Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (33 page)

I didn't have time for this. Portland didn't have time for this. I figured they were far enough away that they wouldn’t get hurt, so I 'zerked and punched a hole through one of the glass doors. Shattered glass flew everywhere as the wind picked up the fragments and began whipping them around.

The people huddled behind the front desk screamed and ran away from me. I felt bad for scaring them and possibly putting them in danger from the weather and the broken glass, but if I didn’t break Osadyn's binding fast it was going to be much, much worse.

I ran through the lobby and up the stairs to the ballroom where I had bound Osadyn. There were several people in there, oblivious to Osadyn’s invisible presence, figuring an inside room with no windows was safer.

Boy were they wrong.

They quickly scattered at seeing my glowing form, leaving the ballroom empty except for me and Osadyn.

He thrashed soundlessly about, uselessly attempting to smash and destroy everything in sight. His long neck whipped around in agitation and his jaws were spread wide in a silent roar.

Then he saw me.

Immediately he stopped thrashing about and focused on me. He glared at me with single-minded hatred, obviously remembering that I was the one that had bound him here.

Slowly he stalked towards me.

There was nothing he could do to hurt me while bound, but for some reason this Havoc still made me very nervous. I searched the room for the seal, keeping one eye on Osadyn.

The golden seal was set in the middle of the floor, webbed with cracks all along its face. A bright light shone from the cracks illuminating the room and casting strange shadows.

I pulled out my varé and walked to the seal. Osadyn stopped moving and followed me with his eyes – watching, waiting. I rolled up my sleeve and drew the varé across my arm. Blood flowed from the self-imposed gash and directly onto the seal. Not a single drop was wasted. The blood changed from bright red to gold and the seal lifted off the floor and into the air. With a loud crack, the seal broke into a dozen pieces which all turned to dust and blew away.

Immediately, Osadyn began to fill with color. Within seconds he was completely solid. He could have attacked me, but instead of trying to kill me, he walked over and lowered his head to look at me.

I knew what he wanted. I could feel it.

I reached out and placed my hand on his head.

The world fell away from me. When I got my bearings I saw I was in the world from my informant's vision. Familiar sites greeted me – the massive tree with thousands of animals in it, the lake with giant swans, and the huge dragon dominating them all.

The dragon crawled all around the tree, along its trunk, and up through the branches, navigating with ease. None of the animals there seemed to be afraid of it or even paid it any notice as it crawled past.

Everything seemed calm and peaceful. Despite the strangeness, there was something about this place that felt comforting.

Until a dark gash appeared in the air by the dragon. The air itself seemed be torn, leaving a jagged hole. The hole grew in size until it was big enough for the dragon to fit through.

The dragon changed directions and began to gallop along the trunk of the tree, away from the hole. But a being as massive as that dragon isn't very nimble. Before it could get its hindquarters and tail out of the way, they began to dissolve and flow into the hole. 

The dissolution continued down the length of the dragon until it had been utterly sucked into the hole.

The scene changed. I was now watching five glowing beings fighting the dragon. They were surrounded by large mountains. The one eyed man used his spear to stab at the dragon's face. He was quick and agile, but was clearly having difficulty doing any serious damage.

The redheaded man was there. He seemed to be having somewhat more luck in his attack. Furry twisted the features of his face as he threw his hammer again and again, pounding the dragon from all sides. The hammer was beginning to heat up from the friction and the metal turned a glowing red. Sparks flew from his silver glove each time he caught the hammer. 

The two bearded men were there as well. Each of them held a sword and hacked at the dragon’s legs, but there were so many legs and they were so large that the dragon hardly seemed to notice them.

The tall blonde woman with the long braid was the fifth of the glowing beings. She held no weapon, but bolts of blue energy shot from her hands and onto the dragon. They mostly seemed to glance off the dragon's hide, but here and there they popped off scales and made holes in the dragon's armor.

But it was clear their combined efforts were not enough. They had no hope of defeating the dragon.

The scene changed again. The five glowing beings stood in a cave surrounding a waist high stone pillar. Resting on the pillar was a large black orb the size of a softball. The five of them each touched the stone. Slowly, their glows began to fade, and the stone turned from a simple black, to the darkest black I had ever seen, as if it sucked in all the light around it.

Like another stone I had seen before.

When they were done, the five of them were no longer glowing. They looked like ordinary people – dressed a little strangely – but people nonetheless.

The one-eyed man took his spear and touched the tip to the inversely glowing orb. The orb fell apart, split into six pieces. The remaining pieces all had the same black light-sucking quality of the big one.

Each of the five beings picked up one of the stones, leaving the sixth one behind. They took their stones and walked out of the cave entrance into the daylight.

Standing there, waiting for them, were twenty four people. Twelve men, and twelve women dressed in ancient-looking furs and leather clothing. The men were all large and muscular with scraggly beards and hair grown out past their shoulders.

The women were slightly more feminine versions of the men – slightly. At least they didn’t have any beards. They had that look of hardness and severity that you see in old photographs of women from back in the pioneer days. They might not win any beauty contests, but you sure didn't want to mess with them.

I looked around and saw that we were standing at the base of a massive mountain. The mouth of the cave that they had come out from led under the mountain. Behind the people was a large lake a few hundred feet away from the cave entrance. The waters were still and the mountain peak was reflected in them. The shore was rocky and covered with multi colored rocks the size of my fist.

The five people with the stones held them above their heads and close their eyes, concentrating on something. For several moments, nothing happened.

Then the trees began to shake and the water in the lake began to ripple. The shaking grew more violent and the ground itself began to visibly tremble.

From over the top of the mountain came the giant dragon from the world with the tree. The creature roared with anger and galloped down the mountain – but to me it was all silent.

The twenty-four men and women panicked and scattered from where they were lined up before the five beings.

As the dragon got closer, unlike the twenty-four men and women, the five beings did not move. They continued to stand with their arms raised and eyes closed as the beast got closer and closer.

When the monster was less than twenty yards away, dark beams of energy shot out of the stones and enveloped it. The monster twisted and thrashed, but the dark energy held.

The five beings walked back into the cave and each of them placed their free hand onto the stone pillar. The remaining stone on the pillar began to glow a bright blue color and shot a beam of energy straight into the air.

Being part of the vision, but yet not part of it, I was able to walk back outside and look at what was happening there. The blue beam of light had pierced through the top of the mountain and shot up into the sky. The black beams of energy that held the monster began to constrict, slicing the monster into pieces. As each piece was severed, it turned to dust and shot into the air and began to circle around the blue beam of energy.

Hundreds of pieces turned to dust until the entire dragon was gone and all that remained was a massive cloud of black particles circling the blue energy beam. Then the energy beam began to dim and the dust tightened around it and disappeared into it. With a final flash, it ended.

Back in the cave, the five beings were all laying on the ground, each still clutching their stones. The pillar that the stone had been resting on had turned to a hazy white crystal. It appeared to be hollow and inside the pillar black dust swirled around in random patterns.

What was this I was seeing? Who were these people, this place, the monster? Why was Osadyn showing me this?

The five beings slowly stood back up and exited the cave. They appeared weak and frail, hardly able to walk. A far cry from the glorious, glowing beings they had been earlier.

Once again the twelve men and twelve women assembled outside the cave. They watched the beings with looks of awe and reverence on their faces.

The man with one eye walked forward. He pointed to a man and a woman. They each stepped forward and knelt. The one-eyed man reached out with his stone and rested it on the top of the man's head. The stone flashed a deep navy blue and the man began to glow. He was 'zerking!

The man looked up, an expression of wonder and awe on his face. He held out his arms and looked at them in disbelief. This was clearly his first time experiencing this.

Next the one-eyed man placed the stone on top of the woman's head. This time the stone flashed a bright red color. She too looked awed at what she felt. She smiled and tears of joy streamed down her face.

The one-eyed man then took the stone that he held, put it in his mouth, and unbelievably, swallowed it.

He doubled over in pain and slowly began to change. His skin began to melt and his limbs stretched and grew. He writhed in agony as his body warped and changed. I watched in fascination as this once glorious being turned dark and scaly. His neck elongated, and he grew. His body swelled until he was the size of an elephant. Within seconds I saw Osadyn before me, complete and whole.

I gasped as the connection between me and Osadyn was broken, and I was thrust out of the vision. It took me a moment to realize that I was back in the hotel ballroom and the real Osadyn was in front of me. He gazed at me with intelligent eyes – or, rather, eye. One eye was missing. Had that always been the case? I couldn’t remember if I had ever noticed a missing eye before. Osadyn's eyes were small, and I had never really taken the time to study his face.

After a moment, Osadyn broke eye contact with me and in a flash of darkness, disappeared from the ballroom, leaving me alone to ponder the vision and what it meant.

I had seen all the people in my previous visions together – the one-eyed man, the redhead with the hammer, the blond woman with the long braid, and the two bearded men. They were all connected by this event.

The stones had been too much like the Sarolt stone to be a coincidence. That had to be how it was created.

I was pretty sure I had just witnessed the start of the Berserkers and Binders.

When the one-eyed man had swallowed the stone, he had mutated and changed to become Osadyn.

Osadyn was actually some mutated form of the one-eyed man. It seemed impossible, but that was what the vision showed me.

Did that mean that the other four beings were the other Havocs? Pravicus, Thuanar, Navitan, Margil?  Were the Havocs all these people who had sacrificed themselves?

Then that would mean that the huge dragon I saw was... Verenix. I had seen him go through the portal, leave his world, and somehow come into ours.

I had just seen the first binding and creation of the Berserkers and Binders. I had seen Verenix! My mind reeled at the implications. I had to tell Rhys about this.

Rhys.

Who was dead.

My elation at understanding the history behind the Havocs plummeted as I remembered what I had not yet had a chance to fully process – Rhys was dead.

I heard voices outside the door as people started emerging from their hiding places. With the binding for Osadyn broken, the storm outside must have stopped.

I dropped my 'zerk, slipped out of the room, and ran down the stairs. The lobby was now full of people as they came out of hiding and went to look outside and see for themselves that the storm was over.

I walked out under a sky that was now clear and calm. If it weren't for the debris scattered everywhere and torrents of water still running down the streets, you would have never known there had been a massive storm raging only a few minutes ago.

I pulled out my phone. On it was a voicemail from Rhys. The last thing he ever said to me.

I couldn’t bring myself to listen to it.

I put my phone back. It could wait until I was ready. Right now it was time to check on Amy and make sure she was ok. Now that the storm was over, I could get her back home.

As I made my way back to the car, a man stepped out from behind a tree and blocked my path.

He was a small man, several inches shorter than me, who looked to be in his early thirties. He had dark skin and features that looked Native American. He wore a wide brimmed hat with a strap underneath to keep it from flying off, jeans, and a heavy Gore-Tex jacket.

I tried to walk around him, but he moved to block my way.

Bad move on his part.

I was about to pre-zerk and give him a good shove, when he spoke.

"Are you Madison?"

Now he had my attention. "Who wants to know?" I asked. My hands instinctively reached into my pocket for the bottles with the antidote Shing had made me promise to carry with me. If this man was another assassin who tried to use the same toxin on me again, I would be prepared.

The man took off his hat, revealing long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. He gave me a sad smile and a slight bow.

"I am Nanti," he said. "I believe you and I are the last two Berserkers alive."