The Wind of the North

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The Wind of the North Page 75

by Eckehard Brahms


  I desperately turned my head, and for a moment I met with a gaze at Rion. There was blood on his face, too, but in his yellow eyes I saw the worry for me. He saw what was happening behind the flames of the labyrinth. We only looked at each other for a moment, and then he turned away again, and his blue blades gleaming even faster, with such destructive power that Sa'darrowed astonishingly and began to retreat.

  - But I can kill! - Alira screamed, and it was easy!

  She swung her hand and Danila flew to an unimaginable height, and then flew down with a stone. Xenia screamed. I threw my wind towards the guy, trying hard to contain the fall. I never did, but now I tried my best. And I did it! Obeying my will, the wind picked up Danila and laid her on the ground behind a maze.

  Again, a quick glance. And a joyous scream. Because now Rion was coming, and Saarhard was complaining near the wall of fire, repulsing his attacks. A short stroke of steel, and through the naked chest of the older demon lay a bloody band. At the same time one of the apostates fell, and Sa'dharhard pulled all his strength out of him, drying him to the bottom.

  Xenia tried to crawl away from the priestess, but she caught up with the fugitive, pinned her foot to the ground.

  - Where are you going? - She almost tenderly asked. My vortex circled her again, trying to break through the defense.

  - Is that the best you can do? - Alira mockingly asked. And she frowned because two more defectors fell behind the maze at the same time. Xenia twisted and grabbed her teeth into the priestess's ankle, pressing her to the ground. Alira shouted out and hit the girl with her teeth.

  - Don't you dare touch my friends," I was angry. The power burst into me with such force that the earth rose to the ground, and a flame broke out around me. It turned out that my element was not only air... I threw the priestess away, and she flew away from Xenia, rolled over her head, and fell to the ground. And then she was gone. I looked around confusedly, not knowing where she went. Ksenia sat down, shaken her head, looking around too.

  - She's here somewhere! - A friend screamed, trying to get out of the rope tying her up, - Vetriana, look out!

  I backed away wary, looking around. Another retreater fell.

  Alira appeared behind my back and stuck a knife in my back.

  - You stupid girl! - she strained it," did she get it? Who are you trying to compete with, you poor girl?

  I turned around and wanted to say something, but the priestess's face was suddenly so distorted by the make-up of pain and horror that it looked like the face of death.

  - Nooooo!!! - she screamed.

  I turned my head as the blade of Archarrion entered the heart of his elder brother, and at the same time the apostates who had fed him with power fell to the ground. The labyrinth burst out in an unbearably bright, black and scarlet flame, accepting the sacrifice of true blood. But Rion did not even stop to look at it, his wings opened, and the demon soared into the sky, but fell down near us. Alira's blade pressed down my throat.

  - You killed him..." she exhaled. I could not see her face, but I felt the priestess's heavy breath, her despair and pain. Traced the threads of power... Holy elders! Alira was connected to Saarhard by a blood fusion... That's why she needed him so badly, so vital, that's why she'd been looking for a way to get him back for six centuries. For a moment there was a strange pity for her in me. But only for a moment. The priestess made too many innocent sacrifices for her love to truly feel sorry for her. And if she is not stopped, it will destroy more...

  My palms were stabbed with force, my body flashed, but the priestess only pressed the blade down my throat.

  - Try it," she said, "and I'll be quicker.

  - Alara, let her go," said Archarrion. "You can't change anything, it's over.

  He spoke calmly, but I saw the darkness crawling through his body. It looked frightening on the bloody demon body.

  - You killed him... Alir again. The blade pressed harder into my skin, how? How did you do it? It's impossible... impossible...

  - Alira, let her go," a threat has already slipped through the voice of the Archharrion, "you know you can't leave. You will not be able to leave now. Put away the knife and I won't touch you, I promise.

  There was a terrible priestess laughing behind my back. She seems to have gone completely mad.

  - Will you let me go? You're gonna let me go? Do you expect me to believe you? Stay back! - she squeals, you take a step, and I'll slit her throat! That's weird... You do care, don't you, Rion? You care about her... Crazy laughter again, put the gun away.

  The Archarrion threw his blades to the ground without letting us out of your sight. The steel pressed against my throat even harder, and I felt blood flowing through my skin. Rion clenched his teeth. He wasn't looking at me, he was looking behind my back, at the priestess.

  - You took the most precious thing from me, Archarrion," she said, "but you also have a weakness. Even you can't bring that girl back from the shadow world, can you? And I'll kill her before you get there, believe me!

  - What do you want? - He asked me harshly.

  - What do I want? What do I want? I want you to squirm in agony, demon! I want you to moan in pain! That's what I want! And I know how to hurt you so much! I'll give you the head of that stupid girl you declared your bark! How do you like my present, Archarrion?

  - Wait, - he still wasn't looking at me, - let her go and you can do whatever you want with me. You long for my death, why do you want Vetriana? If you kill her, you'll die too, and you know it.

  - Do you expect me to believe you? Believe you'll let me get close to you? - You'll kill me as soon as I let the girl go.

  - I will bind myself to a sworn labyrinth," said Archarrion quietly.

  I tried to catch his gaze to see what he meant. But he still only looked at the priestess. And she knew exactly what the Archarrion was talking about.

  - The unbreakable oath of the labyrinth," she said, "you can't hurt me if you swear by it...

  - Yes, - he still answered calmly - let her go. Swear to the Moon Temple that you will not touch the Veterness, and then go away and never return. And I will give you the vow of a labyrinth.

  - Rion," I whispered, "do not swear to her...

  Steel hit my skin even harder, and he twitched, clenched his fists. Alira laughed hoarsely.

  - All right, Archarrion," she said, "we have a deal. You go first," she said.

  He tilted his head and slowly uttered a phrase in a language I'm not familiar with. The labyrinth behind his back flashed again.

  - The oath will come into effect when you let the Vetriana go," he finished.

  - The oath has been taken," the priestess laughed and lowered her hand. I brought my palm to my throat, and all my fingers were covered in blood. I cried out because Alira had rushed to the demon and stabbed the blade into his side. She didn't kill or hurt me, but that's not what hit me, that Rion stood there and didn't even try to stop her. The vow of the labyrinth kept him from hurting Alira.

  - Vetriana, go away," he said, "I command you.

  Orders?

  It was as if my consciousness was split, as if I were in my body at the same time, watching from the outside. So Xenia rides the ground, unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the tracks. So Danila came to her senses and sat down, unaware of what had happened. Here comes the scarlet maze of light. The demons are beating into the invisible barrier. Here's Rion, standing still, and Alira laughs to try on where else to stab him.

  Here I am, with a pale face and a dress bodice covered in blood. It's the last one.

  I took two steps, lifted my palm, and let go of what was in me. There was always, with wind and light, with rain and life, with love and pain. The sixth element. Death. I guess I'm a wrong schema, not like the others... And even if Archarrion was ready to die to save my life, I won't let him do it once. Because to protect what I love, I can kill, too. The power of death slowly rose from my palm and fell on the priestess's chest, stopping her hand, slowing down the beating of her he
art. Killing.

  Alira fell before she knew what had happened.

  And in a moment, Rion pressed me against him, stroked my hair, covered my face with kisses, and the yellow eyes reflected the flames of the maze. Only now did I realize how much he was scared for me...

  - Chickenpox... my good one, let me see... Lift your head... - he says, trying to see my neck. I was swinging, scratching... And reaching out, trying to put my hands on him to heal his wounds. But he pressed my palms against my lips and kissed me again as if he couldn't get away.

  And then... Then we both felt it. The strange pinching emptiness that formed underneath my heart, the bitterness of loss. The springs... The springs of the underworld were fading.

  The Archarrion threw his head up, broke away from me. We turned to a scarlet spiral. The flames were getting smaller and paleer, the redness was replaced by gold, and then it began to melt. Rion was silent, his yellow eyes reflected a fading maze.

  - The sources are fading," he said, "all of them.

  I nodded," he said. Yes, everyone with magic and power felt it. In an instant, all the Sources of the Underworld began to fade. So did my source in Riverstein. Somewhere underneath my heart there was a void... The balance pendulum swung towards the Abyss. We stood and watched the spiral become grey ashes. The barrier of Alira disappeared with her death, and the guards froze around the heart of Chaos, silently and without movement. There was no point in fighting anymore. There was nothing else to fight for...

  I looked at the thin lines of power that were still shaking in the air, endless lines stretching in all directions, on many versts. I always saw them, these threads, they wrapped the world like lightest cobwebs, trembling in my wind, silver in the water, wrapped the roots of trees. Woven together in invisible nodules...

  "Look where others don't look, Tyara..." that's what my mother said.

  The scheets saw the threads of power. No one but us could see them, and I got so used to them that I stopped noticing them... And they were all like pointing the way.

  - Rion," I whispered.

  He was silent, still looking at the labyrinth. For him, as Guardian, the fading of the source was particularly painful. Moreover, Archarrion understood that he now saw more than just the death of the source, he saw the rapid death of all demons.

  - Rion! - I shouted, - come on, listen! That's right! It's the way it's supposed to be! The source must fade!

  He turned his head to me, darkness crawled across his body, changing him, turning him into a man. I grabbed his hand, staring persistently into his eyes.

  - We need to find the original Source, Rion!!!

  - What are you talking about? - He asked.

  - The Tree of Life!

  He looked me closely in the eyes, apparently rightly thinking I was mad.

  - I'm not crazy! I got it! Just now, I got it! The threads of power, they all lead somewhere, you understand? I can see them! I've always seen them, but I didn't pay attention! They're intertwined, all the threads, from all the sources, but they all start somewhere! Do you understand? Somewhere there's something that's been feeding all the springs of the underworld for millennia! And this is the Tree of Life, the only, the strongest, primordial Source!

  - And where do we look for it? - He must have laughed, apparently decided not to argue with a madman.

  - There is only one place where it can be, I exhaled.

  The Archarrion looked me in the eye.

  - Hell," he said slowly, "a primordial source can only be within a line.

  - Yes!

  I remembered the islets of black sand around Riverstein. They began to appear when I strengthened the protection around the castle, made it more powerful, and wished for protection from magic. Black sand wasn't a threat, it was a defence I was called upon to defend. I created this barrier myself, a small part of the Hell.

  - The Devil is a defense, Rion! A defense against magic! That's why the sand absorbs all sorts of magic and pulls out life force! It's a defense against invasion, against attack, against aggression! The devil hides the original source and we need to find it! We can fix this, Rion! We can do it!

  He looked at me for a moment, and then he smiled.

  - Sounds like bullshit, Vetriana, but I believe you.

  He drew me to him and kissed me on the lips, greedily, demandingly, almost rudely, with a passion that made my legs smother and took my breath away. I threw my hands around his neck, and I guess we looked strange, two crazy people kissing when the world rolls into the abyss. But at that moment, we didn't care about the world or the sources or the demons. The world just didn't exist...

  The only thing Rion had enough to do was to order the guards to take care of Xen and Daniel.

  And then Archarrion picked me up and carried me somewhere, never stopping to kiss. The guards saw off with the eyes of their master, but I don't think he cared about that now. He looked at me, covered my face with kisses, almost growling from the need to go somewhere and the impossibility of intimacy right here and now.

  I tried to appeal to his discretion and even reminded him of the wounds, but Rion looked at me with a hungry look, and I kept silent, afraid that if I stopped him, we wouldn't make it to the palace. I always suspected, of course, that demons are fiery creatures, but to be so...

  I don't know which room we fell into, I didn't understand, and I didn't even notice why I was left without a dress and where his clothes went... Maybe it just burned with the heat of our bodies?

  Rion drove me crazy with his lips, his caresses, his touches that were everywhere. So insatiable and frankly, I didn't know whether to blush or enjoy it. I didn't know that men's caresses could be so...

  I'd burrow my fingers in his hair, iron his body, not blushing, but enjoying it. He laid a kissing path over my body, his hands and lips dancing a dance of desire on my body. I pressed him against me, and he lifted his head looking me in the eyes. And during the intimacy he kept looking at me, catching my breath, not letting go for a moment...

  - I need you, Vetriana... - he whispered, - I need you so much... I can't without you...

  And when we did get back to this land and swim out of a storm of passion, Rion gently kissed my lips and looked a little guilty.

  - Chickenpox," he quietly asked, "did I... hurt you? I'm sorry... You're driving me crazy.

  I had a mocking snort. Well, I just couldn't help myself.

  - Well..." I reached out, "I promised to just peck, and I...

  He was laughing.

  - You're impossible...

  I tried to pretend that I was offended and even crawled away from him to the far corner of the bed. Rion lazily caught me by the leg and pulled me back. And he started kissing again, insatiable. Even though I wasn't far behind. Two madmen at the edge of the abyss...

  - I was afraid for you," I said quietly as he calmed down a little and lay back rubbing my back. Rion raised my chin, making me look into my eyes, smiled.

  - It sounds almost like a confession," he said mockingly. I tried to escape, but he just laughed and burrowed his face into my hair.

  - I'll wait," he said quietly, "I'll wait, Vetriana.

  * * *

  I stayed in Chaos until morning, Rion just wouldn't let me go and he didn't care about all my arguments. When I tried to say, "Shyder's gonna worry," I just faded away with rage that sparkled in Rion's eyes.

  - Chickenpox, Shyder's only alive because I'm... trying to understand how you feel about him. It's friendly. Do you have any idea how difficult this is for me? All these months I've been thinking about Shyder next to you, watching... touching. You have no idea how much I should have held back and not killed him. And at the same time, all male creatures a few miles away from you. So, please... Don't say anything to me... About your friends! If you want them to keep breathing.

  I looked at him without knowing to laugh or cry. And a strange warmth was pouring inside me from the realization that he was... jealous. The Archarrion, the dark demon, is jealous... of me? How
astonishing... How sweet...

  But as much as we wanted to dive into the abyss of our feelings, we still had to go back to reality.

  The morning was grey, I woke up and it was chilly to eat from the chill. I climbed up on my elbow. Rion was standing by the window. I knew what he saw there: the gray ashes of the fading spring. I came up quietly, hugged him.

  - Rion, it's not over yet, I believe it.

  - Yes," he answered quietly, "it's not over yet," he turned to me, "tell me everything you know, Vetriana.

  I quickly told my conversation with the keeper of the Grani and my assumptions. He kept silent, comprehending what he had heard, and nodded.

  - So, Shit," he said.

  - Yes," I smiled, "Shit.

  * * *

  After the ablutions in the thermal bath, where Rion had not left me alone again, I had to put on a blue tunic, which with a glance all over my face brought Albie. My dress was ruined and torn, which embarrassed me a lot. But I was sincerely glad to see the red-eyed demonica and couldn't resist hugging her, which made me blush with Albie. And I didn't know that demons could blush.

  - I'm so glad you're back in Chaos, Mistress of the Veterans," she said and sighed, "although Chaos is becoming different now... This war and our labyrinth, which is dying out, is so terrible...

  There were tears shining in my red eyes. I touched her hand soothingly.

  - Don't give up hope, Albie. As long as we're alive, we must hope for the best.

  She nodded.

  - Shall I brush your hair, mistress?

  I remembered Rion going through my hair at night and blushing. He himself went to the demons this morning, yet he had responsibilities that he could only neglect for a while.

  - No, thank you, Albie. Somewhere in the palace my friends, boyfriend and girlfriend, they're people, do you know where I can find them?

  - Of course I know, madam, I'll walk you out!

  I nodded thankfully, dressed in tunic, and we went out into the corridor to face Daarhar nose to nose. He was distraught when he saw me, and he even went backwards. Then he froze, as usual, in cold eyes, nothing reflected. And suddenly he bowed. Now I was worried.

 

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