“Are you ready?”
He smiled and nodded. “I have to be.”
Tylo had run up the narrow path and presented Miri with Mistress Avia’s lantern. “We both wish you luck.” He muttered before running back to join her on solid ground.
Miri adjusted the door of the lantern. She turned the light into a more focused beam and sent it down the passage. The light did not piece the entire length of the hallway, and Miri tried to swallow her terror as Ralis did the same. He reached out and took Miri’s free hand in his. Her fear was strong enough that she did not feel the usual nervousness that such closeness would bring. Together they took a step forward and entered the Shrine of Wind.
Chapter Thirty Five
Ralis
Miri held the lantern high above her head, in a desperate attempt to banish the darkness. Together they walked deeper inside of the still damp interior of the Shrine. The path sloped downward, and Ralis got the distinct impression that the structure was much larger than it first appeared. They were only a few steps inside when Ralis felt laughter inside of his mind, broken and pained but laughter, nonetheless. Startled, he looked around, yet he could not see a source.
“Did you hear that?” He asked Miri.
“Hear what?” She responded quietly.
Ralis shook his head in an attempt to dismiss the uncanny feeling. As they continued forward, both of them were careful of where their feet stepped, for fear that this Shrine would be trapped like the last. Their path descended downward and Ralis shuddered as he realized that if the structure started to sink, they would have to fight their way up past rivers of swamp water. The air was thick with a damp cold as they descended deeper, but then a fresh breeze blew past them and the laughter Ralis had heard in his mind was all around him.
“Is that… the Hero of Legend?” Miri whispered.
Her lantern light had flickered in the gust of wind, but the shutters had protected the small flame from extinguishing.
The long hall finally ended and together they stepped into a square room with similar halls ending on all sides of it. Everything was still dripping with sludge and water which drained through holes in the floor. In the center of the room, laughing on his hands and knees, half submerged in the swamp water, was a male Elf. His long blond hair had clumped together, thick with mud, and his once elaborate Elven outfit was soaked and caked with swamp water. He looked up as they entered and smiled.
“Arris?” He stood on shaky feet and pressed his hands into the sides of his head. “It did not work, I am alive. How long has it been my love? Weeks, years, decades? A blessing in disguise, we can be together again.” He lowered his hands and stepped forward, but his smile faded as he saw Miri’s face clearer. “No not Arris… not a blessing… a curse…”
Miri stepped nervously towards the living legend. “My name is Miri Cavadash… I… I am a descendant of Arris.”
“What? Descendant?” The Elf stepped back, and a roar of wind began to swirl around his frame. “How long has it been?”
The wind pulled at Ralis’s wings and he looked up. The room was a massive shaft with dark openings above. He pulled his wings in close and looked upon the Elf as Mistress Avia’s words echoed in his mind. His hands shook at what he had been instructed to do.
“It has been over two hundred years.” Miri answered.
“Two hundred years!” He roared and a blast of wind burst from him. It knocked both Miri and Ralis into the remaining mud. “Two hundred years of breathing mud and slime, of drowning in darkness, alone. Why am I not dead!”
Ralis stood and helped Miri to her feet. Mud dripped from his wings and he flapped them briefly to clear the worst of it off him.
“I see.” The ancient Hero’s voice was suddenly cold, and the wind culminated around him again. “The Darkness has returned to Madaria, the Chaos Gate has reopened. I understand now child, thank you for awakening me.”
Ralis and Miri both turned to face the ancient Hero again. The wind spiraled fiercely around his body and blew away the muck from his clothes and skin. His long blond hair whipped behind him and he glared at Ralis.
“And you have brought me my first Demon to kill. I shall delight in spilling its blood upon my prison floor.” He then gave Miri a crazed look. “You need not concern yourself with waking the others, I shall take that responsibility from you.” Then he looked at his hands, and that broken laughter echoed through the chamber again. “With this power, we are immortal! We are as gods! We can reshape the world in our vision!” He looked back up and the wind became so strong around him that he lifted into the air. “Bow down to your God, Jaeden Melroe, and behold my power as I slay this monster. May it be the first of many.”
Miri gasped and positioned herself in front of Ralis. “No! He is my friend!”
The Hero sneered. “You have been deceived, child! Demons serve only the Darkness. How dare you trick this pure maiden! I see now that you forced her to lead you to me. Did you think it would be easy to steal my power for your dark mistress? Think again!”
A gust of wind erupted from Jaeden and Miri was knocked away from Ralis to land hard in the mud. He then drew a twisted Elven dagger from his side and smiled wickedly at Ralis with the dagger raised. Ralis took a nervous step back. In the few seconds he had to think, he searched the room for something to help him. He lamented that all of Browen’s lessons, for as valuable as they were, were useless now without a weapon of some kind. The only thing of use that he had was possibly the lute he had accidentally stolen from the Carnival of Dreams.
The crazed Elf then lunged at him, dagger first and a last-minute thought crossed Ralis’s mind. His voice had driven away the guardians in the water, maybe it would work on the Hero of Legend. He instinctively brought his hands up against the dagger as he sang a long and low discordant tone that rumbled from deep within him. He could feel the power of the note flow through him. It was like the opposite of his healing song and he shuddered to think such a sound came from him.
As the note left his lips Jaeden recoiled and brought his hands to his head at the sound. “What is that cursed melody!” He cried, then turned his bloodlust back to Ralis with even more fury.
It had been enough of a distraction however for Miri to notch an arrow into her bow. And as Jaeden’s dagger rose again, an arrow thudded into his shoulder and the blade fell into the mud below. He cried out and turned his gaze to Miri and spat at her.
“What is this betrayal? Have my people fallen so far that they would side with darkness!” He cried. “Then I shall kill you both.”
The wind coiled viciously around the Hero of Legend. It pulled wildly against Ralis’s wings and nearly knocked him off balance. He managed to keep his footing as he watched Miri fired another arrow, which was ineffectually tossed aside by the gale forces which surrounded Jaeden.
“Ralis!” Miri cried over the winds. “Remember what Mistress Avia said!”
Ralis nodded, but he had no idea how to do what needed to be done. That, and despite his and Miri’s lives were threatened, he still felt nauseous about ending another’s life. A blast of wind crashed into Miri and tossed her hard against the stone wall of the chamber. She screamed at the impact and fell hard into the mud below. Ralis cried out to her and gasped in relief as he saw her weakly stand. She hadn’t been knocked unconscious, but Ralis doubted that she, or even he, would be able to take too many attacks like that.
With Jaeden’s attention focused on Miri, Ralis dove for the place in the swamp water where the dagger had fallen. On his knees he searched with his hands through the thick globs of mud and could feel the cold stones below.
Miri cried out again and pulled Ralis’s attention from his work. He watched in horror as Jaden brought Miri up into the air with his wind with a maniacal cackle.
“I pray that the God of Light finds your soul child.” He said before h
e slammed her hard into the mud covered stone floor.
“Miri!” Ralis cried out to her and something cut against his hand in the mud.
With a hiss Ralis instinctually withdrew his hand then realized it was the dagger. He dove his hand back into the mud, just as Jaeden turned his attention to him. Ralis’s fingers wrapped around the sharp blade and cut open his palm as he pulled it from the slime. The blade free he took it in his left hand and looked up at his attacker with a pained frown.
The Hero of Legend laughed at the sight of his own dagger turned against him. With a wave of his hand Ralis was knocked against the stone wall with a loud crunch. His head briefly fell under the mud, as he landed on the floor and he lifted himself up with a gasp. He then flexed his wings carefully, neither had been broken but he would certainly be bruised if they managed to get out alive. Broken wood floated in the water next to him and Ralis sighed as another lute had been smashed, thankfully it had saved his wings.
Something pulled Ralis up from the mud by his hair and Ralis cried out at the pain. He was then face to face with Jaeden, the madness in his eyes even more evident up close. With his other hand the Hero of Legend wrestled the blade from Ralis’s grasp. Not willing to give up his only weapon, Ralis fought with all of his strength and proved stronger as the blade was instead knocked back into the mud.
Jaeden snarled into Ralis’s face and instead wrapped his fingers around Ralis’s throat. His grip tight, he began to squeeze. Ralis immediately felt himself panic and brought his hands up to try and pull free. Wind blasted around him and pulled at his wings and tail. As the cyclone of air intensified, the pair were lifted from the ground. Ralis choked as the only thing holding him up was the hand around his throat, he could already feel his lungs scream in need of air.
“Does your dark Goddess promise you a life after death? Or does she leave your souls to drift in eternity?” Jaeden asked with a gleeful twist to his smile. “I suppose you’ll find out soon enough.”
Ralis struggled against the hand around his throat, but any strength advantage he had was useless in the air. He felt himself grow weaker as he kicked and clawed desperately. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Miri below. She struggled to stand with shaky limbs as she watched from below. Even if she had the strength to shoot another arrow, Ralis realized it would be knocked aside by the roaring winds that kept them in the air.
He felt dizzy and started to see spots as the hand remained firmly around his throat. The Hero of Legend laughed as he watched Ralis die. Ralis’s right hand was still clamped as firmly as he could on Jaeden’s arm when a desperate plan came to mind. He reached with his left hand and grabbed Miri’s arrow that was still lodged in his attacker’s shoulder. It made a sickening sound as he pulled it free with all that remained of his strength.
Jaeden screamed in pain and blood gushed from the ragged wound. Ralis could feel that he was seconds from passing out and in a final desperate action plunged the arrow into his attacker’s throat. Blood sprayed on Ralis’s face as he pulled the arrow out and plunged it in again but deeper the second time. If drowning in mud had not been enough to kill the aged Hero, he doubted that the lethal looking wound would be effective for long.
The wind faltered and the pair fell with a thud into the mud covered stones below. The hand around Ralis’s throat loosened but he still wasn’t free. He reached with his right hand to pull the claw like fingers from his bruised throat but as he pulled, he felt something else tug at his mind. He could feel the power of the Wind inside of Jaeden, vulnerable in the Hero’s weakened state. Ralis reached out to the power and attempted to pull it into him, as Ezra had described with her own power.
Jaeden’s eyes bulged in panic as he realized what Ralis was doing and he sputtered in an attempt to speak. Ralis closed his eyes, he felt sick at the sight of the dying man, and instead focused on the power beneath his fingers. He attempted to draw it in with his mind, to lure it into a new host as the old one died. The Wind was hesitant at first but then he could feel it pull into him through his right hand. He could hear the gurgle of blood as Jaeden attempted to scream, and Ralis tried his best to ignore it.
The power of Wind was strong, overwhelmingly so, as it committed to bonding with him and blasted through his mind. Ralis cried out as the power attempted to wrestle mental control from him. He felt like he was being torn apart by a gust of wild wind and it took everything he had left to stand against it.
The tightness that had been around his throat fell away but Ralis could think of nothing other than the battle for his mind. He screamed in agony of the contest and brought his hands to his head. The Wind would not be easily tamed.
Chapter Thirty Six
Miri
Pain like she had never felt before pulsed through Miri’s body. She cradled a broken arm, as she struggled to stand and felt so dizzy that she nearly fell back into the mud. She looked up as Ralis and the Hero of Legend fell to the floor at the center of the room. Her arrow had been lodged into Jaeden’s throat and Ralis’s face was covered in blood as he struggled to pull Jaeden’s hand from his throat. Wind roared around the pair, so violently that Miri dared not step any closer, lest she be knocked back again. She wanted to help but also knew that this was Ralis’s trail to face, not hers.
All she could do was watch as she realized that Ralis had not been struggling to remove the hand around his throat but something else. Light purple coils of power twisted on the skin of his right arm. They curled from his fingertips and up towards his shoulder, in an intricate pattern like gusts of wind. As the power of Wind was pulled into Ralis, the aged Hero’s body began to decay and die, as if the years of unnatural life had suddenly caught up to him.
Then it was done. The Hero of Legend was dust that floated on the mud and Ralis screamed as he pressed his palms into the sides of his head. The Wind still roared around him. It whipped up mud and water and tugged violently at his clothes, hair, wings and tail.
Her broken arm still pulled close to her body Miri watched helplessly from the sideline, then she felt the structure shudder beneath her. She gasped as the thick mud started to rise higher up her legs and blocks of rock began to crumble from above. The Shrine of Flame had collapsed after Ezra took her power, and Miri dreaded that this temple was about to do the same.
Adrenalin kicked through her system and she dared to crawl towards Ralis. She kept her body low in the mud to avoid the force of the winds, but the gusts around Ralis were so strong that she struggled to get close. Mud, dust and blood was whipped around and pelted her with almost deadly force. When she was finally close enough, she grabbed Ralis’s arm and pulled to no avail. The mud level had risen at a startling rate and she pulled again with all of her strength. She needed to get them out of there somehow. It would have been a challenging task even without the broken arm.
She pulled a third time and knocked both herself and Ralis into the deep mud. Miri pulled her head up with a gasp and tried to brush the mud from her eyes. Ralis also pulled up with a gasp then cried out again as the power of the wind continued to attack his mind. The temporary break in focus had dispelled the winds around them however and Miri stood. She looped her one good arm as best she could around Ralis’s chest and started to drag him towards the exit. More mud and slime water began to pour from the ceiling up above and at her full height the mud was already at Miri’s waist.
A column of sludge crashed down on Miri’s head and nearly knocked her to the floor. Through gritted teeth she managed to drag them into the hall and now had to climb up the sloped shaft back up to the Shrine’s entrance. Mud and swamp water was pouring down the hall and confirmed Miri’s fear that the Shrine was sinking.
Ralis twitched in agony as she dragged him up through the river of mud and Miri’s whole body strained against the effort. She could not help it as tears mixed with the mud on her cheeks at the impossibility of the task at hand. She was not strong enough to lif
t Ralis, even without the broken arm, and to drag him against the current of mud was too slow to reach the entrance in time. Regardless of her doubts she continued to tow Ralis up the hall.
Below, the entrance to the main room was completely submerged and the rising level of mud moved quicker than she could. The pain from her bruises and broken arm felt doubled as her muscles screamed in protest. Her head spun and she feared that she would pass out from the strain.
Inch by painful inch she continued up the hall and eventually could see the entrance above, it was partially submerged. The river of swamp water had become almost too thick for her to continue to fight. She couldn’t let it end, not like this, and pushed herself a little further.
A large wave of sludge flowed down and nearly knocked Miri off her feet and into the pooling muck. She not only needed to keep them moving, but also had to struggle to keep Ralis’s head above the rising mud water. Miri was practically swimming as she reached the entrance and felt hands grab onto her.
They were not the hands of an ally however and she cried out as the guardians worked to pull her and Ralis under. She kept her arm looped tight around Ralis’s torso as the guardian’s hands pulled her head beneath the mud. No amount of kicking was enough to banish the grabbing hands and as Miri’s lungs strained for air she wondered if this was how she was supposed to die.
Something pulled on her broken arm and she screamed into the mud, then into the air as her head was pulled free once again. Her back brushed against something firm and she pushed Ralis towards it. He needed to survive, he was chosen by destiny and had the power of wind. Mistress Avia could replace Miri as the guide. She would likely do a better job of the task anyway.
She felt herself sink again as the guardians tugged against her mud laden clothes, but she also felt Ralis be pulled from her weakening grasp. She hoped that it wasn’t the guardians who had taken him from her as she fought exhaustedly to keep her mouth above the mud. A moment later she felt something pull her from the swamp and she landed hard on a wooden surface.
Sunken Wind Page 36
