hit on the face with the heavy shoes he had on his feet.
"Where did you order your minions to take my daughter?" he shouted making the walls in the dungeon reverberate.
"What are you talking about?" Carita was at a loss not knowing what he was asking her about.
"Whenever you are in this kingdom bad things start happening, who took Celestine?" he asked his eyes bulging and spit forming at the corner of his mouth.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," she said and turned the other way to show him that they had nothing to discuss.
The emperor bent down and took Carita's chin in a tight grip, "If I find that you have something to do with the disappearance of Celestine, I swear by the gods that I will personally hang and burn you at the stake together with your minions."
"If knew I would not tell von hut now that I know she has been taken, my only hope is that she is safe. I hope you never find her," she spat on his face.
He slapped her hard on the cheek; Jasper released a sudden growl that shook the whole prison. He was just about to lunge at the emperor but Carita knowing that he was still too weak to be engaging in battle with a person who was at his best, mumbled under her breath and he collapsed in a lump just as he was about to rise.
"What a pitiful sight, what kind of a mate cannot manage to protect his mate?" he sneered. The emperor looked at Jasper curiously; he wondered how he was able to gain his strength so fast that he could release such a growl. He looked closely at him but could see no visible changes to his physical appearance.
"That must have cost him his last strength, oh how sad it is that you will soon be losing him,” he said to Carita.
"He has lived this long, he will live longer and outlive you, that I can assure you," Carita spat on the ground where she sat.
The emperor turned to Jared his minion and the guards that accompanied them and told them to check everything in the dungeons.
"I do not trust this witch, check that everything is in place," he said and turned to his left with his nose twitching.
"And hurry, I cannot stand the stench of these betrayers and their waste"
Jared came back rushing and told the emperor everything was in place, they left soon after. Those that had been pretending to lie still to avoid any suspicion waited until the doors to the dungeons locked; Kira rushed to the door as it was closing and closed her eyes to scan how they locked the doors and to ascertain if any magic was used. She stood there with her eyes closed for a minute then when they were done; she smiled and went back to the others.
"The magic used to lock us in and cloak the dungeon is but a child's play though we cannot do it from here. It has to be done from the Outside," Kira announced.
"Good, let's wait for the pigeon; we need to allow for those on the outside to regroup so that we can plan when to strike. Today is a good day, the shift has already begun on the outside, and Celeste's body has been stolen. I suspect my girt or that boy that Samara adopted,
What do we need to do?" Kira asked
"For now, we need to rest and preserve the little energy we have," she said and leaned back on the wall after waving her hand and removing the illusion.
"Aunt, what about uncle Jasper?" Mirabel asked.
"He is a danger to himself and to us in the state that he is in; he needs to rest before he can go on a killing spree."
Mirabel was about to say something but the pigeon flattered its wings at the small opening that acted as a window located at the top of the left side of the wall. They all stopped talking to concentrate on the little bird, it flew going to the outside again but only for a few seconds then it came and rested there on the window for a while then flew down to land on Carita's shoulder.
She took it in her hand to check where the message was attached but none was attached.”
Oh, you can show me little one, “Carita said straightening her left hand index linger for the bird to land. It perched itself on the finger and sat comfortably closing its eves. Carita closed her eves too and after just a short while she saw Zander leaving the eastern wing with Celestine on his arms, she watched as he misled them to where he went but changed directions more than five times. Even the best trackers could not find his tracks the boy was very good. She watched as he took her to safety and returned to the palace, this time her smile grew even larger when she saw Angela with Greta. She breathed a sigh of relief realizing she had worried for naught. Angela was not on the emperor's side.
The images the pigeon showed Carita ended and she too opened her eyes. The images at the end had been of the cloaked woman showing Carita what she had been observing on the outside and an image that told her she knew the location of the dungeons.
Carita closed her eyes and shared her images in the dungeons with the pigeon, then stretched her hand to beckon Kira to share her images with the pigeon through her. When they were done, she released the pigeon, which flew away immediately as if it understood the urgency of the matter.
She was about to lean back, spent and longing to rest her body for a while when out of the blues an image popped in her mind. She sat up straight shocked to see the image of a man, limping, with tattered clothes hanging on his body. She could not see the face clearly, because the man's back was turned to her, his emaciated body was full of open and festering wounds that caused him pain as he walked. She waited to see what the man was doing but after observing for a while, she realized that the figure of the man in her vision seemed lost. He looked around him, and then turned a bit that she could only see a part of his face. He looked familiar but she could not remember where she had seen him.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The figure stilled but did not speak.
Again, she asked, "who are you?"
The man turned slowly towards Carita Bennett and when she saw whom it was, she gasped.
"Alice, where am I?" the man asked.