I took one step towards Colas, but the panther automaton growled and gnashed its teeth at me, stopping me in my tracks. Colas pressed another button on the control panel next to the lever. The staircase at the back of the airship flipped into a ramp. There came a whirring sound from down below and up rolled an automaton on caterpillar tracks with an elongated oblong body and two stubby arms, carrying another yard full of liquid. This also contained Exalmpora.
“You know,” the old man said. “The whole taking your blood thing was for show. I had the tribespeople deliver some up for me when you were down in the jungle and I took another carton full when you were up here.”
I could feel the pull of the Exalmpora. It was so enticing, yet at the same time I knew I didn’t want it.
Not while the man who’d just kissed me the previous night was down there being eaten alive by the maw of the earth. Colas had not even given me a chance to say goodbye. He’d just snuffed out his life like a candle.
Is this what it means to be a servant of Finesia? To have everything that you love taken away…
I looked down at the husk of Ratter splayed out on the airship floor. If only I knew how to fix it. Ratter would do something, and I don’t know what, to get me out of this situation.
“Dragonheats, Colas,” I said through clenched teeth. “You deserve to die.”
Colas shook his head and glared at me with renewed vigour in his eyes. “Now, will you drink the Exalmpora?”
I shook my head. “Whatever you do to me, you cannot force me to bend to Finesia’s will.”
“Then I shall kill Faso Gordoni as well.” Colas clenched his hand on the lever.
“Then do it. You said it yourself, you took the life of the man I cared more about. Now, I have nothing left.”
Colas shook his head hard. He clearly hadn’t expected so much resistance. But maybe he’d just taken the wrong man. If I knew the life of Wiggea was at stake right now, he might have trapped me into fulfilling his wishes.
Wench, Finesia’s voice came in my mind. This is my will, and you shall obey my commands. And I felt my muscles twitching, something pulling me towards the second yard of Exalmpora.
No, Charth had resisted. It was possible to have strength.
I will not. You have no dominion over me, Finesia. I have my own will.
Colas raised his cane off the floor and pointed it at the staircase. “I will take the life of Taka Sako,” Colas said.
“You said yourself that Taka is too important. You wouldn’t dare kill the boy and I shall not drink the Exalmpora, whatever you try.”
Colas sighed. “Very well, you force me into my last resort.”
He reached into his pocket with lightning speed. At the same time, I turned towards the railing and decided I would use it to vault over the hole and wrestle Colas down. I could take his life before the panther got to me. Then, at least Taka could live.
But, still augmented, Colas was too quick. He produced a pistol out of his pocket, and he pulled the trigger. Just as I started to lift myself off the feet, the bullet hit me hard and sent me stumbling backwards. An intense pain flared in my gut, and I looked down to see the hole there. Then came an excruciating throbbing pain in my back. I looked down and clenched my stomach in pain as blood and acid frothed out of it. Then I looked back up at and the sneer on his dry lips.
“Now, Dragonseer, you have a choice. You can either drink the Exalmpora and claim immortality, or you can lose the very life you hold dear.”
Do it, my child, Finesia said in my head. Claim the power as your own. This is what you always wanted and it’s much better than dying.
But I felt weak and I couldn’t do anything. My head was spinning. The pain was reducing in my stomach and back to numbness, and I felt ready pass out.
But instead I opened my mouth sung a song. It felt grating and harsh. My voice lashed out and created shimmers in the air. I wasn’t calling dragons; I was calling something else. I was echoing the voice of a goddess. Grey clouds started to take shape around us, and the gondola began to rock.
“What are you doing?” Colas said. “You can’t heal yourself through singing.”
Take the Exalmpora, my darling. Taste the power of what you can do with secicao. Together, we can control storms and volcanoes. We can rule this world.
But I was ready to pass out. My senses reduced to nothing, and I saw only blackness. Then, out of the darkness, I saw two paths, lit ever so faintly by torchlight. Finesia, the mad goddess, stood by one in ancient ceremonial robes of every colour. Her path led to a garden rich in fruit and flowers.
And by the other, Sukina stood her simple floral dress. She beckoned me down a path that led back to darkness. I lifted myself onto my feet and I followed her down that path.
PART VII
Charth
“Free will is the most valuable thing that we possess. And to that, absolutely nothing can compare.”
Charth Lamford
CHAPTER 20
I LEFT SUKINA BEHIND AT the cave just as my spirit floated out of the body of Pontopa Wells. And thus I began my journey through the true form of the collective unconscious.
All around me, I no longer saw blackness, but sparkles of many colours, like the sunlight gleaming off the water. Glowing lines connected the sparkles together, forming a complex network pattern of brilliant light. These danced across the world proper, shooting out in every direction. And upon those myriad lines I could travel anywhere I pleased.
You cannot control the power of a God, Finesia said to me. It isn’t human.
Because it hadn’t been Colas who had called the storm on the Saye Explorer, but Finesia. She knew of magic to manipulate the world’s essence. There were ways in the collective unconscious to greater powers, and Finesia had lived here long enough to know of them well.
But now, I wasn’t in human form. I was something else. A wisp floating on the collective unconscious. One with the power to control more than merely muscles, songs, and words.
I could float over Colas without him even knowing of my presence. I could hover near to the panther automaton and it wouldn’t even turn its head.
I could dart into the clouds and disturb the currents there to throw out bright sparks of lightning. I could make the wind blow and rock the deck of Colas’ airship and scare him to smithereens.
Colas had been right. The collective unconscious wasn’t just about controlling minds. It connected the spirit and soul of every single thing on this earth.
No, Finesia said in my mind. You are not meant to do this. But even her voice was distant.
Because I had my own will, and I had my own spirit.
Send me teetering over the abyss of death, I responded in kind from a place that was much larger than just myself, and I will find myself. This is the will of the collective unconscious. And we will not let you hold dominion.
I darted down over the airship deck, following the slope of the volcano into the jungle canopy beneath. I ghosted through the canopy — I didn’t have to worry about physical forms in this ethereal state, and I floated over to Velos. I felt the dragon’s anxiety pushing away the collective unconscious, not letting it in. He could feel it too, his most trusted partner Pontopa Wells was dying. And he was so terrified of the panther automaton nearby that he didn’t feel he could do anything about it. He felt powerless.
So I, in my form in the collective unconscious, bid Pontopa Wells to sing a song that Velos could hear in his darkest hour. I watched him from my position above his back as he tossed his head to the sky and roared, and the panther that guarded him lifted itself up on its haunches in alarm.
The spire sticking out of the automatons mouth began to glow white, but Velos had renewed courage now. Unlike the panther he could fly, and that was to his advantage.
I floated even closer to Velos on the network of souls, until I was almost touching him. Tendrils of light spread out from my essence and kissed his skin. Then, I reached out further and found my way into his
head. Now, I could watch the world through a dragon’s eyes.
I didn’t take control of Velos’ will, as such. But I did enter his mind so at least I could help calm his anxiety. And in this ethereal form, I could understand the language he spoke in his head.
In short, he was terrified. Not just because of this beast of a panther that had shot him out of the sky, but because he felt that it could take his life. And Velos had not yet fulfilled his purpose. He hadn’t yet fostered the egg of a dragon queen, which the whole of Fortress Gerhaun was relying upon him to do. He could die leaving nothing behind, he felt, and this is what he was so scared of. That and the fact his only friend in the whole world would soon lose her own life. And I understood his pain. But, at the same time, I knew he had to live with this fear.
So, as Pontopa’s life slowly slipped away from her, I willed her to push through and sing out to the dragon, who once again tossed his head and roared once again out to the sky. Velos beat his wings, lifted himself up from the ground in one deft movement before the panther even had time to respond. The panther turned its head to Velos, and the white ball began to grow out of its mouth. Velos flew up into the sky and, instead of fleeing, he turned himself downwards again and covered the automaton in yellow flame.
It didn’t do much, metal being metal, and that ball of blue light continued to glow, tracking Velos as he moved. It stopped him getting close to the panther, for Velos’ easiest solution would be to take it up in his claws. But, just at the last minute, Velos turned away from the panther and circled around the branches in the forest. He kept his wings close to his body, while still wide enough that he could keep himself aloft. The dragon found a path through the trees as the panther made chase after him, that ball of blue light tracking every movement Velos made. Both Velos and the automaton gained speed, Velos’ aerial acrobatics so awesome that he’d do a swallow proud. And as he did, the panther also sprinted with incredible speed, and one would think Velos wouldn’t be able to outfly it.
But this was all part of the plan.
At the last minute, I willed Velos to steer upwards into a loop the loop. He crashed through the canopy above. A few branches slowed his ascent a little, but they didn’t otherwise stop the gracefulness of the manoeuvre. The panther had too much momentum now that it couldn’t slow down. It kept charging ahead, ducking its path through the trees, while Velos crashed back through the canopy and exited his stunt to approach the automaton from behind. He swept down and took the beast in its claws. Meanwhile the automaton let out a huge thundering growl and released the ball of energy, which dissipated against a branch.
Velos lifted the automaton up towards the volcano. If he dropped it into the firepit then it would trouble him no more. But the automaton also had more tricks up its sleeves, and it siphoned the power it might have used to fuel its weapon into its body, electrocuting the dragon. Velos’ body shuddered, and his wings wanted to give out.
But here I was within Velos’ head calming him. And I wouldn’t let him give up. Meanwhile, Pontopa Wells, the pain of the bullet still throbbing in her stomach where the bullet had pierced her, continued to sing. And Velos perked up his ears and latched on to the song, reminding him to be brave and that he had much more strength in his body than he thought. He continued beating his wings, lifting him ever higher, despite the way his claws tightened, and the electricity shuddered through him. He closed his eyes to preserve energy and navigated instead using the scent of sulphur and the increasing heat.
As he climbed his muscles continued to get increasingly numb, almost as if the automaton was increasing the intensity.
He opened his eyes just briefly to see where the rim was, but he could see that it was still far above him. His will weakened for a moment, and the strength left his wings. He started to plummet to the floor.
No, I said in his mind. Not in Towese, but in the language of the collective unconscious that a dragon could understand. Velos you’re stronger than this.
And he tossed his head in agreement and let off a huge growl. His wings flurried into action, and he beat them as hard as he could. He climbed ever faster than I’ve ever seen him climb and soon enough he was over the rim of the volcano. Meanwhile, the panther gnashed and snarled within his claws. Still sending volts outwards through Velos’ body.
But Velos didn’t need to flap his wings anymore, for he was high enough to soar. The electricity pulsing through his body made him want to contract his wings inwards, which would send both him and the panther into a dive towards the firepit. The panther automaton clearly didn’t care if it died or not.
Velos tried to open his claws, but with the current passing through them, they remained fastened around the automaton’s chest. Come on Velos you can do this, I reminded him, and the dragon opened his mouth to roar again. He opened his eyes, and, through a dragon’s vision, I watched the waves of heat rising through the air, coming from the magma below.
It must have taken an intense amount of internal strength to do so. But calmed by my presence and his spirits buoyed by Pontopa Wells’ song, Velos soon enough managed to open those claws.
The automaton tumbled into the magma pit and fizzled into a wave of flames. It disappeared underneath, letting up a dark plume of smoke.
Faso, I said to Velos. We need to rescue him. The dragon turned his head to the edge of the cart tracks where the inventor still dangled, the size of an ant from Velos’ current location. He tucked in his wings and dived downwards. It was hot enough for Velos to feel it and so must have been searing for Faso. Dragonheats, there was a good chance the inventor wouldn’t have survived the heat.
Velos approached Faso then, the inventor’s face ashen and his skin blanched. He looked like he was on the verge of giving up. He looked up at the dragon approaching and, in his eyes, flashed a glimmer of hope. Yet with his mouth gagged and tied against the back stake, he couldn’t say anything.
Velos flew around the back of the stake and readied his claws to cut into the rope. He seared the rest of it off with a concentrated flame, taking great care not to also char the inventor. Velos circled round once again and levelled himself in front of Faso.
I promptly left Velos’ mind so I could see the rest of the action from a distance. Faso didn’t hesitate to jump on Velos’s armour, clutching on to the middle seat for dear life. As he did, Velos flapped his wings to get away from the sheer heat of the volcano, new life coming from somewhere. I followed them as I watched Faso clamber onto the back seat, find some footing, harness himself in, reach down and turn the spigot on Velos’ flank.
A soft green light began to pulse through the brass tubing in the armour, then it pulsed even more faintly through Velos’ veins. I found my way back into Velos’ mind, for the next job was critical. We had bombs to disable. Even stopping just one of them might stop the eruption and save the island. We had to have hope.
I could see through Velos’ eyes now. The secicao the armour injected gave him augmented sight. This didn’t have the same kind of benefit as Sukina’s blend of secicao. Velos didn’t see the world in speckled green and registered heat signatures, but through a kind of telescopic sight. He could zoom in on his targets with laser precision and watch them from afar. That would explain how Velos had been so accurate in his movements when augmented.
I willed Velos to use his telescopic sight to find the panthers with the dynamite on them. We saw one, this time with a turquoise hue underneath its green glowing veins. Velos roared to the sky and dived down towards the panther, folding his wings and arms close to his body so he could spear through the rising waves of heat.
“What are you doing, Velos?” Faso objected from behind him. But Velos wasn’t listening and wouldn’t have understood Faso’s words anyway.
The panther automaton saw Velos approach and turned its head upwards as Velos shot down towards it. But instead of pushing a spire out of his mouth to create a white glowing ball, I could swear its mechanical lips curled upwards into a grin. I noticed the dynamite on
its back then, the lit fuse and the spark approaching the stick incredibly fast, about to hit its target.
And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. “Velos, get out of there. It’s going to blow,” Faso screamed.
The dragon didn’t need to be told twice. He opened his wings and jerked upwards into the air, just as the dynamite exploded. He shot out of the flames, super-fast due to the secicao pulsing through his veins. I could feel both exhilaration and fear in Velos at the same time. Faso screamed out from behind him.
But Pontopa Wells was fading, and I could feel the tug on my spirit back to her. It was time to become human again. Time to leave the collective unconscious to its own devices.
I dashed away from Velos and Faso, praying to the Gods Themselves that Velos and Faso would survive this explosion. Like a shooting star in reverse, I passed through the flames from the myriad explosions that engulfed the volcano. Upwards and upwards I went towards the airship. Over to Pontopa Wells, her face as white as a ghoul, her body on the edge of death.
Yes, it was time to become myself again.
“So, I see you’ve chosen death,” Colas said. “Very well, we shall all find our own path.”
But I, Pontopa Wells, couldn’t die yet. I stood up on shaky legs, trying not to expend any energy on screaming as the pain lanced through my stomach. The massive automaton on wheels tipped the flask as I approached it. I put my lips to the glass and I opened my mouth. THe metallic liquid mixed with the taste of bile and blood in there.
“That’s it, girl,” Colas said. “I knew you’d come to your senses. I just hope its not too late.” And through blurry eyes I saw him rub his hands together.
Meanwhile, the Exalmpora trickled down my throat and for a moment the pain left my stomach and my muscles became completely numb. I would die here, and I knew it. This was the end of the road.
Dragonseers and Bloodlines: The Steampunk Fantasy Adventure Continues (Secicao Blight Book 2) Page 23