Lor Mandela - Destruction from Twins by L Carroll Page A

door and set off through
the palace in search of Gracielle.
    Lantalia hurriedly followed.
    “Anika! Stop this! You can not win!” she
yelled as they reached the stained glass foyer.
    Anika’s shadowy silhouette headed for the
large glass doors, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Lantalia
was in pursuit.
    “Little Atoh?” she
cackled, “Where are you? Come out, dear little Gracielle!”
    Lantalia flung her arm upward and Anika’s
dark shadowy form jerked abruptly, as though she had been hit by a
large object.
    She growled and turned to face Lantalia.
“Forget about it, sister!” she sneered. “You cannot win against
us!”
    She raised her hand and a strange sound—like
hailstones hitting glass—echoed outside the palace. All at once,
hundreds of large wooden thorns broke through the walls and
bulleted toward Lantalia at a startling speed.
    Lantalia thrust both hands into the air and
a pillar of crystal blue water—almost as wide as the foyer
itself—rose from the ground. The thorns smacked into it and fell
with loud clanks onto the marble floor.
    “You cannot win!” Anika repeated. “I will
find the Child of Balance and I will destroy her!” She pushed her
hands forward and a crackling wall of black flames formed out of
the air directly in front of her, sending an intensely hot wind
blasting throughout the room. She opened her arms out to her sides
and the dark fire surged and zipped toward Lantalia.
    The vritesse made a pushing motion and the
massive wall of water moved toward the flames. They collided in the
center of the foyer, twisting and tangling together, forming a
sizzling, spattering cyclone.
    “Anika!” Lantalia yelled over the roar of
the water and the loud snapping of the fire. “Stop now! Neither of
us will survive this!”
    “So be it!” Anika hissed. Her dark form
walked through the center of the fire and water and they instantly
disappeared.
    She reached into her black cloak and
produced a jagged charcoal dagger. “If we both must die, sister,
I’ll let you go first!” She hurled the dagger ferociously toward
Lantalia. No sooner had it left her hand, than it vanished in thin
air.
    Lantalia hesitated for a moment, but then
leaned to one side as the invisible dagger grazed past her head,
narrowly missing as it raced through her hair. It whizzed past her,
but then reversed its course and came at her again. She turned to
face where she thought it was and dove sideways just as it raced
by. Suddenly, she knew what she had to do. She waited for the
dagger to come at her again and then ran, full-force, toward Anika.
Just before the inevitable collision, she dove to the side and
rolled across the floor.
    The maneuver caught Anika so off guard she
didn’t have time to respond. With a loud gasp, she jerked violently
and grabbed at her chest. In her hand, the shiny hilt of the dagger
materialized; fully half of its blade was embedded in her coal
black chest. Slowly, the blackness slid down her like thick tar
seeping onto the floor. As her normal color returned, she looked
pleadingly at Lantalia, and then sank to the ground. Anika was
dead.
    Lantalia crawled over to her just as
Gracielle and Ultara ran in from one of the hallways. They stopped
and glanced at each other and then raced to Lantalia’s side.
    The vritesse was choking and
sputtering—trying frantically to get a full breath.
    “Mother?” Gracielle pleaded. She knew that
with Anika dead, it was only a matter of seconds before her own
mother would be too.
    Lantalia fought to lift her hand. “Protect
her,” she gasped, pointing at Gracielle’s mid-section.
    Gracielle put her hand to her stomach and
nodded weakly.
    Lantalia turned her gaze to Ultara and
fumbled through her cloak while struggling to breathe. “Ultara . .
. .”
    Ultara knelt down beside her. “Yes,
Vritesse. What is it?”
    Lantalia held out her trembling hand and
placed it in Ultara’s. “Rule well,” she sighed.
    Ultara looked down in surprise. There, in
her