The Book of Deacon: Book 02 - The Great Convergence (36 page)

"No!" Myranda screamed. She looked to the
cowering, defenseless form of Ivy, then to Lain. With a glance,
each knew what had to be done.

Myranda ran to the shore of the lake,
shedding the bags and packs she had been carrying, and making her
way onto the shifting ice. She had to make it to Myn. Lain took her
place defending Ivy. He knew better than to try to carry her. It
would rob him of the speed he would need to evade their attacks.
For now, he would have to attack and distract those beasts that had
remained focused on the ground. The rest were overhead, where
Ether's clash with Epidime continued. In her insubstantial flame
form, the beasts could do nothing to harm her, while she was quite
capable of harming Epidime. Finally she knocked the halberd from
his hand. He suddenly gripped desperately to the back of the beast.
A second creature snatched up the halberd and both turned sharply
to the north.

Ether made ready to pursue, but as the swarm
of beasts that had been interested in her turned their attentions
to the ground, she became aware of what had been transpiring there.
Lain was swiftly becoming surrounded. Ivy was curled up on the
ground, paralyzed with fear. Myranda was sliding precariously
across one of the pieces of ice on the lake. She turned again to
the retreating Epidime. Her strength was waning. If he regained the
weapon, she could not be sure of defeating him. Memories of the
dire state she found herself in after their last encounter crept to
her mind, sealing the decision. She returned to the
battlefield.

Ether's arrival was not a moment too soon.
Lain was having trouble keeping the creatures from Ivy. More than
one deep gash betrayed the losing battle he was fighting. Ether
shifted to stone, taking her place beside him. As the creatures
approached, she delivered blow after earthshaking blow. Most of the
dragoyles had already felt the bite of Lain's sword, bearing long
scores across faces and along necks. The heavy stone hands opened
these wounds, letting a weak orange light leak through before each
creature fell.

Myranda reached the point on the ice where
Myn had fallen through. Without a moment's hesitation she plunged
in. The cold of the water cut like a knife. She felt as though her
chest had caved in. Her tightly closed eyes opened slightly. The
pain seemed to surge through to the back of her head. In the pale
blue light filtering though the ice, the motionless form of Myn
drifted just ahead of her. She worked her frozen limbs, moving
toward her friend. The shattered shoulder was nearly useless, her
hand clutching loosely at her staff, but still she struggled.
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, she drew nearer. Her lungs screamed for
air, her shoulder screamed for relief, her body screamed for
warmth, but she pressed on. Finally she reached out with her good
arm, grasped the dragon, and fought to the surface. Her heart
dropped. The ice had shifted. Three great sheets had butted
together above her. Her air wouldn't hold out much longer. The pain
and cold had left her mind in a shambles. With supreme effort, she
conjured up a current that would carry her to the shore. She closed
her eyes and gathered as much focus as she could.

A dragoyle heaved a great black breath at
Ivy. Lain, left with no options, scooped her from the ground. The
acid missed Ivy by a hair, but Lain was not so lucky. His leg was
coated with the stuff. In moments it had seeped and sizzled through
the cloth and begun to eat away at the fur and flesh beneath. His
teeth clenched in pain, but he remained silent and moved as quickly
as the worsening leg would allow. With a very large, very slow
target available, the dragoyles lost interest in Ether and focused
entirely on Lain. He was swiftly surrounded. One hand tightened
around the grip of his sword. The other slowly lowered Ivy to the
ground.

"Ivy. You need to fight," he said.

She rose shakily to her feet. The club she
carried had never left her hand. She raised it.

"I can't do this . . . I can't do this," she
whispered, looking in terror at the beasts before her.

Suddenly the creatures were distracted. There
was a growing roar coming from the lake. As they turned to survey
this new threat, they were met with the sight of the lake seemingly
leaping its shores and attacking them. Vast chunks of ice and
torrents of water flooded over the battleground. Ivy closed her
eyes and turned away, stifling a scream. Ether shifted to water and
slipped into the ring of dragoyles. She merely raised her hand and
the water parted around them. Some of the beasts were caught in the
torrent, washed aside or smashed with ice. The rest had sprung into
the air. As the water receded, the forms of Myranda and Myn were
left behind.

Myranda drew in a long, painful breath and
crawled to Myn. The dragon's wing was barely more than a few shreds
of tattered skin, and she wasn't breathing. Myranda turned her mind
to healing and searched the creature's body for injury besides the
wing. As swiftly as she found them, she eliminated them. Soon, all
that was left was the ruined wing. Myn had not taken a breath in
minutes, there simply was not time to heal the wing completely. She
stopped the bleeding, satisfied that it would be enough to take her
out of danger. Heat was conjured to warm her, the water mystically
drawn from her lungs, and still the dragon did not breathe. Calling
to mind her wind magic, Myranda forced air into her lungs and out
again. Finally, Myranda had exhausted all of her knowledge and most
of her strength, and the dragon remained still. She was faced with
an undeniable fact. Myn was dead. The soul had left the body. No
amount of healing could bring it back.

For a moment the world seemed to vanish. The
life threatening cold, the shattered shoulder that trickled blood
down her blue tinged skin, even the shadows and shrieks of the
creatures closing in. All were gone as sorrow seized the very core
of her being. Tears streamed down her face. She cried the dragon's
name, shaking the lifeless body with her good arm until the pendant
that Myn had worn about her neck came free in her hand. Myranda
closed her eyes. Slowly she shook her head. No. This was not how it
would end. Not this way. Not now. She sat on the icy ground beside
the dragon and pulled the staff from her useless left hand.
Distantly she heard Lain and Ivy call after her. She pushed the
sound out of her mind.

Just as she had a few nights before, she
twisted and turned the entirety of her spirit. She could feel the
bonds that held her to her physical form begin to loosen their
grip. The spiritual plane began to replace the physical one.
Finally her spirit tore itself free. Once again she was afloat in a
sea of lights. In the distance, there was the weak and fading glow
that she knew was Myn. She willed herself toward it.

"Myranda, Myn! Get up! We need to run!" Ivy
cried, her eyes darting wildly from dragoyle to dragoyle as they
drew closer.

Ether looked over the scene.

"The fool," she hissed, turning to Lain. "I
suppose that you will not leave this place without the human."

Lain's only response came as an angry glance
before scooping water from the ground to wash away the black mist
from his leg.

Ether raised her hand and the water swept up
around them, freezing together into a shell.

"The ice will keep them from us, but not for
long. The foolish human has left her body," Ether deduced.

"She what? But why?" Ivy asked, jumping as
the first attacks began to rain down upon the protective shell.

"The poison of emotion, and because of you,"
Ether said. "The lizard has died, the human will likely follow, and
all because you were too much of a coward to be of any use to
anyone."

"No . . . I couldn't . . . " Ivy said, fear
giving way to dispair.

"What did you expect? Your emotion crippled
you, and the same wretched weakness has caused all that followed.
You are worthless!" Ether ranted.

"No, I'm not worthless! I'm not!" Ivy cried,
dropping her club, covering her ears, and shutting her eyes.

Ether continued, amid increasingly angry
refusals from Ivy. "You are a horrid, malformed, ignorant
monstrosity. The best thing you could do is die swiftly to allow a
more able being to replace you. As it is, it couldn't be more clear
that you are an agent of the enemy. A plaything of the
D'karon."

Ivy slowly removed her hands and locked Ether
in an infuriated scowl.

"I am NOT one of them," she said. Gone was
the childish tone. Her voice was serious, and carried the hint of
threat.

#

The astral plain is no place for an
unprepared mind. Myranda fought to comprehend it. Time and distance
were different than in the physical realm. She chased after Myn's
spirit, but it was drawn ever further from her, as if by a current.
Here Myranda's urgency was a boon to her focus, not a detriment.
The faster she
wanted
to move, the faster she
did
move. Her will didn't just mean something here, it meant
everything. It
was
everything. She focused entirely upon the
vague form that seemed to retreat as quickly as she could follow. A
galaxy of flickering lights rushed by her. The souls of untold
millions of living things. None of them mattered right now. She
reached out with her left hand. Here, at least, it was healthy. A
few moments more . . . A few inches further . . . contact. Myranda
could suddenly feel the life force of her friend. She grasped it,
drew it near, and turned back. If her last journey into this other
plane was any indication, her strength would not last long.

All that lie ahead was the same sea of
glowing currents and points of light. There was no hint of where
she had been. Nothing that distinguished anything from anything
else. For the second time she had taken a treacherous journey to
rescue her friend, and once again her return seemed impossible. She
searched desperately about. Already her 'vision' was dimming. The
more distant of the lights were fading from view.

#

Back in the battleground that Myranda so
eagerly sought, the argument was continuing. Ether found the
strongest objections came when she implied a connection to the
D'karon, and had thus ceased to do anything else. Ivy's anger
became sharper, more focused. Lain stood with his back to them.
Before him was the weakest point in the icy shield, and his sword
was ready to destroy the creature unlucky enough to be the first
through.

"Do not imagine that you can hide it. I have
taken your shape. I know that there is not an aspect of your
physical being that has not been affected by their machinations,"
Ether taunted.

Suddenly the sharp anger in Ivy's eyes became
brittle, a whisper of fear showing through.

"No . . . can you feel that? It's coming. The
monster . . . " she said. Her tone lacked the edge of her previous
comments, as though the frightened child was trying to fight her
way to the surface.

"I suppose I am to be intimidated. This
imagined monster that destroyed the fort and left only you alive.
Do you think me a fool? The only monster here is you," Ether said
with a smug sneer.

For the whole of the argument, Ether had been
pushing Ivy closer and closer to a line. That line had been
crossed. Her eyes clouded over, eyelids fluttering slightly. A
deep, reverberating growl shook like a tremor. The air began to
grow warmer, until water was running down the icy shield despite
Ether's best efforts to keep it frozen.

"Your parlor tricks do not frighten me,"
Ether said.

Ivy dropped to one knee. Her fingers wrapped
around the handle of the club, clutching the wood so tightly it
creaked. The growl grew into a roar. Finally, there was a burst of
energy. It erupted with a force that shattered the shell of ice,
sending pieces flying dozens of paces. Lain, along with the bodies
of Myranda and Myn, was sent hurtling though the air, sliding to a
stop a fair distance away. Ether's watery form was scattered. She
swiftly gathered herself together, shifting to flame in the
process. When her senses returned to her, they beheld an awesome
sight. Ivy was floating above the ground. A viciously red aura
enveloped her, shifting continuously with the crackle of raw
energy. An unnatural wind stirred her cloak and rippled her long
hair. The club burned where her fingers touched it, the iron barbs
glowing white hot. Her eyes, now featureless orbs of light that
trailed tangible streams of energy, locked onto Ether. The shape
shifter felt the power this creature was spilling off. It was at
least equal to her own at her peak, and she most certainly was well
short of that at the moment. Best to keep her distance.

Ivy suddenly burst forward. Her speed was
astounding. Ether darted directly upward. Ivy followed. The gap
closed quickly, and a monumental swipe of the raging Ivy's cudgel
virtually scattered Ether again. The attack was devastating. She
was forced to shift to air, lest she give out entirely. Ivy halted,
bowing her head and clutching at her chest. A deafening roar of
combined anger and pain left her lips as, through her fingers, the
burning of the mark could be seen. It only lasted for a moment, and
seemed to further fuel the creature's rage. She surged forward
again with renewed force. Like a sparrow pursued by an eagle, Ether
made sudden turns and drops, but to no avail. As all of the
remaining dragoyles took to the air in pursuit of this latest
target, Ether flew toward them, weaving between. Ivy tore through
them with little resistance. One by one, the great black beasts
were reduced to fragments of broken rubble. It was not until no
less than four such collisions had occurred that Ivy's momentum
began to flag. When she slowed, the beasts swarmed. Soon all that
could be seen was a writhing mass of black creatures clustered
about a red glow. Ether hung in the air at a cautious distance,
slowly weighing the risks of remaining until the end of the
battle.