ASRAN SERIES- ACROSS THE BORDER

Chapter - 60

Then one by one Brenda started to paint her clan member's hands along with Cathy and Robert’s help with the magical potion. They ran their hands fast as they could not further delay their entry to the border.

Cathy finally felt a little proud of her daughter, Brenda, who took the initiative to maintain a little calmness among the clan members. She knew that most of the credit goes to Robert and his friend Peter, still she felt that it would have not been possible without Brenda taking the first step.

She decided to not scold Brenda for the time being and helped Robert in applying the invisible paint on everyone’s hand. Once they were done with the marking on their clan members without any further delay they embarked on their journey towards the border.

“Now, we will travel across the border and make sure that our enemies never see the daylight again,” Cathy roared and lifted everyone’s spirits again.

The group cheered and sang their patriotic songs to encourage themselves to fight harder and move their legs faster. There was hope in everyone’s eyes and they were now no fear in their hearts.

Robert felt proud that he was able to finish the task his friend, Peter assigned to him without any issue. He wanted to inform Peter about this very badly but then as he could still be traveling inside the portal, he decided to hold on to his excitement until they met again.

…

Meanwhile, Peter and Sussan reached the other side and came out of the portal. The minute they landed on the ground, they almost got swallowed into the quicksand under their feet. 

Peter was fast enough to jump to the safer side while holding his mother, Sussan in his hands. Once he landed on his feet, he found that the place they reached was not the witch’s lair. Instead, it was a wide desert with no stone but only sand everywhere. 

“Did we reach the wrong place as the witch shifted her place once again?” Sussan asked Peter.

“No, I was sure that she was here before we landed,” Peter said and scanned the area.

“I think it's better to get away from here before the portal closes itself. Maybe we could search for other locations as well if the portal could hold us for a little longer,” Sussan suggested while wiping the sweat on her forehead.

That place was too dry and extremely humid which caused them to get dehydrated within minutes of standing on that hot soil. Peter also didn’t find it feasible to spend the time going on a wild chase after the evil witch.

“Alright, Mom. Either we are a little early before her liar came here or we might have just missed her. Let’s get away from here before the portal closes as you suggested,” Peter nodded his head and got prepared to jump into the portal once again.

Just when they tried to jump into the portal to reach some other nearest location, they saw the portal start to glitch. Then it disappeared altogether and in its place, a void space started to appear in front of them.

Peter tried to stop the portal from disappearing using his magical power. But before he could control the portal, out of nowhere a gap suddenly appeared before them. Then they saw the witch’s slaves climb out of the gap and greeted them without any expression.

Sussan easily identified those slaves and she was shocked to see the people who once opposed the militants' ruling working for the evil witch.

‘Aren’t they against getting out of their planets? Why are these people here?’ She wondered.

“Mom, be careful! We cannot trust them any longer,” Peter whispered in Sussan’s ears.

Sussan cautiously looked at them and tried to analyze their bodies. But something blocked her energy field from scanning them. At that moment, one of the slaves spoke to them without showing any emotion on his face.

“Our majesty, invite you humbly inside our small place. Our Highness had been waiting to meet you for a long time now. Please come along with us without causing any trouble. Or else, Our Highness even gave us the consent to bring you both inside the palace at any cost even if we had to use any underhand techniques,” He said with a dead set eye on Sussan.

Sussan stood on guard as she could not understand how the evil witch could have known about her and also that they were coming here. She looked at the slaves fearlessly as she already knew what they meant by underhand techniques.

“The Witch knows that our powers won’t work on these people, so she cunningly sent them here, isn’t she?” Sussan asked Peter.

“Let us be cautious for the time being and follow them. Anyway, we need to make sure to save Elly and others before it’s too late,” Peter said while not taking his eyes off those slaves.

As Peter already has an experience of him being tied around a magical rope with just a finger shake from these slaves, he tried to move his mother behind him. He stood with a protective stance in front of his mother, Sussan.

Sussan glanced at her son in awe as she did not expect him to be so protective of her. If it was during those normal days, he would even hesitate to speak to anyone. But today he was acting all brave and even tried to protect her.

She had never once in her life expected that there would be a day when she had to stand behind her son. She felt proud but at the same time, she felt like her ego got hurt a little bit when her son acted all grown up in front of her.

‘Isn’t it, my duty to protect my son? Why was the role reversed now?’ She wondered and got a deep dissatisfaction in her heart.

At the same time, she thought, ‘It must be because he was the Ashes Lord’s son and this is one of the qualities I should have expected out of him.’

As she thought of the Ashes lord, she suddenly got reminded of David and his betrayal. She wanted to know whether the David she married was the actual David or the imposter!

‘Maybe this evil witch might know the truth about David. But how could I make her talk about him?’ Sussan wondered.

One thing she could not understand was, ‘Why? Why me?’ She understood that the evil witch intentionally placed one of her men near her. But she could not pinpoint the reason behind that until her eyes landed on her son.

‘Is it because she knew about the relation between Ashes Lord and Peter?’ The minute she realized that missing something, she lifted her head and at once looked at Peter! 

“It’s for Peter! It’s actually for Peter. They all were after Peter! They already know that he was the Ashes Lord’s son and the only way to assure that they acquire his power is by trying to convince Peter himself.” She mumbled and her face showed anger.

It was fine if they had only come at her but when someone tries to harm her children, she would never forgive them. When Peter found the changes in his mother’s face, he held her hands and said,

“Mom, Calm down! This is not the time to fight these people. Our important priority is to find Linda and save Elly, James, and Draven.”

“But…” Sussan hesitated as she did not want to let Peter go back to the evil witch.

“It’s ok, Mom. Trust me. Moreover, now is not the right time. We have to build an army sufficient enough to bring them down. Currently, they have captured more planets than we could ever imagine,” Peter whispered to Sussan.

“Alright,” Sussan decided to listen to her son for now as she too knows that if she tries to attack now, they may not win the fight.

Also, she realized why David remained so calm when Peter left in search of his sister Elly without informing her.  They wanted him to come to the evil witch in search of his sister and he got caught right in their trap. If not for James, she does not know what would have happened to the kids.

She also wants to know more about the details of the imposter as well as the witch. So, only by meeting the evil witch could they find out about them.

‘Who are these people? Why are they here? I need to find out as much information as possible,’ She thought.

Sussan also needed to find out if they already know about the Ashes book she possesses or not.