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Mara stood blade in hand, looking at Eliot, while the Shadow walked away with the box. Eliot coughed a few times. He is sick. Why isn’t he looking at me?
“Are you sick?” Mara whispered. “Tell them if you are.”
Eliot brought his eyes up to meet Mara’s. His voice trembled as he whispered, “I know what you are.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Three steps backwards,” the Master said.
Mara took the steps. He knows what I am? What’s he talking about? Eliot looked to the floor again.
“Begin.”
Eliot dropped to his knees and held the blade to his own neck. “It came to me last night. It showed me what you are. It showed me what would become of me. It said I would suffer.”
“To your feet, boy,” the Master shouted.
Mara looked into Eliot’s eyes. He is scared of me. Why? “What are you talking about?”
“Enough. Seize him,” the Master shouted.
Two Shadows ran toward Eliot.
Mara blinked several times as the Shadows slowed to almost a stop mid-run, the sand kicked up by their feet hanging in the air, just as it had when he was attacked by the twins when he first got here.
The huge black-skinned Beast that had drawn Mara into the Shadow Forest all those weeks ago stood behind Eliot. Thick black horns curled from its head. Huge muscles covered its arms, chest, stomach, and legs. It didn’t have any clothes on, but there was no cock and balls, no tits. Its yellow eyes stared straight into Mara’s. It’s you. The Beast nodded slowly, then placed a huge, pointy nailed hand on top of Eliot’s head. Mara looked around.
Can anyone else see it? The mouths of the boys along the wall hung open as they stared toward Eliot.
Time went back to normal, the Shadows running, the Beast gone. Eliot screamed, then sliced open his neck and threw the blade away. His arms fell by his sides as blood first spurted from his neck, then poured down his clothes to the floor. The Shadows skidded to a stop. Eliot looked into Mara’s eyes, gasping silently, then fell onto his face.
The two Shadows turned to face Mara. Mara dropped his blade on the floor and took two steps away from it.
“To their rooms,” the Master said.
The two Shadows and two more from the wall rushed to the other boys and pushed them out of the courtyard. The Master walked toward Mara, flicking a hand toward the remaining two Shadows at the wall. “Leave us.”
What just happened? Where did it come from? Where is it now?
“I suspect a serious fever to be the cause,” the Master said.
Mara frowned and looked to the Master.
“Those with a high fever are commonly known to hallucinate. The fear of open combat likely causing the hallucination to involve you.”
“I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what any of this means. What was he talking about?” Was it the beast that visited him in the night? What did he mean about what I am?
“Body temperature can rise dramatically during sickness. Those affected report seeing things that are not there, only to return to their senses when they recover. I believe this to be the case. Some nightmare of his that felt real. It was my duty to delay combat. For failing to do so, I apologise. There is no doubt that this episode has caused far more harm than the intended good.”
Mara stared down at Eliot’s lifeless body. The blood had turned the sand almost black around him. A nightmare? Mara looked back to where the Beast had been stood. Am I sick? Was it really there? “Am I sick too?”
“You have been in close proximity to the boy. These things can be very infectious. Everyone shall be separated until any illness has run its course. Illnesses can pass around quickly in an environment such as this. Thankfully our little exposure to the outside world makes illness here rare. Do you have any symptoms?”
Why does he talk like that? “Any what?”
“Do you have any symptoms of illness? Fever? Headache?”
“No.”
