Risen (The Firebird Trilogy Book 2)

by Stephanie Harbon

  Adrian nodded sharply and we made our way outside. Kieran halted at the front door and Adrian turned to his brother. “Live free.” He said.

  “Die young,” Kieran finished. “Don’t forget to kick some ass for me.”

  Embracing Kieran quickly, Adrian then stepped back. His expression changed suddenly, his eyes wide, and he told me he’d be right back; he’d forgotten his blade. Without giving me chance to protest he disappeared.

  The instant Adrian was gone Kieran turned to me with a surprising urgency. “Don’t go Ruby. Not when I can’t be there to protect you.”

  I didn’t look at him, but said coldly, “I don’t need you to protect me.”

  I could hear the half-smile in his voice, “No, maybe not. But if you don’t need me to protect you then you’ll definitely need me to heal you.”

  I turned away irritably and started walking in some random direction, but he caught my wrist, sending electrical signals straight up my arm. I hated that his touch did that to me. It made me even angrier. I couldn’t look at him.

  “If Adrian wasn’t going you’d be tied to your bed right now.” His said quietly, releasing my wrist as I yanked myself free. “I want to give you something,” he told me, catching my hand again and preventing my escape.

  “I don’t want anything from you,” I hissed.

  He put something in my hand anyway, I looked down at it. It was his gold chain. My fingers unconsciously closed over the familiar marks, so similar to the ones on my mother’s chain. It was still warm.

  “Bring it home for me Ruby,” I heard him utter with an unanticipated tenderness.

  I finally allowed myself to look at him. He was pale but had a stern expression. I glanced away and said quietly, “Do you always dream about me like that?”

  From the corner of my eye I noticed him flinch, but he answered honestly. “Not always, but a lot of the time yes. Sometimes I dream about Adrian, or even the people I’ve killed.” His voice lowered. “Yes,” he mumbled, “I dream of them a lot.”

  I think that was the first time he’d ever said anything about his dreams to me. He usually avoided the subject of his insomnia like the plague.

  Adrian returned then and suggested we get going as soon as possible; despite the fact I’d been waiting for him. Adrian’s face was stricken and uneasy, not that I was really paying attention. I nodded an agreement and turned away from Kieran, still unable to look at him, but I kept his special golden chain in my hand.

  Kieran said nothing as we walked away.

  We made our way over to the Tower in total silence. Adrian drill marched me on a faster route than I’d previously taken. It was mere minutes before we arrived and were making our way upstairs to the meeting room. Already inside were at least half a dozen people, all of Fire of course -just to make my protector stand out even more- and immediately Blaze slivered closer. I secured the chain around my neck.

  “Look who’s here,” Blaze said, once again giving me that sickening lascivious look with those hot bloody eyes. “What are you doing here?” he snarled at Adrian.

  “He’s here to help me.” I stated, glaring hatefully at Blaze. “If you have a problem with it then you can keep it to yourself. I’ve already told Adrian what we’re doing here so there’s no point in sending him away. He already knows.”

  Blaze’s eyes narrowed dramatically, “You stupid girl, how dare you bring him.”

  “Do you want me to come or not?” I demanded, “Because if you do then I bring Adrian. End of story. I don’t care what the Elder says.”

  “Whatever,” said Colette, Blaze’s hateful colleague who’d once tried to kill me. “We need her. Just don’t mention it to the Elder; we don’t need any more trouble.”

  “Where exactly are we going?” I asked.

  “Why, to Lynk’s little hideout in the mountain of course,” Blaze smiled.

  I stared at him in astonishment, “I thought we were supposed to be capturing his supplier? Is he going to be at the mountain?” I really did not want to go back to that horrid pit of rock, with all those monsters and the stench of dirt and blood.

  “We are, and yes,” Blaze agreed. “However you have a special job. You’re going to go into Lynk’s office and get the Eternal Light back.”

  “I thought I was a translator!” I protested.

  Blaze laughed, “You can do that later. Not that we need you. Most of us speak English now anyway.”

  I stared at him in confusion, “Why?”

  He shrugged, “It’s the most common spoken language in the rest of the world. It comes in handy.”

  Before I could ask anything else Adrian wondered, “What about getting inside? There is no way you can get in the front entrance. And I suspect they’ve barricaded the other entrance by now.”

  “We’ve found another entrance on the other side of the mountain. So far we don’t believe Lynk or the half breeds know of its existence.” Colette explained. “We’d like you, Ruby, to use your voice to help get us in.”

  “I’m not sure it’ll work on the half breeds,” I frowned speculatively.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” said Blaze. “Guards, bring in Tuka.”

  After a moment the door opened and in came four guards; each holding a massive chain that imprisoned a fighting, snarling half breed. Shocked, my mouth gaping open, I turned back to the others.

  “Why is there a Daemon in the Tower?” I demanded. My face was a mask as I tried not to show how incredibly uncomfortable I felt being so close to a vicious, enraged monster stolen from my Father.

  “They’ve been coming into the city every day for the past week now, just a couple at a time. Usually they run off before we get close, but we managed to catch this one,” another man enlightened me. “You can’t get a comprehensible word out of it though. It just spits and hisses if we try and communicate with it.”

  I stared at the creature with its strange pointed skull and black bat-like wings. It was still struggling, and was screeching a piercing high-pitched scream that hurt my ears. I lifted my voice to a note that promoted calmness and directed it towards the half breed. Next I started whispering ancient words of peace and stillness. At first the Daemon resisted, but then it looked intrigued and listened to my soothing voice. I stared straight into its slit eyes and watched as they grew distant. Eventually its entire body sagged and the four guards stared at it with surprise.

  “Take it out,” muttered Colette.

  When they closed the door I stilled, listening as the creature awoke from its peaceful state; hissing and struggling again. The noises soon diminished; presumably as it was hauled away to be incarcerated in the upstairs cells.

  “Well,” I said, more to myself than anyone else, “I guess I can influence them. Why do you think they’ve been coming into the city?”

  “They’ve been trying to get into the Fire Palace,” said Colette coldly. “We don’t know why.”

  Horrified astonishment overwhelmed my senses and panic consumed my voice as I demanded, “What?! Why did no one tell me?”

  The Palace was mine in two days. I deemed it quite important to know if monsters were trying to break into it.

  “Lynk must have left something behind,” Colette said pointedly.

  I didn’t like the sound of that.

  “Wait,” I said, realising something. “If we’re going to those caves we should have left two days ago. It’s at least a two day journey, and that’s without a break. We’ll never make it. And how do you even know the supplier is going to be there?”

  “He arrives at the same time every month,” Blaze said. “And as for getting there we are not flying; that would take far too long. We are driving.”

  I stared at his sleazy face incomprehensively, “Driving?”

  He sighed agitatedly, “Look we’re all here. Let’s just get going.”

  They didn’t give me much of a chance to respond as they had already started moving. I glanced at Adrian, whose expression mirrored my bewilderment
, but then he shrugged and started to follow Blaze. I hurried after him, not trusting anyone who worked with that disgusting creep.

  The others commenced hushed conversations as we trailed after them, however even if I strained my ears I couldn’t quite catch what they murmured. Plus they were walking so fast it took all my energy just to keep up with their long purposeful strides.

  We headed out of the gardens, toward the rougher end of Forenna, up the back streets I’d once been guided through by Jayson. Finally we came to what looked like an old abandoned warehouse. As we went inside the door hinges squealed and it soon became apparent that the ceiling had previously collapsed. Rock fragments we scattered intermittently across the room and there were puddles of water on the floor where the snow had filtered in and melted. Dust thickly coated every broken piece of furniture inside and small rodents and birds made nests in the skeletal framework.

  We were taken through a couple of doors with rusting metal handles and down some stairs which I presumed must have once led to a cellar. As we came to the bottom of the steps I noticed a green door with a large brass lock keeping it permanently off limits. Blaze walked over to the lock and uttered something under his breath. In a fiery flash symbols appeared across the metal and the lock clicked and slid open.

  We stepped through the door and I glanced around in surprise. What I saw in that room, which was treble the size of the building on the surface, was an array of cars, motorbikes, weapons and military devices. Apparently they also had a secret hoard from my world; pretty much identical to Lynks.

  “We intercepted a few transactions between Lynk and his supplier,” Blaze told me with a toothy smile and crazy eyes. “These items have been collected over the past few months and since then we have learnt to use most of them. Ruby, you can come with me in the car at the front.”

  Oh yay, I couldn’t wait. “But there aren’t any roads?” I pointed out.

  “Not on the surface, no,” Collette interrupted. “However there is an old underground passage that cuts through the mountains. It was originally designed to make traveling to Ephizon easier; as in the depth of winter no Phoenix could fly in the mountain storms, so underground was safer. They stopped construction half way through, fortunately just fifteen miles from Lynk. The passage is small, but just large enough to fit a car through. It’s a straight line and so should take us around six hours to get there. We should be there by midday.”

  “Does anyone else know about all of this stuff?” I demanded.

  Blaze laughed, “Yeah right. If the Elders knew then they’d destroy it all. We aren’t stupid enough to let that happen. We know that this technology will come in handy, and we should learn as much about it as possible.”

  “However,” Collette snarled viciously. “If we think for even one minute that you might tell the Council; we will kill you. No questions asked.”

  I nodded, swallowing nervously as I knew she meant it.

  The whole idea of it was absolutely bewildering, but I felt myself shrug mentally and followed them anyway. I got into the front car with Adrian beside me. It was a small automatic convertible, fast by the looks of things, so there wasn’t much room. We didn’t complain. It beat flying all day.

  As the engine fired up and we shot forwards I immediately put my seatbelt on. To say I felt a tad anxious would have been a massive understatement; especially when I considered the fact that I was being driven by someone who had never officially passed their test and who had probably learnt to drive using trial and error. The concept didn’t warrant happy thoughts.

  However once we were in the long, dark tunnel I calmed slightly. After a few moments I realised it really was just a straight line, so Blaze would have to be a total moron to crash us, and this made me feel slightly less nervous about the superfluous speed at which we were traveling.

  After a few minutes I drifted off. I welcomed the sleep and let it take me.

  When I woke up I yawned and rubbed my eyes. I felt like I’d been asleep for a long time. I sat up, realising I’d been awkwardly sprawled across Adrian, who was looking down at me with a peculiar expression.

  “Nearly there now Ruby,” Blaze said from the front. Beside him Colette was looking in the mirror, you know, just in case her hair wasn’t perfect enough to be eaten by half breeds this afternoon. “That’s enough sleep.”

  After half an hour we came to an opening and slowed down, finally stopping. As everyone got out I stretched and glanced at Adrian, who was giving me a funny look.

  “What?” I asked defensively. “Cars make me feel sleepy.”

  “You shouldn’t let your guard drop around them,” he muttered disapprovingly.

  “You were here,” I pointed out.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “But I might not be next time.”

  There was a sudden knock on the car door that made me jump. As Blaze’s terrifying face appeared my heart flew nonsensically; my memory flashing back to his eyes as he pinned me in that alleyway all that time ago.

  “Come on,” Adrian said. “Let’s go. Your boyfriend’s getting impatient.”

  We had surfaced deep in the mountains, in what appeared to be another small cave. The midday winter sun struggled towards me, just touching my face, though most if it was blocked by the concealing rock walls. The others instructed us to Change. I did unwillingly, making Adrian stand in front of me so Blaze’s view was at least partially blocked.

  Once everyone was in bird form, all except Adrian, they took off into the air and into the wilderness. I told Adrian to get on my back and he did, and, despite a few nasty comments which we ignored, we flew after them.

  Adrian’s weight was barely even noticeable in this body and he didn’t slow me down as we took to the sky. We flew straight for thirty minutes at a fast speed. I didn’t recognise much, but I guessed we were on the opposite side of the mountain where I’d been previously captured. After landing we Changed back to human form and continued on foot through the forested environment. Me and Adrian were near the front and therefore were the first to see the cave entrance Colette pointed out.

  The entrance was the size of a small cardboard box. I’d only be able to squeeze through if I crawled on my stomach, using my nails as leverage.

  “Right,” Blaze started. “Ruby, you’ve got the voice. You go in first.”

  Grumbling angrily, thinking: It bloody would be me first wouldn’t it? I went down onto my knees, determined to look brave and fearless -while making damn sure Adrian was the next person behind me- and lowered myself onto my stomach; reluctantly starting to crawling into the hole.

  It was incredibly dark inside, but I could feel that the ceiling was higher almost immediately; so tall I could shuffle on my hands and knees. I quickly lit a dim light to help guide me. The tunnel continued for about five metres before opening up into a larger passage; where you could just about stand up.

  There were now several different directions I could go, and, unsure which path to take, I waited for the others to come through.

  “Where now?” I wondered as Blaze entered the passage. I resisted the urge to kick him in the face as he exited the hole.

  “Follow the marks.” He said, pointing at a circle that was scratched into the rock above a certain tunnel opening. I nodded then went into that tunnel.

  Following the tunnel I discovered that there were several more times I needed to search for a small circle carved into the rock. Eventually I came to a point where I was in a large open space where I could easily stand up. I couldn’t spot a symbol. Once again I waited for the others to come through.

  “Now what?” I asked Blaze quietly; trying not to glare too obviously.

  He waited for everyone to come through before he started whispering, “Right, you all know what you have to do. Split off when your exit comes. We’ll meet at the cars afterwards and contact me when you’re clear. Ruby, you stay with Colette; she’ll be doing the most dangerous work.”

  “Great.” I muttered, “Thanks.”

&n
bsp; “Let’s go. Good luck everyone.” Blaze said, then came and touched my ass in a soft disgusting caress, “Especially you, babe.”

  I slapped his hand away, glowering at him with a loud animalistic hiss. Then I followed Colette, Adrian silently beside me, deeper into the cave and towards my Father.

  The cave was exactly the way I remembered it; cold, humid and smelly. The moulding, asperous rock sweated a stench so strong it could be detected miles away. The air was so damp it clung to the goosebumps on my arms. In the blackness we cautiously travelled through the intricate tunnels, winding around the looming stalagmites and stalactites, careful not to look too deeply into the concealing cracks in the walls; in case any nasty secrets lurked within.

  The others followed behind me and Collette, but the further we went into the cave the more people drifted off down opposing rock passages. I trailed after Colette, habitually glancing over at my dark protector to make sure he was still by my side, and eventually we were the only people remaining. It was obvious when we finally came to the main cave, as I saw guards immediately. We crouched down low behind the wall.

  “Go on then,” said Colette. I supposed she was trying to sound encouraging but it aired more as an intense command. “Do your thing.”

  “You know,” I snapped icily. “I didn’t agree to this.”

  “Then agree now,” she replied, shoving me slightly.

  I swallowed, slowly making myself rise. Half of Chyun’ju depended on having the initial confidence to stand up and open your lungs and release your voice to whoever you’re attempting to influence. I stood up nervously, walking out into plain view. Lifting my voice into that specific tone, I locked eyes with each guard as their expressions transformed to astonishment.

  “You’ll let us through and forget we were here.” I said, watching as their faces went blank and they moved to the side. I could feel my influence working on their susceptible minds, the fiery energy burning down my spine with a fierce intensity; I knew I’d created a bond only I could break.

  Concentrating on keeping a low note continuously ringing from my throat, to keep the guards from awakening from their harmless trance, I gestured for Adrian and Colette to walk forwards. We quickly left the guards and continued through the caves. Whenever we ran into guards I did the same thing, but this was a frequent occurrence and it soon became apparent that Colette didn’t know where she was going. However, when I confronted her about it she just waved me off with a malicious glare.