Selim’s son came back about an hour later with few groceries, and they began preparing lunch together. He was the youngest of five children, in his early twenties, and had chosen to stay with his father after his mother’s death.
Sam had a funny feeling the moment she and the boy met; he seemed withdrawn and wary of her. As she helped them set up the dining table, she couldn’t help but overhear them argue about something. The son kept mentioning the word ‘Lek’, which she knew meant money, but other than that she couldn’t understand anything else. Had she known what was about to happen, she would have dragged Daniel out of there and left, but being still a bit shook up from last night’s tumble, and having no immediate plan on how to proceed from there, she was glad to have a chance to rest and think.
After lunch, Eddie left again, and she and Selim sat down having coffee and talking some more. She knew he would ask about Daniel, but she could not tell him anything; he would not believe her even if she did. All she told him was that they needed to get to the British Consulate in Tirana; it was the only place where she thought they would be safe from the men, until she came up with a better plan. Selim knew someone from the village who could take them; he would talk to the man later in the evening and they could leave the next morning if they wanted.
Sam was happy with this plan. She liked Selim; he reminded her of her own dad a bit, and had the circumstances been different, she might have stayed there a bit longer. As it were, she had to take Daniel to safety and get some sustenance into his system as soon as possible.
What happened next though, she could have neither predicted, nor prevented, even though she tried. Somehow, Butler and his men had worked out how they had escaped, and followed them down the river, looking for them in all the villages in the area. To make things even easier for themselves, they’d spread word of a reward to whoever had seen the two foreigners. And that word had reached Eddie’s ears.
The conversation Sam had overheard was Eddie trying to convince his father to give up the two strangers for the sake of the money, which could take them a long way. But Selim would not hear of it. He had no love of money and would not sell out his guests. So Eddie acted on his own, contacting Butler’s people and making a deal with them.
Thus it was that as evening fell, a group of six men were making their way towards the old house where Selim lived. Butler and three of his men, accompanied by a translator, followed Eddie through the muddy streets of the small village, where all that could be heard was the sound of their boots splashing and dogs barking.
Sam was sitting next to Daniel, exercising his arms and legs, while Selim sat by the fire, smoking on his pipe just next to Sam’s improvised bed. They had already arranged for transportation to Tirana for the following day and she was beginning to hope that they were actually going to make it out of there. Then the door opened and the room suddenly shrunk in on her.
Eddie was the first to walk in the warm room, followed by Butler, in the body of a young man in his early twenties. He had dark long curly hair, a handsome face and neatly trimmed beard. Behind his small brown eyes, she felt the stare of someone much older than the rest of his features suggested. But the most disturbing thing for Sam was the fact that the man had a striking resemblance to Daniel.
Behind him walked in four other men, three of them carrying handguns. They positioned themselves one by the door, one by the window on the far right of the room, and the last one next to Butler. The fourth one, who never took his hands out of his jacket pockets, simply stood by the door, waiting to see if he was needed. He was clearly a local, the interpreter, Sam guessed.
Her heart began to race real fast, as she realized they had been found, and this time it seemed unlikely that they would be able to escape. She looked at Eddie with disgust, realizing he had betrayed them. Then she turned and faced Selim, feeling sorry to see his suddenly withered and ashamed face turn away from her.
Looking back at the men blocking all possible exits, she tried desperately to figure out a way out of this. Her hand went slowly behind her back, reaching for her gun, but to her panic the gun wasn’t there. She instantly remembered that she had stacked it underneath her pillow, not too far from Selim’s feet.
To her right, Selim shifted in his seat and said something in Albanian that was clearly directed at his son. She did not understand what it was, but by the harsh tone in his voice and the lowering of his son’s eyes, she guessed Eddie didn’t like it much. Their exchange did not last long however; Butler made one step forward, took one quick look at Selim, and then concentrated his attention on Sam.
‘You’ve made me work really hard these last few months, missy. First, you steal him from the clinic,’ he said, pointing at Daniel, ‘and hide him away in the middle of nowhere, where the devil himself wouldn’t even think to look. Then, you turn that little house of yours into a small fortress, causing me to lose two good men with your little traps. And then, just when I think I have you, you go and pull off a brilliant escape, where, I admit, even I would have been hard-pressed for ideas. You’ve got style, I’ll give you that, and if I wasn’t so freaking tired and pissed off from chasing you around the world, I would maybe consider sitting down with you and getting to know you a bit better. Who knows, we might have even become friends.’
He smirked, looking at his men who backed him up with chuckles as he continued.
‘Seeing as I’m all out of patience, and all I wanna do is get the hell out of this shit-hole and back into civilization, I’m gonna ask you only once to give him up without a fuss and I just might consider not shooting you down like a dog.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t do that,’ Sam replied without even thinking. ‘I have come too far and been through too much to hand him over to you just like that. Sorry, but you’re gonna have to fight me for him.’
She stood between him and Daniel in a protective position, speaking with clear determination in her voice and hoping he would see she wasn’t going to make it easy for him. On the inside however she was trembling with despair, knowing there wasn’t anything she could really do.
Butler smiled and reaching inside his chest for his gun, said.
‘I expected as much. Unfortunately for you, blondie, I’m gonna let my bullets do the fighting for me.’
Sam’s heart stopped as he slowly took out his gun and she realized this was it. She was about to close her eyes and accept her fate, feeling bad only for failing Daniel, when Eddie shouted something at his father behind her. She turned just in time to see Selim pull her gun from under her pillow and aim it at Butler.
The man beside Butler pushed him out of the way, while at the same time raising his own gun towards Selim and firing. The other two men were just as quick, only not quick enough. Sam’s gun went off first, releasing three bullets one after the other and catching the first man in his chest, dropping him down at once. Unfortunately, that was the one and only time Selim managed to fire. The other two men kept on shooting at him, until he fell down forward, dropping the gun at Sam’s feet.
Horrified at the sight of his father being shot dead, Eddie charged, raising his bare hands at Butler. He did not manage to get closer than two feet from him, however. A second series of bullets were fired from the same guns that killed his father, and Eddie fell dead at Butler’s feet.
Kicking his now lifeless body out of the way, Butler resumed his former position with a look of rage on his face. Gazing at Selim lying face down, blood spreading from underneath him, he fired another angry shot at him, causing Sam to jump in place. His eyes then stopped on the gun that was now resting in front of Sam’s feet.
‘What’s it gonna be, blondie?’ He spoke as if he was tired and had no patience for this. ‘My way, or his way?’ he motioned towards Selim.
Sam’s hope of escape died as she found herself surrounded by four men, three of whom were pointing guns at her. She considered every possible scenario in her head, but they all ended up with her losing. She knew Butler would not let her live, not after murdering
two innocent men in front of her. Still, she looked down at her gun.
Butler saw that and gave her a wry smile.
‘Really? You’re actually gonna go for it?’
He motioned to the guys to lower their weapons.
‘Alright, I’ll indulge you; I’ll give you your fight. Here, I’m putting my gun away,’ he said and slowly hid his gun back inside his chest, raising his right hand in the air. ‘Just you and me; let’s see if you’re fast enough. If you manage to kill me, they’ll let you be; they have no use for him. You can take him back; no one will ever come to look for him. I promise you!’
This was the chance Sam was waiting for; she could do this. All she had to do was bend down really fast, grab the gun and shoot him before he got his out. She decided, she would roll on to her right once she got the gun, that way she would try to escape his bullets and maybe catch him by surprise.
She threw a quick glance at the other two guys to make sure that they weren’t going to intervene, and then looked back at Butler. She decided a distraction tactic might improve her chances.
‘I just need you to promise me one thing,’ she said, hoping he’d take the bait and think she wasn’t ready yet. Butler gave her a sinister smile and asked.
‘What’s that?’
Before he even finished the sentence, Sam bent her knees and went down real fast, reaching for the gun with her left hand. Just as her fingers touched the still warm metal, she heard the dry and loud bang of Butler’s gun. With her gun now in her hand, she continued to roll to her right, landing on her knees. She then tried to raise her left arm and point the gun at him, but a sharp pain in her stomach stopped her.
She looked down and saw her right hand clutching her belly, red-hot blood pouring out between her fingers. Shocked, she looked up at Butler, who was now standing above her, his expression one of anger and spite. He raised his left arm and slapped her really hard with the back of his hand, practically spitting out the words:
‘You cost me my hand.’
As she fell on the floor from the force of his slap, Sam wondered what he meant. Then, darkness began taking over and the last thing she thought about before closing her eyes, was Daniel.
Daniel stared ahead at the scenery before him with a new eye, and finally realized just how powerful the light of the Golden Throne was. It was no longer dark outside; more like an early twilight, where all the land was covered with a yellow/reddish hue, bright enough to make everything visible.
He could see all the stars in the sky shine clear and bright, in what made for a magnificent view, yet they looked awfully lonely without the moon. All of Endërland lay before him, beautiful and calm, from the mountaintops, all the way down to the far seas. The new lighting made everything look even more spectacular than before.
He’d lost track of how long he’d been sitting out there, going over in his mind everything that had happened, starting with his first dream, and culminating with Heli’s death and his unexpected coronation. He’d come a long way from that very first day. He recalled the conversation with his mother, and how he had thought there was a bigger reason for him being here. How could he have foreseen back then that he would end up being the one responsible for the fate of the whole kingdom?
From the corner of his eye, the oracle appeared approaching slowly. He wiped his tears away the best he could, though he was past the point of worrying about appearing weak to him or anyone else at this point. In a few steps, the oracle reached him and sat down next to him, laying one hand warmly on his shoulder. He was actually glad the man had come; he felt better now, calmer after releasing some of all that withheld tension, and time had finally come for some more long-awaited answers.
‘How can I be the Great Lord, Alfie?’ he started as soon as the oracle sat beside him. He didn’t want to waste time talking about other things, or answering questions about how he was feeling right now. ‘I mean; I’ve never been here before; I have no memories of this place. The first time I came to visit Endërland was the night of my nineteenth birthday.’
The oracle smiled. He knew there would be questions.
‘Look over there,’ he calmly raised his arm to point southwest of the horizon. ‘That’s where Arba is; that’s where the five of you set out from. Do you see that big star above it?’
Daniel easily noticed the star shining right on top of Arba, brighter than any of the other stars in the sky.
‘How come it’s so bright?’ he asked. ‘I’ve seen it before, but I don’t remember it like this.’
‘That’s the Great Lord’s star, Daniel. When Arba was first established as the City of the Lords, that star was the Great Lord’s gift to the people, so they knew that he would always be with them. With time though, as the kingdom stopped needing him and people began to forget about him, the star began to lose its power and became just like any other star in the sky, until now. The moment you sat on that throne, the star regained all his former glory, and is shining bright once again, to let people know that the Great Lord is back.’
Daniel started to say something, but the oracle interrupted him.
‘I know you have even more questions than you did when you first came to me, but time has not come to answer them just yet. We have urgent work to do, Daniel. Endërland is at great risk, and everything that’s been good and beautiful until now will soon be gone, forever. Winter has usurped the Silver Throne and has surrounded himself with an army of hideous creatures like the ones you’ve slain here today. The other Lords have been dethroned and imprisoned, while the wingmen are flying against the mermaids as we speak. If you don’t accept your role in this, it will all end very soon.’
‘But what can I do?’ Daniel asked, still confused. ‘I’m just a man.’
‘You’re so much more than that, Daniel, and the sooner you realize what that means, the greater our chances are of defeating Winter. And you’re not alone, we will all continue to follow you every step of the way and have your back.
‘But even if you’re not The One, and there is some other explanation for all of this, we must consider ourselves lucky, for the timing could not be more perfect. We need the Great Lord on our side now more than ever, all of Endërland does. Only with him we’ll have a chance against Winter.’
‘So you would have me lie to everyone about who I am, or rather who I’m not, for the sake of the kingdom?’
‘Sometimes what people believe is more powerful than the truth, Daniel. I know what I believe, and so do your friends; but for you the journey is still young, and you have yet a long way to go. The time will come when you will know more, and you will decide for yourself what you believe and who you will be, but until that day, I would have you trust in the signs and us, and be who you’re needed.’
The oracle gave him another pat on the shoulder, and took the path back to the cave, leaving him to his thoughts again. Daniel watched him go, feeling even more frustrated and confused than before. Somehow, he had expected more than just a little pep talk. He had expected to understand more about how all of this worked and what exactly had led him to this point. Instead, he had been left with even more questions and uncertainties.
He did not go back right away. He sat where he was, gazing at the landscape in front of him and trying in vain to piece everything together, desperate to make some sense out of it. When that failed, he finally gave up and headed back inside the cave.
When he got past the broken gate and inside the courtyard, he spotted Hëna sitting down on the steps outside the castle entrance. Her sight immediately brought to mind Heli, and he felt that foreign weight on his chest grow bigger and heavier again.
For a single moment, he actually saw him in her, and this caught him by surprise. All this time, he had thought the twins looked nothing alike, but now, he could see Heli in so many little things. He was there, in the way she sat with her arms crossed and her legs half spread in front of her, like he used to do. Her fringe also fell over her eyes, as Heli’s blonde locks always di
d. Her stare was intense just now, like his used to get for those few moments when he got really serious. And even her lips, ah those beautiful lips, Heli would arch his a certain way whenever he was thoughtful, like hers were right now.
Daniel forced himself to push these thoughts aside; they were making him feel tearful again and it wouldn’t do. His own pain was nothing compared to what she was going through, and he would not presume that the loss he felt came even close to hers. Plus, he did not want to make things any harder for her. She was trying hard to be strong and in control, but Daniel could sense that she felt lost without her twin brother.
As he reached the front steps where she was sitting, Hëna slowly got up and faced him. Without saying anything, she held out her left hand, in which she was holding something small, wrapped in a piece of soft fabric. Seeing her stand so close to him, with her eyes red and her hair unruly, Daniel felt so much like taking her in his arms and holding her tight, until all her pain and hurt were long forgotten. But he didn’t think she would let him. So he shifted his gaze down to her hand, and received the small item she handed to him.
He unfolded it slowly and revealed the wooden figurine that he had seen Heli work on. He seemed to have finished it. Smaller than his palm, it was a replica of Lightning, now painted completely in black, except for the white mark in the shape of a lightning bolt on its forehead. Attached to the miniature stallion was a rider, wearing a golden crown. Daniel could swear it looked a bit like him. The details and workmanship of the little figurine were astonishing; Heli had really taken his time with it.
‘It’s the Great Lord,’ Hëna said with a weak voice. ‘Somehow he knew, and that’s why he did what he did, so that you would fulfill your destiny and we’d succeed with our mission.’
For an instant their eyes met and Daniel thought he was about to explode from the mass of emotions he felt just then. Without realizing it, he reached for her hand and barely said.
‘I’m so sorry, Hëna. I…, I wish more than anything that he was still here.’
She stood there, for the first time ever since Heli’s death looking into his emerald eyes. He looked back, but was still unable to read her, and he so much wanted to know what she was thinking of him right now. Did she blame him? Did she hate him? Would she leave him now that her mission was done?
So as not to hurt him, she did not take her hand off right away, but let him hold it for a few seconds, before withdrawing it slowly.
‘I know,’ she only said, before walking away from him and back inside the castle; leaving him behind, in the cold of the moonless night. Daniel watched her go, and his heart sank, feeling he had lost her forever.