Descent Into Darkness (Book 2)

by James R. Vernon

  Making his way down the hall, Ean left the house. By the position of the sun, it was sometime between mid-morning and midday. No wonder he was hungry, he had been knocked out for almost a whole day. Crossing the front yard, Ean opened the barn door and had to duck quickly as something small, brown and with flailing arms and legs flew past his head.

  "And I didn't ask you to talk to him for me!"

  Azalea sounded even angrier than before. She stood on the other side of the barn, her hands on her hips and a look of fury on her face. Her wings were spread out behind her, the leathery appendages quivering slightly. Ean's immediate reaction was to turn right around, but he remembered what Zin had said about not backing down.

  Zin, who unless he had recently grown wings of his own, had been thrown out of the barn by the angry Yulari. The same angry Yulari that was now glaring at him from the other side of the barn. Steeling his resolve, and filling himself with the energies of the Abyss as a precaution, Ean strode right toward Azalea.

  "You can't go around taking out your anger on Zin."

  Azalea started moving as well, lifting slightly into the air with a few beats of her wings and meeting Ean about half way into the barn. "Oh, here to issue more orders, are you? I think I might have been too hasty agreeing to follow you. If I have to spend all of my time keeping you out of trouble, while you whine at me, I might be better off in the Abyss."

  "Did you not promise to follow my orders?" Ean tried to make his voice as hard as steel and let the energy of the Abyss flow into him. It helped to make his voice sound cold. Azalea's eyes dropped for a moment, but she quickly regained eye contact with him.

  "Yes, I did say that I--"

  "Good. Promises might be worth next to nothing down in the Abyss, but in my world they weigh more than gold. I will not have someone with me who breaks her promises whenever it becomes convenient for her. You will follow my orders or I will send you back to the Abyss. It is as simple as that. Do I make myself clear?"

  For a moment Ean thought that he had gone too far. Azalea's dark red, pupil-less eyes seemed to come ablaze as they narrowed and met his gaze. Her wings fluttered about behind her as her hands clenched into fists. The image of the last time Ean had tried to send her back to the Abyss appeared in his mind and he almost faltered.

  Almost. Ean kept her tied to this world by a summoning rune inscribed on a fragile piece of bark. If he needed to, it would be easy to snap the bark, breaking the rune and send her back to the Abyss. Ean hoped it wouldn't come to that.

  After a few tense moments, Azalea relaxed. Weary resignation settled on her pretty face and she let her hands drop to her sides, her wings following suit and drooping dejectedly behind her. Her head dropped slightly as well, and she stared at the ground to Ean's right.

  "Fine," she said. Ean didn't believe it could really be that easy, so he decided to keep pushing.

  "You will no longer kill anyone without my permission, whether it's to feed or to protect any of us?"

  "Yes."

  "You will make sure that if you find or figure something out that might put any of us in danger, you will immediately tell me."

  Azalea kicked at the ground. "Yes."

  "You will treat Zin with respect and not like your little punching doll whenever you get upset or angry."

  "Yes."

  That last 'yes' came through clenched teeth, but she said it without hesitation. A movement behind Ean caught both his and Azalea's attention. Standing in the doorway was Zin, a few new cuts and bruises on his body. The imp was smiling though.

  "That's right. You'll treat me with respect from here on in!" Zin shouted, waving a fist in her direction. "I'm not like one of those thousands of imps in the Abyss that you can boss around and take your frustrations out on!"

  Ean expected the Yulari to lash out, but instead she looked more dejected. Feeling a little guilty about coming down so hard on her, he tried to offer her back some dignity.

  "I do want to thank you, though, for saving my life. Without you there, I'm sure that man would have slit my throat from ear to ear while I was unconscious. Your strength and ability to read people will certainly be an asset while we travel."

  Her mood didn't seem to lighten, so Ean decided to throw her one more bone.

  "And I will listen to any advice you might have, as long as you accept that the final decision is mine. Parts of this world are just as new to me as they are to you. I'm sure however many years you've spent surviving in the Abyss has given you some insight on how to deal with some of the less savory characters we are sure to run into in the city."

  Ean heard a slapping sound behind him and turned just in time to see Zin removing his palm from his forehead. The look he directed towards Ean was less than pleased. Turning his attention back towards Azalea, he barely caught her usual smirk leaving her face, quickly replaced by a look of innocence.

  "Now, just because I said--" he began, but she cut him off.

  "I understand, no killing without your orders, no mistreating the imp, and I should offer my advice when you're heading into something dangerous. I can handle that, Master."

  "Well, it's not that cut and dry, and you don't have to call me Master, Ean is fine, and..." His words were running together as he tried to keep up and recover at the same time, but she was good. With a pat on his cheek with one hand, she stuck a stick of jerky into his open mouth with the other.

  "You should eat up then, Master, I mean Ean." Her tone had returned to its usual playful self, as if she had neither been angry or ashamed moments earlier. "I don't know about you, but I'm excited to get somewhere with more people."

  She strode past him towards the exit. As she moved, her wings dipped, wrapping around her body and by the time she had reached the door, she had returned to looking human once more. Passing Zin, she reached down as if to pat him on the head, but the imp ducked past her and moved into the barn. Azalea just laughed and made to walk outside, but stopped and turned.

  "Do hurry up and fetch our things. Like I said, we should be off to try and find the main road as soon as possible." She winked at Ean then and stepped out into the light.

  Ean gaped, the piece of jerky hanging from his mouth. He felt like he had just been caught in a windstorm. Zin, on the other hand, looked ready to do murder as he stormed towards Ean.

  "For a moment when I walked in," the imp growled through pointed teeth, "I thought you had actually listened to my advice and were taking charge. And then you go and throw it all away. You do realize she manipulated you there?"

  "Mmhmm," was all Ean could say, finally closing his mouth around the jerky and beginning to chew.

  "So, you realize that she in no way felt bad about what she had done or the fact that she had disappointed you?"

  "Mmhmm." It seemed like the safest answer at the moment.

  "AND you realize that instead of limiting her say in the group, you actually gave her more leverage to speak her mind?"

  "Mmhmm."

  "So then you realize you're an idiot?"

  "Mmhmm... hey!" Spitting out a chunk of jerky, Ean glared at the imp. "I'm not used to dealing with manipulative people. Usually when someone wanted something from me, they would just bully me into doing it."

  "I'm sure her beauty had nothing to do with your slacking on discipline either?"

  Actually it hadn't. She was certainly beautiful, but Ean didn't really think about Azalea that way. Maybe it was the fact she was from the Abyss. Or more likely, maybe it was the fact that she was incredibly deadly. Whatever the reason, his letting up on her had nothing to do with her looks.

  "What's done is done, Zin. No point dwelling on it. I'm sure she'll give me plenty of opportunities to dress her down." The imp looked less than convinced. He stalked out of the barn, leaving Ean standing alone.

  Knowing he would never understand women, or imps for that matter, Ean headed to the stall alone. The few supplies they had left were stored there--a bag of spare clothes, medicinal herbs, the jerky the man had
left, along with a few skins of water. After shoving everything into one bag, he slung it over his back and headed outside to find his companions.

  He found Zin and Azalea, both avoiding looking at each other. As he exited, they both took a step towards him, saw the other mirroring their movement, and stopped, turning away from each other again. The next few days were going to be painful with those two.

  "So which one of you has an idea which direction we should head to reach the main road?"

  Wearing a smug expression, Azalea stepped forward. "I've scouted it out already. We just walk straight in the direction away from the back of the house. There is a tiny path worn out of the grass that should lead to the road. From there we just follow it east to the city."

  "Sounds like a good enough plan to me. Let's go."

  Azalea turned and stuck her tongue out at Zin. To the imp's credit, he pretended not to see it, although his face did darken slightly. Trying to ignore the exchange as well, Ean walked past both of them at a brisk pace and started off in the direction that Azalea had implied. The sooner they got to the capitol, the better.

  Ean was ready to find some answers. Find out more about what he had done to himself. Most importantly, Ean was ready to get some direction back into his life.

  AZALEA TOOK THE LEAD in front of Ean while Zin trailed behind as they left the farm. The path Azalea had mentioned was barely noticeable and seemed rarely used. Clearly the man had not felt the need to leave too often. The land on this side of the forest consisted of grassy mounds, so the three often found themselves trudging uphill or stumbling downhill. By the time they crested the fifth hill, the farm was gone from view.

  It took them the rest of the day to climb up and down the hills, but as the sun started its decent, they had found the main road the older man had mentioned.

  Ean had been expecting to find a road cut into the dirt by wagon wheels and the passage of time, just like what he was used to back in Rensen, but instead he found square slabs of white stone. A single slab was larger than a wagon rig. The spaces between them were filled with yellow sand. As his eyes watched the road stretch into the horizon, it looked more fitting for a giant then the average human.

  After he got over his initial amazement of the construction of the road, Ean decided it was a good point in the day to stop and set up camp for the night. The sun was still between the halfway point in the sky and the mountains to the west, but they had kept up a fast pace as they traveled, not taking a single break, and Ean was fairly tired. And hungry too, certainly hungry. They picked a flat spot a bit off the road and settled in.

  For a while, they sat in silence, simply letting their bodies rest from the long journey. Ean had gotten out a few pieces of jerky and offered them to his companions. Zin had taken one with a grin, wasting no time in biting off a large piece easily with his sharp teeth. Azalea declined, but did smile slightly at the offer. It was a small smile, but it was something. Maybe Ean could figure her out yet. He chose a particularly large piece of jerky that fit the size of his hunger and sat back chewing slowly, occasionally taking a swig from one of their water skins to relieve his thirst.

  Ean found the entire experience to be quite peaceful. His companions seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, which was fine with him since it meant they weren't shooting daggers at each other with their eyes. The day had been warm, but a slight breeze moved through the hills, strong enough to keep Ean cool. He watched the grass around him constantly change direction with the wind. All around him, besides the road, was green as far as the eye could see. It was all a pleasant change from the dampness of his home and the darkness of the forest.

  It wasn't until the sun was just beginning to touch the peaks of the mountains to the west and the wind began to have a bit of a bite to it, that Azalea broke the silence.

  "We really should come up with a plan of what we're going to do once we reach the city. I'm sure it's going to be difficult to find any kind of record of Zin's former master, and even more so about the location of where he called home."

  "What?" Ean was sure he hadn't heard correctly. "The reason that we're going to the city is to find a way to kill the creature that has made its home in the mines of my village. What does Zin's former master have anything to do with that?"

  He directed the question at both the imp and Yulari, but his eyes were on Zin. The imp looked at the ground, flicking at a pebble with one clawed finger. Azalea of course grinned at the imp's discomfort before continuing to speak.

  "Oh, the imp didn't tell you, my mistake. I thought he had. Zin seems to think that it would be a smart idea to travel to his former master's lair."

  "What? How could that be a good idea?"

  "Well...the way I see it, if you were to gain even a fraction of the powers my former master had, you would have no trouble killing that creature in Rottwealth."

  "You mean the same powers that made him into a power hungry tyrant? The ones that led him to try to enslave the entire world?"

  "Yes, those powers, but only enough so that you could better control the creatures you summon."

  "I certainly like the sound of enslaving the world," Azalea cut in. "You never mentioned that part before, Zin. If you were hoping to leave that tidbit out of our little arrangement, you've made a big mistake. I would be quite content to follow this one if that was the plan all along."

  "No, it's certainly not the plan," Zin replied, while Ean responded just as quickly,

  "I would never want to be that kind of a monster!"

  "Mmhmm, I see," was the only answer they both got from the Yulari. She was looking at Ean now the same way Zin looked at a fat rat. It sent a shiver down Ean's spine.

  "My plan," Zin said, "was just to find out how he could control so many creatures from the Abyss. Ean could use that to summon a handful of Hounds or other minor creatures to take down the beast terrorizing his village. That's it. I have no intention of turning him into anything remotely resembling my former master."

  Shrugging, Azalea leaned back onto her elbows and looked off into the distance, as if no longer interested in the conversation. But if Ean had learnt anything about the Yulari in the few days they had been together, he was sure she hadn't let the idea drop from her mind.

  "That's good to hear, Zin, because I certainly have no intention of becoming any kind of tyrant." Ean said, directing his words at Zin while at the same time staring at Azalea, hoping that she got the point. For his troubles, he got a small smile and a wink as she looked at him for a moment before turning her gaze back to the countryside.

  "Good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear." Zin tore his worried gaze from Azalea to address Ean. "We both want the same thing--to enjoy our lives in peace and comfort--so trust me when I say that the last thing I want you to do is repeat the mistakes of my former master."

  "Good, because a peaceful life IS exactly what I want. A simple healer's life. Up until I helped the wounded in Rensen, I looked at healing as a way to make money. But now I know I can get so much more from it. Being a healer gives me a purpose. All I want to do is set up a healer's shop of my own."

  "That's all well and good," Azalea cut in. "But you should know we're about to have company. And a lot of it."

  Raising a hand to shield his eyes, it took Ean a few moments to follow Azalea's gaze to the west to see what she was talking about.

  He spied five, large horse-drawn covered wagons, each a different color, approaching from the west. Following behind the wagons were teams of oxen hitched to open bed wagons stacked with various goods. One was heaping full of gray roundish balls. Another was hauling blocks made from the same material as the balls. There seemed to be no end to the slow-moving convoy. By the time the last one crested the hill, Ean had counted twenty-six wagons in all.

  "Zin, you should certainly disappear," Ean said, but the tell-tale shimmering of the already invisible imp was the only thing Ean could see. Azalea was walking towards the road.

  "Wait a second!" Ean chased after her
. "Maybe we should hide and just wait for them to pass."

  "It's a bit late for that," she said, slowing down just enough for him to catch up. "Do you have any idea what they are up to?"

  "No. I would guess that they are traders, but I've never seen a group this large. Besides maybe the one that was camped next to Rensen."

  "Well, we have traders in the Abyss, and they are usually a sneaky lot. Best if you let me do all of the talking. Otherwise they might trick you out of what little supplies we have left."

  Ean was about to object, but then changed his mind. He had been caught by surprise by the bandit at the farm. Maybe it would be better if he let her take the lead in this situation.

  "Alright. Just try not to get us into any trouble."

  "I would never dream of it." The smirk that touched her lips, though, said otherwise.

  The two of them moved to the side of the road and waited for the wagons. The sun was halfway behind the mountains by the time the first wagon reached them. A man on the front wagon raised a single hand, and the entire caravan came to a stop. Leaping down, he walked over to them at a brisk pace, stopping right in front of the two of them and leaving little space.

  Standing slightly taller than Ean, the man was as thick as Ean was lanky. He was covered from head to toe in leather and fur, which was strange for how warm it was, with the clothes sitting tight enough on his arms and body for Ean to be able to tell the man's bulk came from muscle and not fat. He wore a small hand ax at his side, the blade the same dark black color as his curly beard and short hair. A large, bulbous nose stuck out over his beard, and made his brown eyes seem sunken into his face. When he spoke, his voice sounded like rocks tumbling down the side of a mountain.

  "You don't look like bandits," he said gruffly. "And I'm sure even if the two of you were, you wouldn't be stupid enough to attack a caravan the size of ours."

  "No sir," Azalea replied. "We're not bandits, just simple travelers making our way to Lurthalan."