The Adventures of Bryn Castor: Part III

The Demon Realm 

The Swordguard entered the castle, and Darius instructed them to spread out throughout the halls. He volunteered to guard the King and Queen and left the Guardsmen under Spike’s supervision. As soon as he was gone, Spike began sending Guardsmen off to different parts of the castle until Bryn and Teo were the only ones left. She turned to them with a smirk, “You two can stay here.”

“Are you serious?” Bryn asked, looking at the castle guards who were already posted at the door to the Keep.

She nodded. “You don’t know the castle well enough yet, and you’ll only get in the way.”

Bryn walked up to her, and they locked eyes. “We have every right to be here.”

“Why don’t you prove it?” Spike asked. 

She was several inches shorter than Bryn, but she held his gaze indefinitely.

Both of their hands moved to their swords, but before they could do anything, Teo said, “…um, hey, we kind of have a job to do here…”

Bryn backed up, never breaking the stare. “He’s right.” 

Spike grunted but backed away. “Stay here and wait for us to get back. If there’s trouble, get the High Priest.”

The boys took their place outside the Keep, and the guards at the door decided to take a break. “Might as well, as long as you’re here,” one of them said. 

The sun sank slowly between the tall spires overhead, casting their shadows onto the empty yard like the point of a compass leading them away. 

Bryn stared out into the courtyard until his eyes began to cross. The muscles in his arms started to twitch, and his fingers trailed across the leather hilt at his belt. 

“Hey, we’ll get our chance,” Teo said, noticing his listlessness. “I’m pretty relieved. I mean, fighting a demon on our first day? Actually, fighting a demon any day… I’d probably just run and hide either way.”

As Teo spoke, Bryn’s head began to hurt. Something pushed at him from the lower depths beneath his consciousness.  

Bryn.

His fingers curled around the hilt reflexively.

“Don’t say that,” Bryn replied, absentmindedly.

Bryn.

“No, it’s true,” Teo began.

But Bryn stopped listening and turned his attention to the strange voice. At first, he thought it was his imagination, but it was slowly getting louder and more insistent. 

Bryn. Bryn. Bryn. 

He began to feel drawn to the voice and started walking toward the door. 

“Hey, where are you going?” Teo asked. 

“What? Oh, I don’t know,” Bryn admitted, shaking his head. 

But the strange voice didn’t let up, and it began to drown out Teo until Bryn couldn’t hear him at all. He started walking towards the door again, leaving his post behind. He moved through the halls of the castle, but he developed a severe sense of tunnel vision and could barely see where he was going. He couldn’t even think. All he knew was that he needed to get to the voice. 

He followed it to a dark stairwell and didn’t hesitate to go down the cold, stone steps. As he descended, he felt a chill creep up his spine. It seeped into his skin, and his neck tensed reflexively. He was faintly aware of his surroundings: the dying torches along the wall that warmed his face, the moisture collecting on the ceiling that dripped onto his head, and the echo of his footsteps off the stone. The further he went, the more his senses returned. By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs, the fog lifted completely, and as he gazed into the room ahead, he felt his stomach drop.

Dimly lit candles lined the floor and revealed a girl kneeling in the middle of the room. She seemed to be scrawling something into the floor, but Bryn didn’t get a chance to get close enough to read it when Teo stumbled into him. 

“What are you doing?” he asked, breathing heavily. “I almost had a panic attack.”

Bryn was silent, and Teo followed his gaze. “Who’s that?”

Bryn didn’t answer. His head was pounding, and he felt a sudden urge to draw his sword. However, Teo beat him to it; he unsheathed his sword, slicing Bryn’s arm in the process. 

“What the-?!” Bryn asked.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t-!” Teo stammered. 

Bryn’s hand moved to his hilt, and he brought out his sword, swinging it at Teo’s neck. Luckily, he dodged it, and it whizzed past his ear.

Bryn’s eyes widened. He hadn’t done it on purpose; his arm had moved on its own. 

“Bryn, watch out!” Teo warned as he swung for his shoulder. 

Bryn jumped back and almost tripped over a large lump on the floor. He stumbled but was quickly forced to jump back again as Teo chased after him. He landed beside another indistinct shape, but this time he could make out its form in the faint candlelight. It was a body–an armored body. 

Teo gasped. “Is that?”

“I think so,” Bryn confirmed. “A Guardsman.”

Then, Bryn lunged forward involuntarily and nearly skewered Teo’s outstretched hand with his blade. The boy jumped back and got his bearings before being forced forward again. They danced around the room, narrowly escaping each other’s attacks. All the while, Byrn stumbled over bodies and fought to keep from falling on top of them. As he nearly tripped again, he fell back on one foot, struggling to balance himself in his heavy armor. But as soon as he was back on two feet, he thrust his blade forward to block Teo’s sword as it arched towards his forehead. This time, he had full control over his arm, at least until he felt the blade slipping along Teo’s and moving slowly toward his friend’s forearm. Bryn clenched his jaw as he attempted to force it back, but it was no use. He met Teo’s eyes, seeing the dim flame of a nearby candle reflecting in the dark pupils. 

Teo’s eyes moved down to the sword, and they widened. “Bryn, look!”

Bryn followed his gaze. At first, he saw nothing but the flame that was reflected in the metal. However, as he tilted the blade slightly, he saw a face–if it could be called a face at all. It had the skull of a canine and glowing amber eyes. 

Bryn turned and noticed the figure standing behind them. He broke the block and swung his sword toward the creature’s head–but it disappeared into a cloud of smoke. 

“Stay near the candles and use your sword to find it!” Bryn instructed, and Teo nodded. 

They split up, and Bryn raised his sword against the flames. He waited until the figure passed across his blade and turned behind him. Just as before, the creature dissipated into a cloud of black smoke. He raised his sword again, and this time noticed the girl in the center of the room. He had forgotten all about her and wondered how they hadn’t disturbed her throughout their frantic fight around the room. 

The girl was still kneeling on the floor, but an eerie blue glow had begun to envelop her. Beside her were more bodies, but these were dressed in common clothes: mostly dresses and aprons. They were laid out in a circle around the girl, but they were not moving. 

Bryn was frozen in place. He stared at the horrific scene, unable to look away. 

The blue light grew until it reached the ceiling like some kind of alien tractor beam. Then, the black smoke filtered in and slowly formed into a humanoid shape. A girl with long red hair and glowing amber eyes stood beside the kneeling girl. Bryn couldn’t take his eyes off her; she was stunning. The girl put her hand on the kneeling girl, who rose to stand beside her. Then, the amber-eyed girl met Bryn’s eyes and smiled as she and the other girl disappeared in a flash of blue light. 

Bryn blinked a few times before he realized what had happened. Then, he ran between the bodies to the circle on the floor. Its light was rapidly dying, and the glyphs that the girl had been scrawling into the stone were fading with it. 

Teo stood by, staring at the circle. “What-what was that?”

“Some kind of portal,” Bryn said. “That had to be the Cambion, and the girl she took with her must be the Princess.”

Teo’s eyes widened. “Where did they go?”

“The Demon Realm,” a voice answered. 

Bryn looked around and lifted one of the candles to pierce through the growing darkness. All he saw were motionless bodies strewn across the floor. However, one of them was starting to move and rolled over to reveal a head of spiky black hair.

Bryn and Teo ran to her side. Teo tried to help her up, but she pushed his hand away and held herself up. “I’m fine. They knocked me out.”

Bryn frowned. “Then, how do you know where they went?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve fought enough of these assholes to know when they’re performing a ritual,” Spike explained. “As soon as I entered the room, I saw the Princess drawing the glyphs. I tried to stop her, but someone hit me from behind.” 

“But it looks like I got lucky,” she added, glancing around the room. 

“Yeah, you did,” Bryn said.

“We almost killed each other,” Teo revealed.

Spike frowned. “It’s the Cambion’s charm. This one’s more powerful than anything I’ve ever faced.”

“Well, what if we get the High Priest?” Teo suggested. 

“There’s no time,” Bryn said. “We have to go after her.”

Teo’s eyes widened. “Really… us?”

Spike frowned. “He’s right; we can’t let them get away.”

She got up and walked over to the portal, which was almost completely dark. She knelt between two of the bodies. She unsheathed a small dagger from her belt and pricked her pointer finger, and the boys moved towards her.

“Oh, please,” she said. “It’s a scratch.”

She began to use her bleeding finger to trace along the almost non-existent symbols. She made her way between each body in the circle and redrew each one. The previous glyphs began to glow one by one until the light emitted from all of them merged into a single blue beam. 

Spike stepped back and admired her work.

“How’d you know that would work?” Bryn asked, raising his eyebrow.

“I told you, I’ve had my fair share of demonic encounters,” Spike answered. “Let’s go already before that bitch gets away.”

Bryn nodded. “Fine.”

He and Spike took Teo by the hand and practically dragged him forward. The three of them stepped into the portal. The light tickled Bryn’s skin, and the tingling sensation grew as the room around them began to blur. It became harder and harder to see through the veil of colored light until they sank into the circle between the bodies. 

As quickly as they had sunk, they started to rise out of the ground. The light continued to fog their vision, but the outside world was unmistakably brighter than before. As their eyes began to adjust and the portal light diminished, their surroundings were revealed. The three Guardsmen were standing in a small rowboat in the middle of a vast ocean–only the ocean wasn’t composed of water; it was filled with stars. 

An innumerable number of twinkling lights stretched out within the vast ocean beneath the boat. Meanwhile, what was meant to be the sky was filled with water, which was unaffected by gravity. Waves tumbled over one another all across the surface. 

The Guardsmen stood within a pocket of air, like the earth’s atmosphere, between the sky ocean above and the sea of stars below. 

“This is impossible,” Bryn said.

“No, it’s just like in the Creation. God divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament… And God called the firmament Heaven,” Teo quoted. “But when the flood happened, the water above was released and drenched the earth.”

Spike shook her head, “Yeah, but this isn’t Heaven.”

“Let’s go—before this gets any weirder,” she suggested.

Bryn nodded, and they each picked up a wooden paddle, which was conveniently laid inside the boat. They began to row and matched their timing until they reached a perfectly synchronized rhythm. The paddles pushed through the star sea as easily as air, and they moved quickly due to the low resistance. The sea was calm. Meanwhile, the waves crashed violently above their heads. The uncanny dissonance between the opposing poles gave Bryn a headache. He focused on the horizon instead. It was completely flat, stretching out for miles in all directions–except for a speck. 

Bryn narrowed his gaze, trying to make it out, but it was too far away. He stared at it for a few moments until his eyes began to tire and he was forced to blink. Within the millisecond it took to regain his vision, the speck was five times larger, and he nearly fell out of the boat. 

“Did you see that?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” Teo said. “It got a lot closer.”

Bryn blinked again, and the speck grew again. He repeated the process until the speck was right in front of them—only it wasn’t a speck at all; it was a small island. It had pink sandy beaches and a forest of tropical trees. 

“What is this place?” Teo asked. 

Bryn turned to Spike. “Well, you’re the expert.” 

She ignored him and stared off into the trees. Her eyes widened, and her lips parted, quivering slightly. “Lillian?” she asked in a small voice. 

Bryn’s brows furrowed in confusion, but before he could question her, Spike jumped out of the boat and swam through the shallow water. She stumbled out onto the sand and disappeared into the forest as the boys called after her. 

“What’s wrong with her?” Bryn asked. 

“I don’t know, but we’d better go after her,” Teo prompted. 

The boys brought the boat to shore and beached it on the soft sand. 

Bryn turned to Teo. “Maybe you should stay here just in case.”

Teo nodded. “Good idea.”

He sat down in the boat, and Bryn continued alone. 

As soon as his boots touched the island, he felt his stomach turn. When he entered the jungle, the nausea became almost unbearable. Nonetheless, Bryn choked back the vomit and trudged on through the tall underbrush. 

The course left scraped his bare hands, drawing beads of blood. Then, the world began to spin. The surrounding shades of green blurred together until they were nearly indistinguishable. They spun round and round him in a blend of leaves, petals, and tree trunks until they were blotted out by black spots. The world went dark. 

Bryn woke up drenched in sweat. He sat up and looked around. The jungle stared back at him. It was quiet, as if the world was frozen. The leaves were still, and the treetops were silent. 

He could hear nothing but his breathing until a voice called out in the distance, “Bryn?” 

He thought it was his imagination. However, as he peered into the trees, he heard the familiar voice call to him again. He shook his head. It can’t be…

Valery’s dress apron was stained with mud, and twigs stuck out of her tight brown bun. 

“Bryn, thank God!” she said, embracing him. 

He held her against him for a moment but quickly pulled away. “Wait, how are you here?” 

“I don’t know… I just woke up on the beach, and no one else was around. I was so scared…” she said, her shoulders shrinking. 

“I’m here,” Bryn reassured her. “And two Guardsmen are with me. If we can find them-“

“We can’t,” Valery interrupted. “We have to get off this island now, and I think I know a way. Come on, I’ll show you.”

She took him by the hand and led him forward. 

“We can’t leave them,” he protested. 

“There’s no time,” she insisted. “If we don’t go now, we’ll be stuck here.”

“Stuck?” Bryn asked. 

“The island’s gonna disappear, and it’s taking us with it,” she revealed. 

Bryn’s eyes widened.

“I found some markings on the ground. Maybe we can open up a portal,” she suggested. “It might even lead your friends to us.”

Bryn nodded and gave himself over to her warm touch. 

She led him through the forest, paying no mind to the leaves that caught in her dark hair, until they reached the end of the stagnant jungle. 

As they breached the tree line, Bryn stopped, forcing Valery to stop too. She followed his gaze onto the beach. 

Spike was there, but she was not alone; another girl stood beside her. Spike reached out to her with one hand and touched the girl’s cheek, brushing a stray blonde hair from her blue eye. 

She stayed still for what felt like minutes until, without warning, she plunged a dagger into the girl’s gut. 

“My Lillian’s dead,” Spike stated stoically. 

As the blood poured from the blonde girl’s wound, her appearance began to change. Her hair turned red and grew down to her hips. Her blue eyes turned yellow, and her face morphed into a completely different one, with features so perfect, she hardly seemed real. 

Meanwhile, Valery began to disappear. Bryn clasped her hand, but it quickly turned to black smoke. 

Bryn felt the phantom of Valery’s touch between his fingers.  He had to remind himself that it wasn’t real and that Valery was safe at home. 

He exhaled in relief. 

But as he turned, the wind was knocked out of him all over again.  

Spike gasped as the Cambion stuck her claws into her chest. Then, the monster ripped out her heart, and Spike’s body slumped against her murderer. 

“No!” Bryn exclaimed and ran toward them. 

He caught Spike’s limp body in his arms as the bloody dagger slipped from her fingers. 

He glared at the Cambion, and she smirked.

He laid Spike on the sand before grabbing the Cambion by the arms. “Where’s the Princess?”

She laughed, her smile never fading from her bright crimson lips. “You’ll never stop us. My father will rip out your insides and feast on them while you’re still breathing.”

“Your father?” he asked. 

The Cambion laughed again—more intensely than before. Then, her body began to disappear right from under Bryn’s grasp. Meanwhile, the surrounding island disappeared—along with Spike’s body. 

All that was left was Spike’s dagger, which clattered on the newly solid ground.