Descent Into Darkness (Book 2)

by James R. Vernon

  With a flick of his wrist, Lav casually tossed Ean to the side. Caught by surprise by the move, Ean was barely able to land on his feet, stumbling as he tried to keep from falling over. Once his feet were firmly planted beneath him, Ean watched as Lav casually walked towards the slowly shuffling flesh monsters. The monsters seemed to get excited as he approached, their arms and those deadly bone blades waving around in anticipation. When the closest one reached Lav, it lashed out with its upper right and lower left blades, a triumphant moan escaping its mouth.

  Without the slightest bit of emotion or effort, Lav grabbed both blades in his gauntleted hands. Before the creature could bring his other arms around, Lav kicked the creature directly in the stomach, leaving his foot pressed against the monster's torso. Then, with a horrible ripping sound, Lav tore both of the arms he was holding from their sockets. Where Ean expected fountains of blood, only trickles came out of the monster's gapping wounds.

  Lav didn't stop there. While the creature was still reeling from the damage, Lav took a few steps in, grabbed the creature by its face with one hand, its shoulder with his other hand, and just as easily as if he were plucking fruit from a tree tore the creature's head from its body.

  Before the lifeless corpse hit the ground, the other two flesh beasts were running towards Lav at full speed. He calmly stood his ground, taking up an almost uninterested posture. Ean couldn't see his face, but he had no doubt that whatever Lav was, he probably was bored.

  The remaining two monsters reached Lav at the same time, neither one stopping their charge. Instead they tried to ram him, using their bone blades as spears.

  Again, with what seemed to be little effort, Lav dodged them both, taking a big step to the right and leaning out of the way from a pair of bone blades. In a blur, a red gauntleted fist grabbed the head of the closest beast, yanked it off its feet, and smashed its skull down into the hard stone floor. The sound it made as the skull was crushed made Ean nauseous.

  Lav took a moment to kneel and wipe his hand off on the body of the dead monster while the last remaining flesh beast was still turning around to face him. Again the monster came at him at full speed, its moans deep and guttural now.

  Not even bothering to stand, Lav lifted his right hand, palm out towards the beast. There was a loud "POP" and the creature was suddenly engulfed in flames. All Ean could see of it was a faint outline in the bright red fire that consumed it. An outline that thrashed about at first, then slumped to the ground and grew smaller and smaller until all that was left was the flame.

  Getting to his feet, Lav waved casually at the fire and it disappeared. The monster was gone, not even ash remained. The only sign that anything had been there at all was the scorch marks on the stone where it had fallen. There wasn't even a burnt smell to mark the creature's death. Not bothering to look back, Lav started casually strolling towards the opposite door.

  "Wait!" Ean called after him. Wincing, he looked down and found Zin with one of his clawed hands pressing into his leg. He ignored the imp.

  "Lav'zernathar. We could really use your help. There are more of those things out there, and we wouldn't stand much of a chance against more than one of them."

  Lav leaned back and let out a loud laugh that filled the room. When the man... creature... finally stopped laughing he turned, a large smirk on his face.

  "I destroyed those three things," he said, gesturing to the two corpses, "because they were in my way. And ugly to look at. But I have no desire to run around this cave looking for the rest of them. I have spent far too long down here in the dark, and I have a grudge to settle. Since your imp's old master is dead, I'm going to take out my anger on the next best thing, those wretches that live outside and have been harvesting my scales."

  "The people below? And what scales..."

  Lav laughed again, this time shaking his head. "You really know so little. This," he took a moment to spread his hands and motion towards himself, "is just a form I take to better fit in and move about without frightening you primitive creatures. My real form is much grander, and I was stuck in it while I was chained to this place. Those cursed souls that live outside took advantage of that fact and took my scales, sometimes just picking them up as they fell off, other times tearing them off my body."

  He paused, a sneer erasing the smirk he had been wearing for a moment.

  "And all the while I had to sit and let them pick away at me while chained to this place. Their leader had the Master Key and could have released me, but instead used me just as the imp's master used me. So as I said, since I can't punish my original captor, I can at least take out my centuries of rage on the next best thing."

  Lav took a few steps away from them, then stopped again.

  "If I see any more of those creatures on my way out," he said, not bothering to turn around to look in Ean's direction, "I'll destroy them. Consider it a thank you present for setting me free. Even if it was accidentally."

  Returning to his exit march, the man almost reached the doors before a thought struck Ean and he called out one last time.

  "We have one more companion with us, a beautiful girl with wings, if you see her please don't harm her and point her in our direction?"

  Without breaking stride, Lav raised a hand and waved them off.

  "The Yulari?" he said, his voice still loud enough to carry across the room. "I saw her either unconscious or dead and being dragged by a human--not one of those deformed ones--in the direction of the throne room. Neither was any concern of mine, so I left them alone. If the Yulari is your friend, I would hurry after them. There was something not quite right with the man, and he had the faint smell of those flesh beasts on him. My guess is whatever he has planned for the Yulari will certainly not be pleasant."

  And with that, Lav disappeared through the doorway, leaving Ean with a cold knot deep in his stomach.

  THE TUNNELS SEEMED TO stretch forever as Ean ran, a straight line encased in stone with nothing ahead but darkness. It had only been moments since he had taken off out of the second hatchery and into the tunnel that lead to the kitchens, but his fear increased with each moment. Not for himself, but for the Yulari. For Azalea.

  The hound was at his side, effortlessly keeping up. Ean felt the warm sensation of enjoyment coming through the bond as the hound ran along beside him. Glancing back, Ean caught sight of the imp only a few paces behind doing his best to keep up. Zin was fast on his feet in tight spaces, but his short strides were no match for Ean's over-long distances. Zin would have to try harder. Ean was determined to save Azalea, with or without Zin by his side.

  Ean skidded to a halt in front of a set of open wooden doors, stopping at the edge of the threshold. Yaeger stopped at his left and sniffed the air while Zin caught up with them.

  The light emanating from Ean cast the dim room in a faint blue light. Large stone tables took up most of the space, sitting next to large square or dome stone constructions that Ean had never seen before. Glancing around and not detecting any movement, Ean slowly moved into the room.

  "The kitchen," Zin said. "Hundreds of meals were prepared here in those ovens," he gestured to the large stone constructions. "Every day for the creatures that dwelled in the lair. Human slaves were used to cook the meals, as not too many creatures from the Abyss waste their time learning to cook."

  "I don't care, Zin," Ean replied, not bothering to hide his impatience. "Which way?"

  "Straight through the kitchen there is an exit to the tunnels closest to the library and then the throne room. If we went right, that would take us--"

  "Fine. Straight. Let's go."

  Ean began making his way through the kitchen. It was a slow process, the room seemed to be set up more like a maze. More than once he found himself stuck between tables and the ovens and had to backtrack a bit. The floor was littered with debris and rubble from collapsed tables and ovens as well, just waiting to catch Ean's foot and trip him up. By the time he reached the door on the opposite side, he was considerably ann
oyed.

  Out of the room, he continued on, returning to a jog. All he could think about was Azalea and this mystery person that had taken her. If the man had been able to take Azalea, what chance did he have...

  No! You will not be a coward this time.

  He would figure something out. Maybe the man had gotten lucky. Maybe she had passed out after killing a bunch of those flesh monsters and had been easy prey. Maybe he would suddenly know how to use all of this power he supposedly had to defend someone he cared about. If that voice that seemed to know so much would talk to him more...

  He couldn't help but laugh bitterly as he hurried on. Hoping a voice in his head would save him. What Ean needed to do was think things through, come up with a plan, and make his own decisions. Of course that realization came at the same time that he reached a T-junction, the tunnel he was in stopped and stretched left and right into darkness.

  "Which way, Zin?" he said with a sigh, then frowned as he was met with silence.

  Turning around, he found the hound just catching up to him. How fast had he moved down the tunnel that he had even outpaced the hound? Not terribly far behind the hound was Zin, sprinting at full speed. When the imp reached Ean, he was panting and bent over slightly, his hands on his knees.

  "Which way, Zin?" The imp shot him a glare, but Ean didn't care. He didn't have time to be polite. "Now, Zin."

  "Left."

  With the briefest of nods, Ean took off again, following the left path down a long but fairly straight tunnel. All he could think about was Azalea at the mercy of that man. If he turned her into one of those monsters...

  Just that thought drove him on. His legs started to ache. His lungs were starting to burn. It reminded him of his flight with Bran and Jaslen through the woods, trying to get away from the Seekers. In the end, he had lost Bran and Jaslen, not because of some outside threat, but because of his foolishness and weakness.

  He would NOT lose Azalea.

  His foot struck something and he tripped, his momentum carrying him a small distance in the air before he struck the ground. Not giving himself time to recover, Ean pushed himself up to a kneeling position. And realized his hands were not on bare stone.

  Looking down he found some kind of carpet underneath his hands, the fabric worn and frayed, and the color a light red faded with age. Carpets were something he had yet to see in the lair. Getting to his knees, he looked back at what he had tripped over.

  A book. Or to be more specific, a pile of books.

  Glancing around he realized he wasn't in the tunnel anymore, but was actually in a room. A room twice as high as the hatcheries with row upon row of bookcases reaching all the way up to the ceiling. The bookcases were everywhere, blocking his sight of most of the walls and making it difficult to figure out how wide the room actually was. Each one was almost completely filled with books of all colors and sizes, more books than Ean thought existed. The ground was littered with books as well, unorganized piles here and there, just like the one he had tripped over.

  For a moment, it was all a little overwhelming. All of that knowledge on who knows what just sitting there waiting to be explored. How many books were about the Abyss? Or Healing? Or the Deities? Or contained the histories of the land before the Plague? Ean's curiosity took over his mind for a moment and he forgot everything else.

  But only for a moment.

  Azalea.

  He rose to his feet. If this was the library, then the throne room was just ahead. Azalea and her captor were within reach. He needed to push on. Even if he didn't have a plan...

  Yaeger was suddenly at his side, giving him courage. Glancing back, he waited a moment to see if Zin was catching up, but clearly the imp had fallen behind. That was ok, there wasn't much Zin could do to help, and if Ean was running into a situation that he had no chance of surviving, better for his friend not to be there. If Ean died, Zin would return to the Abyss. Probably not the imp's first choice in where to go, but certainly it was better than dying. Ean even considered getting the hound to stay behind for a moment, but knew without Yaeger, he wouldn't have a chance against those flesh monsters.

  "Let's go," he said to the hound. It jogged along at his side as Ean took off again, this time making sure to pace himself. The last thing he wanted was to go stumbling into a group of those flesh beasts just like he had stumbled into the library. He might not have a plan, but he certainly wasn't going to just throw himself into danger.

  Ean and the hound passed more than a dozen bookshelves as they moved straight ahead, with Ean catching glimpses of even more rows behind the ones he passed. If they somehow did survive this, Ean could spend weeks searching through the books just to find the ones that would peak his interest. But that was the future, which wasn't looking too bright at the moment. Best to focus on the present.

  They passed through another set of double doors and into another tunnel that looked exactly the same as all of the other ones. They were close now. According to Zin this one would open up right into the throne room. It was interesting how in such a short amount of time Ean's goals had changed. When they had first entered the lair, they were focused on getting to the throne room in order to find something Ean could use. Now he was trying to get there in order to save a friend.

  Before Ean knew it, a set of open, stone doors appeared down the hall in front of him. He slowed to a walk, approaching the door carefully, his senses straining to hear or smell anything. There was light coming from the throne room, although a large pillar of stone a few paces in blocked his view of most of the room. Ean released some of the energy he held, the light coming off his tattooed body dampening to the point that it was hardly noticeable compared to the light coming out from the throne room.

  Reaching the door, he sent a command through the bond with his hound, telling it to stay. When he received the feeling of acceptance back, he moved ahead, crouching low. He poked his head through the doorway first, glancing to his left and right. Not finding any immediate threat, he moved ahead to the pillar, pressing against it and freezing in place. He heard something now. A sound he had heard many times as a Healer.

  The sound of a blade cutting into flesh.

  HIS HEART IN HIS throat, Ean moved around the pillar to get a good look at the room.

  Enormous was the first word that came to mind. The room was larger than any he'd ever seen, four or five times larger than the hatcheries. A dozen pillars went around the semicircle-shaped room. Torches hung from those pillars, some of them lit, which explained the light he'd previously seen streaming out of the entrance. Neglected tapestries and paintings, some of them shredded from who knows what, hung from the walls. The back wall was the flat part of the semicircle, with a huge dais that held a large throne in its center. In the middle of the room was a black stone sphere the size of a wagon, its surface cracked and charred. Short flagpoles with varying geometric designs circled it, indicating that the sphere used to be an object of importance.

  But Ean wasn't interested in spheres. All he cared about was finding Azalea.

  Sitting off to the left side of the sphere, a figure was hunched over something, its back to Ean and its arms moving feverishly. All Ean could tell from his position was that it was wearing some sort of robe. Whatever it was, it was not Azalea or one of those flesh monsters. Ean was about to move forward when the figure stood, its robe dropping away.

  The figure was a man, shorter than Ean with a mostly bald head. A fit body, covered in red markings, dressed now in only a small loin cloth, standing completely erect. For a moment his hands were out of view, but then he spread them wide. In each hand the man held something that made Ean's blood burn with a hundred fires.

  Wings. Familiar black leathery wings. And they were dripping with blue liquid. The color of Yulari blood.

  A thousand needles of despair stabbed at Ean's chest as he watched the man place the edges of the wings on his back. The markings on his body glowed faintly and the edges of the wings seemed to sink into his body. His s
kin writhed and pulled as the wings sunk in, covering and fusing in a matter of moments. When the skin stopped moving, the runes died off and disappeared, leaving the figure's skin bare.

  The man stretched out his arms, the wings following suit. Whatever the figure was, he was now the owner of a new set of wings. Azalea's wings.

  The energy of the Abyss, mingled with his outrage, flowed through Ean like a raging river. He reacted before he could think, throwing himself at Azalea's assailant like a wild beast.

  And he was smacked down by a backhand that he didn't see coming.

  The pain from the blow scattered his thoughts as his body was knocked across the room. A moment later his face smacked against the stone floor. It was only the energy running through him that kept him conscious. When Ean tried to rise, pain shot up his left side, the force of it flipping him onto his back with a groan.

  When he landed, his head rolled to the side and he found himself staring into Azalea's dark red eyes.

  The Yulari's eyes were glazed over and her mouth hung open. Ean watched as her chest rose and fell slowly with each breath. Her back was a wreck; long vertical slices where her wings had been ripped off oozed viscous blue blood, flowing freely over her back and down her side.

  She was alive, but barely. He had to do something.

  "Ean, my boy. I didn't know it was you. My apologies."

  The voice hit him like a bucket full of ice water. It couldn't be...

  "You really shouldn't just run at someone. A person might get the wrong idea," Sadiek said, staring down at him with a condescending smile. "Of course, you couldn't have known it was me with my new addition."

  The man's wings--Azalea's wings--fully extended for a moment before Sadiek brought them back in.

  "Wondrous, are they not? Very fortunate to come across such a creature here--"

  "Azalea is not some creature!" Ean was surprised at the strength in his voice, and by the look on Sadiek's face, so was he.