by R. J. Batla
Ames put his hands behind his back as he walked. “We just have to have a little faith. We’ll see what happens. Good day, gentlemen.”
Twenty or so cloaked figures were idling against the wall and they nodded back to Ames.
As Royn and Ames rounded the corner, all twenty turned and started scaling the wall, one having more trouble than the others. As they climbed, their cloaks fell off, revealing the creatures beneath, surging upward on their mission.
Chapter 18
“Guh!” I sat bolt upright in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and out of breath – something was wrong. Something was very wrong. “Gilmer, Anton, wake up! Something’s wrong!” That’s me – master of the obvious.
They both snorted awake.
Gilmer groggily said, “Go back to sleep, Jay; it’s one in the morning! It was a nightmare.”
Using telekinesis, I turned on the bathroom faucet, then moved my hands to each side, sending the streams at my two friends. That got them moving. Angry, but moving.
“Ugh, what the hell, man? What is wrong?” Gilmer exclaimed.
Anton just grumbled.
“Get your fatigues on and follow me. I’ll explain on the way.” After taking way too long to get dressed, they grudgingly fell in behind me as I sprinted out the door. Strength pushed me too fast for them, so I slowed down slightly to not lose them. “Turn here!” I said, ducking right into a hallway and kept going.
“Turn again!” This time left. Stairs.
“Jay,” Anton grunted out between breaths, “you still haven’t told us what’s going on.”
I shook my head, not slowing down. “I’m not sure.”
“If...you...got...me...out...of...bed...for...nothing…” Gilmer said, huffing behind me up the steps. “You…won’t…be…happy!”
I shook my head again. “It’s not nothing. There’s something…wrong. Something here that shouldn’t be. And it’s...just…wrong. Turn right!”
“Should we sound an alarm?” Anton asked.
“What, and tell them Jay has indigestion?” Gilmer said.
We took several more turns, up, down, left, right. By now, I was so confused I had no idea where we were – all I knew was where I was supposed to go. I couldn’t explain it. I just knew.
Just as we were about to round a corner, that same instinct sent me screeching to a halt, with Gilmer and Anton almost ramming into me, clutching their chests and sliding down the cold gray wall. I guess I had still been moving pretty fast even though I’d slowed down for them.
“There’s one around the corner,” I hissed.
They both got serious.
Anton whispered, “Jay – one what?”
“I don’t know, damnit, but it’s there. I can feel it!”
“OK then, smartass, what do we do?”
“We kill it.”
“OK. How?”
“I’ll take point, you guys flank me.”
“Deal.” Anton pulled some stone away from the walls, lacing his hands with rock, giving him the impression he was wearing gray gloves. Gilmer slowed his breathing and I could tell he was getting ready to use fire. I readied energy, and concentrated on the spot between my eyes. The hammer blow was more like a sharp poke this time – I guess training paid off. I opened my eyes to whiteness as the Ignis took effect. It may have been overkill, but hey, I didn’t know what we were going up against.
Instantly, I felt Gilmer and Anton steady themselves – breathing slowed, stance exuding confidence, their power boosting up.
“We’re behind you, Jayton Baird,” Anton said, the rock around him vibrating.
Ignis Oculus at work. Amazing.
Raising my hand, I counted on my fingers. One…two…three…and we eased slowly around the corner, Anton on my right, Gilmer on my left. Then we almost soiled ourselves.
Something blocked our way. A very large something that seemed to be made of horns that stuck out at all angles over its humanoid body, like a moving thorn bush. Glowing red eyes burned from beneath the holes on what I assumed was its head. Its overlarge hands glowed too, and I could feel the heat radiating off it from the twenty yards that separated us. The thing was about to go into a door, but at our sudden appearance, it just froze. Must have spooked him.
“Uh, guys, we’re in trouble – that’s an Int!” Gilmer whispered.
Which was bad. Extremely hard to kill because of their horn armor, they were powerful fire users – rivaling that of the highest-level Phoenix. To top it off, they had what was called the Dreamer power – if you were asleep when an Int uses the power, you won’t wake up. Then they kill and eat you.
But for the life of me I couldn’t remember how to kill one. “OK, so how do we kill it?” I whispered back.
“No idea.”
“A lot of help you are, Gilmer!”
“You’re the one with the Fire Eyes; use the damn things!”
Oh yeah.
And then the Int laughed. I think, anyway. It wasn’t a “ha ha” sort of laugh, it was more an “I’m about to eat your face off” laugh. In a deep voice, mixed with some odd clicking noises, it said, “I was to kill the one in this room. How lucky for me that you showed up – now I have three more to sate my hunger. Your blood will fill me up nicely, oh yes! And then I can snack on the girl.” The Int took one step towards us and roared, thrusting its fists in front of it, sending two cannonball-sized streams of red energy screeching towards us.
Energy Shield, I heard, and I pulled my palms up and repeated “Energy Shield,” narrowly bringing a half dome in front of us before the Int’s red energy slammed into it, sliding us back a few feet. Anton flung shards of rock around one side of the shield, while Gilmer shot a stream of fire around the other. Both attacks bounced uselessly off the Int’s horns, but they kept up the barrage to at least distract it. I was too busy concentrating on whatever it was that the Int flung at us because it wasn’t fire or energy.
Fire and energy wouldn’t build up on my shield, staying red hot and weighing down my arms. It wasn’t liquid, but wasn’t solid either. Like snot. Hot, molten snot. The goo crept closer to the edges of my shield: if it got around, we were goners.
“Gilmer, you sure you don’t remember how to kill it?” I had to yell over the noise of the battle, the heat cracking the stone walls.
Between fireballs Gilmer shouted back, “No. I never expected to actually see one!” The material started dripping to the floor and we had to back up further from the heat. “Ow!” Gilmer screamed, as some caught his shirt on fire and he beat it out.
“Anton, any ideas?”
“No, we don’t have any water, or we could put it out I think – like a fire.”
“UGH!” I said, pouring more power to the shield, trying to keep the now advancing monster at bay, who continued to roar while slowly moving toward us and shooting molten fire at us. He must have been using the Dreamer power – we were making such a racket, the whole tower should have been awake.
Several explosions sounded elsewhere in the tower – there was more than one. Crap.
“Damnit, how do you kill an Int?” I screamed in frustration.
Poke out the eyes, I heard in my head.
Ha. It took direct questions. Who knew? Thank you, Ignis! Yee haw!
“Gilmer, switch to air. Try to blow him back and cool this crap he’s throwing,” I said.
He shifted his stance, squared his shoulders, then thrust his hands and upper body forward. Boosted by the Ignis, a roar of wind filled the tunnel, and I felt the creature give a little from the unexpected push, backing up a couple of strides and roaring in defiance, pouring more power into its attack.
“Keep it up, Gilmer! Anton, I need two earth spears. When I split the shield, hit it in its eyes. Ready?”
He nodded as two pointed javelins of gray stone appeared behind my head.
“Wait for my signal.” Concentrating hard, I imagined the molten material turning to water. Nothing happened. “Come on, damn it!” Pushing more ener
gy out, I let out a roar. Ten seconds later, the transition took effect and the lava-like substance burst into water, steaming and sloshing all over the floor. Immediately, I dropped to the floor and split the shield, reaching out with telekinesis to hold the thing in place. We would only have seconds – it was too strong. Already the Int was fighting my hold and winning.
“Now, Anton!” I shouted, then whoosh.
I saw the confused creature’s eyes for only a second before the spears hit, sending it flat on its back, but pure fury was sent our way in the form of a death scream. And several hundred quill-like projectiles.
“Duck!” Anton screamed, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough.
Freeze sounded in my head, and I rose my hands again, this time bringing up a wall of ice between us and the missiles. Thunk, thunk, thunk times a thousand, as the horns imbedded themselves into the ice. All of us squealed in pain as four or five imbedded themselves in our calves – evidently I wasn’t quite fast enough.
Dropping my hands, the ice melted, sending the horns clattering to the floor. Gilmer set about healing us.
“This isn’t over,” I said, looking around. “Something else is here. Or someone.”
Both of them tensed.
“Blahhh!” came a scream from behind us. White-hot fire and energy blasted toward us in a fist-sized stream. It came from a black-cloaked figure racing our way, appearing out of nowhere.
“Shield!” I managed to get out, the Ignis still on and saving us yet again. The bolt blasted us back against a wall, the force throwing off my concentration. The shield fell.
“You shouldn’t have been able to deflect that attack! You will die today, Morsenube wielder!” the man screamed, his voice odd and disturbed. “Since the Int couldn’t do the job, I will!”
Squaring his shoulders, he pushed the air with his left hand. Energy congealed in front of him into a solid wall and raced toward us. It would squash us like a bug!
I pushed back with my telekinesis, stopping the wall mere feet from us. The stranger pushed harder and it started inching closer to us.
“Guys, I can’t hold this,” I said, straining against the slowly advancing yellow energy.
“The energy’s blocking the whole hallway. There’s no way we can attack him,” Gilmer said, looking for angles and finding none.
“I can,” Anton said, jerking his hands. Bricks flew off the walls on the other side of the energy barrier and zipped toward the black-cloaked man.
Who batted them away like they were gnats.
And what was worse, I could feel the Morsenube stirring. It would work, I heard it say to me. Use the darkness; it will defeat this foe. My concentration faltered and the energy moved an entire foot before I was able to stop it again.
But the Morsenube was awake now, and was clawing at me, trying to get out, trying to –
Footsteps echoed down all the hallways. The stranger turned, cursed under his breath, and then took off through the walls.
His energy battering ram disappeared, and I collapsed in exhaustion. With a head jerk, I turned off the Fire Eyes just as the door opened and a flash of blue appeared in front of us.
“Jay! Gilmer! Anton! What are you doing here?” Royn said. He was caked in blood, sword drawn and practically pulsing with energy.
From all directions, Senturians closed in on us, showing signs of battle.
Thank God for the cavalry.
Chapter 19
Aurora burst into the hall, wearing only a t-shirt and underwear. “What the hell happened?” Jayton, what is the meaning of…oh my…” Her eyes found the Int sprawled on the floor, two stakes in its eyes like smoking goalposts. I didn’t remember my eyes dropping down to her legs. Honestly. But, evidently, I wasn’t the only one, as Aurora said, “Uh, gentlemen, the dead thing?” and motioned with her hand.
So sue me – she was smoking hot. Not even a headshake could clear my head.
Royn cleared his throat. “Is everyone OK?” When we all nodded, Royn said, “Thank God – I don’t know how you rookies did it. You shouldn’t have been able to kill this thing by yourself. You shouldn’t have even survived this thing by yourself.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, the stakes of what we’d done kinda surfacing for the first time. What did we do? We’d taken a life. Granted, it was a monster trying to kill us, but still. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
Royn said, “I mean that it’s too strong – an Int is one of the worst creatures from the West Side; it usually takes a platoon to kill one, and you three rookies in a crowded hallway managed it? Answers. Now.”
“It was simple, logical even,” Anton said, recounted the story, saying I took charge and directed them on how to attack. It sounded pretty awesome when he told it, but it didn’t seem like much to me – I just knew what to do. The other Senturians cocked their eyebrows and eyed me like they’d just seen me in a new light.
“Well, it was still stupid,” Royn said. “Thank God you had the Fire Eyes.” A scream sounded down the hall. “This wasn’t the only one – Harlingon was attacked by at least twenty of the damned things. We’re not sure exactly how many. And there have been…losses.”
Royn looked strangely at me; concern mixed with pity, and then considered a second before continuing: “An emergency meeting has been called. Jayton, report to the council chambers now. Gilmer, Anton, back to your room. Q…Princess Aurora,” he said with a bow, “I suggest you put some clothes on and report to the other Reka down the hall. They will have something to tell you. Jayton, I’ll meet you in the council chambers in five minutes. Follow your badge,” he said, and with a blue flash and a bang he was gone again.
What did that look mean? I’d never seen Royn look…sad.
We turned to go, but Aurora grabbed my arm and pulled me around. “Jayton?”
“Yes, ma’am?”
She planted a big one on me. “I don’t know how I can repay you for saving my life. Um…why did you three end up over here?”
“Jay,” Anton and Gilmer said in unison. They’d be real good in an interrogation.
“Royn said there was a bunch of these Ints, right?” Aurora asked, looking back at me.
“Yep, at least twenty,” Anton repeated.
“And yet you came here?” Aurora asked, her eyes never leaving mine. Heart, meet throat.
I turned red. “Yup.”
“Why?” she said, batting her eyes ever so slightly. God she was pretty. Why did I come this way? I didn’t question my gut; I just followed where I felt I needed to go. But why did my instincts lead me here? Why not to any of the others? Royn said we’d lost people, so why did I come to this specific Int? Were there not others people to save? Others who needed help? And could I have really helped anywhere else anyway?
I swallowed. “I, uh…don’t really know. I just felt, you know, like a…pull…you know, telling me which way to go.”
“And it brought you to me?”
Still looking at Aurora, I said, “Yup.”
She kissed me again. “I owe you my life. Thank you again. Now go, before you’re late to meet Royn.” She turned and sashayed off, blue legs disappearing into her room before I turned around.
Shrugging at the guys, we all pulled out our badges and headed our separate ways. Following the directions, I was almost to the chambers when I bumped into someone. “Sorry, I was looking at my map, my apologies…Leona?”
“Jayton? What’s all this about?”
“I don’t know. Royn told me to go here.”
“Funny. He just appeared in our room and told me to get dressed and head here as well. Said he needed me to make sure you were OK,” she said. “What happened? Clearly you’ve been in a fight.”
Around us was a flurry of activity – people of all different races were running frantically around, some with wounds being treated, some showing signs of battle, some clearly in a state of distress, others simply shocked. Even the executioner was here, looking battle worn and cleaning his blade. Maybe he
wasn’t such a bad guy.
I relayed the story to Leona about the Ints, and she stopped me when I got to the part about Aurora. “Wait, so you went to save her?”
I turned red for the second time in less than a half hour. “Um…yeah, but I didn’t know it was her when I was fighting the Int.”
“And why didn’t you wake Katy and me? You could’ve used our help, you know.”
“Well, I, uh…didn’t think of it. I just…reacted, I guess.”
“Humph. I guess it’s good you saved someone. And that’s kinda scary,” Leona said with a little shiver and crossed her arms. “How did the Ints even get in the city? Isn’t this place supposed to be impenetrable or something?”
With a flash of blue, Royn appeared right beside me, both Leona and I jumping out of our skins. “Not impenetrable, but pretty close. Ints aren’t that smart. Strong, yes, but not smart. They had to have some help,” Royn said.
“Sir, why are we here?” Leona asked.
“There’s been an emergency meeting called, and Jayton’s presence was requested.”
“Understood. But why am I here?” she asked.
Royn looked at Leona, then looked at me, then looked at Leona again. “Precautions. In case our friend here—” he pointed at me, “—decides to let his Morsenube out, I need you here to calm him down.”
“Sir, what makes you think that I can –”
He waved his hand. “Seriously? Just take my word for it. Now let’s go,” Royn said, walking toward the heavily guarded doors.
“I still don’t understand, sir,” I said.
Royn grabbed the door and threw it open, pausing in the opening. “Remember when I told you that you would have to save the world?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Well you’re about to find out how.”
On the way inside, Royn quickly explained everything that had happened at the last meeting – armies, tournament, and something called a Darkstone and how we have to keep it away from Malstrak.
