Fourth Under Sol (Digitesque Book 5)

by Guerric Haché

  Isavel frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “I saw some along the walls. Two of them were coding, and they were being followed by someone painting it over. They all had guns.”

  Sam nodded. “Defensive sigils - reinforcements, code-blocking barriers, signal alarms, who knows. I don’t know what sigils they do and don’t know around these parts, but it could be risky approaching the walls.”

  “They’re doing it pretty quietly.” Isavel realized, with a start, what was happening. “They expect a break-in, not a war. They know I’m not dead. They lied to people.”

  Tanos rubbed the back of his neck. “So no sneaking in.”

  She turned and smiled at their ghost walker, and the spirit she assumed was following him, in another world just beyond the veil. “I don’t know. Erran?”

  “I’ve got a few worlds that could let us climb to the roof, but we need elevation.”

  “Climb? What about Tevoria?”

  He shook his head. “Tevoria could zap us all in, sure, but if we needed to get out quick again that might be too much strain. I’d rather take the hard way in and save the easy way for an escape.”

  That was less than she would have liked, but Hail gave the fire some fuel. “There was one spot where the walls are high, no windows. Might be coded with defenses; they didn’t posted any guards there.” The hunter pointed behind her. “Come on.”

  “Where’s the wraith?”

  Tanos was looking around for it, and when Isavel searched the skies she saw nothing. “I don’t know; let’s not worry about it. Just go.”

  Hail brought them to the spot in question; opposite that was one of the city’s many towers. True enough, it was all unguarded - perhaps they had forgotten the dragon’s wings in her blood.

  They slipped into the tower, Isavel and her sharpest senses taking the lead. Alongside the eyes she shared with Hail, she had ears and a nose for threats others did not. She cast her senses out onto each the floor, on the side facing the temple, trying to tell whether it was empty of humans. The first few were not.

  She lead, they followed. Up the stairs to another floor that was occupied - and then another, and another. It wasn’t until the eighth that she waited for a long time, hearing only silence, getting no barely-conscious sense of off smells or out-of-place dust and dirt.

  “This one.”

  They padded into the halls, Isavel first, carefully setting down her feet so she wouldn’t cause much noise. They found rooms empty and unused, gathering dust far from the windows and moss closer to fresh air, waiting for the day a watcher decided to pass through and clean up. One window directly overlooked the temple.

  “Erran?”

  The ghost walker stepped forward. She couldn’t see his face under his hood, but he was silent for a moment before nodding.

  “Is it safe?” Hail sounded dubious.

  Erran glanced at her. “Last time we walked together, you turned out alive.”

  Hail nodded, but her eyes remained sharp. “You dragged demons onto the battlefield.”

  He shook his head. “Just the one. This is a safe world. No nasty spirits around, just a bunch of trees. Lots of sturdy branches.”

  Isavel felt for the dragon’s gift in her chest. “I can lighten myself, maybe enough for some of you to hold onto me without my grip faltering. Just for leverage - I can’t carry you all.”

  “The closer we can keep, the better.” Erran nodded, eyes flickering with dim light. “It’s nighttime there too, but if someone on real ground looks up, they might see the walk against the sky. I’d like the smallest bubble we can manage. We’ll be blind, so we need to go fast.”

  Sam looked out to the temple and the courtyard nestled before it. “Are the guards really all coders? I haven’t seen armed coders like this in a while.”

  Isavel scowled. “I bet they rushed back with Mother Jera on the first hauler trip, ready to tell tales of the Herald martyring herself.”

  Erran reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll fuck them up if we have to.”

  “I’d rather we go straight to the source.” She took a deep breath, and looked to her companions. “I’ll stick to Erran; everyone else, grab me if you need support.” She reached into the dragon’s gift for its unnatural lightness, feeling like she was about to float off the tip of her toes. Hail and Erran reached for her shoulders. “Are we all in place?”

  Erran pointed to Sam. “Get a little closer to me. Tanos, take a step to your right. Hail, you might want to keep a hand up right there, there’s a branch in front of you you should grab. Everyone else is good to go.”

  She checked for the wraith, but the creature was nowhere to be seen; she certainly couldn’t account for it. “Okay.” She set her eyes on the temple, coiled in the city like a snail shell. Or a snake. “Walk.”

  The world around them fizzed away into blue-green latticework and they immediately stumbled . Grasping hands yanked at her from a few sides at once as people grabbed for something stable, and the impact of wood under her feet reverberated up her legs and spine, but after that initial moment of shock they settled surprisingly easily onto the branch of a tree from the dreams of gods.

  That branch was one amidst a thick tangle of branches roping between huge, gnarly trees that rose from some distant forest floor far below the shadows; their path to the temple was a knot of haphazard embraces between these trees, and it took Isavel a moment to pick out what she thought might be the path, but it was hard to tell without being able to see the real world beyond. Erran pointed forward and down.

  “We need to move - that tree intersects with the temple. Go!”

  They started shuffling along, ducking twigs as they did. The bark was mossy and slippery, and Isavel did all she could to keep everyone stable; she felt each person’s hand clinging to her, weights pulling and shifting as they went. She was starting to worry that if all four of them suddenly panicked at once, they might just haul her down, even if the dragon’s lightness had largely removed her weight from the balance.

  Sam took a sharp breath. “Isavel. Look down.”

  She did, and immediately saw it - below their branch, which had been most of her focus, something writhed along the edges of the walk. An odd sort of flickering, difficult to make out in the dark, but after a second she realized what it was. “The wraith.”

  Erran nodded. “Yeah, it’s right underneath us. Hiding us from below. Thing knows more than it’s letting on.”

  As they shuffled across the branches Hail slipped, and Isavel snapped out with a hand to grab her under the arm. Their eyes locked for a brief second; she didn’t know if falling through the wraith was dangerous, but she didn’t want anyone to test it. “If the wraith is hiding us, I could use my wings.”

  Hail’s eyes widened. “They’re too bright!”

  Isavel shook her head. Her wings had always been white, but it had always been a choice not to change them. She couldn’t say why she had settled on white in the first place, but now was not the time anymore. Now was the time for deep black, for wings like shards of clear summer night. She felt the blades jutt from her back, saw they cast no light or shadow, and filled them too with the dragon’s lightness.

  Tanos looked to the wings with a muted expression Isavel couldn’t identify, and reached out to prod the flat of one gingerly with his finger. She shifted her arms to urge them onward. “Go!”

  They kept moving, dark angel wings helping keep her from careening off her footing. It wasn’t as easy as she would have liked, but they were almost there; after circling another trunk and continuing along another causeway of branches, they reached their destination. Time to go down .

  Hail looked at her nervously, then swallowed and nodded. She started climbing down the tree’s twisted trunk. Isavel dug into the wood with dark dragon claws and lent the others some support as they clung between her and the branches. They moved down, slowly, towards a ground only Erran could see.

  Suddenly he whispered. “Stop.”

/>   “Are we there?”

  He nodded. His eyes flickered with unnatural light as he looked between worlds. “I don’t see anyone. Aside from the wraith. Some of us are going to fall a little, but we should be fine if you don’t wobble over and impale us on your wings.”

  She grimaced and took the hint, letting her wings flicker out. “Do it.”

  That eerie lattice swept them back into the real world as she let her claws fade. Sam and Tanos, lowest on the trunk, landed immediately on their feet; but Isavel, Hail, and Erran had a bit of a less graceful tumble. They all stood unharmed, though, and they were alone on the roof of the temple - except for the wraith, which looked oddly like it had been waiting for them, like a vaguely human, cloaked shape sculpted from smoke and left here as a welcome. She clapped Erran’s shoulder. This was going remarkably well so far.

  “Thank you. Almost there.”

  The wraith fell from a pillar to some kind of thick puddle a meter across, then slid off across the roof. Hail eyed it uncomfortably. “That thing creeps me out, Isavel. And it’s just one - what are all the other ones out there doing?”

  Isavel considered it. “It just helped us. I don’t know what it wants, but right now we need to -”

  Erran suddenly made a shooing motion, cursing in a hushed voice. “Buzz off.”

  Isavel turned to follow his gesture, and saw a red panda cautiously picking its way across the grassy roof towards her. A pang of pleasant surprise struck her as she recognized the animal. “Joker?”

  The little red panda picked up its pace at the word, ignoring Erran and coming to lean on her leg with its front paws. Hail knelt down next to it and gave it a pat on the head, but Isavel quickly remembered Joker wasn’t the quietest animal she’d met.

  “Joker! Go keep safe somewhere.”

  It pawed at Hail and licked its lips, starting to warble.

  “No, no - be quiet.” She knelt down alongside Hail and reached into the folds of her robes, picking out some rations - some large grub they had found on the island. “Take this and get out of here.”

  Joker grabbed the food and scurried into the rooftop shrubs. The wraith briefly angled a few dark tendrils at him, but quickly turned away, latching onto an odd metal strutt instead.

  “Your animal?” Erran was frowning. “Whatever - let’s go.”

  Isavel led them towards the stairs, glancing at the walker. “What, you don’t like pandas?”

  “My family had some as pets, in my first life. Little bastards were always stealing my food. My mother thought it was hilarious.”

  Hail snorted. “And after centuries of undeath you still haven’t let go of that grudge? Legendary stuff , ghost .”

  “Look, just because they’re fuzzy doesn’t mean I have to like them. Have you seen those faces? So smug.”

  Sam pointedly raised her eyebrow at her fellow ghost. “Shut up. You’re making a good case for us being actual monsters.”

  “Quiet.” Isavel held up her hand at the top of a set of stairs, as near to the shrine as they’d get. She nodded down, and descended into the dark. They followed her into the temple, four distinct sets of footsteps closely matching hers. The wraith did not seem to make sounds unwillingly, but a glance told her it was also following.

  She listened closely, hoping any guards might give away their position. The upper level of the temple seemed remarkably quiet, though, so they made it to the shrine without incident.

  The shrine room didn’t have a door. Damn. Had it always been that way? Or had it been removed? She had never before worried about whatever hung from the door frame.

  She stepped close to the entrance and took a deep breath. Part of her knew what she was getting herself into, so she glanced at the party. “This isn’t going to go well. They’ll come for us - we need lookouts.”

  Hail straightened her back. “I’ll shoot anyone who shows up.”

  Isavel pursed her lips. She was leading Hail further and further into the very sort of random killing Hail had once tried to escape; but under the circumstances, it might end up being necessary. “We shouldn’t kill people if we can help it.”

  The hunter nodded. “I’d aim for the bits they don’t strictly need, of course.”

  She smirked despite herself. “Good enough. Everyone else... You can come in if you want, but stay quiet.”

  Tanos looked around. “What about the wraith?”

  She glanced up and down the hall. The thing had vanished. “Damn. Forget it, we can’t control it. Just stay here.”

  As she stepped into the shrine room and pulled back her hood, the dull grey light of the shrine flared purple immediately. Isavel froze for a long moment, glancing at the shrine and the ground in front of it. Deference had earned her nothing so far. She stood.

  “Gods on the ring. I’m here to collect my due.”

  The voices of the gods responded in unison, with apparently no care at all for stealthiness. “The world is in grave danger, Herald, and you must stand prepared to defend it. Threats from beyond Earth will -”

  She snapped out a palm, hexagonal shards of light pearling between her fingers, aimed straight at the shrine. “No! Enough of this. I’m done.”

  The gods quieted orange.

  “You think I’m going to spend the rest of my life, what, enduring? What for? Everything that’s happened - I’ve seen what you can do. The powers you gave me, the powers you gave Ada, the godfire you brought down on the heads of people who believed in you - you can do so much. And yet you do nothing when villages burn, you do nothing to stop those aliens from coming and taking Ada from me, you do nothing to help children dying overwhelmed in their parents’ arms, you offer no guidance, you -”

  The polyphonic warble interrupted her. “We guide humanity according to a longer view. But it is up to heroes like yourself to inspire the people and -”

  She took a step forward and interrupted right back. “My people turned on m e. I’m no inspiration; I’m not sure I ever was. I was a convenient part of the ghost story. That’s it. I’ve seen plays before - I’ve heard travellers telling tales. I know heroes die in the end, or fade into as good as death when the world no longer has a place for them. Unless, sometimes, they’re rewarded for their losses.” She jabbed a finger towards them, her palm still aglimmer. “ You put me in this story, and I - I refuse . I’m done. I’m not dying for you. I will not fade . I’m here to collect my due. ”

  “You can overcome all your struggles, Isavel. You can reclaim the love of the people. We know your potential, and thus we made you our Herald. If you could only understand the dangers -”

  The word love made her angry, even though it was not a word she should be particularly concerned with right now, and she stepped forward to thump the shrine with her palm. “Loved? I’ve never been someone people loved . You’ve watched me forever - you know . The weird kid babbling foreign words to her mother? The quiet girl on the edge of the campfire? It sets you apart, even if people can still be kind. And now I’m the weird half-divine Herald. I was always apart, and you set me further apart .”

  “You need not fear the future.” The gods’ vagueness was starting to irritate her as much as their indiscrete volume. “You have learned much, and you -”

  “Have I done what you asked of me?”

  The gods were silent for a moment. “You have fought to defend your people, at every turn. You have helped defeat the ghosts. You have made good the title of Herald.”

  “What about Isavel?”

  The gods… hesitated? She wrote off the pause as an expression of exasperation, but it didn’t feel right. “Explain.”

  “I - me - Isavel bled and hurt and fought for the Herald, but the Herald took away everything that matters to Isavel. Family, friends, lovers, freedom - Ada -”

  “Ada Liu is lost even to us. We cannot -”

  “You can do anything! You’re fucking gods!” She barely realized she was shouting. “So I’m telling you now - my story is over. Give your so-called hero her
due. Give me back all you’ve taken from me. And more! And if you don’t -”

  “Isavel.” Sam’s interjection sounded worried. “I know - look - you said keep quiet -”

  The gods responded flatly. “Our path for you is to serve the greater good of humanity. Throughout the ages, such service has generally been fulfilling -”

  “ Generally? Are you betting my life on what generally works for people? No.” She straightened her shoulders and drew up a blade of white light on her fist. “Gods on the ring, give me all your powers and your secrets. Lay out all the paths of my future, and I’ll pick my own way. And if you don’t, by the bastard blood in my veins I will track down every voice you negligent cowards have on this Earth and silence it, so you can never do to another what you’ve done to me. I will smash every shrine, burn every watcher, crack open every golem masquerading as a priest -”

  There was a sudden shift in the sounds outside, and her peripheral senses lit up with hunter fire and Hail’s voice. “Isavel!”

  The shrine fell back to its dull grey again. They would answer her no more. In a sense, they never really had.

  Isavel roared and ran her light through the shrine, shattering it in a spray of glassy shards. She gripped the edges of the shrine and tore it off the wall, throwing it against the ground. Sparks flew as old code weaving the shrine together cracked and sputtered with bursts of angry blue, the frame buckling and deforming under impact, scattering glass all around her feet.

  She looked at her fingers, unharmed by the bursts of light and energy. Kicked her foot through the shards. So much for the Angel of Glass.

  “Isavel - Isavel, they’re coming! We have to go!”

  Chapter 2

  Isavel stepped into the hall, blood boiling, sensing the shouting and the lights. Hail was crouched, palms alight and aiming down towards one of the stairwells that descended into the temple. She looked to the ghost.

  “Erran? Let’s have that easy way out now.”

  The ghost appeared at her side, his eyes flickering. Tanos glanced at him. “What are we doing?”

  The walker’s lip twitched. “I have a friend, a spirit. She can get us out in a second. Hope you don’t get dizzy easily.”