The Never Army

by Hodges, T. Ellery

  In that moment, Heyer fell through the barrier into the open air on the other side of the boundary. He coughed water onto the floor. No longer cloaked, Cede recognized the new occupant immediately.

  Now, while he did in fact have the correct encryption code, Malkier had been very explicit. Cede was not to allow any Borealis other than Malkier himself into the ship. But this created a problem, because Heyer was already inside. Cede was extremely limited by her programming. She couldn’t use deadly force against a Borealis, this was forbidden. However, there was nothing in her programming that kept her from restraining a Borealis until Malkier returned.

  There was no need to restrain him in a literal sense. After all, as soon as he’d stepped inside, he’d basically checked back into a prison from which he would never leave. Only in the event that he attempted some mischief would she take the steps of locking down his limbs and restraining his movement.

  For the moment, he was no more than a Ferox trying to expel sea water from his lungs. Perhaps, he was even here to keep their other guest company.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND SEVEN

  MALKIER WAS TEMPORARILY left at the will of the water that came crashing through the city. The hurricane followed by the huge wave had kept him blind and rolling along the streets. When it finally calmed, he planted his feet and surfaced.

  Most of the green haze was gone from the skies now. The sun was in the sky. The streets were filled with water that reached up to his knees after it receded.

  He turned about and didn’t believe his eyes. His people, they were gone. Not a single Ferox was anywhere to be seen. There was an eerie quiet over all of the city, the only sound was in the distance. The sound of water receding back out to sea.

  He felt a rise of terror inside. What was this? How could it be?

  He felt something move in his mind then and knew that he wasn’t alone. He could feel Brings the Rain. He turned slowly, as the man was not far away. He stood on the water, in the middle of the street.

  As though he’d been waiting for him.

  “What have you done with my people?” Malkier asked.

  Brings the Rain’s visor retracted, revealing a face with eyes burning with the power of the bond. Strange, he could not feel the woman any longer.

  “Poisoned them, I suppose you could say,” he said. “Unlike you, they’ve been breathing in humanity for quite some time now.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The man had the nerve to smile at him. “I was surprised to learn just how easy it is to destroy a portal stone. All it took was a touch of humanity and some Borealis energy.”

  Malkier knew the man was right, but he still didn’t see.

  “That gas your AI came up with was good. It was quite a problem for me. But, let me give you some tips. Clear and odorless is the way to go. You don’t roll it out and unleash it in giant bladders. You hide it all over your battleground. In buildings and sewers, inside mundane things no will ever suspect. See, that way, your enemy never realizes what they’re breathing, what’s building up in their blood. Until . . .”

  He snapped his fingers. “You trigger it.”

  “You . . . you sent them back?” Malkier said. “Why, it will buy you a few minutes, nothing more.”

  “I don’t think you’ve been paying attention,” Jonathan said.

  He knelt, reached down past where his feet hovered on the water. He cupped a handful, lifted it, and let drain it out.

  “Did you notice, when you arrived, all that wreckage . . . All those building we dropped around the conduit, your people, in such a hurry to take their Promised Land, they kept pushing it aside . . . it was like they were building a funnel and never even knew it.”

  For a moment, Malkier realized he couldn’t breathe—he felt dizzy.

  “What do you imagine happens, when a few thousand Ferox return to gateways that are underwater?” Jonathan asked.

  Malkier staggered. He spun to the direction of the conduit, turning away from Brings the Rain.

  “I wouldn’t,” Jonathan said. “Trust me, you don’t want the nightmares. I know what it feels like to see your people murdered, piled on top of one another.”

  Malkier turned back. “You’re a monster, Brings the Rain.”

  The man nodded. “Slaughter their weak. Draw out their strong. The word of the prophet. How many men have stood where you stand, felt what you feel now—because of your words.”

  A moment passed.

  “Where is my brother?” Malkier asked. “His shadow must be fighting alongside you.”

  Brings the Rain shook his head. “I can honestly say I haven’t seen him for weeks.”

  Malkier stared back at him, at first in disbelief. Then he saw the man wasn’t lying. Some time passed, and perhaps something inside the ancient Borealis had snapped, because he began to laugh. He laughed the way a man did when he was beyond reason.

  “He imagines you will kill me, and you’re naive enough to think you can,” Malkier said.

  Jonathan pulled Excali-bar from its sheath and shook his head. “Not a fool, Malkier. I doubt I can kill you. But, wouldn’t we both regret it if I didn’t try?”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT

  IT WAS LIKE the ringing of a massive bell when Excali-bar thronged against Malkier’s chest plate sending the alien back, his legs ripping through water and pavement as he dug into the cement to slow himself.

  “Not enough—”

  Thrung!

  Jonathan wasn’t holding still for a discussion, having jumped into the air to bring Excali-bar overhead and down on Malkier’s shoulder plate. The force drove the giant onto a knee, the street’s pavement crumbling such that he knelt in a small sunken crater. Yet, he immediately began to stand again.

  Thrung!

  Malkier staggered forward from a blow to the back of his helmet. Quickly regaining his balance and whirling on his more nimble attacker, he came at him, fist clenched and growling.

  Jonathan maneuvered, ducking and dodging a series of blows, Malkier’s fist coming at him with a frightening force. He felt as though he were avoiding missiles. Malkier fought with no caution or fear, he threw his weight behind everything—knew as well as Jonathan that a single hit connecting might be enough to end this.

  Jonathan jumped out of range, putting some distance between them as Malkier’s massive fist caved in the sidewalk and sent water like an elephant doing a cannonball into a pool.

  Malkier righted himself and kept right on coming.

  An audible whoosh passed over him as Jonathan flowed to the outside of a devastating haymaker and caught Malkier hard enough on the back to send him staggering. He didn’t lose his balance for long, turning to sweep his thick armored arm around in a backhand that went high as Jonathan went low to hammer at his legs.

  The giant Alpha fell into the water with an annoyed grunt. As he saw Jonathan preparing to come down at him with Excali-bar, he rolled clear and leapt back to his feet.

  To anyone watching, the fight seemed to be going Jonathan’s way. But the two exchanging blows knew the truth—knew how it ended. If Jonathan couldn’t hurt the Borealis, then it all came down to how long he could keep this up.

  He wasn’t ever going to find out if it was possible for him to hurt the monster unless he found a way past the armor.

  Jonathan stepped back in, whirling Excali-bar about in a combination of strikes that all connected, the titan making no effort to deflect them. All his attention seemed focused on looking for Jonathan to give an opening—leave himself exposed or hold still just long enough for Malkier to get hold of a limb.

  Finally, it seemed Malkier had the opening he had been waiting for. Massive claws grabbed Excali-bar at its center, a grunt of eager excitement as his gauntlet closed on steel.

  Throng, throng.

  The giant staggered backwards from a series of blows that seemed to come from nowhere, his head knocked this way and that as his hand came away empty. How the demolition bar had slipped free
of his grasp seemed a mystery even as Jonathan jumped up and over him to roll down his back.

  Malkier pivoted to follow but stepped into another whirlwind of attacks.

  Throng, throng, throng, throng.

  The barrage was blindingly fast, confusing and rage-inducing all at once. Finally, Malkier brought his arms up in a defensive block just to keep his helmet from being knocked side to side. He planted his feet, forced his way forward before sweeping out wildly with both hands as though they were swords. While Jonathan saw it coming, he was still forced to retreat, giving Malkier a momentary respite from the assault.

  Malkier’s gaze turned to find Jonathan landing on his feet a safe distance away. The mystery of how he’d lost hold of the demolition bar explained as Jonathan put the two halves of Excali-bar back together at the center.

  Growling in annoyance. “Enough.”

  Malkier moved fast, but not toward Jonathan. Instead he picked up the closest vehicle, already flattened at some point in the battle, and tore it in half like he was snapping a twig.

  Jonathan jumped to the other side of the street just before the vehicle’s front end came at him and hit the building, tearing the bottom three stories from its corner as the car crashed through.

  The back end was already headed for him when he landed, leaving no choice but to jump again. He shot up to see Malkier’s armored shape launching off the street to meet him. Had he let him, Malkier would have collided hard enough to knock him through the next three buildings.

  But his bullish hulk of an opponent was just as unprepared for Jonathan to activate his gleamers as he had been for the staff to break into two pieces. With one hand, Jonathan anchored himself to the wall and kicked sideways, narrowly getting clear as Malkier crashed through the side of building.

  From what he could hear, Malkier didn’t come to a stop until he was halfway through the interior. Then the sounds of destruction resumed but were now moving upwards, perhaps four stories higher than where he had broken through on the outside. Which was why the brief pause in the tremors Jonathan could sense while anchored to the outside, made the sound of the armored Alpha coming back at him feel like standing in an open prairie waiting for a stampede of buffalo to barrel through.

  He shot up to a higher floor just in time to see Malkier’s fist exit the building. A moment later the same arm shot toward him, tearing through the outer wall. As the arm rushed for him, nothing was enough to slow it. To Jonathan it was as though someone stuck their arm out of a car window and stomped on the accelerator.

  “Ahh hell,” Jonathan said as he rushed to push off the side of the building. He shot across the street and re-anchored himself on the other side. Before he could even land, he caught sight of Malkier hurdling through the wall after him.

  As this chase began, Jonathan doing everything he could not to be caught by Malkier using his body as a torpedo, Jonathan became very certain of one thing. The alien’s aim, despite his lack of success thus far, was impeccable. Malkier burst out of rooftops coming straight for him as he dodged and ran—there was no way he had line of sight. It was all confirming his suspicion that Malkier had found some way to reverse who was the beacon and who was the receiver between device and portal stone.

  “Olivia,” Jonathan asked as he sprinted across the rooftops. “What’s the biggest thing you got left that we can detonate?”

  “There isn’t much,” she replied.

  “I’ll take anything close,” he replied.

  “Four blocks south, southwest,” Olivia said. “If enough of it is still standing.”

  The address highlighted on in his HUD as Jonathan shifted course, diving off the top of the roof he’d been sprinting across a moment before Malkier came bursting out of the roof. It had been close—too close, and a stark reminder that he couldn’t keep Malkier from getting hold of him indefinitely.

  “Come on, Jonathan,” he said to himself, remembering how Rylee had managed to stay alive against the Feroxian demigod for far longer than he had without any gleamers and a far less powerful implant. He’d never hear the end of it if he couldn’t keep the Borealis occupied.

  “You’re not one of us.”

  He had only just stopped coughing up water when he heard the voice and looked up toward the source of the words. He did not see her, but he knew the voice.

  “Burns the Flame?” he asked.

  The cloak, pulled away then. Revealing her as she tilted her head. “Malkier warned me that his enemy might cross the boundary.”

  Heyer was still taking deep breaths to recover, but he forced himself to his feet. “I mean you no harm.”

  “An enemy that means no harm?” she asked.

  “I am only here to stop my brother,” Heyer said.

  “Brother . . .” The way she said the word and trailed off, it was as though it had caught her by surprise.

  “He left that out, did he?” Heyer said.

  “You’ve taken another of my people,” she said.

  “It was the only way to walk freely amongst you.”

  She considered him a moment. “It is a coward’s way. I cannot strike you down even though I know you are not of the Ferox.”

  “I suppose,” Heyer said. “But it also means I am no threat to you.”

  “That . . . may be true,” she said, and again, she seemed surprised.

  Heyer walked by her, and he took a seat near the square platform at the center of the room.

  “He said you would come to take me. But, now I see that you cannot.”

  Heyer studied her for a moment. “You are not guarding this place. It’s guarding you.”

  “That is what he said.”

  It took Heyer only a moment, but now that his lungs were clear of water, he could smell the truth. “Because you carry his children—again.”

  Heyer had known his brother would take part in the consonance, but had thought his brother would not put Burns the Flame through the same again. But then he remembered what Jonathan had said about their last moments before Rylee died. That Malkier had lost control, and the host had returned.

  “Ends the Storm sought you for the consonance.”

  For a moment, she didn’t speak—Heyer’s words having—jarred something—inside her. “Yes. But somewhere in between, he became the prophet again.”

  “I am sorry,” Heyer said. “But no, I have not come for you Burns the Flame.”

  “If you come to stop him, then you mean to keep my people from taking the Promised Land,” Burns the Flame said.

  “Do you still believe in the Promised Land, after he has told you so much?” he asked.

  “I believe that the abominations can keep the Ferox from extinction,” she said. “I need no prophecy to tell me what happens if we do not take their world.”

  “The humans are not abominations. The prophet only calls them such so the Ferox will feel they serve the gods’ will. They are just a people, like the Ferox. The only abominations in this story, are my brother and I.”

  This brought a long silence.

  “I do not understand,” Burns the Flame said. “How will you stop Malkier if you are Ferox? You cannot harm him.”

  “He will face the one you call Brings the Rain,” Heyer said. “If the man can stop him, I can finish him. You and I will have to wait to see what fate holds for our people.”

  “Man is your people?”

  “In a way, but they were not the people of whom I speak,” Heyer said. “My brother and I are the last of our kind. If my brother cannot defeat the man, then today I alone will be the last.”

  Burns the Flame stared at him. “Are you not afraid?”

  “I am,” he said.

  Her reaction was not what Heyer would have thought. “Perhaps I was wrong to call you coward, Borealis.”

  Heyer looked at her with curious eyes. “It is I who does not understand.”

  “You would, if we were your people. To be the last of your kind . . .”

  She shuddered before she could fin
ish. “It is the greatest fear of all Ferox.”

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINE

  “YOU KNOW,” JONATHAN said. “If you weren’t here, I’d be alone right now. So, thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, now focus,” Olivia said.

  Chatty as ever that one, he thought.

  The close scrapes were getting far too close over the last three blocks. Jonathan shot over what remained of the city skyline and rebounded off a nearby building. A moment later, he broke through a window near the top floor of the Seattle Art Museum.

  Olivia was right. This building was too close to the conduit. The Ferox had nearly brought it down just by making it a high traffic area.

  “I’m in,” Jonathan said. “Stand by for detonation, don’t hesitate when I give the order.”

  “Received.”

  Jonathan did his best to recover his breath as he listened. He stood on hardwood floors surrounded by pieces of art that had been trampled by the Ferox. The fact that he had time to breathe, that Malkier hadn’t already crashed through one of the exterior walls, made him wonder if he’d been too obvious.

  He had no idea how the alien reversed the targeting between stone and device, but there was nothing he could do about it now except try and use it to his advantage.

  Jonathan quieted as the building trembled. He was near the top floor, and there was no way to tell where the vibrations were coming from. The city had seen better days and a skyscraper falling ten blocks away might feel the same as Malkier crashing through a wall on the floors below.

  The building shivered again. Then again, closer this time.

  Of course, a pattern of vibrations, that was a bit more telling.

  Finally, Jonathan looked at the floor beneath him and jumped to anchor himself onto the high ceiling. A moment later, the floor erupted where he’d been standing and Malkier’s armored form came bursting through. Jonathan immediately pushed off the ceiling and brought Excali-bar down hard. Malkier was knocked back through the floor as though they had been playing some terrible incarnation of whack-a-mole.