“Kaiyer!” I moved toward the estate and screamed his name, but the figure was already gone and I doubted he could even hear me over the sounds of the dying city. I made it three steps before I stopped on the scorched pathway.
A large man with a shaved head sprinted down the road from the same direction as Kaiyer. He had an ugly scar over his nose and held thick-bladed swords in his ham-sized fists. Next to him was a blonde woman only as tall as the man’s shoulder. She held two shorter curved swords, and what the man had in a lumbering bear stride she equaled with a smooth gait, as graceful as Relyara. The pair’s clothes were lightweight affairs that may have once been colored white but were now stained red with blood and black with ash.
Thayer and Alexia.
Fear filled my stomach with panic. Entas and I stood out in the open space of the burnt street. I carried no weapon and neither did the old human next to me. I could not stand against them.
“Relax, Iolarathe. They cannot see us.” Entas laid a hand upon my shoulder.
The pair ran to the wall and leapt. Alexia’s movement was graceful and liquid. The woman did not even touch the wall when she flipped over it. The muscular bald man had to anchor the pommels of his swords on the top of the rock and then use his legs to kick himself over.
“That’s good! They really didn’t see us.” The old man breathed a sigh of relief, but the smirk on his face convinced me that he knew we were invisible.
We were ghosts.
While Thayer was climbing the wall, I saw two other men running toward the estate. Malek and Gorbanni. Their clothes were also ruined with blood.
Entas approached the wall. I followed and watched as the two O’Baarni jumped over it. We stood thirty feet from Malek and Gorbanni when they made the leap. Entas walked closer to the wall and then passed through the stone. I stared for a second because the wall actually seemed to part, bend, and warp out of the man’s way. For a moment I could peer through the barricade to the gardens behind it.
“Hurry!” He called from the other side. I reached my left hand out to the stone wall. It was as if the rock did not want to touch me and it parted with a strange urgency. I waved my hand quickly through the stone and it dipped and danced as if I was stirring oil and water.
I stepped through the wall.
I thought I would feel some sort of strange sensation, but other than the brief scent of dirt overpowering the taste of flames in my mouth, there was nothing. I was on the other side of the stone, facing the burning garden.
Entas waited at the entrance to Malek’s estate. I ran through the smoking remains of a once beautiful garden and reached the door right behind the small human. We passed through the thick wooden portal just as we had through the stone wall.
“The Ovule is in the basement below us.” I looked at my feet and wondered if I could pass through the floor to reach the level below. The dark wood began to bend around my booted feet and then I floated down to the basement like a feather.
I was disoriented for a few moments and I tried to recall where I believed the Ovule was kept. I knew Malek had a room devoted to the various artifacts he had discovered on their travels, but Kaiyer and I had never made it that far into his estate. Malek’s soldiers had captured us as soon as we entered the home and we never reached these lower levels.
I heard a clang near me. I spun around to see Kaiyer walk across the hallway ahead of me. He had removed his helmet as the ceiling was too low to accommodate the long horn of the horrible thing. I almost cried out to him, but I knew he would not hear me. It was painful to see him. To see the anguish in his eyes. I wanted to assure him I was okay, I was still with him. I wanted to touch him again.
Entas stood behind me. We turned the corner and walked down a short flight of stairs to the room that held Malek’s collection of artifacts. The walls were lined with suits of Elven armor, weapons, books, artwork, and musical instruments. The sight of them pained me almost as much as the grief in Kaiyer’s eyes. I had failed all of them. My race was reduced to a few relics, to be remembered as nothing but a horrible scourge, driven from the world as vermin by the heroic O’Baarni. History would remember us as monsters, as oppressors, as evil finally defeated. The beauty of what we had created, the world we had established and successfully maintained for our Gods would be forgotten.
On the far wall, I saw the painting I had made of the floating islands. I froze, my vision drawn to the artwork until I could see nothing else. It was exactly like the place from which Entas and I had come.
Except in this painting, Kaiyer was carefully depicted on the canvas.
My mind screamed back through my memories and I tried to recall where I had left the piece. Had I given it to Relyara? No. I recalled talking to my suitors about the artwork one morning. We had made the wager about hunting carrion beasts. Then another thought drifted into my head and interrupted the quest to figure out where Malek had found the artwork.
It was clearly Kaiyer in the painting.
If Malek had it, then he must have known that an Elven painted his friend.
A sharp thud ripped my attention from the painting and back to the father of my child. There was a chest on a simple dais in the center of the room and Kaiyer lifted the lid with armored fingers. Entas tugged on my arm and we walked around the handsome man to see his face. Inside the chest was an Ovule and it pulsed and glowed with the life of a thousand lightning bugs.
“I wish he could see me.” The words escaped my mouth before I even thought to speak them. His armor was horrific. Thousands of my people had seen it just before he ended them; those few of us who survived his wrath would always remember it in terror, but the face behind the helmet was still that of the simple young man who had taken care of my horses those many years ago. Entas grunted at my comment and I was both surprised and relieved that he did not utter another sentence of useless drivel.
Thayer and Alexia entered the room, their footsteps sounded clearly even over the screams outside; I could smell their terror and their blood, but Kaiyer was absorbed by the glowing orb.
“Kaiyer!” I yelled when Thayer advanced a few steps and quickly closed the distance.
“Iolar—” Kaiyer looked up from the chest and our eyes made contact. His mouth opened in surprise.
Then the point of Thayer’s sword emerged from between his eyes.
“No!” I screamed and felt my heart shatter with numbness. My nails raked across the ugly man’s face, but his skin and bones seemed to part like water before my hands. I shrieked again, but the humans did not hear me. Thayer yanked back on his blade and the sword made a sick, wet sound when it came free of Kaiyer’s skull.
My lover's body fell to the stone floor and blood flowed out like an undammed river. His eyes and mouth were still opened with surprise. After a few seconds, his body began to twitch in scattered movements that reminded me less of the invincible warrior he had been and more of a leaf caught in the wind. I tasted his blood in the air and it mixed with the horrible scent of his brain matter and the smell of fresh death.
“No. No. No.” I tried to touch his body, but my hands passed through as if he was made of smoke and fog.
“Do something!” I knew I was screaming, but I could not control my voice. The old man made a wincing expression with his face and then shrugged his shoulders.
“He can save himself if he wants to.”
“What the fuck does that mean? He is dead, you idiot!”
“Yet you just asked me to save him.” He laughed and I realized that I never wanted to kill someone as much as this fucking asshole. Except for Kaiyer’s generals. I wanted to rip them apart as well.
The tears came down my cheeks and I could do little more than weep. I kept attempting to touch his bloody face, but my hands just swirled his skin and bones around like a tortured oil painting.
“He’s dead. I’m dead. No one can help Vaiarathe. She is dead now.”
“What happened?” Malek said. I turned to look at the four humans.
“He was touching that orb. It was like he didn’t even hear us walk behind him.”
Thayer let out a long sigh and then tossed his swords down on the stone tile at his feet. He sat down and put his face in his palms before sobs began to tumble out of his wide chest.
“You did what you had to.”
“I killed my best friend!” Thayer moaned.
“He tried to kill us,” Alexia said softly.
“No. He just wanted to get the orb with his woman. We should have let him have it.” The big man tore his hands away from his tear streaked face and leveled a finger up at Malek. “You did this! You should have just fucking let him go! Why didn’t you just let him go?” He wiped the back of his massive forearm across his face.
“Do you want to tell Shlara that we should have let him go? With the Elven? Fuck you, Thayer!” Malek spat. “I’m the one that has to deal with her every fucking day. Kaiyer just tried to kill all four of us. He almost did.”
“Shlara?” I turned to Entas but the little man just shrugged again.
“And our city burns. How many thousands of our kin are dead by his hand?” Gorbanni choked out the words while he shook his head.
“We need to put out the fires. We can argue later about what we should have done with Kaiyer.” Alexia looked down at my lover’s body. Her blue eyes were moist with tears. “Then we should talk about what to do about Shlara.” She turned to look at Malek.
“Fine.” His jaw clenched. He reeked of human terror.
“I will take my brother’s body. We should entomb him in the Gilar Mountains north of here.”
“Why there?” Alexia asked.
“The two of us once hid in a shallow cave within the range when we fled the Elvens.” The big man retrieved his swords and then bent down to scoop up Kaiyer’s body with his massive arms.
“He isn’t a hero, Thayer. He betrayed us all for the Elven woman.”
“You fucking say that again and I’ll cut you in half. You don’t even believe those words. That is Shlara speaking through your coward mouth. You loved him more than any of us did. Fuck you.” The big man pushed his scarred nose up against Malek’s handsome face and they stared at each other for a few moments. Then Alexia cleared her throat.
“There are lives we need to save. Focus on our next steps. We can argue later,” the woman said.
“Fine,” both the men said at once. Thayer left first, followed by Gorbanni, then Alexia glanced to Malek before she walked from the bloody room.
Malek sighed and sat on the floor. He mirrored Thayer’s movements and put his face in his hands for a few moments. Then he exhaled again before standing.
“What did they need this for?” He walked over to the dais and looked at the orb.
“This might be your chance,” Entas whispered from his spot on the other side of Malek.
“What do you mean?”
“If he touches the Ovule, he’ll be exposed to enough energy to interact with us.” He wiggled his beard.
“Then I can kill him?”
“No!” He laughed. “Then you bite him.”
“Bite him?”
“Hard enough to taste his blood, but don’t kill him.”
“I want to kill him!”
“Do you want your daughter to live?”
“I don’t see how biting the human is going to get me my daughter back.”
“I could explain, but then the opportunity might pass. Just bite the man. Taste his blood, but don’t kill him.”
“I don’t trust you,” I growled.
“He’s going to touch the Ovule.” Entas was correct. Malek had spent a few seconds studying the orb, but then he slowly reached his hand out to lay his bare fingers on the smooth metal surface.
“Do it!” Entas screamed the command when Malek’s fingers lay upon the orb.
I reached out to grasp the human and my fingers made contact. Malek gasped with surprise. I did not want to bite the man, but Entas’s words were too compelling and before I could second guess them, my teeth were sinking into the sides of Malek’s neck.
“Ahhhhhhh!” He screamed and tried to reach back to grab me, but when his hands left the Ovule, I tumbled through him like he was a waterfall.
“Fantastic!” Entas yelled triumphantly “That will make everything easier.”
“Why did I have to do that?” My stomach churned with disgust. I doubted that the bitter, horrific taste of Malek’s blood would ever leave my mouth.
“I’ll explain in a few moments.” Entas pointed at Malek. He raised his hand to the bloody wound on his neck and looked around, the scent of terror clear on his body.
“What the fuck was that?” The human returned to his feet and spun around the room to look for the unseen attacker.
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk, Malek. You won’t trust your intuition on this. You know what happened, don’t you?”
“Do you know this man?” I asked.
“Of course! Taught him everything he knows.” Entas turned to me and winked. “Of course, that isn’t the same as everything that I know, is it?”
“Why did I have to bite him?”
“I’ll tell you soon. I just want to see if he is going to touch it again. Then I’ll really scare the shit out of him.” Malek made as if to fulfill Entas’s request, but the tall man pulled his hand back at the last second.
“I’ll leave this here for now,” he said aloud and he glanced around the room to see if anyone heard him. Then Malek turned his back on the orb and ran out of the room.
“Back to the islands. Take my hand.” Entas reached out toward me and grinned. I looked at his hand and then crossed my arms.
“Why did I have to bite him? Is there still a chance that my daughter can live?”
“The bite has much to do with your daughter living. I’ll explain more at the islands.” He smirked and then rolled his big eyes in his skull. “Of course, if you want to stay here and roam this world as a ghost, I can just leave you here. But let me tell you. That shit gets old real quick. You will have plenty of time to ask me questions.”
“Very well.” My heart was still in agony over Kaiyer’s death, but I had no choice but to trust this man who said he would help me.
I grasped his hand.
Then the islands and their peaceful existence filled my vision.
“The blood is a type of magic.” Entas let go of my hand and walked away from me. “It creates a bond between people.”
“So I am bonded to Malek now?” I walked behind the monkey.
“Don’t sound so disgusted. It’s not like you fucked the man.” He laughed and he threw himself off of the ledge of the island.
“Entas!” I screamed and dove toward the edge of the endless drop. My hand reached out, but I was too slow and he was already falling.
He landed a quarter of a mile beneath me, he should have broken into a thousand wet pieces. He rose and continued walking, then he paused, looked up at me and yelled, “Well come on now! We’ve got shit to get done! If we are already between life and death, you aren’t going to go either direction by falling here!”
“I can just fall down?” I yelled.
“Of course! Hurry!”
“Oh fuck this asshole,” I whispered aloud and closed my eyes. I had already trusted this strange man more than I ever thought I could trust anyone save Relyara, Nyarathe, and Kaiyer. What was one more leap of faith?
I jumped off the edge and aimed my body at the distant ground below. I fell, but the sensation was slow and as pleasant as sliding through a pool of water on a summer day. I traveled much slower than I imagined and landed softly next to Entas.
“He’s over here.”
“Who?”
“Kaiyer. Try to keep up. We are moving quickly here, Singleborn.”
“How is Kaiyer here? How do you know I am a Singleborn?”
“There he is!” Entas pointed off into the distance. A figure jumped between the islands and spun through the air like one of the bright white birds.
“Wait here. I’m going to try to get him to come see you. Then you can tell him Vaiarathe’s name and this conundrum will be solved easily.” He winked at me and then jumped off into the air like there was no gravity holding him on the land.
I wanted to run after Entas and fly through the air after him. I wanted to see Kaiyer and speak with him. But I feared doing anything other than what the strange old human told me would probably not help me or Vaiarathe.
I saw him land next to Kaiyer and they began to converse. They were perhaps four miles away, so I could not hear their words or taste Kaiyer’s scent in the air. I tried. I still remembered his scent so clearly and I missed it almost as much as the feeling of his body inside of mine. It took all of my willpower and love for our daughter to keep me cautiously waiting here instead of leaping toward him.
I saw Entas gesture back at me and I raised my hand. Kaiyer turned his eyes in my direction and my heart leapt to my throat. If he was here, did that mean we could stay together forever? What about Vaiarathe? I had too many questions to ask Entas and my frustration was beginning to turn into anger again.
Then Kaiyer disappeared.
It was a split second change. Entas was speaking with my love and then Kaiyer was no longer standing there. I glanced around the islands, thinking that maybe he might have changed his position as Entas did when I first met him, but I did not see my love anywhere.
“Unfortunately, that went as I expected,” Entas said from beside me. I was not surprised by his appearance.
“What did he say?”
“He has memory problems. So do you, but I work with what I can.”
“Where is he?”
“Want to see?” The man held his hand out to me again.
“Yes!” I touched him and we were suddenly in a cave. The place smelled of torch sap, weapon oil, and death.
Kaiyer walked past us.
“By the Dead Gods!” I felt joy fill my chest and tears stung my eyes. “How is he alive?”
The Destroyer Book 4 Page 54