Divided (91 page)

The ringing through the air came back into Calis’s mind, and
he glanced around, feeling the way the atmosphere crackled with power.  Lastly,
his head moved to the obelisk, which still held Taeru’s frozen body.  The vines
had eased further along him, wrapping around nearly the entirety of his body,
and Calis let out an agonized cry at the sight.  The lightning pulsed along the
crystal in larger waves, and it seemed to be emitting into the air around them. 
“Taeru…” Calis whimpered.  “Why isn’t it working?”

Lee was staring in the direction of Calis, and there was
obvious sympathy in his green eyes.  Then, though, his eyes opened a little
wider.  “That’s it, Calis!  Aela—she’s using your brother’s energy to make her
stronger than the other Magisters.  She’s obscuring the air so that they are
unaware of what goes on here!”  His eyes flickered back to Calis.  “Calis,
we’ve got to cripple that dragon if we want them to hear us.”

Shaking, Calis nodded his head with steeled fury bleeding
into his eyes.  “I’ll do more than cripple it,” he swore. 

The dragon made another round, spitting fire towards Calis
this time so that he was thrown back and had to crawl away to ensure that he
wasn’t consumed by it.  “Foolish children,” the Magister finally spoke, “you
waste your time.  If you value your own lives, leave now.  There is nothing you
can do for your poor, little friend.”

She landed near Aela and Lee, and her talon shot forward,
caught Lee across the chest, and sent him skidding along the mud.  Calis’s
teeth ground in concern as he stood up to face the dragon another time.  He
watched her lift into the air and fire towards Aela—who had only just grabbed
her bow.  “Lee!” Calis snapped.  “The wings!”

Lee’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the dragon, holding the
new wound that he’d acquired tenderly.  His eyes twitched along the dragon’s
body, and he subtly nodded his head.  Calis had to get onto the dragon if he
wanted to ensure that he won this battle.  “Aela, give me the book,” Lee
demanded.  Without protest, Aela tossed the book to Lee. 

“Aleia,” Lee spoke with a condescending tone that probably
ought not be used when addressing the Magister of Manipulation.  But the tone made
Calis like his advisor infinitely more.  “Interfere all you like with what we
can say here.  You cannot follow all of us, and with this book, we can find a
way to reach the Magisters.  This book is magical in itself, created by your
fellow Magisters—and we will find them with it.”  The dragon’s eyes turned to
him, and Lee took a step back.  Perhaps he was feigning fear, perhaps he
wasn’t.

When the dragon descended another time, this time fully
focused on Lee Keiichi, Aela and Calis prepared themselves.  The fire launched
across the landscape, and Lee turned to sprint towards the opposite side of the
grove.  He did not swerve as Calis had so many times, but rather, he kept a
straight line so that the dragon flew low to the ground—quick and unyielding. 
Overconfidence could afflict even the cleverest of creatures, Calis assumed.

Calis managed to pull himself even with the dragon’s side,
forming a route so that their paths would only intersect for a few brief
moments.  The dragon glanced once to him, obviously intent on avoiding the
intersection, but an arrow cut into the dragon’s already injured wing.  With
the distraction, Calis leapt to the side and once more onto the dragon.  This
time, he clung and dug his sword into the dragon’s side, just above the wing.

The dragon staggered towards the ground, and Lee dropped to
it, throwing the shield over his body in a last ditch effort to save himself. 
Aleia reached downwards, plucking the shield from his grasp and tearing through
the metal, though leaving him where he was.  Calis’s fingers plowed into her
flesh, desperate to remain on the dragon’s back, though with a final thrust,
she threw his body.

His sword cut into the wing, though, slicing through it
relentlessly, until it came out the other side and sent him spiraling back to
the muddy ground.  He groaned as his back impacted with a painful shock.  The
dragon hovered above the ground, struggling and floundering until she was
forced to land.  When Calis moved towards her, though, she let out another flash
of heat.  Her fire slid just to the side of him, and he stumbled as he glared
into her eyes.  “My life… isn’t worth living… if he isn’t with me,” he told
her, voice shaking.

Her body shook, reacting, determined to keep him at bay as
she let out another explosion of fire.  Calis moved to the left, bringing his
sword across her side, but she turned, her talon cut along his arm, and he
stumbled back again.  He brought his sword up as he did, though, and her body
was once again lacerated by his blade.  Suddenly, a knife slammed into the
dragon’s neck, as she aimed another flash of embers at Calis.  Her head jerked,
and she turned to glance at Lee.  Calis took a breath, and he shook his head
violently.  “Taeru,” he whispered. 

Leaping forward, Calis released his thoughts, his fears, his
concerns.  He could think only of the death of this dragon, and he was lost to
his anger once more.  He twisted his body around the dragon’s long neck,
clawing into her and driving his sword into the thick neck, hard and fast.  Her
head slung to one side, and she cried out in pain.  Her wings sliced through
the air, lifting her body into a feeble hover as she flung her head and neck
from side to side, up and down.  Calis clung, and his sword tore up the side of
her neck with deadly purpose.  She growled, and fire exploded from her mouth,
without a target.  Another shriek snaked through the air, and Calis could hear
the ringing beginning to dissolve in favor of her cries of agony. 

She threw him left and right.  His body was jostled,
dangling by his desperately clinging arms.  His feet found and lost their
foundation.  As he struggled, his sword broke into her flesh, tearing it
asunder, again and again, but she remained unchanged.  He couldn’t seem to get
a cut straight through her neck, but then, with a glance back towards the
disgusting obelisk, he grabbed ahold of one of her horns and brought his sword
into the air, over her head.  “I said…
let - him - go
!” he shouted, and
his sword slammed downwards, fast and with more strength than a single man
ought to possess. 

The grove shook as her wings failed her.  The skull of the
dragon gave way, and his sword bit into the flesh, bone, muscle, and whatever
else Aleia had put into this monster’s body.  His sword cut through tongue and
flesh, and at last, he pulled it back, and the broken creature fell to the
ground with a final groan of agony. 

Aela’s voice rang out again, and this time, the ringing
seemed to be absent from the air so that her voice was louder, clearer than
before.  “Aleia, as a Magister, you made a promise long ago that you would be
able to take the life of the Hero or his descendants should they fail in their
duty to keep peace throughout the lands Cathalar and Telandus.  Otherwise, only
through long council among Magisters may you take a life!  You have to release
Taeru Lassau, lest you lose your position as a Magister!”  

Calis stared towards the obelisk, but it remained as it was,
with Taeru’s suspended body still hung against the black rods beneath the
surface of the crystal.  Calis shook his head, even as the Magister slowly returned
to her original form—a lady made of vines.  She was smiling.  “You silly creatures…
I told you that you cannot destroy me.  I am a Magister.  Invincible,” she
hissed.  Calis trembled, tears stinging in his eyes as his mouth opened.  How
could this not have worked?

“Oh, why so glum, Calis?  I’m sure you’ll find someone
else.  As you mortal creatures say—plenty of fish in the sea.” 

Calis screamed in pain, and he sank his blade into her body,
though the effect was nothing.  “No, no,” he cried.  “Take me… take… please…
please, don’t…” Calis whispered, weak with anguish.

“Look!” Aela’s voice rang out again, though, and Calis’s
head jerked up at once.  There were tiny specks of light across the grove. 
First, there were only a few, but more and more began to surround them. 

Judging from Aleia’s terrified expression, Calis was well
aware of what they were.  Orbs of different colors, apparitions that he
couldn’t see, even when he tried to focus on them—as they remained just beyond
his comprehension.  So many, layered on one another, and Calis stared around as
light began to shine through the clearing as if the sun itself was in the sky. 
Then, the first beam of light shot outwards and into Aleia, then another, then
another, until every single orb was pulling at her, and she screamed in pain.

An explosion of light rocked the grove, and Calis jerked his
head backwards, staring at the naked form of the woman before him.  The beams
slowly began to fade, and he narrowed his eyes.  He drew his sword up one last
time.  “Who’s the mortal now, bitch?” he asked hollowly.  With a decisive cut,
he beheaded her again, and this time, when her body crumpled into dust, so too
did her head. 

Calis heard the crash before he actually saw it, and his
body ran towards his destination before he fully verified what had happened. 
The crystal holding Taeru shattered, exploding outwards, as it evaporated into
the air, and the prison vanished, leaving him suspended in the air until his
body fell backwards.  Calis was there, and he caught the lithe form easily.

Lowering Taeru to the ground, he stared into the boy’s paled
face.  Lines from the tendrils were along his neck and arms, and he looked like
a broken bird after a storm.  Calis held the feeble body weakly, and his
fingers trembled as he stared down at the boy.  Taeru did not move, and the
marks along his body were horrifyingly telling of what he’d experienced. 
“Taeru,” Calis whispered.  “Taeru, please…”

Footsteps sounded behind him, but the world seemed to be
distant from him.  He wasn’t sure of the Magisters, or what had happened, but
he knew that the boy in his arms was not moving—even after the hanging, Taeru
had moved, whimpered.  Taeru’s hands were on the ground, splayed outwards,
fingers curled just slightly—entirely limp.  No breath passed his lips, and
when Calis pulled the small chest to his ear, he realized there was no
heartbeat.  Calis’s entire body froze as he stared, eyes widened, tears having
found their way back down his cheeks.  Everything faded into the background as
the terrifying realization shook him to his foundation.  “No, no, no… Taeru…
Taeru, don’t do this to me, please.  Please, you can’t do this. 
Please
! 
I need you.  You can’t leave me.  You can’t leave me here.”  Calis shook the
small form as gently as he could, but there was no response.

“NO!” Calis shouted, and pain burned through him, destroying
any trace of self still hovering within his body.  His entire soul ached,
hollow and without feeling, an agony so intense that he could scarcely breathe,
see, move.  “Taeru!  PLEASE!  Don’t.  DON’T.  I
can’t
lose you!  I
can’t!  You were everything I needed, I wanted… I… nothing… my life is nothing
if you aren’t here.  I can’t live without you.  I don’t want to.  With you was
the only time I ever felt I was alive, the only time this world held any
color.  Please!  Please, you can’t leave me, Taeru!  I love you too bloody
much.  Taeru…” 

He choked, lowering his head as he brought Taeru’s lifeless
form up to his chest.  “You showed me how to live, please don’t leave me to
die…”  He bent his head a little lower so that his forehead rested against
Taeru’s.  His breathing choked him, and tears fell without heed. 

“Take me… take…
anybody
… anybody else.”  His thumb
played along Taeru’s bruised cheek, stroking, desperate to see it flush
again—just one more time.  “I’ll do anything… it’s not
fair
!”  His
breath broke on itself, and he sobbed between words.  “Don’t leave me…”

His tears fell onto Taeru’s cheeks as he closed his eyes. 
He wanted the world to disappear, leave him to be with the one thing he loved. 
“I love you.”

He heard someone behind him crying, a sort of anguished cry,
and he heard it, though he didn’t care.  Nothing mattered.  He didn’t want to
remain in this world with this realization because all he could feel was
pressing, pounding agony coursing through him without relent.  “Taeru, Taeru,
Taeru…”  He whispered the name, over and over, begging, pleading.  His body and
voice trembled.  Blackness controlled every part of him, wreaking havoc throughout
his body, through a heart that had been torn from his chest, to pieces, that no
longer existed. 

Sobs wracked his body as he held the small form, refusing to
let it go, knowing that he
wouldn’t
let it go—ever.  He didn’t care who
came.  He would die here.  He would fall on his own sword if he had to, and he would
feel no remorse, no fear.  “I love you more than I thought it was possible to
love, Taeru Lassau.  Don’t leave me here.  I can’t stay here without you.” 
Calis pleaded again. 

When there was another moment of silence, someone tried to
reach to touch his shoulder, and Calis shook them off without acknowledgement. 
A scream tore from his lips, from some deep, visceral part of his chest that
possessed him as it ripped from his lungs and through his body—hurting and
shredding. 

“Taeru, please…” someone whispered from behind Calis.  Calis
stared into the soft face of the only person he’d ever loved, the most precious
thing in the world to him—motionless, broken, lifeless, and still somehow
unfairly breathtaking. 

Calis pressed his lips to the chilled forehead, cradling the
body tightly, whimpering as he did.  Pulling back, he stared into the boy’s
face.  “You weren’t supposed to die here.  This wasn’t your responsibility. 
They can’t take you from me,” he whispered.  “You should never have had to do
what you did.  You’re too brave, too strong for your own good.  But… you
imbecile.  How could you not understand that you were killing me?  Why didn’t
you think about yourself?”  His lips quivered, pressed together as salty tears
somehow made their way into his mouth.