Ashton was more than a hundred yards away now, near the last towers on the southwestern edge of the city. He slowed and stopped, turning to glare at me. “Just go, leave me be!”
I struggled shakily to my feet. The air was returning to my lungs, but I was running out of energy. But I couldn’t stop, not now.
This has to end, I thought. For Lovat, for the Territories, for the world. For me.
My legs began to move below me once again. First a walk, then a half-jog. Ashton wanted to flee, but I wouldn’t let him. I had to stop him.
He was moving west, over the broken and incomplete form of Level Nine. We passed the last of the towers, their balconies lined with people, elevated citizens staring out, scared. To them we were just two humans in a mad city, one chasing the other.
The floor became more and more unfinished, but Ashton kept going. He was nearing the edge, I realized. I had pushed him to the edge. The jagged western side of the city that loomed out above the sea.
The last few blocks were a loose weaving of steel that jutted out past Level Eight and over the waters of the sound far below. A sign sat near an edge, proclaiming in Strutten: COME SEE THE LEVEL NINE PROMENADE! OPENING SOON! A jaunty-looking couple in embroidered cowls walked along a wide boardwalk arm in arm, examining the glass fronts of high-end fashion boutiques.
A cold wind whipped around me, threatening to throw me off the structure. It brought me to my knees. I saw Ashton, standing on the edge, a shivering Janus Gold kneeling next to him. Ashton’s hand was wrapped around his neck. The First sighed and slumped, sitting on a narrow bit of poured cement that ran along the edge, his back to a girder.
“So now you forced me here. To the edge of your city,” he said, not turning to look at me. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared out over the water. I could hear the venom in his voice. “I am not your enemy.”
“You sent your servants to kill me.”
He considered this, then bowed his head in a gesture of acquiescence and smiled. “We all have parts to play.”
“So, what then?” I said. I wanted to keep him talking. Keep his focus on something other than me. A warm blast of air from the south whipped around us. The sky cracked and rumbled with thunder. I looked for a way across to where he was sitting. The beams between us were a spider’s web of steel.
“I suppose you wish to fight.” He gave a sad chuckle but didn’t turn. Gold writhed in his grip. His hands trying to pull the first’s long fingers from his neck. “I hate this game. I’ve always hated this game. I wanted nothing to do with it.”
“Yet...” I said, marking a way across the girders to the platform.
“Yet, here we are,” Ashton agreed and looked west.
“You killed people,” I said.
Ashton grinned. “There are always more.”
He looked over his shoulder at me and grinned, his wide white teeth filling an even wider mouth. Beside him, Gold made a weak sound and Ashton gave the little dauger a shove. Gold slid across the narrow platform, coming to rest in the middle. He coughed and rubbed at his neck.
I eased out on an I-beam, crawling towards the future promenade, my hands tight along its edges. I drew closer and closer to Ashton. I didn’t want to look down, but I failed. My heart froze as I saw how high up we were. Below me, the tide crashed against the pillars that embedded themselves into the submerged bedrock. Ships the size of caravans looked like small beetles crawling across the shifting water. The caps of the waves were white and pure, a contrast to the fading purple of the sea. The sun was disappearing behind the Rosalias. Around us, streetlights already installed in the unfinished streets began to clank on.
I stepped onto the platform. It was merely the bones, the initial structure that would support the future promenade.
It wasn’t very wide and only about fifteen yards long. Ashton crouched along its northernmost edge, me along the southern. Gold lay on his back in the middle.
Ashton laughed and looked around. He spread his arms wide and spun on the end of the platform. “You know you’re too late, Bell. It has begun! My grandfather’s great works. We don’t need to wait for servants to call us forth. I am here. The Founders stir. The High Priest himself comes.”
As if on cue, another peel of thunder rumbled.
Gargoyles began to appear around us. They perched on the girders and beams like ravens, their robes fluttering in the ceaseless wind, their blank faces focused on the two of us. Ashton turned and regarded them with a smile. “We have an audience.”
“I won’t let you continue.”
“I have only done what was asked,” he gestured to Gold. “It was Adderley who guided me to your upper reaches. I didn’t do it myself. I am as much a puppet as anyone.” The sky split with thunder again, and Ashton looked up at the clouds. “Grandfather has a dramatic flair, doesn’t he? Thunder, lightning, next we’ll get rain.”
I said nothing. I just slowly rose. Standing, facing this First. This ancient creature that could cause, would cause, so much destruction. Ashton looked at me for a long moment, then at the dauger, and then back at me again.
“What will you do? How will you—a human, ninth of creation—stop me? You can’t kill me, Bell. Even if you were stronger, even if you were at your full strength you couldn’t kill me. Begone.”
He waved me away, but I didn’t move.
“I’ve stopped your kind before. I will stop you.” I said it with more confidence than I felt.
He tsked and then gave a chuckle. “You think you stopped them?”
I narrowed my eyes and regarded him. Lies?
Ashton rose shaking his head; he stood with his hands held out to his sides, fingers twitching. “You can’t kill us, Bell. You can only delay. We always come back. That’s the cruel trick our place in the universe affords us! We don’t die, we are just delayed. Trapped for a time. I thought your kind would have figured it out by now.”
Curwen. Cybill. I imagined them somewhere watching us. Hatred in their eyes. Was it true? Could they still be out there somewhere, waiting?
I kept my eyes trained on the First in front of me.
“I ask you one last time. Drop this. There doesn’t need to be a fight between us,” said Ashton.
“And if I let you go?”
He blinked at me. “Then I go.”
In my mind’s eye I could see what would happen if I chose to walk away. It was as clear to me as any memory. I saw Ashton in the form of the beast from the pit, tearing through Lovat. I saw Syringa burn, and the world engulfed in flames. It would be a new Aligning, and it would be nothing less than the destruction of the world and the deaths of millions.
The vision. The wasteland. The dead city. I had seen what happens when the Firsts were left unchecked.
“No,” I said. I set my shoulders, I felt bones pop. Fear twisted my stomach into a knot. I shook my head. “No,” I said again.
Ashton sighed. Behind him lightning flashed. I saw three creatures standing there: the man, the beast, and the titan surrounding the city and waiting to crash into this reality.
The buzzing in the back of my head hardened, it became a thrum, deep and resonating like beckoning war drums.
Ashton looked at me, the cocky smile faded, the soft eyes hardened. His expression grew sour. His smile became a scowl and his gaze was laced with hate. Those too-wide eyes narrowed and his hands curled into claws.
“That’s a shame,” he said. “You seemed like a smart man.”
TWENTY-NINE
ASHTON CLOSED THE DISTANCE between us in a single leap, driving his fist toward me like a battering ram.
I cringed and brought up an arm. I had seen him destroy an entire tower just making an entrance. I steeled myself for the pain, for the sound of my bones snapping.
But it didn’t come.
The blow connected with my arm, it rang through me and shook me like a strike from any other person. Nothing broken. Still in one piece. I stumbled back as he swung again, and slapped awa
y the third punch.
He screamed in anger and stepped back, looking down at his fists in confusion. The warm wind whipped around us, the warmest wind I had felt for quite some time. It smelled like the sea, heavy with the scent of salt and seaweed. It energized me, it pulled me forward into the fight. I could hear the gargoyles around us buzzing.
“No, no, no, no,” Ashton said. “This didn’t need to happen!”
I stepped into him, swinging my own fist. The punch went wild, clipping him on the side of the head. The second, a low punch to his midsection, caught him directly. He gasped and then grunted, shoving me back, and I stumbled as he doubled over.
I had hit him. I hurt him!
But how?
I stared at my own fists, dumbstruck. I felt no stronger. Hell, I was wounded and exhausted, yet... I had hurt Ashton. A First.
This shouldn’t be happening. I had seen him destroy an entire tower. His shove should have sent me careening off the edge of the platform, but it felt like any old brawl.
Except the stakes were higher.
He came at me again, his fist connecting with my jaw before I could block it. It drove me to the side, and down to one knee. I tasted blood and spat it out.
Ashton kicked me in the side. I wheezed, felt the burning pain in the gash in my chest. I dropped to my shoulder and twisted, feeling more kicks crash against my back.
“Now I understand why my uncle wouldn’t face you in this shell. I see why he waited.”
I rolled onto my side to avoid another stomp then dragged myself backward across the rough cement to the edge of the platform. Ashton stalked towards me, arms at his sides. His hands were growing larger.
I pulled my feet under me and leapt forward. We crashed together, knocking our heads and dropping into a tangle of punches. I swung wildly, striking him in the stomach, the face, the neck. Gold scrambled out of the way to avoid being pressed over the edge.
Ashton grunted and yelped as my fists made contact. I breathed heavily and punched at his head, feeling my fists come away wet with his shimmering white blood.
He gritted his teeth and shoved me off him. I flew backward. My head slapped against the platform and stars crashed through my vision.
I blinked and rose shakily, stunned by the hit. I shook my head, trying to clear it. Ashton and Gold wavered before me. I could hear the sinister warble of laughter from the audience of gargoyles around us. A trickle of blood dribbled from my nose. I wiped it away with the back of my hand. I could feel bruises forming along my knuckles. We were back where we started, standing opposite one another on the narrow platform at the edge of the city.
“You’re cornered,” I said. “You can’t get away.”
Ashton sneered. He wiped his mouth with the heel of a thumb and looked at the milky white fluid that came away. He snorted an annoyed laugh and then glared at me.
He shook his head slowly.
I hurt all over.
Ashton looked down at Gold. The dauger seemed to flinch under his gaze. Where before he had been arrogant, now he cowered. Ashton snorted a laugh.
“You,” he said to the dauger. “Get him. Kill Bell.”
My vision was clearing. I saw Gold blink. The dauger looked to me and then back to the First.
“It’s him or you.”
The threat was clear. Gold turned and looked at me, his hands balling into fists.
Ashton egged him on. “Throw him from the platform! We can watch his body burst as it breaks.”
Fighting both of these two would be problematic. I held out my hands and hoped I’d be able to convince the dauger otherwise. “Doesn’t have to be like this, Janus! He’s using you.”
Gold regarded me. I could see the look in his eyes soften and seemed to ease.
“I said kill him!” Ashton’s voice roared with intensity.
The shout sent a jolt of electricity through Gold. He stalked toward me.
Behind him Ashton flopped down to a sitting position and then began to collapse inward. It was like his skeleton had melted. In an instant, I realized what he was doing. Gold was the distraction. He was going to shift. Back into his true form.
“He’s shif—” I began to shout.
Gold lunged at me. I ducked, and he dived again. I stepped to the side, sending him careening behind me. I turned as he was coming in for a third lunge. This time he was able to get his arms around my waist.
I was shocked at how strong he was. He lifted me for a moment and then wrestled me to the deck. His hands beat at my chest. I could see his wide eyes through the eyeholes of his mask. Those eyes, so filled with hate and terror. A portion of his mask had been bent and was collapsed on the left side, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. He looked wild. Insane.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said through gritted teeth. I brought up a knee and buried it in his gut. He groaned. I rolled away and rose back to my feet. My head was spinning.
“Yes,” Gold wheezed. “I... do. You or me.”
Again he lunged at me, tried to shove me towards the edge. I scrambled to keep myself planted. My boots scraped across the cement.
At the opposite edge, Ashton continued his transformation.
I had to stop this. I kneed Gold again, causing him to double over.
Fighting a dauger is a strange thing. Most blows are usually made to the body as their masks protect their faces. However, the backs of their heads are usually unprotected.
I grabbed him by the mask and shoved up and back, driving him backwards. Then I dropped down, slamming him to the ground and smacking his head down on the cement. It made a loud thwap. Gold groaned and then lay still. Red blood pooled around his head, staining the cement. He was out cold.
I rose. My shoulders hunched. My back arched. I turned to the creature, now half-changed. He had nearly doubled in size. His belly had become engorged and his face had widened, again resembling a giant anur. The human arms that dangled on either side had begun to elongate, the fingers stretching and turning into wicked claws. He shook and gazed down at me, watching me approach.
In his human form, Ashton had been able to drag Gold around, smash through buildings. Yet when he punched me it felt like he’d had the same strength as Gold? Being punched by Ashton should have felt like being hit by a runaway ox. What would it be like now?
“Stay away,” Ashton warned, the cold voice rumbling from behind his thick rolling lips.
I came at him, fists bared. He swiped a half-formed claw at me, raking my coat and causing me to step back, nearly stumbling over the unconscious Gold.
“This is Black’s doing. His failure. You shouldn’t be alive.”
He came towards me, again trying to slash me with his claws. I leapt out of the way, careful not to throw myself over the edge. There wasn’t much platform left, and it moaned under our combined weight.
Ashton shook his head, and his human ears became the strange appendages that reminded me of a bat’s wings. As his chest expanded the clothes were torn free, ragged cloth hanging about him like tattered flags on the lines of a ship.
His weight was too much too soon. The platform lurched to one side. I slipped, tumbling to the ground, my hands scrambling for a grip.
Gold slid to the edge, but remained motionless. The platform hadn’t twisted enough to throw him off—not yet at least. Ashton readjusted his flesh and then pulled himself toward me. His skin rasped as it was dragged against the platform. A deep growl belched from his wide mouth. “To think, I—of all Founders—will do what my aunt and uncle could not.”
He threw himself toward me in a leap that looked more like a controlled lurch. His body was now as wide as a cargowain, and I rolled to my belly and let the creature roll over me.
I felt his heavy body drag across my own, pressing down on me. Pushing my breath out of my chest. My ribs moaned under the crushing weight. My face pressed against the rough cement. Then there was the scent of the sea as the warm breeze hit me again and I was out. Behind him.
&nbs
p; The platform shook as he came to a stop. Now in the middle of the platform, he turned and lunged again. His proud expression had turned to frustration.
I couldn’t react in time. He caught me and drove me back. His claws dug into my flesh. He hooked me in the meat of my thigh and pierced the upper portion of my left arm. I kicked with my free leg, striking an eye, his mouth.
Ashton spun to face southwest again, carrying me with him and slamming me against the platform. The cement scraped the skin from my neck and chin. He released me and loomed above.
I had to get away. Ashton watched me crawl backward until I stopped near Gold’s unconscious form.
The creature let out a deep chuckle and settled, returning to his shifting.
“Would that I had the speed of Curwen. I would have shed my weakened fettle in moments and destroyed you.”
I took a painful breath, tried to clear my head. I pulled a knee beneath me. Something inside had settled. I was out of time. He was growing, changing, each moment getting stronger. Our fight was evenly matched when he was in his human form, but he was quickly outpacing me. If I acted now I might have an advantage. Maybe I could... yes. It had to be now.
My whole body hurt, but I pushed myself upward.
The First’s eyes were narrow and slowly shifting. Seeing him change, seeing portions of him grow and stretch was incomprehensible. It was like watching clay being shaped, but there was no potter to do the shaping.
The dark skin that had held him together in his human form tore apart with a wet ripping sound, revealing a dusky gray flesh beneath that spouted spurts of hair. He was on the edge, his back just above open air. If I could hit him just right...
Behind me, Gold stirred.
Ashton chuckled.
The dauger rose, and I spared a glance to see him stare in horror at Ashton and then settle his gaze on me. He rocked where he stood, head quivering, but his gaze never left mine. There was anger in his eyes.
Red Litten World Page 28