Asharielle and the Hidden Realm, page 27
“Eviath.”
“Mmmm.”
She didn't really know what she was going to say to the woman, but as her mouth opened, it was the words of the phoenix that sprang to mind.
“I don’t know what our future holds,” she began, “but earlier today, Phoenix said that everything was about to change. I find that hard to fathom. My life has already become so different from what it used to be. You’re like a prophet or something, aren’t you? Can’t you just look for me? Do we save Ryder? Will my brother be okay? Do we defeat Kyron?”
Eviath’s smile was gentle as she pulled the bucket onto her lap and twisted in her chair. “I’m not a fortune teller, Asharielle. I can’t just look into a crystal ball and tell you about your future on command. My gift doesn’t work like that. Any prophecy I get only relates to the larger plan—that of our survival. Sometimes, the foretelling offers critical information; sometimes, the clue is so small that I only see how it fits after the event has occurred. I’m sorry. I cannot give you what you want.”
“Argh,” Asharielle grumbled, letting out some of her frustration. “I have so many unanswered questions and I am trying to be as patient as possible but there is always so much going on that I never seem to have time to find anything out.” She turned the skimmer to follow The Guardian to the left, and unable to stop herself, she let her concerns spill from her lips.
“Plus, Ryder is dying, and I keep hoping that we will get to Dragon in time for him to be healed but his illness has required we deviate from our original quest. We were meant to be going to Scotland to get something, but we’re not, which is fine because I want Ryder to live…but now we seem to be drawing further away from saving my brother and Janice and Josh. How do you think they’re doing? Jack’s so little and I keep picturing him in your arms that day with his malnourished body and vacant expression.”
“Now that I can help with,” Eviath said. “I can tell you that the longer Kyron chases us, the safer all his captives are. As we discussed on the plane, Jack is quite traumatised. His body has recovered but his mind is shattered. But I want you to know this, Asharielle. Before Kyron sent me away, Jack spoke to me. It took him a while, but he recognised you at the portal wall that day. I know this because I have been helping his mind heal by giving him peaceful visions of my home to replace the traumatic images that plague him. I was talking about an item I needed to get back and he said to me in the tiniest whisper, ‘Me Shari back.’ I can tell you that it has given me hope that he will recover.”
Eviath reached across and grasped her hand with her pinkie finger—the only part of her hand that was unburnt—and it was only then that Asharielle realised she was crying.
Eviath continued, “Remember that Kyron has a plan for your brother. And know that Jack will be okay because he is one tough little kid, just like his big sister. I can also promise you that when the time is right, I will take you to get him—and Josh and Amira. But you must be patient, for there is much to do before then.”
“Wait, you just said Amira… But she’s dead…”
“Actually, she’s not. Kyron used the red hue to glamour her, so it only looked like she had died. She is also trapped in his lair, but I have no idea how she fares because, unlike Josh, he is keeping her in his secret lab where only he is allowed to enter.”
“Are you sure, Eviath?”
“I am indeed.”
“Well, that is both good and bad news then, isn’t it?” Her heart bled for everyone Kyron had taken. It was unfair, and right now, she was unable to help any of them. She felt joy that Amira was still alive, but she had to stop herself from thinking about all the ways that Kyron could hurt her.
“Hey, you forgot my aunt.”
“Asharielle, strengthen your shields now!” Nick’s amplified voice roared down from the skies above. Instinct made her obey. She strengthened the walls of the cabin just as a loud boom sounded off to her left. Dirt and trees exploded with a concussive wave of hue that swept toward her skimmer. Was it another earthquake? Thinking quickly, she absorbed it, just as another explosion sounded to her right. She didn’t know what was happening. For a second, she wondered whether Nick was testing her again, but as she looked up, she saw that he had landed on the surface of the craft.
“Don’t look behind, Asharielle,” he said urgently, “but Kyron has caught up to us.”
Of course, she turned around! How could she not?
Fear gripped her as she noted the red skimmer about four hundred metres away.
“Incoming!” she called as a grenade landed in the grey void behind them. The explosion was deafening. Her hands covered her ears as shrapnel sliced through the air and ricocheted off the back shield of the skimmer. A tiny scream erupted from her mouth, and she jerked her head back to the front, then up to the roof, where the sound of her name kept coming from Nick’s mouth.
“Asharielle, you need to concentrate. The Guardian is going to go as fast as he can, and you must keep up with him. Keep your shields strong and remember what I taught you. Absorb as much hue as you can, for we may very soon need to use it. Kyron hasn’t worked out what you can do yet and he is only throwing hue grenades, which you can absorb if they get too close. Do you think you might be able to shield The Guardian as well?”
“I can try, Nick,” she replied but he didn’t even pause to see if she was capable or not; he turned to Eviath and gave her instructions as well.
“Wake Ryder if you can. Make it look like he is controlling the craft. We can’t let Kyron know that Asharielle can use hue. Also, watch our rear. Keep an eye on Kyron and let Asharielle know if the ammunition becomes real.”
Eviath nodded and got out of her seat. She shook Ryder’s shoulders hard enough that her blisters burst. Noticing this, Nick leaned in through the sunroof and touched her forehead. Magic erased the burns on her hands and replaced them with fresh skin. Asharielle wished Nick could do that for her headache, but there was no way she would ask at a time like this.
“Thanks,” Eviath said, but Nick had turned his gaze back on her.
“Remember, Asharielle, that it is not you that Kyron wants. It is The Guardian. This will be the first time in eons that he has laid eyes on him, and it will be enough to make him greedy and unpredictable. Be prepared, and Asharielle…” He waited until she met his eyes. “Should Kyron draw close, no matter how he taunts you, no matter how much you might want to—do not turn and look at him!”
“Why—” she began, but Nick had shot up into the sky. “Eviath, what did he mean?”
“You’ve changed since he last saw you, Asharielle.”
“So?”
“Later,” Eviath said, “or your questions could get us all killed. Just focus on the tasks Nick gave you.”
Drive and strengthen the skimmer, absorb hue, and shield The Guardian. She repeated them like a mantra. It was the only thing that kept the fear squeezing her insides at bay. Like a hawk, she followed The Guardian, ignoring the shattering blast of grenades as they exploded all around her.
Nick had given her tasks to complete, and she did them now. First, she strengthened the walls of her skimmer until they were like titanium. Next, she directed her attention to The Guardian. He needed protection, so she created a hemispherical shield that travelled with him as he moved. It hung above him and sat at a forty-five-degree angle to help deflect any explosive ordinance that came from above, behind or from the sides.
“Asharielle, I can’t wake him,” Eviath called out, cutting into her thoughts. “Can you help in any way?”
“Maybe,” she answered. “Can you stand back from him for a second?”
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Eviath step back. Utilising the hue flooding his body, she zapped him with a charge of energy equivalent to what she thought might constitute a painful electric shock. His body went rigid, and his eyes flew open.
Leaving Eviath to apprise him of their situation, she spun back around just as a grenade exploded a metre in front of the skimmer. Trying not to overreact, she absorbed the shockwave. It was starting to feel as if she were caught in an apocalyptic war zone.
“Almost there, Asharielle. Stay close to me,” The Guardian said just as a grenade hit his shield and shattered. The barrier she had constructed for him held, though her satisfaction was tempered by the knowledge that if she failed to maintain her shielding, she would put them all in very real danger. Glancing up, she found Nick high in the air just behind and to the left of her skimmer. He was throwing massive fireballs at Kyron’s craft. Though afraid, she couldn't stop the sense of awe that washed over her at the sight. Nick was attacking Kyron to draw his fire and deflect the attack from her craft and The Guardian.
His bravery fuelled her determination, and she knew she couldn’t falter now. Nick needed her. Drive and strengthen the skimmer, absorb hue, and shield The Guardian, she repeated.
They just had to make it to the doorway in time.
Chapter 33
Kyron was bored. Even the thrill of gorging himself on hue could not stop the disappointment he felt as their prey continued to elude him. He had stepped through the portal anticipating a fight, but he had not expected to find that the landscape held no trace of their passing. Were it not for Janak’s ability to sense the girl, he could have wandered about Sanctuary for days looking for a scent. Letting the Kryak’s nose guide them, he had set a punishing speed for the skimmer to catch up, stopping for half an hour at dawn each day to allow his militia to complete ablutions and toileting. It had yielded results. Two days ago, Rychek had picked up the scent of human, but the trail was faint.
Since then, he had amused himself with various scenarios of his upcoming encounter with Asharielle and Ryder. He longed to see the look on her face as she was confronted by his newest Kryak. Janak was a fine beast and she had just finished the last of her injections this morning. Though he knew he couldn’t kill the girl until he ripped the unicorn from her, his favourite vision ended with her aunt tearing her head from her shoulders.
As for Ryder, Kyron hoped that he would morph into the dragon again. It had been a shock to see the creature standing before him in the forest. Even in the chronicles of his world, such beings were pure myth. How had one ended up on this planet? If he could capture it and understand, control, manipulate or subjugate its power, then his plans for the future could progress more quickly than he anticipated. He was unsure if he could defeat such a being, but for the first time in eons, he was eager to try. He would make any excuse to unleash the hue that had filled every cell in his body to explosive capacity.
The last time he had this much power, an ocean of corpses had littered the ground beneath his feet. Though The Guardian had thwarted him, it was his stolen hue that entombed his unconscious form in the rubble of his lair. The future he woke in was so devoid of blue hue that he knew his own supply needed rationing. He had rebuilt his lab, then transferred most of his red hue into the containment facility, leaving only a trace running through his veins. It had been a brutal existence, drawing only a drop every now and then, when all he wanted was to take all the hue and burn the world with it.
Now, thanks to Sanctuary, he was full—so full that his skin had turned red. The thought that Sanctuary held merely a trickle when compared to the unlimited source The Guardian contained aroused him, and he wished he had not sent Erith away. Such gluttony had fanned the embers of his greed into a raging inferno that hungered for more—always more!
Political, religious, royal, or monetary subjugation held no interest for him. If he had, he would have killed his brother and taken the throne of Kata’bothron for himself. But the Kata were pompous and ruling them would have bored him. His experiments at ruling humans here on Earth had taught him that. Lording it over humanity was as thrilling as being worshipped by ants. He didn’t need their idolatry; he just needed their bodies.
After all, he had bred them to be batteries. Their purpose was to generate hue so that he could drain them. Doing so would make him the most powerful entity in all of creation.
Jack was his first success story, but he needed more—and once this world had been converted…
“Sir, there is a bird on the horizon.” The staccato voice of his military commander snapped him out of his fantasies. The commander pointed and Kyron followed his finger. A dark speck moved across the distant sky. Nodding in acknowledgement, he adjusted their direction and increased his speed to try to catch up to it. Rychek sprang off the skimmer at his command and melted into the foreground. She would scout ahead and report anything unusual.
Staring at the horizon, Kyron wondered whether the dot in the sky might be a drone. Using the hue to enhance his vision, he ruled it out. It was a bird, but even with magnification, he could not identify the species. All he could see was the up and down movement of wings. He needed to get closer.
As the first living thing to appear in Sanctuary, it gave him hope that his foe was also close by. Perhaps their passage had disturbed its nest? He dismissed the thought as they had not seen a single animal over the last few days. It was more likely that Ryder had brought the creature into Sanctuary with him, though for what purpose he could not say.
As the craft approached the tree line of a forest, Rychek burst out from its depths and held up a hand in warning. Slowing the skimmer, he approached with caution. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the militia had sprung to their feet and taken defensive positions as they waited for Rychek to report.
“Master, I have found their passage,” Rychek lisped. “But there is something you must see.”
“Proceed,” Kyron commanded. Rychek turned and loped at a slower pace through the woodland.
“For the first time, Master, I have picked up traces of animals, but their smell is unlike any I have scented before. I also detect Erith, Ryder, the girl, and someone else—and then there is this…” the Kryak hissed as she emerged from the other side of the forest.
Kyron stopped the craft at the edge of the tree line and gazed across a dying field at the large grey road of nothingness that cut through Sanctuary. Larger than a four-lane highway, it headed in the same direction as the bird. The area was drained of hue.
Ryder had stolen his idea!
How had he known? The power was meant to be all his… How dare Ryder take it from him! It made his teeth clench and his blood boil, for he knew that even now, Ryder would have that cocky grin spread over his face at the thought of slowing him down. His hands fisted as he imagined throwing Ryder to the ground and smashing his face to a bloody pulp. Then he would stomp on his head until there was nothing but meat and tiny bone fragments wedged into the tread marks of his boots. He kicked the cage in front of him, startling Janak, who snarled in warning as she backed away from his rage.
Had he been travelling at speed, his craft would have skimmed straight onto it and stalled. It would have forced him to recycle his own power back into the craft to keep it moving. Rychek had done well to alert him. He nodded once to acknowledge her good work then tilted his head left, indicating the direction in which he wanted her to scout. She disappeared into the terrain bordering the road. She had their scent now and would not lose them.
Kyron turned left and travelled along the edge of the grey void where the hue was present but weak. Their journey was slow, and he was forced to cut the energy he was absorbing for himself. He would never catch them this way. He needed a better solution. He looked back at his path of destruction through Sanctuary. Unlike Ryder’s grey road, his channel was a river of darkness that continued to drain energy. Wisps of hue channelled through to his skimmer from the already sick landscape and the dome barrier…
The dome barrier… The thought made him look up as an idea took hold of him. Why not tap into it? The hue stored within it would have to be significant to keep this dimension separate from the real world. Sanctuary would be destroyed much quicker but what did he care? The tremors shaking the land had not affected his craft at all.
His hands shot skyward and pulled down the hue in the barrier. The energy was a lightning bolt to his heart. It smashed into him, and he quivered with pleasure as the crystals on his brow and wrists glowed red.
“Brace yourselves,” he informed his militia, not waiting to see if they complied as he directed the energy back into the skimmer. It took off like a fighter jet. The craft raced over the ailing land, unaffected by the lack of hue in the ground. As the bird grew larger against the skyline, Kyron’s breathing grew feverish; it was hard to stay calm when the anticipation of battle thrummed inside him. Magnifying his vision, he focused on the bird and swore in surprise at the sight that filled his eyes.
Chapter 34
“What the hell?” A winged human—a boy—flew in the sky ahead. Never had Kyron seen such a creature before, but he wanted it. His tongue swirled back and forth over his lips as he watched the boy with an incredible wingspan glide through the air. What mutation had manifested in this child’s genetics? Oh, to be able to have him on his lab table… What a captivating Kryak he would make! But the child’s presence also meant…
His whole body jittered with excitement as a light bulb of understanding flicked on in his head. Though he couldn’t see them yet, Kyron knew he had found Ryder and Asharielle. The hunt was on! Making sure that the craft only drew energy from the dome, Kyron moved onto the grey void and raced after them. Through enlarged eyes, he saw the winged boy turn and hover mid-flight, before diving to warn his companions.
Without hesitation, Kyron threw a hue grenade at him. It exploded to the left of a skimmer that looked similar to his, except Ryder’s craft had a roof on which the boy now perched. Exhilarated by the chase, Kyron lobbed more grenades at the vehicle. There was no strategy to it. It was just fun, and he allowed himself to revel for a moment in the ecstasy of channelling hue as a weapon.
