Descent Into Darkness (Book 2) (32 page)

"Oh no..." Zin whispered, slowly backing away from the door.

Ean glanced at the imp and saw a look of utter terror dominate his features, his mouth clamped shut and his eyes wide. Just from his expression alone, Ean tensed, taking in as much energy from the Abyss as he could hold. His runes flared to life, the light stronger than he had ever seen before. It illuminated the corridor ahead, revealing the faint outline of something walking towards them. Something that looked human...

"Go on, imp," the voice said, loud enough to ring in Ean's ears. "Tell your master what I am. Tell him the horrible things I am capable of doing to you both."

Stepping into the light was a man taller than Ean by almost two heads and twice as broad. He wore an intricate suit of armor similar to what he had seen the Living Dead wear, except this one only covered the man's torso and had crisscrossing etched into it that Ean had never seen before. In stark contrast to his crimson armor, his pants were a dark grey, the same kind of pants Ean would see the average farmer wear out in the fields. Rings adorned the man's fingers, green and blue and red gems gleaming from each, reflecting back Ean's light in strange colors.

The man's face was the most striking, wearing a smile that held little warmth framed by a tightly trimmed red beard. His nose was pointed like a beak, slightly hooked and sticking out in front of a pair of deep-set eyes. Shaggy dark red eyebrows topped those eyes, the same color as the man's hair, which was wavy and reached down just above his shoulders. Those eyes, though...they flared red from inside the deep recession of his eye sockets, slitted and certainly not human.

"Lav', you have to understand--" Zin started, but was quickly cut off by the man's raised hand.

"I allowed you to butcher my name while I was held captive, imp," the man growled, "because I wanted you comfortable around me. I hoped to learn as much as I could about your master and possibly even get you to somehow set me free. Now, I no longer need that information or your help. You will address me by my full name, or I will strike you down before you can even blink. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes of course, Lav'zernathar. I'm sorry, it will not happen again." The imp actually bowed as he said it. "If I may just say..."

"No, I don't want to hear your voice at the moment. You can speak if I decide to ask you a question." Turning to Ean, those glowing red eyes looked him up and down before the man started to walk towards him. "You. You are not this creature's first master. Because of that, I won't kill you yet. You do however wear many of the same or similar markings. How did you come to wear those on your skin? Explain yourself. Now."

Ean's mind raced. The weight of that stare was like a dozen hammer blows. By the time the man was only a few paces away, Ean had barely been able to open his mouth, which now hung slightly open. If he hadn't been so intimidated, Ean certainly would have been embarrassed.

"I...uh..." he tried to get out.

"The truth!" Zin hissed at him. "Just tell him the truth, all of it."

That heavy stare shot to Zin for a moment, making the imp cower, before returning to Ean.

Steeling himself, Ean did exactly as Zin had said. He told the truth. He began with finding the book that had started this all, summoning Zin, the years of practice and failures in trying to use and understand the book. He talked about the threat to his village, leaving with his friends, how quickly they found out about his secret. He glossed over his time in Rensen, fleeing and being lost in Rensen woods, only spending a brief time on how he pushed Bran and Jaslen away and Azalea joining him. That part was more painful than he realized as he recounted it. Ean talked about meeting with Kaz'ren, being directed here, the caravan and the missing men. Finally, he ended with the battle in the village below, the flight into the mines and Zin's old home, and the battle and separation from Azalea.

The entire time Lav'zernathar kept that heavy gaze on Ean. Even when Ean finally finished talking, the man-creature just stared at him for a time. Ean felt like he was being judged, and that a poor judgment would lead to a quick death. If only Ean knew what the man...what the creature wanted. Ean risked a glance at Zin, but the imp was staring at Lav, the imp's body hunched over. The imp wouldn't be any help at the moment. When Ean returned his gaze to the man in front of him, their eyes met for a moment, and before Ean even knew what was happening, he was being lifted into the air by a large, gauntleted hand wrapped around his throat.

Lav brought them face-to-face, those red eyes like drills into his soul, probing. The pressure on his throat increased, making him grab the gauntleted arm with both hands. Behind him he heard his hound start to growl, but he sent reassurance through their bond. If the hound attacked, things would definitely get worse, and by the way Zin was behaving, Ean doubted the hound could help him anyway.

Again the grip tightened, making it almost impossible to breathe now. Well, just because he didn't want the hound to attack didn't mean that he was just going to let this Lav' creature crush the life out of him. With no other option, Ean let all of the energy surge out of him through his right hand and into the gauntlet that held him. For a moment, it felt like all of that energy hit a wall...

Then an explosion of force launched him backwards through the air, over both Zin and Yaeger's head. When he landed, he hit the stone ground hard, rolling a few times, the wind knocked clean from his body. Not knowing what happened, nor caring at this moment, Ean sucked in a large breath of air. Then another. On his fifth, he felt strong enough to push himself to his knees.

Lav'zernathar was there waiting for him.

Grabbing Ean by what was left of his shirt this time, Lav held Ean out in front of him. Lav was smiling slightly, although those slitted red eyes were still as intense as ever.

"You have some fight in you. This could be both good and bad for me. For the moment, though, you are less of a threat than the company you keep. Maybe in the future you will prove to be as ruthless and ambitious as your imp's old master. If that is so, know that if you come for me and try to make me some 'prize' as he did, I will destroy you to your very core. Understand?"

Ean nodded quickly.

"Good, I'm glad we have an understanding. Now," he said, looking past Ean, "do those things belong to you as well?"

Turning as best as he could while still in Lav's grip, Ean's eyes went wide as he saw three of the flesh monsters emerge from the opposite door. "No, no, they've been trying to kill us."

"Really?" Lav said, laughing. "So young and already you have enemies? Maybe you are more dangerous than I thought."

With a flick of his wrist, Lav casually tossed Ean to the side. Caught by surprise by the move, Ean was barely able to land on his feet, stumbling as he tried to keep from falling over. Once his feet were firmly planted beneath him, Ean watched as Lav casually walked towards the slowly shuffling flesh monsters. The monsters seemed to get excited as he approached, their arms and those deadly bone blades waving around in anticipation. When the closest one reached Lav, it lashed out with its upper right and lower left blades, a triumphant moan escaping its mouth.

Without the slightest bit of emotion or effort, Lav grabbed both blades in his gauntleted hands. Before the creature could bring his other arms around, Lav kicked the creature directly in the stomach, leaving his foot pressed against the monster's torso. Then, with a horrible ripping sound, Lav tore both of the arms he was holding from their sockets. Where Ean expected fountains of blood, only trickles came out of the monster's gapping wounds.

Lav didn't stop there. While the creature was still reeling from the damage, Lav took a few steps in, grabbed the creature by its face with one hand, its shoulder with his other hand, and just as easily as if he were plucking fruit from a tree tore the creature's head from its body.

Before the lifeless corpse hit the ground, the other two flesh beasts were running towards Lav at full speed. He calmly stood his ground, taking up an almost uninterested posture. Ean couldn't see his face, but he had no doubt that whatever Lav was, he probably was bored.

The remaining two monsters reached Lav at the same time, neither one stopping their charge. Instead they tried to ram him, using their bone blades as spears.

Again, with what seemed to be little effort, Lav dodged them both, taking a big step to the right and leaning out of the way from a pair of bone blades. In a blur, a red gauntleted fist grabbed the head of the closest beast, yanked it off its feet, and smashed its skull down into the hard stone floor. The sound it made as the skull was crushed made Ean nauseous.

Lav took a moment to kneel and wipe his hand off on the body of the dead monster while the last remaining flesh beast was still turning around to face him. Again the monster came at him at full speed, its moans deep and guttural now.

Not even bothering to stand, Lav lifted his right hand, palm out towards the beast. There was a loud "POP" and the creature was suddenly engulfed in flames. All Ean could see of it was a faint outline in the bright red fire that consumed it. An outline that thrashed about at first, then slumped to the ground and grew smaller and smaller until all that was left was the flame.

Getting to his feet, Lav waved casually at the fire and it disappeared. The monster was gone, not even ash remained. The only sign that anything had been there at all was the scorch marks on the stone where it had fallen. There wasn't even a burnt smell to mark the creature's death. Not bothering to look back, Lav started casually strolling towards the opposite door.

"Wait!" Ean called after him. Wincing, he looked down and found Zin with one of his clawed hands pressing into his leg. He ignored the imp.

"Lav'zernathar. We could really use your help. There are more of those things out there, and we wouldn't stand much of a chance against more than one of them."

Lav leaned back and let out a loud laugh that filled the room. When the man... creature... finally stopped laughing he turned, a large smirk on his face.

"I destroyed those three things," he said, gesturing to the two corpses, "because they were in my way. And ugly to look at. But I have no desire to run around this cave looking for the rest of them. I have spent far too long down here in the dark, and I have a grudge to settle. Since your imp's old master is dead, I'm going to take out my anger on the next best thing, those wretches that live outside and have been harvesting my scales."

"The people below? And what scales..."

Lav laughed again, this time shaking his head. "You really know so little. This," he took a moment to spread his hands and motion towards himself, "is just a form I take to better fit in and move about without frightening you primitive creatures. My real form is much grander, and I was stuck in it while I was chained to this place. Those cursed souls that live outside took advantage of that fact and took my scales, sometimes just picking them up as they fell off, other times tearing them off my body."

He paused, a sneer erasing the smirk he had been wearing for a moment.

"And all the while I had to sit and let them pick away at me while chained to this place. Their leader had the Master Key and could have released me, but instead used me just as the imp's master used me. So as I said, since I can't punish my original captor, I can at least take out my centuries of rage on the next best thing."

Lav took a few steps away from them, then stopped again.

"If I see any more of those creatures on my way out," he said, not bothering to turn around to look in Ean's direction, "I'll destroy them. Consider it a thank you present for setting me free. Even if it was accidentally."

Returning to his exit march, the man almost reached the doors before a thought struck Ean and he called out one last time.

"We have one more companion with us, a beautiful girl with wings, if you see her please don't harm her and point her in our direction?"

Without breaking stride, Lav raised a hand and waved them off.

"The Yulari?" he said, his voice still loud enough to carry across the room. "I saw her either unconscious or dead and being dragged by a human--not one of those deformed ones--in the direction of the throne room. Neither was any concern of mine, so I left them alone. If the Yulari is your friend, I would hurry after them. There was something not quite right with the man, and he had the faint smell of those flesh beasts on him. My guess is whatever he has planned for the Yulari will certainly not be pleasant."

And with that, Lav disappeared through the doorway, leaving Ean with a cold knot deep in his stomach.

THE TUNNELS SEEMED TO
stretch forever as Ean ran, a straight line encased in stone with nothing ahead but darkness. It had only been moments since he had taken off out of the second hatchery and into the tunnel that lead to the kitchens, but his fear increased with each moment. Not for himself, but for the Yulari. For Azalea.

The hound was at his side, effortlessly keeping up. Ean felt the warm sensation of enjoyment coming through the bond as the hound ran along beside him. Glancing back, Ean caught sight of the imp only a few paces behind doing his best to keep up. Zin was fast on his feet in tight spaces, but his short strides were no match for Ean's over-long distances. Zin would have to try harder. Ean was determined to save Azalea, with or without Zin by his side.

Ean skidded to a halt in front of a set of open wooden doors, stopping at the edge of the threshold. Yaeger stopped at his left and sniffed the air while Zin caught up with them.

The light emanating from Ean cast the dim room in a faint blue light. Large stone tables took up most of the space, sitting next to large square or dome stone constructions that Ean had never seen before. Glancing around and not detecting any movement, Ean slowly moved into the room.

"The kitchen," Zin said. "Hundreds of meals were prepared here in those ovens," he gestured to the large stone constructions. "Every day for the creatures that dwelled in the lair. Human slaves were used to cook the meals, as not too many creatures from the Abyss waste their time learning to cook."

"I don't care, Zin," Ean replied, not bothering to hide his impatience. "Which way?"

"Straight through the kitchen there is an exit to the tunnels closest to the library and then the throne room. If we went right, that would take us--"

"Fine. Straight. Let's go."

Ean began making his way through the kitchen. It was a slow process, the room seemed to be set up more like a maze. More than once he found himself stuck between tables and the ovens and had to backtrack a bit. The floor was littered with debris and rubble from collapsed tables and ovens as well, just waiting to catch Ean's foot and trip him up. By the time he reached the door on the opposite side, he was considerably annoyed.

Out of the room, he continued on, returning to a jog. All he could think about was Azalea and this mystery person that had taken her. If the man had been able to take Azalea, what chance did
he
have...

No! You will not be a coward this time.

He would figure something out. Maybe the man had gotten lucky. Maybe she had passed out after killing a bunch of those flesh monsters and had been easy prey. Maybe he would suddenly know how to use all of this power he supposedly had to defend someone he cared about. If that voice that seemed to know so much would talk to him more...

He couldn't help but laugh bitterly as he hurried on. Hoping a voice in his head would save him. What Ean needed to do was think things through, come up with a plan, and make his own decisions. Of course that realization came at the same time that he reached a T-junction, the tunnel he was in stopped and stretched left and right into darkness.

"Which way, Zin?" he said with a sigh, then frowned as he was met with silence.

Turning around, he found the hound just catching up to him. How fast had he moved down the tunnel that he had even outpaced the hound? Not terribly far behind the hound was Zin, sprinting at full speed. When the imp reached Ean, he was panting and bent over slightly, his hands on his knees.

"Which way, Zin?" The imp shot him a glare, but Ean didn't care. He didn't have time to be polite. "Now, Zin."

"Left."

With the briefest of nods, Ean took off again, following the left path down a long but fairly straight tunnel. All he could think about was Azalea at the mercy of that man. If he turned her into one of those monsters...

Just that thought drove him on. His legs started to ache. His lungs were starting to burn. It reminded him of his flight with Bran and Jaslen through the woods, trying to get away from the Seekers. In the end, he had lost Bran and Jaslen, not because of some outside threat, but because of his foolishness and weakness.

He would NOT lose Azalea.

His foot struck something and he tripped, his momentum carrying him a small distance in the air before he struck the ground. Not giving himself time to recover, Ean pushed himself up to a kneeling position. And realized his hands were not on bare stone.

Looking down he found some kind of carpet underneath his hands, the fabric worn and frayed, and the color a light red faded with age. Carpets were something he had yet to see in the lair. Getting to his knees, he looked back at what he had tripped over.

A book. Or to be more specific, a pile of books.

Glancing around he realized he wasn't in the tunnel anymore, but was actually in a room. A room twice as high as the hatcheries with row upon row of bookcases reaching all the way up to the ceiling. The bookcases were everywhere, blocking his sight of most of the walls and making it difficult to figure out how wide the room actually was. Each one was almost completely filled with books of all colors and sizes, more books than Ean thought existed. The ground was littered with books as well, unorganized piles here and there, just like the one he had tripped over.

For a moment, it was all a little overwhelming. All of that knowledge on who knows what just sitting there waiting to be explored. How many books were about the Abyss? Or Healing? Or the Deities? Or contained the histories of the land before the Plague? Ean's curiosity took over his mind for a moment and he forgot everything else.

But only for a moment.

Azalea.

He rose to his feet. If this was the library, then the throne room was just ahead. Azalea and her captor were within reach. He needed to push on. Even if he didn't have a plan...

Yaeger was suddenly at his side, giving him courage. Glancing back, he waited a moment to see if Zin was catching up, but clearly the imp had fallen behind. That was ok, there wasn't much Zin could do to help, and if Ean was running into a situation that he had no chance of surviving, better for his friend not to be there. If Ean died, Zin would return to the Abyss. Probably not the imp's first choice in where to go, but certainly it was better than dying. Ean even considered getting the hound to stay behind for a moment, but knew without Yaeger, he wouldn't have a chance against those flesh monsters.

"Let's go," he said to the hound. It jogged along at his side as Ean took off again, this time making sure to pace himself. The last thing he wanted was to go stumbling into a group of those flesh beasts just like he had stumbled into the library. He might not have a plan, but he certainly wasn't going to just throw himself into danger.

Ean and the hound passed more than a dozen bookshelves as they moved straight ahead, with Ean catching glimpses of even more rows behind the ones he passed. If they somehow did survive this, Ean could spend weeks searching through the books just to find the ones that would peak his interest. But that was the future, which wasn't looking too bright at the moment. Best to focus on the present.

They passed through another set of double doors and into another tunnel that looked exactly the same as all of the other ones. They were close now. According to Zin this one would open up right into the throne room. It was interesting how in such a short amount of time Ean's goals had changed. When they had first entered the lair, they were focused on getting to the throne room in order to find something Ean could use. Now he was trying to get there in order to save a friend.

Before Ean knew it, a set of open, stone doors appeared down the hall in front of him. He slowed to a walk, approaching the door carefully, his senses straining to hear or smell anything. There was light coming from the throne room, although a large pillar of stone a few paces in blocked his view of most of the room. Ean released some of the energy he held, the light coming off his tattooed body dampening to the point that it was hardly noticeable compared to the light coming out from the throne room.

Reaching the door, he sent a command through the bond with his hound, telling it to stay. When he received the feeling of acceptance back, he moved ahead, crouching low. He poked his head through the doorway first, glancing to his left and right. Not finding any immediate threat, he moved ahead to the pillar, pressing against it and freezing in place. He heard something now. A sound he had heard many times as a Healer.

The sound of a blade cutting into flesh.