Isle of the Gods (Part 2)

Blood and Starlight Chapter 6 Part 2

Blood and Starlight: A conjurer, a vampire, and a mechanical demon embark on a rescue mission.

Audience: Adults (contains violence, strong language, and sexual content)

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Chapter 6

Isle of the Gods (Part 2)

Splash!

Ely's feet plunged into shallow water. Kai waded ahead of him through the shoals toward land. They dragged a small canoe between them. How had they gotten here so quickly?

Beyond the thin sand bar, a green tangle of jungle trees overgrew the uninhabited Isle of the Gods. In the distance, the great volcano rose, a fortress of gray stone crowned in a coronet of smoke.

They took an ancient path through lush forest. The Séoc of old came this way to make sacrifices to appease angry gods. The practice of blood offerings had been determined outdated in the last generations, but the Séoc still held the island sacred and did not set foot on its shores without purpose.

"Tell me more about this rupture," Kai called back to him as they walked. "Would it lead us to unknown lands like the ones you spoke of in Death's Vale?"

"With the tremors and smoke, it is more like an infected wound," Ely said. "It will need to be closed and hopefully it will heal in time."

"So, it would not lead the way to the land of the dead," Kai observed.

Ely shook his head. ''Even if it did, you should not try to pass through. The rupture can shear a human in two."

"Are you not human?" Kai asked.

"I have armor to protect me," Ely explained.

Kai nodded, delighted by this revelation.

"I hope you will show me one day, this place you call home."

"It is nothing like here," Ely told him.

"All the more reason to see it," Kai replied, left side dimple winking over his shoulder. "I envy your freedom, Ely. I fear my adventures will be called to a close before I get the chance to see even the half of this wide world."

"Why do you say that?" Ely asked.

"My mother would rather I stay on the island with her to study king craft. She says I will never find a wife wandering about like a common sea dog." Kai sighed and shook his head. "I do not want a wife, I tell her. A king must have children, she says. I owe it to our people. What of my heart? I ask. What of it? she replies. I lost it long ago, I tell her. Even if I could find it again, it would not please you to know where it is."

"Why?" Ely interjected.

"It would be tapána," Kai said.

"Which means?"

"Forbidden."

"What is forbidden to a future king?" Ely questioned.

Kai turned an amused smile to his face. "Many things, diakana."

Ely accepted this with a nod, too short of breath to press further. The trail must be steeper than he thought or the day deceptively hot.

After a short silence left him a bit less winded, he asked, "So does this person know they've stolen the heart of a pirate prince?"

Kai kept his eyes trained on the steepening path ahead. "I don't know," he said, voice pensive. He halted and turned back to Ely, melancholy vanishing as he declared, "I don't think I will reach the top of this mountain without a break from the heat."

"What do you propose?" Ely inquired.

"A swim!"

With that the pirate prince broke from the trail, charting a course through the undergrowth. The roar of a waterfall grew louder, and at last they came into sight of a crystalline pool so clear Ely could see straight to the silt at the bottom.

Kai left his clothes on the shore and dove in, resurfacing to float on his back. Ely squatted among the pebbles in the shallows, splashing his face and neck with cool water.

"Come in!" Kai urged.

"I can't swim," Ely answered with an apologetic smile.

"Over here."

Kai kicked to where a collection of boulders lay beneath the pool. He planted his feet.

"Come on, Ely, I won't let you fall in," he coaxed with a dripping grin.

The water did look tempting swirling about the pirate prince's muscled torso. And the heat seemed to have doubled yet again. Ely undressed, wading into the water. Kai was right, it felt like heaven.

"Better, yes?"

The pirate prince splashed him and paddled away laughing. Ely watched him dart like a fish under the water, diving deep to scoop something from the bed of the pool. He swam back over to Ely's boulder and took his hand, dropping three glittering diamonds onto his palm.

"Don't these belong to the gods?" Ely asked.

"You're helping their people. They owe you something," Kai insisted.

Ely shook his head. "Anything I can do for your people I would do freely."

Kai held his gaze, brow furrowed, expression somber. "I wish they knew that like I do. Maybe then..."

He trailed off, letting the rest of his thought sink beneath the water. Ely watched his face, heart throbbing so painfully.

"We should keep going," Kai said, then returned to the shore.

They dressed and made their way back to the path toward the ruptured volcano. Ely continued the trek in contemplative silence. Questions begged to escape his lips. He contained them to his worrying fingers, tracing the rough little gems that rested in his pocket.

The incline steepened as the final ascent to the mountain's peak began. Kai pressed the pace, pausing only to glance over his shoulder to reassure himself that Ely still followed. At the end of the rise, they could see down into the basalt valley below, ridged with ancient lava flows, long cooled.

There were no live vents in this volcanic basin. The smoke beacon that had risen high enough to be seen all the way from Séocwen was coming from the yawning rupture whose jagged edges burned red in the cratered ground. It looked wide enough to swallow a city whole.

"How is this possible?" Ely gasped.

For all the ruptures he had healed in his years, he had never seen anything like this one.

"I thought you'd have the answer to that," Kai said.

Ely knelt down and placed his fingertips against the ground. Seething energy radiated from the monstrous breach. It would take everything in him to mend it.

"I need to get closer," he said. "You should wait here."

"I'm staying with you," Kai replied.

Ely shook his head. "Remember what I told you about ruptures? Stay here. Please."

Kai nodded reluctant agreement. Then Ely flexed his hands, his armor slithering up his arms, wrapping about him like coils of night sky.

"Ely!" Kai called after him. "Be careful."

Ely gave him a reassuring smile, far more confident than he felt. Then he continued on the descent, calling an ether mask about his face to block the fumes.

As he walked, he relaxed his mind. Listening to the rupture. Getting its measure. The ground rumbled, and a spray of slivered stone gusted high into the air. Ely ducked, waiting until the growling rift grew still again. He continued on until he stood at its edge. This close, he could not even see across to the other end. He extended his hands, threading death magic about the vast perimeter until the two ends met out on the other side of the wavering horizon. Sweat beaded his brow, and his breath grew tense. The rupture resisted, pushing back as he tried to draw the great cavern closed.

A roar like a primeval beast escaped from the fold. The ground quaked, porous lava rock splitting asunder out toward the surrounding mountain. Ely lost footing, careening forward into the gaping maw. His eyes clouded. Death took hold.

When he could once again see clearly, he stood at the center of a destructive spiral that blasted the volcano's basin all the way to the slopes of its crater walls. The rupture was gone. Not even a shimmer remained.

Turning back the way he came, Ely's stomach dropped. The mountainside where he left Kai had crumbled away in a landslide. Setting out at a run, Ely skirted newly torn fissures and leaped over fractured stones.

"Kai!" he shouted, praying desperately for a response.

He saw the motionless form half-buried at the base of the crater. Ely dug frantically, panic lending strength enough to hurl away the slabs of stone. At last, the pirate prince came loose. He lay still, face masked in blood and ash. Ely did not need to search for a pulse to know Kai was dead.

He heaved a gasping cry, cradling the pirate prince's body, wracked with sobs. Then he fell still, every muscle tense. Closing his eyes, he felt as though he had vacated his body, spinning through the dark until he collided with the vast presence that had carried his friend away in their swathe of destruction.

Give him back, he demanded.

Death's hiss bent and stretched as if legions spoke with a single voice. You dare use our power against us.

Take anything you want from me, he pleaded. Take my life in exchange, but you will not take him.

A hurricane raged about him, rushing through him until he thought he would shatter. Then the tempest stopped. He opened his eyes. Kai sat up from the rocks, blinking and coughing.

Ely threw his arms around him, crushing him to his chest as tears streamed down his face.

"Elyssandro, wake up."

The whisper shivered over his shoulder. Ely looked up. He knew that voice.

Ariel's command echoed louder, more urgent. "Wake up, Elyssandro."

Kai gazed at him, lips forming words, but Ely could not hear. The pirate prince faded as though all the color had suddenly drained from the world.

"Elyssandro, wake up. You have to fight it..."

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Ely gasped. Searing, wrenching pain revived him as the root that held him pinned lifted. Granite arms circled him, and he felt wind rushing past his face. Then he was laid gingerly on the ground. Throbbing nausea overtook him as he shifted.

"Don't try to move." Rav's smooth, quiet voice sent shivers of alarm through his body. "Your leg is broken, and your breathing is…wrong."

"You saved me?" Ely managed to gasp.

"It wasn't me that saved you," Rav replied.

"Ariel," Ely murmured, eyes falling closed.

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Many thanks!