Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (2 page)

“
You’re – you’re the Bond they captured. One of the nine...” Duana said to herself in a hushed tone of surprise. The man’s head fell backwards as his body stayed suspended. He languidly rolled his head around his neck to look at Duana. He kept taking long hard blinks and each time he reopened his bright amber-red eyes, he kept them widely open in a manner of awareness. This made him look dazed and drunk, or as if he had just woken up – but those were not the cases. He had in fact been drugged with some sort of concoction designed to weaken him. Without warning, he breathed out a heap of glowing orange fire that Duana reflexively evaded. For once, his eyes went into malicious slits of fury, angry that his attempt to kill Duana was unsuccessful. Upon the end of the blazing inferno that regurgitated itself out of the man’s mouth, his head immediately drooped.

“
What do you want from me?” he croaked, rolling his head around and taking his wide-eyed blinks, “just kill me now,” he continued. Duana breathed heavily as a set of multiple rumbles sounded upstairs, followed by rancorous yells – the Adalbheort soldiers had broken in. Duana hadn’t much time left.

“
I’m here to set you free, not to kill you –”

“
Why?” he groaned, interrupting the woman in his broken voice.

“
Why? Because you’re one of the Bonds! If any of you die, all hope for all realms is doomed!” she retorted. But for the second time, the man showed emotion; his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and perplexity.

“
Bond? I’m not a Bond...” he said calmly, but confused.

“
What?” Duana spat, feeling an anger growing inside her when she thought about how she risked her life to go and save someone that wasn’t even a Bond.

“
I was protecting my three children, it’s them.
They
are the bonds – my five-year-old girl and my three-year-old twin boys…” he groaned, his head still rolling around his neck. Duana looked even more puzzled and frightened.

“
They’re the only set at the moment I think –” the man breathed slowly, seeming to be having difficulty keeping his balance.

“
No, you’re wrong,” Duana swiftly interrupted. The man looked up at her with a look of insanity. “My children are the second set – I had to separate them so that Trailian wouldn’t find them. And those –” Duana flung a hand back and pointed at the three, large, glowing white cocoons on the other side of the cavernous dungeon, “– those are the third set! If Trailian finds out that the missing link is your children instead of you, he’ll find them all – all bonds – and kill them!” she said, startled as she began realising the abysmal truth.

She plucked
up some courage and lit both her hands with blazing purple flames. She aimed at both poles where the chains holding the man were connected and let out violent shots of flames from each hand and the man came plummeting to the ground. She quickly lifted him up by his arms.

“
I have to go and warn my –” but the man was instantly silenced: a hand had maliciously torn through his chest and ripped out his heart in what looked like the swift work of a Japanese katana. Duana stood there, petrified and glued to the spot, as the man slid to the ground. She slowly began to stumble backwards. A male figure emerged from behind the dead man’s body. Devilish looking Trailian slowly marched towards her, his height and structure intimidating. Duana slowly continued to stagger backwards on the uneven, rocky, bone-ridden floor, swallowing hard.

“
Thank you so,
so
much, Duana, for having gotten that information from – Jerricho, I believe his name was?” She shook her head, disbelieving what was happening as tears began to leak from her eyes.

“
All the same, I would have killed the wrong man when it’s his
children
I should be after,” he said rather playfully.

“
You’re sick! You would harm innocent children?” the scared woman spat out venomously.

“
Well, why not? It
is
for power, is it not? Speaking of which,” Trailian still advanced towards her as she backed further away. They had gotten to the middle of the room before he stopped walking, “where are your children, Duana?” he asked, more in a tone of demand but was calm, with a suspicious and sadistic look in his void-black eyes.

“
I don’t know,” she said simply in a hushed tone.                

“
Oh, come
ooon
–” he began, the corners of his lips climbing into a cheeky grin.

“
NO! I honestly do not know!” She then lashed out, half attacking, half fearful. They stared at each other piercingly for a while. Suddenly, Trailian’s eyes quickly zoomed to the floor and back to Duana. She had seen this and immediately knew what he was thinking. Instantly, both of them threw their hands out to the ground and yelled: “RISE!” In one swift motion, half the bones in the room rolled up into humanoid creatures, but were taller, had pale ruddy sorts of skin, jet black eyes and formed behind Trailian. Simultaneously, a black smoky essence wafted in front of Duana and created an army of her un-dead servants. She turned around
, running towards the exit at the end of the room where the glowing cocoons floated unharmed. Trailian and his army lit their hands with vicious black fire, letting out a horrible fury against Duana’s protectors.

Duana’s Roamers were
at the point of dissolving back into the air and leaving her vulnerable. There was nothing she could do about them. Duana wasn’t strong enough to maintain them. In pure mockery, Trailian stared at her from the other side of the dungeon and laughed. His army of servants were still very active, standing next to him as they all observed the helpless woman, standing idle and panting, with locks of her magnificent hair dangling over her face. She had stopped running. She was facing them.

“Give it up, Duana,” Trailian hissed with a snaky smile. He wanted to enjoy this – he ever so slowly raised his hand to his face with a perfectly
spherical ball of black flames hovering in the middle of his palm. Duana was out of energy, even to summon a Roamer to rescue her. She simply exhaled and gently closed her long-lashed eyes, waiting for the worst to happen.

Trailian scoffed and shot out his hand. A beam of bright purple-black fire, carrying the heat of a thousand suns, tore through the air and headed straight for Duana.
Moments before the impact disintegrated her, a quick flash of indigo shone and Trailian’s beam was redirected to a life-sized column in the corner which was soon obliterated. Duana looked a few paces in front of her and saw Angwen’s body materialise out of the air behind the invisible shield that had just saved her life. Her heart warmed with joy, having thought for all this time that her fate was truly sealed.

Duana smiled victoriously as Angwen then threw a nasty, backbiting shot of electricity
at Trailian – who had gotten rid of his army and began duelling Angwen as Duana ran. Their energetic fight consisted of Angwen’s indigo electric shots that ricocheted to all parts of the room and causing chunks of cement to plummet from the ceiling, and Trailian shooting out his usual beams of hellfire.

“
Duana –” Angwen yelled through the fire that ripped from Trailian’s hands, busy gesticulating his hands and arms to create large force-fields, “break the cocoons and tell them to run!”

“
What? Tell who to run?” Duana desperately asked.

“
You’ll find out the instant you break the cocoons! NOW RELEASE THEM, DUANA!” Angwen vigorously shouted as Trailian let out sadistic yells, amplifying the magnitude of his power. Angwen kept pulling energy out of nothingness as if it were air he could manipulate, moving just as swiftly as Trailian; their movements being artfully liquid but their arms and hand gestures remaining solid, following the dynamism running through them. Duana turned to face the cocoons and shot her hands out saying: “servants, render them free!” Rough, half-visible outlines of vibrating energy were sent darting to the three luminous cocoons from Duana’s hands and they fell to the ground nastily, smashing into a thousand shell pieces and still glowing rather brightly. But what astounded Duana was what crawled out of each: a girl and two boys; all of them in their teens – though one of the boys looked a tad older. The girl had a mocha sort of complexion and the boys, chocolate. They all looked at each other and their own hands disbelievingly, as if they didn’t know what they were.

“
We’re – we’re young....what happened to us?” The girl stammered. Trailian fumed with rage and shot a side-streak of fire which tore across the room to Duana, slashing her on the left part of her stomach and breaking a few bones of her left ribcage. She fell to the ground in agony, clutching the wound as black blood seeped out. As Trailian continued to attack him relentlessly, he needed to react fast and save these children. Angwen slowly held out his hand, opened-palm, to his chest’s height and uttered: “until the time is right, relax their age. Let their spirits remain frozen at this stage.”

He flung his hand towar
ds the three teens and within seconds got full blast of an invisible force that sent them a step back with a shove. Trailian stood up again, ready to continue as the cuts and bruises on his mutilated body healed rapidly.

He stepped back down to a level surface and resumed attempting to kill Duana and Angwen. But Angwen was reluctant to l
et this happen. The oldest boy, with stunning electric blue eyes, darted to Duana to help her but stopped him in his tracks: “GO! DON’T STAY! RUN!” she ordered in a dominant, forceful voice which they couldn’t help but obey. Quickly and without discussing the woman’s instructions, they took the narrow opening in the left corner of the dungeon and vanished. Duana was in pain, clutching the side of her stomach to avoid excessive blood loss. Still, the breaking of her bones was making her breathless and she felt weakened. Finally, with one last strong blow, Angwen had knocked Trailian out then dashed to Duana and carried her through the same exit the teens had taken. The woman was groaning and grunting in pain but she wasn’t dying.

“
Angwen, that man, he’s not the Bond; his children are –”

“
I know. He and I deliberately led the monarchy to believe it was him to buy us more time. I need to go and protect them –”

“
Angwen,” she spoke as she groaned in more pain. “The children, are they alright?” she spoke between breaths. Angwen, still carrying her, slid out of the corridors and was then out in the grounds where the war raged more dreadful than ever. He had to manoeuvre his way around attacks and shout to Duana to be heard through the vengeful roars of the soldiers and warriors.

“
They’re fine –” Angwen yelled, being interrupted as he evaded a large set of raining fire from the soldiers in the battle field “– I separated them, slowed down their ageing so they wouldn’t continue to grow until the time is right and I had their memories erased. They won’t remember you,” he continued, looking at Duana solemnly, “except Élouisa. I let her keep her memory so that one day, she will gather them all back again.” Angwen lifted one arm and a small cave of earth immediately rose up, behind which he hid as a sudden tsunami of malicious water had been conjured by one of the soldiers. The raging liquid spun in the air and destroyed things in its path like a maelstrom. The instant it retracted, Angwen sprang out and dashed across the battlefield. The forest was charred and still burning energetically whilst the Adalbheort and Balamir troops fought with ardour. Balls of flames were being hurled everywhere, monsters fought alongside the Balamirs whilst men from the Adalbheort monarchy turned into large, majestic creatures – many of which had never been seen before. Green embers were being emitted in the entire perimeter and from them came out men, teleporting here and there to attack their opponents. The castle was under unimaginable siege and in ruins, but the war wasn’t going to end as far as there were Balamir troops still standing and their monarchs still alive.

“
Angwen!” Duana yelled, worried in the arms of her saviour, “why can’t we just teleport away?” she finished, as they evaded another deadly strike by a plant who’s vines swept the floor, taking out a dozen soldiers but still leaving a million more alive.

“
I’m giving you to someone and you will have to go with them –” Angwen dived from a corroding ray of blazing fire “– it’s too risky for you to come with me! I’m going into hiding after I’ve saved Jerricho’s children!” he finished.

“
What? Angwen, please
no
–” but Angwen had dropped Duana on the battle ground through her desperate plea of remaining accompanied, as he was sent hurtling away by a forceful impact into the air before landing further away on a large rock. He could see Duana below and distant, weakened and clutching her ribcage as the war progressed around her.

A man, one of the Adalbheort soldiers
, instantly appeared at the bottom of the rock on which Angwen had landed

“Tantrus, any news
?” another soldier asked him.

“Is Jerricho still out there? He needs to
leave
!” the man named Tantrus snarled.

“He’s been captured, Tantrus. He’s probably dead,” the other soldier replied. Tantrus
’face withered into sadness and anger as he instantly looked directly into his comrade’s eyes.