Chapter 21 : Saving my Children
The wind howled like a wailing widow across the snowy plains, whipping at Adam's cloak as he and Torvak trudged deeper into the heart of the frozen wilderness. The moon, veiled by ghostly clouds, cast a pale shimmer over the icy trees, painting the world in silver and shadow. Every crunch of snow beneath their boots felt like a ticking clock—one that echoed the dread growing in Adam's heart.
"They've been gone too long," Adam muttered, more to himself than to Torvak.
Torvak, his broad figure hunched under layers of leather and fur, glanced sideways. "If the Black Fang have them… they won't kill them. Not yet. They punish. They break. Then, if they're lucky, they survive."
Adam's jaw clenched. The cold bit at his face, but he didn't feel it. His blood boiled with fear and fury.
---
Back in the cave, the screams had long faded into hoarse whispers, and yet the punishment hadn't ceased. Ryan hung upside down, his body stripped to the waist, bleeding from a dozen fresh lashes. The whips cracked through the air with the sound of thunder, the leather slicing through skin, the echo rebounding off the cave walls like a demonic choir.
Jasmine, though barely conscious, was tied upright against a frozen pillar, her arms wrenched behind her. Her face was swollen, her lips cracked from cold and from the backhand strikes she received earlier. She groaned, breath fogging the air as her head lolled forward.
A masked assassin approached Ryan once more, holding a whip tipped with tiny shards of jagged ice. He raised it high.
CRACK!
Ryan screamed again, this one raw and broken. Blood dripped onto the cave floor, pooling slowly like black ink on parchment.
From his high perch, the Shade watched, his expression unreadable behind his silver fox mask. But beneath that mask, behind those cold eyes, emotion churned like a storm. Regret. Disappointment. Even pain.
"Enough!" he finally said.
The whipping stopped. The assassin bowed and stepped back. Ryan panted, bloodied and barely conscious.
The Shade stood, stepping down slowly. His voice, when he spoke, was quieter—but no less deadly. "You think I do this because I hate you? I do this because I loved you. You were my children. But you chose a path that betrayed everything we stood for."
He turned to Jasmine, whose head barely lifted.
"You brought a stranger to the mouth of the holy cave. You broke the final code. And yet... I cannot bring myself to finish you."
He paused, then motioned with his hand. The assassins dragged the two and tied them side-by-side upside down, their wrists bound tightly behind their backs, blood dripping onto the floor as if to seal their guilt in crimson.
The Shade turned and walked away. "Leave them. If they live, perhaps the gods still have a purpose for them. If not… then this cave will be their tomb."
The shadows closed in, the assassins vanishing like mist.
---
Adam's boots skidded on the icy rock as he and Torvak crossed a narrow ridge. Below them lay a vast chasm, filled with swirling snow and haunted silence.
Torvak paused. "Do you hear that?"
Adam strained. A distant sound. Faint. Almost imagined. But it was there.
A scream.
He bolted forward.
"Wait!" Torvak called, chasing after him.
They found a hidden trail, one that wound downward into the earth. The wind grew sharper, crueler, whispering of pain and secrets. As they neared the mouth of the cave, Torvak pulled Adam back.
"You cannot just charge in. This place… it is sacred to them. Trapped with runes, sealed with blood."
Adam growled, eyes blazing. "Then how do we get in?"
Torvak studied the carvings at the entrance. Ancient symbols. Curses. Spells meant to disorient and destroy.
"I will open the path. But once we're inside… it's you they will want. Not me. Be ready."
With a murmured incantation and a cut across his palm, Torvak placed his blood against the stone. The runes glowed faintly blue, then the cave mouth rumbled and opened like a beast yawning from a deep slumber.
The inside was darker than night, the air thick with the stench of old pain and recent blood.
Torvak lit a torch. The flame flickered wildly.
Adam whispered, "They're here. I can feel it."
---
Far above, unseen, the agents of Spice watched from the trees, camouflaged like ghosts. One of them whispered into a crystal orb.
In a distant palace, Queen Zephira sat at her throne. She smiled as the orb pulsed.
"They've entered," the spy whispered.
"Into the cave?" Zephira asked.
"Yes, my Queen."
"Fascinating," she murmured, sipping dark wine. "So he does walk willingly into death. Curious. Let him proceed. But if he comes out alive… he may be more dangerous than we feared."
She turned, gazing out the palace window. "Keep watching. But do not interfere. This is a tale that must write itself."
---
Back in the cave, Adam and Torvak moved deeper, the echoes of dripping water and distant groans haunting their steps. The walls were covered in symbols. Some were familiar to Torvak—ancient sigils of the First Assassins.
They reached the central chamber—and froze.
Ryan and Jasmine hung like broken dolls, bloodied, bruised, and barely conscious.
Adam's breath caught. His heart roared.
"Ryan! Jasmine!"
They didn't respond.
From the shadows, footsteps.
The Shade appeared once more, flanked by masked assassins.
"So. The ghost walks into my den. Welcome, Adam. We've been expecting you."
Adam stepped forward, sword half-drawn, eyes burning.
"Let them go. Now."
The Shade tilted his head. "And if I don't?"
Torvak stepped beside Adam. "Then your bones will decorate this sacred floor."
The air grew colder. The flames on the torches bent inward, flickering as if afraid.
The next words spoken would decide the fate of them all.
The leader said" my boys will you kindly play with these two."
Immediately more than twenty assassins came forward with different types of weapons. Adam said "you take the one on the left I take right they both launched towards them".
To Be Continued...