Sahara Ashdell: The Son of Evil (Book 2)
Chapter 6 - All is not as it seems

The ride to the shopping district is awkward as the three elves make small talk about the holiday. “This is the shopping district?” Slagwart asks looking shocked out of the window as the carriage slows.

“Yes.” Sahara says with a smile at how surprised Slagwart looks.

“Where are the roads? Are these floating mountains?” Slagwart laughs with his questions.

Sahara had never seen anyone else’s first reaction to seeing the shopping district. She had thought she was the only one to ever have not seen such a place. This place feels giddy and magical. Well, more magical than any other place in the elf world she had been to. “This is by far my favorite place in the elf world.” Sahara says smiling and waiving out of her window towards the flying pixies that are passing by.

“It is a unique place.” Brystol says.

“Come.” Sahara says opening the door to the carriage after it stops in mid air.

“But, how would we…” Slagwart stops his question as floating stones appear at the foot of the carriage. He laughs excitedly jumping out of the carriage before Sahara or Brystol can exit first. “This is amazing.”

“Wait until you see the Upside Down Boutique.” Brystol says as he follows Sahara out of the carriage. “It is a stomach upsetting experience.”

“Just walk and the stones will follow.” Sahara says pointing toward the nearest floating cliff where a tall purple building resides.

They follow Slagwart as he cautiously walks toward the building. With each step a new stone appears beneath his foot. He seems more amazed by what is happening than Sahara had on her first visit.

After they arrive to the first cliff, that has sidewalks, Slagwart makes a dramatic jump and laughs excitedly with his words. “I would have to agree that this is one of my favorite places too.”

“Is there any shop in particular you would like to go to?” Sahara asks stepping onto the sidewalk next to him.

“I have always wanted to go into a teligame store.” He says looking toward Brystol.

Sahara rolls her eyes, “Of course you have.”

“I should like to go to the teligame store myself.” Brystol says giving Slagwart a fist bump.

“Then, you two go do that while I attend to some business.” Sahara says noticing Hexaria fluttering into the new pixie store called Pixie Place that is on the floating cliff above them.

“Are you sure we should not stick together?” Brystol says trying to protest her leaving them but Sahara ignores him and waves as she runs up the stones that are appearing as steps leading up to the cliff above.

Sahara quickly finds Hexaria in the loudly buzzing pixie shop. “Aranel Sahara! It is so good to see you.” Hexaria says with a curtsy.

“I am pleased to see you as well. Are you here for the grand opening of Pixie Place?” Sahara asks.

“Yes, but I am also here to ensure your learning needs are prepared for this summer. You still need to learn of the other kingdoms.” Hexaria replies.

“Right.” Sahara remembers she has not told the Treegan’s yet of her being the future tari of the other three kingdoms in the dark regions. She is not sure the aran would allow her to leave the tri-kingdoms to go visit. “Are you sure the Treegan’s can be trusted? They have lied to me about the betrothal.”

“Lied to you?” Hexaria asks fluttering closer to Sahara’s face.

“They knew all along that the betrothal could be broken, if I were..” Sahara’s words are stopped as Hexaria finishes her sentence.

“If you were to give up your virtue?” Hexaria asks and Sahara realizes that it was not just the Treegan’s that had lied to her.

“But I asked you last year.” Sahara says stepping back away from Hexaria in disbelief.

“And I, as well as the Treegans, upheld your Father’s dying wish.” Hexaria says causing Sahara some confusion.

“What do you mean, his dying wish?” Sahara asks.

Hexaria looks around the overly populated room before motioning for Sahara to follow her. She leads Sahara out of the back door of the store into the back alley, where no one else can hear them. “Your father used his declure one final time, moments before his death. Your mother used the last of her power to call for me. She knew I could fly in and out undetected during...you know. When I arrived,” Hexaria has tears falling down her cheeks as she continues to speak, “Your mother had already been defeated. Your father was wounded and Patreek was chasing him. He handed me the declure and a message to take to Aran Rayterbay. Whatever he saw in the declure was about you and your betrothal. His message instructed us to never let you find out about being able to break the betrothal because the future depended on it.”

Sahara feels surprised by the new information, “Why did the aran or tari not tell me that?”

“How did you find out about being able to break the betrothal?” Hexaria asks.

“Waizlynn, one of Brystol’s friends, told me.” She replies wondering why that mattered.

“Did you tell the aran this?” Hexaria asks.

“Um..” Sahara tries to remember if she had even been asked how she knew. “No. I don’t think they asked.”

“Ah.” Hexaria says looking flustered about something. “Well, I must be going.”

“Did the message from my father say anything else?” Sahara asks in an attempt to stop Hexaria but the pixie had already flown away. Sahara finds Brystol and Slagwart in the teligame store laughing and playing a game. Sahara pushes Brystol on the shoulder in aggravation. “Why didn’t you tell me about the message from my father?”

“What?” He obviously looks confused by what she is talking about.

Sahara shakes her head toward him before leaving the store and moving toward their carriage. She wants to go straight back to talk to the aran. This piece of information was way too important to have been left out. When she is halfway to the carriage, the magical stones she steps on suddenly disappears from under her feet and she begins to fall, before she can teleport, she feels her body move in an odd way and she suddenly is surrounded by darkness just as her body thuds against something hard. She realizes she is in a dark wooded area as she stands to her feet. Suddenly, she is knocked to the ground by something that falls on top of her. She recognizes the painful grunt of Brystol before he asks, “Are you okay?”

“No!” She says angrily as she pushes him to get off of her. “Ouch!” She says as he pushes her down into the ground as he tries to stand up.

“Sorry.” He says as she feels him take hold of her arm and pull her up.

“Where are we?” Sahara asks as she makes a globe of light appear, so they can finally see in the darkness.

“I don’t know. I was following you back to the carriage and you suddenly disappeared.” He says releasing her arm.

“How did you get here?” Sahara asks inspecting the tree next to them.

“I noticed you fell into some kind of portal, so I jumped in before it closed.” He answers.

They look around the dark wooded area for a moment before a light glow appears in the distance. “What is that?” Sahara asks in a whisper.

“I am not sure but I assume it is whatever or whoever brought you here. Maybe it would be a good time to teleport us home?” Brystol says whispering back.

“But, aren’t you curious?” Sahara asks stepping closer toward the growing light. She can see the silhouette of an elf just behind the light.

“No!” Brystol says angrily toward her. “And do not send me back without you either.”

She can’t help but smile at him knowing that was exactly what she was thinking about doing. “Fine.”

As the elf gets closer, Sahara realizes it is an ellon that looks familiar. She cannot think of where she had seen him before. “Aranel, we meet at last.” The ellon says with a bow. “Though, I do not recall extending you an invitation to this party.” The ellon says as he looks toward Brystol.

“I know you.” Sahara says trying to think of when they had met before. “How do I know you?”

“I do not believe we have met formally. I am Raglen.” The black haired ellon claps his hands together and the darkness suddenly disappears and it is daylight. Sahara can see everything clearly now and she realizes the woods they are standing in look familiar too. “I have been wanting to meet you for some years now. But you were one hard elleth to find.” He says as he begins to walk around Sahara and Brystol slowly.

“Perhaps you should have requested a meeting more properly than through kidnapping.” Brystol says sounding unsure of the situation.

“Silence.” Raglen says with a snap of his fingers. Sahara notices Brystol can suddenly not speak.

“What do you want?” Sahara asks turning toward the still moving Raglen.

“Who says I want anything?” Raglen asks.

“Well, you didn’t bring me out here to just chat.” Sahara says as she causes the roots in the ground in front of Raglen to rise up and trip him.

“Now. Now..” Raglen says clicking his tongue in disapproval. “I am not the one you should be trying to harm.”

“Give my friend his voice back.” Sahara demands but it only causes Raglen to stop moving and turn quickly towards her.

“Your friend? Is that what you think he is?” Raglen asks curiously. “You must not know him well.”

“I know him better than I know you.” Sahara replies.

“Really?” Raglen says spinning around in a quick circle excitedly. “He told you about how he has been helping Patreek?” Sahara glances over at Brystol wondering what Raglen means. “Or perhaps how he was the one that caused the sickness last year at Malorsty.”

Sahara doesn’t believe Raglen as she looks at Brystol to deny the allegations. “No. Brystol would never do that. What are you talking about?” She asks noticing Brystol looks down remorsefully away from her.

“He was the one that put Flaeter in each of your friend’s food.” Raglen says continuing on his path around the pair of elves.

“No.” Sahara says wanting Brystol to deny what Raglen is saying, but all he does is avoid eye contact with her. “Brystol wouldn’t do that.”

“Yet, he did.” Raglen says.

“Brystol?” Sahara asks wanting him to shake his head denying what Raglen was saying but Brystol just looks at her remorsefully and mouths the word 'sorry'.

“You see.” Raglen says triumphantly. “Not your friend.”

“You poisoned Marol, Carol, and everyone?” Sahara feels her heart breaking from the news. “But you tried to stop me from leaving the protective wall and stopped me from killing Fazor.”

“He was only playing his part. Right Cundu?” Raglen asks and Sahara can only stare in disbelief at Brystol as her heart shatters. “He did exactly as he was told. Start with Carol.”

Sahara feels her anger growing at the realization that Brystol had betrayed her. Her vision reddens as she tightens her hands into fists and she speaks to Brystol. “You? You poisoned Carol and Marol? And all those innocent elves?” She realizes how thankful she is that Brystol can actually not speak.

“He also is the one who has been helping control your dreams.” Raglen’s words cause Sahara to smolder with anger but more pain than anything else.

“Why?” She asks feeling her heartbeat increase. “Why would you work with Patreek?” She cries toward Brystol and he tries to speak but still cannot and Sahara feels her anger grow. She feels like her world is spinning out of control and she starts to lose herself in the painful feeling of betrayal. She had never felt so hurt before. She wants to hurt Brystol. She wants to hurt him more than she ever wanted to hurt anyone, even Fazor all those months ago. She had just started to let him into her heart and the entire time he was working with her enemy.

“Ah! Yes!” Raglen’s words make her realize she has raised Brystol up into the air and caused the sky above them to swirl with dark clouds. “Don’t hold back any of your feelings.” Raglen says and it causes Sahara to make the wind swirl down around Brystol quickly, so that it sucks all of the oxygen out from around him. She hears Raglen begin to laugh as she watches Brystol struggle to breathe in the globe of wind she has spiraling around him.

“You made me believe you cared about me.” She roars toward Brystol before she throws his body to the right up against a tree. He falls to the ground and she watches him gasp in air he had been lacking. “You pretended to care about me.” She roars again and sees him shake his head in denial. It angers her because she knows he has to be lying again. She causes the tree he just collided with to swing a limb down and try to hit him, but he dodges it. She hears Raglen laughing again and it directs her anger towards him. She causes the ground beneath Raglen to disappear and sees him fall into the pit before she looks back toward Brystol, who is shaking his head vigorously toward her with his hands up. She sees his mouth moving as he tries to speak but before she can tell what he is trying to say she causes the tree limb to knock him off of his feet so that he lands on his back.

“Now, why did you do that?” She hears Raglen asks sounding unhappy. She turns to see him climbing out of the pit she had created. “I thought we were becoming friends.”

“You’re no more my friend than he is!” Sahara’s demonic voice roars at him as she points toward Brystol causing him to rise off the ground again and she realizes her red vision is turning blue.

Raglen jumps up to his feet after he arrives out of the pit as he speaks, “I am at least honest with you.”

Sahara throws Brystol’s body toward Raglen hoping to hit him. But Raglen holds his hand up stopping Brystol in midair. Raglen begins to spin Brystol around in a circle in the air, he gets faster and faster and Sahara can feel her blue vision turning to red as she wonders what Raglen is doing. “Should I help you?” Raglen asks looking at Sahara with a dark smile. “Will that prove that I want to be your friend?”

Sahara remains silent as she watches Brystol begin to look ill. She is not sure what she feels toward Raglen but she focus back on her anger and pain toward Brystol’s betrayal. She stretches her hand out toward Brystol and yanks him away from Raglen’s spell. She causes electrical currents to wrap around Brystol as his body begins to convulse slightly in pain.

“Now, kill him.” Raglen says as he laughs evilly.

His words and laugh cause Sahara to look toward him suddenly realizing how she knows him. He was the evil laughing elf in all her dreams. Her anger is suddenly confused by the realization that Brystol must have been working with Raglen. “You were the one in my dreams.” Her demonic voice sounds less angry as she speaks toward him.

“It was the only way to teach you, cousin.” Raglen says with a smile. “You would never have known you could do all this had I not come to you in your dreams.” Sahara feels her anger lessen at being called his cousin. She remembers her anger control technique to think of something happy. She looks at Brystol and realizes how in pain he is and it hurts her heart to see him like that. She suddenly releases Brystol from the electrical currents as Raglen expresses his disappointment. “Oh, no. Why did you let him go?”

She feels the anger lessen as her red vision turns orange. “Why? Why teach me to use emotional magic?”

“It is the most powerful magic there is. It was the only way to get you to reach your full potential. And I have taught you well. Would you not agree cundu?” Raglen says with a snap of his fingers.

“Sahara, I’m sorry?” She hears Brystol coughing as he tries to catch his breath.

“Who are you?” Sahara asks feeling confused by why he would want her to be so powerful and call her cousin.

“Raglen.” He answers.

“But, who are you?” Sahara asks stepping back away from him realizing his eyes have changed from playful to evil.

“Why dearest cousin, do you not see the resemblance?” He asks.

Sahara swallows hard realizing Patreek must have had a son. No one had ever mentioned it to her. “You’re Patreek’s son?” She asks in disbelief. “I thought he wanted to kill me?”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Raglen shakes his finger toward Sahara scoldingly. “You’re too important to our cause to kill you.”

“Sahara don’t listen to him.” Brystol says standing to his feet but still sounding out of breath as if he is wounded.

Sahara looks over toward Brystol feeling the pain of his helping Raglen. “You helped him.”

“It isn’t what you think Sahara. Please let me explain.” Brystol begs but she throws her hand up toward him signaling him to stop talking.

“Say one more word and I will take your voice away permanently.” She says walking backwards away from Raglen and Brystol.

“We are not the bad elves here.” Raglen says. “We are the the elves on the good side.”

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“Good side?” She laughs as she continues, “You just told me to kill him.” She jabs her finger toward Brystol.

“I was testing you, I knew you would not do it.” Raglen replies and she can tell he is lying.

“Why would you think I would ever help you?” Sahara asks looking at Raglen. “That is what all this is. That is what all this has been the past year. You trying to pull me over to the dark side. Is that what you wanted, to recruit me?”

“It would have been simpler, but if you refuse, we can do it your way.” Raglen says raising his arms high in the air. Sahara notices the limbs of the trees above them begin to sway and the clouds begin to swirl.

Sahara feels herself laugh as she tells the wind to stop moving and the clouds to stop swirling in her mind. She looks a Raglen, who does not seem amused by her use of magic to stop his own. “Are you seriously trying to use the magic you taught me, against me?”

Sahara suddenly feels the ground beneath her move as she falls to the ground onto her back. She grunts in pain and doesn’t have time to get up before she feels her body being pulled up into the air. “Let her go!” She hears Brystol say toward Raglen before her body thuds back down on the ground.

Sahara notices Raglen’s distraction from her as he glares in anger toward Brystol. She takes the opportunity to cause the roots beneath Raglen to rise up and wrap around his hands. The roots do not stay on him long as he counteracts her magic and causes the roots to move toward her instead. She pushes them out away from her and realizes she will have to do something new that Raglen had not taught her in the dreams. As she tries to think of something, she feels her back slam against a tree and feels her body begin to sink into the tree, as if it were swallowing her. She sees Brystol throw a ball of fire toward Raglen, again distracting him. Sahara tries to get out of the tree but she realizes she is stuck inside of it. She feels panicked as she sees Brystol fall to the ground bleeding from his stomach after Raglen launched a large broken branch from a tree toward him. “NO!” She screams and causes the earth to quake. Raglen struggles to stand as the ground moves and Sahara feels her fear of Brystol being hurt take over her magic. The tree she is partly in splits in half allowing her escape.

Raglen looks far too excited by her actions. “Yes! Finally, a challenge.” He says moving his feet apart as if he is bracing himself for something to hit him.

Sahara feels the presence of a body of water nearby. She can feel the coolness of the water and all the swimming creatures within it. She knows it must be a lake or large pond as she mentally tells the water to come to her. She causes a large tidal wave to form and rush towards Raglen. She sees Raglen look puzzled by the feel of the ground beneath them rumbling. She runs over to Brystol as the water comes into view. She makes sure to cause the water to avoid herself and Brystol as it plunges around them. All she can hear is Raglen laughing just before the water hits him. After the water stops raging, she is surprised to see Raglen standing, seeming wet but unharmed. “That was refreshing.” Raglen says wringing the water from his shirt.

Sahara causes the ground beneath Raglen to open up so that he would fall down inside a deep whole again, but to her surprise he teleports just after falling so that he is now standing right next to her. She jumps in surprise that he can teleport. “You will find, we have much in common cousin.” Raglen says leaning toward her just before she feels her hands trapped by what feels like a tree branch. She then feels her feet pulled out from underneath her by another branch as her body rises into the air. The tree branches are hurting her wrists and legs. She teleports to the other side of the large whole she had created just moments ago, hoping to gain some distance between Raglen and herself. But she jumps again in surprise as she feels a stabbing pain in her left arm. She looks over seeing Raglen too had teleported so that he was just behind her. He is holding the knife that is piercing her arm. She quickly reacts by causing electrical currents to wrap around Raglen and yank him away from her. It also causes the knife in her arm to be yanked out of her arm as it stays in Raglen’s hand. “Thank you dear cousin.” Raglen says sounding in pain from the electrical currents, just before he disappears.

Sahara feels panicked as she looks around for Raglen, wondering where he might have teleported to. She realizes he is no longer in the woods with them. She runs over toward Brystol wondering if he is alright but he is not awake. She looks at the tree branch that is stabbing in his stomach and she debates on leaving him there in the woods or not as she remembers how he had helped Raglen and Patreek. She screams angrily at the sky before she places her hand on Brystol’s back and teleports them both to Kinderton castle.

The stab wound on her arm is healed by the next day, thanks to the magical ointment the Kinderton zori had given her. She had managed to explain to the aran and tari about Raglen portaling her to a strange wooded area and how Brystol had followed. She could not bring herself to tell them about Brystol betraying her and helping Patreek. She wonders if they know but from their shock, she assumes they do not. The holiday is rather quiet now that the Slagwarts had left and Brystol was still unconscious. Sahara found she rather missed all the noise, it felt far too quiet.

“He is awake!” Trylla says as she wraps her arms around Sahara. It had been three days and Sahara had begun to think he would never wake.

“He is?” Sahara asks knowing she is not sure if she feels relieved that he is alright or nervous about having to see him. She is not sure she can control her anger again.

“He is!” Tari Nathila says with a large smile of relief. “And he is asking to see you.”

Sahara knows she had no intentions of going to see Brystol since she had learned such disturbing things of him. She cannot possibly face him. “I have some matters to attend to.” Sahara replies pointing behind her. She is hoping the tari does not press her on what she has to do because it is a complete lie.

“Of course.” The tari says waving her hand toward Trylla to follow her. “We will let him know you will stop by later.”

Sahara only smiles in response as she watches the tari and Trylla move towards Brystol’s room. She quickly moves in the opposite direction hoping to put as much distance as possible between herself and Brystol.

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