by David James
Thin red lines of wax flowed down toward the table, stopping where chalky bone erupted from the floor and climbed in a chaos of dead arms and legs and ribs before meeting a tangled table top of twisted fingers and toes and teeth.
The flickering light pulsed around the room like lost heartbeats of dead souls, illuminating the people sitting on white chairs around the table. Five pairs of inhuman eyes gazed up at me, all as black and vast as night - or death. Each Elder wore different colored robes that matched the color of swirling tattoos on their bodies: Red, yellow, blue, green, white. I recognized Marcus in red sitting in the middle of the group. His hands tapped against the bone impatiently, his lips spread apart in a grin. His eyes never left me, watching as though he was a burning flame and I a moth. The man to his right was doused in yellow, his golden tattoos alive with light, but had the same cold glint to his eyes as Marcus did. The only other man in the group was covered in white, from his robes to his curled hair to the silvery lines circling his body. The two women were different; they seemed to breathe a small amount of life into the room when I looked at them. The one with pale, blue-tinted skin swirling with tides of blue-green was draped in robes that seemed to shimmer and flow around her like ocean waves. The other woman though, with warm, blushing brown skin touched with intertwined emerald vine tattoos, seemed to sit as still as a tree in robes the color of spring.
Still, their eyes were all as dark as shadows in deep graves. And as the Elders sat there unmoving, their colored stones shone from each of their foreheads, shining as though the reflecting lights were secret deadly words between them.
“The Elder Council acknowledges your faithfulness, Warrior, and beckons you forward,” Marcus said with a curt nod to Kate. And then to me, his eyes narrowing, he said, “You may come forth, Calum Wade, and see where fate has placed you.”
Kate moved first, walking quickly ahead of me as I followed. She sat in a stone chair framed in crossed spines set to the right of the table, her eyes never leaving the Elders.
“Sit,” Marcus commanded me.
I swallowed. “Where?”
His eyes blazed with candle fire. “Do not speak! Sit! There!” He pointed to a chair directly in front of where he sat, one covered in jawless, pale skulls.
I am not afraid. I am the Caeles, I thought, sitting down.
But I wasn’t, not really. Until I found the key to unlocking my powers, I wasn’t anything yet.
I remembered what Orion said:
It is closer than you think.
I had to get out of here.
“Calum Wade,” Marcus said, drawing out my name so it hung heavy in the room. He closed his tattooed hands together. “Oh, Calum. Calum. Where to begin.”
“The beginning might be nice,” the woman in green muttered.
Marcus shot her a look. “Yes, the beginning. In all honesty, Calum, it appears that we should not even hold this formal trial for you. It has been foreseen by the first enchanter, the Great Myrddin, that you will be the one to destroy us all. We believe you are the Destroyer, and that you will do more damage to us than even our greatest enemy, the Orieno. You will take what is sacred and most honored to our people and kill it. You will destroy our hopes and dreams until they are nothing but deaths and bits of destruction and hopeless-”
“Get on with it, Marcus,” the woman said rolling her eyes. “Stop trying to scare everything out of the boy and let’s move this trial along. Some of us have places to be and people to save, if you remember why we’re here in the first place.”
“Not this again,” the man in yellow said under his breath.
The same woman sighed. “Yes, this again, Lisander! This is ridiculous. We have much larger things to be focusing on that have already happened, but here we are worrying about things that haven’t. We are supposed to be balancing good and evil in the world, yet here we sit letting the scales tip against us. How does that make sense?”
Marcus scowled. “It makes sense, Gae, because that’s the way of the Order. Or have you gone rogue on us now?”
“You know that I will always have the Order’s best interests at heart, Marcus!” she shouted. “Don’t you dare put me in league with any of our enemies.”
“As if you would know who those actually were.”
“Enough!” Lisander shouted, his gold tattoos shining bright. “Silence, Gae. We have a trial to conduct and you’re not helping anyone.”
Gae looked like she wanted to scream, but her mouth stayed closed. Beside her, the woman with blue robes tilted her head down.
“I understand where you are coming from, Gae,” Marcus said in a voice much too light for his dark eyes. “However, we do know that Calum is the Destroyer, and therefore we need to do everything in our power to stop him before he destroys us.”
Gae shook her head. “With respect, Marcus, we do not know that for sure. You yourself know that the prophecy is inconclusive. Only the witches know the truth behind it.”
He nodded and pointed to the man on his right. “Yes, and although we feel it irresponsible of our past Elders to leave the last half of the prophecy with the witches, Lisander and I have gone to the Woman of Prophecy to hear the Legend of the Dreamer in its entirety, and we are both certain that Calum is, in fact, the Destroyer.”
“You did?” Gae asked, her lips curling in disbelief. “When was this?”
“While you were gone on one of your ‘important missions.’”
“Do not belittle me, Marcus! They are important!”
“As is this.”
“There is no doubt,” Lisander agreed, frowning. “We saw the prophecy and Marcus is certain of its meaning.”
“You don’t understand,” I started, feeling the skulls dig into my back. “I’m not the Destroyer. I’m the-”
“I agree!” Kate shouted, standing up.
Marcus looked livid. “You agree with what, Warrior?”
“I agree that the boy is the Destroyer, and that he should be taken care of like we agreed.”
Like we...
I whispered, “Kate?”
“Silence!” Marcus yelled, standing up. “Quiet or I will slit both your throats right here and now!”
Gae leaned forward. “You agree, Warrior? Why?”
Kate blinked. “He is the Destroyer. I have seen the evidence with my own eyes and agree with what Marcus has said. We should take care of him as we planned. That’s what we discussed, and that’s what should be done.”
“What evidence?” a quivering voice next to Gae said. “Are you sure?”
“Oh shut it, Layla,” Lisander barked. “Of course she is sure. Marcus is the one that brought her to us in the first place. He helped train her. Do you doubt him?”
Layla blanched. “No, of course not.”
“I agree with the Warrior,” Gae said, her voice definitive and darkly certain. “The boy should be taken care of.”
“Agreed.” Marcus focused on me. His black eyes were horrific fury against all I was, and I felt my throat close around terror unwilling to escape.
Lisander and Layla both said, “What?”
Marcus smiled. “I knew you would come around, Gae. I’m glad you finally made the right choice and saw the truth.”
He licked his lips, wet and dark red. “It is decided. Calum Wade is the Destroyer, and he is sentenced to-”
“Wait,” Gae interrupted. “I said, Marcus, that I agreed with the Warrior. I agree that the boy should be taken care of, but I never said I agree with your idea of sentencing.”
Marcus turned to her. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t think we need to kill the boy until we are all certain of what he is. It would be better to wait until he actually did anything that would lead us to believe we’re right.”
“Agreed,” whispered Layla.
“Both of you are idiotic!” Lisander bellowed, standing up and throwing his hands in the air. “This is what we believe, don’t you both understand that? Or do you not have faith in the Order anymore?�
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Gae rose to her feet, her mound of curly black hair shaking like a storm. “I have faith in what is right for everyone, not what is believed by few without just cause. Here we are accusing this boy of things that might be true when there are still Orieno attacks happening in this very state. Two just over an hour ago when the boy was here!”
“He’s in league with the Siblings!” Lisander shouted. “You know that, Gae. The boy lets them do his dirty work while he is working to defeat us! You are going against this Council and mocking our faith!”
“You are so willing to believe anything, Lisander, that I’m wondering if you are even on our side anymore,” Gae said. Her tone was hushed, deadly. “If you even remember the difference between right and wrong, or if you simply submit yourself to power.”
“How dare you! I will-”
“The boy is guilty!” Marcus yelled over everyone. He shot to his feet, his crimson robes billowing around him like runaway flames. “Calum Wade, the prophecy is clear to us. Our sacred words name you as a king among evil. You are the Destroyer! You are guilty! You are sentenced to death now, and I will kill you myself if I must!” He spoke quickly, every word a crescendo of anger until his eyes grew red with rage, as if the words were spilling out to make room for something more.
“No!” Kate jumped from her seat. “You can’t kill him!”
Lisander exploded. “You dare speak again, Warrior?”
“The Warrior obviously understands that we should not kill the boy until we are absolutely certain who he is,” Gae said calmly. She turned to the man in white. “Arthur, what do you think?”
Marcus was shaking in fury. “I have spoken! He has been sentenced!”
Gae waved a hand in the air. “Yes, you did, Marcus. But in order for the sentence to hold true, the entire Council needs to vote on the matter. We didn’t. Now, Arthur, you are an enchanter of spirit and can see more than any of us. What do you think?”
There was silence for what seemed like hours, and then the man in white spoke in a voice that was a grating whisper. It was as though life had left him and he was nothing more than a shell, his spirit sucked dry for the sake of others. “The boy is more than he seems, but he is not yet who he should be.”
“See,” Lisander said. “He is the Destroyer. Kill him.”
“Arthur was not clear.” Gae shook her head. “Arthur? I apologize for asking twice, but can you be more descriptive in your detailing of the boy? Is he the Destroyer or something else?”
Arthur closed his eyes and breathed, “He is the lost one we seek. Soon he will be the Caeles.”
Silence.
Then, “HOW DARE YOU!”
“Marcus!” Gae cried. “What are you doing?”
Fire burst around Marcus, the entire room hot from his element. “Lisander! Destroy them both! Lisander!”
Lisander began to run toward me, his eyes glowing with deep red fire that said this: Kill, kill, kill.
“Run!” Kate screamed at me.
I jumped off my seat and bolted toward the Doors.
I felt hands on me, gripping my shoulder so tightly I felt blood.
“Hurry, boy. We must hurry.” It was Gae. “I’m with you. Trust me.”
Behind me I saw Lisander and Marcus throwing bolts of light and fire at Layla. Her hands were thrown out in front of her, shaking as pale blue light engulfed them. A wall of light blue water broke the room in two, protecting us.
Suddenly, Kate was beside me. “Run!” she yelled.
As my fingers touched the door, I heard Marcus howl with an undying rage. “Morphis! Hear my plea and fight beside me! It is time!”
I turned just as the wall of water crashed down in waves, shattering into white-hot flames as it fell around Layla.
Even from where I stood, I heard her cries burst from her throat, wet and lifeless, until she was engulfed in light and fire. Until she was nothing but ash and dust and death.
Beside me, Gae whispered, “Sister.”
In a flash of darkness, gray smoke began to billow from behind Marcus. His body began to change, grow as he screamed. His teeth elongated, and his eyes grew as red as embers on a hot fire burning bright. His tongue reached out and licked at air and more flames burst from the smoke.
Lisander bowed to the thing that used to be Marcus.
“Lissssander,” it hissed. “Kill the boy. Kill him!”
I knew that voice, knew the devil-eyes and the shape of the dark smoke that reached like fingers. It was the monster from my dream, the one that couldn’t touch me.
Blood beat in my ears. Faster and faster.
“Morphis,” Gae whispered from my side. “No...”
A hand found my own. Kate.
I couldn’t speak.
“Run,” Gae whispered, her voice so filled with fear it burned my throat. She turned up to the ceiling and clasped her hands together. “Emaline. Christopher. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes were wide, and her lips white with fear. She reached into the folds of her robe and pulled out a small dagger, the hilt gleaming with emeralds. She thrust the knife into Kate’s hands and closed her fingers around it. “Sweet Kate, forgive me for not protecting you, for not telling you the truth about what I could not stop; Marcus has become Morphis. Now you must run toward the truth kept from you, and don’t look back until you’ve reached the outside. The morning sun has nearly risen, and Morphis will need the day to regain his strength; he will eat souls until the moon rises again. You both have until then to become what you must be. Run while you can. The Orieno are already here, and they will move as quickly as they can before the night leaves completely. The wards in the tunnel have already been broken. I can feel it. Go!”
We ran.
Chapter Fourteen
Darkness burning Bright
-Kate-
Invisible hands took hold of my heart, my lungs, and squeezed until I couldn’t feel or breathe. Until my whole world melted in death and betrayal, and burned dark around me from the bright flames of one body on fire.
Gae’s voice was a quake of power, surging through me so her words repeated furiously: Go! Go! Go!
I remembered Dad screaming.
Remembered being afraid.
Hiding.
“Go!”
“Move, Calum!” I shouted, the words barely slicing through the air in time. I shoved Gae’s dagger up my sleeve. “Run!”
I heard a crunch behind me, bone against rock.
Someone else was gone. Dead.
Please let it be Marcus, I thought as my legs pushed me forward, away. I grabbed Calum’s shirt and pulled. Please let Morphis be gone.
Marcus.
He had been my family when I had none, and my world when mine unraveled. My father when I could look to no one else, trust no one else.
And now he stood as a man possessed by a demon; Morphis, the dream-eating demon banished from Hell itself. Now Marcus’ soul was nothing but dust, a cold bundle of ash in his heart that beat as dark as death; that’s what they did. Morphis wouldn’t stop until he stole every soul in sight, eating the helpless dreams of innocents in the name of the Orieno. He wouldn’t stop until he had an army of damned, lawless victims to control. Until the world was dark.
Marcus was gone. Dead.
Calum and I burst through the falls and out into the lost beauty of the open cave. The shine of the angel tears on the lake was too bright against the horrific screams behind us. The magic was gone, almost forgotten. Even the tears were falling more slowly.
A piercing siren shook the rocky walls of the cave, bursting through the air and rippling across the lake and falls as if alive; a cry for help to all those Warriors still alive. A cry for death.
A reason to hide.
Time was a beating drum, sounding faster and faster until it kept a driving rhythm with my speeding heart, and I knew we didn’t have much left.
“The other Warriors will be here soon. They can’t find us or we’ll never leave; after what happened no one wi
ll be allowed to.” My eyes darted left and right, searching. “Come on!” I ran toward a small stone storage house, yanked open the red-rusted door, pushed Calum inside, and locked us in.
Except for blood sounding loud in my ears, racing through my veins like fire eating a thousand lines of gasoline, there was nothing but quiet.
“Quiet,” I whispered while I waited for the fire to reach my heart. To explode.
Calum jerked his head toward me. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Yes, you were. So, shut up and sit still. If they know we’re in here, we die.”
He nodded. “Should we hide or do you have a plan?”
“Hide.” I looked around. “Get behind those food boxes in the back. They should be big enough to hide us if someone comes in.”
“You think that’ll help?”
“No,” I said. “Not at all. But hiding will give us the advantage in an attack if someone does find us.”
We crouched down behind the boxes, our knees touching. This close, I could feel how warm his skin was.
I closed my eyes and tried to banish the beat of my heart so I could hear the outside. I listened and heard just this: A slow beat beat beat of a heart that wasn’t mine.
Calum.
I opened my eyes and saw the sky-
saw my reflection in his deep blue eyes.
I saw him looking at me like I was someone else, like I was a girl made of sunlight, the only thing shining bright in a world of complete darkness. Hope in a place without.
Like I was someone more.
“Stop it,” I said. “You said you’d stop looking at me like that.”
“I never said that.”
I turned away, curled my arms around myself and hugged my body. “Well, stop.”
For a while, I was alone with my thoughts, my heart. Alone, with Calum next to me.
“What was that?” he said breaking the silence. “What did Marcus turn into?”
I shuddered at the name, betrayal so thick in the sound of it that I felt it rattle my bones and crawl under my skin. I didn’t dare speak loudly, so I moved closer to Calum and whispered, “Morphis. He turned into the most powerful demon sibling of the three banished from Hell, and the leader of the Orieno.”