NovaForge

by Toney, Scott

  Julieth looked beyond the trees and lake before them to the massive walls of Gest. Citizens of the city peered over the walls much as they had at her, Ineal and the others when they had first arrived. Arrows aimed at them, but she did not fear their use. We will find these people acceptance as we ourselves did, she thought.

  Pain suddenly burned in her chest and back, causing blackness to drown her sight. She choked and fell to the earth, holding her hand to her chest.

  You defy the order that comes, a voice scathed her mind. Do not think there is no cost.

  The burning sensation passed through her chest directly into her hand and she found it crippled, unable to move.

  Air vacuumed from her lungs as Julieth tumbled limply on the ground, letting out a moan before darkness consumed her. She heard footsteps running in her direction as her mind faded.

  …

  Darkness.

  Silence.

  Thump thump. Thump thump. The beating of her heart moved melodically in her ears as sight slowly returned. The voice and the pain were gone and Da’ar kneeled over her, his hands on her back and head.

  “You are awake.” Da’ar smiled, water glistening over his face and beard in the sunlight where he had been drinking. “We feared you dead when you collapsed but I felt a pulse.”

  The pain was gone now as Julieth looked to her hand. She opened and closed it, watching a fresh web of scorched lines that veined across her palm. She held the hand to her neck and felt scarring there too. “Thank you. The pain is gone now.”

  Da’ar held out his hand, taking hers and helping her to stand. “Is it the essence within you? There was a man in our city that had the power to control wind. He protected us until the essence within him took his mind and then his body.”

  “It is an essence, yes, but there is nothing I can do about it. This is the curse I bear. It connects itself to me, but I will not let it control me or the actions I take. It is a part of me. Come, let me lead you to Gest’s gate.”

  “Turn back! You are unwanted here!” a shout rang out over Gest’s wall as Julieth and the others neared.

  Ineal and Elias were not in sight.

  They must have reentered the city to persuade its people, Julieth thought as she raised a hand above her eyes to block the sunlight. She stretched her wings full, drawing the attention of all onlookers behind Gest’s walls. “The trees and the water are not yours to possess!” she shouted back at them. “Look at the people who approach you! They are weary and starving! Do you have the heart to fight them over nourishment that is infinite and which has been given freely to you? Do they not also deserve health? They come without weapons and armor but instead with a plea and faith!” Julieth eyed the men and women guarding Gest’s walls as she finished speaking. She was mostly a stranger to them. Would her words hold weight?

  “Return to your land!” an angry shout rang with others as arrows spliced through the air, spitting into the desert around them but hitting no one.

  “Please…” Da’ar spoke modestly, directing his voice up to the man who had shouted down. He lifted an arrow from the sand as he spoke. “Allow us to join you. We will all die without your grace.”

  No-one responded to Da’ar, but Julieth watched as those perched on the walls turned their gaze from beyond the city to something inside the city’s walls behind the main gate. The earth rumbled beneath her, causing her to take to the air and fly toward the gate.

  The sound of crushing timber boomed around them as cracks splintered down the gate, veining to its sides before the ancient wood gave way, crumbling down.

  Sand swirled up where it had fallen, masking the shadow of a man in the plume. The shadow walked toward her as men within Gest shouted at it.

  Ineal, Julieth realized. She landed on the desert once more, holding a hand back to instruct Da’ar to stay, and then walked slowly toward Ineal. When he arrived to her side he held a hand to her eyes, closing them. Only the wind made noise. The spirit of Solaris has done this through him so that these peoples will be forced to share what has been provided them, she thought. I must speak for Ineal.

  Ineal removed his hand from Julieth’s eyes and she opened them to see many of Gest’s people climbing over the crumbled gate. “I have heard Ineal,” she walked toward them as Elias met her side. “He has destroyed your gate because the gifts given to you are for all. You will share the fruit and water of this land or you will leave it and journey to another place. There is no end to this bounty. It will grow and provide for all who hear of it and travel here.”

  Elias approached. “My people will accept these and others who come. Give them time. It is difficult to change when for years we have been forced to defend what little we have with blood.”

  “Then come with me.” Julieth walked past him, motioning for Da’ar and a small section of others to accompany them as well. “While your people learn to accept we will gather bowls of fruit to bring back to the lake and share with this starving flock.”

  That night, beneath the veranda of trees, Julieth shared fruit from inside the city walls with the starving mass. They devoured it hungrily while being watched suspiciously by Gest’s people, moonlight glinting off their aimed arrowheads.

  It is a beginning, Julieth thought. The sweet juice of a red fruit swam on her taste buds as she bit into it. From here we will build security for our world. We will build a foundation to heal and love.

  Chapter 31

  A sweet aroma wafted around him as Ivanus lay flat on hard stone floor. Thick fog gusted above. Through it, spearing down, were shafts of sunlight.

  He watched, somehow rapt, as curls of fog swam and intertwined with each other. At times he would see faces, haunting faces, watching him cautiously before dissolving in the wind. It battered his ears as he lay still, and in the fog the dark shapes of wings appeared. He reached toward them as Julieth burst through above, wrapping her arms around him and lifting him into the sky with her. Ivanus’s heart raced but her warm body comforted him, her curves fitting against his form.

  “How did you find me?” he asked. “Where are we?” He vaguely remembered being with Riad and the others, speaking with Shaun Dune.

  Julieth looked at him, her deep eyes reflecting the stars. He felt so warm in this place, so at ease. She moved her lips to kiss him, and as their lips touched blackness blanked Ivanus’s mind.

  *

  Moments passed.

  *

  As light returned to Ivanus a vast desert expanse surrounded him. Warriors lay nearby, their armor burned and flesh dripping from their faces. Hollow eye sockets stared at him through the dead’s facades. Ivanus gripped for understanding.

  He stood slowly, sand whipping around his fingers as they braced the earth. As he gained full footing a dark silhouette stood before him. Samuel lay dead at the man’s feet, a sword piercing his skull. Ivanus ran for the man towering over Samuel, breathing hard and shouting words he did not himself know. Then, just as he could almost make out the man’s face, Ivanus’s foot caught in a groove of the earth, thumping him against the ground.

  “Ivanus. Ivanus, wake up,” a voice came to him distantly. “Ivanus…” He could feel someone’s hands shaking his shoulder. With a violent jolt Ivanus opened his eyes to sunlight and thrust away. “No!” he shouted, Bayne staring back at him. Hot sweat beaded on his forehead and his arms would not cease shaking. “No…” He turned, seeing Andral watching him as well.

  “It was only a dream,” Bayne assured while stepping away from him.

  But it felt real, he thought. Who stood over Samuel?

  “Come with us.” Bayne and Andral walked from him. “The others are in camp discussing what to do next. You must have left us in the night in your sleep. It took us until the suns’ mid-rising to find you.”

  He stood, following the boys a distance behind them. Unease pricked his spine and he saw moments into the future around him, seeking anything that was out of place. There was nothing though. It was as Bayne said; the others stood a
distance away from them. Shaun Dune possessed the radiant form of a man.

  As he walked Ivanus was struck by the distance he had moved while he slept. He had never done so before, and combined with the substance of his dream, he wondered what part the essence forming to his flesh had to play. What were you showing me? he questioned it.

  There was no answer, and yet a burning in his chest as scorch lines continued to map there made him think somehow the essence bonding with him was displeased.

  It is a necessary curse, one that is inescapable, Ivanus thought as he gripped his chest beneath his shirt and felt the searing lines. To see death, to constantly feel its approach drains the soul. And yet… and yet there is something freeing about that knowledge. You will not control me, whatever you are. He spoke to it in his mind. You are as much a prisoner of my flesh as I am of your spirit.

  “We feared for you,” Riad said as the trio approached. Shaun Dune burned brightly beside him and Carcos kneeled, tracing a map in the sand. “We’ve been speaking. It seems Samuel knows we seek to confront him. He may well know what abilities we bring and even that Dune and his dragon have joined our side. The longer we wait, the more opportunity we give Samuel to attack or prepare.”

  “But how could we approach him?” Ivanus kneeled, eying Carcos’s map. “We are not properly prepared.”

  “We were not prepared to face the beasts beneath the ground, and yet we defeated them.” Sunlight glinted off Riad’s cybernetics, shining in Ivanus’s eyes. The borg stood, unmovable. “Carcos has begun remembering much of Samuel’s citadel, though he was being controlled while there, and Bayne’s abilities have grown immensely. With an extra push, Bayne could render Samuel unconscious and we could move to kill him.”

  “An extra push?” Ivanus stood. “How? Surely there is no way to quicken the progression of his abilities.”

  Riad walked toward Bayne. “Think. At first you fought against and did not understand your abilities. We all did. And in that time we were the weakest. What Bayne must do, what we all must do, is allow the essences to strengthen within us and trust them. We must let our apprehensions fall away if we are to reach a level where we can defeat Samuel.”

  “And what might become by letting the essences take hold? We cannot trust what we do not understand.” Ivanus looked to Bayne. “Yes, we need to destroy Samuel and his reign, but at what cost?”

  “At the cost of our lives if that’s what it takes,” Bayne spoke up. “We control ourselves, no matter what the essences do within us. We are in control. Samuel must be destroyed and I am willing to sacrifice myself if it means Solaris is free of his presence.”

  “It is Bayne’s decision, all of our own personal decisions, and Bayne is the lynch pin to our success.”

  Ivanus took a deep, hot breath, opening his mind to the knowledge that he could not stop Bayne from fully opening himself to the essence bonding to him. “Then what is the plan? What have I missed while sleepwalking the desert?”

  Carcos pointed in the distance before them. “First, we must continue to approach the realm of Samuel’s control. It is a distance from us, but we must be careful to not allow ourselves to enter space where Samuel can possess our minds. Then, once we come as far as we can, myself, Riad, Andral and you will ride Orpheus’s back far above the land, above Samuel’s realm of control. Shaun Dune assures us that once he has taken his Dragon form Orpheus will carry us where we need go.”

  The thought of riding a dragon gave Ivanus chills. It will be nothing like flying with Julieth, he thought. “And what of Bayne? We cannot leave him by himself.”

  “We must if we are too succeed,” Riad looked to Ivanus. “Bayne will walk on foot where we leave him, towards Samuel’s citadel, blanking the minds of Samuel’s army with waves from his thoughts. As he nears he will blank the mind of Samuel himself.”

  “And what if he doesn’t?” Ivanus asked. “Samuel is extremely powerful. What if he cannot be affected by any of our abilities?”

  “Then we will fail,” Riad’s stare was hard. “But we will also fail if we do not try. Death is death. I believe Bayne to have strength great enough to at least hinder Samuel enough for us to approach him. Once we believe Samuel to be wounded Orpheus will bring us to his citadel and we will sever his soul from the world.”

  They ate a meager meal that morning. The fruit they had brought with them from Gest was now gone and so they were left with what remained of their synthetic replicated food. Riad heated a portion of their remaining stores with his mechanics before passing compact slats of the substance to the others.

  “If only Ineal would have accompanied us,” Ivanus smirked and then cringed as he bit into it. It tasted strongly of salt. If sand had nutrients I would gladly ingest it instead, he thought while consuming it.

  They walked through the day across the arid terrain, allowing Carcos to lead them. Sweat beaded on Ivanus’s forehead and as he breathed he noted the bitter taste of rust flecks in the air, something they had been mostly without since Kaskal. “We are nearing,” he spoke. “I cannot see Samuel’s forces in my sight but there are worn, rusted structural remains on the horizon and it would make sense for Samuel’s citadel to be near them.”

  “Yes, we near the place.” Carcos extended his arm toward the distance before them. “Look where the land meets the sky. Samuel’s forces begin their guard there.”

  Ivanus squinted. The suns were setting now and streamers of radiant orange and pink sheered the sky like blades, but there, where the land met the sky, he could see what looked like earth moving. “Why are there no scouts? Why have we not been confronted as we near?” he asked.

  “Why indeed,” Riad’s low voice rose up beside him. “Yes, he is sure of himself. I assume he does not view us as a real threat, but I thought surely he would have attacked again, at least with scouts.”

  “There are so many unknowns in this world,” Shaun Dune responded and startled them. He spoke distantly. “It is an advantage to us. Keep your eyes and ears open. Be ready for everything and we will use whatever advantage Samuel touts to destroy him.”

  “Tonight we rest amongst the rusted hollows of the desert’s remains,” Riad spoke while looking to towering rust shards that stood out of the earth only a short distance away. “Tomorrow we take back Solaris.”

  Chapter 32

  Ivanus lay silently in the night, his back braced against the rusted metal of a shard rising out of the ground. His head ached with tension and his restless mind prevented him from slumber. What will tomorrow bring? He eyed his companions, each unconscious around him, all except Riad who paced nearby in anticipation of attack. Tomorrow our world will change forever. He closed his eyes, stretching his mind to the limits as he tried to see the future into the coming day. Sharp spikes of pain spliced in light surges through his mind. He cringed, quitting the fruitless error. If I were stronger, then I would have the ability to see further. He opened his eyes, staring at his hand where his fingers had been severed. But I could not prevent it even if I knew what tomorrow brings. His heartbeat raced. Julieth, he thought. Should I have stayed with you? Are you still in Gest? Are you still alive? Will I ever know the fullness of her touch? How could I have allowed myself to fall for her in a world like this? He lay for a moment, watching the stars, allowing his mind to go clear. As he began to count them warmth came over his forearm. It stretched down to his hand, searing as it cut down his skin.

  Ivanus turned from the stars to look upon his own flesh. Raised lines of dark, boiled skin webbed down his arm, stretching fully to his fingerstubs. It is as if the essences slowly consume us. He flexed them and felt the full burn of his freshly scarred flesh. When my life is taken you will perish too. He spoke to the essence within him. Take me and I will find a way to sever you from existence as well.

  Chapter 33

  A low pulse emerged in Ivanus’s brain as he stood with the others, preparing to leave Bayne alone to face Samuel’s forces.

  “Remember to direct your mind forward and
allow the essence to strengthen,” Riad spoke to Bayne as the boy looked into the distance, fixated on something unseen.

  “I understand my role.” Bayne’s spoke coldly. “May I have a weapon?”

  “All you should need is your mind.” Riad placed his metallic hand on the boy’s shoulder. “If your abilities fail you then we will not be able to reach you in time and a weapon will do you no good. We need the arsenal we have for the citadel. The essence will give you the ability to succeed. Trust in that. Place your faith in it. If you doubt and believe in failure, then it will seep in.”

  Andral came and hugged Bayne. “Be careful, brother.”

  Bayne returned the gesture without emotion. “Stay alert. Watch.”

  “Come, let us leave him to his task.” Riad turned toward Shaun Dune’s radiant light. “Are you prepared? Make sure the dragon will listen to us.”

  “We have spoken within my dreams. Stand back while I change form.”

  The overhead suns seemed to dim as the nova blaze of Dune’s form burned hot white, expanding and coiling upon itself as it grew in length and height, no longer the form of a man. Then, in a breath the hot light retracted, slithering black weaving over the form, popping and cracking as muscles emerged, covering with flesh and then char colored scales. The heat that had exuded from Dune left a chill in its wake and the dragon, Orpheus, breathed a spray of flame over the earth, its wild eyes searching them as the flame extinguished. “You do not control me.” The voice was guttural. “But vengeance will be ours.”

  “You will aid us, then,” Riad spoke confidently as he approached the beast.

  “It serves a purpose. Yes.” Orpheus crouched low to the earth, still towering the height of two men above them.

  Riad reached an arm up, clasping its scales and hefting himself arm after arm up its back. As he reached its notched spine he stood. “What are you waiting for?” he shouted to Carcos, Andral and Ivanus. A moan came from the dragon’s stomach as Riad walked its spine and sat between two of its bones toward the base of its neck.