The Deathless Quadrilogy

by Chris Fox

  “So it was that Isis led Osiris to the repository at the base of the Ark of the Cradle. The Ark in which we now stand,” Anput explained. The tale was clearly one she’d learned, rather than experienced. “She helped him shape the virus that had changed him, to remake himself into something more human. Something that could blend more easily among his human followers. Osiris became the first vampire, and after his change he was indistinguishable from a normal man.

  “My kind are blessed with the same gifts as a deathless, but we prefer to feed on blood rather than flesh,” Anput explained, wearing the same posture Trevor had seen on grad students defending their thesis. “This is why I use utensils, while the rest of you dine with your more…natural attributes.”

  “That is the heart of the tale, but Anput leaves out much,” Ra interjected, dabbing her own mouth with her napkin. “Osiris and his desire to be more human became a source of weakness for our people. Many chose to follow, diluting their bloodline with his newly modified virus. It caused a schism among our people, one that eventually erupted into war. At the end of this war I stood triumphant, and Osiris was banished to the frozen north to administer to his few followers.”

  “Are deathless and vampires all that different?” Trevor asked.

  “Different enough,” Ra shot back, something violent smoldering in her eyes. “It is not so much the change in physical appearance, but rather what it represented. Osiris sought the love of his people, but they’ll never love us. To them we are monsters. He sought to cloak that fact, to curry favor with the sheep. I realized we’d never have their love, so instead I take their fear. I show them my true face, so all know precisely who and what they pray to.”

  Something incredibly bright played outside the balcony window, slicing the night like the atomic bomb that had so recently detonated in San Francisco. Trevor rolled from his chair, diving under the table. A smattering of laughter echoed around the room, and Trevor’s cheeks heated in a very un-deathless-like fashion. He rose to his feet, the room full of mocking smiles.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked, glancing back at the balcony. The brightness was gone, like a flash of lightning. Something still crackled in the air though, an afterimage he could almost see.

  “The pup’s ignorance is limitless,” Anubis rumbled, broad muzzle splitting into a grin. “Calm yourself, boy. It was merely a sun flash.”

  “You have no idea. Believe me,” Irakesh muttered, mostly under his breath. He eyed Trevor sidelong, and something beyond hatred lived there.

  “Sun flash?” Trevor asked, sinking back into his seat.

  “Sun flashes herald a sunstorm,” Anput explained, resting a hand delicately on his shoulder. She withdrew it a moment later. “Sun storms strike without warning, cooking the unprotected.”

  “Unprotected mortals,” Ra interjected, leaning forward in her chair. She caught Trevor’s gaze, eyes flaring green. “Humans can be destroyed if caught in a sunstorm. We, however, can draw on their strength. Imagine drinking in the sun’s light for a week or more, but in an instant.”

  “What mighty Ra suggests is dangerous,” Horus said, his voice a high, lilting tone that contrasted with everyone else at the table. “Those who drink from sunstorms risk burning themselves up. The power is near limitless.”

  Trevor leaned back in his chair, shifting his gaze from person to person. He finally let it settle on Ra. “The event that finally triggered this new age was a coronal mass ejection. I was studying that event before it occurred, and I watched as it crackled across the sky. What you’re describing can only be more CMEs, each more violent than the one I saw.”

  Ra raised an eyebrow, eyeing him curiously. “You studied sunstorms?”

  “You might say that, yes. Before I became deathless I was a scientist,” Trevor explained. He turned to Anput, since he was more likely to get a straight answer there. “Am I right? Are the sunstorms more CMEs?”

  Anput didn’t answer him, at least not directly. She turned to Ra, giving a deferential nod of her head. “Mighty Ra, may I have permission to take the pup up to the observatory?”

  “You have an observatory?” Trevor asked, struggling to suppress his sudden excitement. The observatory at SDSU had been his second home and he’d clocked endless hours there, each spent studying the sun or other astronomical phenomena.

  “You may accompany us,” Ra said, dropping her napkin as she rose to her feet. She waved to one of the dead servants, who began to clear the dishes. “Come, pup. I would hear more of the science in this new age. Perhaps you have learned things even we did not know.”

  24

  Sun Study

  Ra swayed from the hall, shapely legs drawing Trevor’s eyes as he followed. Anput rose to join them, but the rest of the figures remained seated. Trevor caught Irakesh’s gaze on the way out, and if anything the hatred had deepened.

  His jealousy is palpable. You have gained much prestige, while he broods silently. Left behind like a child.

  That was definitely ironic. He’d gained prestige by diving under a table like a superstitious yokel. Trevor turned his attention back to Ra, following her from the chamber and up a dizzying array of halls. They climbed stairwell after stairwell, gradually making their way to the apex of the pyramid. The hike would have winded him had he still breathed. Instead, he felt nothing as he climbed.

  “Ahh, we arrive at last,” Ra said, cresting a final stairwell. She hurried up the black stone, entering a chamber that made Trevor gawk.

  Each of the walls was sloped, and they met in a single point at the top of the room. The floor was the same black marble, the walls solid gold. Unlike the rest of the Ark there were no hieroglyphs of any kind; the place was bare of any decoration.

  “This is an observatory?” he asked. The walls were opaque, which seemed to preclude any such observation.

  “Indeed,” Ra said, sweeping her arms out in an encompassing gesture. The walls faded to transparency, and they were suddenly standing in space. “Watch, and I will show you.”

  Trevor spun in a slow circle, marveling at what he was seeing. There was the moon, larger than it could have been anywhere on earth. The sun hung in the distance, impossibly bright, since there was no atmosphere to mute its brilliance. It was as if the Ark had linked to a satellite, and he was observing a holographic representation of whatever that satellite saw. Maybe it had. Maybe the Black Knight satellites were more than just a conspiracy theory.

  “This is incredible,” he whispered, truly awed in a way none of the rest of the Ark had been able to provoke. This place made the Kepler program look archaic. Hubble was nothing but an infantile experiment, clear proof of just how far modern science had lagged behind whoever had built this place.

  “You’ve not seen even a fraction of the capabilities the observatory possesses,” Anput said, giving him a warm smile.

  Ra gestured and a holographic sphere appeared in the center of the room; she stretched out delicate fingers, touching various points on the sphere’s surface. The room answered, zooming their perspective until they were much closer to the sun.

  Normally its brilliance would have been blinding, but their transformed eyes made it easier to see. He could make out massive flares all over the sun’s surface, far more numerous than anything in recorded history. At least four looked like they would result in coronal mass ejections sometime in the next several weeks.

  “Jesus,” he muttered, taking a step closer to the sun. “Four at once. We’ve never even conceived of that kind of solar violence. It’s a wonder the world is surviving at all. How does that not overwhelm our magnetosphere?”

  “Your words are strange, but I have tasted of several scientists,” Ra said, joining him near the edge closest to the sun. “What you refer to as the magnetosphere, we referred to as the shroud. It protects this world from the fury of the sun, but it is limited and easily depleted. The violence you see now is a tiny precursor to what this world will experience over the next dozen centuries.”

&n
bsp; “How will we survive?” Trevor asked. He knew far more than most about helio-seismology. There was no way the world could make it through that kind of prolonged exposure. “All life will be wiped out. Not even plants will survive.”

  “That would be the case, were it not for the Arks,” Ra said, resting a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see her standing closer than she had before. He was acutely aware of her scent, clean and intoxicating. “The network is controlled by the Nexus, which you passed to reach us here in the Cradle. Each Ark drains a portion of the solar storms, using that energy to cleanse the shroud. In short, life exists on our world because the Arks regulate our atmosphere.”

  Trevor wasn’t sure how to respond. The implications sent his entire world spinning. If the solar storms were cyclic, then only the creation of these Arks had kept the cycle of life moving. This explained the previous mass extinctions. The dinosaurs hadn’t been wiped out by a meteor. They’d likely been killed by the sun.

  “How does humanity survive?” Trevor asked. “There’s no way they could live on the surface, not if things get as bad as what you’re describing.”

  “You are an astute one,” Ra said, beaming a brilliant smile. For once the razored teeth didn’t bother him. “Humanity flees to the underworld. They take shelter in the bowels of the earth, waiting out the worst of the solar storms. Those storms will not be upon us for decades, but if humanity is not guided to safety by then, they will be annihilated.”

  Ra turned to face Anput, folding her arms across her chest. “Have you learned anything further about the burst of light?”

  “No, mighty Ra,” Anput said, dropping her head in apparent shame. “We have no idea what caused it. Something seized control of the Ark’s systems, and not even Horus understands how or why. He does not believe Ka was involved, as the creature would have left some sign of its passage.”

  “You’re talking about three pulses of blinding white light that fired up into the sky?” Trevor asked, with a sinking feeling.

  “Just so,” Ra said, shifting her attention to him. “You know of them?”

  “A little,” he admitted, combing his fingers through his goatee. “We experienced the same thing at the Ark of the Redwood. An entity we met in the Nexus, while pursuing Steve and Irakesh, claims the pulses were sent either by the Builders, or possibly something it referred to as their progeny. Can you show me the direction the pulses were fired in?”

  “Of course,” Ra said, closing her eyes for a moment. The perspective changed, showing a trio of pulses blasting into space from Northern Africa. It followed them into space, drawing a line in the direction they were fired.

  “That path looks familiar,” Trevor said, biting his lip. “I could be completely wrong, but they’re aimed in the rough direction of a habitable planet my people recently discovered. We call it Kepler 425B.”

  Trevor would have continued, but metal cracked on stone as something large approached up the stairway they’d taken to reach the room.

  “Mighty Ra,” Wepwawet’s towering form growled as he ducked into the room. “We are invaded. Isis has breached the light bridge with a small pack. Horus has gone to delay her.”

  25

  Horus

  “Are you ready?” Blair asked, stepping onto the light bridge.

  “Ready,” Liz said, stepping up to join him. Her gaze was hard. Resolved. She’d come a long way from the timid doctor back in Peru.

  “Before we depart I must offer one last warning,” Isis said, stepping onto the disk. “When we arrive, whoever Ra has left in control will sense us immediately. It is my hope she will be willing to parlay, but we must assume they will respond with all the force they can muster. I will handle the greatest part of those enemies, giving you the time to reach the central chamber. From there you must light walk to Olympus.”

  “Yeah, I’m still a little unclear about that,” Blair said, shaking his head. “What happens when we arrive? You’re known to these Olympian gods, but they aren’t going to respect us.”

  “True, but you are resourceful,” Isis said, her features tightening. “I trust you to learn what we must know: whether the way to the underworld is open. If so, you must convince them to allow us passage. If not, you must find out why. Remember they will see you as standing higher than they. We are the true gods, they are merely sorcerers. They lack the virus, and are far weaker. Even an old god will think twice about attacking you.”

  “Why don’t you go with us? If we’re going to light walk I can grab you on the way out,” Blair offered. He didn’t like the idea of separating from Isis. They were dealing with incredibly ancient gods, and while he and Liz fought well as a team he doubted their ability to overcome gods who’d spent millennia learning to fight.

  “Would that I could,” Isis said, giving a sigh. She turned to Liz. “Keep him safe. I will join you when I can, but until then I must slow Ra’s march, first to Olympus and then to the First Ark, should it come to that.”

  “How will you do that?” Liz asked, folding her arms underneath her breasts. “You’re strong, but you’re only one against many.”

  “True,” Isis said, giving an encouraging smile. “But I will not be alone when I face Ra and her forces. I will turn one of her most potent weapons against her, a creature that devours entire armies. The Sand Kraken will not be enough to stop her, but it will force her to deal with it, or risk losing her army.”

  “And you can just control this thing?” Liz asked, more than a little dubiously.

  “Of course,” Isis said, blinking once. “I tamed it to begin with.”

  “You’ve made some really frightening things, Isis,” Blair said, heaving a sigh. “I don’t like anything about this plan, but I guess we don’t have a lot of choice. If we’re going to do this, then let’s do this.”

  “Begin,” Isis commanded. Blair met Liz’s gaze. She gave a tight nod, squaring her shoulders.

  He concentrated, willing the Nexus to activate the light bridge. There was a moment’s hesitation, then brilliant light exploded around them. A moment later they stood on an identical bridge, though the room itself was different. The hieroglyphs here were much more numerous, and clearly created by a different hand.

  Blair gawked openly at them. Egyptology had always been a passion, but his training in anthropology had carried him across the world. He’d worked with Mayan, Cambodian, Indian, and Welsh writing. He knew their stylistic differences, which was why he was so positive he was looking at the precursor to both the Sumerian and Egyptian languages. This room held proof that not only were the two cultures linked, but they had a common parent culture.

  “Blair, focus,” Isis’s voice cracked. She’d already moved from the light bridge, shifting as she did. In the blink of an eye she was ten feet of silver-furred muscle. “Liz, I’m going to teach you a new ability. You can use the shadows to cloak those around you for short period of time. That should keep you safe until we know how we’ll be received.”

  “I’d say it’s too late for that, Mother,” came a wry voice from the doorway. Shadows rippled, revealing a man of average height with a pair of golden spectacles. Well muscled with bronzed skin and a hawk-like nose, he somehow managed to look like a scholar.

  “Horus,” Isis said, stretching out a hand towards the newcomer. Her voice was thick with emotion, and Blair saw tears in her eyes. “You survived the gulf of time. I was sick with worry.”

  “Worried that Ra would leave me to wither and perish?” Horus asked, taking a step into the room. He extended both hands, and his golden bracelets melted and flowed into his hands. A moment later he held twin weapons like large pickaxes, but with three blades each. They resembled the enormous talons of some bird.

  “I don’t claim to know her mind,” Isis said, assuming a defensive stance. A look of infinite sadness passed over her face. She turned her head slightly toward Liz, but kept her eyes on Horus. “Draw Blair to your chest, then summon the shadows. Your beast will show you how. Be aware that the ability
is taxing, so use it only as long as you must to reach the central chamber. I will tend to my son, with violence if necessary.”

  Horus blurred toward Liz, burying one of those massive talons in her gut. He flung her into the wall with bone shattering force, blood splattering his face. Blair saw red, shifting unconsciously even as he took his first step toward the strange deity.

  “No,” Isis snapped in Blair’s direction. “Tend to Liz. Get her to the central chamber. This fight is beyond you.”

  Blair restrained himself, blurring to Liz’s side. She’d already begun to heal, but he helped her to her feet anyway.

  “He hits like a Mack truck,” she grunted, spitting out a little blood.

  “Get in my shadow, you can heal on the way,” Blair said, watching Horus. The god stared cruelly at Isis, as the pair circled each other.

  Liz flowed into inky tendrils of smoke, her body disappearing as she slid into his shadow. It no longer bothered him as it once had. If anything, it was reassuring. If they ran afoul of another god, maybe Liz could surprise him.

  Blair blurred, as fast and hard as he could. He whipped past Horus, ducking under the casual swipe the god launched with one of his talons. Blair rolled out of the room, bounding off a wall as he blurred up the corridor. He knew the layout of this place intimately, having spent time in the Ark first in Peru, then later in San Francisco.

  Blair continued up corridors, blurring past several slow-moving figures. From their garb he took them for servants, slow and nearly mindless deathless he didn’t bother to dispatch. It was possible they could report to their masters, but he was hoping by the time they did he’d have activated the light bridge and carried Liz to safety.

  Or potential safety anyway. He still had no idea what to expect at Olympus. The idea that it wasn’t a mountain was exceedingly strange, and he found himself wondering again just what the place that had spawned so much legend was like.