SD IV El Juego Chapter 28 Part 2

“What do you think they are up to?” asked Kam, as a group of men raced from the Tower, waving arms and wings urgently.

“I think that they are finally realising that what smells like honey, isn’t always necessarily honey…” answered Cornelius, squinting skyward.

“I never understand,” complained Kam, scuffing his boot toe in the earth.

Cornelius reached across and punched him gently in the arm. Kam looked up and smiled at his strange friend.

“What I mean,” said Cornelius, sighing theatrically, “is that the Tower may well not be the prize they think it is.”

He raised his hand to stop Kam interrupting and continued.

“It occurs to me that it is just as possible that the Tower was built to keep something in, rather than someone out,” he mused, “and that we were sent here to change that particular situation.”

Cornelius remembered Shanna and the torn parchment. He never did get to read the second part of the prophecy that had so conveniently been misplaced. The wrinkled crone hid many secrets, including that of her origin. The disturbing transformation witnessed in the first-class cabin of the Prelate’s Light was something else unexplained. Butt wondered how he managed to forget all these things and yet selectively remember others. A series of suspicions began to crawl into his fertile imagination and his sense of unease increase.

“You look worried?”

Kam’s statements were always like questions, trying for approval whilst expecting a blow.

“I am.” said Cornelius, staring again at the relatively cloud-free sky, “Something is coming, something bad and I don’t know what.”

The Clansman waved over toward the still battling forces on the plain before them, “whoever wins will no doubt remember about us in their own time.”

“Not them,” said Butt, shaking his head in negation, “someone else. I can feel it.”

“What about the Tower?” asked Kam, trying to lighten the mood.

“That, my friend,” replied Butt, “is why they are coming and the whole reason we are still sat here enjoying the view.”

Instead of being worried, Kam was smiling. Cornelius had called him a friend, and that was worth celebrating. Kam never had any friends, and even strange friends were welcome. Whatever happened he would stick with his friend, that was something were fighting for.

Cornelius stared for a moment at the grinning idiot beside him and then turned to face the Tower once more. The secret was in there, yet he was not yet ready to find out the answer. He knew deep down who was coming, he just had to figure out the why.