MILLENNIUM (Descendants Saga) Read online

  Enhancing my vision, I scanned below the beast as it rose up from the earth with its emerald colored scales. Cole and Sadie were running as hard as they could away from it. They were alive.

  Instinctively, I started running toward them. I had to get them away from that thing. I was so happy to see them alive, but terrified that now I might lose them both at the last. Yet, so far, the dragon was more concerned with extricating itself from its earthen prison than with specks like us.

  I stumbled as the ground repeatedly shifted beneath my feet. Already in pain, though ignoring it, I took to the air as the peregrine falcon. I could fly quicker and easier than run at this point.

  Waves of debris flew past me, even at this distance. The children attempted to shield themselves as they ran. However, so much earth had been thrown up around them—not to mention the massive rents through the ground—that remaining on terra firma had become untenable.

  They became birds, taking flight as an eagle and a raven. Higher into the atmosphere they drove themselves, attempting to get out of range of the dragon’s destructive influence. In moments, I would close the gap between us.

  The beast’s form became clearer now. As earth and rocky debris fell away and the cloud of dust thrown up by its rage dissipated, I saw the shape of it. The dragon was essentially reptilian in appearance, but much of its hide was covered in plates of rock and patches of moss. Spiny outcrops littered its back and head. However, it seemed more lizard than dragon to me, like an iguana dipped in mud and rolled through gravel.

  Raising its mouth high, the dragon screeched terribly. The vibrations carried into the atmosphere, striking the eagle and raven as they attempted their getaway. These sonic waves pummeled and tossed them. Faltering, they lost their bird forms and fell toward the earth as humans again.

  As the peregrine falcon, I could not hope to save them. Yet, I was close enough to see them. So was the dragon. It stood below, waiting to have them for itself.

  I cast off my falcon form and instantly plummeted down after the children as a man. Now, I could use my power in other ways. Lightning flew from my hands, charges that struck the beast below, raking across its face and head.

  The dragon howled furiously. Still, I had done nothing that would save the children from barreling into the ground. As the dragon turned its head away from my lightning attack, I used my mind to seize both children and slow their descent. However, with me falling, I was still doing no good. Holding them in relation to me only allowed them to fall with me rather than independently.

  Angry, I attempted to teleport us all. To my relief, it actually worked. We appeared on the ground below—the children stumbled and fell as they reappeared next to me. I reached for my daughter, only to be covered by the ominous shadow of the dragon.

  Gazing skyward, I saw one of the dragon’s massive forelegs coming down. Pulling the children up to their feet, I ran, pushing Sadie and Cole ahead of me. We weren’t going to make it in time.

  I reached out to seize hold of them, but Cole teleported away, and then Sadie. I grasped only air as its claw came down. I managed a last second teleport also, just before the terrible boom of its foreleg shattering the ground where I had been.

  Appearing almost one hundred yards away from my previous location, I was immediately hit by the thunderous shockwave erupting from that same footfall. The tremendous size and power of this beast was too much. We couldn’t fly. We couldn’t run. Teleporting only got us so far, and that wasn’t far enough.

  “Daddy, how do we escape?” Sadie cried, appearing next to me as I got back to my feet.

  I looked around. To my surprise, the way I had come was no longer there. In fact, there was nothing but this place now—a rocky barren plain with only us and the dragon. We could see the horizon stretching on toward infinity in every direction.

  Cole reappeared beside us. He looked panicked—something I had never seen on his young face before. They might have come to this place courageously, but fear was all I could see in them now. Looking at the ferocious dragon bearing down on us, I felt that same fear.

  Whispering beneath my breath, I asked the Almighty for an answer, for help, for anything he was willing to do for us now. Almost immediately, an awful epiphany struck me. We had landed in a trap. Like a rabbit lured into a snare, we now had no sound escape left to us.

  There was only one possible way. Unfortunately, it was the one thing I had been warned not to do in the Underworld. Yet, I felt within my very soul that it was what would be required in order to save myself and the children. I would have to slay the dragon.

  “We have to kill it!” Cole said, almost as if the Lord had used him to confirm my intuition.

  The dragon blew fire from its gaping maw. I threw up an extension fast, protecting us from attack, broadening its circumference in an attempt to keep the heat away from us. I drew Malak-esh from the ether.

  “If we destroy the dragon, three cherubim trapped within will be released,” I said.

  “What are you talking about?” Cole asked, looking confused. “Ishbe said that—”

  “Ishbe is an imposter,” I said interrupting him. “An angel named Black took Ishbe as a host ten years ago. We’ve been deceived all this time.”

  Cole was visibly stricken by my words. “That’s impossible! I don’t believe it. He trained me all of my life.”

  I knelt before him with my hand on his arm. The dragon had stopped blowing fire and was headed toward us, step by terrible step. Sadie was hitting my arm, urging me to hurry and do something. Malak-esh came into her hand, the sword left to her by Oliver, twin to my own.

  “Cole,” I said, “The angel’s name is Black. He killed your father, led him to the lock with your mother. He tricked us, hoping to have us destroy this creature and set the cherubim free.”

  The sword was quivering in my hand now as the dragon drew near. I teleported us away again. This time we appeared behind the dragon. Its massive tail dragged across the earth, gouging a ravine through the dirt everywhere it went. The dragon was searching for us. We couldn’t elude it forever.

  Tears ran down Cole’s face. “He was my friend, my best friend.”

  “I know,” I said. “We thought he was a friend to us all.”

  Sadie grew anxious beside me. “How do we kill it, Father?”

  I saw Cole’s resolve return, despite his tears and the anguish he was feeling. “If he wants it destroyed then we can’t kill it,” he said.

  “We must,” I countered. “For whatever reason, I feel this is also God’s will. We may have been led here by Black, but he has a purpose to accomplish by this as well.”

  Sadie stared wide-eyed at me, completely bewildered by my statement. “But what will happen when the cherubim are released?”

  “Terrible things,” I admitted. “But I’m afraid they may be necessary things.”

  “How can terrible be necessary?” Sadie asked. “How can it be good?”

  I was at a loss for words at that moment. I didn’t know how to answer. The dragon thundered as it turned, searching for us. Out of the corner of its yellow eye, it found us again, roaring its contempt.

  A single thought came to my mind. Certainly, it was the best example that could have been given. “When the savior died for us, it was a terrible event,” I said. “However, it also was used for the greatest good. It was necessary.”

  Sadie and Cole absorbed that statement. They looked at one another and then at me. We were ready to do what must be done. Even if we didn’t understand why, it had to happen. I could only hope the others would be ready for what was coming. I prayed they would be.

  Cherubim

  “Cole,” I said, “we must have it distracted. Sadie and I will strike the head.”

  Cole nodded. “I know what to do,” he said.

  Taking the form of an African lion, he took off away from us. The dragon looked torn between targets. Cole stopped and roared at it. That seemed to make up its mind. It knew we couldn’t get away.

/>   Sadie and I took to the sky, circling around behind the dragon. We flew over the tail and up toward the back. The dragon was moving after Cole—not quickly, but with giant steps that would soon catch the fleeing lion.

  I flew in close and dropped onto its back, taking the form of a chimpanzee. Sadie followed my lead. An obstacle course of sharp boulders and outcroppings lay before us. We took off across shifting ground. The dragon’s scales were like plates of rock beneath our simian feet. Every jagged surface presented us with a near death experience, as the entire landscape undulated with the dragon’s efforts to catch and kill Cole somewhere on the ground below.

  Several times we stumbled, but we kept our course toward the dragon’s head. When we reached the base of its massive neck, running on, I became human again. Malak-esh came to my hand. The mercurial blade glowed with energy. Sadie appeared beside me as her human self, also carrying the twin sword bequeathed by Oliver.

  Looking down over the dragon’s head, I saw Cole running ahead as the lion. He had a strong lead, but there was nowhere to go. That realization further reinforced my resolve regarding this decision. All things considered, our course had been set. The world we knew was about to end. What came after? I had no idea.

  The dragon’s head tossed us up into the air. Had it become aware of our presence? It didn’t matter. As we came down, Sadie and I followed our battle instincts. We drove our twin swords down into the dragon’s skull.

  A cascade of energy erupted from the heavenly weapons. The dragon lurched violently, tossing us skyward. I reached for Sadie and caught her. We teleported.

  Appearing before the lion, we heard a terrible scream from the dragon. Was it dying? We had no idea what process was about to take place.

  The energy from the swords radiated throughout the dragon. Its body exploded into fiery particles, washing over us and through us. We remained unharmed, but the shockwave shattered the world around us.

  We were falling now. The very ground had vaporized beneath our feet. Above us, in the place of the dragon, three creatures of light with six wings apiece hovered back to back to back.

  A steady thrum commenced as they chanted an unrecognizable phrase repeatedly. Their voices conjoined like their bodies in perfect harmony. Waves of power exuded from them, but they did not move.

  Nothingness was all around us. There was no way to measure our distance from any other thing. Matter and energy had become a churning vortex, and we were caught helplessly in its circuitous flow around the cherubim.

  The wave of power emanating from them produced pain in increasing amounts. In their presence, I felt like the very atoms making up my person would fly apart from one another at any moment. Sadie and Cole screamed as I tried to keep hold of their hands. The pain was too much for them. Soon, I would be screaming with them.

  “Daddy!” Sadie screeched.

  I couldn’t stand it anymore. I spent every bit of strength I could muster, teleporting us as far from this place as possible. I hoped the boundaries that had prevented teleportation earlier were now thrown down by the release of the Cherubim.

  We disappeared from the current of the energy vortex and the presence of the cherubim. Moments later, we reappeared inside the throne room in Greystone. I collapsed to the floor, exhausted. The children were barely conscious.

  I felt the tremors before anyone found us. However, it was Sophia who first arrived to discover us in the sad shape we were in, lying about half dazed and exhausted. Naturally, she went straight to the children. By the time I actually attempted to sit up, she was hugging them both. Donatus had come in behind her.

  Surprisingly, he looked healthier than he had in several months. He did not have a cane to lean upon at the moment. Some of his natural pallor had returned as well. I would have congratulated him on finally making a recovery, but now was not the time. We weren’t out of the woods yet.

  Donatus gave me a grave look as he helped me to my feet. “You did what I specifically instructed you not to do,” he said with an accusing tone.

  “I had no choice, old friend,” I replied. “Believe me when I say that I would have done this a different way if it had been possible.”

  Donatus was not consoled by my reassurances. In fact, my guilt was only punctuated by the tremors that already were growing stronger. A steady thrumming vibration could be felt emanating from the ground, through the Keep.

  There wasn’t much of a structure to collapse on the surface, but that didn’t make us any safer. This was not merely an earthquake but an undoing of the entire land. Underground or above it, we were no longer safe anywhere on the spiritual plane.

  “We have to get everyone to the human world,” I said, finding my second wind.

  Sophia stood with the children.

  “I have to get to the infirmary,” Cole said, already starting that way.

  Sophia grabbed his arm. “Cole,” she began, falling to her knees before him. Tears welled in her eyes. Cole’s countenance fell immediately. He had to know what news she was about to relay.

  “No,” he said. “I have to go to her.”

  “Charlotte passed away peacefully while you and Sadie were gone,” Sophia said as delicately as she could. But there was no way to deliver such a message gently. And Cole couldn’t seem to bear it. Not after all he had been through.

  Sadie held him, trying to ease his burden. Truth be told, I was shocked by this turn of events. Charlotte had always been so strong. Still, at the very least, we had the knowledge that she had accepted Christ as her savior at the same time Tom and Cole had made their decisions for the Almighty.

  Right now, we had no time for real mourning. The world as we knew it was about to end. A strong shift in the earth that shook the entire Keep made that point abundantly clear. We were, all of us, thrown sideways.

  “Time to evacuate, as we planned,” Donatus commanded.

  I was glad to hear that they had made some provision, just in case the cherubim were loosed upon the spiritual plane. Perhaps, that meant Donatus had lost confidence in me. More likely, he just understood the need for preparation, even when events seemed unlikely. They could still take a turn for the worse, as this situation had.

  Donatus used a technique to amplify his voice throughout the Keep. “Everyone must abandon Greystone for the mortal world at once. Find the nearest portal and escape before it’s too late. Take with you only what you need.”

  The message was relayed through the entire underground city of Greystone. In moments, vampires were bustling to portals all over the underground city. I looked at Donatus ready to ask the obvious question, but he beat me to it.

  “We’ve made the same provision for Tidus, Galidel, Grim Hope and Greystone,” he said. “My brother will deal with Tidus personally, Redclaw with Grim Hope and Luxana with Galidel. Xandrea has already emptied. I sent them on, feeling increasing ill at ease about the coincidences leading us to this point.”

  I nodded. “I felt the same within the Underworld. It’s as though, the enemy executed a plan against us, but the Lord overrode it and intends this all for some other purpose we don’t yet realize.”

  “No matter what, He always knew this would be the case, so we’ll just have to trust that He meant to allow this to come to pass,” Donatus said.

  We gathered our group, heading for the doors leading out of the throne room. The doors themselves were already swinging wildly as the entire landscape shifted with Greystone’s Keep in the midst. Our path took on a meandering look as the floor went from level to out of balance and then back the other way.

  Walls crumbled in places. Pillars, used to support the earth and rock above, showed cracks and shifted. A great fissure opened up beneath our feet, forcing us to leap away in several different directions from one another in order not to be swallowed up by the earth.

  Donatus and I ended up on one side while Sophia and the children landed on the other. Sadie was suddenly slipping toward the gaping wound running through the throne room floor. She screamed
as the entire chamber shifted violently. I ran across the shattered tiles, heading uphill to reach her.

  Leaping across the gap, I landed awkwardly. Still, I managed to snatch Sadie up into my arms and run toward my wife and Cole. Donatus was left on the other side alone. I called out to him.

  “I’m all right,” he shouted. “I’m teleporting into London. Don’t try to get to the portal, Brody. Just get them out yourself.”

  A flash of light later, Donatus was gone from Greystone. He was right. This was no time for using established portals. I took stock of my strength and decided I could manage. Sophia and I huddled around the children.

  We took a last look at the palace throne room of the vampires, as it continued to break up around us. Wrapping a portal envelope around us, I set my sights on the home where Oliver and I had lived in Highgate. It was only one of many estates we owned in the mortal world.

  Oliver had remained in the house, as per usual, while Sophia and I had dwelt primarily at the palace in Tidus. With Oliver gone now, this would be our new home in the human world. I didn’t know if there would be any returning to the spiritual plane. Even if it became possible, I had my doubts that it would ever be the same after this cataclysm.

  Dissolution

  Luxana and Redwyn were thrown from their bed in the royal residence. The baobab where their home was built had suddenly shifted sideways. This was no mere leaning. No wind that had ever passed through Galidel could have had such an effect on this massive tree.

  The shaking that had initially caused all of the trees in their jungle treetop city to randomly sway while others fell had not ceased yet. In fact, Luxana was quite certain that the tremors were getting stronger by the second. She realized, to her horror, that what Donatus and Laish had warned them might come to pass was indeed occurring at this very moment.