An angel’s road to hell

79. Of sacrifices, fireworks and a little bit of revenge

Cassandra Pendragon

I hadn’t been paranoid. In hindsight it had been painfully obvious: Galathon could use portals in his humanoid form, probably better or at least as well as Mephisto. I had even seen it before. Absently I pulled my cloak closer around myself, not that it helped much, soaked as it was. It had started to rain half an hour ago and thick curtains of water had drenched us to the bone within seconds. A veritable tropical storm. I was huddle down between Viyara’s horns, her warm scales a welcomed contrast to the cold that was slowly creeping through me. Mephisto had retreated into his coin soon after our departure, his energy all but spent, and Erya and Pete were silently talking further down Viyara’s back. Barzuk was gone. Shuddering I relived the last hour once again…

Erya and I returned to the lair quickly. In the throne room, Barzuk helped Viyara put on a complicated array of bags and ropes, a hastily improvised harness that’d allow her to carry a heavy load without impeding her ability to fly. Gold, gems and artefacts were deposited around them, waiting to be stored. Mephisto was nowhere around but I assumed he was still down in the hoard, tinkering with the crystal I was suppose to fill with energy. I left Erya with the other two to explain how it had gone and soared through the hole. I found my demonic tutor engrossed in his work close to Erya’s ruby. He was busily applying runes to a walnut sized diamond, its surface covered in minuscule glyphs. He didn’t look up when I approached him, instead he carefully finished another rune and immediately started on the next. Patience wasn’t exactly my forte but I still remained quiet and waited until he’d be done, sitting down cross legged on top of the huge gem we intended to blow up.

After a couple of minutes Erya glided down on her butterfly like wings and joined me. We remained silent until Mephisto finished the last line with a flourish. Afterwards it became hectic. Erya had to shrink down the gem so it’d fit through the portal rings, Mephisto talked me through how to infuse the diamond with a fraction of my energy and Barzuk and Viyara finished packing. 20 minutes later we were back in the now empty throne room, a large ring of silver engraved with runes, a fist-sized ruby and a small diamond the only things still lying around. By now the diamond was sparkling with an inner light, silver and blue sheens crossing its surface in quick succession. For a moment we stood there in silence until Mephisto spoke up:

“It’s time to go. I changed some of the enchantments throughout the layer. When the ruby explodes the energy from the conversion runes will build up in the outer parts, it won’t take long until the magic combusts. I think we did everything we could for the moment. There’s no point in dawdling any longer.”

“Should we… should we visit your father, Viyara?” I asked quietly. She remained silent for a moment, carefully protecting her thoughts from leaking out.

“No, I’d prefer to remember him and the others the way they were, not as the ravaged husks they are now. There is nothing here that holds me anymore, let us go.” I walked over and stroked her side. There was nothing to say but a friendly touch had always helped me and maybe it would make her feel just a little bit better. She lowered her head and blew hot air cross my face, ruffling the mop my hair had become even further. Only for me to hear she added: “I’ll be fine, sooner or later. Don’t worry about me.” Tears came to my eyes unbidden and I had to blink them away before anyone could see. It wasn’t right, the poor thing hadn’t even had the time to mourn her family and now she was comforting me? Damn it, at the moment our life was seriously fucked up.

With an effort I smiled at her: “in that case, after you Milady. It’s time for the fireworks.” As if on cue, pitch black portals popped up all around the ring, at least a good dozen of them filled the throne room from one moment to the next. Before we could react, a swarm of oversized plague beetles came through each of them, their buzzing filled the cave with a deafening noise and the smell of decay that I had come to associate with Galathon assaulted my nose. A deathly cold gripped me and my heart nearly sprang out of my chest. One question ran through my mind while I unfurled my wings and rose into the air, panic gnawing at my insides: How? How in hell could he possibly be here?

My wings flared and I reached for every portal in range, immediately ripping apart the spell constructs that anchored them. But for every one I closed, two others blinked into existence. Not three seconds after the first beetle had come through, an army of chitinous pests surrounded us, the wind from their wings a veritable storm in the confined space. There had to be thousands of them.

“Enough!” Magic pulsed form Mephisto and the beetles closest to him turned into dust but he had barely made a dent in their numbers while I could practically see the strain it had put on him. His figure became even more translucent and his extremities flickers in and out of existence. Maniacal laughter filled the room and a voice like death incarnate assaulted us from all around:

“You are mine now. There is no escape.” The portals started to wink out of existence and the swarm rose, ready to smash into us with full force.

Without thinking I grabbed the closest tear in space but instead of shredding the spell I held it open. “Through there,” I screamed. “Viyara, transform and run!” Several things happened simultaneously: A golden light engulfed Viyara while she was already heading for the portal. The ropes around her body lost purchase and her load fell to the ground, several artefacts smashed against one another and from the corner of my eyes I saw a gem break when it hit the floor. A wave of magic consumed the jewel and the following explosion nearly made me lose my grip. A searing pain shot through me as one of the sparkling splitters tore through my side. Erya grabbed Mephisto’s emblem and somehow reached the portal faster than my eyes could follow. Barzuk on the other hand was headed for the diamond while a wave of death threatened to drown us from above. Malicious magic flooded the chamber and while I was untouched, Barzuk’s skin withered before my eyes and festering wounds appeared all over his body.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I screamed. I had to leave or I’d be crushed and torn apart by the beetles in less than a second. He turned to me, a sad but somehow content smile on his deforming face. His mouth formed the words “what I have to, take care of her” before he shooed me away. That damned, stubborn, cantankerous and valorous orc was going to blow up Galathon right then and there. The first offshoots of the swarm reached us and I couldn’t linger anymore. When I felt razor sharp mandibles cut through me and my body tremble under the onslaught of diseases I vanished into a shower of sparks and raced through the portal which slammed shut as soon as my wings didn’t support it anymore.

When I manifested again I coughed up blood and dropped to my knees. My whole body was on fire, while my energy fought against the myriad of afflictions the beetles had left me with. I couldn’t see clearly and my ears were filled with a deep drumming sound. Every breath I took rasped in my throat and I felt a warm liquid dripping from my nostrils. Through the haze of pain Mephisto’s deep voice reached me as if from far away:

“It’s actually quite easy, lower your weapons or…” he was cut short by a flash of light that shone brightly enough to pierce through my closed eyelids. A moment later a wave of sound rolled over me, rupturing my eardrums. I couldn’t hold my balance anymore, even on my knees, and fell to the ground. My cheek chafed over rough wood and then I was suddenly moving again, barrelled along by a blast that sent me, flailing, through the air. I crashed into something unyielding with my shoulder and bones broke with a dry crack. Surprisingly, I felt better in an instant. My mind cleared and the diseases that ravaged my body vanished without a trace.

My eyes snapped open and I took in my surroundings. I was on the “Old Roger”, folded around one of her masts while the whole ship hung at a precarious angle, its side masts snapped and the rigging mostly gone. Behind us a pillar of silvery fire rose a kilometre or more into the air. The volcano was gone, for the most part. Where the crater should have been, a burning ladder to the heavens had appeared sending rivers of molten rock down the sides of the island. There was no smoke, no debris, only a raging inferno that turned night into day and illuminated the darkness as far as I could see. If there was a true god, I’d imagine his judgement would look like this.

Buffeting winds raged around the ship and threatened to turn it over completely. Reflexively I unfurled my wings and sent enough energy into my shoulder and side to heal the wounds I had sustained, the superficial cuts the beetles had inflicted on me weren’t a bother, now that they weren’t brimming with sickness and death anymore. I grabbed the mast with my wings and pressed my body against it, even slinging my tails around to remain in place despite the furious storm. Well done, Barzuk. Blowing an ancient dragon to smithereens was a good way to go for any warrior, I thought, half of me proud and happy, the other half sad and regretful.

The deck below was in shambles, crates, debris, fluttering sails, torn away from the masts and stumbling bodies were thrown hither and to while the scent of ozone, stronger than I had ever experienced before, assaulted my nose. With a little imagination I could still put together the scene we had crashed into. Most of the crew had been on deck, arranged around a ritual circle. In the middle I could still see the glowing edges of the ring I had deposited in the brig, the metal had burned itself into the wood and thus withstood the furious assault of the elements. A handful of corpses were slithering across the deck, their skin withered and dry. My best guess was that Galathon had sucked them dry to power his spell. He had probably needed the sacrifices to follow the connection of the portal ring to its origin and overcome the defences of the hoard. Pity for the poor souls overcame, until I imagined who they had most likely been. Pirates and cut throats that had been here to deliver us into slavery without a moment’s hesitation. Served them right.

When the shockwave had passed, only my friends remained upright, undoubtedly aided by their magic. They appeared shaken but otherwise unharmed and I quickly glided down to join them. Viyara’s eyes roamed across the ship, searching for Barzuk. When she didn’t find him she looked at me and I slowly shook my head. A tear rolled down her cheek but she nodded grimly. Without a further word she took a step back and transformed, her towering figure looming above us ominously. “Protect Pete,” was all she said before she threw herself at the closest pirate and bit him in two without hesitation. Blood splattered across the deck and a chorus of panicked screams filled my ears. Erya made a grabbing gesture and bands of magic raced away from her only to return a moment later with a white faced human that stared at us in apparent disbelieve. Meanwhile Viyara massacred everyone she could reach. The deck quickly turned red, streams of blood running over the sides, forming a macabre waterfall underneath the ship. Her graceful movement appeared like a sinister dance, accompanied by a choir of the dying. Judgement had come for the second time today.

We huddled together and stayed away from her as well as we could, shielding one another, afraid she wouldn’t even recognise us in her frenzy. Within seconds the deck had turned into a tomb, limbs, bodies and blood covering most of it. When everything was still except for the death twitches of a few pirated she had mutilated Viyara roared. It wasn’t a sound of triumph or pride, instead she sent her pent up grief and rage to the heavens, her desperation over the losses she had suffered. It was a tortured sound that made my tails curl up and I would have like to hug her, to tell her it’d be alright but when she pushed her snout through the doors that led to the lower decks and filled them with a sea of fire and death I realised how futile that would be.

Heat rolled over us and the wood beneath our feet became uncomfortably hot while the stream of destruction Viyara channeled into the ship went on and on, far longer than I had thought possible. When the doors and everything else in front of her had turned into ash and flames hungrily crawled over the deck she turned towards us. Her mental speech was devoid of any emotions, like a cold, starless winter night.

“It’s time to go. Climb up.” We exchanged glances full of worry and quickly complied. I took my seat between her horns but remained silent while the others helped Pete. He was shaking and a wet patch was slowly growing on his trousers. I wouldn’t blame him, though, mounting the beast who had just slaughtered all of your comrades wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Viyara opened her ruff wide and the winds quickly carried us along and into the sky…

I stroked the scales beneath me and gently reached for Viyara’s mind, the rain was still pouring down unimpeded, an appropriate metaphor for my mood. “I know how this must sound, but Barzuk would have chosen this end any day of the week. He died while getting revenge for his revered master, killing an ancient dragon and protecting you, the one person he truly cared about. Scream and cry all you want, but don’t sully his memory by allowing what happened to change you.”

“What are you even talking about? I’m fine,” she snapped. A tired sigh escaped me.

“No, you’re not. You’re about as fine as I was when I lost my home. Here, let me show you…”

I shared memories of the nightmares that had haunted me, the constant fear and crushing grief but also the light touch of a loved one that had brought me back from the brink and chased away the darkness.

“Viyara, you’re not alone, don’t believe that for a second. You have lost your parents and your home but if you want, I’ll be… we’ll be your family. All you have to do is talk to us, to me. Cry for them, remember them and share what you’re going to miss the most but don’t just withdraw into your shell. Let me in, allow me to help you find a way out of the dark valley you’re stuck in.”

The images I had allowed her to see had impressed her, even though she had already known a thing or two about my past. She remained silent for a long moment, water dripped down my nose and cascaded over her sides. In the distance lightning struck, followed by growling thunder.

“I know you’re right, but I don’t think I can. I… I just don’t know what to do. I want to hurt someone, anyone, really, just to make them understand but that’s not who I want to be.” A cloud of smoke escape her and she added tremblingly: “I think I already lost myself aboard that ship.”

“No, no you didn’t.” I pressed against her mind a little more strongly and I felt her protections waver and disappear after a moment. A torrent of churning emotions immediately swept me away and for a while we lived through her memories once again but this time she wasn’t alone. We cried and laughed and I was sure Erya and Pete thought we had gone mad but I didn’t care. For hours our tears mixed with the rain until finally the faint glow of the sun rising in the east broke through the thick clouds and a ray of light sparkled across Viyara’s golden scales.