The Heart of Azariah

Ebony watched Aiden’s body fall to the ground, clutching the knife in his side. He wasn’t dead—not yet anyway—but the maze was taking its toll. Though he couldn’t see her through the maze’s labyrinth, she had a bird’s eye view from her perch behind the Harvester seats in the arena. She chose this section above the others because the drab Harvester uniforms made it easy to blend in. Of course, her own Miner section would have been the usual choice, but they would be expecting that. Being Azariah’s most wanted meant she had to forgo preferences. She’d only held this status for the last twelve hours, since for ten years Aiden Nathaniel Leona was the prize hunted by the Master and his Enforcers. But now their prize lay dying on the arena floor and the air already wreaked of hunger for fresh game.

Ebony shifted on her ankles as a door slammed below the stands. A tall, dark-clad figure entered the maze and made quick work of the turns leading to Aiden’s writhing frame. Her breath caught as the newcomer’s sharp chin, crook nose, and impossibly white teeth projected onto the screen: Captain Crenic Lagrange, the Master’s cruelest and most loyal Enforcer. He paused before Aiden’s body to adjust his headset and to make sure Aiden’s microphone was well placed for the audience to catch every moment of what was about to transpire. It was sick. To die in front of your entire country was already hard enough. To have the world know every agonizing breath and gasping word along the way was ten times worse.

“Where is it, Leona?” Crenic’s voice range out over the speakers. A couple soft moans filled the ensuing silence before the dirt kicked into Aiden’s face crackled over the soundwaves. “I said, where is it?!?”

“If by…if by “it” you mean your charming demeanor, I’m…I’m afraid I can’t help you.” A pained smile crept over Aiden’s face on the split screen just as Crenic’s turned red with rage. The boot to Aiden’s face accompanied by a yelp boomed over the system as Crenic repeated his request.

“You’re trying my patience, Leona. Give it up, or this will be a lot more painful.”

“As...as opposed to this pleasant experience.”

Ebony bit her lip as a menacing glint flashed across Crenic’s eyes. Come on, Aiden. Don’t push him. Just hold on, we’re coming! All she needed was Martin’s signal and they’d make their move. She’d been able to convince Martin and the other council members that Aiden was key to the rebellion. If he died, so would their hopes for taking back Azariah. It had been difficult, but if the rumors surrounding Aiden were true, then a rescue was definitely worth the effort.

Crenic stretched his neck from one side to the other and shook his arms as if getting ready for a match and then, to Ebony’s horror, he reared back his heavy boot and kicked Aiden as hard as he could in his injured side. Aiden’s blood curdling scream rang out in Ebony’s ears for years to come. Her knuckles whitened as Crenic pummeled him repeatedly and Aiden desperately tried to roll away. “What do you want?!?!” Aiden screamed, but Crenic had lost control. Time was up.

Ebony jumped into the confused Harvester crowd, refusing to stop when a few of the kinder ones tried to hold her back. She could vaguely hear Luella cry for her to wait, but Aiden’s agonizing screams drowned everything else out. She leapt from the edge into the first hedge of the maze, repeating to herself the route she’d memorized during her perch. One left. Two rights. Three lefts. Aiden. The hedge ripped at her legs as she shimmied down before she let herself fall the last ten feet to the ground. Upon taking the first left, she looked up at the screen. Aiden had stopped backing away and the use of his arms to shield his stomach and face were the only signs left of resistance. Ebony quickened her pace, noticing for the first time that a third screen showing her running through the maze flashed up onto the dome enclosing the arena. No turning back now.

As she rounded the second right, Crenic’s voice reverberated through the maze, “Where is it, Leona?!? Where is the heart of Azariah?” He paused in his brutal assault for Aiden’s response, but all that came was a cascade of coughs. “Perhaps this will jog your memory,” Crenic barked, rifling through his vest like a madman. Ebony winced up at the screen while trying to control the frantic breathing funneling through her lungs. She urged herself faster, expecting a knife, poison, or some other torture device to present itself. Instead, Crenic took out a thin cloth which he ripped open and shook in Aiden’s face. “This. The most powerful object your father and the Master made. The night the Master came into power, your father replaced the object with this fake and wrongfully gave it to you at his death.” At these words, the entire dome flashed and changed from the simulated day to a simulated rainy evening. Ever committed to his production, the Master had installed water sprinklers to simulate pouring rain that now flowed down on everyone in the crowd. Ebony rubbed her face dry as she continued to sprint down the last three lefts and then stumbled against the hedge as a flash of light shot through the arena. White spheres of light dotted her vision as she regained her balance and looked to the screen for Aiden. The scene was much darker now and a limp body lay amidst several small flames. Only, the body was not Aiden’s. It belonged to a man she’d never seen before, though his blonde hair, creamy brown eyes, and thin nose were so like those she was running to save. A boy with the same hair, eyes, and nose as the body crouched, holding onto the man’s singed hand.

“It’s not your fault,” the body choked. The camera angle shifted to show horrible burns dotting every visible surface of the body, excepting the face. “Don’t…don’t ever blame yourself. You…you have it, Aiden. The heart of Azariah. Keep…keep it safe. Don’t ever let them find it.” The man then placed a wrapped package in small Aiden’s hand and said, just above a whisper, “It’s up to you to remember. Wear this and you won’t forget.”

As Ebony rounded the last corner, she could see Crenic holding the bundle in front of Aiden’s face. The screens shifted back to the present, though the simulated rainy atmosphere remained, and the close-up allowed Ebony her first clear glimpse of the object. When she finally saw it, she stopped dead in her tracks. The exact replica of the heart-shaped locket her father gave to her on the night of his death hung from Crenic’s hand. In a flood of memory, the words spoken on the screen came back to her, this time spoken by a dark-headed, green eyed man with an arrow lodged in his chest. Her father. It’s not your fault. The heart of Azariah. Keep it safe. The image took over her mind, searing into it every painful second of that night. And with the memory came a swirling realization of the presence. They didn’t want Aiden. They wanted her.

“Hey!” she yelled, as Crenic reared back to continue his attack. “I have it! I have what you’re looking for.”

Crenic’s cloak whipped against the rain as he turned his crook nose in her direction and his narrow eyes grew two sizes larger when he spotted the locket in her hand. He threw the fake in the dust and drew his sword in one fluid motion before standing in wait for her to step further into his trap. One look at Aiden’s body heaving a strained breath gave Ebony the courage she needed to keep moving forward. When she was within feet of the horrible man, she said, “I don’t know why I came to have this. I don’t even know why it’s so special. Honestly, it’s never brought me anything but heartache. But if you and the Master want it so badly, it must be key to Azariah’s survival. It could be the fuel of the rebellion!” She hoisted the locket high and stopped walking long enough to feel the silence resultant of these turn of events. All panels of the screen focused on her image and every ear in the arena strained to hear what she had to say.

“But,” she continued, her tone softening and her shoulders relaxing as she locked eyes with Aiden. “Some things are more important than causes.” Swallowing hard, she stood tall and set her expression to stony. “I will give this to you, no questions asked, and no struggle involved if you promise to let us go free.”

“Ebony, no…” Aiden whispered, through another bought of coughs. Ebony bit her lip and tried not to think of Aiden’s impossible recovery. She had to at least try.

“Interesting request. You would trade Azariah’s greatest treasure for a dead man?”

Swallowing hard and not looking away from Aiden, she said, “So it would seem.”

Crenic flashed his white smile and extended his hand. Chills ran up and down Ebony’s spine as she sealed her country’s fate by filling Crenic’s empty hand with the heart of Azariah. As soon as the cool chain left her palm the ground beneath them shook. Both Ebony and Crenic fell to their knees as the hedges around them rained down tiny leaves. Before she could guess at what was happening, the patch of ground directly beneath her opened and she fell into the arena basement.

“Aiden!” she cried out, but it was too late. The spot where she had just been closed to become the ceiling of her new dark prison. The final slam of the tile above her signaled the finality of what she had done. She had doomed them all. The heart was gone. And Azariah was lost.