DESCENDANT (Descendants Saga)

by James Somers

  Oliver and I ducked inside of a building, proceeded through into an alley and into another building. None of the structures in the village possessed any complexity to them. Basic wooden buildings that might serve as simple homes. Black clearly hadn’t put much effort into this little slice of his reality.

  We stopped and listened. The beast bellowed outside, stomping about, searching for the prey it had been after just a moment ago. It smashed several more buildings with its head in frustration and demolished even more with its stomping. But it was already beyond our location, assuming that we were still running from it.

  Oliver and I breathed sighs of relief.

  “We’ve got to get out of here, now,” he whispered.

  I nodded and prepared to conjure up a portal that would return us to the mortal world.

  “Leaving so soon?” Black asked.

  We turned to find him across the room, looking after Behemoth. The beast towered over the village. I worked at the portal even faster. There was no use doing anything else. We had to escape as quickly as possible.

  “A clumsy beast, no doubt,” Black said as he turned to us, grinning mischievously. “Perhaps Leviathan would do a better job of it.”

  A shadow passed swiftly over the village. I heard the beating of great wings. “That can’t be good,” I said, turning to Oliver.

  Black had disappeared again, leaving behind only a peel of laughter in his wake.

  “Open the portal, Brody,” he said, desperately. “I’ll go see what else he’s created and try to draw its fire.”

  I started to protest Oliver’s plan, knowing that he was barely able to stand, let alone fight some monster of Black’s creation. However, drawing its fire happened before Oliver or I could do anything. The roof of the shack where we had been hiding was torn away by a sudden burst of wind. Flames quickly followed as fire enveloped the building.

  I grabbed Oliver’s arm, throwing up my extension around us. The immediate harm from the fire would be reduced, but only for a few seconds. The ambient heat would hardly be stopped by the energy bubble that managed to keep the flames at bay.

  I gambled with my next move, not knowing what would be waiting for us once we became exposed. But I had to do something. Oliver had barely managed to run this far in his tortured condition. If I didn’t get us out of these flames quickly we would both die.

  Pulling the extension in, I then let it rebound and expand. It blew down the walls of the small building, snuffing out the flames as well. However, we were thoroughly exposed to the monster passing overhead.

  Black had mentioned Leviathan before disappearing. I vaguely remembered that both Behemoth and Leviathan were creatures mentioned by God during his discourse to Job. Again, it was my father that had made sure I studied the Word almost as much as he did.

  Behemoth had been described as a massive beast possessing a tail like a cedar tree. The creature could drink up a river also, and his bones were said to be as strong as iron bars. The great reptile that was now turning back on this new commotion fit the description.

  However, Leviathan was a different matter. Hailing from the seas, this beast could breathe fire. My eyes turned aloft to behold the creature Black had created by that name. A dragon bore down on us with bloodlust in its eyes and sparks of fire leaping from its nostrils. I was terrified, trying to think of something that would save us.

  “Strike the beast with lightning!” Oliver cried. “The wings, Brody—hit the wings!”

  My extension came up again on instinct, just as Oliver had taught me to do. I mustered my reserves and cast bolts of white lightning at the dragon when it came down with fire churning in its throat. Its huge wings were dealt several direct hits that managed to shred the leathery membranes.

  Almost immediately, Leviathan lost his surety in the air, plummeting down into the village. Houses were smashed to kindling beneath his ponderous weight. It roared in its fury, sending a blaze across nearby buildings, thrashing madly as it attempted to right itself on the ground. Behemoth thundered back through the village, coming to investigate.

  “We have to go!” Oliver shouted.

  I used the extension in order to define the portal. There was no time for anything fancy. I threw what energy I had left into it and let it go.

  Black was standing nearby in the dusty street of the village. Behemoth approached. Leviathan continued its frantic thrashing, destroying everything around it.

  “Will he follow us through?” I asked Oliver.

  We both watched the angel.

  “He can’t leave Tartarus,” Oliver replied.

  “Not yet,” Black said, grinning.

  The energy surged within my extension bubble, forming the portal. We were drawn through and cast out of Black’s realm. The angel stood watching us go with a quirky smile on his face. The extension imploded behind us, closing the way.

  We were out of Black’s domain, the place of his imprisonment within the greater boundary of Tartarus. Oliver held tightly to me. However, we had not been returned to the mortal world. The void was all around us.

  “I don’t know where we are,” I said.

  “We are still within Tartarus, adrift in the void,” Oliver said. “Your portal was not strong enough to return us to Earth.”

  “I don’t think I have enough strength left,” I admitted, feeling more hopeless by the second. This was exactly the sort of situation I had feared might trap Sophia and the others here. I hadn’t even had the power to free Oliver and myself. “I’m sorry, Oliver.”

  He smiled. Only the remainder of my extension bubble provided enough light in the blackness of this void to even see him. And that light was already fading.

  “Allow me to guide us home,” he said. “We’ll use our power together.”

  We joined our hands—two bodies floating in space. I felt his power surging, merging with my own. I allowed Oliver to lead this attempt, as he had suggested. My extension faded as the last vestiges of my power were focused upon the interaction of our combined energies.

  Another portal formed around us in the void. We were snatched out of Tartarus in a single moment. I smiled and relinquished control of the reaction to Oliver, letting him send us where he would.

  Emerald fire washed over us, as Oliver and I emerged from the hearth in my library—though now I supposed ownership had reverted back to Oliver. We walked into the room. Only the bright sunlight coming through the huge picture window illuminated the room.

  Oliver fell to his knees almost immediately, putting his face down onto the carpet. He sighed like a man that has just finished the most difficult task of his life. Certainly, that could be said of Oliver James now. He had gone through imprisonment with the most despicable creatures in existence and come through alive back to the mortal world.

  I had not said so, yet, but I had immediately noticed odd things. All of the library furniture had been covered with sheets, despite the fact that I had been using my desk just a few days ago. The room smelled musty like it hadn’t been properly ventilated. And it was snowing outside.

  Oliver looked up, smiling. “Dear me,” he said. “It’s winter already? How long have I been gone, Brody?”

  I stood still, watching the snow fall beyond the glass panes. “You were gone for a year,” I said. “But when I went into Tartarus after you, it was only the beginning of Summer.”

  “I see,” he said. “You must fill me in on what’s happened. What have I missed?”

  “Quite a bit more than you might expect,” I said. “The trouble was only just beginning with Black and his plans.”

  Oliver sighed. “I’ve wondered all this time if it had ended with him, or if those events merely foretold tragedy to come. I think I should have a bath and a plate of real food would also be nice.”

  “By all means, Oliver,” I said. “You’ve been through so much. I’ll have Cook fix us something while I draw you a bath.”

  “You don’t know how good that all sounds,” he said.

 
I didn’t mention how I had been able to see the horrors he had faced through his journal entries. He may have already known it was possible. Still, I wasn’t sure he would have wanted me to look at them. I would wait for a more convenient time to discuss the matter.

  We exited the library and came to the head of the stairs. None of the lamps were burning. Only the sun reflecting upon the brilliant white snow outside provided us with any light in the house. Again, we found the furnishings carefully covered.

  I hollered for anyone who might respond. No one answered. Not even the ticking of the clocks echoed through the silence.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  Oliver cast a sidelong glance at me. “You do understand. You just haven’t accepted the evidence for what it is, yet. You’ve been gone at least six months, Brody—possibly more—though I doubt it would be as long as a year and six months.”

  “Six months?”

  “Only the passage of time, or an act of God can change the seasons,” Oliver said. “And I see no reason for God to do so.”

  “I thought I would have to catch you up to the present, and now I’m caught in the past with no idea what’s happened since I left.”

  “There’s nothing we can do to change the present,” he said. “Clearly, the staff have closed up the house in your absence. But don’t worry, I had left instructions to do so while I was traveling abroad for extended periods of time. They would have done the same in your absence also. Uriah always saw to such things whether I asked him to or not.”

  “Uriah?”

  “Yes,” Oliver said. “Surely, you’ve met him by now. He was abroad conducting some business in China on my behalf when we first met. But he would have come back not long after.”

  “I did meet him,” I said. “Met him and came to respect him as much as I do you, or my own father.”

  “Wonderful,” he said. “I thought you two would get along well.”

  “Oliver,” I said.

  He noticed my downcast expression. “What’s happened, Brody.”

  I didn’t know how to tell him such news, but it had to be done. “Uriah looked after me during the year you were in Tartarus,” I said. “We became very close. But during the problems I’ve yet to relay to you in detail, we were abducted by a tribe of pixies.”

  A terrible foreboding had settled on Oliver’s face, as he waited for the awful news to come.

  “Uriah gave his life to save me,” I said finally.

  Oliver tried to take it well, but I could tell he was shaken by the news of our friend’s death. I knew a little of what he was feeling. I hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to him either.

  He nodded and then took a deep breath to clear his mind. “We’ll need food and rest to replenish our energies,” he said. “However, we also have work to do. We’ll get some food now. The rest may have to wait.”

  “I’m not tired anyway,” I said.

  “I am,” he admitted. “But that’s not what I meant. London is burning.”

  I followed Oliver’s line of sight through the window above the foyer. In the distance, where London was, smoke rose in columns from the city. I remembered the war between the Lycans and the vampires at that moment. I shuddered to think what kind of damage could have been wrought upon the city and its inhabitants in six month’s time?

  “What has happened in my absence?” Oliver asked.

  “For starters, Tiberius and the Breed went to war with the Lycans. And London is their battleground.”

  Oliver closed his eyes. “I had hoped it would never happen,” he said. “But I suppose it was inevitable.”

  I remembered Lycean’s assassination, how he and Master Helios had been murdered in a plot involving Kron, and most likely Grayson Stone. “There’s more,” I said.

  “Tell me everything,” he said.

  Winter

  Two hours later, I had imparted most of the details to Oliver while we cooked and ate cured ham and eggs with coffee. We had decided not to disturb the caretaker, if indeed anyone had been left to watch over the property. Instead, Oliver called for his private carriage—meaning he summoned it with his mind.

  Despite being familiar with his vast abilities, I was still astonished to see a team of black stallions hitched to a black carriage coming around the pea gravel drive with no driver at the reins. He always had possessed a flare for the dramatic. Even after a year within that hellish prison, Oliver remained the consummate showman.

  “Lewis and Clark will take us into the city,” he said, appearing in the foyer, wearing a suit once more.

  I gave him a doubtful look. His clothes had been conjured to fit as well as the finest tailor could manage, but he appeared terribly thin in comparison with his former self. Still, the light in his eyes was bright. Clearly, he was pleased to be out of Tartarus and back in the real world, regardless of whatever problems we might have to contend with.

  “A bit overdressed, aren’t you?” I asked, grinning.

  Oliver walked past me toward the carriage. “Come now,” he said. “It always pays to be fashionable.”

  “Even if we’re going to our deaths?” I called after him.

  Oliver turned back to me as the carriage door opened itself for us to enter. “Especially if we’re going to our deaths.”

  He entered the carriage and sat down. The horse closest to me turned its head to give me a look of displeasure for my dawdling. I sighed and then stepped off of the porch into the falling snow.

  The entire countryside was blanketed in white powder, a heavenly carpet that failed to betray the carnage it no doubt covered. Surely we would find the dead piled in the streets of London when we finally arrived. I shuddered to think about it, all the while wondering where my companions had gotten to during this past six months. There was no way they would have remained in Xandrea all that time.

  I entered the carriage where the door closed itself before I could bother to offer my assistance. Oliver whistled to the horses, and they began their trek toward London. We started with a slight lurch and were on our way.

  “What if we’re seen by the vampires?” I asked. “Surely the controlling power in the city will have patrols.”

  We should remain well hidden,” Oliver said.

  He made a flourish with his wrist toward the horses ahead and the carriage around us. Curious, I peeked my head out the window flap. At once, I knew Oliver was beginning to get his strength back. The team of horses and the carriage had become pure white. As we drove down the road, through the countryside, our transportation had become virtually invisible against the fields of snow.

  We continued to talk along the way, so that our trip only seemed like minutes. All too soon, our carriage was entering London. Snow was falling heavily here, but one thing remained perfectly clear. The city was dead.

  No pedestrians walked the streets. No carriages passed as we made our way along cobbled boulevards. Despite the weather, I might have expected to see some people. Surely children would be out playing in the snow.

  But there was no one—not even vampires.

  “Mind if I add a bit to our camouflage?” I asked.

  “Be my guest,” Oliver replied, watching through the carriage window, as I was, for any signs of life.

  I lacked Oliver’s sense of style, perhaps leaning toward a more practical approach. Laying my hands upon the side of the carriage, I harnessed enough of my power to render the camouflage completely invisible. Even the clip-clop of horse hooves on the cobble stones was hushed.

  “Elegant,” Oliver said. “I like it.”

  “Something Master Helios taught me to employ,” I explained. “Apparently, I’m not as light on my feet as he had hoped. He thought this made up the difference for my noisy lumbering about, as he put it.”

  Oliver smiled. “I see. Well, what Helios lacked in natural power, he more than made up for in wisdom and practical skill.”

  We resumed our search while Lewis and Clark pulled the carriage through the streets. Here and
there, we noticed debris strewn in our way. Most of it was covered by snow by now, forcing me to wonder if there weren’t bodies lying in the road.

  By the time we had made our way into Whitehall, our hope of finding any mortals was all but gone. We could see from here that the royal palace had been destroyed for some time. While many of the buildings were still smoldering across London, Buckingham lay blackened and quiet.

  “I suppose its possible that they’ve moved on,” I said.

  “Vampires are not typically a nomadic people.”

  “If their food supply was depleted, or had escaped the city, they might not have a choice,” I replied.

  Oliver rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “If they are still at war with the Lycans, then I would have expected someone occupying the city. London is the jewel of the British Empire, not some stretch of farm land where a battle happened to take place.”

  I sat back in my seat opposite Oliver, unsure how to answer. “Too bad there isn’t some activity taking place,” I offered. “We might see who was about then.”

  Oliver’s eyes lifted. He was suddenly smiling. “That’s it, my boy. You’re a genius!”

  “What?”

  “We’ll provoke them out into the open!”

  I sat there for a moment and then finally asked, “How?”

  Oliver grinned mischievously. “What’s the best way to draw a crowd?”

  I pondered briefly. “Blow something up?”

  “Precisely.”

  By the time our carriage had made it as far as Hyde Park, we knew what object would be used to draw out any aggressors left within London. Our carriage had paused before a grand feat of architecture in the park. Oliver put his hand on my shoulder. The next moment we were standing inside the building.

  “This is it,” Oliver said. “The Crystal Palace will do nicely. Tons of cast iron and plate glass going sky high would get anyone’s attention.”

  “And how do we accomplish that?”

  “Did I ever tell you about my warehouses—particularly the ones full of dynamite, gunpowder and ammunition?”