by Dima Zales
“I don’t have time for this nonsense,” I say, rising to my feet. “There’s a mob at the Sanctum’s gates and—”
In my peripheral vision, I see other members of the Circle stand up as well.
Using Samuel’s confusion over seeing “me” alive, I push him aside and storm out of the room.
As soon as I’m in the corridor, I slam the door shut behind me and run.
“Stop him!” I hear someone scream from inside the room.
“Kill him!” someone else yells.
Samuel’s dagger whooshes by my side and lodges into the silvery wall.
I turn the corner and find three Guardians standing there, incomprehension written across their faces at seeing Benjamin alive. Samuel must’ve convinced them of his/my demise.
“Don’t let him through,” Samuel shouts from behind me. “Stop Benjamin—that’s an order!”
With clear reluctance, the Guardians summon their weapons. The guy with crow wings has a spear, the one with rainbow abstractions for wings holds a club with spikes, and the third dude has a sword. The corridor is too narrow for more than two people to attack me at once.
“Brace yourself, Theo,” Phoe warns. “I’m about to turn you back into your handsome self. There’s no other way to take on all of them at once.”
A sense of vertigo washes over me, and then my fiery wings surround me. My body feels incredibly natural all of a sudden. After all this shape-shifting, this is like coming home. Phoe appears in front of me. She’s her normal height, and she’s armed with a heavy-looking medieval sword that has blue sparks of electricity dancing along the blade.
More surprising, though, is the person who appears to her left.
It’s another Phoe.
She’s identical to the first one, down to the minimal clothing, except that her sword sparks with red electricity.
I have to hand it to the two Guardians in the lead. Though they’re obviously more shocked than I am, they still try to raise their weapons.
Only the two Phoes are quicker. They swing their swords so fast all I see are blurs of red and blue energy.
The two Guardians lose their heads and dematerialize.
I summon my own weapons, but as soon as I feel the katana hilts in my hands, a dagger flies by my shoulder, plunging into the rightmost Phoe’s back. Horrified, I start to move toward her, but as she turns around, another dagger strikes her in the neck.
She dissipates like a Limbofied Forebear.
“Don’t worry. I just lost four people’s worth of resources, but I’ll be fine,” Phoe tells me mentally. “As long as there’s at least one version of me, or you exist, there’s a chance. Go after Samuel. Hurry.”
The remaining Phoe’s sword arcs toward the third Guardian.
I turn in time to see Samuel prepare a dagger for another throw. Assuming he’s aiming at me, I jump to the left and slice at his side with my right katana. He dodges and counters with a dagger thrust.
My left hand explodes in burning agony, and I curse myself for choosing katanas as my weapons. Most swords have a cross guard that protects your hand, but katanas only have a spacer between the hilt and the blade that’s more decorative than functional.
My left sword clanks on the floor, and I’m in too much pain to summon a replacement. With the right one, I slash at Samuel’s legs. He parries with his left dagger and slices at my throat with the other one.
As his dagger closes in on my throat, I think, “This is it. Phoe, please wake me from Limbo one day.”
To my huge surprise, the dagger doesn’t cut my head off.
Instead, I hear a metal clank.
I look down. Phoe thrust her sword between my neck and his dagger.
Since I’m unlikely to get a better chance to take down my superior opponent, I stick my katana into Samuel’s belly.
Phoe stabs his torso for good measure, though as she does, he’s already Limbofying.
“The elevator room,” Phoe shouts and dashes down the corridor.
Another Phoe materializes next to me. I guess between the Limbofication of three Guardians and Samuel, she has enough resources to instantiate another version of herself.
“We’ll need many more copies of me to have any chance of surviving,” the two Phoes say in unison.
I hear footsteps and panting sounds behind us as we run into the elevator room.
All three of us leap into the mirror that leads to the fiftieth floor.
When we come out, we end up face to face with two Guardians.
The men look shocked, which might be the last emotion they’ll experience for a long time, because the Phoes slay them with two identical sword strikes to their hearts.
Each Phoe executes her moves with such deadly precision that I’m grateful, once again, to have her on my side.
The two Guardians break into pieces and disappear.
“Let me go first,” the Phoe to my right whispers, and I gesture for her to lead the way.
She stalks down the corridor, and the other Phoe and I trail after her, walking as softly as we can. When we enter the corridor outside the elevator room, we find two more Guardians standing there, their backs to us. The second Phoe joins her sister, and they creep down the corridor like assassins from ancient movies. When they reach the unsuspecting Guardians, they swing their swords across their victims’ necks, Limbofying them.
A third Phoe shows up. Standing next to her two other selves, she turns to me. “Let’s split up. I’ll get more resources, multiply some more, and try to ambush Davin or Jeremiah. These two will escort you out of the Sanctum.”
“Wait, what?” I say as they run back toward the elevator room.
One of the Phoes looks over her shoulder and says, “Getting you out is important, since as long as you’re alive, I can use your resources in a pinch. Plus, you’re easier to Limbofy than me. Look, time isn’t on our side.”
The newest Phoe to arrive slams into the mirror that leads to the 156th floor.
The remaining two Phoes race toward the lobby mirror. One steps through, then the other.
I step up to the mirror, ready to follow them, when the mirror’s surface loses its sheen.
“Oh no,” I think at Phoe as I touch the mirror’s surface.
My fingers don’t go through it.
I’m touching the cold surface of some substance that no longer works as a gateway.
My heart sinks to my feet.
Phoe and I just got separated.
20
I run up to one mirror after another. They’re all disabled.
“Don’t panic,” Phoe thinks as a singular voice in my head. “They must be desperate to turn off the elevators like this.”
“Great, that makes me feel so much better.” I slam my hand against another solid mirrored surface. “They’ve never done anything horrible when they were desperate.”
“Get to the bottom level. Several copies of me are already fighting the Guardians who didn’t leave their post to secure the Sanctum’s gate. You can take the stairs and meet up with us. Walk down the corridor, take a left, then a right, then take the stairs. You can’t miss it.”
Exiting the elevator room, I run down the corridors, following Phoe’s instructions. At least she got rid of the Guardians on this floor. I reach the stairs and see what Phoe meant about me not missing them.
If someone were to design a staircase based on my worst nightmare, this would be it. The walls are made of glass. The architect must’ve wanted people to enjoy the view of the Sanctum as they ascended or descended the stairs. As though the sadist designer wanted to torture me further, the steps are made of a polished metal that reflects the cloudy blue sky so perfectly that it creates the illusion of walking across the sky. Though I’ve made huge progress in conquering my fear of heights with all the flying I’ve had to do in Haven, my legs shake as I take the first step down.
I concentrate on my feet with every step, but the view is hard to ignore, since I’m opposite the Sanctum’
s entrance.
“Let me boost your sight so you can see what’s happening,” Phoe says, and my vision becomes eagle-like once more.
I scan the Sanctum entrance in the far distance. I can now see it as though I have powerful binoculars. The mob has definitely arrived at the Sanctum. They’re surrounding the entrance, and their numbers span the air for miles all around. The motley crew of armed and scantily clad people looks more lost and confused than angry. They came here for answers, and they’re not leaving until they get them.
Noises from behind me distract me from my observations. With a shot of adrenaline, I realize it sounds like a group of people is running down the stairs.
“Phoe,” I think and speed up my descent. “Do they know I’m here?”
“I have no idea, and I don’t have the bandwidth to puzzle it out through the memories of the people I just Limbofied,” she replies. “I can give you access to these memories. You might have better luck with them than me. As a human, you can perform recall instinctively. If the memories don’t help you, just run.”
She must follow through on her offer because I suddenly have access to new memories. Unlike with Benjamin and Jeanine, multiple people’s memories are available to me at once. Because so many people are involved, it’s hard to discern one specific event, so I can’t glean any information regarding my pursuers.
Listening to Phoe’s second piece of advice, I run down the stairs faster than I would’ve dared before. The illusion that I’m about to fall into the sky is vivid, but I don’t slow down. Some part of me knows that even if I did fall, my wings would save me, and that knowledge definitely takes the sting out of the fear.
As I run, something catches my attention on the outside.
It’s the clouds.
They’re forming into Davin’s face again.
The external memories show me a kaleidoscope of Davin’s prior appearances, and none of them were ever this dire.
“This is very helpful,” Phoe says in my head. “I know what room he has to be in to initiate that interface. We’re heading there now.”
Once the face is fully formed in the sky, it opens its gigantic mouth and speaks so loudly that the windows around me vibrate. “Haven. Hear me.”
From there, Davin starts telling lies for the benefit of the mob. He tells them an evil AI (Phoe) and its minion (me) are attacking the Circle. He states that the Circle and the Guardians are putting up a valiant effort, but that they need help. He calls for all of Haven to unite against a common enemy.
I keep my enhanced eyes on the crowd as Davin speaks. They’re buying every word, and they look less confused as they approach the Sanctum’s gate. When Davin is done with his sophistry, the details of his face fade until there are only regular clouds in the sky. The Guardians near the gate step out of the mob’s way. The Forebears rush into the Sanctum, determined to help their rulers.
I continue running down the stairs and pull on the new memories for anything that can help, but I draw a blank.
Within minutes, the Sanctum has lost its signature look of serenity—at least near the entrance. The pagodas and the gardens are overflowing with armed people. A thousand weapons gleam threateningly in the light of Haven’s sunless sky.
“Shit,” Phoe thinks at me. “Davin wasn’t in the room. We have to get you out of the Sanctum.”
The memories provide me with flashes of the room she mentioned. More than one of these Limbofied people has been inside the vault-like bunker.
“The good news is that I’ve outrun whoever was chasing me,” I tell her, more so to silence my fears than to make conversation. I’m having a hard time picturing my escape. Before, all I had to worry about were the Guardians and the Circle, but now there are these thousands of people.
“I hope you did outrun them,” Phoe says. “I have to go so I can focus on looking for Davin.”
I don’t reply, because Wayne—the original Envoy—turns onto the landing below me and looks right at me.
As I take in his outlandish good looks and dove wings, an ugly frown twists his beautiful features, and homicidal determination glints in his ancient eyes.
In his right hand, he’s already holding a sickle, which must be his weapon of choice. By the way his knuckles are blanching around the wooden handle, I can tell he’d like nothing better than to cut my head off.
The weapon triggers a flood of recollections from the memories Phoe connected me to. I see flashes of Phoe striking people down with her medieval sword, multiple Phoes battling back to back in a large vestibule, Limbofying Guardians and vice versa, and finally, through my hosts’ horror-filled eyes, I see Phoe multiplying in the heat of battle.
“Did you give me access to the memories of the people you just killed?” I ask Phoe. “It’s more than a little disturbing.”
“Stop getting distracted and face him.” Phoe’s mental command lashes at my brain. “The Guardians behind you have the skills to kill you, but no one remembers Wayne being particularly good at combat. Plus, you have the advantage of higher ground and, hopefully, access to the muscle memories of my fallen opponents.”
“I assume that if I Limbofy him, you’ll get his memories too?” I summon my swords.
“Yes, and I’ll share the memories with you. I’ve been able to extend the range of my resource-grabbing abilities. I really hope you can Limbofy him, as he might know where the rest of the Circle is hiding.”
“You’re Theodore, right?” Wayne shouts in his church-organ voice, bringing me out of my mental conversation with Phoe. “Why are you helping that thing?”
My eyes locked with his, I take a step down. He takes a step up.
“She’s not a thing,” I say. “If you just—”
Wayne leaps up two more stairs and swings the sickle at my right calf.
If this was my first fight today and I didn’t have the Guardians’ muscle memories assisting me, his trick might’ve worked. But I read his intentions before he even moved.
Jumping up a stair, I block the curved blade of the sickle with my right katana and thrust my left sword at his chest.
Wayne dodges the attack, and I swing my other sword at the right side of his torso. He blocks with his sickle, causing my katana to slide off the sharp blade and hit the window.
The window makes a surprising metal-on-metal clank. Is the glass made of diamond like the dome of the Sanctum? If it is, it sure precludes the idea I had of breaking the glass and flying away.
Wayne presses his advantage and slices at my Achilles’ heel. The sickle penetrates my flesh, but I don’t feel any pain.
“You’re welcome,” Phoe says in my head. “I also healed it. Otherwise, you’d be done for.”
When Wayne sees how easily I shrug off what should’ve been a severe injury, his confidence gives way to fear. I press on, striking out repeatedly, trying to wear him out.
Having the higher ground is definitely an advantage. I only need to protect my legs, and with Phoe’s help, I can survive most wounds. Wayne, on the other hand, has to protect his torso and head, and he doesn’t have a Phoe cure.
“You also have gravity on your side,” Phoe says. “But hurry. Remember, there are people coming down those stairs.”
As though Phoe jinxed it, the sound of many feet pounding the stairs returns.
I chance a glance up and see the faces of the Guardians staring down at me from five floors up through the gap in the staircase.
My adrenaline spikes, and I execute a set of maneuvers that definitely came from someone’s muscle memories, because there’s no way I could do something like this on my own.
I slam my foot into Wayne’s cut-out-of-marble face. The kick knocks him off his feet, and he tumbles down the stairs in a heap of wings and broken bones. Instead of running after him, I leap up, spreading my wings, and prepare my two swords.
I land ten feet below, one sword finding its way into Wayne’s neck, and the other in his torso.
“Now let’s figure out what the Circle ha
s been up to by going through his memories.” Phoe’s thought arrives as I watch my opponent Limbofy.
I look up and see that two Guardians are closing the distance. One of them throws a dart at me, which I dodge.
I don’t wait to see what else they have to throw at me. I leap down a full set of stairs and resume running.
“So,” I think at Phoe, panting. “Did you learn anything from Wayne’s memories?”
“Yes.” Phoe’s thought sounds hollow and scared. “I learned what these morons did. Look outside.”
I glance outside and don’t really see anything other than the mob getting deeper into the Sanctum.
Then I notice a guy who looks pretty strange, because he’s too tall. I’ve seen tall people before, but this guy is at least eight feet tall.
I fight the urge to rub my eyes, wondering if the eagle vision is playing tricks on me.
Another flight of stairs later, I look at the man again and realize he’s taller than I thought.
He may actually be nine feet tall.
Then the impossible explanation occurs to me.
The guy is growing.
“What the hell?” I say out loud. “What’s happening?”
The growing man looks my way, and I almost miss a step and stumble.
He has my face.
21
It’s not just the face of this thing that’s mine.
This giant is exactly like me, only double the size and still growing. He has wings like mine and his muscles are the same, but on a larger scale. When he roars in anger, it’s my voice I hear, only it’s deeper due to his much bigger vocal cords.
“Seriously, Phoe, you better have answers,” I say out loud, abandoning all subtlety. There’s nothing in the memories I have access to that can explain this warped copy of me.
The giant grows another foot in the time it takes me to run down half a floor.
“Remember when I told you about the anti-intrusion algorithm in the Test?” Phoe’s thought cuts through my fog of confusion.
“Yeah.”
“And remember how Davin started talking about one back in the sky room? Well, this is it. The Haven anti-intrusion algorithm was disabled long ago, but it looks like the Circle got scared enough to enable it again.”