The Key to the Warriors (completed)

Chapter 47

47Jackal

The ships were loaded. Barely two weeks, and we would set sail for Divincia fully armed and ready. Everything was in place. Get there, find Zyirah, bind the Creator and destroy the child, then plunge my sword through him and soak in the power of the Immi. I felt a shiver of excitement at the idea.

Haze was ignoring me. He'd had a rod shoved up his ass ever since we'd decided to kill the child. I hoped he got over it before it was time to go. His grudge against me would only slow us down.

He'd spoken to me only once in the last forty-eight hours, to tell Agero and I that the Creator had been learning to consciously create. Big whoop. The fact that he managed to make a few butterflies wasn't about to have me shaking in my boots. And as a human, I could almost guarantee that he'd never manage to pull off an entire forcefield over Divincia like Haze claimed he would. He wasn't strong enough.

At the sound of rapid footsteps behind me, I turned from where I sat before the fire to see Haze running full speed from his tent. His eyes wide, he leaped over the empty log beside me and began doing frantic circles around the one he usually sat on to my left. Frowning, I watched as he rolled the seat over, then scoured through the sand and weeds around it.

Standing straight, he braced a hand on his forehead, his eyes wide. Even with his Augmenter on he had a good bit of nervous fear on his face, making me stand.

"The hell are you doing?"

"Nothing. I lost something."

"What?"

"I must have lost it somewhere in Divincia. Shit!"

"What the hell did you lose?"

He shook his head. "I have to go."

Without another word, he reached up and touched his ear, and a second later, he was gone.

*****

Charlie

As I'd promised Zyirah, I had spent the last couple days takings things slower. While I still took the time to practice with the forcefield and get better with the Immi power, I wasn't overdoing it, and had actually gone to bed at a somewhat decent hour on Sunday night.

I was awakened by someone shaking my shoulder, though, and cracked my eyes open to see Leo hovering over me, an urgent expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" I whispered around a yawn and turned to gently ease my arm out from beneath Zyirah's head.

"There's something you need to see, Creator." He said softly, his tone nervous. If he was calling me Creator, then it had to be serious.

Sitting up, I noticed he was holding a thick, leather-bound book in his hands, and I frowned as I climbed from the bed. He left me to dress and was waiting for me in the battlefield when I sauntered out a few minutes later, where he immediately thrust the book into my hands.

"What is it?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I went to take a bath, and I found that. You need to read it."

Though confused, the tone of Leo's voice send a wave of unexplained nerves through me, and I nodded as I started toward the mess hall where I could see. Leo followed and lowered into the bench across from me as I yawned again and cracked the book open. It was a journal of some sort. Though I didn't recognize the handwriting, there was nothing particularly interesting about the first entries, and I frowned as I glanced up at Leo.

"What about it?"

Without a word, he reached out and took the book, flipping to the last handful of pages, then pointed to the most recent entries. "Start from here."