The Druid's Spear (Ascent of the Gem Bearers Book 1) (30 page)

Keep moving.

Ken started weakly, hearing his mother’s voice.

Keep moving.

The despair that had clouded his mind retreated under the impact of those two words. Did he want to honor the memory of his mother? Was John’s death to go unpunished? Staring at Rin writhing in agony, he pressed his lips together. Was he going to let his
sensei
to die a miserable death after all she had done for him? Was Alderic’s death so meaningless that he would just
stand
here and wait to die?

Ken, keep moving!

Standing up despite the weight of the heated air, he went to Rin and yanked her to her feet. She cried out at the abuse but he ground his teeth and ignored it.

“Help me out this one last time,” he told her.

With his last ounce of will, he tapped into the electricity in the air to himself. The hair along their bodies stood on end as static electricity began to build. Rin’s hands tightened in his. Wind flowed once more in the room.

Ludovicus turned. Since a few moments ago, he’d grown half a foot taller, nearly ten feet. Ken and Rin took a step toward him, the effort similar to walking through a wall of wax. But then they took another step.

“What do you two think you’re doing?”

Focusing, the static sparked and the wind grew in intensity. The temperature climbed up, causing more steam to lift from the surface. But Ken pushed further.

He kept moving.

The nearer they came to Ludovicus, electricity and wind coalesced into a suspended ball of lightning floating it front of them. Arcs of lightning flagellated the walls. It acted as a shield, turning away the oppressive heat. Ken took in a gulp of air and felt his skin began to cool.

Ludovicus snarled as they approached, Rin’s hand still locked in his. Wind and electricity coiled around each other, similar to a Tesla ring. With a downward nod of his head, Ken sent the coil lunging forward in a burst of energy. It collided with the ball before them and they merged into a single beam that landed in the middle of the Druman’s chest. It lifted the almost ten foot adversary into the air and flattened him against a wall.

Wild, raspy shouts erupted from Ludovicus’s mouth as the beam seemed drive into his chest. Scales, charred and burned, flaked off his body. His limbs danced crazily. Then the beam abruptly dissipated as Ken’s will weakened from exhaustion. Ludovicus landed on the ground, fracturing the earth.

He twitched once and didn’t move again.

Rin allowed the tension in her shoulders to ease as both she and Ken relaxed to the ground.

The Elder had been right. She had been able to defeat Ludovicus. “We did it!”

Ken laughed, covering his face with his hand. “I can’t believe it.”

“We did it!” she cried out again, the words echoing eerily in the chamber. A sharp shooting pain struck her and she winced. All her aches howled now that the rush of power and adrenaline had gone. Her body felt like a throbbing sore.

Shifting to her side, she studied the man beside her. Her student had excelled well. The uses of his power, his quick thinking, and even his rashness had all worked together to bring about this success. She thought back to the night when they carried him away from the city, a bruised, broken man of both mind and body. Now, look at him. He’d brought about a Druman’s end.

And saved her life.

Without conscious thought, she reached out and clasped his arm. Ken faced her, the light brown eyes questioning.

“Rin?”

Sitting up into kneeling position, she gave him a formal bow, her head touching the floor.
“Domo arigato,
Kenzo—
sama
.”

A wet sheen appeared in his eyes and his Adam’s apple moved. Scrambling, and hissing from the result of his own aches and pain, he returned the gesture. “
Domo arigato
, Uchida—
sensei
.”

They stared at each other. Rin took in the face with its scars and blisters. Strange, she had never really looked at him before. He was handsome in a quiet, understated way. Beneath the grime, his angular chin and cheekbones meshed with curly, almost feminine lashes.

Why was she just now seeing this?
Ken broke eye contact. “We should get out of here.”

She blinked. “
Hai
.” Warmth flooded her face.

They rose and stretched, grimacing as their bodies protested. “Looks like it’s going to take more than a few hours to heal this time,” Ken observed.

Rin nodded. “You’re right.”

Seeing Ludovicus’s prone body on the ground sent a wave of satisfaction through her. “I’m going over to make sure he’s dead.”

“He is dead,” Ken rebutted. “You’re just going over there to gloat.”

She turned away from him, shocked to know it was true. A part of her, a tiny, miniscule part, just wanted to see the results of their handiwork.

“Neither of us could have taken him down by ourselves,” she said as she made her way there. “But working together, we did what we had to do.”

“What are we going to do with his body?”

Rin squatted down next to Ludovicus as she glanced up at Ken. “
Senpai
will know what to do—”

Something constricted around her throat, squeezing hard and cutting off her oxygen. Wheezing and gagging, she was lifted into the air. She came face to face with the gloating, glowing, iridescent eyes of Ludovicus alive.

Rin lashed out, trying to kick at him with her feet. She scraped at his arm and hand.

A cruel, utterly merciless smile, the first she’d ever seen in from him, wreathed his face in a macabre mask. He drew her to him until they were nose to nose. His long forked tongue licked her cheek, the moistness from it making her skin crawl.

“I guess I’m not dead, am I?”

When Ludovicus licked Rin, the blood pulsed through Ken’s veins like rivers of fire. “Let her go!”

The weakness saturated his body but he fought it off. Now was not the time to succumb. But he couldn’t risk an attack. “Let her go!” he yelled again.

Rin continued to fight while she gagged for air. Each gag pierced his heart.

Ludovicus swiveled his head, sneering toward Ken. Quick as a flash, he raised Rin into the air and slammed her into the ground. Blood jumped out of her mouth and fell in a slashing motion on her cheeks.

Still she continued to choke and gag.

Ice cold fear drove him forward. “Ludovicus, no!”

The Druman smirked and slammed her once more into the ground.

Ken wanted to do something, anything. But he felt helpless due to Rin’s proximity to the creature torturing her. Amber gold eyes met his. They were wide with fear, an emotion he’d never seen before in them.

“Please, stop.” Ken begged, falling to his knees. “I’ll do anything. Please stop.”

Rin suddenly gulped in air greedily, although Ludovicus’ hand did not leave her neck. Ken’s relief was short lived though.

“You’re going to watch as I kill her. Then, I’m going to kill you—just like I did your grandfather.”

The temperature of the room once more began to rise. Rin screamed and then it was cut off as Ludovicus tightened his hold on her throat. The intensity of hate had curled his lips from the fangs, exposing them to be sharp as knives. Hissing, the Druman bent down till he touched his nose to Rin’s. Though his voice was low, Ken could hear him say, “I’m going to squeeze the life out of you.”

The grip around her neck tightened even further. Her gasping grew fainter, her struggling dissipating. Ken ran toward them, desperate now to do anything to stop Ludovicus but then Rin’s weak attempts at freedom ceased. Her head lolled to the side. The amber eyes stared at him...lifeless.

For an instant, Ken couldn’t breathe. His heart stopped beating.

Rin’s amber eyes still remained lifeless.

Something snapped inside of him. It was a physical sensation and yet he sensed it was more to it than that. His grip on reality had gone.

A roar filled the cavity. He didn’t realize it was from him until it stopped. But by that time, he was running toward Ludovicus, rage unlike anything he’d ever experienced imbuing him with power. The Druman stood and used Rin’s body as shield but Ken jumped into air, the room spinning about crazily. He flipped and landed behind him. A bolt of lightning exploded from his hand and into his enemy, its brilliance flooding the room. The impact was so great Ludovicus’s grip loosened on Rin’s body and he flew into the air.

Rin’s body crumbled to the ground like a wooden puppet. Tears streaming down his face, Ken hefted her onto his back and raced out the door.

Running back the way he came, forgotten prayers and wishes floated through his mind. Among them was a constant litany.
Rin, don’t be dead. Rin, don’t be dead.

When he came to the room where Kaluwa’s form lay inert, he remembered to take the right tunnel. It led him upward at a rapid pace. The weight of Rin’s body gave flight to his feet as he ran up the steps.

Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.

Soon he was out of the monstrous cave. The rain had gone and the bodies of the guard lay exactly where they had been.

Ken rushed into the forest to place where the Elder was supposed to be. “Senpai!” he called. “Where are you?”

Wildly he looked around, but the old man was nowhere to be seen.

Swiftly but gently he lowered Rin to the ground and began to perform CPR. “Don’t leave me,” he begged. “Please don’t leave.” He performed the measures over again and again, her body remaining unresponsive. “Rin. Rin. Rin. Come back to me.’

Tears and memories blurred his vision. The long burnished hair flying in the air as she drop kicked him. Those slender fingers fisting as she punched and almost broke his nose. Amber gold eyes, soft with concern. The full lips spitting into the face of a wolf.

She couldn’t be dead. Visions of his mother and John came forward and he cried hard.

“I’ve lost too much,” he screamed at her. “I can’t lose you, too.”

Rin lay there, still as stone.

“No!” he wailed, beating on her chest. “No!” Crying, he wrapped her in his arms and buried face into her throat and wept for the life lost.

His fingertips tingled, so light he almost didn’t feel the tiny sparks except for the fact that Rin’s body jerked against him. Pressed so tightly against her throat, he would have had to be numb not to feel the light flutter of a pulse.

“Rin!”

Carefully, he lay her back down and pressed his hands against her chest.

In another world, at another time, he’d probably get a nosebleed right now, but he focused on sending a soft gentle burst of electricity to her. He bent his head to her heart and heard it beat.

Ken covered his face with his hands and wept. Rin was alive.

A few moments later, she coughed and he lifted his head. Her eyes fluttered, the amber gold bright once more with life.

“Ken?”

“You’re alive.” He wiped the tears from his cheeks, although more simply took up their place.

She started to rise. “What happened? We were—”

“Shhh,” he admonished and forced her back down. “Relax. Just for a second.”

The sun chose to shine then, highlighting the sores along her arms, neck, and face. But they would heal. They would heal.

Struck by the truth of that hope, he reached down grabbed her in his arms. He kissed her forehead.

Rin stiffened within his embrace but then she relaxed. Her arms came up and clutched him to her.

When Ken set her down again, she asked. “Is he dead? Is Ludovicus dead?”

He froze. He’d forgotten all about Ludovicus after he blasted him with the lightning.

“Rin, I—”

The ground shook violently and the trees swayed threatening above them.

“Is it an earthquake?” Rin sat up.

Ken didn’t answer, wondering whether it was Kaluwa up to her tricks.

Just then an explosion occurred from inside the cave. Rocks, gravel, and dust flew out from its maw. The ground continued to rumble. Ken grabbed Rin and dragged her to feet. “Ah!”

She yelped and grabbed her head. “My head feels like it’s cracked.”

He said nothing but lifted her into his arms and ran as far as he could away from the cave. Looking back, he saw a wave undulate the forest floor, sending trees crashing down. Some toppled above him and they had a very narrow escape when one landed a few feet in front of them. He jumped over it.

Another explosion, but it came from above him. Ken skidded to a stop, his lungs heaving. “It’s above us. Can you lift us into the air?”

The aura was weaker than before, but the orb surrounded them and they rose to the top of the canopy. There, they saw in the distance a cloud of ash floating in the wind, but that wasn’t what held their attention.

“
Iie
.
Iie
.” Rin moaned.

A black and purple dragon flew in a circle above the erupted volcano. Sunlight washed over the body, its scales gleaming like dark crystals. Wings, as wide as twenty feet long, glided in the wind. Powerful legs and arms curled, tipped by curved, glassy black talons.

It swiveled its head and both he and Rin gasped. Ludovicus had regained his dragon form.

With a cry, the dragon circled once more around the mountain and then flew up into the sky behind the cloud cover.

Ken turned to Rin. “What are we going to do?”

Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.” The aura of the blue orb lessened as it lowered itself to the now still ground.

The eerie cry of the dragon echoed above them. They watched as it flew directly into the sun until it was little more than a black dot, disappearing into the horizon.

THE END OF BOOK ONE