The Devil's Heir 11. (Isle of the Cursed)

Forgive the delay. Please. I had exams. They kept me busy.... hope you folks understand. thanx.
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ISLE OF THE CURSED:

Evan felt a hand on his forehead. He tried blinking but couldn’t. ‘Find your finger tips’ he ordered himself. Cold and darkness surrounded him, uncomfortable in the knowledge that the darkness was with him. He knew he had done something to upset someone but everything was vague. As if he had forgotten what had happened. He could feel the temperature in the room. It was very very cold. He tried to draw the quilt over his head but the quilt was not his. Feathers? Soft, dense feathers or fur, whatever it was he felt it covering him. He opened his eyes slowly as if scared he would break something delicate. A faint light was coming from a corner. Fine, it was his room. The owner of those wings had his head in her lap. Evan gasped, "Rihette…." Everything came rushing to him. They had an argument… about some angel of vitality or something. And he did not want to believe in her dreams. Another thing flew into his mind, he was going to become the Devil. But there was too much to be done before that, he had to find the curse and the cursed. Pain shot from the back of his head as he winced in pain and tried to ball his fists. That resulted in waking Rihette up. She hurriedly changed her position to make him more comfortable. Laying his head on the pillow she made her wings disappear.

"Rihette… are you there?"

"Yeah." Holding back the thousands of words she had thought of telling him when he would wake up she gulped down tears, for the unknown, for the love she could have lost.

He rolled her fingers and held her hand in his.

Rihette whimpered, "I’m sorry. I…"

"Shh…" Evan said closing his eyes again, "it’s alright. We’ll have to talk after dinner. I want to sleep…."

Without another word he fell asleep. Rihette perched on the window sill, her usual spot with one leg dangling down. The moon light streamed in as she pulled a curtain back. It made her look pale and tired. She had to wait. Say sorry. Razek was right, drifting away from each other could only cause more trouble. Too many unanswered questions were exhausting her. What was the curse? Who were the cursed? How were Evan and herself related as archangels? Where did Razek go? How were they to explain Evan’s sudden condition to his uncle? What would happen once he would be coronated?

Evan was aware of his surroundings. He had to think about what he would tell Rihette and so had made up a reason to talk after dinner He looked through barely open eyes. Poor thing. She sat with her head buried in her knees, tears rolling of that lovely face he had longed to see a smile on. After sometime, Rihette stood up and walked toward him, he was still asleep. She placed a hand on his forehead to read his dreams but all she found was a sensation of guilt and in that moment she knew he was awake, all that while!

"EVAN DORAN!" she was smiling and crying trying to beat every inch of Evan’s body black and blue. He was laughing softly and rolled to the other side.

"Wo…wha… ow, man! That hurt!" He yelled as Rihette swiftly kicked him out of the bed and thrashed him with cushions. "I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I was awake… hey, hey hang on!"

After what seemed like an hour of convincing her to stop, he settled on a chair next to the window sill. She sat there, her face streaked with tears. But she wasn’t crying. "Moron! I should have dumped you the first day itself."

Evan grinned, ok he was beaten up but not as badly as Rihette would have liked. More than relieved, Rihette playfully kicked his knee from her perch. He was still looking weak but nevertheless, she was glad he had forgiven her. "You know, your feathers are really soft…."Evan complimented. She blushed a bit and said, "So were yours."

Evan shrugged indicating that he didn’t have much of an idea about their past. Rihette grimaced and said, "Razek came visiting for a few seconds, you’ll probably remember everything once your coronation is over. So don’t break your head with that."

Evan nodded as they heard the approaching footsteps of a raven. Probably to announce dinner. Whenever he was late to dinner, his uncle would call for him. They expected a knock on the door which came a second later. Dark black robes, piercing gaze, though none could see their eyes, it made Rihette shudder. She became slightly more cautious in spite of knowing that they couldn’t see her. Evan nodded curtly and stood up to leave for dinner. Rihette pulled out a plate of Chinese noodles and settled on the table, her legs dangling while Evan straightened his back and looked at his uncle. He was in his devil form, he had been drinking, he could tell from his attitude. Evan started on his own food, like a prince and not a devil. He finished earlier than his uncle, wished him good night and started leaving. His uncle grunted back to acknowledge Evan’s greeting and continued to chomp away hungrily, greedily, devilishly. He had allowed the devil to take hold of him. Wondering about how he managed to bring himself back to his normal humane self, Evan sat in his library while Rihette fell settled comfortably on one of the couches in there. Evan pulled open the curtains. The faint moonlight streamed in like a waterfall, the darkness shrank away to a corner. Settling in one of the high- backed chairs, he flipped open the page of a brand new book. Rihette who was looking at his frame in the moonlight, admiring his strength, his will power, raised a questioning eyebrow. From a distance of a meter, he whispered, "It’s the list of curses prepared by a fellow devil…."

Rihette said softly, "You are not a devil Evan, please try to believe me. Why don’t you understand?"

Evan squeezed his eyes shut and said pleadingly, "Please, my love. Give me time- not to believe you but to understand my situation."

Rihette held back a sob and once again retreated to the sanctuary she had found in a hard bound book. It was a book about how the devils had defeated the wizards and witches. That was probably an epic, God wasn’t mentioned there. Nor was the castle in which they were living. A different earth was described with vampires and gargoyles, where shadows and time never corresponded and children were trained in the art of demon slaying. Nothing was mentioned about the pyramids of Egypt. As a matter of fact, the continents were not the same, the places were not the same. It was a different world. She turned the page…

The only portal between our world and the mortal world stands open during times when the five chiefs would meet. Bringing their forces together, requesting them to open that gate, sacrificing something of equal value in return will open the portal. And anyone who gains access to the portal once shall be allowed entry as many times as he wants.

Rihette read through frantically trying to find out which species did the five chiefs belong to. By the end of four hours Rihette had the answer with an aching back and a thirsty throat. The five wanted individuals were belonging to five different species but who they were was not mentioned. The first of the five was a sorcerer, the second was an archangel, (that would be easy, she could figure it out with a bit of help from the heavens), next was the prophet- a human with knowledge to all possible worlds but with limited words, fourth was a spectre and the last one was the most powerful devil. To find these people… a coronation party…. A secret meeting…. They agree and the portal is opened. Then? Then what? What lay beyond that gate? Why would Evan even want to go there? She stood up to get rid off the ctiffness when she noticed Evan was not in his seat. She tried calling out to him, no reply, she followed the voices coming from the main hall downstairs. Three people were talking. One of them was surely Evan….

"My lord… I assure you of the devastation this can bring upon you. The imbalance, the uncertainty. Believe me…"

"But uncle how is that possible when I haven’t seen the book myself, I do not know its position."

The devil’s throaty voice floated through the corridor where she stood, "I trust you my lad, you cannot find the book if you know about it. That is why everyone here is educated about the ‘Isle of the Cursed’ the place where all cursed souls are sent to be tormented with their sins till the end of eternity…. Call for the black raven. I suspect the presence of an enemy…."

Evan felt the color drain from his face, "Uncle… who is your enemy?"

"Archangels on a mission sent from heaven, to balance out the curses, to release the souls from the Isle of the Cursed…."

Rihette gasped as she realized what that sentence implied. Evan willed Rihette to disappear, from the face of Earth before the most elite and skilled raven set out in search of her.