Legends of Marithia: Book 2 - Darkness Rising (22 page)

“
By the gods! It’s a real
dragon,” exclaimed Yuski.

Anakari stared through teary eyes in
disbelief at the man before her and the immense creature of legend
bearing down on their position. Vartan charged toward Yuski and
felt the impact of two triplets sweeping his legs out from under
him. He slid in the dirt and leapt off the ground to regain his
footing beside the demon hunter.

“
Quickly, what are they?”
demanded Vartan.

“
They
are the Triplets of Orkon—demons with the power of cloaking,”
said Yuski, wincing with the pain of her injuries.

Karven breathed in deep and unleashed
dragon breath in the air around them, but the triplets saw the
attack coming and evaded the flames with ease. Vartan looked down
to the growing pool of Yuski’s blood and grimaced before the
realisation of how to defeat the triplets dawned on him. He drew
his sword and swung it hard into the pool of her blood, sending it
splattering into the air around them.

It succeeded in staining the armour of
the triplets and revealing their positions. Anakari quickly
responded by sending blue fireballs to her nearest enemy, again
engulfing her in flames. Yuski used her remaining strength to send
her remaining daggers into another triplet and Vartan invoked the
spirit of water, his eyes glowing blue from the power
within.

Two triplets’ bodies flashed before
them as they disintegrated into dust.

The last triplet screamed in fear and
was attempting to flee from the battle, but her body was clear in
Vartan’s vision. Reaching out with one hand and grasping his sword
tightly with the other, he pulled back with his fist and the
triplet’s body was snatched backwards out of the air with immense
force to land harshly on his blade. His sword tore through the
triplet’s body and she disintegrated before him.

Anakari stared with her
mouth gaped wide and asked, “By the gods, who
are
you?”

Shaking his head, Vartan managed to
clear the spirit’s power from his body and took a moment to refocus
his senses before turning to face Karven.

“
Great dragon king, please
call for the dragon that is ridden by Trisa and bring her to us to
tend to this woman’s wounds,” asked Vartan.

Karven nodded and looked skyward as he
sent his message to the circle of dragons above.

“
I am Sir Vartan of
Veldrenn, and who are you?” asked Vartan, extending his
hand.

The man of the Talonsphere
prophecy is here before us? We are truly blessed by the gods on
this day
, thought Yuski.

“
The name is Yuski, demon
hunter” she said, bowing her head.

The ground shook as a dragon landed
nearby and Trisa ran to Yuski’s side.

“
I got your message and she
needs help,
now
.
I suggest we take her with us,” said Trisa, beginning to treat
Yuski’s wounds.

Anakari shook his hand and bowed,
“Thank you Sir Vartan for saving our lives today. If it wasn’t for
you, we would likely be dead.”

“
It is my duty to help
anyone in need, but I wouldn’t have seen you if it weren’t for that
almighty spell that lit up the sky. It was not hard to find your
position, and that is what concerns me. We were heading to Veldrenn
when we decided to fly over Greenhaven in an attempt to find out if
it was deserted. I heard a voice whisper ‘Jade Inn’ in my ear and
Karven and I headed in your direction. Where did that light come
from?” he asked.

Anakari said quietly, “It came from
me.”

“
What is your name,
sorceress?” asked Vartan.

“
I am Anakari and I would
like to head to Veldrenn with you but we were about to meet a seer
near here that is important to me.”

Vartan removed his helm, approached
the elf’s side and put a friendly hand on her shoulder. He smiled
and spoke as if he was greeting an old friend. “Anakari, I expected
to meet you but did not expect for it to be so soon. I promise that
I will take you to see your seer in time but your beacon would have
alerted every demon in Marithia to our presence and I suggest that
we leave here immediately, it is not yet time to face
them.”

Yuski and Anakari both nodded
knowingly and Trisa helped the limping demon hunter to the dragon’s
back.

Vartan replaced his helm and turned
momentarily to take in the sight of the now ruined Jade Inn before
mounting Karven’s back and focusing on their objective,
Veldrenn.

“
Come aboard Anakari, you
are safe with us,” said Vartan, reaching down.

Anakari bowed to the dragon king
before climbing up to sit behind Vartan. The dragons leapt from the
ground to take flight and Karven gently picked up their horse
before leaving the Jade Inn far below them.

Chapter 17 : Nowhere To
Run

“
Unforeseen changes have a
way of taking everything we know and turning it upside
down.

Nobody can truly predict the future,
but through carefully planned acts of their own, masters of time
can change the paths we take.”

(Talonsphere – Weapon of the
ancients)

Mestal paced around her dining room,
cussing under her breath and heaving with each step. Another of
Tusdar’s high-pitched screams escaped the holding room in the
centre of Zhendur and her body felt ablaze as the rage took over
her.

“
Kassina be
damned
! Why is she
holding Tusdar and treating him like this? There must be something
we can do!” she growled.

“
My darling daughter, keep
your voice down or we will both be executed for treason!” snapped
Lord Aryun.

She let out another angry sigh and
dropped to a dining chair as if she were dead weight.

Looking up at Aryun with quivering
lips, her voice broke as she pleaded. “Father, is there really
nothing that we can do?”

He looked her in the eyes and put a
gentle hand on hers.

“
Mestal… I
know
how hard this must
be for you, but we must endure. If we dare to turn on Shindar and
his queen, imagine the destruction of our kind that would
follow.”

Nodding knowingly, she
sighed loudly before speaking. “Father, I know that it may seem
strange to you that I can feel this way, but he is my chosen. I
don’t know how it is possible, but I feel connected with him in a
way that I have never felt before. It is as if I…
love
him.”

The corner of his mouth lifted with a
grin as he said, “I know, it was the same for your mother and
I.”

She put her head in her hands and
tried to ignore the sounds of Tusdar’s torture.

The icy cold of the almost empty room
touching his skin made his body shiver as he struggled to stay
awake. Only the pale blue light beaming through the small windows
provided any solace. Piercing squeals of the chains above him felt
louder in his head with every swing of his naked body.

Tusdar had withstood the continual
torture for the many days that had passed since Kassina dragged him
in there and got to work, but he was growing weaker and he was
considering telling her anything she wanted to hear to make it all
go away.

Each time he tried to give her wrong
information to lead her astray or to make her stop, she looked into
his eyes and somehow knew that he was lying. He relived the
nightmare day after day and it felt like it would never end. Death
was almost a welcome fate.

The door slammed as he
faced his captor once more through weary eyes and a tear streamed
down his face. “Great queen Kassina, I… I
beg
of you… I know not of what you
ask of me…”

His words were silenced by her tight
grip across his throat and a solid elbow to his ribs. He gasped for
breath as she laughed mercilessly at him.

“
Lies, lies,
lies
! Do you think me a
fool? After you killed Derian at Greenhaven and you slipped through
my grasp, I wanted nothing more than to find you; and here you are…
you should never have been blessed with this life. The superior
life of a vampire should never have been granted to
you!”

She drew a dagger from her boot and
pounded it into his right thigh, twisting the blade around his
muscles. His scream was heard throughout all of Zhendur. Once his
pain threshold increased and allowed him relief, she tore it back
out and watched as the wound healed itself.

“
I can do this for as long
as it takes. You’re a vampire now, so I can cut you over and
over
again. That
sharpness of the blade piercing through your skin will be felt
tirelessly until you give up what you know!”

She drew a second blade and jammed
both of them into each side of his ribs, one narrowly missing his
heart as if to tease him with a true death.

Gritting his teeth, he
yelled out. “What do you
want
from me?”

Kassina’s body blurred as
she brought her face so close to his that he could feel her breath
on his mouth and left the daggers embedded in his ribs. “I want to
know
everything
you know. Is Vartan dead? Where are they hiding? What are
their plans?”

Tusdar winced at the pain
and spat his words at her face. “How would I know if Vartan is
dead? He left
me
for dead at the hands of
your
assassins. My last memory was choking on my own
blood. Vartan didn’t even value my life. Why should I worry if he
lives or dies? He could be buried under dirt for all I
care!”

She looked deep into his eyes as if
searching for something within.

“
Here you are,
torturing
me for
information that I do not have to give! The great Queen Kassina; I
used to be afraid of you, but now I care not. My old life is lost
to me and I have no regrets for killing Derian, he was a vile
betrayer who got everything he deserved. Torture me more or kill me
if that’s what you want. I have already died once and I do not fear
dying again. But I want you to know that you would be killing a man
who loves the vampire who turned me and would love nothing more
than to serve you. You should stop wasting your time
here…”

His words were cut short by a heavy
backhand to his face.

“
You dare lecture
me
boy
?
Silence!” she growled.

Placing her right boot to his chest,
she grabbed hold of the embedded blades and yanked them out, wiping
the blood on a nearby rag. Tusdar’s painful cries filled the
room.

She walked over to a weapons rack and
drew a shiny sword before approaching him. Tusdar closed his eyes
as he prepared for the inevitable. Wielding it with both hands, she
swung hard and Tusdar felt his body fall to the ground. The cold
heavy chains crashed onto his back.

“
So you
were
telling the truth. I need to
know where your allegiance lies. If you truly love Mestal, want to
serve Shindar and have left your old life behind, then I will let
you live. You will need to prove this to me and
if
you do, then I will bless you as
one of our chosen and forget our past. If you do not, then I will
make sure that you will feel nothing but pain until the day I
decide to end your life for good. Do you understand?”

Tusdar nodded his head and watched her
throw the sword back into the rack. She shot bolts of lightning
from her fingertips into the clasps around his wrists and they
broke free.

“
Stand up!” she
ordered.

Tusdar’s legs felt weak and shook as
he stood once again, facing the queen of the underworld. His vision
wavered and his stomach growled in hunger.

She marched to the door and growled as
she shoved it open. Slamming the door shut, her voice boomed,
“Bring him some blood so he can regain his strength and give him
some clothes. Once he is dressed, bring him to me!”