Alliance of Blackbirds Page 8

  Chapter Eight

  “They’re coming!” David suddenly screamed out doubling over and grunting on hands and knees. “My father….Ulric is here….calling…” David looked up at me with white eyes.

  “Don’t listen!” Rasmus yelled. “You don’t have to obey!” He knelt beside David inches form his face. “You’re your own person.”

  Gabe pushed me behind him and pulled out his dagger just as Claire and Ian came in.

  “What’s…” Ian started to say glancing at David then at me.

  “He’s changing,” I said feeling the hair on back of my neck rise.

  “Stop with the words that confuse me…so many voices…” David put his hands to his ears and yelled.

  “Then listen to your own,” Rasmus said calmly.

  David slowed his breathing and closed his eyes. He was trying as we watched him in silence. Then he opened his eyes that were solid white just like two marbles.

  He pushed Rasmus away and lunged towards me as Gabe stabbed David in the stomach. He bent over clutching the blade and with a grunt, he pulled it out letting it hit the floor.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. I want her.” David’s voice sounded that of many and I held my breath peering into his depthless eyes.

  David shoved Gabe out of the way and latched onto me pushing me through the door and past the gardens to the moonlit beach. The pale light made everything glow in whites, greys and silver. I could hear Gabe and see lights bobbing through the underbrush behind us. I yelled out to them trying to free myself from David.

  “Let me go! Let me go, David!” I pleaded with no response.

  I continued to try to release his hold when a familiar sensation filled me. The strength that I had felt several times before started to fill every muscle. It was the same power I had when I fought off the glass soldier in Eutopia and I knew it would be my only chance to free myself before we ran into the sea.

  I dug my fingers of my left hand into David’s chest then raked the fingers of my right across his face. I let out a scream when I did and immediately he released me. I rolled to the ground and jumped up quickly ready to take him on.

  He breathed heavily over bent knee trying to compose himself. I could’ve run, but for some reason I didn’t understand, I didn’t.

  “I don’t want to hurt you Emily, I want you to join me.” His raspy voice was calm and didn’t show any resistance. His pale eyes were focused on me. “The Mers helped me and I want to help them, but we have to do it my way and I need you to complete it.”

  My knees were bent and my hands out ready to fight, but he stood with arms at his side gazing at me with eyes like two moons.

  “I don’t want to join you,” I said thinking of running, but my sudden strength was quickly leaving. I could feel my legs buckle even though I pushed them up.

  “You need me as much as I need you.” David grabbed me by my waist pulling me close to him. “The amulet is reaching out for you and even though you don’t feel it yet, you’re changing too.” His face was inches from mine.

  He pulled me closer in one jerking movement. His frosted eyes covered the darkness underneath as they searched mine.

  “I…I..” My voice was becoming weak just like the rest of my body.

  “Em!” I heard Gabe yell in the distance.

  I tried to yell out as everything turned to a blur of lights, David’s arms tightening around me and the glowing moon over my head.

  The water was cold bringing me to my senses and sucked every ounce of warmth from my body. Deeper and deeper we went out with the waves crashing into us trying to push us back to shore. The sandy bottom fell from under my feet and I clutched onto David as I could feel the openness of the ocean.

  “David! Stop!” I yelled between mouthfuls of salt water.

  “There’s another portal…just about there.”

  “Dav—” My words were cut off as David pulled me below the water’s surface.

  I forced my eyes open to darkness as my body started to convulse for air. I tried to free myself, but David’s hold was too strong. I feared I was going to drown and then a light broke the dark water.

  Suddenly, the rushing water pulled at me forcing me through the blinding light. I tried to swim away looking back at the darkness that I knew was my only escape.

  “No, it was you who wanted me this way. I never consented to it!” I could hear David’s voice. “And now here we are.”

  “It was to strengthen you, David,” Ulric said. “I did so you’d have the power to be my army. The Alliance is crumbling in a mix of lies, disbelief and mismanagement. It has always been on that path and now, they’ve reached their destination and here we are to reap the rewards of a plan I’ve designed years ago.”

  I kept my eyes closed listening to them.

  “Don’t you see that I did this not only for me, but you as well?” A brisk breeze brushed across me and I tried to control my shivers. I could feel their eyes on me in the silence

  “You’ve strengthened me and…I guess I should thank you for that.” David’s voice was smooth.

  “Now, you’re coming to your senses.”

  “I came to my senses a long time ago.” I could hear footsteps nearby but didn’t dare open my eyes.

  “You did it David, you brought everything together,” Ulric said over the sound of something being poured into a glass. “Let’s celebrate.”

  “Let’s,” David said over the clanking of glasses. “And even the finest Ambrosia you’ve opened—I’m honored.”

  “Of course you’re my son,” Ulric replied. “Now, shall we start our business?!” Ulric’s foot kicked me in the stomach. I tried to gasp for air and curled knees to chest looking up at Ulric. “Get up girl, time to use you for what you were designed for.”

  I stood darting my eyes between David and Ulric. Ulric was in front of me with David casually swishing his Ambrosia in a cut crystal glass. He leaned against a desk stained dark with an intricate relief sculpture in front of it. The room was opulent with paintings hanging on top of paintings of picturesque landscapes and portraits of beautiful women dressed in elaborate gowns and men in long coats embellished with golden threads. Book cases, tall vases and glass cabinets containing gold and silver jewelry lined the walls where there weren’t paintings.

  The paintings lead to the tall ceiling. Hanging over our heads were hundreds of jagged glass shards with pointed ends. This room wasn’t just a room; it housed something of great importance just like the vaults in Meropsis.

  “Now that I’ve got your attention,” Ulric said setting down his glass. “We’ll begin.”

  Ulric glared at me with his glowing eyes. He was of the Dragon clan and I’ve seen him change into his true form of a scaly creature he was underneath and I knew I was no match to him. I shifted my eyes to David and he slightly raised his glass to me, took another sip and sat it down hard spilling some of the Ambrosia on the desk.

  “Here father, let me,” he said stepping towards me.

  He grabbed my arm and turned it over exposing the white underside. He looked down and gazed at it. Tiny blue lines webbed out from my wrist and the inside of my elbow like some random geometric design that I never notice before. I lifted my eyes to him as humming started to fill my ears.

  “Em…where are you?” Ian’s voice broke through the static.

  “With Ulric and David. Don’t know where…” I replied.

  “Stop sending messages!” Ulric yelled with a slap across my face.

  His black eyes glared at me and shifted with the light. Ulric was part dragon and I knew his strength was nothing to mess with. I glanced at David with his frosted eyes steady on me. Something was different about them, like a piece of him had returned. He smiled slightly and grabbed my arm again jerking it in front of him.

  “Shall we begin, this is boring me.” David looked over at his father.

  “Yes, we’ve waited
long enough,” Ulric said straightening the collar on his long coat. “Let’s get started, shall we?” He smiled at me and motioned towards the center of the room.

  On a marble table sat a mirrored box. I’d seen the box before and knew it was Pandora’s Box and was meant to be a gift for the original Pandora. She’d fallen in love with one of the glass people and this was her only way to contact him and when told to keep it shut, she didn’t listen. The box was a portal and when she opened it an army of glass people attacked her world plaguing it with their poison. Now, Ulric has the box and wants the power of the glass people that I know can’t be contained.

  He ran his hand over the box. It didn’t reflect anything in the room, but glowed in a cool light. The air filled with electricity as Ulric ran his fingers over the box barely touching it.

  I watched him remembering the last time the box was open. I had seen my mother there and wished to see her again, but I also know what is in there with her. I lifted my eyes from the box to Ulric who smiled back at me.

  I could go in the box, find my mother, bring her back with me and then have Ian make a portal throwing the box into it along with the Wall that surrounds the Crystal City.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ulric asked rhetorically. “Now I have everything I need to rule what the Dragons lost so long ago. I will bring them back and rule over them like the king I deserve to be.”

  David pulled me closer as his father held the box up admiring it.

  “Do as I say and you’ll survive.” He pulled from his pocket a tiny black thorn. “This will protect you.”

  David shoved the thorn into my wrist with his thumb until it was under my skin. I screamed holding my wrist that burned like it was on fire.

  “What are you doing?!” Ulric yelled. “What have you done?!” His eyes turned black looking at David.

  “I thought I was to rule with you. I thought I was to share power.” David stood in front of me as the burning turned to ice and tiny rivers of black started to fill my veins. “I thought the Dragon clan was to be ours.” David stepped closer to Ulric.

  “There can only be one king of the Dragons, my silly boy,” he said with a chuckle. “And you were to be the beacon in the dark for my power—a noble and respected position.”

  “I would die doing so.” David blocked me from Ulric and with each word he said made him look like he was getting bigger. “I have the power of the glass people father.” His words were soft.

  “Their power can’t be contained inside of you. It will eventually destroy you.” Ulric shook his head. “You don’t understand my boy.”

  “No, I do understand. And I had help from another—another boy.” Ulric’s eyes flashed with fire. “He’s known as The Black Ghost.”

  “He was a pirate that got lost at sea in a storm and was never seen again, everyone knows that.” Ulric brushed David words off with a shrug of his shoulders and continued to gaze at his box. “I don’t let ghosts frighten me or the stories told of them.”

  David stood in silence as I glanced down at my arm tattooed with tiny lines running all the way from my wrist to the inside of my elbow.

  “What did you do to her?” Ulric stepped towards me noticing the lines curling into swirling designs on my pale skin.

  David cut him off placing his hand on his chest and glaring at him with white eyes. David stepped away from him and closer to me. “That boy is very much alive and gave me the advice that I needed to destroy Ulric the leader of the Dragon clan and our father!” David let out a scream as he lunged for Ulric shoving him to the ground so fast he didn’t have time to react.

  I watched the box fling out of his hand and twirled through the air. David was all silver and white as his father tried to change into dragon form while being attacked. Ulric’s skin slowly turned to scales and bones shifted under his skin making cracking sounds. He didn’t seemed bothered by it as he pinned David to the floor.

  “I didn’t want to do this. I still need you.” Ulric’s voice was harsh.

  David stared into his father’s eyes for a moment then pushed on him propelling him through the air and into the glass shards overhead. They clanked together like ornaments as webbed wings exploded behind Ulric.

  “Get the box and run!” David yelled looking at me with his marble eyes and silver scales on his forehead. “Do it now!”

  I looked at the box and picked it up as Ulric charged towards me pointed teeth all in view. I was paralyzed holding Pandora’s Box watching Ulric come closer.

  David stood between us and looked over his shoulder at me before he leaped into the air grabbing Ulric in midflight. They fell to the floor with a thud knocking over furniture until David had Ulric pinned to the floor.

  Ulric, half changed into dragon struggled to move under David’s strength. David clenched his hands around Ulric’s arms so tight, that tiny pools of black blood ran onto the floor. David lowered his head breathing hard and then looked at Ulric.

  “You see what you did!” David yelled through clenched teeth turning back to his new normal.

  Ulric formed a smile and then chuckled. “I see a boy…just a boy with poison running through him that he thinks is power.” His laugh deepened. “You’re a nightlight in the dark and that is all. You have no power; I hate to tell you that since I can see the surprise on your face.” They stared at each other for a moment. “Do you think I would give any power to you? It’s mine. No one else knows how to control the glass people’s power.”

  David began to breathe hard again and grunt. He glanced up at me with normal eyes that quickly casted over to white. David was changing and this time I think he was doing it at his own will.

  “Do stop this charade. It’s ridiculous.” Ulric said firmly just as silver scales glinted on his forehead and down his forearms.

  “You did this to me and now you have to deal with me not as an experiment, but as your rival!” David slammed his head into Ulrics with a crack.

  Daivid jumped up lifting Ulric by his arm and flinging him into the wall behind them. Books and pictures fell to the floor.

  “Get out of here!” David growled between his pointed teeth as Ulric flew over his head towards me.

  Clutching the box I turned and ran to the wooden door in front of me. Ulric beat me to it landing with a rush of air and knocking off what remaining pictures were on the wall.

  “I plan on making you pay for this mess Miss Moore, that is, if you’re still alive!” With a violent scream, Ulric changed the rest of the way. He was in his true form—Dragon.

  Ulric opened his mouth which was elongated and filled with large, razor-sharp teeth. His eyes were black voids, but still managed to glisten with superiority that was untouchable to anyone.

  “Em!” Ian’s voice shot through me. “I can feel you close…getting portal sick…Say something…anything!”

  I couldn’t even speak in my own head as I watched from Ulric’s open mouth a flame, tiny and harmless erupt from the back of his throat. It grew larger and the heat I could feel engulf my face just as I was pulled backward through the air. I landed hard behind David as flames curled around him from Ulric’s mouth.

  The fire engulfed them and through the flames I could see David take his talon fingers and pried Ulric’s mouth until it snapped and hung like a broken appendage. By now the fire had spread licking the velvet curtains and walls. The door was blocked by David and Ulric as they fought in a tangled mess of orange flames mixing with the blue ones clinging to David. Smoke and noxious fumes from the paint on the canvases burned in many different colors as to which they were painted, was beginning to fill the room choking out every breath of air.

  I went over to the window as the fight continued when suddenly something small shot by me. Even through the raging fire, I could hear the tinkling of glass. Another shard passed by slicing me across the shoulder.

  “Ian!” I yelled internally. “Help me!”
>
  “Oh, finally! Where are you?” He sounded relieved.

  “I don’t know…with Ulric and David in some…castle…on fire!” I looked down at the rolling green hills feathered in mist and with nothing else in sight.

  “On fire?” Ian questioned. “And a castle?”

  “Yes, Ian how many castles can be on fire right now?”

  Silence filled my ears. “Ian!” I yelled out loud as my voice frantically echoed back at me. Before I could draw in another breath, something hard slammed into me knocking the air from my lungs and my body over the ledge.

  I couldn’t even scream as I fell from the window into the cool air with something wrapped around me tight. At first I thought it was Ulric, then, from the quickly fading window ledge, I could see Ulric spread his wings and charge towards me holding his broken jaw.

  Suddenly, we landed with a thud. I could taste blood fill my mouth from my teeth pinching the inside of my cheek and flashes of light was my vision as my ears rung. I stood numbly for only a second and then felt David’s strong arms curl around me.

  His movements were smooth and quick and slowly my vision came back to me along with my hearing that was still slightly muffled.

  “With David…on foot…running…” I looked at the emerald green hills and breathed in the moist air as I coughed up smoke. “We’re in the open…should be able to find us.”

  Everything was quiet except for David’s raspy breaths in the still greenness. I looked to the misty grey sky with flecks of blue for Ulric. He simply had disappeared and I wondered where we were.

  “Ian! Do you hear me!” I begged for him to respond.

  David suddenly stopped on the crest of a hill that looked over all the rest. A ring of weathered, grey, pillars sat on the hill like an ancient crown. Rays of sunlight stabbed through the constant mist mixing into a concoction of gold and grey light. A few trees dotted the area in the distance and a giant lake almost perfectly circular edged the greenness with its charcoal grey color.

  David weaved through the pillars as I continually pleaded with him to tell me what was going on and where we were at. I looked to the skies hoping to see a plane and dreading to see Ulric.

  “My father brought me here as a child,” David said passively. “He said this was an ancient place of our ancestors. This is our beginning—a portal to another world and our birthplace here in Atlantis.” He was his normal self now. His eyes still casted over with white, but I could see them calm and in control. “I can wield the power, Emily. I can control the glass people’s poison.”

  David gazed down at me standing between two of the rounded pillars.

  “What are you saying? That you want the power to rule.” I asked repeating Ian’s name in hopes of a response.

  He smiled then stepped closer to me. “No, I want Ulric dead and I’m going to use the glass people to do it.”

  David turned from me and stood in front of one of the pillars caressing it with his long fingers. The rough stone glinted slightly from under his touch. He smiled back at me and then touched each of the pillars until all of them glowed with beams reaching high into the sky.

  “I see you! Em, we’re on foot…be there.” Ian’s voice pierced through my head.

  “Call them off, Emily. They’ll only get in the way and be hurt or killed.” David’s white eyes met mine.

  Before I could answer something large swooped over us and landed on the opposite side of the stone circle. Ulric folded his wings and glared at David with angered black eyes.

  David didn’t move as he extended his hand and a wall of light connecting all of the pillars enclosed around Ulric inside. Ulric pushed at the wall of swirling light that encircled around him, almost like a fish in an aquarium. He glared at David and then stepped back. David folded his arms and gleefully looked on at his contained father.

  Ulric jolted into the wall with all of his force only to bounce off of it.

  “It’s no use and soon they’ll be here to take you with them—the treat I promised.”

  Ulric held his jaw looking to the sky and let out a cry.

  “It’s no use, they can’t hear you either.” David paced back and forth in front of Ulric. He then stopped inches from the glittering wall. “It’s just you and me.”

  “David, you don’t have to do this…” I stepped behind him touching him on the shoulder.

  He turned quickly glaring at me with his white eyes.

  “There is no other way. The glass people are coming and I intend to greet them.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him.

  We walked to the other side of the stone circle that overlooked the lake. I called to Ian over and over again in my head like an SOS signal.

  “Stop it princess, we’re coming.” Quil’s voice entered my head like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky.

  “Quil?” I questioned.

  “Very good, now stall David.” He commanded.

  David held me close in front of him. “David…” I started to say as he ripped open my shirt. I gasped trying to push myself away as he grabbed the amulet and held it out in front of my face.

  “We are one Emily—power and light. Together we are a beacon in the darkness to my people.” His words were calm compared to Ulric’s screams behind us.

  “The glass people will kill you and destroy everything. They will join no one,” I said trying to stay calm as a light flickered in the horizon.

  “You don’t understand them like I do and you don’t know their secrets of untold power.” David’s body stiffened as the light grew brighter breaking through the mist with curling tendrils.

  An acidy smelling wind blew across us as the tentacles of light caressed the pillars like a bug examining its prey before it devours it. I kept pleading with David to stop, but he didn’t listen.

  “Quil!” I yelled out loud.

  A blast of light exploded in front of us blinding me at first and then as my eyes adjusted, I could see them. The glass people’s faces all silver scaled with pale skin and white eyes. They nearly melted in with the mist and gazed at us with their many faces.

  The amulet burned with many different colors and swayed back and forth vibrating with the power it contained.

  “I bring you the amulet.” David announced to the hovering creatures.

  “You bring us the amulet?” One of them said. “And so willingly,” the voice said with all of their heads and eyes moving in the same direction as if they were one being.

  “I’m one of you and you are one of me. I’m the beacon that will guide you and she’s the power. We can join as one.”

  “As one?” They asked in a humored tone. “My young beacon, we are older than time, the mountain you live upon and even Atlantis itself. We’ve been called demons, angels and gods by common folk that worship or feared us, but we do not care what they do. They are specks of dust to us…nothing more than life to consume.” They moved closer turning their attention to me. “A part of our power was taken that little dust particles shouldn’t have. We want it back.”

  “You can’t have it.” I clutched the amulet in my shaking palm.

  They stopped tilted their heads to the side in a mechanical way and glared at me with their white eyes.

  “Our power has never been stolen, taken for a short while, yes, but we’ve always retrieved it.”

  With their eyes on me, they glided footless across the grass with their arms like tentacles outstretched towards me.

  “I command you to stop!” David yelled.

  Their mouths curled upward into a snarl showing their sharp teeth and the wind pushed at us nearly knocking me over. I tightened my hold on the amulet and planted my right foot behind me bracing myself against the wind. David pushed himself forward and in front of me yelling at the approaching glass people.

  “Emily!” I heard a voice call my name. “Emily!” It yelled again.

  I could hardly keep my eyes op
en as I could see an amber light burn through the tight group of glass people. A thin piercing light sliced through them knocking some of them out of the way and disintegrating them into an explosion of silver dust.

  From the mist a woman with blonde hair and glowing sword in hand emerged. “Mom!” I yelled catching her attention just as one of the glass people sliced her across the arm.

  I yelled trying to push my way through the hurricane winds towards her. She turned stabbing the glass person through the eyes and withdrew her sword as she was showered in silver dust.

  “Stay behind me,” she said turning her back to me.

  More and more of the glass people came and soon the ground was covered in silver glitter. The winds grew in strength and I was forced to the ground huddling behind my mother when a slender tentacle curled in front of my face. Tiny points, sharp and thin popped out from its sides as it grabbed hold of me lifting me off the ground in the matter of seconds.

  I went through the air as the tentacle’s barbs dug into me with their iciness. I was then slammed into the ground unable to move. I tried to yell, but I couldn’t draw much air in from the constricting vine. The mists swirled around me and I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear my mother cry out for me and David growl. Their voices were muffled and I felt I was in a bubble of calmness.

  The tentacle slowly loosened and I pushed myself up standing in a thick, white mist.

  “Give us the amulet, dust particle,” a voice said followed by the silver and white face of a glass person.

  Its white hair curled and moved like it was an entity of its own. I clutched the amulet not saying a word.

  “I can’t harm you.” It stood in front of me with unmoving lips and eyes like white marbles.

  “You can’t have it,” I said aloud.

  The glass person glided around me gazing with steady eyes until it stopped where it started. It didn’t say a word as I looked at it.

  “Certain things shouldn’t have this Emily Moore. We protect what we have from those like you because you don’t understand the laws of the space yet and….we intend to keep it that way. Yes, we do play with you from time to time, but only out of boredom or to try to understand such a simple creature.” I gazed into its eyes that were depthless and yet not. “I’m the leader of the everlight and responsible for it. I’m also not going to lie to you dust particle, I can’t take the everlight from you without you willingly giving it to me.” Its mouth turned upward slightly as the battle raged on and I shifted my eyes trying to catch a glimpse of my mother.

  The glass person turned to where I was looking. “They mean something to you—a connection that sustains you.” Its words where almost questioning. “I can sense that, though don’t understand. And that is going to be my leverage. You can save them as well as the Crystal City where you’re from. Eutopia is moments away from us devouring it. I can’t stop it, but you can.” Its smile deepened extending its slender tentacle to form a cupped end, “the amulet for your people.”