Ashes to Embers

by Michelle Schad

  “How did he get there?” Kaleo asked, taking Rielle by her shoulders.

  “A Blood Stone,” Eila replied, standing beside her sister. “I made them. One for each of us.”

  “Did you make one for Navid?”

  The girls nodded then looked at each other. They shared another silent conversation, a thing that only they two did, and finally padded themselves down until finding what they sought - a small, stone roughly the size of a coin with a rune etched into its center.

  “I’m sorry,” Kaleo said, looking to his cousins and then to the bard. “I’m sorry. This is my fault. I can’t leave him there.”

  “I’m going with you,” Lara said, taking firm hold of his hand. Kaleo frowned, looking at her but saw that she would not accept any argument.

  “Are you insane?” Reven barked. “Are you even looking at that child on the ground? And you want to go where he was!”

  “I have to,” Kaleo answered.

  “No you don’t,” Reven pleaded, taking on a

  firmer tone. “Urchin, don’t you dare. Kaleo!”

  Kaleo did not listen. He was good at that - not listening. He shut his eyes just as the bard reached for him and squeezed the stone tightly, the sharp edges slicing into his palm until he felt a sharp tug just behind his naval, ripping him away from the world he’d come to love to a hell hole in the making.

  ***

  "What in all the Hells were you thinking?” Reven roared. His voice did not carry far, dampened by the insane amount of ash that fell from the sky. It was as dark as night, black clouds roiling in ominous waves above their heads, each one streaked with wicked forks of red lightning. Reven felt the Power of the Hex Storm as soon as he was able to blink. It caused a wretched pounding in his head and triggered his ire - ire he directed at his apprentice.

  “I didn’t ask you to come!” Kaleo argued back, wings tented above him. Lara stood with him, her hand still firmly held in his even as she looked around with fear in her big amber eyes. This was not what she signed up for. Reven could see that plainly on her face.

  “Damn you, child!” Reven cursed. “It won’t actually kill you to listen for a change!”

  Fury was too kind a word to describe what the bard felt. He could not put it into words, only growl and curse and glare at the idiotic child that stood before him; his child as his mind so pointedly reminded him. He had half a mind to grab the two teens and immediately return to Azucena, with or without Kaleo’s obedience. The Hex Storm made him take pause, however. Focus was needed for Travel; clear, refined focus. Between his roiling emotions and the pounding in his skull, he’d be lucky to get to the next town, let alone across the continent. He growled instead, turning away from Kaleo to look at their surroundings. The ash fell like snow, blanketing land that might have once been green. It was too cold for summer, the chill making the flesh on the bard’s arms prickle and the hairs on his neck stand on end. The buildings that remained were wooden structures, mostly single-story, with piqued roofs made of thatch. He heard screaming and the booming sounds of canons or blasts of rifles though, much like his voice, the noise did not carry as far as it should, making it difficult to determine its origin point.

  …ady Dischord, please help us!

  Reven shook the voice from his mind. It was not the only one, but it was by far the loudest and most desperate. Kaleo heard them too just based on how often the boy twitched. He was not prepared for the onslaught of war, for the pleas of salvation that would never be silenced.

  “Kaleo,” Lara said, crouching near a mass of busted wood, what might have been a home at one point. Kaleo looked at Reven with a frown of disgust but moved to Lara’s side. Reven rolled his eyes and followed. Leaving was not an option.

  Lara dug through the debris, clearing away enough to reveal the body of a man who held his arms across his stomach, blood soaking the clothes he wore down to the smallest fiber. There was a sword nearby - and the hand of a child from beneath more debris. Lara stopped digging.

  “Take the sword,” Reven instructed. “Seriously?” Kaleo retorted with disgust. Reven glared at him.

  “He won’t need it, but if you expect to survive this, urchin, we will. Take. The sword.” He repeated, punctuating his words to drive his point home. Lara did not argue. She lived a different life than Kaleo, quickly bending down to retrieve the weapon before looking for more. She found a pistol with two shots left and a crossbow without bolts. No matter. Reven took the bow; it would help him focus his natural firepower.

  The smell of sulfur suddenly overpowered the smoky scent of ash and brimstone. It accosted his nostrils like acid might burn his skin. He felt their presence, the spot between his shoulder blades itching terribly. Kaleo went so far as to turn around to look behind him, feeling the same thing. It was a difficult thing to miss. Reven watched the color drain from the boy’s face as three hell hounds stalked out from around a low building.

  “Great,” Reven grumbled. He took aim at the leader, Power welling up inside of him like molten lava. He focused on the edge of the crossbow, envisioning a bolt of pure, brilliant light until the thing actually coalesced onto the crossbow itself. As soon as it did, he let it fly, forcing even more Power into it to turn it from a small bolt to a wide spread of searing light. It hit two, but the third dodged and charged straight for Kaleo, who took to the sky in a flourish of ash and wind that beat down from his wings.

  “I’ve got to remember that that fool has wings,” Reven admonished, grabbing hold of Lara as he ran in the opposite direction with the girl dragging behind him. The hell hound slid, looking up to where its quarry vanished but that did not hold its attention long. The snarl it released made Reven’s stomach tighten as it refocused on him and Lara. “Move faster!”

  She, at least, listened. She was small and moved faster than he did, quickly passing him up before scrambling up the side of broken sheds or fallen beams to the roof tops like some strange spider-creature. Ajana did similar things, clamoring over impossible landscapes that made the bard wonder at the capabilities of a woman. The snarl of the hell hound took that wonder away rather quickly.

  Keep running, Beloved, I am here!

  “It’s about bloody time!” Reven hollered back.

  He did not need to look behind him to know that the hell hound would perish. He felt the heat of Azure’s own Power burn the demon spawn to a crisp. He was in no condition to maintain any of what he was doing, still feeling rather lethargic and heavy. The more he moved, the more exhausted he felt but stopping would only make things worse. “Where am I going?”

  East! Azure answered. Toward the tall building!

  Only one tall building stood in his field of vision, making it easy to follow the phoenix’s direction. So, the bard ran, stopping when there was nothing left to provide cover before having to cross an open-air market with a single abandoned canon between himself and the tall building - a church. It was the only thing untouched in the entire town.

  Lara dropped down beside him, nearly giving the bard a heart attack. She made an apologetic face, now holding a quiver half full of arrows and half full of thin debris. It would due in a pinch, he supposed, especially given the size of the bow she recovered.

  “That was on a roof?” he asked. She grinned back. He looked up to the sky but did not see Kaleo anywhere, the ash falling too heavily for him to make out much beyond shapes or things directly in front of him. That was going to make things difficult.

  “Kaleo is there,” Lara said, pointing to the tallest point of the church. Reven peered but could not make the avian out.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, looking to Lara. She nodded, directing his attention to the same spot again. It did no good. Reven still saw nothing but ash. “If you say so. Ok… gods I’m going to beat him bloody. Stay low, go to the canon when I say and stay there until I get there. Understand?”

  Again, Lara nodded, waiting for Reven to signal her before scuttling across the open space to the fountain.

  She’s sa
fe, Beloved. Go. I will watch you, Azure added. Reven focused his Power on the crossbow again, creating another bolt of light before following Lara with much less grace than she until reaching the canon. Now, at the halfway point, he could see Kaleo on the roof of the church, crouched like a gargoyle over the town.

  One more round of scuttling put them straight in the church’s shadow, the eaves of the entry offering some protection from the falling ash. Kaleo joined them, dropping down delicately beside Lara with a shake of his wings, now gray and filthy.

  “They haven’t touched the church,” Kaleo pointed out.

  “They can’t,” Reven countered. “It’s a holy site. In - both of you.”

  Kaleo opened his mouth to argue but Lara tugged at his arm, moving carefully into the church with the sword she took at the ready. If nothing else, the girl knew how to handle herself.

  “Clear,” Lara said, opening the door further. Reven nodded, taking a single step forward before feeling a sharp snag around his neck that pulled him backwards and ripped the air from his lungs, landing him hard on his back.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Dad!” Kaleo cried as the bard was ripped from the porch of the church back out to the open space around the canon. The word left his mouth before he could catch himself. He made to go after the bard until he felt Lara’s hands around his arm. “Let go!”

  “Stop and wait!” she chastised. “Think! If you run out there, they will get you too!”

  “She’s not wrong,” said another voice from behind Kaleo that made him whirl around with a protective arm out across Lara. He nearly fell over with relief when he saw Navid, running to the centaur with a giant leaping hug that was returned in kind. “Gods alive, boy, what are you doing here?”

  “Looking for you!” Kaleo practically sobbed.

  Two others that came out from behind the altar that Navid blocked - a duende man and a young man with pale gray skin; shadow-born if Kaleo did not miss his guess. The church itself was small, not meant for a large gathering, but it was intact which counted for more than just space. He did not know the god it was meant to praise, the tiny figurine on the altar unfamiliar to him. Whoever it was, he thanked them before turning back to the open door.

  “Kaleo!” Lara barked, stepping in front of him. “Wait!”

  “Move!” he snarled but she stood her ground.

  “Who's he so desperate t'save?” the duende man drawled in a boorish rock-rolling lilt that made Kaleo’s ears twitch.

  “Reven,” she answered which meant nothing to the duende. Navid, however, moved up beside Kaleo with the color drained from his face. He’d read Kaleo’s letter, knew the truth of who the bard was.

  “Something grabbed him before he could step in. I don’t know what,” Kaleo said. “And I’m going with or without your permission.”

  This time he shoved hard enough to move Lara out of the way, taking flight again as soon as he cleared the porch. He was not as accustomed to flying as he should have been. It was not terribly comfortable yet as his wings were still growing but it was better than walking and gave him a unique vantage point. It did not take long for him to find the bard, struggling with what looked like a tywyll olve that had fallen victim to a demon wound. It snarled and yanked on a heavy chain that was wrapped around the bard’s neck while simultaneously swinging at the poor tirsai with a large sword. He saw Azure flying around the attacker, trying to be a distraction and failing. That’s when he saw the other demon watching from nearby. A pale thing that was olven at one point in time but was now… something else. It wore garments that resembled sheets thrown across his torso in vibrant colors and played with something in his clawed hand that Kaleo could not make out. On his shoulder was a large, black phoenix.

  Shit… Kaleo thought. He couldn’t think about the oddity watching; he needed to focus on Reven. He didn’t need much, just a distraction. The storm overhead made his head feel like it was swimming, purging all focus from his mind but he tried all the same until sending a wave of nettles at the attacker; he’d intended on sending shards of ice. No matter, the nettles made the monster jump back and drop the chain. That was enough - - until the chain came up to snag Kaleo on his ankle.

  The ground came up so fast he barely had time to register his own panic, the wind robbed from his lungs as he crashed onto the muddied, churned earth. Kaleo felt the splinters of debris and rock pierce his clothing and tear up his back and wings as he collided with the ground. The wind was stolen from his lungs, his mouth working to draw in air that only made him choke more. There was too much sulfur and ash on the air to be of any use to him. He opened his eyes when a strong hand closed itself around his throat, lifting him up off the ground. On instinct, his hands went to the arm that held him, beating at it and thrashing as panic set in. A pit of fear and despair set in to his bowels when he realized who held him.

  Xandrix. One of his father’s personal guards, hand chosen by the Lord General. He went missing with the Lord General and many others that were dispatched when the High Lord Speaker was taken. But the man that held him - no, the creature that held him - was not the same tywyll man Kaleo knew five years ago. The normally deep gray skin was now so pale as to be nearly white except at the forearms where it began to bleed black all the way down to clawed fingertips. His eyes, once a calming pale green were now blood red and fangs peeked from snarling lips.

  “Xan-” Kaleo tried, feeling the claws dig into his throat. He could not breathe, could not call up any Power or even think straight. Blackness began to roll into his eyes, his lungs seizing until air finally rushed him. He landed hard on the ground, coughing and rolling into the churned earth. When he looked up, a chimera stood above him, growling ferociously as someone grabbed him by the middle. He fought them, though he did so with very little strength. The chimera had a rider but that was all Kaleo could make out before the blackness settled firmly over his vision.

  ***

  "What are you doing?!” Xandrix roared as he stood, weapons at the ready with Jaysen snarling in front of him.

  “Leave him alone!” Jaysen spat back. He held tightly to Tanis’s fur, his staff discarded somewhere in his haste to move with his audeas. She had given the warning, her mental voice surprised and almost afraid of what she saw. She described the avian boy down to the last teal feather, every inch of Jaysen tensing as she made him acutely aware of his friend’s presence on the battlefield. Kaleo was the one Vessel Jaysen swore to keep safe no matter the cost; he had to.

  “Are we playing a new game?” Roth interrupted. “You’re not very good at Hide-and-Find, Nasty-Pants. You’re not supposed to let them go once you’ve found them.”

  Xandrix only growled harder for it, shoving at Tanis and Jaysen so that he lost balance and fell off of his audeas. He was no fighter but needed to protect his friend. He had to think, to get a clear picture of what was happening.

  “Roth,” he barked holding out his hand. “Give me your hand.”

  “Why?” the Corrupted Speaker asked, taking Jaysen’s hand anyway to pull him up off the ground. Tanis snarled and barked, hair standing on end and wings out in a rage that Jaysen could feel.

  “It’s a game,” Jaysen lied. Everything was a game to the idiot chaos engine.

  “Oh, alright then, what sort of game? Is it a dancing game? A guessing game? A-”

  “Sight Unseen!” Jaysen barked, digging in to Roth’s hand with his claws so the Corrupted Speaker could not pull away. Not that he tried. The spell practically froze him to the spot with confusion as his vision tunneled and was then shared with Jaysen. He saw what Roth did if in a greatly diminished form. There was no color or fine detail, but it offered more than the empty void of black that he existed in. There was a modicum of control over the subject, but not enough to see everything. However, what he saw was enough. There was a church and a centaur retreating with a winged form carried beneath his arm like a sack. He was safe. For now.

  Jaysen let Roth go, remounting Tanis and heeling her tow
ard the church. It made his skin crawl to be near it, the hallowed ground like poison to him. He slid off Tanis’s back taking a moment to pause, listening to the storm, the muted voices and smelling the air around him.

  Too many things happened at once, too many sounds for Jaysen to decipher any of it. Frustration welled inside of him, dropping him into a crouch. His hands moved in the ash and snow from memory, creating a circle. Power pooled inside of him, a spell forming in his mind to summon one of the denizens of hell. Tanis continued to snarl, barking again as Jaysen worked then yelping sharply. He stood quickly, feeling the agony of her injury as if it was done to him. A second wave of agony made him cry out as he felt the wound that took Tanis's life.

  Jaysen!

  Kaleo. His mental cry came too late. Jaysen felt the stab of cold steel through his middle before he could truly register his friend’s voice.

  “You will not interfere again,” Xandrix growled. The pain intensified as the blade was withdrawn, making Jaysen fall hard to the ground. He coughed, tasting blood in his mouth. Death would come slowly.

  More pain radiated across his middle as something else took hold of him, dragging him over the ground until reaching the church. He did not hiss like Xandrix, but it was not a comfortable experience to be on hallowed ground. He felt as if ants crawled all over his skin with stinging nettles dragging along their tiny legs. His heart ached, his chest tightening as he felt the connection to Tanis slip away.

  “-sen! Jaysen!” Kaleo cried. Jaysen, tried to react, but slipped into darkness instead.

  ***

  “Will you stop trying to bloody save everyone!!” Reven snarled, helping his wayward apprentice carry the injured… boy back into the church. “Stay put or I swear by all that is good and not I will rend you apart myself! Sit on him!”

  The last he said to the centaur that stood in the church once more. There was too much chaos to focus. But, really, all he needed was a little push. There were too many people in the church to take back all at once without assistance. Even with Azure’s reassurance of assistance, Reven was not willing to risk it without an additional push. He could curse Kaleo for not thinking before he leapt. The church helped, giving the bard a little more confidence that he might be able to pull off a miracle. It was untouched both inside and out thanks to the hallowed ground. Even the Hex Storm seemed lessened while inside its borders. If he could find what he needed…