The Celestial King

by L Ward

  Evan and Will shot to their feet at the same time. Magic rose in Evan’s body and he welcomed it like a lost love.

  The men’s faces burst with comical shock.

  Dr Jackson threw himself at the door, rubber soles screeching on metal. “The King! The King!” He roared.

  “Quick!” Lord Scarletarian gestured wildly to the tube. He raised a palm uttering vicious words under his breath.

  Nath summoned the moonlight in the vial and it shot into his hands. They stared in horror and then panic ensued. “Duck,” he grabbed Evan by the arm and pulled him down as a jet of purple struck the wall behind them. The room rocked and Evan’s stomach performed a somersault.

  “Guards!”

  “Kill him!”

  “Wait!” yelled Dr Boris, but the rest of his words were drowned out by the thunderous footsteps charging toward them. Curses struck the walls and floor; one grazed Evan’s cheek and he felt the scorching heat tear his skin for a mere moment.

  “Careful! The experiments!” Dr Boris bellowed.

  Footsteps hammered towards them; people were shouting in all directions.

  He gasped and coated them in magic.

  “We need to get out,” said Nath.

  “What about the last explosive?” said Will, blasting a flying crate out of the way.

  “Drop it when we run, if we don’t get out of here in six minutes we will die. Those bombs have enough fire power to blow this place apart and I don’t intend to be here when that happens. Ready?” he looked between them.

  “Yes.”

  Will roared to his feet in a vortex of flame so bright the approaching warlocks raised their palms summoning sun screens.

  “GUARDS!” Dr Jackson roared.

  The room was filling rapidly with ice. Every surface coating thickly in jagged frost and heavy snow began to fall from the ceiling mingling with magic dust. Evan’s feet were slipping and he grabbed Nath’s arm to stop himself falling twice.

  “Get control of your powers!” Lord Scarletarian bellowed.

  “Watch out for the chemicals!” said Nath, and they broke for the door.

  Guards leaped out in front of them, staffs blazing and curses falling from their lips. One skidded comically and crashed heavily to the ground.

  Will screamed; Evan felt his pain like a match strike and surged him with his energy. Nath threw open his arms and moonlight burst from his torso slicing through the curse in a blaze of white light and blasting the guards back into the wall. Will threw up a barrier of fire, separating them from the warlocks.

  “FOOLS!” the Lord shouted. Evan could barely see him, arms raised, a huge ball of energy swelling between them.

  Will was struggling to hold his walls of fire; his barrier was crumbling and the ice around the room was melting fast.

  The battle raged against the guards dressed head-to-toe in crimson robes, eyes burning like midnight suns.

  A vicious hiss broke the air and Evan was slammed to the metallic roof with a shattering thud. Magic erupted from his core protecting their bodies before they painlessly hit the floor.

  “Get the vial!”

  Will leaped out of the way of an incoming projectile which shattered the bench behind them. Warlocks were sliding, water was pouring from the walls and hot steam blinded them as it collided with the blaze. Curses hit every surface and the guards fumbled through the chaos.

  Evan did his best to remain calm and cloak the three of them in magic. The orb between Scarletarian’s hands flew towards them a massive shadow of black magic. He wanted to scream, to cry, to run, but his feet were rooted to the spot and the magic came without call. Their magic worked in perfect tandem; his healing collided with Nath’s celestial light and infused Will’s burning energy. It hit the wall of darkness shattering the tube. They got out of the way just as the glass rained down like arrows pummeling every surface. Smoke filled the room, they coughed and spluttered fighting the sickly-sweet stench that reminded Evan of puddings he’d ended up regretting. The atmosphere was hazy and sparking violently.

  Time was running out.

  Several warlocks screamed and feet splashed about the room.

  The room spun, twisting in every direction and spinning uncontrollably. Something hit the ceiling with tremendous force and magic erupted in a brilliant supernova. It took a while to clear; Evan couldn’t see his way to the door, he’d been thrown back and was tangled among Nath on the floor. It felt like the whole world had been sucked through a cistern and squirted out disparate.

  And then it cleared.

  The dust froze glittering in the air like Christmas in Spellbound New York and they could see it. The gel suspended in a perfect tube but inside it the werewolves’ were waking. Each pair of eyes popped open like lanterns coming to life. They watched with horror and the room fell silent.

  “Run,” said Nath.

  Will charged in front, entire body engulfed in flames. Heat radiated from him in groovy waves. Evan’s legs burned and he cloaked them briefly in magic as they burst through the warlocks in shower of fire and shielding. There were bodies broken and bleeding on the floor, people doubled up choking; others making a break for them. The light was blinding, he couldn’t tell if he’d died and gone to Heaven; he felt lighter than air, skin burning furiously. Smoke billowed into the corridor stinking of burned roadkill and scorched incense. His head was a cloud of mayhem and magic, fog drifted before his eyes but a hand guided him into coolness.

  Nath summoned the doors shut and Will melted the lock so it dripped like sunbathing ice cream. Monstrous sounds echoed behind it and the warlocks screamed for help. Explosions rocked the labs and fists pounded the heavy doors.

  A piercing alarm ripped apart Evan’s senses, ricocheting off every metallic surface. They took off again, running blindly this time trying to ignore the gore and savagery happening behind them. The door rocketed open and the noises hounded them. Evan wanted to scream, if he hadn’t been a healer his legs would have burned to the bone. They hit the corner colliding with two security guards, slamming them to the ground. They didn’t stop. A door on their left burst open and a huge warlock appeared. Will swung his fist and a horrible crack shattered the man’s cheekbone, he cried out in surprise and was met with a second punch to the throat and he crumpled like a house of cards. They continued down the corridor and burst into a second laboratory.

  A horrendous smell stole Evan’s breath and forced bile up his throat. Cages and tanks lined every wall. Monsters of every eternal nightmare thrashed, surveyed and lunged before them. The grotesque bears were easily recognised, only these ones were over twice the size of the mountain bear and even more grotesquely deformed; some wore a crown of ragged ears, others with backward legs protruding from their chests, and some appeared to have two or three faces smeared across a flat skull littered with fangs.

  They passed a tank with three winged cobras more than twenty feet long glaring at them through slit pupils, their tongues kissing the air hungrily. Cages of raptors, black as night and leathery and stinking of rotting remains with spines protruding like quills. They weren’t the worst sight; further down inside a pig wire cage were reanimated corpses, their rotting body parts dangling through the gaps. Black ooze dripped from their torn appendages, their vicious red eyes focused on their faces as they reached desperately trying to grab them, horrible gargling sounds etching up their throats.

  Evan didn’t want to think of the rats with fours heads the size of horses or the cursed foxes brewing from pods and floating around a forcefield enclosure like spirits, half bodies crawling around tanks and at the far end Evan spotted an enormous tank full of assorted body parts sewn crudely together and scuttling all over the glass walls and ceiling.

  He retched.

  Behind them an explosion tore the doors off their hinges and they were dodging jets of light, curses and balls of ice. Smoke assisted their concealment but it wasn’t their friend either and they almost ran into tanks full of chimeras and aquariums with twenty-
foot crocodiles heavily coated in armour.

  Glass shattered and warlocks screamed as great feathered dogs came loose from a cage and reared at them with bloodthirsty eyes.

  Orcs burst into the room roaring a war song and swinging their clubs like batons trying to beat the mongrels out of the way.

  They were losing control of their own monsters.

  Nath had the idea; he blasted several cages and creatures burst from them with shrieks. The warlocks were on their tail but the monsters were overwhelming them, deranged and starving.

  Evan felt hot breath on his back, the brusque snarls and fangs of a werewolf inches from his skin. Magic plastered his body and he swung his elbow back feeling it crack against the monster’s skull. It barely veered in its pursuit.

  Nath yanked him on a sudden right turn and the monster crashed through a glass tank full of fanged fish; water flooded the floor and the fish began savaging the werewolf’s face.

  “This way!” Nath yelled over the bursts of energy, shattering wood, raining glass and sparks of curses colliding. The warlocks were abating, struggling with the loose beasts. The werewolves however reappeared through the smoke, hot on their tail. Evan had no idea how the hell he managed to keep moving. His heart was a rollercoaster without control and it felt like any moment it would explode.

  They swerved a tank of enormous insects with long skinny legs and black bodies like scorpions but their heads were formed feline with long dripping yellow fangs and soulless eyes.

  One of the wolves launched and Nath blasted it in the chest with pure moonlight. The man-monster screamed, black blood bubbling up his throat; he was thrown to the ground thrashing ferociously.

  Evan couldn’t look back.

  No way.

  Security were shouting, some being torn apart by the beings exploding from their tanks and cages in a shower of carnage. Blood splattered the walls and screams pierced the night but the pursuit continued.

  “Get them! Stop the King!”

  “Kill the King!”

  “No! Apprehend him, he is a great prize!”

  Will’s house fire became an inferno and Evan stifled in the blaze. Sweat ran down his back and he could see it in Will’s eyes he was struggling to maintain such tremendous power as he blasted it over his shoulder, striking anything that came close to them and all the containers around them. Another monster launched itself at him and he raised a palm shoving a flamethrower down the creature’s throat. He spun a 360 and avoided a crawling hand, its rotting flesh slammed a wall and it slid down and plopped on its dorsal. He was too slow to avoid a huge deformed elven creature that dashed him with a blade, knobby fist colliding with his cheek.

  Evan cried out as his magic erupted forcefully from his body, healing Will as they ran. Will threw up a wall of fire but the creature bypassed it and leaped high in the air.

  Nath seized their arms and the world went topsy-turvy and way too silent. Evan’s legs were moving but his feet didn’t touch the ground, it felt like a magnetic force was dragging him by the soul at high speed through a tunnel of light and dark. They burst into reality and the room came back with a roar of screams and explosions. “Two minutes!”.

  Moonlight shattered the glass doors and Evan coated them from the raining debris. Security greeted them up ahead, warlocks with staffs raised and jets of blue struck the walls around them.

  “Evan brace us!” Will yelled.

  The reaction was instant and if Evan hadn’t been able to reach this level of transcendency he would have been screaming in agony like the warlocks behind them as the floor became lava. They leaped over a fallen stack of crates and the warlocks disappeared in the molten metal.

  Explosions never ceased and the alarm was almost deafening. The labs were rioting. That’s when Evan noticed the ice flanking them along the walls, hissing and billowing as it struck the roasting metal The coldest tundra blasted his back and he gasped.

  Nath skidded and slammed to the floor.

  Will threw up a flame wall holding the ice for moments before it struck them again. His power was growing weak and Evan was using too much magic keeping him physically moving, he wouldn’t be able to protect them for much longer.

  Doors appeared up ahead but Evan’s throat was biting with cold, his movements slowing dramatically. Howls shook the walls and Will could no longer fight it; the blizzard caved in.

  Nath screamed and Evan was blinded. He lost control of his powers and thrashed against the avalanche. The wall on their left shattered and three modified werewolves sank up to their necks in the snow inches away from his face. The weight was crushing and suffocating, his fingers were turning numb and a horrible realisation came over him. They were going to die. The coldness was coming thick and fast and the sounds of the remaining warlock voices rushed from behind. They couldn’t die like this, not now, not on Nath’s mission. His fingers grasped something and that something squeezed back and Evan was flooded with memories of his first day at the palace out in the sunshine on a late-summer day with a handsome prince he fell in love with. And just like magic, warmth flooded Evan’s body and he sucked in a delightful breath. His senses were flooded and a brilliant light erupted before him. The snow was melting fast, the temperature climbing faster, and all Evan could think of was that wonderful sunny day.

  “Run!” Nath’s voice smashed him back to reality and they were running again, bursting through the doors and slamming them shut. Chaos disappeared behind them: werewolves, warlocks, orcs and ghouls.

  Nath heaved a metal bar across as a ton weight slammed into them shaking the ceiling. “This rock is drenched and we have a minute remaining,” he said as they turned to face the room. This lab was much different to the other rooms and was set in a radiant star-kissed blue and smelled of spent magic and roses. The treble moons glared down at them through the enormous skylight. A large orb glowed in the center propped in a curious crystal stand like a globe. Across the room there was a heavily bolted door.

  “Your Royal Majesty.”.

  Their heads whipped round to find Mr Daniels chained to a chair on the far wall.

  “What the hell are you doing up here?!” Will demanded, stepping towards him.

  Mr Daniel smiled, most of his bright-white teeth had been smashed. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “You should’ve chosen death to honour your King and country,” Will spat venomously, small nose crinkling.

  “We don’t have time,” said Nath as he set to work trying to blast off the locks.

  “Leave me,” said Mr Daniels hoarsely. “I’m of no use to you now I’ve already been injected.”

  Evan’s heart sank to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

  “Nath we’ve got thirty-seven seconds,” said Will.

  The pounding on the door intensified, howls and screams echoed through the halls and the hinges cave a cry as they strained to hold.

  “They’re planning an attack on the nation and when the monsters overcome the towns and cities they’ll attack the palace. The monsters they’ve engineered are like no other and cannot be killed with ordinary spells, they intend to fight black magic to black magic.”

  “That’ll destroy the world!” Evan gasped.

  Mr Daniels looked grave.

  “Fifteen seconds,” Will pressed, gazing up at the ceiling.

  “I cannot thank you enough for your service and I deeply regret we part on these terms,” Nath rose with a sad smile.

  “The honour is mine. Long live The Celestial King,” said Mr Daniels.

  The door burst off its hinges and the monsters spilled into the room.

  Evan screamed.

  Will threw up his fists, embers burst from his knuckles, but try as he might he couldn’t produce another inferno.

  “Freeze!”

  And they did.

  Literally frozen solid like statues.

  The wolves flew towards them and magic exploded from Evan’s skin in an ethereal glare coating his partners. His heart gave a stutter and burni
ng pain shot up his spine. One of the wolves slammed Nath to the ground and he physically felt the pain in his own body. Warmth trickled down his chest and he sagged beneath his own weight. Sounds zoned into the distance and he barely registered the sky fall. Shards rained justice around them; a heavy body slumped to his side and he was off his feet floating into blackness. Someone might have been saying something, people could have been screaming, and beneath him the ground gave way.

  And then the first bomb went off. The building heaved violently as though trying to tear itself from the ground like an uprooted tree and launch into space. His vision swam and he saw the flames erupt around them, felt Nath drag him by the arm as a huge shadow eradicated the light. Something heavy struck him across the back of the head and stars erupted before his eyes. Maybe he was concussed or the galaxy had burst from Nath. Moonlight engulfed them and Evan felt himself slipping away into it. He didn’t know if he was flying or falling and the urge to vomit was intense. Magic tickled from his mind to his temples but he couldn’t focus on it, consciousness was too far from his grasp.

  Chapter 31

  Will

  The passage of time was unknown and his eyes were burning too painfully to open for the longest time; when all the mayhem went to sleep, he found the energy to wake. The descent to sanity was gradual, but when the dragon’s legs touched the ground and the darkness vanquished the light, he took a moment to adjust and open his eyes.

  He cradled a dead boy in his arms.

  “No,” he croaked, throat burned and dry.

  The dragon slumped to the ground with a guttural whine and the owls fled the trees. They’d landed on the outskirts of a woodland somewhere coastal across the border where they could see the stars and smell the freshness of the spring night.

  His legs were like jelly and his body ached with fatigue but he heaved the two of them down from the dragon’s back trying not to puke.

  “Evan?” Nath was at his side taking Evan in his arms. He lay him in the grass and pretty flowers framed his pale, peaceful face. Nath shook him gently, called his name, begging him to respond, but he lay there lifeless. He was having none of it and fumbled for his pulse with sweaty, shaky hands, pleading the gods to bring him back with tears running down his bruised cheeks. His pain was pitiful and sparked a throbbing ache in Will’s belly as he watched him trying desperately to resuscitate him.