“Do not engage the Malaki in combat when avoidable. I don’t want to see any casualties today.
“Am I understood?”
“Yes, sir!” the group called out together, obviously excited.
Phoenix clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Let’s kick some Malaki ass! Transports start in five minutes, so get ready!”
Phoenix and Bash jumped off the table as the knights began breaking off into strategic pairs.
Phoenix came to Ara, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her forehead. He held her close and murmured against her hair, “My group will go first so we can get the surprise drop on the council room. I want you to stay behind to oversee the transports, then hit the lower levels with Bash. I think your magic is powerful enough to withstand more heat than the knights could...except maybe Maddox. Those dragons probably upped his fire tolerance a bit.” Phoenix laughed. “If you can only make it so far due to the heat, just use your magic to pulse the sleeping dust as far through the lower tunnels as you can. We might not get them all, but we’ll get as many as we can.”
Ara nodded, “I’ve got it.”
Phoenix grinned. “I know you do. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She gave him a small smile and echoed his prior words back to him, “Be cautious, my love. Come back to me.”
“Always,” he said with a smile, followed by a passionate kiss.
After he pulled back, he grinned at her and winked--a promise for later.
Maddox and Bash approached with two of their more seasoned knights.
Ara felt a little better that a solid team accompanied him, though her feeling of dread still didn’t subside.
Phoenix called out, “All right. Everyone line up in pairs. We’re moving now.”
He nodded to Bash, who pulled a travel sphere out of his pocket. Bash mumbled a few words to the sphere, blew on it, and dropped it.
Phoenix winked at Ara quickly before his group disappeared.
Seconds later, Bash returned and quickly repeated the process for the next group.
Transporting everyone took less than a minute, then Bash was back for Ara.
“Let’s go, Queenie.” He held out his hand to her, and she took it.
Moments later, they stood in a stone-lined hallway, well lit by flickering torches. The black stone walls looked to be volcanic rock. In this location, the heat was uncomfortable but not unbearable. The floor seemed to slightly slant downward as it led to lower levels.
She could see several doors lining the hall ahead.
“This heat level okay for you?” Bash murmured.
She nodded.
She could hear distant shouting, laughter, and cheers echoing through the halls above. The upper-level knights must be finding some success.
As she and Bash moved down the hallway, the first door flew open and an orange-haired Malaki came rushing out. His skin flickered with the fire underneath and his eyes widened when he spotted them. Ara hurled a handful of dust at his face. His eyes immediately rolled up in his head, and he crumpled to the floor in front of them.
Ara laughed. “That’s oddly satisfying,” she said.
Ara and Bash ran down the hallway, opening doors and dusting any Malaki they met along the way. Bash got a few hand-to-hand combat moments in, which he really enjoyed. He actually laughed a few times! It made Ara smile to have the cambion frolicking with her like a fairy; she never thought she’d see the day.
Two dozen Malaki down, and they were having a great time.
The further they descended, the hotter the temperature grew.
Ara was starting to sweat and was about to comment to Bash about the heat, when suddenly a sharp, unbearable pain shot through her chest. She cried out and dropped to her knees in agony.
The pain was immeasurable; it felt almost like an enormous, electric pulse flowed through her body.
She collapsed to the floor.
Ara mentally forced herself to take inventory and realized the pain wasn’t physically coming from her... She wasn’t sure how she felt it, but she knew something had to be wrong with Phoenix. She’d never felt anything like this before...
“Bash, take me to Phoenix,” she managed to groan, teeth clenched.
She heard Bash curse as he rushed to her side; seconds later they were outside the council room.
Dark magic permeated the air. Something had gone horribly wrong.
Ara’s brooch pulsed frantically, warning of danger, though Ara was too distracted to notice.
Ara willed herself to stand through the pain and stumbled forward into the council room.
A large circular table lay broken off to the side, chairs were scattered everywhere, and bodies littered the floor. Maddox and the knights lay amongst them; it appeared they’d been flung against the walls and knocked unconscious. Smoke hung in the air, as though a small explosion had occurred.
Phoenix lay sprawled on the floor in the middle of the room screaming in agony as a yellow-haired Malaki stood above him, laughing and streaming a tar-looking wave of dark magic through Phoenix’s body.
Rage flashed through Ara, making her forget the pain.
The anger roaring through her body must have made her vocally roar, as well, because the offending Malaki looked at her with surprise just as she hit him with a huge burst of magic; it shoved him off his feet and into the wall behind him with enough force to knock him temporarily senseless.
She whirled in a circle, her hands outstretched; her blue magic whipped and glowed around her in a gale-force wind, amplified a hundredfold by her rage.
Ara vaguely noted Bash pummeling his fist into the recovering Malaki’s face several times, effectively breaking his nose, before shoving a handful of sleeping dust into his mouth.
She focused her power, willing her magic to gather as much sleeping dust as it could find. After a few moments, when its blue swirls glittered with dust, she released it in a powerful whirlwind; its mission: to find and incapacitate every Malaki in the place.
She fell to her knees at Phoenix’s side.
His eyes were open, but unfocused. Intense heat radiated from his skin. He pulled desperate, shallow breaths. Unable to speak, he mouthed “Ara.”
She pulsed soothing, healing magic over his body, hoping to do some good. His breathing seemed to ease a bit as she continued to wrap him in her most potent healing, so she kept pumping out as much healing as she could.
“I’m here, Phoenix. I’m here,” she said.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
She tried to take his hand, but it was so hot, her skin blistered; she had to let go.
She continued to use the maximum strength of her magic to try to heal him...but he was too far gone.
He drew one last, raspy breath, then exhaled slowly, Ara’s name on his lips as his body stilled.
“No! Phoenix! No!” she wailed, her heart breaking.
Not even her most potent magic could revive someone from the dead, but she continued to try, determined not to give up--to keep doing something. When her magic didn’t work, she put her hands on his chest to try resuscitation. They blistered to the point of bleeding, but she kept trying.
“Ara. ARA! You’re hurting yourself!” Bash wrapped his arms around her and pulled her away. She fought against him, trying to go back. “You can’t! Let me!”
Bash took over her efforts, his skin reddening, but not burning, as he dutifully started chest compressions.
Phoenix’s clothes began burning away from the heat.
Ara crumpled nearby, helplessly sobbing. She couldn’t even bring herself to heal her hands.
Her entire life, they’d been together; she’d never, ever been without Phoenix. She didn’t know how to survive without him. She wasn’t sure she even knew how to try. She felt...empty. Like a vital piece of her was missing...like even her heartbeat wasn’t as strong.
“Son of a bitch,” she heard Bash curse. “He just keeps getting hotter. I don’t understand... I’ve never seen
magic like this.” His hands, too, were beginning to blister, though they healed rapidly, before it got so bad he finally had to stumble away.
He went to Ara, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tightly as she sobbed. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. We can’t do anything else for him.”
It was the first time Bash had shown her actual respect instead of calling her Queenie... She didn’t like it.
Smoke began to rise from Phoenix’s body as he grew hotter; his flesh turned black and crumbled away... He was turning to ash before their eyes.
Bash pulled Ara to her feet and hurried her away from Phoenix’s body as flames burst forth and fire consumed him.
Bash used his body to shield her from the sweltering heat of the room as he edged her toward the door; she was inconsolable and past caring whether the heat took her, too. All she could do was watch in anguish as the final, destructive moments of whatever dark magic this was claimed her lifelong love.
Maddox and the knights had, fortunately, regained consciousness and managed to make it outside the room before the intense heat became too unbearable. The unconscious Malaki littering the floor were made of fire, so the heat was nothing to them.
The only casualty on this awful day was their fearless leader.
The knights gathered and knelt outside the doorway, bowing their heads in respect for their fallen king.
It wasn’t long before the heat subsided; a dark, body-shaped, pile of ashes and Phoenix’s wedding band, its green current glowing dimmer than normal but still steady, were all that remained on the floor.
Bash didn’t let Ara go, holding her tight to his chest while she sobbed against his shoulder.
Maddox came back into the room, and he and Bash simultaneously embraced her, crushing her between them and consoling her until her sobs subsided to just a stream of tears.
While Bash kept her wrapped in his arms, Maddox stepped away long enough to retrieve Phoenix’s wedding band and bring it to her. She clasped it in one of her burned hands like a lifeline.
“Thank you, Maddox,” she hiccupped.
She took a small step back, releasing Bash, but he didn’t let her go far and put a hand on her shoulder in a show of support.
There was much more to Bash than what met the initial eye. Who would’ve thought that the “heartless,” “short-tempered,” “antisocial” cambion would be Ara’s biggest supporter during her worst crisis? He kept her from destroying herself in her grief and had literally tried to breathe life back into her husband; Bash had saved her life and tried to save Phoenix’s. As far as she was concerned, she owed him.
“There are no suitable words... But... Thank you, Bash. I would not have survived this without you,” she murmured.
Bash just nodded once in acknowledgment, his golden eyes solemn and concerned.
Ara knew she had to pull herself together for the good of her kingdom, so she wiped her tears and slid Phoenix’s ring onto her thumb--the only finger it would fit. As she did, she could’ve sworn she felt a flutter in her chest. She pressed one of her injured palms to her chest and felt it again. What could it mean?
She glanced over Bash’s shoulder and did a double-take when she saw a small wisp of smoke hovering over Phoenix’s ashes that definitely wasn’t there before.
She felt another small flutter and the wisp grew a little taller.
“Phoenix?” she whispered, staring.
Everyone turned and watched silently as the wisp of smoke slowly grew taller and wider. It steadily filled into the shape of a person...or a mountain fairy. The fluttering in Ara’s chest continued but was becoming steadier...like a heartbeat.
Chapter 15
Phoenix
Phoenix felt like he floated--suspended in a silent, dark, hot void.
He couldn’t see anything around him; there was only pitch blackness.
The heat was stifling.
He tried to think...to figure out where he was...what had happened.
He remembered suffering through the worst pain of his life; what felt like a jagged, ripping current had seared through his entire body.
He’d never felt pain like that before--and hoped to never feel it again. He couldn’t tell whether the pain had lasted ten seconds or ten years; however long it was, it felt like an eternity.
Eventually, the pain faded, and the sensation of being wrapped in a warm, comforting cocoon surrounded him... He could stay wrapped in that embrace forever; its energy reminded him of Ara.
Ara...
He had to get back to her. He had to figure out a way to get home to her.
He needed to focus...to create a strategy.
Phoenix squeezed his eyes shut and focused, harnessing all the power that flowed through him and holding the pulsing current steady in the center of his chest.
He tried to sync the energy to his heartbeat, a meditation trick he’d practiced for years; it was only then that he realized he hadn’t felt his heartbeat or drawn a breath since he’d awakened...
His thoughts raced.
“Am I dead?” He wondered aloud.
He wasn’t expecting an answer, so it startled him when he heard a voice say with rough, broken speech, “Transferring. Old vessel dead. New vessel rising.”
His eyes flew open.
A gorgeous blue bird with flowing, elegant plumage and long graceful wings floated in front of him. The large, translucent bird consisted purely of energy. The feathers were primarily blue with white under-feathers; a golden glow surrounded it.
This bird looked like the one carved into the wall of his office, soaring alone above a mountain peak, but he’d always thought the carving to be of a fantastical bird... Now one floated before him.
Likewise, he had never seen energy manifest itself this way.
“What are you?” he asked.
He heard the answer clearly in his head, as though the bird spoke through a psychic connection. “Phoenix.”
“Right. I’m Phoenix. Tell me about you.”
The bird made a chattering noise that sounded distinctly like a chuckle and repeated, “Phoenix. Immortal. Transforming. Transferring.”
The bird’s meaning hit him: this was a phoenix of legend--a bird that when it died, its body consumed itself in flames, then resurrected from ashes of its old body. These rare birds were immortal, but nobody had seen one in thousands of years.
Phoenix, momentarily stunned, finally said, “I understand. Where are we?”
“In-between.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what that means.”
“Void. Suspended. In-between. Transforming.”
Phoenix concentrated hard, trying to discern what the bird meant. “Do you mean we’re suspended between life and death right now?”
The bird cooed to itself a moment as though it was thinking of the right words.
“Show.”
Suddenly, unfamiliar images flashed through Phoenix’s mind: a flock of magnificent phoenixes that looked just like the bird before him, of all colors but featuring blues, golds, silvers, and greens. The birds regularly purging themselves and their nests via glowing flames; suspending in the same darkness currently surrounding Phoenix; then rising from their ashes in their new, replenished bodies.
The images of this process repeated over and over, giving Phoenix a glimpse through centuries of re-birth, until finally they changed to images of an attack. Creatures Phoenix did not recognize assailed the birds and separated them; he sensed that the creatures wanted to harness the birds’ regenerative powers for themselves.
He continued watching in horror as the creatures tortured and killed this beautiful bird countless times until, finally, the bird’s spirit broke; its energy chose to remain in the dark instead of returning to its ashes. Eventually, its ashes scattered and naturally returned to the earth.
The bird remained suspended alone in the darkness for millennia until, one day, a golden glow pierced the dark. The curious bird gravitated toward the light. There was a bright flash.
..
The next image was of Phoenix’s mother, her cheerful face cooing over him as seen through his infant eyes.
But this was not Phoenix’s memory... It must belong to the bird.
As the images faded, Phoenix considered this new development.
He knew every life consisted of recycled energy. He recalled from his studies that stardust, earth, and water existed inside every creature in the realm, though the amounts varied. Energy never ceased; it only transferred.
Some of the bird's ashes must have cycled back through nature and ended up in his body, drawing the bird's energy to his when he was born. The bird must have fused itself with him and co-existed inside his body his entire life without his knowledge.
Certain things made sense now: his body temperature was always warmer than everyone else’s; heat didn’t bother him; his magic featured a unique golden glow that others often commented they’d never seen before; and he had always been drawn to birds, singing, and flight.
Additionally, he wondered if his mother knew... She’d always called him her “favorite little fire-bird”--and, obviously, she’d named him Phoenix.
The immense pain he’d experienced must have killed him... This dark void surrounding them appeared to be the transition area between life and rebirth for a phoenix. Phoenix’s direct connection to this bird meant he ended up there, too, while the bird regenerated their body.
Phoenix wondered if time passed the same way there as it did in his realm...it seemed like he’d already been there for hours...maybe days. Ara would be worried sick.
“Transfer almost complete,” the bird answered his unspoken question.
A golden glow began to cut through the darkness, and Phoenix felt a fluttering begin in his chest...
Phoenix closed his eyes and waited, trusting the bird to take them home.
Chapter 16
As the features of the smoky figure distinguished more, Ara’s heart skipped a beat; she recognized that slightly crooked nose. She’d accidentally broken Phoenix’s nose in a sparring match when they were first married, and he wouldn’t heal it, saying he’d earned it by letting his guard down. The break left a distinctive scar.
Malaki Mayhem Page 9