THE_REALM_SHIFT Read online

  “I’ll go for a lantern,â€� Ethan said. He shot out of the tunnel again, shifting in mid-air. He was getting braver with his gift. Ethan flew to the burning wreckage of the Maelstrom and Mordred’s ships. It was hard to tell which was which by now. Ethan soared through the fiery debris and smoke until he found what he was looking for—two lanterns lying among the wreckage of twisted boards and charred bodies.

  Ethan took them up and used a piece of wood, which was still on fire, to light them. One of them had a cracked bell on it, but it would do for their purposes. Ethan returned quickly to the drainage tunnel where his friends were waiting. He handed them the lanterns, then returned to the physical realm.

  “What about you?â€� Gideon asked.

  “I think it might be wise if I go ahead of you two and make sure nothing is blocking our way.â€�

  “Good idea,â€� Levi said, “we could use a scout to keep us on track. This tunnel is supposed to branch out into several directions at some point.â€� They all agreed and Ethan returned to the unseen.

  He was beginning to enjoy being in this form more than in the physical world. Here there were no constraints on him, no gravity—not even a need to breathe and matter became as passable as air. Ethan went ahead of them, up the tunnel like lead shot through the barrel of a musket, his spiritual sight lighting his way.

  The drain tunnel wound up through the rock toward the palace. There were other smaller tunnels intersecting with it, but otherwise it continued directly to the palace. Ethan began to get that tingling feeling, which always warned him of the presence of demons. He stopped below the drain gate in the floor of the palace. He did not know what room lay beyond and he wasn’t sure how many demons might be waiting on the other side.

  Ethan descended the tunnel again to his friends. He had to hurry. Elspeth had to be here in the castle. If he could only reach her, then everything would be all right. When he reached Gideon and Levi again, reappearing in the tunnel ahead of them, they had not even climbed half the distance, yet. “I’ve found the palace up ahead. There are intersecting tunnels, but this one goes straight to it.â€�

  “What room does it terminate into?â€� Levi asked.

  “I’m not sure. There’s a grate in the floor and then one lower. I didn’t go in yet. I felt demons nearby.â€�

  “Felt them?â€� Levi said.

  “No time to explain,â€� Ethan said. “We’ve got to hurry. Elspeth must be here in the palace. I’ve got to save her!â€�

  Levi and Gideon looked at one another. “Well, it’s going to take us a while to get to the top,â€� Levi said. “We have to go the hard way and this isn’t as easy as it looks.â€�

  Ethan considered it. They had a long way to go. Anything could happen in that time. Elspeth might be lost to him already. “You’re right, Captain. We don’t have time to wait. I can go in alone.â€�

  “No!â€� Gideon said. “You must not face Mordred alone, Ethan. It’s too dangerous.â€�

  “But I’m Shaddai’s Deliverer, Gideon. You said so yourself.â€�

  “Ethan, you need to think about what you’re doing. Let’s pray about what we need to do. We have to let Shaddai guide our steps or—â€�

  “Shaddai is guiding my steps, Gideon,â€� he snapped. “I don’t have time to wait any longer. The Lord has given me this power, and it’s time I fulfilled this prophecy against Mordred! I’ve got to save Elspeth.â€�

  “But, Ethan—â€�

  Ethan disappeared. He did not wait to see their reactions. Ethan shot back up the tunnel toward the palace. He was going to face Mordred now and he was going to rescue his sister. He had to.

  THE WRAITH GENERAL

  When Ethan reached the double floor grate, he was still trying to let go of his anger. Gideon was wrong. He could do this. After all, he was the Deliverer. What more did he need to pray about?

  Ethan drew his supernatural sword and cut through the two grates. He did not need it cut, but Gideon and Levi would need a way out of the tunnel. Having done this, Ethan rose into the room through the floor.

  He found the chamber to be a huge throne room. Ethan had never seen such a massive place. There were many soldiers and civilians moving around inside. All of them seemed to be attending to the man sitting upon a large golden throne at the end of the room.

  A huge golden laver stood on either side of the chamber. Ethan had heard something about them being used by priests for purification before approaching Shaddai with sacrifices for sins. They seemed out of place here in the king’s throne room.

  But what was even more out of place was what the people were doing with them. A feast was in progress, a celebration of some kind. Mordred is celebrating while a battle rages outside of the city? It seemed impossible to believe.

  Servants filled pitchers of wine from the giant lavers. Each giant laver held enough wine to fill a small pond. Ethan’s anger kindled a white-hot flame in his belly. He felt righteous indignation welling up within. This was an insult to Shaddai—using temple vessels for such activities was an abomination.

  Many of the people laughed and talked, eating at a large table overlaid with the finest spread of food Ethan had ever laid his eyes on. Servants attended to their every whim. Some of the guests were soldiers of high rank, while others appeared to be merchants and politicians. Many lower ranking soldiers lined both sides of the massive throne room, standing at attention. The entire palace had been constructed of brilliant white granite, which descended the cliffs into the sea. The white walls reflected every bit of lamp light. Still, darkness which could be felt pervaded everything here.

  Ethan tingled all over. Demons had to be here somewhere, but he had not seen them yet. At the end of the chamber, Mordred sat upon the throne, attended by one of his servants. He drank wine from a golden goblet and tore the meat from a large turkey leg with his teeth.

  Mordred was a large man dressed in black and crimson. His leather armor bore a standard overlaid in gold and a black cape draped down his back over the throne. He wore a gray beard several inches in length and his wavy hair fell just over his shoulders. A large broadsword stood unsheathed against the right arm of the throne.

  Ethan stood invisible in the middle of the room between the lavers, looking at Mordred. He raised his sword, ready for the attack. He would kill Mordred according to the prophesy. Then he would find Elspeth and rescue her from this place.

  Just as he was about to charge at the golden throne, Mordred looked up and began to laugh aloud. Ethan stopped short, wondering why the man laughed. Mordred looked right at him and said, “You actually came!â€�

  Ethan looked around, trying to see whom Mordred had spoken to. After all, Ethan was still invisible to human eyes in his spiritual form. Mordred stood up at the throne and gingerly held up his turkey leg. Then the big man tossed it through the air so that it landed precisely at Ethan’s feet. Ethan watched it roll to a stop in front of him. It didn’t make any sense.

  “Surprised I can see you, Deliverer of God?â€� he said. “Mordred said that you would come for him, but I must admit, I wasn’t completely convinced.â€�

  Ethan’s eyes grew wide. His expression must have given away what he was thinking. “Oh, you thought I was Mordred, didn’t you?â€� the big man said. “I hate to disappoint you, Deliverer, but Mordred felt he should leave this place just in case you managed to come here. I am General Rommil, Lord Mordred’s second in command. We were just celebrating the inevitable defeat of King Stephen’s army.â€�

  Ethan didn’t know what to do next. Mordred had slipped into hiding somewhere and he didn’t even know where to look for his sister in the palace. He took a deeper look into the man boasting before
him. A single spirit possessed General Rommil. Overwhelming darkness emanated from the demon.

  Ethan raised his sword again. “What is your name, demon?â€�

  Rommil’s laughter faded to a devilish grin. “I am Jericho, son of man. Why do you ask?â€�

  “I just wanted to know who you were before I destroy you,â€� Ethan boasted.

  The demon within Rommil laughed through him. “Don’t you realize by now? You can’t destroy me. Even if you managed to defeat the man, I would be back eventually.â€�

  This was the kind of insight Ethan needed. Okay, so I can’t destroy demons, only send them away temporarily.

  “Do you really take me for a fool, boy?â€� Jericho asked.

  At that point, Ethan heard swords drawn behind him. The soldiers closed in from both sides of the room. Civilians stood from their places at the table. Ethan saw, now, that demons dwelt with them as well, only on a deeper level like Jericho. It took greater concentration to make them out within the mortals they inhabited. Spiritual swords mingled with the steel in their human hands. When the first possessed man closed on him, Ethan’s heavenly blade locked with the physical steel of the soldier’s sword.

  The demons can fight with their weapons through humans! Darkness permeated the entire chamber now—power emanating from the demon, Jericho. Ethan realized he had made a mistake. Gideon’s admonishment to pray resounded in his mind like a trumpet.

  Ethan tried to pass through the floor and escape, but the Jericho’s power somehow prevented him.

  “There is no escape for you, Deliverer!â€� Jericho said, as if answering the unspoken question in Ethan’s mind. “You have stumbled into death this day, son of man.â€�

  Swords flashed at him, but Ethan managed to defend himself. People, who had been eating and laughing, moments before, now stalked toward him from every direction. Each of their expressions had changed from jovial to hate-filled.

  Ethan leaped over several possessed people, trying to find space to fight as they closed in. More swords swung at him. Men leaped at him like wild animals lunging for their prey. Ethan’s blade cut the air. His weapon met one sword in flight and then another, but they were too many.

  The battle in the bottom of the slaver ship’s cargo hold flashed through his mind again. He had walked into a similar predicament now. Then, he had barely escaped, but now he faced a far more powerful foe.

  Ethan remembered how his weapon multiplied as needed and found the second blade at his hip again. He freed one of his hands to take it, using it just in time to block another sword coming at him. He blazed a trail through some of the closest dinner guests as he fought wildly with both swords. Each time he hit a person, the blades struck the demon within, sending the creature tumbling out of its host. The humans crumpled to the floor, while the demons dissolved into the ether—returning to their own wicked abode.

  But there were more to replace those who fell. Ethan noticed that General Rommil had not entered the battle. A possessed attacker managed to strike Ethan. The pain was excruciating, but his armor protected him from the worst of it. He fought back and dispatched the demon and its host—one to unconsciousness, the other to the netherworld.

  Two more strikes got past his defenses. He felt the pain even though he did not see any wounds. Their strikes weakened him—each unseen wound sapping his strength. Ethan leaped straight up out of the swarm of bodies trying to pile on him like ants on a piece of discarded food. He reached the high stone ceiling, clinging to it like a fly. Rommil still stood at the far end of the throne room. Ethan leaped away from the granite ceiling at an angle, bringing him down near the general.

  Rommil appeared surprised by Ethan’s aggressive move. He grabbed his broadsword from its leaning position at the arm of the throne, holding it out in front of him. Ethan hit the floor, running toward General Rommil and the demon, Jericho, within.

  Ethan used his momentum to his advantage. He struck Rommil’s broadsword with one of his own, deflecting the weapon. He drove the other right into the Wraith General. But in the split second before it hit Rommil, Jericho leaped from the old soldier’s body. Without the presence of the demon, Ethan’s weapon pierced Rommil’s physical body. Jericho shot away to the stone wall, immediately bouncing back with his own spiritual sword in hand. Ethan withdrew his sword from Rommil, letting the old soldier fall back on the throne. He deflected Jericho’s attack, but noticed the possessed soldiers closing in again from the far side of the throne room.

  Jericho deflected several shots and struck Ethan’s face with his fist, sending the boy falling backward to the floor. Ethan recovered quickly, then scrambled back to his feet to attack the demon.

  The possessed mob had begun to overrun Ethan’s position, when a wild whoop erupted from the middle of their ranks. Howls of pain came from the soldiers between the two gigantic lavers filled with wine. Levi and Gideon had emerged from the floor grate, swinging cutlasses taken with them from the earlier sea battle.

  Levi had the same wild-eyed expression as before. Ethan loved seeing it now in his time of trouble. Gideon somersaulted over some of the possessed soldiers, landing among them. His entire body became a whirlwind of destruction. His elusive blade dispatched members of the mob like a scythe laying down wheat, while his fists and feet pounded through their ranks like battering rams.

  Jericho grew furious at the sight of them coming to Ethan’s aid. He launched into a furious barrage of jabs and slashes, forcing Ethan back. Jericho continued to advance on Ethan, his every hacking blow threatening to dispatch the Deliverer once and for all.

  Gideon and Levi searched for Ethan, but they could not see him or his demon opponent. They only saw Rommil’s dead body draped haphazardly across the throne. Gideon and Bonifast continued to push in that direction, hoping that Ethan was still in the throne room somewhere.

  Ethan felt his wounds aching—the same wounds he had just received when the mob of soldiers had swarmed against him. He grew weaker by the second. What had happened to Shaddai? Where was the strength he had known recently? Why had he not prayed before coming into this battle as Gideon had warned?

  All of these questions hammered Ethan’s mind as Jericho took advantage of his weakness, driving him back. Jericho knocked one of the spiritual swords from Ethan’s hand. It evaporated in mid-air as it left him. The demon smashed Ethan’s face with his boot, knocking him back further, then Jericho flung his demonic broadsword at Ethan with both hands. Ethan was not fast enough to stop it. The weapon spun at him, struck his blade, deflected off and hit Ethan. The weapon exploded against him, shooting pain through his entire body. Ethan felt darkness take him as he disappeared from the spiritual plane.

  Levi Bonifast and Gideon hammered away at the soldiers and armed civilians in the great throne room. Gideon remembered a time when he had been brought to this very room as a warrior apprentice. They had come nine years ago when he was just ten years old. He had been among a dozen others who would be officially accepted as fully trained priests in The Order of Shaddai that year. The High Priest, Isaiah, had brought them to receive the king’s blessing. That day had been one of the proudest moments of his young life. Now, Mordred owned the throne and darkness reigned in Nod.

  Gideon plowed through the ranks of sword bearing merchants and infantry soldiers toward the throne. Between his skillful prowess and Captain Bonifast’s swashbuckling antics, they made steady progress. More enemies entered the throne room from the doors at the far end.

  Gideon saw a flash of light nearby, Ethan suddenly appearing—tossed out of the spiritual plane like a rag doll. He spilt onto the stone floor like a basket of potatoes, unmoving. “LEVI!â€� Gideon shouted.

  Levi ducked under one of the massive legs of a giant laver in order to block a sword and return his own. He looked up in time to see G
ideon shoulder block a merchant out of his way and use the poor fellow’s back as a springboard to somersault over several other people.

  Gideon landed on the stone floor, running toward Ethan. The boy lay unconscious but breathing. Gideon found the strength to lift him onto his shoulders, bearing the boy’s weight. He tried to avoid the mass of soldiers coming after him. At least, the enemy had been diverted between himself and Levi.

  Gideon ran away from the group of possessed soldiers rushing after him. He led them in a wide arc around the end of the throne room, using one of the long tables from the banquet as a barrier. He ran straight for Levi, who had cleared out the soldiers around himself. Time had run out for them.

  “What do we do? There are too many,â€� Gideon said, as they met again in front of a giant laver. The demon possessed closed from behind. They had seconds before the soldiers overwhelmed them.

  Without thinking about it, Levi turned and hacked through one of the four support legs holding the laver up. Two strikes damaged it enough, so that it gave way completely, spilling massive quantities of wine out onto the chamber’s stone floor.

  Hundreds of gallons of red wine swept up the wooden banquet tables, tossing them around the room like toys. Translucent red waves toppled bodies and furnishings, searching for the path of least resistance.

  The waves hit the laver on the opposite side of the room so hard that it, too, gave way, toppling over, spilling its contents into the flood, making it even harder to find footing as the wine cascaded across the floor, hit the sidewalls, and came back on itself.

  The flood also swept Gideon, Ethan, and Levi off their feet. Levi spotted their way of escape. There in the middle of the chamber, a whirlpool formed above the only hole in the floor. “Come on!â€� Levi shouted as he pushed toward the whirlpool. Gideon still held the unconscious Ethan over his shoulder.