Shattered Soul

by Angela Verdenius

“Ugh.” She grimaced. “Now he’s ugly.”

  It roared, the stench of rotting flesh strong on its breath.

  “And angry,” Fredrico added. “Shoot it.”

  The laser blasted, the monster roared and lunged for them.

  Fredrico flung up his hand and a dark swath cut through the air, neatly slicing off the head. The body staggered and kept coming blindly. Another gesture of his hand and it split in two, effectively stopping its advancement. It stood there, then slowly split, each side falling in opposite directions.

  “I think I’ll hold off on lunch for a while,” Rani commented, eyeing the bits of recognizable body bits that spilled out of the stomach.

  Veknor was already moving, his hooded head tipped upwards as he eyed the ceiling. He had good cause to, for part of it suddenly exploded inwards and three more monsters fell through the opening, each of them coming straight for Rani, Fredrico and Veknor.

  All three acted without thought, their arms swinging up. Black, orange and red combined in a powerful blast that cut through the monsters in a powerful surge that just didn’t slice them, but effectively ashed them on the spot.

  Stunned, Rani stared from the smouldering piles to the orange swirls trailing from her fingertips. Glancing up, she saw Fredrico and Veknor talking, neither apparently surprised by what they’d accomplished.

  Well hell, this freaky shit was still new to her, but she wasn’t going to show how idiotically triumphant she felt right then by doing what she wanted, which was to jump in the air, pump her fist and shout ‘whoo hoo!’

  Schooling her features, she moved to stand beside Fredrico but when he glanced up at her, she couldn’t stop the very wide grin from crossing her face. “Whoo hoo! c s, she mov”

  Veknor let out a gusty sigh that held the hint of dry deserts in it, and Fredrico just shook his head and patted her back.

  “Oh, come on,” she said. “That was fantastic!”

  “I hope you’re as enthusiastic when we face more,” Veknor said.

  “We’ll just ash them, right? Should be home by dinner time.” She winked at Fredrico. “Pump time.”

  The red flash that went through her was like a bucket of cold water.

  “Uncalled for,” she growled at Veknor.

  “I can see where a gag would be handy.” He turned away. “Let’s move.”

  Fredrico was shaking with silent laughter, so she shoved him.

  “I’ve never been in a dangerous situation that was so entertaining.” He gestured to her to go ahead of him.

  “You just want to watch my bum.”

  “And you want another flash,” Veknor warned her.

  “This is just like having a father riding herd on me.”

  This time it was Veknor who shook his head.

  As much as she liked a little fun to relieve tension, Rani was more than aware that dangers abounded in this grim place, and she was alert as they moved down the corridor. Nothing more came at them from the walls, but high overhead she noted vaporous trails, and reaching out, she tugged the back of Veknor’s robe. Her knuckles brushed his body, and it was harder than a normal body, more like touching a tree trunk…ungiving.

  Pushing that thought away, she murmured, “Above us.”

  “I know. Keep walking.”

  The vapour came lower as they walked and she felt the cold coming with them. Then the vapour let loose dozens of screams, deafening and piercing, and the vapour broke apart to show dozens of wraiths.

  These wraiths had holes where their eyes should be as well, but yellow glows pin-pricked the depths. The wraiths dove down toward them.

  Instinctively Rani dropped to one knee, Fredrico’s hand on her shoulder an indication he’d done the same. Only Veknor continued to stand, and he grated out a guttural sound. Immediately more wraiths flowed up through the stone floor, but these had bleeding holes for eyes.

  “Hey,” Rani said. “Friends.”

  Moving fast, the wraiths flowed at each other, their combined screams reaching deafening proportions. Bits of mortar crumbled from the walls.

  It was nothing compared to when the wraiths collided.

  Screaming, they tore at each other, ripping chunks of spectral flesh from each other, hazy blood filling the air to disappear as fast as it appeared. The wraiths fought savagely with claws and teeth, the whole time their screams resounding in the corridor.

  There was no time to watch as Veknor was already running down the corridor to the door beyond. Rani and Fredrico followed fast, halting only when they came to the door.

  Placing his hand upon it, Veknor listened before opening it. The sounds of battle were dimly heard now, lasers flaring, men yelling, beasts roaring, and explosions that rocked the fortress.

  Soldiers raced past, not even noticing the open door in the wall.

  Rani raised her hand, but cherg, men y Fredrico grabbed her wrist and shook his head.

  “We can kill them,” she hissed.

  “And draw attention to ourselves. We need to get to the high chamber.”

  “Your impatience shows,” Veknor said. “Let’s go.”

  “I don’t know why we can’t just ash them,” she insisted as they slipped out through the doorway.

  “Not everything here is as it seems, that’s why,” Fredrico replied. “If we fight too many, it could give away our position.”

  “I rather think killing monsters might have already done that.”

  Veknor glared at her over his shoulder.

  “Fine.” She held up her hand. “Sorry.”

  “Next time,” Veknor rasped, “we bring a gag.”

  Fredrico’s face was grim but his eyes twinkled briefly.

  They moved stealthily through the corridor. Rani had no idea where they were other than in the bowels of the fortress. As they moved further up the sounds of battle became clearer.

  Most of the fighters were outside or in laser turrets, leaving the inside of the fortress free of solid people. Unfortunately, the inside wasn’t free of mystical creatures, for they floated in the halls and soared upward, obviously on the lookout for intruders. It seemed The Darknen wasn’t such a fool.

  At first sight of the ghostly scouts, Rani stiffened but before she could draw on her power, Veknor swung around and pointed at her.

  Unable to say anything, she spread her hands in a ‘what?’ gesture and scowled.

  He placed his hand to his lips and shook his head.

  She felt it then, the presence of darkness, but it was a familiar darkness. Comforting. Looking up she saw the faint black shimmer that surrounded them. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Fredrico with both hands held out to his sides and from them rose the black shield that thinned to surround them, effectively cloaking them from the ghostly sentries.

  His eyes had darkened, the ruthlessness in them cold as the darkness that moved through him and out to encompass them all.

  Forcing her gaze from him, she bit her lip and turned back to face Veknor before her own malevolence came to the fore and she did something really embarrassing. She caught Veknor’s twin red pin-pricks deep inside his hood turned in her direction and she nodded, indicating she understood his silent warning.

  She might get all hot and wet when Fredrico went all dark, but she could control herself when she needed to…for awhile, anyway.

  The red streak that twined through her wasn’t totally unexpected, and it doused the little ember flickering to life inside her veins. Relieved, she refocused on their surroundings.

  The wall beside them blew inwards and they were thrown across the corridor to lie in a crumpled heap against the far wall. Curses sounded and Ethmor’s roar was plainly heard. Rani looked up in time to see him absorb the laser fire that came through the wall from a soldier and it was enough to make her leap to her feet, even if her ears were still ringing from the explosion and blood seeped down her arm from a cut.

  Grabbing Veknor in one hand and Fredrico in the other, she hauled them to their feet and yelled, “Now what?”
/>
  “We fight!” Fredrico shouted bac co sem k as more soldiers spilled through the wall, each hefting a laser and aiming at them.

  “Oh, good idea! Why didn’t I think of that?” She flung out her hand, the orange fire spitting from her fingertips.

  The soldiers were seared but more came, and those on the floor struggled to their feet and kept coming. The bastards just wouldn’t stay down and she saw why when they got closer.

  These were no ordinary soldier. Their eyes were milk-white, their bodies already rotting. They were fighting corpses. You couldn’t kill what was already dead.

  Fredrico’s hand fell atop hers, and he laced their fingers together and raised their hands up. Black fire poured through her arm to merge with the orange power flowing through her, and the combined power sliced through the corpses to explode them in a rain of flesh, blood and rot.

  Wraiths soared overhead, screaming as other wraiths came through the walls and continued to fight.

  Demons came through the floor, roaring and tossing their heads, great horns and tusks gleaming with stinking saliva. Ethmor and Dreden met them head-on, and more of Veknor’s demons came through the walls, their great bodies melting through the stone to meet the enemy demons with solid thunks of flesh and ripping of tusks.

  Rani, Fredrico and Veknor left them to fight, running down the corridor and blasting anything that got in their way. They needed to get to the high chamber and nothing could stand in their way. It was even more urgent now that they had been discovered.

  They burst into a room, laid waste to the occupants before the soldiers could even register that they were there and continued upwards.

  Veknor’s demon strode ahead, strangely silent and looking back often at Veknor. Rani wondered if it was communicating with the dark mystic, letting him know what was ahead. There was obviously no need for subtlety now. The Darknen had to know they were in his fortress.

  The slipstream when it caught her was unexpected. It swept her up in a whirling wind and tore her through the room. She heard Fredrico shout her name, but she was totally at the mercy of the slipstream.

  It smashed her against the walls as it surged upward, ripping her through corridors and rooms before flinging her outwards through a window. It tore her through the air, spun her around, and for several seconds it held her suspended in the air and she could see the total devastation below her.

  The fortress was on fire in parts, walls destroyed in various sections. Overhead space ships fired deadly laser fire on each other, while other ships hurtled to the ground and exploded. Demons fought both space ships and each other, ripping and tearing. Soldiers fought below, wraiths screamed, monsters thundered over the ground. It was mayhem.

  And then she felt the force of The Darknen as it pressed against her psyche. Immediately she slammed down the shields, but he pushed onward, and she felt the orange cracking, the shield splintering beneath the force that became painful and then agonizing as he forced inwards.

  In that same instance she felt the black shield slam down in front of her orange shield, felt the blackness invade her shield, entwining in it to build an impenetrable force. It cut off the pain instantly, to her relief.

  Fredrico. Wherever he was, he was concentrating on her. She just had a brief moment to pray that he didn’t stop concentrating on his own problems when The Darknen roared in anger as his attempt to get into her mind was c hee d thwarted. He wrenched away from her, and she knew she would have felt the pull more if Fredrico hadn’t been shielding her.

  She started to draw power through her but the slipstream yanked her down, breaking her concentration, and she felt Fredrico tear away, heard him cry out in pain, and fear rose in her—it matched the nausea riding in her throat as she spun in the air, the slipstream tumbling her every which way. The walls of the fortress bore down on her, and she was flung through a window and smashed against the wall.

  Dazed, blinking, she pushed herself up to her feet and staggered. Her leg throbbed, and she was sure a rib was broken, going by the stabbing pain produced with every breath she took. Looking around, she saw that she was in a plain room. A fire burned in the hearth, and before it was a huge armchair. She couldn’t see it, but she knew someone sat in that chair.

  Drawing her malevolent power through her, dragging it up into her hand, she ignored the pain in her ribs and her throbbing leg and approached the chair cautiously, circling around it slowly. “Stand and reveal yourself.”

  “Rani?” The figure jumped from the chair and spun around, happiness wreathing her face.

  “Ceri?” Stunned, Rani stared at her sister.

  “Oh, Rani!” Ceri threw herself into Rani’s arms and hugged her. “I thought you’d never come!”

  Closing her arms around her sister, Rani hugged her close. “I don’t understand! You were supposed to be safe, you - ”

  “You left me to die in the ice. How could you?” Ceri whispered brokenly.

  “No, I didn’t know, I - ”

  “Left me to die. Die. Die!”

  Something was wrong. The body in her arms was chilled, becoming wetter by the second, and Rani started to push back.

  Ceri hung on grimly. “Left me to thaw and rot and die. Rot and die.”

  Pain seared through Rani as sharp teeth dug into the flesh between her neck and shoulder. The wet, slippery woman struggled with her as Rani cursed and tried to shove her away. Long nails scoured her skin and strong teeth chore a chunk of flesh from Rani’s shoulder.

  “Shit!” Wrenching her arm between them, Rani slammed her elbow into the thing’s face, keeping the momentum by wedging her knee between them and shoving with all her weight.

  The woman stumbled back, lifting her head to reveal the face literally sliding off the skull in a wet, soggy mass. “I’m melting. I’m thawing.” She grinned, showing bloody, jagged teeth. “And I’m hungry.”

  Without hesitation, Rani flung her hand forward, and the orange flare tore through the corpse, burning it in a blaze of ravenous power.

  Putting her hand over the jagged wound in her shoulder, Rani grimaced. “Bloody dirty fighting, Darknen. Bastard.” Glaring around her she shouted, “I’m coming for you, you piece of - ”

  The door flung open and she spun around, her hand firing up, fingertips glowing with orange power, but Fredrico burst through, his worried gaze on her. “Rani, what the hell happened to you?” His gaze fell to the blood covering her shoulder and chest. “You’re hurt.”

  “Stand back!” She barked out. “Bloody stay back or I’ll fry you!”

  Frowning, Fredrico halted and raised his hands. “Rani?”

  “How ce="

  “What?”

  “I got greeted by something pretending to be my sister. It was hungry, by the way. How the hell do I know you are the real Fredrico?”

  He stared at her for several seconds, and then he smiled just a little. His eyes went hot, his gaze sliding d

  own her body, and damned if she didn’t feel that hot gaze all the way to her womanhood. Lust slid dark and deep, almost making her forget her broken rib, throbbing leg and burning shoulder.

  “Oh yeah,’ she said huskily in a mixture of relief and desire. “It’s you.”

  The red power that surged coldly through her doused the fires of passion abruptly.

  She blinked, coming to her senses of where they were. “Veknor. Where is he?”

  Fredrico strode across the room and pulled her hand from the shoulder wound so he could inspect it. “He’s near the high chamber.”

  “How?”

  “We had to keep fighting onwards. I searched for you, fought, and he went onwards.”

  “Determined little devil, isn’t he?” She smacked his hand away. “I’m fine. Stop fussing.” The slap made her wince as her rib protested.

  “Where else are you hurt?” he asked grimly.

  “My arse. Want to kiss it better?” She limped past him. “Let’s go.”

  With a curse he followed, stopping her near the do
or to move ahead and look out. That was when she saw the strips of blood across his back under the tattered remnants of his shirt. Deep gouges still trickled blood.

  “Ow,” she said with feeling. “Who got you?”

  “You don’t want to know, but they’re dead anyway.” He jerked his head. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 12

  Rani was hurt but nothing life threatening, thank God. Fredrico would have been weak with relief except he didn’t have time to succumb to that emotion. Time enough for that later. Right now their problem was getting to the high chamber. He’d lost contact with Veknor, there was too much mystical interference, but he knew his friend was somewhere ahead and so that was where they were heading.

  The fortress around them was a seething mass of fighting monsters, men, women, wraiths and demons. The space fighters outside lent their deafening explosions to the scene as well as more danger, as another wall exploded in a shower of stone and mortar.

  Rani had her sword in one hand and her fire in the other, alternately blasting and slicing anything that came within reach. Fredrico shielded them from the marauding wraiths not on their side, and together they forged through the corridors and up the stairwells.

  The Darknen’s force was tangible, pushing at his barriers, and he felt the coldness of Veknor’s red shield overlaying his own power. If he had time to unfocus his eyes he would be able to see their combined shields over both him and Rani, but he had to concentrate on the fighting and finding his way.

  It was Veknor’s red thread twining through his own ftinblackness that tugged him onwards. Faster he moved, his booted feet ringing on the stone stairs as they forged ever onward.

  The wall beside him exploded inwards, shattering his concentration momentarily, and it was enough for a great horn to tear through his shirt sleeve and rip the skin below. The heavy head thrust hard, knocking him from the stairwell and sending him falling through the air towards the floor below.

  “Fredrico!” Rani yelled.

  There was no way even he could live through a fall like this. Closing his eyes, he tried to curl into a ball, knowing how futile it was even as he did so, and then something grabbed his arm and jerked him to a halt.