Rise of The Mortokai Page 10

  He barely had time to draw his own sword before they attacked. It was like fighting a person who had three arms; if he parried one the other two attacked, if he blocked two, then the third would strike. He needed to reduce their number fast.

  Tristan called out the magic words that illuminated his glass ball. A beam of white light shot up into the sky and, as he had hoped it would, caught the eye of the assassins, giving him the split second that he needed to, in one fluid motion, despatch two of the assailants and face up to the third.

  Whilst her comrade had been tackling his three would be assassins, Trinity had been dealing with her own. She defeated them, easily manipulating the nature that was all around, and which she had a particular affinity for.

  Things went well for the pair until more Shadow Dancers seemed to materialise from the forest. Fatigue and the superior numbers began to take their toll and shift the tide of the battle. Then Trinity felt a nick in her neck. It was a tiny dart, almost as small as the sting of the bee that it felt like.

  Trinity glanced over at Tristan and saw the warrior hold his neck before he collapsed to one knee, still he attempted to hold back the assassins.

  The sting must be laced with poison!

  Although it didn’t have the same fast effect on her, it did slow her down, and with Tristan out of the picture all of the Shadow Dancers now focused their attention on Trinity.

  She felt several more stings as blows rained down on her from all directions. She was losing consciousness fast. But then, on the verge of blacking out, she heard renewed combat, flashes and the acrid smell of lightening. As she was dragged up off the ground, the last words that Trinity heard were that of a female.

  ‘I told Gydion that it was too early for her.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ordinarily Gydion would have enjoyed exploring the ancient ziggurat but, unfortunately, his mind was filled with one thing only, the actions of Sayyidah.

  When he had reunited with her again, he hoped that she had once more become the woman that he loved, justifying his decision to go against the council and spare her life, and for a time he believed that she had.

  The time they had spent together, talking, touching, kissing, had told him that he was still intoxicated by her. Even the smell of her hair ignited memories of the passionate youth they once shared. The good times... but also the bad.

  Gydion would be lying if he said that he hadn’t been thinking about bringing her back to Ariest, hoping that she would want to return, wishing that they could start over.

  But the vicious death of the Keeper could alter those plans, if not destroy them completely. He had to be sure of her innocence before making the mistake of accusing her again, after all, she herself could be in trouble; perhaps someone else killed the Keeper and took Sayyidah as prisoner.

  Unfortunately, Gydion soon discovered that his worst fears had been realised.

  He had been following the trail of blood droplets, allowing them to lead him through the ancient structure. They led him down into the core of the ziggurat, it’s very centre by the Archmages estimations, where he eventually found Sayyidah.

  She stood in what Gydion could only describe as, much to his bemusement, a cavern, complete with stalactites and stalagmites. He found it strange to find something so chaotic within the obvious order of the ziggurat, but then again nothing had been as it should be since he arrived in this strange realm.

  A huge, craggy column of obsidian rock dominated the centre of the grotto. Gydion couldn’t tell if it was originally from the ceiling of the cave or if it was shooting up from the ground, like a jet back geyser frozen in time.

  ‘Sayyidah?’ She continued to face the rock formation and didn’t reply to Gydion’s gentle call. He took a few tentative steps towards her. She seemed to have her arms clutched across her chest. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, fearing that she may be injured.

  ‘You want to know if I killed the Keeper?’ As if in reply to her own question she held up her left arm; it was covered in blood up to her elbow. ‘When he said you would have to kill him to read the book he was not lying, for it was stored within his body.’ Sayyidah held up her right hand when she heard Gydion’s sigh of disappointment and revealed the blood covered Book of Secrets. ‘What I do, I do for you, my love.’

  Gydion didn’t know how to react. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t intrigued by what esoteric doctrine lay between the covers of the tome, but he was distressed by the lengths Sayyidah was willing to go to retrieve it. Although he hadn’t been privy to her plans, he still felt some guilt since it was his astral battle that had given her the opportunity to mutilate the poor man.

  ‘Forget him, Gydion. If it truly is your wish to learn about Salamida then he had to die. He knew what his job entailed when he took it.’

  ‘That still does not make it right.’

  ‘Really? Even if this book holds the knowledge to save millions of lives? Spare one life and condemn millions? You had no such qualms when it came to being rid of me, my love.’

  She was right; he knew she was. This was the same rationale he had used to stop her, although he had not gone so far as to end her life as she had the Keepers, the motivation was identical. No matter how it made Gydion feel perhaps what she had done could not be avoided, perhaps it was a necessary evil that had to be committed for the better good.

  Gydion stood behind Sayyidah now and placed his hands on her shoulders. He gave a reassuring squeeze to let her know that he was with her and stood by her and the decision she had made, then he moved his hand along her arm until he took hold of the book of secrets.

  Again, Sayyidah smiled with sinister triumph and again it was obscured from Gydion. She was so close to her ultimate goal it was making her giddy with excitement, but she had to keep it bottled inside, exposing herself now would be disastrous. For decades she had been devising her plan and now it had almost come to fruition. The time was almost at hand. The time when everyone would feel the wrath of a woman scorned.

  She didn’t turn to watch Gydion read the book; she didn’t have to. She could imagine him in her mind hungrily digesting the words as she heard him flip over each read page.

  He is no doubt revelling at learning the truth about the Tuatha, Sayyidah mused. Learning that they, the first race, mighty dragons once worshipped as gods and still treated as deities by their elemental descendants. Learning that when the four ruling brothers, Boreas, Zephyrus, Notus and Eurius decided that the time of the Tuatha was at an end and a new age dawning, were set upon by one of their own, an ambitious dragon god named Baelthorn.

  It would chart the battles of the Great Upheaval, retell the skirmishes, the realms that were created from the cosmic fallout but, crucially for him, it would omit how one was able to stand against four for so long and almost win.

  ‘It does not say anything about Salamida,’ Gydion finally stated.

  ‘That is the true secret of the book and such esoteric wisdom cannot be obtained so easily.’

  ‘Why did you not say so earlier?’

  ‘Because there is but one way to reveal them and I did not think you would be willing.’

  ‘And why is that?’

  ‘Because it would involve you returning my magic to me.’ She could feel his sceptical gaze upon her. ‘As I said,’ she continued, ‘you would not be willing.’

  ‘But you must surely realise why.’

  ‘And you must realise that the Book of Secrets was created by the four brothers of the ruling family and the elements they controlled.’

  ‘Water, air, fire and earth.’

  ‘And it would take all four to reach the truth.’

  ‘An elemental key for an elemental book? That makes sense. All four brothers would be needed to open the seal, so that would suggest a deliberate action that they would all have to agree upon so it could not be accessed accidentally...but what kind of secrets would need that level of protection?’

  Sayyidah felt that Gydion’s mind was begin
ning to reason things out, restrain his enthusiasm, a situation that was detrimental to her plans. She had to keep his mind on the agenda, remind him why he was here and hope it was enough for him to throw caution to the wind.

  ‘The secrets to save Ariest,’ Sayyidah stated as she turned to face Gydion.

  ‘Which beggars the question, how do you know so much about it?’

  ‘What, do you think I have sat here idly waiting for the great Gydion to give me a reprieve?’ she venomously spat, ‘I have explored my surroundings, learnt what I can to survive here, done what I have had to do.’

  ‘And what of the Keepers claims?’

  ‘What do you want me to say? I am here because of you if you expected me to simply roll over and die then you were sorely mistaken.’

  ‘To be fair, I think I have only ever expected the unexpected of you, Sayyidah.’

  Gydion knew that there was only one real course of action for him to take. If he wished to learn about Salamida and the Shade he would have to do as Sayyidah suggested and return her magic. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t take precautions.

  As much as he wanted to, he felt that he couldn’t really trust every word she said. She used them like they were chess pieces being moved on a board. Deception and manipulation were areas that she excelled at; she’d dangle her King in front of you just enough to draw you into making a mistake then the game was over.

  It was hard to know the truth from the lies. The trick was to play her game but, crucially, figure out her endgame before she reached it, something he failed to do last time. But then he hadn’t been expecting any betrayal.

  ‘So how do you suggest we do this?’ Gydion eventually asked.

  ‘You return my fire and water magics and then, whilst holding the book, we each channel one through each of our arms—’

  ‘Thus, imbuing it with all four at once... but I think I will keep hold of the fire spells along with air.’

  ‘What, no trust, Gydion? Do you think I will set your robes alight and let hells fire consume you? And yet you had no qualms with entering my bed... is that why it was so intense?’

  ‘I believe it was no more intense than the last time.’

  ‘Perhaps you are correct,’ she agreed with a coy smile as she had a moments recollection whilst Gydion began to make the preparations to cast the spell.

  The conjuration Gydion had used all those years ago was the Spell of Transferral. It was an invocation usually used by dark mages to steal the magic from an opponent and involved a long laborious ritual to cast it. But Gydion had adapted the components of the spell for his own uses; instead of the magic energy being absorbed by a person, it could be stored within an inanimate object. An object such as the rough, uncut crystal he fished from the inside of his robes.

  A deep-purple energy slowly swirled within the gemstone as Gydion held it up to his face and made the final decision to go through with the transfer reversal. But just as he was about to begin, however, he felt the numbing, probing assault on his mind once more, stronger than either of the previous times, and still he had no idea where it was coming from. He suddenly felt fatigued like his energy levels were dropping, however, as he flared his Essence and cleared the miasma in his mind, Gydion was once more rejuvenated, and cautiously began the ritual.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Daniel heard a voice. He couldn’t discern what it was saying or who it was, it sounded so far away, but as his astral body returned to his physical one and he became more aware of the immediate world around him, Daniel knew it was Finn that was shaking him.

  ‘Ow,’ he said rubbing his head after the jarring return of his ethereal form.

  ‘What are you doing? It’s like you were having the sleep of the dead.’

  ‘I wasn’t sleeping. I was travelling the astral realm.’

  Finn looked at him with a blank expression. ‘I see,’ she replied. ‘Maybe next time you should put a do not disturb sign.’

  ‘I may just do that, especially with you around. Anyway, what have you been up to?’

  ‘Well, your dad has been teaching me some moves. We’re taking a break now, so I thought I’d check up on you, see how you are after yesterday.’

  ‘How do you think?’ He looked down, unable to make eye contact. ‘I did nothing... just let it happen.’

  ‘Your dad thinks you did the right thing.’

  ‘You told him?’

  ‘Of course,’ Finn said as she sat next to Daniel. ‘The way you went storming upstairs last night, your parents knew something happened.’

  ‘Great! So, he knows I embarrassed myself in front of you.’

  ‘What? No! I told you he said you did the right thing.’

  ‘That’s bull! When I told him about me punching Bobby you should have seen the pride in his face.’

  ‘But that happened before he found out about you being a mage, right? He knows the abilities magic users possess, that they have the potential to make someone cease to exist. He was proud that you didn’t. He also said something about great power and responsibility or some vekt.’

  ‘Spider-Man.’

  ‘What? You have Spider-Men here?’

  ‘No, it’s - forget it. You know, all I’ve ever wanted to do was make my parents proud. But I’ve seen the way you react around my dad, the way you look at him with reverence. How can I ever hope to be like him?’

  ‘But he’s a legend! He’s fought wyverns, dire wolves, conquered many quests—'

  ‘And I can’t face up to one bully?’

  ‘I didn’t say that! Bullies are more powerful than you think. They latch onto a thing, something that makes you different to them, something that you don’t like about yourself or they think you don’t like and they keep needling you about it over and over again until you start believing it and then you start hearing it everywhere you turn thinking that everyone you see is saying the same thing.’

  Daniel squeezed her hand. ‘It sounds like you’re talking from experience.’

  ‘They tried to bully me once,’ Finn admitted. ‘No parents, not the most girly of girls, more likely to be in overalls than a frilly dress, but Uncle Quinn was always there for me. I didn’t give a vekt what the bullies had to say after a while and I kicked every bodies ass. Why do you think I’m so good at fighting?’

  ‘This is a different world, Finn. You can’t go around beating up everyone that has a bad word to say about you.’

  ‘You don’t have to, Daniel. Just one.’

  ‘Bobby?’

  ‘No, yourself.’

  Daniel stared at Finn with his brow creased in confusion.

  ‘I’ve seen your courage and strength on Ariest, Daniel,’ said Finn. ‘You were swallowed by the Shade and you fought your way out. It may be a different world but it’s the same you, Daniel.’

  He thought about what Finn said. Could she be right? Is it really that simple? Could it just be a simple case of switching your mindset? No, it must be more than that. On earth he was shy, that much he knew. On Ariest nobody looked at him differently so he felt more able to open up and be himself, his true self. But Ariest brought its own dilemmas, living up to the Mondragon name paramount among them.

  What she said made Daniel look deeply into himself, at the person he was and the person he wanted to be, two sides of the same coin. It was true that his life on Earth and his experiences on Ariest had been completely different. They had shown him that he had the potential to be more. But he felt that he could never be that person on Earth.

  There would always be another bobby. The easiest solution would just be to go to Ariest and never come back. However, was running away really the answer to all his problems?

  ‘Hey, you guys better come down here!’

  If Daniel and Finn had been listening a little harder, they may have discerned a hint of worry in Eric’s voice as he called them from the living room. He stood in front of the tv watching a news report with folded arms and a stern look on his face.

  ‘What
is it, Dad?’

  Eric didn’t reply but simply pointed to the screen and continued to watch the news. Daniel was intrigued. What was so interesting that it held his dad’s attention so firmly. After bidding Finn to sit down, he took a seat next to her on the sofa himself and turned his attention to the TV.

  It wasn’t what he was expecting.

  A girl who lived in Swiss Cottage had gone missing in suspicious circumstances. Her bedroom windows were locked from the inside, as were all the other windows in the apartment. Her parents were downstairs watching tv at the time she had gone to bed and stated that it was impossible for anyone to have gone in or out whilst they were there.

  ‘It’s got to be the parents,’ Finn said as she got up to find something to eat. ‘What else could it be?’

  ‘That’s what I thought... at first,’ said Eric.

  Daniel picked up on the little throwaway comment. ‘What do you mean “at first”?’

  ‘I mean there have been others.’ Eric pulled out a folder from the bookshelf and tossed it on the coffee table in front of Daniel.

  Finn came back to the sofa to see what Daniel was looking at. She read over his shoulder the newspaper clippings that he spread across the table. There were seven other disappearances, all in similar circumstances. ‘Vekt!’

  ‘Exactly,’ Eric agreed. ‘Before Gydion left for Salamida he came here. He told Tina and myself what had happened to you, Daniel, and also about fungal and his corridor. He told me to look out for anything out of the ordinary...’

  ‘There’s nothing ordinary about these disappearances, that’s for sure,’ Daniel pointed out.

  ‘... because he believed the Shade, one or more, could possibly use the portals to get to any and all dimensions.’

  ‘You’re trying to tell me that the Shade are here on Earth?’ Daniel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. These creatures terrorised Ariest, a place that readily had magic and killed countless people there. What kind of devastation could they cause here, in a world that had no defence against them, a world that didn’t even know they existed?