The Divine Path (The Divine Series)

by Allen J Johnston

  “Kade, what happened?” Darcienna asked as she tried to make the ground glow with her footsteps once more.

  “Go stand over there by that tree,” Kade said with his eyes closed and his head tilted back in frustration. Darcienna complied, but what she really wanted to do was tell him no more for the night and to lie down and go to sleep. But, she could not because she knew it was important to support this decision. She knew that Kade was not one to allow failure to stand, and for some reason she could not understand, he had to do the calling again. She regretted pushing him now as she watched him suffering.

  Kade stood still as he worked the calling in his mind over and over until he thought he could do it again as he had the first time. He referred to the book once more, making sure his weary brain was understanding and nodded his head in satisfaction. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and dove into that deep lake and headed for that tunnel. He forced his mind to see the moves on the page. His breathing was far from smooth, but he stayed focused. Thoughts threatened to invade his mind as they did during the first time, but he vanquished them with the fact that he had completed this calling once, and he was going to complete it again. Finally, the sixth move and he held out his hand, but the Divine Power did not activate the calling as it had previously. The pattern did not form. His mind reeled, and then it hit him what he had done wrong. He spat out the word for surround so fast he was unsure if it was recognizable.

  The pattern blazed into view. Kade breathed a deep sigh of relief while holding his hand out with the Divine flowing through it. He looked at Darcienna and nodded for her to walk forward. As she entered the pattern, he could feel a tingle in his mind that was feather light. He focused on how it felt to make sure he would know it, even while asleep. It was not going to demand his attention, but it should do what he needed, as long as he slept lightly enough.

  “It didn’t work,” Darcienna said with a frown as she looked at the ground. There were no glowing footprints.

  “Yes it did,” Kade said with a weak smile. “I felt a vibration run through my mind, indicating that someone, or something, had entered the area,” he said triumphantly, as he looked at the ground longingly.

  Kade closed his eyes and completed the Reveal Calling. He tilted his head this way and that way as he scanned the area. If he looked closely, real closely, he could just barely make out a symbol here and a shape there, but it could easily have been mistaken for the reflection of the moon off a rock or moisture on a leaf. Kade nodded to himself, satisfied and relieved beyond words that he did not have to complete the calling again.

  “There, that should make you happy,” Kade said, as if he were talking to Zayle.

  “So, you are able to know if someone is coming without them knowing that you know,” Darcienna said to herself as she nodded her head in approval.

  Kade did not hear Darcienna as his mind returned to almost a month prior when he was struggling with the Drift Calling. A simple calling, and I could not perform it, Kade thought. Now, it makes perfect sense why Zayle used to get so angry when I failed. It was not that I did not have the ability, but that I did not put my best effort into every calling I performed. Master Zayle hammered Kade for a decade saying, “Using the Divine required complete dedication every time.” How could I not see something that was so blatantly obvious? It was just so easy to not try with Zayle there to save me if it went wrong.

  “Kade, is everything okay?” Darcienna asked gently.

  “Yes. I was just thinking about my lessons with Master Zayle,” Kade said, feeling the sadness in him threatening to grow.

  “You will be able to get revenge for your master,” Darcienna said, trying to cheer him up.

  “Justice,” Kade corrected. “We will get justice,” he said, feeling right about what he had said.

  Darcienna chewed on that for a bit and then nodded her head in approval. She gently put her hand on his arm and smiled. His eyes focused on hers, and he relaxed as the knots in his stomach began to untie. His shoulders slumped slightly as he took a deep, long breath and let it out slowly. Darcienna thought he was going to deflate to the ground right before her eyes. Once again, her heart went out to him.

  “I think it’s time we get some sleep,” Darcienna said as she coaxed him to lie down next to the fire. “So, you can detect someone or something from about thirty feet away?” she asked as she contemplated the ground.

  “About that, yes,” Kade said, feeling his muscles start to turn to water.

  “And you think that is enough warning?” Darcienna asked, doubt in her voice.

  “As soon as I sense something, I’ll signal Rayden. That should give us enough time, and you can have your shield up immediately. And besides, I’m still wearing the amulet, so Morg is unable to track us,” Kade said as he feebly reached up for the protective necklace. He was about to pull his hand away when he felt a tremor run through it. He became a little more alert as he focused on the feeling. The amulet warmed slightly.

  “What is it?” Darcienna asked, seeing the concern in his eyes.

  “The amulet felt warm for a few seconds. I think it does that when someone is trying to find me.”

  “Did it keep us from being detected?”

  “I believe so,” Kade said with a sigh. “I am afraid that Morg may break through sometime, though. It seems that I am feeling the vibrations more and more, and the amulet feels warmer every time,” he said as he put his chin to his chest, trying to look at the protective jewelry. “This might mean that the amulet has to use more power to keep us cloaked. If this is true, then there might be a limit to its power. But, I am sure we have a while before we have to worry about that,” Kade said as his hand fell to his side.

  “I hope you’re right,” Darcienna said as she laid down on the other side of the fire.

  “I am. Now go to sleep. We need to have our rest,” Kade said as he started to slur his words.

  It took only seconds, and Kade was out cold. His mind fell into a dream where he and Master Zayle had gone for a walk in the forest. Zayle would patiently tell him about this flower or that creature as they strolled along the path. Kade enjoyed listening to his master on these walks, but he never really absorbed much of what Zayle said. But, there was one thing that he did recall, and now it was making more sense than ever. Zayle used to preach that the more knowledge one had of his surroundings, the less one needed to depend on the Divine. The way Zayle used to comment about the Divine made Kade feel that his master considered it a bad thing. Kade never agreed with Zayle’s thinking and looked forward to using the Divine for everything possible. Why would anyone not want to use the Divine? he used to wonder, but now he was seeing things differently. Zayle had said, “Those that became too dependent on the Divine, would end up losing themselves because of the Divine.” Something about it being a two-edged sword that, sooner or later, would cut both ways.

  Kade was breathing deeply and almost completely in the world of dreams when the amulet vibrated stronger than it ever had, warming considerably. Kade tried to clear his head as his hand reflexively moved up to the necklace, but he slipped deeper into the world of dreams. Out of nowhere, he felt something kick him in the ribs hard enough to roll him onto his back. Kade was afraid that several of his ribs were broken as his mind raced. He gasped for breath, struggling to drag his weary mind to wakefulness. He looked up and his vision cleared. He was looking into the face of the one person he hated, feared, dreaded more than any other living thing on the planet. Morg.

  *CH3*

  “How did you get past my Detection Calling?” Kade wheezed, his mind struggling to grasp what was happening.

  “Your puny calling is no match for me. You are just a child playing at being a man,” Morg said as he sneered.

  Kade spared a quick glance at the other side of the fire and found it empty. Darcienna was nowhere to be found. He turned quickly to call for his dragon, but Rayden was also mysteriously missing. Something was more wrong here than what he could see. Morg
glanced in the direction Kade was looking and narrowed his eyes.

  “Hoping for help? Don’t expect any,” Morg said, taking immense satisfaction in Kade’s confusion. Morg was the type that would skin a cat alive just to hear it howl. “The only thing you need to consider is do you want to die quickly or long and torturously?”

  “What did you do with them?” Kade asked with venom in his voice. He felt anger growing in him like an avalanche. The Divine Power rushed to embrace him like a long lost lover. Kade reveled in it and let it sink into every part of his being. The rage filled him and became him. He became the rage. They were one and the same. Hate was power and he filled his heart with it. The pain from his injury faded.

  “Them,” Morg said as he peered at Kade. It was more a contemplative response but Kade was too far gone to see this, too far gone to think clearly.

  The pain in his side was distant as the power surged through him. Revenge, he thought. He needed revenge, craved it more than anything. His lips curled and he let out a growl as he lunged like a snake striking its prey and caught Morg in the knee with a boot. The evil Chosen let out a howl as he stumbled backward a step and then recovered immediately. In one swift movement, he stepped forward while raising a heavy, ornate staff, and then brought it down on Kade’s head with a heavy crack. The world spun dangerously under that blow. Kade focused on his hate for Morg and kept himself from collapsing to the ground. He threw himself clumsily to the side, rolled to his knees and then stumbled to his feet as he tried to clear his head enough to cast a calling. Every move to the Lightning Calling beckoned for him to empower it.

  “You would not get even the first move completed before I was able to blast you into a thousand pieces,” Morg said as he leveled the staff at Kade’s face. It was so close that Kade almost went cross-eyed to look at it. There were symbols carved in almost every inch of the wood, and it even seemed as if they were alive with power, but that could not be. His hate waivered just slightly and a sliver of logic slipped into his consciousness. Somewhere inside, he realized that if he were to survive this, he needed to think his way through it. He pushed the blackness back from his heart with effort. He watched the staff retreat until Morg held it vertical with the butt end of it on the ground. It was approximately five feet tall. It was three inches thick at the base and grew to four inches thick at the head.

  “How did you get here?” Morg asked as he looked around. The way he asked the question was…odd. Just a sliver more logic and the rage eased a little.

  “What does it matter? You are here now. You won. But…,” Kade started to say and then hesitated. Something nagged at him, but it was hard to think. He wanted desperately to destroy this man utterly and completely. No, he told himself. Think. Something was odd about the way Morg was watching him. “Why do you hesitate?” Kade asked, trying to buy time.

  Kade felt his chest start to burn as the amulet heated up. He looked down, but it wasn’t hanging around his neck as it should have been. Something was not right. He had to think. He felt he was on the verge of understanding when Morg’s boot slammed into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. He doubled over, and Morg brought his knee into Kade’s face, splitting his lip, sending blood spraying across the ground. Kade landed hard on his back.

  “I find it difficult to believe that something as pathetic as you could kill my pets,” Morg said with contempt.

  “You mean that thing you used to call Kroden?” Kade said, emphasizing the past tense of the comment as he let out an antagonizing laugh. Blood shot out as a cough took the place of his laugh. That earned him another boot to the other side of his ribs. He tried to speak but had to clear the copper tasting liquid from his mouth. He spat and then continued. “And, that cat thing was not much of a challenge, either,” Kade said in gasps as he waited for another blow that never came. He reached out with his mind to find his dragon but there was nothing. Rayden was nowhere to be found. Or…was he? Something…was there but it was not right. The burning on his chest drew his attention again. He looked down and still…nothing.

  “I might let you live for just a little while longer if you answer my question. I might even let you join me. Think of all the things we could do together,” Morg said nonchalantly as he bent down to look Kade in the eyes. “How did you get here?” Morg asked as he traced the patterns in his staff with his finger as though the answer really did not matter.

  “Why do you keep asking that? Why don’t you just do what you came to do? Or, is there a reason you can’t?” Kade asked, taking a gamble as just a sliver more of his logical mind worked.

  “Like I said, I might let you live if you just answer my questions,” Morg said as he delivered another sharp blow to Kade’s head. His ears rang furiously and he was certain his left ear was already starting to swell. His stomach lurched, and he felt the sand on the back of his head for just a moment. The amulet burned his chest now. He wearily reached up to lift it away from his skin, but his hands found nothing

  “You…keep asking that as if…as if you don’t know. You are trying to figure something out,” Kade said as he laughed through the pain. “Why not just kill me?” he asked and then stopped. He could have sworn he heard a distant roar, a panicked roar. Was Rayden trying to find him? Kade reached out with his mind and could have sworn that his dragon should be answering but…there was a wall.

  “You think this is a game!” Morg screamed as he bent to within inches of Kade’s face, spittle flying from him. “The pain is real and so will your death be if you keep this up,” he said as he put his right hand around Kade’s neck and started to squeeze. “Now, where are we?” Morg roared as he looked around. He was shaking with fury. Kade felt his air being cut off.

  “A days walk,” Kade rasped, trying to buy time. “A days walk from town.”

  Morg let Kade fall to the ground and stood while laughing lightly. After a moment, he leveled his malicious gaze at the Apprentice Chosen, making his skin crawl. Morg sneered.

  “And Zayle thought you were a challenge for me,” Morg said as he laughed in contempt.

  The burning feeling on Kade’s chest was almost more than he could bear. Glancing up, he was sure he saw the evil Chosen shimmer slightly. The burning in his chest drew his attention again. He reached down, trying to find the source of the heat, but his hand came up empty once again. Morg watched Kade’s actions with curiosity. He narrowed his eyes and leaned closely to look at Kade’s chest. He jumped back, and his eyes came wide open with understanding.

  “It burns,” Morg said, feigning uncaring again. “If it burns, then take it off,” Morg said as if talking to a simpleton. “That Zayle sure is a clever one,” he added with genuine admiration.

  “What are you doing?” Kade asked as he clawed at the spot. The burning felt so intense he was sure his skin was blistering, but there was nothing to grab. It was just bare skin.

  “Well, why don’t you take off the amulet?” Morg asked casually.

  “You already have it,” Kade said as he looked down to find the amulet hanging around his neck. Morg took a breath and waited. Kade’s hand shot to the amulet, but just as he was about to rip it from his neck and throw it, another sliver of logic worked its way into his mind. The burning was too intense for him to ignore, so he lifted it away from his skin. Morg stood so still with his eyes on Kade, he could have passed for a statue.

  No sooner had Kade lifted the amulet away from his skin when he would feel an unseen force push it back down. The burning amulet started to glow slightly as heat radiated from it. It was too intense. Kade felt sweat start to bead on his forehead as he fought to control the pain. His jaw was clenched tightly. Another sliver of logic worked its way into his mind. Something was very wrong here. Morg wanted the amulet off, but why if he had already found him?

  The amulet heated just a little more. Kade could not take the pain. He put his strength into lifting the protective necklace and it slowly rose. Far off in the distance, Kade heard a voice. Was it Darcienna’s? That caused hi
m to pause as more things fell into place. And then, he heard a violent roar that shook the ground, but the ground did not shake so why did he think he felt it?

  Kade twisted and the counter pressure that had been pressing down on the amulet was gone instantly. He let it dangle from his neck as he panted while on his hands and knees. He looked at Morg and saw that the man was shaking with immense effort, but why? What was he doing? And again, there was another sliver of logic. His anger faded and then things clicked into place. He slowly stood, and after spitting a good amount of blood, laughed.

  “This is not real, is it?” Kade asked, taunting the evil Chosen. “This is my dream, or a trance, or something other than the real world, isn’t it?” He was very conscious of the amulet, but now he knew he needed to keep it around his neck. “You are not really here. That is why you keep asking where I am and how I got here,” Kade said, filled with confidence as he walked up to Morg, looking him in the eye. The Master Chosen shook with rage as he glared back. “You have no idea,” Kade said as he threw his head back and laughed in Morg’s face. Kade knew he might regret it, but he just could not help himself. He had figured out Morg’s game, and he wanted him to feel the sting of being defeated in this battle of wits. The pain might feel real, but he won this round.

  “Oh, I can still make you suffer,” Morg said as he snarled and swung the staff. The pain was excruciating. The last thing Kade saw was the twisted smile on Morg’s face that was mixed with rage and hate. The man was beaten this round but not before he inflicted his fair share of suffering.

  Kade ground his teeth, trying to withstand the agony. It racked his body for what seemed like forever but was closer to mere seconds. It slowly faded to be replaced by the sound of Darcienna’s voice. His vision returned, and with that, she came into focus. She had tears streaming down her face. Her eyes were blazing bright blue but rimmed in red. He looked up at her weakly and gave a slight smile. She hugged him fiercely and sobbed.