A Child of Two Worlds

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A Child of Two Worlds Page 11

by Mark Cole


  “It said, ‘The falling blade that pierces the sky,’ only it didn’t really say it. It was all in my mind, but I knew that was what it wanted me to do.”

  She shook her head and gave him a concerned look. “Whatever happened, it worked. That’s what’s important. We need to…” she stopped mid-sentence as the door slammed open.

  Panting, Caitlyn stood in the open doorway. “Did you do that?” she shouted pointing out the window.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Alex said guardedly.

  Caitlyn dove at him, wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much.”

  He patted Caitlyn awkwardly. “Uh, you’re welcome?” He looked at Terra. She shook her head and shrugged.

  Caitlyn released him and looked up into his eyes. “This is wonderful. I have to go wake Silvia and let her know.” She held up her hand. “Just wait right here.” She rushed out as suddenly as she had come.

  “What just happened?” Alex asked.

  “I have no idea,” Terra said.

  Alex glanced out of the window to see humans, elves, and changelings gathering around the Cat’s Eye. The blue pupil stared at him.

  A voice came from the hall. “The opening of the Celestial Eye will mark the One of Nine,” Silvia said from the doorway. She continued, not lifting her eyes from the floor. “The price of balance shall be paid when his blood runs with that of angels and demons.”

  “Is that a true prophecy?” Terra asked quietly.

  Silvia nodded, still looking at the floor. She seemed unwilling to look them in the eyes.

  “Are you sure?” Terra asked. Silvia nodded again. Terra grabbed the other woman by the shoulders. “How do you know?”

  “I’m sorry, Terra,” she said. She looked up into Terra’s face. “I gave this prophecy almost a year ago now. Alex just triggered it.”

  Alex cleared his throat. Both of the women looked at him. “It sounded like you said I was going to die.”

  He could tell Terra was fighting to not show any emotion. Silvia looked at him with sadness plain on her face. “That is what it sounds like,” the Fanglady said.

  “Why was Caitlyn so excited?” he asked.

  “I only told her the first part. I told her that the one named will restore balance. She doesn’t know the second part. None do.”

  “And, by fulfilling this prophecy I will restore balance to the planes?” Alex asked. “I will save everyone’s lives?”

  “You will,” Silvia said.

  Alex smiled and shrugged. “There are a lot of times I should have died and didn’t. I can think of worse reasons to die.”

  “But, Alex,” Terra started.

  “No, Terra, this is what I’m here for. What you found me for. I was a Marine for years, I saw a lot of people die, always knowing I could be next. Hell, if I was back home, I could die in a car accident, and that would be a meaningless death. Besides, maybe knowing about it means I can avoid dying.”

  Alex grabbed one of the small Cat’s Eye crystals from the desk and handed it to Silvia. He held another in his hand. “Will this work like one of the Crystals of Davinir?”

  Alex didn’t hear her voice come through the crystal. “It should have.” He heard his own voice come through the crystals on the desk and the one Silvia held.

  “It looks like these have to be attuned to certain people, Alex. Let me see if I can do this,” Terra said. She placed her hand over the crystal in Silvia’s hand, and another on Silvia’s forehead. The air began to pulse with power. After a few seconds, the thrumming stopped. Terra withdrew her hands.

  “Let’s try this now,” Silvia said. Her voice echoed through the other crystals. “How did you get them to work?” Silvia asked putting the crystal in a pocket. As soon as it broke contact with her hand, her voice stopped being transmitted to the other crystals. Alex put the one he was holding back on the desk.

  “Alex caused the Cat’s Eye to make them. Somehow,” Terra said.

  “What should we call them?” Alex asked, trying to keep the conversation away from the prophecy.

  “Well, if you made them,” Caitlyn said from the doorway. “You should get to name them.”

  Alex stood silently in thought for a moment. I’d rather them be annoyed with me than afraid of me dying, he thought. “How about the Guardian’s Balls?” he asked with a smirk. All three women glared at him.

  “Seriously, Alex? Don’t be stupid,” Terra said.

  “I was kidding,” he said. “Well, they came from the Celestial Eye, so why not call them... Eyes of the Stars? We can even call them Eyes for short.”

  “Talk to someone through an eye,” Caitlyn said. “Doesn’t make much sense to me, but you made them.”

  Terra smiled at the comment.

  “I think you need to think that over,” Silvia said. The two sisters turned and left, closing the door behind them.

  Caitlyn cracked the door back open. “We leave early tomorrow. Don’t keep each other up too late.” She closed the door back.

  Terra covered her mouth, trying to conceal a laugh as Alex went red. “What is wrong with Eyes of the Stars?” he asked. “They even look like little eyes!”

  Terra laughed again. She stood on her toes and kissed him gently on the lips. Alex put his arms around her as he kissed her back.

  “Eyes of the Stars is a good name,” she said. “They were just getting you back for the balls joke.”

  Alex looked at the four remaining Eyes on the desk. “They can’t hear us right now, can they?”

  Terra shook her head, her red hair covering part of her face. “No, you have to be holding it.”

  He grinned mischievously. “Good.” Alex pushed Terra back a step, pinning her between himself and the bed. He kissed her passionately as be began to lift her shirt. She slid her arms up under his clothing and felt the hard muscle of his back as she returned his kiss.

  “Alex,” she said.

  He stopped kissing her and pulled back. “Am I hurting you?”

  “No,” she said with a smile. She leaned over and looked at the open curtain. She waved her hand, and the curtain closed on its own. “Now we’re good.” She pulled his head down to kiss him again.

  The tinkling of a wind chime woke Alex. He opened his eyes to see Terra wave her hand, and the chimes stopped. “Magic alarm clock?” Alex mumbled.

  Terra nodded and sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She held the blanket over her breasts. “It’s two hours before dawn,” she yawned. “We need to leave well before sunrise.”

  Alex rolled out of the soft bed and began to groggily pull on his clothes. He had pulled up the black pants when he realized Terra was still sitting in the bed staring at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  Terra looked at him for a moment longer before answering. “Did you mean what you said last night? About Silvia’s prophecy?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he said as he pulled his shirt on and tucked it into his pants. “I was thinking about that while we were going to sleep. The prophecy didn’t say that I was going to die, only that my blood would be the price for balance.”

  “Alex,” Terra said, “Silvia seemed certain that’s what it meant.” He shrugged. “Aren’t you afraid of dying?”

  He laughed and nodded. “Of course I am. I’m terrified. I don’t want to die. But, I’m not going to let that fear run me, and I refuse to believe that the future is immutable and has already been decided. Knowing about it will keep me perfectly safe.”

  Terra let out a snort as she slid out of the bed. “Spoken like someone who has no idea what he’s getting himself into. We are going to places where you won’t know what is dangerous and what isn’t. Then, we are going to attack a fortified tower, surrounded by a poisonous cloud that leeches the life from anything that comes too close, so we can bring The Overlord of the Realm of Evil, who has killed millions, to justice.”

  “Like I said, perfectly safe,” he joked with a grin. Terra turned away from him as she got dressed. A
lex was slipping the leather baldric over his head when a soft knock came from the door. He waited for Terra to finish pulling on the green traveling clothes he had gotten for her before answering the door.

  Caitlyn stood in the hallway with three packs, one for each of them. “It is time. We need to hurry if we are going to get past the sentries before first light.” She handed the largest of the three packs to Alex. He put the four remaining Eyes in it before putting on a green cloak identical to Caitlyn’s and Terra’s and shouldered the pack.

  Terra put on her pack and stood next to him. “Lead the way, Caitlyn,” she said. The changeling walked down the wooden halls to a rear exit Alex hadn’t seen before. The back door opened to a delivery area.

  The three of them navigated alleys and side passages in the sprawling village. They only had to pause twice to avoid being seen by the night guard. They made it to two buildings at the edge of the town without any real difficulty.

  “How are we going to get past the guards without being spotted?” Alex asked.

  “You won’t,” a man’s voice said. “But you needn’t worry, Guardian. None will know of your party’s passage.”

  Alex smiled at the voice. “Come to see us off, Timothy?”

  “That’s correct,” the elf said. “And to relieve the sentry that guards this area.”

  Terra watched as the muscular elf walked forward out of the shadow. Timothy put his hand on Alex’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Alex nodded once, then again. “I will,” she heard Alex say.

  “Then fare well, young Guardian,” Timothy said. He walked to Terra and put a hand on her shoulder. He leaned in close and whispered, “The Guardian has given up everything he knew to protect you and see this war done, Nexus. Trust in him, and all will be fine. He cares for you.”

  She glanced to Alex and back to Timothy. “I care for him too,” she whispered, “and I do trust him.”

  “Remember that you said those words,” Timothy whispered cryptically. He wrapped her in a fatherly embrace. “Fare well, Nexus,” he said releasing her.

  He looked to Caitlyn. “Guard them well, Fangsister,” he charged her.

  “I will, Treebrother,” she said confidently.

  Timothy smiled at her. “I know you will, Caitlyn. Fare well, and good luck.”

  The three wished him well and waited as he moved into the trees. They gave him a few minutes to find the sentry and relieve him.

  Almost fifteen minutes had passed with the three of them crouched in the shadows. “That should be enough time,” Caitlyn whispered.

  Alex took Terra by the hand and followed behind Caitlyn. “So,” he whispered. “What did Timothy say to you?”

  “If he had wanted you to know,” Terra whispered back with a smile, “he would have said it where you could hear.” Deeper darkness encircled them as they made it to the tree line surrounding Starfall.

  “I’ll tell you, if you tell me.”

  Terra laughed softly. “All right, but you first.”

  “He said that I will need to be less distracted next time, or else someone may die,” Alex said. She looked at him curiously, but he just shook his head and gave her a rueful smile. “Well?” he said.

  Terra narrowed her eyes at him, “What were you doing that you got distracted and it could kill someone?”

  “We had a practice swordfight. The Guardian’s Blade talked to me, and I lost my concentration.”

  “Are you sure it talked to you?” she asked. “I’m not surprised you lost, Timothy is a swordmaster.”

  “I think my fath…” he trailed off, and his face went blank. “The blade talks to me, Terra,” he snapped. Alex seemed to be staring off into the past.

  Concern etched her face. “It’s all happening too quickly.” She suddenly paled and shook her head. She swallowed and shook her head again. “I believe you hear it talk, Alex.”

  He smiled. “Well, I’m glad you don’t think I’m crazy.” He looked at her, still smiling. He didn’t seem to notice that she looked pale and had placed her hand on her stomach. “So, what did Timothy tell you?”

  “We are past where the sentries patrol,” Caitlyn said before Terra could speak. “I’m going to change and begin scouting. Alex, could you carry my pack for me, it’s too large to change with me.”

  “Sure,” Alex said, taking the pack. He loosened the straps as far as they would go and put it on his back over his own pack. Caitlyn began to change into her panther form, and she jogged off into the woods. She was completely changed before she had gone five steps.

  “That just sounds so painful,” Alex said. “All the snapping bones and shifting muscles. I’m surprised that it doesn’t hurt her at all.”

  Terra looked at him sideways. “It does hurt. More than anyone who isn’t a shapeshifter or changeling knows. I have heard that some shapeshifters are driven mad by the pain of their first transformation. But, she told me once that you get used to the pain after you’ve changed a few hundred times.”

  “A few hundred times,” Alex said with a low whistle. “Are you going to tell me what he said to you now?”

  “He said to trust you, and that everything will be fine. And that you care about me.”

  Alex laughed. “Well, he’s right on all three of those.”

  Chapter Nine - Darker than Night

  A freezing wind snapped at the black cloak draped across the shoulders of the Paragon of Hell. The red flames emblazoned on the mantle danced with each gust. The Demon Lord Azreal paid no attention to the biting cold. Such matters of the flesh were beneath his notice.

  He reveled in the feel of crushing the life from the useless human. The short man had come to tell him that the Guardian had mysteriously disappeared from Starfall sometime in the last few days. The balding human looked pleadingly into Azreal’s dead, black eyes.

  “I told you to keep your eyes on the Guardian,” The Demon Lord Azreal said with a voice like the rumble of thunder. “You have failed me, and I do not tolerate failure.”

  He released the man’s throat. The spy dropped to all fours, coughing loudly. “Please, my lord, forgive me,” the man rasped. “I rode out as soon as I realized. When I was clear of the Forest of Souls, I used the… thing, you gave me, and it brought me here just like you said it would.

  Azreal glared at the foolish man. He wasted the Recall Device from Fyr just to say he had no information. Pathetic rodent, the Demon Lord thought. Azreal lifted a hand, and a web of telekinetic power jerked the man upright. The ropes of invisible force held the traitor in place with his arms bound to his sides. The terrified human’s eyes followed Azreal as the demon paced.

  Azreal looked much like a human with shoulder length blood-red hair. His pale white skin that showed him to be from the sunless planet, Hell, in the Realm of Evil. His eyes marked him as The Overlord. They were orbs darker than the blackest night. There was no iris and no white, only a black so dark that it seemed as if he had two bottomless pits where his eyes should be. When light shown on those nightmare eyes, people said that the trapped souls of the devoured could be seen moving beneath the surface.

  “You failed to watch the Guardian,” Azreal said. “You failed to honor our agreement, and worst of all, you failed me.” Azreal stopped his pacing and fixed his eyes on the traitorous human. “For the first, I will take your right eye, and for the second, your left.”

  The human made a gurgling noise as he felt pressure behind his eyes begin to build. “No, please,” the despicable weakling whimpered. He began to scream as Azreal applied more force to the pull. The man’s eyes bulged weirdly. A shiver of delight went down the demon’s spine at the delicious screams.

  With a sudden gush of blood, the man’s eyes burst from their sockets. Azreal immediately stopped the pull, careful to not sever the optic nerve. The Demon Lord wanted him to see what would happen next.

  Azreal grew tired of the man’s screams, and decided to end it. The disembodied eyes stared at Azreal. “For failing me, you die,” he pr
onounced.

  “Please, Dark Lord, show mercy,” the whimpering worm cried.

  “I am,” Azreal said simply. “I’m killing you swiftly.” Azreal turned the eyes to stare at the man’s own chest.

  Ribs snapped like twigs and burst outward through the man’s skin in an explosion of blood and gore. The human’s heart rose from the open cavity. The spy watched his own heart stop beating.

  Azreal flung the corpse from the top of the Obsidian Tower into packs of hellhounds below.

  “Reaver,” Azreal called in the guttural language of Hell. The monstrous twelve foot tall four-armed demon strode forward and dropped to a knee before him.

  “The Dark Lord commands?” Reaver rumbled, his voice like boulders tumbling down a mountain. The powerful four-armed demon was able to cleave a man in half with any of the four swords he wielded.

  “I have some things to take care of on Ignia, my lieutenant. Find the Nexus, find the Guardian, bring them here, and hold them until I return. Do not fail me Reaver, or you will find out that the human’s death would be like the gentle caress of a lover compared to what I will do to you.”

  The demon smiled at the threat. Reaver would not fail. “With pleasure, my lord. A fist of five hundred of the undead should do well in finding the Nexus and the Guardian.”

  A hollow thud hit the air as Azreal tore a hole in the fabric of reality. The gateway he created shimmered with a light as crimson as his hair. The Overlord stepped through the gateway, and it closed behind him.

  Reaver turned to one of the three imps he used for messengers. “Gather all of the undead that we have here and send half of them south to the Adorac Mountains, and half west to hold the pass into the Frozen Reach.”

  A burst of flame blazed and faded as the imp teleported the short distance from the top of the Obsidian Tower to the base to rally the undead. He turned to the second imp.

  “Bring me the mercenaries from Fyr,” he began. The Dark Lord would not be pleased, Reaver thought. But, the Dark Lord never is.

  Chapter Ten - Midnight Revelations

 

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