Rebirth (Legends of the Kilanor Book 2)

by Jared Stone

  Arriving at the corner of the building, Lucian and Blake peered around carefully, hiding all but the tops of their heads. The alcove was nearly black, and only the faintest reflection of the flickering fire against the ground served to bring the last vestiges of light to the area. As the boys’ eyes adjusted, they could just barely make out two figures standing there with slumped over posture, completely still and staring lifelessly into nothing. Quickly, both Blake and Lucian whipped their heads back around the wall.

  “Damn,” Blake whispered. “Looks like they’ve got guards after all.”

  “Yeah, but only two,” Lucian whispered back. “We should be able to handle them, no problem.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Blake agreed with a nod. “I’ll get the one on the left; you take the one on the right?”

  “Deal,” agreed Lucian. He reached up and quietly unsheathed Kusanagi from his back. “Ready? Go!”

  The boys leapt from their hiding place behind the wall and ran toward the two draugar guarding the door. The abominations barely had time to react before Blake and Lucian had closed the short gap between them. With a swing of his fist, Blake’s hand splattered through the cranium of the first draugr, leaving nothing but a jagged stump where its head once was. Lucian brought his sword down upon the shoulder of the second, which cleaved through the draugr like butter and lopped off its arm, leaving a triangular section of its chest hanging off to the side. As Blake kicked out the knees of his own adversary, Lucian reached back and jammed Kusanagi straight through the stomach of the draugr before him. Looking down emotionlessly at the blade which now skewered it, the draugr used its right arm to grab the weapon and tear it from the boy’s hands. The creature then threw Kusanagi to the side and took a step toward Lucian, grabbing the boy by the arm roughly.

  “Arrrggg, get off me!” Lucian cried out, probably louder than he should have. He could feel the draugr’s superior strength crushing his bicep, and he feared that he didn’t have much time until his bone was shattered entirely. Hoping that he would be able to overcome the pain this time, Lucian took a breath in and attempted to empty his mind.

  His thoughts began to dissipate, though the pain of his arm being compressed continued to interrupt his serenity. He scrunched his eyes closed and breathed out forcefully, trying his best to focus on nothing and hoping to feel the familiar tingling in his limbs.

  SPLAT!

  The side of Lucian’s face was suddenly sprayed with some kind of fluid, completely disrupting his attempt at meditation. Opening his eyes again, he saw Blake with both of his fists implanted vertically between the draugr’s shoulders. Wherever the head had gone, Lucian couldn’t determine, though he had his own sickening assumptions. Blake then grabbed the creature’s arm and pried it from Lucian’s bicep. He cracked the limb in half over his knee and threw the two separate pieces to the ground. The rest of the draugr’s body continued to lumber around, just a torso and legs, bumping into the boys as if still trying to attack them. It almost would have been comical to watch under normal circumstances, but Blake quickly put an end to it by kicking out one of the wandering torso’s legs and sending it crashing to the ground to writhe around harmlessly.

  “You okay?” Blake asked Lucian.

  “Yeah,” Lucian replied, once again rubbing his arm. The poor limb had taken a lot of abuse already that night. Added to that, Lucian’s pride was a bit hurt, too. He had utterly failed to generate his qi when he had arguably needed it most, and the sword had been snatched from his grasp so easily. He began to feel a bit envious of his roommate’s innate demonic strength, as well as very much concerned about how his failure during this tiny skirmish might be a foreshadowing of things to come.

  “Alright, let’s keep on going,” Blake urged.

  Lucian walked over and picked up Kusanagi from the ground. It would likely be his best chance at fighting that night, unless he managed to generate qi for distanced attacks. He didn’t like the thought of having to rely solely on a weapon he wasn’t trained to use, but he figured it was a lot better than nothing at all. With these worries still in his head, he then joined Blake at the door, who subsequently turned the handle and opened it easily.

  “Guess it’s already unlocked,” Blake said to Lucian in surprise.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Lucian affirmed cautiously. He didn’t have a good feeling about that. It seemed too easy, and he had seen enough movies in his time to understand what that probably meant for them.

  Lucian reached out and grabbed Blake’s arm before the boy could take a step inside.

  “Blake, wait,” Lucian said. “Are we sure we want to do this? It all seems too easy so far, and I’m starting to get worried. We have no idea what’s waiting for us in there, or if Lilly is even here at all!”

  Blake furrowed his brow at his roommate. “So…, what? You’re saying you wanna turn around now? Not at least try to save Lilly? Would you really be okay with that?”

  Lucian thought about what Blake had just said. He thought about it very hard. He wanted desperately to truly arrive at a place where he would be okay with turning around and retreating back to his dorm. He tried to convince himself of that sensible course of action. Yet, in the end, he felt he owed it to Lilly to do whatever it took to rescue her.

  “No…,” Lucian responded sullenly. “I wouldn’t. You’re right. Let’s go.”

  Blake nodded and smiled slightly, as if proud of Lucian for coming around. He turned to once again face the blackness within the building. Walking through the door and quietly closing it again behind them, the boys stood in an empty room. Lucian looked around, trying to discern any details in the dark, but he could not see anything.

  “I wish this place was better lit,” he whispered to Blake.

  Suddenly, a blinding flash of light erupted from the ornate fixture in the ceiling, startling Lucian and rendering him momentarily unable to see. He held up his arm over his eyes and squinted from behind it. There, on the other side of the room, stood three more draugar, staring at the boys blankly.

  “Damn, it’s a trap!” exclaimed Blake. Lucian turned to grab the handle and open the door behind them, but he found that he couldn’t. Their exit was locked tightly and would not budge.

  “We’re stuck!” Lucian told Blake frantically. Blake pushed Lucian to the side and grabbed the handle himself, but even he could not force it open.

  “Dammit!” shouted Blake, pounding his fist against the door. He and Lucian then turned around to face the three assailants.

  “Only one way out, I guess…,” Blake said, balling up both of his hands at his side.

  “Alright, then…,” agreed Lucian reluctantly. “Here we go….”

  Lucian closed his eyes and breathed in and out, emptying his mind of all thoughts and sensations. He could feel his consciousness lifting up out of the constraints of the world around him, and he was, for only an instant, overwhelmed with bliss. As he tumbled back down out of this euphoria, he awaited the tingling in his limbs which accompanied the generation of his qi. Yet, he felt nothing.

  Snapping his eyes open, Lucian looked down at his hands. They remained as dark and cold as they had all night. “Blake…, I think we have a problem…,” Lucian mumbled.

  “Yeah, no duh,” Blake snapped back, his eyes fixed on the draugar before him.

  “No,” Lucian insisted. “I mean I can’t generate any qi. I just emptied my mind like always, but I got nothing. I’m not able to use my energy!”

  “Well, just use your sword then, dude,” Blake said forcefully. He was clearly in no mood to speculate on Lucian’s newly-arisen performance anxiety.

  “Yeah, okay then,” said Lucian, bringing Kusanagi into both of his hands and holding it out in front of himself. Before he could think any further about it, Blake rushed forward at their enemies.

  “Aaaaaaahhhhh!” Blake cried out fiercely. He threw a punch directly at the chest of the first draugr in the cluster. His knuckles met decaying flesh with a Plop sound, leaving nothing but a slight ind
entation in the creature’s pec. Blake looked down at his fist in alarm, then swung another punch at the draugr’s cheek. With a Crack, its head shifted to the side, but was twisted forward again just as quickly.

  Blake looked back at his roommate. “Lucian, I…,” he began. Before he could even finish, the draugr grabbed him from behind and started to drag him out of the room. The boy kicked and punched and flailed, but it was of no use; his captor’s superior strength completely overwhelmed him.

  “Blake!” Lucian cried out. He charged at the group of draugar with Kusanagi held high, bringing it down upon the arm of one of them. The limb came clean off, and Lucian pulled back to prepare for a second strike. But, before he got the chance to swing the sword back around, a draugr to his right grabbed his arm and held it tightly. From the other side, the one-armed draugr seized his shoulder, and Lucian could feel himself being dragged along as well, right behind Blake.

  “Stop! Wait! Where are we going!?” Lucian asked out loud, terrified. He was met with only cold, blank stares and the nauseating smell of the decaying flesh that gripped tightly onto him. Despite his screaming and struggling, the draugar continued to drag him along a seemingly endless hallway. The only sounds that could be heard were the boys’ yells and the squeaking of their wildly sliding sneakers upon the sleek marble floor.

  After a painful journey across the first level of the mansion, Lucian was suddenly hoisted in the air and carried down a flight of stairs into the basement. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he desperately tried to wriggle free as they descended ever farther into darkness. Oh my God! They’re going to kill me! This is how I die! In a basement, in a mansion, by a necromancer. My mom and dad will never know what happened to me. I’ve gotta get away! I can’t die like this!

  At the bottom of the stairs, the basement opened up into a great, cavernous space. The flickering light of dozens of purple candles lit the room, and Lucian was still attempting to survey their surroundings as he was roughly thrown to the ground. His knees made contact with the cold, hard floor painfully, followed shortly thereafter by his palms. Blake was then also thrown down by his side. The two boys scrambled onto their feet in an attempt to flee, but the draugar grabbed hold of them again and held them firmly.

  “Oh, do stop making such a fuss,” a deep, booming voice smugly echoed through the chamber. “You are ruining the ambience.” The voice then let out an amused chuckle. “Also, it is a futile endeavor. Only other Semahínór and those I permit to do so may utilize their energies while within this property. And that does not include the two of you….”

  Lucian looked up and onto the raised platform from which the voice was coming. There, before them, stood the man in the golden mask, his body clothed in a black and red robe and his blonde hair falling around and over the front of his aureate disguise. On the other side of this platform stood the dark priest, Ini-herit, grinning fiendishly in the flickering of the candlelight. And, in the middle, strapped to a vertical stone slab, Lilly futilely pulled against her restraints.

  “Lucian!” Lilly cried out. “Lucian! Help me!”

  “Lilly!” Lucian screamed, once again attempting to wrench himself free of the powerful undead hands which were mercilessly clamped onto him.

  “Now, now, my dear child,” said Samael to Lilly, gently caressing the side of the girl’s face with his gloved hand. “Do not be afraid. You are about to be part of something very special. Your role in our grand design is almost at hand.”

  Lilly jerked her head away from the masked man’s touch, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed.

  “Let her go!” Lucian shouted. “What do you want with her?”

  Samael turned and looked at the boys below him. “This girl is a vessel,” he said. “She carries within her the last remaining bloodline of the first humans to be made in the image of the Divine Creator. Through her, we shall be able to call upon the Lady of the Night to come down and once again walk this Earth, ultimately assisting us in our aspirations: the emancipation of Our Lord, Lósófán.”

  “Shut up and let her go!” Blake snarled.

  Samael shook his head. “I am afraid that I cannot do that,” he said. “You see, the time is nearly upon us. In a few minutes, we shall be entering the solstice: an astrological event celebrated throughout time as the point at which divine beings may enter into this realm. So, too, shall exiled spiritual energies assume physical form.”

  The masked man then reached into his cloak and pulled out a long, silver dagger with a white handle: Carnwennan, the same dagger that Lucian and Gus had tried to protect from Zagan only months before. Samael passed the ceremonial implement over to Ini-herit, who accepted it in both hands and came to stand in front of the girl.

  “Lucian!!” Lilly cried out again through her tears. She pulled herself back against the stone slab as far as she was able, craning her head to the side and putting as much space between her and the glinting blade as possible.

  “No!” said Lucian, his sight fixated on the weapon. “No, you can’t do this! I won’t let you do this!”

  Samael calmly turned to the boy, locking his hazel eyes with Lucian’s own. “Well, then we are quite fortunate that you have no say in the matter….”

  With this, Ini-herit took the dagger and jabbed it into the girl’s chest. Lilly’s eyes widened, and she gasped for one final time before releasing her breath and hanging her head limply.

  Lucian stood there with his mouth agape, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. As the reality of the situation began to seep into his consciousness, he felt a flood of anguish burst forth from inside of him. “Noooooo!!!” he screamed. Tears immediately welled up in his eyes, which still stared in disbelief at the girl as life slowly left her body. He leaned forward, toward the altar, twisting and turning in an effort to break free and run to her aid. At his side, Lucian could see Blake attempting to do the same, but with no greater success.

  Samael let out an audible sigh of contentment and turned toward the writhing boys. “Now,” he said thoughtfully, holding out his hands in front of him to indicate his two uninvited visitors. “What shall we do with the two of you? I am regrettably limited in my options. Clearly, you have learned and seen too much at this point for me to release you once again.”

  Samael paused and wrung one gloved hand against the other. “It is a pity, though. I was truly beginning to like you….”

  Following this assertion, Samael nodded his masked face toward the priest beside him. “Yes,” Ini-herit affirmed. He turned away from the girl’s body and held out his free hand. Within his palm, the swirling gray energy that had issued forth began to coalesce into a sphere.

  For only a second, Lucian once again locked eyes with Samael. Beneath the golden visage, his gaze betrayed a hint of familiarity and remorse. “I am sorry,” the masked man mumbled almost inaudibly as Ini-herit simultaneously fired a bolt of energy at the boy.

  Colliding with his chest, the blast of energy seared through Lucian. An intense burning sensation tore into him, and he screamed out in anguish. Other than the overwhelming agony he was experiencing in that moment, he also felt only the slightest tingle creeping up his spine before a bright white light burst from his entire body, instantly disintegrating the draugar which held him and jettisoning Blake off to the side of the chamber. Samael and Ini-herit were also forced back by the blast, slamming hard against the stone tablet behind them and cutting off the flow of energy from Ini-herit’s palm.

  As quickly as it had appeared, the light once again vanished. Lucian, now free from the arms which had held him, collapsed to the ground. Everything was blurry, and he was feeling dizzy and nauseous. He couldn’t quite remember where he was or why he felt like this. It seemed to him like an eternity of kneeling there, disillusioned, before he felt hands on his shoulders.

  “Lucian! Lucian!” Blake’s voice anxiously seeped into his foggy headspace. “Lucian, we’ve gotta go!”

  “Lilly…,” Lucian mumbled almost incoherently.
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  “She’s gone, man! We gotta go!” Blake insisted.

  Blake pulled the dazed boy to his feet and started dragging him toward the stairs, stooping down to grab Kusanagi as they passed. From the altar, Ini-herit had already begun gathering his gray energy once again.

  “No!” commanded Samael sternly, his eyes clearly displaying the astonishment he felt. “Do not harm him! Let them go! The ritual must be completed!” His bewildered gaze remained fixated on Lucian as the two boys hobbled up and out of the staircase.

  “Yes, of course,” the dark priest said obediently, waving his hands before him and watching the energy crackle and fade into nothingness again. He then turned to the body of the girl.

  “Az gír masensúr dón váz mahínfár tón gílígónox hakarop,” Ini-herit began to chant loudly. “Az gír masensúr dón váz mahínfár tón gílígónox hakarop.”

  Lilly’s body started to glow with a deep violet hue at the priest’s words. As this energy crept inward from her limbs and coalesced within the dagger, the girl’s impaled form grew dark and lifeless once again. The priest carefully slid the dagger out and held it, glowing brightly, in his palm. With a wave of his hand over the top, the weapon’s light faded, and Lilly’s spiritual energies could be seen no more.

  Samael then reached into his cloak again and pulled out the inscribed amulet. Placing it against the girl’s chest, he began the incantation.

  “Óz dón Lófír, letóní yán hatóní har azór,” he said, powerfully announcing the words. The amulet in his hand began to glow with a purple aura, much the same as Lilly’s own, and slowly spread out over the limp form on the slab. It was only seconds before the girl snapped her eyes open again and breathed in a great breath. She then calmly hung there for a moment, inhaling and exhaling, as if she was once again becoming familiar with the act of breathing. She then shifted her green eyes to gaze longingly into those behind the mask.

  “Samael, my love…,” she said weakly in Lí'ísedón with a seductive smirk. “I knew that, one day, you would call upon me to stand by your side once again.”