novelxo Chapter 13.5
Inter-Chapter 13.5
Darius….
Need to stay awake…Darius told himself as sleep threatened to overtake him. He shook it away and scanned the cave that they were in. Several warriors were injured and were being tended to by other warriors. He too, had just been treated for his wounds on his chest and stomach and his right leg.
Darius and his warriors were ambushed by sorcerers right after they entered the caves. All the time that they were camping outside the Legin Glacier, the sorcerers were watching over them, waiting to strike. There was no Sheina Inaroam. There never was. Darius didn’t know just how long they have been in those caves but the sorcerers picked up one warrior after the other, ripping their bodies like pieces of cloth. It must have been weeks, months even but it was not easy to tell since they were trapped in the maze of caves. Darius believed the sorcerers must have cast some sort of spell to stop them from escaping because no matter how many times they searched for an exit, they couldn’t find one. They couldn’t flash themselves out either.
Darius wondered just how long the sorcerers were there. They seemed to know they way through the cave maze. Darius was able to injure several sorcerers but they were fast and deadly.
And when they thought things could not get worse, zombie-like warriors appeared and sliced their way through Darius’ team. The dead army was indestructible. Not even a gun nor a blade could keep them from resurrecting and attacking again. Darius had been in a lot of battles but this was one battle where he felt helpless. Cleo was carried away by the sorcerers and when he tried to save her, he was attacked viciously.
“Drink some water, Darius.” Meric came forward with a container of water. The warrior had a patch over one eye where his eye was ripped out by a sorcerer when he tried to keep Alesi safe but the male was able to decapitate the sorcerer and shutter his staff before any more damage was done.
Darius managed to swallow a few gulps of the water before he started choking. His throat felt raw and his wounds were still throbbing with pain. “Thank you.”
Meric nodded and sighed. “An army is making their way to us as we speak. We will be alright.” He placed the analog phone beside Darius.
“Let’s just hope they can find us. When they come, make sure they return Alesi home as soon as possible. That boy does not belong here.” Darius rasped.
Meric’s eyes glowed with regret. “It was wrong for me to bring him here--”
“We didn’t know what we were up against.” Darius didn’t want anyone to carry blame. If someone was to carry it was him because he was the one who was in charge. He made the wrong decision and damned his entire team to hell.
“You need to return to Karah with the wounded.” Meric eyed him suspiciously knowing very well that Darius would not care for himself provided he didn’t know the fate of his warriors.
“I am not leaving until I find Cleo.” Darius said stubbornly.
Meric gritted his teeth. “You can barely stand on your two feet. What help are you to her?”
“It’s because of me that she has been captured.” Darius groaned.
“For all we know, she might already be dead. What we need to concentrate on right now is getting the wounded back home, including you.”
Darius didn’t have the strength to argue. He looked up at Meric and jerked his chin towards his eye. “How is your eye?”
Meric looked down. “I will survive.”
“Get some food and try to rest. I will keep watch for the night.”
“Stubborn son of a bitch.” Meric muttered in defeat.
Darius flashed his teeth at Meric as pain shot up his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed before he felt Meric’s heavy arm land on his shoulder.
“Hang in there, buddy.”
Darius nodded softly. He couldn’t die yet even if he wanted to. Yet again, the heavens rejected his request to die on this battlefield. Even with the severe wounds he got, none of the vital organs were damaged. He remembered his dark past, how his captor always told him that he was favored by the heavens.
“You have the nine lives of a cat,” She said rattling the chains circling his neck and his arms. “The heavens must favor you the most. Death is not your friend at all.”
Darius agreed with her. Unfortunately, it was not the same case with her because her life drained right in front of him until her eyes were sightless and her heart had stopped beating in his palm.
Darius flinched the sour thoughts away. He didn’t want to walk through that memory lane again. Darius walked out of that dungeon a changed male. Sometimes the nightmares plagued him even when he was wide awake. Though Jinns hardly slept, Darius fell asleep like a baby but he never had good dreams. Instead, he re-lived his past over and over again.
Darius’ eyes flipped open again and he realized that Meric was on the other side of the cave they had taken cover. Because of the terrible weather outside, the warriors managed to find their way into an abandoned cave and recuperate while waiting for the rescue team to come and get them.
Meric was chatting with Alesi, making sure the boy was alright. Darius wanted to make sure that by the time the rescue team was there either Cleo or her body was found. He couldn’t leave her there when she trusted him to keep her safe. Darius staggered to his feet. It was a good thing all the warriors were preoccupied by something to notice him staggering out of the cave.
Darius walked through the maze and each entrance looked like the one before. Water dripped from the ceiling with stalactites forming overhead. The ground was damp and it smelled of nothing but death. Darius didn’t have trouble with such places because he had spent a long period of his existence in a very small cell, dark and moldy. His skin rippled with wariness. The entire place was spell-ridden. If they were going to survive leaving those caves, they needed all the help they could get from the Mage.
Darius didn’t know for how long he had been walking around the caves but he knew he couldn’t give up. The least he could do was locate the cave they were holding Cleo so that when the others came he could show them the way. The only thing was that he couldn’t even remember which direction he came from. His muscles ached after he took a thorough beating from a sorcerer. Good thing was that by the time they were done with their brawl, only he remained standing.
The further he walked through the caves, the louder the dripping of the water got. A small stream was running on the ground and his boots were ankle-deep into the water. Darius frowned lightly as he turned back to where he was from. What if this stream led to the outside of the caves? Or maybe it was just an underground stream leading to nowhere….
Darius couldn’t shake the curiosity as to where the stream led so he followed it slowly. A cold crisp draft seeped into his bones. In the heart of the cave labyrinth, it was warmer and more enduring although the air smelled like poison but so far no one dropped dead from breathing it in.
Darius felt he was getting closer to something; maybe the way out but his heart sank when he heard the crystal sound of plunging water. He walked to the edge and looked down at the pool that was formed by the running water in front of him. The pool was dark with black waters. This was the end of the bloody stream, he thought as he looked around for any crevice leading to the outside world. There was nothing.
“Fucking hell…” He muttered and he turned back but then he realized something and turned slowly towards the pool again.
Why was it, even though water was running into the pool, the pool wasn’t overflowing? Darius crouched down and studied the body of water and if he wasn’t looking properly, he would have missed the gleaming of light underneath the dark waters.
The pool was draining its waters somewhere and he was going to find out the exit--
“She is a tough nut to crack.” The voice made Darius’ head snap up.
“I doubt she knows anything. She hasn’t said a word until now.” Another voice answered.
Darius stepped into the shadows, an alcove in the darkest corner of the cave and watched as two sorcerers entered his line of sight. The female had black hair and her body was covered with dark marks. She had piercing blue eyes and her stuff glowed eerie amber. She wore black robes that flowed to the ground. The male had sandy hair with grey eyes. He too, was covered with the strange symbols and his staff had an emerald stone.
Darius was very sure they were talking about Cleo. So, she was still alive. He needed to get to her before they decided to end her life.
“What do you think Rowan will do to her?” The male asked the female.
The sorceress shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t care less about what happened to Cleo. “If he doesn’t get what he needs from her, he will kill her. She is wasting our time anyway. The Ghouls have already arrived in Karah. The dead army is getting ready to move out.”
“Let’s go and make sure that everything is going according to plan.” He sorcerer said.
“What about the surviving warriors within these caves?′ The sorceress asked as she knocked her staff onto the ground. Something shifted on the earth but Darius didn’t know what.
The sorcerer sneered. “They are as good as dead. No one who trespasses in here leaves the caves alive.”
Darius smiled wickedly as his tattoos solidified into sharp-ended crystal-like spears and shot forward severing the sorcerer’s head clean off his shoulders.
The sorceress screamed but Darius’ tattoos wound themselves around her small neck. “Make any noise and you are dead.” Darius hissed as he stepped out of the shadows.
Some of the tattoos picked up the staff of the dead sorcerer and shuttered it. During the battle with them, he learned that they could always come back if their staff was still intact.
He turned to the pool and discovered that the water had drained revealing what looked like crude steps.
“Is this the exit?” Darius asked the female but she defiantly tipped her chin at him.
Darius’ tattoos tightened around her neck and her eyes widened. The symbols on her skin began shimmering and slithering off her and Darius knew he was in for a little trouble.
“You can’t escape this place.” She hissed at him as she started clawing the tattoos with her claws.
Darius didn’t even flinch. He was too busy watching the black inky substance crawling away into the cave walls. He turned to her again. “What did you do?”
The sorceress grinned cruelly at him. “You will soon find out.”
Darius didn’t have the patience to deal with her. “I think not.”
He twisted her head and her neck snapped. Her staff dropped from her hands and it already started pulsing so Darius tossed the sorceress away and stabbed the staff with his tattoos until it shuttered and the stone on it stopped glowing. He heard a screeching sound in the walls as a black pungent smell escaped.
Darius turned to the steps again and breathed in. The crisp air that was coming from it must have be coming from outside. It was much colder than the caves’ air. Darius descended down into the darkened area. His boots knocked lightly on the ground and he discovered it was cobbled. The small stream was still flowing down and from a distance he could see a beam of light penetrating the darkness. Darius walked slowly towards it and saw the small crack on the wall where the water was slipping out. Darius extended his hand and touched the crevice and suddenly, the ground underneath him trembled as the crack widened.
Darius watched in awe as the crack opened up and revealed the white world outside. Grey clouds hung low around the mountain, rendering it invisible to the untrained eye. The air was cool, crisp but fresh. Darius closed his eyes and breathed it in. He had never thought he would be that glad to get out of those caves.
As he scanned around the vast whiteness of the land in front of him, he noticed what looked like flickering light at the distance from where he was.
There was also movement and what looked like trucks and warriors. Could it be that Rowan was moving out already or was it the rescue team? From where he stood, he could see all angles of the Legin Glacier. This must have been where the sorcerers and Rowan watched them as they prepared to enter the caves.
Darius flinched as his wounds throbbed. Now that he was out of the caves, he felt the nasty gapes stitching themselves closed slowly. Even the fever that he had was lowering.
Darius tried to flash himself closer to the camp in front of him, taking cover behind the frozen bushes with icicles hanging down and making a crystal sound every time the wind blew and they collided against each other. Darius narrowed his eyes and watched the camp.
Centaurs stomped their hooves as they carried the heavy stuff around the camp. Several Mage levitated around trying to sense any energy in the air. They were never going to find anything because Rowan was very powerful and somehow managed to live and work in the caves without anyone knowing.
There were Jinns and shifters setting up camp and reading maps trying to find a way. Relief coursed through Darius’ blood as he staggered out of his hiding spot towards them.
The warriors stood up in alert, aiming their guns and whatever else they had at him. Darius stopped and smiled wickedly at them putting his hands up.
“You sure took your fucking time!” He snarled at them.
“Darius!” Darius recognized two of the three warriors approaching him; Saigon and Leon but he had no idea who the blond Mage with a black cloak around him was. When he removed the hood from his face, Darius could have sworn he was female….if it weren’t for the flat chest. “Every body stand down!” Saigon waved to his warriors.
Darius’ body finally gave way and he found himself sprawled onto the ground. “Why aren’t you in there kicking those witches’ asses?”
Saigon scowled at him but was able to help him up. “We can’t find an entrance to the caves. We have a team scouting around for any possible entry.”
“Those sons of bitches.” Darius chuckled realizing that the sorcerers must have hidden the entrance. “There are several warriors inside still alive….one of my warriors has been captured and I have a feeling they might kill her pretty soon. You guys need to get in there and get them out. I’ll take you to the entrance.”
“Alright, but you need help first--”
“We don’t have time!” Darius rasped turning to Saigon. “We need to go now.”
“Perhaps I can make him comfortable enough for now until he rescue his team.” The pretty Mage came forward, his locks tumbling over his shoulders.
Was it even allowed for a male to have such a pretty face like that, Darius wondered in irritation.
“Go ahead, Constantine.” Saigon sighed and nodded.
Constantine….Darius watched as the male came forward and pale green orbs of energy began pulsing from his hands. His energy seeped into him, reducing the pain and closing up most of the worst wounds. The energy penetrated into his blood, energizing him and removing the fever and fatigue.
“There.” Constantine looked up at him and smiled grimly and Darius realized he did not want to ever get caught on the wrong side with this male. His eyes were dark and mysterious and they were those of a male with no heart and a fading soul--just like him. “I used very little energy so that you don’t pass out while your body recuperates.”
Darius opened his mouth to say something but Constantine was already gone.
“That is one very dangerous male, Saigon.” Darius said as he stretched and cracked his bones back into place.
Saigon grunted in agreement as they watched Constantine disappear into the sea of warriors. “Come with me for a moment. We need to make a plan if we are going to succeed rescuing your team and preventing the sorcerers from getting to Karah--”
The shaking of the earth stopped everyone on their tracks and they all turned to the icy peak of the Legin Glacier. Everything went silent for a split second then suddenly screeches rang into the emptiness of the land as hundreds upon hundreds of sorcerers flew out. Some looked like they had wings, others held their staffs forward, the stones of them pulsing with the evil energy that made everyone’s skin crawl.
“What the fuck!” Both Saigon and Darius muttered.
Leon suddenly stepped forward and his face morphed into that of the real Nosferatu; red orbs replaced his eyes, his fangs lengthened to his chin and his nails elongated into claws. The Mage within Saigon’s team levitated under Constantine’s command and they began shielding their camp from the sorcerers’ eyes.
More sorcerers poured out of the caves heading into the skies.
“I think we are too late.” Darius turned to Saigon.
“No, we are not. Dragons, Phoenix, shifters, take to the sky!” Saigon cried.
The dragon’s bodies enlarged as they underwent their transformation. The phoenix burst into flames and soar into the skies while what looked like eagles, bats and even sphinx followed right behind towards the sorcerers.
Darius watched as the two teams collided in the sky. Flames flew in each direction. Bodies began plummeting to the ground as they dragons burned their way through the sorcerers’ population.
“Constantine, get your Mage into those caves and get those warriors out.” Saigon barked then turned to Darius. “Take them in--” he removed his double guns from the small of his back. “--I will take care of those.”
Darius turned to see what Saigon was pointing at and the army of the dead was making their way towards them. Darius nodded and turned to Constantine. “Let’s get going.”
As he turned towards the caves, Darius found himself levitating above the army of the dead. They threw their swords and arrows at them but the Mage rebuffed them with their energies as they raced towards the caves.
The place that once was white, serene and quiet was now stained with red and black blood, bodies, cries and smells of death.
Darius scanned for the entrance. He just hoped that Meric didn’t go too far searching for him. He could almost see his furious face. For all he knew was that Meric was going to give him a thorough beating first.
“There’s the entrance.” Darius pointed to the tunnel he crawled from.
Constantine nodded and turned to his Mage. He gestured that they went down and soon they were all descending towards the tunnel. Darius sighed inwardly. Soon, all this was going to be over. Now, all he had to do was find where Cleo was being held and rescue her before everything went berserk. Cleo had gone through a lot in the hands of the Noble who took her. Anymore torture and she was bound to break. Darius didn’t want that to happen, especially since she had already begun opening up a bit and allowing people around her. He was not going to stand there and watch her fall. He was going to do everything he could to bring her back.
That was his promise to her.