by James Somers
The minotaur seized up, its muscles suddenly rigid, and then relaxed just as quickly. I drew out the blade, pushing off of the minotaur’s shoulders as it collapsed in a heap beneath me. I hit the ground on my feet, turning to the next closest beast. He had witnessed the attack and was on his way.
The minotaur charged in its fully bull form, mouth open, frothing spittle. I hurled lightning into its face, dodging aside. The brute screamed in pain, blinded momentarily, and stumbled. It plowed into the dirt face first.
Knowing it wasn’t dead yet, I ran on toward a third minotaur. The beast saw me charging and planted itself firm, arms out, daring me to come. When I was within fifty feet, I whipped my blade away. The weapon caught a glint of light as it closed the gap between us in a second.
The minotaur hadn’t been quick enough to dodge and may not have seen my sword until the last moment. The beast screeched loudly but briefly, my blade lodged in its breastbone. It clutched at the weapon momentarily and then hit the ground quite dead.
Adolf’s approach had been a bit different, but he had been just as busy dispatching enemies. Two of the minotaur had been naïve enough to chase after him on foot. He ran up against the stone perimeter wall of the arena, turning to find the two bulls bearing down upon him. It was so close that I actually paused to watch, gasping as the last moment passed.
Adolf launched upward just before the two bulls slammed into the wall, cracking the stones and their reinforced skull caps. One of the brutes dropped dead on the spot. The other one stumbled away, bleeding quite badly from the rent in its head. It managed a blind stagger for some thirty feet before dropping over heavily like a felled tree.
The other minotaur coming for Adolf did not follow in his companions’ steps. The beast came at the young man in its bull-headed human form, muscles rippling beneath taut flesh. Adolf ran at him. I could see it in his eyes. He was going to pit his strength against this monstrosity.
Truth be told, Adolf was exceptionally strong. Even as a young man, he had always been quite powerful, able to take on mature Lycans or vampires with ease. It had only ever been superior technique that allowed me to sometimes beat him while sparring.
The two clashed, locking arms together, each of them planting their feet and pushing against the other. However, it was the greater size and weight of the minotaur that won out. Adolf’s feet dug furrows in the sand as the bull-headed beast forced him backwards.
Adolf struggled to hold his footing as the minotaur pressed hard against him. He was losing ground against the heavier beast. But this gave him the perfect opportunity to try what Lucifer had suggested.
He closed his eyes, maintaining his force against the bull. With their arms locked together in a contest of sheer brute strength, Adolf had an unrelenting hold on his opponent—a good connection. He reached into the minotaur with his mind. So far, the animal had not noticed any change.
His mind probed through the bull’s anatomical structure, finding his target. He felt the heart of the beast, each beating pulse driving blood through it’s massive body. Still, this instrument of circulative power was delicate. Vulnerable.
Adolf focused even more on the muscle itself—the function. It began to quiver, to stall its beating. The minotaur faltered, stumbled. A look of shock overcame its frothing fury. Adolf did not let go, even as the bull tried to disengage.
He held on to him all the way to the ground, keeping a firm pressure on the minotaur’s heart. The beast wasn’t even looking at Adolf now. Instead, it stared off into space, perhaps comprehending the approach of death, falling into that vortex of darkness never to return.
When Adolf let go of the beast, it spasmed only once before going still, its tongue dangling out the side of its mouth. Adolf stood looking at Cole, a broad smile on his face. He had done it. The power his father had once possessed had now come to him.
Broken
Brody stood in Whitehall, glancing back at the offices of the Prime Minister, wondering at what he had been shown. He and Sophia had spoken often in the night hours, wondering when the machinations of the Fallen would be revealed. Surely, something would happen to break the peace they had enjoyed.
Finally it had come. All this time, it seemed, the cherubim had been working to change the destroyed realms into this new creation, complete with a city dedicated to them. All they had required was a people willing to worship them in exchange for power and promises. The Breed had jumped at the opportunity.
He wasn’t sure how it had come to pass, but Cole, Sadie and their friend were being held captive. He had to get them out of there. But going to the spiritual plane would be perilous. He had to return and get help.
Sophia would be worried sick knowing that Sadie and Cole were caught up in such a mess. But there was nothing he could do. Motherly worry or not, he had to be honest with her. He wondered what her reaction would be to hearing about his heavenly visitor.
The angel’s farewell had been perplexing. Weeping for what had happened and what was still to come. All he could know about what had happened was what the angel had shown him on the newly renovated spiritual plane. As for what might be still to come, Brody could only guess.
He reached out for his destination. Brody considered returning straight to Highmore Castle, but, near as he could tell, the angel had returned him to Whitehall at almost the exact time they had left. He had even recognized a woman walking nearby before they vanished who was still walking by when he returned.
However, Sophia had gone to the palace in Rockunder earlier. There he could find his wife. Moreover, he could then locate both Laish and Redclaw in order to organize a rescue mission into this vampire city called Trinity.
A slight adjustment in trajectory brought Rockunder into view in his mind’s eye. He focused on the palace throne room. He would inform his friend Brian Shade as well. The Shade King might even accompany him with a compliment of spell casters and Leprechaun warriors.
Brody drew his location and the palace together in his mind and then applied power to that purpose. The physical world flew by in a blur. Cole had taught him the Leprechaun method of teleportation years ago after mastering it himself. Brody enjoyed the smooth transition.
He was deposited within the Shade King’s palace throne room. Oddly, Liam Shade presently occupied his father’s throne. Advisors gathered round were speaking with him as they normally would with the king.
Liam and the others looked shocked when they saw him standing there. “Guards!”
Brody had smiled when he first appeared. With Liam’s sudden outburst his smile faded to bewilderment. Guards that the doors and corners of the throne room rushed at him with their swords drawn. Spell casters in hooded green robes emerged, creating a shield around him much like the extension bubble he employed. Only, this was meant to cage him, prevent teleportation.
“What in the world is going on?” Brody shouted. A prank was one thing, though Liam had never been the humorous sort, but this blatant attack was outrageous and out of line, even from a king’s son.
The soldiers took up positions around the force field. The spell casters added power to maintain this nearly invisible prison. Only a slight red hue gave away the bubble’s outline to the naked eye. The guards brandished their weapons as though Brody was an actual threat to the prince.
“You dare to feign ignorance after what you’ve done?” Liam said, striding toward him. “Murderer! My father trusted you, to say nothing of your own wife!”
Brody froze in place. Several unbelievable statements had just been made. His mind quickly tried to sort through them, reading every inference multiple times.
Liam was accusing him. Of what? Murder? The king’s murder. And what of Sophia? The young prince had mentioned her, but in an impossible context. No. He could not wrap his mind around those words.
A sudden, welling fury was rising uncontrollably in him. Brody snapped, demanding answers. “Where is Sophia?!”
Liam stood just beyond the barrier that confined Brody
. His eyes narrowed. “You pretend not to know after you stood in this very chamber and murdered my father in cold blood?”
What the prince was saying to him made no sense. He had no idea what was going on. Had the world gone mad? And what about Sophia?
“Where is she, Liam?!” he shouted again.
Liam’s angry frown drew into a grim line as he straightened. “You killed her.”
Brody’s eyes went wide with horror. His voice became very small. “No.”
“With your own bare hands you broke that poor woman’s neck as she attempted to stop you from killing my father in your rage!” Liam continued. “Your friends, Laish and Redclaw, may not believe the truth, but I witnessed it with my own eyes. And I will see you put to death for it!”
“Lies!” Brody cried. His eyes searched the room frantically. Sophia had to be here somewhere. She could not be dead. “What have you done with her?”
“Laid out in the infirmary with my father, of course,” Liam said. “We will bury them both tomorrow evening. I will at least honor the Queen of the Lycans in her death. But you will be executed before that time for all to see.”
Brody could hardly breathe.
“You should consider it a mercy,” Liam said. “If I gave you over to the Lycans, they would rip you apart and drag the pieces through the streets for what you have done to their queen.”
Brody screamed at the top of his lungs. Lightning flashed within the force field between his body and the barrier’s inner wall. He became a raging beast, trying to get out.
The spell casters worked together, doing their best to keep enough power on the field to contain him. They were visibly straining to do so. However, Brody’s rage was wearing them down fast. They wouldn’t maintain much longer.
“If he breaks free, kill him immediately!” Liam commanded, backing away as matters appeared to be growing worse.
Malak-esh materialized in Brody’s hand. All eyes went wide at the sight of the infamous weapon. They knew something of its vast power. The ability to nullify even an angel’s attacks.
Brody drove the mercurial blade up through the force field. Its power was absorbed, fizzling and dying. The containment field vanished almost instantly. Everyone, including the armed guards, took a step backward.
Immediately, the soldiers remembered their king’s order to kill, stepping toward him again. Brody threw up his hands. An invisible force, like a hurricane wind, drove out from his person, pummeling everyone around him, knocking them to the stone floor.
Flames erupted around Brody, a sudden inferno that lit up the chamber, igniting some of the soldiers’ uniforms and the tapestries hanging on the walls. The fire died quickly, leaving only a charred burst pattern upon the floor. Brody West had gone.
Trumpet calls resounded throughout the palace. Brody had appeared in the royal infirmary. The healers working in the ward had gone out temporarily to investigate what was happening. He probably wouldn’t have much time. Just in case, he erected an invisible barrier that would keep people out until he left.
What he had come here for was not hard to find. The bodies of Brian Shade and his wife were laid out in a separate room from the main ward. A black shroud covered each body.
He went to the first which did not resemble a body at all. Peeling back the cloth, Brody beheld the Shade King. He had been burned to ash. Only his bones had been set here, a skeleton loosely arranged. Liam had not been lying. This was not a trick. The man who had been his good friend for nearly a decade was now dead.
Brody replaced the cloth, taking a deep breath. His eyes moved to the next body beneath it’s shroud. His stomach churned as he walked around to the other side of the large table. He wasn’t sure he could do this.
Coming alongside, he reached for the shroud. His hands were trembling. He tried to steady himself, but it was impossible. He prayed fervently for this to be someone else. Almost anyone but his Sophia.
Touching the shroud, he began to pull it away from the head. He paused, feeling dizzy. How had he come to this place? Why had this happened?
He finally mustered his courage and pulled the shroud back. Sophia lay there on the table, her eyes closed, a dark bruise around her throat. Brody’s breath caught in his chest. He was suffocating.
Falling to his knees beside the table, he could not stop hot tears from coming. Brody wept there, in his mind crying out to God. His voice was strangled in his throat. He could not produce the words he wanted to say. Not anger, not despair. Nothing but sobs.
Despair
At that moment, Brody could think of nothing good. His beloved wife had been taken from him, murdered by someone posing as him for all to see. This was a problem he would have to solve. The guilty party would pay.
His chest ached with each breath. His anger was battling with his despair. Had anger won, he might have brought the entire palace crashing down around him on the heads of Liam Shade and all of the Leprechauns who had allowed her to die in their palace.
“No,” he told himself. He couldn’t think this way. Liam had not killed her. The young man had lost his father today. No wonder the prince was angry. After all, Liam had no good reason to believe that he had not been the one to commit these heinous acts. Whoever the culprit was, they had done an excellent job convincing people Brody West was a murderer today.
He realized that his many allies would now despise him. Liam had said as much. Even the Lycans, whom he had ruled over with his wife for nearly twenty years wanted him dead. He couldn’t blame them. Whomever this imposter was, Brody wanted them dead also.
Still, he could not count on assistance from the Descendants. Only Laish and Redclaw had apparently been unwilling to believe these terrible lies. He had to find them and get their help. He would need their aid not only to clear his name and find this murderer, but to rescue Cole and Sadie and Adolf from the vampires in Trinity.
A complex web began to emerge from the details of all that had been revealed so far. The Fallen were involved. That much he knew. Even without knowing what role Lucifer, Black and Southresh might have played, he could not deny the reality that any one, or all of them had masterminded these events.
Angry voices coming from outside the infirmary told him that his shield had been discovered. They were trying to get inside. It was time to go. Brody did not want to fight these people. They did not understand what was happening, and he didn’t have the patience to explain it to them. Most likely, they wouldn’t have listened anyway.
“I’m not leaving you here,” he whispered, looking down at Sophia.
Brody stood again, drying his tears, mustering his determination. He raised his hand over her body. The black shroud rose into the air, rippling slightly. He energized the cloth and let it fall across her body again. As the shroud floated gently down, touching her flesh, it absorbed her still form. The process continued until the cloth lay flat against the table. Sophia’s body was now one with the shroud.
Brody grabbed the cloth, folded it quickly, and then stowed it away inside his coat’s inner breast pocket. She would be safely with him now until he could take the time for a proper funeral. Sadie would be devastated, just as he was, but it was only right that they be together to say their farewells to her.
He turned the corner, leaving Brian Shade’s bones behind. It was for his son to bury him. He had been a good friend these many years. All that Brody could do now was find his killer and bring them to justice.
Guards, healers and spell casters were gathered before the invisible barrier Brody had left to bar their entrance. He stood in full view now, prompting many outbursts and pointed fingers. Cries to get him were many, but they couldn’t get in yet.
The spell casters were working in concert again. It wouldn’t take them long to dismantle the simple construct, and Brody had no desire to keep reinforcing it. He had other matters to attend to now.
His eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, his nose running, all from crying. He did not care. His wife was gone. There was no br
inging her back. Even though he did not understand why the Lord had allowed this to happen, he held on to his faith.
A mortal life was only ever temporary. Sophia was safely with God now. He would miss her terribly, as would their daughter, but there was comfort in that knowledge. Though she would not return to them, they, each in turn, would go to her in death.
He did not know where Laish and Redclaw might be. Possibly they were still roaming free. Or Liam may have detained them while hunting for him. Brody decided the best place to start looking would be the prison block located within the palace.
There was a prison away from Rockunder, but it would be unlikely that Liam would keep them at a distance. The new king would want them close in case he wanted to interrogate them, or use their safety against him to force his surrender.
Besides, the prison ward within the palace had much stronger constraints upon it—magical constraints that only the most adept spell caster might be able to escape from. Brody had attempted to conjure his way out of one before as an experiment meant to strengthen their security. His first attempt had been difficult. The second try, following reinforcement spells, had proved impossible. If Shade was keeping Laish a prisoner, that would be the place—really the only place—where it could be done.
The barrier keeping out Liam’s men vanished. Brody was already gone by the time they took their first steps into the infirmary. Oddly, the method of teleportation used by Leprechauns had proved to hold an advantage few had considered recently. Because a portal was not technically being constructed, others could not follow.
Bringing two locations together momentarily was just not the same as an established doorway. On the other hand, it did require stillness—maintaining your location while bringing the other in sync. You couldn’t do it while falling or running, for instance, because your first location changed every moment. With the necessary steps taken, he vanished from the infirmary. The shield keeping out the healers and spell casters vanished with him.