Leaving Paradise - Christopher Pastrana (free ebook novel .TXT) 📗

room was a hole they couldn't begin to hope to bridge. Unable to get any closer to the ball, they fought to see it better.
         "Hold on, let me see if I can do something." Closing his eyes, Lemine stood in the darkness. With all of his faults and shortcomings he made up for it with this. It was rare to find somebody with is particular skill set where she was, and it was a welcomed change when she stumbled upon him in a bar.
         Reaching with his mind, Lemind grabbed hold of a nearby torch and pulled the flame to him. The smile on his face was illuminated by the small ball of fire floating in the air in front of him. With his ability to control the flames, Lemine moved them closer to the ball that was embedded into the temple walls.
         "I think that's sapphire!" His voice was filled with so much joy it bubbled over.
         "We still can't get to it Lemine, and even if we could it would be impossible to remove something that size from the temple."
         "If we break of a small piece we could carry it out, and even that would make us rich!" Unable to argue she gave him her consent and let him go to work. The flame moved towards the suspended ball and began to melt away the surface. By the time he had been able to cut a few inches into it he was sweating heavily. Faro hadn't known controlling an element would use so much energy.
         As the ball of fire began to grow, she could see Lemine struggling. "No, come on, hold it..." Growing larger more of the jewel began to crack.
         "You're ruining it! Don't try so hard!" Raising both of his hands, Lemine put all of his energy into trying to control the growing flames.
         "I can't! I'm losing my hold of it!" Finally exhausted he fell to his hands panting. Shock froze his face in fear. "Why isn't the fire dying?" Now covering the entire blue ball, cracks began to snap onto the surface. Chunks fell away and air hissed from the heat of the fire.
         A large piece of the ball fell free and shattered on the marble below. A shard managed to bounce to Faro's side. Picking it up she could only feel a coldness that didn't come with a sapphire.
         "This is ice." An explosion echoed through the cavern as something fell free from the ice. Marble shattered under the weight of a man, who had landed on one of his knees. His muscles looked ready to explode from under his skin. A strange tattoo covered his body from neck to feet, and was only hidden under the tattered remains of pants. Black hair draped down over his face, hiding his features.
A loud clang made her jump. Something else had fallen from the ball of ice and had landed next to the strange man. Moments of silence passed before he began to move again. Slowly reaching out and picking up the object that had landed next to him, she could see that it was the handle of a sword.
         Thrusting the blade of the sword into the marble floor, he used it to lift himself to his feet. As he moved, his hair brushed away showing his face. In her life she had seen many men that could seduce a woman with their good looks alone, but none of them compared to this man. Under different circumstances she would fall for somebody as handsome as he was, but even with all his beauty, something about the darkness in his eyes told her to be careful.
Finally on his Faro could see Lemine's shock, he was nearly a whole head taller than her partner. Everything about the man was formidable, but at least they were separated by the hole in the floor.
         Turning his eyes toward the ceiling a strange smile crossed his lips. Lifting the massive sword he had picked up he slashed horizontally towards the ceiling. Everything began to vibrate as a black light hit the wall above them, tearing the temple's ceiling apart. Boulders smashed smashed into the marble around them as the ceiling began to cave into the temple. The night sky was now visible, and she couldn't imagine what he had done to blow a hole of that size in the ceiling.
         With some effort the man began to run towards the edge of the cavern and jumped. To their surprise he left the ground and flew out through the newly created hole in the ceiling. Losing sight of him in the night sky, they turned to run towards the doorway. The eyes of the Six cried out in pain as they crumbled. Large cracks ripped the beautiful floor apart, forcing them to jump to different landings on their way down.
         Lemine reached the door to the temple just before she could. A large boulder tripped her, sending her tumbling to the floor. Winded and tired, she fought to get herself back to her feet. Having noticed that he was alone, Lemine turned to come back for her. Fighting to get to her feet a slab of marble broke away from the walkway and fell onto her leg, crushing it.
         Pain ran up her body and she screamed. Trying to pull her free Lemine entered the collapsing room again. With everything she could muster she pushed the man back into the hallway, saving him from a boulder that landed where he would have been standing.
         Faro began to shake violently as shock set in. Her thoughts ran to the fun times she had as a child, stealing from vendors in the Nivged streets and flirting with the older boys. A sad smile crossed her face when she thought of her parents and how she had left without saying goodbye.
         "I guess I wasn't a very good thief after all." An awkward chuckle escaped her throat. "I had better get credit for discovering what was inside this place." As she began laughing at her own joke a larger boulder crushed her back. Boulders continued to crash to the floor as blood soaked Faro's lifeless body. Massacre

        A cold breeze forced the fire to dim as it battled against the night air. Two of the roaming guards who had been patrolling the outskirts of the temple had completed another circuit and neared the warmth of the camp. This would be the last night of their rotation out at the temple of six and he wanted nothing more than to be home with family.

        "Shouldn't stare at the fire for so long Marut. It will take a long while before your night eyes return." Marut had heard this speech nearly fifty times since they had started their rotation almost a week ago. The much older man had served untold years within the Duzee army and was well respected by many of the armies moderately known officials.

        "Gomda, you've told me that almost every hour since we started working here. Nobody comes out here. Getting through all of the patrols and the encampments would be impossible. Nothing could be worth the risk of fighting through the hundreds of men that block the valley."

        "You don't know what lies within this temple, yet you believe it's not worth the risk of losing even a few hundred men to obtain?" Gomda had an annoying habit of trying to teach lesson's every time he spoke. With only a few hours until the new guard arrived, Marut was happy that this would probably be the last time he saw the man.

        The Temple of six was a few hours walk from the Duzee capital of Nivged, and crossed a mountainous region that provided very little shelter and even less places to build a long standing settlement of any kind. This dangerous terrain forced the Duzee nation to live mainly within the protective walls of Nivged, making the total population of the city well over two million people.

        "This temple is almost three hundred years old. Anything of value most likely vanished by now, or is entirely unusable." Making it known that the conversation was over, Marut started fiddling with the handle of his spear. A strange silence rested in the air, and was almost as loud as the crackling of the fire.

        "I understand that my speeches can be overbearing and annoying. This time tomorrow we'll all be well on our way back to Nivged. Our replacements are most likely at the outpost near the entrance of the valley already. After they move in and take our post we can march back to the capital and hopefully never come here again." 

        In a few hours the sun would rise and the new guard would take over. Restlessness had been rolling through their ranks like wildfire over the past few days. Soldiers became comfortable with the job and began showing up late for shifts. Just the night prior Gomda caught a young guard sleeping while he was on sentry duty.

        Marut didn't believe that sleeping on duty was acceptable, but he didn't share Gomda's belief that danger lurked around the corner to strike at the lonely three century old temple.

        The flames flickered but there was no wind. A feeling of stress filled the air as the two men caught glances from one another. Marut watched his friend try and speak but no words escaped. Other guards began approaching to see what was wrong, but even they couldn't make any noise.

        All at once the sound returned as an explosion from within the temple sent large slabs of boulder flying through the night sky. Screams filled Marut's ears when the falling debris began crushing soldiers. Flames from the fire spread from the fire and into the nearby grass as a stray boulder struck the fire. 

        Panic scattered their senses and everyone ran. A loud thump brought Marut's attention to a man who was rising from a small impact crater on the ground. Even though his face wasn't visible he could feel his piercing stare. His heart was beating rapidly within his chest, and was felt near to coming lose.

        Finally standing at his full height, the imposing man was almost a head taller than Martu. As imposing as the man already was it became when he started walking towards them. Once the light of the fire illuminated his body it became clear that this was dangerous.

        Strange vine like tattoo's covered every part of his body except his face. Without any clothing except