by Jacob Whaler
Before Matt can get through the wall of fire, the four men with knives lunge down. Moments later, they stand, blood dripping from their blades.
Matt squints. Three people lie on the ground. Two of them are dressed like the other villagers, long gray hair trailing on the ground behind their heads.
One wears a white dress. He scans the body, starting with the head and moving to the feet. Brown hair. The skin of a younger woman. That unique curve to her thigh and calf.
Jessica.
A scarlet patch spreads in the middle of her chest.
Without further thought, Matt raises the barrel of the pulse rifle and pulls the trigger. Blue sparks shoot into the air. The sound echoes off the walls of the surrounding mud huts.
The crowd goes silent.
Matt hears the sound of the cloaking box snapping shut somewhere behind him.
Good job, Yarah.
His hand slams against his chest. As the blue skin armor flows over his body, he runs through the wall of fire and kneels down at Jessica’s side.
The Stone shines white in his hand.
The gaze of the three old woman and four men drops to the Stone. They stumble back.
They are yelling, but Matt can’t understand the words. Dropping the pulse rifle at his side, Matt looks down. Blood is pouring out of Jessica’s chest. He can’t tell whether she’s breathing.
Please hold on.
The world falls away as Matt closes his eyes and searches in the darkness of his mind for Jessica. He expects to find her floating in open space. Instead, he finds himself plunged into a world of colorful spheres and floating clouds. Faint tones of music, like wind chimes in a silent room, play far away.
He searches in the chaos for her face.
Finally, he catches a glimpse of a woman in a light-blue outer garment floating in space below him. He shoots down to her side and sees Jessica, eyes wide open, arms out-stretched, gazing in wonder at the hues of pink and yellow.
She turns to look at him with a smile. “Do you hear the music?”
“Jessica, I have to heal you.”
Her eyes take several seconds to blink. “It’s wonderful here, don’t you think?”
“You’re hurt.” Matt puts a hand firmly on her shoulder. The other grips the white Stone in his hand. “Hold on just a little longer so I can help you.”
She smiles and lets her gaze drift to the world around her.
He pushes his way inside to fix the stab wound in her heart, but when he gets there, it’s all functioning perfectly. There’s nothing to fix. Confused, he pulls back out and looks down at her. She still has the blissful smile, but the eyelids are no longer wide open.
“Jessica?”
She stares up at him and says nothing.
Matt shakes her shoulders. “Jessica, do you know who I am?”
For a moment, she doesn’t answer. Her eyes gloss over. “I’m getting sleepy. I think I’ll take a nap.”
“No!” Matt says. “Something’s wrong, Jessica. You have to stay awake.”
For the first time, she focuses squarely on his face. “My name is Jessica? Who are you?” Her eyes turn away and start to drop down.
“I’m Matt.” He shakes her shoulders until her eyes open again. “The one who loves you.” With his face close to her, he presses his lips down onto hers. Both of their eyes close for several seconds. Matt feels a subtle flow of warmth from her. He slowly pulls away. “I have to go now, but I’ll be back. Please stay awake for me. Can you do that?”
Her eyes flicker with recognition. “I will.”
Matt nods, closes his eyes and lets go. When he opens them, he’s kneeling in the middle of the fire circle next to Jessica’s body. The scarlet spot is larger. Reaching out to the flow of time, he grabs and stops it.
“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” Yarah kneels in the dirt next to him.
“I tried to heal her, but it’s not working.” Matt shakes his head. “I can’t seem to get through to her.”
Yarah bends closer, small fingers gripping a white Stone. “Her mind. It’s not the same.” Yarah looks up at the three old women standing like trees a few feet away. Her eyes quiver back and forth between them.
She’s inside their minds.
When the quivering stops, Yarah stares back at Matt. “They made her drink something called drangee. It wipes away your memories. Makes you forget who you are, at least for a while.”
“She’s almost dead,” Matt says. “We don’t have time to wait for the drug to wear off. I tried, but I can’t seem to get through to her.”
“Let me try.” Yarah closes her eyes.
The flames of the fire are like stone sculptures. The men with knives have surprise and fear on their faces. Their gaze is fixed on Matt’s hand.
They’ve seen a Stone before. Jhata. She’ll be here soon.
Ten seconds later, Yarah opens her eyes and shakes her head. “Her mind is a complete blank. She doesn’t recognize me. I can’t get through to her to do the healing.” Tears roll down her cheeks. “I don’t know what to do.” Her chest moves in and out with labored breathing.
Panic threatens to sweep through them.
Matt resists it with a long inhale and slow exhale. “Maybe we need the power of two Stones.” He turns to Yarah. “Can you do it?”
Yarah shakes her head. “She needs you. I sensed it. She’s waiting for you even though her mind is mostly blank. When she saw you, it must have triggered a tiny memory. You have the best chance of getting through.”
Matt reaches out his hand to Yarah. “Show me how to use your Stone.”
“Come into my mind. I’ll take you as far as I can.”
Matt closes his eyes. A beautiful grown woman floats in a star-filled universe next to him. Yarah.
“Don’t be overwhelmed by the power you feel.” Yarah’s words sound like the voice of a goddess. “Take it and use it.” She turns and holds his hands. “Now project yourself into my mind. You’ll find yourself on an open plain. Think about going down, deeper. Think about my eyes. Try to find them so you can see as I see. You’ll see the Stone in my hand. Reach out and take it. Then hold on.”
“Got it,” Matt says. “Now listen to me. It’s difficult to let another to take over your Stone. You’ll feel helpless. Suffocating. No matter what, just hold on. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”
Fear sweeps across Yarah’s face. “Quickly. Before I have a chance to change my mind.”
Matt looks into her eyes at the openness behind them. He throws himself forward, through her black pupils into the world beyond. Stars blur into lines. Yarah becomes a palette of dark colors. Her eyes move over him, around him, past him.
He stands on an infinite plain, grass the color of soft emeralds beneath his feet. A gentle breeze blows rhythmic lines across its surface like ocean waves. The lapis sky draws his eyes upward.
Yarah’s words float through his mind.
Think about going down, deeper.
The soft grass becomes liquid under his feet. It envelopes him as he sinks into its bottomless depth.
Find the eyes. Look for the Stone.
Two orbs hang in the darkness. He approaches and looks into them.
And sees the Stone. His hand is drawn to it. The warm surface feels smooth and comfortable in his fingers. They close around it.
A sudden outpouring of limitless power and clarity engulfs him.
With the Stone firmly in his grip, he moves out of Yarah’s mind.
Jessica lies on the ground not far away. For an instant, Matt lingers over her and gazes into her face. He sees the single knife wound through her chest and descends straight down into it. Blood pours through the hole, filling her chest cavity. The muscles of the heart quiver, trying to regain their rhythm, but unable to find traction. With an effortless brush of his fingertips, the wound seals, inside and out, until it feels and looks complete.
With a glance, he can see Jessica’s body is dangerously low on blood. Matt waves his hand ove
r her chest. A new supply flows through her arteries. He touches the heart, and it begins to pump with renewed vigor.
Then he sees the drangee. It appears as a green vapor concentrated inside her brain. He inhales and draws it out, extracting it like venom from a snake bite. He does a final, quick scan and smoothes over the cuts and sores on her feet as if they were made of soft clay.
Hovering over her again, he looks down into her eyes. Something moves behind him, and he turns.
Jessica, light and almost transparent, moves away in the distance. He races through the darkness and stands at her side.
“Jessica,” he says. “It’s time to come back.”
She turns and smiles. “You came. I was looking for you.” Her hand extends and finds his fingers.
Together they turn and stand over her body on the ground.
“It’s all ready,” Matt says.
Jessica leans in and kisses him. “Don’t forget them. They saved me.” She points to old woman and man lying on the ground not far away.
Matt floats over the two other bodies. They have the same wounds and the same drugs. It takes only seconds to heal them. Glancing around, he finds the form of a man and woman, nearly transparent, moving away and brings them back.
The woman reaches her hand out and takes Matt’s. “My name is Saatuk. This is my husband Kutaas. We are of the Chimpotee people, brought to this world by the Spider Queen.” She points to Jessica, breathing on the ground. “She came to us three days ago. She is the one you love?” Her gaze goes to the Stone in Matt’s hand.
“Yes, the one I love.”
Saatuk smiles. “Then I am happy you have come.” She turns to her husband. “We must go back. There is yet be work to do.” They drop down into the bodies lying on the ground.
Matt finds Yarah, kneeling, motionless, vulnerable. For the first time, he consciously thinks about how good it feels to have her Stone. The power and ease with which he healed Jessica and the others is surprising, delightful, almost intoxicating.
It would be possible to keep it forever. He understands that now.
Without allowing himself to dwell on the thought, he moves back into her mind and releases his grip on her Stone. Retracing his steps, he rises up and out, pausing for only a moment to gaze upon the plain of green grass.
And then he withdraws, relaxing his grip on time until it flows again.
Yarah inhales sharply and topples to the ground, gasping for breath.
Motion draws his eyes up.
Above him, massive fingers of orange fire stretch out from a point in the sky and shoot down.
CHAPTER 61
Jhata leans over the railing, both arms outstretched, her mouth open. A feral cry erupts from deep within her throat. Jagged orange flames burst out of her fingers and Stones, arc high over the valley and rain down on the village.
Even at this distance, she can see the explosions and hear the impact of high-density plasma dropping from the sky on the circle of mud huts. Smoke and darkness obscure the view.
“The village is destroyed,” Jhata says. “It’s nothing but a deep crater now.”
Ryzaard squints and stares down. A tiny bubble of green energy comes into view on the center of the plain. “But what about the people in the village? And Matt?”
Jhata closes her eyes, as if counting. “They are alive. All 500 of them. How is that possible?” She looks up at Ryzaard, surprised. “Matt and Yarah are down there. So is Jessica. And another woman I don’t recognize, but she’s from Earth. Shall we drop down and have a look?”
Ryzaard calmly turns and faces Jhata. “Let’s do more than have a look.” He nods to the valley below. “This may be the chance we’ve been waiting for. They’re all there. The ones both of us want to destroy. Let’s do it together and rid ourselves of them. Once and for all.”
Jhata sighs. “You seem to think it’s easy.” She grits her teeth and shoots a thick line of white energy out of the Stone in her hand. It surges down like an arrow to the green bubble and breaks on its surface. Hot shards of deflected energy splash onto the prairie around the village. Brushfires spread out in ever-wider circles.
“I never said it was easy.” Ryzaard leans over and puts his elbows on the railing. “If it were easy, I’d have done it by now.”
“How times have you tried?”
Ryzaard’s gaze drifts down to the valley. “To do what.”
“To kill him.”
He laughs. “Too many. Ten or twenty, at least.”
Jhata steps back. “Haven’t you figured it out by now?”
“Figured out what?”
She turns to face him. “He can’t be killed, at least not in the ordinary way.” She breathes the salty air in lets the taste settle on her tongue. “He’s different from you and me. I heard about it from the Lethonen.”
“Tell me about it.”
“It’s your fault, really. When you tried to kill him on your world. Remember?”
“The black hole?”
Jhata nods. “Exactly. You threw him into it. The Lethonen have a word for it. The Eye of the Universe. He passed through it and came out the other end. I’m not sure how, but he was unmade and remade. By the Allehonen.”
As he listens to Jhata’s words, Ryzaard’s fingers are slowly curling into fists. “I don’t understand. Does that make him indestructible?”
“By normal means, yes.” She turns and puts the palms of her hands together above her head. A ball of churning blue plasma extrudes from her fingers, shooting up in a long arc that bends its line to make contact with the village below. It breaks into a shower of sparks that looks like a tropical water lily blooming red at twilight. “But he can be killed. Not easily. I learned about it from the Lethonen. Usually, I wouldn’t trust them, but they revile him as much as I do. He’s a threat to their power, and to mine.”
Ryzaard moves close to Jhata. His hands drop down to her shoulders and spin her around. “Tell me how to kill him.”
She pushes him back. “Like I said, it’s not easy. They say there are only two ways. Get him to voluntarily drop his defenses and give up his life. Then he can be killed like any other man.”
“Why would he ever do that?”
“Hard to say. Others have done it in the past. Some men are born to be martyrs.”
Ryzaard backs up against the railing. “And the second way?”
Jhata slides her feet along the cobblestones and scrapes at the dust. “The Lethonen say if he becomes like them, consumed with anger, he can be killed like an ordinary Stone Holder.”
“Do you think he knows any of this?”
“No, he doesn’t.” Jhata shakes her head. “I’ve been inside his mind, briefly. He has no idea. The Allehonen never told him.”
“So that’s the answer. Instead of focusing our attack on him, we focus it on everything he loves and values. Take it all away.” Ryzaard’s fist beats against a palm. “Fill him with rage until it consumes him. Then we strike.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Jhata carefully picks another Stone out of her belt. “That would be the logical approach. The only problem is, I’ve tried it.” She now holds a Stone in each hand, the surface of each one blushing pink. “I’ve wiped out entire living worlds in front of his eyes.”
“I killed his father.”
“And it didn’t work, did it?”
“Not yet,” Ryzaard says. “But he hasn’t lost everything. I’m willing to keep trying.” He steps to the rail with a Stone in each hand. A multicolored mass of free plasma particles gathers in the air above him. As he concentrates on it, it plunges down into the valley until it hangs over the village. Long purple threads break away and float down like tufts of cat hair. On contact with the green bubble, there are silent flashes of white. Three seconds later, a shockwave of wind and sound moves past them high.
Jhata’s blonde hair straightens in the breeze. “There is a third way. It’s relatively easy. The Lethonen know this, but they want to keep it a secret. They fear that i
f we use it, we will threaten their own hold on power.”
“A third way?” Ryzaard turns from the railing. “Sounds interesting. What do we have to do?”
“It requires the most precious and rare of commodities. Something shared between two people.”
“What are you talking about? Love?”
“No,” Jhata says. “Something much rarer. Trust.”
CHAPTER 62
Matt and Yarah stand with glowing Stones gripped in their fists.
Columns of translucent green light shoot up out of the Stones and merge twenty meters above their heads, spreading out into a massive dome that arches over them and seals against the ground two meters beyond the edge of the crowd.
All the Chimpotee, except Saatuk and her husband, kneel with foreheads pressed to the dust. The ring of fire in the center of the group has burnt down to red embers that cast a glow on the faces of Matt, Jessica and Yarah.
The mud huts of the village and the prairie ground beneath them are gone to a depth of ten meters, turned to ash and vaporized by the hail of plasma that rains down from the dark sky above them. Smoke rises in eerie columns all around like the ghosts of their ancestors.
“It’s Jhata and Ryzaard. They’re both up there.” Yarah’s eyes turn to the lighted cathedral sitting atop the far-off plateau like a jewel in a queen’s tiara.
“They know we’re here. I’m surprised we made it this far.” Matt looks over at Jessica. “Sorry it took me so long to find you. Long story.”
“I knew it was just a matter of time before you would come.” Jessica smiles at the old woman standing next to her husband. “She took me in and kept me alive for three days. Helped my wounds to heal and kept Jhata from finding my mind.” Reaching out her arms to the old woman, Jessica gives her a big hug and looks down into her green eyes.
The old woman begins to speak in a strange tongue, motioning vigorously with her hands. She looks at the Stones Matt and Yarah hold in their hands.
“I think her name is Saatuk,” Jessica says. “They are part of a people called the Chimpotee. Jhata brought them here from another planet. I was able to communicate with her during the healing.”