Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal (22 page)

“
How long have I been out for?”

“
Only a few minutes,” John answered.

“
Are you feeling ok?” Cody asked.

“
I am,” Tom said slowly. The image of Tanya flashed through his mind.

“
Where are Tanya and Caspin?” Tom asked quickly as he looked around.

“
They went ahead to scout out the palace to see if they could find the dark queen’s lair,” John responded.

Tom jumped to his feet suddenly. “We have to hurry, they’re in danger,” he said forcefully.

“Tom whatever you saw, was in your head. It wasn’t real,” Xantar said calmly.

“
No, this was different, we need to hurry.”

Tom began running toward the stairs. Taking the steps two at a time he reached the top as the rest of the group ran after him. He saw the two hallways and ran down the one on the right. The hallway looked exactly the same except that the doors had handles. He ran to the end of the hallway and he heard the others as they were catching up with him.

He opened the second to the last door and looked inside. Tears formed in his eyes.

Caspin was in the room holding a woman in his arms and sobbing.

“
What have I done?” Caspin said over and over.

Tom approached them. He circled around and kneeled next to Caspin putting his hand on his head.

“Caspin, what happened?” Tom asked quietly.

Caspin looked up and Tom saw blood on his face where he had been cut.
Blood  soaked through his robe on his arms. The blood pattern appeared to be from blades.
How much of it was real? Did Caspin kill Tanya?
Relief washed over him as he looked down not recognizing the woman in Caspin’s arms.

“
Caspin, what happened?” Tom asked again. He couldn’t take his eyes off the woman.

“
I… I was tricked,” was all that Caspin could say as he began to cry once again. He held the woman closer.

John and the others came into the room and were standing at the door, looking at Tom and Caspin.

Cody crossed the room quickly. “What happened to her Caspin?”

“
It’s not Tanya,” Tom said quietly.

Cody looked down at the woman and sighed noticeably. “Who is it then?”

“I’m not sure,” Tom said.

Caspin slowly raised his head and looked at them. “She was a dear friend from my past life.”

Tom lowered his head and rubbed Caspin’s shoulder softly as John approached them.

“
Caspin what happened? Tell us what happened,” John said as he knelt next to him.

“
Tanya and I came up the stairs looking for whoever had entranced Tom. When we reached this room there was a man in robes. We approached him when suddenly another guard approached…” Caspin faltered and was unable to continue for a few minutes. “…The man turned and left. Tanya went after him while I stayed to fight the other guard. A rage overtook me and I transformed into the beast. As I approached the guard he fought desperately and I was wounded several times until I was able to kill the guard who then transformed before my eyes.” Caspin lost it again and began to sob uncontrollably.

“
Tom, Cody and Aithnea you stay here while we go to find Tanya,” John said as the three headed out of the room.

Caspin looked up suddenly at Tom. “How can we fight this when our loved ones are turned against us. How can we fight something that we can’t see, that has no body to kill?”

Tom looked away from the sad eyes of Caspin. It was hard for him to hear Caspin’s doubts. He was struggling with his own fears and memories of what had recently happened to him. To see Caspin without hope was almost too much. Caspin had become the hope that Tom had always yearned for, giving him hope of a better world. Now Caspin was without hope and Tom didn’t know where he would be able to find the strength to continue.

Caspin held the woman for moment longer and then laid her down on the ground. Taking off his own cloak, he slowly laid it over the woman. He stood. “Tom, I fear my faith has been broken. This beast that I have become is not of God but of an evil design. I do
n't know how to have faith in that.”

It was as if Caspin was pleading for Tom to help him understand the pain and anguish that he was feeling. Tom searched for the right words to speak to the man who had always given him wisdom. He held his gaze.
There is nothing I can say to give him hope. Why can’t I give him hope?
Tom looked for several minutes until Caspin finally looked away.

“
We’d best be off to help the others,” Caspin said as he turned and walked toward the door.

Tom watched as the broken, bent man walked slowly toward the door. He wondered if Caspin would ever be able to mend the hurt that he must be feeling. Caspin reached the door and the three followed him out. They continued down the hall toward the landing.

Chapter 22:

When they reached the balcony Tom could hear fighting coming from down the other hallway. He pulled his sword from its scabbard. He paused and looked at the sword
Will I ever be able to remove the stain of blood
. He shook is head to clear the thought and  ran toward the fight regreting that he would be making the stain brighter.

As they headed down the corridor they could see Kristiana at the end of the hallway in front of two open double doors. Tom was always amazed at the sight of her as she cast her spells. It was so mesmerizing watching as she moved her entire body gracefully through the air as if she was dancing with an unseen person. Then electricity would form at her fingertips and with an explosive force screech toward her enemies.  A man screamed from within the room as another bolt of electricity shot from Kristiana’s finger.

It seemed like a dream as Tom raced past Kristiana into the room. Tanya was in the middle of the room surrounded by opponents and John was cutting a path toward her. Tom felt arrows whizzing by his head from Xantar’s bow toward the group surrounding Tanya, each arrow fatally hitting its mark.

Cody let out a battle cry and with a burst of speed shot in to the room. Tanya was desperately outnumbered. Cody was in such a rage that many of the men seeing him approach ran for the other side of the room. Tom with an inner smile conjured the fire into his mind and picturing Cody’s sword unleashed his energy.
Cody's sword burst into flame causing greater fear among the dark elves. Those who had been able to brave Cody’s first onslaught dropped their weapons and ran.

When the room cleared, Tanya put her sword down and leaned heavily on it. Cody was by her side instantly holding her up and giving her support. “I thought I lost you once today. I don’t think that I could have borne actually losing you.”

Tanya looked up at Cody and smiled. “I had things under control.”

“
We need to keep moving…” John said, “…they’ll be back soon.”

Tom looked around the room; they were in some sort of throne room. There were several chairs along the back of the room on a raised dais. The chairs all had a white tree inscribed into their backs and the center chair had a crown encircling the white tree.

Cody, looking at Tom, said, “That was a nice trick. I didn’t know you could project fire.”

Tom smiled. “I didn’t either until just a few minutes ago.”

John walked up to the group. “Tanya, are you well enough to go on?”

She cleaned her weapons on one of the nearby corpses. “I’m ready to go. The central chamber is through that exit and up the stairs. That’s also where the three towers connect to the palace.”

Xantar walked up to the group. “I’ll be going to find my brethren now. I think the dark queen will no longer be able to reach us for some time. I recommend that you hurry though it will not take her forever to get through the webs that I have spun around our minds.”

Xantar began to leave when he turned and looked at Tom. “Thank you for your trust in me. We would have all been defeated if you had been unable to put your trust in me.”

Xantar then turned and ran through the double doors and down the hallway.

Tanya headed toward an exit at the side of the room. Tom and the others followed and they came to a circular staircase that was wide enough to allow two people to walk abreast.

Tom looked up the stairs. “These stairs go on forever.”

Tanya looked down from a couple of stairs above smiling, “Yea, I remember racing up them with Tiarra as a kid. We would always arrive at the top out of breath and unable to go on for some time.”

Tanya turned and began taking the stairs two at a time with little effort. Tom ascended the stairs behind Cody, beginning to breathe harder as they ascended higher and higher. When the group finally reached the top of the stairs he was out of breath. He was relieved to see that many of the others were also breathing heavily.

Caspin was the last one to reach the top and he had the same look of despair as he did when Tom first caught up to him. Tom shook his head slightly as he thought about how he would feel if he were to lose Aithnea, let alone being responsible for her death.

Caspin was very distant and withdrawn as the group gathered together to make the final preparations before splitting off to their separate destinations.

Tom looked around at the room, surprised by its size. There were three glass tunnels leading out of the room. Cody whistled as he looked above them. “Wow! That’s quite the ceiling.”

Tom looked up and his mouth dropped open. “How high is the ceiling?”

Tanya followed his gaze. “I’m not sure. But I do know that it that it took many years to finish.”

John looked around at the group. “Tom, Cody and Aithnea that’s your tunnel,” pointing. “Kristiana and I will go down that tunnel.” He pointed at another tunnel. He turned toward Caspin and walked to the older man. The two of them whispered for several minutes and Tom saw that both John and Caspin had tears in their eyes as they conversed.

John turned from Caspin and pointed down the third tunnel. “Tanya, you and Caspin will take that one. Remember that we must deactivate the field on all three towers or we will have no support from the outside once the sun stone is activated.”

“Does everyone have their codes to deactivate the field?” John asked.

Tom nodded in the affirmative and John smiled. He and Kristiana began to walk down their tunnel. Cody gave one last look at Tanya and then gestured to Tom and Aithnea to follow as he headed down their tunnel.

Tom began the long walk down the tunnel, wondering what they would meet ahead. The tunnel was transparent and appeared to be made of glass. When Tom first stepped onto the tunnel he slowly placed one foot on the glass and gradually put weight on it before stepping further onto the glass floor. Tom began to quicken his pace as he moved farther down the hall gaining confidence in the floors ability to hold him.

“
Tom, it’s easier if you don’t look down,” Aithnea said, smiling at him.

“
The problem is, I’ve already looked down and now I can’t stop.”

“
Well, whatever it takes, you need to hurry up. At this pace I’ll be a grandpa before we reach the tower.”

Tom smiled back and quickened his pace.

After walking for some time Tom began to see shapes begin to appear down the tunnel. The three walked for several more yards when Cody held up his hand. “Do you see someone at the end of the tunnel?” Cody whispered.

Tom squinting said, “I think so.”

Aithnea began to wave her hands in the dance of magic and chanted, closing her eyes. After a few minutes she opened her eyes. “There are four men at the end of the hall. Three of them are like the ones that we fought getting into the palace and the fourth is wearing black robes, he is unarmed.”

Tom felt a tingling sensation around the edges of his mind. It was as if there was a finger poking at his brain trying to find a way through a defensive barrier. He closed his eyes. “We need to hurry. The man in the robes must be a psyonicist and he is trying to get through the defenses of Xantar.”

Cody pulled his sword from its scabbard. “Let’s go before he gets through.” He began running with a yell.

Tom pulled his weapon and ran after Cody with Aithnea close behind him. Within a few minutes they had reached the three men waiting for them. Tom could feel the tingling sensation beginning to grow around his mind, feeling as if there were many fingers now poking and prodding at his brain.

Cody swung his sword toward the first guard and as metal hit metal the noise echoed loudly in the glass tunnel. The force of the blow knocked the guard off balance causing him to back up several paces while the next guard engaged Cody.

Tom
attacked another guard in front of him, trying to stay focused while the tingling sensation turned to a warm sensation that increased in heat. Tom felt the heat of two magic missiles zip past him slamming into the guard he was fighting and then heard a thump behind him.

The guard in front of him dropped to the ground as Tom turned to see that Aithnea had fallen unconscious. Tom turned back to the fight trying to ignore the ever increasing heat that surrounded his mind and the sight of Aithnea lying on the ground. He charged past Cody and the guard he was fighting toward the next guard in his way. The guard swung at him as Tom dove to the side of him and behind him sliding on his back farther down the tunnel.

The guard turned on Tom, swinging his sword down as Tom jumped to his feet, raising his own weapon to defend against the blow. The sword hit Tom’s sword hard, sending a shiver of pain through his arm and causing him to lose his grip on the sword. The guard lifted his sword for a killing blow when Tom kicked out, smashing the guards left knee.

The guard screamed out in pain as his leg buckled and he fell to the ground. Tom quickly jumped to his feet grabbing his sword and ran the rest of the way down the hall toward the black robed man. He yelled as he swung his sword toward the man. The man sidestepped the blow causing Tom to crash into the wall behind him.

Tom suddenly felt as if a weight had been lifted and his mind began to clear and the pain eased. The pain suddenly returned and he felt as if he had just gone through a boxing match with a much bigger opponent. He crumpled to the floor from the pain as he felt his brain get smashed over and over again.

He turned onto his back and looked at the black robed man who was laughing. The man’s smile suddenly turned to a grimace as Tom saw a sword point protruding from the man’s gut. As the sword was pulled from his gut he slowly fell to the ground with a thud. Tom saw a bloodied Cody standing above the man with a small grin on his face,

“Here I am to save you once again.”

Tom tried to smile back but his head was pounding so hard that he could barely keep his eyes open. He felt Cody next to him right before he blacked out.

Tom woke a moment later looking into the most beautiful face he had ever seen.

“
Tom, are you all right?” Aithnea asked.

With the pain subsiding Tom was able to give a weak smile. “I think I’ll live ... regrettably.”

Aithnea smiled at him and hit him softly in the shoulder. “You better. You’re the one that got us into this mess after all.”

Tom began to get up and Aithnea helped him stand. “I don’t want to ever go through that again. It was like I was getting hit over and over in the head,” Tom said.

Cody patted Tom softly on the back. “I think when you distracted him he concentrated solely on you, which allowed me to concentrate on the guards.”

Tom nodded and looked at the door set in the wall. “Do you think there’ll be more?”

Cody rubbed his shoulder. “I hope not. I don’t think I have much left in me.”

“
I agree. My spells are growing weaker. It is getting harder to concentrate and form the spells in my mind,” she said.

Tom stood up straight again and looked at Cody and then the door. “Who’s first?”

Cody stepped forward. “I’ll go first as long as you back me up with some fire.”

Tom nodded with a smile. Cody kicked the door open jumping through the entry room with his sword raised.

Tom came through next. He lowered his weapon. “It looks as if our luck has finally changed.”

The room was small with a strange panel of lights and buttons on one side. Tom walked across the room and examined the panel. “I guess we better get this done quickly,” he said.

Cody walked across the room and pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. After a few minutes he began pushing buttons. Lights, above the buttons, changed from red to green. “Well that’s that, we better get back.”

Cody turned. Tom and Aithnea followed him back down the hall.

“
I hope that the others didn’t have any problems,” Aithnea said.

Grabbing her hand, Tom and Aithnea jogged down the hallway toward the central chamber.

They reached the chamber quickly and saw that Tanya and Caspin had already made it back.

Tanya was pulling the sun stone from its box and was preparing to detonate it. She looked up at them and relief washed across her face. “We were worried about you. John and Kristiana have already descended the stairs. They are waiting to hold off anyone who tries to stop us from getting down.”

Even Caspin’s mood seemed to brighten slightly when the three entered the chamber.

“
We met up with a few guards,” Cody said as he walked toward Tanya.

Tanya finished the final preparations and pulled a mask from a pouch at her side. “It’s time. We’ll give you a good head start,” Tanya said. “Remember to keep your masks on until the light has died down.”

Tom pulled his mask out and put it on as he headed toward the stairs.

“
Caspin,” Cody said, “I’ll wait with Tanya. You can go with the others.”

“
Thank you Cody,” Caspin replied. He limped toward the stairs.

“
Caspin, you’re hurt,” Aithnea said walking over to him.

“
I got hit with an arrow as we engaged the enemy. I’ll be all right.” he said hesitantly.