Evanescent

by Carlyle Labuschagne

  I was smiling even before I woke up. It had worked. But soon enough, dread set in hard and fast. Dad? As my lungs took in air, I choked, then stood wiping chunks of stone from my clothes.

  “David?” I croaked, looking around swiftly, taking stock of what was left in the wake of my wrath hex.

  I heard scuffling, turned as Dave swore, and rushed over kicking crap out the way.

  “What happened bro?” he asked, coming out of his short-lived stupor.

  I pulled some debris from the buried bodies beneath a thick blanket of white dust. Dave’s hand came up. He jerked from his feet, finding Anaya and Maya splayed beneath him. I looked around, and saw a boot. I froze, instantly remembering Dad had been wearing those earlier. I was not yet used to his new clothes; another thing that was constantly plaguing me, and yet another distraction I could not afford. My heart beat faster as he lay unmoved. I leapt over everything in my path, pulling debris from him, my hands almost like machines, ripping heavy, stone pieces from his body. My tattered shirt clung to my body. I ripped at it furiously. He’s fine, he’s fine, he’s fi… Finally, his hand moved. I sat back, shaking slightly, releasing a crushing breath.

  “Find the others, he is fine!” I called to David.

  I cleared my throat, shook that bad feeling off and stood, leaning over him.

  “Hey, old man!” All that was needed was one smack on the cheek to get him going again.

  “Damn, Son, that wasn’t much of a warning, now was it?” he grumbled.

  He pulled his fingers through his crusty hair.

  I smiled. He was fine. “Get your ass up, Dad, we have to find them.”

  He stood, wiping blood, sweat and debris from his leather jacket. He cursed. “Look at this!” He pulled a piece of torn leather from his jacket, and then tried to flap back the ripped pocket. “I had waited a very long time to wear this again,” he grumbled, scowling.

  “Dad, we need to get everyone out of here.”

  His silence confirmed he was already on it.

  “Anaya!” David shouted.

  “Rion?” Maya called. “Get up.”

  “Tatos!” I shouted, as he came out of the shadows limping.

  “I am going to kill whoever is responsible for this headache,” he growled.

  Feet moving through dust, and the shuffling of shoes on dirt echoed throughout the massive hall. Heavy breathing and moaning from the others as they came to made it almost impossible to focus on locating any other life forms nearby. I remembered something strange happening earlier between me and Ava’s look alike – just like before, in the field when we were training. I was lost in her. If she had siren magic working on me, I’d find her anywhere. Their magic would turn against them. I tried again, moving swiftly over huge, stone pieces, broken statues, and beautiful tapestry littering my way over to the last position I had seen her. I suddenly went cold. Minutes crawled by before I realized she was nowhere to be found, neither were any of the queens. Farrow was missing, too. My spell worked, released into the weapon that was Ava, the one thing designed to take them out had broken their spell on all of us, for a moment at least.

  “Where are they?” Maya called.

  “This is getting old,” I groaned.

  “I am tired of always having to find your girlfriend,” Dave chirped in.

  “Tell me something I don’t know!” I shot back.

  “Really? You guys are bickering – now?” Anaya shouted, she was trying to locate a door or window for us to get out of the hall, running her hands over the walls, feeling for air along the seams of the room.

  “It’s no use!” Tatos shouted from the other end of the room, limping along the furthest wall, hands seeking any sign of a switch or lock.

  “Nothing is going to help us, because the only way in, or out, of this place has been concealed.”

  Dad was trying locating spells but I stopped him, his wounds would not heal if he used more of himself to conjure up enchantments.

  “I have an idea,” Maya whispered, pulling her blade from her boot. Her wounds perfectly healed already. Pity she couldn’t use it on the others anymore.

  “No!” Father shouted.

  “It’s the only way,” Maya said, and started cutting into her hand.

  The blood flowed instantly. I looked the other way, because I knew the effect Ava’s blood had on me – like kryptonite, it made me violently ill, which I’d assumed was due to the Shadowing disease. Something caught my eye, a faint shimmer in the dust, right in the crease of a step. Bending down, I blew on the dirt. Hope filled upon finding her pendant. She was leaving me clues, this time she wanted me to find her.

  Maya lifted her hand to a nearby pillar, about to wipe her blood into one of the cracks, summoning the queens’ return.

  “Stop her!” I stood, spinning.

  Rion grabbed her hand to his chest, and soaked up her blood with his shirt.

  “Dad!” I shouted to him, abruptly feeling a pull in my mind, then pushing – seeking a way in.

  For a second, I felt dizzy.

  “Son.” Dad took my face in his hands, my eyes burned, and I lost my sight for just moment.

  He released me. “Blood magic.”

  “Yes,” said Anaya. “He has been siren called by her blood.”

  “Son, think. When did you touch her blood?”

  “Dad, please,” I blew out. “I would have been careful about that!” I felt strangely offended. Then remembered the incident on the training field, when the flames carved into her. I had touched her wound…

  Tatos moaned beside me. “Is that what has been happening here?” He shook his head. “And now she’s your siren, too? Could this get any more disturbing?”

  Rion let Maya go, suddenly straightening his pants around the waist and flicking his hair nervously.

  “Don’t feel guilty,” Dad told me. “Being affected by the siren call doesn’t mean you like the queens, and although you feel a sense of longing, fascination even – it’s all a trick.”

  “Why were you not affected?” Anaya asked him.

  Dave turned to Anaya. “The question is, how were you affected?”

  “Gender plays no role here,” Dad said, ripping the torn leather flap from his jacket in anger.

  It seemed broken bloods, and those related to the Shadowing kind, had some sort of restraint against the siren song. I guess in my case, I had touched her blood. Or perhaps another curse of being the Ignited one. I stared at Maya, remembering her blood had saved Ava from the blood magic once. It explained why Ava’s clone was so much different, she had purely been cloned by Ava’s stem cells.

  I sighed. “Anaya, I’m sorry to have to ask you this, but we need the healing elixir for Dad, or none of us will make it out of here.”

  She nodded, reaching for it in her brown, leather utility bag, fully aware that using magic would put us all at risk. The more power we used, the more it fed the queens.

  “Hello?” David yelled. “What is going on here?”

  He was ignored.

  “Wait,” Dad said, as Anaya handed him the vile.

  “We need to heal everyone who’s been affected by siren magic, or you’ll all be ill.”

  “We need to find a garden,” Anaya said.

  “What makes you so sure there would be a garden in this place? I mean, have you seen this place?” Maya queried, and said jokingly, “It’s a stink hole.”

  It was true, the place reeked of death and decay; stale and rotten.

  “Which brings us right back to, how the hell do we get out of here?” David crossed his arms, scrutinizing Tatos and Rion while they started swaying on their feet.

  I scanned the darkness above for any sign of solid density, which would indicate the castle’s roof.

  “I might have an idea.” Anaya stood, wiping dirt from her arms as she scraped past a pillar. She drew a canister of water, but as the lid twisted open, it all came rushing out, spilling all over her. It would seem that during the battle the canister had brok
en. She openly moaned at the disaster.

  “I told you not to wear white!” Maya snapped at Anaya. Her white shirt almost transparent from the spilled water.

  “Oh, and here I thought it looked good on me.”

  “No, you didn’t!” Dave punched me.

  I rubbed my arm. “What?”

  He looked at me through thick, black eyelashes, his blue eyes squinting, lips pursed.

  “I have not!” I said, hastily denying I ever looked at Anaya in the way he did.

  “Guys please! I’m right here and eew, you forget I can pick up on strong imagery?”

  “What?” Dave said, suddenly crimson cheeked.

  “You and I will talk later,” she said, raising her eyebrow at him.

  “You’re going to let us in on your idea, or what?” I said quickly.

  “You see this?” Anaya pulled Maya’s arm, exposing the slight glint in the gems on the silver gauntlet.

  “One thing, though...” She frowned, clearly thinking about something. “I needed that water.”

  We all looked around, the fountain stood parched and by the looks of it – it had been that way for years.

  I sighed, meeting Dad’s eyes. “Not a problem.”

  “Watch this,” I said, smirking and indicating to Dad with my head.

  Dad groaned, knowing the spell was going to leave him vulnerable afterward.

  “It is the only way we can all get out of here before the siren magic starts to pull you guys apart.”

  “What?” Dave yelled.

  Rion rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly realizing he had been affected more than he would have liked.

  “If you have fallen prey to the siren song, being away from it for too long will pull you apart.” Dad said, grimly. “Perhaps if we get you far away enough, we can find a cure before it gets too strong.” Dad clapped his hands together, took a deep breath, and rubbed them vigorously up and down.

  “You have enough power?” Anaya asked, ineptly.

  “We have no choice,” he said, closing his eyes.

  “What is he doing?” Maya asked.

  “Oh, I love this trick!” Dave folded his arms, and prepared to watch the show.

  “Dad discovered this one when we got stuck in a cave after a rock slide.”

  “You mean the one where you guys were stuck for days?” she teased.

  “Yeah.” Dave nodded, self-satisfied.

  “It took us forever to figure a way out, without bringing the entire side of the mountain down on the village. By then we had run out of water.”

  Anaya just shook her head.

  With his eyes closed, Dad said, “Where there are cold and hot currents running together, there are thunderstorms.”

  “No way!” Maya said. “You’ve never showed me that one before.”

  “And where there is thunder…”

  “There is rain,” Maya finished on a smile.

  “Brace yourself, and you’ll see why,” I said, gritting my teeth and pushing Tatos and Rion behind a pillar.

  “First comes the lightning, and plenty of it!” I shouted over the deep rumble building up in the air.

  “I thought you said no magic!” Mays screamed.

  “Elemental is basic magic,” Anaya answered. “The queens have no reason to feel threatened by it.”

  “Don’t move!” Dad shouted over the snapping and popping from the blast of lightning charging the sky.

  “This should take care of the negative flow in here!” Dad laughed.

  The air around us started to move, wind came out of nowhere. Maya pushed herself against Rion, forcing him against the white pillar and herself. Dave and I grabbed on to a nearby statue, and Anaya took cover behind us.

  “I hate this spell already!” she screamed over the thunder that came after each snap of lightning.

  “Won’t it hit us?” Maya yelled.

  “Already taken care of!” Anaya shouted.

  The sound was carried through the great hall, shaking the solid walls with a loud rumble. Suddenly, there was a flash right beside me.

  “Come on, Dad, we’re trying to save these people, not kill them!” I yelled. My ears were ringing so loud, I couldn’t hear a damn thing.

  I saw Dad’s mouth move. A-N-A-Y-A. She held her hand out. The bracelet she’d taken from Maya held high above her head as large drops fell. Rain washed over us for at least a minute before Dad fell down, exhausted. Dave and I ran to him, and pulled him up. Tatos grunted as the pain on his injured ribs stabbed at his resolve.

  “You need to rest,” I told him.

  He nodded in confirmation. Strange, he almost never agreed.

  “There is a downside to elemental magic. When you borrow from it, it will take back from you.”

  “The balance, I get it,” Maya mumbled.

  “You must never forget that.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not like you now, am I?” she said, sounding almost sad about it.

  Anaya pulled her wet hair from her face. “Okay, it’s full.” She lifted the bracelet once again.

  “It’s never worked before, why do you think it’s going to work now?” Maya echoed my concern.

  “Because…” Anaya smiled. “It’s the right time. But first, we have to find the concealed door.” She started to move along the wall, balancing the bracelet perfectly so as not to spill a drop of water.

  “Finally, we can get out of here, this place is dragging me down,” Dave mumbled.

  Anaya swirled the bracelet around. The power of the ancient had awoken with the purity of the water, the stone’s emerald took on an electric blue. “There has to be a seal somewhere. The ancients were all linked by a mark they used as a key from world to world.”

  “Like the mirrors?” Maya asked.

  Dad groaned behind me, “I’m getting too darn old for this.”

  “You’re only as old as you pretend to be,” I said, grinning.

  “Being of broken blood has consequences, Son.” He slapped my shoulder. His eyes dull and tired.

  I had nothing to say to that. It was true, he was only half a warlock, growing tired and draining quickly.

  “What exactly are we looking for here?” Dave asked, his hands fumbling with the walls. Tatos and Rion were shivering, the withdrawals of the siren magic getting stronger.

  “A mark, you idiot!” Maya shouted to Dave.

  He was able to hold a little more resistance to the magic as he was designed to be a little bit stronger in his genetic makeup.

  “What’s up with you?” he asked.

  “Everything,” she grunted, clearly angry that Rion had been so badly affected.

  “Look for a symbol, a mark you’ve seen before. You’ve been to the ancient ruins, so you should have an idea of the script they used,” Anaya said.

  “Yes, as a follower of the prophecy, it is required,” he moaned.

  “Then why are you asking questions?”

  “How are we to find anything in the state of this place? I can’t even see the floor!” Dave groaned.

  “Stop all your moaning and groaning, and think!” I told him.

  Anaya narrowed down the spots for him. “Look for patterns in corners, or on the floor beside a wall that joins with another.”

  Anaya was now searching near the ruins of what had been thrones.

  Besides the moaning that came from Tatos, we were met with silence as we set out to find a needle in a haystack.

  “I think I found something!” Maya called.

  Anaya rushed over. “Yes, you have!”

  “What does it look like?” I asked, curious. I pulled a torch from my harness, and held it closer to where the two girls were hunched over. I already knew what the ancient seal looked like. A tree, the tree of life. Like the one inside of Ava’s pendant, a symbol found in many cultures across all races and time.

  “How does this even work?” Dave asked.

  “All the crystal key did was act as a purifier for the water, enchanting its power,” Anaya expl
ained.

  “What Earth priests used to call holy water, or the fountain of youth,” Dad added, slowly taking a seat on the steps. “As I am a warlock, I have blessing powers over such things.”

  “What? It exists?” Dave asked.

  “Yes, not just in Earth movies,” Anaya replied.

  I gave Dad the once over. I was increasingly growing concerned over his weakened state.

  “So, when I pour the elements into the seal, it will open whatever is hidden to us,” Anaya was explaining to Maya.

  “Why can the Shadowing use it?” Maya asked.

  “They cannot,” Anaya confirmed.

  “Then how did they get out of here?” Maya wanted to know.

  “I’ve seen their kind before,” Dad piped up from the stairs. “They don’t need doors, or windows.”

  Rion was leaning with his back on a pillar, and I watched his head slump forward. Black hair covered his entire face. It was evident by the way Tatos was holding himself steady that they were getting weaker.

  “Could we just move along?” I was desperate to get everyone out of there.

  Anaya shook her head. “Please bring the torch closer, and I need a piece of stone, specifically the white stone from the throne.”

  Anaya poured the water from the bracelet into one side of the seal, scraped dust from the stone using the crystal key, and sprinkled it over the seal. Lastly, she held the flame to the seal. We watched as water, air and sand took on a light, blue shimmer, twirling until it became a glowing, blue orb and settled on the seal like liquid fire. Closing her eyes, she released a slow steady breath.

  “The breath of a Pure,” Dad whispered in awe, as he had never seen the magic work before. Now we knew for sure the time of the Prophecy was at hand. Beside us, as if it had been there all the time, a wall was suddenly gone and an empty, dark hallway stared back. Dave and I held Dad between us, making our way to the passage, while Maya and Anaya led the two sickly warriors out of the room.

  “Quickly, the door only remains open as long as the seal is burning.” Anaya pushed Tatos through, her other hand steady over the subsiding blue orb.

  Dad couldn’t have moved any slower, even if I’d asked him to. But we got out of there and deftly navigated through small hallways, connecting the four wings of the castle. We would have to find the dungeons and dig our way out. There was no way anymore magic would come out of my withered, exhausted father.