An angel’s road to hell

54. Of slaughter, pressure and a little bit of dragons

Cassandra Pendragon

That couldn’t be good. With a quick glance I made sure that all of the kids were still there, most of them had fallen on the ground, they were a little rattled but otherwise unhurt. The sudden lurch had shut them up, though and they were all pale as corpses, their eyes frantically roaming across the deck and towards the masts. Large parts of the sails had caught fire but I was relatively certain that they wouldn’t come down, yet. Nobody else was moving, or groaning for that matter, the humans we had only wounded had died in the meantime, good riddance. I turned to the boy who still stood by my side and pried his little sister form my tail.

“Hey, uhh… I need your help. What’s your name?”

“Archimedes, or Archy. Sure, anything.” I was impressed, his voice was maybe a little higher than it should be, but it wasn’t trembling and he was much more composed than I had expected.

“I’m Cassie, can you look after your sister and the others for me? I have to go see what happened and help my friend. If anyone moves or comes up the stairs or if the masts catch fire, scream as loudly as you can, all of you. I’ll be by your side immediately. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course and thank you again for coming after us. I… I had lost hope before you appeared.” I stroked his cheek gently but didn’t say a word. I couldn’t tell him that it was okay, to lose hope, to give up wasn’t something I was able to accept but I wouldn’t chastise a frightened child. Maybe I’d have the chance to talk to him later. With a gentle shove I finally extricated his sister from my tails and changed my vision. The deck was again painted in silver and with a thought I appeared in the doorway, my wings slithering down and along the wood while I was forced to bend over as a wave of liquid fire raced around the roots of my wings. My heart beat like a drum, I got the message, teleportation was a little too much of a strain in my current condition.

Grasping the wooden doorframe I rightened myself, brushed the sweat from my brow and concentrated on my second vision. I didn’t want to risk more flames and heat, so I didn’t push my wings straight through the walls or stairs. Bit by bit images flooded my mind and together with the sounds that reached my ears from two floors below and the fresh smell of blood I had a good idea of what was going on.

I could only “see” maybe a good third of the ship, it had a similar layout to the dwarven one but was much sleeker. The floor below me contained a couple of cabins in different sizes, the largest one, presumably the captain’s was directly below me at the stern. The door had been kicked in and two bodies, one cleaved in half and the other with a still bleeding puncture wound in the chest stared into nothingness on the floor. Seemed like Ahri had found a blade. The corridor leading towards the bow was empty except for three more corpses, all of which had deep, burned out wounds all over them. One was even decapitated, but not a single drop of blood oozed from the blackened remains.

The next level consisted of a series of cells and vaults, the ones I could reach with my wings were empty but the cells showed signs that they had been in use. I was glad that my secondary vision didn’t transfer smells, otherwise I was pretty sure I’d be fighting to keep my breakfast down. Imprisonment and hygiene were mutually excluding, especially if the wardens only cared for undamaged goods and not the comfort of their prisoners. At least the kids hadn’t been mutilated or raped, after I had seen them in person I was sure of it. It appeared more and more plausible that the humans had been trying to sell the children as slaves, but why would they kill two, then? Using them as an example to keep the others docile seemed unlikely, the were kids after all, with magic suppressing shackles around their wrists. Maybe we could keep one of them alive, if I was lucky there would even be some form of logbook or journal in the captain’s cabin. I already started moving down the stairs while the images of the lowest floor entered my mind.

The stairs ended in front of an oaken door, heavily reinforced with iron. The lock had been melted, burn marks covered the floor and splashes of metal had burned dark scars into the wood. Somehow Ahri had prevented the floor from catching fire but even through the haze of silver I perceived the dark smoke that filled the corridor. The crash of metal on metal rang out clearly from behind the door and easily reached my ears while I was still hurtling down the stairs two floors above. A moment later I could see a small guardroom behind the broken door where four humans were holding their own against Ahri while two of them bled out on the floor. Their blood made the ground slippery and with the help of her wings Ahri managed to slowly push the remaining four back. Her feet seldomly touched the ground while she appeared to dance before them in a beautiful display of fire and steel, her wings and her new rapier blurred through the air, interwoven in a deadly display of skill.

Behind her opponents a second door, made completely from iron or maybe even steel probably led to the stone chamber. Maybe the merchants had even stored their most valuable possessions in there and converted the whole thing into a fortress within the ship, the separated guard room and two reinforced doors along the way pointed in that direction at least. While the images became clearer by the second, I saw a small hatch on the door open and before I had time to react, a bolt, glowing with a sickly green light that even retained its colour in the silvery shades of my second vision, shot towards Ahri. Without hesitation I pushed every wing I had in the room into its path, desperately trying to get a grip on it or at least change its trajectory.

I managed neither but through sheer luck one of my wings slithered around Ahri and towards the bolt and got in between the two. The tip crashed into my wing with more force than I could have imagined. It didn’t pierce but pushed me back and slammed into my love with enough power to knock down a small dragon. The enchantments on the bolt activated but fizzled out immediately against the pulsing torrent of energy, still in its way. Ahri was thrown backwards but in the moment of impact managed one stroke with her wings to get a little speed and dampen the crushing force.  Before she crashed into the wall on the other side, warmth flooded through the tattoo on my chest and I heard a fluttering thought: “run, they are trying to blow up the stone chamber!”

I couldn’t hear it but the vibration caused by her collision with the seasoned wood were transferred through my wings with enough force that I could imagine the sickening crunch well enough. Ahri’s wings disappeared and she dropped to the ground like a puppet that had gotten its strings cut, blood ran down her forehead and trickled from her right ear. Cold raced along my spine and fear gnawed at my stomach. Run, she had said, but I feared that wouldn’t be fast enough. Bracing myself for the pain that was to come I turned into silvery sparks midway down the first flight of stairs and disappeared.

The only reason I survived was a well time explosion form behind the steel door and the resulting drop of the ship that threw every guard in the room off balance. As soon as I arrived it felt like 33 branding irons were pressed into my back, carving a channel of pure agony from each of my wings to my spine. My vision turned black for a moment and I couldn’t suppress a groan as the pain forced me to my knees. The humans whirled around immediately, they were well trained, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to hold Ahri off for even a second, and tried to finish me while I was kneeling, my wings flailing around uselessly. Two jumped forwards, sabres extended towards my chest and neck while the other two threw themselves at Ahri. But just then a loud pop made the steel door ring and the ship dropped another couple of meters. The coordinated attack of the soldiers became a hazardous stumble and of the four only one managed to land a glancing hit. Unfortunately his sabre still bit into my shoulder rather deeply and I felt my left arm go numb.

The body is a funny little thing, usually only the most recent injury registers with the brain, crowding out the messenger substances for the others. My shoulder felt like an elephant was constantly pressing on it while molten lead was poured over my skin but my head was clear and my back didn’t force me to the ground anymore. A wicked grin formed on my face while I slung four wings around the arms and legs of the humans as they were still fighting to regain their balance. I threw them to the ground easily and pierced the heart of every single one of them with another four of my wings. The world seemed to stand still for a moment as I felt my wings cut through more than flesh, all of their energies unraveling around the torrents of energy I had slammed into their hearts. With an excited shudder I pulled all of it into my wings.

Bliss, unimaginable bliss spread through my body when I felt a soothing chill run down my spine and the wounds on my back disappeared while the humans withered away into husks of dried up leather and bones, their energy settling somewhere inside my core. Within seconds only skulls with empty eye sockets stared accusingly at me but my wounds were gone and I felt completely refreshed. I jumped to my feet smoothly and pushed more energy into my wings. Like silvery lightening they danced through the room before sinking into the reinforced steel door, easily cutting the refined metal. While I broke through and waited for images to fill my second vision I gently pulled Ahri into my arms. Most of my fear subsided when I felt her breath and heard the steady beat of her heart but I was pretty sure she had at least a couple of cracked ribs and probably a concussion. Best to leave her here, I still had some housecleaning to do. I gently lowered her back down and concentrated on my second vision.

The room behind the steel door was in utter chaos. At least 15 more humans were running around, most of them not clad in uniforms but highly elaborate robes with gems and precious metals woven into them. Only 5 were garbed more practically, sporting the same colours and clothes as the ones we had killed before. They had sabres at their sides and were in the process of drawing them, the monstrous crossbow that had caused so much trouble had been discarded when my wings had sliced through the door. The rest of the humans were going through a bunch of open crates quickly, their panicked faces and the sweat on their brows clearly showing their fear. They were picking up artefacts, stuffing rings on their hands and necklaces over their chubby necks. We couldn’t have that now, could we?

Instead of slicing through the door completely I ported into the room, directly behind one of the sweaty merchants and broke his neck with a satisfying crack. He immediately went limp and dropped to the floor since I wasn’t there anymore to keep him upright.

“What the fu…?” One of the soldiers never got to finish his sentence as I pierced him with 2 of my wings while I appeared in the middle of the room. I was tempted to utter a snappy line, something like: now you’re being judged and you’re all found wanting, but I had no intentions of giving them enough time to actually attack me. I pumped even more energy into my wings and channelled some into my mind and eyes as well before I went to work. With a graceful turn I flared my wings out all over the room and at least one came to rest around the unprotected neck of every human. With my enhanced perception I could see the look of surprise and fear on their faces slowly shift into terror and despair before I spun around completely. Several artefacts flared and went out the same instant as their owners lost their heads. For a split second they remained in the same position, as if they had been frozen, before the heads dropped and the bodies hit the ground. Blood flowed freely and pooled along the corpses, already forming a small lake where several streams came together. I didn’t feel bad for them in the slightest.

Another explosion rocked the ship, this time much closer. Three doors led away from the room, two of them led to the furnaces judging from the heat that welled up around them. The explosion had come from behind the last one, straight across the room from the steel door. Like a stone from a sling I shot across the room, I used my wings to push and pull, my tails provided the necessary balance. When I sliced through the wooden door and pushed into the corridor beyond I heard the ringing scream of children, the panic in the voices made my fox ears twitch and turn. Fuck! I had promised to come immediately but if I went back on deck now and they managed to destroy the stone we would most likely all die. I froze for the fracture of a second torn between two directions but there really only was one option. Uttering a quick curse or maybe prayer to everyone who would listen I fervently hoped that the kids would be fine for a moment longer and rushed down the corridor as fast as my wings would carry me.

The passage led directly into another chamber witch expanded upwards, covering all three floors. Close to the deck, maybe 15 meters above me, a black stone with lilac inclusions, about 2 meters in diameter, was safely set into clasps of steel under an iron dome. Two chimneys funnels the heat from the furnaces directly into the structure and brought the stone to the required temperature. Metal rods and crossbars covered most of the room and the walls were reinforced to guarantee its structural integrity. Several glowing stones, the likes of which I had seen on the dwarven vessel, provided enough light for repairs. The heat was immense and it felt like it was actively sucking moisture from my skin. In the centre of the chamber, directly below the stone another robed human stood, his arms extended towards the ceiling and a continuous stream of red light shot up from his hands. Where it hit the stone its surface was already melting and huge cracks had formed all across, glowing in the same lilac light as the inclusions. Without thinking I simply smothered the mage with my wings, nullifying his magic and tearing his body to shreds. A wet squishing sound accompanied his bloody limbs hitting the floor. Hopefully the damage wasn’t too severe and the stone would survive a little longer but I didn’t have the time to make sure, I had to get back on deck. My urgency was underlined by an ominous thunder from above, as if something unbelievably heavy had hit the deck.

With a thought I blinked back to Ahri’s side and scooped her into my arms. Her head rolled from left to right and I had to use two of my tails to keep her still. Unfortunately I hadn’t kept my connection to the upper floors, so I was forced to use the stairs all the while straining my ears to pick up the sounds from above. The high pitched scream was still continuing, even louder than before, but now I also made out a rumbling sound that reminded me of grinding rocks, the distinct splintering of wooden planks and the heavy smell of smoke mixed with burning metal entered my nostrils. It hadn’t been 10 seconds since I had first heard the children cry out when I blazed through the door and back on deck, Ahri in my arms and my wings dancing through the air around me. The scene that greeted me neatly froze me in place. A golden fucking dragon was smiling down on me.