by Luke Donegan
Four remained. Olivia’s Teacher became rigid as golden light poured from his chest and he dissolved away.
Something stalked the Museum and only Olivia, Ariel and Jay remained. Olivia screamed and melted into light. Her Spirit leapt into the dark sky and raced across the universe.
Golden Passage burned in Ariel’s chest. She shook her head and her eyes despaired. Too late! Too late!
And she was gone.
Jay shook his head. I warned you, mouthed his voiceless lips. But you did not listen. Now it is too late.
You are betrayed!
Chapter 15 ABERRATION
He rolled to the side and vomited. Stomach acid seared his nostrils and lips. His body heaved again, expelling bile onto the floor.
Shoving the bed sheets aside he slumped to the floor. Pain wracked his chest. Someone has attacked me, he thought. Grasping the window frame he tried to pull himself up. He slipped and fell again. Then he saw that his chest was covered with the beginnings of a fine, golden glow.
Sian found him patting at his chest as if it were a fire he could put out. She lay his head gently on her legs. Caressing his forehead she said firmly: “Erys. Peace. It is not time. Not yet!”
Light filtered between her fingers, its heat scorching her hand.
“Let it go. Peace.”
His mind was snaking free of his body, becoming Spirit. It emerged long and glistening like a silver snake and hovered a few feet above his body.
Something was tugging him from above, a force, like gravity, drawing him away from the room. He looked up. Through the ceiling and through the levels of the Museum piled above he saw the night sky, dark, shining with millions of stars. And in the centre of the galaxy, a mass of stars, drawing him, calling him, pulling him away ...
“Erys! No, Erys.”
His body on the floor erupted with fire. His back arched and he screamed. Sian held him, her hand firmly in the fire. The skin on her hand began to blister from the flames of his Passage.
“Come back, Erys!” she breathed, tears of pain in her eyes.
He turned from the force above him, roared and wrenched his silver, snake-like Spirit back into the body of flesh on the floor.
His eyes snapped open.
The self-fueling fire of Passage gripped his chest, piling heat on heat. Sian fell away and lay on the floor, hugging her burnt hand to her chest.
He lay his open hands by his sides. Tendrils of smoky mist leapt from his eyes and the palms of his hands. These dark trails of mist curled and twisted above his body, then plunged down into the fire in his chest. Darkness piled on the golden light, smothering the flames of Passage. The smoke coiled around his body like a bandage, holding the fire of his Spirit within him, keeping him alive.
As he sat up the tendrils of smoke dissipated. He examined his chest. Red and purple welts punctured the skin, but the pain of burned tissue was nothing compared to the agony of Passage.
Sian rocked back and forth.
“Let me see.” He held her damaged hand up to the light. Welts covered her palm.
“I’m sorry,” he said. He reached for a nightshirt and wrapped it around Sian’s hand.
Her dark hair hung across her face.
With a struggle he pulled himself up by the window ledge. Resting against the window he looked out at the predawn sky. Darkness was broken only by the faint lights in the distant buildings of the Ascendancy. People in the government buildings were awake.
Nausea swelled in his stomach. Something was coming!
Turning away he helped Sian to her feet.
“How is it?” he asked.
“It hurts.”
He helped Sian dress then held her to him.
“It will be alright,” he said. “We stopped it in time. You helped me.”
“Why did it happen?” she asked. “You are too young.”
He drew long strands of hair from her face. She opened bloodshot eyes, looked up into his and recoiled with fright.
“Oh mother!” She backed away horrified.
“What? What is it?” he asked, confused.
“Oh Erys!”
She retreated as he stepped towards her.
“No.” She pointed to the bathroom.
He stepped around her into the bathroom and gazed into the mirror.
Black liquid pooled in Erys’ eyes. Pupil, iris, cornea – stained by the same manifestation tainting the Teacher’s eyes. Hesitant tendrils of black smoke slipped in and out of his eyes like the exploratory tentacles of a nervous sea anemone. Blood seeped from the corners of his eyes and ran down his cheeks and neck.
His eyes were filled with the blackness of Dark Matter.
He clenched his fists and glared at his reflection. Power built and hummed. Ripples of energy washed from his eyes and broke against the mirror. His image shattered into a thousand silver pieces and fell glinting and tinkling to the floor.
Windows rattled as Erys and Sian ran along the corridor curving around the perimeter of the tower. Erys lost his balance and fell against a window. Tendrils of black smoke shot from his eyes and splayed out against the glass, supporting his weight.
The smoke tendrils moved softly against the glass, testing its grain.
Erys looked across the predawn city. The distant Barracks were floodlit.
“Can you see it?” he asked Sian.
“See what?” Her voice was frightened.
“Something is coming!”
“Come on,” she said, pulling him eagerly. “We need to get to the hospital.”
The tendrils resisted, holding onto the glass like suckers. As he pulled away from the window they popped back and withdrew into his eyes.
They reached the elevator. The doors slid open and they stumbled inside. The elevator climbed ten levels to the Doctor’s rooms and the doors opened onto chaos.
Sounds of breaking furniture and shattering glass filled the corridor leading to the hospital ward. The Doctor and the Scion-Doctor stood near the doorway, their arms defensively upraised against the turmoil within.
Erys pushed past the men to find the Teacher hovering above his bed. Masses of thick tendrils of smoke emerged from his eyes, ears and mouth, from his hands and legs, coiling around his body like snakes searching for food - he was barely visible behind their writhing forms. Others whipped back and forth, slapping the sheets from the bed. One knocked a bedside table across the room. They pushed against the ceiling and the floor, testing the confines of the room. One smoky tendril rose up before the Doctor and his scion, forcing them back through the doorway.
“What is it?” yelled Sian above the noise of destruction.
“I don’t know,” replied the Doctor, breathlessly. “It began a few moments ago.”
“It’s Dark Matter,” said Erys, striding forward. “He brought it back with him, when Ariel died.”
“Erys!”
Sian tried to hold him back.
“He can’t hurt me. I’m infected already.” He pulled away and stepped into the writhing mass of smoke.
Tendrils snapped around his body and dragged him to the bed. He was lifted up and carried through the dark smoke until he hovered a few inches from the Teacher’s face. The boy’s eyes opened suddenly, black as midnight.
“Teacher! What is happening?” cried Erys.
Jay struggled to answer as black smoke poured from his mouth. “It is Dark Matter. It has us. It is too late!”
The Teacher gagged on the smoke. “It is coming!” he cried.
“What? What is coming?”
“I am sorry. I did not see clearly.”
For a brief moment the darkness cleared from Jay’s eyes. Erys saw dismay and sorrow in the boy’s expression.
“What is coming?” he asked again.
Blackness returned to the Teacher’s eyes.
“Aberration!” he hissed.
Dark Matter lifted them from the bed and carried them to a window facing the city.
The smoke pressed his head to the
glass. With an effort of will he pulled the tendrils from his own eyes so he could see clearly.
“There,” said the Teacher. “It is coming.”
A fierce sun blasted the tops of the distant hills. Dawn spilt a rich light across the city. Erys could see the Ascendancy, glowing with light. The Courthouse. The Barracks. A zeppelin was anchored in the airfield, waiting to depart.
“There!”
The Teacher pointed at the Boulevard linking the Museum and the central piazza. Erys could see movement on the road. Something was approaching the Museum
Erys shoved a smoky tendril aside.
Soldiers from the Barracks, a hundreds black-suited figures were marching towards the Museum. With ears sharpened by Dark Matter he could hear the sound of their boots stamping the road. The soldiers’ faces were hidden behind black helmets and masks, dark and purposeful.
His gut hollowed out. Erys turned to the Teacher. The boy’s black eyes glinted and swirled.
“They know about the Ark,” said the boy.
The company of soldiers approached, dust rising in the air behind them.
“Teacher. What did you do?”
Erys tore himself free from the grasping tentacles of Jay’s Dark Matter. He ran from the hospital and Sian followed close behind.
The elevator released them on ground level.
“What did you see?” asked Sian.
“The army are coming. I think the Teacher betrayed us.”
They raced to the great foyer of the Museum. Through the glass of the front doors they could see the approaching soldiers. Sian gasped.
“They know about the Ark. They have come to destroy it.”
Dark Matter boiled within him. He forced it down, knowing intuitively that releasing this power was not the way.
At the main desk two young attendants looked on with apprehension as the soldiers climbed the stairs outside.
“Ismet! Jordan!” called Erys. “Go to your rooms. We will handle this.”
But there was no time. The company of soldiers marched through the doors into the foyer and gathered in formation below the statue. These soldiers were not the children Erys was used to teaching in the History Dome. They were adults, featureless men and women hidden beneath black cloth and armor.
They stood perfectly still, steel mesh on their helmets masking all emotion, waiting their commands.
Erys and Sian joined the quaking attendants as the Captain approached the desk.
“Scion-Teacher?” asked Ismet nervously.
“I am Captain of Green-Company,” barked the towering soldier, his voice metallic through the mesh of his mouthpiece. “I am here to see the Ark. Attendant!” he leaned towards Ismet. “You will show me.”
Ismet backed away. Sian ran behind the desk and took the two girls protectively into her arms. “How dare you intimidate our staff. These girls are terrified.”
Erys stepped before the Captain. “I am the Museum’s Scion-Teacher,” he said. “What is the meaning of this intrusion?”
“Scion-Teacher. You will help us,” said the Captain. “I am here by order of the Ascendancy. There are illegal scientific experiments taking place in the Museum. I have orders to locate all materials associated with this research.”
“I do not know what you are talking about,” responded Erys.
“Lead us to the cistern beneath the basement level,” ordered the Captain.
“There is no such research going on here,” Erys said. “We are a Law-abiding organisation. Someone has given you false information.”
The Captain tilted his head forward. Erys saw himself reflected in the black glass of the Captain’s mask.
“I have orders from the Ascendancy,” he said, perplexed by Erys’ resistance. “It is madness to disobey the Judge. Show me the Ark.”
Erys stood firm. “There is no Ark here.”
The Captain paused, deciding his course of action. His gloved fingers opened and closed into fists.
“Erys,” warned Sian, sensing the soldier was close to violence.
“We will find the Ark without you,” said the Captain.
He swung about and barked commands in the Barracks’ language to his soldiers. A sergeant strode forward and handed a map of the Museum to the Captain. He then faced his soldiers.
“Suom sdei suor!” ordered the Sergeant.
In unison the soldiers pulled batons from their belts.
“Sdei suor!” they responded.
They stamped their feet and held the batons ready at their sides.
The Captain studied the map for a moment then lifted his hand in the air. “Suom somada jea!” he ordered and marched towards the corridor. The soldiers followed him, rank after rank, into the corridor.
“Ismet,” said Erys as the soldiers left the foyer. “Go to the Curator of Nature. Tell her what is happening. Tell her to meet us at the Ark.”
“Where?”
“At the Ark. Tell her. Go now.”
As Ismet ran off he turned to the other girl. “Jordan, go to the attendants’ quarters and tell everyone to stay there. Do you understand? Stay there until someone comes and tells you it is safe to leave. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” nodded the small girl.
“Go through the kitchens.”
“Come with me,” Erys said to Sian as the attendants raced away. He took Sian’s hand and led her after the soldiers marching along the central corridor. “They will go down by the stairs. We can get there ahead of them if we take the elevator.”
A bottleneck of soldiers crammed into the entrance of the stairwell. After a few minutes Erys and Sian reached the elevator and stepped inside. As the doors closed a black, uniformed arm swung in to prevent their departure.
The doors opened again to reveal two soldiers and the Sergeant.
“We will ride down with you,” said the Sergeant as they entered the elevator.
Erys recognised the Sergeant’s voice. The man who had humiliated the cadets in the History Dome.
“I know you,” he said.
“Yes,” replied the Sergeant. “I worked with cadets then. Now I am with Green-Company. Battle soldiers!”
Sian gripped Erys’ arm.
“Yes, we have met before,” said the Sergeant quietly. He leaned his masked face closer. “But this time it is on my terms.”
The elevator hummed as it began its descent. The Sergeant towered above Erys and Sian who stood with their backs against the wall.
“Scion-Teacher,” said the Sergeant. “Tell me. What have you got hidden in the basement? What are we about to find?”
Erys glared at the soldier.
“What? No cocky answer to impress your friend?”
He slammed his baton into Erys’ stomach. Erys doubled over and collapsed on the floor. Sian cried out and knelt to his aid.
As the elevator doors slid open on the workshop, the three soldiers stood over Erys and Sian, batons raised.
The Sergeant spat an insult in his own language: “Sawor mak phet!” swung about and entered the workshop, his two companions following behind.
“I’m just winded.”
Sian helped him stand.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes,” he said, catching his breath. “I don’t make friends easily, do I,” he joked.
Soldiers were passing through the workshop towards the Taxidermist’s laboratories. The Builder argued with the soldiers, trying to prevent their progress. The soldiers ignored him and pushed past.
The workshop children were huddled against the walls and benches, terrified by the intrusion. A group of soldiers flanking a bench used a baton to shove aside a child standing petrified at her workstation. Sian left Erys at the elevator and raced to the child’s aid.
“Sian!” called Erys after her.
He watched her lift the girl in her arms, mouthing angry words at the soldiers. She carried the child to the safety of the far wall where more of the children huddled.
As the soldiers moved into the
inner laboratories, more soldiers entered the workshop from the stairwell.
Erys watched as the Sergeant approached the Builder. The Sergeant pushed his face aggressively into the Builder’s face, then man-handled the Builder to the floor.
Clutching his stomach, Erys ran across the workshop to join Sian and gathered the older children together.
“Felicity, Josiah. Take the children outside. Gather on the beach and stay there until someone comes to get you. Do you understand?”
The children nodded.
“Good. You can do it. But make sure you find everyone. Don’t leave anyone behind. Okay?”
“Yes,” said Felicity.
He turned to Sian. “Go with them. Please.”
“I will take them,” said Sian. “Then I will return.”
He shook his head. “No. Stay with them. It will ...”
“I will return.” She looked towards the laboratories.
“Okay,” Erys relented. “Go by the elevator. Quickly.”
Sian began gathering the children to her, counting their heads. “Felicity, do we have everyone?”
Erys approached the doors to the Taxidermist’s rooms. The Builder had regained his feet and followed the soldiers. But for a few that remained to guard the workshops all of the soldiers had gone through.
He accosted one of the guards in the doorway.
“See that they have safe passage outside,” hissed Erys. “They are only children.”
The soldier shrugged off Erys’ grip. He looked at the children gathering around the Scion-Curator. He paused, then nodded and said in a metallic voice: “I will.”
Erys passed through the door.
The crush of bodies in the Taxidermist’s outer laboratory slowed his progress. Erys scanned the room but could not see the Taxidermist, his assistant Clara, or the Builder. Soldiers examined the material laboratory equipment and taxidermied animals in the room. As Erys watched a soldier knocked a rack of glass beakers off a workbench, the equipment shattering on the floor. The broken glass crunched beneath the soldier’s boots.
Erys made his way into the inner, secret laboratory. There were no Museum staff present, but soldiers were examining the animals and the life-support apparatus on the benches. Two soldiers stared into a vat housing a store of harvested embryos. One wrapped his arms around the vat and tried to lift it from the wall.