God of the Abyss (27 page)

Several people were trying to control the fire balls
with wind… which was really dumb. Mordon waved his hand and all fire died.
There were maybe a dozen people still panicking on the street when the demon
rounded the corner to scatter them. Honestly, I didn’t understand the panic,
unless Maltese people were deathly terrified of rejected werewolves.

There were B movies that I enjoyed for the laugh
involving creatures more frightful than this. Her exact height was difficult to
determine because she stood hunched with her legs folded as if it was nearly
impossible for her to stand bipedal, but she tried anyway. She had the same
shape as a very gangly human, but with longer limps and a longer torso. Her
feet and hands were more paw-shaped and her face was like a thin wolf’s. Her
skin was dark gray and covered with scant gray fur.

One young boy, no older than Sammy, slipped and hit
the ground hard about thirty feet ahead of us. His blue attire was torn and
covered in ash and blood. When the demon went after him, I threw an energy
shield around him, but he didn’t get up.

Mordon drew the katana and we both went to the child.
I dropped the shield as Mordon stood between the boy and the demon. Trusting
that my friend could handle his opponent, I focused my attention on the child.

Since he was covered in ash and blood as well as
unconscious, it was difficult to determine where and how badly he was injured.
I didn’t want to move him until I was sure he had no broken bones. I checked his
pulse with my finger on his neck, but with my other hand on his chest, I sent
my magic into him to find anything that wasn’t meant to be. Like echolocation,
my magic returned to me with the image of a few breaks and tears, but nothing
life-threatening. His heart did beat strong, if not too fast. Who really knows
with aliens?

Visualizing the broken bones setting and healing, I
sent my magic back into him with intent to heal. As they stitched back together
in my mind, I knew they were doing so in him. I just wished he didn’t wake up
in the middle of it and start crying. All the while, I could hear Mordon in the
background.

“What hurts? I can help you if you tell me what
hurts.”

“My mother is trapped,” he whimpered, trying to wipe
the tears out of his eyes. Unfortunately, he had a bad cut on his hand, which
smeared blood on his ash-covered cheeks.

“Cover,” Mordon said with a grunt. I leaned over the
child in case a blow was coming and ducked my head in time to be splattered
with hot liquid. I turned to see Mordon sliding the sword out of a demon. There
were four ungodly bodies littering the ground at Mordon’s feet and he was
covered in thick, wine-colored blood. Drops of the demon blood covered me as
well.

“That’s gross,” I said, climbing to my feet before helping
the little boy up. “What is your name?” I asked him.

“Brods.”

“Okay. Brods, can you lead us to your mother?” I
asked. The boy nodded and took my hand before leading us through the streets.
The entire way, we were met with rubble and people in distress. Mordon watched
for any threat while I focused on the people. None of them seemed to suffer
major injuries, but I planned to go back to them after finding the boy’s
mother.

Before we could find her, a creature blocked our
path. It was shaped like a thin canine, but with slightly too-long legs and a
long neck. Even its head was long and thin, but it was the glowing blue eyes
that were most creepy. The demon was primarily hairless, though it had dark
grey, splotchy skin like really bad mange. Foam dripped from the folds in its
skin around its muzzle as the creature flashed its fangs.

It was a demon and I expected Mordon to attack
without hesitation. I could never have predicted that Mordon would react the
way he did. He backed up into me, nearly knocking me down, and I was forced to
let go of Brods’s hand or risk injuring him. Mordon didn’t look away from the
demon, but he was shaking. I grabbed his arm and drew in his fire.

I tried to step in front of him, but he pushed me
back. I couldn’t do anything without risking hurting my friend. “Mordon, stop
it.”

He gasped, trying to speak. “Dejeva,” was all he
managed.

Well, that explains it.
Edward had told me the
stories. While it was merely creepy to me, there was something in the blood of
sago that made them all terrified of the creature… which was odd, because Ronez
was sago and I didn’t share their fear. “Rojan. You need to take over,” I said.
I knew he would hear me even over Mordon’s panic. Unfortunately, I got no
response.

I realized that my friend had a small war going on
inside him. Mordon was terrified, truly and deeply terrified, but Rojan was
furious. For this reason, Mordon couldn’t react with fire. The fear Mordon felt
was ingrained in sago, but not dragons, so his sago instincts were to freeze, not
to use dragon fire.

I pulled my sword from Mordon’s hand and with Iadnah
energy, thrust it through the air with no hand to guide it. The creature was
unafraid, as I heard that no mortal blade could kill it. However, azurath was
not a normal metal. This sword could kill the dead. While the creature looked
like a dejeva, it was no more than a clever demon, and its flesh was pierced
easily. With a terrible scream, the imposter died. I approached it, removed my
sword, and returned to Mordon.

“Are you good now?” I asked. I hated killing, even
hunting for food, but it was for Mordon so I would get over it. He took the
sword, shaking out of his blinding fear, and nodded.

We came to what was once a door, but was now a pile
of debris.
“I smell smoke and pain,”
Mordon said. He didn’t move toward
it, but looked to me for direction.

It would have been very easy to move the stone bricks
with my magic, but doing so could possibly set off a worse cave in. This must
have been a home built against the main palace, perhaps servants’ quarters.
Unfortunately, a portion of the palace had collapsed on top of the small roof.

“Is there another way in?” I asked. “A window or
something?”

The little boy shook his head. I needed a way to keep
the inside from collapsing while I was on the outside. Or I needed another way
inside.

“Can you send your energy in there to hold the
structure together?” Mordon asked.

I shook my head. “I can control things with my
energy, but raw energy isn’t physically strong. I could try to affect the gravity,
but I have no idea how and if there’s a bunch of debris, we don’t want it
flying around people. I think I could flash in there, but I might flash myself
into the wall or something.”

“Can you not direct your magic to put you somewhere
safe?”

“Yes, I can, and I would appear here. Oh, I have a
really stupid idea,” I said, not looking at him. I pulled out the apple. “An
hour or so backwards and we should be able to warn everyone out of there.”

“And then you create a paradox. Vretial warned us
that paradoxes were bad. We already have enough trouble with the balance.”

“But they could die.”

He turned me to look at him. “They are mortal. They
will die one day. You cannot risk the universe to give them a little more time.
There is another way; there always is with you. What would your doctor do?”

“Fix his bowtie,” I said. “Limited thinking time. How
many are in there?”

“Six, I believe, and the temperature is rising. There
is smoke, most likely sucking the oxygen out of the air.”

I pulled my energy to flash and when the light
disappeared, I was blinded. It was pitch black and the air was thick with
smoke. I pulled a silver penlight out of my bag. Yeah, I was the silly wizard
who used a penlight, but at least I was able to see the situation. There were
people here, several who blinked at the sudden light. Two men and two women
were conscious and struggling to breathe. Two teenage girls were unconscious,
so I checked for a pulse to make sure they were alive and found that their
heartbeats were strong.

From a quick scan, I could see that both girls had
numerous broken bones, dislocated joints, abrasions, and burns. The adults
didn’t look much better, so it was more difficult to flash them out because of
how gentle I had to be. I had to go on instinct to get them out quickly and
safely, but in just a few minutes, we were outside in the fresh air.

Immediately, I sent my magic through both of the
girls at once, healing all the damage I could find. I realized they were twins
just before the pain came over me. It was probably a good thing I had suffered
so many injuries as a child, because the feeling of being broken all over was
intense, but at least it was familiar. Even worse than the pain was the
dehydration. I could heal the smoke damage to their lungs, yet I couldn’t heal
thirst, so why did I feel it?

Mordon held out his hand so that I could draw on his
energy, but I shook my head, since he needed his energy to defend us against
any attack. Although the adults were talking, I was too tired and focused to
make out their words. When the two girls were healed, I grabbed the arm of the
closest woman. She had far fewer injuries, but had more burns and smoke
inhalation. She would live, so I let her go without treatment, then checked the
others and got similar results. I wasn’t going to use myself up to help those
who would be fine without it when there were many others suffering much worse.

“Can you find anyone else?” I asked Mordon,
interrupting one of the women. I was really dizzy. Someone handed me a clay cup
of water, but when I tried to drink it, Mordon growled and took it away. I
probably looked pathetic with my hands out for it. He sniffed it before handing
it back to me.

“You should never eat or drink from another world
without making sure it’s safe.” He let me finish the cup before continuing.
“You need to rest for a few minutes,” he said.

Somebody must have taken the cup from me because it
was gone… or maybe I dropped it. “I’m fine. Someone may not have a few
minutes.” Even as I spoke, the pain from the injuries I healed was slowly
fading. I knew some of my exhaustion was due to my lack of nominal energy, and
that it would only get worse.

Mordon gave up then and led me through the streets.
We managed to find a door into the fortress that wasn’t blocked by debris. Throughout
the crumbling hallways and partially barricaded rooms, we found dozens of
people in need of immediate medical treatment. After a while, my magic started
coming easier and the pain took less of a hold. It occurred to me that my
healing skills were improving. I was able to push aside thirst, exhaustion, and
pretty much everything else to focus on my goal. After hours of work, when the
entire place had been combed through, Mordon took over. He got people organized
and treated those we passed over for the superficiality of their injuries.

Soon I was sitting on a mattress on the floor with
Mordon kneeling in front of me. His fire soothed my pain and exhaustion, which
made me much more aware of my surroundings. I was in a very large room,
littered with mattresses and people resting on them. To one wall, food and
water was being served. Everyone looked distraught and shaken up, but they were
alive. At least there were no more signs of demons.

I noticed red out of the corner of my eyes and forced
myself to focus on Mordon’s chest. His shirt was torn and covered in blood, and
it wasn’t the burgundy red of the demon blood. “It’s not mine,” he said calmly.

Mordon pulled me to my feet as a man approached us.
He was an old, frail man with long white hair and silver-blue robes, yet he
moved with a graceful, swift march as if relief and gratitude could replace
youth.

“Thank you both for saving our people! Our tribe is
indebted to you, the saviors from another world.”

 “How do you know we are from another world?” I asked.

He frowned. “You are a healer, yet you make magic out
of light.” He regarded Mordon. “You appear to be a shifter, yet you use fire
magic. You both speak a language that is not known to Malta,” he explained.

My magic specifically made me able to understand
others and them understand me; if Mordon and I were talking to each other,
others wouldn’t understand unless I wanted them to. I knew we needed to be
careful because there were some worlds, places, and people who hated outsiders,
but I was just too tired to care.

“We will build monuments for you,” he said, then
hesitated. “Please, what are your names?”

We looked at each other; neither of us wanted a
reputation. “This is Arthur Pendragon of Camelot. I’m Merlin,” I said.

“Are you warriors?”

“No, just a couple of stooges.”

“Please stay. Our shelter is humble tonight, but we
have plenty of food and water.”

“Sorry, but I have two children to get back to.”

“Of course. A healer’s job is always more difficult
than a warrior’s,” he said.

I considered my friend, covered in the blood of the
demons he fought and the people he helped. The man was wrong. Yes, I had more
people to heal than Mordon had demons to fight, but in the end, I didn’t have
to kill anything. Mordon kept me from having to fight. Maybe I was spoiled;
Edward and Ronez have had to fight their entire lives to protect their worlds.
Even as my whole body hurt and I could feel an echo of the pain of all the
people I just healed, I wouldn’t want to switch places with Mordon.

Mordon helped me into a hallway out of the main room,
where we were alone. Just because the people were accepting of otherworlders,
didn’t mean we wanted to flaunt our magic. Iadnah energy was not to be taken
lightly.

I pulled the glass apple out of my bag. “Think of
Sammy and Ron, as they are right now. Picture what they would do after we
disappeared. I don’t know how to think of time, but we don’t want to run into
ourselves,” I said.

He nodded and put his hand on the apple. I thought of
them and immediately felt the same sensation I had from the map. I locked onto
that, but kept Sammy and Ron in my head. The apple started getting warm with
Vretial’s magic. I closed my eyes and soon sensed Malta disappear, which was
odd because I still felt the gravity and solid ground under my feet, but it
wasn’t real.