Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (55 page)

Then there was none. No creature
stood between us and yet he still sat, studying me. He appeared as just a man. Curly
black hair framed what I guessed most women would describe as a very handsome
face. He had a strong angular jaw and a mouth that seemed to be smiling all the
time. To me it seemed a mocking smile. The most startling aspect of his
appearance though, was his eyes. They were a mirror image of mine; ice blue.
“Well, well, Kadin, haven’t you come far.” His voice was velvet.

“For
good reason.
To kill you.”
I made my
voice as hard and cold as I could in an effort to conceal my fear.

He only laughed easily. “I am
sure that is what you intend, but I think you and I should first have a talk.”

I could not believe what I was
hearing. I had imagined this encounter going a thousand different ways, but
never with him asking to talk.
  

"The only thing I could
possibly want to know from you is why you are doing this? What do you
want?" I said, and was pleased to hear the bit of steel in my voice.

The fighting still carried on
around us, but he seemed completely unaware of it.

He looked at me a long while
before speaking. "You humans have always thought yourselves above your
stations. You are puny and pathetic; weak. But you
Kadin,
are more than what you believe yourself to be."

I had no idea what he was
talking about.

"We gave them everything.
Everything! And we only asked what was our due; respect and servitude," he
continued, but whom was he talking about?

"Do you mean your Twisted
Ones?" I asked.

He laughed and shook his head.
"Them? No. They made the decisions that led them to me, but once I have
them, they have no choice. We should have done the same with your kind.
You and the Fae."
He spat the last name out. "They
were even worse than the humans. I was so shocked to learn that our war, all
the unrest, had been caused by you midges.
Running around
spreading lies and rumours to stir up trouble between us."

It dawned on me then. He was
talking of the time before the Severance. He was speaking as though he had been
one of the gods! I had to fight to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor.

"The others simply left at
that point. The fools thought that just removing their presence from you was
punishment enough. Arrogant fools! I left with them initially, but I came back.
At first just watching them all squirm while trying to cling onto life was
enough. Famine and war was rife. I even started a few wars of my own. I was
particularly proud of the War of Three Generations.
Named so
because for most regions involved, it wiped out three whole generations.”
He laughed a harsh barking laugh. “I enjoyed watching you suffer. I enjoyed
hearing people plead for us to return." His eyes were far away. “But then,
it all started to settle down. Under the guidance of the Fae and with
humanity’s survival instinct kicking in, wars were stopped. Nations rose and
started to prosper.”

His eyes snapped back to mine,
hard as flint. “I could not let that happen. I could not allow it. So, I
started to build my army, my followers, moulded especially to suit my purpose,
and my children,” he said tenderly, a father speaking of his beloved children.
It made my skin crawl.

“We were ready. We had victory
before us, until it was snatched away,” he continued. “You see,
then
I did not know that some of my fellows did not want the
downfall of humanity. Even though you spurned them, they wanted to help you.
They left a select few with some special gifts. I believe you call them
Talents. Even fewer were
Touched
by the gods.” He
smiled sardonically. “Have you noticed a similarity between us, Kadin?” He
tapped a finger to his cheek, pointing to his eyes.

“Our
eyes.
What of it?” I asked coldly. The thought of having anything in common
with this creature, was abhorrent to me.
 

“It marks you, boy. It marks you
as Touched, me as a god. It is what allows you to harbour more than one
Talent.”

Now I knew he was simply talking
to distract me. I suddenly noticed that we were back in the actual throne room.
I glanced over my shoulder and my blood turned to ice when I saw Malion lying
sprawled on the floor. My use of the torches had thrown the room into a sort of
twilight and I could not see much detail in the dimness.
 

It seemed to me that Xain and
Seran were the only ones left fighting. I bit back the panic that rose when I
could not see Alathaya. A part of me was screaming to drop everything else and
find her, but I knew there was more than her life at stake here. I felt a
monster for making that decision. As far as I could tell, only a Skell and one
Dyrrendrel remained. Markai was nowhere to be seen.
 
I turned my focus back to him.

He was studying me. “Your kind
was the reason I failed last time. This time I know all about you and I won’t
let that happen again.” He smiled darkly. “I know your blade as well. I have
met it once before. It defeated me then, it will not today.” He paused,
surveying the room with cold, calm eyes. “Your kind should never have existed.
I will make all mankind and Fae pay for rebelling against us!” He rose from his
throne as he spoke, his voice turned to thunder. It rumbled through the room
and made my bones feel rattled.

When he finished speaking, I
realised the entire room had gone quiet. When I glanced around, there was no
one left. No one left standing that was, and from where I stood, I could not
make out who all the bodies were.

I turned back. He was stepping
down from the throne and slowly drawing out a vicious looking sword. The blade
had a smooth curve to it and one side of the tip was serrated. The blade was
pitch
black, identical to the blades the Skell used. He took
a few steps towards me and I involuntarily took a step back making that mocking
smile spread further across his face.

I focused my Navitas into my
senses and my blade. I fell into Water Rising of the Shea-Rin. I shut out all
thought of anything but Rakadamon in front of me. I was only vaguely aware of
the blue mist swirling around me and down to the tip of Sunder. If I were to
survive this, I was going to need all the skill I had ever learnt, and then
perhaps some luck thrown in as well.

He advanced on me confidently.
Then disappeared in front of my eyes.
My sensitive Navitas
enhanced hearing gave me a moment’s warning that he was coming at me from
behind. I turned just as he struck a powerful sweeping blow at me. I managed to
block it easily, but the shock of his blade hitting mine reverberated up my
arm. Had I not had my Navitas focused into my blade, strengthening my hold on
it, it would have surely been knocked clean out of my hands. He came at me with
several more such blows and I realised he was testing me. Seeing how hard he
would have to push, how much I was going to be able to withstand.
 

I realised that I had retreated
a few steps with each blow. He was smiling sardonically. I launched an attack,
but he blocked and countered each blow perfectly. I took several more steps
back, at the same time drawing in the energy from the remaining torches, and hurled
that at him. I aimed for his sword hand and was rewarded with a gasp.

He switched his sword to his
other hand and held the burnt one up. Unbelievably, he laughed. “That’s new.”
Unperturbed though, he carried on fighting with his sword now in his left hand.
Of course he was ambidextrous!

I could not help giving a
mirthless snort. I had plunged us into darkness and it had not gained me
anything. If not for Navitas, I would not have been able to see anything; as it
was, it was difficult to make much out beyond ten feet away.

I became aware of the increasing
temperature in the room. Sweat was dripping down my nose and running down my
back. I could no longer make out his facial expressions, but somehow I was sure
this sudden heat was his doing.

Abruptly, he disappeared again.
This time I swung around immediately to see where he had gone. He appeared
right in front of me and launched a massive attack. Blow after blow, driving me
backward a few steps at a time. I managed to block his strikes, but not much
else. My foot caught on something, I thought a body most likely, and I started
falling backwards. Shock filled me, my stomach turned to stone, and I was sure
that he would move in now to finish me off.

Before I hit the ground though,
there was a rough tug on my coat and suddenly, I was thrown into the air. As I
tumbled, I turned and looked down to see Markai running below me. I came down
right on top of her back and clutched at her fur to keep my seat. All my senses
were magnified the moment I touched her. I could see as well as when we first
came in with all the torches lit, I could smell the individual Dark Children
and Twisted Ones, and to my dismay, I could pick out Malion’s scent as well as
Xain’s.
 
I knew where they all lay. I had
to put my friends from my mind though. If I did not focus on what I was doing,
I would not survive this.

Markai and I were so tightly
connected that I was not sure where her mind ended and mine began. Even the
motion of her running; it may as well have been me running. It was as though we
were one being.

We turned and faced him. I
grinned; his smile had vanished. We stalked in a circle, moving ever closer to
him. I could see him hesitate, trying to decide what his best approach was. I fingered
my last remaining flamer. We decided that it was not yet time for it.

We ran at him, to his right, but
at the last moment, she anticipated his move. He teleported himself again,
further to his left. She had already changed direction, though, and I struck
towards his neck. He managed to deflect me, but not completely and Sunder split
his cheek open. An inch higher and it would have been his eye. He roared in
fury.
 

Tall as he was, he had to reach
up when he tried to strike me. He danced around us, quick as lightning
teleporting randomly. He kept striking at me. Markai matched him step for step
lithely moving out of his reach.

Abruptly, he changed direction
and tact. He sliced at Markai’s neck. She jerked back, but his sword cut into
her right front leg. I felt the searing pain scorch up as though it had been my
leg. I winced and clenched my teeth against the pain. I knew it was not very
deep, but the pain was as if he had cleaved to the bone.

I looked at his sword again and
saw her blood being absorbed into the blade, making it shine black as night
again. I knew then that it could not be any ordinary blade. If such a small cut
could cause such pain, what would a more serious injury mean? I glanced about
the room and located the only Skell body. Its pitch-black blade was lying a
foot from its hand.

We fought on, trading blow for
blow. The pain in her leg radiated up all the way to her shoulder; every step
making the pain shoot up. The temperature in the room was getting unbearable,
making it hard to breath. Then suddenly, it went icy cold as though I was
standing naked in a blizzard. I shivered, my hands felt like blocks of ice and
I had a hard time keeping my grip on the hilt. He used this moment to attack
and managed to cut my leg. The cut was deeper this time, and I screamed with
the pain, Markai roared. I was in no doubt that she felt it as keenly as I
did.
 

Furtively, we led the fight over
to where the Skell lay. A few times, she nearly slipped on the suddenly icy
floor. Rakadamon was smiling again, thinking that we were retreating.

He sprang forward and swiped his
blade horizontally, aiming to take her head off. She ducked her whole body down
and I leaned over, just managing to grab the Skell’s midnight sword before
Markai leapt away. I came back up, sheathing Sunder.

For a split second, I saw fear
flash across his eyes, but then layers of hate and anger hid it again. That
moment though, was enough to tell me I was right.

We fought with renewed vigour.
Bit by bit we were gaining the upper hand. He managed to deflect my strikes,
but a few glanced off his blocks and nicked him. Where the black blade bit,
blue mist seeped into him. I did not know why or if it had any effect, but I
had not seen that happen before.

Even though the cuts I inflicted
were small, I knew they would be hurting as much as ours were. Slowly he was
getting sloppier in his fighting; he was limping from a cut to his thigh and
starting to make mistakes, allowing me to land an increasing number of blows.

I took out the flamer from the
sack and eyed the bodies around me. He looked at the glass container
suspiciously. I aimed for the nearest Dark Child and threw it. His eyes
followed it, and the body burst into a bright flame.

In that moment of distraction,
Markai attacked. Her massive paw hit him square in the jaw, tearing off an ear
and knocking him down to the ground. He lost his grip on his sword and it went
skittering across the floor. I jumped from her back, landing with my feet on
either side of his body and drove the blade into his heart.