Breaking Stars (Book 2) (16 page)

“She will,” Gabriel said, sitting up. “It formed a kind of unconscious-rendering gas, though I thought it should take longer to form…” he trailed off, thinking. “Once it gets out of her lungs, she will wake.”

“I never studied air in these forms,” Nolen said as if trying to make himself feel better. “Never how it was formed, just what I could do with it.”

“So that poor fool inhaled the mixture, fell asleep, and then never woke up because he continued to breathe it? He starved to death?” Mikelle asked.

Kindle gave a stir, and her eyes fluttered open for a moment. Nolen rushed to her, falling to a knee and taking up her hand. “Can you hear me?”

“What happened?” she whispered. “My head is splitting.”

“Did you drop her?” he snapped at Gabriel.

“She fell you great lout,” Mikelle interjected and turned to Kindle. “Mage Gabriel rescued you and carried you out. Looked like something out of a dream with the air above him burning and him skidding on the ice holding you safe.” She sighed. “So romantic.”

Nolen looked at her as though he smelled something awful. Standing, he drew Kindle to her feet. “Do you want to continue or do you want to stay here?”

“I daren’t stay,” she replied and looked back into the darkly green room that still glowed hauntingly. “It is safer with him.” To Gabriel’s surprise, she took his hand up and held it fast.

He could tell by the way her hand squeezed now and again, that she still felt the effects of the gas, so he pulled her hand onto his elbow to give her something to lean on. His shoulder screamed at him, but he learned long ago tell himself he was fine.

Nolen turned them to the black door in the center of the wall tucked into a domed alcove. With great care, he opened it inward. No great threat assaulted him, so he stepped in with the others following closely. This room was circular and brightly lit from a large orb the size of a dinner plate hanging against a wall. As before, the door closed behind them as they entered. This time there were no bodies inside. The round room glowed a sky blue near the orb and a dark teal furthest away.

Immediately the orb moved slowly in a circle around them, rotating on a lip above their heads.

“What is it?” Kindle asked, watching it carefully.

Tabor muttered, “Not sure.”

The orb gained speed as it rotated, casting beams of light in the dark edges as quickly as it darkened them. Gabriel suddenly felt something building inside him. As he watched the orb streak by, he knew whatever the sensation was, it came from the light source. Nolen must have felt it too, for he rubbed a hand over his chest uncomfortably.

“It’s energy,” Gabriel said, his voice breaking the silence and making Mikelle jump. “It is alive, whatever it is, and it’s giving off Spirit energy.”

“Why is it speeding up?” Tabor asked, as if to himself.

The orb continued to rotate and as it gained speed, Gabriel felt it swelling inside him until it became tight, and he put a hand against his chest and grunted. Nolen turned to watch him.

“Are you unwell?” Kindle asked in a kind, worried voice. He tried to answer but inhaled a gasp instead.

“What is wrong?” Mikelle turned, her hands outstretched as if to catch him.

“It’s the orb,” Tabor replied. The light whipping around them cast ghastly shadows on their faces in rapid succession. “Spirit works off of a living thing moving to create kinetic energy. It remains constant unless acted on by something else. Whatever is causing that orb to move is increasing the kinetic energy in him.”

Nolen suddenly pulled off the Castrofax control piece and bent over, gasping for breath and clutching his chest. The pressure in Gabriel’s torso only grew until it became painful. He closed his eyes as the room began to hum.

“Gabriel,” Mikelle said, her voice concerned. “You’re bleeding.” She put cloth under his nose.

He opened his eyes to see blood spreading into her shawl. Kindle let his arm go as he pitched forward, but gravity was an unkind ally, and he toppled onto a knee.

“Stop the orb,” Tabor commanded, and a moment later Air flew around them, but the light did not slow. Mikelle tried to form an ice barrier, but it had no effect.

The orb reached a new speed, forcing enough pressure through Gabriel to him burst.
‘Is this how it ends? No, I’m not ready.’
He doubled over.

“Stop,” Gabriel said faintly, regained his voice, and repeated, “Stop moving!”

Mikelle stopped instantly, but Nolen made a remark that Gabriel did not quite hear, for his ears became hot as he felt something wet and warm spill from them. From his crouched position, he saw blood droplets forming on the floor.

He collapsed to his side, choking.

“Oh stars!” Mikelle gasped, dropping to the floor. As the pressure threatened to rip him apart, she pulled wrapped her hands around his ears and held him fast.

As soon as the last body stopped moving, the orb slowed and the pressure in Gabriel’s chest eased a touch. He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes to watch the eerie light spinning around them.
‘How long it would take to kill someone?’

“What now?” Nolen asked.

“Air and Water won’t stop it,” Mikelle replied and slowly dabbed her scarf around Gabriel’s neck and chin. “You have three other options.”

Earth slipped out of Gabriel’s chest, this time feeling like a thin knife sliding through skin, and Nolen threw a chunk of the dark stone floor at the orb. It had no effect, and the movement caused the orb to jump for a moment. Nolen turned to Fire and raged bolts at the ceiling. Each passing second drained Gabriel’s energy.

“It is not working, brother,” Kindle said after a handful of moments.

“Spirit,” Nolen muttered. “Mage, I need a good Spirit attack pattern.”

Mikelle ran her fingers through Gabriel’s hair, and the gesture made his mind lapse for a moment. There were a great many Spirit patterns he knew that would kill and destroy.
‘The orb had to be alive in order to give off kinetic energy, so it had to be affected by a doldrums-pattern.’
The doldrums-pattern would render the victim paralyzed for up to an hour, but it was unlikely the Prince knew the pattern, and Gabriel was loath to show him. Many terrible things could be done with such a pattern, and Nolen’s lust for fine flesh was renowned.

“
Mage
,” Nolen snapped.

‘I have little else to lose.’
“Do you know the doldrums-pattern?” Gabriel muttered.

“You know it?” Tabor asked, a tinge of excitement to his voice. “I thought it was lost an Age ago.”

“Only a Class Eight or higher can manage it.” It took a great deal of strength to dull the sensation down the spinal column. There were different forms of the pattern that varied with each layer. Some allowed the muscles of the face to move, stopped everything altogether, even prevented the heart from beating. If anything went wrong, the victim would be killed. Gabriel had only tried it once. “Please watch closely.”

He pulled the strings from his chest. Each thread felt like thorns ripped through a hole. It was a circular pattern with overlapping rings that formed a sphere glowing in white. Once fueled, it need only brush a person to affect them. When he was finished, he let the strings slip back inside. The orb raced as he moved, but slowed as he lowered his arms.

The Prince took the threads of Spirit, and with little care formed the pattern. Gabriel had never heard of someone turning the pattern on themselves for lack of tact, but Nolen could be the first. That would leave them trapped for an hour.

“Take care not to touch it to yourself,” Gabriel said.

Nolen took some time to form the pattern properly with more instruction from Gabriel, both men moving slowly to keep the orb from spinning. The blood stopped dripping from his nose and ears, and Mikelle had wiped most of it away. The time finally came for the pattern to be fueled, and as the energy slipped from Gabriel down the white threads, he felt faint. It was a powerful pattern that required a great mass of energy, leaving him dazed for several moments. He did not even notice the pattern striking the orb and causing it to stop as if it hit a wall. The light in the room became calm once more. The waning and waxing energy in his chest vanished and he took in a sweet breath.

This time no door opened, but the floor sank slowly, elongating the teal-colored spaces under the orb. As it sank, an arched door became visible, heading back the way they came, leading into black darkness.

They stood carefully, watching the eerie orb, but it made no movement as they rose. Gabriel kept a hand on the wall as he righted, feeling the blood race from his face, and to her credit, Mikelle made no fuss over it.

“Into darkness,” Nolen said solemnly. It seemed so apropos.
‘I never left it,’
Gabriel thought.

Nolen stepped in first, standing in the faint light the orb cast within the new ward. Gabriel followed, not sure what to make of the wards thus far. They tested agility, skill, and education, but the wards did not stop them, which made him wary.

As Tabor stepped in, the door closed behind him, casting them it pitch darkness. The room had an odd sour smell, and as Tabor’s boots echoed around the room, Gabriel could tell they were in a vast area. Nolen wasted no time twining Fire into his hands, and he lofted bright light above them.

The ground was rocky and dirty. A rat skittered out of the ring of light to their left, but they couldn’t see any discernible formations. The ceiling was high, and the walls far off in the darkness. The smell of ammonia hung around them as they stepped forward.

Nothing but the sound of their muffled footsteps reached them until Nolen suddenly spun and looked behind him. “Did you hear that?” he whispered. No one had, so he continued on quietly. He spun again. “Which of you called my name?” he asked, looking first at Kindle and then Mikelle.

The women looked at each other. “Neither of us,” Kindle replied. “There is no—” she began, but Mikelle suddenly jerked her head up.

“Lambs lights,” she whispered in Arconian, a phrase Gabriel had heard her utter in curses before. Her mouth worked silently; her eyes fixed on something they could not see.

“Gabriel,” said a soft voice behind him. He knew it; he would know it anywhere. He spun around to see her. “Gabriel,” she whispered, her voice between a breath of air and an echo. Robyn dressed in silken white robes that were transparent and opaque at the same time, yet revealed nothing of her pale white skin. It was too blanched to bear a heartbeat. His heart caught as he looked down at her, smiling with her long hair flowing as if caught up in an unseen breeze. Behind him he heard Tabor run into the darkness, and Kindle gave a sharp scream, but he was powerless to move.

Robyn looked lovely as ever, a crown of sparkles about her head that glittered in the firelight as she moved closer to him. “I thought you would never come.”

‘This cannot be real,’
his subconscious told him, but he willed it to be so. “Am I dead?”

She tittered, something he rarely saw her do. She was never a gay girl, forever steeped in seriousness and duty. “You are, my love, at last.” He willed his hand to feel for the Castrofax, but he could not move more than a few inches. “They are gone, you are free,” she smiled, stepping ever closer. He felt weak, cold, and drained, but seeing her image gave him a touch of hope he nearly forgot he could have.

“How?” he whispered.

“You are dead,” Mikelle stated to someone in her native tongue. “I saw to it myself.”

“Does it matter, my love? You are here with me now,” Robyn replied, reaching a hand out to him. She paid no attention to the people behind him, though he heard Kindle weeping on the floor. “Come,” she said faintly. “Come with me.”

He found himself stretching a hand out to her. She was but a few inches away when he saw the all too familiar copper band of damnation around his wrist. He jerked his hand back, looking at the Castrofax wristlet. “I am
not
dead.”

Robyn looked a little displeased. “No, not yet. But soon. Very soon.” Her soft white appearance changed but she still stepped closer, forcing him back a step. Her crown shimmered and fell about her shoulders, scattering around the floor. Her hair shortened and became shorn off on one side. The concaves of her eyes darkened black. Her cheekbones and collarbones became all the more prominent as her skin split, crackled, and burned. Steam lifted off her and to his horror, she reached out her left hand to him. It shrank and shriveled until the bones were exposed. They turned to dust, blowing away in the unseen wind that lifted her shorn hair into a haunting stance. It was exactly as he remembered her.

“You did this,” she whispered, her lips swollen and split. “You were my protector, and look what you let happen.”

He lifted his hands and took another step back. Behind him someone scuffled in the dirt, Kindle still sobbed a man’s name, and Tabor off in the blackness shouted.

“Robyn, I never meant—I tried to—I could do nothing.”

“You tell yourself. You still have your strength. Had you come with me when I asked, I would still be among the living.”

It was something he told himself a hundred times before. He stepped back again into the ring of firelight. Robyn turned a shade of orange as she walked closer, her lips pulled back in a snarl.