The Divine Path (The Divine Series) (36 page)

“Might you be experiencing some of the side effects of the calling?  Do your muscles hurt?  All I need to do is let you go
, and that would all disappear,” Morg said. He lifted the staff as if he intended to use it and then paused in thought.  “But, I don’t think I can trust you,” he continued, letting the staff thump back to the ground.  “And don’t think you are getting out of that calling anytime soon.  As long as we are close to you, that calling will not fade,” Morg said as he caressed the staff.  The staff was the other half of the “we” that Morg was referring to.  “I would suggest you not fight the compulsion.  It speeds the process until the pain becomes excruciating.  Soon after, your muscles will become damaged beyond repair.  Shortly after that, you will beg me to kill you,” he said with a grin.

For the first time in
his life, Kade experienced a feeling that made him tremble inside. Helplessness.  The mental anguish was almost too much to bear.  Kade ground his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut tightly to hide his emotions.  Morg fed on this.  He knew that if he looked, Morg would be watching him with pleasure.

“I will not help you,” Kade hissed.

“Now that is not very nice,” Morg said as a devious smile crossed his face.

Morg aimed t
he staff at him.  Kade’s right arm was no longer his to control.  The evil Chosen had ensnared Kade’s entire body with the exception of his head.  Kade’s body lurched over to the table.  He watched in horror as he placed his right hand flat on the surface while his left picked up a heavy, crystal decanter.  He held it like a club high in the air.  Just before he brought the club smashing down on his hand, Kade got an idea.

“So this is what it must feel like when you are told what to do like a dog
,” Kade said as the club started to descend.  His arm jerked and the crystal decanter flew out of his grasp and shattered on the wall. 

Kade could feel the rage coming off Morg in waves.  The evil Chosen slowly circled him
with his head tilted down while looking up at Kade through eyes that were almost squeezed shut in rage.  His breathing was ragged as he leaned forward slowly.  For the first time, Kade looked deep into his eyes.  There was not even a hint of humanity in there.  A fear so intense gripped him that his throat closed up tightly.  A part of him wondered if it might not have been better to have a broken hand.

“If I though
t I would not need you, I would rip your heart out and let you watch while it beat in my hands as your eyes glazed over in death,” Morg hissed violently.  “Oh how I do love to watch people suffer.  For now, this should do,” Morg said as he gripped his staff so tightly that his knuckles turned white.  And then, he gripped it even harder.

Kade felt as if his
entire body were being crushed in a massive grip.  The air rushed out of his lungs.  The force on his body was so intense that his vision blurred within seconds.  He opened his mouth to scream, but all the air was already gone.  Morg squeezed even harder, his arm shaking with the effort.  The muscles on his forearm twitched rapidly.  Morg clenched his teeth, and his lips parted as he shook.  Kade felt his ribs creak.  At any moment, they were going to start snapping one by one.  Kade could not see, even though he knew his eyes were still open.   And then, his body fell to the ground, air rushing in to fill his lungs. 

Kade was breathing again
, but it was not with a conscious effort.  His mind was numb, and it was almost impossible to think.  The ground rocked as he struggled to hold his head up.  A ringing sound echoed in his ears as the blood flowed through his brain again.  The blackness started to fade, and the room came back into focus.

“Do we
understand who the dog is now?” Morg hissed.  He watched Kade for a response and was dumbfounded when the apprentice just stared at him.  Such strength of character was just not possible.  Somewhere deep in Morg, respect for this young man grew just a bit.  He calmed down as he studied Kade.  “You don’t even know what I am going to ask of you.  It can’t hurt to listen, can it?” Morg asked.  For a moment, Kade was certain that Morg was pleading with him.

Kade opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comment but immediately changed his mind.  The crushing weight was still too fresh in his mind
, and his ribs hurt furiously.  He continued to stare at Morg without saying a word.  Just as the evil Chosen was about to continue, something small and black winged its way into the room.  Morg spun and raised the staff as if to blast the thing from the air.

“This had better be good,” Morg growled.  “I left explicit instructions not to be interrupted.”

“They call you back, Master” the creature said in a rush as its eyes focused on the wavering staff.

Morg’s head rocked back, and he took a deep breath as if he were about to scream in rage
.  Kade could see the veins in his neck start to bulge and pulse with every heartbeat.  Morg turned and stalked away from the creature as he gripped the staff in both hands.  He stopped, facing the far wall.  Kade could see the muscles in his shoulders tense.  He glanced at the creature that was still hovering in the air and cringed. 

Too bad it was not smart enough to fly as fast as it could in any direction other than one where Morg was
, Kade thought.

“I hate bad news!” Morg screamed
as he spun with the staff held at his waist.  He was holding it in both hands as if he were holding a battering ram.  Morg spoke, the staff jumped, and the creature only had time to open its mouth before it exploded all over the room.  Kade felt the slime of the creature splatter him and his stomach lurched. “Maybe, just maybe they will stop sending…,” Morg started to say when he paused.  He wiped a wet spot off his forehead as he clenched and unclenched his jaw over and over while he mulled something over.  Morg’s eyes regained their focus.  He quickly turned, marched right up to Kade and glared at him.

“Remember that.  I hate bad news,” Morg said
with force.  Despite his effort not to, Kade felt himself shiver.

Morg paced the room, clearly at odds as an internal struggle raged.  Kade was careful to stay neutral.  He had had enough beatings for the day.  Morg marched up to Kade
, and looked down at him while trying to come to a decision.  He turned, roaring his frustration as he swung the staff and shattered the table next to the high-back chair.

“As
if they call me like I am their dog,” Morg growled.  His head whipped around to glare at Kade, and his lips parted in a snarl. 

Kade cringed.  He
knew his beatings were not finished.  Obviously, calling him a dog had struck home.  The fact that he had just used Kade’s own words without thinking enraged him.  He charged Kade and swung his staff, hitting him in the back.  Morg stepped back and then kicked him in the side so hard he actually lifted him off the ground.  Kade wondered if that was two or three ribs he heard crack.  He landed and spit up blood.  Pain lanced through his body as his vision swam.

“Consider your options carefully,” Morg said as he pounced on Kade and roughly pulled the apprentice’s hands behind his back.  “Let me rephrase that just in case you did not quite understand.  You only have one option
, and you had better decide to take it.”

“And that option is to cooperate?” Kade gasped through the pain.  He spit blood onto the floor to clear his mouth.

“See, you can learn,” Morg said condescendingly.

Kade winced as his lungs protested painfully.  Morg retrieved a rope from a sack on the floor and then returned to tie Kade’s hands be
hind his back.  Kade found a little relief in the fact that the bonds were not too tight.  At least he did not have to worry that his hands might fall off from necrosis.

Morg stood
and closed his eyes for several long moments while gripping the staff.  There was a rumbling as something heavy came down the stairs.  One of the Alluvium rounded the corner and came into the room. 

“Watch hi
m closely,” Morg snarled.  If anything happens to him, you will be dust,” he threatened.  The creature appeared to tense.  Its fists come up slightly as if ready to fight.  After a moment, they lowered.  Morg sneered at the creature and then turned back to stand over Kade.  “When I come back, you had better start making the right decisions,” Morg said, glaring at the man on the floor.  Kade definitely knew the threat was real.  He did not think that Morg was going to have much more patience past what he had already had, if it could be called that.

The evil Chosen
walked out of the room and was quickly gone.  Kade lay on his side, trying to breathe, but it was difficult with the stabbing pain in his ribs.  The Slave Calling started to fade almost immediately.  He tried to reason his way out of this, but the agony made it almost impossible to think.  His vision was blurry but not so much so that he would miss seeing another earth creature carry Darcienna into the room over its shoulder and drop her roughly onto the floor.  It turned and both creatures walked through the wall.  Kade cringed at the rough treatment. 

Feeling too much pain to think clearly, he laid his head back down
.  A few seconds later he jumped at the touch of a hand on his side.  The agony in his ribs melted away.  The absence of pain was so profound that he felt like he could cry in relief.  His vision slowly returned, and one of the most beautiful faces came into focus.

“Darcienna,” Kade said, emotions choking his voice.

“Shhhhhh,” she said as she put a finger to his lips.   She whispered so quietly that he could barely hear.  “I am sure they will be back shortly.”

“You are not bound,” Kade said incredulously.

“No,” Darcienna said with a grin.  Before Kade could ask, she answered his unspoken question.  “They thought I was still out and they do not appear to be very bright.  I am certain that Morg would have had me tied up if he did not race out of here so fast.” 
Another break
, Kade thought, mentally thanking fate for easing up on him.  “And besides, they have no idea what I can do.  They only see me as a helpless, little girl.  How can they know any different?” she whispered with a grin.

“But, your eyes,” Kade said.

“Not when they think I am out.  My eyes were closed the entire time.”

Darcienna worked at his bonds,
and after just a small struggle, was able to finally remove them.  Kade fell on his back.  The memory of the damaged ribs was so vivid that he felt as if they were still broken.  Darcienna leaned down and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into her embrace.  Kade melted at her touch.  He looked over her shoulder at the dead Chosen and just stared until his eyes lost focus.

Kade let his mind wa
nder as she continued to let her healing flow into him.  The longer Morg was gone, the more his muscles became his again.  His thinking cleared little by little and the pain in his body faded away.  His focus returned, and he found himself looking at the Chosen once more.  Kade narrowed his vision as he watched the man in the chair.  He slowly pushed Darcienna away while keeping his eyes on the figure.

“Something about this
is not right,” Kade said as he spared a glance at Darcienna.  She was watching him closely now.

“What is it
?” Darcienna asked in a whisper.

“From what Zayle
said about the Chosen, all the Chosen, I find it hard to believe that Doren would just give up,” Kade said as he studied the lifeless body.

Kade got into a crouching position and
then inched closer to the man in the chair.   There was something out of place, but what was it?  The more Kade studied the man, the more he was sure he was missing something.

“He can’t be dead,” Kad
e whispered to himself.  “He just can’t be,” he added, shaking his head in confusion.

Darcienna moved closer as she
, too, studied the Chosen.  She looked at Kade as if trying to think, and then her head whipped back around to stare at the figure in the chair.  Kade watched with excitement, waiting for her to reveal what she had just pieced together.

“Kade, do you see
?” Darcienna asked as she stared at Doren.

“What?” Kade asked
as he scanned the Chosen’s face.

“He still
has life in him,” Darcienna responded, peering closely.

That is when it hit him.  He could not be dead because he was not dead.  His color was not quite the color of a living man
, but it was not the ashen color of a dead man, either.  Not that Kade really had much experience in seeing dead men, but this could not be what a dead man looked like.  Kade glanced at Darcienna and smiled.

“I knew a Chosen
would not just lie down and die,” Kade said as he leaned a little closer to Darcienna. 

Kade was certain he was onto something and closed his eyes.  He used the Reveal Calling, but to his chagrin, he could see nothing.  He tried again with similar results.  Not willing to give up, he
performed the Healing Calling and put his hands on the Chosen.  The Divine sank in, but the man did not move.  Kade tried again, and still, there was nothing.

“Can you bring him back?”

“I can try,” Darcienna said as she laid her hands on him.  After a few moments, she sat back with a look of exasperation.