Forged of Fire (28 page)

She paused at the top and looked around. The sky glowed an eerie iridescent red that seemed to wrap around and cradle the massive castle she had run from. The wall she had scaled was huge and encircled the perimeter. The landscape was mountainous and lush with vegetation, but the foliage was muted in dark and somber hues. The ground, in stark contrast with the trees and bushes, was rough beneath her feet, like that of a dry and cracked desert. She bent down and placed her hand on earth’s floor that, just like the dark sky, glowed red.
Not Earth!
The surface emitted tiny vapors of steam, seemingly breathing on its own, like something large moved beneath it.
Like rolling lava.
Kielyn pulled her hand back quickly and stood.
Hell!
Her new found courage skittered away on a humid gust of wind. She was literally in Hell!

****

Stefen watched as Ash paced the parlor floor like a caged lion. He knew it was taking the Fire King all of his strength to not bolt from the room and head straight for Dante’s realm. Stefen was actually not sure how he was not doing exactly that. Ash and the other Vampires could enter Hell’s domain. Stefen and Alaric could not and that cold hard fact was never more unfair than right now.
Marvelous fucking
plan God!
He angrily mused.
Cast off Dante, making him a creature of darkness yet, the fucker is still an
Angel by birth
. It was the sickest of ironies at the moment. Stefen and Alaric could do nothing to help! Because Dante had originally been born of light, the masochist could return to Stefen’s realm any time he wanted, but pure Angelic blood could not enter Hell.

“The Princess’ quarters are located on the west wing.” Skyler was now saying. “Although you will most likely find her at the bar in the village.”

“Is she as bad as they claim?” Stefen asked.

“Worse!” Dax offered. “She is a complete sociopath.”

“What motivates her?” Ash asked.

“Pain, power, control,” the Earth-bender replied. “And unlike you, she loves attention, but similar to you, she does not care what anyone thinks of her. She is designed for her own pleasure alone.”

“She will most likely be very curious about you Ash.” Marcus said. “She is more inquisitive than a cat.”

“And she is as dangerous as one.” Dax added. “Don’t be fooled by the pretty packaging.”

Ash merely scoffed and continued to pace. “She is Dante’s daughter. Not for one second will I forget that.”

“She is also your mother’s child.” Bane reminded him from where he sat, quiet for the last half hour. Ash sharply turned his eyes towards the older male. “You need to also be prepared for the fact that other than the color of her hair, Katara is the spitting image of your mother.”

Ash paused and Marsala moved quickly to his side as if to offer mental support. “But she is not your mother, Ash. She is a monster, just like Dante,” she said. “If not worse. Remember that.”

“Ok,” Alaric strolled back into the room, blueprints in hand. “I have the updated layout.” He spread the papers across Ash’s desk. “Little has changed with the estate, but the town has grown. Dante still keeps his army housed outside its walls.” Everyone walked over. “I suggest you enter here Ash with Dax.” He pointed. “It’s the closest gateway to the castle. How fast can you have the tunnel dug Dax?

The Earth-bender cracked his huge knuckles and smiled. “I can have him in any room in the joint he wants within ten minutes.”

“Perfect,” Alaric continued. “Moving quickly is the only way to make this work. Marsala and Bane will enter through the forest and head for the town. Skyler has an informant that has secured a small house for you two there. Try to appear common.” He pointed to another spot on the map. “Marcus, I need you and Skyler to blend into the solider compound and wait.” He turned to Ash. “The rest is all up to you. You must figure out what will best motivate your half-sister and get the information needed to locate Kielyn.”

“Remember, she is loyal to no one,” Skyler added. “She is excited to fight and kill Zander. If she thinks he is working out a way to avoid the fight and spoil her fun, that’s your best angle.”

“I agree,” Bane said. “And don’t worry for one second that she is loyal to her father. She would kill him too and not bat an eye.” He studied Ash. “I watched her grow up remember. She wants more than that second throne. She wants the first.”

“So basically I just have to sway the little brat that I can provide her with some form of entertainment,” Ash said. “Killing her brother and getting one step closer to the throne. Just one question…” He paused. “What’s to keep her from wanting to kill me?”

“Absolutely nothing.” Bane looked Ash straight in the eye. “You just have to prove beneficial long enough to get Kielyn and get out of there.”

Stefen felt nauseous. “So…The grand plan is to make allies with a sociopath?” He looked at each of them. “Am I the only one that sees about a hundred foreseeable errors in this little plan?”

“What else would you suggest brother?” Alaric asked. “My army can’t go in and even if we sent in all of the benders and rogue Vampires on earth they would still not be enough to fight off Dante’s soldiers.”

Stefen sighed. His blasted brother was right. Their hands were tied on this one. “Fine! But you all need to have a backup plan for when that she-devil gets bored.” He turned and headed for the door, shaking his head. “A good one.”

****

It was quite impressive how efficient the Earth-bender was, Ash thought as another clot of mud whizzed by his head. They had crossed over the threshold between earth and Hell without any issue and were able to navigate to the far back side of Dante’s massive castle. Everything was as Ash remembered. The scenery, the smells, the sinking weight of foreboding doom. It was as vivid as his nightmares. As if he had never left.
But I did leave…
He reminded himself as another spray of dirt was flung over his head. He was not the child that was originally brought here at the age of seven and he was not the male that escaped at the age of twenty-five. No, Ash was much removed from this space in time. He was now the Dragon and he now had something more than himself to fight for. He had Kielyn.

“Shit!” Dax cursed, wiping sweat from his brow where he crouched in front of Ash in the tight underground tunnel. “The fucker has a metal foundation. I can’t do shit with metal! Fuck!”

Ash crawled up to the larger male’s side. “Let me take a look.”

“You a locksmith?” Dax mocked.

“Just move asshole.”

“Be my guest.” The Earth-bender pressed his large body back against the wall of the tight tunnel.

Ash shimmied past. It was a damn good thing he was not claustrophobic, for the tunnel Dax had dug under the castle was barely large enough to maneuver in. Ash put his hand to the solid surface directly above him. Sure enough, metal. Ash placed both palms against it and closed his eyes. Unlike wood or porous surfaces, there were no visual tunnels through metal. Ash would need to manufacture a temperature hot enough to melt it. His hands began to sweat as he mentally pushed the heat into the metal. “Fucking Hell!” He let go. “It’s too thick. It was obviously made that way to withstand the lava pits…” He paused. “That’s it! I need you to dig us a few more feet past here.” He turned to scoot past Dax again.

“Why?” Dax traded places with him.

“The lava pits.” Ash motioned with his hand for Dax to continue. “Just three to four more feet in that direction.”

Dax growled but did as asked and cleared four more feet of dirt then turned back. “Now what?”

“Can you sense how much farther down the lava runs below us?”

“Six and a half feet. Why?” Dax asked skeptically.

“I need you to dig down to it with a two and a half foot hole.” Ash pointed up to the metal foundation above them. “We are going to use its strength to melt through.”

“We?” The Earth-bender shook his head. “I did not sign up for some Kamikaze mission. I like my hide where it currently is. On my bones.”

“And that is exactly where it shall stay. Just dig down and be ready to seal the tunnel off when I say to,” Ash said. “I will control the direction of its energy just long enough to cut through the floor.”

Dax continued to study him uneasily. “That’s asking a lot of trust out of me.”

“Sort of like the amount of trust I allowed you not to get us buried alive in Hell?”

The big male moved forward, towards the designated digging site. “If you flood this tunnel with Lava, my ghost will haunt you for eternity.”

“As long as your ghost wears deodorant,” Ash mocked as he crouched on the opposite side of the dig site. “Ready?”

“Ready as one can be to willingly erupt a volcano.” Dax placed his dirt covered fingers just above the ground’s surface and began to part the earth by invisibly pushing a small hole further and further apart. Within minutes he paused and looked at Ash. “One more push and we strike oil.”

“As soon as you break its seal, move back.” Ash cracked a confident smile and held his hands apart. “Quickly.”

Dax nodded and separated his fingers one last time before throwing himself back against the safety of the wall. The ground below them shook with the force of the angry lava which shot like a rocket up the portal. Ash encased it in an invisible pipe of energy the second it reached the surface and directed its rage into the metal barrier. Slowly at first, the ceiling began to sweat, then drip, then divide as the heat drilled a clean hole through. “Now!” Ash ordered as he mentally forced the lava back into the hole.

Dax moved closer and closed the ground up with just a pinch of his fingers. “Mother of God!” He stared, slack jawed, up at the two and a half foot opening. “It fucking worked!”

“Ye of little faith.” Ash rolled his eyes. “Of course it worked. Now, get out and get into the town with Marsala and Bane. I have it from here.” Ash lifted himself through the opening and peered back down at the motionless Earth-bender. “Today would be good.”

“Are you sure you got this, bro.”

“Awe, now don’t actually start liking me, man.” Ash grinned. “I prefer you being a total dick.”

The larger male smirked. “I would not go as far as like. I only care about the bigger picture remember?”

“Yea, yea, I’m just a stud for breeding to you fuckers,” Ash needled. “Now go! Before your odor gives us away.” Dax flipped him off before disappearing back down the tunnel.

Ash stood and surveyed the room belonging to the Princess. It looked more like a combination of a medieval torture chamber and a bad BDSM club than a bedroom. He took a seat in an oversized chair, the only piece of furniture that did not look like it would bite, and waited.
Come on home dear sister. It’s time we finally met.

****

She had no idea where she was going. All Kielyn knew was that she had to get as far away from the castle as possible. She had been able to cross over, in theory, she should be able to get back through whatever portal that separated Earth and Hell.
But how?
She did not slow down to contemplate, but instead took to scaling the side of a large cliff. She heard a noise below her and looked back.
Shit!
Small glowing torches between her and the castle dotted the woods. So much for banking on the notion that Zander would hunt her on his own in secret.

She continued up the rock facing. He must have panicked and decided that getting her back was more important than keeping her presence unknown. Her hand reached over the cliff’s lip in pursuit of leverage. Something grabbed her wrist in a vice-like grip and yanked her over the edge. A scream ripped from her lungs, but was stifled by a large hand falling over her mouth. “Shhhh.”
Dax!
Kielyn wanted to cry. He slowly removed his hand. “This way.”