by Chris Fox
Trevor nodded, using his oar to guide them toward the dark mass of trees. Mist parted as they glided forward, finally stopping with a thump against the trunk of a fat, squat tree with about a million roots.
Anput was the first out of the boat, blurring into a crouch against one of the trees. Trevor followed her, moving to a trunk on the opposite side of the canoe.
Leti rose slowly, and Jordan braced the boat as she leapt out. She transformed in the air, nine feet of dark fur disappearing into the shadows near the apex of her jump.
Jordan hefted his pack, using his telekinesis to stabilize the canoe. He hopped out, kicking off the tree and landing in a crouch. A wall of vegetation blocked his path.
Jordan sighed, then reached for the machete strapped to the side of his pack. He began hacking at the jungle in broad smooth strokes, cutting a rough path.
“What are you doing?” Leti’s disembodied voice came from somewhere above. “That will take forever, and it will anger the jungle.”
“You have a better idea?” Jordan asked. He slid the machete back into his sheath.
“We have already offended the land,” she said. “We may as well take to the trees. We can move far more quickly, without damaging the jungle. There are many spirits here, and they do not take kindly to strangers—much less strangers who harm their jungle.” Leti’s voice was already growing more distant as she leapt from tree to tree. He could hear the trees creak as she landed, each time further away. “The faster we move, the more chance we will avoid them. We would do well to be away from here quickly. Do not worry about the deathless. I am sure they can keep up.”
“Guess we’re Tarzaning this bitch,” Jordan muttered. He leapt into the air, kicking off a trunk to gain altitude. He used his telekinesis to extend the jump, then kicked off another tree. He caught a limb fifty feet away, then swung to another.
Well done, Ka-Dun. Do you not feel it? The exhilaration? We were meant to travel like this, masters of this place.
Jordan did enjoy the feeling of swinging through the trees. He lost himself in the motion, gliding through the jungle as fast as any monkey. After the first few jumps he shifted to warform, and the jumps became larger. He guessed he was moving at twenty-five to thirty miles an hour, which was great given how dense the jungle was. He could increase that speed, too, if needed. Blurring would easily allow him to top three hundred miles per hour.
Unfortunately, that kind of shaping would risk revealing their position. It was likely that natives already knew they were here, but no sense making it any easier for them.
Especially if Leti was right about the city finding them.
As they made their way through the jungle, the pulsing grew stronger. Jordan moved toward it, but kept an ear out for his surroundings. He heard the low squick, squick of insects, the occasional caw of a macaw. They did pass a single pack of spider monkeys, who gave a few curious calls as they passed.
There was nothing resembling a predator, no eerie supernatural presence oppressing the jungle around them. It all felt a little too easy.
Jordan landed on a branch, and held position. Several moments later Leti shimmered into existence on the branch next to him. “Why have you stopped?”
“Just testing a theory,” Jordan replied. He stared in the direction of the pulse, but studied everything in his peripheral vision. If he was right, they were not alone. Something was out there, watching. “Do you feel the pulse yet?”
“Yes.” A broad grin slid onto her face. “I began feeling it not long after we left the river. I will not lie, I was concerned when even the deathless heard the city before I did. I was concerned that I had been judged unworthy.”
“You have,” roared a voice from above.
Jordan recognized Elia’s voice immediately.
A beam of intense green light shot down at them, dissolving the tree they were standing on, and they tumbled toward the jungle floor in a mass of burning tree limbs.
Chapter 50- Elia
Trevor blurred to buy himself time to think. He examined the situation tactically, not liking what he found. A light-furred female in warform had appeared for a split second. One clawed hand was wrapped around a thick tree limb, while the other was pointed in Jordan’s direction.
She discharged a beam of green light from the bracelet on her wrist. It seemed similar to the blast the boomerang fired, but this one was darker and more dispersed.
Even with the blur going, he barely saw the Ka-Ken before she began slipping back into the shadows. Trevor leapt toward the werewolf, firing a wave of radiation from both hands.
It wasn’t nearly as lethal as the boomerang, but in this instance it proved just as effective. The blast caught the werewolf full in the face, and she tumbled limply from the tree.
Trevor kicked off the trunk of the tree she’d been in, watching as she fell. She disappeared into the foliage, so Trevor did the same. The jungle had gone silent. Dense, wet smoke came from the tree the werewolf had obliterated. It cut visibility, and overpowered anything he might have made out through scent.
The only visible person was Jordan, standing amidst the burning logs. He was in a relaxed stance, waiting.
“Hey, Jordan,” Trevor called. He blurred to another limb, not speaking again until he was safely in a new position. “Remember that trick Blair learned back in Peru? The ping?” Trevor blurred again, moving to another tree.
“On it,” Jordan called back. Trevor felt something wash over him, tingling at the edges of his mind. He recognized it as the prelude to whatever shaping Blair had used to touch his mind.
Jordan’s weapon leapt into his hand and he began firing into the trees. Trevor blurred, following the path of the bullets. He grinned as he realized how Jordan was using them. The bullets weren’t designed to kill—they couldn’t. What they could do was give away the location of anyone they hit.
Trevor intensified the blur, following the first bullet Jordan had fired. It spun slowly through the air, finally stopping in midair about three feet above a thick tree limb. A few drops of blood fountained into the air, and Trevor fired off a burst of radiation at that location. The move exposed a blond female, her body spinning to the jungle floor.
Green flashes came from another tree, and a third female tumbled to the ground. That had to be Anput. She’d already fled back into the shadows, as had he.
Two more Ka-Ken lunged from the darkness near Trevor. He blocked a savage swipe from the first, but the second punched through his chest with a clawed fist. She bit down on his neck, roaring in rage. A third female appeared, then a fourth. Before either could attack, Leti lunged from the darkness, raging into them in a flurry of claws and teeth.
Another shot came from the trees—Anput with her boomerang. The blast caught Jordan and his two assailants, all three collapsing into a smoking heap.
Trevor came down on one of the werewolves Leti was fighting, digging the claws of one hand into the wolf’s neck. He plunged the other into the base of her spine, ripping it out of her back. She screamed, swiping awkwardly at him. Trevor rolled away, disappearing into the shadows.
A pulse of invisible force exploded from Jordan, and Trevor was hurled into the air along with everyone around him. Jordan raised his hands, and the werewolves all hung in midair. Trevor was released, dropping silently to the foliage below.
“Elia, I’m pretty sure you’re breaking rules—” Jordan was knocked from his feet by a dark green blast. The werewolves were suddenly released, each fleeing back into the shadows.
A similar blast caught Trevor in the back. The pain was blinding, and he was dimly aware of the ground rushing up at him. Trevor’s cheek landed on the warm dirt, and his unfocused gaze settling on a black beetle scuttling across a leaf. His entire body spasmed, and he couldn’t seem to make his muscles work.
“Ow.” A second blast burned into Trevor, then a third. Blackness overtook him.
Chapter 51- El Dorado
Jordan blurred into a crouch next to Trevor’s s
till-smoking body. It reeked of cooked meat, and worse, less identifiable things. He couldn’t check for a pulse, so he decided to trust in deathless physiology. Either Trevor was “alive” or he wasn’t. All Jordan could do was win this fight.
He willed a telekinetic bubble, covering both him and Trevor. It was the same he’d used to shelter the group on the bridge back in San Francisco. If it could hold a nuclear blast at bay before he was an Ark Lord, it should damned sure be enough to keep out a few laser shots.
As if in answer to his thoughts, a flurry of dark green bolts rained down, scattering across the surface of his bubble in iridescent ripples. Jordan could feel them sapping the bubble, but he fed more energy back into it. The Ark was much further away now, but he was still drawing a steady flow of power—enough to sustain the bubble indefinitely, if needed.
“Elia,” Jordan roared. He spun slowly in place, scanning the trees above him. There was nothing to see, of course. “I’m not going to claim to understand your religion, but I find it hard to believe that ambushing people is considered kosher. If the city judges us worthy, then it finds us. That’s how it works right? If we’re not worthy, it will hide. So what do you gain out of attacking us?”
At first only the jungle answered, the returning buzz of insects.
Elia finally spoke, “You will not profane the Holy City with your heresy. I will not let you bring our ancient enemy into the very heart of the Mother’s kingdom. You are a threat to everything we’ve built—one I will not allow to continue.”
Another flurry of bolts came from the trees, rippling harmlessly off the shield he’d erected. Jordan said nothing, allowing it to continue for long moments. He glanced at Trevor, but the deathless still wasn’t moving.
“You can’t stop us, Elia.”
Elia’s form dropped through the trees, and she shifted to human form as she landed. The priestess stalked outside his bubble like a jungle cat. “Your strength has limits, and I am patient. When you drop that bubble, you die. Your deathless friend is proof that an Ark Lord can be hurt. You are no tougher than we. You can bleed, and you can die.”
“I can also kill.” Jordan rose from Trevor’s side and walked to the edge of the bubble. He stared at Elia through the oily surface. “I’m going to give you one chance, Elia. Withdraw, or I will end you. Don’t make me do this.”
“Wait,” Leti said. She shimmered into view outside the bubble, dropping respectfully to one knee next to Elia. “Elder sister, I beg of you. Do not do this. It isn’t right to interfere with a supplicant. I can feel the pull of the city. I can feel it getting stronger. It is not your place to judge. The city does that. Do you really believe the council will condone your actions?”
“You presume to lecture me?” Elia leaned closer to Leti and lowered her voice. “You are guiding the ancient enemy to the heart of our power. There is no greater heresy. Your actions are treasonous, and it is the duty of every sister to put an end to you.”
Jordan was distracted by the sudden pounding in the distance. It wasn’t like drums, not exactly. The same pulse they’d been following was at the heart of it, but there were more layers now.
Whum, whum, whum. Whum, whum, whum.
“We shall soon see which of us is right,” Leti taunted. She rose to her feet, every bit Elia’s equal. “The city comes for us both.”
“You will be judged for your actions, little sister,” Elia hissed. Her eyes leaked the kind of hatred Jordan had rarely seen. Then she vanished.
The rhythmic pulses were coming faster now, and they vibrated through Jordan. He could feel them in his teeth.
“Hey, you alive-ish down there?” Jordan asked, shaking Trevor’s limp form.
“Ow. Those bracelets. So shitty. Would not recommend.” Trevor climbed shakily to his feet. Steam still rose from the parts of his clothing that had survived the blasts, and much of his skin was charred. “What did I miss? That pulsing is intense.”
“Leti, how close is the city, do you think?” Jordan asked. He dropped the telekinetic bubble, and hopped twenty feet into the air, grabbing a vine hanging from one of the upper limbs of a huge tree. A flock of parrots burst into flight, winging their way to new perches a healthy distance away.
“I do not know,” Leti said. “Perhaps if we can get above the treetops?” She leapt into the air, bounding up into the canopy.
Jordan gave one last look around the clearing, just to make sure Elia was really gone. He sent a final ping, allowing the energy to ripple through the trees in every direction. It met resistance from Trevor and Leti, and a single other consciousness that he guessed must be Anput. There was no sign of Elia or her companions.
He followed Leti up into the canopy, surprised by how far he had to climb before he got above the trees. All around him lay an impenetrable green canopy. Their vantage was on the side of a gently sloped hill overlooking a valley. The only thing not covered in thick vegetation was the river itself, a muddy swath of brown snaking through the valley and disappearing between two hills in the distance.
“The pulse is coming from that direction.” Jordan pointed toward a hill to the southeast. “It feels close, but I don’t see anything.”
“Nor do I,” Leti agreed. She was perched atop a neighboring tree, maybe a dozen feet away. “I suppose we have no choice but to continue on.”
Jordan nodded. He didn’t like the idea of heading blindly into the jungle—especially knowing Elia was out there—but there just weren’t any other good options. He released the tree, dropping toward the ground nearly a hundred feet below. The wind tore at his clothing as he fell, and Jordan smiled as the ground rushed up. He cushioned his fall telekinetically, but still sent up a huge cloud of debris.
“Show off.” Trevor groused. “See anything?”
“Nope. Can’t see a goddamned thing. Let’s keep moving toward the pulse. We’ve got to be close.”
Trevor nodded, climbing unsteadily to his feet from his perch on a giant root.
“You going to be okay?” Jordan asked. He couldn’t resist taunting the deathless. “I could carry you—you know, if you need protecting.”
“Fucker,” Trevor shot back, but there was no heat to it. He melted into the shadows. “Lead the way. I can keep up.”
They leapt back into the trees, quickly working their way across the valley. By the time they reached the top of the hill he’d seen, Jordan was covered in sweat. He wasn’t tired, exactly, but this humidity was getting a little old.
Leti had gone a little ways ahead, and her excited call snapped him out of the endless swinging between trees. She was crouched atop a tree limb, pointing deeper into the jungle. Jordan bounded through the trees, landing on a branch a little below her.
“Holy crap,” he said. They were the only two words he could find.
Before them lay a sprawling golden city. There were pyramids of all sizes, with dozens of obelisks made tiny next to them. Broad marble avenues flowed between the pyramids. Every inch of every structure gleamed gold. “Well, I guess that explains the El Dorado myth.”
Trevor materialized on a neighboring tree. “This explains so much. Look to the right and left. See the edges of the field?”
“Field?” Jordan peered into the jungle, unsure what Trevor meant. Then he spotted it: about a hundred yards off, there was a shimmering white field that blurred the jungle around it. He looked the opposite way and saw an identical field. Glancing up, he saw it there, too, near the top of the canopy. “What am I looking at?”
“I think we’re looking through a portal,” Trevor explained. He pointed at the edge of the shimmering field. “If we went down there, I’m thinking the city wouldn’t be visible. We can see it through this portal, and I think it’s the portal that’s giving off that pulsing.”
Anput’s disembodied voice spoke. “That would explain why no one ever found the city. It’s not anyplace that can be reached directly, and the location of the portal is constantly changing.”
“The city might not even b
e on this continent,” Trevor mused.
“Mohn spent a lot of satellite hours scanning these jungles. Their search was kind of a joke outside their department,” Jordan allowed. “We’d have picked up a city with this much metal a decade ago—longer, maybe.”
“I think we’re on to something,” Anput said.
“But this leaves us with a lot of questions,” Jordan said. “Who made the portal, and where will it take us if we step through?”
Leti dropped down to Jordan’s branch. “I do not wish to sound like a zealot, but you must have faith, Ark Lord. I do not know what the city holds for us, but there is only one way to learn the answer. Let us see what the City of the Gods wishes us to see.”
Chapter 52- Matron Davina
Elia’s fury had not abated by the time they arrived at the Temple of Divine Winds. The pyramid wasn’t the largest, and it wasn’t the most powerful—but it was filled with people she trusted, people who agreed about the threat that this Ark Lord and his allies posed.
She cloaked herself in shadow, passing by the guards. She didn’t have time for them; she needed to speak to the matron. Gliding silently through the temple, she finally stopped at a small chamber with a simple cloth door-hanging. That cloth had been shaped by the matron herself, woven from strands of gold. It absorbed signals and prevented anyone from probing into her quarters with shaping.
Elia ducked under the heavy cloth, stepping into a narrow chamber. It had the same small bed she herself slept on, one of many testaments that they stood no higher than their brothers and sisters, even if they were slightly closer to the Mother.
“Were you successful?” Matron Davina asked. The old woman sat at a tiny writing desk, scrawling away in a journal with a cobalt pen. The woman’s long white hair screened her face, giving Elia only her neutral tone to work with. Was the matron angry?