Enflamed (Book 2) (16 page)

XIV

Intense heat roused Kaijin. He
stared up at the hazy, amber-hued sky, which flickered as if it were on fire.
He turned his head, letting his cheek rest upon the flat ground. Flames danced
all around his body, yet they didn’t burn him. He felt alone, at peace.

The land, the same color as
the sky, was barren and charred, yet it somehow burned constantly and stoked
small fires that intermittently appeared and disappeared at random. Smoke made
Kaijin’s eyes burn. Strangely enough, he could taste ozone, its tangy bite in
his throat as he breathed.

Kaijin looked back at the
landscape.
Where am I?
The bed of fire he lay in was soothing and warm.
Its comfort sparked memories of being in his mother’s arms. Not wanting to
leave the flames’ heavenly embrace, Kaijin simply lay there, relishing the
sounds of their crackles and snaps in his ears.

A sizzling sound grew louder.

Looking sideway, he saw a pair
of burly inhuman legs, adorned with ornate golden cuffs, approaching him. The
creature was barefoot, revealing a set of ashen-grey claws protruding from
stubby toes. Its red-orange skin had a rough texture that blended with the
surrounding flames. The creature’s feet hissed when they touched the ground,
and each step caught one of the fires, leaving a smoldering, extinguished spot.

Kaijin looked up the being’s
solid frame and was momentarily blinded by the shimmer of the brass scimitar it
held in its clawed hand.

Wincing, Kaijin closed his
eyes. When he reopened them, the creature stood over him, staring intently and
snorting plumes of grey smoke from its nostrils. Its massive form, taller than
any man and broader than a bull, overshadowed Kaijin, eclipsing him.

Kaijin heard the being’s heavy
breathing and felt its unsettling closeness. The strange ozone odor grew
stronger. As Kaijin locked eyes with the creature, he shivered at the sight of
its face. Its broad, flat snout wrinkled into a sneer to reveal a set of
razor-sharp fangs. Two large black horns protruded from its head and curved
upwards, and its frayed, pointed ears were adorned with brass rings.

The air around the creature
shimmered from the heat of its body. It flexed its muscles, and Kaijin noticed
a small mark branded on one of its bulging biceps. Recognizing the symbol,
Kaijin’s mouth slowly dropped open in shock.
Ignis!

The creature’s turquoise eyes
bore into Kaijin as if they were staring into his very soul. Then, it spoke
words that sounded like a series of hisses and crackles—like fire burning. “Why
are you here?”

Kaijin furrowed his brow.
Somehow, he could understand the fiery words. He replied in Common, “Where is
‘here’?”

The creature snorted again and
pointed its blade at Kaijin. “The Master has not yet summoned you. You have no
business here. Begone, mortal.”

Kaijin stared at the shining
blade. “I ... I don’t know how I got here.”

“Some other filthy mortal
attempted to take something that does not belong to them,” the creature
replied. An image of the orb appeared before Kaijin in the thin air. The
creature held up Kaijin’s necklace. “This necklace’s powers sent you here while
your body slept. You have been asleep for precisely two and one-third mortal
cycles.”

Kaijin looked at the objects
and gasped. The orb was grey and hazy. He focused on the necklace and,
panicked, patted his chest.
It’s gone!
His eyes widened. “That’s mine!
Why would the necklace save me?”

The creature held the necklace
aloft and teasingly swung the charm like a pendulum.
“Because
the Master is not yet finished with you.”

“Master?”
Kaijin scrunched his brow. “I don’t understand. What
master?”

“The Master is He to whom you
have vowed your soul.”

Kaijin frowned. He assumed the
creature spoke of Ignis, but its words were riddling. He could only assume that
this was all a dream—a nightmare. “No, I don’t believe you. Give me back my
amulet!”

“You
dare
stand up to
me
?”
the creature snarled. Its sword hand burst into flame, and fire traveled
downwards and enveloped the weapon. It sliced through the transparent image of
the orb, which disappeared.

Fear tingled down Kaijin’s
spine. He desperately tried to keep his composure, but he was failing fast.
This
is madness. This is not real.

The creature’s eyes narrowed,
its grim sneer twisting into an amused smirk. “No, Kaijin Sora. It is not
madness. It is chaos—and it is very real.”

This monster knows my name?
My thoughts?
Kaijin gaped.

A chuckle rumbled from the
creature. “Yes, I can read your fragile thoughts like your kind reads books.”

This couldn’t be ...
Him
... could it?

“No, Kaijin Sora. I am not
He.”

“Where ... where am I? Who are
you?”

“Who I am is none of your
concern. You are trespassing in the Master’s realm, and it is my duty to remove
you.” The monster inched the edge of the blade closer to Kaijin.

Kaijin swallowed a lump in his
throat. He wriggled his body away from the flaming blade. “Spare me, please. I
never meant to come here. I never meant to anger your master.”

“Then awaken, and do not
return.”

“I don’t know how to awaken.
Perhaps I’m dead.”

“You are not dead. Not yet.
You reek of the same stench as mortals.”

“Then show me how to awaken.”

The creature chuckled again.
It held its blazing scimitar at Kaijin’s chest, pinning him in place.
“With pleasure.”

Kaijin felt a sharp pain in
his chest.

There was pain beyond pain,
and Kaijin wanted to cry out, but all he managed was a gurgling groan. His life
flashed before his eyes.

Is this what death feels
like?

The creature pulled Kaijin up
to his knees, and Kaijin glimpsed the flaming blade piercing his heart. With a
sinister grin, the creature lodged the sword deeper, until the cross guard was
pressed against Kaijin’s chest. Kaijin felt his body jerk and twitch from the
monster’s mishandling. He was certain that by now, the remainder of the blade
protruded from his back.

The weapon’s flames burned a
hole through Kaijin’s robes, revealing a gaping, bloodless wound beneath,
reeking of scorched flesh.

Kaijin convulsed and went
limp, held in place by the weapon.

The monster withdrew the
sword. Fire cleansed the blade’s edge, leaving it purified and shining like new
again. “The Master sends His regards,” the creature said as Kaijin slumped. It
rumbled with laughter and tossed the necklace at him.

The necklace hit Kaijin’s
chest and landed in his lap. No longer could Kaijin feel pain. Instead, he felt
numb, and the rest of his senses began to fail him.
So, it ends here.
He
collapsed to the ground in a heap, breathing his last.

XV

Kaijin’s eyes shot open. He
shuddered, vividly remembering that horrid creature’s face. He traced his fiery
charm, which hung securely around his neck.

He exhaled in relief.
Just a dream.
That’s all it was.

Kaijin’s body felt heavy as he
stirred. He was lying on a smooth stone floor, and his back and neck were stiff
and hurting. It took him several minutes to finally sit up and examine his
surroundings, which were cloaked in darkness.

He soon realized that he was
in a cave. The only source of light came dimly from the cave’s massive mouth.
Beyond the exit, the starry sky outlined a precipice.
This is not our camp.
How did I get here?

The ozone smell that he
remembered from his dream hung heavily in the air. A shuffling sound diverted
his attention to the back of the cave, where he spied two shadowy figures
moving about.

“You sure this will be big
enough?” a male asked in a whisper.

“Yes,” another male replied.
“Now, keep quiet and help me.”

Still groggy, Kaijin squinted,
trying to make out the two figures.

“I hope the others come soon,”
the first one said. “It was only luck we made it this far while she was away.”

“Luck?
If not for that spell I cast on you, you’d be
clanking around louder than a golem.”

He huffed. “I still don’t
understand why we don’t just destroy this one. This is more trouble than it’s
worth, if you ask me.”

“Do you realize how much money
can be made in the black market for this? Some of the mages will pay top coin
for just the eggshells alone!”

“Well, first, we need do get
out of here. But I don’t think that plan will go smoothly.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because it looks like the
Celestials brought friends, this time.”

“Reinforcements are on their
way to deal with them. That’s when we’ll make our escape, understand?”

Confused by the pair’s
conversation, Kaijin looked around for his companions, but he saw no one. He listened
carefully, but he heard only the light rustle of the two men nearby. Kaijin
called out, “Nester? Aidan? Who’s there?”

The rustling stopped abruptly.
The air grew tense.

Kaijin felt a presence near
him. He smelled the faint scent of brimstone.

A male voice uttered a phrase
in Arcanic, and a soft white ball of light appeared in the hand of a stranger.
He closed his fist slightly, dimming the light. The man wore a green cloak over
his long black robes, upon which a symbol—two crossed swords over a Dragon’s
skull—was emblazoned on the chest. The light traced over the man’s fair,
weathered face as he studied Kaijin.

Kaijin looked back at the
stranger and blinked. “Who are you? Where am I?”

Frowning, the cloaked man
called to his companion, “Someone else is here—and he’s alive.”

“What?” The other man spoke in
just above a whisper. He was dragging a very large bag across the cave floor,
and Kaijin caught small glimpses of the man’s shining armor. He stood before
Kaijin, the dim light revealing the greenish skin and porcine features of an
orc, whose face was beaded with sweat. Though donned in full plate, his
movements were strangely muffled. He wore a dark green tabard, emblazoned with
the same symbol as his cloaked comrade.

“I will crush him.” The orc
let go of the bag.

“Wait, there’s no time.” The
cloaked man placed two fingers over his temple. “I’ve been contacted. Our
brethren have come.”

“But—!”

“Now!
We must escape while we have the chance. Leave him.
The others will finish him off once they have dealt with the Celestials’
group.”

Others?
Kaijin tried to make sense of it all.

The orc grunted and
reluctantly grabbed the bag.

The cloaked man clenched his
fist, extinguishing the light, and went toward the mouth of the cave. “Hold on
to me.”

What's going on? Where are
they headed?

The orc followed his companion
and wrapped one arm around the man’s waist while he tightly held the large bag.
The cloaked man held up his hand and twisted a shining object on one of his
fingers. The air surrounding the men wavered as they were enveloped in a
translucent shield, and moments later, the two men disappeared.

Kaijin flinched.
Did they
just ...

He lost his train of thought
as he spied movement heading out of the cave. He rose slowly, approached the
mouth of the cave, and peered out.

There was no one in sight. The
precipice overlooked moonlit, craggy, and utterly empty lands below. Kaijin
eyed a treacherous-looking rocky trail leading down the mountainside. Voices
drifted up from further down the path, followed by screams and clashing metal.

Kaijin’s head throbbed, and he
grabbed it, groaning in pain.
Not again.
He heard his familiar’s
high-pitched call from above and behind him. Turning, he spied Miele hanging
from the mouth of the cave. She flew at him, shrieking, and landed on his
shoulder, her excitement easing the pain in his mind.

“Miele?”
Kaijin asked aloud.
She’s alive?
“Gods!
Am I glad to see you! Are you okay?”

Miele stretched her wings,
revealing her furry chest. Over her heart, a line of skin puckered with a faint
scar.

She’s alive!
Kaijin studied the mark, but movement in the nearby
brush interrupted him. Percival poked his head up from the small clumps of
grass. Squeaking frantically, Percival ran to Kaijin.

“Percival?
What are you doing here?” Kaijin asked the weasel
aloud. “Did Omari send you?”

Percival fixed him with an
intense gaze,
then
turned toward the rocky path that
wound down the mountainside and began nervously weaving between Kaijin’s
ankles.

Kaijin studied the weasel’s
odd behavior, puzzled. “What’s going on? Is Omari down there?”

Percival let out another
whistle. He stopped pacing and stood on his hind legs, craning his neck and
stretching his supple body to get a better view.

As Kaijin followed Percival’s
gaze, he heard a woman scream.
Zarya!

The terror in that scream
turned Kaijin’s bitterness toward her into concern. He chewed his bottom lip
and looked at Miele.
“What should I do? I don’t know if I am strong enough
to fight.”

Miele responded with a series
of reassuring shrieks and flapped her wings once, sending him feelings of
assurance and encouragement.

Kaijin remembered bits and
pieces of what had happened a few days before.
“
Wait,
back at the camp ... I was ...
part
of you
,
wasn’t I? What did
you do then? How was I able to see what you saw?”

She shrieked again, flew off
his shoulder, and made small circles above his head.

Kaijin smiled.
“Can you
show me what’s going on down there? I want to know if everyone is safe. Please
be careful. If anything should happen to you again, I—”

Before he could finish, Miele
soared into the air and followed the twisting mountain path.

He watched her carefully.
Soon, he felt himself slip away into a trance.

Through Miele’s eyes, Kaijin
saw the moon-touched lands. He felt his stomach flip-flop as Miele soared through
the night sky.

A battle raged at the base of
the mountain. Despite the terrifying sensation, Kaijin also felt a sense of
freedom, being so high above the chaos.
“I never realized how beautiful it
was up here, Miele.”

Miele screeched, and the
swooping sensation returned to Kaijin’s stomach as she zoomed toward the heart
of the fight, giving him a brief glimpse of the combatants before soaring back
into the sky. Sigmund, Sephiya, and Evan—the same strangers he remembered from
before—fought alongside his companions. The group faced seven armored
assailants, who wielded swords, bows, and magic.

Raiders?

Omari slumped against a large
rock, breathing heavily. The electrical sparks crackled dimly in his eyes. The ball
of lightning he hurled at two archers who aimed at him faded, and the spell
fizzled as it hit an invisible barrier surrounding the men. He unsecured his
staff from behind him and stepped back into a defensive posture. His body
swayed slightly. An armored raider lunged at him from behind, his broadsword
poised to slice through the unsuspecting mage.

“Omari!
Look out!” Evan yelled, aiming his bow at the raider.
His arrow sliced through the air, punching through the attacker’s exposed neck.
The man collapsed, dropping his sword. Omari turned and jumped away, startled.
With a sigh of relief, Evan scanned the rest of the battle.

Sigmund locked swords with an
equally large armored man. He broke through the hold and head-butted his
opponent. Momentarily dazed, the raider staggered backward, and Sigmund lunged
in, driving his sword through the bottom opening of the man’s breastplate and
into his kidney. Sigmund withdrew his sword, and with a loud grunt, the raider
collapsed.

Before the raider could hit
the ground, Aidan grabbed him and pinned him against the cliff face. Blood
flowed from the man’s wound.

“Look at Aidan,” the giant
demanded, “and answer.”

The man’s eyelids fluttered.
He convulsed and coughed blood.

Sigmund frowned. “Leave him,
Aidan. This is no time for interrogations.”

Ignoring Sigmund, Aidan
remained focused on the dying raider, who coughed more violently.

Aidan bared his fangs and
demanded in a low, beastly snarl, “Is Gaston here? You carry his scent. Where
is he?
Answer Aidan now!”

Blood dribbled out of the side
of the raider’s gaping mouth. His eyes rolled back, and his body went limp.

“Aidan!” Sigmund yelled again.
“That’s enough!” He ducked as two arrows zoomed by him. The two longbow
archers, atop a large, flat rock, nocked fresh arrows.

Aidan grunted. The arrows had
lodged deep into his back, just beneath the small protruding nubs. Aidan
released the dead raider and stumbled forward, bracing himself against the rock
face with a grimace. Blood trickled from the wound as he worked his muscles.
While Aidan was distracted, two more raiders approached him.

“Finish the half-breed!” one
of them ordered.

Aidan slumped to his knees and
groaned.

“Aidan!” Zarya shouted,
running to the giant. Two more arrows whistled by, halting her midstride. The
arrows lodged in the ground just hairs behind her.

Miele soared toward the rock
and hovered not far above where the archers stood. Behind the archers, a shadow
moved.

Nester appeared in plain
sight, like a ghost solidifying in thin air. He struck the two men from behind,
driving his daggers through small openings between the flutes of their cuisses
and into their thighs.

“That’s no way to treat a
lady.” Nester twisted his blades deeper.

The two men cried out in pain and
collapsed, firing their arrows toward the sky as they dropped their bows and
grasped at their wounds.

Panicked, Miele zoomed away
from the battle. Kaijin spoke softly.
“No, Miele. You’re safe. They weren’t
aiming at you.”

A wave of relief spread through
the bat, and she approached the battle again, more cautiously.

Nester pulled out his blades
and gave them both a good, hard shake. As he did so, Sigmund approached from
finishing off the other raider and drove his sword into the displaced archers’
backs.

Nester blinked. “Remind me
never to make you angry, mate.”

Sigmund’s face remained stony.
“They must not live.”

“I kinda figured that.”

Sigmund rolled one of the dead
raiders’ corpses over with his foot and pointed at a small symbol etched on the
breastplate.

“That symbol is the same
one those two men in the cave were wearing. Who are they? What do they want?”

Confusion filled Miele, and
she fluttered closer to Nester and Sigmund. They didn’t seem to notice her.

“Do you see this, Nester?”
Sigmund said. “It is the symbol of the Legion. They are slayers.”

Nester scratched his head, his
face scrunching with confusion. “I ain’t seen a symbol like that before, but my
Uncle Nickle used to tell me scary bedtime stories about evil slayers. Gave me
nightmares when I was a boy, they did. But I never saw one myself, so I figured
they weren’t real. I mean, ’e
did
used to pull my leg like that most of
the time, despite ’im knowin’ ’ow much I ’ated it.”