The Descendants Book One: The Broken Scroll (56 page)

Davin didn’t have time to argue because O’Hara grabbed Davin and pulled him forward by the armor.  They locked swords.  Davin was forced to stare at him in the eye.  It was unnerving. 

Next moment, O’Hara had stripped the brownish-yellow Driocht orb out of his grasp.  Davin charged forward in anger in attempt to tackle O’Hara, but hit the ground hard, cutting his lip open.

He spat out the blood.  O’Hara sent a tremor rushing straight at him from the earth beneath the floor, breaking and crumbling the stone as it went.  That was some power to break stone.

Davin moved out of the way before it reached him and replied with his own magic.  The space where O’Hara stood glowed suddenly a faint red-white color and filled with such a hot temperature that it burned O’Hara all over his exposed skin.  O’Hara cried out and jumped out of the small space, his charred flesh smoking. 

A new tremor cracked the ground and followed Davin, but Davin continually stayed ahead of it.  As he ran passed one of the golden spiraled columns, an idea occurred to him.  He shot a giant blast of flame at it and until it turned molten red, the gold melting and running down the side.  As the tremor reached it the column fell and ignited the carpet leading to the throne.  The room was now split in half by the flames running the length of the carpet.  O’Hara was on the other side. 

Momentarily, Davin wondered how he would get across, but remembered Egan’s story of his attack in Daust.  He willed his body to become the fire, but it didn’t work.  Maybe he wasn’t strong enough.  He would have to take the burns on his body. 

“This is ridiculous,” he told himself, as he took a deep breath.  Wasting no more time, he ran at the line cackling flames.  Right as he hit the flames he felt his body grow warm all over.  He came through the other side and saw his molten looking skin turn back to normal. 

O’Hara had not expected this.  He just barely caught Davin’s sword strike, but the attack was so strong that the sword flew from O’Hara’s hands.  Davin cut him across the chest, causing him to gasp in agony and fall to his knees.  The burns and the cut had been too much for O’Hara.  He could fight no more. 

Davin looked over at the other fight.  Deverell and Egan continued to exchange blows.  Both were receiving small cuts and bruises from the fight. 

“You do not remember me, Egan,” Deverell said.  “It is a shame because I remember you, all those years ago.” 

Egan faltered and received a cut on his arm.  Ignoring the pain, he said, “Should I know you?”  He slashed forward and met another ring of steel.  “I think you have finally snapped, First Captain.  Davin, come now!” 

Teague, who had been told to stay away, ran forward from out of nowhere.  He attempted to strike at Deverell.  Davin came from the other side.  Deverell assessed his options.  He could only take out one of them. 

After only a couple of quick swipes, Deverell grabbed Teague by the collar and hurled him against the wall.  Teague hit with a thud and fell unconscious.  It was enough time, though, for Davin to distract Deverell.  They exchanged a couple of blows, steel on steel.  Deverell was one step ahead of Davin’s every move. 

Egan began to work Driocht.  He lifted Deverell up into the air with the power of wind and slammed him into the ground. 

Again, and again.  Three times Deverell shot up into the air and smashed against the ground. 

He hit the floor the last time with a sickening crunch, telling that many of his bones had been broken.  Blood spilled from his head and formed a pool on the floor.  Davin stood back and took in what had just happened. 

Egan and Davin stared down at Deverell, seeing that he was dying.  A whisper parted the Captain’s lips, seeming to take much of his remaining strength.  “You have…no idea what you face.  This is not the last…you…will see of me.  We...have been controlling the world for longer…than you know.  Our time is coming…again.” 

With those last words, First Captain Cygnus Deverell’s life left him.  Egan waited a beat and then walked over to him.  As he bent down to check the pulse of the fallen Captain, though, he was halted.  Deverell’s body began to dissolve into a thin mist.  Egan looked to Davin and they exchanged bewildered looks.  The mist flowed upward from the body, disappearing completely a couple of feet above him.  This continued until the body was gone, leaving only dents in the floor where he had hit the ground.  What this or Deverell’s words meant, neither of them had a clue, but the battle for the capital city was over. 

Chapter 31 The Unforeseen Deception

“What does this mean?” Davin asked after a long silence, hoping Egan had an answer.  He and Egan stared at the place where the body had been moments ago.  They both were trying to make sense of it in their minds. 

Egan held up his hands.  “Don’t look at me, I have no idea what that just was
.”  Rubbing the scruff on his chin, he turned toward where the other battle had taken place.  O’Hara was now lying motionless on the ground, facing the ceiling.  The fire that raged earlier on the carpet was dying out, leaving only ash and a fair bit of smoke remaining. Thankfully, there was nothing else in the room that was flammable. 

Davin followed Egan’s gaze and commented quickly.  Preempting Egan from reading the picture as it seemed was the best idea.   “I didn’t kill him, and he isn’t mortally wounded.” 

“I hope he is willing to cooperate now,” replied Egan, not sounding confident that O’Hara would.  He turned to Davin.  “Take their swords.  They will be proof of our success here. Go out to the battle.  Do what you can to get the attention of everyone and inform them what has transpired.  Make sure the soldiers surrender, if they haven’t already.  I will tend to O’Hara and make sure he is well enough to talk.” 

The Advisors
entered the chamber in shock. 

“What is the meaning of this?” asked Advisor Gregory in anger. 

Egan grimaced.  “And I will deal with them. Go, quickly.” 

***

              Ten minutes later Davin’s eyes fell upon Courtyard of Statues and the Acadeem campus grounds once more.   He breathed a sigh of relief.  The fighting was over.  The ranking officers were the only soldiers left alive.  The last of them were still being bound. 

             
The survivors from Swift River, Lemirre, Oamlund, and several other cities were busy piling the fallen, not looking too happy about it.  Davin couldn’t blame them.  Some of the citizens of the capital city had joined in the process as well, and Davin quickly realized that people from their own city were among the dead. 

The Cureists of the capital tended the wounded off to one side.  Their abilities were another kind of magic, maybe not the same kind of power that the Ancients wielded, but a skill that took as much work and genius to master nonetheless. 

Every head swiveled toward Davin as traversed down the Grand Talamaraon Castle steps, holding the two swords. 

Davin cleared his throat and projected his voice as best he could.  He did not want to sound foolish.  “The First Captain is dead, and the tyrant King is gravely injured and beyond control of his mind.  He is incapable of ruling at the present time.”  He held up the weapons.  “These swords prove my words.  We have taken the city and the throne!” 

Cheers and clapping erupted from all over the courtyard and echoed off the buildings.  Davin nearly had to cover his ears.  The people of Talamaraon City that continued to fill the space in front of the castle were the loudest of all.  This only made Davin prouder.  It justified, even more, what they had done here. 

“People of this city, continue to tend to the wounded and give the dead proper rest.  But the leaders of the resistance and the governors o
f Oamlund, Swift River, and the capital city must join us in an audience with O’Hara.  He will step down or we will force him to.  This kingdom will see peace restored.  I, as one of the last of the Ancient race, will help to do this.” 

There were more cheers and fists thrown into the air.  Even some of the bound officers seemed relieved that it was all over.  Davin smiled, and in that moment the nagging image of Deverell’s mysterious disappearance and words did not trouble him. 

***

Once everyone had gathered in the throne room once more, Egan spoke. 

“We have called off the advancement of your soldiers outside and elsewhere in the kingdom.  Also, it should be noted that your First Captain is dead, King.” 

O’Hara acknowledged the group standing before him for the first time since they had approached him.  His eyes scanned the crowd, looking over Davin and Egan, the others
from the resistance, his eight Advisors, and the three governors.  It took him a long time to answer. 

He finally said, with genuine concern, “What happened to my throne room?”

Egan was taken aback.  He stuttered to begin his answer.  “There-there was a battle here.  First Captain Deverell and you fought the two of us,” he said, awkwardly. 

“You two are the Descendants.  Yes, I remember just before the battle, but until the blow that struck me down, I remember nothing,” O’Hara pondered, trying to put it all together. 

Egan and Davin looked at each other, wonderingly.  “Could this have something to do with your First Captain?” Davin said.  

“I believe that you are correct in that assumption,” O’Hara confirmed, sounding less dazed by the second.  Surprisingly, he smiled.  “My mind has not been this free in a long time,” he said more to himself than to the other two. 

Egan’s mind seemed to be reeling.  “I am not sure we understand.  We witnessed a feat that I have never seen or heard of a man doing in the history of time.  The First Captain simply dissolved into thin air, as if a ghost.  Do you have an explanation?” 

“I might,” answered O’Hara vaguely, but then he focused his gaze into Davin and Egan.  “But isn’t there a battle to stop.” 

“If I may, my lord,” said Governor Seamus in a hasty tone, “the
Dous
Captains surrendered to us only a short time after the resistance reinforcements arrived at the gate and turned the tide.  I was not the only governor that wished to see your reign end.  Governor Victor Janus of Oamlund brought forces from all over the Greenlands and I came with forces from the Golden Plains.  Even your Governor Callum Winterbourne of this city fought in the battle against you.”

“I must have been truly lost if even my own governors desired to stand against me,” said O’Hara, looking extremely sad.  “I have not been myself for longer than I can remember, and I have clearly made many enemies over that time.”  He paused as he grimaced, rubbing his burned flesh lightly with his hand. 

Davin was confused.  This was not the same man who had, before the fight, been nothing but cruel and arrogant in his disposition.  He decided it best to just let everything play out; being that Egan was doing the same. 

“Are you saying that you have finally seen the error of your ways?” Governor Winterbourne asked unbelievingly.

O’Hara grimaced.  “It is more complicated than you can imagine.” 

“These are other leaders in that were crucial in victory today,” Egan told O’Hara.  “Their roles have helped carry Davin and myself to stand before you now.  And they are good people who can be trusted.”

“Then they will be allowed to stay as well.”  O’Hara looked toward Teague had been lying only a short while ago.  “Did my son survive?”

“He is alive,” said Egan.  O’Hara looked relieved, showing for the first time signs of a caring middle-aged man.  This demeanor suited him much more than the other had.  It seemed more natural. 

“Good, I wish him”-O’Hara broke off, grimacing with tension in his face again.  “The Cureist will need to work on me a while longer before we can continue our discourse.  We will reconvene tomorrow after I have some rest.  I request that all of you hold your judgment of me until then.” 

There was a short pause while he let the pain subside again.  “Every leader who lives outside this city will rest in the castle tonight.” 

Everyone mouthed their agreement to this plan, some more enthusiastically than others.

A couple of the Advisors led the way passed the indoor gardens and into a far east wing of the castle.  The rest had stayed with the King, stating they had more to say to him despite his ailing body.

After a short time, they reached a large room with two small beds to tend to injuries or ailments.  All kinds of plants, shrubs, bottled herbs, and preserved animals comprised the room.  It was everything a Cureist needed to make the proper combinations of items to heal and cure. 

Two of the Advisors then led Egan, Davin and the other leaders back to the residential area.  The governors bid the rest goodnight as they split off down a separate hallway. 

Druce’s foul mood was finally voiced.  “What is the meaning of this?  The King and all loyal to him were to be removed from this place or killed.  That was the plan.” 

He began to run at the two Advisors, but was cut off by Egan.  Druce made to push him out of the way, but was over powered by Egan, and fell to the floor. 

“We have decided to hear him out, Druce.  You heard O’Hara.  Stranger events than we realized have been taking place here,” Egan explained, offering Druce a hand back on his feet.  Druce returned to his feet looking slightly embarrassed and dusting himself off.