by Pedro Urvi
I will roast you for this!
Kyra shook her head. “Last chance. Surrender.”
The Erudite sent a fiery arrow at great speed, which buried itself in her sphere. The tip pierced it, but it remained stuck there without touching her body.
“I didn’t like that. And you can’t say I didn’t give you a chance.” She focused on the Golden’s aura.
No! he screamed when he realized what was happening.
Kyra managed to secure her aim and used her Power as quickly as she could, before the Golden had time to react. The Erudite was hurled up against the monolith behind him and crashed against it. By now the mist reached his chest. From the corner of his mouth, dark blood dribbled.
How…how… he muttered, but he could not finish the sentence and moaned in pain instead.
Kyra reached out her arm and closed her hand, not completely, but as if she were holding something. The Erudite felt a force clutching his neck. She tightened her hand a bit more. The Golden raised his hands to his neck. He could not breathe. She tightened her grip a little more.
No! He coughed. No… please…
Kyra looked hard at the Golden for a moment. She had him. If she tightened her grip just a little more she would strangle him. If she used even more strength, she would break his neck. He was at her complete mercy. The rage in her stomach told her to kill him. He was a Golden, he had condemned thousands of people to the pods. He squeezed them until they were dead. He was an abominable creature. He deserved death. She was about to carry out the death sentence, but something inside her told her to stop. And think. Think of all those people. I need him alive so I can rescue as many as possible. Killing him wouldn’t get us anywhere. If he lives he can help me save those poor souls. She made her decision. She tightened her grip just a little, gently, and the Erudite fainted for lack of air. She dropped him, and he disappeared into the mist.
Truly fascinating, a voice said in the form of a mental message.
She started. She felt a terrible chill. It was Beru. She turned, but could not see the God because of the pods. He was entering the chamber through one of the adjacent ones to the north. He made his way down the corridor as far as the monolith, turned east and faced her fearlessly.
I never thought I would see the day when a slave defeated a God. I must say, it is rather remarkable. Even though he is a minor God, a commoner, it has still never happened before. And If I should tell anyone, nobody would believe me. Not in Alantres, our eternal city.
“Give yourself up and free the prisoners, and then I won’t kill you,” Kyra said firmly. With utter conviction.
Beru gave a loud guffaw. The fact that you have defeated an Erudite does not mean that you would be able to defeat a Noble. I am a hundred times more powerful than him. I belong to an ancient family; do not make the mistake of defying me. I cannot be defeated by a slave.
“That’s what he thought.”
The Golden smiled and shook his head. I too would not have thought it possible. The surprises we stumble upon in our existence! Not for nothing is my Lord Asu so interested in you. I have no doubt that he perceived something different in you, and that is why he wishes to capture you so intently.
“One day I’ll pay that heartless creature back.”
Beware of what you say, slave. Or I might have to deliver you with half your body charred.
“I’d like to see you try.”
I shall not tell you twice, slave. Kneel before me or you will suffer.
“Now look, you arrogant Golden, I have a mission to carry out and you’re interfering. I’ve come to free all these poor souls and lead them to freedom, and that’s just what I’m going to do. If you stop me it’ll all be over for you.”
Beru began to laugh uncontrollably. Kyra seized the moment to fix on his aura. Beru stopped laughing at once and raised a protective sphere of lava and fire so quickly that she was unable to use her Power.
Too quick for you, slave? I am a Noble of the House of Fire! I can sense your clumsy attempts before you carry them out. I can defend myself before you even find your own Power to attack me with. And I can attack with the speed and strength of a comet. He reached out with his arm and with a twist of his wrist created a missile in the shape of a great ball of fire which flew towards her.
The ball of fire crossed the space which separated them and impacted against her protective sphere. It burst on contact, spreading fire all around. The explosion left her stunned and sore, but the sphere held, although it would not for much longer.
That sphere of yours is not strong enough to protect you from my Power. You cannot fight me, you stupid slave.
A Spirit of Agony rose out of the mist and attacked him. It encountered the Golden’s sphere and began to attack it in its attempt to reach the enemy’s face.
A Spirit of Ether? he exclaimed in astonishment. He turned to Kyra, who was still recovering from the impact of the explosion. You cannot have done this, he said, and turned around in search of the new threat. But all he could see was fog and the pods. Where is your brother? You cursed slippery rats! Now you will see! He bent over, ignoring the Spirit, which kept attacking his sphere of lava and fire. He put both hands on the floor through the protective sphere and murmured some words. When he had finished the whole floor around him began to burn, consuming the fog. He murmured again for a long moment, then withdrew his hands. The fire around him began to spread throughout the chamber, consuming the mist of ether. I hope you enjoy my River of Fire, he said with real pleasure.
The flames moved on among the pods, flooding the chamber like a river: a river of fire. Ikai was lying on his face at the end of the south corridor, hidden in the fog, which covered him completely. The river of fire advanced toward him. Seeing there was no escape, he used the disc again and covered himself with a sphere of ether. The river reached him, devouring the mist which hid him. He got to his feet.
Delighted with himself, Beru turned to glare at Ikai. There is the other rat! I knew you would have to come out!
Without wasting time, Ikai attacked. He sent an ethereal arrow at Beru’s sphere. The missile stuck in the sphere but did not manage to pierce it.
Ha ha ha! Do you really think you can defeat me with that?
As he laughed, Maruk ‒ who like Ikai had been hidden in the mist, but at the eastern end of the corridor ‒ got to his feet an instant before the river of fire reached him and leapt up on to one of the pods. He climbed to the top and prayed to Oxatsi that the flames of the river would not reach him.
Kyra recovered. She concentrated and attacked, creating a prism of pure Ether, and sent it against Beru. When it made contact with his sphere the prism burst in an explosion of pure energy which shook the God and weakened his sphere.
How dare you!
Ikai created a new Spirit and sent it to attack Beru. Kyra prepared another prism of energy. Maruk, seeing the river of fire disappearing, leapt off the pod, seized the spears of the three charred Executors and readied himself. Beru cried out in rage and strengthened his battered protective sphere.
Kyra sent her prism of Ether and Ikai his arrow of ether, while Maruk launched one of the Executors’ spears with all his strength. Beru received the three impacts and yelled, beside himself with fury.
I will roast you! You cursed slaves! The Golden looked at Kyra to the east, Ikai to the south and Maruk to the west. They had him surrounded, except on the north entrance he had come in by. You think you are so clever! With your little tricks! Nothing can defeat a Golden, a God!
Again the three attacked simultaneously, and the missiles hit Beru from all three directions. The God raised his right hand and aimed it at Kyra. Then he raised his left and aimed it at Ikai. He concentrated and murmured something. A moment later, under their feet, there formed a well of burning lava. Kyra stared in horror; it seemed about to swallow her. A burning heat rose up her legs. The lower part of the sphere began to crack; if it broke she would fall into the lava. The same fate was threatening Ikai. She plac
ed her hands on the sphere, shut her eyes and sent her own inner Power to strengthen it. Ikai did the same, using the disc. But the amount of Power in the disc was small and it was beginning to be exhausted.
Beru made a triumphant gesture. Now we shall see.
Maruk sent one last spear against Beru’s sphere. The God turned his head, but kept his arms raised and his concentration on the two wells of lava. Brother and sister were struggling to maintain their spheres and not perish. Ikai used up all the Power in the disc, and with a final flash it went out. He saw the lava under his feet and knew he was lost. Desperately he tried to find his own Power and use it. He shut his eyes and searched. Please, Oxatsi, help me find it! But as so often before, he could not find it. He failed, and the sphere that protected him was destroyed. At the last moment he threw himself forward with all his might. He cleared the lava by an inch, and was left lying on his face on the corridor floor.
Beru pointed his finger at him. Time to die, cockroach. He was about to use his Power when Maruk leapt on to his back. Armed with two of the Executors’ half-moon knives, he put all his strength into the jump and plunged them into the Golden’s battered protective sphere.
Treacherous snake! he yelled in fury as Maruk stabbed again and again at the sphere. Beru’s eyes turned red hot. He murmured, and two beams of fire came out of his eyes and caught Maruk in the chest, Maruk stepped back, leaving the two knives stuck in the sphere. He looked down at his chest, put his hands to the wound that had killed him and fell to his knees.
“I’m going to Liriana,” he said. “She’s waiting for me…”
“Nooooo!” Ikai cried in despair from the floor.
“You swine! Noooooo!” cried Kyra, and put her entire being into covering the well of lava under her feet with a layer of Ether.
Maruk breathed his last and died.
Beru raised his left hand towards Ikai, while with his right he kept the well under Kyra. He smiled in satisfaction and sent a ball of fire against Ikai. Without protection, the ball would kill him. Ikai hurled himself between the pods, and the ball burst where he had been standing an instant before. The explosion destroyed several of the pods. Flames, pieces of metal and burnt flesh flew out.
“Ikai!” Kyra cried. She had finished with the well of lava and was running down the corridor to her brother. She crossed the cavern, passing in front of Beru without sparing him a glance and ran down the south corridor to the site of the explosion. Ikai was lying on the floor among the shattered pods. His back was in flames.
She created a cloak of Ether and put it over her brother, putting out the flames. Ikai was stunned and burned in several places.
A new ball of fire exploded over her, and she had to take a couple of steps back from the impact. When she glanced aside at her brother she saw that the explosion had not reached him.
Beru’s laughter echoed in the chamber.
Idiots! I am a God and you are mere cockroaches!
He sent another ball of fire, and Kyra withdrew a couple more steps. In front of her there loomed a gigantic flame of terrifying intensity.
Beru smiled. Time to bring this to an end! Nobody defies a Golden and lives!
Kyra’s defense began to break beneath the giant flame which was trying to torch her. She sent more Power to the protective sphere, but knew it would not hold for long. The effort made her sink to one knee and go on holding off the attack with both hands stretched out.
It is useless, slave. I am far superior. It is futile to resist.
She half-closed her eyes with the effort. As she did so she glimpsed something behind Beru. A blackness was approaching from the north entrance, down the corridor. The Golden, focused on defeating Kyra, did not notice.
“Welcome,” said Kyra in greeting. “It’s taken you a while to come.”
Beru looked at her, at a loss. He looked right and left but could see nobody.
What new trick is this? You will not fool me.
“You didn’t make it easy for me,” said a seductive voice, heavy with sarcasm. “Wasn’t there a deeper dungeon for you to hide in anywhere in this Boundary?”
Beru turned to face the north corridor. In front of him, surrounded by a strange blackness, a brunette with feline features, carrying two black daggers, was staring at him.
Who are you? he asked in surprise.
“My name is Albana and I’m your death, Golden.”
The God murmured something and opened his mouth. Albana used her Power. From out of the Golden’s mouth came a gust of blazing fire. But Albana vanished, to reappear behind him. While Beru projected his fiery breath at the emptiness in front of him she plunged her daggers, with all the force of her Power, into the exact spots Maruk had stabbed with his knives. The battered sphere did not hold. It shattered into a thousand shards.
Beru spun round. He looked at Albana and opened his mouth. A flame began to emerge. Suddenly his mouth shut and the flame went out. His eyes stared at Albana’s hand under his jaw. The brunette had stabbed her dagger through his chin and into his brain. His eyes stared wide in horror.
“I told you,” she said, and finished him off by plunging the other dagger into his brain, up to the hilt.
She turned and saw Maruk’s body, then Kyra on her knees, exhausted and unable to stay upright.
“Ikai?” she said apprehensively.
Kyra pointed. “There.”
Albana ran.
Chapter 24
“Ikai!” Albana called desperately as she reached him. But he did not answer. He was lying face down on the floor, with the back of his clothes burnt and blood on his head. Albana was desperately afraid. She dropped down beside him and held his head in her lap.
“Come on, Ikai! Answer me!” But there was no reaction.
Kyra went to Maruk’s side and sat down beside him. Heartbroken, she realized he was dead.
“Damn you! I’ll kill you all! I swear I’ll kill you all! For Yosane, for Liriana, for Maruk, and for all the others! You’ll pay for it all!”
Albana turned Ikai over and tried to stir him into consciousness. She cleaned his head wound. He seemed to have hit a pod, or a part of it, when he had been thrown back by the explosion.
“Come back to me! You can’t leave me now we’ve found each other again!”
Kyra stared at them with her heart in a tight knot. “Tell me he’s not…”
Albana was trying every possible way of bringing Ikai back to the world of the living. She turned her head to Kyra. “I won’t let him leave,” she said, and began to blow air into his mouth.
Suddenly he started coughing and opened his eyes wide.
“He’s alive!” Kyra cried in delight.
Ikai looked at Albana, unable to focus his eyes properly. “Albana? Is this a dream?”
Both women burst out laughing.
“Yes, a dream,” said Albana. “See if this seems real.” She kissed him with such passion that he ended up coughing uncontrollably.
“That was quite a scare you gave us,” said Kyra.
“Then it’s real…you’re here?”
“Yes, I came to rescue you, my love.”
“And a good thing you did!” said Kyra.
“The God!” Ikai said, terrified as he began to remember.
“Take it easy, he’s dead,” Albana assured him.
He relaxed and put his hand to his head. It hurt like fury.
“We have to take a look at those burns on your back,” Albana said.
“Every day you get handsomer, brother. I don’t know how Albana can look at you. What with the scar on your face and the new burns on your back, you look lovely.”
“For me you’ll always be beautiful,” Albana told him with a loving smile.
Ikai blushed.
“It must be on the inside,” Kyra said.
“Even more so there,” Albana said, and holding his face in her hands, she kissed him again.
“We’d better look for medicines for those wounds,” said Kyra, and went away to
search for them.
They found a blanket in one of the adjoining chambers and covered Maruk’s body. The three friends knelt around their fallen comrade. Holding hands, they begged Oxatsi to welcome her brave son to her breast. To give him a life in the beyond, by her side. To let him rejoin his beloved Liriana so they could be eternally happy. They prayed that she would accept their pleas on behalf of that brave man who had sacrificed his life fighting for the freedom of all men, fighting against evil and defending his friends in danger. Maruk of the Senoca: a friend, a brave man, a tireless fighter for freedom.
Kyra cried, which was a rare thing in her, and made Ikai’s eyes mist over. He had a huge knot in his throat and could not swallow.
Albana sighed. “When we agreed to set out to free the Boundaries we knew not all of us would make it.”
“He didn’t deserve to die like this,” Kyra said.
“None of us do, but it’s the risk we take and accept.”
Ikai’s eyes lingered on them for a moment. “If anything should happen to either of you…” and could not go on, as he was overwhelmed with tears.
Kyra wiped away her own tears. “If it has to be, so be it. If I die fighting, don’t shed a single tear for me. I’ll have died for what I believe in and I’ll be beside Oxatsi, content.”
“Don’t say that,” Ikai scolded her.
“We can’t hold back death, but we can fool her,” Albana said. “I’ll make sure we stay alive a little longer, until we’ve finished off the damn Gods.” She said it with such conviction that Ikai and Kyra ended up smiling at the brunette.
They got to their feet, dried their tears and composed themselves.
“We have to take the upper levels until we reach the surface,” Albana said.
Kyra shook her head. “There’ll be a lot of Enforcers…”
“I’ve thought of a plan,” said Ikai. “It’s one that’s already been tried, and it worked.”
They used the low mist trick. Slowly and carefully they began to clear every level, one by one, of all the Enforcers, until they reached the surface. With Kyra and Albana working together with their own Powers to kill all the Enforcers and Ikai creating the fog, the Executors died before they could realize what was happening. They worked stealthily, taking no risks. It took them the whole day. At nightfall they managed to reach the gardens of the Dungeons of Oblivion. Here they breathed in the pleasant evening air and cleared the area with the efficiency of highly trained assassins. Albana dealt with the Guards at the gate, and everything was left in deathly silence. They hid the bodies, as there were still many Enforcers in the city.
