Authors: Rain Oxford
Insidious Winds (28 page)
I grabbed the key and studied both sides, wishing
there were instructions.
Nothing
. There were no grooves or anything. I
went to the door and tried the knob without any success. Wondering if Astrid
might have a clue how to use it, I returned to the window and pressed it
against the glass.
“Do you know how to---” I snapped my mouth shut when
the glass split down the middle and slid open. I entered her side of the room,
grabbed her key, and went to the door. It opened on its own when I reached for
the doorknob. I set the first key in front of the door frame just in case it
wanted to reclose and returned to Astrid.
She was leaning against the wall, only half
conscious. “Hold on. You’ll be okay, just hold on for a few more minutes.”
“I knew I would see you again,” she said quietly. “I
wanted to see you again.” When I tried to take her hand off the lever, she
clenched her fingers. “I have to hold on.”
“Open your hand.”
She did and then her legs gave out. I picked her up
and brought her to the door, which opened to a much larger room. It was
actually fancy compared to the rest of the complex. The floor and walls were
stone, not dirt, and light came from burning torches along the wall. Across
from us was a small bed of pillows in front of a podium. A gold, ceremonial
goblet sat in the middle of the podium. A narrow beam of light lit up the
chalice from above, but I couldn’t tell where the light was actually coming
from.
I approached the pillows, laid Astrid down gently,
and reached for the chalice.
“Wait,” Janus said, appearing on the other side of
the podium.
I stopped, frustrated. “Don’t tell me I have another
test to pass.”
“No, you have proven you are able to protect the key.
I am now offering you a choice.” A thin, inch-long, spear-shaped weapon that
was clear as glass appeared in front of me. More specifically; an inch away
from my throat.
“Let me guess; my choice is to die so that she can
live?”
“Precisely. Attaining the key requires a sacrifice of
what is most important to you. If you choose to sacrifice yourself, Astrid will
live. The key will be destroyed, the tower will be sealed, and no one will ever
be able to cross worlds again. Or… you can choose to sacrifice the one you love
and you can have the key and the power that comes with it.”
“So I can have everything I want and die, or lose her
and be responsible for everyone else, too? That’s not a very difficult choice.”
“It is if your mind is weak. If what you want most is
to save your friends and make the world better for them, then step forward. If,
however, you want the power that the key will provide you, then step back and
let the one you love die. It must be your choice.”
“If I die, how am I supposed to save Astrid?”
“If your choice is to sacrifice yourself, I will help
her drink from the chalice.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Then let her die. It does not matter to me.”
I looked at her. She was white as a sheet, covered in
sweat, and struggling to breathe. I knew the feeling and couldn’t stand to see
it. “Swear to me you will save her.”
“I swear that if your choice is to sacrifice
yourself, Astrid will not die.”
I almost wished my instincts would make me stop, but
they didn’t. Somehow, I knew this was the only way to save her. It was the only
way to save everyone.
Two steps
. I closed my eyes and took a step
forward. The sharp point pressed against the base of my throat. This was the
worst part about “sacrificing” myself; actually doing it myself.
I wanted to ask what was going to happen to me
afterwards, what there was in the way of an afterlife, but the thought of
speaking with the spike against my throat kept my mouth shut. I cleared my mind
because thinking of my friends would only make this harder. No matter what I
had been through, I had no desire to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to
survive, return to Quintessence, and pretend I never had to make this choice.
But Astrid would die and it would be my fault.
Krechea would get the key and make Earth just as bad as Dothra.
I had no reason to trust that Janus would save Astrid
and prevent Krechea from reaching Earth, but I knew if I didn’t, everyone I
cared about would lose everything.
“You are running out of time, Devon Sanders.”
I stepped forward. The sharp edge broke my skin.
One of the doors was wide open, but it was too dark
to see into. “What happened?”
“You chose to sacrifice yourself over your loved
ones. You have proven yourself worthy of protecting the final key. It will be a
great burden, but you will succeed as long as you remain the man you are now.”
“What about Astrid?”
“As I promised, she will live.”
“Where is she?”
“Still in Dothra. You are free to go and get her.” He
gestured to the open door.
“That’s to Dothra? Why is it open where anyone can
come and go?”
“It was not I who opened it.”
“Langril. Where is he now?”
Was he really dead
?
It didn’t seem possible.
“He was attacked and overwhelmed. It appears he was
trying to save both Heather Anne and the vampire, but his plans were overheard.
I will close the door behind you.”
Was he really trying to save Astrid? No, probably
not
. “Can you tell me how to find her once I get there?”
“I cannot,” he answered dismissively, holding his
hand out flat. A small disk, about an inch in diameter and a quarter inch thick,
appeared above his hand. He motioned to the disk and it floated towards me,
stopping a foot away from my chest.
I sighed. “I don’t want this.”
“And that is why you are the only one who can keep it
safe now.”
I reached out with my right hand and froze; my
instincts were telling me that was wrong. Instead, I held out my left hand and
the disk floated to my palm. I grunted, but managed to contain an outright
shout of pain as the disk suddenly turned almost red hot. I dropped the damn
thing. It fell halfway to the floor, halted in midair, and vanished.
I studied my hand. There was not much pain left, but
a circle the same size as the disk had been burned into my palm. There were
intricate designs and symbols in the circle, just like those from the drawing
on Heather’s note I found after her death. As I watched, the burned lines faded
to a shade paler than the rest of my skin.
When I looked up, Janus was gone.
I didn’t feel suddenly more powerful, but at least I
didn’t feel dead. I cleared my mind, certain this was going to hurt, and
stepped through the doorway.
* * *
No matter how badly my lungs were burning, my
instincts would not let me inhale. I was colder than I had ever been, which
made sense, because I was under water. I sat up, though the task was made
difficult by the rushing water. I was in some kind of concrete tunnel with the
tower smack dab in the middle of it. The top of the tower was higher than the
ceiling of the tunnel.
I got to my feet, shivering violently, and tried to
squeeze the water out of my clothes. Either side of the tunnel led to darkness,
but my instincts were pushing me to go downstream. With no better options, I
followed the tunnel and came out into a dark street. Not all of the water ran
off into the drain holes, as they were obviously poorly designed.
There were buildings just like the shops on Earth,
but they were all run down and creepy. None of them had any windows, paint, or
items on display. In fact, they looked like they were trying to go unnoticed.
Old-fashioned, down-facing streetlights provided some lighting, but half of
them were out and the other half were dim or blinking. People here obviously
didn’t like light.
I turned and stepped back to see over the water
tunnel. Built almost hanging over the street was a massive castle, easily three
times the size of Quintessence. The tower, which grew out of the tunnel, was
pressed against another, wider tower in a very sloppy manner.
Was Krechea in there, or had he already escaped to
Earth?
I heard a scream and ducked into the tunnel. I wasn’t
particularly worried, since the rushing water was loud, until I sensed the
presence of those approaching.
Vampires
. Not just any vampires, either;
these were the most powerful vampires I had ever crossed paths with.
Five vampires passed, two of which were dragging a
screaming, thrashing woman. The vampires were wearing long, black leather coats
and sporting many large, flashy rings on their hands and chains around their
bodies. Hell, they looked like a cross between a vampire and a pirate.
One of them stopped, turned, and looked right at me
with glowing red eyes. I reacted impulsively by reaching out with my magic to
take his mind.
Nothing happened.
Not a damn thing; my magic was completely and
entirely unresponsive, which had only ever happened when Gale was using the
amulet against me. I started reaching for my gun the instant I realized I was
in trouble. Unfortunately, the vampire was faster. He slammed me into the wall
and leaned forward to rip out my throat. I head-butted him, which was
apparently not something he was familiar with.
He jumped back and screamed something in a foreign
language while alternately checking his fingers for blood and looking at me
like I was utterly insane. The other four vampires stopped playing around, but
by then, I had my gun. I shot one of them in the heart and the bastard burst
into ash. I stared at my gun in shock, as did the remaining four vampires.
Okay, so silver works on pure vampires
.
Before I could pull the trigger again, the first
vampire smacked the gun from my hand and grabbed my wrist. Without thought, I
reached into my pocket with my free hand, pulled out the first thing I touched,
and stabbed it into his eye. I grimaced as he screamed. “Sorry, but I need that
back.”
I pulled the penlight back out, wiped it off on my
shirt, put it in my pocket, and went for my gun. One of the remaining vampires
beat me to it, aimed it at me, and pulled the trigger. I laughed. Of all the
times to run out of bullets…
The vampire tossed my gun aside, but I dived for it
and snapped it up out of the water easily. Before I could straighten, the
vampire shoved me against the wall of the tunnel. I kicked him in the side of
the knee and slammed the butt of the gun into his nose. With one hand, I
released the empty clip. With the other hand, I pulled a new clip from my
pocket and snapped it into the gun. When I shot him in the chest, he burst into
ash.
I aimed the gun at the one who had attacked me first
and he… vanished, as did the other two vampires. That was one more thing Earth
vampires couldn’t do. The woman they left behind curled up on the ground.
I glanced around before putting my gun away and
approaching her. Just because she was their captive didn’t mean she wasn’t very
dangerous. “Are you okay?” I asked her. When she didn’t answer, I reached down
and gently touched her shoulder.
When she jerked her head up, I jumped back. Her
eyelids were sewn shut and her eyes were caved inward as if her eyeballs had
been removed. There was also a very gory, open sore on her forehead. She
started babbling something, but I couldn’t tell if she wasn’t making sense
because of fear or if she was just speaking another language.
My instincts fired up so hard that I took several
steps away from her before I could stop myself. In two seconds, the shadows
reared up like a wave in the ocean and engulfed her before forming into a man.
He was tall, thin, and set off every alarm in my head. He grinned cruelly and
tilted his head.
“Sren, come look what I found,” he said, his voice chilling
and playful at the same time. More shadows converged and formed a woman. She,
too, was creepy as hell, with black hair, black eyes, and very pale skin.
“A human!” she said excitedly. “Can we keep him? I
always wanted a human.”
The man chuckled. “No, you have not. Look closer; he
has magic.”
“Ooh, do you think he can learn tricks? Like he can
go get us food and send messages? Do you think he knows any words?” She glanced
down at my body. “Is that a normal size for a human?”
“Slow down, Sren, we have to take him to the Master
before we can play with him. You know humans cannot be loose in the wild.”
“You realize I can understand every word you’re
saying, right?” I asked.
They both froze. “Did it just try to speak?” Sren
asked.
The man shrugged. “He is not from here; we cannot
expect him to speak our language.”
I sighed and pulled my gun out. “Let’s try this
again. Take… me… to… Astrid…” I said slowly, emphatically.
They both looked from me to my gun. The man then made
a waving motion with his hand and my gun vanished. “Is he asking for food?”
Sren asked.
“How should I know? The Master will decide if he eats
or not.”
Anger overcame any fear inside me when the man
reached out for my hand. I was here to save Astrid, not play games with the
local demons or be talked about as if I were a stray dog. Anger probably
overcame reason, too. “Stop,” I growled.
He did.
So, silver works on vampires, but mind control
doesn’t. Mind control works on wizards, but guns don’t. Yay
.
Unfortunately, although mind control did work on
Dothra wizards, I wasn’t powerful enough to hold on for more than a few
seconds. When his mind snapped out of it, the backlash was the equivalent of an
instant migraine.
“What did he do?” Sren asked him.
Instead of answering her, he reached for me again. By
then, I had a theory. I allowed anger and hate to fill me again and my power
came with it. I reached out as if to push the man away and focused my anger on
him. The same red lightning I had used before struck him in the chest and he
burst into… well, shadow. I hadn’t killed him, but he didn’t swarm me. The
woman looked shocked for a second before she also became a shadow again.
I finally understood everything Langril told me and
why he always made me mad during our lessons; magic in Dothra is entirely based
on emotion. There were no elementals on Dothra. Here, fear made my magic weak
and anger made it strong.
I wonder what love does
.
Certain that someone else would come along and try to
enslave or eat me, I took off towards the light. It seemed like at least the
wizards favored the darkness. The streets all looked like the one I had seen in
my vision of Astrid, which didn’t mean she was actually anywhere close. I tried
the door of every store I came across to find one that was abandoned. Oddly
enough, none of them were open to the public at the moment. Maybe it was
nighttime.
Did a world of darkness have a commonly recognized
“nighttime?”
I finally found an unlocked door and went inside,
where there were stacks of unmarked boxes everywhere. The investigator in me
wanted to snoop. Instead, I focused on Astrid’s mind and tried to find it with
my magic.
Nothing. I couldn’t sense her at all. I also couldn’t
stick around the store all day. I needed to find someone who knew something.
Hell, I needed someone who understood me.
How could I understand those two
shadow wizards and they couldn’t understand me
?
Damned backwards world
.
I started to leave, but my instincts were warning me
against it. Thus, I decided to snoop. I opened one of the boxes.
Water
?
It contained nothing but bottles of water. I opened the box next to it and
found some form of ERMs.
I didn’t know if they were rations for the common
people, emergency relief, or poison meant to fool someone’s enemy. The other
boxes contained more of the same. After a few minutes, I heard the sound of
someone talking, so I ducked behind an old filing cabinet. The door opened the
second I was out of sight and two men came in. I peeked out of my hiding space
just enough to see the men start loading the boxes onto a flat cart.
“Why do we have to feed the vermin?” one man asked.
“The vampires are even greater pests, and they feed
off the vermin.”
“If we just kill the vermin---”
“Then the vampires will feed off us.”
“But this only kills the vampires,” the man whined.
Fucking wizards
. They’re all the same; kill
the vampires by poisoning their food supply without the humans even knowing
they were poisoned. That was probably how Astrid was poisoned.
Would Astrid
go back to the same food source after that
? I wanted to think she wasn’t
that stupid, but I had no idea how desperate she was.
“It does kill the vermin,” the second man said. “It
merely takes longer. Eventually, the poison will cause their organs to
decompose. It starts with nasty, open sores all over their skin.”
I knew without a doubt that the vampires here were
more powerful than those on Earth, since they were the originals, but they
didn’t deserve to die like that. The humans (or weak Dothra wizards) didn’t
deserve to die, either.
I wanted my gun.
I let anger well up inside me again and shape my
magic into fire, which I let out into the boxes. Heat filled the room before
the boxes actually started smoking. At this point, the two wizards freaked and
ran away without even trying to put out the fire.
At least I wasn’t cold anymore.
When the heat of the flame melted the plastic of the
water bottles, the water spilled out and tried to extinguish the fire. I made
my way over to the door, only to hesitate. At the rate it was going out, there
would be a lot of salvageable food. Pressing my back against the door in case
the fire got out of control, I remembered every argument with Regina. My
ex-wife was a selfish, egotistical, gold-digger and no one could piss me off
faster. For the sake of the people who this poison was intended for, that was a
damn good thing.