He opened himself up to the kai, sending shivers up and down his spine, and studied the ward’s shocked expressions. He had to clench his fists to stop his hands from shaking.
These are your neighbors.
The parents of your friends.
Your people.
He raised his voice and spoke directly to them.
“Citizens of Arcadia, hear what I say.” His voice was amplified by the natural acoustics of the amphitheater. It drew all their eyes to him. He swallowed.
“I speak to you, the honored protectors of the people…our people…who need you now, more than ever. A darkness descends on our city! It threatens to destroy our way of life, and enslave every free citizen of New Arcadia.” Oren gestured with his arms.
“Behind me lies the seed of that destruction. An army approaches!” He pointed behind to the shadowgate. “And it will soon be upon us!” He looked at them, gauging their reactions. Some looked worried, but there were still too many ready to attack.
He quickly continued, “Something is deeply wrong here. I know you can feel it, just as I can.” He looked directly into the eyes of a skeptical ward. “Search your soul, and you will find the truth. There is an unnatural darkness at work here, and it is driven by a single purpose: to consume you and everyone you love.” The ward’s expression changed from suspicion to doubt.
“Your people, your families need your protection.” More of the wards began to stir and glance back toward the exits. One of them shouted and pointed at something behind Oren. He turned and saw Marconas smile menacingly and step through a rift in the air, disappearing.
“You see?” Oren gestured, “Even your Chief has fled! Go! Protect your families…they are coming!” Oren’s words were punctuated by a deafening CRACK, and the wards broke out into chaos.
Oren spun toward the sound and froze.
Besamael.
His black and red robes hung motionless as he descended to the stage. Khalil stood alone and faced him fearlessly. Oren scanned for Magdalene and found her battling the last remaining Breaker. The way she moved was incredible, gliding along the ground, lensing in and out of view. The Breaker held up a twisted hand and grinned, its crimson teeth glistening. Magdalene vanished, then lensed in behind him and grasped the back of his skull. Bright blue light flared from his eyes and mouth before he collapsed in a heap of black robes.
With the Breakers gone, the shadowgate was less than half its original height, but Oren could still see the advancing army in the distance. He scanned for the small dome that powered the gate, and found several small, mechanical parts scattered around it.
Oren heard a footstep behind, drew his blade and turned, just in time to stop a blacksteel baton from smashing into his face. He kicked the ward square in the chest and pulled the sheath free from his belt. No sooner had Oren clicked it over his blade than he was forced to deflect another attack.
Not all the wards had fled apparently, and many were climbing onto the stage. Oren became a whirlwind of destruction, kicking, jumping, and striking with his sheathed weapon. He flowed between offensive and defensive Forms like a leaf on the wind. From stone through the water, to the reed bends, to reflection pool, to mountain wind ascending, all the while taking care not to land any lethal blows.
He deflected yet another attack, crouched and spun. His sheathed blade connected with the ward’s knee producing a loud crunch. The ward collapsed with a scream, gripping his leg. Oren stood panting, waiting for the next attack, but it didn’t come. He looked in shock over the twenty or more wards surrounding him, unconscious or writhing on the ground. Had he really done all this?
Oren’s head filled with a sickening, pulsing hum. Turning, he found Besamael, staring straight at him. He froze in fear, and felt all hope draining away.
Something crashed into Besamael from behind, and a blade emerged from the center of his chest.
“Now, Magdalene, the stone!” shouted Khalil.
“Sifu!” Oren gasped.
This was it, their one chance. Magdalene lensed into view holding the white portal stone. An opening in the air rippled into existence before her. She looked at Oren with a flash of regret, then stepped through it.
I don’t understand, Oren thought. What is she doing?
Realization descended upon him with the crushing weight of a thousand stones.
She’s betrayed us.
No! Oren fought desperately to deny the truth.
The sickening, thrumming hum was underscored by the sound of large stones grinding back and forth. Oren recognized it as laughter.
Besamael blurred briefly and solidified facing the opposite direction, eye to eye with Khalil. Its gnarled hand shot out and grasped him by the throat. The sword slid slowly out of Besamael’s chest and shot up into the air, flipping end over end until it disappeared into the sky.
Besamael turned his head and looked directly at Oren. His eyes shone with an empty white light, and his hideous grin widened. A black halo enveloped Khalil, and Besamael released him.
“No.” Oren’s cry came out a whisper.
Slowly, Kahlil rose up off the ground, unable to move.
Then came a bone-rattling brwomph. Khalil vibrated and distorted, then re-solidified. Brwomph. It sounded again, and again, faster and faster until it was a single solid noise, and Khalil became a dark, distorted shadow. All at once it ceased, and just like that, Khalil was gone.
NO! Oren was consumed with a blinding white rage. It burned hotter than a dying star. He might have been screaming, but he was unaware of anything other than the unyielding compulsion to destroy the abomination before him. Flooded with kai, he leveled his sword and charged.
Besamael turned to face him. His arms were half raised when Oren shifted forward and instantly covered the ground between them. He crashed into Besamael, driving his blade into the Shaoh Mah’s chest. The momentum of the forceful charge carried them both back and they tumbled through the shadowgate.
Oren clung to his sword as he slid and rolled across the white sandy surface of the broken world beyond. When he finally tumbled to a stop, he was on his back looking up at the churning, crimson sky. It swirled endlessly around the black star, giving him the disorienting feeling of looking down into a gaping, blood-soaked pit.
The thrumming in his ears grew louder until it was deafening. He pushed himself up, using his sword for leverage. Besamael stood across from him. For the first time, his lipless mouth didn’t appear to be grinning. His jaw unhinged and dropped open, revealing a throat of black and red writhing flesh. The scream of rage that burst forth from it was pure hatred and malice. Oren covered his ears and ducked his head, desperately trying to shut it out.
Besamael’s body jerked. Black blood and sinew flew up into the air behind him. It jerked again, and two massive black webbed wings, dripping with globs of bloody sinew, slowly unfolded behind him.
Oren raised his sword and embodied water faces rock.
“Now little lamb, you will learn the true meaning of suffering.”
“Oren!” Clem’s voice came from the other side of the shadowgate. She leapt through.
“Clem, no!” he shouted.
Besamael turned its gaping maw and vacant shining eyes toward her. It shoved a gnarled claw in her direction and a wall of rippling air expanded from it. Everything caught within froze in place, but Clem stomped her foot and launched into the air before it could reach her. She flipped once and landed beside Oren.
“Clem! How did you…you shouldn’t be here!” Oren shouted in distress.
“I’m not letting you do this alone.” She held her daggers ready.
Before he could argue, Besamael’s wings buffeted them with warm, fetid air as he rose up off the ground. He gestured from high above with his twisted claws, and a dark swirling gravity well began to coalesce before him.
“I can’t reach him!” Oren shouted.
“Here,” Clem laced her gloved fingers together and lowered her hands.
“There�
�s no way I’ll—”
“Just do it!…and keep your leg straight!”
Oren gripped his sword, blade down and stepped into her hands. She stomped her foot on the ground and he was instantly launched high into the air, flipping and twisting to meet Besamael head on. Clem was right behind him, and they collided with the Shaoh Mah simultaneously. Oren’s attack clanged off its claw, but he managed to get a solid grip on its robes and hung from them, slashing upward. Clem sliced through the veined fleshy webbing of its wing. She dangled from one of her daggers, which was lodged into a corner of the sinewy frame.
Besamael roared with rage as they fell awkwardly, crashing to the ground at speed. Oren and Clem tumbled away on impact, sliding across the rough, sandy surface. Oren groaned and looked up to see Besamael rising from the ground by some force unseen. He pushed himself up and scanned for Clem. She was scraped up, but on her feet nearby with teeth bared, ready to attack. They made brief eye contact, and charged.
“ENOUGH!” Besamael’s grinding voice assaulted their ears. His arms flung out, and rippling air emanated from him in all directions. Oren was locked in place mid-stride. He felt the kai drain from his body.
He tried to turn his head, but it was immovable. Clem. He hoped she hadn’t been caught.
The slow, grinding laughter returned, and Oren floated across the ground toward Besamael. He came to a stop inches away from its gaping mouth of corrupted writhing flesh.
“Did you really believe you, mere children, could defeat me?”
Warm, putrid breath wafted over Oren’s face. He felt his throat trying to climb up into his mouth.
“You will suffer as your parents have; forever languishing in the depths of despair.”
Oren’s head jerked back, and his mouth was forced open. With his head at that angle he could see Clem trapped nearby, frozen mid-jump. His vision clouded over, and he once again fought to keep from being torn from his body.
Oren clung desperately to himself, but there was little he could do. No! he thought furiously, and screamed in defiance. There was a deep grinding and he was yanked violently from his physical self, and pulled into the pulsing flesh vortex.
23
A Light in the Dark
Where am I? Oren opened his eyes. He stood at the edge of a jagged cliff overhang. Darkness lay in every direction. I feel so strange. He held his arms up to look at them, and saw that his skin was made of opaque blue light.
How did I get here? Is this a dream?
Oren furrowed his brow. Something wasn’t right. The feeling that things had gone horribly wrong tugged at the back of his mind. He tried to remember what it was, but the memories slipped from his grasp like sand through a sieve.
That sound. It was a slow, rhythmic grinding. Is that…breathing?
Oren looked over the edge and recoiled. An endless churning vortex turned slowly below him. He was mesmerized, unable to look away from the millions of tiny creatures in constant motion within it. They climbed over each other like a colony of ants. Unable to stop himself, Oren leaned over the edge to look closer. To his horror, he saw they were not ants, but countless human forms, writhing overtop of one another.
His memories came crashing back and he was suddenly very afraid. I’m inside Besamael. The overhang crumbled beneath his feet, and Oren flipped over the edge, reaching desperately toward the blackness above.
He was in free fall when a fierce pain bloomed in his side. Black tendrils snaked their way through his translucent body. The brand! Maker, it hurts! He gripped the throbbing symbol on his side with both hands and screamed as he fell through the vast emptiness.
The shadowy tendrils were suddenly drawn into the symbol, and time slowed to a crawl. Oren’s skin bulged painfully, and long inky tentacles snaked out of the brand, coalescing into a shape before him. His mind was so wracked with pain that he struggled to make sense of what he was seeing. The shape solidified into a human figure, just a few feet away. It opened its pitch black eyes, and Oren cried out in shock. The face staring back at him was a shadowy reflection of his own.
It grinned wickedly and unsheathed a vaporous, onyx blade. Oren instinctively reached for his weapon, and drew a sword of translucent white light. The shadowy figure attacked, and their blades clashed as it embodied advancing tide. Oren defended, and struck back with hummingbird’s kiss, but each strike was easily knocked away. It retaliated swiftly with the headsman’s axe, and Oren twisted, narrowly avoiding the dark blade. He countered with horizon’s edge, followed by skipping the stone, but both were deflected. No use, Oren thought. It already knows what I’m going to do.
He took a defensive stance, and a black cable floated up before him. A quick glance revealed that the long wispy strand joined him to the void creature. It connected them like an umbilical cord, one hasai amon brand to the other. The shadow struck with another attack, but Oren blocked it and countered with a feint. He quickly changed direction, grabbed the cord, and sliced it in two. The creature shrieked with rage, its eyes bulging and teeth growing sharper. It turned away from Oren and lifted its onyx blade, bringing it down through the empty air. There was a tearing sound as it cut, like the limb of a butchered animal being torn from its body, and Oren watched with revulsion as a vacuous gash of darkness was ripped open above him.
The void, Oren thought with horror.
Time resumed, and the shadowy creature was immediately sucked in. The void fought to claim Oren as well, but he was caught in the gravity of the vortex below. The opposing forces wrenched him violently in opposite directions.
What is happening to me? Oren felt like a child’s toy in a game of tug of war. The air itself began to vibrate. He craned his neck to look down at the vortex. Its center became inverted as it was pulled up toward the void. Wind whipped around violently, and human shapes flew up past him.
There was a deafening CLACK from below. A jagged fissure of light appeared in what was now an inverted swirling funnel of limbs and black liquid. CLACK. Another fissure appeared. Thousands of tiny cracks began threading through the fractured vortex. It looked ready to burst. The vibrations increased so violently that Oren’s vision blurred, and more shapes flew up past him into the void.
The tension grew. I have to do something! It wouldn’t be long before he was ripped in two. Tendons stood out on Oren’s neck as he strained to look down at the brand. The symbol was alive, writhing and pulsing in time with the void. Drawing on every last ounce of his strength, he screamed and drove his glowing blade down into the brand, piercing it through the center. The void collapsed, and there was a brief moment of silence before the vortex exploded upward in a massive shockwave of light and sound. Oren was carried up within it, surrounded by thousands of other translucent beings.
The darkness dissolved, and Oren’s pain disappeared. He felt light as air. It’s going to be okay, he thought. We’re free. He gave in to the warm light, bearing him toward the unknown. Something had slowed his ascent, and he was gently cradled in a soft, golden glow. An overwhelming sense of peace settled upon him.
“Son.”
“Dad? Dad is that you?”
“It isn’t your time,” his father’s voice spoke gently.
“I don’t understand.”
“You must go back.” The voice was calm but insistent. “They still need you. She needs you.”
“Back? No! I want to stay here.” Oren clung to the familiar presence.
“Be still.”
Please, I want to stay…
Glowing wings of golden light encompassed him, and he slowly descended.
I want to stay.
He was eased back down into his body.
All went dark.
24
Egression
Clem watched in horror as luminescent blue light flowed out from Oren’s open mouth and into Besamael’s gaping maw. No! This can’t be happening! She grasped repeatedly for kai energy but came up empty each time. Grunting with effort, she strained desperately against the invisible for
ce that held her.
Oren’s face had become ghostly pale and Clem felt panic rising within her. Besamael released his body and it fell to the ground. Oren, please no. She felt the tears falling from her eyes. I’ve failed.
Besamael turned, and Clem felt a venomous rage building within her. Her fear was obliterated by wrath. I will destroy you, she vowed. The ground began moving beneath her feet, and she readied herself as she was drawn toward Besamael.
The movement stopped, and his head jerked sideways. Clem fell to the ground, freed from her invisible prison. She scrambled to her feet with a dagger in each hand. Besamael appeared distracted, as if he were no longer watching her. Clem gathered until she was brimming.
She seized the opportunity and charged, sprinting toward him. A light tap of her foot sent her flying through the air, her twin daggers pointed toward her target. Besamael turned to face her at the last second. Clem channeled all of her kai into the blades and plunged them into his glowing white eyes.
She was immediately flung backwards by an explosion of light, landing hard on her back. Clem had to shield her eyes from the radiant column of white light shining brightly where Besamael had stood a moment ago. It roared like a torrent of rushing water, and the wind whipped her hair as she squinted, trying to see what was happening. Eventually the light faded, leaving only a black scorch mark on the ground.
Oren! Clem pushed herself up and ran over to his listless body.
“Oren, please…please. You have to be alive!” She cradled his head in her arms, crying.
The red sky swirled above, and a massive army approached, but none of that existed. There was only her and Oren.
“Please.” She rocked him back and forth gently. “Don’t leave me.”
He gasped.
“Oren!” She held his head in her hands.
He groaned weakly.
“You’re alive!” She was elated.
His eyelids slowly began to open. “Clem?”
“Oh thank you thank you thank you,” Clem closed her eyes and squeezed him tightly.
Recreance (The Aeternum Chronicles Book 1) Page 29