“Gotta sprint to the woods,” Cyrus said. “They’ll probably see us, but they’ll quit eventually.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Crystil said.
“It’s not,” Cyrus agreed. “It’s wishful thinking. But I know we die if we stay here.”
Cyrus glanced around the corner and saw Typhos with his head bowed. If we run, they’ll just burn everything, but might let us live if they get tired. Our only chance. I’ll use magic where I can, but…
He grabbed Crystil’s shoulders.
“Will you follow me to the forest?”
She nodded. He embraced her tightly, squeezing so hard that Crystil had to tap out.
“That’s in case anything happens,” he said.
“But nothing will. You’re Cyrus Orthran,” Crystil said with a smile.
Got that right, Cyrus thought as he got into sprinting position.
“OK, go!”
The two fled, ignoring the cries of the Kastori behind them. But Cyrus could not help but turn when he heard a loud, deep voice.
“Cowards!”
Typhos raised his hands and shot lightning their way. Cyrus closed his eyes, bracing for the impact.
Then he opened his eyes and saw a short girl with red robes absorbing the attack.
“Go!” the girl yelled. “Find Erda and Celeste!”
Amira.
22
Typhos looked in awe at the girl with enough power to deflect his lightning spells. I didn’t sense her. Perhaps seeing Pagus has weakened me. I—
Before he could finish the thought, the young girl cast a spell back, paralyzing and briefly choking him. Typhos refocused, deflected the spell, and paralyzed the girl and pulled her through the air toward him.
He held her in the air, observing her. She had spunk and plenty of energy as she struggled against his magic. She stood no chance of defeating him, now that she had his full attention. But maybe killing this girl is not the best option. Perhaps we can take more than two prisoners.
“I admire you, child,” Typhos said, his voice slow. “You protect those who cannot protect themselves even though you know we will capture everyone here. You fight back against me and even managed to hurt me. Not many are capable of that.”
He slowly lowered her to the ground, allowing her to speak but keeping her legs immobilized. He walked closer to her.
“You would make a powerful ally. Swear allegiance to me, and you shall do more than live. You shall prosper.”
“Never,” said the girl. “I know what you do and who you are. You’ll kill me before I join you.”
Typhos laughed, admiring the young woman’s fortitude.
“Tell me, fiery one, where are Erda and the girl?”
“Who?”
“Don’t play coy with me,” he suddenly snapped. “You know who I speak of, even if I don’t know her name. The one powerful enough to invade my mind. Or perhaps you know the human and the girl’s brother. They would know the girl’s location.”
Amira’s face relaxed into a smile, and Typhos waited patiently.
To his shock, she spat on him.
“You foolish girl!” he yelled as he raised his sword, stabbing the girl and killing her instantly.
Whatever melancholy had overcome Typhos from the death of Pagus dissipated with the girl’s actions. I owe you much thanks, child. I am reinvigorated and will find Erda and the girl. They cannot be far. And they will suffer even more now because of your disrespectful actions.
“Guardians!” he shouted. “Find the chief and the girl and bring them to me now! If I don’t have them here, I will have your heads!”
23
“We have no time, Celeste, we have to leave now,” Erda emphatically stated as fire engulfed the tent behind her.
The screams took Celeste back to her own cry on the ship. The heat reminded her of the fires that consumed Capitol City as she escaped. The enemy overwhelming them took her back to her father… and the people of Monda, whom she had left behind.
I can’t do that again. No. If I have power, I have to use it.
“We stay,” Celeste said, her voice nervous for the battle but sure of her decision.
“People are already dying, Celeste. We cannot save those who have died. Soon, Typhos and his forces will descend upon us, and we will have stayed for nothing.”
Celeste dispelled the teleportation spell and looked intently at Erda. Why is she so insistent on running? The Kastori can’t possibly be that endangered. If we fight back, we repel them.
“Celeste, do not make a grave mistake,” Erda said with a haunting tone.
“My brother and Crystil are still there. I can sense them.”
“If they are lucky, they will find safety.”
“And if not?”
Erda said nothing, biting her lip while lowering her face.
“Erda, I understand you want to run, but I’ve run before. And I hated it. I’m not running here.”
A loud crackle from an electric shock grabbed their attention, followed by an intense struggle and cry. Celeste peered around the burned tent and saw Typhos holding Amira. Cyrus and Crystil…
That struggle. Amira protected them.
“I’m going,” Celeste said, now resolute in her desire to help.
“Cel—”
Erda didn’t finish, and much to Celeste’s pleasant surprise, the chief followed her, ready to back her up. Celeste turned the corner and saw a black-robed, white-stripped Kastori with her back to her. Celeste held her hand up and cast a massive fire spell on the Kastori before she hesitated, incinerating the enemy before her eyes.
Keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t think about it.
Another Kastori—no, these are magicologists—turned to her. Celeste and Erda combined to cast another fire spell. This one burned the magicologist severely, but before they could sustain the spell any further, someone paralyzed Celeste. A magicologist with gray stripes came over and punched her in the gut, breaking the spell only to knock her to the ground, and another one in gray stripes went to Erda and did the same.
“Don’t harm them any further!” a dark voice said. It’s him. “I will deal with them. Make sure no one else comes between us.”
Celeste looked over at Erda, on her knees as the young girl was, and breathed in deliberately, partially to calm herself and partially to recover from the hard blow to her gut. Ahead of her, ominous, slow footsteps sounded before Celeste could see the evil man approaching. It’s like Crystil. The sound of their approach scares you before the sight of their arrival.
When he broke through the clouds of smoke, Celeste looked up in shock at how tall the man was. Typhos was at least half a foot taller than the vision showed, and his sword was bloodier and longer than she would’ve ever guessed. His robes, too, were covered with blood so fresh it it still trickled down.
To her pleasant relief, he sheathed the sword.
“Don’t worry, child, I’m not going to kill you here,” he said patiently. “I have no more need for this weapon.”
He crouched down in front of Celeste. Celeste stared right at his blank slate of a mask, trying to pick up anything she could from him—a shake, a tic, anything she could use to fight back verbally.
“I’m impressed. Most of my captives are too scared to look me in the face.”
“You’re Kastori just like everyone else here.”
Typhos gave a sinister laugh.
“Only in the most base sense, girl,” he said. “I’ve thought a lot about you. You managed to kill Calypsius, and you dived into my mind through my anger. That took an impressive amount of fortitude and insanity. If any of my guardians did that, I would have their heads on the end of my sword. But you…”
He stared at her, and for one of the rare times, Celeste could not sense his emotions. Envy? Excitement? Curiosity?
Take off that mask and let me see.
“You have such power, child, that it fills me with joy thinking about what we could do with your
skills. No one else is as close to me as you are. You and I, together, could conquer entire worlds just by ourselves! We could have whatever we wanted. We could do whatever we wanted.”
Celeste briefly let her head drop, and Typhos put his hand—with a black glove on it—on her chin and lifted her head back to her.
“What do you say to that?”
Celeste gulped, but reminded herself, stay strong.
“I already have what I want with my brother and commander,” she said. “I have people I love and who love me.”
Typhos’ hand tightened its grip briefly. But the moment was nothing more than a flash as he unclenched his hand.
“Ahh, I see it now. You are the children of your dead father, the ones who escaped with the human. Interesting. I have much to learn, and you have much to think about. But you don’t have to explain now. There’s plenty of time. You are too important of an individual to waste such talent on a place like this.”
He stood up slowly, and took a few steps to his right. Erda. Stay strong. I’ll do what I can.
“You know that I am not as weak as I was all those years ago when I could have killed you then,” Typhos said, his tone much darker and furious. “If you live here, it is only because the life that follows will be so ugly and terrifying that you wish you had died.”
“I’ve already experienced an ugly and terrifying life, Typhos.”
“Because of your decisions!” he yelled as he kicked Erda in the gut, causing her to double over. Celeste could not help. Someone’s spell had her planted firmly to the ground, able to only move her head. Celeste cried out, but no one responded to her.
Erda coughed up blood as Typhos stood over her, looking at her with unadulterated hatred.
“You know why you lead a terrible life, Erda!” he yelled, the last word especially caustic, as if acidic to Typhos’ tongue. “Tell the girl the truth, why don’t you. How your actions led to this. How your failures made me who I am.”
Celeste squinted her eyes in confusion.
“Oh. She hasn’t told you. Of course she hasn’t. She doesn’t tell the whole truth to anyone.”
“Erda?”
But the chief was coughing and out of breath. Disgusted, Typhos turned back to his guardians as he muttered, “Worthless.”
“Take them both back to Monda. Make sure the girl is fed and do not harm her. As for her,” he said, motioning to Erda, not even looking at her. “Place her in the darkest prison we have. Do whatever you want to her. Just keep her alive. She is mine to kill.”
“My Lord, we—”
But before the red-striped magicologist finished, he cried out as something knocked him to the ground. Celeste suddenly felt free, but Typhos whirled around and paralyzed her with frightening force. Her eyes lifted to see Pagus on his knees, casting a strong-enough spell to break the concentration of the red-striped magicologist. Typhos brought the sword out of his hand, gave it to the gray-striped magicologist, and that magicologist killed Pagus with a swift chop to the neck. Celeste felt sick as she closed her eyes, wishing she was anywhere else.
“My Lord, Erda has disappeared! Do you want—”
“No!” Typhos yelled with disturbing force. “Let her suffer here. She has no allies left. She will die alone.”
“There’s still the girl’s brother and the human. My Lord?”
Typhos took the sword back from the magicologist and sheathed it away. Typhos went over to Celeste and crouched in front of her without saying a word. He stared at her for quite some time, as if figuring out how she might react.
“Let them stay here,” Typhos said.
“My Lord?”
“I’ll give them a parting gift before we go.”
Typhos stood and opened a warp to the old imperial palace, and looked at his men. The four of them quickly walked through the portal, leaving Typhos and the young girl in front of her.
“Come,” he said, offering his hand. “I will take good care of you.”
Celeste refused it, even though she had regained control of her body.
“You are coming with me regardless of whether you accept my offer or not,” Typhos warned. “I can make your time with me painless, or I can make it on par with what we would have done to Erda. The choice is yours.”
Still, Celeste refused. She thought of Crystil, and how she might act in such a spot like this. Never give in to the enemy.
With a disgusted sigh, Typhos grabbed Celeste by the neck and lifted her up with great physical strength. He dragged her to the edge of the portal and held her just inches from its entrance. He placed his hand up to the sky, and Celeste’s eyes widened as a meteor came into view.
“Erda has fooled you with a false story, child,” he said. “She and the other Kastori here are nothing more than power-hungry, manipulative, deceitful fools who couldn’t govern a single tent if they tried. But their reign has come to an end. This meteor will wipe out whatever remains of the Kastori here.”
“Cyrus! Run!” she communicated in all directions.
“Come,” Typhos said as he dragged Celeste across the portal seconds before the meteor collided with Anatolus.
24
Cyrus pressed against a tree, away from the crumbling Kastori town, gasping for air. His arms scraped bark, and his feet dug into the ground. To his right, Crystil followed, panting.
“You good?” he asked.
Crystil gave a thumbs up as she slowed down her breathing. I gotta get some of that soldier’s training.
Celeste.
Where is she?
Cyrus peered around the trunk of the tree just as a sword from someone other than Typhos went through the black robes of a black man.
Pagus.
Pagus…
“Do you have access to any of your weapons?”
Crystil grimly shook her head, mouthing the word, “No.”
Cyrus cursed to himself. He crept along the forest, trying to get closer to Typhos in the hopes that he could see an opportunity. Have to help Celeste. Have to do whatever I can.
Then he saw her.
All of the other magicologists had vanished. Only Typhos remained, offering her his hand. Behind them, a portal opened to what looked like his old home. Don’t you dare do it, Celeste. Don’t you take his hand.
They each remained in that position for several seconds as Cyrus struggled to come to a course of action. Run in there, cast magic and get killed? Distract Typhos so Celeste could do something? Where’s Erda? She should be helping right now!
Typhos reached down and grabbed Celeste by the neck, and Cyrus’ instinct overruled his mind. He stood up and took two steps in sprinting, opened his mouth to scream, and fell to the ground as Crystil tackled him.
“What are you doing?!?” he yelled as Crystil’s hand went over his mouth. “Stop! Let me go!”
“You’ll get yourself killed, Cyrus!”
“I don’t care! He’s gonna kill Celeste!”
“Cyrus! Get a grip! She’s fine! She won’t be if you go after her!”
Cyrus twisted violently under Crystil, who let him up but kept a firm grip on his shoulder. He got to his knees and saw Typhos looking to the sky with his arm raised.
“No!” he yelled. “No! No! No!”
I failed you, Celeste. But I won’t fail you for long. We’ll get you. I’ll run through that portal before he closes it. I’ll train with no sleep for a week. I will not let you die, sis.
His eyes rose to the sky as the emotion began to overwhelm him, but when he saw a meteor closing in, a new wave of terror hit him.
“Run!” Crystil said as she picked him up and pushed him away.
He somehow found an even higher speed as he fled the ensuing impact and the inevitable debris. It didn’t seem planet-ending to Cyrus, but it would wipe out the ship and everything else around it. Go go go go go go go.
He didn’t turn behind once after the initial glance. Crystil outran him, but both of them sprinted with the same intent.
He broke
for the depths of the forest, believing it might give him more shelter. He aimed for a dense—
A violent shockwave knocked him through the air toward a head-first collision with a tree. His hearing vanished as the sound wave caught up to him. Just before he hit the tree, he had one last thought as he accepted his death.
Celeste. Sorry.
25
Erda looked down on the rising pillar of black smoke with sadness in her heart. Again, I ran. Again, I ran from those I loved the most.
I failed to include you, Celeste. I failed to protect the people.
You had to run, Erda. If you didn’t, Typhos would have not just killed you. He would have mauled you. You had to run if you want to make a difference.
But I’m tired of running. I’m sick of it. No more.
Next time…
I’m willing to die.
She saw a meteor appear, a creation of Typhos on course for the remains of her home. Erda tried to cast a spell to break it apart into a series of relatively harmless rocks, but Typhos had fortified the meteor.
It’s not moving fast enough, and it’s not big enough to cause too much damage. But…
Cyrus. Crystil. Make it.
Please.
She braced herself at the top of Mount Ardor and closed her eyes. The ground shook as the meteor slammed into the planet, producing a large billowing cloud of dust. A shock wave extended about a mile out, nothing compared to the damage Typhos could have done with more time to prepare.
She opened her eyes and looked down. The dirt cloud overwhelmed the black smoke. The portal had vanished, Celeste back on Monda but now in the hands of the greatest mistake Erda had ever produced. Survive, Celeste. And I hope he shows you mercy as he did me.
She sensed for Cyrus and Crystil.
They were unconscious and unresponsive.
But alive.
26
Cyrus’ eyes darted open as the pain in the back of his head gnawed at him. Crystil hovered over him, her fingers on his neck.
“That’s one way to confirm you’re alive,” she said. She had a large cut on her arm, and bled from her forehead, but it didn’t seem serious. “You OK?”
Cyrus groaned as he sat up. His back ached, and his right shoulder throbbed in miserable agony. He wiped dust from his forehead and looked out on the plains. It seemed like all of the dirt on the planet had congregated in that area. Marking the spot where she’s gone.
Kastori Devastations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 2) Page 9