Gaia's Secret (37 page)

The smile on Lord Tiernan’s face fell. “You
have always failed to see the world as it is. Your father is a
cowardly thief just like the one he serves, exploiting the talents
of others and using them against his people. I curse the days I
called myself his servant,” Tiernan spat, eyes narrowed in pure
hatred. “It is your ignorance that will kill you, old friend.”

Tiernan drew two swords from beneath his
cloak, one for each hand, and radiated so much power it was
disorienting.

Dad drew his own sword, and his eyes shined
with a ferocity that frightened me. What was he thinking? He didn’t
know how to use a sword.

“You should’ve died years ago for your
treason,” my dad said. “Today, you will pay for it.”

Everything happened so fast that before I
could figure out what they were talking about, Dad charged Lord
Tiernan.

“Dad!” I screamed. I lunged after him but was
yanked back by a firm grip.

“Leave him,” Alex said.

I fought against his hold as I watched my dad
cross blades with Lord Tiernan. “Alex, you have to help him! He
can’t fight—“ My words trailed as I watched.

I was wrong. My dad could fight, almost as
well as Alex.

Everyone’s attention was engaged in the duel
as Tiernan’s spinning blades attempted to slice my dad in half. Dad
always moved at the last second, delivering counter blows that were
knocked to the side.

“Close the exits!” Tiernan brandished his
swords.

A few cloaks drifted towards our exit and
raised their arms. As I stared I realized they weren’t men. They
were Pykans. A rock began sliding through our intended exit,
sealing the narrow crevice.

“Alex! Get her out of here,” Dad yelled,
rolling away from a scissor of metal.

Before he could finish his command, Alex was
already pulling me away.

“We can’t leave him!”

Some of the guards turned their attention
towards us now, drawing their swords.

Two, three, four at a time charged. Alex
threw me behind him and leapt into the melee. He danced around
them, fast and fluid, his legs finding a face, a knee as his sword
slashed through tendons and arteries. I couldn’t move, watching the
sphere of death he created around himself. So much blood. So much
violence.

As I stared, I was thrown to the ground,
unable to move. One of the guards had me pinned and was forcing a
dagger at my face. Mustering my strength, I freed one hand, grabbed
another dagger from his belt, and shoved it into his abdomen. His
pain tore through my body as the force behind his dagger weakened.
He toppled sideways off of me.

“Daria!” Alex yelled.

I heard scraping as silver flashed on the
ground toward me. Alex had thrown me a dagger. Swinging out my arm,
I caught the blade and shoved it into the chest of my next
attacker. His dark eyes widened in surprise and pain as he rolled
to his side, lifeless.

I scrambled to my feet, fighting against the
weight of the metal as my heart thudded in my ears. My blade was
dripping crimson….with blood. I had killed two men. I had taken
their lives. My stomach turned just as another attacked me.

On instinct, my muscles brought the dagger
around, right into the blade of my attacker with a clash.
Everything around me slowed and I suddenly felt light and
weightless. His movements were sluggish and predictable. Before he
could reposition his sword, I spun around. Using my momentum for
force, I plunged the dagger into an opening in his armor, right
into the side of his ribcage. His jaw dropped as he slumped to the
ground.

Alex was staring at me in disbelief, as a
sword was being lifted over his head. And he didn’t see it. I threw
the dagger, and it sliced end-over-end through the air, right into
the forehead of the guard. His movement froze as he and his weapon
toppled to the ground.

Alex looked behind himself in surprise and
then rushed to my side, pushing and slashing at anyone between us.
He jerked me away from a sword that came within inches of my
abdomen. Another guard rushed towards us, but was weighed down by
an anchor named Fleck. Fleck sat on the man’s feet with his arms
wrapped tightly around his legs. The man realized his inhibition
and raised his sword. I leapt forward, slashed across the man’s
raised arm and kicked him down.

Fleck ducked, still wrapped around the man’s
legs.

“Fleck, you’re fine. Get up.” I grabbed his
arm and yanked him up beside me.

When I looked up again, my heart dropped.
There were more guards. This time, the Pykans had joined them and
they’d sealed our only exit.

A handful of the orange-eyed men began to
circle us, their rotted mouths fixed in satisfaction. Out of the
corner of my eye I saw a blur of brown and grey, and one of the
guards fell. The blur moved again, and another guard fell—this time
followed by maniacal laughter.

“Great Mages! I can’t believe you started the
fight without us,” said a voice I recognized.

Tran appeared, flashing Alex and me a look of
disapproval.

The Pykans hissed like a brood of vipers and
the blur stopped spinning. It was Grool. He still wore his brown
paper sack, but now he was wearing a helmet that was much too large
for his odd-shaped head. Infuriated, he stomped on the foot of a
Pykan, jabbed a wickedly shaped piece of metal into the folds of
its cloak, and spun off again in a blur of silver and brown. The
Pykan’s pain shot through me and its cat-like eyes narrowed as a
burst of light shot from its fingertips.

Tran met him head on. Green light pushed
against blue, and sparks flew through the air as the two sorcerers
dueled with a power only they could wield. Alex pushed Fleck and me
to the ground just as another bolt of light shot through the space
our heads had been.

The magicians leapt into the air using the
walls and heads of men to rebound. Light flashed all around as rock
crumbled after it.

Alex pulled me after him and we crawled away
with Fleck right beside me.

The remaining guards had huddled off to the
side to avoid the magical avalanche. They were watching
something—my dad and Tiernan.

I took off, aware that Alex was yelling after
me. My heart raced as blood pumped through my veins. I climbed on
top of a small boulder that had fallen and peered over the
group.

“You’re weak,
sire
.” Tiernan’s swords
crossed with my dad’s and he spun away. “You should’ve listened.
Now she will watch you die.”

Dad ran at Tiernan, his swords flashing
through the air. I could feel his rage and power as it surged
through me.

The ground began to shake. More chunks of
rock fell from the ceiling, some tumbling down on the heads of the
guards. Tiernan stumbled through the debris to regain his balance.
His eyes shut, his features strained, and the shaking stopped. When
he opened his eyes, there was a spark of amusement in them. “Is
that all?”

Tiernan showed his teeth as his eyes glowed
white. His swords fell to the ground and he stretched his arms
high. A blanket of white light formed in the space between his
hands and flew towards my dad. With an agonizing yell, my father
dropped his swords and swung his arms outward against the
enveloping wall of light. An explosion sounded; the light shattered
into a million tiny crystals, falling like rain around him.

Once the last crystal shard fell, my dad
slumped forward. Tiernan saw the opportunity. He swept up his
swords with a yell, and charged.

Dad just managed to block the attack, but his
back was bending from the pressure. Tiernan smiled and pressed
harder. My dad’s knees buckled. One of his legs turned at an
unnatural angle and his pain shot through my blood.

“Dad!” I screamed, paralyzed in horror.

Tiernan smiled a wicked smile, holding one
sword overhead. “Goodbye, old friend.”

My blood boiled. I didn’t remember leaping
from the boulder. I didn’t remember pushing past the guards. But
somehow I was standing behind Tiernan, my hand gripping the dagger
that was deep in his chest.

Tiernan froze as I retracted my weapon. His
eyes widened in surprise and the swords fell from his hands, their
clanging rebounding inside the silent stone chamber. He opened his
mouth and screamed—the yell so horrible it turned my blood cold.
And then he crumbled to the ground. All that remained was his cloak
and my stolen dagger.

The room was silent.

I picked up my dagger and hurried to my dad’s
side, still shaking. Alex pushed through the horde of shocked
guards and helped me get my dad to his feet. Dad’s strength was
fading fast.

I searched in desperation for a way out, but
both exits were blocked. The guards’ shock began wearing off and
they started closing in on us. Rage and fury were in their eyes
now. We stepped back, Alex holding on to my dad. Tran and Grool had
joined us. Grool was holding an ax in his hand, gurgling strange
insults at the men poised around us.

“Keep walking.” Tran’s voice was low as he
moved back to the wall.

“Walk where?” I asked. “We’re trapped!”

The guards crept closer, confident of their
prey.

I glanced back at my dad. His eyes were
closed as he leaned against the rock wall. His features looked
strained and tense and the veins around his temple were bulging.
And then the ground began to tremble. Violently.

I grabbed Fleck and pulled him to me as I
huddled over my father. Huge pieces of rock fell from the top of
the dome, crashing all around—many of the boulders falling between
the guards and us.

The wall right behind us began to split. I
clutched Fleck’s hand as we ducked. Large chunks of the cave
crashed down behind us. A few plummeted towards our heads, but
right before impact, they exploded into millions of tiny shards—all
with a wave of Tran’s hand. At once the crashing ceased and the
room returned to silence.

I lifted my head. The wall next to us had
split so that it formed a tunnel, and at its end was a narrow
thread of light. My dad slumped to the ground.

Alex was already hoisting Dad up on his
feet.

“Hurry!” yelled Tran, pushing us through the
new exit.

We sprinted. Grool ran after us, dropping
things on the ground while laughing at himself.

Tran led us forward through the dark tunnel.
The soft light grew brighter and brighter, and the scent of damp
air grew stronger. Enraged voices shouted behind us. The Pykans
were already blasting the blockage into oblivion. We didn’t have
much time. Once they destroyed the rock barrier, we’d never outrun
them. Not with my dad in this state.

It felt like forever before the narrow tunnel
ended and we were dumped on the sandy beach of an alcove. Our
tunnel was at the base of a steep, rocky cliff that curved in a
semicircle into the ocean. Rain poured down upon us from the dark
clouds above and large white-capped waves crashed along the shore,
desperately trying to reach us.

I had no idea where we were, but I knew we
were far from Lake Amadis.

Tran kept us running straight for a narrow
crevice in the rock, and we were soon stumbling out of the
alcove.

The army emerged from the crack in the side
of the rocky cliff. They were livid, gripping their weapons as they
ran. Bursts of light fired at us with renewed vigor, and we ran.
And ran.

“Grool, now!” I heard Tran yell from
somewhere ahead.

The ground began to shake and the air filled
with loud explosions. Flames consumed the cavern, pouring out of
its crack, reaching bright orange fingers towards the sky. The
explosions continued, fire and smoke reaching higher and higher,
until the cliff began to implode upon itself.

When I looked back at Tran, I couldn’t find
him. Or Grool.

“Up here!” shouted Cicero.

At first I couldn’t figure out where the
sound came from, but then I looked up.

You aren’t going crazy…you aren’t going
crazy…

Cicero and Sonya were flying. They were
sitting on the backs of velvety black creatures that looked like
horses, but their necks were longer, arching outward from their
extraordinary muscular bodies. And they had wings. Enormous, black
wings.

“Mom, here.” Alex helped Fleck climb on with
Sonya.

If I hadn’t been so concerned about the armed
guard chasing us, there was no way I’d trust my dad on that thing.
Cicero helped pull my dad on with him, and Alex threw me on a third
rider-less creature and climbed in front of me.

“Hold on!” he yelled over his shoulder and I
just managed to wrap my arms around his waist as we took off into
the air.

Rain and wind slapped my face as we soared
upward, higher and higher. I tried not to look down. I tried not to
look anywhere. My grip around Alex was so tight, I wasn’t sure if
I’d be able to ever break it loose.

I could hear the men screaming after us. A
few stray beams of light shot past, but our winged horses swerved
easily out of the way. The guards became smaller and smaller as we
soared farther and farther away.

Just as I felt that overwhelming relief of
survival, a blood-curdling shriek pierced the air.

I glanced back. Three creatures rose from the
flames and ruin, flying through the air towards us. Gargons. So the
rumors were true. These were what had been wreaking havoc on
villages. These beasts were spitting images of the drawing I’d seen
in Tran’s monsters manual. They had been frightening enough on
paper, but they were horrifying in real life.

“Gargons!” I yelled at Alex.

“I see them!”

Their sleek reptilian bodies sliced through
the sky like black darts as their powerful wings beat against the
wind. Those fiery red eyes burned with hunger as their
soul-splitting wails ripped through the air.

“Take Daria ahead,” Cicero yelled. “We’ll
distract them.”