bedeviled & beyond 03 - bedeviled & beleaguered (34 page)

My aunt turned back to me. “Darma’s the missing piece for blasting through the barrier. You and she are the ones who wield the special gift but hers is weighted more to the light and yours to the dark. Apart you lack what it will take to stop the veil. But together...”

Suddenly I understood, “Together we can stop it. Together we can stop the veil?” I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from my chest. But then the weight dropped again, nearly smothering me with its mass. “And he who unites must decide whether death is necessary...” I looked up at my father, horror swimming in my eyes with a fresh wash of tears. “It wasn’t Dialle’s death the prophet was talking about. It was mine and Darma’s. He has to decide whether he will let us stop the veil and, as a result, stop his people from taking over the world, or kill us to keep us from interfering.”

My knees buckled and I dropped into the nearest chair. Of course. It all made a twisted kind of sense. Emo’s warnings to me about Dialle. Dialle’s recent coldness.

“Oh shit!” I murmured as I listened to my heart break. “Dialle’s gonna kill me. Literally.”

“He might try, Astra,” my father said in his most soothing voice, “but you won’t let him do it. You must stop him.”

I looked up into my father’s eyes, as filled with pain as mine were. “Yes, Father, I’ll have to stop him. I’ll have to kill him...before he can kill me...” my voice broke and I couldn’t say another word.

Never in my life had my future been filled with such horror.

And I’d been immersed in horror almost since I’d popped from my mother’s womb.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Go Time!

She walked upon familiar ground, her senses on alert,

Around the altar evil stalked, not easy to avert.

The Serpent walked beside me again, his evil countenance shrouded in a mist of his own making. We moved toward the cliff edge, high above a pounding Angel City River. The waters far below our feet swirled with angry energy, bursting over rocks worn smooth from the flow of water over time and dashing against the jagged cliffs that rimmed the river.

He hadn’t spoken. He walked with head down and hands clasped behind his back, pensive and maybe a little angry.

I waited, content to let him stew in his own thoughts.

His frustration was my victory.

Finally, we stood at the edge of the cliff and I gave fleeting thought to my safety. But he needed me yet. I now knew how very much he needed me. Darma and I were special, with unique powers and without us I wasn’t sure he could lock the veil in place.

The conduits await you.

I shrugged, saying nothing.

You have no choice, halfling, I will kill them all if you do not serve me in this.

I turned to him, praying silently that my bluffing skills had improved with use and time. I’d been bluffing my way through my dealings with the dark world since about the age of five. If I wasn’t good at it by that point I never would be.
I’m pretty sure most of them would rather die than do what you’re asking them to do to the human realm.

It was his turn to shrug.
Life is precious to those of the light. They will hold to it with every fiber of their beings. And go to their deaths cursing you for your failure to protect them.

And there, unfortunately, was my greatest fear. It was as if he’d pulled it from my brain and was whacking me upside the head with it...impossible for me to ignore.

I sighed.
There is that.

He smiled.
You will come to me?

It was fish or cut bait time. As much as we’d struggled against it, the only way to fight the battle was from within. I steeled myself against the fear and hatred running through me and turned to him.
I will come
.

He nodded once and turned to me. The mist slid away and his features were revealed to me. I didn’t recognize the face he showed me but in so many ways it was familiar. It was a handsome face, filled with the light of victory. But its beauty was marred by the evil intent beneath the surface.

Like a beautiful rose, with mildew on its vibrant petals.

Come to me then.

I woke up in my father’s house. My cheek rested on something hard and crunchy. I’d been drinking a cup of coffee and had apparently fallen asleep with my head on the table.

Something warm and squishy leaned against my arm.

I sat up and blinked at Flick.

Glynus opened her bright eyes and said, “Bleurp?”

Flick looked up from the map he was perusing. “You have crumbs on your cheek.”

I swiped at my cheek and yawned. “We have to go.”

He nodded, “I know. Your father and Myra have already left.”

Fear punched my heart rate into overdrive. “They’ve given themselves over?”

My guardian nodded.

I gulped. It was up to me then. It seemed like it was always up to me.

I cleared my throat and stood up. “The celestial army?”

Flick stood too. “They’re being gathered now. The sick ones too.”

I nodded. Then I blew out a breath and tried to smile. “I guess there’s no reason to put this off.” Glynus fluttered her wings and sailed smoothly into my arms. I smiled at her, “Nice flying, tadpole.” The baby dragon gave me a wide dragon grin.

I turned to Flick, “Shall we go?”

Flick grabbed my hand. “I’ve just been waiting for you.”

We entered the sphere without time or space, landing in the woods near the clearing where I’d fought my mother and the angel Enoch for control of the Earth and humanity. The place still showed signs of the battle we’d fought there, months earlier.

It gave me the creeps to be there.

Glynus tucked her head under my chin and wrapped her tiny wings around my neck. She was shivering and I could feel her heart pounding against my chest.

The woods were eerily silent but filled with a malevolence that coated the skin along with the thickening mist.

Flick dropped my hand and we started walking in the direction of the clearing. The same unnatural wind I remembered from when I’d been there before with Emo swept through the trees, filled with the tension of black magic being spun nearby.

Though the wind swung my hair away from me and pulled at Flick’s robes, it did nothing to displace the mist around us.

My heart pounded and I glanced at Flick. His freckled face looked drawn and pale. I knew the effects of all the black magic on his light soul would be terrible. His forehead already glistened with sweat from the effort of putting one foot in front of the other. I put a hand on his arm. “You need to stay back, away from the conduits.”

He nodded, “I know. I need to keep a clear head so I can call the army at the right time.”

“And protect the tadpole.” I handed Glynus to Flick and she squawked in alarm, flapping her tiny wings toward me as if to grab me back.

“Hush, Glynus!” I told her sternly and felt my heart rip as her sweet face reflected my reprimand. She sagged back into Flick’s arms with a final, sad “Bleurp.”

I looked at Flick and he said, “I’ll take good care of her, don’t worry.”

Nodding, I started to turn away. But I realized I couldn’t leave without saying something more to him. I hesitated, staring into his nondescript brown eyes. “Whatever happens, I want you to know it’s been fun working with you. Even if it’s only been for a short while.” I leaned in to give him a kiss on his freckled cheek.

He actually blushed. “Stop talking nonsense, Astra. You’ll be fine. You don’t have any choice. You have to be.”

“You sound just like Myra.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Astra.”

I shook my head, chuckling and turned away. The last thing I heard before stepping through the final line of trees rimming the clearing was Flick’s mumbled supplication, “Go with His love, Astra and bask in His protection.”

“Amen.” I whispered. Then I looked up into the hell that was my future.

They stood in a semi-circle around the stone altar, motionless and silent. All eyes were fixed on me. Something I couldn’t identify from a distance lay on the altar. It was blurred and shrouded by the mist but it looked like a pile of robes, like the ones the Hopefuls wore.

I noticed that my family had not escaped some abuse. My father, Myra and Darma were all looking a bit tattered around the edges. And they appeared to be in some kind of trance.

Probably like the one mother had put Darma and me under in the dungeon. Just for grins I initiated a trip into my mental drawers.

Dialle?

Nothing.

Emo?

Nothing.

Darma?

Slight static. She was trying to break through. That was good.

My father’s head drooped and his hands were chained together in front of him. His robes were torn from one shoulder, exposing pale, bruised flesh beneath and they were filthy. He held his wings at an odd angle.

Myra held her chin high, defiant. I smiled. So like my guardian...ex-guardian. Her robes too were torn and dirty and her hands manacled. A glistening chain ran from her hands to Prince Nille, who stood beside her.

That was when I noticed that my father was chained too, though his chain went to my mother.

“Shit!” Chained angels could only be freed through death. Either theirs or their captors.

“Cheeit!” a high pitched, warbly voice said from somewhere down by my feet.

My gaze jerked downward.

Glynus looked up at me, her beautiful eyes bright and a dragon smile on her face. “Bleurp?”

“Holy shit, tadpole, how’d you get away from Flick?” I threw a glance toward the line of trees at my back. “You can’t be here, you’ll get hurt.”

Glynus fluttered her wings when I reached down to pick her up. I grunted with the effort. “Girl, have you grown already?”

The little dragon did a happy dance in my arms and blew a wisp of smoke in my face. Then she did the strangest thing. She placed her snout against my temple and wrapped her wings tightly around my neck, holding me firmly.

I gave up trying to jerk away and hugged her back, casting a worried glance at the horror show by the altar. They stood firm, waiting in stiff silence.

I realized then that the Serpent hadn’t yet arrived. Or if he had he wasn’t showing himself to me.

Pictures started sliding through my mind. Pictures of a different time, when blacks and reds flew freely together in the skies and other fantastical creatures such as unicorns, hippogryphs, centaurs and the beautiful phoenix walked and flew above the Earth. It was a time before the veil became twisted. A magical time. Humans walked the Earth freely too, unencumbered by the dark stain that was currently driving them mad. They were oblivious to the magic around them but they weren’t harmed by it.

Then the great wars came. A horrible, violence-filled time. Man killing man. Hate, fueled by the Serpent and his minions, consumed far too many in that time.

When man finally stopped the destruction to take stock of what was left, evil had already gotten through. It had taken hold in thousands of tiny, poisonous ways; the genesis of what was culminating around them now.

The taint that currently twisted the veil had begun then and had been nurtured and grown since, carried in bits and pieces around the Earth by the Serpent’s minions and through his own efforts.

The enchanted creatures I was seeing in Glynus’ magic picture show no longer graced the Earth with their presence. I had always presumed they’d flown to Olympus decades before, where they could still find a safe haven, away from the taint that was like acid to them, as it was for the elegant black dragon.

The pictures in my mind showed me how a few humans seemed aware of the veil and kept their guard against it and how the Angel Council had used this awareness to the Council’s own ends, while nurturing the hope that someday it would be of some use to them.

The pages of prophecy flashed by my inner sight, filled with words of hope in the form of a special magic, a magic that could be wielded against the Serpent and his poisonous veil at the correct juncture in time...with the right mix of conduits in place...and under the perfect circumstances.

As the reel in my head stopped playing, a sense of sadness overcame me. A sense that all rested on what was to come. And a feeling that nothing would be the same again unless the veil was somehow beaten back...obliterated.

Zerphor’s musical voice finished off the reel playing itself out in my head, I saw her beautiful face, transposed above the destruction of the Earth as it had been in that time decades earlier, during the great wars. Her beautiful eyes ran deep with pain and something that looked like fear.

All rests on this time and this place. Hearts that break will surely mend. But souls ripped from living tissue die and wither painfully. Guard well the tools at your disposal, dragon fighter, they have been gifted to you through the centuries behind us and will pass from you in due time. But while you wield them, you are all. And your failure is the loss of everything. But most of all remember this... Heart’s desire is a powerful ally and trust and faith complete your force for good. May the gods go with you, dragon fighter.

Then Glynus bluerped, pulling her soft snout from my temple. She released my neck and flapped her tiny wings, shivering slightly. Apparently the pictures had frightened her as much as they had me.

A change in the air brought my awareness back to the altar. My heartbeat pounded hard against my ribs. The Serpent’s cold, red eyes glared at me from only a short distance away, and his clawed hand was lifting toward me even as my gaze found his.

My father jerked as the Serpent sent a dark, pulsating stream of power in my direction. I saw in my father’s face the sure knowledge of our failure, condensed inside his helpless condition.

I started to pull my power forward but knew I would be too late.

The Serpent’s power surged toward me, filled with death or worse and I felt its heat just before it touched my skin. Its depths swirled with malice and despair and knifelike evil. I cringed back as it met my aura and squeezed my eyes tight, pushing my own power forward to stop it.