Divinity: Transcendence: Book Two (The Divinity Saga) (41 page)

His
was an impressive, long, glowing, lightning bolt shaft. It’s grip was in the middle, and it exuded power by sheer size alone. His celestial eyes were glowing brightly, and the fingers on his free hand also began to work frantically in practiced, movements. He began reciting something that sounded like a poetic spell or verse.

I looked on in amazement as a line of light began to form and slowly spread before us, like a wall of light.

“
Starling!” Durien ordered with a nod of his head towards the second portal, which was now beginning to wink out too.

I
finally snapped out of my frightening fascination of trying to comprehend all of what I was witnessing.

I turned to jog towards Durien, just as he broke another portal gem.

Whatever Spencer was doing, which appeared to be blocking their magic, was working…so far.

There was a loud boom
that shook the ground. It stopped me in mid-jog, catching my sense of morbid curiosity. I turned around to see what it had been.

“Damnit Starling, don’t make me grab your ass and throw you in there myself!” Durien shouted, running past me, to cover my back.
He aimed his crossbow and fired off several bolts at two fallen that were coming straight for us.

The two fallen that were
fighting in mid-air not long ago, were both now on the ground.

The skull fac
ed one, had his face and large, disturbing jaws, clamped onto the arm of the one pinned beneath him. I felt a sense of urgent panic to run over and help him, as strange and stupid as that sounded.

Ag
ain, I watched in paralyzed fascination, too shaken and filled with awe to move. I couldn’t leave them here to fight themselves, even if they wanted me too. Spencer couldn’t defend against all of the fallen, even though he was doing a badass job of it so far. We were outnumbered, and unless we were all going to go through the portal together at the same time, I wasn’t going to abandon them.

I had hallowe
d fire. It was needed right now. I’d simply force it with my anger and save us all…maybe.

Whe
n I heard a female voice scream out; ‘Cam`ael!’ from somewhere out there, a quick scene of two fallen fighting each other in a darkened field, briefly flashed behind my eyes. I had been watching that fight, and trying to run towards it for some strange reason. Then…I felt a painful burning, stinging sensation across my entire torso.             

The scene flickered and morphed, changing images.
I saw a face, a beautiful face, looking down at me with sorrow. The image winked out of my head abruptly. I found myself holding a hand over my torso again, like I did when I first awoke in this realm. It was a ghost sensation that I couldn’t figure out, and I wondered what it meant.

Certain that the second portal
that Durien had opened, had already closed, I frantically fished into the inner pocket of my jacket for my small suede pouch full of portal gems.

I was about to pull it out
, when I saw Jamie, wandering almost aimlessly towards a small canyon between two large rock mounds. I thought she had left a long time ago? I should have known that she wouldn’t have left without Spencer.             

She was moving funny, as if she were in some sort of a trance. Was it a ha
llucination? Was she under a spell? Being hypnotized?

There was a girl
standing at the opening of the canyon, beckoning to her. I had no idea who she was, let alone if she was even human, but after all I was seeing out here now…I’d be more prone to believe it was either an illusion, or a demon.

“Jamie!” I called after her.

She didn’t stop or turn around.

In fact, she held her weapon
s downward, by her sides.

Either she was under some spell, or the girl standing there wasn’t a threat.

I wasn’t going to take that chance. I took off after her at full speed. Just as I took off, the girl instantly morphed into a large female fallen. Her black wings flapped outward and she laughed tauntingly.

Jamie seemed to snap out of her trance
just then, but it was too late. The fallen had done something to her that left her immobile. Her weapon became useless and bound against her body with her arms.             

The fallen securely held her
and began ascending into the air.

With det
ermination, I used the side of the mound as a push off point, leaping up and diving at them, managing to grab onto Jamie’s ankle.

With all my weight I pulled down, surprising myself when I
actually jerked the fallen downward, making her slow and hesitate. I then began to pull myself up.

“Two? Oh, you a
re the one that I was after anyway. He will be so pleased with me!” She hissed with a threatening grin.

I tugged at Jamie again. A look of helpless fear and sadness
was frozen on her face. I don’t know what curse or spell this fallen put on her, but it was working, and she could very well do the same to me too.

Again, I tried to wield my weapon
.

This time…one d
eific blade unsheathed smoothly, gliding out of my palm in all its shimmering glory, with the hilt fitting perfectly in my palm. It surprised the hell out of me, but there was no time stop and do a happy dance.

The fallen looked horrified when she glimpsed my
blade. I pulled my arm back to stab into her chest, but I faltered and lost my aim. It left me dangling from Jamie’s leg by one arm. She grabbed for my wrist, and as soon as she dropped Jamie, whatever binding magic she had used on her, immediately formed black, slithering tendrils around my forearms. It didn’t take long for her to secure me into her vice-like grip.

Oh,
shit.

I was screwed
, but at least I managed to save Jamie though —I hoped.

***~~~~***

How did I manage to get myself caught and taken so easily, and so soon? I hadn’t even had the chance to train, or even learn to use my weapons!

Apparently
, to Sean and the others, once you were captured, you were essentially dead. I could count on no one coming to my rescue. That thought saddened me. Even if I managed to get out of these bindings, the drop below would either kill me, or take me a long time to heal from the devastating injuries. We were way too high for me to even risk it.

I hadn’t re
alized just how foul her odor was. She was wearing a breast-plated, copper colored bra and skintight suede pants. Her hair was dry and shaggy, like old, overused, black broom bristles. Her face reminded me of a hideous, and freakishly disfigured owl, with completely blacked out eyes, and swollen, bruise colored lips.

She
flew extremely fast. Below us, was a landscape of red-sanded earth, with bands of sparkling black sand, and shiny black rocks, all in peaked formations. I saw numerous shapes, dark beings, and other strange creatures moving all around down there. They looked like small ants from my aerial view. Black treetops flanked a large body of a swirling, murky water, where a giant whirlpool swirled wildly. I could only imagine the danger that I’d be in if I were down on the ground right now. I might be safer up here, for now.

T
he dark water below was alive with dangerous dark things in it, all ready to eat me if I fell in. I certainly didn’t want to see what waited for me in the hands of the devil himself either.

I began to get angry, and the angrier I got, the more the fire and heat began to surge frantically inside me. I felt the bindings around my b
ody loosen as they began to burn away. In no time, the tendrils of dark matter binding me, disappeared altogether. It allowed me to shift and move freely.

The fallen suddenly whipped h
er head around. Her shaggy, rough hair flipping into my face, making me cringe with disgust.

I wondered what she was looking
back at.

She sped up
even more, and then gasped —apparently feeling the power and heat on the verge of erupting from my skin.

Flames flare
d out from my hand first, and I instantly took the advantage to burn the rest of the bindings from my other arm.

“What the…” She started to exclaim
.

I brought my fiery hand
up into a swift openhanded slap across her shocked face. She immediately began to scream and squeal in excruciating pain.

Grabb
ing for her face, she let go of me, and I began to plummet back down to the earth.

We were
still over the water…the dirty, dark, monster infested water below. I tensed, attempting to brace myself for the coming, gruesome and horrific death. I just hoped it would be quick.

I gracefully kept myself poised, tumbling end over end with a quick prayer.

The closer the churning water got, the more my heart hammered wildly. Would my fire work underwater if I needed it? I didn’t know, but my blade would—even if I could only wield one.

I
readied my weapon, just as the gargantuan, heavily fanged mouth of some blob-like creature emerged from the whirlpool. Its long, snaking tongue flickered out, ready to swallow me whole.

Ohh…this was not good.

With tortuous anticipation, I shut my eyes and held my breath.             

The warmth of
a sudden, random energy wrapped around me, like a warm, sleep-inducing blanket…and that was all that I remembered feeling, before blacking out cold.

X
XIV: Cam`ael

                           
W
e were all still stunned, though I was the only one willing to take the risk, and I didn’t care what anyone thought or said about it. I appreciated the well-concerted efforts of everyone, no casualties on our side, but I was taking control now.

No one
mentioned the obvious. It was like the large, ubiquitous imp in the room, which no one wanted to address— not even me. Despite everything that almost, and could have happened, I ended up with exactly what I wanted in the first place.

I now had
Starling—even if she possessed the power to incinerate me into a pile of ashes in a matter of minutes.

That
thought brought on pain and sorrow much deeper than witnessing her death in my arms.

Edanai was the one
who was the most fearful of what we had all seen, and what it meant for me. We all knew why.

By now, Morning Star has
already gotten word that his long-time, favorite, top arch-demon had just been killed…and by whom.

He was already on
the rampage. This would bring about the full force of his lethal wrath and temper.

That potentially
put us all in a very precarious and dangerous predicament, far more that we already were.             

Edanai, Jerilah, Rahab, Ry, Mac,
Nay, Atiro and myself, remained sitting around my dining room table, in initial silence. As usual, Edanai was firm in protesting my decision, yet again, but even she couldn’t get me to change my mind in not keeping Starling here with me.

It was a short victory celebration for Ry and Rahab
. I was appreciative of their teamwork, and the risk that everyone took. Not just in showing up to fight, but in knowing that they’d become personally targeted by Morning Star and his minions in doing so.

Though I didn’t want to
do it, I knew I had to. We had to take advantage of the temporary knockout spell that Edanai had thrown at Starling, for our own safety. She had to be secured in both chain and spelled bindings, just in case.

My arm was wrapped firmly in a magical herb and salve drenched sling, made by Edanai and Jerilah
, to speed up the healing and take away the pain. Though it would take a while longer in healing, at least the venom was gone. The after effects of the darkness that did manage to snake into me, was still present though.

I could feel it.

A good baptism in the Eternal waters should completely take care of it, I hoped.

Edanai was watching me, studying my face with worry.

“Cam, are you alright? I don’t mean just your arm.”
She whispered to me telepathically.

I quirked a brow and shifted my eyes only to look at her.
“I’m fine, why?”

“There’s
a strange level of darkness in your eyes. You look…different.”
She looked me over.

“I’m fine.”
I repeated nonchalantly.

Her amethyst eyes were round. S
he stared at me a bit longer, in shock that I was denying it. I knew she was worried, but there was nothing that she could do. We had bigger issues right now…or at least, I did. This was my doing and my fault. I had to fix it and ensure that the others would be out of immediate danger.