by Nina D'Aleo
The Witch gave a terrible scream and fell to her knees. The Omarians started to close in around her, stabbing her and blasting her.
Eli reached Ismail and snatched up the He-Ro from beside him. He ripped Ismail’s shirt open wider and held the device over the gushing wounds, triggering the attach code. The machine clamped down, sealing the wounds and embedding deeply into Ismail’s chest, once again taking over the heart’s function.
“Come on, come back, come back,” Eli whispered, shaking Ismail’s shoulders. The scullion lay motionless and gray-faced. He’d only been dead for a moment, but perhaps the dark magics had done something to him, or maybe the destroyed zombie heart was poisoning him.
“Ismail!” Eli yelled. He grabbed Ismail’s head and bent down, breathing into his mouth, trying to resuscitate him. Something heavy struck Eli from the side, knocking him sideways and sending a burning pain shooting through his chest. He grasped at it and lifted his head, the Galleria seeming to spin around him. The Mocking Witch had dragged herself over to them and was trying to slide her disgusting, rotten body up onto Ismail while the Omarians continued attacking in a circle around her. She threw a curse at the fire-wielders, sending another line crashing. “My love,” she gasped, her claw fingers fumbling up toward Ismail’s face, “we enter the afterlife together. You will be forever mine.”
Eli felt so furious and violated on Ismail’s behalf that he wanted to projectile vomit right into her maggot-ridden face, but instead he jumped up and landed a kick into her side. She rolled off Ismail with a screech.
“He’s not your love!” Eli yelled at her. “And he’s not going anywhere with you!”
She rose up with a terrible scream. As she flew at Eli, he grabbed a metal rod at his feet and shoved it into her wide open mouth, shunting her back. At the same time the re-gathered Omarians hit again. They circled her, pressing in close, striking and slashing and stabbing with so much manic rage that she just couldn’t regenerate fast enough. Finally she screamed her last curse and exploded like a blood bomb, taking the majority of the Omarians out with her. Eli threw himself over Ismail, trying to shield him from the fallout. When he struggled up Ismail had started to stir, his eyelids twitching.
“Ismail! It’s alright,” Eli said. “Open your eyes.”
Ismail blinked and looked up at him.
“She’s gone,” Eli told him. The last few Omarians writhed on the ground around them.
Ismail stared at Eli in utter disbelief, out of military mode and now talking as the man. “I can’t hear her anymore – at all. She’s not in my head … I don’t understand … In the vision I died here …”
“You changed the future,” Eli said.
“I …” Ismail shook his head, wordless, and Eli helped him sit up. Ismail lifted the hem of his pants and saw the shackle was gone – vanished. He was free of her – and alive. While Ismail stared in shock, Eli rapidly scooped up all the fragments of the painting he could see. Part of him was thinking maybe there was some way to fix it, while the other part already knew that it was impossible.
“We have to move,” he said, “while they’re still regrouping.”
Ismail nodded and struggled to his feet, leaning on Eli’s shoulder for support. They limped away through a smashed wall and out into the main entrance of the Galleria.
Half the great stained-glass roof had come down and the walls had collapsed in, blocking the exits. The ground continued to tremble with bomb blasts. Eli felt a breeze on his face and looked up. There was a rift in one of the walls that they could climb through, but there was no way to get up there except by flying. Eli buzzed his wings and tried to drag Ismail up with him, but it was no use, the scullion was far too heavy. Eli sank back down and Ismail rasped, “Go first.”
“I’m not leaving —”
“— without me. I know,” Ismail cut him off. “You’re one stubborn imp-breed.”
“Snack-size,” Eli said. “That’s what Ev’r calls me.”
Ismail snorted and the shadow of a smile played at the corners of his mouth – the first suggestion of happiness he’d shown. It made him look like a different person, as though a thousand hard year-cycles had lifted from his face.
“You don’t make any sense to me even though I can see your thoughts,” he said to Eli. “But whatever happens from here … I’m in your debt.” He gritted his teeth and with a horrible cracking sound self-broke his shoulder blades, and two black bat wings ripped out from the skin. Ismail stretched them and flapped up to the rift. Eli flew after him, leaving behind the dying Omarians, the broken portal, and any hope of saving the others. Copernicus … Diega … Silho …
Chapter 40
Copernicus
Praterius
Murkmire Slough (Eti River)
He was buried, crushed beneath a ton of earth, with chains biting into his wrists. He couldn’t turn his head and each gasp only clogged his mouth and nose with more mud. Panic paralyzed him. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t move. There was no escape.
A hand punched through the dirt and grabbed him by the face, wrenching him up out of his grave. Fingers cleared his mouth and he gasped, blinking up at Christy Shawe.
“Mate, you’re a sorry trutting sight,” Christy laughed.
Copernicus’ eyes snapped open and he gasped in a mouthful of water. It tasted rusty like blood. He spat it back out immediately, his senses telling him he was underwater and enclosed on all sides by a spongy matter. He grabbed a handful of the slimy substance and ripped. It tore easily enough and seemed to shrink around him as he fought his way out into the open water. A massive blur of body-heat rushed in at him and he kicked backward to avoid the impact. The body of a huge reptilian creature brushed past him and, with a moment’s thought, he seized onto it, grabbing the spikes of its back. It sliced through the water, dragging him upward.
As they neared the surface light, Copernicus felt an intense flare of heat. He immediately recognized the vibration patterns, Shawe, Diega, K-Ruz, and there were others as well – Omarians. Even before he broke the surface, Copernicus was ready for what he would see. As the crocodile lunged out of the water, Copernicus threw himself onto the gigantic reptilian’s back. He ran along the length of its body and onto its head. It snapped up at him, propelling him high into the air. As he fell, he caught fragments of the scene on the bank below – the rainbow flare of Diega’s skin, Shawe’s savage grin, the flash of Caesar’s eyes and the Omarian firebird bloodline mark. While still airborne, Copernicus grabbed for his blade, but his hand came up empty, his belt gone. He landed in the middle of the fight with no weapon, so he sank his fangs into the first Omarian within his grasp. The warrior collapsed and the others attacked, dropping their control over Caesar and Shawe – a fatal error.
Shawe struck first, landing a devastating blow to one Omarian’s head. Caesar’s claws dispatched another two with frightening speed. Copernicus heard the drone of light-form vision trying to lock onto him and he thought not this time. He knew their strengths and was ready for them. He murmured an Illusionist enchant and vanished from sight. He moved fast, rolling behind Diega and grabbing the blades from her belt. He threw them, taking out another three. He spoke a second enchant, and changed his and the others’ appearance to Omarian, sending their attackers into deep confusion. They turned on each other, their defenses broken. Caesar and Shawe didn’t need a written invitation, annihilating the fire-wielders until only one remained.
The lone Omarian panicked and snatched a small painting out of his jacket. He cried out the words, “Behind the red star smiles the darkness – Omar Montanya!”
Copernicus smashed him to the ground, seizing the portal as it started to open, light blasting into the darkness around them.
“Grab on!” he shouted, extending his hand to the others. Diega moved first, Caesar moved faster and Shawe lunged last – hitting him like a mass-mover at the last second before they were all dragged through the portal.
Chapter 41
Croy
>
Kullra Fornax
Nÿr-Corum (Saint Mariread Borough)
Croy circled over her house, scoping it out for trouble, but the gridway running alongside her neighborhood was all but empty. She gestured to Castor and they both swooped down to park at the side of the house. Croy’s hands were trembling, so much emotion crashing through her that she felt ready to explode. The only thought keeping her from breaking down was finding her partner. The only way she knew, without having to go and steal an I-Sect, was for Shah-Jahan to call him through the rete. She didn’t completely understand how it worked, but she understood enough to feel the connection between her, the twins and the Dray, like a web or a net binding them together. If Darius was half-Dray, as the files she’d found indicated, he’d be able to hear it. He wouldn’t understand it, but maybe she could send him a message through the Dray captain. The truth behind Darius’ uncanny ability of knowing exactly where she was at any given time suddenly became clear. She’d always thought it was partner intuition, but it was the Dray connection they shared.
She edged through the front door of her house. Shah-Jahan was still sitting in the same chair. His skin had paled even more, trickles of blood still running down his neck from the puncture wounds of the head cage. He raised his dark eyes to Croy and she froze, seeing herself reflected back and behind her – Darius. She turned to face her partner. He held the aim of his Predator 6 on Shah-Jahan, not dropping it an inch as Kisslefish and Castor, carrying Kellor, barged in on her heels. Castor saw Shah-Jahan and had an immediate reaction. He ran to him and fell down at his feet, cradling his sister and crying. Kisslefish just stared and said, “Whoa.”
Darius never took his eyes off Croy’s and she saw so many emotions running through him, the strongest of them betrayal. It cut deeply inside her. He didn’t understand yet.
“I went to the Tower to look for you,” she said. “I lost my I-Sect.”
“And I came here looking for you,” he replied, his voice burning ice.
“Darry – listen to me – let me tell you —”
“Tell me what?” he shouted. “I was worried about you! I came here and found this – thing!” He stabbed his gun toward Shah-Jahan. “You know what they did to my —” the words choked him “— to my parents.”
His eyes went to Shah-Jahan and Croy could see Darius was going to shoot him. He’d lost his control.
“No!” She put herself in between them. “You don’t understand!”
“What’s not to understand?” Darius said. “Everything you say is a lie! Do I know you at all? You’re all I have! I love you!” He pointed the Predator to his own head. “Him or me!”
“Darry,” Croy whispered. She started shaking.
“Him or me? Choose! Now!” His finger tested the trigger.
Croy saw only one way to save both Darius and Shah-Jahan. She grabbed VP’s gun out of her jacket, put it to her head and fired.
Chapter 42
Eli
Aquais
Scorpia (The Graveyard)
Eli ran into the hangar, colliding with Penman. The little 0318 was beside himself, beeping frantically. He grabbed onto Eli with every tentacle he had and dragged him toward Jude and SevenM. Diamond and Flintlock were standing beside the stretcher, trying to help the Ar Antarian, but the lines of poison had crept over his face and he was convulsing with brain trauma. There was no time left. Eli ripped the severed Omarian hand out of his bag and plunged a needle into it to extract some blood.
“Too slow!” Ismail said, limping to them. “Here,” he grabbed the hand off Eli and threw it to Flintlock, saying, “Crush it. Over the wound!”
Flintlock’s eyes went to Eli for confirmation and he nodded, ripping away the bandages over Jude’s injury.
The Corámorán squeezed the severed limb in one huge fist, completely pulverizing it. Gore poured down over the gaping stab wound. Eli was so panicked that he didn’t even register the foulness of the task – he just wanted Jude to stop thrashing, to open his eyes, to be okay …
For a moment nothing changed and Eli couldn’t breathe around the terror that they hadn’t been quick enough, or that it wasn’t enough blood to work – but then Jude slumped down, still.
The wound started fizzing and bubbling and the healing came rapidly, almost instantaneously. The blood dried up and the flesh and skin closed over. The poison lines retreated, fading to nothing. Eli grabbed an oxygen mask off the bench and held it over Jude’s mouth and nose and the Ar Antarian started to blink. SevenM struggled up onto his legs as Jude opened his vivid blue eyes. Eli found himself too numb with shock to cry. He just stood and stared at him, afraid to move in case he was dreaming.
Jude sat up, his eyes going to Eli. He started to say something, but stopped abruptly. Instead he jumped off the stretcher and grabbed Eli into a crushing hug, his metal arms wrapped tightly around Eli’s wings. Penman had swooped SevenM up in the air with joy.
Eli gasped out, not realizing he’d been holding his breath the whole time and then he started laughing and couldn’t stop as tears rolled down his face.
“You’re naked,” he said to Jude. “This would be so awkward if I wasn’t so happy to see you!”
Jude laughed, thumping him on the back. Eli felt someone else hugging him as well and had a strange moment of thinking it was Ismail, but then he felt Diamond’s hands pickpocketing him.
Jude stepped back and wrapped a sheet around himself, while Eli turned to the others. He felt sluggish with fatigue, as though he was emerging from a dream. He spotted Luther and Moses lying on another stretcher in the shadows and ran over to them. Luther’s eyes flickered open weakly as Eli crouched down beside them, patting Moses’ coat and feeling the wolf breathing.
“How do you feel?” Eli asked the Midnight Man.
He gestured okay and even attempted a toothy smile. It made Eli remember what he’d seen in Ezra Quartermaine’s laboratory – the spectral-breed experiments, the pain and death. He wasn’t sure Luther had been part of it, but he felt the pieces fitted.
“Luther …” Eli paused, searching for the words he wanted to say to this man who had been willing to throw down his life to save him – on more than one occasion. “You know how I was lecturing you about what to do to seem normal?”
Luther gave a nod.
“Forget everything I said. Just be yourself … You don’t need to change at all. I like you exactly how you are.”
Luther stared at Eli with his unblinking snake eyes, then he opened his mouth and spoke with one of those deep, mellow voices that make women all breathless. “Thank you.”
“You can talk!” Eli said. “I can’t believe you can talk. Why haven’t you been talking?”
Luther gestured, I prefer not to …
“Okay,” Eli said, smiling at him. “Whatever you prefer …”
Eli felt Jude’s hand on his shoulder and turned to face his friend. He already knew what Jude’s first question would be and was dreading it.
“Silho?” Jude’s blazing blue eyes cut straight to Eli’s heart. “Diega?”
Eli rose slowly, his whole body feeling weak. His eyes lifted to Ismail, standing behind them, and the scullion gave a nod of support. “We tried everything to get a portal – everything …” His hand rummaged in his pocket and drew out the fragments of canvas he’d gathered up. “Destroyed,” he whispered and Jude’s eyes clouded with pain.
A bomb blast trembled the hangar, clanking bottles together and overturning equipment on the benches. Jude took one of the pieces of painting and held it up. “They look like the pictures on Silho’s neck and back.”
The words made something click in Eli’s mind. He had been thinking the same thing when he’d seen the painting in Adliden – it looks like Silho’s skin – but at the time he’d been too distracted to focus on what that might mean. He recalled reading that only male Omarians could paint the portals …
“Because females are portals,” Eli finished his thoughts aloud, and all the others looked a
t him.
Another missile struck a nearby building and they heard the roar and felt the quake as it imploded and crashed to the ground.
“Get under cover!” Eli said. He bolted over to Nelly’s enclosure and opened the door. She jumped out at him, terrified and furious and overjoyed to see him. He gave her a quick kiss, and she burrowed into his pocket as he ran to where the others were hiding beneath one of his bolted-down workbenches. He slid under it, the hangar lights flickering and dimming. Flintlock was too big to fit under the bench, so she had to half-sprawl with her legs sticking out. Eli’s mind went into overdrive and he spoke rapidly.
“With the painted portals, you need the picture and you need the access enchant. Maybe it’s the same with Silho, we need to find out the words to access her.”
“How?” Jude demanded.
“I don’t have the faintest, but —”
A piece of paper, with one line of writing, dangled in front of his face and he read the words in his mind – In my mother’s house are many mansions – Silho Brabel. It was the paper Silho had found at Englan Chrisholm’s place. Eli remembered the commander had given it to him to run tests before everything fell apart.
“I may have borrowed this from your pocket while we were in the desert,” Diamond said sheepishly. “It’s definitely an enchant.”
“This is it!” Eli said, taking the paper. He couldn’t believe it. They’d gone into every nightmare hole in the entire city searching for a portal, and the answer had been with them all along. He just hoped it wasn’t too late. He looked up at Jude and saw hope in his friend’s face.
A third bomb shook the entire hangar, exploding some of the lights. Diamond gripped Eli’s arm.
“Should I just say the words?” he asked the group and Ismail said, “Do it! Otherwise there won’t be any city left to bring them back to.”