The Masked One by Liv Daniels

Author:Liv Daniels [Daniels, Liv]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mustelidae Media
Published: 2017-09-27T22:00:00+00:00

The Bottomless Pit,

or so it is writ,

is a place of deep fear

pays no heed to grit.

The staunchest of hearts

will tremble and break

in such a place as this.

And what could happen

in the depths of the pit,

to change the way the rhyme is writ?

The monsters forced Leina closer and closer to the edge of the monstrosity. For a moment she thought that they were going to send her over just like that. In spite of herself she struggled, digging her feet into the ground. The gaping emptiness below drew closer and closer. It seemed that she was no longer moving at all, but the blackness itself was rising to engulf her.

Then, suddenly, she was jerked to a halt. She shuffled her feet to keep her balance, precariously near the edge. Pebbles fell from under her feet and were swallowed up in the black abyss. Then the monsters turned her around to face her two captors.

“No crowd?” Leina observed, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “That’s unlike you.”

“Unfortunately, everyone likes you, so no,” Edward hissed.

No one moved or made any indication of speaking. Leina was intensely aware of the dark gaping thing at her back. She had the uncomfortable feeling that it would jump out at her if she wasn’t looking.

“Well?” she said at last, in desperation. But she instantly regretted it. Why should she be the one to hasten this? “You know,” she added quickly, “in civilized places, most people in my position are offered a chance to speak.”

“Speak, then, if you must,” Edward grumbled.

Leina nodded, firmly shaking free of the monsters’ grip and stepping forward. The monsters growled, but Edward held up his hand to stop them. Then Leina cleared her throat, and she found in her voice more strength than she had expected to find there. “I will give none the victory of my blame. I know not why I am here, nor when this stopped being a game. But it is fruitless now to talk of such things, so I will let them rest.

“If I were speaking to the World, I would say look up. Too many, worn down by oppression and darkness, have turned their eyes away to the ground and no longer see the road ahead of them. And so they continue to travel down the same way, and they put their trust in it because they have no other hope. Look up, I would say, and see the other road that you pass and miss. A hopeless road it seems, but the end is so much brighter than the darkness to which you hasten. It is not the Masked One that will save you, but let any small degree of hope that she may have inspired live on. That may save you still.

“But I am not speaking to the World. My words fall dead to the ancient sands of this place, where dark secrets lurk that now I shall never know. And yet now I can speak clearly, without fear. There is no peace here. I wish it to you and to this whole Desert, but you will not find it like this.

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