The Broken Ones

Chapter 17:1 -Spring Island

-Your mother, or should I say our mother, was a whore. She never wanted any of us. She gave me this.
Jack stroke the scars crossing the right side of his face and smiled coldly.
-And when you were born she gave you to me and told me to get rid of you, to drown you in the river. But I didn’t. No, I kept you. You know why?
Ana’s hand was trembling and Soi could feel the cold blade of the dagger touch his skin.
-Do you know why, Ana? Because you are mine.
Jack bared his teeth in a smug grin and his cold grey eyes narrowed, they had same colour as Ana’s.
-Our mother gave you to me to do what I liked. It is because of me that you are what you are today. The greatest of all brokens.
Soi felt a chill down his spine, surely not…
-I… made you, Jack whispered excited like a child with a new toy.
Ana’s whole body quivered by Jack’s words.
-That limp leg of yours, I crushed it. You were my first creation, Ana.
An agonised moan slipped out of Ana but she was still standing.
-But you never showed any signs of magic so I let you go, left you in the streets to die. Someone must have picked you up, because you survived. I thought you were dead until Mack brought you to the Academy. I knew it was you with that long blond hair and grey eyes, you looked exactly like our mother and you were limping. I suppose I should thank Mack for bringing you to me. But I couldn’t reach you anymore, although you were mine so I had to create a way to get you back.
-Sam, Soi whispered.
-Precisely. Sam. He was so naïve that he actually cut off his own fingers just to see you again. I never got to fully explain what the brokens was, all I told him was that brokens are people with unrecoverable injuries. He wasn’t the first monster I’d met but he was the one that made me realise how easily manipulated they were. There he was, the best spy ever made and as a monster he was easily controlled although he never realised it because he was already in my debt for informing him of your whereabouts. Slowly you and him got under my control. But you were already too suspicious to let anyone come near you. You were already looking for me, your maker and I knew that if you would find out the truth I would lose you again so I had to direct your attention elsewhere before I could finally seize you. And that is why I made the monsters target you and also why I spread the myth of the flute. But Sam’s behaviour had already made you suspicious so I had to reveal him as a monster and then you met this man, Soi, Jack hissed the name out like a snake preparing for an attack and looked straight at Soi with his grey eyes.
-I don’t think you can imagine how this spring will change the world, not only for the brokens, he said with a low patronising voice, his head slightly tilted to the side. –Thank you.
Jack leaned back in his chair as it knocked on the cabin’s door.
-Yes?
The door opened and a sailor entered and bowed deeply.
-The ship took another route than us, sir, he reported while bowing.
-Really? Jack turned around in his chair and watched the ocean.
In the distance sails of another ship was barely visible.


He was thrown back into that small cupboard where he and Ana had been held prisoners together. He felt sick, his head was spinning and it wasn’t because of the swaying movements of the ship going up and down on the waves. He felt stuck in another nightmare but this time he couldn’t escape it by waking up. Jack was Ana’s brother… and maker. He was the person Ana had been looking for all her life and now she was trapped. He had crushed her leg when she was only a baby.
Soi felt like fainting and puking at the same time. He crawled up in a corner of the cupboard and puked until he felt empty inside. He crawled to the opposite side of the cupboard and lied down on the rough wooden floor with a heavy sigh.
What could he do? He was a prisoner, Siri was a prisoner and Ana as well, trapped in the chairman’s grip. Nibbles was a traitor. And he still didn’t know the whereabouts of his friends, did the chairman have them as well? On top of that, he had betrayed the location of Spring Island, his home. Soi felt useless, there was nothing he could do. Before he was swept away by sleep, white sails flickered through his mind. They gave him hope.
A pang of agony woke him up. He looked into a pair of crazy eyes shifting from green to red and Soi immediately tried to back away but Sam gripped the collar of his blue velvet jacket.
-Don’t think you can escape, this is a dream, Sam said smiling widely. His teeth were pointy and sharp.
-Do you want to know what is so good about dreams? They are not really true, Sam said and held up his silver dagger. –I can make you feel pain and not really hurt you.
-Why are you doing this? Soi asked, he tried to distract Sam and think of a way to escape.
-The chairman gave you to me, to do what I liked, as long as you don’t turn into a broken.
-But why? Why do you want to hurt me?
-I told you to stay away, didn’t I?
-You mean Ana? But I’m just her guard…
Sam growled.
-You came too close.
-I only protected her like I’m supposed to do.
-You are not supposed to be by her side at all! Sam roared. –That’s my side!
Soi tried to back away again, his plan wasn’t working and he still didn’t know how to escape. He couldn’t get killed, not just yet.
-But you weren’t by her side, so I had to be there instead. Why did you leave her? Soi asked recklessly.
-I had to, the chairman told me to, I was turning into a monster and Ana would leave me if she knew, so I had to leave before she found out. But I always stayed close to her, to protect her. And then you came, Sam snarled and held up the dagger.
-But… but, I don’t think Ana would have left you just because you are a monster. Ana isn’t that kind of person, is she? You should know, you know her the best of all of us.
Sam watched Soi with suspicion, his eyes kept shifting from red to green and back again.
-Wasn’t it the chairman who told you Ana would leave you? He told you to leave her, didn’t he? So it was his fault, right?
Soi didn’t think much of what poured out of his mouth and just kept asking question, it was what he was best of anyhow and if it could save his life he was willing to ask any question.
Sam sat down on the floor and looked at Soi with a dazed expression.
-I never thought of it, he said.
-Ana would never leave you, you are her best friend. Isn’t the silver daggers proof of it? She still carries it, and she never told me about it. It was always your secret, your bond. And she still has your ring, Soi kept rambling.
Sam lay down his head deeply in his hands and shook it slowly from side to side.
-She is still your friend, I haven’t taken her from you, I’m simply her guard, I mean nothing to her, I’m not even a broken.
-I hear you, Sam whispered with a low voice.
When Soi woke up again he was alone. He sat up slowly, his head still spinning around but less now. His encounter with Sam had made him more at ease but also more terrified. Jack didn’t need him anymore so there was no longer necessary to keep him alive. Soi could be dead before they reached the shores of Spring Island.

To be continued...
By J.L.Frick